Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 2
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XXVII: Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-Le-Grand.
Chapter XXVII: Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-Le-Grand.
[extra_illustrations.2.209.1] was of the original gates of London, and formed the extreme corner to the north. Some say it was named after Aldrich, a Saxon, who built it; others, says Stow, attribute it to the alder trees which grew around it. There is no mention of it previous to the Conquest. Becoming dilapidated and dangerous, it was pulled down by order of the Lord Mayor and aldermen; but rebuilt in , the expense (more than ) being defrayed out of a legacy, left for the purpose by William Parker, a merchant tailor. It was damaged in the Great Fire, but soon after repaired and beautified. Originally, like , it had an arch in the centre for general traffic, and | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[extra_illustrations.2.209.3] posterns for pedestrians. Over the arch was a figure in high relief of James I., but the building itself was heavy and inelegant. The imperial arms surmounted the figure, for through this gate the Stuart entered London when he came to take possession of the Crown. On the eastern side was an effigy of the prophet Jeremiah, and these lines from his prophecies:-- In the western niche was an effigy of Samuel, with this inscription:-- On the south was a bas-relief of James in his royal robes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The city Crier had rooms over the gate, but in Elizabeth's reign they were occupied by John Day, who printed the folio bible dedicated to Edward VI. in . He also printed the works of Roger Ascham, Latimer's Sermons, and Foxe's There is a work of his now much sought after by book-collectors on account of the frontispiece, which represents Day with a whip entering the room of his workmen, who are sleeping, the sun shining upon them. He rouses them with these words: This gate was sold in , and taken down immediately afterwards. The inn was built near its site. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[extra_illustrations.2.209.4] forms a noble preface to an important street. From years before the death of Charles II. there has been a Penny Post ( of the greatest blessings of civilisation) established in London. In Cromwell's time, the revenues of the were farmed to a Mr. John Manley for a year, and it was calculated that latterly Manley made annually by his bargain. Bishop, his successor, had to pay a year for the office (the monopoly of letting post horses being included). In , the year of this disgraceful reign, the entire revenue of the was granted to the Duke of York. About this time Robert Murray, an upholsterer, suggested the idea of a post from part of London to another, the city having grown too large for messengers. Murray's Post was afterwards assigned to Mr. William Dockwra (or Docwra). By the early regulations, all letters not exceeding a pound in weight were to be charged penny for the city and suburbs, and twopence for any distance within a mile radius. large offices were opened in different parts of London, and receiving-houses were established in all the principal streets. The deliveries in the chief streets near the Exchange were as many as or times a day, and in the outskirts there were daily deliveries. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The moment the Penny Post became a success, the courtiers were all nibbling, and the Duke of York complained that his monopoly was infringed. Titus Oates cried out that the Penny Post was a Jesuit scheme, and useful for transmitting Popish treason. The city porters, too, says Mr. Lewin, in his excellent book, pulled down the placards, from the doors of the receiving--houses. The Court of King's Bench, on a trial, decided, of course unjustly, that the new office must be absorbed by the Government. From this time, the London District Post existed as a separate establishment from the General Post, and so continued till . Shortly after this verdict Mr. Dockwra was appointed, under the Duke of York, controller of the District Post. On the accession of the Duke of York the revenues of the reverted to the Crown. years after the removal of unfortunate Dockwra from the a Mr. Povey attempted, in vain, to rival the Government by establishing a In Pope's friend, Ralph Allen- established an improved system of at a rental of a year. By this contract Allen is supposed to have made nearly half a million sterling. On the death of this worthy and successful speculator, the cross posts passed under the control of the Postmasters-General. In , when this department was amalgamated, the proceeds, says Mr. Lewin, had reached the enormous yearly sum of . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The careless post-boy on a slow horse was still the agent employed to carry letters, often requiring to be conveyed with the utmost care and speed. years after the death of Allen, a greater reformer arose in the person of Mr. John Palmer, a brewer and theatrical manager at Bath. In , after some successful experiments with coaches and swifter horses, he was at once appointed controllergeneral of the , at a year, with and a half per cent. commission upon any excess of net revenue over , the Post Office's annual revenue for the year of his appointment. The conservative opposition to Palmer's improvements was incessant and untiring, and in he was compelled to surrender his | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.210 | appointment for a pension of a year. After a years' struggle against this unfair removal, Mr. Palmer's son, in , obtained a Parliamentary grant of . The year of the introduction of Mr. Palmer's plans the net revenue of the was about ; years afterwards, the proceeds had increased sixfold- to no less a sum, indeed, than a million and a half sterling. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In there were -horse mails, and -horse mails in England, says Mr. Lewin, in Ireland, and in Scotland. The last year of mail coaches, mails left London every night punctually at m., travelling in the aggregate about miles before they reached their several destinations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The original , of which a view is given on page , stood in , and of the most interesting sights of the in old time was the gay procession of mail coaches thither on the King's birthday. Hone, in , tells us that George IV. changed the annual celebration of his birthday to Day, . says he,
says Von Raumer, in ,
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The Money Order Office dates from . No order originally could be issued for more than guineas, and the charge for that sum amounted to and sixpence, or nearly per cent. It was originally a private speculation of officials, and so remained till , when it became a branch of the general institution. It began with small rooms at the north end of , and a staff of clerks. During the year the number of orders amounted in round numbers to , representing a money value exceeding , the commission on the whole amounting to more than . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
That great reform of [extra_illustrations.2.212.1] , the Penny Postage, was mooted in , and in the uniform rate of fourpence a letter was tried. The penny rate for half an ounce commenced in . Telegraph messages were used to expedite business in . In , the Duke of Argyll being Postmaster-General, the General Post and the London District Letter-carriers were amalgamated, and the red uniform of the General Post abandoned. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In houses in were taken for the Post service, and additional offices erected; and from time to time other additions were made, until the whole became a cumbrous and inconvenient mass of buildings, ill adapted to the great increase which had taken place in the business of the . It was at length determined to erect a building expressly for affording the conveniences and facilities required; and in an Act was passed authorising certain commissioners to select a site. The situation chosen was at the junction of with , where once stood a monastery which had possessed the privileges of sanctuary. The stone of [extra_illustrations.2.212.2] was laid in . On the , it was completed and opened for the transaction of business. It is about feet long, wide, and feet high. The front is composed of porticoes of the Ionic order- of columns being placed at each end, and of columns forming the centre-and surmounted by a pediment. In the interior is a hall feet long, by about wide, divided into a centre and aisles by ranges of Ionic columns, standing upon pedestals of granite. There is a tunnel underneath the hall by which the letters are conveyed, by ingenious mechanical means, between the northern and southern divisions of the building. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In , under the old system, the number of letters which passed through the post was . In came the uniform penny, and for that year the number was , or an increase of , equal to per cent. That was the grand start; afterwards the rate of increase subsided from per cent. in to per cent. in and . In , and the following years, the increase was respectively , , and per cent. Then succeeded a sudden drop; perhaps the culminating point in the rate of increase had been attained. The is, however, a thermometer of commerce. During the depressing year the number of letters increased no more than per cent. But in epistles passed through the office, being an augmentation of upon the preceding year, or per cent. of progressive increase. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In it was estimated that upon an average letters per day passed through the General totally unfastened, chiefly in consequence of the use of what stationers are pleased to call envelopes. Many were virgin ones, without either seal or direction; and not a few contained money. In Sir Francis Freeling's time the sum of in bank-notes was found in a It was not till after some trouble that the sender was traced, and the cash restored to him. Not long since, an humble postmistress of an obscure Welsh post town, unable to decipher the address on a letter, perceived, on examining it, the folds of several bank-notes protruding from a torn edge of the envelope. She securely re-enclosed it to the secretary of the in , who found the contents to be , and the superscription too much even for the hieroglyphic powers of the Eventually the enclosures found their true destination. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The dead letters of year alone contained, stowed among other articles, tooth-picks, toothfiles, fishing-flies, an eye-glass, bradawls, portraits, miniatures, a whistle, corkscrews, a silver watch, a pair of spurs, a bridle, a soldier's discharge and sailor's register tickets, samples of hops and corn, a Greek MS., silver spoons, gold thread, dinner, theatre, and pawn tickets, boxes of pills, shirts, nightcaps, razors, all sorts of knitting and lace, and a vast variety of other articles, that would puzzle ingenuity to conjecture. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The letters formerly were ranged, for stamping the date and hour of despatch, in a long row, like a pack of cards thrown across a table, and so | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.213 [extra_illustrations.2.213.1] |
fast did the stamper's hand move, that he could mark in an hour. While defacing the Queen's heads, he counted as he thumped, till he enumerated , when he dodged his stamp on side to put his black mark on a piece of plain paper. All these memoranda were afterwards collected by the president, who, reckoning letters to every black mark, got a near approximation to the number that had passed through the office. This work is now performed by machinery. The total number of letters which passed through the on Valentine's Day, , was . To this total are to be added letters-or those which passed from village to village within the suburban limits of the District Post without reaching the chief office-and , destined for the provinces and places beyond sea, which were transferred to the Inland Department. The grand total for the day, therefore, rose to nearly . Thus the sacrifices to the fane of St. Valentine, consisting of hearts, darts, Cupids peeping out of paper roses, Hymen embowered in hot-pressed embossing, swains in very blue coats, and nymphs in very opaque muslin, coarse caricatures and tender verses, caused an augmentation to the revenue on this anniversary equal to about missives; being the usual daily average for district and during the month of February. This increase, being peculiar to cross and district posts, does not so much affect the Inland Office, for lovers and sweethearts are generally neighbours. The entire correspondence of the kingdoms it was calculated in was augmented on each St. Valentine's Day to the extent of about letters. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The extraordinary addresses of many of the dead letters are worth noting. Among them we find the following:--
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From the report of the Postmaster-General for the year , we gather the following interesting facts:-- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Savings-Banks continue to show a steady and rapid advance in their business; with a remarkable increase in the number of friendly, provident, and other societies and institutions placing money in them. The number of depositors last year increased in round numbers from upwards of to upwards of ; and the whole amount of deposits (including interest) from to upwards of , giving an average of more than for each depositor. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last year the , on behalf of the Board of Inland Revenue, issued more than licenses of various kinds, producing a revenue of nearly , being an increase of about per cent. on the previous year. Of these licenses more than were for keeping dogs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last year the number of officers was increased by about , making a total of rather more than , of whom about , or nearly -quarter, are employed exclusively on telegraph work. Upwards of of the officers are postmasters, about clerks, &c., and upwards of letter-carriers, sorters, messengers, &c. Of the foregoing staff nearly belong to the London district, and of these more than are attached to the chief offices, , and over to the Central Telegraph Office. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The gross revenue from postage and money orders last year was, in round numbers, --namely, from postage, and from money orders. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The expenditure last year was , as compared with in , showing an increase of . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The net revenue last year was - namely, from postage, and from money orders; being an increase on the net revenue from postage, in , of , and a decrease on that from money orders of ; or a balance of increase amounting to . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The number of letters which, owing to wrong addresses and other causes, found their way back to the Returned Letter Office, did not greatly differ from the number in , and was about . About of the undelivered letters contained property of different kinds. Besides the property thus posted, there were valuable books, which, owing to careless packing or weak envelopes, escaped from their covers, but were recorded, so as to allow of their being traced if inquired for; and more than postage stamps were found loose in the different post-offices. The total num- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[extra_illustrations.2.214.3] ber of letters posted last year without any address was . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The number of ordinary telegraphic messages last year reached a total of nearly , showing an increase of nearly , or about percent. During a single night, when important Ministerial statements were made in Parliament, upwards of words, or about columns of the newspaper, were transmitted from the central station in London for publication in the provincial press. The total length of the Postal Telegraph wires at the end of the year was more than miles, of which about miles were rented by private persons. In the total mileage was rather less than . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
During the last year nearly additional Money Order Offices (serving also as Savings-Banks) were opened, making the whole number upwards of . The number of inland money orders increased from rather more than in to nearly (amounting to ) in , or by nearly per cent. The number of colonial and foreign money orders last year, counting the issues both in this country and abroad, was about , being an increase of about , or nearly per cent., on the number in . These orders amounted to more than (as compared with about in ), and yielded a profit of nearly , being an increase during the year of nearly . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The following is an estimate of the weight of correspondence carried, and the value of the postal services performed for the following public offices in the year :--
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The following table shows the gross revenue, cost of management, and net revenue of the since the year :--
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Postage ceased to be charged on the correspondence of Government departments early in the year . The amount of Government postage (excluding the itself) for the last complete year in which it was charged (), was about . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In an admirable article in the volume of , , the late Mr. Charles Dickens and Mr. W. H. Wills described, in a very animated way, the manner of then closing the evening letter-boxes at [extra_illustrations.2.214.4] . they say,
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On the site of the General , in the early days, stood a [extra_illustrations.2.214.5] and sanctuary, founded by Withu, King of Kent, in , and only enlarged in by Ingebrian, Earl of Essex, and Girard, his brother, and confirmed by a charter of William the Conqueror, in . The proud Norman also gave to the college all the moor land without Cripplegate, and granted them in a chapter confirmed by cardinals of Pope Alexander. Many of the deans of this college were great people, observes Strype, being Keeper of the Treasure and Jewels of Edward III., and another Clerk of the Privy Seal. The college was a parish of itself, and | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.215 | claimed great privileges of sanctuary, prisoners from Newgate to sometimes trying to slip from their guards and get through the south gate of . Thus, in (Henry VI.), a soldier, on his way from Newgate to the , was dragged by of his fellows, who rushed out of Pannier Alley, in at the west door of the sanctuary; but that same day the sheriffs came and took out the men from the sanctuary, and led them fettered to the Compter, and then chained by the necks to Newgate. The Dean and Chapter of , furious at this, complained to the king, who, after hearing the city, who denied the right of sanctuary to the college, returned the soldiers to their former retreat. In the reign of Henry VII. the right of sanctuary was again violated, and again disputed at law, and this time the sheriffs were for their pains. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the reign of Edward II. there was before College a that is, a large airy room, or chamber, somewhat like the galleries in great houses, being places of entertainment and pleasure. This was toward the street, and a jetty outward, which was so low that it annoyed the people passing along. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When the college of flourished, the curfew was rung here, as at Bow, , Cripplegate, and Allhallow's, Barking, to warn citizens to keep within doors. Strype also mentions' an ordinance of Edward I., at a time when infested the streets at night, walking armed, and committing commanding none to wander in the streets after has sounded at . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A crypt was laid open in on clearing for the site of the General , in . There were then found ranges of vaults, which had served as cellars to the houses above; of these being the crypt of (taken down in ) and afterwards the cellar of a large wine-tavern, the This was in the pointed style of Edward III., and was most probably the work of William of Wykeham. The or westernmost range, which must have supported the nave, was of earlier date, and was a square vaulted chamber, divided by piers feet square. Here was found a coin of Constantine, and a stone coffin containing a skeleton; and in digging somewhat lower down, Roman remains were met with in abundance. In also, between Aldersgate and St. Anne's Lane end, was the large tavern of the whose vaulted cellars, as they remain from the Great Fire of , disclose the foundation wall of Aldersgate, and are a remarkably fine specimen of early brick archwork. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[extra_illustrations.2.215.1] buildings, erected from the designs of Mr. James Williams, of H.M. Office of Works and Public Buildings, were opened early in . The building is rectangular, having frontages of feet to and , and frontages of feet to and , and, is feet in height from the paving line. It stands on a base of granite from the De Lank quarries, and the whole of the fronts have been executed in Portland stone of the hardest The building is stories in height, exclusive of the basement, and the floors are thus appropriated :--The basement is partly occupied as office-rooms, partly for stores, and partly by the department of the telegraph engineers, the large room in the centre being used as a batteryroom. The ground floor is appropriated to the Postmaster-General and the Accountant-General. On the floor are accommodated the secretaries and their staff; the and floors being appropriated to the telegraph department. The floor is especially devoted to the telegraph instruments, and [extra_illustrations.2.215.2] are laid on to it, establishing communication with the district offices. The large instrument-room is feet by feet The central hall is intended for the staff of the Accountant-General. In the north court there are placed steam-engines, each of - horse power, for working the pneumatic tubes. An Artesian well is also proposed for the supply of the large quantity of water required, and a small engine will be kept at work at pumping to the large tanks ( of gallons each) at the top of the building. It is calculated that about -quarters of a mile of instrument-tables will be required in the telegraph galleries. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The building was commenced in , the block of Portland stone being laid by the Right Hon. A. S. Ayrton, M.P., the Commissioner of Works, on the . The contractor was Mr. William Brass; the clerk of the works, Mr. William Trickett. The contract amounted to . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The whole of the carving and sculpture has been executed by Mr. Burnie Philip. The site cost in round numbers . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
says Mr. Yates,
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The Metropolitan Gallery, consisting of a set of large rooms, is simply used as a centre for the collection of messages from the metropolitan district. It is arranged upon the plan of the postal districts, with which the public are now familiar, and each division is under the superintendence of a clerk in charge. All messages are brought to the central sorting-table, and there subdivided: those for the country being sent to the upper or Provincial Gallery by a lift, those for the city being sorted into different batches, and dispatched by the agency of a pneumatic tube to the delivery station nearest to their destination. These pneumatic tubes, through which the messages are being perpetually shot all day long, have been found of great service, and are now in operation between the office and the principal delivery stations in the city, while they are also used by the Anglo-American, the Indo-European, and the Falmouth and Gibraltar offices, for the transmission of messages to. the central station. It should be here noticed that the messages for the Continent received at the office are dealt with entirely by the members of the male staff, a mixed assemblage of foreigners and Englishmen conversant with foreign tongues. Pausing for an instant by the side of the young lady to whose | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
memory a tombstone inscribed has been erected, we find her at and a half minutes past m. writing off the last words of a message which had been handed in at the office on at minutes past m., and which will thus have been completed and ready for sending out for delivery within minutes. Here in this south-western division are what are known as the worked by the A B C instrument, with the grinding handle and the alphabetical depressible keys familiar to most of us, which communicate with the War Office, the , the Treasury, the Admiralty, the Houses of Parliament, and the whipper-in. Here, too, is the last specimen left throughout the building of what at time used to be. the favourite telegraphic instrument, the which is used for communication with Buckingham Palace. At Windsor, Osborne, and Balmoral there are telegraphic instruments, under the charge of a clerk, who travels with the Court,. to which he has been attached for some years; while Sandringham, Badminton, the seat of the Chancellor of the Exchequer at Caterham, and the country-houses of various other noblemen and officials, are similarly furnished. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The work in the Metropolitan Gallery, which is always great, is largely increased on the occasion of any of our great cockney festivals, such as the Derby, or the University Boat Race. A dense fog, too, brings much extra business for them, and the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.217 | wires, but for the precaution which the department has been able to take against sudden pressure, would be choked with messages explaining the impossibility of keeping appointments already made. All the messages for the tube stations are sorted into different pigeon-holes marked with the name of the superintendent. Some idea of the business done may be guessed, when it is stated that there are already between and of these delivery stations in London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Provincial Gallery is more interesting as a show-place for the display of than the Metropolitan. Thus, we are taken to of the Liverpool circuits, furnished with of Hughes's instruments, the speciality of which is, that it records the message in actual Roman type, and are invited to communicate with the clerk at the instrument in the Liverpool office. We do so, and in less than a minute and a half we see his printed reply come winding, snake-like, out of the instrument. This Liverpool, by the way, is a very cormorant of telegraphic communication. Already it has direct circuits from the office, and from the Stock Exchange, making in all; | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| but it is still clamorous for more, and is likely to have its wishes gratified. This is considered rather a dull time in the office. During the busy season, the daily average of messages sent, exclusive of press messages, has been nearly ; now it is about . We can check these figures, if we like, by the aid of the superintendent of of the checktables close by. Her account, she says, stands at this time (quarter to m.) at messages; each of these has been sent twice, representing a total of , and there is yet plenty of time for the receipt of more. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This extraordinary collection of apparently the brass butt-ends of fishing-rods, with thin coils of wire running around and between them, is of the most important of the internal arrangements at the office. It is called the testing-box, and, as its name imports, is the place where the trial of the state and efficiency of all the wires is made. When the engineer's attention is called by a clerk to a fault in the wire which he is working, each of which has a separate number and letter, he proceeds to the test-box, and, by means of the galvanometer in connection therewith, he is able to ascertain at once | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.218 | whether the fault or fracture is at his end of the wire. Finding it is not there, he then proceeds t[ test the wire in the various sections into which it is divided; thus, supposing it were a north-western wire, he would test the section between the office and Euston, then between Euston and Wolverton, then between Wolverton and Rugby, and so on, until he hit upon the section, and, finally, upon the immediate locality where the fault lay; when the divisional engineer would be instructed as to its whereabouts, and ordered to remedy it. Nearly all the wires radiating from the station are tested at a.m. every morning, when every terminal station is spoken to and expected to reply, to see if the lines are right throughout. It is calculated that there are nearly miles of wire under the floor of the Provincial Gallery, merely for making local connections with batteries, &c. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Another interesting object is the chronopher, or instrument from which all England is supplied with the correct time. of the most important cities in the kingdom are in direct communication with this instrument, which is itself in direct communication with the Observatory at Greenwich. At minutes before every morning all other work is suspended, in order that there may be no interference with what is called the which, precisely at the striking of the clock, flashes the intelligence to the stations with which it is in communication. And not merely at these large towns, but at every post-office throughout the kingdom, the clerks at minutes before are on the look-out for the, signal which is to be passed along the line, and the clocks are adjusted accordingly. Messrs. Dent, Benson, and all the principal watchmakers in London receive the time every hour from this chronopher. Time-guns at Newcastle and at Shields are also fired at m. by batteries connected with the chronopher at the office, the clock attached to which is regulated for accuracy to the part of a . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The principal instruments in use at the office are the single needle, the Morse inker, the Hughes, and the Wheatstone's automatic. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The single--needle instrument conveys its information by the varying vibrations of an indicator or between fixed ivory stops. It is read by the eye, and its signals are transitory. It is as though the minute-hand of a small clock, or a large watch, were caused by the electric current to perform rapid calisthenic exercises between the points that indicate and o'clock. If the minute-hand made violent efforts to show that it was o'clock, and after each effort returned exhausted to noon, it would simply indicate the letter M. If panting to go the right way, it made powerful efforts to go the other way and retired after each effort equally unsuccessful, it would simply indicate the letter I; such tick to the right would be T, to the left E. The letters of the alphabet are thus formed by the movements of the indicator to the right and left of some fixed point, and every word is so spelt out letter by letter. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Morse instrument is different. It depicts its telegraphic language on a long piece of paper that unrolls itself by machinery in tape-like fashion beneath a revolving wheel, half of which is constantly enjoying a cold bath of ink. While no electric current flows, the paper is free from this circular pen. When the current is caused to speed its lightning career, the paper is pressed against the wheel, and a thin blue line is traced by the ink which the revolving wheel carries with it on the paper with beautiful regularity. If a current of very short duration be sent, there is simply a dot, like a full stop, registered on the paper. If the current be maintained for a little longer period, we have a — shown. dot is the letter E, dash the letter T, a dot and a dash the letter A, and a dash and a dot the letter N. The letters of the alphabet are thus made up of a series of dots and dashes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The signals in both instruments are made by the depression of a small lever, which is moved like the key of a piano. The needle instrument has keys, for the movements to the right, the other for the movements to the left. The Morse instrument has but key, which is depressed as though the telegraphic manipulator wished to play crotchets and quavers on note, the crotchets forming the dots, the quavers the dashes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Hughes instrument is most readily appreciated by strangers, as it records the message in actual Roman type. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As regards the Wheatstone instrument, it is only necessary to point out that the speed of the ordinary Morse is dependent upon the rate at which a clerk can manipulate his key. words a minute is very fast sending, and few, if any, clerks can reach words per minute. But there is no limit to the speed of the electric current, and if the messages are sent mechanically, as in the Wheatstone, that is, if the varying currents required to indicate a despatch are regulated by a machine moving with great speed, we are not only independent of the limited powers of the human hand, but made free from the liability to error in meting out the proper duration of the signal. Thus great accuracy and great speed can be simultaneously attained. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There are instruments, also, that appeal to the ear as well as to the eye. Bright's bell is an instrument which indicates its telegraphic language by sound; bells of different notes struck by little hammers connected with the right and left movements of the needle, and the dot and dash of the Morse. These little tinkling talkers rattle forth their information with great speed, and many clerks are to be seen writing for their very lives to keep up at the rapid rate at which the bells are speaking. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The staff at present employed by the office consists of between and clerks, of whom about a are men, and -thirds women. Of the latter, some come on duty at a.m., and leave at m.; others arrive at noon, and leave at m. It is noticeable that no women are on duty before a.m. or after m.; but the night duties are performed by a special night male staff, who are employed from m. to a.m., under the superintendence of a clerk in charge. Before the transfer of the office to the Government, the male and female staff were kept rigidly apart, and marriage between any members of either entailed the loss of situation on both the contracting parties. But a paternal Government looks upon these matters with a much more benevolent eye, and so far from forbidding matrimony, is understood to encourage it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The old sanctuary privileges of St. Martin'sle-Grand led to infinite mischief. There is no doubt that up to the time of the mischievous and abused rights of sanctuary being abolished, St. Martin'sle-Grand was a mere refuge for rogues, ruffians, thieves, and murderers. Any rascal who stabbed his pot-companion, or struck down an innocent traveller in a dark bye-street, any red-handed brawler, could rush through the monastic gates and shelter himself in this den of crime. Here also, says Stow, harboured picklocks, forgers, coiners, makers of sham jewellery, carders, dicers, and other gamblers. After the dissolution a tavern was built where the college church had stood. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In Elizabethan times, when sanctuary privileges were still claimed, French, German, Dutch, and Scotch artificers settled here. Here lived shoemakers, tailors, button-makers, goldsmiths, pursemakers, drapers, and silk-weavers, and the Flemish silk-throwers settled here. In the number of inhabitants was . There were frequently disorders in this turbulent Liberty, the inhabitants of which often objected to pay taxes, in the Plague-time refused when stricken to close their doors and windows, and often erased the red cross set upon their houses, and even threatened the constable and headboroughs who, according to law, painted them up. says Stow, and, there being no prison in the Liberty, the Liberty people sent to the Gate House at frequently brought actions for such illegal imprisonment. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Butler, in speaks of this district--
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says Strype,
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On the west side of stood the London residence of the Nevilles, Earls of Westmoreland (still indicated by Westmoreland Buildings), and close on the site of Bull and Mouth Street, stood the mansion of the Percys, Earls of Northumberland. At her house in this street, in , died Mary, [extra_illustrations.2.219.1] a lady immortalised in Ben Jonson's hyperbolic yet noble epitaph. As an whom Shakespeare must have seen and honoured, we claim in remembrance for him, as well as for Milton, who, according to Philips, had, at time,
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The great coaching-inn of , in the old time, was the The original name of this inn was in allusion to the town and harbour of Boulogne, besieged by Henry VIII. But the being generally pronounced by the Londoners it gradually became and it only required the small addition of to make of it. The part being before this made a of, it was ultimately converted into the
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The St. Martins-le-Grand, rebuilt in , now occupies the site of the old On the front there is a statuette of a bull, above which are the bust of Edward VI., and the arms of , to which the ground belongs. The old inn stood in Bull and Mouth Street, and the south side in still retains the name of the old inn, but is merely a luggage depot of Chaplin and Horne. On the front of the present hotel, much affected by Manchester men, under the turbulent little bull, is a stone | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.220 | tablet probably from the old inn, and on it are. deeply cut the following quaint lines :--
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Howell in his Londinopolis, , speaking of the spacious and uniform buildings which made almost resemble a street in an Italian town, calls
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, Aldersgate, in Stow's time was full of It was anciently called and was granted by Edward I. to William de Monteforte, Dean of . For several centuries this spot was the only allowed the London Jews as a place of interment but in the reign of Henry II., after long suits to King and Parliament, they obtained leave to buy local graveyards. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
, dear to business men for its , is hallowed to authors by having once, as we have already said, been the residence of Milton. Here the poet came, with bag and baggage, in , the year after Edgehill, removing from Churchyard, the site of the present office, where he had kept a small school. This residence is especially interesting to those who honour our great poet, as it was here he became reconciled to Mary Powell, his wife, the daughter of an Oxfordshire Cavalier. As a step to their re-union, Milton placed his wife in the house of Widow Weber, in Churchyard. Mr. Jesse has pointed out very happily the possible reminiscence contained in to this reconciliation. In his beautiful description of Adam's reconciliation with Eve, after their fall, Milton, says Mr. Jesse, had evidently in his mind his own interview with his repentant wife, after her unhappy estrangement- And again-
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Milton's reconciliation with his wife took place in , in which year he removed from to a larger house in . Here he remained till , when he took a smaller house in , overlooking . After the Restoration he removed to a house in , where he married his wife. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the east side of , Nos. to (still distinguished by a series of pilasters), stands [extra_illustrations.2.220.1] , of Inigo Jones's fine old mansions, formerly the London residence of the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet. From them it passed into the family of that clever and dangerous political intriguer, [extra_illustrations.2.220.2] , Earl of Shaftesbury, the hated of [extra_illustrations.2.220.3] , of whom it was said in jest that he hoped to be chosen King of Poland. He was the idol of the anti- Popery apprentices, the hatcher of the Popish plot, the rival of Buckingham for the favour of the Whigs, a man seditious and restless as Wilkes, yet, like that demagogue, a constant striver for constitutional liberty. Sir Walter Scott, in the notes to his edition of anticipatory of his says of Shaftesbury- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shaftesbury is thus described by the author of a poem, entitled or the view of Court and city :
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But Dryden's was the most terrible portrait of this busy politician:
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The author of has sketched the Shaftesbury with the etching tool of Gilray.
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Thomas Flatman, that tame poet of Charles II.'s time, whom almost every witling of the period belaboured, was born in in . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Almost opposite to Shaftesbury House stood Petre House, the residence of the Petre family in the great Elizabethan times; and of Henry Pierrepoint, Marquis of Dorchester, in the days of the Commonwealth. It was also used as a state prison in the Commonwealth-times, and subsequently became the temporary abode of the Bishops of London, after the Great Fire had treated their mansion in in a Puritanical and remorseless way. In , when the selfish Princess Anne deserted her father, James II., and fled at night from , she was conducted by the warlike Bishop Compton to his house in in a hackney coach. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The street of which we are taking stock in this chapter contains singularly few churches. St. Anne-in-the-Willows we have already visited (somewhat, perhaps, out of sequence); the remaining church, [extra_illustrations.2.221.1] at the corner of , but for its mean bell-turret and pretty fizzing fountain, singularly resembles a meeting-house. It was erected in on the site of the old building, which had escaped the Great Fire. An old Jacobean pulpit in the vestibule is the only relic of the old church, except the few uninteresting monuments. There is to a worthy Dame Anne Packington (died ), who founded almshouses near the White Friars' Church, in , which were left under the superintendence of the Clothworkers' Company; to Richard Chiswell, an eminent bookseller (died ), and another to an Elizabeth Smith, with a cameo bust by Roubiliac. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
At the north-east end of this street of noblemen's houses, not far from Shaftesbury House, stood Lauderdale House, the residence of that cruel and unprincipled minister of Charles II. Lauderdale was of those adherents of Charles II. who formed the (Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale), after Clarendon's exile, and the death of Southampton and Monk. It was this same unscrupulous inhabitant of whom Charles, in , sent to Edinburgh as High Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament, to put down conventicles with a high hand, to fine Presbyterians, and to hang and shoot. field-preachers, severities which eventually led to the rebellion of the Covenanters of . There must have been many a quiet and many a state visit made from Shaftesbury House to Lauderdale House. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An audacious board over small shops, No. , half-way down on the west side, boldly asserts that There is no documentary evidence (the best of all evidence), and not even a tradition, to connect our great poet's name with the house, or even with the street, often as he may have visited good Master Alleyn's Fortune Theatre in . The assertion is as impudent as that | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.222 | which claims a small house, opposite , as the palace of An antiquary of authority has clearly shown that no residence of Shakespeare's in London is actually known. There was a house in Blackfriars which he purchased in -, from Henry Walker and the counterpart of the original conveyance of which (bearing the signature of Shakespeare), is in the library at That house is of course undoubtedly connected with Shakespeare; but although he was the owner of it, none of his editors believe he ever lived in it. Mr. Knight and other commentators conjecture that this house was purchased in reference to some object connected with Blackfriars Theatre; but in addition to that-although we do not positively know when Shakespeare retired from London-all his biographers are of opinion that he left London, and went back to his native to spend the remainder of his days, about the year or . The only other place connected with Shakespeare's name was a property in St. Helen's parish, in the ward of Bishopsgate. There is a | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
subsidy roll of , preserved at the Carlton Ride, in which the name of occurs as the owner of property then to the value of . and on which a tax of was assessed. But that roll has the memorandum affixed to his name, and that means that an affidavit had been produced, showing that he did not reside in the parish or district. Shakespeare's name, in respect of that property, does not occur before , nor is it heard of after that date. Besides, we are not to jump to the conclusion that every William Shakespeare then living in London was William Shakespeare. These are the only houses in London that can be associated with Shakespeare, and they have long since been improved off the face of the earth. The concocter of the board, says the antiquary we have quoted, finding out that a public-house in that neighbourhood had been mentioned as having been a place of resort of the most celebrated wits of the century, at once jumped to the conclusion that this was and further, that Shakespeare, being a wit of that period, he took it for granted that the poet came there to slake his thirst, and so tickets this house with Shakespeare's name. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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, an essential tributary of , derives its Saracenic-sounding name, according to all old London antiquaries, from the Saxon words, or the remains of which existed a little north of the street till towards the end of the last century. According to Bagford, a good old London antiquary, who died in , and who, from being a shoemaker, turned bookseller, printer, and collector of books for the Earl of Oxford, the Romans kept watch at night in that tower, and gave notice of conflagrations, or an approaching army. At night they lit bonfires on the top of the turret, to guide travellers to the city. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the reign of Edward III the was | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| entrusted to Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, no doubt a valiant and stout knight, in whose family it remained hereditary, through the female line, till the reign of Queen Mary. In that cruel reign it is on record that the (then a mere sinecure, and no longer needed by the city for defence) was in the keeping of the Baroness Katharine Willoughby d'Eresby, baroness in her own right, and widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who lived in a lordly mansion near the spot. This was that daring Protestant lady who so narrowly escaped the fires for calling her lap-dog Gardiner (after the detested bishop, Bonner's worthy yoke-fellow), and dressing him up in small episcopal rochet and surplice. For this practical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.224 | joke the jocose lady and Richard Bertie, her husband, ancestor of the Dukes of Ancaster, had to fly to Poland, where the king, according to Mr. Jesse, installed them in the earldom of Crozan. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the site of resided the Egertons, Earls of Bridgewater, in a mansion famous for its fruitful orchards. The house was burnt down in , during the occupancy of John, earl, says Mr. Jesse, Hatton, in , calls and Strype mentions it as
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Sir Henry Spelman (born ), the learned and laborious author of the that great archaeological work completed by Dugdale, died at his house in , . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
, , where Prince Rupert resided, and worked on his chemical experiments and his mezzotint plates, was probably so called, says Stow, from Nicholas de la. Beech, Lieutenant of the Tower, who was deprived of his office by Edward III. Stow, whose clue we ever follow, describes the lane, in Elizabeth's time, as stretching from Redcross Street to , and adorned with An old house in belonging to the Abbot of Ramsay was afterwards called Drury House, from the worshipful owner, Sir Drew Drury, also of . This was [extra_illustrations.2.224.1] ; and parts of the mansion were in existence as . Here lived the fiery prince, whom Time had softened into a rough old philosopher, fond of old soldiers, and somewhat of a butt at among the scoffing Rochesters of his day, who were all . Here Evelyn visited Rupert. In the parish books of , Cripplegate, a guinea is set down as payment to the ringers on the occasion of Charles II. visiting the prince at his house. In Strype's time the street had lost its gentility, and was inhabited by clothes-salesmen, and on the site of the old watch-tower fronting Redcross Street, stood an ignoble watchhouse for the brawling Mohocks of the day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[extra_illustrations.2.224.2] , of the celebrated and of the earliest Elizabethan theatres, stood between and Golding Lane. It was opened about by Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn; and here, and at the Bear-garden, , , of which he was the proprietor, the latter actor derived the money afterwards bestowed on God's-gift College, at Dulwich. An adjoining passage still retains the name of . Alleyn's theatre was burnt down in , and was shortly afterwards rebuilt, but again destroyed, in , by some rough and fanatical Puritan soldiers. Many of the actors of this theatre, in the last scene of all, when they had shuffled off this mortal coil, were buried at , Cripplegate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In Golding Lane also stood [extra_illustrations.2.224.3] , a seminary for educating children for the profession of the stage, established in the reign of Charles II., under the auspices (says Mr. Jesse) of Colonel William Legge, Groom of the Bedchamber to that monarch, and uncle to the Lord Dartmouth. Dryden speaks of it in his :
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In Pepys' are the following notices of the Nursery:-- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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According to Stow, the antiquaries of his time believed that , without Aldersgate, was so called from the Earls of Brittany lodging there, just as was where the Kings of Scotland took up their quarters, and Petty Wales, in , where Prince Hal held his noisy court. R. B., in Strype, defines as stretching from , by the corner of St. Botolph's Church, running up to the Pump; then, as it grows wider, turning north up into another passage turning to It was full of especially from the Pump to . Here, especially during the Commonwealth, any hour in the day, might have been found such amiable dozy old antiquaries as still haunt old bookstalls ( ), poring over black-letter pamphlets and yellow flyingsheets of the Civil War time, spectacles on nose, and crutch-cane in hand, intent on culling odd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.225 | learning; and errant 'prentice-boys, their rough hair on end at the wonders of some story-books, which they would have given a month's wages to buy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
says Roger North, in his Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North, -,
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Isaac Walton sketches in his Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson. he says, that is to say, the preface to his last sermons, printed in ,
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Here, too, Milton's great work was published, and lay for a time unnoticed on the stalls. says Richardson, in his
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Later still we find that amiable writer, Washington Irving, wandering contemplatively in . he says,
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In in (the year after the Restoration), died Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester, a laborious and learned scholar, who edited and in published the English Polyglot bible, in the Hebrew, Syriac; Chaldee, Samaritan, Arabic, Ethiopic, Persian, Greek, and Vulgar Latin languages. Before the war Walton had been rector of St. Martin Orgars and St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He was a good deal hunted about during the Civil Wars for his zeal for tithes, yet the Preface of his bible contains compliments to Cromwell, which | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[extra_illustrations.2.226.1] were afterwards altered so as to suit Charles II. says an old writer, zealously, This learned prelate, who studied so hard during all the commotions of the Civil Wars, was buried in . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The in , has long been famed for its good dinners. says Timbs, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.209.1] Aldersgate [extra_illustrations.2.209.2] Map of Postal District-1857 [extra_illustrations.2.209.3] Hall of Post Office-1834 [extra_illustrations.2.209.4] The General Post Office [] See Vol, I., p. 525. [extra_illustrations.2.212.1] rowland Hill's [extra_illustrations.2.212.2] the new building [extra_illustrations.2.213.1] Manufacture of Valentines [extra_illustrations.2.214.1] Watson's Telegraph [extra_illustrations.2.214.2] Mail Night at Post Office [extra_illustrations.2.214.3] Inside Letter Box [extra_illustrations.2.214.4] St. Martin's-le-Grand [extra_illustrations.2.214.5] collegiate church [extra_illustrations.2.215.1] The new Post Office [extra_illustrations.2.215.2] the pneumatic tubes [extra_illustrations.2.219.1] Countess of Pembroke, Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother, [extra_illustrations.2.220.1] Shaftesbury or Thanet House [extra_illustrations.2.220.2] Anthony Ashley Cooper [extra_illustrations.2.220.3] Dryden [extra_illustrations.2.220.4] Ludgate Shop Receipt [extra_illustrations.2.221.1] St. Botolph's [extra_illustrations.2.224.1] the house Prince Rupert afterwards occupied [extra_illustrations.2.224.2] The Fortune [extra_illustrations.2.224.3] the Nursery [] It is evident, remarks a notein the complete edition of The Works of Washington Irving, New York, 1857, vol, ii., p. 308, that the author has included, in his general title of Little Britain, many of those little lanes and courts that belong immediately to Cloth Fair. [extra_illustrations.2.226.1] Queen's Hotel-St. Martin's-le-Grand |
