The middle walk consisted of odd, tumbledown shed shops, though the fruit, flowers, and vegetables were excellent. Crockery-ware was sold in several of them. There were two medical herb-shops, where you could purchase leeches; and snails, then employed to make broth for consumptive patients, were vended. Also a wellknown itinerant bird-dealer had a stall, where he sold larks, canaries, owls, and, if you desired it, could get you a talking parrot, or manufacture you a love-bird, on the shortest notice. Quality folks
often walked in the centre avenue, but there was no accommodation for choice plants on the roof. The ducal proprietor improved the market into its present state; but of course far more might be done with the present site. Covent Garden was used for many years as a pasture-ground, and was subsequently let on a building lease. Then the square was planned, and Inigo Jones designed it. The piazza, which runs round a part of it, was also his work. The market originated casually. Vendors of vegetables and fruit from the neighbouring villages used the centre of the square as a market; and, in lapse of time, the market grew into a recognized institution. It was strangely unsightly, being but a rude combination of stalls and sheds. But in 1831 the present market buildings were erected at the Duke of Bedford's expense; and, a few years later, open-air accommodation was obtained on the roof, at the entrance, for the sale of plants, &c. The duke derives a considerable revenue from the rents and tolls. It is quite a problem to what the tolls amount. Those who occupy shops or stands by the week or year, and who sell the greater part of the produce brought in, merely pay their rents as for ordinary shops. Some of them, though held only from week to week, have continued in the same families through two or even three generations.
The early morning at Covent Garden affords a curious sight. From 3.30 to 4.30 there is little bustle in the market, though business goes on rapidly. Early risers of both sexes--a class of
higglers who endorse the old proverb that the early bird catches the worm --flock to the market. They form a medium between the grower and the small dealer, buying the whole stock from the former, and seeking to sell portions of it to the latter at a higher price. The crowd and bustle increase from five o'clock up to seven or eight. Porters, with baskets, offer their help to buyers. The piazzas become very lively with their clamour. Against every post and pillar are small tables, where coffee, tea, bread and butter may be purchased. Hawkers parade in every direction with cakes, buns, knives, and pocket-books for sale. Many customers seek for stimulants, and consume gin or hot spirits-and-water with avidity.
In our climate piazzas were a novelty--we seldom need to exclude the sun-yet those in Covent Garden became popular. Long afterwards two piazzas were erected in Regent Street, and termed the Colonnade, but they were not a success and have been removed. Those in Covent Garden, though much dishonoured, still remain; and are, perhaps, the only buildings in that style in England. Thus Byron says in Beppo --
For, bating Covent Garden, I can hit on
No place that's called Piazza in Great Britain.
The following is given by the same authority as a brief epitome of the annals of Covent Garden. We shall enlarge upon it as we proceed in our survey :-- The market buildings were commenced in 1632 by the Earl of Bedford. 1650, April 26. Col. Poyse was shot to death in the market. 1675, December 29. A proclamation issued against coffee-houses. 1679, January 8. To allow their continuance till
Entrance To Covent Garden Market.
June 24 following. The poet Dryden was assaulted in Covent Garden, on account of some verses in his Hind and Panther. 1687, April 14. A soldier, William Grant, hanged in the market for running from his colours. 1636. This date is cut in a stone let into the brickwork of No. 23, King Street, of Evans's Hotel, we are told. It formed a prominent object in Hogarth's print, Morning, And here lodged Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, 1637; Thomas Killigrew, 1640; Denzil Hollis, 1644; and in 1647, Sir Harry Vane, and also Sir Kenelm Digby, 1662. Of Hollis this anecdote is told:--In a hot debate in Parliament, Ireton offended Hollis, upon which he persuaded him to walk out of the House, and told him he must fight to justify his words. Ireton pleaded that his conscience would not suffer him to fight a duel; upon which Hollis pulled him by the nose, saying, If his conscience forbade his giving men satisfaction; it should also keep him from provoking them. We are assured that nearly all the foundlings of St. Paul, Covent Garden, were laid at the door of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham.
Covent Garden was made into a separate parish in 1645, and the patronage of it rested in the Russell family; the district which it comprises being cut off under the provisions of a special Act of Parliament from that of St. Martin'sin- the-Fields. The parish church was dedicated to St. Paul.
In the days of the first two Georges the parish was, if not the fashionable part of the town, at all events a fashionable district, and the residence of a great number of persons of title and high rank, as well as of men known in the world of art and literature. A concourse of arts, literary characters, and other men of genius frequented the numerous coffee-houses, wine and cider-cellars, &c., within the boundaries of Covent Garden, says Mr. Timbs, who adds the following formidable list of persons whose names are connected with the place:--Butler, Addi-
Covent Garden Market, Looking Eastward. (From A Print Of 1786.)
son Sir R. Steele, Otway, Dryden, Pope, Warburton, Cibber, Fielding, Churchill, Bolingbroke, and Dr. Johnson; Rich, Woodward, Booth, Wilkes, Garrick, and Macklin; Kitty Clive, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Pritchard, the Duchess of Bolton, Lady Derby, Lady Thurlow, and the Duchess of St. Alban's; Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir James Thornhill; Vandevelde, Zincke, Lambert, Hogarth, Hayman, Wilson, Dance, Meyer, and Samuel Foote. But even to this list it would be possible to make many additions.
Strange as it may appear, Covent Garden was for a long period fashionable as a residence and a promenade. From 1666 down to 1700 the following noble persons tenanted the Piazzas:-- Lords Hollis, Brownlow, Lucas, Newport, Barkham; Crewe, Bishop of Durham, Duke of Richmond, Earl of Oxford, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Edward Flood, Sir Kenelm Digby, Earl of Bedford, Hon. Colonel Russel, Bishop of St. David's, Marquis of Winchester, Earl of Sussex, and the Earl of Peterborough, in the house where the auctioneer Robins afterwards flourished.
Earl Ferrers, who was executed in 1760 for the murder of his servant, was living in Covent Garden in 1722. Even so lately as the reign of George II. Covent Garden retained much of its fashionable character. At all event, in the March of 1730 the
Daily Advertiser, gravely tells its readers that the Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who has been greatly indisposed at her house in Covent Garden for some time, is now perfectly recovered, and takes the benefit of the air in Hyde Park every morning, by advice of her physicians. The same journal for June 10, 1731, tells us that, A few days ago the Right Hon. the Lady Mary Wortley Montague set out from her house in Covent Garden for the Bath.
The Piazzas attracted many remarkable literary and scientific persons. In addition to Sir Godfrey Kneller, several gifted painters chose them for their studios-viz., John Zoffany, Aggas, Sir Peter Lely, Peter Roestraten, Mrs. S. P. Rose (a famous watercolourist), and John Mortimer Hamilton. Benjamin West, too, when he first came from America, resided in Covent Garden. The neighbouring streets, also-King Street, Henrietta Street, &c.- were crowded with persons of quality.
The area of Covent Garden, when as yet it had not been set aside for the worship of the goddess Pomona, was a fine open space, which served as a playground for the youths of London and Westminster, lying as it did half-way between each city. To this fact Gay alludes in his Trivia, every line obviously being a sketch drawn from the life:--
Where Covent Garden's famous temple stands,
That boasts the work of Jones' immortal hands,
Columns with plain magnificence appear,
And graceful porches lead along the square.
Here oft my course I bend, when, lo! from far
I spy the furies of the football war.
The 'prentice quits his shop to join the crew;
Increasing crowds the flying game pursue.
O whither shall I run? the throng draws nigh,
The ball now skims the street, now soars on high;
The dext'rous glazier strong returns the bound,
And jingling sashes on the penthouse sound.
But it is time to enter into a more detailed account of the district. The large square, with the fruit and vegetable market in its centre, which is known to every Londoner and to most Englishmen as Covent Garden, was laid out during 1630-31 by Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford, from the designs of Inigo Jones. In all probability the Square was never completed, its sides being built at different times; and Mr. P. Cunningham is of opinion that they may not have been even designed in full. The Arcade or Piazza, however, ran along not only the north but the whole of the eastern side. That part to the south of Russell Street, however, was burnt down, and the Piazza was never replaced, probably from motives of economy.
The church of St. Paul, erected between the years 1631 and 1638, also from the design of Inigo Jones, formed, as it still forms, the western side of the Garden, whilst its southern side for many years was formed by a blank wall which bounded the garden of Bedford House. Along this ran a row of trees, under the shade of which the market was originally held, and afterwards in a few temporary stalls and sheds.
The Square, or Market-place, as it is often called in books and documents of the date of the Rebellion and of Charles II., seems to have grown gradually in importance as a place of business. Its inhabitants doubtless were proud of it, and foresaw that in the course of time it would prove a source of income and profit. Accordingly we find the parishioners of St. Paul's, in 1656, taxing themselves for painting the benches and seats there, and ten years later for planting a new row of trees; and between 1665 and 1668 the wealthier residents subscribed various sums towards setting up the column and dial mentioned below. It was not, however, until 1671 that the market was formally established under a charter granted by the king to the Earl of Bedford; and Mr. Cunningham tells us that eight years later, when the market was the first time actually rated to the poor, there were twenty-three salesmen amenable to the rate. For a contemporary description of the market as it was in 1689, we fortunately have Strype to refer to. He writes:--
The south side of Covent Garden Square lieth open to Bedford Garden, where there is a small grotto of trees most pleasant in the summer season; and on this side there is kept a market for fruits, herbs, roots, and flowers every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; which is grown to a considerable account, and well served with choice goods, which makes it much resorted to. It would appear, however, from another passage in Strype, that at this time it was inferior as a market to the Stocks' Market in the City--of which we have already spokenSee Vol. I., p. 436; Vol. II., p. 407--afterwards transferred to the west side of Farringdon Street. In 1710, as we can see by a print published in that year, the market was still restricted to a few stalls and sheds on the south side.
Before the middle of the century, however, a great change had come over the place: the street around being largely inhabited by wellto- do persons and their dependents, the market gradually increased, and the small hucksters and retail dealers began to erects sleeping apartments over their stalls to such an extent as to provoke a memorial from the inhabitants in vestry assembled to the Duke of Bedford, complaining of this encroachment as prejudicial to the tradesmen and fair dealers.
The prints of the square, at the time of which we write, show the inclosure as gravelled, and fenced in with rows of low posts and chains. In its centre was a fluted column of the Corinthian order, with a sun-dial on the top, which would appear by an inscription to have been erected in 1668. Thornton, in his Survey of London and Westminster (1786), speaks of the column as surrounded by four sun-dials, and informs us that the inner portion of the Square at that time was surrounded by light wooden rails.
The column, as we learn from another source, stood on a pedestal, which was raised upon six steps of black marble. The capital was very much enriched; it supported a square stone, three sides of which served as sun-dials. Upon this stone stood a globe, supported by four scrolls. It was removed in June, 1790.
Upon the steps of this column sat sundry old women who sold milk, porridge, barley-broth, &c., and to whom allusion is thus made in a brochure
entitled The Humours of Covent Garden, published in 1738:--
High in the midst of this most happy land
A well-built marble pyramid does stand,
By which spectators know the time o' th' day
From beams reflecting of the solar ray;
Its basis with ascending steps is grac'd,
Around whose area cleanly matrons plac'd
Vend their most wholesome food, by Nature good,
To cheer the spirits and enrich the blood.
Mr. Peter Cunningham reminds us that the scene of Dryden's Sir Martin Mar-all is laid in this once fashionable quarter of the town, and that allusions to the Square, the Church, and the Piazza are of constant occurrence in the dramas of the reigns of Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and Anne. Thus the Piazza is the locality of a scene in The Soldier's Fortune of Otway, and also of one in The Country Wife of Wycherley.
There were plenty of stands for hackney coaches in and around Covent Garden at the commencement of the reign of George III., and Voltaire probably often used them in passing backwards and forwards between the theatres and his lodgings in Maiden Lane. The forms and shapes of these lumbering vehicles are familiar to all who know Kip's prints of the period referred to.
Such, then, in its main and leading features, was and is the district which will occupy our attention during the next two or three chapters, a district most interesting in a literary point of view, though the coffee-house and theatrical elements will be found, we fear, to predominate very much over that of domestic life. In fact, with the exception of certain actresses, and a few grand ladies of the quality, the feminine element is conspicuous by its absence, the coffee-houses of the last century being the equivalent of the clubs and club-land of the present.
The vicinity, however, it is only fair to state here, bore scarcely a higher repute on quite another score. At night it was simply unsafe for pedestrians. For was not Dryden waylaid and beaten by Mohocks or Mohawks at the corner of Rose Street and King Street? In spite of this fact, however, and although it is well known that certain parts of London, Hyde Park for instance, a century ago were very unsafe thoroughfares, on account of footpads and highway robbers, we may raise a smile of incredulity on the faces of some of our readers when we quote the following remarks from Shenstone, in the reign of George II.:--
London is really dangerous at this time; the pickpockets, formerly content with mere filching, make no scruple to knock people down with bludgeons in Fleet Street and the Strand, and that at no later hour than eight o'clock at night; but in the Piazzas, Covent Garden, they come in large. bodies, armed with couteaus, and attack whole parties, so that the danger of coming out of the playhouses is of some weight in the opposite scale when I am disposed to go to them oftener than I ought. And in like manner, and with the same meaning, Shadwell in one of his plays makes a character remark: They were brave fellows indeed; for in those days a man could not go from the Rose Tavern to the Piazza once but he must venture his life twice.
The Mohocks are well described in the Spectator,
and in Swift's Journal; and Shadwell's comedy of
The Scourers affords a striking picture of the dangerous state of the streets of London at night in the early part of the eighteenth century. In reference to this, Gay writes :--
Who has not heard the Scourers' midnight fame?
Who has not trembled at the Mohocks' name?
These disorderly ruffians, observes Mr. Peter Cunningham; seldom ventured within the City proper, where the watch was more efficient than in any other part; but took their stand about St. Clement Danes and Covent Garden, breaking the watchman's lantern and halberd, and frequently locking him up in his own stand-box. The curious reader may find much amusing information on this subject in the old ballad of The Ranting Rambler, or a Young Gentleman's Frolic through the City at night, and when he was taken by the Watch, printed in Mackay's Songs of the London Prentices' and Traders; and in Arthur Murphy's letters to David Garrick will be found a graphic sketch of one of the best of the race, known as Tiger Roach, the bully of the Bedford Coffeehouse in 1769.
It is satisfactory to know that, thanks to the police, both the Piazza and King Street are to be traversed now-a-days with less danger to life and limb.
