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THE FLEET.
VIEW OF MOUTH OF THE fleet circa 1765. (Guildhall Art Collection)
[Frontispiece.
Cfje tflztt
ITS RIVER, PRISON, AND MARRIAGES
BY
JOHN ASHTON
(Author of " Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne" " Dawn of the Nineteenth Century," &c, &c, &c.)
ILLUSTRATED BY
PICTURES FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS
POPULAR EDITION.
LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN
26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
MDCCCLXXXIX
J>0
p/tM
PREFACE.
THIS book requires none, except a mere statement of its scheme. Time has wrought such changes in this land of ours, and especially in its vast Metro- polis, cc The Modern Babylon," that the old land-marks are gradually being effaced — and in a few generations would almost be forgotten, were it not that some one noted them, and left their traces for future perusal. All have some little tale to tell ; even this little River Fleet, which with its Prison, and its Marriages — are things utterly of the past, entirely swept away, and impossible to resuscitate, except by such a record as this book.
I have endeavoured, by searching all available sources of information, to write a trustworthy history of my subject — and, at the same time, make it a pleasant book for the general reader. If I have succeeded in my aim, thanks are due, and must be given, to W. H. Overall, Esq., F.S.A., and Charles Welch, Esq., Librarians to the Corporation of the City of London, whose friendship, and kindness, have enabled me to complete my pleasant
vi Preface.
task. It was at their suggestion that I came upon a veritable trouvaille, in the shape of a box containing Mr. Anthony Crosby's Collection for a History of the Fleet, which was of most material service to me, espe- cially in the illustrations, most of which were by his own hand.
I must also express my gratitude to J. E. Gardner, Esq., F.S.A., for his kindness in putting his magnificent and unrivalled Collection of Topographical Prints at my disposal, and also to J. G. Waller, Esq., F.S.A., for his permission to use his map of the Fleet River (the best of any I have seen), for the benefit of my readers.
JOHN ASHTON.
CONTENTS.
Zbc IRtver-
CHAPTER I.
Course of the Fleet — Derivation of its Name — The River of Wells — The Fleet choked up — Cleansing the Fleet — The Fleet Navigable — Wells — Ponds and Pools
CHAPTER II.
Water Supply of London — The Fleet to be Cleansed — Smell of the River — Prehistoric London — Antiquarian Dis- coveries— Cleansing the Fleet — Fouling the River — Rivers rising at Hampstead — The Tye-bourne — The West-bourne — Course of the West-bourne
CHAPTER III.
Course of the Fleet — The Hampstead Ponds — Rural Fleet — Gospel Oak — Parliament Hill — Kentish Town — Brown's Dairy — Castle Inn — St. Pancras Wells — Burials at St. Pancras — the Brill ... ... ... ... ... 25
viii Contents.
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
Battle Bridge — King's Cross — The Dust-heaps — St. Chad's
Well— St. Chad's Well-water 41
CHAPTER V.
Medicinal Waters — Spas — The White Conduit — White Con- duit House — White Conduit Gardens ... ... ... 55
CHAPTER VI.
Sadler's Discovery — Miles's Musick House — A Man Eats a Live Cock, &c. — Forcer, the Proprietor — Macklin on Sadler's Wells— Actors at Sadler's Wells— The Pindar of Wakefield 71
CHAPTER VII.
Black Mary's Hole" — Its Disappearance — Bagnigge Wells — Nell Gwyn's Houses — Bagnigge House ... ... 81
CHAPTER VIII.
Bagnigge Wells — The Organist — Different Proprietors —
" Punch " on Bagnigge Wells — Decadence of the Wells 91
103
CHAPTER IX. Cold Bath Fields Prison
CHAPTER X.
The "Cold Bath"— Cold Baths— Sir John Oldcastle— Archery — Tea Gardens — Small Pox Hospital — The Pantheon — Lady Huntingdon's Chapel — Lady Huntingdon... ... 115
Contents. ix
CHAPTER XI.
PAGE
The Spencean System — Orator Hunt — Riot in the City —
Riots — End of the Riots ... ... ... ... ... 131
CHAPTER XII.
Fighting — Hockley-in-the-Hole — Bear Baiting — Bear Gardens
— Bull Baiting — Sword Play ... ... ... ... 141
CHAPTER XIII.
Mount Pleasant — Saffron Hill — Old House in West Street —
Fagin — Field Lane — Thieves ... ... ... ... 157
CHAPTER XIV.
Bleeding Hart Yard — Ely Place — John of Gaunt — Ely Chapel
— Turnmill Brook — The Fleet — Holborn Bridge M. 1 67
CHAPTER XV.
Lamb's Conduit — Clerkenwell — Fleet Market — Rye-House
Plot— Fleet Bridge 183
CHAPTER XVI.
Alderman Waithman — John Wilkes — Ludgate Prison — Sir
Stephen Foster ... ... ... ... ... ... 197
CHAPTER XVII.
Bridewell — Montfichet Castle — Fuller on Bridewell — Ward on Bridewell — Howard on Bridewell — Bridewell Prison The City and Apprentices — Mother Cresswell — Bride- well Court Room ... ... ... ... ... ... 209
CHAPTER XVIII.
Alsatia — Whitefriars — Deaths in the Fleet — Ben Jonson and
the Fleet ... ... ... ... ... ... - ... 227
Contents.
Zbe fleet prison*
CHAPTER XIX.
PAGE
History of the Fleet Prison — Female Wardens — Settlement of Fees — Liberty of Prisoners — Filthy State of the Fleet — A Quarrelsome Knight — Preference for the Fleet Prison — Sir John Falstaff— Cardinal Wolsey 233
CHAPTER XX.
Prisoners — Puritans — Bibliography of Fleet Prison — A
Warden's Troubles 247
CHAPTER XXI.
The Warden of the Fleet — Purchase of Wardenship — Bad Discipline — Boundaries of the Fleet — Preference for the Fleet „. — 259
CHAPTER XXII.
Complaints of the Warden — The Warden keeps Corpses — Huggins and Bambridge — Castell — The First Prisoner in Irons — Acquittal of Huggins and Bambridge — Bam- bridge and his Prisoners — Chapel in the Fleet Bagging 269
CHAPTER XXIII. Admission to the Fleet Prison — The Humours of the Fleet ... 283
CHAPTER XXIV.
Garnish — The " Common Side " — Howard's Report — Regu- lations of the Prison — Gordon Riots — Burning of the Fleet Prison — Fleet Prison Rebuilt — The "Bare" — Racket Masters — A Whistling Shop — A Mock Election " Dum Vivimus, Fivamus" — Number of Prisoners — De- stitution ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 297
Contents. xi
CHAPTER XXV.
Escape of Prisoners — A Gang of Forgers — Abolition of Im- prisonment for Debt — Prisoners Object to move — Op- position to Removal — " The Last Days of the Fleet " — Sale of the Fleet Prison — Begging Grate — Richard Oastler •.. ... ... ... ... .►.. ... 31
3fleet flDarriagee,
CHAPTER XXVI.
Illegal Marriages — Cost of Marriages — Peculiars — Suppression of Irregular Marriages — A Fleet Parson's Reflections — Fleet Parsons — An Heiress Married ... ... ... 331
CHAPTER XXVII.
John Gaynam — The Bishop of Hell — Edward Ashwell — John
Floud — Walter Wyatt ... 343
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Lilleys — Fleet Parsons — Parson Keith ... ... ... 355
CHAPTER XXIX.
"The Bunter's Wedding" — Fleet Parsons — Exchange of
Wives — Singular Marriage — Irregular Marriage ... 367
CHAPTER XXX.
A Runaway Marriage — Fortunes Married — Illegal Marriage — Fleet Marriage Registers — Extracts from Registers — End of Marriages... ... ... ... ... ... 379
INDEX
39*
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE VIEW OF THE MOUTH OF THE FLEET ... ... Frontispiece
shepherd's WELL, HAMPSTEAD... ... ... ... ... 22
the fleet, kentish town ... ... ... ... 28
view of the valley of the fleet and highgate church,
from fortess terrace, kentish town, sept. 28, 1 845 ... 29 the fleet at kentish town ... ... ... ... 30, 3 1
old house, kentish town, supposed to have been nell
gwynne's the fleet at kentish town browne^ dairy farm, sept.
"• l833
CASTLE, KENTISH TOWN ROAD, 1 848 ...
THE BRILL
BATTLE BRIDGE
DUST HEAP AT BATTLE BRIDGE
st. chad's WELL
THE WHITE CONDUIT
STONE IN THE WHITE CONDUIT
WHITE CONDUIT GARDENS (INTERIOR)
„ „ „ (exterior)
THE PINDAR OF WAKEFIELD
BAGNIGGE HOUSE
BAGNIGGE WELLS, NEAR BATTLE BRIDGE, ISLINGTON
33
34
.. 36
38
4*> 43, 44
47
.. 51
56, 64
•• 59 66
.. 67
79
.. 86
89
xiv List of Illustrations.
PAGE
92
a view taken from the center bridge in the gardens of
bagnigge wells waiter from the bread and butter 'manufactory ; or, the
humours of bagnigge wells ... ... ... 93
the bread and butter manufactory ; or, the humours of
bagnigge wells ... ... ... ... ... 93
a bagnigge wells scene ; or, no resisting temptation ... 94
the bagnigge organist ... ... ... ... ... 95
the ancient river fleet, at clerkenwell, 1 825 ... io4
south view of the cold baths ... ... ... l\j
the smallpox hospital in cold bath fields ... ... 122
view of northampton or spa fields chapel, with the
countess of huntingdon's house adjoining ... ... 1 23
fagin, the jew ... ... ... ... ... ... 163
field lane negotiations ; or, a specimen of " fine drawing " i 64
ely house i784... ... ... ... ... ... i73
holborn bridge ... ... ... ... 1 7 5, 1 76, 1 80
end of holborn bridge, taken from the south, and part of
holborn hill, june 2, 1 84o ... ... ... 1 79
lamb's conduit, snow hill ... ... ... ... 185
fleet market, from holborn bridge ... ... ... i9o
bridewell bridge... ... ... ... ... ... 211
women beating hemp ... ... ... ... ... 2i7
pass room, bridewell, 1 808 ... ... ... ... 2i9
the arrest ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 232
bambridge ... ... ... ... ... ... 277
a prisoner in irons ... ... ... ... ... ... 278
the common side of the fleet prison .;. ... 282
the fleet prison ... ... ... ... ... 284, 3oo
enforcing garnish ... ... ... ... ... 298
rackets in the fleet prison, i760 ... ... ... 307
racket ground ... ... ... ... ... ... 308
a whistling shop in the fleet, l82i ... ... 3io, 3ii
the evening after a mock election in the fleet prison 3i3 autograph done at the parlour no. i, palais de la flete,
this 24 day june ... ... ... ... ... 31$
farringdon street and the fleet prison ... ... 326
ground plan of fleet prison ... ... ... ... $%j
List of Illustrations.
xv
SECTION OF THE PRISON ...
EXTERIOR OF THE GRATE
A FLEET PARSON ...
A FLEET WEDDING
THE SAILOR'S FLEET WEDDING ENTERTAINMENT
327 328
339
366
368
The Fleet :
3t0 Etoet, prison, anD ogatriaps.
CHAPTER L
ONLY a little tributary to the Thames, the River Fleet, generally, and ignominiously, called the Fleet Ditch, yet it is historically interesting, not only on account of the different places through which its murmuring stream meandered, almost all of which have some story of their own to tell, but the reminis- cences of its Prison stand by themselves — pages of history, not to be blotted out, but to be recorded as valuable in illustration of the habits, and customs, of our forefathers.
The City of London, in its early days, was well supplied with water, not only by the wells dug near houses, or by the public springs, some of which still exist, as Aldgate Pump, &c, and the River Thames;
2
1 Course of the Fleet.
but, when its borders increased, the Walbrook was utilized, as well as the Fleet, and, later on, the Tye- bourne, or twin brook, which fell into the Thames at Westminster. In the course of time these rivulets became polluted, land was valuable ; they were covered over, and are now sewers. The course of the Fleet being clearly traceable in the depression of Farringdon Street, and the windings of the Tyebourne in the somewhat tortuous Marylebone Lane (so called from the Chapel of St. Mary, which was on the banks of Cf le bourne/' or the brook1). Its further course is kept in our memory by Brook Street, Hanover Square.
The name of this little river has exercised many minds, and has been the cause of spoiling much good paper. My own opinion, backed by many antiquaries, is that a Fleet means a brook, or tributary to a larger river, which is so wide, and deep, at its junction with the greater stream as to be navigable for the small craft then in use, for some little distance. Thus, we have the names on the Thames of Purfleet, Northfleet, and Southfleet, and the same obtains in other places. Its derivation seems to be Saxon — at least, for our language. Thus, in Bosworth's " Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language/' we find, " Flede-Fledu : part. Flooded; overflowed: tumidus2: Tiber fledu wear$3 — the Tiber was flooded (Ors. 4. 7)."
1 The name of this church has been Latinized as " Sancta Maria de Ossibus"!
2 Swollen.
3 The real quotation in Orosius is "pa weaic) Tiber seo tk swa fledu."
Derivation of its Name. 3
Again, the same author gives : cc Fleot {Plat fleet, m. a small river; Ger. flethe. f. a channel). A place where vessels float, a bay, gulf, an arm of the sea, the mouth of a river, a river ; hence the names of places, as Northfleet, Southfleet, Kent; and in London, Fleet ditch; sinus.1 Soes Fleot, a bay of the sea.2 Bd.
1. 34-"
Another great Anglo-Saxon scholar — Professor Skeat, in <c An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language " : " Fleet, a creek, bay. In the names North-fleet, Fleet Street, &c. Fleet Street was so named from the Fleet Ditch ; and fleet was given to any shallow creek, or stream, or channel of water. See Halliwell. M.E. fleet (Promptorium Parvulorum, &c, p. 166). A.S. fleot, a bay of the sea, as in Sees Fleot, bay of the sea. Alfred's tr. of Becia, i. 34.2 After- wards applied to any channel or stream, especially if shallow. The original sense was c a place where vessels float/ and the derivation is from the old verb fleet, to float, &c."
The French, too, have a cognate term, especially in Norman towns, as Barfleur, Honfleur, Harfleur, &c, which were originally written Barbe^?/, Wuneflot, and Hare/7^/ : and these were sometimes written Hareflou, Huneflou, and Barfleu, which latter comes very near to
1 A bag, or purse, a fold of a garment ; a bay, bight, or gulf.
2 I cannot find this quotation in " Bcedoe Historia Ecclesiastica," &c., in any edition I have seen, but in 1.33. I do find Amfleet, and in John Smith's edition (Cambridge, 1722) as a note to Amr-lecc, he says, " Vulgo Ambleteau or Ambleteuse, about 2 miles north of Boulogne."
4 The River of Wells.
the Latin flevus, called by Ptolemy fleus, and by Mela fletio. Again, in Brittany many names end in pleu, or plou, which seems to be very much like the Greek 7r\€(o : fully swollen, which corresponds to our Anglo-Saxon Flede ; Dutch Vliet.
But it has another, and a very pretty name, " The River of Wells," from the number of small tribu- taries that helped to swell its stream, and from the wells which bordered its course ; such as Sadler's Wells, Bagnigge Wells, White Conduit, Coldbath, Lamb's Conduit, Clerkenwell — all of which (although all were not known by those names in Stow's times) were in existence.
Stow, in his "Survey of London" (ed. 1603, his last edition, and which consequently has his best corrections), says —
" Riuer of That the riuer of Wels in the west parte a els, of the Citty, was of olde so called of the
Wels, it may be proued thus, William the Conqueror in his Charter to the Colledge of S. Marten le Grand in London, hath these wordes : I doe giue and graunt to the same Church all the land and the Moore, without the Posterne, which is called Cripplegate, on eyther part of the Postern, that is to say, from the North corner of the Wall, as the riuer of the Wels, there neare running, de- parteth the same More from the Wall, vnto the running water which entereth the Cittie ; this water hath beene long since called the
The Fleet Choked Up. r
riuer of the Wels, which name of riuer
continued, and it was so called in the raigne
of Edward the first ; as shall bee shewed, with Decay of the
also the decay of the saide riuer. In a fayre ^rue,r °f the
Booke of Parliament recordes, now lately
restored to the Tower,1 it appeareth that a
Parliament being holden at Carlile in the ?arllamcni
yeare 1307, the 35 of Edward the I. Henry
Lacy Earle of Lincolne, complayned that
whereas, in times past the course of water,
running at London vnder Olde bourne bridge,
and Fleete bridge into the Thames, had beene
of such bredth and depth, that 10 or 12 D. r
1 • XT • -1 1 ~ V RlUer °f
snips, JNauies at once with marcnadises, were wdsbare wot to come to the foresaid bridge of Fleete, shlPs- and some of them to Oldborne bridge : now the same course by filth of the Tanners & such others, was sore decaied ; also by raising of wharfes, but specially by a diversio of the waters made by them of the new Temple, for Patent their milles standing without Baynardes Castle. Record.
, r c v cs 7 j j • Mils by
in the first yeare or Iving johny and diuers Baynards other impediments, so as the said ships could Castel, made not enter as they were wont, & as they u^j0fJJ ought, wherefore he desired that the Maior of London, with the shi riffs, and other discrete Aldermen, might be appointed to view the course of the saide water, and that by the othes
1 The Records were kept in the Tower, and at the Rolls Office, in a very neglected state, until they were removed to the present Record Office in Fetter Lane.
6 Cleansing the Fleet.
of good men, nil the aforesaide hinderances might he remoued, and it to bee made as it was wont of old : wherupon Roger le Bra- bazon, the Constable of the Tower, with the Maior and Shiriffes, were assigned to take with them honest and discrete men, and to make diligent search and enquirie, how the said riuer was in old time, and that they leaue nothing that may hurt or stop it, but keepe it in the same estate that it was wont to be. So far the record. Wherupon it folowed that the said riuer was at that time cleansed, these mils remoued, and other things done for the preseruation of the course thereof, not with- standing neuer brought to the olde depth and breadth, whereupon the name of riuer ceased, Turnemill and was since called a Brooke, namely Turn- mill or Tremill Brooke, for that diuers Mils were erected vpon it, as appeareth by a fayre Register booke, conteyning the foundation of the Priorie at Clarkenwell, and donation of the landes thereunto belonging, as also by diners other records.
"This brooke hath beene diuers times since clensed, namely, and last of all to any effect, in the yeare 1502 the 17th of Henrie the 7. the whole course of Fleete dike, then so called, was scowred (I say) downe to the Thames, so that boats with fish and fewel were lowed to Fleete bridge, and to Oldburne bridge, as they of olde time had beene accus-
Tfe Fleet Navigable. 7
tomed, which was a great commoditie to al! the inhabitants in that part of the Citie.
<c In the yeare j 589, was granted a flfteene, by a common Councell of the citie, for the cleansing of this Brooke or dike : the money „, amounting to a thousand marks collected, and promised to it was undertaken, that, by drawing diuerse he clewed; springes about Hampsted heath, into one head coifauF and and Course, both the citie should be serued of the citizens fresh water in all places of want, and also that decelued- by such a follower, as men call it, the channell of this brooke should be scowred into the riuer of Thames ; but much mony being therein spent, ye effect fayled, so that the Brooke by meanes of continuall incrochments vpon the banks getting ouer the water, and casting of soylage into the streame, is now become woorse cloyed and that euer it was before."
From this account of Stow's we find that the stream of the Fleet, although at one time navigable, had ceased to be so in his time, but we see, by the frontispiece, which is taken from a painting (in the Guildhall Art Gallery) by Samuel Scot, 1770 (?) that the mouth of the Fleet river, or ditch, call it which you like, was still, not only navigable, but a place of great resort for light craft.
The name <c River of Wells " is easily to be under- stood, if we draw again upon Stow, who, in treating of " Auncient and present Riuers, Brookes, Booms, Pooles,
8 Wells.
Wels, and Conduits of fresh water seruing the Citie,"
&c, says —
cc Aunciently, vntill the Conquerors time, and 200 yeres after, the Citie of London was watered besides the famous Riuer of Thames on the South part ; with the riuer of the wels, as it was then called, on the west ; with water called Walbrooke running through the midst of the citie into the riuer of Thames, seruing the heart thereof. And with a fourth water or Boorne, which ran within the Citie through Langboorne ward, watering that part in the East. In the west suburbs was also another great water, called Oldborne, which had his fall into the riuer of Wels : then was there 3 principall Fountaines or wels in the other Suburbs, to wit, Holy Well, Clements Well, and Clarkes Well. Neare vnto this last named fountaine were diuers other wels, to wit, Skinners Wei, Fags Wei, Loders Wei, and Rad Well ; All which sayde Wels, hauing the fall of their ouerflowing in the foresayde Riuer, much encreased the streame, and in that place gaue it the name of Wei. In west Smithfield, there was a Poole in Recordes called Horsepoole, and one other Poole neare vnto the parish Church of Saint Giles without Cripplegate. Besides all which they had in euerie streete and Lane of the citie diuerse fayre Welles and fresh Springs ; and, after this manner was this citie then serued with sweete and fresh waters, which being since decaid, other means haue beene sought to supplie the want."
Here, then, we have a list of Wells, which are, to-
Wells. 9
gether with those I have already mentioned, quite suffi- cient to account for the prettier name of the tc River of Wells." Of these wells Stow writes in his deliciously- quaint phraseology : —
" There are (saith Fitzstephen) neare London, on the North side special wels in the Fitzstepken Suburbs, sweete, wholesome, and cleare, Hob ™dl- amongst which Holy well, Clarices wel, and Clements wel are most famous, and fre- quented by Scholers, and youthes of the Cittie in sommer evenings, when they walke forthe to take the aire.
" The first, to wit, Holy well, is much de- cayed, and marred with filthinesse laide there, for the heightening of the ground for garden plots.
" The fountaine called S. Clements well, elements North from the Parish Church of S. Clements, clvelL and neare vnto an Inne of Chancerie, called Clements Inne, is faire curbed square with hard stone, kept cleane for common vse, and is alwayes full.
" The third is called Clarkes well, or Clark- ciarhs well enwell,1 and is curbed about square with hard stone, not farre from the west ende of Clark- enwell Church, but close without the wall that incloseth it ; the sayd Church tooke the name of the Well, and the Well tooke the name of the Parish Clarkes in London, who
1 This is the only one left whose position is a matter of certainty.
IO
Wells.
at Clarks
well.
Players at the Skinners <well
of old time were accustomed there yearely to Playesbythe assemble, and to play some large hystorie
Parish Clarks r u 1 C ' • * ajt i £
or holy scripture. And, for example, or later time, to wit, in the yeare 1390, the 14 of Richard the Second, I read the Parish Clarks of London, on the 1 8 of July, playd Enter- ludes at Skinners well, neare vnto Clarkes well, which play continued three dayes togither, the King, Queene, and Nobles being present. Also the yeare 1409, the 10 of Henrie the 4. they played a play at the Skinners well, which lasted eight dayes, and was of matter from the creation of the worlde. There were to see the same, the most part of the Nobles and Gentiles in England, &c.
" Other smaller welles were many neare vnto Clarkes well, namely Skinners well, so called for that the Skinners of London held there certaine playes yearely playd of holy Scripture, &c. In place whereof the wrestlings haue of later yeares beene kept, and is in part con- tinued at Bartholomew tide.
" Then was there Fagges well, neare vnto Smithfield by the Charterhouse, now lately dammed vp, Tod well, Loders well, and Rad well, all decayed, and so filled vp, that there places are hardly now discerned.
cc Somewhat North from Holy well is one other well curbed square with stone, and is called Dame Annis the Cleave, and not farre from it, but somewhat west, is also one other
Skinners well.
IV resiling - place.
Fagges --well.
Ponds and Pools. ii
cleare water called Perillous pond* because diuerse youthes by swimming therein haue beene drowned; and thus much bee said for Fountaines and Wels.
"Horse poole in JVestsmithfield, was some- time a great water, and because the inhabitants in that part of the Citie did there water their Horses, the same was, in olde Recordes, called Horspoole, it is now much decayed, the springs being stopped vp, and the land waters falling into the small bottome, remayning inclosed, withBricke, is called Smithfield pond.
" By S. Giles Churchyard was a large water, called a Poole. I read in the year 1 244 that p00k <withoui Anne of Lodburie was drowned therein ; Cripplegate. this poole is now for the most part stopped vp, but the spring is preserued, and was cooped about with stone by the Executors of R ichard Wittington . ' '
1 Afterwards known as " Peerless Pool," an unmeaning cog- nomen.
CHAPTER II.
LONDON, for its size, was indeed very well supplied with water, although, of course, it was not laid on to every house, as now, but, with the exception of those houses provided with wells, it had to be fetched from fixed public places, which were fairly numerous. When the waters of the. Fleet, and Wallbrook, in the pro- cess of time, became contaminated, Henry III., in the 2 1 st year of his reign (1236), granted to the Citizens of London the privilege of conveying the waters of the Tye-bourne through leaden pipes to the City, " for the poore to drinke, and the rich to dresse their meate." And it is only a few years since, that close by what is now called " Sedley Place," Oxford Street, but which used to be the old hunting lodge of bygone Lord Mayors, some of these very pipes were unearthed, a fine cistern being uncovered at the same time.
For public use there were the great Conduit in West
14 Water Supply of London.
Cheape : the Tonne or Tun in Cornhill, fountains at Billingsgate, at Paul's Wharf, and St. Giles', Cripplegate, and conduits at Aldermanbury, the Standard in Fleet Street, Gracechurch Street, Holborn Cross (afterwards Lamb's Conduit), at the Stocks Market (where the Mansion House now stands), Eishopsgate, London Wall, Aldgate, Lothbury — and this without reckoning the supply furnished from the Thames by the enter- prising German, or Dutchman, Pieter Moritz, who in 1582 started the famous waterworks close to where Fishmongers' Hall now stands.
The Fleet river (I prefer that title to the other cog- nomen, " Ditch "), flowing through London, naturally became somewhat befouled, and in Henry the VII. 's time, circa 1502, it was cleansed, so that, as aforesaid, cc boats with fish and fewel were rowed to Fleete bridge, and to Oldburne bridge." We also know, as Stow records, that more springs were introduced into the stream from Hampstead, without effect, either as to deepening or purifying the river, which had an evil reputation even in the time of Edward I., as we see in Ryley's " Placita Parliamentaria " (ed. t66i), p. 340 —
liAd peticionem Com. Lincoln, querentis quod cum cur- sus aque, que currit apud London sub Ponte de Holeburny & Ponte de Fleete usque in Thamisiam solebat ita largus & latus esse, ac profundus, quod decern Naves vel duodecim ad predictum Pontem de Fleete cum diversis rebus & mercandisis solebant venire, & quedam illarum Navium sub illo Ponte transire, usque ad predictum Pontem de Holeburn ad predictum cursum mundanmum
The Fleet to be Cleansed. 15
& simos exinde cariand, nunc ille cursus per fordes & inundaciones Taunatorum & p varias perturbaciones in predicta aqua, factas & maxime per exaltationem Caye & diversionem aque quam ipsi de Novo Templo fecerunt ad Molendina sua extra Castra Baignard, quod Naves predicte minime intrare possunt sicut solebant, & facere debeant &c unde supplicat quod Maior de London assumptis secum Vice com. & discretionbus Aldermannis cursum predce aque videat, & quod per visum & sacrm proborum & legalium hominum faciat omnia nocumenta predicte aque que invinerit ammovere & reparare cursum predictum, & ipsum in tali statu manutenere in quo antiquitus esse solebat &c. Ita responsum est, Assignen- tur Rogerus le Brabazon & Const abularius Turris, London Maior & Vice Com. London, quod ipsi assumptit secum discretionibus Aldermannis London, £fiV., inquirant per sacramentum £sJV., qualiter fieri consuevit & qualis cursus. Et necumenta que invenerint ammoveant & manueri faciant in eadem statu quo antiquitus esse solebat"
Latin for which a modern schoolboy would get soundly rated, or birched, but which tells us that even as far back as Edward I. the Fleet river was a nuisance ; and as the endorsement (Patent Roll 35 Edward I.) shows — <c De cursu aquas de Fleta supervivendo et corrigendo," i.e., that the Fleet river should be looked after and amended, But the Commission issued to perfect this work was discontinued, owing to the death of the king. (Patent Roll 1 Edward II., pars 1. m. dorso.) <c De Cursu Aquas Flete, &c, reducend et impedimenta removend."
16 Smell of the River.
And Prynne, in his edition of Cotton's cc Records " (ed. 1669, p. 188), asks <c whether such a commission and inquiry to make this river navigable to Holborn Bridge or Clerkenwell, would not now be seasonable, and a work worthy to be undertaken for the public benefit, trade, and health of the City and Suburbs, I humbly submit to the wisdom and judgment of those whom it most Concerns. "
So that it would appear, although otherwise stated, that the Fleet was not navigable in May, 1669, tnedate of the publication of Prynne's book.
As a matter of fact it got to be neither more nor less than an open sewer, to which the lines in Coleridge's "Table Talk" would well apply —
In Coin, that town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang'd with murderous stones,
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches,
I counted two-and-seventy stenches ;
All well-defined and genuine stinks !
Ye nymphs, that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash the City of Cologne ;
But, tell me, nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the River Rhine ? "
The smell of the Fleet river was notorious ; so much so, that Farquhar, in his Sir Harry Wildair, act ii., says, i: Dicky ! Oh ! I was just dead of a Consumption, till the sweet smoke of Ckeapside, and. the dear perfume of Fleet Ditch made me a man again ! " In Queen Anne's time, too, it bore an evil reputation : vide The
Prehistoric London. 17
Tatler (No. 238, October 17, 17 10) by Steele and Swift. 1
" Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow, And bear their trophies with them as they go : Filth of all hues and odours seem to tell What street they saiPd from, by their sight and smell. They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force, From Smithfield or St. Pulchre's shape their course, And in huge confluent join'd at Snow Hill ridge, Fall from the Conduit, prone to Holborn Bridge. Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood, Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud, Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood."
We get a glimpse of prehistoric London, and the valley of the Fleet, in Gough's cc British Topography," vol. i. p. 719 (ed. 1780). Speaking of John Conyers, <c apothecary, one of the first Collectors of antiquities, especially those relating to London, when the City was rebuilding. . . . He inspected most of the gravel-pits near town for different sorts and shapes of stones. In one near the sign of Sir J. Oldcastle, about 1680, he discovered the skeleton of an elephant, which he supposed had lain there only since the time of the Romans, who, in the reign of Claudius, fought the Britons near this place, according to Selden's notes on the Polyolbion. In the same pit he found the head of a British spear of flint, afterwards in the hands of Dr. Charlett, and engraved in Bagford's letter." We, now-a-days, with our more accurate knowledge of
x "Journal to Stella, October 17, 1710 — "This day came out The Tatler, made up wholly of my Shower, and a preface to it. They say it is the best thing I ever writ, and I think so too."
3
1 8 Antiquarian Discoveries.
Geology and Palaeontology, would have ascribed a far higher ancestry to the "elephant."
As a matter of course, a little river like the Fleet must have become the receptacle of many articles, which, once dropped in its waters, could not be recovered ; so that it is not surprising to read in the Mirror of March 22, 1834 (No. 653, p. 180), an account of antiquarian discoveries therein, which, if not archaeo- logically correct, is at least interesting.
" In digging this Canal between Fleet Prison and Holborn Bridge, several Roman utensils were lately dis- covered at the depth of 1 5 feet ; and a little deeper, a great quantity of Roman Coins, in silver, brass, copper, and all other metals except gold. Those of silver were ring money, of several sizes, the largest about the bigness of a Crown, but gradually decreasing ; the smallest were about the size of a silver Twopence, each having a snip at the edge. And at Holborn Bridge were dug up two brazen lares, or household gods, about four inches in length, which were almost incrusted with a petrified matter : one of these was Bacchus, and the other Ceres ; but the coins lying at the bottom of the current, their lustre was in a great measure preserved, by the water incessantly washing off the ^pxydizing metal. Probably the great quantity of coin found in this ditch, was thrown in by the Roman inhabitants of this city for its preservation at the approach of Boadiccea ac the head of her army: but the Roman Citizens, without distinction of age or sex, being barbarously murdered by the justly enraged Britons, it was not discovered till this time.
Cleansing the Fleet.
J9
" Besides the above-mentioned antiquities, several articles of a more modern date were discovered, as arrow-heads, scales, seals with the proprietors' names upon them in Saxon characters; spur rowels of a hand's breadth, keys and daggers, covered over with livid rust; together with a considerable number of medals, with crosses, crucifixes, and Ave Marias engraven thereon."
A paper was read, on June n, 1862, to the members of the British Archaeological Association, by Mr. Ganston, who exhibited various relics lately recovered from the bed of the river Fleet, but they were not even of archaeological importance — a few knives, the earliest dating from the fifteenth century, and a few knife handles.
Previously, at a meeting of the same Society, on December 9, 1857, Mr. C. H. Luxmore exhibited a green glazed earthenware jug of the sixteenth century, found in the Fleet.
And, before closing this antiquarian notice of the Fleet, I cannot but record some early mention of the river which occur in the archives of the Corporation of the City of London : —
(17 Edward III., a.d. 1343, Letter-book F, fol. 67.) " Be it remembered that at the Hustings of Common Pleas, holden on the Monday next before the Feast of Gregory the Pope, in the 17th year of the reign of King Edward, after the Conquest, the Third, Simon Traunceys, Mayor, the Aldermen and the Com- monalty, of the City of London, for the decency and cleanliness of the same city, granted upon lease to the
20 Fouling the River.
butchers in the Parish of St. Nicholas Shambles, in London, a piece of land in the lane called ' Secollane ' (sea coal), neare to the water of Flete, for the purpose of there, in such water, cleansing the entrails of beasts. And upon such piece of land the butchers aforesaid were to repair a certain quay at their charges, and to keep the same in repair ; they paying yearly to the Mayor of London for the time being, at the Feast of our Lord's Nativity, one boar's head." x
(31 Edward III., a.d. 1357, Letter-book G, fol. 72.) " Also, it is ordered, that no man shall take, or cause to be carried, any manner of rubbish, earth, gravel, or dung, from out of his stables or elsewhere, to throw, and put the same into the rivers of Thames and Flete, or into the Fosses around the walls of the City : and as to the dung that is found in the streets and lanes, the same shall be carried and taken elsewhere out of the City by carts, as heretofore ; or else by the raykers 2 to certain spots, that the same may be put into the donge- botesfi without throwing anything into the Thames ; for saving the body of the river, and preserving the quays, such as Dowegate, Quenhethe, and Castle Baynards, (and) elsewhere, for lading and unlading; as also, for avoiding the filthiness that is increasing in the water, and upon the banks of the Thames, to the great abomi- nation and damage of the people. And, if any one shall be found doing the Contrary hereof, let him have
1 " Memorials of London and London Life in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries," by H. J. Riley, 1868, p. 214.
2 The street sweepers. 3 Dung boats.
Rivers Rising at Hampstead. 21
the prison for his body, and other heavy punishment as well, at the discretion of the Mayor and of the Alder* • men." 1
(7 Henry V. a.d. 141 9, Journal 1, fol. 61.) " It is granted that the risshbotes 2 at the Flete and else- where in London shall be taken into the hands of the Chamberlain ; and the Chamberlain shall cause all the streets to be cleansed." 3
The northern heights of London, the " ultima Thule" of men like Keats, and Shelley, abound in springs, which form the bases of several little streams, which are fed on their journey to their bourne, the Thames (to which they act as tributaries), by numerous little brook- lets and rivulets, which help to swell their volume. On the northern side of the ridge which runs from Hamp- stead to Highgate, birth is given to the Brent, which, springing from a pond in the grounds of Sir Spencer Wells, is pent up in a large reservoir at Hendon, and
1 See Riley, p. 299.
2 This was probably because the rushes were spilt ill the river. At that time the house-floors were strewn with rushes, which were brought to London in "Rush boats;" and an ordinance, temp. 4 Henry V., provides that " all rushes in future, laden in boats or skiffs, and brought here for sale, should be sold by the cart-load, as from of old had been wont to be done. And that the same cart- loads were to be made up within the boats and skiffs in which the said rushes are brought to the City, and not upon the ground, or upon the wharves, walls, or embankments of the water of Thames, near or adjacent to such boats or skiffs; under a heavy penalty upon the owner or owners of such boats, skiffs, and rushes, at the dis- cretion of the Mayor and Aldermen."
3 See Riley, p. 675.
22
The Tye-bourne.
finally debouches into the Thames at Brentford, where, from a little spring, which it is at starting, it becomes so far a " fleet " as to allow barges to go up some distance.
01, M#$|ft
c^ZA% — -St:
SHEPHERD S WELL, HAMPSTEAD
On the southern side of the ridge rise the Tybourne, and the Westbourne. The former had its rise in a spring called Shepherd's Well, in Shepherd's Fields,
The West-bourne. 23
Hampstead, which formed part of the district now known as Belsize Park and Fitzjohn's Avenue, which is the finest road of private houses in London. Shep- herd's Well is depicted in Hone's " Table Book," pp. 381, 2, and shows it as it was over fifty years since. Alas ! it is a thing of the past ; a railway tunnel drained the spring, and a mansion, now known as The Conduit Lodge, occupies its site. It meandered by Belsize House, through St. John's Wood, running into Regent's Park, where St. Dunstan's now is, and, close to the Ornamental Water, it was joined by a little rivulet which sprang from where now, is the Zoological Gardens. It went across Marylebone Road, and, as nearly as possible, Marylebone Lane shows its course ; then down South Molton Street, passing Brook Street, and Conduit Street, by Mayfair, to Clarges Street, across Oxford Street and into a pond in the Green Park called the Ducking Pond, which was possibly used as a place of punishment for scolds, or may have been an ornamental pond for water- fowl. Thence it ran in front of Buckingham Palace, where it divided, which was the cause of its name. Twy, or Teo (double), and Bourne, Brook — one stream running into the Thames west of Millbank, doing duty by the way in turning the Abbey Mill (whence the name), and the other debouching east of Westminster Bridge, thus forming the Island of Thorns, or Thorney Isle, on which Edward the Confessor founded his abbey, and the City of Westminster.
The Westbourne took its rise in a small pond near " Telegraph Hill," at Hampstead ; two or three brook- lets joined it, and it ran its course across the Finchley
24
Course of the West-bourne.
Road, to the bottom of Alexandra Road, Kilburn, where it was met by another stream, which had its source at Frognal, Hampstead. It then became the West bourne, as being the most westerly of all the rivers near London, taking the Wallbrook, the Fleet, and the Tybourne.
Its course may be traced down Kilburn Park Road, and Shirland Road. Crossing the Harrow Road where now is Royal Oak Station, Eastbourne and IVestbourne Terraces mark the respective banks, and, after crossing the Uxbridge Road, it runs into the Serpentine at the Engine House. Feeding that sheet of water, it comes out again at the Albert Gate end, runs by Lowndes Square, Cadogan Place, &c, and, finally, falls into the river at Chelsea Hospital.
CHAPTER III.
THE Fleet, as far as can be ascertained, owes its birth to an ornamental water, fed by springs — one of the numerous ponds in Highgate and Hampstead — in the park of Ken Wood, the seat of Earl Mansfield, now occasionally occupied by the fourth successor to that title; who, being keeper of the royal Castle of Scone, prefers, as a rule, his northern residence. In the No Popery riots of 1780, with which Lord George Gordon was so intimately connected, Ken Wood House was on the brink of being destroyed by the rioters, who had, already, wrecked his lordship's house in Bloomsbury Square, and destroyed his most valuable library. Tradition says that Ken Wood was saved owing to the landlord of tc The Spaniards," well known to all pedes- trian frequenters of Hampstead, giving them his beer, &c, until they were incapacitated, or unwilling, to fulfil their quest, meanwhile sending messengers for the Horse Guards, who opportunely arrived, and prevented the destruction of the mansion. It is quite possible
26 Course of the Fleet.
that this is a true story, for a footnote (p. 69) in Prickett's "History of Highgate " says: " The fol- lowing is copied from a receipt of one of the constables of the Hundred of Ossulston : c Received 8s. 6d., being the proportion taxed and assessed for and towards the payment of the several taxations and assessments which have been made upon the said Parish (amounting to the sum of £187. 18s. 7d.) towards an equal contri- bution, to be had and made for the relief of the several inhabitants of said Hundred ; against whom, the several persons who were damnified by rioters within the same Hundred, in the month of June, 1780, have obtained verdicts, and had their executions respec- tively/"
Commencing thus in one of the prettiest parts of the most picturesque suburbs of London, it flows from one to the other, right through the chain of the Highgate Ponds, fed by several rills, the first being near the Hampstead end of Millfield Lane — which is, by some, regarded as its source. From the lower pond it crossed the Highgate Road, and, for some distance, it ran parallel with it, although a little way eastward. It again crossed the Highgate Road not far from its junc- tion with the Kentish Town Road, the course of which it followed, until it came to Hawley Road, where it was joined by a sister brook, whose source was the pond in the Vale of Health at Hampstead, flowing from which, it was fed by a brooklet, over which the abortive viaduct of Sir Thomas Marion Wilson's construction is carried. It ran into, and through, the Hampstead Ponds, which end at the lower east heath, near Pond Street (a locality
The Hampstead Ponds. 27
easily recognized when once any one has seen St. Stephen's Church, Haverstock Hill, one of the most beautiful churches in London). These ponds are im- mortal, if they needed immortality, as the very first page of " Pickwick " gives an entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club :
c< May 12, 1827. Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P. V. P., M.P.C., presiding. The following resolutions unani- mously agreed to — -
" c That this Association has heard read, with feelings of unmingled satisfaction, and unqualified approval, the paper communicated by Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C., M.P.C., entitled, "Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds, with some observations on the Theory of Tittlebats " ; and that this Association does hereby return its warmest thanks to the said Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C., M.P.C., for the same/ "
Its memory is still retained in the Fleet Road.
On its way through Kentish Town it passed through a purely pastoral country, such as we, who know the district only as covered with houses, can hardly reconcile with existing circumstances. The Guildhall Collection relating to the Fleet River, is very rich in water-colour drawings and pen-and-ink sketches of undoubted authenticity, and from them I have selected what, in my opinion, are the most suitable for this work.1
From the above, and this view of Highgate, so Jate back as 1845, we can fairly judge of the pleasant
1 See pages 28, 29, 30, 31, &c.
28
Rural Fleet.
scenery which existed almost at our doors — before the iron roads brought population, which begat houses, which destroyed all rusticity, leaving bricks and mortar on the site of verdant meads, and millions of chimneys
THE FLEET, KENTISH TOWN. Circa 1837.
vomiting unconsumed carbon and sulphur, in the place of the pure fresh air which once was dominant.
Here we see the Fleet running its quiet course — and the other sketches bear witness to its rurality.
Gospel Oak,
29
After the Fleet had recrossed the Highgate Road near the junction of that road and the Kentish Town Road, it passed near the Gospel Oak, which now gives
VIEW OF THE VALLEY OF THE FLEET AND HIGHGATE CHURCH, FROM FORTESS TERRACE, KENTISH TOWN, SEPT. 28, 1845.
( Water colour by A. Crosby?)
its name to a railway station in the locality. About this oak, there was a tradition that it was so called because St. Augustine preached underneath its boughs —
3°
Gospel Oak.
a fact which is probably as correct as the story that the Church of St. Pancras was the first Christian Church in
THE FLEET AT KENTISH TOWN.
England. In truth, there are, or were, many Gospel Oaks and Elms throughout the country; for instance, there is an iron foundry near the parishes of Tipton
Parliament Hill. 31
and Wednesbury called Gospel Oak Works. It was, as a matter of fact, a traditionary custom, in many places, when, on Holy Thursday (Ascension Day), the parochial bounds were beaten, to read a portion of the Gospels under some well-known tree, and hence its name. One or two quotations will easily prove this.
In the "Bury Wills/' p. 118, is the following passage in the will of John Cole of Thelnetham, dated May 8, 1527 : <c Item, I will haue a newe crosse made according to Trappett's crosse at the Hawe lanes ende, and set vp
THE FLEET AT KENTISH TOWN.
at Short Grove's end, where the gospell is sayd vpon Ascension Even, for ye wch I assigne xs."
And, in the poem of Herrick's " Hesperides," which is addressed cc To Anthea."
"Dearest, bury me Under that holy Oke, or Gospel Tree ; Where, (though thou see'st not,) thou may'st think upon Me, when thou yerely go'st procession."
It also passed near Parliament, or Traitors*, Hill — a name which is much in dispute ; some maintaining that it was fortified by the Parliamentary Army, under Cromwell, for the protection of London, others that
32 Kentish Town.
the 5th of November conspirators met here to view the expected explosion of the Houses of Parliament. This, which forms the most southern part of Hampstead Heath, and therefore the nearest, and most accessible to the great bulk of Londoners, has a beautiful view of Highgate and London, and has, I am happy to say, been preserved as an open space for the public.
We have now followed the Fleet in its course to Kentish Town, the etymon of which is, to say the least, somewhat hazy. Being so, of course, an immense amount of theory has been expended upon it. Some contend that it springs from the Prebendary attached to St. Paul's Cathedral, of Cantelupe, or Cantelows, now (in Crockford, called Cantlers) : one antiquary suggesting that it owes its name to the delta formed by the junction of the two branches of the Fleet — from Cant or Can tie, a corner ; — whilst yet another authority thinks that, as the Fleet had its source from Ken Wood — it was called Ken-ditch — hence Kenditch or Kentish Town. Be it as it may, it was a very pleasant and rural suburb, and one of some note, for herein William Bruges, Garter King-at-Arms, had a country house, at which he entertained, in the year 141 6, the Emperor Sigismund, who came over here, in that year, to try and mediate between our Henry V. and the King of France.
In still older times it formed part of the great Middlesex forest, which was full of wolves, wild boars, deer, and wild oxen; but we find that, in 1252, Henry III. granted to Thomas Ive, permission to inclose a portion of the highway adjoining his mansion at Kentessetone. And in 1357, John of Oxford, who
Castle Inn. 35
was Mayor of London in 1341, gave, amongst other things, to the Priory of the Holy Trinity, in London, a mill at Kentish Town — which, of course, must have been turned by the Fleet. The kind donor was one of the very few Mayors who died during his mayoralty.
It is said, too, that Nell Gwynne had a house in Kentish Town, but I can find not the slightest con- firmation of the rumour ; still, as there is a very good pen-and-ink sketch of the old house said to be hers, I give it, as it helps to prove the antiquity of Kentish Town, now, alas ! only too modern.
And there was another old house close by the Fleet there, an old farmhouse known as Brown's dairy.
This old Farmhouse had, evidently, a nobler origin, for it was moated; and, in 1838, the moat existed on the east and north sides. It belonged to the College of Christ Church, Oxford, and was held of the Manor of Cantelows at a small fine. There was a good orchard, which at the above date (the time of its demolition) contained a large walnut tree and some mulberry trees. The building materials were sold for £60, so that it evidently had done its work, and passed away in the ripeness of old age.
The Castle Inn l is said to have been the oldest house- in Kentish Town, and there is a tradition that Lord Nelson once lived here, cc in order that he might keep his eye upon the Fleet," and planted a sycamore in the garden.
Before taking leave of Kentish Town, I cannot help
1 See next page.
36
Traitors' and Parliament Hill.
recording a legal squabble, which resulted in a victory for the public. — Times, February 12, 1841 :- —
cf Court of Queen's Bench, Thursday, February 11, 1 841. (Sittings at Nisi Prius, at Westminster, before Lord Denman and a special jury.)
"The Queen v. Tubb. "This was an Indictment against the Defendant for obstructing a footpath leading from Pond Lane, at
CASTLE, KENTISH TOWN ROAD
Hampstead, over Traitors' and Parliament Hill, to Highgate.
cc The case lasted the whole day.
cc The jury brought a verdict for the Crown, thus establishing the right of the Public to one of the most beautiful walks in the neighbourhood of the metro- polis."
The Fleet babbled through the meadows, until its
Burials at St. Pancras. 37
junction with that other stream which flowed from the pond in the Vale of Health at Hampstead, which took place where now is Hawley Street, and the united brook, or river, ran across what are now the Kentish, and Camden, Town Roads, and between Great College Street, and King Street ; it then followed the course of the present road to King's Cross, passing by St. Pancras Church — which, originally, was of great antiquity, and close by which was a celebrated healing well, known as Pancras' Wells. These waters cured everything — scurvy, king's evil, leprosy, cancers, ulcers, rheumatism, disorders of the eyes, and pains of the stomach and bowels, colds, worms, &c, &c.
In the Church, and Churchyard, were interred many illustrious dead, especially Roman Catholics, who seem to have taken a particular fancy to have their remains buried there, probably on account of the tradition that this was the last church in which mass was celebrated. It was a favourite burial-place of the French clergy — and a story is told (how true I know not) that, down to the French Revolution, masses were celebrated in a church in the south of France, dedicated to St. Pancras, for the souls of the faithful interred here.
Many historical names are here preserved — amongst whom are Pasco de Paoli, the famous Corsican ; Walker, whose dictionary is still a text book; the Chevalier d'Eon, respecting whose sex there was once such a controversy ; Count O'Rourke, famous in the world of fashion in 1785 ; Mrs. Godwin — better known, perhaps, as Mary Woolstencraft — who also was married here ; William Woollett, the eminent
38
The Brill.
landscape engraver, a branch of art in which he may be said to have been the father ; Samuel Cooper, whose miniatures cannot be surpassed; Scheemaker the younger, a sculptor of no small note. Nor in this campo santo was Music unrepresented, for there, amongst others, lie the bodies of Mazzinghi, who brought the violin into fashion here in 1740; and Beard, a celebrated
«ak jknsri,
THE BRILL.
singer in 1753. The river flows hence to Battle Bridge, or King's Cross, as it is now termed, forming in its way a sort of pond called " Pancras Wash," and running through a low-lying district called "The Brill." This peculiarly unsavoury neighbourhood has now been cleared away, in order to afford siding room, &c, for the Midland Railway.
But Dr. Stukeley, who certainly had Roman Camps
The Brill.
39
on the brain, discovered one in the Brill. He planned it out beautifully. Here were the Equites posted, there the Hastati, and there were the Auxiliarii. He made the Fleet do duty for a moat which nearly surrounded Caesar's Pra^torium, and he placed a Forum close by St. Pancras' Church, to the northward of which he assigned a Practorium to Prince Mandubrace. Is it not true ? for is it not all written in his " Itinerary " ? and does he not devote the first seventeen pages of the second volume of that work, entirely to the Brill, assuring us of the great pleasure he received in striding over the ground — following, in imagination, the footsteps of the Roman Camp Master, who paced out the dimensions of the Camp ?
CHAPTER IV.
THAT it was countrified about this part of Lon- don, is shown by the accompanying Copy of an engraving, by J. T. Smith, of a view " near Battle Bridge." i
The etymology of Battle Bridge, which consists of only one arch, and now forms a part of the Fleet Sewer, is a much vexed question. At one time it was an article of faith, not to be impugned, that here, a.d. 6 1, was fought the famous battle between the Romans, under Suetonius Paulinus, and the Britons, under Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, which ended so disastrously for the natives — eighty thousand of whom are said to have been killed. But there seems to be a doubt, as to whether this was the exact spot where this historical contest took place, for Tacitus makes no mention of the little river Fleet, which must then have been navigable for light and small craft, for an anchor was found, in its bed, at Kentish Town. He only describes it (Tacit. Ann. lib. xiv. c. 34) a spot ol
1 Sec next page.
42
Battle Bridge.
ground, " narrow at the entrance, and sheltered in the rear by a thick forest." No remains have ever been exhumed, nor have Roman, or British, relics been found near the spot.
In the first quarter of this century the Fleet, for the
BATTLE BRIDGE.
greater part of its time, ran placidly along, as we see by these two pen-and-ink sketches, taken at Battle Bridge.1 But, occasionally, it forgot its good manners, and over- flowed its banks, flooding portions of Kentish Town, Somers Town, and Battle Bridge, as we read in the
See pages 43, 44.
Battle Bridge.
43
Gentleman s Maga
zine,
vol. Ixxxviii. part i. p. 462,
Saturday, May 9, 18 18 : —
"From the heavy rain, which commenced yesterday afternoon at six o'clock, and continued pouring inces- santly till four this morning, Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, and part of Somers Town were inundated. The water was several feet deep in many of the houses, and covered an extent of upwards of a mile. The carcases of several
|
F** |
{ ^^Ss^isgs^B. |
|||
|
sUs |
^^fis^^^^^^ML, ^=f- |
|||
|
^^J^^^^ |
BATTLE IJKIiH.li.
sheep and goats were found near Hampstead Reservoir, and property was damaged to a very considerable amount."
There must have been a Mill here, for Stow tells us that in the reign of Edward VI. " A Miller of Battaile Bridge was set on the Pillory in Cheape, and had both his eares cut ofT, for seditious words by him spoken against the Duke of Somerset/'
King's Cross. 45
Here, as elsewhere, just outside London, the road was not too safe for travellers, as the following account of a highway robbery will show. It was committed, by one John Everett, whose career in life had been rather chequered. As an apprentice he ran away, and enlisted in Flanders, rising to the rank of sergeant. When the troops returned, he purchased his discharge, and got a situation in the Whitechapel Debtors' Court, but had to leave it, and he became a companion of thieves, against whom he turned king's evidence. He got into debt, and was locked up in the Fleet Prison, but was allowed to reside within the Rules, a district round about the prison, out of which no prisoner might wander ; and there, in the Old Bailey, he kept a public-house. But he could not keep away from evil doing, and was sent to Newgate. On the expiration of his sentence, he turned highwayman. In the course of his professional career he, on December 24, 1730, stopped a Coach at Battle Bridge, which coach contained two ladies, a child, and a maidservant, and he despoiled them, but not uncivilly. The husband of one of the ladies coming up, pursued him, and next day he was caught. It was not then, any more than it is now, that every rogue got his deserts, but this one did, for he was hanged at Tyburn, February 20, 1731.
The name of " Battle Bridge " is well-nigh forgotten, and " King's Cross " reigns in its stead. Yet how few Londoners of the present generation know whence the name is derived ! If they ever trouble their heads about it at all, they probably imagine that it was a cross, like "he Eleanor Crosses, raised to the memory of some king.
46 King's Cross.
And what king, think you, was it intended to keep in perpetual remembrance ? None other than his Most Gracious Majesty King George the Fourth, of pious memory. Why this monument was raised I have never been able to learn, unless it was to celebrate his death, which took place in 1830, and probably to hold up his many virtues, as bright exemplars, to ages yet unborn ; but a mad fit came over the inhabitants of Battle Bridge, and the hideous structure arose. It was all shoddy ; in the form of an octagon building ornamented with pilasters, all substantially built of brick, and covered over with compo or cement, in order to render it more enduring. It was used as a police-station, and after- wards as a public-house, whilst the pediment of the statue was utilized as a camera obscura. I don't think they knew exactly what they were about, for one party wanted it to be called Boadicea's Cross, another went in for it being nationally named St. George's Cross ; but the goodness of the late king was more popular, and carried the day, and we now enjoy the nominis umbra of King's Cross, instead of the old cognomen of Battle Bridge. It had a very brief existence. It was built between 1830 and 1835, and was demolished in 1845 > the stucco statue only having been in situ for ten years. It is said that the nose of this regal statue had, for its base, an earthen draining tile, and that it was offered to a gentleman for sixpence !
There hardly seems to be any connection between cc the first gentleman in Europe '' and dustmen, but there is a slight link. Battle Bridge was peculiarly the home of the necessary dustman, and in a song called " The Literary Dustman," commencing —
The Dust Heaps.
47
"They call me Adam Bell, 'tis clear That Adam vos the fust man, And by a co-in-side-ance queer Vy I'm the fust of dustmen,"
is the following verse : —
" Great sculptors all conwarse wi' me, And call my taste divine, sirs, King George's statty at King's Cross, Vos built from my design, sirs.'*
Close by here, in Gray's Inn Road, was a mountain of refuse and dust; but it was as profitable as were the
DUST IIEAr AT BATTLE BRIDGE.
heaps of Mr. Boffin in Charles Dickens's c< Our Mutual Friend." This mound once had a curious clearance, so it is said. It was bought in its entirety, and sent over to Russia, to help make bricks to rebuild Moscow ; and the ground on which it stood was, in 1826, sold to a Company for £ 1 5,000.
" My dawning Genus fust did peep, Near Battle Bridge, 'tis plain, sirs : You recollect the cinder heap, Vot stood in Gray's Irin Lane, sirs?"
48 St. Chad's Well.
Let us turn to a sweeter subject, and gossip about St. Chad's Well, the site of which is now occupied by the Metropolitan Railway at King's Cross. St. Chad is a saint in the English calendar, and might have been a distinguished temperance leader, if the number of wells dedicated to him, is any criterion. He lived in the seventh century, and was educated at Lindisfarne (at least so Bcde says), and afterwards became Bishop of Lichfield, and, at his death, his soul is said to have been accompanied to heaven by angels and sweet music.
A good modern account is given in Hone's cc Every Day Book," vol. i. pp. 323, 4, 5, which, as it was taken from actual observation about fifty years since, may well be transcribed. Speaking of the aforesaid dust-heap he says : —
<c Opposite to this unsightly site, and on the right hand side of the road, is an anglewise faded inscription- —
St. Chad's Well.
(C It stands, or rather dejects, over an elderly pair of wooden gates, one whereof opens on a scene which the unaccustomed eye may tcike for the pleasure-ground of Giant Despair. Trees stand as if made not to vegetate, clipped hedges seem unwilling to decline, and nameless weeds straggle weakly upon unlimited borders. If you
St. Chad's Well. 49
look upwards you perceive, painted on an octagon board> ' Health restored and preserved.' Further on, towards the left, stands a low, old-fashioned, comfort- able-looking, large-windowed dwelling, and, ten to one, but there also stands at the open door, an ancient ailing female, in a black bonnet, a clean, coloured cotton gown, and a check apron, her silver hair only in part tucked beneath the narrow border of a frilled cap, with a sedate and patient, yet somewhat inquiring look. She gra- tuitously tells you that c the gardens ' of c St. Chad's Well ' are for ' Circulation ' by paying for the waters, of which you may drink as much, or as little, or nothing, as you please, at one guinea per year, 9s. 6d. quarterly, 4s. 6d. monthly, or is. 6d. weekly. You qualify for a single visit by paying sixpence, and a large glass tumbler, full of warm water, is handed to you. As a stranger, you are told, that £ St. Chad's Well was famous at one time.'
"Should you be inquisitive, the dame will instruct you, with an earnest eye, that c people are not what they were,' 4 things are not as they used to be,' and she c can't tell what'll happen next.' Oracles have not ceased. While drinking St. Chad's water, you observe an immense copper, into which it is poured, wherein it is heated to due efficacy, and from whence it is drawn by a cock, into glasses. You also remark, hanging on the wall, a c tribute of gratitude,' versified, and inscribed on vellum, beneath a pane of glass stained by the hand of time, and let into a black frame. This is an effusion for value received from St. Chad's invaluable water. But, above all, there is a full-sized portrait in oil,
s
50 St. Chad's Well.
of a stout, comely personage, with a ruddy counte- nance, in a coat or cloak, supposed scarlet, a laced cravat falling down the breast, and a small red nightcap carelessly placed on the head, conveying the idea that it was painted for the likeness of some opulent butcher, who flourished in the reign of Queen Anne. Ask the dame about it, and she refers you to c Rhone.' x This is a tall old man, who would be taller if he were not bent by years. c I am ninety-four,' he will tell you, * this present year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred, and twenty-five.' All that he has to commu- nicate concerning the portrait is, c I have heard say it is the portrait of St. Chad.' Should you venture to differ, he addsa c this is the opinion of most people who come here.' You may gather that it is his own undoubted belief.
" On pacing the garden alleys, and peeping at the places of retirement, you imagine the whole may have been improved and beautified, for the last time, by some countryman of William III., who came over and died in the same year with that king, and whose works here, in wood and box, have been following him piecemeal ever since.
" St. Chad's Well is scarcely known in the neigh- bourhood save by its sign-board of invitation and for- bidding externals ; ... it is haunted, not frequented. A few years, and it will be with its waters, as with the water of St. Pancras' Well, which is enclosed in the garden of a private house, near old St. Pancras Church- yard."
1 Rhone was an old waiter at the Well. See p. 53.
St. Chad's Well.
51
But, although the prophecy in Cf Hone " was destined to be fulfilled, yet it was twelve years before it came about, and it was not until September 14, 1837, that Messrs. Warlters and Co. sold, at Garraway's Coffee House, Change Alley, Cornhill, the " valuable Copy- hold Property, situate in Gray's Inn Lane, near King's Cross, Battle Bridge," which consisted of c< The well- known and valuable Premises, Dwelling-house, Large Garden, and Offices, with the very celebrated Spring of Saline Water called St. Chad's Well, which, in proper hands, would produce an inexhaustible Revenue, as its
__<^§^gg^^
ST. CHADS WELL.
qualities are allowed by the first Physicians to be un- equalled."
It was a good sized piece of ground ; in shape of a somewhat irregular triangle, of which the base measured about 200 feet, and from apex to base 95 feet. It was Copyhold. The vendor was not to be asked for a title prior to 1793, and it was held of the Manor of Cantlowes or Cantlers, subject to a small fine, certain, of 6s. 8d., on death or alienation, and to a Quit Rent of 5d. per annum. We should say, nowadays, that the assessment
52 St. Chad's Well-water.
was very small, as, including the large gardens, both back and front, the whole was only valued, including the Saline Spring, at £81 10s. per annum, of which £21 10s. was let off, but which formed but a small portion of the property.
What would not the waters of St. Chad's W'ell cure? Really I think the proprietor hardly knew himself, for a handbill I have before me commences — " The celebrity of these waters being confined chiefly to its own immediate vicinity for a number of years ; the present proprietor has thought proper to give more extensive publicity to the existence of a nostrum provided by Nature, through Divine Providence, approaching nearest that great desideratum of scientific men and mankind in general, throughout all ages ; namely, an Universal Medicine. . . . The many cures yearly performed by these waters does not come within the limits of a hand- bill, but, suffice it to say, that here, upon trial, the sufferer finds a speedy and sure relief from Indigestion and its train, Habitual Costiveness, the extensive range of Liver Complaints, Dropsy in its early stages, Glandular Obstructions, and that bane of life, Scrophula; for Eruptions on the Face or Skin its almost immediate efficacy needs but a trial." This wonderful water, with use of garden, was then, say 1835, supposed to be worth to the sufferer^ 1 per annum or threepence a visit, or you might have it supplied at eightpence per gallon.
And yet it seems only to have been a mild aperient, and rather dear at the price. In the Mirror of April 13, 1833, Mr. Booth, Professor of Chemistry, professed to
St. Chad's Well-water. 53
give an analysis of the " Mineral Waters in the neigh- bourhood of London/' and he thus writes of St. Chad's Well : " It is aperient, and is yet much resorted to by the poorer classes of the metropolis, with whom it enjoys considerable reputation. From an examination, I find it to be a strong solution of sulphate of soda and sulphate of magnesia" — but he does not favour us with a quantitative analysis.
Neither does the proprietor, one Wm. Lucas, who not only propounded the handbill from which J have quoted, but published a pamphlet on the healing virtues of the spring, and he also adds to Mr. Booth's quali- tative analysis, " a small quantity of Iron, which is held in Solution by Carbonic Acid."
" The Well from which the Waters are supplied, is ex- cluded from the external air ; the Water when freshly drawn is perfectly clear and pellucid, and sparkles when poured into a glass; to the taste it is slightly bitter, not sufficiently so to render it disagreeable ; indeed, Persons often think it so palatable as to take it at the table for a common beverage."
This, however, is slightly at variance with the follow- ing, u As a Purgative, more so than could be inferred from their taste, a pint is the ordinary dose for an Adult, which operates pleasantly, powerfully ; and speedily : " qualities which are scarcely desirable for a Table water.
That, at one time, this Well was in fashion, although in 1825 it was in its decadence, I may quote from the pamphlet (which, however, must be taken by the reader, quantum valeat) :
4C Jonathan Rhone, who was Gardener and Waiter
54
St. Chad's Well-water.
at these Wells upwards of Sixty Years, says, that when, he first came into office at about the middle of the eighteenth Century, the Waters were in great repute, and frequently were visited by eight or nine hundred Persons in a morning : the charge for drinking the Waters was Three pence each Person, and they were delivered at the Pump Room for exportation, at the rate of Twenty-four pint bottles, packed in hamper, for One Pound Cash."
CHAPTER V.
AS the Fleet was " the River of Wells " it may be as well to notice the Wells, which, although not ab- solutely contributing towards swelling its volume, are yet closely adjacent — namely, White Conduit, and Sadlers Wells. Both of these, as indeed were all the other Wells about London, were first known as mineral springs, a fact which drew the middle classes to seek relief from real, or fancied, ailments, by drinking the medicinal waters, as at Bath, Epsom, Cheltenham, Harrogate, Brixton, and elsewhere. Wherever people congregate, the mere drinking of salutary water, is but tame work, and the animal spirits of some of them must find an outlet in amusements, which materially assist, to say the least, in the agreeable passing of time. But the mere drinking of waters must have been irk- some— even if people took to it as well as SJiadwell in his play of c< Epsom Wells " describes : — ■
$6 Medicinal Waters.
" Brisket. 1 vow it is a pleasurable Morning : the
Waters taste so finely after being fuelled last Night. Neighbour Fribbler here's a Pint to you.
Spas. 57
" Fribbler. I'll pledge you, Mrs. Brisket; I have drunk eight already.
" Mrs. Brisket. How do the Waters agree with vour Ladyship ?
" Mrs. Woodly. Oh, Sovereignly : how many Cups have you arrived to ?
" Mrs. Brisket. Truly Six, and they pass so kindly."
By degrees these medicinal waters, or Spas, as thev were termed in later times, fell into desuetude, possibly because medical knowledge was advancing ; and the Wells, with their gardens attached, became places of outdoor recreation, where the sober citizen could smoke his pipe, and have his beer, or cider, whilst his wife, and her gossips, indulged in tittle tattle over their Tea — ■ which, although much dearer than at present, was a very popular beverage, and so_> from health resorts, they imperceptibly merged into the modern Tea Garden — which, in its turn, has become nearly extinct, as have the Ranelagh and Vauxhall of a former age; which, however, we have seen, in our time, somewhat resusci- tated in the outdoor portion of the several Exhibitions which have taken place, in the few past years, at South Kensington.
The White Conduit had a history of its own, which we can trace back, at all events, to the fifteenth century, for it was built as a reservoir to supply what was, afterwards, the Charterhouse.
This we can see by a royal licence, dated December 2, 9 Henry VI. an. 143 1,1 which granted to John Feryby,
1 Cart. Antiq. in Off". Augm. vol. ii. No. 4.3.
58 The White Conduit.
and his wife Margery, that they might grant and assign to the Prior and Convent of the House of the Saluta- tion of the Blessed Mary of the Carthusian Order, by London, a certain well spring (fonteiri) and 53 perches of land in length, and 12 feet in breadth, in the vill of Iseldon (Islington) to have to them and their suc- cessors for ever, and to the same Prior and Convent, to take the said land, and construct a certain subter- raneous aqueduct from the aforesaid well spring, through the aforesaid land, and through the King's highway aforesaid, and elsewhere, as it may seem best &c, non obstante the Act against mortmain (Teste Humfride Duce Gloucestr Custode Anglic apud Westm.).
As we know, Henry VIII. put an end to the Monastic Orders in England, and, at the dissolution of the Priory, the reversion of the site, and house thereof, was granted, on April 14, 1545,1 to Sir Roger North, in fee, together with <c all that the Head and original Well Spring of one Channel or Aqueduct situate and being in a certain field in the parish of Islington " — and it also gave, all the channels, aqueducts, and watercourses under ground cc up to the site of the said House of the Carthusians."
But, although the spring might, and did, supply the Charter House, yet it is possible that the Conduit House, from which it got the name of White Conduit, from its being built of white stone — was built by Thomas Sutton, who founded the Hospital of the Charter House, — in 161 1. It was either built by him,
1 Pat. 36 Henry VIII. p. 13, m. 31.
The White Conduit.
59
or repaired in 1641, for, incorporated in the building, was a stone containing his arms — and initials.
The other initials have not been identified. As the "White Conduit" it was known well into this century, but it fell somewhat into decay, about 181 2 — was never repaired, and, finally, was pulled down in 1 831 — to make way for the completion of some new buildings in Barnsbury Road, as a continuation of Penton Street: and the stone was broken up, and used in making the New Road.
So much for the Conduit itself; but it, although
STONE IN THE WHITE CONDUIT.
Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxi. p. 1161, a.d. iCoi.
inert, exercised a large share in the amusements of Londoners down to a comparatively recent period. It was pleasantly situated in the fields, and, until this century, during the latter half of which, the modern Babylon has become one huge mass of bricks and mortar, it served as a pleasant place of recreation for the Cits. There was an uninterrupted prospect of Hampstead and Highgate — which bounded the northern view, and which was purely pastoral, with the exception of sparsely-dotted farmhouses. There is a tradition that, on the site of the comparatively modern White Conduit House^ was (in the reign of Charles I.), a tavern
60 White Conduit House.
in the course of erection, and that, being finished, the workmen were carousing at the very moment of the monarch's decapitation.
Doubtless, in these suburban fields, there was, for very many years, a place for refreshment, which probably took the form, in the Arcadian age of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, of new milk, curds and whey, and syllabubs, for Islington was famous for its dairy pro- duce,1 as we know by the account of the entertainment given to Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle in 1575 by the Earl of Leicester, when the Squier Minstrel of Middlesex made a long speech in praise of Islington, whose motto was said to be, " Lactis Caseus infans."
The earliest really authentic notice of the White Conduit House, I can find, is in the Daily Advertiser August 10, 1754. "This is to acquaint the public, that, at the White Conduit House, the proprietor, for the better accommodation of the gentlemen and ladies, has completed a long walk, with a handsome circular Fish-pond, a number of shady, pleasant arbours inclosed with a fence 7 feet high to prevent being the least incommoded from the people in the fields. Hot loaves,2 and butter every day, milk directly from the Cows;
1 In an early sixteenth century book (unique) printed by Wynkyn dc Worde, called " Cocke Lorelles Boke " the dairy farming at Islington is mentioned — -
" Also mathewc to the drawer of London, And sybly sole mylke-wyfe of Islington."
2 These Rolls were as famous as Chelsea Buns. " White Conduit loaves " being a familiar street cry.
White Conduit House.
ui
coffee and tea, and all manners of liquors in the greatest perfection : also a handsome Long Room, from whence is the most Copious prospects and airy situation of any now in vogue. I humbly hope the continuance of my friends' favours, as I make it my chief study to have the best accommodations, and am, Gentlemen and Ladies, your obliged humble servant, Robert Bartholomew. Note. My Cows eat no grains, neither any adulteration in the Milk or Cream. Bats and Balls for Cricket, and a convenient field to play in."
This gives us a very fair insight into the sober relaxa- tions of our great-great-grandfathers : and that the White Conduit House was, about this time, a resort for harmless recreation ; and, certainly, it would rejoice the modern temperance enthusiasts to find that the principal beverages there drank were " non-intoxicants." Oliver Goldsmith used frequently to go there, walking from his house at Islington; and, in his " Citizen of the World," letter 122, he writes, "After having sur- veyed the Curiosities of this fair and beautiful town, I proceeded forward, leaving a fair stone building on my right ; here the inhabitants of London often assemble to celebrate a feast of hot rolls and butter. Seeing such numbers, each with their little tables before them, employed on this occasion, must no doubt be a very amusing sight to the looker-on, but still more so to those who perform in the Solemnity."
And the same story of simplicity of amusement, and refreshment, is amusingly told in the Gentleman' s Magazine for May, 1760, vol. xxx. p. 242, in a short poem by William Wory, the author of the " Shrubs of
62 White Conduit House.
Parnassus, consisting of a variety of poetical essays, moral and comic, by I. Copy well, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq. 1760."
" And to White Conduit House
We will go, will go, will go."
Grub Street Register.
"Wish'd Sunday's come — mirth brightens ev'ry face, And paints the rose upon the housemaid's cheek Harriot, or Mol more ruddy. Now the heart Of prentice resident in ample street, Or alley, Kennel-wash'd Cheapside, Corn hi I I Or Cranborne, thee, for calcuments renown'd, With joy distends. His meal meridian o'er, With switch in hand, he to White Conduit house Hies merry hearted. Human beings here In couples multitudinous assemble, Forming the drollest groupe, that ever trod Fair Islingtonian plains. Male after male, Dog after dog, succeeding — husbands — wives — Fathers and mothers — brothers — sisters — friends — And pretty little boys and girls. Around, Across, along, the garden's shrubby maze, They walk, they sit, they stand. What crowds press on, Eager to mount the stairs, eager to catch First vacant bench or chair in long-room plac'd. Here prig with prig holds conference polite, And indiscriminate, the gaudy beau, And sloven mix. Here he, who all the week Took bearded mortals by the nose, or sat Weaving dead hairs, and whistling wretched strain, And eke the sturdy youth, whose trade it is Stout oxen to contend, with gold bound hat, And silken stocking strut. The red-arm'd belle Here shews her tasty gown, proud to be thought The butterfly of fashion : and, forsooth, Her haughty mistress deigns for once to tread The same unhallow'd floor. 'Tis hurry all,
White Conduit. 63
And ratling cups and saucers. Waiter here, And waiter there, and waiter here and there, At once is call'd — Joe — Joe — Joe — Joe — Joe- Joe on the right — and Joe upon the left, For ev'ry vocal pipe re-ecchoes Joe. Alas, poor Joe / Like Francis in the play He stands confounded, anxious how to please The many-headed throng. But shou'd I paint The language, humours, customs of the place, Together with all curtsy's lowly bows And compliments extern, 'twould swell my page Beyond it's limits due. Suffice it then, For my prophetic muse to say, ' So long As fashion rides upon the Wing of time, While tea and cream, and buttered rolls can please, While rival beaux, and jealous belles exist, So long White Conduit house, shall be thy fame.
W. W."
Later on in the century, it was still a reputable place of resort. In 1774, there was a painting at one end of the garden, the perspective of which served, arti- ficially, to augment its size ; the round fish-pond in the centre of the garden, still existed, and the refreshment- rooms, or boxes, were hung with Flemish and other pictures.
Hone ("Every Day Book," vol. ii. p. 1201, &c.) says, "About 18 10, the late celebrated Wm. Hunting- don S.S.1 of Providence Chapel, who lives in a handsome house within sight, was at the expense of clearing the spring for the use of the inhabitants ; but, because his pulpit opinions were obnoxious, some of the neighbour- ing vulgar threw loads of soil upon it in the night, which rendered the water impure, and obstructed its
1 This revivalist used these initials as meaning " Sinner Saved."
64
White Conduit.
channel, and, finally, ceasing to flow, the public was deprived of the kindness he proposed. The building
itself, was in a very perfect state at that time, and ought to have been boarded up after the field it stood in was
White Conduit House. 65
thrown open. As the new buildings proceeded, it was injured, and defaced, by idle labourers and boys, from mere wantonness, and reduced to a mere ruin. There was a kind of upper floor or hayloft in it, which was frequently a shelter to the houseless wanderer. A few years ago some poor creatures made it a comfortable hostel for the night with a little hay. Early in the morning a passing workman perceived smoke issuing from the crevices, and as he approached, heard loud cries from within. Some mischievous miscreants had set fire to the fodder beneath the sleepers, and, after- wards, fastened the door on the outside : the inmates were scorched by the fire, and probably they would all have been suffocated in a few minutes, if the place had not been broken open.
"The * White Conduit' at this" time (1826) merely stands to those who had the power, and neglected to preserve it.
<c To the buildings grown up around, it might have been rendered a neat ornament, by planting a few trees, and enclosing the whole with an iron railing, and have stood as a monument of departed worth.
cc c White Conduit House ' has ceased to be a recrea- tion in the good sense of the word. Its present denomination is the c Minor Vauxhall,' and its chief attraction during the passing summer has been Mrs. Bland.1 She has still powers, and, if their exercise
1 A somewhat famous singer in the latter part of the eighteenth and first quarter of the nineteenth centuries. She sang and acted at Drury Lane and the Haymarket — and also sang at Vauxhall. She became poor, and on Jury 5, 1824, she had a benefit at Drury Lane,
6
66
White Conduit House.
here, has been a stay and support to this sweet melodist, so far . the establishment may be deemed respectable. It is a ground for balloon flying and skittle playing, and just maintains itself above the very lowest, so as to be one of the most doubtful places of public resort.
WHITE CONDUIT GARDENS (INTERIOR).
Recollections of it some years ago are more in its favour. Its tea gardens then, in summer afternoons,
which, with a public subscription, produced about .£800. Lord Egrcmont also allowed her £80 a year. She was somewhat related to Royalty: her husband, Bland, an actor at Drury Lane, being the brother of Mrs. Jordan, who was the wife of William the Fourth.
68 White Conduit Gardens.
were well accustomed by tradesmen and their families ; they are now comparatively deserted, and, instead, there is, at night, a starveling show of odd company and coloured lamps, a mock orchestra, with mock singing, dancing in a room which decent persons would prefer to withdraw their young folks from, if they entered, and fireworks c as usual/ which, to say the truth, are usually, very good.''
As time went on, the place did not improve, as we may see by the New Monthly Magazine for 1833, m an article — part of " Four Views of London." Speaking of the White Conduit — " Here too is that Paradise of apprentice boys, White Cundick Couse, as it is cacopho- niously pronounced by its visitors, which has done much to expel the decencies of the district. Thirty years ago this place was better frequented — that is, there was a larger number of respectable adults — fathers and mothers, with their children, and a smaller moiety of shop lads, and such like Sunday bucks, who were awed into decency by their elders. The manners, perhaps, are much upon a par with what they were. The ball- room gentlemen then went through country dances with their hats on, and their coats off: — hats are now taken off, but coats are still unfashionable on these gala nights. The belles of that day wore long trains to their gowns : it was a favourite mode of introduction to a lady there, to tread on it, and then, apologizing handsomely, acquaintance was begun, and soon ripened into an invitation to tea, and the hot loaves for which these gardens were once celebrated. Being now a popular haunt, those who hang on the rear of the march of
White Conduit Gardens. 69
human nature, the suttlers, camp followers, and plunderers, know that where large numbers of men and boys are in pursuit of pleasure, there is a sprinkling of the number to whom vice and debauchery are ever welcome : they have, therefore, supplied what these wanted ; and Pentonville may now hold up its head, and boast of its depravities before any part of London." 1
It got more and. more disreputable, until it was pulled down in 1849, and the present White Conduit Tavern was built upon a portion of its site.
1 A frequent visitor at these gardens was the late George Cruik- shank, and many subjects were transferred to his sketch book. He was so well known, as to become a sort of terror to the habitues of the place, and children were threatened, when fractious, " that if they made such ugly faces, Mr. Cruikshank would put them in his book."
CHAPTER VI.
SADLER'S WELLS does not really feed the Fleet River, but I notice the spring, for the same reason that I noticed the White Conduit. A very fair account of its early history is given in a little pamphlet entitled "A True and Exact Account of Sadlers Well : or the New Mineral Waters. Lately found out at Islington : Treating of its nature and Virtues. Together with an Enumeration of the Chiefest Diseases which it is good for, and against which it may be used, and the Manner and Order of Taking of it. Published for publick good by T. G. (Thomas Guidot) Doctor of Physick. Printed for 'Thomas Malthus at the Sun in the Poultry. 1684,"
It begins thus: — "The New Well at Islington is a certain Spring in the middle of a Garden, belonging to the Musick House built by Mr. Sadler, on the North side of the Great Cistern that receives the New River Water near Islington, the Water whereof was, before the Reformation, very much famed for several extraordinary Cures performed thereby, and was, thereupon, accounted sacred, and called Holy Well. The Priests belonging
72 Sadler's Discovery.
to the Priory of Clarken-well using to attend there, made the People believe that the vertues of the Waters proceeded from the efficacy of their Prayers. But upon the Reformation the Well was stopt up, upon a suppo- sition that the frequenting it was altogether superstitious, and so, by degrees, it grew out of remembrance, and was wholly lost, until found out, and the Fame of it revived again by the following accident.
" Mr. Sadler being made Surveyor of the High Ways, and having good Gravel in his own Gardens, employed two Men to Dig there, and when they had Dug pretty deep, one of them found his Pickax strike upon some thing that was very hard ; whereupon he endeavoured to break it, but could, not : whereupon thinking with himself that it might, peradventure, be some Treasure hid there, he uncovered it very carefully, and found it to be a Broad, Flat Stone : which, having loosened, and lifted up, he saw it was supported by four Oaken Posts, and had under it a large Well of Stone Arched over, and curiously carved ; and, having viewed it, he called his fellow Labourer to see it likewise, and asked him whether they should fetch Mr. Sadler, and shew it to him ? Who, having no kindness for Sadler, said no ; he should not know of it, but as they had found it, so they would stop it up again, and take no notice of it ; which he that found it consented to at first, but after a little time he found himself (whether out of Curiosity, or some other reason, I shall not determine) strongly inclined to tell Sadler of the Well ; which he did, one Sabbath Day in the Evening.
iK Sadler, upon this, went down to see the Well, and
Miles's Musick House. 73
observing the Curiosity of the Stone Work, that was about it, and fancying within himself that it was a Medicinal Water, formerly had in great esteem, but by some accident or other lost, he took some of it in a Bottle, and carryed it to an Eminent Physician, telling him how the Well was found out, and desiring his Judgment of the Water ; who having tasted and tried it, told him it was very strong of a Mineral taste, and advised him to Brew some Beer with it, and carry it to some Persons, to whom he would recommend him ; which he did accordingly. And some of those who used to have it of him in Bottles, found so much good by it, that they desired him to bring it in Roundlets."
Sadler's success, for such it was, provoked the envy of others, and one or two satires upon the Wells were produced.
Soon after he opened the Wells, Evelyn visited them, as we read in his invaluable diary. "June 11, 1686. I went to see Middleton's receptacle of water l and the New Spa Wells, near Islington." The Spring was still known as Sadler's up to 1697 as we find in advertise- ments in the Post Boy and Flying Post of June, in that year. But the " Musick House " seems to have passed into other hands, for in 1699 it was called " Miles's Musick House." They seem to have had peculiar entertainments here, judging by an account in Dawk's Protestant Mercury of May 24, 1699. "On Tuesday last a fellow at Sadler's Wells, near Islington, after he had dined heartily on a buttock of beef, for the
1 The New River Head.
74 A Man eats a Live Cock, &c.
lucre of five guineas, eat a live cock, feathers, guts, and all, with only a plate of oil and vinegar for sawce, and half a pint of brandy to wash it down, and afterwards proffered to lay five guineas more, that he could do the same again in two hours' time."
That this was a fact is amply borne out by the testi- mony of Ned Ward, who managed to see most of what was going on in town, and he thus describes the sight in his rough, but vigorous language.
" With much difficulty we crowded upstairs, where we soon got intelligence of the beastly scene in agitation. At last a table was spread with a dirty cloth in the middle of the room, furnished with bread, pepper, oil, and vinegar; but neither knife, plate, fork, or napkin ; and when the beholders had conveniently mounted themselves upon one another's shoulders to take a fair view of his Beastlyness's banquet, in comes the lord of the feast, disguised in an Antick's Cap, like a country hangman, attended by a train of Newmarket executioners. When a chair was set, and he had placed himself in sight of the whole assembly, a live Cock was given into the ravenous paws of this ingurgitating monster."
In the same year, in his c< Walk to Islington," Ward gives a description of the people who frequented this " Musick House."
" mixed with a vermin trained up for the gallows,
As Bullocks x and files,2 housebreakers and padders.3 With prize fighters, sweetners,4 and such sort of traders, Informers, thief-takers, deer-stealers, and bullies."
* A hector, or bully. 2 A pickpocket.
3 A tramp. 4 A Sharper.
Forcer, the Proprietor. 75
It seems to have been kept by Francis Forcer, a musician, about 1725, and the scene at the Wells is graphically described in " The New River, a Poem, by William Garbott."
"Through Islington then glides my best loved theme And Miles's garden washes with his stream : Now F — r's Garden is its proper name, Though Miles the man was, who first got it fame ; And tho' it's own'd, Miles first did make it known, F — r improves the same we all must own. There you may sit under the shady trees, And drink and smoak, fann'd by a gentle breeze ; Behold the fish, how wantonly they play, And catch them also, if you please, you may, Two Noble Swans swim by this garden side, Of water-fowl the glory and tne pride ; Which to the Garden no small beauty are ; Were they but black they would be much more rare : With ducks so tame that from your hand they'll feed, And, I believe, for that, they sometimes bleed. A noble Walk likewise adorns the place, To which the river adds a greater grace : There you may sit or walk, do which you please, Which best you like, and suits most with your ease. Now to the Show-room let's awhile repair, To see the active feats performed there. How the bold Dutchman, on the rope doth bound, With greater air than others on the ground : What capers does he cut ! how backward leaps ! With Andrew Merry eyeing all his steps : Hij comick humours with delight you see, Pleasing unto the best of company," &c.
But a very vivid description of Sadler's Wells is given in " Mackliniana, or Anecdotes of the late Mr.
j6 Macklin on Sadler's Wells.
Charles Macklin, Comedian " in the European Magazine for 1801 (vol. xl. p. 16): —
" Being met one night at Sadler's Wells by a friend, who afterwards saw him home, he went into a history of that place, with an accuracy which, though nature generally denies to the recollection of old age in recent events, seems to atone for it in the remembrance of more remote periods.
" Sir, I remember the time when the price of admis- sion here was but threepence^ except a few places scuttled off at the sides of the stage at sixpence, and which was usually reserved for people of fashion, who occasionally came to see the fun. Here we smoked, and drank porter and rum and water, as much as we could pay for, and every man had his doxy that liked it, and so forth ; and though we had a mixture of very odd com- pany (for I believe it was a good deal the baiting place of thieves and highwaymen) there was little or no rioting. There was a 'public then, Sir, that kept one another in awe.
" £K Were the entertainments anything like the present P A. No, no ; nothing in the shape of them ; some hornpipes and ballad singing, with a kind of pantomimic ballet, and some lofty tumbling — and all this was done by daylight, and there were four or five exhibitions every day.
" £K How long did these continue at a time ? A. Why, Sir, it depended upon circumstances. The proprietors had always a fellow on the outside of the booth, to calculate how many people were collected for
Actors at Sadler's Wells. 77
a second exhibition, and when he thought there were enough, he came to the back of the upper seats, and cried out, c Is Hiram Fisteman here ? ' This was the cant word agreed upon between the parties, to know the state of the people without — upon which they concluded the entertaiment with a song, dismissed that audience, and prepared for a second representation.
cc gK Was this in Rozamon's time ? A. No, no, Sir ; long before — not but old Rozamon improved it a good deal, and, I believe, raised the price generally to sixpence, and in this way got a great deal of money."
Space prevents one going into the merits of the Theatre here, but it may not be out of place if I mention some of the singers, and actors, who have appeared on those boards — Joey Grimaldi, Braham, Miss Shields (afterwards Mrs. Leffler), Edmund Kean, the great traveller Belzoni, Miss Tree, Phelps, of Shakespearian fame, Marston, and others, testify to the talent which has had its home in this theatre. One pecu- liarity about Sadler's Wells Theatre was the introduction of real water as a scenic effect. It seems to have been first used on Easter Monday, April 2, 1804, m an enter- tainment called Naumachia. A very large tank was made under the stage, and filled with water from the New River ; and in this tank mimic men o' war bom- barded Gibraltar, but were repulsed, with loss, by the heroic garrison. Afterwards, it was frequently used for Spectacles, in which water was used as an adjunct.
After this digression let us follow the course of the River Fleet. Leaving St. Chad's Well, and before
78
The Pindar of Wakefield.
coming to Bagnigge Wells, there stood in Gray's Inn Road an old public-house called the Pindar of Wake- field, the pounder, or keeper of the pound at that town, the famous George a Green, who gave Robin Hood a notable thrashing, extorting from that bold outlaw this confession —
" For this was one of the best pinders That ever I tryed with sword."
This old house was destroyed by a hurricane in Novem- ber, 1723, when the two daughters of the landlord were killed by the falling walls. It was, however, at once rebuilt, and a public-house, bearing the same sign, exists at 328, Gray's Inn Road — most probably occupying the original site.
CHAPTER VII.
BETWEEN this house, and Bagnigge Wells, was Bagnigge Wash, or Marsh, and Black Mary's Wells, or Hole. The etymology of this place is contested. In the Gentleman s Magazine for 1813, part ii. p. 557, in an "Account of various Mineral Wells near London," is the following : " Lastly, in the same neighbourhood, may be mentioned the spring or conduit on the eastern side of the road leading from Clerken Well to Bagnigge Wells, and which has given name to a very few small houses as Black Mary's Hole. The land here was, formerly, called Bagnigg Marsh, from the river Bagnigg,1 which passes through it. But, in after-time, the citizens resorting to drink the waters of the conduit, which then was leased to one Mary, who kept a black Cow, whose milk the gentle- men and ladies drank with the waters of the Conduit, from whence, the wits of that age used to say, * Come,
1 Otherwise the Fleet.
7
82 "Black Mary's Hole."
let us go to Mary's black hole.' However, Mary dying, and the place degenerating into licentiousness, about 1687, Walter Baynes Esqre, of the Inner Temple, enclosed the Conduit in the manner it now is, which looks like a great oven. He is supposed to have left a fund for keeping the same in perpetual repair. The stone with the inscription was carried away during the night about ten years ago. The water (which formerly fed two ponds on the other side of the road) falls into the old Bagnigge river."
This etymon, however, is contested in a pamphlet called An experimental enquiry concerning the Contents, Qualities, Medicinal Virtues of the two Mineral Waters of Bagnigge Wells, &c, by John Bevis, M.D. This pamphlet was originally published in 1767, but I quote from the third edition of 18 19. " At what time these waters were first known cannot be made out with any degree of evidence. A tradition goes that the place of old was called Blessed Mary's Well ; but that the name of the Holy Virgin having, in some measure, fallen into disrepute after the Reformation, the title was altered to Black Mary's Well, as it now stands upon Mr. Rocque's map, and then to Black Mary's Hole ; though there is a very different account of these latter appellations ; for there are those who insist they were taken from one Mary Woolaston, whose occupation was attending at a well, now covered in, on an opposite eminence, by the footway from Bagnigge to Islington to supply the soldiery, encamped in the adjacent fields, with water. But waving such uncertainties, it may be relied on for truth, that a late proprietor, upon taking possession of
Its Disappearance. 83
the estate, found two wells thereon, both steaned in a workmanlike manner; but when, or for what purpose, they were sunk, he is entirely ignorant."
But Black Mary's Hole, during the first half of the last century, had a very queer reputation. There was a little public-house with the sign of " The Fox at Bay," which probably had something to do with the numerous highway robberies that occurred thereabouts.
In Cromwell's " History of Clerkenwell," pp. 318.. 319, we hear of the last of Black Mary's Hole. He says, 'c Beneath the front garden of a house in Spring Place, and extending under the foot-pavement almost to the turnpike gate called the Pantheon Gate, lies the capacious receptacle of a Mineral Spring, which in former times was in considerable repute, both as a chalybeate, and for its supposed efficacy in the cure of sore eyes. . . . About ten years back, when Spring Place was erected, the builder removed every external appearance of Walter Baynes's labours, and converted the receptacle beneath into a cesspool for the drainage of his houses. The spring thus degraded, and its situation concealed, it is probable that the lapse of a few more years would have effaced the memory of it for ever, had not an accident re-discovered it in the summer of 1826. Its covering, which was only of boards, having rotted, suddenly gave way, and left a large chasm in the footpath. After some efforts, not perfectly suc- cessful, to turn off the drainage, it was then arched with brickwork, and a leaden pump placed over it, in the garden where it chiefly lies. But the pump being stolen during the following winter, the spring has again failen
84 Bagnigge Wells.
into neglect, and possibly this page alone will prevent its being totally forgotten."
Still following the Fleet to its outfall, we next come to Bagnigge Well, a chalybeate spring, first used medi- cinally, and then, like all these Spas, merely as a promenade, and place of out-of-door recreation.
Originally, this spring probably belonged to the Nunnery at Clerkenwell, and may possibly be the " Rode Well " mentioned in the Register of Clerken- well. But we are indebted to Dr. Bevis, from whose pamphlet I have already quoted, for a history of its modern rise and development (p. 38).
cc In the year 1757, the spot of ground in which this well is sunk was let out to a gentleman curious in gardening, who observed that the oftener he watered his flowers from it the worse they throve. I happened, toward the end of that summer, to be in company with a friend who made a transient visit to Mr. Hughes, and was asked to taste the water ; and, being surprised to find its flavour so near that of the best German chalybeates, did not hesitate to declare my opinion, that it might be made of great benefit both to the public and himself. At my request, he sent me some of the water, in a large stone bottle, well corked, the next day ; a gallon whereof I immediately set over a fire, and by a hasty evaporation found it very rich in mineral contents, though much less so than I afterwards experienced it to be when more leisurely exhaled by a gentle heat. Whilst this operation was carrying on, I made some experiments on the remainder of the water, particularly with powdered galls^ which I found to give, in less than
Nell Gwyn's Houses. 85
a minute, a very rich and deep purple tincture to it, that lasted many days without any great alteration. I re- ported these matters to Mr. Hughes, but, soon after, a very dangerous illness put a stop to my experiments, which I did not resume for a considerable time, when the proprietor called, and told me his waters were in very great repute, and known by the name of Bagnigge Wells ; which I remembered to have seen in the news- papers, without so much as guessing it had been given to these springs. Mr. Hughes took me to his wells, where I was not a little pleased with the elegant accom- modations he had provided for company in so short a time."
The house attached to the Spa is said to have been the residence of Nell Gwyn, but tradition has assigned her so many houses; at Chelsea, Bagnigge Wells, High- gate, Walworth, and Filberts, near Windsor — nay, one enterprising tradesman in the Strand has christened a milk shop <cNell Gwyn's Dairy," and has gone to some expense, in pictorial tiles, to impress on passers-by the genuineness of his assertion.
Still, local tradition is strong, and, in a book called <c The Recreations l of Mr. Zigzag the elder " (a pseudonym for Mr. John Wykeham Archer, artist and antiquary), which is in the Library of the City of London, and which is profusely <c Grangerised " by the author, is a small water colour of Bagnigge House, the reputed dwelling of Nell Gwyn, which I have repro- duced in outline, and on this drawing is a note, " More- over several small tenements at the north end of the
1 These papers appeared in the Illustrated Family Journal.
86
Bagnigge House.
Garden were formerly entitled Nell Gwynne's Buildings, which seems to verify the tradition." T
But the evidence is all of a quasi kind. In the long room, supposed to have been the banqueting room, was, over the mantel, a bust, an alto relievo, of a female, supposed to be Nell Gwyn, and said to be modelled by Sir Peter Lely, enclosed in a circular border of fruit, which, of course, was at once set down as a delicate
j$A
bagnigge house. (Said to have been Nell Gwyn's.)
allusion to the actress's former calling of orange wench in the theatres. The bust and border were painted to imitate nature, and on either side were coats of arms — ■ one the Royal arms, and, on the other side, the Royal arms quartered with others, which were supposed to be those assumed by the actress. When the old house was
1 In Cromwell's "History of Clerkenwell," p. 322, wc read, " In memory of its supposed proprietor, the owner of some small tenements near the north end of the gardens styled them 'Nell Gwynn's Buildings ;' but the inscription was eras^" before 1803."
Bagnigge House. 87
pulled down, the bust disappeared, and no one knows whither it went.
I give a quotation from the Sunday Times, July 5, 1840, not as adding authority, or weight, to the idea that Bagnigge House was Nell's residence, but to show how deeply rooted was the tradition. It is a portion of the cc Maximms and Speciments of William Muggins ', Natural Philosopher, and Citizen of the World " —
<cOh ! how werry different London are now to wot it war at the time as I took my view on it from the post ; none of them beautiful squares and streets, as lies heast and west, and north of the hospital, war built then ; it war hall hopen fields right hup to Ampstead an Ighgate and Hislington. Bagnigge Well stood by itself at the foot of the hill, jist where it does now ; and then it looked the werry pictur of countryfiedness and hin- nocence. There war the beautiful white washed walls, with the shell grotto in the hoctagon summer house, where Nell Gwynne used to sit and watch for King Charles the Second. By the by, a pictur done by a famous hartist of them days, Sir Somebody Neller I thinks war his name, represents the hidentical ouse (it war a fine palace then) with the hidentical hoctagon summer house, with the beautiful Nelly leaning hout of the winder, with her lilly white hand and arm a-beckon- ing, while the King is seed in the distance galloping like vinking across the fields a waving his hat and feathers ; while a little page, with little tobacker-pipe legs, in white stockings, stands ready to hopen a little door in the garden wall, and let hin the royal wisitor.
88 Bagnigge House.
while two little black and tan spanels is frisking about and playing hup hold gooseberry among the flower beds. That ere pictur used to hang hup in the bar parlor ; its wanished now — so are the bust as were in the long room ; but there's another portrait pictur of her, all alone by herself, done by Sir Peter Lely, still to be seen. (This here last coorosity war discovered honly a year or two ago, rolled hup among sum rubbige in the loft hunder the roof.)"
The old house, however, was evidently of some importance, for, over a low doorway which led into the garden, was a stone, on which was sculptured a head in relief, and the following inscription —
X
THIS IS BAGNIGGE
HOUSE NEARE
THE PINDAR A
WAKEFIELDE
1680.
thus showing that the Pindar of Wakefield was the older house, and famous in that locality. This doorway and stone were in existence within the last forty years, for, in a footnote to page 572 of the Gentleman s Maga- zine of June, 1847, it savs> "The gate and inscription still remain, and will be found, where we saw them a few weeks since, in the road called Coppice Row, on the left going from Clerkenwell towards the New Road."
Bagnigge Wells.
The following illustration gives Bagnigge Wells as it appeared at the end of last century.
BAGNIGGE WELLS, NEAR BATTLE BRIDGE, ISLINGTON.
We have read how these gardens were first started in 1757, but they soon became well known and, indeed, notorious, as we read in a very scurrilous poem called f< Bagnigge Wells," by W. Woty, in 1760 —
"Wells, and the place I sing, at early dawn Frequented oft, where male and female meet, And strive to drink a long adieu to pain. In that refreshing Vale with fragrance fill'd, Renown'd of old for Nymph of public fame And amorous Encounter, where the sons Of lawless lust conven'd — where each by turns His venal Doxy woo'd, and stil'd the place Black Mary's Hole — there stands a Dome superb, Hight Bagnigge ; where from our Forefathers hid, Long have two Springs in dull stagnation slept ; But, taught at length by subtle art to flow,
90 Bagnigge Wells.
They rise, forth from Oblivion's bed they rise, And manifest their Virtues to Mankind."
The major portion of this poem (?) is rather too risque for modern publication, but the following extract shows the sort of people who went there with the view of benefiting their health —
"Here ambulates th' Attorney looking grave, And Rake from Bacchanalian rout uprose, And mad festivity. Here, too, the Cit, With belly, turtle-stuff'd, and man of Gout, With leg of size enormous. Hobbling on, The Pump-room he salutes, and in the chair He squats himself unwieldy. Much he drinks, And much he laughs to see the females quaff The friendly beverage. He, nor jest obscene, Of meretricious wench, nor quibble quaint, Of prentic'd punster heeds, himself a wit And dealer in conundrums, but retorts The repartee jocosely. Soft ! how pale Yon antiquated virgin looks ! Alas ! In vain she drinks, in vain she glides around The Garden's labyrinth. 'Tis not for thee, Mistaken nymph ! these waters pour their streams," &c.
And in the prologue to " Bon Ton : or High Life above Stairs," by David Garrick, acted at Drury Lane for the first time, for the benefit of Mr. King, in 1775, not much is said as to the character of its frequenters.
" Ah ! I loves life and all the joy it yields, Says Madam Fupock, warm from Spittleficlds. Bon Ton's the space 'twixt Saturday and Monday, And riding in a one-horse chaise on Sunday, 'Tis drinking tea on summer's afternoons At Bagnigge Wells, with china and gilt spoons."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE gardens were pretty, after the manner of the times ; we should not, perhaps, particularly ad- mire the formally cut lines and hedges, nor the fountain in which a Cupid is hugging a swan, nor the rustic statuary of the haymakers. Still it was a little walk out of London, where fresh air could be breathed, and a good view obtained of the northern hills of Hampstead and Highgate, with the interlying pastoral country, sparsely dotted with farmhouses and cottages. The Fleet, here, had not been polluted into a sewer as it was further on, and there were all the elements of spending a pleasant, happy day, in good air, amid rural scenes.
The place, however, rapidly became a disreputable rendezvous, and we get an excellent glimpse of the costumes of circa 1780 in the two following en- gravings taken from mezzotints published by Car- ington Bowles ; although not dated, they are of that
94
Bagnigge Wells.
period, showing the Macaronis and Belles of that time. The first is called " The Bread and Butter Manu-
A I5AGNIGGE WELLS SCENE ; OR, NO RESISTING TEMPTATION.
{PziOlished for Carington Bowles.)
factory,1 or the Humours of Bagnigge Wells/' and
1 An allusion to the hot buttered rolls, which were in vogue there.
The Organist.
95
the second cc A Bagnigge Wells Scene, or no resisting temptation," which gives a charming representation of the ultra fashion of dress then worn.
THE DAGNIGGE ORGANIST.
Yet another glance at the manners of the time is afforded by the boy waiter, who hurries along with his tray of tea-things and kettle of hot water.1 1 See p. 93.
96 Different Proprietors.
And there was good music there, too— an organ in the long room, on which Charles Griffith performed, as may be seen in the accompanying illustration.1 The name of Davis on the music books, is that of the then proprietor, and the lines underneath are parodied from Dry den's "Song for St. Cecilia's day, 1687." .
"What passion cannot music raise and quell ! When Jubal struck the corded shell, His listening brethren stood around, And, wondering, on their faces fell."
It went on with varying fortunes, and under various proprietors. First of all Mr. Hughes, then, in 1792, Davis had it ; in 1 8 13 it was in the hands of one Salter; in 1818, a man named Thorogood took it, but let it to one Monkhouse, who failed, and it reverted to Thoro- good. Then came as tenant, a Mr. Chapman, who was bankrupt in 1833, and, in 1834, Richard Chapman was proprietor. I fancy he was the last, as public house, and gardens, combined.
Mr. William Muggins, before quoted, laments its decadence thus : c' Besides the whitewashed walls, and hoctagon shell grotto, there war the tea garden, with its honey suckle and sweet briar harbours, where they used to drink tea hout of werry small cups, and heat the far famed little hot loaves and butter ; then there war the dancing plot, and the gold and silver fish ponds, and the bowling green, and skittle alley, and fire work ground hall so romantic and rural, standing in the middle of a lot of fields, and shaded around with trees. Now it's a werry different concarn, for it's surrounded with building 1 See previous page.
" Punch " on Bagnigge Wells. 97
— the gardens is cut hoff to nuffin, and the ouse looks tumble down and miserable." That was in 1840.
It was about this time that a song appeared in u The Little Melodist/* 1839 — dilating on the delights ot the neighbourhood of Islington, and the first verse ran thus :
"Will you go to Bagnigge Wells,
Bonnet builder, O ! Where the Fleet ditch fragrant smells,
Bonnet builder, O ! Where the fishes used to swim, So nice and sleek and trim, But the pond's now covered in,
Bonnet builder, O !
Punch, too, when it was young, and had warm blood coursing through its veins, visited Bagnigge Wells, and recorded the visit in its pages (Sept. 7, 1 843). After a description of the walk thither, it says, <c We last visited Bagnigge Wells about the beginning of the present week., and, like many travellers, at first passed close to it without seeing it. Upon returning, however, our eye was first arrested by an ancient door in the wall over which was inscribed the following : — l
"This inscription, of which the above is ufac simile was surmounted by a noseless head carved in stone ; and, underneath, was a cartoon drawn in chalk upon the door, evidently of a later date, and bearing a resem- blance to some of the same class in Gell's c Pompeii.' Underneath was written in letters of an irregular alphabet, c Chucky ' — the entire drawing being, without doubt, some local pasquinade.
" Not being able to obtain admittance at the door, we 1 See ante-p. 88.
98 "Punch" on Bagnigge Wells.
went on a short distance, and came to the ruins of the ancient c Wells/ of which part of the banqueting room still exists. These are entirely open to the public as well as the adjoining pleasure grounds, although the thick layer of brick-bats with which they are covered, renders walking a task of some difficulty. The adjacent premises of an eminent builder separate them by some cubits from the road of Gray's Inn, near which, what we suppose to be the c Well ' is still visible. It is a round hole in the ground behind the ruins, filled up with rubbish and mosaics of oyster shells, but, at present, about eighteen inches deep.
iC It is very evident that the character of Bagnigge Wells has much altered within the last century. For, bearing that date, we have before us the c Song of the 'Prentice to his Mistress ' in which the attractions of the place are thus set forth : —
" ' Come, come, Miss Priscy, make it up, ,
And we will lovers be : And we will go to Bagnigge Wells,
And there we'll have some tea. And there you'll see the ladybirds
All on the stinging nettles ; And there you'll see the water-woi ks,
And shining copper kettles. And there you'll see the fishes, Miss,
More curious than whales ; They're made of gold and silver, Mis?,
And wag their little tails.' z
1 With all due deference to Punch, I think his version is slightly, only slightly, inaccurate. I have before me five copies, two MS. and three printed, all of which run —
" Come, prithee make it up, Miss, And be as lovers be,
M Punch " on Bagnigge Wells. 99
" Of the wonders recounted in these stanzas, the sting- ing nettles alone remain flourishing, which they do in great quantity. The Waterworks are now confined to two spouts and a butt against the adjacent building ; and the gold and silver fishes separately, in the form of red herrings and sprats, have been removed to the stalls in the neighbourhood, with a great deal more of the wag in the dealer, than in themselves.
"The real Bagnigge Wells, where company assemble to drink, at the present day, is next door to the ruins. The waters are never drank, however, now, without being strongly medicated, by a process carried on at the various brewers and distillers of the Metropolis : with- out this, they are supposed, by some classes, to be highly injurious. Their analysis have produced various results. Soda has been detected in one species, analogous to the
We'll go to Bagnigge Wells, Miss,
And there we'll have some tea. It's there you'll see the Lady-birds
Perch'd on the Stinging Nettles ; The Chrystal water Fountain,
And the Copper, shining Kettles. It's there you'll see the Fishes,
More curious they than Whales, And they're made of Gold and Silver, Miss,
And wags their little tails.
Oh ! they wags their little Tails
— They wags their little Tails Oh ! they're made of gold and silver, Miss, and they wags their little Tails.
Oh ! dear ! Oh ! la ! Oh ! dear ! Oh ! la ! Oh ! dear ! Oh! la !
How funny ! "
ioo Decadence of "The Wells."
German Seltzer, and designated c Webb's ' ; others contain iron in appreciable quantities, and institute a galvanic circle, when quaffed from goblets formed from an alloy of tin and lead : in some constitutions quicken- ing the circulation, and raising the animal temperature — in others, producing utter prostration.
" Flannel jackets, and brown paper caps appeared to be the costume of the valetudinarians who were drinking at the Wells, during our stay. We patronized the tepid spa by ordering ' Sixpennyworth warm/ as the potion was termed in the dialect of Bagnigge, for the purpose of drawing the proprietor into conversation. But he was, evidently, reluctant to impart much information, and told us nothing beyond what we already knew — a custom very prevalent at all the springs we have visited.
<c Lodgings, provisions, clothing, &c, are to be had at low rates in the neighbourhood, and there are several delightful spots in the vicinity of Bagnigge Wells.
" The Excursion to Battle Bridge will be found highly interesting, returning by the Brill ; and, to the admirers of nature, the panorama from the summit of King's Cross, embracing the Small Pox Hospital, and Imperial Gas Works, with the very low countries surrounding them, is peculiarly worthy of especial notice."
Two years previous to this notice, there was a para- graph in the times (April 6, 1841) which shows how the Wells had fallen into decadence. fC The Old Grotto, which had all the windows out, and was greatly dilapi- dated, and the upper part of the Garden Wall, was knocked down by some persons going along Bagnigge Road, early this morning."
Bagnigge Wells.
ioi
The old place had fulfilled its mission. It had ministered to the recreation and amusement, harmless, or otherwise, of generations of Londoners, and it came to final grief, and disappeared in 1 844. Its name is still preserved in cc The Bagnigge Wells" Tavern, 39, King's Cross Road, and that is all the reminiscence we have of this once famous place of recreative resort.
CHAPTER IX0
A LITTLE farther on, it washed the walls of Cold Bath Fields Prison, the House of Correction, and we get a view of it in Hone's cc Table Book," l p. 75. Here he says, cc In 1825, this was the first open view, nearest London, of the ancient River Fleet: it was taken during the building of the high arched walls connected with the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, close to which prison the river ran, as here seen. At that time, the newly erected walls communicated a peculiarly picturesque effect to the stream flowing with- in their confines."
This cc House of Correction " was indebted for its birth to the famous John Howard, who had made an European tour, not to mention a home one, inquisitori- ally inspecting prisons. We all know the result of his labours ; how he exposed abuses fearlessly, and made men's hearts soften somewhat towards those incarcerated. Howard, writing in 1789, held that capital punishment should be abolished except for murder, setting houses on
1 See next page.
104
Cold Bath Fields Prison.
firey and for house breaking, attended with acts of cruelty. And speaking of his Penitentiaries, he says :
<cTo these houses, however, I would have none but
fe*
THE ANCIENT RIVER FLEET, AT CLERKENWELL, 1825.
old, hardened offenders, and those who have, as the laws now stand, forfeited their lives by robbery, house- breaking, and similar Crimes, should be committed ; or, in short, those Criminals who are to be confined for a long term or for life. . . ,
Cold Bath Fields Prison,. 105
" The Penitentiary houses, I would have built, in a great measure, by the convicts. I will suppose that a power is obtained from Parliament to employ such of them as are now at work on the Thames, or some of those who are in the county gaols, under sentence of transportation, as may be thought most expedient. In the first place, let the surrounding wall, intended for full security against escapes, be completed, and proper lodges for the gate keepers. Let temporary buildings, of the nature of barracks, be erected in some part of this enclosure which would be wanted the least, till the whole is finished."
This was a portion of his scheme, and he suggested that it should be located, where it was afterwards built, in Cold Bath Fields — because the situation was healthy, that good water could be obtained from the White Conduit, as the Charter House no longer required that source of supply, it being well served by the New River Company — that labour was cheap — and so was food, especially the coarse meat from the shambles at Islington.
The prisoners were to have separate cells, so as to prevent the promiscuous herding of all, which had previously produced such mischievous results, and these cells were to be light and airy. The convicts of both sexes were to work, and their food was to be apportioned to the work they had to do. Also — a very great step in the right direction — they were all to wear a prison uniform. Howard, philanthropist as he was, was very far from lenient to the rogue. He was fully aware of the value of work, and specially provided that his rogues,
106 Cold Bath Fields Prison.
in their reformation, should pass through the purifying process of hard labour. In later times, the way of transgressors was hard in that place, and it became a terror to evildoers, being known by the name of the English Bastile — which, however, amongst its patrons, was diminished, until it finally was abbreviated into <c the Steel " by which name it was known until its abolition.1
This cognomen was so well known, that, in 1799, a book was written by cc A Middlesex Magistrate " en- titled " The Secrets of the English Bastile disclosed " — which was a favourable story of the management of the prison in Cold Bath Fields. Still, it was the subject of a Parliamentary inquiry, as we find in the Gentleman s Magazine for 1798-9, under date of Dec. 31, 1798, p. 398, that, in the House of Commons, Sir Francis Burdett gave notice of his intention of moving, at some future day, for a report relative to the system practised in the prison, called the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, with regard to the persons therein confined.
In the " Parliamentary History of England," vol. xxxiv. p. 566, we learn that on Mar. 6, 1799, Mr. W. Dundas moved that a Select Committee be appointed to
1 J. T. Smith in his " Vagabondiana," ed. 1815-1817, p. 51, alludes thus to the prison : " Perhaps the only waggery in public- house customs now remaining, is in the tap room of the Apple- tree, opposite to Cold Bath Fields Prison. There are a pair of hand cuffs fastened to the wires as bell-pulls, and the orders given by some of the company, when they wish their friends to ring, are, to 'Agitate the Conductor.'"
Cold Bath Fields Prison. 107
inquire into the state of his Majesty's prison in Cold Bath Fields, Clerkenwell, and report the same, as it shall appear to them, together with their opinion there- upon, to the House ; and a Committee was appointed accordingly. Unfortunately, the pages of what, after- wards, become Hansard's, do not record the result.
But in the Annual Register for the same year on Dec. 2ist there was a long report respecting it during a debate on the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. Mr. Courtenay said, that, cc having visited the prisons, he found the prisoners without fire, and without candles, denied every kind of society, exposed to the cold and the rain, allowed to breathe the air out of their cells only for an hour, denied every comfort, every innocent amusement, excluded from all intercourse with each other, and, each night locked up from all the rest of the world. He supposed it was scarcely necessary to inform the House, that the prison of which he had been speaking, was that in Cold Bath Fields, known by the name of the Bastille." There was a lot more non- sense of the same type talked by other M.P.'s and, it is needless to say, that the exaggerated statements were anent a political prisoner — who afterwards suffered death for treason. And in the remainder of the debate even the very foundation for the libel was destroyed. It is a curious fact, that people have an idea that political prisoners, who have done as much harm to the common- weal as they have the possibility of doing, are to be treated daintily, and with every consideration for their extremely sensitive feelings. We, perhaps, in these latter days, may read a profitable lesson in the suppression of treason,
io8 Cold Bath Fields Prison.
from the proper carrying out of the sentences legally imposed upon those who resist the law out of pure malice (legal).
In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1796, is the following letter to —
Dec. 10, 1795. Mr. Urban. — Your respect for the memory of Mr. Howard, will induce you to insert the inclosed view of the House of Correction for the County of Middlesex, formed principally on his judicious suggestions. It is situated on the North side of London, between Cold Bath Fields, and Gray's Inn Lane. The spot on which it is erected having been naturally swampy, and long used for a public lay-stall, it was found prudent to lay the foundation so deep, and pile it so securely, that it is supposed there are as many bricks laid underground as appear to sight. What is more to the purpose, the internal regulations of this place of security are believed to be perfectly well adapted to the salutary purposes to which the building is appropriated.
<c Yours, &c,
"Eugenio."
Still Cold Bath Fields Prison had an evil name — in all probability, because prisoners there, were treated as if they had sinned against the social canons, and were not persons to be coaxed and petted into behaviour such as would enable them to rank among their more honest fellows, and in this way wrote Coleridge and Southey in "The Devil's Walk," which was suggested by the
Cold Bath Fields Prison. 109
pseudo Christos Brothers who as these gentlemen wrote : — l
"He walked into London leisurely, The streets were dirty and dim : But there he saw Brothers, the Prophet, And Brothers the Prophet saw him."
Well, in the Devil's rambles he came across Cold Bath Fields Prison — which, as I have said, was not beloved of the criminal class, and, simply, as I think, for the sake of saying something smart, and not that they ever had experienced incarceration, or is there any evidence that they had even seen the prison, they write :
"As he passed through Cold Bath Fields he look'd At a solitary Cell ; And he was well-pleased, for it gave him a hint For improving the prisons of Hell.
He saw a turnkey tie a thief's hands
With a cordial try and a jerk ; Nimbly, quoth he, a man's fingers move
When his heart is in his work.
He saw the same turnkey unfettering a man
With little expedition ; And he chuckled to think of his dear slave trade, And the long debates, and delays that were made
Concerning its abolition."
There is very little doubt, however, that, in the closing year of last, and the commencing one of this,
1 " After this I was in a vision, having the angel of God near me, and saw Satan walking leisurely into London " (" Brothers' Prophecies," part i. p. 41).
no Cold Bath Fields Prison.
century, the conduct of the Governor — a man named Aris — was open to very grave censure. People outside imagined that all sorts of evils were being perpetrated within its walls, and, either through laxity, or too great seventy, of discipline, something nigh akin to mutiny occurred in the prison in July, 1800 — which was promptly stopped by the presence of a company of the Clerkenwell Volunteers. In August of the same year, there was another outbreak in the prison, the occupants shouting " Murder," and that they were being starved, in tones loud enough to be heard outside, and, once more the Volunteers were the active agents in enforcing law and order. This latter tc seething of the pot " lasted a few days, and it culminated in the discharge of the obnoxious Governor Aris.
There is nothing noteworthy to chronicle of this prison from that date,1 all prison details being, neces-
1 I have met with a Newspaper Cutting, with no clue to its authenticity or date. " Dreadful Ravages of the Influenza in the House of Correction. — Yesterday afternoon, Inquests were holden by William Baker, Esq., one of the Coroners for the County of Middlesex, at the House of Correction, Coldbath Fields, on no less than five individuals, namely, Peter Griffiths, Michael Hughes, James Jones, Thomas Lillie, and Ann Connard, all of whom had died from the effects of the present prevalent epidemic, or influenza, and who were inmates of that prison, and had been sentenced to different periods of imprisonment. It is a fact that, for the last two months, more prisoners have died in this prison, principally from the effects of influenza, than had died there during the whole of the preceding year." Possibly the poor Fleet River, at that time hardly degraded to the level of the Sewer — which now it is — may have had something to do with the unsanitary condition or the prison. — J. A.
Cold Bath Fields Prison. hi
sarily, unsavoury — and this particular one was not watered with rose water. It was a place of hard work, mid not likely to impress the unproductive class, with a wish to be permanent inhabitants thereof. Yet, as this present year witnessed its demolition, something more must be said respecting it. In the Globe newspaper of January i, 1887, *s tn^s short paragraph: "Notices were yesterday posted on the walls of Coldbath Fields Prison, intimating that it is for sale. Tenders are invited for the site, and all buildings, &c, contained within the boundary walls. The prison covers an area of eight acres and three quarters."
There ought to be some record of its dying days, for the demolition of a prison in a large community of people, like ours in London, must mean one of two things, either a diminution of crime, or, that the prison is not suitable to the requirements of the age.
The Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Prisons, for the Year ended March 31, 1886, speaking of Pentonville Prison, says:
" In November, 1885, the majority of the prisoners confined in Coldbath Fields Prison were transferred to this Prison ; and since that date, the remainder have also been removed here, that prison being now vacated, and in charge of a warder acting as caretaker.
" The tread-wheel I has been taken down at Coldbath Fields Prison, and is in process of re-erection here.
" The behaviour of the officers has been good, with the exception of four, discharged by order of the Prison Commissioners.
1 Adopted at Coldbath Fields Prison, July, 1822.
H2 Cold Bath Fields Prison.
" The conduct of the prisoners has been generally good.
" The materials and provisions supplied by the Con- tractors have been good, and have given satisfaction.
" To meet the requirements of the local prison service, a room is being completed for the convenience of the members oi the Visiting Committee who attend here, also a room tor the daily collection of prisoners to see the medical officer, and other purposes, as well as various minor alterations found necessary since the transfer.
" A bakehouse has been completed, and is in working order, supplying bread to all metropolitan prisons.
" The routine and discipline have been carried out in the same general manner as heretofore.
" The industrial labour continues to be attended with satisfactory results ; the greater portion is still devoted to supplying the wants of other prisons or Government establishments instead of the market.
" Uniform clothing for officers is cut out here for all local prisons, and made up for a considerable number of the smaller prisons, also prisoners' clothing and bedding, hospital slippers for the Admiralty, as well as a large number of Cases and other articles for the General Post Office have been supplied.
" The duties of the Chaplain's department have been performed uninterruptedly during the year, morning prayers have been said daily, and Divine Service has been performed on Sundays, Good Friday, and Christ- mas day, in the morning and afternoon, with a sermon at both services. The Holy Communion has been
Cold Bath Fields Prison,
"3
celebrated from time to time on Sundays and on the great Sunday Festivals. The hospital has been daily visited ; special attention has been paid to the prisoners confined in the punishment Cells, and constant oppor- tunity has been offered to all of private instruction and advice. Books from the prisoners' library have been issued to all who are entitled to receive them, all prisoners who cannot pass standard three, as set forth by the Education Committee have been admitted to school instruction.
" School books and slates and pencils are issued to prisoners in their cells.
" The medical officer states that the health of the prisoners at Coldbath Fields, and since the transfer to this prison, has been good. One case of small-pox occurred at Coldbath Fields ; as the prisoner had been some months in gaol, it was clear that he had caught the disease, either from a warder, or from some prisoner recently received ; he had been a cleaner in the rotunda, and, of course, had been coming into contact with warders and prisoners alike, in the busiest part of the prison, the presumption is that the disease had been carried by the uniform of some warder. There were five cases of erysipelas at Coldbath Fields, and one at this prison, at the former place the cases came from all parts of the prison, new and old. The air shafts were thoroughly swept and limewashed, and disinfected as far as could be reached, and there is no doubt that it checked the disease.
" The dietary has been satisfactory during the year, and the new pattern clothing a great improvement,
9
1 14 Cold Bath Fields Prison.
<c Every precaution is taken in classing prisoners for labour suited to their age, physique and health.
cc The sanitary arrangements are most carefully super- vised ; the ventilation in the cells is very good."
I offer no apology for intruding this report of Prison life, which, if one took the trouble to look up the yearly reports, he would find they are all couched in almost identical language.1 I simply give it for the considera- tion of my readers — who, with myself, do not belong to the criminal classes — to show them how those who have preyed upon them, and have deservedly merited punishment, meet with treatment such as the indigent and industrious poor, when, fallen upon evil times, can not obtain, and the sooner these pampered criminals feel, through their flesh — either by the whip, hard labour, or hunger — that the wages of sin are not paid at a higher rate than that procurable by honest labour, the probability is that the community at large would be considerably benefited, and the criminal classes would be in a great measure deprived of clubs to which there is neither entrance fee, nor annual subscription, in which everything of the best quality is found them free of charge, and the health of their precious carcases specially looked after, and gratuitously attended to.
1 Let any one compare, for instance, reports for 1884 and 1886,
CHAPTER X.
COLDBATH FIELDS were, a hundred and twenty years ago, fairly rural, for (although it certainly is recorded as an abnormal occurrence) we find, in the Daily Courant, November 12, 1765, <c Friday afternoon, about two o'clock, a hare crossed the New Road, near Dobney's Bowling green, ran to the New River Head, and from thence to Coldbath Fields, where, in some turning among the different avenues, she was lost. She appeared to have been hard run, by her dirty and shabby coat."
These fields took their name from a spring (part or the River of Wells) which had its source there. A Mr. Walter Baynes of the Temple, who was, for his day, far-seeing, and made the most of the cc town lots " which were in the market, bought this plot of land, and at once utilized it to his profit. It was of some note, as we read in a book published in Queen Anne's reign, "A New View of London," 1708, vol. ii. p. 785.
n6 The "Cold Bath."
" Cold Bath. The most noted and first x about London was that near Sir John Oldcastle's, where, in the Year 1697, Mr. Bains undertook and yet manages this busi- ness of Cold Bathing, which they say is good against Rheumatisms, Convulsions of the Nerves, &;c, but of that, those that have made the Experiments are the best judges. The Rates are 2s. 6d. if the Chair is used,2 and 2s. without it. Hours are from five in the morning to one, afternoon."
We learn two things from this — the pristine exist- ence of cc tub," and the fact that it was purely matutinal. Nay, from the same book we learn more, for, under the heading of cc Southwark Cold Bath," we find that the <c utmost time to be in, three minutes." At this latter places were " ex votos," so frequently seen at shrines on the Continent. cc Here are eleven Crutches, which they say, were those of persons cured by this Water." Bathing was a luxury then — water was bought by the pailful, and a warm bath at the Hummums cost 5s., equal to between 10s. and 15s. of our money.
Walter Baynes, Esq., of the Middle Temple, seems to have been a pushing man of business, and willing to make the most of his property. He traded on the un-
1 Conduit.
2 This, I take it, refers to a practice mentioned in a pamphlet, "A Step to the Bath" (London, 1700), which I think is by Ned Ward. " The usual time being come to forsake that fickle Element, Half Tub Chairs, Lin'd with Blankets, Ply'd as thick as Coaches at the Play House, or Carts at the Custom House" It has been suggested that the Chair was used for debilitated patients ; but, knowing the use ofthe term "Chair " at that epoch, I venture to propose my solution.
Cold Bath,
117
cleanliness of the times, when baths were mostly used in case of illness, and daily ablution of the whole body was unknown. Ladies were quite content to dab their faces with some f c fucus " or face wash, or else smear them with a greasy larded rag. The shock of a veri- table cold bath from a spring, must have astonished
SOUTH VIEW OF THE COLD BATHS.
most of those who endured it, and no doubt invested it with a mysterious merit which it did not possess, other- wise than by cleansing the skin, both by the washing, and the subsequent rubbing dry.
However, we find Mr. Baynes advertising in the Post Boy, March 28, 1700, the curative effects of
1 1 8 Cold Bath.
his wonderful spring. " This is to give notice that the Cold Baths in Sir John Oldcastle's field near the north end of Gray's Inn Lane, London, in all seasons of the year, especially in the spring and summer, has been found, by experience, to be the best remedy in these following distempers, viz., Dizziness, Drowsiness, and heavy ness of the head, Lethargies, Palsies, Convulsions, all Hectical creeping Fevers, heats and flushings. In- flammations and ebullitions of the blood, and spirits, all vapours, and disorders of the spleen and womb, also stiffness of the limbs, and Rheumatick pains, also shortness of the breath, weakness of the joints, as Rickets, &c, sore eyes, redness of the face, and all im- purities of the skin, also deafness, ruptures, dropsies, and jaundice. It both prevents and cures colds, creates appetite, and helps digestion, and makes hardy the tenderest constitution. The coach way is by Hockley in the Hole/'
Of course, viewed by the light of modern medical science, Mr. Baynes was a charlatan, and a quack, but he acted, doubtless, according to his lights, in those days ; and, if a few were killed, it is probable that many more were benefited by being washed.
Sir Richard Steele, writing in 17 15, says thus :
"On the Cold Bath at Oldcastle's." " Hail, sacred Spring ! Thou ever-living Stream, Ears to the Deaf, Supporters to the Lame, Where fair Hygienia ev'ry morn attends, And with kind Waves, her gentle Succour lends. While in the Cristal Fountain we behold The trembling Limbs, Enervate, Pale and Cold ; A Rosy Hue she on the face bestows,
Sir John Oldcastle. 1 19
And Nature in the chilling fluid glows,
The Eyes shoot Fire, first kindled in the Brain,
As beds of Lime smoke after showers of Rain ;
The fiery Particles concentred there,
Break ope' their Prison Doors and range in Air ;
Hail then thou pow'rful Goddess that presides
O'er these cold Baths as Neptune o'er his Tides,
Receive what Tribute a pure Muse can pay
For Health that makes the Senses Brisk and Gay,
The fairest Offspring of the heavenly Ray."
At one time there was a famous house of refreshment and recreation, either called the Cobham's Head, or the Sir John Oldcastle — or there were one of each. Au- thorities differ, and, although I have spent some time and trouble in trying to reconcile so-called facts, I have come to the conclusion that, for my reader's sake, le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle. There is a tradition that Sir John Oldcastle who was a famous Lollard in the time of Henry V., either had an estate here, or hid in a house of entertainment there, during his persecution for faith. But the whole is hazy.
We know that there was a Sir John Oldcastle, who was born in the fourteenth century, and who was the fourth husband of Joan, Lady Cobham, in whose right he took the title of Lord Cobham. We know also, that he enjoyed the friendship of Henry V., and was of his household. But he got imbued with the doctrines of Wyclif, was cited to appear, more than once, before the ecclesiastical authorities, declined the invitations, and was duly excommunicated He wrangled with the priests, got committed to the Tower, escaped and hid in Wales, was accused of heading a trumpery insurrec-
120 Archery.
tion, and was, finally, captured, tried, and hanged in chains alive, upon a gallows in St. Giles' Fields, when, fire being put under him, he was slowly roasted to death in December, 141 7. A pious nobleman, like the late Lord Shaftesbury, for instance, was not popular at that time, if we may believe a few lines from " Wright's Political Songs from Edward II. to Henry VI."
" Hit is unkindly for a Knight That shuld a kynges castel kepe, To bable the Bible day and night, In restyng time when he shuld slepe, And carefoly away to crepe ; For alle the chefe of chivalrie, Wei ought hym to wail and wepe, That swyche r lust is in Lollardie."
The English were always famous bowmen, and archery — although gunpowder has long superseded bows and arrows in warfare — still is a favourite and fashion- able pastime, witness the Toxopholite Society in Regent's Park, and the various Archery association* throughout the kingdom ; so that it is not remarkable that an open space like Coldbath Fields should vie with the Artillery ground at Finsbury, in favour with the citizens, as a place for this sport ; and we find, in Queen Anne's reign, that the Sir John Oldcastle was frequented by Archers. And for this information we may thank that old sinner, John Bagford (who spoilt so many books for the sake of their title-pages) for pre- serving. It tells its own story : — 2
<c All gentlemen of the ancient and noble exercise of 1 Such pleasure. 2 Harl. MSS., 5961.
Tea Gardens. 121
Archery, are invited to the annual dinner of the Clerken- well Archers, Mrs. Mary Barton's, at the sign of Sir John Oldcastle (Cold Bath Fields) on Friday, July 18, 1707, at one o'clock, and to pay the bearer, Thomas Beaumont, Marshall, 2s. 6d., taking a sealed ticket, that a certain number may be known, and provision made accordingly. Nath. Axtall, Esq., and Edward Bromwich, Gent., Stewards."
There were very pleasant gardens attached to this tavern, and, like all the suburban places of recreation, they were well patronized, and they gave a very decent amusement in the shape of music — instrumental and vocal — and, occasionally, fireworks. But there seems to have been the same difficulty then, as now, as to keeping outdoor amusements, if not select, at least decorous, for, acccording to the Daily Advertisement of June 3, 1745, " Sir John Oldcastle's Gardens, Cold Bath Fields. This evening's entertainment will continue the Summer Season. The Band consists of the best masters. Six- pence for admission, for which they have a ticket, which ticket will be taken as sixpence in their reckoning. Particular care will be taken that the provisions shall be the very best in their separate kinds ; likewise to keep a just decorum in the gardens. Note. — Several ladies and gentlemen that come to the gardens give the drawers their tickets, which is no benefit to the proprietor ; therefore it's humbly desired that if any gentlemen or ladies don't chuse to have the value of their tickets in liquor, or eating, they will be so kind as to leave them at the bar."
122
Smallpox Hospital.
As a place of amusement, it seems, even in 1745, to have been on the wane. In 1758 the Smallpox Hospital was built close to it, and in 1761 the Sir John Oldcastle was bought by the trustees of the hospital, in order to enlarge it, and was pulled down in 1762. Noorthouck ("New History of London," ed. 1763, p. 752), speaking of Cold Bath Square, in which was the famed cold bath, says, "The North side of this square is, as yet, open to the fields, but a little to the east stands the Small Pox Hospital for receiving patients who catch the disease in the natural way ; and is a very plain, neat structure. The Center, which projects a little from the
South.
Front
THE SMALLPOX HOSPITAL IN COLD LATH FIELDS.
rest of the building, is terminated on the top by an angular pediment, on the apex of which is placed a vase upon a small pedestal. This excellent chanty was in-
The Pantheon. 123
stituted in the year 1746, and is supported by a sub- scription of noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, who were desirous that a charity useful in itself, and so beneficial to the public, might be begun near this great metropolis, there not being any hospital of the kind in Europe. A neat hospital for inoculating this disorder has been lately built clear of the town on the north side of the New Road."1
In 1 791 this hospital wanted extensive repairs, which would need an outlay of about ^800 ; and the trustees, not willing to incur this expense, built another on the site of the Inoculating Hospital at Islington ; and thither, when it was finished, all the patients were removed from Cold Bath Fields. But their new home was wanted for the Great Northern Railway, and another place was built, and still is, on Highgate Hill. The old building in Cold Bath Fields was first of all used as a distillery, and afterwards subdivided.
Quoting again from Noorthouck : cc Eastward from the Small Pox Hospital, on the south side of the Spaw- field, is an humble imitation of the Pantheon in Oxford Road ; calculated for the amusement of a suitable class of company ; here apprentices, journeymen, and clerks dressed to ridiculous extremes, entertain their ladies on Sundays ; and to the utmost of their power, if not
1 Noorthouck (book i. p. 358) says, "It is to be observed that in 1746, an hospital was founded by subscription between London and Islington, for relieving poor people afflicted with the smallpox, and for inoculation. This is said to be the first foundation of the kind in Europe, and consisted of three houses ; one in Old Street for preparing patients for inoculation ; another in Islington (Lower Street) " when the disease appeared, and the third in Cold Bath fields for patients in the natural way."
124 The Pantheon.
beyond their proper power, affect the dissipated manners of their superiors. Bagnigge Wells and the White Conduit House, two other receptacles of the same kind, with gardens laid out in miniature taste, are to be found within the compass of two or three fields, together with Sadler's Wells, a small theatre for the summer exhibition of tumbling, rope-dancing, and other drolls, in vulgar stile. The tendency of these cheap, enticing places of pleasure just at the skirts of this vast town is too ob- vious to need further explanation ; they swarm with loose women, and with boys, whose morals are thus depraved, and their constitution ruined, before they arrive at manhood ; indeed, the licentious resort to the tea- drinking gardens was carried to such excess every night, that the magistrates lately thought proper to suppress the organs in their public rooms."
There is no doubt but that some of these tea-gardens needed reform ; so much so, that the grand jury of Middlesex, in May, 1744, made a presentment of several places which, in their opinion, were not conducive to the public morality ; and these were two gaming-houses near Covent Garden, kept by the ladies Mordington and Castle ; Sadler'' s Wells near the New River head, the New Wells in Goodman's Fields, the New Wells near the London Spaw in Clerkenwell ; and a place called Hallam's Theatre in Mayfair.
A possibly fair account of these gardens is found in the St. James's Chronicle, May 14-16, 1772 :
" To the Printer of the S. J. Chronicle. "Sir, — Happening to dine last Sunday with a Friend
The Pantheon. 125
in the City, after coming from Church, the Weather being very inviting, we took a walk as far as Islington. In our Return home towards Cold Bath Fields, we stepped in, out of mere Curiosity, to view the Pantheon there ; but such a Scene of Disorder, Riot, and Con- fusion presented itself to me on my Entrance, that I was just turning on my Heel, in order to quit it, when my friend observing to me that we might as well have something for our Money (for the Doorkeeper obliged each of us to deposit a Tester before he granted us Admittance), I acquiesced in his Proposal, and became one of the giddy Multitude. I soon, however, repented of my Choice; for, besides having our Sides almost squeezed together, we were in Danger every Minute of being scalded by the Boiling Water, which the officious Mercuries l were circulating with the utmost Expedition thro' their respective Districts : We began therefore to look out for some Place to sit down in, which, with the greatest Difficulty, we at length procured, and, pro- ducing our Tickets, were served with Twelve penny- worth of Punch. Being seated towards the Front of one of the Galleries, I had now a better Opportunity of viewing this dissipated Scene. The Male Part of the Company seemed to consist chiefly of City Apprentices, and the lower Class of Tradesmen. The Ladies, who constituted by far the greater Part of the Assembly, seemed, most of them, to be Pupils of the Cyprian Goddess, and appeared to be thoroughly acquainted with their Profession, the different Arts and Manoeuvres of which they played off with great Freedom, and I doubt 1 See p. 92.
126 The Pantheon.
not with equal Success. Whatever Quarter I turned my Eyes to, I was sure to be saluted with a Nod, a Wink, or a Smile ; and was even sometimes accosted with, ( Pray, Sir, will you treat me with a Dish of Tea ? ' ... A Bill, I think, was in Agitation this Session of Parliament for enforcing the Laws already made for the better Observance of Sunday. Nothing, in my Opinion, tends more to its Profanation, among the lower Class of People, than the great Number of Tea Houses, in the Environs of London ; the most exceptionable of which that I have had Occasion to be in, is the Pantheon. I could wish them either totally suppressed or else laid under some Restrictions, particularly on the Sabbath Day.
" I am,
" Sir, " Your Constant Reader,
" and occasional Correspondent, " Cbiswicky May 5. Speculator."
This Pantheon was a large circular building sur- mounted by a statue of Fame. It was well warmed by a stove in its centre, and the grounds were prettily laid out. There were the usual walks, flower-beds, and pond, in the centre of which was a statue of Hercules, and, of course, the usual out-of-door refreshment boxes, or arbours. But it is just possible that it was owing to its somewhat disreputable conduct that the landlord became bankrupt in 1774, and the Pantheon was offered for sale. It was closed as a place of amusement in 1776, and the famous Countess of Huntingdon had some
Lady Huntingdon's Chapel. 127
idea of utilizing it for the propagation of her peculiar religious views. However, the sum necessary for alterations, proved too much for her ladyship, yet by a strange mutation of fortune, somewhat akin to what we have seen in our time, in the Grecian Theatre in the City Road, being taken by the Salvation Army, the Pantheon was turned into a Proprietary Chapel, called Northampton Chapel, which was served by clergymen of the Church of England of strictly Evangelical principles, and it filled so well, that the incumbent of the parish church asserted his right to preach there whenever he liked, and also to nominate its chaplains. This the pro- prietors did not quite see, and they closed the chapel. Then Lady Huntingdon bought it, and, henceforth, it was called Spa Fields Chapel.
The illustration : is taken from the New Spiritual Magazine, and I do not think that an uglier building could be produced. Probably the statue of Fame was obliged to be removed, but the ventilator in its place was certainly not an improvement. However, it is now pulled down ; but, before its demolition, it had to pass through the ordeal of more proceedings at law. As long as the chapel was served by clergy, nominally belonging to the Church of England, so long did the incumbent of St. James's, Clerkenwell, assert his right to the patronage of it. The Countess relied on her privilege as a peeress, to appoint her own Chaplain, but this was overridden by competent legal opinion, and nothing was left but for the officiating clergy to secede from the Church of England, and take the oath of
1 See next page.
-111 /J.,*. "'.!j;.i|
:
Lady Huntingdon,
129
•allegiance as Dissenting Ministers. This the Countess did not relish ; she would fain be in the fold, and yet not of the fold, as do many others of this age, but she had to eat the leek. She had the proud privilege of founding a religious sect, and she left the bulk of her large property, after very generous legacies, to .the sup- port of sixty-four chapels which she had established throughout the kingdom. She died at her house in Spa Fields, and was buried at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leices- tershire, " dressed in the suit of white silk which she wore at the opening of a chapel in Goodman's Fields." J
1 Gentlemaii's Magazine, vol. lxi. (1791), p. 589. The Chapel was pulled down in January or February, 1887.
IO
CHAPTER XL
IT is almost impossible to write about anything con- nected with Spa Fields, without mentioning the famous "Spa Fields Riots/' which occurred on Dec. 2, 1 8 16. In every great city there will always be a leaven of disquietude : demagogues who have nothing to lose, but all to gain, will always find an audience for their outpourings ; and, often, the ignorant, and unthinking, have only to be told, by any knave, that they are under- paid, downtrodden, or what not, and they are ready to yell, with their sweet breaths, that they are. So was it then in 18 16.
And it is also remarkable how history repeats itself; for, part of the scheme proposed by the agitators on that day, was exactly similar to the proposals of certain Irishmen and Socialists of our time — teste the following hand-bill, taken from the Times, the newspaper of Dec. 7, 1816.
" Spence's Plan. For Parochial Partnerships in the Land, is the only effectual Remedy for the Distresses
132 The Spencean System.
and Oppression of the People. The Landowners are not Proprietors in Chief; they are but the Stewards of the Public; For the Land is the People's Farm. The Expenses of the Government do not cause the Misery that surrounds us, but the enormous exactions of these ' Unjust Stewards' Landed Monopoly is in- deed equally contrary to the benign spirit of Christianity, and destructive of the Independence and Morality of Mankind.
" ' The Profit of the Earth is for all.'
" Yet how deplorably destitute are the great Mass of the People ! Nor is it possible for their situations to be radically amended, but by the establishment of a system, founded on the immutable basis of Nature and Justice. Experience demonstrates its necessity and the rights of mankind require it for their preservation.
" To obtain this important object, by extending the knowledge of the above system, the Society of Spencean Philanthropists has been instituted. Further informa- tion of it's principles may be obtained by attending any of it's sectional meetings, where subjects are discussed, calculated to enlighten the human understanding, and where, also, the regulations of the society may be pro- cured, containing a Complete development of the Spencean system. Every individual is admitted free of expense, who will conduct himself with decorum.
First Section every Wednesday at the Cock, Grafton Street, Soho. Second „ „ Thursday „ MulberryTree,MulbcrryCt.,
Wilson Street, Moorfields. Third „ „ Monday „ Nag's Head, Carnaby Mrkt.
Fourth ,. „ Tuesday „ No. 8, Lumber St., Mint,
Borough."
Orator Hunt.
l33
There ! does not that read exactly like a modern speech delivered in Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, or Dublin ? Of course it was the old story of Demagogy. The pot boiled, the scum came to the top, and it boiled over, so that, one fine day, there was a riot. It was a period of distress for the working classes, who did not then, as now, swarm into London from all parts of England, and expect Jupiter to help them ; but then, as now, the rich were ever willing to help their poorer brethren, for, in the very same Times newspaper that gives an account of this Spa Fields Riot, there is a list of subscriptions towards the relief of distress in Spitalfields alone, amounting to over £18,000.
The story is one that should be told, because it has its lesson and its parallel in all time. The ruling spirit of the movement was Henry Hunt, generally called Orator Hunt, a man fairly well to do, and who did not agitate for the sake of his daily bread. The occasion of the meeting in Spa Fields, at which some 10,000 people were present, was to receive the answer of the Prince Regent to a petition from the distressed mechanics of London and its vicinity for relief. It was held first of all in front of the " Merlin's Cave " (a name which still survives at 131, Rosomon Street, Clerkenwell), and afterwards in the adjacent fields. The following account of the riots is from the 'Times of Dec. 3, 18 16 :
" As a prelude to the scene that followed, and with the spirit of the ruling demagogue, a person mounted a coal waggon with three flags, on which were inscribed certain mottoes; and, after having harangued a small audience,
134 Orator Hunt.
draughted off from the general body, proceeded to the city, where the acts of violence were perpetrated, which will be found in another part of our paper.
" The speech of this orator, and the conduct of his audience, we shall give in an extract from an evening paper as we were not present at the first part of the drama ourselves.
' " c In the field was a Coal waggon, upon which were mounted about twenty persons, chiefly in the dress of sailors. Several flags were displayed ; two tricoloured ones, on one of which was the following inscription :
" 'Nature, Truth, and Justice ! Feed the Hungry ! Protect the Oppressed ! Punish Crimes ! '
" : On a second tricoloured flag, no inscription. " ' On a third white flag was inscribed in red letters the following :
" ' The brave Soldiers are our Brothers ; treat them kindly.'
" ' Many had bludgeons, and others pockets full of stones. One person in the waggon then addressed the meeting in the following strain : — " I am sorry to tell you that our application to the Prince has failed. He, the father of his people, answered — ' My family have never attended to Petitions but from Oxford and Cam- bridge, and the City of London.' And is this Man the father of the people ? No. Has he listened to your petition ? No. The day is come — (7/ is} It is, from the
Orator Hunt. 135
mob.) We must do more than words. We have been oppressed for 800 years since the Norman Conquest. If they would give ye a hod, a shovel, a spade, and a hoe, your mother earth would supply you. (Aye, aye, she would. Loud Applause.) Country men, if you will have your wrongs redressed, follow me. {'That we will. Shouts.) Wat Tyler would have succeeded had he not been basely murdered by a Lord Mayor, William of Walworth. Has the Parliament done their duty ? No. Has the Regent done his duty ? No, no. A man who receives one million a year public money gives only £5,000 to the poor. They have neglected the starving people, robbed them of everything, and given them a penny. Is this to be endured ? Four millions are in distress ; our brothers in Ireland are in a worse state, the climax of misery is complete, it can go no farther. The Ministers have not granted our rights. Shall we take them ? (Yes, yes, from the mob.) Will you demand them ? (Yes, yes.) If I jump down will you follow me? (Yes, yes, was again vociferated.)."
" ' The persons on the waggon then descended with the flags ; the constables immediately laid hold of the flags. Some persons attempted resistance, and two were therefore taken up forthwith, and sent to prison. The constables succeeded in getting one of the flags.
" ' When the second flag was displayed, it was sup- posed that it headed Mr, Hunt's procession, and there was a loud huzza, which stopped one of the waggon orators for five minutes.'
" [For all the rest we hold ourselves responsible, as it is our own report of what passed.]."
136 Orator Hunt.
The Times then gives in detail a report of the meet- ing, commencing from the arrival of cc Orator " Hunt, who read the correspondence between himself and Lord Sidmouth, and said ; " The statement of Lord Sid- mouth to him was, that neither any King of the House of Brunswick, nor the Prince Regent, since he had attained sovereign power, ever gave any answer to petitions except they came from the Corporation of the City of London, or from the two Universities which had the privilege of being heard, and answered from the throne. ' If I were to carry your present petition to the levee (added his lordship) I should deliver it into his Royal Highness's hand, make my bow, and walk on ; and if you, yourself, Mr. Hunt, were to appear, you would do just the same thing ; you would deliver your petition, make your bow, and pass on.' This, Gentlemen, is a little more about Court matters than I was aware of before. (Loud laughter and applause.) The meeting had the consolation to think, that, if their petition was not answered by the Prince Regent, it had met with no worse fate than other petitions presented to the House of Hanover since the accession of this family to the throne. (Applause.)
<c He expected to have seen this day a deputation from the Soup Committee, for the purpose of returning thanks to this meeting for obtaining the ^5,000 which the Prince Regent had granted. (Great applause.) He was convinced that it was owing to the exertions and patriotism of the last assembly in those fields that his Royal Highness was induced to give this pittance : but his Royal Highness had not gone the full length of the
Riot in the City. 137
requests which had then been made. It was required that he should bestow on the inhabitants of the metropolis £2 or 300,000 out of the Civil List ; but, instead of this, what had been done ? Some enemy to his country, some corrupt minister had persuaded his Royal Highness to send £5000 out of the Droits of the Admiralty, which properly belonged to the sailors : those droits, the piratical seizing of which had caused so much bloodshed, and the loss of so many British lives."
This was the sort of fustian that was talked then, as now, and probably always will be, to an ignorant mob ; and, as a natural sequence, words begot actions. Blind — foolishly blind — the idiotic mob marched towards the City, not knowing why, or what advantage they were to gain by so doing. Naturally, there were thieves about, and they plundered the shop of Mr. Beckwith, a gunmaker, in Skinner Street, Snow Hill, shooting a gentleman, named Piatt, who happened to be in the shop, at the time.
At the Royal Exchange> the Lord Mayor, Sir James Shaw, with his own hands, seized a man, who was bearing a flag, and the mob, unable to force the gates, fired inside; but as far as I can learn, without effect. Foiled in the attempt to sack, or destroy the Exchange, by the arrival of some civil force to the assistance of his Lordship, they moved on, seemingly aimlessly, towards the Tower : why — unless it was to supply themselves with arms — no one can guess. Of course, if they had tried to take it, they could not have accom-
138 Riots.
plished their purpose, but it never came to that. They stole a few guns from two gunmakers in the Minories, Messrs. Brander and Rea; and then this gathering of rogues and fools dispersed, and the nine days' wonder was over.
As usual, nothing was gained by violence. Socialism certainly did not advance — nor was any more employ- ment found for anybody — and the thing fizzled out. But it was not the fault of the agitators. Let us read a short extract from a leading article in the 'Times of December 4, 18 16: —
"As to the foreseeing what was to happen — have we forgotten Mr. Hunt's advice on the first day to petition, then, if that failed to resort to physical force. They did petition, and he calls them together to tell them that their petition has failed ; and yet it is to be supposed that he foresees on their part no resort to physical force ! Why! this would be trifling with the understanding of an infant. But the second time Mr. Hunt said nothing about physical force ! Oh, no. Whilst the bloody business was in hand by his myrmidons in Newgate Street, and at the Royal Exchange — whilst an innocent gentleman was in the hands of his assassins — whilst the life of the Chief Magistrate of the city was attacked by ruffians, the first inciter to the use of physical force was coolly haranguing on the comparative merits of himself and his hunter, in Spa Fields. What ! did anybody expect that he would get up, and accuse himself openly of high treason ? Did Catiline, in the Roman Senate, avow his parricidal intentions
End of Riots.
39
against his country ? But, to quit Mr. Hunt for awhile, let us recall to the recollection of our readers, the incendiary handbills thrust under the doors of public houses, several weeks ago. A copy of one of them was inserted in our paper of the ist of last month ; but, at the time it did not command that attention which its real importance perhaps deserved. It was of the following tenour : — ' Britons to arms ! Break open all gun and sword shops, pawnbrokers, and other likely places to find arms. No rise of bread, &c. No Castlereagh. Off with his head. No National Debt. The whole country waits the signal from London to fly to arms. Stand firm now or never. — N.B. Printed bills containing further directions, will be circulated as soon as possible.' "
I have dwelt thus at length on these Spa Fields riots because the Socialistic and Communistic development therein contained, runs fairly parallel with our own times ; and it is comforting to know, that in this case, as in all others in England, the movement was purely evanescent ; the love of law and order being too deeply seated in the breasts of Englishmen. Nay, in this case, the butchers from the shambles in Whitechapel attacked the mob, and compelled them to give up their arms, " which the butchers express a wish to retain, as trophies and proofs of their loyalty and courage." Hunt fizzled out, and returned to his previous non- entity.
CHAPTER XII
STILL continuing the downward course of the Fleet, an historical place is reached, " Hockley- in-the-Hole," or Hollow, so famous for its rough sports of bear baiting and sword and cudgel playing. The combative nature of an Englishman is curious, but it is inbred in him ; sometimes it takes the form of " writing to the papers," some- times of going to law, sometimes of " punching " somebody's head ; in many it ends in a stubborn fight against difficulties to be overcome — but, anyhow, I can- not deny that an Englishman is pugnacious by nature. Hear what Misson, an intelligent French traveller, who visited England in the reign of William III., says: " Anything that looks like fighting is delicious to an Englishman. If two little Boys quarrel in the Street, the Passengers stop, make a Ring round them in a Moment, and set them against one another, that they may come to Fisticuffs. When 'tis come to a Fight, each pulls off his Neckcloth and his Waistcoat, and
142 Fighting.
give them to hold to some of the Standers by : then they begin to brandish their Fists in the Air ; the Blows are aim'd all at the Face, they Kick at one another's Shins, they tug one another by the Hair, &c. He that has got the other down may give him one Blow or two before he rises, but no more ; and, let the Boy get up ever so often, the other is obliged to box him again as often as he requires it. During the Fight, the Ring of Bystanders encourage the Combatants with great Delight of Heart, and never part them while they fight according to the Rules. The Father and Mother of the Boys let them fight on as well as the rest, and hearten him that gives Ground, or has the Worst." This was about 1700; and, if it was so in the green tree (or boy), what would it be in the dry (or man) ? I am afraid our ancestors were not over-refined. They did not all cram for examinations, and there were no Girton girls in those days, neither had they analytical novels : so that, to a certain extent, we must make allowances for them. Tea and coffee were hardly in use for breakfast, and men and women had a certain amount of faith in beer and beef, which may have had something to do in forming their tastes. Anyhow, the men were manly, and the women not a whit worse than they are now ; and woe be to the man that insulted one. A code of honour was then in existence, and every gentleman carried with him the means of enforcing it. Therefore, up to a certain limit, they were com- bative, and not being cigarette-smoking mashers, and not being overburdened with novels and periodicals, and club smoking and billiard rooms being unknown,
HOCKLEY-IN-THE-HOLE. 143
they enjoyed a more physical existence than is led by the young men of the theatrical stalls of the present day, and attended Sword and Cudgel playing, and Bull and Bear baiting, together with lighting an occasional main of Cocks. It might be very wrong ; but then they had not our advantages of being able to criticize the almost unhidden charms of the " chorus," or descant on the merits of a " lemon squash," so that, as man must have some employment, they acted after their lights, and I do not think we can fairly blame them.
For Londoners, a favourite place, early in the eighteenth century, for rough sports, was Hockley-in- the-Hole. Here was bear and bull baiting for the public, a fact that was so well known, according to Gay,1 that
"Experienc'd Men, inur'd to City Ways, Need not the Calendar to count their Days. When through the Town, with slow and solemn Air, Led by the Nostril walks the muzzled Bear ; Behind him moves, majestically dull, The Pride of Hockley Hole, the surly Bull ; Learn hence the Periods of the Week to name, Mondays and Thursdays are the Days of Game."
Even earlier than Gay, Hockley-in-the-Hole is mentioned by Butler in his " Hudibras " 2 in somewhat gruesome fashion : —
"But Trulla straight brought on the Charge, And in the selfsame Limbo put The Knight and Squire, where he was shut, Where leaving them in Hockley-i'-th'-Hole, Their Bangs and Durance to condole."
1 "Trivia," book ii. 2 Book iii. line i.cco, &c.
I44 Bear Baiting.
But Butler also talks of Bear baiting, both in the first and second cantos of " Hudibras," especially in canto the first, where, beginning at line 6*/$, he says:
But now a Sport more formidable
Had rak'd together Village Rabble :
'Twas an old Way of recreating —
Which learned Butchers call Beai-Baitin<
A bold advent'rous Exercise,
With ancient Heroes in high Prize 5
For Authors do affirm it came
From Isthmian or Nemean Game ;
Others derive it from the Bear
That's fix'd in Northern Hemisphere,
And round about the Pole does make
A Circle like a Bear at Stake.
That at the Chain's End wheels about,
And overturns the Rabble Rout.
For, after solemn Proclamation
In the Bear's Name (as is the Fashion
According to the Law of Arms,
To keep men from inglorious Harms)
That none presume to come so near
As forty Foot of Stake of Bear ;
If any yet be so foolhardy
T' expose themselves to vain Jeopardy 5
If they come wounded off, and lame,
No honour's got by such a Maim ;
Altho' the Bear gain much ; b'ing bound
In Honour to make good his Ground,
When he's engag'd and takes no Notice,
If any press upon him, who 'tis,
But let's them know, at their own Cost,
That he intends to keep his Post."
Bear baiting was so identified, as a sport, to the
Bear Gardens.
H5
London Citizens who frequented Hockley- in-the-Hole, that we read that in 1709 Christopher Preston, who then kept the Bear Garden, was attacked and partly eaten by one of his own bears.
Bear Gardens are proverbially rough, and this place was no exception ; but there were two others in London where bears were baited, one at Marrybone Fields (at the back of Soho Square), and at Tuttle or Tothill Fields, at Westminster — thus showing the popularity of the Sports, which was not declared illegal until 1835.
Of course in these our days, we know nothing of bear baiting, and if a Pyrenean bear were now taken about the country, as I have frequently seen them, even if he " danced to the genteelest of tunes," his proprietor would be in danger of the judgment — some dear molly- coddling old woman in trousers, belonging to some special "faddy" society, being always ready to pro- secute.
Bears not, at present, being indigenous to Britain, were naturally scarce, so the homely and offensive Bull had to afford rough sport to the multitude, and several towns now bear testimony to the popularity of the sport of bull baiting in their " Bull rings" (Birmingham, to wit). In the fourteenth century we know that even horses were baited with dogs, and as long as fox hunting, coursing, or wild stag hunting, are recognized as sports among us, I fail to see the superior cruelty of our ancestors. It may be that people imagine that the larger the animal, the greater the cruelty ; but I cannot see it. Anyhow, far earlier than the Bear garden of Hockley-in-the-Hole, both bear and bull baiting were
11
146 Bear Baiting.
not only popular, but aristocratic amusements. Erasmus, who visited England in Henry VIII. 's time, speaks oi many herds of bears being kept for baiting ; and when Queen Mary visited her sister the Princess Elizabeth, they were " right well content " with the bear baiting. Nay, when she became Queen, Elizabeth was a great patron of the sport ; for when, on May 25, 1559, sne entertained the French Ambassadors, as an after-dinner spectacle; she gave them some bull and bear baiting. Her delight in this diversion did not decrease with age, for, twenty-seven years later, she provided the same amusement for the delectation of the Danish Ambas- sador. Paul Hentzner, who visited England in 1598, speaking of this sport, says: — "There is still another Place, built in the Form of a Theatre, which serves for the baiting of Bulls and Bears ; they are fastened behind, and then worried by the great English Bull dogs ; but not without great Risque to the Dogs, from the Horns of the one, and the Teeth of the other ; and it sometimes happens they are killed upon the Spot; fresh ones are immediately supplied in the Place of those that are wounded, or tired. To this Entertain- ment there often follows that of whipping a blinded Bear, which is performed by five or six Men standing circularly with Whips, which they exercise upon him without any Mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his Chain ; he defends himself with all his Force and Skill, throwing down all who come within his Reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the Whips out of their Hands, and break- ing them."
Bull Baiting. 147
And, again are we indebted to a foreigner for a de- scription of a bull baiting, thus realizing Burns' aspiration seeing cf oursen as others see us," vide Misson.
" Here follows the Manner of those Bull Baitings which are so much talk'd of: They tie a Rope to the Root of the Ox or Bull, and fasten the other End of the Cord to an Iron Ring flx'd to a Stake driven into the Ground ; so that this Cord being 15 Foot long, the Bull is con- fin'd to a Sphere of about 30 Foot Diameter. Several Butchers, or other Gentlemen, that are desirous to exer- cise their Dogs, stand round about, each holding his own by the Ears ; and, when the Sport begins, they let loose one of the Dogs ; The Dog runs at the Bull : the Bull immovable, looks down upon the Dog with an Eye of Scorn, and only turns a Horn to him to hinder him from coming near : the Dog is not daunted at this, he runs round him, and tries to get beneath his Belly, in order to seize him by the Muzzle, or the Dew lap, or the pendant Glands : The Bull then puts himself into a Posture of Defence ; he beats the Ground with his Feet, which he joins together as close as possible, and his chief Aim is not to gore the Dog with the Point of his Horn, but to slide one of them under the Dog's Belly (who creeps close to the Ground to hinder it) and to throw him so high in the Air that he may break his Neck in the Fall. This often happens : When the Dog thinks he is sure of fixing his Teeth, a turn of the Horn, which seems to be done with all the Negligence in the World, gives him a Sprawl thirty Foot high, and puts him in danger of a damnable Squelch when he comes down. This danger would be unavoidable, if the Dog's Friends
148 Bull Baiting.
were not ready beneath him, some with their Backs to give him a soft Reception, and others with long Poles which they offer him slant ways, to the Intent that, sliding down them, it may break the Force of his Fall. Notwithstanding all this care, a Toss generally makes him sing to a very scurvy Tune, and draw his Phiz into a pitiful Grimace : But, unless he is totally stunn'd with the Fall, he is sure to crawl again towards the Bull, with his old Antipathy, come on't what will. Some- times a second Frisk into the Air disables him for ever from playing his old Tricks ; But, sometimes, too, he fastens upon his Enemy, and when he has seiz'd him with his Eye teeth, he sticks to him like a Leech, and would sooner die than leave his Hold. Then the Bull bellows, and bounds, and Kicks about to shake off the Dog ; by his Leaping the Dog seems to be no Manner of Weight to him, tho in all Appearance he puts him to great Pain. In the End, either the Dog tears out the Piece he has laid Hold on, and falls, or else remains flx'd to him, with an Obstinacy that would never end, if they did not pull him off. To call him away, would be in vain ; to give him a hundred blows would be as much so ; you might cut him to Pieces Joint by Joint before he would let him loose. What is to be done then ? While some hold the Bull, others thrust Staves into the Dog's Mouth, and open it by main Force. This is the only Way to part them."
But the dogs did not always get the best of it — many a one was gored and killed by the bull. Cruelty, how- ever, would scarcely rest content with simple bull baiting. It was improved upon, as we see in the following
Bull Baiting. 149
advertisement. cc At the Bear Garden in Hockley in the Hole, 17 10. This is to give notice to all Gentle- men, Gamsters, and Others, That on this present Mon- day is a Match to be fought by two Dogs, one from Newgate Market against one of Honey Lane Market, at a Bull, for a Guinea to be spent. Five Let goes out off Hand, which goes fairest and farthest in, Wins all ; like wise a Green Bull to be baited, which was never baited before, and a Bull to be turned loose with Fire works all over him ; also a Mad Ass to be baited ; With variety of Bull baiting, and Bear baiting ; and a Dog to be drawn up with Fire works." l
I cannot, however, consider this as an ordinary pro- gramme, and it was evidently so considered at the time ; for a book was advertised in the Tatler, January 3-5, 1 709 ( 1 7 10) : — c< This Day is published The Bull Baiting
or Sach ll2 dressed up in Fire works ; lately brought
over from the Bear Garden in Southwark, and exposed for the Diversion of the Citizens of London : at 6d. a piece/' But Steele in No. cxxxiv. of the Tatler, con- demns the cruelty of the age, and says he has " often wondered that we do not lay aside a custom which makes us appear barbarous to nations much more rude and unpolished than ourselves. Some French writers have represented this diversion of the common people much to our disadvantage, and imputed it to natural fierceness and cruelty of temper, as they do some other entertainments peculiar to our nation: I mean those elegant diversions of bull baiting and prize fighting, with the like ingenious recreations of the Bear-garden.
1 Harl. MSS. 5931, 46. 2 Dr. Sacheverell.
150 Bull Baiting.
I wish I knew how to answer this reproach which is cast upon us, and excuse the death of so many innocent cocks, bulls, dogs, and bears, as have been set together by the ears, or died untimely deaths, only to make us sport."
Of all the places where these cruel pastimes were practised, certainly Hockley-in-the-Hole, bore off the palm for blackguardism ; and it is thus mentioned in an essay of Steele's in the Hatler (No. xxviii.), "I have myself seen Prince Eugene make Catinat fly from the backside of Grays Inn Lane to Hockley-in-the-Hole, and not give over the pursuit, until obliged to leave the Bear Garden, on the right, to avoid being borne down by fencers, wild bulls, and monsters, too terrible for the encounter of any heroes, but such as their lives are live- lihood." To this mention of Hockley-in the-Hole, there is, in an edition of 1789, a footnote (p. 274), <c There was a sort of amphitheatre here, dedicated originally to bull-baiting, bear-baiting, prize fighting, and all other sorts of rough-game ; and it was not only attended by butchers, drovers, and great crowds of all sorts of mobs, but likewise by Dukes, Lords, Knights, Squires, &c. There were seats particularly set apart for the quality, ornamented with old tapestry hangings, into which none were admitted under half a crown at least. Its neighbourhood was famous for sheltering thieves, pick- pockets, and infamous women ; and for breeding bull- dogs."
Bull baiting died hard, and in one famous debate in the House of Commons, on 24th of May, 1802, much eloquence was wasted on the subject, both pro. and con.>
Sword Play.
5i
one hon. gentleman (the Right Hon. W. Windham, M.P. for Norwich), even trying to prove that the bull enjoyed the baiting. Said he, cc It would be ridiculous to say he felt no pain ; yet, when on such occasions he ex- hibited no signs of terror, it was a demonstrable proof that he felt some pleasure." Other hon. gentlemen de- fended it on various grounds, and, although Wilberforce and Sheridan spoke eloquently in favour of the abolition of the practice, they were beaten, on a division, by which decision Parliament inflicted a standing disgrace, for many years, upon the English Nation.
Hockley-in-the-Hole was not only the temple of S. S. Taurus et Canis ; but the genus Homo, type gladiator ', was there in his glory. It was there that sword play was best shown, but we do not hear much of it before William the Third, or Anne's reign, or that of George I., when the redoubtable Figg was the Champion swords- man of England. As Hockley-in-the-Hole belongs to the Fleet River, so do these gladiatorial exhibitions belong to Hockley-in-the-Hole. J have treated of them once,1 and on looking back, with the knowledge that many of my readers may not have seen that book, and having nothing better in the space allotted to this peculiar spot, to offer them (for I then drew my best on the subject) I quote, with apologies, from myself.
" In those days, when every one with any pretensions to gentility wore a sword, and duelling was rife, it is no wonder that exhibitions of skill in that weapon were favourites. Like modern prize fights, they drew to-
1 " Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne," by John Ashton (Chatto and Windus).
152 Sword Play.
gether all the scum and riff-raff, as well as the gentry, who were fond of so-called sport. They were dis- reputable affairs, and were decried by every class of contemporary. The preliminaries were swagger and bounce, as one or two out of a very large number will show.1
" ' At the Bear Garden in Hockley-in-the-Hole.
'c * A Tryal of Skill to be Performed between two Profound Masters of the Noble Science of Defence on Wednesday next, being this 13th of the instant July, 1709, at Two of the Clock precisely.
" ' I, George Gray, born in the City of Norwich, who has Fought in most Parts of the West Indies, viz., Jamaica, Barbadoes, and several other Parts of the World; in all Twenty-five times, upon a Stage, and was never yet Worsted, and now lately come to London , do invite James Harris, to meet and Exercise at these following Weapons, viz. :
Back Sword, Sword and Dagger ', Sword and Buckler,
Single Falchon
and Case of Falchons*
" * I, James Harris, Master of the said Noble Science of Defence, who formerly rid in the Horse Guards, and hath Fought a Hundred and Ten Prizes, and never left a Stage to any Man ; will not fail, (God Willing) to meet this brave and bold Inviter, at the Time and Place appointed, desiring Sharp swords, and from him no Favour.
1 Harl. MSS. 5931, 50.
Sword Play. 153
tc ' tStNote. No persons to be upon the Stage but the Seconds. Vivat ReginaJ '
This is not the only available advertisement, but it is a typical one, and will serve for all.
" The challenger would wager some twenty or thirty pounds, and the stakes would be deposited and delivered to the Challenged : the challenger receiving the money * taken at the door, or as we should term it, gate money ; which, frequently, twice or thrice exceeded the value of the stakes.
" There is one remarkable exception, I have found, to this monetary arrangement, but it is the only one in my experience. For, in an advertisement of the usual character, there comes : { Note. — That John Stokes fights James Harris, and Thomas Hesgate fights John Terriwest, three Bouts each at Back Sword, for Love.'
"Preliminaries arranged, handbills printed and dis- tributed, the Combat duly advertised in at least one newspaper, and the day arrived ; like the bull and bear, the combatants paraded the streets, precede^ by a drum, having their sleeves tucked up, and their Swords in hand. All authorities agree that the fights were, to a certain extent, serious.2 < The Edge of the Sword was a little blunted, and the Care of the Prize-fighters was not so much to avoid wounding each other, as to avoid doing it dangerously : Nevertheless, as they were oblig'd to fight till some Blood was shed, without which no Body would give a Farthing for the Show, they were sometimes forc'd to play a little ruffly. I once 1 Dc Sorbiere. 2 Misson.
154 Sword Play.
saw a much deeper and longer Cut given than was intended.'
" Ward r gives a short description of one of these fights : c Great Preparations at the Bear Garden all Morning, for the noble Tryal of Skill that is to be play'd in the Afternoon. Seats fill'd and crowded by- Two. Drums beat. Dogs yelp. Butchers and Foot soldiers clatter their Sticks ; At last the two heroes, in their fine borrow'd Holland Shirts, mount the Stage about Three ; Cut large Collops out of one another, to divert the Mob, and Make Work for the Surgeons : Smoking, Swearing, Drinking, Thrusting, Justling, Elbowing, Sweating, Kicking, Cuffing, all the while the Company stays.'
Steele gives a good account of a prize fight : 2 ' The Combatants met in the Middle of the Stage, and, shaking Hands, as removing all Malice, they retired with much Grace to the Extremities of it ; from whence they immediately faced about, and approached each other. Miller, with an Heart full of Resolution, Buck, with a watchful, untroubled Countenance; Buck regarding principally his own Defence, Miller chiefly thoughtful of his Opponent. It is not easie to describe the many Escapes and imperceptible Defences between Two Men of Ouick Eyes, and ready Limbs ; but Miller s Heat laid him open to the Rebuke of the calm Buck, by a large Cut on the Forehead Much EfTusion of Blood covered his Eyes in a Moment, and the Huzzas of the Crowd undoubtedly quickened his Anguish. The
1 "Comical View of London and Westminster."
2 Spectator, No. 436.
Sword Play. 155
Assembly was divided into Parties upon their different ways of Fighting : while a poor Nymph in one of the Galleries apparently suffered for Miller > and burst into a Flood of Tears. As soon as his Wound was wrapped up, he came on again in a little Rage, which still dis- abled him further. But what brave Man can be wounded with more Patience and Caution ? The next was a warm eager Onset, which ended in a decisive Stroke on the Left Leg of Miller. The Lady in the Gallery, during the second Strife, covered her face ; and for my Part, I could not keep my thoughts from being mostly employed on the Consideration of her unhappy Circumstances that Moment, hearing the Clash of Swords, and apprehending Life or Victory concerned her Lover in every Blow, but not daring to satisfie herself on whom they fell. The Wound was exposed to the View of all who could delight in it, and sowed up on the Stage. The surly Second of Miller declared at this Time, that he would, that Day Fortnight, fight Mr. Buck at the Same Weapons, declaring himself the Master of the renowned German ; but Buck denied him the Honour of that Courageous Disciple, and, asserting that he himself had taught that Champion, accepted the Challenge."
In No. 449, of the Spectator, is the following letter re Hockley- in- the- Hole : —
cc Mr. Spectator, — I was the other day at the Bear- garden, in hopes to have seen your short face ; but not being so fortunate, I must tell you by way of letter, that there is a mystery among the gladiators which has
156 Sword Play.
escaped your spectatorial penetration. For, being in a Box at an Alehouse, near that renowned Seat or Honour above mentioned, I overheard two Masters of the Science agreeing to quarrel on the next Opportunity. This was to happen in the Company of a Set of the Fraternity of Basket Hilts, who were to meet that Evening. When that was settled, one asked the other, Will you give Cuts, or receive ? the other answered, Receive. It was replied, Are