“The Row kept up its character as the headquarters of the book trade for

many years. But other changes have set in. There now are as many

publishers outside the Row as in it. We find publishers about Covent

Garden and Charing Cross; booksellers there are, of course, everywhere.

The _Directory_ gives a list of over four hundred publishers, of whom

not more than forty or fifty need be taken into account. Of the four

hundred, however, the Row still numbers thirty; while of booksellers,

stationers, and other persons connected with the book trade, there are

another thirty in the Row. So the old literary atmosphere hangs about

the place, and, though most of the greater publishers are gone, there

are enough left to keep up the traditions of the past. And north of the

Row, in Paternoster Square and the courts and lanes, other publishers

and booksellers are found who lend their name to make the Row and its

vicinity still the headquarters of new books.

“As for the social side of the Row. It once boasted two places of resort

where men could meet and dine, or sit and talk. The first of them was

Dolly’s Chop House. This house was built in the time of Queen Anne for a

certain cook named Dolly. It is said to have stood on the site of an

ordinary kept by Tarleton the Elizabethan mime. If this is true, there

was probably, according to the conservative habits of our people, a

tavern kept up on the spot continuously. It was not the custom, in the

early years of the eighteenth century, to create a new tavern, but to

carry on an old one. However, Dolly’s remained a place of great resort

for more than a hundred years. It seems to have been famous for its

beefsteaks.

“The other, a more important place, was the Chapter Coffee House. This

place was in the eighteenth century the resort of the booksellers; here

they met for the sale, among themselves, of copyrights, and for the

sharing of any new enterprise in new books. Here also met many of the

wits and writers during the last half of that century—Goldsmith,

Johnson, Lloyd, Churchill, and many others came here to sup and to talk.

Chatterton found his way here, sitting in a corner and thinking himself

already admitted among the acknowledged poets of the day. In the early

part of this century the coffee house was frequented by a knot of

writers of some importance in their own day. There was Alexander

Stevens, Dr. Buchan, the Rev. W. Murray, the Rev. Dr. Berdmore, Walker

‘the rhetorician,’ Dr. Towers, Dr. Fordyce, Johnson, called in his day

‘king of the booksellers,’ Phillips, editor of the _Monthly Magazine_,

Alexander Chalmers, Macfarlane, and others whose names are well-nigh

forgotten, who yet thought themselves no mean citizens, and formed a

group which came here every night and talked. Sad it is to think that to

these circles, as well as to that of the Chapter Coffee House, Time will

apply the sponge and efface their names and their sayings from the

memory of the world.” (_Paper on Paternoster Row._)

[Illustration:

PATERNOSTER ROW AS IT IS

]

=Ave Maria Lane= was “so called” (Stow) “because of stationers and text

writers who wrote and sold there all sorts of books then in use, namely,

A.B.C. with the Pater Noster, Ave, Creed, the Graces, etc.”

On the east side of Ave Maria Lane was the “Vicarage” of the Vicars

Choral of St. Paul’s, “bounded on the east by the Penitentiarie’s house;

on the west by Ave Maria Lane; on the south by the highway leading

through St. Paul’s churchyard; and on the north by the Bishop’s Palace.”

The Garden of the Bishop of London’s Palace on the west was divided from

Ave Maria Lane by a great brick wall reaching to an old house in

Paternoster Row, the Three White Lyons.

The site of the Bishop’s Palace was in London House Yard. The Palace was

pulled down in 1650 and tenements built upon its site.

Here has been demolished the old tavern, No. 8, distinguished by its

sign of the Goose and the Gridiron. The tavern stood, perhaps, on the

site of the Mitre, where, in 1642-44, was exhibited a collection of

curiosities which, according to their Catalogue, must have consisted

mainly of rarities similar in kind to those of “Tradeskins Ark” at

Lambeth, or of the Royal Society when lodged at Gresham College. The

Catalogue says they are “daily to be seen at the place called the Music

House at the Mitre near the west end of St. Paul’s Church.” The sign may

have been designed in burlesque of that of the Swan and Harp in

Cheapside, as cited in _Little London Directory_ of 1677. It formed the

meeting-place of the St. Paul’s Masonic Lodge, to which Wren belonged

for many years. He presented to the sodality of the Lodge, the mallet

and trowel that had been used in laying the first stone of St. Paul’s

(_Midd. and Herts. Notes and Queries_, vol. ii. p. 179).

=Amen Corner= is chiefly modern, but the two brick houses next the gate

which shuts in Amen Court are both ancient, one of them being restored.

Through great claret-painted wooden gates we pass to Amen Court where

there is an unbroken line of old seventeenth-century houses facing the

back of Stationers’ Hall. These are all of brick, creeper-covered, with

iron lamp-holders arching over the doorways, and link sockets attached.

One or two have quaint old iron scrapers. They were built by Sir C.

Wren. The court is the ecclesiastical residence for many of the

dignitaries connected with St. Paul’s. A gravelled walk leads round the

corner by a buttressed wall to the more modern part. Quite a large

garden space lies before the houses. The later row, built in 1876, are

in a modern Queen Anne style, and the material used is glowing red

brick.

The lodge or entrance to this side from the lane stands back behind

picturesque iron gates with red brick piers surmounted by great urns.

Over the foot entry is a Latin inscription, and in the street on a stone

slab set in the brickwork under a projecting cornice are the words:

Pro omnibus mortus christus ut et qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei

qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit.

In Ave Maria Lane are the ordinary business houses.

Amen Corner formerly ran from Ave Maria Lane as far as the wall. The

present court has been constructed on part of the ground formerly

occupied by the Oxford Arms Inn. Stationers’ Hall (see p. 199) was also

built against the wall; its small garden is the old burial-ground of St.

Martin, Ludgate Hill.

St. Martin’s Lane had St. Martin-le-Grand on the east side. This was a

house for Augustine canons, and William of Wykeham was one of its deans.

It formed a precinct with its own liberty, which survived the

Dissolution. In the sanctuary Forrest, the murderer of the little

princes in the Tower, died (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 234).

Stow tells the story of the famous action in which the City challenged

the claims of sanctuary set up by St. Martin’s in the year 1442.

“This college claimed great privileges of sanctuary and otherwise, as

appeareth in a book, written by a notary of that house, about the year

1442, 19 Henry VI., wherein, amongst other things, is set down and

declared, that on the 1st of September, in the year aforesaid, a

soldier, prisoner in Newgate, as he was led by an officer towards the

Guildhall of London, there came out of Panyer Alley five of his

fellowship, and took him from the officer, brought him into sanctuary at

the west door of St. Martin’s church, and took grithe of that place; but

the same day Philip Malpas and Robert Marshall, then sheriffs of London,

with many others, entered the said church, and forcibly took out with

them the said five men thither fled, led them fettered to the Compter,

and from thence, chained by the necks, to Newgate; of which violent

taking the dean and chapter in large manner complained to the king, and

required him, as their patron, to defend their privileges, like as his

predecessors had done, etc. All which complaint and suit the citizens by

their counsel, Markham, sergeant at the law, John Carpenter, late common

clerk of the city, and other, learnedly answered, offering to prove that

the said place of St. Martin had no such immunity or liberty as was

pretended; namely, Carpenter offered to lose his livelihood, if that

church had more immunity than the least church in London.

Notwithstanding, after long debating of this controversy, by the king’s

commandment, and assent of his council in the starred chamber, the

chancellor and treasurer sent a writ unto the sheriffs of London,

charging them to bring the said five persons with the cause of their

taking and withholding afore the king in his Chancery, on the vigil of

Allhallows. On which day the said sheriffs, with the recorder and

counsel of the City, brought and delivered them accordingly, afore the

said lords; whereas the chancellor, after he had declared the king’s

commandment, sent them to St. Martin’s, there to abide freely, as in a

place having franchises, whiles them liked, etc.” (Stow). The whole of

the district is now being gradually covered by the mighty buildings of

the General Post Office, which has inherited the name of its

predecessor, and is known as St. Martin-le-Grand. For the history see

_London in the Nineteenth Century_, p. 307.

[Illustration:

THE CITY BOUNDARY, ALDERSGATE

]

=Aldersgate=, formerly called Aldrechegate and Aldresgate, was built

during the Saxon occupation. It is named in the laws of Ethelred. It is

also mentioned in the _Calendar of Wills_, but not very early. Riley

contains some interesting notices of the gate and the ward.

Thus in 1277 an inquest is held on the unlucky Matilda, wife of Henry le

Coffeur, who fell down, being drunk, broke her right arm, and soon after

died, and was laid in the house of the said Henry in the ward of Anketin

de Auvergne, _i.e._ Aldersgate. In 1339 the Chamberlain of Guildhall

expended 20s. 4d. on the pavement of the gate of Aldersgate, the

pavement being one of cobbled stones laid close and rammed down. The

first pavements were those laid down in much frequented places such as

the City gates and markets, where otherwise the feet of the passers-by

would make pools of mud. In 1346 a certain Simon is hanged for robbery

in the ward of Aldersgate—observe that the name of the alderman is no

longer given to the ward. In 1350 mention is made of shops within

Aldersgate. In 1375, there are ordinances, already referred to,

concerning “foreign” poulterers. In 1379 there are ordinances respecting

the cattle-market of Smithfield without Aldersgate. In 1391 a scrivener

stands in pillory without Aldersgate for forgery.

Aldersgate was not thrown open as a highway. Bishopsgate received the

traffic from the north; Aldgate from the east; Newgate from the west;

and Bridge Gate from the south. Aldersgate simply opened upon the moor

beyond which was the great forest. It became necessary to have this gate

for access to Smithfield, when that place began to be used as a market

for horses and cattle; as the City playground, and as the site of races,

wrestling matches, and archery practice. It was also, later, used as a

place of execution; and it was partly occupied by religious houses.

Stow’s derivation from the “Elder” or “Older” gate is too far-fetched.

It is named probably from one Ealdered, its earliest name being

“Aldredesgate.” It is mentioned in a deed witnessed by Henry of London

Stone, Mayor of London. In 1274 John Blackthorn is alderman of this

ward, but in 1115 there is found in the documents of St. Paul’s a Warda

Brickmarii Montlarii, Ward of Brickman, the Moneyer, which is probably

Aldersgate.

Stow says of it:

“This is the fourth principal gate and hath at sundry times been

increased with buildings, namely, on the south, or inner side, a great

frame of timber hath been added, and set up, containing divers large

rooms and lodgings; also on the east side is the addition of one great

building of timber, with one large floor, paved with stone or tile, and

a well therein curbed with stone, of a great depth, and rising into the

said room, two stories high from the ground; which well is the only

peculiar note belonging to that gate, for I have not seen the like in

all this City to be raised so high” (Stow).

“The gate described by Stow was taken down in 1617, and rebuilt the same

year from a design by Gerard Christmas, the architect, as Vertue

thought, of old Northumberland House. On the outer front was a figure in

high relief of James I. on horseback, with the prophets Jeremiah and

Samuel in niches on each side; on the inner or City front an effigy of

the King in his chair of state. King James, on his way to take

possession of his new dominions, entered London by the old gate; the new

gate referred to this circumstance, with suitable quotations from

Jeremiah and Samuel placed beneath the figures of the two prophets. The

heads of several of the regicides were set on this gate, which suffered

by the Great Fire, but was soon after repaired and ‘beautified.’ The

whole fabric was sold on the 22nd of April, 1761, and immediately taken

down. I may add that it is written Aldrichgate in the London Chronicle

of Edward IV.’s time, printed by Sir Harris Nicholas; and that John Day,

the printer of Queen Elizabeth’s time, dwelt ‘over Aldersgate,’ much in

the same manner as Cave subsequently did at St. John’s” (Cunningham).

Milton took a “pretty garden-house” in Aldersgate Street on his return

from his foreign tour.

ST. BOTOLPH, ALDERSGATE

This church is opposite the General Post Office, at the corner of

Little Britain. The building was repaired in 1627, but was damaged

by the Great Fire. It was pulled down in 1754, when the present

church was erected. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1333.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Dean of St.

Martin-le-Grand, as a Rectory, 1333; the Dean and Canons of St.

Martin-le-Grand, as a Donative or Curacy, united to St. Martin’s

December 18, 1399; the Abbot and Convent of Westminster; the Dean

and Chapter of Westminster, who are still the patrons.

Houseling people in 1548 were 1100.

The present church is divided into a nave and side aisles by

Corinthian columns, and contains galleries on the north, south, and

west sides respectively. The building is of brick. The tower rises

at the west, crowned by a turret. There is a façade of four Ionic

columns on the east side, constructed in 1831. The churchyard is of

considerable size and extends to the south and west of the church;

it is open to the public and is well laid out.

Chantries were founded here: For Thomas de Lilsington and Lucy his

wife; by John Bothe. Here was the Brotherhood of Holy Trinity at

that altar in the south part of the which, and for which the King

granted a licence to Lady Johanna Asteley, Robert Cawode, and Thomas

Smythe, sen., July 9, 1446.

The oldest monument remaining is that of Dame Anne Packington, a

benefactress to the parish, who died in 1563. There are also

monuments to Sir John Micklethwait, President of the College of

Physicians, and Dr. Bernard, also a medical practitioner of the

seventeenth century; to Richard Chiswell, principal bookseller of

his time, who died in 1711; and to Daniel Wray, F.R.S., F.S.A., one

of the original Trustees of the British Museum and friend of the

poets Dyer and Akenside.

The charitable gifts belonging to this parish recorded by Stow are

very numerous. Richard Chiswell, bookseller, was the donor of £50 to

the schools at his death; Mrs. Hannah Jones of £60 in all during her

life and at her death.

Fifty boys and fifty girls were clothed and educated by

subscription.

The churchyard has been converted into a pleasant garden with smooth

grass plots and irregularly growing trees, and is locally known as the

Postmen’s Park. In the _Daily Chronicle_ of April 16, 1896, a

condensation of a speech by Mr. Norman, senior, churchwarden of St.

Botolph Without, appeared, part of which was as follows:

“The land in question had been let by the Charity Commissioners for

building in spite of the protests of the parishioners. It was in digging

for foundations that an enormous quantity of human remains came to

light, and the workmen at last became disgusted and refused to remove

any more the masses of bones disturbed. The building lessees, however,

determined to go on and legal proceedings were taken. The result was a

declaration by the judge that although about one half of the site was a

portion of the churchyard, technically, the whole site had now been

dealt with in such a way as to enable the central governing body to

build upon it.

“Many tons of human remains were still unexcavated, while a vast

quantity piled pell-mell against the church tower—preparatory to the

intended removal—had been covered with a few inches of earth. It seemed

impossible that the central governing body should now treat the ground

as a building site, especially as one of their principal duties was the

preservation of open spaces where they were most wanted, viz. in the

heart of the City, besides which they had now vested in them the whole

of the parish property of the value of about £100,000. He had every hope

that they would see their way to foregoing the small profit derivable

from letting the site for building purposes, and he believed there was

now a probability of the ground being secured for the public, in which

event the churchyard garden would not only be preserved, but enlarged

and greatly improved.”

On the west side of St. Martin’s Lane, Aldersgate, near Blowbladder

Street stood a great house called Northumberland House, which at one

time belonged to the Percies. Henry IV. gave it to the Queen and it was

called her wardrobe; in Stow’s time it was a printing house.

In Bull and Mouth Street stood the Bull and Mouth Inn. It became one of

the famous coaching inns of London.

The principal towns served from the Bull and Mouth were: Holyhead,

Oxford, Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster, Worcester, Leominster,

Ludlow, Hereford, Kendal, Glasgow, Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield,

Nottingham, and Northampton. Coaches started from these places daily,

three times, or twice a week. The traffic appears strangely divided;

this, however, was due to the competition of other coaches. Thus, a

coach started twice a day for Birmingham, and also twice a day for

Kendal.

Twenty-one coaches ran out of the Bull and Mouth every Monday. The same

number came in. Other days were quite as busy. Besides, there were the

wagons, of which twelve went out every week. The offices of the Post

Office are now built over the site of this inn.

Farther north to the west of Aldersgate is the district ravaged by the

fire of 1897, which burned down blocks of houses and streets. Jewin

Crescent and Australian Avenue were the centre of the conflagration, but

both have risen from their ashes. In Jewin Street Milton lived before

his third marriage.

=Little Britain= was in the reigns of the Stuarts the centre of the

bookselling trade, as Paternoster Row was later. Here lived Richard

Chiswell (d. 1711), “the Metropolitan bookseller”; also Samuel Buckler,

publisher of the _Spectator_; and Benjamin Franklin lodged for a time in

“Little Britain.” But the association which confers the greatest

distinction upon the street is that it was for a short time the

residence of Milton when he lodged with the bookseller Millington about

1670.

The street at present is lined on one side by the uniform row of the

buildings in the hospital precincts; these are of dingy brick with

stuccoed ground-floor. On the east, there are a few modern buildings

mingled with one or two older ones, which give the street a quaint

aspect. No. 37 and the two numbers to the south of it are decidedly

picturesque.

A full account of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and Priory has been given

in _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 251.

The Priory on its suppression was granted to Sir Richard, afterwards 1st

Baron, Rich, with the exception of the choir and south transept of the

church, which were given to the parishioners, and it is this beautiful

fragment that now forms the church of St. Bartholomew the Great.

[Illustration:

ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT

]

ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT

The date of the first prior, Rahere, was 1123, that of the first

rector 1544.

When the Priory was suppressed, the patronage was given by Henry

VIII. to Sir Richard Rich, who granted it to Queen Mary. It was

inherited by Queen Elizabeth, who regranted it to Sir Richard (then

Lord) Rich, in whose family it remained until it was purchased by

William Phillips early in the nineteenth century, in whose

descendants it now remains.

From West Smithfield, the entrance to the church is through an Early

English arch with the dogtooth ornament. The length of the church is

over 130 feet, the breadth 57 feet; the Lady Chapel, built early in

the fourteenth century, is about 60 feet long by 26 feet wide. The

style of the building is mainly Norman, and was executed by Rahere

(1123-1144) and his successor Thomas of St. Osyth (1144-1174);

during the next half-century the Early English nave was added. The

clerestory, in the Perpendicular style (1405), is in marked contrast

with the Norman Triforium beneath it: the ambulatory passes behind

the altar. The most striking innovation early in the fifteenth

century was the pulling down of the Norman apse and the erection of

an east wall, rendering the eastern portion of the church square

instead of semicircular; a new apse was built, however, by Aston

Webb, to whom also is due the flat oak ceiling of the tower, erected

in 1886, and the north transept, and the north and west porches, in

1893. A bone crypt is situated beneath the eastern part of the Lady

Chapel, and was vaulted by arches of a single span of 22 feet; it

was restored in 1895. Three bays of the east walk of the cloister

exist, and were restored in 1905. The tower, built in 1628, contains

five of the oldest bells in London, dating from before 1510.

Many chantries were founded here, but went with the suppression in

1539.

This church contains a number of interesting monuments. The most

notable is that of the founder, Rahere, placed on the north side of

the church within the communion rails. In the south aisle there is

the tomb of Sir Walter Mildmay (d. 1589), one of Queen Elizabeth’s

ablest statesmen, and founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. On the

south wall there is a monument to Edward Cooke, a physician of

repute who died in 1652; this is composed of a soft kind of marble,

known as “weeping marble,” because in a damp atmosphere it breaks

out into moisture. The renovation of the church has caused it to

weep no more. Thomas Roycroft, the printer of the Polyglot Bible (d.

1677), has a memorial by the Lady Chapel screen, erected by his son

Samuel. On the north wall of the choir a tablet records the death of

John Whiting, who, on his death in 1704, left the parish a sum of

money for educational purposes, which is still applied in accordance

with his wishes. Sir John Deane, the first rector here and founder

of the Witton Grammar School, Northwich, in 1557, is commemorated by

a brass opposite the founder’s tomb. The font in the south transept

is that in which the painter Hogarth was baptized in 1697; he was

created a life-governor of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in

acknowledgment of his gift of staircase paintings when the Hospital

was rebuilt.

There were many charities attached to this parish after Stow’s time

(1605), but they were all swept away under Bryce’s Act except John

Whiting’s schools.

Thirty boys and twenty girls were maintained by subscription and

John Whiting’s gift.

Perhaps the most notable rector was Thomas Westfield (1605-1644),

Bishop of Bristol.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE LESS

This church served as the Hospital chapel in monastic times, and has

been used as a parish church for those within the Hospital precincts

since the dissolution of the priory. In 1789 the interior of the

tower was remodelled by the younger Dance, but in 1823 the church

was practically rebuilt by Thomas Hardwick. It has since been

restored, and the only trace of the old work is to be found in the

vestibule beneath the tower. The date of the first custodian was

1223. The date of the first vicar was 1532.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Priors of St.

Bartholomew, Smithfield, up to 1532; the Governors of St.

Bartholomew’s Hospital.

The interior was remodelled on an octagonal plan by Dance in 1789;

this shape is obtained by means of clustered columns and arches

although the area enclosed by the walls is almost square. Above the

arches there is a clerestory pierced by windows. The ceiling is

groined.

No chantries are recorded to have been founded here.

[Illustration:

_Pictorial Agency._

GENERAL POST OFFICE

]

The old church contained a large number of monuments and a few have

been preserved. The most ancient is one in memory of William

Markeley, who died in 1439. There is a tablet erected by Sir Thomas

Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, to his wife Anne.

Sir Ralph Winwood, James I.’s ambassador to Holland and Secretary of

State, was buried here; also James Heath, author. In 1573 Inigo

Jones was baptized in this church. His father was a clothworker

living in or near Cloth Fair.

No charitable gifts or bequests are recorded by Stow.

=Bartholomew Close= is a curious place with many ramifications.

Beginning at the south end, in the bit adjoining Westmoreland Buildings,

there is nothing of especial interest. The old house at the end facing

westward is used for offices, the remainder containing printing,

publishing, and manufacturing premises. The great wide space,

Bartholomew Close proper, has been to a very great extent rebuilt. On

the east there are plain substantial business houses. At the corner of

the entrance from Little Britain there is a large eighteenth-century

house in excellent repair. This has a line of no less than nine windows

across its breadth and is four stories in height. It has evidently been

at one time a single dwelling-house. It is now cut up into three

numbers, and contains many offices. On the north side of the Close there

is a row of houses of the Georgian period which occupy the site of the

Frater of the Monastery. These stand back a little from the line of the

street. One has a small garden, and the others covered entries or

one-storied offices before them.

The next arm of the Close, running up to the passage to the church,

contains also a long line of old houses on the west. Many of these have

small shops on the ground-floor; some possess the slightly bowed windows

in fashion at the time they were built.

THE BUTCHERS COMPANY

As early as the year 1180 the fraternity or guild of Butchers of the

City, then and long after called “bochers,” was in existence.

This Company was incorporated in the year 1606, having existed

without a charter from time immemorial. I venture to advance the

theory that one reason why the Butchers did not seek corporation

before this date was the authority which the City claimed and

exercised in all matters connected with food, and especially with

meat, fish, and bread; and that which every alderman exercised in

his own ward. Thus it was the duty of the alderman to be notified as

to the names of every person in the ward exercising any trade

connected with food; and the mayor’s regulations as to the trade of

butcher (see _Liber Albus, passim_) seem to leave little need for

the scrutiny of a Master.

The principal seat of the butchers was in Newgate Street, then

called St. Nicholas Shambles. The spot was chosen as a place near

the principal communications of the City with the north and west

respectively. Animals brought in to be slaughtered had not far to go

within the City. Moreover, it was not a crowded part of London, and

was removed from the principal place of trade and from the port. The

butchers had also a market at the “Stocks,” and another at East

Chepe. There was, however, a very great dislike to living near the

Shambles or to keeping shops and stalls near those of the butchers.

Thus Riley (_Memorials_) quotes a complaint against the butchers

that they carried their offal through the streets to a jetty called

Butchers’ Bridge. The way, I suppose, was down Warwick Lane, Creed

Lane, and St. Andrew’s Hill to Puddle Dock or near it. The carriage

of this stuff, often stinking and always dripping blood along the

street, caused great complaints. Thus orders were issued one after

the other in 1368, 1369, and 1371, commanding the butchers to find a

place outside the City for a slaughter-house. The law was never

obeyed: probably the butchers made some kind of compromise or were

more careful in the carriage of the offal. They had already a place

on the banks of the Fleet to which they were allowed to cart their

refuse, on condition that it was thrown in at the turn of the tide.

The livery of the Company is 159; their trust and charitable Income

amounts to £831 a year.

Daniel Defoe, son of James Foe, citizen and butcher, was a member of

this Company by patrimony; admitted January 12, 1687.

[Illustration:

CLOTH FAIR

]

The first glimpse of =Cloth Fair= from the Smithfield end is full of

interest and attraction. It abounds in very old houses with projecting

stories and gable ends. Many of these have the bowed curve of old age

resembling the curving back of an old man. In others door-lintels and

window-frames have slipped out of their horizontal lines. Barley Mow

Passage is dull; it contains only plain warehouse-like buildings. In

Cloth Fair, Nos. 6 to 4 are covered with rough stucco and have bayed

windows and gable ends. These are the fronts of those seen over the

churchyard. In New Court are buildings of a similar nature. There are

interspersed with these quaint remnants of old domestic architecture

business houses of no particular style. No. 13 on the north side, and

the next one or two following it, are really old, and then we come to

the corner of Kinghorn Street, where one of the oldest taverns remaining

in London stands. This is the Dick Whittington. The corner is rounded

off, and each story projects a little farther than the lower one. There

is an ornamental cornice and gable end; the whole is covered with rough

stucco.

[Illustration:

OLD COACH AND HORSES, CLOTH FAIR

]

=Smithfield.=—Stow says: “Then is Smithfield Pond, which of old times in

recordes was called Horse Poole, for that men watered horses there, and

was a great water. In the 6th of Henry the fifth a new building was made

in this west part of Smithfielde betwixt the said Pool and the River of

the Wels or Turnemill Brooke in a place (then called the Elmes, for that

there grew many Elme trees), and this had been the place of execution

for offenders, since the which time the building there hath been so

increased that now remaineth not one tree growing.”

[Illustration:

LONG LANE, SMITHFIELD, 1810

]

The Elms here mentioned was the place of public execution until the

middle of the thirteenth century; an honour transferred to St.

Giles-in-the-Fields, and later to the more notorious Tyburn. Among the

best known of those who suffered execution at Smithfield is William

Wallace. Jack Straw, the rebel, was hanged at Smithfield, and here took

place the picturesque scene, when the beautiful boy-king, Richard II.,

met Wat Tyler, and showed courage such as won admiration for the promise

of his future, a promise destined to remain unfulfilled. Then and later

Smithfield was the great jousting field and playground of London. Many

were the brilliant tourneys held here, when knights met in chivalrous

contest, and all the flower of England’s manhood drew together to try

prowess at arms.

Smithfield, however, will be always best remembered by the blood of the

martyrs which watered the ground. The spot where these cruelties took

place is probably somewhere near the gate of St. Bartholomew’s. Between

1555 and 1611, many were the sufferings endured at Smithfield. Timbs

says that of the 277 martyrs in Mary’s reign the greater number suffered

here.

[Illustration:

BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, 1721

]

In Henry VIII.’s reign poisoners were boiled to death at Smithfield. A

place more closely associated with the life of London than this could

hardly be imagined, yet nowadays who associates Smithfield with anything

but markets!

In the centre of the open space is an inclined plane winding downward

with a corkscrew turn until it passes into the basement of the Meat

Market. Northward is the huge building erected by Act of Parliament in

1860, the year preceding the dismarketing of Newgate, which was closed

at its opening seven years later. Sir Horace Jones was the architect,

and the style is that generally known as Italian. The chief points of

architectural effect are the four towers, the frontispieces or façades

of the public roadway, which passes through the market from north to

south, and the pedimented gateways to the east and west fronts. The plan

or interior arrangement of the ground-floor is exceedingly simple. A

great central roadway runs through from north to south. This was a

compromise or concession to existing interests. It is from 50 to 60 feet

wide, and the gateways at the entrances are very fine.

That on the south is ornamented by emblematical figures representing

London and Edinburgh, and that on the north by similar figures symbolic

of Dublin and Liverpool.

The central roadway is bisected by an east and west avenue 25 feet in

width. The entrance gates at the ends of this are somewhat similar to

those of the larger roadway. Six smaller avenues run parallel to the

central roadway, cutting this secondary avenue at right angles. The

blocks between the avenues contain the shops. These average about 36

feet by 15, and have offices and accommodation rooms above. The four

corner blocks formerly contained taverns, but only two of these now

remain. The roof is an adaption of the Mansard principle, and is filled

in with glass louvres. A peculiar feature of the market is the great

underground basement which is hollowed out to a depth of 22 feet, and

extends even some distance beyond the limits of the building. This is

supported by iron girders measuring roughly about five miles, and

containing about 3000 tons of wrought iron. This is intersected by

railway lines. Over the northern half the Metropolitan Railway has

running powers; the southern forms a depot of the Great Western Railway.

There are here two hydraulic hoists, and the meat brought by the Great

Western lines is hoisted straight into the market. The circular

depression mentioned as being in the centre of West Smithfield is in

connection with this depot. All other meat is brought in vans and

unloaded in the usual way. From 1 o’clock in the middle of the night for

three mornings in the week, and from 2 o’clock the other two mornings

the market is open, and closes alternately at 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock in

the daytime.

From very early times Smithfield has been a market in addition to its

manifold other uses. Stow says:

“There be the pens or folds, so called of sheep there parted, and penned

up to be sold on market days.”

The Poultry Market adjoining was opened December 1, 1875. It covers an

area of rather less than 1½ acres. It is similar generally in exterior

treatment to the market already described but differs in small

particulars. It is also on a different plan internally from the Meat

Market, having a square of shops round the outer edge and four

intersecting avenues which cut it up into central blocks. Here every

shop has its cellar beneath, and the vaults which run beneath the

avenues are occupied by a cold-air storage company, to whom belongs the

great ventilating shaft in the triangular bit of land facing King

Street. The London, Chatham, and Dover line also cuts diagonally beneath

the market, but though the tunnelling is raised a little above the level

of the flooring it still leaves room for vaults where it passes. There

is one tavern in the Poultry Market.

The General Market is more expensive to the holder than either of the

above, for it is let by tender to the highest bidder, whereas the

others, by Act of Parliament, cannot claim a higher rental than a penny

per square foot, and something extra for office space, etc.

This market was built to supersede the old Farringdon Market, and was at

first meant for vegetables. At the time (1883) there was a movement

towards a new Fish Market, and so the building was devoted to that

purpose. The fish business, however, was not successful, and in December

1889 the market was transformed into a general market supplementary to

the meat and poultry. It is now fully occupied, and brings in a very

good rental.

The Fish Market on Snow Hill was opened in 1888. It is of triangular

shape, and contains an inner triangle also. This is managed on much the

same plan as the rest, but does not seem to be very successful; for some

reason the fish trade does not flourish at Smithfield.

For a full account of Bartholomew Fair, so popular while it lasted, see

_London in the Eighteenth Century_, p. 465.

GROUP VII

FLEET STREET AND ADJACENT STREETS

On the south side, Fleet Street presents a long line of historical

associations—Bridewell, the Carmelites or Whitefriars, the Fleet Prison,

Alsatia, and Sanctuary. These are all described in other parts of this

work (see _London in the Eighteenth Century_). On the north side are the

courts and streets of later origin. These, with the houses and shops of

that side, present memories chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries.

Roman remains have been found all along the river on the west of the

City. In the year 1800 was discovered a sepulchral monument, now in the

Guildhall Museum; a tessellated pavement was found in 1681, near St.

Andrew’s, Holborn; in 1595, a stone pavement supported on piles was

found near Chancery Lane, the piles proving the marshy character of the

ground; the “old Roman bath” is in Strand Lane; in 1722, in digging for

the foundations of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, an arch, a stone

sarcophagus, and other Roman relics were found; and on Thorney Island

itself numerous Roman remains have been discovered. In other words,

there were Roman villas and residences all along the river from Ludgate

to Westminster inclusive.

Fleet Street began to be settled before the thirteenth century; in 1228,

one Henry le Buke slew another in Fleet Street and took sanctuary in St.

Mary Overies, Southwark. In 1311, certain servants of the King’s

household were arrested for a burglary in Fleet Street; at the same time

complaints were made that the way from “La Barre du Novel Temple” and

the Palace of Westminster was choked with bushes and thickets. One of

the residents of Fleet Street supplied Edward II. with boots and tassels

of silk in 1321. Shortly after, the houses from the Temple Church

northwards were erected by the Templars.

The history of Fleet Street from the sixteenth century is much more

detailed than can be given here; the reader must be referred to the

special histories of the street and the locality. It suffered greatly in

the Plague of 1625, when over 500 of the parishioners of St. Dunstan’s

were carried off.

The Fire of London terminated on this side in the third house, east of

St. Dunstan’s Church. The plan of the ruins drawn up by Wren and Hooke

shows that Fleet Street was 37 feet in width west of Fetter Lane; at

Water Lane it was 70 feet; at St. Bride’s Court 63 feet; thence to Bride

Lane 32 feet; and to Fleet Bridge only 23 feet. Shoe Lane was only 9

feet wide at the south end; Water Lane 11 feet at the north, and 26 at

the south; Salisbury Court 23 feet at the north end. After the Fire

parts of Fleet Street were set back, and the street made more convenient

for the increasing traffic.

Fleet Street is especially remarkable for its taverns, its booksellers,

and its banking-houses. In a valuable paper contributed by Mr. Hilton

Price to the _Archæological Journal_, December 1895, may be found a list

as complete as can be hoped for of all the houses in Fleet Street with

their signs. The learned writer has collected 315 signs, and has been

able to fix 250 of them.

Among the taverns we may notice:

(1) The _Devil_, called also _St. Dunstan’s_, or the _Old Devil_, sacred

to the memory of Ben Jonson. Here was the _Apollo_, a room in which all

kinds of clubs and societies met and entertainments were held. Ben

Jonson’s “Rules” are well known. They are painted in letters of gold on

a black board still preserved in Childs’ Bank:

Welcome all who lead or follow

To the oracle of Apollo—

Here he speaks out of his pottle,

Or the tripos, his Tower bottle;

All his answers are divine,

Truth itself doth flow in wine.

Hang up all the poor hop drinkers,

Cries old Sim, the King of Skinkers;

He who the half of life abuses,

That sits watering with the Muses,

Those dull girls no good can mean us;

Wine it is the milk of Venus,

And the poets’ horse accounted:

Ply it and you all are mounted.

’Tis the true Phoebian liquor;

Cheers the brain, makes wit the quicker,

Pays all debts, cures all diseases,

And at once three senses pleases.

Welcome all who lead or follow

To the oracle of Apollo.

PRICE, _Signs of Old Fleet Street_.

(2) The _Rainbow_, opened in 1657 as a coffee-house by one James Farre,

barber surgeon. It was the second coffee-house in London.

(3) The _Mitre_, where the Society of Antiquaries dined from 1728 to

1775 on St. George’s Day. Here also the Royal Society held its meetings

for some years.

(4) The _Bolt in Tun_, an ancient tavern of the fifteenth century. The

_Daily News_ now occupies its site.

(5) The _Cock_. Everybody knows Tennyson’s lines. The tavern has been

taken down and the site built over.

Mr. Hilton Price enumerates nearly fifty more.

If the street was full of taverns, it was equally the favourite place of

business for printers and booksellers. Again referring to Mr. Price’s

paper we can compile the following list, omitting names of no importance

in the commercial history of literature.

Richard Pynson (1493). At Temple Bar.

William How (1571-90). Printer over Temple Bar.

Ward and Mundee. Booksellers over Temple Bar (1578).

John Starkey (1660-81). At the _Mitre_, between the Temple gates.

Publisher of Shadwell’s Plays.

Richard Tottell (1553-97). Printer between the Temple gates.

Abel Roper }

John Martyn } The _Sun_, next the _Rainbow_. Publishers (1652-75) of

H. Herringman } Dugdale’s _Baronage_.

Bernard Lintot, No. 16. The _Cross Keys and Cushion_ (1704-28).

Publisher for Pope, Colley Cibber, and Gray.

Arthur Collins (1709-14). Publisher of the _Peerage_.

William Sandby (1786). Bookseller, afterwards partner in Snow & Co.,

Strand.

William Griffin (1556-71).

John MacMurray, afterwards John Murray, who succeeded William Sandby

(1760-1812).

John Pemberton (1709- ), No. 53, at the _Golden Buck_. Published

(1716) _The Cries of London_.

Jacob Tonson. At the _Judge’s Head_ (1682-98). Published Dryden’s works,

and was secretary to the Kit Kat Club.

Edmund Curll. At the _Bible and Dial_ (1709).

Richard Banks. At the _White Hart_ (1539). Printer.

Thomas Fisher. At the _White Hart_ (1600). Published first edition of

_Midsummer Night’s Dream_.

Roger Warde. At the _Castle_, opposite the Conduit (1593). Printer.

Wynkyn de Worde. At the _Sun_, over against the Conduit (1502-34).

Thomas Berthelet. At the _Lucrece_, near the Conduit. King’s Printer

(1528-55).

Thomas Marsh. At the _Prince’s Arms_ (1556-87). Printer of Stow’s

_Chronicle_.

Richard Pynson, at the _George_, near Clifford’s Inn. Printer

(1493-1527).

William Middleton (1525-47) }

Robert Redman (1529-40) }

Eliz. Pickering (1540) } at the same house. Printers.

William Redman (1556) }

[Illustration:

_Pictorial Agency._

FLEET STREET

]

Robert Copland, an assistant of Caxton (1508-47).

William Copland (1553-69). Printer of Juliana Berner’s _Book of

Hawking_, etc.

In addition to this long list, Mr. Hilton Price gives the names of 702

booksellers and printers. It is true that their names cover two

centuries at least, but they show conclusively that the real home of the

book trade from the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth was

Fleet Street. As we have seen, there were booksellers in St. Paul’s

Churchyard, in Paternoster Row, in Little Britain at different times,

but Fleet Street contained by far the greater number of those in the

“trade.”

A third point of interest in Mr. Price’s list is that of the

banking-houses and goldsmiths who kept “running cashes.” Among these are

the names of Blanchard and Child, afterwards Child; James Chambers

(1680), from whom are descended Messrs. Gosling and Sharpe; John Mawson

& Co. (1677), the forerunners of Messrs. Hoare & Co.; James Heriot,

brother of George Heriot of Edinburgh; and others of less note.

We must not forget to notice the residence of Izaak Walton. Mr. Price

places it at the third house in the south-west corner of Chancery Lane.

At the corner was the King’s Head Tavern; next, on the west side, the

sign of the Harrow; the next house, sometimes called the Harrow and

Crown, was Izaak Walton’s.

It is apparent from the preceding that Fleet Street, from the fourteenth

century at least, has always been a place of great resort. The large

number of taverns was chiefly due, without doubt, to the Inns of Court

and the lawyers. Suitors from all parts of the kingdom had to come to

Fleet Street; in its courts they found lodgings and in its taverns they

found refreshment and feasting. The place was convenient also for the

Court end of town, and for the people of the great nobles living in the

Strand; there were no merchants in the street; the trade was all of the

retail character, such as bookselling; when banks began to be

established Fleet Street was much more convenient for the country

gentlemen and nobles than Lombard Street; its coffee-houses were more

easy of access to the lawyers, poets, wits, and actors who lived in the

Inns of Court and about Covent Garden, than those of the City or Charing

Cross.

The preceding lists do not exhaust the well-known names connected with

Fleet Street. In addition, to mention only a few, are those of Cowley,

the poet; Drayton; many of the early printers, successors of Caxton;

many booksellers of note; Milton, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Samuel

Richardson, Tompion the watchmaker, Alderman Waithman, William Hone,

Douglas Jerrold, the many distinguished writers who have created the

_Daily Telegraph_, the _Daily Chronicle_, the _Daily News_, the

_Standard_, and the host of papers and journals whose offices are in the

street. In the burial-ground of St. Andrew’s, Shoe Lane, lie the remains

of Thomas Chatterton; in Fetter Lane Wesley and Whitefield preached; in

this street was published Abbott’s _Weekly Register_; we may also

enumerate Sedley the poet, Jacob Tonson, John Hoole, Crockford of

gambling fame, Sir Symonds D’Ewes, antiquary, Henry Woodfall, Printer

“without Temple Bar,” and Charles Knight. It may, indeed, be fairly

stated that, during the whole of the eighteenth and a large part of the

nineteenth century, Fleet Street was the haunt of all the literary men

of the time, and that at the present moment it is the most important

centre of journalism. On the east of Ludgate is the office of _The

Times_; all the other London dailies, and a great number of provincial

and colonial journals, have their offices in Fleet Street. But poets,

novelists, dramatists, and scholars are no longer found in this street;

they belong to West End Clubs and no longer congregate in taverns and

coffee-houses.

[Illustration:

IZAAK WALTON’S HOUSE IN FLEET STREET

]

Bell Yard, Temple Bar, one side of which is now occupied by the High

Courts of Justice, is called by Pope in 1736 a “filthy old place.”

=Shire Lane=, now built over by the Courts, was known also as Rogers

Lane; it was also called Sheer Lane; this lane, in spite of an evil

name, possessed many associations. Here, at an inn called the Trumpet,

Isaac Bickerstaffe was supposed to receive his friends, and was fabled

to have his residence. In this lane was founded the Kit Kat Club, a

society of gentlemen devoted to the Protestant interest; here lived

Elias Ashmole, the antiquary; here Sir Charles Sedley, the dramatic

poet, was born; and here in a spunging-house Theodore Hook made the

acquaintance of Dr. Maginn.

On the south side of Fleet Street, Wynkyn de Worde, the printer, lived

in Falcon Court; in Mitre Court was the Mitre, where Dr. Johnson and

Boswell met to drink port. The Royal Society used to dine at the Mitre

(1743-80). Sarah Malcolm, whose portrait was taken by Hogarth, was

hanged opposite Mitre Court for the murder of Lydia Duncombe, Elizabeth

Harrison, and Anne Price. Ram Alley, now Hare Court, opposite Fetter

Lane, was one of the later places of sanctuary; that is to say, a place

where bailiffs and writs were not admitted. It had a passage into the

Temple and another into Serjeant’s Inn, and was, as might be expected, a

place of evil reputation.

The date of the first building of St. Dunstan’s Church is not known, but

it was before the thirteenth century. It narrowly escaped the Fire, and

was extensively repaired in 1701. The church, which was taken down in

1829-30, was a later edifice; it occupied part of the present street,

and had a row of shops along its south side. It was famous for its

“Saints,” a couple of figures which struck the hours. They were

purchased by the Marquis of Hertford and set up at St. Dunstan’s Villa,

Regent’s Park. The statue of Queen Elizabeth, originally on the west

front of Ludgate, was happily preserved, and still stands over the

vestry of the new church.

ST. DUNSTAN IN THE WEST

This church stands on the north side of Fleet Street, between Fetter

Lane and Chancery Lane, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It

escaped the Great Fire, but very narrowly. It was extensively

repaired in 1701, and towards the close of 1829 taken down; the new

building, the work of John Shaw, was set back 30 feet from the

former site, and consecrated in 1833. The earliest date of an

incumbent is 1318.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and

Convent of Westminster as a Rectory, who gave it to Henry III. about

1272, when he founded the Domus Conversorum, then the Custos Domus

Conversorum; Edward II. and his successors; the Abbot and Convent of

Alnwick, October 29, 1386—a vicarage was ordained here in 1437, in

the same patronage, and so continued up to 1540; Henry VIII.;

William James, 1556; Lord Dudley, by grant of Edward VI.; Sir

Richard Sackvill, Knt.; George Rivers; Simeon Trustees since 1834.

Houseling people in 1548 were 110.

The interior of the present church is octagonal in shape, containing

seven recesses, separated from each other by clustered columns and

pointed arches, with a clerestory above. The roof is groined and is

formed by eight beams of iron, united at the centre. The tower,

which rises at the south, contains three stories, and is surmounted

by an octagonal lantern; the whole is terminated by a high open

parapet. At each angle of the tower there are large pinnacles. The

total height of the steeple is 130 feet. The body of the church is

chiefly composed of brick, but the tower is of yellow freestone.

Chantries were founded here: For Richard Bardelby, Prebendary of

Dunnington in York, who died in 1316, at the altar of St. Michael;

by Robert Hez, whose endowment fetched £10 : 19 : 8 in 1548, but

there hath been no priest found for twenty years before that time,

and so the money is employed in repairs of the church; for Nicholas

Coningstow, John Knape at the Altar of St. Katherine; by John Burrel

de Askham, for himself and for John de Langeton and Simon Flemyng,

for which the King granted his licence, May 8, 1375. Here was

founded the Brotherhood of Our Lady and St. Dunstan, wherein was the

Guild of St. Anne, endowed by William Chapman, valued at £11 in

1548, when Randall Smith was chaplain; within the same Guild was a

Chantry, founded by William Marshall, whose endowment fetched £22 in

1548, when William Neale was chaplain; and yet another Chantry was

endowed in the same Brotherhood by William Westwood, and for which

the King granted his licence July 22, 1440, at the Altar of St. Mary

in the south part of the church.

[Illustration:

ST. DUNSTAN IN THE WEST (OLD CHURCH)

]

A large number of monuments belonging to the old church are affixed

to the walls, commemorating Gerard Legh, a member of the Inner

Temple, who died 1563; Cuthbert Fetherstone, the King’s doorkeeper,

who died 1615; Alexander Layton, a famed swordsman, who died 1679,

and others. Among later monuments are those of two Sir Richard

Hoares, both Lord Mayors, in 1712 and 1745, whose descendants were

liberal benefactors of the new church. Ralph Bane, Bishop of

Lichfield and Coventry, and Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, were

buried here in 1559, also Dr. Thomas White, founder of Sion College.

Here, too, were baptized the great Earl of Strafford in 1593, and

Bulstrode Whitelocke in 1605, author of the _Memorials of English

Affairs_. William Tyndale was a frequent preacher in this church,

and in more recent times William Romaine was appointed Lecturer

(1749). In 1895 a stained-glass window at the north-west was erected

in memory of Izaak Walton.

A considerable number of gift sermons are recorded by Stow: Dr.

White gave £18; Mr. Adams gave £2. The total of the smaller

contributions was £5 : 6 : 8.

There were two charity schools, one for fifty boys, four of whom

were taught navigation; the other for forty girls, who were fitted

for service. These were established in 1708, and an infants’ school

was founded shortly after in Fetter Lane. The three still exist as

“fee-paying” church schools.

Among the clergy of the church have been William Tyndale (d. 1536);

Dr. Thomas White (d. 1624), founder of Sion College; Dr. John Donne

(1573-1631), Dean of St. Paul’s; the silver-tongued Dr. William

Bates, ejected in 1660; Richard Baxter (1615-91); and William

Romaine (1714-95).

THE TEMPLE

By W. J. LOFTIE

The Temple is situated on the left bank of the Thames, partly within the

City of London and partly within the ancient county of Middlesex. It

consisted originally of the Inner, Middle, and Outer Temples, of which

the first and second were in what was described in the thirteenth

century as “the suburb of London,” and afterwards as the ward of

Farringdon Without. This former suburb had many descriptions and

designations, owing to its geographical situation between two tributary

brooks or bournes and the tidal waters of the Thames. The brooks have

now disappeared under ground, but the Fleet, along the City wall, and

the Millbrook, where Mill Ford Lane is now, formed the east and west

boundaries of a green slope between Fleet Street and the river. Strictly

speaking, this whole region, as far as the wall, was in Westminster, but

Henry III. and the citizens divided it between them when the London

boundaries were pushed out to “The Bar of the New Temple,” and when

Peter of Savoy built his palace on the open strand beyond it. After the

Conquest the only access to the City was by a lane which followed a

ridge of higher ground from the Roman landing-place at the Millbrook,

and it entered the City walls at Newgate. When Ludgate, a postern, as

its name denotes, was opened and a bridge crossed the Fleet, all was

changed, and the easy way from Westminster by land no longer led up

Show-well-lane (now Shoe Lane) to Newgate, but through Fleet Street to

Ludgate. Then a church was built at St. Bride’s Well, the Whitefriars or

Carmelites settled beside it in 1241, and the Templars, an order of

military monks, bought the lands called after them the Inner and Middle

Temples, with, outside the City bar, the fields known as the Coney

Garth, Fickett’s Field, and the Outer Temple as tilting and exercising

grounds. Fetter Lane recalls the existence of armourers who made

fetters, that is, lance rests, for the knights, and the City still pays

an annual rent to the Crown for the forge, where, no doubt, weapons were

mended and war-horses shod. The Templars had lived at first at the

Holborn end of Chancery Lane, where Southampton Buildings are now, and

after they migrated here in 1184 their house was called the New Temple.

It was situated on the eastern part of the site, and the circular church

was built in the year following, namely 1185, the choir being added in

1240. As long as the Templars remained here it seems probable that their

buildings did not extend any farther west. The local names, such as

Fountain Court, Garden Court, Elm Court, are all in the Middle Temple,

and seem to contain reminiscences of the time when it was still part of

the gardens. The names in the Inner Temple, Cloister Court, King’s Bench

Walk, Crown Office Row, have an appearance of greater antiquity; but Fig

Tree Court is in the same division, and Brick Court in the Middle

Temple, so it will not do to press the argument very far.

In December 1307 the Temple was seized by the Sheriffs of London in

obedience to a writ issued by King Edward II., and the order was soon

after formally suppressed. The Templars had long been remarkable for

their wealth and pride; their campaigns in the Holy Land were

ineffective, chiefly on account of their quarrels with the Hospitallers,

and in most European kingdoms they were suspected of sorcery, heresy,

and other crimes. Their suppression was attended with greater cruelty

abroad than in England, and though some thirty members of the order were

sent to the Tower, most of them were subsequently released, and a

pension was granted to some. The “New Temple” was given by the King as a

residence to his cousin, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. He died in

1324, but had left the Temple long before, having in 1314 transferred it

to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, with the King’s consent. The grant

includes Fickett’s Field, and as Lancaster’s wife was the heiress of

Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, he came into possession, by a curious

coincidence, of the future sites of Lincoln’s Inn, the two Temples, and

the new Law Courts, as well as of the Savoy. Lancaster was beheaded at

Pontefract in 1322, but was esteemed a saint and martyr by the people on

account of his long opposition, first to Gaveston, and later to the

Despencers, the unworthy favourites of Edward II. Meanwhile the

Hospitallers or Knights of St. John at Clerkenwell obtained a papal

decree that they were to succeed to the property of the Templars, and in

1324 they were allowed to take possession. The Pope made it a condition

that the Temple was not to be put to profane uses, and the new owners in

promptly letting it to the lawyers—who were in those days almost all in

holy orders, clergy, that is, able to read and write—may have supposed

they were fulfilling the papal injunction.

A survey was made about this time, and from it and other indications we

may form some idea of what the house was like when the Templars lost it.

The chapel of St. Mary stood where it still is, and beside it the

smaller chapel of St. Anne. There were already two gates. The Master’s

house was eastward of the church, but nearer than the present house, and

formed, with the treasury and the hall, a quadrangle round the chapel.

This treasury was occasionally used by King John and King Henry before

the regalia was lodged in the Tower. John was here himself in 1212;

Henry III. in 1232, when he seized the money of Hubert de Burgh,

deposited in the treasury; and Edward I. in 1283. The library probably

occupies the site. The treasurer’s house adjoined, as it does still; and

there was a cloister, as there is still. Notwithstanding the number of

years between the expulsion of the Templars and the organisation of the

lawyers, the old names were preserved. The chaplain was the Master, the

treasurer was the chief of the lawyers. It would seem as if the old

titles of the officials were kept alive by the buildings.

We obtain a glimpse of the daily life of these new Templars from

Chaucer. If he lived in the Savoy, as he seems to have done, before he

went to Westminster, he had the lawyers close at hand, and in one of his

_Canterbury Tales_ he tell us that the Manciple belonged to the Temple,

where he had thirty masters, for whom he was caterer. From which we may

conclude that the number of lawyers had reached thirty in 1380, unless,

indeed, there were several houses full. The servants of the Templars,

the _servientes_ or serjeants, survived the expulsion of their masters,

and after they died out their place was taken by the common law

practitioners, who formed themselves into a society or inn, which

adjoined the Temple on the northeast as early as 1333; while in 1337 we

begin to hear of two halls, and in the reign of Henry VI. the Templars

consisted of two separate bodies, which professed absolute equality. The

Inner, however, is very much richer than the Middle Temple and has more

members. Every year the benchers of one dine with the benchers of the

other; and when James I. granted the site without any rents or

restrictions, such as had survived till then, his charter is addressed

to the members of both societies.

Meanwhile, the Outer Temple had been leased to the Bishops of Exeter,

and the land between Fickett’s Field and Lincoln’s Inn to the Bishop of

Chichester. Another bishop had lodgings actually within the Temple. On

the east side of Inner Temple Lane, north of the porch of the Round

Church, was Ely House, with its chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

The Great Fire of 1666 made the Temple its western terminus. The

Master’s house was burned, but the chapel was spared, the flames ceasing

within a very few feet of the chancel. Wren built the new gate facing

Chancery Lane and the Master’s house, removing it to where it still

stands. His style, if not his hand, may also be seen in other buildings,

such as the doorways in King’s Bench Walk. The archway of the Inner

Temple Gate dates from 1607, but the front of the house above it in

Fleet Street has been refaced lately in a suitable style.

It may be well to note here that the other round churches in England

were not built by the Templars; there are three—St. Sepulchre at

Cambridge, St. Sepulchre at Northampton, and St. John of Jerusalem at

Little Maplestead, in Essex. The last named was probably built by the

Hospitallers. There is also a round chapel in Ludlow Castle.

The visitor will probably go first to the chapel. It is usual to mark

its importance and size by calling it “the Temple Church.” It was built

by the Templars, the round part, Norman in style, being consecrated in

1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who happened to be in England

on a begging tour. With its porch, it has been rebuilt, repaired,

improved, and “restored,” until very little of the original masonry, if

any, remains. The choir was added in 1240 and was a very pure and

beautiful example of the “Early English” or first pointed style. It has

been ever since very obnoxious to ignorant builders, and a mere list of

the alterations would perhaps produce an impression that nothing is left

worth seeing. This is not the case; but it is true that after an

ornamental reparation in 1685, another after a fire ten years later, and

again after forty years, it must have seemed very venerable and still in

parts very picturesque even after a general repair in 1811. The

monuments, some very magnificent, others historically interesting, were

still undisturbed, and, from the recumbent effigies in the Norman round

nave to the judges in their robes and collars in the chancel, formed an

unequalled series of curious and sometimes fine works of art. The

exquisite carving of the Corinthian reredos behind the communion table

sufficed to bring the various inconsistent styles together. But the

first notions of those who began to study old English architecture led

to an attack on this incongruity in 1824. The Norman carvings were all

replaced by modern work and some additions. The arcade, with its

grotesque heads, was set up in 1827, and though it is out of place and,

moreover, deceptive, will certainly be admired. Various ancient

buildings, one of them the chapel of St. Anne, were removed. But it was

not until 1830 that the great restoration was begun. During the progress

of these disastrous operations the circular church was vaulted in stucco

and painted; the flooring was lowered, the tombs and effigies of the

knights removed and their bones cast out; the chancel was gutted, the

monuments taken down, much injured in the process, and finally “as far

as possible” set up again in the triforium, a few being hidden away

under the bellows of the organ; the beautiful reredos was taken away,

the whole chancel repaved, revaulted, and painted; the church filled

with tiers of pews, hiding any Gothic memorials which were allowed to

remain; and finally, all the windows were reglazed, in a style supposed

to be Early English and, at all events, no worse than what would be put

in at the present day to judge by some neighbouring examples. All this

work of destruction went on for ten years and cost more than £70,000.

On entering the church now, the visitor is surprised that so much

remains to be admired. A semicircular arch, in the Norman style of 1824,

admits us to the Round Church, where the arches are pointed. The

effigies of the knights have been replaced on the floor in neat groups,

and labelled, but somewhat conjecturally, with the names of certain

Earls of Pembroke and others who are recorded to have been buried here.

The diameter of this part of the church, which is now the nave, is 58

feet, the choir beyond being 58 feet in width and 82 feet in length. The

central part of the nave is the same in width as the middle aisle of the

three in the choir, namely 23½ feet, while the circular aisle and each

of the side aisles are 15½ feet. The three aisles are 37 feet high and

the modern roof of the nave 60 feet. The seats are of dark oak and rise

in tiers on each side. Two modern doors open on the north side, and a

stair, winding and very narrow, conducts the visitor to the triforium of

the Round Church. Here, in a very unsuitable situation, are most of the

monuments removed from the chancel.

The monuments comprise an interesting series of all periods from the

Reformation down, and some fragments of sculpture removed, with the

complete tombs at the time of the “restoration,” in 1830. One of the

oldest represents Edward Plowden who died in 1584. The brasses were

formerly very numerous but have all disappeared, together with a great

many tablets, such as Pepys describes in 1666 when he says he looked

“with pleasure on the monuments and epitaphs.” Plowden adhered to

Romanism, but his epitaph contains a quotation from the Book of Common

Prayer. There is a monument to Oliver Goldsmith erected in 1837. In the

church is a bust of the “Judicious” Hooker (d. 1600); a tablet to John

Selden (d. 1654); and at the south-east end, partly hidden by the pews,

an effigy supposed to represent Silvester Everden, Bishop of Carlisle,

killed by a fall in 1254. At the entrance to the triforium is the only

one left of many small chambers which formerly adjoined the church; it

is labelled by the vergers the Penitential Cell, I do not know why.

North of the chapel is the little plot of ground in which Oliver

Goldsmith was buried in 1774. It is so small that, when a gravestone was

laid down in 1860, there was little choice as to the exact place, which,

however, is really unknown.

The arms of both Temples may be seen in many places in the church. Those

of the Middle Temple consist of a red cross on a white ground, with a

figure of the Pascal Lamb in the centre, being the arms of the Templars.

The arms of the other society are, strictly speaking, not heraldry,

being, on a blue ground, a representation of the Greek mythical Pegasus,

in white. It is said to be derived from an ancient device or badge

representing two knights of the Temple on one horse, and was adopted in

1503.

Though the Inner Temple must be considered older than the Middle Temple,

there is less to be seen in it. The Hall is not beautiful externally. It

was built in 1869 by Sidney Smirke, and the exterior gives one no idea

that the interior is worth a visit. However, the fine open timber roof

and a very handsome screen will be admired, as well as the heraldry in

the windows. The Library is spacious within and convenient, but suffers

without, like the Hall, from a want of proportion.

[Illustration:

INNER TEMPLE GATE HOUSE

By permission of the London County Council.

]

The eminent inhabitants have been very numerous. A mere list would

occupy many pages. In the Master’s house have lived Sherlock, Dean of

St. Paul’s; his son, the Bishop of London; Vaughan, Dean of Llandaff;

and Alfred Ainger. Charles Lamb was born in 1775 at No. 4 Inner Temple

Lane—now rebuilt. Thackeray had chambers at 10 Crown Office Row. William

Cowper lived in the Inner Temple in 1755. Dr. Johnson was living at 1

Inner Temple Lane in 1763. The house has been pulled down to make way

for Johnson’s Buildings. Among the great lawyers were Lyttleton, as well

as Coke, who wrote upon him; Sir Julius Cæsar; Finch, Earl of

Nottingham; Thurlow; Tenterden; Daines Barrington, the correspondent of

White of Selborne; Thesiger, Lord Chelmsford; but perhaps the greatest

of them all was Murray, Earl of Mansfield, whose chambers were at 5

King’s Bench Walk.

The principal feature of the Middle Temple is the ancient Hall, and the

greatest glory of the Hall is that a play by William Shakespeare was

acted in it in February 1602. This was _Twelfth Night_, which had not

then been printed, and is supposed to have only just been written. John

Manningham, a student then in the Temple, describes it in his Diary, now

in the British Museum. The Christmas and Candlemas festivities in the

Hall, of which the play formed part, are described at great length by

Dugdale.

The Hall was built in 1572, the screen in 1574, so that the local legend

which says the wood of some ships of the Spanish Armada was used cannot

be true. The heraldry is copious and interesting, both in the windows

and on the panelling and roof, some of it being as old as the Hall. The

whole building is of great interest architecturally. The windows are

strictly Gothic, while everything else is Elizabethan or later in form.

The screen has Tuscan columns and round arches, and is exquisitely

carved from a bold design. The internal length is 100 feet, the width

42, and the height 47. The roof is extremely fine but simple in

construction.

The Library is an imposing but modern building south of the Hall and

garden near the Embankment. It is in an early style of Gothic, the

principal room being 86 feet long, 42 wide, and 63 high, designed by H.

R. Abraham in 1861. A couple of stories of offices and an external

staircase are rather picturesque, and the whole building is by far the

best erected in either Temple during the last fifty years. A gateway

near, leading to the Embankment, can only be described as an eyesore.

Returning through the gardens to Fountain Court we note several sundials

near the Hall, in Pump Court and Brick Court, one in particular near the

exit to the Outer Temple—_Vestigia nulla retrorsum_—which seems to

convey a warning to those who seek the lawyers. The largest sundial is,

however, in the Inner Temple, the famous “Blackamoor,” removed thither

when Clement’s Inn was pulled down. It is of lead, and replaces one

mentioned by Lamb which bore the uncivil motto, “Begone about your

business.” In Brick Court, near the fountain, with the Middle Temple

Hall on one side, memories of three if not four great authors seem to

meet. Goldsmith bought the chambers at 2 Brick Court, looking on the

fountain and the Hall, about 1765, and lived here till his death in

1774. Here he wrote _The Deserted Village_ and _The Traveller_, and

described in _Animated Nature_ the doings of a rookery in the old trees

on which his windows opened. The place is also connected with Thackeray,

who describes the chambers in his _English Humourists_. We have already

named Shakespeare and the performance of _Twelfth Night_ in the Hall,

but there is direct mention of the gardens and their roses in the First

Part of _Henry VI._ But to most of us it is Dickens who is most clearly

remembered when we stand by the fountain. In _Martin Chuzzlewit_ he

brings Ruth Pinch here to meet John Westlock. “The Temple fountain might

have leaped up twenty feet to greet the spring of hopeful maidenhood

that in her person stole on, sparkling through the dry and dusty

channels of the Law.” With Shakespeare, Goldsmith, Dickens and Thackeray

we might close the list of eminent inhabitants, but the Middle Temple

has been very fortunate in this respect. Edmund Burke was here before

1750. Tom Moore was a student in 1799, and Sheridan some twenty years

earlier. Among the eminent lawyers may be named the Norths, Rowden,

Clarendon, Somers, Cowper, Blackstone, Eldon, Stowell, and Talfourd—a

goodly list, though far from complete.

Chancery Lane will be found in the succeeding volume under Holborn, but

the liberty of the Rolls is dealt with here.

THE ROLLS AND THE RECORD OFFICE

A fine new building in Chancery Lane, extending to Fetter Lane, stands

on the site occupied by an ancient institution called The Rolls. The

early history of the Rolls has yet to be written. It is intimately

connected from the first with that of the Jewish Colony which came to

England from Rouen with William I. At that time the canon law forbade

Christians to take usury. The Jews were the licensed usurers of the

King. A masterly essay, prefixed to the _Catalogue_ of the Jewish

Exhibition in 1887, explains the situation in a few words: “the

exchequer treated the money of the Jews as held at the pleasure of the

King.” Special Justices were appointed to preside in the Jews’

Exchequer; all deeds, contracts, bonds, and other documents relating to

monetary transactions had to be registered and placed in charge of the

Rolls Court or Record Office at the King’s palace at Westminster. The

Hebrew word _Shetár_, which means a legal document, gave its name to the

Star Chamber, and long after the Jews had left England the court held

there retained the old name. We may assume that the chief of the

justices of this Rolls Court was the principal controller of the whole

colony, and that, when Henry III. opened the House for Converts, it fell

naturally under the same jurisdiction. Accordingly we find from the

first that the Master of the Rolls was also connected with the House of

Converts. A similar house was founded at Oxford, but this one in London

owed its continued existence to the fact that the Master of the Rolls

lived in it. When the law was relaxed and the Jews ceased to be the only

usurers, the Master’s jurisdiction extended to the Lombards and Italian

bankers, and when, sixty years after the foundation of the house, the

Jews were expelled, the double office continued to exist and in the same

place. Converts were still received there till the reign of Charles II.

Meanwhile, under the Commonwealth, the laws of 1290 against the Jews had

been in great part rescinded; but the Master of the Rolls continued to

be called “Keeper of the House of Converts” down to 1873, when Sir

George Jessel, himself a Jew, was appointed Master of the Rolls but not

Keeper of the House.

The history of the house has been detailed by Mr. W. J. Hardy. It became

ruinous early in the eighteenth century, and a new building of good

proportions was erected by Colin Campbell in 1717. This, in its turn,

was pulled down to make way for the Record Office. With it also perished

the chapel, usually called “The Rolls Chapel,” of which Sir Henry

Maxwell Lyte, who holds the office of Deputy Keeper, instituted in 1837,

has written an account, appended to the Fifty-Seventh Annual Report in

1896.

The first Master of the Rolls who is known to have also been Keeper of

the House of Converts was Adam de Osgodeby, appointed in 1307. The next

Master was William Ayremyne, who also held both offices, but they were

not formally united till 1378. The house stood in Chancery Lane, a

little to the north of the present principal entrance of the Record

Office. Henry III. endowed it with 700 marks a year, calling it “the

house in New Street in the suburbs of London which he had founded for

converts from Judaism.” It was rebuilt by William Burstall, Master in

1372, together with the chapel. Here, and in the subsequent house, the

successive Masters held their court and also lived. At the opening of

the new law courts all the space was surrendered to the Records, the

house disappeared, and, though a strong effort was made to save it, the

chapel too, except the monuments. The present great building, begun in

1856, from designs by Pennethorne, in a very stiff style of Gothic, was

completed in 1897. The Rolls and other documents have gradually been

housed in it, comprising all those which were previously in the Tower,

the Chapter House, Westminster, Carlton Ride, St. James’s, and the State

Paper Office, including the paybooks of the Navy, the registers of the

Duchy of Lancaster, and many other sets of manuscripts. The final

designs were made by Sir John Taylor of the office of Works, and though

the Chancery Lane front harmonises very well with Pennethorne’s work it

is a good deal less stiff. Two statues on the inner face of the entrance

tower represent Henry III. and Edward III., and the removal was effected

in October 1895. All the floors are now fireproof, and the cases to

contain the Rolls are of steel with slate shelves. The Chancery Lane

front is 225 feet long and 84 feet high. There are two great public

reading-rooms where both legal and historical researches are daily

carried on, with the learned assistance of a large staff of clerks,

trained to decipher the most crabbed writing and to translate mediæval

Latin and law French, as well as to calendar thousands of documents

bearing on the ancient official correspondence here preserved—such

subjects as Chancery and Exchequer proceedings, court rolls, colonial

letters and despatches, domestic state papers, accounts, and a hundred

other kinds of affairs of public and private interest and importance.

The most interesting part of the Record Office used to be the Rolls

Chapel. An arch of the fourteenth century, probably of Burstall’s

building, has been set up in the garden against an east wall. The site

of the destroyed chapel is on the left as we pass through the principal

entrance from Chancery Lane. Here a handsome hall, with five fine

windows in the Perpendicular style, has been built for a museum. On the

north side very nearly as they stood in the chapel are two most

interesting monuments, and a third which was formerly on the opposite

side. The rest of the space is taken up with the desks and cases

described below. The museum is open free every afternoon.

The monuments comprise those of Masters of the Rolls and of members of

their families whose graves were underneath the flooring of the chapel.

The most ancient is that of John Yong, Master from January 22, 1508.

Three converts, we are told, one man and two women, were received during

his keepership of the house, which lasted till his death. Yong was Dean

of York, and an eminent diplomatist under Henry VIII. He was a friend of

Erasmus, who dedicated a book to him of Colet and the other early

reformers. He died of the “sweating sickness” on April 25, 1516, the day

on which he had made his will, enjoining upon his executors that he

should be buried in the Rolls Chapel. The monument is by Pietro

Torregiano, who was employed at Westminster at the time on the effigy of

Henry VII. Yong is represented recumbent in a long red gown with tippet

and hood and a square cap, such as we see in Holbein’s portraits. Behind

the figure are the heads of Christ and two cherubs, all of which show

traces of colour and gilding as well as the sarcophagus below, and

Yong’s arms, Lozenge vert and argent, on a chevron, azure, 3 annulets,

or, on a chief of the second, a goat’s head erased between two scallop

shells, gules. This motto is on the sarcophagus: “Dominus firmamentum

meum.” In his report (1896) Sir H. Maxwell Lyte proves that the whole

monument was removed probably from the chancel of the chapel when it was

pulled down in the seventeenth century. The cherubs’ heads he considers

later than the rest of the sculpture. A brief inscription mentions the

date of Yong’s death and adds that “his faithful executors” placed this

monument in 1516, the year of his death. It is curious to observe that

there were living in 1516 three men of the same name, John Yong, all

scholars of Winchester, all fellows of New College, Oxford, and a fourth

who was Norroy King of Arms. Of them one, who was suffragan to

Fitzjames, the Bishop of London, who had become blind, and Bishop of

Gallipoli, _in partibus_, is usually confused with his namesake the Dean

of York, who was Master of the Rolls; indeed, Sir H. Maxwell Lyte

remarks that neither the tomb nor the epitaph gives any indication that

“he was titular bishop of Gallipoli.” Bishop Yong, who does not seem to

have shared his namesake’s reforming views, survived him for ten years.

Two other fine monuments with effigies are to Richard Alington, who died

in 1561, and to Edward Bruce, Lord Bruce of Kinloss, who died in 1611.

There are several tablets, a statue of George I., and a bust of Lord

Romilly.

The cases contain typical manuscripts, many of them finely illuminated.

Among them are examples of royal charters, (A); letters patent, (B);

volumes like the “Black Book of the Exchequer,” (C); Rolls with

pictures, (D); and on the centre table the two volumes which contain the

celebrated “Domesday Survey,” completed in 1086. In case E is the great

book which contains the agreement between Henry VII. and the Abbot of

Westminster concerning the masses to be celebrated “for ever” in the

King’s chapel. Some very fine illuminations are in the treaty of peace

with Francis I. (Case F). Letters and despatches of interest will be

found in the remaining cases, such as the account of Nelson’s death

(Case I); Great Seal for Virginia and for New York, and a letter of

George Washington to George III. (Case M); besides boxes and coffers

made for the preservation of important books or documents.

* * * * *

Of =Fetter Lane= Stow says: “There is Fewter Lane which stretches south

into Fleet Street, by the east end of St. Dunstan’s Church and is

so-called of fewters (or idle people) lying there as in a way leading to

gardens; but the same is now of latter years on both sides built through

with many fair houses.”

Others derived the name from the fetters of criminals or the fetters or

rests on the breastplates of the knights riding through to forays in

Fickett’s Field (Lincoln’s Inn Fields) adjoining (see p. 370). Tom

Payne, who wrote _The Rights of Man_, lived at No. 77, and it is said

that Dryden lived at No. 16, now demolished.

=Crane Court= is lined by rows of old buildings mingled with some

warehouses of more modern date. The tiled roofs and projecting parapets,

with rows of little windows peeping out under the roof, are in contrast

with the new red brick of the building belonging to the Scottish

Corporation erected in 1880. This is at the north end of the court,

facing the entry, and is on the site of the building temporarily

occupied by the Royal Society. The earlier building was built by Sir C.

Wren, and contained a fine hall with richly stuccoed ceiling; the walls

were hung with pictures by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Wilkie, etc., but

unfortunately it was destroyed by fire, November 1877, together with all

relics. The Scottish Corporation originated in a Society formed shortly

after the accession of James I. for relieving the unfortunate poor among

those of the Scottish nation who had followed their king to England.

In 1782 the premises in Crane Court were bought from the Royal Society

for £1000. The fire which destroyed the hall destroyed almost all

records. On July 21, 1880, the present hall was opened by the Duke of

Argyll. On the ground-floor is a spacious chapel in which are held the

monthly religious services, and where the pensioners are accommodated on

pay days; above are the offices and the hall for the meeting of the

governors. Professor T. L. Donaldson was the architect, and he has tried

to infuse as much of the national sentiment as possible into the design.

[Illustration:

SUPPOSED HOUSE OF DRYDEN, FETTER LANE

]

In Johnson’s Court Dr. Johnson lived (1766-76) at No. 7. The Court,

however, is not named after him. The Society of Arts was founded in this

court.

In Bolt Court are several old stucco buildings. One at the north end

contains the London County Council Technical Education Board. Another on

the east has a curious old doorway with “The Medical Society of London”

in well-worn letters running round the upper part of a bas-relief. The

house belonged to Dr. Lettsom, who was the founder of the Medical

Society. Johnson lived in Bolt Court at No. 8, but the house was burned

down in 1849. The present technical schools are on the site.

As already stated, Johnson’s Court was not named after the learned

doctor, though he lived here, in No. 7, from 1766 to 1776. James

Ferguson the astronomer died at No. 4 in 1776. William Cobbett also

lived in Bolt Court.

[Illustration:

_Pictorial Agency._

DR. JOHNSON’S HOUSE.

]

=Gough Square= is also associated with the name of the great

lexicographer. The Society of Arts have placed a circular tablet on the

wall of the house, No. 17, which faces eastward. Johnson lived here from

1741 to 1758. The house is an old eighteenth-century brick one, not very

large, and not remarkable in any way. A printer and a publisher share

the ground-floor, and above is a reading club. The doorway is slightly

decorative, and the heavy woodwork of the door itself and the massive

chain remain as they were in Johnson’s time. The Club was founded by a

Mr. Campbell in 1887 for the recreation and assistance of working lads

and girls in the district. There are now one hundred members. The

remainder of the Square varies in character. On the south side, and at

the east end, there are old eighteenth-century brick houses of the usual

pattern. One or two of the doorways have carved brackets, and one fluted

pilasters. Over the entry from Goldsmith Street is another house similar

in character, but the rest of the north side is of obtrusively new brick

buildings. The Square continuing southward contains some warehouses and

a few old houses.

The name of =Water Lane= was changed to Whitefriars Street. Thomas

Tompion (d. 1713), the “father of English watch-making,” lived at the

corner.

=Salisbury Square= occupies the site of the courtyard of Salisbury

House, the residence of the Bishops of Salisbury, afterwards called

Dorset House. In Dorset Gardens beside the river was the Duke’s Theatre.

Betterton, Harris, Underhill, and Sandford, actors, lived in this court.

Here also lived for a time John Dryden, Shadwell, and Lady Davenant,

widow of Sir William Davenant. But the chief glory of Salisbury Court or

Square is its memory of Richardson, novelist and printer. His house was

in the north-west angle, his printing offices on the east side; here he

wrote _Pamela_; here, for a time, Goldsmith was his press corrector. The

theatre called the Salisbury Court Theatre was constructed in 1629 out

of the barn or granary at the lower end of the court. It was the

seventeenth theatre opened in London within a period of sixty years. The

house was pulled down in 1649: rebuilt in 1660, and occupied by the

Duke’s Company until their new theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields was ready

for them. It was destroyed in the Great Fire. The Duke’s Theatre in

Dorset Gardens, opened on November 9, 1671, stood facing the river on a

different site. In Salisbury Square is the headquarters of the Church

Missionary Society.

ST. BRIDE

St. Bride’s or St. Bridget’s is another Fleet Street church. It

derives its name from St. Bridget, a saint of the seventh century.

No mention of the church has been discovered earlier than 1222. It

was destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1680 by Wren; the

steeple, one of his greatest achievements, was added in 1701. This

has been struck several times by lightning, and in 1764 part of it

was taken down and lowered by 8 feet. The earliest date of an

incumbent is 1306.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and

Convent of Westminster as a rectory from 1306 up to 1507, when a

vicarage was ordained in the same patronage; Dean and Chapter of

Westminster, in whose successors it continues, since 1573.

Houseling people in 1548 were 1400.

The interior of this church is considered to be one of the best

specimens of Wren’s work. It is entered by a porch within the tower,

and is divided into a nave and aisles by an arcade of doubled

columns on both sides. The length of the church is 111 feet, its

breadth 57 feet, and its height, to the roof of the nave, 41 feet.

The height of the tower to the top of the parapet is 120 feet, above

which the spire rises in four octagonal stories, surmounted by an

obelisk and vane. There are vases at the corners of the parapet,

introduced to soften the transitions. St. Bride’s Avenue, designed

by J. B. Papworth in 1825, affords an open view of this steeple,

before obstructed by intervening houses.

The only relics of the old church which now survive are a font in

the west part of the middle aisle, and outside, on the north, the

entry stone to the vault of the Holdens, dated 1657.

Chantries were founded here: For William de Evesham, John de Uggeley

and Lettice his wife, at the Altar of St. Katharine, of which Thomas

de Weston was chaplain in 1564—the endowment fetched £6 : 10s. in

1548; by Nicholas Sporinge, citizen of London, for himself and for

Thomas Bryx and Elene his wife at the Altar of St. John Baptist, of

which Ralph Archer was chaplain (d. 1383); for John de Merlawe in

1315; by John Ulstrape, whose endowment fetched £10 : 13 : 4 in

1549, when Robert Walker was chaplain; by John Wigan and John Hill

whose endowments yielded £15 : 14 : 8 in 1548; by Simon atte Nax,

whose endowment fetched £15 : 14 : 4 in 1548 when John Matthew and

Philip Dey were chaplains. Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Sarum,

Walter Devereux, Miles, Lord of Ferrers, and Master Alexander Leigh

had licence to found a guild here, May 26, 1475.

This church contains many interesting monuments, and is especially

rich in memories of the poets. The Rev. John Pridden, a zealous

antiquary, who died in 1825, is commemorated by a tablet on the

north wall; here, too, a brass plate has been placed to the memory

of John Nichols, author of _The History and Antiquities of the

County of Leicester_ and other works. Wynkyn de Worde, the

sixteenth-century printer, was buried in this church; also Sir

Richard Baker, author of the _Chronicle of the Kings of England_;

and also, perhaps, Richard Lovelace, the cavalier poet. Samuel

Richardson, the novelist, who died in 1761, was interred in the

middle aisle. In the vestry-room there is a portrait of the Rev.

Thomas Dale, a former vicar (see below). Milton is recorded to have

taken up his abode for a short time in lodgings in St. Bride’s

Churchyard on his return from his travels.

[Illustration:

FLEET DITCH, WEST STREET, SMITHFIELD, AS IT WAS IN 1844

]

Only two benefactors’ names are recorded by Stow—Robert Lewis, who

gave £30 per annum for coals for the poor, and Robert Dove, £50 for

a bell to warn prisoners of their approaching death.

There was one charity school for fifty boys and fifty girls, who

were clothed, taught, and apprenticed by voluntary subscriptions,

added to a yearly collection at the church door.

John Taylor or Cardmaker was vicar here; he was burnt at Smithfield

for heresy, May 30, 1555. Also Richard Bundy, D.D. (d. 1739),

Prebendary of Westminster; John Thomas (1712-93), Bishop of

Rochester; Thomas Dale (1797-1870), Dean of Rochester.

The =Fleet River=, which gave its name to all this district, was

anciently known as Turnmill Brooke or the River of Wells, under which

name Stow speaks of it. He says that in 1307, at a parliament held at

Carlisle, Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, complained of the “decay” of this

river, for “whereas in times past the course of water running at London,

under Oldbourne Bridge, and Fleet Bridge into the Thames had been of

such breadth and depth that 10 or 12 ships, navies, at once with

merchandizes, were wont to come to the foresaid Bridge of Fleet, and

some of them to Oldbourne Bridge, now the same course by filth of the

tanners and such others, was sore decayed.” He also complained of the

diversion of the water by mills of the Templars at Baynard’s Castle.

After this the river was cleansed and the mills removed, but the old

depth was never restored so that the river became a mere brook and was

called Turnmill Brook. The Fleet Bridge, connecting Fleet Street with

Ludgate Hill, was destroyed in the Great Fire and another built which

was removed in 1765.

Fleet Ditch became very dirty and proved a nuisance; it is several times

referred to in no complimentary terms in the _Trivia_ and the _Dunciad_.

Part of it was arched over and the Fleet Market held here. In 1765, the

Thames end was arched over at the building of Blackfriars Bridge. Since

1841, the whole has been covered in and now runs underground as a sewer;

its course is marked by Farringdon Street and New Bridge Street.

THE ANCIENT SCHOOLS IN THE CITY OF LONDON

By A. F. LEACH.

The history of schools in London, like the history of schools in England

and mediæval Europe at large, necessarily begins with the history of its

great churches. Throughout England until the Reformation, and, in theory

at all events, until the Revolution, schools were ecclesiastical

institutions, and education was a matter of purely ecclesiastical

cognizance. The Ordinary, that is, the judge of the Ecclesiastical Court

of first instance, had everywhere cognizance of all matters in dispute

which concerned schools and scholars, their internal discipline and

their relations to the external world. It could and did settle the

question of school supply, how many schools there should be, and where.

If we want to know, therefore, what were the earliest and chief schools

of London, we have only to ask, What were the earliest and chief

churches of London? When we say churches, we must be careful to remember

that the word churches for such purpose means churches of the secular

clergy; that is, college and parish churches, not those of monasteries

and religious orders. We must be careful not to confuse the two, and not

to talk of St. Paul’s Cathedral Church as conventual, or of St.

Martin’s-le-Grand Collegiate Church as a monastery. To do so is

precisely like confusing New College, Oxford, with a Jesuit seminary, or

Trinity, Cambridge, with a Salvation Army barracks.

The chief secular churches of London were, first and foremost, St.

Paul’s Cathedral; next, the great Collegiate Church of St.

Martin’s-le-Grand, now, alas! swallowed up by the General Post Office;

and third, the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, the London church of the

Archbishop of Canterbury, the seat of his supreme ecclesiastical court,

which has given its name to the Court of Arches, and was his “peculiar”

property, exempt from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, the Bishop of

London.

In these three churches, some of the earliest extant documents of St.

Paul’s reveal the existence of grammar schools, which were already old

in the year 1138. These three schools, and they alone, constituted the

whole of the public provision for education in London until the year

1441, when another grammar school was established in St. Antony’s

Hospital. Some other schools were afterwards founded in connection with

other churches before the Reformation. But while its earlier and its

later pre-Reformation rivals have all disappeared, the earliest and

greatest of all, the grammar school of the Cathedral Church of St.

Paul’s, London, commonly called St. Paul’s School, with its unbroken

pedigree of 800 years and upwards still ranks among the chief schools of

the country, and holds as marked a position of pre-eminence in the

greater London of 1900 as it did in the old narrow city of London in

1100.

The story of London schools should, then, be simplicity itself; the more

so as it suffers from a lack of material. Yet it has been so obscured

and complicated by successive writers that it has been converted into a

tangled and twisted texture of guesses and fables, which we must

endeavour to unravel.

It ought not to have been so. For, earlier probably than any other city

in Europe, except York, London found its _vates sacer_, who for the

admiration of his own and the information of later ages, sung the

glories of its schools and scholars, their studies and their sports.

Alcuin’s ninth-century poem[38] in Latin hexameters “On the Archbishops

and Saints of the Church of York,” giving a vivid account of St. Peter’s

School there, of which he was himself master in the third quarter of the

eighth century, is the earliest account we have of any English school.

The picture, drawn in poetic Latin prose of the twelfth century by “the

son of Stephen,” of London schools and scholars, as they were during the

boyhood of Becket, is not less full or vivid. One almost suspects from

the way in which quotations from Latin poets are lugged in “by the

hairs” that Fitzstephen was himself at one time a schoolmaster, before

he became Becket’s chancellor and ended as a judge. At all events, he

took a keen interest in schools and schoolboys, and devoted a good third

of his famous description of London to the games and sports of the

London schoolboy.

“In London,”[39] he says, “the three principal churches have famous

schools privileged and of ancient pre-eminence, though sometimes

through personal favour to some one noted as a philosopher more

schools are allowed. On feast days the masters celebrate assemblies

at the churches, arrayed in festive garb. The scholars hold

disputations, some augmentatively, others by way of question and

answer. These roll out enthymemes, those use the forms of perfect

syllogisms. Some dispute merely for show, as they do at

collections;[40] others for the truth which is the grace of

perfection. The sophists and pretenders are pronounced happy because

of the mass and volume of their words; others play upon words. The

rhetoricians with rhetorical speeches speak to the point with a view

to persuasion, being careful to observe the precepts of their art,

and to leave out nothing that belongs to it.

“The boys of the different schools hold contests in verse, or pose

each other on the principles of grammar or the rules of preterites

and supines. Others in epigrams, rhymes and metres use the old

street eloquence, with Fescinnine licence scourging their

schoolfellows, without mentioning names; hurling abusive epithets

and scoffs at them: with Socratic salt girding at the failings of

their fellows, or perhaps of their elders; and in bold dithyrambics

biting them with the sharp tooth of Theon. The audience

ready to laugh

With crincled noses redouble their shrill guffaws.”

The beginning of this passage states as plainly as can be that there

were schools attached to the three principal churches, that they were

ancient even then, and privileged. By privileged is meant, not as Lord

Lyttelton[41] in his _Henry II._ interprets it, that “by particular

privilege was taught not only grammar, but poetry, rhetorick and

logick”; but, as the context shows, that these schools were the only

schools allowed at all, though occasionally a special schoolmaster was

allowed on sufferance and by personal favour. Stow, who was the first to

quote this passage, went on[42] to identify the three schools. The

first, he supposed rightly, was St. Paul’s. But for the second he puts

“S. Peter’s at Westminster,” and supports it by a quotation from

Ingulphus’ _Chronicle_, now admitted on all hands to be a

fifteenth-century forgery. The third, says Stow, “seemeth to have been

in the monastery of St. Saviour at Bermondsey in Southwark. For other

priories, as of St. John by Smithfield, St. Bartholomew in Smithfield,

St. Mary Overies in Southwark, and that of the Holy Trinity in Aldgate,

were all of later foundation.”

This is a curious conglomeration of errors: which has unfortunately been

blindly adopted by subsequent writers. Even if there had been a grammar

school at Westminster, it could not possibly be described in the twelfth

century as being in London, since Fitzstephen himself speaks of

Westminster as being two miles off. The placing of a London school at

St. Saviour’s, Bermondsey, is even more open to the same objection of

not being in London.

It is an interesting question from what MS. of Fitzstephen Stow derived

his knowledge of this passage about schools. Out of four ancient MSS.

now extant, only one, and that the latest, contains the passage. These

MSS. are: (i.) MS. Lambeth 138 (wrongly referred to as 1168 in the Rolls

edition of Fitzstephen). This is of the thirteenth century and has not

the Description of London at all. (ii.) MS. Douce 289 at the Bodleian.

This is also of the thirteenth century. It has the Description of

London, but having lost its first leaf has only the last few words about

schools, (iii.) MS. Cotton, Julius, A, xi., at the British Museum. This

is of the early fourteenth century and has not got the Description at

all. (iv.) Lansdowne MS. 398, late in the fifteenth century. This is the

only MS. which has the Description of London and its schools in full,

and it does not mention the churches which kept them. On the other hand,

the Description of London, apart from the Life, is written at the

beginning of the _Liber Custumarum_ of the City of London, now in the

Guildhall, a MS. of the first half of the fourteenth century. It

contains the passage about the schools and after the word churches

inserts “viz. the Bishop’s see, the church of St. Paul’s, the church of

Holy Trinity and the church of St. Martin.” Mr. Riley, in his edition of

the _Liber Custumarum_, thinks that Stow had this book before him. But

the omission by Stow of the names of the three churches, and his bad

guess as to what the churches were, seem to show conclusively that the

Guildhall MS. was unknown to him, unless he garbled it for the sake of

avoiding a difficulty.

As we have seen, Stow says that Trinity Priory was not founded till

after the time of which Fitzstephen was writing. In this he was

mistaken. The Priory purports in its chartulary[43] to have been founded

by “good Queen Mold,” the wife of Henry I., in 1108, and its most

interesting endowment, the Portsoken, the land of the English Knights’

Gild outside Aldgate, in virtue of which the Prior of Christchurch, or

Creechurch, as it was nicknamed, was _ex officio_ an Alderman of the

City of London, was given in 1125. There does not, however, seem to be

any mention of a school in connection with the church before or after

the foundation of the Priory either in its chartulary, or elsewhere.[44]

On the other hand, we have testimony contemporary with the time of which

Fitzstephen was writing, and many subsequent references, extending up to

the time of Henry VIII., which show conclusively that the three churches

with schools were St. Paul’s, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and St.

Mary-le-Bow, and that they preserved their monopoly till the middle of

the fifteenth century. There was therefore no room for any recognised

school in, or connected with, Trinity Church. Three explanations appear

to be possible. (i.) There was a school in Trinity Church while it was a

secular church, belonging to the College Church of the Holy Cross,

Waltham, which ceased on its being converted into a Priory. (ii.) There

was an adulterine or unlicensed school there, put down by the very

document which conveys the contemporary testimony as to what the

legitimate and privileged schools were. But more probably (iii.) the

words are an interpolation due to a gloss by some badly-informed

commentator.

The curious thing is that in the very passage quoted, Stow cites, though

inaccurately, a patent of Henry VI. by which, as we shall see, authority

was given for the erection of certain schools, besides those at St.

Paul’s, at St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and St. Mary-le-Bow in Cheap. It is

rather strange that Stow did not know of the famous document at St.

Paul’s, which tells us plainly what these three ancient and famous

schools were. But then he had not the advantage we enjoy of Sir Henry

Maxwell-Lyte’s admirable Calendar of the St. Paul’s Muniments.[45] The

one in question runs thus:

Henry, by the Grace of God, minister of the church of Winchester, to

the Chapter of St. Paul’s and William, Archdeacon, and their

officers, greeting.

I command you by your obedience that after three summonses, you

launch the sentence of excommunication against those who, without a

license from Henry, the Schoolmaster, presume to teach (anywhere) in

the whole city of London; except those who teach the schools of St.

Mary of the Arch and St. Martin’s the Great. Witness, Hilarius, at

Winchester.