Transcriber’s Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

LONDON
AND ITS
ENVIRONS
DESCRIBED.

CONTAINING

An Account of whatever is most remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use,

In the City and in the Country Twenty Miles round it.

COMPREHENDING ALSO

Whatever is most material in the History and Antiquities of this great Metropolis.

Decorated and illustrated with a great Number of Views in Perspective, engraved from original Drawings, taken on purpose for this Work.

Together with a Plan of LONDON, A Map of the Environs, and several other useful Cuts.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

Printed by R. and J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall.

M DCC LXI.

London, the metropolis of Great Britain, and one of the largest and richest cities upon earth, is of such antiquity that it is impossible to give any certain account of its origin. It probably existed in the time of the ancient Britons, before the art of writing was brought into England, and when there were no other monuments of ancient facts, than what were found in the songs of the bards, which were preserved only by memory.

It would be ridiculous therefore to lay any stress on the fabulous tales of Geffry of Monmouth, who pretends that it was founded by Brutus, the second nephew of the famous Æneas, and called Trinovantum, or New Troy, and that it was at length walled by King Lud, when it obtained the name of Caer Lud, or 2Lud’s Town. Upon which suppositions some of our later historians have had the weakness to compute, that it had its origin 1107 years before the birth of Christ; 600 years before the fall of the Assyrian empire by the death of Belshazzar, and 350 before the building of Rome.

But to leave these fabulous tales. Camden supposes that this city derived the name of London from the British words Llhwn a wood, and Dinas a town; by which etymology of the word, London signifies a town in a wood: this exactly agrees with the manner in which the Britons formed their towns, by building them in the midst of woods, and fencing them with trees cut down: but lest this derivation should not please, the same learned writer gives another, from the British word Lhong, a ship, and Dinas a city, and then the word London will signify a city or harbour for ships: and indeed it has been supposed by many learned authors, that before Cæsar’s time London was the ancient emporium or mart of the British trade with the Phœnicians, Greeks and Gauls.

London had however no buildings either of brick or stone, till it was inhabited by the Romans; for the dwellings of the Britons were only huts formed of 3twigs wattled together; however, Tacitus observes, that in the year 26, Londinum was very famous for the multitude of its merchants, and the greatness of its traffic; but soon after Suetonius abandoned the city to the fury of Boadicea, because it was too large to be defended by his little army of 10,000 Romans, which is certainly a proof of its being even then of a considerable extent. That British Princess however burnt this great city, and put all the inhabitants to the sword.

London soon recovered from this dreadful catastrophe, and in a few years increased so much in the number of its inhabitants, its trade and buildings, that Herodian, in the life of the Emperor Severus, calls it a great and wealthy city, and about this time it changed the name of Londinum, for that of Augusta; probably from its being the capital of the British dominions, and was made a prefecture by the Romans, in imitation of Rome itself: but it soon after changed the name of Augusta for that of Caer-Llundain.

It will not be improper here to observe, that a dispute has arisen about the situation of this city in these early times; the Rev. and learned Dr. Gale, Dean of York, and Mr. Salmon, having offered many 4arguments to prove that it was a Roman station erected in St. George’s Fields, to secure their conquests on that side the river, before they reduced the Trinobantines; particularly from the great quantities of Roman antiquities found in St. George’s Fields; from the name of Cyningston, or Kennington, which Dr. Gale supposes was an ancient town and castle belonging to the Kings of England, and therefore probably a Roman station, because the Saxons generally used to settle in such places; and from the authority of Ptolemy, who has placed London on the south side of the Thames. In answer to these arguments, it has been very justly observed by Mr. Maitland, that the Romans were too wise to make use of so noisome and unhealthful a place for a station, as St. George’s Fields then was, from their being overflowed by every spring tide; as they must have been before the river was confined by artificial banks, and before the building of London bridge, where, upon an ordinary spring tide, the water rises upwards of nineteen inches higher on the east side than on the west: that, if the antiquities discovered are any proof, above twenty times the quantity of Roman antiquities have been found on the north side of 5the river. With respect to the argument produced from the name of Kennington, the learned Mr. Woodward observes, that the Kings of England were, from our oldest notices of things, intitled to all such lands as were gained from the sea, or from such rivers as ebbed and flowed; and that with respect to the authority of Ptolemy, he had not only misplaced several other towns in Britain, but in countries much nearer to him.

The time when the city wall was first erected, is very uncertain, some authors ascribing this work to Constantine the Great, and others to his mother Helena; but Mr. Maitland brings several arguments to prove, that it was erected by Valentinian, about the year 368, and that it entirely surrounded the city, to secure it from being invaded by water as well as by land.

This wall was composed alternately of layers of flat Roman brick, and rag stones, and had many lofty towers. Those on the land side were fifteen in number. The remains of one of these is still to be seen in Shoemaker row, fronting the passage into Duke’s Place; and there is another a little nearer Aldgate, twenty-one feet high. From the remains of the Roman work in the city wall, Mr. Maitland 6supposes, that, at the time of its erection, it was twenty-two feet in height, and that of the towers about forty feet. See London Wall.

During the Saxon heptarchy, London was the metropolis of the kingdom of the East Saxons, and was then, as we are told by Bede, a princely mart-town, governed by a magistrate called a Portreve, that is, a governor or guardian of a port. We find this city then first called London-Byrig, which they soon after changed into Lunden-Ceaster, Lunden-Wye, Lundenne, Lunden-Berk, or Lunden-Burgh. At length Augustine the Monk, having introduced christianity into England, in the year 400, he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, when he ordained Mellitus bishop of the East Saxons, who had a church erected for him in this city by Ethelbert, King of Kent. Thus London first became the seat of a bishop; but this prelate was afterwards expelled, and paganism again for some time publicly established.

The history of the heptarchy is so very defective, that no mention is made of this city from the year 616, to that of 764. After this last period we find that London frequently suffered by fires, and was twice plundered by the Danes; the last time 7they transported an army in 350 ships up the Thames, and landing near London, soon reduced and plundered it; when looking upon it as a convenient fortress, whence they might at pleasure invade the kingdom of Wessex, made it a place of arms, and left in it a considerable garrison; but the wise and brave Alfred recovered the city, drove out the invaders, and then not only repaired the wall and towers, but embellished the city with additional buildings. But we have no account of the nature of the buildings or the edifices erected, only that in the year 961, there were but few houses within the city walls, and those irregularly dispersed; most of them being without Ludgate, so that Canterbury, York, and other places, contained more houses than London. The city having no bridge, the citizens cross’d the Thames by means of ferries.

But between the years 993, and 1016, a wooden bridge was erected. This great work was performed in the reign of Ethelred, and in the last mentioned year, Canute King of Denmark sailing up the river, in order to plunder the city, and finding that he could not pass the bridge with his ships, caused a canal to be cut through the marshes on the south side of 8the river, which probably began at the place now called Dockhead, and extending in a semicircle by Margaret’s Hill, entered the Thames about St. Saviour’s Dock, a little above the bridge. This work being accomplished, Canute brought his ships to the west of London bridge, and attacked the city on all sides; however the citizens exerting themselves with extraordinary bravery, he was repulsed with considerable loss, and obliged to raise the siege. Yet he afterwards renewed it with greater vigour than before, but with no better success. At last a peace was concluded between King Edmund and Canute, by which the kingdom was divided between them, when Mercia, of which London was the capital, falling to Canute’s share, the city submitted to him; and Edmund dying a few months after, Canute summoned a parliament to meet in London, who chose that prince sole monarch of England.

Canute now, resolving to win the hearts of his new subjects, disbanded his army, and threw himself entirely upon the affections of the English, at which the above parliament were so pleased, that they granted him 83,000l. a prodigious sum at that time! for, according to the price of land and provisions then, it must 9have been equal to nine millions at present; and of this immense sum, London alone raised 11,000l. which is a convincing proof of the opulence of the city, since it must be possessed of above one seventh part of the wealth of the whole kingdom.

But we are not writing a history of England, but of its capital, we shall therefore pass over the following reigns, till we come to the invasion of William the Conqueror, who laid Southwark in ashes; but the Londoners afterwards submitting to him, he, in the year 1067, granted them his first charter in their own language, which consists of little more than four lines, beautifully written in the Saxon character on a slip of parchment, six inches long, and one broad, and is still preserved in the city archives.

In 1077 happened the greatest casual fire, that till this time ever befel the city, by which the greatest part of it was laid in ashes; and about two years after, the Conqueror beginning to suspect the fidelity of his subjects, caused the present square tower of London to be erected, to keep them in awe. See the Tower of London.

In this reign were several other dreadful fires, and London bridge was in 1091 10carried away by a land flood; but a few years after another wooden bridge was built in its room. In 1099 a high flood caused the Thames to overflow its banks, by which a great number of villages were laid under water, and many of their inhabitants drowned: at this time part of the lands belonging to Godwin Earl of Kent, were swallowed up by the sea, and are now denominated Goodwin’s Sands; and this being a reign of prodigies, there happened fifteen years after such a defect of water in the river Thames, that numbers of people crossed not only above and below London bridge, but even through some of the arches, without wetting their feet.

We have already mentioned the first charter granted by William the Conqueror to the city; he afterwards granted them another; but London obtained one much more extensive from Henry I. by which the citizens not only had their ancient customs and immunities confirmed, but the county of Middlesex added to their jurisdiction, on paying the quit rent of 300l. a year; with a power of appointing not only a Sheriff but a Justiciary from among themselves. This was granted to prevent that county’s being any longer an asylum for bankrupts, and fraudulent 11persons, who having deserted London with the goods and effects of their creditors, lived there in open defiance of those they had injured.

By this charter the citizens were allowed the privilege of not being compelled to plead without the walls of the city, and excused from paying scot, lot, and danegelt, duties payable to the King by all his other subjects. The city was not to be amerced for the escape of a murderer; nor any citizen, when accused of a crime, be obliged to vindicate his innocence by a duel. They were exempted from paying toll in fairs or markets in any part of the kingdom; and if any was exacted, they might make reprisals in London, upon the inhabitants of the town where it was exacted, &c.

Before the grant of this charter, London seems to have been entirely subject to the arbitrary will of the King. But the liberties of the citizens being now guarded by so strong a fence, they endeavoured to secure their customs by converting them into written laws; and the several bodies professing the arts and mysteries of trade and manufacture, which had hitherto been kept up by prescription only, were now strengthened by being formed into established companies. The 12King however reserved to himself the power of appointing the Portreve, or chief officer of the city.

Upon the death of Henry I. the citizens assisted King Stephen in his endeavours to obtain the crown, and in 1135 received him into the city; but the next year, a dreadful fire laid the greatest part of the city in ashes; for according to Mr. Stow, it began near London Stone, and consumed all the buildings east to Aldgate, and west to St. Erkenwald’s shrine in St. Paul’s cathedral; both of which it destroyed, together with London bridge, which was then of wood.

In the year 1139, the citizens purchased of King Stephen, for an hundred marks of silver, the right of chusing their own Sheriffs; but that prince being soon after defeated and taken prisoner by the Empress Matilda, the daughter of Henry I. she resolved to be revenged on the citizens, for the assistance they had given to that usurper; and therefore, entering into a convention with Geffrey, Earl of Essex, she granted him all the possessions and places which either his grandfather, father, or himself had held of the crown, among which were the sheriffwicks of London and Middlesex: and also the office of Judiciary of the city and county, 13so that no person could hold pleas in either, without his permission. This compact was executed with the greatest solemnity; and thus the citizens were divested of some of their most valuable privileges.

The citizens soon after humbly entreated Matilda to re-establish the laws of King Edward the Confessor, which had been confirmed to them by the Conqueror’s charter, and to ease them of their insupportable taxes: but instead of granting either of these requests, she, with a disdainful countenance, told them, that since they had assisted her enemy to the utmost of their power, they were to expect no favour from her.

From this haughty answer, they concluded that they had no other treatment to expect from this imperious Princess, than that of slaves. To prevent this, it was resolved, to seize her person; she however escaped; but the populace plundered her palace; after which Stephen was restored, and she compelled to fly the kingdom.

King Henry II. some years after, granted the citizens a charter, by which he confirmed their liberties and immunities.

The 2d of September 1189, the day preceding the coronation of Richard I. 14surnamed Coeur de Lyon, was remarkable for the dreadful massacre of the Jews in this city. Intimation was given to that people not to appear at the ceremony; but many endeavouring to satisfy their curiosity, by carrying presents to the King, attempted to get into the abbey church of St. Peter’s Westminster: but being repulsed by his Majesty’s domestics, a rumour spread among the populace, that the King had given orders for the entire destruction of that people. Upon which the mob, barbarously falling upon these poor defenceless wretches, murdered all who fell in their way, and then hastening to the city, with a more than diabolical fury massacred all they could find, and then plundered and burnt their houses. However, the next day, the wicked ringleaders of these horrid barbarities were seized, and immediately hanged.

In the year 1197, the citizens purchased of King Richard a charter, for 15,000 marks, by which they were impowered to remove all wears out of the river Thames, and the King resigned all his right to the annual duties arising from them. This is the first charter from which the city claims its jurisdiction and conservacy of that river.

15In the next reign the citizens obtained several charters from King John, by which this and all their other privileges were confirmed: and in the year 1207, Henry Fitz-Alwyn took the title of Mayor, instead of Custos and Bailiff, under which names he had held that dignity for twenty years successively.

In the year 1211, the citizens, as an additional security, began to encompass the wall with a deep ditch 200 feet wide; a work in which a vast number of hands was employed. The same year London bridge was consumed by a dreadful fire.

In the beginning of the reign of King Henry III. the city obtained from that Prince five charters, on condition of paying him a fifteenth of their personal estates, by which all their former privileges were confirmed, and some others added. But these were only made to be broken; for this perfidious Monarch frequently extorted money from the citizens, and upon the slightest pretences imprisoned the Mayor and Sheriffs. He seized the charters he had granted, and made the citizens purchase new ones; and in the whole of his behaviour acted like a sharper, void of every principle of honour and justice, or the least regard to his word, his promises, or his oaths.

16In this reign the forest of Middlesex being disforested, the citizens obtained an opportunity of purchasing land, and building houses upon it, by which the suburbs of the city were greatly increased, and soon enlarged to a considerable extent without the walls, though all the ground within them was far from being converted into regular streets.

It will not be unentertaining if we give a description of the city as it appeared about this time. The houses were mostly built of wood, and thatched with straw or reeds, which was the occasion of very frequent fires; and the city was supplied with water by men who brought it in carriages from the Thames, and from the brooks which ran through many of the principal streets. Thus the river of Wells, so called from many springs or wells uniting to supply its stream, arose in the north west part of the city, and ran into Fleet Ditch, at the bottom of Holborn hill. This small river, or brook, supplied several water mills, and at length from thence obtained the name of Turnmill Brook.

The Olborn, or Holborn, which arose where Middle row now stands, and flowed down the hill, also fell into Fleet Ditch; and a few houses on its banks 17were called a village, and distinguished by the name of this rivulet. While the Fleet ran down Fleet street, and also fell into Fleet Ditch.

Wall brook entered the city through the wall between Bishopsgate and Moorgate, and after many turnings emptied itself into the Thames at Dowgate.

The brook Langbourn rose near the east end of Fenchurch street, where mixing with the soil, it rendered it marshy; but ran from thence with a swift current to Sherborne lane, and then dividing into several rills, was lost in the Wall brook on Dowgate hill.

The springs from whence all these streams arose were pretty numerous, and several of them at their source formed deep ponds; particularly there was a large pond in Smithfield, supplied by its own spring; and near Cripplegate a deep and dangerous pool, formed by Crowder’s Well.

At length the citizens being deprived of their usual supplies of water from the above brooks, by the encroachments of buildings, and other ways, water was brought from six springs in the town of Tyburn, by a leaden pipe of a six-inch bore, which was made to supply leaden cisterns castellated with stone. The first 18and largest of these conduits was erected in West-cheap, in the year 1285, and afterwards the number of these conduits were increased to about twenty. Mr. Stow informs us, that it was customary for the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the Aldermen, and principal citizens on horseback, to visit the heads from whence the conduits were supplied, on the 18th of September, when they hunted a hare before dinner, and a fox after it, in the fields beyond St. Giles’s.

About this time the city was divided into twenty four wards, under the government of the Aldermen; and each ward chose some of the inhabitants as Common Council men, who were sworn into their office; these were to be consulted by the Aldermen, and their advice followed, in all public affairs relating to the city.

The above regulation was made in the reign of King Edward I. who also granted the citizens a charter, by which he confirmed all their ancient privileges. Some years before their receiving this favour, the Lord Treasurer summoned the Mayor, Aldermen, and citizens, to attend him in the Tower, to give an account how the peace of the city had been kept; but Gregory Rockesley, the Mayor, resolving not to attend in that quality, laid aside the 19ensigns of his office at Barking church, and repaired to the Tower as a private gentleman; which was so highly resented by the Treasurer, that he committed him and several of the principal citizens to prison. This proceeding the King so far approved, that though he discharged the Mayor, he seized the city liberties, and having appointed a Custos of the city, there was no Mayor of London for twelve years after.

In 1306, sea-coal beginning to be much used in the suburbs of London, by brewers, dyers, and others requiring great fires; the nobility and gentry complained to King Edward II. that the air was infected by the noisome smell, and the thick clouds of smoke it occasioned, to the endangering of the health of the inhabitants; upon which a proclamation was issued; forbidding it to be used: but little regard being paid to it, the King appointed a commission of oyer and terminer, to enquire after those who had acted in open defiance of this injunction.

In the beginning of the next reign, the city obtained a very great addition to its privileges; for in the year 1327, King Edward III. granted the citizens two charters; the first of which contained not only a confirmation of the ancient and valuable 20liberties and immunities of the citizens, but also the following additional privileges.

1. That the Mayor shall be constantly one of the Judges of oyer and terminer, for the trial of criminals confined in Newgate.

2. The citizens to have the privilege of trying a thief or robber within the jurisdiction of the city, and the power of reclaiming a citizen apprehended elsewhere for felony, in order to try him within the city; with a right to all the goods and chattels of all felons, convicted within the jurisdiction of the city.

3. The office of Escheator is conferred upon, and given in perpetuity to the Mayor.

4. The King’s Marshal, Steward, and Clerk of the houshold, are exempted from having any authority in the city.

5. For the greater convenience of citizens resorting to country fairs, they are granted the privilege of holding a court of Pye-powder in such places, for the determination of all contests that happen in each of those fairs.

6. That the citizens should be only assessed in common with their fellow subjects, towards general subsidies, grants, and contributions.

8. And that the city liberties shall not be seized for a personal offence, or iniquitous judgment of any of its magistrates, &c.

By the second charter, Southwark is granted for the good and benefit of the citizens.

The same Prince, in the year 1354, granted the city the privilege of having gold or silver maces carried before the chief magistrate; a privilege then peculiar to London; for all other cities and towns in the kingdom were, by a royal precept, expresly commanded not to use maces of any other metal than copper; and this is the time when, it is supposed by some, that the title of Lord was first added to that of Mayor.

In the year 1348, the city was visited by a most terrible pestilence, which continued to rage till the church yards were found not capacious enough to receive the bodies. This induced several persons to purchase ground to supply that defect; and in one of these burying grounds, bought by Sir Walter Manny, were interred the next year 50,000 persons; an amazing number, considering the small extent of this metropolis at that time: by this dreadful 22pestilence 100,000 persons are said to have died in this city. This is a very convincing proof that London was at that time extremely populous.

By this terrible pestilence provisions were reduced so low, that the best fed ox was sold for 4s. the best cow at 1s. the best heifer or steer at 6d. the best wether at 4d. the best ewe at 3d. the best lamb at 2d. the best hog at 5d. and a fine horse, formerly worth 40s. at 6s. 8d. Arnold’s Chronicle.

But notwithstanding this deplorable calamity, the wealth and dignity of the city were soon after so great, that in the year 1363, the Kings of Scotland, France, and Cyprus, who came into England to visit King Edward III. were entertained at dinner, with his Majesty, the Prince of Wales his son, and most of the nobility, by Henry Picard, late Mayor of London.

In the fifth year of the reign of King Richard II. the city suffered greatly by the rebellion of Wat Hilliard, commonly called Wat Tyler, from his employment; he being a tyler of Dartford in Kent. This fellow, exasperated at the impudence and insolence of the collectors of the poll tax, one of whom pulled up his daughter’s cloaths to see if she was arrived at the age of puberty; after killing the collector, 23excited the people to join him, in defence of their daughters, and to abolish the laws and taxes, which were thought extremely burthensome. They readily entered into this proposal, marched to Black Heath, and were soon increased to 100,000 men.

This prodigious mob entered Southwark on the 10th of June 1381, set at liberty the prisoners in the King’s Bench and Marshalsea prisons, and levelled to the ground the houses of all lawyers and questmen, and while one party went to Lambeth, where they burnt the archiepiscopal palace, with the rich furniture, books and registers, another destroyed the common stews along the bankside, then kept by Flemish bawds, who farmed them of the city.

In this dreadful confusion, the Lord Mayor caused the bridge gate to be shut, and fortified; but the next day they were admitted into the city, and the shambles and wine cellars set open for their accommodation. Being now joined by the city rabble, they hasted to the Savoy, the Duke of Lancaster’s palace, which was the most magnificent edifice in the kingdom, and setting fire to it, caused proclamation to be made, that none should appropriate any thing to his own use, upon pain of death. They then ran to the Temple, which at 24that time belonged to the Lord High Treasurer; that edifice they also burnt, with all the records in Chancery, and the books and papers belonging to the students of the law; and all the inns of court they served in the same manner.

After this, dividing themselves into three bodies, one proceeded to the rich priory of St. John of Jerusalem, near Smithfield, which they likewise burnt; and then marching to the stately mansion house at Highbury, beyond Islington, set fire to that edifice, through hatred to Sir Robert Hales, the High Treasurer, who was prior of the one, and proprietor of the other.

The second division marched to the Tower, which they entered, notwithstanding its being guarded by six hundred men at arms, and the same number of archers, and there seizing Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the above Sir Robert Hales, caused them both to be beheaded on Tower hill.

The third division, which were the Essex party, proceeded to Mile-end, where being met by the King, who agreed to all their demands, they the same day dispersed, and returned home.

Wat Tyler, with the rest of his desperate crew, however, continued committing 25the greatest disorders in London and Westminster, and, under the plausible pretence of reforming public abuses, they set open the prisons of the Fleet and Newgate, murdered many of the most eminent citizens, and dragging the Flemish merchants from the churches, where they had fled for refuge, beheaded them in the streets. Nor did their monstrous cruelty stop here; for they proceeded murdering and burning in a most horrid manner in many parts of the city; and not only made proclamation for the beheading of all lawyers, and persons concerned in the Exchequer, but even of all who were able to write.

At length King Richard, encouraged by his success at Mile-end, sent to let Wat Tyler know that he would have a conference with him in Smithfield, upon which that rebel marched slowly thither, at the head of his forces; but no sooner saw the King, than setting spurs to his horse, he boldly rode up to his Majesty, leaving all his companions behind. His behaviour and proposals were equally brutish and absurd, for he would be satisfied with nothing less than a commission to behead all lawyers, and the abolition of all the ancient laws of the kingdom; at which, William Walworth, the Lord 26Mayor, was ordered to arrest him, when that brave magistrate gave him such a blow on the head with his sword, that he fell wounded from his horse, and was soon dispatched.

The rebels, in the mean time, observing what was done, cried out, Our Captain is murdered, let us revenge his death, and immediately bent their bows: when Richard, though but fifteen years of age, with astonishing prudence and bravery rode up to them, crying, “My friends, will you kill your King? be not troubled for the loss of your leader. I will be your captain, and grant what you desire.” Upon which they changed their resolution, and marched under his conduct to St. George’s Fields, where finding a thousand citizens completely armed, they were struck with such an amazing panic, that, throwing down their arms, they begged for mercy, which being granted, they immediately dispersed.

Several writers ascribe to the action of this day, the addition of the dagger to the arms of the city, in remembrance of the good service done by them, and particularly by the Lord Mayor.

This, and other rebellions, being suppressed, King Richard, in the year 1390, appointed a great tournament to be held 27in Smithfield, on the Sunday after Michaelmas; and having caused it to be proclaimed in all the principal courts of Europe, several princes and noblemen from Germany, France, the Netherlands, and other countries, came to distinguish themselves by their courage and military skill. On the day appointed, which was Sunday in the afternoon, a pompous cavalcade of sixty ladies set out from the Tower, all richly dressed, and mounted on fine horses, each leading an armed Knight by a silver chain, attended by their Esquires, who passing through Cheapside proceeded to Smithfield, where the justs continued four days, in the presence of the King, the Queen, and the whole court; his Majesty himself giving proofs of his skill and dexterity on the second day. During the whole time open house was kept at the King’s expence, at the Bishop of London’s palace, for the entertainment of all persons of distinction, and every night the diversions concluded with a ball.

Two years after, the city refusing to lend the King a sum of money, and some of the citizens beating and abusing a Lombard merchant, for offering to advance the sum required, the King was so exasperated, that he sent for the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and twenty 28four of the principal commoners of the city, to attend him at Nottingham, which having done, the Mayor was committed prisoner to Windsor castle, and the rest to other prisons. A commission, under the great seal, was then granted to the Dukes of York and Gloucester, the King’s uncles, to enquire into that and other offences, of which the above persons being found guilty, they were not only fined 3000 marks, but the liberties of the city were seized; the Mayor was degraded from his office, and a Custos appointed in his room; the Sheriffs were also degraded, and others chosen; and, by the King’s precept, seventeen persons were appointed Aldermen, during the royal pleasure. As a farther mortification to the city, the King not only withdrew, with the nobility, to York, but removed the courts of justice to that city.

However, upon payment of the fine of 3000 marks, all the city liberties were restored, except the privilege of chusing her own Mayor. And the King, returning to London, was met at Shene, or Richmond Heath, by four hundred citizens on horseback, dressed in a rich uniform, with the Recorder at their head, who made a speech, in which he humbly begged pardon for their past offences, and earnestly 29entreated his Majesty to honour the Chamber of London with his presence; to which he consenting, they attended him to St. George’s church in Southwark, where he was received by a solemn procession of the clergy, and five hundred boys in surplices, with the Bishop of London at their head. At London bridge he was presented with a fine horse, adorned with trappings of gold brocade, and his Queen with a fine pad, and very noble furniture.

Never was the city more richly embellished than on this occasion, for the citizens of all ranks strove to outvie each other, in honour of their reconciled Sovereign; the streets were lined with the city companies in their formalities, and the conduits all the while ran with variety of wines.

At the standard in Cheapside, a boy dressed in white, to represent an angel, stood in a magnificent pageant, and upon the King’s approach, presented him with wine in a gold cup, and placed on his head a crown of gold, adorned with a variety of pearls and precious stones, and likewise another on the head of the Queen. After which their Majesties were conducted to their palace at Westminster, by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs, 30who, the next day, made his Majesty a present of two silver basons gilt, with 1000 nobles of gold in each, curious pictures of the Trinity, valued at 800l. and several other valuable presents. But after all, they were obliged to pay him 10,000l. before he would restore them the right of chusing their own magistrates.

The King, and his royal consort Isabella, a daughter of France, were some years after again conducted, with extraordinary magnificence, thro’ the city; but in 1398, the citizens petitioning to have their taxes taken off, and against entering into a treaty with the French King, about the delivering up of Calais, Richard was so exasperated against them, that he obliged many of the richest of the citizens to sign and seal several blank papers sent them by the ministry, who afterwards filled them up at their pleasure, with such sums as would effectually drain them; and this rendered him so odious to the citizens, that when Henry Duke of Lancaster arrived from France, they received him with open gates, and expressed their joy by magnificent shews, solemn processions of the clergy, and loud acclamations; and, in short, after the late King was made prisoner, Henry was received in great pomp 31by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and all the several companies in their formalities.

The reign of Henry IV. was not distinguished by any remarkable disputes between that King and the citizens; but in the year 1407, a dreadful plague carried off 30,000 of the inhabitants, whereby corn became so cheap, that wheat sold at 3s. 4d. the quarter.

In the reign of Henry V. the citizens chiefly distinguished themselves by the splendid cavalcade, with which they conducted that brave Prince through the city, after the glorious battle of Agincourt, In this reign Moorgate was first built, and Sir Henry Barton, the Lord Mayor, first ordered lanthorns to be hung out, for illuminating the streets by night. Indeed it is surprizing, that so useful and necessary a regulation was not made much earlier, considering the multitude and wealth of the inhabitants, the brooks which still ran through some of the streets, and the dirt occasioned by their lying much lower than at present.

After the death of this great conqueror, his young son Henry VI. being crowned King of France at Paris, the citizens, on his return, expressed their loyalty in a very extraordinary manner; for the royal 32infant was met on Black Heath by the Lord Mayor of London, dressed in crimson velvet, with a large furred hat, a girdle of gold about his waist, and a bawdrick of gold about his neck, waving down his back. He was followed by three horsemen, dressed in scarlet and silver, and attended by the Aldermen in scarlet gowns, and crimson hoods, while the citizens were cloathed in white gowns, and scarlet hoods, with the symbol belonging to each mystery, richly embroidered upon their sleeves. They were all on horseback, and from thence preceded his Majesty to London, where he was received with the utmost pomp. The city on this occasion was decorated with rich silks and carpets, and on the bridge, and in the streets, through which the cavalcade passed, were erected a variety of stately pageants, filled with persons representing the Muses, Graces, and Sciences; and from these pageants, orations were made, and concerts performed of vocal and instrumental music. Two days after, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attended the King at Westminster, and presented him with a golden hamper, containing 1000l. in nobles.

It is impossible, in the short compass allotted to this part of the work, to give an account of the several rebellions and 33revolutions during the life of this unhappy Sovereign, and of the manner in which the citizens interested themselves in each: it is sufficient to add, that notwithstanding these early professions of loyalty, the ill success and weakness of Henry, made them almost constantly join his enemies, and was one principal cause of his ruin.

King Edward IV. therefore, in the second year of his reign, shewed his gratitude for the favours he had received from them, by granting the city a charter, by which all the ancient rights and privileges of the citizens were confirmed, and the following additional privileges bestowed.

1. The Lord Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen past the chair, are appointed perpetual justices of peace in the city; and are constituted justices of oyer and terminer, for the trial of all malefactors within their own jurisdiction.

2. For the better ascertaining the customs of the city, when a plea is brought in any of the superior courts, relating to those customs, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen are impowered to declare, by the mouth of their Recorder, whether the point in controversy be a custom of London, or not; and if, upon enquiry, it be found to be such, then it is to be recorded, 34and remain an established custom to all futurity.

3. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen are for ever exempted from serving in all foreign assizes, juries, or attaints, and from the offices of assessor, collector of taxes, overseer, or comptroller of all public duties without the jurisdiction of the city.

4. The citizens are allowed the privilege of holding an annual fair in the borough of Southwark, together with a court of Pye-powder, with the rights and customs thereto belonging, &c. all at the ancient fee farm of 10l. per annum.

Afterwards, in the year 1479, the city gave the same Prince 1923l. 19s. 8d. for the liberty of purchasing lands, &c. in mortmain, to the value of 200 marks per annum; and also purchased of the King, for 7000l. the offices of package, portage, garbling, gauging, wine-drawer and coroner, to be enjoyed by them and their successors for ever.

In the same year, a dreadful pestilence raged in London, which swept away an incredible number of people.

On the death of Edward IV. the Duke of Buckingham strove in vain to make the citizens join in raising the Duke of Gloucester to the throne, to the prejudice 35of the young Prince, Edward V. by making a long speech to them in Guildhall. The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and some of the Common Council, were, however, prevailed upon to go and persuade that inhuman monster to accept of the crown; and afterwards the Lord Mayor contested with the citizens of Winchester the right of being chief Butler at the coronation of a man who was a disgrace to human nature: but the Mayor of London had for some ages enjoyed this privilege, and was not now denied it.

In the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. the sweating sickness first raged in London, carrying off great numbers within twenty-four hours; but those who survived that time generally recovered; and of this disease died two Lord Mayors and one of the Sheriffs, in the space of the year.

The next year the privileges of the citizens were struck at by their own magistrates, in a very extraordinary act of Common Council, which enjoined the citizens, under the penalty of an hundred pounds, not to carry any goods or merchandize to any fair or market within the kingdom, for the term of seven years; but this scandalous and unjust by-law was 36the next year set aside by act of Parliament.

In the year 1500, the plague carried off 20,000 persons in London; and during this reign the city also suffered greatly by the oppressions of the King’s ministers Empson and Dudley; Alderman Capel was, upon several penal laws, condemned to pay a fine of 2700l. but by the intercession of friends, it was mitigated to 1600l. Thomas Knesworth, who had been Mayor, with Richard Shoare and Roger Grove, his Sheriffs, were accused of abuses committed in their offices, for which they were dragged to the Marshalsea, and confined without any legal process, till they redeemed themselves by paying 14,000l. and, in short, Sir Laurence Aylmer was, in the next year after he had served the office of Mayor, also imprisoned by these rapacious ministers, in order to extort a sum of money for his liberty: but the death of Henry VII. delivered him and many others from their troubles.

King Henry VIII. the year after his accession to the throne, came in the habit of one of the yeomen of the guard, to see the march of the city watch; it being an ancient custom for the watch, who were 37then a body of military forces, to make a pompous march on the vigils of St. John Baptist, and St. Peter and Paul. His Majesty was a spectator on St. John’s eve, and was so highly delighted with the sight, that he returned on the eve of St. Peter, accompanied by his royal consort, and the principal nobility, and staid in Mercer’s Hall, Cheapside, to see the procession repeated.

The march was begun by the city music, followed by the Lord Mayor’s officers, in party-coloured liveries; then the swordbearer, on horseback, in beautiful armour, preceded the Lord Mayor, mounted on a stately horse adorned with rich trappings, attended by a giant and two pages on horseback, three pageants, morrice dancers and footmen; next came the Sheriffs, preceded by their officers, and attended by their giants, pages, pageants, and morrice dancers. Then marched a great body of demi-lancers in bright armour, on stately horses: next followed a body of carabineers in white fustian coats, with the city arms on their backs and breasts: then marched a body of archers with their bows bent, and shafts of arrows by their sides; followed by a party of pikemen with their corslets and helmets; after whom marched a body of halberdiers in their corslets 38and helmets; and the march was closed by a great party of billmen, with helmets and aprons of mail.

The whole body, which consisted of about 2000 men, had between every division a certain number of musicians, who were answered in their proper places by the like number of drums, with standards and ensigns, in the same manner as veteran troops. This nocturnal march was lighted by 940 cressets, which were large lanthorns fixed at the end of poles, and carried over mens shoulders; two hundred of which were at the city expence, five hundred at that of the companies, and two hundred and forty were found by the city constables.

The march began at the conduit in Cheapside, and passed through that street, Cornhill, and Leadenhall street to Aldgate; whence it returned by Fenchurch street, Gracechurch street, Cornhill, and Cheapside, to the conduit.

During this march, the houses on each side the streets were decorated with greens and flowers wrought into garlands, and intermixed with a great number of lamps. Stow.

This splendid procession constantly repeated twice a year, is not only a proof of the fondness for shew which then prevailed, 39but lets us see that the city was then watched by men completely armed; a body of troops of a peculiar kind, raised and maintained by the city.

The same year, Sir William Fitz-William, Alderman of Bread street ward, was disfranchised for refusing to serve the office of Sheriff. Fabian’s Chronicle.

And in 1512, the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex were first impowered to impannel juries for the city courts, each juror so impannelled to be a citizen worth an hundred marks.

As the history of the city of London must necessarily include that of the manners of the inhabitants, we have given some instances of their fondness for pompous and splendid processions, and it may hereafter be necessary to add others, to enable the reader to form an idea of the difference between the past times and the present. I shall here mention amusements of a different kind, graced with the presence of a sovereign Prince, and which cannot fail of entertaining the reader.

It was usual, on the first of May, for all the citizens who were able, to divert themselves in the woods and meadows with May-games, diversions not confined to the lower class, but equally the entertainment 40of persons of the highest rank; a remarkable instance of which is inserted in Hall’s Chronicle, under the year 1515, when that author observes, that King Henry VIII. and Queen Catharine, accompanied by many Lords and Ladies, rode a maying from Greenwich to the high ground of Shooter’s Hill, where, as they passed along, they saw a company of 200 tall yeomen, all cloathed in green, with green hoods and bows and arrows. One, who was their Chieftain, was called Robin Hood, and desired the King and all his company to stay and see his men shoot, to which the King agreeing, he whistled, and all the two hundred discharged their arrows at once, which they repeated on his whistling again. Their arrows had something placed in the heads of them that made them whistle as they flew, and all together made a loud and very uncommon noise, at which the King and Queen were greatly delighted. The gentleman who assumed the character of Robin Hood then desired the King and Queen, with their retinue, to enter the Green Wood, where, in arbours made with boughs intermixed with flowers, they were plentifully served with venison and wine, by Robin Hood and his men.

About two years after an event happened, 41which occasioned the epithet of Evil to be added to this day of rejoicing. The citizens being extremely exasperated at the encouragement given to foreigners, a Priest named Bell was persuaded to preach against them at the Spital, and in a very inflaming sermon he incited the people to oppose all strangers; this occasioned frequent quarrels in the streets, for which some Englishmen were committed to prison.

Suddenly a rumour arose, that on Mayday all the foreigners would be assassinated, and several strangers fled; this coming to the knowledge of the King’s Council, Cardinal Wolsey sent for the Lord Mayor and several of the City Council, told them what he had heard, and exhorted them to preserve the peace. Upon this affair a court of Common Council was assembled at Guildhall, on the evening before Mayday, in which it was resolved to order every man to shut up his doors and keep his servants at home; and this advice being immediately communicated to the Cardinal, met with his approbation.

Upon this every Alderman sent to inform his ward, that no man should stir out of his house after nine o’clock, but keep his doors shut and his servants within, till nine in the morning. This order had not 42been long given, when one of the Aldermen, returning from his ward, observed two young men at play in Cheapside, and many others looking at them. He would have sent them to the Compter, but they were soon rescued, and the cry raised of ’Prentices, ’Prentices! Clubs, Clubs! Instantly the people arose; by eleven o’clock they amounted to six or seven hundred; and the crowd still increasing, they rescued from Newgate and the Compter the prisoners committed for abusing the foreigners: while the Mayor and Sheriffs, who were present, made proclamation in the King’s name; but, instead of obeying it, they broke open the houses of many Frenchmen and other foreigners, and continued plundering them till three in the morning, when beginning to disperse, the Mayor and his attendants took 300 of them, and committed them to the several prisons. While this riot lasted, the Lieutenant of the Tower discharged several pieces of ordnance against the city, but without doing much mischief; and about five in the morning, several of the nobility marched thither with all the forces they could assemble.

On the 4th of May, the Lord Mayor, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surry, and others, sate upon the trial of the offenders 43at Guildhall, the Duke of Norfolk entering the city with 1300 men. That day several were indicted, and on the next thirteen were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, for the execution of whom ten gallowses were set up in several parts of the city, upon wheels, to be removed from street to street, and from door to door.

On the 7th of May several others were found guilty, and received the same sentence as the former, and soon after were drawn upon hurdles to the standard in Cheapside; but when one was executed, and the rest about to be turned off, a respite came, and they were remanded back to prison.

After this the soldiers who had kept watch in the city were withdrawn, which making the citizens flatter themselves that the King’s displeasure against them was not so great as they had imagined, the Lord Mayor, Recorder, and several Aldermen, went in mourning gowns to wait upon the King at Greenwich, when, having attended for some time at the privy chamber door, his Majesty with several of the nobility came forth, upon which, all of them falling upon their knees, the Recorder, in the name of the rest, in the most humble and submissive 44terms, begged that he would have mercy on them for their negligence, and compassion on the offenders, whom he represented as a small number of light persons. His Majesty let them know that he was really displeased, and that they ought to wail and be sorry for it; for as they had not attempted to fight with those whom they pretended were so small a number of light persons, they must have winked at the matter; he therefore ordered them to repair to the Lord Chancellor, who would give them an answer. Upon which they retired deeply mortified.

Being informed that the King was to be at Westminster Hall on the 22d of May, they resolved to repair thither, which they did with the consent of Cardinal Wolsey Lord High Chancellor. The King sat at the upper end of Westminster Hall, under a cloth of state, with the Cardinal and several of the nobility: and the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder, and several of the Common-Council attended; the prisoners, who then amounted to about 400, were brought in their shirts bound together with cords, and with halters about their necks, and among these were eleven women. The Cardinal, having sharply rebuked 45the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty for their negligence, told the prisoners, that, for their offences against the laws of the realm, and against his Majesty’s crown and dignity, they had deserved death; upon which they all set up a piteous cry, of “Mercy, gracious Lord, mercy!” which so moved the King, that, at the earnest intreaty of the Lords, he pronounced them pardoned; upon which giving a great shout, they threw up their halters towards the top of the hall, crying God save the King! After this affair the May-games were not so commonly used as before.

By the following account the reader will see, that our hospitable ancestors were not less fond of the pleasures of the table, than of outward pomp. Mr. Stow observes, that in the year 1531, eleven gentlemen of the law being promoted to the dignity of the coif, they gave a splendid and elegant entertainment in the Bishop of Ely’s palace in Holborn, for five days successively, at which were present the King, Queen, foreign Ministers, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the Judges, the Master of the rolls, the Masters in chancery, the Serjeants at law, the principal Merchants of London, with many Knights and Esquires, and a certain number 46of citizens belonging to the chief companies of the city.

This being one of the greatest entertainments recorded in history, an account of it cannot be unacceptable to the reader: but as there were three poulterers concerned in providing the poultry, and only one of their accounts which we are able to communicate, it will be very deficient; however, as this great entertainment was given but about two hundred and thirty years ago, the subjoined account will shew the vast disparity between the prices of provisions then and now, and consequently the great disproportion between the scarcity of money at that time, and its plenty at present.

In the year 1532, a general muster of the citizens was held at Mile-End, when the names of all capable of bearing arms were taken down, from the age of sixteen to that of sixty; as were also an account of the weapons, armour, and other military accoutrements belonging to the city.

Upon this occasion the principal citizens were dressed in white, with caps and feathers of the same colour; the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder, and Sheriffs, wore white armour, and coats of black velvet, embroidered with the city arms; they had velvet caps on their heads, and rode on fine horses adorned with magnificent trappings, with gold chains about their necks, and battle-axes 48in their hands. Each of the Aldermen and the Recorder, was attended with four halberdiers in white silk or buff coats, with gilt halberts; and the Lord Mayor, by sixteen men in white sattin jackets, with gold chains, caps and feathers, and long gilt halberts; he had also four footmen in white sattin, and two pages in crimson velvet, with gold brocade waistcoats; these pages were mounted on fine horses, adorned with rich furniture, one of them carrying the Lord Mayor’s helmet, and the other his pole-ax, both richly gilt, Most of the citizens of distinction were, on this occasion, dressed in white silk, and wore gold chains with a variety of rich jewels.

The citizens rendezvoused and were mustered early in the morning at Mile End, and before nine in the forenoon began their march, when entering Aldgate, they proceeded through the city, in admirable order, to Westminster; where they passed in review before the King and most of the nobility, who were highly delighted at their splendid appearance. From thence they marched round St. James’s Park, and down Holborn to Leadenhall, where they separated at five o’clock in the evening. So far our author.

49But if we add to this splendid cavalcade, that every man wore his beard and hair, which were probably neatly curled and powdered, we must be sensible that the citizens, in this procession, had a strange mixture of gravity and foppery, and that, fond as we are of dress, we were greatly outdone in this particular by our ancestors. King Henry however loved shew, and the citizens took great pains to please him, of which the following is another remarkable instance, which, tho’ very long, we shall insert, in order to give our readers an idea of the taste of the citizens of that age, in regard to elegance and grandeur: and we chuse to select this instance, as the city appears to have been decorated with greater pomp than at any time before or since.

The King having divorced Queen Catharine, and married Anne Boleyn, or Boloine, who was descended from Godfrey Boloine, Mayor of this city, and intending her coronation, sent to order the Lord Mayor, not only to make all the preparations necessary for conducting his royal consort from Greenwich, by water, to the Tower of London; but to adorn the city after the most magnificent manner, for her passage through it to Westminster.

50In obedience to the royal precept, Mr. Stow observes, that the Mayor and Common Council not only ordered the company of Haberdashers, of which the Lord Mayor was a member, to prepare a magnificent state barge; but enjoined all the city corporations to provide themselves with barges, and to adorn them in the most superb manner, and especially to have them supplied with good bands of music.

On the 29th of May, the time prefixed for this pompous procession by water, the Mayor, Aldermen and Commons assembled at St. Mary Hill; the Mayor and Aldermen in scarlet, with gold chains, and those who were knights, with the collars of SS. At one they went on board the city barge at Billingsgate, which was most magnificently decorated; and attended by fifty noble barges, belonging to the several companies of the city, with each its own corporation on board; and, for the better regulation of this procession, it was ordered, that each barge should keep twice their lengths asunder.

Thus regulated, the city barge was preceded by another mounted with ordnance, and the figures of dragons and other monsters, incessantly emitting fire 51and smoke, with much noise. Then the city barge, attended on the right by the Haberdashers state barge, called the Bachelors, which was covered with gold brocade, and adorned with sails of silk, with two rich standards of the King’s and Queen’s arms at her head and stern, besides a variety of flags and streamers, containing the arms of that company, and those of the Merchant Adventurers; besides which the shrouds and ratlines were hung with a number of small bells: on the left was a barge that contained a very beautiful mount, on which stood a white falcon crowned, perching upon a golden stump encircled with roses, being the Queen’s emblem; and round the mount sat several beautiful virgins, singing, and playing upon instruments. The other barges followed in regular order, till they came below Greenwich. On their return the procession began with that barge which was before the last, in which were the Mayor’s and Sheriff’s officers, and this was followed by those of the inferior companies, ascending to the Lord Mayor’s, which immediately preceded that of the Queen, who was attended by the Bachelors or state barge, with the magnificence of which her Majesty was much delighted; and being arrived at the Tower, 52she returned the Lord Mayor and Aldermen thanks, for the pomp with which she had been conducted thither.

Two days after, the Lord Mayor, in a gown of crimson velvet, and a rich collar of SS, attended by the Sheriffs and two domestics in red and white damask, went to receive the Queen at the Tower of London, whence the Sheriffs returned to see that every thing was in order. The streets were just before new gravelled from the Tower to Temple Bar, and railed in on each side; within the rails near Grasschurch, stood a body of Anseatic merchants, and next to them the several corporations of the city in their formalities, reaching to the Aldermens station at the upper end of Cheapside. On the opposite side were placed the city constables dressed in silk and velvet, with staffs in their hands, to prevent the breaking in of the mob, or any other disturbance. On this occasion, Gracechurch street and Cornhill were hung with crimson and scarlet cloth, and the sides of the houses of a place then called Goldsmith’s row, in Cheapside, were adorned with gold brocades, velvet and rich tapestry.

The procession began from the Tower with twelve of the French Ambassador’s domestics in blue velvet, the trappings of 53their horses being blue sarsnet, interspersed with white crosses; after whom marched those of the equestrian order, two and two, followed by the Judges in their robes, two and two; then came the Knights of the Bath in violet gowns, purfled with menever. Next came the Abbots, Barons, Bishops, Earls and Marquises, in their robes, two and two. Then the Lord Chancellor, followed by the Venetian Ambassador and the Archbishop of York: next the French Ambassador and the Archbishop of Canterbury, followed by two gentlemen representing the Dukes of Normandy and Aquitain; after whom rode the Lord Mayor of London with his mace, and Garter in his coat of arms; then the Duke of Suffolk, Lord High Steward, followed by the Deputy Marshal of England, and all the other officers of state in their robes, carrying the symbols of their several offices: then others of the nobility in crimson velvet, and all the Queen’s officers in scarlet, followed by her Chancellor uncovered, who immediately preceded his mistress.

The Queen was dressed in silver brocade, with a mantle of the same furred with ermine; her hair was dishevelled, and she wore a chaplet upon her head set with jewels of inestimable value. She sat 54in a litter covered with silver tissue, and carried by two beautiful pads cloathed in white damask, and led by her footmen. Over the litter was carried a canopy of cloth of gold, with a silver bell at each corner, supported by sixteen Knights alternately, by four at a time.

After her Majesty came her Chamberlain, followed by her Master of Horse, leading a beautiful pad, with a side-saddle and trappings of silver tissue. Next came seven ladies in crimson velvet, faced with gold brocade, mounted on beautiful horses with gold trappings. Then followed two chariots covered with cloth of gold, in the first of which were the Duchess of Norfolk and the Marchioness of Dorset, and in the second four ladies in crimson velvet; then followed seven ladies dressed in the same manner, on horseback, with magnificent trappings, followed by another chariot all in white, with six ladies in crimson velvet; this was followed by another all in red, with eight ladies in the same dress with the former: next came thirty gentlewomen, attendants to the Ladies of honour; they were on horseback, dressed in silks and velvet; and the cavalcade was closed by the horse guards.

This pompous procession being arrived in Fenchurch street, the Queen stopped 55at a beautiful pageant, crouded with children in mercantile habits; who congratulated her Majesty upon the joyful occasion of her happy arrival in the city.

Thence she proceeded to Grace church corner, where was erected a very magnificent pageant, at the expence of the company of Anseatic Merchants, in which was represented Mount Parnassus, with the fountain of Helicon, of white marble, out of which arose four springs about four feet high, centering at the top in a small globe, from which issued plenty of Rhenish wine till night. On the Mount sat Apollo, at his feet was Calliope, and beneath were the rest of the Muses, surrounding the Mount, and playing upon a variety of musical instruments, at whose feet were inscribed several epigrams suitable to the occasion, in letters of gold.

Her Majesty then proceeded to Leadenhall, where stood a pageant, representing a hill encompassed with red and white roses; and above it was a golden stump, upon which a white falcon, descending from above, perched, and was quickly followed by an angel, who put a crown of gold upon his head. A little lower on the hilloc sat St. Anne, surrounded by her progeny, one of whom made an oration, 56in which was a wish that her Majesty might prove extremely prolific.

The procession then advanced to the conduit in Cornhill; where the Graces sat enthroned, with a fountain before them incessantly discharging wine; and underneath, a Poet, who described the qualities peculiar to each of these amiable deities, and presented the Queen with their several gifts.

The cavalcade thence proceeded to a great conduit that stood opposite to Mercers Hall in Cheapside, and, upon that occasion, was painted with a variety of emblems, and during the solemnity and remaining part of the day, ran with different sorts of wine, for the entertainment of the populace.

At the end of Wood street, the standard there was finely embellished with royal portraitures and a number of flags, on which were painted coats of arms and trophies, and above was a concert of vocal and instrumental music.

At the upper end of Cheapside was the Aldermens station, where the Recorder addressed the Queen in a very elegant oration, and, in the name of the citizens, presented her with a thousand marks in a purse of gold tissue, which her Majesty very gracefully received.

57At a small distance, by Cheapside conduit, was a pageant, in which were seated Minerva, Juno, and Venus; before whom stood the god Mercury, who, in their names, presented the Queen a golden apple.

At St. Paul’s gate was a fine pageant, in which sat three ladies richly dressed, with each a chaplet on her head, and a tablet in her hand, containing Latin inscriptions.

At the east end of St. Paul’s cathedral, the Queen was entertained by some of the scholars belonging to St. Paul’s school, with verses in praise of the King and her Majesty, with which she seemed highly delighted.

Thence proceeding to Ludgate, which was finely decorated, her Majesty was entertained with several songs adapted to the occasion, sung in concert by men and boys upon the leads over the gate.

At the end of Shoe lane, in Fleet street, a handsome tower with four turrets was erected upon the conduit, in each of which stood one of the cardinal Virtues, with their several symbols; who, addressing themselves to the Queen, promised they would never leave her, but be always her constant attendants. Within the tower was an excellent concert of music, and 58the conduit all the while ran with various sorts of wine.

At Temple Bar she was again entertained with songs, sung in concert by a choir of men and boys; and having from thence proceeded to Westminster, she returned the Lord Mayor thanks for his good offices, and those of the citizens that day. Stow’s Annals.

The day after, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs, performed their several offices at the coronation; and, in return for the great expence the city had been at upon the above occasion, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and forty of the principal citizens, had the honour of being afterwards invited to the christening of the Princess Elizabeth.

In the year 1551, King Edward VI. gave the city a charter, by which he not only confirmed all its former privileges, but granted the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and citizens, several lands and tenements in Southwark, with the manor thereof, and its appurtenances; the assize of bread, wine, beer, and ale; a fair for three days; and the offices of Coroner, Escheator, and Clerk of the market, which are for ever vested in the Lord Mayor and his successors.

In the beginning of the year 1552, 59the celebrated company of the Anseatic merchants, called here the merchants of the Steelyard, were dissolved, they having engrossed almost the whole trade of the kingdom; for in the preceding year they exported 40,000 pieces of cloth, while all the English merchants together did not export 1100.

Upon the breaking out of the rebellion under Sir Thomas Wyat, occasioned by the report of Queen Mary’s intended marriage with Philip of Spain, the city was thrown into a violent commotion, and on his marching to Deptford, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and citizens, had not only recourse to arms; but, it being term time, the Judges sat, and the Council pleaded in Westminster Hall in armour. In this general confusion the Queen came to Guildhall, where she was attended by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and several of the city companies in their formalities, to whom she made a long and flattering speech, in which she professed, that she loved them as a mother loves her child, and that she would not engage in this marriage, if she thought it inconsistent with the happiness of her loving subjects: but that she desired to leave some fruit of her body to be their governor.

60This had such an effect, that they cut down the drawbridge, and shut the gates against Wyat, as he arrived in Southwark; he therefore marched up the river, crossed the Thames at Kingston, and proceeded through Westminster to Ludgate; but not being admitted by his friends in the city, as he expected, he generously surrendered himself, to prevent bloodshed, and was soon after beheaded on Tower hill.

The rest of this reign exhibited a dreadful scene of religious bigotry, by a most cruel persecution of the Protestants; for the principal instance she gave of her tender maternal love to the citizens, was, her causing many of them to be burnt in Smithfield, in order to put a stop to the reformation begun by her father, and continued by her brother: but Providence soon interposed; her reign was short; and the fires which were then kindled for the holy martyrs, who sealed their faith with their blood, were the last effort, under the sanction of law, made by religious tyranny in this kingdom to overthrow the reformation. Happy would it have been for the Protestants, if this cruel spirit had never prevailed amongst them; if, upon this change, universal benevolence had taken place, and every Briton would have allowed his neighbour the same liberty of 61enquiry, which he claimed for himself! but though both the national church and the dissenters from it, have disclaimed the pretended infallibility they so justly censured in the church of Rome, and have even constantly owned that they themselves are fallible, yet, contrary to the mild, the humane spirit of the Gospel, they have absurdly persecuted those who would not allow them to be infallible, and have presumed to differ from the unerring standard of their judgment!

We are now come to the period when our streets were no longer to be crouded with monks and friars of various orders, and in very different and uncouth habits, walking with their heads shaven and bare, with long beards, and a rosary hanging at their girdles; when our nobility and gentry were to be no longer affronted in the streets by Cardinals, attended by a great retinue of servants: by the lordly Knights of religious orders, or the wealthy Priors of convents: when our streets were no longer to be adorned with crosses and the images of the saints, the objects of much superstition; and when many of our largest, most conspicuous, and stately buildings, were no longer to consist of priories, friaries, nunneries, and guilds of religious fraternities.

62Thus the appearance of the city, with respect to its buildings, ornaments, and inhabitants, received a considerable alteration from the abolition of popery in these kingdoms; and the reader will probably be pleased at seeing, at one view, a list of these religious houses, which will the better enable him to form an idea of the difference between London at that time and the present.

The friaries were, that of the crutched or crossed friars, in St. Olave’s, Hart street.

That of the brethren de sacca, or de pœnitentia Jesu Christi, in the Old Jewry.

The Charter house monks, or the house of the Carthusians, between St. John’s street and Goswell street.

The guilds or fraternities were, the brotherhood of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, in St. Botolph’s, Aldgate.

The fraternity and chapel of the Holy Trinity, in Leadenhall; and innumerable others, founded in most churches.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the far greatest part of this metropolis was contained within the walls, and even in these narrow limits were many gardens, which have been since converted into lanes, courts, and alleys. The buildings of London were, on the west, bounded by the monastery of St. Catharine’s; 64East Smithfield was open to Tower hill, and Rosemary lane was unbuilt. The Minories were built only on the east side, which fronted the city wall: cattle grazed in Goodman’s Fields, and Whitechapel extended but a little beyond the bars, and had no houses to the north; for Spitalfields, which of themselves would now compose a very large town, were then really fields, separated from each other by hedges and rows of trees. Houndsditch consisted only of a row of houses fronting the city wall, and the little yards and gardens behind them also opened into those fields. Bishopsgate street, Norton Falgate, and the street called Shoreditch, were then however built as far as the church, but there were only a few houses and gardens on each side, and no streets or lanes on either hand. Moorfields lay entirely open to the village of Hoxton; and Finsbury Fields, in which were several windmills, extended to the east side of Whitecross street. Chiswell street was not erected, and St. John’s street extended by the side of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, to the monastery of Clerkenwell, and Cow Cross, which opened into the fields.

But on leaving the city walls, the buildings were much less extensive; for though the village of Holborn was now joined to 65London, the backs of the houses, particularly on the north side, opened into gardens and fields; part of Gray’s Inn lane were the only houses that extended beyond the main street; great part of High Holborn had no existence, and St. Giles’s was a village contiguous to no part of London.

If we turn to the Strand, we also find, that spacious street had gardens on each side, and to the north, fields behind those gardens, except a few houses where is now the west end of Drury lane. On the south side of the street, the gardens generally extended to the Thames; though some of the nobility had houses on the back of their gardens, next the water side. Covent Garden, so called from its belonging to the convent at Westminster, extended to St. Martin’s lane, and the field behind it reached to St. Giles’s. That lane had few edifices besides the church; for Covent Garden wall was on one side, and a wall which inclosed the Mews, on the other, and all the upper part was a lane between two hedges, which extended a little to the west of the village of St. Giles’s. Hedge lane was also a lane between two hedges; the extensive street now called the Hay Market, had a hedge on one side, and a few bushes on the other. 66Neither Pall Mall, St. James’s street, Piccadilly, or any of the streets or fine squares in that part of the town, were built; and Westminster was a small town on the south west, and south sides of St. James’s Park.

Lambeth was, at that time, a little village at a considerable distance from Southwark, and there were no buildings on the south bank of the Thames, till a row of houses began opposite to White Friars, and extended along the river, with gardens, fields, or groves behind them, till almost opposite the Steel Yard, where several streets began: the Borough extended a considerable distance from the bridge to the south, and the buildings to the east as far as the Tower.

This was the state of this great metropolis, so lately as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and how inconsiderable soever it must appear, when compared with its present dimensions, yet, by order of that Queen, a proclamation was published, by which all persons were forbid to build upon new foundations, and this order was twice repeated in the following reign.

On the 1st of January 1559, the Litany, as now used, was first read in all the churches of London; and about this time the populace not only destroyed all the 67statues and pictures of the saints in the churches, but most of their rich robes, altar cloths, books, and sepulchral banners.

In the year 1582, expence in dress having prevailed in the city, among people of all ranks, particularly among apprentices, which was then apprehended might prove of dangerous consequence to their masters, the following orders were published by the Lord Mayor and Common Council, which will be now thought very extraordinary, viz. That from thence forward no apprentice whatsoever should presume,

To wear no hat within the city and liberty thereof, nor any thing instead of it but a woollen cap, without any silk about it.

To wear no ruffles, cuffs, loose collar, nor any thing more than a ruff at the collar, and that only of a yard and a half long.

To wear no doublets but what were made of canvas, sackcloth, fustian, English leather, or woollen cloth, without being enriched in any manner with gold, silver, or silk.

To wear no other coloured cloth or kersey, in hose or stockings, than white, blue, or russet.

68To wear little breeches of the same stuffs as the doublets, without being stitched, laced, or bordered.

To wear a plain upper coat of cloth or leather, without pinking, stitching, guarding, lace, or silk about it.

To wear no other surtout than a cloth gown or cloak, lined or faced with cloth, cotton, or bays, with a fixed round collar, without stitching, guarding, lace, or silk.

To wear no pumps, slippers, nor shoes, but of English leather, without being pinked, edged, or stitched; nor girdles nor garters except of crewel, woollen, thread, or leather, without being garnished.

And to wear no sword, dagger, or other weapon, but a knife; nor neither a ring, nor a jewel, gold, silver, nor silk in any part of his apparel.

Rigorous as these laws were, and unsufferable as they would be now thought, yet any apprentice offending against any of the above particulars, was, for the first offence, to be punished at the discretion of his master; for the second he was to be publickly whipped at the hall of his company; and for the third, to serve six months longer than specified in his indentures. And every master conniving at his apprentice’s violating the above severe 69decree, was to forfeit 6s. 8d. to the poor of the parish in which he dwelt.

The plague, which had broke out many times in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, appeared afresh in 1603, on the accession of King James I. to the throne, and made such dreadful devastation, that, within the space of a year, it swept away 30,578 persons: but it having at length happily ceased, the King, Queen, and Prince Henry, made their public entry from the Tower on the 15th of March 1604, on which occasion the city was embellished with seven magnificent triumphal arches, numerous pageants, and other pompous decorations. The streets were adorned with the richest silks and carpets, and lined with the stands of the several corporations, with their flags and bands of music.

In the year 1608, King James I. granted the city a charter, by which he not only confirmed all the ancient rights, liberties, and immunities of the citizens, but added to the bounds and jurisdiction of the city the precincts of Duke’s Place, St. Bartholomew’s the Great and Less, Black and White Friars, and Cold Harbour. That King also granted the city two other charters.

In 1613, the water of the New River, 70brought from Ware by the great Sir Hugh Middleton, was let into the lower reservoir at Islington, with great ceremony: the next year Smithfield was first paved, and in 1615, the sides of the streets of this city being paved with pebble stones, which had hitherto rendered walking very troublesome, the inhabitants of the principal streets first began to pave their doors with broad free stone and flags.

In the year 1625, when King Charles I. ascended the throne, a most dreadful pestilence raged in London; the fatal effects of this distemper had been frequently felt; but it now carried off, within the space of a year, in the city and suburbs, 35,417 persons, besides those who died of other distempers, which, in the whole, amounted to 54,265, said to be one third of the inhabitants.

It is remarkable that in the year 1629, the goldsmiths shops in the south row of Cheapside, reached from the Old Change to Buckler’s Bury, exclusive of only four shops of other trades in all that space; but these four shops gave King Charles I. and his Privy Council such offence, that they sent an order to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, commanding them to turn out the tenants, and to oblige all the goldsmiths 71in the city, to settle in Cheapside and Lombard street. This arbitrary order however not being complied with, several others were sent, both by the Council and the court of Star-chamber, in which they were commanded to commit the tenants to prison, if they refused to give security to quit their houses by a certain day: and the court of Star-chamber even threatened the Alderman of the ward, that if he or his deputy did not immediately cause every such shop to be shut up, he or his deputy should be sent to prison, by warrant from the Board.

In 1633, King Charles I. being returned from his progress into Scotland, the gentlemen of the four Inns of Court entertained their Majesties with a pompous masque, which excelled every thing of the kind that had been seen in England, the expence amounting to 21,000l. the greatest sum probably ever expended in this kingdom in mere shew, except at a coronation; we shall therefore give it our readers, as a specimen of the taste of the times; the following account being the more curious, as these kinds of entertainments are now entirely laid aside.

The masquers, musicians, and all who were actors, met on Candlemas day in the afternoon, at Ely House in Holborn, 72where the Committee for the management of it sat all day, and in the evening they set forward, in the following order, down Chancery lane to Whitehall.

The march began with twenty footmen in scarlet liveries, trimmed with silver lace, each having his sword by his side, a baton in one hand, and a lighted torch in the other. These were the Marshal’s men, who cleared the streets, and were about the Marshal, waiting his commands. After them, and sometimes in the midst of them, came Mr. Darrel the Marshal, a very handsome gentleman, of Lincoln’s Inn, mounted upon one of the King’s best horses, and richest saddles. He was magnificently dressed, and, besides his Marshal’s men, had two lacquies who carried torches, and a page in livery carrying his cloak.

He was followed by an hundred of the handsomest young gentlemen of the Inns of Court, twenty-five chosen out of each house, all of them mounted on the best horses, and with the best furniture that the King’s stables, and those of all the noblemen in town could afford. These hundred gentlemen were so richly dressed, that scarce any thing but gold and silver lace could be seen, and every one of them had two lacquies, in his own livery, carrying 73torches by his horse’s side, and a page carrying his cloak. These gentlemen had about a dozen of the best trumpeters, in their own livery, sounding before them.

After this noble troop, came the antimasquers; preceded by the sound of keys and tongs, playing in concert. The first antimasque consisted of beggars and cripples, mounted on the poorest leanest jades that could be got out of the dust carts or elsewhere, a change, which from the nobleness of the music, the fineness of the horses, and the magnificent appearance of the gentlemen, afforded a very odd and surprizing contrast; the habits and every thing belonging to these cripples and beggars being ingeniously fitted by the direction of the commissioners, among whom were Mr. Attorney Noy, Sir John Finch, Sir Edward Herbert, and Mr. Selden.

After the beggars antimasque, came men on horseback, playing upon pipes, whistles, and instruments, imitating the notes of all sorts of birds, and playing in excellent concert.

These were followed by an antimasque of birds, consisting of an owl in an ivy bush, with many different sorts of birds, in a cluster gazing upon her; these were little boys put in covers in the shape of those birds, nicely fitted, sitting on small 74horses, with footmen going before them with torches in their hands, and others to look after them, to prevent their falling.

After this antimasque, came other musicians on horseback, playing upon bagpipes and other kinds of Northern music, to shew that the following projectors were Scots; and these, like the rest, had many footmen with torches waiting on them.

First in this antimasque rode a fellow upon a little horse with a great bit in his mouth, carrying upon his head a bit with a headstall and reins; a projector, who begged a patent, that none in the kingdom might ride their horses, without such bits as they should buy of him.

Then came another fellow with a capon upon his fist, and a bunch of carrots upon his head, representing a projector, who begged a patent of monopoly, as the first inventor of the art of feeding capons fat with carrots.

Several other projectors were personated in this antimasque, which pleased the spectators the more, because an information was thus covertly given to the King, of the unfitness and ridiculousness of these projects against the law. The Attorney Noy, who had most knowledge of them, had a great hand in this antimasque of the projectors.

75After this and the rest of the antimasques, came six of the chief musicians on horseback upon foot-cloths, and in the habits of Heathen priests, footmen carrying torches by their sides. These were followed by a large open chariot, drawn by six fine horses with large plumes of feathers on their heads and cruppers. In this chariot were about a dozen persons, in the habits of Gods and Goddesses, many footmen walking an all sides with torches.

This chariot was followed by six more of the musicians on horseback, dressed and attended with torches like the former, proceeding before another large open chariot, drawn by six fine horses, with feathers, liveries, and torches, like the other. Within it were twelve musicians, as variously dressed as the others, to represent, like them, Pagan deities. These chariots were made for this occasion, and, preceding the grand masquers chariots, played upon excellent loud music all the way.

After this chariot came six more musicians, dressed and attended like the former, followed by the first chariot of the grand masquers, which was not so large as those that went before, but was curiously carved and painted. It was in the form of a Roman triumphal chariot, and richly painted with crimson and silver 76all over, not excepting the wheels. It was drawn by four horses all in a breast, covered to the heels with crimson and silver tissue, and with huge plumes of red and white feathers on their heads and cruppers. The coachman’s cap and feather, his long coat, his cushion, and his very whip, were of the same stuff and colour. In this chariot sat the four grand masquers of Gray’s Inn, who were handsome young gentlemen. Their habits, doublets, trunk hose and caps, were of the richest tissue, covered as thick with silver spangles as they could be placed; large white silk stockings up to their trunk hose, and very fine sprigs in their caps.

On each side of the chariot were four footmen, in liveries of the colour of the chariot, carrying huge flambeaus, which, with the torches, gave the greatest lustre to the paintings, spangles and habits.

After this chariot came six more musicians, in habits like the former, followed by the second chariot, which differed only from the other in its being painted silver and blue. The chariot and horses were covered with tissue of blue and silver, as the former was with silver and crimson.

In this second triumphal chariot were four grand masquers of the Middle 77Temple, in the same habits as the other masquers, and had the like attendance, torches and flambeaus, as the former.

After these followed the third and fourth triumphal chariots, with six musicians between each; both they and their horses dressed as before. The triumphal chariots were all of the same make, and alike carved and painted, only differing in the colours. In the third of these chariots rode the grand masquers of the Inner Temple, and in the fourth those of Lincoln’s Inn; each taking the place assigned them by lot.

In this order they proceeded to Whitehall, where the King and Queen, from a window of the Banquetting house, beheld this procession, and were so highly delighted with it, that the King sent to desire the Marshal to take a turn round the Tilt Yard, that he and his consort might have a second view of this pompous procession; which being accordingly performed, they entered the palace, and were conducted to several apartments prepared for their entertainment; where the Ladies of honour, and even the Queen herself, danced with the principal masquers.

With this fine cavalcade her Majesty was so delighted, that she desired to have it repeated, which being intimated to the 78Lord Mayor, he invited the King and Queen, with the above masquers, to an entertainment in Merchant Taylors Hall; and on this occasion they came in procession into the city, in exactly the same order, and with equal splendor and applause as at Whitehall. Whitlock’s Memoirs.

During this unhappy reign, great disputes arose between the King and the city, in relation to ship-money, loans, &c. the city was deprived not only of the new plantation of Ulster in Ireland, which had been granted to the Lord Mayor and citizens by King James I. but fined 50,000l. Several of the Aldermen were imprisoned, for neglecting to send to court an account of such persons as were able to lend his Majesty money, and the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs prosecuted in the Star-chamber; the five members whom the King himself went with a guard to seize in the Parliament House, took refuge in the city, and were conducted back by water to the House of Commons, by a great number of citizens, while the Trained-Bands, as a farther guard, marched by land to Westminster. But even in the midst of these disputes, while the King was actually opposing the liberties of the 79citizens, he granted them several charters, by which he confirmed all their former privileges, and added some new ones. At length the Lord Mayor, contrary to an order of Parliament, endeavouring by proclamation to raise troops for his Majesty, he was committed to the Tower; and several articles of impeachment being brought against him, he was, by the sentence of the House of Peers, degraded from the Mayoralty, and rendered incapable of bearing any office, or receiving any farther honour.

There being some time after but little prospect of an agreement between the King and Parliament, and the greatest part of the city being averse to all thoughts of an accommodation, the Common Council passed an act for fortifying the city with out-works; agreed that all the ways leading to the city should be shut up, except those entering at Charing Cross, St. Giles’s in the Fields, St. John’s street, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel, and that the exterior ends of those streets should be fortified with breastworks and turnpikes, musket proof; that the several courts of guards, and rails at the extreme parts of the liberty of the city, should be fortified with turnpikes, musket proof; that all the sheds and buildings contiguous to the 80outside of London Wall should be taken down; and that the city wall with its bulwarks should be not only repaired and mounted with artillery, but that several new works should be added to it, at the places most exposed.

This act of Common Council being soon after confirmed by an order of Parliament, the following forts were raised, 1. A bulwark and a half, at the north end of Gravel lane. 2. A hornwork, near the windmill in Whitechapel road. 3. A redoubt with two flanks, near Brick lane. 4. A redoubt with four flanks, in Hackney road, Shoreditch. 5. A redoubt with four flanks, in Kingsland road. 6. A battery and breast-work, at Mountmill. 7. A battery and breast-work, at the end of St. John’s street. 8. A small redoubt, near Islington pound. 9. A large fort with four half bulwarks, near New River head. 10. A battery and breast-work, on the hill, east of the place afterwards called Black Mary’s Hole. 11. Two batteries and a breast-work, at Southampton, now Bedford-house. 12. A redoubt with two flanks, near St. Giles’s pound. 13. A small fort, at the east end of Tyburn road. 14. A large fort with four half bulwarks, across the road where Wardour street is now built. 15. A 81small bulwark, at the place now called Oliver’s Mount. 16. A large fort with four bulwarks, at Hyde Park Corner. 17. A small redoubt and battery on Constitution Hill. 18. A court of guard at Chelsea turnpike. 19. A battery and breast-work, in Tothill Fields. 20. A quadrant fort with four half bulwarks, at Vauxhall. 21. A fort with four half bulwarks, at the Dog and Duck in St. George’s Fields. 22. A large fort with four bulwarks, near the end of Blackman street. 23. A redoubt with four flanks, near the Lock Hospital.

These forts were all joined by a line of communication, formed by a rampart of earth, which on all sides surrounded the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark, This was done at the expence of the city, and the whole was immediately executed with the greatest alacrity.

After this, the city entered heartily into the measures of the Parliament, though the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council frequently sollicited that body to settle the peace of the kingdom: but soon after the King’s death, an order being sent to the Lord Mayor and Sheriff, to proclaim the abolition of monarchy, he refused to comply, upon which he was 82brought to the bar of the House of Commons, committed prisoner to the Tower for two months, and another Mayor chosen in his room.

At the inauguration of Cromwell in 1657, as Lord Protector, the Lord Mayor carried the city sword before him, accompanied by the Earl of Warwick, who carried the sword of state, and during the ceremony stood on the right side of Cromwell’s chair, while the Lord Mayor stood on the left.

But after the death of Cromwell, the Common Council opposing the Committee of Safety, declaring for a free Parliament, and refusing to pay or advance money to the Parliament, General Monk was ordered to march with his army into the city, and the streets became planted with soldiers; when several of the Aldermen and Common Council were taken into custody, the whole body disqualified, and a new Common Council ordered to be chosen; after which the city gates were broke and cut to pieces, the portcullises taken down and destroyed, and the posts and chains taken down.

After this, the city heartily and zealously joined with General Monk, in bringing about the restoration. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen, on the 29th of 83May 1660, went out to meet Charles II. in St. George’s Fields, where the city had erected a magnificent pavilion, provided with a sumptuous collation, of which that Prince having participated, was conducted through the city by a very noble cavalcade, the Lord Mayor carrying the sword bare-headed before the King, accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham and General Monk, who were also bare. Upon this occasion the city was adorned with the richest silks and tapestries, and the streets lined with the city corporations and Trained Bands, while the conduits flowed with wine, and the windows, balconies, and scaffolds were crouded with an infinite number of spectators.

In the year 1663, King Charles II. granted the city a confirmation of all their former charters, privileges, liberties, rights and customs; and the next year the city, in return, advanced several considerable sums for his Majesty, to enable him to carry on a war with the Dutch, for which the citizens received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.

About the beginning of May 1665, one of the most terrible plagues that ever was inflicted on this, or perhaps any other kingdom, broke out in this city: and as this was happily the last visitation of this 84kind, it may be proper to give a short account of its rise and progress.

The week wherein this most dreadful distemper was first discovered, it carried off nine persons, whereby the citizens were so greatly alarmed, that an universal dread diffused itself amongst people of all ranks: but the week after, the number, according to the bill of mortality, being reduced to three, the fears of the citizens were greatly alleviated. The next week, however, the number increasing to fourteen, and progressively to forty-three, the people were struck with consternation, and many of them had thoughts of leaving the city: but in the month of June, the number having gradually increased to 470 a week, the nobility, gentry, and principal citizens fled for safety, all being instantly in an amazing hurry, and the city emptying itself into the country, the streets and roads were excessively crouded with carriages and passengers. In July the bill increasing to 2010, all houses were shut up, the streets deserted, and scarce any thing to be seen therein but grass growing, innumerable fires made to purify the air, coffins, pest-carts, red crosses upon doors, with the inscription of Lord, have mercy upon us! and poor women in tears, with dismal aspects, and woeful lamentations, carrying 85their infants to the grave! and scarce any other sounds to be heard than those incessantly repeated from the windows, Pray for us! and the dismal call of, Bring out your dead! with the groans of the dying, and the melancholy tolling of bells for bodies ready for the grave! But what greatly added to this distressful scene, was, the spectator’s own reflections, that he himself should perhaps soon make one among the dismal objects, whose groans resounded in his ears.

Under these deplorable circumstances, the citizens, when in the greatest want of spiritual guides, were forsaken by their parochial Ministers, when those who had been just before ejected from the pulpits, considering their indispensible duty in this dreadful visitation, were induced, though contrary to law, to supply their place; upon which the people, laying aside the distinction of churchmen and dissenters, joyfully resorted to church, where the concourse was so exceeding great, that these non-conformist Ministers were frequently obliged to clamber over the pews to get to the pulpit; and if ever preaching had a better effect than ordinary, it was at this time, when the people listened with the utmost eagerness, and attended 86as if their salvation depended upon every word they heard.

In the month of September Death rode triumphant, for the burials then amounted in one week to 6988; but the week after the bill falling to 6544, gave some glimmering hopes that this dreadful distemper was past its crisis: however, the great increase the week following to 7165, re-immerged the survivors into an abyss of horror and despair; for now they were struck with the dreadful apprehensions, that in a few days the living would not be sufficient to bury the dead. They were, however, happily mistaken; for after this, the contagion gradually decreased, till it pleased the Almighty to restore this desolate city to its pristine state of health; after the direful ravages of this distemper had swept off 68,596 persons, which, together with those who died of other diseases, made the bill of mortality for this year amount to 97,306. Echard’s Hist. Vincent’s God’s terrible voice.

As to the natural causes of this pestilence, Physicians differ greatly; however, Dr. Baynard observes, that during the havock made by it, there was a general calmness and serenity of weather, without the least wind or rain; that through the 87great scarcity of nitre in the air, the fires in the streets were with great difficulty made to burn; and by its extreme rarefaction, which was doubtless increased by these fires, the birds panted for breath, and those of the larger sort were observed to fly more heavily than usual.

The above calamity was scarcely ceased, and those who had fled returned to their houses, when on Sunday the 2d of September 1666, a dreadful fire broke out at one in the morning, in the house of Mr. Farryner, a baker, in Pudding lane; a time when the eyes and senses of all were locked in sleep. The house was a wooden building pitched on the outside, as were all the rest in the lane, which was exceeding narrow, and by the jutting over of the several stories, the buildings on each side almost met at the top; and in this manner were built most of the houses in this metropolis. The house in which the fire began, containing much brush and faggot wood, the fire soon got ahead, and furiously seized on the neighbouring houses on all sides, running four ways at once; it presently set New Fish street all in a flame; while another branch raging down Pudding lane, laid hold on Thames street, the repository of all combustibles, as hemp, flax, rosin, oil, butter, pitch, tar, 88brimstone, cordage, hops, sugar, brandy, wood, and coals; where dividing itself, it ran both eastward and westward with inexpressible fury, into the adjacent lanes, consuming all before it; and its two main branches meeting at London bridge, soon reduced all the buildings upon it to ashes, together with the water engines under it; by which means the people were deprived of the assistance of that element; for the New River water was not then laid into those parts.

The pulling down houses every way, at some distance, was first proposed; and this was the only method that could have been of any service in stopping the progress of the flames; for had there been water, the fire was too fierce to be mastered by engines, or to suffer any body to work near it; but this was objected to, and while the affair was debated, the flames spread still farther.

Unhappily they were increased by a violent easterly wind; and that day and the following night spread up Gracechurch street, and downwards from Cannon street to the water side, as far as the Three Cranes.

The people in all parts were distracted at seeing the progress of the fire, and by the care of carrying off their goods. However, 89many attempts were now made to prevent its spreading, by pulling down houses, and making great intervals; but not having time to remove the materials, the fire seized upon the timber, boards, laths, and rubbish, and extended itself over these spaces to the neighbouring houses; raging in a bright flame all Monday and Tuesday, without any endeavours to stop it proving effectual; though his Majesty, the Duke of York, and great numbers of the nobility and gentry came with the guards, who were employed in endeavouring to extinguish it.

The wind, however, slackened a little on Tuesday night, when the fire, meeting at the Temple with brick buildings, it by little and little lost its force on that side, so that on Wednesday morning a stop was put to it on the west, at the Temple church, and also at Holborn bridge and Pye corner. On the north, it stopped at Aldersgate, Cripplegate, near the north end of Basinghall street, and in Coleman street: on the east, at the south corner of Bishopsgate street and Leadenhall street, at the church in Fenchurch street, and at the Tower dock, after its having consumed all the buildings within these limits, quite down to the water side.

On Thursday the flames were extinguished; 90but that evening the fire burst out again at the Temple, by the falling of some sparks upon a pile of wooden buildings; but upon blowing up the houses around it with gunpowder, it was extinguished the next morning.

By this dreadful conflagration were consumed 400 streets and lanes, 13,200 houses, the cathedral church of St. Paul, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, the Royal Exchange, Blackwell Hall, and the Custom House, several hospitals and libraries, 52 of the Companies halls, and a vast number of other stately edifices, together with three of the city gates, four stone bridges, and four prisons; the loss of which, with that of the merchandize and houshold furniture, amounted, according to the best calculation, to ten millions, seven hundred and thirty thousand, five hundred pounds: but it is amazing, that in this terrible devastation, only six persons lost their lives by the fire.

As by the dreadful ravages of the plague the preceding year, the city was depopulated, and the houses deprived of their inhabitants, so by this conflagration the surviving citizens were deprived of their habitations, and many thousands of them compelled to retire to the fields, with such of their effects as they were able to 91save, where they continued destitute of the conveniencies, and almost all the necessary accommodations of life; lying in the open air, till tents and slight wooden huts could be erected, to secure them from the inclemencies of the weather. Meanwhile the King had the goodness to order a considerable quantity of naval bread to be immediately distributed among the poor, and a proclamation was wisely published, ordering the neighbouring Justices to encourage the bringing in of all sorts of provisions.

It has been much disputed, whether this dismal catastrophe was occasioned by accident or design. An attempt was first made to fix it upon the dissenters, who suffered as much by this calamity, as any other body of men; but having not the least colour for such a pretence, it dropped of course; and the English being then at war with the French and the Dutch, the latter were charged with concerting this diabolical scheme; but this was found to be only an injurious aspersion: however, Robert Hubert, a Frenchman, of the Romish church, confessed, that he, at the sollicitation of one Stephen Piedloe, set fire to the baker’s house in Pudding lane, by means of a fire-ball which he fixed to the end of a long pole, and lighting it 92a match, put it in at a window; and that for this villainy he was to be rewarded on his return to France; but it is generally allowed, that this man was at that time disordered in his senses; and great pains have been taken to prove that he had no hand in that calamity: however, he was condemned and executed, though he surrendered himself, and though there was no other evidence of his guilt than that of his own confession.

It is observable, that the preceding spring and summer had been the dryest in the memory of man; whereby the houses, which were all built of wood, and without party walls, were prepared, as it were, by Heaven, to become fuel for this terrible conflagration, which, together with the east wind abovementioned, might possibly be alone sufficient to reduce the city to a heap of ashes.

But whatever the unhappy citizens of London might then suffer; it is evident, that this was one of the greatest blessings that could have happened for the good of posterity; for, instead of very narrow and incommodious streets; instead of dark, irregular, and ill contrived wooden houses, with their several stories projecting over, obstructing the circulation of the air, and harbouring those noxious particles that 93occasioned the frequent return of the plague, and often fires of the most dreadful kind; by the modern way of building, and the enlarging of many of the streets, offensive vapours are expelled; and this, added to the cleanliness produced by the great quantities of the water brought into London by the New River, has freed this city from all pestilential symptoms for above ninety years together.

The reduction of this great and opulent city to a heap of rubbish, greatly affected the whole nation; and the King desiring it should be now erected with greater magnificence, uniformity, and safety than before, prohibited for some time the rebuilding of the houses; and the Judges were ordered by Parliament to hear and determine all disputes between landlords, tenants, and lessees, concerning the rebuilding and repairing of houses, &c. without fee or reward.

London indeed might now have been rebuilt in such a manner, as to have exceeded in beauty all the cities upon earth; and this would have been the case, had either of the following plans been followed. The first was formed by Sir Christopher Wren, who, pursuant to the royal commands, traced over the great plain of ashes and ruins, and thence formed his 94plan of a new city, free from all the deformities and inconveniencies of the old one; by enlarging the streets and lanes, and rendering them as nearly parallel to each other as possible; by seating all the parish churches in a conspicuous manner; by forming the most public places into large piazzas, the centers of eight ways; by uniting the halls of the twelve Companies into one regular square annexed to Guildhall; by making a spacious and commodious key along the whole bank of the river, without any interruptions, from Black Friars to the Tower, with some large docks for barges deep laden.

The streets were to be of three magnitudes; the three principal leading straight through the city, and one or two cross streets to be at least ninety feet wide; others sixty feet, and the lanes about thirty feet, excluding all narrow dark alleys, thoroughfairs, and courts.

The Exchange to stand free in the middle of a piazza, and to be the center of the town, from whence the streets should proceed to all the principal parts of the city; the building to be after the form of a Roman forum, with double porticos.

Many streets were also to radiate upon the bridge. Those of the first and second 95magnitude to be carried on as straight as possible, and to center in four or five areas surrounded with piazzas.

The churches were to be designed according to the best forms for capacity and hearing; and those of the larger parishes adorned with porticos and lofty ornamental towers and steeples: but all church yards, gardens, and unnecessary vacuities, and all trades that use great fires, or yield noisome smells, were to be placed out of the town.

This plan, which that great architect laid before the King and the House of Commons, is thus explained: from that part of Fleet street which remained unburned, a straight street of 90 feet wide was to extend, and, passing by the south side of Ludgate, was to end gracefully in a piazza on Tower hill.

In the middle of Fleet street was to be a circular area surrounded with a piazza, the center of eight ways, where, at one station, were to meet the following streets.

The first, straight forward, quite thro’ the city: the second, obliquely towards the right hand, to the beginning of the key that was to be run from Bridewell dock to the Tower: the third, obliquely on the left, to Smithfield: the fourth, 96straight on the right, to the Thames: the fifth, straight on the left, to Hatton Garden and Clerkenwell: the sixth, straight backwards to Temple Bar: the seventh, obliquely on the right, to the walks of the Temple: and the eighth, obliquely on the left, to Cursitor’s alley.

Passing down Fleet street, at the bottom of which the ditch was to be rendered a beautiful canal, passable by as many bridges as there were streets to cross it, and leaving Ludgate prison on the left side of the street; where a triumphal arch was to be formed, instead of the gate, in honour of King Charles II. the founder of the new city: St. Paul’s was to be situated where it is at present, and surrounded by a triangular piazza.

On leaving that cathedral on the left, a straight street was to extend directly to the Tower, adorned all the way, at proper distances, with parish churches; and leaving that edifice to the right, the other great branch was to lead to the Royal Exchange, which was to be seated in the middle of a piazza, between two great streets; the one from Ludgate leading to the south front, and another from Holborn, thro’ Newgate, and thence straight to the north front of the Exchange.

This noble scheme was demonstrated to 97be practicable, without the infringement of any man’s property; for, by leaving out the church-yards, &c. which were to be removed out of town, there would have been sufficient room both for the augmentation of the streets, the disposition of the churches, halls, and all public buildings, and to have given every proprietor full satisfaction: for though few of them would have been seated upon exactly the very same ground they possessed before the fire, yet none would have been thrust at any considerable distance from it: but the obstinacy of great part of the citizens, in refusing to recede from the right, of rebuilding their houses on the old foundations, was an unsurmountable obstacle to the execution of this noble scheme. Parentalia.

Soon after this, Sir John Evelyn produced another plan, in which he proposed that some of the deepest vallies should be filled up, or at least made with less sudden declivities. That a new and spacious key should run from the Tower to the Temple, and extend itself as far as the low water mark; by which means the channel of the river would be kept constantly full; the irregularity and deformity of the stairs, and the dirt and nastiness left at every ebb would also be prevented.

98To create variety in the streets, he also proposed, that there should be breaks and enlargements, by spacious openings at proper distances, surrounded with piazzas, and uniformly built with beautiful fronts; and that some of these openings should be square, some circular, and others oval. He would have none of the principal streets less than an hundred feet in breadth, nor any of the narrowest less than thirty. He would have three or four large streets between the Thames and London Wall, reckoning that of Cheapside for the chief, which might extend from Temple Bar to the upper part of Tower hill, or to Crutched Friars, bearing the cathedral of St. Paul’s upon a noble eminence.

Among these he would have the parochial churches, which he thought might be reduced to half the number, as some of the parishes were then no less than two hundred times larger than others: and these he would have so interspersed as to adorn the profile of the city at all its avenues. Most of them he would have in the center of spacious areas, adorned with piazzas, &c. so as to be seen from several streets, and others at the abutments and extremities of them.

About the church piazzas, the stationers and booksellers were to have their 99shops, and the Ministers their houses; as about that of St. Paul’s was to be the episcopal palace, the Dean and Prebends houses, St. Paul’s school, a public library, the prerogative and first fruits office, all which were to be built at an ample distance from the cathedral, and with more stately fronts, in honour of that august pile. In some of these openings, surrounded with piazzas, he proposed to have the several markets. In others the coaches might wait; and in some might be public fountains constantly playing.

The College of Physicians he would have in one of the best parts of the town, incircled with a handsome piazza, for the dwellings of those learned persons, with the surgeons, apothecaries, and druggists in the streets about them; for he would have all of a mystery in the same quarters: those of the better sort of the shopkeepers in the sweetest and most eminent streets and piazzas; and the artificers in the more ordinary houses, in the intermediate and narrow passages; the taverns and victualling houses were to be placed amongst them, and be built accordingly; but so as to preserve the most perfect uniformity.

Between the piazzas, market places, and churches, might be placed the halls 100for the Companies; and these, if fronted with stone, and adorned with statues and other ornaments, would infinitely inrich the streets, and render this city as famous for architecture of the most refined gusto, as any city in Europe; among which should be distinguished Guildhall, by its being more pompous and magnificent than the rest: near this edifice he would have a magnificent house for the Lord Mayor, and others for the two Sheriffs.

The Royal Exchange he thought might front the Thames about the Steelyard, in an area surrounded on three sides with piazzas, with vaults for warehouses underneath; and for such merchandize as could not be well preserved under ground, might be erected buildings fronting the Thames on the other side of the river, with wharfs before and yards behind for the placing of cranes; the laying of timber, coals, &c. and other gross commodities, while the key over against it should be built for the owners, and the dwellings of the principal merchants: but if the warehouses must needs be on this side, they should be made to front Thames street rather than the river, because of the dull and heavy aspect of those buildings.

The little bay at Queenhithe should have the key continued around it, and 101cloistered about for the marketmen and fruiterers; and where the wharf then was, a stately avenue was to extend to St. Paul’s.

Four great streets were to extend along the city: the first from Fleet ditch, (which was to be formed into a noble canal) to the Tower: the second, from the Strand to the most eastern part of the city, where should be a noble triumphal arch in honour of Charles II. the third, from Newgate to Aldgate: and the fourth and shortest, from Aldersgate to Bishopsgate. He proposed that five principal cross streets should extend from Black Friars stairs into West Smithfield; from the Thames east of St. Paul’s to Aldersgate; from Queenhithe to Cripplegate; and from the Royal Exchange to Moorgate: that the street from the bridge should extend to Bishopsgate: that one from Billingsgate should extend near as far: and one from the Custom house to Aldgate.

Instead of houses on the bridge, he proposed to have it adorned with a substantial iron baluster, decorated, at convenient distances, with statues on their pedestals, with a footway on each side.

The hospitals, workhouses to employ the poor, and the prisons, being built 102and re-indowed at the public expence, were to be disposed of in convenient quarters of the city: the hospitals would become one of the principal streets; but the prisons, and court for the trial of criminals, might still be built near the entrances of the city.

The gates were to be in the form of triumphal arches, adorned with statues, relievos, and apposite inscriptions, not obstructed by sheds, or mean houses joined to them.

This gentleman also proposed, that along the wall betwixt Cripplegate and Aldgate, should be the church-yards of the several parishes, while the houses opposite to them formed a large street for the common inns, and served as a station for carriers, &c. These being on the north part of the city, and nearest the confines of the fields and roads, would least incumber the town; and there would be a far more commodious and free access to them, by reason of their immediate approaches through the traverse streets, than if they were scattered up and down without distinction.

But this scheme, which was designed as an improvement of Sir Christopher’s, also fell to nothing; and by the obstinacy of the citizens, the opportunity was lost of 103rendering this city the admiration of the world, and thereby of drawing the nobility of all Europe to visit it, and lay out great sums here.

However, it was ordered by act of Parliament, that many of the streets and lanes should be widened, and the city was impowered to make a new street from Cheapside to Guildhall, which obtained the name of King street, and another from Threadneedle street to Lothbury, called Prince’s street. And the markets, which till then were held in Newgate street and Cheapside, were ordered to be removed behind the houses into commodious market places to be prepared for that purpose. It was also enacted that all the houses should be built with stone or brick, with party walls, and the whole finished within three years: that the ground in several places should be raised, and that a column of brass or stone should be erected on or near the place where the above dreadful fire began; whence arose that noble column called the Monument: but had it been raised near the place where the fire ceased, and in the center of the fine circular area proposed by Sir Christopher Wren, in Fleet street, where eight streets would radiate upon it, and where it would be seen to terminate the view, 104even from Aldgate and Westminster, it would have enjoyed a situation vastly more worthy of its beauty, and have appeared to infinitely greater advantage, than in the corner where it is now placed. See the article Monument.

The reader has just seen the city under two of the most dreadful calamities that could fall upon a people, pestilence, and a general destruction by fire; he will now see the citizens suffering calamities of a very different kind, and deprived of all their boasted privileges. This affair it is necessary to trace from its origin.

In the beginning of May 1679, a conspiracy of the papists was discovered, for destroying the city again by fire, occasioned by the burning of one Bird’s house in Fetter lane; for Elizabeth Oxley, the servant, being suspected, was committed to prison; where she not only confessed the fact, but declared, that she was prevailed upon to fire it by one Stubbs, a papist, upon the promise of 5l. Stubbs being secured, confessed that he had been excited to this by Father Gifford, his confessor, who told him, that instead of its being a sin, it would be a great service to the church to burn and destroy all the houses of heretics; and that he had several conferences with Gifford, and two 105Irishmen, upon that affair; that an insurrection was to be made in London, and a powerful army expected from France. Five Jesuits were executed for this plot, the papists banished from the city, and ten miles round, and afterwards the Lord Stafford was beheaded for the same crime.

In revenge, the Romish party trumped up what was called the Meal Tub plot, to bring an odium upon the presbyterians and the heads of the country party; but Dangerfield, the chief actor in this farce, being committed to prison, applied himself to the Lord Mayor, and in an ample confession laid open the whole scene of iniquity, discovering the persons who set him to work.

The citizens not only vigorously pressed the prosecution of all the persons they had reason to think concerned in the popish plot, in opposition to the court, who endeavoured to skreen them; but the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council presented a petition to his Majesty, desiring, that all the persons who had been impeached by the Commons, might be brought to their trials; the Duke of York, as being a papist, excluded from succeeding to the throne; and the Parliament continued, in order to make 106the necessary provisions for the preservation of his Majesty and his protestant subjects; but this petition not only hastened the dissolution of the Parliament, but was so highly resented by the King, that it principally occasioned the loss of all the rights and privileges belonging to the citizens.

The Parliament being soon after dissolved, and writs issued for a new election, the citizens chose their former members, and gave them directions in writing to continue their search into the popish plot; to promote the bill of exclusion, and to grant no supplies of money till they had effectually secured them against popery and arbitrary power; which example was followed by most of the electors of the kingdom.

The court now threw the city into confusion, by interfering in the election of Sheriffs; those the city had chosen, and one of the Aldermen, were committed to the Tower; while other Sheriffs were elected by the Lord Mayor, without the consent of the Commons; and soon after a quo warranto was brought against the city, contrary to justice, the charters of the city, and the rights of the citizens: the plea and rejoinder brought by the citizens, were as full and as nervous, as the arguments 107brought to support the information were weak and trifling. However, the ministry having at all events determined to remove the sacred fence, and destroy the dear bought privileges of the citizens, removed the Judges who did not approve these proceedings, and chose others, who would be more obedient, in their room; and on the 12th of June 1683, the sentence was pronounced, that the city had given just ground for the forfeiture of their charter.

After this the King granted the office of Lord Mayor to be held during pleasure, appointed the Sheriffs, the Recorder, and sixteen of his favourite Aldermen; degraded eight of those that were in the country interest, and appointed eight others in their room.

The death of King Charles II. was far from putting a stop to the arbitrary measures of the court: for James II. immediately singled out as a sacrifice to popery, Mr. Cornish, an Alderman of this city, who, when Sheriff, had exerted himself in an uncommon manner in the detection and prosecution of those concerned in the popish plot. This gentleman was apprehended, and committed to Newgate, without the use of pen, ink, or paper, till Saturday noon, when he received notice, 108that he was to be tried for high treason on the Monday following. In the interim, his children humbly petitioned the King for time, that their father might prepare for his defence: but they petitioned in vain, though the most material evidence in his favour was then 140 miles from London. He was indicted the next Monday, for conspiring to raise a rebellion, to destroy the King, and subvert the constitution in the late reign. The only material evidences were two persons of an infamous and profligate character; one of them an outlaw, who was pardoned, and his testimony made legal, for his appearing against Cornish; and though what he deposed did not affect the prisoner, he was condemned, and on the 23d of the same month, hanged, drawn, and quartered before his own door, at the end of King street, Cheapside.

During this short but iniquitous reign, in which the boldest attempts were made for extirpating the protestant religion, and the religious and civil liberties of the people, the citizens and the whole nation cast their eyes on the Prince of Orange as their deliverer. That Prince’s resolution to grant them his assistance was no sooner known at Whitehall, than the deluded, weak, and pusillanimous King, prompted 109by fear, sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and with a meanness of spirit equal to that of enslaving his people, promised to restore their charter. Accordingly, on the sixth of October 1688, the infamous and cruel Lord Chancellor Jeffries brought back the charter to the city.

Upon this, a new Lord Mayor was chosen; the Aldermen restored to their respective wards; and the Liverymen of the several Companies at the time when judgment was given against the city upon the quo warranto, were also restored.

It may be proper to observe, before we conclude this reign, that about the beginning of December 1683, was a severe frost, which continued till the 5th of February; the Thames being froze, a great number of streets with shops were erected upon it.

In the year 1687, a dreadful persecution raging in France against the distressed protestants, 13,500 of them came over and settled in this city, and the parts contiguous, particularly in Spitalfields, by which they greatly enriched the city and kingdom, by introducing among us new arts and manufactures.

As the citizens had contributed very much to the revolution, King William 110and Queen Mary were conducted by a noble cavalcade to Guildhall, where their Majesties and a numerous train of the nobility were entertained at dinner; and soon after the Parliament reversed the proceedings of the former reigns on the quo warranto, declaring them to be illegal and arbitrary, and confirmed all the rights and privileges of the city.

After the peace of Ryswick, King William III. at the desire of the Lord Mayor and citizens, made his public entry into the city, with great magnificence, the Lord Mayor carrying the city sword before his Majesty.

In the reign of Queen Anne, her Majesty came several times in great state to St. Paul’s, to return thanks for the glorious victories of the great Duke of Marlborough; and after the victory of Blenheim, his Grace, with the Prince of Hesse and many of the nobility, dined with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at Goldsmith’s Hall.

On Friday the 26th of November 1703, happened the most dreadful storm of wind that perhaps was ever known in any age or nation. For, beginning about eleven at night, and increasing till about seven in the morning, it committed the most terrible and amazing devastations, 111by blowing down houses, trees, brick walls, and stacks of chimneys; by which many of the citizens were buried in ruins; a considerable number of whom were killed, others terribly wounded, while others again were amazingly preserved unhurt among the rubbish. As an instance of which, it may be proper to mention the following circumstance: two boys lying in a garret in the Poultry, a huge stack of chimneys fell in, which making its way through that and all the other stories to the cellar, it was followed by the bed with the boys asleep in it, who first awaked in that gloomy place of confusion, without having suffered the least hurt. Incredible as this story is, it is nevertheless well attested.

By the impetuosity of this storm, many spires and turrets were destroyed; upon the churches and other public buildings, the lead was rolled up like scrolls, and blown to a considerable distance. At the approach of day, the houses appeared like so many skeletons, and being mostly stripped, the damage done to the roofs was so great, that the price of tiles rose from 1l. 1s. to 6l. a thousand.

It is not easy to conceive the surprize that appeared in all countenances in the morning; for the streets were covered 112with bricks, broken tiles, signs, and pest-houses; almost all thoughts of trade were laid aside, and the principal concern was the immediate repair of their houses, in order to preserve themselves from the inclemency of the weather in that rigorous season.

The damage at sea, however, far exceeded that by land; for in that dreadful night twelve men of war were lost, with above 1800 men on board; besides the prodigious loss of merchant ships, computed at ten times the value. At that time the roads near our coast were filled with ships, especially the Downs, where most of them were swallowed up by the waves; and even in the Thames, only four from London bridge to Limehouse, rode it out; for the rest being driven to Limehouse, lay there, beating against each other, by the irresistible fury of the tempest, by which they suffered inconceivable damage. Maitland.

The French having unmercifully destroyed the Palatinate, by burning the cities and towns, near 12,000 Palatines arrived at London, where they met with the most charitable assistance. Above 3000 of them were sent to Ireland, and the rest to our plantations, where they have made very great improvements.

113In the latter end of this reign, great disturbances were occasioned by two sermons preached by Dr. Sacheverel; in which he represented the church to be in danger from the dissenters; for these inflaming discourses he was impeached by the Commons, and tried by the Lords, at which the mob were so exasperated, that they pulled down several meeting houses, and occasioned great disturbances.

Soon after the death of Queen Anne, King George I. made his public entry into London, the Lord Mayor carrying the city sword before him, from St. Margaret’s hill to St. James’s palace.

In 1715 happened a total eclipse; and the same year a severe frost began in November, and continued with short intermissions till the middle of February; by which the Thames was frozen over, and a great number of booths erected upon it.

The next year great disturbances were caused by the enemies of the government, who, on the King’s birth day, accession to the crown, and coronation, assembled in the streets in a tumultuous manner, and with the most amazing assurance, by expressions and representations, in the grossest manner dishonoured his Majesty. This induced the friends of the government, under some persons of the highest distinction, 114to form themselves into societies, at certain alehouses, which, from the vessels out of which they drank, were denominated mughouses, at each of which were deposited a great number of cudgels. At this the rabble were so exasperated, that many thousands of them assembled, and attacking one of those houses in Salisbury court, Fleet street, the landlord, in defending his property, killed one of the assailants; but this did not prevent their rifling the house, before they could be dispersed. However, several rioters being taken, they were soon after tried, when five of them were condemned and executed at the end of Salisbury court; which put an effectual stop to all tumultuous practices for many years.

It is observable, that in 1716, by a long dry season, the river Thames was reduced so low, that by a violent storm of wind at west south west, it was blown so dry, during the recess of the tide, that many thousands of people passed it on foot, both above and below bridge, and walked thro’ most of the arches.

The year 1720 will be ever famous in this city, for the destructive South Sea scheme, by which many thousands of the wealthy citizens and others were impoverished, 115while others acquired immense riches. See South Sea Company.

The year 1733 was rendered memorable by the effectual opposition made by the citizens against a scheme for a general excise.

In 1734, two spacious arches, ten feet high and six wide, were erected as a common sewer over the Fleet ditch, from Holborn to the end of Fleet street; and a neat market house being since erected in the same place, by the name of Fleet market, was opened in the year 1737; and the next year the buildings and sheds of Stocks market, at the end of the Poultry, were cleared away, in order to lay the foundation of a mansion house for the Lord Mayor, which was afterwards erected. See Mansion House.

The present reign is indeed rendered remarkable by the multitude of magnificent buildings, fine streets, and spacious squares, that have been added, and still are adding to this metropolis. A taste for elegance in architecture, and a desire to improve and adorn the city, have produced one of the finest bridges in the world at Westminster; have caused London bridge to be stripped of its ruinous buildings that encumbered the passage, and will soon render it as commodious 116and beautiful as possible. Another elegant bridge is erecting at Black Friars, in so grand a taste as to do honour to the city. We are become sensible of the absurdity of building magnificent structures in holes and narrow passages, where they cannot be seen to advantage; and now resolve to make what is beautiful in itself, an ornament to the city.

But this is not all; charity and humanity now triumph over bigotry and superstition, and the rage of party is on all sides ready to expire; churchmen and dissenters mingle in the same company without animosity, and friendships are contracted between those of different sentiments, both with respect to religion and government; while party zeal is almost confined to the ignorant and the vulgar.

During this reign the wealthy have shewn their humanity and pity for the distresses of their fellow creatures, by erecting a great number of infirmaries and hospitals, for the relief of those afflicted with any of the diseases to which human nature is subject; while others are appropriated to the cure of particular distempers. The deserted infant is received into an hospital founded for its education and support; the young, innocent, friendless girl finds an asylum; even the repenting 117prostitute has an opportunity of returning to virtue. The poor married woman is relieved and supported in the time of her greatest difficulty, distress and danger; she who is under the same distress, with the additional pangs of guilt, has a receptacle in which she also may be delivered, and supported during her lying-in, without the least expence. Those under the small-pox, who were formerly sent to pest-houses, and treated as if they had the plague, are now happily accommodated in places prepared for their relief; and there is even an hospital for inoculating the young who never had this formidable disease, in order to prevent the fatal effects which commonly attend its being caught in a riper age. In short, the last charitable foundation I shall mention, as an honour to the present age and nation, is the Marine Society; a society formed for increasing our mariners, by clearing our streets of poor vagabond boys, and men destitute of the means of procuring an honest support; thus those are made to contribute to the glory and safety of the nation, who would otherwise be brought up to plunder and rapine, who would live in misery and vice, and probably end their days with ignominy. See an account of each of these societies under 118their several articles, Asylum, Lying-in Hospital, Marine Society, &c.

The arms of the City of London are, Argent, a cross Gules, with a sword the same. Some say this was the sword of St. Paul; and others, that it is the sword of William Walworth Lord Mayor of London, who killed the rebel Wat Tyler, anno 1381, in the presence and defence of Richard II.

London Assurance, in Birchin lane, Cornhill, for assuring houses and other buildings, houshold furniture, goods, wares, and merchandize, from loss or damage by fire: except glass and china ware, not in trade, and all manner of writings, books of accompts, notes, bills, bonds, tallies, ready money, jewels, plate, pictures, gunpowder, hay, straw, and corn unthreshed; and for assurance of lives.

This society was incorporated by letters patent granted by King George I. for assuring ships and merchandize at sea; and for lending money upon bottomry; in consideration of which grant the Corporation were to advance his Majesty 300,000l. without interest, for the term of thirty years: towards the raising of which, and paying the just demands that might be made upon their respective policies, the Company were impowered to raise a sum, 119not exceeding 1,500,000l. to be called the stock of the Corporation: by a second charter, granted to this Corporation in the year 1721, they were impowered not only to insure ships, but houses, goods, and even lives.

This society is under the direction of a Governor, Sub-governor, and Deputy Governor, and twenty-four directors.

I. All manner of brick and stone buildings covered with slate, tile, or lead, wherein no hazardous trades are carried on, nor any hazardous goods deposited, are termed Common assurances, and are assured for the following premiums, viz. any sum not exceeding 200l. at 4s. per annum; any sum above 200l. and not exceeding 1000l. at 2s. per cent. per annum; and any sum above 1000l. and not exceeding 3000l. at 2s. 6d. per cent. per annum; and goods and merchandize not hazardous, in brick or stone buildings, after the same rates.

II. For the accommodation of such persons as are desirous of being assured for a term of years, this Corporation will assure (on such buildings or goods as aforesaid) any sum not exceeding 1000l. at the rate of 12s. per cent. for seven years, and 120as far as 2000l. at the rate of 14s. per cent. for the like term of seven years, without subjecting the assured to any calls or contributions to make good losses.

III. Assurances on buildings and goods, are deemed distinct and separate adventures; so that the premium on goods is not advanced by reason of any assurance on the building wherein the goods are kept, nor the premium on the building by reason of any assurance on the goods.

IV. Timber or plaister buildings covered with slate, tile, or lead, wherein no hazardous trades are carried on, nor any hazardous goods deposited: and goods or merchandize not hazardous, in such buildings, are termed Hazardous assurances, and assured as follows; any sum not exceeding 200l. at 6s. per annum: any sum above 200l. and not exceeding 1000l. at 3s. per cent. per annum: any sum above 1000l. and not exceeding 2000l. at 4s. per cent. per annum: and any sum above 2000l. and not exceeding 3000l. at 5s. per cent. per annum.

V. Hazardous trades, such as apothecaries, bread and bisket bakers, colourmen, ship and tallow-chandlers, innholders and stable-keepers, carried on in brick or stone buildings, covered with slate, tile, or lead; and hazardous goods, 121such as hemp, flax, pitch, tar, tallow, and turpentine, deposited in such buildings, may be assured at the annual premiums, set down under the head of hazardous assurances, in the above article.

VI. Any of the above hazardous trades carried on, or hazardous goods deposited in timber or plaister buildings; earthen, glass, and china ware, in trade; and thatched buildings, or goods therein, are termed Double hazardous assurances, and may be assured upon the following conditions: any sum not exceeding 200l. at 10s. per annum: any sum above 200l. and not exceeding 1000l. at 5s. per cent. per annum: and any sum above 1000l. and not exceeding 2000l. at 7s. 6d. per cent. per annum.

VII. Deal yards, also chymists, distillers, sugar-bakers, maltsters, or any other assurances more than ordinarily hazardous, by reason of the trade, nature of the goods, narrowness of the place, or other dangerous circumstances, may be made by special agreement.

VIII. Two dwelling-houses, or any one dwelling-house, and the out-houses thereunto belonging, or any one dwelling-house and goods therein, may be included in the sum of 200l. But when several buildings, or buildings and goods, are assured 122in the same policy, the sum assured on each is to be particularly mentioned.

IX. To prevent frauds, if any buildings or goods assured with this Corporation, are, or shall be assured with any other corporation or society, the policy granted by this Corporation is to be null and void, unless such other assurance is allowed by endorsement on the policy.

X. No policy is to be of any force, till the premium for one year is paid. And for all subsequent annual premiums, the assured are to take receipts, stamped with the seal of the Corporation, no other being allowed of.

XI. No policy is to be extended, or construed to extend to the assurance of any hazardous buildings or goods, unless they are expressly mentioned in the policy, and the proper premium for such assurances be paid for the same.

XII. No loss or damage by fire happening by any invasion, foreign enemy, or any military or usurped power whatsoever, is to be made good.

XIII. All persons assured by this Corporation, are upon any loss or damage by fire, forthwith to give notice thereof, by letter, or otherwise, to the Directors or Secretary, at their house in London: and within fifteen days after such fire, deliver 123in as particular an account of their loss or damage, as the nature of the case will admit of, and make proof of the same, by the oath or affirmation of themselves, their domestics or servants, or by their books of accounts, or other proper vouchers, as shall be required; and also to procure a certificate under the hands of the Minister and Church-wardens, together with some other reputable inhabitants of the parish, not concerned in such loss; importing, that they are well acquainted with the character and circumstances of the sufferer or sufferers; and do know, or verily believe, that he, she, or they, have really, and by misfortune, sustained by such fire the loss and damage therein mentioned. And in case any difference shall arise between the Corporation and the assured, touching any loss or damage, such difference shall be submitted to the judgment and determination of arbitrators indifferently chosen, whose award in writing shall be conclusive and binding to all parties. And when any loss or damage is settled and adjusted, the sufferer or sufferers are to receive immediate satisfaction for the same.

XIV. In adjusting losses on houses, no wainscot, sculpture or carved-work, is to be valued at more than 3s. per yard.

124N. B. There is no average clause in the policies of this Corporation; but the assured, in case of loss, receive the full damage sustained, deducing only three per cent. according to the terms of the policy.

Persons assured by this Corporation do not depend upon an uncertain fund or contribution, nor are they subject to any covenants or calls to make good losses which may happen to themselves or others. The capital stock of this Corporation being an unquestionable security to the assured in case of loss or damage by fire, and in case of such loss or damage the assured have as easy methods of recovery as can be had against any person or society whatsoever.

For the timely assistance of such as are assured by this Corporation, they have provided several engines and watermen, with proper instruments to extinguish fires, and porters for removing goods, all cloathed in green; and having every one a badge, with the figure of Britannia, holding a harp, and supported by the London arms, to distinguish them from servants belonging to other offices, and the badges are all numbered; of which all persons are desired to take notice, who intrust 125them with goods, or have any complaint to make.

The same figure as on the badges is affixed on buildings, &c. assured by this Corporation. The proposals printed for the Corporation, in 1758.

London Bridge, appears to have been originally built between the years 993, and 1016, since in the first-mentioned year, Anlaf, the Dane, sailed up the Thames, with a fleet of ninety-three ships, as far as Stanes; and in the last, Canute, King of Denmark, caused a canal to be formed on the south side of the Thames, for conveying his ships above the bridge.

If the traditionary account of the origin of the ancient wooden bridge, delivered by Bartholomew Linstead, alias Fowle, the last Prior of St. Mary Overy’s convent, is worthy of credit, we are indebted to the public spirit of that religious house for this structure: “A ferrie being kept, says he, in a place where now the bridge is builded; at length the ferrieman and his wife deceasing, left the same ferrie to their only daughter, a maiden, named Marie, which, with the goods left by her parents, as also from the profits arising from the ferrie, builded a house of sisters in a place where now standeth the east part of St. Mary 126Overie’s church, unto which house she gave the oversight and profits of the ferrie: but afterwards the said house of sisters being converted into a college of priests, they builded the bridge of timber, as all other the great bridges of this land were, and from time to time kept the same in good reparations; till at length, considering the great charges of repairing the same, there was, by aid of the citizens of London and others, a bridge builded with arches of stone.”

However, the continuators of Stow imagine, that Linstead, in this account, exceeds the truth, in ascribing all the praise of so public a work to a small house of religious, who might probably only consent to its being built, upon the monks receiving a sufficient recompence for the loss of the ferry, by which they had always been supported; the probability of this appears from there being lands appropriated for the repairs of the bridge so early as in the reign of Henry I. Besides, it can scarcely be supposed, that a petty convent could be able to erect and support such an edifice, which, besides other accidents, was burnt down in 1136, and was again so ruinous in 1163, that it was obliged to be new built, under the inspection of Peter, Curate of St. Mary Colechurch, 127in London; a person who had obtained great reputation for his skill in architecture.

At length, the continual and large expence in maintaining a wooden bridge becoming burthensome to the people, who, when the lands appropriated to that use fell short of their produce, were taxed to make up the deficiencies, it was resolved in 1176, to build one of stone, a little to the west of the other, which in the time of William the Conqueror began at Botolph’s wharf; and this structure was completed in 1209.

The foundation is, by the vulgar, generally believed to be laid upon woolpacks, which opinion probably arose from a tax being laid upon every pack of wool, towards its construction. Mr. Stow is of opinion, that before the bridge was erected, they were obliged to turn the Thames into a large canal made for that purpose, which began at Battersea, and returned into the bed of the river at Rotherhithe; but this supposition has not the least foundation. Mr. Maitland justly observes, that the purchase of the ground through which this spacious water course was to run; the expence of digging and raising the banks of sufficient strength; and the prodigious expence of damming off the 128river above and below the intended bridge, would have amounted to treble the sum of erecting the bridge itself; and that the space of thirty-three years, which the bridge took up in building, is sufficient to destroy so wild a notion; since if the people concerned in erecting it had dry ground to build upon, it might have been finished in a tenth part of the time, and in a much more durable manner.

The same gentleman observes, that having carefully surveyed the bridge in the year 1730, in company with Mr. Sparruck, the water carpenter thereof, he observed in many places where the stones were washed from the sterlings, the vast frames of piles, whereon the stone piers were founded. The exterior part of these piles were extremely large, and driven as close as art could effect, and on the top were laid long beams of timber of the thickness of ten inches, strongly bolted; whereon was placed the base of the stone piers, nine feet above the bed of the river, and three below the sterlings; and that on the outside of this foundation were driven the piles called the sterlings.

Mr. Sparruck informed him, that he and the bridge-mason had frequently taken out of the lowermost layers of stones 129in the piers, several of the original stones, which had been laid in pitch instead of mortar; and that this occasioned their being of opinion, that all the outside stones of the piers, as high as the sterlings, were originally laid in the same matter, to prevent the waters damaging the work. This Mr. Maitland naturally supposes, was done at every tide of ebb, till the work was raised above the high water mark.

It is remarkable, that the master mason of this great work erected at his own expence a chapel on the east side of the ninth pier from the north end, and endowed it for two priests, four clerks, &c. This chapel, which was dedicated to St. Thomas, was a beautiful arched Gothic structure, sixty-five feet long, twenty feet and a half broad, and fourteen in height. Great part of this edifice lately remained very perfect; it was paved with black and white marble, and in the middle was a sepulchral monument in which was probably interred Peter, curate of Colechurch, the architect, or master mason, who began the work, but died before it was completed. Clusters of small pillars arise at equal distances on the sides, and bending over the roof, meet in the center of the arch, where they are bound together by 130large flowers cut in the same stone: between these pillars were the windows, which afforded a view of the Thames on each side, and were arched, and far from being unhandsome: but these have long been closed up with brick-work. It had an entrance from the river as well as the street, from which last there was a descent to it by a winding pair of stone steps twisting round a pillar. These stairs opened into a short passage, on the right hand of which was a cavity in the wall for holding the bason of holy water. On the 30th of September 1758, when we had the pleasure of seeing it, this edifice existed in the above form, only a part of the arch was obliged to make way for a shop floor, and some of the body was divided into an upper and lower story for the convenience of warehouse room, it then belonging to an eminent stationer.

But notwithstanding all this art and expence in building the bridge with stone, it was soon in great want of repairs: for about four years after it was finished, a fire broke out in Southwark, which taking hold of the church of our Lady of the Canons, or St. Mary Overy’s, a south wind communicated the flames to the 131houses on the north side of the bridge, which interrupted the passage, and stopped the return of a multitude of people who had run from London to help to extinguish the fire in Southwark: and while the amazed croud were endeavouring to force a passage back to the city through the flames on the north end of the bridge, the fire broke out at the south end also; so that being inclosed between two great fires, above three thousand people perished in the flames, or were drowned by overloading the vessels that ventured to come to their assistance.

By this dreadful accident, and other circumstances, this new stone bridge was in so ruinous a condition, that King Edward I. granted the bridgekeeper a brief to ask and receive the charity of his subjects throughout the kingdom, towards repairing it: besides which, he caused letters to be wrote to the clergy of all degrees, earnestly pressing them to contribute to so laudable a work; but these methods proving ineffectual, he granted a toll, by which every foot passenger carrying merchandize over the bridge, was to pay one farthing; every horseman with merchandize, 1d. and every saleable pack carried and palling over, a halfpenny.

132But while these affairs were in agitation, the ruin of the bridge was completed, by five arches being borne down and destroyed by the ice and floods, after a great frost and deep snow in the year 1282.

However, the drawbridge, which had at first a tower on the north side, and was contrived to afford a passage for ships with provisions to Queenhithe, as well as to prevent the attempts of an enemy, was begun to be built in the year 1426; but about ten years after two of the arches at the south end, together with the bridgegate, fell down; and the ruins of the latter still remaining, one of the locks or passages for the water, was almost rendered useless; whence it received the name of the rock lock, which has occasioned the citizens to take it for a natural rock; and indeed though these ruins have lain in the water for above three centuries, they are still as impenetrable as a solid rock.

From that time the buildings on the bridge increased slowly; for in 1471, when Thomas Fauconbridge the Bastard, besieged the bridge, there were no more than thirteen houses besides the gate, and a few other buildings erected upon it.

However, in Stow’s time, both sides 133were built up, and it had the appearance of a regular street, there being only left three openings, with stone walls and iron rails over them, to afford a prospect east and west of the Thames. These were over three of the widest arches, usually called the navigable locks.

Thus we see that the bridge in Stow’s time nearly resembled what it was before the houses were lately pulled down: and the continuator of Mr. Stow observes, that it continued in the same state till the year 1632; when on the 13th of February, the buildings on the north end of the bridge to the vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses, were burnt down by a maid servant’s carelessness, in setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, at a needle-maker’s near St. Magnus’s church: this fire burnt very furiously, and there being a scarcity of water, occasioned by the Thames being almost frozen over, these buildings were all consumed within eight hours.

In this condition the bridge continued for several years; the confusions in the state interrupting the government of the city, and putting a stop to all farther improvements. However, some of the houses next the city were rebuilt of timber in the years 1645 and 1646; these edifices were 134three stories high; they had flat roofs adorned with balustrades, and had cellars contrived within and between the piers.

The bridge had not indeed intirely recovered from its ruinous condition in 1666, when it again suffered in the general conflagration of the city, most of the buildings being totally consumed, except a few at the south end, erected in the reign of King John; and the very stone work of the bridge was so injured and weakened by this melancholy event, that it cost the bridge-house 1500l. to make good the damage of the piers and arches.

The stone work was, however, no sooner secured, than a sufficient number of tenants offered, who agreed with the bridge-house for building leases of sixty-one years, paying to the city the annual rent of ten shillings per foot running, and to build in such a form and manner as was prescribed. This was carried into execution with such dispatch, that within five years the north end was completely finished, with houses four stories high, and a street twenty feet broad between side and side: after which all the old buildings at the south end were rebuilt in the same manner.

In the year 1722, the Lord Mayor, 135Aldermen, and Common Council, being sensible of the great inconveniences and mischiefs which happened by the disorderly driving of coaches, carts, and other carriages, over the bridge, published an order, that all carriages coming out of Southwark into the city, should keep all along on the west side of the bridge, and those going out of the city on the east side; appointing three persons at each end to see this order executed: and this method is still observed.

Three years after this order, the gate at the south end being greatly damaged by a fire which broke out at a brush-maker’s, and destroyed several of the adjacent houses, it was built with stone, with two posterns for the convenience of foot passengers. This gate was finished at the expence of the city in the year 1728.

At length the building leases being expired, the city was sensible of the inconvenience of not having a footway, which had occasioned the loss of many lives, from the number of carriages continually passing and repassing, projected a plan for rebuilding the street over the bridge with colonades on each side, by which foot passengers might be both secured from the horses and carriages, and sheltered from the weather. Part of this plan was a 136few years ago carried into execution, from the first opening on the north-east end, and its advantages were so obvious, that every body was desirous of seeing it completed.

However, in 1746 the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, considering the many lives that were lost thro’ the streightness of the arches, and the enormous size of the sterlings, which took up one fourth of the water way, and occasioned the fall at low water to be no less than five feet; as well as the great expence of repairing the bridge, which for several years had annually amounted to 2000l. came to the resolution of taking down all the houses, and to widen and enlarge one or more of the arches. Accordingly the Court ordered their surveyor to draw a plan, and make an estimate of the expence; which having done, the total amounted to 95,000l. when it was immediately agreed not to grant or renew any lease or leases of the houses, but to let those unexpired run out, and consequently the houses run to ruin. Stow. Maitland.

Indeed this scheme was in part proposed immediately after the fire of London, by both Sir Christopher Wren and Sir John Evelyn; these ingenious gentlemen proposing, instead of houses, to have a substantial 137balustrade on each side; and after them, the author of the Review of the public buildings had the following remarks, “As some people are ignorant enough to admire the bridge merely because it is encumbered with houses from end to end; it will not be amiss to observe, that nothing can be more ridiculous than this invention; nothing can possibly offend the eye more, or extinguish so many beauties as might take place, in case this popular nuisance was removed: suppose the present structure of the bridge was still to continue as it is, there would, at least, be room for a magnificent breast-work and balustrade above, and the top would afford one of the finest prospects in the world: on one hand a fleet of merchant ships, equal in value and importance to half a nation; on the other, two of the most considerable cities in Europe, stretching along the banks of a beautiful river, and ending with a distant view of the adjacent landscape.”

At length the leaning houses on each side seemed ready to fall into the river, and the passenger could scarcely forbear shuddering, when he observed that any of them was inhabited. At the same time, the structure of the noble bridge at Westminster, 138with the magnitude, safety, and convenience of the arches, convinced the citizens more and more of the advantages that would arise from the resolution of pulling down the houses; and in the year 1756, every one was pleased, that the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council, had applied to parliament to enable them to put this resolution in practice. In short, an act was obtained, and they were enabled to provide for the expence, by collecting a toll for every horse and carriage that passed over it, except those used for tillage, till the principal and interest of the money that should be borrowed and laid out upon it, should be repaid.

These measures being taken, orders were soon given for taking down the houses on both sides of the way, for a considerable distance north of the gate. This not only pleased every inhabitant of the city of London and the borough of Southwark, but every one who had occasion to pass and repass over this useful bridge; and all whose business leads them to pass in any kind of craft thro’ the arches, began to please themselves with the thought, that their lives would hereafter be secure in the exercise of their lawful employments.

139The houses and arches that extended across the bridge being taken down, in all the middle part of that structure a strong temporary bridge, made of wood, was with amazing expedition erected upon the western sterlings of the old structure, for the passage of carriages, horsemen, and foot passengers, till the intended alterations should be completed; and this edifice, which was rendered as safe and convenient as possible, was opened in October 1757.

But when the pavement was dug up, and an opening made into the cavities of all the piers; when some of them were demolished almost to the water’s edge, and the whole space where the houses had been taken down was a confused heap of ruins, that had not the least resemblance of a bridge, the temporary structure burst into a flame, and was intirely consumed.

The fire began on Tuesday the 11th of April 1758, at about eleven at night; and by nine o’clock the next morning, the whole temporary bridge was consumed; though the drawbridge and some pieces of timber among the ruins of the old structure continued burning all the next day.

Various have been the reports of the manner in which this useful structure was 140set on fire. Some have said, that about ten in the evening they saw several persons who appeared in liquor, coming over the bridge with a torch, and endeavouring to get it from him who held it, while he strove, in play, to defend himself by burning them, at last threw it over the boarded fence of the bridge, when the light disappeared, till the timber below burst into a flame. On the other hand, the watchmen on the Customhouse key on the east side, and at the Steelyard on the west, with many others, are said to have observed about eleven, some lights under the bridge, which appeared in several places like candles in lanthorns; and that soon after, the bridge, from one end to the other, burst into flames: but those who first saw the progress of the fire, observe, that it began in one spot, and extended itself both ways progressively.

At this disaster the citizens were filled with consternation, imagining that the communication between the city and borough of Southwark would for a long time be in a great measure cut off; and every body naturally concluded, that this dreadful disaster was occasioned by some vile incendiaries. The Lord Mayor, who had attended almost the whole time of the conflagration, and did his utmost to stop 141it, waited in the morning on Mr. Pitt with the dreadful account; and having immediately obtained his Majesty’s pardon for any person who would discover the authors of the calamity, except the identical perpetrators of it, called a court of Common Council, who came to the resolution to offer a reward of 200l. for discovering the base and villainous incendiaries. But though a considerable time is elapsed, no discovery has yet been made.

This prudent step being first taken, the builders of the bridge were asked, how soon they could possibly render it passable for carriages; when they promised to complete it within three weeks, on condition of being allowed to work on Sundays, and to employ a sufficient number of men. This news filled the people with equal joy and surprize; but this surprize was greatly increased, when they found that by keeping men constantly at work day and night, this great work was completed and the old bridge opened again in less than a fortnight; and that in this short time those arches that had been taken down, and the deep cavities in all the piers lately used for cellars, were covered over; the piers which had been demolished had stages formed of large beams 142of timber raised to support the upper works, and the whole track of ruins was covered with rows of strong beams placed close together; these were gravelled over to a considerable depth; and a strong wooden fence, on each side, raised about six feet high, with places formed for foot passengers to stand in at proper distances, to secure themselves from being hurt by the carriages.

This great work was no sooner finished with such amazing expedition, than preparations were made for a new temporary bridge, which was soon after begun, and in a short time was opened.

The great loss the city had suffered by the burning of the temporary bridge, induced the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, to apply to Parliament for relief; when that body, rendering the repairing and the beautifying of London bridge a national concern, an act was passed the same year for granting the city 15,000l. towards the carrying on of that work; upon which two toll booths that had been erected for receiving the toll granted by a former act, were immediately taken down, and all horses and carriages suffered to go toll free.

To prevent posterity being deceived by the pompous elogiums bestowed on this 143bridge, which has been stiled The wonder of the world, The bridge of the world, and The bridge of wonders, the following faithful description of it, we apprehend, will not be improper. And indeed this is the more necessary, as no accurate description of this bridge has ever yet been published. The Thames in this part is 915 feet broad, and that is the length of the bridge, which was forty-three feet seven inches in height. The street, which before the houses fell to decay, consisted of handsome lofty edifices, pretty regularly built; it was twenty feet broad, and the houses on each side generally 26½ feet deep. Across the middle of the street ran several lofty arches extending from side to side, the bottom part of each arch terminating at the first story, and the upper part reaching near the top of the buildings, the work over the arches extending in a strait line from side to side. These arches were designed to prevent the houses giving way. They were therefore formed of strong timbers bolted into the timbers of the houses on each side, and being covered with laths and plaister, appeared as if built with stone; and in some of them a closet, or little room, was formed in the cavities next the houses, 144with a window to the north, and another to the south.

It has been already observed, that this street had three openings on each side, adorned with iron rails, to afford the passengers a view of the river, and placed over three of the widest arches, called navigable locks; because vessels of considerable burthen have been used to pass thro’ them. That arch next the gate has obtained the name of the rock lock, from the cause already mentioned: that under the drawbridge was called the drawbridge lock; and the third, near the chapel (which could not easily be distinguished from the rest of the houses) was called St. Mary’s lock: and there was a fourth between St. Magnus’s church at the foot of the bridge, and the first vacancy northward, called the King’s lock; from its being customary for the King to go thro’ it in his passage through the bridge.

Thus the street on the bridge had nothing to distinguish it from a common handsome narrow street; but the high arches towards the middle, and the three openings on each side, which afforded an agreeable view of the river. But on the outside the view from the water, and from the keys, was as disagreeable as possible. 145Nineteen unequilateral arches, with sterlings increased to a monstrous size by frequent repairs, supported the street above. These arches were of very different sizes, and several that were low and narrow, were placed between others that were broad and lofty. The back part of the houses next the Thames had neither uniformity nor any degree of beauty; the line was broken by a great number of closets projecting from the buildings, and by mean necessary houses hanging over the sterlings. This deformity was increased by the houses extending a considerable distance over the sides of the bridge, and by some of them projecting farther over it than others: by which means the tops of almost all the arches, except those that were nearest, were concealed from the view of the passengers on the keys, and gave the bridge the appearance of a multitude of rude piers, with only an arch or two at the end, and the rest consisting of beams extending from the tops of flat piers, without any other arches, quite across the river.

But most of these deformities will be soon removed. Instead of a narrow street of twenty feet wide, there will be a passage of thirty-one feet broad for carriages; with a handsome raised pavement of stone 146on each side, seven feet broad, for the use of foot passengers; and, instead of houses projecting over the river, the sides will be secured and adorned by an elegant balustrade. Like Westminster bridge, it will be handsomely enlightened with lamps from sun-setting to sun-rising, and guarded in the night by a number of watchmen; the expences of both which are to be defrayed out of the bridge-house estate.

London Bridge Water Works. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth were erected in the arches at the south end of this bridge, mills for grinding corn, in order that the city might supply the poor with meal, at a reasonable rate, in a time of scarcity, or when the price was unjustly raised by avaricious badgers and mealmen. Afterwards, in the year 1582, Peter Morice, a Dutchman, contrived a water engine to supply the citizens with Thames water: this was, about fifty years ago, improved by Mr. Sorocold; and, since that time, by that great master of hydraulics, Mr. Hadley, who rendered it far superior to the so much famed water-engine at Marli in France; which is so ill contrived in its cranks, that it is said to cost 25,000l. sterling per annum to keep it in repair.

This machine was at first made to force 147the water no higher than Gracechurch street. The first engineer obtained from the city a lease for 500 years, at the annual rent of 10s. for the use of the Thames, and one arch, with a place for fixing his mill upon. The citizens soon experienced the benefit of this invention, and granted him a like lease, two years after, for another arch: by which means he grew very wealthy; and it continued in his family, under various improvements, till the year 1701; when the property was sold to one Richard Soams, a citizen and goldsmith. Morice having first, at the purchaser’s request, obtained another lease of the fourth arch, for the further improvement of the said works, after selling the whole property thereof for 36,000l. Mr. Soams, to prevent all disputes with the citizens, then applied to the city for a confirmation of his bargain with Mr. Morice, and obtained a fresh lease from them for the term unexpired of that gentleman’s lease, at the yearly rent of 20s. and 300l. fine. After which he divided the whole property into three hundred shares, at 500l. each share, and made it a Company.

The wheels placed under the arches are moved by the common stream of the tidewater of the river Thames. The axle-tree of the water wheel is nineteen feet 148long, and three feet diameter; in which are four sets of arms, eight in each place, whereon are fixed four rings on sets of felloes, twenty feet in diameter, and twenty-six floats, fourteen inches long, and eighteen inches deep.

The wheel lies, with its two gudgeons or center pins, upon two brasses, fixed on two great levers, whose fulcrum or top, is an arched piece of timber, the levers being made circular on their lower sides to an arch, and kept in their places by two arching studs, fixed with a sock through two mortises in the lever.

By these levers the wheel is thus made to rise and fall with the tide: the levers are sixteen feet long, that is, from the fulcrum to the gudgeon of the water wheel six feet, and thence to the arch ten feet. To the bottom of this arch is fixed a strong triple chain, made like a watch chain, but the links are arched to a circle of one foot diameter, having notches or teeth to take hold of the leaves of a pinion of cast iron, ten inches diameter, with eight teeth in it, moving on an axis. The other loose end of this chain has a large weight hanging at it, to help to counterpoise the wheel, and to preserve the chain from sliding on the pinion. On the same axis is fixed a cog-wheel, six feet in diameter, 149with forty-eight cogs; to this is applied a trundle or pinion of six rounds or teeth; and upon the same axis is fixed another cog-wheel of fifty-one cogs, into which a trundle of six rounds works, on whose axis is a winch or windlass, by which one man with the two windlasses raises or lets down the wheel, as there is occasion.

By means of this machine, the strength of an ordinary man will raise about fifty tons weight. But, besides these levers and wheels, there is a cog-wheel eight feet diameter, fixed near the end of the great axis, and working into a trundle of four feet and a half diameter, and twenty rounds; whose axis or spindle is of cast iron, four inches diameter, and lying in brass at each end: a quadruple crank of cast iron, six inches square, each of the necks being turned one foot from the center, which is fixed in brass at each end, in two head-stocks fastened down by caps. The end of one of these cranks is placed close abutting to the end of the axle-tree last mentioned, and fixed thereunto by an iron wedge drove through a slit in them both for that purpose. The four necks of the crank have each an iron spear or rod fixed at their upper ends to the respective lever, within three feet of the end; which levers are twenty-four feet long, moving 150on centers in a frame, at the end of which are jointed four rods, with their forcing-plugs, working into four iron cylinders, cast four feet three quarters long, seven inches bore above, and nine below, where the valves lie, fastened by screwed flanches over the four holes of a hollow trunk of cast iron, having four valves in it, just at the joining-on at the bottom of the barrels or cylinders, and at one end a sucking pipe or grate, going into the water, which supplies all the four cylinders alternately.

From the lower part of these cylinders come out necks, turning upwards archwise, whose upper parts are cast with flanches to screw up to a trunk; which necks have bores of seven inches diameter, and holes in the trunk above, communicating with each of them; at which joining are placed four valves. This trunk is cast with four bosses, or protuberances, standing out against the valves, to give room for their opening and shutting; and on the upper side are four holes stopped with plugs, which take out, on occasion, to cleanse the valves. One end of the trunk is stopped by a plug; and iron pipes are joined by flanches to the other end, thro’ which the water is forced up to any height or place required.

Besides these four forcers, there are four 151more placed at the other ends of the levers, which work in the same manner, with rods and cylinders, as above. And the same works are repeated at the other end of the water-wheel, viz. a cog-wheel, a trundle, a spindle, a crank, sucking-pipes, four levers, eight forcing-rods, eight cylinders, &c. four trunks, and two forcing-pipes: so that one single wheel works sixteen pumps.

In the first arch next the city, is one wheel with double work of sixteen forcers. In the third arch, where the first wheel has double work at the one end, and single at the other, there are twelve forcers: the second wheel, placed in the middle, has eight forcers; and the third wheel sixteen forcers. In all fifty-two forcers.

One turn of the four wheels makes 114 strokes; and when the river is at best, the wheels go six times round in a minute, and but four and a half at middle water; so that the number of strokes in a minute are 684; and as the stroke is two feet and a half in a seven inch bore, which raises three ale gallons, they raise 2052 gallons in a minute; that is, 123,120 gallons, or 1954 hogsheads in an hour, which is at the rate of 46,896 hogsheads per day, to the height of 120 feet, including the 152waste, which may be settled at a fifth part of the whole. Desaguliers Mathematics.

London House, on the west side of Aldersgate street, was anciently called Dorchester House, and afterwards Petre’s House, from its having been possessed by the Marquis of Dorchester, and afterwards by the Lord Petre: but after the restoration being purchased for the residence of the Bishop of London, it obtained the name of London House. It is a large commodious brick building, with a neat chapel belonging to it; but being deserted by the Prelates of this see, is now let out into several tenements and warehouses.

London Infirmary, on the south side of Whitechapel, is one of the many foundations that distinguish our country and the present age. It is supported by charitable and voluntary contributions, for the relief of all sick and diseased persons; and, in particular, manufacturers, seamen in the merchants service, and their wives and children.

This charity was instituted on the 2d of 153November 1740, in a large house in Prescot street, Goodman’s Fields, which is now the Magdalen hospital; but that becoming too small for this extensive charity, a new, more capacious, and more commodious building was erected by the voluntary contributions of several Governors, in an airy situation, near the Mount in Whitechapel road.

This is a very neat brick building, contrived to be plain and yet elegant, without being very expensive; and it consisting of one extended front, without either wings or inner courts, the whole is seen at one view. To the middle door is an ascent by a flight of steps, and over this part extends a very large angular pediment, within which is a dial. Above the ground floor extend two series, of each twenty-three sash windows, their number and the length of the building giving it an air of dignity. The architect has properly considered the use for which it is designed, and has suited every thing to convenience. It is properly furnished, and fitted up with about 160 beds for the reception of the patients.

The society for carrying on this laudable undertaking, consists of a President, two Vice Presidents, and a Treasurer, annually elected out of the most considerable 154benefactors to this charity, and of such persons, who by giving a benefaction of thirty guineas or more at one time, become Governors for life; and those who subscribe five guineas or more a year, are Governors during such subscription.

A general court of Governors is held in the months of March, June, September, and December, to take the report of the committees, elect a house committee for the ensuing quarter, inspect accounts, and transact such other business as may be then laid before them. The anniversary feast of this charity is held between the first of February and the last day of April, when a printed account of the general state of the hospital, the number of patients received and discharged, and an abstract of the accounts for the year past, is laid before them.

A house committee of thirteen Governors is appointed at every general quarterly court, who at their first meeting elect a Chairman to preside for the first quarter; who meet at the hospital, on Tuesdays weekly, at eleven in the forenoon, to receive and dismiss patients, to order and inspect the provisions and furniture sent in, and such necessaries that may be wanting, and to examine and regulate the conduct of the servants and patients; and 155other matters which come before them, according to the constitution of this charity. All Governors that please to attend, have a vote at this committee, and their attendance is esteemed a favour.

A committee of accounts, consisting of twelve Governors, is appointed at the general quarterly court in June, for one year, who meet at the hospital once a quarter, to examine and audit tradesmens bills, which are paid by the Treasurer within a fortnight after. The accounts are open at all times for the inspection of the Governors,

A physical committee, consisting of all such Governors who practise physic, surgery, or pharmacy, or are conversant in the knowledge of drugs or medicines (excepting such as shall be directly or indirectly concerned in serving the hospital with such necessaries) are summoned by order of the Chairman of the house committee for the time being every first Thursday in the month, and have power to order and inspect the necessary drugs and medicines, and report their proceedings to the general quarterly court by their Chairman.

Two Governors are appointed visitors by the house committee, for one fortnight, to attend twice a week, or oftener, if they 156think proper, to inspect into the management and conduct of the house, during the interval of the meetings of the house committee.

A Clergyman of the church of England reads prayers every day, and preaches every Sunday, and reads prayers morning and afternoon; administers the sacrament regularly every month; and is ready to visit, pray by, and administer the sacrament at all times when required, to the patients in the wards.

Three Physicians attend alternately; two of the Surgeons daily, from eleven o’clock till one, without fee or reward, and give their advice and assistance to all such objects as come within those hours, whether recommended or accidental. A Surgeon extraordinary attends in consultation, in all dangerous cases. The Surgeons in waiting have an apprentice, or pupil, constantly in the house, to receive, and, if necessary, to call the Surgeon to such accidents as shall be brought in at any hour of the day or night.

An apothecary (with an assistant) constantly resides at the hospital, who compounds and dispenses all medicines used there, and solely attends the business thereof.

A steward, (for whose fidelity proper 157security is given) has the charge of the house and furniture, keeps an account of every thing brought to or expended in the house, and subjects the same to the examination of the visitors, and house committee, and has the inspection likewise of the conduct of all the men-servants. Two matrons have the direction of the nurses and other women-servants, and see the diet and medicines administered according to order. Under them, are nurses, and watchers, in proportion to the number of patients, who are guided by written orders to prevent any misconduct. Proper diet for the patients has been settled by the Physicians and Surgeons engaged in this charity, and is fixed up in the wards for the satisfaction of the patients and their friends.

No officers or servants are permitted upon pain of expulsion to take of any tradesmen, patients, or other persons, any fee, reward, or gratuity of any kind, directly or indirectly, for any service done, or to be done, on account of this hospital.

Every Governor is intitled to send one in-patient at a time, and out-patients without limitation. Subscribers of smaller sums may likewise send what number of out-patients they please. All subscriptions 158are during pleasure, and any small sums from well-disposed persons will be thankfully received; but in order to carry on this undertaking, all persons are desired to pay their subscription at the time of subscribing.

The poor objects recommended as in-patients, if there are beds empty, are received at any hour without difficulty or expence, and are supplied with advice, medicine, diet, washing, lodging, and every comfortable assistance during their cure; nor is any security required against future contingencies, they being, in case of death, buried at the expence of the charity, if not removed by their friends. All out-patients have advice and medicines administered from eleven till one.

All accidents, whether recommended or not, are received at any hour of the day or night.

This is the plan of this noble charity; and though this work has subsisted but eighteen years, yet such has been the extraordinary encouragement given to it, that since the 3d of November 1740, to the 1st of January 1759, the sums generously contributed to its support amount to 79,153l. a great part of which is laid out in government securities. But what is still more extraordinary, 137,252 distressed 159objects have been relieved at this hospital; and from labouring under the oppression of some of the most malignant diseases, and unhappy accidents, have been reinstated in their honest and industrious capacities of working, and, so far as our observation reaches, their morals much amended, whereby the public again enjoy the benefit of their labour, and they, and their poor families, are preserved from perishing, and prevented from being an incumbrance to the community. And, notwithstanding the great number of objects relieved by this charity, it has not lessened the number of patients relieved by other hospitals.

The subscribers are desired to take notice, that if any patients do not conform to the rules of the house, or are guilty of any misbehaviour, they will be discharged, and never more relieved by this charity: and not to send any patient unable to walk, till they are first assured of room in the house; and when they recommend an in-patient, whose settlement is in the country, it is further requested, that they will satisfy the house committee, concerning the removal of such patient, when cured or judged incurable.

“No persons of known ability to pay for their cure, are allowed to partake of 160this charity; nor any with infectious distempers, or deemed incurable by the Physicians and Surgeons, or any in consumptive or asthmatic condition, are admitted into the house, being more capable, of relief as out-patients.”

The patients, being admitted without any expence, are required to be constant in their attendance on the Physicians, or Surgeons, at the hospital, before eleven o’clock; and, at nine o’clock, to return thanks at the chapel, and at the weekly committee next after their cure; and those only who attend their cure, and return thanks, will receive a certificate thereof, which will entitle them to future relief. The Account published by order of the Governors in 1759.

London Lying in Hospital, at Shaftesbury house, on the east side of Aldersgate street; an edifice built with brick and ornamented with stone, in a most noble and elegant taste. The front to the street is adorned with Ionic pilasters; the door is arched, and has a balcony supported by scrolls. This opens into a small area encompassed with buildings, within which are accommodations for the patients. This house, which was built by the masterly hand of Inigo Jones, was formerly the residence of the Earls of Shaftesbury, and deserves a much better situation. The polite part of the town is now so far removed from hence, that this edifice is neither known nor admired so much as it deserves. This structure, having been converted to several mechanic uses, was going to decay, but has, however, been thoroughly repaired, and happily applied to this noble charity; and in this house, support and every necessary accommodation and assistance are furnished for married women in the last stage of their pregnancy, time of labour, and month of lying-in.

The Centre of the West Side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, late the Duke of Ancaster’s, by Inigo Jones.

161This excellent charity was instituted on the 30th of March 1750, by several generous and humane persons; and has met with suitable encouragement from many of both sexes, who justly deserve that character. But so many distressed objects daily present themselves for the relief of this charity, which has been attended with a more than ordinary expence, by the reception of the wives of many seamen and soldiers in the public service, that its income, supported only by voluntary contributions, is not equal to its wants; and therefore the Governors find it still necessary to apply for the assistance of the charitable and humane. The conditions are,

162I. Such persons as subscribe thirty guineas are Governors for life, and may recommend one pregnant woman to be upon the books at a time.

II. Those who subscribe five or three guineas per annum, are Governors so long as they continue their subscriptions, and intitled to recommend as in the first article.

III. Annual Governors may make up their subscriptions thirty guineas, within one year from their last payment, and thereupon become Governors for life.

IV. All ladies are at liberty in all elections of officers, to vote by proxy signified in writing.

N. B. All lesser benefactions are thankfully received. And for the satisfaction of the public, that the women are well and properly taken care of, ladies, though not Governesses, are permitted to go into the wards.

A general court of the Governors is held four times a year; namely, in the months of March, June, September, and December, to receive the report of the quarterly committees, elect a new committee, and transact such other business as may then be laid before them.

A house committee is appointed at 163every general quarterly court, 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.

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.

164A 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 165street; 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,

166See 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 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 167opinion 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, 168he 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 169the 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. 170To 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 171and 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 172those 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. 173Mr. 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; 174from 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, 175occasioned 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 176Magistrates 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 177boy 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 178we 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 179streets, 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.

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.

180Long 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 ditch, Tothill street, Westminster. This street took its name from a water course there so called. Maitland.

Long walk, 1. Christ’s hospital. 2. Cross Keys court, Whitecross street, Cripplegate. 3. King John’s court, Barnaby street.

Long’s court, 1. Jamaica street, Rotherhith.† 2. Near Leicester fields.†

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 182taken 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 183left, 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 184why all these sages are placed on woolpacks, may probably be to remind them of the great importance of wool and sheep to this nation.

The Clerk of the Crown, who is concerned in all writs of Parliament, and the Clerk of the Parliament, who records every thing done there, sit on a form behind a table.

Without the bar sits the King’s first Gentleman Usher, called the Black Rod, from a black wand he carries in his hand. Under him is a Yeoman Usher, who waits at the inside of the door, a Crier without, and a Serjeant at Mace, who always attends the Lord Chancellor.

When the King is present with the crown on his head, the Lords sit uncovered, and the Judges stand till his Majesty gives them leave to sit.

In the King’s absence the Lords, at their entrance, do reverence to the throne, as is done by all who enter the presence chamber. The Judges then may sit, but may not be covered, till the Lord Chancellor or Keeper signifies to them, that the Lords give them leave to be so. The King’s Counsel and Masters in Chancery also sit; but may on no account be covered.

Upon the days when the King goes in 185state to the house, either at the opening or breaking up of the sessions, the Park guns are discharged; and his Majesty arriving at the house of Lords, enters a room adjoining to it, called the Prince’s Chamber, where he puts on his robes and crown, and from thence is conducted into the house by the Lord Chamberlain, where all the Lords are dressed in their scarlet robes, and being seated on the throne, sends for the Commons by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. On their appearing, his Majesty’s speech is read by the Lord Chancellor to this grand united Assembly; after which his Majesty returns in the same manner as he came, in his state coach drawn by eight fine horses, attended by his guards, and the guns firing.

A stranger cannot any way form a more just notion of the dignity of the English nation, than by attending this noble and august Assembly, when the King is present, with the crown upon his head, and not only his Majesty, but all the Lords are in their robes, and the Commons attending without the bar.

This house, in conjunction with the King and Commons, has the power not only of making and repealing laws; but of constituting the supreme judicature of the 186kingdom; the Lords here assembled take cognizance of treasons and high crimes committed by their Peers, and others; try all who are impeached by the Commons; and acquit or condemn without taking an oath, only laying the right hand upon their breasts, and saying Guilty, or Not guilty upon my honour. They receive appeals from all other courts, and even sometimes reverse the decrees of Chancery: and from this highest tribunal lies no appeal.

All the Lords Spiritual and Temporal have the peculiar privilege of appointing proxies to vote in their stead, when from sickness or any other cause, they cannot conveniently appear: but such as would make proxies are obliged, at the beginning of every Parliament, to enter them in person.

The Lords give their suffrages or votes, beginning at the puisne, or lowest Baron, and then proceeding in a regular series, every one answering apart, Content, or Not content. If the affirmatives and negatives are equal, it passes in the negative, the Speaker not being allowed a voice, unless he be a Peer of the realm. Chamberlain’s Present State. See House of Commons.

Loriners, or Bitt-makers, appear to have been an ancient company, though they 187were not incorporated by letters patent till the tenth of Queen Anne, in the year 1712, by the name of The Master, Wardens, Assistants, and Commonalty of Lorimers, London. They are governed by a Master, two Wardens, and twenty-four Assistants, with a livery of sixty-nine members.

They have a small but convenient hall, adjoining to London Wall, at the end of Basinghall street.

Lothbury, extends from Cateaton street to Throgmorton street. This street, which Mr. Stow says was anciently called Lathbery and Loadbery, he imagines took its name from its being chiefly possessed by founders, who cast candlesticks, chafing dishes, &c. which they afterwards turned with the foot to make them smooth and bright; and making a loathsome noise in the opinion of the passengers who were unused to it, the street was thence called Loathbury: but it more probably took its name from these things being turned by the lath, as they evidently were, even from his description; and that Lathbery was afterwards corrupted to Loathbury.

Love court, 1. George alley, Shoe lane. 2. Gravel lane. 3. Love lane, Mutton lane. 4. Old Horselydown. 5. Petticoat lane. 6. St. Olave street.

188Love lane, 1. Bank side, Southwark. 2. Broad Sanctuary. 3. Old Gravel lane. 4. Rotherhith Wall. 5. Thames street. 6. Willow street, Bank side. 7. Wood street, Cheapside.

Lovel’s court, Pater noster row, so called from the family of the Lovels, who had a large house in Ivy lane, called Lovel’s Inn, which formerly belonged to the Earls of Britain. Stow.

Low Leyton or Leighton, a village pleasantly situated on the side of a hill near Walthamstow, at the foot of which runs the river Lee. In this parish are several handsome seats belonging to wealthy citizens, and other gentlemen; especially the ancient manor house and seat of Ruckholts, which some time ago belonged to Benjamin Collyer, Esq; of whom it was purchased by the Earl Tylney: but of late years this seat has been deserted by its owners, and not long since was converted into a public breakfasting house, and so continued for about six years, during which it was much frequented by gentlemen 189and ladies. But it is now pulled down, and the materials sold.

Goring House, also called the Forest House, is loftily situated fronting the forest. It once belonged to the Abbot of Waltham, and afterwards came to the Gorings Earls of Norwich; after which it was in the possession of Sir Gilbert Heathcote, whole descendant sold it to Mr. Bosanquet of London, merchant.

The beautiful seat of the late Sir Fisher Tench, Bart. is a more modern structure, adorned with large and delightful gardens, with plantations, walks, groves, mounts, and canals stocked with fish and fowl: but Sir Fisher’s successors have lately sold it to Mr. John Stanniland of London, haberdasher.

The manor house of Leyton has a fine prospect over the marsh and river towards Hackney; this, together with a paddock, was sold by Mr. David Gansel, Lord of the manor, to the late Sir John Strange, who improved this seat with additional buildings and handsome gardens; but his son John Strange, Esq; has lately parted with his interest in it to Mr. Bladen.

This parish is washed on one side by the river Lee or Ley, from which the village obtains its name, and rises in a gentle ascent for about two miles, from the river 190to Waltham Forest: on which side lies one ward of the parish called Leyton Stone, in a pleasant and healthful situation, insomuch that the number of the inhabitants being greatly increased, a chapel of ease has been lately built for their convenience.

The parish church is a small building consisting of a chancel and two isles. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and the patronage of the vicarage is vested in Mr. Gansel.

Lowman’s pond, a narrow street or lane in Southwark, so called from its being built on a spot which was before a pond. In this street is the house of ——— Clark, Esq; the front of which faces the garden. It is remarkable, that this front, which has a mixture of Gothic and modern architecture, is completely covered with 191flints and shells; as are also the garden walls, which are crowned with little turrets of grotto work; the garden is laid out with great order, and every thing has a neat, whimsical, and grotesque appearance.

Ludgate, is situated 797 feet south of Newgate, and according to Geffry of Monmouth, took its name from King Lud; but as that historian has justly forfeited all credit among the learned, his assertion has no weight; for it is certain that the ancient Britons had no walled towns. The name of this gate is therefore with much greater propriety derived from its situation near the rivulet Flood, Flud, Vloet, Fleote or Fleet, which ran into Fleet Ditch.

The present gate was erected in the year 1586, with the statue of Queen Elizabeth on the west front, and those of the pretended King Lud, and his two sons Androgeus and Theomantius or Temanticus on the east. Strypes edit. of Stow.

Ludgate Prison. This gate was in the year 1373, constituted a prison for poor 192debtors, who were free of the city, and was afterwards greatly enlarged by Sir Stephen Forster. This gentleman had been a poor prisoner, and was begging at the gate, when a rich widow going by, asked him what sum would procure his discharge? To which he replied, Twenty pounds. This sum, which at that time was a very considerable one, she generously disbursed; and taking him into her service, he, by his indefatigable application to business, and his obliging behaviour, gained the affections of his mistress, and married her; after which he had such extraordinary success in trade, that he became Lord Mayor of London, and was honoured with Knighthood. Sir Stephen, in the midst of his great prosperity, thought of the place of his confinement, and having acquainted his Lady with a design he had formed of enlarging the prison, she also resolved to contribute to its execution. They caused several of their houses near the gate to be pulled down, and in their stead erected a strong, square stone building, containing the following rooms, viz. the porch, the paperhouse, the watch-hall, the upper and lower lumberies, the cellar, the long ward, and the chapel, in which last there is the following inscription:

193“This chapel was erected and ordained for the divine worship and service of God, by the Right Honourable Sir Stephen Forster, Knight, some time Lord Mayor of this honourable city, and by Dame Agnes his wife, for the use and godly exercise of the prisoners in this prison of Ludgate, anno 1454.”

These worthy founders not only settled a salary for a Chaplain of this prison, which our author supposes is in the hands of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, or some others by their appointment; but ordered that all the rooms in these additional buildings should be for ever free to all unfortunate citizens, and that they, on providing their own bedding, should pay nothing at their discharge for lodging or chamber rent: but the avaricious keepers have long ago broke thro’ this appointment, and contrary to the express orders of the donor, take rent for the rooms he built for the sole use of the poor.

As the domestic government of this prison is very singular and remarkable, we shall give a compendious account of it, from a work published some time ago, by one who had been long a prisoner there.

For the government of the prison, and the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors 194committed therein, the master keeper and prisoners chuse from among themselves a reader of divine service; an upper steward, called the master of the box; an under steward; seven assistants, who by turns officiate daily; a running assistant; two church-wardens; a scavenger; a chamberlain; a running post; and the criers or beggars at the grates, who are generally six in number.

The reader is chosen by the master keeper, stewards, and assistants, and not at a general election, as the other officers are. Besides reading prayers, he was formerly obliged to ring the bell twice a day for prayers, and also for the space of a quarter of an hour before nine at night, as a warning for all strangers to depart the prison; but on account of the dignity of his office, he is now exempted from these servile employments, and others in his stead are appointed to perform them. The reader’s salary is 2s. 8d. per month; a penny of every prisoner at his entrance, if his garnish amount to sixteen pence; and a dish of meat out of the Lord Mayor’s basket.

The upper steward, or master of the box, is by all the prisoners held in equal esteem with the keeper of the prison. To him is committed the keeping of all the 195several orders of the house, with the accounts of cash received upon legacies; the distribution of all the provisions sent in by the Lord Mayor, and others; and the cash received by garnish and begging at the grates, which he weekly lays out in bread, candles, and other necessaries. He also keeps a list of all the prisoners, as well those that are upon the charity, as those that are not; to each of whom, by the aid of the assistant for the day, he distributes their several proportions of bread and other provisions. He receives the gifts of the fishmongers, poulterers, and other market people, sent in by the clerk of the market, by the running post, for which he gives a receipt; and afterwards, in the presence of the assistant for the day, exposes all to sale to the charity men, by way of market; and the money arising thereby is deposited in the common stock.

This officer, with the under steward, assistants, and church-wardens, are elected monthly by the suffrages of the prisoners; but all the other officers, except the chamberlain, are appointed by the master keeper, stewards, and assistants. These frequent elections are designed to prevent frauds and abuses in the respective officers; but when they are known to be men of probity, they are generally re-elected, 196and often continue in their posts many months.

The under steward is an assistant to the upper steward, in whose absence or indisposition, he performs the several functions of his office.

The assistants, who are seven in number, are chosen monthly with the stewards, and one of them officiates daily. His business is, to attend in the hall, to enter all charities, and keep an account of the money taken out of the boxes, which are opened at five o’clock in the afternoon, and at nine at night. This money he pays to the upper steward, at the passing of whose accounts the stewards are auditors.

Every person nominated for the office of an assistant, on refusing to serve, forfeits one shilling to the use of the public, or instead thereof is put in fetters for three days. The officiating assistant is invested with the power of a magistrate, and can commit a prisoner to the stocks or shackles, for the abuse of any person. He is to see the cellar cleared every night, by ten o’clock, of all the prisoners; for which he receives 6d. out of the charity money; 2d. of which is for his own use; 2d. for the upper steward; and 2d. for the running assistant. This office was anciently 197in such esteem, that the assistant at his entering upon it, used to be ushered into the hall at eight o’clock at night, by forty or fifty great candles lighted, and carried by so many prisoners.

The running assistant attends upon the criers at the grates to change money; he opens the boxes; puts up candles in their respective places; attends upon the stewards and assistants; looks after the clock; rings the bell for prayers, and is crier at the sale of provisions. His salary is 4s. 8d. per month, and an eighth part of the garnish.

The church-wardens are chosen from among the youngest prisoners. The upper warden’s business is to call to prayers on Sundays, after the bell has done ringing; and the under warden’s is to call the prisoners to prayers all other days. They likewise take cognizance of all persons upon the charitable foundation; who in default of attendance are fined one penny each. For this service the under warden has a salary of 4d. per month; and when duly elected, the penalty for not serving is 4d.

The scavenger’s office is to keep clean the prison, and to fetter, or put offenders in the stocks: for which he is intitled to receive one penny from each criminal, together 198with a salary of 5s. 8d. per month, and 2d. out of every sixteen pence of the garnish money.

The chamberlain, who is chosen by the keeper of the prison, takes care of all the bedding and linen belonging to the keeper; places men at their coming in; furnishes them with sheets, and gives notice to the strangers to leave the prison by ten o’clock at night. This officer was formerly obliged to make the charity mens beds, for which he received two pence a month.

The running post’s employment is fetching in a basket the broken meat from the Lord Mayor’s table, provisions from the clerk of the market, private families, and charities given in the streets; which when so inconsiderable as not to admit of being divided among them all, are publicly sold, as before. The salary annexed to this office is 4s. a month; one penny out of each man’s dividend, and one penny out of every sixteen pence of garnish money.

The criers are six in number; two of whom daily beg at the grates: he at the grate within, is allowed one fourth of what is given, and he at that on Blackfriars side, one half of what is given there.

199The Monday after every monthly election, the accounts are audited and passed, and the balance divided; but if it amounts to 3s. 4d. per man, the keeper of the prison, says our author, arbitrarily extorts from each prisoner 2s. 4d. without the least colour of right: but if the dividend rises not so high, he then only takes 1s. 2d. the other moiety of the 2s. 4d. being charged to the prisoners account, to be paid at the time of his discharge. Another great grievance the prisoners labour under, is, their being obliged to pay the turnkey 12s. per month, for no other service than that of opening the door to let in gifts and charities sent to the prison, which often amount to little more than what he receives. Johnson’s Description of Ludgate.

It is, however, necessary to inform the reader, that this account was printed many years ago; and indeed it is to be hoped that these grievances are already remedied; if they are not, it is high time that they were; for here justice and humanity loudly call for a reformation.

The annual sums paid to this prison by the several companies, and other regular benefactions, amount to upwards of 62l. besides a hind quarter of beef and a peck of oatmeal from the tallow chandlers 200company; nineteen stone of beef and five dozen of bread from the ironmongers company, and the provisions sent in by the Lord Mayor and other benefactors.

The fees to be taken by the keeper of Ludgate, and the turnkeys under him, allowed of, and confirmed at a court of Aldermen, held on the 19th of January 1686.

At the coming in of every prisoner 1s. to the turnkey, and 2d. to the officer who conducts him thither.

The keeper finding and providing beds, bedding, mats and cords, sheets, blankets, and coverlets, the prisoners pay him for the bed lodging 3d. per night; for the second lodging 2d. and for the third or meanest lodging 1d. per night.

The keeper is to provide clean sheets every month for all his beds, and the prisoners who lie in them are to pay monthly to the chamberlain for washing them, 8d. between them, and no more.

But when the prisoners find their own beds and bedding, which the keeper is by no means to hinder, the prisoner is only to pay 3d. per week for bed-room; or for chamber-room 4d. at the most per week; and not above two to lie in a bed.

If the prisoner by his inability can go 201no farther than a couch, he is to pay only one penny per week for chamber-room, and only one penny per week for lamps and candles, which the keeper is to provide.

For every prisoner’s discharge the keeper is to receive 2s. and no more. For all actions and writs against him he is to pay the keeper only 1s. and not 1s. for every action, and 2s. 6d. for every writ, as was formerly taken.

The keeper shall not presume to take any other fees upon any pretence, demand, or allowance whatsover, for execution-money, action-money, or writ-money.

The charges of prisoners at their entrance into Ludgate; and dismission from thence.

A freeman of London being arrested by an action entered in either of the Compters, may refuse to go thither, and insist on being carried immediately to Ludgate; but the officers will extort from him 4 or 5s. as their fee for carrying him thither, though their due is but 2d.

On his being brought to Ludgate, the turnkey enters his name and addition in a book kept for that purpose; for which entry the prisoner pays 1s. 2d. after which 202the chamberlain furnishes him with a lodging at the rate of 1d. 2d, or 3d. per night; but demands 1s. 6d. for sheets; and before he goes to rest, his fellow prisoners demand 4s. for garnish, which, if he does not pay, his cloaths are privately taken from him at night, and not returned till he has raised the money the next day. The steward also demands 1s. 6d. of him for coals, candles, and the use of the house.

He is however allowed the liberty of going abroad; which he may do either with a keeper, or upon giving good security to return at night. If he goes out with a keeper, he must pay 2s. 6d. to the head turnkey, and 1s. 6d. to the keeper who attends him; and every day he goes abroad afterwards, 1s. to the keeper, and as much to the turnkey. A bond is also given for the payment of his lodging to the master keeper, for which the turnkey takes at least 5s. as his fee.

If the prisoner pays the debt, and discharges all other actions against him in either Compter, he, upon his dismission, pays 2s. to the master keeper; 1s. 2d. to the turnkey; 1s. for every action entered against him; and if he is charged in execution, 2s. 6d. for every action against him. These fees and his lodging sometimes 203amount to as much as the debt. Maitland, the last edit. printed in 1757.

Ludgate hill, a spacious and handsome street, which extends from Ludgate down to Fleet bridge.

Ludgate street, begins at the west end of St. Paul’s, and ends at Ludgate. It is a very spacious and handsome street, chiefly inhabited by silk mercers and woollen drapers.

St. Luke’s, in Old street, was erected on account of the great increase of buildings in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate; for notwithstanding there being a chapel of ease, and several meeting-houses, the parish church could not contain half the inhabitants who were desirous of assembling there to attend divine worship. The Commissioners for erecting the fifty new churches taking this into consideration, purchased a piece of ground in this parish, and erected one of those churches upon it; after which the inhabitants applying to Parliament, had the Middlesex liberty of St. Giles appointed for the parish; and by the same act 3500l. was granted to be laid out in fee simple, for the support of a Rector, besides the profits of which the church-wardens were to pay him annually 120l. to be raised by burial fees.

204The church was finished in 1732, and was consecrated the next year on St. Luke’s day, when the name of that saint was given as its patron. Though the building is convenient and well enlightened with two rows of windows, it is a very singular structure. In the center of the west front is the entrance, adorned with coupled Doric pilasters; and to this door is an ascent by a small strait flight of steps. Over the entrance is a round window, and on each side a small tower covered with a dome, and ornamented with two windows in front, one of the usual form, and another over it, answering to that over the door. The tower is carried up square, and behind it the roof of the church forms to the west a kind of pediment, broken by the rise of the tower to which it joins on each side. The uppermost stage of the tower diminishes very considerably, and this, which is the base of an obelisk, supports on each side a dial. From hence rises, as a steeple, a fluted obelisk, which reaches to a great height, diminishing slowly, and being of a considerable thickness towards the top, the upper edges are sloped off. In short, the whole is terminated by a ball and fane.

The advowson of this church is in the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, and it is 205not to be held in commendam; all licences and dispensations for that purpose being declared void by the act abovementioned.

St. Luke’s Hospital for lunatics, a neat and very plain structure, at the north end of Moorfields. Nothing is here expended in ornament, and we only see a building of considerable length plaistered over and whitened, with ranges of small square windows, on which no decorations have been bestowed.

This hospital, which takes its name from its being situated in St. Luke’s parish, is supported by private subscriptions, and is designed as an improvement upon Bethlem, which was incapable of receiving and providing for the relief of all the unhappy objects for whom application was made.

Some of the reasons for setting on foot this kind and generous design, were, the expence and difficulty attending the admission of a patient into the hospital of Bethlem, which had discouraged many applications for the benefit of that charity, particularly on the behalf of the more necessitous objects, and of such who resided in the remote parts of this kingdom. By this unavoidable exclusion and delay many useful members have been lost to society, either by the disease gaining 206strength beyond the reach of physic, or by the patients falling into the hands of persons unskilled in the treatment of this disorder. And many of the unhappy persons afflicted with it, have from this delay, and the want of being put under the care of those experienced in guarding against their attempts, frequently committed the most fatal acts of violence on themselves, their relations and attendants. Had they joined this to Bethlem hospital, it would have deprived it of two of its principal advantages, the being under the immediate inspection and government of its own patrons and supporters; and of introducing more gentlemen of the faculty to the study and practice of one of the most important branches of physic.

In this hospital patients are taken in according to the order of time in which the petitions of their friends have been delivered to the Secretary, without favour or partiality. They are even admitted without any expence, except only such as are parish poor must have their bedding provided, and this they are at liberty to take away at their discharge.

On the admission of every patient, two responsible housekeepers, residing within the bills of mortality, must enter into a bond to the Treasurer for the time being, 207in the penalty of 100l. to take away such patient within seven days after notice given them for that purpose by the committee, or their Secretary. These securities must leave their names with their places of abode in writing, delivered to the Secretary at least four days before such admission, and must be approved of by the committee: but no Governor is to be security for any patient.

The patients in this hospital are not exposed to public view; and no money received for the use of this charity, is expended in entertaining the general court of committee at any of their meetings.

But no person is to be admitted who has been a lunatic above twelve calendar months; or has been discharged as incurable from any other hospital for the reception of lunatics; or who has the venereal disease; is troubled with epileptic or convulsive fits, or is deemed an ideot; nor any woman with child.

The general committee receive immediately into the hospital any patient who shall have been discharged cured, in case such patient relapses within two months. The general committee also take in by rotation such patients as are discharged uncured; but each of them is to pay 5s. per week, till the charity is enabled to lessen 208that expence: but the number of these in the house are not to exceed twenty.

I. Every person paying twenty guineas or upwards, or paying five guineas, and signing an agreement to pay the same sum for the four next succeeding years, is admitted a Governor, except all persons acting as Physician, Surgeon, Apothecary, or Secretary to this hospital, (other than the six Apothecaries declared Governors at the general meeting held on the 29th of June 1750.)

II. For transacting the business of this hospital, a general court is held twice every year, viz. on the second Wednesday in the months of February and August, and at such general courts as are herein after mentioned, and every general court consists of nine Governors.

III. At the general court held annually on the second Wednesday in the month of February, one President, four Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, a general Committee, Physician, Surgeon, Apothecary, and Secretary, are elected for the year ensuing. And no person acting as Physician, Surgeon, or Apothecary to any other hospital or infirmary, can be Physician, Surgeon, or Apothecary to this hospital.

209IV. All questions are determined by the majority of Governors present, on holding up of hands, or by a division, or by a ballot, in case it is required by seven or more Governors before a division is begun; and in all cases of an equality of votes, the person presiding for the time being has the casting vote. In all debates the person speaking stands up, and addresses himself to the chair, and no person is to speak more than once to the same question without leave.

V. At the general court to be held annually on the second Wednesday in August, a special committee of seven Governors, who are not of the general committee, are appointed to audit and examine the several accounts relating to this hospital, and report their opinion of such accounts to the general court held on the second Wednesday in February following,

VI. The President has power to order special general courts to be summoned as often as he thinks necessary: and, upon every vacancy in the office of Treasurer, Physician, Surgeon, Apothecary, or Secretary, a general court is summoned to meet, in order to fill up the vacancy. But no person is intitled to vote at such general court, unless he has paid his subscription 210money on or before the day in which the vacancy is declared.

VII. The general committee consists of the President, Vice-Presidents, and Treasurer for the time being, and of the five Governors named as lessees in the lease of the ground on which the hospital is built, and of all persons who have paid 100l. or upwards for the use of the hospital; and of such twenty-four Governors residing within the bills of mortality, as are annually elected for that purpose at the general court held on the second Wednesday in February, of which committee five at least are necessary to do business. They meet one stated day in every month, or oftener if they see convenient, and at such other times as the Treasurer, or any sub-committee for the time being appoint. And have power to hire, govern, and discharge the domestic servants of this hospital, to keep the buildings properly repaired, and purchase provisions, furniture, and other necessaries for the same: To admit and discharge patients: To see that the several books relating to the hospital be regularly kept: That all debts, legacies, annual subscriptions, and other revenues of this hospital be received and recovered as the same shall respectively become due: That all 211moneys in the hands of the Treasurer, above what is necessary in the opinion of the said committee for defraying the current expences of the hospital, be from time to time placed out in transferable government securities, and no other, in the names of the Treasurer for the time being, and two of the Vice-Presidents, or of two such other Governors as the general court shall appoint for that purpose: and that all just demands be regularly discharged at least once in six months. The committee have power to relieve any patient at his or her discharge with any sum not exceeding 20 s.

VIII. For the more easy dispatch of business, this committee has power to summon sub-committees, one of which is called the house committee; and such sub-committees have power to summon the general committee as often as they think proper.

IX. All purchases of provisions, and other materials for the use of the hospital, are to be made as often as possible by contract. But no contract is to be made by which any member of the committee is directly or indirectly concerned,

X. A book intitled The Visitor’s book, is kept in the hospital, for the Governors to enter complaints of any neglect or misconduct 212in the officers or servants, these complaints being signed by such Governor’s name, are taken into consideration, and redressed by the committee.

XI. The Physician, who is allowed to have the liberty of pupils, attends every committee day, and one other day in the week, and as often otherwise as there is occasion. The Surgeon also attends the hospital every weekly committee day, and as often as there is occasion; and the six Apothecaries who generously attend and administer their medicines gratis, are there monthly by rotation, attending every weekly committee day, and two other days in the week, and as often at other times as there is occasion.

XII. That every officer or servant who shall take any fee, gratuity or reward, directly or indirectly, from any tradesman or other person dealing with this hospital, patient, or friend of any patient, in respect of any service done or to be done, shall forthwith be discharged, and rendered incapable of being received again into the service of this hospital. Except that it shall be lawful for the Secretary of this hospital, upon his waiting on every Governor with a staff and a printed copy of the rules and orders of this hospital, to accept of a fee not exceeding one guinea.

213Before we conclude this article it is proper to observe, that though this hospital was opened so lately as the 30th of July 1751, yet so great has been the encouragement it has met with, that on the 18th of August 1758, the clear estate of the hospital amounted to 14,502l. of which 14,200l. were in three per cent. East India annuities. At that time the number of discharged cured, amounted to 247, and those uncured to 138. Fifty patients were in the house; besides 20 patients who had been before discharged, and received again at 5s. per week.

Lumley’s Almshouse, in Pest-house fields, near Old street, was erected by the Viscountess Lumley, in the year 1672, for the accommodation of six poor women of the parishes of Bishopsgate and Aldgate; to each of whom she granted an allowance of 4l. and twelve bushels of coals per annum.

Lying-in Hospital, for married women, in Brownlow street, Long Acre. Amidst the variety of charities that are the distinction 214and glory of this age and nation, perhaps none has been proposed to the public more extensive in its benefits than the hospitals in this city for lying-in women. It is natural to observe, that the arguments for establishing any hospital, are at least as strong when applied to these. Poverty is an object of pity; sickness and poverty united seem to comprehend all the natural evils of life, and how great is the calamity of those poor who are frequently or periodically afflicted with sickness; and though their labour is at other times a bare support, are annually disqualified for providing for themselves and families! During the latter part of their pregnancy, and the time of their lying-in, the needy family is wholly taken up in attendance upon them; and the joys natural at such a season, are suppressed by the wants which surround them. Or if they be destitute of this attendance, how great is the hazard that the helpless mother, or the child, or perhaps both, may by their deaths become melancholy instances of the evils of real poverty!

By the plan of this hospital, every convenience these distressed objects can require, is amply provided; commodious apartments and beds, good nursing, plain suitable diet, proper medicines, the charitable 215assistance of gentlemen of skill and experience in midwifery, and, on due occasions, the spiritual comfort of a sober and pious divine.

Between the 7th of December 1749, when women were first admitted, and the 12th of April 1751, 299 patients received orders of admission; and the number of patients greatly increasing, four small houses contiguous to the back of the hospital were added to it, and fitted up at a great expence.

Women are received into this hospital in the last month of their pregnancy, on producing a letter of recommendation from a Governor, and making an affidavit of their marriage and their husband’s settlement, which affidavit is prepared for them gratis by the Secretary; and where the husband cohabits with the wife, he is to join in the affidavit, unless prevented by sickness, or some other reasonable impediment. It is also required, that the women produce a testimonial of their honesty and poverty, under the hands of two substantial housekeepers in the neighbourhood where they lodge or reside, in case the weekly board shall, on examination, doubt of their being in such circumstances as to be proper objects of the charity.

Friday being the day appointed for the 216admission of women, they are to be at the hospital by ten o’clock in the forenoon, no letters of recommendation being received after that hour, it being necessary, for the dispatch of the business of the hospital, that their affidavits should be prepared and sworn to, before the weekly board sits, who enter upon business at eleven.

During their continuance in the house, necessaries are provided for them and their children, at the sole charge of the hospital; no money or other gratuity is to be taken of them by the nurses, or by any of the officers or servants of the house, on any pretence whatsoever.

That this excellent charity may be rendered more extensively useful to the public, and that not only this great metropolis, but the remotest parts of the kingdom may be supplied with well-instructed and experienced midwives, four female pupils at a time are permitted to attend the hospital, in order to their being instructed in midwifery. These pupils must be widows or married women, not less than twenty-five years of age, of a sober character, and such as are approved of by the committee. These are allowed to stay and board six months in the hospital, during which they dine at the steward’s 217and matron’s table. The gentlemen of the faculty who attend the hospital, at stated times, give them lectures in midwifery, and instruct them how to act in all natural and difficult births. And when they are thoroughly instructed, and sufficiently experienced, they receive from these gentlemen, on their leaving the hospital, certificates of their qualification. The expences of their instruction and board in the hospital have been settled at a general court; the particulars of which any persons desirous of becoming pupils may be informed of, by applying to the matron of the hospital. But no pupils of the male sex are permitted to attend this hospital.

The officers of this hospital, are, a perpetual President, four Vice-Presidents, and a Treasurer, who are chosen annually.

Two Physicians, and two Surgeons, practising midwifery, deliver the women in difficult cases. These gentlemen also meet at the hospital in consultation every Tuesday morning.

A Chaplain reads divine service in the hospital, baptizes the children, churches the women, and performs the necessary duties belonging to his function.

An Apothecary prepares such medicines 218as are prescribed for the women and children.

A Secretary keeps the accounts of the hospital, attends at general meetings, and weekly boards, and does all other business commonly done by the Secretaries, Clerks, or Registers at other hospitals.

A Steward takes care of the provisions and furniture, and does such other business as belongs to his office.

A Matron, well skilled in midwifery, delivers the women in easy, natural labours, takes care of the women, superintends the nurses, and sees every thing necessary for the women and children provided according to the direction of the Physicians and Surgeons. She has under her an assistant matron.

All officers and servants of the hospital, above the rank of assistant matron, a messenger, and nurses, are elected by ballot at a general court of the Governors: and on any vacancy, the day of election for filling it up is appointed at least one month, and not more than three months, from the day such vacancy happens, unless directed otherwise by an express order of a general court: but the inferior servants are appointed by a weekly committee.

The qualification of an annual Governor 219of this charity is a subscription of three guineas or upwards per annum; and of a perpetual Governor, the payment of thirty guineas at one time, which intitles the subscriber to recommend, and have in the house one woman at a time. A subscription of six guineas a year, or a payment at once of sixty, intitles the subscriber to have in the house two women at a time, and so, in proportion, for larger sums.

Ladies subscribing the like sums have the privilege of recommending women in the same manner as Governors. They have likewise a right of voting in all elections at general courts, for officers and servants, by proxy, provided such proxy be a Governor of this charity; or they may send a letter to the board without a proxy, naming the person they vote for, which is regarded as their vote: but no Governor is to be proxy for more than one lady at a time.

Benefactions or subscriptions of smaller sums than those abovementioned, are thankfully received, and properly applied to the use of the charity.

A general meeting of the Governors is held every quarter; and the sole power of making laws and rules for the government of the hospital is lodged in this general court.

220A committee of fifteen Governors is chosen at each quarterly general court; of whom the Treasurer for the time being is always one, and any number of these may transact business. Every Friday morning they meet at the hospital, to receive the women recommended, and to direct the ordinary affairs of the house. Temporary orders are made by this committee for the service of the hospital; but a report of these and all their other proceedings, are made to the quarterly general court. Any Governor of the charity may be present at this weekly committee; but none have a right of voting there, except those who are members of the committee, and the President or Vice-Presidents, if present. The same rule extends to all other committees.

A special general court may, on a fortnight’s notice, be called at any time between the quarterly courts, either by order of a general court, or of the weekly committee; or at the demand of the Treasurer, or of any five of the Governors; this demand being delivered in writing at the weekly board, and signed with their respective names; the business of such special court to be expressed in this writing, and in the summons to the Governors. From the account of this hospital published 221by order of the Governors. See London Lying-in Hospital.

This, and the London hospital for lying-in women, must be allowed to be truly noble charities; but many have thought them too limited, as the relief afforded to poor distressed women in a situation that calls upon humanity to lend them help, ease, and comfort, is confined to those who are married: and the more unhappy women, who have the sting of guilt added to pain, are excluded from receiving the least benefit from those foundations. The following hospital has therefore been founded on a more extensive plan.

Lying-in Hospital, in Duke street, Grosvenor square, for unmarried as well as married women, who are here received and relieved, in order to prevent the unhappy consequences that too often proceed from their situation; such as perjuries, false affidavits, and that most formidable and unnatural of all crimes, the murder of their poor guiltless infants. To prevent these dreadful effects, every convenience is here amply provided for them, commodious apartments and beds, good nursing, plain, suitable diet, proper medicines, the charitable assistance of gentlemen of skill and experience in midwifery, and, 222on due occasions, the spiritual comfort of a sober, pious, and exemplary divine.

This hospital, which first began in Jermyn street, St. James’s, and was from thence removed into Duke street, is governed by a President, a Vice-President, and a Treasurer, annually elected out of the Governors, greatest benefactors to this charity; by a general court of Governors held in the months of March, June, September, and December, to take the reports of the committees; and by a house committee who inspect accounts and transact such business as is laid before them.

At the general quarterly courts a physical committee is appointed out of the Physicians, Men-midwives, Surgeons, and Apothecaries, who are to meet once a month to examine the medicines and drugs brought into the dispensatory, and none are suffered to be used without their approbation.

Two Physicians and two Surgeons attend twice a week on extraordinary cases; a Surgeon and Man-midwife, in great business in the neighbourhood, gives attendance at any hour of the day or night he is called for, particularly from eleven of the clock till one, every day; and such objects as come within these hours, have 223advice in physic and surgery, without fee or reward, whether recommended or accidental.

No officers or servants are permitted, on pain of expulsion, to take any fee, reward, or gratuity whatsoever, of patients or other persons, for any service done or to be done in this hospital.

Every Governor or subscriber is intitled to send one in-patient at a time, and out-patients without limitation. All subscriptions are during pleasure; but all persons are requested to pay at the time of subscribing. Those who contribute two guineas a year are Governors while they continue their subscription, and those who give 20l. at one payment, are Governors during life, and have a vote and interest at the committees, and their attendance is esteemed a favour; but those who subscribe less than two guineas per annum, are only subscribers.

The poor women recommended by the Governors and subscribers are received on Wednesdays and Fridays, from eleven o’clock till one. From the account of this hospital published by order of the Governors.

For the other lying-in hospitals, besides the two above mentioned, see the articles 224London Lying-in Hospital, and Middlesex Hospital.

Magdalen House, for the reception of penitent prostitutes, in Prescot street, Goodman’s fields, is a plain, neat building, with a wall and a small area before it. To prevent these penitents being exposed to the public eye, the windows next the street are concealed by wood work sloping up from the bottom of each, so as to admit the light only at the top; the sides are also inclosed, so that there is no possibility of these once unhappy women either seeing or being seen by any person who passes by. This sloping projection of the blinds, placed in a regular series before all the windows in each story, and painted white like the walls, has a very singular appearance; for, at a distance, the house seems falling into the street.

225Though this is one of the latest of those excellent charitable foundations that do honour to the present age, it being proposed and carried into execution in the year 1758, there is reason to believe that it will not be the least useful. It is obvious that there cannot be greater objects of compassion than poor, young, thoughtless females, plunged into ruin by those temptations to which their youth and personal advantages expose them, no less than those passions implanted by nature for wise, good, and great ends; surrounded by snares the most artfully and industriously laid; snares laid by those endowed with superior faculties, and all the advantages of education and fortune; who offer too commonly to transport the thoughtless girls from want, confinement, and restraint of passions, to luxury, liberty, gaiety and joy: but when once seduced, how soon do their golden dreams vanish! abandoned by the seducer, deserted by their friends, contemned by the world, they are not only deprived of their innocence, and every pleasing hope of domestic happiness, but are left to struggle with want, despair and scorn, and even, in their own defence, to plunge deeper and deeper in sin, till disease and death conclude a miserable being. It is too well known 226that this is, sooner or later, the case with most of the prostitutes, in their several degrees, from those pampered in private stews, to the common dregs infesting our streets: and that far the greatest part of those, who having taken to this dreadful life, are thus seeking disease, death, and eternal destruction, not through choice, but necessity. The seeds of virtue would frequently have exerted themselves; but alas! before this foundation was formed, the possibility was removed; and the same necessity obliging them to prey on the unwary, to diffuse contagion, to propagate profligacy, and to spread ruin, disease, and death, through a great part of the human species.

This godlike proposal of giving an opportunity of repentance to guilt and shame met with a suitable encouragement, and many were willing to afford them the means of recovering themselves from their otherwise lost state; and instead of being pests, becoming useful members of society.

Influenced by such noble motives, a set of gentlemen, distinguished by their humanity and generosity, entered into a private subscription, making themselves at the same time accountable for such benefactions as should flow in from the public. Numbers liberally contributed, and in 227about three or four months time, the sums advanced by the subscribers amounted to 3593 l. 19 s. while a great number of these unhappy guilty objects of commiseration solicited for admission.

At a general meeting of the subscribers, a committee was appointed, and it was determined to take the house in Prescot street which had been lately the London infirmary; which being done, it was fitted up in the manner above mentioned; and at another general meeting on the 28th of June 1758, the several officers of the house were chosen, and the rules, of which the following are an abstract, were ordered to be published.

I. That a President, four Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and committee of twenty-one, be annually chosen the last Wednesday in June, and that seven of the committee go out yearly.

II. The general courts shall consist of at least ten Governors, the President, or Vice-President, and the Treasurer. These general courts shall be held quarterly, viz. on the last Wednesday in March, June, September, and December. The annual general court, in which is to 228be examined all the transactions of the year, and the general state of the hospital, and at which time the officers shall be chosen, is to be held on the last Wednesday in June.

III. The general committee is to consist of twenty-one, five of whom shall constitute a quorum, and the President, Vice-President, and Treasurer shall be always of this general committee, one of whom shall be Chairman, when present; but if none of them be present, then the said committee may chuse their Chairman. They are to meet once a week, or oftener, as they shall think proper: when they shall have power to receive the persons petitioning for admittance, and to dismiss those already admitted: to give orders in relation to the manner in which the persons admitted shall be employed: to inspect the cloathing, furniture, and provisions: to examine into the conduct of all the officers and servants: and every week a sub-committee of three are jointly to visit the wards, and make their report.

IV. A subscription of twenty guineas shall be a qualification for a Governor for life: and an annual subscription of five guineas shall be a qualification for a Governor for that year; this subscription, 229when it shall amount to twenty-five guineas, shall be a qualification for a Governor for life, and every such subscriber be intitled to one vote only: but if any annual subscriber shall be more than two years in arrear, his power as Governor shall cease till such arrears be paid. And every lady subscribing as above, shall be intitled to vote personally, or by proxy, provided that proxy be brought by a Governor: but no Governor to be possessed of more than one proxy. Any five Governors shall have power to require a general meeting, provided they address themselves to the Treasurer by letter, expressing the business for which that meeting is required, and signed by them respectively. All elections to be by holding up of hands, except a ballot be required, and if there shall be an equality of votes, the Chairman is to have the casting vote.

V. The Chaplain is to read prayers morning and evening; to pray and preach twice every Sunday, and to administer the sacrament every month; to attend the sick and ignorant, and to instruct them in the principles and duties of the protestant religion. He is to attend all committees, and make reports of what he thinks necessary for the good conduct and benefit of the undertaking.

230VI. There are two Physicians, two Surgeons, and three Apothecaries, who are required to behave with the utmost humanity and prudence. One of each is to attend the committee, and make weekly reports. They are all to attend in their own persons, and no pupil, apprentice, or servant, shall at any time be admitted into the wards; and even when the Physicians, Surgeons, and Apothecaries visit the wards, they shall be attended by the matron.

VII. The Matron is to direct the œconomy of the house, and constantly to reside in it. She is to see that all the women are neat and decent in their cloaths and persons, and properly employed; that they discharge their duty, and constantly attend divine service: she is to receive from the steward the materials for their work, and deliver it back to him. She is to take care of the houshold linen, and what belongs to the cloathing: to require from the steward such provisions as are necessary for the house, and to see that they are not given away or wasted. She is to keep the keys of the outward doors, which are to be delivered into her hands after the doors are locked, at seven in the winter, and nine in the summer; and she is to take care that the rules of the house be strictly observed, with regard to the 231time of rest, diet, hours of devotion, and every thing that relates to good order.

VIII. The Secretary is to keep the books, take minutes at all meetings, to collect the annual subscriptions, and to give notice to such subscribers as are more than one year in arrears, &c.

IX. The Steward is to reside constantly in the house, and to follow no other employment than what relates to this charity. He is to receive the respective provisions and materials for the employment of the women, ordered by the committee, and inspect the weight, measures and quality thereof, and to make regular entries of them; to keep an exact account of all the work done by every respective woman, as the matron shall deliver it to him.

X. The Porter is not to receive any letter, message, or other thing into the house, or send out any thing without the knowledge or inspection of the matron: he is to reside in the house, and strictly to observe the instructions that shall be given him, in regard to visitors, letters, &c.

XI. The Messenger is also to dwell in the house, and to be employed in errands, and out-door business: but he is not to bring any letter, verbal message, or other thing into the house, or to carry out any 232message or other thing, without the knowledge or inspection of the matron.

Neither the steward, porter, or messenger, shall have any communication with the wards.

No officer, or servant of the house shall receive any money, fee, gratuity, or reward, besides their wages.

I. That the method of admission be by petition to the committee, the printed form of which, with proper blanks to be filled up, may be had gratis by application at the house. That every petitioner be examined as to her health, by the Physician, Surgeon, and Matron. When any petition is approved, it shall be wrote upon, Found proper, and signed by the Chairman. Every person upon admission shall subscribe to the rules of the house, and also enter into an agreement to pay the sum of 10l. per annum for her board, lodgings, and necessaries, which is to be void, provided such person continues in the house three years, or less time, at the option of the committee. No person admitted shall be allowed to go out of the house without special leave in writing, 233signed by the Treasurer or Chairman, and two of the committee.

II. One or more wards are to be allotted for persons newly admitted, where they are to remain some time for a trial of their behaviour. There shall be superiority of wards, according to the education or behaviour of the persons admitted; and the inferior wards shall consist of meaner persons, and of those degraded for misbehaviour. In each ward they shall be classed, and one appointed to preside and be accountable for the conduct and behaviour of the rest; and they shall by rotation do the necessary offices in their respective wards, excepting the person appointed to preside. They are also to perform the necessary offices of the house, as they shall be directed by the matron; and an allowance shall be made to such as perform these offices, out of the general produce of the work done in the house, according to the proportion of the value of their duty and labour.

III. Each person is to lie in a separate bed, and have a chest for her cloaths and linen, under lock and key, to be kept by herself; and where the rooms will admit of it, a small closet or apartment is to be provided for the retirement of the most serious and best behaved, in the intervals 234of their employment, and these also considered as the reward of good conduct.

IV. Their true names must be registered, but if desirous of concealing themselves, they may have liberty to assume a feigned name. As no reproaches must be made for past irregularities, under the severest injunctions; neither shall there be any inquiries made into names or families; but all possible discouragement given to every kind of discovery that the parties themselves do not chuse to make.

V. Upon their admission, if their apparel is in any tolerable condition, it is to be cleaned, ticketed, and laid by, in order to be returned them whenever they leave the house: but if such apparel be too fine for their station, it shall be sold, and the produce brought to their account. They are to wear an uniform of light grey, and in their whole dress to be plain and neat.

VI. Each ward is to dine at a separate table. The matron is to dine at the head of the table of the superior ward; and the head of each ward is to dine at the upper end of each table, and to say grace.

VII. Each person is to be employed in some work or business according to her ability, and have such part of the benefit arising from her labour and ingenuity as the committee shall judge she deserves; 235which sum may be increased by the bounty of the house, as favourable opportunities may offer, for establishing them in the world. The articles proposed for their employment are, making their own cloaths both linen and woollen; knitting, spinning, making bone lace, black lace, artificial flowers, childrens toys, winding silk, drawing patterns, making women and childrens shoes, mantuas, stays, coats, &c. but no part of their labour is to be sold in the house, but at some other place appointed by the committee. In their work, as in every other circumstance, the utmost care and delicacy, humanity and tenderness will be observed, that this establishment may not be thought a house of correction, or even of hard labour, but a safe retreat from their distressful circumstances.

VIII. From Lady-day to Michaelmas they are to rise at six and be in bed at ten; and from Michaelmas to Lady-day are to rise at seven and be in bed at nine; and after that time no fire or candle shall be allowed, except in the sick ward.

IX. They are to breakfast at nine o’clock, and be allowed half an hour; and are to dine at one o’clock, and be allowed an hour; they may leave off work at six in the winter, and seven in summer.

236X. No Governor, or any other person shall be permitted to visit the wards, or any of the women, without leave in writing first obtained from the Treasurer or Chairman, and two of the committee, except in cases provided for, and in all cases the matron to attend them.

XI. Abusive or reproachful language, insolence or disobedience to the officers, indecent or profane expressions, and such kind of turbulent conduct, shall subject them to confinement in a room for six hours for the first offence. For the second offence they shall be admonished publicly by the Chaplain and the Matron; and the rest of their own ward may be also appealed to for their disapprobation of such conduct. The third offence shall subject them to be confined for twelve hours, and to have but one spare meal during the whole day; and if found to be incorrigible, then to forfeit a certain proportion, or the whole of what hath been acquired by their labour, at the discretion of the committee, and be subject to the consequences of their agreement; and to be dismissed the house, and never re-admitted.

XII. After the continuance of any woman in the house for three years, upon the modest and virtuous demeanor, and industrious 237conduct of such woman, or upon application of her parents or friends, or any house-keeper of sufficient credit, if such friends declare they will forgive the past offences of such woman, and will provide for her; or, if such house-keeper will receive such woman as a servant; in either of these cases the Governors may discharge such woman with her consent.

XIII. Upon the discharge of such woman, her cloaths, or if sold, the produce of them, shall be returned to her, together with whatever may be due upon her account, and a certificate given her under the hands of the Treasurer, or the President, and two or more of the committee, of her conduct and behaviour during the time of her being in the house.

XIV. Every woman who shall be placed in a service from this house, and shall continue one whole year in such service to the intire approbation of such master or mistress, upon its being made appear to the satisfaction of the committee, they may give that woman a gratuity not exceeding two guineas, as a reward for her good behaviour.

XV. The committee will, upon the good behaviour of the women, interest 238themselves to obtain a reconciliation with their parents and friends, when their contract will be cancelled.

XVI. Besides the vouchers abovementioned, and the advantages arising from their labour, a bounty may be given, at the discretion of the committee, to such as shall be properly discharged. This gift shall be presented not only to those who marry in a manner satisfactory to the committee, but also to such as shall set up trades in whatever way they shall have gained a proficiency; so that nothing shall be omitted which can promote the great ends of preserving life, of rendering that life useful, and of recovering those who are now lost to the community.

St. Magnus’s Church, at the north east corner of London bridge, owes its name to its dedication to St. Magnus, who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Aurelian, in the city of Cæsarea, for his steady adherence to the Christian religion. The Abbots of Westminster and Bermondsey had alternately the donation of the church, till the suppression of monasteries; it then devolved to the Crown, and in 1553 was placed under the jurisdiction 239of the Bishop of London. The ancient edifice was laid in ruins by the dreadful conflagration in 1666; and ten years after, the present structure was erected in its room, though the steeple was not added till several years after.

It is a spacious and massy stone building; plain, and yet well ornamented. The corners have rustic quoins, and the body is enlightened by tall arched windows, over each of which is a cornice supported by scrolls, and between these is a cherub over the center of each window. At the west end coupled pilasters rise on each side the door, from a plain course, and support a pediment. The door on the north side is also placed under a pediment, but without the particular decorations of the other. Over each door is an oval window, and this last is decorated with festoons. The roof is hid by a kind of Attic course, from which the tower rises square and plain; and from this the dial, which is very richly ornamented, projects over the street. The course above this is adorned at the corners with coupled pilasters of the Ionic order, supporting an open work in the place of a balustrade, with large urns at the corners, of an uncommon shape. From within this open work rises the lanthorn, which has also Ionic pilasters, and 240arched windows in all the intercolumniations. The dome rests upon these pilasters, and on its crown is placed a piece of open work like that which surrounds the base of the lanthorn. On this is raised the turret which supports the fane.

This church is a rectory, and to this parish that of St. Margaret’s, New Fish street, is united. The Rector, besides glebes, casualties, &c. receives 170l. a year in lieu of tithes.

Magpye alley. 1. Aldersgate street.* 2. Ashentree court.* 3. Bishopsgate street without.* 4. Crutched-friars.* 5. Fenchurch street.* 6. Fetter lane.* 7. Gray’s Inn lane.* 8. Phœnix street.* 9. Wheeler street.* 10. White-friars.*

Maiden lane, 1. Church street, Lambeth.* 2. Extending from Deadman’s Place to Gravel lane; a long stragling place with ditches on each side; the passages to the houses being over little bridges.* 3. Halfmoon street, Covent Garden.* 4. Long Ditch.* 5. Queen street, Cheapside.* 6. Wood street, Cheapside.*

241Maidenhead court, 1. Aldersgate street.* 2. Cartwright street.* 3. St. Catharine’s.* 4. Chiswell street, Moorfields.* 5. Church lane, Whitechapel.* 6. St. Ermin’s hill. 7. Great Eastcheap.* 8. Great Gardens, St. Catharine’s lane.* 9. Grub street, by Fore street, Cripplegate.* 10. London Wall.* 11. Maiden lane.* 12. Moor lane.* 13. Saltpetre bank.* 14. St. Thomas Apostle’s.* 15. Wheeler street.* 16. Wood street, Cheapside.*

Malden, a village in Surry, about three miles from Kingston, has a powder mill on a stream that runs from Ewel to Kingston.

Manchester court, Canon row, Westminster; so called from the house of the Earls of Manchester adjoining.

Mansion House of the Lord Mayor, a very noble edifice erected in the place where Stocks market was formerly held. As the private houses of the citizens advanced to the dignity of Lord Mayor, were generally improper places, as well as too small, for transacting the great business belonging to this important office, it was customary for the chief magistrate of the city to hold his mayoralty at one or other of the halls belonging to the twelve principal companies. This however was long perceived very inconvenient; and therefore it was at last found expedient for the honour of the city, and the more regular discharge of that high office, to erect a house, as the mansion of the Lord Mayor for the time being.

This being determined by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, several places were proposed, as the end of Pater noster row fronting Cheapside, Moorfields, and Stocks market, and the latter was chosen, from its being situated 243nearly in the center of the city; at a small distance from the Royal Exchange, and in the heart of business: Stocks market was therefore removed to Fleet ditch, and the earth dug up for laying the foundation, when the ground was found so full of springs, that it became necessary to erect this spacious edifice upon piles. Meanwhile many plans and designs were drawn and examined, and that from which this edifice was erected, had the preference.

In short, a vast number of strong piles being driven close together, the first stone of the foundation was laid upon them, by the Right Honourable Micajah Perry, Esq; Lord Mayor, on the 25th of October 1739, in the presence of several of the Aldermen and Common Council, and this great work was finished in 1753, Sir Crisp Gascoigne being the first Lord Mayor who resided in it.

This edifice is very substantially built of Portland stone, and has a portico of six lofty fluted columns of the Corinthian order in the front; the same order being continued in pilasters both under the pediment, and on each side. The basement story is very massy and built in rustic. In the center of this story is the door which leads to the kitchens, cellars, and 244other offices; and on each side rises a flight of steps of very considerable extent, leading up to the portico, in the middle of which is the door which leads to the apartments and offices where business is transacted. The stone balustrade of the stairs is continued along the front of the portico, and the columns, which are wrought in the proportions of Palladio, support a large angular pediment, adorned with a very noble piece in bas relief, representing the dignity and opulence of the city of London, by Mr. Taylor.

In the center stands a very graceful woman crowned with turrets, representing the city, her left foot placed upon the figure of Envy, who lies on her back, and seems endeavouring to rise. Her left arm rests upon a large shield, which has the city arms, and in her right hand she holds a wand. This being the principal figure, is done in alto relievo: she seems ready to step forwards, her head and right arm, which are completely finished, project forward from the back ground, and her wand extends beyond the cornice of the pediment. Near her, on her right side, stands a Cupid holding the cap of Liberty over his shoulder at the end of a short staff, in the manner of a mace; and a little farther, a river God, representing the Thames, lies reclined, pouring a stream of water from a large vase; and near him an anchor fastened to its cable, with shells lying on the shore. On the left hand of London is Plenty, kneeling and holding out her hand in a supplicating posture, as if beseeching her to accept of the fruits she is pouring from her cornucopia; and behind her are two naked boys with bales of goods, as emblems of commerce.

245It is, however, very obvious, that the principal figures in this pediment are too large, which obliges London to stand, and Plenty to kneel, in a less graceful manner than they might otherwise do; and, besides their extraordinary size, renders them too crouded.

Beneath this portico are two series of windows, which extend along the whole front, and above these is an Attic story with square windows crowned with a balustrade.

The building is an oblong, and its depth is the long side; it has an area in the middle, and the farthest end is an Egyptian hall, which is the length of the front, very high and designed for public entertainments. To make it regular in flank, the architect has raised a similar building on the front, which is the upper 246part of a dancing gallery. This rather hurts than adorns the face of the building.

Near the ends at each side is a window of extraordinary height, placed between coupled Corinthian pilasters, and extending to the top of the Attic story.

The apartments are extremely noble; but this edifice has the misfortune to be so crouded with houses, especially on the sides, that the rooms are dark, and even in the front there is not a sufficient area to enlighten the building; nor can it ever be viewed to advantage, unless in some future time the heavy load at the top should be taken off, and a broad street, as wide as the edifice itself, opened before it into Lothbury.

St. Margaret’s Hill, extends from the court of justice, which faces the street thus named, to the farther corner of St. George’s church. Where this court is now kept, was anciently a church named St. Margaret’s on the hill, which gave its name to the street. The court-house has a small colonade that leads to a tavern, over which is the court-room, where the Lord Mayor of London tries causes. On the front of this edifice is the statue of 247King Charles II. under which is the following inscription:

Combustum anno 1670, re-ædificatum annis 1685 & 1686. Jacobo Smyth, Mil. & Roberto Geffery, Mil. Prætoribus. Impensis S. P. Q. L.

St. Margaret’s lane, Old Palace yard; thus named from its situation near St. Margaret’s church, Westminster.

St. Margaret’s Lothbury. This church received its name from its being dedicated to St. Margaret, a virgin saint of Antioch, who suffered martyrdom in the reign of the Emperor Decius; and the additional appellation of Lothbury is to point out its situation, and distinguish it from the other churches in this city of the same name.

The old church which was built in 1440, being destroyed by the general conflagration in 1666, the present stone edifice was erected in its room, and completed in 1690. It stands upon the ancient course of Wallbrook, on the north side of Lothbury, and is a plain and neat building. It is sixty-six feet in length, fifty-four in breadth, the height to the roof is thirty-six, and the height of the steeple 140 feet. The body is well enlightened by a row of lofty windows; over which the wall is terminated by a 248balustrade; and the principal door is ornamented with Corinthian columns which support an angular pediment. The tower has large windows in the uppermost stage, and is terminated a little above by a plain cornice, upon which is raised a small dome that supports a slender spire.

A row of despicable shops was formerly built before this church; but a few years ago they were taken down, and a neat pavement of broad stone has been lately raised the whole length of the church, to which there is an ascent of a few plain steps at each end, and to the principal door; but as this pavement is in some places upwards of two feet above the street, a regard to the safety of the passengers as well as to ornament, ought to have induced the persons who formed this pavement to have secured it by a neat balustrade.

The advowson of this rectory was anciently in the Abbess and Nuns of Barking in Essex; but at the dissolution of their convent it came to the Crown, and the church is still in his Majesty’s gift.

The Rector, besides the profits arising from casualties, &c. receives 100l. per annum in lieu of tithes.

St. Margaret Moses, a church which formerly stood at the south west corner of 249Little Friday street, opposite Distaff lane, and was thus named from its being dedicated to St. Margaret abovementioned, and from one Moses its rebuilder: but suffering by the dreadful fire of London, and not being rebuilt, the parish has been annexed to that of St. Mildred’s Bread street.

St. Margaret New Fish street, stood on the east side of Fish street hill, where the Monument is situated; but being burnt with the rest of the buildings in London, and not rebuilt, the parish is joined to that of St. Magnus. Stow.

St. Margaret Pattens, owes its additional epithet to its ancient situation among patten-makers. This church is situated in Rood lane, at the corner of Little Tower street, and in Billingsgate ward. The old church, which was built in 1538, was destroyed by the fire of London, and the present edifice raised in 1687. Maitland.

It consists of a plain body sixty-six feet in length, fifty-two in breadth, and the height of the roof is thirty-two feet. It is well enlightened by a range of arched windows, with porthole windows over them; and over the door in the front is a large Doric window, with a cherubim’s head and a large festoon over it, above 250which a pediment stretches from the steeple to the end of the church. The tower rises square to a considerable height, and is terminated by four plain pinacles crowned with balls, and a balustrade, within which rises a very solid spire, terminated by a ball and fane.

This church is a rectory in the gift of the Lord Mayor, commonalty, and citizens; and the Rector, besides glebe, casualties, &c. receives 120l. per annum in lieu of tithes.

St. Margaret’s street, Cavendish square; so called in honour of the Lady Oxford.

St. Margaret’s Westminster. King Edward the Confessor having resolved to rebuild the conventual church of St. Peter with great magnificence, imagined that it would be a dishonour to his new and stately edifice, to have the neighbouring people assemble in it as usual, for the performance of religious worship, as well as prove troublesome and inconvenient to the monks; therefore about the year 1064, he caused a church to be erected on the north side of St. Peter’s, for the use of the neighbouring inhabitants, and dedicated it to St. Margaret, the virgin and martyr of Antioch.

This church, which is situated only thirty feet to the north of the abbey, was 251rebuilt in the reign of King Edward I. by the parishioners and merchants of the staple, except the chancel, which was erected at the expence of the Abbot of Westminster. At length, in the year 1735, this church was not only beautifully repaired, but the tower cased, and mostly rebuilt, at the expence of 3500l. granted by parliament, on account of its being in some measure a national church, for the use of the house of Commons. Stow.

It is a plain, neat, and not inelegant Gothic structure, well enlightened by a series of large windows: it has two handsome galleries of considerable length, adorned in the front with carved work; these are supported by slender pillars which rise to the roof, and have four small black pillars running round each of them, adorned with gilded capitals both at the galleries and at the top, where the flat roof is neatly ornamented with stucco. The steeple consists of a tower, which rises to a considerable height, and is crowned with a turret at each corner, and a small lanthorn, much ornamented with carved work in the center, from whence rises a flag staff.

This church in 1758, underwent a thorough repair, on the inside a new vault was built through the whole body 252of the edifice, and the whole is ornamenting with new gilding and painting. A small view of it is in the same plate with that of Westminster Abbey, which see.

The patronage of this church, which is a curacy, was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, as it is at present in the Dean and Chapter.

On the south side of the altar is an ancient tomb, erected in the depth of popish ignorance and superstition, on which is the portraiture of Mary Bylling standing between the Virgin Mary and an angel, and over her is engraved the figure of an old man, to represent the omnipresent Deity, emitting rays of light upon the head of the Virgin, from whose mouth proceeds a label with these words, Ecce ancilla Domini; fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Out of Mary Bylling’s mouth issues a scroll with these words: Blessyd Lady, for thy glorious salutacion, bryng our sowles to everlasting salvation: and on two scrolls on each side of her, Blessyd Triniti, on me have mercy. Blessyd Triniti, on me have mercy. These four figures, with the several inscriptions, are engraven on small brass plates inlaid in the stone, as is also an inscription which gives the names of her three husbands, and lets us know that she 253died on the 14th of March 1429. Maitland.

There is also here a whimsical inscription on the tomb of Skelton, the merry Poet Laureat to Henry VII. and VIII. who died on the 21st of June 1529.

We shall conclude these odd monumental inscriptions with the following, which as well as the former, is mentioned by Weaver in his Funeral monuments.

Marine Society, for furnishing the navy with sea boys and landmen, in order to increase the number of our mariners. This society was founded soon after the breaking out of the present war, by a number 254of gentlemen animated by a generous love of their country, and an ardent desire to increase its glory, as well as from compassion for the many ragged and miserable objects seen in our streets. This noble scheme was chiefly conducted by a gentleman distinguished by those accomplishments which most adorn human nature; who, besides a generous subscription, joined his indefatigable industry in promoting this noble scheme, and even wrote a very judicious pamphlet to shew the public advantages that would result from it. He presented the first impression, consisting of a thousand copies, to the society; and by his assiduity, and that of a famous magistrate, great numbers of the lowest of the people, who would probably have ended their days ignominiously at Tyburn, have filled the court of France with terror, and revived the drooping glory of their country. From this pamphlet we shall give an account of this society.

It must be observed, that every man of war, privateer, and merchant ship, is obliged to take a certain number of boys, which are considered both as necessary to the ship, and a nursery for seamen; thus in every sixty gun ship of 400 men, the Captain and officers require thirty servants.

255These it was impossible to obtain at the breaking out of the war; the society therefore sought for them among the vagrants, the pilferers, and those whose extreme poverty and ignorance rendered them pernicious to the community; and also endeavoured to assist the Captains and officers in the sea service, by encouraging the industrious poor to send their children to sea; and by inviting all who were fit for the sea service to enter into it: stout lads who were covered with nastiness and had no means of support, were cleaned, well fed, and provided with lodgings; and if any of the men or boys were distempered, as sometimes happened, by mere wretchedness, filth, hunger, or the use of bad food, they were properly physicked and put in a condition to go on board; while those who were more happy in having friends to provide for them, were appointed to come to the office, where they were to be cloathed, and all were fitted with cloathing and bedding by the society, and sent clean, as well as properly dressed, on board his Majesty’s ships.

Of these boys they took some of thirteen years of age; but chiefly invited stout lads of sixteen and upwards, because they would soon become able seamen; and 256now they take none who are less than four feet four inches in height.

The greatest care imaginable is taken not to give any master, mistress, or parent, the least reason to complain. These have been always invited to see the boys when they are cloathed, on Thursday mornings at Mr. Fielding’s house; and again when they are examined and sent to their respective ships by the society, at the Seamens office over the Royal Exchange; and if any apprentice or son is required by his master or parents, he is delivered up immediately.

As to the landmen, they are required to be hardy, active, and robust; these, to prevent their being despised by the sailors, are immediately cloathed as seamen, and so divided among the messes of the mariners, as will soonest enable them to learn their language and duty, and they are completely fitted out without being obliged to expend any part of the bounty of thirty shillings, granted by his Majesty to all the landmen who enter into the service.

What gives the higher idea of this society, is, that several of its members are active, and particularly Mr. Fielding, in collecting many of the boys who are in 257the most abject condition: they assist and relieve each other in a task by which they are to gain nothing, but the applause of their own hearts.

To prevent imposition, the society keeps a sample of the cloathing at their office, which is sealed with the seals of several of the committee, and shewn to the men and boys when they are cloathed, that the society may be sure the slopseller keeps up to his engagement. Besides, as it is the steady purpose of the society to preserve the health of the men and boys whom they clothe, as far as it depends on such raiment, they are not contented with such manufactures as they find in the shops, but buy them of the manufacturer in Yorkshire, which being well wetted and milled on the spot, make what is called pea jackets, that last twice as long, and resist the weather four times as much as the common sort of pea jackets. And as they think the severity of the winter season renders common thin flannel waistcoats insufficient, they make waistcoats of white or other coloured kerseys, that are of the greatest service and duration. The breeches or drawers for the men and boys are made of half thicks or thin kerseys, which the society also provides from Yorkshire. In order also to make the 258most of the money, and provide the best things, these jackets, waistcoats, and breeches are brown instead of blue, the former being found the most durable colour; and such jackets cost ten per cent. less than blue, on account of the excessive price of indigo.

The cloathing and bedding given each of the boys, are a felt hat, a worsted cap, a kersey pea jacket, a kersey pair of breeches, a striped flannel or kersey waistcoat, a pair of trowsers, two pair of hose, two pair of shoes, two handkerchiefs, three shirts; a bed, pillow, blanket, and coverlet; a pair of buckles and buttons; thread, worsted, and needles; a knife, a Prayer Book and Testament to those whose Captains desire them, and a bag to put their cloaths in.

The cloathing given each of the men is, a felt seaman’s hat, a kersey pea jacket, a waistcoat and drawers of the same, a pair of drab breeches, a pair of thin trowsers, a pair of worsted hose, a pair of yarn hose, two shirts, two worsted caps, one pair of shoes, one pair of buckles, one pair of buttons, a knife, thread, worsted, and needles, with a bag for their cloaths.

A note of these cloaths is given to every man and boy, by which he may see what 259he has, but nothing is delivered till they are actually on board the tender in the river Thames, or in their respective ships at the ports; except to the boys, who are attended to the ships.

Our author, who was one of the committee, observes, that from this society may be seen the great business that may be done for a trifling expence; for the Treasurer, Commissioners, Secretary, and Clerks; the house-rent and entertainments; the fire and candle, paper, pens and ink, do not all together cost the society an hundred pounds per annum; and if, by an additional Clerk, he adds, it should happen to swell to 150l. “greater good with less money, I will be bold to say, is not done by any society in this kingdom: for exclusive of the charge of cloathing, feeding, and sending boys to Portsmouth, the expence is very little more than the rent of two rooms at about 25l. per annum, the salary of a secretary, not exceeding 50l. per annum, and a Porter 10l. per annum.”

There is a general meeting every three months, viz. the first Thursday in January, the first in April, the first in July, and the first in October, or oftener, if the committee desire it; when an account of receipts and disbursements are laid before 260the subscribers under the direction of the committee, which consists of a considerable number of them. Of this committee not less than three persons act, who meet every Thursday at eleven o’clock at the Merchants Seamens office over the Royal Exchange; and any other day, if necessary, at the Secretary’s house in Prince’s street, where any two of the committee may transact the business when it is very urgent.

Mark lane, extends from Fenchurch street to Tower street, and is chiefly inhabited by merchants. Maitland says it was originally called Mart lane, it being once used as a public mart. On the east side of this lane is the Corn Exchange.

Market passage, 1. Lime street, leading into Leadenhall market. 2. Oxford street, leading into Oxford market. 3. Paternoster row, leading into Newgate market.

Market street, 1. Jermain street. 2. Newport street. 3. Millbank, Westminster.

261Markets. As one of the principal advantages of a city are commodious markets, this metropolis may, in this particular, be said to exceed most, if not all the cities in Europe: some account of these is dispersed through this work; notwithstanding which, it may be proper, under this article, to gratify the reader’s curiosity, by giving a list of them, that the whole may be seen at one view.

263Marlborough House, situated behind the houses on the west side of Pallmall, is a very large brick edifice, ornamented with stone, and built in a peculiar taste. The front, which is very extensive, has only two series of windows, and on each side the wings are ornamented at the corners, with a kind of stone rustic, and the edifice is terminated by a balustrade, in the manner it appears in the print. On the sides of the area next the wings a small colonade extends on each side, and the side opposite to the abovementioned area is taken up with the offices. The late Duchess of Marlborough, when this structure was finished, intended to have opened a way to it from Pallmall, directly in the front, as is evident from the manner in which the court yard is finished; but Sir Robert Walpole having purchased the house before it, and being upon no good terms with the Duchess, she was prevented in her design. The front towards the Park resembles this, only instead of the two middle windows in the wings, there are niches for statues, and instead of the area in front, you descend by a flight of steps into the garden.

The apartments however are noble, and well disposed, and the furniture is rich. In the vestibule at the entrance, is painted the battle of Hochstet, in which the most remarkable scene is the taking Marshal Tallard, the French General, and several other officers of great distinction, prisoners. The figures of the great Duke of Marlborough, of Prince Eugene of Savoy, and General Cadogan, are finely executed.

Marlborough mews, by Oxford street; so called from the Dukes of Marlborough formerly keeping their hawks there.

Marlborough street, a very handsome street, extending from the end of Argyle buildings.

Earl Marshal of England, the eighth great officer of the kingdom, hereditary in the family of the Dukes of Norfolk ever since the year 1553. This officer had formerly great authority; for he took cognizance of all matters of war and arms, determined contracts relating to deeds of arms out of the realm upon land, and matters concerning wars within the realm, that could not be determined by common law, in which he was generally guided by the civil law. Indeed he had several courts, among which was the Marshalsea court in the Borough, so called from its being under his jurisdiction. But the house of Norfolk being of the Romish religion, is incapable by law of performing these offices. See Marshalsea Prison. 265The Earl Marshal has however held several courts at Doctors Commons, to inquire into the right several people had assumed of bearing arms. Chamberlain’s Present State.

City Marshal, an officer of considerable authority, dignity, and profit. His business is to see the laws of the city put in execution; and in solemn processions he rides before the Lord Mayor, on a horse richly caparisoned. The sum of fifteen hundred pounds is usually given for this place.

Marshal street, 1. Maiden lane, Deadman’s place. 2. Silver street, Bloomsbury.

Marshalsea Prison, on St. Margaret’s Hill, Southwark, is a place of confinement for persons who have committed crimes at sea, as pirates, &c. and for debtors. In this prison is the Marshalsea court, the Judges of which are, the Lord Steward of his Majesty’s houshold for the time being; the Steward of the court, who must be a barrister at law; and a Deputy Steward. In all civil actions tried in this court, both the plaintiff and defendant must belong to his Majesty’s houshold, The persons confined in this 266prison for crimes at sea, take their trials at the Old Bailey.

In the same prison is the Palace Court, the jurisdiction of which extends twelve miles round the palace of Westminster, the city of London only excepted; and the debtors within any part of Westminster, and twelve miles round, may be carried to this prison for a debt of 40s. Actions for debt are tried in this court every Friday, and there are the same Judges, Counsellors and Attorneys here as in the Marshalsea court; these are, besides the Judges already mentioned, a Prothonotary, a Secondary, and Deputy Prothonotary; four Counsellors, and six Attorneys, But in this court neither the plaintiff nor defendant must belong to his Majesty’s houshold.

The buildings are mean and ruinous; but the court-room is pretty spacious and convenient.

St. Martin’s in the Fields, in St. Martin’s lane, near Charing Cross. This church received its name from St. Martin, an Hungarian, who was sainted for the cruelty 267with which he persecuted the Arians, and its being formerly situated in the fields. Though the present structure is of a modern date, there was very early a church upon the same spot, dedicated to the same saint; for there are authentic records of a dispute in 1222, between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London, concerning the exemption of the church of St. Martin’s in the Fields from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, How long before this a building for the service of religion was erected there, is not easy to determine; but it was probably a chapel for the monks of Westminster, when they visited their convent garden, which then extended to it. However, the endowments of this church sell with the monks who possessed it, and in Henry the VIIIth’s reign a small church was built there at the King’s expence, the inhabitants being then too poor to pay for it; but this structure not being capacious enough to accommodate the parishioners, it was greatly enlarged in 1607. At length, after many expensive repairs, that structure was taken down in the year 1721, and soon after the first stone of the present edifice was laid. Five years completed the building, and in 1726 it was consecrated.

268It is observable, that on the laying of the first stone, his Majesty King George I. gave an hundred guineas to be distributed among the workmen, and some time after 1500l. to purchase an organ. The whole expence of building and decorating this church, amounted to 36,891l. 10s. 4d. of which 33,450l. was granted by Parliament, and the rest raised by the above royal benefaction, a subscription, and the sale of seats in the church.

St. Martin’s in the Fields is an elegant edifice built with stone. In the west front is an ascent by a very long flight of steps to a very noble portico of Corinthian columns, which support a pediment in which is the royal arms in has relief. The same order is continued round in pilasters, and in the intercolumniations are two series of windows surrounded with rustic. On each side the doors, on the sides which are near the corners, are lofty Corinthian columns; the roof is concealed by a handsome balustrade, and the spire is stately and elegant.

The decorations on the inside are extremely fine; the roof is richly adorned with fret-work; slender Corinthian columns raised on high pedestals, rising in the front of the galleries, serve to support both them and the roof, which on the 269sides rests upon them in a very ornamental arch-work. The east end is richly adorned with fret-work and gilding, and over the altar is a large window finely painted.

With respect to this noble edifice, says the author of the Review, “I could wish that a view was opened from the Mews to St. Martin’s church; I don’t know any of the modern buildings about town which better deserves such an advantage. The portico is at once elegant and august, and if the steps arising from the street to the front could have been made regular, and on a line from end to end, it would have given it a very considerable grace; but as the situation of the ground would not allow it, this is to be esteemed a misfortune rather than a fault. The round columns at each angle of the church are very well contrived, and have a very fine effect in the profile of the building; the east end is remarkably elegant, and very justly challenges a particular applause. In short, if there is any thing wanting in this fabric, ’tis a little more elevation, which, I presume, is apparently wanted within, and would create an additional beauty without. 270I can’t help thinking too that, in complaisance to the galleries, the architect has reversed the order of the windows, it being always usual to have the large ones nearer the eye, and the small, by way of Attic story, on the top.”

St. Martin’s court, a large, handsome court, with a free stone pavement in St. Martin’s lane, Charing Cross.

St. Martin’s Ironmonger lane, a church which stood at the corner of Church alley, in Ironmonger lane, and in Cheap ward; but being destroyed by the dreadful fire of London, and not rebuilt, the parish was united to St. Olave Jewry. Newc. Rep. Eccles.

St. Martin’s lane, 1. Opposite Northumberland house in the Strand; thus named from the church of St. Martin’s in the Fields. 2. Canon street, Walbrook; so named from the church of St. Martin’s Orgar, which was formerly on the east side of it.

St. Martin’s Le Grand, extends from the corner of Blowbladder street to Aldersgate. This street, as far as Bell court 271near St. Anne’s lane, as well as all the courts on each side, is within its own liberty, and in the government of Westminster. It took its name from a collegiate church founded here by one Ingalricus and his brother Edward, in the year 1056, for a Dean, secular Canons, and Priests, and dedicated to St. Martin. Afterwards the addition of le Grand was added, from the extraordinary privileges of sanctuary granted to it by several Monarchs. Hither thieves, ruffians, and murderers used to fly for safety; here robbers brought their stolen goods, which they shared among themselves, or sold to the inhabitants: here also lived the makers of picklocks; the counterfeiters of keys and seals; the forgers of false evidence; those who made chains, beads, and plate of gilt copper, which they sold for gold; and, in short, gamesters, bawds, and strumpets. To so great a height of licentiousness was this sanctuary grown, that in the reign of Henry VII. the Sheriffs of London venturing to take from thence by violence a person who had taken sanctuary there, the Abbot of Westminster exhibited a bill to the King against them, upon which the cause was heard in the Star-chamber, and the Sheriff severely fined. Maitland.

272Though this place is in a manner in the heart of the city, it is still in the liberty of Westminster; and the inhabitants are governed, and vote accordingly. The courts and alleys are now chiefly inhabited by taylors and others who are not free of the city; for all foreigners carry on their trades, and professions there without molestation.

St. Martin’s Le Grand Court. As St. Martin’s le Grand is a liberty distinct from the government of London, and subject to the Deanery of Westminster, it has a court of record kept every Wednesday, for the trial of all personal actions of what nature soever, and there is a court-house and a prison.

In this court the leading process is a capias against the body, or an attachment against the goods; so that a man’s goods may be seized in his own house, upon the first process, if he himself be not taken: which is according to the practice of all ancient liberties or franchises. Stow.

St. Martin’s Ludgate, on the north side of Ludgate street, almost contiguous to the gate, and in the ward of Faringdon within. The old church being consumed by the fire of London, the present edifice was erected in its place. The body is not seen from the street; but is tolerably 273enlightened. The steeple consists of a plain tower, and a pretty lofty spire raised on a substantial arcade, so that it has at once the appearance of strength and lightness.

The patronage of this rectory was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of Westminster; but on the suppression of their monastery, King Henry VIII. erected Westminster into a bishopric, and gave the advowson of this church to the Bishop; but the new see being dissolved by Edward VI. Queen Mary granted it to the Bishop of London, and his successors, in whom it still remains.

The Rector receives, by act of Parliament, in lieu of tithes, 160l. per annum. Newcomb’s Eccles. Rep.

Mr. Strype, in his edition of Stowe’s Survey, gives several monumental inscriptions in this church, from which we shall select the two following; the first to the memory of William Yeardley and his wife, the former of whom died on the 28th of October 1523, and the latter on the 20th of July 1533.

The other is on Florens Caldwell, Esq; citizen and haberdasher, and Mary his wife, the latter of whom died June 19, 1590.

St. Martin’s Orgars, a rectory, the church of which was situated on the east side of St. Martin’s lane near Canon street, in Candlewick ward, and is so named from its dedication to St. Martin; and the additional epithet of Orgars, from Odgarus or Ordgarus, who was probably its founder or patron: but this church being destroyed 275with the rest of the public edifices in the fire of London in 1666, and not rebuilt, the parish was annexed to the church of St. Clement Eastcheap. Newc. Rep. Eccles. Paroch.

In this church was a tomb with the following epitaph, mentioned by Mr. Strype in his edition of Stowe’s Survey, on Sir Allen Cotton, Knt. Alderman, and sometime Lord Mayor of London, who died on the 24th of September 1628, leaving three sons and two daughters; and these sons caused his monument to be erected,

St. Martin’s Outwich, at the south east angle of Threadneedle street, in Broad street ward, owes its additional epithet to 276William and John de Oteswich, who were some time the proprietors thereof. The patronage of this church was indeed anciently in the family of the Earls of Surry; but afterwards coming to the de Oteswiches, they conferred it upon the company of Merchant Taylors, in whom it still remains. The Rector receives only 40l. a year in tithes. Maitland.

This is one of those few churches that escaped the fire in 1666, and with some repairs has stood ever since, and may stand much longer, though it is already above 220 years old.

This edifice is an old Gothic structure of the meaner style; it is sixty-six feet long, and forty-two broad; the height of the roof is thirty-one feet, and the height of the steeple, sixty-five feet. The body is of brick, strengthened at the corners by a massy rustic: the windows, which are large, are of the coarse Gothic kind, and the top is surrounded with plain square battlements. From the tower, which is extremely plain and simple, rises a turret, that is open, arched, and supported by four piers; and from the dome rises a ball and fane.

St. Martin’s Pomary, or Ironmonger lane, Cheapside, is supposed by Mr. Stowe to have derived its additional epithet of Pomary, from apple trees growing about it; which is the more probable, as in his time there were large void spaces near it. This church stood at the corner of Ironmonger lane, and in Cheap ward; but suffering by the dreadful fire of London, the parish was united to the church of St. Olave’s Jewry.

St. Martin’s Vintry, stood in Thames street, near the south east corner of Queen street, and in Vintry ward. This church, which was a rectory, received its additional denomination from its being situated 278among the wine tunners, wine merchants, and coopers: but sharing the common fate in the dreadful catastrophe of 1666, and not being rebuilt, the parish was united to that of St. Michael’s Royal, and 120l. a year was settled upon the Rector in lieu of tithes. Maitland.

St. Mary Abchurch, in Abchurch lane, Candlewick ward, owes its name to its dedication to the Virgin Mary, and the additional appellation of Ab or Upchurch, was given it on account of its elevation in comparison of the neighbouring ground towards the Thames, and to distinguish it from the many other churches of the same name in this city. A church dedicated to St. Mary has stood here from very early times; and we find that in the year 1448, it was in the patronage of the Prior and Canons of St. Mary Overy’s; but devolving to the crown in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, her Majesty granted the perpetual advowson to Corpus Christi college in Cambridge, wherein it still remains, though in ecclesiastical affairs, it is subject to the Archdeacon. Maitland.

The old church stood till it was consumed by the fire in 1666, after which 279the present structure was raised in its room in the year 1686.

The building is of brick, strengthened by rustic quoins of stone at the corners, with three windows on each side, of which the middle one is the principal, that rising higher, and taking up the space above, while the others, which are smaller, have round windows over them; these have all stone cases. The tower rises square with the corners strengthened with rustic; and a large window in the center of each face, ornamented like the rest. From this tower rises a kind of dome, and upon its summit stands a plain spire supported by a lanthorn base.

St. Mary Aldermanbury, by the north east corner of Love lane, has a fine situation, with a large area, besides the church yard in the front. A church of the same name appears from ancient records to have been situated there so early as about the year 1300; however, great part of the old structure was taken down in 1633, and rebuilt at a considerable expence; but thirty three years afterwards it was destroyed by the fire of London, and ten years after that dreadful event, it was finished in the present form.

It is a plain stone building, likely to stand for ages; the body is well enlightened 280by a range of large well-proportioned windows, and the corners are wrought with rustic: it is 72 feet long, and 45 broad; the roof is 38 feet high, and the steeple about 90 feet. It has a plain solid tower, constructed in the same manner as the body of the church; and the angles in the upper stage are adorned with rustic: the cornice is supported by scrolls, and above it is a plain Attic course: in this rises a turret with a square base that supports the dial; this turret is arched, but the corners are massy: its roof is terminated in a point on which is placed the fane.

The patronage of this church appears to have been anciently in the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s; but the parishioners have ever since the reformation had the right of chusing their own Minister, who must however be licenced by the Bishop of London; but in matters ecclesiastical it is subject to the Archdeacon, except as to wills and administrations, which belong to the Commissary. The Incumbent receives by act of Parliament 150l. a year from the parish.

St. Mary Aldermary, on the east side of Bow lane, in Cordwainer street ward, has its additional epithet of Aldermary, or Elder Mary, from its being the most 281ancient church in this city dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The last church, which was erected at the expence of Henry Keeble, was destroyed by the fire of London in 1666; but it was afterwards erected at the expence of Henry Rogers, Esq; who generously gave 5000l. towards rebuilding it.

This Gothic edifice is very spacious, it being an hundred feet in length and sixty-three in breadth; the height of the roof is forty-five feet, and that of the steeple an hundred and thirty-five. The body is enlightened by a single series of large Gothic windows. The wall has well-contrived buttresses and battlements; these buttresses run up pilaster fashion, in two stages, not projecting in the old manner from the body of the building. The tower, which is full of ornament, consists of five stages, each of which, except the lowest, has one Gothic window; and the pinacles, which are properly so many turrets, are continued at each corner down to the ground, divided into stages as the body of the tower, and cabled with small pillars bound round it, with a kind of arched work, and subdivisions between. English Architecture.

This rectory is one of the thirteen peculiars belonging to the Archbishop of 282Canterbury; and the parish of St. Thomas Apostles being annexed to this church by an act of Parliament granted in the reign of King Charles II. the profits of the Rector are greatly augmented, he receiving 150l. per annum in lieu of tithes, and about 100l. a year by glebe.

St. Mary at Hill, on the west side of St. Mary Hill, in Billingsgate ward, owes its additional epithet to its situation on an eminence. This church is of considerable antiquity, since a chantry was founded in it so early as about the year 1336.

It is remarkable, that in the year 1497, digging in this church for the foundation of a wall, the corpse of Alice Hackney, who died about the year 1322, was discovered in a very rotten coffin; and that the skin was sound and flexible, and the joints pliable, though buried about 175 years. The body was kept above ground three or four days, without any noisome smell, but then beginning to be tainted was again laid in the ground.

Though this church was not destroyed by the fire of London, every thing combustible in it was consumed; it was however soon after repaired, and the parish of St. Andrew Hubbard annexed to it. It is a well-proportioned Gothic structure, consisting of a plain body enlightened by large 283windows, and a tower crowned by a pretty handsome turret.

The advowson of this church appears to have been in private hands, till about the year 1638, when it was purchased by the parish; but since the parish of St. Andrew Hubbard was united to it, the Duke of Somerset, who is patron thereof, presents in his turn. The Rector receives 200l. a year in lieu of tithes, and about 24l. per annum by glebe.

St. Mary Ax, a street on the north side of Leadenhall street. Here was anciently a church dedicated not only to the Virgin Mary, but to St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins; but it was commonly called St. Mary at the Ax, from the sign of the Ax over against the east end of the church; and sometimes it was named St. Mary Papillar, from a plat of ground belonging to the Skinners company, that lay on the north side of it; but this parish being, about the year 1565, united to the parish church of St. Andrew Undershaft, St. Mary at the Ax was let out as a warehouse to a merchant; but the street however in which this edifice stood, still retains its name. Maitland.

St. Mary Bothaw, stood on the east side of Turnwheel lane near Dowgate hill, and took its additional name, according to the surmise of Mr. Stowe, from its vicinity to a Boat haw, or boat-builder’s yard in that neighbourhood. This church, which was one of the thirteen peculiars belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, having suffered greatly by the fire of London, and not being rebuilt, the parish was annexed to that of St. Swithin.

St. Mary Colechurch, stood in the Poultry, at the south west corner of the Old Jewry, in Cheap ward, and owed its additional epithet of Colechurch, to one Cole, its founder: but suffering the fate of most of the other public buildings in 1666, and not being rebuilt, the parish was united to the neighbouring church of St. Mildred. Stow.

St. Mary of Grace, an abbey of Cistertian monks, founded in the reign of Edward III. on Tower hill, where the victualling office is now situated.

St. Mary la Bonne, thus called from its being supposed to signify St. Mary the Good; though its original name, according to Maitland, was Maryborne. This gentleman gives the following account of the rise of this village, which is now almost united to this great metropolis: the village of Tyborne going to decay, and its church, named St. John the Evangelist, left alone by the side of the highway, it was robbed of its books, vestments, bells, images, and other decorations; on which the parishioners petitioned the Bishop of London for leave to take down their old, and erect a new church elsewhere, which being readily granted in the year 1400, they erected a new church where they had some time before built a chapel, and that structure being dedicated to the Virgin Mary, received the additional epithet of Borne, from its vicinity to the neighbouring brook or bourn.

This village, if it may be still called by that name, is almost joined by new buildings to this metropolis; and the new buildings this way are now increasing so very fast, that it will undoubtedly in a very short time be quite joined, and become a part of it. The old church, which was a mean edifice, was pulled down, and a 286one erected in 1741. This structure is built with brick in as plain a manner as possible. It has two series of small arched windows on each side, and the only ornaments are a vase at each corner, and a turret at the west end. There are here also a French meeting-house, a charity school, and a place of public entertainment, which has a pleasant garden, and a band of vocal and instrumental music. This may be considered as a kind of humble imitation of Vauxhall.

St. Mary le Bow, near the corner of Bow lane in Cheapside, received the epithet le Bow, from its being the first church in this city built with arches: for so early as in the time of William the Conqueror a church of the same name stood in this place; a massy Gothic pile, decorated with lofty arches, which the vulgar of that time called bows, and this name has been continued through all its succeeding changes. Here the court of Arches used to meet, and from these arches received its name. Stowe.

In the history of the ancient edifice we find, that in the year 1271, a great number of people were destroyed, and many more maimed by the falling of the steeple, after which it remained without one till the year 1512, when it was finished upon the 287old plan, with stone brought from Caen in Normandy; and thus continued till it was destroyed with the other buildings in the city, by the fire in 1666.

The present edifice, which was built by the great Sir Christopher Wren, was finished in 1673, and is a handsome structure, chiefly admired for the elegance of its steeple, which is extremely light in its aspect, and though very high and full of openings, is secure from any second fall by the geometrical proportion and lightness of its several parts. It is thought to be the most beautiful thing of its kind in Europe.

The tower is square from the ground, and in this form rises to a considerable height; but with more ornament as it advances. The principal decoration of the lower part is the entrance, which is a lofty, noble, and well-proportioned arch, on two of the sides faced with a bold rustic, and raised on a plain solid course from the foundation. Within the arch is a portal of the Doric order; the freeze ornamented with trigliphs, and with sculpture in the metopes; over this arch is an opening with a small balcony, which answers to a window on the other face. The first stage is terminated by an elegant cornice, over which again rises a plain 288course, where a dial projects into Cheapside. Above this is in each face, large arched windows, with coupled Ionic pilasters at the sides, near the corners. The cornice over these windows supports an elegant balustrade, with Attic pillars over the Ionic columns, supporting turrets, each composed of four handsome scrolls, which join at the top, where are placed urns with flames.

From this part, the steeple rises circular. There is a plain course to the height of half the scrolls, and upon this are raised a circular range of Corinthian columns, while the body of the steeple is continued round and plain within them. These support a second balustrade, with very large scrolls extending from it to the body of the steeple. Above these is placed a series of Composite columns, and from the entablature rises another set of scrolls, supporting the spire which rests upon four balls, and is terminated by a globe, whence rises a fane in the form of a dragon. The view here given will help to illustrate this description.

289The author of the Critical Review of the public Buildings, says, “The steeple of Bow church is a master-piece in a peculiar kind of building, which has no fixed rules to direct it, nor is it to be reduced to any settled laws of beauty: without doubt if we consider it only as a part of some other building, it can be esteemed no other than a delightful absurdity: but if either considered in itself, or as a decoration of a whole city in prospect, it is not only to be justified, but admired. That which we have now mentioned is beyond question as perfect as human imagination can contrive or execute; and till we see it outdone, we shall hardly, think it to be equalled.”

This church is a rectory, and the chief of the thirteen peculiars in this city belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury. To it are united the parishes of Alhallows Honey lane, and St. Pancras, by which the Incumbent’s profits are much increased; he receiving, besides glebe, casualties, and three parsonage houses, 200l. per annum, in lieu of tithes.

St. Mary le Strand, so called from its being situated in the middle of the Strand. The old church belonging to this parish is mentioned so early as the year 1222, when it was named St. Mary and the Innocents of the Strand; but how long it stood before that time is uncertain. It was then situated in a pleasant church yard on the south side of the Strand, 290where the east end of Somerset house is placed; and for the erecting of this last edifice it was taken down in 1549, by order of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Prime Minister to Edward VI. which depriving the parishioners of a place of worship, they joined themselves to the church of St. Clement’s Danes, and afterwards to that of St. John Baptist in the Savoy, where they continued till the year 1723. At length, the act having passed for erecting the fifty new churches within the bills of mortality, one was appointed for this parish, and the first stone laid on the 25th of February 1714; it was finished in three years and a half, though it was not consecrated till the 1st of January 1723, when, instead of its ancient name, it was called St. Mary le Strand. It was the first finished of any of the fifty new churches.

This is a very superb, though not a very extensive edifice; massy, without the appearance of being heavy, and formed to stand for ages. At the entrance on the west end is an ascent by a flight of steps cut in the sweep of a circle. These lead to a circular portico of Ionic columns covered with a dome, which is crowned with an elegant vase. These columns are continued along the body of the church, 291with pilasters of the same order at the corners, and in the intercolumniations are niches handsomely ornamented. Over the dome is a pediment supported by Corinthian columns, which are also continued round the body of the structure; over those of the Ionic order beneath; between these are the windows placed over the niches. These columns are supported on pedestals, and have pilasters behind with arches sprung from them, and the windows have angular and circular pediments alternately. In short, a handsome balustrade is carried round the top, and its summit is adorned with vases. The steeple is light though solid, and ornamented with Composite columns and capitals.

This structure, in the opinion of some, will shew late posterity, that the period when it was built afforded architects who might have done honour to Italy; while others condemn it, as little more than a cluster of ornaments without a proper plan or model to be adorned.

We shall not here decide which of these opinions is most judicious; but shall leave it to the decision of each person’s judgment who examines the edifice itself: we cannot however help observing, that the situation of the west front is as happy 292as can be wished for being viewed at a distance; and yet it has not this advantage in perfection, a watch house being erected in the middle of the street directly before it, which in a great measure spoils the prospect, and prevents its terminating the vista so agreeably as it otherwise would.

This church is a rectory in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester; the value of the living is 225l. per annum, besides surplice fees; of this sum one hundred pounds has been given and settled by Parliament, and an hundred and twenty-five pounds is raised by the inhabitants by a rate of four pence in the pound, in lieu of tithes. Newc. Rep. Eccles. Paroch.

St. Mary Magdalen’s Bermondsey, near the south west corner of Bermondsey street, which we vulgarly call Barnaby street, in Southwark. It is dedicated to Mary Magdalen the sister of Lazarus, who was celebrated for her beauty, and still more for her piety. It appears from the Conqueror’s Survey, that a church of the same name was situated in this place so early as the time of the Saxons.

The present edifice, which was built in 1680, is seventy-six feet in length, and sixty-one in breadth; the height to the roof is thirty feet, and the height of the steeple eighty-seven feet. It is a plain 293structure enlightened by a single series of arched windows with cherubs heads on the top. The walls are of brick plaistered over, and the door-cases and windows cased with stone. The tower, which rises square, is covered with a kind of dome crowned with a turret, whence rises a ball and fane.

The advowson of this church is in lay patrons, and the profits of the rectory are said to amount to about 200l. per annum.

St. Mary Magdalen’s, Milk-street. This church was situated at the west end of Honey lane market, in the ward of Cripplegate within; but being destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, and not rebuilt, the parish was annexed to that of St. Laurence Jewry.

St. Mary Magdalen’s, Old Fish street, is seated on the north side of Knight Rider’s street, in the ward of Baynard’s castle, and is thus denominated from its vicinity to Old Fish street. There are records of a church in the same place three hundred and fifty years ago. The old edifice was destroyed by the fire of London, and the present singular structure arose from its ruins, and was built in the year 1685.

It is a small well-proportioned church, built with stone, sixty feet in length, forty-eight 294in breadth, and thirty in height to the roof. It is enlightened by a single series of arched windows, each ornamented with a cherub and scrolls, supporting a cornice, which runs round the building; but these windows are of such an unusual height from the ground, that the doors, which are low and plain, open completely under them: both these and the windows are of the same general construction, and the wall is terminated by a balustrade. The tower is divided into two stages, in the upper of which is a large window on each side. From the top of this tower the work suddenly diminishes in the manner of high steps on each side, and on the top of these is placed a turret, crowned with a very short spire, on which is placed a fane with flames.

To this church the parish of St. Gregory is annexed, by which the rectoral profits are much increased, the Incumbent receiving, besides other profits, 120l. in lieu of tithes.

St. Mary Mounthaw, situated on the west side of Fish street hill, in Queenhithe ward, received its name from its dedication to the Virgin Mary, and the family of Montalto or Mounthauts, in the county of Norfolk, who were the original founders: but being destroyed in the dreadful 295fire of London in 1666, and not rebuilt, the parish was, by act of Parliament, annexed to the church of St. Mary Somerset. Stowe.

St. Mary, Rotherhith, is situated near the bank of the Thames, and is distinguished from other churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary, by the name of the place in which it is situated. The old church had stood above 200 years, when in 1736, it was in so ruinous a condition, that the inhabitants applied to Parliament for leave to pull it down, which being granted, the present structure was finished in 1739.

This edifice is built with brick and ornamented with stone. It is enlightened by a double range of windows, and the corners both in the tower and body, are strengthened with a handsome rustic. The tower consists of two stages; in the lower are a door and window, in the upper a window and dial, and the whole is terminated 296by a balustrade, from which rises a circular base that supports a kind of lanthorn, very elegantly constructed with Corinthian columns; over these are urns with flames; and from the roof of this lanthorn rises a well-constructed spire terminated by a ball and fane.

This church is a rectory in the gift of a lay patron. The profits arising to the Incumbent are said to amount to above 150l. per annum.

The Hospital of St. Mary Rouncival, a cell to a priory of that name in Navarre in Spain, situated opposite the end of St. Martin’s lane, where Northumberland house now stands. It was founded and endowed by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in the reign of Henry III. but this hospital was however suppressed by Henry V. and re-founded by Edward IV. in 1476, for a fraternity or brotherhood. At length it was suppressed, with the other religious houses, by King Henry VIII. and afterwards coming to Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, he caused it to be demolished, and erected upon the site thereof the edifice then named Northampton house. See the article Northumberland House.

St. Mary Somerset, opposite Broken wharf in Thames street, and in Queenhithe 297ward, owes the additional epithet of Somerset (according to Mr. Stowe’s conjecture) to its vicinity to Sumner’s het or hithe, a small port or haven resembling that of Queenhithe. A church was situated in this place before the year 1335; but the old edifice sharing the fate of most of the other public buildings, in the fire of London, the present structure was erected in its room.

The body of this edifice is enlightened by a range of lofty arched windows, and the wall is terminated by a balustrade. A well-proportioned square tower rises to a considerable height, and is crowned with a handsome vase at each corner, supported on a very ornamental pedestal, with a handsome turret between in the form of an obelisk, each supported on the same kind of pedestal as the vases, and crowned with a ball.

The patronage of the church is in lay hands, and the parish of St. Mary Mounthaw being annexed to it, the Incumbent’s profits are considerably increased; he having, besides casualties and two parsonage houses, 110l. a year in lieu of tithes, and about 30l. in glebe.

St. Mary Spital, a priory and hospital founded by Sir Walter Brune, and Rosia, his lady, in the year 1197, who dedicated 298it to the honour of Jesus Christ and his Mother the Virgin Mary, by the name of Domus Dei & beatæ Mariæ extra Bishopsgate.

This hospital surrendered to Henry VIII. when its revenue was found to amount to 478l. a year; and besides the ornaments of the church and other goods belonging to the hospital, there were an hundred and eighty beds for the use of the poor.

A part of a large church yard belonging to this hospital, separated from the rest by a brick wall, was for a long time remaining, with a pulpit cross in it, somewhat like that which formerly stood in St. Paul’s church yard; and on the south side was a handsome house in which the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and other persons of distinction sat to hear the sermons preached in Easter holidays.

It was anciently the custom for some learned man, appointed by the Bishops, to preach a sermon at St. Paul’s Cross, relating to Christ’s passion, on Good Friday in the afternoon; and upon Easter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, other sermons were preached in the forenoon at the Spital, on Christ’s resurrection: on Low Sunday in the forenoon a rehearsal was made of these four sermons at St. Paul’s 299Cross, in which they were either commended or censured; and, after all, the Priest made a sermon himself.

At these sermons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were usually present, with their wives; and since the reformation these sermons are continued by the name of Spital Sermons at St. Bride’s in Fleet street, on Easter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

St. Mary’s Staining, a small church, formerly seated on the north side of Oat lane, in the ward of Aldersgate within. The reason why it received the additional epithet of Staining, is very uncertain; some imagining it to be derived from the painter stainers, who might probably live near it; while others suppose that it was originally called Stany or Stony from its being built with stone, to distinguish it from those in the city built with wood, &c. This ancient edifice, however, being destroyed by the fire of London, and not rebuilt, the parish was united to St. Michael’s Wood street. Stowe.

St. Mary Whitechapel, was originally erected as a chapel of ease to the church of St. Dunstan, Stepney; and from its external appearance probably received the 300additional epithet of White. We read of this church in 1329, and the first chapel was probably of much greater antiquity.

The church was anciently denominated St. Mary Matsellon, a name which some have ridiculously supposed was derived from the women of the parish having killed a Frenchman, about the year 1428, for murdering and robbing his benefactress, a religious widow, who had generously brought him up almost from his infancy: but this church was known by this name above an hundred years before this bloody catastrophe. Mr. Strype, therefore, in his edition of Stowe’s Survey, with greater appearance of reason derives the name from the Hebrew or Syriac word Matsel which signifies a woman who has lately brought forth a son; alluding to Mary’s being delivered of our Saviour: however, this name has given way to the more ancient one of Whitechapel, which is even given to the long street by which the edifice is situated.

The old church being in a very ruinous condition in 1673, it was taken down and rebuilt in the present form. It is a coarse and very irregular building. The body, which is built with brick, and ornamented with stone rustic work at the corners, is ninety-three feet in length; 301sixty-three in breadth; and the height of the tower and turret eighty feet. The principal door is adorned with a kind of rustic pilasters, with cherubims heads by way of capitals, and a pediment above. The body has many windows, which are of various forms and different sizes, a sort of Venetian, oval and square. The square windows have ill-proportioned circular pediments, and the oval, or more properly elliptic windows (some of which stand upright, and others crosswise) are surrounded with thick festoons. The steeple, which is of stone, and appears to be a part of the old structure, rises above the principal door, and is crowned with a plain square battlement; in the center of which rises a small turret with its dome and fane. English Architecture.

This church is a rectory, in the gift of the Principal and Scholars of King’s Hall and Brazen Nose College, Oxford. The Incumbent’s profits, according to Mr. Maitland, amount to about 350l. per annum.

St. Mary Woolchurch-Haw, stood on the east side of Stocks market, in Walbrook ward, and received its additional appellation from a beam in the church yard for the weighing of wool; for in that church yard was anciently kept the wool 302staple: but this church being destroyed by the fire of London, and not rebuilt, the parish was annexed to the church of St. Mary Woolnoth. Maitland.

St. Mary Woolnoth, at the corner of Sherborne lane, and adjoining to the Post Office in Lombard street, is supposed to derive its additional epithet of Woolnoth from its being almost contiguous to the above wool staple, whence it might be called Woolneah or Woolnigh, which, by an easy transition, might pass into Woolnoth.

We read of a church with the same addition in 1355. The last suffered by the fire in 1666, when every thing within it was destroyed but the walls; however, being soon after repaired, it continued in a very crazy condition, till it was appointed to be one of the fifty new churches to be erected within the bills of mortality.

In digging a foundation for the present church in 1716, there were discovered, at the depth of fifteen, and twenty-two feet, a great variety of Roman earthen vessels, both for sacred and profane uses; but all broken, together with a considerable number of the tusks and bones of boars and goats, with several medals and pieces of metal; some tesselated work, a part of an aqueduct, and at the bottom of 303all a well full of dirt, which was no sooner removed, than a fine spring arose, in which is placed a pump with an iron bason. By the great quantity of pot-sheards, &c. found in this place, Mr. Maitland is of opinion, that here was a pottery; and from the tusks and bones he imagines, that near this place stood the temple of Concord, mentioned by the Romans.

The new church was finished in the year 1719, and is a very handsome structure built with stone. On the north side which fronts Lombard street, instead of windows there are three very large and lofty niches adorned with Ionic columns, and surrounded with a bold rustic. Over these is a large cornice, upon which is placed a balustrade. The entrance is at the well end by a lofty rustic arch, over which rises an oblong tower, ornamented with six Composite columns in the front, and two on the sides; upon this is raised a lesser tower of the same form crowned with a balustrade, from the center of which rises a flag staff with a fane. The windows are on the south side, where the edifice is intirely surrounded with houses.

It would be impossible, perhaps, to find a place in the whole city where the principal ornaments of a building could be more 304completely concealed. The tower can no where be seen to advantage, and can scarce any where be seen at all, except on the roofs of the neighbouring houses and the opposite garret windows: a great deal of expence has therefore been here thrown away in ornaments, to very little purpose.

The advowson of this church was in the Prioress and Convent of St. Helen’s in Bishopsgate street, till at their dissolution they fell to the Crown; when King Henry VIII. granted it to Sir Martin Bowes, in whose family it has ever since continued. The Rector, besides casualties, receives about 22l. a year in glebe, and 160l. per annum, in lieu of tithes.

Masons. This company had their arms granted by Clarencieux, King at arms, in the year 1477, though the members were not incorporated by letters patent, till they obtained them from King Charles II. in 1677. This fraternity is governed by a Master, two Wardens, twenty-two Assistants, and seventy Liverymen, whose fine on admission is 5l. They have a small convenient hall in Masons alley, Basinghall street. Maitland.

Master of the Ceremonies, an officer appointed by King James I. for the more honourable reception of Ambassadors and strangers of quality. As a badge of his office he wears a gold chain, to which hangs a medal that has on one side an emblem of Peace placed under the crown of England, with King James’s motto Beati Pacifici, and on the other an emblem of War, with the words Dieu et mon Droit. His salary is 300l. a year. He has under him an Assistant and a Marshal, the latter of whom has 6s. 8d. a day. Chamberlain’s Present State.

Master of the Horse, the third great officer of the King’s court, has the management and disposal of all the King’s stables and breed of horses; he has authority over the equeries and pages, coachmen, footmen, grooms, riders of the great horse, farriers and smiths; he appoints all the other tradesmen who work for the King’s stables, and by his warrant to the 306avenor makes them give an oath to be true and faithful. In short, he is intrusted with all the lands and revenues, appropriated for the King’s breed of horses, the expences of the stable, and of the coaches, litters, &c.

He alone has the privilege of making use of any of the horses, pages, or footmen belonging to his Majesty’s stables; and at any solemn cavalcade he rides next the King, and leads a horse of state. His salary is 1276l. 13s. 4d. per annum.

Master of the Houshold, an officer under the Lord Treasurer of the King’s house, whose office is to survey the accounts of the house.

Master of the Jewel House, an officer who has the care of all the gold and silver plate used at the King’s table; as also of all the loose jewels, chains, &c. in the Tower of London.

Master of the Revels, an officer under the Lord Chamberlain, has the management of all the masques and comedies at court, and has a salary of 100l. a year.

Master of the Robes, an officer who orders all his Majesty’s robes, as those of his coronation, of St. George’s feast, and of Parliament, and of his wearing apparel. 307He has a salary of 500l. per annum, and under him is a yeoman, three grooms, a page, a brusher, a sempstress, &c.

St. Matthew’s Friday street, is situated on the west side of that street in the ward of Faringdon within, and owes its name to its dedication to St. Matthew the Evangelist, and its situation. The old church being destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, the present structure was erected in its place. It is a plain stone building, with one series of large arched windows, and at the east end is the steeple, which consists of a square brick tower, void of all ornament.

The patronage of this rectory was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, and upon their suppression, when the conventual church was converted into a cathedral, Henry VIII. conferred it upon the Bishop; but the new bishopric being soon after dissolved, King Edward VI. granted it to the Bishop of London, in whom the advowson still continues. 308 To this church the parish of St. Peter Cheap is united.

May Fair, near Hyde Park; so called from a fair annually held there in the month of May.

Lord Mayor. The chief magistrate of this metropolis was, before the Norman conquest, called the Portreve, or Portgrave, which title in the reign of Henry II. was changed for that of Mayor, a name by which the chief magistrate of the city of Roan, the capital of Normandy, was then distinguished. In 1215 the citizens obtained from King John a charter which granted them the privilege of chusing this magistrate, which was afterwards confirmed by several other royal grants; and the Mayors were elected by the court of Aldermen, and a number of Commons summoned by them, out of each of the wards; but the number thus summoned being occasionally varied at the discretion 309of the Aldermen, gave great uneasiness to the commonalty, for the removing of which the method of election was altered by an act of Common Council in the year 1476, and the present manner of electing by the Livery of the several companies was established: by virtue of which the Lord Mayor is annually chosen on Michaelmas day.

For this purpose the Liverymen on that day assemble in Guildhall, where, by holding up of hands, they usually chuse two of the senior Aldermen below the chair, who being returned to the court of Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the senior is generally declared Lord Mayor elect.

Some time after, the Lord Mayor elect, accompanied by the Recorder and several of the Aldermen, is presented to the Lord Chancellor, as his Majesty’s representative, for his approbation, without which the person elected has no legal authority to perform the office: but this being obtained, he is on the eighth of November sworn into his office at Guildhall, and the following day before the Barons of the Exchequer at Westminster.

The ninth of November being the day on which the Lord Mayor elect enters upon his office, the Aldermen and Sheriffs attend him to Guildhall in their coaches, 310and about noon proceed from thence in their coaches to the Three Cranes stairs, where the Lord Mayor, the Lord Mayor elect, the Aldermen, Recorder, and Sheriffs, go on board the city barge, and attended by the several city companies in their several barges, adorned with flags and pendants, proceed by water to Westminster, where his Lordship having taken the oaths prescribed, returns in the same pompous manner to Black Friars stairs, whence the livery of many of the city companies, preceded by colours and bands of music, march to their stands, which are erected on both sides the streets through which his Lordship is to pass.

The Lord Mayor being at length landed at Black Friars, he is preceded by the Artillery company, which is followed by the company of which the Lord Mayor is free. After them follow several others with their music, flags, and streamers, and among the rest the armourers have a person riding on horseback, completely dressed in polished armour. At length march the Lord Mayor’s domestics and servants, followed by his Lordship in the coach of state, and after him come the Aldermen, Recorder, Sheriffs, Chamberlain, Common Serjeant, Town Clerk, &c. in their several coaches and chariots, and 311in this manner proceed to Guildhall, where a noble entertainment is provided, as there is also for the several Companies at their respective halls.

The power of this great officer is at present much more considerable than it was formerly, for he is not only the King’s representative in the civil government of the city, but also First Commissioner of the lieutenancy, perpetual Coroner and Escheator within the city and liberties of London and the borough of Southwark; Chief Justice of oyer, terminer and goal-delivery of Newgate; Judge of the court of wardmote at the election of Aldermen; Conservator of the rivers Thames and Medway; so that if any citizen or apprentice of London be carried away, and by force detained on ship-board, he can, by his warrant, compel the Captain or Master of such vessel to release such citizen: he is also perpetual Commissioner in all affairs relating to the river Lea, and chief Butler of the kingdom at all coronations, when his fee for that service is a gold cup and cover, with a golden ewer.

The Lord Mayor upon public occasions wears either scarlet or purple robes richly furred, with a velvet hood and gold chain or collar of SS. When he goes abroad in his state coach, the Mace-bearer sits upon 312a stool in the middle facing one of the windows, and the Sword-bearer upon another stool facing the other, and when on foot his train is supported by a page, and the mace and sword carried before him.

The principal officers for the support of his dignity, are the Sword-bearer, the Common Hunt, Common Crier, and Water Bailiff, who have all great salaries or perquisites, with each the title of Esquire. He has also three Serjeant Carvers, three Serjeants of the chamber, a Serjeant of the channel, two Yeomen of the chamber, four Yeomen of the water side, a Yeoman of the channel, an Under Water Bailiff, six Yeomen waiters, three Meal weighers, two Yeomen of the wood wharf, and an officer called a Foreign taker. Maitland.

Lord Mayor’s Court. This is a court of record held before the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Recorder, every Tuesday in Guildhall, wherein actions of debt, trespass, attachments, covenants, &c. arising within the city and liberties, of any value, may be tried, and actions from the Sheriff’s court removed hither, before the jury be sworn.

This is also a court of equity, relating to affairs transacted within the city and liberties; it giving relief when judgment 313is obtained in the Sheriff’s court for more than the just debt.

This court is, in several respects, the best to commence a process in; since an action, exclusive of stamps, may be entered for so small a sum as four pence; and yet, though not proceeded upon, it never dies, as those in other courts. Besides, a suit may be begun and ended here within the space of fourteen days, for thirty shillings.

The juries for trying causes in this and the Sheriff’s courts, are annually returned at Christmas by the several courts of wardmote, when each ward appoints a sufficient number of persons to serve on those juries for every month of the year.

This court has an office peculiar to itself, consisting of four Attorneys, by whom all actions cognizable therein are entered; for the execution thereof there are six Serjeants at mace. Lex Lond.

Court of Lord Mayor and Aldermen. This is also a court of record, in which is lodged a great part of the executive power of the city, whereby all leases and other instruments that pass the city seal are executed; the assize of bread ascertained; contests relating to water courses and party walls, adjusted; and the city 314officers suspended and punished, according to the nature of their offences.

This court has a power of annually electing eleven overseers or rulers of the fraternity of watermen; and a right of fixing their several taxes with the approbation of the Privy Council; and likewise a right of disposing of most of the places belonging to the city officers.

Maypole alley, 1. Fenchurch street. 2. Holiwell street. 3. St. Margaret’s Hill. 4. St. Olave street. 5. Wych street.

Meeting House alley, 1. Greenbank.⸸ Johnson’s street.⸸ 3. Queen street, Rotherhith.⸸

315Meeting House court, 1. Black Friars.⸸ 2. Drury lane.⸸ 3. St. Michael’s lane, Canon street.⸸ 4. Stony lane.⸸

Meeting House yard, 1. Broad street, London Wall.⸸ 2. Deadman’s place, Southwark.⸸ 3. Devonshire square, Bishopsgate street without.⸸. 4. Five foot lane.†. 5. Gravel lane, Houndsditch.⸸ 6. Little St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate street within.⸸ 7. St. Michael’s lane, Canon street.⸸ 8. Nightingale lane.⸸ 9. Old Horselydown lane.⸸ 10. Old Jewry.⸸ 11. Silver street, Wood street, Cheapside.⸸ 12. Water lane.⸸ 13. Wentworth street.⸸ 14. West lane.⸸

Meeting Houses. Of these there are above an hundred and twenty within the bills of mortality. See a particular account of them under the names of the several denominations of Protestant Dissenters, as Baptists, Independents, Presbyterians, &c.

Meggs’ Almshouse, on the south side of Whitechapel, was founded about sixty-five years ago, by William Meggs, Esq; for the reception of twelve widows, each of whom has a room, and annually receives 5l. 4s. and a chaldron of coals.

Mercers, the first of the twelve principal companies, was incorporated by letters 316patent granted by King Richard II. in the year 1393. The members are not only exempt from quarterage, but upon their admission to the livery, pay only a fine of 2l. 13s. 4d.

This fraternity is governed by a Prime and three other Wardens, with forty Assistants, and 232 Liverymen.

Mercers Hall, and Chapel, are situated in Cheapside, between the Old Jewry and Ironmonger lane, on the spot where anciently stood an hospital dedicated to St. Thomas of Acars or Acons. They were both destroyed by the fire of London; after which they were rebuilt by the company. The front, which is towards Cheapside, is adorned with a very handsome entrance; the door case is enriched with the figures of two Cupids mantling the company’s arms, and with festoons, &c. and over it the balcony is adorned with two pilasters of the Ionic order, and a pediment; with the figures of Faith, Hope and Charity, and other enrichments.

The inner court is adorned with piazzas, formed of columns of the Doric order; the hall room and great parlour are wainscoted with oak, and ornamented with Ionic pilasters; and the ceiling with fret-work.

Mercers School, in the Old Jewry, was, as well as their hall and chapel, a part of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acons; but that hospital being surrendered to Henry VIII. in 1531, it was purchased by the company of Mercers, and the ancient school continued; the Master having a salary of 40l. per annum, with a commodious dwelling house, for which he is obliged to teach twenty-five boys grammatical learning. Maitland.

Merchant Taylors, the seventh of the twelve principal companies, was incorporated by Edward IV. in the year 1466; and was anciently denominated Taylors and Linen Armourers: but many of the company being great merchants, and Henry VII. one of the members, that Prince in the year 1503 re-incorporated it, by the name of, The Master and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors of the fraternity of St. John the Baptist, in the city of London.

318This fraternity is governed by a Master, four Wardens, thirty-eight Assistants, and 394 Liverymen, who upon their admission pay a fine of 20l. The company is possessed of a great estate, out of which they pay to charitable uses, pursuant to the wills of the respective donors, about 2000l. per annum.

This company has a spacious hall on the south side of Threadneedle street. Strype’s Stowe.

Merchant Taylors Almshouse, near the west end of Rosemary lane, contains twenty-six apartments for so many poor widows, the relicts of deceased members, who annually receive 6l. and a chaldron of coals each, with a gown every third year. Maitland.

Merchant Taylors School, in Suffolk lane, Thames street, was founded by the company of Merchant Taylors in the year 1568, for the education of boys. It was anciently kept in a house which belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, and was called the Manor of the Rose; but that edifice being destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, the present structure was erected upon the same spot.

The school is a long and spacious building, supported on the east by many stone 319pillars that form an handsome cloister, within which are apartments for the three Ushers. Adjoining to the school is a library supported also by stone pillars, and well furnished with books. And on the south of the library is the part called the chapel. Contiguous to these is a large house appropriated to the use of the head Master.

The school consists of eight forms, in which near three hundred boys have their education; an hundred of whom, according to the constitutions of the company, are taught gratis; an hundred more at 5s. and fifty at 2s. 6d. a quarter.

The head Master receives from the company a salary of 10l. 6s. per annum, and thirty shillings for water; besides the quarterage from the scholars, which renders his salary very considerable. The first Usher has 30l. a year, and the two last 25l. per annum, and all of them have proper apartments.

Several of the scholars are annually sent to St. John’s College, Oxford, which seems to have been founded by Sir Thomas White chiefly for their use, as they have no less than forty-six fellowships in that college.

For the better inquiry into the proficiency of all the scholars, there are four 320probations in the year performed only by the Master and Ushers; the first on the 11th of March; the second on the 15th of June; the third on the 11th of September; and the fourth on the 11th of December, not being Sundays, and then upon the next day following.

For the farther satisfaction of the Master, Wardens, and court of Assistants of the Merchant Taylors, the probations themselves undergo an examination twice every year, by two judicious men well learned in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, appointed by the Master and Wardens of the company. Upon these days, which are between the 11th and 21st of March, and September, the Master and Wardens, or at least two of them, are present. The examination, which is performed in the chapel, begins at six in the morning and ends at eleven. These are called the Doctors days. After the examination is finished, the audience, which is generally pretty numerous, returns into the school, where certain public exercises are performed by the eight senior scholars, or monitors of the school.

There is yet another public examination of the scholars of the upper form, by the President and Fellows of St. John’s College, Oxford, annually performed upon 321the 11th of June, previous to the election of scholars to be made upon that day, to fill up the vacant fellowships in that college: and after the public exercises are finished, the Dean of the college addresses himself to the scholars, out of whose number the vacancy is to be filled up, in a Latin speech suited to the occasion.

At this time an account is usually printed, containing the names and order of the head scholars, their births, admission, and continuance in the head form; and also an account of the subjects of the orations. Stowe’s Survey, last edit. Maitland.

Merchants Waterworks for raising water. To this office belong three engines, a windmill in Tottenham court road fields, and lately by two water mills, turned by the common sewer, one at Tom’s coffee-house in St. Martin’s lane, and the other in Northumberland street, late Hartshorn lane, in the Strand. From these engines issue three main pipes of six and seven inch bore, from which the neighbourhood of those places are supplied with water.

This company, after defraying all charges, divide the profits every half year. Their office is kept in Rathbone place, Oxford street.

Mermaid court, 1. Charing Cross.* 2. Great Carter lane.* 3. St. Margaret’s hill.* 4. Pater noster row, Cheapside.* 5. Ratcliff Cross.*

Methodists, a body of Dissenters from the church of England, who have several meeting houses in this metropolis: 1. At the Foundery, Windmill hill. 2. Beech lane. 3. Bull and Mouth street. 4. Marybon fields, which is more properly a chapel of the church of England, the service of the church being performed by one of the principal founders of the sect of Methodists. 5. St. Agnes le Clare. 6. West street, Seven Dials.

Mews, the stables for the King’s horses near Charing Cross, is a place of considerable antiquity, and is thus denominated from Mew, a term used among falconers, signifying to moult or cast feathers; for this place was used for the accommodation of the King’s falconers and hawks, so early as the year 1377; but the King’s stables at Lomesbury, since called Bloomsbury, being destroyed by fire in the year 1537, King Henry VIII. caused the hawks to be removed, and the Mews enlarged and fitted up for the reception of his Majesty’s horses, where they have been kept ever since: the building going to decay, the north side was rebuilt in a magnificent manner by his present Majesty, in the year 1732.

S. Wale delin. B. Green sculp.
Part of the Meuse and S^t. Martins Church.

323There is something in this part of the intended building of the Mews very noble, particularly the center, which is enriched with columns and a pediment, and the continuity of the architecture preserved. The smaller pediment and rustic arch under the cupolas or lanthorns are properly subordinate, but set so close to the balustrade that its intent, as a gallery, is thereby destroyed. In the view given in the print scarce half the front is seen: and over some old houses you see the beautiful steeple and part of the portico of St. Martin’s church, which has the general fate of our public buildings, to be so incumbered with houses as to have no place to view them to advantage.

Upon viewing this edifice, it is impossible not to be offended at the wretched buildings which form the other sides of the square. It is indeed much to be wished that they were made to correspond with the main building; this, if it were done, and a suitable regular entrance 324made from Charing Cross, would make the royal stables one of the greatest ornaments of this metropolis. Some of the finest horses in the kingdom, both for the coach and saddle, may here be seen.

St. Michael Bassishaw, a church on the west side of Basinghall street, so denominated from its dedication to St. Michael the Archangel, and its situation near Basing’s haw or hall. A church dedicated to the same patron has stood here from about the year 1140, but the last edifice being destroyed by the fire of London, the present structure was erected in its place. Newc. Rep. Eccles.

The walls are strengthened with rustic work at the corners, and the body well enlightened by a single series of large windows; at the east end, where the top is terminated by an arch, the light is given by three windows, one of them tall and upright, the two others circular. The steeple is a tower crowned with a turret, from which rises a kind of spire.

The patronage of this rectory appears to have been anciently in the Bishop of London; after which it fell into lay hands; 325but at last came to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, where it has ever since continued, but is subject to the Archdeacon. The Rector receives 132l. 11s. per annum in lieu of tithes.

St. Michael’s, an ancient parochial chapel, which stood at the end of Leadenhall street, where is now the row of houses fronting Aldgate; and the remains of this chapel are still to be seen under the corner house of Leadenhall street. They extend thirty-six feet from north to south, and sixteen from east to west, and there is still standing the Gothic arched roof, which is supported by handsome pillars; the whole built with square brick, chalk, and stone. Maitland.

St. Michael’s Cornhill, on the east side of St. Michael’s alley. We find that a church was situated here, dedicated to the same holy angel, so early as before the year 1133; but the last edifice being destroyed with the other public buildings by the fire of London, the present Gothic structure was raised in its stead. Stowe.

The body is seventy feet long and sixty broad, the height to the roof is thirty-five feet, and that of the tower an hundred and thirty feet. The lower part of the tower occupies the center, and on each side there is a regular extent of 326building. The principal door opens in the lower stage of the tower, which rises with angulated corners from the ground, forming a kind of base, terminated at the height of the body of the church. The second stage, which is plain and lofty, has two tall windows, one over the other, properly shaped for the style of the building; this is terminated with a truly Gothic cornice. The third stage is exactly in the form of the two others, only they are plain, and this is covered with ornaments, the angulated corners are fluted, and terminated by cherubims heads under a cornice: the plain face between has four windows in two series. Above the cornice, over the uppermost of these windows, runs a battlement on the plain faces of the tower, and from the corners are carried up four beautiful fluted turrets, cased a part of their height with Doric turrets; these terminate in pinacle heads, from within which rises a spire at each corner crowned with a fane. The author of the Critical Review of the public buildings observes, that this Gothic tower is very magnificent, and justly deserves to be esteemed the finest thing of that sort in London.

The advowson of this church was anciently in the Abbot and Canons of Evesham; 327but in 1503 they conveyed it to the Drapers company, who settled upon that convent a perpetual annuity of 5l. 6s. 8d. and that company have been its patrons ever since. The Rector, instead of uncertain tithes, has by act of Parliament a settled stipend of 140l. a year.

St. Michael’s Crooked Lane, on the east side of St. Michael’s lane, in Candlewick ward, receives its additional epithet from its vicinity to Crooked lane. A church dedicated to St. Michael stood in the same place before the year 1304; but suffering by the fire of London in 1666 was soon after rebuilt.

It is a plain Structure built with stone, and enlightened by a series of large arched windows. The tower, which is at the west end, is carried square to a considerable height, and the uppermost window in the center of each face, is ornamented with a head, and handsome festoons. From hence, instead of a balustrade, is a range of open work of the Gothic kind, with vases at the corners. From within this part, the tower rises circular, diminishing in three stages, with an open buttress rising from each corner of the square tower, to the top of the first stage; from this buttress rises a large scroll to the top of the second, and a smaller to the 328top of the third stage, above which rises a kind of short round spire of a peculiar kind, it swelling out at the bottom, and then rounding off, rises to a small height, where it is terminated by a gilt ball and fane.

The patronage of this church was anciently in the Prior and Convent of Canterbury, in whom it continued till the year 1408, since which time it has been in the Archbishops of that see, and is one of the thirteen peculiars in this city belonging to Canterbury. The Rector, in conformity to an act of Parliament granted in the reign of King Charles II. receives, besides his other profits, 100l. per annum in lieu of tithes.

Among the several monuments in this church, is that of Sir William Walworth who slew Wat Tyler. See the article London. The inscription, as given by Mr. Weaver, in his Funeral Monuments, is as follows:

Here is also a monument erected to the honour of Queen Elizabeth; and the following very concise inscription on the tomb of William Wray.

St. Michael’s Queenhithe, situated on the north side of Thames street, in the ward of Queenhithe, opposite to the great wharf and buildings of that name, was about the year 1181, denominated St. Michael de Cornhithe, which may lead us to the origin of the name by which we at present call that wharf, and this church from its situation near it; as the quantities of corn brought thither down the Thames might occasion the original name, and Queenhithe be only a corrupt way of speaking it.

330The old church being consumed by the dreadful fire in 1666, the present structure was erected in its room. It consists of a well-proportioned body, enlightened by two series of windows, the first a range of tall arched ones, and over these a range of large porthole windows, above which are cherubims heads, and underneath festoons, that adorn the lower part, and fall between the tops of the under series. The tower is plain but well-proportioned, and is terminated by a spire crowned with a fane in the form of a little ship.

This church has all along been in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, and is subject to the Archdeacon. On its being rebuilt the parish of the Trinity was united to it, by which the Rector’s fees were considerably augmented, who, besides his other advantages, receives 160l. per annum, in lieu of tithes.

St. Michael Querne, a church which stood at the west end of Cheapside, between Blowbladder street and Pater noster row, and had a narrow passage at the west end. We have an account of this edifice so early as the year 1181, when it appears to have been only a chapel, since the first Rector was buried in it in 1461. in old records it is called St. Michael ad Bladum; that is, At the Corn, which was 331corrupted to Querne. It was also sometimes denominated St. Michael de Macello, from its vicinity to the flesh market.

This ancient edifice being burnt by the fire of London, the place on which it stood was, by act of Parliament, laid into the street, in order to enlarge it, and the parish united to the church of St. Vedast, in Foster lane. Stowe’s Survey. Newc. Rep. Eccles.

St. Michael Royal, on the east side of College hill, in Vintry ward, is thus denominated from its being anciently near the Tower Royal. This was a parish church before the year 1285, when it was under the patronage of the Prior and Canons of Canterbury, in whom it continued till it was converted into a college by Sir Richard Whittington, mercer, four times Lord Mayor, who rebuilt the church; but even then the monks of Canterbury so far continued its patrons, as to present a person nominated by the Master and Wardens of the Mercers company. This church being consumed with the other public buildings by the fire of London, the present structure was erected in its room, and the parish of St. Martin Vintry united to it. Newc. Rep. Eccles. Stowe’s Survey.

332This structure is a plain, decent, and substantial stone building, enlightened by a single series of large arched windows, placed so high that the doors open under the level of their bottoms. The tower consists of three stages, and at the top is surrounded with carved open work instead of a balustrade: from hence rises a light and elegant turret adorned with Ionic columns, and ending in a fine diminution, which supports the fane.

This church is one of the thirteen peculiars belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Rector, besides his other profits, receives 140l. a year in lieu of tithes. Among the several monumental inscriptions, was one in memory of the above Sir Richard Whittington.

St. Michael’s Wood Street, is seated on the west side of Wood street, in Cripplegate ward. An old church, dedicated to the same patron, stood there in the year 1392, and probably another succeeded it towards the close of the fifteenth century; however, in 1666 the church then standing was destroyed by the fire of London, and the present structure, which rose in its place, was finished a few years after, and the Parish of St. Mary Staining united to it.

333As the east end of this edifice is the most conspicuous part, it is ornamented with four Ionic columns raised upon a continued pedestal, with arches between, and supporting a handsome pediment, in the middle of which is a circular window. Between the columns are three upright arched windows, that fill the whole space. The rest of the body is plain, and the windows are raised so high that the doors open under them.

The tower consists of three plain stages with large windows, from the uppermost of which rises a small square course, the foundation of the base of the turret. This base is cut away from the breadth of the tower gradually to the diameter of the turret, which is plain, but handsome; and from its top rises a ball that supports the fane.

The patronage of this church was in the Abbot and Convent of St. Alban’s till the suppression of that monastery, when Henry VIII. sold it to William Barwell, who in the year 1588, conveyed it to several persons in trust for the parish, in which it still continues. The Rector, besides his other profits, receives 100l. a year in lieu of tithes.

334Middle row, 1. St. Giles’s. 2. Goswell street. 3. Holborn. 4. Gray’s Inn lane.

Middlesex Hospital, for the reception of the sick and the lame, and for lying-in married women, in Marybon Fields near Oxford road. This is a neat, plain, and not inelegant brick building: it has the decent appearance and all the accommodations one would wish in a house devoted to charity, without that ostentatious magnificence which too often in a great measure defeats the humane and noble end of such pious and charitable institutions, where those sums are squandered away in useless decorations, that ought to be employed in administering health to the sick, and giving feet to the lame.

335Nature and religion patronize every instance of distress, but most powerfully befriend that deepest of all distresses, sickness in poverty. Sickness itself will excite compassion, though alleviated by every comfort and advantage of wealth. How much stronger a sympathy must then arise at the sight or idea of sickness imbittered by poverty! or considered in another view, of poverty disabled by sickness! Most men are inclined, but very few, in comparison, have the power to relieve it. Public contributions, therefore, seemed the most likely to effect what the private bounty of individuals could not. This gave rise, in the present charitable age, to infirmaries, and in particular to this, which has the merit and the honour of being the first hospital in this kingdom for lying-in women; and of setting an example which has been so happily followed.

The charitable designs of this hospital were carried on for several years in two convenient houses adjoining to each other, in Windmill street, Tottenham court road, where the first institution in August 1745, was intended only for the relief of the indigent sick and lame: but in July 1747, the Governors willing to render it more worthy of the notice of the public, extended their plan to the relief of the 336pregnant wives of the industrious poor: when the great increase of patients, occasioned by the reputation of this twofold charity, soon obliged the Governors to think of enlarging their edifice, as well as their plan; and the kind benevolence of the public by donations, legacies, &c. enabled them in 1755, to erect a much larger and more convenient building in Marybon Fields, wherein the apartments for the reception of the lying-in women are in a separate part of the building, remote from the sick and lame; and that ladies may visit the lying-in patients, without being incommoded by the sick and lame, different stair-cases lead to each, the lying-in wards having no communication with the sick and lame.

The qualification of a Governor of this charity is an annual subscription of three guineas; which also intitles the subscriber to recommend, and have in the house at one time, either one sick or lame patient, or one lying-in woman, and to recommend out-patients, A subscription of five guineas per annum intitles the subscriber to recommend one sick or lame in-patient, out-patients, and one lying-in woman. A subscription of thirty guineas at one payment, constitutes the subscriber a Governor for life, with the last mentioned 337privileges. Contributions of lesser sums than three guineas per annum are thankfully received, and intitle the contributors to recommend one sick or lame in-patient, and one out-patient at the same time.

A committee of the Governors (appointed quarterly) meet at the hospital every Tuesday, at ten of the clock, to receive and discharge patients, and to transact the other necessary business of the house; where every Governor, though not of the committee, has a right to be present, and his attendance is received as a favour. A report of their proceedings is made to the general court held every quarter, when the resolutions of this committee are approved or rejected.

The patients are attended without fee or reward by three eminent Physicians, a Man-midwife, three Surgeons, and a reverend Divine.

The Physicians visit the patients every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and on intermediate days, when particular cases require it. The Surgeons attend every day.

Patients are admitted on a letter of recommendation from a Governor or Contributor, who may recommend in-patients, and have out-patients on the books, 338according to the regulation abovementioned: and when in-patients are recommended, and there is not room in the house to receive them, they are put on the list to be admitted on the first vacancy, and in the mean time are prescribed for as out-patients.

Tuesday being the day appointed for the admission of patients, they are expected to be at the hospital, with their recommendations, at ten of the clock.

The Physicians and Surgeons meet every Saturday at twelve of the clock, at the hospital, where they give advice gratis to all such diseased poor who shall come, though unrecommended, and require it.

Married women only are admitted (in the last month of their pregnancy) after they have been examined by the weekly board, and on their producing an affidavit made before a Justice of the peace, of the time and place of their marriage, and of the settlement of the husband, with the manner the said settlement was obtained, whether by birth, servitude, or otherwise. And that this useful branch of the charity, the midwifery ward, may be made every way beneficial, and not 339liable to any objection, no pupils will be admitted; the whole being under the direction of Dr. Brudenell Exton, Physician and Man-midwife: and no woman whatsoever, who has been able to prove her marriage, and her husband’s settlement, so as to avoid burthening the parish wherein the hospital stands, has been refused admittance.

The patients admitted from the first institution of this hospital, in August 1745, to the 1st of June 1758, are as follow:

The servants of the house are forbid to take any gratuity of the patients or their friends, on any pretence whatsoever, on pain of expulsion.

Such persons who are inclined to favour this charitable design, are desired to send their subscriptions, with their names and places of abode, to the Treasurers, at the weekly committee, held every Tuesday in the forenoon at the hospital; and in order to supply the current expence of this charity, the subscribers are requested 340to continue to pay their yearly subscriptions in advance.

Subscriptions and benefactions are likewise taken in at Messrs. Honywood, Fuller, and Co. bankers in Birchin lane; and at Mr. Gislingham Cooper’s, banker in the Strand. From the account published by the Society in June 1758.

The reader may find the other hospitals for lying-in women, founded after the example set by this excellent charity, under the articles London Lying-in Hospital, Lying-in Hospital in Brownlow street, and Lying-in Hospital in Duke street.

Milborne’s Almshouse, on the west side of Woodrof lane, Crutched Friars, was erected by Sir John Milborne in the year 1535, for the reception of thirteen poor members of the Drapers company, whom he allowed 7d. per week, which was at that time a sufficient support. In the front of the building is the following inscription:

Ad laudem Dei, & gloriosæ Virginis Mariæ, hoc opus erexit Dominus Johannes Milborne, Miles & Alderman. bujus civitatis, A. D. 1535.

‘To the praise of God, and the glory of the Virgin, this edifice was erected by John Milborne, Mayor of this city in the year 1535.’

The Drapers company, to whom the management of this almshouse was intrusted, have not only increased the number of the pensioners to fifteen; but have doubled their pensions, with a load of coals, and twenty or more shillings annually, out of the money left to be distributed by that company at discretion.

St. Mildred’s Bread Street, a church situated on the east side of Bread street, and in the ward of that name, is thus denominated from its being dedicated to St. Mildred, a Saxon lady, the daughter of Merwaldus, brother to Penda King of the Mercians. This Princess despising the gaieties of a court, retired to a convent at Hale in France, whence returning to England, accompanied by seventy virgins, she was consecrated Abbess of a new monastery in the isle of Thanet, where she died in the year 676.

A church under the same tutelary name stood in that spot in the year 1333: but the last structure being destroyed by the fire of London, the present edifice was created in its room in 1670.

342It consists of a spacious body, and a light tower divided into four stages, whence rises a tall spire.

The advowson of this church was anciently in the Prior and Canons of St. Mary Overie’s, but it afterwards came to Sir Nicholas Crispe, in whose family it may perhaps still remain. On the present edifice being built, the parish of St. Margaret Moses was annexed to it. The Rector, besides his other profits, receives 130l. per annum in lieu of tithes.

St. Mildred’s Poultry, at the corner of Scalding alley, in Cheap ward. A church of the same name stood in this place before the year 1325; but the last edifice sharing the fate of most of the other public buildings at the fire of London, this was built in its room.

It is a plain, substantial stone building, enlightened by a series of large windows, and strengthened with rustic at the corners. The tower is crowned with a plain course, without either pinacles, turret, or any other ornament.

The patronage of this church was in the Prior and Canons of St. Mary Overie’s in Southwark, till their suppression; and it has ever since been in the King’s gift. After its being rebuilt, the parish of St. Mary Cole was annexed to it, by which 343the profits of the Rector were considerably increased. Besides his other profits, he receives 170l. a year in lieu of tithes.

Mile End, so called from its being a mile from Aldgate, is situated near Stepney, in the road to Bow. Here anciently stood a Lazaretto, or hospital of lepers, denominated the house of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and Mary Magdalene, to whom Edward VI. granted letters patent, allowing them to beg for their support.

Mile’s rents, 1. Dog lane, Barnaby street. † 2. Powell’s alley, Beech lane, Whitecross street.†

Milk alley, 1. Dean street, Soho. 2. Long Ditch, Westminster. 3. Milk yard, near Gravel lane. 4. Peter street, Clare market. 5. Wapping. 6. Winchester yard, Winchester street.

344Milk yard, 1. New Gravel lane, Shadwell. 2. Popping’s alley, Fleet street. 3. Rag Fair, Rosemary lane.

Mims, there are two villages of this name; North Mims, situated in Hertfordshire, on the east side of Colney, and two miles from Hatfield. In its neighbourhood is the seat of the late Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, in right of his Lady, who was heir to her late brother the great Lord Somers. It has a most delightful prospect. The body of that Nobleman lies interred in the chancel of the church, without any inscription. This seat now belongs to the Duke of Leeds, who is Lord of the manor.

345South Mims is situated two miles from the former, in the most northern corner of Middlesex. Here is an almshouse built and endowed for six poor people, by James Hickson, Esq; who died in 1689, when he gave by his will to fifteen poor people of this parish two shifts, one pair of hose, and a pair of shoes annually; for the payment of these, and other benefactions, he left several estates in this parish to the Brewers company in London.

Mincing lane, on the south side of Fenchurch street, extends to Tower street, is well built, and chiefly inhabited by merchants.

Mine and Battery Works Company, for the discovery of mines and minerals. In order to give a just idea of the origin of this and the following company, it is necessary to observe, that the English, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, being but little acquainted with the manner of working and discovering mines, she, by the advice of her Council, sent for several Germans, well skilled both in these works, and in smelting and refining of minerals; who on their arrival were no sooner naturalized, than they obtained a licence to search for mines.

346Among these, that Princess in the year 1565, impowered William Humfreys and Christopher Schutz a German, to search for all mines, minerals, and subterraneous treasure, except allum and copperas, in the several royalties throughout England, exclusive of the following eight counties, York, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall, Lancashire, Devon, Gloucester, and the principality of Wales, for their sole use and profit; her Majesty only reserving to herself a tenth part of all gold, silver, and quicksilver ores, and the pre-emption of refined gold and silver, the former at 8d. and the latter at 1d. per ounce lower than the current price of those metals; and 6d. for every hundred weight of copper.

Afterwards her Majesty, in the year 1568, incorporated this society by the name of, The Governors, Assistants, and Society of the Mineral and Battery Works. The number of shares belonging to this company at first amounted to thirty-six; which being divided into half and quarter parts, they are at present increased to an hundred and forty four.

Mines Royal Company. This society owed its origin to the same cause as the former, and was founded a year before it: 347for in 1564 Queen Elizabeth, by her letters patent granted to Thomas Thurland and Daniel Houghsetter, and their heirs for ever, impowered them to search for mines of gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver, in the several royalties in the counties of York, Lancashire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucester, Worcester, and the principality of Wales, to be held of the crown upon the same terms as those abovementioned, with respect to the Mine and Battery Works company.

At length Thurland and Houghsetter having in virtue of the powers granted them, sold several parts or shares of their said privileges, they, with the purchasers, were, by letters patent, dated the 22d of May 1568, incorporated by the stile of, The Governors, Assistants, and Commonalty of the Mines Royal. The shares of this company at first consisted of twenty-four; but they have since been increased to ninety-six. Sir John Pettus’s Fodinæ Regale.

Minories. This street extends from Aldgate street to Tower hill. The middle part of the east side is called the Little Minories; this part is railed in, and is out of the liberties of the city. Here anciently stood an abbey 348of nuns of the order of St. Clare, called the Minoresses; whence the street obtained the name of the Minories. See the article Trinity in the Minories.

Mint, an office kept in the Tower for coining money. Before the Norman conquest the Kings of England set apart certain monasteries for mints; presuming that the coinage would in those places be best secured from frauds and corruption. Edward I. however ordered a mint of thirty furnaces to be erected in the Tower of London, and others in Canterbury, Kingston upon Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne, Bristol and Exeter. From that time the mint was kept sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another, according to the will and pleasure of the Prince, who, for a sum of money, was frequently prevailed upon to grant the privilege of coining to some Nobleman, Bishop, or Corporation; which being attended with many inconveniencies to the public, Queen Elizabeth, in the beginning of her reign, endeavoured to rectify those abuses, by confining the mint to the Tower of London, which has ever since been appropriated to the coinage of money, except when King Charles I. by the confusion of 349the times, was obliged to erect new mints at Oxford, York, and Newark upon Trent, where being with his army, he was reduced to the necessity of coining money to supply his present wants: and when King William III. having called in all the base and clipped money, for the sake of expedition, and for the service of distant parts of the nation, was obliged to erect mints at Bristol, Exeter, York and Winchester.

The mint office is on the left hand on entering into the Tower, and at a small distance from the gate. There is no possibility of describing the particular processes that the different metals undergo before they receive the impression.

The manner of stamping is all you are permitted to see, and this is done with surprizing expedition, by means of an engine, worked sometimes by three, and sometimes by four men. The manner of making the impression on gold, silver, and copper, is exactly the same, only a little more care is necessary in the one, than in the other, to prevent waste.

This engine, which makes the impression on both sides of a piece of money, in the same moment, works by a worm-screw terminating in a spindle; just in 350the same manner as the letter press for printing books. To the point of this spindle the head of the die is fastened by a small screw, and in a little sort of a cup directly underneath it, is placed the reverse. Between these the piece of metal already cut round, or cast to the size, and if gold, exactly weighed, is placed; and by once pulling down the spindle with a jerk, is completely stamped. The whole process is performed with amazing dexterity; for as fast as the men who work the engine can turn the spindle, so fast does another twitch out with his middle finger that which was stamped, while with his finger and thumb he places another that is unstamped. The silver and gold thus stamped, are delivered to be milled round the edges, the manner of performing which is a secret never shewn to any body.

The mint is managed by several officers formed into a corporation. These are a Warden, a Master and Worker, a Comptroller, the King’s Assay Master, the chief Engraver, the Surveyor of the meltings, a Clerk of the irons, a Weigher and Teller, a Provost, Melters, Blanchers, Moneyers, &c.

The Warden receives the silver, &c. 351from the goldsmiths, pays for it, and oversees all that belong to his office. His salary amounts to 450l. a year for himself and clerk. He has also another clerk who receives 100l. a year.

The Master and Worker receives the silver, &c. from the Warden, orders it to be melted, delivers it to the Moniers, and receives it back from them again. His salary is 650l. a year for himself and three clerks.

The Comptroller sees that the money be made of the just assize; oversees the officers, and controlls them, if the money does not prove as it ought. His salary for himself and clerk is 535l. per annum.

The King’s Assay Master, takes care that the bullion is according to standard. He has a salary of 225l. a year for himself and clerk: and the Assistant Assay Master has 100l. per annum.

The chief Engraver, engraves the stamps for the money. He has a salary of 200l. a year, and his Assistant 80l.

The Surveyor of the meltings, is to see the bullion cast out, and that the metal be not altered after the Assay Master has made trial of it, and it is delivered to the melter.

352The business of the Clerk of the irons, is to see that the working irons are kept clean, and fit for the work. These two last offices are frequently enjoyed by the same person, who has a salary of 130l. 10s. a year.

The Teller counts the number of pieces. These two last offices are also frequently enjoyed by the same person, who has a salary of 142l. 10s. a year for himself and clerk.

The Provost to the company of Moneyers, provides for all the Moneyers, and oversees them. His salary is 100l. a year.

The Moneyers cast the money, and sheer it; some beat it broad, others round it, and others stamp or coin it. These have 40l. a year each.

Besides these there are the King’s Clerk, and Clerk of the papers, who has 100l. a year; a Surveyor of the money presses, who has 40l. a year; and several deputies and clerks.

Mint, opposite the west end of St. George’s church, Southwark. Here anciently stood a magnificent structure belonging to the Duke of Suffolk, which coming to Henry VIII. he erected a 353mint in it, from which that neighbourhood is still denominated. This place was for many years a famous asylum for debtors, who fled thither with their effects, in order to defraud their creditors: till this was carried to such a height, that the Parliament found it necessary to take away the privilege of sanctuary in order to destroy this nest of spoilers.

Mint street, extends west from the corner of Blackman street, opposite St. George’s church, Southwark.

Mitchell’s court, 1. Milk street, Cheapside† 2. Mitchell street, Old street.†

Mitre court, 1. Cheapside.* 2. Cornhill.* 3. Fenchurch street.* 4. Fish street hill.* 5. Fleet street.* 6. Friday street.* 7. Gutter lane, Cheapside.* 8. High street, Aldgate.* 9. St. John’s street, West Smithfield.* 10. Milk street, Cheapside.* 11. St. Paul’s Church yard.*

Monger’s Almshouse, in Well street, Hackney, was founded by Henry Monger, Esq; in the year 1699, for six poor old men, who are allowed forty shillings per annum each. Maitland.

Monkwell street, Silver street, near Cripplegate. It took its name from the monks lodging in it, and a well belonging to them. Maitland.

Monmouth court, 1. Hedge lane, Charing Cross. 2. High Holborn. 3. Monmouth street, St. Giles’s.

Monmouth street, 1. Quaker street, Spitalfields. 2. Seven Dials. This street is famous for the sale of old cloaths. 3. Shadwell market. 4. Spitalfields.

Montague court, 1. Bishopsgate street. 2. Little Britain. 3. Montague street, Spitalfields. 4. Petticoat lane.

Montague House, in Great Russel street, a noble building, with a very spacious court yard before it. His Grace 355the late Duke of Montague having built another house in the Privy Garden at Whitehall, this edifice was let for the use of the King’s great wardrobe, and is since purchased by authority of Parliament, to be a repository for the Cotton library, and for the natural and artificial curiosities, medals, coins, printed books, and manuscripts, bought by the public of the executors of the late Sir Hans Sloane, the late Lord Oxford, &c. Stowe’s Survey, last edition. See the article British Museum.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

P. 112, changed “pent-houses” to “pest-houses”.
P. 310, changed “Town Clerk, &c. their several coaches” to “Town Clerk, &c. in their several coaches”.
All spelling errors were left uncorrected.

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.

In-patients, sick and lame	1829
Out-patients	11785
Lying-in women	1425

	15039

LONDON
AND ITS
ENVIRONS
DESCRIBED, &c.

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LONDON AND ITS ENVIRONS DESCRIBED, &c.

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LONDON
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DESCRIBED, &c.