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 XXXI: Islington.College of Church Mission Society-Islington Printing Traders' Exb. and Market-Agricultural Hall
Chapter XXXI: Islington.College of Church Mission Society-Islington Printing Traders' Exb. and Market-Agricultural Hall
No satisfactory etymology of the word has yet been given. By some writers the name is supposed to have been derived from the Saxon word (iron), from certain springs, impregnated with iron, supposed to have their rise in the neighbourhood. Others trace it to the Saxon word (a hostage), without ever condescending to explain what hostages had to do with . The more favoured supposition is that the village was originally called an old British word signifying and or the usual term for a town or fortress. It might have been so called, Mr. Lewis thinks, to contrast it with Tolentone, a village built on the elevated ground adjoining the woods of Highbury. The germ of the of the Britons, it is generally allowed, must have been along the east side of the Lower Street. | |
is supposed to have been situated on the great northern called the Ermin, or Herman Street, which left London by Cripplegate, and passed through , though, as some antiquaries think, the really intersected , and, crossing the , passed by Highbury and Hornsey Wood, and continued by way of the green lanes towards Enfield. | |
Fitzstephen, the friend of Becket, writing between and , speaking of the north of London, says, Still In later centuries became the pasture-ground of London. | |
The old highways and roads connected with were very badly kept, and extremely incommodious. Formerly [extra_illustrations.2.251.3] , exclusive of the footpaths over the fields, were confined to the road from , through ; the road, from Aldersgate; and a bridle way that had once been an old : all these were frequently impassable in winter. The broad green fields that stretched from Finsbury to and seem to have been recognised as the Campus Martius of London as early as the reign of Henry II., for Fitzstephen describes, with more unction than an ascetic monk might be expected to manifest, the scholars of the city going to the northern fields with their teachers, to play at ball, while the old and wealthy citizens came on horseback to watch the merry conflict of the lads. He also mentions the military exercises on horseback, good training for war or the tournament, every Friday in Lent; while other citizens, more intent on their own amusement, he says, carried their hawks on their fists, or took out their dogs there, to have a turn or after a hare. | |
[extra_illustrations.2.251.4] , and here men shot the shafts that were hereafter to be aimed at Frenchmen's hearts. As early as the reign of Edward III. the royal will was proclaimed that every able-bodied citizen was, in his leisure hours and on all holidays, to practise with bows or crossbows, and not to waste his time in throwing stones, or at football, handball, bandy, or cock-fighting, which were vain and profitless plays; while in the reign of Richard II. an Act was passed to oblige all men-servants to exercise themselves with bows and arrows at all times or leisure, and on all Sundays and holidays. | |
In the reign of Henry VIII., that manly and warlike king, who was himself an archer, several Acts were passed to promote the practice of archery. Every father was enjoined to provide a bow and arrows for his son, when he reached his year; and all persons, except the clergy and judges, were obliged to shoot periodically at the butts, which were nowhere more numerous than in the fields towards . gentlemen of the Court were constituted overseers of the science of artillery--to wit, of longbows, crossbows, and handguns-and leave was given them, as a body | |
p.252 | corporate, to practice shooting at all manner of marks and butts, and at fowls, and the game of the popinjay in the city and suburbs, and all other places. And when any member of this society, shooting at well-known and accustomed marks, and used the usual caution-word of archers, they could not be impeached or troubled by the relations of any passer-by slain at misadventure. It was in these fields the king's favourite archer, Barlow, christened by him and the Marquis of and the Earl of Pancras, his skilful companions, made their cleverest hits, and in Fields took place that great procession of the Duke of and his archers and torch-bearers. In the reign of Henry VIII., |
says the chronicler Hall, the young men of London, finding the fields about , , and getting more and more enclosed with hedges and ditches, and that neither the old men could walk for their pleasure, nor lads shoot without getting their bows and arrows taken away or broken, a riot arose. morning a turner, dressed as a jester, led a mob through the city shouting So many of the people followed, that it was a wonder to behold; and within a short space all the hedges about the city were cast down and the ditches filled up. The rioters then quietly dispersed. Hall says, with gusto,
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In the reign of Elizabeth archery seems to have | |
p.253 | been on the decline, though good old Stow describes the citizens as still frequenting the northern fields, and mentions that of old it was the custom for the officers of the city-namely, the sheriffs, the porters of the Weigh House, and all others--to be challengers of all men in the suburbs to wrestle, for games, at Clerkenwell and in Finsbury Fields. In , however, we find the London bowyers, fletchers, stringers, and arrow-head makers petitioning the Lord Treasurer concerning their decayed condition, by reason of the discontinuance of archery, and the practice of unlawful games; and from |
| Stow we gather that the increased enclosures had driven the archers into bowling-alleys and gamblinghouses. | |
James I., in , finding archery still on the decline, though many of his best soldiers preferred bows to guns, still issued letters patent to several distinguished persons, and among them to Sir Thomas Fowler, of , to survey all the open grounds within miles of the. city, and to see that they were put in proper order for the exercise of the city, as in the reign of Henry VIII. Charles I. published a similar edict, ordering all mounds to be lowered that obstructed the archers' view from to another. There were indeed at this time, or a little later, no less than set up in | |
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[extra_illustrations.2.254.1] the Finsbury Fields, each duly registered by name. These marks, placed at varying distances, to accustom the archers to judge the distance, are all named in a curious old tract, entitled published at the in Grub Street, in , and several times reprinted. Among them we find the following quaint titles, suggestive of old nicknames, lucky shots, and bow. men's jokes:--Sir rowland, Lurching, Nelson, Martin's Mayflower, Dunstan's Darling, Beswick's Stake, Lambert's Goodwill, Lee's Leopard, Thief in the Hedge, Mildmay's Rose, Silkworm, Lee's Lion. Goodly shots, no doubt, these marks had recorded, and pleasant halts they had been for the Finsbury bowmen of old time. | |
The dainty archers of the present day can scarcely believe the strength of the old yew bows, or the length of the arrows, and are apt to be incredulous of the pith of their ancestors' shafts. Nevertheless, the statute of the year of Henry VIII. distinctly lays down that men of the age of were prohibited from shooting at any mark under yards; and the longest distance of that stalwart epoch seems to have been score, or yards. | |
During the Cromwell time archery seems to have been deemed unpractical, and was not much enforced. The old ways, however, revived with Charles II., and in there was a great cavalcade to the Finsbury Fields, at which the king himself was present, and the old titles of the Duke of and Marquis of were bestowed on the best shots. On a Finsbury archer's ticket for: the shooting of , all lovers of archery are invited to meet at Drapers' Hall, in ; and it is noted that the score targets would be set up in the new . It was in this year that the great archer, William Wood, was presented with a silver badge. This stout bowman was eventually buried in Clerkenwell Church, with archers' honours. Sir William Davenant, in his playful poem of describes the attorneys shoot-. ing against the proctors, and thus sketches the citizen archer of those days-
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Up to the last edition of the Map of Archers' Marks in , the fields from to northward of the are studded with marks, generally wooden pillars, crowned by some emblem, such as a bird or a circle. The last great meeting of archers was in , at Blackheath, when the archers' company of the Honourable Artillery Company contended with the Surrey and Kentish bowmen, the Hainault Foresters, the Woodmen of Arden, the Robin Hood Society, &c. Several times in the last century the Artillery Company asserted their old archer privileges, and replaced the marks which had been removed by encroachers.. In they forced the gate of a large, field in which stood of their stone marks, close to Balls Pond; and in they ordered obstructions to be removed between , , Baume's Pond, , , and , . In the same year they threatened to pull down part a wall erected by the. proprietors of a white-lead mill, between the marks of and the of the partners of the works, however, induced them to desist; but a member of the archers' division shot an arrow over the enclosure, to assert the Company's right. In , when the long butts at Common were destroyed by gravel-diggers, the Artillery Company also required the marks to be replaced. In , of all the old open ground there only remained a few acres to the north of the . | |
An old public-house fronting the fields at , and called the was still existing in Nelson's time (). It had been a great place of resort for the Finsbury archers, and under the sign was the following inscription:--
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There is a traditional story that Topham, the strong man of , was once challenged by some Finsbury archers whom he had ridiculed to draw an arrow -thirds of its length. The bet was a bowl of punch; bit- Topham, though he drew the shaft towards his breast, instead of his ear, after many fruitless efforts, lost the wager. | |
The historical recollections of are not numerous. of the earliest is connected with the visit of Llewellyn and his Welsh barons, who in the reign of Edward I. came to London to pay homage to the king. They were quartered at , but they disliked our wine, ale, and bread, and could not obtain milk enough. More. over, their Welsh pride was disgusted at being so stared at by the Londoners, on account of their uncommon dress. they cried, and from that instant resolved to take up arms. In , Henry VI., who had been captured in Lancashire, was brought to London with his legs bound to his horse's stirrups. At he was met by his great enemy, the Earl of Warwick, who removed his gilt spurs contemptuously, and hurried him to the Tower. Edward IV., on the occasion of his accession to the throne, was welcomed between and by the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, some of whom he knighted. In the same manner the crafty King Henry VII., on his return from the overthrow of Lambert Simnel, was met in Hornsey Park by the mayor, aldermen, sheriffs, and principal commoners, all on horseback in livery, when he dubbed the mayor, Sir William Horn, knight, and between and London knighted Alderman Sir John Percivall. | |
Henry VIII. frequently visited , to call on noblemen of his court, for Dudley, Earl of Warwick, held the manor of Stoke ; and Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, occupied a mansion on Green. From this house we find the earl writing in an alarmed way to Secretary Cromwell, vowing that he had never proposed marriage to Anne Boleyn. The earl, who died the year after, is supposed to have left the house in which he lived, and on the south side of Green, to the king, who resided for some time in the , and employed the other for the use of his household. From this country palace of Henry VIII. a pathway leading from the corner of Green, to the turnpike road at Ball's Pond, became known as Game was plentiful about , and by a proclamation dated the king prohibited all hunting and hawking of hares, partridges, pheasants, and heron, from
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In , during Queen Mary's hunting down of Protestants, a small congregation of Reformers, who had assembled at the , under pretext of attending a play, were betrayed by a treacherous tailor, arrested by the Queen's vice-chamberlain, and thrown into prison. The most eminent of-these persecuted men was John Rough, who had been a preacher among the Black Friars at Stirling, chaplain to the Earl of Arran, and the means of persuading John Knox to enter the ministry. He was burnt at the stake at , and of the others perished praising God in fire at . But there is the old saying, Only the next year who, had assembled in to pray and meditate, were apprehended by the constables, bowmen, and billmen. All but escaped, and of these lay in Newgate weeks before they were- examined, though offered pardon if they would consent to hear a mass. says Foxe, in his
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Queen Elizabeth seems to have been partial to , paying frequent visits to Sir Thomas Fowler and to Sir John Spencer of Canonbury House. In she made a grand tour of the east of London which took several days. From the Tower she visited and Spitalfields, thence went through the fields to Charterhouse, and in a few days continued her route back to the Savoy and thence to Enfield. On her return to St. James's as she passed through , hedges were cut down and ditches filled up to quicken her progress across the fields. | |
In , the queen, riding by Aldersgate Bars towards the Fields to take the air, was environed by a crowd of sturdy beggars, which gave the queen much disturbance. That same evening Fleetwood, the Recorder, had the fields scoured, and apprehended rogues, some blind, The strongest of the
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In the great entertainment given at Kenilworth by the Earl of Leicester to Queen Elizabeth in , a minstrel discoursed with tiresome minuteness on the dairies, that supplied London bridal parties with furmenty, not over-sodden, for porridge, unchalked milk for unadulterated cream for custards, and pure fresh butter for pasties. The arms of , it was proposed, should be milk tankards proper on a field of clouted cream, green cheeses upon a shelf of cake bread, a. furmenty bowl, stuck with horn spoons, and, for supporters, a grey mare (used to carry the milk tankards) and her silly foal; the motto, or the milkwives cry in London streets. | |
The ill-starred Earl of Essex, on his way to Ireland, where he was to sweep away rebellion by a wave of his hand, passed through with his gay and hopeful train of noblemen and gentlemen, returning only to become himself a rebel, and to end his days on the block. | |
In , when James I., with all his hungry Scotch courtiers, rode into London, he was met at Stamford Hill by the Lord Mayor, aldermen, | |
p.256 | and of the principal citizens, who escorted him through the Fields to the Charterhouse. He passed along the , which was for a short time after known as . |
Charles I., on his return from Scotland in , passed through , accompanied by his queen, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York. In the following year the Committee of the London Militia gave orders to fortify the approaches to the city, and in the entrenchment began in earnest, the Trained Band citizens, and even their wives and children, toiling at the work. The trades volunteered by turns. day there were felt-makers and cappers, and nearly porters; another day, or shoemakers; and a day, tailors. Several of the works were in the neighbourhood of . There was a, breastwork and battery at Mount Mill, in the Road, another at the end of , a large fort, with half bulwarks, at the Upper Pond, and a small redoubt near Pound. | |
When the great plot to assassinate Cromwell was detected, in , Vowell, an schoolmaster, of the plotters, was hung at . He died bravely, crying out for Church, King, and Restoration, and warning the soldiers of their dangerous principles. Colonel Okey, whom Cromwell compelled to sit as of King Charles's judges, was in early life a drayman and stoker at an brewery. He was seized in Holland, after the Restoration, and executed in . A curious story is told of the famous Parliamentary general, Skippon, in connection with . This tough old soldier was being brought from Naseby, where he had been desperately wounded. As his horse litter was passing through , a mastiff sprang at of the horses, and worried him, nor would he let go till a soldier ran him through with his sword. Skippon, however, on getting to London, had a piece of his waistcoat drawn from his bullet-wound, and soon recovered. | |
For many ages , especially in summer, was a favourite resort for London citizens, who delighted to saunter there to drink creams and eat cakes, or to hunt the ducks of the suburban ponds with their water-dogs. As early as , George Wither, the poet, in his describing holiday-making, says--
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Davenant describes very pleasantly in rough verse the setting out of a citizen's party for :--
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In the , , the prices noted down are highly curious. | |
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The Ducking-ponds were on , near White Conduit House in the Back Road, and in , the spot where the Reservoir of the afterwards stood. Thomas Jordan, in a coarse comedy called , , the scene of which is laid at the , and his Prologue speaks of the diet of the place, and the sort of persons who went there for amusement
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Browne, in his , alludes to the who took their lasses to or Hogsden to feast on white pots, puddings, pies, stewed prunes, and tansies. | |
The plague seems to have raged at in the years , , and . In persons died of the plague. The story of the outbreak is told graphically in the A citizen had broken out of his house in , and had applied in vain for admission at the and the in [extra_illustrations.2.257.1] . At the he pretended to be entirely free from infection, and on his way to Lincolnshire; and that he only required lodgings for night. They had but a garret bed empty, and that but for night, expecting drovers with cattle next day. A servant showed him the room, which he gladly accepted. He was well dressed, and with a sigh said he had seldom lain in such a lodging, but would make a shift, as it was but for night, and in a dreadful time. He sat down on the bed, desiring a pint of warm ale, which was forgot. Next morning asked what had become of the gentleman. The maid, starting, said she had never thought more of him. A person going up, found him dead across the bed, in a most frightful posture. His clothes were pulled off, his jaw fallen, his eyes open, and the rug of the bed clasped hard in hand. The alarm was great, the place having been free from the distemper, which spread immediately to the houses round about. died of the plague that week in . | |
Cromwell is said to have resided in a house (afterwards the public house) on the north side of the road at Upper Holloway, but there is no proof of the fact. He probably, however, often visited to call on his friend Sir Arthur Haselrigge, colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers, called the regiment, who had a house there. In -, Sir Arthur complained to Parliament that as he was riding from the in the road leading from Perpoole Lane to Clerkenwell, returning to his house at , the Earl of Stamford and his servants had struck at him with a drawn sword and upon which he was enjoined to keep the peace, and neither send nor receive any challenge. | |
In later times still remained renowned for its tea-gardens and places of rustic amusement, and in the , or , a comic piece, written by George Colman, and acted at in , the author sketches pleasantly enough the bustle occasioned by a citizen's family preparing to start for their country house at . The neats' tongues and cold chickens have to be packed up preparatory to the party starting in the coach and from the end of . It was here and at Highbury that Goldsmith spent many of his and Bonnell Thornton has sketched in the the Sunday excursions of the citizens of his times, in which he had no doubt shared. | |
Bunbury, that clever but slovenly draftsman, produced, in , a caricature of a London citizen in his country villa, and called it Above it he has written the following series of fierce threats : | |
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On a garden notice-board, in another print after Bunbury, of the same date, is this inscription:--
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Danger lent a certain dignity to these excursions. In the roads and footpaths of seem to have been infested by highwaymen and footpads, the hornets and mosquitoes of those days. In the year above mentioned, the Vestry agreed to pay a reward of to any person who apprehended a robber. It was customary at this time for persons walking from the city to after dark to wait at the end of till a sufficient number had collected, and then to be escorted by an armed patrol. Even in the observed that scarcely a night passed without some being robbed between the near , , and the road leading to . In the inhabitants of subscribed a sum of money for rewarding persons apprehending robbers, as many dwellings had been broken open, and the stage was frequently stopped. In , in consequence of riots and depredations, the inhabitants furnished themselves with arms and equipments, and formed a military society for | |
p.258 | general protection. In spite of this, robberies and murders in the by-roads, constantly took place. In Mr. Herd, a clerk in the , was murdered in the fields near the Mr. Herd, a friend of Woodfall, the publisher of was returning from town with a friend and servants well armed, when he was attacked by footpads armed with cutlasses and firearms, of whom (who was afterwards hanged) shot him with a blunderbuss as he was resisting. In Mr. Fryer, an attorney of , was attacked by footpads and shot through the head. men were hung for this murder, but a man afterwards confessed on the gallows that he was the murderer. |
of the celebrities of old was Alexander Aubert, Esq., who organised the corps of Loyal Volunteers. In the loyal inhabitants of formed themselves into a corps, to defend the country against its revolutionary enemies. It consisted of a regiment of infantry and of cavalry. Mr. Aubert became lieutenant-colonel commandant of the corps. The uniform consisted of a blue jacket with white facings, scarlet cuffs, collar, and epaulets, and trimmed with silver lace; white kerseymere pantaloons, short gaiters, helmets, and cross-belts. The corps was broken up in , when a superb silver vase, valued at guineas, was presented to Mr. Aubert. This | |
p.259 p.260 | gentleman, who was an eminent amateur astronomer, assisted Smeaton in the construction of Ramsgate Harbour. He died in , from a cold caught when inspecting a, glass house in Wales. A portrait of him, in uniform, holding his charger, by Mather Brown, used to be hung in the floor parlour of the at . |
In , the old fears of French invasion again filling the minds of citizens, a volunteer corps of infantry was organised at . It consisted of about members. They wore as uniform a scarlet jacket turned up with black, light-blue pantaloons, short gaiters, and beaver caps. This Volunteer Corps broke up in from want of funds. The adjutant, Mr. Dickson, joined the Regiment, and was killed near Roeskilde, in the island of Zealand, in . | |
Nelson, writing in , explains the great disproportion that there appeared in the parish registers between the burials and baptisms, from the fact of the great number of invalids who resorted to a district then often called Dr. Hunter used to relate a story of a lady, who, in an advanced age, and declining state of health, went, by the advice of her physician, to take lodgings in . She agreed for a suite of rooms, and, coming down stairs, observed that the banisters were much out of repair. she said,
replied the landlady, The old lady was so shocked at this funereal intelligence, that she immediately declined occupying the apartments. | |
The most interesting hostelry in old was [extra_illustrations.2.260.1] at the corner of Queen's head Lane. It was pulled down, to the regret of all antiquaries, in . | |
says Lewis,
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Tradition had long connected [extra_illustrations.2.260.2] with the name of Sir Walter Raleigh, though with no sufficient reason. In the thirtieth year of Elizabeth, Sir Walter obtained a patent This house may be of those to which Raleigh granted licences, and the sign then marked the reign in which it was granted. There is also a tradition that Lord Treasurer Burleigh once resided here, and a topographical writer mentions the fact that lions carved in wood, the supporters of the Cecil arms, formerly stood in an adjoining yard, and appeared to have once belonged to the old Another story is that Queen Elizabeth's saddler resided here; while others assert that it was the summer residence of the Earl of Essex, and the resort of Elizabeth. Early in the last century, this occasional house belonged to a family named Roome, of whom left the estate to Lady Edwards. The oak parlour of the old building was preserved in the new . In a house adjoining the resided John Rivington, the well-known bookseller, who died in . | |
Behind we reach the site of the old Inn, pulled down about years ago, which was originally either the property or the residence of Sir Walter Raleigh. In the parlour window, looking into the garden, was some curious stained glass, containing the arms of Sir John Miller, Knight, of and Devon. These arms bear date years after Sir Walter was beheaded, and were, it is supposed, substituted by Miller when he came to reside here. The seahorses, parrots in the window, and the leaves, | |
p.261 | supposed to represent tobacco, seem to have been chosen as emblems of his career by Raleigh himself. |
says Nelson, | |
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That corner stone of , the has been now an established inn for considerably more than years. In old days, it was a great haltingplace for travellers in the night out of London. says Lewis,
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There is a tradition that the whole of the ground from the corner of the Back Road to the was forfeited by the parish of , and united to that of Clerkenwell, in consequence of the refusal of the Islingtonians to bury a pauper who was found dead at the corner of the Back Road. The corpse being taken to Clerkenwell, the district above described was claimed, and retained by that parish. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.251.3] the avenues leading to the village from the metropolis [extra_illustrations.2.251.4] Archery was early practised in these pleasant northern fields [extra_illustrations.2.254.1] Hon. Artillery Company's Ball [extra_illustrations.2.257.1] Islington [extra_illustrations.2.260.1] the old Queen's head, [extra_illustrations.2.260.2] this house |
