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ANCIENT TOPOGRAPHY

LONDON;

CONTAINING

NOT ONLY VIEWS OF BUILDINGS,

WHICH IN MANY INSTANCES NO LONGER EXIST,

AND

FOR THE MOST PART WERE NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED;

BUT

SOME ACCOUNT

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PLACES AND CUSTOMS

EITHER UNKNOWN, OR OVERLOOKED BY THE

Pontoon historians.

BY JOHN THOMAS SMITH.

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LONDON:

4ft

PRINTED BY J. M'CREERY, BLACK-HORSE-COURT;

PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY THE PROPRIETOR, JOHN THOMAS SMITH, No. 4, CHANDOS-STREET,

COVENT GARDEN;

SOLD LIKEWISE BY MESSRS. JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL; BOYDELL AND CO. CHEAPSIDE ;
MR. BAGSTER, STRAND; COLNAGHI AND CO., COCKSPUR- STREET; MESSRS. PAYNE AND FOSS,
PALL-MALL; MR. CLARKE, BOND-STREET; MR. BOOTH, DUKE-STREET, PORTLAND
PLACE; MR. RYAN, OXFORD-STREET;' MR. SETCIIEL, KING-STREET,
COVENT-GARDENJ AND MR. upiiam, BATH.

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PREFACE.

As long prefaces are seldom read, it might be adverse to my interest on this oc¬
casion to say too much. I shall therefore, solely indulge a hope, that the following
pages will afford some amusement to my subscribers, particularly as the materials
consist of extracts from works, which for the most part were not written professedly
on London ; — of information communicated by friends never before published ; and
of observations of my own, resulting from an investigation of each subject delineated
in this work.

As the country has of late been inundated with histories of London, which have
been stolen from each other, without adding a single record of new matter ; I have
endeavoured to render the present volume as entertaining as my small share of
research and slender abilities would permit.

Many documents afforded by the kind assistance of friends have been occasionally
incorporated in my work; and I have omitted the mention of their names for no
other reason, but that of preventing any of my own errors being placed to their
account. I here request them to accept of my grateful acknowledgements.

Some apology may be expected, for the too frequent digressions in almost every
page. But as they are on subjects in some degree connected with London, or the
arts, and may possibly at a future time afford useful memoranda, I trust their
curiosity in some instances will atone for their intrusion. Having experienced that
Topographical books are frequently put aside by the inspector, as soon as the prints
have been turned over, I have on the present occasion endeavoured, by the introduc¬
tion of a variety of subjects, to render this book an entertainment for the evening ;
and fully trust it will be read and recommended, so that I may receive some reward
for my industry, without being obliged to resort to a subscription to carry me through
a lingering illness, or a wretched extension of existence — a case, alas ! too often the
severe lot of even some of our first rate artists. Can we read the lives of industrious
Stowe, or laborious Hollar, without emotion ? or can we think of the neglected
Richard Wilson, the Leviathan of Landscape painters ; or of the aged widow of our
Woollett ; without blushing for the times in which they lived ?

Under these considerations then, let me most seriously entreat the Sportive Critic to
be tender with me — to recollect the fable of the Boys and the Frogs and to make
my case his own.

No. 4, C hand-os Street ,
Covent Garden.

JOHN THOMAS SMITH.

SACRED ARCHITECTURE.

As there are many elaborate works concerning Sacred buildings, I shall decline entering at
large on a subject which may be found in most of the Libraries of my subscribers ; and shall
therefore only observe generally that the early religious houses, as well as all other structures,
weie, as may reasonably be concluded, of the rudest construction; consisting of massy
stones, little or no ornament, and short, heavy pillars, with plain plinths, capitals, and mould¬
ings. The arches were semicircular, and, in my humble opinion, in most instances, an
imitation of the Roman manner. We find, that in the advanced stages, the plinths and capi¬
tals were ornamented with large single leaves or scrolls, and masks. The shafts in many
instances were less heavy, and frequently rendered lighter in their appearance by twisted
flutes, which were sometimes inlaid with brass, as may be seen at this day in Waltham Abbey,
and among the ruins of Orford Church.

The arches received a repetition of members, with small projecting blocks, resembling those
in a subsequent plate of this work, taken from the lower circle of the Vestibule of the Temple
Church. What is commonly called the billet moulding, was frequently introduced round the
arches, between pillars, and over windows. It consisted of a zig-zag round moulding, a
specimen of which rude kind of ornament is now remaining in Westminster, at the south end
of the present House of Lords, formerly the court of requests. I drew it for my work on
Westminster; and as several of. my present subscribers do not possess that book, I again
introduce a representation of it, engraved on wood by John Berryman, on the opposite page.

It is a tribute due to Mr. Carter, to give him credit for having produced a greater collection
of successive specimens of English Architecture than any other artist. He has been during
the whole of his life, as may be seen by his numerous productions, indefatigable in his
researches ; and I must declare, though I never spoke to him to my knowledge, that he
justly deserves every remuneration for his perseverance in handing down so rich a mine of
Antiquity. Many of his plates are etched in a spirited manner, with a close attention to
mutilation, a point seldom attended to by Artists. Topographical draughtsmen introduce
more than they see, in order to make their productions picturesque ; which, however they

B

2

may again be tricked up by the engraver, who gives them a silvery effect, are intrinsically
not worth a farthing ; and I am sorry to say, that engravers in general of antiquarian matters,
not only do too much to them, but frequently, in consequence of their ignorance in drawing,
endeavour to disguise their defects by high finishing : — they give a polish to bodies which
never had any, and make no distinction between crumbled stone and decayed wood, linen
and metal. When we view the polished armour of Mark Antony, or the brightened skillet
of Wille, we give the artists due praise ; but when we see the same sort of line and method
of working used to produce the heavy leathern doublet of Oliver Cromwell, or the battered
and rusty shield of Henry the Fifth, we no longer consider them as faithful representations of
texture or accident. The clumsy round arch style of Architecture, continued long after the
arrival of William the Conqueror; for the annexed plate will exhibit a specimen in the
reign of Henry the First.

NORTH-EAST VIEW OF THE BACK OF THE ORIGINAL ALTAR OF ST.

BARTHOLOMEW THE GREATER.

This venerable church was founded by Rayer, or Rayhere, in 1102, the second year bf
Henry the First. This man, as appears from a Legend, written by a monk belonging to the
Priory, and preserved in the British Museum, among the Cottonian MSS., was originally a
Minstrel, and a person of low birth, and was, notwithstanding* thb founder of this church and
hospital. He was a person of relaxed morals, and a compleat time-server, adapting himself,
in ail respects, to the pleasures, lawful or otherwise, of his superiors ; but at a more advan¬
ced period of life, he began to reflect, and became a convert to religion ; and, according to
what was then esteemed one of its most essential duties, performed a Pilgrimage to Rome.
While tarrying there, he was seized with some dangerous malady; so that conceiving him¬
self at the point of death, and yearning after his native country, he made a vow to the
Almighty, that if he should be permitted to survive, he would build an hospital for the
reception of poor men. He recovered however, and on his journey homeward, was favoured
with a vision, in which St. Bartholomew appeared to him, to let him know his pleasure
respecting the erection of a church; at the same time pointing out the scite, “ Smythfeld,”
and promising his protection in the completion of the work. On- his return to London, he com¬
municated all these matters to his friends, and to the principal “ Barons,” who informed him,
that as the scite pointed out, was within the King’s market, nothing could be done without
his special permission. In pursuance of this advice, he presented himself to his Majesty, and
having previously secured the countenance of a Bishop, accomplished his purpose.

Some authors say, that this Priory was new built in 1410. In 1553 it was made a parish
church. It was originally much larger than at present, and was of the form of a cross, as
may be seen by the remains of the South transept, which is now used as a burying ground.
Many of the arches and pillars have been engraved at the expense of the Society of Anti¬
quaries, together with the Founder’s monument, which now remains entire on the North,
side of the chancel, painted in proper colours'. The inside of this truly curious Church has
often been exhibited in the modern works of London ; and in two of these publications, I observe
the artist has cleared away the pews, in order, as he thought; to give it its original appearance ;

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3

but unfortunately he has not taken up the pavement to expose the plinths of the pillars,
though he has, with as much oversight, introduced the modern pulpit, gallery, and organ

The seals of this Priory have been published by the Society of Antiquaries. The earlies
is in the second volume of Vetusta Monumenta. The other is on plate 35 of the Appendix o

The rebus of Prior Bolton is carved under a window on the South side of the choir.
It is a tun, with a bolt or arrow driven through it. Mr. Camden, in Ms “ Remaines, has
the following remark on this subject : “ It may seem doubtful whether Bolton Vnorof St
“ Bartholomew's in Smithfleld, was wiser when he invented for Ins name a bird-bolt through
« a tun . or when he built him a house upon Harrow Hill, for fear of an inundation after a

“ great conjunction, ‘ of planets in the watery triplicity.’” 1C,

Mr. Douce, in “ Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners, Vol. 1. p. 164,

has introduced engravings of these bolts, of five different forms.

As St. Bartholomew the Less is so near, I shall be pardoned for inserting the following ex¬
tract from “Queen Elizabeth’s Progresses,” Vol. i. p. 40 and particularly as >t confirms a
curious instance of funeral street-hangings. “ June the 2d. (1559) was W Little St.
“ Bartholomew’s, the lady Barnes, late wife of Sir George Barnes, knight, some time lurch
“ mayor of London. There attended the funeral, Mr. Clarencieux, and twenty clerks s . 8
“ afore her to the Church, all in English; all the place (i. e. her house , and the streets
“ through which they passed, and the Church, all hung in black, and coats of arms.

The following extract is from p. 45. in the same volume of this highly interesting work ; and
will shew the temper of the times towards every sort of Church ornament. 1559 A g
“ the 24th being St. Bartholomew’s day, and the day before and the after were burnt all
« the roods of St. Mary and St. John, and many other Church goods ; with copes, crosses,
« censers, altar-cloths, rood-cloth, books, banners, banner-staves, wainscot, with much othei
“ such goods, in London.” On the 24tli of August, St. Bartholomews day, it was former y a
custom with the Booksellers to adorn their shop-fronts with Bibles and Prayer-books only,
as appears in Vol. i. p. 279, of Brand’s “ Popular Antiquities.” The Author says In New
«< Essayes and Characters, by John Stephens the younger, of Lmcolnes Inne, Gent. 8o.
“ Lond. 1631. p. 221.” We read:

« Like a Bookseller’s shoppe on Bartholomew day, at London, the stalls of which are
“ so adorned with Bibles and Prayer bookes, that almost nothing is left within, but heathen
« knowledge.” In “ The Daily Advertiser for October 27,” 1731, is the following paragraph.

“ We hear that the curious new Organ, made by Mr. Bridge, for the Church of St. Bar-
« tholomew’s the Great, is to be opened on Sunday next with an Anthem.” Mr. Bridge was
a famous maker; he built that glorious one in Spitalfields Cliuich.

b 2

4

WEST ENTRANCE TO THE VESTIBULE OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH,
DEDICATED TO GOD, AND OUR BLESSED LADY, BY HERACLIUS,
PATRIARCH OF THE CHURCH, CALLED THE HOLY RESURRECTION
IN JERUSALEM.

We see by this specimen, as well as many others in England, that the round arch style
continued to the reign of Henry the Second ; but was considerably augmented, and enriched
in its members and ornaments, as well as improved by its more graceful, slender pillars ;
not any two of their capitals, in this instance at least, being similar.

These pillars, and all their carvings, are of stone, and of their original sculpture; though
since I etched my plate, they have been much disguised by plaistering. The ornaments of
the arches are of plaister, and evidently of workmanship long subsequent to the carvings of
the pillars. The shafts of the pillars measure in height, five feet eight inches and a half, and
in breadth, at the foot of the shaft, eight inches and a half, in diminution from thence to the top,
one inch and a half. The plinths are three inches and a half deep, and the capitals one foot three
inches in height. The width of the doors is six feet ten inches by ten feet high, under the lowest
arch. This curious porch, is the only remaining one of its kind, in London. There is another
very fine one at the West entrance of Rochester Cathedral. Fortunately the great fire did not
destroy this venerable building ; its escape was miraculous, as the flames came close to its
East windows, as appears by a truly curious plan of London, in two large folio sheets, kind¬
ly lent to me by Thomas Lloyd, Esq. entitled, “ An exact surveigh of the Streets, Lanes, and
“ Churches, contained within the ruines of the City of London; first described in Six Plats
“ by John Leake, John Jennings, William Marr, William Leyburn, Thomas Streete, and
“ Richard Shortgrave, in December, Anno 1666, by the order of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen,
“ and Common Councell, of the said City. Reduced here into one intire plat, by John
“ Leake.” “ Wenceslaus Hollar fecit 1667,” at the right hand lower corner. As this plan is
extremely rare, I shall be pardoned by my Subscribers, who may not possess it, for inserting
the following particulars, arising from a minute inspection of it, which the liberal indulgence
of its owner enabled me to make. First, I trace the boundary of the great fire, by beginning
West of the Tower of London, the eastern extent of the fire. The whole of the Tower escaped
the fire, which stopt at its Western entrance. It burnt to the water’s edge, at what was then
called “ Brewer’s Key.” Its line of exfent was Northerly, along “ Tower Bank” to the east
end of “ Tower Street,” on Tower Hill, leaving the Church of Allallowes Barking, and the old
houses at its East end, entire. It consumed the houses West of this Church, and all those
in a North-west direction, to Fenchurch Street ; so on Westerly to Leadenhall, which entirely
escaped. It consumed the buildings on the scite of Messrs. J. and A. Arch, Booksellers
(the SouthWest corner of Bishopsgate Street); and so on crossing the middle of Threadneedle
Street, to Austin Friars’ Church, which it did not touch. It then went Westerly, to Bell
Alley; from thence to Armourers’ flail, which it entirely burnt, at the North end of Coleman
Street; and continued to St. Giles’s Church, Cripplegate, which it left entire. From thence,
southerly, to St. Botolph’s, Aldersgate, which also escaped; then, Westerly, to Pye Corner;
from thence, leaving a portion of Cock Lane, and consuming the whole of St. Sepulchre’s
Church, it burnt the South end of Cow Lane ; from thence, South-westerly, crossing Holborn

Sacred architecture .

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I

5

Bridge, proceeding diagonally to the end of Fetter Lane in Fleet Street, leaving the three
old houses (which are now standing) East of St Dunstan’s in the West, which remained un¬
burnt; from thence it crossed Fleet Street to the East end of the Temple Church, where it
ended West. It consumed the whole of White Friars, and burnt from thence down to the
water’s edge to the West entrance of the Tower of London; from whence this description com¬
menced. It entirely consumed the buildings over six arches of London Bridge at the North end.

The investigation of this print brought to my recollection an observation I had read some years
ago, but in what author I am at present unable to state, that Churches do not stand due East
and West, but immediately opposite to the sun, as it rises on the day on which the Saint died,
to whom the Church is dedicated. Now, as this truly curious print, etched by the hand ot
Hollar, from a plan taken by Six Surveyors, expressly for the City’s use, may be depended
upon for its accuracy, I tried all the aspects of the Churches, and hardly found two of them
to accord; indeed, in many instances, they varied many degrees. As to Westminster Abbey,
and its close neighbours, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine in the Little Cloysters, which I have
minutely measured for my plan of Westminster, they vary many points from each other; and
we may, therefore, very reasonably conclude, that the ancient Architects had their reasons
for thus deviating from due East and West.

Perhaps, no subject affords a greater diversity of opinion among Antiquaries than that of
the origin of the pointed arch, commonly called Gothic ; every one entertaining in some par¬
ticulars an opinion of his own : and indeed even learned men have carried their differences
so far, as to lose their temper in the discussion. It might therefore ill become me, even
though I held a particular opinion on the subject, to offer it to the public ; and I cannot invite
the reader’s attention to better observations, perhaps, on Gothic structures, than the papers
presented to the Society of Antiquaries, entitled, “ Some Observations on the Gothic Buildings
abroad, particularly those in Italy, and on Gothic Architecture in general ; by T. Kerrich,
M.A. F.S.A. Principal Librarian to the University of Cambridge.” See “ Archaeologia,”
Vol. xvi. p. 292.

I shall therefore content myself wdth introducing one fact, which seems of no small impor¬
tance, with respect to the application of the term Gothic to the pointed arch, and the supposed
inventor of this architectural feature by the Goths. In the celebrated Manuscript of the Gospels,
as translated in the fourth Century by Bishop Ulphilas, still preserved in the library ofUpsal,
and supposed by able judges to have been written about the same time, there is a representa¬
tion in some of the margins, of a kind of portico or colonnade formed of round, or Roman
arches, resting on pillars, such as were used by the Romans in the decline of the empire ; and,
in all probability, borrowed by a comparatively barbarous people from a more enlightened
one. Fac-similes of some of the pages in this celebrated Manuscript are to be found in
a few of the works, which have been expressly written on it ; and the following cut is copied
from Ihre’s “ Analecta Ulphilana, Upsal, 1769, 4to, page 12.

6

As it may still be contended that the Goths might, in posterior times, during their posses¬
sion of Italy, have introduced the pointed arch, I shall leave the discussion of the question to
abler hands, expecting only that in order to maintain such a position, some good evidence be
adduced of the existence of a building with pointed arches, in any part of the European conti¬
nent at such a period. In the mean time, it may be worthy of consideration, whether the
term Gothic has not been used synonymously, however improperly, with barbarous , and
merely in contradistinction to any architecture that was neither Greek or Roman.

PART OE THE VESTIBULE OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH.

The Vestibule is fifty-six feet, nine inches, in diameter, and is surrounded by fifty-four arches,
or recesses, which might possibly have been used as stalls. They are raised upon a stone
step six inches and a half higher than the pavement ; from the top of which step to the point
of the inner arch, is six feet two inches. The distance between the pillars, which all vary
in their capitals, is one foot, eleven inches ; the height of the plinth is six inches ; the
shaft is three feet, five inches, the width of which is four inches and a half. These arches
appear from their workmanship, to be some of the first of the pointed style in Englan . ey
are certainly the only remaining specimens of their kind in London ; their mouldings are by
no means regularly cut, nor are they truly struck ; and the attempt at decoration is extremely
rude, as appears from the irregular distances, at which the blocks are placed m the
mouldings; indeed these blocks, which are grossly unequal in their sizes, neither accord
in their distances, nor in some instances in their number, on either side the arch.

These pillars, with their capitals, chiefly consisting of water, leaves, and all varying in their
design, accord generally in form with those which support the round arch, at the entrance
of this church, already described.

The heads round this Vestibule are fifty-six in number, and were by no means ill carved;
but have lost the spirit they had, by the late plaistering of the church: howevei, I have
secured drawings of several of them, many of which are ridiculously curious. As I was ac¬
companied by friends, when I made drawings of the monumental crossed-legged figures,
on the ground of this Vestibule, commonly called Knight Templars, and as I have not etched
them in this work as I intended, 1 consider it my duty to apologize for their omission, and
feel myself happy in having it in my power, to state my reasons. Shortly after I had made
my drawings, 1 found that my worthy friend, Stothard s eldest son, Charles, had an intern
tion of drawing them for his publication entitled, “ MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES.

This work consists of the most early, curious, and splendid monumental figuies in
England, executed in every instance by his own hand, and coloured according to the
originals.

As the truly superior excellence of these plates will entitle them to the admiration of every
eye of taste, I do most cordially recommend them to my friends who have not yet seen them,
and trust that so inestimable an acquisition to the Library, will meet with national attention.

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PART OF THE VESTIBULE OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH.

This plate displays a segment of the upper part of the Vestibule, surrounded by forty-two
small pillars, similar in their proportions, and general appearance of capitals, to those in the
lower part just described. The pointed arch is here produced by the intersection of semicir¬
cles, and must have been erected subsequently to those of the foregoing plate. Of this mode of
producing the pointed arch, there are many instances in England, though this is the only lemain
ing one in London. The South East end of Canterbury Cathedral, the inside of the porch
of Southwell Church, the base and second story of the tower of Malmsbury Abbey, and the
Abbey gate of Bristol, afford examples of this style of architecture. There are many abroad.
Mr. Kerrich has given two specimens in the sixteenth volume of Archaeologia, one from the
round window at the west end of the Cathedral at Placentia, the other from the Cathedral
of Parma. The organ of the Temple Church was built by Bernard Schmidt, usually called
Father Smith, to distinguish him from his nephew, of the same Christian name. A very
curious contest of skill between him and the younger Harris (Renatus) respecting the orsan
for this Church may be found in Sir John Hawkins s History of Music, Vol. iv. p. 354. Mr.
Francis Piggot was the first organist at the Temple. Father Smith also built the Organs for
the Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Mary at Hill, St. Clement Danes, St. Margaret’s, Westminster,
and at Whitehall. The last mentioned, which I have been informed was originally in the
“ House in the Wood,” and brought to England by Queen Mary, was at first placed in
Whitehall Chapel, on the West side; but during the late repairs, it has been erected at the
South end, over the Altar, which was placed before the above stated alterations, against a
screen, at the North end of the Chapel. Sir John Hawkins, with whose works every descrip¬
tion of readers will be amused, says, in his History of Music, Vol. iv. p. 508. “ The customary
« place of interment for an organist is under the organ of his Church. In Purcell’s time, and
“ long after, the organ of Westminster Abbey stood on the North side of the choir, and this
“ was anciently the station of the organ in all Churches. In Hollar’s fine view of the inside of
“ old St. Paul’s, in Sir William Dugdale’s History of that Cathedral, the organ is so situated, as
“ it is at this day at Canterbury, and the king’s Chapel. The reason of it was, that the organist
<( should not be obliged to turn his back to the altar. But this punctilio is now disregarded;
“ and, which is extraordinary, even at the ambassador’s Chapel in Lincoln s Inn fields, where
“ the organ stands at the West end, as in most Churches in this kingdom. Sii John, in the
same volume, p. 351, after the following notice of James Cliffords collection of divine services,
published 1664, gives the succeeding note concerning the Temple Church.

“ Brief directions for the understanding of that part of the divine service performed with
“ the organ in St. Paul’s Cathedral, on Sundayes, &c.” The particulars most woithy of
regard among these directions are the following : “ After the Psalms, a voluntary upon the
“ organ alone. After the third collect, O Lord our heavenly Father, &c. is sung the fiist
“ anthem. After the blessing, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. a voluntary alone
“ upon the organ.”

“ This was the usage in cathedrals for many years ; but in some, particularly St. Paul s and
“ Canterbury, and at Westminster the practice has been, and still is, instead of a voluntary,
*f to sing the Sanctus to solemn music in. the interval between morning prayer, concluding

8

“ with the Benediction, and the second or communion service, which is certainly a change
“ for the better. In the Temple Church, which, by the way, is neither a cathedral noi
“ parochial church, a voluntary is introduced in this part of the service ; but at no other in
“ London.”

The same author says, that organs became common in Europe about the year 826.
There is only one organist now at the Temple, Mr. George Price, who is the Piano Forte
Player at Drury Lane Theatre, an able musician, and truly respectable man.

PARTS OF THE NORTH AND EAST WALLS OF THE CONVENT OF

ST. CLARE, OR MINORESSES.

In 1796, my worthy friend, Mr. John Cranch, native of Kingsbridge, Devonshire, now
residing in Bath, presented me with an interesting little picture, painted by himself, of some
ruins which he had discovered. The following inscription is pasted at the back.

“ Last remains of an ancient Convent (nuns of St. Clare) now part of a warehouse
“ belonging to Mr. Mansfield, a broker, situate the south side of Church Street, in the
“ Minories.” •

• Soon after I had received this picture, a tremendous fire happened, March 23d, 1797,
which consumed every thing but the stone walls of this once extensive Convent. In the
following month I made drawings of them ; and trifling as the remains are, still they are
interesting; and perhaps nothing would have been known of them had it not been for the
research of my friend, and the accident above alluded to. Though we gain little from these
ruins but fragments, yet they give us some idea of the unsettled constructions of the arches,
and confused number of openings and recesses, some being nearly flat, others almost round,
and the rest variously and rudely pointed. The walls above the foundations were in some
parts three feet thick, and consisted of stones principally cut into squares of various sizes :
these were irregularly placed, particularly in the lower parts of the building. As to the
upper windows, they were more lofty in their forms, and evidently of workmanship decidedly
long subsequent to the lower. I -was unable to discover the ground plan of this Abbey, or
its extent, by reason of several of its parts still being under the foundations of houses now
standing on its South and Eastern parts in Heydon Square. As to ornament, nothing was
left, except a stone cross let into the lower part of the West wall, as given in my second plate
of these ruins.

Crosses of this kind were not unfrequent in walls ; there was one West of the old gate of
Bermondsey Abbey, which I have etched in my first work of London, published many years
since. .

There was another, curiously ornamented, let into the external face of the East side of
Westminster Hall, opposite to the spot now occupied by the Speaker’s staircase in St.
Stephen’s Court, and formerly by the ruins of the Bell tower of St. Stephen’s Chapel. This
Abbey was founded in 1293 by Blanch, Queen of Navarre, and her husband, Edward, Earl
of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, brother to King Edward the First. It was erected on
ground given by Thomas Breadstreet, for the service of God, St. Mary, and St. brancis,
aud called Clare, from St. Clara, a native of Assisi, in Italy. Pope Boniface VIII. in a bull

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dated 1295, prohibited all Bishops’ sentences of excommunication or suspension against this
Convent, or any of its members. It became very richly endowed by several gifts of an
London, and was also much favored by Edward the Third. Richard the Second made^t
free of arrest, except for treason, and felonies touching His Majesty s Crown. The «ueei
Dowager of Edward the Second is said to have been of this order at hei deat , an
been buried in the Grey Friars or Franciscans’ Church at London In 1419, theremar
Lady Elizabeth Keryel were deposited here; and Elizabeth, Duchess of Noi o ,
of Thomas Howard, Duke, by her will bearing date November^ 6th, 1506, bequeathed
body to be buried here. Weever, in his “ Funeral Monuments, p. 42o says,

“ was valued to dispend yeerely 4187. 8,. 5d. and was surrendred by »ame Elizabeth
“ Savage, the last Abbesse there, and to King Henry the eight, in the 30th of his g •
In the following year, 1540, Henry the Eighth gave it, by Act of Parliament, o r. er ,
who was soon after poisoned in Germany, but died in England, and was burie ere.

Edward the Sixth gave it to the father of Lady Jane Grey (the Duke of Suffo , w i
beheaded 1553); it reverted to the Crown, and was used as a storehouse for or nance. n
1670, it became the property of the Legge family. In 1671, it was ca e ey on ou .
Sir Thomas Chicheley, Knt. Master of the Ordnance, lived in it in 1673. It afterwards
became the property of Sir William Pritchard, Knt. The scite is now occupie y
shops and other buildings. For several other curious particulars respecting this Abbey, see

Dr. Fly’s account, printed in “ Archaeologia,” Vol. xv. p. 92.

The ground on which this Priory stood, had been a Roman burying-place, as were the

scites of its neighbours, White-Chapel, Goodman’s-fields, and Camomile Street.

In digging the foundations for the present workshops built on this ground many curious
fragments of Roman pottery, as well as glass vessels, were discovered. Mr Cranch ob¬
tained two complete urns filled with bones, ashes, &c. which he has carefully preserved.
They were taken up ten feet below the common surface. A vessel of singular construe ion
was taken up whole; but an ingenious journeyman carpenter who found it, bro e o e
curious spout of two feet long, and converted the body into a glue-pot. In discussing a
subject so near to St. Botolph, Aldgate, my great veneration for the works of Roubnac
will sufficiently apologize for my noticing in this place his beautiful statue o lr o in
Cass. The eye of taste, that has not seen this spirited production, will be amp y iecom-
pensed by proceeding to the north end of the Minories, where he will find the figure o
Sir John, alluded to, in a niche of the School-house erected by him. t is remar a e ^
respect to the many productions of this Artist, that this is the on y one in e
London publicly exposed. That of Handel in Vauxhall gardens, erected by Mr. Jonathan
Tyers, at the expense of 3007. is the next nearest. The figure of Shakspeare, v nc i i
carved for Mr. Garrick, is still at Hampton, and worthy of every commendation that can be
bestowed on it. Sir Isaac Newton’s, at Cambridge, is, I believe, Ins fourth public s a ue,
and these are all of that kind which were executed by him in Englan . e was mos y
employed on private monuments, of which there are many by him in t is coun ly.
Westminster Abbey there are six: viz. Mrs. Nightingale’s, Sir Peter Warrens, Hargraves,
Flemming’s, Argyle’s, and Handel’s. The latter was his last performance; and what is

remarkable, the figure at Vauxhall was his first.

10

ANCIENT PARTS OF THE CHURCH OF ST. DUNSTAN IN THE EAST.

This Church stands at a short distance north of Thames Street. Its foundation is of great
antiquity; but authors confess themselves ignorant as to the precise time of its erection;
some conjecture it to have been full eight hundred years since. Thirty-three years before
the great fire, in 1666, it cost 2,400Z. in repairs. It is denominated St. Dunstan in the East,
to distinguish it from the church in Fleet Street dedicated to the same Saint. The following
inscription, cut in a small stone placed over the South Porch, will compleatly confute
those authors who assert, that this Church was thoroughly repaired in eighteenth months
after the great fire.

“ This Church and Steeple after the dreadful Conflagration, Anno 1666, was re-edified
“ and repaired Anno Dom. 1667, 1668, and 1669.”

The walls of the body of this Church having been not wholly consumed, were only
repaired by Sir Christopher Wren ; but the Tower he built from the ground, the spite of
which stands upon four perforated arches, or stilts, and is much admired for its lightness
and taste: but Lord Orford’s remark is certainly just, when, enumerating the works of Sir
Christopher Wren, he says, “ The Tower of St. Dunstan’s Church attempted in the Gothic
“ style with very poor success.” See “ Anecdotes on Painting,” Yol. iii. p. 97, Strawberry-
Hill Edit. There is a story current, that a high wind blew down all the steeples that Sir
Christopher had erected, except this of St. Dunstan’s, and that it owed its preservation to
the free passage of wind, which passed through its arches. The spire of Feversham in Kent
is on the same construction. Lady Williamson laid out 4,000/. on these last repairs.

Little as the importance of this plate may be to the antiquary, yet it exhibits the form of
one of the original south windows ; and though the munnions are deprived of their mould¬
ings, it affords a singular instance, in London, of a semicircle supporting a circle.

As to the Bells of this Church, I find the following note in Sir John Hawkins’s
History of Music, Yol. iv. p. 154. “ In the year 1684, one Abraham Rudhall, of the city

“ of Gloucester, brought the art of bell-founding to great perfection. His descendants in
“ succession have continued the business of casting bells ; and by a list published by them,
“ it appears, that at Lady-day, 1774, the family, in peals and odd bells, had cast to the
“ amount of 3,594. The peals of St. Dunstan’s in the East, and St. Bride’s, London, and
“ St. Martin’s in the Fields, Westminster, are in the number.”

The same author, in continuation, says, “^The practice of ringing bells in change is said
“ to be peculiar to this country, but the antiquity of it is not easily to be ascertained. There
“ are in London several societies of ringers, particularly one known by the name of the
“ College Youths: of this it is said Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of the court of
“ King’s Bench, was, in his youthful days, a member.” Sir John also observes, in a note
in the same volume, p. 108, “ According to the computation of ringers, the time required
“ to ring all the possible changes on twelve bells, is seventy-five years, ten months, one
“ week, and three days.”

In Seymour’s History of London we find, that in the reign of Edward the Fourth, certain
Holidays were kept in this Parish; and that the expenditures, on two occasions, were as

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11

follow: viz. “ The Dedication of the Church, which was on the day of the eleven thousand
“ Virgins, when the Church-wardens laid out for Bread, Wine, and Ale, in the Church, 15 d.

“ St. Dunstan’s Day, for Bread, Wine, and Ale, with Garlands ; 1 6d.”

As the walls of the present Church, and those of all others in London, are now destitute
of their sacred sentences, I shall introduce a curious dialogue which took place between
Queen Elizabeth and Dean Nowell, in St. Paul’s, on New Year’s Day, November 1, 1561;
and which, it is said, gave rise to their introduction, extracted from “ Queen Elizabeth’s
“ Progresses,” Vol. i. p. 65. “ She went strait to the vestry, and applying herself to the

“ Dean, thus she spoke to him.

“ Q. ‘ Mr. Dean, how came it to pass that a new service-book was placed on my cushion?’

“ To which the Dean answered:

“ D. ‘ May it please your Majesty, I caused it to be placed there.’

“ Then said the Queen :

“ Q. ‘ Wherefore did you so ?’

“ D. ‘ To present your Majesty with a New Year’s Gift.’

“ Q. ‘ You could never present me with a worse.’

“ D. ‘ Why so, Madam?’

“ Q. ‘ You know' I have an aversion to idolatry and pictures of this kind.’ .

“ D. ‘ Wherein is the idolatry, may it please your Majesty ?’

“ Q. * In the cuts resembling angels and saints ; nay, grosser absurdities, pictures
“ resembling the Blessed Trinity.’

“ D. ‘ I meant no harm : nor did I think it would offend your Majesty when I intended
“ it for a New Year’s Gift.’

“ Q. ‘ You must needs be ignorant then. Have you forgot our proclamation against
“ images, pictures, and Romish reliques in churches? Was it not read in your deanery ?’

“ D. ‘ It was read. But be your Majesty assured, I meant no harm, when I caused the
“ cuts to be bound with the service-book.’

“ Q. * You must needs be very ignorant, to do this after our prohibition of them.’

“ D. ‘ It being my ignorance, your Majesty may the better pardon me.’

“ Q. ‘I am sorry for it : yet glad to hear it wras your ignorance, rather than your opinion.

“ D. ‘ Be your Majesty assured it was my ignorance.’

“ Q. ‘ If so, Mr. Dean, God grant you his Spirit, and more wisdom for the future.’

“ D. ‘ Amen, I pray God.’

“ Q. ‘I pray, Mr. Dean, how came you by these pictures? — Who engraved them?’

“ D. ‘ I know not who engraved them, — I bought them.’

“ Q. ‘ From whom bought you them?’

“ D. ‘ From a German.’

“ Q. ‘ It is well it was from a stranger. Had it been any of our subjects, we should
“ have questioned the matter. Pray let no more of these mistakes, or of this kind, be
“ committed within the churches of our realm for the future.’

“ D. ‘ There shall not.’

“ This matter” (says the Editor) “ occasioned all the clergy in and about London, and

the church- wardens of each parish, to search their churches and chapels: and caused
“ them to wash out of the walls all paintings that seemed to be Romish and idolatrous ;
“ and in lieu thereof suitable texts, taken out of the Holy Scriptures, to be written. ’

c 2

12

Of these sacred sentences there were several within my memory in the old church of
Paddington, now pulled down ; and also in the little old one of Clapham. They are to
be met with in many country churches, and are very common in Bedfordshire, Northampton¬
shire, and Westmoreland.

In an inside view of Ambleside church, painted by my worthy friend George Arnald, Esq.
A. R. A. he has recorded several, which are particularly appropriate to their stations ; for in¬
stance, that over the door admonishes the comers in ; that above the pulpit exhorts the
preacher to spare not his congregation ; and another within sight of the singers, encourages
them to offer praises to the Lord on high. These inscriptions have sometimes one line written
in black, and the next in red ; in other instances the first letter of each line is of a bright blue,
green, or red. They are frequently surrounded by painted imitations of frames or scrolls,
held up by boys painted in ruddle. It was the custom in earlier times to write them in
French, with the first letter of the line considerably larger than the rest, and likewise of a
bright colour curiously ornamented: several of these were discovered in 1801, on the
ceiling of a closet on the South side of the Painted Chamber, Westminster, now blocked ,up.

Others of a subsequent date, of the reign of Edward III. in Latin, were visible during
the recent alterations of the House of Commons, beautifully written in the finest jet black,
with the first letters also of bright and different colours.

Hogarth, in his print of the sleeping congregation, has satirized this kind of church
embellishment, by putting a tobacco pipe in the mouth of the angel who holds up the scroll ;
and illustrates the usual ignorance of the country artist, by giving three joints to one of
his legs. The custom of putting up sacred sentences is still continued in many churches,
but they are generally written in letters of gold upon black grounds, within the pannelst
of the fronts of the galleries..

LEADENHALL CHAPEL.

* ' * » ' ' . . *•"* f ■ » * " ■ 1 * • ♦ j

The Leaden Hall belonged, in 1309, to Sir Hugh Nevil, Knt. whose widow Alice,
made a feoffment thereof, by the name of Leadenhall, to Richard, Earl of Arundel and
Surrey, in 1362, and in 1380, the same was confirmed by Alice Nevil, widow to Sir John
Nevil, Knt. of Essex, to Thomas Cogshall and others. In 1384, Humphrey de Bohem,
Earl of Hereford, had the manor ; and in 1 408, Robert Rikedon, of Essex, and Margaret
his wife, confirmed it, with all its appurtenances, to Richard Whittington, and other
citizens of London. In the year 1419, Simon Eyre, a famous merchant and draper, and
afterwards Lord Mayor of London, erected a common granary, on the soil of Leadenhall,
of squared stone, together with a chapel in the East side of the quadrant, over the inner
porch of which he caused to be written “ Dextra Domini exaltavit me,” the Lord’s right hand
exalted me. Simon Eyre died the 18th of September, 1459, and was buried in the church
of St. Mary Wolnoth, in Lombard Street. In 1444, the Parson and Parish of St. Dunstan
in the East granted to Henry Frowicke, then mayor, the aldermen and commonalty, and
their successors for ever, all the tenements, &c. called the Horsemill, in Grass Street, for
the annual rent of four pounds, for the purpose of enlarging the before mentioned granary.
This Hall, of which there is now only one arch remaining, stood on the South side o?

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13

Leadenhall Street, at the North-east corner of Gracechurch Street. It compleatly escaped
the great fire, though the flames were close to its East, South, and West sides. It was a
quadrangular building, consisting of two stories, and a loft, supported upon arches, of which
there were nine in front toward Leadenhall Street, and from which the cart entrance was
through the centre one, which was considerably lower than the rest. It was all of stone,
with a tower at each corner, surmounted by a turret, up which a stair-case led to the floors.
They consisted of long low rooms, with small windows close to the ceiling, and were
originally filled with grain, but afterwards used for the painting of trophies, framing of
triumphal arches for pageants, and storehouses for ammunition. Dr. Howell, in his “ Me-
“ dulla Historic® Anglican®,” 3d Edit. p. 354, says, “ 1648, April the 9th and 10th, the
“ London Boys made an Insurrection, seized the Magazine at Leadenhall, crying out for
“ God and King Charles, but were quieted by Fairfax.”

Of late years it was used for the receptacle of leather and skins, as are indeed the
modern warehouses lately erected on its scite. Above the roof, over the centre arch in
Leadenhall Street, was a large bell, covered with a wooden top, similar in form to the corner
turrets, though rather larger. What with the rusty iron bars within the small windows,
and the dingy appearance of the building, Leadenhall looked latterly more like a Prison
than any thing else.

The Chapel, of which the annexed plates exhibit all that I was able to secure during its
late final demolition, was, says Weever, in his “ Funeral Monuments,” page 422, “ first
“ built by Simon Eyre, before remembred, who left livelihood to the Drapers sufficient, and
“ withall a charge, That they should within one yeare after his decease, establish perpetu-
“ ally a Master or Warden, five secular Priests, sixe Clarkes, and two Queristers, to sing
“ daily divine Service by note in the same for ever, which was never performed. Not long
“ after this, in the yeare 1466. Ed. 4. 6. William Rouse, John Risby, and Thomas
“ Ashby, Priests, founded a Fraternitie in the same Chappell, dedicated to the blessed
“ Trinitie, for threescore Priests ; some of which, every market day in the forenoone, did
“ celebrate divine Service, to such market people, as would repair to prayer.”

This Chapel, which was finally taken down in June, 1812, was entered from the East side
of the quadrangle, under a large arch, over the centre of which were the blazoned arms of
the founder. On either side of this arch, as may be seen in the opposite plate, was a per¬
forated screen of exquisite workmanship, the openings of which had probably been filled
with stained glass. The chapel was an oblong square, with a large window at the East,
and three on either side. The roof, which was pointed, had been supported by carved
brackets, of chesnut, resting uppn corbels, let into the walls at those parts where the buttresses
were placed ; but of these brackets only one fragment remained, as the roof had been often
altered since its suppression, for various warehouse purposes : for it must be observed here,
that the whole of this Chapel, for many years, had been a receptacle for leather.

Within the Chapel, at the South-west corner, there was a small door of oak, curiously
pannelled and studded, opening into a small square place, formerly perhaps the Sacristy ; and
against the fragments of its walls I discovered slight remains of painted figures. One exhibited
a cheek, ear, side of the head, and long wavey yellow hair flowing on fragments of blue and
red drapery, similar in their folds, to the productions of Martin Schoen, and Israel
Van Meckenheim.

The shadows were painted with ruddle, and not unlike, in style of colouring, those pic¬
tures lately discovered on the walls of the House of Commons, executed in the reign of Edward

14

the Third, though in no part gilt, raised, stamped, or ornamented. The old custom of painting
upon walls, appears to have been universal before the Reformation ; and though many thousand
pictures were at that time destroyed, and also in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who regarded
them, as she expressed herself to Dean Nowell, in the vestry of St. Pauls Cathedral, as
idolatrous, yet many publickly remained in the time of Oliver Cromwell, who ordered them
to be demolished all over England ; and at Oxford many hundreds were cut to pieces by his
soldiers, as appears in Dr. Wilson’s interesting work, of “ Church Ornaments considered.
In several places, some of the most curious were wainscotted up, or hid by tapestry ; for
instance, those lately visible in the House of Commons, (formerly St. Stephen’s Chapel) those
in the Chapter house of Westminster Abbey, (formerly the House of Commons) those at
Stratford upon Avon, and that over the nave of St. Michael’s, at St. Alban’s.

The truly handsome manner in which my friend John Flaxman, Esq. R. A. ; has noticed
the engravings of the pictures discovered on the walls of the present House of Commons, in
the year 1800, in his Lectures delivered in the Royal Academy, invites me to conclude,
particularly as I am unable to produce the names of the Artists who decorated the Chapel
of Leadenhall, that the following selections from “ Antiquities of Westminster” will be
acceptable to those readers who may not possess a copy of that work. I shall first introduce
the engraving on wood by Mr. John Berryman, cut from a drawing, made on the block, by
Thomas Stothard, Esq. R. A.; and which, fortunately for the numerous admirers of the elegant
designs of that artist, escaped the flames, at Mr. Bensley's printing office.

15

It represents King Edward the Third on the 18th of March, in 1350, commissioning Hugh
de St. Alban’s, John Athelard, and Benedict Nightegale, to collect painters for St. Stephen s
Chapel, the rebuilding of which commenced in 1330, and not, as Stow says, in 1347.
Not one of these artists appears to have been know n to Lord Orford, and therefore a list
of them, with the wages they received, is here arranged according to their rank.

Hugh de St. Alban’s, master of the pain¬
ters, and designer of the pictures, at Is. a
day.

John Barneby, whose wages were 2s. a
day (probably the most skilful of the pain¬
ters), John Cotton, a painter (who frequent¬
ly assisted Master Hugh in preparing the
drawings), and William Maynard, at Is.
a day each.

John Elham, John Pekele, and Gilbert
Pokeritch, at 10c?. a day each.

John Athelard, Henry Blecke, Henry
Blithe, John de Cambridge, John Davy,
John Exeter, Janyn Godmered, William
Lincoln, Richard Norwich, John Oxford,
Gilbert Prince, Thomas Ruddok, Lowen
or Leven Tassyn, William de Walsyngham,
at 9c?. a day each.

Richard de Croydon, Richard Forde,

John Palmer, and William Somervill, at
8c?. a day each.

Thomas Burnham, William Estwyk, and
Thomas Jordon, at 7c?. a day each.

Adam Burgate or Purgate, William Hes¬
ton, William Larke, Benjamin Nitengale,
Roger Norwich, Edward Pagnel, Peter
Stockwell, John Tatersete, Ralph Tatersete,
and John Werkham, at 6c?. a day each.

Peter de Cambridge, Edward de Burton,
William Heston, John Leveryngton, Thomas
Pritlewell (painter and colour grinder), and
Thomas Shank, at 5c?. a day each.

Thomas de Cambridge (painter and co¬
lour grinder), William Cambridge, Thomas
Davy (painter and colour grinder), Richard
Lincoln (painter and colour grinder), Regi¬
nald de Walsingham (painter and colour
grinder), and John York, at 41c?. a day each.

All these appear to have been Englishmen, and their productions were unquestionably
in oil, as the following extracts from “ Antiquities of Westminster” will prove “ 18th July,
“ (25 Edw. III.) Master Hugh de St. Albans, for four flagons of painters’ oil, for the painting
“ of the Chapel, 16s.” p. 217.

Again, “ July 25th. To the same (Master Hugh de St. Albans) for thirteen flagons of
“ painters’ oil, for the painting of the said chapel, at 3s. 4c?. a flagon, 21. 3s. 4c?.” p. 218.

Again, “ 19th September. Nineteen flagons of painters’ oil, for painting of the chapel,
“ at 3s. 4c?. per flagon, 3/. 3s. 4c?.” same page.

Again, “ 19th March (27th of Edw. III.) Thomas Drayton, for eight flagons of painters’
“ oil, for painting of the chapel, at 2s. 6c?. a flagon, 1?.” p. 220.

Again, “ (31 Edw. III.) Master Hugh, for four flagons of oil, for the same, at Is. 11 id.
“ a flagon, 7s. 6c?.” p. 221.

In addition to the splendid productions of these painters, who used the most vivid and
costly colours, the quantity of the purest gold, of an uncommon thickness, was very
considerable ; for I find the amount of the leaves used, as acknowledged in a few accounts
of expenditures, to be twenty-three thousand six hundred and fifty. The silver leaves,
specified in the same accounts, amount to one thousand. The names of the sculptors
(13 Sep. 6 Edw. III.) were probably only two, viz. Master Richard of Reading, and
William de Padryngton or Patrington. They worked by the task, so that their assistants’
names are not given.

16

GifllTpT “t twi|',1"’aw 7ere ,painte^ OVer by the fo,lowinS John Ell, an,,

Gilbert Pokerigh, William Walsmgham, Roger Norwich, and Edmund Pagnell p 201

The names of the painters and glass Stainers of this magnificent reign, must not be for-

fh h”ir 10US'f ,riS' T”’ that artlStS °f their Profession are entitled to little praise beyond
the brilliancy of their colours. In my humble opinion, their best imitations fad far short of

a fine picture; and I really think it a folly to expend three thousand pounds in a glass copy

of a picture or a print and that a foreign production, when our own artists are in want cTf

“ H,St0r,Cal Pai"*erS; and W0Uld Pr°Juce a fine picture for atrd

GLAZIERS, 20 June, 25 Edward the Third.

Master John de Chester, was the prin¬
cipal designer of the Images for the win¬
dows of St. Stephen’s chapel, at Is. a day.

John Athelard, John Lincoln, Simon
Lenne, John Lenton, and Hugh de Liches-
feld, were also designers, at Is. a day each.

Godman de Linton had also Is. a day.

William Walton, Nicholas Dadyngton,
John Waltham, John Lord, William Liches-
feld, John Carleton, John Seines, Thomas
Jonge, or le Yonge, John Geddyng, John
Halsted, Robert Norwich, and William de
Lenton, at Id. a day each. p. 191.

To these might be added many other names of glaziers of little importance, as they were
mostly employed m cutting and fitting, at lower wages. It may be worthy remark that they
prepared their own colours, and stained their glass on the spot ’ ^

In addition to the painters employed in the reign of Edward the Third are subioined
the names of several other,, also painters in oil, who lived as far back as the’ twentieth year
of Edward the First 1292, (150 years prior to the supposed invention by John ab Eyck and

: the °f the>s< st s« ^ ^
Orford : viz. ^ ° S phe"’ ab°ut U41> ; not one of whom has been mentioned by Lord

Master Walter, at Is. a day.

Andrew, and Giletto, (perhaps foreigners)
at 8c?. *a day each.

John of Sonninghull, and Thomas of
Flory, at Id. a day each.

William de Briddes Edmund, of Norfolk,

and Richard of Stock well, at 6d. a day
each.

Roger de Beauchamp, Thomas Brimes-
grove, John of Carlisle, Roger of Ireland,
John of Soningdon, Roger of Winchester,

Master Thomas of Canterbury, who
appointed master mason, and to
treasurer and council, p. 181.

and Thomas of Worcester, at 5d. a day
each.

John of Halsted e, Godfrey of Norfolk,
William of Oxford, Richard of Oxford,
William Ross, and Matthew of Worcester]
at 41 d a day each.

Thomas of Clare, and John of Notting¬
ham, at 3 \d. a day each.

John of Essex, and Thomas, son of Master
Walter, at 3 d. a day each.

Henry of Sodingdon, at 2 id. a day. p. 78.

came to Westminster 27th May, 4 Edw. III. was
receive 6s. per week for his wages, by order of the Lord

17

The decoration of painting was not confined to Sacred purposes ; our Palaces were
profusely painted and gilt, as appears in various orders preserved among the public records,
many of which are printed in my “ Antiquities of Westminster;” from which work the
following are selected as the most curious :

“ Henry the Third, in the twentieth year of his reign, ordered, that the King’s great chamber
“ at Westminster should be painted of a good green colour, like a curtain ; that in the great
“ gable, or frontispiece, of the said chamber, near the door, a French inscription, mentioned
“ in the precept, should be painted; and that the King’s little wardrobe should also be
“ painted of a green colour, in manner of a curtain.”

“ On the second of August, in the twenty-first year of his reign, he commands, that out
“ of his treasury four pounds eleven shillings should be paid to Odo, the goldsmith, clerk of
“ the King’s works at Westminster, for the purpose of making pictures in his chamber there.”

“ Another precept occurs in his twenty-third year, 1239, by which he directs his treasurer
“ and chamberlains to pay out of his treasury, or exchequer, to Odo the goldsmith, and
“ Edward his son, one hundred and seventeen shillings and ten pence, for oil, varnish, and
“ colours bought, and pictures made in the Queen’s chamber at Westminster, from the
“ octave of the Holy Trinity, in the twenty-third year of his reign, to the feast of St. Barnabas
“ the apostle, in the same year, viz. fifteen days.”

“ In his twenty-fourth year, 1239, he, among other things, orders, that the chamber behind
“ the Queen’s chapel, and the private chamber of that chamber, should be wainscoted,
“ and the aforesaid chamber be lined, and that a list, or border, should be made, well
“ painted with the images of our Lord and angels, with incense pots scattered over the list
“ or border; and he also directs the four evangelists to be painted in the chamber aforesaid ;
“ and that a crystal vase should also be made for keeping his relics.”

The following extract will prove that Henry the Third’s splendid encouragement of the
fine arts, was not always guided by prudence :

“ The next mandate that occurs is singular, it bears date 27 Hen. III. 29- Oct. and
“ directs John Maunsel, as the King had signified that he had not in his chapel wages to
“ the amount of two hundred marks, to pawn the more valuable image of St. Mary, but
“ under condition, that it should be deposited in a decent place.”

“ Ralph de Dungun, keeper of the King’s library, is also ordered, 25 Feb. 36 Henry III.
“ to procure for Master William, the King’s painter, colours for painting the Queen’s little
“ wardrobe, and for repairing the painting of the King’s great chamber, and the Queen’s
“ chamber.”

“ In his fortieth year, the King states, that in the presence of Master William the painter,
“ a monk of Westminster, he had ordered that a painting should be done in the wardrobe
“ at Westminster, where he was accustomed to wash his head, of the king who was
“ rescued by his dogs from an attack made on him by his subjects ; and Philip Luvell,
“ his treasurer, is ordered, without delay, to disburse to the said Master William the cost
u and expence of making the said picture.” — See “ Antiquities of Westminster,” pp, 55, 56.
57, and 74.

From a curious manuscript discovered in 1779, by Mr. Raspe, in the library of Trinity
College, Cambridge, it appears, that a recipe for the use of oil in common house painting
was given in the eleventh century.

D

18

“ How doors are to be painted in red, and of linseed-oil.

“ If you want to redden your doors, you may do it with linseed oil, which is to be
“ prepared in this manner.

“ Take linseed, and dry it over a fire, without any water; then put it into a mortar, and
“ pound it into a fine powder, which must be heated afterwards with some water. Wrap it
“ up in a piece of new cloth, and put it under a press for making olive-nut or poppy-oil.
“ With the oil thus pressed from the linseed, you mix and grind your red lead, or your
“ cinnabar, without adding any water to it; and then you may apply it on the doors or
“ boards which you intended to redden. Let them dry at the sun ; paint them over a second
“ time, and dry them in the same manner.” “ Eraclius (says Mr. Raspe) teaches nearly the
“ same; for in his chapter How ivood and boards are to be prepared and grounded for
“ painting, he says, after having covered and evened it well with wax, white-lead, and
brick-dust, take white lead, grind it very carefully with oil, and apply a thin layer of
“ it wherever a painting is intended. An ass’s brush made for the purpose, will be very
“ useful for laying it on thinly. Then let it dry well in the sun. When dry, apply another
“ and thicker layer, in the same manner, yet not too thick. Take care, likewise, that
there be not too much oil in the mixture; for in either case the surface becomes wrinkled.”
—See “ A Critical Essay on Oil Painting,” by R. E. Raspe, published 1781, p. 47.

The ancient room, formerly belonging to the old Palace of Westminster, and for ages known
under the appellation of the Painted Chamber, and in which it is recorded that Edward the
Confessor died, was so called from its being painted ; and I am perfectly satisfied, from my
investigation of those walls during the time the scaffolding was up in the late repairs of 1801,
that the paintings remain to this day under the white-wash. Though the Public are aware
of my discovery, yet I would, on this occasion, presume to solicit the interference of the
Lords Commissaries for repairs ; and hope that an able artist may be employed to investigate
these walls, from which much may be gained highly deserving record.

THE SOUTH ENTRANCE OF DUKE’S PLACE.

The opposite plate exhibits the most curious parts, now remaining of the Priory of
the Holy Trinity, or Chris t-Church, Aldgate, founded in 1108, by Matilda, wife to
Henry the First; and conferred on Norman, the first canon regular in England.

It measured three hundred feet in length, and became so rich in lands and ornaments,
that it surpassed all other religious foundations, and perhaps for that reason, was the first
dissolved. Henry Fitz Alwine, the first Mayor of London, was buried in the church of
this Priory, A. D. 1213.

Henry the Eighth, in 1533, gave it, with its appurtenances, to Sir Thomas Audley, who had
been formerly Speaker of the House of Commons, but was at that time Lord Chancellor;
of whom there is a fine portrait, presented by Lord Braybrooke to the Right Honourable
Charles Abbott, tho present Speaker, who has placed it in an interesting picture gallery of
his predecessors, founded by himself in his apartments at Westminster. Lord Audley
offered the materials of the Priory Church for sale ; but, not finding a purchaser, he pulled

IMAWN A2TD) ETCHED J .T. SMITH .

SACRED architecture .

THE SOUTIEL ENHANCE OF DUKE’S PiLACJE .

Bjrawn ix August 1790

Tmsmsmeiij Skft® 15, 1814 by J.T.SMimuHJM.G-TMwA JBotxj»i.vo», ST Mahtjlws J.a.v*

19

it down; and the stones were so broken by carelessness, that they were sold for six-pence
the cart load, and delivered free of any other expense to the purchaser, at his own door. His
Lordship built, and dwelt at the Priory; and, in 1544, died there. At whose death, Thomas,
Duke of Norfolk by marriage with Lord Audley’s daughter, became possessed of it; and in
consequence of which, it was called Duke’s Place. Here his Grace resided in great splendor.

The Gate of this Priory here delineated, which stands in the Parish of St. James, Duke's
Place, at the North end of Cree-Church Lane, now belongs to the City; as indeed does
most of the Parish of St. James. The apartments, which had been built in more modern
times over this Gate, were hired as the Ward School-rooms ; and the master, Mr. Merriman,
informed me, that on the 4th of June, 1807, they were left for the new School-house, which
stands on the East side of Mitre Street; formerly, and before the late fire on that spot,
called Mitre Court. In this new School-room, there is a portrait of Mr. Alderman Combe,
copied from a picture in the council chamber, Guildhall, painted when he was Lord Mayor.
This highly respected magistrate, as appears from an inscription on the picture, received
the public thanks of the City, for quelling the riots in Mark Lane. I am informed that
he actually, (after being told by the police officers that they could not subdue the mob),
went into the midst of the people, seized the ring-leader, and by his manly spirit dispersed
the rabble. This Gate is called by some Historians “ King’s Gate” and “ Mopp Gate.”
The short street leading North from the Gate, is called King Street, which may account
for the title. The term, mop, might have arisen from the custom of hiring servants, possibly
at this Gate; Mop signifying statute, as may be seen in some curious notes in Brand’s
“ Popular Antiquities,” Vol. ii. page 316; arranged by Mr. Ellis, 1813. Dr. Plott, noticing
statutes for hiring servants, observes, that at Banbury they call them the Mop.

The Gate is now in a ruinous and dangerous state ; and it is said that the city intend to
take it down. This Parish of St. James is a privileged one, so that non-freemen of
London may carry on business in it. It has but five constables, and the Lord Mayor is
obliged to go to the Mitre Tavern to swear them in ; those of all the other Parishes in the
City attend his Lordship at Guildhall. The square called Duke’s Place is inhabited by
the Jews, with only one exception, and that is the sign of the Fishmongers’ Arms Public-
house on the West side. The Jews formerly were a people much and often persecuted
in England ; in the reign of Edward the First fifteen thousand of them were totally deprived of
their property, and banished the kingdom. It appears in Tovey’s Anglia Judaica, p. 259,
and Granger, Vol. iii. p. 158, that Manasseh Ben Israel, a learned Rabbi and Physician,
who resided in the Low Countries (of whom there is an etching by Rembrandt, dated 1636)
was an agent in their behalf with the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, for their settlement in
England; for which it is said, through the interest of Hugh Peters and Harry Marten,
he offered 200,000/. on condition that St. Paul’s Cathedral should have been their Syna¬
gogue. It appears that part of the money was received, and the Jews allowed to settle
in Duke’s Place, in 1650. Their first built Synagogue after their 'return was that in Bevis
Marks, 1703, belonging to the Portuguese Jews ; and the next was that in Duke’s Place,
1722, a magnificent building belonging to the Dutch Jews. They have four other places
of worship in London, viz. Church Row, Fenchurch Street, built in 1724; Bricklayers’
Hall, Leadenhall Street, fitted up in 1760; Back Alley, Denmark Court, Strand, fitted
up in 1765; and one in Brewer Street, of about two years’ standing. It is believed by
several Jews with whom I have conversed, that Manasseh Ben Israel was the first person

d 2

20

who caused the Bible to be published in Latin and Hebrew, in 1639 ; but a learned friend
informs me that this is a mistake, several polyglot editions of the Sacred Scriptures having
been already published, the first of which is the celebrated one by Cardinal Xnnenes, first

printed in 1514. , . . ,

Within memory it was customary among the lowest classes of the populace to hunt the

Jews, and shamefully maltreat them; however, for the credit of England, these vicious
practices are now hardly witnessed; and to the disgrace of those few who still incline to
them, I must say, that in no instance during frequent walks in those quarters inhabited by
the poorest sort of Jews, have I ever been treated by them otherwise than with the greatest

civility and good manners. . ,

As the inhabitants of Duke’s Place, and their customs, have been so little noticed by the

London writers, I shall insert a few particulars that may be deserving of attention. he
Jews are, generally speaking, striking examples of industry, and have an old prover ,
viz. “ Give your son a trade, else you make him a thief.” They entrust their children at
an early period with some saleable commodity, and the most broken down and age o
something. Their mendicants never beg in public, nor are they seen in our streets ; a Jew-
beggar confines his supplication to his own people. They traffic in merchandize, from the

most splendid and costly gem to the meanest offal.

There is a class of them that purchase old picture frames, burn off the gold, and make
coke of the wood. There are some who buy the mud of the sweepwasher, from which
they extract more gold; afterwards they export it to Holland to other Jews, who by a nicer
process obtain a further quantity from it, by which they are amply repaid.

The sweepwasher is a person who buys the sweepings of the floors of the working gold
and silversmiths, and also the water in which the workmen wash their hands; from this
mass of dirt and slush he washes out the metal, and then sells the mud as above stated.

That the Dutch in many instances possess secrets unknown to the English, is generally
allowed. The article Dutch Metal, for instance, made from copper, and principally used
in this country in the decorations of play-house scenery, and in the gilding of gingerbread for
fairs, is produced much brighter, and sold in London at a considerably less price, than that
made in England. I purchased at an oil-shop in Long Lane, Smithfield, a book of twenty-
leaves of Dutch metal for two pence halfpenny, enclosed in a paper cover, on which is
a copper-plate engraving of the Ascension of our Saviour. The Dutch manufactuie a coarse
copper gilt paper, stamped with coloured flowers, which is much used in our own country
for the covers of cheap books for children. It is also cut into strips or narrow shreds to
decorate the May-day trappings of our chimney-sweepers. The above metal being sold so
cheap is not unfrequently mixed with gold-leaf in gilding, and a most glaring and shameful
instance of this alloy is displayed upon the flanks of the Horse in Leicester Square, which
are of a bright copper compared with the other parts.

In the month of Mnrch or April, according as Easter falls, there is a Fair held in
Duke’s Place, called the Jews’ Fair, which perhaps is of the greatest antiquity, as it has
been a custom with the Jews all over the world, ever since the hanging of Haman, to
rejoice for their deliverance. Their gladness is thus recorded in Esther, Chap. ix. 18. “ But
“ the Jews that were at Shusham, assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, (the
“ month Adar) and on the fourteenth thereof, and on the fifteenth day of the same they
“ rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.” The above fair may be regarded

21

as a kind of Jewish Carnival, and is more regularly denominated the feast of Purivn. It
formerly terminated by imprecating curses against Haman, and invoking, with appropriate
thanks, the Almighty’s blessings on Mordecai and Esther. Though the Jews have held
rejoicings at this period in Duke’s Place ever since their re-establishment in England, yet
they were not publicly sanctioned by the city until about fifteen years ago, when the Parish
of St. James was allowed the privilege of letting out the ground in the square to the
regular Bartholomew fair showmen for three days, though they generally allow them to-
stay six, by which the parish makes about 27 1. All sorts of booths are now here erected,
from the splendid Greek decorations, at present extremely fashionable at all fairs, to the
accommodating parlour of the sausage-stall, in vogue in the days of Ben Jonson. Here
the most favourite plays of Shakspeare are performed in fifteen minutes by the “ Grandest
“ of all Companies,” many of whom strut in the discarded wardrobes of our London
Theatres, and assume the names of our greatest performers. The Fire-eaters, Conjurers,
Saltbox-men, and Harlequins, still continue to please the gaping multitudes ; but that ancient
character, and truly merry fellow, Mr. Punch, is now banished the Stage, and has dwindled
into a street-strolling puppet. He has not for these three years past been seen even at
Bartholomew Fair; nor are we at present acquainted with the Mountebank, or the High
German Doctor. Dr. Bossy was, I believe, the last of his profession who practised in the
open streets of London. Previously to the Passover, which usually happens in the month
of April, the Jews suffer Christians, as well as their own people, to erect stalls before
their doors gratuitously, to sell earthen and tin ware, which the poor and middling classes
of Jews buy with eagerness, in order to have every thing new for culinary use during that
time. The respectable and opulent families keep plate purposely for the Passover ; and so
strict are they during this period, that they import Rum for their particular use, which has
had no other guage than their own.

In their public-houses, cloths are thrown over all other spirituous liquors, so that not a drop
might fall on their garments.

They take Lemonade, Sassafras-Tea, and Coffee, and it is no unusual thing to find them
at tea at one o’clock in the day. They are not allowed Porter during this time ; nor are the
Jews at any period addicted to drunkenness. The friendly Mr. Solomon, of Pall Mall,
informed me, that the quantity of Biscuit Bread of the finest Flour, and made in the
same way as for the rich, distributed to their poor previously to the last Passover Festival,
at one Synagogue, viz. that of Bricklayers’ Hall, and not the largest congregation, was
enough to maintain nearly seven thousand souls eight days.

“ The Jewish wives, at the Feast of the Passover, upon a table prepared for that purpose,
“ place hard eggs, the symbols of a bird called Ziz, concerning which the rabbins have a
“ thousand fabulous accounts.” — Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. i. p. 145.

It is rather hard, as the Jews entirely maintain their own poor, that their places of worship
should be subject to Parochial taxes.

PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE.

NORTH VIEW OE THE CELL IN THE SOUTH-WEST TOWER OF THE

TOWER OF LONDON.

This cell is at a considerable height from the lower street, or West entrance of the Tower,
but is on a level with the ground of the Governor’s house, at the South-west corner of the
high parade, formerly called the Green, West of the White Tower.

It is of stone, chalk, and flint, in many places seven feet thick, and strongly cemented, and
is believed to have been erected in the reign of Henry the Second. It presents an early instance
of the pointed arch in Public Architecture. This cell consists of four lofty recesses, divided
by three piers, which probably had been faced with columns supporting the rudely carved
capitals of cinquefoil and trefoil, from which the groins spring to the centre of the cell,—
these groins are entirely flat and plain ; nor do they appear to have had any mouldings.
They are united at the top by a crown of eight sprigs of trefoil. The whole of the recesses
were originally of the depth of the one with the window, or opening, to the Thames, but three
of the four have, for some strengthening purpose, been above half filled up. That these
recesses were used as places of confinement may reasonably be conjectured, as they had
but one entrance, and that immediately through a small winding passa-e from the Governor’s
house. Precisely over this cell is another of the same size, with similar recesses, in which it

is well known Queen Elizabeth was confined.

These cells are contiguous to Beauchamp’s Tower (now used by the officers of the
garrison) in which there are the names of several great persons, probably written with their
own hands during their confinement: among which are the following : “Jane,” (supposed to
be Lady Jane Grey) “ Arundel,” (supposed to be that of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel)
“ Inggram Percy, Dr. Cook, and Hew Draper of Bristow.” Of this last person Colonel
Smith in the thirteenth volume of the Archaeologia, p. 98, gives the following extract from
“ The Records concerning the Tower of London.

“ Hugh Draper cornitted the 21st of March, 1560.

“ This man was brought in by the accusation of one John Man, an astronomer, a$ a
“ suspect of a conjurer or sorcerer, and thereby a practise matter againste Sr William S‘ Lowe
« an(j my ladie. And in his confession it aperithe that before time he hathe ben busie and
“ doinge withe suche matters. But he denieth any matter of weight touchinge Sr William
“ Sentlo or my ladie, and also affirmethe y1 long since he so misliked his science that lie
“ burned all his bookes. He is presently verie sicke, he semithe to be a man of goode
“ wealthe, and kepithe a tavern in Bristowe, and is of his neighbours well reported.”

In a writ dated at Windsor, 30th of October, in the thirtieth of Henry the Third, it appears
that the sheriffs of London were commanded to provide a muzzle, and an iron chain, and a
cord for the King’s white bear in the Tower of London, and to use the same bear to catch
fish in the water of the Thames. — See Madoxs History of the Exchequer, p. 376.

On the 13th of September, in the thirty-sixth of the same King’s reign, by a writ dated at
St. Edmund’s Bury, the Sheriffs of London were commanded to supply 4 d. per diem, for

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the maintenance of the King’s white bear, and his keeper in the Tower of London. — Vide
Madox as above.

In the same work, p. 377, it will be found, in a writ dated 26th day of February, thirty-
ninth year of Henry the Third, that the sheriffs of London are commanded to build a small
house in the Tower of London, for the King’s elephant there, and to find necessaries for the
same elephant and his keeper in the Tower of London : the house was to be forty feet in
length, and twenty feet in width.

The following curious extract, kindly communicated to me by the late Thomas Bryan
Richards, Esq. F. A. S. may probably refer to the same animal.

“ That the constable of the Tower of London should cause the bones of the elephant lately
buried within the ditch of the same Tower, to be delivered, without delay, to the sacristan
“ of Westminster, to make thereof what the King had enjoined him to do.”

Dated at Windsor, 9th of August, forty-third year of Henry the Third. — Vide Claus. Rot.
in the Rower.

Of the above elephant there is a curious drawing in a miscellaneous volume of the thirteenth
century, formerly belonging to the abbey of St. Albans, and preserved in the Cottonian library,
in the British Museum, Nero D. I.

King James the First resided in the Governor’s house when he first came to London in 1603.
“ The King’s first going abroad” (says Arthur Wilson, p. 12) “ was privately to visit some
of his houses ; for naturally he did not love to be looked on ; and those formalities of
“ state> which set a lustre upon princes in the people’s eyes, were but so many burthens
“ to him : for his private recreations at home, and his hunting exercises abroad, both with
“ the least disturbance, were his delights. While he remained in the Tower, he took
“ pleasure in baiting Lions ; but when he came abroad, he was so troubled with swarms,

“ that he feared to be baited by the people. And the Parliament now drawing on, which
“ was summoned to be the nineteenth of March, the King, the Queen, and Prince, four
dayes before, rode from the Tower to Whitehall ; the city and suburbs being one great
pageant wherein he must give his ears leave to suck in their gilded oratory, though
“ never so nauseous to the stomach.”

In one of the apartments used by him, on the West wall, is still to be seen his bust,
with the whole account of the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes, who called himself John
Johnson, was confined in the Tower. He did not there remain above two or three days,
being twice or thrice in that space re-examined, and the rack only offered and shewed unto
him, “ when the masque of his Roman fortitude” (says Thomas, Lord Bishop of Lincoln)

“ did visibly begin to wear and slide off his face; and then did begin to confess part of the
truth ; and thereafter to open the whole matter.” The following lines were composed in
the Tower by Sir Everard Digby.

“ From my Prison , this 2 3d of Jan. 1605.

“ When on my little babes I think, as I do oft,

“ I cannot chuse but then let fall some tears :

Me-thinks I hear the little Prattler, with words soft,

Ask, Where is Father that did promise Pears,

“ And other Knacks, which I did never see,

Nor Father neither, since he promised me.”

See the Bishop, of Lincolns Relation of the Gunpowder Treason , 1679, p. 261.

24

AN ARCH OF LONDON BRIDGE, AS IT APPEARED IN THE GREAT

FROST, 1814.

The annexed plate exhibits a North-east view of the sixth arch of London Bridge, from
St. Magnus’s Church. It was drawn during the severe frost, February 5th, 1814. rom
this point of view, the original groins of the arch are clearly seen, as well as the modern
projection of its present case. The figures on the starlings are of two men, whose boat
was so driven against them, that they were obliged to be drawn up with ropes to the top of
the bridge. During this frost, a fair was held on the Thames, between Black Fnars and
London Bridges, according to custom, whenever the ice permits. The Earl of Bes orougi,
General Dowdeswell, and Alexander Hendras Sutherland, Esq. are in possession o im¬
pressions from a curious plate of a frost fair, in the reign of Charles the Second ; dated
1683. It was taken near the Temple stairs, looking towards London Bridge ; and represen s,
among various booths on the ice, “ The Duke of Yorke’s Coffee house, The Tory Booth
The Booth with a Phcenix on it, insured as long as the Foundation stands, The oas
Beefe Booth, The half-way House, Coaches drawn by horses, Bull baiting. Drum-waggons
&c ” This Etching is pretty well executed, of a small sheet size, but without name. In
some of the rare Grub Street prints of the Frost Fair which commenced December 24th
1739, it appears that an ox was roasted on the Thames ; but this was done upon an elevated
stand, holding the fire and the dripping pan full three feet above the ice. At this Fair there
were letter-press and copper-plate printers, whose impressions are now and then to be
met with. It is rather remarkable that two of our most famous London street characters
should have lost their lives in the Thames, at this time; the original Jiddy Dolk of
Bartholomew Fair, and Doll, the Pippin Woman, whose death is thus noticed by Mr. Gay,
in the eleventh book of his “ TRIVIA , or the Art of Walking the Streets of London.

“ Ah Doll ! all Mortals must resign their Breath,

“ And industry itself submit to Death !

“ The cracking Crystal yields — she sinks she dies
“ Her head, chopt off, from her lost shoulders flies.

“ Pippins, she cry’d, but Death her Voice confounds,

“ And Pip— Pip— -Pip, along the Ice resounds.”

In the late Fair, several trades and pastimes were exhibited; among others were fiddling,
dancing, and throwing at cakes of gingerbread resting upon sticks stuck into the ice. A
whimsical fellow, with a bag, mimicked an old clothes man, in the path-way leading from
Bankside to London, which the watermen called the “ New City road.” An ox was to
have been roasted, but a thaw came, to the great joy of the Londoners, In this fair there
were also printing presses the following verses are copies of their productions:

The ICE was firm, which well you know,
For PRINTING on it we did show,
Near to Swan Stairs; for there you’ll find,
Impressions neat and to your mind.”

“ Amidst the Arts, which on the Thames ap-
“ To tell the wonders of this icy year, [pear,
k Printing claims prior place, which at one
“ Erects a monument of That and You.”[view,

The Holborn flying pyeman’s cry of Hot, Hot, Hot, was punctually echoed, by a needy
Liquorpond Street Barber, with his cry of Hot water : his stand was a Fleet-market pudding-
stool, upon which he actually shaved many hundreds of persons.

^ .. . 3**? l^yrvk^^feTcfi-y]

DTO>: AMD ETCHKD BT XX SMLTH. RUBJLIC ARCHITECTURE.

AS" AIR. CH OF LoroON lEIIUGE AS IT APPEAHEB IN THE GREAT FROST
• ;-ts.Tns® tf,1IMvBT Jf.T. Smrh,N!UI, 6?MM BrtutiNcstST Martin's Lank.

Feb:

25

The facetious pen of the late Rev. George Huddesford has noticed the trade, in a song-
published in his “ Salmagundi,” of which the following is the first verse :

“ In Liquorpond Street, as is well known to many,

“ An artist resided, who shaved for a penny;

“ Cut hair for three halfpence, for three pence he bled;

“ And would draw for a groat ev’ry tooth in your head.”

The original bridge was a timber one, built by the Priests of St. Mary Overies; but in
consequence of the frequent repairs, the Citizens and others gave their contributions, and
a bridge of stone was erected. Howel, in his Londinopolis, page 21, says, that the timber
bridge was standing in the year 994. About the year 1176, the stone bridge was begun
by Peter of Cole-Church, who was architect and surveyor of the work, which was finished
in 1209, by Serle Mercier, William Almaine, and Benedict Botewrite, Citizens of London —
for Peter died four years before, and was, as a principal benefactor, buried in the Chapel
on the bridge, dedicated to St. Thomas, of which Vertue has engraved two views, published
by the Society of Antiquaries. There were houses upon this bridge, at a very early period.
These, together with parts of the bridge, were often burnt ; and we are infinitely obliged to the
industrious Hollar, for their general appearance in his time ; and, latterly, to the pencil of
Samuel Scott, for the truly interesting picture, which he painted for his patron, Sir Edward
Walpole. This picture is now in the possession of my honored friend, Edward Roberts,
Esq. of the Pells. It has been admirably well engraved by Canot. There are earlier re¬
presentations of this bridge, than those by Hollar. Mr. Sutherland is in possession of an
extremely rare sheet print of London bridge, taken in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by
John Norden, but not published until twenty years after, as appears by his own declaration
on the print. This curious view represents twenty arches, Traitor’s gate with fourteen
heads upon it, and the East end of Nonsuch House; and is entitled, “ The View of London
Bridge, from East to West.” This bridge is also very minutely engraved, in a view of London,
extending from Whitehall to Wapping, on four sheets, measuring seven feet, one inch and
a half, by one foot, four inches and three quarters, with the name of I. C. Visscher, but
without date. This print, may be considered as prior to the productions of Hollar, from the
following circumstances : The palace of Whitehall appears completely in its original state,
before the Banquetting house, and York and Somerset water-gates were erected by
Inigo Jones. That it represents London, at the time of James the First, appears evident
from the Royal barge being surmounted with the Thistle. There are eight Latin verses
at either corner, with the name of Ludovicus Hondius Lusitt. This view, which is
extremely well executed, exhibits a windmill standing in the Strand, very near where the
New Church now stands. In the above mentioned view there is likewise another windmill at
the top of the water-works, at Queen Hytlie. For the means of describing this interesting print,
and other indulgences, I am obliged to John Dent, Esq. M. P. who purchased it, at a most
liberal price. It differs in some respects from another copy, which has the date of 1616, in his
Majesty’s collection. I must here remark, that Yertue’s copy of the plan of London, said to
have been engraved by Ralph Aggas, (attributed by some collectors to Augustine Ryther) is
in many instances, unlike the original : Vertue has left out several houses, and inserted others.
He has not introduced the Royal Exchange, erected in the year 1566, which is to be found
in the original. It is also very remarkable, that he should have introduced the date 1560,
and it is even more so, that many of the streets do not bear the same names as the original.

E

I have not been able to discover, that Visscher was ever m England ; so drat possiblj
this view might have been taken by his order for the purpose of engraving and P^lishm
abroad. It is well known, that the heads to Birch’s Lives, were engraved abroad ,
does it appear that Houbraken, the engraver, was ever in this Country.

By an inspection of Hollar’s interesting view of London, after the great foe, it"
seen, that the fire did not consume the houses on London bridge, eyon T’ett ,

arch ; and upon the scite of those so consumed, others were afterwards built. La y,

nearly in the middle of the bridge, there was a square space, called London Bridge q
screened on either side by an iron palisado : which iron work, when the houses we.
taken down, after 1755-6, was purchased by some of the most opulent mhabi an s o •
Botolph, Bishopsgate, amongst whom the late Mr. Page was a liberal contributor, and placed
on the dwarf wall, on the East side of the church-yard, where it still remains to be seen.

Ill the centre of the above mentioned square, there was a wooden cage, or place o con ne-
ment, as appears in a curious print in the possession of the fiiendly W illiam ac ei, q
From a foundation plan of this bridge, drawn by the late Mr. Pepys, assis an
draughtsman to Mr. Dance, and kindly presented to me by my worthy friend, John
Renton, Esq. it appears that this bridge, which had originally twenty arches, has now
only nineteen, by reason of the ninth and tenth, from the South, being laid into one,
which is now the greatest arch, and called the ninth from the South. Not two of the
piers accord either in length or width ; nor indeed are they in any instance, equidistant, nor
even parallel with each other. As it may be useful to future surveyors I shall give the
name of each archway, or lock, as it stands in the plan, beginning at t e ou , viz. ,
« Shore lock;” 2nd, “ lock;” 3d, “ Rock lock.” It is said, that part of this bridge is
built upon a rock : this third lock being so called, seems to confirm that repor . our
*« lock,” 5th “ lock;” 6th, « Roger lock;” 7th, “ Draw lock.” Over this last there was a
drawbridge, to allow vessels to come up to Queen Hythe. Eighth, onsuci oc . e
was a large house over this lock, built of wood, in which it is said nails were not at all
used. From the several views given of it by Hollar, it appears to have been in some
respects similar to one of Henry the Eighth’s Palaces, called ‘‘ Nonsuch, of which there

is a scarce view, by Hofnagle. It is also engraven in Speed s maps . ,

Ninth, or “ Great arch;” 10th, “ Long entry;” 11th, “ Chapel Lock;” 12th, “ St. Marys
lock;” 13th, “Queen’s, or little lock;” 14th, “ King’s lock;” 15th, “ Shore lock ;” 16th, “Index
Wheel lock;” 17th, “Borough Wheel lock;” 18th, “second Wheel lock;” 19th, “first Wheel lock.

These four last belong to the London Bridge water-works. By the Morning Advertiser,
for April 26th, 1798, it appears that Aldermen Gill and Wright, had been in partnership
upwards of fifty years ; “ and that their shop stood upon the centre of London bridge, and
“ their warehouse for paper, was directly under it, which was a chapel for divine service,
“ in one of the old arches; and long within legal memory, the service was performed every
“ sabbath, and saints’ days. Although the floor was always, at high water mark, from ten to
“ twelve feet under the surface ; yet such was the excellency of the materials and the
“ masonry, that not the least damp or leak ever happened, and the paper was kept as sate
“ and dry, as it would have been in a garret.

INSIDE VIEW OF THE WATCH-TOWER DISCOVERED NEAR LUDGATE

HILL, MAY 1, 1792.

The fire, which happened on the premises of Messrs. Kay, Ludgate Hill, May 1, 1792,
disclosed the fragments of the Barbican, or Watch-tower, represented in the opposite plate,

BaAWir_&KT> ETCHEI5 BY ET.SMITffl. f* XTBJLIC ARCHITJE, C T IJB.E „ DRAW 3PT JTTKE

IN SIP JR "VI JEW or TJHK WATCH^TOWEIK ©ISC0YEMJE© NJEAM. ILlTBGATE MUL.IL , MAT 1.17 02.

puj»? JroT.a*''!®!*, by I.T.Smith , atn G*. Mats ^cnxmos.STiiUKTiNS jLaitte . J ‘

27

which, piobably from the strength of cement, and difficulty of removing, the builders,
after the great fire of 1666, were induced to consider as the best foundation or walls for
the houses, which hid them until the period of the late fire. This tower projected fourteen
feet Noith fiom the wall into the city ditch, and measured twenty-two feet from the upper
stone of its i uins to the top, or present height of the wall ; probably, originally, the whole might
have been of an equal height. It consisted of lumps of stone of different sizes ; some of the
laigest A\eie ludely squared. These were all goggled together, and filled in with slush of hot
lime, which cemented them so strongly, that the workmen, who lately took parts of them
down, vveie obliged to drive in wedges to get them asunder, their pick-axes being turned or
blunted at almost every stroke. The corner stones were all chopped nearly square of tw'O
sizes, and placed alternately.

The small square holes represented in the sides of the tower in this plate, might either
have been for the receptacle of the timbers of floors, or as peep-holes for the watch on
duty. Possibly the entrance of this tower might have been through the gap from which the
figure with the basket is descending ; and this conjecture is strengthened by the regularity
of the face of the wall on either side of him. That part of the city wall, upon which the two
fiaures stand, was about eight feet thick, and of much ruder workmanship (masonry it can
liaidly be called). It consisted of large and small stones of irregular forms, together with
quantities of chalk and flint;— the only bricks employed in this part of London Wall were
evidently modern, and worked up on its South side as a neater boundary of part of Stone¬
cutter’s Alley, which leads westerly from the Broadway to the Crescent, formerly, and
indeed within my time, called Fleet Ditch. From thence it continued southerly to the
towei, ordered to be erected by Edward the First, which must have stood upon or near
the spot now occupied by the East half of Chatham Place, which is situated at the foot
of Blackfiiars Bridge. Upon the communication of my discovery of this tower to the
late Richard Gough, Esq. he immediately produced a rare plan of London, by Hollar,
not noticed in Vertues Catalogue, in which this tower is particularly delineated.

That this pait of London Wall was not of its original foundation, will be clear by the
following extracts from Chamberlains “ History of London:” “ Edward the First ordered
the citizens to erect a new wall, to run from Ludgate westward behind the houses in
Fleet Ditch, and then South, as far as the Thames ; at the head of which was to be
built a Tower for the reception of his Majesty.” “ Edward the Second, upon information
that parts of the new London Wall, near Ludgate, and the Tower, were not finished,
issued his Royal mandate to the Mayor and Citizens of London, enjoining them to use
the utmost dispatch in completing the same.”

As I have frequently found persons inspecting the foundations of old buildings, with the
hope of finding fragments of British workmanship, I beg leave to caution them, by inserting
the following extract from Dr. Woodward’s letter to Sir Christopher Wren, dated “ Gresham
“ College, 23d June, 1707.”

The Romans, at their descent here, found nothing that carry’d the appearance of a
‘ building; no not one stone upon another: nor so much as a brick in all the whole Island.
And though some others may be easily pass’d over, I cannot but be somewhat surpriz’d to
find a gentleman of the great dilligence and ingenuity of Mr. Somner, taking the Roman
bricks, that he observ d in the Walls of Canterbury, for British bricks.”

e 2

28

PARTS OF LONDON WALL AND BETHLEM HOSPITAL.

The opposite plate presents short specimens of that great portion of London Wall, which
extends seven hundred and fourteen feet westward from the ground which faces the North
end of Winchester Street, nearly to the spot where Moorgate stood. The chief part of this
great length of wall consists of three distinct characters. First, an inside one of chalk and
flint, cased on either side with a rubble one of rag-stone, strongly cemented together. This
wall is, in some places, about eight feet thick, and eight feet high from the present pavement
where the mud-raker is (see the print); but it must originally have commenced at a depth
considerably below him, as may be seen whenever the ground is opened. The third
character is a tesselated, or party-glazed brick wall, surmounted with battlements coped
with stone. It is erected upon two feet, three inches, of the cased wall, on that side next
to the city ditch, and is in height from the top of the cased wall to the top of the stone
coping, eight feet ; the space between the battlements is two feet, six inches. Upon clearing
the dirt away from some parts of the top of the cased wall, I found that it had been covered
with two layers of brick of an unusual size, measuring one foot, one inch and a half, by five
inches and a quarter, and only two inches and a half thick. These bricks were of a rich
deep red, extremely close and hard ; — they were, possibly, some of those mentioned by
Stowe as having been made in Moorfields. There are, it must be observed, in many parts
of the stone casing, pieces of bright red larger bricks, but not so thick as those just
mentioned; and these are often looked upon by many persons as Roman. That the materials
and arrangement of this portion of London Wall do not accord with that part described
by Dr. Woodward, standing in his time South-east of Bishopsgate, is very evident. Chalk
and flint, for instance, are no where mentioned by him ; however, there is a part of this
wall within about one hundred feet of the scite of Moorgate, resembling, in some respects,
the one inspected by the Doctor ; but this difference of materials may reasonably be accounted
for, as some parts of the wall might have needed less repairs, which took place at various
times; and provided the general character of the wall were held up, the exact disposition of
the materials was not attended to. I fully expect, if the workmen dig to a considerable
depth below the present street, that old materials will be found ; as it is reasonable to
conclude, that in rebuilding a wall of strength, the hard fragments of the preceding one
could not be better disposed of. As many learned writers are unsettled as to the foundation
and early history of London Wall, I trust the above statement of the materials and measure¬
ments will be as much as can possibly be expected from me. Before I describe Bethlem
Hospital, in Moorfields, I shall endeavour to trace it from its original foundation, North of
the Church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. The old hospital and garden occupied the scite
of the present streets, turnings, and houses, now, in nine instances, under the appellation
of Old Bethlem, and which to this day remains the property of the hospital. The ground
commences at the West of Bishopsgate Street, immediately behind the White Hart Tavern,
and terminates in Broad Street Buildings, formerly called Deep Ditch. But as this ground
is more particularly described in the deed of gift of Simon Fitz-Mary, printed by Howel in
his Londinopolis, p. 65. I shall insert the following copy :

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public Architecture .

jDjra’wn’ ih Jriffl ns32

Parts ©if LONDON^mLL aicd ietilem Moseital .

JPunaMsmiEm jr.T.SBmri^?18.GT Mat’s Imuswcs . STMahtits Iaste

To all the Children of our Mother holy Church, to whom this present writing shall come,
Simon the Sonne of Mari/, sendeth greeting in our Lord, where among other things, and
before other Lands, the high Altitude of the Heavenly Counsels, marvellously wrought by
some readier devotion, it ought to be more worshipped ; of which things the mortal
sickness (after the fall ot our first Father Adam) hath taken the beginning of this new
repairing: therefore forsooth, it beseemeth worthy, that the place, in which the Son of
God is become Man, and hath proceeded from the Virgin’s Womb, which is increaser, and
beginning ot Man’s Redemption ; namely, ought to be with Reverence worshipped, and
with beneficial portions to be increased: therefore it is, that the said Simon, Son of Mary,
“ having special and singular Devotion to the Church of the glorious Virgin at Bethelem,
where the same Virgin of Her, brought forth our Saviour incarnate, and lying in the
Cratch, and with her own milk nourished ; and where the same Child to us there born,
the Chivalry of the heavenly Company, sang the new Hymne, Gloria in Excelsis Deo.
The same time the increaser of our health, (as a King, and his Mother a Queen) willed to
be worshipped of Kings, a new Starre going before them, as the Honour and Reverence
of the same Child, and his most meek Mother: And to the exaltation of my most Noble
Lord, Henry King of England, whose Wife and Child the fo resaid Mother of God, and
“ her only Son, have in their keeping and protection ; and to the manifold increase of this
“ City of London, in which I was born. And also for the health of my soul, and the souls
“ of my Predecessors, and Successors, my Father, Mother, and my Friends. And specially
for the souls of Guy of Harlow, John Durant, Ralph Ashwye ; Maud, Margaret, and
“ Dennis, Women: Have given, granted, and by this my present Charter, here, have
“ confirmed to God, and to the Church of St. Mary of Bethelem, all my Lands which I
have in the Parish of St. Buttolph, without Bishopsgate of London, that is to say,
“ whatsoever I there now have, or had, or in time to come may have, in Houses, Gardens,
Pools, Ponds, Ditches, and Pits, and all their appurtenances, as they be closed in by
their bounds; which now extend in length, from the King's high street, East, to the
great Ditch in the West; the which is called deep Ditch; and in breadth, to the lands
44 of Ralph Downing, in the North; and to the Land of the Church of St. Buttolph, in
the South ; To have and to hold the aforesaid Church of Bethelem, in free and peqjetual
Alms ; And also to make there a Priory, and to ordain a Prior, and Canons ; Brothers,
and also Sisteis, when Jesus Christ shall enlarge his grace upon it. And in the same
place, the Rule and order of the said Church of Bethelem solemnly professing, which
shall bear the Token of a Starre openly in their Coapes and Mantles of profession ; and
for to say Divine Service there, for the souls aforesaid, and all Christian souls; and
specially to receive there, the Bishop of Bethelem, Canons, Brothers, and Messengers of
44 the Church of Bethelem for evermore, as often as they shall come thither. And that
a Church or Oratory there shall be budded, as soon as our Lord shall enlarge his grace,

44 under such form, that the Order, institution of Priors, Canons, Brothers, Sisters, of the
44 visitation, correction, and reformation of the said place, to the Bishop of Bethelem, and
44 his Successors, and to the Charter of his Church, and of his Messengers, as often
as they shall come thither, as shall seem them expedient ; no man’s contradiction not¬
withstanding ; shall pertain for evermore : saving alway the Services of the chief Lords,

44 as much as pertaineth to the said Land. And to the more surety of this thing, I
have put myself out of this Land, and all mine. And Lord Godfrey, then chosen of
the nobles of the City of Rome, Bishop of Bethelem, and of the Pope, confirmed then

30

“ by his name in England, in his name, and of his Successors, and of his Chapter of his
“ Church of Betlielem, into bodily possession, I have indented and given to his possession
“ all the foresaid Lands; which possession he hath received, and entred in form abovesaid.

“ And in token of sujection and reverence, the said place in London, without Bishop s-
“ gate, shall pay yearly in the said City, a mark sterling at Easier, to the Bishop of
“ Betlielem, his Successors, or his Messengers, in the name of a Pension ; and if the
“ faculties or goods of the said place (our Lord granting) happen to grow more, the said
“ place shall pay more, in the name of Pension, at the said terme, to the Mother Church
“ of Betlielem. This (forsooth) gift and confirmation of my Deed, and the putting to of my
“ Seal for me, and mine Heires, I have stedfastly made strong, the year of our Lord God,
“ A thousand, two hundred, forty-seven, the Wednesday after the Feast of St. Luke the
“ Evangelist, &c.”

Howel, in the same page, states, that “ King Edward the Third granted a protection,
“ for the Brethren called Milites beatse Marise de Bethlem, within the City of London, the
“ fourteenth year of his reign. It was an hospital for distracted people.”

Weaver says, p. 500, “ In the parish of St. Martin’s in the Field, there was an house
“ wherein sometime were distraught and lunaticke people, of what antiquitie, founded by
“ whom, or what time suppressed, saith Stowe, I have not read. But it was said, that
“ a King of England, not liking such a kinde of people to remaine so neare his Pallace,
“ caused them to be removed further off, to Bethlem without Bishopsgate of London, and
“ to that hospital the said house by Charinge-crosse doth yet remaine.”

Howel says, p. 65, “ Stephen Gennings, Marchant-taylor, gave forty pounds toward
“ purchase of the Patronage, by his Testament, 1523. The Mayor and Commonalty
“ purchased the patronage thereof, with all the Lands and Tenements thereunto belonging,
“ in the year 1546.”

Again, in p. 66, “ King Henry the Eighth gave this hospital unto the City. The
“ church and chappel were taken down in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and houses
“ budded there, by the Governours of Christ' s hospital in London. In this place, people
“ that be distraught in their wits, are now (by the suit of their friends) received and
“ kept as before, but not without charges to their bringers in.”

That this house must have been an early receptacle for lunatics long before Henry the
Eighth gave it to the hospital, there can be very little doubt; otherwise Stowe, Weaver, or
Howel, would have been able to have named the king who caused the removal of insane people
from Charing Cross, had he been near their time.

“ Mayster Skelton,” in his “ Why come ye not to Court,” speaking of Wolsey, says,

“ He grinnes, and he gapes,

“ As it were Jacke Napes ;

“ Such a mad Bedlem.”

By the liberality of John Haslam, Esq. Apothecary to Bethlem and Bridewell Hospitals,
I am enabled to give the following extract, and likewise several other curious particulars
relating to old Bethlem, and the foundation of the present structure. 1 am also indebted to
the same gentleman for the opportunities afforded me of inspecting the inside of the building.

Extract from the books of the hospital.

29th March, 1637. “ It is ordered by this court, that a particular of the houses at Charing

31

Cross, belonging to Bethlem, shall be delivered to the Right Honorable the Marquis of
Hambleton; and of the particular valuations of the same, as they were valued to the Lords
of the Council in Anno 1632.”

Mr. Haslam also informs me, that after much inquiry, he found that the spot of ground
where the Golden Cross Inn now stands, was the situation; but when, how, or by whom
Bethlem got possession, remains to be discovered. The old hospital, garden, houses, and
tenements belonging thereto, were, in former days, called “ Bethlem Prison House;” and
the patients, who sometimes exceeded the limited number of twenty, were called Prisoners.
The first topographical instance lam able at present to produce, is an order, in 1577, to John
Mell, to take charge of the two gates, — one next the street, and the other on the field side.
In the same year the keeper complained of a nuisance arising from the White Hart (this is
the house that had the date of 1480 painted upon it). In 1600 it was proposed that the
Augmentation Office be searched to ascertain the precise boundary of the premises. February
26, 1619, it was proposed to have Mr. Middleton’s water conveyed to the premises.

In 1624, the prisoners amounted to thirty-one in number. They were, at various times, so
unruly under this establishment, that the keepers were obliged to call in some of the
neighbouring flax-dressers to subdue them.

It is worthy remark, that in many parts of London the trades remain upon their old spots,
viz. Cloth Fair for drapers, Monmouth Street for clothiers, Bedford Street for gold lace men
and mercers (Messrs. Robarts and Plowman, mercers to the royal family, have worn out ten
shop bills), Long Acre for coachmakers (Oliver Cromwell’s carriage was built in Long Acre),
Harp Alley for sign painters (here Barlow and Craddock painted signs), Paternoster Row for
booksellers (this place was famous for publishers before the fire of London), and there are
flax-dressers in Old Bethlem at this day.

I am enabled, by the kindness of Mr. Young, medallist, to present a few specimens of
Bethlem Token inscriptions, copied by him from that truly valuable collection of coins in the
British Museum, formerly the property of the amiable and much lamented Charles Barre
Roberts, of Christ Church, Oxford, son of the Gentleman mentioned in p. 25.

“ e*e at Bedlam Gate, 1657,” Reverse, “ At the White Hart.” — “ G“A At the Old Prison,”
Reverse, “ In Bedim, 1658.” — “ Hilton Will at black,” Reverse, “ In Bethlem, 1666, his
halfpeny.” — “ Turner Henry Baker,” Reverse, “ In Bethelem, 1668, his halfepeny, HTM” —
Badgett Ralph,” Reverse, “ Bethelam, 1668, his halfepeny, R®E” — “ H?s Neare Badlam
“ Gat,” Reverse, “ At the Merefields.” — “ t. b. The sine of the half” Reverse, “ Moun in
Bedlame.” — “ C^H At the three” Reverse, “ Tuns in Bedlam.” — “ Reddall James, at”
Reverse, “ the Plow in Bedlam, ^g” — “ Peele Bartholomew at ye” Reverse, “ Black Swan
“ in Bethelem, his halfpeny.” — “ Ground Elizabeth,” Reverse, “ in Bethlehem.” — “ Clitherow
Ephraim,” Reverse, “ at the Sun in Bedlam, E?G” — “ Antkibus Will,” Reverse, in Bethlon.”
On the 23d of January, 1673, and 8th of April, 1674, the benevolent Sir William Turner,
Knt. and Alderman, took great interest in the concerns of Bethlem; and on the 8th of May
following, it was proposed to petition the King for his consent for building a new house
somewhere else. This was obtained; and the city, on the 25th of September, 1674, granted
a lease for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, at twelve pence yearly rent, of seven hundred
and fourteen feet of ground in length of the City ditch, extending from the postern nearly
opposite to Winchester Street, to Moorgate.

This new building was to contain one hundred and twenty lunatics, and to be finished in
four years. Mr. Hook produced two plans, and was ordered to make a model in pasteboard

32

of the intended hospital. Mr. Cartwright was mason, Mr. Titch, bricklayer, and Mr. Jerman
carpenter.

The building was begun April 16th, 1675, and finished in July, 1676; it cost 17,000/.

October 17th, 1677. The Committee ordered that the two views which had been engraved
of Bethlem, should be handsomely framed ; that one pair should be presented to the King,
and another to the Duke of York.

SOUTH-WEST VIEW OE BETHLEM HOSPITAL AND LONDON WALL.

The annexed plate exhibits half the back front of Bethlem Hospital, and also the back,
and part of the side, of the West wing, . erected by benevolent contributions, in 1733, for the
reception of Incurables. This view commences from the scite of Moorgate, which stood
much about the spot, where the bill-sticker stands (see the print). The other half of Bethlem
was precisely the same, with the addition of a house for the Apothecary ; and ended at the
Postern, which stood opposite to Winchester Street : this half was sold by auction, in
various lots, and brought about 5000/. The back of this building stands nine feet distant
from the City wall, which, in some measure, acts as a screen to it. The principal entrance
is from the North, of brick and free-stone, adorned with four pilasters, a circular pediment
and entablature of the Corinthian order. The King’s arms are in the pediment, and those of
Sir Wm. Turner above the front centre window. Notwithstanding the melancholy purpose
for which it was erected, it certainly conveys ideas of grandeur. Indeed it was for many
years the only building which looked like a Palace in London. Carleton House, which
is now by no means, even with its costly screen, so princely as might have been expected,
was in my memory a mere lodging house in appearance. As for St. James’s palace, it looks
more like a place of confinement, than a palace. London should have boasted such a build¬
ing as Hampton Court, for the town residence of our Sovereign. Before the front of Bethlem,
there is a spacious paved court, bounded by a pair of massy iron gates, surmounted with
the arms of the Hospital, viz. Argent, two Barrs Sable, a Labell of five points, throughout
Gules, on a Chief Azure, an Estoile of sixteen points, Or, charged with a plate thereon, a
Cross of the third, between a Human Scull, in a cup on the dexter side, and a Basket of
Bread, i. e. Wasted Cakes, all of the fifth, on the sinister. Early mention is made of Wasted
bread, by Chaucer, who says, speaking of the Prioress.

“ Of smale houndes hadde, she, that she fedde,

“ With rosted flesh, and milk and wastel brede.”

Some further particulars relating to Wasted bread, may be found in Mr. Douce’s Illustra¬
tions of Shakspeare and Ancient Manners, Vol. ii. p. 210.

These gates hang on two stone piers, composed of columns of the Ionic order, on either
side of which there is a small gate for common use. On the top of each pier, was a recum¬
bent figure, one of raving, the other of melancholy madness, carved by Caius Gabriel Cibber.
The feeling of this sculptor was so acute, that it is said he would begin immediately to
carve the subject from the block, without any previous model, or even fixing any points to
guide him ; and I have often heard my father say, that his master, Roubiliac, whenever city-
business called him thither, would always return by Bethlem, purposely to view these
figures. They have lately been conveyed to Mr. Bacon’s, to be cleaned, previously to
their re-erection at the New Hospital, built upon the scite of the late Dog and Duck, St.

South-west vmw of bethuem hospitai. aw® lomjof waul .

JFraBMSHEn) Sk-pt l U. WPl. mr J.T. SMjnnn.M?18,C-T Mats Buinxmcs. §T Martins jlwk.

33

George’s Fields ; the expense of which building was estimated, as I am informed, at 150,000/.
These figures have been drawn by Stothard, and engraved by Sharp.

With all due deference to Mr. Roubeliac’s admiration, and the estimation of many otheis,
in my humble opinion, they have been overrated. Indeed had they been the productions
of Flaxman, they could not have been rated higher. The following lines upon these figures
were in the possession of an unfortunate gentleman, who died in this Hospital some few years
since :

Bethlemi ad portas se tollit dupla columna ;

, Ei kovx run tflof, xuhi&of exlo ; e%ei.

Hie calvum ad dextram tristi caput ore re-
clinat,

Vix ilium ad Icevam ferrea vincla tenent.
Dissimilis furor est statuis ; sed utrumq.
laborem,

Et genium artificis laudat uterq. furor.

At Bethlem gates two columns rise to view ;
What’s feign’d without, in life within proves
true :

On stones without, two kinds of grief are
seen ;

Like dolorous passions obvious reign within.
This, to the right, in dismal state
Lolling leans backward his bald pate.

In doleful dumps, on inward light
The visionary rolls back his sight.

That, to the left, his iron chain
With difficulty can restrain.

His veins with fiery choler swell —

His anger a foretaste of Hell.

And what the sculptor here doth paint,
Within, griefs similar represent.

Two statues diverse ills express
Each equally remote from bliss :

As different as fire from frore.

That seems to whine, and this to roar.
Eternal honour to the artist give :

And bid his fame and genius live.
Ingenious toil that could devise
One foaming fury, one as cool as ice.

Pope, in the Dunciad, has noticed these figures, in the following lines :

“ Close to those walls where folly holds her throne,

“ And laughs to think Monroe would take her down ;
“ Where o’er the gates, by his fam’d fathers hand,

“ Great Cibber’s brazen, brainless brothers stand.”

For these figures, it is currently reported, that Cibber took the porter of Oliver Cromw ell
as his model.

There is an excellent figure, by Cibber, of a Bag-piper, in the garden front of Mr Hincli-
cliffs house, situate on the east side of Tottenham Court Road, No 178. It was his father’s,
and stood for many^ears in his stone yard, in Long Acre.

The principal entrance to this Hospital, is above four semicircular steps, and where the
Porter attends, at an iron gate, commonly called the Penny Gate: for it must be stated,
though I confess to the disgrace of our ancestors, that formerly, nay indeed, until about
forty years back, persons of every class, male and female, were allowed to walk through
the wards of both sexes, as though the unfortunate maniacs had been wild beasts, by paying
a penny at this gate, on their return. A perfect picture of this public exhibition of the most
distressing of all maladies, is given by Hogarth, in his last plate of the Rake’s Progress.
At present the visits of idle curiosity are strictly forbidden, and none are admitted but by
leave ofthe Governors. Members of Parliament have free access, and the relatives of patients
are never denied the privilege of seeing them.

F

34

The men and women, in old Bethlem, were huddled together in the same ward. In this
Hospital they have different wards, and gardens for air and recreation.

On either side of what aie called the penny gates, the eye of taste is again arrested by
a statue of a maniac, holding a money bottle; that on the right represents a man, and
that on the left a female. They are excellently carved in wood, nearly the size of life, have
lequently been painted in pioper colours, and bear other evidence of age. It is reported,
t at they were brought fiom Old Bethlem. In tablets over the niches in which they
stand, is the following supplication: “ Pray remember the poor Lunaticks, and put your
Charity into the Box with your own hand.”

The passage in which these figures stand, opens into the Hall, under the south cornice of
which is the following inscription, in gilt letters.

£ “ This Hospital was begun to be built in April, 1675, and was finished July, 1676,

£ William Turner, Knight and Alderman, President, and Benjamin Ducane, Esq.
“ Treasurer- Sir Thomas Rawlinson, Knight, Alderman, and President of this Hospital,

gave 100/. to purchase 51. per ann. towards the repairs of this Hospital for ever, Anno
“ Domini 1707.”

Round this Hall are eighteen tablets for the reception of names of benefactors, divided
at top by Chei ubims heads, excellently carved in wood, and much resembling those by
Grudin Gibbons, in the Choir of St. Paul’s. On the left hand, north of the Hall, is a room,
m which the physician and apothecary examine the patients. The Royal arms adorn the
c nnney-piece, and eighteen of the pannels, record the names of benefactors. In a corner

o t is room is pi eserved the production of a grateful patient, carved in wood and gilt ; of
which the following is a copy :

O GOD • KEEPE • ALL DWELLING • IN THIS PLACE IN HEALTH AND
WEALTH WITH • TRVTH AND GRACE • AMEN • I G

At the right and left of the hall there are large iron gates opening into the galleries,
or wards for the patients. These wards are lit up from the North, and the cells, or
sleeping rooms, are on the South side. The men were confined on the East half of the
building, the women on the West. The staircase ascends from the South side of the
hall, and is adorned with twenty-two pannels, containing the names of donors, surmounted
with Cherubinis’ heads, similar to those in the hall. At the top of this staircase, there
is a lobby, on the right and left of which there are iron gates, like those below, opening
into similar galleries. At the foot of the gates, within the iron-work, on the female
side, a horse-shoe has been let into the floor, as a protection from witchcraft ; a custom
of considerable antiquity, and which continues in England to this day. There are
several in London, fifteen, for instance, are on the fronts of the thresholds of houses in
Monmouth Street, three in Bedfordbury, and no less than twenty-eight in Rosemary Lane,
commonly called Rag Fair ; and within the memory of several of my friends, they were
placed on the fronts of coal-barge cabins.

On the South of this lobby, there is a large handsome room for the governors, who meet
every Saturday. It has a beautifully ornamented plaister ceiling ; and over the West chimney-
piece is a curious three quarter portrait, of King Henry the Eighth, the founder of the
lospital, painted on pannel, in a rich dress ornamented with precious stones. He has a
glove m his right hand, and his walking stick in his left. This picture, in my humble
opinion, was painted before Holbein practised in England, as it is destitute of the superior

35

knowledge of that great artist, both in colouring and effect. I think Holbein s splendid
picture of him, in Barber-Surgeons’ Hall, will support my remark. On the South side of
this room, is a portrait of that great friend to the Hospital, Sir William Turner, painted at
an advanced age, and said to be the production of Sir Peter Lely. There is another
portrait of him at Bridewell Hospital, by Beale. The other portraits preserved in this
room, are of Edward, son of Rob. Barkam, of Lincolnshire, and Mary his wife. They gave
a large estate in that county, to this charity, estimated at 6000/.

Between these pictures hangs a small oval frame, containing the arms of Bethlem Hospital,
surrounded by those of the Presidents, from the year 1640 to the present day, of which the
following is a list:

Sir George Whitmore, 29th January, 1640
Sir John Woolastone, 12th September, 1643
Sir Charles Packer, 9th November, 1649
Sir Richard Brown, 14th September, 1666
Sir William Turner, 22d October, 1669
Sir Robert Geoffry, 9th July, 1689

Sir William Turner, 28th August, 1690
Sir Robert Geoffry, 17th March, 1693
Sir Samuel Dashwood, 15th March, 1703
Sir Thomas Rawlinson, 22d September, 1705
Sir William Withers, 15th December, 1708

Sir Samuel Garrad,
Humphrey Parsons,
Robert Willmott.
William Benn,

10th March,' 1720
5tli August, 1725
18th January, 1741
28th January, 1746

Sir Richard Glynn, 25th September, 1755
Sir William Rawlinson, 11th February, 1773
Brackly Kennet, 31st July, 1777

Brass Crosby, Esq. 7th June, 1782

Sir James Sanderson, 14th February, 1792
Sir Richard Carr Glynn, 1st March, 1797

Over the east chimney-piece there is a picture of the arms of England, surmounted by the
initials, R. H. This and the portrait of Henry, over the other chimney-piece, are said to
have been brought from old Bethlem. In this room there are four drawings in Indian ink,
two of them large; one exhibits the North elevation of the Hospital, the other a plan of the
first floor. The two others are of a smaller size, and represent the front and back view of
the principal gates, with Cibber’s figures.

Above this court room, and the galleries already described, are other rooms, for the
house-keeper and safer sort of patients. Those patients, who die poor, are buried at the
expense of the Hospital, in a burial ground East of Golden Lane ; the spot is known by the
appellation, of “ the Wooden World,” most of the houses consisting entirely of timber.

The Galleries are three-hundred and thirty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and fourteen feet
high; independent of the additional wings.

From the numerous list of those who have contributed towards the support of this
humane institution, the following names are selected as the principal.

Lord Craven gave tow ards /.

s.

cl j

/.

s.

cl

rebuilding; this house 100

0

0

1684 Dr. Garret .

100

0

0

1677 John Hobby, Esq. . . . 100

0

0

1689 Mr. Alexander Hosea . .

200

0

0

The Countess of Devon . 100

0

0

1691 Sir James Edwards .

125

0

0

1678

Mrs. Philippa Brooke . 300

0

0

Jacob Lucy, Esq. . . .

100

0

0

1679

Mr. Richard Staples . .100

0

0

Mr. John Fowke gave a

1680

Sir Peter Vandeputt . .100

0

0

yearly rent of ...

190

0

0

Mr. James Mawrais . . 200

0

0

Mr. William Pott gave the

1682

Sir John Moore, to Bride¬

manor of Barston, and

well and Bethlem . . 500

0

0

other lands in Kent, of

Mr. Robert Blanchard . .100

0

0

the yearly value of

111

0

0

f 2

36

l. s. d.

Isle of Thanet, of the
yearly rent of ... . 100 0 0

and after that his whole
estate.

Sir Robert Jeffery . . 200 0 0

1744 to 1747, Captain John Al-

dred gave to incurables 3,205 2 3

1772 Sir Watkin Williams

Wynne, Bart. . . . 200 0 0

Nicholas Nixon, Esq. of
Mincing Lane, gave
between Bridewell and
Bethlem Hospitals 10,000 0 0

And the late Benjamin
Kenton, Esq. among
other great gifts, left to
Bridewell and Bethlem
Hospitals .... 10,000 0 0

The number of patients contained in this House, were, on the 3d of January, 1815,
Men 51, women 70.

From a drawing by John Dunstall, kindly communicated to me by Mr. Richardson,
Auctioneer, of King-street, it appears, that the outer gates of this Hospital consisted originally
of wooden frames, with plain iron bars, and that the ground has been considerably raised in
front, as there were four stone steps immediately under the gates.

The only plan which I have hitherto been able to meet with, that gives the distribution of
the premises of Old Bethlem Hospital, is the rare one by Hollar, before noticed, in the pos¬
session of Mr. Lloyd. It is curious in other particulars, it exhibits Moorfields, then divided
into quarters, with trees surrounding each division, the scite of the second Bethlem Hospital,
then an uninterrupted space, and a cluster of five windmills standing on the scite of the

Noith side of Finsbury Square, a part of which ground was, within my memory, called
Mill Hill. .

A VENERABLE FRAGMENT OF LONDON WALL, AS IT STOOD IN THE
CHURCH YARD OF ST. GILES, CRIPPLEGATE.

This view contains the most perfect part of London Wall remaining within my time, as
built in the reign of King Edward the Fourth, 1477 ; and which probably owed its preser¬
vation to its unexposed situation. But this curious piece of antiquity was doomed at last
to meet its demolition, by reason of the frequent nuisances committed by some of the lowest
class of people, who had been suffered to inhabit the adjoining premises; and in con¬
sequence of their depredations, the wall became so mutilated, that the Parish was
induced to apply to the City for repairs; but finally, after some contest, it was settled
by the City, that as they had no farther occasion to keep up their walls, the parish
should be entitled to as much of London Wall, as bounded their church-yard. In con¬
sequence of this arrangement, the parish took down the fragments of battlements, and
repaired the wall in a perfectly plain manner, as a safer screen from future innovation ;
to perpetuate which, the following inscription cut in stone, was let into the wall: “ This
wall was repaired at the expense of the Parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, Thomas Dolly,
William Robson, Churchwardens, 1803.”

1.

s.

d.

1692 Mr. Robert Hyett . . .

100

0

0

1693 Captain John Jones .

125

0

0

1698 Mr. John Brare .

250

0

0

Lord Craven .

100

0

0

Mr. Edward Bettison . .

100

0

0

Mr. John Land ....

100

0

0

1699 Mr. Edmund Burroughs .

333

15

0

Mr. John Edmonson gave,

to Bridewell and Bethlem

Hospitals, lands in the

Isle of Thanet of the

yearly value of . . . .

80

0

0

Mr. John Johnson .

105

0

0

1701 Mr. Freemantle ....

100

0

0

Mr. Deputy Gwyn . . .

100

0

0

1702 Sir Thomas Viner . .

200

0

0

1704 Henry Harbyn . .

150

0

0

Thomas Guy . . . . .

200

0

0

1705 John Parsons, a farm in the

37

This part of London Wall, bounding the church-yard, commences at the East, imme¬
diately from the back of Mr. Tylor’s, No 3, Cripplegate Buildings, and continues west-
wardly to the foundation of a corner round tower. From thence it takes a southerly direc¬
tion to the back of Barber-Surgeons’ Hall, at which spot the church-yard terminates.

Fortunately I was passing when the workmen were taking down the wainscoting of the
north porch, in 1812. On this occasion they discovered the original one, consisting of per¬
forated arches on either side, most exquisitely carved in wood, and variously painted ; the
vermillion of which was as bright as when first put on, and the whole appeared to be of the
reign of Henry the Fourth or Fifth. The lower parts of the belfry are by much the oldest of
the Church, as may be collected from the rudeness of the workmanship.

In disrdns: a grave near the West entrance in 1813, a considerable undisturbed extent of

oo O o

pavement, consisting of ornamented glazed tiles, was discovered at about the depth of four
feet from the base of the pillars of the nave, which proves that the body of the Church is a
subsequent and elevated structure.

In the church-yard, near the middle of the South side, there is a large Yorkshire stone,
measuring nine feet, eight inches, by seven feet, three inches, which covers the family vault of
the late Sir William Staines, fcnt. This stone, large as it is, sinks considerably in magnitude
when compared with its countryman, which is placed before the threshold of No. 16, on the
West side of Bloomsbury Square, measuring eleven feet, three inches, by seven feet, eleven
inches, and which cost upwards of 2,000/. on the following unfortunate occasion. A gentle¬
man fell over it on the evening of its arrival, and broke both his legs. He brought an action
against the proprietor, and recovered 2,000/. damages. We have another large stone of black
marble in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey, with the following inscription :

“ GERVASIUS HE BLOIS ABBAS, 1160,”
measuring eleven feet, eleven inches, by five feet, eleven inches, which stone is commonly
called Long Meg of Westminster.

From the information of the intelligent sexton of this Church, Mr. Richardson, I find that
the skeleton discovered about twenty-five years ago, and generally believed to be Milton’s,
was considered by some persons as the bones of a female. They were found in a leaden
coffin, without any inscription, under the pews on the North side of the chancel, and nearly
opposite to the pulpit, which stands as it did then, on the South side of the Church.

This supposed discovery induced the Father of the late Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M. P. to
erect a mural monument to the Poet’s memory, against the second North pillar from the Altar,
consisting of a Bust (not at all like Faithorne’s print, which was engraved from the life) and a
tablet, upon which is engraved the following inscription :

IOHN MILTON,

AUTHOR OF PARADISE LOST,

BORN DECR 1608,

DIED NOVR 1674.

HIS FATHER, IOHN MILTON,

DIED MARCH, 1646.

They were both interred in this Church.

Samuel Whitbread posuit. — I. Bacon sculpt.

As the parishioners are not aware of the precise spot where he was buried, I was induced
to see what the register said, but found nothing beyond the following entry :

November,

1674.

“ John Milton , Gentleman - - - Buried Nov. 12 - - - Consumption - Chancell

33

I also copied his Father’s register of burial,
Maich, « j0]lu Milton, gentleman

1646.

but met with no better information.
. 15’

Mr. Richardson informed me, that it is generally believed Milton died in Jewin-street.

It is said, that Milton at one time lived in Petty-France, Westminster, where the gardens
come into the Bird-cage Walk.

It is also believed, that he lived in Bunhill-Row; and a Barber in Chiswell-street, close by
the well that gives name to the street, maintains that he resides in Milton’s former habitation.

This part of the town has perhaps more Barbers’ shops than any other. In White-Cross¬
street, Moor-lane, Golden-lane, &c. you can hardly walk ten yards clear of them.

The Flying Barber is a character now no more to be seen in London, though he still remains
in some of our country villages. He was provided with a napkin, soap, and pewter bason,
the form of which may be seen in many of the illustrative prints of Don Quixote. He had
also a deep leaden vessel, something like a chocolate pot, with a large ring or handle at the
top. This pot held about a quart of water, boiling hot; and thus equipped, he flew about
to his customers. These pots are now no longer made in London. The last mould which
produced them, and which was of brass, was broken up for metal, after the sale of Mr.
Richard Joseph’s pewter moulds, last January, in New-street, Shoe-lane.

The entertaining and venerable Mr. Thomas Batrich, barber, of Drury-lane, informs me,
that before the year 1756, it was a general custom to lather with the hand; but that the
French barbers, much about that time, brought in the brush. He also says, that “ A good
lather is half the shave,” is a very old remark among the trade.

The old chandeliers of tlnee, four, and six branches, are now disused. Mr. Batrich has twro
suspended from his ceiling ; he has also a set of bells fixed against the wall, which he has had
for these forty years. J hese are called by the common people Whittington’s Bells. In his
eaily days, about eighty years back, when the newspapers were only a penny a-piece, they
were taken in by the Barbers for their customers to read during their waiting time. This
custom is handed to us by the last E. Heemskerck, in an etching by Toms, of a Barber’s
Shop, composed of monkies, at the foot of which are the following lines :

“ A Barber's Shop adorn’d we see,

“ With Monsters, News, and Poverty;

“ Whilst some are shaving, others bleed,
And those that wait the Papers read :

“ The Master full of Wigg, or Tory,

Combs out your Wig, and tells a Story,

“ Then palms your Cole, and scraping, smiles,

“ And gives a Bill to cure the Piles.

In former days, it appears, that waiting customers beguiled the time with playing on a lute,
or on the cittern, the latter being a musical instrument resembling the guitar. In one of
Burton’s little books, entitled “ Winter Evening Entertainments,” published in 1687, with
several wood cuts, there is a representation of a Barber’s Shop, where the person waiting
his turn is playing on a lute.

On one occasion, that I might indulge the humour of being shaved by a woman, I repaired
to the Seven Dials, where, in Great St. Andrew s-street, a slender female performed the
operation, whilst her husband, a strapping soldier in the Horse-Guards, sat smoaking his
pipe. There was a famous woman in Swallow-street, who shaved ; and I recollect a black
woman in Butcher-row, a street formerly standing by the side of St. Clement’s church, near
Temple Bar, who is said to have shaved with ease and dexterity.

Mv . Bati ich informs me, that he has read of the five Barberesses of Drury-lane, who
shamefully mal-treated a woman in the reign of Charles the Second.

The Barbers’ poles, that were put down when the act passed for the removal of the London

I ©IE

OF THE POTDXTIOr COMPTEl

“ no

r.T.Simra, jj? 18.GTMA3TS

»13fC§ . ST ©11AM.T ]IN§ JUakjr

IKS

VIEW

39

signs, are now occasionally to be met with. There is one in Moor-lane, another in Duke’s-
Place, one in Rag-Fair, and another near Shoreditch Church. There is also a pretty large
one in Ogle-street, by Queen Anne-street East, now Foley-street. This pole or Barber’s
sign, is generally understood to be nothing more than the representation of a staff, which
was given to the patient to hold, in order to encourage the blood to flow freely while under
his hands. The black, blue, or red band painted round it, is supposed to be ribbon or garter,
with which the arm was tied after the operation.

0 . :> • .• i . '* - : * ; • > ? ' • ■ »• ; •; i',' ", i f *1 ' I

INSIDE VIEW OF THE POULTRY COMPTER.

It was not my intention to have given views of any buildings erected after the fire of 1660;
but, finding that this prison, and likewise the hospital of Bethlem, were about to be taken
down, I could not withstand the temptation ; and as they were erected so recently after
the conflagration, and in some respects shew the new style of building I trust I shall
stand excused with my readers. >

Before I notice the present building, I shall describe the old one, by inserting a few
extracts from a rare tract published in 1670; for the loan of which I am obliged to my
intelligent friend, Mr. Thomas Coram, of Lyon’s Inn. It was written by Humphry Gifford,
who lived for many years at the Compter door as Master Keeper thereof.

“ The prison of the Compter in the Poultry (as it was before the late dreadful fire)
“ contained in breadth but two and twenty foot ground, by reason whereof the said compter
“ was so minute, inconvenient, and insufficient, that there was not, nor could not be, a
“ Chappel, or room, for the minister and prisoners to assemble, pray, preach, and hear in,
“ the pulpit standing in the open yard ; which in summer suns and heats, and winter rains
“ and colds, was most inconvenient, and exceedingly prejudicial to the health and well-being
“ both of minister and prisoners. The Hole-ward also of the said compter was not,
nor could not be, twenty foot square, for sometimes forty, othertimes fifty prisoners, to
“ be and lie constantly in, dress and eat their meat in, and for all other necessary occasions
“ and office; which caused the great annoyances, contagions, and yearly mortality among
“ them. Neither was, nor could there be, a particular separate apartment or ward for
“ women to be, and lodge in, but were necessitated to be and lie in the men’s ward,
“ promiscuously together; and so temptations and debaucheries were impossible to be avoided
“ and prevented. And there was not, npr could there be, a room, free of rent, for the most
“ ancient, decrepit, and sick prisoners to lodge in ; who though gentlemen and citizens born,
“ bred, and had lived well and in good fashion, yet by misfortunes, casualties, and losses,

“ grown poor and not able to pay rent, were thereby necessitated to lie in the said Hole-
“ wards on the boards, and there languish, dye, and perish.”

In a subsequent part of this tract, it appears that the above Humphry Gifford was highly
instrumental in raising a subscription for the rebuilding of the Poultry Compter, and that the
following persons headed his list:

The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,

The Lord Bishop of London,

The Lord Bishop of Chichester,

The Lord Bishop of Rochester,

The Lord Bishop of Sarum,

Sir John Langham,

Sir Andrew Riccard,

How far this humane gaoler was supported I know not; but upon an inspection of

Sir William Thomson,

Sir Samuel Barnardiston,
Sir Gervase Elwes,

Sir William Backhouse,
Sir John Cutler,

Sir Theophilus Biddoiph,
Sir Andrew King, &c.

40

fte prison ln Jane 1812, I found a chapel large and lofty, with a gallery. The pulpit

immed aM “ h *°U COrner of * 80 ‘ha‘ ‘he minister might enter, and go out

rin-,1 nffi y’. !, paSSmg the common Prisoners below. The Sheriff is the prin-

ieants it ’ w SeCOndary’ the clerk of the PaPers, four clerk sitters, and eighteen ser-
ofTere , Cen . 1,18 P™°n e8caPed th« fury of the mob in the riots of 1780, on account
_nrl f] Cmg Ut one entrance, a long narrow passage from the street called the Poultry;

their tlr S° C01"P eteIy filled with soldiers, that it was impossible to get at it; and indeed

for s“; r,Vmm y fr°m Ne'Vga‘e t0 ‘he Ba"k- though the present compter was

were removed • !r° °n-e’ f°™d unhealthy and unsafe for the prisoners, and they

now ne” «d mnth; brnmg °f February’ 1813’ to Giltspur Street; until the New-prison,
ow nearly finished in Wlntecross Street, should be ready for them. The back part of the
1 ison was sold by auction, February 10th, 1813.

, *'dg?>’e!d the Prisoners of the Poultry Compter from the time of the great fire to the

men*' ,/ Sr elng le Udb die Present subject is of prisons, and Aldgate has just been
.10ne’ canuot withhold the following curious information concerning it, kindly com-

Green* xiTh Y ““ lateWiUiam Havard’ £s1' in a“ “count of Aldgate House, Bethnal
Green. Tins house was bu.lt by Thomas, Lord Viscount Wentworth, who was Lord of

„ „r dn« °f St*bU“heath in the reig“ of Ja”e8 ‘he Second, and descended (inter alia)
«« - .? •'.. °I’hla h'8 dauS'hter, who dying without issue, the family filed a Bill in Chancery

.< „1 16 "ec‘10n ,0 tbat court as t0 ‘he division of her property. After a long contest a
„ 'vaa 0rdelet ’ and thls noble mansion, together with many acres of rich land lying
„ r0Und !*’ ras ‘'Ought by Ebenezer Mussell, Esq. who expended a considerable sum of
.. ‘he improvemeiits and embellishments thereof; amongst the latter is the ad-

“ anc°na* ** r'S, erected 0,1 tbe North side, chiefly composed of the principal parts of the
ancient gate of the city of London Ealdgate or Aldgate.

“ ll! **! year. I766’ ‘he dtizenS °f London having obtained an act of Parliament to
“ ancient t™ Stl'ee.tS’ an order of Common Council was issued to take down these
“ “earned md Mr' Mussel1 ™>>o was one of the greatest and most

« reZvcd o R u!eS/; t,me’ made a purchase of Aldgate, the best part of which he
.. ,,™ ; , ° Betbnal Green> and re-«h«“l ‘he same on the North side, adjoining to his

“ Theh 1”, ‘.there, to which from thence forward he gave the name of Aldgate House.

“ nar* ^*7 7 S<>Uth fr°nt ‘S W0°d’ and’ if ‘rad'tio« is to be credited, is cut out of

<£ P, 1 a fam0US oak’ whlch srew «P0n Bow common, called Watt Tyler’s Tree, which
S symptoms of decay (after standing some centuries) was purchased by the Aldermen

« v , . °f ^Idgate ward’ who ordered this civic ornament to be cut from it, and

„ ded the11’ pilbllc ^ate’ The stone heads in the round niches are of two of the Roman
emperors, and supposed to be as old as Aldgate itself.

« a? the Mussells’ with the Burgesses and Davy’s, being his father’s

“ of Devon B * I , "T?’ tha‘ «f Sir John Davy, of Creedy, in the county

“ the C * B WhOSe dausbter Ehzabeth was Mr. Mussell’s first wife. Above and below
„ “e cltya™s ara ‘wo inscriptions, viz. CC* ('Common Council) destroyed 1766, E M*

“ wash'd *T 0 reStTd'- UP°" th<5 dea‘h °f Mr- MuSSelb °Ctober> ,764> ‘hi® mansion
« J h p ‘ m ’!s second wife and widow, Sarah, who, in May 1765, intermarried with

“ present n ’ “f uHamPs‘ead. ‘he county of Middlesex, Esq. who is the

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DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.

NORTH-EAST VIEW OF AN OLD HOUSE, LATELY STANDING IN

SWEEDON’S PASSAGE, GRUB STREET.

T

1 commence with this house as one of the oldest in London within my time ; but shall not
insist upon its having been the residence of Sir Richard Whittington, though an inscription
to that effect, of which a copy is given at the foot of the succeeding plate, has been cut in
stone, and put up by the builder of the five houses erected upon its scite.

Admitting the foundation walls of this building to have been of Whittington’s time; the
windows and doors were undoubtedly of the reign of Elizabeth. It must have been the
mansion of some opulent person ; and Sir Thomas Gresham, who is said to have been an
inhabitant, might have altered it; for of all the houses I ever inspected, in London, none
were so substantially built. The timbers were oak and chesnut, and used in the greatest
profusion. The lower parts of the chimnies, on the ground floor, were of stone, in some
instances blocked up, and in others considerably lessened. The rooms had been contracted,
as the wainscot-partitions, in three instances, divided the ceilings, which, when whole,
must have been ornamented in a regular manner, as large masses of the cornice were visible
in some of the modern closets. Upon an examination of the upper part of the house, it was
discovered that a portion of the building towards the north had been taken down.

It has been asserted that most of the old houses were chiefly built with chesnut; of this
opinion was the late Dr. Ducarel ; but the Honorable Daines Barrington has taken the
opposite side of the question in a letter to Dr. Watson, published in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1769, where he thus expresses himself: “ Mr. Miller, (in his Gardener’s
“ Dlctl0nary) hath endeavoured to prove, that the Spanish chesnut grew in great profusion
to the northward of London, by a citation from Fitz-Stephens, which only implies that
there were large forests in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, without either the chesnut,

“ or any other tree, being specified.

Most antiquaries also suppose, that Old London was chiefly built with this kind of

42

“ timber, from these forests ; there is not, however, the least appearance of any such tree,
“ at present, within twenty miles of London.

“ I remember the having once been present myself, when a wager on this head was won ;
“ it being supposed that a small specimen of a beam from a very ancient house in Chancery
“ Lane, was of this wood ; which turned out to be nothing but common oak.

“ When you, therefore, lately put into my hands another such specimen of supposed

“ chesnut, from the old hall of Clifford’s Inn, I knew it immediately to be only the common

“ oak.

“ Dr. Ducarel, in his Anglo Norman Antiquities, p. 96, hath inserted a note of some
“ length, to prove that Old London was not only built with chesnut timber, but that there
“ still continues a large tract of chesnut woods near Sittingbourn, in Kent, which he conceives
“ to be a full demonstration that this tree is indigenous in England.

“ I had no sooner read this account, than I determined to examine these woods myself,
“ as well as what trees might be found in their neighbourhood.

“ The result of a very minute inspection of them is, that I found those parts which

“ consist of Spanish chesnut to be planted in beds, or rows, about five yards distant from

“ each other ; nor are there any scattering trees to introduce them, which is what must be
“ expected near woods of natural growth.”

The instances of early carved dates on domestic buildings in London, that now remain,
are few in number. I have only met with those of 1595 and 1599 : the former is on the
North bracket of a house on the East side of Gray’s Inn Lane ; the latter occurs on the
back beam of a house in Duke Street, West Smithfield. It must not be concealed that the
date of 1480 is to be seen upon the front of the White Hart Tavern, in Bishopsgate Street;
but this is a modern painted one, and I have not yet found any thing beyond tradition
to support it. The inside of this house, as well as the outside, has undergone much
alteration. The entrance, for instance, had two large pillars profusely adorned with carved
grapes, painted, supporting a porch which projected into the street, and which was standing
within the memory of persons now living.

From this tavern, West, commence the streets called Old Bethlem, which extend from
Bishopsgate Street, to New Broad Street.

SOUTH-EAST VIEW OF THE OLD HOUSE, LATELY STANDING IN

SWEEDON’S PASSAGE, GRUB STREET.

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This house being so curious, I was tempted to take another view of it. It exhibits a solitary
instance of a projecting staircase, the entrance to which is at the studded door, as may be
seen in the following plate : it was a circular one, evidently more modern than its external
parts. The ground about this mansion had been raised, as there was a descent of nearly
three feet into the parlours.

The house was let out in tenements to poor people, and latterly became a great nuisance.
A filthy old woman, who sold Duke Cherries on sticks, and well known in the streets of
London, occupied the upper wretched hole or loft of the staircase, for several years. This
house was taken down in March, 1805. Cherries were sold on sticks about one hundred years
ago, as appears in The Guardian, for July 2, 1713. “ To Zelinda two sticks of May cherries.”

MITTM

Domestic Architecture

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43

The figure with the basket of songs, represents Joseph Clinch, a noisy bow-legged ballad-
singer, particularly famous about twenty years back, for his song upon Whittington and his
cat; he likewise sold a coarse old wood-cut of the animal, with its history, and that of its
master, printed in the back-ground. Fellows of this description were formerly obliged to
take out licences as ballad-singers, as appears from the following extract communicated to
me by the friendly Mr. Clarke, bookseller, of Bond Street.

“ Whereas Mr. John Clarke, of London, bookseller, did rent of Charles Killegrew, Esq.
“ the licensing of all ballad-singers for five years ; which time is expired at Lady-day next.
“ These are, therefore, to give notice to all ballad-singers, that they take out licences at the
“ office of the revels, at Whitehall, for singing and selling of ballads, and small books, accord-
“ ing to an ancient custom. And all persons concerned are hereby desired to take notice of,
“ and to suppress all mountebanks, rope-dancers, prize-players, ballad-singers, and such as
“ make shew of motions and strange sights, that have not a licence in red and black letters,
“ under the hand and seal of the said Charles Killegrew, Esq. master of the revels to his
“ Majesty; and, in particular, to suppress one (illegible) Jish Mr. Thomas Var — cy (illegible)
“ and Thomas Teats, mountebank, who have no licence, that they may be proceeded
<£ against according to law.” — London Gazette, April 13th, 1682. No. 1712. Charles
Killegrew, Esq. died January, 1725, aged seventy-five years

The office of master of the revels was created in 1 546. The late John Charles Crowle, Esq.
was master of the revels. The salary was small, but the office entitled him to a seat in any
part of the theatres. In this privilege he was opposed some years ago by the manager of
the Little Theatre, in the Haymarket ; but maintained his right. Mr. Crowle was also
trumpet-major of England, which place he held by deputy, to whom every one who blows
a trumpet publicly (excepting those of the royal theatres) must pay a certaiu sum : and this
power of collecting, even in half-crowns, extends over the Merry-Andrews and Jack-Puddings
of every country fair all over England. Mr. Crowle left his illustrated Pennant’s London to
the British Museum, which he valued at 5,000Z. The arms of the revels are displayed in the
title-page of “ Chalmers’s Apology,” and the identical Seal of the Office of the Revels, which
was engraved on Wood, and used during the reigns of five Sovereigns, under the Killegrews,
having been preserved, Francis Douce, Esq. F. S. A. its present possessor, allowed it to
be introduced at the end of the first volume of the above work ; — that Gentleman also having
liberally permitted me to make use of the seal, I here introduce it accordingly.

g 2

44

A MAGNIFICENT MANSION, LATELY STANDING IN HART STREET,

CRUTCHED FRIARS.

Of all my topographical delineations, I think myself singularly fortunate in being able to
offer to the collectors two specimens so perfect and curious as the subjects about to be
described ; being well persuaded, that a time will come, when these in particular will be ot
great service to the young historical painter, as they at once afford documents, interna as we
as external, of the same building at the same period: and had my investigation ena e me
to have produced a part of the original glazing, the subjects would have been comp ete.

The obscure situation of this once splendid mansion will, in some degree, account or
generality of the public being unacquainted with it. It was at the end of a low dai entrance
from the South side of Hart Street, Crutched Friars ; and unless business or curiosity a

led or invited people up the passage, they could not have seen it.

The house was let out, in tenements, to persons of different callings, the gi eater part eing
occupied by Mr. Clark, a carpenter, who held to himself the use of the whole yard, in the
North part of which a saw-pit had been sunk. Mr. Clark’s rooms having been deprived of
their ornaments, and the other apartments being only accessible through the modern houses
in Hart Street, which stood before it, there is nothing in the first plate to describe but
its external parts. Most likely the ornaments of the front ends of the building, whic a.
originally formed three parts of a square, were taken down to make way for the houses in
Hart Street; and this conjecture is supported from the two wings having been only accessible
through those houses. The decorations of the wing which was over my head, when I too
this view, were similar to those on the corresponding one ; but those parts below on t e
ground floor, with probably a door like that of the opposite wing, had been taken away to

make the recess or passage in which I stood.

The whole of the wood in this house was oak, and all the ornaments were spiritedly carved :

there were no laths but in the ceilings. The shields were heraldic ; and in the lower tier
were several arms of the city companies, though they had, by fiequent coatings of paint, m
many instances, been rendered nearly plain.

The grotesque carvings through the whole of this house were perfectly decent, w ic is
more than can be said in other instances, and particularly of those introduced, into some
of our places of Worship, by artists of the same period, and indeed, considerably prior to it,
who would carve the most obscene subjects, at the ends of water-spouts ; many of which
remain in old towns, to this day but fortunately for the Londoners, about the year 1764,
when the City was regularly paved (York Street, St. James’s Square, was the first Street paved
in this manner) and lighted according to the present mode, they were ordered to be taken
down, together with the projecting signs, barbers’ poles, &c. ; at which time also the doors o

houses in London were numbered.

Before this excellent regulation took place, artists and print-publishers, as well as trades-
men, were obliged to put up signs, or colour their doors differently from their neighbours as
will be seen from the few following instances copied from their publications. “ Ihos.
Cockerill, at the Three Leggs and Bible, in the Poultry, 1701.” “ W. Herbert, at the Golden

Globe, on London Bridge.” “ J. Simon, against Cross-lane, in Long Acre.” “ Alex. Brown,

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A MAGKIFICENT MAHSILOIS

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4 5

at the Blue Balcony, in Little Queen-street, afterwards at the Blue Balcony, Hoi born Bridge,”
the house which the famous Salmon had before occupied. “ E. Cooper, at the Three Pidgeons,
in Bedford-street.” “ Bernard Lintott, at the Cross Keys, between the two Temple Gates
in Fleet-street.” “ Phil. Overton, against St. Dunstan’s Church.” “ John Boydell, at the
Unicorn, the corner of Queen-street, Cheapside.” “ J. Smith, at the Lyon and Crown, in
Russell-street, Covent Garden; afterwards at the Golden Head, in Bloomsbury-square.”
“ J. Faber, at the Green Door, in Craven Buildings, Drury-lane; afterwards, in 1749, at
the Golden Head, in Bloomsbury-square.” “ James JVPArdell, at the Golden Head, in
Covent Garden.” “ Robert Strange, at the Golden Head, in Henrietta-street, Covent
Garden.” Probably Hogarth started the sign of the Golden Head among artists ; for
Nichols, in his second edit, of “ Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth,” says,

“ Hogarth made one essay in sculpture. He wanted a sign to distinguish his house in
“ Leicester-fields ; and thinking none more proper than the Golden Head, he, out of a mass
“ of cork made up of several thicknesses compacted together, carved a bust of Vandyck,
“ which he gilt and placed over his door. It is long since decayed, and was succeeded by
“ a head in plaister, which has also perished ; and is supplied by a head of Sir Isaac
Newton,” (lately taken down). “ Hogarth also modelled another resemblance of Vandyck
in clay ; j which is likewise destroyed.”

The glazing of this house, is not coeval with it ; indeed it might have been of a recent
repair : for even at this time, the mode of glazing, in many instances, is similar. As to the
precise age of this mansion, I must honestly declare myself to be in the dark, although it is
ascribed in the plate, to the latter part of the reign of Henry the Eighth. My reason for so
doing, is the full assurance of the late venerable Dr. Owen, vicar of the parish, that it had
ever been looked upon by him and other aged parishioners, as the residence of Sir William
Sharrington, who lived in the parish at that time. Be this as it may, it is evidently a
curious specimen, and much resembling many buildings erected within the above reign,
particularly one which has been kindly pointed out to me, by my worthy friend John
Constable, Esq. of East Bergholdt, Suffolk, bearing the early date of 1546, the last year of
Henry the Eighth’s reign. This date was discovered by him upon a magnificently carved
oak chimney-piece, now remaining in one of the apartments of Beckenham Hall, Tolleshunt,
Essex. The manor was granted by Henry the Eighth, to Stephen Beckenham, and Ann
his wife, 1543. Mr. Nichols, in his preface to Queen Elizabeth’s Progresses, speaking of
the Queen during her confinement, when Princess, says ; “ Arriving at Woodstock, she

was lodged in the gate-house of the Palace in an apartment remaining complete, within
“ these fifty years, with its original arched roof, of Irish oak, curiously carved, painted blue
“ sprinkled with gold, and to the last retaining its name of Queen Elizabeth’s chamber.”

But it must be observed that this style of building continued so late as 1600, as may be
seen in an etching given in this work, of a curious room lately remaining in Sir Paul
Pindar’s house, Bishopsgate-street.

Many people in the neighbourhood of Crutched Friars, speak of this house under no other
appellation, than that of Whittington’s palace ; and say that cats’ heads were so carved in the
ceilings, that when viewed from any part of the room, their eyes were always directed to the
spectator : nay, some of them will go so far as to say that the doors had cats’ heads for their
knockers.

The house was pulled down, 1801, and warehouses and offices built upon its Scite.

46

AN UPPER APARTMENT OF THE SAME MAGNIFICENT MANSION.

Of the numerous rooms in this house, the one here represented, was the most perfect: the
ceiling, the cornice, arches, and figures supporting them, upon the lower cornice, were all of
plaister. The lower cornice, together with all the ornaments, and other parts of the room,
including the chimney-piece, were of oak : the carvings of the chimney-piece, the shells and
scrolls above the pannels, together with their projecting mouldings, had been gilt. Among
other ornaments of the ceilings, there was certainly that of a cat’s head, which possibly gave
rise to the vulgar report, of its having been the palace of Whittington.

There are many instances of carved rooms in England, of this and the following
reigns, the ceiling of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is something like it, though that is carved
in wood, this is of plaister.

Gilt chambers were not uncommon in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Mr. Cavendish, in
his Memoirs of Cardinal Woolsey, says: “Then had he two chambers adjoining to the gal¬
lery; the one most commonly called the gilt chamber, the other the council chamber.” The
profuse and close manner in which this room was ornamented and gilt, at once tells us that
pictures at that time were not in fashion in domestic dwellings, but they were admitted at
an early period, as appears from the following extract from Mr. Douce’s “ Illustrations of
Shakspeare and Ancient Manners,” vol. i. page 85. He says “ In Deloneys Pleasant
History of Jack of Newbery, printed before 1597, it is recorded, that in a faire large
parlour, which was wainscotted round about, Jacke of Newbery had fifteene faire pictures
hanging, which were covered with curtaines of green silk, fringed with gold, which he
“ would often shew to his friends and servants.”

I conceive, that the first pictures introduced into dwelling houses, were let into, or painted
upon, the pannels over chimney-pieces, and doors only ; for if we consider that the
wainscoting of the rooms consisted of small pannels, with mouldings, sometimes gilt, we
cannot suppose that pictures were hung against the sides of rooms, as is now the fashion.

The picture painted by Hans Holbein, of Henry the Seventh and his Queen, Henry the
Eighth and Jane Seymour his Queen, luckily copied by Van Leemput, and engraved by
Vertue, but unfortunately consumed by fire at Whitehall, in the reign of William the Third,
1697, was a melancholy instance of their being attached to the wainscot. I cannot conclude
my observations on this room, without hazarding a conjecture, that the windows had armo¬
rial bearings, in painted and stained glass, as may be seen in many mansions of this period.
At this present time, there is such a window particularly beautiful, at Mr. Bennet’s, near
Castle Carey, Somersetshire, exhibiting the arms of the Hastings family, and for which Lord
Moira has frequently made very considerable offers.

Lord Orford says, in “ Anecdotes of Painting,” vol. ii. p. 85, that in Aubrey’s MS. Survey
of Wiltshire, in the Library of the Royal Society, he says, on the authority of Sir William
Dugdale, that the first painted glass in England was done in King John’s time.

In March, 1620, Osalinskie, Count Palatine of Sindomerskie, Ambassador Extraordinary
from the King of Poland, accompanied with several Knights, and other attendants on his
person, was received at Tower wharf, by the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Cromwell, and sundry
of the King’s Servants ; and in his Majesty's, and seven or eight other Coaches, was conducted
to his Lodging, in Crutched Fryars, ordained for him, and defrayed, (as was also his diet,)
at a certain rate agreed upon per diem, without attendance of any of the King’s Servants.

D OME STIC ARCHITE CTURE . ©saw abto etc hed my j.T.Sjnrm

UPPE3S. APARTMENT of tie same MA.<C-N3IF2€JENT MAI^SIOIT .

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47

it is not improbable therefore that the building before us, from its magnitude and splendor,
might possibly have been the residence of this Ambassador.

The floors of this house consisted of long narrow thick planks, which might have been
covered with rich carpets, displaying the arms of the family at each corner.

“ In a wardrobe account of the first year of Edward the Third, for the materials provided
“ on occasion of his being knighted, are these articles :

“ For the decoration of the King’s chamber before his knighthood.

“ For the preparation and decoration of the King’s chamber, the night before he was
“ knighted, in his palace at Westminster, on the last day of January, in the same year;
“ consisting of red carpets, with shields in the corners, containing the King’s arms, five
“ carpets.

“ On the same day, cushions of new sammit, for the King’s chapel, three cushions.

“ Cushions of sammit, for the same chamber, after the King’s knighthood, six.

“ Covers for the benches, for decorating the said chamber, of different suits, viz. four
“ red with green, one green, and four murray and blue ; nine bench covers.

“ Also covers for benches, for decorating the said chamber, of the suit of the aforesaid
“ carpets, with shields in the corners, containing the King’s arms, four bench covers.”

Antiquities of Westminster, p. 58.

Arras, was so named from the city of Arras, in France, a large, strong, and fine place,
formerly peculiarly eminent for its tapestry-hangings, which were here invented ; but they
are inferior to those of Paris, Brussels, and Antwerp, — of more modern date.

A specimen of the state of this art, so early as the 'Norman Conquest, is exhibited in the
Cathedral of Bayeux ; the subject of which is, “ The entire series of Duke William’s descent
on England,” engraven and explained in Ducarel's Anglo-Norman Antiquities.

Tapestry-hangings were, however, manufactured in England as early as the reign of
Edward the Third, and probably before that time, as appears from the following passage in
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales :

“ A Tapestry-Merchant last, whose web might pass
“ Less for the work of London, than Arras.”

The very curious old tapestry said to be Arras, portraying the Siege of Troy, which for
ages had hung against the walls of the Painted Chamber, Westminster, was, in November,
1800, torn down, and most shamefully huddled into a dark damp hole under the building.

1 apprehend that the custom of inlaying, or tesselating wooden floors, commenced in
England in the reign of King Charles the First, and ended in that of Queen Anne. I
have secured patterns of four such floors : two belonging to the reign of Charles the First,
and two to that of Charles the Second. No. 1. is from that part of Whitehall, lately
inhabited by the Duchess of Portland. No. 2. is from Somerset-house, purchased at the sale
by Mr. Erwood, of Brownlow Street, in whose possession it now is. Nos. 3 and 4 are from
the present old Gallery and waiting room in the Marquis of Stafford’s house in Cleveland
Row. These specimens will be found in a subsequent plate.

48

HOUSES LATELY STANDING ON THE WEST CORNER OF CHANCERY

LANE, FLEET STREET.

The greater number of persons now living, must recollect this very singular house. It was
of oak, lath, and plaister ; and consisted of five sets of apartments, with the addition of a
loft. These rooms increased in length and breadth, as they ascended from the street, so that
every story, becoming larger upwards, rendered the attic considerably larger than the ground
floor. This ancient, and once fashionable, mode of building, appears in direct opposition to
common sense. Many such houses were erected on either side the streets, from Temple
Bar to Whitechapel, as may be seen in the old engravings of Cheapside and Cornhill ; par¬
ticularly in those of the processions of Edward the Sixth, and Mary De Medici. In that
part of Fleet-street, from Temple Bar, to the distance of three houses on its South side,
beyond St. Dunstan’s Church, one of the spots where the fire of London stopped, there
were many, and indeed, there are now several, to be seen. Many are also remaining in
Leadenhall-street, from Leadenhall to Whitechapel ; for it must be recollected, that all the
houses, from the third house from St. Dunstan’s Church abovementioned, to Leadenhall, (or
indeed where Leadenhall stood, it being now entirely taken down,) have been erected since
the great fire of 1666 ; and it appears from the date 1667, cut on the front of a house, in the
Poultry, occupied by Messrs. Phillips and Hingston, Chemists, that that part was one of the
first finished after the conflagration. The ceilings of this house which probably had once been
decorated, were quite plain. It was taken down in May, 1799. The following notice of it
appeared in the “ Morning Herald,” May 20th, 1799:

“ The house in Fleet-street, which the City is now pulling down to widen Chancery
“ Lane, is the oldest in that Street, being built in the reign of Edward the Sixth, for an
“ elegant mansion, long before there were any shops in that part of the City.

‘ • It was from the top of this house, that several cherubs flew down, and presented Queen
“ Elizabeth with a crown of laurels and gold, together with some verses, when she was
“ going into the City, upon a visit to Sir Thomas Gresham. It was the contrivance of the
“ Students of the Temple ; and the accounts in the books of that day, say ‘ the Queen’s
“ Highness was much pleased therewith.’ — The fourth cherub says :

Virtue shall witness of her worthyness,

“ And fame shall registrate her princelie deeds.

“ The world shall still praie for her happiness ;

“ From whom our peace and quietude proceeds.”

As the building just described was so near to Temple-Bar ; I trust the Reader will pardon
the introduction of the following extract, taken from Queen Elizabeth’s Progresses, Vol. i.
p. 22, as it may throw some light on a subject, concerning which we find so .little information
in the London Historians,

The Author describing the procession of Her Majesty, on the 13th of January, 1558, the
day before her coronation, says,

“ From thence her Grace came to Temple-Barre, which was dressed fynelye with the two

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49

“ ymages of Gotmagot the Albione, and Corineus the Britain, two gyantes bigge in stature,
“ furnished accordingly; which held in their handes, even above the gate, a table whering was
“ written, in Latin verses, theffet of all the pageantes which the citie before had erected.”

Possibly these very figures, provided by the City, might have been the originals of those
described by Strype in his edition of Stowe’s Survey of London, as an ancient Briton and
Saxon, then standing in Guildhall.

That the figures now in Guildhall were put up after the fire of 1666, appears evident from
the following notice of them by Hatton in his “ New View of London,” published in 1708;
who says (speaking of Guildhall),

“ This stately Hall, being much damnify’d by the unhappy conflagration of the City in
“ 1666, was rebuilt Anno 1669, and extremely well beautified and repaired both in and
“ outside, which cost about 2,500 1. and two new Figures of Gigantick magnitude will be as
“ before.” Vol. ii. p. 607.

Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, vol. iv. p. 504, says, that “ Mr. Edward
“ Hatton was surveyor to one of the Fire-offices in London, and the author of Comes
“ Comercii, an Index to Interest, and other useful books.

“ The duty of the author’s employment obliged him to make surveys of houses in all parts
“ of the city; and in the discharge thereof he took every opportunity of remarking what
“ appeared to him most worthy of note.

“ His View of London contains the names of squares, streets, lanes, &c. and a description
“ of all public edifices ; among these are the churches, which, he being very well skilled in
“ architecture, are no where else so accurately described ; and although in the book the
“ monumental inscriptions are sometimes erroneously given, no one can see it, as he may
“ almost every day, exposed to sale on stalls, but must regret that a work of such entertain-
“ ment and utility is held so cheap.” Probably this note of Sir John’s has invited readers to
purchase it, for now the book not only bears a good price, but a copy is rarely to be procured.

It is remarkable, that this was also the case with Sir John’s “History of Music;” but
now that that entertaining and truly valuable performance is more impartially read, a copy is
hardly to be met with, but at a considerably advanced price.

A friend in the Chamberlain’s Office informs me that the accounts of these figures, (com¬
monly called Gog and Magog) together with those of the repairs and alterations of the Hall
after the fire of 1666, were unfortunately consumed when the Chamberlain’s Office was
burnt, about thirty years ago.

It having been reported, that these figures were of pasteboard, 1 obtained permission to
examine them. They are of wood, and hollow. I stood upright in the body of one of them.
They are composed of pieces of Fir ; and I am informed were the production of a ship-carver.
It is also reported, that they were presented to the City by the Stationers’ Company, which,
if true, might have given rise to the report of their being made of paper.

That giants for pageants were formerly made of pasteboard and other materials, is beyond
doubt; for in Strutt’s “Sports and Pastimes,” p. 27, we find the following entry respecting
the giants for Chester, made after the restoration of Charles II.

“ For arsnick, to put into the paste, to save the giants from being eaten by the rats, one
“ shilling and fourpence.”

On Saturday, July 8th, 1815, in consequence of the alterations and repairs of the Hall, the
figure called Gog [the one with the staff and ball] was taken down, and with difficulty moved
by twenty men to a shed in a corner, prepared for its safety, until the west end of the Hall

H

50

be finished, where he and his comrade are to be placed upon pedestals on either side of the
west window.

Mr. Montague, one of the two Gentlemen who direct the repairs, very kindly permitted me
to examine this figure more minutely.

It measures fourteen feet, six inches, in height, from the upper leaf of laurels to the lower
point of the beard five feet, three inches, the nose is nine inches, the opening of the eye-lids
one inch and a half, across the shoulders about four feet, eight inches, the arm, from the wrist
to the elbow, two feet, five inches and a half, from the wrist to the tip of the second finger,
two feet, the feet are the length of the hands.

That there was something like a gate at Temple-Bar in 1532, 3, appears in Queen
Elizabeth’s Progresses, Vol. i. p. 10, in the description of the procession of Ann Bullen to
her marriage: “ So shee with all her companie, and the Maior rode forth to Temple-Bar,
“ which was newly paynted and repaired, where stood also divers singing men and children.”

The figures introduced into this plate are all drawn from the life. The woman with
crutches represents Ann Siggs, who will be further mentioned in a future page.

The man without legs crossing the street, is Samuel Horsey, well known in Holborn,
Fleet-street, and the Strand.

The dwarf, hobbling up Chancery-lane, was Jeremiah Davies, a native of Wales. He was fre¬
quently shewn at fairs, and supported a miserable existence by performing slight-of-hand tricks ;
he was also very strong, and would lift a considerable weight, though not above three feet high.

The tall, slender figure next to Davies, was a Mr. Creuse, a truly singular man, who never
begged of any one, but would never refuse money when offered. He died a few years back,
in Middlesex-court, Drury-lane, and was attended to the burial-ground in that street by
his friends in two mourning coaches. It is said he left money to a very considerable amount
behind him.

EAST VIEW OF A ROOM ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF SIR PAUL PINDAR’S

HOUSE IN BISHOPSGATE STREET.

Fortunately this room, by far the most curious part of the house, remained for my hand
to perpetuate.

On the chimney-piece was the date 1600; and this will assist in proving, that its style of
Architecture, which is commonly called King James’s Gothic, was in use in London in the
reign of Elizabeth.

The ceiling was lath and plaister, together with all its ornaments, and also those of the
upper cornice and frieze, including the upper half of the chimney-piece. On the latter was
a basso-relievo, of two miserably modelled figures, of Hercules and Atlas, supporting the
Globe, which the Artist, if the person who produced such a thing may be so called, has
thought proper to make of the shape of an egg.

All the carvings, and every other part of the room, under the upper frieze, were of oak,
excepting the lower half of the chimney-piece, which was of stone.

Some parts of the sculpture of the chimney-piece, were by no means so badly executed
as the before mentioned basso-relievo, particularly the figures in fruit baskets, supporting
the two tablets of stag-hunting, the latter of which were precisely a repetition of each other.
I have every reason to believe, that the two adjoining houses, to the South, together with this,
were originally one fabric ; as fragments of similar ceilings, and grotesque figures of the same
workmanship, are still visible in them : and indeed when we recollect that this house, com-

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51

monly called Sir Paul Pindar’s, has only one room on a floor, the back part being occupied
by the staircase, we cannot suppose that so eminent a person, holding the rank of a first-
late merchant, and indeed an Ambassador enjoying the countenance of King James, and
his son, Chailes the First, could possibly make any figure in a house containing only four
looms. Noi can 1 give a stronger proof for my conjecture, than by stating that a portion of
one of the ceilings, in the very next house, appeared to have been completed in that known
as Sir Paul Pindars. In September and October, 1811, the whole of the ornaments were
cut away, and the room rendered, what the present possessors are pleased to call a little
comfortable. To this point I never can subscribe, and only wish it had been my lot to have
lived in it. However, these alterations exposed the Pindar arms which were in the centre of
of the ceiling, and hid by a circular piece of tin, from which a lamp had been formerly sus¬
pended. They are thus given by Guillim, sect. III. page 186.

“ The field is Azure, a Chevron Argent, between three Lyons’ Heads, erased Ermine,
t oj°wne(i Or. This was the Coat Armour of Sir Paul Pindar, of the City of London,
“ Kmght’ whose bounteous piety manifested in many other charitable Actions, was in the
(( ^ar *b32, more conspicuous, in richly adorning and exquisitely beautifying the Choir of St.

auls Church. Erasing is a violent rending of a member from the body, and may
( sjgnify some worthy and memorable act of the bearer, that hath severed the head from the

s loulders of some notorious, turbulent, or seditious person.”

Notwithstanding Sir Paul Pindar gave to the parish of St. Botolph, plate and money to the
amount of eight hundred pounds and upwards, together with plenty of venison for their
leasts, yet they made him pay two pounds for eating of flesh for three years on fish days,
mong the parish archives are the two following curious entries :

“ 1585. Paid for bread and drinke for the ringers, when Anthony Babington and the rest
of the traytors were taken, xxd.

“ 1586. Paid for bread and drinke for the ringers, when they range for the deathe of the
“ quen of Skots.”

The following notice of decorated rooms of the same reign, was kindly communicated to
me by Henry Smedley, Esq.

The Chimney-pieces, in the old part of Cobham Hall, Kent, the Earl of Darnley’s, are
some of the finest specimens of internal decoration of the period of Elizabeth. It then belong¬
ed to Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, but was confiscated by James the First, and bestowed

on is cousin, Esme Stuart, Duke of Richmond, from whom the present proprietor is by
females descended.

Samuel Woodfoide, Esq. R. A. informed me that there are some curious rooms of the

same reign in the village of Evercreech, in Somersetshire, in a Mansion which formerly
belonged to Lord Hopton.

On the west side of the south end of this street remain several of the original rooms of the
Bidl Inn, which for many years had been the residence of Old Hobson, the Cambridge carrier.
^ arl°n> in bis second edition of Milton’s Poems, p. 319, thus notices it:

Hobson s inn at London was the Bull in Bishopsgate-street, where his figure in fresco,
t an inscription, was lately to be seen. Peck, at the end of his Memoirs of Cromwell,

‘ has printed Hobson’s Will, which is dated at the close of the year 1630. He died Jan. 1,
“ 1630’ while the PlaSue was m London.— The proverb, to which Hobson’s caprice, founded

“ PerhaPs on good sense, gave rise, needs not to be repeated.” Granger says, Hobson died
in the 86th year of his age.

h 2

52

HOUSES ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF LEADENHALL STREET.

The principal mansion of this nest of houses, which exhibit some of the most curious of
their kind remaining in Leadenhall Street, is at present a public-house, known by the sign of
the Cock. One of the first floors is lighted by a window the whole width of the front, and
is the only specimen of that description remaining in London. This room, formeily a stately
one, but now used as a kitchen, retains parts of its old wainscoting, consisting of small square
pannels, often to be seen in the houses built in the time of Elizabeth.

The second floor, wfith the projecting window, has been altered in the lower half of its
glazing. It supports the third room by carved brackets of boys holding inverted shields, on
which there might have been heraldic charges. These are also the only specimens of their
kind remaining in London. The attic was originally of the gable form, but has been reduced
to a flat top.

It might not be very wide of the truth to conjecture, that this house was originally a charity-
school ; and that the carved boys supported the arms of its founder. The whole of these
houses, consisting of oak, chesnut, lath and plaister, are in the front of a brick building
dated 1627, formerly occupied by the bricklayers’ company, as their hall, but now richly
fitted up by the Jews, as a synagogue, the entrance to which is under the archway, and
through a passage ; at the front of this entrance there is a small gate, lepresented in the
annexed plate. This place of worship is well worth examining, and the Jews are extremely

civil and attentive in shewing and describing it.

Monsieur de Bassampierre, the ambassador from France in the reign of King Charles the
First, had his lodgings in Leadenhall Street, as appears in the following extract from Fmetti
Philoxenis, p. 188.

“ His Majesty having received an account from France of the cold reception and
“ entertainment given his ambassador (Sir Dudley Carleton) Lord of Imber-court, imployed
“ thither Extraordinary for prevention and accommodation of whatever differences that might
“ grow from the late remove of the French from about the person of the Queen ; news came
“ soone after to court of the arrivall at Dover (September the foure and twentieth) of Monsieur
“ de Bassampierre, sent ambassador from that King about the same businesse, whom to
“ entertain answerable to the stile and Treatment of our King’s ambassadors there, it was
“ consulted of and resolved ; that neither the master of the ceremonies, nor other officers of
“ his Majesty, should be sent to receive and serve him further off than at Gravesend, and a
“ nobleman no neerer than Greenwich, for his conduction thence by water to Tower
“ Wharffe, and to his house hired, and furnished by himselfe in Leaden-hall Street, for
“ which latter complement was chosen the Earle of Dorset. On his way towards his house,
“ the master of the ceremonies letting fall some words concerning the provision of Diet made
“ for him by his Majestie’s Order; he would by no meanes accept of it, answering, that if the
“ King would have been pleased to have assigned him a House, he would have received also the
“ favour of his Diet, but to eate at another man’s charge in his own House, (as he would be
“ bold to call that hired for him by his Officers) he desired pardon if he refused it; so were
“ the King’s provisions, that had been allready served in, turned back againe.” However,
this said ambassador on his departure accepted “a rich Jewell of foure great Diamonds, with

DMSW ANB JETCHEB B¥ JT.T. SMITH „

Domestic

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53

“ a great Pearle pendant at it, altogether esteemed by Jewellers (at a Merchant’s rate) to be
“ worth seaven thousand pounds.” — p. 193.

The figure, with a box in his hands, represents Joseph Watkins, born 1739, in Richmond,
Yorkshire; by trade a barber, and a man of a retentive memory. He knew Hogarth well,
and informed me that he was the last person in London who wore a scarlet roquelaure ;
that he had frequently shaved his head, under which operation he would often be merry ;
that once, whilst the lather was on his head, he flew to the window to look at a boy who
had placed a hot pye so hard upon a post, that the dish broke, and the gravy ran down its
sides. This Hogarth immediately drew, and has introduced it in his plate of Noon, in the
set of prints of the four times of the day. This same anecdote was related to me, when a
boy, by Mrs. Hogarth, who also shewed me a study of a girl’s head, exclaiming, at the
same time, “ There, my man, they said he could not colour; there’s flesh and blood!”
Mrs. Hogarth was sprightly to the last, and was, in my opinion, the most beautiful old lady

I ever saw.

Mr. Watkins also informed me, that about fifty-three years ago, he gathered blackberries
on the North side of the road now called Oxford Street; and that he recollected the
triangular gallows at Tyburn. It was a standing one, and called the three legged mare, or
the three footed stool. It stood where the turnpike house now is, at the end of Oxford Street
and beginning of the Bayswater Road. A view of it has been given, by Hogarth, in the
execution plate of the idle apprentice.

The place of execution was afterwards at a small distance on the Edgeware Road, across
which a gallows was erected on the mornings of execution, consisting of two uprights and a
cross-beam. On the West side of the road were two open galleries for spectators : these
were standing in my time. The keys of one of them were kept by a squabby woman of the
name of Douglas, commonly called Mammy Douglas, the Tyburn Pew-opener.

The next figure to Watkins is that of a draggle-tailed bawler of dying speeches, horrid
murders, elegies, &c. The female in a morning jacket was sketched from the celebrated
Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, a learned lady, who translated Epictetus into English. She died
Feb. 19, 1806. — Gent. Mag.

The clumsy figure in a white coat, holding a goose, is well known about town as a \endei
of aged poultry.

The last figure, with a cocked hat, was a dealer in old iron, a man well known at auctions
of building materials, and was nick-named by the brokers Old Rusty.

Granger, at the end of his “ Biographical History,” says,

“ I shall conclude this volume with observing, that Lord Bacon has somewhere remarked,
“ that biography has been confined within too narrow limits; as if the lives of gieat person-
“ ages only deserved the notice of the inquisitive part of mankind. 1 have, perhaps, in the
“ foregoing strictures, extended the sphere of it too far; I began with monaichs, and ha\e
“ ended with ballad-singers, chimney-sweepers, and beggars. But they that fill the highest
“ and the lowest classes of human life, seem, in many respects, to be more nearly allied than
“ even themselves imagine.

“ A skilful anatomist would find little or no difference in dissecting the body of a king
“ and that of the meanest of his subjects ; and a judicious philosopher would discover a
“ surprising conformity, in discussing the nature and qualities of their minds.

54

VIEW OF PART OF DUKE STREET, WEST SMITHFIELD.

The houses represented in the opposite plate display a ruder mode of domestic building,
and, perhaps, a greater quantity of heavy timber, than any now remaining in London. The walls
are lath and plaister; the timber, oak and chesnut; the rooms are small, with low ceilings;
their staircases perpendicular and narrow; the windows irregular in their forms, and ill-
placed.

1 could not discover that these houses had ever been decorated. Fortunately there is the
date 1599 cut in one of the beams at the back of the fourth house, by the order of the late
Rev. Dr. Edwards, vicar of St. Bartholomew the Great, to which parish these houses belong.
The above date was discovered by the Doctor upon a board taken from one of the houses
when they were repaired, about twenty-five years ago. The floors of the shops are nearly
two feet lower than the present street ; and one of the inhabitants informed me, that formerly
they were ascended by steps, and that he believes the ground to have been raised about four
feet. Mr. Johnson who, at present, inhabits the fourth of these houses, has assured me
that, to a certainty, there is chesnut in his house, and as he is a turner of every sort of
wood, his opinion is of much weight. .

This street was formerly called Duck Lane, as may be seen in many of the old plans and
descriptions of London. In it there stood the Crown Tavern, noticed by Ned Ward the
author of “ The London Spy,” in 1698, who says, speaking of the principal room, “ He”
(the landlord) “ conducted us into a large stately room, where, at first entrance, I discerned
“ the master strokes of the famed Fuller’s pencil, the whole room being painted with that
“ commanding hand, that his dead figures appeared with such lively majesty that they begot
“ reverence in us, the spectators, towards the awful shadows ; our eyes were so delighted
“ with this noble entertainment, that every glance gave new life to our weary senses.”

The pictures in this room consisted of the “ Nine Muses, Pallas, Mars, Ajax, Ulysses,
“ &c.” which must have been painted before 1672, as Isaac Fuller, the painter, died in that
year.

“ Mr. Edward Ward, the author of the London Spy, and many doggerel poems, coarse
“ it is true, but not devoid of humour and pleasantry, kept a public-house in Clerkenwell,
“ and there sold ale of his own brewing. From thence he removed to a house in an alley
“ on the West side of Moorfields, between the place called Little Moorfields, and the end
“ of Chiswell Street, and sold the same kind of liquor. His house, as we are given to
“ understand by the notes on the Dunciad, was for a time the great resort of high church-
“ men.” — See Sir John Haivhinss History of Music, Vol. v. p. 73.

The remarkable figure with crutches represents the malignant Ann Siggs, before mentioned,
praise-worthy for nothing but her cleanliness, a rare quality in a beggar.

Slander, from whose sting the most amiable persons are not invulnerable, tempted this
woman to spread the report of her being the sister of Mrs. Siddons. I collect, from a truly
interesting work of singular London characters, drawn with great truth, and published by my
worthy friend, Mr. James Parry, Seal Engraver, Wells Street, Oxford Street, that she was
the daughter of an industrious poor man, a leather breeches maker, of Dorking, in Surrey.

As Mr. Pennant, in his London, notices one of his ancestors who resided in Smithfield,

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55

I shall be readily pardoned by the illustrators of that justly admired work, which has
gone through four editions, if I give the following copy of the grant of the Pennant arms :

STo all ariD Singular, as well Nobles and Gentiles as others, to whom these preasente shall
come, Robert Cooke, Esquire, alias Clarencieulx, principall Hereaulde and Kinge of
“ Armes of the South, East, and Weast Partes of this Realme of Englande, from the Ryver
of Trint southwardes, sendeth greetinge. Where as aunciently from the begininge the
“ valiant and vertuous Actes of excellent Parsones have bene comended unto the Worlde with
“ sondrye mouumentes and Remembrances of their good desearte, Amongest the which the
“ chiefest and most usuall hathe bene the bearinge of Signes and Tokens, in Shieldes called
“ Armes, which are non other then demonstracions of Prowes and Valoir, diveresly
“ distributed accordinge to the Quallityes and desearte of Parsones entitled thereto. Where
“ as Pyers Pennant, one of the fowre Gentlemen ushers to the Queens most excellent
Maigesty, is one of the true and lawefull bearers of these Tokens of honor, as to him
lyneally dyssendyd from his Auncestores, who by the space of a verry longe and auncient
tyme, as maye appeare by the Regesters and Recordes of myne Office, have for there Eamilly
and Surname of Pennant, in the partes of males, borne these Coetes followinge, viz. the
“ feylde party par Bende, sinister Ermen and Ermyne, a Lyon Rampant goulde, langued and
armed gules: And for his second cote, by the name of Yswitan Wyddell, the fyeld siluer,

“ three Barres wauey azure, on the mydle Barre three Sheldrakes of the fyrst: And for his
thirde Cote, by the name of Phillip Phichdan, The fyeld asure three Bores in Palle
siluer : And for his fowrth cote, by the name of Gruffith Loyd, The fyeld siluer, on a Bend
azure three Flower dulucis of the fyeld. And neuertheles, he knoweth not of any
Creast or Cognoisance propperly belonginge to the same, as to many verye auncient Armes
“ are none : Be the sayde Pyers Pennant hathe Requiered me the sayde Clarencieulx Kinge
‘ of Armes to deliuer unto him, under my hande, and Seale of my Office, his sayde auncient
Armes, with a Creast or Cognoisance mete and lawefull to be borne, without preiudice or
Offence to any other Parson : For the Accomplishment Whereof, I the sayde Claren-
“ cieulx King of Armes by Power and aucthority to me comitted by Lres Pattente, under
“ the Sreat Seale of Englande, haue assigned, geuen, and graunted unto the sayde Pyers
Pennant, to his sayde auncient Armes, for his Creast or Cognoysance, as followeth, 'That
“ is t0 saye> uPon tbe healme, out of a crowne, an Antelope head siluer, homes flashed, and
“ maned goulde, manteled gules, doubled siluer, as more playnly apeareth depicted in this
“ margent. Which Creast or Cognoysance, 1 the sayde Clarencieulx Kinge of Armes do
“ by tbese presente, Ratify, confyrme, geue, and graunt, unto the sayde Pyers Pennant, Gentle-
‘ man> and to his Posterritye, and to the Posterrity of Hughe Pennant, gentleman, his Father,
with theire due differencis, And he and theye the same Armes and Creast to use, beare, and
shewe forth in Shielde, Cote Armour, or otherwyse, at his and there liberty and Pleasure,
accordinge to all auncient lawes of Armes, without the impediment, lett, or enterrupcion of
any other person or persones. In Witnes Whereof, I the sayde Clarencieulx Kinge
of Armes haue signed these preasente with my hande, and haue sett thereunto the Seale of
myne Office, the second daye of Maye, In the yeare of oure Lord 1580, and in the xxiind
yeare of the Reigne of oure Souereigne Ladye Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of
Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande, Queene, Deffendres of the Faythe, &c. &c.

“ ROBT COOKE, alias CLARENCIEULX,

“ Roy D armes.”

56

OLD HOUSES LATELY STANDING AT THE SOUTH CORNER OF HOSIER

LANE, SMITHFIELD.

Probably these houses were erected in the reign of James the First. The rooms were
small, with low, unornamented ceilings ; the timber, oak, profusely used : the gables were
plain, and the walls lath and plaister.

The corner shop was occupied by a barber, whose name was Catch-pole ; at least so it was
written over the door. He was a whimsical fellow ; and would, perhaps because he lived
in Smithfield, shew to his customers a short bladed instrument, as the dagger with which
Walworth killed Wat Tyler. These houses narrowly escaped the fire in 1666, as it ended,
towards the North, at Pye Corner; a spot within a few yards of them. They were taken
down in October, 1809; and upon their scite other dwelling houses have been erected,
together with an engine-house belonging to the Hope company, where attendance is given day
and night. “ Pye Corner was so called” (says Dr. Howel) “ of such a sign, sometimes a
“ fair Inne, for receipt of travellers, but now devided into tenements.” As Smithfield has
ever been the seat of mirth during Bartholomew Fair, I shall beg leave to present the reader
with the following composition, copied from D’Urfey’s Pills to purge Melancholy, a collection
of songs published 1719. It describes the Fair eleven years before the fire of London; and
is entitled,

V. * . . Jl ’ - ' *

“ An ancient Song of Bartholomew Fair.”

“ In fifty-five, may I never thrive,

“ If I tell you any more than is true,

“ To London che came, hearing of the fame
“ Of a Fair they call Bartholomew.

“ In houses of boards, men walk upon cords,

*

“ As easie as squirrels crack filberds ;

*

a “ But the cut-purses they do bite, and rub away,

“ But those we suppose to be ill-birds.

“ For a penny you may zee a fine puppet-play,

“ And for two pence a rare piece of art ;

“ And a penny a cann, I dare swear a man,

“ May put zix of ’em into a quart.

“ Their zights are so rich, is able to bewitch,

“ The heart of a very fine man a ;

“ Here’s Patient Grisel here, and Fair Rosamond there,

“ And the history of Susanna.

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57

“ At Pye Corner end, mark well my good friend,

“ ’Tis a very fine dirty place;

“ Where there’s more arrows and bows, the Lord above knows,
“ Than was handl’d at Chivy Chase.

“ Then at Smithfield Bars, betwixt the ground and the stars,

“ There’s a place they call Shoemaker Row ;

“ Where that you may buy shoes every day,

“ Or go barefoot all the year I tro.”

The following selections from various parts of Ben Jonson’s comedy of “ Bartholomew
Fair,” will in some measure exhibit the complexion of Drolls in Smithfield, in King James
the First’s time, fifty-two years before the fire of London.

Act V. Scene I.

( Lanthorn, Flicker, Sharkwell.)

“ Lan. T It FELL, ’luck and Saint Bartholomew; out with the sign of our invention, in
V V the name of wit, and do you beat the drum the while; all the foul i’the Fair,
“ I mean all the dirt in Smithfield, (that’s one of master Little-wit’s Carwhitchets now) will be
“ thrown at our banner to day, if the matter does not please the people. O the motions that
“ I, Lanthorn Leather-head, have given light to, i’ my time, since my master Pod died ! Jerusa-
“ lem was a stately thing, and so was Nineve’, and the city of Norwich, and Sodom and
“ Gomorrah ; with the rising o’ the ’prentices, and pulling down the bawdy-houses there upon
“ Shrove-Tuesday ; but the Gun-powder-plot — there was a get-penny ! — I have presented that
“ to an eighteen or twenty-pence audience, nine times in an afternoon. Your home-born
“ projects prove ever the best, they are so easy and familiar : — they put too much learning
“ i’ their things now o’ days ; and that I fear will be the spoil o’ this. Little-wit ? I say,
“ Mickle-wit! if not too mickle ! look to your gathering there, goodman Filcher.

“ Fil. I warrant you, Sir.

“ Lan. An’ there come any gentlefolks, take two-pence a-piece, Sharkwell.

“ Sha. I warrant you, sir, three-pence an we can.”

Scene III. — Cokes, Sharkwell, Justice, Filcher, Little-wit , Lanthorn.

“ Cok. How now ? what’s here to do, friend ? art thou the master of the monuments ?

“ Sha. ’Tis a motion, an’t please your worship.

“ Jus. My fantastical brother-in-law, master Bartholomew Cokes!

“ Cok. A motion, what’s that ? [He reads the bill ] ‘ The ancient modern history of Hero
u and Leander, otherwise called the Touchstone of True Love, with as true a trial of
“ friendship between Damon and Pythias, two faithful friends o’ the Bank-side.’ — Pretty i’
“ faith, what’s the meaning on’t? is’t an enterlude? or what is t?

“ Fil. Yes, sir, please you come near, we’ll take your money within.

“ Cok. - what kind of actors ha’ you ? are they good actors ?

“ Little-tv. Pretty youths, sir, all children, botlj old and young; here’s the master
“ of ’em -

i

o8

« Cok. In good time, sir, I would fain see ’em, I would be glad to drink with the young
“ company ; which is the tiring-house?

“ Lan. Troth, sir, our tiring-house is some-what little ; we are but beginners yet, pray
“ pardon us ; you cannot go upright in’t.

“ Cok. No, not now my hat is off? what would you have done with me if you had had
“ me feather and all, as I was once to-day? ha you none of your pretty impudent boys now to
“ bring stools, fill tobacco, fetch ale, and beg money, as they have at other houses? — let me
“ see some o’ your actors.

“ Cok. What, do they live in baskets? [ Lanthorn brings them, out in a basket .]

“ Lan. They do lie in a basket, sir, they are o’ the small players.

“ Cok. These be players minors indeed. Do you call them players ?

“ Lan. They are actors, sir, and as good as any, none disprais’d, for dumb-shows : in-
“ deed, I am the mouth of ’em all.

“ Cok. - which is your Burbage now ?

“ Lan. What mean you by that, sir?

“ Cok. Y our best actor, your Field ?”

This Comedy was first acted in the year 1614.

The following are a few of Ned Ward’s remarks on Bartholomew Fair, written between the
years 1698 and 1700.

“ We ordered the Coachman to set us down at the Hospital-gate, near which we went into
“ a convenient House to smoke a Pipe, and overlook the Follies of the innumerable Throng,
“ whose impatient Desires of seeing Merry Andrews' Grimaces, had led them Ancle-deep
“ into Filth and Nastiness.

“ The first Objects, when we were seated at the window, that lay within our Observation,
“ were the quality of the Fair, strutting round their Balconies in their Tinsey Robes, and
“ Golden Leather Buskins ; expressing such Pride in their Buffoonery Stateliness, that I
“ could but reasonably believe they were as much elevated with the thoughts of their Fort-
“ night’s Pageantry, as ever Alexander was with the Glories of a new Conquest; looking
“ with great Contempt from their slit Deal Thrones, upon the admiring Mobility, gazing in
“ the Dirt at our ostentatious Heroes, and their most supercilious Doxies, who looked as
“ aukward and ungainly in their gorgeous Accoutrements, as an Alderman’s Lady in her
“ stiffen-bodied Gown upon a Lord Mayor’s Festival.

“ Bartholomew-Fair Drolls are like State Fire-Works ; they rarely do any body Good,
“ but those who are concerned in the Show.”

Speaking of Bartholomew-fair singers, he says, “ I had rather hear a Boy beat Round-
“ headed Cuckolds come dig, upon his Snappers; or an Old Barber ring Whittingtons Bells
“ upon a Cittern, than hear all the Musick they can make.”

The Spy, in describing the visitors of the fair, among other characters, notices the following
cries of London :

“ In came a Fellow, that I have heard cry Brushes and Mouse-traps about Town, and a
“ Smith along with him, that I have seen hawk about Iron Candlesticks .”

The following motion-master's bill was copied by Strutt, for his “ Sports and Pastimes,”
from a miscellaneous collection of advertisements and title-pages among the Harleian MSS.
marked 5,931 :

59

“ ^ Crawley’s Booth, over against the Crown Tavern, in Smithfield, during the time of
“ Bartholomew Fair, will be presented a little opera, called the Old Creation of the World,
yet newly revived ; with the addition of Noah s flood ; also several fountains playing water
“ durmS the time of the play.— The last scene does present Noah and his family coming out
of the ark, with all the beasts two by two, and all the fowls of the air seen in a prospect
sitting upon trees; likewise over the ark is seen the sun rising in a most glorious manner:
moreover, a multitude of angels will be seen in a double rank, which presents a double
prospect, one for the sun, the other for a palace, where will be seen six angels ringing of
“ — Likewise machines descend from above, double and treble, with Dives rising out of

hell, and Lazarus seen in Abraham’s bosom, besides several figures dancing jiggs, sara¬
bands, and country dances, to the admiration of the spectators ; with the merry conceits of
“ squire Punch and sir John Spendall.” This curious medley was, we are told, “ completed
by an entertainment of singing, and dancing with several naked swords, performed by a
child of eight years of age it is also added, “ that these celebrated performers had danced

before the queen” (Queen Anne) “ and most of the quality of England, and amazed every
“ body.” J

The subjoined curious Bartholomew Fair Play Bill, taken from the Daily Advertiser of
August 26, 1731, may not be uninteresting to theatrical amateurs. > - <

“ AT FIELDING’S, HIPPISLEY’S, AND HALL’S
GREAT THEATRICAL BOOTH,

In the George Inn Yard, West Smithfield,

By a Company of Comedians from both Theatres, during the Time of Bartholomew- Fair,

will be presented a New Dramatick Opera, call’d,

THE EMPEROR OF CHINA, GRAND-VOL-GI :

OR,

THE CONSTANT-COUPLE, AND VIRTUE REWARDED.

Written by the Author of the Generous EVcc-Mason.

With the Comical Humours of Squire Shallow, in his Treaties of Marriage, & c. and his

Man, Robin Booby, intermixed with variety of Songs to Old Ballad Tunes, and Country
Dances.

The Part of Shallow, the Welsh Squire, by Mr. Hippisley, being the First Time of his
appearing in the Fair ; Emperor of China , by Mr. Roberts ; Carlos, the British Resident ,
Mr. Huddy ; Hali, Mr. Rosco; Eugenio, Mr. Cross; Fidelia, Mrs. Templer; Isabella,
Mrs. Grace.

The Part of Robin Booby, by Mr. Hall.

Sir Arthur Addleplot, by Mr. Penkethman ; Freelove, Mr. Berry; Sly, Mr. Rainton;
Sen. Smart, Mr. Excell ; and the Part of Loveit, the Chamber-Maid, by Mrs. Egleton.
With several Entertainments of Dancing between the Acts, by Master Fisher Tench and
Miss Brett. A new Dialogue of the Chimes of the Times, sung by Mr. Excell and Mrs.
Egleton. And the Scenes intirely new Painted by a great Master: With New Habits
proper to the Characters. The Whole Ending with the Great Chorus in the Opera of Porus,
accompany’d with Hautboys, Trumpets, and Kettle-Drums.

N. B. Mr. Fielding entertains the Audience before the Opera begins, with Variety of
Postures, the most surprising ever seen, by the inimitable Mr. Philips.

Beginning every Day exactly at One o’Clock.”

1 2

60

The following anecdotes may not be unacceptable to some of my readers. Shortly, after
Mr. Garrick’s marriage, he conducted Mrs. G. to Yates and Shuter’s booth; and, upon their
being rudely pushed, he called upon his bill-sticker (Old Palmer), who had been engaged to
receive the money at the entrance of the Booth, for protection. Palmer, though a very strong
man, professed himself sorry he could not serve him in Smithfield ; alleging that few people
there knew Mr. Garrick off the stage. There was one of the Merry-Andrews, who attended
on the Quack-Doctors at this Fair, so much superior to the rest of his profession for wit and
gesture, that he was noticed by all ranks of people. Between the seasons he sold gingei-
bread nuts about Covent-Garden ; but to keep up his value at fairs (for he had a guinea per
day for his performance, besides presents from the multitude), he would never laugh ; of
notice a joke when a dealer in-nuts. He was the most polite and quiet vendor of that article
in London. The above anecdotes I received from the aged and intelligent Mr. Thomas
Batrich, of Drury-lane. The venerable actor, Mr. Waldron, one of the last of Garrick -s
school, informs me, that he paid sixpence to see Yates and Shuter perform in Bartholomew
fair. Mr. Edward Oram, senior, who was particularly intimate with Hogarth, introduced
him, soon after he had left his master, to the proprietors of Drury-lane theatre, where they

• •• ' / .• • X ‘ : 1

conjointly painted scenes for several years.

These artists were employed by a famous woman, who kept a Droll in Bartholomew fair,
to paint a splendid set of scenes, by an agreement, which particularly specified that the
scenes were to be gilt ; but instead of leaf-gold being used, they were covered in the usual
way with Dutch metal ; by which the lady declared the contract to be broken, and refused
to pay for the scenes. This was communicated by Mr. Edward Oram, jun., who informs
me that his father died at Hampstead, in his 73d year, and was buried at Hendon.

Strutt, in his “ Sports and Pastimes,” p. 37, speaking of Horse-racing, says,

“ The first indication of a sport of this kind occurs in the description of London, written
“ by Fitzstephen, who lived in the reign of Henry the Second. He tells us, that horses were
“ usually exposed for sale in West Smithfield; and, in order to prove the excellency of the
“ most valuable hackneys and charging steeds, they were matched against each other; his
“ words are to this effect: (Mr. Strutt follows the translation published by Mr. White, A.D.
1772.) ‘ When a race is to be run by this sort of horses, and perhaps by others, which also in
“ their kind are strong and fleet, a shout is immediately raised, and the common horses are
“ ordered to withdraw out of the way. Three jockies, or sometimes only two, as the match
“ is made, prepare themselves for the contest; such as being used to ride, know how to
“ manage their horses with judgment; the grand point is, to prevent a competitor from
“ getting before them. The horses, on their part, are not without emulation ; they tremble,
“ and are impatient, and are continually in motion ; at last, the signal once given, they strike,
“ devour the course, hurrying along with unremitting velocity. The jockies, inspired with
“ the thoughts of applause and the hopes of victory, clap spurs to their willing horses, bian-
“ dish their whips, and cheer them with their cries.”’

Smithfield Bars were famous for fighting-dogs, as appears in the following extract from

the same work, p. 230. - -

“ The two following advertisements (copied from a Miscellaneous Collection of Bills and
“ Title-pages, Harl. Lib. marked 15), which were published in the reign of Queen Anne, may
“ serve as a specimen of the elegant manner in which these pastimes were announced to the
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61

“ At the Bear Garden, in Hockley in the Hole, near Clerkenwell Green, this present
“ Monday, there is a great match to be fought by two dogs of Smithfield Bars against two
“ dogs of Hampstead, at the Reading Bull, for one guinea to be spent; five lets goes out of
“ hand ; which goes fairest and farthest in wins all. The famous bull of fire-works, which
“ pleased the gentry to admiration. Likewise there are two bear-dogs to jump three jumps
“ a-piece at the bear, which jumps highest for ten shillings to be spent. Also variety of bull-
“ baiting and bear-baiting; it being a day of general sport by all the old gamesters; and a
“ bull-dog to be drawn up with fire-works. Beginning at three o’clock.”

“ At William Well’s bear-garden in Tuttle-fi elds, Westminster, this present Monday, there
“ will be a green bull baited ; and twenty dogs to fight for a collar ; and the dog that runs
“ farthest and fairest wins the collar ; with other diversions of bull and bear-baiting. Begin-
“ ning at two of the clock.”

r

HOUSES ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF A STREET CALLED LONDON-WALL.

The preceding plate displays one of the few remaining specimens of the foliated fronts in
London ; and I should conjecture it to have been built in the reign of Charles the First, for
the following reasons : There is no doubt, that when Henrietta Maria came to England, the
people were anxious to embrace French fashions ; and when we recollect that two eminent
artists, namely, John Le Pautre and Stefano Della Bella, were much encouraged in France
at that time, for their numerous designs of scrolls and foliage, and particularly when we
compare the foliage carved on this building with their productions, we shall perceive a simi¬
larity of composition. The two houses before us, which are of oak and plaister, had been
equally foliated. The plain one was, about thirty-three years ago, altered to its present state
by Mr. Thomas Clark, the well-known gingerbread-baker, who now resides in it ; but from
whom I was unable to gain further information concerning them. It appears in a plan of
London, by John Norden, introduced in his “ Speculum Britannia,” dedicated to Queen
Elizabeth, that the spot upon which these houses stand was then occupied by a garden wall,
which extended nearly from the site of Winchester street to Moorgate. It was much the
fashion about this time to decorate the fronts of houses with compositions in plaister of the
most ridiculous subjects. Such a one is now remaining on the front of Mrs. Sparrow’s house,
in the Butter-market, Ipswich, in high relief, representing shepherds, shepherdesses, sheep,
&c. nearly the size of life. — The figure with a bag over his shoulder, introduced in this plate,
is the portrait of William Conway, born in 1752, whose cry of “ Hard metal spoons to sell
or change,” is well known to the inhabitants of London and its environs.

This industrious man, who has eleven walks in and about London, never had a day’s
illness, nor has once slept out of his own bed : and let the weather be what it may, he trudges
on, and only takes his rest on Sundays.

He walks, on an average, twenty-five miles a day, and this he has done for nearly forty-
four years. His shoes are made from old boots, and a pair will last him about six weeks.
In his walks he has frequently found small pieces of money, but never more than a one-
pound note. He recollects a windmill standing near Moorfields, and well remembers Old
Vinegar, a surly fellow, so called from his brutal habits. This man provided sticks for the
Cudgel-players, whose sports commenced on Easter Monday, and were much frequented by
the Bridewell-boys.

62

He was the maker of the rings for the boxers in Moorfields; and would cry out, after he
had arranged the spectators, by beating their shins, “ Mind your pockets all round.” The
name of Vinegar has been frequently given to crabbed ring-makers and boxers. Ward, in his
London Spy , thus introduces a Vinegar Champion :

“ Bred up i’ th’ Fields of Lincoln’s-lnn,

“ Where Vinegar reigns Master ;

“ The forward Youth doth thence begin
“ A broken Head to loose or win,

“ For Shouts, or for a Plaister.”

The same author, speaking of the mob in Fleet-street, when Mr. Dryden’s funeral was
passing, says, “ No sooner had these (coaches) dispersed themselves towards the several
Places they were bound to by their Fares, but one of the Prize-fighting Gladiators,
fiom Dorset-Garden Theatre, where he had been exercising the several Weapons of defence
with his bold Challenger, upon a clear Stage without favour, was conducted by in
Tiiumph, with a couple of drums to proclaim his Victory, attended with a parcel of
“ scarified ruffians, whose faces seemed to be as full of cuts, as a plow’d field is of furrows ;
some, their countenances chopp d into the form of a Good-Friday bun, with cuts across
one another, as if they were marked out for Christian champions; others, having as
many scars in their Bear-Garden Physiognomies, as there are Marks in a Chandler’s
u cheese, scored out into Pennyworths.”

The following is a copy of an original Boxing-bill, in the possession of Mr. Samuel
Woodburne, of St. Martin s-1 an e, who kindly permitted me to take it; and will shew the
spirit of Boxers full fifty years after Ward wrote the “ London Spy.”

At Mr. Broughton’s Amphitheatre,

“ In Oxford-Road, on Wednesday next, being the 7th of September, 1748, will be a severe
Trial of Manhood between the following Champions, viz.

I, Thomas Cook, Hog-Butcher, from Cheltenham, in Glostershire, well known for my
Bravery in this Manly Exercise, who have fought the best men the County could produce ;
and since my being in London, which is now upwards four years, have fought Numbers
of Battles with these blustering Town Heroes, especially at Goswell-street, Hog Island,
Cow-cross, Honey-lane Market, and divers other Places, and always came off Victorious,

“ do hereby invite the celebrated Mr. Edward Hunt to meet and Fight me for twenty
Pounds, and doubt not to serve him as I have done all the rest.

“ THOMAS COOK.”

I, Edward Hunt, will not fail to meet the above vain glorious Boaster, and convince him
of his Error, and make him repent his rash Undertaking,— for I scorn to Boast— few
“ Words are best, — besides, all the World knows, I deal only in blows.

“ EDWARD HUNT.”

“ Before the Champions mount, the Company will be diverted as follows :

“ I- A Particular Battle between the fighting Soldier and the famous fighting La (illegible
“ in the bill, perhaps Lady ) from Spital-fields, for Ten Guineas.

“ II. A Battle Royal between two of St. Giles and two of Brick-street, for Four.

“ The Doors to be open’d at Three, and the Champions mount at Five precisely.”

63

Broughton’s Amphitheatre is still standing ; it is at the south-west corner of Castle-street,
Wells-street ; the lower part is a coal-shed, the upper a stage for timber.

The following Advertisement in the “ Daily Advertiser” of June 12th, 1731, proves that
Figg had an Amphitheatre in Oxford Road, full seventeen years before the above Champions
were to exhibit at Broughton’s.

“ Next Tuesday in the afternoon, a great Boxing-Match is to be fought at Mr. Figg’s
Amphitheatre, in Oxford Road, for 50 Guineas, between Thomas Edwards, a Waterman
living in Lambeth-Mash, commonly known by the Name of Counsellor Lear, (he being the
Person that carried him by Water when he made his Escape), and one John Broughton,
“ another Waterman, plying at Hungerford-Stairs.”

At the foot of another bill of Boxing invitation, “ The Ladies and Frenchmen are particu-
“ larly requested to bring Smelling-Bottles.”

The late Mr. Thomas Batrich of Drury-lane (who died on Sunday, July 23d, 1815, aged 85
years), informed me, that Theophilus Cibber was the author of many of the Prize-fighting
bills at this time, and that he frequently attended and encouraged his favourites. It may
here be observed, that Drury-lane had seldom less than seven fights on a Sunday morning,
all going on at the same time on distinct spots.

When noticing, in a former page, the five Barberesses of Drury-lane, I did not then recollect
that General Monk’s wife was the daughter of one of those abandoned wretches.

Granger, in a note, p. 156, v. 4, speaking of the Duchess of Albemarle, says :

The following quotation is from a manuscript of Mr. Aubrey, in Ashmole’s Museum :
When he (Monk) was prisoner in the Tower, his sempstress, Nan. Clarges, a blacksmith’s
“ daughter, was kind to him in a double capacity. It must be remembered, that he was then
“ in want, and that she assisted him. Here she was got with child. She was not at all
“ handsome, nor cleanly : her mother was one of the five women barbers, and a woman of ill
“ fame. A ballad was made on her and the other four : the burden of it was,

“ Did you ever hear the like,

“ Or ever hear the same,

“ Of five women barbers,

“ That lived in Drury-lane.”

The figure with the baskets represents John Bryson, well known in London, particu¬
larly in rainy weather. He had been an opulent Fishmonger in Bloomsbury market, but
became, by severe losses, so reduced, that he latterly carried nothing except nuts in his
baskets ; but his custom to the last was to cry every sort of fish, from the turbot to the
periwinkle, never heeding the calls of those unacquainted with his humour.

Granger, speaking of the cryer of “ POOR JACK,” whose portrait was published by
Tempest in the set of Cries, says,

“ The wife of this man, who was scarce able to limp after her husband, and never carried
any fish, was, for many years, his constant attendant through the streets. I have been
informed, that jealousy was the reason commonly assigned for her attendance.” — See
Granger, v. iv. p. 354.

64

r.

HOUSES ON THE WEST SIDE OF LITTLE MOOR-FIELDS.

The following plate is another instance of the foliated front, and may also be attributed
to the reign of Charles the First.

It consists of oak, lath and plaister ; but the ceilings, which have evidently undergone
various changes, are now destitute of ornament. This, and the house in the preceding plate,
are the oldest now standing in the neighbourhood of Moor-fields, which have lately been
drained for the purpose of building upon.

As that part of the ground now occupied by Finsbury-square, formerly called Finsbury-
fields, was in early days particularly famous for archery, I shall insert the following extract
from Clarkes Lives , to prove that the amusement was exercised there in 1602. The author
says of John Rainolds,

Being at London An. Chr. 1602, he desired to refresh himself by walking abroad into the
open aer, and for that end went into Finsburie-fields, where manie Archers were shooting
with their long bows ; and it so fell out, that one of their arrows met him, and stroke him
upon the very brest, which in all probabilitie would have pierced through his bodie : but,
behold the admirable Providence of God! the arrow pierced the outside, stopped against
the quilted lining, and so leaped back without doing him the least hurt.”

“ I remember (says Strutt, in his “ Sports and Pastimes,” p. 61) about four or five years
back, at a meeting of the Society of Archers, in their ground near Bedford Square, the
Turkish ambassador paid them a visit ; and complained that the enclosure was by no
means sufficiently extensive for a long shot : he therefore went into the adjacent fields to
shew his dexterity; where I saw him shoot several arrows more than double the length of
the archery ground, and his longest shot fell upwards of four hundred and eighty yards
from his standing. The bow he used was much shorter than those belonging to the English
archers; and his arrows were of the bolt kind, with round heads made of wood.” The
same author, in page 63, adds,

Kings and princes have been celebrated for their skill in archery, and among those of
our own country may be placed king Henry the Seventh, who in his youth was partial to
“ this exercise, and therefore it is said of him in an old poem,

44 See where he shoteth at the butts,

“ And with hym are lordes three ;

. 44 He weareth a gowne of velvette blacke,

44 And it is coted above the knee.

44 He also amused himself with the bow after he had obtained the crown, as we find from an
44 account of his expenditures, where the following memorandums occur: 4 Lost to my Lord
44 Morgirig at buttes, six shillings and eightpence and again, 4 Paid to Sir Edward
44 Borough, thirteen shillings and fourpence, which the Kinge lost at buttes with his cross
bowe.’ Both the sons of king Henry followed his example, and were excellent archers ;
44 and especially the eldest, prince Arthur, who used frequently to visit the society of London
44 bowmen at Mile-end, where they usually met, and practised with them.”

In this part of the town, namely, Little Moor-fields, Grub-street, &c. there were, in the
memory of persons now living, several ancient mulberry trees. There is one, producing very

g Domestic Architecture

Houses on the west sibe of JLittxe Moor-ei

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65

delicious fruit, in a back yard of Mr. Souter’s house, in Golden-lane (formerly called
Golding-lane) ; and there are twelve, which also bear fruit, in the Drapers’ Gardens, not
many yards from the Bank of England. I cannot help noticing the very beautiful fig-tree on
the premises of my friend Thomas Grignon, watch-maker, of Russell-street, Co\ent Garden,
planted by him forty-five years ago. It is in the highest state of perfection, between
twenty and thirty feet high, and spreads above forty feet wide: but of this tree and itsi
worthy planter I shall have occasion to speak further in my account of the Parish of St.
Paul, Co vent Garden, the materials for which I have been collecting for these twenty-five
years past, and embrace this opportunity of soliciting further communications for the work.
There is another fig-tree bearing fruit, but of a smaller size, in Cook’s Court, Carey-street.

Before I quit the subject, I beg leave to record a few singular instances of London vege¬
tation. The late Major Smith, Lieutenant of the Tower, introduced at table a fine cucumber,
of which I had the honour of partaking, that was actually produced in a frame upon the
leads of Traitor’s Gate. Another extraordinary growth in London (though, I must own,
considerably westward) took place about nine years since in the garden of William Bentham,
Esq. of Upper Gower-street, where three nectarine trees bore between twenty-four and
twenty-five dozen of the finest fruit.

To this gentleman, who possesses one of the most valuable collections of topographical
books and prints, I am under many obligations.

The following extracts are from a truly interesting work, entitled,

“ Coloured Figures of English Fungi, or Mushrooms,”

By James Sowerby, F. L. S.

CLAYARIA Phosphorea,

Yol. I. plate 100.

“ FOUND in a wine cellar, in Little St. Helen’s, London, creeping among saw-dust and
“ bottles in the autumn of 1796, communicated by Mr. B. M. Forster. It is remarkable for
“ being luminous in the dark, when fresh, at the ends ot the shoots.

“ Mr. Forster has doubted whether this phosphoric appearance may not be owing to some
“ vinous moisture of the fungus.”

TRICHIA Polymorpha,

Vol. II. plate 180.

“ I FIRST found this in the outside gallery above the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral,

London, April 5th, 1794, on a cindery substance. I have frequently seen it since on putre-
“ fying bones, &c. The Rev. Mr. Alderson, of Hevingham, Norfolk, found some on Noifolk
“ cheese, in his cellar, which was brought me by Mr. Dawson Turner, of \ armouth, June 1st,
“ 1798. All cheese seems to have it in a young or imperfect state, as the yellow, orange, and
“ red tints indicate. The substance is extremely tender and mealy, but durable it not touched.
“ I have both specimens by me, not decayed.”

BOLETUS Squamosus,

Or (according to other authors) Rangiferinus.

Vol. III. plate 266.

Mr. Sowerby, to whom I consider myself much obliged, informs me, that a very curious

K

66

specimen of the above Mushroom, measuring nearly two feet in height' was discovered, June
1744, in a Blacksmith’s cellar, in the Hay-Market, Pall-Mall. —Mr. Martin describes it thus :
“ The whole plant bears a resemblance to the palmated branching horns of the larger species
“ of deer.”

For a further account of this curious specimen, see Phil: Trans, abr. X. pi. 20, f. 109, at
p. 705. — Blackst. frontispiece, Bolt. 138.

In the thirty-second number, or number five of the supplement to Mr. Sowerby’s work;
will be found, on plate 432, a representation of “ The mouse-skin cask — Byssus.” The
author says, “ it is found in all wine cellars, as well as in ale and beer cellars.” :

It is curious to remark, that in the earth commonly called blue clay, thrown up1 from the
several excavations now making for the new sewers from the Regency-Park to the Thames,
there are the same sorts of Fossils, &c. found, as were discovered at Highgate Tunnel. A
very choice and extensive collection of specimens from these openings has been deposited by
Mr. Sowerby in his truly valuable Museum, No. 2, Mead-Place, Lambeth. These marine
productions are generally found from thirty to sixty feet. *

The figures introduced into this print represent Thames fishermen. It has long been a
custom among this class of people to saunter through the streets during a severe frost, with
oars or boat-hooks, from which nets and any sort of fish are suspended. They implore the
assistance of the Londoners with the following cry : “ Pray remember the poor fishermen,

the poor frozen-out fishermen.” They sometimes drag a sailing boat about upon wheels.

The gardeners have a similar practice, with bunches of greens hoisted upon pitch-forks.
Their general cry is, “ Pray remember the gardeners, the poor hard-labouring gardeners.”

1 once met a party of Battersea women of this tribe, who certainly are a distinct set of
beings. They were warmly differing with each other as to the street they were in, some con¬
tending that they had not been there before ; when they were all at once convinced by one
of the bearded hags, merely pointing her finger to the gin-shop at the corner.

SOUTH-EAST VIEW OF THE PORCH OF AN OLD HOUSE IN HANOVER

COURT, NEAR GRUB-STREET.

Mr. Davies, a cabinet-maker, who has inhabited this house for nearly fifty-five years, is
perfectly convinced that there is chesnut as well as oak employed in the building. He holds
it by lease, but from which there is no information to be derived as to its age or appellation.
Upon an old water-spout, however, there is the date 1653, which in all probability is that of
its erection. In some recent repairs of the roof, the lead was found to be of an enormous
thickness, a square foot weighing about twenty-five pounds. The staircase is spacious and
heavy. There are several good rooms, with ornamented plaister ceilings, the wainscoting of
one on the first floor being richly carved with flowers, &c. ; but it does not appear that it has
ever been painted or gilt. Several of the apartments are used as workshops and store-rooms.
In the window of one there are several scattered fragments of stained glass, but so uncon¬
nected and broken, that they afford no information ; and, as I apprehend, have been subse¬
quent introductions. This stately mansion was larger than it is at present, as a portion of its
north end was cut away when the houses forming Hanover-square, or court, were built ; and
in one of these houses several of the ornaments were worked up. The present house stands

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67

a few yards west from where the old mansion, called Whittington’s Palace, in Sweedon’s
Passage, stood ; two views of which appear in this work. It is a small distance north of
Grub-street, formerly called Grape-street, in consequence of its producing a quantity of
grapes.

The tradition belonging to this house is, that it was occupied by General Monk during
the time of his overtures to the parliament ; and it is consequently known under the ap¬
pellation of Monk’s House , by the surrounding inhabitants; but this could not be the fact,
if we allow the house to have been erected in 1653. He possibly might have lived here
between that date and the time of his residence in Clarendon House, Piccadilly. Monk’s over¬
tures were made to the Parliament in 1646, as appears in the following extract from a manu¬
script Journal of that time, kindly communicated to me by George Arnald, Esq. A. R. A.

“ 12th November, 1646.

“ Upon the Lord Lietenant of Ireland’s Report from the Comm" of Lords and
u Comons at Derby House for the Affairs of Ireland, That Coll Monk, hath been at
“ that Comm", and hath Engaged his honor that he will faithfully serve the Parliam'
“ in the Warr of Ireland, if he may be Imployed thither, That he hath taken the Negative
‘ Oath, and is ready to take the Covenant, and is ready to take his Journay, at a day’s
“ warning.

“ Resolved, &c.

“ That this house is of Opinion wt!l the Comm" that Coll. Monk may be of very good
“ use now at Dublin, & the house do leave it to the Comm" to Imploy him thither
“ as they shall think fitt.”

u

“ 13th November, 1646.

“ Resolved, &c.

“ That Mr. Speaker, and the whole house do to Morrow, at Ten of the Clock give a visit
“ to Sir Tho. Fairfax, General of the Park Forces, and return him the thanks
“ of the Comons of England, and acknowledgment of the Great Blessings of Almighty
“ God, upon his faithful Services, wise Conduct, and great Valour, in the whole discharge
“ of the great Trust committed unto him, and reducing the distracted Affairs of this King-
“ dom to this happy condition and Issue.

“ The Lords have appointed to go with their Speaker to Morrow at 1 1 of the Clock,
to the Gen- Sir Thos Fairfax, to give him thanks for his great Services.”

HOUSES LATELY STANDING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF LONG LANE,

SMITHFIELD.

Howel, in his “ Londinopolis,” published in 1657, speaking of Long Lane, says, “ This
“ lane is now lately builded on both the sides, with Tenements for Brokers, Tiplers, and such
“ like.” Ned Ward, in his “ London Spy,” tells us, that he was much tormented with the
rudeness of the Clickers of Long Lane. Again, in the same author’s “ Trip to Stir-Bitch-

“ Fair,” p. 272, speaking of the rude importunities of salesmen, he says, “ - as they

“ do in Long Lane; and lug and tug the poor Country Folks into their Mercenary Ward-

k 2

68

“ robes, as if they had power to arrest ’em.” The Street is now principally inhabited by soft
wood Turners. The houses in the following plate, which, according to Howel, must have
been erected during the Interregnum, consisted of oak, chesnut, lath and plaister; and
one was remarkable for its Corinthian pillars, which had carvings upon the lower parts of
their shafts, similar to those by Inigo Jones, on the West side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and
the south side of Great Queen Street.

Under the projection of the third story, four large iron hooks had been placed, whereon to
suspend the Tapestry, which was brilliantly displayed on rejoicing or procession days ; a
custom that had prevailed from a very early period, but in no reigns, with more splendor,
than in those of Edward the Third, Richard the Second, Henry the Eighth, and the pageant-
loving Queen Elizabeth, who frequently went through the City in high state, as will appear
by the following extract, from the account of Her Majesty’s Progresses, vol. i. p. 62.

The author, describing her procession into Essex, in 1561, says, “ Cheapside was hung
“ with cloth of gold and silver, and velvets of all colours.”

It would be difficult perhaps, to exhibit a better assemblage of combustible materials, than
the wretched pile of buildings now before us ; and they afford at the same time convincing
evidence of the necessity and advantage of the present mode of dividing houses, by a party-
wall. They were taken down in March, 1811.

The old mode of shutting up shops, with sliding shutters running in an upper and lower
groove, as may be seen in this plate, is now in part done away ; the present method being to
raise each shutter under an upper groove, and to fasten it within the shop with a screw,
which goes through the sash, into the lower part of the shutter. The old mode of fastening
was by placing a bar, or bars of Iron across the middle of the shutters, reaching the whole
width of the shop ; by which method passengers were often struck upon the head, or forced
into the kennel. In former days, shops were not glazed as now ; they were open. There are
sixteen shops of this kind remaining in White Horse Yard, Drury Lane, inhabited by
Woollen Drapers and Piece Brokers, whose wares are exposed to all weathers.

White Friars, Water Lane, Bow Church Yard, St. Andrew-street, Seven Dials, and Long
Lane, Smithfield, have long been famous for Printers of Street Ballads, &c. ; and we are often
amused with finding on them, the most incongruous decorations. I have one of the present
popular song of the Wood-pecker adorned with the head of Oliver Cromwell : not that this
absurdity is peculiar to modern times. The printers of ballads at all times have made a very
indiscriminate use of the cuts which they happened to possess. Thus the nimble spirit,
Robin Goodfellow, was represented by cuts of a hairy wild man, and an American Indian
described by Sir Francis Drake, both originally inserted in “ Malwiris Artificial Changeling”
Nell Gwyn is converted into the Lady Eleanor. The song of a sailor’s pregnant wife, is
embellished with the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, and frequently half a dozen cats are
found on a ballad, that have not the smallest connexion with it.

WINCHESTER STREET, LONDON WALL.

If the first and fourth houses, on the right hand of this street, (which street was built upon
the garden of Winchester House,) had not been deprived of their pointed tops, the houses on

Pwbmsheid Sept? iLS.18MjRr.iT. Smith, N.° (18, G?’Mats Buildings S’Mahtiw’s Lank.

■

*

69

either side would have been, to the number of eighteen, of their original gable form. In
their present state however, notwithstanding the alterations of some of the windows, they afford
an excellent idea of one of the old streets of London. From a date, carved on a grotesque
bracket, supporting the North East corner house, it appears that they were erected in 1656,
during the usurpation of Cromwell.

The materials of these houses are oak, lath and plaister ; and were the street in pos¬
session of its original projecting signs of costly ornamented iron work, with a barbers pole
here and there, it would have been a complete picture of former times. In a lower front room
of one of these houses, on the left hand, is a medallion, decorated with foliage, as a chimney
ornament, which the neighbours consider as the portrait of Oliver Cromwell ; but I am in¬
clined to think it resembles Sir Isaac Newton leather than the Protector. The great window at
the end of this view forms a part of Winchester House, built in the reigns of King Henry
the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, by the Marquis of Winchester, Lord Treasurer of
England. It is occupied by Mr. H. W. Mills, Packer.

Three of the figures on the right hand pavement are of notorious persons. The first
beyond the ladder, with the umbrella, represents the late singular character, who went under
the name of Count Verdion, well known to Book collectors. This person was a professor
of Languages; for several years frequented Furnival’s Inn Coffee-house, and was a member
of a man’s benefit Society held at the Genoa Arms public house, in Hays s court Newport
Market. The supposed Count eventually proved to be a female, and died of a cancer the 16th
of July, 1802, at her lodgings in Charles Street, Hatton Garden, in the fifty-eighth year of her
age. The short figure, carrying a little box, was sketched from the celebrated corn-cutter,
Mr. Corderoy, who married a lady five feet, six inches, high. The figure beyond Mr.
Corderoy, is that of the late respectable Bishop of St. Paul, whose portrait, painted by
Monsieur Danleux, was exhibited at the Royal Academy.

That London in former days, has afforded characters for the pencil equally singular with
those of the present time, will appear by the following dialogue copied from an extremely
rare tract in the possession of John Haslam, Esq. entitled (“ The Generous Usurer, Mr.
Nevell, in Thames Street.” “ Printed for Solomon Johnson, London, 1641.”

« A Dialogue between the Maid and the Nurse, about their Master, Mr. Nevell his

“ Generositie.”

“ Maul. Did you not hear what a trick he plaid yesterday when he went for the Pullet,
“ for my Mistress ?

“ Nurse. No, why what did he do, — I know it was a very poore lean starved fowl ;
“ I do not think but it was some smothered pullet : — was that it ?

“ Maid. No, I assure you he bought it at one of the Poulterers shops in Gracious
“ street— it cost him lOd. But here was the jest. We haA^e a feather tub, and it will not
“ hold, I think, half a bushell, and I have lived with him this three years and a half, and
“ [ dare say that there is scarce so many feathers in it, as will Avell cover the bottome ol
“ it ; we have had such store of fowl since I dwelt Avith him : and yet he was so covetous,
“ that when he had bought the pullet, and made the woman to pull it and all, he called
“ for the feathers, and took them from the woman, and put them in the crown of his
“ hat, and put it upon his head, and so came home. But as he was coming home, he

70

chanced to meet the LORD MAIR, who had sent yesterday two or three times to our
“ house, to speak with him about something, I think to speak in the behalf of a friend of my
Lord s, that oweth him money ; and my Mr. seeing my Lord coming, went into an Haber-
“ dashers shop, and made an excuse to beg a sheet of paper to put the pullet in, to carry
“ it home ; but my Lord espied him, and commanded an Officer to go into the shop to call
“ him to my Lord, which he did. Then was my Mr. perplexed what to do, because of the
“ feathers in his hat, to talk to my Lord Major with his hat on, was misbecoming, and not
fitting : and how to put off his hat and not descry the feathers in it, he could not tell. But
“ whilest he was Pausing upon the matter, my Lord himself drew nearer to the shop, and
called to him, M. Nevell, (quoth he, I would speak with you) then he came to my Lord,
blustering by as if he had been in wondrous haste; and giving his hat brim a little touch
“ with his hand, went to passe by my Lord, telling him, that he could not stay, his wife
“ was sick, and his haste concerned her life. But the Lord Major being very importunate,
‘ would needs speak with him. Then my M. moved his hat up and down a little with his hand,

“ and L held him in so long, till at last the feathers began to die out about his
“ ears forth of his hat. What (quoth my Lord Major) have you got a bird s nest in your hat,
M. Nevell, that the feathers file about so. Then my M. put off his hat quite, and shewed
“ 11 my Lord> saying> that because his wife had longed for a Pullet, being not well, he
“ brought home the feathers and all, least shee should long for them too. But, oh, how my
Lord and his Officers, and the people about laughed at it.”

SCULPTORS IN WOOD.

AS carving m wood may be placed among the earliest efforts of human art, and as those
who have excelled in it, and their works, have hitherto been so little noticed by writers, I
take this opportunity of enumerating a few of their productions, both ancient and modern ;
regietting at the same time, that although in some instances these pages may rescue their
names from oblivion, the testimonies on this occasion, to the memory of men, whose abilities
claim admiration from every eye of taste, are not given by a more able biographer. In the
north transept of St. Mary Overies Church, there is a figure cross-legged, in mail armour,
carved in wood, as large as the life. Weever, in his Funeral Monuments, takes no notice
of the above figure ; but in his description of the tombs, in the Chapel of Colne-Priory, in
page 614, he gives the following statement : “ a third of wood crosse-legged, on his Target,

“ the Armes of the house of Oxford ; and there lieth by him a woman made of wood,'
w ich is thought to ha\e beene his Lady, and Countesse. Here are two more likewise

‘ m wood’ armed aild crosse-legged, the one hath an Hound or Talbot under his feet: the
cote Armour of the other is quite broken away with his Target.”

71

The figure of the Earl of Pembroke, cross-legged, in Westminster Abbey, covered with
metal, beautifully gilt and enamelled, is of wood so is the figure of King Henry the
Fifth ; and there is, probably, a wooden one within that of King Henry the Third, though no
mention is made to that effect in the following orders for the tomb, which are valuable, as
they give us names of Artists not to be found in Lord Orford’s Anecdotes.

“ The King’s Treasurer and Chamberlain were directed by the King’s writ (dated at
“ Norham, 8th May) to deliver out of the King’s Treasury to William Torel,
“ the Maker of the Image of the Lord the King Henry (3 :) father of the King
“ Edwd 1st out of Laten Brass, what shod be necessary to make the same
“ figure : and that the said William shod render a reasonable acc‘ thereof to the
“ Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer.

Vide Claus. Rot. A° 19 Edw. 1st.

“ The above Treasurer and Chamberlain were also directed by the King to deliver out
“ of his Treasury to Will” Sprot and Jn° de Ware, such Money as they might
“ want to purchase the Metal (Laten) to make before mentd Figure of King
“ Henry 3d. For which the sd Willm and John were to account to the said

“ Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer. -

Writ dated 8 May at Norham
Vide Claus. Rot. A0 19 Edw. 1st.”

The above translations were presented to me by the late Thomas Bryan Richards, Esq.
F. A. S. and one of the Commissioners for the inspection of the public records.

The canopies of the monuments of Henry the Third, Edward the First, Queen Eleanor,
Edward the Third, Queen Phillippa, and Richard the Second, are all carved in wood.
That of Edward the Third must originally have been a fine specimen, — it has been most
shamefully cut away. Some of these canopies have been curiously painted and gilt, particu¬
larly that of Richard the Second.

In old times, figures carved in wood, with faces made of plaister, and sometimes remark¬
ably well coloured, resembling life, and dressed up in silks, velvets, &c. agreeably to the
fashion of the day, were carried in funeral processions. I well remember, when a boy,
seeing several such in the oratory of Henry the Fifth; there was one resembling that King,
and another Mary the First. These figures were, from being most disgracefully thrown about,
and in such tatters, called the ragged regiment. The few remains of these historical
curiosities are huddled together in a narrow partition press between two of the wax work
figures in the oratory of Abbot lslip.

The roof of Westminster Hall, consisting of twenty-six brackets, in whose fronts are figures
of Angels, as large as a full grown person, is an excellent, and perhaps the most perfect
specimen of the Art of wood carving in the reign of Richard the Second, now remaining in
London. There are the remains of a corbel, exquisitely carved in w ood, supporting a stone
pillar, in the upper part of Islip’s Chapel.

In the chancel of St Catherine’s by the Tower, are the remains of stalls, seats, and desks,
most curiously carved in wood. The seats let down, and are similar in their construction
to those in Henry the Seventh’s Chapel; but, in subject, like some others of the kind, by no
means indecorous.

The following notices from Vasari, were kindly communicated by Mr. Renton, whose
abilities as an artist are annually exhibited at Somerset House and the British Institution :

“ Carving in wood was much practised in Italy and France, during the fourteenth and
“ fifteenth centuries. The great demand for Crucifixions, figures of Saints, and other appen-
“ dages of the Roman Catholick Religion, gave frequent opportunity to the ablest Sculptors,

“ of exercising their skill on that material. Among the most distinguished were Donato
“ (frequently called Donatello,) Filippo Brunelleschi, Antonia da Sangallo, and Janni
“ Francese. — Michael Angelo also carved a crucifixion in wood, which was placed over the

“ great Altar in the church of the Holy Ghost at Florence. - That minute mode of carving

“ exemplified on walnut shells, cherry and peach stones, first introduced by the Germans,

“ was advanced to singular perfection by Propertia de Rossi, a Bolognese lady ; who on a
“ peach stone carved the Crucifixion of Christ, together with a great multitude of figures,

“ remarkable for diversity of characters, and elegance of forms. The curious may find in
“ Vasari, Vite, de ’ Pittori, fyc. Vol. i. p. 37, edit. Bologna, 1663, an account of the different
“ woods used in his time, and the peculiar advantages of each.”

William Theed, Esq. R. A. informed me, that he once saw a crucifix, which was considered
as the work of Michael Angelo ; and I have seen more than one specimen of this art
from the hand of Benvenuto Celini. There is an inestimable rosary, carved on cherry¬
stones by that great Artist, at present in the possession of Mr. Francillon of Norfolk Street,
purchased by him at the Duchess of Portland’s sale, and which has made an indelible im¬
pression on my mind. I have often heard my father speak in raptures of a figure of
Pythagoras carved in wood, larger than life, which Mr. Roubilliac brought to England
with him, and esteemed as the work of John de Bologna. Mr. Roubilliac himself carved
now and then in wood; he cut a Lay-figure for his own use, which was allowed by Artists
to be the best ever made. This figure was purchased by Mr. Hudson, the Painter, Sir Joshua
Reynolds’s master.

I cannot help digressing once more for a few moments, not only to correct an error in
page 9 of this work, but to introduce an anecdote of Roubilliac, which if I could write as I
feel, would do honour to the artist.

Instead of six monuments, there are seven by him in Westminster Abbey ; — General Wade’s
is the one omitted.

When my father had occasion to go to his master, during the time he was putting up Sir
Peter Warren’s monument in the Abbey, he was generally found standing by the monument
of Norris, or by that of Vere.

On one of these attendances he was observed with his arms folded before the north-west
corner figure of one of the six Knights, who support the cenotaph of Lord Norris, and
appeared as if rivetted to the spot. My Father, who had thrice delivered his message,
without being once noticed, — was at last smartly pinched by the elbow by Roubilliac,
who at the same time said, but in a soft and smothered tone of voice — “ Hush! Hush! —
“ he'll speak presently.”

But the art of carving in wood has been always more particularly cultivated by the
Germans. It is said that Albert Durer has left some fine specimens ; and I have seen many
things attributed to Holbein, particularly two small heads of men, remarkably fine and fleshy:
they bear the date of 1531, and are in the possession of Mr, Paxton of Angel Street.

73

Mr. Douce did me the favour to shew me a curiously carved girdle, formerly A\oin y
presiding Abbot of the feast of fools; and also three small ciicles executed in wool,
in a bold style, by the celebrated Hans Schaufelin, with his usual mark, or monogram, o
an H, and an S upon the cross bar of it. The same Gentleman is also in possession o
Fool’s head, carved in Ivory, formerly belonging to a fool s bauble, or staff of office, ant w nci
is, without exception, in my humble opinion, the finest thing of its kind I have yet e le
Mr. Granger, speaking of “ Hans van Zurch Goldsmidt, of the time of King Henry the i& it 1,

in vol. i. p. 114, says: ...

“ In Mr. West’s Collection was a curious carving in box by this artist, inscribed, ‘ Zurch

“ Londini.” .

I am informed, that there was lately in the hands of Messrs. R undell and Biid0e of
Ludgate-hill, a rosary, made by some German artist for King Henry the Eighth ; and carved,
with almost miraculous art, on cob-walnut shells. In the inside of one of the shells, weie
several extremely minute figures assisting at the ceremony of the Mass, and all placed in the
most exact perspective.

With respect to Germany, I shall beg leave to observe, that the City of Nuremberg has
been for many centuries famous for its sculptors in wood ; and two or three of these peisons
from that place are established in London, at this present time.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth, and indeed long before, it was not only the fashion to
decorate ceilings, chimney-pieces, doors, and staircases, with the wood-carvers art, but
also all sorts of furniture, such as tables, looking-glass frames, reading-desks, chairs, stools,
cabinets, and bedsteads, with every description of subject, sacred and profane. These weie
often cut in the hardest wood, such as Ebony, Lignum Vitae, and Spanish Chesnut. This
heavy style of carving continued, though not quite so massy, through the leign of Queen
Anne.

Pumps were formerly richly ornamented by the wood carver. There was a remarka y
curious specimen of one in the yard of Leather Sellers’ Hall, lately standing in Little St.
Helen’s, Bishopsgate Street, of which I have secured two vieAvs. One of these is given in my
first publication of London Antiquities ; the other will be found in a subsequent plate of this
work.

Balconies were, in the reign of James the First, much in fashion, and were often splendid y
enriched by the wood-carver, with scrolls, and humorous devices of animals running aftei each
other between the foliage. I shall give a curious specimen of one, from a pictuie by Inigo Jones,
in the possession of the Earl of Pembroke, who liberally allowed me to copy it foi my lopo-
graphy of Covent Garden.

The pillars, posts, and pediments at the entrances of Taverns, were formerly caned in
wood, exhibiting grapes, and vine tendrils : these w^ere gayly painted, and sometimes gilt.
Nor must it be forgotten that the frames of tradesmens signs were often piofusely caned

with fruit and flowers, at an enormous expense.

The ends of church seats were carved. Of such, there are a few fragments of Janies the
First’s time remaining in St. Helen’s, and St. Ethelburgas, Bishopsgate Street. Font coveis
have frequently been carved with Angels’ heads, and sometimes very tastefully. The pool s
box and bread-shelves were often carved. There is a curious shelf on the North side within
the church of the Holy Trinity, in the Minories.

Ducking-stools for scolds, were sometimes carved with appropriate devices. Hie late

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74

Mr. Gayfear, Abbey mason, informed me, that he recollected a Ducking-stool, preserved
within the premises of Purgatory, which had been used by the Burgesses of Westminster, on
the shore of the Thames. Stocks were also carved. I recollect those of St. Martin’s in the
Fields having a most excellent carving of a stout fellow flogging a culprit. The only pair of
stocks remaining in London, are those opposite to the Watch-house, in Portugal-street, belong¬
ing to St. Clement’s Danes. The gate-entrances to church-yards were formerly designated
by carvings in wood, of which a few are still remaining : one of these is the semi-circular
basso-relievo of the Last Judgment, within the pediment of the North gate of St. Giles in the
Fields. John Parton, Esq. Vestry Clerk of the Parish, informs me that Love was the name
of the artist, and that he had something under 30/. for it. On a close inspection, by the
assistance of a ladder, 1 discovered the following inscription cut upon a small space nearly in
the middle of the lower group of figures : “ 1687. A P. 3°.” This carving was originally put up
within a brick-gate lately standing nearly in the centre of the church-yard wall; and was
taken down, and put up in its present situation, more to the West, in 1800.

There is another long strait one of the same subject, within the East gate of St. Martin,
Coleman Street. Many pediments and door-posts are carved in wood; — there is one of the
latter at the South entrance of Allhallows, Lombard Street, consisting of skulls, bones, and
hour-glasses, and another at the East entrance of St. Olave, Hart Street.

There was a figure of Time over the North gate of St. Giles, Cripple-gate, which was taken
down during the late repairs, and set up within the church, over the West entrance.

It was the custom to erect wooden tablets, or tombs, in church-yards, stretching the whole
length of the grave; and these were commonly carved with hour-glasses, death-heads, shovels,
bones, &c.

Many of our pulpits, sounding-boards, reading desks, communion tables, altar-tablets,
and stools, have been elaborately enriched by the wood-carver. There is an uncommonly
curious specimen of an old carved pulpit in St. Catharine’s, by the Tower, which has been
ably engraved, and accurately explained in Dr. Ducarel’s history of St. Catharine’s, published
by Mr. Nichols ; who has lately, at his own expense, erected a handsome monument to the
memory of Mr. Bowyer, in the Church of Low-Layton, Essex.

Several ornaments on our City-Gates were carved in wood. — The pediment of Aldgate,
now to be seen at the end of Aldgate-house, Bethnal-Green, and noticed in page 40 of this
work, is carved in Oak.

During the Common-wealth, and indeed nearly half through the reign of Charles the Second,
the heavy leathern-scroll picture frames continued in fashion; specimens of which were
lately to be seen about the portraits of the Judges in Guildhall. This leathern-scroll
ornament was often encumbered with Apples, Pears, seedy Pomegranates, and other heavy
fruits ; and it may excite some surprise, that this clumsy style of sculpture was not im¬
mediately done away by that great artist, Grinlin Gibbons; for we see on the pedestal of the
equestrian statue of King Charles II. at Windsor, a clumsy assemblage of every sort of shell¬
fish, bound up in festoons and swags. From these ponderous decorations he was however
free, and gave himself full play among the attributes of Flora. Those who wish to feast
soon upon his productions, which are to be found in our Palaces, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and
other London Churches and Halls, have only to visit St. James's Church, Piccadilly, where
every due care is taken of one of the choicest specimens of Art, that can adorn an altar.

Of public wooden statues, I believe we have none left that escaped the great fire, unless
we admit the two figures already described in this work, as now standing within Bethlem

75

Hospital, Moorfields ; and which are supposed to have originally stood at the front gate of
Old “ Bethlem Prison-house,” in Bishopsgate Street.

As to the present wooden figures in Guildhall, commonly called “ Gog and Magog, it will
be clearly proved, in an interesting letter, which will be printed at the end of the volume,
that they were put up after the year 1 666.

The two wooden figures, which every quarter of an hour strike the bells, that hang above
the Clock of St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet Street, to the great astonishment of the gaping
multitude, and too frequently to the no small profit of the Pick-pockets, next claim our
attention ; particularly as I have been indulged with some curious information concerning
them, by John Hicken, Esq. of the Record Office in the Tower, and Vestry Clerk of St.
Dunstan’s Parish.

It appears by the Parish books, that on the 18th day of May, 1671, Mr. Thomas Harry s,
then living at the lower end of Water Lane, London, made an offer to build a new Clock,
with chimes; and to erect “ Two figures, or Boys, with Pole-axes,” to strike the quarters.

This clock was to be so constructed, as to afford dial plates at the South front, and also
at the East end. All this he proposed to perform, and to keep the whole in constant repair
for the sum of eighty pounds, and the old Clock ; at the same time observing, that his work
should be worth a hundred.

He further adds, in these words, “ I will do one thing more, which London shall not shew
“ the like. I will make two hands shew the minutes, without Church, upon the double dyall,
“ which will be worth your observation, and for my credit .”

It appears that the Vestry agreed to give Mr. Harrys the sum of 351. and the old Clock,
for as much of his plan as they thought proper to erect ; and on the 28th of October, in the
same year, 1671, his task being compleated, he was voted the sum of 41. per annum, to
keep it in repair. We find that the idea of chimes was given up, as well as the dials at the
East end. Originally (in 1737) this clock was within a square ornamented case, with a semi¬
circular pediment ; and the tube from the church to the dial was supported by a carved figure
of Time with expanded wings, as a bracket.

From this curious document, we may conclude that Quarter Jacks were no new things in
London, but that a clock projecting over the street was ; for Mr. Harrys, in the concluding
part of his application to the Parish, said, that he hoped he might be allowed to make this
clock with two faces, as it might procure him orders from other Parishes : and which in all
probability it did — as we find the following churches with projecting clocks : viz. Bow,
Cheapside, St. Mary Woolnoth, and St. Edmund, Lombard Street, St. Swithin, Cannon
Street, and St. Magnus, London Bridge. 1 also find, by a drawing preserved in the com¬
mittee room of Sir John Cass’s Charity, kindly pointed out to me by the benevolent David
Pike Watts, Esq., that the old Church of St. Botolph, Aldgate, had a clock of this descrip¬
tion ; and that the tube, conducting the dial, was considerably longer than even that at St.
Dunstan’s, as it sprang from the Church, and extended over the roof of Sir John Cass’s school-
house, into the street. There is also another projecting tube clock within Exeter Change. Of
the figures called “ Quarter Jacks,” “Jack of the Clock,” or “Jack o’ the Clock-house,” these
are the only specimens remaining in London; nor are they common in the country: — there are
two on the outside of St. Martin’s, or Carfax, at Oxford; there is one in the beautiful, but decay¬
ing church of Blyborough, in Suffolk; and there is another against the Town-Hall of Bridge-
water.

L 2

76

/ i ' .

Mr. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners,” vol. ii. p. 38,
says, “ At Horsham Church, in Sussex, there was a figure dressed in scarlet and gold, that
“ struck the quarters. He was called Jack o’ the clock-house. The French term for this kind
“ of automaton, is jaquemar — the etymology of which is very fanciful and uncertain.”

At the foot of page 150 of Strutt’s “ Sports and Pastimes,” is the following note:

“ In a humorous pamphlet, called ‘ Lanthorn and Candle, or the Bellman’s Second Walk,’
“ published at London, 1605, it is said, ‘ The Jacke of the Clocke-house goes upon screws,
“ and his office is to do nothing but strike ;’ and in an old play still more early, ‘ He shakes
“ his heade, and throws his arms about, like the Jacke of the Clocke-house.’ The name of
“ Jack of the Clock-house, was also given to a certain description of thieves.”

The figures that strike the bells at St. Dunstan’s, each move an arm and its head. One of
them lately received a new arm, from the chissel of Mr. William Puckridge, of Hosier Lane,
West Smithfield ; who informed me, that he, his father, and his grandfather, who were all
wood-carvers, and had lived on the same spot, have carved most of the Grapes, Tuns, Swans,
Nags-heads, Bears, Bacchus’s, Bibles, Black Boys, Galens, &c. both for town and country,
for these hundred years.

Mr. Puckridge also informs me, that the wooden figure of the naked boy, put up at Pye-
corner, is certainly the original one, for that his grandfather first repaired it.

Ship-carving, which was at its height of splendour in old Vandervelde’s time (he died in
1693, aged 83), has of late years been gradually sinking; and I find by the strictest enquiry
below bridge, that although there were not less than three hundred ship-carvers in the begin¬
ning of our present King’s reign, there are absolutely now not more than fourteen, including
three masters, viz. Mr. H. White, of King Stairs, Rotherhithe ; and Grayfoot and Overton,
Pageants, Rotherhithe. I was in hopes, when among these persons, that I should have been able
to have learned something concerning the carvers of the figures commonly called Gog and
Magog, — all I was able to gain, was, that two copies of them, of half their size, carved in
Elm by Mr. H. White above mentioned, had been put up a few years ago against a public-
house, called the new Giants, opposite to St. John’s, Horselydown. It appears that the Guild¬
hall Giants were favorites on this spot ; for in the same street there is another public-house
called the old Giants ; but this sign is only a picture representation. Ship-carving is mostly
executed in elm.

The next public carving in wood, of which I have been able to obtain any account, was
the state Coach of Queen Anne. It was extremely heavy in its ornaments, but the pannels
were beautifully painted by Sir James Thornhill. A friend of mine, Mr. Renton, is in
possession of a part of one. The Earl of Carlisle, who did me the honour to shew me a
representation of this coach, most excellently painted by Marco Ricci, has liberally given
me permission to make an etching of it. This coach served Kings George the First and
Second, and was used by our present King, when he first went to the House of Lords,
and also on his marriage ; after which it was broken up; and Sir William Chambers recom¬
mended the late Joseph Wilton, Esq. R. A. and Mr. Pugello, to conduct the building of the
present carriage, which was executed on the scite of the late Mr. Malone’s house in Queen
Anne Street East, and is certainly in many parts highly deserving notice. The model was
made from Sir William’s design by Lawrence Anderson Holme, a Dane, who in 1765 gained
a premium from the Society of Arts of 147/. for the best statue in marble. The greatest part of
the carving of the coach was executed by Nicholas Collett, a little man, and, from his supe-

77

rior abilities, was honoured by Mr. Waldron the actor, with the characteristic epithet of a
“ Garrick of a carver.” (Mr. Waldron was originally a wood-carver.) Mr. Cipriani painted
the pannels, and received the sum of 800/ for his performance. The bill for the coach was
9,000/., but it was taxed, and the real cost was 7,564/. 4v. 4 \d. ; the odd pence arose from
the ribbon-weaver’s bill. It was first used Nov. 15, 1762.

Mr. Collett was employed to carve a Horse for the late Mr. Hatchett, of Loug Acre, as
large as the life, for the purpose of shewing harness upon ; and this he modelled by actual
measurement, from one of the King’s Hanoverian stud, called Beauty. He also carved a portrait
of the same animal, for the armory in the Tower of London. It stands by the figures of Queen
Elizabeth and her Black Page, whose faces and hands were carved in wood by the same artist.

Mr. Collett was born in Plumbtree-street, died 10th March, 1804, in Queen-street, Seven
Dials, and was buried in the South Church-yard of St. Giles in the Fields, aged 76 years.
I received many of the above particulars from the artist’s son, Mr William Collett, who is
also a wood-carver.

My father’s old and intimate friend, William Collins, the inseparable companion of
Gainsborough, was in his time the most fascinating modeller in clay and wax, and carver
in wood. His subjects were chiefly selected from the domestic-animal fables of Esop, and
are now and then to be met with in the tablets of chimney-pieces. One design of this kind
was often repeated ; it was a shepherd’s boy eating his dinner in the midst of his flock, under
the shade of a tree, with his dog begging by his side. Mr. Collins first worked for Sir
Henry Cheer, the Statuary, whose work-shops stood, within my memory, near the
South-east corner of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, a spot now railed in. Sir Henry executed
many monuments from the designs of Collins. Mr. Roubilliac, when he first came to
England, worked for Sir Henry (before he was knighted) ; so did another clever sculptor
of the name of Bartocini, who designed and carved the figures of Admiral Cornwall’s
monument in Westminster Abbey, for Sir Henry. Sir Henry had as many models, by Mr.
Collins, as he was offered a thousand guineas for : these were sold in lots, about twenty
years ago, at Mr. Hayward’s sale, in Piccadilly; and Mr. Nollekens, who admires fine art,
from the hand of a modern artist, as well as ancient, purchased one of them at a liberal
price.

Mr. William Collins was born at Bath, the 19th of Feb. 1721, died in Tothill-fields on
the 31st of May, 1793, and was buried in the Old Ground, King’s-road, Chelsea, where a tomb¬
stone is erected to his memory.

About the latter end of the last century, wood-carving received a shock from the
introduction of a composition, principally produced by a man of the name of Barker, then
living in Compton Street ; but before this period it had long been severely checked by the
French ornaments of Papier-machee. The father of the late Joseph Wilton the sculptor, had a
manufactory of it in Edwards Street, Cavendish Square ; and Barbell had another in James
Street, Covent Garden.

I must now endeavour to divest myself of every national prejudice, as the most extra¬
ordinary abilities of Samuel Mouette, a native of Paris, now living in London, claim the
highest encomiums I can possibly bestow. His art is principally confined to Flowers ;
and when I say that Grinlin Gibbons was a mouse to him, I shall not utter too much. His
carvings in wood are so light and playful, that they may be blown away. He is now solely
employed by Mr. Wyat, wood-carver, Oxford Street: a liberal paymaster.

%

78

After what has been said of Mouette, it will hardly be possible forme to do justice to the
very high talents of the North Britons; but whoever has seen those very extraordinary pro¬
ductions of John Lenox, in the possession of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, must
acknowledge his wonderful powers. They consist of four of the thirty-two pannels, of birds,
flowers, fruit, &c. carved in lime-tree, and put up in the Audience chamber, at Carleton House •
though it must here be observed, that Mons. Mouette designed and carved most of the house¬
hold decorations. The same artist designed the pulpits of St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Pau s,
Covent Garden, St. Margaret’s, Westminster, and also one now in hand for the new church
of St. Mary-le-Bone. Lenox’s friend, and countryman, Thomas Bam, is also a wood-carver o
great taste and skill, who cuts remarkably clean and elegantly in American and Dutch oak,
commonly called wainscot; and 1 cannot do these artists more justice as men, than to declare,
that they assured me, any thing that could be said of Mouette’s abilities could not be too

m Edinborough has produced some very clever wood-carvers. The Adam’s knew this well
and employed Burns, a wood-carver, to model the ornaments displayed in many parts of
the Adelphi : Burns was famous for carving a wheat-sheaf. During his residence in London,
he executed four, for which he had fifty guineas a piece. One of these was put up by
Messrs. King, Mercers, in King Street, Covent Garden, (the house now the Westminster Fire
Office,) and was purchased at their sale, by Mr. Dewhurst, for the sum of 4 1. and put up at
the front of No. 433 in the Strand.

The opposite drawing-room window, of the friendly Mr. Mainwaring, Apothecary, to
whose excellent memory, and kind communications X consider myself much indebted, aflords

a most favourable view of this fine piece of wood-carving. ,

The figure of Apollo, carved in wood, erected at the top of the late Drury-lane theatre, an
which fell in the flames, was the production of Chenu, the sculptor; who informs me that
it was cut out of several pieces of red-deal, measured eight feet, four inches, and cost 90/.

I gained much of the above information from my father ; Mr. George Gatenby, wood an
stone carver, now living in Tothill Fields, who carved the ornaments round the Speaker s seat,
in St. Margaret’s, Westminster; and the friendly Mr. James Ward, now living in Bishopsgate
Street, who assisted in carving the famous coach for the Nabob of Arcott (which wou o
sixteen persons); and whose taste in carving a real Carlo Marat picture frame, is as pleasing
as ever. It is remarkable that Mr. Ward and Mr. Collett, are among the few persons, who
now wear cocked hats, which were vulgarly denominated “ Egham, Staines and Windsor.

In addition to what has already been said respecting the Guildhall Giants, I have been
favoured with the following letter from Mr. Douce :

Sir,

From the incidental mention of the far-famed giants in Guildhall, in p. 49 of your work
on the antient topography of London, and from the conjecture you have made on the origin of
these statues, I am induced to communicate the following particulars relating to them, which

79

I had long since put together with a view to their disclosure at some convenient opportunity ;
and none can possibly be more so than the present.

It is most extraordinary that all the London historians should have treated this subject with
so much inaccuracy and imperfection, when a moderate portion of research would have fur¬
nished them with satisfactory materials.

Stowe is silent on these figures, though it is most certain they were in Guildhall before he
published his Survey of London. Howel in his Londinopolis, 1657, likewise makes no
mention of them.

You have already stated from Hatton’s View of London, 1708, 8vo, that they perished in
the great fire of London ; but though Guildhall was rebuilt a few years afterwards, there
seems to be no evidence that they were replaced immediately, nor is the precise time of their
restoration easily to be ascertained. Mr. Hatton has informed us that “ two new figures of
gigantick magnitude will be as before. This would lead us to infer that they had not been
replaced at the time of the publication of his book ; but the expression is either gram¬
matically faulty, or extremely unintelligible; because it appears from Ned Ward’s London
Spy, originally published in 1 699, that our giants were then in Guildhall. This facetious
writer was at a loss however to comprehend their origin, and contents himself with telling us
that they might have been set up to show the city what huge loobies their forefathers were, or
else to frighten stubborn apprentices into obedience, “ some of them being as much terrified at

the names of Gog and Magog, as little children at the sound of Raw-head and bloodv-
bones.”

As it cannot perhaps be ascertained whether the present figures have been faithfully restored
according to the form and costume of those destroyed by the fire of 1666, it is scarcely worth
while to enter on a minute or critical description of them ; and I shall therefore proceed to
lay before your readers the evidence that I have met with concerning the original gigantic
heroes of the hall, and to deduce from it the necessary conclusions.

In a very entertaining collection of dialogues in French and English, under the title of “ Ortho-
“ epia Gallica. Eliot’s fruits for the French.” 4t0 1593, but the running title of which is “ The
Parlement of pratlers,” a bragging fellow is introduced at page 137, who in describing his
pedigree tells us that he is descended from “ Atlas, cousin german to Gogmagog, who, with
his two hands, set, it is long since, the two hils of chalke neere Cambridge, to the end that
the schollers should walke thether sometimes to passe their times about them. The
same was gossip to Fierabras, of whom descended the great giant Oromedon, and OfFot,
the godsonne of Coryneus , of whom you may see the image in the Yeeldhall of London .”

Bishop Hall, in his satires, published in 1597, has noticed one of our giants, whom he
terms,

“ The crab-tree porter of the Guildhall gates,

“ While he his frightful beetle elevates.”

Book VI. Sat. I.

Whether the epithet “ crab-tree” is applied to the sour countenance of the party, or to
his knotted Herculean club, I shall not pretend to determine ; but it may very well fit
either.

Paul Hentzner, who travelled into England in 1598, speaking of Guildhall, has these words,
faithfully translated from the original Latin by Lord Orford in his republication of a part of

80

Hentzner’s work. “ Here are to be seen the statues of two giants said to have assisted the
English when the Romans made war upon them ; Corinius of Britain and Gogmagog of
Albion.” This foreigner’s ignorance respecting the English and the Romans needs no

comment; for the rest we are much obliged to him.

I have seen a tract intitled “ A dialogue between Colebrand and Brandamore, the Gian s m
Guildhall, concerning the late election, 1661, 4to:” but the names of these monsters of
romance are here fancifully applied, and either shew the ignorance of the writer, or that the

more genuine names were at that time pretty well forgotten.

These seem to be the only references to the Guildhall statues, as they existed before the
great fire of London, that are intitled to particular notice; but they do not enable us to
form any correct notion of the manner in which they were represented, or the materials of
which they were composed. If they were the actual figures exhibited in the Pageant at
Temple Bar before Queen Elizabeth, they would be made of pasteboard or wickerwor ,
the usual materials employed in the construction of the huge figures occasionally introduced
in this and other countries in pageants and processions. We have seen from the passage m
Bishop Hall’s satires, that one of the Guildhall figures carried a tremendous club ; and it is
most probable that the other was armed with such a mace as we find in the hand of one of
the present giants, viz. a spiked globe of iron attached by a chain to a wooden handle. Of
such weapons 1 have seen many specimens in foreign arsenals, and some varieties of them are

described in “ Pere Daniel, Histoire de la Milice Francoise.”

In a very modern edition of the celebrated romance of the history and destruction of Troy,
it is stated that Brute the son of Antenor made a voyage to Britain, where, aided by the re¬
maining natives, who had been conquered by Albion and his brother giants, he made war
a-ainst this usurper, whom he slew in a bloody conflict, taking prisoners his brothers Gog
and Mao-og, who were led in triumph to London, and chained, as porters, to the gate of a
palace built by Brute on the present site of Guildhall : “ in memory of which" says the
author or editor of the romance “ their effigies, after their death, were set up as they now
appear in Guildhall.” I am unable to trace this account any where else ; and, as it is not in
the older copies of the Troy book, I must conclude that the editor has either invented it, or
retailed some popular tradition. As the story is however evidently grafted on the fabulous
relation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the latter more immediately to the purpose of throwing
light on the subject before us, 1 shall here give an abridgment of the Welsh historian s

He informs us, from an Armorican chronicle put into his hands by Walter Calenius
Archdeacon of Oxford, that Brutus, the great grandson of jEneas, after being banished from
his own country, and undergoing many adventures, arrived at a place in the Tyrrhenian sea
colonized by some fugitive Trojans. Being joined by these people and their leader Cormceus
he achieved many other great exploits, and at length came to the isle of Albion, then inhabited
by a few giants only. The two leaders took possession of the country and divided it between
them- Brutus giving his own name to the island, and Connaius contenting himself with that
part of it which was afterwards from him named Cornwall, and then inhabited by more giants
than were in all the rest of the country. Corinaeus amused himself with fighting and killing
several of these gentry, among whom was one of much greater prowess than the rest named
Goemaeot, and of such prodigious strength that he made no ceremony ot pulling up trees by
their roots like so many weeds. At some festival that took place, this enormous monster with

81

twenty of his comrades suddenly assaulted the Britons, but after many of the latter had been
destroyed, the giants were at length overpowered, and all of them slain except Goemagot, whom
Brutus had directed to be spared in order to amuse him in a wrestling match with Corinaeus.
A furious contest accordingly took place between these redoubted champions, with many
a Cornish hug ; and Corinaeus, after the giant had demolished three of his ribs, which ot
course, greatly enraged him, suddenly jerked his adversary upon his shoulders and hurled
him from the top of a high mountain into the sea, where he fell among the rocks and Mas
dashed to pieces. “ This place” continues the romantic historian “ is called to this day Lam
“ Goemagot or Goemagot s leap.” Camden informs us that the above hill is between the toMn

of Plymouth and the sea, and now called the Haiv.

If therefore we connect this story with your quotation in page 49, from Queen Elizabeth’s
Progresses, and with what I have extracted from Eliot and Hentzner, there can remain no
doubt that the legitimate names of our giants are Corineeus and Goemagot or Gogmagog ; that
the former appellation has gradually sunk into oblivion, and the latter been split, by populai
corruption, into two others, Gog and Magog, these being of more familial and general

comprehension.

The next enquiry, and that of a more difficult nature, is whether the figures mentioned m
the account of Queen Elizabeth’s pageant at Temple Bar were afterwards transferred to
Guildhall, or whether similar statues had been already placed in that building. Our evidence
of the latter circumstance fails us at present before the year 1593 ; but the pageant took place
in 1558. I am inclined to think, however, that some figures of this kind had, long before the
reign of Elizabeth, decorated not only the City Guildhall, but other such buildings in dif¬
ferent parts of the kingdom, in imitation of a very ancient custom on the Continent, in the
discussion of which more space would be required than can possibly be here allotted to it;
but I may possibly resume it at some future opportunity. In the mean time I shall content
myself with observing, that in some German and Italian cities, statues of Roland, of Oliver,
and perhaps other heroes of Charlemagne’s reign, and even of the Emperor himself, are placed
in the town-halls, the courts of justice, and in churches. An instance of the latter occurs at
Verona, where Roland, holding his sword Durindart, and another hero, armed with a
mace that has the chain and spiked ball of iron before described, are attached to the doors of
the Cathedral. Some German writers are of opinion that these statues more particulaily
belong to those cities that are municipal, and possessed of a juridical power. 1 refer your
learned readers to “ Gryphiander de Weichbildis, sive colossis Rulandims urbium Saxom-
carum,” 1666, 4to. to similar works by Goldasti, Meyer, Rhetius, and Eggeling, and to Di.
Behrens’s interesting description of the Hartz Forest in Saxony. Before I conclude, I shall
beg leave to say a few more words on Gogmagog hills in general. We have already been
told by the bragger in Eliot’s dialogues, that two of the Cambridgeshire hills, with this appel¬
lation, were set up by Atlas, Gogmagog’s cousin-german, for the pastime of the Cambiidge
scholars; a fact that may supply some future Cambridge antiquary, in malship of Thomas
Hearne of Oxford, with an excellent argument in favour of the superior antiquity of /ns
University. I have been told that there was formerly a gigantic human figure cut in the
chalk upon one of the above hills. Carew likewise, in his Survey of Cornwall, mentions that
in his time the figures of two men were cut on the ground at the Haice at Plymouth, the one
bigger, the other lesser, with clubs in their hands, whom the people called Gog and Magog,

M

82

doubtless in the same corrupted manner as before mentioned. There are however, other hills,
which legitimately belong to the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, according to the accounts
of Sir John Mandeville and other veracious travellers. In these mountains, which are near
the Caspian Sea, Alexander the Great imprisoned Gog and Magog with the ten tribes of
Israel, as may be seen more at large in the romances relating to that hero, and more particu¬
larly in Sebastian Brant’s edition of the Revelations of Saint Methodius, where will be
found portraits of Messrs. Gog and Magog, in the characters of two horned daemons ; which,
with the figures now for the first time correctly given, may be deemed worthy of a place in
the portfolios of modern collectors, among many other worthies of a similar nature ; but I
would rather assign the origin of our English hills to the British story.

I am, Sir,

Very faithfully yours,

FRANCIS DOUCE.

2 Oth August, 1815.

Having been urged to extend this work to a hundred pages, I take the liberty of request¬
ing the purchasers of this part not to bind it up before next Spring, at which time I hope to be
able to publish several interesting Views, with letter-press to the above extent.

Should the Subscribers or Readers be inclined to forward communications for the conti¬
nuance of this book, or for my intended account of the Parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden,
their favours will be thankfully acknowledged by their

Obedient and very humble Servant,

JOHN THOMAS SMITH.

No. 4, Chandos-street, Covent Garden.

The figures of the Guildhall Giants, alluded to in Mr. Douce’s letter, are necessarily post¬
poned on account of the repairs that have lately taken place at Guildhall ; and which circum¬
stance will enable me to present them to the public with greater accuracy in the additions.

J. M'Creery, Printer, Black-Horte-Court,
London.

/