most noble order of the garter, which consists of the Sovereign and
twenty-five Knights companions: the royal college of St. George, which
consists of a dean, twelve canons, seven minor canons, eleven clerks,
an organist, a verger, and two sacrists; and the alms-knights, who are
eighteen in number; _viz._ thirteen of the royal foundation, and five
of the foundation of Sir Peter le Maire, in the reign of King James I.
[Illustration:
_A PLAN OF
WINDSOR CASTLE_]
_Of the Knights of the Garter._ Windsor Castle being the seat of this
most illustrious order, it may be expected that we should here give
some account of it. The order of the garter was instituted by Edward
III. in the year 1349, for the improvement of military honour, and the
reward of virtue. It is also called the order of St. George, the patron
of England, under whose banner the English always went out to war, and
St. George’s cross was made the ensign of the order. The garter was,
at the same time, appointed to be worn by the Knights on the left leg,
as a principal mark of distinction, not from any regard to a Lady’s
garter, “but as a tye or band of association in honour and military
virtue, to bind the knights companions strictly to himself and each
other, in friendship and true agreement, and as an ensign or bage of
unity and combination, to promote the honour of God, and the glory and
interest of their Prince and Sovereign.” At that time King Edward being
engaged in prosecuting, by arms, his right to the crown of France,
caused the French motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE, to be wrought in
gold letters round the garter, declaring thereby the equity of his
intention, and at the same time retorting shame and defiance upon him
who should dare to think ill of the just enterprize in which he had
engaged, for the support of his right to that crown.
The installation of a Knight of this most noble order consists of
many ceremonies established by the royal founder, and the succeeding
Sovereigns of the order, the care of which is committed to Garter king
at arms, a principal officer of the order, appointed to support and
maintain the dignity of this noble order of knighthood.
On the day appointed for the installation, the Knights commissioners
appointed by the Sovereign to instal the Knights elect, meet in the
morning, in the great chamber in the dean of Windsor’s house, dressed
in the full habit of the order, where the officers of the order also
attend in their habits; but the Knights elect come thither in their
under habits only, with their caps and feathers in their hands.
From hence the Knights walk two and two in procession to St. George’s
chapel, preceded by the poor knights, prebends, heralds, pursuivants,
and other officers of the order, in their several habits; being arrived
there, the Knights elect rest themselves in chairs behind the altar,
and are respectively introduced into the chapter house, where the
Knights commissioners (Garter and the other officers attending) invest
them with the surcoat or upper habit of the order, while the register
reads the following admonition: “take this robe of crimson to the
increase of your honour, and in token or sign of the most noble order
you have received, wherewith you being defended, may be bold, not
only strong to fight, but also to offer yourself to shed your blood
for Christ’s faith, and the liberties of the church, and the just and
necessary defence of them that are oppressed and needy.” Then Garter
presents the crimson velvet girdle to the commissioners, who buckle it
on, and also girds on the hanger and sword.
The procession of each Knight elect separately is afterwards made into
the choir attended by the Lords commissioners, and other companions of
the order, and preceded by the poor knights, prebends, _&c._ as before,
Garter in the middle carrying on a crimson velvet cushion, the mantle,
hood, garter, collar, and george, having the register on his right
hand, who carries the New Testament, and the oath fairly written on
parchment, and the black rod on his left. On entering the choir, after
reverence made to the altar, and the Sovereign’s stall, the Knights
are conducted to their several stalls, under their respective banners,
and other ensigns of honour. The Knights elect then take the oath, and
are compleatly dressed, invested with the mantle of the order, and
the great collar of St. George, which is done with great state and
solemnity.
After the installation, the Knights make their solemn offerings at the
altar, and prayers being ended, the grand procession of the Knights
is made from the choir in their full habits of the order, with their
caps frequently adorned with diamonds and plumes of feathers, on their
heads, round the body of the church, and passing out at the south
door, the procession is continued in great state through the courts of
the castle into St. George’s hall, preceded by his Majesty’s music;
in the following order, the poor knights of Windsor; the choir of St.
George’s chapel; the canons, or prebends of Windsor, the heralds, and
pursuivants at arms; the dean of Windsor, register of the order, with
garter king at arms on his right hand, and on his left the black rod
of the order; the Knights companions, according to their stalls, their
trains supported by the choristers of St. George’s chapel.
The Knights having for some time rested in the royal apartments, a
sumptuous banquet is prepared, if the Sovereign be present, in St.
George’s hall, and in his absence, in the great guard chamber next
adjoining, and the Knights are introduced and dine with great state in
the habits of the order, the music attending. Before dinner is ended,
Garter king at arms proclaims the style and dignity of each Knight,
after which the company retire, and the evening is closed with a ball
for the ladies in the royal lodgings. For the farther illustration of
the preceding account of Windsor Castle, we have given a plan of it,
which shews the exact disposition of the whole, and the situation of
its several parts with regard to each other. The perspective view is
taken from
WINDSOR _great park and forest_. As we have already described the town
of Windsor, the little park and castle, and given some account of the
order of Knights of the garter, we are naturally led to mention the
great park, which lies on the south side of the town and opens by a
noble road in a direct line to the top of a delightful hill at near
thee miles distance. This road leads through a double plantation of
trees on each side, to the ranger’s or keeper’s lodge, at present the
residence of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, who has greatly
improved the natural beauties of the park, and by large plantations of
trees, extensive lawns, new roads, canals, and rivers, has rendered
this villa an habitation worthy of a Prince.
The great park is fourteen miles in circumference, and is well stocked
with deer and other game; many foreign beasts and birds are here also
kept by his Royal Highness, who is continually adding new improvements.
The new erected building on Shrub’s hill, adorned beneath with the
prospect of the most beautiful verdure, and a young plantation of
trees, is very elegant, and promises in a short time to afford the most
delightful rural scene, the noble piece of water below, produced at a
great expence from a small stream, is now rendered capable of carrying
barges and boats of pleasure. Over this river, which terminates in a
grotto, and large cascade, his Royal Highness has erected a bridge on a
noble and bold plan, it consisting of one single arch 165 feet wide.
But his Royal Highness’s attention is not confined to the park alone;
but in like manner extends to the adjoining forest, which is of
great extent, and was appropriated to hunting and the residence of
the royal game by William the Conqueror, who established many laws
and regulations for the preservation of the deer, that are still
observed. In this extensive tract of land are several pleasant towns
and villages, of which Wokingham, situated near the center of the
forest, is the principal, and though the soil is generally barren and
uncultivated, yet it is finely diversified with hills and vales, woods
and lawns, and interspersed with pleasant villas. These rural scenes
are finely painted by Mr. Pope, who resided here when he wrote his
Windsor forest, and was himself a native of the place, being born at
Binfield.
_Here waving groves and chequer’d scenes display,_
_And part admit, and part exclude the day;_
_There, interspers’d in lawns and op’ning glades,_
_There trees arise, that shun each others shades._
_Here in full light the russet plains extend;_
_There wrapt in clouds the blueish hills ascend;_
_Ev’n the wild heath displays her purple dyes,_
_And ’midst the desart, fruitful fields arise,_
_That crown’d with tufted trees and springing corn,_
_Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn._
Among the many fine villas which are in this forest we shall only here
mention Cranborne lodge, which now belongs to the Duke of Cumberland,
as keeper of the forest. It is large and well built, and is happily
situated, it commanding an extensive prospect over a fine plain, and a
rich country, that forms a most beautiful landscape.
WINDSOR _court_, 1. Drury lane: 2. Little Knightrider street, by Addle
hill: 3. Monkwell street, by Silver street, near Cripplegate: 4. in the
Strand.
WINE LICENCE OFFICE, in Arundel street in the Strand. This office is
under the management of five commissioners, who grant licences to the
several retailers of wine in all parts of the kingdom, except to the
free vintners of London.
WINE OFFICE _court_, in Fleet street, leading into Gough’s square.
WINE _street_, 1. Fore street, Limehouse: 2. Liquor Pond street,
Leather lane.
WINE _yard_, Long alley, Moorfields.
WINGFIELD’S _court_, Three Colts street, Limehouse.†
WINGOOSE _alley_, Thames street.†
[Illustration:
_S. Wale delin._ _F. Vivares sculp._
_A Scene in Wooburn Farm._]
WINKWORTH’S _buildings_, Austin Friars, Broad street.†
WINSLEY _street_, Oxford street.†
WINSTON’S _court_, Silver street, Wood street.†
WISDOMS _alley_, Millbank, Westminster.
WISE’S _court_, Wheeler street, Spitalfields.†
WISEMAN’S _alley_, Brook street.†
WISEMAN’S _court_, Gardeners lane.†
WITCHELLOR’S _yard_, Thames street.†
WITHER-RUSH _court_, Whitecross street.
WOBURN FARM, the seat of the late Philip Southcote, Esq; it joins to
the Earl of Portmore, just beyond it. ’Tis what the French call a
_Ferme ornée_, but perhaps it is rather too much ornamented for the
simple plainness of a farm; it is altogether however a very pleasing
place. It has a deal of variety and many prospects which are remarkably
beautiful and picturesque. Indeed, there are few places within the same
distance from London which afford such a variety of fine landscapes.
WOOD _street_, 1. a long street extending from Cheapside to
Cripplegate; in this street is one of the two city compters: 2. Hare
street, Spitalfields: 3. North street, Westminster.
WOOD _wharf_, 1. Northumberland street, in the Strand: 2. near Broken
wharf, Thames street: 3. Millbank, Westminster: 4. Wapping.
WOOD _yard_, 1. Back street, Lambeth: 2. Brick lane: 3. Church lane,
Houndsditch: 4. Gravel lane, Houndsditch: 5. Long acre: 6. Maze pond,
Southwark: 7. Moses and Aaron alley, Whitechapel: 8. Ratcliff highway.
WOODFORD, a village near Chingfield in Essex, derived its name from a
ford in Epping forest, where now is Woodford bridge.
WOODROFF _lane_, Crutched Friars.†
WOOD’S ALMSHOUSE, adjoins to that of Gibson’s at Ratcliff, and was
founded by Toby Wood, of Lincoln’s Inn, Esq; in the year 1613, for six
decayed coopers, who have an allowance of 6_l._ _per annum_, and thirty
bushels of coals each.
WOOD’S _alley_, Harrow alley.†
WOOD’S CLOSE, a street which extends from the end of St. John’s street
almost to the turnpike in Islington road.†
WOOD’S _court_, 1. Norton falgate by Shoreditch.† 2. Oxford street.†
WOOD’S _mews_, Tyburn lane.†
WOOD’S _yard_, 1. Norton falgate, by Shoreditch.† 2. Redcross
street.†
WOODSTOCK _court_, Charing Cross.
WOODSTOCK _mews_, Woodstock street.
WOODSTOCK _street_, Oxford street.
WOOLHAM’S _yard_, Gray’s Inn lane, Holborn.†
WOOLIS’S _court_, in the Minories.†
WOOLMEN, a company probably of great antiquity, though they have no
charter, and are a community only by prescription. They have a master,
two wardens, and eleven assistants; but neither hall nor livery.
WOOLPACK _alley_, Houndsditch.*
WOOLPACK _yard_, Kent street, Southwark.*
WOOLSTAPLE _lane_, New Palace yard, so called from the woolstaple
formerly held there. _Stow._
WORCESTER PLACE, Thames street.
WORCESTER PLACE _lane_, Thames street.
WORCESTER _street_, 1. Old Gravel lane, Ratcliff Highway: 2. in the
Park Southwark; 3. Peter street.
WORLD’S-END _bridge_, St. Olave’s street, Southwark.
WORLD’S-END _yard_, Old Horselydown lane, Southwark.
WORLEY’S _court_, Redgate court, in the Minories.†
WORMWOOD _street_, extends from Bishopsgate street to Broad street.
WORREL’S _rents_, Cherry-tree alley, Golden lane.†
WORSHIP _street_, near Upper Moorfields.
WORSLEY’S _yard_, Field lane, the bottom of Holbourn hill.†
WRAY’S _court_, Cross lane, Parker’s lane.†
_Sir Christopher_ WREN, the celebrated architect, many of whose most
excellent works of this kind are described in several places of this
work, and views of them given, has on this account an equal claim to
our regard in this place, with INIGO JONES, his competitor in the same
path of fame, some account of whom we have already given under his name.
Sir Christopher was descended from a branch of the ancient family of
the Wrens, of Binchester in the bishoprick of Durham. He was grandson
of Mr. Francis Wren, citizen of London, and son of Christopher Wren,
dean of Windsor, a younger brother of doctor Matthew Wren, successively
Bishop of Hereford, Norwich, and Ely. He was born at London October the
eighth 1632, and became gentleman commoner of Wadham college in Oxford,
where he took the degree of bachelor of arts, March the eighteenth
1650, and that of master December the eleventh 1653, and the same year
was chosen fellow of Allsouls college there. While he was very young he
discovered a surprising genius for the mathematics; in which science
he made great advancement before he was sixteen years old, as Mr.
Oughtred informs us in the preface to the third edition of his _Clavis_
_Mathematica_, printed at Oxford in 1652. August the seventh 1652, he
was made professor of astronomy at Gresham college in London. In the
beginning of July 1658, he communicated to Doctor Wallis several papers
concerning the Cycloide which were published by Doctor Wallis 1659, in
his treatise _de Cycloide_. In February 1660, Mr. Wren resigned his
professorship at Gresham college, upon being chosen to the Savilian
professorship of astronomy in Oxford. The same year he was sent for by
order of King Charles the Second, to assist Sir John Denham, surveyor
of his Majesty’s works. September the twelfth 1661 he was created
Doctor of laws, and May twenty 1663, was elected fellow of the Royal
Society; in the history of which society by Doctor Sprat, we have
an account of some of his discoveries in philosophy and mathematics
made before the year 1667, the most considerable of which is his
_Doctrine of Motion_, which is the best of all others for establishing
the first principles of philosophy by geometrical demonstrations.
He also published a _History of Seasons_, in which he proposed to
comprehend a diary of wind, weather, and other conditions of the air,
as to heat, cold, and weight, which might be of admirable use if
constantly pursued and derived down to posterity. He also contrived a
thermometer to be its own register, and an instrument to measure the
quantities of rain that fall, and he devised many subtle ways for the
easier finding the gravity of the atmosphere. Some discoveries in the
_Pendulum_ are to be attributed to him, and he has invented many ways
to make astronomical observations more easy and accurate. He added
many devices and improvements to telescopes, and improved the theory
of dioptrics, it being a question among the problems of navigation,
to what mechanical power, sailing against the wind especially, was
reducible, he shewed it to be a wedge. The geometrical mechanics of
rowing he shewed to be a _Vectis_, on a moving or cedent _Fulcrum_. He
invented a curious and speedy way of etching, and has started several
things towards the emendation of water-works. He was the first inventor
of drawing pictures by microscopical glasses. He found out long-liv’d
lamps, and registers of furnaces for keeping a perpetual temper in
order to various uses, as hatching eggs, insects, production of plants,
chemical preparations, imitating nature in producing fossils and
minerals, keeping the motion of watches equal in order to longitude
and astronomical uses, and infinite other advantages. He was the
first author of the noble anatomical experiment of injecting liquors
into the veins of animals, an experiment now well known. It were easy
to enumerate a great number of other inventions and improvements of
his, from Doctor Sprat’s account of them, but these may suffice as a
specimen.
In 1665 Sir Christopher Wren travelled into France, and about the same
year was one of the commissioners for the reparation of St. Paul;
and in September the same year drew up a model for rebuilding the
city of London after the fire in the beginning of that month. Upon
the decease of Sir John Denham, who died in March 1668, he was made
Surveyor-general of his Majesty’s works. In 1669, he finished the
magnificent theatre at Oxford, April the ninth 1673, he resigned his
professorship of astronomy at Oxford, and some time after married the
daughter of Sir Thomas Coghill of Bletchington in Oxfordshire, by whom
he had only one son named Christopher. His wife dying in childbed, he
afterwards married Jane daughter of William Lord Fitz-Williams, Baron
of Lifford in Ireland, by whom he had two children, a son William, and
a daughter Jane. In 1680 he was chosen president of the Royal Society.
He was one of the commissioners of Chelsea college, and twice member
of parliament, first for Plymouth in Devonshire, in 1685; and in 1700,
for Melcomb Regis in Devonshire. In 1718 he was removed from his place
of Surveyor-general. He died February the twenty-fifth 1723, in the
ninety-first year of his age, and was interred in the vault under St.
Paul’s. He was the author of several treatises on different subjects.
Amongst the works of architecture of his designing are the cathedral
of St. Paul’s, the churches of St. Stephen Walbrook and St. Mary le
Bow, the Monument, the palace of Hampton court, Chelsea college, and
Greenwich hospital, _&c._ an account of all which see under their
several names in this work.
WRESTLEY’S _court_, London wall.†
WRIGHT’S _rents_, 1. Barnaby street, Southwark.† 2. Ratcliff
highway.†
WRIGHT’S _street_, Rotherhith.†
WRIGHT’S _yard_, New Marten’s street, near East Smithfield.†
WROTHAM, or WORTHAM, a town in Kent, twenty-five miles from London, and
three miles and a half from West Malling, received its name from the
great quantity of the herb wort, which grows near it. It has a very
large church, in which are sixteen stalls supposed to have been made
for the clergy who attended the Archbishops of Canterbury, to whom the
manor formerly belonged, and who had a palace here, till Simon Islip
the Archbishop in the fourteenth century, pulled it down, and built
another at Maidstone; the rectory is however still reckoned one of the
best livings in Kent. It has a market on Tuesdays.
WYCH _street_, Drury lane.
WYCH’S _court_, Wych street.†
WYNAM’S _court_, Great Russel street.†
Y.
YEAT’S _court_, 1. Clements lane, Temple bar.† 2. Redcross street.†
YEAT’S _rents_, Jamaica street.†
YEAT’S _street_, Lincoln’s Inn fields.†
YELLOW _street_, in the Minories.
YORK _alley_, St. Mary Magdalen’s church-yard.
YORK _buildings_, in the Strand, so denominated from the Archbishop
of York’s house there, purchased by Nicholas Heath the Archbishop,
about the year 1556, of the Bishop of Norwich, but afterwards coming
to John Duke of Buckingham, he demised the house and garden to several
builders, and they erected there several handsome streets and alleys,
in which his name and title are recorded, _viz._ John street, Villars
street, Duke street, Off alley, and Buckingham street. However these
streets together are still denominated York buildings.
YORK BUILDINGS WATERWORKS, an edifice with a high tower, erected behind
York buildings by the Thames, for raising water for the supply of that
neighbourhood. The company to whom it belongs were incorporated by act
of parliament in the year 1691.
YORK BUILDINGS _stairs_, Terrace walk, York buildings. The beautiful
design for these stairs is of the celebrated Inigo Jones, of the Tuscan
order with rustic work, as the print shews, and is admirably adapted to
the situation. The print is on the same plate with that of the Temple,
which See.
YORK _street_, 1. Anchor street: 2. Bridges street: 3. Jermain street.
YORK _yard_, Long lane, East Smithfield.
YORKSHIRE _court_, 1. Mile-end New Town: 2. Whitechapel.
YORKSHIRE _yard_, 1. Bishopsgate street: 2. Brick lane.
YOUNG’S ALMSHOUSE, in College church-yard, Southwark, was founded by
Mr. Henry Young in the year 1694, for two poor women, with an allowance
of only one shilling per week each. _Maitland._
YOUNG’S _court_, 1. Basinghall street.† 2. Nightingale lane.†
YOUNG’S _key_, Thames street.†
Z.
ZOAR _street_, Gravel lane.
FINIS.
[Illustration]
Directions to the Binder for placing the Cuts.
VOL. I.
To face Page
1 Frontispiece, to face the Title
2 Abby Church of St. Peter’s Westminster 1
3 Monument of Shakespear 51
4 Capt. Cornwall’s Monument 75
5 Henry the Seventh’s Chapel 113
6 Admiralty 134
7 The Bank 234
8 Banquetting House 244
9 St. Bartholomew’s Hospital 260
10 Belvedere House 271
11 Bethlem, with London Bridge 297
12 Figures on Bethlem Gates 298
13 Sir Gregory Page’s Seat 314
14 Bedford House 330
VOL. II.
1 British Museum 17
2 Plan of the British Museum 32
3 Burlington House 57
4 Cashiobury, with Moor Park 71
5 Chelsea Hospital 105
6 Chesterfield House and L. Egremont’s 110
7 Chiswick House 114
8 Christ’s Church Hospital 135
9 Claremont 139
10 House of Commons and Entrance } 165
to the House of Lords }
11 Covent Garden 194
12 Custom House 213
13 Devonshire House 225
14 St. Dunstan’s in the East 253
15 East India House 263
16 Esher Place 277
17 Eton College 280
18 Fool’s Cray Place 312
19 Foundling Hospital 327
20 Map of the Environs or Countries twenty
Miles round London, place to face the
Title Page of this Volume.
VOL. III.
1 Bloomsbury Church 5
2 Gray’s Inn 58
3 Mr. Spenser’s 65
4 Greenwich Hospital 69
5 Gresham College 76
6 Guild Hall 100
7 Gunnersbury 110
8 Guy’s Hospital 112
9 Cascade at Ham Farm 132
10 Hampton Court from the Gardens 162
11 St. James’s Palace 215
12 Kensington Palace 266
13 Lambeth Palace 291
14 Lincoln’s Inn 309
VOL. IV.
1 Plan of London to face the Title
2 Shaftsbury’s House and center of } 160
Lincoln’s Inn Fields }
3 The Mansion-House 244
4 Marlborough House 262
5 Bow Steeple 288
6 Part of the Meuse and St. Martin’s } 323
Church }
VOL. V.
1 Monument 1
2 Northumberland House and Charing } 53
Cross }
3 South View of Northumberland House 59
4 View from the Terrace at Oatlands 60
5 A Scene in the Gardens of Pain’s Hill 101
6 St. Paul’s 139
7 College of Physicians 193
8 View of Ranelagh Gardens 244
9 Royal Exchange 280
VOL. VI.