marks; and alterations or vindications ensued. His characters, agreeably to what we feel when we read of them (for we know them all as intimately as if we occupied a room in their house), interested his acquaintances so far, that they sympathised with them as if they were real; and it is well known that one of his correspondents, Lady Bradshaigh, implored him to reform Lovelace in order "to save a soul." In Salisbury Court, Richardson of course had the same visitors about him, but the "flower-garden" is not talked of so much there, as at Fulham. In the evening the ladies read and worked by themselves, and Richardson retired to his study; a most pernicious habit for a man of his bad nerves. He should have written early in the morning, taken good exercise in the day, and amused himself in the evening. When he walked in town, it was in the park, where he describes himself (to a fair correspondent who wished to have an interview with him, and who recognized him from the description) as "short, rather plump, about five feet five inches, fair wig, one hand generally in his bosom, the other a cane in it, which he leans upon under the skirts of his coat, that it may imperceptibly serve him as a support, when attacked by sudden tremors or dizziness; of a light brown complexion, teeth not yet failing." "What follows," observes Mrs. Barbauld," is very descriptive of the struggle in his character, between innate bashfulness and a turn for observation :-"” “ Looking directly forwards, as passengers would imagine, but observing all that stirs on either hand of him, without moving his short neck; a regular even pace, stealing away ground rather than seeming to rid it; a grey-eye, too often overclouded by mistiness from the head, by chance lively, very lively if he sees any he loves; if he approaches a lady, his eye is never fixed first on her face, but on her feet, and rears it up by degrees, seeming to set her down as so and so."* Latterly Richardson attended little to business. He used even to give his orders to his workmen in writing; a practice which Sir John Hawkins is inclined to attribute to stateliness and bad temper, but for which Mrs. Barbauld finds a better reason in his bad nerves. His principal foreman also was deaf, as the knight himself acknowledges. Richardson encouraged his men to be industrious, sometimes by putting half-a-crown among the types as a prize to him who came first in the morning, at others by sending fruit for the same purpose from the country. Agreeably to his natural bashfulness, he was apt to be reserved with strangers. Sir John Hawkins tells us, that he once happened to get into the Fulham stage, when Richardson was in it (most likely he got in on purpose); and he endeavoured to bring the novelist into conversation, but could not succeed, and was vexed at it. But Sir John was one of that numerous class of persons, who, for reasons better known to others than to themselves, Deemen gladly to the badder end,' as the old poet says; and Richardson probably knew this pragmatical person, and did not want his acquaintance. - Johnson was among the visitors of Richardson in Salisbury Court. He confessed to Boswell, that although he had never much sought after anybody, Richardson was an exception. He had so much respect for him, that he took part with him in a preposterous undervaluing of Fielding, whom he described in the comparison as a mere writer of manners, and sometimes as hardly any writer at all. And yet he told Boswell that he had read his Amelia through "without stopping :" and according to Mrs. Piozzi she was his favourite heroine. In the comparison of Richardson with Fielding, he was in the habit of opposing the nature of one to the manners of the other; but Fielding's manners are only superadded to his nature, not opposed to it, which makes all the difference. As to Richardson, he was so far gone upon this point, in a mixture of pique and want of sympathy, that he said, if he had not known who Fielding was, "he should have taken him • Correspondence, as above, vol. i. p. clxxvii. for an ostler." Fielding, it is true, must have vexed We conclude our notice, which, on the subject of "The piety, order, decorum, and strict regularity that prevailed in his family were of infinite use to train the mind to good habits, and to depend upon its own resources. It has been one of the means which, under the blessing of God, has enabled me to dispense with the enjoyment of what the world calls pleasures, such as are found in crowds, and actually to relish and prefer the calm delights of retirement and books. As soon as Mrs. Richardson arose, the beautiful psalms in Smith's Devotions were read responsively in the nursery, by herself and daughters, standing in a circle: only the two eldest were allowed to breakfast with her and whatever company happened to be in the house, for they were seldom without. After breakfast, we younger ones read to her in turns the Psalms and lessons for the day. We were then permitted to pursue our childish sports, or to walk in the garden, which I was allowed to do at pleasure; for, when my father hesitated upon granting that privilege, for fear I should help myself to the fruit, Mrs. Richardson said, 'No, I have so much confidence in her, that, if she is put upon honour, I am certain that she will not touch so much as a gooseberry.' A confidence, I dare safely aver, that I never forfeited, and which has given me the power of walking in any garden ever since without the smallest desire to touch any fruit, and taught me a lesson upon the restraint of appetite, which has been useful to me all my life. We all dined at one table, and generally drank tea and spent the evening in Mrs. Richardson's parlour, where the practice was for one of the young ladies to read, while the rest sat with mute attention round a large table, and employed themselves in some kind of needle-work. Mr. Richardson generally retired to his study, unless there was particular company. "These are trifling and childish anecdotes, and savour perhaps, you may think, too much of egotism. They certainly can be of no further use to you, than as they mark the extreme benevolence, condescension, and kindness of this exalted genius towards young people; for, in general society, I know he has been accused as being of few words, and of a particularly reserved turn. He was, however, all his lifetime, the patron and protector of the female sex. Miss M. (afterwards Lady G.) passed many years in his family. She was the bosom friend and contemporary of my mother; and was so much considered as enfant de famille in Mr. Richardson's house, that her portrait is introduced into a family piece. "He had many protegées ;-a Miss Rosine, from Portugal, was consigned to his care; but of her, being then at school, I never saw much. Most of the ladies that resided much at his house acquired a certain degree of fastidiousness and delicate refinement, which, though amiable in itself, rather disqualified them from appearing in general society to the advantage that might have been expected, and rendered an intercourse with the world uneasy to themselves, giving a peculiar air of shyness and reserve to their whole address; of which habits his own daughters partook, in a degree that has been thought by some a little to obscure those really valuable qualifications and talents they undoubtedly possessed. Yet this was supposed to be owing more to Mrs. Richardson than to him; who, though a truly good woman, had high and Harlowean notions of parental authority, and kept the ladies in such order, and at such a distance, that he often lamented, as I have been told by my mother, that they were not more open and conversable with him. "Besides those I have already named, I well remember a Mrs. Donellan, a venerable old lady, with sharp, piercing eyes; Miss Mulso, &c. &c.; Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Thomas Robinson (Lord Grantham), &c. &c., who were frequent visitors at his house in town and country. The ladies I have named were often staying at North End, at the period of his highest glory and reputation; and in their company and conversation his genius was matured. His benevolence was unbounded, as his manner of diffusing it was delicate and refined*." Richardson was buried in the nave of St. Bride's Church, and a stone placed over his remains merely recording his name, the year of his death, and his age. In this church also were interred Wynken de Worde, the famous printer; the bowels of Sackville, the poet, whom we shall presently have occasion to mention again; and Sir Richard Baker, the author of the well known book of English Chronicles. De Worde resided in Fleet Street. (To be Continued.) *Correspondence, &c., by Mrs. Barbauld, vol. i. p. clxxxiii. LONDON: Published by H. Hooper, 13, Pall Mall East. Sparrow, Printer, 11, Crane-court, Fleet-street THE STREETS OF THE METROPOLIS. THEIR MEMORIES AND GREAT MEN. CHAPTER THE THIRD (continued.) White-friars, or Alsatia.—Admirable living description of its old state from Sir Walter Scott.-The Temple. Its monuments, garden, &c.—Eminent names connected with it.-Goldsmith dies there.—Boswell's first visit there to Johnson.-Johnson and Madame de Bouflers-Bernard Lintot.-Ben Johnson's Devil Tavern.-Other Coffee-houses and shops.-Goldsmith and Temple-bar.-Shire Lane, Bickerstaff, and the deputation from the country.-The Kit Kat Club.Mrs. Salmon.-Isaac Walton.-Cowley.—Chancery Lane, Lord Strafford and Ben Jonson.-Serjeant's Inn.-Clifford's Inn.—The Rolls.—Sir Joseph Jekyll.— Church of St. Dunstan in the West.-Dryden's house in Fetter Lane.-Johnson, the Genius Loci of Fleet Street. His way of life.-His residence in Gough Square, Johnson's Court, and Bolt Court.- Various anecdotes of him connected with Fleet Street and with his favourite tavern, the Mitre. Between Water lane and the Temple, and leading out of Fleet Street by a street formerly called White Friars, which has been rebuilt and christened Bouverie Street, is one of those precincts which long retained the immunities derived from their being conventual sanctuaries, and which naturally enough became as profane as they had been religious. The one before us originated in a monastery of White Friars, an order of Carmelites, which formerly stood in Water lane, and it acquired an infamous celebrity under the slang title of Alsatia. The claims, however, which the inhabitants set up to protect debtors from arrest seems to have originated in a charter granted to them by James I. in 1608. For some time after the Reformation and the demolition of the old monastery, Whitefriars was not only a sufficiently orderly district, but one of the most fashionable parts of the city. Among others of the gentry, for instance, who had houses here at this period, was Sir John Cheke, King Edward VI.'s tutor, and afterwards Secretary of State. The reader of our great modern novelist has been made almost as well acquainted with the place in its subsequent state of degradation and lawlessness, as if he had walked through it, when its bullies were in full blow. The rags of their Dulcineas hang out to dry, as if you saw them in a Dutch picture; and the passages are redolent of beer and tobacco. The sanctuary of Whitefriars is now extremely shrunk in its dimensions; and the inhabitants retain but a shadow of their privileges. The nuisance, however, existed as late as the time of William the Third, who put an end to it; and the neighbourhood is still of more than doubtful virtue. One alley, dignified by the title of Lombard Street, is of an infamy of such long standing, that it is said to have begun its evil courses long before the privilege of sanctuary existed, and to have maintained them up to the present moment. The Carmelites complained of it, and the neighbours complain still. In the Dramatis Personæ to Shadwell's play called the Squire of Alsatia, we have a set of characters so described as to bring us, one would think, sufficiently acquainted with the leading gentry of the neighbourhood; such as Cheatley. A rascal, who by reason of debts dares not stir out of White-fryers, but there inveigles young heirs in tail, and helps them to goods and money upon great disadvantages; is bound for them, and shares for them till he undoes them. A lewd, impudent, debauch'd fellow, very expert in the cant about the town. Shamwell. Cousin to the Belfonds; an heir, who being ruined by Cheatley, is made a decoy-duck for others not daring, to stir out of Alsatia, where he lives is bound with Cheatley for heirs, and lives upon 'em a dissolute, debauched life. Capt. Hackman. A block-head bully of Alsatia ; a cowardly, impudent, blustering fellow, formerly a sergeant in Flanders, run from his colours, retreated into White-fryers for a very small debt, where by the Alsatians he is dubbed a Captain, marries one that lets lodgings, sells cherry-brandy, &c. Scrapeall. A hypocritical, repeating, praying, psalm-singing, precise fellow, pretending to great piety, a godly knave, who joins with Cheatley, and supplies young heirs with goods and money. But Sir Walter, besides painting the place itself as if he had lived in it, puts these people in action, with a spirit beyond anything that Shadwell could have done, even though the dramatist had a bit of the Alsatian in himself; at least, as far as drinking could go, and a flood of gross conversation. In commencing the perusal of the following extracts the reader may fancy himself really turning out of Fleet Street in the time of King James the First, into this domain of infamy. We need scarcely remind him, that the two heroes whom he is following into the "sanctuary," are a young lord, who has been forced to take refuge there for striking a man within the verge of the court, and his acquaintance, a young Templar, who has undertaken to be his guide into these infernal regions. They descend, accordingly, but with very different sensations. The Templar," SUPPLEMENT, No. 3.] " says our author, was bustling, officious, and goodnatured; but used to live a scrambling rakish course of life himself, he had not the least idea of Lord Glenvarloch's mental sufferings, and thought of his temporary concealment as if it were the trick of a wanton boy, who plays at hide-and-seek with his tutor. With the appearance of the place, too, he was familiar; but on his companion it produced a deep sensation. "The ancient sanctuary of White-Friars lay considerably lower than the elevated terraces and gardens of the Temple, and was therefore generally involved in the damps and fogs arising from the Thames. The brick buildings by which it was occupied, crowded closely on each other; for in a place so rarely privileged, every foot of ground was valuable, but, erected, in many cases, by persons whose funds were inadequate to their speculations, the houses were generally insufficient, and exhibited the lamentable signs of having become ruinous, while they were yet new. "The wailing of children, the scolding of their mothers, the miserable exhibitions of ragged linens hung from the windows to dry, spoke the wants and distresses of the wretched inhabitants; while the sounds of complaint were mocked and overwhelmed in the riotous shouts, oaths, profane songs, and boisterous laughter, that issued from the ale-houses and taverns, which, as the signs indicated, were equal in number to all the other houses. And, that the full character of the place might be evident, several faded, tinselled, and painted females looked boldly at the strangers from their open lattices, or more modestly seemed busied with the cracked flower pots, filled with mignionette and rosemary, which were disposed in front of the windows, to the great risk of the passengers." Semi-reducta Venus,' said the Templar, pointing to one of these nymphs, who seemed afraid of observation, and partly concealed herself behind the casement, as she chirped to a miserable blackbird, the tenant of a wicker prison, which hung outside on the black brick wall. 'I know the face of yonder waistcoateer,' continued the guide, 'and I could wager a rose-noble, from the posture she stands in, that she. has clean head-gear, and a soiled night-rail. But here come two of the male inhabitants, smoking like moving volcanoes! These are roaring blades, whom Nicotia and Trinidado serve, I dare swear, in lieu of beef and pudding; for, be it known to you, my Lord, that the king's counter-blast against the Indian weed, will no more pass current in Alsatia, than will his writ of capias.' "As he spoke, the two smokers approached; shaggy, uncombed ruffians, whose enormous mustachios were turned back over their ears, and mingled with the wild elf locks of their hair, much of which was seen under the old beavers, which they wore aside upon their heads, while some straggling portion escaped through the rents of the hats aforesaid. Their tarnished plush jerkins, large slops, or trunk breeches, their broad greasy shoulder-belts, and discoloured scarfs, and above all, the ostentatious manner in which the one wore a broad sword, and the other an extravagantly long rapier and poinard, marked the true Alsatian bully, then, and for a hundred years afterwards, a well-known character. "Tour out,' said the one ruffian to the other, 'tout the bien mort twiring at the gentry cove!' "I smell a spy,' replied the other, looking at Nigel; chalk him across the peepers with your cheery.' + “Bing avast, bing avast!' replied his companion, 'yon other is rattling Reginald Lowestoffe of the Temple; I know him, he is a good boy, and free of the province.' "So saying, and enveloping themselves in another thick cloud of smoke, they went on without further greeting. "Crasso in aere "said the Templar; you hear what a character the impudent knaves give me-but so it serves your lordship's turn, I care not. And now, let me ask your lordship what name you will assume, for we are near the ducal palace of Duke Hildebrod."" "I will be called Grahame,' said Nigel; it was my mother's name.' "Grime,' repeated the Templar, will suit Alsatia well enough; both a grim and grimy place of refuge.' "I said Grahame, Sir, not Grime,' said Nigel, something shortly, and laying an emphasis on the vowel; for few Scotsmen understand raillery on the subject of their names.' "I beg pardon, my lord,' answered the undisconcerted punster, but Graam will suit the circumstance too-it signifies tribulation in the High Dutch, and your lordship may be considered as a man under trouble.' “Nigel laughed at the pertinacity of the Templar, who proceeding to point out a sign representing, or believed to represent, a dog attacking a bull, and running at his head in the true scientific style of onset,-'There,' said he, 'doth faithful Duke Hilde. "Look sharp. See how the girl is coquetting with the strange gallants." ↑ "Slash him over the eyes with your dagger." brod deal forth laws, as well as ale and strong waters, to his faithful Alsatians. Being a determined champion of Paris Garden, he has chosen a sign corresponding to his habits, and he deals in giving drink to the thirsty, that he himself may drink without paying, and receive pay for what is drunken by others. Let us enter the ever open gate of this second Axylus.' · "As he spoke, they entered the dilapidated tavern, which was, nevertheless, more ample in dimensions, and less ruinous than many houses in the same evil neighbourhood. Two or three haggard, ragged drawers ran to and fro, whose looks, like those of owls, seemed only adapted for midnight, when other creatures sleep, and who, by day, seemed bleered, stupid, and only half awake. Guided by one of these blinking Ganymedes, they entered a room, where the feeble rays of the sun were almost wholly eclipsed by volumes of tobacco-smoke rolled from the tubes of the company, while out of the cloudy sanctuary arose the old chaunt of "Old Sir Simon the king, And old Sir Simon the king, And sing hey ding-a-ding ding.' "Duke Hildebrod, who himself condescended to chaunt this ditty to his loving subjects, was a monstrously fat old man, with only one eye; and a nose which bore evidence to the frequency, strength, and depth of his potations. He wore a murrey-coloured plush jerkin, stained with the overflowings of the tankard, and much the worse for wear, and unbuttoned at bottom for the ease of his enormous paunch.. Behind him lay a favourite bull-dog, whose round head, and single black glancing eye, as well the creature's great corpulence, gave it a burlesque resemblance to its master. "The well-beloved counsellors, who surrounded the ducal throne, incensed it with tobacco, pledged. its occupier in thick, clammy ale, and echoed back his choral songs, were satraps worthy of such a Soldan. The buff jerkin, broad belt, and long sword of one, showed him to be a low country soldier, whose look of scowling importance, and drunken impudence, were designed to sustain his title to call himself a roving blade. It seemed to Nigel that he had seen this fellow somewhere or other. A hedgeparson, or buckle-beggar, as that order of priesthood has been irreverently termed, sate on the Duke's left, and was easily distinguished by his torn band, flapped hat, and the remnants of a rusty cassock. Beside the parson sat a most wretched and meagre-looking old man, with a thread-bare hood of coarse kersey upon his head, and buttoned about his neck, while his pinched features, like those of old Daniel, were illuminated by an eye, Through the last look of dotage both cunning and sly.. On his left was placed a broken attorney, who, for some mal-practices, had been struck from the roll of practitioners, and who had nothing left of his profes-. sion but its roguery. One or two persons of less figure, amongst whom there was one face, which like that of the soldier, seemed not unknown to Nigel, though he could not recollect where he had seen it, completed the council board of Jacob Duke of Hildebrod. "The strangers had full time to observe all this; for his grace the Duke, whether irresistibly carried on by the full tide of harmony, or whether to impress the strangers with a proper idea of his consequence, chose to sing his ditty to an end before addressing them, though, during the whole time, he closely scrutinized them with his single optic. "When Duke Hildebrod had ended his song, he. informed his peers that a worthy officer of the Temple attended them, and commanded the captain and parson to abandon their casy chairs in behalf of the two strangers, whom he placed on his right and left hand. The worthy representatives of the army and the church of Alsatia, went to place themselves on a crazy form at the bottom of the table, which, ill calculated to sustain men of such weight, gave way under them, and the man of the sword and the man of the gown were rolled over each other on the floor, amidst the exulting shouts of the company. They arose in wrath, contending which should vent his displeasure in the loudest and deepest oaths, a strife in which the parson's superior acquaintance with theology enabled him greatly to excel the captain, and were at length with difficulty tranquillized by the arrival of the alarmed waiters with more stable chairs, and by a long draught of the cooling tankard. When this commotion was appeased, and the strangers courteously accommodated with flagons, after the fashion of the others present, the Duke drank prosperity to the Temple in the most gracious manner, together with a cup of welcome to Master Reginald Lowestoffe; and this courtesy having been thankfully accepted, the party honoured prayed permission to call for a gallon of Rhenish, over which he proposed to open his business. "The mention of a liquor so superior to their usual potations, had an instant and most favourable effect upon the little senate; and its immediate appearance might be said to secure a favourable reception of [SPARROW, PRINTER, CRANE-COURT Master Lowestoffe's proposition, which, after a round or two had circulated, he explained to be the admission of his friend, Master Nigel Grahame, to the benefit of the sanctuary and other immunities of Alsatia, in the character of a grand compounder." Infamous as this precinct was, there were some good houses in it, and some respectable inhabitants. The first Lord Sackville lived there; another inhabitant was Ogilby, who was a decent man, though a bad poet, and taught dancing; and Shirley another. It appears also to have been a resort of fencingmasters, which probably helped to bring worse company. They themselves indeed were in no good repute. One of them, a man of the name of Turner, living in Whitefriars, gave rise to a singular instance of revenge recorded in the State Trials. Lord Sanquire, a Scotch nobleman, in the time of James I., playing with Turner at foils, and making too great a shew of his wish to put down a master of the art, (probably with the insolence common to the nobility of that period), was pressed upon so hard by the man, that he received a thrust which put out one of his eyes. "This mischief," says Wilson, "was much regretted by Turner; and the baron, being conscious to himself that he meant his adversary no good, took the accident with as much patience as men that lose one eye by their own default, use to do for the preservation of the other." "Some time after," continues this writer, "being in the court of the late great Henry of France, and the king (courteous to strangers), entertaining discourse with him, asked him, "How he lost his eye' He (cloathing his answer in a better shrowd than a plain fencer's) told him, 'It was done with a sword: The king replies, 'Doth the man live?' and that question gave an end to the discourse, but was the beginner of a strange confusion in his working fancy, which neither time nor distance could compose, carrying it in his breast some years after, till he came into England, where he hired two of his countrymen, Gray and Carliel, men of low and mercenary spirits, to murther him; which they did with a case of pistols in his house in Whitefriars, many years after." For many years read five,-enough, however, to make such a piece of revenge extraordinary. Gray and Carliel were among his followers. Gray, however, did not assist in the murder. He repented; and Carliel got another accomplice named Irweng. "These two, about seven o'clock in the evening, (to proceed in the words of Coke's report,) came to a house in the Friars, which Turner used to frequent as he came to his school, which was near that place; and finding Turner there, they saluted one another; and Turner with one of his friends sat at the door asking them to drink; but Carliel and Irweng turning about to cock the pistol, came back immediately, and Carliel draw ing it from under his coat, discharged it upon Turner, and gave him a mortal wound near the left pap; so that Turner, after having said these words, 'Lord, have mercy upon me! I am killed,' immediately fell down. Whereupon Carliel and Irweng fled, Carliel to the town, and Irweng towards the river; but mistaking his way and entering into a court where they sold wood, which was no thoroughfare, he was taken. Carliel likewise fled, and so did also the baron of Sanchar. The ordinary officers of justice did their utmost, but could not take them; for, in fact, as appeared afterwards, Carliel fled into Scotland, and Gray towards the sea, thinking to go to Sweden, and Sanchar hid himself in England."‡ James, who had shewn such favour to the Scotch as to make the English jealous, and who also hated an ill-natured action, when it was not to do good to any of his favourites, thought himself bound to issue a promise of reward for the arrest of Sanquire and the others. It was successful; and all three were hung, Carliel and Irweng in Fleet Street, opposite the great gate of Whitefriars (the entrance of the present Bouverie Street), and Sanquire in Palace Yard, before Westminster Hall. He made a singular defence, very good and penitent, and yet remarkably illustrative of the cheap rate at which plebeian blood was held in those times; and no doubt his death was a great surprise to him. The people, not yet enlightened on these points, took his demeanour in such good part, that they expressed great pity for him, till they perceived that he died a Catholic! This and other pretended sanctuaries were at length put down by an act of parliament passed about the beginning of the last century. It is curious that the once lawless domain of Alsatia should have had the law itself for its neighbour; but Sir Walter has shewn us, that they had more sympathies than might be expected. It was a local realization of the old proverb of extremes meeting, We now step out of this old chaos into its quieter vicinity, which, however, was not always as quiet as it is now. The Temple as its name imports, was once the seat of the Knights Templars, an order at once priestly and military, originating in the crusades, and whose business it was to defend the Temple at Jerusalem. How they degenerated, and what sort of vows they * Fortunes of Nigel, vol. ii. p. 129. ↑ Life and Reign of King James I., quoted in Howell's State Trials, vol. ii. p. 745. + State Trials, ut supra, p. 762. were in the habit of making, instead of those of chastity and humility, the modern reader need not be told, after the masterly pictures of them in the writer from whom we have just taken another set of ruffians. The Templars were dissolved in the reign of Edward H., and their house occupied by successive nobles, till it came into the possession of the law, in whose hands it was confirmed "for ever" by James I. We need not enter into the origin of its division into two parts, the Inner and Middle Temple. Suffice to say, that the word Middle, which implies a third Temple, refers to an outer one, or third portion of the old buildings, which does not appear to have been ever occupied by lawyers, but came into possession of the celebrated Essex family, whose name is retained in the street where it was situated, on the other side of Temple Bar. There is nothing remaining of the ancient buildings, but the church built in 1185, which is a curiosity justly admired, particularly for the monuments of some knights, whose crossed legs indicate that they had either been to the Holy Land as crusaders, or vowed to proceed thither. One of them is ascertained to have been Geoffrey de Magnavile, Earl of Essex, who was killed at Benwell in Cambridgeshire, in 1148. Among the other effigies are supposed to be those of the Marshals, first, second, and third Earls of Pembroke, who all died in the early part of the thirteenth century. But even these have not been identified upon any satisfactory grounds, and with regard to some of the rest, not so much as a probable conjecture has been offered. As it is an opinion still prevailing, that these crosslegged knights are Knights Templars, we have copied below the most complete information respecting them which we have hitherto met with. And the passage is otherwise curious.* The two Temples, or law colleges, occupy a large space of ground between White Friars and Essex Street; Fleet Street bounding them on the north, and the river on the south. They compass an irregular mass of good substantial houses, in lanes and open places, the houses being divided into chambers, or floors for separate occupants, some of which are let to persons not in the profession. The garden about thirty years ago was enlarged, and a muddy track under it, on the side of the Thames, converted into a pleasant walk. This garden is still not very large, but it deserves its name both for trees and flowers. There is a descent into it, after the Italian fashion, from a court with a fountain in it, surrounded with trees, through which the view of the old walls and buttresses of the Middle Temple Hall is much admired. But a poet's hand has touched the garden, and made it bloom with roses above the real. It is the scene, in Shakspeare, of the origin of the factions of York and Lancaster. PLANTAGENET. Since you are tongue-ty'd, and so loth to speak, . And stands upon the honour of his birth, Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer, I love no colours; and, without all colour "It is an opinion which universally prevails with regard to those cross-legged monuments," says Dr. Nash, "that they were all erected to the memory of Knights Templars. Now to me it is very evident, that not one of them belonged to that order; but, as Mr. Habingdon, in describing this at Alve church, hath justly expressed it, to Knights of the Holy Voyage. For the order of Knights Templars followed the rule of the Canons regular of St. Austin, and, as such, were under a vow of celibacy. Now there is scarcely one of these monuments, which is certainly known for whom it is erected; but it is as certain, that the person it represented was a married man. The Knights Templars always wore a white habit, with a red cross on the left shoulder. I believe, not a single instance can be produced, of either the mantle or cross being carved on any of these monuments, which surely would not have been omitted, as by it they were distinguished from all other orders, had these been really designed to represent Knights Templars. Lastly, this order was not confined to England only, but dispersed itself all over Europe: yet it will be very difficult to find one cross-legged monument any where out of England: whereas they would have abounded in France, Italy; and elsewhere, had it been a fashion peculiar to that famous order. But though, for these reasons, I cannot allow the cross-legged monuments to have been for Knights Templars, yet they had some relation to them, being the memorials of those zealous devotees, who had either been in Palestine, personally engaged in what was called the Holy War, or had laid themselves under a vow to go thither, though perhaps they were prevented from it by death. Some few, indeed, might possibly be erected to the memory of persons who had made pilgrimages there merely out of private devotion. Among the latter, probably, was that of the lady of the family of Mepham, of Mepham, in Yorkshire, to whose memory a cross-legged monument was placed in a chapet adjoining to the once collegiate church of Howden, in Yorkshire, and is at this day remaining, together with that of her husband, on the same tomb. As this religious madness lasted no longer than the reign of Henry III. (the tenth and last crusade being published in the year 1268,) and II,, military expeditions to the Holy Land, as well as devout the whole order of Knights Templars was dissolved by Edward pilgrimages there, had their period by the year 1312; consequently none of those cross-legged monuments are of a later date than the reign of Edward ÏÏ., or beginning of Edward III. nor of an earlier than that of King Stephen, when these expe. ditions first took place in this kingdom." History and Antiquities of Worcestershire, fol. vol. i. p. 31. Of base insinuating flattery, I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet. SUFFOLK. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset ; And say withal I think he held the right. There were formerly rooks in the Temple trees, a colony brought by Sir Edward Northey, a well-known lawyer in Queen Anne's time, from his grounds at Epsom. It was a pleasant thought, supposing that the colonists had no objection. The rook is a grave legal bird, both in his coat and habits; living in communities, yet to himself; and strongly addicted to discussions of meum and tuum. The neighbourhood, however, appears to have been too much for him; for upon inquiring on the spot, we are told that there have been no rooks for many years. The oldest mention of the Temple as a place for lawyers, has been commonly said to be found in a passage of Chaucer, who is reported to have been of the Temple himself. It is in his character of the Manciple, or Steward, whom he pleasantly pits against his learned employers, as outwitting even them-> selves : A gentle manciple was there of a temple, ensemple, For to ben wise in buying of vitaille. For whether that be paid, or took by taille, Algate he waited so in his achate, That he was ay before in good estate. Now is not that of God a full fair grace, That such a lewed (ignorant) mannes wit shall pass The wisdom of a heap of learned men ?* Spenser, in his epic way, not disdaining to bring the homeliest images into his verse, for the sake of the truth in them, speaks of those bricky towers The which on Thames' broad aged back do ride, The "studious lawyers," in their towers by the water side, present a quiet picture. Yet in those times, it seems, they were apt to break into overt actions of vivacity, a little excessive, and such as the habit of restraint inclines people to before they have arrived at years of discretion. In Henry the Eighth's time, the gentlemen of the Temple were addicted to "shove and slip-groats," which became forbidden them under a penalty; and in the age in which Spenser wrote, so many encounters had taken place, of a dangerous description, that they were prohibited from carrying any other weapon into the hall (the dining room), "than a dagger or knife,"-"as if," says Mr. Malcolm, "those were not more than sufficient to accomplish unpremeditated deaths."§ We are to suppose, however, that gentlemen would not kill each other, except with swords. The dagger, or carving knife, which it was customary to carry about the person in those days, was for the mutton.|| A better mode of recreating and giving vent to their animal spirits, was the custom prevalent among the lawyers at that period of presenting masques and pageants. They were great players, with a scholarly taste for classical subjects; and the gravest of them did not disdain to cater in this way for the amusement of their fellows, sometimes for that of crowned heads. The name of Bacon is to be found among the "getters up" of a shew at Gray's Inn, for the entertainment of the sovereign; and that of Hyde, on a similar occasion, in the reign of king Charles the First. A masque has come down to us written by William Browne, a disciple of Spenser, expressly for the society of which he was a member, and entitled the Inner Temple Masque. It is upon the story of Circe and Ulysses, and is worthy of the school of poetry out of which he came. Beaumont wrote another, called the Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. A strong union has always existed between the law and the belles-lettres, highly creditable to the former, or rather • Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. We quote no edition, because, where we could, we have modernized the spelling; which is a justice to this fine old author in a quotation, that nobody may pass it over. With regard to Chaucer's being of the Temple, and to his beating the Franciscan in Fleet Street, all that is known depends upon the testimony of a Mr. Buckley, who, according to Speght, had seen a Temple record to that effect. ↑ Prothalamion. "Shove-groat, named also Slyp-goat, and Slide-thrift, are sports occasionally mentioned by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and probably were analogous to the modern pastime called Justice Jervis, or Jarvis, which is confined to common pot houses, and only practised by such as frequent the tap-rooms." Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, 1828, chap. i. sect. xix. It is played with half-pence; which are jerked with the palm of the hand, from the edge of a table, towards certain numbers described upon it. Londinium Redivivum, vol. II. p. 290. Sir John Davies, who was afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and wrote a poem on the Art of Dancing (3 lively was the gravity of those days!) bastinadoed a man at dinner in the Temple Hall, for which he was expelled. The man probably deserved it, for Davies had a fine nature; and he went back again by favour of the excellent Lord Elles mere. naturally to be expected from the mode in which lawyers begin their education, and the diversity of knowledge which no men are more in the way of acquiring afterwards. Blackstone need not have written his farewell to the Muses. If he had been destined to be a poet, he could not have taken his leave; and as an accomplished lawyer, he was always within the pale of the literæ humaniores. The greatest practical lawyers, such as Coke and Plowden, may not have been the most literary, but those who have understood the law in the greatest and best spirit have; and the former, great as they may be, are yet but as servants and secretaries to the rest. They know where to find, but the others know best how to apply. Bacon, Clarendon, Selden, Somers, Cowper, Mansfield, were all men of letters. So is the illustrious person who now presides in the court of Chancery. Pope says, that Mansfield would have been another Ovid. This may be doubted; but nobody should doubt that the better he understood a poet, the fitter he was for universality of judgment. The greatest lawyer is the greatest legislator. The "pert Templar," of whom we hear so much, between the reigns of the Stuarts and the late king, came up with the growth of literature and the coffeehouses. Every body then began to write or to criticise; and young men, brought up in the mooting of points, and in the confidence of public speaking, naturally pressed among the foremost. Besides, a variety of wits had issued from the Temple in the reign of Charles and his brother, and their successors in lodging took themselves for their heirs in genius. The coffee-houses by this time had become cheap places to talk in. They were the regular morning lounge and evening resource; and every lad who had dipped his finger and thumb into Dryden's snuff-box, thought himself qualified to dictate for life. In Pope's time these pretensions came to be angrily rejected, partly, perhaps, because none of the reigning wits, with the exception of Congreve, had had a Temple education. Three college sophs, and three pert Templars came, We could quote many other passages to the same purpose, but we shall come to one presently which will suffice for all, and exhibit the young Templar of those days in all the glory of his impertinence. At present the Templars make no more pretensions than other well educated men. Many of them are still connected with the literature of the day, but in the best manner and with the soundest views; and if there is no pretension to wit, there is the thing itself. It would be endless to name all the celebrated lawyers who have had to do with the Temple. Besides, we shall have to notice the most eminent of them in other places, where they passed a greater portion of their lives. We shall therefore confine ourselves to the mention of such as have lived in it without being lawyers, or thrown a grace over it in connexion with wit and literature. Chaucer, as we have just observed, is thought, upon slight evidence, to have been of the Temple. We know not who the Mr. Buckley was, that says he saw his name in the record; and the name, if there, might have been that of some other Chaucer. The name is said to be not unfrequent in records under the Norman dynasty. It is remarked by Thynne, in his "Animadversions" on Speght's edition of the poet's works (published a few years ago from the manuscript, by Mr. Todd, in his 46 Illustrations of Chaucer and Gower"), that "it is most certain to be gathered by circumstances of records that the lawyers were not in the Temple until towards the latter part of the reign of King Edward III., at which time Chaucer was a grave man, holden in great credit, and employed in embassy." "So that methinketh," adds the writer, "he should not be of that house; and yet, if he then were, I should judge it strange that he should violate the rules of peace and gravity in those years." The first English tragedy of any merit, Gorbuduc, was written in the Temple by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, afterwards the celebrated statesman, and founder of the title of Dorset. He was author of a noble performance, the Induction for the Mirrour of Magistrates, in which there is a foretaste of the picturesque gusto of Spenser. Raleigh was of the Temple; Selden, who died in White Friars; Lord Clarendon; Beaumont; two other of our old dramatists, Ford and Marston, (the latter of whom was lecturer of the Middle Temple); Wycherly, whom it is said the Duchess of Cleveland used to visit, in the habit of a milliner; Congreve, Rowe, Fielding, Burke, and Cowper. Goldsmith was not of the Temple, but he had chambers in it, died there, and was buried in the Temple church. He resided, first on the Library Staircase, afterwards in King's Bench Walk, and finally at No. 2, Brick Court, where he had a first floor elegantly furnished. It was in one of the former lodgings that, being visited by Dr. Johnson, and expressing something like a shamefaced hope that he should soon be in lodgings better • Dunciad, book li. furnished, Johnson, says Boswell, "at the same time checked him, and paid him a handsome compliment, implying that a man of talents should be above attention to such distinctions.-'Nay, sir, never mind that: Nil te quæsiveris extra."* (It is only youself that need be looked for). He died in Brick Court. It is said that when he was on his deathbed, the landing-place was filled with enquirers, not of the most mentionable description, who lamented him heartily, for he was lavish of his money as he went along Fleet Street. We are told by one of the writers of the life prefixed to his works, (probably Bishop Percy, who contributed the greater part of it,) that "he was generous in the extreme, and so strongly affected by compassion, that he has been known at midnight to abandon his rest in order to procure relief and an asylum for a poor dying object who was left destitute in the streets." This, surely, ought to be praise to no man, however benevolent: but it is, in the present state of society. However, the offices of the good Samaritan are now reckoned among the things that may be practised as well as preached, without diminution of a man's reputation for common sense; and this is a great step. We will here mention, that Goldsmith had another residence in Fleet Street. He wrote his Vicar of Wakefield in Wine-Office Court. Of the curious circumstances under which this delightful novel was sold, various inaccurate accounts have been given. The following is Boswell's account, taken from Dr. Johnson's own mouth. " a "I received one morning," said Johnson, message from poor Goldsmith, that he was in great distress, and as it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went to him as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had a bottle of madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty-pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill.ተ” "His Johnson himself lived for some time in the Temple. It was there that he was first visited by his biographer, who took rooms in Farrar's Buildings to be near him. His appearance and manners on this occasion, especially as our readers are now of the party, are too characteristic to be omitted. chambers," says Boswell, were on the first floor of No. 1, Middle Temple Lane, and I entered them with an impression given me by the Rev. Dr. Blair, of Edinburgh, who had been introduced to him not long before, and described his having found the giant in his den,' an expression which, when I came to be pretty well acquainted with Johnson, I repeated to him, and he was diverted at this picturesque account of himself. "He received me very courteously; but it must be confessed that his apartment, and furniture, and morning dress were sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of clothes looked very rusty; he had on a little shrivelled unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head; his shirt-neck and knees of his breeches were loose; his black worsted stockings ill-drawn up; and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers. But all these slovenly particularities were forgotten the moment he began to talk. Some gentlemen, whom I do not recollect, were sitting with him; and when they went away, I also rose; but he said to me, 'Nay, don't go.'—' Sir,' said I, I am afraid that I intrude upon you. It is benevolent to allow me to sit and hear you.' He seemed pleased with this compliment which I sincerely paid him, and answered, Sir, I am obliged to any man who visits me.'" (He meant that it relieved his melancholy). It was in a dress of this sort and without his hat that he was seen rushing one day after two of the highest-bred visitors conceivable, in order to hand one of them to her coach. These were his friend Beauclerc, of the St. Albans family, and Madame de Boufflers, mother (if we mistake not) of the Chevalier de Boufflers, the celebrated French wit. Her report, when she got home, must have been overwhelming; but she was clever and amiable, like her son, and is said to have appreciated the talents of the great uncouth. Beauclerc, however, must repeat the story." When Madame de Boufflers," says he, was first in England, she was desirous to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple, where she was entertained, with his conversation for some time. When our visit was over, she and I left him, and were got into Inner Temple Lane, when all at once I heard a noise like thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, who, it seems, on a little recollection, had taken it into his head that he ought to have done the honours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality; and eager to shew himself a man of gallantry, was hurrying down the stairs in violent agitation. He overtook us before we reached the Temple-gate, and brushing in between me and Madame de Boufflers, seized her hand and conducted her to the coach. His dress was a rusty-brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes by way of slippers, a little shrivelled wig sticking on the top of his head, and the sleeves of his shirt and the knees of his breeches hanging loose. A considerable crowd of people gathered round, and were not a little struck by his singular appearance." It was in the Inner Temple Lane one night, being seized with a fit of merriment at something that touched his fancy, not without the astonishment of his companions, who could not see the joke, that he went roaring all the way to the Temple-gate; where, being arrived, he burst into such a convulsive laugh, says Boswell, that in order to support himself he "laid hold of one of the posts at the side of the footpavement, and sent forth peals so loud, that in the silence of the night, his voice seemed to resound from Temple-bar to Fleet-ditch. This most ludicrous exhibition," continues his follower, "of the awful, melancholy, and venerable Johnson, happened well to counteract the feelings of sadness which I used to experience when parting from him for a considerable time. I accompanied him to his door, where he gave me his blessing."+ Between the Temple-gates, at one time, lived Bernard Lintot, who was in no better esteem with authors than the other great bookseller of those times, Jacob Tonson. There is a pleasant anecdote of Dr. Young's addressing him a letter by mistake, which Bernard opened, and found it begin thus: "That Bernard Lintot is so great a scoundrel." "It must have been very amusing," said Young, "to have seen him in his rage: he was a great sputtering fellow." Between the gates and Temple-bar, but nearer to the latter, was the famous Devil Tavern, where Ben Johnson held his club. Messrs. Child, the bankers, bought it in 1787, and the present houses were erected on its site. We believe that the truly elegant house of Messrs. Hoare, their successors, does not interfere with the place on which it stood. We rather think it was very near to Temple-bar, per'haps within a house or two. The club-room, which was afterwards frequently used for balls, was called the Apollo, and was large and handsome, with a gallery for music. Probably the house had originally been a private abode, of some consequence. The Leges Convivales, which Jonson wrote for his club, and which are to be found in his works, are composed in his usual style of elaborate and compiled learning, not without a taste of that dictatorial self-sufficiency, which, notwithstanding all that has been said by his advocates, and the good qualities he undoubtedly possessed, forms an indelible part of his character. "Insipida poemata," says he, "nulla recitantur :" (Let nobody repeat to us insipid poetry); as if all that he should read of his own must infallibly be otherwise. The club at the Devil does not appear to have resembled the higher one at the Mermaid, where Shakespeare and Beaumont used to meet him. He most probably had it all to himself. This is the Tavern mentioned by Pope: And each true Briton is to Ben so civil, It was in good repute at the beginning of the last Boswell's Life of Johnson, eighth edit. 1816, vol. ii. p. ↑ Boswell, as above, vol. ii. p. 271. 421. + Spence's Anecdotes, Singer's edit. Swift's Works, ut surpra, vol, iv. p. 41. p. 355. There was a multitude of famous shops and coffeehouses in this quarter, all of which make a figure in the Tatler, and other works. Nando's coffee-house, Dick's, (still extant as Richard's): the Rainbow, (which is said to have been indicted in former times for the nuisance of selling coffee); Ben Tooke's (the bookseller); Lintot's; and Charles Mather's, alias Bubble-boy, the Toyman, who, when Sir Timothy Shallow accuses him of selling him a cane" for ten pieces, while Tom Empty had as good a one for five," exclaims, "Lord! Sir Timothy, I am concerned that you, whom I took to understand canes better than any body in town, should be so overseen! Why, Sir Timothy, yours is a true jambee, and esquire Empty's only a plain dragon."* The fire of London stopped at the Temple Exchange coffee-house; a circumstance which is recorded in an inscription, stating the house to have been the last of the houses burnt, and the first restored. The old front of this house was taken down about a century ago; but on its being rebuilt, the stone with the inscription was replaced in its former position. But we must now cross over the way to Shire Lane, which is close to Temple Bar on the opposite side. Here" in ancient times," says Maitland; writing in the middle of the last century, were only posts, rails, and a chain, such as are now at Holhorn, Smithfield, and Whitechapel bars. Afterwards there was a house of timber erected across the street, with a narrow gateway, and an entry on the south side of it under the house." The present gate was built by Wren after the great fire, but, although the work of so great a master, is hardly worth notice as a piece of architecture. It must be allowed that Wren could do poor things as well as good, even when not compelled by a vestry. As the last of the city gates, however, we confess we should be sorry to see it pulled down, though we believe there is a general sense that it is in the way. If it were handsome, or venerable, we should plead hard for it, because it would then be a better thing than a mere convenience. The best thing we know of it is a jest of Goldsmith's; and the worst, the point on which the jest turned. Goldsmith was coming from Westminminster Abbey, with Dr. Johnson, where they had been looking at the tombs in Poet's Corner, and Johnson had quoted a line from Ovid,— Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. hardly resumed, and their persons keeping aloof from one another, with a jealous courtesy. The Tatler receives a letter from Mr. John Thrifty, informing him, in consequence of orders from Sir Henry Quickset, of Staffordshire, baronet, that "his honour Sir Harry himself, Sir Giles Wheelbarrow, knight, Thomas Rentfree, esq., justice of the quorum, Andrew Windmill, esquire, and Mr. Nicholas Doubt, of the Inner Temple, Sir Harry's grandson, would wait upon him at the hour of nine to-morrow morning, being Tuesday the twenty-fifth of October, upon business which Sir Harry would impart to him by word of mouth. I thought it proper," says the writer, "to acquaint you beforehand so many persons of quality came, that you might not be surprised therewith. Which concludes, though by many years absence since I saw you at Stafford, unknown, Sir, Your most humble Servant, John Thrifty." "I received this message," says Mr. Bickerstaff, "with less surprise than, I believe, Mr. Thrifty imagined; for I knew the good company too well to feel any palpitations at their approach: but I was in very great concern how I should adjust the ceremonial, and demean myself to all these great men, who perhaps had not seen anything above themselves for these twenty years last past. I am sure that is the case of Sir Harry. Besides which, I was sensible that there was a great point in adjusting my behaviour to the simple squire, so as to give him satisfaction, and not disoblige the justice of the quorum. "The hour of nine was come this morning, and I had no sooner set chairs, by the steward's letter, and fixed my tea equipage, but I heard a knock at my door, which was opened, but no one entered; after which followed a long silence, which was broke at last by, 'Sir, I beg your pardon; I think I know better and another voice, 'Nay, good Sir Giles-.' I looked out from my window, and saw the good company, all with their hats off, and arms spread, offering the door to each other. After many offers, they entered with much solemnity, in the order Mr. Thrifty was so kind as to name them to me. But they are now got to my chamber-door, and I saw my old friend Sir Harry enter. I met him with all the respect due to so reverend a vegetable; for you are to know, that is my sense of a person who remains idle in the same place for half a century. I got him with great success into his chair by the fire Giles got over; but a run of the coaches kept the rest of us on this side the street; however, we all at last landed, and drew up in very good order before Ben Tooke's shop, who favoured our rallying with great humanity; from whence we proceeded again till we came to Dick's Coffee-house, where I designed to carry them. Here we were at our old difficulty, and took up the street upon the same ceremony. We proceeded through the entry, and were so necessarily kept in order by the situation, that we were now got into the coffee-house itself, where, as soon as we arrived, we repeated our civilites to each other; after which, we marched up to the high table, which has an ascent to it inclosed in the middle of the room. The whole house was alarmed at this entry, made up of so much state and rusticity. Sir Harry called for a mug of ale, and Dyer's Letter. The boy brought in the ale in an instant, but said, they did not take in the Letter.' 'No!' says Sir Harry, then take back your mug; we are like indeed to have good liquor at this house!' Here the Templar tipped me a second wink, and, if I had not looked very grave upon him, I found he was disposed to be very familiar with me. In short I observed, after a long pause, that the gentlemen did not care to enter on business till after their morning draught, for which reason I called for a bottle of mum, and finding that had no effect upon them, I ordered a second and a third; after which Sir Harry reached over to me, and told me in a low voice,' that the place was too public for business: but he would call upon me again to-morrow morning at my own lodg ings, and bring some friends with him.'"* In Shire Lane is said to have originated the famous Kit-Kat Club, which consisted of "thirty-nine distinguished noblemen and gentlemen, zealously at tached to the Protestant succession of the house of Hanover." "The club," continues a note in Spence by the editor, "is supposed to have derived its name from Christopher Katt, a pastry-cook, who kept the house where they dined, and excelled in making mutton-pies, which always formed a part of their bill of fare; these pies, an account of their excellence, were called Kit-Kats. The summer meetings were sometimes held at the Upper Flask on Hamp. stead Heath."+ "You have heard of the Kit-Kat Club," says Pope to Spence. "The master of the house where the club met was Christopher Katt; Tonson was secretary. The day Lord Mohun and the Earl of (Perhaps, some day, our names may mix with theirs). without throwing down any of my cups. The knight. Berwick were entered of it, Jacob said he saw they "When we got to Temple Bar," says Johnson, "Goldsmith stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and slily whispered to me, ('in allusion,' says Boswell, to Dr. Johnson's supposed political opinions, and perhaps to his own,') "Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. Perhaps, some day, our names may mix with theirs." These heads belonged to the 'rebels who were executed for rising in favour of the Pretender. The brutality of such spectacles, which outrage, the last feelings of mortality, and as often punish honest mistakes as anything else, is not likely to be repeated. Yet such an effect has habit in reconciling men's minds to the most revolting, and sometimes the most dangerous customs, that here were two Jacobites, one of whom made a jest of what we should now regard with horror. However, Johnson must often have felt bitterly as he passed there; and the jesting of such men is frequently nothing but salve for a wound. Shire Lane still keeps its name, and we hope, however altered and improved, it will never have any other; for here, at the upper end, is described as residing, old Isaac Bickerstaff, the Tatler, the more venerable but not the more delightful double of Richard Steele, the founder of English periodical literature. The public-house called the Trumpet, at which the Tatler met his club, is still remaining under the same title. At his house in the lane, he dates a great number of his papers, and receives many interesting visitors; and hence it was that he led down into Fleet Street that immortal deputation of "twaddlers" from the country, who, as a celebrated writer has observed, hardly seem to have settled their question of precedence to this hour. As characters in books, if well drawn and rendered lasting, have a great deal to shew for their actual existence, (more, certainly, than real people who die off,) the reader will probably think it an indulgence on his part as well as our own, if we stand aside with him a little, while the procession issues from Shire Lane, and crosses the way to Dick's coffeehouse. We see them at this moment, their hats Tatler, No. 142. According to the author of a lively ratthing book, conversant with the furniture of old times, Arbuth"My uncle," says he, not was a great amateur in sticks. "was universally allowed to be as deeply skilled in caneology, as any one, Dr. Arbuthnot not excepted, whose science on important questions was quoted even after his death; for his collection of the various headed sticks and canes, from the time of the first Charles, taken together, was unrivalled."Wine and Walnuts, vol. i. p. 242, bachelor told me, he had a great respect for my whole family, and would, with my leave, place himself next to Sir Harry, at whose right hand he had sat at every quarter-sessions these thirty years, unless he was sick. The steward in the rear whispered the young Templar, 'That is true, to my knowledge.' I had the misfortune, as they stood cheek by jowl, to desire the squire to sit down before the justice of the quorum, to the no small satisfaction of the former, and resentment of the latter. But I saw my error too late, and got them as soon as I could into their seats. 'Well,' said I, 'gentlemen, after I have told you how glad I am of this honour, I am to desire you to drink a dish of tea.' They answered one and all, 'that they never drank tea in a morning.' 'Not which the pert jackanapes, Nic Doubt, tipped me the in a morning said I, staring around me. Upon wink, and put out his tongue at his grandfather. Here followed a profound silence, when the steward, in his boots and whip, proposed, 'that we should adjourn to some public-house, where everybody might call for what they pleased, and enter upon the business.' We all stood up in an instant, and Sir Harry filed off from the left, very discreetly countermarching behind the chairs towards the door. After him Sir Giles in the same manner. The simple squire made a sudden start to follow, but the justice of the quorum whipped between upon the stand of the stairs. A maid going up with coals made us halt, and put us into such confusion that we stood all in a heap, without any visible possibility of recovering our order for the young jackanapes seemed to make a jest of this matter, and had so contrived, by pressing amongst us, under pretence of making way, that nobody was of quality to stir a step until Sir Harry his grandfather was got into the middle, and he knew moved first. We were fixed in this perplexity for some time, until we heard a very loud noise in the street; and Sir Harry asking what it was, I, to make them move, said it was fire.' Upon this, all ran down as fast as they could, without order or ceremony, until we got into the street, where we drew up in very good order, and filed off down Sheer Lane; the impertinent Templar driving us before him, as in a string, and pointing to his acquaintance who passed by. "I must confess, I love to use people according to their own sense of good breeding, and therefore whipped in between the justice and the simple squire. He could not properly take this ill, but I overheard him whisper the steward, that he thought it hard that a common conjurer should take place of him, though an elder squire.' In this order we marched down Sheer Lane, at the upper end of which I lodge. When we came to Temple-bar, Sir Harry and Sir were just going to be ruined. When Lord Mohun broke down the gilded emblem on the top of his chair, Jacob complained to his friends, and said a man who would do that, would cut a man's throat. So that he had the good and the forms of the society much at heart. The paper was all in Lord Halifax's hand-writing of a subscription of four hundred guineas for the encouragement of good comedies, and was dated 1709, soon after they broke up. Steele, Addison, Congreve, Garth, Vanbrugh, Manwaring, Stepney, Walpole, and Pultney were of it; so was Lord Dorset and the present Duke. Manwaring, whom we hear nothing of now, was the ruling man in all conversations; indeed what he wrote had very little merit in it. Lord Stanhope and the Earl of Essex were also members. Jacob has his own, and all their pictures, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Each member gave his, and he is going to build a room for them at Barn Elms."‡ It is from the size at which these portraits were taken (a three-quarter length), that the word KitKat came to be applied to pictures. The society afterwards met elsewhere, as we shall see; but locality is nothing in these matters. The refinement consists in the company, and in whatever they choose to throw a grace over, whether a carp or a mutton pie. The great thing is, not the bill of fare, but, as Swift called it, the "bill of company." We cross to the south side of the street again, and come to Mrs, Salmon's. It is a curious evidence of the fluctuation of the great tide in commercial and growing cities, that a century ago, this immortal old gentlewoman, renowned for her wax-work, gives as a reason for removing from St. Martin's Le Grand to Fleet Street, where she is still dead-alive (like her figures), that it was 64 'a more convenient place for the coaches of the quality to stand unmolested."§ Some of the houses in this quarter are of the Elizabethan age, with floors projecting over the others, and looking pressed together like burrows. The inmates of these humbler tenements (unlike those of great halls and mansions) seem as if they must have had their heights taken, and the ceiling made to fit. Yet the builders were liberal of their materials. Over the way, near the west corner of Chancery Lane, stood an interesting specimen of this style of building, in the house of the famous old angler, Isaac Walton. Walton's was the second house from the Lane, the corner house being an inn, long distinguished by the |
