CHEAPSIDE: CENTRAL.
Grim Chronicles of Cheapside--Cheapside Cross--Puritanical
Intolerance--The Old London Conduits--Mediaeval Water-carriers--The
Church of St. Mary-le-Bow--"Murder will out"--The "Sound of Bow
Bells"--Sir Christopher Wren's Bow Church--Remains of the Old
Church--The Seldam--Interesting Houses in Cheapside and their
Memories--Goldsmiths' Row--The "Nag's Head" and the Self-consecrated
Bishops--Keats' House--Saddler's Hall--A Prince
Disguised--Blackmore, the Poet--Alderman Boydell, the
Printseller--His Edition of Shakespeare--"Puck"--The Lottery--Death
and Burial.
The Cheapside Standard, opposite Honey Lane, was also a fountain, and
was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI. In the year 1293 (Edward I.) three
men had their right hands stricken off here for rescuing a prisoner
arrested by an officer of the City. In Edward III.'s reign two
fishmongers, for aiding a riot, were beheaded at the Standard. Here
also, in the reign of Richard II., Wat Tyler, that unfortunate reformer,
beheaded Richard Lions, a rich merchant. When Henry IV. usurped the
throne, very beneficially for the nation, it was at the Standard in
Chepe that he caused Richard II.'s blank charters to be burned. In the
reign of Henry VI. Jack Cade (a man who seems to have aimed at removing
real evils) beheaded the Lord Say, as readers of Shakespeare's
historical plays will remember; and in 1461 John Davy had his offending
hand cut off at the Standard for having struck a man before the judges
at Westminster.
Cheapside Cross, one of the nine crosses erected by Edward I., that
soldier king, to mark the resting-places of the body of his beloved
queen, Eleanor of Castile, on its way from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey,
stood in the middle of the road facing Wood Street. It was built in 1290
by Master Michael, a mason, of Canterbury. From an old painting at
Cowdray, in Sussex, representing the procession of Edward VI. from the
Tower to Westminster, an engraving of which we have given on page 313,
we gather that the cross was both stately and graceful. It consisted of
three octangular compartments, each supported by eight slender columns.
The basement story was probably twenty feet high; the second, ten; the
third, six. In the first niche stood the effigy of probably a
contemporaneous pope; round the base of the second were four apostles,
each with a nimbus round his head; and above them sat the Virgin, with
the infant Jesus in her arms. The highest niche was occupied by four
standing figures, while crowning all rose a cross surmounted by the
emblematic dove. The whole was rich with highly-finished ornament.
Fox, the martyrologist, says the cross was erected on what was then an
open spot of Cheapside. Some writers assert that a statue of Queen
Eleanor first stood on the spot, but this is very much doubted. The
cross was rebuilt in 1441, and combined with a drinking-fountain. The
work was a long time about, as the full design was not carried to
completion till the first year of Henry VII. This second erection was,
in fact, a sort of a timber-shed surrounding the old cross, and covered
with gilded lead. It was, we are told, re-gilt on the visit of the
Emperor Charles V. On the accession of Edward VI., that child of
promise, the cross was altered and beautified.
The generations came and went. The 'prentice who had played round the
cross as a newly-girdled lad sat again on its steps as a rich citizen,
in robes and chain. The shaven priest who stopped to mutter a prayer to
the half-defaced Virgin in the votive niche gave place to his successor
in the Geneva gown, and still the cross stood, a memory of death, that
spares neither king nor subject. But in Elizabeth's time, in their
horror of image-worship, the Puritans, foaming at the mouth at every
outward and visible sign of the old religion, took great exception at
the idolatrous cross of Chepe. Violent protest was soon made. In the
night of June 21st, 1581, an attack was made on the lower tier of
images--_i.e._, the Resurrection, Virgin, Christ, and Edward the
Confessor, all which were miserably mutilated. The Virgin was "robbed of
her son, and the arms broken by which she stayed him on her knees, her
whole body also haled by ropes and left ready to fall." The Queen
offered a reward, but the offenders were not discovered. In 1595 the
effigy of the Virgin was repaired, and afterwards "a newe sonne,
misshapen (as borne out of time), all naked, was laid in her arms; the
other images continuing broken as before." Soon an attempt was made to
pull down the woodwork, and substitute a pyramid for the crucifix; the
Virgin was superseded by the goddess Diana--"a woman (for the most part
naked), and water, conveyed from the Thames, filtering from her naked
breasts, but oftentimes dried up." Elizabeth, always a trimmer in these
matters, was indignant at these fanatical doings; and thinking a plain
cross, a symbol of the faith of our country, ought not to give scandal,
she ordered one to be placed on the summit, and gilt. The Virgin also
was restored; but twelve nights afterwards she was again attacked, "her
crown being plucked off, and almost her head, taking away her naked
child, and stabbing her in the breast." Thus dishonoured the cross was
left till the next year, 1600, when it was rebuilt, and the universities
were consulted as to whether the crucifix should be restored. They all
sanctioned it, with the exception of Dr. Abbot (afterwards archbishop),
but there was to be no dove. In a sermon of the period the following
passage occurs:--"Oh! this cross is one of the jewels of the harlot of
Rome, and is left and kept here as a love-token, and gives them hope
that they shall enjoy it and us again." Yet the cross remained
undisturbed for several years. At this period it was surrounded by a
strong iron railing, and decorated in the most inoffensive manner. It
consisted of only four stones. Superstitious images were superseded by
grave effigies of apostles, kings, and prelates. The crucifix only of
the original was retained. The cross itself was in bad taste, being half
Grecian, half Gothic; the whole, architecturally, much inferior to the
former fabric.
The uneasy zeal of the Puritanical sects soon revived. On the night of
January 24th, 1641, the cross was again defaced, and a sort of literary
contention began. We have "The Resolution of those Contemners that will
no Crosses;" "Articles of High Treason exhibited against Cheapside
Cross;" "The Chimney-sweepers' Sad Complaint, and Humble Petition to the
City of London for erecting a Neue Cross;" "A Dialogue between the Cross
in Chepe and Charing Cross." Of these here is a specimen--
_Anabaptist._ O! idol now,
Down must thou!
Brother Ball,
Be sure it shall.
_Brownist._ Helpe! Wren,
Or we are undone men.
I shall not fall,
To ruin all.
_Cheap Cross._ I'm so crossed, I fear my utter destruction is at
hand.
_Charing Cross._ Sister of Cheap, crosses are incident to us all,
and our children. But what's the greatest cross that hath befallen
you?
_Cheap Cross._ Nay, sister; if my cross were fallen, I should live
at more heart's ease than I do.
_Charing Cross._ I believe it is the cross upon your head that hath
brought you into this trouble, is it not?
These disputes were the precursors of its final destruction. In May,
1643, the Parliament deputed Robert Harlow to the work, who went with a
troop of horse and two companies of foot, and executed his orders most
completely. The official account says rejoicingly:--
"On the 2nd of May, 1643, the cross in Cheapside was pulled down. At
the fall of the top cross drums beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes of
caps were thrown into the air, and a great shout of people with joy. The
2nd of May, the almanack says, was the invention of the cross, and the
same day at night were the leaden popes burnt (they were not popes, but
eminent English prelates) in the place where it stood, with ringing of
bells and great acclamation, and no hurt at all done in these actions."
The 10th of the same month, the "Book of Sports" (a collection of
ordinances allowing games on the Sabbath, put forth by James I.) was
burnt by the hangman, where the Cross used to stand, and at the
Exchange.
"Aleph" gives us the title of a curious tract, published the very day
the Cross was destroyed:--"The Downfall of Dagon; or, the Taking Down of
Cheapside Crosse; wherein is contained these principles: 1. The Crosse
Sicke at Heart. 2. His Death and Funerall. 3. His Will, Legacies,
Inventory, and Epitaph. 4. Why it was removed. 5. The Money it will
bring. 6. Noteworthy, that it was cast down on that day when it was
first invented and set up."
It may be worth giving an extract or two:--"I am called the 'Citie
Idoll;' the Brownists spit at me, and throw stones at me; others hide
their eyes with their fingers; the Anabaptists wish me knockt in pieces,
as I am like to be this day; the sisters of the fraternity will not come
near me, but go about by Watling Street, and come in again by Soaper
Lane, to buy their provisions of the market folks.... I feele the pangs
of death, and shall never see the end of the merry month of May; my
breath stops; my life is gone; I feel myself a-dying downwards."
Here are some of the bequests:--"I give my iron-work to those people
which make good swords, at Hounslow; for I am all Spanish iron and
steele to the back.
"I give my body and stones to those masons that cannot telle how to
frame the like againe, to keepe by them for a patterne; for in time
there will be more crosses in London than ever there was yet.
"I give my ground whereon I stood to be a free market-place.
"JASPER CROSSE, HIS EPITAPH.
'I look for no praise when I am dead,
For, going the right way, I never did tread;
I was harde as an alderman's doore,
That's shut and stony-hearted to the poore.
I never gave alms, nor did anything
Was good, nor e'er said, God save the King.
I stood like a stock that was made of wood,
And yet the people would not say I was good;
And if I tell them plaine, they're like to mee--
Like stone to all goodnesse. But now, reader, see
Me in the dust, for crosses must not stand,
There is too much cross tricks within the land;
And, having so done never any good,
I leave my prayse for to be understood;
For many women, after this my losse,
Will remember me, and still will be crosse--
Crosse tricks, crosse ways, and crosse vanities,
Believe the Crosse speaks truth, for here he lyes.
"I was built of lead, iron, and stone. Some say that divers of the
crowns and sceptres are of silver, besides the rich gold that I was
gilded with, which might have been filed and saved, yielding a good
value. Some have offered four hundred, some five hundred; but they that
bid most offer one thousand for it. I am to be taken down this very
Tuesday; and I pray, good reader, take notice by the almanack, for the
sign falls just at this time, to be in the feete, to showe that the
crosse must be laide equall with the grounde, for our feete to tread on,
and what day it was demolished; that is, on the day when crosses were
first invented and set up; and so I leave the rest to your
consideration."
Howell, the letter writer, lamenting the demolition of so ancient and
visible a monument, says trumpets were blown all the while the crowbars
and pickaxes were working. Archbishop Laud in his "Diary" notes that on
May 1st the fanatical mob broke the stained-glass windows of his Lambeth
chapel, and tore up the steps of his communion table.
"On Tuesday," this fanatic of another sort writes, "the cross in
Cheapside was taken down to cleanse that great street of superstition."
The amiable Evelyn notes in his "Diary" that he himself saw "the furious
and zelous people demolish that stately crosse in Cheapside." In July,
1645, two years afterwards, and in the middle of the Civil War,
Whitelocke (afterwards Oliver Cromwell's trimming minister) mentions a
burning on the site of the Cheapside cross of crucifixes, Popish
pictures, and books. Soon after the demolition of the cross (says
Howell) a high square stone rest was "popped up in Cheapside, hard by
the Standard," according to the legacy of Russell, a good-hearted
porter. This "rest and be thankful" bore the following simple distich:--
"God bless thee, porter, who great pains doth take;
Rest here, and welcome, when thy back doth ache."
There are four views of the old Cheapside cross extant--one at Cowdray,
one at the Pepysian library, Cambridge. A third, engraved by Wilkinson,
represents the procession of Mary de Medicis, on her way through
Cheapside; and another, which we give on page 331, shows the demolition
of the cross.
The old London conduits were pleasant gathering places for 'prentices,
serving-men, and servant girls--open-air parliaments of chatter,
scandal, love-making, and trade talk. Here all day repaired the
professional water-carriers, rough, sturdy fellows--like Ben Jonson's
Cob--who were hired to supply the houses of the rich goldsmiths of
Chepe, and who, before Sir Hugh Middleton brought the New River to
London, were indispensable to the citizen's very existence.
The Great Conduit of Cheapside stood in the middle of the east end of
the street near its junction with the Poultry, while the Little Conduit
was at the west end, facing Foster Lane and Old Change. Stow, that
indefatigable stitcher together of old history, describes the larger
conduit curtly as bringing sweet water "by pipes of lead underground
from Tyburn (Paddington) for the service of the City." It was
castellated with stone and cisterned in lead about the year 1285 (Edward
I.), and again new built and enlarged by Thomas Ham, a sheriff in 1479
(Edward IV.). Ned Ward (1700), in his lively ribald way describes
Cheapside conduit (he does not say which) palisaded with
chimney-sweepers' brooms and surrounded by sweeps, probably waiting to
be hired, so that "a countryman, seeing so many black attendants waiting
at a stone hovel, took it to be one of Old Nick's tenements."
In the reign of Edward III. the supply of water for the City seems to
have been derived chiefly from the river, the local conduits being
probably insufficient. The carters, called "water-leders" (24th Edward
III.), were ordered by the City to charge three-halfpence for taking a
cart from Dowgate or Castle Baynard to Chepe, and five farthings if they
stopped short of Chepe, while a sand-cart from Aldgate to Chepe Conduit
was to charge threepence.
The Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, the sound of whose mellow bells is
supposed to be so dear to cockney ears, is the glory and crown of modern
Cheapside. The music it casts forth into the troubled London air has a
special magic of its own, and has a power to waken memories of the past.
This _chef-d'oeuvre_ of Sir Christopher Wren, whose steeple--as graceful
as it is stately--rises like a lighthouse above the roar and jostle of
the human deluge below, stands on an ecclesiastical site of great
antiquity. The old tradition is that here, as at St. Paul's and
Westminster, was a Roman temple, but of that there is no proof
whatever. The first Bow Church seems, however, to have been one of the
earliest churches built by the conquerors of Harold; and here, no doubt,
the sullen Saxons came to sneer at the masse chanted with a French
accent. The first church was racked by storm and fire, was for a time
turned into a fortress, was afterwards the scene of a murder, and last
of all became one of our earliest ecclesiastical courts. Stow, usually
very clear and unconfused, rather contradicts himself for once about the
origin of the name of the church--"St. Mary de Arcubus or Bow." In one
place he says it was so called because it was the first London church
built on arches; and elsewhere, when out of sight of this assertion, he
says that it took its name from certain stone arches supporting a
lantern on the top of the tower. The first is more probably the true
derivation, for St. Paul's could also boast its Saxon crypt. Bow Church
is first mentioned in the reign of William the Conqueror, and it was
probably built at that period.
There seems to have been nothing to specially disturb the fair building
and its ministering priests till 1090 (William Rufus), when, in a
tremendous storm that sent the monks to their knees, and shook the very
saints from their niches over portal and arch, the roof of Bow Church
was, by one great wrench of the wind, lifted off, and wafted down like a
mere dead leaf into the street. It does not say much for the state of
the highway that four of the huge rafters, twenty-six feet long, were
driven (so the chroniclers say) twenty-two feet into the ground.
In 1270 part of the steeple fell, and caused the death of several
persons; so that the work of mediaeval builders does not seem to have
been always irreproachable.
It was in 1284 (Edward I.) that blood was shed, and the right of
sanctuary violated, in Bow Church. One Duckett, a goldsmith, having in
that warlike age wounded in some fray a person named Ralph Crepin, took
refuge in this church, and slept in the steeple. While there, certain
friends of Crepin entered during the night, and violating the sanctuary,
first slew Duckett, and then so placed the body as to induce the belief
that he had committed suicide. A verdict to this effect was accordingly
returned at the inquisition, and the body was interred with the
customary indignities. The real circumstances, however, being afterwards
discovered, through the evidence of a boy, who, it appears, was with
Duckett in his voluntary confinement, and had hid himself during the
struggle, the murderers, among whom was a woman, were apprehended and
executed. After this occurrence the church was interdicted for a time,
and the doors and windows stopped with brambles.
[Illustration: OLD MAP OF THE WARD OF CHEAP--ABOUT 1750.]
The first we hear of the nightly ringing of Bow bell at nine o'clock--a
reminiscence, probably, of the tyrannical Norman curfew, or signal for
extinguishing the lights at eight p.m.--is in 1315 (Edward II.). It was
the go-to-bed bell of those early days; and two old couplets still
exist, supposed to be the complaint of the sleepy 'prentices of Chepe
and the obsequious reply of the Bow Church clerk. In the reign of Henry
VI. the steeple was completed, and the ringing of the bell was,
perhaps, the revival of an old and favourite usage. The rhymes are--
"Clarke of the Bow bell, with the yellow lockes,
For thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes."
To this the clerk replies--
"Children of Chepe, hold you all still,
For you shall have Bow bell rung at your will."
In 1315 (Edward II.) William Copeland, churchwarden of Bow, gave a new
bell to the church, or had the old one re-cast.
In 1512 (Henry VIII.) the upper part of the steeple was repaired, and
the lanthorn and the stone arches forming the open coronet of the tower
were finished with Caen stone. It was then proposed to glaze the five
corner lanthorns and the top lanthorn, and light them up with torches or
cressets at night, to serve as beacons for travellers on the northern
roads to London; but the idea was never carried out.
[Illustration: THE SEAL OF BOW CHURCH.
(_See page 338._)]
By the Great Fire of 1666, the old church was destroyed; and in 1671 the
present edifice was commenced by Sir C. Wren. After it was erected the
parish was united to two others, Allhallows, Honey Lane, and St.
Pancras, Soper Lane. As the right of presentation to the latter of them
is also vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of the former
in the Grocers' Company, the Archbishop nominates twice consecutively,
and the Grocers' Company once. We learn from the "Parentalia," that the
former church had been mean and low. On digging out the ground, a
foundation was discovered sufficiently firm for the intended fabric,
which, on further examination, the account states, appeared to be the
walls and pavement of a temple, or church, of Roman workmanship,
entirely buried under the level of the present street. In reality,
however (unless other remains were found below those since seen, which
is not probable), this was nothing more than the crypt of the ancient
Norman church, and it may still be examined in the vaults of the present
building; for, as the account informs us, upon these walls was commenced
the new church. The former building stood about forty feet backwards
from Cheapside; and in order to bring the new steeple forward to the
line of the street, the site of a house not yet rebuilt was purchased,
and on it the excavations were commenced for the foundation of the
tower. Here a Roman causeway was found, supposed to be the once northern
boundary of the colony. The church was completed (chiefly at the expense
of subscribers) in 1680. A certain Dame Dyonis Williamson, of Hale's
Hall, in the county of Norfolk, gave L2,000 towards the rebuilding. Of
the monuments in the church, that to the memory of Dr. Newton, Bishop of
Bristol, and twenty-five years rector of Bow Church, is the most
noticeable. In 1820 the spire was repaired by George Gwilt, architect,
and the upper part of it taken down and rebuilt. There used to be a
large building, called the Crown-sild, or shed, on the north side of the
old church (now the site of houses in Cheapside), which was erected by
Edward III., as a place from which the Royal Family might view
tournaments and other entertainments thereafter occurring in Cheapside.
Originally the King had nothing but a temporary wooden shed for the
purpose, but this falling down, as already described (page 316), led to
the erection of the Crown-sild.
"Without the north side of this church of St. Mary Bow," says Stow,
"towards West Chepe, standeth one fair building of stone, called in
record Seldam, a shed which greatly darkeneth the said church; for by
means thereof all the windows and doors on that side are stopped up.
King Edward caused this sild or shed to be made, and to be strongly
built of stone, for himself, the queen, and other estates to stand in,
there to behold the joustings and other shows at their pleasure. And
this house for a long time after served for that use--viz., in the
reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.; but in the year 1410 Henry IV.
confirmed the said shed or building to Stephen Spilman, William
Marchfield, and John Whateley, mercers, by the name of one New Seldam,
shed, or building, with shops, cellars, and edifices whatsoever
appertaining, called Crownside or Tamersilde, situate in the Mercery in
West Chepe, and in the parish of St. Mary de Arcubus, in London, &c.
Notwithstanding which grant the kings of England and other great
estates, as well of foreign countries repairing to this realm, as
inhabitants of the same, have usually repaired to this place, therein to
behold the shows of this city passing through West Chepe--viz., the
great watches accustomed in the night, on the even of St. John the
Baptist and St. Peter at Midsummer, the example whereof were over long
to recite, wherefore let it suffice briefly to touch one. In the year
1510, on St. John's even at night, King Henry VIII. came to this place,
then called the King's Head in Chepe, in the livery of a yeoman of the
guard, with a halbert on his shoulder, and there beholding the watch,
departed privily when the watch was done, and was not known to any but
whom it pleased him; but on St. Peter's night next following he and the
queen came royally riding to the said place, and there with their nobles
beheld the watch of the city, and returned in the morning."
The _Builder_, of 1845, gives a full account of the discovery of
architectural remains beneath some houses in Bow Churchyard:--
"They are," says the _Builder_, "of a much later date than the
celebrated Norman crypt at present existing under the church. Beneath
the house No. 5 is a square vaulted chamber, twelve feet by seven feet
three inches high, with a slightly pointed arch of ribbed masonry,
similar to some of those of the Old London Bridge. There had been in the
centre of the floor an excavation, which might have been formerly used
as a bath, but which was now arched over and converted into a cesspool.
Proceeding towards Cheapside, there appears to be a continuation of the
vaulting beneath the houses Nos. 4 and 3. The arch of the vault here is
plain and more pointed. The masonry appears, from an aperture near to
the warehouse above, to be of considerable thickness. This crypt or
vault is seven feet in height, from the floor to the crown of the arch,
and is nine feet in width, and eighteen feet long. Beneath the house No.
4 is an outer vault. The entrance to both these vaults is by a depressed
Tudor arch, with plain spandrils, six feet high, the thickness of the
walls about four feet. In the thickness of the eastern wall of one of
the vaults are cut triangular-headed niches, similar to those in which,
in ancient ecclesiastical edifices, the basins containing the holy
water, and sometimes lamps, were placed. These vaultings appear
originally to have extended to Cheapside; for beneath a house there, in
a direct line with these buildings and close to the street, is a massive
stone wall. The arches of this crypt are of the low pointed form, which
came into use in the sixteenth century. There are no records of any
monastery having existed on this spot, and it is difficult to conjecture
what the building originally was. Mr. Chaffers thought it might be the
remains of the _Crown-sild_, or shed, where our sovereigns resorted to
view the joustings, shows, and great marching matches on the eves of
great festivals."
The ancient silver parish seal of St. Mary-le-Bow, of which we give an
engraving on page 337, representing the tower of the church as it
existed before the Great Fire of 1666, is still in existence. It
represents the old coronetted tower with great exactitude.
The first recorded rector of Bow Church was William D. Cilecester (1287,
Edward I.), and the earliest known monument in the church was in memory
of Sir John Coventry, Lord Mayor in 1425 (Henry VI.). The advowson of
St. Mary-le-Bow belongs to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is the
chief of his thirteen _peculiars_, or insulated, livings.
Lovers of figures may like to know that the height of Bow steeple is 221
feet 8-1/2 inches. The church altogether cost L7,388 8s. 7d.
It was in Bow parish, Maitland thinks, that John Hare, the rich mercer,
lived, at the sign of the "Crown," in the reign of Henry VIII. He was a
Suffolk man, made a large fortune, and left a considerable sum in
charity--to poor prisoners, to the hospitals, the lazar-houses, and the
almsmen of Whittington College--and thirty-five heavy gold mourning
rings to special friends.
Edward IV., the same day he was proclaimed, dined at the palace at
Paul's (that is, Baynard's Castle, near St. Paul's), in the City, and
continued there till his army was ready to march in pursuit of King
Henry; during which stay in the City he caused Walter Walker, an eminent
grocer in Cheapside, to be apprehended and tried for a few harmless
words innocently spoken by him--viz., that he would make his son heir to
the Crown, inoffensively meaning his own house, which had the crown for
its sign; for which imaginary crime he was beheaded in Smithfield, on
the eighth day of this king's reign. This "Crown" was probably Hare's
house.
The house No. 108, Cheapside, opposite Bow Church, was rebuilt after the
Great Fire upon the sites of three ancient houses, called respectively
the "Black Bull," leased to Daniel Waldo; the "Cardinalle Hat," leased
to Ann Stephens; and the "Black Boy," leased to William Carpenter, by
the Mercers' Company. In the library of the City of London there are
MSS. from the Surveys of Wills, &c., after the Fire of London, giving a
description of the property, as well as the names of the respective
owners. It was subsequently leased to David Barclay, linendraper; and
has been visited by six reigning sovereigns, from Charles II. to George
III., on civic festivities, and for witnessing the Lord Mayor's show. In
this house Sir Edward Waldo was knighted by Charles II., and the Lord
Mayor, in 1714, was created a baronet by George I. When the house was
taken down in 1861, the fine old oak-panelled dining-room, with its
elaborate carvings, was purchased entire, and removed to Wales. The
purchaser has written an interesting description (privately printed) of
the panelling, the royal visits, the Barclay family, and other
interesting matters.
In 1861 there was sold, says Mr. Timbs, amongst the old materials of No.
108, the "fine old oak-panelling of a large dining-room, with
chimney-piece and cornice to correspond, elaborately carved in fruit and
foliage, in capital preservation, 750 fee superficial." These panels
were purchased by Mr. Morris Charles Jones, of Gunrog, near Welshpool,
in North Wales, for L72 10s. 3d., including commission and expenses of
removal, being about 1s. 8d. per foot superficial. It has been conveyed
from Cheapside to Gunrog. This room was the principal apartment of the
house of Sir Edward Waldo, and stated, in a pamphlet by Mr. Jones, "to
have been visited by six reigning sovereigns, from Charles II. to George
III., on the occasion of civic festivities and for the purpose of
witnessing the Lord Mayor's show." (See Mr. Jones's pamphlet, privately
printed, 1864.) A contemporary (the _Builder_) doubts whether this
carving can be the work of Gibbons; "if so, it is a rare treasure,
cheaply gained. But, except in St. Paul's, a Crown and ecclesiastical
structure, be it remembered, not a corporate one, there is not a single
example of Gibbons' art to be seen in the City of London proper."
Goldsmiths' Row, in Cheapside, between Old Change and Bucklersbury, was
originally built by Thomas Wood, goldsmith and sheriff, in 1491 (Henry
VII.). Stow, speaking of it, says: "It is a most beautiful frame of
houses and shops, consisting of tenne faire dwellings, uniformly builded
foure stories high, beautified towards the street with the Goldsmiths'
arms, and likeness of Woodmen, in memorie of his name, riding on
monstrous beasts, all richly painted and gilt." Maitland assures us "it
was beautiful to behold the glorious appearance of goldsmith's shops, in
the south row of Cheapside, which reached from the Old Change to
Bucklersbury, exclusive of four shops."
The sign in stone of a nag's head upon the front of the old house, No.
39, indicates, it is supposed, the tavern at the corner of Friday
Street, where, according to Roman Catholic scandal, the Protestant
bishops, on Elizabeth's accession, consecrated each other in a very
irregular manner.
Pennant thus relates the scandalous story:--"It was pretended by the
adversaries of our religion, that a certain number of ecclesiastics, in
their hurry to take possession of the vacant sees, assembled here, where
they were to undergo the ceremony from Anthony Kitchen, _alias_ Dunstan,
Bishop of Llandaff, a sort of occasional conformist, who had taken the
oaths of supremacy to Queen Elizabeth. Bonner, Bishop of London, then
confined in prison, hearing of it, sent his chaplain to Kitchen,
threatening him with excommunication in case he proceeded. The prelate,
therefore, refused to perform the ceremony; on which, say the Roman
Catholics, Parker and the other candidates, rather than defer possession
of their dioceses, determined to consecrate one another, which, says the
story, they did without any sort of scruple, and Story began with
Parker, who instantly rose Archbishop of Canterbury. The simple
refutation of this lying story may be read in Strype's 'Life of
Archbishop Parker.'" The "Nag's Head Tavern" is shown in La Serre's
print, "Entree de la Reyne Mere du Roy," 1638, of which we gave a copy
on page 307 of this work.
"The confirmation," says Strype, "was performed three days after the
Queen's letters commissional above-said; that is, on the 9th day of
December, in the Church of St. Mary de Arcubus (_i.e._ Mary-le-Bow, in
Cheapside), regularly, and according to the usual custom; and then after
this manner:--First, John Incent, public notary, appeared personally,
and presented to the Right Reverend the Commissaries, appointed by the
Queen, her said letters to them directed in that behalf; humbly praying
them to take upon them the execution of the said letters, and to proceed
according to the contents thereof, in the said business of confirmation.
And the said notary public publicly read the Queen's commissional
letters. Then, out of the reverence and honour those bishops present
(who were Barlow, Story, Coverdale, and the suffragan of Bedford), bore
to her Majesty, they took upon them the commission, and accordingly
resolved to proceed according to the form, power, and effect of the said
letters. Next, the notary exhibited his proxy for the Dean and Chapter
of the Metropolitan Church, and made himself a party for them; and, in
the procuratorial name of the said Dean and Chapter, presented the
venerable Mr. Nicolas Bullingham, LL.D., and placed him before the said
commissioners; who then exhibited his proxy for the said elect of
Canterbury, and made himself a party for him. Then the said notary
exhibited the original citatory mandate, together with the certificate
on the back side, concerning the execution of the same; and then
required all and singular persons cited, to be publicly called. And
consequently a threefold proclamation was made, of all and singular
opposers, at the door of the parochial church aforesaid; and so as is
customary in these cases.
"Then, at the desire of the said notary to go on in this business of
confirmation, they, the commissioners, decreed so to do, as was more
fully contained in a schedule read by Bishop Barlow, with the consent of
his colleagues. It is too long to relate distinctly every formal
proceeding in this business; only it may be necessary to add some few of
the most material passages.
"Then followed the deposition of witnesses concerning the life and
actions, learning and abilities of the said elect; his freedom, his
legitimacy, his priesthood, and such like. One of the witnesses was John
Baker, of thirty-nine years old, gent., who is said to sojourn for the
present with the venerable Dr. Parker, and to be born in the parish of
St. Clement's, in Norwich. He, among other things, witnessed, 'That the
same reverend father was and is a prudent man, commended for his
knowledge of sacred Scripture, and for his life and manners. That he was
a freeman, and born in lawful matrimony; that he was in lawful age, and
in priest's orders, and a faithful subject to the Queen;' and the said
Baker, in giving the reason of his knowledge in this behalf, said, 'That
he was the natural brother of the Lord Elect, and that they were born
_ex unis parentibus_' (or rather, surely, _ex una parente_, _i.e._, of
one mother). William Tolwyn, M.A., aged seventy years, and rector of St.
Anthony, London, was another witness, who had known the said elect
thirty years, and knew his mother, and that he was still very well
acquainted with him, and of his certain knowledge could testify all
above said.
"The notary exhibited the process of the election by the Dean and
Chapter; which the commissioners did take a diligent view of, and at
last, in the conclusion of this affair, the commissioners decreed the
said most reverend lord elected and presently confirmed, should receive
his consecration; and committed to him the care, rule, and
administration, both of the temporals and spirituals of the said
archbishopric; and decreed him to be inducted into the real, actual, and
corporal possession of the same archbishopric.
"After many years the old story is ventured again into the world, in a
book printed at Douay, anno 1654, wherein they thus tell their tale. 'I
know they (_i.e._, the Protestants) have tried many ways, and feigned an
old record (meaning the authentic register of Archbishop Parker) to
prove their ordination from Catholic bishops. But it was false, as I
have received from two certain witnesses. The former of them was Dr.
Darbyshire, then Dean of St. Paul's (canon there, perhaps, but never
dean), and nephew to Dr. Boner, Bishop of London; who almost sixty years
since lived at Meux Port, then a holy, religious man (a Jesuit), very
aged, but perfect in sense and memory, who, speaking what he knew,
affirmed to myself and another with me, _that like good fellows they
made themselves bishops at an inn, because they could get no true
bishops to consecrate them_. My other witness was a gentleman of honour,
worth, and credit, dead not many years since, whose father, a chief
judge of this kingdom, visiting Archbishop Heath, saw a letter, sent
from Bishop Boner out of the Marshalsea, by one of his chaplains, to the
archbishop, read, while they sat at dinner together; wherein he merrily
related the manner how these new bishops (because he had dissuaded
Ogelthorp, Bishop of Carlisle, from doing it in his diocese) ordained
one another at an inn, where they met together. And while others laughed
at this new manner of consecrating bishops, the archbishop himself,
gravely, and not without tears, expressed his grief to see such a ragged
company of men come poor out of foreign parts, and appointed to succeed
the old clergy.'
"Which forgery, when once invented, was so acceptable to the Romanists,
that it was most confidently repeated again in an English book, printed
at Antwerp, 1658, _permissione superiorum_, being a second edition,
licensed by Gulielmo Bolognimo, where the author sets down his story in
these words:--'The heretics who were named to succeed in the other
bishops' sees, could not prevail with Llandaff (whom he calls a little
before _an old simple man_) to consecrate them at the "Nag's Head," in
Cheapside, where they appointed to meet him. And therefore they made use
of Story, who was never ordained bishop, though he bore the name in King
Edward's reign. Kneeling before him, he laid the Bible upon their heads
or shoulders, and bid them rise up and preach the word of God sincerely.
'This is,' added he, 'so evident a truth, that for the space of fifty
years no Protestant durst contradict it.'"
"The form adopted at the confirmation of Archbishop Parker," says Dr.
Pusey in a letter dated 1865, quoted by Mr. Timbs, "was carefully
framed on the old form used in the confirmations by Archbishop Chichele
(which was the point for which I examined the registers in the Lambeth
library). The words used in the consecration of the bishops confirmed by
Chichele do not occur in the registers. The words used by the
consecrators of Parker, 'Accipe Spiritum sanctum,' were read in the
later pontificals, as in that of Exeter, Lacy's (Maskell's 'Monumenta
Ritualia,' iii. 258). Roman Catholic writers admit _that_ only is
essential to consecration which the English service-book
retained--prayer during the service, which should have reference to the
office of bishop, and the imposition of hands. And, in fact, Cardinal
Pole engaged to retain in their orders those who had been so ordained
under Edward VI., and his act was confirmed by Paul IV." (Sanders, _De
Schism. Angl._, l. iii. 350.)
The house No. 73, Cheapside, shown in our illustration on page 343, was
erected, from the design of Sir Christopher Wren, for Sir William
Turner, Knight, who served the office of Lord Mayor in the year 1668-9,
and here he kept his mayoralty.
At the "Queen's Arms Tavern," No. 71, Cheapside, the poet Keats once
lived. The second floor of the house which stretches over the passage
leading to this tavern was his lodging. Here, says Cunningham, he wrote
his magnificent sonnet on Chapman's "Homer," and all the poems in his
first little volume. Keats, the son of a livery-stable keeper in
Moorfields, was born in 1795, and died of consumption at Rome in 1821.
He published his "Endymion" (the inspiration suggested from Lempriere
alone) in 1818. We annex the glorious sonnet written within sound of Bow
bells:--
ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S "HOMER."
"Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been,
Which bards, in fealty to Apollo, hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold;
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific--and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
Behnes' poor bald statue of Sir Robert Peel, in the Paternoster Row end
of Cheapside, was uncovered July 21st, 1855. The _Builder_ at the time
justly lamented that so much good metal was wasted. The statue is
without thought--the head is set on the neck awkwardly, the pedestal is
senseless, and the two double lamps at the side are mean and paltry.
Saddlers' Hall is close to Foster Lane, Cheapside. "Near unto this
lane," says Strype, "but in Cheapside, is Saddlers' Hall--a pretty good
building, seated at the upper end of a handsome alley, near to which is
Half Moon Alley, which is but small, at the upper end of which is a
tavern, which gives a passage into Foster Lane, and another into Gutter
Lane."
"This appears," says Maitland, "to be a fraternity of great antiquity,
by a convention agreed upon between them and the Dean and Chapter of St.
Martin's-le-Grand, about the reign of Richard I., at which time I
imagine it to have been an Adulterine Guild, seeing it was only
incorporated by letters patent of Edward I., by the appellation of 'The
Wardens, or Keepers and Commonalty of the Mystery or Art of Sadlers,
London.' This company is governed by a prime and three other wardens,
and eighteen assistants, with a livery of seventy members, whose fine of
admission is ten pounds.[7] At the entrance is an ornamental doorcase,
and an iron gate, and it is a very complete building for the use of such
a company. It is adorned with fretwork and wainscot, and the Company's
arms are carved in stone over the gate next the street."
In 1736, Prince Frederick of Wales, that hopeless creature, being
desirous of seeing the Lord Mayor's show privately, visited the City in
disguise. At that time it was the custom for several of the City
companies, particularly for those who had no barges, to have stands
erected in the streets through which the Lord Mayor passed on his return
from Westminster, in which the freemen of companies were accustomed to
assemble. It happened that his Royal Highness was discovered by some of
the Saddlers' Company, in consequence of which he was invited to their
stand, which invitation he accepted, and the parties were so well
pleased with each other that his Royal Highness was soon after chosen
Master of the Company, a compliment which he also accepted. The City on
that occasion formed a resolution to compliment his Royal Highness with
the freedom of London, pursuant to which the Court of Lord Mayor and
Aldermen attended the prince, on the 17th of December, with the said
freedom, of which the following is a copy:--
"The most high, most potent, and most illustrious Prince Frederick
Lewis, Prince of Great Britain, Electoral Prince of Brunswick-Lunenburg,
Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothsay, Duke of Edinburgh,
Marquis of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, Earl of Chester, Viscount
Launceston, Baron of Renfrew, Baron of Snowdon, Lord of the Isles,
Steward of Scotland, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, and
one of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, of his mere grace
and princely favour, did the most august City of London the honour to
accept the freedom thereof, and was admitted of the Company of the
Saddlers, in the time of the Right Honourable Sir John Thompson, Knight,
Lord Mayor, and John Bosworth, Esq., Chamberlain of the said City." In
his "Industry and Idleness," Hogarth shows us the prince and princess on
the balcony of Saddler's Hall.
[Illustration: BOW CHURCH, CHEAPSIDE. (_From a view taken about 1750._)]
That dull poet, worthy Sir Richard Blackmore, whom Locke and Addison
praised and Dryden ridiculed, lived either at Saddlers' Hall or just
opposite. It was on this weariful Tupper of his day that Garth wrote
these verses:--
"Unwieldy pedant, let thy awkward muse,
With censures praise, with flatteries abuse.
To lash, and not be felt, in thee's an art;
Thou ne'er mad'st any but thy schoolboys smart.
Then be advis'd, and scribble not agen;
Thou'rt fashioned for a flail, and not a pen.
If B----l's immortal wit thou wouldst descry,
Pretend 'tis he that writ thy poetry.
Thy feeble satire ne'er can do him wrong;
Thy poems and thy patients live not long."
[Illustration: NO. 73, CHEAPSIDE (_see page 341_). (_From an old
View._)]
And some other satirical verses on Sir Richard began:--
"'Twas kindly done of the good-natured cits,
To place before thy door a brace of tits."
Blackmore, who had been brought up as an attorney's clerk and
schoolmaster, wrote most of his verses in his carriage, as he drove to
visit his patients, a feat to which Dryden alludes when he talks of
Blackmore writing to the "rumbling of his carriage-wheels."
At No. 90, Cheapside lived Alderman Boydell, engraver and printseller, a
man who in his time did more for English art than all the English
monarchs from the Conquest downwards. He was apprenticed, when more than
twenty years old, to Mr. Tomson, engraver, and soon felt a desire to
popularise and extend the art. His first funds he derived from the sale
of a book of 152 humble prints, engraved by himself. With the profits he
was enabled to pay the best engravers liberally, to make copies of the
works of our best masters.
"The alderman assured me," says "Rainy Day Smith," "that when he
commenced publishing, he etched small plates of landscapes, which he
produced in plates of six, and sold for sixpence; and that as there were
very few print-shops at that time in London, he prevailed upon the
sellers of children's toys to allow his little books to be put in their
windows. These shops he regularly visited every Saturday, to see if any
had been sold, and to leave more. His most successful shop was the sign
of the 'Cricket Bat,' in Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane, where he found
he had sold as many as came to five shillings and sixpence. With this
success he was so pleased, that, wishing to invite the shopkeeper to
continue in his interest, he laid out the money in a silver pencil-case;
which article, after he had related the above anecdote, he took out of
his pocket and assured me he never would part with. He then favoured me
with the following history of Woollett's plate of the 'Niobe,' and, as
it is interesting, I shall endeavour to relate it in Mr. Boydell's own
words:--
"'When I got a little forward in the world,' said the venerable
alderman, 'I took a whole shop, for at my commencement I kept only half
a one. In the course of one year I imported numerous impressions of
Vernet's celebrated "Storm," so admirably engraved by Lerpiniere, for
which I was obliged to pay in hard cash, as the French took none of our
prints in return. Upon Mr. Woollett's expressing himself highly
delighted with the "Storm," I was induced, knowing his ability as an
engraver, to ask him if he thought he could produce a print of the same
size which I could send over, so that in future I could avoid payment in
money, and prove to the French nation that an Englishman could produce a
print of equal merit; upon which he immediately declared that he should
like much to try.
"'At this time the principal conversation among artists was upon Mr.
Wilson's grand picture of "Niobe," which had just arrived from Rome. I
therefore immediately applied to his Royal Highness the Duke of
Gloucester, its owner, and procured permission for Woollett to engrave
it. But before he ventured upon the task, I requested to know what idea
he had as to the expense, and after some consideration, he said he
thought he could engrave it for one hundred guineas. This sum, small as
it may now appear, was to me,' observed the alderman, 'an unheard-of
price, being considerably more than I had given for any copper-plate.
However, serious as the sum was, I bade him get to work, and he
proceeded with all cheerfulness, for as he went on I advanced him money;
and though he lost no time, I found that he had received nearly the
whole amount before he had half finished his task. I frequently called
upon him, and found him struggling with serious difficulties, with his
wife and family, in an upper lodging in Green's Court, Castle Street,
Leicester Square, for there he lived before he went into Green Street.
However, I encouraged him by allowing him to draw on me to the extent of
twenty-five pounds more; and at length that sum was paid, and I was
unavoidably under the necessity of saying, "Mr. Woollett, I find we have
made too close a bargain with each other. You have exerted yourself, and
I fear I have gone beyond my strength, or, indeed, what I ought to have
risked, as we neither of us can be aware of the success of the
speculation. However, I am determined, whatever the event may be, to
enable you to finish it to your wish--at least, to allow you to work
upon it as long as another twenty-five pounds can extend, but there we
must positively stop." The plate was finished; and, after taking very
few proofs, I published the print at five shillings, and it succeeded so
much beyond my expectations, that I immediately employed Mr. Woollett
upon another engraving, from another picture by Wilson; and I am now
thoroughly convinced that had I continued publishing subjects of this
description, my fortune would have been increased tenfold.'"
"In the year 1786," says Knowles, in his "Life of Fuseli," "Mr. Alderman
Boydell, at the suggestion of Mr. George Nicol, began to form his
splendid collection of modern historical pictures, the subjects being
from Shakespeare's plays, and which was called 'The Shakespeare
Gallery.' This liberal and well-timed speculation gave great energy to
this branch of the art, as well as employment to many of our best
artists and engravers, and among the former to Fuseli, who executed
eight large and one small picture for the gallery. The following were
the subjects: 'Prospero,' 'Miranda,' 'Caliban,' and 'Ariel,' from the
_Tempest_; 'Titania in raptures with Bottom, who wears the ass's head,
attendant fairies, &c.;' 'Titania awaking, discovers Oberon at her side,
Puck is removing the ass's head from Bottom' (_Midsummer Night's
Dream_); 'Henry V. with the Conspirators' (_King Henry V._); 'Lear
dismissing Cordelia from his Court' (_King Lear_); 'Ghost of Hamlet's
Father' (_Hamlet_); 'Falstaff and Doll' (_King Henry IV., Second Part_);
'Macbeth meeting the Witches on the Heath' (_Macbeth_); 'Robin
Goodfellow' (_Midsummer Night's Dream_). This gallery gave the public an
opportunity of judging of Fuseli's versatile powers.
"The stately majesty of the 'Ghost of Hamlet's Father' contrasted with
the expressive energy of his son, and the sublimity brought about by the
light, shadow, and general tone, strike the mind with awe. In the
picture of 'Lear' is admirably portrayed the stubborn rashness of the
father, the filial piety of the discarded daughter, and the wicked
determination of Regan and Goneril. The fairy scenes in _Midsummer
Night's Dream_ amuse the fancy, and show the vast inventive powers of
the painter; and 'Falstaff with Doll' is exquisitely ludicrous.
"The example set by Boydell was a stimulus to other speculators of a
similar nature, and within a few years appeared the Macklin and
Woodmason galleries; and it may be said with great truth that Fuseli's
pictures were among the most striking, if not the best, in either
collection."
"A.D. 1787," says Northcote, in his "Life of Reynolds," "when Alderman
Boydell projected the scheme of his magnificent edition of the plays of
Shakespeare, accompanied with large prints from pictures to be executed
by English painters, it was deemed to be absolutely necessary that
something of Sir Joshua's painting should be procured to grace the
collection; but, unexpectedly, Sir Joshua appeared to be rather shy in
the business, as if he thought it degrading himself to paint for a
printseller, and he would not at first consent to be employed in the
work. George Stevens, the editor of Shakespeare, now undertook to
persuade him to comply, and, taking a bank-bill of five hundred pounds
in his hand, he had an interview with Sir Joshua, when, using all his
eloquence in argument, he, in the meantime, slipped the bank-bill into
his hand; he then soon found that his mode of reasoning was not to be
resisted, and a picture was promised. Sir Joshua immediately commenced
his studies, and no less than three paintings were exhibited at the
Shakspeare Gallery, or at least taken from that poet, the only ones, as
has been very correctly said, which Sir Joshua ever executed for his
illustration, with the exception of a head of 'King Lear' (done indeed
in 1783), and now in possession of the Marchioness of Thomond, and a
portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Tollemache, in the character of 'Miranda,' in
_The Tempest_, in which 'Prospero' and 'Caliban' are introduced.
"One of these paintings for the Gallery was 'Puck,' or 'Robin
Goodfellow,' as it has been called, which, in point of expression and
animation, is unparalleled, and one of the happiest efforts of Sir
Joshua's pencil, though it has been said by some cold critics not to be
perfectly characteristic of the merry wanderer of Shakespeare.
'Macbeth,' with the witches and the caldron, was another, and for this
last Mr. Boydell paid him 1,000 guineas; but who is now the possessor of
it I know not.
"'Puck' was painted in 1789. Walpole depreciates it as 'an ugly little
imp (but with some character) sitting on a mushroom half as big as a
milestone.' Mr. Nicholls, of the British Institution, related to Mr.
Cotton that the alderman and his grandfather were with Sir Joshua when
painting the death of Cardinal Beaufort. Boydell was much taken with the
portrait of a naked child, and wished it could be brought into the
Shakspeare. Sir Joshua said it was painted from a little child he found
sitting on his steps in Leicester Square. Nicholls' grandfather then
said, 'Well, Mr. Alderman, it can very easily come into the Shakspeare
if Sir Joshua will kindly place him upon a mushroom, give him fawn's
ears, and make a Puck of him.' Sir Joshua liked the notion, and painted
the picture accordingly.
"The morning of the day on which Sir Joshua's 'Puck' was to be sold,
Lord Farnborough and Davies, the painter, breakfasted with Mr. Rogers,
and went to the sale together. When the picture was put up there was a
general clapping of hands, and yet it was knocked down to Mr. Rogers for
105 guineas. As he walked home from the sale, a man carried 'Puck'
before him, and so well was the picture known that more than one person,
as they were going along the street, called out, 'There it is!' At Mr.
Rogers' sale, in 1856, it was purchased by Earl Fitzwilliam for 980
guineas. The grown-up person of the sitter for 'Puck' was in Messrs.
Christie and Manson's room during the sale, and stood next to Lord
Fitzwilliam, who is also a survivor of the sitters to Sir Joshua. The
merry boy, whom Sir Joshua found upon his doorstep, subsequently became
a porter at Elliot's brewery, in Pimlico."
In 1804, Alderman Boydell applied through his friend, Sir John W.
Anderson, to the House of Commons, for leave to dispose of his paintings
and drawings by lottery. In his petition he described himself, with
modesty and pathos, as an old man of eighty-five, anxious to free
himself from debts which now oppressed him, although he, with his
brethren, had expended upwards of L350,000 in promoting the fine arts.
Sixty years before he had begun to benefit engraving by establishing a
school of English engravers. At that time the whole print commerce of
England consisted in importing a few foreign prints (chiefly French) "to
supply the cabinets of the curious." In time he effected a total change
in this branch of commerce, "very few prints being now imported, while
the foreign market is principally supplied with prints from England." By
degrees, the large sums received from the Continent for English plates
encouraged him to attempt also an English school of pictorial painting,
the want of such a school having been long a source of opprobrium among
foreign writers on England. The Shakespeare Gallery was sufficient to
convince the world that English genius only needed encouragement to
obtain a facility, versatility, and independence of thought unknown to
the Italian, Flemish, or French schools. That Gallery he had long hoped
to have left to a generous public, but the recent Vandalic revolution in
France had cut up his revenue by the roots, Flanders, Holland, and
Germany being his chief marts. At the same time he acknowledged he had
not been provident, his natural enthusiasm for promoting the fine arts
having led him after each success to fly at once to some new artist with
the whole gains of his former undertaking. He had too late seen his
error, having increased his stock of copper-plates to such a heap that
all the print-sellers in Europe (especially in these unfavourable times)
could not purchase them. He therefore prayed for permission to create a
lottery, the House having the assurance of the even tenor of a long life
"that it would be fairly and honourably conducted."
The worthy man obtained leave for his lottery, and died December 11, a
few days after the last tickets were sold. He was buried with civic
state in the Church of St. Olave, Jewry, the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and
several artists attending. Boydell was very generous and charitable. He
gave pictures to adorn the City Council Chamber, the Court Room of the
Stationers' Company, and the dining-room of the Sessions House. He was
also a generous benefactor to the Humane Society and the Literary Fund,
and was for many years the President of both Societies. The Shakespeare
Gallery finally fell by lottery to Mr. Tassie, the well-known medallist,
who thrived to a good old age upon the profits of poor Boydell's too
generous expenditure. This enterprising man was elected Alderman of
Cheap Ward in 1782, Sheriff in 1785, and Lord Mayor in 1790. His death
was occasioned by a cold, caught at the Old Bailey Sessions. His nephew,
Josiah Boydell, engraved for him for forty years.
It was the regular custom of Mr. Alderman Boydell (says "Rainy Day"
Smith), who was a very early riser, to repair at five o'clock
immediately to the pump in Ironmonger Lane. There, after placing his wig
upon the ball at the top, he used to sluice his head with its water.
This well known and highly respected character was one of the last men
who wore a three-cornered hat, commonly called the "Egham, Staines, and
Windsor."
FOOTNOTES:
[7] I regret that, relying upon authorities which are not corrected up
to the present date, I was led into some errors in my account of the
Stationers' Company on pp. 229--233 of this work. The table of planetary
influences has been for several years discontinued in Moore's Almanack;
and the Company are not entitled to receive for themselves any copies of
new books.--W.T.