Haunted London ... Illustrated by F. W. Fairholt

Front matter

,*,V S a De. Johnson's Opinions of London. — "It is not in the showy evolution of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations, that the wonderful immensity of London consists. . . . The happiness of London ie not to be con ceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say there is more learning and science within the circumference of where we now sit than in all the rest of the kingdom. ... A man stores his mind [in London] better than anywhere else. ... No place cures a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London, for no man is either great or good, per se, but, as compared with others, not so good or great, and he is sure to find in the metropolis many his equals and some his superiors. ... No man of letters leaves London without regret. ... By seeing London I have seen as much of life as the world can show. . . .

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all life can afford, and [London] is the fountain of intelligence and pleasure." — Boswell' s Life of fohnson. Boswell's Opinion of London.— "I have often amused myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium, a politician thinks of it merely as the seat of govern ment, &c. ; but the intellectual man is struck with it as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inex haustible." — Boswell's Life of Johnson (Croker, 1848), p. 144. l;Y WALTER THORNBURY. TH.IPLE BAK. 1701. ILLUSTRATED BY F. W. FA1RHOLT, F.S.A. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCES.SOES TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOBOUGH STEEET. 1865. TJte right of Translation in reserved. LONDON : 3AVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

Preface

. HIS book deals not so much with the London of the ghost-stories, the scratching impostor in Cock-lane, or the apparition of Parson Ford at the Hummums, as with the London consecrated by manifold traditions — a city every street and alley of which teems with interesting associations, every paving-stone of which marks, as it were, the abiding-place of some ancient legend or biographical story; in short, this London of the present haunted by the memories of the past. The slow changes of time, the swifter destructions of im provement, and the inevitable necessities of modern civilization, are rapidly remodelling London. It took centuries to turn the bright, swift little rivulet of the Fleet into a fetid sewer, years to transform the palace at Bridewell into a prison ; but events now move faster : the alliance of money with enterprise, and the absence of any orga nized resistance to needful though sometimes rather reckless improvements, all combine to hurry forward modern changes.

If an alderman of the last century could arise from his sleep, he would shudder to see the scars and wounds from which London is now suffering. Viaducts stalk over our chief roads; great square tubes of iron lie heavy as night mares on the breast of Ludgate-hill. In Finsbury and Blackfriars there are now to be seen yawning chasms as large Preface. VI and ghastly as any that breaching cannon ever effected in the walls of a besieged city. On every hand legendary houses, great men's birthplaces, the haunts of poets, the scenes of martyrdoms, and the battle-fields of old factions, heave and totter around us. The tombs of great men, in the chinks of which the nettles have grown undisturbed ever since the Great Fire, are now being uprooted. Milton's house has become part of the " Punch" office. A printing machine clanks where Chatterton was buried.

Almost every moment some building worthy of record is shattered by the pickaxes of ruthless labourers. The noise of falling houses and uprooted streets even now in my ears tells me how busily Time, the Destroyer and the Improver, is working; erasing tombstones, blotting out names on street-doors, battering down narrow streets, effacing one by one the memories of the good, the bad, the illustrious, and the infamous. ■V sincere love of the subject, and a strong conviction of the importance of the preservation of such facts as I have dredged up from the Sea of Oblivion, have given me heart for my work. The gradual changes of Old London, and the progress of civilization westward, are worth noting by all students of the social history of England. It will be found that many traits of character, many anecdotes of interest as illustrating biography, are essentially connected with the habi tations of the great men who have either been born in London or have resorted to it as the centre of progress, art, commerce, government, learning, and culture.

The fact ofthe residence of a poet, a painter, a lawyer, or even a rogue, at any definite date, will often serve to point out the social status he either aimed at or had acquired. It helps also to show the exact relative distinctions in fashion and popularity of different parts of London at particular epochs, and contributes to form an illustrated history of London, proceeding not by mere pro gression of time, and dealing with the abstract city — the whole Preface. VII entity of London — but marching through street after street, and detailing local history by districts at a time. A century after the martyrs of the Covenant had shed their blood for the good old cause, an aged man, mounted on a little rough pony, used periodically to make the tour of their graves ; with a humble and pious care he would scrape out the damp green moss that filled up the letters once so sharp and clear, cut away the thorny arches of the brambles, tread down the thick, prickly undergrowth of nettles, and leave the brave names of the dead men open to the sunlight.

It is something like this that I have sought to do with London traditions. I have especially endeavoured in no single case to mix truth with fiction. I have never failed to give, where it was prac ticable, the actual words of my authorities, rather than run the risk of warping or distorting a quotation even by acci dent, or losing the flavour and charm of original testimony. Aware of the paramount value of sound and verified facts, I have not stopped to play with words and colours, nor to sketch imaginary groups and processions. Such pictures are often false and only mislead; but a fact proved, illustrated, and rendered accessible by index and heading, is, however unpretentious, a contribution to history, and has a value to certain inquirers that no time can lessen. In a comprehensive work, dealing with so many thousand dates, and introducing on the stage so many human beings, it is almost impossible to have escaped errors.

I can only plead for myself that I have spared no pains to discover the truth. I have had but one object in view, that of rendering a walk through London a journey of interest and a pilgrimage to many shrines. In some cases I have intentionally passed over, or all but passed over, outlying streets that I thought belonged more especially to districts alien to my present plan. Maiden-lane, for example, with its memories of Voltaire, Marvell, and Preface. VIII Turner, belongs rather to a chapter on Covent Garden, of which it is a palpable appanage; and Chancery -lane I have left till I come to Fleet-street. I should be ungrateful indeed if, in conclusion, I did not thank Mr. Fairholt warmly for his careful and valuable drawings on wood. To that accomplished antiquary I am indebted, as my readers will see, for several original sketches of bygone places, and for many curious illustrations which I should certainly not have obtained without the aid of his learning and research.

I need not thank my predecessors in detail, for my repeated acknowledgments to them are recorded in innumerable foot-notes. It is in humble aid and furtherance of the efforts already made in the same direction that I ask the public to accept this volume of Haunted London. Furnival's Inn, Feb. 1865. CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Temple Bar

The Devil Tavern — London Bankers and Goldsmiths — A "Whim of John Bushnell, the Sculptor — Irritating Processions— The Bonfire at Inner Temple Gate — A Barbarous Custom — Called to the Bar — A Curious Old Print of 1746 — The White Cockades — An Execution on Eennington Common — Shenstone's " Jemmy Dawson" — Counsellor Layer — Dr. Johnson in the Abbey — The Proclamation of the Peace of Amiens — The Dispersion of the Armada — City Pageants and Festivities— The Guildhall— The Guildhall Twin Giants— Proclamation of War — A Reflection pp. 5—25

Chapter III. The Strand

(SOUTH SIDE). Essex-street — Beheading a Bishop — Exeter Place — The Gipsy Earl — Running a-muck — Lettice Enollys — A Portrait of Essex — Robert, Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary General — The Poisoning of Overbury — An Epicurean Doctor — Clubable Men — The Grecian — The Templar's Lounge — Tom's Coffee-house — A Princely Collector — "The Long Strand" — "Honest Shippen" — Boswell's Enthusiasm — Sale and the Koran — The Infamous Lord Mohun — A Fine Rebuke— Jacob Tonson pp. 26—58

Chapter IV. Somerset House

The Protector Somerset — Denmark House — The Queen's French Servants — The Lying-in-State 'of Cromwell — Scenes at Somerset House — Sir Edmondbury Godfrey — Old Somerset House — Erection of the Modern Building — Carlini's Grandeur — A Hive of Red Tapists — Expensive Auditing — The Royal Society — The Geological and the Antiquarian Societies — A Legend of Somerset House — St. Martin's-lane Academy — An Insult to Engravers — Rebecca's Practical Jokes — A Fashionable Man actually Surprised — Lying in State Pl»- 59—86 Contents. X

Chapter V. The Strand

(SOUTH SIDE, CONTINUED). The Folly— Fountain-court and Tavern— The Coal-hole— The Kit-cat Club— Coutts's Bank— The Eccentric Philosopher— Old Salisbury House— Robert the Devil— Little Salisbury House— Toby Matthew —Ivy Bridge— The Strand Exchange— Durham House— Poor Lady Jane— The Parochial Mind— A Strange Coalition— Garrick's Haunt —Shipley's School of Art— Barry's Temper— The Celestial Bed- Sir William Curtis PP- 87—111

Chapter VI. The Savov

The Earl of Savoy— John Wickliffe— A French King Prisoner— The Kentish Rebellion— John of Gaunt— The Hospital of St. John— Cowley 's Regrets — Secret Marriages — Conference between Church of England and Presbyterian Divines — An Illegal Sanctuary — A Lampooned General — A Fat Adonis — John Rennie — Waterloo Bridge— The Duchy of Lancaster ... pp. 112—133

Chapter VII. From The Savoy To Charing Cross

York House — Lord Bacon — " To the Man with an Orchard give an Apple" — " Steenie" — Buckingham-street — Zimri — York-stairs — Pepys and Etty — Scenery on the Banks of the Thames — The London Lodging of Peter the Great — The Czar and the Quakers — The Hungerford Family — The Suspension Bridge — Grinling Gibbons — The Two Smiths — Cross Readings — Northumberland-street — Armed Clergymen . . . pp. 134 — 152

Chapter VIII. The North Side Of The Strand

(FROM TEMPLE BAR TO CHARING CROSS). Faithorne, the Engraver — The Stupendous Arch — The Murder of Miss Ray — One of Wren's Churches — Thomas Rymer — Dr. Johnson at Contents. XI Church — Shallow's Revelry — Low Comedy Preachers — New Inn — Alas ! poor Yoriek ! — The first Hackney Coaches — Doyley — The Beef-steak Club — Beef and Liberty — Madame Vestris — Old Thom son — Irene in a Garret — Mathews at the Adelphi — The Bad Points of Mathews's Acting — The Old Adelphi — A Riot in a Theatre — Dr. Johnson's Eccentricities .... pp. 153 — 198

Chapter IX. Charing Cross

The Gunpowder Plot — Lord Herbert's Chivalry — A Schoolboy Legend — Goldsmith's Audience — Dobson Buried in a Garret — Charing — Queen Eleanor — A Brave Ending — Great-hearted Colonel Jones — King Charles at Charing Cross — A Turncoat — A Trick of Curll's — The Cock-lane Ghost — Savage the Poet— The Mews — The Nelson Column — The Trafalgar-square Fountains — Want of Pictures of the English School — Turner's Pictures — Mrs. Centlivre, of Spring-gardens — Maginn's Verses— The Hermitage at Charing Cross — Ben Jonson's Grace — The Promised Land . . . pp. 199 — 253

Chapter X. St

MARTIN' S LANE. A Certain Proof of Insanity — An Eccentric Character — Experimentum Crucis — St. Martin's-in-the-Fields — Gibbs's Opportunity — St. Martin's Church — Good Company — The Thames Watermen — Copper Holmes — Old Slaughter's — Gardelle the Murderer — Hogarth's Quack — St. Martin's-lane Academy — Hayman's Jokes — The Old Watch-house and Stocks — Garrick's Tricks — An Encourager of Art — John Wilkes — The Royal Society of Literature — The Artist Quarter -PP* 254—277

Chapter XI. Long Acre And Its Tributaries

The Plague — Great Queen-street — Burning Panama — Lord Herbert's Poetry — Kneller's Vanity — Conway House — Winchester House — Ryan the Actor — An Eminent Scholar and Antiquary — Miss Pope — The Freemasons' Hall — Gentleman Lewis — Franklin's Self-denial — The Gordon Riots — Colonel Cromwell — An Eccentric Poetaster— Black Will's Rough Repartee— Ned Ward— Prior's Humble Cell — Stothard — The Mug-houses— Charles Lamb pp. 278—305 Contents. XII

Chapter XII. Drurt Lane

Drury House— Donne's Vision— Donne in his Shroud— The Queen of Bohemia— Brave Lord Craven — An Anecdote of Gondomar — Drury-lane Poets— Nell Gwynn— Zoffany— The King's Company- Memoranda by Pepys— Anecdotes of Joe Haines — Mrs. Oldfield's Good Sense— The Wonder of the Town— Quin and Garrick— Barry and Garrick— The Bellamy— The Siddons— Dicky Suett— Liston's Hypochondria — The First Play — Elliston's Tears— The End of a Man about Town— Edmund Kean— Grimaldi— Kelly and Malibran — Keeley and Harley — Scenes at Drury Lane — " Wicked Will Whiston" — Henley's Butchers — " II faut vivre "—Henley's Sermons— The Leaden Seals .... pp. 306—371

Chapter XIII

st. Giles's. The Lollards — Cobham's Death — The Lazar House — Holborn First Paved— The Mud Deluge — French Protestants — The Plague Cart — The Plague Time — Brought to his Knees — The New Church — The Grave of Flaxman— -The Thorntons — Hog-lane — The Tyburn Bowl — The Swan on the Hop — The Irish Deluge — Sham Abraham — Simon and his Dog — Hiring Babies — Pavement Chalkers — Monmouth-street pp. 372 — 413

Chapter XIV

Lincoln's inn fields. The Earl of Lincoln's Garden — The Headless Chancellor — Spelman a late Eipener — Denham and Wither — Lord Lyndhurst — Warburton and Heber — Ben Jonson the Bricklayer — A Murder in Whetstone Park — The Dangers of Lincoln's Inn Fields — Shelter in St. .John's Wood — Lord William Russell — A Brave Wife — Pelham— The Caricature of a Duke — Wilde and Best — Lindsey House—* The Dukes of Ancaster — Skeletons — Lady Fanshawe — Lord Kenyon's Latin — The Belzoni Sarcophagus — Sir John Soane — Worthy Mrs. Chapone — The Duke's House — Betterton — Mrs. Bracegirdle — A Riot — Rich's Pantomime — The Jump . . pp. 414 — 472 conclusion pp. 473 — 474 appendix -PP- 475—494 ADDENDA p. PAGE DESCRIPTIVE LIST or ILLUSTRATIONS. Title-page. — Temple Bar. Temple Bar, 1761, from a drawing by S. Wale.

The view is taken from the City side of the Bar, looking through the arch to Butcher Row and St. Clement's Church. The sign projecting from the house to the spectator's left is that of the famous Devil Tavern. Chap. II. — Temple Bar 5 Old Houses, Ship Yard, Temple Bar, circa 1761, from a plate in "Wilkinson's "Londina Illustrata." Temple Bar, 1746, copied f.om an undated print published soon after the execution of the rebel adherents of the young Pretender. The view is surrounded by an emblematic framework, and contains representations of the heads of Townley and Fletcher, remarkable as the last so exposed ; they remained there till 1772. Chap. III.— The Strand 26 St. Clement's Church and the Strand in 1753, from a print by I. Maurer. Two Views of Arundel House, 1646, after Hollar. These views, ■unique of their kind, are particularly valuable for the clear idea they give of a noble London mansion of the period.

Arundel House retains many ancient features, particularly in its dining-hall, which, with the brick residence for the noble owner, is the only dignified portion of the building. The rest has the character of an inn-yard — a mere collection of ill-connected outhouses and stabling. The shed with the tall square window in the roof was tbe depository of the famous collection of pictures and antiques made by the renowned Earl, part of which still forms the Arundel Collection at Oxford. Penn's House, Norfolk Street, 1749, from a view by J. Buck. The view is taken from the river, looking up Norfolk Street to a range of old houses, still standing, in the Strand. Penn's house was the last on the west side of the street (to the spectator's left), overlooking the water. Descriptive List of Illustrations.

XIV PAGE Chap. IV. — Somerset House 59 Somerset House from the River, 1706, from an engraving by I. Knyff. Upon a barge moored in the river is seen the amous coffee-house known as " The Folly," which, originally used as a musical summer-house, ended in being the resort of depravity. Strand Front of Somerset House, 1777, from a large engraving after I. Moss. Chap. V. — The Strand (continued) S' Jaoob Tonson's Book-shop, 1742, from an etching by Benoist. The shop of this famous bibliopole was opposite Catherine Street. The view* is obtained from the background of the print representing a burlesque procession of Masons, got up by some humorist in ridicule of the craft. Old Houses in the Strand, 1742, copied from the same print as the preceding view. These houses stood on the site of the present Wellington Street.

Chap. VI.— The Savoy 112 The Savoy in 1650, after Hollar. The Savot Prison, 1793, from an etching by J. T. Smith. Chap. VII. — The Savoy to Charing Cross 134 Durham House, 1790, from an etching by J. T. Smith. York Stairs and surrounding Buildings in 1 745, after an original drawing by Canaletti, in tbe British Museum. This is one of the few interesting views of Old London sketched by Canaletti during his short stay in England. It comprises the famous water-gate designed by Inigo Jones, and the tall wooden tower of the York Buildings Water Company. The large mansion behind this (at the south-west corner of Buckingham Street) was that inhabited by Pepys from 1684, and in which he entertained the members ofthe Royal Society during his presidency. The house at the opposite corner (seen ab.ive the trees) is that in which the Czar Peter the Great resided for some time, when he visited England for instruction in shipbuilding.

Chap. VIII. — North Side of the Strand 133 Crockford's Fish-shop, from an original sketch. Exeter Change, 1821, from an etching by Cooke. Descriptive List of Lllustrations. XV page Chap. IX. — Charing Cross 199 Titus Oates in the Pillory, rom aa anonymous contemporary Dutch engraving. The King's Mews, 1750, from a print by I. Maurer. This building, erected in 1732 at the expense of King George II., was pulled down n 1830. In the foreground of this view the King is represented returning to his carriage aster inspecting his horses. Chap. X. — St. Martin's Lane 254 Barracks and Old Houses, on the site of Trafalgitr Square in 1826, from an original sketch by F. W. Fairholt. The view is taken from St. Martin's Church, looking toward Pall Mall ; the building in the distance, to the left, is the College of Physicians.

Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, 1826, from an original sketch by F. W. Fairholt. Chap. XI. — Long Acre 278 Salisbury and Worcester Houses in 1630, from a drawing by Hollar in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge. Lyon's Inn, 1804, from an engraving in Herbert's " History of the Inns of Court." Chap. XII.— Drury Lane 306 Craven House, 1790, from an original drawing in the British Museum. Drury Lane Theatre, 1806, from an original drawing by Pugin. This was the third theatre, succeeding Garrick's. It was built by Henry Holland, opened March 12, 1794, and burnt down Feb. 24, 1809. It was never properly finished on the side toward Catherine Street, where this view was taken. Chap. XIIL— Old St. Giles's 372 Church Lane and Dyot Street, from an original sketch by F. W. Fairholt. The Seven Dials, from an original sketch by F. W. Fairholt.

Chap. XIV. — Lincoln's Inn Fields 414 Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in 1821, from an original sketch by F. W. Fairholt. The Black Jack, Portsmouth Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, from an original sketch by F. W. Fairholt. This public-house was the resort of the actors from the theatre, and among them Joe Miller, who was buried in the graveyard close by, where the hospital now stands. The house was also frequented by Jack Sheppard, and was sometimes termed "The Jump," from the circumstance of his having once jumped from one of the first-floor windows to escape from officers of justice.

Introduction

.

NE day when Fuseli and Haydon were walking together, they reached the summit of a hill from whence they could catch a glimpse of St. Paul's. There was the grey dome looming out by fits through rolling drifts of murky smoke. The two little lion-like men stood watching " the sublime canopy that shrouds the city of the world."* Now it spread and seethed like the incense from Moloch's furnace ; now it lifted and thinned into the purer blue, like the waft of some great sacrifice, or settled down to deeper and gloomier grandeur over " the vastness of modern Babylon." That brown cloud hid a huge ants' nest teeming with three millions of people. That dome, with its golden coronet and cross, rose like the globe in an emperor's hand — a type of the civilization, and power, and Christianity of England.

The hearts of the two men beat faster at the great sight. " Be George !" said Fuseli, shaking his white hair and stamp ing his little foot, " be George ! sir, it's like the smoke of the Israelites making bricks for the Egyptians." " It is grander, Fuseli," said Haydon, " for it is the smoke * Tom Taylor's "Life of Haydon," vol. i. p. 49. B of a people who would have made the Egyptians mahe brides for them !" It is of the multitudinous streets of this plus-quam Egyptian city, their traditions, and their past and present inhabitants, that I would now write. I shall not pass by many houses where any eminent men dwell or dwelt, without some biographical anecdote, some epigram, some illustration ; yet I will not stop long at any door, because so many others await me. I have set down, I hope, nought in malice.

Truth, and truth alone, I trust has been, and shall be, my object. I stay at Charing cross to point out the heroism of the dying regicides ; I shall pause at Whitehall to narrate some redeeming traits even in the character of a wilful king. The growth of London, and its conquest of suburb after suburb, has roused the imagination of poets and essayists ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth. When James I. forbade the building of fresh houses out side London walls, he little foresaw the time when the City would become almost impassable; when practical men would burrow roads under ground, or make subterranean railways to drain off the choking traffic ; when cool-headed people would seriously propose to have flying bridges thrown over the chief thoroughfares ; when new manners and customs, new diseases, new follies, new social complications would arise, from the fact of three millions of men silently agreeing to live together on only eleven square* miles of land ; when fish would cease to inhabit the poisoned river, when the roar of the traffic would render it almost impossible to converse ; when, in fact, London would get too large for comfort, safety, pleasure, or even intercourse.

It is difficult to select from what centre to commence a pilgrimage. For old Roman London we might start from the Exchange or the Tower • for mediæval London from Chepe or Aldermanbury ; for fashionable London from Charing-cross ; Antiquarian Home-Tours. 3 for Shaksperean London from the Globe or Blackfriars. Even then the tours would be circuitous, and sometimes retrograde, and we should turn and double like hares before the hounds. I have for several reasons, therefore, and after some con sideration, decided to start from Temple Bar, and walk westward till I turn up St. Martin's-lane, and return by Long acre and Drury-lane to Lincoln's-inn-fields. That walk embraces the long line of palaces that once adorned the Strand, or river-bank street, the countless haunts of artists in St. Martin's-lane, the legends of Long-acre, the theatrical reminiscences of Drury-lane, and the old noblemen's houses in Lincoln's-inn-fields.

It comprises a period not so far back as East London, and not so modern as that of the West End. It brings us acquainted not only with many of the contemporaries of Shakspere and Dryden, but also with many celebrities of Garrick's time and of Dr. Johnson's age. If this is not the best point of departure, it has at least much to be said in its favour, as the loop I have drawn includes nothing intramural, and comprises a part of London inhabited by persons who lived more within the times of memoir-writing than those in the further East, — a district, too, more within the range of the antiquarian than the newer region, West. I trust that in these remarks I have in some degree ex plained why I have spent so much time in pouring old wine into new bottles. A preface is too often a pillory made by an author, in which he exposes himself to a shower of the most unsavoury missiles.

I trust that mine may be considered only as a wayside stone on which I stand to offer a fitting apology for what I trust is a venial fault. It is the glory of my old foster-mother, London, I would celebrate ; it is her virtues and her crimes I would record. Her miles of red-tiled roofs, her quiet green squares, b2 her vast black mountain of a cathedral, her silver belt of a river, her acres and acres of stony terraces, her beautiful parks, her tributary fleets, seem to me as so many episodes in one great epic, the true delineation of which would form a new chapter in the History of Mankind. ship yard, temple ear, 1761.

Chapter II. Temple Bar

■||Pi§ |i*^EMPLE BAR> old dingy gateway of black _^^^ «?lPiL ened Portland stone which separates the Strand vCrtl!/ 5§C3_i *^rom Fleet-street, the City from the Shire, and 2B«8^'***aæSf» the Freedom of the City of London from the Liberty of the City of Westminster, was built by Sir Chris topher Wren in the year 1670, four years after the Great Fire, and ten after the Restoration. In earlier days there were only posts, rails, and a chain here, as at Holborn, Smithfield, and Whitechapel. In later times, however, a house of timber was erected, with a narrow gateway and one passage on the south side.* Temple Bar, if described now in an architect's catalogue, would be noted down as pierced with two side posterns for foot passengers, and having a central flattened archway for carriages. In the upper story is an apartment with semi circular arched windows on the eastern and western sides, and the whole is crowned with a sweeping pediment.

On the western or Westminster side there are two niches, in which are placed mean statues of Charles I. and Charles II. in fluttering: Roman robes, and on the east or Fleet-street side there are statues of James I. and Queen Elizabeth. They are all remarkable for their small feeble heads, their affected and crinkled drapery, and the piebald look produced by their projecting hands and feet being washed white by years of rain, while the rest of their bodies remains a sooty black. The upper room is held of the City by the representatives of the very ancient Arm of Messrs. Child, bankers. There they store their books and records, as in an old muniment-chamber. The centre slab on the east side of Temple Bar once con tained the following inscription, now all but obliterated : — "Erected in the year 1670, Sir Samuel Sterling, Mayor; continued in the year 1671, Sir Richard Ford, Lord Mayor; and finished in the year 1672, Sir George Waterman, Lord Mayor."

It is probable that the corresponding western slab, and also the smaller one over the postern, once bore inscriptions. Temple Bar was doomed to destruction by the City as early as 1790, through the exertions of Alderman Picket. "Threatened men live long," says an old Italian proverb. Temple Bar still stands, a narrow neck to an immense decanter; an impeder of traffic, a venerable nuisance, with nothing interesting but its associations and its dirt. But then * Strype, B. iii. p. 278. The Devil Tavern. 7 let us remember that as Holborn-hill has tormented horses and drivers ever since the Conquest, and its steepness is not yet (1864) in any way mitigated, we must not expect hasty reforms in London. It does not enter into my purpose (unless I walked like a crab, backwards) to give the history of Child's bank.

Suffice it for me to say that it stands on part of the site of the old Devil Tavern, kept by old Simon Wadloe, where Ben Jonson held his club. It was taken down in 17S8, and Child's-place built in its stead.* Alderman Baskwell, who was ruined by the shutting up of the Exchequer in the reign of Charles IL, and became a partner in this, the oldest banking house in London, was the agent for Government in the sale of Dunkirk to the French. Pepys makes frequent allusions to his friend Child, probably one of the founders of this bank. The Duke of York opposed his interference in Admiralty matters, and had a quarrel with a gentleman who declared that whoever impugned Child's honesty must be a knave. Child wrote an enlightened work on Indian trade, supporting the interests of the Company. Apollo-court, exactly opposite the bank, marks a passage that once faced the Apollo room, from whose windows Ben Jonson must have often glowered and Herrick laughed.