Whitechapel,

is a spacious fair street, for entrance into the city eastward, and somewhat long, reckoning from the laystall east unto the bars west. It is a great thoroughfare, being the

Essex road

, and well resorted unto, which occasions it to be the better inhabited, and accommodated with good inns for the reception of travellers, and for horses, coaches, carts, and wagons.

Whitechapel is mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher, in their

March fair, my hearts!

Lieutenant, beat the rear up! Ancient, let your colours fly; but have a great care of the butchers' hooks at Whitechapel; they have been the death of many a fair ancient

I lived,

without

Aldgate

, about midway between

Aldgate

Church and Whitechapel Bars, on the lefthand or north side of the street; and as the distemper had not reached to that side of the city, our neighbourhood continued very easy; but at the other end of the town the consternation was very great, and the richer sort of people, especially the nobility and gentry from the west part of the city, thronged out of town with their families and servants in an unusual manner; and this was more particularly seen in Whitechapel--that is to say, the broad street where I lived.

Although [extra_illustrations.2.143.1] , was at only a cape or ease to Stepney, it is of great antiquity, since there is record of Hugh de Fulbourne being rector there in the year . As

unkindly and cruelly,

Now, that this event may have occurred in the reign of Henry VI. is very probable; but as the parish was called Matfellon more than a years before, it is very certain that the name of Matfellon did not arise from this particular felon. Strype thinks that the word Matfellon is somehow or other derived from the Hebrew or Syriac word

Matfel,

The inhabitants of this parish, says Strype, were anciently bound, annually, at the feast of Pentecost, to go in a solemn procession to the cathedral church of , in the city of London, to make their oblations, as a testimony of their obedience to the Mother Church; but upon the erection of the conventual church of St. Peter, , into a cathedral, and. the county of Middlesex appropriated by Henry VIII. for its diocese, of which this parish being a part, the inhabitants were obliged to repair annually to , as they formerly did to ; which practice proving very troublesome, and of no service, Thomas Thirlby, bishop of the new see; upon their petition, agreed to ease them of that trouble, provided the rector and churchwardens would yearly, at the time accustomed, repair to his new cathedral, and there, in the time of Divine service, offer at the high altar the sum of , as a recognition of their obedience.

The street, or way, says Strype, leading from to , remaining in its original unpaved state, it became thereby so very bad that the same was almost rendered impassable, not only for carriages, but likewise for horses; wherefore it, together with divers others on the west side of the city of London, were appointed to be paved by an Act of Parliament, in the year .

In the year the advowson of Whitechapel was purchased by the principal and scholars of King's Hall and College of Brasenose College, in Oxford.

Pennant, always vivacious and amusing, tells a story of a libellous picture of the Last Supper placed above the altar in this church, in the reign of Queen Anne, by the then High Church rector. Dr. White Kennet, at that time Dean of Peterborough, had given great offense to by writing in defence of the Hanoverian succession, and in revenge the rector introduced the dean among the Apostles in the character of Judas. He clad him in a black robe, between cloak and gown, and a short wig, and, to brand him beyond mistake, put a black velvet patch on his forehead, such as the dean wore to hide a dreadful injury received in his youth; beneath was written,

Judas, the traytor.

The register of St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, records the burial of remarkable persons- Brandon, the supposed executioner of Charles I., and Parker, the, leader of the Mutiny at the Nore. Brandon was a ragman, in . The ntry is--

1649

.

June 2

. Richard Brandon, a man out of

Rosemary Lane

.

This R. Brandon is supposed to have cut off the head of Charles I.

, now re-christened , is described by Mr. Mayhew as chiefly inhabited by dredgers, ballast-heavers, coal-whippers, watermen, lumpers, &c., as well as the slop-workers and

sweaters

One

side of the lane,

is covered with old boots and shoes; old clothes, both men's, women's, and children's; new lace, for edgings, and a variety of cheap prints and muslins, and often of the commonest kinds (also new); hats and bonnets; pots; tins; old knives and forks, old scissors, and old metal articles generally; here and there is a stall of cheap bread or American cheese, or what is announced as American; old glass; different descriptions of

second

-hand furniture, of the smaller size, such as children's chairs, bellows, &c. Mixed with these, but only very scantily, are a few brightlooking swag-barrows, with china ornaments, toys, &c. Some of the wares are spread on the ground, on wrappers, or pieces of matting or carpet; and some, as the pots, are occasionally placed on straw. The cotton prints are often heaped on the ground, where are also ranges or heaps of boots and shoes, and piles of old clothes, or hats or umbrellas. Other trades place their goods on stalls or barrows, or over an old chair or clothes-horse. And amidst all this motley display the buyers and sellers smoke, and shout, and doze, and bargain, and wrangle, and eat, and drink tea and coffee, and sometimes beer.

Rag Fair, or , , is mentioned in a noteto Pope's as

a place near the

Tower of London

, where old clothes and frippery are sold.

The articles of commerce by no means belie the name. There is no expressing the poverty of the goods, nor yet their cheapness. A distinguished merchant engaged with a purchaser observing me look on him with great attention, called out to me, as his customer was going off with his bargain, to observe that man,

for,

says he,

I have actually clothed him for fourteen pence.

In the of , there is an account of Mary Jenkins, a dealer in old clothes in Rag Fair, selling a pair of breeches to a poor woman for sevenpence and a pint of beer. While the were drinking together at a publichouse, the lucky purchaser found, on unripping the clothes, guineas of gold quilted in the waistband ( Queen Anne guineas), and a bank-note, dated , of which notethe purchaser did not learn the value till she had sold it for a gallon of twopenny purl.

, according to Stow, was formerly called Hog Lane. It is now called . The old historian gives a pleasant picture of it as it was years before he wrote.

This Hog Lane stretcheth north towards St. Mary Spittle,

without Bishopsgate, and within these

forty

years it had on both sides fair hedgerows of elm-trees, with bridges, and easy stiles to pass over into--the pleasant fields, very commodious for citizens therein to walk about, and otherwise to recreate and refresh their dull spirits in the sweet and wholesome air which is now within a few years made a continual building throughout of garden-houses and small cottages; and the fields on either side be turned into gardenplots, tenter-yards, bowling-alleys, and such like.

Strype says that some gentlemen of the Court and city built their houses here for the sake of the fresh air. At the west of the lane, the same historian mentions, there was a house called, in Strype's boyhood, the Spanish ambassador's, who in the reign of James I. dwelt there, probably the famous Gondomar. A little way from this, down a paved alley on the east side, Strype's father lived, in a fair large house with a good garden before it, where Hans Jacobson, King James's jeweller, had dwelt. After that, French Protestant silk-weavers settled in the part of the lane towards Spittlefields, and it soon became a continuous row of buildings on both sides of the way.

Petticoat Lane

,

is essentially the old clothes' district. Embracing the streets and alleys adjacent to Petticoat Lane, and including the rows of old boots and shoes on the ground, there is, perhaps, between two and three miles of old clothes. Petticoat Lane proper is long and narrow, and to look down it is to look down a vista of many-coloured garments, alike on the sides and on the ground. The effect sometimes is very striking, from the variety of hues, and the constant flitting or gathering of the crowd into little groups of bargainers. Gowns of every shade and every pattern are hanging up, but none, perhaps. look either bright or white; it is a vista of dinginess, but many-coloured dinginess, as regards female attire. Dress-coats, frock-coats, great-coats, livery and gamekeepers' coats, paletots, tunics, trowsers, knee-breeches, waistcoats, capes, pilot coats, working jackets, plaids, hats, dressinggowns, shirts, Guernsey frocks, are all displayed. The predominant colours are black and blue, but there is every colour; the light drab of some aristocratic livery, the dull brown-green of velveteen, the deep blue of a pilot-jacket, the variegated figures of the shawl dressing-gown, the glossy black of the restored garments, the shine of newly-turpentined black satin waistcoats, the scarlet and green of some flaming tartan-these things, mixed with the hues of the women's garments, spotted and striped, certainly present a scene which cannot be beheld in any other part of the greatest city in the world, nor in any other portion of the world itself.

The ground has also its array of colours. It is covered with lines of boots and shoes, their shining black relieved here and there by the admixture of females' boots, with drab, green, plum, or lavendercoloured legs, as the upper part of the boot is always called in the trade. There is, too, an admixture of men's button-boots, with drab-cloth legs; and of a few red, yellow, and russet-coloured slippers; and of children's coloured morocco boots 61 Kirby Castle, Bethnal Green. (The Blind Beggar's House). and shoes. Handkerchiefs, sometimes of a gaudy orange pattern, are heaped on a chair. Lace and muslins occupy small stands, or are spread on the ground. Black and drab and straw hats are hung up, or piled one upon another, and kept from falling by means of strings; while incessantly threading their way through all this intricacy is a mass of people, some of whose dresses speak of a recent purchase in the lane.

Whitechapel,

may not be the worst of the many districts in this quarter, but it is undoubtedly bad enough. Taking the broad road from

Aldgate

Church to Old Whitechapel Churcha thoroughfare in some parts like the high street of an old-fashioned country town-you may pass on either side about

twenty

narrow avenues, leading to thousands of closely-packed nests, full to overflowing with dirt, misery, and rags.

the

twelve

months' lamp

The , situated in Whitechapel, and founded in , is of the most useful and extensive charities of the kind in the metropolis. The building was erected in , from the designs of Mr. B. Mainwaring, and originally contained only wards and beds. The amount of fixed income is , derived from funded property, voluntary donations, legacies, &c.

The British and Foreign Sailors' Church, formerly called the , Whitechapel, was built in by Caius Gabriel Cibber, the sculptor, at the expense of Christian V., King of Denmark, for the use of the Danish merchants and sailors of London. Opposite to the pulpit is the royal pew, where Christian VII. sat when he visited London in . Attached to the pulpit is a handsome brass frame, with sand-glasses. Both Caius Cibber and his more celebrated son, Colley Cibber, Pope's enemy, are buried here. The church was opened as a British and Foreign Sailors' Church in .

The Royalty Theatre, Wells Street, (named from ' Well, ), was opened in , when [extra_illustrations.2.146.4]  appeared on the stage as

Cupid,

The original Theatre, originally a throwster's shop, in , or , , was built in , by Thomas Odell, a dramatic author, and the licensee of the stage under Walpole's Licensing Act. A sermon preached at St. Botolph's Church, , against the new theatre, frightened Odell, who sold the property to a Mr. Henry Giffard, who opened the new house in the year . He, however, was soon scared away, and removed, in , to ; but he managed to return in , bringing with him David Garrick, who had appeared in private at Gate, and now essayed the character of

Richard III.

I see nothing wonderful in it. The Duke of Argyll says he is superior to Betterton.

Did I tell you about Mr. Garrick, the town are gone mad after? There are a dozen dukes of a night at

Goodman's Fields

, sometimes, and yet I am still in the opposition.

This theatre was pulled down, says Cunningham, about ; a theatre was burnt down in .

were originally part of a farm belonging to the Abbey of the Nuns of St. Clair.

At the which farm,

I myself, in my youth, have fetched many a halfpenny-worth of milk, and never had less than

three

ale-pints for a halfpenny in summer, nor less than

one

ale-quart for a halfpenny in winter, always hot from the kine, as the same was milked and strained.

One

Trolop, and afterwards Goodman, were the farmers there, and had

thirty

or

forty

kine to the pail.

In Strype describes the streets as chiefly inhabited by thriving Jews. There were also tenters for clothworkers, and a cart-way out of Whitechapel into Well Close. The initials of the streets, Pescod, or Prescott, Ayliffe, Leman, and Maunsell, formed the word

palm.

[extra_illustrations.2.143.1] the church of St. Mary, Whitechapel

[extra_illustrations.2.143.2] St. Mary Matfellon

[extra_illustrations.2.144.1] People's Market, Whitechapel

[extra_illustrations.2.146.1] London Hospital-New Buildings, 1887

[extra_illustrations.2.146.2] London Hospital-Queen Opening New Wing, 1876

[extra_illustrations.2.146.3] London Hospital Application

[extra_illustrations.2.146.4] Braham

[extra_illustrations.2.146.5] Whitechapel. Two infamous Prophets--1636