THE FASCINATION OF LONDON

HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY

_IN THIS SERIES. _

Cloth, price 1s. 6d. Net; leather, price 2s. Net, each. 

THE STRAND DISTRICT. 

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. 

WESTMINSTER. 

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. 

HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE. 

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT. 

CHELSEA. 

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT. 

KENSINGTON. 

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT. 

HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY. 

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. 

[Illustration: STAPLE INN, HOLBORN BARS]

The Fascination of London

HOLBORN ANDBLOOMSBURY

BYSIR WALTER BESANTANDG. E. MITTON

LONDONADAM & CHARLES BLACK1903

PREFATORY NOTE

A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that shouldpreserve her history, her historical and literary associations, hermighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all thatLondoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from thepast--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when hedied. 

As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anythingelse I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attemptedbefore. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and Ifind something fresh in it every day. "

Sir Walter's idea was that two of the volumes of his survey shouldcontain a regular and systematic perambulation of London by differentpersons, so that the history of each parish should be complete initself. This was a very original feature in the great scheme, and one inwhich he took the keenest interest. Enough has been done of thissection to warrant its issue in the form originally intended, but in themeantime it is proposed to select some of the most interesting of thedistricts and publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike tothe local inhabitant and the student of London, because much of theinterest and the history of London lie in these street associations. 

The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great, for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undyingcharm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past history withthe present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, herhistory is written for those who can read it, and the object of theseries is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain. The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man wholoved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him, and it was because of these associations that it did so. These linksbetween past and present in themselves largely constitute TheFascination of London. 

G. E. M. 

HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY

The district to be treated in this volume includes a good manyparishes--namely, St. Giles-in-the-Fields; St. George, Bloomsbury; St. George the Martyr; St Andrew, Holborn; Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill;besides the two famous Inns of Court, Lincoln's and Gray's, and theremaining buildings of several Inns of Chancery, now diverted from theirformer uses. Nearly all the district is included in the new MetropolitanBorough of Holborn, which itself differs but little from theParliamentary borough known as the Holborn Division of Finsbury. Part ofSt. Andrew's parish lies outside both of these, and is within theLiberties of the City. The transition from Holborn borough to the Citywill be noted in crossing the boundary. As it is proposed to mention theparishes in passing through them, but not to describe their exactlimitations in the body of the book, the boundaries of the parishes aregiven concisely for reference on p. 100. 

Kingsway, the new street from the Strand to Holborn, cuts through theselected district. It begins in a crescent, with one end near St. Clement's Church, and the other near Wellington Street. From the site ofthe Olympic Theatre it runs north, crossing High Holborn at Little QueenStreet, and continuing northward through Southampton Row. A skeletonoutline of its course is given on p. 28. This street runs roughly northand south throughout the district selected, and dividing it east andwest is the great highway, which begins as New Oxford Street, becomesHigh Holborn, and continues as Holborn and Holborn Viaduct. 

The tradition that Holborn is so named after a brook--the OldBourne--which rose on the hill, and flowed in an easterly direction intothe Fleet River, cannot be sustained by any evidence or any indicationsof the bed of a former stream. Stow speaks positively as to theexistence of this stream, which, he says, had in his time long beenstopped up. Now, the old streams of London have left traces either inthe lanes which once formed their bed, as Marylebone Lane and Gardener'sLane, Westminster, or their courses, having been accurately known, havebeen handed on from one generation to another. We may therefore dismissthe supposed stream of the "Old Bourne" as not proven. On the otherhand, there have been found many springs and wells in various parts ofHolborn, as under Furnival's Inn, which may have seemed to Stow proofenough of the tradition. The name of Holborn is probably derived fromthe bourne or brook in the "Hollow"--_i. E. _, the Fleet River, acrosswhich this great roadway ran. The way is marked in Aggas's map of thesixteenth century as a country road between fields, though, strangelyenough, it is recorded that it was paved in 1417, a very ancient date. Malcolm in 1803 calls it "an irregular long street, narrow andinconvenient, at the north end of Fleet Market, but winding from ShoeLane up the hill westward. "

Holborn Bars stood a little to the west of Brooke Street, and close bywas Middle Row, an island of houses opposite the end of Gray's Inn Road, which formed a great impediment to the traffic. The Bars were theentrance to the City, and here a toll of a penny or twopence was exactedfrom non-freemen who entered the City with carts or coaches. 

The George and Blue Boar stood on the south side of Holborn, oppositeRed Lion Street, and it is said that it was here that Charles I. 'sletter disclosing his intention to destroy Cromwell and Ireton wasintercepted by the latter; but this is very doubtful. 

On Holborn Hill was the Black Swan Inn, which has been described as oneof the most ancient and magnificent places for the reception oftravellers in London, and which Dr. Stukeley, with fervent imagination, declared dated from the Conquest. Another ancient inn in Holborn wascalled the Rose. It was from here that the poet Taylor started to joinCharles I. In the Isle of Wight, of which journey he says, "We took one coach, two coachmen, and four horses, And merrily from London made our courses; We wheeled the top of the heavy hill called Holborn, Up which hath been full many a sinful soul borne, "

which is quoted merely to show that there is a possible rhyme toHolborn. 

Pennant says also there was a hospital for the poor in Holborn, and acell of the House of Clugny in France, but does not indicate theirwhereabouts. Before the building of the Viaduct in 1869 (see p. 54), there was a steep and toilsome descent up and down the valley of theFleet. This was sometimes called "the Heavy Hill, " as in the versealready quoted, and in consequence of the melancholy processions whichfrequently passed from Newgate bound Tyburn-wards, "riding in a cart upthe Heavy Hill" became a euphemism for being hanged. From FarringdonStreet to Fetter Lane was Holborn Hill, and Holborn proper extended fromFetter Lane to Brooke Street. 

In James II. 's reign Oates and Dangerfield suffered the punishment ofbeing whipped at the cart's tail all the way along Holborn. 

There were Bridewell Bridge, Fleet Bridge, Fleet Lane Bridge, andHolborn Bridge across the Fleet River. Holborn Bridge was the mostnortherly of the four. It was a bridge of stone, serving for passengersfrom the west to the City by way of Newgate. The whole thoroughfare ofOxford Street and Holborn is the result of the diversion of the northhighway into the City from the route by Westminster Marshes. 

The antiquities of Holborn and its streets north and south are notconnected with the trade or with the municipal history of London. On theother hand, the associations of this group of streets are full ofinterest. If we take the south side of the street, we find ourselveswalking past Shoe Lane, St. Andrew's Church, Thavies' Inn, Fetter Lane, Staple Inn, Barnard's Inn, Chancery Lane, Great and Little Turnstiles, Little Queen Street, Drury Lane, and St. Giles's. On the north side wepass Field Lane, Ely Place, Hatton Garden, Brooke Street, Furnival'sInn, Gray's Inn, Red Lion Street, and Tottenham Court Road. All thesewill be found described in detail further on. Of eminent residents inHolborn itself, Cunningham mentions Gerarde, the author of the "Herbal";Sir Kenelm Digby; Milton, who lived for a time in one of the houses onthe south side, looking upon Lincoln's Inn Fields; and Dr. Johnson, wholived at the sign of the Golden Anchor, Holborn Bars. There were alsothe Bishops of Ely, Sir Christopher Hatton, Francis Bacon, Sir ThomasMore, Charles Dickens, Fulke Greville, Thomas Chatterton, Lord Russell, Dr. Sacheverell, and many others. 

It is necessary now, however, to leave off generalization, and to beginwith a detailed account of the parishes which fall within the district;of these, St. Giles-in-the-Fields is the most interesting. 

ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS. 

The name of the parish is derived from the hospital which stood on thesite of the present parish church, and was dedicated to the Greek saintSt. Giles. It was at first known as St. Giles of the Lepers, but whenthe hospital was demolished became St. Giles-in-the-Fields. 

In a plan dated 1600 St. Giles's is shown to consist largely of openfields. The buildings, which before the dissolution had belonged to thehospital, form a group about the site of the church. A few morebuildings run along the north side of the present Broad Street. Thereare one or two at the north end of Drury Lane, and Drury House is atthe south end. Southampton House, in the fields to the north, is marked, but the parish is otherwise open ground. In spite of many edicts torestrain the increase of houses, early in the reign of James I. Themeadows began to be built upon, and, though a little checked during theCommonwealth, after the Restoration the building proceeded rapidly, stimulated by the new square at Lincoln's Inn Fields then being carriedout by Inigo Jones. To St. Giles's may be attributed the distinction ofhaving originated the Great Plague, which broke out in an alley at thenorth end of Drury Lane. Several times before this there had beensmaller outbreaks, which had resulted in the building of a pest-house. Even after this check the parish continued to increase rapidly, and bythe early part of the last century was a byword for all that was squalidand filthy. Its rookeries and slums are thus described in a newspapercutting of 1845: "All around are poverty and wretchedness; the streetsand alleys are rank with the filth of half a century; the windows arehalf of them broken, or patched with rags and paper, and when whole arebegrimed with dirt and smoke; little brokers' shops abound, filled withlumber, the odour of which taints even that tainted atmosphere; thepavement and carriage-way swarm with pigs, poultry, and raggedchildren. .. . But in the space called the Dials itself the scene is fardifferent. There at least rise splendid buildings with stuccoed frontsand richly-ornamented balustrades. .. . These are the gin-palaces. "Naturally, among so much poverty gin-palaces and public-houses abounded. It is curious to note how many of Hogarth's pictures of misery and vicewere drawn from St. Giles's. "Noon" has St. Giles's Church in thebackground, while his "Gin Lane" shows the neighbouring church of St. George, Bloomsbury; the scene of his "Harlot's Progress" is Drury Lane, and the idle apprentice is caught when wanted for murder in a cellar inSt. Giles's. 

The gallows were in this parish from about 1413 until they were removedto Tyburn, and then the terrible Tyburn procession passed through St. Giles's, and halted at the great gate of the hospital, and later at thepublic-house called The Bowl, described more fully hereafter. From veryearly times St. Giles's was notorious for its taverns. The Croche Hose(Crossed Stockings), another tavern, was situated at the corner of themarshlands, and in Edward I. 's reign belonged to the cook of thehospital; the crossed stockings, red and white, were adopted as the signof the hosiers. Besides these, there were numerous other taverns datingfrom many years back, including the Swan on the Hop, Holborn; WhiteHart, north-east of Drury Lane; the Rose, already mentioned. In theparish also were various houses of entertainment, of which the mostnotorious was the Hare and Hounds, formerly Beggar in the Bush, whichwas kept by one Joe Banks in 1844, and was the resort of all classes. This was in Buckridge Street, over which New Oxford Street now runs. Inthe last sixty years the face of the parish has been greatly changed. The first demolition of a rookery of vice and squalor took place in1840, when New Oxford Street was driven through Slumland. Dyott (onceGeorge) Street, Church Lane, Buckridge and Bainbridge, Charlotte andPlumtree, were among the most notorious streets thus wholly or partiallyremoved. 

In 1844 many wretched houses were demolished, and in 1855 ShaftesburyAvenue drove another wedge into the slums to let in light and air. Thereare poor and wretched courts in St. Giles's yet, but civilization ismaking its softening influence felt even here, and though cases ofHooliganism in broad daylight still occur, they are less and lessfrequent. 

So much for a brief history of the parish. Its soil was from very earlytimes damp and marshy. To the south of the hospital was a stretch ofground called Marshlands, probably at one time a pond. Great ditches andfosses cut up the ground. The most important of these was Blemund'sDitch, which divided the parish from that of Bloomsbury. This issupposed to have been an ancient line of fortification. Besides this, aditch traversed the marshlands above mentioned, another encompassed thecroft lying by the north gate of the hospital, and there were severalothers of less importance. 

The Hospital of St. Giles was the earliest foundation of its kind inLondon, if we except St. James's Hospital. Stow sums it up thus: "St. Giles-in-the-Fields was an hospital for leprous people out of the Cityof London and shire of Middlesex, founded by Matilde the Queen, wife toHenry I. , and suppressed by King Henry VIII. " The date of foundation isgiven by Leland and Malcolm as 1101, though Stow and others give 1117, which was the year before the foundress died. Before this time this partof London had apparently been included in the great estate of Rugmere, which belonged to St. Paul's. 

Matilda gave the ground, and endowed the hospital with the magnificentsum of £3 per annum! Her foundation provided for forty lepers, onechaplain, one clerk, and one servant. Henry II. Confirmed all privilegesand gifts which had accrued to the hospital, and added to them himself. Parton says, "His liberality ranks him as a second founder. " Duringsucceeding reigns the hospital grew in wealth and importance. In HenryIII. 's reign Pope Alexander issued a confirmatory Bull, but the charityhad become a refuge for decayed hangers-on at Court who were notlepers. This abuse was prohibited by the King's decree. In Edward III. 'sreign the first downward step was taken, for he made the hospital a cellto Burton St. Lazar. The brethren apparently rebelled, refusing to admitthe visitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and destroying manyvaluable documents and records belonging to the hospital. Two centurieslater King Henry VIII. Desired the lands and possessions of St. Giles's, and with him to desire was to acquire. 

The hospital was thus shorn of the greater part of its wealth, retainingonly the church (not the manor) at Feltham (one of its earliest gifts), the hospital estates at Edmonton, in the City of London, and in thevarious parishes in the suburbs; and in St. Giles's parish the actualground it stood on, the Pittance Croft, and a few minor places. But eventhis remnant came into the possession of the rapacious King two yearslater, at the dissolution of the monasteries, when Burton St. Lazaritself fell into the tyrant's hands. Henry held these for six years, then granted both to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, Lord High Admiral. From the time of the dissolution the hospital became a manor. 

In the earliest charters the head of the hospital is styled Chaplain, but not Master. The first Master mentioned is in 1212, and after thisthe title was regularly used. The government was vested in the Masteror Warden and other officers, together with a certain number of soundbrethren and sisters--and in certain cases lepers themselves--who formeda chapter. "They assembled in chapter, had a common seal, held courts aslords of the manor. "[1] There were also guardians or custodians, who didnot reside in the precincts of the hospital, and these seem to have beenchosen from the most eminent citizens; they formed no part of theoriginal scheme. 

[1] "Some Account of the Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, "1822, by John Parton. 

[Illustration: SEAL OF ST. GILES'S HOSPITAL. ]

The sisters appear to have been nurses, for there is no mention made ofany leprous sister. The chapel of the hospital appears from King HenryII. 's charter to have been built on the site of some older parochialchurch. The Bull of Pope Alexander mentions that the hospital wallenclosed eight acres. Within this triangular space, which is at presentroughly bounded by the High Street, Charing Cross Road, and ShaftesburyAvenue, was one central building or mansion for the lepers, severalsubordinate buildings, the chapel, and the gate-house. Whether thenumber of lepers was reduced when the hospital possessions werecurtailed we are not told. After the hospital buildings fell into thehands of Lord Dudley they underwent many changes. The principal buildinghe converted into a mansion for his own use; this was the manor-house. It stood between the present Denmark Street and Lloyd's Court, and itssite is occupied by a manufactory. After two years Lord Dudley obtainedfrom the King license to transfer all his newly-gained estates to SirWymonde Carew, but there seems reason to suppose that Lord Dudleyremained in possession of the manor-house until his attainder in thereign of Queen Mary, because the manor then reverted to the Crown, andwas regranted. Clinch gets out of this difficulty by supposing LordDudley to have parted with his estates and retained the manor, but inthe deed of license for exchange all his "mansion place and capitalhouse, late the house of the dissolved hospital of St. Giles in theFields, " is especially mentioned. It is possible that Sir Wymonde leasedit again to the Dudley family. 

Among the many subsequent holders of the manor we find the name of SirWalter Cope, who bought the Manor of Kensington in 1612, and throughwhose only child, Isabel, it passed by marriage to Sir Henry Rich, created Earl of Holland. The Manor of St. Giles was in the possession ofthe Crown again in Charles II. 's reign, when Alice Leigh, created by himDuchess of Dudley, lived in the manor-house. This Duchess made manygifts to the church, among which was a rectory-house. 

The Church of St. Giles at present standing is certainly the third, ifnot the fourth, which has been upon the same site. As mentioned above, there is reason to believe from Henry II. 's charter that a sacredbuilding of some sort stood here before the leper chapel. The chapel hada chapter-house attached, and seems to have been a well-cared-forbuilding. There were several chantry chapels and a high altar dedicatedto St. Giles. St. Giles's in the earlier charters is spoken of as avillage, not a parish, but there is little doubt that after theestablishment of the hospital its chapel was used as a parish church bythe villagers. There was probably a wall screening off the lepers. Thefirst church of which any illustration is preserved has a curioustower, capped by a round dome. The view of this church, dated 1560, istaken after the dissolution of the hospital, when it had become entirelyparochial. In 1617 the quaint old tower was taken down, and replaced byanother, but only six years after the whole church was rebuilt. A viewof this in 1718 gives a very long battlemented body in two stories, witha square tower surmounted by an open belfry and vane. It possessedremarkably fine stained-glass windows and a handsome screen presented bythe Duchess of Dudley. 

This second church did not last very long, for in Queen Anne's reign theparishioners petitioned that it should be rebuilt as one of the fiftynew churches, being then in a state of decay. The present church, whichis very solid, and has dignity of outline, was the work of Flitcroft, and was opened April 14, 1734. The steeple is 160 feet high, with arustic pedestal, a Doric story, an octagonal tower, and spire. Thebasement is of rusticated Portland stone, of which the church is built, and quoins of the same material decorate the windows and angles within. It follows the lines of the period, with hardly any chancel, widegalleries on three sides standing on piers, from which columns rise tothe elliptical ceiling. The part of the roof over the galleries isbayed at right angles to the curve of the central part. Monuments hangon the walls and columns, and occupy every available space. By far themost striking of these is the full-length figure of a woman in reposewhich is set on a broad window-seat. This is the monument of LadyFrances Kniveton, daughter of Alice Leigh, Duchess of Dudley. Thedaughter's tomb remains a memorial of her mother's benefactions to theparish. The monument of Andrew Marvell, a plain black marble slab, is onthe north wall. Marvell was buried in the church "under the pews in thesouth side, " but the present monument was not erected until 1764, eighty-six years after his death, owing to the opposition of theincumbent of the church. The inscription on it slightly varies from thatintended for the original monument. Besides a handsome brass cross onthe chancel floor to the Rector, Canon Nisbett, a tomb in form of aRoman altar, designed by Inigo Jones, and commemorating George Chapman, the translator of Homer, and a touching monument in the lobby to "JohnBelayse, " put up by his two daughters, there is nothing further worthseeing. 

The graveyard which surrounds the church is supposed to have been theancient interment-ground of the hospital. The first mention of it in theparish books is in 1628, when three cottages were pulled down toincrease its size. It was enlarged again in 1666. Part of the oldhospital wall enclosing it remained until 1630, when it fell down, andafter the lapse of some time a new wall was built. In St. Giles'sChurchyard were buried Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shirley, RogerL'Estrange, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Pendrell, who assisted inCharles II. 's escape; his altar-tomb is easily seen near the east end ofthe church. By 1718 the graveyard had risen 8 feet, so that the churchstood in a pit or well. The further burial-ground at St. Pancras wastaken in 1805, and after that burials at St. Giles's were not veryfrequent. Pennant was one of the first to draw attention to thedisgraceful overcrowding of the old graveyard. There seem to have beenseveral gates into the churchyard with the right of private entry, oneof which was used by the Duchess of Dudley. The most remarkable gate, however, was at the principal entrance to the churchyard, and was knownas the Resurrection Gate, from an alto-relievo of the Last Day. This waserected about 1687, and was of red and brown brick. The composition ofthe relievo is said to have been borrowed, with alterations, fromMichael Angelo's work on the same subject. In 1765 the north wall of thechurchyard was taken down, and replaced by the present railing andcoping. In 1800 the gate was removed, and replaced by the presentTuscan gate, in which the sculpture has been refixed. This stood atfirst on the site of the old one on the north of the churchyard, but wasremoved to the west side, where it at present stands in an unnoticeableand obscure position. It was probably placed there in the idea that thenew road, Charing Cross Road, would run past. 

Denmark Street "fronts St. Giles Church and falls into Hog Lane, a fairbroad street, with good houses well inhabited by gentry" (Strype). 

This description is no longer applicable. Denmark Place was once DudleyCourt, and the house here with a garden was given by the Duchess ofDudley as a rectory for the parish. The Court or Row was built on thesite of the house previous to 1722. 

Broad Street is one of the most ancient streets in the parish, and therewere a few houses standing on the north side when the rest of thedistrict was open ground. It was the main route westward for manycenturies, until New Oxford Street was made. 

The procession from Newgate to Tyburn used to pass along Broad Street, and halt at the great gate of the hospital, in order that the condemnedman might take his last draught of ale on earth. An enterprisingpublican set up a tavern near here in 1623, and called it the Bowl. Heprovided the ale free, and no doubt made much profit by the patronagehe received thereby. The exact site of the tavern was in Bowl Yard, which ran into Broad Street near where Endell Street now is. AmongCruikshank's well-known drawings is a series illustrating JackSheppard's progress to the gallows. 

The parish almshouses were built in the wide part of Broad Street onground granted by Lord Southampton, but were removed as an impediment totraffic in 1783 to the Coal Yard, near the north of Drury Lane. A row oflittle alleys--Salutation, Lamb's, Crown, and Cock--formerly extendedsouthward over the present workhouse site. There are still one or twosmall entries both north and south. The immense yard of a well-knownbrewery fills up a large part of the south side, and a large iron andhardware manufactory on the north gives a certain manufacturing aspectto the street. The Holborn Municipal Baths are in a fine new building onthe south side. 

About High Street, which joins Broad Street at its west end, there issurely less to say than of any other High Street in London. In 1413 thegallows were set up at the corner where it meets Tottenham Court Road. But even previously to this executions had taken place at Tyburn, andsoon Tyburn became the recognised place of execution. Sir JohnOldcastle, Lord Cobham, is the most notable name among the victims whosuffered at St. Giles. He was hung in chains and roasted to death over aslow fire at this spot as a Lollard. 

After they had been removed from the end of Broad Street, to make wayfor the almshouses, the parish pound and cage stood on the site of thegallows until 1765. There was here also a large circular stone, wherethe charity boys were whipped to make them remember the parish bounds. 

The space to the north of the High and Broad Streets was previously anotorious rookery. Dyott Street, which still exists, though cut in half, had a most unenviable reputation. The Maidenhead Inn, which stood at thesouth-east corner of this, was a favourite resort for mealmen andcountry waggoners. There was in this street also a tavern called theTurk's Head, where Haggart Hoggarty planned the murder of Mr. Steele onHounslow Heath in 1802. Walford mentions also Rat's Castle, a rendezvousfor all the riff-raff of the neighbourhood. Dyott Street was named afteran influential parishioner of Charles II. 's time, who had a house here. It was later called George Street, but has reverted to the originalname. 

South of Great Russell Street there were formerly Bannister's Alley andEagle and Child Yard running northwards. From the former of thesecontinued Church Lane, to which Maynard Lane ran parallel. Bainbridge, Buckridge, and Church Streets ran east and westward. Of these Bainbridgeremains, a long, narrow alley bounded by the brewery wall. Mayhew saysthat here "were found some of the most intricate and dangerous places inthis low locality. "

The part of the parish lying to the north, including Bedford Square, must be for the present left (see p. 98), while we turn southwards. 

New Compton Street is within the former precincts of the hospital. Whenfirst made it was called Stiddolph Street, after Sir Richard Stiddolph, and the later name was taken from that of Sir Frances Compton. Strypesays, "All this part was very meanly built . .. And greatly inhabited byFrench, and of the poorer sort, " a character it retains to this day. 

Shaftesbury Avenue, opened in 1885, has obliterated Monmouth Street, named after the Duke of Monmouth, whose house was in Soho Square (see_The Strand_, this series). Monmouth Street was notorious for itsold-clothes shops, and is the subject of one of the "Sketches by Boz. "Further back still it was called Le Lane, and is under that namementioned among the hospital possessions. 

The north end of Shaftesbury Avenue is in the adjoining parish of St. George's, Bloomsbury, but must for sequence' sake be described here. AFrench Protestant chapel, consecrated 1845, which is the linealdescendant of the French Church of the Savoy, stands on the west side. Near at hand is a French girls' school. Further north is a Baptistchapel, with two noticeable pointed towers and a central wheel window. Bedford Chapel formerly stood on the north side of this. In the lowerhalf of the Avenue there are several buildings of interest. The first ofthese, on the east side, is for the medical and surgical relief of allforeigners who speak French. Below this is a chapel belonging to theBaptists, and further southward a working lads' home, established in1843, for homeless lads at work in London. In connection with it arevarious homes in the country, both for boys and girls, and two trainingships, the _Arethusa_ and _Chichester_. 

All the ground to the south of Shaftesbury Avenue was anciently, if notactually a pond, at all events very marshy ground, and was calledMeershelands, or Marshlands. It was subsequently known as Cock and PyeFields, from the Cock and Pye public-house, which is supposed to havebeen situated at the spot where Little St. Andrew Street, West Street, and Castle Street now meet. The date at which this name first appearedis uncertain; it is met with in the parish books after 1666. In thereign of William III. A Mr. Neale took the ground, and transformed thegreat ditch which crossed it into a sewer, preparatory to the buildingof Seven Dials. The name of this notorious place has been connected withdegradation and misery, but at first it was considered rather anarchitectural wonder. Evelyn, in his diary, October 5, 1694, says: "Iwent to see the building beginning near St. Giles, where seven streetsmake a star from a Doric pillar placed in the middle of a circular area, said to be built by Mr. Neale. " Gay also refers to the central column inhis "Trivia. " The column had really only six dial faces, two streetsconverging toward one. In the open space on which it stood was apillory, and the culprits who stood here were often most brutallystoned. One John Waller, charged with perjury, was killed in this mannerin 1732. 

In 1773 the column was taken down in a search for imaginary treasure. Itwas set up again in 1822 on Weybridge Green as a memorial to the Duchessof York, who died 1820. The dial was not replaced, and was used as astepping-stone at the Ship Inn at Weybridge; it still lies on one sideof the Green. The streets of Seven Dials attained a very unenviablereputation, and were the haunt of all that was vicious and bad. Terribleaccounts of the overcrowding and consequent immorality come down to usfrom the newspaper echoes of the earlier part of the nineteenthcentury. The opening up of the new thoroughfares of New Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, and Charing Cross Road, have done much, but theneighbourhood is still a slum. The seven streets remain in theirstarlike shape, by name Great and Little White Lion Street, Great andLittle St. Andrew Street, Great and Little Earl Street, and QueenStreet. 

Short's Gardens was in 1623 really a garden, and a little later thanthat date was acquired by a man named Dudley Short. 

Betterton Street was until comparatively recently called Brownlow, fromSir John Brownlow of Belton, who had a house here in Charles II. 's time. The street is now, to use a favourite expression of Stow's, "betterbuilt than inhabited, " for the row of brick houses of no very squalidtype are inhabited by the very poor. 

Endell Street was built in 1844, at the time of the erection of theworkhouse. In it are the National Schools, a Protestant Swiss chapel, and an entrance to the public baths and wash-houses, to the south ofwhich rise the towers of the workhouse. Christ Church is hemmed in bythe workhouse, having an outlet only on the street. The church wasconsecrated in 1845. In Short's Gardens is the Lying-in Hospital, theoldest institution of the kind in England. On the west side, betweenCastle Street and Short's Gardens, the remains of an ancient bath werediscovered at what was once No. 3, Belton Street, now 23 and 25, EndellStreet. Tradition wildly asserts that this was used by Queen Anne. Fragments of it still remain in the room used for iron lumber, for thepremises are in the occupation of an iron merchant, but the water haslong since ceased to flow. 

Drury Lane has been in great part described in _The Strand_, which see, p. 97. The Coal Yard at the north-east end, where Nell Gwynne was born, is now Goldsmith Street. Pit Place, on the west of Great Wild Street, derives its name from the cockpit or theatre, the original of the DruryLane Theatre, which stood here. The cockpit was built previous to 1617, for in that year an incensed mob destroyed it, and tore all the dresses. It was afterwards known as the Phoenix Theatre. At one time it seemsto have been used as a school, though this may very well have been atthe same time as it fulfilled its legitimate functions. Betterton andKynaston both made their first public appearance here. The actual dateof the theatre's demolition is not known. Parton judges it to have beenat the time of the building of Wild, then Weld, Street. Its performancesare described, 1642, as having degenerated into an inferior kind, andhaving been attended by inferior audiences. 

At the north-east end of Drury Lane is the site of the ancient hostelry, the White Hart. Here also was a stone cross, known as Aldewych Cross, for the lane was anciently the Via de Aldewych, and is one of the oldestroads in the parish; Saxon Ald = old, and Wych = a village, a name to bepreserved in the new Crescent. It is difficult to understand, lookingdown Drury Lane to-day from Holborn, that this most mean and unlovelystreet was once a place of aristocratic resort--of gardens, greathouses, and orchards. Here was Craven House, here was Clare House; herelived the Earl of Stirling, the Marquis of Argyll, and the Earl ofAnglesey. Here lived for a time Nell Gwynne. Pepys says:

"Saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodgings door in Drury Lane in hersmock-sleeves and bodice, looking upon one. She seemed a mighty prettycreature. "

The Lane fell into disrepute early in the eighteenth century. The"saints of Drury Lane, " the "drabs of Drury Lane, " the starving poets ofDrury Lane, are freely ridiculed by the poets of that time. 

 "'Nine years!' cries he, who high in Drury Lane, Lull'd by soft zephyrs through the broken pane, Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before term ends, Obliged by hunger and request of friends. "

The boundary of St. Giles's parish runs down Drury Lane between LongAcre and Great Queen Street. Of the last of these Strype says: "It is astreet graced with a goodly row of large uniform houses on the southside, but on the north side is indifferent. " The street was begun in theearly years of the seventeenth century, but the building spread over along time, so that we find the "goodly row of houses" on the south sideto have been built by Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, about 1646. A numberof celebrated people lived in Great Queen Street. The first Lord Herbertof Cherbury had a house on the south side at the corner of Great WildStreet; here he died in 1648. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the ParliamentaryGeneral, lived here; also Sir Heneage Finch, created Earl of Nottingham;Sir Godfrey Kneller, when he moved from Covent Garden; Thomas Worlidge, the portrait-painter, and afterwards, in the same house, Hoole, thetranslator of Dante and Ariosto; Sir Robert Strange, the engraver; JohnOpie, the artist; Wolcott, better known as Peter Pindar, who was buriedat St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Sheridan is also said to have lived here, and it would be conveniently near Drury Lane Theatre, which was underhis management from 1776. 

[Illustration: KINGSWAY. ]

On the south side of the street are the Freemasons' Hall, builtoriginally in 1775, and the Freemasons' Tavern, erected subsequently. Both have been rebuilt, and the hall, having been recently repainted, looks at the time of writing startlingly new. Near it are two of theoriginal old houses, all that are left with the pilasters and carvedcapitals which are so sure a sign of Inigo Jones's influence. 

On the north side of the street is the Novelty Theatre. 

Great and Little Wild Streets are called respectively Old and New WeldStreets by Strype. Weld House stood on the site of the present WildCourt, and was during the reign of James II. Occupied by the SpanishEmbassy. In Great Wild Street Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeymanprinter. 

Kemble and Sardinia were formerly Prince's and Duke's Streets. Thelatter contains some very old houses, and a chapel used by the RomanCatholics. This is said to be the oldest foundation now in the hands ofthe Roman Catholics in London. It was built in 1648, and was the objectof virulent attack during the Gordon Riots; the exterior is singularlyplain. Sardinia Street communicates with Lincoln's Inn Fields by a heavyand quaint archway. 

Even in Strype's time Little Queen Street was "a place pestered withcoaches, " a reputation which, curiously enough, it still retains, theheavy traffic of the King's Cross omnibuses passing through it. TrinityChurch is in a late decorative style, with ornamental pinnacles, flyingbuttresses, and two deeply-recessed porches. Within it is a very plain, roomlike structure. The church is on the site of a house in which livedthe Lambs, and where Mary Lamb in a fit of insanity murdered her mother. The Holborn Restaurant forms part of the side of this street; this is avery gorgeous building, and within is a very palace of modern luxury. Itstands on the site formerly occupied by the Holborn Casino or DancingSaloon. 

Little Queen Street will be wiped out by the broad new thoroughfare fromthe Strand to Holborn to be called Kingsway (see plan). 

Gate Street was formerly Little Princes Street. The present name isderived from the gate or carriage-entrance to Lincoln's Inn Fields. 

In Strype's map half of Whetstone Park is called by its present title, and the western half is Phillips Rents. He mentions it as "once famousfor its infamous and vicious inhabitants. "

Great and Little Turnstile were so named from the turning stiles whichin the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stood at their north ends toprevent the cattle straying from Lincoln's Inn Fields. The HolbornMusic-hall in Little Turnstile was originally a Nonconformist chapel. After 1840 it served as a hall, lectures, etc. , being given byfree-thinkers, and in 1857 was adapted to its present purpose. 

LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. --All the ground on which the present square isbuilt formed part of Fickett's Field, which was anciently thejousting-place of the Knights Templars. A curious petition of the reignof Edward III. Shows us that then it was a favourite recreation-groundor promenade for clerks, apprentices, students, as well as the citizens. In this petition a complaint is made that one Roger Leget had laidcaltrappes or engines of iron in a trench, to the danger of those whowalked in the fields. Inigo Jones was entrusted by King James I. To forma square of houses which should be worthy of so fine a situation. Beforethis time it appears that there had been one or two irregular buildings. Inigo Jones conceived the curious idea of giving his square the exactsize of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, and it is accordingly the largestsquare in London. But when he had completed the west side only, theunsettled state of the country hindered further progress, and for manyyears the land lay waste, and was unenclosed save by wooden posts andrails; during this period it was the daily and nightly haunt of all thebeggars, rogues, pickpockets, wrestlers, and vile vagrants in London. Gay thus speaks of it:

 "Where Lincoln's Inn, wide space, is rail'd around, Cross not with venturous step; there oft is found The lurking thief, who, while the daylight shone, Made the walls echo with his begging tone: That crutch, which late compassion moved, shall wound Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the ground. Though thou art tempted by the linkman's call, Yet trust him not along the lonely wall; In the midway he'll quench the flaming brand, And share the booty with the pilfering band. Still keep the public streets where oily rays, Shot from the crystal lamp, o'erspread the ways. "

At this time three fields are mentioned as being included in thesquare--namely, Purse Field, Fickett's Field, and Cap Field. In 1657 theinhabitants made an agreement with Lincoln's Inn, to whom some of therights of the Templars seem to have descended (Parton), as to thecompletion of the square. But even after the two further sides had beenadded, the centre seems to have been left in a disorderly and pestilentstate, and it was not until 1735 that the place was properly laid out. In Strype's map of 1720 the sides are marked Newman's Row North, theArch Row West, Portugal Row South, and the wall of Lincoln's Inncompletes the fourth side. Strype speaks of the first two as being oflarge houses, generally taken by the nobility and gentry. The historicalevent of prominence connected with the centre of the square is theexecution of William, Lord Russell, which took place here in 1683, onaccusation of high treason and complicity in the Rye House Plot. He wasbeheaded in Lincoln's Inn Fields, lest the mob should rise and rescuehim were he conveyed to the more public Tower Hill. In spite of hisdefiance of lawful authority, Russell's name has always been regarded asthat of a patriot. He and Algernon Sydney are remembered assingle-minded and high-souled men. 

Many other executions were held in those fields, notably those ofBabington and his accomplices in 1586, fourteen in all. They were"hanged, bowelled, and quartered, on a stage or scaffold of timberstrongly made for that purpose, even in the place where they used tomeet and conferre of their traitorous purposes. " At present the centreof the square forms a charming garden, open free to the public, withfine plane-trees shading grass plots not too severely trimmed, andflocks of opal-hued pigeons add a touch of bird-life. It is true thegrass is railed in, but the railings are not obtrusive, and do notinterfere with the pleasure of those who sit on the seats or walk underthe trees. Here is assuredly one of the places where we can most feelthe fascination of London as we contrast the present with the past. 

On the north side is the Inns of Court Hotel, a massive pile faced withstone, and with a portico of polished granite columns. This is on thesite of an ancient hostelry in Holborn, the George and Blue Boar, afamous coaching inn (see p. 3). 

The Soane Museum is further westward, and is differentiated from twosimilarly built neighbours by a slightly projecting frontage. It was theformer residence of Sir John Soane, who left his collection to thenation. There are many valuable pictures, as well as curious andinteresting objects. The museum is open free to the public on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. 

On the west side of the square, near Queen Street, stands a very solidmansion, known first as Powis, then as Newcastle House. The footway inGreat Queen Street runs under an arcade on the north side of this house, which was built by the first Marquis of Powis, created Duke of Powis byJames II. , whom he followed into exile, and bought in 1705 by Holles, Duke of Newcastle, whose nephew, who led the Pelham Administration underGeorge II. , inherited it. Further south on the same side is LindseyHouse, a large building with pilasters; this was built by Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey, and was later called Ancaster House. It was describedby Hatton as a handsome building, with six spacious brick piers beforeit, surmounted by vases and with ironwork between. Only two of thesevases remain. The fleurs-de-lis on the house over the Sardinia Streetentry were put up in compliment to Queen Henrietta Maria, who was thedaughter of Henry IV. Of France. The third great house on this side wasPortsmouth House, over Portsmouth Place. 

The remainder of the houses have the same general character of stuccoedand pilastered uniformity, broken here and there by uncovered bricksurfaces or frontages of stone. They are almost uninterruptedly occupiedby solicitors. This is the oldest side of the square, being that builtby Inigo Jones. 

At the south corner of the square there is a quaint red-brick, gable-ended house, with a bit of rusticated woodwork. This is all partof the same block as the Old Curiosity Shop, supposed to be thatdescribed by Dickens. 

On the south side rises the Royal College of Surgeons. The central partis carried up a story and an entresol higher than the wings, and, likethe wings, is capped by a balustrade. The legend, "Ædes CollegiiChirurgorum Anglici--Diplomate Regio Corporate A. D. MDCCC, " runs acrossthe frontage. A massive colonnade of six Ionic columns gives solidity tothe basement. The museum of this college has absorbed the site of theold Duke's Theatre. Its nucleus was John Hunter's collection, purchasedby the college, and first opened in 1813. 

This side of the square is outside our present district. (See _TheStrand_, in the same series. )

The origin of the Company of Barber-Surgeons is very ancient, for thetwo guilds, Barbers and Surgeons, were incorporated in 1540; but in 1745they separated, and the Surgeons continued as a body alone. However, they came to grief in 1790, and the charter establishing the RoyalCollege of Surgeons of London was granted in 1800; in 1845 the title waschanged to that of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The presentbuilding, however, dates only from 1835, and is the work of Sir C. Barry. It has since been enlarged and altered. 

With this the ancient parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields ends, but ourdistrict includes Lincoln's Inn, and beyond it the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, into which we pass. 

LINCOLN'S INN. 

BY W. J. LOFTIE. 

The old brick gateway in Chancery Lane is familiar to most Londoners. Itranks with the stone gateway of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell, withthe tower of St. James's Palace, and with the gate of Lambeth Palace, asone of the three or four relics of the Gothic style left in London. EvenGothic churches are scarce, while specimens of the domestic style arestill scarcer. It need hardly be said that this tower has beenconstantly threatened, by "restorers" on the one hand, as well as byopen destroyers on the other. It was built while Cardinal Wolsey wasChancellor, and was still new when Sir Thomas More sat in the hall ashis successor. The windows have been altered, and the groining of thearchway has been changed for a flat roof. It is said that the bricks ofwhich the gate is built were made in the Coney Garth, which much laterremained an open field, but is now New Square. A pillar, said to havebeen designed by Inigo Jones, stood in New Square, or, as it was calledfrom a lessee at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Searle'sCourt. This ground and the site of the Law Courts formed part ofFickett's Field, the tilting-place of the Templars. Over the arch of thegate are carved three shields of arms. In the centre are thefleurs-de-lis and lions of Henry VIII. , crowned within the garter. Onthe north side are the arms of Sir Thomas Lovell, who was a bencher ofthe Inn, and who rebuilt the gate in 1518. At the other side is theshield of Lacy. It was Henry Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, who died in1311, by whom the lawyers are said to have been first established here. It is certain that soon after his death the house and gardens, whichbefore his time had belonged in part to the Blackfriars, and which hehad obtained on their removal to the corner of the City since calledafter them, were in the occupation of a society of students of the law. An adjoining house and grounds belonged to the Bishops of Chichester:Bishop's Court and Chichester's Rents are still local names. RichardSampson, Bishop in 1537, made over the estate to Suliard, a bencher ofthe Inn, and his son in 1580 granted it to the lawyers. The gate is at76, Chancery Lane, formerly New Street, and later Chancellor's Lane. InOld Square, the first court we enter, are situated the ancient hall andthe chapel, the south side being occupied by chambers, some of themancient. The turret in the corner, and one at the south-western corner, behind the hall, are very like those at St. James's Palace, and probablydate very soon after the gate. Here at No. 13 Thurloe, Oliver Cromwell'sSecretary of State, concealed a large collection of letters, which werediscovered long after and have been published. The hall is low, andcannot be praised for any external architectural features of interest. The brickwork, which is older by twelve years than that of the gate, isconcealed under a coat of stucco. There are three Gothic windows on eachside, and the dimensions are about 70 feet by 32 feet high. The interioris not much more imposing, but the screen, in richly-carved oak, set upin 1565, is handsome, and there is a picture by Hogarth of St. Paulbefore Felix. 

Mr. Spilsbury, the librarian, seems to have proved conclusively that thechapel, which stands at right angles to the old hall, was a new buildingwhen it was consecrated in 1623. There is no direct evidence that it wasdesigned by Inigo Jones; on the other hand, there is a record inexistence which testifies that the Society intended to employ him. JohnClarke was the builder. There was an older chapel in a ruinouscondition, which there is reason to believe had been that of theBishops, as it was dedicated to St. Richard of Chichester. Mr. Spilsburyquotes one of the Harleian manuscripts, written in or about 1700, inwhich Inigo is named as the architect, and Vertue's engraving of 1751also mentions him. The chapel is elevated on an open crypt, which wasintended for a cloister. Butler's "Hudibras" speaks of the lawyers aswaiting for customers between "the pillar-rows of Lincoln's Inn. " Therewere three bays, divided by buttresses, each of which was surmounted bya stone vase, a picturesque but incongruous arrangement, which wasaltered in the early days of the Gothic revival, being the first of aseries of "restorations" to which the chapel has been subjected. A moreserious offence against taste was the erection of a fourth bay at thewest end, by which the old proportions are lost. It looks worst on theoutside, however, and the fine old windows of glass stained in England, apparently after a Flemish design, are calculated to disarm criticism. Mr. Spilsbury attributes them to Bernard and Abraham van Linge, but theglass was made by Hall, of Fetter Lane. The monuments commemorate, amongothers, Spencer Perceval, murdered in 1812, and a daughter of LordBrougham, who died in 1839, and was buried in the crypt. The office ofchaplain was in existence as early as the reign of Henry VI. Thepreachership was instituted in 1581, and among those who held the officewere John Donne, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, who preached the firstsermon when the chapel was new. Herring, another preacher, was madeArchbishop of York in 1743, and of Canterbury in 1747. AnotherArchbishop of York, William Thomson, was preacher here, and was promotedin 1862. The greatest of the list was, perhaps, Reginald Heber, thoughhe was only here for a year before he was appointed Bishop of Calcutta. 

The garden extends along the east side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the NewSquare occupying the south portion, the new hall and library the middlepart, and the west part of Stone Buildings facing the northern part. Aterrace divides them, and there is a gate into the Fields, the roadwayleading north to Great Turnstile and Holborn. North of the Old Buildingsand the chapel is Stone Buildings, in a handsome classical style, with awing which looks into Chancery Lane near its Holborn end, and is halfconcealed by low shop-fronts. The history of the Stone Buildings isconnected with that of the new hall and the library. Hardwick, one ofthe last of the school which might be connected with Chambers, theAdams, Payne, and other architects of the English Renaissance, wasemployed to complete Stone Buildings, begun by Sir Robert Taylor, beforethe end of the eighteenth century. Hardwick was at work in 1843, and hisinitials and a date, "P. H. , 1843, " are on the south gable of the hall. The new Houses of Parliament had just set the fashion for an attempt torevive the Tudor style, and Hardwick added to it the strong feeling forproportion which he had imbibed with his classical training. This gableis exceedingly satisfactory, the architect having given it a dignitywanting in most modern Gothic. It is of brick, with diagonal fretwork indarker bricks, as in the gate tower. The library had been removed to theStone Buildings in 1787 from a small room south of the old hall, and, more accommodation being required, Hardwick designed a library to adjointhe new hall. The two looked very well, the hall being of six bays, witha great bow-window at the north end. The interior is embellished withheraldry in stained glass, carved oak, metal work, and fresco painting. At the north end, over the daïs, is Mr. G. F. Watts' great picture, "TheSchool of Legislation. " The hall is 120 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 62feet high. The roof of oak is an excellent imitation of an open timberroof of the fifteenth century, and is carved and gilt. The windows werefilled with heraldry by Willement, and show us the arms of the legalluminaries who have adorned Lincoln's Inn, many of whom are alsorepresented by busts and painted portraits. The hall is connected withan ample kitchen, and a series of butteries, pantries, and sculleries ofsuitable size. 

Adjoining the hall, the library and a reading-room, which as first builtwere calculated to enhance the dignity of the hall, were soon found tobe too small. Sir Gilbert Scott was called in to add to them. Thedelicate proportions of Hardwick suffered in the process, the youngerarchitect having evidently thought more of the details, as was thefashion of his school. The additions were carried out in 1873, and thelibrary is now 130 feet long, but shuts out a large part of the viewnorthward through the gardens. It is believed that Ben Jonson workedhere as a bricklayer, and we are told by Fuller that he had a trowel inhis hand and a book in his pocket. Aubrey says his mother had married abricklayer, and that he was sent to Cambridge by a bencher who heard himrepeating Homer as he worked. Of actual members of eminence, Lincoln'sInn numbers almost as many as the Inner Temple. Sir Thomas More amongthese comes first, but his father, who was a Judge, should be named withhim. The handsome Lord Keeper Egerton, ancestor of so many eminentholders of the Bridgwater title, belonged to Lincoln's Inn during thereign of Elizabeth. The second Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, was astudent here in 1647, and Lenthall, his contemporary, was Reader. Alittle later Sir Matthew Hale, whose father had also been a member, wasof this inn, and became Chief Justice in 1671. The first Earl ofMansfield was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, and four or five LordsChancellor in a row, including Bathurst, Campbell, St. Leonards, andBrougham. 

From the antiquarian or the picturesque point of view Lincoln's Inn isnot so fascinating as the two Temples. It looks rather frowning fromChancery Lane, where it rises against the western sky. The old hall andthe chapel are rather curious than beautiful, and cannot compare withMiddle Temple Hall or the Church of the Knights. The fine buildingswhich overlook the gardens and trees of Lincoln's Inn Fields owe much totheir open situation. The Stone Buildings where they look on the greenturf of the garden are really magnificent, but they stand back from thepublic gaze, and are but seldom seen by the casual visitor. 

CHANCERY LANE. 

Strype says the Lane "received the name of Chancellor's Lane in the timeof Edward I. The way was so foul and miry that John le Breton, Custos ofLondon, and the Bishop of Chichester, kept bars with staples across itto prevent carts from passing. The roadway was repaired in the reign ofEdward III. , and acquired its present name under his successor, RichardII. "

About half of the Lane falls within the district, being in the parish ofSt. Andrew, Holborn. In it at the present time there is nothing worthyof remark, except the gateway of Lincoln's Inn, mentioned elsewhere. Offices, flats, and chambers in the solid modern style rise above shops. Near the north end is the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit. On the oppositeside the old buildings of Lincoln's Inn frown defiance. Chancery Lanehas for long been the chief connection between the Strand and Holborn, but will soon be superseded by Kingsway further west. 

Near the north end are Southampton Buildings, rigidly modern, containingthe Birkbeck Bank and Chambers. They are built on the site once coveredby Southampton House, which came to William, Lord Russell, by hismarriage with the daughter and heiress of the last Lord Southampton. Itis difficult to realize now the scene thus described by J. WykehamArcher: "It was in passing this house, the scene of his domestichappiness, on his way to the scaffold in Lincoln's Inn Fields, that thefortitude of the martyr for a moment forsook him; but, overmastering hisemotion, he said, 'The bitterness of death is now past. '"

Cursitor Street was in the eighteenth century noted for itssponging-houses, and many a reference is made to it in contemporaryliterature. We are now in the Liberties of the Rolls, a parish initself. 

The Cursitors' Office was built by Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and adjoined the site of a palace of the Bishop of Chichester; and thisadjoined the Domus Conversorum, or House of Converts, wherein the rollsof Chancery were kept, now replaced by the magnificent building of thenew Record Office. Southward is Serjeants' Inn--the building stillstands; also Clifford's Inn, once pertaining to the Inner Temple. Thehall of Clifford's Inn was converted into a court for the adjustment ofboundaries after the Fire of London. 

On the west side of Chancery Lane, a few doors above Fleet Street, IzaakWalton kept a draper's shop. These details about the southern part ofChancery Lane are mentioned for the sake of continuity, for they do notcome within the Holborn District. 

Chancery Lane was the birthplace of Lord Strafford, the residence ofChief Justice Hyde, of the Lord Keeper Guildford, and of Jacob Tonson. 

Passing on into Holborn and turning eastward, we soon perceive a row ofquaint Elizabethan gabled houses (see Frontispiece), with overhangingupper stories and timber framework. The contrast with the modernterra-cotta buildings on the north side of the street is striking. Theold houses are part of Staple Inn, now belonging to the PrudentialAssurance Company, whose red terra-cotta it is that forms such acontrast across the way. It was bought by the company in 1884, andrestored a few years later by the removal of the plaster which hadconcealed the picturesque beams. Still within St. Andrew's parish, wehere arrive at the City boundaries. The numbering of Holborn proper, included in the City, begins a door or two above the old timberedentrance, which leads to the first courtyard of Staple Inn. Thecourtyard is a real backwater out of the rushing traffic. The unevencobble-stones, the whispering plane-trees, the worn red brick, and theflat sashed windows, of a bygone date all combine to make a picture ofold London seldom to be found nowadays. Dr. Johnson wrote parts of"Rasselas" while a resident here. 

The way is a thoroughfare to Southampton Buildings, and continuingonward we pass another part of the old building with a quaint clock andsmall garden. Near at hand are the new buildings of the Patent Officeand the Birkbeck Bank and Chambers, already mentioned, an enormous massof masonry. The Inn contains a fine hall, thus mentioned in 1631:

"Staple Inn was the Inne or Hostell of the Merchants of the Staple (asthe tradition is), wherewith until I can learne better matter, concerning the antiquity and foundation thereof, I must rest satisfied. But for latter matters I cannot chuse but make report, and much to theprayse and commendation of the Gentlemen of this House, that they havebestowed great costs in new-building a fayre Hall of brick, and twoparts of the outward Courtyards, besides other lodging in the garden andelsewhere, and have thereby made it the fayrest Inne of Chauncery inthis Universitie. "

The whole of this district abounds in these one-time Inns of Chancery, formerly attached to the Inns of Court; but those that remain are allnow diverted to other uses, and some have vanished, leaving only a name. 

Further on there is Furnival Street, lately Castle Street, and so markedin Strype's map. The Castle Public-house still recalls the older name. Tradesmen of every kind occupy the buildings, besides which there is aBaptist mission-house. The buildings on the east side are of theold-fashioned style, dark brick with flat sashed windows. 

Furnival Street lies within the City. The street takes its name fromFurnival's Inn, rebuilt in the early part of the nineteenth century. This stood on the north side of Holborn, and was without the City. Thereis, perhaps, less to say about it than about any of the other old Inns. It was originally the town-house of the Lords Furnival. It was an Inn ofChancery in Henry IV. 's reign, and was sold to Lincoln's Inn in thereign of Elizabeth. Its most interesting associations are that SirThomas More was Reader for three years, and that Charles Dickens hadchambers here previous to 1837, while "Pickwick" was running in parts. It was rebuilt in great part in Charles I. 's reign, and entirely rebuiltabout 1818. With the exception of the hall, it was used as an hotel. The Prudential Assurance Company's palatial building now completelycovers the site. 

In Holborn, opposite to the end of Gray's Inn Road, formerly stoodMiddle Row, an island of houses which formed a great obstruction totraffic. This was removed in 1867. 

The next opening on the south side is Dyers' Buildings, with namereminiscent of some former almshouses of the Dyers' Company. Then asmall entry, with "Mercer's School" above, leads into Barnard's Inn, nowthe School of the Mercers' Company. The first court is smaller than thatof Staple Inn, and lacks the whispering planes, yet it is redolent ofold London. On the south side is the little hall, the smallest of allthose of the London Inns; it is now used as a dining-hall. In thewindows is some ancient stained glass, contemporary with thebuilding--that is to say, about 470 years old. 

The exterior of this hall, with its steeply-pitched roof, is a favouritesubject for artists. Beyond it are concrete courts, walls of glazedwhite brick, and cleanly substantial buildings, which speak of themodern appreciation of sanitation. A tablet on the wall records inadmirably concise fashion the history of the Mercers' School and itsvarious peregrinations until it found a home here in 1894. Before beingbought by the Mercers' Company, the Inn had been let as residentialchambers. It was also an Inn of Chancery, and belonged to Gray's Inn. Itwas formerly called Mackworth's Inn, being the property of Dr. JohnMackworth, Dean of Lincoln. It was next occupied by a man named Barnard, when it was converted into an Inn of Chancery. 

The further court is bounded on the east side by one of the few very oldbuildings left in London. This was formerly the White Horse Inn, but isnow also part of the Mercers' School buildings. 

Timbs quotes from Lord Eldon's "Anecdote Book, " 1776, in which LordEldon says he came to the White Horse Inn when he left school, and heremet his brother, Lord Stowell, who took him to see the play at DruryLane, where "Lowe played Jobson in the farce, and Miss Pope played Nell. When we came out of the house it rained hard. There were then fewhackney coaches, and we both got into one sedan-chair. Turning out ofFleet Street into Fetter Lane there was a sort of contest between ourchairmen and some persons who were coming up Fleet Street. .. . In thestruggle the sedan-chair was overset, with us in it. "

The white boundary wall of the Mercers' School replaces the old wall ofthe noted Swan Distillery (now rebuilt). This distillery was an objectof attack in the Gordon Riots, partly, perhaps, because of its stores, and partly because its owner was a Roman Catholic. It was looted, andthe liquor ran down in the streets, where men and women drank themselvesmad. Dickens has thus described the riot scene in "Barnaby Rudge":

 "The gutters of the street and every crack and fissure in the stones ran with scorching spirit, which being dammed up by busy hands overflowed the road and pavement, and formed a great pool into which the people dropped down dead by dozens. They lay in heaps all round this fearful pond, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, women with children in their arms and babies at their breasts, and drank until they died. While some stooped their lips to the brink and never raised their heads again, others sprang up from their fiery draught, and danced half in a mad triumph, and half in the agony of suffocation, until they fell and steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them. "

Both the Holborn and Fleet Street ends of Fetter Lane were for more thantwo centuries places of execution. Some have derived the name from thefetters of criminals, and others from "fewtors, " disorderly and idlepersons, a corruption of "defaytors, " or defaulters; while the mostprobable derivation is that from the "fetters" or rests on thebreastplates of the knights who jousted in Fickett's Field adjoining. 

An interesting Moravian Chapel has an entry on the east side of FetterLane. This has memories of Baxter, Wesley, and Whitefield. It was boughtby the Moravians in 1738, and was then associated with the name ofCount Zinzendorf. It was attacked and dismantled in the riots. Dryden issupposed to have lived in Fetter Lane, but Hutton, in "LiteraryLandmarks, " says the only evidence of such occupation was a curiousstone, existing as late as 1885, in the wall of No. 16, overFleur-de-Lys Court, stating:

 "Here lived John Dryden, Ye Poet. Born 1631--Died 1700. Glorious John!"

But he adds there is no record when or by whom the stone was placed. Otway is said to have lived opposite, and quarrelled with hisillustrious neighbour in verse. In any case, Fleur-de-Lys Court liesoutside the boundaries of the parish we are now considering. It may, however, be mentioned that the woman Elizabeth Brownrigg, who so foullytortured her apprentices, committed her atrocities in this court. PraiseGod Barebones was at one time a resident in the Lane, and in the samehouse his brother, Damned Barebones. The house was afterwards bought bythe Royal Society, of which Sir Isaac Newton was then President, and theRoyal Society meetings were held here until 1782. 

Returning to Holborn, from whence we have deviated, we come acrossBartlett's Buildings, described by Strype as a very handsome, spaciousplace very well inhabited. 

Thavie's Inn bears the name of the vanished Inn of Chancery. Here wasoriginally the house of an armourer called John Thavie, who, by willdated 1348, devised it with three shops for the repair and maintenanceof St. Andrew's Church. It was bought for an Inn of Chancery byLincoln's Inn in the reign of Edward III. It is curious how persistentlythe old names have adhered to these places. It was sold by Lincoln's Innin 1771, and afterwards burnt down. The houses here are chieflyinhabited by jewellers, opticians, and earthenware merchants. There area couple of private hotels. 

In St. Andrew's Street are the Rectory and Court-house, rebuilt from thedesigns of S. S. Teulon in yellow brick. The buildings form aquadrangle, with a wall and one side of the church enclosing a smallgarden. In the Court-house is a handsome oak overmantle, black with age, which was brought here from the old Court-house in St. Andrew's Court, pulled down in the construction of St. Andrew's Street and HolbornViaduct in 1869. 

Holborn Circus was formed in connection with the approaches to theViaduct. In the centre there is an equestrian statue of the PrinceConsort in bronze, by C. Bacon. This was presented by an anonymousdonor, and the Corporation voted £2, 000 for erecting a suitable pedestalfor it. The whole was put up in 1874, two years after the completion ofthe Circus. On the north and south sides are bas-reliefs, and on theeast and west statues of draped female figures seated. 

Holborn Viaduct was finished in 1869. It is 1, 400 feet in length, and iscarried by a series of arches over the streets in the valleys below. Themain arch is over Farringdon Road, the bed of the Fleet or HolbourneStream, and is supported by polished granite columns of immensesolidity. At the four corners of this there are four buildings enclosingstaircases communicating with the lower level, and in niches arerespectively statues of Sir William Walworth, Sir Hugh Myddleton, SirThomas Gresham, and Sir Henry Fitz-Alwyn, with dates of birth and death. On the parapets of the Viaduct are four erect draped female figures, representative of Fine Art, Science, Agriculture, and Commerce. HolbornViaduct is a favourite locality for bicycle shops. 

The City Temple (Congregational) and St. Andrew's Church are nearneighbours, and conspicuous objects on the Viaduct just above Shoe Lane. The City Temple is a very solid mass of masonry with a cupola and afrontage of two stories in two orders of columns. 

The parish of St. Andrew was formerly of much greater extent than atpresent, embracing not only Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill, but also St. George the Martyr, these are now separate parishes. 

The original Church of St. Andrew was of great antiquity. Malcolm, whogives a very full account of it in "Londinium Redivivum, " says that itwas given "very many centuries past" to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and the Abbot and Convent of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, byGladerinus, a priest, on condition that the Abbot and Convent paid theDean and the Chapter 12s. Per annum. We also hear that there was agrammar-school attached to it, one of Henry VI. 's foundations, and thatthere had been previously an alien priory, a cell to the House of Cluny, suppressed by Henry V. The church continued in a flourishing condition. Various chantries were bestowed upon it from time to time, and in thewill of the Rector, date 1447, it is stated that there were four altarswithin the church. In Henry VIII. 's time the principals of the four innsor houses in the parish paid a mark apiece to the church, apparently forthe maintenance of a chantry priest. In Elizabeth's reign the tombs weredespoiled: the churchwardens sold the brasses that had so far escapeddestruction, and proceeded to demolish the monuments, until an orderfrom the Queen put a stop to this vandalism. 

In 1665 Stillingfleet (Bishop of Worcester) was made Rector. The churchwas rebuilt by Wren in 1686 "in a neat, plain manner. " The ancient towerremained, and was recased in 1704. The building is large, light, andairy, and is in the florid, handsome style we are accustomed toassociate with Wren. At the west end is a fine late-pointed arch, communicating with the tower, in which there is a similar window. Thisarch was blocked up and hidden by Wren, but was re-opened by the lateRector, the Rev. Henry Blunt, who also thoroughly restored and renovatedthe building some thirty years ago. 

The most interesting of the interior fittings is a porphyry altar, placed by Sacheverell, who was Rector from 1713 to 1724, and who isburied beneath it. A marble font, at which Disraeli was baptized at theage of twelve, is also interesting, and the pulpit of richly-carvedwood, attributed to Grinling Gibbons, is very handsome. On the west wallis a marble slab, in memory of William Marsden, M. D. , founder of theRoyal Free and Cancer Hospitals. It was put up by the Cordwainers'Company in 1901. 

In the tower are many monuments of antiquity, but none to recall thememory of anyone notable. The church stood in a very commandingsituation until the building of the Viaduct, which passes on a higherlevel, giving the paved yard in front the appearance of having beensunk. 

On this side of the church there is a large bas-relief of the LastJudgment, without date. This was a favourite subject in the seventeenthcentury, and similar specimens, though not so fine, and differing intreatment, still exist elsewhere (see p. 17). 

Malcolm mentions a house next the White Hart, with land behind it, worth5s. Per annum, called "Church Acre, " and in the reign of Henry VII. Thepriest was fined 4d. For driving across the churchyard to the Rectory. In the twenty-fifth year of Elizabeth's reign there was a great heap ofskulls and bones that lay "unseemly and offensive" at the east end ofthe church. The register records the burial here, on August 28, 1770, of"William Chatterton, " presumably Thomas Chatterton, as the date accords. A later hand has added the words "the poet. "

Wriothesley, Henry VIII. 's Chancellor, was buried in St. Andrew'schurchyard. Timbs says that this church has been called the "Poets'Church, " for, besides the above, John Webster, dramatic poet, is said tohave been parish clerk here, though the register does not confirm it. Robert Savage was christened here January 18, 1696. 

There is also a monument to Emery, the comedian, and Neale, anotherpoet, was buried in the churchyard. But these records combined make butpoor claim to such a proud title. The ground on which Chatterton wasburied has now utterly vanished, having been covered first by theFarringdon Market, and later by great warehouses. 

When the Holborn Viaduct was built, a large piece of the churchyard wascut off, and the human remains thus disinterred were reburied in theCity cemetery at Ilford, Essex. 

The earliest mention of Shoe Lane is in a writ of Edward II. , when it isdenominated "Scolane in the ward without Ludgate. " In the seventeenthcentury we read of a noted cockpit which was established here. 

Gunpowder Alley, which ran out of this Lane, was the residence ofLovelace, the poet, and of Lilly, the astrologer. The former died hereof absolute want in 1658. His well-known lines, "I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honour more, "

have made his fame more enduring than that of many men of greaterpoetical merit. In Shoe Lane lived also Florio, the compiler of ourfirst Italian Dictionary. Coger's Hall in Shoe Lane attained somecelebrity in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It wasestablished for the purpose of debate, and, among others, O'Connell, Wilkes, and Curran, met here to discuss the political questions of theday. On the west side of Shoe Lane was Bangor Court, reminiscent of thePalace or Inn of the Bishops of Bangor. This was a very picturesque oldhouse, if the prints still existing are to be trusted, and parts of itsurvived even so late as 1828. It was mentioned in the Patent Rolls soearly as Edward III. 's reign. Another old gabled house, called OldbourneHall, was on the east side of the street, but this, even in Stow's time, had fallen from its high estate and descended to the degradation ofdivision into tenements. 

Opposite St. Andrew's Church was formerly Scrope's Inn. According toStow, "This house was sometime letten out to sergeants-at-the-law, as appeareth, and was found by inquisition taken in the Guildhall of London, before William Purchase, mayor, and escheator for the king, Henry VII. , in the 14th of his reign, after the death of John Lord Scrope, that he died deceased in his demesne of fee, by the feoffment of Guy Fairfax, knight, one of the king's justices, made in the 9th of the same king, unto the said John Scrope, knight, Lord Scrope of Bolton, and Robert Wingfield, esquire, of one house or tenement late called Sergeants' Inn, situate against the Church of St. Andrew in Oldbourne, in the city of London, with two gardens and two messuages to the same tenement belonging to the said city, to hold in burgage, valued by the year in all reprises ten shillings" (Thomas's edit. Stow, p. 144). 

This, as may be judged from the above, was not a regular Inn ofChancery, but appertained to Serjeants' Inn. 

Crossing Holborn Circus to the north side, we come into the Liberty ofSaffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents. This Liberty, is coterminouswith the parish of St. Peter, Saffron Hill. Hatton Garden derives itsname from the family of Hatton, who for many years held possession ofhouse and grounds in the vicinity of Ely Place, having settled upon theBishops of Ely like parasites, and grown rich by extortion from theirunwilling hosts. The district was separated from St. Andrew's in 1832, and became an independent ecclesiastical parish seven years later. Asthe Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents, it has a veryancient history. It was cut in two by a recent Boundary Commission, andput half in Holborn and half in Finsbury Borough Councils. 

Ely Place was built in 1773 on the site of the Palace of the Bishops ofEly. The earliest notice of the See in connection with this spot is inthe thirteenth century, when Kirkby, who died in office in 1290, bequeathed to his official successors a messuage and nine cottages inHolborn. A succeeding Bishop, probably William de Luda, built a chapeldedicated to St. Ethelreda, and Hotham, who died in 1336, added agarden, orchard, and vineyard. Thomas Arundel restored the chapel, andbuilt a large gate-house facing Holborn. The episcopal dwelling steadilyrose in magnificence and size. It boasted noble residents besides theBishops, for John of Gaunt died here in 1399, having probably beenhospitably taken in after the burning of his own palace at the Savoy. The strawberries of Ely Garden were famous, and Shakespeare makesreference to them, thus following closely Holinshed. But in the reign ofQueen Elizabeth a blight fell on the Bishops. It began with the enviousdesires of Sir Christopher Hatton, who, by reason of his dancing andcourtly tricks, had won the susceptible Queen's fancy and been made LordChancellor. He settled down on Ely Place, taking the gate-house as hisresidence, excepting the two rooms reserved as cells and the lodge. Heheld also part of the garden on a lease of twenty-one years, and thenominal rent he had to pay was a red rose, ten loads of hay, and £10 perannum. The Bishop had the right of passing through the gate-house, ofwalking in his own garden, and of gathering twenty bushels of rosesyearly. Hatton spent much money (borrowed from the Queen) in improvingand beautifying the estate, which pleased him so well that he fartherpetitioned the Queen to grant him the whole property. The poor, ill-usedBishop protested, but was sternly repressed, and the only concession hecould obtain was the right to buy back the estate if he could at anytime repay Hatton the sums which had been spent on it. But Hatton didnot remain unpunished. The Queen, a hard creditor, demanded the immensesums which she had lent to him, and it is said he died of a brokenheart, crushed at being unable to repay them. His nephew Newport, whotook the name of Hatton, was, however, allowed to succeed him. The widowof this second Hatton married Sir Edward Coke, the ceremony beingperformed in St. Andrew's Church. The Bishops' and the Hattons' rightsof property seem to have been somewhat involved, for after the death ofthis widow the Bishops returned, and in the beginning of the eighteenthcentury the Hatton property was saddled with an annual rent-charge of£100 payable to the See; and, in 1772, when, on the death of the lastHatton heir, the property fell to the Crown, the See was paid £200 perannum, and given a house in Dover Street, Piccadilly, in lieu of ElyPlace. Malcolm says: "When a more convenient Excise Office was latelywanted, the ground on which Ely House stood was thought of for it, butits situation was objected to. When an intention was formed of removingthe Fleet Prison, Ely House was judged proper on account of the quantityof ground about it, but the neighbouring inhabitants in Hatton Gardenpetitioned against the prison being built there. A scheme is now (1773)said to be in agitation for converting it into a Stamp Office, thatbusiness being at present carried on in chambers in Lincoln's Inn. " Somuch for the history and ownership of a place which played aconsiderable part in London history. The fabric itself must have beenvery magnificent. There was a venerable hall 74 feet long, with sixGothic windows. At Ely House were held magnificent feasts by theSerjeants-at-Law, one of which continued for five days, and was honouredon the first day by the presence of Henry VIII. And Katherine of Aragon. Stow's account of this festival is perhaps worth quoting:

 "It were tedious to set down the preparation of fish, flesh, and other victuals spent in this feast, and would seem almost incredible, and, as to me it seemeth, wanted little of a feast at a coronation; nevertheless, a little I will touch, for declaration of the charge of prices. There were brought to the slaughter-house twenty-four great beefs at twenty-six shillings and eightpence the piece from the shambles, one carcass of an ox at twenty-four shillings, one hundred fat muttons two shillings and tenpence the piece, fifty-two great veals at four shillings and eightpence the piece, thirty-four porks three shillings and eightpence the piece, ninety-one pigs sixpence the piece, capons of geese, of one poulterer (for they had three), ten dozens at twenty-pence the piece, capons of Kent nine dozens and six at twelvepence the piece, capons coarse nineteen dozen at sixpence the piece, cocks of grose seven dozen and nine at eightpence the piece, cocks coarse fourteen dozen and eight at threepence the piece, pullets, the best, twopence halfpenny, other pullets twopence, pigeons thirty-seven dozen at tenpence the dozen, swans fourteen dozen, larks three hundred and forty dozen at fivepence the dozen, &c. Edward Nevill was seneschal or steward, Thomas Ratcliffe, comptroller, Thomas Wildon, clerk of the Kitchen" (Thomas's edit. Stow, pp. 144, 145). 

During the Civil War the house was used both as a hospital and a prison. Great part of it was demolished during the imprisonment of Bishop Wrenby the Commonwealth, and some of the surrounding streets were built onthe site of the garden. Vine Street, Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill, ofwhich the lower end was once Field Lane, carry their origin in theirnames. Evelyn, writing June 7, 1659, says that he came to see the"foundations now laying for a long streete and buildings on HattonGarden, designed for a little towne, lately an ample garden. " Thechapel, dedicated to St. Ethelreda, now alone remains. It was for a timeheld by a Welsh Episcopalian congregation, but in 1874 was obtained byRoman Catholics, the Welsh congregation passing on to St. Benet's, onSt. Benet's Hill in Thames Street. The chapel stands back from thestreet, and is faced by a stone wall and arched porch surmounted by across. This stonework is all modern. An entrance immediately facing theporch leads into the crypt, which is picturesque with old stone wallsand heavily-timbered roof. This is by far the older part of thebuilding, the chapel above being a rebuilding on the same foundation. The crypt probably dates back from the first foundation of De Luda, andthe chapel from the restoration of Arundel. When the Roman Catholicscame into possession, the late Sir Gilbert Scott was employed in athorough restoration, during which a heavy stone bowl, about the size ofa small font, was dug up. It is of granite, and is supposed to be ofconsiderably more ancient date than the fabric itself, being pre-Saxon. From the size, it is improbable it was used as a font, being more likelya holy-water stoup, for which purpose it is now employed. Having beenplaced on a fitting shaft, it stands outside the entrance to the church, on the south side, in the cloister, which is probably on the site of theancient cloister. There is a simple Early English porch, beautifullyproportioned with mouldings of the period. Within the church correspondsin shape with the crypt; two magnificent windows east and west areworthy of a much larger building. Those on each side are of recent date, having been reconstructed from a filled-in window on the south side ofthe chancel. The reliquary contains a great treasure--a portion of thehand of St. Ethelreda, which member, having been taken from the chapel, after many wanderings, fell into the possession of a convent of nuns, who refused to give it up. Finally judgment was given to the effect thatthe nuns should retain a portion, while the part of a finger was grantedto the church, which was accordingly done. It was this saint who gaverise to our word "tawdry. " She was popularly known as St. Awdrey, andstrings of beads sold in her name at fairs, etc. , came to be made of anyworthless glass or rubbish, and were called tawdry. The crypt is used asa regular church, and is filled with seats; service is held here as wellas above. 

The timber beams in the roof are now (1903) undergoing thoroughrestoration, and the outer walls of the chapel are being repointed. 

From this quaint relic of past times, rich with the indefinableattraction which nothing but a history of centuries can give, we passout into Ely Place. This is a quiet cul-de-sac composed almost wholly ofthe offices of business men, solicitors, etc. At the north end, beyondthe chapel, the old houses are down, and new ones will be erected intheir place. At the end a small watchman's lodge stands on the spotwhere stood the Bishops' Gateway, in which the parasite, Sir ChristopherHatton, first fastened on his host. 

Hatton Garden is a wide thoroughfare with some modern offices and manyolder houses, with bracketed doorways and carved woodwork. It has longbeen associated with the diamond merchant's trade, and now diamondmerchants occupy quite half of the offices. It is also the centre of thegold and silver trade. The City Orthopædic Hospital is on the eastside. 

In Charles Street is the Bleeding Heart public-house, which derives itsname from an old religious sign, the Pierced Heart of the Virgin. Thisis close to Bleeding Heart Yard, referred to in "Little Dorrit, " andeasily recalled by any reader of Dickens. 

In Cross Street there is an old charity school, with stuccoed figures ofa charity boy and girl on the frontage. The Caledonian School wasformerly in this street; it was removed to its present situation in1828. Whiston, friend of Sir Isaac Newton, lived here, and here EdwardIrving first displayed his powers of preaching. 

Kirkby Street recalls what has already been said about the first Bishopof Ely, who purchased land whereon his successors should build a palace. It is a broad street, and in times past was a place of residence forwell-to-do people. 

The lower part of Saffron Hill was known at first as Field Lane, and isdescribed by Strype as "narrow and mean, full of Butchers and TripeDressers, because the Ditch runs at the back of their Slaughter houses, and carries away the filth. " He also says that Saffron Hill is a placeof small account, "both as to buildings and inhabitants, and pesteredwith small and ordinary alleys and courts taken up by the meaner sort ofpeople, especially to the east side into the Town. The Ditch separatesthe parish from St. John, Clerkenwell, and over this Ditch most of thealleys have a small boarded bridge. "

We can easily picture it, the courts swarming with thieves and rogueswho slipped from justice by this back-way, which made the place a kindof warren with endless ramifications and outlets. All this district isstrongly associated with the stories of Dickens, who mentions SaffronHill in "Oliver Twist, " not much to its credit. In later times Italianorgan-grinders and ice-cream vendors had a special predilection for theplace, and did not add to its reputation. Curiously enough, the residentpopulation of the neighbourhood are now almost wholly British, with veryfew Italians, as the majority of the foreigners have gone to join thecolony just outside the Liberty, in Eyre Street Hill, Skinner's Street, etc. Within quite recent times the clergyman of the parish dare only goto visit these parishioners accompanied by two policemen in plainclothes. Now the lower half is a hive of industry, and is lined by greatbusiness houses. Further north, on the east side, the dwellings arestill poor and squalid, but on one side a great part of the street hasbeen demolished to make way for a Board school, built in a wayimmeasurably superior to the usual Board school style. Opposite is theChurch of St. Peter, which is an early work of Sir Charles Barry. Thisis in light stone, in the Perpendicular style, and has two westerntowers. It was built at the time of the separation of the district, about 1832. 

In Hatton Wall an old yard bore the name of Hat in Tun, which wasinteresting as showing the derivation of the word. Strype mentions inthis street a very old inn, called the Bull Inn. The part of Hatton Wallto the west of Hatton Garden was known as Vine Street, and here therewas "a steep descent into the Ditch, where there is a bridge thatleadeth to Clerkenwell Green" (Strype). In Hatton Yard Mr. Fogg, Dickens' magistrate, presided over a police-court. 

Leather Lane is called by Strype "Lither" Lane. Even in his day hereviles it as of no reputation, and this character it retains. It is oneof the open street markets of London, lined with barrows and costerstalls, and abounding in low public-houses. The White Hart, the King'sHead, and the Nag's Head, are mentioned by Strype, and these namessurvive amid innumerable others. At the south end a house withoverhanging stories remains; this curtails the already narrow spaceacross the Lane. 

On the west of Leather Lane, Baldwin's Buildings and Portpool Lane openout. The former consists largely of workmen's model dwellings, comfortable and convenient within, but with the peculiarly depressingexteriors of the utilitarian style. Further north these give way towarehouses, breweries, and manufactories. East of its southern end inHolborn were two old inns, the Old Bell and Black Bull. The former was acoaching inn of great celebrity in its day, and picturesque woodenbalconies surrounded its inner courtyard. It has now been transformedinto a modern public-house. It was the last of the old galleried inns ofLondon. The Black Bull was also of considerable age. Its courtyard hasbeen converted into dwellings. 

Brooke Street takes its name from Brooke Market, established here byFulke Greville, Lord Brooke, but demolished a hundred years ago. It wasin Brooke Street, in a house on the west side, that poor Chattertoncommitted suicide. St. Alban's Church is an unpretentious building atthe north end. An inscription over the north door tells us that it waserected to be free for ever to the poor by one of the humble stewards ofGod's mercies, with date 1860. Within we learn that this benefactor wasthe first Baron Addington. The church is well known for its ritualisticservices. 

Portpool Lane, marked in Strype's plan Perpoole, is the reminiscence ofan ancient manor of that name. The part of Clerkenwell Road boundingthis district to the north was formerly called by the appropriate nameof Liquorpond Street. In it there is a Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter, built in 1863. The interior is very ornate. Just here, where BackHill and Ray Street meet, was Hockley Hole, a famous place ofentertainment for bull and bear baiting, and other cruel sports thatdelighted the brutal taste of the eighteenth century. One of theproprietors, named Christopher Preston, fell into his own bear-pit, andwas devoured, a form of sport that doubtless did not appeal to him. Hockley Hole was noted for a particular breed of bull-dogs. The actualsite of the sports is in the adjoining parish, but the name occurringhere justifies some comment. Hockley in the Hole is referred to by BenJonson, Steele, Fielding, and others. It was abolished soon after 1728. 

It was in a sponging-house in Eyre Street that Morland, the painter, died. In the part of Gray's Inn Road to the north of Clerkenwell Roadformerly stood Stafford's Almshouses, founded in 1652. 

At present Rosebery Avenue, driven through slumland, justifies itspleasant-sounding name, being a wide, sweeping, tree-lined road. Workmen's model dwellings rise on either side. 

The northern part of Gray's Inn Road falls within the parish of St. Pancras. The part which lies to the north of Theobald's Road wasformerly called Gray's Inn Lane. In 1879-80 the east side was pulleddown, and the line of houses set back in the rebuilding. These consistsof uninteresting buildings, with small shops on the ground-floor. On thewest there are the worn bricks of Gray's Inn. At the corner ofClerkenwell Road is the Holborn Town-Hall, an imposing, well-builtedifice of brick and stone, with square clock-tower, surmounted by asmaller octagonal tower and dome. The date is 1878. 

Gray's Inn Road is familiar to all readers of Dickens and Fielding, fromfrequent references in their novels. John Hampden took lodgings here in1640, in order to be near Pym, at a time when the struggle between theKing and Parliament in regard to the question of ship money was at itssharpest. James Shirley, the dramatic poet of the seventeenth century, is also said to have lived here, but was probably in Gray's Inn itself. 

GRAY'S INN. 

BY W. J. LOFTIE. 

An archway on the north side of Holborn, nearly opposite Chancery Lane, admits us to Gray's Inn. It is not the original entrance, which wasround the corner in Portpool Lane, now called Gray's Inn Road. The LordsGrey of Wilton obtained the Manor of Portpool at some remote periodfrom the Canon of St. Paul's, who held it; we have no direct evidence asto whether the Canon had a house on the spot, but there are some tracesof a chapel and a chaplain. In 1315 Lord Grey gave some land in trust tothe Canons of St. Bartholomew to endow the chaplain in his mansion ofPortpool. From its situation near London, the ready access both to theCity and the country, with the fine views northward towards Hampsteadand Highgate, this must have been a more desirable place of residencethan even the neighbouring manor of the Bishop of Ely. It consisted inthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of a gate-house which facedeastward, the chapel close to it on the left, and various otherbuildings, some of them apparently forming separate houses, withspacious gardens and a windmill. Here the Lords Grey lived for a coupleof centuries in great state, apparently letting or lending the smallerhouses to tenants or retainers--it would seem not unlikely to lawyers orstudents of the law, possibly their own men of business. This is no meretheory or guesswork. There has been too much conjecture about the earlyhistory of Gray's Inn, and the sober-minded topographer is warned off atthe outset by a number of inconsistent assertions as to the earlyexistence here of a school of law. Dugdale tells us that the manor wasgranted to the Priory of Shene in the reign of Henry VII. , and after thedissolution it was rented by a society of students of the law. Afictitious list of Readers goes back to the reign of Edward III. , butwill not bear critical examination. The lawyers paid a rent of £6 13s. 4d. To Henry VIII. , and this charge passed into private hands by grantof Charles II. The lawyers bought it from the heir of the first grantee, and since 1733 have enjoyed the Inn rent-free. The opening into Holbornwas made on the purchase by the society, in 1594, of the Hart on theHoop, which then belonged to Fulwood, whose name is commemorated byFulwood's Rents, now nearly wiped out by a station of the Central LondonRailway. 

The chief entrance is by the archway in Holborn. In 1867 the old brickarch was beplastered, obliterating a reminiscence of Dickens, who makesDavid Copperfield and Dora lodge over it. A narrow road leads into SouthSquare, the north side of which is formed by the hall and library. Thehouses round the east and south sides are of uniform design, withhandsome doorways. The hall has been much "restored, " but was originallybuilt in the reign of Queen Mary. It has a modern Gothic porch, carvedwith the griffin, which forms the coat armour of the Inn. 

The interior of the hall has been renovated, having been much injuredin 1828, when the exterior was covered with stucco. The brick front isagain visible, and the panelling and roof within are of carved oak. There are coats of arms in the windows, and on the walls hang portraitsof Charles I. , Charles II. , James II. , and the two Bacons--father andson--Sir Nicholas and Viscount St. Albans, who are the chief legalluminaries of the "ancient and honourable society. " The library, modern, adjoins on the east, and contains a collection of important records andprinted books on law. 

Passing through an arch at the western end of the hall, we enter Gray'sInn Square, formerly Chapel Court. The chapel is close to the library onthe north side, and opens into Gray's Inn Square. This court wasprobably open on the north side to the fields before the reign ofCharles II. Some of the buildings surrounding it are in a good QueenAnne style, and some have the cross-mullioned windows of a still earlierperiod. The exterior of the chapel is covered with stucco. The interior, which is very small--there being only seating for a congregation ofabout one hundred--was carefully examined three years ago, when aproposal was made to build a new chapel. The Gothic windows, walled upby the library to the south, came to light, and there seems someprobability that the building is mainly that of Lord Grey's chantry of1315. Some improvements and repairs to the interior have saved thelittle chapel for the present. There are no monuments visible, but fourArchbishops of Canterbury who were connected with the Inn arecommemorated in the east window. They were Whitgift (1583-1604), Juxon(1660-1663), Wake (1715-1737), Laud (1633-1645), and in the centreBecket, whose only claim to be in such a goodly company appears to bethat a window "gloriously painted, " with the figure of St. Thomas ofLondon, was destroyed by Edward Hall, the Reader, in 1539, according tothe King's injunctions. A subsequent window, showing our Lord on theMount, had long disappeared, and some heraldry was all the east end ofthe chapel could boast. 

The gardens open by a handsome gate of wrought iron into Field Court, which is westward of Gray's Inn Square. Here Bacon planted the trees, and enjoyed the view northward, then all open, from a summer-house whichwas only removed about 1754. Bacon lived in Coney Court, destroyed byfire in 1678, which looked on the garden. 

Among the names of eminent men which occur to the memory in Gray's Inn, we must mention a tradition which makes Chief Justice Gascoigne astudent here. More real is Thomas Cromwell, the terrible Vicar-Generalof Henry VIII. Sir Thomas Gresham was a member of the Inn, as was hiscontemporary Camden, the antiquary. Lord Burghley and his second son, Robert, Earl of Salisbury, were both members, it is said, but certainlyBurghley. The list of casual inhabitants is almost inexhaustible, beingswelled by the heroes of many novels, actually or entirely fictitious. Shakespeare was said to have played in the hall. Bradshaw, who presidedat the trial of Charles I. , was a bencher; and so was Holt, the ChiefJustice of William III. More eminent than either, perhaps, was SirSamuel Romilly, whose sad death in 1818 caused universal regret. Pepysmentions the walks, and observed the fashionable beauties after churchone Sunday in May, 1662. Sir Roger de Coverley is placed on the terraceby Addison, and both Dryden, Shadwell, and other old dramatists speak ofthe gardens. It was at Gray's Inn Gate--the old gate into PortpoolLane--that Jacob Tonson, the great bookseller and publisher of theeighteenth century, had his shop. 

The district northward of Gray's Inn needs very little comment. GreatSt. James Street is picturesque, with eighteenth-century doorways andcarved brackets; the tenants of the houses are nearly all solicitors. Little St. James Street is insignificant and diversified by mews. InStrype's plan the rectangle formed by these two streets is marked"Bowling Green"; in one corner is "the Cockpitt. "

Bedford Row is a very quiet, broad thoroughfare lined byeighteenth-century houses of considerable height and size, which for themost part still retain their noble staircases and well-proportionedrooms. Nearly every house is cut up into chambers. Abernethy, the greatsurgeon, formerly lived in this street, and Addington, ViscountSidmouth, was born here; Bishop Warburton, the learned theologian andwriter of the eighteenth century, and Elizabeth, daughter of OliverCromwell, are also said to have been among the residents. Ralph, theauthor of "Publick Buildings, " admired it prodigiously, naming it one ofthe finest streets in London. 

Red Lion Square took its name from a very well-known tavern in Holborn, one of the largest and most notable of the old inns. There is a modernsuccessor, a Red Lion public-house, at the corner of Red Lion Street. Tothe ancient inn the bodies of the regicides were brought the nightbefore they were dragged on hurdles to be exposed at Tyburn. This gaverise to a tradition, which still haunts the spot, that some of thesemen, including Cromwell, were buried in the Square, and that dummybodies were substituted to undergo the ignominy at Tyburn. 

There was for many years in the centre of the Square an obelisk with theinscription, "Obtusum Obtusioris Ingenii Monumentum Quid me respicisviator? Vade. " And an attempt has been made to read the mysteriousinscription as a Cromwellian epitaph. Pennant says that in his time theobelisk had recently vanished, which gives the date of destruction about1780. 

The Square was built about 1698, and is curiously laid out, with streetsrunning diagonally from the corners as well as rectangularly from thesides. It had formerly a watch-house at each corner, as well as theobelisk in the centre. It is at present lined by brick houses of uniformaspect and unequal heights, with here and there a conspicuously modernbuilding. The centre is laid out as a public garden, and forms a greenand pleasant oasis in a very poor district. 

St. John the Evangelist's Church, of red brick, designed by Pearson, stands at the south-west corner. It was built 1876-1878, and is veryconspicuous, with two pointed towers and a handsome, deeply-recessedeast window. Next door is the clergy house. There are in the Squarevarious associations and societies, including the Mendicity Society, Indigent Blind Visiting Society, St. Paul's Hospital, and others. Miltonhad a house which overlooked Red Lion Fields, the site of the Square, and Jonas Hanway, traveller and philanthropist, also a voluminouswriter, but who will be best remembered as the first man in England tocarry an umbrella, died here in 1786. Sharon Turner, historian, camehere after his marriage in 1795, and Lord Chief Justice Raymond, whoheld his high office in the reign of the first and second Georges, livedin the Square. But a later association will, perhaps, be moreinteresting to most people: for about three years previously to 1859 SirE. Burne-Jones and William Morris lived in rooms at No. 17, beforeeither was married. 

Of the surrounding streets, those at the south-east and north-eastangles are the most quaint. An old house with red tiles stands at eachcorner, and the remaining houses, though not so picturesque, are ofancient date. The streets are mere flagged passages lined by open stallsand little shops. 

Kingsgate Street is so named because it had a gate at the end throughwhich the King used to pass to Newmarket. It is mentioned by Pepys, whounder date March 8, 1669, records that the King's coach was upset here, throwing out Charles himself, the Dukes of York and Monmouth, and PrinceRupert, who were "all dirt, but no hurt. " Near the end of this street inHolborn was the Vine Inn, important as having kept alive the onlyreference in Domesday Book to this district, "a vineyard in Holborn"belonging to the Crown. 

Part of Theobald's Road was once King's Way; it was the direct route toKing James I. 's hunting-lodge, Theobald's, in Hertfordshire. It was inthis part, at what is now 22, Theobald's Road, that Benjamin Disraeli issupposed to have been born; but many other places in the neighbourhoodalso claim to be his birthplace, though not with so much authority. There was a cockpit in this Road in the eighteenth century. 

We are now in the diminutive parish of St. George the Martyr, carved outof that of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and originally including Red LionSquare and the streets adjacent. 

Gloucester Street was named after Queen Anne's sickly little son, theonly one of her seventeen children who survived infancy. Robert Nelson, author of "Fasts and Festivals, " was at one time a resident. The streetis narrow and dirty, lined by old brick houses; here and there is acarved doorway with brackets, showing that, like most streets in thevicinity, it was better built than now inhabited, and it is probablethat where sickly children now sprawl on doorsteps stately ladies inhoops and silken skirts once stepped forth. St. George's NationalSchools are here, and a public-house with the odd name of Hole in theWall, a name adopted by Mr. Morrison in his recent novel about Wapping. 

Queen Square was built in Queen Anne's reign, and named in her honour, but it is a statue of Queen Charlotte that stands beneath theplane-trees in the centre. 

When it was first built, much eulogy was bestowed upon it, because ofthe beautiful view to the Hampstead and Highgate Hills, for which reasonthe north side was left open; it is still open, but the prospect itcommands is only the further side of Guilford Street. The Square is afavourite place for charitable institutions. On the east side was, until1902, a College for Working Men and Women, designed to aid by eveningclasses the studies of those who are busy all day. 

The Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy is on the same side. This wasinstituted in 1859, but the present building was in 1885 opened by thePrince of Wales, and is a memorial to the Duke of Albany, and a verysplendid memorial it is. The building, which occupies a very large spacealong the side of the Square, is ornately built of red brick andterra-cotta, with handsome balconies and a porch of the latter material. There are four wards for men and five for women, with two small surgicalwards; also two contributing wards for patients who can afford to paysomething toward their expenses. 

Almost exactly opposite, across the Square, is a new red-brick building. This is the Alexandra Hospital, for children with hip disease, andsometimes a wan little face peeps out of the windows. 

On the south side is the Italian Hospital, lately rebuilt on a finescale. There are other institutions and societies in the Square, such asthe Royal Female School of Art, but none that call for any specialcomment. 

Among the eminent inhabitants of the Square were Dr. Stukeley, theantiquary, appointed Rector of the church, 1747--he lived here from thefollowing year until his death in 1765; Dr. Askew; and John Campbell, author, and friend of Johnson, who used to give Sunday evening"conversation parties, " where the great Doctor met "shoals ofScotchmen. "

The Church of St. George the Martyr stands on the west side of theSquare, facing the open space at the south end. It was founded in 1706by private subscription as a chapel of ease to St. Andrew, and was namedin honour of one of the founders, who had been Governor of Fort George, on the coast of Coromandel. "The Martyr" was added to distinguish itfrom the other St. George in the vicinity. It was accepted as one of thefifty new churches by the Commissioners in Queen Anne's reign, wasconsecrated in 1723, and had a district assigned to it. It was entirelyrearranged and restored in 1868, and has lately been repainted. It is amost peculiar-looking church, with a spire cased in zinc. Small figuresof angels embellish some points of vantage, and the symbols of the fourEvangelists appear in niches. The windows are round-headed, with traceryof a peculiarly ugly type; but the interior is better than the exterior, and has lately been repaired and redecorated throughout. 

Powis House originally stood where Powis Place, Great Ormond Street, nowis. This was built by the second Marquis or Duke of Powis, even beforehe had sold his Lincoln's Inn Fields house to the Duke of Newcastle, forhe was living here in 1708. The second Duke was, like his father, aJacobite, and had suffered much for his loyalty to the cause, havingendured imprisonment in the Tower, but he was eventually restored to hisposition and estates. The house was burnt down in 1714, when the Ducd'Aumont, French Ambassador, was tenant, and it was believed that thefire was the work of an incendiary. The French King, Louis XIV. , causedit to be rebuilt at his own cost, though insurance could have beenclaimed. In 1777 this later building was taken down. 

Lord Chancellor Thurlow lived in this street at No. 46, and it was fromthis house, now the Working Men's College, that the Great Seal wasstolen and never recovered. 

Dr. Mead, a well-known physician, had a house here, afterwards occupiedby the Hospital for Sick Children. 

The Working Men's College began at the instigation of a barrister in1848, and was fathered by the Rev. F. D. Maurice, who was Principaluntil his death. It grew rapidly, and in 1856 became affiliated toLondon University. The adjacent house was bought, in 1870 additionalbuildings were erected, and four years later the institution received acharter of incorporation. Maurice was succeeded in the principalship byThomas Hughes, and Hughes by Lord Avebury, then Sir John Lubbock. 

The Hospital for Sick Children is a red-brick building designed by SirC. Barry. Within, the wards are lined by glazed tiles, and the floorsare of parquet. Each ward is named after some member of the RoyalFamily--Helena, Alice, etc. The children are received at any age, andthe beds are well filled. Everything, it is needless to say, is in thebeautifully bright and cleanly style which is associated with the modernhospital. The chapel is particularly beautiful; it is the gift of Mr. W. H. Barry, a brother of the architect, and the walls are adorned withfrescoes above inlaid blocks of veined alabaster. 

The Homoeopathic Hospital, which is on the same side of the streetnearer to the Square, is another large and noticeable building. This isthe only hospital of the kind in London. The present building occupiesthe site of three old houses, one of which was the residence of ZacharyMacaulay, father of the historian. There are in all seven wards, two formen, three for women, one for girls, and one for children. Thechildren's ward is as pretty as any private nursery could be. Thehospital is absolutely free, and the out-patient departmentexceptionally large. 

In Great Ormond Street there are also one or two Benefit Societies, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows for the North LondonDistrict, and many sets of chambers. This district seems particularlyfavourable to the growth of charitable institutions. 

Lamb's Conduit Street is called after one Lamb, who built a conduit herein 1577. This was a notable work in the days when the water-supply was avery serious problem. Thus, a very curious name is accounted for in amatter-of-fact way. In Queen Anne's time the fields around here formed afavourite promenade for the citizens when the day's work was done. 

The parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, which lies westward of St. Georgethe Martyr, is considerably larger than its neighbour. The derivation ofthis name is generally supposed to be a corruption of Blemund's Fee, from one William de Blemund, who was Lord of the Manor in Henry VI. 'sreign. Stow and others have written the word "Loomsbury, " or"Lomesbury, " but this seems to be due to careless orthography, and notto indicate any ancient rendering. 

The earliest holder of the manor of whom we have any record is the DeBlemund mentioned above. There are intermediate links missing at a laterdate, but with the possession of the Southampton family in the verybeginning of the seventeenth century the history becomes clear again. In1668 the manor passed into the hands of the Bedfords by marriage withthe heiress of the Southamptons. This family also held St. Giles's, which, it will be remembered, was originally also part of the Prebendaryof St. Paul's. 

The Royal Mews was established at Bloomsbury (Lomesbury) from very earlytimes to 1537, when it was burnt down and the mews removed to the siteof the present National Gallery (see _The Strand_, same series). 

The parish is largely composed of squares, containing three large andtwo small ones, from which nearly all the streets radiate. The BritishMuseum forms an imposing block in the centre. This is on the site ofMontague House, built for the first Baron Montague, and burnt to theground in 1686. It was rebuilt again in great magnificence, with paintedceilings, according to the taste of the time, and Lord Montague, thenDuke of Montague, died in it in 1709. The house and gardens occupiedseven acres. The son and heir of the first Duke built for himself amansion at Whitehall (see _Westminster_, same series, p. 83), andMontague House was taken down in 1845, when the present buildings of theMuseum were raised in its stead. 

The Museum has rather a curious history. Like many of our nationalinstitutions, it was the result of chance, and not of a detailed scheme. In 1753 Sir Hans Sloane, whose name is associated so strongly withChelsea, died, and left a splendid collection comprising "books, drawings, manuscripts, prints, medals, seals, cameos, precious stones, rare vessels, mathematical instruments, and pictures, " which had costhim something like £50, 000. By his will Parliament was to have the firstrefusal of this collection for £20, 000. Though it was in the reign ofthe needy George II. , the sum was voted, and by the same Act was boughtthe Harleian collection of MSS. To add to it; to this was added theCottonian Library of MSS. , and the nation had a ready-made collection. The money to pay for the Sloane and Harleian collections was raised byan easy method of which modern morals do not approve--that is to say, bylottery. Many suggestions were made as to the housing of this nationalcollection. Buckingham House, now Buckingham Palace, was spoken of, also the old Palace Yard; of course, the modern Houses of Parliamentwere not then built. Eventually Montague House was bought, and theMuseum was opened to the public in 1757. However, it had not ceasedgrowing. George III. Presented some antiquities, which necessitated theopening of a new department; to these were added the Hamilton andTownley antiquities by purchase, and in 1816 the Elgin Marbles weretaken in temporarily. On the death of George III. , George IV. Presentedhis splendid library, known as the King's Library, to the Museum, notfrom any motive of generosity, but because he did not in the leastappreciate it. Greville, in his Journal (1823), says: "The King had evena design of selling the library collected by the late King, but this hewas obliged to abandon, for the Ministers and the Royal Family must haveinterposed to oppose so scandalous a transaction. It was thereforepresented to the British Museum. "

It then became necessary to pull down Montague House and build a Museumworthy of the treasures to be enshrined. Sir Robert Smirke was thearchitect, and the present massive edifice is from his designs. Thebuildings cost more than £800, 000. 

As this is no guide-book, no attempt is made to classify the departmentsof the Museum or to indicate its riches. These may be found byexperiment, or read in the official guides to be bought on the spot. 

On the east is Montague Street, running into Russell Square. 

Southampton House, the ancient manor-house, celebrated for the famouslime-trees surrounding it, stood on the ground now occupied by BedfordPlace. Noorthouck describes it as "elegant though low, having but onestorey. " It is commonly supposed to have been the work of Inigo Jones. When the property came into the Bedford family, it was occasionallycalled Russell House, after their family name. Maitland says that, whenhe wrote, one of the Parliamentary forts, two batteries, and abreastwork, remained in the garden. The house was demolished in 1800, and Russell Square was begun soon after. A double row of the lime-treesbelonging to Bedford House had extended over the site of this Square. All this ground had previously been known as Southampton Fields, or LongFields, and was the resort of low classes of the people, who here foughttheir pitched battles, generally on Sundays. It was known during theperiod of Monmouth's Rebellion as the Field of the Forty Footsteps, owing to the tradition that two brothers killed each other here in aduel, while the lady who was the cause of the conflict looked on. Subsequently no grass grew on the spots where the brothers had plantedtheir feet. 

Southey, in his "Commonplace Book, " thus narrates his own visit to thespot:

 "We sought for near half an hour in vain. We could find no steps at all within a quarter of a mile, no, nor half a mile, of Montague House. We were almost out of hope, when an honest man, who was at work, directed us to the next ground, adjoining to a pond. There we found what we sought, about three-quarters of a mile north of Montague House, and 500 yards east of Tottenham Court Road. The steps are of the size of a large human foot, about three inches deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only seventy-six; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of grass. The labourer also showed us where (the tradition is) the wretched woman sat to see the combat. " Southey adds his full confidence in the tradition of the indestructibility of the steps, even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from the circumstance (_Notes and Queries_, No. 12). 

A long-forgotten novel, called "Coming Out; or, The Field of the FortyFootsteps, " was founded on this legend, as was also a melodrama. 

Russell Square is very little inferior to Lincoln's Inn Fields in size, and at the time of its building had a magnificent situation, with anuninterrupted prospect right up to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate, and the only house then standing was on the east side; it belonged tothe profligate Lord Baltimore, and was later occupied by the Duke ofBolton. The new Russell Hotel, at the corner of Guilford Street, andPitman's School of Shorthand, in the south-eastern corner, are the onlytwo buildings to note. A bronze statue of Francis, Duke of Bedford, executed by Westmacott, stands on the south side of the Square; thisfaces a similar statue of Fox in Bloomsbury Square. 

The Square seems to have been peculiarly attractive to men high up inthe profession of the law. Sir Samuel Romilly, the great law reformer, lived here until his sad death in 1818; he committed suicide in grief atthe loss of his wife. In the same year his neighbour Charles Abbot, afterwards first Baron Tenterden, was made Lord Chief Justice. He wasburied at the Foundling Hospital by his own request. In 1793 AlexanderWedderburn (first Baron Loughborough and first Earl of Rosslyn), also aresident in the Square, was appointed Lord Chancellor. After this heprobably moved to the official residence in Bedford Square. 

Frederick D. Maurice was at No. 5 from 1856 to 1862. Sir Thomas Lawrencelived for twenty years at No. 65, and while he was executing theportrait of Platoff, the Russian General, the Cossacks, mounted on smallwhite horses, stood on guard in the Square before his door. 

Bloomsbury Square was at first called Southampton Square, and the sideswere known by different names--Seymour Row, Vernon Street, and AllingtonRow. The north side was occupied by Bedford House. It is considerablyolder than its large neighbour on the north, and is mentioned by Evelynin his Diary, on February 9, 1665. In Queen Anne's reign it was a mostfashionable locality. The houses suffered greatly during the GordonRiots, especially Lord Mansfield's house, in the north-east corner, which was completely ruined internally, and in which a most valuablelibrary was destroyed, while Lord and Lady Mansfield made their escapefrom the mob by a back-door. Pope refers to the Square as a fashionableplace of resort. Among the names of famous residents we have Sir RichardSteele, Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist divine, Dr. Akenside, and SirHans Sloane. The elder D'Israeli, who compiled "Curiosities ofLiterature, " lived in No. 6; he came here in 1818, when his famous sonwas a boy of fourteen. 

The College of Preceptors stands on the south side. The PharmaceuticalSociety, established in 1841, first took a house in the Square in thatyear. It was incorporated by royal charter two years later, and in 1857the two adjacent houses in Great Russell Street were added to thepremises, which include a library and museum. There is also at No. 30the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland. 

In Southampton Street Colley Cibber, the dramatist and actor, was born. 

Silver Street, which is connected with Southampton Street by a coveredentry, is described by Strype as "indifferent well built andinhabited"--a character it apparently keeps up to this day. 

Bloomsbury Market Strype describes as "a long place with twomarket-houses, the one for flesh and the other for fish, but of smallaccount by reason the market is of so little use and so ill served withprovisions, insomuch that the inhabitants deal elsewhere. " In Parton'stime it was still extant, "exhibiting little of that bustle and businesswhich distinguishes similar establishments. " Though it was cleared awayin 1847, its site is marked by Market Street, which with Silver andBloomsbury Streets forms a cross. 

Southampton Row is a very long street, extending from Russell Square toHigh Holborn. It includes what was formerly King Street and Upper KingStreet, which together reached from High Holborn to Bloomsbury Place. Gray, the poet, lodged in this Row in 1759. 

The Church of St. George is in Hart Street. St. George's parish wasformed from St. Giles's on account of the great increase of buildings inthis district. In 1710 the proposal for a new church was first mooted, and in 1724 the parishes were officially separated. The church stands ona piece of ground formerly known as Plough Yard. It is the work ofHawkesmoor, Wren's pupil, and was consecrated in 1730. It cannot bebetter described than in the words of Noorthouck: "This is an irregularand oddly constructed church; the portico stands on the south side, ofthe Corinthian order, and makes a good figure in the street, but has noaffinity to the church, which is very heavy, and would be better suitedwith a Tuscan portico. The steeple at the west is a very extraordinarystructure; on a round pedestal at the top of a pyramid is placed acolossal statue of the late King [George I. ], and at the corners nearthe base are alternately placed the lion and unicorn, the Britishsupporters, with festoons between. These animals, being very large, areinjudiciously placed over columns very small, which make them appearmonsters. " The lions and unicorns have now been removed. This steeplehas been described by Horace Walpole as a masterpiece of absurdity. Within, the walls rise right up to the roof with no break, and give animpression of great spaciousness. There is a small chapel on eitherside, that on the east, of an apselike shape, being used as abaptistery. The western one contains a ponderous monument erected inmemory of one of their officials by the East India Company. There areother monuments in the church, but none of any general interest. TheCommunion-table is enclosed by a wooden canopy with fluted columns, said to be of Italian origin, and to have been brought from old MontagueHouse. 

In Little Russell Street are the parochial schools. These wereestablished in 1705 in Museum Street, and were removed in 1880 to thepresent building. They were founded by Dr. Carter for the maintenance, clothing, and education of twenty-five girls, and the clothing andeducation of eighty boys. The intentions of the founder are stillcarried out, as recorded on a stone slab on the front of the building, which is a neat brick edifice, with a group of a woman and child instone in a niche high up, and an appropriate verse from Proverbs below. 

Allusion has already been made to New Oxford Street. It extends fromTottenham Court Road to Bury Street, and is lined by fine shops andlarge buildings, chiefly in the ornamental stuccoed style. The RoyalArcade--"a glass-roofed arcade of shops extending along the rear of fouror five of the houses, and having an entrance from the street at eachend"--was opened about 1852, but did not answer the expectations formedof it, and was pulled down (Walford). 

At the corner of Museum Street, once Peter Street, is Mudie's famouslibrary. The founder, who died in 1890, began a lending library in KingStreet in 1840, and in 1852 removed to the present quarters. In 1864 theconcern was turned into a limited liability company. The distributionof books now reaches almost incredible figures. 

Great Russell Street Strype describes as being very handsome and verywell inhabited. Thanet House, the town residence of the Thanets in theseventeenth century, stood on the north side. Sir Christopher Wren builta house for himself in this street. Among the inhabitants and lodgershave been Shelley and Hazlitt, J. P. Kemble, Speaker Onslow, Pugin theelder, Charles Mathews the elder, and, in later years, Sir E. Burne-Jones. 

At the west end Great Russell Street runs into Tottenham Court Road, aportion of which lies in the parish of St. Giles. Toten Hall itself, from which the name is taken, stood at the south end of the HampsteadRoad, and an account of it belongs to the parish of St. Pancras. Thereis little to remark upon in that part of the Road we can now claim. Atthe south end is Meux's well-known brewery, bought by the family of thatname in 1809. In 1814 an immense vat burst here, which flooded theimmediate neighbourhood in a deluge of liquor. The Horseshoe Hotel canclaim fairly ancient descent; it has been in existence as a tavern from1623. It was called the Horseshoe from the shape of its firstdining-room. A Consumption Hospital stands midway between North andSouth Crescent. 

Bedford Square also falls within St. Giles's parish, but it belongs bycharacter and date to Bloomsbury. The Square was erected about the veryend of the eighteenth century. Dobie says that "Bedford Square arosefrom a cow-yard to its present magnificent form . .. With its avenues andneighbouring streets . .. Chiefly erected since 1778, " while it appearsin a map of 1799 as "St. Giles's Runs. " The official residence of theLord Chancellor was on the east side. Lord Loughborough lived there, andsubsequently Lord Eldon, who had to escape with his wife into theBritish Museum gardens when the mob made an attack on his house duringthe Corn Law riots. 

The streets running north and south are all of the same prosperous, substantial character. About Chenies Street large modern red-brickmansions have arisen. 

Woburn Square is a quiet place, with fine trees growing in its pleasantgarden. In it is Christ Church, the work of Vulliamy, date 1833. It isof Gothic architecture, and is prettily finished with buttresses andpinnacles, in spite of the ugly material used--namely, white brick. Itwas at first designed to call the Square Rothesay Square, but it waseventually named Woburn, after the seat of the Duke of Bedford. 

Great Coram Street was, of course, named after the genial founder of theFoundling Hospital. In it is the Russell Institution, built at thebeginning of the century as an assembly-room, and later used asinstitute and club. It was frequently visited by Dickens, Leech, andThackeray, the last named of whom came here in 1837, and remained until1843, when the house had to be given up owing to the incurable nature ofhis wife's mental malady. He wrote here many papers and articles, including the famous "Yellow-plush Papers, " which appeared in _Fraser'sMagazine_; but his novels belong to a later period. 

We have now wandered over a district rich in association, containingsome of the oldest domestic architecture existing in London, but which, taken as a whole, is chiefly of a date belonging to the late seventeenthand early eighteenth centuries--a date when ladies wore powder andpatches, when sedan-chairs were more common than hackney cabs, and whenthe voice of the link-boy was heard in the streets. 

BOUNDARIES OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISHES. 

ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS. 

This parish is bounded on the south by Castle Street; east by part ofDrury Lane, Broad Street, and Dyott Street, thence by a line cuttingdiagonally across the south-east corner of Bedford Square, across KeppelStreet and Torrington Mews, and touching Byng Place at the north-westcorner of Torrington Square; on the north by a line cutting across fromthis point westward, and striking Tottenham Court Road just above AlfredMews; on the westward by Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road toCambridge Circus, thence by West Street to the corner of Castle Street, and so the circuit is complete. 

ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR. 

Bounded on the south by Theobald's Road, on the east by Lamb's ConduitStreet (both included in the parish), on the north by Guilford Street, and on the west by Southampton Row (which are not so included). 

ST. ANDREW, HOLBORN. 

Bounded on the east by Farringdon Street from Charterhouse Street to No. 66, which is just beyond Farringdon Avenue; on the north by Holborn andHigh Holborn from the Viaduct Bridge to Brownlow Street; on the west bya line drawn from the upper end of Brownlow Street across High Holborn, cutting through No. 292, and through part of Lincoln's Inn (taking inStone Buildings, and as far as a few yards south of Henry VIII. 'sgateway); on the south by a line from Lincoln's Inn across ChanceryLane, along Cursitor Street, cutting across Fetter Lane, down DeanStreet to Robin Hood Court, across Shoe Lane to Farringdon Street. 

ST. GEORGE, BLOOMSBURY. 

Bounded on the south by Broad Street and High Holborn to KingsgateStreet; on the east by Kingsgate Street, and a line behind the east sideof Southampton Row (including it), coming out at No. 54, GuilfordStreet; on the north by a line across the north side of Russell Squareand along Keppel Street; on the west from thence by a diagonal line, which cuts off the south-east corner of Bedford Square to Dyott Street, and so to Broad Street. 

HATTON GARDEN, SAFFRON HILL. 

Bounded on the west by Leather Lane; on the south by Holborn andCharterhouse Street to Farringdon Road; on the east by Farringdon Road;and on the north by Back Hill. 

INDEX

Abernethy, 78

Akenside, Dr. , 93

Aldewych, 26

Alexandra Hospital, 83

Ancaster House, 34

Arundel, Bishop, 60

Babington, 33

Bacon, Francis, 6

Bacon, Roger, 75, 76

Bainbridge Street, 21

Bangor Court, 59

Barnard's Inn, 49

Baxter, Richard, 51, 93

Bedford Row, 78

Bedford Square, 97

Belayse, John, 16

Betterton, 25

Betterton Street, 24

Birkbeck Bank, 45

Black Bull, 70

Black Swan, 3

Bleeding Heart Yard, 67

Bloomsbury Market, 94

Bowl, The, 18

Bradshaw, 77

British Museum, 88

Broad Street, 18

Brooke Street, 70

Brownlow, Sir John, 24

Buckridge Street, 21

Burghley, Lord, 77

Burne-Jones, Sir E. , 80, 97

Burton St. Lazar, 11

Caledonian School, 67

Camden, 77

Carew, Sir Wymonde, 13

Chancery Lane, 44

Chapman, George, 16

Charles Street, 67

Chatterton, Thomas, 57, 70

Church Street, 21

Churches: Christ Church, 24 City Temple, 54 St. Andrew's, 54 St. Ethelreda's Chapel, 64 St. George the Martyr, 83 St. George's, Bloomsbury, 94 St. Giles's, 8, 14 St. John the Evangelist's, 79 St. Peter's, 68 Moravian Chapel, 51 Trinity Church, 30

Cibber, Colley, 93

Clare House, 26

Clifford's Inn, 45

Coal Yard, 19, 25

Cope, Sir Walter, 14

Cobham, Lord, 19

Cock and Pye, The, 22

Cockpit, 25

Coke, Sir Edward, 62

College of Preceptors, 93

Craven House, 26

Croche Hose, 8

Cromwell, Oliver, 78

Cromwell, Richard, 43

Cromwell, Thomas, 76

Cross Street, 67

Cursitor Street, 45

De Luda, Bishop, 60

Denmark Street, 18

Dickens, Charles, 48

Digby, Sir Kenelm, 6

Disraeli, Benjamin, 81

D'Israeli, Isaac, 93

Donne, John, 40

Drury Lane, 25

Dudley, Duchess of, 14

Dyers' Buildings, 49

Dyott Street, 20

Earl Street, 24

Edward III. , 11

Egerton, Lord Keeper, 43

Emery, 58

Endell Street, 24

Ely Place, 60

Eyre Street, 71

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 27

Fetter Lane, 51

Fickett's Field, 31

Field Lane, 67

Fleur-de-Lys Court, 52

Florio, 58

Franklin, Benjamin, 29

Freemasons' Hall, 27

Furnival's Inn, 48

Furnival Street, 48

Gate Street, 30

George and Blue Boar, 3

Gerarde, 5

Gloucester Street, 81

Goldsmith Street, 25

Gordon Riots, 51, 93

Gray's Inn, 72

Gray, Thomas, 94

Great and Little Turnstile, 30

Great Coram Street, 98

Great Ormond Street, 84

Great Queen Street, 27

Great Russell Street, 97

Gresham, Sir T. , 77

Greville, Fulke, 6

Guildford, Lord Keeper, 46

Gunpowder Alley, 58

Gwynne, Nell, 25, 26

Hale, Sir Matthew, 43

Hanway, Jonas, 79

Hare and Hounds, 9

Hatton Garden, 60, 66

Hatton, Sir Christopher, 61

Hatton Wall, 69

Hazlitt, 97

Henry II. , 10

Henry VIII. , 11

Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 17, 27

Herring, Bishop, 40

High Street, 19

Hockley Hole, 71

Hogarth, 8

Hoggarty, Haggart, 20

Holborn, 3

Holborn Baths, 19

Holborn, Borough of, 1

Holborn Bridge, 5

Holborn Circus, 53

Holborn Hill, 4

Holborn Music Hall, 30

Holborn Restaurant, 30

Holborn Town Hall, 72

Holborn Viaduct, 54

Homoeopathic Hospital, 85

Hoole, 27

Hospital for Paralysis, 82

Hospital for Sick Children, 85

Hyde, Chief Justice, 46

Inns of Court Hotel, 33

Irving, Edward, 67

Italian Hospital, 83

Johnson, Dr. , 6

Jonson, Ben, 42

Kemble, 97

Kemble Street, 29

Kingsgate Street, 80

Kingsway, 2, 29

Kirkby, Bishop, 60

Kirkby Street, 67

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 27

Kniveton, Lady Frances, 16

Kynaston, 25

Lamb, Mary, 30

Lamb's Conduit Street, 86

Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 92

Leather Lane, 69

Le Lane, 21

Lenthall, 43

L'Estrange, Roger, 17

Lilly, 58

Lincoln, Earl of, 37

Lincoln's Inn, 36

Lincoln's Inn Fields, 31

Lindsey House, 34

Lisle, Viscount, 11

Little Queen Street, 29

Little Russell Street, 96

Long Fields, 90

Lord Chancellor's House, 98

Lovelace, 58

Lovell, Sir Thomas, 37

Lying-in Hospital, 24

Macaulay, Zachary, 86

Mackworth, Dr. John, 50

Manor House, 13, 18

Marsden, William, 56

Marshlands, 9, 22

Marvell, Andrew, 16, 17

Mathews, Charles, 97

Matilda, Queen, 10

Maurice, Rev. F. D. , 85, 92

Mead, Dr. , 84

Mercers' School, 49

Meux's Brewery, 97

Middle Row, 3, 49

Milton, 6, 79

Monmouth Street, 21

Montague House, 87

More, Sir Thomas, 6, 37, 43, 48

Morland, 71

Morris, William, 80

Mudie's Library, 96

Nelson, Robert, 81

Newcastle House, 34

New Compton Street, 21

New Oxford Street, 9, 96

Nisbett, Canon, 16

Nottingham, Earl of, 27

Novelty Theatre, 29

O'Connell, 58

Old Bell, 70

"Old Bourne" 2

Old Curiosity Shop, 35

Onslow, Speaker, 97

Opie, John, 27

Pendrell, Richard, 17

Pepys, 26

Pindar, Peter, 27

Portpool Lane, 70

Portsmouth House, 35

Powis, Duke of, 34

Powis House, 84

Pugin, 97

Queen Square, 81

Queen Street, 24

Raymond, Lord, 80

Red Lion Square, 78

Romilly, Sir S. , 77, 92

Rose, The, 4

Rosebery Avenue, 71

Royal College of Surgeons, 35

Royal Mews, 87

Royal Society, 52

Russell Institution, 99

Russell, Lord, 32, 45

Russell Square, 91

Sacheverell, 6, 56

St. Andrew's Street, 24, 53

St. Giles's Burial-ground, 17

St Giles's Hospital, 10

St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Parish of, 6

St. James's Street, 77

Sardinia Street, 29

Savage, Robert, 57

Scrope's Inn, 59

Serjeants' Inn, 45

Seven Dials, 7, 23

Shaftesbury Avenue, 9, 21

Shakespeare, 77

Shelley, Percy, 97

Sheridan, 27

Shirley, 17

Shoe Lane, 58

Short's Gardens, 24

Sidmouth, Viscount, 78

Silver Street, 94

Sloane, Sir Hans, 93

Soane Museum, 34

Southampton Buildings, 46

Southampton House, 90

Southampton Row, 94

Southampton Street, 93

Staple Inn, 46, 47

Steele, Sir Richard, 93

Stiddolph Street, 21

Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, 56

Stratford, Lord, 46

Strange, Sir Robert, 27

Stukeley, Dr. , 83

Swan Distillery, 50

Swan on the Hop, 8

Thackeray, 99

Thanet House, 97

Thavie's Inn, 53

Theobald's Road, 81

Thomson, Bishop, 40

Thurlow, Lord, 85

Tonson, Jacob, 46, 77

Toten Hall, 97

Tottenham Court Road, 97

Turk's Head, The, 20

Turner, Sharon, 80

Tyburn procession, 8, 18

Vine Inn, 80

Walton, Izaak, 46

Warburton, Bishop, 78

Webster, John, 57

Wedderburn, Alexander, 92

Wesley, 51

Whetstone Park, 30

Whiston, 67

Whitefield, 51

White Hart, The, 8, 26

White Horse Inn, 50

White Lion Street, 24

Wild House, 29

Wild Street, Great, 29

Wilkes, 59

Woburn Square, 98

Wolsey, Cardinal, 37

Working Men's College, 85

Worlidge, Thomas, 27

Wren, Sir Christopher, 97

Wriothesley, 57

Zinzendorf, Count, 52

THE END

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BILLING AND SONS, LTD. , PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

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[Illustration: HOLBORN DISTRICT

Published by A. & C. Black, London. ]

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Transcriber's Notes

The following errors in the original text have been corrected:

Page 89: In then became changed to It then became

Page 103: Bambridge Street, 21 changed to Bainbridge Street, 21