LONDON, or rather the suburbs of Lon DON, from their connexion with WESTMINSTER, to be in a very improving state, and the learned Bishop GIBSON observes, that "in his days (1695) its further advancement had been so very great, that (as the ingenious Sir William Petty had probably computed it from the number of burials and houses in each city) London, in the year 1683, or thereabout, was as big as Paris and Rouen (the two best cities of the French monarchy) put together, and that now (above seven parts of it having been built since the great fire, and the number of inhabitants increased near onehalf, the total amounting to near 700,000,) it is become equal to Paris and Rome put together." *

Of the improvement of the city under the immediate inspection of the chief magistrates, we cannot, from the time OF SIR THOMAS ROWE, Mayor 1568, to the time of the fire of London, find any particular notices; although during the course of very near a century they unquestionably exerted their utmost powers, and used their utmost influence, to promote a work so beneficial, and which preceding dilapidations and commercial

* Perhaps the medium that Swift proposed, and indeed jocularly applied to the calculation of existing authors, who,

"As number'd by their pecks of coals,
"Amount to eighty thousand souls,"

might, with good effect, be seriously made to assist in the calculation of the number of inhabitants, their periodical increase, and the consequent increase of the metropohs. Sir William Petty, in his Political Arithmetic, states, that with respect to housing, the streets shew it to be double the value of what it was forty years before; that is, from 1636 to 1676. With respect to coals, he says, that "the shipping of Newcastle is now about 80,000 tons, and could not then be above a quarter of that quantity: first, because London is doubled in people; secondly, because the use of coals is at least doubled, they being heretofore seldom used in chambers as they now are, nor were so many bricks burned with them as of late, nor did the country on both sides the Thames make use of them as now." However accurate Sir William Petty may be in general, it is well known that brick-making increases but very little the consumption of coals, as the kilns are now only supplied with those that are sifted from the ashes. Upon the comparative quantities of coals used at different periods, we shali have some observations to make in a subsequent chapter.

1577, Dame Margaret Ramsey, being seised of lands in fee simple of her inheritance to the value of 2431. gave the same to Christ's Hospital, as appears by monuments erected there.

Ambrose Nicholas, Salter, Mayor 1516, founded twelve alms houses in Monkswellstreet, Cripplegate.

Among the benefactors to the metropolis must be recorded the name of William

Lamb. Esq." (sometime a gentleman of the chapel to Henry the VIIIth, and in great

favour with him,) a free brother of the company of Clothworkers, and a kind and loving citizen." That Lamb had the good fortune to be one of those who (from his skill in music) had the happiness to enjoy the continued favour of the most capricious monarch in Christendom, is certain; nor is it improbable that in the scramble for grants which followed the suppression of religious houses, he might obtain some they were given to worse persons, and applied to worse purposes. It is certain, that the affluence of Lamb was much greater than could have been derived from his profession of a chorister, or the pension upon which he retired at the death of the monarch whom he had served; for this amounted to no more than

† Vol. LL. p. 211.

Sanders, a Roman Catholic writer, says, that ifenry the VIIIth, when ancient and diseased, choleric and curious in trifles, was wont to reward such as ordered his screen or chair at a convenient distance from the fire,. with the church of some abbey, or the lead of some church. But setting aside this seeming slander, it is confidently asserted by Foller, in his Churelt History, book vi. p. 377, that he gave a religious house of some value to Mistress for presenting him a dish of puddings that pleased his patate. Another anecdote of the same nature may be seen in the Antiquarian Repertory, vol. i. p. 359.

in the note: yet it must be observed, that our privileges extended further than even the Grecian, for with respect to most notorious criminals, their asylum sometimes, instead of being a protection, increased the punishment; of which there are instances mentioned by the Scholiast of Euripides, also in Plautus in several places, and by other poets; though, as it was sacrilege to take suppliants out of the sanctuary, the method was to force them by fire, &c. to leave it.

Before the ancient church of St. Martin le Grand there was a solar, that is, a large and airy room, or chamber, somewhat like the galleries in some great houses, and still more like those kind of rooms which were formerly

cups, spoons silvered and plates of copper gilt uttered for gold, unto the common hurt of the people, be not suffered in the said sanctuary. And if any, being within the said sanctuary, be holden suspect of the things above mentioned, let him bee committed to ward until he find sufficient surety, as in the former article.

Item, That common putuers, strumpets, * and bawdes be not suspected in the said sanctuary. And if they claim its tuition, that they bee set to ward in open day times, 'till shame cause them to depart or to amend their vicious living.

There are other articles against the players at unleeful and reprovable games, such as hazard, dice, the Guek, the Kayelles, t the Cloysh, t &c, and also against the violation of Sunday by artificers (as well barbours as others) residing within the said sanctuary; and it is curious to observe, that although the Dean of Westminster claimed and exercised a separate jurisdiction, these are ordered to be punished according to the ordinances of the city.

* In MASSINGER'S Comedy, THE CITY MADAM, Goldwire says to Shavem, who seems to have been of that order of females,

"The Fachange shall court thy custom, And thou shalt forget There e'er was a St. Martin's."

↑ Cayls and Cloysh are two games, among many others, declared unlawful by the statute 33 Hen. ΠΙ. σφ. 9.

The Solar

deemed appendages absolutely necessary to TAVERNS and TIPPLING-HOUSES, being places of entertainment and plea sure where the company sat, and while they enjoyed the rays of the sun, if the Solar was in the front of the house, they used to chat with the passengers, and most probably to entice many to share their potations, to the great benefit of the host. * at St. Martin's was, as has been hinted, toward the street, and had a jetty extending so far outward, that it, or more probably the company that used, both during and after divine service, to stop in it, annoyed the people passing along. However this might be, the jetty had the discredit of the annoyance, and was in consequence presented at an inquisition held in times so remote as the reign of Edward the Ild. in these words: "That the Dean and Canons of St. Martin's the Great held a certain Solar against the said church, containing in length 29 feet and in breadth 11 feet; Cujus Gettificium est nimis bassum de tribus pedibus;" i. e. whose jetty was too low by three feet. This nuisance, for such it was deemed by the Annoyance Jury, the Dean and Canons agreed to abate, remove, and take away. t We have arrived at a fabric,

* In the ancient view of Cheapside, many Solars may still be observed; and there are

some traces of those that were situated toward the gardens, we think, still to be found in the very few taverns that now remain which exhibit any marks of the original plans of those convivial mansions. Solars, though now out of fashion, are still recognized in leases, where their appellation, disencumbered of the sense that was formerly annexed to it, still appears as one of the tautological ornaments with which those ingenious instruments abound, there it is still retained and frequently repeated; for it would be legally a crime to lose so important a word. However, from this it may be gathered, that those kind of rooms were not in the old city pecuhar to taverns, but common to all houses that had cellars, which, either antecedently or subsequently, are generally connected with them.

↑ This is another elegant instance of a Pleonasm, a figure of thetoric which, we find, was an ancient embellishment to legal language.

which having been, with respect to its foundation, and its most ancient state, already noticed in a former part of this work, we shall now consider its situation subsequent to the Reformation.

The different accidents by which this cathedral, venerable for its antiquity, still more venerable for its being the metropolitan centre of piety, suffered, have been frequently the subjects of astonishment and lamentation; therefore we shall only advert to the last, before its final destruction by the great and general conflagration.

In 1561, the august and highly cle. vated spire of this church was totally burnt by lightning; or, as is most probable, in consequence of the carelessness of a workman. After which it

• Dr. Heylin states, that a plumber, many years afterward, acknowledged, when on his death-bed, that he had occasioned the fire, by having left a pan of coals within the spire when he went to dinner; which of course, agitated by the wind, communicated to the tunber, and produced the ensuing devastation. The people gazed and lamented, while the flames descending gradually, enveloped the whole spire in a whirling blaze, which pervaded the interior wood, and only languished, and at length subsided, from the want of combustible materials It is extraordinary, that accidents of the same nature, and most probably proceeding from the same cause, should happen at distant periods, to the two principal churches in the metropolis. On the 9th of July, 1803, the plumbers em

was never rebuilt * antecedent to the destructive fire of 1666.

ployed to repair the roof of Westminster Abbey, when they went to dinner, left their grate of coals so incautiously, that the fire communicated to the rafters, and thence to the principal timbers, which, perfectly dry, and probably rendered porous by age, soon burst out into a considerable conflagration. At this terrific scene, which for some time threatened destruction to this ancient, august, and venerable pile, we were present in its interior; and perhaps there have been none that, for a period of several hours, ever excited greater anxiety, none that have presented a more dreadful spectacle. The large beams and smaller pieces of blazing timber fell from the roof into the choir, and a shower of fire descended that seemed to threaten destruction to the whole edifice: fortunately, however, for the building, for the city of Westminster, and indeed for the public, by the uncommon exertions of the officers of the church, and the ready and effectual assistance of the people, the fire was repressed, and at length totally extinguished, with less damage to the building than, from its appearance, could have been imagined: and it is singular enough, that while St. Paul's has been several times destroyed, or much damaged, this is the only accident of any importance that, in the course of more than eight centuries, has happened to Westminster Abbey.

* This circumstance, it has been observed, shews the date of 1560 to Aggas's famous Survey of London to have been erroneous, he having given the outline of the cathedral

The event of the demolition of this ancient and beautiful steeple, and the consequent damage of the church, it is said, attracted the attention of the whole kingdoin: the Queen (Eliza. beth) set the example of munificence, by giving toward the repairs 1,000 marks of gold, and 1,000 loads of timber from her forests. The City of London subscribed from the Chamber, 3,2471. 16s. 2d. ob. the Prelates and Clergy of the several dioceses resigned twentieths, thirtieths, and fortieths, of their benefices toward the fund, which augmented it to 6,7021. 13s. 4d. This ample supply enabled the commissioners who superintended the repairs to bring them to a conclusion, A.D. 1566.*

If we contemplate the pious motives that influenced the Queen and Clergy, and the zeal which animated the Lord Mayor, Alderinen, Citizens, and indeed the rest of her Majesty's subjects, to perfect this national work, the renovation of a metropolitan temple, whose august form seemed to stand as a representative of the holiness of Britain, it would be natural and reasonable to suppose, that when the repair of it was finished, it was kept pure and undefiled, and in neatness and cleanliness eLibited a pattern for all the other churches iu the city, indeed in the kingdom. We know, that before the Reformation, the cloisters of the GREY FRIARS

without a spire: but the error seems to exist in the observation: the copy from this survey, which now lies before us, bears the date of 1563, which is unquestionably taken correctly from the original. The plan, therefore, indicates to have been published two years after the fire, and no doubt gave the view of the church as it then appeared. Yet it is singular enough, that Jouson, who must bave been perfectly acquainted with the State of Paul's, has, in his comedy, Την DEVIL'S AN ASs, 1616, spoken of the steeple if it was still standing. Iniquity says,

ás

were used as a mart for toys, trinkets, millinery, drapery, &c. and that this kind of traffic still adheres to their site, or to its immediate vicinity: we have seen how, under the pretence of sanctity, morality was violated in ST. MARTIN'S LE GRAND, and have no very high idea of the decorum which, even in the strictest periods of the Roman Catholic times, was observed at the BLACK FRIARS; but in later ages, how nui. sances infinitely more disgusting could be suffered, and enormities of still greater importance, which had become habitual, could be connived at, in and about the cathedral of ST. PAUL, we have no conception: therefore, as it is casier to detail than to account for these things, we shall proceed to lay before our readers a few notices of the most obnoxious; not from any sensations of pleasure that we feel in recording them, but that they may in future ages be avoided.

In the summer of 1597, to the consequent annoyance of the neighbourhood, a dunghill of four cart loads lay at the steeple door within the church. About this time, drunkards and idlers were even indulged in lying and sleeping on the henches at the choir door.

Respecting the irreverent and careless behaviour of the officers of the church, we meet with the following presentments on the different visita

tions:

1598. "We think it a very necessarye thinge that every Quorister should bring with him to Church a Testament in English, and torne to every Chapter ás it is dayly read, or some other good and godlye prayer booke, rather than spend their tyme in talk and hunting after Spurr-money, whereon they set their whole minds, and do often abuse dyvers if they do not bestow somewhat on them." *

*

Spur-money was an exaction imposed upon persons who entered a cathedral booted and spurred, which we are sorry to say prevails at this day both in churches and palaces; Lichfield and Hampton Court for instances. About the time when this presentment was made. SPURS were, by the dashing youths of the metropolis, generally worn; BEN JONsox alludes to them in the ALCHYMIST, in the scene where SUBTIE advises ABEL DRUGGER to place a loadstone under his threshold,

"To draw in the gallants that wear spurs." Malcolm, in his London Redivivum, Vol. III.

"In the upper quier where the coion

table dothe stande ther is such unreverente people walking with ther hatts on ther heddes, comonly all service-tyme no man reproving them for

yt."

The presentment of John Ramsey records instances of uncleanness, and of indecency in language which it is not necessary to quote. From this document it appears, that so little attention was paid to decorum in the church, that porters, butchers, water-bearers, and who not," used to cross and recross it with their burthens, * even during divine service: the enormities consequent to this irreverence will easily be conceived.

With the fall of the CHANTRIES, to which we have before alluded, ed, the neglect and violation of the chapels, wherein divine service used to be performed for the souls of their founders, seems to have kept pace. It is of no importance to ascertain the purposes for which they were used, further than by observing, that one was made a glazier's workshop, perhaps a necessary appendage to so large a cathedral; but still, though its manufacture was plied to a spiritual edifice, it was certainly not necessary that the manufactory should have been consecrated.

ap

Among the encroachments on Sr. PAUL'S, which are by far too numerous to be particularly mentioned, we shall only hint at three of the most curious,

p. 71, a work which we wish to see continued, says, that "The gentlemen of the Chou were peremptory in their demand, and threatened unprisonment in the Choir all night to those who refused them money." This disgraceful importunity we have been subjected to from the singing-boys in country cathedrals.

* This kind of violation of the church we recollect to have prevailed in Westminster Abbey before the late regulation: all those sorts of persons above mentioned (except water-bearers) we have frequently seen pass and repass through the nave of that venerable pile without molestation, and even boys play at bail and trundle hoops in it, who, when spoken to, have pleaded prescription. Europ. Mag. Vol. LII. July 1807.

through a window into a part of the steeple, where the tenant had a WARE

ROOM.

John Frances, it appears, baked his bread and pies in an oven excavated

within a buttress of the cathedral!!!

These were a few of the enormities operating within and without this august and venerable fabric.. We shall now take notice of some of another nature, which were certainly less owing to avarice, impiety, or inattention, than to the fashion of the times.

4

In the reign of Elizabeth and James the Ist, PAUL'S, as the church was then familiarly termed, was the resort of the fashionable, the vain, the idle, and the disorderly people of the metropolis: its aisles were the principal walks in the city, and its vicinity the mart of elegant superfluities, and of the literature of the times.

We shall soon take notice of some of the booksellers settled in ST. PAUL'S Church-yard, but at present continue our observations upon those characters who may be said to have hung loose upon society, who were attracted to this part of the town by motives far less laudable than a search after books.

Shakspeare, who concentrated the passions and manners of every other period and every other country in his own, makes FALSTAFF, speaking of that dissolute character, BARDOLPH, say,

I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield. If I could get me but a wife in the Stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd." +

And there is no doubt but that Paul's

* It appears from the comedy of the City Madam, that Paul's was frequented by cutpurses. Shavem says,

ride t

"I'll hang ye both, you rascals. I can but You for the purse you cut in sermon time at

Paul's."

† Dr. Warburton's note upon this passage is:-"Paul's.] At that time the resort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the post." But it will be recollected, that the period of the scene is the sixth year of Henry the IVth, about 1404: therefore the learned Doctor should have observed, that the berd had by almost two centuries anticipated the removal of those people from St. Martin's le Grand.

+ Fe carted. D