consisting of thirteen Governors, three of whom are a _quorum_. This
committee meets every Tuesday morning at eleven o’clock in the forenoon,
at the hospital, to receive and discharge women, inspect the diet and
provisions, order any furniture and conveniences that may from time to
time be wanted, and to examine into and regulate the conduct of all the
servants and patients of the house. These committees are to make their
reports to the general quarterly courts.
The number of beds at present in the hospital is thirty-three.
A Physician, a Man-midwife, and a Surgeon in ordinary, attend daily at
the hospital; besides whom the house is supplied with a Physician and
Man-midwife extraordinary, a Surgeon extraordinary, and an apothecary,
who supplies the patients with such medicines as shall be found
necessary in their respective cases. And that the patients may not want
necessary comfort under their afflictions, a Clergyman has undertaken
the kind and charitable office of attending the house as Chaplain,
baptizes the children born there, churches the women, and reads prayers
publickly twice a week. All these gentlemen attend without fee or
reward.
A matron, who is a skilful midwife, constantly resides in the hospital,
and acts as such in all natural and easy labours.
There are a sufficient number of nurses and other servants to take care
of the lying-in women, and do the common business of the house.
Also a beadle, who constantly resides at the hospital, to be ready to go
on all messages, on sudden emergencies, and summon the Governors, &c.
Note, the servants of the house are forbid to take any fee or reward
from the lying-in women, on any pretence whatsoever, on pain of being
discharged.
Married women admitted into this hospital, must previously produce a
certificate of their marriage from a lawful Minister, or in case they
cannot, then an affidavit of their being married, and the time when and
the place where, and also of the settlement of their husbands, and by
what means such settlement was obtained. And no woman is to be taken
into the house, who hath any contagious distemper, or has been
accustomed to receive alms of a parish.
Such gentlemen and ladies as chuse to favour this laudable charity, are
desired to send their subscriptions, with their names and places of
abode, to the Treasurer, Charles Maynard, Esq; in Aldersgate street; to
Messrs. Vere, Glyn, and Halifax, bankers, in Birchin lane; or to the
weekly committee, on Tuesday in the forenoon, at the said hospital,
where proper receipts will be given,
ACCOUNT _of_ WOMEN _delivered, from the institution of the hospital to
the 17th Jan. 1758_.
Women delivered, 19 of whom had twins, and one delivered
of three children 1914
Children born 1935
Males 961
Females 974
————
1935
————
Monies received from the institution of the hospital to
the 13th. Jan. 1758 7010 13 0¾
Monies expended from the institution of the
hospital to 29th Sept. 1757 5774 3 6
£1000 Old South Sea annuities, which cost 1064 12 6
Cash in Treasurer’s hands 171 17 0¾
———————
7010 13 0¾
_The account published by order of the Governors._
See an account of the other hospitals of the same kind, under the
articles LYING-IN HOSPITAL in Brownlow street, and LYING-IN HOSPITAL for
unmarried as well as married women in Duke street.
LONDON ’PRENTICE _yard_, in the Minories.*
LONDON STONE, a very great piece of antiquity, that has been carefully
preserved from age to age, and is mentioned by the same name so early as
in the time of Ethelstan, King of the West Saxons.
This stone, which stands close under the south wall of St. Swithin’s
church, was formerly a little nearer the channel facing the same place,
and being fixed very deep in the ground was so strongly fastened by bars
of iron, as to be in no danger from the carriages.
It seems very surprizing that so great a piece of antiquity has been
constantly preserved with such care, and yet so little has been said of
it, that the original cause of its erection, and the use for which it
was intended, are entirely unknown. A very ingenious author observes,
that as London appears to have been a Roman city, it will be no
improbable conjecture, that this stone was the center, from whence they
extended its dimensions, and might serve as the standard at which they
began to compute their miles. Of this opinion was also Mr. Maitland, and
the great Sir Christopher Wren, who grounded his conjecture upon proofs
which are not every day to be obtained, for by rebuilding many of the
churches after the fire of London, he had an opportunity of discovering
and tracing the ancient boundaries of London, with a greater nicety than
is ever to be expected again: on clearing the foundations of St. Mary le
Bow in Cheapside, he found, upon opening the ground, the walls with the
windows and pavement of a Roman temple, entirely buried under the level
of the present street; this temple stood about forty feet backwards; but
having occasion to bring the steeple of the new church to range with the
high street, he again began to dig through the made ground, till having
proceeded eighteen feet deep, to his surprize he discovered a Roman
causeway of rough stone four feet thick, close and well rammed, with
Roman brick and rubbish at the bottom, all firmly cemented; he was
therefore of opinion, that this was the northern boundary of the Roman
colony, and that the breadth from north to south was from this causeway,
now Cheapside, to the Thames; the extent east and west from Tower hill
to Ludgate: the principal or Prætorian Way, he supposed to be Watling
street; whence London Stone appears to have been nearly in the center of
the ancient city before it was destroyed by Boadicea, and when it was
not encompassed with walls. _Curiosities of London and Westminster._
_Parentalia._
LONDON _street_, 1. A spacious, handsome, and well-built street, on the
south side of Fenchurch street. 2. Mill street, Rotherhith. 3. Rose
lane, Ratcliff.
LONDON WALL, the wall which formerly surrounded the city of London, as a
defence against the attacks of an enemy. It was strengthened with lofty
towers, and had originally only four gates, tho’ the making of new roads
has increased the number to seven, which are now standing, viz. Aldgate,
Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, and Ludgate.
See each of these described in their proper places.
This wall, which is by some supposed to have been built by Constantine
the Great, and by others by his mother Helena, was probably not erected
till the time of Valentinian I. about the year 368. Britain had been
reduced to very great misery, by the joint attacks of the Scots, Picts,
Attacots, Saxons, and Franks; and the Romans, till the arrival of
Theodosius the Elder, were defeated in several engagements: but that
General having routed some parties of the enemy, entered the city of
London in triumph. And we are told by _Am. Marcel, lib. 27._ that
Theodosius, by repairing some cities and castles, and fortifying others,
left every thing in so good a situation, that peace was preserved in
Britain till the departure of the Romans in the reign of the Emperor
Honorius.
Dr. Woodward, in the year 1707, had an opportunity of narrowly observing
its fabrick and composition, by a part of the wall near Bishopsgate
being pulled down, to make way for new buildings; and this learned
antiquary observes, that “From the foundation, which lay eight feet
below the present surface, quite up to the top of the oldest part, which
was in all near ten feet, it was compiled alternately of layers of broad
flat bricks and rag-stones. The bricks lay in double ranges, and each
brick being but one inch and three tenths in thickness, the whole layer,
with the mortar, exceeded not three inches. The layers of stone were not
two feet thick of our measure. It is probable they were intended for two
of the Roman, their rule being somewhat shorter than ours. To this
height the workmanship was after the Roman manner, and these were the
remains of the ancient wall. In this it was very observable, that the
mortar was so very firm and hard, that the stone itself as easily broke.
It was thus far, from the foundation upwards, nine feet in thickness.
The above broad thin bricks were all of Roman make, and of the very sort
we learn from Pliny, that were in common use among the Romans. Measuring
some of these (says Mr. Woodward) I found them seventeen inches and four
tenths in thickness, and eleven inches and six tenths in breadth.
“The old wall, on its being repaired, was carried up of the same
thickness to eight or nine feet in height; or if higher, there was no
more of that work now standing. All this was apparently additional, and
of a make later than the other part underneath it, which was levelled
and brought to a plane for the raising of this new work upon it. The
outside, or that towards the suburbs, was faced with a coarse sort of
stone, not compiled with any great care or skill, nor disposed into a
regular method; but on the inside there appeared more marks of
workmanship and art. At the bottom were five layers composed of flint
and free stone; though they were not so in all parts, yet in some the
squares were near equal, about five inches diameter, and ranged in a
quincunx order. Over these were a layer of brick, then of hewn free
stone, and so alternately brick and stone to the top. These bricks, of
which there were four courses, were of the shape of those now in use,
but much larger, being near eleven inches in length, five in breadth,
and somewhat above two and a half in thickness. There was not one of the
Roman bricks above mentioned in all this part, nor was the mortar here
near so hard, as in that below; but from the description may be easily
collected, that this part when first made, with so various and orderly a
disposition of the materials, flint, stone, and brick, could not but
carry a very handsome aspect. Whether this was done at the expence of
the Barons in the reign of King John; or of the citizens in the reign of
King Henry III. or of King Richard II. or at what other time, I cannot
take upon me to ascertain, from accounts so defective and obscure as are
those which at this day remain of this affair.
“Upon the additional work now described, was raised a wall wholly of
brick, only that it terminating in battlements, these were topped with
copings of stone. It was two feet four inches in thickness, and somewhat
above eight feet in height. The bricks of these were of the same module
and size with those of the part underneath, How long they have been in
use is uncertain.” _Woodward’s Roman Antiquities, and Present State of
London._
A tower of the same construction, twenty-six feet in height, is still
remaining, and is situated almost opposite the end of Gravel lane, on
the west side of Houndsditch, tho’ much decayed. There is a door within
the wall of this tower, in Shoemaker row, fronting the passage into
Duke’s Place. Mr. Maitland observes, that in searching for this tower,
about eighty paces south east, towards Aldgate, he discovered another of
the same construction, twenty-one feet high, perfectly found, and much
more beautiful than the former; the bricks being as found as if but
newly laid, while the stones in most parts are become a sacrifice to
time. Mr. Maitland also observes, that on the south of Aldgate, at the
lower end of a street denominated the Vineyard, is the basis of another
Roman tower, about eight feet high, which supports a new building of
three stories in height. He conjectures, that the wall, when first
erected, was about twenty-two feet high, and the towers about forty
feet; and adds, that the ancients thought it so necessary to preserve
them from ruin and all incumbrances, that they made an act, that no
tenement should be erected nearer the walls, than the distance of
sixteen feet.
The remains of the walls are at present much more extensive than is
generally imagined. They still subsist in part between the houses on the
east side of Poor Jewry lane, and the Minories, almost all the way along
the back of Houndsditch, from Aldgate to Bishopsgate. The ruins of the
wall are from thence visible to every passenger in the street, from
where Little Moorgate lately stood to the end of Aldermanbury, and from
thence extending behind the houses, it reaches to Cripplegate; from
whence it extends on the back of St. Giles’s church, and runs along the
back of the houses in Crowder’s well alley, where several lofty towers
are still to be seen, and is visible almost to Aldersgate; from thence
it extends along the back of the houses in Bull and Mouth street; but
from thence little of it is to be seen till we come to Newgate; after
which it in some places rises to a considerable height, and extends in a
pretty regular line on the back of the houses in the Old Bailey almost
to Ludgate.
LONDON WALL, a long street, so called from its fronting the city wall;
it having a range of houses on the south, and the ruins of the wall on
the north. This street, which extends from Wormwood street to
Cripplegate, is the only place where the wall is not concealed by
buildings: but here the wall may be justly considered as a nuisance, it
being little better than a disagreeable heap of rubbish, in which hardly
any of the Roman structure is now to be seen.
LONDON WORKHOUSE, a large and commodious brick building, at the south
east corner of Half Moon alley in Bishopsgate street, was founded by act
of Parliament in the year 1649, for the relief and employment of the
poor, and the punishing of vagrants and other disorderly persons, within
the city and liberties of London. However, in the year 1662, the
continual increase of the poor, and the defects in the laws relating to
the settlement of them, occasioned another act, by which the Governors
were constituted a body corporate with a common seal; the Lord Mayor for
the time being was appointed President, and the President and Governors
were allowed to purchase lands or tenements to the annual value of 300l.
The Common Council were allowed to rate the several parishes of the city
for the support of this workhouse, and on this account a considerable
sum is paid by each parish, raised on the inhabitants by a regular
assessment. Besides which, this charity has received many considerable
benefactions.
However, it was agreed by the Governors, that no child should be
received from any benefactor who gave a less sum than 50l. but whoever
gave 70l. might put in a child from any place he thought fit. _Account
of this Corporation published in 1713._
The several parishes, besides their assessments, formerly paid 1s. a
week for parish children; but in 1751 the Governors came to a
resolution, that no more children paid for by the parishes to which they
belong, should be taken into the house; and since that time it has been
resolved, that only such children should be taken in, as were committed
by the Magistrates of the city, found begging in the streets, pilfering
on the keys, or lying about in glass houses and uninhabited places: the
receptacles of the wretched and the wicked.
These once poor abandoned children are educated according to the usage
of the church of England, and meet at six in the morning and evening in
a large room, which serves them both for a chapel and dining room, where
they hear prayers: they are taught the Catechism; have a Minister who
attends upon them; and on Sundays they all go to church at Great St.
Helen’s. A part of the day is appropriated to their learning to read,
write, and to their obtaining some knowledge of arithmetic; the rest of
their time is spent in weaving nets for the British fishery; and the
girls are employed in sewing, knitting, and other labour, by which they
are qualified for service. The boys making twenty-five yards of netting
a week, at 1s. 6d. for twenty yards; and, as an encouragement to
industry, every boy who makes above twenty-four yards, receives a penny
a week. There are here seldom less than four hundred children thus
employed, all of whom are dressed in russet cloth, and wear a round
badge upon their breasts, representing a poor boy and a sheep, with the
motto, _God’s providence is our inheritance_.
These children thus saved from the miseries of vice and beggary; from
becoming pick-pockets and house-breakers, and from ending their days at
the gallows; after being thus instructed and inured to labour, are put
out apprentice, the boys to the sea service or to trades, and the girls
to service in honest families.
It will be no unpleasing amusement, if we here give the speech of John
Trusty, one of these poor boys, to her Majesty Queen Anne, upon her
coming to dine at Guildhall, on Thursday the 29th of October 1702, the
Lord Mayor’s day; nor can we better conclude what we have said of these
children.
“May it please your most excellent Majesty, to pardon this great
presumption in us poor children, who throw ourselves at your royal feet,
among the rest of your glad subjects, that here in crouds appear to
behold your sacred Majesty.
“We, Madam, have no fathers, no mothers, no friends; or, which is next
to none, those who, through their extreme poverty, cannot help us. God’s
providence is our inheritance [_pointing to the motto on his breast_.]
All the support we have is from the unexhausted charities of your loyal
citizens of London, and others your good subjects, and the pious care of
our Governors, who are now teaching our little hands to work, and our
fingers to spin.
“These threads, Madam, [_holding out some yarn, which he held in his
hand_] are some of the early fruits of our industry. We are all daily
employed on the staple manufacture of England, learning betimes to be
useful to the world. And there seemed nothing wanting to complete our
happiness, but the opportunity which this day affords us, of being the
objects of your tender pity and compassion. One gracious smile from your
Majesty on this new foundation will make us live——and live to call you
blessed.
“And may God Almighty long preserve your Majesty, for the good of these
your kingdoms, and your Royal Consort the Prince. So pray we, your
little children: and let all your people say, _Amen_.”
In another part of the house, called _the Keeper’s Side_, are kept
beggars, vagrants, dissolute and abandoned sturdy fellows, who have no
honest means of support; and the lewd women who are taken up in the
streets, where they spread debauchery and contagion among unwary youth:
all these are kept to hard labour, and employed in beating of hemp and
washing of linen. Many of these have been brought to a sense of their
crimes, while others have voluntarily transported themselves to the
plantations.
All these are not only supported, but in case of sickness, broken limbs,
sores, or wounds, have advice, physic and surgery gratis.
Some years ago the Governors built a very large, strong and useful
building, with three long rooms or galleries one over another, which are
filled with boys and girls at work, who have a proper number of men and
women to instruct them. They have here also a large and convenient
brewhouse for brewing their own drink, and over that a malthouse. In
short, every thing here is managed with the greatest prudence and
œconomy. _Maitland._
LONDON WORKHOUSE _yard_, by the London Workhouse in Bishopsgate street.
LONG ACRE, so called from its being built on a long narrow piece of
ground, anciently called The Seven Acres. It begins at Drury lane, by
the end of Great Queen street, and reaches to St. Martin’s lane.
LONG ALLEY, 1. Black Friars. 2. Cable street. 3. Moor fields. 4. In the
Strand.
LONG BOW STRING MAKERS, a company by prescription, and not by charter:
but which still subsists, though bows and arrows have been so long out
of use. It has, however, a coat of arms, and is governed by two Wardens
and nineteen Assistants; but this fraternity have neither hall nor
livery. _Maitland._
LONG CELLAR _court_, 1. Lower East Smithfield. 2. St. Catharine’s.
LONG _court_, near Whitechapel.
LONG _ditch_, Tothill street, Westminster. This street took its name
from a water course there so called. _Maitland._
LONG _lane_, 1. Aldersgate street. 2. Barnaby street. 3. Shoreditch.
LONG _walk_, 1. Christ’s hospital. 2. Cross Keys court, Whitecross
street, Cripplegate. 3. King John’s court, Barnaby street.
LONG’S _alley_, Roper lane in Crucifix lane, Barnaby street.†
LONG’S _court_, 1. Jamaica street, Rotherhith.† 2. Near Leicester
fields.†
LONG’S _yard_, 1. East Smithfield.† 2. In the Green Walk.†
LOOKER’S _court_, King’s street, Oxford street.†
LOOM _alley_, Old Bethlem.
LORD MAYOR. See _Lord_ MAYOR.
LORD MAYOR’S _court_. See _Lord_ MAYOR’S COURT.
LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMENS COURT. Also see under the article MAYOR.
_House of_ LORDS, an edifice situated near Westminster Hall, by the
Painted Chamber and Court of Requests. The print represents the stairs
up which his Majesty enters, and adjoining is the office of ordnance.
Formerly the parliaments of England were held in Westminster Hall; but
King Richard II. having occasion to call one in the year 1397, when that
building was in a very ruinous condition, erected an house on purpose in
the middle of the palace court, at a small distance from the gate of the
old Hall. This was a plain and mean structure, open to the common
people, that all might hear what passed; while the King’s person, and
those assembled there for the service of the nation, were secured by a
guard of archers maintained at the public expence. Two years after,
Westminster Hall being rebuilt and sufficiently accommodated for the
meeting of this great assembly, they met there again; till at length a
taste for regularity and magnificence increasing with our improvements
in arts, this noble room was taken for the great assembly of the
national senate.
This room is spacious, lofty, and every thing within it is disposed with
great regularity. It is hung with tapestry, representing the defeat of
the Spanish armada, which is shewn in various designs; as, the first
appearance of the Spanish fleet; the several forms in which it lay at
different times on our coasts, and before the comparatively handful of
English which pursued it; the place and disposition of the fleets when
engaged; and, in fine, its departure. These are the great subjects. The
whole is excellently performed, and as the materials in that original
state are perishable, the late Mr. Pine has perpetuated them in very
fine engravings. _English Architecture._ These designs are certainly
well adapted to the place, as they perpetually present to view the
importance of our navy, on which our principal strength depends.
At the upper end of the room is the throne, upon which the King is
seated on solemn occasions, in his robes, with the crown on his head,
and adorned with all the ensigns of majesty.
On the right hand of the throne is a seat for the Prince of Wales, and
on the left, for the next person of the Royal Family.
Behind the throne are places for the young Peers who have no votes in
the house.
At a small distance below the throne, on the King’s right hand, are the
seats of the two Archbishops, and a little below them the bench of
Bishops. On the opposite side of the house, sit those Peers who rank
above Barons; the President of the King’s Council, and the Lord Privy
Seal, if they are Barons, here sit above all Dukes, Marquises, and
Earls; and the Marshal, Lord Steward, and Lord Chamberlain, sit above
all others of the same degree of nobility with themselves.
Just before the throne are the woolpacks across the room, on which are
seated the Dignitaries of the law. The Lord High Chancellor, or Keeper
of the Great Seal, sits on that nearest the throne, with his great seal
and mace by him; he is Speaker of the house of Lords. On the other two
woolpacks which are placed parallel to this, sit the Lord Chief Justice,
the Master of the Rolls, and the other Judges. These have no vote in the
house, but they are advised with in points of law, on all occasions
wherein a knowledge of the laws is necessary. The reason why all these
sages are placed on woolpacks, may probably be to remind them of the
great importance of wool and sheep to this nation.