This was scanned in from an old document which has caused numerous misreadings of words. As time moves on, this will be improved.
TATTESHALL’S,
THE celebrated sporting rendezvous and auction mart for horses, known as the ” Corner” (i.e., at Hyde Park Corner), in the rear of St. George’s Hospital, and approached from Grosvenor-place, was established by Richard Tattersall, in 1766, who leased the ground, then an open place between Piccadilly and the hamlet of Knightsbridge, from Earl Grosvenor. Tattersall, who had been stud-groom to the second and last Duke of Kingston, in 1779, founded his fortune by purchasing from Lord Bolingbroke, then in difficulties, the celebrated stud-horse, Highflyer. Tattersall had previously sold off the Duke of Kingston’s stud; and an injunction was applied for December 14, 1774, to restrain payment of the money to the Duchess, then under indictment. Tattersall is alluded to in the Belle’s Stratagem, first performed 1782 : ” Flutter : Oh, yes ! 1 stopped at Tattersall’s as I came by, and there I found Lord James Jessamy, Sir William Wilding,” &c. The Prince of Wales was a constant patron of Tattersall’s, where was a bust of his Royal Highness in his eighteenth year.
Here the Jockey Club erected their club-house, elaborately decorated by Italian artists : the Duke of Queensbury (” Old Q.”) and Selwyn were members of the club. Richard Tattersall, of whom two portraits exist, died January 20, 1795, aged 72 ; he was succeeded in his business by his only son Edmund, who carried it on until his death, Jan. 23, 1810 : his son, Edmund, who founded the foreign trade, then succeeded ; who, dying Dec. 11, 1851, the business came to its present proprietor. In 1852, Tattersall’s annual average of horses brought to the hammer was estimated at 45,000?. ; there were 97 stalls and 13 loose boxes, or standing for 110. In the counting-house hung the regulations, dated 1780. The owner of a Derby winner some few years back had to receive about 70,000?. from the Ring, and on the settling-day it was in the hands of his bankers, with the exception of very few hundreds. On show and sale days the display of horses was often very fine. The ” Book-making” before the Derby or St. Leger was crowded with peers and plebeians, butchers and brokers, betting-list keepers, insurers, guardsmen and prize-fighters, Manchester manufacturers, Yorkshire farmers, sham captains, ci-devant gentlemen, &c. In ” the Room,” which was regulated by the Jockey Club, was a cartoon of the race-horse ” Eclipse.” We have seen a clever painting, by Aiken, of the borse-auction at Tattersall’s. The lease of the old premises expired in 1865 ; fine fruit had been grown in the gardens, whence were supplied, for many years, the grapes and pines for the Waterloo Banquet, at Apsley House.
In 1864, Tattersall’s was removed to newly-erected premises between the junction of the Brompton and Knightsbridge roads, which is much nearer to the great quarter of fashion and wealth than Hyde Park-corner was at the beginning of the present century. The New Tattersall’s is described at p. 491.
Tattersall’s is the greatest mart for horses in the world. Sales take place here every Monday throughout the year, and in the height of the season on Thursday also. As many as 150 lots have been offered in one day ; the average number 100. The proprietors, the Messrs. Tattersall’s, also sell annually the produce of the Royal Breeding Establishment at Hampton Court Paddocks, and other thoroughbred produce ; also studs of race-horses at York, Doncaster, and Newmarket during the racing season ; and to them are usually entrusted the sale of packs of hounds. The highest price ever paid for a horse at Messrs. Tattersall’s of late years was 3100 gs. for Orlando ; and the highest price for a pack of hounds, the property of G. Osbaldeston, Esq., 3000 gs.
TELEGRAPHS, ELECTRIC.
THE Electric-telegraph system in London has been carried out by the Electric Telegraph Company, at their Central Office in Lothbury, which has thus become the metropolis of stations. Here the whole system was first clearly exhibited ; the Company having purchased all Cooke and Wheatstone’s patents, and adopted their peculiar features, — the suspended conducting wire and the Double Needle Telegraph ; and, in certain cases, Mr. Bain’s chemical Printing Telegraph. The Office is in Founders’ -court, on the north side of the Bank of England ; where anciently dwelt founders ” that cast candlesticks, chafing-dishes, spice-mortars,” &c, and ” turned them bright with the feet, making a loathsome noise, whence the name of loth-berie, or court ” (Stotv) ; all which is strikingly contrasted with the wonder-working silence of the Electric Telegraph operations.
The entrance to the office is bold and picturesque : above the doorway is a balcony ; and between two enriched Ionic pilasters, carrying an arched pediment, is the large transparent dial of an electric clock. You first enter a hall 42 by 32 feet, entirely lighted from the coved roof of plate-glass in panels. At the east and west ends is a screen of two stories j both communicating with the apartments in which are the electric-telegraph machines, and the two ends are connected by side- galleries, there being thus two railed stories or galleries throughout the hall ; at each end, below, are counters, where clerks, who receive the messages, enter them, and pass them to another set of clerks, who transmit them to those employed at the machines above by lifts or small trays, working by cords in square tubes, — a lift and bell to each desk.
Behind the counter is the ” translating office,” where all messages are transferred into the abbreviated code arranged by the Company. Such messages as descriptions of persons suspected of dishonesty are not translated, but sent in full : only the lists of prices in corn, share, and other markets are so abbreviated.
Several wires are laid to each terminus, lest any of them become defective, when the connexion can be carried on by other wires, as the expense of taking up the pavement would be enormous for so slight a cause. The wires are of copper, and are covered with gutta-percha, India-rubber, or some resinous substances, which, being non-conductors, prevent the escape of the electricity. The wires from the several railway termini are brought through iron pipes laid down under the pavement of the streets ; and meeting in Founders’-court, are continued through the south wall of the basement of the station, and descending into the ” test-box,” are fastened there to pegs fitted into the back of the box. At the bottom run a corresponding number of ” house-wires,” and these go to the machines in the galleries. Connexion is maintained between the line and house-wires by small wires running perpendicularly from one to the other. All the wires are numbered at the desks to correspond from batteries to machines, and from machines to the test-box, that the electric circle may thus be complete. In the galleries the wires are carried along the ceilings from the respective machines to the battery-chambers and the test-box ; the battery-wires running east and west, and the house-wires to test-box north and south. Several long and narrow chambers are devoted to the batteries, which are so numbered and arranged in reference to the wires, that any defect can be immediately rectified. Each railway has a division to itself, and thus all risk of confusion is avoided. The communications are spelt through letter by letter, and each word is verified by the receiver to the sender as the message proceeds.
In 1851, the Admiralty Semaphores were removed, and the Electric Telegraph substituted for them. By this means, despatches can be sent off and received by night or day, and in any kind of weather ; whereas, the Semaphores could only work by day, and that in fine weather : this was a great inconvenience to Government, especially the naval department, which had only one line, from the Admiralty, Whitehall, to Portsmouth ; whilst now, orders can be transmitted in a moment to the royal arsenals. In 1851, the Needle Telegraph of Wheatstone was carried round the Great Exhibition Building in Hyde Park, and thence to the Police Station, Great Scotland-yard, Whitehall. And in 1852, the exact Greenwich time was first conveyed by the Electric Telegraph to various parts of England.
Besides the private message department, there is a general intelligence office, in which the news published in the morning journals is condensed and transmitted to the Exchanges of Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, and other chief provincial centres of business. During the day the London and other news is collected, condensed, and transmitted to the offices of upwards of 400 provincial papers, which thus receive, during the night before their publication, the most recent intelligence of every sort received by telegraph from all parts of Europe, besides the current news of the United Kingdom to the latest moment.
There are also curious special arrangements : thus, a wire is exclusively appropriated to communications between the Octagon Hall of the Houses of Parliament and the telegraphic station in St. James’s-street, the centre of the West-end clubs. This is a call-wire for Members. The Company employ reporters during the sitting of Parliament to make an abstract of the business of the two Houses as it proceeds; this is forwarded, at very short intervals, to the office in St. James’s-street, where it is set up and printed ; and this flying-sheet is sent to the principal clubs and to the Royal Italian Opera. The Government wires go from Somerset House to the Admiralty, and thence, in one direction, to Portsmouth and Plymouth by the South Western and Great Western Railways; and in the other to the naval establishments at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, and to the Cinque Ports of Deal and Dover.
They are worked by a staff provided by the telegraph companies, and the more important messages are usually sent in cipher, the meaning of which is unknown even to the telegraphic clerks employed in
transmitting it. In addition to the wires already spoken of, street branches run from Buckingham Palace to Scotland-yard (the head police-office), to the station at Charing Cross, and thence to the City; whilst the Post-office, Lloyd’s, Capel-court, and the Corn Exchange communicate directly with the central offices. — Abridged from Larduer’s Electric Telegraph, by Bright, 1867.
” The Nerves of London” is Wheatstone’s system of wires which may be seen stretching across the sky-line of great thoroughfares, and visibly triangulating the town in every direction ; and along which, by a simplified apparatus, messages are sent at the rate of 100 letters a minute. The system of fine copper is hung on the iron wires, strained from poles from the house-tops. At intervals carefully selected, the area of London is divided by a system of trianguhition, the posts that form the meeting-points of three series of cables becoming the points at which all these wires have to be distributed.
TEMPLE, INNER AND MIDDLE. TEMPLE BAR,
BETWEEN the east end of the Strand and the west end of Fleet-street, divides the City of London from the liberty of Westminster ; or rather, “it opens not immediately into the City itself (which terminated at Ludgate), but into the liberty or freedom thereof” (Hatton, 1708). The original division from the county (hence Shire-lane) was by posts and rails, a chain, and a bar (as at Holborn, Smithfield, and Whitechapel bars) placed across the street, and named from its immediate vicinity to the Temple. The bar gave place to ” a house of timber ” raised across the street, with a narrow gateway underneath, and an entrance on the south side under the house above. At the coronation of Queen Mary, ” the Temple-barre was newly painted and hanged” (Stow). This was taken down after the Great Fire, and it is shown in Hollar’s seven-sheet Map of London ; and in the Bird’s-eye View, about 1601. After the Great Fire, Charles II. insisted upon the citizens taking down the Bar, when
they, pleading their ” weak state and inability,” on account of the great expense of rebuilding public edifices consumed in the Great Fire, the King promised to assist them with funds ; the Corporation undertook the work j the old Bar was accordingly taken down, and the present Bar erected by Sir Christopher Wren, of Portland-stone, but the royal promise was not performed. The Bar basement is rusticated ; it has a large flattened arch in the centre for the carriage-way, and a smaller semicircular arch on each side for foot-passengers. Each facade has four Corinthian pilasters, an entablature, and arched pediment. On the west, in two niches, are statues of Charles I. and Charles II. in Boman costume ; and over the keystone of the centre arch were the royal arms : on the east, in similar niches, are statues of James I. and his queen, Anne of Denmark (often described as Elizabeth) j and over the keystone were the City arms. Inscription :
” Erected in the year 1670, Sir Samuel Starling Mayor; continued in the year 1671, Sir Richard Ford Lord Mayor ; and finished in the year 1672, Sir George Waterman Lord Mayor.”
The upper portion has two bold cartouches, or scrolls, as supporters j but the fruit and flowers sculptured in the pediment, and the supporters of the royal arms, which were placed over the extremities of the posterns (now widened), have disappeared ; the inscription is scarcely legible ; and the stone- work of the whole is weather-worn : in 1852 the Common Council refused to spend 1500Z. to restore the bar as Wren left it. The statues are by John Bushnell, who died in 1701 ; that of Charles I. has lost the baton. A scarce print shows the bar, and the adjoining gabled houses at the commencement of the 18th century. In the centre of each facade is a semicircular-headed window, lighting an apartment now held of the City, at the annual rent of 501., by Messrs. Child, the bankers, as a depository for their account-books. Above the centre of the pediment, upon iron spikes, were formerly placed the heads and limbs of persons executed for treason. The first of these revolting displays was one of the quarters of Sir Thomas Armstrong, implicated in the Bye-House Plot ; and next the quarters of Sir William Perkins and Sir John Friend, and Perkins’s head, who had conspired to assassinate William III.
“April 10, 1696.— A dismal sight, which many pitied. I think there never was such a Temple Bar till now, except in the time of King Charles II., viz. Sir Thomas Armstrong.” — Evelyn’s Diary.
After the Kebellions of 1715 and 1745, the heads of some of the victims were placed upon the Bar ; and in 1723, the head of Counsellor Layer, who had conspired for the restoration of the Pretender ; Layer’s head remained here for 30 years, till blown down in a gale of wind, when it was picked up in the street by an attorney. But the heads last set up here were those of Townley and Fletcher, the rebels, in 1746. Walpole writes, August 16, 1746 : ” I have been this morning at the Tower, and passed under the new heads at Temple Bar, where people make a trade of letting spying-glasses at a halfpenny a look •” and in 1825, a person, aged 87, remembered the above heads being seen with a telescope from Leicester Fields, the ground between which and Temple Bar was then thinly built over. (J. T. Smith.) In 1766 a man was detected discharging musket-balls, from a steel cross-bow, at tbese two heads ; which, however, remained there until March 31, 1772, when one of the heads fell down ; and shortly after, the remaining one was swept down by the wind.* The Bar was painted by Hooker in 1772. The last of the iron poles, or spikes, was not removed from the Bar until the
commencement of the present century. Mr. Rogers, the banker-poet, who died December 18, 1855, remembered “one of the heads of the rebels upon a pole at Temple Bar, a black, shapeless lump. Another pole was bare, the head having dropped.”
The old gates of Temple Bar remain : they are of oak, panelled, and are surmounted by a rudely carved festoon of fruit and flowers. These gates were originally shut at night, and guarded by watchmen ; and in our time they have been closed in cases of apprehended tumult. Upon the visit of the Sovereign to the City, and upon the proclamation of a new Sovereign, or of Peace, it was formerly customary to keep the gates closed, until admission was formally demanded; the gates were then opened; and upon the Royal visit, the Lord Mayor surrendered the City sword to the Sovereign, who re-delivered it to his Lordship.
At Temple Bar the above ceremony was observed when Queen Elizabeth proceeded to St. Paul’s to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada; when Fairfax and Cromwell and the Parliament went in state to dine with the City ; when Queen Anne went to St. Paul’s to return thanks for the Duke of Marlborough’s victories; when Queen Victoria dined at Guildhall in the year of her accession, 1837; and when her Majesty went to open the New Royal Exchange in 1841; but on the Queen’s visit in 1851, the ceremony at Temple Bar was entirely dispensed with. The custom at the Proclamation of Peace, or the Accession of the Sovereign, had been for a herald, attended by trumpeters, to knock with his baton at the closed gate, when the City Marshal inquired ” Who comes there ?” and the herald having replied, was admitted, and conducted to the Lord Mayor, who directed that the whole of the cavalcade should be admitted ; and the proclamation was read opposite Chancery-lane. Such was the observance upon the accession of George IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria. In 1841 the ceremony consisted merely of closing the gates just before the royal procession reached the Bar, and re-opening them upon the announcement of the Queen’s arrival.
At the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, November 18, 1852, Temple Bar was entirely covered with draperies of black cloth and velvet, and cloth -of-gold ; decorated with the armorial bearings and orders of the Duke in proper colours ; silvered cornices, fringe, urns, and a circle of flambeaux upon the pediment ; the whole presenting an impressive effect of solemn triumph and gloomy grandeur. The Bar was appropriately decorated and illuminated at the marriage of the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, March, 1863.
THAMES EMBANKMENT.
TO the Romans we are indebted for the first embankment of the Thames; and, according to Tacitus, they pressed the Britons into the work. The maintenance and repair of these embankments have been traced to the reign of Edward I. ; but the encroachments of wharfs and other buildings have materially contracted the water-way immediately through the centre of the metropolis ; so that the only relic of the old line is to be seen adjoining Waterloo Bridge. For example : the distance of the river front from Westminster Hall, in an old plan, is 100 feet ; it is now 300 feet. Several plans were proposed for the embankment of the Thames ; some including railways, arcades, terraces, promenades, &c. Tbe portions already embanked are the terraces of the Custom House, Somerset House, the Adelphi, the New Houses of Parliament, Thames Bank ; although, more than a century and a half since, Wren designed ” a commodious quay on the whole bank of the river, from Blackfriars to the Tower.” A showy architectural plan was published by Colonel Trench; and in 1845, John Martin, the painter, designed a railway along both sides of the Thames, with an open walk from Hungerford to the Tower, and from Vauxhall to Deptford. The next portion was the embankment above Vauxhall Bridge, to be continued to Battersea Bridge.
The Embankment, J. W. Bazalgette, engineer, is now in course of construction by the Metropolitan Board of Works, on the north side.
The foundations are laid upon a connected line of iron caissons and concrete, upon which is built the brick granite-faced embankment-wall ; behind which, and underneath the roadway, it is proposed to construet the subways and sewers, an arrangement which will add much to the stability of the embankment wall. The total length of the embankment is about 7000ft., but it is completely divided by the bridges into three sections : the first section from Westminster to Hungerford bridge, the second from Hungerford bridge to Waterloo, and the third from Waterloo to Blackfriars bridge.
At Westminster-bridge the roadway, which rises at an inclination of 1 in 80 to the level of the bridge, is set back some 30 or 40 feet from the face of the embankment-wall, and the intervening space reserved as a promenade and steamboat-pier, having access from the bridge by a wide and imposing flight of steps opposite the Houses of Parliament. Between Westminster and Hungerford bridges will be landing-stairs for smaller craft, and here it is proposed to introduce the beautiful water-gate now situate at the end of Buckingham-street. On either side of Hungerford and Waterloo bridges, will be steam-boat landing-places, massive granite piers with moulded pedestals rising about 30 ft. above the roadway, to be enriched with bas-reliefs and surmounted by groups of statuary. Half way between Hungerford and Waterloo bridges, will be a flight of landing steps 60 ft. wide, projecting into the river, and flanked at each end with massive piers, rising to the level of a few feet above the roadway, and to be surmounted with colossal figures of river deities, or other appropriate groups. The central feature will be an approach for foot-passengers from the high level roadway to the river by a second flight of steps, descending to the level of the lower or embankment roadway. On either side of this approach a line of shops is to be erected on the land side of the embankment roadway, the backs of which would form a retaining wall to the ornamental crescent and promenade above them. Between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges, and in front of Arundei-street, a steamboat pier will be constructed, in lieu of the present Essex-street pier, designed upon the same principle as those adjoining the bridges. The embankment-wali itself is to be enriched with mouldings of a simple character down to the level of high-water mark, the continuous line of moulding being broken by the introduction, at intervals, of massive blocks of granite to carry ornamental lamps, and by occassional recesses for promenade seats.
The section between Temple Gardens and Blackfriars bridge will be constructed on arches, so as to admit of the passage under it to docks between the roadway and the shore of barges and lighters;
besides a subway for gas and water pipes and electric telegraphs. The embankment will pass by an easy curve to the level of Bridge-street, Blackfriars, where the line of roadway will be continued by the new street to the Mansion House.
The Embankment on the south side, between Westminster bridge and Vauxhall, was commenced in 1865 ; the foreshore of the first section being the site of the new St. Thomas’s Hospital ; the new embankment here redeeming six acres from the Thames. There will also be a new road, 60 feet wide, in the rear of the Hospital, continuing Stangate to Lambeth Palace.
THAMES RIVER, THE.
THE metropolis, extending about 15 miles along the Thames, although occupying little more than one-thirtieth of its entire course, renders it the most important commercial river in the world. The name is inferred to be of British origin : Caesar writes it Tamesis, evidently Tames or Thames with a Latin termination. The river rises in the south-eastern slopes of the Coteswold Hills ; for a short distance it divides Gloucestershire from Wiltshire; next Berkshire from Oxfordshire, and then from Buckinghamshire ; it then divides Surrey and Middlesex, separating the cities of Westminster and London from Lambeth, Southwark, Bermondsey, and Kotherhithe ; thence to its mouth, it divides Kent and Essex, and falls into the sea at the Nore, about 110 miles nearly due east from the source, and about twice that distance measured along the windings of the river. From having no sand-bar at its mouth, it is navigable for sea-vessels to London Bridge, about 45 miles from the Nore, or nearly one-fourth of its entire length ! In its course through the metropolis, it varies from 800 to 1500 feet in breadth ; gradually expanding, as it approaches the Nore, to seven miles broad.
Drayton describes, as renowned for ” ships and swans, Queen Thames.” Cowley thus refers to Old London Bridge impeding the prospect :
“Stopp’d by the houses of that wondrous street,
Which rides o’er the broad river like a fleet.”
“London with Westminster, by reason of the turning of the river, much resembles the shape (including Southwark) of a great ickale: Westminster being the under jaw; St. James’s Park the mouth; the
Pall Mall, &c., northward, the upper jaw: Cock and Pye Fields, or the meeting of the seven streets, the eye; the rest of the City and Southwark to East Smkhfield, the body; and thence eastward to Limehouse, the tail : and ’tis, probably, in as great a proportion the largest of towns, as that is of fishes.” —
Hatton, 1708.
The very bold reach made by the Thames adds greatly to the effect of the prospect ; and by this means, before the addition of the present front of Buckingham Palace, the Sovereign, when seated upon
her throne, commanded a view of the dome of St. Paul’s, and the spires and towers of the City churches.
The Tide ascends about 15 miles above London Bridge to Teddington (Tide-end-town) : here an immense volume of fresh water, derived from the arc of the drainage of the Thames (calculated at 800,000,000 gallons a day, or about 16 square miles, 90 feet deep), flows over Teddington Lock, and mixes with the water below. Even at ebb-tide there are 12 or 13 feet of water in the fair way of the river above Greenwich ; the mean range of the tides at London Bridge is about 17 feet ; of the highest spring-tides about 22 feet. Up to Woolwich the river is navigable for ships of any burden ;
to Blackwall for those of 1400 tons.
Thames Sports and Pageants. — Fitzstephen chronicles the water tournament and quintain. Richard II. was rowed in his tapestried barge, probably the first royal barge upon the Thames : and here the king, seeing the poet Gower, called him on board, and commanded him ” to make a book after his best,” which was the origin of the Confessio Amantis. In the 15th and 16th centuries, and onward to very recent days, each palace on the north bank of the Thames had its water-gate, and its retinue of barge and wherries. The Thames was the royal road from Westminster and Whitehall to the Tower, and from thence to Greenwich. State prisoners were conveyed by the Thames to the Traitors’ Gate at the Tower, and the Star-Chamber victims to a similar gate at the Fleet. The landing-places on the Thames appear to have been even less changed than the thoroughfare itself; for in the account of the penance of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, in 1440, we find named Temple-bridge stairs), the Old Swan, and Queenhithe ; and in early maps of London, are Broken Wharf, Paul’s Wharf, Essex Stairs, and Whitehall Stairs; all which exist by the same names to the present day. Cardinal Wolsey, when he delivered up York Place, ” took his barge at his privy stairs, and so went by water to Putney,” on his way to Esher. Sir Thomas More kept his great barge at Chelsea, which he gave to Sir Thomas Audley, his successor in the chancellorship, with whom he placed his eight watermen. In the Aqua Triumphalis, in 1662, the City welcomed Charles II. from Hampton Court to Whitehall, the barges of the Twelve Companies being carried as far as Chelsea ; and mostly all ended with a pageant. James II., 1688, embarked at Whitehall : ” I saw him take barge,” says Evelyn ; ” a sad sight.” The last primate who kept his state barge at Lambeth was Archbishop Wake, who died 1737. Early in the 17th century, Howel numbered among the river glories, ” forests of masts which are perpetually upon her ; the variety of smaller wooden bottoms playing up and down ;” and Stow computes that there were in his time 2000. In 1630, the river had its own laureat, John Taylor “the Water-poet,” who thus sings : —
” But, noble Thames, whilst I can hold a pen,
I will divulge thy glory unto men ;
Thou, in the morning, when my coin is scant,
Before the evening doth supply my want.”
Taylor knew Ben Jonson ; and the Water-poet ” probably had the good fortune to ferry Shakspeare from Whitehall to Paris Garden.” — (C Knight.)
The Folly on the Thames was a floating ” musical summer-house” usually moored between Somerset-stairs and the Savoy ; the Queen of William III. once visited it.
The existing sports on the Thames consist of rowing, boat-racing, and yachting, or sailing, throughout the summer and autumn; by clubs, numbering several members of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London ; the scholars of Westminster, St. Paul’s, and other academic foundations. The match for Dogget’s coat and silver badge is rowed for every 1st of August under the direction of the Fishmongers’ Company, of which Dogget was a member, as described at page 400.
The Thames Watermen formerly had their cant dialect, of which Ned Ward and Tom Brown give specimens ; and the ” Thames ribaldry” (Spectator) has lasted to our time, in which watermen’s disputes have been settled by Joe Hatch, ” the Thames Chancellor.” Strype was told by a member of the Watermen’s Company, that there were in his day, about 110 years ago, 40,000 watermen on the rolls of the Company, and that upon occasion they could furnish 28,000 men for tbe fleet, and that there were then 8000 in service ; but these numbers are questionable.
State Barges. — The first water pageant of the City of London dates from 1454, when John Norman, the Mayor, was rowed to Westminster in his barge ; but the Companies had their barges for water processions half a century before this; and the Grocers’ accounts, temp. Henry VI., mention the hiring of barges to attend the Sheriffs’ show by water. Hall chronicles the Mayor and citizens accompanying Anne Boleyn at her coronation, in 1533, from Greenwich to the Tower, in their barges.
The barge was retained in the Lord Mayor’s state until our time, and included the Water-bailiff, one of his lordship’s esquires, with a salary of 500?. a year, a shallop and eight men ; and in the suite were a barge-master, and thirty -two City watermen. The Lord Mayor’s barge was richly carved and gilt, and cost in 1807, 2579£. A few of the City companies maintained their state-barges ” to attend my Lord Mayor :” as the Fishmongers, Vintners, and Dyers, Stationers, Skinners, and Watermen. The Goldsmiths’ Company sold their barge in 1850, and have not replaced it. A capacious barge, built in 1816, named the “Maria Wood” (from the then Lord Mayor’s eldest daughter), cost 5000£. The Queen long maintained her river state ; and one of the royal barges, built more than a century and a quarter since, is a curious craft : the rowers wore scarlet state-liveries. The Lords of the Admiralty had likewise their state barge; and in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries is one of their old massive silver badges. This river-state has, however, been abolished ; and excursions are now made in steamers. The Dyers’ and Vintners’ Companies still keep swans on the river.
State Funerals by the Thames are rare : the remains of Anne of Bohemia, and Henry VII., who died at Richmond, were conveyed with great pomp by the river to Westminster ; and the body of Queen Elizabeth was ” brought by water to Whitehall.”
The remains of Lord Nelson, after lying in state in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital, were conveyed by the Thames* to the Admiralty, Jan. 8, 1806, and next day were deposited in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The Port of London is described at pp. 685-687.
The Bridges across the Thames at the metropolis are described at pp. 65-75.
The two churches immediately below London bridge attest the occupation of London by the Danes and Northmen : St. Olave’s Southwark, originally dedicated to the Norwegian king, Olaf the Saint ; and
St. Magnus the Martyr, from St. Magnus, a Norwegian jarl, killed in the 12th century in Orkney, where the cathedral in Kirkwall is also dedicated to him.
The Docks (which have cost more than 8,000,000?. in the present century) are described at pp. 309-312.
The earliest Water-supply was derived from the Thames, by direct carriage, or from the bournes or streams which flowed through the town, but are now covered sewers.
The water was laid from these springs in leaden pipes, as early as the reign of Henry III., to Conduits in various parts of the town (see pp. 287-289), whence it was conveyed in buckets and carts : from Tyburn in 1236 ; from Highbury in 1438 ; from Hackney in 1535 ; from Hampstead in 1543 ; and from Hoxton in 1546. Lilly, the astrologer, when a youth, went to the Thames, accompanied at times by City apprentices, to carry water in buckets from the river, for domestic purposes. In 1535, water was brought from six fountains in the town of Tyburn, this being the first instance on record of water being conveyed to the city by means of pipes. In 1581, Peter Morice threw a jet of the Thames over old St. Magnus’ steeple, before which ” no such thing was known in England as this raising of water.” Next year were formed London Bridge Waterworks, described at p. 67. In 1613 was opened the New River (see pp. 609-612), when commenced the modern systems of supply, now executed by eight Companies.
Fish. — Fitzstephen describes the Thames, at London, as ” a fishful river ;” and its fishermen were accustomed to present their tithe of salmon at the high altar of St. Peter, and claim on that occasion the right to sit at the Prior of Westminster’s own table. At this period the river, even below the site of the present London Bridge, abounded with fish. In 1376-77, a law was passed in parliament for the saving of salmon and other fry of fish ; and in 1381-^82, ” swannes” that came through the bridge, or beneath the bridge, were the fees of the Constable of the Tower. Howel says : —
” When the idler was tired of bowls, he had nothing to do but to step down to Queenhithe or the Temple,” and have an afternoon of angling. ” Go to the river : what a pleasure it is to go thereon in the summer time, in boat or barge, or to go a-floundering among the fishermen !”
In the regulations, too, of the ” Committee of Free Fishermen” is a provision that fishermen were not to come nearer London than the Old Swan, on the north bank of the river, and St. Mary Overies, on the south. Pennant describes the catch of lamprey of the greatest importance, immense quantities being exchanged with the Dutch fishermen for other descriptions of fish. Formerly Blackfriars and
Westminster bridges were anglers’ stations ; but the fish disappeared from the Thames At London. Blackwall is, however, still famed for its whitebait (see pp. 57-58), and fish are taken in the docks below London Bridge.
* The Author of this volume, born August 17, 1801, has a distinct recollection of having seen this Funeral Procession upon the Thames from a back window of a house at the south foot of London Bridge.
1749, June 7. — Two of the greatest draughts of salmon were caught in the Thames, below Richmond, that have been known for some years ; one net having thirty fine large salmon in it, and the other twenty-two, which lowered the price of fresh salmon at Billingsgate from Is. to 6d. per lb. — Gentleman’s Magazine.
Strange fish have strayed here. In 1391, a dolphin, ” ten feet in length,” played himself in the Thames at London to the bridge. Evelyn tells of a whale, fifty-eight feet in length, killed between Deptford and Greenwich in 1658 ; and nearer the mouth of the river (at Grays) a whale of the above length was taken in 1809, and another in 1849. ” In 1783, a two-toothed cachalot, 21 ft. long, was taken above London Bridge.”
— Pennant.
The Steam Navigation of the Thames exceeds that of any other river in the world.
The first steam-boat left the Thames, for Richmond, in 1814 ; the next for Gravesend, in 1815 ; and in the same year for Margate. The Gravesend steamers soon superseded the sailing-boats with decks, which, in 1737, had displaced the tilt-boats mentioned temp. Richard II. The Margate steamers, in like manner, superseded the sailing ” hoy.”
The steam traffic attained vast numbers. In the year 1861, 3,207,558 passengers landed and embarked at Old Shades-pier on board the penny boats of the London and Westminster Steamboat Company. This number has, however, been considerably reduced by railway competition.
Water. — In 1858, the water had become very impure by the sewer- water emptying itself into the Thames, and the sulphate of lime in it causing an insufferable stench, the chloride of sodium denoting its origin among the human habitations on the banks of the river ; added to which were the organic matters. Man pours into the Thames the refuse of a hundred towns and villages, besides the washings of manured lands, before it gets to Teddington Lock. The water, already impure, is taken at the rate of 100,000,000 of gallons a day, and after washing London and its inhabitants, inside and out, is again returned to the Thames, bearing with it the vegetable and animal refuse of dwelling-houses, mews, cow and slaughter-houses, and all sorts of manufactories in which organic matters are used. — (Dr. Lankester). In the following year, 1859, the cleansing of the Thames by disinfectants was commenced ; and during the season there were employed about 4281 tons of chalk-lime, 478 tons of chloride of lime, and 56 tons of carbolic acid, at a cost of 17,733/.
Notwithstanding the many early measures to purify the Thames, we read in the London chronicles of frequent and terrible ravages by the Plague, Sweating Sickness, and other disorders. The Thames was then a pure and pleasant stream : still the Plague raged, and carried off thousands, and that at a time when the population of London was probably under 300,000 persons — not many more than the population of St. Pancras at present. This shows that the purity of the Thames alone did not prevent the pestilence.
The Conservancy of the Thames by the Corporation of London dates from 1st Edward IV. j the Mayor acting as bailiff over the waters (in preserving its fisheries and channels), and as meter of marketable commodities — fruit, garden-stuff, salt, and oysters, corn and coal — from Staines to Yantlett Creek (80 miles). The Admiralty also claimed a certain jurisdiction ; and the Corporation of the Trinity House had authority to remove shoals, to regulate lastage and ballastage, to provide lighthouses and beacons, to license pilots, mariners, &c. The powers of the Corporation were
neither large nor well defined, and the result not being satisfactory, a Board of Conservancy was, in 1857, created by Act of Parliament, consisting of 12 members, of whom the City nominated six in addition to the Lord Mayor, who was ex officio chairman ; and the Admiralty, Board of Trade, and Trinity House nominated the other five members.
This Board has greatly improved the river, and done much to develope its capabilities.
Feosts and Peost Faies ox the Thames, see pp. 360-363.
The Isle of Dogs, the horse-shoe curve between Limehouse and Blackwall, is described at p. 475.
THAMES-STREET,
IN Stow’s time called StocJc fishmonger’s Row, extends from Puddle Dock, Blackfriars, to the Tower. The line abounds with archaeological interest.
Upper Thames-steeet. — Fuddle Dock was the wharf of one Puddle, and next Puddle Water, from horses watered there. Ben Jonson calls it ” our Abydos.” Shadwell, in his comedy of Epsom Wells, 1676, has ” the Countess of Puddle Dock,” and Hogarth, in 1732, met ” the Duke of Puddle Dock,” at the Dark-house, Billingsgate.
Upon the site of old Puddle Dock is built the City Flour Mill, by far the largest flour-mill in the world, and a gigantic example of mechanical skill. It is constructed entirely upon piles, and occupies rather more than an acre, or 250 feet long by 60 feet wide. The mill consists of eight stories ; two steam-engines, of the consecutive power of 300 horses, drive 60 pairs of enormous mill-stones, and work the Archimedean screws and buckets, by which the flour is conducted through the different processes.
This mill has stowage for 40,000 quarters of grain ; can prepare 4000 quarters per week, and requires only one-sixth of the number of hands which were employed by the old system.
Castle Baynard Wharf denotes the site of Baynard’s Castle.
Nearly opposite is Adel or Addle Hill, where stood the palace of the Anglo-Saxon kings, erected by Athelstan. Boss-court is so called (says Stow) from a spring-water boss, or mouth, put up by the executors of Sir Richard Whittington. From Lambeth-hill to Queenhithe have been excavated portions of the river-wall mentioned by Fitzstephen. Queenhithe, see p. 704. Oarlick-hill was of old the garlick hithe.
Loiogate, or Lownegate, was named from its steep descent to the river; or from its being the Dowe or Water gate to Watling-street (Maitland) ; near the church of St. Mary Bothaw (destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt), was the mansion of Sir Francis Drake. Here is the City Terminus of the South-Eastern Railway, described under Watling Street.
The Steelyard is named from its having been the place where the King’s steelyard, or beam, was set up for weighing goods imported into London (T. Hudson Turner). See a good account of the Steelyard, with historic details, by T. C. Noble, in the Builder, September 5, 1863.
Coldharbour-lane denotes the site of Coldharbour, a magnificent mansion, 13 Edward II. (Rymer’s Fcedera). It was next the property of Sir John Poultney; in 1397, John Holland, Duke of Exeter, entertained here Richard II.; Henry V. possessed it when Prince of Wales ; Richard III., in 1485, granted it to the College of Heralds ; Henry VIII. exchanged it for Durham House, Strand : it is shown in ruins, in Holland’s View of London after the Great Fire. The etymology of Coldharbour is a qucestio vexata. Sir John Poultney received for his mansion, yearly, a rose at midsummer, whence, or from the wars of York and Lancaster, the estate was named ” the Manor of the Rose.” Upon Laurence Pountney-hill are two elaborately-carved doorways ; and some of the houses have stone-groined vaults. Upon Laurence Pountney-hill lived Dr. William Harvey, with his brothers Daniel and Eliab, merchants; here Harvey made his researches on the circulation of the blood.
In Suffolk-lane is Merchant Taylors’ School (see p. 725).
Old Swan Stairs was a Thames landing-place in the 15th century. Here were the Old Wine Shades, established in 1697, beneath the terrace of the former Fishmongers’ Hall; the present Shades is the house built for Lord Mayor Garratt, who laid the first stone of London Bridge in 1825.
At Old Swan House, facing the river, three successive heads of the mercantile concern served the offices of Sheriff and Lord Mayor ; and it is stated that no such succession in the list of magistrates is to be fouud in the City. Here traded Mr. Richard Thornton, who died June 20, 1865, leaving more than two millions and three quarters of money, which he disposed of as follows :
To his nephew, Mr. Thomas Thornton, the testator left all his freehold, copyhold, and leasehold property for his absolute use. To his sister, 100,00(M.; to his nephew, Mr. William Thornton West, 300.000J. ; to two of his clerks, 20.000Z. each ; to his nurse, for her faithful services and attention to him in his illness, 10002. ; to each of his other domestic servants, 5002. ; to the Leathersellers’ Company, 60001. ; to Christ’s Hospital, 50002. ; and 10,0002. to Hetherington’s Charity for the Blind. To 24 other charities in London, 20001. each; to the schools at Merton, 10,0002.; and to the poor of Merton, 10002.
To the schools at Burton and Thornton, 10,0002. ; and to the poor of Merton, 5001. To Mr. E. N. Lee, one of the executors, the munificent legacy of 400,0002., on condition of his obtaining a licence within twelve months to take and use the surname of “Thornton.” To the wife of another executor, a life interest is devised in the sum of 300,0002. To the Misses Margaret and Eliza Lee, of Ventnor, Isle of Wight, there is a life interest in the sum of 200,0002. There are also liberal bequests to others of the testator’s nephews, nieces, and other persons.
At the upper end of Martin’ s-lane, Cannon-street East, lias been built a Rectory-house, with a handsome campanile, 110 feet high.
Some idea of the ancient commercial wealth of England may be gathered from a glance at the rapid increase of trade from about the middle of the 14th century. Thus, in 136S, Picard, who had been mayor some years before, entertained Edward III. and the Black Prince, the Kings of France, Scotland, and Cyprus, at his own house in the Vintry (Upper Thames-street), and presented them with handsome gifts.
Philpot, an eminent citizen in the reign of Richard II., when the trade of England was greatly annoyed by privateers, hired 1000 armed men and despatched them to sea, where they took 15 Spanish vessels with their prizes: Philpot-Lane, in Lower Thames-street, is “so called of Sir John Philpot (one of this family), ” that dwelt there, and was owner thereof.” — Stow.
The south side of Upper Thames-street is mostly occupied by wharfs, once the site of river-side palaces. In the lanes, upon the north side, are several merchants’ mansions, “which, if not exactly equal to the palaces of stately Venice, might at least vie with many of the hotels of old Paris. Some of these, though the great majority have been broken up into chambers and counting-houses, still remain intact.” — B. D’Israeli.
Upper Thames-street retains some old signs: as, a bas-relief of a Gardener with a spade, 1670; the Doublet (upon iron, once gilt), at Crawshay’s iron-wharf, No. 36 (originally the “Sir John Anvill” of the Spectator, No. 299). Upon Lambeth- hill, over Crane-court, is a crane carved in stone.
Thames-street has long been noted for its cheese-factors’ warehouses : ” Thames-street gives cheeses.” — (Gay’s Trivia.)
Lower Thames-street : Fish-street Hill ; the Monument (see pp. 570-571)
Here was the entrance to Crooked-lane, noted for its old fishing-tackle shops, handy for the anglers at London Bridge. At Pudding-lane (from butchers scalding hog’s puddings there) commenced the Geeat Fire (see pp. 338-340).
In Water-lane was the Old Trinity House, built by Wren ; and at the lower end of the lane was the finely-carved door-headway of the Ship Tavern. The Custom House is described at pp. 305-306.
At the east end of the street, in Stow’s time, were the remains of a stone mansion, Baid to have been the lodging of the Princes of Wales ; hence this part of the street was called Petty Wales. It was also called Galley Quay, from the galleys formerly lading and landing there. Tradesmen’s tokens in the seventeenth century were struck here, and were hence called, vulgo, ” Galley-quay halfpence.”
THAMES TUNNEL,
BRICK arched double roadway, under the Thames, between Wapping and Rotherhithe, is one of the grandest achievements of engineering skill.
In 1799 an attempt was made to construct an archway under the Thames, from Gravesend to Tilbury by Ralph Dodd, engineer; and in 1804 the “Thames Archway Company” commenced a similar work from Rotherhithe to Limehouse, under the direction of Vasey and Trevethick, two Cornish miners; and the horizontal excavation had reached 1040 feet, when the ground broke in, under the pressure of high tides, and the work was abandoned ; 54 engineers declaring it to be impracticable to make a tunnel under the Thames of any useful size for commercial progression.
The Thames Tunnel was planned by M. I. Brunel, in 1823 : among the earliest subscribers to the scheme were the late Duke of Wellington and Dr. Wollaston ; and in 1824 the ” Thames Tunnel Company ” was formed to execute the work. A brickwork cylinder, 50 feet in diameter, 42 feet high, and 3 feet thick, was first commenced by Mr. Brunei at 150 feet from the Rotherhithe side of the river; and on March 2, 1825, a stone with a brass inscription- plate was laid in the brickwork. Upon this cylinder, computed to weigh 1000 tons, was set a powerful steam-engine, by which the earth was raised, and the water was drained from within it ; the shaft was then sunk into the ground en masse, and completed to the depth of 65 feet ; and at the depth of 63 feet the horizontal roadway was commenced, with an excavation larger than the interior of the old House of Commons. The plan of operation had been suggested to Brunei, in 1814, by the bore of the sea-worm, Teredo navalis, in the keel of a ship ; showing how, when the perforation was made by the worm, the sides were secured, and rendered impervious to water, by the insect lining the passage with a calcareous secretion.
With the auger-formed head of the worm in view, Brunel employed a cast-iron ” Shield,” containing 36 frames or cells, in each of which was a miner who cut down the earth ; and a bricklayer simultaneously built up from the back of the cell the brick arch, which was pressed forward by strong screws. Thus were completed, from Jan. 1, 1826, to April 27, 1827, 540 feet of the Tunnel. On May 18 the river burst into the works ; but the opening was soon filled up with bags of clay, the water pumped out of the Tunnel, and the work resumed. At the length of 600 feet, the river again broke in ; six men were drowned ; and the rush of the water carried Mr. Brunel, jun., up the shaft. The Tunnel was again emptied; but the work was now discontinued, for want of funds, for seven years.
Scores of plans were next proposed for its completion, and above 5000Z. were raised by public subscription. By aid of a loan sanctioned by Parliament (mainly through the influence of the Duke of Wellington), the work was resumed, and a new shield constructed, March, 1836, in which year were completed 117 feet; in 1837, only 29 feet; in 1838, 80 feet; in 1839, 194 feet; in 1840 (two months), 76 feet; and by November, 1841, the remaining 60 feet, reaching to the shaft which had been sunk at Wapping. On March 24, 1843, Brunei was knighted by Queen Victoria ; on August 12 he passed through the Tunnel from shore to shore ; and March 25, 1843, it was opened as a public thoroughfare, lighted with gas, to passengers, day and night, at one penny toll; in each passage a carriage-road and footway. The opening was celebrated annually by a Fair held in the Tunnel.
The Tunnel cost about 454,000^. ; to complete the carriage-descents would require 180,000^. ; total, 634,000£. The dangers of the work were many : sometimes portions of the shield broke with the noise of a cannon-shot ; then alarming cries told of some irruption of earth or water ; but the excavators were much more inconvenienced by fire than water ; gas explosions frequently wrapping the place in a sheet of flame, strangely mingling with the water, and rendering the workmen insensible. Yet, with all these perils, but seven lives were lost in making the Thames Tunnel; whereas
nearly forty men were killed during the building of New London Bridge. In 1833 Mr. Brunel submitted to William IV., at St. James’s Palace, ” An Exposition of the Facts and Circumstances relating to the Tunnel;” and Brunei has left a minute record of his great work : it is well described and illustrated in Weale’s Quarterly Papers on Engineering. A Visitor’s Book is kept at the Tunnel, wherein are the signatures of the many illustrious persons who have inspected the works. It was visited by Queen Victoria, July 26, 1843. In 1838 the number of visitors was 23,000 ; in 1839, 34,000. A fine medal was struck at the completion of the work : obv. head of Brunel ; rev. interior and longitudinal section of the Tunnel.
Width of the Tunnel, 35 feet; height, 20 feet; each archway and footpath, clear width, about 14 feet; thickness of earth between the crown of the Tunnel and the bed of the river, about 15 feet. At full tide, the foot of the Tunnel is 75 feet below the surface of the water.
The Tunnel has been paralleled, as an engineering triumph, by Stephenson’s Tubular Railway-bridge.
THEATRES.
ADELPHI THEATRE, No. 411, Strand, was commenced in 1802 by John Scott, a colourman, and opened Nov. 27, 1806, as the Sans Pareil, with musical entertainments, and next year with dramas. In 1820-1 Scott sold the theatre to Rodwell and Jones, who named it the Adelphi ; in 1825 it was sold to Terry and Yates ; and after Terry’s secession, Yates was joined by Charles Mathews the elder, who gave here his later ” At Homes.” The compo front of the theatre was designed by Beazley, in 1840. Yates was succeeded by Webster, with Madame Celeste as directress. One of its chief attractions as the comic humour of John Reeve. The theatre was rebuilt in 1858 upon an enlarged plan, by Wyatt (from the Opera Comique in Paris) for Mr. Webster ; style, Italian ; decoration, French Renaissance ; illuminated by a sunlight.
Astley’s Amphitheatee, Bridge-road, Lambeth, is the fourth theatre erected upon this site. The first was one of the 19 theatres built by Philip Astley, and was opened in 1773, burnt in 1794; rebuilt 1795, burnt 1803; rebuilt 1804, burnt June 8, 1841, within two hours, from the house being principally constructed with old ship-timber.
It was rebuilt, and opened April 17, 1S43, and has since been enlarged. The theatre was built for equestrianism ; and the stud of trained horses usually numbered from 50 to 60. It has since been cleverly remodelled by Mr. Boucicault, for performances of the regular drama.
Philip Astley, originally a cavalry soldier, commenced horsemanship in 1763, in an open field at Lambeth : he built his first theatre partly with 601., the produce of an unowned diamond ring which he found on Westminster Bridge. Andrew Ducrow, subsequently proprietor of the Amphitheatre, was born at the “Nag’s Head,” Borough, in 1793, when his father, Peter Ducrow, a native of Bruges, was ” the Flemish Hercules” at Astley’s. The fire in 1841 arose from ignited wadding, such as caused the destruction of the old Globe Theatre in 1613, and Covent Garden Theatre in 1808. Andrew Ducrow died Jan. 26, 1842, of mental derangement and paralysis, produced by the catastrophe of the burning of his theatre and several favourite horses.
Bankside Theatres. The earliest was the Circus built for bull-baiting and bear-baiting, about 1520, in Paris Garden. In this theatre, plays were also performed temp. James I., when Henslowe and Alleyn were lessees. Nash, in his Strange Netves, 1590, mentions the performance of puppets there ; and Dekker asserts that Ben Jonson had acted there (Satiromastix). Aggas’s Map, drawn about 1560, shows two circi lower down on ” the Bank ;” but still lower were the Globe, the Mope, and the Rose. The Globe was built by agreement, dated Dec. 22, 1593, for Richard Burbage, the famous actor. In 1603 James I. granted a licence to Shakespeare and others to act ” at their now usuall house, called the Globe.” It was of wood, hexagonal in exterior form, and was occupied by Shakspeare as a summer theatre. At Dulwich College, in a paper, occurs ” Mr. Shaksper,” in a list of ” Inhabitants of Sowtherk, Jully, 1596 ;” he was assessed in the liberty of the Clink in 1609, though his occupation as an actor at the Globe did not continue after 1604:* his brother, Edmond Shakspeare, was buried in St. Saviour’s church, 1607. The Globe was destroyed by fire June 29, 1613, when Ben Jonson was present ; it was rebuilt in 1614, but is not mentioned after 1648 : it was built on the site of Globe-alley, which led from Maid-lane to ” the Bank,” and is now included in the premises of Barclay and Perkins’s Brewery (see the Map in Strype’s Stow, 1720). The Hope, used both for bear-baiting and as a playhouse, was situated near the Rose : in 1614 Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair was first acted here ; later it was used for prize-fighting, and in 1632 again for bear-baiting. The Hose, probably the oldest theatre upon Bankside, except Paris Garden (Collier), was built long before 1597: it was held for some years by Philip Henslowe, afterwards Alleyn’s partner ; it occupied the site of Rose-alley, west of Globe-alley (see Strype’s Map). The Swan was in repute anterior to 1598. Both the Rose and Swan, after 1620, were only occupied occasionally by gladiators and fencers; and about 1648 all theatres were suppressed. (See the Antwerp View of London.)
Blackfriars Theatre was built in 1575, upon part of the site of the monastery of Blackfriars, between Apothecaries’ Hall and Printing-house-square, and upon Playhouse-yard. The first proprietors were James Burbage and his fellows, who, with other players, had been ejected from the City by an act of Common Council : it was a winter theatre, arranged like an inn-yard (the earliest theatre), but with a roof over it. Shakspeare was a sharer in the Blackfriars playhouse in 1589 ; it was rebuilt in 1596 ; and was leased by Edward Alleyn in 1618 (see his Diary, at Dulwich College).
It was taken down in 1655 (Collier’s Life of Shakspeare), and dwelling-houses were built upon the ground (see Blackfriaes, p. 56.)
Britannia Theatre, High-street, Hoxton, was commenced building soon after the destruction by fire, of the Rosemary Branch Equestrian Theatre, Islington Fields, July 27, 1853 when seven horses and eleven dogs were burnt. The Britannia (Finch and Paraire, architects), is provided with promenades and refreshment saloons. The auditory is very spacious, and elegantly decorated. The pit is nearly 80 feet wide and 60 feet deep. The stage is 76 feet wide by 50 feet deep ; opening at proscenium 34 feet wide by 37 feet high. The house is effectively ventilated by openings left in ornamental portions of the ceiling, in immediate communication with the internal area of the roof, and thence with the open air, by means of louvres extending from one extremity of the building to the other. The provisions against fire are well planned, and the extent of the theatre is considerable.
Brunswick Theatee was built upon the site of the Royalty Theatre, within seven months, by Stedman Whitwell, C.E. The facade resembled that of San Carlos
The Globe Theatre stood upon a spot of ground now occupied by four houses contiguous to the present Globe-alley, Maid-lane.— (Mirror, March 31, 1832). We remember a large tavern, the Globe, ia
Chaingate, destroyed by fire about 1812. Pennant, was told that the door of the Globe Theatre was very lately (1790) standing.— See Knight’s Stratford Shakspeare, vol. i. 1854. at Naples. It was opened Feb. 25, 1828 ; but witbin tbree nigbts, on Feb. 28, during a day rehearsal, tbe whole tbeatre fell to the ground, and killed ten persons, among whom was a proprietor, D. S. Maurice, the tasteful printer, of Fenchurch-street.
The catastrophe was caused by the unsafe iron roof and the great weights attached to it : the fall of the theatre was well described at the time by one of the company.
City of London Theatre, 36, Norton Folgate, was built 1837, for Mrs. Honey, the pretty actress, and first called the Norton Folgate-street Theatre.
City Theatre, Milton-street (Grub-street), was opened about 1830, with operatic performances. ” A new theatre has here arisen, where boards have been graced with a Tree and an Ayton ; and within these few months, its boxes have been graced with the presence of my Lords Brougham and Grey.” — (Mirror, Nov. 19, 1831.) The theatrical concern did not succeed, and the premises next became a chapel.
Cockpit or Phoenix Theatre (from its sign), Drury-lane, occupied the site of Cockpit-alley, now Pitt-place, opposite the Castle Tavern, St. Giles’s-in-the-Fields. It was altered from a cockpit, and when a theatre it was twice nearly destroyed by the London apprentices ; and was pulled down in 1649 by soldiers, instigated by sectarian bigots. At the Restoration, Rhodes, a bookseller, rebuilt the theatre, but soon vacated it ; and Sir W. Davenant, with Betterton and Kynaston in his company, performed here till 1662, when they removed to Portugal-row (see p. 687). At the Cockpit was performed the first play in print, The Wedding, by Shirley, printed in 1629, and expressly said to have been acted at Drury-lane.
Covent Garden Theatee, Bow-street, is the third theatre built here. The first theatre was built upon part of the Convent site, by Shepherd, architect of Goodman’s Fields Theatre. Covent Garden was opened Dec. 7, 1732, by Rich, the celebrated harlequin ; and Hogarth’s caricature of ” Rich’s Glory, on his Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden,” refers to his removal here : it shows one entrance, a magnificent Ionic archway, at the end of the eastern arcade of the Piazza. Here the Beefsteak Society was formed in 1735, by Rich, and Lambert the scene-painter. In 1746 Garrick played here for the season. In 1803 John Kemble became a proprietor and stage-manager.
On Sept. 20, 1808, the theatre was burned to the ground, and twenty persons killed in the ruins. It was rebuilt by R. Smirke, R.A. The first stone was laid by the Prince of “Wales, Dec. 31, 1808; and the theatre was opened Sept. 18, 1809, when the ” new prices ” caused the O. P. (old prices) riot of seventy-seven nights, since which ” a London audience has been found more captious than they previously had been” (C. Dibdin). In 1817 John Kemble here took leave of the public; and in 1840 retired his brother, Charles Kemble. The theatre was subsequently leased to Mr. C. Mathews and Madame Vestris, and Mr. Macready. In 1843-45 it was let to the Anti-Corn-Law League, who held a bazaar here in 1845 (see p. 42). In 1847 the auditory was entirely reconstructed, at a cost of 40,000£., by Albano, and opened as an Italian Opera House April 6. The exterior retained Smirke’s Grecian-Doric portico, copied from the Temple of Minerva at Athens ; statues of Tragedy and Comedy ; and two panels of bas-relief figures, by Flaxman.
The northern panel has figures of JEschylus, Aristophanes, and Mseander; Thalia, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, and Clio ; Minerva and Bacchus ; Melpomene, two Furies, and Apollo. In the southern panel are figures of Shakspeare summoning Caliban, Ferdinand, Miranda, Prospero, and Ariel ; Hecate and Lady Macbeth. Also Milton, with Urania and Samson Agonistes, an incident from Comus, &c.
This theatre was destroyed by fire, March 5, 1856, at the close of a masked ball.
The ruins lay uncleared for nearly fifteen months. The facade was saved, and Flaxman’s statues and bas-reliefs were adapted in the design for a new theatre, by E. M. Barry, which was opened as an Italian Opera House, in 1858. It is externally nearly 100 feet high by 120 feet broad, and 240 feet long, has a grand Corinthian portico, facing Bow-street, about one-fifth larger than the late theatre, and the same size as the celebrated La Scala of Milan, hitherto the largest theatre in the world.
The interior decorations are white and gold, and pale azure. Adjoining the theatre is the Floral Hall, of ” Crystal Palace” design. (See Royal Italian Opeea, p. 789.)
First Appearances.— Inclcdon, the singer, 1790; Charles Kemble, 1794; Mrs. Glover, 1797; G. F. Cooke (Richard III.), Oct, 31, 1800; Miss Stephens (Countess of Essex), 1812; Miss O’Neill (Lady
ISeecher), 1814; Macready, 1816; W.Farren, 1818; Fanny Kemble, 1829; Adelaide Kemble, 1841. Here Edmund Kean last acted, 1833.
Curtain Theatre (The), Holywell, is mentioned in 1577. Stow, speaking of the priory of St. John Baptist, says : ” Near thereunto are huilded two publique houses for the acting and showe of comedies, tragedies, and histories for recreation; whereof the one is called The Courtein, the other The Theatre, hoth standing on the southwest side, towards the field ” {Stow, 1st edit. 1599).
Both theatres are mentioned in Northbrook’s Treatise against Diceing, Dancing, Vain Plays or Interludes, 1577 ; by Stubbes in bis Anatomie of Abuses, 1583 ; in a black-letter ballad, in the Pepysian collection, occurs ” the Curtain at Holywell ;” and in an epigram by Heatb, 1610.
Sir H. Herbert’s office-book shows that in 1622 the Curtain was occupied by the servants of Prince Charles. Aubrey (1678) describes it as “a kind of nursery or obscure playhouse, called the Greene Curtain, situate in the suburbs towards Shoreditch.” After it was abandoned as a playhouse, prize-fighters exbibited here. Sir Henry Ellis (Hist. Shoreditch, 1798) quotes from the parish books several entries of the marriage, burial, &c, of players. Maitland (Hist. London, 1772) mentions some remains of the Curtain standing at or near his time. It is said to have occupied the site of the curtain close of the priory, and is conjectured to have been named from its being the first theatre to adopt that necessary appendage of the stage, the curtain.
The name survives in Curtain-road.
Drury-lane Theatre, between Drury-lane and Brydges-street, forms the east side of Little Russell-street. The first theatre here was built precisely upon this site for Thomas Killigrew, and opened April 8, 1663 ; the company being called ” the King’s Servants,” as Davenant’s were ” the Duke’s Servants,” both under patents granted by Charles II. in 1660. Drury-lane, ” the King’s Theatre,” had the chief entrance in Little Russell-street. Pepys’s Diary records many of his visits to ” the King’s House,” and other London theatres, from 1660-1670. ” The King’s House ” was burnt down Jan. 1671-72. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, and opened March 26, 1674, with a prologue and epilogue by Dryden. Mr. Collier has printed in the Shakspeare Society’s Papers, vol. iv. p. 147, an indenture showing Dryden to have been joined with Killigrew, Hart, Mohun, and others, in the speculation of this ” new playhouse.” In 1682 the King’s and Duke’s companies played here together.
Rich, Steele, Dogget, Wilks, Cibber, and Booth were successively patentees; and Garrick in 1747, when he opened the theatre, Sept. 15, with the well-known prologue written by Dr. Johnson, and commenced the revival of Shakspeare’s plays. On June 10, 1776, Garrick here took leave of the stage. Sheridan then became part-proprietor; and, in 1788, John Kemble manager. In 1791 the old theatre was taken down, rebuilt by Holland, and the new theatre opened March 12, 1794.
It was called by Mrs. Siddons ” The Wilderness.” The opening for the curtain was 43 feet wide and 38 feet high, or nearly seven times the height of the performers. There were seats for 3600 persons ; but upwards of 5000 persons are known to have been squeezed into this theatre.
It was burnt down Feb. 24, 1809. The present house, built by B. Wyatt, from the plan of the great Bordeaux theatre, was opened Oct. 12, 1812, with a prologue by Lord Byron. In 1818 the theatre was let, at 10,200Z. per annum, to Elliston, for whom Beazley reduced the auditory, added the Doric portico in Brydges-street, and the cast-iron colonnade in Little Russell-street in 1831. In the hall is a cast of Scheemakers’s statue of Shakspeare, and a statue of Edmund Kean by S. Joseph. The staircases and rotunda are magnificent, and the interior circular roof of the auditory is geometrically fine.
First Appearances. — Nell Gwynne, at “the King’s House,” 1666; Barton Booth, 1701 ; Mrs. Siddons, 1775; John P. Kemble, 1783; Harriet Mellon (Duchess of St. Albans), 1795; Edmund Kean, 1814. Here
Macready took leave of the stage, Feb. 26, 1851.
The first Drury-lane Theatre was sometimes called Covent Garden Theatre; and the late Mr. Richardson, the Coffee-house keeper, possessed a ticket inscribed, “For the Music at the Playhouse in Covent Garden, Tuesday, March 6, 1704.” — J. T. Smith.
Dorset-gardens Theatre was built at the extremity of Salisbury-court, Fleet-street, and had a handsome front and flight of stairs to the Thames. It was opened in 1671, under the management of Lady Davenant. Dryden, in his prologue to Marriage a-la-lfode, 1672, leaves contemptuously to the citizens ” the gay shows and gaudy scenes ” of Dorset-gardens. Here Shadwell’s operatic version of Shakspeare’s Tempest was produced with great splendour in 1673. After 1697 the theatre was let to wrestlers and fencers, but was taken down about 1720, and the site is now occupied by the City Gas-works. The theatre was designed hy Wren, and the sculpture by Gibbons, included figures of Comedy and Tragedy surmounting the balustrade.
Duke’s Theatre, “the Opera,” Lincoln’s-inn-fields. (See Portugal-street,p.6S7.)
Here, May 10, 1735, Macklin killed his brother-actor Hallam, by accident, in a quarrel.
Effingham Theatee (modern), in the rear of the Earl of Effingham Tavern, 235, Whitechapel-road, was, in part, taken down in 1867, and rebuilt to hold 4000 persons.
Fortune Theatre — named from its sign, ” The picture of Dame Fortune Before the Fortune playhouse” (Heywood) — was built for Philip Henslowe and William Alleyn, in 1599-1600, on the east side of
Golding-lane, without Cripplegate. It cost 1320?., and was opened May, 1601. It was a square timber and lath-and-plaster building, and was burnt Dec. 9, 1621 (Alleyn’s Diary) ; but was rebuilt on a circular plan, of brick, and tiled. The interior was burnt in 1649 — Prynne says by accident, but it was fired by sectarians. In the Mercurius Politicus, Feb. 14-21, 1661, the building, with the ground belonging, were advertised ” to be lett to be built upon •” and it is described as standing between ” Whitecross-street and Golen-lane,” the avenue now Playhouse-yard.
Garrick Theatre, Leman-street, Goodman’s Fields, was built in 1830, and named from its proximity to the scene of Garrick’s early fame. The theatre was burnt down November 4, 1846, when it belonged to Messrs. Conquest and Gomersall, the latter remembered for his impersonation of Napoleon Bonaparte. The theatre has been rebuilt.
Gibbon’s-court Theatre, Clare Market. (See p. 558.)
Goodman’s Fields Theatre was first opened as a silk-throwster’s shop, in 1729, by Thomas Odell, and was rebuilt by Henry Giflard ; both of whom were, however, compelled to close the theatre by the puritanical clamour raised against it. Giff.ird returned to Goodman’s Fields in 1737 ; and here, Oct. 19, 1741, David Garrick first appeared in London as Richard III. He drew an audience of the nobility and gentry, whose carriages filled the whole space from Temple Bar to Whitechapel. Gray, in a letter to Chute, writing respecting these performances, says, ” Did I tell you about Mr. Garrick, that the town are horn mad after ? There are a dozen dukes of a night in Goodman’s Fields sometimes.” The theatre was taken down about 1746. Garrick’s first appearance here arose from the proprietor being also manager of the Ipswich company, in which Garrick first appeared on the stage.
Grecian Theatre, adjoining the garden of the Eagle Tavern, City-road, was built by Thomas Rouse for regular dramatic entertainments. The establishment has been enlarged and improved by Mr. Conquest, the present proprietor : it has a spacious ball-room, elegantly decorated, open without extra charge ; and the garden is illuminated in the Vauxhall taste, with the advantages of gas-lighting, open-air orchestra, lights among the shrubs, &c.
Haymarket Theatre, the ” Little Theatre,” was originally built by one Potter, and opened Dec. 29, 1720, by “the French comedians:” it was first called “the New French Theatre.” In 1723 it was occupied by English actors ; 1726, Italian operas, rope-dancing, and tumblers, by subscription ; in 1727 the Beggar’s Opera was produced here ; 1731, gladiators and backswordsmen ; 1732, English opera upon the Italian model ; 1734-5, Fielding opened the theatre with ” the Great Mogul’s Company of Comedians,” for whom he wrote his Pasquin, the satire of which upon the Walpole administration gave rise to the Licensing Act (10th of Geo. II. cap. 28). In 1738 a French company reopened the theatre, but were driven from the stage the first night. In 1741, English operas were played here ; 1744, Samuel Foote first appeared here as Othello; 1747, Foote became manager, and continued so for thirty years, commencing with his own Entertainments. Jan. 16, 1748-9, the Bottle Conjuror hoax and riot. 1762, the Haymarket was established as a regular summer theatre.
1777, it became a Theatre Royal, when Foote sold his interest to George Colman for a life annuity of 1600?., and Foote died in the following October. In the green-room is a gilt clock, which belonged to Foote. Colman died in 1795, and was succeeded by his son, George Colman the younger, licenser of plays. Feb. 3, 1794, sixteen persons were trodden to death, or suffocated, in attempting to gain admission on a royal visit.
The ” Little Theatre ” was taken down in 1820 ; the present theatre was built, at a few feet distant, with a lofty Corinthian portico, by Nash, and opened July 14, 1821 : here was produced Paul Pry, with Liston, in 1825. In 1853, Mr. B. WelJster concluded here a lesseeship of 16 years ; the theatre was then let to Mr. Buckstone, who has rendered the Haymarket famous for its excellent performance of the legitimate drama ; and this while one of our great national theatres was devoted to Italian opera.
First Appearances. — Henderson, Bannister, Mathews, Elliston, Liston, and Young; Miss Fenton (Duchess of Bolton), Miss Farren (Countess of Derby) ; Edmund Kean, in ” little business,” 1806 ; Miss Paton (Lady W. Lennox). Here Macready gave his final performances.
Holborn Amphitheatre occupies the site of the Metropolitan Horse Bazaar, opposite the Inns of Court Hotel. Its length is 130 feet, width 68 feet from box to box. The private boxes form a semicircle in front of the house, a row of stalls, called the “Grand Balcony,” being ranged immediately before them on the same tier.
Above them is a gallery called the Amphitheatre. The performances are chiefly equestrian, and the ring is surrounded by pit-stalls.
Holboln Theatre, built 1866, nearly upon the site of Warwick House. (See p. 431.)
St. James’s Theatee, King-street, St. James’s, was designed by Beazley, for John Brabant, the singer, and cost 50,000/., independently of the site, which cost 8000/.
The facade is Roman, of the Middle Ages ; and the interior, by Crace, originally resembled the theatre of the Palace of Versailles. The St. James’s Theatre was opened in 1S35 ; and next year was produced here an operatic burletta written by Charles Dickens, the music by John Hullah. Here French plays are occasionally performed.
Lyceum Theatee, Wellington-street, Strand, was originally built by James Payne, architect, in 1765, as an academy (or lyceum) for a society of artists ; of whom, on the re-establishment of the Royal Academy, Garrick ’ bought the lease of the premises, to prevent their becoming a theatre. They were next purchased by Mr. Lingham, a breeches maker, in the Strand, and opened about 1790 for musical performances j in 1794 or 1795 Lingham leased the adjoining ground to Dr. Arnold, who built here a theatre, the licence for which was suppressed, and it was let for music, dancing, and horsemanship, exhibition of paintings, &c. : a foreigner gained a large fortune by showing here the first phantasmagoria seen in England; and here, in 1803-4, Winsor exhibited his experimental gas-lighting. In 1809, the theatre was enlarged by Mr. S. A. Arnold, and opened as the English Opera-house : it was rebuilt, in 1816, by Beazley ; was destroyed by fire, Feb. 16, 1830 j and again rebuilt by Beazley somewhat further west, the site of the former theatre being included in Wellington-street, then formed from the Strand northward. The new theatre cost 35,000/. ; it has an elegant Corinthian portico : it was opened with English opera, July 14, 1834 ; and was re-decorated in rich Italian taste, for Madame Vestris, in 1847. Here were given the best performances of the Keeleys; and the admirable Shakesperean and melodramatic impersonations of Mr. Charles Fechter.
Marionette Theatre, Adelaide-street, Strand, was originally the Adelaide Gallery, and was altered for the clever performances of Marionettes, or puppets, in 1852.
Marylebone Theatee, Church-street, Paddington, was built and opened in 1842, as ” a penny theatre :” it was enlarged in 1854, to hold 1200 persons.
Milton-steeet Theatre, see Grub-street, p. 782.
Newington Butts : here was a theatre built before the Globe at Bankside : it is mentioned in the Diary of Philip Henslowe, which shows that from June, 1594, the performances were jointly by the Lord Admiral’s men and the Lord Chamberlain’s men : here were acted Titus Andronicus, Samlet, and the Taming of a Shrew.
Nursery (the), in Golding-lane, was built by a patent of Charles II. as a school for the education of children for the stage :
“Near these a Nursery erects its head,
Where queens are formed, and future heroes bred,
Where unfledged actors learn to laugh and cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try,
And little Maximins the gods defy.” — Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe.
Bayes, in the Rehearsal, speaks of ” the service of the Nursery ;” and Pepys first went there 24th Feb. 1667-8. The house, with the royal arms and a figure of Charity, in plaster, on the front, existed to our time, and has been erroneously described as the Fortune Theatre. There was a similar Nursery in Hatton-garden, at which Joe Haynes, the dancer, performed.
Olympic Theatbe, Wych-street, was originally erected by Philip Astley, upon the site of old Craven House, and was opened with horsemanship, Sept. 18, 1806; it was principally built with the timbers of La Ville de Paris, the ship in which William IV. served as midshipman; these materials were given to Astley, with a chandelier, by George III. The theatre was leased in 1813 to Elliston, who removed thence to Drury-lane ; and subsequently to Madame Vestris, before she became lessee of Covent-garden ; both which changes were ruinous. The Olympic Theatre was destroyed by fire, within an hour, March 29, 1849 : it was rebuilt the same year, and opened Dec. 26. Here William Farren was sometime lessee.
First and last at the Olympic Theatre have appeared Elliston and Mrs. Edwin ; Oxberry and Power; Keeley and Fitzwilliam ; Charles Kean and Ellen Tree ; Madame Vestris, Mrs. Nesbitt (Lady Boothby),
Mrs. Keeley, and William Farren ; Charles Mathews first appeared here ; and Miss Foote (Countess of Harrington), Mrs. Orger, and Liston, last played here. In Craven-buildings, adjoining the theatre,
have resided “three favourite actresses, from the time of Dryden to our own — Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mrs. Pritchard, and Madame Vestris.”
Pantheon Theatbe, Oxford-street (see p. 639).
Pavilion Theatee, Whitechapel, one of the largest theatres in the metropolis, covers nearly an acre of ground : it is nearly 60 feet high, yet has but two tiers of boxes and one gallery ; depth and width, nearly 50 feet each ; decorations, dead- white, gold, and crimson.
Peincess’s Theatee, Oxford- street, originally built as the Queen’s Bazaar (see p. 41), was designed by Nelson, and opened Sept. 30, 1841, with promenade concerts. It cost 47,000Z. ; but the unique character of its Renaissance decoration, by Crace, has been spoiled : originally it consisted entirely of four tiers of boxes. This theatre, under the management of Mr. Charles Kean, became famous for his reproduction of Shakspeare’s historic plays, excellently acted, with scenic accessories hitherto unprecedented.
For these efforts to improve the tone, and elevate the character of our stage, Mr. Charles Kean was, in 1862, presented with a costly service of plate, by public subscription.
Queen’s Theatee (now the Pkince of Wales’s) Tottenham-street, Tottenham-court-road, was originally Francis Pasquali’s Concert-room, enlarged for the Concerts of Ancient Music by Novosielski, who built here a superb box for George III. and Queen Charlotte (Dr. Bimbault, Notes and Queries, No. 10). In 1802 Colonel Greville fitted it up for the performances of the ” Pic-nic Society,” a body of distinguished amateurs, whose celebrity rendered them objects of alarm to the professional actors of the day, and exposed them to the attacks of the caricaturist Gilray. In 1808 it was an equestrian establishment under the management of Saunders. Two years afterwards it was opened as a theatre, but Mr. Paul, the first manager, proved unsuccessful. About 1821, it passed into the hands of Mr. Brunton, whose daughter, afterwards so justly celebrated as Mrs. Yates, was one of its chief attractions. In the first bill issued by Mr. Paul, the first theatrical lessee, it is simply called the ” New Theatre, King’s Ancient Concert Rooms, Tottenham-street.” Afterwards it became the Regency, the Theatre of Variety, and the West London ; and on the accession of William IV. was designated the Queen’s, in compliment to Queen Adelaide. An attempt to render the theatre a sort of English opera-house was made in 1831 by Mr. Macfarren (father of the popular composer), and in 1833 it acquired a temporary brilliancy under the new name of the Fitzroy. Here the burlesques, chiefly written by Mr. Gilbert a, Beckett, gained considerable fame in their day ; and still more celebrated were Mr. H. Mayhew’s Wandering Minstrel, and his local drama of the Field of Forty Footsteps.
Here French plays were first performed after the Peace of 1815. Frederick Lemaitre appeared ; Mademoiselle George played in Voltaire’s tragedy Merope ; and M. Laporte, afterwards manager of Covent-garden and Her Majesty’s Theatres, was a principal comedian. In 1835 it was reopened by Mrs. Nesbitt, who formed a really powerful company, comprising the most noted comic performers of the time, and revived the name of the ” Queen’s.” It received its present designation under the management of Miss Marie Wilton. Here Young, the tragedian, first appeared on the stage, in 1807, at a private performance.
Queen’s Theatre, formerly St. Martin’s Hall, Long Acre, opened 1867.
Red Bull Theatre (the), upon the site of Red Bull-yard, St. John-street, Clerkenwell, was originally an inn-yard, but rebuilt about 1633 : here the King’s Company, under Killigrew, acted until Drury-lane was ready for them. During the Interregnum, “Drolls” were performed here, and afterwards published by Kirkman, one of the players, with a frontispiece of the interior of the theatre. (See Cleekenwell, p. 236.)
There is a well-compiled account of the Red Bull Theatre in Pinks’s History of Clerkenwell, pp. 190-196.
Sir William Davenant, to whom Charles I. granted a patent in 1639, continued recreation and music, after the manner of the ancients, at Rutland House, Bridgewater-square, and subsequently at the Cockpit, till the Restoration, when the few players who had not fallen in the wars or died of poverty assembled under Davenant at the Red Bull : the actors’ clothes were ” very poore, and the actors but common fellows.”— Pepys, 1661.
Royalty Theatre, Well-street, Wellclose-square (named from Goodman’s Field Wells, 1735), was built by subscription, and opened in 1787, when John Braham first appeared on the stage, as Cupid, and John Palmer was manager ; Lee Lewis, Bates, Holland, and Mrs. Gibbs, were also of the company. It was purchased about 1820 by Mr. Peter Moore, M.P. ; was burnt down April 11, 1826 j and upon the site was erected the Brunswick Theatre, noticed at p. 781.
Sadler’s Wells, the oldest theatre in London, is on the S.W. side of Islington, and named in part from a mineral spring, which was superstitiously dispensed by the monks of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, probably from the time of Henry I. or Stephen. In the reign of Charles II., one Sadler built here a music-house, and in 1683 re-discovered in the garden the well of ” excellent steel waters,” which in 1684 was visited and drunk by hundreds of persons every morning. Evelyn, on June 11, 1686, went to ” the New Spa Well, near Myddelton’s receptacle of water at the New River.” The entertainments were rope-dancing, tumbling, and gluttonous feats. The well, ceasing to attract, was covered over ; and in 1764 the old music-house (engraved in the Mirror, No. 971) was taken down, and the present theatre built by Rosoman.
King (of Drury-lane) was long a partner and stage-manager j and Charles Dibdin and his sons, Thomas and Charles, were proprietors. Grimaldi, father, son, and grandson, were famous clowns at this theatre ; and Belzoni was a posture-master here before he travelled to the East. In 1804 the New River water was introduced in a tank under the stage, where also is a mineral well ; but the old well is between the stage-door and the New River. Wine was sold and drunk on the premises until 1807 : under the old regulation, ” for an additional sixpence, every spectator was allowed a pint of either port, Lisbon, mountain, or punch.” But the more honourable distinction of Sadler’s Wells Theatre is its admirable representations of Elizabethan plays, under the management of Mr. Phelps, who has been efficiently succeeded by Miss Marriott.
Salisbury-court Theatre (see p. 349).
Sans Souci Theatre, Strand, was built by Dibdin, the song-writer, in the rear of his music-shop, and opened Feb. 16, 1793. Dibdin planned, painted, and decorated this theatre ; wrote the recitations and songs, composed the music, and sang and accompanied them on an organized pianoforte of his own invention. He built another Sans Souci theatre in Leicester-place.
Soho Theatre, now the New Royalty, was built for Frances Kelly, in 1840, as a school for acting, in the rear of No. 73, Dean-street. It will hold 600 persons.
Standard Theatre, Shoreditch, occupies the site of the former theatre, burnt Oct. 28, 1866, and is larger than any one in London, excepting the Italian Opera-house, Covent Garden. The main building is 149 feet long and 90 wide. The extreme height of the auditorium part is 84 feet, and that of the stage 94 feet, to give room for drawing up the scenery, which will not any of it be used from the sides. The stage from the footlights to the back is 61 feet, and the widest part of the horseshoe is 56 feet. All the passages and staircases are of stone, with iron rails.
The outlets are numerous, and the auditorium is lighted by five sun burners above a grouud-glass ceiling painted in oil.
Strand Theatee, No. 169, Strand, originally Barker’s Panorama, was altered in 1831 for Rayner, the low comedian, and Mrs. Waylett, the singer. Here were produced Douglas Jerrold’s early plays. The theatre has since become famous for its burlesques.
Subset Theatee, St. George’s-fields, was first built by Charles Hughes and Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, and was opened Nov. 4, 1782, as the Royal Circus, for equestrianism. John Palmer was acting manager in 1790, when he was living within the Rules of the King’s Bench .(See p. 702.) The theatre was destroyed by fire Aug. 12, 1805, but was rebuilt in 1806 by Cabanel, in Blackfriars-road. Among its lessees were Elliston and Thomas Dibdin. Here Buckstone first appeared. This theatre was destroyed by fire, Jan. 30, 1865, but was rebuilt upon an enlarged plan, and opened within eleven months.
” The Theatre” was built, in 1576, on the site of the Priory of St. John Baptist, at Holywell, Shoreditch ; and is conjectured by Malone to have been ” the first building erected in or near the metropolis purposely for scenic exhibitions :” it is noticed in John Stockwood’s sermon at Paul’s Cross, in 1578, as “the gorgeous playing-place erected in the fields.” It was a wooden building; and in the Star-Chamber records is proof that, in 1598, ” the Theatre” was taken down, and the wood removed to Bankside for rebuilding or enlarging the Globe Theatre.
Victoria Theatee, New Cut, Lambeth, was originally named “the Cobourg,” from the first stone having been laid by proxy for Prince Leopold of Saxe- Cobourg, Oct. 15, 1817 : it has in its foundation part of the stone of the old Savoy Palace.
The theatre was designed by Cabanel, a carpenter from Liege, who also constructed the stage of old Drury-lane Theatre, and invented a roof known by his name.
The Cobourg Theatre was first opened May 13, 1818 : for its repertoire, Clarkson Stanfield, subsequently R.A., painted scenery ; and here was constructed a looking-glass curtain, of large plates of glass, enclosed in a gilt frame. The house was leased to Egerton and Abbott in 1833, when the name was changed to ” Victoria,” and the Princess (her present Majesty) visited the theatre.
Whitefriars Theatre (the) was originally the hall of Whitefriars monastery, outside the garden-wall of Dorset House. From a survey in Mr. Collier’s possession, we learn that the theatre was fitted up in 1586 ; it was taken down in 1613. Howes, in his continuation of Stoic, describes, ” the erection of a new fair playhouse near the Whitefriars,” 1629 : this was ” the Private House in Salisburie-court.”
Opera Houses, Italian. — Her Majesty’s Theatee. — The first theatre for the performance of Italian operas in England was built by subscription, by Sir John Vanbrugh, at the south-west corner of the Haymarket, and was opened April 9, 1705 : but operas were not performed here wholly in Italian until 1710, when Almahide was produced ; and next year Handel’s Sinaldo, in Italian, and by Italian singers. On June 17, 1789, the theatre was burnt down; and upon the same site, enlarged, April 3, 1790, was laid the first stone of the present Opera House, designed by Novosielski, who introduced the horse-shoe form of auditory, from the Italian theatres. In 1820 the exterior was altered by Nash and Repton in the Roman-Doric style, as we now see it, fronted with arcade and colonnade : each of the iron columns is a single easting. The Haymarket front bears a basso-relievo, by Bubb, of lithargolite, or artificial stone, illustrating the progress of Music ; Apollo and the Muses occupying the centre. The interior, at the time of its erection, was larger than that of La Scala at Milan, or the Theatre Italien at Paris. The audience and stage ground are held on two distinct leases. The whole theatre is lined with thin wood in very long pieces, as the best conductor of sound. It was entirely re-decorated in the Raphaelesque and Roman style in 1846. Hora.ce Walpole’s box was No. 3, on the grand tier. There are 177 boxes, the freehold of some of which has been sold for 7000 and 8000 guineas : the season-rent is 300 guineas; a small box, fourth tier, has been let for one night at 12 guineas. When Mr. Lumley purchased the theatre in 1844, he realized 90,000£. by selling boxes in perpetuity. The house will accommodate about 3000 persons. The drop-scene was painted by Stanfield, R.A. The decorations, after ancient masters, are extremely beautiful. Here is a model of the theatre, 10 feet high. Part of the scenery is deposited at ” the Barn,” James-street, Haymarket.
The Italian Opera House ia the Haymarket has ever been a eostly speculation. Ill 1720 George I headed a subscription of 50,0002. for its support. Ebers lost 44,0S02. (see his Seven Years of the King’s Theatre, 1829). For two seasons he paid 15,0002. rent per annum. One season’s expenses : — Opera, 86362. ; ballet, 10,6782. ; orchestra, 32612. ; scene-painting and wardrobes (50,000 dresses), 53722. ; lighting, 12812.; salaries, 25782.; servants, 4032. ; military guard at the doors, 1502.; fittings of the king’s box, in 1821, 3002. ; nightly expenses from 7002. to 10002. The largest receipts were in the seasons when Jenny Lind sang. Her Majesty’s is stated to be the only theatre which has no lease. It claims the exclusive right to produce foreign operas, from a deed made in 1792, covenanting that “the patents of Drury Lane and Covent Garden shall never be exercised for the purpose of Italian operas.” See an able account of Her Majesty’s Theatre, by Shirley Brooks, Morning Chronicle, March 20, 1851. Mr. Lumley’s greatest seasons were those in which Mile. Jenny Lind gave her matchless performances in opera.
Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden Theatre, was opened April 6, 1847, with Semiramide (Grisi), and M. Costa as musical director. The originator of this second Italian Opera House was Mr. C. L. Griineisen, with Mr. T. F. Beale as director. In the seasons of 1848 and 1849 were expended 60,0002″. ; and the salaries of Alboni, Viardot, Grisi, and Mario, were between 4000Z. and 50002″. each. (See p. 782.)
The Act 6th and 7th of Victoria, cap. 68 (1843), which is the most important of all, authorizes the Lord Chamberlain to license houses for stage-plays in London, Westminster, Brighton, and New
Windsor, and wherever the precincts of the Court may for a time be ; also authorizes justices of the peace to license houses beyond the Lord Chamberlain’s jurisdiction : also authorizes the Lord Chamberlain to license stage-plays throughout Great Britain. This Act was looked upon at the time as a most liberal measure. It abolished the privileges of the patents, and allowed the Lord Chamberlain to license within certain districts as many theatres as he pleased, all endowed with equal rights, thus depriving the expression “minor theatre” of its distinctive signification.
The number of London Theatres licensed by the Lord Chamberlain for the performance of any kind of drama whatever in 1866 was 23. Of these we give a list, together with the number of persons which each will contain, extracted from one of the statements laid before Parliament : —
Her Majesty’s 2200
Drury-lane 2500
Covent-garden 2500
Haymarket 1500
Princess’s 2000
St. James’s ….. 1000
Adelphi 1800
Lyceum 1700
Marylebone 1200
Olympic 1000
Strand 700
Astley’s 2200
Victoria 2000
Surrey 2000
Pavilion 2300
Grecian 2000
Britannia 2400
City of London …. 1400
Standard 2000
Garrick 1100
New Royalty 600
Queen’s 900
Sadler’s Wells …. 1300
Besides 3 theatres since opened, and 23 theatres, containing . 38,300
THREADNEEDLE-STREET
OR Three- Needle-street (Stow), originally extended from Bishopsgate-street to Stocks Market, but now terminates at the Bank of England. The name is from three needles, the charge on the shield of the Needlemakers’ Company’s arms ; but Pennant traces the final cause to the Hall of the Merchant-Taylors, Taylors, and Linen-arm our era in this street. Hatton refers it to “such a sign.” (See Meechant-Tailoes’ Hall, South-Sea House, and Hall op Commeece.) Upon part of the site of the latter lived Sir William Sidney, one of the heroes of Flodden Field ; and his son, Sir Henry Sidney, in whose arms died Edward VI. Sir Henry then retired to Penshurst, where was born, in 1554, his son, the famed Sir Philip Sidney. Upon the site of the present chief entrance to the Bank of England, in Threadneedle-street, stood the Crown Tavern, ” behind the ’Change :” it was much frequented by Fellows of the Royal Society, when they met at Gresham College, hard by. The Crown was burnt in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt ; and a century since, at this tavern, ” it was not unusual to draw a butt of mountain, containing 120 gallons, in gills, in a morning.” (Sir John Hawkins.’) At No. 20 lived Alderman (now Sir Francis Graham) Moon, F.S.A., the eminent print-publisher : he was Lord-Mayor in 1854-5, when he received his patent of baronetcy.
TOKENS.
IN the reign of Elizabeth (1558), the great want of halfpence and farthings led to private Tokens, or farthings, of lead, tin, latten, and leather, being struck for ale-house-keepers, chandlers, grocers, vintners, and other traders; the figure and devices being emblematical of the various trades, victuallers especially adopting their signs.
They were made without any form or fashion ; and some of them (as the leaden tokens of Elizabeth’s reign) are now of extreme rarity. Every one issuing this useful specie was compelled to take it again when offered; and this practice continued until 1672, when Charles II. struck halfpence and farthings. Within the present century, however, many tokens obtained general circulation in London, by which means tradesmen advertised their business : such tokens also recorded great events, portraits of public men, views of places and of entertainments, which might otherwise have been lost. They mostly disappeared on Watt’s new copper coinage of George III. The great national collection of tokens in the British Museum is the finest we possess. Mr. Roach Smith’s collection, now in the British Museum, contains about 500 mediaeval leaden tokens, and many tradesmen’s tokens in brass, from about 1648 to 1674. (See Catalogue, 1854.) The Beaufoy Cabinet, presented to the Corporation Library, consists exclusively of London traders’, tavern, and coffee-house Tokens current in the 17th century, 1174 in number : they are well described and annotated in a Catalogue by Jacob Henry Burn, printed for the Corporation, 1853 ; and reprinted 1855. See also the work on Tradesmen’s Tokens current in London, 1648 to 1672, by J. Y. Akerman,
F.S.A., 4to, 1849.
Tokenhouse-yard, on the north side of Lothbury, is named from the Mint-house, or office for the issue and change of these farthings or tokens : it was built in the reign of Charles L, and occupied the site of the house and garden of the Earl of Arundel ; and from its proximity to the brassfounders of Lothbury, they are thought to have minted the Tokens.
TOTTENHAM-COURT-ROAD,
FROM Oxford-street to the Hampstead-road, was the old way from the village of St. Giles’s to the prebendal manor of Totham, Toten, or Totten Hall (named in Domesday), and temp. Henry III. the mansion of William de Totenhall. It stood at the north-west extremity of the present road, and is mentioned as a house of entertainment in the parish-books of St. Giles’s, in 1645, when Mrs. Stacye’s maid and two others were fined “for drinking at Tottenhall Court, on the Sabbath daie, xijrf. a-piece.” It was then altered to the Adam and Eve public-house, which, with the King’s Head and Tottenham Court turnpike, is shown in Hogarth’s ” March to Finchley,” at the Foundling Hospital. At the Adam and Eve were a music-room and tea-gardens; here Lunardi ascended in his balloon, May 16, 1785. A portion of the old court-house remained to our time ; the gardens were built upon between 1806 and 1810, and the public-house has been rebuilt. J. T. Smith, in his Book for a Rainy Lay, remembers, in 1773, Capper’s Farm, behind the north-west end of Russell-street, noted for its garden-houses in Strype’s time. From Capper’s Farm were straggling houses, but Tottenham-Court-road was then ” unbuilt upon.” The first house (No. 1) in Oxford-street bore on its front, cut in stone, ” Oxford-street, 1725.” The Blue Posts, corner of Hanway-street, was once kept by Sturges, the famous draught-player, author of a Treatise on Lraughts. The site of Gresse-street (named from Gresse, the painter) was then gardens, recommended by physicians for the salubrity of the air. Stephen-street was then built : George Morland the painter, lived here, at No. 14, in 1780.
Whitefield’s chapel was built in 1754, upon the site of ” the Little Sea” pond; and a turnstile opened into Crab-tree Fields, which then extended to the Adam and Eve.
“Totten-Court, a mansion in the fields,” is a scene in Ben Jonson’s Tale of a Tub : and the scene of Thomas Nash’s Tottenham- Court, a pleasant comedy (1639), is laid in “Marrowbone Park.”
TOWER HILL
IS described by Hatton (1708) as ” a spacious place extending round the west and north parts of the Tower, where are many good new buildings, mostly inhabited by gentry and merchants. Upon this hill such persons as are committed to the Tower and found guilty of high treason are commonly executed. And Stow says ” the scaffolds were built at the charge of the City, but in the reign of Edward IV. the same was erected at the charge of the King’s officers ; and that many controversies have been between the City and Lieutenant of the Tower touching their liberties.” A century previous the spot was noted for its salubrity :
” The Tower Hill,
Of all the places London can afford,
Hath sweetest ayre.” — Haughton’s Englishmen for my Money, 1616, 4to.
The ” bounds ” of the Tower Liberties are perambulated triennially, when, after service in the church of St. Peter, a procession is formed upon the parade : including a headsman, bearing the axe of execution ; a painter to mark the bounds ; yeomen warders, with halbards ; the Deputy Lieutenant and other officers of the Tower, &c. : the boundary-stations are painted with a red ” broad arrow ” upon a white ground, while the chaplain of St. Peter’s repeats, ” Cursed be he who removeth his neighbour’s landmark.” Another old custom of lighting a bonfire on Tower Hill on Nov. 5th was suppressed in 1854.
Lady Raleigh lived on Tower Hill after she had been forbidden to lodge with her husband in the Tower. William Penn was born April 14th, 1644, in a court on the east side of Tower Hill. At the Bull public-house died, April 14th, 1685, Otway the poet, it is said of hunger. ” In a by cutler’s shop of Tower Hill,” says Sir Henry Wotton, ” Felton bought a tenpenny knife (so cheap was the instrument of this great attempt),” with which he assassinated the Duke of Buckingham.
Postern-row, with a few posts set across the footpath (opposite about the middle of the Tower moat), denotes the site of the Postern-gate, at the south-eastern termination of the City Wall. Here is the rendezvous for enlisting sailors and soldiers, which formerly had its press-gangs. The shops display odd admixtures of marine stores, pea-jackets and straw-hats, ” rope, hour-glasses, Guuter’s scales, and dog-biscuits.”
The Place of Execution, on Great Tower Hill, is shown in the old plan of the Tower at p. 7 1)3; the space eastward is Little Tower Hill.
Notable Persons Executed on Tower Sill. — June 22, 1535, Bishop Fisher. July 6, 1535, Sir Thomas More. July 28, 1540, Cromwell, Earl of Essex. Jan. 21, 1547, Earl of Surrey, the poet. March 20, 1549, Thomas Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord Admiral, by order of his brother, the Protector Somerset, who was beheaded Jan. 22, 1552. Feb. 12, 1553-4, Lord Guildford Dudley, husband of Lady Jane Grey. April 11, 1554, Sir Thomas Wyat. May 12, 1641, Earl of Strafford. Jan. 10, 1644-5, Archbishop Laud. Dec. 29, 1680, William Viscount Stafford, ” insisting on his innocence to the very last.” Dec. 7, 1683, Algernon Sidney. July 15, 1685, the Duke of Monmouth. Feb. 24, 1716, Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Kenmuir. Aug. 18, 1746, Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino. Dec. 8, 1746, Mr. Radcliffe, who had been, with his brother Lord Derwentwater, convicted of treason in the Rebellion of 1715, when Derwentwater was executed ; but Radcliffe escaped, and was identified by the barber who, 31 years before, had shaved him in the Tower. Chamberlain Clark, who died in 1831, aged 92 years, well remembered (his father then residing in the Minories) seeing the glittering of the executioner’s axe in the sun as it fell upon Mr. Radcliffe’s neck. April 9, 1747, Simon Lord Lovat, the last beheading in England, and the last execution upon Tower Hill, when a scaffolding built near Barking-alley fell with nearly 1000 persons on it, and 12 were killed.
On the west side of Tower Hill is Great Tower-street : No. 48, on the south side, is the Czar’s Head, built upon the site of the former tavern, where Peter the Great (Czar of Muscovy) and his companions, after their day’s work, used to meet, to smoke pipes and drink beer and brandy. In Little Tower-street, No. 12, was Watts’s Academy, where Thomson was tutor when he wrote his Summer.
At the south-west corner of the Hill is Tower Dock, where Sir Walter Raleigh, disguised, embarked in a boat for Tilbury ; but being betrayed, he was arrested on the Thames, and committed to the Tower.
TOWER OF LONDON, THE,
” THE citadel to defend or command the City” (Stow), stands on the north bank of the Thames, about a mile below London Bridge, and in the oldest part of the metropolis ” between the south-east end of the City Wall and the river, though the west part is supposed within the City,* but with some uncertainty ; and in what county the whole stands is not easy discovered.” (Hatton, 1708.) It comprises within the walls an area of 12 acres 5 roods. Tradition has assigned its origin to Julius Caesar, and our early poets have adopted this antiquity.
This, however, is unsupported by records ; but that the Romans had a fortress here in a subsequent age is probable, from the discovery of Roman remains upon the site ; and a Roman wall is still visible near the ditch. The Saxon Chronicle leads to the belief of there having been a Saxon fortress upon the spot.
The oldest portion of the present fortress is the Keep, or White Tower, so named from its having been originally whitewashed, as appears from a Latin document of the year 1241. This tower was built about 1078, for William the Conqueror, by Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, who also erected Rochester Castle; and the two fortresses have points of resemblance. William Rufus greatly added to the Tower. At the close of his reign was sent here the first prisoner, Ralph Flambard, or Firebrand, who contrived to escape by a window which is shown. Henry I. strengthened the fortress ; and Stephen, in 1140, kept his court here.
Fitzstephen describes it as “the Tower Palatine, very large and very strong, whose court and walls rise up from a deep foundation. The mortar is tempered with the blood of beasts. On the west are two castles, well fenced.”
About 1190, the Regent Bishop Longchamp surrounded the fortress with an embattled stone wall and ” a broade and deepe ditch :” for breaking down part of the City wall he was deposed, and besieged in the Tower, but surrendered after one night.
King John held his court here. Henry III. strengthened the White Tower, and founded the Lion Tower and other western bulwarks ; and in this reign the palace-fortress was alternately held by the king and the insurgent barons. Edward I. enlarged the moat, and on the west made the last additions of military importance prior to the invention of cannon. Edward II. retired here against his subjects ; and here was born his eldest daughter, Joan of the Tower. Edward III. imprisoned here many illustrious persons, including David king of Scotland, and John king of France with Philip bis son.* During the insurrection of Wat Tyler, King Richard II. took refuge here, with his court and nobles, 600 persons : Richard was deposed whilst imprisoned here, in 1399. Edward IV. kept a magnificent court here. In 1460 Lord Scales was besieged here by the Yorkists, and was taken and slain in endeavouring to escape by water. Henry VI., twice imprisoned in the fortress, died here in 1471 ; but the tradition that George Duke of Clarence was drowned here in 1478, in a butt of malmsey-wine, is of little worth. The beheading of Lord Hastings, in 1483, by order of the Protector Gloucester (on a log of timber in front of the Chapel) ; the seizure of the crown by Richard ; and the supposed murder of his nephews, Edward V. and the Duke of York, — are the next events in the annals of the fortress. Henry VII. frequently resided in the Tower, where also his queen sought refuge from ” the society of her sullen and cold-hearted husband :” the king held a splendid tournament here in 1501 his queen died here in 1503. Henry VIII. often held his court in this fortress : here in great pomp, Henry received all his wives previous to their espousals ; here were beheaded his queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. About this time (1548) occurred a great fire in the Tower :
“Jj A° (Edw. VI.) Item the xxij day of November was in the nyghte a grete fyer in the tower of
London, and a gret pesse burnyd, by menes of a Freneheman that sette a barrelle of gonnepoder a fyere,
and soo was burnyd hymselfe, and no more persons, but moch hurte besyde.”— Chron. Grey Friars of
London.
Edward VI. kept his court in the Tower prior to his coronation : here his uncle, the Protector Somerset, was twice imprisoned before his decapitation on Tower Hill, in 1552. Lady Jane Grey entered the fortress as queen of England, but in three weeks became here a captive with her youthful husband : both were beheaded. Queen Mary, at her court in the Tower, first showed her Romish resolves : her sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was imprisoned here on suspicion of favouring Sir Thomas Wyat’s design ; she was compelled to enter at the Traitors’ Gate, when she exclaimed, ” Here landeth as true a subject, being a prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs j and before Thee, O God, I speak it.” Queen Elizabeth did not keep her court in the Tower, but at no period was the state prison more ” constantly thronged with delinquents.” James I. resided here, and delighted in combats of the wild beasts kept here. In Charles I.’s reign many leading partisans were imprisoned here ; and under the government of Oliver Cromwell, and in the reigns of Charles II. and James II., the Tower was filled with prisoners, the victims of state policy, intrigue, tyranny, or crime. The Courts of Justice, the King’s Bench and Common Pleas were held here ; the former in the Lesser Hall, beneath the east turret of the “White Tower j the latter in the Great Hall, by the river. Almost from the Conquest, our sovereigns, at their coronations, went in great state and procession from the Tower, through the City, to Westminster; the last observance being at the coronation of Charles II. All the domestic apartments of the ancient palace within the Tower were taken down during the reigns of James II. and William and Mary. In 1792 the garrison was increased.
The Tower Palace occupied the south-eastern portion of the inner ward, as shown in the plan of the fortress in the reign of Elizabeth, within a century from which period much of its ancient haracter was obliterated by small buildings between its towers and courts. Northward of the White Tower was built, temp. James II. and William III., the Grand Storehouse for the Royal Train of Artillery, and the Small Armoury for 150,000 stand of arms : this building, 345 feet in length, was destroyed by fire October 30, 1841 ;• since which the Tower has been ” remodelled,” many small dwelling-houses have been cleared away, and several towers and defences have been rebuilt. The houses of Petty Wales and the outworks have been removed, with the Menagerie buildings at the entrance from the west.
The Lion Tower was built by Henry III., who commenced assembling here a menagerie with three leopards sent to him by the Emperor Frederic II., “in token of his regal shield of arms, wherein those leopards were pictured.” Here, in 1255, the Sheriffs built a house ” for the King’s elephant,” brought from France, and the first seen in England. Our early sovereigns had also a mews in the Tower :
“Merry Margaret, as Midsomer flowre,
Gentyll as i’aucon and hawke of the Towre.” — Skelton.
To the Lion Tower was built a semicircular enclosure, where lions and bears were baited with dogs, in which James I. and his court much delighted. A lion was named after the reigning king ; and it was popularly believed that ” when the king dies, the lion of that name dies after him” (see also Addison’s Freeholder, No. 47). ” Washing the Lions on the first of April” was another popular hoax. The menagerie greatly declined until 1822, when it revived under the management of Mr. Cops ; the last of the animals were, however, transferred to the Zoological Society’s Gardens, in the Regent’s Park, in 1834 : but the buildings were not entirely removed until 1853 ; the Refreshment-room and ticket- office occupy part of the site of the Lion Tower. See The Tower Menagerie, with woodcut portraits drawn by Harvey.
The Tower Moat or Litch was drained in 1843, filled up, and turfed, for the exercise of the garrison : occasionally sheep feed here. The banks are clothed with thriving evergreens ; and en the north-east is a pleasant shrubbery-garden.
” In draining the moat were found several stone shot, which had probably been projected against tho fortress during the siege of 1460, when Lord Scales held the Tower for the king, and the Yorkists cannonaded him from a battery on the Southwark side of the river.” — Hewitt ’s Tower and its Armouries.
The land entrance to the fortress is by the Middle Tower, and a stone bridge, anciently a drawbridge, crossing the Moat, at the south-west angle, to the Byword Tower : these towers were strongly fortified, and provided each with a double portcullis.
On the right, a small drawbridge crosses the Moat, and leads to the wharf fronting the Thames. Here is St. Thomas’s Tower : Ings, the Cato-street conspirator, was the last person confined in this Tower. Beneath it is Traitors’ Gate, with a cut which until lately connected the ditch with the river : by this entrance state prisoners were formerly brought into the Tower ; and through it
” Went Sidney, Russell, Ealeigh, Cranmer, More.” — Rogers.
“When it was found necessary, from any cause, to carry a prisoner through the streets, the Sheriffs received him from the king’s lieutenants at the entrance to the City, gave a receipt for him, and took another on delivering him up at the gates of the Tower. The receipt of the Governor for the body of the Duke of Monmouth— his living body— is still extant.”— Dixon’s Prisons of London, 1850.
Traitors’ Gate is now a modernized sham. Eastward is the basement-story of the Cradle Tower, in good condition ; the Well Tower is used as a warder’s residence.
There were 94,500 stands of arms, of which 4000 were saved : loss by the fire, about 250,000. Among the objects destroyed and lost were a cannon of wood, and the state swords of Justice and Mercy carried before the Pretender when he was proclaimed in Scotland in 1715.
In 1830 the Tower Ditch was filled with water, and cleansed, by order of the Duke of Wellington, as Constable ; which measure was gravely described at the time as putting the fortress into a state of security against the Reform Bill agitation
The front wall is embattled, and mounted with cannon ; and on the wharf were formerly fired the ” Tower Guns.” Hatton describes them, in 1708, as ” 62 guns, lying in a range, fast in the ground, always ready to be discharged on any occasion of victories, coronations, festivals, days of thanksgiving, triumphs, &c.” The guns are now fired from a new ” Saluting Battery,” facing Tower-hill.
Between the outer and inner wards extends a narrow street, in part formerly occupied by the buildings of the Mint, removed to Tower Hill in 1810. The towers of the inner ward are — commencing from the south-east, the Bell Tower, containing the alarm-bell of the garrison ; it is said to have been the prison-lodging of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and subsequently of the Princess Elizabeth: “at this point, in former times, were other gates, to prevent an enemy getting possession of the lines, and to guard the approaches to the inner ballium.” — Hewitt.
Between the Bell Tower and the Beauchamp Tower was formerly a passage by the leads, used as a promenade for prisoners, of whom the walls bear memorials ; among them is ” Respice Jinem, W. D.” Next, northward, is the Beauchamp or Cobham Tower, a curious specimen of the military architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries.
This tower is named from Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, being confined here in 1397, and the Cobhams in 1551. It was restored by Anthony Salvin in 1854; when lithographed copies of the Inscriptions, Memorials, and Devices cut on the walls of the rooms and cells, were published by W. R. Dick.
It is much to be regretted that these records in stone have been removed from their original places into the large room.
Upon the wall is a rebus of Dr. Abel, chaplain to Catherine of Aragon ; a bell inscribed TA, and Thomas above. Couplets, maxims, allegories, and spiritual truths are sometimes added : of these we can only select a few :
” Thomas Willyngar, goldsmithe. My hart is yours tel dethe.” By the side is a figure of a bleeding “” hart,” and another of ” dethe ;” and ” T. W.” and ” P. A.” ” Thomas Rose,
Within this Tower strong
Kept close
By those to whom he did no wrong. May 8th, 1666.”
The figure of a man, praying, underneath ” Ro. Bainbridge” (1587-8).
“Thomas Bawdewin, 1584, Jvly. As vertve maketh life, so sin cawseth death.”
¦ Walter Paslew, dated 1569 & 1570. My hope is in Christ.” Devices of the Peverels ; and crucifix and bleeding heart. ” J. C. 1538.” ” Learne to feare God.” *’ Reprcns . le . sage . et . il . te armera. —
Take wisdom, and he shall arm you.”
Over the fireplace is inscribed :
” Quanto plus afflictionis pro Christo in hoc saeculo,
Tanto plus gloria? cum Christo in futuro.
Arundell, June 22, 1587.”
” Gloria et honore eum coronasti Domine :
In meraoria aetemaerit Justus. Atuch …..”
One of the most elaborate devices is that of John Dvdle, Earl of Warwick, tried and condemned in 1553 for endeavouring to deprive Mary of the crown ; but being reprieved, he died in his prison-room, where he had wrought upon the wall his family’s cognizance, the lion, and bear and ragged staff, underneath which is his name ; the whole surrounded by oak-sprigs, roses, geraniums, honeysuckles, emblematic of the Christian names of his four brothers, as appears from this inscription :
“Yow that these beasts do wel behold and se,
May deme with ease wherefore here made they bo
Withe borders eke wherein (there may be found)
4 brothers’ names, who list to serche the grovnd.”
The names of the four brothers were Ambrose, Robert, Guildford, and Henry : thus, A, acorn ; R, rose ; G, geranium ; H, honeysuckle : others think the rose indicates Ambrose, and the oak Robert (robur). In another part is carved an oak-tree bearing acorns, signed R.D. j the work of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
” I h s 1571, die 10 Aprilis. Wise men ought circumspectly to see what they do, to examine before they speake, to prove before they take in hand, to beware whose company they use, and above all things, to whom they truste. Charles Bailly.” Another of Bailly’s apophthegms is : ” The most unhapy man in the world is he that is not paoient in adversities; for men are not killed with the adversities they .have, but with ye impacience which they suffer.”
” O . Lord . whic . art . of . heavn . King . Graunt . gras . and . lyfe . evcrlaatig . to . Miagh . thy . servant . in . prison . alon . with * * * * Thomas Miagh.” Again :
“Thomas Miagh, whiche lieth here alon,
That fayne wovld from hens be gon,
By tortyre straunge mi troth was
tryed, yet of my libertie denied. 1581, Thomas Myagh.”
(A prisoner for treason, tortured with Skeffington’s irons and the rack.)
” Hit is the poynt of a wyse man to try and then trvste, for hapy is he whome fyudeth one that is
ivst. T. C.” Again : ” T. C. I leve in hope and I gave credit to mi frinde in time did stande me mosto
in hande, so wovlde I never do againe, exeepte I hade him sver in bande, and to al men wiche I so vnles,
ye svssteine the leke lose as I do. Vnhappie is that mane whose actes doth procvre the miseri of this
hovs in prison to indvre. 1576, Thomas Clarke.”
In the State Prison Room occurs twice the name of ” jane” (Lady Jane Grey), probably inscribed by one of the Dudleys, who were all imprisoned here in 1553, and one of whom, Guildford, was the lady’s husband : this is the only memorial preserved of Lady Jane in the Tower. Wallace, the Scottish hero, is erroneously named among the prisoners here ; for Wallace was not confined in any part of the Tower, as proved in a paper by Mr. W. Sydney Gibson, F.S.A., Notes and Queries, No. 213, p. 509.
The memorial of Thomas Salmon, 1622, now let into the wall of the middle room, was formerly in the upper prison-lodging : A shield surrounded by a circle ; above the circle the name “T. Salmon ;” a crest formed of three salmons, and the date 1622; underneath the circle the motto Nee temere, nee timore — “Neither rashly nor with fear.” Also a star containing the abbreviation of Christ, in Greek, surrounded by the sentence, Sic vive vt vivas — ” So live that thou mayest live.” In the opposite corner are the words, Et morire ne morieris — “And die that thou mayest die not.” Surrounding a representation of Death’s head, above the device, is the enumeration of Salmon’s confinement : ” Close prisoner 8 moneths, 32 wekes, 224 dayes, 6376 houres.”
On the ground-floor is incised :
“The man whom this house can not mend,
Hath evill becom, and worse will end.”
Round this (Beauchamp) chamber a secret passage has recently been discovered in the masonry, in which spies were, no doubt, set to listen, and report the conversation or soliloquies of prisoners, when they, poor souls, believed themselves alone. The men who live in the Tower have christened this passage the Whispering Gallery.” — Dixon’s Prisons, 1850, p. 70.
Raleigh was thrice imprisoned in the Tower ; in 1592 (eight weeks), for winning the heart of Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of Elizabeth’s maids of honour ; ” not only a moral sin, but in those days a heinous political offence.” In 1604 he was again committed to the Tower, and in the frenzy of despair attempted to stab himself to the heart ; he remained here a captive nearly thirteen years, part of the time with Lady Raleigh : here, 1605, was born Carew, their second son. Sir Walter’s prison-lodging is thought to have been the second and third stories of the Beauchamp Tower ; here he devoted much time to chemistry and pharmaceutical preparations. ” He has converted,” says Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower, “a little hen-house in the garden into a still-house, and here he doth spend his time all the day in distillations ; … he doth show himself upon the wall in his garden to the view of the people :” here Raleigh prepared his ” rare cordial,”* wrote his political discourses, and commenced his famous History of the World. He was at length liberated, but again committed to the Tower, about two months before his execution at Westminster.
Raleigh’s constant study was in the pages of that Divine book, by which, as he told the clergyman who rebuked him for his seeming lightness, on the eve of his beheadal, he had prepared himself to look fearlessly on death. His last hours were each an episode, and his acts and words have been carefully recorded. On the morning of his execution, his keeper brought a cup of sack to him, and inquired how he was pleased with it? ” As well as he who drank of St. Giles’s bowl as he rode to Tyburne,” answered the knight, and said, ” it was a good drink, if a man might but tarry by it.”
” Prithee, never fear, Beeston,” cried he to his old friend Sir Hugh, who was repulsed from the scaffold by the sheriff, ” I shall have a place !” A bald man, from extreme age, pressed forward “to see him,” he said, “and pray God for him.” Raleigh took a richly-embroidered cap from his own head, and placing it on that of the old man, said, ” Take this, good friend, to remember me, for you have more need of it than I.” ” Farewell, my lords,” was his cheerful parting to a courtly group, who affectionately took their sad leave of him, ” I hare a long journey before me, and I must e’en say good-bye.” ” Now I am going to God,” said that heroic spirit, as he trod the scaffold ; and, gently touching the axe, added, ,’ This is a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases.” The very headsman shrank from beheading Raleigh’s one so illustrious and brave, until the unquailing soldier addressed him, ” What dost thou fear ? Strike, man !” In another moment, the mighty soul had fled from its mangled tenement.
Raleigh’s shifting imprisonments must have been very irksome. Thus, in 1603, ” In the course of a few months Raleigh was first confined in his own house, then conveyed to the Tower, next sent to Winchester Gaol, returned from thence to the Tower, imprisoned for between two and three months in the Fleet, and again removed to the Tower, where he remained until released thirteen years afterwards, to undertake his new expedition to Guiana.” (Mr. J. Payne Collier; ArchiBologia, vol. xxxv. p. 218.) Mr. Collier possesses a copy of that rare tract, ” A Good Speed to Virginia,” 4to. 1609, with the autograph on the title-page, ” VV”. Ralegh, Turr. Loud. ;” showing that at the time this tract was published, and read by Raleigh, he recorded himself as a prisoner in the Tower of London.
We learn from the Memorials of the Tower, by Lord De Ros, the Lieutenant-Governor, that the late Prince Consort interested himself to preserve the remains of the original building, and caused it to be declared that “no edifice within the Tower walls should be built, altered, or restored until the plans and elevations should have been submitted for the Queen’s personal approval.”
North of the Beauchamp Tower is the Devereux Tower, which has been rebuilt tinder the direction of the Ordnance. The original tower, with walls 11 feet thick, was the prison-lodging of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex ; in the lower chambers were passages leading to the adjoining Chapel oe St. Petee, described at p. 198.
Eastward are the Flint, Bowyer, and Brick Towers, which have also been rebuilt by the Ordnance. In the Bowyer Tower resided the Master and Provider of the King’s Bows ; and in a work-room over this tower originated the fire which destroyed the Grand Storehouse in 1841 : the basement, strongly groined and vaulted, has been restored. Beneath the floor is a still more dreary vault, with a trap-door opening upon a flight of steps. The Brick Tower, the reputed prison-house of Lady Jane Grey, had its modernized superstructure destroyed in the fire of 1841 ; but the original basement and a dungeon beneath remained.
The Martin Tower, at the north-east angle, was formerly a prison-lodging, and next the Jewel Tower. Anne Boleyn was imprisoned here : on the walls is a coat-of-arms and ” Boullen :” she slept in the little upper room. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Lord Southampton (Shakspeare’s friend), were also prisoners in the Martin Tower ; and here were confined, by James II., Archbishop Sancroft and the six bishops. The Keeper of the Regalia resides here. Thence, southward, is the Constable Tower, rebuilt by the Ordnance. Next is the Broad Arrow Tower, in its original condition : Lady Jane Grey was a prisoner here : the Latin couplet which Fox states Jane scratched with a pin upon the walls of her chamber, can nowhere be found. The Salt(petre) Tower is called ” Julius Csesar Tower ” in a survey temp. Henry VIII., and is supposed to be actually of the reign of William Rufus. It is circular, and has a vaulted dungeon : in the first-story chamber, among the devices and inscriptions cut in the wall, is a sphere with the signs of the zodiac, and
“Hew : Draper : of: Bristow : made : thys : spheer : the : 30 : daye : of: Maye : anno 1561.”
Draper was a wealthy tavern-keeper at Bristol, and was committed here “as suspect of a conjuror or sorceror,” practising against “Sir William St. Lowe and my ladie;”
but he affirmed that ” longe since he soe misliked his science, that he burned all his books.” A view of the Salt Tower, taken in 1846, is etched in Archer’s Vestiges, part iii. : it has been restored by Salvin.
Next the Salt Tower, westward, was the Lantern Tower, removed for the Ordnance Office, greatly heightened in 1854. Further west is the Record Tower, also called Wakefield, from the imprisonment of the Yorkists here after the battle of Wakefield, 1460 : this was also anciently the Sail Tower, from its proximity to the great hall of the palace : the basement is Norman, probably of the reign of William Rufus ; the walls are 13 feet thick. The upper chamber has been a Record-room since the reign of Henry VIII. : here are the carta antiquce and chancery rolls, chronologically ranged in presses. Opposite the chamber in which Henry VI. is supposed to have been murdered, is the Record-keeper’s room, where hang some of the Keepers’ portraits : William Lambarde, the topographer ; the learned Selden ; the Puritan, William Prynne ; and William Petyt, Samuel Lysons, and Henry Petrie, were distinguished Record-keepers. The Octagon is ” Edward the Confessor’s Room.”
Adjoining the Record Tower, westward, is the Bloody Tower: here, in a dark windowless room, in which one of the portcullises was worked, George Duke of Clarence is said to have been drowned in malmsey ; in the adjoining chamber, the two princes are said to have been ” smothered •” whence the name of Bloody Tower. This has been much disputed; but in a tract temp. James I. we read that the above ” turret our elders termed the Bloody Tower ; for the bloodshed, as they say, of those infant princes of Edward IV., whom Richard III., of cursed memory (I shudder to mention it), savagely killed, two together at one time.” In the latter chamber was imprisoned Colonel Hutchinson, whose wife, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower, where she was born, related the above traditions. This portion was formerly called the Garden, Tower ; it was built temp. Edward III., and is the only ancient place of security, as a state prison, in the Tower : it is entered through a small door in the inner ballium; it consists of a day -room and a bed-room, and the leads on which the prisoner was sometimes allowed to breathe the air. The last person who
occupied these apartments was Arthur Thistlewood, the Cato-street conspirator.
Westward are the Lieutenant’s Lodgings (the Lieutenant’s residence), chiefly timber-built, temp. Henry VIII. ; in 1610 was added a chamber having a prospect to all the three gates of the Tower, and enabling the lieutenant to call and look to the warders.
In the ” Council Chamber ” the Commissioners examined Guy Fawkes and his accomplices, as commemorated in a Latin and Hebrew inscription upon a parti-coloured marble monument ; and elsewhere in the building there was discovered, about 1845, ” an inscription carved on an old mantelpiece relating to the Countess of Lenox, grandmother of James I., ’commytede prysner to thys Logynge for the Marige of her Sonne my Lord Henry Darnle and the Queen of Scotlande.’ ” (Hewitt’s Tower, &c.)
Here a bust of James I. was set up, in 1608, by Sir William Wade, then Lieutenant ; the walls are painted with representations of men inflicting and suffering torture ; and the room is reputed to be haunted ! The last person confined in the lodgings here was Sir Francis Burdett, committed 1810, for writing in Cobbett’s Weekly Register.
” Besides the ’ prison lodgings,’ there were other still more terrible chambers in the Tower ; chambers especially constructed with a view to the torture of their inmates. One of these was called ’ Little Ease ;’ a cell so small in its dimensions, that it was impossible for the prisoner to stand erect or to lie down except in a cramped position (Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 825). Another was named ’ The Pit.’ Others are said to have been full of vermin, especially rats, which at high water were driven up in shoals from the Thames. The Devil’s Tower probably took its name from some contrivance of this kind.” — Hewitt.
An inscription recently found in an adjoining room tells us a State secret, that Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, mother of unhappy Darnley, was confined in these lodgings by Elizabeth, on suspicion of being concerned in the marriage of her son with Mary Queen of Scots. Margaret lived in London for many years.” — Mr. Mepworth Dixon’s Paper read to the Archeological Institute, 1866.
The Place of Execution within the Tower on the Green was reserved for putting to death privately ; and the precise spot, nearly opposite the door of St. Peter’s Chapel, is denoted by a large oval of dark flints : hereon perished Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Margaret Countess of Salisbury, and Lady Jane Grey.
The Bloody Tower gateway, built temp. Edward III. (opposite Traitors’ 1 Gate), is the main entrance to the Inner Ward : it has massive gates and portcullis, complete, at the southern end; but those at the north end have been removed.
“The gates are genuine, and the portcullis is said to be the only one remaining in England fit for use. The archway forms a noble specimen of the Doric order of Gothic. For a prison entrance we know-of no more perfect model.” — Weale’s London, p. 160.
Westward of the White Tower, between the Chapel and Lieutenant’s Lodgings, was the ” Tower Green,” now the parade-ground of the garrison. Northward, upon the site of the Grand Storehouse,* are the Waterloo Barracks (to receive 1000 men), in the ” modern castellated style,” its only ancient features being battlements and machicolations : the first stone was laid June 14, 1845, by the Duke of Wellington, of whom here was a pedestrian stone statue, by Milnes; upon a pedestal, now removed to Woolwich Arsenal.
North-east of the White Tower is another “modern castellated” range of buildings for the officers of the garrison. South-eastward are the unsightly piles of the Ordnance Office and Store-houses.
* The large pediment of the Storehouse, filled with bold sculptures of the royal arms, guns, and military trophies, was preserved, and has been set up opposite the Martin Tower.
The White Tower, citadel, or keep (for many years of itself “the Tower of London,” the other buildings having been added as outworks), was begun by Bishop Gundulph, in 1078, on the site of a work said to have been destroyed by floods. The external dimensions of the White Tower are 176 feet north and south by 96 feet east and west, with an eastern semicircular projection, the apsis of the chapel. The elevation is 92 feet ; it is embattled ; and its angles are finished with turrets, the vanes of which are surmounted with the royal crown. The north and south-western turrets are square, with a slight projection ; the south-eastern turret is built upon the summit of the wall ; and that at the north-eastern angle is an irregular circle, and was pierced to receive four clock-dials in 1854. This tower was called the Observatory, and was employed by the ” Astronomical Observator, John Flamsteed,” who had ” an hundred poundes yearly payd him out of this office (of Ordnance) :” it contains a staircase which communicates with each of the floors, from the vaults to the roof, which is covered with lead, and was once a promenade for the prisoners. Traces of a large archway on the north side indicate the original grand entrance, shown in the oldest views ; the present entrances, north and south, are modern. The external walls are from 10 to 12 feet thick, and the internal walls 7 feet ; of these there are only two, which divide each floor into three apartments. The White Tower was first considerably repaired about the middle of the 13th century; next, with Caen stone, in 1532; ” it was almost new erected in 1637 and 1638, being built of boulder and square stone” (Hatton) ; and windows and other ancient features were obliterated in the reign of William III. On the eastern side is a wing occupied for Ordnance books and papers.
Here, circ. 1708, were ” 3000 barrels of gunpowder at a time, with vast quantities of match ; also swords and gin for mounting great guns ; and on the east side is a place where the powder is proved before the surveyor and other officers.”
On the first floor is Queen Elizabeth’s Armoury, with a vaulted roof: on the north side a door opens to a cell, 10 feet by 8, in the thickness of the wall ; this is said to have been the prison-lodging of Sir Walter Raleigh; near the cell entrance are inscribed Rudstone, Fane, and Culpeper, all implicated in Sir Thomas Wyat’s rebellion.
” He that indvreth to the ende shal be savid
M : 10 B. livdston. Dar. Kent. Ano. 1553.”
” Be faithfvl vnto the deth and I wil give thee a erowne of Life,
T Fane 1554.”
“T Cvlpeper of Ailsford, Kent.”
On the second floor, reaching to the roof, is the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, the most perfect specimen of Norman architecture in the metropolis ; it has an apsis, and a gallery supported by 12 massive round columns, united by semicircular arches : here our early sovereigns knelt before the King of kings. Three stained-glass windows were added to this chapel by Henry III. : it was long used as a record depository.
In the third floor is the Council Chamber, a state apartment, with a massive timber roof: here the Protector Gloucester ordered Lord Hastings to be led to instant execution in front of St. Peter’s Chapel ; and commanded the arrest of the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Ely, and Lord Stanley. King John of France was lodged in the White Tower in 1357. The vaults underneath were occupied as prisons : among their inscriptions is one carved by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Throughout the building there is no trace of a fireplace or of a well. The Council Chamber and Banqueting Hall are now filled with rifles ready for use. Hitherto, they had been used as store-rooms, and the present alteration was made at the suggestion and from the designs of the late Prince Consort. They now form two splendid armouries, the Council Chamber containing 20,000 and the Banqueting Hall 31,000 Enfield and short rifles, ready at any time for immediate use. The passages, walls, ceilings, beams, &c, are richly ornamented with swords, bayouets, lances, pistols, and various other weapons, some of them now obsolete.
A paper drawn up by a yeoman-warder, in 1641, shows the White Tower to have then been the Office of Ordnance ; the Martin Tower was assigned to the Porter of the Mint ; the Byward and Water-gate Towers to the warders; and eleven other towers were “prison-lodgings.”
Mr. Hepworth Dixon’s paper, elsewhere quoted, is a very attractive precis of the history of the Tower, narrated with poetic verve, and archaeological identification. Of Charles of Orleans, the brave soldier and poet-prince, who was captured at Agincourt, and remained prisoner in the Tower five-and-twenty years, Mr. Dixon tells us, there is in the MS. department of the British Museum a copy of the prince’s French poems, nobly illuminated. ” One of the drawings in this MS. is of peculiar interest : in the first place, as being the oldest view of the Tower extant ; in the second place, in fixing the exact chamber in the White Tower in which the poet was confined, and displaying dramatically the life which he led. First we see the prince at his desk, composing his poems, with his gentlemen in attendance, and his guards on duty. Next we observe him on a window-sill looking outwards into space. Then we have him at the foot of the White Tower, embracing the messenger who brings him the ransom. Again, we see him mounting his horse. Then we have him and his friendly messenger riding away from the Tower. Lastly, he is seated in a barge, which lusty rowers are pulling down the stream, for the boat which is to carry him to France.” Mr. Dixon’s paper is printed in the Atheneeum, No. 2021.
Imprisonments. — Upwards of 1000 prisoners have been confined in the chambers and cells of the Tower at one time. Among the celebrated persons imprisoned here, besides those already named, were : A.D. 1100. Ralph Flambard, the militant Bishop of Durham. 1296. Balliol, King of Scotland, and Scottish chieftains. 1307. Lady Badlesmere, for refusing the queen of Edward II. lodging in her castle of Leeds, Kent. 1347. Charles of Blois, and the twelve citizens of Calais with the governor. 1386. Geoffrey Chaucer, said to have here written his Testament of Love. (Chaucer was appointed clerk of the works, July 13, 1389, 13th Eichard II.) 1415. The Duke of Orleans, father of Louis XII., composed here a volume of English poems, which contains the earliest view of the Tower. 1534. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester ; and Sir Thomas More. 1540. Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. 1547. The Duke of Norfolk and his son, the poet Earl of Surrey.
1553. Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. Latimer was also a prisoner here from 1541 to 1547. 1554. Sir Thomas Wyat. 1562. The Earl of Southampton, the friend of Shakspeare. 1606.’ Guy Fawkes and his fellow-conspirators. 1622. Lord Chancellor Bacon, “a broken reed;” Sir Edward Coke, a close prisoner. 1613. Sir Thomas Overbury, supposed to have been poisoned by his gaoler. 1616. The Countess of Somerset,* for Overbury’s murder. 1626. ” Mr. Moor was sent to the Tower for speaking (in Parliament) out of season ; and Sir William Widdrington and Sir Herbert Price for bringing in candles against the desire of the House.” (Lwarris, on Statutes, p. 83.) 1628. Felton, the assassin of the Duke of Buckingham ; Sir John Elliot, second imprisonment ; John Selden. 1641. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford ; Archbishop Laud, and Bishop Hall. 1648. The pious Jeremy Taylor. 1651. Sir William Davenant, whose life was saved by Milton and Whitelock. 1656. Lucy Barlow, mother of the Duke of Monmouth : she was liberated by Oliver Cromwell.
1661. Harrington, who wrote the Oceana. 1679. Viscount Stafford, beheaded 1680.
1679. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, suspected of connexion with the Popish Plot ; liberated on bail for 30,0002. 1681. The Earl of Shaftesbury. 1683. William Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney. 1685. James Duke of Monmouth. 1688 (the Revolution). The infamous Lord Jeffreys ; William Penn, for street preaching ; the Seven Bishops.
1692. The great Duke of Marlborough. 1712. Sir Robert Walpole, for receiving bribes.
1715. Harley, Earl of Oxford; the Earls of Derwentwater and Nithsdale.
1717. William Shippen, ” downright Shippen” {Pope).
1722. Bishop Atterbury and the Earl of Orrery.
1746. Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat.
1760. Earl * The Countess of Somerset’s “only child, born in the Tower during her imprisonment, and named Anne, after the name of the Queen, in the hopes thereby of propitiating her majesty, was afterwards married to the Duke of Bedford, and was the mother of William Lord Kussell.”— Amos. Ferrers, hanged for murder.
1762. John Wilkes ; no charge specified.
1780. Lord George Gordon (Riots).
1794. John Home Tooke, Hardy, Thelwall, Holcroft, and others.
1810. Sir Francis Eurdett.
1820. Cato-street conspirators.
The Constable of the Tower was formerly styled the Constable of London, the Constable of the Sea, and the Constable of the Honour of the Tower ; which post was conferred hy William I. upon Geoffry de Mandeville, in reward of his services at the battle of Hastings. The Constable, besides his salary, privileges, and perquisites, temp. Edward II. received a custom of 2d. from each person going and returning by the Thames, on a pilgrimage to St. James’s shrine. In the reign of Richard II. the Constable received yearly 1001., with fees from his prisoners, according to their rank, ” for the suit of his irons :” of every duke committed, 2,01. : and for irons, earl, 20 marks ; baron, 101. ; knight, 100 shillings. The Constable’s salary is now a little under 950/., with an official residence. The great Duke of Wellington was Constable from 1820 to his death in 1852, and was succeeded by Viscount Combermere, at whose death Sir John Fox Burgoyne received the appointment. On taking possession, the new Constable is by the Lord Chamberlain presented with the keys of the fortress, in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen; the Yeomen Warders, following an ancient custom on such occasions, respond ” Amen” in chorus, the troops give a Royal salute and present arms, and the band plays the National Anthem. The Constable is then formally presented to the officers of the garrison, and conducted over the armoury. The Lieutenant of the Tower is next in rank to the Constable ; but the duties of both offices are performed by the Deputy-Lieutenant and the Tower Major.
Colonel Gurwood, editor of the Duke of Wellington’s Despatches, was long Deputy-Lieutenant. The Gentleman Gaoler had the custody and locking-up of the state prisoners. The Yeomen Warders, of whom there were forty-five, originally kept watch over the prisoners: in the reign of Edward VI., the Duke of Somerset, in return for the attention and respect they paid him whilst in confinement, procured them, after his liberation, ” to be sworne extraordinary of the guard, and to weare the same livery they doe.” The old uniform is now only worn on State occasions. The new dress was made in 1858. The old cut is retained, the alterations being in the colour of the cloth and the trimmings. The tunic or frock is of dark blue cloth, with a crown in red cloth on the breast, and V.R. underneath; two bands of red cloth round the sleeves, the same as the skirt. A cloak is supplied for inclement weather.
The Yeomen at present number forty-eight: they are old and deserving non-commissioned officers.
Locking-up the Tower is an ancient, curious, and stately ceremony. A few minutes before the clock strikes the hour of eleven — on Tuesdays and Fridays, twelve — the Head Warder (Yeoman Porter), clothed in a long red cloak, bearing a huge bunch of keys, and attended by a brother warder carrying a lantern, appears in front of the main guard-house, and loudly calls out, ” Escort keys !” The sergeant of the guard, with five or six men, then turns out and follows him to the ” Spur,” or outer gate ; each sentry challenging as they pass his post, ” Who goes there ?” — ” Keys.” The gates being carefully locked and barred, the procession returns, the sentries exacting the same explanation, and receiving the same answer as before. Arrived once more in front of the main guard-house, the sentry there gives a loud stamp with his foot, and asks, ” Who goes there ?”— ” Keys.” ” Whose keys ?”—” Queen Victoria’s keys.” ” Advance Queen Victoria’s keys, and all’s well.” The Yeomau Porter then exclaims, ” God bless Queen Victoria !” The main guard respond, ” Amen.” The officer on duty gives the word, ” Present arms ’.” the firelocks rattle ; the officer kisses the hilt of his sword ; the escort fall in among their companions ; and the Yeoman Porter marches across the parade alone to deposit the keys in the Lieutenant’s Lodgings.
The ceremony over, not only is all egress and ingress totally precluded, but even within the walls no one can stir without being furnished with the countersign.
The Tower has a separate coroner ; and the public have access to the fortress only by sufferance. When Horwood made his Survey of London, 1799, he was denied admission to the Tower; and the refusal is thus recorded upon the map:—
” The Tower : the internal parts not distinguished, being refused permission to take the survey.”
The Tower is extra-parochial ; and in 1851 the population was 882, and the military in barracks 606.
The Armouries. — The fortress has been the depository of tbe national arms and accoutrements from the earliest ages of our monarchy ; and writs of various dates enumerate warlike stores contained in or issued from the Tower by ” the Keeper of the Arms.” In an inventory temp. Edward VI. are mentioned many of the articles in the present collection ; and Hentzner describes the Armouries in the reign of Elizabeth as one of the sights of London.
The Horse Armoury, 150 feet long, is on the south side of the White Tower, and was built in 1826, when it was arranged by Sir Samuel Meyrick. In the centre is a line of twenty-two equestrian figures, in the armour of various reigns from Edward I. to James II. Over each figure is a crimson banner bearing the name and time of the king or knight represented by the effigy below j but only a few of the armours have been actually worn by the persons to whom they are assigned. Around the room are ranged other figures in armour, interspersed with military trophies and emblems ; besides other mounted figures ; arms of different ages ; helmets, cuirasses, shields, &c. ; and on the ceiling are displayed obsolete arms and accoutrements in fanciful devices.
The equestrian figures are of the time of Edward I. (1272). — Suit of a hauberk, with sleeves and chaussees, and a hood with camail; square-topped shield ; prick-spurs ; surcoat and baudric, modern.
Henry VI. (1450). — Back and breast plates of flexible armour ; chain-mail sleeves and skirt ; fluted gauntlets; helmet a la Cade, with a frontlet and surmounting crest; the horse housing emblazoned with the arms of France and England; fluted chauffron.
Edward IV. (1465). — Tournament suit, with tilting lance; war-saddle, somewhat later; horse housings, black, powdered with the king’s badges — the wttite rose and sun; a spiked chauffron on horse’s head.
Knight, temp. Richard III. (1483-1485). — Ribbed German armour; tilting apparel and original tilting lance: this suit was worn at the Eglinton Tournament by the Marquis of Waterford.
Knight, temp. Henry VII. (1485-1509).— Fluted (German) suit ; burgonet helmet. Suit of fluted armour of the same reign; ancient sword, battle-axe, and war-saddle; horse armour fluted, and only wanting the flanchards.
Henry VIII. (1520). — Damasked armour actually worn by this king. Two suits of the same reign, worn by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. In a recess is ” one of the most curious suite of armour in the world,” of German workmanship, once gilt, and made to commemorate the marriage of Henry VIII. and Katherine of Arragon: it is most elaborately engraved with the rose and pomegranate^ portcullis, fleurs-de-lis, and red dragon; “H. K.,” united by a true-lover’s-knot ; saintly legends, mottoes, &c.
Edward VI. (1552). — Russet armour, covered with beautiful filagree-work ; burgonet helmet; horse armour complete, embossed with the combined badges of Burgundy and Granada.
Francis Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon (1555). — Richly gilt suit, with indented slashes; weight of body armour exceeds 100 lbs.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1560). — Tilting suit actually worn by Leicester, temp. Elizabeth : it bears the initials “R. D.,” and the earl’s cognizance of the bear and ragged staff: this suit ” was kept in the tilt-yard, where it was exhibited on particular days” (Meyrick).
Sir Henry Lea (1570). — Suit of plate.
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1581). — Suit of armour, richly engraved and gilt ; burgonet helmet. This armour was worn by the King’s Champion at the coronation of George II.
James I. (1605). — Plain suit of tilting armour. Of the same period are the suits of cap-a-pie armour assigned to Sir Horace Vere, and Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.
Henry Prince of Wales (1612). — Richly-gilt suit made for the prince; engraved with battles, sieges, &c.
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1618). — Full suit of plate.
Charles Prince of Wales (1620). — Suit made for the prince when about twelve years old.
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (1635). — Armour continued only to the knees.
Charles I. (1640). — Magnificent suit presented to Charles, when Prince of Wales, by the Armourers* Company of the City of London: it is richly gilt aud arabesqued; face is carved by Gibbons. This suit was laid on the coflin of the great Duke of Marlborough, in his funeral procession.
James II. (1685). — Cuirass over a velvet coat; casque and pierced visor: the head was carved by Gibbons, as a portrait of Charles II.
Here also are : a swordsman (Henry VII.). A man-at-arms and foot-soldier Henry VIII.). ” Armour cap-a-pe, rough from the hammer, said to be King Henry ye 8ths.” Suits belonging to the Princes Henry and Charles, sons of James I. Cavaliers and pikemen (temp. Charles I.). A fragment of ” penny plate armour.” Magnificent suit of Italian armour, engraved and gilt. Cuirasses from Waterloo. Ancient suits of chain-mail. Halbards,* shields, and helmets. ” The Norman Crusader,” really an Asiatic suit of mixed chain and plate. Very curious helmets. Pieces of a * The halbard remained in use among our troops till within 60 years, and may sttll be seen as an official weapon in our courts of justice. The warders of the Tower are still armed with the partisan : it is still carried by the watchmen in Denmark.
puffed and engraved suit of armour (temp. Henry VIII.), extremely rare. Ancient German bone saddle, with Teutonic inscription. The ” Anticke Headpiece with rames Homes and speckakels on it of Will Somers,” jester to Henry VIII. Specimens of hand firearms. Ancient warder’s horn, of carved ivory. Chinese military dresses from Chusan. Helmet, belt, straight sword, and scimitars of Tippoo Saib. Concave rondelle with spiked boss, such as is seen in the picture of “Henry the Eighth’s Embarcation at Dover,” at Hampton Court.
Part of a horse armour of cuir houilli, extremely rare and curious. On the columns are groups of arms now in use among continental powers ; arms employed in England from the time of James II. to the present reign ; and projects for the improvement of war implements.
Here are celts ; ancient British axes, swords, and spears, of bronze (one axe found near Hastings, supposed temp. Harold) ; a British battle-axe found in the Thames in 1829 ; Roman spear-head ; Saxon daggers and battle-axes.
At the top of the stairs are two rudely-carved wood figures, ” Gin” and ” Beer,” from over the buttery of the old palace at Greenwich. A very curious Indian suit of armour, sent to Charles II. by the Great Mogul. Ten small cannon, presented by the brass-founders of London to Charles II. when a boy.
Queen Elizabeth’s Armoury, cased with wood in the Norman style, is entered at the eastern side of the White Tower : the windows are filled with stained glass, in part ancient. Here is an equestrian figure of Elizabeth, in a fac simile of the robe worn by her on going to St. Paul’s to return thanks. The weapons collected here were brought originally from ” The Spanish Weapon House,” and were long called ” The Spanish Armoury,” misinterpreted as the spoils of the Spanish Armada. These weapons were mostly used temp. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. The collection of spears is interesting. Here is the Morning-star, or Holy-water (blood) Sprinkle, a spiked ball on a pole, used by infantry from the Conquest till temp. Henry VIII. The walls are hung with early shields. Two bows of yew, from the wreck of the Mary Hose, 1545 ; early kite shield ; two cross-hilted swords, temp. Crusaders, authentic and rare.
Thumb-screws, or thumbikins ; the ” Iron Coller of Torment, taken from y’ Spanyard in y” yeare 1588 ;” the iron Cravat, ” Scavenger’s or Skeffington’s Daughter.” Ancient Cresset, with spear-head. Mace-cannon, carried at the saddle-bow. Long-pikes and boar-spears, in the Tower temp. Edward VI. Large pavoise, or archer’s shield. ” Great Holly-water Sprincle, with three gonnes in the top.” Spontoon of the guard of Henry VIII. Guisarmes and glaives, partisans, lances, pikes, and halbards. On the floor is the heading-axe with which the Earl of Essex was executed, temp. Elizabeth.
Heading-block on which Lords Balmerino, Kilmarnock, and Lovat were decapitated on Tower-hill, in 1746. The money received for admission to the Armouries is expended in adding to the collection ; hus, in 1853, a beautiful suit of Greek armour, found in a tomb at Cumae, was purchased for 2001. : it is shown in the Horse Armoury.
Among the Curiosities mentioned by Hatton, 1708, is the sword which Lord Kingsale took from a French guard, for which he and his posterity have the favour of being covered in the king’s presence.
On the stairs is part of the keel of the Royal George, sunk in 1782.
In the Ante-room added to Queen Elizabeth’s Armoury, fitted up in 1581, from the plan of Mr. Stacey, Ordnance Storekeeper, are a group of cannon from Waterloo, two kettle-drums from Blenheim ; and specimens, ancient and modern, of every description of weapon now in the Tower. Here are also the sword and sash of Field Marshal the Duke of York ; and General Wolfe’s cloak, on which he died before Quebec. In the centre of the room is a beautifully ornamented bronze gun. Here are two large brass guns taken at Quebec by General Wolfe, a stand of cross-bows, and four figures in armour. In the western compartment are chiefly oriental arms and armour : suit of chain-mail (reputed Bajazet, 1401) ; Asiatic iron boot ; Saracenic and Indian armour ; memorials from Tippoo Saib’s armour; collection of Chinese armour; brass gun taken from the Chinese in 1842, inscribed, ” Richabd : Philips : made : this : Pece : An : Dni : 1601 ;” arms from Kaffraria ; hempen armour from the South Seas ; New Zealand implements, and chiefs robe ; rich Indian and Moorish arms and accoutrements, from the Great Exhibition of 1851 : and a cabinet of oriental armour, weapons, horse-furniture, &c., presented by the Hon. East India Company. Here is the large anchor taken at Camperdown by Admiral Duncan. In 1854 were added 2000 stands of arms from Bomarsund, the first spoils of the Russian war.
Outside the White Tower, on the south-east, are : an ancient gun for stone shot ; two brass guns, temp. Henry VII. and Henry VIII. j French, Spanish, and Chinese guns ; guns from the wreck of the Royal George; and several mortars, including one of 18 inches, used at the siege of Namur by William III.
Mr. Hewitt’s work, already mentioned, is by far the most accurate and illustrative Guide-book to the Tower Armouries.
The Regalia, or Crown Jewels, have been exhibited to the public for a fee since the Restoration of Charles II. They had been previously kept sometimes in the Tower, in the Treasury of the Temple or other religious house, and in the Treasury at Westminster. The Royal Jewels were several times pledged to provide for the exigencies of our monarchs : by Henry III., Edward III., Henry V., Henry VI. ; and Richard II. offered them to the merchants of London as a guarantee for a loan. The office of Keeper of the Regalia, conferred by the king’s letters patent, became in the reigns of the Tudors a post of great emolument and dignity, and ” the Master of the Jewel-house” took rank as the first Knight Bachelor of England : the office was sometime held by Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex. During the civil war under Charles I. the Regalia were sold and destroyed.* On the Restoration of Charles II. new Regalia were made, for which was paid to the king’s goldsmith, Sir Robert Vyner, 21,978Z. 9*. lid. (Treasury Order, 20th June, 1662.) The emoluments of the Master of the Jewel-house were now so reduced, that Sir Gilbert Talbot obtained permission to show the
Regalia to strangers for a fee j which proved so profitable, that Sir Gilbert, upon the death of his servant who showed the jewels, was offered 500 gold broad-pieces for the place. In this reign, May 9, 1671, Colonel Blood made his daring attempt to carry off ” the crown, globe, and sceptre.” The Regalia were then kept in a strong vaulted chamber of the Martin Tower, and were shown behind strong iron bars : through these, in 1815, a woman forced her hands and tore the royal crown to pieces. The Regalia were next shown at one view by the light of six argand lamps, with powerful
reflectors.
In 1842, a new Jewel-house was built in the late Tudor style, south of the Martin Tower : where the Regalia are shown upon a pyramidal stand, enclosed within plate-glass ; and over the whole is an open iron frame, or cage, of Tudor design, surmounted by a regal crown of iron.
The Regalia are : — St. Edward’s Crown, or the ancient Imperial Crown, made temp. Charles II., to replace that said to have been worn by Edward the Confessor : and with which the Sovereign is crowned at the altar. This is the crown which Blood stole : the arches, flowers, and fillets are covered with large multi-coloured jewels ; and the purple velvet cap is faced with ermine. Prof. Tennant, P.G.S., thus describes her Majesty’s State Crown :—
” The Imperial State Crown of Her Majesty Queen Victoria was made by Messrs. Rundell and Bridge in the year 1838, with jewels taken from old Crowns, and others furnished by command of her Majesty.
It consists of diamonds, pearls, rabies, sapphires, and emeralds, set in silver and gold ; it has a crimson velvet cap, with ermine border, and is lined with white silk. Its gross weight is 39 oz. 5 dwts. Troy.
The lower part of the band, above the ermine border, consists of a row of one hundred and twenty-nine pearls, and the upper part of the band a row of one hundred and twelve pearls, between which, in front of the Crown, is a large sapphire (partly drilled), purchased for the Crown by His Majesty King George the Fourth. At the back is a sapphire of smaller size, and six other sapphires (three on each side), between which are eight emeralds. Above and below the seven sapphires are fourteen diamonds, and around the eight emeralds one hundred and twenty-eight diamonds. Between the emeralds and sapphires are sixteen trefoil ornaments, containing one hundred and sixty diamonds. Above the band are eight sapphires surmounted by eight diamonds, between which are eight festoons consisting of one hundred and forty-eight diamonds. In the front of the Crown, and in the centre of a diamond Maltese cross, is the famous ruby said to have been given to Edward Prince of Wales, son of Edward III., called the Black Prince, by Don Pedro, King of Castile, after the battle of Najera, near Vittoria, a.d. 1367. This ruby was worn in the helmet of Henry V. at the battle of Agincourt, a.d. 1415. It is pierced quite through after the Eastern custom, the upper part of the piercing being filled up by a small ruby.
Around this ruby, to form the cross, are seventy-five brilliant diamonds. Three other Maltese crosses, forming the twb sides and back of the Crown, have emerald centres, and contain respectively one
• The State Crown of Charles I., found in the upper Jewel-house, contained 7 lbs. 7oz. of gold: in one of the fleurs-de-lis was ” a picture of the Virgin Mary.”
Between the four Maltese crosses are four ornaments in the form of the French fleur-de-lis, with four rubies in the centres, and surrounded by rose diamonds, containing respectively eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-six, and eighty-seven rose diamonds. From the Maltese crosses issue four imperial arches composed of oak leaves and acorns ; the leaves containing seven hundred and twenty-eight rose, table, and brilliant diamonds ; thirty-two pearls forming the acorns, set in cups containing fifty-four rose diamonds and one table diamond. The total number of diamonds in the arches and acorns is one hundred and eight brilliant, one hundred and sixteen table, and five hundred and fifty-nine rose diamonds. From the upper part of the arches are suspended four large pendant pear-shaped pearls, with rose diamond caps, containing twelve rose diamonds, and stems containing twenty-four very small rose diamonds.
Above the arch stands the mound, containing in the lower hemisphere three hundred and four brilliants, and in the upper two hundred and forty-four brilliants ; the zone and arc being composed of thirty-three rose diamonds. The cross on the summit has a rose-cut sapphire in the centre, surrounded by four large brilliants, and one hundred and eight smaller brilliants. — Summary of Jewels comprised in the Crown : l large ruby irregularly polished; 1 large broad-spread sapphire; 16 sapphires ; 11 emeralds; 4 rubies; 1363 brilliant diamonds; 1273 rose diamonds; 147 table diamonds; 4 drop-shaped pearls; 273 pearls.”
There are correct woodcuts of the crown, by S. “Williams, in Britton’s Dictionary of Architecture, and Sharp’s Peerage. Haydon, in his Autobiography (1830), vol. ii. p. 236, has this odd entry as to the crown of George IV. : —
” The Crown at the Coronation was not bought, but borrowed. Rundell’s price was 70,000?. ; and Lord Liverpool told the King he could not sanction such an expenditure. Eundell charged 7000?. for the loan; and as some time elapsed before it was decided whether the crown should be bought or not, Eundell charged 3000?. or 4000?. more for the interval.”
The Prince of Wales’s Crown, of pure gold, plain, without jewels : it is placed upon a velvet cushion, in the House of Lords, before the seat of the Heir Apparent, when Her Majesty opens or prorogues Parliament; for which occasions it is conveyed with the imperial crown of the sovereign from the Tower, by the Keeper of the Jewel-office, attended by warders, in a coach. — The Queen Consort’s Crown, of gold, set with diamonds, pearls, and other jewels; made for the queen of William III. — The Queen’s Diadem, or Circlet of Gold, made for the coronation of Maria d’Este, consort of James II., at the cost of 111,000/. (Sandford) : it is set with diamonds, and surmounted with a string of pearls. — St. Edward’s Staff, of beaten gold, 4 feet 7 inches in length ; surmounted by an orb and cross, and shod with a steel spike ; the orb is said to contain a fragment of the true Cross. The staff weighs 9 lbs. — The Royal Sceptre, or Sceptre with the Cross, of gold : the pommel is set with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds; the fleurs-de-lis have been replaced by the rose, shamrock, and thistle, in gold ; and the cross is covered with jewels, and has a large centre table-diamond.—
The Rod of Equity, or Sceptre with the Dove, of gold, 3 feet 7 inches long, is set with diamonds, &c, and is surmounted with an orb, banded with rare diamonds, supporting a Jerusalem cross, on which is a gold dove with expanded wings. — The Queen’s Sceptre and Cross, ornamented with large diamonds; made for the coronation of Mary, Queen of William III. — The Queen’s Ivory Sceptre, made for Maria d’Este, mounted in gold, and bearing a golden cross, and a dove of white onyx : it is sometimes miscalled Queen Anne Boleyn’s. — An ancient Sceptre, found behind the wainscoting of the old Jewel-office in 1814 : it is set with jewels, and is supposed to have belonged to Mary, Queen of William III. — The Orb, of gold, 6 inches in diameter ; the bands are set with precious stones and roses of diamonds, and edged with pearls ; a very large amethyst supports the gold cross, set with diamonds, &c. — The Queen’s Orb, resembling the former, but of smaller dimensions. — The Sword of Mercy, or Curtana, of steel, but pointless; ornamented with gold. — The Swords of Justice, Ecclesiastical and Temporal. — The Armilla, or Coronation Bracelets, of gold, chased with the rose, fleur-de-lis, and harp, and edged with pearls. — The Royal Spurs, of curiously wrought gold : they are used at the coronation of king or queen. — The Ampulla, of pure gold, in the form of an eagle; is used at coronations for the holy oil, which is poured from the beak into the Gold Anointing Spoon, supposed to be the only relic of the ancient Regalia; its date is about the 12th century. The Ampulla ia said to have been brought from Sens Abbey, in France, by Thomas k Becket. — The Gold Saltcellar of State, set with jewels, and chased with grotesque figures, is in the form of a round castle, and has been miscalled ” a Model of the White Tower :” it has a central turret, and four at the angles, the tops of which are removed for the salt ; around the base are curious figures.
It was presented to the crown by the City of Exeter, and was last used at the coronation banquet of George IV. — The Baptismal Font, silver-gilt, elaborately chased, and formerly used at the christening of the Royal Family, but superseded by a new font of picturesque design. A large Silver Wine Fountain, presented by the Corporation of Plymouth to Charles II. j 12 Golden Saltcellars, chased ; two massive gold ” Coronation Tankards ;” the Banqueting Dish, Gold Spoons, and other Coronation Plate. Also, a Service of Sacramental Plate, one dish bearing a fine alto relievo of the Last Supper ; used at Coronations, and in the chapel of St. Peter in the Tower.
Admission daily (Sundays excepted), to the Armouries, Gd. each person ; and to see the Regalia, 6d. each ; in parties of twelve, conducted by a warder, every half-hour, from 12 to 4 o’clock inclusive.
TOWER ROYAL,
A SHORT street or lane between St. Antholin’s Church, Watling-street, and the south end of St. Thomas Apostle, was removed in 1853-4, in forming New Cannon-street West. It occupied the site of a building stated by Stow to have anciently belonged to the kings of England, as early as Stephen ; but it was subsequently discastled, and held as a tenement by one Simon of Beauvais, surgeon to
Edward I. Mr. Hudson Turner states it to be invariably called in early records la Real, la Riole, or la Ryle or Ryole, but not a tower j and he could not find it occupied by royalty until Edward III., in 1331, granted it to his queen Philippa as a depository for her wardrobe ; by whom la Real was externally repaired, if not rebuilt.
In 1370, Edward bestowed it upon the canons of St. Stephen’s, Westminster ; but it reverted to the Crown, and was called “the Queen’s Wardrobe” in the reign of Richard II. It was a place of strength ; and the king’s mother fled here for shelter when Wat Tyler had seized the Tower of London. Leon III., King of Armenia, when driven from his kingdom by the Turks, was lodged and entertained in Tower Royal by Richard II., in 1386. It was granted by Richard III. to the first Duke of Norfolk of the Howard family, as entered in that king’s ledger-book. In Stow’s time, Tower
Royal had become stabling for the king’s horses, and was let in tenements : the whole was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. In removing the modem houses upon the site, in 1852, were found the remains of a Roman villa: the earth was interspersed with horns, bones, teeth of goats and oxen ; tusks of boars ; fragments of flanged tiles, scored flue-tiles, amphorae, mortaria, urns, glass vessels, and Samian pottery. Some of these relics are engraved in the Illustrated London News,. No. 554.
TREASURY AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICES.
ON the west side of Whitehall are the Government Offices : the Admiralty {see p. 2) ; Hoese Guards (p. 434). In 1724, 600 planks of mahogany were brought from Jamaica for the inner doors and tables of the Admiralty ; and, judging by the way in which the wood is mentioned in the public papers, it was evidently far from well known.
The Treasury occupies a portion of the site of Whitehall Palace. To make way for the north wing, the last portion of old York House was taken down in 1846 : it had been refronted, but the Tudor doorway was ancient. The principal Treasury building, however, faces the parade-ground, St. James’s Park : it was built by Kent, in 1733, and consists of three stories, Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic. The Whitehall front consists of the Treasury, Board of Trade, and Privy Council Offices; designed by Barry, R.A., in 1846-8, partly in place of Sir John Soane’s facade (the centre and south wing),
decorated with three-quarter columns from those of the Campo Vaccino at Rome.
Soane’s exterior, exposed to the criticism of every passenger, was much censured ; ” whilst the interior, in which the skill and taste of the architect are most manifest, and particularly the Council Chamber, is but little seen, and known only to a few persons.” (Britton.) Barry’s design consists of a long series of attached Corinthian columns on rusticated piers, and carrying a highly-enriched entablature and frieze j the attics have carved drops of fruit and flowers, and the balustrade carries urn-shaped vases : the whole facade is 296 feet long. The Council Office occupies the site of the old Tennis-court of the Palace. — See the print {temp. Charles II.) in Pennant’s London, 5th edit.
At the Cockpit died General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, 4th Jan. 1670 ; and in the same month his duchess, Nan Clarges. Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, fled down the back stairs, in 1688, to join her father’s enemies, Lord Dorset and Bishop Compton riding on each side of the hackney-coach as an escort. Hatton, in 1708, describes the Treasury Office kept at the Cockpit, ” where the Lord High Treasurer sits to receive petitions, and give orders, warrants, &c.” Here, March 8, 1711, Guiscard attempted to stab with a penknife Harley, Earl of Oxford, but was struck down by the swords of Lord Paulet and Mr. St. John. The Cockpit itself occupied nearly the site of the present Board of Trade Office, and it existed early in the present century:
the King’s speech was read ” at the Cockpit” on the day before it was delivered at the opening of the Session of Parliament; and the discontinuance of this practice was much complained of by the Opposition. The term ” Given at the Cockpit at Westminster” was in use within the writer’s recollection. The Lord High Treasurer formerly carried a staff of office (see the portrait of the great Lord Burghley) ; and he sat in a needlework chair, which is preserved at the Office of the Comptroller of the Exchequer, Whitehall-yard. ” The sovereign occasionally presided at the Board of Treasury until the accession of George III. ; and the royal throne still remains at the head of the table.” {Notes by F. S. Thomas, Record Office.) The Board of Treasury has long ceased to manage the revenue. An interesting series of Treasury Minutes, from 1667 to 1834, is appended to the ” Seventh Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records.”
Some curious relics of the ancient Royal Treasury at Westminster are preserved. Among these are a skippet, or turned box, of the time of Edward III., and a smaller hamper, or hanaper of twyggyt, of
the succeeding reign. Both were used for the preservation of title-deeds of the Crown. The skippets were packed away in an outside chest, or forcer, a cist, or coffer, of all which specimens have been found in the Pyx Chamber, at Westminster ; the storehouse of the Royal Treasury, from the period when the reigning Sovereign occupied the palace close at hand. The forcer is nearly round, made of stout leather, bound with small bars of iron ; the cist is also iron-bound. The Royal plate and jewels were usually deposited in the former. In the reign of Edward I. the Treasury was plundered of these valuables, in addition to lOO.OCKM., upwards of 2,000,0004. of our present money.
Next is Downing-street, ” between King-street E. and no thorow fair West.” {Hattori). It was named from Sir George Downing, Bart., a political ” sider with all times and changes,” who, after serving Cromwell, became Secretary to the Treasury under Charles II., 1667. At the Revolution, the property, then belonging to Lee, Lord Lichfield, was forfeited to the Crown. The largest house was, temp. George I., the office of the Hanoverian minister, Baron Bothmar, at whose death the mansion was given by the King to Sir Robert Walpole, who, in 1735, would only accept it for his office of First Lord of the Treasury, to which post he got it annexed for ever.” {Mdes Walpoliance.) It has accordingly since been the official residence of successive prime ministers : here Lady Hester Stanhope received Mr. Pitt’s guests : but the rooms are ill adapted for State assemblies. The adjoining house was purchased within the present century, for the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and Office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. To this cul-de-sac a street of smaller houses was added : the south side was taken down in 1828 : at the corner next King-street was the noted Cat and Bagpipes, used as a chop-house in early life by George Rose, subsequently Secretary of the Treasury, and the originator of Savings-banks. — See ” The Last Days of Downing-street,” in Walks and Talks about London, 1865.
In one of the above mansions, in 1763, died Aubrey de Vere, last Earl of Oxford. In the street lived, in 1723, John Boyle, Earl of Orrery, the friend of Swift, and contributor to The World and ConTtoiseeur. Here resided Boswell, the biographer of Johnson; and Lord Sheffield, the friend of Gibbon, the historian. In the Colonial Office, No. 14 in the street, in a small waiting-room on the right hand as you entered, the Duke of Wellington— then Sir Arthur Wellesley — and Lord Nelson, both waiting to see the Secretary of State, met — the only time in their lives. The Duke knew Nelson from his pictures; Lord Nelson did not know the Duke, but was so struck with his conversation, that he stept out of the room to inquire who he was. Mr. Cunningham relates this meeting, which has been painted and engraved.
The new Government Offices, commenced in 1863, are in course of erection, and are to include the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the Navy Office ; the whole to form a large quadrangle, fronting St. James’ -park, and Parliament-street. The architecture will be of Italianized character; the various fronts will display a large amount of characteristic sculpture. The India Office was so far completed as to have been the site of a magnificent fete given to the Sultan of Turkey, in the summer of 1867.
TRINITY HOUSE, TRINITY-SQUARE, on the north side of Tower Hill, was built by Samuel Wyatt, 1793-5, for the ancient guild founded by Sir Thomas Spert, commander of the great ship Harry Grace de Dieu, and Comptroller of the Navy to King Henry VIII., and incorporated 1515. It was then a guild or fraternity of mariners of England for the encouragement of the science of Navigation ; and was first empowered to build lighthouses and erect beacons by an Act passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Before the charter of Henry VIII. the society was of a purely monastic character, and had been established for kindred but comparatively limited purposes. The office of the Master of the Corporation at various times has been held by princes and statesmen, from 1816, when Lord Liverpool occupied the office of Master, it was held in succession by the Marquis Camden, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV. ; Marquis Camden again, the Duke of Wellington, the Prince Consort, and Viscount Palmerston; the present Master, the Duke of Edinburgh — a period of half a century.
The Corporation has in charge the lighthouses and sea-marks, and the licensing of pilots, tonnage, ballastage, beaconage, &c, producing about 300,000£. a year; the net revenue, about one-fourth, is principally expended in maintaining poor disabled seamen and their widows and orphans, by pensions, in the Corporation hospitals at Deptford-Strond ; which the Master, Deputy-Master, and Brethren visit in their state-yacht, in grand procession, on Trinity Monday. A state banquet has been given annually since the Restoration, when there is a fine display of the ancient plate, some more than 250 years old. The Trinity House is of the Ionic order; upon its principal front are sculptured the arms of the Corporation, medallions of George III. and Queen Charlotte; genii with nautical instruments; the four principal lighthouses on the coast, &c. The interior has busts of Vincent, Nelson, Howe, and Duncan ; W. Pitt and Capt. J. Cotton, by Chantrey ; George III., by Turnerelli, &c. The Court-room is decorated with impersonations of the Thames, Medway, Severn, and Humber ; and among the pictures is a large painting, 20 feet long, by Gainsborough, of the Elder
Brethren of the Trinity House. In the Board-room are portraits of James I. and II., Elizabeth, Anne of Denmark, Earl Craven, Sir Francis Drake, Sir J. Leake, and General Monk ; King William IV., the Prince Consort, and the Duke of Wellington, three of the past Masters ; and George III., Queen Charlotte, and Queen Adelaide.
The arms of the Corporation are, a cross between four ships under sail.
The present is the third House built for the Corporation : the first was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Pepys records : ” Sept. 4, 1 after supper walked in the dark down to Tower-street, and there saw it all on fire ; at the Trinity House on that side, and the Dolphin Tavern on this side.” The second House was erected in Water-lane in 1671, and is described by Hatton as “a stately building of brick and stone, and adorned with ten Dustos.”
TYBURN AND TYBURN TREE.
TYBURN was anciently a manor and village west of London, on the Tybourn or brook, subsequently the Westbourne, the western boundary of the district, now incorporated in the parish of Paddington. This stream (within memory a favourite resort of anglers) is shown descending from the high ground about Hampstead in the maps by Saxton, 1579; Speede, 1610; Seller, 1733; in Morden’s and Seales’s, and in Rocque’s surveys. Upon its bank was the place of execution for criminals convicted in London and Middlesex as early as 1196, when William Fitzosbert, or Longbeard, was executed at Tyburn, as we learn from Roger de Wendover. In 1330, Roger de Mortimer was ” drawn and hanged” at ” the Elms,” described by Holinshed as ” now Tiborne ;” and Elms-lane, Bayswater, is pointed out to this day where the fatal elm grew, and the gentle Tiborne ran :
” Then fatal carts through Holborn seldom went,
And Tyburn with few pilgrims was content.”— Oldham’s Satire, 1682.
Elms-lane is the first opening on the right hand after getting into the Uxbridge-road from the Grand-Junction-road, opposite the head of the Serpentine ; the Serpentine itself being formed in the bed of the ancient stream, first called Tybourn, then Westbourn, then Ranelagh Sewer; while the stream which crossed Oxford-street, west of Stratford-place, first bore the name of Eyebourn, then,
Tybourn, then King’s Scholars’ Pond.— Kobins’s Paddington, 1853, p. 8.
The gallows, ” Tyburn-tree,” was a triangle upon three legs, and is so described in the 16th and 17th centuries. If Mr. Robins’s location of the gibbet be correct, it was subsequently changed ; for in the lease of the house No. 49, Connaught-square (granted by the Bishop of London), the gallows is stated to have stood upon that spot.
In 1811, Dr. Lewis, of Half Moon-street, Piccadilly, was about to erect some houses in Connaught-place (Nos. 6 to 12, I think), and during the excavation for foundations a quantity of human bones was found, with parts of wearing apparel attached thereto. A good many of the bones, say a cart-load, were taken away by order of Dr. Lewis, and buried in a pit dug for the purpose in Connaught-mews. — Communication, by Mr. Charles Lane, to the Times, May 16, 1860.
Smith (Hist. St. Mary-le-Bone) states the gallows to have been for many years a standing fixture on a small eminence at the corner of the Edgvvare-road, near the turnpike, on the identical spot where a tool-house was subsequently erected by the Uxbridge-road Trust. Beneath this place lie the bones of Bradshaw, Ireton, and other regicides, which were taken from their graves after the Restoration, and are stated to have been buried under the gallows.
On May 7, 1860, in the course of some excavation connected with the repair of a pipe in the roadway, close to the foot pavement along the garden of Arklow House, the residence of Mr. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, at the extreme south-west angle of the Edgeware-road, the workmen came upon, numerous human bones, obviously the remains of the unhappy persons buried under the gallows. — Communicated by Mr. Hope to the Times, May 9, 1860.
The gallows subsequently consisted of two uprights and a cross-beam, erected on the morning of execution across the roadway, opposite the house at the corner of Upper Bryanston-street and the Edgware-road, wherein the gibbet was deposited after being used ; and this house had curious iron balconies to the windows of the first and second floors, where the sheriff’s attended the executions. After the place of execution was changed to Newgate in 1783, the gallows was bought by a carpenter, and made into stands for beer-butts in the cellars of the Carpenters’ Arms public-house, hard by.
Formerly, when a person prosecuted for any offence, and the prisoner was executed at Tyburn, the prosecutor was presented with a ticket which exempted him from serving either on juries or any parochial business ; by virtue of the Act 10 and 11 Will. III. This Act was repealed ’by 58 Geo. III. Mr. George Phillips, of Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury, was the last individual who received the Tyburn ticket, for a burglary committed by two housebreakers on his premises. In the autumn of 1856, however, Mr. Pratt, armourer, of Bond-street, claimed and obtained exemption from serving on an Old Bailey jury by reason of his possession of a Tyburn ticket ; the judge probably not remembering the Act which repealed the privileges of the holders of Tyburn tickets.
Around the gibbet (” the fatal retreat for the unfortunate brave”) were erected open galleries like a race-course stand, wherein seats were let to spectators at executions : the key of one of them was kept by Mammy Douglas, ” the Tyburn pew-opener.” In 1758, when Dr. Henesey was to have been executed for treason, the prices of seats rose to 2s. and 2s. 6d. ; but the doctor being ” most provokingly reprieved,” a riot ensued, and most of the seats were destroyed. The criminals were conveyed thither from Newgate : “thief and parson in a Tyburn cart.”— Prologue by Dryden, 1682.
The oldest existing representation of the Tyburn gallows is in a German print in the Crowle Pennant, in the British Museum ; wherein Henrietta-Maria, queen of Charles I., is kneeling in penance beneath the triple tree : it is moonlight ; the confessor is seated in the royal coach, drawn by six horses ; and at the coach-door is a servant bearing a torch. The “pore queene,” it is stated, walked afoot (some say barefoot) from St. James’s to Tyburn, to do homage to the saintship of some recently-executed papists : but this is denied by the Marshal de Bassompierre ; the above print
is of later date than 1628, the year of the reputed pilgrimage, and its authenticity is disbelieved.
Memorable Executions at Tyburn.— 1330 (4th Edw. III.), Roger de Mortimer, for treason ; 1388 (12th Richard II.), Judge Tresilian and Sir N. Brembre, treason; 1499 (14th Hen. VII.), Perkin Warbeck was executed here for plotting his escape from the Tower ; 1534 (24th Hen. VIII.), the Holy Maid of Kent and her confederates; 1535, the last Prior of the Carthusian Monastery (Charter House) ; 1595, Robert Southwell, Elizabethan sacred poet ; 1615, Mrs. Turner, hanged in a yellow-starched ruff, for the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury; 1628, John Felton, assassin of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; 1660-1 (Jan. 30), the first anniversary of the execution of Charles I. after the Restoration : the disinterred bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw hung in their shrouds and cerecloths at each angle of Tyburn gallows till sunset, when they were taken down and beheaded, and the bodies buried under the gallows, the heads being set on Westminster Hall; 1660-62, five persons who had signed the death-warrant of Charles I.; 1684, Sir Thomas Armstrong (Rye House Plot); 1705, John Smith, a burglar, having hung above a quarter of an hour, when a reprieve arrived, be was cut down, and being let blood, came to himself (Hatton, 1708). 1724, Jack Sheppard, housebreaker ; 1725, Jonathan Wild, thief and thief-taker; 1726, Catherine Hayes, for the murder of her husband : she was burnt alive, for the indignant mob would not suffer the hangman to strangle her, as usual, before the fire was kindled.
1760, Earl Ferrers, for the murder of his steward : he rode from the Tower, wearing his wedding-clothes, in his landau drawn by six horses ; he was indulged with a silken rope, and ” the drop” was first used instead of the cart; the executioners fought for the rope, and the mob tore the black cloth from the scaffold as relics ; the landau stood in a coach-house at Acton until it fell to pieces ; and the bill for the silken rope has been preserved. 1767, Mrs. Brownrigg, for murder ; 1774, John Rann (Sixteen-Stringed Jack), highwayman; 1775, the two Perreaus, for forgery; 1777, Rev. Dr. Dodd, forgery; 1779, Rev. James Hackman, assassination of Miss Reav: he was taken from Newgate in a mourning-coach ; 1783, Ryland, the engraver, for forgery; 1783, John Austin, the last person executed at Tyburn.
The road between St. Giles’s Pound and Tyburn gallows was first called Tyburn-road, now Oxford – street ; the lane leading from which to Piccadilly was called Tyburn-lane, now Park-lane. The original turnpike-gate stood close to St. Giles’s Pound ; then at Tyburn, removed in 1825 ; then at Winchester-row j next at Pineapple-place j and next at Kilburn. Strange have been the mutations in which the rural Tybourn “welled forth away” through pleasant fields to the Town, there became linked with the crimes of centuries, and lost in a murky sewer ; but left its name to Tybumia, the newly-built city of palaces north-west of Hyde Park.
In 1785, William Capon made a sketch of Tyburn gallows ; and at the foot of a drawing made by him from this sketch, in 1818, are the following notes :
” View looking across Hyde Park, taken from a one-pair-of-stairs window at the last house at the end of Upper Seymour-street, Edgware-road, facing where Tyburn formerly was. The eastern end of Connaught-place is now built on the very plot of ground, then occupied by a cow-lair, and dust and cinder heaps. The shadow on the right of the Edgware-road is produced by one of the three galleries which were then standing, from which people used to see criminals executed. They were standing in 1785, at which time the original sketch was made from which the picture is done.”
A portion of Tyburn gate exists :
” The arch and door, forming the centre portion of the gate, which was removed about 1825, with the old clock, are still standing at the entrance to a wooden cowshed, on the premises of Mr. Baker, a
farmer at Cricklewood, who bought them at the time when the gate was taken down.” — Curiosities of Clocks and Watches, p. 163. 1866.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
SOMERSET HOUSE, was instituted Nov. 28, 1836, for ” rendering academical honours accessible, without distinction, to every class and every denomination.” The University consists of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, and senate ; and graduates. It is solely an examining body, and confers degrees on the graduates of University College and King’s College, London ; and the colleges not belonging to the other universities ; besides all the medical schools in the empire, and most of the colleges of the Roman Catholics, Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans. The degrees are conferred, and the honours bestowed, in public ; and the senate first met for this purpose on May 1, 1850, in the large hall of King’s College, Somerset House ; the Earl of Burlington, Chancellor of the University, presiding. A new edifice was, in 1867, commenced building for the University in the rear of Burlington House.
WALBROOK,
A NARROW street named from the stream or brook which, rising on the north of Moorfields, entered the City through the walls, between Bishopsgate and Moorgate, and proceeded nearly along the line of the new street of that name; thence, according to Stow, across Lothbury, beneath the kitchen of Grocers’ Hall and St. Mildred’s Church, through Bucklersbury, past the sign of the ” Old Barge” (from Thames barges being rowed up there) ; and thence through the present Walbrook-street, under which it still runs as a sewer, and discharges itself, by a part of Elbow-lane, down Greenwich -lane, into the Thames at Dowgate. The Walbrook was crossed by a bridge connecting Budge-row and Cannon-street, and several other bridges, but was vaulted over with brick, and its banks built upon, long since : so that in Stow’s time the course of Walbrook was ” hidden under ground, and thereby hardly known.”
The brook was navigable not merely to Bucklersbury but as far as Coleman-street, where a Roman boat-hook has been found ; and with it was found a coin of Alectus, who ruled in Britain towards the close of the third century. In forming Prince’s-street, the workmen came upon the course of the brook, which the Romans had embanked with wooden piles ; and the bed was thickly strewn with coins, brass scales,styli, knives, tools, pottery, &c. In Walbrook was one of the three taverns in London licensed to sell sweet wines in the reign of Edward III. Walbrook gives name to the ward : at its north-east corner is St. Stephen’s Church, described at p. 204. Lower down, upon the brook, at Dowgate-hill, was the church of Allhallows the Less, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt ; but its burial-ground, with a solitary altar-tomb, remains. Nearly opposite London Stone, in June, 1852, was unearthed part of the cloister of the church of St. Mary Bothaw, which stood near Walbrook bank at Dow-gate, and was named Boat-haw from being near a yard where boat-building was carried on : in the church was interred Fitzalwin, first Mayor of London. The writer of a quarto History of London, 1805, states that, in 1803, he saw the Wallbrook ” still trickling among the foundations of the new buildings at the Bank.”
WAPPING,
A HAMLET of Stepney, is now a long street extending from Lower East Smithfield, on the north bank of the Thames, to New Crane. It was commenced building in 1571, to secure the manor from the encroachments of the river, which made the whole site a great wash ; the Commissioners of Sewers rightly thinking that ” the tenants would not fail being attentive to their lives and property.” Stow calls it ” Wapping in the Wose,” or Wash.
Here was Execution Sock, “the usual place for hanging of pirates and sea-rovers, at the low-water mark, and there to remain till three tides had overflowed them ; but since the gallows being after removed farther off, a continual street or filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages built, inhabited by sailors’ victuallers, along by the river of Thames almost to Eadcliffe, a good mile from the Tower.”— Stow.
Pennant notes : ” Execution Dock still remains at Wapping, and is in use as often as a melancholy occasion requires. The criminals are to this day executed on a temporary gallows placed at low-water mark ; but the custom of leaving the body to be overflowed by the sea tides has long been omitted.” — London, 5th edit.
In 1703 a destructive fire took place at Execution Dock, by which the sufferers, mostly seamen, sea-artificers, and poor seamen’s widows, lost 13,040Z. And in 1794, a great fire occurred at Wapping, burning 630 houses, and an East India warehouse containing 35,000 bags of saltpetre — the loss was 1,000,000£.
To Wapping, in 1688, Lord Chancellor Jeffreys fled in the disguise of a coal-porter, and was captured in the Med Cow ale-house, in Anchor and Hope-alley, near King Edward’s Stairs. He was identified by a scrivener he had formerly insulted, lolling out of window in all the confidence of misplaced security. (Cunningham.) But at Leather
head, where Jeffreys had a mansion, it is traditionally asserted that he was betrayed by the butler who accompanied him in his flight, for the sake of the reward.
Joseph Ames, F.R.S., author of the Typographical Antiquities, and Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, was a ship-chandler at Wapping, where he died in 1758: ” he was a person of vast application and industry in collecting old printed hooks, prints, and other curiosities, both natural and artificial.” (Cole.) John Day, with whom originated “Fairlop Fair,” in Hainault Forest, was a block and a pump maker at Wapping. Here the first Fuchsia brought to England from the West Indies, being seen by Mr. Lee, the nurseryman, became, in the next flowering season, the parent of 300 fuchsia-plants, which Lee sold at one guinea each.
Wapping is noted, as in Stow’s time, for its nautical signs, its ship and boat builders, rope-makers, biscuit-bakers and provision-dealers ; mast, oar, and block makers ; ship-chandlers and sail-makers : and the name Wapping was probably derived from the ship’s rope called a veapp ; or from wapin-schaw, a periodical exhibition of arms, which may formerly have been held upon this open ground. In the list of subscribers to Wren’s Parentalia, 1750, is ” The Mathematical Society of Wapping ;” and nautical instrument makers are said to have abounded here.
Among the thirty-six taverns and public-houses in Wapping High-street and Wapping Wall, we find the signs- of the Ship and Pilot, Ship and Star, Ship and Punch-bowl, Union Flag and Punch-bowl, the Gun, North American Sailor, Golden Anchor, Anchor and Hope, the Ship, Town of Bamsgate, Queen’s Landing, Ship and Whale, the Three Mariners, and the Prospect of Whitby.
Between Nos. 288 and 304 are ” Wapping Old Stairs,” in Wapping-street, on the western side of the church ; but the wood-built wharf and house fronts towards the river are fast disappearing.
Strype relates that ” on Friday, the 24th of July, 1629, King Charles having hunted a stag or hart from Wanstead, in Essex, killed him in Nightingale-lane, in the hamlet of Wapping, in a garden belonging to one , who had some damage among his herbs, by reason of the multitude of people there assembled suddenly.”
The village of Radcliffe, to which Wapping joins, is of some antiquity. From hence the gallant Sir Hugh Willoughby, on May the 20th, 1553, took his departure on his fatal voyage for discovering the north-east passage to China. He sailed with great pomp by Greenwich, where the Court then lay. Mutual honours were paid on both sides. The council and courtiers appeared at the windows, the people covered the shores. The young King alone lost the noble and novel sight ; for he then lay on his death-bed ; so that the principal object of the parade was disappointed. — LZakluyt, i. 239. Pennant’s London, 5th edit.
WATLING STREET,
COMMENCING at the north-east corner of St. Panl’s-churchyard, and formerly extending through Budge-row and Cannon-street, is considered to have been the principal street of Roman London, and ” one of the four grand Roman ways in Britain ;”* as well as a British road before the arrival of the Romans : ” with the Britons it was a forest-lane or trackway ; with the Romans it became a stratum, street or raised road, constructed according to their well-known manner.” (A. J. Kempe, Archeeologia, xxvi. 467.)
The Watling-street Thistle {Eryngium eampestre) is named from this ancient road being its only known habitat in England. — Baker’s Northamptonshire Glossary, ii. 386. Watling-street, part of which remains, is one of the narrowest and most inconvenient streets in the metropolis :
“Who would of Watling-street the dangers share,
When the broad pavement of Cheapside is near?”
— Gay’s Trivia.
The Romans made it part of their grand route from the point of their invasion, through a portion of Kent and the north-eastern corner of Surrey, and thence from Stoney -street over the Thames to Dowgate, north of the river, by the present Watling-street, to Aldersgate ; where, quitting the City, it ran along Goswell-street to the west of Islingtou, through Hagbush-lane (the road in part remains), to Verulamium, or St. Albans. Dr. Stukeley, however, maintains that the old Watling-street did not enter London, but, in its course from Verulam, crossed the Oxford-road at Tyburn, and thence ran over part of Hyde Park, and by May Fair through St. James’s Park, to the Wool-staple at Westminster, and crossed the Thames by Stanegate-ferry, through St. George’s Fields, and south of the Lock Hospital, Ivent-street, to Deptford and Blackheath. Stukeley adds : ” as London increased, passengers went through the City by Cannon-street, Watling-street, and Holborn, this being a vicinal branch of Watling-street.” Wren, however, considers it to have been the centre or Praetorian way of the old Roman station ; the principal gate being at Eastcheap. In 1853, in excavating Budge-row, there was discovered a fragment of Roman wall.
In a folio Map of Middlesex, by Bowen, 1709, a Roman road appears from the corner of the Tottenham-court-road, where the Hampstead-road and the Euston-road now meet, running through what must now be the Regent’s Park, uniil it reaches Edgware, and thence to Brockley Hills, called Sulloniacse, an ancient city in Antonine’s Itinerary. In this Map, or in another with the same route, Watling-street is printed upon the highway that leads to Tyburn Turnpike, in a manner to show the whole of that distance is meant. The Roman road from Tottenham Court, after making its appearance in a variety of other maps, up to a certain date, about 1780, is nowhere to be found since in any of the Middlesex Maps. It is, however, certain that the part of Watling-street crossing Oxford-street at Tyburn, must have led to Edgware.
” Watling-street crossed the Walbrook by a bridge at the junction of Cannon-street and Budge-row, and then branching off at London Stone, in Cannon-street, ran along the Langbourne to Aldgate ; whilst a smaller road ran from the ferry at Dowgate towards Cripplegate, one of the three City gates during the Roman rule. Enough of remains of houses have been found in Budge-row and Watling-street to show that the rudiments of a street, in continuation of the line from Aldgate, existed on the west side of the brook.” — National Miscellany, No. 6.
This street, says Leland, was formerly called Atheling (or Nolle) street, from being near the Old Change, where the Mint formerly was; and afterwards, corruptly, Watheling and Waiting street : but from this Stow dissents. By another, Watling ’ is traced to the ancient British words, gwaith, work, and lea, legion, whence gwaith-lea — i.e., legion work (Gent. Mag. 1796). Dr. Jamieson states it to have been “called by the Romans Via Laetea (Milky Way), from its fancied resemblance to a broad street, or causeway, being as it were paved with stars.” Moxon, in his Tutor to Astronomy, 1670, describing the Milky Way, observes : ” some, in a sporting manner, call it Watling-street ; but why they call it so I cannot tell, except it be in regard to the narrowness itseemeth to have,” which narrowness is now contrasted with the fine broad thoroughfare of Cannon-street West. We must make room for a few more etymons of this much disputed word :
” The two words Watling Street are compounded of three English roots, which are identical with the Anglo-Saxon roots waetling-straet. No etymology hitherto advanced approximates so near, or is so significant or appropriate as this. We have to bear in mind that long before embankment and drainage were attended to in this country, the meadows (ings) were flooded after rain; and the mode of passing along the streets (the straight or direct ways), where such impediment occurred, was by wattles or hurdles, called by the French fascines, and which are now used for the same purpose in military operations. With so clear an etymological deduction, we can dispense with Hoveden’s strata quamfilii regis Welhlae straverunt (Annates, 342), with Camden’s Vitellianus, in British Ouetalin, and even with Thierry’s Ghwydd-elin-sarn, Road of the Gaels or Irish (Norman Conquest, i. 165), which are the only other etymologies deserving attention. It is to be noted that Anglo-Saxon names were given to works already “ancient, when such names were imposed.” — T. J. Buckton, Notes and Queries, 2nd S., vii.
The following is considered a good derivation: the name a Saxon corruption of the Cymric Gwydelinsarn (the way of the Gael), so called because it led to the country of the Gwyddyl — Ireland.
It is much more probable that it was the work of that people during its dominancy in South Britain ; just as were the houses whose ruins, two centuries ago, were called by the Welsh the houses of the Gael. (Thierry’s Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 2, note. Notes and Queries, 2nd S., No. 40.)
It is also suggested to have been called by corruption only Yitellin, or Watling-street, from the name of Vitellianus.
Mr. T. Reveley, of Kendal, suggests that the Romans probably employed brushwood in forming the foundations of their roads, and may have wattled it to give it greater consistency; and that the name had been given to the several roads so called by the Anglo-Saxons from the wattling, the remains of which they had found. It would thus be synonymous with the name Wicker-street, which occurs in the tenth Antonine Itinerary. — Proc. Soc. Antiq., vol. iv. p. 256.
Watling-street has been, since Stow’s time, inhabited by ” wealthy drapers, retailers of woollen cloths, both broad and narrow, of all sorts.” Hatton describes it as ” much inhabited by wholesale grocers, tobacconists, and other great dealers.” Several of the new buildings in Cannon-street are mansion-like warehouses. At the. east end are
immense warehouses of the Manchester and silk trades j the German bronze and Bohemian glass trades ; the pin and needle trade ; and about the centre the paper trade.
Near St. Swithin’s-lane, are the wholesale tea and grocery and spice trades. Here, too, are leading houses of the shipping-trade, and Colonial Banks and Assurance Companies. Messrs. Lawrence and Sons (Alderman W. Lawrence, Lord Mayor, 1863-4) are the builders of several of these noble piles, and are the ground-landlords. Here is the
City station of the South-Eastern Railway.
The water-front towers of the Station have gilded metal finials, with weather-vanes and arms. The edifice, with its vast arch, its spacious platforms, its ten lines of rails, its broad carriage-way, and, at the end, the handsome inner front of the hotel, and the flank erections, is probably the finest station in London. The elaborate apparatus of the Cannon-street signal-box stretches across nearly the entire width of the roadway, and has above the roof 24 semaphore arms, and 16 lamps showing red, green,
and white lights. The switches which work the points and signals are adjusted in a metal frame in one straight line, and are an admirable and elaborate piece of mechanism. The levers, 67 in number, are coloured yellow, white, black, blue, and red, and numbered progressively by circular brass plates on their fronts. The yellow levers work the distance signals, and are nine in number; the white, of which there are three, are indicators, and relate to the station ; the black levers, of which there are 30, work the points, which appear very complicated, there being as many as 12 pairs of rails passing under the signal box.
The blue levers work the semaphore arms for trains outward; and the red levers, 16 in number, signal the train inwards.
WAXWORK SHOWS.
THE oldest Exhibition of Wax-work in England of which we have any record was that at Westminster Abbey, called ” the Play of the Dead Volks,” and ” the Ragged Regiment,” shown by the keeper of the tombs. From a passage in a rhyming account of the tombs in Westminster Abbey, in the Mysteries of Love and Eloquence, 1658, it would appear that at that time the following were the waxen figures exhibited in the presses :—
” Henry the Seventh, and his fair Queen,
JEdtcard the First, and his Queen ;
Henry the Fifth here stands upright,
And his fair Queen was this Queen.
” The noble prince, Prince Henry,
King James’s eldest son ;
King James, Queen Anne, Queen Elizabeth,
And so this chapel’s done.”
In Peacham’s Worth of a Penny, 1667, we read : ” For a penny you may hear a most eloquent oration upon our English kings and queens, if, keeping your hands off, you will seriously listen to David Owen, who keeps the monuments in Westminster.”
Of the wax-work we find the following account in a description of the Abbey, ” its monuments and curiosities,” ” printed for J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1754 :”
” Over this chapel (Islip, otherwise St. Erasmus) is a chantry in which are two large wainscot presses full of the effigies of princes and others of high quality, buried in this Abbey. These effigies resembled the deceased as near as possible, and were wont to be exposed at the funerals of our princes and other great personages in open chariots, with their proper ensigns of royalty or honour appended. Those that are here laid up are in a sad mangled condition; some stripped, and others in tattered robes, but all maimed or broken. The most ancient are the least injured, by which it would seem as if the costliness of their clothes had occasioned this ravage; for the robes of Edward VI., which were once of crimson velvet, but now appear like leather, are left entire ; but those of Q. Elizabeth and K. James the First are entirely stript, as are all the rest, of every thing of value. In two handsome wainscot presses are the effigies of K. William and Q. Mary, and Q. Anne, in good condition, and greatly admired by every eye that beholds them.” The figure of Cromwell is not here mentioned ; but in the account of his lying-in-state, the effigies is described as made to the life, in wax, apparelled in velvet, gold lace, and ermine. This figure was laid upon the bed-of-state, and carried upon the hearse in the funeral procession ; both were then deposited in Westminster Abbey : but at the Restoration, the hearse was broken in pieces, and the effigies was destroyed after hanging from a window at Whitehall.
Under date of 1761, Horace Walpole complains that ” the Chapter of Westminster sell their church over and over again : the ancient monuments tumble upon one’s head through their neglect, as one of them did, and killed a man, at Lady Elizabeth Percy’s funeral ; and they erect new waxen dolls of Queen Elizabeth, &c., to draw visits and money from the mob.”
In the Picture of London, 1806, the collection is described as ” a variety of figures in wax, in cases with glass doors, which are shown as curious to the stranger •” their exhibition was continued until 1839.
Nollekens, the sculptor, used to describe the collection as ” the wooden figures, with wax masks, all in silk tatters, that the Westminster boys called ’ the Bagged Regiment ;’ and carried before the corpse formerly ; kept in narrow closets between the wax figures of Queen Elizabeth and Lord Chatham in his robes ; in Bishop Islip’s Chapel, where you have seen the stained glass of a boy slipping down a tree, a slip of a tree, and the eye slipping out of its socket.”
New Exchange, Strand, was also noted for its Wax-work shows.
Mes. Salmon’s Wax-work, in Fleet-street, is described earlier. The minor Exhibitions of wax-work are too numerous to mention ; but we may instance a collection of figures shown at the Queen’s Bazaar, Oxford-street, in 1830; and Dubourg’s Mechanical Exhibition, in Windmill-street, Haymarket; as admirable specimens of foreign ingenuity in wax-modelling. To these may be added the lifelike and spirited figures of costumed natives of Mexico, and American Indians, modelled in wax with surprising minuteness and artistic feeling ooth in the position and grouping, varied expression, and anatomical development; cnese figures, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, gained for their artist, N. Montanari, a prize medal.
Madame Tussaud and Son’s Collection, Baker-street, Portman-square, is stated to be the oldest exhibition in Europe. It was commenced on the Boulevard du Temple at Paris in 1780, and was first shown in London, at the Lyceum, Strand, in 1802. It now consists of upwards of 300 figures in wax, in the costume of their time, and several in the dresses which they actually wore ; besides a large collection of paintings and sculpture, arranged in superb saloons.
Madame Tussaud was born at Berne, in Switzerland, in 1760. When a child she was taught to model figures in wax, by her uncle M. Curtius, at whose house she often dined with Voltaire, Rousseau, Dr. Franklin, Mirabeau, and La Fayette, of whose heads she took casts. She taught drawing and modelling to the Princess Elizabeth, and many of the French noblesse, just before the Revolution of 1789. She also modelled in wax Robespierre, Marat, and Danton ; and often took models of heads severed on the scaffold. Thus she commenced her collection of royalists, revolutionists, generals, authors and men of science, and distinguished ladies ; with which she came to London in 1802. She has left her Memoirs and Reminiscences, published in 1838 ; a very curious narrative of the old French
Revolution, and its leading characters en costume. Madame Tussaud died in London, 15 April, 1850, aged 90 ; her mother lived to the same age, her grandmother to 104, and her great-grandmother to 111.
The Tussaud Collection not only contains fine specimens of modelling in wax, but a curious assemblage of costume and personal decoration, memorials of celebrated characters, historical groups, &c. Among the most noteworthy are the costumed recumbent effigies of the Duke of Wellington; a group of Henry VIII. and his six queens ; Edward VI. and Henry VII. ; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert ; the Prince and Princess of Wales ; the Prince and Princess of Hesse ; and the rest of the Royal Family ; Alexander Emperor of Russia, taken from life, in England, in 1814 ; Napoleon Bonaparte, from life, in 1815 ; Louis XVI., his queen and children, modelled from life, in 1790, and exhibited at La Petite Trianon ; Lord Nelson, the cast taken from his face ; the beautiful Madame l’Amaranthe ; Madame Tussaud, taken by herself, William Cobbett, very like ; Madame Grisi as Lucrezia Borgia ; Richard III., from the portrait at Arundel Castle ; Voltaire (taken from life a few mouths before his death), and a Coquette of the same period, both admirably characteristic ; Loushkin, the Russian giant, 8 feet 5 inches high ; Jenny Lind, very like ; Sir Walter Scott, modelled by Madame Tussaud, in Edinburgh, in 1828 ; the Empress Eugenie and the Prince Imperial of France ; Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico ; Garibaldi, Count Cavour, Poerio, Antonelli, and Count Bismarck ; Presidents Lincoln and Johnson (United States) ; Queen Victoria (recently added). The sovereigns of the world, heroes and statesmen, are well-timed additions.
Hall of Kings. — Kings and Queens of England, since the Conquest, thirty-six in number ; the costumes and ornaments worn at the various periods, copied from historical authorities, by Mr. Francis Tussaud and assistants. This series has proved an especially attractive addition. The celebrities of the reigns are added ; as Wicklifie, Wykeham, Chaucer, Caxton, Shakspeare, &c. The ceiling of the Hall of Kings is painted by Sir James Thornhill. Here are portraits of Queen Victoria (Hayter); Prince Albert (Patten); George IV. (Lawrence); William IV. (Simpson); George III. and Queen Charlotte (Reynolds) ; George II. (Hudson) ; Louis XIV. (Parosel). Also a group of figures of Queen Victoria (the throne from Carlton Palace) ; the Queen Dowager, the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge, and the Princess Augusta, in Coronation robes; George III. taken from life in 1809 ; William IV. as Lord High Admiral.
In the richly-gilt chamber adjoining is George IV. in his Coronation Robe, which, with two other robes, contain 567 feet of velvet and embroidery, and cost 18,000£. : the chair is the homage-chair, used at the Coronation; and the crown and sceptre, orb, orders, &c, are copies from the actual regalia. Here is a large picture of the Birth of Venus, by Boucher ; and of the Marriage of George IV., with many portraits.
Napoleon Relics. — The camp-bedstead on which Napoleon died ; the counterpane stained with his blood. Cloak worn at Marengo. Three eagles taken at Waterloo.
Cradle of the King of Rome. Bronze posthumous cast of Napoleon, and hat worn by him. Whole-length portrait of the Emperor, from Fontainebleau ; Marie Louise and Josephine, and other portraits of the Bonaparte family. Bust of Napoleon, by Canova.
Isabey’s portrait table of the Marshals. Napoleon’s three carriages : two from Waterloo, and a landau from St. Helena. His garden chair and drawing-room chair.
” The flag of Elba.” Napoleon’s sword, diamond, tooth-brush, and table-knife; dessert knife, fork, and spoons ; coffee-cup ; a piece of willow-tree from St. Helena ; shoe-socks and handkerchiefs, shirt, &c. Model figure of Napoleon in the clothes he wore at Longwood; and porcelain dessert-service used by him. Napoleon’s hair and tooth, &c.
Miscellaneous Relics. — Nelson’s Order of the Bath, and coat worn at the Nile.
Snuff-box of James II. Shirt worn by Henry IV. of France when stabbed by Ravaillac (from Cardinal Mazarin’s collection). Coat and waistcoat of the Duke of ’Wellington, given to Haydon, the painter. Model of Longwood, St. Helena.
The Chamber of Horrors contains portrait figures of the murderers Rush and the Mannings, Good and Greenacre, Courvoisier and Gould, Burke and Hare ; Dumollard and his wife, believed to have murdered seventeen or eighteen persons ; Nana Sahib ; George Townley. Pierri, Pianori, and Orsini, who attempted to assassinate the Emperor of the French. William Palmer and Catherine Wilson, the poisoners. Oxford and Francis, who shot at Queen Victoria. Franz Miiller, murderer ; Fieschi and the infernal-machine ; Marat, taken immediately after his assassination ; heads of French Revolutionists ; the knife and lunette used in decapitating 22,000 persons in the first French Revolution, purchased from M. Sanson, the grandson of the original executioner, now residing in Paris. Also a model of the guillotine, &c. ; this being a class of models in which Madame Tussaud excelled in her youth. Admission to the general collection, Is. ; Chamber of Horrors, 6d. Music, instrumental, in the evening.
The Oriental and Turkish Mitsettsi, Knightsbridge, opened 1854, contained models from Eastern life, with costumes, arms, and implements ; set scenes of Turkish baths, coffee- shops and bazaars, a wedding, repasts, and councils; the palace, the harem, and the divan ; street scenes, &c. ; the figures were modelled in wax, by James Boggi, with wonderful variety of expression and character.
WESTMINSTER.
THE general title of the western portion of the metropolis, but properly applying only to the City of Westminster, or ” the parish of St. Margaret, including the ecclesiastical district of St. John the Evangelist ; the other parishes constituting the Liberties of Westminster.” {Rev. M. E. C. Walcott.) It is named from the founding of St. Peter’s Minster on Thorney Island in the seventh century, which was called West Minster to distinguish it from St. Paul’s, the church of the East Saxons : thus the town grew up around the monastery from which it took its name. The island site, ” formed by the rude channel worn by the river tides,” in a charter of King Offa, a.d. 785, is called ” Torneia in loco terribili, quod dicitur set. Westmunster.” King Edgar’s charter describes Westminster to extend from Fleet Ditch, next the City of London, to the Military Way, now the Horseferry-road ; and from Ty bourn and Holbourne to the Thames. Subsequently, the boundary of the City of London was extended from Fleet Ditch to Temple Bar.
Thorney Island, 470 yards long and 370 yards broad, was insulated by a small stream, called in modern times Long Ditch, which has been traced from the Thames at Manchester-buildings, across King-street by Gardener’s-lane, by Prince’s-street (where it is the common sewer), to Tothill-street, and thence to the Thames at the end of Abingdon-street.
” This island comprised the precinct of the Abbey and Palace, which were further defended by lofty stone walls : those on the east and south of the College gardens being the last remains of such defences of a later date. They were pierced with four gateways : the first in King-street; the second near New Palace-yard, the foundations of which were seen in December a.d. 1838, in excavating for a sewer ; the third opening into Tothill-street; and the fourth near the mill in College-street. The precinct was entered by two bridges : one crossed the water of Long Ditch, at the east end of Gardener’s-lane having been built by Queen Matilda, the consort of King Henry I., for foot passensers ; the other still exists at the east end of College-street, underneath the pavement, — it connected Millbank with Dirty-lane.” — Walcott’s Westminster, p. 3.
Westminster, like Chelsea, Lambeth, and all the low-lying western districts of London, stands upon gravels and sands of a depth of 25 to 30 feet, with a breadth of from two to two and a-half miles, overlying a thick stratum of London clay. In the Westminster gravels mammalian remains are frequently found. From the sandy beds abutting against the abrupt line of London clay in excavations for sewers in St. James’s-square, and for the foundations of the Junior United Service Club, Charles-street, Haymarket, tusks, teeth, and bones of the elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, ox, &c, were obtained, specimens of some of which are preserved carefully at the above-named club.— S. W. Mylne, F.&.S.
In Domesday-Book, Westminster is designated a village, with about 50 holders of land, and ” pannage for a hundred hogs,” probably in part of the forest of Middlesex, on the north-west ; so that the Liberty of Westminster thus early extended northward to Tyburn : the whole of the Abbey and Palace precinct, south of Pall Mall, was called by the Normans, ” Thorney Island and tout le champ.” In Domesday, also, occurs ” the vineyard lately made by Baynard,” a nobleman that came in with William the Conqueror. Westward, the parish of St. Margaret’s extends to Chelsea, and includes Kensington Palace. In 1174, Fitzstephen describes the Royal Palace as about two miles westward of the City of London, with an intervening suburb of gardens and orchards. Around the Old Palace the courtiers and nobility fixed their town residences.
The establishment of the Woolstaple at Westminster made it the early resort of merchants ; the Law Courts were fixed here, and thenceforth Parliaments were more frequently held ; and in the reign of Henry VIII., Westminster obtained the title of City, from its having been for a short time the residence and see of a bishop. St. Martin’s-in-the- Fields became a parish 1353-61.
Early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, about 1560, a plan shows Westminster united to London by a double line of buildings, extending from the palace of Whitehall (built by Henry III.), by Charing Cross and along the Strand. Around Westminster Abbey and Hall, the buildings formed a town of several streets ; and at the close of Charles II.’s reign they had extended westward along the south side of St. James’s Park; and southward along Millbank to the Horseferry opposite Lambeth Palace. In the reign of Elizabeth, Westminster was the abode of great numbers of felons, masterless men, and cutpurses ; and in the next reign, ” almost every fourth house was an alehouse, harbering all sorts of lewd and badde people.” To the church of St. Margaret (originally built by Edward the Confessor) was added, in 1728, St. John’s near Millbank ; and in 1747 was completed Westminster Bridge. The old streets were so narrow, that ” opposite neighbours might shake hands out of the windows ;” and a knot of wretched lanes and alleys were called ” the desert of Westminster.” Among the old Westminster signs, mentioned in the parish-books, are The Rose (the Tudor badge) ; The Lamb and the Saracen’s Head (Crusades) ; and The White Hart (Richard II.), to this day the sign of Elliot’s Brewery at Pimlico. Westminster is governed by a High-Steward and a High-Bailiff. The first High-Steward was the great Lord Burghley. The City has returned two members to Parliament since 1 Edward VI. Abingdon-street has been built in place of Dirty-lane. Almonry, the {see p. 6), has disappeared. St. Anne’s-lane, named from the Chapel of the Mother of Our Lady, was part of the orchard and fruit-gardens of the Abbey. Henry Purcell and Dr. Heather, the famous musicians, lived here. Artillery-place was the ground for the men of Westminster’s shooting at ” the butts ;” and early in the last century it was ” made use of by those who delight in military exercises.”
Barton-street was built by Barton Booth, the celebrated actor ; and Cowley -street is named from Cowley, in Middlesex, where Booth resided. Broadway, west of Tothill-street, was granted as a hay-market by James I. and Charles II. Here were ” the White Horse and Black Morse Inns j there being none in the parish of St. Margaret at Westminster for stage-coaches, waggons, or carriers.” (Survey, circ. 1700.) In one of the Broadway courts lodged Turpin, the highwayman ; and from his mare, Black Bess, a tavern took its sign. In the Broadway lived Sir John Hill, the empiric, of physic-garden fame. (See Cheistchttech, Broadway, p. 156.)
Canon-row formerly extended from the Woolstaple northward to the south wall of the orchard of Whitehall. It is named from the dean and canons of St. Stephen’s Chapel lodging there.
“’Twas the old way when the King of England had his house, there were canons to sing service in his chapel ; so at Westminster i3 St. Stephen’s Chapel (where the House of Commons sits) from which canons the street called Canon-row has its name, because they lived there.” — Selden’s Table-talk.
It has been vulgarly called Channel-row, and in our time Cannon-row. Upon the site of the canon’s houses were built several mansions, the gardens of which reached to the
Thames : for one of these the Comptroller of the Household of Edward VI. paid only 30,?. annually. Here Anne Duchess of Somerset, sister-in-law to Queen Katherine Parr, built a stately house, wherein Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Was born in 1590 : upon this site is Dorset-court. In 1618, William Earl of Derby built here a mansion, which was surrendered to Parliament temp. Charles I. ; and here died, in 1643, John Pym, their patriotic leader : the house was temporarily, in the reign of Charles II., the Admiralty Office ; it occupied the site of Derby-court. In Canon-row lived Lady Wheler, to whom Charles I., two days before his execution, sent, by his attendant Herbert, a token-ring : the lady handed him a cabinet, with which he returned to the King, who opened it on the morning of his execution j it contained diamonds and jewels, most part broken Georges and garters: “You see,” said he, “all the wealth now in my power to give my children.” Here is the Office of the Board of Control for the Affairs of India, originally built for the Ordnance Office, by William Atkinson : ” the Ionic portico of this chaste and fine building is one of the best proportioned and best applied in the metropolis” (Elmes). Manchester-buildings occupy the site of a mansion of the Montagues, Earls of Manchester. Charles-street : at No. 19 lived Ignatius Sancho, a negro, who had been butler to the Duke of Montague, and gave his last shilling to see Garrick play Richard III. Here Garrick and Sterne visited him ; and Mortimer, the painter, often consulted him.
Dean’s-yard, south-west of the Abbey, has a green, or playground, for the Westminster Scholars, whereon have played, in “careless childhood,” Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Cowley, Dryden, Nat. Lee, Rowe, Prior, Churchill, Dyer, Cowper, and Southey; Hakluyt, the voyager; Sir Christopher Wren, Locke, South, Atterbury, Warren Hastings, and Gibbon. In Dean’s-yard lived Sir Symonds d’Ewes, the antiquary, who delighted in bell-ringing. Bishop Wilcocks, whom Pope Clement VIII. called ” the blessed heretic,” was born in Dean’s-yard in 1673 ; in the cloisters, in 1708, died the excellent Bishop Beveridgej Carte, the Jacobite historian, lived in Dean’s-yard, where Mrs. Porter, Gibbon’s aunt, built and occupied a boarding-house.
In Little Dean’s-yard is Ashburnham House, described at p. 444. Downing-street is described at p. 807. Duke-street, “a spacious and pleasant street between St. James’s Park N., and Long Ditch S., mostly (especially the W. side) inhabited by persons of quality ” (Satton, 1708). In a house facing Charles-street lived the poet Prior. Bishop Stillingfleet, author of Origines Britannica, died here 1699 ; Archbishop Hutton, 1758 ; and Dr. Arnold, the musical composer, 1802. Dtjke-stbeet Chapel is described at p. 210.* At the corner of the south end of Delahay-street and Great George-street lived Lady Augusta Murray, ” Duchess of Sussex.”
The chapel was a portion of the magnificent house built for Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, upon a plot of ground which he obtained by grant from Charles II., on the east side of St. James’s I’ark. “As soon as the building was completed, the architect, of course, called upon him for payment, but was put off; he called again and again, but never could see him, and was often repulsed from his gate by the porter, with rudeness and ill language. The general character and despotic power of Jeffreys prevented the architect from taking any legal steps in the business, till Jeffreys’ power began to wane.
Fludyer-street, between King-street and St. James’s Park, was named from Sir Samuel Fludyer, Bart., the ground-landlord, who, when lord-major in 1761, entertained George III. and Queen Charlotte at Guildhall. Fludyer-street occupied the site of Axe-yard, from the Axe brewhouse, named in a document 23 Hen. VIII. Pepys had a house here. Fludyer-street has been taken down for the site of the new Government offices.
Gardener’ ’s-lane extends from Duke-street to King-street : here died, in 1677, Wenceslaus Hollar, the celebrated engraver, aged 70, at the moment when he had an execution in his house ; he desired of the sheriffs officers ” only the liberty of dying in his bed, and that he might not be removed to any other prison but his grave” (Oldys). He was buried in the New Chapel yard, near the place of his death ; and no monument was erected to his memory. Hollar engraved 2400 prints, and worked for the booksellers at 4d. per hour ; yet his finest prints bring rare prices. The Gatehouse is described earlier. Great George-street, named from the House of Hanover, was completed in 1750 : the site was an arm of the Thames, when the tide flowed up from Bridge-street to the canal in St. James’s Park. Here was Storey’s Gate, named from Edward Storey, who constructed the decoys in St. James’s Park for Charles II., and who lived upon the site : this gate was taken down in 1854. At No. 15, Great George-street, died Lord Chancellor Thurlow, 1806. At No. 25 (then Sir Edward Knatchbull’s) the body of Lord Byron lay in state two days, before it was removed, July 12, 1824, for interment at Hucknall, Notts. No. 25, Great George-street, has a handsome architectural front, and is now the Institution of Civil Engineers (see Libraries, p. 517 ; and Museums, p. 592). At No. 24 the Reform Club was commenced ; and here subsequently lived Alderman Sir Matthew Wood, Bart., M.P.
At the corner of the street, facing St. Margaret’s Churchyard, is the magnificent Buxton Memorial Drinking Fountain, described earlier.
Horseferry (the) is described earlier.
James-street is described earlier. It was partly taken down in 1854 for the Pimlico improvements, and the offices of the Duchy of Cornwall.
In 1763 there were but few houses in James-street, and none behind it; nor any filthy courts betwen Petty France and the Park ; nor any buildings in Palmer’s Village, or in Tothill-uclds, or on the Artillery-ground, or to the south of Market-street.— Bardwell.
King-street was the principal street of Westminster temp. Henry VIII., with Cockpit-gate at the north end, and High-gate south. Here the poet Spenser died ” for lake of bread,” in an obscure lodging, Jan. 16, 1599 ; here also died Sir Thomas Knevett, who seized Guy Fawkes. Cromwell lived here when member of Parliament, north of Blue Boar’s Head-yard. Dr. Sydenham lived upon the site of Barn’s Mews.
Near the south end, on the west side, was Thieven- (Thieves) lane* the passage for thieves to the Gatehouse prison, so that they might not escape into the Sanctuary.
The roadway was so bad, that faggots were thrown into the ruts to facilitate the passage of the state-coach when the Sovereign went to Parliament. Here, at the Bell Tavern, met the October (Queen Anne) Club. Here lodged the poet Carew, who wrote the masque of Caelum Britannicum for Charles I. Through King-street, Elizabeth and James and Charles I. proceeded to the Houses of Parliament in their state-coaches ; and the republicans of Cromwell’s days on foot and horseback. After the burning of Whitehall Palace, a broader road was made by Parliament-street. Cromwell, when he went to Ireland in 1649, took horse at his house in King-street.
Cromwell lived on the west side of the street, in a house, the precise situation of which is thus preserved in a communication to Cunningham’s Handbook of London, 1850 : — upon the first flight of King James. He then made his way into Jeffreys’ study, saw him, and pressed for his money in very urgent terms. Jeffreys appeared all humble and much confused, made many apolosdes for not settling the matter before, said he had many weighty affairs pressing on his mind at that time ; but if he would call the Tuesday following it should be finally settled. The architect went away after this promise: but between that and Tuesday, Jeffreys, in endeavouring to make his escape from England, was found out, reviled, and much bruised by the populace.” — European Magazine, 1795, p. 2A8. Part of the then ” magnificent house” is No. 23, Duke-street, with passage and steps leading to the chapel and park. There, after the terrible judge’s sudden fall, as Macaulay tells us, the exultant rabble congregated, and read on the door, with shouts of laughter, the bills which announced the sale of his property.
” Shortly before the great Trial, in 1838, between the parish of St. Margaret and the inhabitants of Privy-gardens, a very rigid examination of the old parochial rate-books took place; and in one of them Lieutenant-General Oliver Cromwell was found rated for a house in King-street, which was ascertained, with as much certainty as the extensive alterations in the vicinity would admit, to be one of two very ancient tenements lying between the north side of the gateway entrance to Blue Boar’s Head-yard and the wall of Rams’-mews ; and there was strong ground for believing that the two ancient tenements had originally been one. These tenements, as well as the Blue Soar’s Head public-house, situated on the south side of the gateway, and a portion of the stable-yard behind, for a distance of about two or three hundred feet from King-street, are the property of one of the colleges at Oxford. The public-house (Blue Boar’s Head), as rebuilt about 1750, is now (1850) standing.” — George H. Malone.
In the Cole MSS. in the British Museum is a copy of a letter of Cromwell to his wife from Dunbar, Sept. 4, 1650, addressed to her in this street.
At the north end of King-street was built, by Henry VIII., the Westminster or King’s Gate, of stone, as a communication, by a passage over it, of Whitehall Palace with the Park : it was of Tudor design, with four round-capped turrets : each front was enriched with Ionic pilasters and an entablature, roses, the portcullis, and the royal arms, and glazed biscuit-ware busts. In this Gatehouse lived the Earl of Rochester and Herr von Auls : it was taken down in 1723.
Millbank-street, in 1745 called the High, street at Millbank, was named from the Abbey water-mill, built by Nicholas Litlington, at the end of the present College-street, and turned by the stream which flowed by the Infirmary garden-wall eastward into the Thames (Walcott). Upon the site of the mill was built Peterborough House, by the first Earl of Peterborough, in the reign of Charles I., and shown in Hollar’s Map of London, 1708. Stow describes the mansion with a large front court, and fine gardens behind ; ” but its situation was bleak in winter, and not over-heaithful.” The house
was purchased by the Grosvenor family, and rebuilt : it was taken down in 1809. In the middle of Millbank lived Mr. Vidler, the Government contractor : hence the mail-coach procession started annually on the king’s birthday. The Penitentiary, at Millbank-, is described at p. 697. In New-way, adjoining, was a chapel where Eomaine preached.
Palace-yard, New, is named from William Rufus’s intended new palace, of which the hall only was built ; here was a beautiful Conduit, removed temp. Charles II. Opposite Westminster Hall gate, temp. Edward I., Lord Chief- Justice Hengham built a large stone clock-tower, taken down 1698. In this yard King Edward I. appealed to the loyalty of his people, from a platform erected against the front ot Westminster Hall, in 1297; here Perkin Warbeck was set in the stocks, in 1498; Stubbs, the Puritan attorney, and his servant, had their hands cut off in New Palace-yard, in 1580, for a
libel against Queen Elizabeth ; and William Parry was here hung and quartered for high treason, in 1578 ; here Lord Sanquhar was hanged for murder, 1612 ; Archbishop Leighton’s father was pilloried and publicly whipped for libel, 1630 ; William Prynne was pilloried here, and his Histrio-Mastix burned, 1634 ; here the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, were put to death for treason, in 1649 ; Titus Oates was pilloried here in 1685 ; and John Williams, in 1765, for publishing No. 45 of Wilkes’s North Briton. Here was the lurk’s Head, Miles’s Coffee-house, where the noted Rota Club met, whose republican opinions Harrington has glorified in his Oceana. The Tudor buildings of the old Palace were principally taken down in 1793 ; but a range, including the Star Chamber, on the eastern side of the court, were not removed until 1836 : they are described at p. 450. At his official residence, east of Westminster Hall porch, died William Godwin, the novelist, April 7, 1836, aged 81.
Palace-yard, Old, south-west of the Houses of Parliament, had on the west the old Lady Chapel of the Abbey, and abutting upon, it the White Pose Tavern, and the house of Chaucer, in which he died (the site is now occupied by the mausoleum of Henry VII.) ; and in a house between the churchyard and the Old Palace died Ben Jonson ; so that two of England’s greatest poets died almost upon the same spot. At the south-east corner of Old Palace-yard stood the house through which the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot carried their barrels into the vault ; and in the Yard, Guy Fawkes, Winter, Rookwood, and Keyes, suffered death in 1606. Here, 29th Oct. 161S, Sir Walter Raleigh was executed at eight in the morning of Lord Mayor’s Day, ” so that the pageants and fine shewes might draw away the people from beholding the tragedie of one of the gallantest worthies that ever England bred.” In the Pepysian Collection at Cambridge is a Ballad with the following title : ” Sir Walter Rauleigh his Lamentation, who was beheaded in the Old Pallace of Westminster the 29 of October 1618.
Palmer’s Village, west of the Almonry, was a low-lying district (12§ inches below high-water mark), consisting of straggling cottages around the twelve almshouses built in 1566 by the Rev. Edward Palmer, B.D., with a chapel and school attached. Forty years since, here was an old wayside inn (the Prince of Orange), rows of cottages with gardens, and the village-green, upon which the Maypole was annually set up : this rurality has now disappeared, and with it from maps and plans the name of ” Palmer’s Village.” Park-street, built circ. 1708, northward from Carteret-street, making it like a T, contains the house of Mr. Charles Townley, who, in 1772, assembled here his first collection of marbles, terra-cottas, bronzes, &c, commenced in 1768 at Rome. (See British Museum, p. 579.) Mr. Townley died here 3rd January, 1805. The house and collections are well described by J. T. Smith, in Nollelcens and his Times, vol. i. pp. 261-266. ” The late Eoyal Cockpit, which afforded Hogarth an excellent scene for his humour, remained a next-door noisy nuisance to Mr. Townley for many years.”
Petty France {Petit France, Hatton, 1708), and now York-street, from Frederick Duke of York, son of George II., having temporarily resided here, extends from Tothill-street to James-street. In Petty France was Milton’s pleasant garden-house, described at p. 654. Prince’ s-street was formerly Long Ditch : here was an ancient conduit, the site of which is now marked by a pump ; at the bottom of the well is a black marble image of St. Peter, and some marble steps. The southern extremity of this street was called Broken Cross: here, about the middle of last century, was the most ancient house in Westminster. Upon the east side of the street was built Her Majesty’s Neio Stationery Office, in neat Italian style, in 1854, upon the site of the Westminster Mews. In Prince’ s-court, at the south end of the street, lived the notorious politician, John Wilkes, in 1788.
In Queen-street was born, in 1642, James Tyrrell (a grandson of Archbishop Ussher) ; he wrote a History of England, 3 vols, folio, valuable for its exact references to the ancient chronicles.
Rochester-row is named from the Bishops of Rochester, who were also Deans of Westminster. Here are Emery Hill’s Almshouses; and opposite are the Church of St. Stephen, and Schools, built and endowed by the munificence of Miss Angela Burdett Coutts.
Sanctuary (the) of Westminster Abbey is described as the space by St. Margaret’s churchyard, between the old Gatehouse S.W., and King-street N.E. The right of sanctuary — i.e., protection to criminals and debtors from arrest — was retained by Westminster after the Dissolution in 1540; and “sanctuary men” were allowed to use a whittle only at their meals, and compelled to wear a badge. The privilege of sanctuary caused the houses within the precinct to let for high rents ; but it was totally abolished by James I. in 1623 : it is called by Fabyan, ” the Seyntwary before the Abbey.”
Here were two cruciform churches, built one above the other, the lower a double cross ; the upper, the Rev. Mr. Walcott thinks, for the debtors and inhabitants of the Broad and the Little Sanctuaries; the lower for criminals. “They could not leave the precinct without the Dean’s licence, or between sunset and sunrise.” In Little Sanctuary was the Three Tuns Tavern, built upon part of the church vaults, which served as the inn-cellar. The tower of the church, rebuilt by Edward II., contained three bells, the ringing of which ” sowered all the drinke in the town.” The church was demolished in 1750. Fifty years later was removed from Broad Sanctuary the old market-house, built in 1568 ; and .upon the site was erected, in 1805, the present Guildhall, with a Doric vestibule, S. P. Cockerell architect. Here also are the Office and Central Schools of the National Society ,• the Westminster Hospital, built 1833.
The Sanctuary churches are dt scribed by Dr. Stukeley, who remembered their standing (Archceologia, i. p. 39). There were other sanctuaries in London ; but the Westminster site alone retains its ancient name.
Here Judge Tresilian (temp. Richard II.) fled, but was dragged to Tyburn and hanged. In 1441, Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, accused of witchcraft and treason, was denied refuge. In 1460, Lord Scales, as he was seeking sanctuary here, was murdered on the Thames. Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV., and her family, escaped from the Tower, and registered themselves “sanctuary women;” and here, “in great penury, ljrsaken of all friends,” she gave birth to Edward V.
More describes her sitting ” alow on the rushes,” in her grief. The Register of the Sanctuary, Gough states, was bought out of Sir Henry Spelman’s Collection, by Wanley, the antiquary, for Lord Weymouth, and is preserved in the library at Longleat.
The vacant ground was let, in 1821, to speculators in seats to view the coronation-procession of George IV., upon a raised platform, from Westminster Abbey to Westminster Hall. In 1854 was built, adjoining the west end of the Abbey, a block of houses in the Mediaeval style, G. G. Scott, R.A., architect ; the centre opening being the entrance to Dean’s-yard. Here is the same architect’s picturesque Memorial to the ” Old Westminsters” who perished in the Crimean War.
Tothill Fields, between Pimlico and the Thames, anciently the manor of Tothill, belonged to John Maunsel, chancellor, who, in 1256, entertained here Henry III. and his court, at a vast feast in tents and pavilions. The Normans called this district tout le champ, which is thought to have been clipped into tout le, and then corrupted into toutle and Tot-hill. (Bardwell.) It occurs, however, in an ancient lease as Toot-hill or Beacon Field,* which Mr. Hudson Turner suggested to Mr. Cunningham as the probable origin. The Rev. Mr. Walcott restricts it within the Sanctuary of the Abbey.
At the Tothill were decided wagers of battle and appeals by combat, Necromancy, sorcery, and witchcraft were punished here j and ” royal solemnities and goodly jousts were held here.” In Culpepper’s time the fields were famous for parsley. In 1642 a battery and breastwork were here erected. Here were built the ” Five Houses,” or ” Seven Chimneys,” as pest-houses for victims to the Plague ; and in 1665 the dead were buried ” in the open Tuttle Fields.” The Fields are described as of great use, pleasure, and recreation to the king’s scholars and neighbours; and in 1672 the parish made here a new Maze, which was ” much frequented in summer time in fair afternoons.” (Aubrey.) In Queen Anne’s reign, here was William Well’s bear-garden, upon the site of Vincent-square. St. Edward’s fair was removed from St. Margaret’s churchyard to Tothill Fields, 34 Hen. III., who granted the Abbot of Westminster ” leave to keepe a markette in the Tuthill every Munday, and a faire every yeare for three days ;” and Edward III. granted a fair of thirty-one days. Both fairs were suppressed by James I. Here, in 1651, the Trained Bands were drawn out ; and in the same year, Heath’s Chronicle records the Scotch prisoners ” driven like a herd of swine through Westminster to Tuthill Fields, and there sold to several merchants, and sent to the Barbadoes.” One of ” the Civil War Tracts of Lancashire,” printed by the Chetham Society, states there were ” 4000 Scots, Highlands, or Redshanks,” many with their wives and bairns, of whom 1200 were buried in Tuttle Fields. The fields next became a noted duel-ground : here, in 1711, Sir Cholmeley Dering, M.P., was killed by the first shot of Mr. Richard Thornhill, who was tried for murder and acquitted, but found guilty of manslaughter, and was burnt in the hand. Here also was an ancient Bridewell.
Tothill-street, extending from Broad Sanctuary to York-street, has lost most of its picturesque old houses. In Tothill-street lived the Bishop of Chester, 1488 ; William Lord Grey of Wilton, ” the greatest soldier of the nobility,” died 1563 ; Sir George Carew, at Caron House, 1612 j and Lincoln House was the Office of the Revels, 1664.
Southerne, the dramatic poet, lived ten years at No. 56, then as now, an oilman’s : it bears the date 1671. Betterton, the actor, was born in this street. In the reign of Elizabeth, the houses on the north side had gardens extending to the Park ; and those on the south to Orchard-street, once the orchard-garden of the Abbey. Here, in 1789, died, aged 97, Thomas Amory, who wrote the Memoirs of John Buncle. Of the Fleece public-house, No. 70, a token exists, date 1666. The old Cock public-house, taken down in 1853, is described at p. 453. Tufton-street was built by Sir Richard Tufton (d. 1631) : here was a cock-pit, which existed long after that in St. James’s Park was deserted.
Victoria-street, commenced by the Westminster Improvement Commission in 1S45, extends across the sites of the Almonry, Orchard-street, Duck-lane, New Pye-street, and part of Old Pye-street (named from Sir Robert Pye, who resided here), to Strutton-ground, named from Stourton-house, the mansion of the Lords Dacre of the South.
Thence the new street crosses Artillery-place, through Palmer’s Village, on the north side of Westminster Bridewell, past Elliot’s Brewery, to Shaftesbury-terrace, Pimlico.
Victoria-street is above 1000 yards, or nearly five furlongs in length, and 80 feet wide : * Others refer it to Toote Hill, shown in Rocque’s map (1746), just at a bend in the Horseferry-road, but now lost in the adjacent made ground the houses are 82 feet in height ; Henry Ashton architect. The ornamentation of the house-fronts, worked in cement, is extremely artistic : the interiors are mostly arranged in flats, as in Edinburgh and Paris.’ In the line of street are the three churches of St. Mark, the Holy Trinity, and Christchurch ; and at the north-west rear is St. Andrew’s Church, in the Geometrical style ; the nave aisles showing five gables on each side, filled with large and lofty windows ; architect, G. G. Scott, R.A.
Vine-street denotes the site of a vineyard, probably that of the Abbey. In the overseer’s book, 1565, is rated ” the vyne-garden ” and ” myll,” next to Bowling-alley ; the vine-garden called ” because, perhaps, vines anciently were there nourished, and wine made.” (Stow.) In Edward VI.’s time it was inclosed with buildings. Bowling-street and alley denote the site of the green where the members of the convent played at bowls. Opposite Bowling-alley is a house where the notorious Colonel Blood died, Aug. 24, 1680: upon the house-front was a shield with a coat of arms. (Walcott.)
Wood-street, described in 1720 as ” very narrow, being old boarded hovels ready to fall,” has disappeared. Here lived John Carter, the diligent antiquary. At 13, North-street, lived Elliston, the comedian, who dearly loved his art : ” wherever Elliston walked, sat, or stood still, there was the theatre.”—- ft Lamb.
Woolstaple (the) was, in 1353, appointed for weighing all the wool brought to London. The Long Staple (upon the site of Bridge-street) consisted of a strong round tower and a water-gate, which was destroyed to make room for the western abutment of Westminster Bridge, in 1741. Here was St. Stephen’s Hospital, founded by Henry VIII. in 1548, and removed in 1745, when eight almshouses were rebuilt in St. Anne’s-lane, inscribed ” Woolstaple Pensioners, 1741.” In 1628, in the overseers’ books of St. Margaret’s, is rated in the Woolstaple, ” Orlando Gibbons, ijd.”
Westminster Abbey. — In 1867, a Parliamentary return showed that the Dean and Chapter of Westminster devote to the maintenance of the fabric of the Abbey one-fifteenth part of the whole divisible income of the capitular body, together with the fees received for monuments placed in the Abbey, and the profits derived from the sale of timber on the capitular estates. In the last six years the funds thus devoted to the fabric averaged 34122. a year. In the same six years the money taken at the Abbey for the admission of persons to view the Royal tombs and private chapels averaged 12922 a year. This has been applied first in payments to the High Constable and to the guides who show the tombs and chapels, and there has been an average annual surplus of 7252. a year, which has been applied to ornamental improvements of the Abbey. The charge for viewing the tombs and chapels is 6rf. for each person. The transepts and the great nave of the Abbey are open free to the public all day.
WESTMINSTER HALL
WAS originally added to the ancient Palace at Westminster by William Rufus, who held his first court herein, 1099. In 1394-9 Richard II. had its walls heightened two feet, the windows altered, and a new timber roof constructed, from the design of Henry de Yeveley, who was master-mason to three successive kings, and to Westminster Abbey.
During the repairs of 1835 the work of the two kings (William II. and Richard II.) was distinguishable, including a Norman arcade connecting the clerestory windows. The exterior is of modern design, except the north porch and window, which, with the internal stone-work (except the south end), is one of our earliest specimens of the Perpendicular style, and is thought to have been the work of William of Wykeham. The original walls (chiefly rubble and grout-work) were then cased 1 foot 7 inches thick with stone, flying buttresses were erected as abutments on the east and west sides, and the embattled flanking towers and porch of the north front added : the towers were restored 1819-22. The roof was originally covered with lead ; for which, on account of its immense weight, slates were substituted. The lantern, of cast-iron, is an exact copy of the original one erected near the end of the 14th century : it is glazed.
The interior dimensions of Westminster Hall are 239 feet by 68, and 42 feet high.
The immense timber- framed roof is one of the finest existing examples of scientific construction in carpentry ; its only bearing being at the extremities of the great ribs, which abut against the side walls, and rest upon twenty-six sculptured stone corbels.
At half this height the timber arches spring from the stone string-course, sculptured with the white hart couchant under a tree, and other devices of Richard II. ; so that the upper half of the height of the edifice is entirely of timber (oak), unrivalled for its accurately moulded detail.
A record in St. Michan’s Church, verified by Hanmer’s Chronicle, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, states that the roof over Westminster Hall was constructed with timber procured from the site of this church; and clumps of trees have been found during recent excavations. The record states -. ” The faire greene or commune, now called Ostomontowne-greene, was all wood, and hee that diggeth at this day to any depth shall iinde the grounde full of great rootes. From thence, anno 1098, King William Rufus, by license of Murehard, had that frame which made up the roofes of Westminster Hall, where no English spider webbeth or breedeth to this day.” — Proc. Royal Institute Irish Architects.
Loudon, however, states the roof to be of British oak, quercus sessiflora, which is so deficient in grain as not to be distinguishable, at first sight, from chestnut.
The hammer-beams are sculptured with angels bearing shields of the arms of Richard II. or Edward the Confessor, which show the excellence that sculpture in wood had attained in England so early as the fourteenth century. From the roof were formerly hung ” guidons, colours and standards, ensigns and trophies of victory f in Hatton’s time (1708), 138 colours and 34 standards, from the battles of Naseby and Worcester, Preston and Dunbar, and Blenheim : Hatton describes fourteen, with their mottoes Englished. The roof was thoroughly repaired in 1820-21, when forty loads of oak, from old ships broken up in Portsmouth Dockyard, were used in renewing decayed parts, and completing the portion at the north end, where it had been left unfinished ; the roof was also greatly strengthened by tension-rods added to the principals in 1851.
Abutting on the southern end was the Galilee, finished by Edward III., and adapted by Richard II. with a flight of steps to the approach from the Great Hall to the Chapel of St. Stephen and the principal chambers of the Palace. Above the side line of windows are dormers (added in 1820-21), which improve the chiaroscuro ; and above are apertures, opened in 1843, to aid the effect of an Exhibition of Cartoons. The Hall now forms the vestibule to the new Houses of Parliament; which Sir Charles Barry effected by removing the large window from the south end to form an archway to St. Stephen’s Porch, wherein he fixed the Hall window, with an additional transom and row of lights. (See St. Stephen’s Porch, p. 662.)
The statues by John Thomas, flanking the archway in the Hall, are : Sir Charles Barry contemplated raising the roof fourteen feet, closing the doors of the Law Courts, and decorating the walls with frescoes, &c. The heraldic decorations of the corbels and string-course are described by Mr. Willement in the Collectanea Topogr. et Gen. vol. iii. p. 55 ; and the architectural discoveries in 1835 are detailed by Mr. Sydney Smirke in Archceologia, vols. xxvi. and xxvii.
The floor of the Hall, from its low level, was occasionally flooded by the Thames.
Holinshed mentions two floods in the reign of Henry III., in 1237, when he says boats might have been rowed up and down ; and in 1242, when no one could get into the Hall except they were set on horseback. He records another, 1555, when the Hall was flooded ” unto the stairfoot, going to the Chancerie and King’s Bench, so that when the Lord Maior of London should come to present the Sheriffs to the Barons of the Exchequer, all Westminster Hall was full of water.” Also, in 1579, when the water rose so high in the Hall ” that, after the fall thereof, some fishes were found there to remain.” — Stow. These visitations were repeated in the last century, in 1735 and 1791, and to some extent even so lately as 1841.
The kings held their courts, or, as it was called, ” wore their crowns,” at the time of the Conquest, and long after, but not in Westminster Hall until the reign of Henry II. By a clause in Magna Charta, 15th June, 1215, it was declared that ” Common Pleas shall not follow the Court, but shall be held in some certain place,” doubtless Westminster Hall; and when the Aula Regia was abolished, the present arrangement of the Courts of Chancery r , King’s Bench, and Exchequer, as well as the Common Pleas, was established, with separate Judges appointed to preside over each Court. (Foss.)
” In the reign of Charles I., the Kind’s Servants, by his Majestie’s special order, went to Westminster Hall in Term-time, to invite gentlemen to cat of the King’s Acates or Viands ; and in Parliament-time, to invite the Parliament men thereunto.” — Delaune’s Anglias Metropolis, 1690.
” The Hall itself was also occasionally used as a high court of criminal justice for the solemn trials before the peers of great delinquents, impeached by the House of Commons. One of the earliest, of which there is a particular account, is that against Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, Chief Justice Tresilian, and others, in the reign of Richard II., which king himself was deposed by the Parliament in this same Hall. In subsequent times these trials often took place before commissioners appointed from among the peers, assisted by some of the judges and other commoners. Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher were tried in this manner ; but it is doubtful whether the Great Hall was used on these occasions, or only the Court of King’s Bench. Queen Anne Boleyn’s trial took place in the hall on a ’ scaffold ’ there erected. There is a print of Westminster Hall as it was prepared for the trial of the Earl of Strafford in 1640, in which the Queen is portrayed as looking out of her cupboard upon a scene in which her royal consort was a few years after to appear as a condemned prisoner.” — W. Foss ; Paper read to the Archceological Institute, 1866.
Memorable Trials in Westminsfer Sail. — 1S0S, Sir William Wallace condemned for treason (in Rufus’s Hall); 1417, Sir John Oldcastle the Wickliffite; 1522, Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, for treason ; 1535, Sir Thomas More arraigned here ; 1551, the Protector Somerset brought to trial, with ” bills, halberts, and pole-axes attending him,” the clamour of the people ” heard to the Long Acre beyond Charing Crosse;” 1554, Sir Thomas Wyat; 1557, Lord Stourton, for murder; 1600, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex ; 1606, Guy Fawkes and his fellow-conspirators ; 1616, the profligate Earl and Countess of Somerset, for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; 1640 (18 days’ trial), Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, before Charles I. and his queen; 1649, King Charles I. (in 1661, the Act for the King’s Trial was burned by the common hangman in the Hall while the court was sitting) ; 1688, the Seven Bishops; 1710, Dr. Sacheverell; 1716, Viscount Kenmure and the Earl of Derwentwater ; 1746-47, the rebel Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat; 1760, Earl Ferrers, for murder; 1776, the Duchess of Kingston, for bigamy ; 1788 to 1795, Warren Hastings’s seven years’ trial ; 1806, Lord Melville.
Parliaments assembled in this Hall as early as 1218 (33 Henry III.) and 1265 (49 Henry III.), the latter being the first representation of the people in its present form.
By a curious conjunction, one and the same person in the early reigns held the two offices of Warden of the Palace of Westminster and Warden of the Fleet Prison. Two records, of the 12th and 21th Edward III., show that there were then stalls for merchandize in, and stables under, Westminster Hall ; and that the holder of those offices was allowed to take for his profit 8d. per annum for each stall and stable, and Ad, for each stall only. By a ” rental ” of 38 Henry VI., the rents of shops varied from 2*. to 3s. Ad. a term ; and the ” goers in the Halle,” as they were called, were charged from Ad. to 12d. for the same period. The shops or stalls (resembling those in Exeter Change) are shown in the picture by Gravelot, painted in the reign of George II.
” Ranged along the left side, as you enter, are shops of booksellers, mathematical instrument makers, haberdashers, and sempstresses. At the further end of the Hall are the two Courts of King’s Bench on the left, and of the Chancery on the right, divided by a flight of steps which led to the entrances of both. In the print these Courts are inclosed to a certain height, but not covered, so that the noise in the Hall, and the flirtations of the barristers and attorneys with the sempstresses, must have occasionally disturbed the arguments of the counsel, and disarranged the gravity of the Judges. On the right side is the same array of shops, except where it is interrupted by the Court of Common Pleas, which projects into the Hall, and is similarly inclosed and uncovered. On both sides of the Hall, above the shops and the Court of Common Pleas, was a continuous display of banners, which at the date of the picture were probably those taken at the battle of Blenheim, and the other victories of Marlborough.
The Court of Common Pleas was subsequently removed to the outside of the Hall, and the inclosure of the two other Courts was completed and carried up to the roof, and thus divided from the exterior noise and racket. Counters and stalls for books (at one time sold by poor scholars of Westminster between school-hours), as well as other merchandize, were to be seen here in term-time, and during the session of Parliament, even in the beginning of the reign of George III. The Courts of Chancery and King’s Bench are removed, with the other courts, to more convenient sites on the western exterior of the Hall, with entrances into it. Thus, the edifice is now little more than a magnificent vestibule to them and to the two Houses of Parliament, and a place of congregation for lawyers and their clients when attending the Courts during term time.”— Mr. Foss, ut supra.
Archbishop Laud, in his Diary, records that on Sunday, February 20, 1630-1, the Hall was found on fire, ” by the burning of the little shops or stalls kept therein. It was soon extinguished, and the damage quickly repaired.” In the Great Fire of 1834, by which the Parliament Houses were destroyed, the noble hall was saved by the favourable direction of the wind. At the Great Fire of 1666, the Hall was filled with ” the people’s goods,” for safety.
After great part of the Palace was burnt in 1512, only the Great Hall was kept in repair ; ” and it serveth, as before it did, for feasts of coronations, arraignments of great persons charged with treasons, keeping of the courts of justice, &c.” (Stow.)
Hither came 411 of the rioters of Evil May-day, 1517, each with a halter about his neck, crying to the king upon his throne for mercy ; when ” the general pardon being pronounced, all the prisoners showted at once, and cast their halters towards the roof of the Hall.” (Stowe.)
Here Cromwell was inaugurated Lord Protector, 26th June, 1657, upon an elevated platform at the south end of the Hall, in the ancient coronation-chair, ” under a prince-
like canopy of state,” with the Bible, sword, and sceptre of the Commonwealth before him : the Protector entering the Hall, with the Lord Mayor bearing the City sword before him. On May 8th, 1660, King Charles II. was proclaimed at ” Westminster Hall Gate.” Upon the south gable were set up the heads of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw : Cromwell’s head remained 20 years.
” Abutting on the west side of Westminster Hall, and in part beneath it, were ” certain places designated Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, names that seem to indicate that they were appropriated, as two of them certainly were, to the confinement of delinquents, according to the varied degrees of punishment for their respective offences. We see from the illuminations of the Courts lately published in the 39th volume of the Arehaeologia, which are attributed to the reign of Henry VI., that at the bars of the three Courts of King’s Bench, Common Plea3, and Exchequer, certain prisoners are represented, and their place of incarceration might probably be in one or the other of these cells. Some have thought that these extraordinary names were suggested by the titles of the three parts of Dante’s Divina Commedm ; but at least one of the names occurs in the reign of Henry 111., before Dante was born. In the original accounts of the expenses in that reign, occurs : ’ Door of Hell, in the Exchequer.’ This is followed by another, to which the former probably applies : ’ House called Holle under the Exchequer.’ A third place named in the list may perhaps be the same which afterwards went by the name of Paradise or Heaven : ’ Le Godeshouse, in the receipt of the Exchequer.’ Whatever were the uses to which these places were originally applied, the custody of them was made a source of emolument, and was granted to the ’ squires of the king’s body,’ and other favourites.” — Paper by Mr. Foss, ut ante, abridged.
Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, and another building called ” Heaven,” were subsequently converted from cells of confinement into taverns, which were much frequented by lawyers’ clerks. In Ben Jonson’s Alchemist, Dapper is forbidden to ” break his fast in Heaven and Hell.”
” False Heaven at the end o’ th* Hall.” — Hudibras.
Pepys records dining at Heaven, and spending the evening in one of these taverns with Lock and Purcell, and hearing Lock’s new canon, Domine salvum faa Tiegem. ” The
prison-keys of Purgatory, attached to a leather girdle, are still preserved.” (Walcott’s Westminster, p. 221.) Here were kept the ” ducking-stools,” with which the burgesses of Westminster (by statute 27 Elizabeth) were empowered to punish common scolds, &c. Heaven and Purgatory were taken down about 1741, and Hell about 1793.
For the preparation of the Coronation banquets, the courts, when within the Hall, were removed, and the shops and stalls boarded over. A petition of the shopkeepers in the reign of George I. prays that, as their shops are boarded up for the ceremony of the Coronation, the leads and the outsides of the windows of the west side of the Hall may be granted for their use and advantage. Strype describes, at the upper end of the Hall, a long marble stone, 12 feet in length and thi^ee feet in breadth; also a marble chair, where the Kings of England formerly sat at their Coronation dinners, and at other solemn times the Lord Chancellor ; but not to be seen, being built over by the two Courts of Chancery and King’s Bench.
Edward I. held here his Coronation feast, for which the Hall was whitewashed. At the Coronation feast of Richard II. (July 16, 1377), Sir John Dymock, as successor of the Marmions, and in right of his wife, Margaret de Ludlow, claiming the privilege by his tenure of the manor of Scrivelsby, in Lincolnshire, having chosen the best charger save one in the king’s stables, and the best suit of armour save one in the royal armoury, rode in, armed to the teeth, and challenged, as the king’s champion, all opposers of the young monarch’s title to the crown ; this picturesque ceremony was last performed at the coronation of George IV.
Haydon, the historical painter, describes the Coronation Festival of George IV. (Autobiography, vol. ii.), which he witnessed from the Chamberlain’s box : ” The Hall doors were opened, and the flower-girls entered, strewing flowers. The distant trumpets and shouts of the people, the slow march, and at last the appearance of the King, crowned and under a golden canopy, and the universal burst of the assembly at seeing him, affected everybody After the banquet was over came the most imposing scene of all, the championship. Wellington, in his coronet, walked down the Hall, cheered by the officers of the Guards. He shortly returned, mounted, with Lords Anglesea and Howard. They
rode gracefully to the foot of the throne, and then backed out. The Hall doors opened again ; and outside, in twiliaht, a man in dark-shadowed armour appeared against the shining sky. He then moved, passed into darkness under the arch, and suddenly Wellington, Howard, and the champion stood in full view, with doors closed behind them. This was certainly the finest sight of the day.
The herald then read the challenge: the glove was thrown down. They all then proceeded to the throne.”
The coronation of George IV., in the Abbey, is described at p. 133 ; and the ceremony and the banquet in the admirable letter by Sir Walter Scott. The bill of fare of the banquet in the Hall is printed in Mr. Kirwan’s very interesting Host and Guest, and is as follows : —
Sot Dishes. — 160 tureens of soup ; 80 of turtle; 40 of rice; 40 of vermicelli; 80 dishes of turbot; 40 of trout; 40 of salmon ; 80 dishes of venison; 40 of roast beef; 3 barons of beef; 40 dishes of mutton and veal; 160 dishes of vegetables; 4S0 sauce boats; 240 lobsters; 120 of butter; 120 of mint. — Cold Dishes.— 80 of braised ham; 80 of savoury pies; 80 of geese, d la daube, two in each dish; 80 of savoury cakes ; 80 of braised beef; 80 of braised capons, two in each dish; 1190 side dishes ; 320 of
mounted pastry ; 400 of jellies and creams ; fcO of lobsters ; 80 of cray-fish ; 161 of roast fowls ; 80 of house lamb.
Total Quantities. — Beef, 7442 lbs.; veal, 7133 lbs.; mutton, 2474 lbs.; house lamb, 20 quarters; legs of ditto, 20 ; lamb, 5 saddles ; grass lamb, 65 quarters; lamb sweetbreads, 160; cow-heels, 389 ; calves’ feet, 400; suet, 250 lbs. ; geese, 160; pullets and capons, 720; chickens, 1610; fowls for stock, 620; bacon, 1730 lbs. ; lard, 550 lbs.; butter, 912 If*. ; eggs, 8400.
The Wines.— Champagne, 100 doz. ; Burgundy, 20 doz. ; claret, more than 200 doz. ; hock, 50 doz. ; Moselle, 60 doz. ; Madeira, 50 doz. ; sherry and port, about 350 doz. ; iced punch, 100 gallons.
Dessert. — The glut of fruit was unprecedented : a gentleman of Lambeth cut 60 ripe pine-apples on the occasion ; and many hundreds of pines, remarkable for size and flavour, were sent from all parts of the country; one from Lord Cawdor’s weighed 10 lbs., and formed part of the royal dessert. The expenses of the above Banquet and the Coronation together amounted to more than 268,O00Z. The Coronation (crowning only — no banquet) of William IV. did not cost 50,0002.
Besides the Coronation Banquets, we have record of many others from the earliest time. On New Year’s Day, 1236, King Henry the Third feasted 6000 poor men, women, and children. In 1241 the same King sumptuously entertained there the Pope’s Legate and his nobility; and again in 1243 he celebrated there the nuptials of his brother, Bichard, Earl of Cornwall, with a banquet, at which it is said there were no less than 30,000 dishes, though where room was found for them it is difficult to imagine. When the repairs of the Hall were completed in 1399, King; Bichard the Second is recorded to have plentifully entertained 10,000 in it : it is cautiously noted, ” in other rooms of the palace ;’ for it is clear that the guests would not otherwise have had elbow-room. Fabyan relates in his Chronicle that Henry the Seventh, in the ninth year of his reign, kept a royal feast there ; and the same King used the Hall for certain entertainments under the name of ” disguisyngs,” which were exhibited to the people at Christmas ; and we have the following proof that they were provided or assisted by the Government. An entry occurs in the Issue Roll of a payment of 282. 3». 6f d. (a large sum in those days) to Bichard Doland, ” for providing certain spectacles or theatres, commonly called scaffolds,” for these performances.
Westminster Hall is called the Great Hall, to distinguish it from the Little or Lesser Sail, the House of Commons after the fire of 1834. The Great Hall is erroneously stated to be the widest in Europe without any intermediate support, for there are two roofs in Italy which surpass it. The next largest ancient apartment in England is the dormitory attached to the great monastery of Durham.
In the hall have been found, in a crevice of the masonry of the old walls, the leather sheath of a knife, stamped with fleurs-de-lis and with lions passant, together with a
quantity of bones, &c, remnants of the royal feasts held in the hall, and which had probably, together with the sheath, been dragged into the holes and crevices by rats and mice.
WHITECHAPEL,
” A VERY extraordinary spacious street, between Whitechapel Bars (to which the -^1- freedom reaches) W., and the road to Mile-end E.” (Halton, 1708). It was, until the construction of the Eastern Counties Railway, the great Essex road : hence its numerous inns, some with old galleried yards. Upon the south side, west end, among the butchers’ shops, is No. 76, a picturesque house-front, bearing the Prince of Wales’s feathers and H. S. (Henry Stuart), the arms of Westminster, the fleur-de-lis of France, and the thistle of Scotland. On the north side was a prison for debtors, in the manor of Stepney, under the sum of 51., of which there is in the Beaufoy Collection a Token, 1656 ; also a Whitechapel pawnbroker’s Token, thought to be unique Defoe lived here in safety during the Great Plague year j and he describes the richer sort of people thronging out of town from the City hy this road, with their families and servants.
Whitechapel has been sanitarily improved by the furnaces of the factories consuming their own smoke. In Wentworth-street are the Model Baths and Wash-houses, established 1845. St. Mary’s Church, Whitechapel, is described at p. 146, Here was the offensive altar-piece, painted by W. Fellowes, in which Judas the traitor greatly resembled Dean Kennet {see the print in the Society of Antiquaries’ Library) : the picture, now in St. Albans Abbey-church, is attributed to Sir James Thornhill.
In Colchester-street, Leman-street, in 1854, was burnt the house No. 1, built 16S7, and noted as the rendezvous of Claude Duval, the highwayman. Near the lower end of Whitechapel-lane was a Roman cemetery, in which was found, in 1776, a monumental stone inscribed to a soldier of the 24th legion. In 1854, there was living in the Whitechapel-road a corn-dealer aged 107, active in business as a man of 60. At No. 267, Whitechapel-road, is the Bell-foundry of Chas. and Geo. Mears, where have been cast many thousands of single bells : they have often 30 tons of molten metal in their furnaces. Here were cast, in 1835, ” the New Great Tom of Lincoln,” 5 tons 8 cwt.; the Great Bell of Montreal, 13 tons 10 cwt.; Great Peter of York, 11 tons; the bells of the New Royal Exchange, &c. And here was re-cast the Great Bell for Westminster clock, ” St. Stephen,”.
WHITEFRIARS,
THE streets, lanes, and alleys between Water-lane (now Whitefriars-street) and the Temple, and Fleet-street and the Thames ; formerly the site of the house and gardens of a convent of Carmelites, or White Friars, founded by Sir Richard Gray in 1241, upon ground given by King Edward I. The church was rebuilt by Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, about 1350 ; and Robert Marshall, Bishop of Hereford, about 1420, added the steeple, as shown in the Sutherland View of London, 1543.
Stow gives a long list of benefactors and nobles buried in the church. At the Reformation, the chapter-house was given by Henry VIII. to his physician, Dr. Butts. In the next reign, the church, with its stately tombs, was demolished ; and in its place were ” many fair houses built, lodgings for noblemen and others” (Stow). Here lived Sir John Cheke, Tutor and Secretary of State to Edward VI. The hall or refectory of the dissolved monastery was used as the Whitefriars Theatre. The precinct had long possessed the privileges of Sanctuary, which were confirmed by charter of James I. in 1608 ; hence it became the asylum of characterless debtors, cheats, and gamblers, here protected from arrest : it acquired the cant name of ” Alsatia,” and is the scene of Shadwell’s Squire of Alsatia, the characters of which ” dare not stir out of Whitefryers :” one of its cant-named portions, Lombard-street (its ” lewd women” were complained of by the Friars in the reign of E«’ward III.), exists to this day ; as does
Lombard-street in the Southwark Mint. Poets and players were attracted to Whitefriars by the contiguous theatre in Dorset Gardens: dancing-masters and fencing-masters flocked here ; and here, in the reign of James I., Turner the fencing-master was assassinated by two ruffians hired by Lord Sanquhar, whose eye Turner had put out during a fencing lesson several years before, but he had been forgiven the accident.
The two assassins were hanged opposite Whitefriars gates in Fleet-street ; and Lord Sanquhar was hanged in Old Palace-yard. In the Friary -house, Selden lived with Elizabeth, Countess-dowager of Kent, who bequeathed him the mansion : he died here, Nov. 30, 1654, and was buried in the Temple Church. The finest edition of Selden’s works, by Wilkins, 3 vols, folio, was printed in Whitefriars by William Bowyer, father and son ; their printing-office was the Qeorge Tavern, Dogwell-court, a scene in Shadwell’s Squire of Alsatia ; in this house, William Bowyer, jun., was born in 1699.
The premises are now the printing-office of Bradbury, Evans, and Co., who maintain the excellence of their predecessors. Few other traces of old Whitefriars remain.
Hanging- Sword- Alley, east of Water-lane, is named from ” a house called the Hanging Sword,” mentioned by Stow. In Temple-lane are the Whitefriars Glass-works, established circa. 1700.
The White Friars spared no cost to procure books for their monastery : no book was to be sold, but they had their emissaries provided with money to buy it.
WHITEHALL
THAT part of “Westminster which extends from near Charing Cross to Canon-row, and from the Thames to St. James’s Park, was the site of the royal Palace of “Whitehall from 1530 to 1697. It was formerly called York-place, from having heen the town residence of the Archbishops of York : one of whom, Walter de Grey, purchased it in 1248 from the Convent of Black Friars of Holborn, to which it had been bequeathed by Hubert de Burgh, the Justiciary of England, and famous minister of Henry III., who had bought the inheritance from the monks of Westminster for 140 marks of silver. The property was conveyed by Walter de Grey to his successors in the see of York. Cardinal Wolsey was the last Archbishop of York by whom the palace was inhabited : he built extensively, and ” lived a long season ” here, in sumptuous state :
” Where fruitful Thames salutes the learned shore
Was this grave prelate and the muses plac’d,
And by those waves he builded had before
A royal house with learned muses grac’d,
But by his death imperfect and defac’d.”
Storer’s Metrical History of Wolsey, 1599.
Upon the fall of Wolsey, in 1529, York Place was taken from him by Henry VIII., and the broken-hearted prelate left in his barge on the Thames for Esher. The name of the palace was then changed to White Hall,* possibly from some new buildings having been constructed of white stone, at a time when bricks and timber were generally used, —
” You must no more call it York Place — that is past :
For since the Cardinal fell, that title’s lost;
’Tis now the King’s, and call’d White Hall.”
Shakspeare’s King Henry VIII., act iv. sc. 1.
Here Henry and Anne Boleyn were married in a garret of the palace, says Lingard ; Stow says, in a closet. Henry built a noble stone gallery, from which, in 1539, he reviewed 15,000 armed citizens : from this gallery also the court and nobility witnessed the jousts and tournaments in the Tilt-yard, now the parade-ground of the Horse Guards. The King ” most sumptuously and curiously builded many beautiful, costly, and pleasant lodgings, buildings, and mansions;” and added a tennis-court, bowling-alleys, and a cock-pit, ” for his pastime and solace.”
Whitehall was seven years in building ; and in 1536 (the old palace of Edward the Confessor having been in utter ruin and decay since the fire in 1512), it was enacted by Parliament that all the ground, mansion and buildings, the park, and the entire space between Charing Cross and the Sanctuary at Westminster, from the Thames on the east side to the park-wall westward, should be cleared and called the King’s Palace of Westminster. Here Henry VIII. assembled many pictures, which afterwards became the nucleus of the splendid collection of Charles I. Henry made munificent proposals to Raphael and Titian, and the former painted for him a ” St. George.” The King also took into his service Hans Holbein, and gave him apartments at Whitehall, with a pension, besides paying him for his pictures. Holbein built, opposite the entrance to the Tilt-yard, a magnificent Gate-house, of small squared stones and flint boulder, glazed and tessellated : on each front were four terra-cotta busts, naturally coloured, and gilt. This gate was removed in 1750, when it was begged by William Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., with the intention of rebuilding it in the Great Park at Windsor ; the stones were numbered for this purpose, which was never fulfilled. Three of the busts, Henry VII. and VIII. and Bishop Fisher, are now at Hatfield Priory, Essex. The Gate-house was used as a State-paper Office many years before its removal, and was known as the Cockpit Gate. At Whitehall, on December 30, 1546, Henry signed his will, and on January 28 expired. Edward VI. held a Parliament at Whitehall : 1553. “And this y ere the furst day of (March was the) parlament, and kepte wythin the kyngcs pallys at Westmyster, YVhythalle.” — Chron. Grey Friars Lond.
The ” White Hall ” was a name not unfrequently given by our ancestors to the festive halls of their habitations : there was a White Hall at Kenilworth ; and the Hall formerly the House of Lords was the White Hall of the royal Palace of Westminster, and is so called by Stow.
Bisbop Latimer preached before the Court in the Privy Garden, the King sitting at one of the palace windows. Queen Mary went from Whitehall by water to her coronation at Westminster, Elizabeth bearing the crown before her. Whitehall palace was attacked by Sir Thomas Wyat’s rebels, who “shotte divers arrowes into the courte, the gate beying open ;” and looking out over the gate, the Queen pardoned the Kent men, with baiters about their necks. From the palace the Princess Elizabeth was taken captive to the Tower on Palm Sunday, 1554. At Whitehall, November 13, 1555, did Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, at midnight, exclaiming : ” I have sinned, I have not wept with Peter.” Hentzner describes,
in 1598, Elizabeth’s library of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French books ; a little one, in her own handwriting, addressed to her father ; and a book of prayers written by Elizabeth in five languages, with her own miniature and that of her suitor, the Duke d’Anjou. In her 67th year, ” she appoints a Frenchman to doe feates upon a rope in the conduit court. To-morrow she hath commanded the bear, the bull, and the ape to be bayted in the tilt-yard. Upon Wednesday she will have solemn dawncing.” (Sotvland White.)
Elizabeth revived the pageants and joustings at Whitehall ; and here she built ” the Fortress or Castell of perfect Beautie,” a large wooden banqueting-house on the north-west side of the palace. In 1561 Sackville and Norton’s tragedy of Ferrex and Forrex was acted here by gentlemen of the Inner Temple.
In the great gallery, Elizabeth received the Speaker and Commons House, when they came ” to move her grace to marriage.” On March 24, 1603, ” then deceased,” from Richmond, ” the Queen was brought by water to Whitehall.”
In the Orchard of Whitehall the Lords in Council met; and in the Garden, James I. knighted 300 or 400 judges, Serjeants, doctors-at-law, &c. Here the Lord Monteagle imparted to the Earl of Salisbury the warning letter of the Gunpowder Plot; Guy Fawkes was examined in the King’s bedchamber, and carried hence to the Tower. In 1617, when James visited Scotland, Lord Keeper Bacon resided at Whitehall. James L, in 1608, had “the old, rotten, slight-builded Banqueting House” removed, and next year rebuilt ; but it was destroyed by fire in 1619. In this reign were produced many ” most glorious masques” by Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson ; and Inigo designed a new palace, the drawings for which are preserved in Worcester College, Oxford.
In magnitude, Inigo Jones’s plan would have exceeded that of the palace of Diocletian, and would have covered nearly 24 acres. It was to have consisted of seven courts, to have extended 874 feet fronting the Thames, and the same length along the foot of St. James’s Park : presenting one front to Charing Cross, of 1200 feet long; and another, the principal, of similar dimensions towards Westminster Abbey. A more distinct idea may be formed of this extent by comparing it with that of other palaces : thus, Hampton Court covers 8 or 9 acres, St. James’s 4, Buckingham 2½ acres.
Of Jones’s magnificent design, only the Banqueting-house was completed. Charles I. commissioned Kubens to paint the ceiling, and by his agency obtained the Cartoons of Kaphael. In the Cabinet- room of the palace, built also by Inigo Jones, fronting westward to Privy Garden, Charles assembled pictures of almost incalculable value ; the royal collection containing 460 paintings, including 28 by Titian, 11 by Correggio, 16 by Julio Komano, 9 by Kaphael, 4 by Guido, and 7 by Parmegiano. Upon the Civil War breaking out, Whitehall was seized by the Parliament, who, in 1645, had ” the boarded masque-house” pulled down, sold great part of the paintings and statues, and burnt the ” superstitious pictures.” Here, Jan. 30, 1649, in the Cabinet-room Charles last prayed ; in the Horn-chamber he was delivered to the officers, and thence led out to execution upon a scaffold in front of the Banqueting-house.
The King was taken on the first morning of his trial, Jan. 20, 1649, in a sedan-chair, from Whitehall to Cotton House, where he slept pending his trial in Westminster Hall ; after which the king returned to Whitehall ; but on the night before his execution he slept at St. James’s. On Jan. 30 he was ” most barbarously murthered at his own door, about two o’clock in the afternoon.” (Histor. Guide, 3d imp., 1688.) Lord Leicester and Dugdale state that Charles was beheaded at Whitehall gate. The scaffold was erected in front of the Banqueting-house, in the street now Whitehall; and Herbert states that the king was led out by ” a passage broken through the wall,” on to the scaffold ; but Ludlow states that it was out of a window, according to Vertue, of a small building north of the Banqueting-house, whence the king stepped upon the scaffold. A picture of the sad scene, painted by Weesop, in the manner of Vandyke, shows the platform, extending only in length, before two of the windows, to the commencement of the third casement. Weesop visited England from Holland in 1641, and quitted England in 1650, saying ” he would never reside in a country where they cut off their king’s head, and were not ashamed of the action.” — (See painful inquiries upon the identity of the place of execution, in Notes and Queries, 3rd s. iii. 213, 292 ; iv. 195.
Cromwell, by vote of Parliament in 1650, had ” the use of the lodging called the Cockpit, of the Spring Garden, and St. James’s House, and the command of St. James’s Park,” for some time before he assumed the supreme power. To Whitehall, in 1653, April 20th, he returned with the keys in his pocket, after dissolving the Long Parliament, which he subsequently explained to the Little or Barebones Parliament assembled in the Council-chamber of Whitehall. Here the Parliament desired Cromwell to ” magnify himself with the title of King ;” here Milton was Cromwell’s Latin Secretary, Andrew Marvell his frequent guest, with Waller his friend and kinsman, and sometimes the youthful Dryden. Cromwell repurchased the Cartoons and many other pictures, and in 1656 Evelyn found the palace ” very glorious and well-furnished.”
Here Cromwell expired, Sept. 3, 1658, ” the double day of victory and death.” Richard Cromwell resided here. Charles II., at the Restoration, came in grand procession of seven hours from the City to Whitehall. To the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury Charles assigned the Cockpit ; and in this locality their chambers have ever since remained. Charles collected by proclamation the plate, hangings, and paintings, which had been pillaged from the palace : he also built a stone gallery to flank Privy
Garden, and below it suites of apartments for his ” Beauties.” Evelyn describes the Duchess of Portsmouth’s apartment, ” twice or thrice pulled down and rebuilt to satisfy her prodigal and expensive pleasures ;” its French tapestry, ” Japan cabinets, screens, pendule clocks, great vases of wrought plate, table-stands, chimney-furniture, sconces, branches, brasenas, &c., all of massive silver, and out of number.” Evelyn also sketches a Sunday evening in the palace :
” The king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarin, &c. ; a French boy singing love-songs in those glorious galleries ; whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2000/. in gold before them. Six days after all was in the dust.”
In Vertue’s plan are shown the buttery, bakehouse, wood and coal yards, charcoal-house, spicery, cider-house ; and, beneath the Banqueting-house, the king’s privy cellar.
Owing to its low level, Whitehall was liable to floods from the Thames. Pepys, in 1663, records a high tide having drowned the whole palace ; and Charles II., when he
received the Lords and Commons in the Banqueting-hall at the Restoration, desires them to mend the ways, so that his wife ” may not find Whitehall under water.”
At Whitehall Charles collected about 1000 volumes, dedicated or presented to him : including an illuminated Breviary given by Henry VII. to his daughter, Margaret Queen of Scots, with his autograph ; a curious MS. in high Dutch on the Great Elixir ; a French MS. 300 years old, with paintings of plants in miniature ; and a journal, &c. in the handwriting of Edward VI. Charles II. died at Whitehall, Feb. 6, 1685; and his successor was immediately proclaimed at the palace-gate. James II. resided here : he washed the feet of the poor with his own hands on Maundy Thursday in the Chapel Royal : here he admitted Penn, the Quaker, to his private closet ; and he rebuilt the chapel for Romish worship, with marble statues by Gibbons, and a fresco by Verrio.
The King also erected upon the Banqueting-house a large weathercock, that he might calculate by the wind the probable arrival of the Dutch fleet. (See Canaletti’s view.)
On Dec. 18, 1688, James left Whitehall in the state-barge, never to return. In 1691 a destructive fire reduced the palace to ” nothing but walls and ruins :” 150 houses were burned down, and twenty blown up with gunpowder. In 1697 a fire broke out in the laundry ; all the pictures in the palace were destroyed, and twelve persons perished. The remaining portions of the site of Whitehall were given away by the Crown. Charles Duke of Richmond had a mansion on the south-east side of Privy Garden : it was rebuilt from a plan by the Earl of Burlington, and was burnt down in 1791 ; its site is now occupied by Richmond-terrace.
His Grace was a liberal patron of the fine arts, and in 1758 ordered a room to be opened at his house in Whitehall, containing a large collection of original plaster casts, from the best antique busts and statues at Rome and Florence, to which all artists, and youths above twelve years of age, had ready access : he also bestowed two medals annually on those who executed the two best models.
In Privy Garden was also built Pembroke House ; and subsequently, Guoydir House, now the Office of the Poor-Law Board.
Gardens and Dials. — Whitehall gardens were laid out in terraces and parterres, and ornamented with marble and bronze statues, a few of which are now at Hampton Court and Windsor. In Privy Garden was a dial set up by Edward Gunter, professor of astronomy at Gresham College (and of which he published a description), by command of James I., in 1624. A large stone pedestal bore four dials at the four corners, and ” the great horizontal concave ” in the centre ; besides east, west, north, and south dials at the sides. In the reign of Charles II. this dial was defaced by an intoxicated nobleman of the Court :
” This place for a dial was too unsecure, Since a guard and a garden could not defend ; For so near to the Court they will never endure Any witness to show how their time they misspend.” — Marvell.
In the court-yard facing the Banqueting-house was another curious dial, set up in 1669 by order of Charles II. It was invented by one Francis Hall, alias Lyne, a Jesuit, and professor of mathematics at Liege. This dial consisted of five stages rising in a pyramidal form, and bearing several vertical and reclining dials, globes cut into
planes, and glass bowls ; showing ” besides the houres of all kinds,” ” many things also belonging to geography, astrology, and astronomy, by the sun’s shadow made visible to the eye.” Among the pictures were portraits of the King, the two Queens, the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert. Father Lyne published a description of this dial, which consisted of seventy-three parts : it is illustrated with seventeen plates. (The details are condensed in No. 400 of the Mirror.) About 1710, William Allingham, a mathematician in Canon- row, asked 500Z. to repair this dial : it was last seen by Vertue at Buckingham House.
Remains of ancient Whitehall have been from time to time discovered. In 1831, Mr. Sydney Smirke, F.S.A., in the basement of ” Cromwell House,” Whitehall-yard, found a stone-built and groined Tudor apartment — undoubtedly a relic of Wolsey’s palace, and corresponding with the wine-cellar in Vertue’s plan, — which is remarkably larger than the chapel. Mr. Smirke also found a Tudor arched doorway, with remains of the arms of Wolsey and the see of York in the spandrels; a portion of the river-wall and circular bastions ; and two stone mullioned Tudor windows, at the back of the Almonry-office, corresponding with the back wall of the apartments of ” the Yeomen of the Wood-yard,” in Vertue’s plan. In 1847 were removed the last remains of York House, a Tudor embattled doorway, which had been built into a later facade of the Treasury. (Archceologia, vol. xxv.)
Among the relics, comparatively but little known, is a range of chambers, with groined roofings of stone, at the Rolls Offices in Whitehall-gardens, which, probably, are a portion of the ancient palace of Whitehall. Part of the external wall of these remains is still visible opposite the statue of James II. — H. Mogford, F.S.A.
Upon the site of the small-beer cellar (engraved in No. 4 of Hollar’s prints of Whitehall) is the house of the Earl of Fife. Here were some fine Gobelins tapestry ; a marble picture of Mary Stuart, with her infant ; and in Pennant’s time here was a head of Charles I. when Prince of Wales, said to have been painted at Madrid by Velasquez, in 1625* The mansion was sold, in 1809, for 12,000Z. to the Earl of Liverpool, who possessed it until his death in 1828. In an adjoining wall is the Tudor arched eutrance to the palace water-stairs. In Privy Garden was the celebrated Museum formed by the Duchess of Portland : here Pennant was shown a rich pearl surmounted with a crown, which was taken out of the ear of Charles I. after his head was struck off: here also was the Barberini or Portland Vase, purchased by the Duchess of Sir William Hamilton for 1800 guineas. The museum was sold by auction, in lots, April 24, 1786, when the vase was bought by the Duke of Portland for 1029 guineas, and deposited by his grace in the British Museum in 1810.
In Whitehall Yard is the United Seetice Institution Museum, described at page 545. No. 3 is the Office of the Comptroller General of the Exchequer, where is held “the Trial of the Pyx.”
» In 1845, Mr. Snare, of Reading, bought at a sale of pictures at Radley Hall a painting which he believed to be ” the lost portrait ” of Prince Charles by Velasquez, and so denoted by the Earl of fife in a catalogue of his pictures at Fife House, in 1798. (See Account of the Picture, &c. Beading, 1847.)
SCOTLAND YARD
” The Scottish Kings appear to have been anciently regarded as members of the English Parliament; and there are instances, among the Tower records, of the issuing of writs to summon their attendance. In Pinkerton’s Iconograpkia Scotica is engraved Edward I. sitting in Parliament, with Alexander, King of Scots, on his right, and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, on his left hand : this is stated to have been taken from a copy of an ancient limning, formerly in the English College of Arms. When the Scottish Sovereigns, in later times, attended to do homage for their fiefs of Cumberland and Westmoreland, they usually lodged in their palace, in Scotland-yard.” — Noib : in Brayley’s Londiniana, ii. 277-8. Scotland-yard is now the head-quarters of the Metropolitan Police. See pp. 681 — 683.
Here are Palace-row, and a large Conduit-house. Milton, when Latin Secretary to Cromwell, had apartments in Scotland-yard, where died the poet’s infant son. The Crown Surveyor had his official residence in Scotland-yard; and here lived Inigo Jones, Sir John Denham, and Sir Christopher Wren, who successively filled the above office.
Near his house in Scotland-yard, Inigo Jones, uniting with Nicholas Stone, the sculptor, buried his money in a private place. ” The Parliament published an order encouraging servants to inform of such concealments ; and as four of the workmen were privy to the deposit, Jones and his friend removed it privately, and with their own hands buried it in Lambeth Marsh.” — Life by Cunningham.
Here Sir John Vanbrugh built himself a house out of the ruins of Whitehall Palace : Swift has ridiculed the house of ” brother Van” for its resemblance to a goose-pie : Vanbrugh died here in 1726.
WINDOWS OF PAINTED AND STAINED GLASS.
THE more noteworthy specimens in the Metropolis are incidentally noticed in describing the edifices which contain them. The following are recent additions : — ¦ St. Paul’s Cathedral. — One of a series of windows is that presented by Mr. Thomas Brown, late of the house of Longman and Co. — the subjects depicted being from the Life of St. Paul. The cartoons were designed by Schnorr, and Professor Strahuber is the artist, who was asked by Schnorr himself to carry his designs into effect. Inspector von Ainmiller was requested in like manner to take in hand the architectural accessories. The window is divided into two parts. The upper and principal part represents the ” Vision ” seen by the Apostle, and in the lower portion Ananias is seen coming to St. Paul when blind. To the right and left, the donor and his wife are represented in a kneeling posture, and beneath are their coats of arms and other decorations. The composition and the architectural portion — chiefly from motifs by the English architect, Penrose, who superintends the works of restoration-are excellent.
Mr. Sydney Smirke, F.S.A., in the basement of ” Cromwell House,” Whitehall-yard, found a stone-built and groined Tudor apartment — undoubtedly a relic of Wolsey*s palace, and corresponding with the wine-cellar in Vertue’s plan, — which is remarkably larger than the chapel. Mr. Smirke also found a Tudor arched doorway, with remains of the arms of Wolsey and the see of York in the spandrels; a portion of the river-wall and circular bastions; and two stone mullioned Tudor windows, at the back of the Almonry -office, corresponding with the back wall of the apartments of ” the Yeomen of the Wood-yard,” in Vertue’s plan. In 1847 were removed the last remains of York
House, a Tudor embattled doorway, which had been built into a later facade of the Treasury. {Archceologia, vol. xxv.)
Among the relics, comparatively but little known, is a range of chambers, with groined roofings of stone, at the Rolls Offices iu Whitehall-gardens, which, probably, are a portion of the ancient palace of Whitehall. Part of the external wall of these remains is still visible opposite the statue of James II. — H. Mogford, F.S.A.
Upon the site of the small-beer cellar (engraved in No. 4 of Hollar’s prints of Whitehall) is the house of the Earl of Fife. Here were some fine Gobelins tapestry ; a marble picture of Mary Stuart, with her infant ; and in Pennant’s time here was a head of Charles I. when Prince of Wales, said to have been painted at Madrid by Velasquez, in 1625* The mansion was sold, in 1809, for 12,000£. to the Earl of Liverpool, who possessed it until his death in 1828. In an adjoining wall is the Tudor arched entrance to the palace water-stairs. In Privy Garden was the celebrated Museum formed by the Duchess of Portland : here Pennant was shown a rich pearl surmounted with a crown, which was taken out of the ear of Charles I. after his head was struck off: here also was the Barberini or Portland Vase, purchased by the Duchess of Sir William Hamilton for 1800 guineas. The museum was sold by auction, in lots, April 24, 1786, when the vase was bought by the Duke of Portland for 1029 guineas, and deposited by his grace in the British Museum in 1810.
In Whitehall Yard is the United Service Institution Museum, described at page 545. No. 3 is the Office of the Comptroller General of the Exchequer, where is held “the Trial of the Pyx.”
* In 1845, Mr. Snare, of Beading, bought at a sale of pictures at Badley Hall a painting which he believed to be ” the lost portrait ” of Prince Charles by Velasquez, and so denoted by the Earl of Fife in a catalogue of his pictures at Fife House, in 1798. (See Account of the Picture, &c. Beading, 1847.)
The ceremony of the Pyx is a very ancient custom, and takes place every five, six, or seven years, at the above offices, or in Old Palace-jard. It is a sort of trial of the Masters and Officers of the Mint, to ascertain if the coinage which they have issued is pure and standard gold and silver, fair weights, and proper quantities of alloy. A jury of eminent goldsmiths being sworn, the Master of the Mint produces the great pyx box. The chest, which requires six men to carry it, contains several thousand sovereigns and some silver — principally florins, shillings, sixpenny, and threepenny pieces — the results of the accumulation since the previous trial. As soon as the chest is full the trial must take place.
The chief clerk of the Exchequer produces the box containing “the pyx,” that is, a plate of gold and one of silver, made in the time of George III. The pyx is always kept in the ancient chapel at Westminster; the Controller of the Exchequer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Treasury, each possessing a separate key of the box in which the pix is kept. After the usual formalities, the Lord Chancellor cuts off two strips of metal from the pix plates, one from the gold and the other from the silver, and hands them to the foreman of the jury of goldsmiths, by whom the assay is to be made. After this the pix is taken back to the Chapter-house and locked up, while the jury and the chief clerk, with the standard weights, proceed to Goldsmiths’ Hall, where the coins from the Mint pix box are assayed by the acid test and weight. The ceremony and the actual process are well described in the Times, Jan. 20, 1866.
In Whitehall Gardens (till our time called by the old name, Privy Garden) is Montague House {see p. 553) ; No. 4 is Sib Robert Peel’s (see p. 555). No. 7 is Pembroke House (formerly the Earl of Harrington’s) : in 1854, it was fitted up for the War Minister.
Whitehall commences at Scotland-yard, named from its having been the site of tbe palace ” for receipt of the Kings of Scotland, when they came to the Parliament of England :” to this statement by Stow, it has been objected that Scotland has always been an independent nation — a short period of possession under the Edwards excepted.
Strype, quoting a pamphlet of 1548, states the Palace to have been built by Kenneth III., King of Scotland, in 959, on ground given him by King Edgar, for his making thither an annual journey to do homage for the kingdom of Scotland: but this account is less credited than Stow’s.
“The Scottish Kings appear to have been anciently regarded as members of the English Parliament; and there are instances, among the Tower records, of the issuing of writs to summon their attendance. In Pinkerton’s Iconographia Scotica is engraved Edward I. sitting in Parliament, with Alexander, King of Scots, on his right, and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, on his left hand : this is stated to have been taken from a copy of an ancient limning, formerly in the English College of Arms. When the Scottish Sovereigns, in later times, attended to do homage for their fiefs of Cumberland and Westmoreland, they usually lodged in their palace, in Scotland-yard.” — Note : in Brayley’s Londinianu, ii. 277-8.
Scotland-yard is now the head-quarters of the Metropolitan Police.
Here are Palace-row, and a large Conduit-house. Milton, wben Latin Secretary to Cromwell, had apartments in Scotland-yard, where died the poet’s infant son. The Crown Surveyor had his official residence in Scotland-yard ; and here lived Inigo Jones, Sir John Denham, and Sir Christopher Wren, who successively filled the above office.
Near his house in Scotland-yard, Inigo Jones, uniting with Nicholas Stone, the sculptor, buried his money in a private place. ” The Parliament published an order encouraging servants to inform of such concealments ; and as four of the workmen were privy to the deposit, Jones and his friend removed it privately, and with their own hands buried it in Lambeth Marsh.” — Life by Cunningham.
Here Sir John Vanbrugh built himself a house out of the ruins of Whitehall Palace : Swift has ridiculed the house of ” brother Van” for its resemblance to a goose-pie : Vanbrugh died here in 1726.
WINDOWS OF PAINTED AND STAINED GLASS.
THE more noteworthy specimens in the Metropolis are incidentally noticed in describing the edifices which contain them. The following are recent additions : — St. Paul’s Cathedral. — One of a series of windows is that presented by Mr. Thomas Brown, late of the house of Longman and Co. — the subjects depicted being from the Life of St. Paul. The cartoons were designed by Schnorr, and Professor Strahuber is the artist, who was asked by Schnorr himself to carry his designs into effect. Inspector von Ainmiller was requested in like manner to take in hand the architectural accessories. The window is divided into two parts. The upper and principal part represents the ” Vision ” seen by the Apostle, and in the lower portion Ananias is seen coming to St. Paul when blind. To the right and left, the donor and his wife are represented in a kneeling posture, and beneath are their coats of arms and other decorations. The composition and the architectural portion — chiefly from motifs by the English architect, Penrose, who superintends the works of restoration- are excellent.
The Guildhall. — Amongst the enrichments of the Hall are several windows, one of whir h, presented hy Mr, Cornelius Lea Wilson, is of fine historical design, hy Gibbs. It is in four compartments, the subjects being the presentation of the four principal charters of the City ; the figures are richly coloured and jewelled on diapered backgrounds, and are surmounted by canopies on a rich ruby ground; the arms of the City and those of the donor are introduced in the tracery lights. The first subject is William the Conqueror holding in his hand the first charter granted to the City. The second subject is Henry I. presenting the charter granting to the City to hold Middlesex with London, and the right of hunting in the forests. The third subject is Richard I. granting the charter to the City of the conservancy of the river Thames, in order that the fishery might be nurtured and preserved, and the navigation encouraged and protected. The fourth and last subject is Edward VI. presenting the charter of the four Royal Hospitals.
A large specimen of Glass-painting was exhibited at No. 15, Oxford-street, in 1830.
The subject was the Tournament of the Field of Cloth-of-Gold, between Henry VIII. and Francis I., at Ardres ; the last tourney, June 25, 1520 : painted by Thomas Wilmshurst (the horses by Woodward), from a sketch by R. T. Bone. This window was 432 square feet, or 18 by 24 feet; and consisted of 350 pieces, fitted into metal astragals, falling with the shadows, so that the whole picture appeared an entire sheet of glass; it was exhibited in a first-floor room, decorated in the taste of the time of Henry VIII. The picture was composed from the details of Hall’s Chronicle, and contained upwards of 100 life-sized figures (40 portraits, mostly after Holbein) : including the two Queens, Wolsey, Anne Boleyne, and the Countess of Chateaubriant ; Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk ; Queen Mary, Dowager of France ; the ill-fated Duke of Buckingham, &c. The gorgeous assemblage of costume, gold and jewels, waving plumes, glittering arms, velvet, ermine, and cloth-of-gold, with heraldic emblazonry, picturesquely managed. The work cost the artist 3000,5. On the night of Jan. 31, 1832, the house was destroyed in an accidental fire, and with it the picture; not even a sketch or study was saved, and the property was wholly uninsured.