In St. Mary-at-Hill Lane, , is the fair [extra_illustrations.2.41.1]  because of the ascent from .

In this parish there was a place,

called

Septem Camerae,

which was either

one

house, or else so many rooms or chambers, which formerly belonged to some chantry, the rent whereof went towards the maintaining of a priest to pray superstitiously for the soul of the deceased, who left those septem camera for that use.

Stow has preserved the following epitaph from a tomb in the chancel of :--

Here lyeth a knight, in London borne,

Sir Thomas Blanke by name,

Of honest birth, of merchant's trade,

A man of worthy fame.

Religious was his life to God,

To men his dealing just;

The poor and hospitals can tell

That wealth was not his trust.

With gentle heart, and spirit milde,

And nature full of pitie,

Both sheriffe, lord maior, and alderman,

He ruled in this citie.

The Good Knight was his common name,

So called of many men;

He lived long, and dyed of yeeres

Twice seven, and six times ten.

, though a rough and unromantic place at the present day, has an ancient legend of

In Hogarth's memorable tour () he stopped at [extra_illustrations.2.42.1]  for the purpose of sketching. His poetical chronicler says-

Our march we with a song begin.

Our hearts were light, our breeches thin.

We meet with nothing of adventure

Till Billingsgate's dark house we enter;

Where we diverted were, while baiting,

With ribaldry not worth relating (Quite suited to the dirty place);

But what most pleased us was his Grace

Of Puddle Dock, a porter grim,

Whose portrait Hogarth, in a whim,

Presented him, in caricature,

He pasted on the cellar door.

The introduction of steamboats has much altered

The market formerly opened

two

hours earlier than at present,

and the result was demoralising and exhausting. Drink led to ribald language and fighting, but the refreshment now taken is chiefly coffee, and the general language and behaviour-has improved.

red

white.

red

white.

To see [extra_illustrations.2.43.3] , says Mr. Mayhew, the visitor should be there about o'clock on a Friday morning. The market opens at , but for the or hours it is attended solely by the regular fishmongers and

bummarees,

Ha-a-andsome cod! the best in the market! All alive! alive! alive, oh!

Ye-o-o! ye-o-o! Here's your fine Yarmouth bloaters! Who's the buyer?

Here you are, governor; splendid whiting! some of the right sort!

Turbot! turbot! All alive, turbot!

Glass of nice peppermint, this cold morning? Halfpenny a glass!

Here you are, at your own price! Fine soles, oh!

Oy! oy! oy! Now's your time! Fine grizzling sprats! all large, and no small!

Hullo! hullo, here! Beautiful lobsters! good and cheap. Fine cock crabs, all alive, oh!

Five

brill and

one

turbot--have that lot for a pound! Come and look at 'em, governor; you won't see a better lot in the market.

Here! this way; this way, for splendid skate! Skate, oh! skate, oh!

Had-had-had-had-haddock! All fresh and good!

Currant and meat puddings! a ha'penny each!

Now, you mussel-buyers, come along! come along! come along! Now's your time for fine fat mussels!

Here's food for the belly, and clothes for the back; but I sell food for the mind!

Here's smelt, oh!

Here ye are, fine Finney haddick!

Hot soup! nice pea-soup! a-all hot! hot!

Ahoy! ahoy, here! Live plaice! all alive, oh!

Now or never! Whelk.! whelk! whelk!

Who'll buy brill, oh! brill, oh?

Capes! waterproof capes! Sure to keep the wet out! A shilling apiece!

Eels, oh! eels, oh! Alive, oh! alive, oh!

Fine flounders, a shilling a lot! Who'll have this prime lot of flounders?

Shrimps! shrimps! fine shrimps!

Wink! wink! wink!

Hi! hi-i! here you are; just

eight

eels left-only

eight

!

O ho! O ho! this way-this way-this way! Fish alive! alive! alive, oh!

Dock is mentioned as an important quay in Brompton's Chronicle (Edward III.), under the date , when King Ethelred, being then at Wantage, in Berkshire, made laws for regulating the customs on ships at Blynesgate, or , then the only wharf in London. i. Small vessels were to pay halfpenny; . Larger ones, with sails, penny; . Keeles, or hulks, still larger, fourpence. . Ships laden with wood, piece for toll. , according to size, a halfpenny and a penny; . Men of Rouen, who came with wine or peas, and men of Flanders and Liege, were to pay toll before they began to sell, but the Emperor's men (Germans of the Steel Yard) paid an annual toll. . Bread was tolled times a week, cattle were paid for in kind, and butter and cheese were paid more for before Christmas than after.

By King Stephen's time, according to Becket's friend and biographer, Fitzstephen, the different foreign merchants had drafted off to their respective quays-Germans and Dutch to the Steel Yard, in ; the French wine merchants to the Vintry. In the reign of Edward I., a great regulator of the price of provisions, the price of fish was fixed at the following scale:s. d.

Edward III. fixed the dues at for large ships, for smaller, and halfpenny for boats or battles. For corn farthing was paid for quarters; farthing for measured quarters of sea-coal. Every tun of ale exported was taxed at ; and every herrings, farthing.

In , an Act of Parliament constituted a free and open market for the sale of fish days in the week, and on Sundays (before Divine service) for mackerel; and any fishmonger who bought, except for his own sale, was to be sentenced to a fine of for every offence. Several fishery-laws were passed in , to restrain abuses, and the selfish greediness of fishermen. Eel-spears were forbidden, and it was made

An Act of the year of George II. was passed, to regulate the sale of fish at , and prevent a monopoly of the market. It was found that the London fishmongers bought up the fishing-boats, and kept the fish down at Gravesend, supplying the market with only boatloads at a time, so as to keep up the price. An attempt had been made, in the year , to establish a fish-market at , and fishing-boats were bought by subscription; but the fishmongers prevented any supply of fish reaching the new depot. The Act of Parliament above referred to ( Geo. II) was intended to remedy these evils. The master of every fishing-vessel arriving at the Nore with fish had to report the time of his arrival, and the cargo he brought, to the clerk of the coastoffice, under penalty of ; and for any marketable fish he destroyed he was to be sentenced to not less than month's hard labour. No fish was to be placed in well-boats or store-boats, unless to go straight to , under a penalty of . No by the same Act was allowed to sell fishspawn, or unsizable fish, or any smelt less than inches long from nose to tail.

Stow (Elizabeth) describes as a port or harborough for ships and boats bringing fish, fresh and salt, shell-fish, oranges, onions, fruit, roots, wheat, rye, and other grain. It had become more frequented after the decline of . Steam-vessels, of late years, have superseded the old hoys and sailing-boats that once visited . Steamers are not, of course, dependent on the state of the tide, and the old summons for their departure (under penalty) at the ringing of the bell, which announced high water at , is no longer an observance.

Addison, who glanced at nearly every kind of London life, with his quiet kindly philosophy, and large toleration for folly, did not forget to visit , and refers, in his delightful way, to the debates which frequently arose among

the ladies of the British fishery.

In Bailey's English Dictionary () a is described as meaning

a scolding, impudent slut,

Were you ever at

Billingsgate

in the sprat season?

Mr. Henry Mayhew, writing in , calculates that every year in there are sold salmon, live cod, soles, whiting, haddocks, mackerel, lbs. of sprats, fresh herrings, in bulk, eels, bloaters, dried haddocks, oysters, lobsters, crabs, and shrimps. Of this vast salvage from the seas the London fish costermongers sell weight. Mr. Mayhew calculated that the sprat costermongers sell weight annually, and realise .

The forestallers or middlemen at are called

bummarees

The costermongers are important people at market. Sprat-selling in the streets generally commences about the (Lord Mayor's Day), which is accordingly by costermongers sometimes called

Sprat Day.

toss

chuck,

tosses

Wink, wink, winketty, wink, wink,

In the days before railways, when the coaches were stopped by snow, or the river by ice, fish used sometimes to command great prices at . In , a cod-fish of was sold to a fishmonger for In , a salmon of went for a guinea a pound. In , lobsters sold for a guinea each; and Mr. Timbs mentions epicures dividing the only lobster in the market for sauce, and paying guineas each for the luxury. On the other hand, the prolific sea furnishes sometimes great gluts of fish. tons of periwinkles at a time have been sent from Glasgow; and in days from to a tons of plaice, soles, and sprats have been landed at . Perhaps we may live to see the time when the better sorts of fish will grow scarce as oysters, and cod-fish will have to be bred at the Dogger Bank, and encouraged in its reproduction.

All fish is sold at by tale, except salmon, which go by weight, and sprats, oysters, and shell-fish, which are sold by measure. In Knight's (), the number of boxes of salmon sent to is said to begin in February at about boxes a day, and to increase in July to boxes a day. In probably not less than tons of salmon reached . In salmon was sent to London in panniers on horseback; after that, it was packed in straw in light carts. After April it was impossible to send the fish to market. About the year , Mr. Alexander Dalrymple, a servant of the East India Company, told a Mr. George Dempster, at the , the Chinese fishermen's mode of conveying fresh fish great distances packed up in snow. Dempster instantly wrote off to a Scotch friend, who had already tried the plan of sending salmon, packed in ice, to London from Aberdeen and Inverness. In there were about fish-salesmen in London, and of these had stalls in .

The old water-gate of Beling, the friend of Brennus the Gaul, was long ago a mere collection of dirty pent-houses, scaly sheds, and ill-savoured benches, with flaring oil-lamps in winter, daybreak disclosing a screaming, fighting, and rather tipsy crowd; but since the extension of the market in , and the disappearance of the fishermen, there is less drinking, and more sober and strenuous business.

Mr. Henry Mayhew has painted a minute yet vivid picture of this great market.

In the darkness of the shed,

the white bellies of the turbots, strung up bow-fashion, shine like mother-of-pearl, while the lobsters, lying upon them, look intensely scarlet from the contrast. Brown baskets piled upon one another, and with the herring-scales glittering like spangles all over them, block up the narrow paths. Men in coarse canvas jackets, and bending under huge hampers, push past, shouting, Move on! move on, there! and women, with the long limp tails of cod-fish dangling from their aprons, elbow their way through the crowd. Round the auction-tables stand groups of men, turning over the piles of soles, and throwing them down till they slide about in their slime; some are smelling them, while others are counting the lots. There, that lot of soles are worth your money, cries the salesman to one of the crowd, as he moves on leisurely; none better in the market. You shall have 'em for a pound and half-a-crown. Oh! shouts another salesman, it's no use to bother him; he's no go. Presently a tall porter, with a black oyster-bag, staggers past, trembling under the weight of his load, his back and shoulders wet with the drippings from the sack. Shove on one side, he mutters from between his clenched teeth, as he forces his way through the mob. Here is a tray of reddish-brown shrimps piled up high, and the owner busy shifting his little fish into another stand, while a doubtful customer stands in front, tasting the flavour of the stock, and consulting with his companion in speculation. Little girls carrying matting-bags, that they have brought from Spitalfields, come up, and ask you in a begging voice to buy their baskets; and women, with bundles of twigs for stringing herrings, cry out, Halfpenny a bunch! from all sides. Then there are blue-black piles of small live lobsters, moving about their bound--up claws and long feelers, one of them occasionally being taken up by a looker-on, and dashed down again like a stone. Everywhere every one is asking, What's the price, master? while shouts of laughter, from round the stalls of the salesmen, bantering each other, burst out occasionally over the murmuring noise of the crowd. The transparent smelts on the marble slabs, and the bright herrings, with the lump of transparent ice magnifying their eyes like a lens, are seldom looked at until the market is over, though the hampers and piles of huge maids, New Billingsgate Market dropping slime from the counter, are eagerly examined and bartered for.

The costermongers have nicknamed the long row of oyster-boats moored close alongside the wharf Oyster Street. On looking down the line of tangled ropes and masts, it seems as though the little boats would sink with the crowds of men and women thronged together on their decks. It is as busy a scene as one can well behold. Each boat has its black sign-board, and salesman in his white apron walking up and down his shop, and on each deck is a bright pewter pot and tin-covered plate, the remains of the salesman's breakfast. Who's for Baker's? Who's for Archer's? Who'll have Alston's? shout the oyster-merchants; and the red cap of the man in the hold bobs up and down as he rattles the shells about with his spade. These holds are filled with oysters--a grey mass of sand and shell- on which is a bushel-measure well piled up in the centre, while some of them have a blue muddy heap of mussels divided off from the natives. The sailors, in their striped guernseys, sit on the boat-sides smoking their morning's pipe, allowing themselves to be tempted by the Jew boys with cloth caps, old shoes, and silk handkerchiefs.

Mr. Mayhew has also sketched, with curious photographic realism, the Dutch eel-boats, with their bulging polished oak sides, half hidden in the river mist. They are surrounded by skiffs full of traders from the Surrey and Middlesex shores. You see wooden sabots and china pipes on the ledges of the boats, and the men wear tall fur caps, red shirts, and canvas kilts. The holds of the vessels are tanks, and floating at the stern are coffin-shaped barges pierced with holes, with eelbaskets hanging over the sides. In the centre of the boats stand the scales, tall and heavy, with, on side, the conical net-bag for the eels; on the other, the weights and pieces of stone to make up for the water that clings to the fish. The captain, when purchasers arrive, lays down his constant friend, his black pipe, and dives into the tank a long-handled landing-net, and scoops from the tank a writhing knot of eels. Some of the purchasers wear blue serge aprons; others are ragged women, with their straw pads on their crushed bonnets They are busy sorting their purchases, or sanding them till they are yellow.

In old times the Thames fish half supplied London. Old Stow says of the Thames in his day,

What should I speak of the fat and sweet salmons daily taken in this stream, and that in such plenty (after the time of the smelt is past) as no river in Europe is able to exceed it? But what store also of barbels, trouts, chevens, perches, smelts, breams, roaches, daces, gudgeons, flounders, shrimps, eels, &c., are commonly to be had therein, I refer me to them that know by experience better than I, by reason of their daily trade of fishing in the same. And albeit it seemeth from time to time to be, as it were, defrauded in sundry wise of these, her large commodities, by the insatiable avarice of fishermen; yet this famous river complaineth commonly of no want, but the more it loseth at

one

time it gaineth at another.

Stow also tells us that, before , the city ditch, without the wall of the city, which then lay open,

contained great store of very good fish, of divers sorts, as many yet living know, who have taken and tasted them, can well witness, but now (he says) no such matter.

In the memory of a person not long since living, a waterman that plied at Essex Stairs, his name John Reeves, got a comfortable living by attending anglers with his boat. His method was to watch when the shoals of roach came down from the country, and, when he had found them, to go round to his customers and give them notice. Sometimes they (the fish) settled opposite the Temple; at others, at Blackfriars or

Queenhithe

; but most frequently about the chalk hills (the deposit of chalk rubble) near

London Bridge

. His hire was

two shillings

a tide. A certain number of persons who were accustomed thus to employ him raised a sum sufficient to buy him a waterman's coat and silver badge, the impress whereof was

Himself, with an angler in his boat;

and he had annually a new coat to the time of his death, which might be about the year

1730

.

wells

Bagford, the old antiquary, mentions a curious custom that once prevailed at .

This,

brings to my mind another ancient custom that hath been omitted of late years. It seems that in former times the porters that plyd at

Billingsgate

used civilly to entreat and desire every man that passed that way to salute a post that stood there in a vacant place. If he refused to do this, they forthwith laid hold of him, and by main force bouped him against the post; but if he quietly submitted to kiss the same, and paid down sixpence, they gave him a name, and chose some

one

of the gang for a godfather. I believe this was done in memory of some old image that formerly stood there, perhaps of Belus or Belin.

Adjoining , on the east side, stood Smart's Quay or Wharf, which we find noticed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth as containing an ingenious seminary for the instruction of young thieves. The following extract of a letter, addressed to Lord Burleigh, in , by Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, evinces that the

art and mystery

Amongst our travels this

one

matter tumbled out by the way.

One

Wotton, a gentleman born, and some time a merchant of good credit, having fallen by time into decay, kept an ale-house at Smart's Key, near

Billingsgate

; and after, for some misdemeanour, being put down, he reared up a new trade of life, and in the same house he procured all the cut-purses about this city to repair to his said house. There was a school-house set up to learn young boys to cut purses. There were hung up

two

devices; the

one

was a pocket, the other was a purse. The pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung about with hawks' bells,

53

The Old Coal Exchange (See Page 50).

and over the top did hang a little scaring-bell; and he that could take out a counter without any noise, was allowed to be a

public hoyster

; and he that could take a piece of silver out of the purse without the noise of any of the bells, he was adjudged a

judicial nipper

. N. B.-That a

hoyster

is a pickpocket, and a

nipper

is termed a pick-purse, or a cut-purse.

The faces the site of Smart's Quay, . English coal is mentioned in the reign of Henry III., who granted a charter to the people of Newcastle, empowering them to dig it. Soon afterwards, dyers, brewers, &c., began to use coal in their trade, and the nobles and gentry complaining of the smoke, a severe proclamation was passed against the use of sea-coal, though wood

of the latter end of a sea-coal fire;

keels

By statute . and Charles II., all sea-coal brought into the river Thames was to be sold by the chaldron, containing bushels; and all other coals sold by weight were to be sold after the proportion of to the avoirdupois. By the Queen Anne, the coal measure was ordered to be made round, and to contain Winchester bushel and quart of water; the sack to hold such bushels; the bushel to be sealed or stamped at the Exchequer Office or the , under penalty of .

In the master-meters of the Coal Office were only allowed to employ or dismiss the deputies sanctioned by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. An Act of George II. required the ancient custom to be kept up of giving chaldron in addition to every score purchased on board ship, under penalty of . This bonus was called and constituted good Pool measure. By a later Act any lighterman receiving any gratuity from owners or fitters for preference in the quality in lading ships was fined . All bargains for coals at had to be entered on the factor's book, signed by buyer and seller, and witnessed by the factor, who gave a copy of the contract to each. Masters of ships were fined for delaying their cargoes at Gravesend.

[extra_illustrations.2.50.1] , erected in , for the use of the black-diamond merchants, was a quaint and picturesque building, with a receding portico, supported by small Doric pillars, and with some stone steps, that led into a quadrangle. The narrow windows lit the upper storeys. The present [extra_illustrations.2.50.2]  was opened by Prince Albert in , and Mr. J. B. Bunning was the architect. The design was thought original yet simple. The fronts in and St. Mary-at-Hill are feet wide and feet high. The entrance vestibule is in a circular tower feet high. The lowest storey is Roman-Doric; the storey Ionic. The inner rotunda is crowned by a dome feet high, which rests on piers. About tons of iron were used in the building. The Raphaelesque decorations were designed by Mr. Sang. Above emblematical figures of the collier rivers are figures of the Virtues, and over these are groups of shells, snakes, and lizards. In some of the arabesques the leading features are views of the Wallsend, Percy, Pitt Main, and other celebrated collieries, adorned with groups of flowers and fossil plants.

While digging for the foundation of the new building, on the site of the old

Dog

The floor of the [extra_illustrations.2.51.1]  is composed of inlaid woods, disposed, in form of a mariner's compass, within a border of Greek fret. The flooring consists of upwards of pieces of wood, of various kinds. The varieties of wood employed comprise black ebony, black oak; common and red English oak, wainscot, white holly, mahogany, American elm, red and white walnut, and mulberry. The appearance of this floor is beautiful in the extreme. The whole of these materials were prepared by Messrs. Davison and Symington's patent process of seasoning woods. The same desiccating process has been applied to the wood-work throughout the

The coloured decorations of this Exchange have been most admirably imagined and successfully carried out. They are extremely characteristic, and on this point deserve praise. The entrance vestibule is peculiarly rich and picturesque in its embellishments; terminal figures, vases with fruit, arabesque foliage, &c., all of the richest and most glowing colours, fill up the vault of the ceiling; and, looking up through an opening in the ceiling, a figure of Plenty scattering riches, and surrounded by

figurini

, is seen painted in the ceiling of the lantern. Over the entrance doorway, within a sunk panel, is painted the city Arms.

The Hall of the Watermen's Company was originally situated at Coldharbour, near the

Three

Cranes,

assistants.

In the lightermen of the city were incorporated with the watermen (called Watermen and Lightermen's Company). lightermen were to be appointed as additional overseers and rulers, and a court of assistants. In an Act was passed which reduced the number of assistants to . In a new Act was passed, reincor- porating the Company, to consist of a master, wardens, and assistants. In case of vacancy in court, the court were to select qualified persons, for the Court of Lord Mayor, &c., to choose to fill the vacancy. In an Act was passed, by which the court were empowered to fill up vacancies, without reference to the Court of Lord Mayor, &c.

The various Acts passed from the time of Henry VIII. gave power to the Company to hold general courts, courts of binding, and courts for hearing and determining complaints, and to punish offenders by fine and imprisonment; power to license passenger-boats, register craft, and to appoint Sunday ferries, the rent of which has always been applied to the relief of the poor of the Company, and to make bye-laws for the regulation of boats, barges, and steam-boats on the river, and the men navigating the same. There are about apprentices bound annually, and about complaints. are investigated during the year. The introduction of steam greatly reduced the watermen, but the lightermen and barges have been annually increasing. There are now about freemen of the Company, andj apprentices. The court distribute about per annum, out of their ferry-rents, in pen ions to poor freemen and widows. almshouses have been established at Penge, supported by the voluntary contributions of the public.

The fares of the Thames watermen and wherrymen were regulate by Henry VIII. in . [extra_illustrations.2.51.2] , the water-poet, . Elizabeth, states the watermen between Windsor and Gravesend at . A statute regulates the dimensions of the boats and wherries, then dangerously

shallow and tickle;

The Lord High Admiral, or the Commissioners of the Admiralty, used to have power to demand a certain number of watermen to serve in the Royal Navy, by an Act of William and Mary; and in nearly watermen were thus enrolled. The ribald banter of the Thames watermen was for. merly proverbial, and is mentioned by Ned Ward, and nearly all the essayists. Dr. Johnson, Boswell says, was particularly proud of having silenced some watermen who tried to ridicule him. By an

poor, aged, decayed, and maimed members of the Company, their widows and children.

All wherries were formerly required to be feet long and broad in the midships, under pain of forfeiture; and all wherries and boats were to be entered and numbered. Extortion and abuse was punishable by fine and imprisonment. A statute ( George III.) placed the watermen more immediately under the mayor's jurisdiction; and the highest penalty was fixed at .

Before the time of steamboats, a bell used to ring at Gravesend at high water, as a warning to hurry off the London watermen. A report of the Dock Committee in shows that there were then watermen, freemen, non-freemen, and apprentices; the annual number of apprentices being from to . In there were above wherries on the Thames.

When the opening of destroyed the landing ferry there, established for the benefit of the Waterman's Poor Fund, the bridge committee gave Consolidated per Cents to the rulers of the Company, as a recompense, and the interest is now appropriated to the same purpose as the ferry-fund used to be.

Close to Waterman's Hall is the Fellowship Porters' Hall. This brotherhood was incorporated as early as (Henry II.), and re-incorporated in (James I.). The business of the Fellowship Porters, which is now less strictly defined than in old times, is to carry or house corn, salt, coals, fish,

In accordance with a pretty old custom, every Sunday before Midsummer Day a sermon is preached to the Fellowship Porters in the church of St. Maryat-Hill. They overnight furnish the merchants and families above with nosegays, and in the morning proceed from the hall to the church, and , carrying nosegays. They walk up the middle aisle to the communion-table, and each places an offering in of the basins on the communion-rails, for the relief of the Company's poor; and after they have prayed, the deputy, the merchants, their wives, children, and servants walk in order from their seats, and perform the same solemnity. The annual cost of the nosegays amounts to nearly .

And now we come to that great Government toll-bar, the Customs House. The building of this kind in London was rebuilt by John Churchman, Sheriff of London, in (Richard II.), and it stood on the site of the present buildings. [extra_illustrations.2.52.1] , was destroyed by the Great Fire. A [extra_illustrations.2.52.2] , built by Wren, was destroyed by fire in , and its [extra_illustrations.2.52.3] , was burnt down .

In Elizabeth's time, the farmers of the Customs

About this time (

1590

) the commodity of the

Custom House

amounted to an unexpected value; for the Queen, being made acquainted, by means of a subtle fellow, named Caerwardine, with the mystery of their gains, so enhanced the rate, that Sir Thomas Smith, Master of the

Custom House

, who heretofore farmed it of the Queen for

£ 14,000

. yearly, was now augmented to

£ 42,000

, and afterwards to

£ 50,000

, which, notwithstanding, was valued but as an ordinary sum for such oppressing gaine. The Lord Treasurer, the Earls of Leicester and Walsingham, much opposed themselves against this Caerwardine, denying him entrance into the Privy Chamber, insomuch that, expostulating with the Queen they traduced her harkening to such a fellow's information, to the disparagement of the judgment of her Council, and the discredit of their case. But the Queen answered them, that all princes ought to be, if not as favourable, yet as just, to the lowest as the highest, deciding that they who falsely accuse her Privy Council of sloth or indiscretion should be severely punished; but that they who justly accused them should be heard. That she was Queen as well to the poorest as to the proudest, and that therefore, she would never be deaf to their just complaints. Likewise, that she would not suffer that those toll-takers, like horseleeches, should glut themselves with the riches of the realm, and starve her exchequer; which, as she will not bear it to be

docked

, so hateth she to enrich it with the poverty of the people.

The revenue has grown like the green bay-tree of the Psalmist. In the year of Elizabeth, the Customs realised ; in her year, ; in her , . The average of years, before the Restoration, was . In Elizabeth's time the establishment consisted of principal officers, each of whom had from to men under him; but the principal waiter had as many as subordinates. From to , says D'Avenant, the inspector-general of imports and exports, the revenue derived from the English Customs averaged a year. From to , the Customs averaged . At the close of the century they exceeded . They now exceed .

The built after the Great Fire was said to have cost . The new . of had better-arranged apartments and accommodation for a greater number of clerks. The new building was feet long, and the centre feet deep. It was built of brick and stone, and the wings had a passage colonnade of the Tuscan order, towards the river, the upper storey being relieved by Ionic pilasters and pediments. The great feature of the building was the

Long Room,

This building, already too small for the evergrowing commerce of London, was destroyed, as before mentioned, in , by a fire, which also destroyed houses on the north side of . cellars and warehouses full of valuable property, and stores of documents and records, were also lost. But, several years before this catastrophe, the enlargement of the had been planned. It had been at proposed to build an additional wing, but on a survey the old building was found too much decayed and dilapidated to warrant much expenditure on its renovation. The Lords of the Treasury selected Mr. Laing's design. Between the old and there had been quays, equal to feet; but the site now selected was immediately east of , with only a landingstair between. It had been suggested to place the on the north side of , so as to save the expense of embankment; but this would have necessitated the widening of many narrow and crooked streets, and the formation of docks, east and west of the quay. The estimate for [extra_illustrations.2.54.1]  was , exclusive of the format in of the foundation-ground and some other contingencies. The owners of private property claimed , and were paid . The materials of the old building were sold for . The necessity was to test the substratum. The soil was bored with huge augers that screwed down eighteen to feet. A substratum of close gravel, at promising well, proved to be artificial. The whole ground, from the level of the river to the south side of , proved to have once been part of the bed of the, river. Rushes were found mixed with mussel-shells and the chrysalids of water insects. The workmen also came on distinct lines of wooden embankments at the distances of , , and feet within the range of the existing wharves; and about from the campshot, or under edge of the wharf wall, a wall built of chalk and rubble, and faced with Purbeck stone, was discovered, running east and west. This was, no doubt, the river rampart of London, mentioned by Fitzstephen. It was so strongly built that it could scarcely be broken even by iron wedges, Many

The stone of the new building was laid in , by Lord Liverpool, then Lord of the Treasury, and was opened for business, . [extra_illustrations.2.54.2] , was plain, but on the [extra_illustrations.2.54.3]  towards the river, the central compartment projected, and the wings had a hexastyle detached Ionic colonnade. The central attic, comprising the exterior of the celebrated [extra_illustrations.2.54.4] , was decorated with alto and basso relievos, representing in allegorical groups the Arts, Sciences, Commerce, Industry, and types of the nations who are our principal commercial allies. The dial-plate, feet in diameter, was supported by colossal figures of Industry and Plenty, while the royal arms were sustained by figures of Ocean and Commerce. The Long Room was feet by .

Unfortunately, however, the work was done too

The quay is too narrow to afford a good view, but there is a simple grandeur about the design, when seen from the bridge or river. The water front, says Mr. Platt, is feet, feet longer than the old , and feet longer than the .

The number of officers and clerks in this great public office is over o, out and in. The out-door are about . The inspectors-general superintend the tide-surveyors, tide-waiters, and watermen, and appoint them their daily duty, each inspector attending in rotation at Gravesend. The tide-surveyors visit ships reported inwards or out-

The Long Room is the department where most of the documents required by the Customs' Laws are received by officials. The thing necessary upon the arrival of a vessel from a foreign country is the report of the ship, that is, the master must, within hours of entering the port, deliver at the Report Office in the Long Room an account of her cargo. Then, before any goods are delivered out of charge by the officers of the out-door department, who board and watch vessels on their arrival, entries of the goods passed also in the Long Room must have reached the officers. These entries are documents giving particulars of the goods in greater detail than is required in the master's report, and are delivered in the Long Room by the consignees of the cargo, or by their representatives. A single entry may suffice for an entire cargo, if it be all of kind of goods and be the property of person, or any number of entries may be necessary if the cargo be varied in nature. The report and the entries--that is, the account of the cargo rendered by the master and that supplied by the consignees--are compared, and delivery of goods not mentioned in the report, though correctly entered, is refused until the omission has been satisfactorily explained. In the case of goods liable to duty, the entries are not suffered to leave the Long Room until it is ascertained that the payment has been made. The entry for such goods, when signed by the Long Room officers, in testimony of its having been passed by them, vouches for the payment of the duty, and constitutes the warrant authorising the officers at the waterside to deliver the goods. Such is the general course of routine applicable to vessels arriving from foreign ports. The officers of the Long Room sit at their desks along the sides. The visitors are chiefly weather-beaten sea-captains, shipowners, and shipowners' clerks, who come and report arrivals or obtain clearances, and wholesale merchants, who have goods to import or export, or goods to place in bond.

A correct account is also required of the cargoes of vessels sailing from this country, and the documents by which this is obtained are presented in the Searcher's Office in the Long Room either by the shippers of the goods or by the master of the vessel. The operation performed in the Long Room by the master of an outward-bound ship, which corresponds to the reporting of an arriving vessel, is termed

clearing

obtaining clearance.

The documents required from the masters of vessels engaged in trade from port of the United Kingdom to another, termed

coasting trade,

From the particulars obtained by the various papers thus delivered in the Long Room, are prepared the monthly returns of trade and navigation, published by the Board of Trade, and the collection and arrangement of the information so obtained occupies a large staff of clerks in the Statistical Department of the .

At each outport the room where the business described above is transacted bears the name of the Long Room, although in most cases it is neither long nor in any other way extensive.

The establishment of docks surrounded by high walls, from which goods can be removed only through gateways easily guarded, has made it possible to provide for the security of the duties upon importations with a far less numerous staff of officers than would be necessary if every vessel discharged in the river or at open quays. And the gradual reduction which has taken place in the number of articles in the tariff liable to duty during the last years renders a less rigid examination of goods necessary than was previously requisite. These and other causes enable the present reduced staff to deal efficiently with an amount of business to which under former circumstances it would have been wholly inadequate.

The warehousing system, which consisted in per-

Of the or so distinct apartments in the , all classified and combined to unite order and contiguity, the king is the Long Room, feet long, wide, and between and feet high. The eye cannot take in at once its breadth and its length, but it is not so handsome as the room that fell in, to the dismay of Mr. Pet. The floor is plank. The cellars in the basement form a groined fireproof crypt.

The rooms are perfectly plain, all but the Board Room, which is slightly decorated, and contains portraits of George III. and George IV., the latter by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The Queen's Warehouse is on the ground floor. The entrance to the is on the north front. On the southern side there is an entrance from the quay and river.

Nearly -half of the Customs of the United Kingdom, says a writer on the subject, are coolleeched in the port of London. In , while the London Customs were , the total of the United Kingdom were only . In the same year the only place approaching London was Liverpool, where the Customs amounted to . In the London Customs were . The same year the declared value of the exports from Liverpool amounted to no less than , or nearly times the value of the exports from London, for in foreign trade London is surpassed by Liverpool. Mr. M'Culloch estimates, including the home and foreign markets, the total value of produce conveyed into and from London annually at sterling.

The number of foreign vessels that entered the port of London in the year was estimated at , and the number of coasters at . The expense of collecting the Customs in Great alone is calculated at over a million sterling. The Board of Commissioners, that sits at the , has all the outports of the United Kingdom under its superintendence. It receives reports from them, and issues instructions from the central Board. The recording of the business of the great national firm, now performed by the Statistical Office in the , was attempted in the reign of Charles II., and urged on the Commissioners of Customs by the bewildered Privy Council for Trade; but it was declared, after many trials, to be impossible. It was really begun in the business-like reign of William III., when the broad arrow was used to check thefts of Government property, and when the office of Inspector-General of Imports and Exports was established, and the ledger, to record their value, started. The Act of required all goods exported and imported to be entered in the books, with the prices affixed. Cotton, therefore, was taxed at this the official value, till . In this year the Government imposed a convoy duty of per cent., , upon all exports; and to do this equitably, every shipper of goods was compelled to make a declaration of their then actual value. This was what is called

the declared or real value.

Prior to the year , says a writer in Knight's the statutes relating to the Customs had accumulated, from the reign of Edward I., to , and were naturally as confusing and entangled as they were contradictory. Mr. Huskisson, Mr. J. D. Hume, and eventually the slow-moving Board of Trade, at last revised the statutes, and consolidated them into acts. They were still further simplified in , and again consolidated in . of the Acts passed in enumerates not fewer than different rates of duty chargeable on imported articles, while the main source of revenue is derived from a very small number of articles.

For example,

the duty on seventeen articles produced, in 1839, about 94 1/2 per cent. of the total revenue of Customs, the duties on other articles being not only comparatively unproductive, but vexatious and a hindrance to the merchants, shipowners, and others. In the above year, fortysix articles were productive of 98 2/5 per cent. of the total Customs' revenue.

The occasional importation of articles which are not enumerated in the tariff of duties is often productive of amusing perplexity. Mr. Huskisson mentioned a case of this nature when he brought forward the plans of consolidation already mentioned. A gentleman had imported a mummy from Egypt, and the officers of Customs were not a little puzzled by this non-enumerated article. These remains of mortality, muscles and sinews, pickled and preserved three thousand years ago, could not be deemed a raw material, and therefore, upon deliberation, it was determined to tax them as a manufactured article. The importer, anxious that his mummy should not be seized, stated its value at £ 400; and the declaration cost him £ 200, being at the rate of £ 50 per cent. on the manufactured merchandise which he was about to import. Mr. Huskisson reduced the duties on nonenu- merated manufactured articles from £ 50 to £ 20 per cent., and of non-enumerated unmanufactured articles from £ 20 to £ 10 per cent.

A somewhat similar case, relating to an importation of ice from Norway, was mentioned in a-debate in the in . A doubt was started what duty it ought to pay, and the point was referred from the to the Treasury, and from the Treasury to the Board of Trade; and it was ultimately decided that the ice might be introduced on the payment of the duty on dry goods; but as of the speakers remarked,

The ice was dissolved before the question was solved.

In the time of Charles I. the Customs were farmed, and we find Garrard writing to Lord Stafford, , mentioning that the farmers of the Customs (rejoicing over their good bargains, no doubt), had been unusually liberal in their new year's gifts to the king, having sent him, besides the usual pieces, in pieces, and an unset diamond that had cost them . Yet what a small affair the Customs must have been compared to now, when sugar, tea, tobacco, wine, and brandy produce each of them more than a million a year!

Defoe says,

In the Long Room it's a pretty pleasure to see the multitude of payments that are made there in a morning. I heard Count Tallard say that nothing gave him so true and great an idea of the richness and grandeur of this nation as this, when he saw it after the Peace of Ryswick.

Mr. Platt's account of the working of the system of years ago shows a remarkable contrast with that of the present day. Writing in the year , he says,

The progress of an article of foreign merchandise through the Customs to the warehouse or shop of the dealer is as follows :--

First

, on the arrival of the ship at Gravesend, tide-waiters are put on board and remain until she reaches the appointed landingplace. The goods are reported and entered at the

Custom House

, and a warrant is transmitted to the landing-waiters, who superintend the unloading of the cargo. A landing-waiter is specially appointed to each ship; officers under him, some of whom are gaugers, examine, weigh, and ascertain the contents of the several packages, and enter an account of them. These operations are subject to the daily inspection of superior officers. When warehoused, the goods are in charge of a locker, who is under the warehouse-keeper. When goods are delivered for home consumption, the locker receives a warrant from the

Custom House

certifying that the goods had been paid; he then looks out the goods, and the warehouse-keeper signs the warrant. When foreign or colonial goods are exported, the process is more complicated. The warehouse-keeper makes out a

re-weighing slip;

a landing-waiter examines the goods, which continue in the charge of the locker, and a cocket, with a certificate from the proper officers at the

Custom House

, as his authority for their delivery. The warehouse-keeper signs this document, and a counterpart of the cocket, called a

shipping bill,

is prepared by the exporting merchant. The goods pass from the warehouse-keeper into the hands of the searcher, who directs a tidewaiter to receive them at the water-side and to attend their shipment, taking an account of the articles; and he remains on board until the vessel reaches Gravesend, when she is visited by a searcher stationed there; the tide-waiter is discharged, and the vessel proceeds. But before her final clearance the master delivers to the searcher a document called

a content,

being a list of the goods on board, and which is compared with the cocket. It is then only that the cargo can be fairly said to be out of the hands of the

Custom House

officers.

Tide-waiters are not now specially appointed to each ship on arrival. There are no export duties now and no duties. Cockets have been abolished.

The following statement from the is valuable as a comparison:

It will be seen that the amount of Customs receipts collected in London in each of the years and was more than that of all the other ports of Great taken together, and times that of the whole of Ireland. Besides London and Liverpool, there is only port in England, Bristol, the Customs receipts of which average a million a year, and more, Hull, where they are above a quarter of a million. It is to be observed

The annual summary as to trade in the port of London for the year shows a steady increase in the number of vessels arriving, and a trifling decrease in the departures. A total of vessels arrived during the year, of which were sailing and steam-ships, thus indicating a total increase of as compared with the previous year. The vessels which cleared outwards were , both kinds, of which were with cargo, and in ballast, or a total decrease of as compared with the departures in . A considerable increase arose in London in the total number of seizures of tobacco, cigars, and spirits, as compared with the year , cases having occurred in . The total quantity of tobacco and cigars seized in London was lbs., being an increase of lbs. as compared with that seized in , while the total quantity of spirits seized was gallons only, being a decrease of gallons.

The Quay fronts the Thames. Here Cowper, the poet, came, intending to make away with himself.

Not knowing,

where to poison myself, I resolved upon drowning. For that purpose I took a coach, and ordered the man to drive to Tower Wharf, intending to throw myself into the river from the

Custom House

Quay. I left the coach upon the Tower Wharf, intending never to return to it; but upon coming to the quay I found the water low, and a porter seated upon some goods there, as if on purpose to prevent me. This passage to the bottomless pit being mercifully shut against me, I returned back to the coach.

A modern essayist has drawn a living picture of the sales:--

The Queen's Warehouse is situated on the ground-floor of the Custom House. The Queen's Warehouse is not an imposing apartment, either in its decorations or extent; it is simply a large, square room, lighted by an average number of windows, and consisting of four bare walls, upon which there is not the most distant approach to decoration. Counters are placed in different directions, with no regard to order of effect. Here and there masses of drapery for sale are hung suspended from cords, or to all appearance nailed against the wall. Across one corner of the room, in the immediate vicinity of a very handsome inlaid cabinet, two rows of dilapidated Bath chaps are slung upon a rope. Close under these delicacies stands a rosewood piano, on which a foreign lady, supported by a foreign gentleman, is playing a showy fantasia.

Eighty-nine opera-glasses; three dozen companions-more numerous than select, perhaps; forty dozen black brooches-ornamental mourning, sent over probably by some foreign manufacturer, relying in the helplessness of our Woods-and- Forest-ridden Board of Health, and in the deathdealing fogs and stinks of our metropolis; seventeen dozen daguerreotype plates, to receive as many pretty and happy faces; eighty dozen brooches; nineteen dozen pairs of ear-rings; forty-two dozen finger-rings; twenty-one dozen pairs of bracelets. The quantities and varieties are bewildering, and the ladies cluster about in a state of breathless excitement, or give way to regrets that the authorities will not sell less than ten dozen tiaras, or halfa-dozen clocks. The French popular notion, that every Englishman has an exhaustless store of riches, seems to hold as firmly as ever; for here we find about three hundred dozen portemonnaies, and countless purses, evidently of French manufacture Presently we are shown what Mr. Carlyle would call a gigantic system of shams, in five hundred and thirty-eight gross of imitation turquoises.

On the particular occasion to which we have been all along referring three hundred gross of lucifer-matches figured in the bazaar, besides several acres of East India matting, forty-nine gallons of Chutney sauce; eighteen gallons of curry-paste; thirty millions of splints; seventy-seven hundredweight of slate-pencils, sixty-eight gallons of rosewater, one package of visiting cards, one ship's long-boat, and four pounds of books in the English language.

of Mr. Dickens's staff has bitterly described the delay in passing baggage through the .

A fine view of the river,

seen through

one

of the open windows, was being calmly enjoyed by a portly person, evidently of considerable official pretensions. A clerk, writing the reverse of a running hand, sat at a desk; another (who seemed, by the jaunty style in which he wore his hat, to be a dropper--in from some other department of the Customs) leaned lazily against the desk, enjoying the proceedings of the baffled, heated ladies and gentlemen who had escaped from the crowd, and who were anxiously threading the confused maze of passengers' effects strewed on the floor, to find their own. The scene was made compelt by

two

or

three

porters, whose deliberate mode of opening carpet-bags, boxes, and trunks, showed that it was not their fate to be hurried, in their passage through this life.

All these inconveniences have now been removed, and much civility and promptitude is shown by the official.

[extra_illustrations.2.41.1] parish church of St. Mary, called on the Hill,

[extra_illustrations.2.42.1] Billingsgate

[extra_illustrations.2.43.1] Execution at Billingsgate

[extra_illustrations.2.43.2] Market in 1812

[extra_illustrations.2.43.3] this market in its busiest costermonger time

[extra_illustrations.2.50.1] The old Coal Exchange

[extra_illustrations.2.50.2] Coal Exchange

[extra_illustrations.2.51.1] rotunda

[extra_illustrations.2.51.2] Taylor

[extra_illustrations.2.52.1] Another and larger edifice, erected in the reign of Elizabeth

[extra_illustrations.2.52.2] new Custom House

[extra_illustrations.2.52.3] successor, the design by Ripley

[extra_illustrations.2.54.1] the new building

[extra_illustrations.2.54.2] The north side fronting Thames Street

[extra_illustrations.2.54.3] south front

[extra_illustrations.2.54.4] Long Room

[extra_illustrations.2.57.1] Advertisement-Hays for Dover-1813