In the Upper Street stands the parish church of

ST. PAUL, SHADWELL.

THIS is but a mean edifice, built with brick, is eightyseven feet long, and sixty-three broad; the heighth to the roof is twenty-eight feet, and that of the steeple, sixty feet. The body has but few windows, with rustic arches, and some very mean ones in the roof. At the corners of the building are balls placed on a kind of small pedestals. The

tower,

conflagration to spread widely in a short time. Several other vessels and small crafts lying near the barge soon after took fire, without any possi bility of getting them off. The blowing up of the saltpetre. from the barge occasioned large flakes of fire to fall on the warehouses belonging to the East India Company, from whence the saltpetre was removing to the Tower (twenty tons of which had been fortunately moved the preceding day.) The flames soon caught the warehouses, and here the scene became dreadful; the whole of these buildings were consumed, with all their contents, to a great amount. The wind blowing strong from the south, and the High Street of Ratcliffe being narrow, both sides caught fire, which prevented the engines from being of any essential service; and, in the course of the evening, it extended itself to the premises of Mr. Joseph Hanks, timber merchant, in London Street, where it again raged most furiously, and communicated to Butcher Row, the whole of the west, and part of the east side of which was consumed. The fire then took its course up Brook Street, Stepney Causeway, caught the premises of Mr. Shakespeare, ropemaker, and burnt through to the fields on the one side, and the whole of the dwel

tower, which contains six bells, is carried up without ornament: it is terminated with balls at the corners in the same manner as the church, and is crowned with a plain low turret. The interior is obscured by galleries, which are gaudily ornamented with gold. There is, however, an x organ in the west gallery. X

The church is a rectory, the patronage in the dean and chapter of St. Paul's.

RECTORS OF EMINENCE. WILLIAM HIGDEN, D. D. 1711, author of "A View of the English Constitution." BENJAMIN ABBOT, D. D. 1715.

The water works in this parish were first established, 1669, by Thomas Neale, Esq. lessee of the dean of St. Paul's; and 1691 the proprietors were made a body incorporate. In 1750 the water, raised before by horses, was

lings on the other; forming altogether a square of great extent. What is very remarkable, the dwelling house of Mr. Bear, an extensive building, although surrounded by the flames, was fortunately preserved without the least injury.

A survey was taken by the warden and officers of the hamlet, whose report was, "That out of one thousand two hundred houses, of which the hamlet consisted, not more than five hundred and seventy were pre served from the gencral conflagration." It having been reported that the fire was maliciously occasioned, upon the most minute enquiry it is clearly ascertained that it was entirely accidental, from the cause above mentioned. It raged with so much violence, that it was with the greatest difficulty Mr. Cloves and his servants escaped, one of whom was terribly burnt; and Mr. Cloves himself had his arm broke, and is otherwise much hurt. From the great distress the fire occasioned to a great number of poor families, government immediately ordered one hundred and twenty tents to be immediately pitched for their accommodation in Stepney fields, till they could be more comfortably provided for.-That some idea may be formed of the very great loss sustained by this unfortunate event, the warehouses of Mr. Whiting contained sugars to the amount of upwards of 40,000l. which were entirely destroyed. The distress of the miserable inhabitants exceeded all description. In the surrounding fields were deposited the few goods, consisting chiefly of bedding, they were able to save. Stepney church was opened for their reception, and above a thousand people were obliged to remain all night in the fields, watching the remnant of their property;-children crying for their lost parents, and parents lamenting the fate of their children, added to the horrors of a scene not equalled during the last century.

raised

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630

raised by a steam engine; and 1774, one erected on the plan of Bolton and Watt, serving a district of near eight thousand houses. These works were purchased in 1800 by the London Dock Company, for 50,000l.

WAPPING is chiefly inhabited by seafaring men, and tradesmen dealing in commodities for the supply of shipping. It is very populous. Both the hamlet and neigh. bourhood of WAPPING were formerly one great wash, covered with the waters of the Thames; afterwards having been gained from the river, and made a marsh or meadow ground, it was commonly called Wapping Marsh, and was defended from the eruptions of the Thames by walls, which were very chargeable to the projectors. Between the years 1560 and 1570, the force of the water was such, that it broke the wall in several places, and overflowed the whole marsh. About the year 1580, the most part of these possessions came to queen Elizabeth, in consequence of an extent, and so remained till a great fine was paid; and she rented out the land. But the rents being uncertain, in consequence of the breaches of the river into the grounds, a view was made by the commissioners of sewers, who thought it necessary that the wall should be built upon by any who were so inclined: consequently many took land upon the walls on building leases; and among the rest William Page, who took a lease of an hundred and ten feet of the wall, laid the foundation of his building, and bestowed a great sum of money in making the wall secure in buildings for the defence of the marshes, and the ease of the repairers and maintainers of the wall. But in the year 1583, the queen issuing out a proclamation for stopping all new buildings, this work was hindered, and Page obliged to make an humble petition, setting forth his case to the lord treasurer, "And praying his allowance to go on with the building, shewing how it would be a benefit to her majesty in continuance of her rent, and that it was not hurtful to any, and that his building began from the proclamation." But what success Page's petition had we are

not

not informed: it appears, however, that it afterwards went forward, and was completed *.

The parish of Wapping consists of very narrow streets, with very indifferent buildings; but it is one of the most populous places of its size in or about London, and is inhabited by seamen, masters of ships, or such other persons whose business consists in working for the merchants service. It is amazing to consider the vast numbers of people in this place, and some idea may be formed of the riches and trade of the metropolis from a view of the ships of all sizes, and from every mercantile nation in Europe, that are constantly either coming up, lying at anchor, or going down the river.

In this parish is a place called Execution Dock, where all pirates and others condemned for offences on the high seas, at the Admiralty sessions, are executed on a gibbet at low water mark.

On the north side of the street, called Wapping High Street, which extends along the back of the Thames, stands the parish church, called

King Charles having hunted a stag on Friday, July 24, 1629, from Wanstead, in Essex, killed him in a garden near Nightingale

Lane,

THE old church was erected in 1617, as a chapel of ease to St. Mary's, Whitechapel: but by the great increase of buildings, the hamlet of Wapping was, in 1694, constituted a distinct parish. The present edifice has been erected but a few years since, and cost 16007. It is built entirely of brick, and consists of a plain body, with a tower, from which rises a vane. The interior is also very plain: in the.

west gallery is an organ.

This church is a rectory, the patronage of which is in the principal and scholars of King's Hall, and Brazen Nose college, Oxford.

There are no monuments of consequence within the church.

In July 1786 the will of Mr. Daniel Day was proved at Doctors Commons, who received his education at a charity school in this parish, and died in India, where he accumulated large possessions. As he had no near relations, gratitude impelled him to bequeath a large sum to his native parish, part of which he appropriated for erecting and endowing a school for the maintenance, clothing, and educating of sixty boys. Lord Macartney, his acting exe cutor, the archbishop of Canterbury, bishop of London, and the other bishops, were appointed trustees and visitors; and the rectors, churchwardens, and overseers for the time being, directors of the school *.

Great part of the parish of Wapping has been exca. vated for

THE LONDON DOCKS;

the express purposes of which are the securing vessels from the various accidents hitherto incidental to their crowded assemblages in the stream of the Thames, and preventing depredations committed almost with impunity on their ladings during the transit from lighters to warehouses. The magnitude of the undertaking is only equalled by the rapidity with which the docks were completed in three

Lane, in the hamlet of Wapping; in which great damage ensued, in consequence of the multitude of people suddenly assembled.—Stow. • Malcolm.

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years.