• ElL2733.114E JESSE'S LONDOS AND ITS Clk f 4iiiii rd". .

As regards originality, this second series of Mr. 7.essesAlawas4on is y equal to the first. Iscleedi.the author eifera.aat apolngy for its appearance after moll books as Leigh Hanes Awn Chitties knight's London, and Peter Cunninghain'e Handbook., 'The rea- son: for publishing it at all is, that Mr.. sTeese had planned the work before 'Knight's appeared, and written it before.niugh..a.m7a was published; but he has found roomier a...variety:Of matter from both these writers. - Yet though this feet detraetta from the literary claire of the au- thor, we incline to think hispresent series a somewhat better book than the first. There is more inatter and variety mit,. audit is altogether closer. The plan is well adapted to Convey a definite liana London to the reader or explorer; Although. not expressly android to London within the walls, Mr. Jesse's subject is limited to what are now the poor or business parts of London ; and these he divides into districts,—as Tower Hill and its immediate vicinity, Old London Bridge, Smithfield, Holborn, and so forth. He then ornigii1;atea each district, pointing out the most remarkable , or it may be sites of what were remarkable-buildings ; giving a description of what is now to be seen, and telling stories connected with the spot. The matter of this last part is net Very new ; and it is often presented in. the hacknied conventional way of fancying pictures of the past, or eked out by quotations. The compiler, however, contrives to point out a good many places that are worth visiting for themselves or their associations, and to bring together some curious matter in a pleasant gossipy way. There are many Londoners who know nothing of Old St. Bartholo- mew's Church.

"Passing under a gateway, rich with carved roses and zigzag ornaments, we enter the fine old church of St. Bartholomew. As we gaze on the solid- ity a its massive pliers, its graceful arches, and the beauty of its architec- tural details, we cannot fail to be impressed with that sense of grandeur and solemnity which only each a scene can inspire. The remains of the old church are in the Norman style of architecture, and are apparently of the same date as the earlier portions of Winchester Cathedral. It may afford a tolerable notion of its former magnificence to mention that the present church is merely the chancel of the ancient edifice; the only other remains being a small portion of the transepts and the nave, where they unite with each other, immediately beneath the spot where the tower formerly rose. "Surrounded by mean hovels, and by a population of the lowest descrip- tion, the exterior of the ancient Priory, though degraded to strange pur- poses, is scarcely less interesting than the interior. Beauty and decay meet 436 at every step. In order to view the noble arches of the ancient cloisters, we must dice into a timber-yard ; or, if we seek for arched ceilings and fretted cornices, they are to be met with in the apartments of an adjoining public-house ; while the old refectory, formerly one of the noblest halls in London, has been converted into a tobacco-manufactory.. The fine oaken roof of the latter still remains- The exterior of the braiding has been sadly modernized, and the interior has been subdivided by inlennediate roofs and ceilings; but still sufficient remains to recall vividly to our imaginations the days when this noble apartment was the scene of ecclesiastical hospitality, and brilliant with all the splendid paraphernalia of the Church of Rouse. "The refectory stands on the South side of the church, near the end of the South transept, and is imwda. tely connected with the beautiful Eastern cloister, which, with its clutheffd columns and.carved bosses, is now the only one which remains. Beneath the refectory is the ancient ery-pt ; which, not- withstanding the beauty of its architecture, and its rare state of preserva- tion, is but seldom visited, and bat little known. It is of great length, with *double row of finely-proportioned aisles. At the extremity of this gloomy sued vaulted crypt is a door which, according to tradition, opens into a sub- terranean passage extending to Canonbury, formerly a rural appe-ndageof the Priors of St. Bartholomew, at Islington. Similar idle stories are not unfre- qoently attached to old monastic rains, as in the cases of hialmsbury, Netley, and Glastonbury. That the door in question, however, was formerly used as a means of escape in the hour of danger, there is reason to believe. Till very recently, it opened into a cellar which extended beneath a chapel, known as St. Bartholomew's Chapel, which was destroyed by fire in 1830. This' chapel is known to have been secretly used by the Reformers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; the passage we have referred to haring afforded them the ready means of escape, in the eventof their being disturbed iry the officers of the law. "Consequent on the accumulation of the dust of centuries, the ground irlskh encompasses the Church of St. Bartholomew has gradually risen three or four feet, and consequently the foundations of the nave and the entrances te the edifice are now sunk considerably below the soil of the churchyard. As regards the Eastern cloister also, to such an extent has the soil accumu- lated, that the spring of the arches is now level with the ground."

Persons of middle age can well remember when what is now the South side of Exmouth Street was the boundary of London in that crirection ; Spa .Fiekk, well known for Orator Hunt's meetings, oe- tmuing the foreground, whilst other fields now entirely covered by buildings reached to Pentonville. In 1780, St. John's Street Road might not be built upon, but we doubt whether the neighbour- hood exactly answered Mr. Jesse's description of solitude; of its dangerousness there can be no doubt. "As late as 1780, C/erken well, to the North of the upper end of St. John's Street, was bounded by fields, through which a solitary road led to Islington. it was even at this recent period tio infested by highwaymen, that travellers usually preferred sleeping all night at the Angel Inn at Ialington to jour- neying by this dangerous thoroughfare after dark. Those whose business called them into the country at a late hour used to assemble at the upper end of St. John's Street„ where there was an avenue of trees, called Wood's Close ; there they waited till they were reinforced by other travellers, when they were escorted by an armed patrol to Islington. "In the middle of the last century, when any extraordinary performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre was likely to temRt thither the nobility and gentry from the fashionable quarters of London, it was the custom to announce in the play-bills that a horse-patrol would be stationed, for that particular night, in the New Road, and also that the thoroughftire leading to the City would be properly guarded."

This account of old Somerset House, one of Iniero Jones's chetb- d'ceuvre, pulled down to erect the present structure, is a curious

• London and its Celebrities. A Second Series of Literary and Ifistorical Memo- rials of London. By .T. Ilene:go Jesse, Anther of-" Memoirs of the Court of Eng- land," "George Selwyn and his Contemporaries," 8rc. Published by Bentley. ortE - instal:me .otieboleet in the veggnimIst of the 4,f a populous

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The circumstances which ledste, the instruction of oldeeemerset House ,alay be related in a few words. There being a necessity of providing some -additional offices far the service otthe State, on the 10th of April 1775 it was accommendedto Parliament, by a message-from the Crown, that Buckingham sllouse should be made ever as a jointure-house to Queen Charlotte, and that csomersetHemae„ which had previously been settled upon her, shorsid be ap- . , rppriated.to Beth purposes as should be found meet useful to Ittolo . The act was sou paaredp.andadseest immediately the she old headings ,cominenced. ft :I ' . kit ▪ - am of the-palace which had been erected'bffnige Jonas in the reign of Charles the First, had for some time been, need. fee the meetings of the Boyal.e.cademy, and foe other purposes. The greaten partshowever' of the original palace of the Protector had. remained uudeseerated by modern improvement ; many of the ornaments, if not the furniture, of the reign of Edward the Sixth still existed ; and accordingly, when these desolate apart- ments were visited by Sir William Chambers and ether persons appointed to take a.survey of them, they presented a sight which either to an antiquary , or a philosopher must have been equally curious and interesting. , "At the extremity of the apartments which had been occupied by Hen- rietta Maria, and subsequently by Catherine of Braganza, two large folding- ' doors opened into the ancient portion of the structure, into which, it would seem, for nearly a century a human foot had scarcely ever intruded. Wan- dering through gloomy and uninhabitable apartments, passing from room to room and from corridor to corridor, the intruders witnessed a strange and inelanthely spectacle of departed spiendourea scene of mouldering walls and broken easements, of crumbling roofs and decayed furniture. The first apartment which they entered had apparently been the bedchamber of royalty. The floor was of oak, and the ceiling-stuccoed. It was also panel-

with oak, with gilt mouldings : some of the sconces still remained at- lashed to the walla of the apartment, and from the ceiling there still hung a chain, from which a chandelier had once been suspended.

" In another of the apartments a chandelier was still hanging; and in a third were velvet curtains, which had once been crimson, fringed with gold. Their colour had faded to a tawdry olive, and only a few spangles and shreds of gold afforded evidence of their former costliness. In the audience-chamber the silken hangings stall hung in tatters from the walls. There were two apartments which excited especial attention, from their having been con- verted into store-rooms for those trappings of royalty, which, in consequence of the gradual modernization of the rest of the structure had from time to time been deposited in them. They contained articles oivarious kinds, the reduction and the fashion of crif%rent reigns, if not of different ages. :Vied with broken couches and tattered hangings—with stools, screens,

on

I aeees, and Ere-doge—were discovered the vestiges of a throne, together I with the spangled velvet with which it had once been canopied."

I The following particulars of a memorable stream of London town are not new, but they are well brought together, and they furnish in a small compass an idea of the great changes that have taken place in the course of centuries: changes are more readily realized to the reader by navigable water than by any other way. "The Fleet Ditch, or rather river, rendered classical by the verse of Ben Jenson, Swift, Pape, and Gay, was anciently a broad and limpid stream, which had its rise in the high grounds of Hampstead, and was further tbd by the waters of certain wells, called Ckyken-well, Skinners-well, Fags- , well, Tode-well, Lodera-well, and Bad-well; all which said wells,' says Stow, 'having the fall of their overflowing. in the aforesaid river, much in. creased the stream.' From hence it anciently obtained the name of the River of Wells.' It was crossed by no fewer than. four stone bridges in its coarse, by way of Kentish Town and Camden Town to the Thames: one of these bridges steed at the foot of Holborn Hill, then i called Holborn Bridge, at which point the river Fleet united itself with the waters of the Old Bourne, or stream, from which Holborn derives its name. Anciently, the tide flowed up the Fleet river as far as Holborn Bridge, the present Bridge Street being the channel of the 'dream. I recollect,' says Pennant, when the present noble approach to Blackfriars Bridge, (the well-built opening of Chatham Place,) was a muddy and genuine ditch: this had been the mouth of the creek, which, as Stow informs us' was in 1307 of depth and width sufficient that ten or twelve ships navies at once, with merchandises, were wont to come to the aforesaid bridge of Fleet.' The other bridges of the Fleet were Fleet Bridge, Bridewell Bridge, and Fleet Lane Bridge. "In 1606, we find no less a sum than twenty-eight thousand pounds ex- pended for the purposeof scouring the Fleet river and keeping it in a na- vigable state. Pennant, speaking of the performance of this work, observes, At the depth of fifteen feet were found several Roman utensils, and, a little deeper, a great quantity of Roman coins, in silver, copper, brass, and other metals, but none in gold- At Holborn Bridge were found two brazen Lares, about four inches long ; one a Bacchus, the other a Ceres. It is a probable conjecture that these were thrown in by the affrighted ROM9332, at the roach of the enraged Boadicea, who soon took ample revenge on her • t- ing conquerors. Here were also found numbers of Saxon antiquities, spurs, weapons, keys, seals, &e. ; also medals, crosses, and crucifixes, which might likewise have been flung in on occasion of some alarm.' The Fleet river was again thoroughly cleansed in 1652, at a considerable expense. About sixteen years afterwards, in hopes of its proving a lucrative speculation, an- other large sum was expended in reopening the navigation as far as Holborn. For this purpose the neer was deepened, wharfs and quays were erected, and the banks were cased with stone and brick. The speculation, however proved anything but a profitable one ; and accordingly, between the years 1.734 and 1737, it was arched over as far as the obelisk at the North end of the present bridge ; and in consequence of further improvements, which took place in 1765, was almost entirely concealed from view. "One of the last glimpses to be caught of this nauseous stream was a few years since, at the destruction of sonic old houses in West Street, at the South end of Saffron Hill, which had been the hiding-place and strong-hold of thieves, and au asylum for the most depraved of both sexes, from the reign of Queen Anne to our own time. Here, according to tradition, the notorious Jonathan Wild carried on his crafty and nefarious traffic of plunder and human blood. The black and disgusting-looking stream flowed through a deep and narrow channel, encased on each side with brick, and overhung by miserable-lookuig dwelling-houses, the abode of poverty and crime. The strong-hold of the thieves consisted of two separate habitations, one on each aide of the ditch; which were ingeniously contrived with the means of es- cape, in the event of their being invaded by the myrmidons of the law. On each side of the ditch also was a small aperture in the brick-work, of sufficient size to afford egress for the human body ; and accordingly a plank might be readily thrown from one aperture to the other, and as readily withdrawn in the event of pursuit ; or in the last extremity the culprit could plunge into the ditch, and pursue his course down the murky stream till either some fa, neliar outlet or the habitation of some friendly companion in crime aftbrded him the raean.s of escape. The principal building to which we have alluded was unquestionably of great autiquity. In the reign of George the First it was known as the Red Lion Tavern. Its dark closets, its trap-doors, its

iliding panels, ansi its and hiding-places, rendered it no less

secure for p ro ZaTrug tiler- as a refute for those who were under the ban of the law. In this house, about twetre years ago, a sailor was robbed, antlafterwards thing naked, throughame of the apertuxes which we have described, into the Fleet ditch ; a cnme for win& two men and a woman were sabseqnently convicted and transported for fourteen years. About the same 611:10, althoughatiopremises wore eurrounded hv the police, a thief made his escape by means-of its communications with the neighbour- ing houses, the inhabitan of which were almost universally either subsist- ent upon or friendly to pillage and crime. At the demolition of thesis pro- mises, there were.found au the culture, among other mysterious evidences of the dark deeds which had been perpetrated within their walls, numerous human bones, Which, there can 'whale doubt, were these of persons who had met with an untimely end."''

This story of Moruitfort's murder and the attempt at Mrs. Brace- girdle's abduction exhibits a strange state of public opinion, which could- allow the idea of such ait outrage to he conceived, and of police, which could allow such a miscreant as Hill to escape. Some zealots may feel inclined to ascribe it to aristocratical power ; but it is rather lawlessness—a want of power. Hill was not a member of the aristocracy : Mohun, the aristocrat, was put upon his trial, and as far as intent went was properly though not legally entitled to an acquittal.

"On the night of the 9th December 1692, Howard Street and 'Norfolk Street were the scenes of a distressing tragedy., of which Mrs. Bracegirdle was the innocent cause. A Captain Richard Hill a semi of depraved habits and headstrong passions, had fallen violently in love with her; but his addresses not only having been received with coldness but with disdain, he determined by foul means, if not by fair, to gain possession of her person. Accordingly, having; obtained the assistance of his friend Lord Mohun, a man even more notoriously profligate than himself they proceeded to Drury Lane with the intention of carrying off the beautiful actress as she quitted the theatre. From some cause she was not acting on this particular night ; but Lord Mohan and Hill, learning that she was gone to supper at the house of Mr. Page, in Prince's Street, Drury Lane, proceeded thither with some ruffians, said to be soldiers, whose services they had hired for the occasion. After lurking. about the house for some time, the door at length opened, and Mrs. Bracegardle made her appearance, accompanied by her mother and brother ; their host at the same time attending them with 'a tight. She was imme- diately seized hold of by Hill, who endeavoured with the assistance of his inynnidons, to form her into a coach which they had in readiness, in which Laid Mohun was seated with a loaded pistol in each hand. Her own violent struggles, however, the resistance made by her mother, who flung her arms round her daughter's waist and passionately clung to her as well as the

active opposition offered by the master of the house, succeeded in keeping the ruffians at bay till the arrival of timely assistance, when the subordinate adore in the affair hurried off in different directions. Every particular of this strange narrative throws a curious light on the manners of the time, and especially on the defenceleas state of the streets of London after night- fall. Mrs. Bracegirdle was conducted by her friends to her house in Howard Street; and it might have been expected that, for that night at least, the discomfited ruffisais would have ceased from any other attempt at violence and outrage. On the contrary, Captain Hill and Lord Mohun persisted in attending the object of their persecution to Howard Street; ancl, under the impudent pretence of apologizing for their misconduct, attempted to force thaw way into the house. Failing in their object of obtaining admittance, it appears that they sent for wine from the Horse-shoe Tavern, m-Drury Lane, which they drank in the open street, parading up and down before Mrs. Bnicegirdle's house, with drawn swords in their hands, to the great terror of its inmates.

"The motive for this additional outrage was afterwards explained by the evidence given at Lord Mohun's trial. Hill, it appears, on his addresses being rejected by Mrs. Bracegirdle, had conceived the impression that his discomfiture was owing to her affections having been fuma on a successful rival. The person on whom his suspicions fell was William Mountfort, the actor ; and this, apparently, from no better reason than that this admirable personifier of human nature was in the habit of acting the lover to Mrs. Bracegirdle's heroines ; Hill imagining that the passionate declarations of love which Mountfort addressed to her on the stage represented the true feelings of own heart. Accordingly, on the night in question, frustrated in his designs of obtaining possession of Mrs. Bmeegirdle's person, arid probably disordered by-the wine he had drank, he openly expressed his determination of wreaking his revenge on Mountfort, whose house-was situated within a few yards from that of Mrs. Bracegirdle. With great consideration, she sent messengers in search of Mountfort, to warn him of the danger which awaited him; but, unfortunately, he was from home at the time, and his frightened wife knew not in what quarter he was likely to be met with. "It may readily be wondered at that such scenes as these should have been allowed to take place in the streets of London without any interruption on the part of the police. The assistance of the watch, it appears, was called in ; but, either unwillina to interfere with the amusements of a peer of the realm, or overawed by the drawn swords of the rioters, they acted a very strange part on the occasion. Lord Mohun was appealed to by them to sheathe his sword ; which he readily complied with : on which the same request was made to Captain Hill; who replied that he was unable to do so, having lost the scabbard. The watch then entreated them to go peaceably home; after which—ostensibly for the purpose of making inquiries respecting them at the tavern where the wine had been purchased—they took their own depar- ture. By this time the unfortunate Mountfort had made his appearance in the street. He was at first addressed in a friendly manner by Lord Mohun; tlU.happonmg to turn the conversation to the late attempt made to carry cif Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mountfort expressed his regret that his Lordship should have been induced to assist such a 'pitiful fellow' as Captain Hill in so infamous an outrage. Immediately, Bill struck him a violent Wow on the head with his left hand, Which was as speedily followed by his running him through the body with the sword which he held in the other. Mountfort died of his wounds the next day ; exculpating Lord Mohun of having offered him any Violence, but declaring, with his latest breath, that he was first struck and afterwards stabbed by Hill, before he had time to draw his own "word and to put himself in an attitude of defence. Hill contrived to escape from justice, nor has his subsequent fate been ascertained. Lord Mohun was tried by his Peep; but from want of sufficient evidence was acquitted. It is needless to remind the reader that a few years afterwards he fell in a duel with the Duke of Haniilton, in Hyde Park. He was the last male de- scendant of that powerful Norman family of whom the founder, Sir William de Mohan, had been the companion in arms of William the Conqueror, and who at the battle of Hastings numbered no fewer than forty-seven knights in his retinue. The house in which the unfortunate Mountfort lived was on the East aide of Norfolk Street, two doors from the South-west corner of Hilliard Street."

Mr. Jesse apologizes in his preface for errors in a minute facts and dates," as unavoidable.: and some such, no doubt, are ex.-

eirsable nn the SCOIV of oyersight pr the printer,—as when he speaks of Crosby Place having been built in the reign of Edward 3. the Sixth, when he means Edward the Fourth. Others argue a bodty of perception or a habit of indifference to precise accuracy. Mr. Jesse, for erample, must know the whereabouts of Fetter Lane I well enough, yet in one place he describes it as being in the "iin I, mediate vioini131" of Newgate, in another as within a short dis- tance of Hod Lion Square,—Which though somewhat truer in point of distance than. the liewgate statement, is quite inaccurate as re- gards a direction. He seems to be fettered to Fetter-Lane ; for he describes Ifatton Ctarden es being- nearly opposite, which gee. ' graphically may be true, but as a matter of street description iseer- , tainly not. He also talks of BIN:eke Street, where Chattertan poisoned himself, as being opposite St. Andrew's Charch,—widels is perhaps the most absurd of the whole. St. Andrew's Churchis nearly opposite to Ely Place, Hatton Garden to Bartlett's Bildern!" Fetter Lane to Leather Lane, and Brooke Street to Castle Street ; the vis-a-vis of Mr. Jesse being at the extreme end of his line, and as far apart as possible. In some eases such strange blunders would be rightly attributed to third or fourth hand knowledge, or to lapse of memory ; but referring to a thoroughfare like Holborn, they seem to arise from nothing but a lax and careless frame of mind, which heaps up facts crudely, and will not be at the trouble of correcting them.