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 IV: Upper Thames Street (continued).Cromwell's Porter
Chapter IV: Upper Thames Street (continued).Cromwell's Porter
The Merchant Taylors' School, so many years situated in , demands a special notice. The intention of the Merchant Taylors' Company to found a grammar school, says Mr. Staunton, was manifested in the spring of .- About this period, a leading member of the fraternity, Mr. Richard Hills, generously offered the sum of (equivalent to about at the present day) towards the purchase of a part of the in the parish of St. Laurence Poulteney. The was a spacious mansion, originally built by Sir John Pulteney, Knight, times Lord Mayor of London, in the reign of Edward III. Its fortunes had been various. After passing through the hands of several noble families-the Hollands, De la Poles, Staffords, and Courtenaystheir tenancies in too many--instances terminating by the tragical process of attainder, it was granted to the Ratcliffe or Sussex family, who obtained leave to part with it in a more business-like manner. Shakespeare has rendered the or as it was sometimes called, a memorable spot to all time by his allusion to it in . In the act of that play, it will be remembered, Buckingham's surveyor appears before the court to impeach his master, and tells the king-
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The name of the street, , from which it is entered, and of the parish, St. Laurence Poultney, or Pountney, in which it is situated, still recalls its former occupants. , in the vicinity, was the , or private pathway from his garden, which lay to the east of the mansion, towards the river; while the upper part of St. Laurence Pounteney Hill was, until the last few years, called a corruption of , so named from the lattice gate which opened into what is now named . | |
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The Merchant Taylors' Company purchased, for a school, in , part of Sussex House, including a gate-house, a long court, a winding stair leading to the leads over the chapel, galleries at the south end of the court, and part of the chapel. The remainder of the mansion, and the site of the garden, which lay to the east of it, were acquired by the Company about , for , in order to enlarge the school. In they expended the sum of in purchasing a large portion of the Charterhouse, and thither the school will be moved. By the original statutes of it was ordained that the high master should be He might be either wedded or single, or a priest that had no benefice. He must have ushers. The number of scholars was limited to , The children of Jews were afterwards ungenerously excluded. There was, lastly, to be every year an examination of the scholars . | |
The head master was that famed old pedagogue, Richard Mulcaster, who wielded the ferule, and pretty sharply too, for many years. He was a Cumberland man, brought up at Eton, and renowned for his critical knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Oriental literature. A veritable old Tartar he seems to have been, according to Fuller, who says of him, that he was a severe disciplinarian, but beloved by his pupils when they came to the age of maturity, and reflected on the benefit they had derived from his care. | |
Mulcaster as great at Latin plays, and they were often acted at and elsewhere, before Queen Elizabeth. Many of his boys who went to , Oxford, became renowned as actors in Latin plays before Elizabeth and James. Mulcaster also wrote mythological verses, which were recited before long-suffering Queen Bess, and educational treatises, dry but sound. The worthy old pedant had frequent quarrels with the Merchant Taylors, and eventually left them in , and became upper master of School. To the Company, who would have detained him, he replied scornfully, He boldly resisted an attempt to tax teachers in -, was successful in preserving the immunities of the school granted after the Reformation, and died in . | |
In the school made a tremendous stride. Sir Thomas White, a princely Merchant Taylor, founded College, Oxford, and munificently appropriated no less than fellowships in the college to the scholars of Merchant Taylors' School. Much quarrelling eventually took place between the Company and the President and Fellows of , who delayed, for inadequate reasons, the election of scholars, and declared that their funds were inadequate to support the expenses of coming to London every year to the St. Barnabas' Day examinations. | |
The school soon rising to eminence, several rich and benevolent citizens gave exhibitions to poor and struggling scholars, a very noble way of spending money. The most eminent of these were Walter Ffysshe, John Vernon, and Thomas Wheatenhole. The school was destroyed in the Great Fire, when only the books in the library were preserved; and years elapsed before the new building was completed. The new school, erected in , consisted of a long school-room, supported on the east side by a number of stone pillars, forming a cloister (the only play-ground). The library was formerly the ducal chapel. | |
The list of eminent men educated at the Merchant Taylors' is a proud . It boasts of William Juxon, Bishop of London, and, after the Restoration, Archbishop of Canterbury, who faithfully attended Charles I. on the scaffold; William Dawes and John Gilbert, Archbishops of York; and Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh. | |
Among these bishops was that eminent scholar and divine, [extra_illustrations.2.29.1] , before whom even James I. dared not indulge in ribaldry. He defended King James's against Cardinal Bellarmine, and in return obtained the see of Ely. | |
There is a pleasant story told of Andrewes while he was Bishop of Winchester. Waller the poet, going to see the king at dinner, overheard an extraordinary conversation between his Majesty and prelates, Andrewes and Neale (Bishop of Durham), who were standing behind the royal chair. asked the king, The Bishop of Durham readily answered, Whereupon the king turned and said to the Bishop of Winchester,
replied he, The king quickly rejoined,
said he, Waller reports that the company were well pleased with the answer, and the wit of it seemed to affect the king. | |
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The list of Merchant Taylor bishops also includes Thomas Dove, Bishop of Peterborough, chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, who, from his flowing white locks, called him the Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, Sir Christopher's uncle, who accompanied Prince Charles to Spain, and was imprisoned in the Tower eighteen years, refusing to come out on Cromwell's offer; John Buckridge, also Bishop of Ely; Giles Thompson, Bishop of Gloucester; and Peter Mews, Bishop of Winchester, who, expelled Oxford by the Puritans, entered the army, and served under the Duke of York in Flanders. | |
Of the other professions, Sir James Whitelocke, Justice of the Common Pleas and of the King's Bench; Bulstrode Whitelocke, his son, the author of the were Merchant Taylors' scholars. Whitelocke, the son, a but half-and-half Cromwellian, began life by supporting Hampden in his resistance to ship-money, and afterwards served Cromwell with more or less fidelity. At the Restoration Charles II. dismissed him to go into the country, and Other pupils of the school were Thomas Lodge, the physician and dramatist, who wrote a novel, on which Shakespeare founded his ; James Shirley, the author of plays, who died of grief at being ruined by the Great Fire; Edmund Gayton; Sir Edwin Sandys, traveller, and author of William Sherard, founder of the Oxford professorship of botany which bears his name; Peter le Neve, Norroy King-at-Arms, an eminent genealogist, and of the earliest presidents of the Antiquarian Society; Samuel Harris, professor of modern history at Cambridge; Daniel Neale, who wrote the Henry Woodward, the famous actor; John Byrom; James Townley, afterwards head master of the school; Robert, the Lord Clive; John Latham, author of the Vicesimus Knox, who wrote the well-known book called Joshua Brookes, the most eminent anatomist of his time; Charles Mathews the elder, and his son, the present Charles James Mathews, the popular comedians; Charles Young, the favourite tragedian; Sir Henry Ellis, formerly librarian to the ; Henry Cline, the | |
p.31 p.32 [extra_illustrations.2.32.1] | great surgeon at ; Dixon Denham, the African traveller; Philip Bliss, editor of Wood's John Gough Nichols, the antiquary; Sir Samuel Shepherd, Lord Chief Baron of Scotland (); Sir R. B. Comyn, Lord Chief Justice of Madras; Right Hon. Sir John Dodson, Judge of the Prerogative Court; Edward Bond, Chief Keeper of Manuscripts in the ; Samuel Birch, Keeper of the Oriental and Mediaeval Antiquities at the ; and the late Albert Smith. |
St. James's, Garlick Hythe, was rebuilt by Richard Rothing, Sheriff, in . Weever, that of his times, gives the epitaph of Richard Lions, a wine merchant and lapidary, who was beheaded by Wat Tyler's men, and buried here. According to Grafton the chronicler, Wat Tyler had been once servant to this merchant, who had beaten him, and this was the Kentish rebel's revenge. Stow says of this monument of Richard II.'s time--
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Destroyed in the Great Fire, this church was rebuilt by Wren at an expense of . The coarse altar-piece of the Ascension was painted by A. Geddes, and given to the church in by the rector, the Rev. T. Burnet, brother of the eminent engraver. The organ was built by the celebrated Father Smith in . On the dial, which projects from the face of the church, is a carved figure of St. James. In a vault beneath the church lies the corpse of a man in a singular state of preservation. or mediaeval lord mayors are buried in this church. | |
In the (No. ) there is an interesting notice of St. James's, Garlick Hythe. [extra_illustrations.2.32.2] , speaking of the beautiful service of the Church of England, remarks- The rector of the parish at this period was the Rev. Philip Stubbs, afterwards Archdeacon of St. Albans, whose fine voice and impressive delivery are said to have been long remembered by his old parishioners. | |
[extra_illustrations.2.32.3] on the river-side, near (now Iron Wharf), was the old residence of the Hanse Town, German, and Flemish merchants, who obtained a settlement in London as early as . Henry III., in , at the request of his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, granted them very valuable privileges, renewed and confirmed by Edward I. The city also conceded them many privileges, on condition of their maintaining Bishopsgate in repair (they rebuilt it once), and sustaining a of the charges in money and men to defend it when need was. In spite of English jealousy, the Steel Yard merchants flourished till the reign of Edward VI., when the Merchant Adventurers complained of them, and they were held, like all to have forfeited their liberties. In vain Hamburg and Lubeck sent ambassadors to intercede for their countrymen. Their monopoly was gone, but the Steel Yard men still throve, and continued to export English cloth. Elizabeth, however, was rougher with them, and finally expelled them the country in -. | |
says Stow, In the Privy Council Register of the year -, Mr. Peter Cunningham discovered an entry appointing the Steel Yard as a house
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says Pennant, | |
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According to Mr. Wornum (a most competent authority), in his excellent these pictures were presented, in , by the representatives of the Steel Yard merchants to Henry Prince of Wales, a well-known lover of art. They afterwards passed into the possession of Charles I. and are said to have perished in the fire at White hall, . Felibien, however, in , describes having seen them in Paris; and it is more probable they were among the art-treasures sold and dispersed in Cromwell's time. Sandrart mentions having seen the pictures, or drawings of them, in the Long Gallery at Arundel House. Zucchero copied them in , and Vosterman Junior engraved them. Vertue describes drawings of them at Buckingham House in black and white chalk, with coloured skies, which he supposes to be Vosterman's copies. Horace Walpole, however, who purchased them, considered drawing only to be Vosterman's, and the other to be Zucchero's. The possesses copies of these pictures by Bischop, a Dutch artist, and a sketch of the done by Holbein himself, drawn with the pen and washed with Indian ink. On the of Bischop are written lines on the penalties of wealth, attributed to Sir Thomas More- These lines were originally inscribed over the entrance of the Steel Yard. | |
On a tablet suspended to a tree, in the picture representing is a Latin line, also atriabutted to More, as the reward of poverty-
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Holbein, on his return to London from Basal, in , seems to have painted many portraits of his fellow-countrymen in the Steel Yard. Mr. Wornum especially mentions a nameless member of the Stahlhof in the Windsor collection. It represents a young man with a brown beard, clad in a black cap and furred surtout, who, seated at a table, is about to open a letter by cutting the string that fastens it with a knife. The letter is inscribed But the most celebrated picture of this class is the [extra_illustrations.2.33.2] in the Berlin gallery. He is also about to open a letter inscribed [extra_illustrations.2.33.3] has adorned this picture with the rich enamel of his well-chosen words. he says | |
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The original toll of the Steel Yard merchants was, at Christmas and Easter, grey cloths and brown , with of pepper, pairs of gloves, and vessels of vinegar. They had a special alderman for their judge, and they were to be free from all subsidies to the king. | |
According to Mr. Hudson Turner, the Steel Yard derived its name not from the steel imported by the Hanse merchants, but from the king's steel yard here erected, to weigh the tonnage of all goods imported into London, the tonnage-office being afterwards transferred to the city. The king's beam was moved, to , and then to Weigh House Yard, Little . | |
says Pennant (in ),
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In few streets of London have more Roman remains been found than in . In , in excavating the ground for rebuilding Dyers' Hall, in , , at feet inches below the level of the street, and just above the gravel, the remains were found of a Roman pavement, formed of small pieces of tiles about an inch square, bedded apparently on fine concrete; thin earthen jars or bottles were also found near the same spot; and coins, nearly obliterated. The lower part of the ground in which the above were discovered, for feet inches in thickness, appeared to be the sediment or earthy matter, from water, probably from the ancient ; and in it, scattered over the surface, was a large quantity-- weight--of animal bones. | |
A fibula or brooch was found in April (), in an excavation in , at the foot of . The circular enamelled work in the centre was of a very peculiar description; the outlines of the features of a portrait, and those of the mantle and tunic on the bust (together with the nimbus or crown round the head) were executed in gold, into which enamel appeared to have been worked when in a fluid or soft state. The colours of the enamel were yellow, blue, purple, red, and white. This work was surrounded by a rich filagree border of gold, beautifully worked, in which were inserted, at equal distances, large pearls. Nothing has hitherto been found that could be compared to this jewel; the gold-work interwoven with the enamel was new to every . The general character, design, and ornamental goldwork, seemed Byzantine, and somewhat assimilated to the style of art of the time of Charlemagne; so that perhaps we should not be far wrong in assigning its date to the or century. | |
As to the old river-side ramparts in , Mr. Roach Smith, of the best-informed antiquaries on Roman London, writing in , says- | |
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Having now visited the chief spots of interest in , let us notethe chief tribetarries north, for those south are, for the most part, alleys leading to wharves. The , , like the street before mentioned by us in Aldermanure, bears a Saxon name, either referring to King Athelstan or to the nobles who once dwelt there. | |
[extra_illustrations.2.36.1] , is a small church rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire. Stow mentions the burial here of Edmund Denny, Baron of the Exchequer, whose learned son, Anthony, was gentleman of the bedchamber to Henry VIII. By his will the Baron desired trentals of masses to be said for his soul and the souls of his father, mother, and wives. In this quiet | |
p.36 | and unpretending river-side church lies buried Inigo Jones, the architect of the adjoining (). His monument, for which he left , was destroyed in the Great Fire, that also destroyed his work at . Many of the hair-splitting advocates of , and laborious heralds from Heralds' College, are also interred in this tranquil spot. We may mention Sir William Le Neve (Clarencieux), a friend of Ashmole; John Philpott (Somerset Herald), who spent many dusty days over and, in the north aisle, William Oldys (Norroy), the herald whose eccentricities and love of humming ale we have described in a former chapter. The living is a rectory, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of . |
Boss Alley is so called, says Stow, from a boss of water (small conduit or tap) there placed by the executor of Richard Whittington, who was buried hard by. | |
In is a warehouse once the Blacksmiths' Hall. The church of St. Mary Mounthaw, close by, was originally a chapel of the Mounthaws, an old Norfolk family, who lived on Old , and sold their house to the Bishops of Here- | |
ford about . There was a Bishop of Hereford buried here, as well as in the church of St. Mary Somerset, also now removed. People living close by have already forgotten the very names of the churches. | |
Concerning of the churches, [extra_illustrations.2.36.2] , Stow records nothing of interest, except that near it was a lane called Dolittle Lane, and another called Sermon or Shiremoniars Lane, from the Black Loft where, in the time of Edward I., the king's minters melted silver. Old and its antecedents we have already glanced at in our chapter on the Fishmongers' Company. It was the early fish market of London before . The stalls, says Stow, grew to shops, then gradually to tall houses. The change of garden stalls into shops may be very well seen in our suburban roads. Sir William Davenant, the author of describes the odours of with much unction. | |
[extra_illustrations.2.37.1] , situate on the south side of , in the ward of , was named from , from , or from or , from its cold or bleak situation. John Brand was rector before the year | |
p.37 | . In Queen Elizabeth granted the patronage thereof to Thomas Reeve and George Evelyn, and their heirs in soccage, who conveying it to others, it came at last to the family of the Hackers; whereof was Colonel Francis Hacker, commander of the guard that guarded Charles I. to and from his trial, and at last to the scaffold; for which, after the Restoration, he was executed. This church was destroyed in , and handsomely rebuilt, and the parish of St. Nicholas Olave thereunto united. The following is among the monumental inscriptions:--
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The next turning eastward, Fyefoot Lane, should be written -foot Lane, as the lane was once only feet wide at end. , the next turning eastward, derives its name from a church of the Holy Trinity, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt (a Lutheran church now occupies its site); and here we come on Painter- Stainers' Hall, No. , which existed as a guild or | |
fraternity prior to , although it had no charter of incorporation before that year. The company of skilled craftsmen seems to have laboured hard to obtain authority over London artists, forgetful of the fact that graining a door has no very near connection with the art of Raphael. Yet, no doubt, there was a time when the illuminator and the house painter were considered kinsmen, and it were well that there was more sympathy now between the higher and lower branches of all professions. | |
says Peter Cunningham,
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In the barbarous days of the culinary art, when whales and dolphins were eaten, and our queens quaffed strong ale for breakfast, garlick was a great article of kitchen consumption, and according to Stow, was then sold on . | |
, that leads from (in a line with ) right down to , was of the improvements after the Great Fire. It opened out of Soper Lane, and was intended to furnish a direct road to the water-side from the , as it still does. was so called from the College of St. Spirit and St. Mary, founded by Whittington, and described by us in a previous part of the chapter. The Duke of Buckingham's house stood near the top, on the east side. The and last Duke used to come here and intrigue with the city men of the Puritan party. | |
leads to of the old watergates of London, and gives its name to of the wards of the city. Stow enumerates churches and halls of companies in this ward-All Hallows the More and the Less; Tallow Chandlers' Hall, Skinners' Hall, Maltsters'--Hall, Joyners' Hall, and Dyers' Hall. The Steel Yard, or depot of the Hanse Town merchants, already noticed, is in this ward. Dowgate, or Down-gate, from its rapid descent, was famous in Strype's time for its flooding discharge during heavy rains: Stow mentions a boy losing his footing, and being carried down the stream, in spite of men trying to stop him with staves, till he struck against a cart-wheel, and was picked up dead. Ben Jonson, speaks of
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Pennant says that Dowgate (from Dwr, Celtic, ) was of the old Roman gates of London, where passengers went across by ferry to a continuation of the military way towards Dover. It was a water wharf in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III. Customs were paid for ships resting here, in the same manner as if they were at . | |
The Erber (already described) stood near Dowgate. | |
, with Merchant Taylors' School, which stands on the old De la Pole, or Suffolk property, we have already mentioned. | |
In Laurence Poultney Hill many eminent persons seem to have lived towards the end of the century. Daniel and Eliab Harvey, brothers of Dr. William Harvey, Charles I.'s physician, and the great discoverer of the circulation of the blood, were rich merchants on this hill. | |
[extra_illustrations.2.38.3] , were incorporated in the year of Edward III, (), and made a brotherhood in the eighteenth of Richard II. Their original title is
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Furs, though known to the Saxons, were brought into more general use by the Normans. A statute of Edward III. restricts the wearing of furs to the royal family, prelates, earls, barons, knights, ladies, and rich priests. A charter of Henry VII. enumerates ermine, sables, minever, badger, and many other furs then used to trim coats and gowns. Rabbit skin was also much worn, even by nobles and gentlemen. | |
The Skinners had a hall as early as the reign of Henry III.,. and they were among the of the guilds chartered by Edward III. In this reign they ranked so high as to venture to dispute precedence with the powerful Fishmongers. This led, in , to the celebrated fray, when prisoners were rescued, and of the Mayor's officers wounded. The end of this was the rapid execution of of the ringleaders in . In the offerings for the French war ( Edward III.) the Skinners contributed , which was double even the Goldsmiths' subsidy. | |
In , the Skinners, who had previously been divided into brotherhoods, at St. Mary Spital, and the other at St. Mary Bethlehem, were united by Richard II. They then resided in , and in Strype's time they removed to and . In the Great Watch, on the vigil of St. Peter and St. Paul ( Edward IV.), the Skinners rank as among the great | |
p.39 | companies, and sent men to attend. In Richard III.'s time they had stood as of the mysteries. They then sent twentyfour members, in murry-coloured coats, to meet the usurper on entering London, the great companies alone sending ; and at Richard's coronation John Pasmer, (Skinner), was in the deputation from the companies, who attended the Lord Mayor as chief butler. |
In the reign of Elizabeth, though the richer furs were less worn, the Skinners were still numerous. They employed or poor workmen, to dress the coney and other English furs, which pedlars collected from the country people. To restrict merchants from forestalling them in the purchase of furs, the Skinners petitioned Elizabeth for the exclusive monopoly, but were opposed by the Lord Mayor and the Eastland merchants. | |
The ordinances of the Skinners in the reign of Edward II. prescribe regulations for importing and manufacturing skins into furs, fixing the number of skins in a package, and forbidding the sale of -hand furs for new. | |
of the great ceremonials of the Skinners' Company was the annual procession on Corpus Christi Day. They had then borne before them more than painted and gilded wax torches, says Stow; then came above chanters and priests, in surplices and copes, singing. After them came the sheriffs' officers, the clerks of the city prisons, the sheriffs' chaplains, mayor's serjeants, the counsel of the city, the mayor and aldermen in scarlet, and lastly the Skinners in their best livery. The guests returned to dinner in the Company's Hall. On the following Sunday they again went in procession to church, heard a mass of requiem solemnised for their deceased members, and made offerings. The bead-roll of the dead was then called, and the Company repeated their orisons. The priests then said a general prayer for all the surviving members of the fraternity, mentioning each by name. They afterwards returned to their hall, paid their quarterage, and any balances of livery money, and enjoyed themselves in a comfortable but unpretentious dinner, for which they had duly and thriftly paid in advance. Oh, simple life of quiet enjoyment! | |
The election ceremonies of the Company are highly curious. says Mr. Herbert,
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The arms of the Company are-Ermine, on a chief gules, crowns or, with caps of the . Crest-A leopard proper, gorged with a chaplet of bays or. Supporters-A lucern (lynx) and a wolf, both proper. Motto- Hatton, in his boasts of the Company having enrolled, in its time, kings, queens, prince, dukes, earls, and a baron. | |
Strype says the hall in Dowgate was built after the Fire of London at an expense of above . The original hall, had been purchased by the Company as early as the reign of Henry III. It was afterwards alienated, and passed into the hands of Sir Ralph de Cobham, who made Edward III. his heir. In the later hall the mayors sometimes held their mayoralty, and the new East India Company held its general courts before its incorporation with the old Company. The hall is described in as a noble structure, built with fine bricks, and richly furnished, the great parlor being lined with odoriferous cedar. The hall was altered by Mr. Jupp at the end of the last century. It is an Ionic building, with a rusticated basement. pilasters, sustaining an entablature and pointed pediment, divide a double tier of windows. In the tympanum of the pediment the architect has shown a noble disregard to heraldry by doubling up the supporters of the Company's arms, to fit into the space. The frieze is ornamented with festoons and leopards' heads. A small paved court separates the front from the more ancient building, which is of brick. The hall, a light and elegant apartment, has an Ionic screen. The court-room is no longer wainscoted with odoriferous cedar. The staircase, says Herbert, displays some of the massy and rich ornaments in fashion in the reign of Charles II. | |
The following is of the curious old epitaphs preserved by Strype :
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A monument at the upper end of the north aisle bore this inscription :
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says Aubrey, [extra_illustrations.2.40.1] , the author of that tenthrate epic, was also a merchant on this hill. an epic in books, praised by Fielding, and written to vex Sir Robert Walpole by covert patriotic allusions, had its day. By many people of his time Glover was generally believed to have written the but Junius has more of the old nobleman about him than the Hamburg merchant. Sir Patience Ward, that great city politician, was living in on Laurence Poultney Hill; and in the same. year also lived there William Vanderbergh, the father, as Mr. Peter Cunningham thinks, of the wit and dramatist, Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim. Thomas Creede, the great play-printer of Queen Elizabeth's time, lived in this parish. The register records the marriage, in -, of Anne Clarges to Thomas Radford, farrier, of the parish of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields. This lady (a laundress) afterwards married General Monk, the restorer of Charles II. | |
says Mr. Jesse,
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The Swan Stairs, a little was where people coming by boat used to land, to walk to the other. side of Old , when the current was swift and narrow between | |
p.41 | the starlings, and was rather like going down the rapids. citizens usually took boat again at , as we find Johnson and Boswell once doing, on their way to Greenwich, in . |
Dyers' Hall, , was rebuilt about . The Company was incorporated as early as , and the ancient hall, on the site of Dyers' Hall Wharf, was destroyed in the Great Fire. The Innholders' Hall, in the same street, was also built after the Great Fire. The Company was incorporated in . Joiners' Hall, Joiners' Hall Buildings, has a carved screen and entrance doorway, and the piers are surmounted with the Company's crest--a demi-savage, life-size, wreathed about the head and waist with oak-leaves. The Joiners were incorporated about . The Plumbers' Hall, in Great , is a modern brick building. The Company was incorporated by James I. in . | |
The celebrated Calamy gives a curious account of an adventure he met with at Trigg stairs, in this district. he says, After reasoning with the man, and endeavouring to restore peace in the family, the good man left. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.29.1] Bishop Andrewes [extra_illustrations.2.32.1] Arms of Merchants of Steel Yard [extra_illustrations.2.32.2] Steele [extra_illustrations.2.32.3] The Steel Yard [extra_illustrations.2.33.2] George Gyze, [extra_illustrations.2.33.3] Mr. Ruskin [extra_illustrations.2.36.1] St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf [extra_illustrations.2.36.2] St. Mary Magdalen [extra_illustrations.2.37.1] St. Nicholas Cole Abbey [extra_illustrations.2.38.3] The Skinners, whose hall is situated in Dowgate [extra_illustrations.2.40.1] Richard Glover |