Where do stand forth the laws of state sublime.--Sophocles.

It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers that in theory it is the sovereign who sits in his (or her) right in England to administer justice to all, and hence the place in which the law is administered in this country has always been styled a

Court.

A great impetus to the concentration of the courts of law in the metropolis was doubtless given by Henry VIII.; for, whereas down to his day courts of arbitration had been held from time immemorial to decide cheaply and simply small matters in dispute in the several baronies, such as questions between landlord and tenant, between master and man, he ordered these and other like cases to be brought up to London, and, as Mr. Froude tells us in his

History of England,

country people found themselves compelled to take journeys to the metropolis, and to sue or be sued at his Courts at

Westminster

.

Gradually, however, as the English law shaped itself into a system and a science, which demanded a legal education in those who actually followed it as a profession, other

courts

not loud, but deep,

country walk,

the Fields.

At length, when the patience of the lawyers, and of the rest of the public, had been nearly worn out, and when attention had been frequently called to the subject in Parliament, Her Majesty was pleased in , to order a Royal Commission to be issued,

for the purpose of inquiring into and reporting on the expediency of bringing into

one

place, or at all events into

one

neighbourhood, all the superior Courts of Law and Equity, the Divorce and Probate Court, and those of the Admiralty, Bankruptcy, &c., as well as of suggesting means for providing a fit site, and erecting a building suited to the purpose in hand.

Another body of Commissioners was next appointed, consisting of eminent members ot the legal profession, including Lords Cranworth, Hatherley, Cairns, and Penzance, Vice-Chancellors Stuart, Malins, and others, in order to advise the Treasury in its choice of an architect and plans for the new

Palace of Justice.

Judges of Designs;

Even after the architect, however, had been chosen, a further delay arose, as a large number of the public, and some of the competitors-Mr. Street himself among the rest-expressed an opinion that a space between the Strand and the Thames , to the east of , would be a preferable site to that already chosen, and which had been prepared and cleared by the removal, in -, of no less than close, foul, and filthy courts, yards, lanes, and alleys. And at last, after all the above mentioned delays had come to an end, the brick of the

Law Courts of the future

The buildings themselves are thus minutely described in the of :

They are of Gothic design, and, viewed by nonprofessional eyes, might be set down as somewhat irregular examples of the Decorated or Second Pointed style. But their architect has embodied in his designs so much of modern improvements, and has so thoroughly studied the adaptation of the architecture of the Edwardian period to the requirements of our age, that we fancy he would prefer to call the structure a specimen of the Victorian style. The whole building forms, approximately at least, a somewhat irregular square, the Strand front being 483 feet in length, while the depth from the Strand to Carey Street is about 460 feet. The southern, northern, and western fronts will be of Portland stone, while the eastern front will present a combination of Portland stone interspersed with red bricks, as will be the case with the interior courts and quadrangles. The entire pile of buildings will be divided into two blocks--the eastern and lesser one, which will be erected, under the contract, in three years; and the larger block to the west, which it will take six or seven years to complete, Each front is to be relieved by dwarf towers, arches, and other features; and there will be two high towers, one at the south-east angle, and one at the eastern end of Carey Street. The former will be 170 feet in height, or nearly four times the height of Temple Bar.

The whole edifice will be three, four, and five storeys in height in different parts; and its lofty pitched roofs will be relieved by the insertion of gables, dormers, and pinnacles, in great variety. The general height of the building up to the ridge of the roof will be about 90 or 95 feet; and over the rest will rise the Central Hall, in the main or western block, to which the rest of the building will be subordinate. This Central Hall will be about 140 feet to the top of its roof, or 90 feet measured inside up to the crown of the stone-vaulted ceiling. Underneath it will be a large lower chamber, which, if it were underground, might be termed a crypt.

The ground plan, as it stands at present, shows that the architect has given accommodation to no less than 18 distinct courts, each with its own entrance and staircase, with separate approaches and doors for the judges, the jury, the witnesses, the Bar, and the public, together with rooms for clerks, secretaries, and registrars, and also waiting-rooms.

On the western side, towards Clement's Inn, there will be left a large, open space. This will probably be used as gardens, and there will be a flight of broad stone steps, leading up into the western end of Carey Street. It will be possible, if required, to erect here a western block of buildings, corresponding with that on the eastern side.

The cost of the building, if the estimates allowed by the Commissioners should not be exceeded, will be three-quarters of a million. The structure will absorb no less than 62,000 tons of Portland and 18,000 tons of other stone, and also about 35,000,000 of red and white bricks. It will be remembered, in conclusion, that, about two years ago, Mr. Street proposed the removal of St. Clement's Church to a site on the vacant space on the west side of the new building-a proposal which met with the approval not only of Mr. Lowe, but also of the then Lord Chancellor. The Metropolitan Board of Works, however, declined to entertain the idea, although the Government offered to provide the site free of cost.

Mr. Street, in a printed minute, dated , thus sums up the chief aestheticall advantages,

of the

Carey Street

site

The elevation above the river is considerable. The entrances to the Central Hall will be exactly on the same level as the courtyard in front of the western entrance of

St. Paul's Cathedral

, and the floor of the Central Hall will be

22

feet higher here than it would be on

the Embankment

. To this extent, therefore, it will in all distant views rise higher and be better seen than on the lower site. And I think that the position will be an important

one

, crowning the hill opposite

St. Paul's

, and supplying what the views of London at present much want,--namely, some very marked architectural feature in the long expanse of building between

St. Paul's

and

Westminster

.

With such a plan before us, the imagination can easily paint, in vivid colours, the rise of a stately pile, wherein the majesty of the law shall be fitly represented.

It is unquestionably true that any great public good can only be achieved at the cost of much private inconvenience; and the New Law Courts cannot claim to be any exception to this general rule. No sensible man can doubt that the destruction of so many filthy slums must ultimately prove a gain to the community at large; yet it is also undeniable that the present effect of the work of demolition has been, firstly, to render persons homeless, and subsequently to drive

Many ingenious plans have been mooted, by philosophers and philanthropists of all ages, for the effectual cleansing of certain Augean stables; but the summary of pulling down the building,

robbing Peter to pay Paul.

And now, having gained some slight idea of the appearance which these acres-now only suggestive of

the abomination of desolation

the quality.

The truth of the old proverb,

Threatened folks live long,

It would be equally tedious and unnecessary to give a minute description of all the lanes, courts, and alleys which have been swept away in the process of clearing these acres, many of them being remarkable only for the generally unwholesome atmosphere, both moral and physical, which pervaded them; we must, therefore, be contented to particularise such among them as are sufficiently interesting, from historical associations, to make their memories and names worth preserving.

On the north side of the old gateway stood, a few years ago, a quaint, narrow wooden house with projecting gables, and a physiognomy all its own. Here generations of fishmongers had plied their scaly trade, and here a certain Mr. Crockford, erst dealer in shell-fish, and subsequently gamblinghouse keeper and millionaire, laid the foundation of his fortune. During his lifetime he refused to allow the old house in the Strand to be altered; but after his death, which occurred in , the gable roof and pent-house were removed. The fishmonger's shop afterwards became that of a hairdresser, and finally, reversing the old saying about

coming to vile uses at last,

A few steps further on, between and the entrance of St. , nearly opposite to Messrs. Twining's bank, stood the house of Messrs. [extra_illustrations.3.20.2] , the great wholesale manufacturers of the pills which bear their name. It is said that for many years the firm spent upwards of a year for advertisements in the town, country, and foreign newspapers.

As near as possible on the site of the shop of Messrs. Holloway stood, formerly, an old house with gable roof and an ornamental front, engraved in Smith's

Antiquities of

Westminster

.

Returning to , we now make our way northwards, following the eastern side of the new block of buildings, and--with some latent suspicion that we may even meet with foul play from the ghosts of its former inhabitants--up Shire or Shere Lane, from which many of Addison's and other papers in the are dated.

The western side of was in the parish of St. Clement Danes; and therefore the meetings of the

Kit Cat

Trumpet,

a vile, squalid place, noisy and noxious, nearly inaccessible to

both light and air, and swarming with a population of a most disreputable character.

bad repute,

Walk round St. Clement Danes,

Cadgers' Hall,

Retreat,

must have achieved an undesirable reputation at an early stage of its existence, as even in the reign of James I. it was called

Rogues' Lane,

portions of this lane have of late years much improved in character, particularly the upper end, where Isaac Bickerstaff lived.

In , in the year , the delightful song writer, and oracle of the licentious wits of his day, [extra_illustrations.3.21.1] , saw the light. He was baptised in the old church of .

adjoined on the left.

The houses in it,

were built very high and close together, the upper part protecting over the lower, thus admitting very little air or light.

courts

very old inhabitant

At the back of this court,

there stood formerly a block of houses, from

four

to

five

storeys in height, which were let out to vagrants, thieves, sharpers, smashers, and other abandoned characters. Throughout the vaults of this rookery there existed a continuous communication or passage, so that easy access could be obtained from

one

to the other, facilitating escape or concealment in the event of pursuit, which, from the nature of the nefarious traffic in practice, very often occurred. The end house

ot

this block of buildings was selected for the manufactory of counterfeit coin, and passed by the name of the Smashing Lumber. The ingenuity employed in the construction of the apartments may be mentioned. In the

first

place, every room had its secret trap or panel, that a free entrance or exit might be quickly effected from

one

place to the other; and from the upper storey, which was the workshop or factory, there was a shaft or well constructed, in direct communication with the cellar before noticed. The whole of the coining apparatus and the

employes

could be conveyed away as by a touch of magic, being lowered in a basket by means of a pulley. This secret gang must have had a prosperous run for many years, and the master of it, after amassing a large sum, wisely disappeared at the right moment; for not long after the introduction of the new police, and the appointment of detectives, this den was discovered and abolished.

We are told, in the

Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton,

an inn near

Temple Bar

, called The Ship, was granted to him;

Ship Yard

denotes the sign of the Ship, a house established in honour of Sir Francis Drake, and having for its sign the bark in which he circumnavigated the world.

It is difficult to associate the neighbourhood of with pilgrims, clear springs, and running brooks, but we read in the of ., : --

Another relic of old London has lately passed away; the holy well of St. Clement, on the north of St. Clement Danes Church. has been filled in and covered over with earth and rubble, in order to form part of the foundation of the Law Courts of the future. It is said that penitents and pilgrims used to visit this well as early as the reign of Ethelred, and it was known from time immemorial as

St. Clement's

Well. Charles Knight, in his London, published in

1841

, mentions the well as now covered over with a pump, and he adds that the well still remains flowing as steadily and as freshly as ever. It has often been supposed that this well supplied the old Roman bath in

Strand Lane

, but this is a mistake, the water which feeds that bath springing up out of the London clay below on the spot with perfect regularity.

Round this holy well, in the early Christian era,

In the

Beauties of England and Wales

A pump now covers

St. Clement's

Well.

round the City again, and towards the north, arise certain excellent springs at a small distance, whose waters are sweet, salubrious, and clear, and whose runnels murmur o'er the shining stones. Among these, Holywell, Clerkenwell, and

St. Clement's

Well may be esteemed the principal, as being much the most frequented, both by the scholars from the school (

Westminster

), and the youth from the City, when in a summer's evening they are disposed to take an airing. This well was also much resorted to on account of its being supposed of peculiar efficacy in the cure of cutaneous and other disorders, and was consequently a place of importance to devotees. The estimation of its efficacy and sanctity have long ceased.

, occupied principally by law publishers at the northern extremity, and towards the Strand by a medley of small, uninviting-looking shops, was more than a century ago the abode of Fortescue, who lived in a house at the upper end of the yard, which is further honoured by being described by Fortescue's friend, Pope, as

that filthy old place,

Bell Yard

.

History of the Parishes of London and

Westminster

,

A little above

St. Clement's

Well, of note for its excellent spring water, is

Plough

Alley, which, with

three

turnings, goes into a street by the

Plough

stables, which fronts the playhouse by

Lincoln's Inn

Grange, in Little

Lincoln's Inn Fields

. More towards

Clare Market

is Horseshoe Court, a pretty handsome place, with a freestone pavement, having a prospect into St.

Clement's Inn

Gardens. And opposite to this court is Yates' Court, not over good nor large. Between

Temple Bar

and the turning into St.

Clement's Inn

, on the north side of the Butcher's Row, are several courts, most of which are but small. The

first

is

Ship Yard

, a thoroughfare into Little Shear Lane, with a pretty broad passage; on the east side is an open place going into a small court called Chair Court, with a fair freestone pavement. Next to

Ship Yard

are these courts: Swan Court, very small; Star Court, indifferent, good, and large, with an open air; White Hart Court, long but narrow; Lock Alley, long, but small; Windmill Court very small and inconsiderable: Crown Court hath an open air about the midst, and leadeth into Little Shear Lane. Bear and Harrow Court is so called from such a sign, belonging to a noted eating-house, at the entrance into it. This court (or rather alley, from its length and narrowness) runs into

Boswell Court

.

It is a common mistake to suppose that owed its name to the biographer of Dr. Johnson. Its age and its name are at least as old as the times of the Tudors, in whose day, and in those of the Stuarts, as we are told, it was the abode of

the quality.

Here lived,

Lady Raleigh, the widow of the unfortunate Sir Walter.

London gossip

Illustrations.

Memoirs,

In his

absence, I took house in

Boswell Court

, near

Temple Bar

, for

two

years, immediately moving all my goods thereto.

Ascending northwards towards was a flight of steps which led into New , a dreary-looking enclosure, although described by Hatton in as

a pleasant place.

Charlies,

This ancient order of watchmen was instituted about the middle of the century, and carried on its functions, growing yearly more feeble and inefficient, until, in , the

Charlies,

bucks

bloods

Charley

Old , from having been the chief abode of the

quality,

Post Office

Directories

The old entrance to St. from the Strand was through an open gateway flanked by massive pillars of stone. This archway was erected by the Corporation of London, as a tribute of respect for Alderman Pickett, through whose exertions the thoroughfare of the Strand was widened, at an expense of more than a quarter of a million sterling. The new thoroughfare was named , after the public benefactor, but the name never became popular, and soon passed away, the houses being reckoned as part of the Strand. A little beyond the gateway the lane bore off to the left, and led to the back of Hospital, merging in and Gilbert Passage, which opens through , into the south-west corner of . The line of this lane flanks the western extremity of the site now laid level for the erection of the New Law Courts, and it is to be hoped that it will soon be superseded by a wider thoroughfare, the dark and obscure outlets by which it still communicates with and New Inn being swept away.

Among the other residents in this lane was Sir John Trevor (a cousin of the infamous Judge Jeffreys), at time Speaker of the , and twice Master of the Rolls; the same who was expelled from the House for bribery, though he had the good sense to warn James II. against his arbitrary conduct. He died here in , and was buried in the Rolls Chapel on the east side of . Another distinguished inhabitant was Oliver Cromwell, in his early days. The Lords Paget also had their town mansion here, as appears by the parish registers.

In the course of time, however, the lane,

from being the polished abode of wit, genius, and fashion, was converted by the ruthless hand of Time into a huge overcrowded den, where blasphemy, rags, gin, hollow-eyed poverty, and stinted industry, were all fearfully huddled together. Where noble dames once moved with costly and flowing trains, a short time since women in rags rocked to sleep the children of misery, to whom hunger gave a fearful vitality; and where courtiers used to exchange the bow of recognition, fearful and brutal collisions between man and man took place. Upon the once polished floor, now broken and filthy, where stately revelry held its court, human beings lay stretched in that association which extreme misery only knows; and the once elegant boudoir of some dead duchess was inhabited by seven or eight wretched human beings. Doors stood ajar with the gaping look of poverty and desolation, where the loud resounding knocks of some tall, gold-laced menial were once heard; and where the flaxen-haired children of wealth once sported, neglected children in filth and rags dozed out their wretched existence.

In this sun-forsaken, dreary region lived, among the rest, a very large colony of the poorest and wildest of the Irish, attracted in the first instance, no doubt, by its nearness to the Catholic chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields; but these, though equally poor, dirty, and drunken with the tenants of the adjoining courts, were never actually absorbed by their English neighbours. To the last they remained ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores, and when the rookery was broken up they migrated, if we are rightly informed, to Drury Lane and the Seven Dials.

As a proof that the locality was as demoralised as it was poor, we may add that when wholesale executions occurred at Newgate or Tyburn, as they did occasionally occur when George III. was king, it was rare indeed for this locality not to have its representative amongst those unhappy wretches who paid the last penalty of the law.

It has been very appositely observed that

Charles Dickens might well have placed the scenes of his quaintest stories of low Cockney life in the midst of this doomed quarter of London, which was the haunt of gaiety and pleasure in the reign of Charles II., and is associated with the memories of the bloods and the bucks of the Restoration, and the wits of the days of Queen Anne.

Mr. Diprose-who, as an old inhabitant of the parish, is well qualified to speak on the subjectgives a list of the courts, alleys, and streets which have been quietly removed and effaced, in order to form the site of the new Palace of Justice.

Besides these, however, there have disappeared a considerable part of the Strand (), Crey Street, Yates' Court, and St. , nearly all of which have histories still

The demolition of so many small tenements, in order to make a site for the New Law Courts, has not had so great an influence as might be supposed upon the people living in the parish of , which still swarms with a poor population. Previously it stood at about , and now, after all this clearance, it is about , a great number of the inhabitants of the old lanes and alleys having removed only into the neighbourhood of , which, it is to be feared, are almost equally close and filthy, and sadly overcrowded.

In the reign of Charles II. was the of London, and several of its houses were the haunts of those royal and noble intrigues which figure so largely in the anecdotememoirs of the time.

Here,

Steele used to show his gaudy attire, Bolingbroke his stately presence, and Pope that decrepit form which was yet the tabernacle of a noble soul within. Here Swift, with downcast head and scowling visage, used to growl to himself as the mighty satirist made and unmade cabinets; and the gentle Addison here turned some of those polished periods which have called forth the envy and admiration of after ages.

We will conclude this chapter with a few words quoted from an article in in , styled,

A Walk Round St. Clement Danes

Gone now are the glories of St. Clement Danes. Gone are the sedan chairs and coaches that once had here their favourite and (it is said) their earliest stands. Gone are the Thames watermen, whom our fathers and grandfathers knew so well, resplendent in their scarlet coats and badges, but who were driven out by the penny The Theatre In Portugal Street. steamers. Gone, too, are the smashers, and the Charlies; gone, too, is that little court to the north of St. Clement's Church, of which we have already seen what Winter had to say with reference to the concoction of the fiendish Gunpowder Plot. Gone, too, now are the once fair gardens of Essex House and Norfolk House; gone are the wild beasts which once were kept in Holywell Street; gone is the last of those stocks which once held in awe the roguish apprentices and youthful roughs of the parish; gone is the Denzil Street gang, and the Alphabet public-house, whilom so well known to the theatrical profession; gone is the farfamed Norfolk Giant, who once kept the Craven Head in wretched Drury Lane; and gone is Joe Miller ; gone, too, are his jests, and possibly his grave.

But in the place of these and other relics of past ages shortly we shall see rising on the now bare site a stately building, the like of which Londoners have not seen reared in modern days, save only at the river-side at Westminster--a palace in which it is our earnest prayer, as Englishmen, that Justice may long sit to hold evenly the scales of law.

[extra_illustrations.3.20.1] Holloway Sanatarium

[] Since the above was written, the condition of Temple Bar has created considerable alarm, from the fact that, owing to the removal of the houses on the north side, and the excavations that have been carried on close to it for the foundations of the New Law Courts, the ground beneath had given way to such an extent as to cause great fear of the structure falling. In August, 1874, the arch was therefore immediately shored up with beams, and other means taken to ensure the safety of passengers through the Bar.

[extra_illustrations.3.20.2] Holloway

[] With reference to this assertion, Malcolm states that such a report arose from the fact of one of the houses in that narrow street bearing on its front the fleur-de-lys of France, and suggests that this was put there, not to commemorate Sully's arrival, but in compliment to our Henry V., the conqueror of France.

[extra_illustrations.3.21.1] Sir Charles Sedley