The sacred tapers lights are gone, Grey moss has clad the altar-stone, The holy image is o'erthrown, The bell has ceased to toll; The long-ribb'd aisles are burst and shrunk, The holy shrine to ruin sunk, Departed is the pious monk; God's blessing on his soul!--Scott.

Readers of English history need scarcely be told how that King Henry VIII., in his selfish zeal for novelties in religion, laid violent hands on all the abbeys and other religious houses in the kingdom, except a very few, which were spared at the earnest petition of the people, or given up to the representatives of the original founders. Before proceeding to the final suppression, under the pretext of checking the superstitious worshipping of images, he had laid bare their altars and stripped their shrines of everything that was valuable; nor did he spare the rich coffins and crumbling bones of the dead. Although years had passed away since the murder of Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury,

he was no saint whatever, but a rebel and traitor to his prince, and that therefore he, the king, strictly commanded that he should not be any longer esteemed or called a saint; that all images and pictures of him should be destroyed; and that his name and remembrance should be erased out of all books, under pain of his majesty's indignation, and imprisonment at his grace's pleasure.

In the final seizure of the abbeys and monasteries,

Comprehensive History of England,

the richest fell

first

. After Canterbury, Battle Abbey; Merton, in Surrey;

Stratford

, in Essex; Lewes, in Sussex; the Charterhouse, the Blackfriars, the Greyfriars, and the Whitefriars, in London, felt the fury of the same whirlwind, which gradually blew over the whole land, until, in the spring of the year

1540

, all the monastic establishments of the kingdom were suppressed, and the mass of their landed property was divided among courtiers and parasites ... All the abbeys were totally dismantled, except in the cases where they happened to be the parish churches also; as was the case at St. Albans, Tewkesbury, Malvern, and elsewhere, where they were rescued, in part by the petitions and pecuniary contributions of the pious inhabitants, who were averse to the worshipping of God in a stable.

lesser monasteries

The earliest mention of this abbey occurs in the account of in

Domesday,

woodland

pannage

a new and fair church, with

twenty

acres of meadow.

The Cluniacs,

Ecclesiastical Antiquities,

derived their name from Clugni, in Burgundy, where Odo, an abbot in the

tenth

century, reformed the Benedictine rule. Their habit was the same as the Benedictine. The order was introduced into England in

1077

, when a Cluniac house was established at Lewes, in Sussex, under the protection of Earl Warenne, the Conqueror's son-in-law. In the

twelfth

century the Abbey of Clugni was at the height of its reputation under Peter the Venerable (

1122

-

1156

). From the

13th of September

till Lent, the Cluniacs had

one

meal only a day, except during the octaves of Christmas and the Epiphany, when they had an extra meal. Still eighteen poor were fed at their table. There were never more than

twenty

Cluniac houses in England, nearly all of them founded before the reign of Henry II. Until the

fourteenth

century, all the Cluniac houses were priories dependent on the parent house. The Prior of

St. Pancras

, Lewes, was the highchamber- lain, and frequently the vicar-general of the Abbey of Cluny, and exercised the functions of a Provincial in England. The English houses were all governed by foreigners, and the monks were oftener of foreign than of English extraction. In the

fourteenth

century, however, there was a change; many of the houses became denizen, and

Bermondsey

was made an abbey.

The following interesting particulars of the customs of the Cluniac order are gathered from Stevens's translation of the French history of the monastic orders, given in his continuation of Dugdale, and transcribed in the great edition of the

Monasticon :

They every day sung

two

solemn masses, at each of which a monk of

one

of the choirs offered

two

hosts. If any

one

would celebrate mass on Holy Thursday, before the solemn mass was sung, he made no use of light, because the new fire was not yet blessed. The preparation they used for making the bread which was to serve for the sacrifice of the altar is worthy to be observed. They

first

chose the wheat, grain by grain, and washed it very carefully. Being put into a bag, appointed only for that use, a servant, known to be a just man, carried it to the mill, washed the grindstones, covered them with curtains above and below, and having put on himself an alb, covered his face with a veil, nothing but his eyes appearing. The same pre-

Fragments Found on Site of Abbey of Bermondsey

Bermondsey Priory

caution was used with the meal. It was not boulted till it had been well washed; and the warden of the church, if he were either priest or deacon, finished the rest, being assisted by

two

other religious men, who were in the same orders, and by a lay brother particularly appointed for that business. These

four

monks, when matins were ended, washed their faces and hands; the

three

first

of them did put on albs;

one

of them washed the meal with pure clean water, and the other

two

baked the hosts in the iron moulds; so great was the veneration and respect the monks of Cluni paid to the Holy Eucharist.

William Rufus enriched the abbey by the grant of the manor of ; and the establishment soon became of the most important in England. In , Prior Richard erected an almonry or hospital adjoining the monastery; but no traces of that now exist. The parish church of , rebuilt in , at the junction of and , occupies nearly the site of the conventual church. The monastic buildings were, doubtless, very extensive and magnificent; and the monks maintained a splendid hospitality and state. Katherine of France, widow of Henry V., retired hither to mourn, perhaps the victor of Agincourt, to whose memory she had erected, in , a life-sized silver-gilt statue; or it may have been her husband, Owen Tudor, who perhaps little thought he would ever become the progenitor of of the greatest monarchs who ever sat on the English throne-bluff King Henry and Queen Bess, not to mention Henry's father, the conqueror of crook-backed Richard, and Elizabeth's boy-brother and her sister Mary. Katherine died at , a double widow, in . In the convent here Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Edward IV., was shut up as a sort of prisoner by Henry VII., shortly after the marriage of the latter with her daughter Elizabeth. The Queen Dowager died in . A few days before her death she made her will, and a pathetic document it is. Her son-in-law, Henry VII., cruelly neglected her; and when in after years he ordered an anniversary service to be sung on the , by the monks of , for the repose of the souls of his late queen and children, his father and his mother, he forgot to include poor Elizabeth, the mother of his wife, once queen of England, but who ended her days almost a pauper in the very abbey where the stately service was performed.

As a glimpse of what was sometimes doing in the old church, as well as of the old custom itself the following extract will be found interesting :

The abbot and convent of St. Saviour of

Bermondsey

shall provide at every such anniversary a hearse, to be set in the midst of the high chancel of the same monastery before the high altar, covered and apparelled with the best and most honourable stuff in the same monastery convenient for the same. And also

four

tapers of wax, each of them weighing

eight pounds

, to be set about the same hearse, that is to say, on either side thereof

one

taper, and at either end of the same hearse another taper, and all the same

four

tapers to be lighted and burning continually during all the time of every such

Placebo, Dirige

, with

nine

lessons, lauds and mass of

Requiem

, with the prayers and obeisances above rehearsed.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, Abbey, with its rich manor, was seized--as was the case with other similar places-by Henry VIII. At that time the Abbot of had no very tender scruples about conscience or principle, like so many of his brethren, but arranged everything in the pleasantest possible manner for the king; and he had his reward. While the poor monks had pensions varying from to a year each allowed them, the good Lord Abbot's pension amounted to The monastery itself, with the manor, demesnes, &c., were granted by the Crown to Sir Robert Southwell, Master of the Rolls, who sold them to Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. In Sir Thomas pulled down the old priory church, and built House upon the site and with the materials. Here died, in , Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. This was the Earl of Sussex who, according to Sir Walter Scott in his interesting romance of

Kenilworth,

Master

The

Long Walk

,

London,

was once perhaps a fine shady avenue, where the abbot or his monks were accustomed to while away the summer afternoon, but is about

one

of the last places that would now tempt the wandering footstep of the stranger; the

Grange Walk

no longer leads to the pleasant farm or park of the abbey, and is in itself but a painful mockery of the associations roused by the name; the

Court,

or Base Courtyard, is changed into

Bermondsey Square

, flanked on all sides by small tenements, the handiwork of the builders who completed a few years ago what Sir Thomas Pope began; and though some trees are yet there, of so ancient appearance that, for aught we know, they may have witnessed the destruction of the very conventual church, yet they are dwindling and dwindling away, as though they

Bermondsey Abbey, 1790.

felt themselves a part of the old abbey, and had no business to survive its destruction. They will not have much longer to wait; little remains to be destroyed. In the

Grange Walk

is a part of the gate-house of the east gateway, with a portion of the rusted hinge of the monastic doors. In

Long Walk

, on the right, is a small and filthy quadrangle (once called, from some tradition connected with the visits of the early English monarchs to

Bermondsey

, King John's Court, now Bear Yard) in which are a few dilapidated houses, where the stonework, and form and antiquity of the windows, afford abundant evidence of their connection with the monastery. Lastly, in the churchyard of the present church of

St. Mary Magdalen

are some pieces of the wall that surrounded the gardens and church of the Cluniacs.

Although is, perhaps, not the most civilised and scholastic part of London now, it is no small credit to the churchmen of the early Norman times, that, according to Fitzstephen, as interpreted to us by honest John Stow, the earliest schools for youth in London and its neighbourhood were founded under the shadows respectively of Old , of Abbey, , and of the Abbey of .

In Faithorne's map of London and

[extra_illustrations.6.121.1] , at the corner of and , stands on the site of the ancient conventual church. It is a brick-built structure, consisting of a chancel, nave, aisles, and a transept; and at the western end is a low square tower with a turret. The church contains no monuments worthy of note. In the tower was repaired and

beautified

churchwarden

The forme of a solemn vowe made betwixt a man and his wife, having been long absent, through which occasion the woman being married to another man, (the husband) took her again as followeth:

The Man's Speech.Elizabeth, my beloved wife, I am righte sorie that I have so long absented myself from thee, whereby thou shouldest be occasioned to take another man to be thy husband. Therefore I do now vowe and promise, in the sight of God and this company, to take thee again as my owne, and will not onlie forgive thee but live with thee, and do all other duties to thee, as I promised at our marriage.

The Woman's Speech. Raphe, my beloved husband, I am righte sorie that I have in thy absence taken another man to be my husband; but here, before God and this companie, I do renounce and forsake him; I do promise to keep myself only to thee duringe life, and to perform all the duties which I first promised to thee in our marriage.

The

1st day of August, 1604

, Raphe Goodchild, of the parish of Barkinge, in

Thames Street

, and Elizabeth his wife were agreed to live together, and thereupon gave their hands

one

to another, making either of them solemn vow so to do in the presence of us, William Steres,

Parson;

Edward Coker; and Richard Eyres,

Clerk.

Another entry in the register also is remarkable.

James Herriott, Esq., and Elizabeth Josey, Gent., were married

Jan. 4

.,

1624

-

5

. N.B. This James Herriott was

one

of the

forty

children of his father,

a Scotchman.

In this church is a very curious ancient salver of silver, now used for the collection of the alms at the offertory. On the centre is a beautifullychased representation of the gate of a castle or town, with figures, a knight kneeling before a lady, who is about to place his helmet on his head. The long-pointed solleretts of the feet, the ornaments of the armpits, and the form of the helmet, are supposed to mark the date of the salver as that of Edward II. The other memorial to which we have referred is of a much more interesting character; it is thus recorded in the

Chronicle of

Bermondsey

:

Anno Domini

1117

. The cross of St. Saviour is found near the Thames.

William Earl of Morton was miraculously liberated from the

Tower of London

through the power of the holy cross.

a hide of land

In the year

1140

William Earl of Morton came to

Bermondsey

, and assumed the monastic habit.

Rood of Grace,

Rood of

Bermondsey

M. Gresham, Mayor. On Saint Matthew's day, the Apostle, the

24th day of February

, Sunday, did the Bishop of Rochester preach al Paul's Cross, and had standing afore him all his sermon time the picture of Rood of Grace ir Kent, and was

[ie

. which had been] greatly soughi with pilgrims; and when he had made an end of his sermon, was torn all in pieces; then wag the picture of Saint Saviour, that had stood ir Barmsey Abbey many years, in

Southwark

, taker down.

picture,

taken down,

Londinia Illustrata,

picture

In Wilkinson's work above mentioned is engraved a ground-plan of the site and precincts of Abbey, copied from a survey made in . It exhibits a ground-plot of the old conventual church, with gardens enclosed by stone walls, and bounded on the north by the churchyard of ; the west and north gates, leading into the

base court-yard,

Grange

History of Surrey,

the great gate-house, or principal entrance, the front of which was composed of squared flints and dark-red tiles, ranged alternately, was nearly entire in the year

1806

; but shortly afterwards it was completely demolished, together with nearly all the adjacent ancient buildings, and

Abbey Street

was erected on their site. The north gate led into the great close of the abbey, now

Bermondsey Square

, and surrounded by modern houses.

Grange Road

, which was built on the pasture-ground belonging to the monastery, commences near the south-west corner of the square, and extends to what was till lately

the Grange

Farm, and continues onward to the ancient water-course called the Neckinger, over which is a bridge, leading to the water-side division of the parish. In

1810

the present churchyard

(which had been previously extended in

1783

) was enlarged by annexing to it a strip of land

sixteen

feet in width, that formed a part of the conventual burial-ground; in doing which many vestiges of sculpture were found, together with a stone coffin.

We may add that King Stephen was a great benefactor to the abbey, on which he bestowed broad lands in Writtle, near Chelmsford, in Essex, and in other places.

In the previous chapter we have stated that , in a certain sense, may be regarded as a

region of manufacturers.

A circle

one

mile in diameter, having its centre at the spot where the abbey once stood,

London,

will include within its limits most of the tanners, the curriers, the fellmongers, the woolstaplers, the leatherfactors, the leather-dressers, the leather-dyers, the parchment-makers, and the glue-makers, for which this district is so remarkable. There is scarcely a street, a road, a lane, into which we can turn without seeing evidences of

one

or other of these occupations.

One

narrow road-leading from the

Grange Road

to the Kent Road--is particularly distinguishable for the number of leather-factories which it exhibits on either side; some time-worn and mean, others newly and skilfully erected. Another street, known as

Long Lane

, and lying westward of the church, exhibits nearly

twenty

distinct establishments where skins or hides undergo some of the many processes to which they are subjected. In

Snow's Fields

; in

Bermondsey New Road

; in

Russell Street

, Upper and Lower; in

Willow Walk

, and

Page's Walk

, and

Grange Walk

, and others whose names we cannot now remember --in all of these, leather, skins, and wool seem to be the commodities out of which the wealth of the inhabitants has been created. Even the publichouses give note of these peculiarities by the signs chosen for them, such as the

Woolpack,

the

Fellmongers' Arms,

Simon the Tanner,

and others of like import. If there is any district in London whose inhabitants might be excused for supporting the proposition that

There is nothing like leather,

surely

Bermondsey

is that place!

The old-established house, known as

Simon the Tanner,

The sign,

is supposed to be unique.

From the following enumeration of some of the manufacturers in alone, it will be seen how many branches of industry are carried on here in connection with the leather trade: hidesellers, tanners, leather-dressers, morocco leather dressers, leather sellers and cutters, curriers, parchment-makers, wool-staplers, horsehair manufacturers, hair and flock manufacturers, patent hairfelt manufacturers. There are besides these skin and hide salesmen, fellmongers, leather-dyers, and glue-makers, in other parts of the vicinity.

Market, the great emporium for hides and skins, is in , on the north side of . It was established on this spot about the year ; and the building, together with the ground whereon it stands, cost nearly . It is a long series of brick warehouses, lighted by a range of windows, and having an arched entrance gateway at either end. These entrances open into a quadrangle or court, covered for the most part with grass and surrounded by warehouses, and enclosing others for the stowage of hops. In the warehouses is transacted the business of a class of persons who are termed

leather factors,

Skin Depository,

bay.

bays,

As was supposed, when the New Skin Market was built, the trade in hides, as well as that in skins, has come to be carried on here. A large quantity of ox-hides, however, from which the thicker kinds of leather are made, are still sold at Leadenhall Market, which was long the centre of this trade; and nearly all the leather manufacturers in are still proprietors in that market.

The whole of the fellmongers belonging to the metropolis are congregated within a small circle around the Skin Market in . It forms no part of the occupation of these persons to convert the sheepskins into leather. The skins pass into their hands with the wool on, just as they are taken from the sheep; and the fellmonger then proceeds to remove the wool from the pelt, and to cleanse the latter from some of the impurities with which it is coated.

The produce of the fellmongers' labours,

passes into the hands of

two

or

three

other classes of manufacturers, such as the wool-stapler, the leather-dresser, and the parchment-maker. The wool-stapiers,

thirty

or

forty

in number, are, like the fellmongers, located almost without a single exception in

Bermondsey

. They are wool dealers, who purchase the commodity as taken from the skins, and sell it to the hatters, the woollen and worsted manufacturers, and others. They are scarcely to be denominated manufacturers, since the wool passes through their hands without undergoing any particular change or preparation; it is sorted into various qualities, and, like the foreign wool, packed in bags for the market. In a street called

Russell Street

, intersecting

Bermondsey Street

, the large warehouses of these wool-staplers may be seen in great number; tiers of ware or store-rooms, with cranes over them; wagons in the yard beneath; huge bags filled with wool, some arriving and others departingthese are the appearances which a wool-warehouse presents. It may, perhaps, not be wholly unnecessary to observe that the sheep's wool here spoken of is only that portion which is taken from the pelt or skin of the slaughtered animal, and which is known by the name of skin-wool. The portion which is taken from the animal during life, and which is called

shear wool,

possesses qualities in some respects different from the former, and passes through various hands. As very few sheep are sheared near London, the shear-wool is not, generally speaking, brought into the London market, except that which comes from abroad.

, in which we have now found ourselves, perpetuates the name of a somewhat eccentric individual who lived in in the latter part of the last century-Mr. Richard Russell, who died at his house in this parish, in . In Manning and Bray's

History of Surrey

he left, amongst other legacies, to the

Magdalen Hospital

,

£ 3,000

; to the Small-pox Hospital,

£ 3,000

; to the

Lying-in Hospital

, near

Westminster Bridge

,

£ 3,000

; to the Surrey Dispensary,

£ 500

; for a monument in

St. John's Church

,

£ 2,000

; to each of

six

young women to attend as pall-bearers at his funeral,

£ 50

; to

four

other young women to precede his corpse and strew flowers whilst the

Dead March

in

Saul

was played by the organist of

St. John's

, each

£ 20

; to the Rev. Mr. Grose, for writing his epitaph,

£ 100

(originally to Dr. Johnson, but by a codicil altered to Mr. Grose); all the residue to the Asylum for Young Girls, in

Lambeth

(supposed to be about

£ 15,000

);

eight

acting magistrates of Surrey to attend the funeral. The executors were Sir Joseph Mawbey, Samuel Gillam, Thomas Bell, and William Leavis, Esquires. There had not been anything apparent in the life of this person to entitle him to any particular respect, and the pompous funeral prepared for him produced no small disorder.

In is Union, which consists of some extensive ranges of buildings, forming a large square court, and covering a con-

Retracing our steps through , and by , we make our way to the south side of the , mentioned above. Here we again encounter evidences of the manufacturing industry of , in the shape of its tanyards-another of the numerous branches of trade arising out of the leather manufacture, which gives to so many of its characteristics. In , and or other places in the vicinity, may be seen instances of of the purposes to which tan is appropriated. A large plot of ground contains, in addition to heaps of tan, skeleton frames about or feet in height, consisting of a range of shelves above another; and on these shelves are placed the oblong, rectangular pieces of

tan-turf,

ten

or

twelve

for a penny,

All the tanneries in London, with, we believe,

one

exception,

are situated in

Bermondsey

, and all present nearly the same features. Whoever has resolution enough to brave the appeals to his organ of smell, and visit

one

of these places, will see a large area of groundsometimes open above, and in other cases covered by a roof-intersected by pits or oblong cisterns, whose upper edges are level with the ground. These cisterns are the tan-pits, in which hides are exposed to the action of liquid containing oak-bark. He will see, perhaps, in

one

corner of the premises, a heap of ox and cow-horns, just removed from the hide, and about to be sold to the comb-makers, the knife-handle makers, and other manufacturers. He will see in another corner a heap of refuse matter about to be consigned to the gluemanu- facturer. In a covered building he will find a heap of hides exposed to the action of lime, for loosening the hair with which the pelt is covered; and in an adjoining building he will probably see a number of men scraping the surfaces of the hides to prepare them for the tan-pits. In many of the tanneries, though not all, he will see stacks of spent tan, no longer useful in the tannery, but destined for fuel or manure, or gardeners' hot-beds. In airy buildings he will see the tanned leather hanging up to dry, disposed in long ranges of rooms or galleries. Such are the features which all the tanneries, with some minor differences, exhibit.

Between and the , and stretching away from on the north-west to Upper on the southeast, is the Bricklayers' Arms Station, the principal luggage and goods depot of the South-Eastern Railway. In the station itself, from an architectural point of view, there is nothing requiring special mention. The arrangements for the reception and delivery of the goods at this station are in nowise remarkable, nor are there any warehouses or stores worthy of particular notice. The site was purchased by the South-Eastern Railway Company in , and the lines of railway laid across the market-gardens of , in order to form a junction with the main line near New Cross. Besides being used as a heavy goods dept, the [extra_illustrations.6.125.1]  was for many years--in fact, until the erection of the station at Charing Cross-used as the terminus for the arrival and departure of foreign potentates visiting this country, and also for members of our own Royal Family going abroad. Hither the body of the Duke of Wellington was brought by rail from Walmer Castle, in , in order to be conveyed to , preparatory to its interment in .

It is mentioned in the histories of England that shortly after the battle of Edgehill the Common Council of London passed an act for fortifying the City, which was done with such dispatch, that a rampart, with bastions, redoubts, and other bulwarks, was shortly erected round the cities of London and and the borough of . It has been suggested that --the thoroughfare running parallel with , on the south side, from Upper to St. James's Road--may mark the site of some of the fortifications here referred to.

A glance at a map of London of half a century ago-or, indeed, much more recently--will show that nearly the whole of the land hereabouts consisted of market-gardens and open fields. At a short distance eastward of the Upper , and south of the , stood a windmill, the site of which is now covered by part of . On the east side of the abbey enclosures was the farm known as

The Grange

,

There appears reason to believe,

that the Neckinger was by degrees made to supply other ditches, or small water-courses, cut in different directions, and placed in communication with it; for, provided they were all nearly on a level, each high tide would as easily fill half a dozen as a single

one

. Had there been no mill at the mouth of the channel, the supply might have gone on continuously; but the mill continued to be moved by the stream, and to be held by parties who neither had nor felt any interest in the affairs of the Neckinger manufacturers. Disagreements thence arose; and we find that, towards the end of the last century, the tanners of the central parts of

Bermondsey

instituted a suit against the owner of the mill for shutting off the tide when it suited his own purpose so to do to the detriment of the leather manufacturers. The ancient usages of the district were brought forward in evidence, and the result was that the right of the inhabitants to a supply

Bridge And Turnpike In The Grange Road, About 1820.

of water from the river, at every high tide, was confirmed to the discomfiture of the millowner. Since that period there were occasional disagreements between the manufacturers and the owners of the mill respecting the closing of sluicegates, the repair and cleansing of the ditch, and the construction of wooden bridges across it; but the tide, with few exceptions, still continued to flow daily to and fro from the Thames to the neighbourhood of

the Grange

and Neckinger Roads. Many of the largest establishments in

Bermondsey

were for years dependent on the tide-stream for the watervery abundant in quantity-required in the manufacture of leather. Other manufacturers, however, constructed artesian wells on their premises, while the mill at the mouth of the stream was worked by steam power, so that the channel itself became much less important than in former times. Latterly this ditch, or

tide-stream,

as it was sometimes called, was under the management of commissioners, consisting of the principal manufacturers, who were empowered to levy a small rate for its maintenance and repair.

The Neckinger Mills, which cover a large space of ground between the and the

An attempt was made in the latter part of the last century to raise to the dignity of a fashionable watering-place. Although that portion of the district near the river was so close and filthy, there were, as stated above, pleasant fields stretching away towards the . The abbot's fat meadows were still green; and, indeed, a singular characteristic of the eastern parts of to this day (especially noticeable from the railway) is the strange mingling of factories, in which the most offensive trades are vigorously carried on, with market-gardens and green fields. In a chalybeate spring was discovered in some grounds adjoining the , of which advantage was taken by the proprietor with the view of inducing the waterdrinkers and the lovers of a fashionable lounge and promenade to resort thither, and in that manner caused this district to become for a brief interval what Hampstead had just ceased to be-a favourite suburban watering-place. In the Almanac, for , it is stated that a public-house called the

Waterman's Arms

teagarden.

Spa

Picture Gallery;

Mr. J. T. Smith, in his

Book for a Rainy Day,

Picture Gallery,

Stepping back to study the picture of the

Green-stall,

I ask your pardon,

said I, for I had trodden upon some

one

's toes.

Sir, it is granted,

replied a little thick-set man, with a round face, arch look, and closely-curled wig, surmounted by a small

three

-cornered hat put very knowingly on

one

side, not unlike Hogarth's head in his print of the

Gates of Calais.

You are an artist, I presume; I noticed you from the end of the gallery, when you first stepped back to look at my best picture. I painted all the objects in this room from nature and still life.

Your Greengrocer's Shop,

said I,

is inimitable; the drops of water on that savoy appear as if they had just fallen from the element. Van Huysum could not have pencilled them with greater delicacy.

What do you think,

said he,

of my Butcher's Shop?

Your pluck is bleeding fresh, and your sweetbread is in a clean plate.

How do you like my bull's eye?

Why, it would be a most excellent one for Adams or Dollond to lecture upon. Your knuckle of veal is the finest I ever saw.

It's young meat,

replied he;

any one who is a judge of meat can tell that from the blueness of its bone.

What a beautiful white you have used on the fat of that Southdown leg! or is it Bagshot?

Yes,

said he,

my solitary visitor, it is Bagshot; and as for my white, that is the best Nottingham, which you or any artist can procure at Stone and Puncheon's, in Bishopsgate Street Within. Sir Joshua Reynolds,

continued Mr. Keyse,

paid me two visits. On the second, he asked me what white I had used; and when I told him, he observed, It's very extraordinary, sir, how it keeps so bright; I use the same. Not at all, sir I rejoined: the doors of this gallery are open day and night; and the admission of fresh air, together with the great expansion of light from the sashes above, will never suffer the white to turn yellow. Have you not observed, Sir Joshua, how white the posts and rails on the public roads are, though they have not been re-painted for years?-that arises from constant air and bleaching. Come,

said Mr. Keyse, putting his hand upon my shoulder,

the bell rings, not for prayers, nor for dinner, but for the song.

As soon as we had reached the orchestra the singer curtsied to us, for we were the only persons in the gardens.

This is sad work,

said he,

but the woman must sing, according to our contract.

I recollect that the singer was handsome, most dashingly dressed, immensely plumed, and villanously rouged; she smiled as she sang, but it was not the bewitching smile of Mrs. Wrighten, then applauded by thousands at

Vauxhall Gardens

. As soon as the Spa lady had ended her song, Keyse, after joining me in applause, apologised for doing so, by observing that as he never suffered his servants to applaud, and as the people in the road (whose ears were close to the cracks in the paling to hear the song) would make a bad report if they had not heard more than the clapping of

one

pair of hands, he had in this instance expressed his reluctant feelings. As the lady retired from the front of the orchestra, she, to keep herself in practice, curtsied to me with as much respect as she would had Colonel Topham been the patron of a gala-night.

This is too bad,

again observed Mr. Keyse,

and I am sure you cannot expect fireworks I

However, he politely asked me to partake of a bottle of Lisbon, which upon my refusing, he pressed me to accept of a catalogue of his pictures. Blewitt, the scholar of Jonathan Battishill, was the composer for the Spa establishment. The following verse is perhaps the

first

of his most admired composition:--

In lonely cot, by Humber's side.

A large picture model of the

Siege of Gibraltar,

tokens

Spa Road

What was once the suburbs of London,

Walks round London

but which now forms an integral part of the town itself, was, in days long gone by, famous for its wells, of real or imaginary virtues. Springs, or holy wells, generally had their existence near some abbey, monastery, or religious house, and often formed no trifling addition to the revenues of the pious dwellers in those edifices. These wells have, with few exceptions, sunk into total disuse. In the south there was the long famous

Bermondsey

Spa. In the east was Holy Well, which has given its name to a neighbourhood. Not far distant was St. Agnes-le-Clair, still resorted to as a bath. On the northern side of the metropolis is Chad's Well, in

Gray's Inn Road

;

Islington

Spa, still of some account, and where in

1733

the Princesses Caroline and Amelia are said to have drank the waters;

Bagnigge Wells

, and Clerk's, or Clerkenwell-all famous in their day. A

second

Holy Well was near

the Strand

, and many others have sunk into oblivion.

At the corner of Neckinger and Spa Roads are some public baths and wash-houses. These institutions, which are now to be met with in almost every part of London, as well as in the country, originated in a public meeting held at the in , when a large subscription was raised to build an establishment to serve as a model for others, which it was anticipated would be erected, when it had been proved that the receipts, at the very low rate of charge contemplated, would be sufficient to cover the expenses, and gradually to repay the capital invested. The success of the bathing department in these establishments, as well as the necessity which existed for such means of cleanliness among the industrial classes, is to be found in the numbers who have used them since their opening.

At the junction of with the is Parker's Row, at the southern end of which stands , a brick-built edifice, of Romanesque architecture, erected in , from the designs of Messrs. Allen and Hayes. It was built chiefly out of the Church and School Fund. At the north-western corner of Parker's Row is a large Roman Catholic church and convent.

It is a curious circumstance,

and

one

in which the history of many changes of opinion may be read, that within

forty

years after what remained of the magnificent ecclesiastical foundation of the abbey of

Bermondsey

had been swept away, a new conventual establishment rose up, amidst the surrounding desecration of factories and warehouses, in a large and picturesque pile, with its stately church, fitted in every way for the residence and accommodation of

thirty

or

forty

inmates--the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy.

The convent of the Sisters of Mercy is also in the Gothic style of architecture, in keeping with the church. Lady Barbara Eyre contributed no less than towards its erection. Considerable additions were made to the edifice in -. In addition to a large school conducted by the

religious

The edifice mentioned above was erected on a site which had previously served as a tan-yard, supplied with water from the tide-stream, which at time passed close to the convent in its progress from the

Folly

, which winds eastward in the direction of and Deptford, is so named from an inn called [extra_illustrations.6.130.1]  which stood in this immediate neighbourhood, in what is now , down till a comparatively recent date. The house itself, which was named, in compliment, no doubt, to the island which was the birthplace of rum, is traditionally said to have been of the many residences of Oliver Cromwell, but we cannot guarantee the tradition. It is thus mentioned, in a work published in :--I

The building, of which only a moiety now remains, and that very ruinous, the other having been removed years ago to make room for modern erections, presents almost the same features as when tenanted by the Protector. The carved quatrefoils and flowers upon the staircase beams, the old-fashioned fastenings of the doors-bolts, locks, and bars--the huge single gable (which in a modern house would be double), even the divided section, like a monstrous amputated stump, imperfectly plastered over, patched here and there with planks, slates, and tiles, to keep out the wind and weather, though it be very poorly, all are in keeping; and the glimmer of the gas, by which the old and ruinous kitchen is dimly lighted, seems to

pale its ineffectual fire,

in striving to illuminate the old black settles and still older wainscot.

History of Sign-boards,

Over the water,

Diary,

to the

Jamaica house

, where I never was before, and then the girls did run wagers on the bowling-green, and there with much pleasure spent but little, and so home.

Halfway House,

Halfway House

New Jamaica

Lion and Castle.

the brand of Spanish arms on the sherry casks, and have been put up by the landlord to indicate the sale of genuine Spanish wines, such as sack, canary, and mountain.

The Cherry Garden itself, the site of which is now covered by a street bearing that name, was a place of public resort in the days of the Stuarts. It is mentioned by Pepys in his

Diary,

To Greenwich, and so to the Cherry Garden, and thence by water, singing finely, to the bridge, and there landed.

On the south side of , and at the northern end of , stands the parish [extra_illustrations.6.130.2] . It is a spacious building of brick and stone, and dates its erection from the year . The edifice, which is in the Grecian style of architecture, consists of a nave and side aisles, with a chancel and vestibules. The west front has a portico in the centre, composed of Ionic columns, surmounted by an entablature and pediment. The steeple, which rises from the centre of this front, is square in plan, and of stages or divisions, each of which are ornamented by clusters of columns and pilasters, the last storey being crowned with entablatures, having cinerary urns and vases above the angles. The spire is crowned with a vane in the form of a dragon. In the tower is a fine peal of bells.

Near St. James's Church is the Station, on the Deptford and . We have already spoken of the formation of this line of railway; but it may not be out of place to add here that few persons are aware of the enormous traffic

In , close by St. James's Church, is the biscuit factory of Messrs. Peek, Frean, and Co. The manufactory covers a large space of ground immediately on the north side of the railway, near the Station. It comprises several high blocks of buildings, for the most part connected with each other, and gives employment to a very large number of hands. In the centre of the building is a lofty clock-tower.

The Blue Anchor Road-so named from a tavern bearing that sign, at the corner of Blue Anchor Lane-commences at the , and winding in a north-easterly direction under the railway, and so on to the end of the , forms the boundary between the parishes of and . In a map of London and its environs, published in , and also in Coghlan's map (), the whole of this thoroughfare, which in those times had but few houses built along it, is marked as

Blue Anchor Road

;

Jamaica Level,

Galley Wall

.

Galley Wall

.

It is said by historians that in order to reduce London, Knut cut a trench or canal through the marshes on the south of the Thames; and Maitland considered that he had discovered its course, from its

influx into the Thames at the lower end of

Chelsea

Reach

outflux where the great wet dock below

Rotherhithe

is situated.

It is quite possible that Maitland was rather credulous, like many other antiquaries and topographers; though certainly it ought to be added that he does not

speak without book,

inquired of a carpenter named Webster, who

St. James's Church, Bermondsey.

was employed in making the

great wet dock at Rotherhithe

in the year

1694

, and who remembered that in the course of that work a considerable body of fagots and stakes were discovered,

part of the works intended to strengthen the banks of the canal.

History of London,

it is allowed by many eminent antiquaries that there might have been such a water-course as Maitland describes from the wet dock at Deptford round by St. Thomas a Watering and

Newington Butts

, quite up to

Vauxhall

, and into the Thames at

Chelsea

Reach.

wall

galleys.

galleys

Galley Quay,

It may be here remarked that in the early part of the present century there were pleasant walks about the and where we should now look in vain for rural enjoyments. The favourite route from to the was by way of the Halfpenny Hatch, the name of which is still retained, though the poplars and willows, and airy walks by the side of the small canals, are no more.

It is,

a delightful spot, where the pensive mind may

Rotherhithe Church, 1750.

in a summer evening indulge in an hour or

two

of delightful musing and wholesome promenade.

We may remark here, by way of a conclusion to this chapter, that and are both well matched in point of filth, dirt, and unsavoury smells with their neighbour across the river--Wapping. But squalid as is their general appearance, they abound in wealth, the fruits of industry and labour, no inconsiderable portion of it their own, while the remainder is stored up and warehoused within their boundaries for the convenience of their richer neighbours.

[extra_illustrations.6.118.1] Ancient Houses in Long Walk, Bermondsey

[extra_illustrations.6.118.2] Arms and Seals of Abbey of Bermondsey

[extra_illustrations.6.118.3] East Gate of Abbey of Bermondsey

[extra_illustrations.6.118.4] Abbey of Bermondsey

[extra_illustrations.6.121.1] The church of St. Mary Magdalen

[] See Vol. I., p. 243.

[extra_illustrations.6.125.1] Bricklayers' Arms Station

[] See Vol. V., p. 469.

[extra_illustrations.6.130.1] the Jamaica,

[extra_illustrations.6.130.2] church of St. James