Bowling-Greens were once numerous in , Clerkenwell. In , says Mr. Pinks, there were at the north-east corner. The bowling-alleys were both open and covered, and were laid with turf or gravel. The bowls were flat or round, and the simple object was to lay your bowl so many times nearest the jack, or mark. The pleasant game is repeatedly mentioned by Shakespeare, and furnished his quick fancy with innumerable metaphors. There was also a game of ground balls, which were driven through an arch. This game expanded became [extra_illustrations.2.328.3]  and, contracted and complicated, it changed into our modern

Croquet.

Cherry Tree

[extra_illustrations.2.328.4]  teems with old legends and traditions; and well it may, for was it not part of the old nunnery cloisters, and afterwards a portion of the glebe of the church of St. James? The house now No. , says Mr. Pinks, the Stow of Clerkenwell, was originally the parsonage house. The

Crown Tavern,

Crown Tavern.

That good plodding

old mortality,

[extra_illustrations.2.329.1]  be careless in his dates. The following is Weever's epitaph, in St. James's, Clerkenwell:

Lancashire gave me breath,

And Cambridge education;

Middlesex gave me death,

And this church my humation;

And Christ to me hath given

A place with Him in heaven.

In the Close, opposite the nunnery, according to Weever, resided Sir Thomas Challoner, in a house which either Thurlow or Cromwell himself afterwards occupied. On the front of the mansion, which stood in a large garden, were written Latin lines, which have been thus Englished:--

Chaste faith still stays behind, though thence be flown

Those veiled nuns who here before did nest,

For reverend marriage wedlock vows doth own,

And sacred flames keep here in loyal breasts.

This Sir Thomas Challoner, of , was a gallant gentleman, who fought beside the Emperor Charles V., in Algiers, on his return he was made by Henry VIII. clerk of the Council, and in the reign of Edward VI. he won the favour of the proud Protector Somerset. By Elizabeth he was sent as a trusty ambassador to Ferdinand, Emperor of Germany, and afterwards to the court of Philip of Spain, where he was vexed by every possible indignity. He returned home in , and spent the rest of his life quietly in the Close, completing his great work,

The Right Ordering of the English Republic,

as a free gift.

Near the Challoners, in the Close, in the year , resided the Earl of Clanricarde. This nobleman married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney. At the Restoration there were good houses in , Sir John Cropley and Dr. Theophilus Garenciers being the most distinguished residents. The latter gentleman was a Protestant refugee from Normandy, and kindly taught the

musical small-coal man

An old writer, Aubrey,

who compiled an amusing volume on the superstitions of his countrymen, when treating of a fatality believed to attach to certain houses, says:--

A handsome brick house, on the south side of Clerkenwell Churchyard, has been so unlucky for at least forty years, that it was seldom tenanted, and at last nobody would adventure to take it.

This was written in

1696

. Here also was once a private madhouse, of which the public was apprised by advertisement, as follows:--

In Clerkenwell Close, where the figures of mad people are over the gate, liveth one who, by the blessing of God, cures all lunatick, distracted, or mad people. He seldom exceeds three months in the cure of the maddest person that comes in his house; several have been cured in a fortnight, and some in less time. He has cured several from Bedlam, and other madhouses in and about this city, and has conveniency for people of what quality soever. No cure, no money.

Such equitable dealing as this, there can be little doubt, secured for the proprietor of this asylum a fair share of patronage from the friends of the insane.

was the site of [extra_illustrations.2.329.2] , built upon the ruins of the nunnery, which had, at the dissolution, become the property of the Cavendish family. likes to believe that a curse fell on those greedy nobles who stole what good and charitable men had left in trust for the poor, but that the trust had been sometimes abused, who is hardy enough to deny? But the abuses of the priests could surely have been corrected better than by confiscation. The duke's garden extended as far as the present , and contained arches of the southern cloister of the old nunnery. cloister is described in the of as having at its west end an arched door communicating with the church. The roof resembled that of Exeter Cathedral, and the keystones were carved into the form of flowers. Over the cloister was a wareroom, and on the east side of the garden was the site of the ancient cemetery of the nuns. In , according to Noorthouck, the nuns' hall, which still stood at the north-east end of the cloisters, had been turned into a double range of workshops. brickedup arched windows, and the hood moulding of a Gothic doorway are visible in the sketch of the hall in Crowle's

The Duke of Newcastle, William Cavendish, and

Newcastle Lambs,

In the duchess's memoir of her brave husband, on whom she doated, and whom she seems to have pretty considerably bored, she states that at time of their exile they were both forced to pawn their clothes for a dinner. While abroad the duke produced a luxurious folio on horsemanship. During his absence the Parliament levied, it is computed, on his estate. At the Restoration this faithful loyalist was made a chief

John!

The whole story,

of this lady is a romance, and all she does is romantic.

May 1, 1667

.-She was in a black coach, adorned with silver, instead of gold, and snow-white curtains, and everything black and white. Staid at home, reading the ridiculous history of my Lord Newcastle, wrote by his wife, which shows her to be a mad, conceited, ridiculous woman, and he an

asse to suffer her to write what she writes to him and of him.

On the

10th April, 1667

,

Charles and, his queen came to Clerkenwell, on a visit to the duchess. On the

18th

, John Evelyn went to make court to the noble pair, who received him with great kindness; and another time he dined at Newcastle House, and was privileged to sit discoursing with her grace in her bedchamber, after dinner. Referring to her literary employments, when writing to a friend, she says,

You will find my works, like infinite Nature, that hath neither beginning nor end; and as confused as the chaos, wherein is neither method nor order, but all mixed together, without separation, like light and darkness.

Henry Cavendish, Master of the Robes to Charles II., left the bulk of his estates, realising about , to his son-in-law, the Earl of Clare,

Newcastle House, at period, was the residence of the eldest daughter of the old duke, the Duchess of Albemarle, a woman crazed with pride, who married General Monk's son, and drove him by her folly to a liquid remedy, which killed him in his youth. At his death the duchess was so immensely wealthy, that pride crazed her, and she vowed never to marry any but a sovereign prince. In the Earl of Montague, disguising himself as the Emperor of China, won the mad woman, whom he then kept in constant confinement at (the site of the ). She survived her husband years, and at last died at Newcastle House, in , aged years. Her body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, , and at midnight was privately interred near her father-in-law, General Monk, in Henry VII.'s

Newcastle House, in Pennant's time, was a cabinet-maker's, and the garden was strewn with the defaced monuments of Prior Weston, and other worthies. About Mr. Carr, who built the present church of St. James, erected on the site of the duke's mansion the row of houses called . Every trace of the convent then disappeared, except a small portion of a wall, the jamb of a Gothic window of the nuns' hall (now the side wall of a house at the north end of ). The old house was a sombre, monotonous brick structure, having its upper storey adorned with stone pilasters. The east and west wings stood forward, and there was a large courtyard in front.

, long gay enough, was, in the century, according to that admirable chronicler of the parish, Mr. Pinks, environed by mansions of the noble and rich. In Roques's huge Map of London in there were lofty trees on either side of , and at the north-east corner of . The last tree on the north side of , says Mr. Pinks, was blown down in . The old pillory, where Mr. John Britton had seen a man fastened and pelted, used to stand on the western slope of , near the bottom, and in a woman who had committed perjury was nearly killed at this place of punishment. A turnstile stood at the entrance of the close, prior to the houses being taken down to form a better approach to the church. A raised circle of stone with lamp-posts, near the middle of the green, and close to the drinking-fountain, marks, says the best of the local historians, the spot where the old watch-house once stood.

On the north side of , a low brick house, now divided into shops, was formerly the Welsh Charity School, founded in . The house was built in , and the charity removed to the in , and after that to Ashford, near Windsor. There used to be a painted figure of a Welsh boy in a niche in the front of the school. Pennant, a warm-hearted Welshman, intended to have devoted the profits of his great work on to this school, but its expenses were so great that he was unable to do so, and he gave instead the sum of .

Of the chief residents of we can only select the most eminent. Amongst these we may mention Sir Richard Cheverton, the Lord Mayor in , who proclaimed Richard Cromwell Protector. He lived long, and was styled the Father of the city. Sir William Bolton, an alderman, knighted by Charles II., also resided on , and in we find, in the list of rich residents, Sir William Bowles, Bart., Sir Edward Smith, and Lady Windham.

Above all these aldermen and custos rotulorums, rejoice, Clerkenwell, because that good and gentle spirit, Izaac Walton, once lived in thy midst, and often paced his guileless path, pondering on mighty barbel in the muddy depths of the pleasant river Lea. On his retirement from the snug little linendrapers' shops, at the Exchange and then in , Walton, before the year , says Sir Harris Nicholas, took a house at Clerkenwell. That delightful book, sold by Richard Marriot, in St. Dunstan's Churchyard, , appeared in . The good, pious old fisherman lived at Clerkenwell, it is supposed, till . He went to Worcester after that, and died at Winchester, at the house of a son-in-law of his, a prebendary, in . In his will the worthy old man left mourning-rings to his friends, and (could human forgiveness go further?) to his publisher, Richard Marriot.

George Sawbridge, an eminent bookseller of , who published a book by Culpeper, the herbalist, also dwelt on . He left to be divided among his daughters. Elias Ashmole records that he was a friend of Lilly, the sham astrologer.

[extra_illustrations.2.333.1] , who lived on , became a notorious street character in the reign of Charles II. This half fool, half knave (like many of Shakespeare's jesters) is constantly mentioned in pamphlets of Charles II.'s reign. In an old work, called (published in ), the writer describes the excellent comedians at the Red Bull Theatre, in Red , now Woodbridge Street. On occasion, when Robert Cox, a celebrated low comedian, played

Simpleton the Smith,

Cuz, cuz, give me some! give me some!

Poor Robin's Almanac.

In , during the Civil Wars, Lady Bullock's house, on , was attacked by soldiers, who stole pieces of gold, and tore rich rings from her ladyship's fingers. Dr. Sibbald, the incumbent of Clerkenwell, who resided near, remonstrated with the Parliamentary soldiers from his window, but the only reply was musketbullets at his head, which they narrowly missed. A servant of Lady Bullock's was wounded by the soldiers.

In the Lamb and Flag Ragged School was established on . Since that time day-schools, night-schools, and Sunday-schools have been added to it.

At the corner of , which leads from Street Road to , stands the old manor house of Clerkenwell, the residence of the Northampton family till nearly the end of the century. The baron was Sir Henry Compton, of Warwickshire, summoned to Parliament among the nobles in (Elizabeth). The Lord Compton was created Earl of Northampton in (James I.), and also K.G. and Lord President of the Marches and Dominions of Wales.

How that nobleman carried off the daughter of rich Lord Mayor Spencer, in a baker's basket, from Canonbury, we have before related. The wife of the earl had the courage to attend her lord to the battle of Edgehill, where she witnessed the daring and danger of her Cavalier sons. Spencer Compton fell at the battle of Hopton Heath, in . The earl resided at Clerkenwell in ; his estates, which had been confiscated, were returned to him at the Restoration. He is said to have had a troop of retainers, who wore his livery of blue and grey, and he was of the king's Privy Council and Constable of the Tower. This earl's youngest brother, after being a cornet of horse, was made Bishop of London, and was entrusted with the education of the Princesses Mary and Ann. After being suspended by James II., he performed the coronation service for William of Orange, and was appointed of the commissioners for revising the Liturgy. His toleration of Dissenters rendered him unpopular with the Tories. He died in . Joshua Alwyne Spencer, the earl, was the President of the Royal Society.

At the end of the century the old manor-house of the Spencers was converted into a private lunatic asylum, by Dr. Newton. Thoresby, the Leeds historian, speaks doubtfully of this doctor's honesty. He published a herbal, which Cave printed, and seems to have had a botanic garden behind the madhouse. It was here that strange fanatic and false prophet, Richard Brothers, was confined. This man had been a lieutenant in the Royal .Navy, but left the service in , and refusing, from conscientious scruples, to take the necessary oath, he lost his half-pay. He then became poor, and had to take refuge in a workhouse. In he became insane, believed himself a prophet sent from God, and warned all who called him mad, an impostor, or a devil, that they were guilty of blasphemy. In he sent letters to the king, the ministers, and the speaker, saying he was ordered by God to go to the , and inform the members, for their safety, that the time was come for the fulfilment of the chapter of Daniel. He went accordingly, and met with the rough reception that might have been expected. Soon after Brothers prophesied the death of King George, the overthrow of the monarchy, and the delivery of the crown into his own hands, which, being treasonable, he was sent to Newgate. On his release, he persuaded many weak people to sell their goods and prepare to accompany him, in , to the New Jerusalem, which was to be built on both sides of the river Jordan, and to become the capital of the world. In the Jews were to be restored, and he was to be revealed as their prince and ruler, and the governor of all nations a post for which Brothers had even refused the divine offer of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Brothers at last got too troublesome, even for English toleration, and was confined as a lunatic in Clerkenwell; he was released in , by the zealous intercession of his great disciple, John Finlayson, with whom he afterwards resided for years. Brothers died suddenly, of cholera, in . His last words were addressed to Finlayson, asking if his sword and hammer were ready, referring to the building of the New Jerusalem. In the old manorhouse was turned into a ladies' boarding-school.

was so called from General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, during whose popularity the street was built. was erected in . In this street, in , lived Christopher Pinchbeck, an inventor of

astronomico-musical clocks,

Miss Ray, that unfortunate mistress of Lord Sandwich, who was shot by her lover, Hackman, the clergyman, served her time with a mantuamaker in Court, . A pleasant memory of those delightful old engravers, the Bewicks, is also associated with Court, for here, about , lived a bookseller named Hodgson, for whom they worked. In the same obscure yet honoured locality also lived that sturdy old antiquary, Dr. Thomas Birch, the son of a Quaker coffee-mill maker, of Clerkenwell. Birch eventually, after being usher to Mr. Besse, a Quaker in Court, took orders in the Church of England, and married the daughter of a clergyman. Lord Hardwick patronised him, and in he became domestic chaplain to the unfortunate Jacobite Earl of Kilmarnock, who, joining in the luckless rebellion of ', was beheaded on . In he was presented to the united rectories of St. Michael, , and St. Mary Staining. He worked much for Cave, and was killed by a fall from his horse, near Hampstead, in . He bequeathed his valuable library and manuscripts to the , and the residue of his small property to increase the salaries of the assistant librarians.

, says Mr. Pinks, is so called because in old times the garden-wall of the house of the Earls of Aylesbury skirted the south side of the thoroughfare. Aylesbury House was probably a name given to part of the old Priory of St. John, where the Earls of Elgin and Aylesbury resided about . Robert Bruce, Earl of Elgin, who lived here in , was a devoted Cavalier, and an ardent struggler for the Restoration, and was made Earl of Aylesbury in by that not usually very grateful king, Charles II., to whom he was privy councillor and gentleman of the bedchamber. At the coronation of that untoward monarch, James II., the Earl of Aylesbury bore in procession St. Edward's staff, ounces in weight, and supposed by credulous persons to contain a piece of the true cross. The earl died in , the year he had been appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Household. Anthony Wood sums up the earl as a good historian and antiquary, a friend to the clergy, and a

curious collector of manuscripts.

But a far more interesting resident in was [extra_illustrations.2.334.1] , the

musical smallcoal man,

Bull's head

Upon Thursdays repair to my palace, and there

Hobble up stair by stair, but I pray you take care

That you break not your shins by a stumble;

And without e'er a souse, paid to me or my spouse,

Sit still as a mouse at the top of the house,

And there you shall hear how we fumble.

Britton's friend, Ned Ward, describes these pleasant Thursday evening concerts, which, he says, were as popular as the evenings of the Kit-Cat Club, and that Britton, in his blue frock, with a measure twisted into the mouth of his sack, was as much respected as if he had been a nobleman in disguise.

Britton,

besides being a musician, was a bibliomaniac, and collector of rare old books and manuscripts, from which fact we may infer that he had cultivated some acquaintance with literature. It often happened that, on Saturdays, when some of these

literati

were accustomed to meet at the shop of

one

Christopher Bateman, a bookseller, at the corner of Ave Maria Lane,

Paternoster row

, Britton, who had usually completed his morning round by

twelve

o'clock at noon, would, despite his smutty appearance and blue smock, after pitching his sack of small coal on the bulk of Bateman's shop, join the literary conclave, and take part in

the conversation, which generally lasted an hour. Often as he walked the streets some

who knew

him would point him out, and exclaim,

There goes the small-coal man, who is a lover of learning a performer of music, and a companion for gentlemen.

The circumstance of Britton's death are as remarkable as those of life; he was literally frightened out of his life by practical joke which was played on him by

one

Robe, a justice of the peace, and a frequenter of his concerts, who

one

day introduced as his friend a man who had the sobriquet of the

Talking Smith,

but whose real name was Honeyman. This man possessed the power of ventriloquism, and when he saw Britton he, by a preconcerted arrangement, announced in a solemn voice, which seemed to come from a long distance, the death of Britton in hours, unless he immediately fell upon his knees and repeated the Lord's Prayer. Britton, in the terror of his soul, instinctively obeyed; but the chord of his life was unstrung by this sudden shock. A brief illness supervened, and in a few days he died. His death occurred in

September, 1714

, when he was upwards of

sixty

years of age. On the

1st of October

his remains were followed to the grave by a great concourse of people, and interred in St. James's churchyard.

, formerly called Bartlett Street, was so named from its chief pride, Berkeley House, which stood at the corner facing . The advanced wings of the mansion enclosed a spacious forecourt, and at the rear was a large garden. Sir Maurice Berkeley, who lived here, was standard-bearer to Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Queen Elizabeth. He it was who, when Sir Thomas Wyatt was beaten back from Ludgate to , yet would not surrender, induced Wyatt to mount behind him on his horse, and ride to . In this house lived and died that pious Earl Berkeley, who in Charles II.'s time was called

George the Traveller,

George the Linguist.

At the south-east end of , [extra_illustrations.2.335.1] , let into the front wall of a dilapidated tenement, says Mr. Pinks, marks, as nearly as possible, the site of the old Clerks' Well, used by the brothers of St. John and the Benedictine nuns, and the place where, as the old chronicler says, the London parish clerks performed their miracle plays. In Stow's time this fine spring was cared for and sheltered with stone. In Aggas's map (about ) there is a Conduit-house at the south-west corner of the boundary wall of nunnery, and the water falls into an oblong trough, which is enclosed by a low wall. In the Earl of Northampton gave this spring for the use of the poor of the parish of St. James, but it was at once let to a brewer. Strype, writing about , describes the well as at the right-hand side of a lane which led from Clerkenwell to Hockley-in-the-Hole, and it was then enclosed by a high wall, which had been built to bound . Hone, in , writing of the mystery plays of the Middle Ages, points out that as the priory stood about half way down the slope from to the Fleet, people stationed on the rising ground near could have easily seen the quaint performances at the well. Near the pump, erected in , to mark the old well, stood of the parish watchhouses, erected in .

Vineyard Walk, Clerkenwell, is supposed to mark the site of of the old priory vineyards. The ground was called the Mount, and against the western slopes grew vines, row above row, there being a small cottage at the top. It existed in this form as late as . There was also a vineyard in as late as the reign of Stephen. It is said that the soil of this was sold, in , for .

That remarkable man, [extra_illustrations.2.336.1] , the author of of the very prettiest of old London love songs, lived and died at his house in Great . Carey, by profession a music-master and song-writer for Sadler's Wells, was an illegitimate son of the Marquis of Halifax, who presented the crown to William III. He was for long supposed to have written

God Save the King,

The Red Bull Theatre, a house as well known, in Elizabeth's time, as the Globe or the Fortune, stood at the south-west corner of what was afterwards a distillery, in Woodbridge Street. At the commencement of the reign of James I. the queen's servants, who had been the Earl of Worcester's players, performed at this house. In , George Wither, the poet, speaks disparagingly of the place.

pure Naples. silk.

During the Commonwealth, when the victorious zealots prohibited stage plays, the Red Bull company were permitted to produce drolls and farces. From a print dated we see that the stage was at that time lighted by chandeliers, and that there were boxes for spectators behind the actors. At the Restoration the king's players acted for a few days at the Red Bull, and then went to a new playhouse built for them in , . Pepys speaks of the Red Bull as a low

[extra_illustrations.2.337.1] 

In the same street as the Red Bull Theatre, in Queen Anne's reign, Ned Ward, a coarse but clever writer we have often quoted, kept a publichouse. In his poetical address to the public he says, with indistinct reference to the Red Bull Theatre-

There, on that ancient, venerable ground,

Where Shakespeare in heroic buskins trod,

Within a good old fabrick may be found

Celestial liquors, fit to charm a god;

Rich nectar, royal punch, and home-brewed ale,

Such as our fathers drank in time of yore.

Commodious room, with Hampstead air supplied.

No bacchanalian ensigns at the door,

To give the public notice, are displayed,

Yet friends are welcome. We shall say no more,

But hope their friendship will promote a trade.

Ward, who retorted an attack of Pope's in the was, as we have mentioned, a friend of the musical coal-man, and at his public-house Britton's books and musical instruments were sold after his death.

The old church of St. James, Clerkenwell, was only a fragment in Stow's time. No. in the Close was the original rectory house. The church was sold in to trustees for the parish. The steeple fell down in , after having stood for centuries, and, being badly rebuilt, fell again, when nearly repaired, the bells breaking in the roof and gallery, and all the pews. There was no organ in the church till within years of its demolition. The old building was pulled down in , and a fine monument of Sir William Weston, the last prior of , was sold to Sir George Booth, and removed to Burleigh. The prior's effigy represented a skeleton. There was also a fine brass over the monument of Dr. John Bell, Bishop of Worcester in the time of Henry VIII., to whom it is said he acted as secretary. He was engaged by the king in the matter of his divorce from Catherine of Arragon and Anne of Cleves. He was buried, says Green, the historian of Worcestershire,

like a bishop, with mitre and odours, things that belong to a bishop, with

two

white branches,

two

dozen staves, torches, and

four

great tapers, near the altar,

The old church also contained a marble tablet, affixed to a chancel pillar, to the memory of that patient old antiquary, John Weever, who collected a great volume of epitaphs and inscriptions. A tomb to the memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Exeter, who married the grandson of the famous Burleigh, and died in , is now in the vaults of the new church. On a painted board near this tomb it was stated that the venerable countess was grandmother to children, and great-grandmother to . In the old chapter-house, which had been turned into a vestry, was buried Sir Thomas Holt; father of the famous Lord Chief Justice Holt. Near the south-east corner of the church--was a black and white marble monument, which had been erected in memory of George Strode, an old Cavalier officer, and a great benefactor to the poor of Clerkenwell.

The new church of St. James, which cost nearly , was consecrated by Bishop Porteus, in . The church contains several interesting monuments, including erected to the memory of Bishop Burnet, in , who, as we have already stated, was buried beneath the altar in the old church. The plain blue slab, carved with his arms, surrounded by the garter, is now preserved in the vault. Against the wall, on the gallery staircase, is a memorial stone to the famous Clerkenwell archer, Sir William Wood, captain of the Finsbury archers, who died in . He was the wearer of many a prize-badge, and the author of a curious little book in praise of archery. He lived to the age of , and flights of whistling arrows were discharged over his grave.

[extra_illustrations.2.328.3] Charles II.'s favourite diversion, Pall Mall,

[extra_illustrations.2.328.4] Clerkenwell Close

[extra_illustrations.2.329.1] Oliver Cromwell's House-Clerkenwell Close

[extra_illustrations.2.329.2] old Newcastle House

[extra_illustrations.2.333.1] Jack Adams, a Clerkenwell simpleton

[extra_illustrations.2.334.1] Thomas Britton

[extra_illustrations.2.335.1] a broken iron pump

[extra_illustrations.2.336.1] Henry Carey

[extra_illustrations.2.337.1] Red Bull-inside