THERE are many things in Sir Walter Besant's volume which
are not topographical or antiquarian, which do not concern the disposition of streets and squares, of wharves and bridges, the aspects of buildings, public or private, or even the life of the men and women who occupied them. A man who could walk about London, knowing it as Sir Walter knew it ; whose mind when he looked upon the Tower, upon Smith- field, upon the Thames, was flooded with their associations ; who from long study was almost as familiar with the past of these places as he was with the present,—such a man would have to be either very much above or very much below his fellows if he could keep himself strictly within the proper limits of his subject. These limits are, indeed, not easy to define. Sometimes the transgression is manifest. Much of the first chapter, for instance, may fairly be so described. The sketch of the political situation in the early years of Henry VII. is excellent, but is hardly pertinent; the character of Henry himself is drawn in a few lines which are full of vigour and truth; but the story of London does not include a characterisation of the Monarchs who ruled it. Some- times their habits and tastes concern the subject. A ruler with a taste for magnificence makes no little difference to his capital city. But when we are told that " Henry was respected and feared rather than loved,"
we ask whether this is ad rem. Of course, these facts concerned London, but not more than they concerned York or Oxford. But it would be ungracious to dwell on this matter ; after all, it is well for a writer to take large views of his subject, and Sir Walter has always something worth hearing to say, and always says it well, whether it is strictly relevant or not.
The story of Tudor London necessarily includes much that comes under the heading of " Religion." The second section of the volume bears this title, and there are references to it elsewhere. One important question that suggests itself is : How did London feel towards the established order of things before the changes began ? Sir Walter cites the case of Richard Hun, a respectable and well-to-do citizen, who refused to pay for the burial of an infant what was probably a customary " mortuary." The
• (1) London in the Time of the Tudors. By Sir Walter Besant. London : A. and C. Black. [30s. net.]—(2) The Microcosm of London. 2 vols. With 100 Illustrations by Pugin and Bowlandson. London: Methuen and Co. [&u 3a. net. J—(3) Familiar London. By Bose Barton. London: A. and C. Black. [20a, net.]
Lollards' Tower at Lambeth, and found dead. Had be banged himself ? Had he been murdered? A jury thought that he had been murdered, and indicted the Chancellor and his servants. Foxe has preserved the evidence; that need not be discussed. The important point for the present purpose is the finding of the verdict. What, again, it may be asked, did London feel about the monastic establishments within its borders ? That they were decadent, lax in conduct, and idle can scarcely be doubted. Sir Walter holds that graver charges are " not proven," at least as regards the London houses. But he is certain that they were not held in the same esteem as of old. A table of bequests made to various religious houses and societies during these periods is very significant. In the first period, 1250.1350, there are a hundred and fourteen; in the third, 1450-1540, there are twelve. Then, again, we ask, what was the effect of the dissolution of the monasteries on London P This question has often been asked, but never answered in all its details. The inmates of the houses were pensioned, and there is no reason to suppose that they suffered greatly. But the friars were not pensioned. What did they do for a livelihood P And then there was a multitude of people who were employed by these establishments, " scriveners, limners, illuminators, painters, carvers, gilders ; the bailiffs, lawyers, stewards,—what could they do ? For fifteen years London was flooded with the people of the monasteries turned adrift to find a means of living ; they were not people who swelled the ranks of the vagabond and the masterless; they were respectable and honest folk. Their struggles and their sufferings, if we could get at them, must have been very real, and in many cases very terrible." Then there were the crafts- men who lived by the making and selling of things that the new order did not use. Almost every pre-Reformation will contains bequests for candles, often incredibly large. What became of the trade that was artificially inflated in this fashion ? The whole of this part of the book is particularly worth studying.
Another highly interesting section of the volume is entitled " Social Life," a subject scarcely uberior than that treated above, but certainly securior. Let the ladies come first. The Dutchman Van Meteren, writing in 1575, thinks that, though there was no country where women were in theory so dependent—" Entirely in the power of their husbands, their lives only excepted "—yet in practice they were free ; England was " the paradise of married women," though " the unmarried had less liberty than in the Low Countries." The houses in which these ladies and their men- folk lived were stately, though, probably, the slums of the city were even worse than any now existing. The interiors would scarcely have pleased, at least in point of convenience, our modern tastes. A bedroom would have no furniture besides the bed ; the windows were glazed, indeed—so far the Tudor period had advanced beyond the Plantagenet—hut, except in the wealthiest houses, the pane would have a bull's- eye in the middle. There were carpets and rugs in abundance, but they were not used for covering the floor ; for that, except in one special spot or another, rushes sufficed, and rushes that covered untold horrors of dirt. At the table, which often served out of meal-times as a shovel-board, the whole house- hold sat. It was but slenderly equipped, according to our notions. Carving-knives there were, but inventories do not always make mention of table-knives. Spoons were not common ; forks were but just coming into use; but plate of silver and gold, in the shape of tankards, salvers, &c., was abundant. Its plenty and richness excited the wonder of foreigners. At the marriage of Prince Arthur the chamber where the Princess dined had a cupboard of plate valued at £200,000 of our money. And if furniture was in some respects scanty, there was no lack of ceremony. There is a description of " making the King's Bed " which is a most elaborate business. A groom, a page, an usher, four Yeomen, possibly more, for the directions are not easy to follow, were wanted for this service. One of the Yeomen was to probe the bed with his dagger that there be " none untrewth therin,"—a pleasing little trait of the time. Their labour was not unrewarded. "A groom or page ought to take a torch whyle the bedde ys yn making to feche a loof of brede, a pott with ale, a pott with wine for them that
It would be easy to fill pages with specimens of the curious lore which has been collected in this part of the volume ; but we must pass on. It only remains to commend the illustrations, on which pains without sparing have been expended. It has not always been possible to find what was strictly appro- priate, but the collection as a whole is worthy of all praise.
The contrast is great when we turn from Sir Walter Besant to the unknown author or authors who put together The Microcosm of London. He or they felt no temptation to digress into regions of politics, ethics, and religion. They were quite matter-of-fact, and the work is all the more valuable for it. The time which it illustrates is so near our own—The Micro- cosm of London was published about a century ago—that it is peculiarly interesting to see what has changed and what remains. Chap. 1 is devoted to the Royal Academy ; one picture gives the school in which students are drawing from the life, and the other the Exhibition Room—happy genera- tion that had but one to inspect !—at Somerset House. Then comes the Admiralty Board Room with my Lords in council. The writer becomes almost effusive. " The Right Honourable Horatio Viscount Nelson, and Duke of Bronte, was a most active, brave, and able officer." After the Admiralty comes Astley's Amphitheatre—the alphabetical order brings together some curious neighbours—and after this, again, "the Asylum." That it was founded for orphan girls by Sir John Fielding in 1758, was incorporated in 1800, and was situated in Lambeth, we are told. No further identification is supplied. " The Asylum " would be a very vague address in London to-day. It is difficult as we pass down the list to say which of the articles are the more interesting,—those that describe places or institutions which have disappeared, or those that treat of things still remaining. Unfortunately, the former are somewhat disappointing ; they do not tell us what we want to know. In the " Fleet Prison," for instance, the " rules and regulations " there in force are given at length. They are admirable ; but one is curious about the way in which they were carried out, and of this we hear nothing. We have, however, a table of fees dated 1625. "An Archbishop, Duke, or Duchess" had to pay £21 10s. for their "commitment fee," and "for their ordinary commons weekly with wine," £3 6s. 8d. After this there is a gradual descent till we come "to the poor man in the wards that hath a part in the box," "for his fee 7s. 6d. with no dyett " ; it is to be hoped that the box brought him some- thing. These fees went to the warders, who had also other emoluments, including "2s. after every execution." Among the things that we have still with us is " Tattersall's," though, of course, the locale is changed. In the Microcosm days it was situated at Hyde Park Corner. " Debts [of honour] are settled here," says the writer, " to an incredible extent." If he had only given us the figures that would try our belief ! Probably they would be as much out of date as the top price which he mentions for a race-horse,—£2,500 for ' High Flyer.'
Yet another volume pictures for us the London of to-day. Even here, recent as is the date of the artist's work, we find changes. The drinking fountain in the Strand where the flower-girls were wont to congregate has disappeared ; and Emanuel Hospital has gone from Westminster. Familiar London calls for artistic rather than literary criticism. Miss Rose Barton gossips agreeably enough about her subject, telling, among other things, some amusing experiences of her sketching campaigns. Nor has she failed to consult good authorities. But she does not know—who, indeed, could pretend to know P—London as Sir Walter Besant knew it. Of her sixty-odd drawings, many are all that we could wish. We would mention especially "Oxford Street from the Corner of Bond Street," " Grosvenor Place on a Wet Day," " St. Mary-le-Strand," and " The Entrance to the Apothecaries' Garden." Sometimes the presentment of the scene fails to satisfy. We should scarcely have recog- nised Ludgate Hill; and the colouring of the Strand scene, where a crowd is watching the " election ladders" in the Daily Graphic windows, is not what we should have expected. Miss Rose Barton's art does not always lend itself to the process which reproduces it, but the book has many beautiful things in it.
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