Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places.Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 6
Walford, Edward
1872-78
Southwark (continued).-Bankside in the Olden Time.
Southwark (continued).-Bankside in the Olden Time.
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In the present chapter we must ask our readers to transport themselves along with us, mentally, some or years, to the with which Shakespeare and Burbage, and Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher were familiar. They will see no rows of densely-crowded courts and alleys, with their idle and dissolute, gin-drinking inhabitants; but before their eyes there will rise at least large round structures of singular appearance, not unlike small martello towers, open to the sky above, together with or plots of enclosed ground scaffolded about for the use of spectators. These are the Paris Gardens, and the Globe, the Hope, and the Swan Theatres. And besides these, there are the stately palaces of the Bishops of Winchester and Rochester, as we have already shown; and all to the south are green fields and hedgerows. | |
writes Mr. J. H. Jesse, in his
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It will be seen at once, from the above quotation, that the ancient topography of the southern bank of the Thames (or ) between London and Blackfriars Bridges, is peculiarly interesting to the lover of dramatic lore, as well as to the student of the sports and pastimes of our ancestors. Down to the middle of the century, and probably much later, with the exception of a few houses extending westward along the bank of the river, and sundry places of amusement, the greater part of the land hereabouts would seem to have been waste and unenclosed. | |
The Globe Theatre, as already mentioned by us, occupied part of the site now covered by Messrs. Barclay and Perkins' Brewery. | |
In the published in , we read that It was called the Globe from its sign, which was a figure of Hercules, or Atlas, supporting a globe, under which was written, ( ); and not, as many have conjectured, from its circular shape; for the Globe, though a rotunda within, was to the outward view a hexagon. | |
We have no description of the [extra_illustrations.6.45.4] , but that it was somewhat similar to our modern theatres, with an open space in the roof; or perhaps it more resembled an inn-yard, where, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, many of our ancient dramatic pieces were performed. The galleries in both were arranged on sides of the building; the small rooms under the lowest, answered to our present boxes, and were called rooms; the yard bears a sufficient resemblance to the pit, as at present in use, and where the common people stood to see the exhibition; from which circumstance they are called by Shakespeare and by Ben Jonson The stage was erected in the area, with its back to the gateway, where the admission money was generally taken. The price of admission into the best , or boxes, was in Shakespeare's time a shilling, though afterwards it appears to have risen to and half-a-crown. The galleries, or scaffolds, as they were sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private theatres was named the pit, seem to have been the same in price, which was sixpence, while in some meaner playhouses it was only a penny, and in others twopence. [extra_illustrations.6.45.5] | |
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The Globe Theatre, according to Mr. Dyce, in his was opened late in , or early in the following year; at all events, within years of the opening of the theatre in London. During the summer, the Lord Chamberlain's --of whom Shakespeare was -acted at the Globe, returning in the winter to the theatre at Blackfriars, which was more effectually sheltered from the weather. They also occasionally changed their by playing at the in , and at the theatre in . | |
No sooner did James I. ascend the throne, than he issued from Greenwich a royal proclamation, authorising, by name, &c. &c.,
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Shakespeare and his associates at this time were at the head of the Lord Chamberlain's company, performing at the Globe in the summer; but by virtue of it they ceased to be the Lord Chamberlain's servants, and became It may be added that is mentioned in a letter from Mrs. Alleyn to her husband, the founder of Dulwich College. | |
If any doubt exist as to the extent of Shakespeare's connection with the theatres in , it will be removed by the lines of Ben Jonson, in allusion to the fondness for dramatic performances which marked our last Tudor and our Stuart sovereign :--
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writes Charles Mackay, in his
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Theatres in those times were very different structures from what they are in the present day; they were unroofed, circular or hexagonal edifices, shielded from the rain by a canvas covering, and without scenery or decorations, as well as innocent of or for the more aristocratic part of the audience sat upon the stage, among the performers, drinking beer and enjoying a friendly pipe. The central area in the public theatres was termed the word being restricted to private theatres; the pits were furnished with seats, which was not the case with the
writes Mr. Dyce,
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The peculiar construction of the theatre in Shakespeare's time is referred to by the poet himself, for he thus speaks of the Globe Theatre in the play of . ;--
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In these early days of the drama, a curtain occupied the place of scenery, while the scene supposed to be represented was inscribed on a board, and hung up at the back of the stage, such, for instance, as or
is the bidding of the poet; and he spoke to an audience who could do even better than that, who could forget them altogether, in their apprehension of the spiritual grandeur and magnificence | |
47 | that was then with them in the cockpit. observes Charles Knight, in his
And yet it was here, and with such accessories as those mentioned above, that were produced nearly all the wonderful plays of the mighty poet. |
An account of the accident mentioned above is given by Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter dated :
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From a letter of Mr. John Chamberlaine to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated , in which this accident is likewise mentioned, we learn that the theatre had only doors.
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In was entered in the Stationers' books, | |
Taylor, the water poet, commemorates the event in the following lines :--
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It is also alluded to in some verses by Ben Jonson, entitled from which it appears that Ben Jonson was in the theatre when it was burnt. | |
The exhibitions given at the Globe appear to have been calculated for the lower class of people, and to have been more frequent than those at the Blackfriars, till early in the century, when it became less fashionable and frequented. The Globe was immediately contiguous to the Bear Garden; and it is probable, therefore, that those who resorted thither went to the theatre when the bear-baiting sports were over, and such persons were not likely to form a very refined audience. | |
It has often been said that Shakespeare, on his arrival in London from Stratford-on-Avon, was received into the playhouse in a subordinate position, and associated with company of a mean and low rank; but Mr. Dyce sees reason for believing that Among Shakespeare's fellows at this time were Marlowe, Greene, Lodge, Beaumont, Fletcher, Peele, Chettle, Burbage, and a few others. | |
We have already made some mention of Burbage in our account of Blackfriars Theatre, but as there is a certain sense in which James Burbage, carpenter, &c., of the parish of , , may be regarded as the father of the English stage, some additional notice of him here, in connection with the Globe, may not be altogether out of place. Although the drama had flourished in the shape, at all events, of miracle-plays and such-like performances in the ages before the Reformation, yet under our Tudor sovereigns the drama was not held in high | |
48 | honour, nor was the profession of a dramatist regarded as worthy of respect. Royal and court authority had all along set its face against plays and interludes as dangerous to the morals of the young, and, therefore, things to be forbidden to the citizens of London and their apprentices. Indeed, all plays were strictly interdicted within the City; and on occasion, when it became known that a play was to be performed at the in , the Lord Mayor received an order from Queen Mary to stop the performance. In the early part of Elizabeth's reign it was found that the dramatic element was too strongly mixed up with human nature to be quite suppressed, and that it was better to bear with and hold in check what could not be utterly forbidden. Accordingly, in the year , when the Lord Mayor had issued an edict altogether inhibiting plays within the circuit of the City, James Burbage, a carpenter, bethought himself that he would erect a structure of wood, which would serve for a theatre, on a site just beyond the |
Lord Mayor's jurisdiction. circumstances favoured his idea: firstly, his father-in-law was a man of substance, owning a few houses at ; and secondly, in the previous year, just prior to the revels at Kenilworth, Queen Elizabeth had permitted her favourite, the Earl of Leicester, to collect a body of actors, and to enrol them under a patent from the crown. At the head of this body was placed James Burbage. Aided by the help of his father-in-law, he obtained from a neighbour a lease of some land in , with permission from the landlord to build on it a theatre of wood. He did so forthwith; the play-house was opened; crowds flocked to it, and it was soon known over London as Its success was so great that some opposition was soon threatened; but Burbage saw his chance, and built hard by a rival theatre, which he called These buildings became the nursery of the English stage. In the Ben Jonson obtained his engagement as a writer and vamper of plays, and took to the stage for | |
49 | a living. Encouraged by his double success at , James Burbage grew bolder, and soon afterwards erected a theatre at Blackfriars, under the nose of the Lord Mayor and of the lords and ladies who lived around the Palace; and in spite of their remonstrances, he held his own, supported, no doubt, by Leicester's influence. In the year he opened the Blackfriars Theatre, which soon became the leading playhouse of the metropolis, and which is connected with the name of William Shakespeare. |
Several other playhouses now sprung up in quick succession-viz., the and the in the north of London; and on the south of the river, in , the the the and the near the Driven out of the City, and put to their wits' end for an honest livelihood, the poor players, who now began to style themselves began to build theatres in all the suburbs; and to James Burbage is due the credit of having enabled them to do so. In fact, until he came forward to assist the poor dramatists by his skill as a carpenter, and, in | |
some sense, manager too, there was no combined effort at producing a genuine English drama. But from the moment that Jamos Burbage, like a Thespis, erected his wooden theatre in , the calling of the player began to assume a definite character, and acting grew into the dignity of an art and a profession. Shakespeare found all these theatres, and others too, in existence when he came to London from in or the following year; and it is quite possible that, if it had not been for James Burbage, he would never have come to the metropolis, or written for us and for all time either or , as he would have had no stage on which to perform them. At all events, when he came to town, and joined the company at the Blackfriars, he became a fast friend of James Burbage and of [extra_illustrations.6.50.1] , who became the Roscius of his age, and the original actor of most of Shakespeare's principal characters. The elder Burbage did not live to see the lease of his theatre expire, and the building demolished and carried across the river into by his son Cuthbert. But he saw the Earl of Leicester's | |
50 | actors formally established as members of a recognised profession, and able to influence the age in which they lived. James Burbage died about the year ; his son Richard survived him for years, dying years before his friend Will Shakespeare. It may be of interest to add that the whole Burbage family lived and died in Holywell (now , , and were buried, along with several other in churchyard. |
In Shakespeare appears to have lived near the Bear Garden, in . writes Mr. Dyce,
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Shakespeare does not appear to have sustained any loss by the burning of the Globe Theatre, for he had parted with his interest in theatrical property on retiring to Stratford-on-Avon. His late partners, however, were sufferers to a very considerable extent, and Shakespeare, in all probability, contributed-along with King James and many of the nobility and gentry of the day--to the rebuilding of the theatre in the course of the following year. | |
As is well known, the line quoted as a motto to this chapter was the motto of the Globe Theatre; but it may not be known that this motto was the cause of couplets of verse, by Ben Jonson and Shakespeare respectively, quoted by Mr. Dyce from a manuscript formerly in the Harleian collection. Ben asks-
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To this replies, with pleasant repartee:--
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Besides the Globe, there were, as stated above, other theatres on the , called the [extra_illustrations.6.50.2] These appear, for some undiscovered reason, to have been called theatres.
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The Rose Theatre had the honour of numbering [extra_illustrations.6.50.3] , in his early days, as of its play-writers. In Henslowe's the manager, under date , acknowledges the receipt of as part of and, from another entry, it would appear that on the same day Henslowe lent him . Early in the December of the same year, there is an entry of lent to Jonson upon a book which he was to write for the company before Christmas, the plot having been already shown to its members. These facts show that he had then gained some standing, though not, perhaps, a very high , as a dramatic writer. | |
From the Rose we follow him to the Globe, where we find him for the time associated with Shakespeare, on whose recommendation the company of that theatre accepted his very successful hit, , which drew on him the notice of Queen Elizabeth. | |
Whilst writing for the theatres, Ben Jonson lived on the , whence he afterwards removed to the house of a wool-comber, just outside , and close to the where we have already made his acquaintance. | |
The Rose Theatre stood at the north end of what was formerly called ; it is mentioned by Taylor the in his . The Hope Theatre was near at hand, though we cannot identify its site precisely. | |
The Swan Theatre, near the Globe, was standing previous to , and was so named from a house and tenement called the mentioned in a charter of Edward VI., by which the manor of is granted to the City of London. It fell into decay in the reign of James I., was closed in , and was subsequently used only for gladiatorial exhibitions. Yet in its time it had been well frequented; for a contemporary author says,
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It may be mentioned here, in passing, that on this side of the Thames there was also another theatre at , of which, however, we know little except the fact that it was In the days of the late Tudors and early Stuarts, the performances usually commenced at m., and the prices of admission ranged from down to sixpence, twopence, and even a penny for the pit and galleries; and it is worthy of note that in the reign of the Protestant Elizabeth plays were acted both publicly and at Court on Sundays as well as on other days of the week, and under her successor at Court. [extra_illustrations.6.50.4] [extra_illustrations.6.50.5] | |
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But the theatres were not, as already hinted, the only places of public amusement along the . A sort of circus, called at the time the , was erected and opened here about the middle of the century, as a place for bear-baiting. The public were admitted by the payment of a penny at the gate, a penny at the or raised seats, and a penny for So popular indeed did the sport become that it even trenched on the theatres proper, and reduced their receipts. In , as Mr. Chambers tells us in his an order was issued from the Privy Council forbidding plays to be acted on Thursdays, because that day had been long set apart for The Lord Mayor of London appears to have followed with a public notice complaining that It maybe remarked that Elizabeth had been right royally entertained by Lord Leicester at Kenilworth with combats of dogs and bears, and no doubt often amused herself by witnessing the same scenes nearer home; so that in all probability she was occasionally present at , when, as we are told,
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In Aggas's plan of London, taken in , and in the plan taken by Braun about the same time, [extra_illustrations.6.51.1] are represented as plots of ground with scaffolding for the spectators, bearing the names of the and the
says Thomas Allen, in his
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The as this place came in process of time to be called, was still a place of frequent and favourite resort among the cavaliers of the reign of Charles I.; but the sport of bear-baiting went against the consciences, or, at all events, the stomachs, of the who did their very best to suppress it. At the Restoration, however, it was revived (with some of the least good points of the Royalist faith and practice), and the again looked up, though only for a time. | |
As a specimen of the sort of amusements which went on here under the Stuart kings, let us take the following out of Samuel Pepys's for . He writes, under date of , a few days before the Great Fire of London :--
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On the in the following year, Pepys was again here; for under that date we find him writing:--
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Again he writes, under date of the same year:
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The inimitable secretary would seem to have been rather partial to this rough kind of sport, for we again find him here on the , as shown by the following entry, under that date in his --
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John Evelyn went on occasion to witness the at , but apparently he was too disgusted to go there again. Here is the record of his visit, as told in his under date of :--
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Chambers, in his quotes a statement from the learned Erasmus, who visited England in the reign of Henry VIII., to the effect that the royal establishment included a and that even the great noblemen had their bear-wards; and that He also extracts from Laneham's account of the festivities at Kenilworth Castle the following picturesque description of a bear-baiting held on , the day of her Majesty's stay, when bears and a number of ban-dogs (a kind of mastiff) were tied up ready in the inner court. Laneham quaintly writes, comparing the baiting to a scene in Hall:--
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Ben Jonson is reproached by Dekker with having been so degraded as to have performed at Paris | |
53 | Garden. These places seem always to have been in bad repute even when they flourished most. Crowley, a versifier of the reign of Henry VIII., thus speaks of the :
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Pennant, who quotes these verses, seems to consider the last lines as a prophecy of the calamity that happened at the Garden in the year . An accident, as he says, befell the spectators; the scaffolding, crowded with people, suddenly fell, and more than a persons were killed or severely wounded. The Bear Garden, it may be added, in spite of its name, would appear to have been chiefly used, during the latter period of its existence, for bull-baiting. Randolph, in his makes the following reference to this particular species of amusement :
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It was to the Globe Theatre and the Bear Garden probably that Hentzner alludes in his published in the reign of Elizabeth, when he writes :--
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The theatres and gardens at , however, in spite of their bad reputation, were occasionally patronised by royalty; for we read that Queen Elizabeth, on the , went by water with the French ambassadors to Paris Gardens, where they saw a baiting of bulls and bears. Indeed, seems to have long been of sporting notoriety, for, in the Humorous , printed in , of the characters says, &c. It may here be added, as a scrap of antiquarian information, that the exhibition of bear-baiting in England of which we read, was in the reign of King John, at Ashby-de-la- Zouch, where
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It is clear that the to be witnessed in the Bear Garden was still under the patronage and countenance of royalty some century or so later than the reign of Elizabeth, for in we read of a warrant signed by Lord Arlington, ordering to be paid to Mr. James Davies, the for
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The celebrated actor, [extra_illustrations.6.53.1] -the founder of Dulwich College, of whom we shall have more to say anon-enjoyed this lucrative post as The profits of this place are said by his biographer to have been sometimes amounting to a year; and will account for the great fortune of which he died possessed. A little before his death, he sold his share and patent to his wife's father, a Mr. Hinchtoe, for . | |
Isaac D'Israeli, in his mentions the fact that the Sabbatarian view of Sunday was much advanced in London by the accident mentioned above which occurred here in :-- | |
54 | The Lord Mayor (who was a leading Puritan) made religious capital out of the fact by sending a formal notice of it to Lord Burleigh, as a thereby confusing the with the day of the week. |
We find that, in spite of his Puritan education, King James I. had the good sense to legalise those rational amusements without which life in a crowded metropolis would be past endurance. It is well known that he published the but it is not equally well known that in he issued his royal licence to Clement Cottrell, the groom-porter of his household, to license certain houses for bowling-alleys and tenniscourts, and even for cards and dice. bowling-alleys were licensed under this authority in London and , more in , in , in , and in . Within these same limits, tennis-courts were allowed, and also The | |
reasons alleged for this royal grant are stated by Anderson, in the quaint language of the time, to have been for
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The Puritans' aversion to the sport, however, as Macaulay remarks, arose not so much from pity for the bull or the bear, as from envy at the pleasure felt by the spectators. Verily, an amiable and saint-like trait! On the Restoration of Charles II., and the downfall of the Puritan faction, it can hardly be a matter of surprise to find that the legislation which had so long been applied to the suppression of even rational amusements should have taken a swing in the opposite direction. | |
It may be added, that although bear-baiting and bull-baiting never flourished under our later Stuart or our earlier Hanoverian sovereigns, it was not until that the practice was actually put down by Act of Parliament, which forbade the keeping of any house, pit, or other place for baiting or fighting any bull, bear, dog, or other animal. observes Mr. Chambers, [extra_illustrations.6.56.1] [extra_illustrations.6.56.2] | |
Strype, in his edition of published in , speaking of , on this spot, says,
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In the early part of the last century it would seem that another Bear Garden at Hockleyin- the-Hole, near Clerkenwell, had superseded this place of amusement in the public favour, probably on account of the absence of bridges across the Thames; and consequently, when it is suggested in the of , that those who go to theatres merely for a laugh had better in all probability the reference is to . | |
The name of the Bear Garden, however, still exists in this neighbourhood, being painted up at the corner of a court between the and . | |
The old Paris Garden--the name of which, too, still survives in this locality--was circular, open to the sky, surrounded with a high wall, without external windows; the scaffolds, or boxes, were in a wooden structure in the interior, surmounted by a high-pitched roof and a cupola. | |
The names of these and of many other such places of amusement bear testimony to the spirit of national jollity on the part of Londoners during the eighteenth century. But pleasure-gardens are almost as transitory as pleasure itself; of all these not now remains of bygone mirth and merriment. The jests have passed away, and so are the trees beneath which, and the walls within which, those jests were uttered, and those who pealed back echoes of the loudest laughter are silent in their graves. | |
In the neighbourhood of the theatres were several public gardens near the Thames, then a pellucid and beautiful stream. There were the Queen's Pike Gardens (now Pye Gardens), where pike were bred in ponds; the Asparagus Garden, and Garden. The last-named was a very fashionable resort, and famous for the handsome dresses of the promenaders. Indeed, to was a proverbial phrase for an introduction to the very of society. | |
In Chambers' is given a view of London during the Great Fire in , as seen from the rear of , from a print of the period by Visscher. The foreground is poetically raised, so as to represent a fairly high hill, though there is no high ground all the way down to Clapham; on it are sitting well-dressed citizens coolly surveying the disaster, while their dogs are lying asleep by their side. Evelyn writes in his --
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Chambers tells us, in his work above quoted, that there was an ale-house in , which had on its walls an authentic portrait of Dick Tarleton, the eccentric comic actor of Elizabeth's time. No doubt this was in the neighbourhood of ; but though Dick's name was kept up by tradition for upwards of a century, and though his jests were coll'cted and published, with notes and illustrations, by the Shakespeare Society, it is impossible now to identify the house in which many of Shaker ,;are's players no doubt used to congregate. | |
Another old tavern, formerly standing in the neighbourhood, bore the sign of which afforded, as the says, a fine moral on the instability of human greatness, and the consequences of ambition. It refers, of course, to [extra_illustrations.6.56.3] , and his fall from the power bequeathed to him by his father Oliver. An allusion to this tumbling propensity occurs in Butler's in the tale of the --
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Of several of the old inns and taverns of we shall have occasion to speak when dealing with the ; but we may remark here that those in , and along by the river generally, had a peculiar characteristic of their own, which has been well described by Charles Dickens in and some other of his works. George Augustus Sala, too, in his tells us, with a certain amount of drollery, how that and then he goes on to describe the typical waterside public-house, the as
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.6.45.4] interior of the Globe [extra_illustrations.6.45.5] Theatre Tickets [] See Vol. I., p 201. [extra_illustrations.6.50.1] his son Richard [extra_illustrations.6.50.2] Rose, the Hope, and the Swan. [extra_illustrations.6.50.3] Ben Jonson [] See Vol. I., p. 39. [extra_illustrations.6.50.4] Burbage Theatrical Document [extra_illustrations.6.50.5] Upper Gallery Ticket [extra_illustrations.6.51.1] the bear-gardens [extra_illustrations.6.53.1] Alleyn [extra_illustrations.6.56.1] John Bunyan's Meeting House--Bankside [extra_illustrations.6.56.2] An Old Mill--Bankside [extra_illustrations.6.56.3] Richard Cromwell |