with the wits of Dryden's time, when Bow Street and Tavistock Street
were in turn regarded as the Bond Street of the fashionable world.
Edmund Waller, William Wycherley, and Henry Fielding, each lived in
Bow Street. In Russell Street stood the three great coffee-houses of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--Wills', Button's, and Tom's.
Wills' stood at No. 21, at the corner of Russell Street and Bow Street;
here Pepys stopped one February evening on his way to fetch his wife,
and heard much "witty and pleasant discourse"; here Dryden had his
special arm-chair, in winter by the fire, and in summer on the balcony,
and was always ready to arbitrate in any literary dispute. It is said
that Pope, before he was twelve years old, persuaded his friends to
bring him here, so that he might gaze upon the aged Dryden, the hero of
his childish imagination. Dr. Johnson, Addison, Steele, and Smollett
were all regular visitors. Button's, which stood on the south side of
Russell Street, and Tom's at No. 17, were equally popular, and the
Bedford Coffee-house "under the piazza in Covent Garden" was another
favourite resort.
It was in Russell Street, in the bookshop of Thomas Davies, the actor,
that Boswell had his eagerly desired first meeting with Dr. Johnson,
which he describes as follows:--
"At last, on Monday, the 16th of May, when I was sitting in
Mr. Davies' back parlour, after having drunk tea with him and
Mrs. Davies, Johnson came unexpectedly into the shop, and Mr.
Davies having perceived him through the glass door in the room
in which we were sitting advancing towards us, he announced
his awful approach to me somewhat in the manner of an actor
in the part of Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet on the
appearance of his father's ghost: 'Look, my lord, he comes.'"
In St. Paul's, Covent Garden, were buried Samuel Butler, author
of _Hudibras_, Mrs. Centlivre, Thomas Southerne, John Wolcot, and
Wycherley, but when the church was burned down in 1786 all trace of
their graves disappeared.
One other literary memory before we leave the Strand; it is connected
with what was once No. 30, Hungerford Stairs (now part of Villiers
Street), where stood Warren's blacking factory, in which the child
Dickens passed days of miserable drudgery, labelling pots of blacking
for a few shillings a week. He describes it in _David Copperfield_,
under the name of "Murdstone and Grimsby's warehouse, down in
Blackfriars." It was "a crazy old house, with a wharf of its own,
abutting on the water when the tide was in, and on the mud when the
tide was out, and literally overrun with rats."
Pall Mall, the centre of club-land, in the eighteenth century was
the "ordinary residence of all strangers," probably on account of
its proximity to the fashionable chocolate and coffee-houses (the
forerunners of the clubs), which, as Defoe wrote, "were all so close
together that in an hour you could see the company at them all." In
Pall Mall itself were the "Smyrna," the "King's Arms," and the "Star
and Garter." At the "King's Arms" the Kit Cat Club met when it had
quitted its quarters in Shire Lane, and at the "Star and Garter" the
"Brothers" were presided over by Swift. The "Tully's Head," a bookshop
kept by the wonderful Robert Dodsley, footman, poet, dramatist, and
publisher, was another favourite lounging place of the times.
In Charing Cross were the "Rummer," at No. 45, kept by the uncle of
Matthew Prior; Lockett's, two doors off; the "Turk's Head," next door
to No. 17; and the British Coffee-house, which stood on the site now
occupied by the offices of the London County Council.
In St. James's Street the great coffee and chocolate-houses positively
elbowed each other up and down, just as the clubs which succeeded them
do in the present day. The "Thatched House," where the Literary Club,
founded by Dr. Johnson, held its meetings under the presidency of Swift
and his contemporaries; the "St. James's," where Addison "appeared
on Sunday nights," and "Swift was a notable figure," for "those who
frequented the place had been astonished day after day, by the entry
of a clergyman, unknown to any there, who laid his hat on the table,
and strode up and down the room with rapid steps, heeding no one, and
absorbed in his own thoughts. His strange manner earned him, unknown as
he was to all, the name of the "mad parson""; White's, to which Colley
Cibber was the only English actor ever admitted; and the "Cocoa Tree,"
nicknamed the "Wits' Coffee-house," which, in Gibbon's time, afforded
"every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps, of the
finest men in the kingdom, in point of fashion and fortune, supping at
little tables covered with a napkin, in the middle of a coffee-room,
upon a bit of cold meat or a sandwich and drinking a glass of punch."
Lord Byron was the most romantic literary figure connected with St.
James's Street. His first home in London, after his youthful days, was
at No. 8, where he went to live after the publication of his _English
Bards and Scotch Reviewers_. From this house the proud and gloomy young
man set forth to take his seat in the House of Lords as a peer of the
realm. Moore wrote:
"In a state more alone and unfriended, perhaps, than any youth
of his high station had ever before been reduced to on such
an occasion--not having a single individual of his own class,
either to take him by the hand as friend, or acknowledge him
as an acquaintance."
But this state of affairs was not to endure. On February 29th, 1812,
_Childe Harold_ appeared.
"The effect was electric; his fame had not to wait for any
of the ordinary gradations, but seemed to spring up like the
palace of a fairy tale--in a night.... From morning till
night flattering testimonies of his success reached him; the
highest in the land besieged his door, and he who had been so
friendless found himself the idol of London society."
Perhaps we cannot do better than end these literary associations of
club-land with a few words about a man who in his time was one of its
most brilliant figures--Theodore Hook. When he was released from the
King's Bench prison, with his debt to the Crown still hanging over him,
"he took a large and handsome house in Cleveland Row. Here he
gave dinners on an extensive scale, and became a member of all
the best clubs, particularly frequenting those where high play
was the rule. His visiting book included all that was loftiest
and gayest and in every sense most distinguished in London
society. The editor of _John Bull_, the fashionable novelist,
the wittiest and most vivid talker of the time, his presence
was not only everywhere welcome but everywhere coveted and
clamoured for. But the whirl of extravagant dissipation
emptied his pocket, fevered his brain, and shortened the
precious hours in which alone his subsistence could be gained."
In the height of his social triumphs there always hung inexorably over
him the Damocles sword of debt. When at last he gave way under the
strain, and went into comparative retirement at Fulham, the number of
dinners at the Athenæum Club, where he had always had a particular
table kept for him near the door (nicknamed Temperance Corner), fell
off by upwards of three hundred per annum.
* * * * *
These are a few out of the many literary memories that we may encounter
in an afternoon's stroll from the Borough to St. James's, along one of
the great city's busiest highways; others, indeed, there are, meeting
us at every corner, but space forbids our dwelling upon them, and
regretfully we must pass them by.
CROSBY HALL
BY THE EDITOR
Few old mansions in the city of London could rival the ancient
dwelling-place of the brave old knight, Sir John Crosby. Its
architectural beauties and historical associations endeared it to all
lovers of old London, and many a groan was heard when its fate was
doomed, and the decree went forth that it was to be numbered among the
departed glories of the city. Unhappily, the hand of the destroyer
could not be stayed, and the earnest hope had to be abandoned that
many a generation of Londoners might be permitted to see this relic
of ancient civic life, and to realise from this example the kind of
dwelling-place wherein the city merchants of olden days made their
homes, and the salient features of mediæval domestic architecture.
Shorn of its former magnificence, reduced to a fraction of its original
size, it retained evidences of its ancient state and grandeur, and
every stone and timber told of its departed glories, and of the great
events of which Crosby Hall had been the scene. It has been associated
with many a name that shines forth in the annals of English history,
and imagination could again people the desolate hall with a gay company
of courtiers and conspirators, of knights and dames, of city merchants
gorgeous in their liveries of "scarlet and green," or "murrey and
plunket," when pomp and pageantry, tragedy and death, dark councils
and mirth, and gaiety and revellings followed each other through the
portals of the mansion in one long and varied procession. It will be
our pleasure to recall some of these scenes which were enacted long
ago, and to tell of the royal, noble, and important personages who made
this house their home.
Many people who live in our great overgrown modern London--who dwell
in the West End, and never wander further east than Drury Lane Theatre
or St. Pancras Station--have never seen Crosby Hall, and know not
where it stood. If you go along Cheapside and to the end of Cornhill,
and then turn to the left, up Bishopsgate, the old house stood on the
right hand side; or you may approach along Holborn and London Wall.
Alas! the pilgrimage is no longer possible. Bishopsgate is historic
ground. The name is derived from the ancient gate of the city that
was built, according to Stow, by some Bishop of London, "though now
unknown when or by whom, for ease of passengers toward the east, and by
north, as into Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, &c." Some authorities
name Bishop Erkenwald, son of King Offa, as the first builder of
Bishopsgate, and state that Bishop William, the Norman, repaired the
gate in the time of his namesake, the Conqueror. Henry III. confirmed
to the German merchants of the Hanse certain liberties and privileges,
which were also confirmed by Edward I. in the tenth year of his reign,
when it was discovered that the merchants were bound to repair the
gate. Thereupon Gerald Marbod, alderman of the Hanse, and other Hanse
merchants, granted 210 marks sterling to the Mayor and citizens, and
covenanted that they and their successors should from time to time
repair the gate. In 1479, in the reign of Edward IV., it was entirely
rebuilt by these merchants, and was a fine structure adorned with the
effigies of two bishops, probably those named above, and with two
other figures supposed to represent King Alfred and Alred, Earl of
Mercia, to whom Alfred entrusted the care of the gate. This repair
was probably necessary on account of the assault of the bastard
Falconbridge on this and other gates of the city, who shot arrows and
guns into London, fired the suburbs, and burnt more than three-score
houses. The gate has been frequently repaired and rebuilt, its last
appearance being very modern, with a bishop's mitre on the key-stone
of the arch, and surmounted by the city arms with guarding griffins.
London "improvements" have banished the gate, as they have so many
other interesting features of the city.
The neighbourhood is interesting. Foremost among the attractions of
Bishopsgate Street is the beautiful church of St. Helen, formerly the
church of the Nunnery of St. Helen, the Westminster of the city, where
lie so many illustrious merchants and knights and dames, and amongst
them the founder of Crosby Hall and other owners of the mansion. The
church is closely associated with the hall. There in that fine house
they lived. There in the church hard by their bodies sleep, and their
gorgeous tombs and inscriptions tell the story of their deeds. St.
Helen's Church was one of the few which escaped destruction at the
Great Fire of London. There was an early Saxon church here, but the
earliest parts of the existing building date back to the thirteenth
century. There are some blocked-up lancet windows of the transept, a
staircase doorway in the south-east corner, another doorway which led
from the nun's choir into the convent, and a lancet window. There is a
Renaissance porch, the work of Inigo Jones, erected in 1663. The main
part of the structure is Decorated and Perpendicular, the fifteenth
century work being due to the builder of Crosby Hall, who left 500
marks for its restoration and improvement. The whole church possesses
many interesting features, of which want of space prevents a full
description.
[Illustration: CROSBY HALL.]
Sir John Crosby determined to seek a site for his house close to this
church and the Nunnery of St. Helen, and in 1466 obtained a lease from
Alice Ashford, prioress of the Nunnery, of some lands and tenements
for a period of ninety-nine years for the yearly rent of £11 6s. 8d.
Doubtless many good citizens of London in the present day would like to
make so good a bargain.
Sir John Crosby, whose honoured name is preserved to this day by
the noble house which he built, was a worthy and eminent citizen of
London--one of the men who laid the foundations of English trade and
commercial pre-eminence. He attained to great wealth, and his actions
and his bequests prove that he was a very worthy man. Some idle story
stated that, like the famous Dick Whittington, he was of humble origin
and unknown parentage. Stow says: "I hold it a fable said of him,
to be named Crosby, from his being found by a cross." A very pretty
conceit! He was discovered, when an infant, or having attained the age
of boyhood, sleeping on the steps of the market cross at Cheapside
or Charing; and the sympathetic folk who found him there named him
Cross-by! Our ancestors, like ourselves, loved a romance, a nice
cheerful story of a poor boy attaining to rank and opulence, marrying
his master's daughter and doing brave deeds for his King and country.
The notable career of Sir Richard Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of
London, was so embellished with romantic incident. He was no poor
man's son who begged his way to London, accompanied by his favourite
cat. Was he not the youngest son of Sir William Whittington, the owner
of Pauntley Manor in Gloucestershire, and of Solers Hope, Hereford?
and was not his famous cat the name of his ship which brought him
wealth and affluence? Or shall we accept the story of the sale of the
cat to the King of Barbary? So the legend of the foundling Crosby is
equally a fable, woven by the skilful imaginations of our Elizabethan
forefathers. Sir John came of goodly parentage. There was a Johan de
Crosbie, King's Clerk in Chancery, in the time of Edward II.; a Sir
John Crosbie, Knight, and Alderman of London, in the reign of Edward
III.; and a John Crosby, Esquire, and servant of King Henry IV., who
gave to him the wardship of Joan, daughter and sole heir of John
Jordaine, Fishmonger--_i.e._, a member of the Worshipful Company of
Fishmongers of the City of London. This John Crosby was, according to
Stow, either the father or grandfather of the builder of Crosby Hall.
The family held the manor and advowson of the church of
Hanworth-on-the-Thames, not far from Hampton Court. This manor was
owned by the Sir John Crosbie who lived in the time of King Edward
III., and after his death it was placed in the hands of a certain
Thomas Rigby for safe custody until John Crosbie, the son and heir
of the knight, should have grown up to man's estate and attained his
majority. This estate seems afterwards to have passed into the hands of
King Henry VIII., who, on account of its pleasant situation, delighted
in it above any other of his houses.
The father of the founder of the Hall was a friend of Henry Lord
Scrope, of Masham, the unfortunate nobleman who was beheaded at
Southampton for complicity in a plot against the life of Henry V. He
bequeathed to his friend, John Crosbie, "a woollen gown without furs
and one hundred shillings."
_Bene natus_, _bene vestitus_, and doubtless _modice doctus_, the
qualifications of an All Souls' Fellow, John Crosby began his career,
embarking in trade and commerce, and undertaking the duties of a
worthy citizen of London. The palmy days of commercial enterprise
inaugurated by King Henry VII. had not yet set in. Before his time
the trade between England and the Continent was much more in the
hands of foreigners than of English merchants. English trading ships
going abroad to sell English goods and bring back cargoes of foreign
commodities were few in number. The English merchant usually stayed
at home, and sold his wares to the strangers who came each year to
London and the other trading ports, or bartered them for the produce of
other lands, with which their ships were freighted. The German Hanse
merchants, the Flemish traders, the Lombards, and many others, enjoyed
great privileges in their commerce with England. But, in spite of this,
men like Crosby were able to amass wealth and make large profits. Sir
John's dealings extended far into other countries, and he had important
connections with the Friscobaldi of Florence, who with the Medici were
the great bankers and engrossers of the commerce of Europe.
Of the great merchants who laid the foundations of our English commerce
we often know little more than their names, the offices they held,
with a meagre catalogue of their most philanthropic labours and their
wills. It is possible, however, to gather a little more information
concerning the owner of Crosby Place. The records at Guildhall tell
us that in 1466, the seventh year of Edward IV., John Crosby, Grocer,
was elected with three others a Member of Parliament. He was also
elected in the same year one of the auditors of the City and Bridge
House. In 1468 we find him elected Alderman of Broad Street Ward, and
two years later Sheriff of London. He took a prominent part in the old
city life of London, and was a prominent member of two of the old City
Companies, the Grocers and the Woolmen. Of the former he twice served
the office of warden, and preserved a strong affection for his company,
bequeathing to it by his will considerable gifts. The honourable and
important post of Mayor of the Staple at Calais was also conferred upon
him.
He seems to have been a brave and valiant man, as well as a successful
trader and good citizen. During his time the safety of the City of
London was endangered owing to the attack of Thomas Nevil, the bastard
Lord Falconbridge, to which reference has already been made. Stow
tells the story graphically. This filibusterer came with his rebel
company and a great navy of ships near to the Tower--
"Whereupon the mayor and aldermen fortified all along the
Thames side, from Baynard's Castle to the Tower, with armed
men, guns and other instruments of war, to resist the invasion
of the mariners, whereby the Thames side was safely preserved
and kept by the aldermen and other citizens that assembled
thither in great numbers. Whereupon the rebels, being denied
passage through the city that way, set upon Aeldgate,
Bishopsgate, Criplegate, Aeldersgate, London Bridge, and along
the river of Thames, shooting arrows and guns into the city,
fired the suburbs, and burnt more than three score houses.
And farther, on Sunday, the eleventh of May, five thousand of
them assaulting Aeldgate, won the bulwarks, and entered the
city; but the portclose being let down, such as had entered
were slain, and Robert Basset, portcullis alderman of Aeldgate
ward, with the recorder, commanded in the name of God to
draw up the portclose; which being done, they issued out,
and with sharp shot and fierce fight, put their enemies back
so far as St. Bottolph's Church, by which time Earl Rivers,
and lieutenant of the Tower, was come with a fresh company,
which joining together discomfited the rebels, and put them to
flight, whom the said Rober, Basset with the other citizens
chased to the Mile's End, and from thence, some to Poplar,
some to Stratford, slew many, and took many of them prisoners.
In which space the Bastard, having assayed other places on the
water side, and little prevailed, fled toward his ships."
In this determined defence of the city against a formidable attack,
John Crosbie took a leading part, bravely contending against the forces
of the foe and fighting fiercely. Twelve aldermen with the recorder
were knighted in the field by King Edward IV., and amongst those so
honoured were the Lord Mayor of London, William Taylor, and John
Crosby. Our hero was no carpet knight, no poor-spirited tradesman and
man of peace. Like many other famous citizens of his age, he could don
his armour and fight for his King and country, and proved himself a
gallant leader of a citizen army, the best sort of army in the world.
He was a devoted adherent of the House of York, and a favourite of
Edward IV., who sent him on an important embassage to the Duke of
Burgundy, who had married Elizabeth of York, the King's sister. The
secret object of the mission was an alliance against Francis I. of
France. The embassy was also sent to the Duke of Brittany with the same
object, and also to secure the persons of the Earls of Richmond and
Pembroke, who had taken refuge in France, and there felt themselves
secure. The future Richard III. was nearly persuaded to return to
England; his foot was almost on the ship's deck, when, fortunately for
him, his voyage was prevented. If he had continued his journey he would
never have worn a crown, as he would have lacked a head whereon to
place it.
Sir John Crosby not long before his death began to build the beautiful
house in Bishopsgate "in the place of certain tenements, with their
appurtenances let to him by Alice Ashfield, Prioress of St. Helen's....
This house he built of stone and timber, very large and beautiful,
and the highest at that time in London," as Stow records. The whole
structure was known as Crosby Place, and rivalled the dimensions of a
palace. All that remained of this magnificent building was the Hall,
together with the Council Room and an ante-room, forming two sides
of a quadrangle. It was built of stone, and measured 54 feet by 27
feet, and was 40 feet in height. The Hall was lighted by a series of
eight Perpendicular windows on one side and six on the other, and by
a beautifully-constructed octagonal bay window. It had a fine roof
of exquisite workmanship richly ornamented, and a wide chimney. Much
of the original stone pavement had vanished. The Council Chamber was
nearly as large as the hall, being only 14 feet less in length.
Crosby Hall has been the scene of many notable historic scenes. In the
play of "Edward IV." by Heywood, Sir John Crosby figures as Lord Mayor
of London, a position which he never occupied, and the King dines with
him and the Alderman after the defeat of the rebel Falconbridge at
Crosby Hall. He had just received the honour of knighthood, and thus
muses:--
"Ay, marry, Crosby! this befits thee well.
But some will marvel that, with scarlet gown,
I wear a gilded rapier by my side."
It is quite possible that the King thus dined with his favourite, but
there is no historical account that confirms the poet's play. The
builder did not long enjoy his beautiful house, and died in 1475,
leaving a second wife and a daughter by his first wife, whom he seemed
to have loved with a more ardent affection than his second spouse. Soon
after his death the man whom he tried to trap in France, Richard, Duke
of Gloucester, came to reside here, and made it the scene of endless
plots and conspiracies against his luckless nephews and his many
enemies. Crosby Place is frequently alluded to by Shakespeare in his
play, "Richard the Third." Gloucester tells Catesby to report to him at
Crosby Place the treacherous murder of the Princes in the Tower, and he
bids the Lady Anne to "presently repair to Crosby Place."
[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, WITH LORD MAYOR'S SHOW ON THE
WATER.
_Engraved by Pugh, 1804._]