Curiosities of London: N-O

This was scanned in from an old document which has caused numerous misreadings of words. As time moves on, this will be improved.


NEW RIVER,

A FINE artificial stream, yielding almost half the water-supply of London, or nearly the whole of the City, and a large portion of the metropolis northward of the Thames. The New River rises from Chadwell Springs, and springs at Amwell, between Hertford and Ware, 21 miles from London, and is fed by the river Lea and wells sunk in the chalk. One of these ancient springs—the old Amwell spring—oozed away silently about 1830 into the bed of the Lea. The Chadwell spring, that mysterious, circular, chalky pool in the Hertfordshire valley, which has been the drinking fountain for centuries of countless thirsty millions, no longer gives forth drink with its accustomed liberality.

The New River was projected by Hugh Myddelton, a native of Denbigh, and ” citizen and goldsmith,” who proposed to the City tc bring to London a supply of water at his own cost. His offer was accepted j and April 20, 1608, was commenced the work, with very imperfect mechanical resources. Myddelton embarked the whole of his fortune in the undertaking; the original number of shares was only 36; the labourers received half-a-crown a day. The works were stopped at Enfield for want of funds; Myddelton applied to the citizens for aid, which they refused; he then solicited James I., who, on May 2, 1612, stood by his side and shared his venture. From the Calendar of State Papers it appears that the total payments out of the Treasury on account of the New River works amount to 86092.14s. 6d. The King obtained thereby 36 shares for the Crown, of each of which the value is now about 17,000/., and all of which the necessities of Charles I. compelled him to alienate for a fee-farm rent of 500Z. a year! The assertions that half-a-million was spent in the construction of the New River, that Myddelton made it out of the profits of a Welsh silver mine, that he died in poverty, &c, are without foundation. The river was constructed for about 17,000Z., and Myddelton himself lived long enough to derive a large profit from its financial prosperity. King James, by the way, tumbled into it; and when he was pulled out ” there came much water out of his mouth and body;” and much choler thereupon when he afterwards encountered Myddelton, and complained of his omitting to put up a fence. Sir Hugh was obliged to part with his 36 shares, when they were divided among various persons; these are called, Pse are ” adventurers’ ” shares. The 72 parts into which the property is now divided are still counted as 36 ” adventurers'” and 36 ” King’s ” shares, and the Royal annuity is still paid out of the profits apportioned to the latter. It is a curious fact that Sir Hugh precluded James from taking any part in the management of the company, although he allowed a person to be present at the meetings, to prevent injustice to his Royal principal. This preclusion still extends to the holders of the Royal shares. The works were now resumed; and on the 29th Sept. 1613, five years and five months from the commencement of the undertaking, and the day on which Sir Thomas Myddelton, Hugh’s brother, was elected Lord Mayor, the water was let into the basin at Clerkenwell (which had been previously a ducking-pond—” an open, idoll pool”) with great ceremony, before the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens: a troop of labourers “wearing green Monmouth caps, and carrying spades, shovels, and pickaxes,” marched after drums round the cistern; and one man delivered forty-eight lines in verse, ending with:—

” Now for the fruits, then. Flow forth, precious spring 1 , So long and dearly sought for, and now bring Comfort to all that love thee; loudly sing, And with thy crystal murmurs struck together, Bid all thy true well-wishers welcome hither.”

” When the floodgates flew open, the stream ran gallantly into the cisterne, drummes and trumpets sounding in triumphall manner, and a brave peal of chambers (guns) gave full issue to the intended entertainment.” There is an engraving by George Bickham of this animated ceremony. It shows the water flowing into a round reservoir, around which are grouped various persons, conspicuous among whom is the Lord Mayor, upon a white horse. On his left is Sir Hugh Myddelton, on the right is his brother, between Sir Thomas and Sir Henry Montague, the Recorder. Bishop Parker speaks of “the greate distruction of cheese-cakes at the opening of the New River;” Islington having long been celebrated for its cakes and cream.

Then came the difficulty of distributing the water “by pipes of stone and lead.” In Hughson’s London, vol. vi. p. 358, is the copy of a lease granted in 1616 by Hugh Myddelton to a citizen and his wife “of a pipe or quill of half-inch bore, for the service of their yarde and kitchene by means of two swan-necked cockes,” for 26s. 8d. yearly. And we read of the governor of Christ’s Hospital, in 1631, paying for ” New River water 41.” the year. And in 14th Report of Commissioners of Charities, up to 1825: Stafford’s Almshouses in Gray’s-inn-lane, for 10 persons, in 1651, stood upon half an acre taken out of Liquorpond-field; 30s. per annum paid to the New River Company for water taken there. Such as lived at a distance from the main were supplied by the water-carriers, who carried the water in wooden pails slung from a yoke across their shoulders, and cried, “Any New River water here?” In Tempest’s Cryes of London, 1711, is engraved one of these old water-bearers. Hone, in 1827, said the cry was scarcely extinct; and we recollect water thus cried at Hampstead, about 1851.

Myddelton was created a baronet in 1622. The proprietors were incorporated in 1619 as the New River Company, Sir Hugh being appointed the first governor, and this being the first water company; although Ben Jonson, in 1598, says, “We have water-companies now, instead of water-carriers.” {livery Man in his Eutnovr.) The Charter makes it a penal offence to cast into the river earth, rubbish, soil, gravel, stones, dogs, cats, cattle, carrion, &c.; prohibits, “under penalty of the King’s displeasure,” pe a pleasurrsons from washing clothes, wool, &c., in it, and from conveying thereto any sink, sewer, ditch, &c.; and forbids the planting of sallows, willows, or elms within five yards of it. In the Calendar of State Papers of this period are many-entries of grants of rents and profits, and places of emolument; hut when, in 1665, the King recommended Simon, son of Sir Hugh Myddelton, as clerk of the Company, this appointment was refused. No dividend was made by the Company till 1633, when 11/. 9s. Id. was divided upon each share. The second dividend amounted to only 3/. 4s. 2d.

Sir Hugh died December 10, 1631, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Matthew, Friday-street, London. He died, holding shares in the Company, and others in miues in Wales. He bequeathed to the Goldsmiths’ Company one New River Share, which formerly produced 314/. per annum, but does not now reach 200/.; the produce is distributed half-yearly among the poor of the Company, especially to men of Myddelton’s name or kindred. There is a fine portrait of Sir Hugh, by Janssen, at Goldsmiths’ Hall.

Lady Myddelton, the mother of the last Baronet, ” received a pension of 20/. per annum from the Goldsmiths’ Company, which, after her death, was continued to her son Hugh, though he possessed other property: he was a person of dissipated habits, and with him the baronetcy became extinct. In July, 1808, the Corporation of London ordered an annuity of 50/. to be paid to a male descendant of the Myddelton family, then in great distress. Another lineal descendant, Jabez Myddelton, received a pension of 52/. per annum from the Corporation until his death, 27th March, 1828; and in July of that year, Mrs. Jane Myddelton Bowyer had 30/. a year allowed her. This annuity was reduced to 7*. a week in September, when Mrs. Plummer, another of the family (since dead) was permitted to receive the same weekly stipend. The Corporation have since passed a resolution to the effect that they will grant no more relief to Myddelton’s family.” — Pinks’s History of Clerlcenwell, p. 468.

The River, in its devious course from the fountain-head at Chadwell, meanders through the towns and villages of Hoddesden, Cheshunt, Enfield, Hornsey, Stoke Newington, and Islington; enters the parish of Clerkenwell at the bridge under the Goswell-road, and flowing through Owen’s-row, submerges beneath St. John-street-road; thence it proceeds between Myddelton-place and Sadler’s Wells, and passing beneath a third bridge, enters the Company’s grounds, where its waters are received into the great reservoir called its Head. By the formation, since the year 1852, of more direct channels at Warmley, Theobalds, Forty Hill, Enfield, Southgate, Wood Green, and Hornsey, the river has been shortened by about ten miles. The river, between the Thatched House, Islington, and Colebrook-row, has, from the first, passed through an underground arch or tunnel. The stream between Bird’s-buildings and the Head was covered by iron pipes in the year 1861. The Company obtained two Acts of Parliament—1852, 15 & 16 Vict., cap. cix.; and 1854, 17 Vict., cap. lxxii.—to empower them to shorten the river, to filter the water, to cover their filtered water reservoirs, and otherwise to improve and greatly enlarge their Works, at a cost of nearly a million sterling. About where the New River enters Islington parish, it was formerly conducted over the valley by an enormous wooden trough, 462 feet in length, and 17 feet high, lined with lead, and supported on brick piers, and it then went by the name of ” the Boarded River;” but in 1776, a passage for the stream was made in a bank of earth nean m of earrly along the old track. There was a similarly boarded aqueduct constructed at Bush-hill, Edmonton, in 1608. Myddelton’s house here gave, perhaps, the first occasion to the project; and the great addition this stream m;ide to the pleasures of Theobalds, encouraged James I., who resided there, to have the design completed, as it ran through his park and gardens. As a specimen of early engineering, this great work has an interesting and instructive history.

The New River Head is a vast circular basin enclosed by a brick wall, whence the water is conveyed by sluices into large brick cisterns, and thence by mains and riders, named according to the districts which they supply. Here is the Company’s house, •originally built in 1613: the board-room, over one of the cisterns, is wainscoted, and has a fine specimen of Gibbons’s carving; on the ceiling are a portrait of William III., and the arms of Myddelton and Green.

North of the New River Head, the stream was formerly let into a tank or reservoir under the stage of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, which was drawn up by machinery for

” real water” scenes, the water being sufficiently deep for men to swim in. Formerly, in the fields behind the British Museum, the New River pipes were propped up six or eight feet, so that persons walked under them to gather water-cresses.

The entire works have cost upwards of a million and a half of money. The main source of supply is now the River Lea. The water has only been filtered since 1852 : the filtering-beds, gravel and Harwich sand, have cost upwards of 35,000Z. The water having reached the Works at Islington, is there filtered, and delivered into a tunnel 800 feet long, and 8ft. by 6ft. Gin. diameter, whence it is passed by steam-engines of 300 horse power, into the service reservoir and distributing mains: the channels at Islington, by Mylne, contain two millions and a half of bricks. The east service reservoir at Pentonville, built in hydraulic lime, contains 4 millions of bricks, of which nearly 40,000 were laid in one day; and the covering of this reservoir cost 21,000Z. The Stoke Newington Works comprise five filter-beds, each exceeding one acre, fed from a reservoir, which covers nearly 40 acres; and the engine-house contains six steam-engines—1000 horses—which convey the water to service reservoirs, near Highgate, each of which will contain 1\ million gallons of filtered water. Notwithstanding this is the oldest metropolitan water supply, it is still called New River. The Company have removed their old aqueducts and reservoirs in different parts of the metropolis, and have built on the sites they occupied. The well-known canal which used to supply the real water to Sadler’s Wells Theatre has been drained dry, and filled in, and large iron water-pipes have been placed in its bed. The reservoir in Coppice-row has also been removed. The name of Myddelton is honoured in Clerkenwell and Islington: street and square and hall bear his name, as well as Chadwell and Ainwell; and of Mylne, the engineer of the Company. Upon Islington-green is a portrait statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton, presented by Sir Morton Peto, Bart., M.P. ; it is the work of John Thomas, and is of Sicilian marble, 8 feet 6 inches high, the figure being in the costume of the period. It is on a pedestal sculptured with dolphins and nautilus-shells, fountains, festoons of shells, water-flowers, &c.; the group in the centre of a basin for water, with a bold ornamental curb, in the Italian style.

The marketable value of the Company’s on he Compshares has varied considerably at different periods. In 1727, a King’s share was valued at 5000 guineas; in 1766, the clear annual value of a King’s share was 154/.; in August, 1770, a similar share, said to yield 240/. per annum, was advertised for sale, and fetched 7000/.; in 1805, one was sold at the Senegal Coffee House for 4400/.; at Garraway’s, in 1813, an adventurer’s share produced 8000/., and in 1814, 7450/.; in August, 1822, a moiety of one of the same shares sold lor 4725/. In 1838, an original share sold for 18,000 guineas ; in 1837, two quarter shares were sold at the rate of 18,900/. per share; and in the beginning of 1839, two whole shares were sold, one for 17,000/., the other for 17,500/. On Jan. 28,1852, three-sevenths of a quarter of a King’s share sold for ltOO/., the dividend on this portion producing 90/. per annum. The value of a share at the present time is about 20,000/. Sir Henry Ncvill, Knt., who was one of the original adventurers with Myddelton, mentioned among the grantees of the Company’s Charter, June 21, 1619, and who died in 1629, possessed two parts in thirty-six parts of the Water-course and New River running from Chadwell and Amwell, then valued at 13/. 0«. 4d. per annum. The annual rental of the Company in 1851 was 135,794/., and it is now 204,750/. About 112,000 houses are now supplied with water by the New River. The daily supply is 25 millions of gallons. The Company have nearly 600 miles of pipes, &c, valued at about 600,000/.

NEW-ROAD

THE New-road was formed by Act of Parliament of the 29th of Geo. II., in the year 1756, but not without much petty opposition thereto from the landholders whose property lay in the line of the proposed new route to the west-end. Horace Walpole notices, in one of his letters, the objection of the Duke of Bedford to it on account of the ” dust it would make in the rear of Bedford-house;” and adds, that ” the duke is too short-sighted to see the prospect.” A complaint was made by one of the Duke’s tcnantSj who held from him a large cow-farm in the intended route, at a rental of 3?. an acre, ” that the dust and the number of people must entirely spoil her fields, and make them no better than common-land; she intreats his Grace to prevent such an evil, as it would be impossible for her to hold his estate without a large abatement of rent.”

On such frivolous opposition the Public Advertizer, of Feb. 20, 1756, remarks that ” all objections to new roads, which arise merely from partial and separate interests, that happen in this respect to be opposite to the interests of the public, should have no

weight.” The journalist then proceeds to notice the advantages to the public in general of the proposed thoroughfare. ” How much the communication with almost every part of the metropolis will be facilitated. Drovers from the west will pass from the extremity of the city to the centre in one continued straight line. Persons that have business in other parts may reach them by cross-roads communicating with the main line; and persons of fashion, who live in the great squares and buildings about Oxford-road, may come into the city without being jolted three miles over the stones, or perhaps detained three hours by a stop in a narrow street. It must also be remembered that those who shall find it necessary to pass through the streets will pass much more commodiously, as the number of carriages will be lessened and the pavement preserved.”

In the preamble of the Act of 29th Geo. II., it is stated,” that in times of mos in timthreatened invasion, the New Road will form a complete line of circumvallation, and his Majesty’s forces may easily and expeditiously inarch their way into Essex to defend our coasts, without passing through the cities of London and Westminster.”

When this great trunk-line of road was in course of construction, the progress made upon it was from time to time noticed in the public journals. Thus, under date May 8, 1756, we are apprised of its early commencement by being informed that on the Wednesday following, the trustees would meet, and that on the next day the men were to work upon it. At this period the expense of making the road was computed at 8000Z. After the lapse of a few months, during the interval of which the road-makers must have worked industriously, the following appeared in print on the 13th of September, 1756 :—” It is with pleasure we assure the public that great numbers of coaches, carriages, and horsemen daily pass over the New-road, from Islington to Battle-bridge.” Five days later, September 17th, we are informed that the banks and fences of the land between Paddington and Islington were levelled, and the New Road across the fields opened to the public. In the December of 1756, the expensiveness of the road was adverted to, and 100,000 cart-loads of gravel estimated to be required for its completion.

Within half a century, Bedford House was levelled to the ground, and the fields beyond it are now covered with houses, enlarging by many thousands the income of the Bedford family, with a reversionary interest in a city of itself. The New-road is the great omnibus route from Paddington to the City; whereas in 1798 only one coach ran from Paddington to the Bank, and the proprietor was nearly ruined by the speculation! Shillibeer, the first omnibus-proprietor, fared no better in 1829.

The pleasant aspect of this grand thoroughfare during several months of the year, which the trees and the gardens in front of most of the houses contribute chiefly to impart, is owing to a clause in the original Act for making the road, prohibiting the erection of any building within 50 feet of it; whilst at the same time it empowers the authorities of parishes through which the road passes to pull down any such erection, and levy the expenses on the offender’s goods and chattels. The lapse of a century, however, seems to have materially modified this penal enactment, for numerous are the instances in which the 50-feet plot is built upon.

The New-road is now variously named as follows:—Between the Angel at Islington and King’s-cross, the Pentonville-road; from King’s-cross to Osnaburgh-street, Enston-road; and from Osnaburgh-street to Edgware-road, the Marylebone-road. J. T. Smith has left this reminiscence of the New-road:—

Wilson was fond of playing at skittles, and frequented the Green Man public-house in the New-road, at the end of Norton-street, originally known as ” The Farthing Pye House;” where bits of mutton were put into a crust shaped like a pie, and actually sold for a farthing. This house was kept in my boyish days bv a vary facetious man named Price, of whom there is a mezzotinto portrait. He was an excellent salt-box player, and frequently accompanied the famous Abel when playing on the violoncello. Wilkes was a frequenter of this house, to procure votes for Middlesex, as it was resorted to by many opulent freeholders.

In 1856, Harley House, in the New-road, was >

NEWGATE STREET,

NAMED from the City-gate at its east end, has on the south side the end of Newgate Prison, and extends eastward to Cheapside, with lanes and courts on the south leading to Paternoster-row. On the north side is the front of the great hall of Christ’s Hospital, huilt upon the site of Grey Friars’ monastery; the principal gates have characteristic casts and sculpture. Nearly’ opposite is Warwick-lane, with a has-relief of Guy Earl of Warwick, dated 1668. In the Lane was the old College of Physicians, taken down in 1866. Here are the old inns, the Bell and Oxford Arms. Next is Ivy-lane, ” so called of ivy growing on the walls of the Prebend-house.” (Stow.) Dr. Johnson, in 1748, with Hawkesworth and Hawkins, formed a Club for literary discussion. Here also have lived publishers for two centuries.

” I was at Eayston’s shop, in Ivie Lane, Pebr. the 8,1661. Hee printed the Marquis of Winchester’s conference with the King; hee printed most of the Royalists’ Works, as Hamonds”, Taylor’s pieces, and others.”— Diary qfthe Ilev. John Ward.

On the north side, up a passage, is Christ Church, described at p. 157. Next is King Edward-street, so named in 1843; formerly Blowbladder-street, Butcher-hall-lane, Chick-lane, and Stinking-lane. Above Bull-head-court is a stone bas-relief of William Evans, 7 feet 6 inches high, porter to Charles I.; and Jeffrey Hudson, the King’s Dwarf, 3 feet 9 inches high. Bath-street, first Pincock or Pentecost-lane, and next Bagnio-court, was named from there being here the first bagnio in town, after the Turkish manner. (See Baths, p. 38.)

In Newgate-street, nearly opposite, is Banyer-alley, where is the sculptured stone described at p. 516: it is stated by Stow to have been a sign. In Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair we read of the stinking tripe of Panyer-alley. In Queen’s Head-passage is a Queen Anne tavern, now Dolly’s Chop-house: Gainsborough is said to-have painted Dolly. The Passage is named from the Queen’s Head Tavern, which occupied the site of the premises of Alderman Sir B. S. Phillips, Lord Mayor, 1865-6.

NEWINGTON, OR NEWINGTON BUTTS,

A LARGE parish in Surrey, adjoining St. George, Southwark, north and east; Camberwell, south; and Lambeth, west. In Domesday Book (11th century), the only inhabited part of this parish was Walworth, where, according to the Norman survey, was a church, upon the rebuilding of which on a new site it probably became ” surrounded with houses, which obtained the name of Neweton, as it is called in the most ancient records; it was afterwards spelt Newenton and Newington.” (Lysons’s Environs, vol. i. p. 389.) Here were butts for archery practice: the earliest record of Newington Butts is in the register of Archbishop Pole at Lambeth, date 1558. In the reign of Henry VIII. (1546), three men were condemned as Anabaptists, and ” brent in the highway beyond Southwark, towards Newenton.” (Stow’s Chronicle, p. 964.) The only manor in the parish is Walworth, given by King Edmund Ironside to Hitard, his jester, who, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, gave the vellr, gaveill of Walworth to the monks of Christ Church at Canterbury. They received from Edward II. a grant of free-warren here; and in the reign of Edward III. and Richard II., and subsequently, the manor is said to have been held by persons of a family named from this place: thus, Margaret de Walworth, lady of the manor in 1396, was the widow of the famous Sir William Walworth; and at Walworth is a modern sign of his killing Wat Tyler in Smithfield. In the museum of the Society of Antiquaries is a dagger which was found on the supposed site of Sir William’s house at Walworth. (See Fishmongers’ Hall, p. 401.) Sir George Walworth died seized of the manor in 1474. In the valuation of Church property, 26 Henry VIII., it is rated at 37£. 8s. In the reign of Henry III., the queen’s goldsmith held of the king, in capite, one acre of land in Neweton, by the service of rendering one gallon of honey. The old church (St. Mary’s) is described at p. 187. There are district churches and various sectarian chapels. South of Newington Causeway (the first road across the swampy fields) is Horsemonger-lane, opposite which was formerly a hay-market. In the lane are the County Gaol and Surrey Sessions-house, built upon the site of a market-garden, three and a half acres, by George Gwilt, 1798-9. At Walworth, upon a demesne once attached to the manor-house, were the Surrey Zoological Gardens, whither Cross removed his menagerie from the King’s Mews in 1831; and where, in 1856, was huilt a large Music Hall, described at p. 609, subsequently occupied as St. Thomas’s Hospital. In Walworth-road is a handsome Vestry-hall, Lombardic in style, red brick, with dressings of Portland stone, and shafts of polished red granite.

Maitland notes: west of the Fishmongers’ Almshouses (see p. 8) ” is a moorish ground, with a small watercourse denominated the river Tygris, which is part of Cnut’s trench; the outflux of which is on the east side of Eotherhithe parish, where the Great Wet Dock is situate.” In 1823, when the road between the almshouses and Newington Church was dug up for a new sewer, some piles and posts were discovered, with rings for mooring barges; also a pot of coins of Charles II. and William III. A parishioner named Farns, who died, aged 109 years, early in the present century, remembered when boats came up this ” river ” as far as the church at Newington. (Brayley’s Surrey, vol. iii. p. 405.) The old Elephant and Cattle is noticed at p. 453.

NEWINGTON, OR STOKE NEWINGTON,

IN Domesday, Newtone, and Stoke Neweton as early as 1391, is named from the Saxon stoc, wood, it having been part of the ancient forest of Middlesex ; and in 1649 here were upwards of 77 acres of woodland in demesne. It is separated from Hackney and Ossulston by the great road, anciently the Ermen-street. Tradesmen’s tokens were issued from here in the 17th century : one exists with ” Laurence Short, Adam and Eve” (in the field between Islington church and the City-road); and another, ” John Ball, at the Boarded House, neere Newington Greene,” who kept a low house for bull-baiting, duck-hunting, &c. at Ball’s Pond, long since filled up, but it gives name to a little hamlet. At Stoke Newington Daniel Defoe (whence Defoe-road) and Thomas Day (Sandford and Merton) were educated; John Howard the philanthropist lodged here, and married his landlady; Hannah Snell, the soldier, lived in Church-street; here died Mrs. Barbauld, in 1825, in her 82nd year. The mansion of Sir Thomas Abney, where Dr. Watts resided with his piod i with hus friend, existed until 1844, when the fine grounds were converted into the Abney Park Cemetery. Mrs. Abney, the daughter of Sir Thomas, ordered by her will that this estate should be sold, and the produce distributed in charitable donations, which was accordingly done: it amounted to many thousand pounds.

Newington Green, in the parishes of Stoke Newington and Islington, had, within the present century, several ancient houses, one of which, on the south side, was traditionally a palace of Henry VIII.; and a path leading from the Green to Ball’s Pond ‘ turnpike has been, time out of mind, called King Henry’s Walk: the house was, however, evidently built in the reign of James I. At the north-west corner of the Green was ” Bishop’s Place,” where Henry Algernon, Earl Percy, is said to have written his memorable letter disclaiming matrimonial contract with Queen Anne Boleyn, dated “at Newington Greene,” the 13th of May, 28th Henry VIII. Thomas Sutton, founder of the Charterhouse, was once an occupant of the Manor House; one of its ancient hostelries, the Three Crowns, was the place of refreshment for James VI. of Scotland when he was met on Stamford-hill by the Lord Mayor, on his way from Holy-rood to London; and the Earls of Bath and Oxford had mansions here. Here lived several of the ejected ministers, towards the close of the 17th century: Colonel Popham and Charles Fleetwood, two of Cromwell’s best men; and many of the heroes of the Revolution of 1688 found shelter here. Adjoining Bishop’s Place was a porch-house, wherein was born, in 1762, Samuel Bogers, the poet.

Stoke Newington is one of the few rural villages in the immediate environs. Though, as the crow flies, but three miles from the General Post Office, it is still rich in parks, and gardens, and old trees. Here is a cedar which dates from the first introduction of this noble tree into England; mulberry, oak, walnut, and elm trees abound j gardens where horticulture is practised according to the latest lights j and here was established the first Chrysanthemum Society.

NEWSPAPERS.

THE earliest printed London newspapers are preserved in the British Museum, and described at p. 585. The News of the Present Week, edited by Nathaniel Butler, was ridiculed in Ben Jonson’s Staple of News, 1625; and a few months after, in Fletcher’s

Fair Maid of the Inn: it was sold ” at the Exchange, and in Pope’s-bead Pallace.” In 1G96 there were nine newspapers published in London, all weekly. In 1709 the newspapers had increased to eighteen : in this year appeared the Daily Courant, the first morning paper; and to the reign of Queen Anne the first publication of ” regular newspapers” must be referred. In 1724 there were three daily, six weekly, seven three times a week, three halfpenny posts, and the London Gazette twice a week; in 1792, thirteen daily, and 20 semi-weekly and weekly papers.

The English Chronicle, or Whitehall Evening Post, was started 1747 ;* the Public Ledger was commenced Jan. 12, 1760, by Newbery, the bookseller, and in it appeared Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World; the St. James’s Chronicle, 1761; and the Morning Chronicle, 1769.

The Morning Chronicle was conducted by William Woodfall till 1789, when he was succeeded by James Perry, who introduced the present system of reporting the debates in Parliamewsps in Pant. Mr. (Serjeant) Spankie was long editor of the Chronicle; Lord Campbell commenced on it his London career, and was its theatrical critic in 1810. Coleridge and Campbell were contributors. Sheridan names the Chronicle in his Critic: Canning in a poem; Byron addressed to it a familiar letter: Hazlitt was its theatrical critic; and here first appeared Sketches by Boz (Charles Dickens). After Perry’s death (1821), the Chronicle was purchased for 42,0002. by Mr. Clement, who, in 1834, sold it to Sir John Easthope, Bart., who was connected with it until 1847. The Chronicle was discontinued March 20,1862. Until 1822, it was printed at 143, Strand: and in the same office was subsequently printed, by John Limbird, the Mirror, the first of the cheap illustrated periodicals.

The Morning Post, established in 1772, circulated in 1795 only 350 a-day. Coleridge, in his Table-Talk, states that he raised the sale in one year tc 7000; in 1803 it was 4500:

” Coleridge, long before his flighty pen Let to the Morning Post its aristocracy.”—Byron’s Don Juan.

Sir James Mackintosh and Charles Lamb were also contributors; and Mackworth Praed, the poet, was some time editor.

The Morning Herald was commenced November 1, 1780, by Mr. Bate, afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, who seceded from the Morning Post.

The Times was commenced by John Walter, in Printing-house-square, Blackfriars, previously the site of the King’s Printing-House.f The first number, January 1, 1788 (that in the British Museum has no stamp), was a continuation of the Daily Universal Register, No. 939, which, with the Times, was ” printed logographically,” i. e. with stereotyped words and metal letters. In 1803, the late John Walter, son of the above, became joint-proprietor and exclusive manager of the Times, whence by priority of its intelligence, it has risen to be the ” leading journal of Europe.” The Times of November 29, 1814, was the first newspaper printed by steam, from two machines made by Kcenig, which produced 1800 per hour, until 1827, when they were superseded by Applegath and Cowper’s four-cylindered machine, yielding 5000 impressions per hour; and in 1848 was erected Applegath’s vertical machine, producing 8000 copies in an hour. Mr. Walter died in Printing-house-square in 1847, bequeathing a large personal estate, and having erected and endowed a handsome church at Bearwood, Berks. He devised his interest in the Times to his son, John Walter, M.P. for Nottingham, the present proprietor; the journal being thus still in the hands of the family of its founder, and in this respect standing alone amongst the morning papers. (Hunt’s Fourth Estate, vol. ii. p. 153.) Amongst the many valuable services rendered by the Times to the commercial world, was the detection and exposure of the Bogle conspiracy in 1841; in indemnification of which, 26252.—the Times Testimonial—was subscribed by the London merchants and bankers, but was declined; and the amount was invested in scholarships at Christ’s Hospital and the City of London School, where and in the Royal Exchange are commemorative tablets, as also upon the facade of the Times Office.

The Times Printing Machinery may be inspected by previously obtaining cards, at

* There had previously been a London Chronicle, which was regularly read by George III., whose copy of it Amse copy may be seen in the British Museum.—Hunt’s Fourth Estate, vol. ii. p. 99.

f Beneath the Times Office is a fragment of the Roman wall, upon which is a Norman or Early English reparation; and upon that are the remains of a passage and window, which probably belonged to the Blackfriars monastery.— National Miscellany, October, 1853.

11 a.m., when the second edition of the paper is being printed. We can only describe generally this great improvement in newspaper printing—a machine in which the type is placed on the surface of a cylinder of large dimensions, which revolves on a vertical axis, with a continuous rotary motion. The cylinder is a drum of cast iron; the form, or pages of type, are made segments of its surface, just as a tower of brick might be faced with stone. Eight printing cylinders are arranged round the drum, and eight sheets are printed in every revolution. The type only covers a small portion of the circumference of the drum, and in the interval there is a large inking jtable, fixed like the type on its circular face. This table communicates the ink to eight upright inking rollers, placed between the several printing cylinders—the rollers, in their turn, communicating the ink to the type. So far the arrangement is perfectly simple, the machine being, in fact, composed of the parts in ordinary use, only made circular and placed in a vertical instead of a horizontal position. The great problem of the inventor was the right mode of ” feeding,” or supplying the sheets of paper to their printing cylinders in their new position—or changing the sheet of paper (the Times newspaper) in less than four seconds, from a horizontal to a vertical position and back again; and through still more changes of direction; which is done by passing through endless tapes and vertical rollers in rapid motion, which convey it round the printing cylinders, each of which always touches the type at the same corresponding point, the surfaces moving with a great velocity. The Times machines are also well described in Weale’s London, p. 76.

“No description,” says Hansard (Ency. Brit., 8th edit.), ” can give any adequate idea of the scene presented by one of these machines in full work,—the maze of wheels and rollers, the intricate lines of swift-moving tapes, the flight of sheets, and the din of machinery. The central drum moves at the rate of six feet per second, or one revolution in three seconds; the impression cylinder makes five revolutions in the same time. The layer-on delivers two sheets every five seconds, consequently fifteen sheets are printed in that brief space. The Times employs two of these eight-cylinder machines, each of which averages 12,000 impressions per hour; and one nine-cylinder, which prints 16,000.” Also, Hoe’s American machine, with ten horizontal cylinders, for working 20,000 impressions in an hour.

The Times has nearly quadrupled its circulation since 1838. Its daily number in 1853 was between 42 and 43,000. The Paper and Supplement, 72 columns, is made up of more than a million of pieces of type. In 1846, the profit on each paper was stated to be three-eighths of a penny, out of which were to be defrayed all the expenses of the journal, except paper and stamp. The annual amount of stamp duty was 60,000/. Among the largest issues of the Times were, Oct. 29, 1844 (opening of the New Royal Exchange), 50,000. Jan. 28, 1846, (Sir R. Peel’s speech on the Corn Laws and the Tariff), 52,000, when the usual number was between 27 and 28,000. March 1, 1848 (French Revolution), 48,000. April 11,1848 (Chartist Meeting), 46,000. May 2,1851 (opening of the Great Exhibition), 55,000. Sept fa 55,000. 15 and 16, 1852 (Death of the Duke of Wellington), 2 days, each 53,000. Nov. 19, 1852 (Funeral of the Duke), 70,000. The advertisements during June 1853 averaged 1500 each day; and in one day in June there were 2250 inserted! then the greatest number that had ever appeared in one paper. It has been stated, that in printing one of the above large issues were used 7 tons of paper; surface printed, 30 acres; weight of type, 7 tons.

Among the literary coliaborateurs of the Times, the names of Barnes, Sterling, and Twiss are prominent. Mr. Justice Talfourd and Baron Alderson were once upon its staff; as were also Mr. Gilbert h Beckett, and Mr. Thackeray. The editorship was offered to Southey, with a salary of 2000/. per annum, but was declined; and a similar offer was made to the poet Moore, with a like result.

The Morning Advertiser was established in 1795, as the organ of the interests and charities of Licensed Victuallers.

The Daily News dates from 1846.

The Star, the first daily evening newspaper, established in 1788 by Peter Stuart, was long conducted by Dr. Tilloch, editor of the Philosophical Magazine.

Johnson’s Sunday Monitor, the first newspaper published on the Sabbath, appeared in 1778. The oldest weekly newspaper is the Observer, established 1792. Bell’s Weekly Messenger dates from 1796.

The Illustrated London News, projected by Herbert Ingram, and commenced by him May 14, 1842, enjoys the largest sale of the high-priced weekly papers. Iu 1852 there were sold 230,000, double number (Funeral of the Duke of Wellington). The issues have since far exceeded this number—as at Christmas, double sheet. The sale throughout the Crimean war approached 200,000 each week.

The City Press is entitled to commendable mention here for its special attention to London antiquities, as well as its weekly chronicle of current events.

After the remission of the stamp duty, the number of daily newspapers considerably

increased, so that there are now published in the metropolis 25 daily papers.

On Monday, March 9,1863 (Marriage of the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra of Denmark), the circulation of the Times was 135,000; of these three papers, at one penny, Daily Telegraph, 230,000; Morning Star and Standard between 80,000 and 100,000 each. The day of the Wedding was Tuesday, the 10th, and on Wednesday, the 11th, the circulation was sustained and increased. The Illustrated London News’ orders were for 315,000, but only 200,000 could be executed. The value of the Times’ edition amounts to 1687?. 10*.: the Daily Telegraph to 953?. 68. Sd. ; the Illustrated London News, at lOi., to 8333?. 6*. 8d. The daily circulation of the Daily Telegraph in 1866 was 138,704.

OLD BAILEY,

THE street extending from Ludgate-hill to Newgate-street; thwgate-s “outside of Ludgate, parallel with the walls as far as Newgate.” Hence the name—from the ballium, or outer space, near Ludgate,* its relative position iii regard to the ancient wall of the City; the remains of which might be traced in some massive stone-work in Seacoal-lane, at the bottom of Breakneck-steps, west of the Old Bailey; and opposite it3 entrance from Ludgate-hill, in St. Martin’s-court. (See p. 539.) Maitland, however, refers Old Bailey to Bail-hill; an eminence whereon was situated the bail, or bailiff’s house, wherein he held a court for the trial of malefactors : and the place of security where the Sheriff keeps the prisoners during the session is still named the Hail-dock. Stow states the Chamberlain of London to have kept his court here in the reign of Edward III. In Pennant’s time, here stood Sydney House (then occupied by a coachmaker), the mansion of the Sydneys till they removed to Leicester-fields (see p. 511). The Old Bailey Sessions-house is described at pp. 506-507.

” By a sort of second-sight, the Surgeons’ Theatre was built near this court of conviction and Newgate, the concluding stage of the lives forfeited to the justice of their country, several years before the fatal tree was removed from Tyburn to its present site. It is a handsome building, ornamented with Ionic pilasters, and with a double flight of steps to the first floor. Beneath is a door for the admission of the bodies of murderers and other felons, who, noxious in their lives, make a sort of reparation to their fellow-creatures by becoming useful after death.”— Pennant.

After the execution of Lord Ferrers, at Tyburn, in 1V60, the body was conveyed in his own landau and six to Surgeons’ Hall, to undergo the remainder of the sentence. A large incision having been made from the neck to the bottom of the breast, and another across the throat, the lower part of the belly was laid open, and the bowels were taken away. The body was afterwards publicly exposed to view in a first-floor room; and a print of the time shows the corpse ” as it lay in the Surgeons’ Hall.” Here sat the Court of Examiners, by whom Oliver Goldsmith was rejected 21st December, 1758; and in the books of the College of Surgeons, amidst a long list of candidates who passed, occur: ” James Bernard, mate to an hospital. Oliver Goldsmith, found not qualified for ditto.” “A rumour of this rejection long existed; and on a hint from Maton, the king’s physician, Mr. Pryor succeeded in discovering it.” (Forster’s Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith, p. 140.) Surgeons’ Hall was taken down in 1809, and upon its site was built the New Sessions-house; whence the prison of Newgate extends on the east side of the street, widened at the north end by the removal of the houses of the Little Old Bailey. Here the place of execution was changed from Tyburn in 1783, and the first culprit executed Dec. 9. The gallows was built with three cross-beams, for as many rows of sufferers; and between February and December, 1785, ninety-six persons suffered by ” the new drop,” substituted for the cart. About 1786, here was the last execution followed by burning the body; when a woman was hung upon a low gibbet, and life being extinct, fagots were heaped around her and over her head, fire was set to the pile, and the corpse burnt to ashes. On one occasion the old mode of execution was renewed: a triangular gallows was set up in the road opposite Green Arbour-court, and the cart was drawn from under the criminals’ feet.

* The church of St. Peter in the Bailey, at Oxford, derives its appellation from having formerly-stood within the outer ballium of Oxford Castle.

Memorable Executions in the Old Bailey. —Mrs. Phepoe, murderess, Dec. 11,1797. Governor Wall, murder, Jan. 28, 1802. Holloway and Haggerty,murder, Feb. 22,1807 (30spectators trodden to death). Bellingham, assassin of Mr. Perceval, May 18,1812. Eliza Fenning, poisoning, July 26, 1815. Arthur Thistlewood and four others (Cato-street gang), murder and treason, May 1, 1820 (their bodies were decapitated by a surgeon on the scaffold). Fauntleroy, the banker, forgery. Nov. 30,1824. Joseph Hunton (Quaker), forgery, Dec. 8, 1828. Bishop and William’s, murder (burkers), Dec. 5, 1831. John Pegsworth, murder, March 7, 1837. James Greenacre, murder, May 2, 1837. Courvoisier, murder of Lord William Russell, July 6,1840. Francis Miiller, murder in a railway carriage, 1864. Seven pirates for murder on the high seas, Feb. 23, 1S64.

It was formerly the usage to execute the criminal near the scene of his guilt. Those who were punished capitally for the Riots of 17S0 suffered in those parts of the town in which their crimes were committed; and in 1790 two incendiaries were hanged in Aldersgate-street, at the eastern end of Long-lane, opposite the site of the house they had set fire to. Since that period there have been few executions in London, except in front of Newgate. The last deviation from the regular course was in the case of the sailor Cashman, who was hung, in 1817, in Skinner-street, opposite the shop of Mr. Beckwith, the gunsmith, which he had plundered.

In Green Arbbur-court, No. 12, at the corner of Breakneck-steps, in Seacoal-lane. leading from Farringdon-street, lodged Oliver Goldsmith from 1758 to 1760, when he wrote for the Monthly Review; and the editor, Griffiths, became security for the suit of clothes in which Goldsmith offered himself for examination at Surgeons’ Hall. In this miserable lodging he was writing his Polite Learning Enquiry, when Dr. Percy called upon him, and the fellow-lodger’s poor ragged girl came to borrow ” a chamberpotful of coals.” The house was taken down thirty years since.

Peter Bales, the celebrated penman, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, kept a writing-school, in 1590, at the upper end of the Old Bailey, and published here his Writing Schoolmaster: in a writing trial he won a golden pen, value 201.; and the ” arms of caligraphy, viz. azure, a pen or, were given to Bales as a prize.” {Sir George Buck.) Prynne’s Histriomastix was printed ” for Michael Sparke, and sold at the Blue Bible, in Little Old Bayly, 1633.”

William Camden, ” the nourrice of antiquitie,” was born in the Old Bailey, where his father was a painter-stainer. In Ship-court, on the west side, was bom William Hogarth, the painter; and at the corner of Ship-court, No. 67, three doors from Ludgate-hill, William Hone kept a little shop, where he published his noted Parodies* in 1817, for which he was three times tried and acquitted. Next door, at No. 68, lived the infamous Jonathan Wild.

OLD JEWRY,

A STREET leading from the Poultry to Cateaton-street; and “so called of Jews-some time dwelling there and near adjoining” (Stow), first brought here by William Duke of Normandy. They had here, at the north-west corner, a synagogue, suppressed in 1291; it was next the church of the Friars of the Sack: here Robert Large kept his mayoralty in 1439; Hugh Clopton in 1492; and in Stew’s time it was the Windmill Tavern, mentioned in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour: its site is denoted by Wp, denoteindmill-court. “In the reign of Henry VI., at the north end was one of the king’s palaces” {Ration); in the reign of Richard III. it was called the Prince’s Wardrobe; and in 1548, Edward VI., it was sold to Sir Anthony Cope. On the west side, about 40 yards from Cheapside, was built in 1670 the Mercers’ Chapel Grammar School, removed in 1787, when Old Jewry was widened.

In a courtyard here was the stately mansion built by Sir Robert Clayton for keeping his shrievalty in 1671-2. It was nobly placed upon a stone balustraded terrace, in a courtyard, and was of fine red brick, richly ornamented. John Evelyn, who was a guest at a great feast here, describes, in his Diary, Sept. 26, 1672, the mansion as “built indeede for a greate magistrate at excessive cost. The cedar dining-room is painted with the history of the Gyants’ War, incomparably done by Mr. Streeter; but the figures are too near the eye.” Mr. Bray, the editor of the Diary, adds (1818), “these paintings have long since been removed to the seat of the Clayton family, at Marden Park, near Godstone, in Surrey;” in the possession of the present baronet. In 1679-80 Charles II. and the Duke of York supped at the mansion in the Old Jewry, with Sir Robert Clayton, then Lord Mayor. The balconies of the houses in the streets were illuminated with flambeaux; and the King and the Duke had a passage made for them by the Trained Bands upon the guard from Cheapside. Sir Robert represented the

metropolis nearly thirty years in Parliament, and was Father of the City at his decease. His son was created a baronet in 1731-2. Sir James Thornhill painted the staircase of the Old Jewry mansion with the story of Hercules and Omphale, besides a copy of the ” Rape of Deianira,” after Guido. The house had several tenants before it was occupied by Samuel Sharp, the celebrated surgeon. In 1806 it was opened as the temporary home of the London Institution, with a library of 10,000 volumes. Here, in the rooms he occupied as librarian of the Institution, died Professor Porson, on the night of Sunday, Sept. 25, 1808, ” with a deep groan, exactly as the clock struck twelve.” Dr. Adam Clarke has left a most interesting account of his visits to Porson here. The Institution removed from the house in 1810, and it was next occupied as the Museum of the London Missionary Society, and subsequently divided into offices. The Lord Mayor’s Court was latterly held here. The mansion was taken down in the autumn of 1863. Although it had been built scarcely two centuries, this mansion was a very handsome specimen of the palace of a merchant-prince, carrying us back to the sumptuous civic life of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when our rich citizens lived in splendour upon the sites whereon they had accumulated their well-earned wealth.

In Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour, Master Stephen dwells at Hogsden, the dwellers of which have a long suburb to pass before they reach London. ” I am sent for this morning by a friend in the Old Jewry to come to him : it is but crossing over the fields to Moorgate.” In the Old Jewry dwelt Cob the waterman, by the wall at the bottom of Coleman-street, “at the sign of the Water Tankard, hard by the Green Lattice” —C. Knight’s London, vol. i. p. 368.

OLD STREET,

OR Eald-street, is part of a Roman military way, which anciently led from the eastern to the western parts of the kingdom. Old-street extends from opposite the north-eastern corner of Charter-house garden to St. Luke’s Church (see p. 176); whence to Shoreditch Ch thShorediurch (see p. 173) the continuation is Old-street-road, where are St.. Luke’s (see p. 438) and the London Lying-in Hospitals. St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, was anciently a village upon the Eald-street, at some distance north of London ; Hox-ton, or Hocheston, was originally a small village, and had a market; and the manor of Finsbury, in the reign of Henry VIIL, consisted chiefly of fields, orchards, and gardens. Old-street was also famous for its nursery-grounds; and here were several almshouses, mostly built when this suburb was open, healthful ground. Pest-house-lane (now Bath-street) was named from a pest-house established here during the Great Plague of 1665, and removed in 1737. In Brick-lane is one of the three earliest stations established by the first Gas Light Company in the metropolis, incorporated in 1812.

Picthatch, a profligate resort, named in the plays of Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and Middleton, was supposed to have been in Turnmill-street, Clerkenwell, until Mr. Cunningham identified Picthatch with ” Pickaxe-yard,” in Old-street, near the Charterhouse. (See Handbook, 2nd edit. p. 400.)

At the corner of Old-street-road, in the City-road, are Vinegar-works, formerly the property of Mr. James Calvert, who won the first 10,0001. prize ever drawn in an English lottery, and in a subsequent lottery gained 5000Z.; yet he died in extreme poverty, Feb. 26,1799.

OMNIBUS, THE,

A HACKNEY carriage for 12 or more passengers inside, is stated to have been tried about the year 1800, with four horses and six wheels, but unsuccessfully. We remember a long-bodied East Grinstead coach in 1808 ; and a like conveyance between Hemel Hempstead, Herts, and the metropolis. The Greenwich stages were mostly of this build; and a character in the farce of Too Late for Dinner, produced in 1820, talks of ” the great green Greenwich coach,” the omnibus of that period. Still, its invention is claimed for M. Baudry, of Nantes. It has been extended to all parts of the world: even in the sandy environs of Cairo you are whisked to your hotel in an Oriental omnibus.

Mr. Shillibeer, in his evidence before the Board of Health, states that on July 4, 1829, he started the first pair of omnibuses in the metropolis—from the Bank to the Yorkshire Stingo, New-road; copied from Paris, where M. Lafitte, the banker, had

previously established omnibuses in 1819. Each of Shiliibeer’s vehicles carried 22 passengers inside, but only the driver outside ; and each omnibus was drawn by three horses abreast; the fare was 1*. for the whole journey, and 6d. for half the distance; and for some time the passengers were provided with periodicals to read on the journey. Shiliibeer’s first ” conductors” were the two sons of British naval officers, who were succeeded by young men in velvet liveries. The first omnibuses were called ” Shillibeers,” and the name is common to this day in New York. Omnibuses ruined the elder branch of the Bourbons in 1830: the accidental upset of an omnibus suggested the first idea of a barricade and thus changed the whole science of revolutions. Nevertheless, a barricade of vehicles was one of the strategies employed three centuries before, in England. There are numerous private speculators in omnibuses, who, no doubt, convey a large amount of passengers; but the London General Omnibus Company alone earns from 10,000?. to 15,000?. a week, and must employ several thousand servants. In Exhibiti 6d. In Exon weeks, the receipts have reached 17,000?. (Hackney-Coaches and Cabs, see pp. 392-393.)

OXFORD-STREET,

ORIGINALLY Tyburn-road, and next Oxford-road (the highway to Oxford), extends from the site of the village pound of St. Giles’s (where High-street and Tottenham-court-road meet), westward to Hyde Park Corner, 1^ mile in length, containing upwards of 400 houses. Hatton, in 1708, described it “between St. Giles’s Pound east, and the lane leading to the gallows west.” It follows the ancient military road {Via Trinovantica, Stukeley), which crossed the Watling-street at Hyde Park Corner, and was continued thence to Old-street (Eald-street), north of London. During the Civil War, in 1643, a redoubt was erected near St. Giles’s Pound, and a large fort with half bulwarks across the road opposite Wardour-street. In a map of 1707, on the south side, King-street, Golden-square, is perfect to Oxford-road, between which and Berwick-street are fields; hence to St. Giles’s is covered with buildings, but westward not a house is seen; the north side contains a few scattered buildings, but no semblance of streets west of Tottenham-court-road. A plan of 1708 shows, at the south end of Mill-hill Field, the Lord Mayor’s Banqueting-house, at the north-east corner of the bridge across Tyburn brook, over which is built the west side of Stratford-place. In the above plan is also shown the Adam and Eve, a detached roadside public-house in the “Dung-field,” near the present Adam-and-Eve-court, almost opposite Poland-street ; and in an adjoining field is represented the boarded house of Figg, the prizefighter. ” The row of houses on the north side of Tyburn-road was completed in 1729, and it was then called Oxford-s?ree£” (Lysons’s Environs); a stone upon a house on the north side is inscribed, ” Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, 1718:” it was built by Captain Rathbone. In this year were commenced Hanover-square, and ” round about, so many other edifices, that a whole magnificent city seems to be risen out of the ground. On the opposite side of the way, towards Marylebone, is marked out a square, and many streets to form avenues to it.” (Weekly Medley, 1718.) Vere-street Chapel and Oxford Market were built about 1724; five years later were begun most of the streets leading to Cavendish-square.

A map of 1742 shows the little church of St. Marylehone, in the fields, with two zigzag ways leading to it: one near Vere-street, then the western limit of the new buildings; and the second from Tottenham-court-road. Kows of houses, with their backs to the fields, extend from St. Giles’s Pound to Oxford Market; but Tottenham-court-road has only one cluster on the west side, and the spring-water house. Thus, Oxford-street, from Oxford Market to Vere-street, south and west, Marylebone-street, north, and the site of Great Titchfield-street east, form the limit of the new buildings: the zigzag way from Vere-street (now Marylebone-lane) leading from the high-road to the village.

Pennant (born in 1726) remembered Oxford-street ” a deep hollow road, and full of sloughs; with here and there a ragged house, the lurking-place of cut-throats:” insomuch that he ” never was taken that way by night,” in a hackney-coach, to his uncle’s in George-street, but he ” went in dread the whole way.”

Yet this main arterial thoroughfare was called Oxford-street in the reign of Charles II., as attested in the following passage from the Statute of 1678, enacting the boundaries of the parish of St. Anne, then just taken out of St. Martin’s:—

The houses beginning at the sign of the Crooked Billet, near St. Giles’s Pound, and bounded by the way leading from the said sign to the end of Cock-lane near Long-acre, with the south side of the lane and all the ground called the Military-ground, and all the houses and ground leading thence to Cran-bourne-street and Little Leicester-street, alias Bear-street, including Leicester-house and garden, as it is abutting upon Leicester-square, with all the houses on the west side of the square from Leicester-garden wall to the Sun Tavern, &e., including the wall abutting on the highway leading from Piccadilly to the west side of the Military-ground, and abutting on the highway leading to the field called Kemp’s-field, including all the fields to the sign of the Blue Anchor, being the corner house at the south end of the east side of Soho-street, abutting upon Kemp’s-fields, with all the easi side of Soho-street to the sign of the Bed Cow, being the corner house at the north end of Soho-street, abutting upon the King’s highway, or Great-road (that is, what is now called Oxford-street), with all the house? and grounds abutting on and upon the said road leading from the sign of the Bed Cow to the Crooked Billet ; and all the houses, &c., included in these boundaries were erected into the new parish of St. Anne.

Cumberland-place, begun about 1774, was named from the hero of Culloden, of whom there is a portrait-sign at a public-house in Great Cumberland-street. No. 58, Cumberland-street has an elegant portico of terra-cotta, designed by A. H. Morant, for Lord Strangford. At the western extremity of Oxford-street, in the first house in Edgware-road, immediately opposite to Tyburn turnpike, lived for many years the Corsican General Paoli, who was godfather to the Emperor Napoleon. (Notes and Queries.) Strfltford-jplace was built 1787-90, upon the site of Conduit-Mead. At

‘ the north end is Aldborough House (erected for Edward Stratford, Earl of Aldborough), with a handsome Ionic stone front and a Doric colonnade. Here, until 1805, stood a naval trophied Corinthian column with a statue of George III., set up in 1797 by Lieut.-Gen. Strode. No. 315, Oxford-street is the facade of the Laboratories of the College of Chemistet (see p. 273). The view through the gate of Hanover-square, the massive church and the lofty and handsome houses, presents a very fine architectural coup-d’ceil.

Portland-place was built by the architects Adam, about 1778: it is 126 feet wide, and in 1817 was terminated at the north end by an open railing looking over the fields towards the New-road; when “the ample width of the foot-pavement, the purity of the air, and the prospect of the rich and elevated villages of Hampstead and High-gate, rendered Portland-place a most agreeable summer promenade.” (Hughson’s London.) At No. 43, lived Sir Felix Booth, Bart., from whom Sir John Ross named Boothia Felix; Lord Chief-Justice Denman at No. 38. In Park-crescent long resided the Count de Survilliers (Joseph Bonaparte); and in the garden, facing Portland-place, is a well-modelled bronze statue (height 7 feet 2 inches), by Gahagan, of the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria.

The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was nearly the length of Portland-place. “I walked out one evening,” says Sir Charles Fox, ” and there setting out the 1848 feet upon the pavement, found it the same length within a few yards; and then corit; and tnsidered that the Great Exhibition Building would be three times the width of that fine street, and the nave as high as the houses on either side.”

Newman-street and Berners-street, built between 1750 and 1770, were from the first inhabited by artists of celebrity. In the former lived Banks and Bacon, the sculptors; and West and Stothard, the painters : in the latter, Sir William Chambers, the architect; and Fuseli and Opie, the painters. Facing is the Middlesex Hospital, described at p. 439. The Pantheon, on the south side of Oxford-street, was originally built by James Wyatt, in 1768-71; was burnt down in 1792, but was rebuilt; taken down in 1812, and again reconstructed. (See Pantheon.) Nearly opposite is the Princess’s Theatre, No. 73, formerly the Queen’s Bazaar, opened in 1840. (See Theatres.) Wardour-street, built 1686, and named from Lord Arundel of Wardour, is noted for its curiosity-shops. (See Casting, pp. 78-81.) Hamcay-street bears a stone dated 1721, and was originally a zigzag lane to Tottenham-court-road : it was called Hanway-yard to our time, and is noted for its china-dealers and curiosity-shops, as it was in the reign of hoops, high-heeled shoes, and stiff brocade. No. 54, corner of Berners-street, has a Renaissance or Elizabethan shop-front and mezzanine floor; a picturesque composition of pedestals, consoles, and semi-caryatid figures. No. 76 has a Byzantine facade. No. 86 has a front of studied design. At No. 15 was exhibited, in 1830-32, a large painted window of the Tournament of the Field of Cloth-of-Gold, by Wilmshurst; destroyed by fire in 1832. At the east end of Oxford-street, in 1838, were laid experimental specimens of the various roadway Wood Pavements.

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