Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol I

Thornbury, Walter

1872-78

Cheapside Tributaries, North:--Wood Street.

Cheapside Tributaries, North:--Wood Street.

 

runs from to . Stow has conjectures as to its namefirst, that it was so called because the houses in it were built all of wood, contrary to Richard I's edict that London houses should be built of stone, to prevent fire; secondly, that it was called after Thomas Wood, sheriff in (Henry VII.), who dwelt in this street, was a benefactor to St. Peter in Chepe, and built

the beautiful row of houses over against

Wood Street

end.

At Cross, which stood at the corner of , all royal proclamations used to be read, even long after the cross was removed. Thus, in , we find Charles II.'s declaration of war against Louis XIV. proclaimed by the officers at arms, serjeants at arms, trumpeters, & c., at Gate, , the end of , , , and the . Huggin's Lane, in this street, derives its name, as Stow tells us, from a London citizen who dwelt here in the reign of Edward I., and was called Hugan in .

That pleasant tree at the left-hand corner of , which has cheered many a weary business man with memories of the fresh green fields far away, was for long the residence of rooks, who built there. In fresh nests were built, and is still visible; but the sable birds deserted their noisy town residence several years ago. Probably, as the north of London was more built over, and such feeding-grounds as Belsiie Park turned to brick and mortar, the birds found the fatigue of going miles in search of food for their young unbearable, and so migrated. Leigh Hunt, in of his agreeable books, remarks that there are few districts in London where you will not find a tree.

A child was shown us,

says Leigh Hunt,

who was said never to have beheld a tree but

one

in

St. Paul's Churchyard

(now gone). Whenever a tree was mentioned, it was this

one

; she had no conception of any other, not even of the remote tree in

Cheapside

.

This famous tree marks the site of St. Peter in Chepe, a church destroyed by the Great Fire. The terms of the lease of the low houses at the west-end corner are said to forbid the erection of another storey or the removal of the tree. Whether this restriction arose from a love of the tree, as we should like to think, we cannot say.

in Chepe is a rectory (says Stow),

the church whereof stood at the south-west corner of Wood Sireet, in the ward of Farringdon Within, but of what antiquity I know not, other than that Thomas de Winton was rector thereof in

1324

.

The patronage of this church was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, with whom it continued till the suppression of their monastery, when Henry VIII., in the year , granted the same to the Earl of Southampton. It afterwards belonged to the Duke of Montague. This church being destroyed in the fire and not rebuilt, the parish is united to the Church of St. Matthew, .

In the year

1401

,

says Maitland,

licence was granted to the inhabitants of this parish to erect a shed or shop before their church in

Cheapside

. On the site of this building, anciently called the

Long Shop,

are now erected

four

shops, with rooms over them.

[extra_illustrations.1.364.1]  has immortalised by his plaintive little ballad-

THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN.

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears, Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years; Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard In the silence of morning the song of the bird.

'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? she sees A mountain ascending, a vision of trees; Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.

Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale, Down which she so often has tripped with her pail; And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's, The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

She looks, and her heart is in heaven; but they fade, The mist and the river, the hill and the shade; The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise, And the colours have all passed away from her eyes.

Perhaps some summer morning the poet, passing down , saw the plane-tree at the corner wave its branches to him as a friend waves a hand, and at that sight there passed through his mind an imagination of some poor Cumberland servant-girl toiling in London, and regretting her far-off home among the pleasant hills.

St. Michael's, , is a rectory situated on the west side of , in the ward of Cripplegate Within. John de Eppewell was rector

365

thereof before the year .

The patronage was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, in whom it continued till the suppression of their monastery, when, coming to the Crown, it was, with the appurtenances, in the year

1544

, sold by Henry VIII. to William Barwell, who, in the year

1588

, conveyed the same to John Marsh and others, in trust for the parish, in which it still continues.

Being destroyed in the Great Fire, it was rebuilt, in , from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. At the east end Ionic pillars support an entablature and pediment, and the circular-headed windows are well proportioned. The south side faces , but the tower and spire are of no interest. The interior of the church is a large parallelogram, with an ornamented carved ceiling. In the church was repaired and the tower thrown open. The altarpiece represents Moses and Aaron. The vestrybooks date from the beginning of the century, and contain, among others, memoranda of parochial rejoicings, such as-

1620

.

Nov. 9

Paid for ringing and a bonfire,

4s.

The Church of St. Mary Staining being destroyed in the Great Fire, the parish was annexed to that of St. Michael's. The following is the most curious of the monumental inscriptions:--

John Casey, of this parish, whose dwelling was

In the north-corner house as to Lad Lane you pass;

For better knowledge, the name it hath now

Is called and known by the name of the Plow;

Our of that house yearly did geeve

Twenty shillings to the poore, their neede to releeve;

Which money the tenant must yearlie pay.

To the parish and churchwardens on St. Thomas' Day.

The heire of that house, Thomas Bowrman by name,

Hath since, by his deed, confirmed the same;

Whose love to the poore doth hereby appear,

And after his death shall live many a yeare.

Therefore in your life do good while yee may,

That when meagre death shall take yee away;

You may live like form'd as Casey and Bowrman-

For he that doth well shall never be a poore man.

Here was also a monument to Queen Elizabeth, with this inscription, found in many other London churches:--

Here lyes her type, who was of late The prop of Belgia, stay of France, Spaine's foile, Faith's shield, and queen of State, Of arms, of learning, fate and chance. In brief, of women ne'er was seen So great a prince, so good a queen.

Sith Vertue her immortal made, Death, envying all that cannot dye, Her earthly parts did so invade As in it wrackt self-majesty. But so her spirits inspired her parts, That she still lives in loyal hearts.

There was buried here (but without any outward monument) the head of James, the King of cots, slain at Flodden Field. After the battle, the body of the said king being found, was closed in lead, and conveyed from thence to London, and so to the monastery of Shene, in Surrey, where it remained for a time.

But since the dissolution of that house,

says Stow,

in the reign of Edward VI., Henry Gray, Duke of Suffolk, lodged and kept house there. I have been shown the said body, so lapped in lead. The head and body were thrown into a waste room, amongst the old timber, lead, and other rubble; since which time workmen there, for their foolish pleasure, hewed off his head; and Launcelot Young, master glazier to Queen Elizabeth, feeling a sweet savour to come from thence, and seeing the same dried from moisture, and yet the form remaining with the hair of the head and beard red, brought it to London, to his house in

Wood Street

, where for a time he kept it for the sweetness, but in the end caused the sexton of that church to bury it amongst other bones taken out of their charnel.

The parish church of St. Michael, in

Wood Street

, is a proper thing,

says Strype,

and lately well repaired; John Iue, parson of this church, John Forster, goldsmith, and Peter Fikelden, taylor, gave

two

messuages and shops, in the same parish and street, and in Ladle Lane, to the reparation of the church, the

16th

of Richard II. In the year

1627

the parishioners made a new door to this church into

Wood Street

, where till then it had only

one

door, standing in

Huggin Lane

.

St. Mary Staining, in , destroyed by the Great Fire, stood on the north side of , in the Ward of Aldersgate Within.

The additional epithet of

staining

,

says Maitland,

is as uncertain as the time of the foundation; some imagining it to bederived from the painters' stainers, who probably lived near it; and others from its being built with stone, to distinguish it from those in the City that were built with wood.

The advowson of the rectory anciently belonged to the Prioress and Convent of Clerkenwell, in whom it continued till their suppression by Henry VIII., when it came to the Crown. The parish, as previously observed, is now united to St. Michael's, . That this church is not of a modem foundation, is manifest from John de Lukenore's being rector thereof before the year .

St. Alban's, , in the time of Paul, the Abbot of St. Alban's, belonged to the Verulam monastery, but in the abbot exchanged the right of presentation to this church for the patronage of belonging to the Abbot of

366

. Matthew Paris says that this Church was the chapel of King Offa, the founder of St. Alban's Abbey, who had a palace near it. Stow says it was of great antiquity, and that Roman bricks were visible here and there among the stones. Maitland thinks it probable that it was of the churches built by Alfred in London after he had driven out the Danes. The right of presentation to the church was originally possessed by the master, brethren, and sisters of St. James's Leper Hospital (site of ), and after the death of Henry VI. it was vested in the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. In the reign of Charles II. the parish was united to that of St. Olave, , and the right of presentation is now exercised alternately by Eton College and the Dean and Chapter of . The style of the interior of the church is late pointed. The windows appear older than the rest of the building. The ceiling in the nave exhibits bold groining, and the general effect is not unpleasing.

One

note of the great antiquity of this church,

says Seymour,

is the name, by which it was

first

dedicated to St. Alban, the

first

martyr of England. Another character of the antiquity of it is to be seen in the manner of the turning of the arches to the windows, and the heads of the pillars. A

third

note appears in the Roman bricks, here and there inlaid amongst the stones of the building. Very probable it is that this church is, at least, of as ancient a standing as King Adelstane, the Saxon, who, as tradition says, had his house at the east end of this church. This king's house, having a door also into Adel Street, in this parish, gave name, as 'tis thought, to the said Adel Street, which, in all evidences, to this day is written King Adel Street.

One

great square tower of this king's house seemed, in Stow's time, to be then remaining, and to be seen at the north corner of

Love Lane

, as you come from

Aldermanbury

, which tower was of the very same stone and manner of building with St. Alban's Church.

About the commencement of the century St. Alban's, being in a state of great decay, was surveyed by Sir Henry Spiller and Inigo

367

Jones, and in accordance with their advice, apparently, in it was pulled down, and rebuilt ; but, perishing in the flames of , it was re-erected as it now appears, and finished in the year , from Wren's design. In the old church were the following epitaphs:

Of William Wilson, Joane his wife,

And Alice, their daughter deare,

These lines were left to give report

These three lye buried here;

And Alice was Henry Decon's wife,

Which Henry lives on earth,

And is the Serjeant Plummer

To Queen ELIZABETH.

With whom this Alice left issue here,

His virtuous daughter Joan,

To be his comfort everywhere

Now joyfull Alice is gone.

And for these three departed soules,

Gone up to joyfull blisse,

Th' almighty praise be given to God,

To whom the glory is.

 

Over the grave of Anne, the wife of Laurence Gibson, gentleman, were the following verses, which are worth mentioning here.:--

MENTIS VIS MAGNA.

What! is she dead?

Doth he survive?

No; both are dead,

And both alive.

She lives, hee's dead,

By love, though grieving,

In him, for her,

Yet dead, yet living;

Both dead and living,

Then what is gone?

One half of both,

Not any one.

One mind, one faith,

One hope, one grave,

In life, in death,

They had and still they have.

The pulpit (says Seymour) is finely carved with an enrichment, in imitation of fruit and leaves; and the sound-board is a hexagon, having round it a fine cornice, adorned with cherubims and other embellishments, and the inside is neatly finniered. The altar-piece is very ornamental, consisting of columns, fluted with their bases, pedestals, entablature, and open pediment of the Corinthian order; and over each column, upon acroters, is a lamp with a gilded taper. Between the inner columns are the Commandments, done in gold letters upon black. Between the , northward, is the Lord's Prayer, and the southward the Creed, done in gold upon blue. Over the commandments is a Glory between cherubims, and above the cornice the king's arms with the supporters, helmet, and crest, richly carved, under a triangular pediment; and on the north and south side of the above described ornaments are large cartouches, all of which parts are carved in fine wainscot. The church is well paved with oak, and here are twolarge brass branches and a marble font, having enrichments of cherubims, & c.

In a curious brass frame, attached to a tall stem, opposite the pulpit is an hour-glass, by which the preacher could measure his sermon and test his listeners' patience. The hour-glass at St. Dunstan's, , was taken down in , and heads for the parish staves made out of the silver.

Compter (says Cunningham) was established in , when, on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel in that year, the prisoners were removed from the Old Compter in to the New Compter in , . This compter was burnt down in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt in . It stood on the east side of the street, and was removed to in . There were compters in London--the compter in , under the control of of the sheriffs, and the compter in the Poultry, under the superintendence of the other. Under each sheriff was a secondary, a clerk of the papers, clerk sitters, eighteen serjeants-at-mace (each serjeant having his yeomen), a master keeper, and turnkeys. The serjeants wore blue and coloured cloth gowns, and the words of arrest were,

Sir, we arrest you in the King's Majesty's name, and we charge you to obey us.

There were sides--the master's side, the dearest of all; the knights' ward, a little cheaper; and the Hole, the cheapest of all. The register of entries was called the Black Book. Garnish was demanded at every step, and the Compter was hung with the story of the prodigal son.

When the counter gate was opened, the prisoner's name was enrolled in the black book, and he was asked if he was for the master's side, the Knight's ward, or the Hole. At every fresh door a fee was demanded, the stranger's hat or cloak being detained if he refused to pay the extortion, which, in prison language, was called

garnish.

The question to a new prisoner was, whether he was in by arrest or command; and there was generally some knavish attorney in a threadbare black suit, who, for would offer to move for a habeas corpus, and have him out presently, much to the amusement of the villanouslooking men who filled the room, some smoking and some drinking. At dinner a vintner's boy, who was in waiting, filled a bowl full of claret, and compelled the new prisoner to drink to all the society; and the turnkeys, who were dining in another room, then demanded another tester for a quart of wine to quaff to the new comer's health.

At the end of a week, when the prisoner's purse grew thin, he was generally compelled to pass over to the knight's side, and live in a humbler and more restricted manner. Here a fresh garnish of eighteen pence was demanded, and if this was refused, he was compelled to sleep over the drain; or, if he chose, to sit up, to drink and smoke in the cellar with vile companions till the keepers ordered every man to his bed.

Fennor, an actor in (James. I.), wrote a curious pamphlet on the abuses of this compter.

For what extreme extortion,

says the angry writer,

is it when a gentleman is brought in by the watch for some misdemeanour committed, that he must pay at least an angell before he be discharged; hee must pay twelvepence for turning the key at the master-side dore two shillings to the chamberleine, twelvepence for his garnish for wine, tenpence for his dinner, whether he stay or no, and when he comes to be discharged at the booke, it will cost at least three shillings and sixpence more, besides sixpence for the booke-keeper's paines, and sixpence for the porter. And if a gentleman stay there but one night, he must pay for his garnish sixteene pence, besides a groate for his lodging, and so much for his sheetes. When a gentleman is upon his discharge, and hath given satisfaction for his executions, they must have fees for irons, three halfepence in the pound, besides the other fees, so that if a man were in for a thousand or fifteene hundred pound execution, they will if a man is so madde have so many three halfepence.

This little Hole is as a little citty in a commonwealth, for as in a citty there are all kinds of officers, trades, and vocations, so there is in this place, as we may make a pretty resemblance between them. In steede of a Lord Maior, we have a master steward to over-see and correct all misdemeanours as shall arise. . . And lastly, as in a citty there is all kinds of trades, so is there heere, for heere you shall see a cobler sitting mending olde showes, and singing as merrily as if hee were under a stall abroad; not farre from him you shall see a taylor sit crosse-legged (like a witch) on his cushion, theatning the ruine of our fellow prisoner, the Aegyptian vermine; in another place you may behold a saddler empannelling all his wits together how to patch this Scotchpadde handsomely, or mend the old gentlewoman's crooper that was almost burst in pieces. You may have a phisition here, that for a bottle of sack will undertake to give you as good a medicine for melancholly as any doctor will for five pounds. Besides, if you desire to bee remouved before a judge, you shall have a tinker-like attorney not farre distant from you, that in stopping up one hole in a broken cause, will make twenty before hee hath made an end, and at last will leave you in prison as bare of money as he himself is of honesty. Heere is your cholericke cooke that will dresse our meate, when wee can get any, as well as any greasie scullion in Fleet Lane or Pye Corner.

At , , , is the hall of of the smaller City companies--the Parish Clerks of London, , Borough of , and out parishes, with their master wardens and fellows. This company was incorporated as early as Henry III. (), by the name of the Fraternity of St. Nicholas, an ominous name, for

St. Nicholas's clerk

was a jocose for highwaymen. The hall of the fraternity stood in , the in , in Vintry Ward. The fraternity was re-incorporated by James I. in , and confirmed by Charles I. in . The hall contains a few portraits, and in a painted glass window, David playing on the harp, St. Cecilia at the organ, & c. The parish clerks were the actors in the old miracle plays, the parish clerks of our churches dating only from the commencement of the Reformation. The were commenced by the Parish Clerks' Company in , who about were licensed by the Star Chamber to keep a printing-press in their hall for printing the bills, valuable for their warning of the existence or progress of the plague. The of the Parish Clerks has, however, been superseded by the issued weekly from the Registrar- General's Office, at , since . The Parish Clerks' Company neither confer the freedom of the City, nor the hereditary freedom.

There is a large gold refinery in , through whose doors tons of gold a day have been known to pass. Australian gold is here cast into ingots, value each. This gold is carat and quarters above the standard, and when the bars of Australian gold were sent to the they were sent back, as their wonderful purity excited suspicion. For refining, the gold is boiled minutes, poured off into hand moulds troy weight, strewn with ivory black, and then left to cool. You see here the stalwart men wedging apart great bars of silver for the melting pots. The silver is purified in a blast-furnace, and mixed with nitric acid in platinum crucibles, that cost from to a piece. The bars of gold are stamped with a trade-mark and pieces are cut off each ingot to be sent to the assayer for his report.

I read in divers records,

says Stow,

of a house in

Wood Street

then called

Black Hall;

but no man at this day can tell thereof. In the time of King Richard II., Sir Henry Percy, the son and heir of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, had a house in

Wodstreate,

in London (whether this Black Hall or no, it is hard to trace), wherein he treated King Richard, the Duke of Lancaster, the Duke of York, the Earl Marshal, and his father, the Earl of Northumberland, with others, at supper.

The

Rose,

in , was a sponginghouse, well known to the rakehells and spendthrifts of Charles II.'s time.

I have been too lately under their (the bailiffs') clutches,

says Tom Brown,

to desire any more dealings with them, and I cannot come within a furlong of the

Rose

sponging-house without

five

or

six

yellow-boys in my pocket to cast out those devils there, who would otherwise infallibly take possession of me.

The

Mitre,

an old tavern in , was kept in Charles II.'s time by William Proctor, who died insolvent in .

18th Sept., 1660

,

Pepys says,

to the

Miter Taverne,

in

Wood Street

(a

house of the greatest note in London). Here some of us fell to handycap, a sport that I never knew before.

And again,

31st July, 1665

. Proctor, the vintner, of the

Miter,

in

Wood Street

, and his son, are dead this morning of the plague; he having laid out abundance of money there, and was the greatest vintner for some time in London for great entertainments.

In early life Thomas Ripley, afterwards a celebrated architect, kept a carpenter's shop and coffee house in . Marrying a servant of Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of George I., this lucky pushing man soon obtained work from the Crown and a seat at the Board of Works, and supplanted that great genius who built , to the infinite disgrace of the age. Ripley built the Admiralty, and Houghton all, Norfolk, for his early patron, Walpole, and died rich in .

is associated with that last extraordinary outburst of the Civil War fanaticism-the Anabaptist rising in .

On Sunday, , we read in

these monsters assembled at their meeting-house, in Coleman Street, where they armed themselves, and sallying thence, came to St. Paul's in the dusk of the evening, and there, after ordering their small party, placed sentinels, one of whom killed a person accidentally passing by, because he said he was for God and King Charles when challenged by him. This giving the alarm, and some parties of trained bands charging them, and being repulsed, they marched to Bishopsgate, thence to Cripplegate and Aldersgate, where, going out, in spite of the constables and watch, they declared for King Jesus. Proceeding to Beech Lane, they killed a headborough, who would have opposed them. It was observed that all they shot, though never so slightly wounded, died. Then they hasted away to Cane Wood, where they lurked, resolved to make another effort upon the City, but were drove thence, and routed by a party of horse and foot, sent for that purpose, about thirty being taken and brought before General Monk, who committed them to the Gate House. Pulpit Hour-Glass (see page 368).

Nevertheless, the others who had escaped out of the wood returned to London, not doubting of success in their enterprise; Venner, a winecooper by trade, and their head, affirming, he was assured that no weapons employed against them would prosper, nor a hair of their head be touched; which their coming off at first so well made them willing to believe. These fellows had taken the opportunity of the king's being gone to Portsmouth, having before made a disposition for drawing to them of other desperate rebels, by publishing a declaration called, A Door of Hope Opened, full of abominable slanders against the whole royal family.

On Wednesday morning, January 9, after the watches and guards were dismissed, they resumed their first enterprise. The first appearance was in Threadneedle Street, where they alarmed the trained bands upon duty that day, and drove back a party sent after them, to their main guard, which then marched in a body towards them. The Fifth Monarchists retired into Bishopsgate Street, where some of them took into an alehouse, known by the sign of The Helmet, where, after a sharp dispute, two were killed, and as many taken, the same number of the trained bands being killed and wounded. The next sight of them (for they vanished and appeared again on a sudden), was at College Hill, which way they went into Cheapside, and so into Wood Street, Venner leading them, with a morrion on his head and a halbert in his hand. Here was the main and hottest action, for they fought stoutly with the Trained Bands, and received a charge from the Life Guards, whom they obliged to give way, until, being overpowered, and Venner knocked down and wounded and shot, Tufney and Crag, two others of their chief teachers, being killed by him, they began to give ground, and soon after dispersed, flying outright and taking several ways. The greatest part of them went down Wood Street to Cripplegate, firing in the rear at the Yellow Trained Bands, then in close pursuit of them. Ten of them took into the Blue Anchor ale-house, near the postern, which house they maintained until Lieutenant-Colonel Cox, with his company, secured all the avenues to it. In the meantime, some of the aforesaid Yellow Trained Bands got upon the tiles of the next house, which they threw off, and fired in upon the rebels who were in the upper room, and even then refused quarter. At the same time, another file of musketeers got up the stairs, and having shot down the door, entered upon them. Six of them were killed before, another wounded, and one refusing quarter, was knocked down, and afterwards shot. The others being asked why they had not begged quarter before, answered they durst not, for fear their own fellows should shoot them.

The upshot of this insane revolt of a handful of men was that kings men were killed, and of the fanatics, proving the fighting to have been hard. were taken, and or hung, drawn, and quartered. Venner, the leader, who was wounded severely, and some others, were drawn on sledges, their quarters were set on the gates, and their heads stuck on poles on . more were hung at the west end of , at the , at the Bull and Mouth, in , at Bishopsgate, and another, captured later, was hung at Tyburn, and his head set on a pole in Whitechapel.

The texts these Monarchy men chiefly relied on were these:--

He shall use his people, in his hand as his battle-axe and weapon of war, for the bringing in the kingdoms of this world into subjection to Him.

A few Scriptures (and but a few as to this, Isa. xli. verse; but more especially the and verses. The prophet, speaking of Jacob, saith:

Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff; thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, &c

Maiden Lan,

says Stow,

formerly Engine Lane, is a good, handsome, well-built, and inhabited street. The east end falleth into

Wood Street

. At the north-east corner, over against Goldsmiths' Hall, stood the parish church of St. John Zachary, which since the dreadful fire is not rebuilt, but the parish united unto

St. Ann's

, Aldersgate, the ground on which it stood, enclosed within a wall, serving as a burial-place for the parish.

The old Goldsmiths' Church of St. John Zachary, , destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt, stood at the north-west corner of , in the Ward of Aldersgate; the parish is annexed to that of St. Anne. Among other epitaphs in this church, Stow gives the following:--

Here lieth the body of John Sutton, citizen, goldsmith, and alderman of London; who died 6th July, 1450. This brave and worthy alderman was killed in the defence of the City, in the bloody nocturnal battle on London Bridge, against the infamous Jack Cade, and his army of Kentish rebels.

Here lieth William Brekespere, of London,--some time merchant,

Goldsmith and alderman, the Commonwele attendant,

With Margaryt his Dawter, late wyff of Suttoon,

And Thomas, hur Sonn, yet livyn undyr Goddy's tuitioon.

The tenth of July he made his trasmigration.

She disissyd in the yer of Grase of Chryst's Incarnation,

A Thowsand Four hundryd Threescor and oon.

God assoyl their Sowls whose Bodys lye undyr this Stoon.

This church was rated to pay a certain annual sum to the canons of , about the year , at which time it was denominated St. John Baptist's, as appears from a grant thereof from the Dean and Chapter of to Zachary, whose name it probably received to distinguish it from of the same name in .

St. Anne in the Willows was a church destroyed by the Great Fire, rebuilt by Wren, and united to the parish of St. John Zachary.

It is so called,

says Stow,

some say of willows growing thereabouts; but now there is no such void place for willows to grow, more than the church-yard, wherein grow some high ash-trees.

This church, standing,

says Strype,

in the church-yard, is planted before with lime-trees that flourish there. So that as it was formerly called St. Anne-in-the-Willows, it may now be called St. Anne-in-the-Limes.

St. Anne can be traced back as far as . The patronage was anciently in the Dean and Canons of St. , in whose gift it continued till Henry VII annexed that Collegiate Church, with its appendages, to the Abbey of . In Queen Mary gave it to the Bishop of London and his successors. of the monuments here bears the following inscription:--

Peter Heiwood, younger son of Peter Heiwood, one of the counsellors of Jamaica, by Grace, daughter of Sir John Muddeford, Kt. and Bart., great-grandson to Peter Heiwood, of Heywood, in County Palatine of Lancaster, who apprehended Guy Faux with his dark lanthorn, and for his zealous prosecution of Papists, as Justice of the Peace, was stabbed in Westminster Hall by John James, a Dominican Friar, An. Dom. 1640. Obiit, Novr. 2, 1701.

Reader, if not a Papist bred,

Upon such ashes gently tred.

The site of Haberdashers' Hall, in , opposite Goldsmiths' Hall, was bequeathed to the Company by William Baker, a London haberdasher, in (Edward IV.). In the old hall, destroyed by the Great Fire, the Parliament

372

Commissioners held their meetings during the Commonwealth, and many a stern decree of confiscation was there grimly signed. In this hall there are some good portraits. The Haberdashers' Company have many livings and exhibitions in their gift; and almhouses at , Monmouth, Newland (Gloucestershire), and Newport (Shropshire; schools in , Monmouth, and Newport; and they lend sums of or to struggling young men of their own trade.

The haberdashers were originally a branch of the mercers, dealing like them in merceries or small wares. Lydgate, in his ballad, describes the mercers' and haberdashers' stalls as side by side in the mercery in Chepe. In the reign of Henry VI., when incorporated, they divided into fraternities, St. Catherine and St. Nicholas. The

being hurrers, cappers, or haberdashers of hats; the other, haberdashers of ribands, laces, and small wares only. The latter were also called milliners, from their selling such merchandise as brooches, agglets, spurs, capes, glasses, and pins.

In the early part of Elizabeth's reign,

says Herbert,

upwards of

£ 60,000

annually was paid to foreign merchants for pins alone, but before her death pins were made in England, and in the reign of James I. the pinmakers obtained a charter.

In the reign of Henry VII. the societies united. Queen Elizabeth granted them their arms: Barry nebule of , argent and azure on a bend gules; a lion passant gardant; crest or a helmet and torse, arms supporting a laurel proper and issuing out of a cloud argent. Supporters, Indian goats argent, attired and hoofed or; motto,

373

Serve and Obey.

Maitland describes their annual expenditure in charity as . The number of the Company consists of master, wardens, assistants, livery, and a large company of freemen. This Company is the in order of the chief City Companies.

In the reign of Edward VI. there were not more than a dozen milliner's shops in all London, but in the dealers in foreign luxuries had so increased as to alarm the frugal and the philosophic. These dealers sold French and Spanish gloves, French cloth and frieze, Flemish kersies, daggers, swords, knives, Spanish girdles, painted cruises, dials, tablets, cards, balls, glasses, fine earthen pots, saltcellars, spoons, tin dishes, puppets, pennons, ink-

horns; tooth-picks, fans, pomanders, silk, and silver buttons.

The Haberdashers were incorporated by a Charter of Queen Elizabeth in . The Court books extend to the time of Charles I. only. Their charters exist in good preservation. In their chronicles we have only a few points to notice. In they sent of their members to attend the coronation of Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., and they also were represented at the coronation of the detestable Richard III. Like the other Companies, the Haberdashers were much oppressed during the time of Charles I. and the Commonwealth, during which they lost nearly . The Company's original bye-laws having been

374

burnt in the Great Fire, a new code was drawn up, which in was sanctioned by Lord Chancellor Finch, Sir Matthew Hale, and Sir Francis North.

The dining-hall is a lofty and spacious room. About years since it was much injured by fire, but has been since restored and handsomely decorated. Over the screen at the lower end is a music gallery, and the hall is lighted from above by sun-burners. Among the portraits in the edifice are whole lengths of William Adams, Esq., founder of the grammar school and almshouses at Newport, in Shropshire; Jerome Knapp, Esq., a former Master of the Company; and Micajah Perry, Esq., Lord Mayor in ; a half-length of George Whitmore, Esq., Lord Mayor in ; Sir Hugh Hammersley, Knight, Lord Mayor in ; Mr. Thomas Aldersey, merchant, of Banbury, in Cheshire, who, in , vested a considerable estate in this Company for charitable uses; Mr. William Jones, merchant adventurer, who bequeathed for benevolent purposes; and Robert Aske, the worthy founder of the Haberdashers' Hospital at .

[extra_illustrations.1.374.1]  that intersects , was formerly called Lad or Ladle Lane, and part of it , from a shop sign of the Virgin. It is written in a chronicle of Edward IV.'s time, published by Sir Harris Nicolas, page . The [extra_illustrations.1.374.2] [extra_illustrations.1.374.4]  in , was for a century and more, till railways ruined stage and mail coach travelling, the booking office and head-quarters of coaches to the North.

was so named from the wantons who once infested it. The Cross Keys Inn derived its name from the bygone Church of St. Peter before mentioned. As there are traditions of Saxon kings once dwelling in , so in we find traditions of some Danish celebrities.

Gutter Lane

,

says Stow, that patriarch of London topography,

was so called by Guthurun, some time owner thereof.

In a manuscript chronicle of London, written in the reign of Edward IV., and edited by Sir N. H. Nicolas, it is called

Goster Lane.

Brewers' Hall, No. , , , , is a modern edifice, and contains, among other pictures, a portrait of Dame Alice Owen, who narrowly escaped death from an archer's stray arrow while walking in fields, in gratitude for which she founded an hospital. In the hall window is some old painted glass. The Brewers were incorporated in . The quarterage in this Company is paid on the quantity of malt consumed by its members. In a handsome schoolhouse was built for the Company, in , .

In [extra_illustrations.1.374.3]  laid an information before his successor in the mayoralty, Robert Childe, against the Brewers' Company, for selling when they were convicted in the penalty of ; and the masters were ordered to be kept in prison in the chamberlain's custody until they paid it.

 
 
Footnotes:

[extra_illustrations.1.364.1] Wordsworth

[extra_illustrations.1.374.1] Gresham Street

[extra_illustrations.1.374.2] Swan with Two Necks,

[extra_illustrations.1.374.4] Bill

[extra_illustrations.1.374.3] Whittington

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 Title Page
 Frontispiece
 Introduction
 Chapter I: Roman London
 Chapter II:Temple Bar
 Chapter III: Fleet Street
 Chapter IV: Fleet Street
 Chapter V: Fleet Street
 Chapter VI: Fleet Street, Northern Tributaries
 Chapter VII: Fleet Street, Northern Tributaries, Chancery Lane
 Chapter VIII: Fleet Street, Northern Tributaries, continued
 Chapter IX: Fleet Street, Tributaries, Crane Street
 Chapter X: Fleet Street, Tributaries
 Chapter XI: Fleet Street Tributaries Shoe lane.
 Chapter XII: Fleet Street, Tributaries South.
 Chapter XIII: The Temple, General Introduction
 Chapter XIV: The Temple Church and Precinct.
 Chapter XV: The Temple continued.
 Chapter XVI: The Temple continued.
 Chapter XVII: Whitefriars
 Chapter XVIII: Blackfriars
 Chapter XIX: Ludgate Hill
 Chapter XX: St. Paul's
 Chapter XXI: St. Paul's, continued
 Chapter XXII: St. Paul's Churchyard
 Chapter XXIII: Paternoster Row
 Chapter XXIV: Doctors' Commons
 Chapter XXV: Heralds' College.
 Chapter XXVI: Cheapside, Introductory And Historical.
 Chapter XXVII: Cheapside Shows and Pageants.
 Chapter XXVIII: Cheapside Central.
 Chapter XXIX: Cheapside Tributaries South
 Chapter XXX: Cheapside Tributaries, North.
 Chapter XXXI: Cheapside tributaries, North
 XXXII: Cheapside Tributaries, North.
 XXXIII: Guildhall.
 Chapter XXXIV: David Salomons, Lord Mayor.
 Chapter XXXV: The Lord Mayors of London.
 Chapter XXXVI: The Poultry
 Chapter XXXVII: Old Jewery
 Chapter XXXVIII: Mansion House.
 Chapter XXXIX: Map of Saxon London.
 Chapter XL: Bank of England.
 Chapter XLI: The Stock Exchange.
 Chapter XLII: The Royal Exchange.
 Chapter XLIII: The Royal Enchange, continued.
 Chapter XLIV: Lothbury.
 Chapter XLV: Throngmorton Street, the Drapers Company.
 Chapter XLVI: Bartholomew Lane and Lombard Street.
 Chapter XLVII: Threadneedle Street.
 Chapter XLVIII: Cannon Street.
 Chapter XLIX: Cannon Street Tributaries and Eastcheap.
 Chapter L: The Monument And Its Neighbourhood, Wren's plan for rebuilding London.
 Chapter LI: Chaucer's London.