The name of this ill-used stream, once fresh and fleet, now a mere sluggish and plague-breeding sewer, is traced by some to the Anglo-Saxon ,

to float;

a flood.

where now the Bars do stand,

The principal spring of the Fleet,

rises in a secluded lane at the rear of Caen Wood, the seat of Lord Mansfield; another is on the left of a footpath leading thence to Highgate; and the tiny brooklet formed by its waters communicates by a small arch with a reservoir, the

first

of

seven

storage-ponds, on different levels, belonging to the Hampstead Water Company. Another of the spring-heads rises in the midst of Caen Wood. All

three

springs are diverted so as to fill the reservoirs above mentioned, a small stream carrying off the redundant water, which is very trifling, except in wet seasons. A

fourth

spring flows from

the Vale

of Health, at Hampstead, in a narrow channel, to another of the reservoirs, which are connected by means of large pipes passing from

one

to another. At a lower level the main stream meanders through the fields between

Haverstock Hill

and Kentish Town, in a wide, deep, and rugged channel, indicating that a considerable body of water must have originally flowed through it with a rapid current, The name of Kentish Town, which was formerly a mere country village, is supplied by tradition, which ascribes its origin to the place being situated on the bank of a stream (the river Fleet) which rose among the hills about Caen or Ken Wood, and which was formerly called Ken or Caen Ditch, hence Ken Ditch Town, the Town of Ken Ditch, or Kentish Town. But the correctness of this etymology has been questioned by at least

one

historian. The Fleet passes on through Kentish Town, its course there being much hidden, and, flowing in a south-east direction, it passes under the

Regent's Canal

to

St. Pancras

, where, until the year

1766

, when it was arched over, it bore the name of Pancras Wash. Running at the foot of the gardens in the rear of the houses in the Old St.

Pancras Road

, it arrives at

Battle Bridge

, and so makes its entrance into Clerkenwell. Following the line of the

Bagnigge Wells

Road, its covered course nearly coincides with the parochial boundary in this direction. Passing in an artificial channel alongside the western boundary wall of the

House of Correction

, its course lies beneath the valley between

Turnmill Street

and

Saffron Hill

; thence, under

Farringdon Street

and

Bridge Street

, emptying itself into the Thames on the western side of

Blackfriars Bridge

.

the River of Wells

The Fleet seems early to have become impure, and hardly fit to drink, for, in (Edward I.), the prior of a Carmelite house in Whitefriars complained of the noxious exhalations, the miasma of which had killed many of the. hooded brethren, and. the corruption of which overpowered the odours of the incense. The Black Friars and the Bishop of Salisbury, whose palace was in , , also signed the same doleful petition, Mr. Pinks, with whom we do not in

In the register of the Nunnery of St. Mary, Clerkenwell, of the time of Richard I. or John, the oldest cartulary extant, mention is made of a meadow near Holeburne, and of a ditch that led from Holeburne to the mill of the nuns. The garden of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem was also situated upon the Holeburne, thus perfectly proving, says an ingenious writer in the for , that Holeburne was only another name for that venerable and injured stream, the Fleet, the southern part of it, the mere embouchure (between Bridge and the Thames), probably always maintaining the name of Fleet, or Flood. Stow is therefore incorrect in his description of the imaginary stream, the old Bourne.

The same acute writer, who signs himself

T. E. T.,

Flete,

Flete Hithe,

Liber A, sive Pilosus;

But turning back to earlier times, let us dive far below the deepest Stygian blackness of the Fleet Sewer. To see the antiquities found in the Fleet, which really deserves a daring discoverer's attention nearly as much as the Tiber, let us follow Mr. Pinks into the vast rag and bone shop of relics which his loving and patient industry has catalogued so carefully. During the digging and widening of the Fleet Ditch, in , there, at a depth of feet, was found the stray rubbish bones, and refuse of Roman London. The coins were of silver, copper, and brass, but none of gold. The silver was ring-money, of several sizes, the largest as big as a crown, the smallest about the size of a silver twopence,. every having a snip in the edge. At Bridge, thrown away by spoilers or dropped by thieves, were brass Lares (about inches high), a Ceres, the other a Bacchus, both covered with a petrified crust, but the stream had washed much of the oxydizing matter from the coins,

thrown away on the approach of Boadicea,

In there was exhibited at the British Archaeological Association a globular iron padlock, so constructed that the whole shackle could be drawn out when the bolt was thrown back. This was found in the Fleet Ditch, near the bottom of . In the same association exhibited a jug of hard-baked pottery (the upper part covered with mottled green glaze), of the century, found in , in the ditch, near . In a beautiful hunting-knife, of the century, was found in the same dirty repository of

unconsidered trifles.

Stow says that before or ships used to go up the Fleet to Fleet Bridge,

with divers things and merchandizes, and some of these ships went under the bridge unto

Holborn

Bridge.

In a parliament held at Carlisle, in the

thirty-fifth

year of Edward I. (

1307

), Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, complained that in former times the course of water running under

Holeburne

Bridge and Fleet Bridge, into the Thames, had been of such breadth and depth, that

ten

or

twelve

naves' (ships)

were wont to come to Flete Bridge, and some of them to

Holeburne

Bridge, yet that

by the filth of the tanners and others, and by the raising of wharfs, and especially by a diversion of the water in the first year of King John (1200), by them of the New Temple, for their mills without Baynard's Castle, and by other impediments, the course was decayed, and ships could not enter as they were used.

On the petition of the earl, the constable of the Tower, with the mayor and sheriffs of London, were directed by writ to take with them certain

honest and discreet men to inquire into the former state of the river, to leave nothing that might hurt or stop it,

and restore it to its original condition. The creek was cleansed, the mills removed, and other means taken for the preservation of the course; but it was not brought to its old depth and breadth, and therefore it was no longer termed a river but a brook, called Turnmill or Tremill Brook, because mills were erected on it.

But still, as if by nature intended for a common sewer of London, it was soon choked with filth again.

The scouring of this muddy stream, which seems to have silted up about every

thirty

or

forty

years, was a continual expense to the city of London.

Several years ago, on making a great sewer, some piles of oak, apparently portions of a mill-dam, were found in the Fleet Ditch, feet below the surface of , near Little .

In

1855

,

the valley of the Fleet, from

Coppice row

to

Farringdon Street

, was cleared of many old and decaying dwellings, many of a date anterior to the Fire of London. From

Coppice row

a fine view of

St. Paul's Cathedral

was opened by the removal of these buildings.

In making the excavation,

says a writer in the

Builder

,

for the great sewer which now conveys from view the Fleet Ditch, at a depth of about thirteen feet below the surface in Ray Street, near the corner of Little Saffron Hill, the workmen came upon the pavement of an old street, consisting of very large blocks of ragstone of irregular shape. An examination of the paving-stones showed that the street had been well used. They are worn quite smooth by the footsteps and traffic of a past generation. Below the old street was found another phase of Old London. Thickly covered with slime were piles of oak, hard and black, which had seemingly been portions of a mill-dam. A few feet below were very old wooden water-pipes, nothing but the rough trunks of trees. The course of time, and the weight of matter above the old pavement, had pressed the gravel, clay, granite, portions of tiles, &c., into a hard and almost solid mass, and it was curious to observe that near the old surface were great numbers of pins. Whither have the pins gone? is a query which has puzzled many. The now hard concrete, stuck with these useful articles, almost like a pincushion, is a partial reply to the query. The thirteen feet of newer deposit would seem to have accumulated in two or three centuries. It is not unlikely that a portion of the rubbish from the city, after the Great Fire, was shot here.

About the year (Henry VII.), Lambert, in his says that the intolerable Fleet Ditch was cleared, from to the Thames, and it became once more navigable for large barges, laden with fuel and fish. In Aggas, in his curious Map of London, marks bridges over the Fleet-Holborne and Fleet Bridge. Holborne Bridge was situated on a spot between and ; and the Fleet Bridge, says Mr. Pinks, an excellent authority, about the spot where the present and join (the circus between the obelisks). Southward stood a dwelling-house, or warehouse, opposite the northern end of , which reached to the Thames, and was situated on the western side of the Fleet. From the dwellinghouse above mentioned as far as the Thames, the Fleet was open, Bridge (afterwards built on its mouth) not being yet erected.

In Stow's Fleet Bridge, without Lud

imbraced by angels

Rainbow

Prynne's folio, , mention several old records referring to the nuisances of the river of Fleet, and efforts to make it navigable,

as formerly,

Flete River,

Holeburne

In the celebrated or White Book of the city of London, compiled in (Henry V.), the street of

Flete Brigge

the Foss of the Flete.

Every cart that brings corn into the city for sale shall pay

one

halfpenny; if it enters by way of Holburne or by the Flete, it shall pay

one

penny, the franchise excepted. The cart that brings nuts or cheese shall pay twopence; and if it enters by the Flete, or by Holeburn, it shall pay twopence halfpenny.

In the (Mary, - ), in connection with the reign of Queen Mary the Sanguinary, we find a noteof certain conspirators against the queen meeting at Fleet Bridge, just as in the Rye House rebellion () we meet with Monmouth, Sir Thomas Armstrong, and Lord Grey, going from the Fleet Ditch to , to arrange the Sunday-night rising, when at midnight, according to the traitor, Grey, the train-bands at the were to be attacked, and the western city gates seized. At Fleet Bridge and the conspirators were to wait the onslaught of the king's guard. At there was to be a barricade thrown up, and mounted with or ships' cannon, while at Fleet Bridge there were to be several regular. cannon, and a breastwork for musqueteers on each side of the bridge, while the houses on the east bank of the Fleet were o be lined with firelock-men, who were to fire from the windows as the royal troops approached the bridge. There were at least averns on Fleet Bridge at the Restoration. In Aggas' Map of London (, year of Queen Elizabeth), Bridge had houses on the north side.

In (Charles II.), in rebuilding London, after the Great Fire, it was decreed that Bridge being too narrow for the traffic of London, the northern approach should be enlarged so that the

way and passage

a bevil line from a certain timber house on the north side thereof commonly called or known by the name or sign of the Cock,

Swan Inn.

A writer in the , , states as follows:--

The rear of the houses on

Holborn

Bridge has for many years been a receptacle for characters of the most daring and desperate condition. It was here in a brick tenement, now called by the Peachums and Lockets of the day

Cromwell's House,

that murderous consultations were held, by the result of

one

of which the assassination of the unfortunate Mr. Steel was accomplished.

In the Pope, lashing the poorer of his enemies, drives them headlong past to the mud-pools of the Fleet-

To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames, The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud With deeper sable blots the silver flood. Here strip, my children! here at once leap in, Here prove who best can dash thro' thick and thin, And who the most in love of dirt excel, Or dark dexterity of groping well.

Who flings most filth and wide pollutes around The stream, be his the Weekly Journals bound; A pig of lead to him who dives the best; A peck of coals a-piece shall glad the rest.In naked majesty, Oldmixon stands, And, Milo-like, surveys his arms and hands; Then sighing, thus, And am I now threescore? Ah, why, ye gods! should two and two make four? He said, and climb'd a stranded lighter's height, Shot to the black abyss, and plung'd downright. The Senior's judgment all the crowd admire, Who but to sink the deeper, rose the higher. Next Smedley div'd; low circles dimpled o'er

The quaking mud, that clos'd, and op'd no more.

All look, all sigh, and call on Smedley lost;

Smedley, in vain, resounds thro' all the coast.

Then * * essayed; scarce vanish'd out of sight,

He buoys up instant, and returns to light,

He bears no tokens of the sabler streams,

And mounts far off among the swans of Thames.

Gay again, in his in his pleasant way sketches the same noisome place:--

If where Fleet Ditch with muddy current flows

You chance to roam; where oyster-tubs in rows

Are ranged beside the posts; there stay thy haste,

And with the savoury fish indulge thy taste:

The damsel's knife the gaping shell commands,

While the salt liquor streams between her hands.

Swift, too, with his coarse pen, giving a description of a city shower, revels in the congenial filth of the odorous locality:--

Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow,

And bear their trophies with them as they go;

Filths of all hues and odours seem to tell

What street they sail'd from by their sight and smell.

They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force,

From Smithfield to St. 'Pulchre's shape their course,

And in huge confluence join'd at Snow Hill ridge,

Fall from the conduit prone 't Holborn Bridge;

Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood,

Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud,

Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down the flood.

The Fleet seems always to have been a sort of dirty and troublesome child to the Corporation of London. In (Elizabeth) the Common Council collected a () to draw the springs of Hampstead Heath into head, for the service of the city, and to scour down the Fleet; but the constant encroachment on the Fleet banks, and the rubbish and dirt thrown into the narrow channel, soon, says Stow, clogged it worse than ever. In (James I.) flood-gates were erected, to dam the water back when required; and in Cromwell's time () the sewer was thoroughly cleansed, and many encroachments checked. The ditch had now become impassable to boats, in consequence of the numerous pigsties on the bank, and the vast quantities of offal and garbage thrown in by the butchers.

Fuller, writing in

1662

,

remarks of the Fleet, that it was so called from its former fleetness, though now it creepeth slow enough, not so much for age as the injection of the city refuse wherewith it is obstructed. In an early play,

one

of the characters says,

I was just dead of a consumption, till the sweet smoke of Cheapside and the dear perfume of Fleet Ditch made me a man again.

In Sir Christopher Wren's design for the rebuilding of London, after the Great Fire of

1666

, we find

six

bridges between the Thames and Clerkenwell, viz., Bridewell-dock Bridge, Wood-market, Bridge, Fleet Bridge--a bridge in the line of street, from the proposed piazza in

Fleet Street

to Pye Corner, Smithfield-Holborn Bridge, and

Cock Lane

Bridge. But this design was not carried out.

After the Fire, by cleansing and enlarging of Fleet Ditch, coal-barges, &c., were enabled to come up as far as Bridge, where Turnmill Brook fell into the wider and equally sable flood. Wharves and store-houses were built on the Fleet side, but they did not prove successful. The channel had feet of water at the lowest tide. The wharves were feet broad, and had oak rails, to prevent passers-by at night falling in. Sir Thomas Fitch, the bricklayer who built the ditch, made a fortune by it, the cost being, as Ned Ward says, in his .

The Bridge over the Fleet, according to Stow, was of timber, through a breach in the city wall, opposite . Hatton, in his , describes Bridge as of stone, and right against the back gate of the prison. It was ascended by steps, and was pulled down in .

The bridge at the end of Fleet Lane, called the Middle Bridge, was of stone, and was, like , ascended by steps; the arch being high enough to admit of ships with merchandise to pass under it.

In (George II.) the Fleet, being so often tried and found guilty, underwent at last its final doom. The city of London petitioned the for permission to cover it up out of sight, as all navigation had ceased, it had become impossible to cleanse it, and several persons had fallen in and been suffocated in the mud. A bill was accordingly passed, by virtue of which the fee-simple of the site of the premises on the line of the Fleet Ditch was vested in the Corporation for ever, on condition that proper drains were made, to receive the mud-choked stream. In sewer-arches, feet high and feet wide, were completed. from Fleet Bridge to Bridge, and covered over, and the new Fleet Market erected on the site, in . The thing was only half done, after all, for the noisome part, from the corner of to the Thames, still remained open, and was not arched over till the approaches to were completed, between and , and even then stubborn conservative kept a small, filthy dock still

Floods of the Fleet were not uncommon, before it was boxed up. In , after heavy rains, it broke down the back of several wholesale butcher houses at Cow Cross, and carried off cattle, dead and alive. At Hockley-in-the-Hole barrels of ale, beer, and brandy floated down the black stream, and were treated by the rabble as fair flotsam. In the Hampstead Ponds overflowing, after a severe storm, the Fleet channel grew into a torrent, and the roads and fields about were overflowed. In the gardens of the water was feet deep. A man was nearly drowned, and several damage was done in Coldbath Fields, , and and vicinity. oxen and several hogs were carried off and drowned. A Blackfriars boatman took his boat to , and there plied, removing the inhabitants, who could not leave their houses for, the rising flood. In a sudden thaw produced a flood, and the whole space between , Somers' Town, and the foot of the hill at was soon under water; cart-horses were drowned; and for several days persons received their provisions in at their windows, from carts sent round to convey them.

In a furious thunderstorm caused the Fleet Ditch to blow up. The rush from the drain at the arch of drove a steamer against of the piers, and damaged it. The overflow of the Fleet penetrated into the cellars on the, west side of , so that draper alone had worth of goods destroyed or damaged. In the lower part of Clerkenwell, where the sewer ran open, the effects of the flood were most severe, especially in the valley below Brook Hill and . In Bull's head Court, , the water rose feet, and swept away cattle and furniture. poor houses in Round Court, Brook Hill, were partly carried away. From Acton Place, Road, to the roads were impassable, and the kitchens inundated. baker alone lost sacks of flour. A few days after another storm produced a renewed flood, and more houses fell in Round Court, Brook Hill. The introduction of the cholera into Clerkenwell Prison, in , was attributed to the effluvia of the river Fleet, then opened.

In , the Fleet, as of the metropolitan main sewers then vested in the Commissioners of Sewers, became vested in the newly-created Metropolitan Board of Works. The gigantic maindrainage system began with the great subterranean roads, the high, the low, and the mid level, which, intercepting all lesser sewers, carry their united floods to Barking Creek and Crossness Point. The high level runs from Hampstead to Bow; the midlevel from Kensal Green to Bow; the low level, from Cremore to Abbey Mills on the marshes near . The mid-level main-drainage works were commenced in Clerkenwell in , in . From to it was an open cutting, with the exception of a short tunnel under the Charterhouse grounds. The distance from Old Ford, Bow, to Kensal Green is miles feet, exclusive of miles of junctions. The sewer through Clerkenwell is feet inches in diameter. There were generally or men at work, with steam-engines to pump water and draw earth.

The Fleet Sewer,

the

Cloaca Maxima

of our metropolis, receives the drainage of parts of Hampstead and Highgate, all Kentish Town, Camden Town, and Somers' Town, parts of

Islington

, Clerkenwell, and St. Sepulchre, and nearly all that part of the

Holborn

division of sewers south of the

New Road

, the total surface draining into it in the

Holborn

and Finsbury division being about

4,220

acres. In

1746

about

400

acres of this district were covered with houses. At present there are nearly

2,000

acres built upon, of necessity requiring a sewer of large capacity to carry off the refuse waters. The dimensions of the Fleet vary according to the locality: at its northern portion it is

6

feet

6

inches high, and

6

feet

6

inches wide; at other parts it varies from

12

feet high and

12

in width, to

9

feet high by

10

feet wide; then

8

feet

6

inches wide by

8

feet

3

inches high; and before reaching the Thames the dimensions of this huge sewer are

14

feet wide by

10

feet

6

inches high, and at its mouth

18

feet by

12

. The ordinary movement of the current from

Bagnigge Wells

is

three

miles an hour, but after heavy showers, when sometimes the water rises almost instantly

five

feet or more, the speed is greatly accelerated. The amount per day of sewage discharged by this monster sewer is on the average

1,741,775

cubic feet.

The dangers of exploring the Fleet Sewer have been described by Mr. Crosby, who made great collections for a history of the Fleet Valley:--

At near

twelve

o'clock on Tuesday night, the

28th July, 1840

,

the tide flowed in so fast from the Thames to Fleet Bridge, that myself and Bridgewater were obliged to fly. It reached the hip, and we got somewhat wet before arriving at Holborn Bridge, quite safe, but much exhausted in splashing through the water in our heavy boots.

Fleet Bridge, Tuesday, July 28th, 1840.-As I could not depend upon the admeasurements, which at the beginning of the year I had taken in a hurried manner at Fleet Bridges, while bricklayers were placing in a brick bottom in place of the original one of alluvial soil, I determined to obtain them the first opportunity. This evening, therefore, at ten o'clock, I met Bridgewater (one of the workmen employed in constructing the new sewer from Holborn Bridge to Clerkenwell) by appointment at the hoard there. Water boots being in readiness, I lighted my lamps, and, assisted by the watchmen, King and Anon, we descended the ladder, and got into that branch of the sewer which joins Wren's Bridge at Holborn. We then walked carefully till we reached Fleet Bridge. I suspended my argand lamp on the breakwater of the sewer, and with my lanthorn light we proceeded towards the Thames. We got a considerable distance, during which the channel of the sewer twice turned to the right at a slight angle. The last portion we entered into was barrelled at the bottom, and the middle so full of holes, and the water so deep as we approached the Thames, that we thought it prudent to return to Fleet Bridge. Here I lighted up four candles, which, with my two lamps, enabled me to see the admeasurements I required. Bridgewater, who is a sober, steady, and good-tempered man, was of great use to me in so doing. I measured the heights with a fishing-rod, twelve feet in length, joined to my two measuring-rods, which, tied, gave me another rod of nine feet six inches. All went on well till about a quarter to twelve o'clock, when, to our surprise, we found the tide had suddenly come in to the depth of two feet and a half. No time was to be lost; but I had only one more admeasurement to make, viz., the width of the North Bridge. I managed this, and we then snatched up the basket, and, holding our lamps aloft, dashed up the sewer which we had to get up one half before out of danger. The air was close and made us faint. However, we got safe to Holborn Bridge with all our things, and the argand lamp did not blow out till we just reached it.

Mr. Archer, in his , says that by the opening at the Thames

many persons enter at low tide, armed with sticks to defend themselves from rats, as well as for the purpose

of sounding on their perilous way

among the slimy shallows; and carrying a lanthern to light the dreary passage, they wander for miles under the crowded streets in search of such waifs as are carried there from above. A more dismal pursuit can scarcely be conceived; so near to the great concourse of London streets that the rolling of the numerous vehicles incessantly thundering overhead, and even the voices of wayfarers, are heard, where, here and there, a grating admits a glimmer of the light of day; yet so utterly cut off from all communion with the busy world above, so lonely in the very heart of the great and populous city, that of the thousands who pass along, not

one

is even conscious of the proximity of the wretched wanderer creeping in noisome darkness and peril beneath his very feet. A source of momentary destruction ever lurking in these gloomy regions exists in the gases, which generate in their confined and putrefying atmosphere, and sometimes explode with a force sufficient to dislodge the very masonry; or which, taking light from the contact of the lantern, might envelope the miserable intruder in sudden flame. Many venturers have been struck down in such a dismal pilgrimage, to be heard of no more; may have fallen suddenly choked, sunk bodily in the treacherous slime, become a prey to swarms of voracious rats, or have been overwhelmed by a sudden increase of the polluted stream.

The polite Lord Chesterfield was asked by an enthusiastic Parisian whether London could show a river like the Seine.

Yes,

we call it Fleet Ditch.

The following serves to show what nourishing contributions of refuse were made to the Fleet:--

A fatter boar was hardly ever seen,

than

one

taken up this day (

24th August, 1736

) coming out of Fleet Ditch into the Thames. It proved to be a butcher's, near

Smithfield Bars

, who had missed him

five

months, all which time he had been in the common sewer, and was improved in price from

ten shillings

to

two

guineas.

, pulled down in the Clerkenwell improvements of -, was undoubtedly for several centuries of the most disreputable streets in all London. It is mentioned as Trylmyl Streate as early as the reign of Henry IV. It is marked in Aggas's map, and is noticed in a letter from Recorder Fleetwood to Burleigh in as a place for thieves' houses. The name was sometimes corrupted into Turnbull and Trunball Street. It seems to have been the very sink of the vice of London, and to have been frequented by highwaymen and rogues of every description. It is mentioned as an infamous resort by some half-dozen of the Elizabethan dramatists, more especially by Beaumont and Fletcher, Lodowick Barry, Marston, Middleton, Ben Jonson, Randolph, Webster, &c. Nor must we forget that it was of his wild and youthful feats

At the close of the last century,

a reward of £ 300 was offered by proclamation for the apprehension of one Bunworth, the leader of a desperate gang of thieves; yet none dared to attempt his capture, such was the weak state of the law. Once, with daring effrontery, on the approach of evening (to quote the Newgate Calendar), he and his gang ventured towards London, and having got as far as Turnmill Street, the keeper of the Clerkenwell Bridewell happening to see Bunworth, called to him, and said he wanted to peak with him. Bunworth hesitated, but the other assuring him that he intended no injury, and the thief being confident that his associates would not desert him, swore he did not regard the keeper, whom he advanced to meet with a pistol in his hand, the other miscreants walking on the opposite side of the street, armed with cutlasses and pistols This singular spectacle attracted the attention of the populace. A considerable crowd soon gathered round them, on which Bunworth joined his companions, who thought their safest plan would be to retreat towards the fields; wherefore they kept together, and, facing the people, retired in a body, presenting their pistols, and swearing they would fire on any who should molest them.

This same Bunworth gave another proof of his audacity. Sitting down at the door of a public-house in Holborn, where he was well known, he called for a pint of beer and drank it, holding a pistol in his hand by way of protection. He then went off with the greatest apparent unconcern.

The White, Hart, in Turnmill Street, opposite Cock Court, was formerly a noted house of call for footpads and highwaymen. It was long since pulled down.

In

1740

, Cave, the printer,

purchased a machine to spin wool or cotton into thread yarn, or worsted, consisting of

one hundred

spindles, and he had a mill erected to work it, on the course of Turnmill Brook. The patentee, Paul of Birmingham, undertook its management, but it was never brought into profitable order.

In , a parchment-maker of , says Stow, was drawn, hanged, and beheaded, for harbouring Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham, the leader of the insurgent Lollards. The parchment-maker's head was spiked upon . Lollard books were found in the house of the unfortunate man. In Dr. Thomas Worthington, of the translators of the Douay bible, and author of lived in .

In Faithorne's Map of London, , the houses on the west side of are represented as having gardens leading down to the Fleet, which is fenced on both sides. At the sign of the

Swan,

The stream north of Fleet Bridge,

justified the epithet of Turnmill Brook till a comparatively recent period, as even in the present century it gave motion to flour and flatting mills at the back of

Field Lane

.

that will turn a mill to grind hair-powder or liquorish, and other things.

Among other infamous lurking-places of thieves pulled down for the Clerkenwell improvements of , was the notorious , formerly known by the innocent name of Chick Lane. Stow mentions it, in , as near a timber bridge that crossed Turnmill Brook, (near the end of ). In a flood in , when casks swam down the streets, several hogs were washed out of their sties in Castle Inn Yard, , and were carried down to Chick Lane.

There was a cruel murder committed in Chick Lane in . women named Metyard killed a woman named Naylor, and then cut up the body, intending to throw the pieces down the gulley-hole in Chick Lane, but eventually left them in the mud which had collected before the grate of the sewer. The women were convicted of the murder years after, and were both hung at Tyburn in . At an inquest, in , at the

Horseshoe and Magpie,

Near Chick Lane was Cow Bridge, mentioned by Stow as north of Oldbourn Bridge, over the River of Wells. In the time of Elizabeth the ground from Cow Cross towards the river Fleet, and towards Ely House, was either entirely vacant, or occupied with gardens.

Among the houses in

West Street

,

was

one

which was, at the time when

it

New Wright's Thieves' Supper

was demolished, supposed to have been built about

three hundred

years. It was once known as the

Red Lion Tavern,

but for the century preceding its destruction it was used as a lodging-house, and was the resort of thieves, and the lowest grade of the frail sisterhood. It was numbered

3

in

West Street

, and was situate on the north-west side of the Fleet Ditch, a few houses from

Saffron Hill

, and at the eastern corner of Brewhouse Yard. It was sometimes called Jonathan Wild's House, and

the Old House in West street.

From its remarkable adaptation as a hiding-place, with its various means of escape, it was a curious habitation. Its dark closets, trap-doors, sliding panels, and secret recesses rendered it

one

of the most secure places for robbery and murder. It was here that a chimney-sweep named Jones, who escaped out of Newgate about

three

years before the destruction of the house, was so securely hidden for about

six

weeks, that, although it was repeatedly searched by the police, he was never discovered until his lair was divulged by

one

of its inmates, who, by incautiously observing that he knew whereabouts Jones was concealed, was taken up and remanded from time to time as an accessory to his escape, but who, at last, tired of prison fare and prison discipline, pointed out the place to obtain his own liberty. Jones was concealed by parting off a portion of a cellar with brickwork, well besmeared with soot and dirt, to prevent detection. This cell, or, more properly, den, was about

four

feet wide, by

nine

in depth; and during Jones's incarceration therein, he had food conveyed to him through a small aperture, by a brick or

two

being left out next the rafters. It was here that a sailor was robbed, and afterwards flung naked through

one

of the convenient apertures in the wall into the Fleet, for which crime

two

men and a woman