This was scanned in from an old document which has caused numerous misreadings of words. As time moves on, this will be improved.
LAMBETH,
ALSO called Lambhith, Lambhyde, and Lambhei, is probably derived from lam, dirt, and hyd or hythe, a haven j or from lamb and Tiythe. It was anciently a village of Surrey, but is now united with Southwark ; and is one of the metropolitan boroughs, returning two members to Parliament under the llcibrin Act of 1832. The parish ranges along the south bank of the Thames from Vauxhall towards Southwark, and extends to Norwood, Streatham, and Croydon; in Aubrey’s time it included part of the forest of oaks called Norwood, belonging to the see of Canterbury, wherein was the Vicar’s Oak (cut down in 1679), at which point four parishes meet.
In the earliest historical times, the greater part of modern Lambeth must have been a swamp, overflowed by every tide, and forming a vast lake at high water. The Romans have the credit of having embanked the Thames on the south side, and of having done something towards draining the marsh. Roman remains have been discovered at St. George’s Fields and at Kennington; and some antiquaries have thought that it was among the Lambeth marshes that Plautius got entangled after his victory over the Britons, and that he retired thence to the strong entrenchment still to be traced in the picturesque upland of Keston, near Bromley. The great Roman road from the south coast at Newhaven, through East Griusted to London, entered Lambeth at Brixton (Brixii lapidem), crossed Kennington Common to Newington, and there divided; the eastern branch going to Southwark, and the western across St.George’s Fields toStangate, where was a ferry. In 1016, Canute laid siege to London, and finding the east side of the bridge impregnable, conveyed his ships through a channel (” Canute’s Trench”) dug in the marshes south of the Thames, so as to attack it from the west. Maitland, writing in 1739, imagined that he had succeeded in tracing this canal from Rotherhithe to Newington Butts, and thence to the river at Vauxhall. But two more probable and far shorter courses have been indicated for this channel, neither of which would reach Lambeth at all. Is it not possible, we ask, that the draining works executed by the Romans left certain water-courses which might have been made available for the purpose of this stratagem by the invading fleet ? A few years later, in 1041, Kennington—the ” King’s Town” — was the scene of the sudden death of Hardicanute. There was a royal palace there, in which the nuptials of two scions of noble Danish families were celebrated. The King expired (says the Saxon Chronicle) ” with a tremendous struggle” ” as he stood drinking”—not without suspicion of poison. A popular holiday commemorated this event for many generations; and we have records of ” Hog’s Tide” or ” Hock Tide” being kept as late as 1618. In Lambeth parish, the Churchwardens’ Accounts show entries, till 1566, of sums gathered at these festivals and applied to the repairs of the church. Harold, in 1062, granted the manor of Lambehythe to Waltham Abbey; and in Domesday there are mentioned twelve villans, twenty-seven bordars, a church, and nineteen burgesses in London, and wood for three hogs; and the value of the manor is stated at \ll. It passed, after sundry changes, to Bishop Gundulph, of Rochester, who taxed it with an annual supply of 500 lampreys; and his successor demanded, in addition, a yearly salmon—to be caught of course off the river boundary. In 1197 the manor came by exchange into the hands of the Archbishops of Canterbury, with whom it has remained ever since. King John gave leave for the establishment within it of a weekly market and a Fair of fifteen days, on condition that it would not be prejudicial to the City of London. This Fair was suppressed by Archbishop Herring in 1757. A strange attempt was made, at the close of the twelfth century, by Archbishop Baldwin, to found somewhere in Lambeth a collegiate church of secular canons which should humble the refractory monks of Canterbury by superseding them in their right of election to the metropolitan see. The scheme was vehemently opposed, and fope Celestine being prevailed upon to withdraw the sanction granted by his predecessoplyis predr Urban, the buildings were razed by the mob. After many intrigues, the design was finally abandoned. We derive this precis of the early history of Lambeth from a paper in the Saturday Review.
Lambeth mother-church (St. Mary’s) adjoins the Palace, and is described at p. 185. Beneath its walls, Mary, queen of James II., found shelter with her infant son, having crossed the river by the horse-ferry from Westminster: here the Queen remained a whole hour in the rain on the night of December 9, 1688, until a coach arrived from the next inn, and conveyed her to Gravesend, whence she sailed for France. St. Mary’s Church was rebuilt in 1851-2, save the tower, in the same style as formerly, except the open timber roof. Memorial and other windows are filled with stained glass; ” the Pedlar and his Dog ” has been replaced, and the tombs and monumental brasses have been restored. The district churches have little that is noteworthy.
The site of St. John’s, Waterloo-road, was a swamp and horse-pond: the church (built 1823-4) has a peal of eight bells, tenor 1900 lbs. weight: in a vault is buried Robert William Elliston, the comedian (d. 1831). The district commences at the middle of Westminster Bridge, whence an imaginary boundary-line passes through the middle of the river Thames to Waterloo Bridge.
On the south side of Church-street was Norfolk House, the mansion of the Earl of Norfolk temp. Edward I.: here resided the celebrated Earl of Surrey when under the tuition of John Leland, the antiquary. The house has long been demolished, and its site and grounds occupied by Norfolk-row and Hodges’s distillery. The Dukes of Norfolk also had in Lambeth, on the banks of the Thames, a garden, which was let to Boydell Cupcr, who opened it as Cuper’s Gardens, and decorated it with some fragments of the Arundeb’an marbles, given him by the Earl of Arundel, whose gardener he had been. Other fragments of the sculptures were set up in a piece of ground adjoining, and afterwards were buried with rubbish from the ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, then rebuilding by Wren; but the sculptures were subsequently disinterred, and the site was let to Messrs. Beaufoy for their Vinegar-works—removed to South Lambeth on the erection of Waterloo Bridge.
Carlisle Street, Lane, and Chapel, keep in memory Carlisle House, the palace of the Bishops of Rochester from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, when Henry VIII. granted it to the see of Carlisle. Here, in 1531, Richard Roose or Rose, a cook, poisoned seventeen persons ; for which he was attainted of treason and boiled to death in Smithfield, by an ex post facto law passed for the purpose, but repealed in the next reign. On the grounds of Carlisle House was subsequently built a pottery, which existed temp. George II. The house then became a tavern, brothel, dancing-school, and academy; and was taken down in the year 1827.
Lambeth has long been celebrated for its places of public amusement. Vauxhall Gardens are mentioned by Evelyn, in his Diary, July 2, 1661: ” I went to see the New Spring Garden, at Lambeth, a pretty contrived plantation;” and the place was to the last licensed annually as ” the Spring Garden, Vauxhall.” It was finally closed in 1859; and upon the site have been built the beautiful church of St. Peter; a School of Art, and streets of houses. Belvedere House and Gardens* adjoined Cuper’s Gardens in Queen Anne’s reign; and still furthrepd stiller west were Cumberland Tea- Gardens (named after the great Duke), which existed until 1813; their site is now crossed by Vauxhall Bridge-road. The Log and Lucie dates from 1617, the year upon the sign-stone in the garden-wall of Bethlem Hospital (see pp. 51-54) : here is preserved a drawing of the old tavern and its grounds. The Hercules Inn and Gardens occupied the site of the Asylum for Female Orphans, opened in 1758; and opposite were the Apollo Gardens and the Temple of Flora, Mount-row, opened 1788. A century earlier there existed, in King William’s reign, Lambeth Wells, in Three Coney Walk, now Lambeth Walk; it was reputed for its mineral waters, sold at a penny a quart, ” the same price paid by St. Thomas’s Hospital.” About 1750 a musical society was held here, and lectures and experiments were given on natural philosophy by Erasmus King, who had been coachman to Dr. Desaguliers. In Stangate are the Bower Saloon, with its theatre and music-room ; and the Canterbury (Music) Hall.
Astley’s Amphitheatre originated with Philip Astley, who in 1763 commenced horsemanship in an open field near Glover’s “Halfpenny Hatch” at Lambeth. Thence Astley removed to the site of the present theatre, Westminster Bridge-road, when his ground-landlord had a preserve or breed of pheasants near the spot: the theatre was burnt in 1794, 1803, and 1841. The Victoria Theatre, formerly the Coburg, opened in 1818, is built on ground held of the manor of Lambeth: the site was a swampy open field; and part of the stone materials of the old Savoy Palace, Strand, then being cleared away, was used for the theatre foundation. The Royal Circus, St. George’s Fields, was built in 1781, by Dibdin and Hughes, to compete with Astley; the Circus was burnt in 1805, and rebuilt as the Surrey Theatre in 1806; burnt in 1865, and rebuilt in the same year.
The Asylum for Female Orphans, just mentioned, was established chiefly through Sir John Fielding, the police-magistrate, whose portrait, attributed to Hogarth, was
* Dr. Rawlinson, in his additions to Aubrey’s Surrey (written in 1719), imagines Belvedere Gardens to have been the site of a tarn-mill erected in Cromwell’s time, and which he protected by Act of Parliament.
preserved there; with a head of George III. and his youngest son, the Duke of Cambridge, who was long president of the institution : in the chapel is a tablet to his memory* The site cost the charity 16,O00Z.; premises rebuilt 1826; removed to Beddington in 1866\
In Oakley-street, at the Oakley Arms, November 16, 1802, Colonel Edward Marcus Despard and thirty-two other persons were apprehended on a charge of high treason: and in February following, th» Colonel, with nine associates, were tried by a special commission at the Surrey Sessions House; and being all found guilty, seven, including Despard, were executed, February 21, on the top of Horse-monger-lane Gaol.
Lambeth was long noted as the residence of astrologers. At Tradescant’s house, in South Lambeth-road, lived Elias Ashmole, who won Aubrey over to astrology (sea pp. 309 and 396). Simon Forman’s burial is entered in the Lambeth parish-register ; he died on the day he had prognosticated. Lilly says, Forman wrote in a book left behind him: ” This I made the devil write with his own hand in Lambeth Fields, 1569, in June or July, as I now remember.” Captain Bubb, contemporary with Forman, dwelt in Lambeth Marsh, and ” resolved horaryuarsolved questions astrologically,” a ladder which raised him to the pillory. At the north corner of Oalcot-alley lived Francis Moore, astrologer, physician, and schoolmaster, and the original author of ” Moore’s Almanack.” Next to Tradescant’s house lived the learned Dr. Ducarel, one of the earliest Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, and librarian at Lambeth Palace.
Lambeth Marsh, by Hollar’s map, extended from near Stangate to Broadwall ; and was bounded by the river on the north-west, and the ancient way or road called Lambeth Marsh on the south-east. The names of Narrow-wall and Broad-wall were derived from the embankments subsequently made.
In cutting for the railway and lines of sewerage at the great terminus near York-road (a space in size equal to Grosvenor-square), there was found a large deposit from the inundations of the Thames, containing gravel-stones and dark wet clay, or pressed river-mud, imbedding fragments of twigs, bones, pieces of Roman tile, &c.
Narrow-wall, Vine-street, and Cornwall-road are delineated in views of these suburbs in Queen Elizabeth’s reign: Vine-street is from eight to ten feet below the level of the adjacent streets. In the Marsh stood, until 1823, an old house, called Bonner’s house, which was traditionally known as the residence of Bishop Bonner. Near the Marsh resided Thomas Bushell, a man of scientific attainments, who was a friend of Lord Chancellor Bacon. He obtained from Charles 1. a grant to coin silver money for the purposes of the king, when the use of his Mint at the Tower was denied to the king. When Oliver Cromwell assumed the protectorate, Thomas Bushell hid himself in this house, which it seems had a turret upon it. A large garret extended the length of the premises ; in this the philosopher lay hid for upwards of a year. This apartment he had hung with black ; at one end was a skeleton extended on a mattress: at the other was a low bed, on which he slept ; and on the dismal hangings of the wall were depicted several emblems of mortality. At the Restoration, Charles II. supported Bushell in some of his speculations. He died in 1674, eighty years of age, and was buried in the little cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
At South Lambeth, upon the site of Sir Noel Caron’s mansion and deer-park, are Leaufoy’s Vinegar and Wine Works. Here were a vessel of sweet wine containing 59,109 gallons, and another of vinegar of 56,799 gallons; the lesser of which exceeded the famous Heidelberg tun by 40 barrels. Mr. Beaufoy, F.R.S., was an eminent mathematician, and a munificent patron of education; his bust is placed in the Council Chamber, Guildhall. In Lambeth Walk, close upon the South-Western Railway, are the Lambeth Ragged Schools, founded in 1851 by Mr. Beaufoy, at the expense of 10,000Z., and 4000Z. endowment, as a memorial of the benevolent Mrs. Beaufoy, the wife of the founder.
On part of the site of Belvedere House and Gardens were established, in 1785, the Lambeth Water-works, first taking their water from the borders of the Thames, then from its centre, near Hungerford Bridge, by a cast-iron conduit-pipe 42 inches in diameter; whence, in 1852, the works were removed to Seething Wells, Ditton, 23 miles by the river-course from London Bridge. Thence the water is supplied to the Company’s reservoirs at Brixton, lOf miles, by steam pumping-engines, at the rate of 10,000,000 gallons daily; from these reservoirs, 100 feet above the Thames, the water flows by its own gravity through the mains; but at Norwood it is lifted by steam-power 350 feZ.,-power et, or the height of St. Paul’s Cathedral, above the supplying river.
In Belvedere-road is Goding’s Ale Brewery, built in 1836 : the upper floor is an immense tank for water, supplying the floor below, where the boiled liquor is cooled; it then descends into fermenting tuns in the story beneatb, next to the floor for fining, and lastly to the cellar or store-vats.
Plate-glass for mirrors and coach-windows was first made, in 1670, by Venetian artists, with Eosetti at their head, under the patronage of the second Duke of Buckingham, at Fox-hall (Vauxhall), with great success, ” so as to excel the Venetians, or any other nation, in blown plate-glass.” But about 1780 the establishment was broken up, and a descendant of Rosetti’s left in extreme poverty. {Hist, of Lambeth, 1786.) The works stood on the site of Vauxhall-square. Some of the finest ” Vauxhall plates” are to be seen in the Speaker’s state-coach. The Falcon Glass-house, Holland-street, Blackfriars-road, occupies the site of the tide-mill of the old manor of Paris Garden, and has existed more than a century; here is made about a fortieth part of the flint-glass manufactured in England.*
Lambeth has long been famed for its stone-ware. The Vauxhall Pottery, established two centuries since, by two Dutchmen, for the manufacture of old Delft ware, is probably the origin of all our existing potteries. Two other Potteries at Lambeth were commenced in 1730 and 1741. The potters procure the clay from Devon and Dorset; and the flint, already ground, from Staffordshire. Salt-glazed stoneware is made in Lambeth of the yearly value of 100,0002., of which more than one-half is paid for labour; at Green’s manufactory are made chemical vessels for holding from 300 to 400 gallons.
In Hunt’s Chemical Works, High-street, are combined the crushing of bones and the grinding of mustard, with the manufacture of colours, soap, and bone brushes; and stearine, glue, hartshorn, and phosphate of lime are obtained by steam-power from the refuse of slaughtered cattle. Hawes’s Soap and Candle Works, at the Old Royal Barge House, have existed for 90 years.
Above Vauxhall Bridge are Price’s Stearine Candle Company’s Works (established 1842): where candles are made from cocoa-nut oil brought from the Company’s plantations in Ceylon, and palm-oil from the coast of Africa, landed from barges at the wharf at Vauxhall. The oil being converted by chemical processes into stearine, is freed from oleic acid by enormous pressure; is liquefied by steam, and then conveyed into the moulding machinery, by which 800 miles of wicks are continually being converted into candles. The buildings are of corrugated iron, and include the auxiliaries of a laboratory, engineers’, carpenters’, tinmen’s, coppersmiths’, and weavers’ shops; forges, a cooperage, a sealing-wax manufactory, and steam printing-machine; the several furnaces consuming their own smoke. This is the most colossal establishment in the world in this branch of chemical manufacture.
Shot is made in the lofty towers immediately above and below Waterloo Bridge. The height of the quadrangular tower is 150 feet: the upper floor is a room wherein the alloy of arsenic and lead is melted by a furnace; the fluid metal is then ladled into a kind of cullender, through the holes of which it falls liingh it fake rain for about 130 feet into water at the lower floor of the building. An iron staircase leads from the bottom to the top of the tower: on Jan. 5, 1826, the upper floor was destroyed by fire, which happening at night, presented a magnificent effect. The circular shot-tower, 100 feet high, is strikingly beautiful. Mr. Hosking, the architect, considers this structure to rival the Monument: ” They are both,” he observes, ” of cylindrical form; but the one is crowned by a square abacus, and the other by a bold cornice, which follows its own outline (i.e. of the tower): the greater simplicity and consequent beauty of the latter is such as to strike the most unobservant.”
Maudslay and Field’s Marine Steam Engine Works, in the Westminster-road, were commenced in 1810, and employ from 1300 to 1400 workmen, besides steam-power for the heavy labour. Here are fashioned immense metal screws, like the double tail of a whale ; parts of engines, several tons weight, are lifted by cranes, to be adjusted and joined together; immense cylinders are bored and polished, of such diameter that a man might almost walk upright through them. Engines cut and shave hard iron, as if it were soft as wax ; cutting instruments have a force of thirty tons; steam-hammers are of ten, twenty, and thirty cwt.; thick metal plates are pierced by rolling mills and machinery to be fastened with red-hot rivets.
* Mr. .Apsley Pellatt, the proprietor of the Falcon Works, elected M.P. for Southwark in 1852, published Curiosities of Qlass-making (1849); the experiences of a lifetime unceasingly devoted to the studj and practice of the art.
In Duke-street, Stamford-street, are Clowes’s Printing Works and Foundry, the largest in the world, commenced by Augustus Applegath, the eminent engineer, and greatly extended by his successors, Messrs. Clowes.
The ” New Cut,” from Westminster to Blackfriars-road, has become a street within the recollection of the writer, who remembers low-lying-fields, with a large windmill, east of the raised roadway. Pedlar’s Acre (for the name see p. 185), a portion of the Marsh, by old admeasurement contains 1 acre 17 poles, with a frontage on the Thames. In 150-1, by the churchwardens’ accounts, it was an osier-bed, and in 1623, Church Osiers; the name of Pedlar’s Acre does not occur until 1690, probably from its being the squatting-place of pedlars, as were the New Cut fields within memory.
In 1504-5, the annual rent of this estate was 2s. 8d. ; in 1506, 4s.; 1520, 6s.; in 1556, 6s. 8d.; in 1564, 13s. id.; in 1581, 11. 6s. 8d. ; and in 1651, 41., at about which sum it continued until the commencement of the last century. After the draining of Lambeth Marsh, and the erection of Westminster and Black-friars Bridges, Pedlar’s Acre, in 1752, was held on a long lease at a yearly rent of 1001. and 8001. fine. In 1813, when it had been much built upon, it was let by auction for twenty-one years, in three lots, at 781. per annum, and 60O0J. premium. The rents and proceeds are applied to parochial purposes, under the Act 7 Geo. IV. cap. 46.
At Narrow Wall flourished for nearly 60 years Coade’s Manufactory of burnt Artificial Stone (a revival of terra-cotta), invented by the elder Bacon, the sculptor ; and first established by Mrs. Coade, from Lyme Regis, in 1769. Of this material are the bas-relief in the pediment over the western portico at Greenwich Hospital, representing the Death of Nelsohe eath ofn, designed by West, and executed by Bacon and Panzetta; and the rood-screen or loft at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. The manufacture (now Austin and Seeley’s) has been removed to the New-road.
Lambeth, a few years since a feverish marsh, has been greatly improved by drainage: Maudslay’s Foundry was raised on pillars from the swamp, where at times a boat might have floated; it is now, by drainage, firm and dry at all seasons. Lett’s Timber Wharf, from the time of Queen Elizabeth until the beginning of this century, lay amidst ponds and marsh-streams, but is now dry and healthy. Here are the timber-wharves of Messrs. Gabriel; Alderman Gabriel, Lord Mayor 1S66-7.
Across this thickly-peopled district extends the South-Western Railway from its terminus in the Waterloo-road to Nine Elms, 2 miles 50 yards, executed at a cost of 800,000/.; and along the river-bank, anaconda-like, upon arches, trends the extension of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, and the South Eastern Railway, from London Bridge.
LAMBETH PALACE,
LAMBETH HOUSE of old, has been for six and a half centuries the mansion of -” the Archbishops of Canterbury, who had resided at Lambeth seventy years previously; and in 1197 obtained the entire manor, by exchange with the Bishop of Rochester for certain lands in Kent. Hence the present palace is the manor-house; and, with the gardens and grounds, forms an extra-parochial district.
The oldest part of Lambeth Palace is the Chapel, and a Crypt, supposed to be a portion of the ancient manor-house, built by Archbishop Hubert Walter about 1190. Archbishops Langton, Boniface, Arundel, Chicheley, Stafford, Morton, Warham, Cranmer, Pole, Parker, and Bancroft, expended great sums on the palace, as have succeeding archbishops. Cranmer’s additions included ” the Steward’s Parlour,” and “a summer-house in the garden of exquisite workmanship;” both which have disappeared. In Wat Tyler’s rebellion, ” the commons from Essex” plundered the palace, and beheaded the archbishop, Sudbury, on Tower Hill. In 1642, the Parliamentary soldiers dismantled the Chapel, broke the painted windows, which it was alleged Archbishop Laud had restored “by their like in the mass-book;” while Laud’s ” books and goods were seized on, and even his> very diary taken by force out of his pocket.” The palace was then used as a prison for the Royalists; and after its sale by the Parliament for 7073/., the Chapel was converted into a dancing-room, and the Great Hall demolished. The latter was rebuilt by Archbishop Juxon, at the charge of 10,500/. The palace was attacked by the rioters of 1780, when it was protected by a detachment of Guards, and subsequently by a militia regiment as a
garrison for some weeks. Between 1828 and 1848 Archbishop Howley rebuilt the habitable portion of the palace, and restored other parts, at a cost of 60,000Z. The garden-front is of Tudor character; and with its bays and enriched windows, battlements, gables, towers, and clustered chimney-shafts, is very picturesque.
The Gate-house, built by Archbishop Morton about 1490, consists of an embattled centre and two immense square towers, of fine red brick with stone dressings, and a spacious Tudor arched gateway and postern. The towers are ascended by spiral stone staircases, leading to the Record-room containing manqueontainiy of the archives of the see of Canterbury. Adjoining the archway is a small prison-room, with high and narrow windows, and thick stone walls to which are fastened three strong iron rings; and in the wall are cuttings, including %a\ti (Srafton, and a cross and other figures near it. The walls and towers of the gate-house, and the ancient brick wall on the Thames side, are chequered with crosses in glazed bricks.
At this gate the dole immemorially given to the poor by the Archbishops of Canterbury is constantly distributed. It consists of fifteen quartern loaves, nine stone of beef, and five shillings worth of halfpence, divided into three equal portions, and distributed every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, among thirty poor parishioners of Lambeth; the beef being made into broth and served in pitchers.
The Lollards’ Tower, on the left of the outer court, is embattled, and chiefly of dark-red brick, faced with stone on its outer sides. It was built (1434-5) by Archbishop Chicheley, whose arms are sculptured on the outer wall on the Thames side; beneath them is a Gothic niche, wherein formerly stood the image of St. Thomas k Becket. In this tower is the Post-room, with a flat and panelled ceiling, carved with angels and scrolls, and a head resembling that of Henry VIII. On the east side is an entrance to the Chapel; and through a small door you ascend by a steep spiral staircase to the Lollards’ Prison (in an adjoining square tower on the north side), entering by a narrow, low, pointed archway of stone, with an oaken inner and outer door, each 3^ inches thick, closely studded with iron rivets and fastenings. This chamber is nearly 15 feet in length, by 11 feet in width, and 8 feet high; and has two narrow windows, and a small fireplace and chimney. About breast-high are fixed in the walls eight large iron rings; and upon the oaken wainscoting are incisions of initials, names, short sentences, crosses, cubes, &c, cut by the unhappy captives. It is no longer con-
(Incisions upon the wall of Lollards’ Tower.)
sidered that they were exclusively Lollards, nor is there positive evidence that these followers of Wicliffe were imprisoned here; although the registers of the see of Canterbury record several proceedings against the sect, and Wicliffe himself is said to have been examined in the Chapel at Lambeth. Archbishop Arundel was the fiercest persecutor of the Lollards, and his successor, Chicheley, built ” the Lollards’ Tower,” possibly on the site of other prisons here, which the registers of the see prove the archbishops to have possessed. To Lambeth House the Popish prelates, Tunstall and Thirlby, were committed by Queen Elizabeth: and here were confined the Earl of Essex; the Earls of Chesterfield and Derby; Sir Thomas Armstrong, afterwards executed for participation in the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion; Dr. Allestry, the eminent divine; and Richard Lovelace, the poet. In the three stories above the Post-room are apartments for the archbishop’s chaplains and librarian.
The Chapel, entered from the Post-room, is divided by an elaborately carved screen; but the arched roof is concealed by flat panelling, bearing the arms of Laud, Juxon, and Cornwallis. At the east end are five long lancet-shaped lights, filled with diapered modern glass; and at each side are three triplicated windows, resembling those of the Temple Church. Here are the archbishop’s stall, seats for the officers of his household, and below for the male servants; the females being seated in the outer chapel, in a smallongl, in a gallery, where was formerly an organ. In front of the altar is buried Archbishop Parker, beneath a marble slab, inscribed, ” Corpus Matthaei archi-
episcopi tandem hie qviescit.”* The tomh, which Parker ** erected while he was yet alive,” near the spot where he ” used to pray,” was demolished by Col. Scot in 1642, and the Archbishop’s corpse thrown into a dung-heap; but it was recovered and re-interred after the Restoration. Archbishop Bancroft has narrated these facts in an epitaph of elegant Latin, inscribed on a tomb raised by him to Parker’s memory. In the Chapel have been consecrated upwards of 150 bishops : Dr. Howley’s consecration as Bishop of London (1813) was witnessed by Queen Charlotte, when seventy years of age : as Archbishop of Canterbury he crowned three sovereigns. The Crypt beneath the chapel has been already noticed at p. 302.
The Library (Juxon’s Hall) and the Great Dining-room (on the site of the Guard-chamber) form the west side of the inner court. On the north are the new buildings of the palace, by E. Blore; the entrance is between two octagonal towers, 84 feet high. In the Private Library is a portrait on board of Archbishop Warham, consecrated 1504; this was painted by Holbein, and presented by him to the Archbishop, with a head of his friend Erasmus: the latter is missing. In the Ante-room is a whole-length portrait of Charles I., copied from Vandyke ; and a picture on panel of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory, with the Holy Spirit. (See a List of the Pictures, in Brayley’s History of Surrey, vol. iii.)
The Guard-chamber is mentioned in 1424 as the ” Camera Armigerorum,” from the arms being kept here for the defence of the palace; but they were carried off in the plunder of 1642, and were never replaced. In this chamber Archbishop Laud kept his state, Sept. 19, 1633, the day of his consecration. The apartment is 58 feet long and 27 feet 6 inches wide; it has a very elegant oak roof, with the lofty two-centred and bold tracery of Early Perpendicular work; it was long plastered over, but was restored by Blore about 1832, when it was under-propped, and the walls were rebuilt. The roof is panelled, and supported by bold arches springing from octangular corbels; the spandrels of the arches being filled by quatrefoils in circles, and trefoil mouldings. On the gabled sides of the roof similarly enriched arches stretch between the great roof arches; on the walls also arches span from corbel to corbel, and support an embattled frieze ; and the fireplace is turreted.
In this room, besides smaller portraits, is a series of half and three-quarter lengths of all the Archbishops of Canterbury since 1633: including Laud, by Vandyke; Juxon (who attended Charles I. on the 8caflbld), from an original at Longleat; Herring, by Hogarth; Seeker, by Reynolds; Sutton, by Beechey ; Howley, by Shee. These portraits show the gradual change in the clerical dress, in bands and wiga, and the large ruff in place of the band : Tillotson’s being the first wig, unpowdered, and not unlike the natural hair. Here also are smaller heads of the earlier archbishops : Arundel, from a curious portrait at Penshurst; Chicheley, Cranmer, and Grindal; and Cardinal Pole, from an original in the Barberini Palace at Borne. Pole maintained great hospitality at Lambeth: in the MS. Library is his patent (4 Philip and Mary) for retaining one hundred servants. The body of the Cardinal lay in great state at Lambeth during forty days, prior to its interment at Canterbury.
In the m arif”> Ihall are given annually, on ” public days,” a certain number of state entertainments, termed “Lambeth Palace dinners,” to the bishops and leading clergy. The Eev. Sydney Smith facetiously asks : “Is it necessary that the Archbishop of Canterbury should give feasts to aristocratic London; and that the domestics of the Prelacy should stand with swords and bag-wigs, round pig and turkey and venison, to defend, as it were, the orthodox gastronomer from the fierce Unitarian, the fell Baptist, and the famished children of Dissent ?”— Second Letter on Church Reform.
In the Picture Gallery, built by Pole, among other paintings are: Archbishop Potter when six years old (1680), holding a Greek Testament, which he is said then nearly to have read; Martin Luther, from Nuremburg; Cardinal Pole (curious, on board, and probably a genuine likeness); Queen Catherine Parr, original, on board; Luther and his Wife (?), attributed to Holbein, and copied on enamel by Bone; Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I. (full-length, curious costume); Bishop Burnet, as Chancellor of the Garter; an old view of Canterbury Cathedral; Archbishop Juxon, after his decease; Bishop Hoadly, painted by his second wife; Archbishop Parker.t painted in 1572 by Richard Lyue, who practised painting and engraving in the palace; Archbishop TUlotson, by Mrs. Bcale.
The Great Hall is built of dark-red brick, with strong buttresses and stone finishings. In the centre of the roof is a two-storied hexagonal lantern, surmounted by a large vane, in which are the arms of the see of Canterbury, impaled with those of Juxon (a cross between four negroes’ heads), surmounted by the archiepiscopal mitre.
* In this Chapel Archbishop Parker was consecrated, Dec. 5,1559,according to the “duly appointed ordinal of the Church of England,” as recorded in Parker’s Register at Lambeth, and in the Library of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge; thus falsifying the absurd calumny promulgated by the Romanists, of Archbishop Parker having been irregularly consecrated at the Nag’t Head Tavern, at the east end of Friday-street, Cheapside, by one bishop only.
t This portrait strongly resembles the small print of the Archbishop engraved by R. Berg (Remigius Hogenberg), which Vertue considered to be the first portrait engraved in England.
The interior was converted into a library for the printed books belonging to the see, between 1830 and 1834 ; when a new entrance-gateway to the inner court was built, with a fireproof room over it, in which are kept the MSS. The library has a large north-west bay-window of richly ornamented stained and painted glass; in the top division is a very large coat of the arms of the see and Archbishop Juxon; and underneath are the arms of the see and Archbishop Howley, 1829. Around are smaller coats of the arms of about twenty-four archbishops, each impaled with the arms of the see. Here are also the arms of Philip II. King of Spain; but the most curious piece of painted glass is an ancient portrait of Archbishop Chicheley.
The roof is of oak, and a fine specimen of olden carpentry: it consists of eight main ribs, with longitudinal braces, springing from corbel brackets, and enriched with carved spandrels, pendants, enwreathed mitres, and the arms of Juxon and the see of Canterbury several times repeated. Above the two fireplaces are painted the arms of the see, impaling those of Bancroft, the founder of the larunder olibrary; and of Seeker, a liberal contributor. The books, over-estimated by Ducarel at 25,000 volumes, are kept in wall and projecting oak cases; the earliest printed works being in the south-west bay-window recess. Until Bancroft bequeathed his books in 1610, each archbishop brought his own private collection. Bancroft’s books remained at Lambeth till 1646, two years after the execution of Laud, when being seized by the Parliament, the use of them was granted to Dr. Wincocke. They were subsequently given to Sion College, and many began to get into private hands ; when Selden suggested to the University of Cambridge a right to them, and they were delivered, pursuant to an ordinance of Parliament, dated Feb. 1647, into their possession. After the Restoration, and repeated demands by Juxon and Sheldon, the books were collected, including those in private hands, and in the possession of John Thurloe and Hugh Peters. Evelyn writes to Pepys, in 16S9, that the library was then ” replenished with excellent books, but that it ebbs and flows, like the Thames running by it, at every prelate’s accession or translation.” The books left by Archbishops Bancroft, Abbot, Laud, Sheldon, and Tenison, bear their arms. There is only one volume in the collection known to have belonged to Archbishop Parker, which is a volume of Calvin’s writing: his arms are on the outside, and within is written in red lead, ” J. Parker,” who was the archbishop’s son.
The first complete Catalogue made of the printed books was drawn up by Bishop Gibson when librarian. In 1718 it was fairly copied by Dr. Wilkins, in three volumes folio; and it has been continued by his successors to the present time. The library consists of rare and curious editions of the Scriptures, commentaries of the early fathers, scarce controversial divinity, records of ecclesiastical affairs, English history and topography; many fine copies, splendidly embellished.
The early printed books (see the Eev. Dr. Maitland’s two Catalogues) include, Caxton’s Chronicles of England and Description of Britain, both “fynsshed” in 1480, the finest copies extant; Lyndwode*s Constitutiones Provinciates, printed by Wynkin de Worde in 1499; The Golden Legend, emprynted at London in Fletestrete, in the Sygne of the George, by Richard Pynson, in 1507, and another edition of the same work by Wynkin de Worde, in 1527; Gower’s Confessio Amantis, a splendid copy by Caxton, 1483; Dives and Pauper, by Pynson, 1493; Chaucer’s Works, folio, by John Revues, in 1452, and Islip, in 1598. Here, too, is a small folio, executed at Paris, on vellum, about 1500, intituled, La Dance Macabre (the Dance of Death), printed with old Gothic types and beautifully illuminated. Here, also, in volumes, is Bancroft’s collection of black-letter tracts, pamphlets, and sermons; remarkable for St. Paul’s Cross sermons, Mar-Prelate tracts, and the writings of the Brownists and other Elizabethan separatists. Here, too, is a copy of Archbishop Parker’s Antiquities printed, by Daycs in 1572 (only two complete copies extant); it contains the very rare portrait of Parker, taken just before his death, by Berg.
Among the Manuscripts are, the ancient Freneh version and exposition of the Apocalypse, with miniature paintings, No. 75; the Latin copy of the Apocalypse, No. 209 (thirteenth century), with 78 brilliant illuminations; and No. 200, a copy of the treatise De Virginitate, in praise of celibacy, by Aldhelm, Abbot of Malraesbury, eighth century. Among the sacred MSS. are Greek Testaments; the Old Testament in Armenian; the whole Bible, Wicliffe’s translation; and Latin Psalters, beautifully written and illuminated. Here, too, are Scripture expositions of Bede; Anglo-Saxon sermons (tenth century) and Saxon homilies (ttien homilwelfth century). Among the Missals is a~very beautiful Salisbury missal, folio, on vellum, emblazoned with Archbishop Chicheley’s arms. The MSS. of Greek and Latin classics are extremely valuable. Here are the Lambeth Registers, 40 vols, folio, on vellum; eontaininjr homages, popes’ bulls; letters to and from popes, cardinals, kings, and princes; commissions and proxies, marriages and divorces, &e. 1279 to 1747 (except 1644 to 1660): the registers of the primates subsequent to Potter, 1747, are kept at Doctors’ Commons. Also two large folio volumes of papal bulls; ancient charters of the see, 13 vols.; accurate transcripts of the parliamentary surveys of the property of bishops, deans, and chapters, made during the Commonwealth, 21 vols.
The collection is stored with MSS. of English history, civil and ecclesiastical, including chronicles and collections of histories; and important documents, particularly of the relations of France and England (temp. Hen. V. and VI.). Among the MSS. on Heraldry and Genealogy are many written or corrected by Lord Burghley. Here are stores of old English poetry and romances: including Lydgate’s Works, and Gawan Douglas’s Translation of Virgil’s-<£M<?K/,- and the metrical legend of Lybeaus Disconus.
Among the Letters are those of Lord Verulam, published by Dr. Birch; those of his brother, Anthony Bacon, sixteen vols.; the letters of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and of other persons, temp. Henry VIII. to James I. But the most curious and beautifully written of the miscellaneous MSS. (between 1200 and 1300 in number) is Lord Rivera’s translation from the French of “the Notable Wise Sayings of Philosophers,” with a very fine illumination of Earl Rivers presenting Caxton the printer to King Edward IV., in presence of his queen and infant son, afterwards Edward V. (Lon-diniana, vol. iii. p. 316.)
Here is an original copy of Aggas’s Map of London, temp. Elizabeth; and here are laid up the service-books which have been used at the coronations of different sovereigns. The coronation-chairs claimed by the archbishops have descended to their respective families.
Among the Curiosities is the habit of a priest, consisting of a stole, maniple, chasuble, cord, two bands marked P., and the corporal; also, a crucifix of base metal, a string of beads, and a box of relics. Here is kept the shell of the tortoise, believed to have lived in the palace-garden from the time of Laud (1633) to 1753, when ifc perished by the negligence of the gardener: the shell is 10 inches in length, and 6 \ inches in breadth.
The Gardens and grounds extend to eighteen acres. Here were formerly two fine white Marseilles fig-trees, traditionally planted by Cardinal Pole against that part of the palace which he founded: these trees were more than 50 feet in height and 40 in breadth ; their circumferences 28 and 21 inches. They were removed during the late rebuilding, but some cuttings from the trees are growing between the buttresses of the Library. The Terrace is named Clarendon Walk, from having been the scene of the conference between the great and wise Earl of Clarendon and the ill-fated Laud.
A superb feature in the archbishop’s state was formerly a river barge, in which he went to Parliament; but this custom has been discontinued a century, or sinceo, ury, or Archbishop Wake’s primacy. The Stationers’ Company’s Barge, formerly called at Lambeth Palace on Lord Mayor’s Day, to present copies of their Almanacks; the origin of which custom is described under the account of the Stationers’ Company, p. 421.
Lambeth House has at various times proved an asylum for learned foreigners who have been compelled to flee from the intolerant spirit of their own countrymen. Here the early reformers, Martyr and Bucer, found a safe retreat; and the learned Antonio, Archbishop of Spalatro, was entertained by Archbishop Abbot. The archbishops have frequently been honoured by visits from their respective sovereigns. Henry VIL, just before his coronation, visited Archbishop Bourchier. Henry VIII. was a guest of Warham, in 1513; and one evening in 1543 he crossed the Thames to Lambeth, to acquaint Cranmer (whom he called into his barge) of the plot against him instigated by Bishop Gardiner. Queen Mary is said to have refurnished Lambeth House, at her own expense, for the reception of Cardinal Pole, whom she several times visited here during his short primacy. Elizabeth often visited Archbishop Parker; his successor, Grindal, was out of favour; but Whitgift, the next archbishop, was visited fifteen times by Elizabeth, who occasionally stayed two or three days. James also visited Whitgift. Mary, Queen of William III., had a conference here in 1694 with Archbishop Tillotsou, who received here Peter the Great, to witness the ceremony of an ordination.
LAW COURTS.
FOR nearly eight centuries, existing record proves Law Courts to have been held at Westminster, within the palace of the sovereign : one of the earliest notices being in the Annals of Waverley, 1069, when Elfric, Abbot of Peterborough, was tried before the king in curia. But it was not until 1225 (9 Hen. III.) that the Law Courts, hitherto held wherever the king was temporarily resident, were permanently fixed at Westminster. Here the Courts were frequently held before the monarch in person j and the phrase of summons, ” in banco regina,” still is, ” before the queen herself.”
The old Law Courts in Westminster Hall were thus arranged. At the entry, on the right hand, were settled the Common Pleas, for civil matters; at the upper end, in the south-east corner, was the
King’s Bench, for pleas of the Crown; and in the south-west angle sat the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, and eleven men learned in the civil law, called Masters of the Chancery, deriving its name from the lattice-work, ” cancelli,” which separated this Court (in the last century shutting it out of sight) from the lower part of the Hall. (The screen was removed before the coronation of King George IV.) Near the King’s Bench, going to the large chamber (White Hall) was the Court of Wards and Liveries, instituted by Henry VIII.; in this chamber, then called the Treasury, were kept valuable state-papers. Adjoining, but inferior to the Chancery, was the Equity Court of Requests, or Conscience, for trying suits made by way of petition to the sovereign; and sometimes called the Poor Man’s Court, because he could there have right without paying money. It began its sittings in 1493, and was remodelled in 1517; the Lord Privy Seal sitting as judge.—Walcott’s Westminster, p. 252, abridged.
The Old Court of Requests, just mentioned, was, at the Union, fitted up as the King’s Robing-room and the House of Lords; and after the grebefafter tat fire in 1834, this Court was newly roofed, and fitted up as the House of Commons; the old Painted Chamber being similarly provided as the House of Lords.
Of certain of the present Courts we subjoin a few details of popular interest.
Central Criminal Court (the) forms part of the Sessions House, formerly ” the Justice Hall,” divided by a broad yard from the prison of Newgate, in the Old Bailey. The Court, established 1834, sits monthly; so that a prisoner has been apprehended one day, committed by a magistrate on the second, and tried, convicted, and sentenced on the third or fourth day. The judges are, the Lord Mayor (who opens the Court), the Sheriffs, the Lord Chancellor (such is the order of the Act), the Judges, the Aldermen, Recorder, Common Serjeant of London, judge of the Sheriffs’ Court, or City Commissioner, and any others whom the Crown may appoint as assistants. Of these, the Recorder and Common Serjeant are in reality the presiding judges; a judge of the law only assisting when unusual points of the law are involved, or when conviction affects the life of the prisoner. Here are tried crimes of every kind, from treason to the pettiest larceny, and even offences committed on the high seas. The jurisdiction comprises the whole of the metropolis as now defined; with the remainder of Middlesex; the parishes of Richmond and Mortlake in Surrey ; and great part of Essex.
The Court-house, built in 1773, was destroyed in the Riots of 1780, but was rebuilt and enlarged 1809, by the addition of the site of Surgeons’ Hall. The Old Court is a square hall, with a gallery for visitors; below is a dock for the prisoners, with stairs descending to the covered passage by which they are conveyed to and from Newgate; opposite is the bench, with the chief seat, above it a gilded sheathed sword upon the crimson wall; and a canopy overhead, surmounted with the royal arms. To the left of the dock is the witness-box, and further left is the jury-box; which arrangement enables the jury to see, without turning, the faces of the witnesses and prisoners; the witnesses to identify the prisoner; and lastly, the judges on the bench, and the counsel in the centre of the Court below; keeping jury, witnesses, and prisoners all at once within nearly the same line of view. The Court formerly sat at 7 A.M.; the present hour is 10. Upon the front of the dock is placed rue, to prevent infection. In 1750, when the jail-fever raged in Newgate, the effluvia entering the Court, caused the death of Baron Clarke, Sir Thomas Abney, the judge of the Common Pleas; and Pennant’s ” respected kinsman,” Sir Samuel Pennant, Lord Mayor; besides members of the bar and of the jury, and other persons: this disease was also fatal to several persons in 1772. In the New Court, adjoining, are tried the lighter offences.
In 1841, both courts were ventilated upon Dr. Reid’s plan, from chambers beneath the floors, filled with air filtered from an apartment outside the building; the air being drawn into them by an enormous discharge upon the highest part of the edifice, or propelled into them by a fanner. From the entire building the vitiated air is received in a large chamber in the roof of the Old Court, whence it is discharged by a gigantic iron cowl, 15 feet in diameter, weighing two tons, and the point of the arrow of the guiding-vane 150 lbs. The subterranean air-tunnels pass through a portion of the old City walL
Above the Old Court is a stately dining-room, wherein, during the Old Bailey sittings, the dinners are given by th Ane givene Sheriffs to the judges and aldermen, the Recorder, Common Serjeant, City pleaders, and a few visitors. Marrow-puddings and rump-steaks are invariably provided. Two dinners, exact duplicates, are served each day, at three and five o’clock; the judges relieve each other, but aldermen have eaten both dinners; and a chaplain, who invariably presided at the lower end of the table, thus ate two dinners a day for ten years. Theodore Hook admirably describes a Judges’ Dinner in his Gilbert Gurney. In 1807-8, the dinners for three sessions, nineteen days, cost Sheriff Phillips and his colleague 35Z. per day=665£.; 145 dozen of wine, consumed at the above dinners, 4501.: total 1115Z. The amount is now considerably greater, as the sessions are held monthly.
” The Press Yard,” between the Court-house and Newgate, recals the horrors of the old criminal law, in the peine forte et dure (the strong and hard pain): a torture applied to persons refusing to plead, who were stripped and put in low dark chambers, with as much weight of iron placed upon them as they could bear, and more, there to lie until they were dead ; which barbarous custom of pressing to death continued until the year 1734.
Memorable Trials at the Old Bailey and Central Criminal Courts ; Major Strangwayes, the assassin, 1657; Col. Turner and his family, for burglary in Lime-street, 1663; the Regicides, 1660; Green, Berry, and Hill, for the murder of Sir Edmund Berrv Godfrey, 1678; Count Koningsmark, and three others, for the assassination of Mr. Thynne, 1681; William Lord Russell, William Hone, and two other?, for high treason, 1683; Rowland Walters and others, for the murder of Sir Charles Pym, bart., 1688; Harrison, for the murder of Dr. Clenehe, 1692; Beau Fielding, for bigamy, 1706; Richard Thornhill, Esq., for killing Sir Cholmeley Deering in a duel, 1711; the Marquis di Paieotti, for the murder of his servant in Lisle-street, 1718; Major Oneby, for killing in a duel, 1718 and 1726; Jack Sheppard, the housebreaker, 1721; Jonathan Wild, the thief-taker (who lived nearly opposite the Court-house), 1725;* Catherine Hayes, murder of her husband, 1726; Richard Savage, the poet, for murder, 1727; the infamous Col. Charteris, 1730; Sarah Malcolm, for murder, 1733; Elizabeth Canning, an inexplicable mystery, 1753; Ann Brownrigg, for murder, 1767; Baretti, for stabbing, 1769; the two Perraus, for forgery, 1776; the Rev. Dr. Dodd, for forgery, 1777; the Rev. Mr. Hackman, for shooting Miss Reay, 1779; Ryl nd, the engraver, for forgery, 1783; Barrington, the pickpocket, 1790; Renwick Williams, for stabbing, 1790; Theodore Gardelle, for murder, 1790: Hadfield, for shooting at George III., 1800; Capt. Macnamara, for killing Col. Montgomery in a duel, 1803; Aslett, the Bank clerk (forgery on the Bank, 320,0002.), 1803; old Patch, for murder, 1806; Holloway and Haggerty, for murder, 1807; Governor Wall, for murder by flogging, 1812; Bellingham. the assassin of Perceval, 1812; Eliza Fenning, for poisoning, 1815; Cashman, the seaman, for riot on Snow-hill (where he was hanged), 1817; Richard Carlile, for blasphemy, 1819 and 1831; Cato-street conspirators, 1820; Fauntleroy, for forgery, 1824; St. John Long, the ” counter-irritation” surgeon, for manslaughter, 1830 and 1831; Bishop and Williams, for murder by “burking,” 1831; Greenacre, for murder, 1837; E. Oxford, for shooting at the Queen, 1840; Courvoisier, for the murder of Lord William Russell, 1840; Blakesley, for murder in Eastcheap, 1841; Beaumont Smith, for forgery of Exchequer Bills, 1841; J. Francis, for attempt to shoot the Queen, 1843; Mae Naughten, for assassination, 1834; Dalmas, for murder on Battersea Bridge, 1844; Barber, Fletcher, &c, for Will-forgeries, 1844; Manning and his wif07;g and he, for murder, 1849; Seven Pirates convicted of murder on the high seas, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, 1863.
Courts of Equity (the)—namely, those of the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, and the Vice-Chancellor of England—sit at Westminster in term-time; but in the intervals the Lord Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor sit at Lincoln’s Inn; and the Master of the Rolls at the Rolls House, in Chancery-lane: the two additional Vice-Chancellors, appointed in 1841, also sit at Lincoln’s Inn. The Lord High Chancellor was originally a sort of confidential chaplain, or, before the Reformation, confessor to the king, and keeper of the king’s conscience. As chief secretary, he advised his master in matters temporal; prepared royal mandates, grants, and charters; and when seals came in, affixed the same: hence the appointment to the office takes place by the delivery of the Great Seal. His Court has exclusive cognisance of trusts, and the suitors’ property exceeds 40,000,0007.
Court of Chancery. —The present Law Courts, on the west side of the Great Hall at Westminster, were built by Soane, 1820-25, upon the site of the old Exchequer Chamber, &c. There is little to interest the visitor, except in the Lord Chancellor’s Court, where his lordship sits in state, with the mace and an embroidered bag before him; in this bag the seal is deposited when the Chancellor receives it from the Sovereign, and when, upon his retirement from office, he delivers it into the royal hands: formerly, the Great Seal was worn by the Chancellor on his left side.
The Great Seal itself is a silver pair of dies, which are closed to receive the melted wax, poured, when an impression is to be taken, through an orifice left in the top. As each impression is attached to a document by a ribbon or slip of parchment, its ends are put into the seal before the wax is poured in; so that when the hard wax is taken from the dies, the ribbon or parchment is affixed to it. The impression of the seal is
* Amongst the old manuscript documents in the Town Clerk’s Office at Guildhall is a petition from Jonathan Wild to the Court of Aldermen, dated 1724, praying to be free of the City, for apprehending and convicting divers felons returned from transportation, since October 1720. In 1839, the skeleton of Jonathan was in the possession of a surgeon at Windsor.
six inches in diameter, and three-quarters of an inch thick. On every accession to the throne, a new seal is struck, and the old one is cut into four pieces and deposited in the Tower of London. Formerly, the seal was broken ” by the king’s command,” and the fragments were given to the poor of religious bouses.
The present Great Seal was executed by Benjamin Wyon, R.A., in 1839. Obverse: The Queen wearing a flowing and sumptuous robe and regal diadem, bearing a sceptre, and riding a charger richly caparisoned with plumes and trappings, while a pasre, bonnet in hand, gracefully restrains the steed. The legend in the exergue,” Victoria Dei Gratia Britanniarum Regina, Fidei Defensor,” is engraved in Gothic letters; the interspaces of theTimspaces words being filled with heraldic roses; a crown above, and a trident-head and oak branches beneath. Hecerse: The Queen royally robed and crowned, holding the sceptre and orb, and seated upon a throne beneath a Gothic canopy : on either side is a figure of Justice and Religion; and beneath are the royal arms and crown; the whole encircled by a border of oak and roses.
The Seal-bag is about twelve inche3 square, of crimson silk embroidered in gold, with the royal arms on each side, fringed with gold bullion; to the bag is attached a stout silken cord, by whicb it is carried; within is placed the Seal, in a leathern pouch, enclosed in a silk purse.
The Chancellor’s Mace is silver-gilt, and about five feet long. The staff and its massive bands are deeply chased with the rose, shamrock, and thistle; the upper portion consists of a large and richly chased crown, surmounted with the orb and cross, and encircled with crosses-patees and fleurs-de-lis; and supported on a hold circlet, ornamented in high relief with the emblems of the United Kingdom. The mace and seal-bag are laid before the Chancellor when seated upon the woolsack as Speaker of the House of Lords; and they are placed upon the table in the Court of Chancery, accompanied by a large nosegay of flowers, conjectured to be the representative of the judge’s bough or wand.
Court of Exchequer (the) was formed by William I. in 1079, as a superior Court of Record, in the place of a similar court in his Duchy of Normandy: it included the Common Pleas until 16 John, 1215; it was remodelled into its present form by Edward I. The name of Exchequer is from the parti-coloured carpet of a table before the Barons, on which the sums of certain of the king’s accounts were reckoned by counters: the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the treasurer; he presides only when the Court sits as a Court of Equity.
The Great Moll of the Exchequer (” the Pipe Roll”) contains an account of the Crown revenue from 5 Stephen to the present time. To this document nearly every ancient pedigree is indebted; it has a perfect list of the Sheriffs of the different counties, and almost every name in English history.
The Court of Exchequer regulates the election of Sheriffs. Thus, on the morrow of St. Martin, November 12, a Privy Council is held in the Exchequer Court, to receive the report of the Judges of the persons eligible in the several counties to serve as Sheriff. On the bench sits the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his figured silk gown, trimmed with gold; next are Members of the Privy Council, the Lord Chancellor, and Judges of the Queen’s Bench and Common Pleas; below sit the Judges and Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and on the left the Remembrancer of the Court. At this meeting the Judges report the names of three persons eligible for Sheriff in each county, when excuses for exemption are pleaded. The list is again considered by the Privy Council, and the names finally determined on the approval of Her Majesty in. Council, which is done by the Sovereign pricking through the name approved on a long sheet of paper called the Sheriffs’ Roll.
The Sheriffs of London and Middlesex are, however, chosen by the Livery ; but are presented, on the morrow of the Feast of St. Michael, in the Court of Exchequer, accompanied by the Lord Mayor and aldermen, when the Recorder introduces the Sheriffs and details their family history, and the Cursi-tor Baron signifies thn o signife sovereign’s approval; the writs and appearances are read, recorded, and tiled, and the Sheriffs and senior under-sheriff take the oaths; and the late Sheriffs present their accounts. Formerly, the following ancient tenure ceremony was performed in the Court. The Crier of the court made proclamation for one who did homage for the Sheriffs of London to “stand forth and do his duty:” when the senior Alderman below the chair rose, the usher of the court handed him a bill-hook, and held in both hands a small bundle of sticks, which the Alderman cut asunder, and then cut another bundle with a hatchet. Similar proclamation was then made for the Sheriff of Middlesex, when the Alderman counted six horse-shoes lying upon the table, and sixty-one hob-nails handed in a tray; and the numbers were declared twice. The sticks were thin peeled twigs, tied in a bundle at each end with red tape; the horse-shoes were of large size, and very old; the hob-nails were supplied fresh every year. By the first ceremony the Alderman did suit and service for the tenants of a manor in Shropshire, the
chopping of sticks betokening the custom of the tenants supplying their lord with fuel. The counting of the horse-shoes and nails was another suit and service of the owners of a forge in St. Clement Danes, Strand, which formerly belonged to the City, but no longer exists. Sheriff Hoare, in his MS. journal of his shrievalty, 1740-41, says, where the tenements and lands are situated ” no one knows, nor doth the City receive any rents or profits thereby.”
This ancient ceremony is now observed before the Queen’s Remembrancer, at his office, where the City Solicitor, the Secondary of London, and one of the late Under-sheriffs, attend ” to account as to rent services due to the Crown to be rendered on behalf of the Corporation;” when the City Solicitor cuts the fagot and counts the horse-shoes and nails, and the Remembrancer says, ” Good number,” according to custom.
On Nov. 9 the oath is administered in the Court of Exchequer to the [Lord Mayor elect; the late Lord Mayor renders his accounts; and the Recorder invites the barons to the inauguration-banquet at Guildhall.
The Court of Exchequer has two seals: the Cheat Seal, used not more than ten or twelve times a year, except on Seal Days, in passing the accounts in court. The other, a small Initial Seal, which formerly contained the Chancellor’s initials, but now bears the letters C. E., is affixed to writs, ” is in. daily use, and seldom idle during official hours.”— Notes, by F. S. Thomas, Record Office.
The Receipt of Exchequer at Westminster, the most ancient revenue department of the State, with all its antiquated machinery of tallies and checks, was not abolished until the year 1834; when a new office for the payment of pensions and public moneys, and the receipt of revenue, was opened at the Bank of England. By the statute of 23 Geo. IIC. cap. 82, however, indented check receipts were issued from the Tally Court instead of tallies, which, as instruments of loan, declined with the growth of Exchequer Bills. An Exchequer Tally, date 1810, is 22\ inches long, and J of an inch extreme width: notches are cut in its edge to denote the reckoning, and from the cross-line in the lower part has been stripped off the counter-tally, cutting the date-line of the transaction written on the edge; so that identity consisted not only in the wood fitting, but in the halved date and notches corresponding, like a halved bank-note.
” From his rug the skew’r he takes, And on the stick ten equal notches makes; With just resentment flings it on the ground, There, take my tally of ten thousand pound.”— Swift.
As one of the Exchequer apartments at Westminster was filled with the old tallies in 1834, it became advisable to destroy them; and an order was issued from the Board of Works to burn these ancient relics, although persons curious in such matters would have purchased bundles of them for museums and collections. The tallies were, accordingly, burnt in the principal stove of the House of Lords; and to the consequent overheating of the flues proceeding in every direction from the stove through the wood-work of the House, on October 16,1834, nearly the whole of both Houses of Parliament was consumed by fire.
Insolvent Debtobs’ Cottbt, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-Inn-fields, abolished 1861.
Mr. Dickens has thus vividly sketched its characteristics:—
” A temple dedicated to the genius of seediness,” and ” the place of daily refuge of all the shabby-genteel people in London. There are more suits of old clothes in it at one time than will be offered for sale in all Houndsditch in a twelvemonth; and more unwashed skins and grisly beards than all the pumps and shaving-shops between Tyburn and Whitechapel could render decent between sunrise and sunset. There is not a messenger or process-server attached to the Court who wears a coat that was made for him; the very barristers’ wigs are ill-powdered, and their curls lack crispness. But the attorneys, who sit below the commissioners, are, after all, the greatest curiosities. The professional establishment of the more opulent of these gentlemen consists of a blue bag and a boy. They have no fixed offices, their legal business being transacted in the parlours of public-houses or the yards of prisons, whither they repair in crowds, and canvas for customers after the manner of omnibus-cads. They are of a greasy and mildewed appearance; and if they can be said to have any vices, perhaps drinking and cheating are most conspicuous among them.”— Pickwick Papers.
Mabshalsea and Palace Coubt was an appendage to the royal house at Westminster : anciently it had exclusive jurisdiction in matters connected with the royal household, and was presided over by the Earl Marshal. It next became a minor court of record for actions for debt, &c., within Westminster and twelve miles round it, except the City of London; its prison being in High-street, Southwark, until consolidated with the Queen’s Bench and Fleet in 1842. The Court, with the Knight-Marshal for judge, existed until December 28, 1849, when it was formally adjourned for the last time, and rose never to resume its sittings; the suits being transferred to the Common Pleas and County Courts, and the records to the charge of the Master of the Rolls. The Marshalsea Court sat in Southwark until 1801, and subsequently in Great Scotland-yard, Whitehall; but it was probably first held in the ” Court of Requests,” part of the Norman Palace at Westminster. Littleton, the eminent lawyer, was appointed by Henry VI. Steward or Judge of the Marshalsea Court.
There were formerly local courts in the metropolis outside the privileged boundary of the ” City:” the various Courts of Request, and the celebrated Palace Court, with a jurisdiction wijurisdiin some respects resembling the Lord Mayor’s Court, and like that Court, under its original constitution, having only a limited number of privileged counsel and attorneys. The old Courts” of Request were swept away by
the County Courts’ Acts. The Talace Court survived, and owed its subsequent downfall to the accident of an energetic writer for the public press having been sued there, and in consequence brought about a clamour for its abatement as a nuisance.— Alexander Pulling.
Lord Matoe’s Court (the) has jurisdiction over all personal and mixed actions within the City, and is held at Guildhall, nominally before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, hut really before the Recorder. The office of the Court was formerly in a long gallery at the west end of the Royal Exchange. The records of the Court were saved from the great fire at the Exchange in 1838, and have been arranged in a strong fireproof closet in a record-room at Guildhall hy the town-clerk; with other records of the reigns of Edward I., Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., V., and VI.; hooks of precedents, James I.; records from Elizabeth to George I. Francis Bancroft was an officer of this Court, and despised for his mercenary conduct, which he atoned for by bequeathing his ill-gotten wealth to build almshouses and a school. The Court was, after 1838, held in Old Jewry; and next removed to the Guildhall.
The Lord Mayor’s Court is presided over by the Recorder, with an unlimited jurisdiction, both legal and equitable, for cases which are within the City boundaries, and peculiar modes of procedure, in part derived from the ancient customs of the City of London, and in part from recent Acts of Parliament, and possessing the very peculiar power of proceeding by what is calledforeign attachment.
Rolls Court. —In vacation the Master sits at the Rolls House, in the Liberty of the Rolls, between Chancery-lane and Fetter-lane: it is exempt from the power of the Sheriff of Middlesex, and of every other officer, except with leave of the Master. The Court adjoins the Master’s House and the Chapel, described at p. 215. The House, designed by Colin Campbell, was built 1717, when Sir Joseph Jekyll was Master. A great portion of the estate was formerly laid out in gardens, upon which has been built the central portion of a new Record Office. Opposite the Rolls Chapel was Herfiet Inn, belonging to the priors of Nocton Park, and occupied by the Six Clerks in the Court of Chancery, who subsequently removed to the west side of the north end of Chancery-lane: they were abolished 1842.
When Sir William Grant was Master of the Rolls, the court sat in the evening from six to ten, and Sir William dined after the court rose: his servant, when he went to bed, left two bottles of wine on the table, which he always found empty in the morning. Sir William lived on the ground-floor of the Rolls House, and when showing it to his successor in the Mastership, he said: ” Here are two or three good rooms; this is my dining-room; my library and bed-room are beyond; and I am told there are some good rooms upstairs, but 1 was never there.”
Sheriff’s Courts (the) are held by each of the Sheriffs of London, near Guildhall, before a judge appointed by him.
Star Chamber (the) was the ancient council-chamber of the palace at Westminster, wherein thnd r, where king sat in extraordinary causes. The last-existing Star-Chamber buildings are described at p. 450.
Our chief metropolitan tribunals are, at this day, held in the same place, and with hardly better accommodation, than was accorded to them at the date of Magna Charta, when the Common Pleas was permanently fixed at Westminster Hall. The demand for a fitting Palace of Justice for the metropolis, which has been so long pressed on the attention of the Legislature, is now about to be complied with; the chosen site being the district (7\ acres) bounded on the north by Horseshoe-court, Yeates-court, Carey-street, and Lincoln’s-inn; on the south by the Strand, and the Temple; on the east by Bell-yard and Temple-bar; and on the west by New Inn and Clement’s Inn. The competitive designs for the New Law Courts were exhibited to the public in a temporary building in Old-square, Lincoln’s-inn, in February, 1867. A paper, descriptive of the older occupation of the site, entitled, ” Old Houses on the site of the New Law Courts,” by the author of Curiosities of London, with eight engraved views, appeared in the Illustrated London News, December 15, 1866: it is a piece of London topography of considerable historic interest.
LEADENHALL STREET,
EXTENDING from Cornhill to Aldgate, and the adjoining Market, are named •U from the manor-house of Leadeuhall, which belonged to Sir Hugh Neville in 1309;
in 1419 Simon Eyre erected upon its site a granary, which he gave to the Corporation; and adjoining he built a chapel in the Perpendicular style, for the market-people, Leadenhall having then become a market. In this Hall were kept the artillery and other arms of the City ; doles were distributed from here; in Stow’s boyhood, the common beams for weighing wool, and the scales to weigh meal, were kept here; and in the lofts above were painted devices for pageants. Chamberlayne describes it, in 1726, as ” a noble ancient building, where are great markets for hides and leather, for flesh, poultry, and other sorts of edibles.” In 1730 the market-place was partly rebuilt; and the leather-market in 1814, when the Chapel and other ancient portions were removed. The ” Green Yard” was a portion of the garden of the Nevilles; and the Chapel, in Ram-alley, was inscribed ” Dextra Domini exaltavit me.”
Leadenhall was formerly the great meat-market. Don Pedro de Ronquillo, on visiting it, said to Charles II., that he believed there to be more meat sold in that market alone, than in all the kingdom of Spain in a year; and ” he was a very good judge.”
Beneath No. 71, Leadenhall-street is the ancient chapel of St. Michael, Aldgate (see Crypts, p. 303). No. 153 has an Early English crypt. Here, too, at ” the Two Fans,” Peter Motteux, the translator of Rabelais and Don Quixote, kept an India House for ” China and Japan wares, fans, tea, muslins, pictures, arreck, and other Indian goods f* rich brocades, Dutch atlases, and other foreign silks, fine Flanders lace and linens. (Spectator, Nos. 288 and 552, by Steele). Motteux wrote a poem upon Tea: he was found dead (murdered) on his birthday, Feb. 19, 1717-18, in a house of ill-fame in Star-court, Butcher-row, Temple Bar.
In Leadenhall-street are the churches of St. Andrew Undershaft (see p. 150) and St. Catherine Cree (p. 156). On the wall of the latter serf the lis a large sun-dial ; and at the east end a curious gateway, built 1631. The churchyard was noted for performances of miracle-plays, the earliest known of which relates to St. Catherine. (See also East India House, pp. 318, 319).
Nearly opposite the site of the East India House, now occupied by handsome stone-fronted buildings, is St. Mary Axe, a street named from the church of St. Mary Axe, which was “suppressed and lettec to be a warehouse” about the year 1565; and the church derived its particular designation from a holy relic it possessed: ” an axe, oon of the iij that the xjm d Virgins were behedyd wV— (Signed Bill, 5 Henry VIII.) This church was united to St. Andrew Undershaft, in the above year. Nearly opposite, in 1864, was taken down a four-storied Tudor house, with three overhanging floors, the front entirely of wood and plaster; and some fine oak-panelled interiors.
At No. 16, St. Mary Axe, lived Joseph Denison, the wealthy banker: here were born his eldest daughter, afterwards Marchioness Conyngham; and his son, William Joseph Denison, M.P., who, dying in 1849, bequeathed two millions and a half of moDey, settled on his nephew, Lord Albert Denison, afterwards Baron Londesborough.
LEICESTER SQUARE,
WITHIN memory, was called Leicester Fields, from the mansion at its north-east corner, built for Robert Sydney, Earl of Leicester, who died 1677. It was let to Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I.: she died here 1661. Colbert and Prince Eugene resided here. But the fame of Leicester House chiefly rests upon its having been bought by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II„ when he had quarrelled with his father and received the royal command to quit St. James’s. When George II. had a similar quarrel with his son Frederick, the Prince of Wales took up his residence, as his father had done before him, at Leicester House, which Pennant happily describes as ” successively the pouting-place of Princes.” Walpole tells us that Frederick, Prince of Wales added to Leicester House the mansion westward—Savile House—for his children; a communication being made between the two houses, as Sir John Fielding phrased it, in 1777, ” for the more immediate intercourse of the royal family.” Hence, much of the celebrity of Leicester House became extended to Savile House, wherein, probably, was performed Addison’s play of Cato by the junior branches of the Prince of Wales’s household, Prince George playing Portius. The
Prince resided here until his accession to the throne as George III., when, in front of the mansion, he was first hailed as King. The last Royal tenant of Leicester House was the Duke of Gloucester, grandson of George TI. The mansion was next let to Sir Ashton Lever for his museum, which was removed in 1788. Leicester House was then taken down: Savile House being left standing. It had, however, been proposed to build here a theatre; for, in the Ladies’ Magazine, 1790, we read, “The site of the new opera-house is settled: Leicester-square—the mound occupied by Leicester House.” On the site of its gardens was built New Lisle-street, in 1791. Eastward was the door which was unceremoniously cut through the wall of the garden of Home, the poulterer, to make an outlet towards Newport Market for the convenience of the Prince of Wales’s domestics. How the poulterer resisted the encroachment, and triumphed over the heir-apparent of the English crown, and the obnoxious door was removed, will be remembered, as well as its influence on the political aspirations of the poultegraof the rer’s son, John Home Tooke. Westward was built Leicester-street, where, in 1796, Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, built his theatre, the ” Sans Souci.”
Savile House was sometimes called Aylesbury House, from the Earl of Aylesbury residing here. It was let as a town-house for people of fashion : here the Earl of Carmarthen entertained Peter the Great. It belonged to the Savile family, and here resided Sir George Savile, M.P., in 1780, when, in the Riots, his house was stripped of its valuable furniture, books, and paintings, which the rioters burnt in the Fields. The Rev. W. Mason, in a letter to Walpole, 1778, speaks of the political wisdom of Sir George Savile, “who chooses this very moment to indispose the whole body of Dissenters towards him and his party by rising up the champion of the Papists.” Naturally, this patron of toleration suffered, and in the Riots ” the rails torn from Sir George’s house were the chief weapons and instruments of the mob.” Their conduct was ferocious; for the accounts state Sir George’s life to have been shortened by their threats. However, he must have been a strong partisan, for Wilberforce notes: ” Sir George Savile was chosen member for Yorkshire by the Whig grandees in the Marquis of Rockingham’s dining-room.” The attack upon Savile House by the Rioters of 1780 is referred to in a letter to Richard Shackletou from Edmund Burke, who then lived in Charles-street, St. James’s; telling how he spent his nights with other volunteer friends of rank in guarding Sir George Savile’s house:—” For four nights,” he says, ” I kept watch at Lord Rockingham’s, or Sir George Savile’s, whose houses were garrisoned by a strong body of soldiers, together with numbers of true friends of rank.”
At the commencement of the present century, Savile House was rebuilt by the late Mr. Samuel Page, of Dulwich, an architect of some eminence at the time. The famous Chancery suit of ” Page v. Linwood and others,” which lasted forty years, related to this property. Lord Chancellor Cottenham, when Mr. Pepys, was counsel for the plaintiff; and Mr. Sugden, now Lord St. Leonards, was counsel for Miss Linwood.
Miss Linwood’s Needlework was exhibited at Savile House from the commencement of the present century until the year after her death in 1845, in her 90th year. She worked her first picture when thirteen years old, and the last piece when seventy-eight years. The designs were executed with fine crewels dyed expressly for her, on a thick tammy, and were entirely drawn and embroidered by herself. In 1785, the pictures were exhibited to the Royal Family at Windsor; next at the Pantheon, Oxford-street; removed in 1798 to the Hanover-square Rooms; and then to Leicester-square. The collection consisted of sixty-four pictures, including a portrait of Miss Linwood, at 19, from a crayon painting by Russell; her first piece, Head of St. Peter (Guido); Salvator Mundi (Carlo Dolci), for which 3000 guineas had been refused (this picture was bequeathed by Miss Linwood to her Majesty); Woodman in a Storm (Gainsborough) ; Jephtha’s Rash Vow (Opie). The pictures were sold by auction, by Christie and Manson, at Savile House, April 23, 1846, when the Judgment upon Cain, which occupied ten years working, brought 64/. 1*.; the price of neither of the other pictures exceeding 40/. The original Hubert and Arthur, by Northcote, sold for 38/. 17*. The entire sale did not realize 1000/.
At Savile House the National Political Union held its Reform meetings; and here
was exhibited, in 1849, an extens (G49, an ive moving Panorama of the Mississippi River, &c. The place has since been a very Noah’s Ark of exhibitions, of greater variety than delicacy. The large building, Savile House, was destroyed by fire in less than two hours, on the night of February 28, 1865.
Leicester-square was built between 1630 and 1671. In 1677, rows of elm-trees extended in the Fields nearly half the width of the present Square, which was enclosed about 1738. In 1720, it was described as ” ordinarily built and inhabited, except the west side, towards the fields, where there is a very good house and curious garden which fronts the fields.” In the centre, upon a sculptured stone pedestal, is an equestrian metal statue of George I., modelled by C. Buchard for the Duke of Chandos, and brought from Canons in 1747, when it was purchased by the inhabitants of the Square: it was “finely gilt,” and within memory was regilt; but its history is much disputed.* Over this statue was built a colossal Model of the Earth, which became one of the most intellectual exhibitions of the metropolis.
The ground was leased, in 1851, for ten years, for 30002., to Mr. Wyld, the geographer, for whom was erected here (H. R. Abraham, architect), a circular building 90 feet across, enclosing a Globe 60 feet 4 inches in diameter, and lighted by day from the centre of the dome (as at the Pantheon at Rome), and by gas at night. The frame of the Globe consisted of horizontal ribs, battened to receive the plaster modelling, thus to figure the earth’s surface on the inside instead of the outside of a sphere, and to show at one view the physical features of the world. The visitor passed into the interior of the Globe, and by a winding staircase proceeded round it, viewing every part of the model at four feet distance from the eye. The scale was ten miles to an inch horizontal, and one mile to an inch vertical, so as effectively to exhibit the details of hill and valley, lake and river: the great oceans occupying nearly 150,000,000 square miles; and the old and new continents, and all the islands, only 60,000,000 square miles; the gigantic model being made up of some thousand castings in plaster. The Circumpolar Regions were similarly illustrated. At the termination of the lease the building and Globe were remoi el.
At No. 47, Leicester-square, west side, Sir Joshua Reynolds lived from 1761 till his death in 1792. Here he built a gallery for his works, and set up a gay coach, upon the panels of which he painted the Four Seasons.
Here were given those famous dinner-parties, the first great example in this country “of a cordial intercourse between persons of distinguished pretensions of all kinds: poets, physicians, lawyers, deans, historians, actors, temporal and spiritual peers, House of Commons men, men of science, men of letters, painters, philosophers, and lovers of the arts, meeting on a ground of hearty ease, good humour, and pleasantry, which exalt my respect for the memory of Reynolds. It was no prim fine table he set them down to. Often was the dinner-board prepared for seven or eight required to accommodate itself to fifteen or sixteen; for often, on the very eve of dinner, would Sir Joshua tempt afternoon visitors with intimation that Johnson, or Garriek, or Goldsmith, was to dine there.”—Forster’s Life of Goldsmith, p. 253.
Sir Joshua painted in an octagonal room; the sticks of his brushes were 18 inches long; he held his palettes by handle; one of mahogany, 11 by 7 inches, is possessed by Mr. Cribb, King-street, Covent-garden, whoseommgarden, father received it from Sir Joshua’s niece, the Marchioness of Thomond. Here, in 1790, the good-natured bachelor P.R.A. painted for two schoolboys a flag bearing the Royal arms, which was borne at the next breaking-up of King’s Academy, Chapel-street, Soho.
Reynolds came to town in 1740, and, probably, lived during his apprenticeship of two years at Hudson’s house, now Nos. 55 and 56, Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s-inn-fields; on returning from Italy he had rooms at 104, St. Martin’s-lane, Thornhill’s and Hayman’s house, in front of the first studio of Roubiliac j the site of the latter is now occupied by a Friends’ Meeting-house, but, intermediately, was the subscription drawing-academy under Moser. From St. Maitin’s-lane, in 1753, Reynolds removed to a whole house, No. 5, Great Newport-street. In 1760 he removed, for the last time, to No. 47, Leicester-square. On going to Great Newport-street, he raised his price for heads to twelve guineas, and, in a few years, to fifteen guineas. In 1758 he had no fewer than 150 sitters, and worked prodigiously hard; the number of sittings for each portrait varies from five to sixteen. In 1759 he got twenty guineas for a head; the following year twenty-five guineas; soon after this he was earning 60001. a year. He left his residuary legatee, the Marchioness of Thomond, nearly, one of the editors thinks, 100,0002.; and to others what was, probably, worth nearly 20,0002.
The house was afterwards the Western Literary and Scientific Institution, when was added a theatre, designed by George Godwin, F.R.S., for lectures. The premises are now occupied by Puttick and Simpson, the book-auctioneers: the noble staircase remains, and the wine-cellar is now used as a strong-room.
On the opposite side of the Square, in the house subsequently the northern wing of the Sabloniere Hotel, lived William Hogarth from 1733; his name upon a brass-plate on the door, and the sign of the Golden Head over it: this head, of pieces of cork glued together, Smith (in his Life of Nollehens) tells us was cut by Hogarth’s
* This statue has also been described as that of the Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culldden, which may have arisen from the Duke’s birth at Leicester House in 1721. The Earl of Aylesbury, one of the trustees of the Canons estate, and who resided in Leicester-square, may have influenced the statue being placed here.
own hand. In the European Magazine for 1801, it is stated that the apartment which Hogarth had erected for painting was still in existence as the billiard-room of the Sabloniere, for which its top lighting would peculiarly adapt it. Hogarth usually took his evening walk within the enclosure of the square, in a scarlet roquelaure and cocked hat. Hogarth published, by subscription, the Harlot’s and Rake’s Progresses, and other prints: he died here suddenly, Oct. 25, 1764. Next door lived John Hunter from 1783 : in the rear he built rooms for his anatomical collection, lectures, dissection, Sunday-evening medical levees, &c.; and from here, in 1793, Hunter was buried in St.’ Martin’s Church. To No. 28, also east, was removed the National Repository (on the plan of the Arts et Metiers at Paris) from the King’s Mews, taken down in 1830; and here was temporarily housed, in 1836, the Museum of the Zoological Society.
In the centre of the east side of the Square the Panopticon of Science and Art was erected 1852-3, by a chartered companthertered y for a polytechnic exhibition: it has a pair of minarets nearly 100 feet high, a domed roof, and other eastern features. The interior had a hall 97 feet in diameter, lecture-theatres, laboratory, colossal machinery for experiments; an electrifying machine, plate eight feet diameter, &c. The building is now the Alhambra Palace, a gigantic music hall.
Burford’s Panorama, at the north-east angle of Leicester-square, was erected in 1783, by a number of patrons of the arts, who were repaid their capital by Robert Barker, the inventor of the Panorama, succeeded by Henry Aston Barker, and John and Robert Burford. The building is now a French Chapel.
In Leicester-place, Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, built in 1796 the Sans Souci theatre for his musical entertainment: the premises, No. 2, now an hotel, occupy the site of The Feathers public-house, frequented by ” Athenian Stuart;” Scott, the marine painter; Luke Sullivan, the miniature painter, who engraved Hogarth’s March to Finchley; Capt. Grose and Mr. Hearne, the antiquaries; Henderson, the actor; John Ireland, editor of Hogarth Moralised, &c.
In Lisle-street is the Royal Society of Musicians, founded in 1738 for the benefit of the families of indigent musicians: it originated in the two orphan sons of Kaitch, the oboist, being seen driving milch-asses down the Haymarket. In Lisle-street lived Henry Bone, R.A., the enamel-painter, who received for an enamel, 18 by 16 inches, 2200 guineas: he died 1834, aged 80, leaving a long series of Elizabethan portraits. His collection of beautiful enamels was dispersed by auction, in March, 1856.
In Cranbourne-alley (named from the second title of the Marquis of Salisbury, the ground-landlord), lived Ellis Gamble, silversmith, to whom Hogarth was apprenticed to learn silver-plate engraving, and engraving on copper; and from 1718 till 1724 he earned his livelihood by engraving arms, crests, ciphers, shop-bills, &c. An impression of Hogarth’s allegorical shop-card, dated 1720, has been sold for 25Z. The fame of the place had dwindled to a ” Cranbourne-alley bonnet,” ere. Cranbourne-street was built.
In St. Martin’s-street, next the chapel, is the last town residence of Sir Isaac Newton, who removed here, in 1710, from Jennyn-street: upon thereof is a small observatory, built by a subsequent tenant, a Frenchman, but long shown as Newton’s. In a scarce pamphlet, A List of the Royal Society, fyc, in 1718, we find: ” Sir Isaac Newton, St. Martin’s-street, Leicester-fields.” The house was subsequently tenanted by Dr. Burney, when writing his History of Music: and his daughter, Fanny, wrote here her novel of Evelina. Mr. Bewley, ” the philosopher of Massingham,” died here, during a visit to Dr. Burney, who, in an anecdote related to Bos”Boelated well (Life of Johnson), erroneously states Newton to have died here: he died at Kensington.
Fanny Eurney (Madame D’Arblay), writes from here in 1779 and 1780 (Diary and Letters, vol. i.); and Mr. Thrale, writing to Miss Burney, styles the inmates of the house in St. Martin’s-street, “dear Newtonians.”
In Green-street, at now No. 11, lived William Woollett, the landscape and historical engraver, known by his masterly plates of Wilson’s pictures and his battle-pieces: when he had finished a plate, he used to fire a cannon on the roof of his house : his portrait, by Stuart, hangs in the Vernon Collection. He died 1785, and is buried at Old St. Pancras; his grave-stones were restored by the Graphic Society in 1846.
In Orange-court, Leicester-fields, lodged Opie, the painter; and here was born Dec. 10, 1745, Thomas Holcroft, his father, a shoemaker.
” Cradled in poverty, with no education save what he could pick up for himself, amid incessant struggles for bare existence—by turns a pedlar, a stable-boy, a shoemaker, and a strolling-player—he yet contrived to surmount the most untoward circumstances, and at last took his place among the most distinguished writers of his age as a novelist, a dramatist, and a translator.”— Preface to Holcrqft’t Life, by William Hazlitt.
Leicester-square has long been the resort and habitat of foreigners; and Maitland (1739) describes the parish (St. Anne’s) so greatly abounding with French, ” that it is an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France.” Of the Hotels in the Square, the principal were Huntley’s and Brunet’s; and La Sabloniere, named from the famous Parisian cook.
LIBRARIES.
” THE greatest city in the world is destitute of a public library,” wrote Gibbon -L towards the close of the last century; since which period much has been done to afford the masses facilities for mental culture by an open public library from which books may be taken out.
Agricultural Society OF England (Royal), 12, Hanover-square; library of the Board of Agriculture, increased by purchases, &c.
Antiquaries, Society of, Somerset House: valuable collections of red Broadsides and Ballads; rare Prints, illustrating Ancient London; the Book of St. Albans, fol. St. Albans, 1486, finest state. Among the MSS.’ are, 1. Cartulary of the Abbey of Peterborough. 2. Original MS. of Weever’s Funeral Monuments. 3. Indentures for Coining Money in England and Ireland, from Edward I. to Elizabeth. 4. The ” Winton Domesday,” on 33 leaves of vellum, and in the original stamped cuirbouilli covers: this MS. (temp. Edward I.) contains an exact account of every tenement in Winchester at that period. 5. Original Letters of Antiquaries and Literary men (18th century). 6. Letters of Eminent Englishmen (17th century). Autograph of John Bunyan, doubtful. The Society’s Transactions, ArchcBologia, commenced 1710. The library consists of nearly 10,000 volumes, and is richest in topography, its collection of county histories, &c.
Aech^oeogicai Societies, the several, have libraries and museums.
Artillery Geotjnd, or Military Yard, behind Leicester House.
Near Leicester-fields, upon the site of Gerrard-street, was a piece of ground walled in by Prince Henry, eldest son of James I., for the exercise of arms; where, were, an armoury, and a well-furnished library of books relating to feats of arms, chivalry, military affairs, encamping, fortification, in all languages, and kept by a learned librarian. It was called the Artillery Ground; and after the Restoration of Charles II. it was bought by Lord Gerard, and let for building, about 1677.
Asiatic Society (Royal), 5, New Burlington-street: scarce books and MSS., including a collection of Sanscrit MSS., formed by Colonel Tod in Rajasthan. Here is a Chinese Library, of which see the catalogue, by the Rev. S. Kidd, 1838.
Astronomical Society (Royal), Somerset House: valuable collection of astronomical works, including Peter Apian’s Opus Casareum, printed at Ingolstadt in 1540; and the library of the Mathematical Society, from Spitalfields.
Bank of England Library, instituted by the Directors for the use of the clerks, was opened May, 1850; the Court having voted 500Z. for the purchase of books.
Barber-Surgeons’ Hall, Monkwell-street: a curious collection of rare books on olden Anatomy.
Beaumont Institution, Mile-end, built and endowed with 13,000Z. by Mr. Barber Beaumont, has a library of 4000 volumes, a music-hall, and musn ohall, aeum of natural history.
Bible Society, British and Foreign, 10 Earl-street, Blackfriars: collection of versions of the Scriptures, in various languages or dialects. The bulk of this invaluable biblical library consists of copies of the Scriptures, including, in addition to those in which the Bible Society has been immediately concerned, rare copies of the first or early editions of the Bible in varions languages; and no national, collegiate, or private biblical library can approach that of the Society. In addition to the printed Bibles, there are also valuable copies of more or less of the Scriptures in manuscript, in about fifty different languages, some of which have never yet appeared in print. A.considerable portion of this curious collection consists of lexicons, grammars, and other philo-logic treatises, which refer to the business of translation. This library contains also a
large assortment of commentaries, liturgies, catechisms, books of topography and travels, and the reports of all the Bible Societies in the world. Next in attraction to the Bibles in all languages, and the MSS. above referred to, is a collection of twelve folio volumes in manuscript, containing the history of the translations in 94 languages, in which the Society had been concerned down to 1829 j and similar materials are preserved for continuing these historic records to the present time. Here also are early versions of the Scriptures in such tongues as Welsh and Bohemian; and invaluable Ethiopic and Mexican manuscripts. Some of its rarest curiosities it owes to the liberality of Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, who presented it witli copies of the translations of the versions of St. Matthew he has recently caused to be executed in Basque, and in the lowland Scotch dialect. Of the former of these only twelve, of the latter only eighteen copies have been printed.
Botanical Society, 20, Bedford-street, Covent-garden, has a library of works on botany for reference and circulation; besides British and general herbaria for the exchange of specimens.
British Museum. (See Museums.)
Charter-House, Aldersgate: a collection presented by booksellers and others for the reading of the Brotherhood. In 1851 Queen Victoria presented the Quarterly Revieio, 86 vols.
Chelsea Hospital : History, Voyages, and Travels, and Military Memoirs, Newspapers, and Periodicals for the pensioners’ reading.
Christ’s Hospital, Newgate-street, ” formerly the Grey Friars, hath a neat library for the use of the masters and scholars; besides a collection of mathematical instruments, globes, ships, with all their rigging, for the instruction of the lads designed for the sea.” (S. Lemoine, 1790.) To the library of MSS., Whittington was a great benefactor. The most considerable Franciscan collection of books seems to have been at the London monastery, on the site of Christ’s Hospital, Newgate-street, for which the first stone of a new building was laid by Sir Richard ‘Whittington, on the 21st of October, 1421. After it was completed, 100 marks were expended on a transcript of the Works of Nicholas de Lira, to be chained in the library. (Stow’s Survey, by Strype.) Whittington’s Library was a handsome room, 129 feet long, and 31 feet broad, wainscoted throughout, and fitted with shelves neatly carved, with desks and settles: th and se it formed the northern side of the quadrangle.
Church Missionary Society, Salisbury-square, Fleet-street: miscellaneous collection, rich in voyages and travels.
City of London Institution, Aldersgate-street, commenced in 1825, contained upwards of 7000 volumes for reference and circulation; dispersed in 1852, when the Institution was dissolved.
Civil Engineers (Institution of), 25, Great George-street, Westminster: upwards of 3000 volumes, and 1500 tracts, upon bridges, canals, railways, roads, docks, navigation, ports, rivers, and water; Transactions of Societies, Parliamentary Reports, &c. Here are some volumes of MS. observations by Telford in his early engineering career. This library has the advantage of a printed catalogue, admirably arranged by C. Manby, Secretary to the Institution.
Clockmakees’ Company, London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street: a lending library of valuable English and foreign works on Horology and the allied sciences, with a printed catalogue.
Club-Houses (The) have extensive general libraries.
College of Physicians, Pall Mall East. (See p. 277.) In this collection are the libraries of Selden and the Marquis of Dorchester ; and Sir Theodore Mayerne, physician to James I.
College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s-inn-fields : library commenced by John Hunter’s donation of his published works on Anatomy and Surgery in 1786, the unique autograph letter accompanying which is possessed by Mr. Stone, the present Librarian. Sir Charles Blicke bequeathed his medical library, and 300Z. j and the collection now
numbers 30,000 volumes (cost 23,000Z.); mostly works on the history, science, and practice of medicine and the collateral sciences: its collection of Transactions and Journals is very perfect.
Among the Curiosities is ” Approved Medicines and Cordiall Receipts,” dated 1580: it bears in several places the signature and initials of Shakspeare; but it was bought at the sale of forger Ireland’s effects. Among the early books are a Compendium Medicines nondum Medicis sed Cyrurgis utilissimum, 1510, by Gilbertus Anglicus, circ. 1230: the works of John of Oaddesden, or Johannes Anglicus, circ. 1320. Herbarium Germanice, 1485, beautifully illuminated, and bound in oak, brass ornaments, dated 1549; a collection of engraved portraits of medical men, formerly possessed by Fauntleroy, the banker, and presented by him to William Wadd, the facete surgeon. The library, designed by Barry, extends the entire length of the College facade; above the bookcases are a gallery and portraits of Harvey, Chesel-den, Nesbitt, Nourse, Blizard, Hunter, Pott, &c.; and adjoining is a room with a collection of Voyages and Travels, works on Natural History and Science. Members of the College can introduce a visitor.
Corpobation op London Library, Guildhall. It appears that in 1411 the Guildhall College was furnished with a library founded by the executors of Richard Whittington, and that to this was added a portion of the library of John Carpenter, the namrpenterTown Clerk of the City, and the founder of the City of London School. The will of Carpenter says :—” I direct, that if any good or rare books shall be found among the residue of my goods which, by the discretion of Masters William Lichfield and Reginald Pocock, may seem necessary for the common library at Guildhall, for the profit of the students there and those discoursing to the common people, then I will and bequeath that those books be placed by my executors and chained in that library, under such form that the visitors and students thereof may be the sooner admonished to pray for my soul.” It appears that in 1457 John Clipstone, priest and bedeman, was appointed librarian. He was succeeded, in 1510, by Edmund Alison, also a priest; and at this date, according to Stow, the books constituted ” a fayre and large librarie.” According to this chronicler, the whole of these books, four carts full, were borrowed by Edward Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector, with a promise of their speedy return, which, however, never took place. The citizens, thus deprived of their library, formed a new collection, of which but little is known, except that it was entirely destroyed in the Fire of 1666. From that period it does not appear that any fresh library was formed to the present one, founded in 1824, and which now numbers about 25,000 volumes. In 1828 was published A Catalogue of the books, to which have since been made valuable additions. It is enriched with a choice collection of 950 original Royal proclamations, published by King Charles I., the Parliament, the Protector, Charles II., James II., and William III.; also 400 volumes of Hebrew and Rabbinical literature, presented by Mr. Philip Salamons. The present Catalogue contains a valuable Index of names, ably compiled by the librarian, Mr. W. H. Overall.
The Library is rich in works relating to the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark; rare tracts preceding, accompanying, and following the Commonwealth; and several volumes of original proclamations, temp. 1638 to 1698. Here are Domesday Survey and the Monasticon; in history, Ven. Bede, Matthew Paris, Decern Scripfores, and other old English chroniclers ; in foreign history, Kajmpfer, Pontoppidan, Wormius, Duhalde, D’Herbelot, Mezeray, &c.; Hakluyt’s Voyages, first edit, black letter, and Evans’s very brilliant edit. 5 vols. 4to; Lysons’s Environs of London, with drawings, prints, and armorial bearings, 13 thick volumes, perhaps the most elaborately illustrated work extant. Among the recent additions are: the great French work on Egypt, 14 vols, atlas folio, and 9 vols, folio letterpress; II Vaticano, by Erasmus Pistolesi, 8 vols, folio; M’Kenney’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America (superb coloured engravings), 3 vols, folio. Portfolios of Maps, Views, and Plans of London, of various dates from Aggas to Stanford. The library of the Dutch Church, Austinfriars, has been deposited here with the MSS. and letters of the early Reformers and men of science.
Boole Rarities: — Nuremburg Chronicle, 1493, with MS. Notes, sixteenth century, and Lists of Bailiffs, Mayors, and Sheriffs of London, 1st Rich. I. to 4 Hen. VIII., with marginal notes of events: woodcuts, mostly coloured. Complaint of Roderick Mars, sometime a Gray Fryare (Geneva), said by Kennet to have been written by Henry Brincklow, a London merchant. Bonner’s Profitable and Necessary Doctrine, bl. 1. 1555. Declaration of Bonner’s Article, bl. 1. 1561. A Boke made by John Fryth, Prysoner in the Tower of London, bl. 1. 1546. The Actes of English Votaryes, by John Bale.bl.l. 1546. The Castel ofSelth (by Sir Jo. Elyot, bl. 1. 1541. The Burnynge of Paule’s Church, &c. (written against Popery, by Pilkington, Bishop of Durham), bl. 1. 1591. Legenda Sanctorum, fol. bl. 1. n. d. Codex Sinaiticus* presented by the Emperor otiqthe Empf Russia. A collection of early printed Plays and Pageants.
Among the autographic Curiosities is the Charter granted by William the Conqueror to the City of London in 1067. It is beautifully written in Saxon characters, in about four lines, upon a slip of parchment six inches long and one broad.
Also, in a glass-case, is the signature of Shakspeare, purchased in 1843, by the Corporation of London for 145£.: it is affixed to a deed of bargain and sale of ” all that messuage or tente with the app’tennes lyeing and being in the blackfryers in London, neare the Wardrobe,” by Henry Walker to William Shakspeare, dated March 10, 1612-13, and has the seals attached, and the names of the attesting witnesses on the back. The house is described as ” abutting upon a streete leading down to Pudle wharffe” (now St. Andrew’s Hill), and was in Ireland-yard, named after the tenant, William Ireland, about the time of the above sale: it was bequeathed by Shakspeare in his will to his daughter, Susannah Hall. Here, too, is the sign-stone of the Boar’s Head Tavern. The Museum attached to the Library is particularly rich in antiquities discovered in the City of London during numerous excavations.
Cottonian Libbaby (The), now in the British Museum, was collected by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, the learned antiquary, who greatly profited by the dissolution of monasteries half a century before, by which the records, charters, and instruments were thrown into private hands. Sir Robert Cotton was the friend of Camden, and greatly assisted him in his Britannia. The library was kept at Cotton House, at the west end of Westminster Hall, and was greatly increased by Sir Robert’s son and grandson; in 1700 it was purchased by Act of Parliament, and in 1706 Cotton House was sold to the Crown for 4500Z.; but the mansion falling into decay, in 1712 the library was removed to Essex House, Strand; and thence, in 1730, to Ashburnham House, Westminster. Here, October 23,1731, a destructive fire broke out, by which 111 MSS. were lost, burnt, or entirely defaced, and 99 rendered imperfect. What remained were removed into the new dormitory of Westminster School. In 1738 was bequeathed to the collection Major Arthur Edwards’s library of 2000 printed volumes; and in 1757 the whole were transferred to the British Museum. The Cottonian collection originally contained 958 volumes of original Charters, Royal Letters, Foreign State Correspondence, Ancient Registers: it was kept in cases, upon which were the heads of the twelve Caesars; and the MSS. are distinguished by the press-marks of the Csesars. Humphrey Wanley published a catalogue of the Cottonian Library, which is minutely noticed by Chamberlayne, Magna Britannia Notitia, 1726. Above the bookcases were portraits of the three Cottons, Judge Doddridge, Spelman, Camden, Dugdale, Lambard, Speed, &c. An extended catalogue was printed in 1802.
Besides MSS., the Cottonian collection contained Saxon and old English coins, and Roman and English antiquities, all now in the British Museum. Sir Robert Cotton aided Speed in his History of England, and Knolles in his Turkish History. Sir Walter Raleigh, Selden, and Bacon drew materials from the Cottonian Library; and, in our time, Lingard’s and Sharon Turner’s Histories of England, and numerous other works, have proved its treasures unexhausted. Daniel’s, G., Libbakt, Canonbury (See Museums.)
Depaetment ov Practical Aet, South Kensington: a collection of works of reference for Manufactures and Ornamental Art, originally formed foas lly forr the Schools of Design. About 1500 volumes on architecture, sculpture, painted glass, general antiquities, and decoration; prints and drawings, including Raphael’s Arabesques, coloured; original Sketches of the Cathedral of Messina, and the Church of St. Ambrose, Milan; and many elementary and practical works on art and ornamental design.
Doctors’ Commons (College of Advocates). {See p. 313.)
Dtjlwich College Libeaet. {See p. 274.)
Dutch Chttech, Austin Friars: for the use of foreign Protestants and their clergy: containing MSS. and Letters of Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others, foreign Reformers : the Ten Commandments, believed to be in the handwriting of Rubens. This collection of books and MSS. was made by Maria Dubois, a pious lady, and was placed at the west end of the church, over the screen, in an apartment inscribed thus:—” Ecclesias Londino-Belgiae Bibliotheca, extructa sumptibus Maria? Dubois, 1659.” Additions to the collection were made from time to time by the Dntch Ambassadors, the Dutch East India Company, and the wealthy members of the congregation. Its autographic treasures include a very interesting collection of letters of the early ecclesiastical Re-
formers—among others, of Erasmus, Calvin, and Beza, Bucer, Peter Martyr; Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury; Vizet; John & Lasco, the first Minister of the Dutch Church in London; Bullinger, and of John Fox, the martyrologist; likewise letters of the principal founders of the Dutch Republic, including the Prince of Orange, afterwards William I.; Sir Philip de Marinix, Count d’Albegonde, the Admiral of the Dutch fleet. One collection also contains 272 original letters to Abraham Ortelius, geographer to Philip II. of Spain, from the chief learned and scientific men of the age. Here likewise are portrait-etchings of Albert Durer, by himself; Olertius Christopher Plantin, printer of the polyglot Hible; of Cardinal Ximenes, Gerard Mercator, William Camden, Dr. John Dee, the great Lord Burghley; the Earls of Leicester, Sussex, and Lincoln; several of the English Bishops of those times, and of the Lord Mayors of London; also the Ten Commandments, believed to be in the handwriting of Rubens. The library principally consists of early theological works in Latin, German, Dutch, and English; good editions of the classics; illuminated Bibles; Blaeuw’s View of the different Continental States, in 1649, and the Embassy to China, 1670—in all about 2000 volumes, and with the old fittings complete. In the conflagration at the Dutch Church, in 1862, this fine library was fortunately saved; and upon the restoration of the church, the Library was added to that of the Corporation at Guildhall.
East India Company’s Libeaby : printed books and tracts relating to the history and geography of the Eastern hemisphere ; the history, commerce, and administration of the East India Company, printed in Europe or India; books, drawings, and prints of the people, scenery, and antiquities of Asiatic countries; MSS. on palm-leaves in Sanscrit, Burmese, and other languages of the Archipelago, and Sanscrit MSS. in 3000 bound volumes; Chinese printed works; Tibetan Cyclopaedia, in 300 large oblong volumes, printed with wooden blocks; Arabic and Persian MSS.; miniature copies of the Koran; another Koran, in old Cufic characters, written out by the Khalif Othman (d. a.d. 655), and other volumes of the library of Tippoo Sultan; his autograph ” Register of Dreams,” &c. Open to students recommended. When the East India House was taken down, the Lib “Tdown, trary and Museum were removed to Fife House, Whitehall. (See Museums.)
Ellesmeee Libeaby, Bridgewater House, Green Park, contains many hundred manuscript plays, by all the dramatists who have written for the stage from the year 1737 to the year 1824. These are the copies which were from time to time sent officially to the Licenser of Dramatic Compositions: and in many instances they bear his marks and remarks for regulating the performance, and contain passages omitted not only in the representation but in the editions afterwards printed from the acting copies. The whole collection illustrates the history of our stage during nearly a century—since it proves at once with respect to revived dramas, who was or was not the author of the additions and alterations—a matter of doubt even within our own memory.
Geogeaphical Society (Royal), 3, Waterloo-place, Pall Mall: upwards of 4000 volumes, mostly geographical; 150 Atlases; more than 1000 pamphlets; 10,000 maps and charts : available as a circulating library by the Fellows.
Geological Society’s Libeaby, Somerset House, contains several rare and curious treatises, &c, chiefly of the seventeenth century, and relating to the cosmogonical and hypothetical notions about the earth and its structure, the origin and nature of minerals and fossils, natural history, early chemistry, &c.
Geesham College, Basinghall-street, has a small library of modern books for the use of the lecturers. The College does not appear to have originally possessed a library, but to have used that of the Royal Society, the removal of which to Crane-court in 1710 proved a great disadvantage to the Gresham Professors. (Ward’s Lives, p. 175.) (See Geesham College, p. 274.) The books subsequently possessed by the College were burnt in the Royal Exchange, Jan. 10, 1838.
Halls op the City Companies (The), often contain collections of early treatises upon their arts and mysteries.
Haeleian Libeaby and MSS. (See Museums : British).
Hebeew Libeaby, Duke’s-place, Aldgate.
The Jews, in Bevis Marks, had a valuable library in their Synagogue, relating to their ceremonials and Talmudical worship; but some narrow minds among them conceiving that if they should get into the hands of Christians, they would be disgraced by shameful translations, agreed among themselves to cause them to be burnt; for which purpose they employed some of their scribes, or tephilim writers, to examine into the correctness of the copies; and receiving a report agreeable to their wishes, they had them conveyed to Mile End, where they were all destroyed in a kiln; for it is contrary to their maxim ever to make waste paper of the sacred language.—H. Lemoine: Gentleman’s Magazine, July, 1790.
Heralds’ College (College of Arms), see p. 275. Here is a curious collection of works on Heraldry, Arms, Ceremonies, Coronations, Marriages, Funerals, Christenings, and Visitations; an ancient Nennius on vellum, and Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle.
Horticultural Societ beltural t, South Kensington : the largest collection of horticultural works in the kingdom, and an assemblage of drawings of fruits and ornamental plants.
Hospitals, the several, possess medical libraries.
Incorporated Law Society, Chancery -lane: the law and literature connected with the profession; Votes, Reports, Acts, Journals, and other proceedings of Parliament ; County and Local Histories: topographical, genealogical, and antiquarian works, &c.
Inns of Court. —The Inner and Middle Temple each possesses a good library, with valuable MSS. The Inner Temple MSS., principally collected by William Petyt, Esq., Keeper of the Tower Records, were presented by his trustees in 1707 : they exceed 400 MSS., parliamentary statutes and common law, ecclesiastical records, year-books, Hoveden, Higden, and other English historians, letters, and papers, with signs-manual of kings and queens of England. Middle Temple Library, the new building for which is described at p. 463, dates from 1641, when its founder, Robert Ashley, a collateral ancestor of the Earl of Shaftesbury, left his whole library, together with a large sum of money, to the Inn where he had received his legal education. His example was followed by other distinguished Templars of the time, and thus the Library was first established. The Irish Lord* Chief Justice Pepys was a large benefactor to it. Ashmole, Bartholomew Shower, and William Petyt were among its most liberal supporters. Lord Stowell also left a handsome legacy to it, which was expended chiefly on the purchase of books on civil, canon, and international law. During the latter part of the last century many volumes, in some way or other, disappeared from the shelves altogether, among them some of the most scarce and valuable tracts, and 30 folio volumes of Votes of Parliament. In civil, canon, and international law books, and in the English, Scotch, Irish, and American reports it is said to be very strong, and there is also a large collection of books on divinity and ecclesiastical history. There is likewise an ample collection of proclamations and other official documents relating to the times of the Civil War. Lincoln’s Inn Library is described at p. 468; also in Spilsbury’s Lincoln’s Inn and its Library; Gray’s Inn, law and history p. 469. Most of the Inns op Chancery have also libraries.
King’s College, Somerset House, has large medical and general libraries; including the Marsden Library, 3000 volumes on Philosophy and Oriental Literature, presented in 1835 by William Marsden, F.R.S. The Medical Library contains about 2000 volumes.
Lambeth Palace Library. (See p. 501.)
Linnean Society, Burlington House: the Library and Herbarium of Linnams, purchased by Sir James Smith for 1000Z. In the Society’s house, 32, Soho-square, Sir Joseph Banks collected his valuable library of works on Natural History, now in the Banksian department of the British Museum : the catalogue fills five octavo volumes, and is very rare.
Literary Fund (Royal), 4, Adelphi-terrace: this is a collection of books, mostly modern, and presents. Here is also the MS. of Thorlaksson’s Icelandic version of Paradise Lost, sent to the Institution by himself, through the Danish Government. Here is the dagger with which Colonel Blood stabbed Edwards, keeper of the Regalia in the Tower of London, wPal of Lonhen Blood attempted to carry off the crown; also a dagger taken from Parrot, Blood’s accomplice. Both weapons are of French manufacture, and very curious: they were beoueathed to the Institution by Mr. Thomas
Newton, who believing himself to be the hist descendant of Sir Isaac Newton, left his entire estate to the Literary Fund.
London Institution, Finsbury-circus, commenced in 1806 with part of the library of the first Marquis of Lansdowne, contains about 30,000 volumes: rich in English Antiquities and Topography; scarce collection of Foreign Laws; several thousand Tracts ; Bibliography, including rare editions from the early presses of Germany, Italy, and France; and fine specimens of the printing of the celebrated Antoine Verard, the Wechels, the Stephani, Claude Morel, Christopher Plantin, Johann Froben, Guarinus, Hieronymus Commelin, Henricus Petrus, the Aldi, the Sessae, Gabriel Giolito, and the Giunti; with some from the English printers, Julian Notary, Peter Treveris, Richard Grafton, Thomas Marshe, John Cawood, &c. Professor Porson, William Upcott, and Richard Thomson, author of the Chronicles of London Bridge, 1827, were successively librarians. This collection is valued at 40,000Z.
London Libeaey, 12, St. James’s-square (the house tenanted by Lord Amherst when Commander-in-chief), was established in May, 1841, at 57, Pall Mall, and removed to St. James’s-square in 1844. It is upon the subscription and lending plan, and the collection admirable.
Mathematical Society, Crispin-street, Spitalfields, established in 1717, had a library, of which a catalogue was published in 1821; but the books and archives were removed to Somerset House in 1845, when the Mathematical Society merged into the Royal Astronomical Society. (See p. 516.)
Mechanics’ Institute, Southampton-buildings, Holborn, founded by the philanthropic Dr. Birkbeck in 1823; who also, in 1825, advanced a large sum for building the fine theatre of the Institution. The library has 6000 vols.
Medical and Chieubgical Society, 53, Berners-street, Oxford-street: about 20,000 volumes on Medicine, Surgery, &c.
Medical Society of London, 32a, George-street, Hanover-square, has a collection of books, including tbe library bequeathed by Dr. Lettsom, with a house in Bolt-court, Fleet-street. (See p. 350.)
Mebchant-Taylobs’ School Libeaby, Suffolk-lane, Cannon-street, contains a fair collection of Hebrew and other Oriental works of reference; some good copies of the Fathers; nearly all the standard classical and other Lexicons; and the best writers in English Theology. The Merchant-Taylors’ Company devote thirty guineas per annum to the increase and keeping up of this library; and frequent presents have been made to it by Members of the Court.
Miceoscopical Society, 21, Regent-street: a library of standard works on the Microscope; the perfection of which valuable instrument is the object of the Institution.
Museum of Pbactical Geology, Jermyn-street, St. James’s: rare editionol rare e of the works of Aldrovandus; collection of alchemical treatises and histories; Kircher’s works; olden Topography, Voyages and Travels; collection of Surveys, &c.
New College, St. John’s “Wood (see p. 277), possesses a library of 20,000 volumes, including the theological collections from Coward, Homerton, and Highbury Colleges; and is otherwise rich in works for the Congregational denomination.
Paeliament (Houses of) possess large and valuable libraries.
Patent Seal Office Libeaey. —This free scientific library consists of more than 25,000 volumes, well selected, and of a class character, and there is a conveniently-arranged catalogue. In days of old the inventive faculty of man was taxed and made profit of to Chancellors and Chaff-waxers. The records of patents were lodged in the Rolls Chapel and other places, and the expense of inquiry was great; the specifications of patents were not printed, and the cost of obtaining even a specification amounted to sums which varied from twelve guineas up to500Z.; the legal expenses of an old patent amounted to 350Z. and upwards. Now, all the specifications of patents have been printed, and they can be had at the rate of from 2d. to lOd. each copy. Of the patents
tinder the old patent law, the most ancient is the following: ” a.d. 1617.—No. 1. Engraving and printing maps, plans, &c.; Kathburne & Burges’ patent.” This is the first patent which has been printed. No. 2 patent is by Nicholas Hilliard, for drawing, engraving, and printing portraits of the royal family. No. 3 is for constructing locks, sluices, bridges, cranes, and obtaining or applying water-power. No. 4 (1617)— Protecting arms and armour from rust. No. 5—Manufacture of swords and rapier blades, &c. No. 6—Patent to David Ramsey and Thomas Wildgoose. Ramsey seems to have been one of the pages of the bedchamber. This invention is described as follows:—
” Newe, apte, or comodius formes or kinde of engines or instruments, and other profitable invencions, wayes, and means for the good of our commonwealth, as well to plough grounde without horse or oxen, and enrich and make better and more fertile, as well barren bent, salt, and sea sand, as in land and upper land grounde within our kingdoms of England and Ireland, and our domynon of Wales; as also to rayse waters from ante loive place to high places,for well watering of cittyes, towns, noblemen’s and gentlemen’s houses, and other places now much wanting water, with lesse charges than ever hath been heretofore, and to make boats for the carriage of burthens and passengers run upon the water, as swift in calm, and more safe in storms, than boats full-say led in great wayes.”
The inventions for the cure of smoke are numerous, and of several dates, notwithstanding many of her Majesty’s subjects are as smoke-dried as formerly. Mops, egg-boilers, self-adjusting gloves, frying-pans, and other such manufactures have been patented. There are also beverages and such like made patent; one of these is called ” A new beverage—Gibson’s Pinerium; or, Aerated Sarsaparilla.”
From 1617 to 1852, when the change in the law took place, we find, in this library, the record of 14,359 patents: of these the payment for extension to fourteen years only seems to apply to 7529. Since the new law has made patents more easy of y lmore eaobtainment, the specifications were more numerous than those which in the Chaff-wax days were recorded during more than two centuries. On an average about 3000 petitions for provisional protection are presented in each year: only 1950 inventions reach the patented state; and but 550 patents pay the stamp duty required at the expiration of each year: probably not more than 100 of these 550 patents will pay the additional stamp duty required at the end of the seventh year. Among the printed records, we see the dawnings of steam-power, the electric telegraph, and gas-lighting. In 1652, 262 patents were taken out for fire-arms. One Puckle puts his specification in rhyme, and says :—
•’ Defending King George, your country and laws, In defending yourself and country’s cause, For bridges, trenches, lines and passes, Ships, boats, houses, and other places.”
St. Patjl’s Cathedral Library, in the gallery over the southern aisle, was collected by Bishop Compton : 7000 volumes, with MSS. relating to Old St. Paul’s. (See p. 111.)
St. Paul’s School, St. Paul’s Churchyard, formerly contained the library of Dean Colet, the founder; but the books were destroyed in the Great Fire, with Mr. Crom-lehome, the upper Master’s curious stock, the best private collection then about London : he was a great lover of his books, and the loss of them hastened the loss of his life. They have been supplied by lexicons, dictionaries, and grammars, in Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and Latin, for the use of the upper scholars. Here is the reputed copy of Vegetius de re Militari, which Marlborough used when a pupil at the school. The original statutes of this school were accidentally picked up at a bookseller’s by the late Mr. Hamper, of Birmingham, and by him presented to the British Museum.
Pharmaceutical Society (The), 17, Bloomsbury-square, has a library, museum, and laboratory.
Royal Academy of Aets, Trafalgar-square: all the best works on art; besides prints, including a valuable collection of engravings from the Italian School, from the earliest period, collected by George Cumberland. The former library room, at Somerset-house, has a ceiling painted by Angelica Kauflmann, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other Academicians. The office of Librarian is usually given to an Academician: Wilson, Fuseli, and Stothard were librarians.
Royal Academy of Music, 4, Tenterden-street, Hanover-square, has a library of music, practical, for the use of the students. Here is preserved the original deed, dated 1719, signed by several noblemen, subscribers to a Royal Academy of Music, from which was formed the first Italian Opera in England.
Royal Institute of Aechitects, Conduit-street, Hanover-square: about 2000 volumes on Architecture and its attendant sciences; including the Prussian Government’s educational works; that by Lepsius on Egypt; and large and expensive books of curiosity and reference, such as Piranesi and Canina. The MSS. and original Drawings comprise Stuart’s commencement of a Dictionary of Architecture; Weennick’s Lives of Flemish Architects; and about 2000 drawings of antiquities, modern edifices, and designs by English, French, Italian, and German architects of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
Royal Institution, Albemarle-street: about 27,000 volumes, including the curious library of Astle, the antiquary; topographical, antiquarian, classical, and scientific works; parliamentary history, &c.
Royal Library (The) St. James’s Palace, was originally founded by Edward VI., who appointed Bartholomew Trahuon, keeper, with a salary of 201. : the first books mostly collected by Leland, at the Dissolution; and here were deposited his ” Collections,” presented by him to King Edward, but subsequently dispersed. James I. ref’ounded the library, and added the collection of the learned Isaac Casaubon. The entire collection was presented to the British Museum, in 1757, by George II.; aud to the gift was annexed the privilege, which the Royal Library had acquired in the reign of Queen Anne, of* being supplied with a copy of every new publication entered at Stationers’ Hall. In St. James’s Palace was also the Queen’s Library, built by Kent, for Caroline, consort of George II., in the Stable-yard: here were two fine marble busts of George II. and Queen Caroline, by Rysbraeck, both now in Windsor Castle.
Royal Society, Burlington House: the Library, in the upper floor, is extremely rich in the best editions of scientific treatises, besides rare and valuable theological historical works, which are lent to Fellows of the Society. The catalogue of books, MSS., and letters, 1841, fills two volumes 8vo. (“The collection is very poor in some departments.”— A. De Morgan.) The Society also possess upwards of 5000 maps, charts, engravings, drawings, &c. The library of Arundel House, presented to the Royal Society by Mr. Henry Howard, 1666-7, forms the nucleus of the present collection, each book being inscribed Fx dono Henrici Howard, Norfolciensis: ” it consists of 3287 printed books, chiefly first editions, soon after the invention of printing; and Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Turkish, and other rare MSS., 544 volumes.” (Maitland.) In 1830, the Arundel MSS. (excepting the Hebrew and Oriental) were sold to the British Museum for 3559Z., which was expended in purchasing scientific works for the Royal Society’s Library, now exceeding 42,000 volumes.
Here are Chaucer’s Canterburie Tales, fol. 1480 (Caxton); Copernicus’s History of Astronomy, first edition; original M S. of the Principia, written by Sir Isaac Newton; and documents in the Commercium Epistolicum (invention of Fluxions); MS. of Aubrey’s Natural History of Wiltshire.
Royal Society of Liteeatuee, 4, St. Martin’s-place, Trafalgar-square: a valuable library, greatly enriched by the lexicographical and antiquarian works presented by the Rev. H. J. Todd, editor and enlarger of Johnson’s Dictionary; also papers by the most eminent writers on history, philology, poetry, philosophy, and the arts. The Society’s House was built by the leading members upon Crown land granted in 1826 by George IV., who contributed 1100 guineas a year.
It is true that George IV. was committed to this large annual subscription by a misconception of Dr. Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury; the king intending a donation of 1000 guineas, and an annual subscription of 100 guineas: his Majesty not only cheerfully acquiesced, but amused himself with the incident.
Russell Institution, Great Coram-street. This Institution was founded in the year 1808, and amongst its earliest members were Sir Samuel Romilly, Francis Horner, Mason Good, Henry Hallam, atrynry Halnd Lord Abinger. The number of volumes exceeds 16,000. Here is Haydon’s grand heroic picture of ” Xenophon and the Ten Thousand.”
It was disposed of by lottery for 800 guineas, in 1836, when it was won by John, Duke of Bedford, and presented by him to the Institution.
Sion College Libeaey, London Wall (see p. 279), though founded for the clergy of the City and suburbs of London, is now accessible daily upon the same conditions as the British Museum Library. The Sion collection was increased by the bequest of the library of Dr. William Harris: here are many curious black-letter theological works and scarce tracts of the Puritan times.
Sir John Soane’s Museum : Architecture and the Fine Arts generally, by English, Italian, French, German, and Russian artists and literati; original Drawings and MSS. by Thorpe, Jones, Vanbrugh, Wren, and Chambers; Pennant’s London, illustrated with 2000 drawings, prints, &c. (Fauntleroy’s); Tasso’s MS. Oerusalemme Liberata; first, second, third, and fourth folio editions of Shakspeare, from J. P. Kemble’s library. (See Museums : Sir John Soane’s.)
Societies, Liteeaey and Scientific, in Islington, Marylebone, Soutbwark, and Westminster, contain modern libraries.
Society of Aets, John-street, Adelphi, has a collection of technical works, which is very far from complete, but was intended to contain copies of all special treatises on the arts and manufactures. The most interesting and important part of the library is the MS. correspondence and journal-books. Amongst the rejected communications and condemned inventions are many since the subjects of patents; and these volumes are the most remarkable registers in the country of the inventions of the last century. The books are lent to the members.
Statistical Society, 12, St. James’s-square: a large collection of Statistical Returns, imperfectly catalogued.
Tenison’s Libeaey, in Castle-street, St. Martin’s-lane, immediately behind the National Gallery, was built by Sir Christopher Wren. It is “a noble structure, extremely well contrived for the placing of the books and lights, and furnished with the best modern books in most faculties: the best of its kind in England.”— (H. Lemoine, 1790.) The Library, about 4000 volumes, was formed by the Archbishop during the reigns of Kings Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen Anne, and was established by Tenison in 1685, then Rector of St. Martin’s parish. It contained all the rare books formerly belonging to Father Le Courayer, canon and chief librarian of St. Genevieve, and author of the celebrated Dissertation on the Validity of the Ordinations and the Succession of the Bishops of the Church of England. Some years before his death the Canon gave all his rare and valuable books to Archbishop Tenison’s Library. The entire collection was dispersed by auction by order of the Charity Commissioners, in June, 1864, when some of the MSS. were disposed of as follows:— *
The Original Note-Book of Francis Bacon, entirely in his autograph and unpublished, full of curious and interesting details illustrative of the personal history of this great reformer of philosophy, 69/. The Holy Bible, translated by Wickliffe, a manuscript of the fll ript ofourteenth century, upon vellum, comprising a portion of the Old Testament Scriptures, 150/. Venantii Honorii Clementiani Fortunati, Presbyteri Italici, Versarium et Prosaicae Expositiones Orationis Dominica? et Symboli, a fine manuscript, Saec. X. or XL, 78/. Higden’s Polychronicon, translated into English by John de Trevisa, being the version used by Caxton, a noble manuscript, wanting a few leaves. It is preceded by two treatises, one entitled, Dialogus inter Militem et Clericum, and the other, The Defence, before the Pope at Rome, by Biehard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, which latter has not been printed, 189/. Historical Miscellanies, containing three pages in the autograph of Francis Bacon, 30/. lOg. A charming volume, entitled, All the King’s Short Poesis that are not Printed, with numerous alterations in the handwritings of King James the First and Prince Charles (afterwards Charles the First), 68?. 5s. Keating’s Three Shafts of Death, composed in the year 1631, and History of Ireland, in the Irish character, 201. A chronicle, called Mores Historiarum, by that eminent English historian Matthew of Westminster, a manuscript of the fourteenth century, 63/. Missale secundum Vsum Sarum,s. fine manuscript of the fifteenth century, with musical notes, 70/. Prudentii Liber de Pugnd Vitiorum et Vvrtutum, cum Qlossis, a wonderful manuscript of the tenth century, with eighty illustrations of a highly spirited character, executed in outline, and exhibiting great artistic skill in the powerful treatment of the various subjects, 273/. Psalterium, cum Precibus, a most beautiful manuscript of the thirteenth century, by an English artist, with many thousand capital letters, various figures, devices and grotesque subjects, executed in gold and colours in the richest manner, 200/. A curious collection of Theological Treatises in English, one of them being a discourse against miracle plays, the most singular relic of the kind known to exist, and said to be the only mediaeval English treatise on such plays yet discovered, 35/. Divers Treatises in English, by Dr. Wickliffe, 37/. 10*.
The Grammar-school, including the Library-rooms, with St. Martin’s Workhouse,
have been purchased of the parish of St. Martin’s for 86,000Z. j the site being required for the enlargement of the National Gallery.
Toweb of London. —At the commencement of the last century, according to Bagford and Oldys, the Eecords in the Wakefield Tower were very curious, and were then ” modeled and digested, and reposited in cases.” In the White Tower were a vast number of records relating to monasteries, &c, several letters of kings, princes, dukes, &c, from several parts of the world, as Tartary, Barbary, Spain, France, Italy, &c., to our kings in England. (See Records, Public.)
United Seevice Institution, Middle Scotland-yard, Whitehall: an admirable library of reference (10,000 volumes), especially valuable in its practical utility to soldiers ; pamphlets oh the services; engineering papers: rich in old Italian military literature j a French plan of fortification in MS., corrected in the handwriting of Vauban.
Univeesitt Coiiege, Gower-street: about 43,000 volumes, and 8000 pamphlets, general, legal, and medical; including the Chinese library, 10,000 volumes, left by Dr. Morrison; the Ricardo library (political economy), left by David Ricardo; and a large collection bequeathed by Dr. Holmes of Manchester. The marble statue of Locke in the principal library, is by Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A. (See p. 280.)
Westminster Abbey : (Chapter House).—The Chapter House was once the monks’ ** parlour,” or ” parleying” place, but made a public library by Lord Keeper Williams, whilst Dean of Westminster. The books were burnt in 1664, and but one MS. saved out of 320: they are catalogued in the Harleian MSS. Chamberlayne (1726) describes ” a fair publick library, free for all strangers in term time:” about 11,000 volumes. Among the treasures here are collections of music and classics and early Bibles; an early vellum book, printed at Oxford, 1482 ; ceremonials of consecrations ; an Lditio Princeps of Plato; St. Ambrose on vellum; the Pupilla Oculi, and Litlington’s Missal, 1362.
Domesday Booh, Rymer’s Foedera, and other ancient records, kept here, have been transferred to the Rolls Office, Chancery-lane. The Chapter House formerly contained the most valuable muniments, of which, in 1807, an inventory was made; three copies only were taken; one, with coloured drawings of the building, is in the British Museum. Addit. MS. 8977. The Parliament Rolls were, at the above date, in an old stone tower, in the Old Palace Yard, Westminster; and the Papers of State from the beginning of Henry VIII. were kept in Holbein’s Cockpit Gate.
In the room called the Museum, at Westminster School, is a collection of books given by Dr. Busby for the use of the scholars.
Williams’s Libbabt, “the Dissenters’ Library,” Redcross-street, Cripplegate: 20,000 volumes, collected by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Williams, the Nonconformist, and Dr. Bates; and bequeathed by the former, with provisions for a building; opened 1729. This library has been increased by gifts, and by a small income from estates left by Dr. Williams: it is rich in controversial divinity, is open to the public by a trustee’s order, and books are allowed to be taken out. Here are some manuscripts of the early history of the Reformation. Dr. Williams purchased most of the books of the heirs of one Baker, of Highgate: by negligence many of the MSS. were burnt, including the pompous and rare book of the Rules and Ceremonies of the Coronation of the Kings of England. (H. Lemoine, 1790.) Also, The Salisbury Liturgy, finely illuminated; The Hours of the Virgin, Paris, 1498; Illuminated Bible; miniature copy of the Head of Christ, from a painting in the Vatican; the glass baptismal basin of Queen Elizabeth. Here was a very interesting collection of portraits of Dissenting Ministers.
Before the system of the registration of births, marriages, and deaths had been established at Somerset House, three denominations of Protestant dissenters, forming a congregation within twelve miles of London, established a registry of births here, which was continued from 1742 to 1837, when these records were placed in the care of the Registrar-General. In these books are entered nearly 50,000 births, attested by witnesses. The library buildings were taken down in 1864, for the extension of the Metropolitan Railway; and the collection has been removed to Lincoln’s-inn-fields.
Zoological Society, 11, Hanover-square: Transactions of learned societies, and scientific zoological works of modern date.
Circulating Libeaeies date from 1740, when one Wright, at No. 132, Strand, established the first. Dr. Franklin writes in 1725, lodging in Little Britain: ” Circulating libraritryating les were not then in use.” Among Wright’s earliest rivals were the Nobles, in Holborn and St. Martin’s-court; Samuel Bathoe, Strand; and Thomas Lowndes, Fleet-street. Another early Circulating Library was in Crane-court, Fleet-street, where the Society of Arts met in 1754 and 1755. In 1770 there were but four Circulating Libraries in the metropolis.
Feee Libeaeies : the first established in Marylebone, 1853.
Mttdie’s Select Libeaet, New Oxford-street, has about 120,000 volumes actually in circulation, in addition to a reserve of nearly a million volumes. Bather more than half of these are works of History, Biography, Eeligion, Philosophy, and Travels; the rest being works of Fiction, chiefly of the higher and standard class. The Library was formed into a Company, in 1864, under Mr. Mudie’s superintendence, and with increasing success; number of subscribers, nearly 20,000. The books are kept in a large and handsome Hall, decorated with Ionic columns; light iron galleries give access to the upper shelves, and an iron staircase descends to vaults, filled with solid stacks of books; and light trucks circulate laden with books. More than 1000 exchanges are usually effected in one day. Of the more popular works thousands of copies are provided: of Livingstone’s Travels in Africa, 3250 copies were in circulation at one time; of Essays and Reviews, 2000 copies; and of the Quarterly Review, in which the Essays were answered, 1000 copies; M’Clintock’s Voyage in Search of Franklin, 3000 volumes j of some novels, 3000. The books are distributed throughout the three Kingdoms to private individuals, country book-clubs, and literary societies. The system was commenced by Mr. Mudie in 1842, with the object of providing a supply of works of a higher class than were usually to be found in circulating libraries. This is altogether a liberal enterprise, the benefits of which have been rightly appreciated by the reading public.
LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.
THIS fine square west of Lincoln’s Inn dates from 1618, when ” the grounds were much planted round with dwellings and lodgings of noblemen and gentlemen of quality, but at the same time were deformed by cottages and mean buildings—encroachments on the fields, and nuisances to the neighbourhood.” To reform these grievances, a commission was appointed by the Crown ” to plant and reduce to uniformity Lincoln’s Inn Fields, as it shall be drawn by way of map or ground-plot by lnigo Jones.” A view, painted in oil, of Inigo’s plan is preserved at Wilton House: it is taken from the south, and the principal feature is Lindsey House, on the centre of the west side (see p. 448). It still remains, but has lost the handsome vases which originally surmounted the open balustrade at the top. {Life of lnigo Jones, by Peter Cunningham. Shakspeare Society, 1848.)
The proportions of the square were long stated to be those of the Great Pyramid of Egypt; which, says Walpole, ” would have been admired in those ages when the keep of Kenihvorth Castle was erected in the form of a horse-fetter, and the Escurial in the shape of St. Lawrence’s gridiron.” But the fact is otherwise; the base of the Great Pyramid measures 764 feet on each side, whereas Lincoln’s-inn-fields, although 821 feet on one side, is only 625 feet 6 inches on the other, and the area of the Pyramid is greater by many thousand square feet. (Colonel Howard Vyse, On the Pyramids.’) The west side only was completed by lnigo Jones.
Lincoln’s Inn Fields have been used as a place of execution. Here, September 20 and 21, 1586, Babington and his accomplices were “hanged, bowelled, and quartered, on a stage or scaffold of timber strongly made for that purpose, even in the place where they used to meet and to conferre of their traitorous purposes.” And here in the middle of the square, July 21, 1683, was beheaded the patriotic William Lord RusselL
Burnet thus describes the sad scene: ” Tillotson and I went with him in the coach to the place of execution. Some of the crowd that filled the streets wept, while others insulted. He was singing psalms a great part of the way, and said he hoped to sing better soon. As he observed the great crowd of people all the way, he said to us, ‘ I hope I shall quickly see a much better assembly.’ When he came to the scaffold, he walked about it four or five times. Then he turned to the sheriffs and delivered his paper. … He prayed by himself, then Tillotson prayed with him. After that he prayed again by himself, and then undressed himself, and laid his head on the block without the least change of countenance, and it was cut off at two strokes.”
The Fields were long the resort of troops of idle and vicious vagrants: such were “Lincoln’s-inn-fields Mumpers;” and “Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincoln’s-inn-fields, who disabled himself in his right leg, and asks alms all day, to get himself a warm supper and a trull at night.” (Spectator, No. 6.) Boys gambled for farthings and oranges; and a favourite game here was ” the Wheel of Fortune,” played with a moveable hand pointing to a circle of figures, such as we remember in Moorfields, the prizes being gingerbread-nuts the size of farthings. Gay, in his Trivia, cautions the pedestrian:—
” Where Lincoln Inn’s wide space is rail’d around,
Cross not with vent’rous step; there oft is found
The lurking thief, who, while the daylight shone,
Made the walls echo with his begging tone:
That wretch, which late compassion moved, shall wound
Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the ground.” Lincoln’s-inn-fields Hufflers were wretches who assumed the characters of maimed soldiers, and begged from the claims of Naseby, Edgehill, Newbury, and Marston Moor; their prey was people of fashion, whose coaches they attacked, and if refused relief, they told their owners, ‘”Tis a sad thing that an old crippled cavalier should be suffered to beg for a maintenance, and a young cavalier, that never heard the whistle of a bullet, should ride in his coach.”
The Fields were inclosed with iron railing after 1735, in consequence of Sir Joseph Jekyll, then Master of the Kolls, being ridden over; “before which time the Square was a receptacle for rude fellows to air horses, and many robberies were committed in it.” (Gentleman’s Magazine, August, 1773.) But Ireland states that Jekyll was attacked and thrown down by the mob, in consequence of his aid in the passing of the Act of Parliament to raise the price of gin. In the Fields was often set up, until its final abolition, the Pillory, handy for the rabble of Clare heyble of Market. At the north-west angle of the inclosure is a picturesque Gothic drinking fountain. On the north side are Sir John Soane’s Museum and the Inns of Court Hotel; south, the College of Surgeons (see p. 279); east, Lincoln’s-inn New Hall (see p. 466); west, through Inigo Jones’s archway, in Duke-street, is the Sardinian Roman Catholic Cbapel (see p. 232); opposite which, over an Italian warehouse, lodged Dr. Franklin, when a compositor in Watts’s printing office.
At No. 12, Duke-street, in 1845, was completed by Mr. Smith, a magnificent Silver Fountain, of extraordinary magnitude and exquisite workmanship, as a present from the East India Company to Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt. This fountain is upwards of ten feet in height, and contains 10,000 ounces (7| cwt.) of silver. It consists of a massive and enriched pedestal, whence springs a shaft, supporting a tier of three basins; and at each angle of the pedestal are a large vase of flowers, and groups of fruit at the base. The likeness of beast, bird, or fish is scrupulously avoided throughout the ornaments, in deference to Mahomedan scruples. The style of ornament is that of Louis Quatorze; and the base bears an inscription in English, Turkish, Arabic, and Latin. This fountain cost 7000J.; it occupied more than seven months in the actual manufacture; and is, we believe, the largest silver work ever executed in England.
Great and Little Turnstile are named from the turning stiles which, two centuries since, stood at their ends next Lincoln’s-inn-fields, to prevent the straying of cattle therefrom; and Gate-street, north-west, has a similar origin. Sir Edwin Sandys’s curious Europa Speculum, 4to, 1637, was ” sold by George Hutton, at the Turning Stile in Holborne.” The English translation of Bishop Peter Camus’s Admirable Events, 4to, 1639, was also ” sold in Holborne, in Turnstile Lane.” In 1685 was built New Turnstile.
Turnstile-alley, leading to Holborn, was first designed as a change for selling Welsh friezes, flannels, &c. Here Cartwright, the bookseller, kept shop: he was an excellent player, and bequeathed his plays and pictures to Dulwich College.
On the north side of the Fields is Whetstone’s Park, a row of tenements named after William Whetstone, a vestryman of the parish of St. Giles’s-in-the-Fields in the time of Charles I. and the Protectorate. It was long a place of ill repute, and was attacked by the London apprentices in 1682. Since 1708, however, it has chiefly consisted of stables. (Hatton’s London, p. 88.)
” And makes a brothel of a palace, Where harlots ply, as many tell us, Like brimstones in a Whetstone alehouse.”— Butler.
The vile place and its loose characters also occur in the plays of Shadwell and
Dryden, and in Ned Ward’s London Spy.
The concentration of the Law Courts in Lincoln’s Inn Fields was once proposed; and in 1841 Sir. Barry designed a large building, of Grecian character, containing a Great Hall (nearly equal to the area of Westminster Hall), surrounded by 12 courts; the whole occupying one-third of the area within the rails, to be belted with plantations. Funds were wanting, and the blocking up of the open space was objected to: persons had considered this arp>
LITERARY FUND (THE ROYAL),
ADMINISTERS assistance to authors of published works of approved literary merit, and to authors of important contributions to periodical literature who may be in distressed circumstances; such assistance being extended, at the death of an author, to his widow and children. Of this institution it has been well said:
“With equal promptitude and delicacy, its committee are ever ready to administer to the necessities of the unfortunate scholar, who can satisfy them that his misery is not the just punishment of immoral habits. Some of the brightest names in contemporary literature have been beholden to the bounty of this Institution, and in numerous instances its interference has shielded friendless merit from utter ruin.”— Quarterly Meciew.
The Society was established by subscription, in 1790, by Mr, David Williams, who has detailed its objects in a work entitled The Claims of Literature. It was first proposed by Williams in 1773, to a club which met at the Prince of Wales’s Tavern, Conduit-street, Hanover-square; Dr. Franklin presided, but discouraged Williams by observing, ” the event will require so much time, perseverance, and patience, that the anvil may wear out the hammer.” The first anniversary dinner was held in 1793 : in 1794 an ode was recited; and this practice was continued until 1830. Among the writers of these odes were Captain Morris, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. George Dyer, Mr. Boscawen, the Rev. Henry Kett, the Rev. Dr. Charles Symmons, the Rev. George Crabbe, the Rev. Thomas Maurice, Mr. Henry Neele, and Mr. Allan Cunningham. The first patron of the Fund, the Prince Regent, contributed 5455£.; the Dukes of Kent, Sussex, York, and Cambridge presided at its dinners; Prince Albert presided in 1842, and the Prince of Wales in 1864. In the Society’s armorial bearings are the imperial crown and the Prince of Wales’s plume. The first house of the Fund was 36, Gerard-street, Soho, where Williams died in 1816: he was buried in St. Anne’s Church, and his gravestone bears, ” David Williams, Esq., aged seventy-eight years, Founder of the Literary Fund.” Yet Canning, in political spite, once classed Williams amongst ” creeping creatures, venomous and low !” The Fund was incorporated 1818: the average annual number of authors relieved during the last ten years has been 52, classified under the heads of History and Biography; Science and Art; Periodical Literature; Topography and Travels; Classical Literature and Education; Poetry; Essays and Tales; Drama; Law ; Medicine; and Miscellaneous. The average amount of the annual grants during the last ten years has been 1577J. The Reserve Fund at the end of 1866 was 26,000^. The stock of the pro-perty bequeathed to the Fund by Mr. Thomas Newton, who believed himself to be the last descendant of Sir Isaac Newton, amounts to 8167Z. 15s. lOd. ; and the Newton estate at Whitechapel produces at present 2031. a year in rents. The present Chambers of the Fund are at No. 4, Adelphi-terrace, described at page 1. (See also Libraries, p. 521.)
LITTLE BRITAIN,
ANCIENTLY Bretagne or Britain-street, west of Aldersgate-street, is named from the Duke of Bretagne, who had here his magnificent town-mansion. •
Little Britain was as remarkable for its booksellers through the reigns of Charles I. and II., James II., and William and Mary, as Paternoster-row is at present. This location of booksellers may have been influenced by John Day, the eminent printer, living over Aldersgate; and from Grub-street being the abode of authors. (See Grub-street, pp. 383-385.) ” Bartholomew-close printers” are also mentioned by Dryden.
Roger North, in his Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North, speaking of the booksellers in tho reign of Charles II., says: ” Little Britain was a plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors, and men went thither as to a market. This drew to the place a mighty trade, the rather because the shops were spacious and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom failed to meet with agreeable conversation ; and the booksellers themselves were knowing and conversible men, with whom, for the sake of bookish knowledge, the greatest wits were pleased to converse; and we may judge the time as well spent there as (in latter days) either in tavern or coffee-house. But now this emporium has vanished, and the trade contracted into the hands of two or three persons.”
Robert Scott appears to have been a principal dealer in Little Britain. A newspaper of 1644 states 460 pamphlets to have been published here in four years. Richard Chiswell, of Little Britain, buried in St. Botolph’s Church, Aldersgate, in 1711, is described as ” the metropolitan bookseller of England.” At the Dolphin, in Little Britain, lived Samuel Buckley, publisher of the Spectator, commenced March 1, 1711. In 1725, Benjamin Franklin, when working at Palmer’s printing-office in Bartholomew-close, lodged in Little Britain, next door to Wilcox the bookseller, who lent Franklin books ” for a reasonable retribution.”
Milton, after he had left Jewin-street, lodged for a time in Little Britain with Millington, the book-anctioneer, who was accustomed to lead his venerable inmate by the hand when he walked in the street, as mentioned by Richardson, on the testimony of the acquaintance of Milton. (Symmons’s Life of Milton, 2nd edition, p. 501.) Richardson also relates, that, in Little Britain, the Earl of Dorset, when heating about for books to his taste, ” met with Paradise Lost, and was so struck with some of its passages that he bought it, the bookseller begging him to speak in its favour if he liked it, for that they (the copies in his shop, not the impression, as Malone states) lay on his hands as waste-paper. The Earl read the poem, and sent it to Dryden, who returned it with the memorable opinion: ¦ This man cuts us all out, and the ancients too.* ”
” The race of booksellers in Little Britain is now almost extinct; honest Ballard, well known for his curious divinity catalogues, being their only genuine representative ” (Gentleman’s Magazine, No. 1, 1731). He died Jan. 2, 1796, aged 88, in the house wherein he was born.
Duke-street, formerly Duck-lane, leading into Smithfield, was once celebrated for refuse book-shops:
“And so may’st thou, perchance, pass up and down, And please awhile th’ admiring court and town, Who after all shall in Duck-lane shops be thrown.”
Oldham’s Satires, circa 1680.
Washington Irving describes the locality as ” a cluster of narrow streets and courts of very venerable and debilitated houses, several ready to tumble down, the fronts of which are magnificently enriched with old oaken carvings of hideous faces, unknown birds, beasts, and fishes, and fruits and flowers, which it would perplex a naturalist to classify” (Sketch-look). Most of this grotesque ornamentation has, however, long disappeared.
LOMBARD STREET,
” \ CERTAIN street of the greatest credit in Europe,” (Addison,) is proved by -£*• Stow to have borne that name before the reign of Edward II.; and is so called of the Longobards, the first of whom were the Caursini family, a rich race of bankers who settled here, and their countrymen soon grouped around them. They were also the goldsmiths, who took pledges in plate, jewels, &c. ; and the badge of the Lombards (the three golden pills of the Medici family) has descended as the sign of the pawnbrokers.* The black-letter ballad in the Pepys collection makes the husband of Jane Shore a goldsmith here :
” In Lombard-street I once did dwelle,
As London yet can witnesse welle;
Where many gallants did beholde
My beauty in a shop of golde.
* * * *
I penance did in Lombard-streete In shameful manner in a sheete.”
In the parish of St. Edmund, in Lombard-street, was the hostel of Isabella, Queen of Edward the Second, whom, with the Prince of Wales, the Queen entertained here, October 26,1357. The rent of her house, which belonged to the prioress of St. Helen’s, was twenty-five shillings and twopence half-yearly.— Archceologia, vol. xxxv. pp. 453-469.
* The sign is also traceable to the three pieces of gold, which are the emblem of the charitable Bt. Nicholas. (See Mrs. Jameson’s Sacred and Legendary Art.)
Here the merchants assembled twice daily in all weathers. In 1537, Sir Richard Gresham proposed to Cromwell (then Lord Privy Seal) ” to make a goodely Bursse in Lombert-strette, for marchaunts to repayer unto.” Hence originated the Exchange built by Sir Richard’s son, Sir Thomas Gresham, who was then living in Lombard-street, described by Hentzner as the handsomest street in London.
Here, like other bankers, Gresham kept a shop on the site of the banking-house (No. 68) of Martin, Stone, and Martins, who in Pennant’s time possessed the large gilt grasshopper (Gresham’s crest) which was placed over his door as a sign. It existed entire until 1795, when the present house was built, and the sign disappeared.
Hentzner, in 1593, saw in Lombard-street ” all sorts of gold and silver vessels exposed to sale, as wse to saleell as ancient and modern coins, in such quantities as must surprise a man the first time he sees and considers them.” At Gresham’s death, much of his wealth consisted of gold chains. Lombard-street has retained its character as well as its name for at least five centuries and a half; and within the last thirty years several gold and silver lacemen lived there.—Burgon’s Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, vol. i. p. 281: 1839.
The Pope’s merchants also chaffered here for their wafer-cakes and pardons. Sir Simon Eye built here a large tavern, The Cardinal’s Hat ; and Pope’s Head Alley, leading from Txmibard-street to Cornhill, is named from The Pope’s Head Tavern, which existed in 1464: it had a finely painted room in Pepys’s time. The Alley was once famous for its print-sellers, for toys, turnery, and cutlery; and stalls of fine fruit.
It was long believed that the poet Pope was born in Plough-court, Lombard-street, May 22,1688, “at the house which is now Mr. Morgan’s, an apothecary” (Spence’s Anecdotes); a name long since forgotten, although J. T. Smith took much pains to discover it. It was added that Pope’s father was a linendraper. But, in 1857, it was ascertained from a London Directory, in the Manchester Free Library, 1677, that Alexander Pope, the poet’s father, was then living in Broad-street, and was a merchant, not a linendraper. Mr. Hotten, of Piccadilly, was the first to discover the above, as well as a broadside, which shows that the poet’s family were living in Broad-street three years later than the appearance of the Directory. At what date Pope’s father retired is not clearly ascertained, but all accounts agree that Pope was born in 1688, in the City of London. Looking to the facts, therefore, that the father appears to have been firmly established in Broad-street as a merchant, and that the tradition of Plough-court, Lombard-street, is extremely vague, may we not assume it as most probable that Pope was born in Broad-street, in the parish of St. Bennet Fink? In the Athenaeum, May 30, 1857, we find:— ” 1679, 12 August, Buried, Magdalen, the wife of Alexander Pope. Here, then, we have for the first time evidence that the elder Pope resided in Broad-street in 1677-79, and there died and was buried in 1679, Magdalen, wife of Alexander Pope the elder. There can be no doubt that this Magdalen Pope was the wife of the poet’s father, and the mother of Magdalen Rackett, who, on the evidence of the poet himself, was the daughter of Pope’s father by a first wife; and thus the question of relationship between, Mrs. Rackett and Pope will be decided after a century of discussion, and against the recorded judgment of his biographers.”
In Alchurch-lane, named from the parish of St. Mary Abchurch, or Upchurch, as
Stow says he had seen it written, lived Mr. John Moore, author of the celebrated worm-powder:
¦ 0 learned friend of Abchurch-lane, Who sett’st our entrails free! Vain is thy art, thy powder vain, Since worms shall eat e’en thee.”— Pope.
Lombard-street had also its booksellers. The imprint to Howel’s Familiar Letters, 5th edition, is: “London, printed for Thomas Guy, at the Corner-shop of Little Lombard-street and Cornhill, near Wool-church Market, 1678.” And 1696, Sept. 17, Lloyd’s News was first ” printed for Edward Lloyd (Coffee-man) in Lombard-ste hin Lombreet.” Towards Birchin (anciently Birchover’s) lane stood the house of William de la Pole, created in France, by Edward III., Knight Banneret; he was King’s Merchant, and from him sprang a numerous race of nobility.
In George-yard was the George hostel, the London lodging of Earl Ferrers, whose
brother in 1175, was slain here in the night, and thrown into the dirty street, which
foul deed led to the setting of the night watches.
Lombard-street highway passes over the site of Roman houses, and has been the field of three great finds of Roman remains, in 1730,1774, and 1785-6; the latter, in its stratum of wood ashes, supposed to indicate the burning of London by Boadicea. Ten feet below the street-level was found a wall of the smaller-sized Roman bricks, pierced by flues or chimneys; likewise tile and brick pavements; in Birchin-lane, a tesselated pavement of elegant design, heaps of Roman coins, glass bottles, keys, and beads; vessels and fragments of earthenware; and a large vessel of red Samian ware, richly embellished, and reminding us that ” Rome did not want its Wedgwood.” The causeway, which Wren considered the northern boundary of the Roman station, was then also discovered in Birchin-lane.
By the London Directory, 1677, above quoted, of the forty-four names or firms of goldsmiths who kept running cashes ” in London ” twenty-seven were (then) located in Lombard street.” Sir Martin Bowes, the wealthy goldsmith, lived upon the site of No. 67, now Glyn’s banking-house, which Sir Martin bequeathed to the Goldsmiths’ Company, of which he was a distinguished member.
The banking-house of Messrs. Barclay and Co., No. 54, on the north side of Lombard-street, originally extended backwards to George-court, and is supposed to have been derived from the gift of Richard Mervayle to the Vintners’ Company in 1437, who leased the premises for seventy years, from Michaelmas, 1778, at the yearly rent of Ihl. (Herbert’s History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, vol. ii. p. 629.) The staff of Barclay’s firm originally consisted of three clerks; and we are told that, on the third clerk coming to the office for the first time, he was thus dressed :—
He wore a long:, flapped coat, with large pockets. The sleeves had long cuffs, with three large buttons, something like the coats worn by the Greenwich pensioners of the present day; an embroidered waistcoat, reaching nearly down to his knees, with an enormous bouquet in the button-hole: a cocked hat; powdered hair, with pigtail and bagwig; and gold-headed eane, similar to those of the present day carried by footmen of ladies of rank.—See Reminiscences, by Morris Charles Jones. Privately printed. Welshpool, 1864.
The banking-house was rebuilt in 1864, P. C. Hardwick, architect: it has four storeys, reaching 60 feet in height, and 85 feet in width. Lombard-street as the centre of “the banking world” has realized large sums for building sites, of which the following are remarkable quotations :—
The banking premises of Heywood, Kennard, and Co., in Lombard-street, were purchased by the Mercantile and Exchange Bank for 20,000/.; the directors of which let the first floor of the house to the Asiatic Banking Corporation for 1000/. a year. The amalgamation of the London Bank of Scotland with the Mercantile and Exchange Bank, having made it necessary to value the premises in Lombard-street, the Directors of the Bank of Scotland paid 10,000/. to the shareholders in the Mercantile and Exchange Bank, as their proportion of the increased value of the premises, which arc now estimated as worth 40,000/.! The value was thus doubled within the year.
Again, a piece of ground at the corner of Lombard-street, formerly the site of Messrs. Spooner and Co.’s banking-house, was let to the Agra and Masterman’s Bank for ninety-nine years, at 6600/. a year. Owing to a change in the arrangements of that bank, it was next sold to the City Offices Company at a premium of 70,000/., and a building is now to be erected upon it, at a cost of upwards of 70,000/., the gross rental of which is estimated at 22,000/., the London and County Bank paying 12,000/. for the ground floor and basement.
One of the best edifices in Lombard-street is the bank of Robarts, Lubbock, and Co. The basement is suited to the idea of a bank; it makes no use of columns, but is the most decorated feature of the design; P. C. Hardwick, architect. Here is one of Sir Robert Taylor’s best works, the Pelican Fire Office, with its elegant Doric and rusticated basement, carrying the emblematic group designed by Lady Diana Beauclerk, executed by Coade, at Lambeth, but now coated with paint. In the London and County Bank, the whole of the Portland stone used was that of old Westminster Bridge.
The General Post-Office was removed to Lombard-street early in the last century (see p. 394), and the Chief Office to St. Martin’s le-Grand in 1829.
Here are the churches of Allhallows (see p. 146); St. Edmund (p. 161); and St. Mary Woolnoth (p. 188.)
LONDON INSTITUTION, THE,
“HlNSBURY CIRCUS, was established by a proprietary, 1805, “for the advancement -L of literature, and the diffusion of useful knowledge :” upon its first committee were Mr. Angerstein and Mr. Richard Sharp (” Conversation Sharp “). The Institution was temporarily located at 8, Old Jewry (the fine brick mansion of Sir Robert Clayton, temp. Charles II.), and opened with a library of 10,000 volumes; incorporated in 1807 : the sun in splendour, a terrestrial globe, open book, and air-pump, among the armorial ensigns of the common seal, characterizing the objects of the Institution. In 1812 it was removed to King’s Arms-yard, Coleman-street; and thence, in 1819, to the present mansion, built on the north side of Moorfields; it is a very characteristic design . (Brooks, architect; the father of Mr. Shirley Brooks, the popular litterateur) ; the first stone laid November 4, 1815, by the Lord Mayor, Birch: the fagade is of Portland stone, and has a Corinthian portico, modified from the temple of Vesta at Tivoli; cost of the building, 31,124^. The library is 97 by 42 feet, and 28 in height, and has a gallery throughout ¦ the collection of books is ” one of the most useful and accessible in
Britain ” (see Libraries, p. 522). In the rear of the mansion is the Lecture-room, or Theatre, for 700 auditors; and adjoining are the Apparatus-room and Laboratory; the latter designed by W. H. Pepys, F.R.S., and engraved in Parkes’s Chemical Catechism, 13th edition, 1834. The apparatus in pneumatics, hydrostatics, electricity and magnetism, is very perfect; but the great battery of 2000 double plates, and another with a pair of plates 200 feet square, with which Sir Humphry Davy experimented, have long been destroyed.
LONDON STONE,
CANNON STREET, is a fragment of the milliarium (mile-stone) of the Romans, ” a pillar set up by them in the centre of the forum of Agricola’s station, the gnoma or umbilicus castri Londinensis.” (A. J. Kempe, F.S.A.) Stow describes it on the south side of the street, near the channel of Walbrook, ” pitched upright, a great stone, called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and so strongly set, that if carts do run against it through negligence, the wheels be broken, and the stone itself be unshaken.” There is evidence to the belief that it was placed here a thousand years ago; and Camden considers it to have been the great central mile-stone, from which the British high-roads radiated, and the distances on them were reckoned, similar to that in the Forum at Rome.*
The traditional history of the stone is as follows :—It was the altar of the Temple of Diana, on which the old British kings took their oaths on their accession, laying their hands on it. Until they had done so, they were only kings presumptive. The tradition of the usage survived as late, at least, as Jack Cade’s time; for it is not before he rushes forth and strikes the stone, that he thinks himself entitled to exclaim—
” Now is Mortimer lord of this city !” Tradition also declares that the stone was brought from Troy by Brutus, and laid by his own hand as the altar-stone of the Diana Temple, the foundation-stone of London, and its palladium—
” Tra maen Prydain Tra lied Llyndain “— (” So long as the stone of Brutus is safe, so long will London flourish,”)
which infers also, it is to be supposed, that if it disappears, London will wane. It has been, from the earliest ages, jealously guarded and imbedded, perhaps from a superstitious belief in the identity of the fate of London with its palladium.— Notes and Queries, 3rd S., No. 1.
London Stone is referred to as a local mark of immemorial antiquity in Saxon charters. Stow found it mentioned as a landmark in a list of rents belonging to Christ’s Church, in Canterbury, at the end of ” a fair-written gospel-book,” given to that foundation by the West-Saxon King Athelstane, who reigned from 925 to 941. Of later time we read, that in the year 1135, the 1st of King Stephen, a fire, which began in the house of one Ailward, near unto London Stone, consumed all east to Aldgate. Henry Fitz-Alwyn, ” the draper of London Stone,” was the first Mayor of London, 1189. Lydgate, about 1430, sings :
¦ Then I went forth hy London Stone Throughout all Canwick Street.”— London LacTcpenny.
Holinshed mentions the striking of the Stone in describing the insurrection of Jack Cade; and Shakspeare has introduced this dramatic incident in the Second Part of Henry VI. act iv. sc. 6. In Pasquill and Marforius, 1589, we read : ” Set up this bill at London Stone. Let it be doone solemnly, with drom and trumpet; and looke you advance my cullour on the top of the steeple right over against it.” Also, ” if it please them these dark winter nights, to sticke uppe their papers uppon London Stone.” Here it is presumed to have been customary to affix official papers. Dryden
{The Cock and the Fox,) has: ” Jack Straw at London Stone with all his rout Struck not the city with so loud a shout.”
* A like stone, of the time of Hadrian (2nd century), was found on the side of the Roman Foss-way near Leicester, in 1771; and is preserved in the Museum of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society.
Watling-street, of which Cannon-street is a continuation, is supposed to have heen the principal street of Roman London; hut it may have been a British road before the arrival of the Romans, to which earlier period Strype refers London Stone. After the Great Fire of 1666, the ground in Cannon-street was much disturbed, and the ” large foundations ” of London Stone led Wren to consider this to have been some more considerable monument than even the Roman milliarium ; for adjoining ” were discovered some tessellated pavements, and other extensive remains of Roman workmanship and buildings. Probably this might in some degree have imitated the Milliarium Aureum at Constantinople, which was not in the form of a pillar, as at Rome, but an eminent building,” containing many statues. The Stone, before the Great Fire, was ” much worn away, and as it were but a stump remaining.” (Strgpe.) It was then cased over by Wren with a new stone, handsomely wrought and cut hollow, something like a Roman altar or pedestal, admitting the ancient fragment, “now not much larger than a bomb-shell,” to be seen through a large aperture near the top. The Stone, in its old position on the south side of the street, being complained of as a nuisance, was removed to the north side in 1742, close to the kerb: here again it proved an obstruction ; and in 1798, when St. Swithin’s church was about to be repaired, the venerable Stone was by some of the parishioners doomed to destruction ; but Mr. Thomas Maiden, of Sherborne-lane, printer,, prevailed on the parish-officers to have it placed against the south wall of the church, where it now remains.
In Cannon-street is the spacious City Terminus of the South-Eastern Railway.
Luther’s Table-Talk, English translation, was first “printed by William Du Gard, dwelling in Suffolk-lane, nsitffolk-lear London-stone, 1652.”
LONDON WALL,
MOORFIELDS, is a slreet named from its north side occupying the site of that portion of the City Wall which divided the City Liberty from the Manor of Finsbury, and against which was built Bethlem Hospital, taken down 1817-8; when also the Wall was removed : ” found uncommonly thick, and the bricks double the size of those now used; the centre filled in with large loose stones, &c.” (Hughson’s Walks, 1817.) The level of the street has been in parts raised two feet within the last 40 years. Over Helmet Court entrance is a helmet, boldly sculptured in stone. Here is Sion College, described at page 214.
The Wall, believed to be the work of the later Roman period, when London was often exposed to hostile attacks, extended from the Tower, through the Minories to Aldgate, Houndsditch, Bishopsgate, along London Wall to Fore-street, through Cripplegate and Castle-street to Aldersgate, and so through Christ’s Hospital by Newgate and Ludgate towards the Thames. (See City Wall and Gates, pp. 233-236.)
In October, 1866, excavations at London-wall led to the discovery of a large quantity of bones of horses, oxen, and deer, the horns in high preservation; also goat-horns, attached to portions of skulls; spear-handles, decayed, and tipped with horn. Till old Bethlem Hospital was taken down (1817-18), the greatest part of the ancient wall of London, partly Roman, was to be seen here; and the Hospital itself was built partly upon the City ditch, filled with rubbish, so that it was requisite to shore up and underpin the walls.
LONG ACRE,
THE main street between Covent Garden and St. Giles’s, and extending from Drury-lane west to St. Martin’s-lane, was (temp. Henry VIII.) an open field, called the Elms, from a line of those trees growing upon it, as shown in Aggas’s plan. It was next called Seven Acres; and temp. Charles I., when it was first laid out, it was changed to Long Acre, from the length of the slip of ground first made a pathway. In Phoenix-alley, now Hanover-court, on the south, John Taylor, the water-poet, and a contemporary of Shakspeare, kept an ale-house, first with the sign of The Mourning Crown, for which, at the Commonwealth, he substituted his own head, with this motto:
” There’s many a head stands for a sign; Then, gentle reader, why not mine ?”
Taylor, as a Thames waterman, stoutly assailed coaches, among the builders of which he died, in Phoenix-alley, in 1653.
It is related of Prior, the poet, that after spending the evening with Oxford, Bolinghroke, Pope, and Swift, he would go and smoke a pipe, and drink a bottle of ale with a common soldier and his wife in Long Acre, before he went to bed. This woman (also said to have been a cobbler’s and an alehouse-keeper’s wife) wa3 the beautiful Chloe of Prior’s poems : ” he used to bury himself for whole days and nights together with this poor mean creature ” (Pope).
The Journey through England, 1722, describes “the Mug-house Club, in Long Acre, whTayLong Acere, every Wednesday and Saturday, a mixture of gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen, meet in a great room, and are seldom under a hundred. They have a grave old gentleman, in his own grey hairs, now within a few months of ninety years old, who is their president, and sits in an arm’d chair some steps higher than the rest of the company, to keep the whole room in order. A harp plays all the time at the lower end of the room, and every now and then one or other of the company rises and entertains the rest with a song, and (by the by) some are good masters. Here is nothing drunk but ale, and every gentleman hath his separate mug, which he chalks on the table where he sits as it is brought in: and every one retires as he pleases, as from a coffee-house. The room is always so diverted with songs, and drinking from one table to another to one another’s healths, that there is no room for politicks, or anything that can sour conversation. One must be there by seven to get room, and after ten the company are for the most part gone.”
Long Acre was at first inhabited by persons of note, and some of the houses are handsomely built; but coachmakers, and the subordinate trades of coach-trimmers, colourmen, and varnish-makers, have probably lived in Long Acre since the general introduction of coaches, circ. 1630. John Locke (in his Diary, 1679), recommends ” Mr. Cox, of Long Acre, for all sorts of dioptrical glasses.” A few old signs, including the goldbeater’s gilded arm and hammer, remained to our time, upon the house-fronts; but the coachmakers have of late years followed fashion westward. The chapel on the north side of Long Acre was the private property of the Kev. John Warner, D.D., an eloquent preacher (d. 1800). In conjunction with Dr. Lettsom and Mr. Nichols, Dr. Warner originated the erection of the statue of John Howard in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Among the nostrums of Long Acre were Dr. Gardner’s Worm-destroying Medicines, &c.: also, Burchell’s Anodyne Necklaces, strongly recommended for teeth-cutting, by Dr. Turner, the inventor ; and by Dr. Chamberlain, who is said to have possessed the secret.
The removal of part of a labyrinth of alleys at the west end of King-street, Covent-garden, has been followed by the partial demolition of Rose-street, a dirty thoroughfare into Long Acre, with a curious literary history. Mr. Cunningham thus carefully narrates:
” It was in this street (Dec. 18th, 1679) that Dryden, returning to his house in Long Acre, over against Rose-street, was barbarously assaulted and wounded by three persons, hired for the purpose, as is now known, by Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Fifty pounds were offered by the King for the discovery of the offenders, and a pardon in addition if a principal or accessory would come forward. But Rochester’s ¦ Black Will with a cudgel’ (the name he gives his bully) was bribed to silence, it is thought, by a better reward. Rochester took offence at a passage in Lord Mulgrave’s Essay on Satire; an essay in which his lordship received assistance from Dryden. There are many allusions to this Rose-alley Ambuscade, as it is called, in our old State poems. So famous, indeed, was the assault, that Mulgrave’s poem was commonly called the Rose-alley Satire.”
Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras, lived the latter part of his life in Rose-street, ” in a studious, retired manner,” and died there in 1680: he is said to have been buried at the expense of Mr. Longueville, though he did not die in debt. The house in which he died was not taken down until the street disappeared. In the same street, Edmund Curll was living when he published Mr. Pope’s Literary Corrit Literarespondence. At the corner of Rose-street, in King-street, lived Mr. Setchel, the bookseller, whose daughter painted that very clever and popular picture, ” The Momentous Question.” Mr. Setchel and his father had kept shop here for seventy years.
JEndell-street, on the north side, leads to Holborn {see p. 431). St. Martin’s Sail was built in 1849, between Charles and Hanover streets (see p. 427); and in Castle-street, in 1850, the St. Martin’s Northern Schools, Wyld, architect. The style is Byzantine, with two tiers of pointed arches; the top story being a covered playground, 100 feet long, opening to the front by a colonnade,—a novel contrivance for keeping the children from the evil ways of the street.
LORD MAYOR’S STATE.
THE salary and allowances paid to the Lord Mayor from the City funds during his year of office, with sums from other sources, amount to about 7900/. He resides in the Mansion House, which is sumptuously furnished, and provided with plate and jewelled ornaments said to be worth from 20,000/. to 30,000/.: his household consists of twenty gentlemen, including the Sword-bearer, the Common Hunt, the Common Crier, and the Water-bailiff, all of whom have the title of esquires. He has a splendid retinue of servants, and keeps three tables; he is provided with a gorgeous state-coach, but not with horses; and he finds the dress-carriage and horses for the Lady Mayoress. (See State Coaches.) He is expected to give a certain number of state banquets during the year, in addition to bearing half of the expense of the inauguration-dinner at Guildhall on the 9th of November. The Lord Mayor’s dinners are provided by contract, but the wines are supplied from the Mansion-House cellars. The mayoralty expenses, unless ” cool was his kitchen,” generally exceed by 4000/. the City allowance. The state liveries usually cost 500/.
The Fool was formerly one of the Lord Mayor’s household; and he was bound by his office to leap, clothes and all, into a large bowl of custard, at the Lord Mayor’s inauguration dinner :—
“He may, perchance, in tail of a Sheriff’s dinner, Skip with a rime o’ the table, from new nothing 1 , And take his almain leap into a custard, Shall make my Lady Mayoress and her sisters Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders.”— Sen Jonion.
Custard was a ” food much used in City feasts.” (Johnson’s Dictionary.)
“Now may’rs and shrieves all hush’d and satiate lay; Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day.”— Pope.
Costume and Jewels. —On ordinary state occasions the Lord Mayor wears a massive black silk robe richly embroidered, and his collar and jewel. In the courts and civic meetings he has a violet silk robe, furred, and barred with black velvet; and on the bench at the Mansion House, and in the Central Criminal Court, he wears a scarlet robe, furred, and bordered with black velvet. In conducting the Sovereign through the City, the Lord Mayor wears a rich crimson velvet robe, and a court suit, with point lace; the velvet hood of old has been superseded by a three-cornered dress hat, trimmed with black ostrich-feathers. At state banquets, the Lord Mayor wears an “entertaining robe, richly embroidered with gold:” a new robe, in 1867, cost 160ust867, co guineas.
The wear of robes of various colours upon certain days was fixed by a regulation in 1562, and, with the customs and orders for meeting, was printed in a tract by John Day, now very scarce. But the present authority for the customs is a pamphlet printed by direction of the Common Council in 1789.
The Collar is of pure gold, composed of a series of links, each formed of a letter S; a united York and Lancaster, or Henry VII. rose; and a massive knolt. The ends of the chain are joined by the portcullis, from the points of which, suspended by a ring of diamonds, hangs the Jewel. The entire Collar contains 28 SS, 14 roses, and 13 knolts, and measures 64 inches. The Jewel contains in the centre the City arms, cut in cameo, of a delicate blue, on an olive ground. Surrounding this, a garter, of bright blue, edged with white and gold, bearing the City motto, ” Domine dirige nos,” in gold letters. The whole is encircled with a costly border of gold SS, alternating with rosettes of diamonds, set in silver. The Jewel is suspended from the collar by a portcullis; but when worn without the Collar, is suspended by a broad blue ribbon. The investiture is by a massive gold chain ; and when the Mayor is re-elected, by two chains.
Mace and Sicords. —The Mace is silver-gilt, is 5 feet 3 inches in length, and bears on the lower part W. R.j it is surmounted with a regal crown and the imperial arms, and has the handle and staff richly chased. The ” Pearl Sword,” presented by Queen Elizabeth upon opening the Royal Exchange, has a crimson velvet sheath thickly set with pearls ; and the handle, of gold, is richly chased in devices of Justice and Mercy. There are a Sunday sword for church ; a common sword for the Sessions; and a black sword for the 30th of January; and Sept. 2nd, the anniversary of the Great Fire of 1666. v
SeaU. —The Corporate Seal is circular. Obverse: St. Paul, bearing a sword, and a flag ensigned with
three lions passant-gardant, standing in a city, over the gate of which is a key; legend, sigillvm : babonvm : londoniabvm. Eeverse: the City Arms, with mantlings, &c; legend, iondohi: defend e : tvos: devs optime : cives. The second Seal, made 4 Richard II., bears the effigies of SS. Peter and Paul, canopied. Beneath are the present arms of the City: a cross with a dagger in the dexter quarter, supported by two lions. It appears to have been surmounted with a low-pointed arch. The centre compartment is flanked with two canopied niches; in each a demi-flgure, a serjeant-at-arms, bearing a mace, and wearing a triangular cap. The pedestals of the canopies sustain kneeling figures paying adoration to the Virgin Mary, whose effigy (much effaced) appears in the centre niche at the top of the seal. Legend, sigillvm officii : majobatvs : civitatis : lohdik i : very indistinct from wear.
The Mayor has heen chief hutler to the Sovereign at coronation feasts since the reign of Richard III., receiving for his fee a gold cup and cover.*
The most memorable name in the civic annals is that of Sir Richard Whittington, four times Mayor, 1397, 1398, 1406, 1419.
Whittington was the son of Sir William Whittington, Knight, and his early destitution rests but upon the nursery tale. His prosperity is referred to the coal-carrying Cat of Newcastle; but a scarce print, by Elstrake, of Whittington in his mayoralty robes, has a cat beside the figure, showing the version of the nursery tale to have beep then popular: in the early impressions of this plate a skull appears in place of the cat, which has rendered the original print a rarity of great price among collectors. Whittington’s wealth rebuilt Newgate, and St. Michael’s Church, Paternoster Royal; built part of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and the library of Christ’s Hospital, and added to the Guildhall. He also bequeathed his house at ” College-hill” for a college and almshouse, which have been taken down, and the institution removed to a handsome collegiate building near Highgate Archway, not far from the stone marking the spot whereon tradition states Whittington to have rested when a poor boy and listened to the bells of Bow; the original stone (removed in 1821) is said to have been set up by desire of Whittington, to assist horsemen to mount at the foot of the hill. Whittington was buried in St. Michael’s Church, beneath a costly marble tomb; but his remains were twice disturbed before the church was destroyed by fire, and now there is no olden memorial of Whittington to be traced; his statue has been placed in the Royal Exchange. Whittington was of the Mercers’ Company, ” flos mercatorum :” his will at Mercers’ Hall bears a curious illumination of Whittington on his death-bed, his three executors, a priest, &c. Whittington is also said to have lived in Sweedon’s-passage, Grub-street; and in a court in Hart-street, Mark-lane, was formerly a building termed in old leases ” Whittington’s Palace.”
Sir Geoffry Bullen, Lord Mayor in 1453, was grandfather to Thomas Earl of Wiltshire, father to Anne Bullen, and grandfather to Queen Elizabeth; the highest genealogical honour the City can boast of.
“The ennobled families of Cornwallis, Capel, Coventry, Legge, Cowper, Thynne, Ward, Craven, Marsham, Pulteney, Hill, Holies, Osborne, Cavendish, Bennet, and others, have sprung either directly or collaterally from those who have been either Mayors, Sheriff*, or Aldermen of London; and a very large portion of the peerage of the United Kingdom is related either by descent or intermarriage, to the citizens of the metropolis.”— Thomas Moule.
In 1858 the services of the Watermen in the Lord Mayor’s State Barge being no longer required, the sum of 51. each, equivalent to one’s year’s emolument, was paid, on the badge, cap, and clothing being delivered up.
In 1865 an old custom was revived at the Mansion House, which had fallen into disuse since 1857,—that of an officer of the Corporation, wearing an official robe and carrying a staff of office, escorting the Lord Mayor daily from the Mansion House to the Court, and announcing him on his taking his seat on the bench. The staff used in the ceremony is a very ancient symbol of dignity, and is scarcely less part of the insignia of the Corporation than the sword and mace. It is about seven feet high, and is surmounted with a massive representation of the City arms in silver-gilt, and the official robe of the usher is in keeping.
The table plate is very valuable. Formerly it was always customary for a Lord Mayor to contribute 1001. towards keeping up the Corporation plate, but this has not been observed for about the last 30 years.
The total expenses of the Banquet and Procession on Lord Mayor’s-day, 1865, amounted to 3102J. lis. id. Of this, one-half was paid by the Lord Mayor (Mr. Alderman Phillips) and the other half by the two Sheriffs (Mr. Alderman Gibbons and Mr. J. Piggins). The contract for the dinner and wine amounted to 1639J. 14*. \0d. The decorations cost 1361. 8*. id., including 301. 12*. for loan of decorations, flags, armour, &c, from War and Store Office; ill. for repairing and arranging flags; 4/01. for hire of looking-glasses; 601. for hire of flowering plants and shrubs; 251. for hire of awning; 1051. for gas-fitting; 1001. for gas; 213Z. for upholstery; and 331. for plumbing and painting. The procession cost 2762. 8s. 10d., and included 10U. 7*. for five bands of music; 321. 11*. for banners and banner-bearers ; 301. 17*. for rosettes and scarfs; 641. 3s. lOd. for refreshment of troops and police; 11. 10*. for gravelling the streets; and 401. for decorating Ludgate-hill and Fleet-street. The music in Guildhall cost 601. 19*.; the printing and stationery, 143Z. 13*. 2d. The general expenses are put down at 2551. 6*. 1d^
* There is current a piece of City gossip, of a Silver Cradle being customarily presented at the accouchement of a Lady Mayoress; but in 1735 and 1813, such an event was merely signalized by a congratulatory vote of the Court of Common Council.
and include some of the most curious items, such as men on the roof, 41. 4s.; men bringing up provisions for distribution to the poor, 11. Is.; bell-ringers at ten churches, 201.; Hatley, drummer, Royal London Militia, donation in consideration of an accident to him in the procession, 51.; wands and decorations for Committee, 701. 7s. 6d.; gold pens and pencil-cases, for Chairman and Secretary, 91. 15s.; seal for the Chairman, 61. 14s.; gloves, 101. 18s.; toilet articles for ladies’ rooms, 291. lis. ; padlocks, 51., &c. &c. Total, 3102J. lis. id.
The bill of the feast of the Mayor of Norwich, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when he entertained the Queen and her court, was—Total charge, 12.12s. 9d. Three of the items were—Eight stone of beef at 8d. per stone, and a sirloin, 5s. 8d.; a hind-quarter of veal, lOd. ; bushel of flour, Gd.; two gallons of white wine and canary, 2s.
LUDGATE, LUDGATE HILL AND STREET.
LUDGATE, one of the principal gates of the City, was situated at the western extremity of Bowyer’s-row, now Ludgate-hill, between the London Coffee-house and St. Martin’s Church. Geoffrey of Monmouth states the gate to have been built by the British King Lud, 66 B.C.: hence its traditional name; but more probably from the Flood, or Flud, which ran into Fleet-river. We find no further mention of it until 1215, when it was fortified or rebuilt by the barons leagued against King John, and who employed as materials the remains of the stone houses of opulent Jews, which had been destroyed, as proved by a stone discovered in 1586, inscribed in Hebrew, ” This is the ward of Rabbi Moses, the son of the honourable Rabbi Isaac.” In 1260 the gate was again repaired, and ornamented on the east side with statues of Lud and his two sons; and subsequently the statue of Queen Elizabeth was placed in the west front. Ludgate was much injured in the Great Fire of 1666, and is shown in Greffier’s picture, engraved by Birch. The gate is described by Chamberlayne (1726) as a prison ” only for debtors who are freemen of London.” In the Spectator, No. .: ectator82, is ” a voice bawling for charity at the grate;” just as in our time the prisoners of the Fleet loudly called upon those who passed the grate, ” Tray remember the poor debtors,” as the board above stated, ” having no allowance.” Pennant describes Ludgate, within his memory, ” a wretched prison for debtors.” It was taken down, 1760-62, when the statue of Elizabeth was placed at the east end of St. Dunstan’s Church, Fleet-street, and the other statues were disposed of as described at p. 235. By a plan preserved in St. Martin’s vestry-room, the great arch and postern of Ludgate was 37 ft. 6 in. wide in front, and 39 ft. deep. Ludgate was made a free prison in 1378 (1st Richard II.); but its privileges were soon violated, and it became a place of great oppression. Rowley’s comedy of A Woman never vext, or the Widow of Cornhill, is founded upon the tradition of the handsome Stephen Foster, Lord Mayor in 1454, begging at the grate of Ludgate, and attracting the sympathy of a rich widow, who paid the debt for which he was confined, and afterwards married him :—
” Mrs. S. Foster. But why remove the prisoners from Ludgate ?
Stephen Foster. To take the prison down and build it new, With leads to walk on, chambers large and fair; For when myself lay there, the noxious air Choked up my spirits. None but captives, wife, Can know what captives feel.”—Act v. sc. 1.
Between 1454 and 1463 the prison was much enlarged, and a chapel built by Dame Agnes Foster and the executors of Stephen her husband, as thus recorded on a copperplate upon the walls :
“Deout soules that passe this way,
for Stephen Foster, late Maior, heartily pray, And Dame Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate,
that of pitie this house made of Londoners in Ludgate, So that for lodging and water prisoners here nought pay, as their keepers shall all answere at dreadful doomes day.”
At the rebuilding of Ludgate in 1566, “the verse being unhappily turned inward to the wall,” Stow tells us he had the like ” graven outward in prose, declaring him (Foster) to be a fishmonger, because some upon a light occasion (as a maiden’s head in a glass window) had fabled him to be a mercer, and to have begged there at Ludgate,” &c.
A quarto tract, Prison Thoughts, by Thomas Browning, a prisoner in Ludgate, ” where poore citizens are confined and starved amidst copies of their freedom,” was published in that prison by the author in 1682, and is supposed to have suggested Dr. Dodd’s Prison Thoughts.
Ludgate-hill formerly extended from Fleet-street to St. Martin’s Church (see p. 180); and Ludgate-street from thence to St. Paul’s. On the hill, opposite the gate, stopped the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat; and below is the Bell Savage Inn, described at p. 452. Near this spot lived the famous cobbler whom Steele mentions as a curious instance of pride; he had a wooden figure of a beau of the time, who stood before him in a bending posture, humbly presenting him with his awl, or bristle, or whatever else his employer chose to put in his hand, after the manner of an obsequious servant. Ludgate-street and hill were fam cohill weous for mercers in Stow’s time. At the north-east corner (St. Paul’s Churchyard), No. 65, lived John Newbery, for whom Goldsmith wrote Goody Two-shoes, a pamphlet on the Cock-lane Ghost, a History of England, and edited the Public Ledger newspaper. To Newbery succeeded John Harris, and next Grant and Griffith, now Griffith and Farran, worthy successors of Newbery. At ” the Dunciad,” in Ludgate-street, Dr. Griffiths published the Monthly Review, No. 1, May 1749.
On the north is Ave-Maria-lane, leading to Amen-corner and Paternoster-row; and Stationers’ Hall-court, leading to the hall of the Stationers’ Company {see pp. 420-422.) On the south is Creed-lane, with another ecclesiastical name.
In 1792 was discovered a barbican, or watch-tower, between Ludgate and the Fleet-ditch, forming part of the extension of the City wall in 1276; a fine fragment of which exists in St. Martin’s-court opposite the Old Bailey. In a bastion of the wall, in 1800, was found a sepulchral monument, in the rear of No. 21, the London Coffee-house, where it is now preserved: it is dedicated to Claudina Martina, by her husband Anencletus, a provincial Roman soldier. Here are also a fragment of a statue of Hercules, and a female head.
At No. 32, north side, was the picturesque old shop-front of Rundell and Bridge, goldsmiths and diamond-jewellers to the Crown, with the sign of the Golden Salmon. Here was executed Flaxman’s Shield of Achilles, in silver-gilt: and here was fitted up the imperial Crown for the coronation of George IV. in 1821; and a silver wine-cooler which occupied two years in chasing. Mrs. Rundell wrote The Art of Cookery (Domestic Cookery), for which she ultimately received 2000 guineas. At No. 45, William Hone published his political satires, with woodcuts by Cruikshank; and his Every-day Book, Ancient Mysteries, Sfc. In the house No. 7, opposite Hone’s, was published another successful venture, the Percy Anecdotes, contemporary with the Every-day Book.
The lower portion of Ludgate-hill is crossed by the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway viaduct, which has been much objected to; yet the inhabitants gave evidence in its favour; and the design is identical with that exhibited by the Company, in 1860, before Parliament. The objections are too numerous to detail here: one is, interference with one of the finest architectural views in the metropolis. Coleridge, many
years since, remarked: ” A Mr. H , a friend of Fox’s, who always put himself
forward to interpret the great orator’s sentiments, and almost took the words out of his mouth, put him in mind of the steeple of St. Martin, on Ludgate-hill, which is constantly getting in the way when you wish to see the dome of St. Paul’s.” However, Coleridge’s remark is here mal-apropos; for St. Martin’s Church spire improves the view of St. Paul’s. It is true that the level of the bridge is low, but it has unquestionably spoiled the view, and its small elevation above the street (18 feet) traffic is an objection of another class. The street of Ludgate-hill is here only 42 feet wide; but, as the Corporation intend, at some future time, to enlarge the thoroughfare, the span is 18 feet wider than the street, or 60 feet. The bridge is composed of five girders of wrought iron, screened from sight by ornamental iron-work, and relieved with decorative brackets, bronze armorial medallions, and handsome gas-lanterns and standards. It carries four lines ofhisfour li rails. Through Ludgate-hill there have passed, in twelve hours, 8752 vehicles, 13,025 horses, and 105,352 persons. The entire line from Bridge-street to St. Paul’s is now Ludgate-M£.