Among the numerous instances that might be added of this increase of dwellings within the City and its Liberties after the Fire, the following will be sufficient to prove the fact. Exchange Alley was occupied only by one single merchant's house and gardens, extending betwixt Cornhill and Lombard Street; Sweeting's Alley was the western boundary of another edifice of similar description; and Swithin's Alley, which now consists of about twenty-four houses, was also a single edifice. Copthall Court, in Throgmorton Street, was also a single house, inhabited by a Dutch merchant; and three other Courts in the same street were also built on the ruins of single houses. One great house, with warehouses attached, occupied nearly the whole of the ground on which Prince's Street, going through into Lothbury, was afterwards erected; and King's Arms Yard, Coleman Street, now occupied by large houses, the residences of merchants, was a tavern and stable-yard. *

Through the strong attachment of the Citizens to the particular spots which they had previously occupied, almost all the new streets and avenues took precisely the same direction as those of the old City: their respective widths, however, were generally increased, and in numerous places the inequality of the ground was remedied, so as to form more convenient thoroughfares. This was particularly the case in the vicinity of Thames Street, and its various passages to the north and south. The lower part of Ludgate Hill was elevated from six feet to eight feet seven inches, and the upper part abated' from ten to twenty inches. Cheapside,

Of other edifices within the City Liberties, that have either had their sites built upon in the form of streets, courts, and alleys, or are divided into separate tenements, may be mentioned the house and garden of Sir James Langham, now Crosby Square; the house and garden of the Earl of Devonshire, now Devonshire Square, the magnificent mansion and fine garden of the Earl of Bridgewater, now Bridgewater Square; the palace of Prince Rupert, in Barbican; Thanet House, London House; the houses of the Earls of Shaftesbury and Westmoreland, and of the Duke of Lauderdale, and the Duchess of Suffolk, in Aldersgate Street; and Winchester House, in Winchester Street.

side, about Wood Street,' was raised two feet, and so gradually eastward and westward.' Lombard Street was lowered nearly three feet; Gracechurch Street and New Fish-street were lowered about four feet near East Cheap, and Fenchurch Street, Cannon Street, and Watling Street, were all depressed to suit the declivity of the various avenues leading into Thames Street.*

In the year 1677, the Court of Common Council in London passed an Act for the better prevention of the spreading of Fires, by which, among various regulations respecting the keeping of buckets, engines, hand-squirts, &c. now mostly superseded by the establishments of the Fire-offices, it was enacted, that for the effectual supplying the engines and squirts with water, pumps should be placed in all wells; and fire-plugs in the several maiupipes belonging to the New River and Thames water-works. †

About this period, the buildings in Hatton Garden and its vicinity were erected on the grounds, &c. of Hatton House, which had been severed from the Bishopric of Ely in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Part of Saffron Hill, with Vine Street, &c. was built on the ground that had formed the Bishop of Ely's Vineyard. Brook Street and Market, and Greville Street, were subsequently erected on the house and gardens of Lord Brooke.

In the year 1674, a very judicious Act of Common Council was passed for the regulation of the City Markets, in respect to the standing and sale of butcher's meat and other provisions; and in

1678,

⚫ For more minute particulars, see Strype's Stow, and Maitland's Hist.

To this judicious regulation may be referred the origin of that plentiful supply of water which, on the occurrence of Fires, we now find in almost every street in the Metropolis. The measure itself was extended to all the Parishes within the Bills of Mortality, by an Act of Parliament of the sixth of Queen Anne, which enacted, that the respective Churchwardens should be empowered, at the parochial charge, to fix Stop-blocks, or Fire-cocks,' upon the several main water-pipes in the streets; also, to 'provide a large and Hand-engine, with a leatheru pipe and socket to screw pon the Fire-cock.'

1678, another Act of Council was made to regulate the Cloth Markets in Blackwell Hall, Welsh Hall, and Leaden Hall: the penalties, &c. under the latter Act, were assigned towards the support of Christ's Hospital. Three years afterwards, the weighing of goods and merchandize at the King's Beam, was also regulated by the Court of Common Council; and shortly after this, a new Act was made for the better regulation of Carts and Carmen, the measurement of Coals, &c. within the City. *

During the reigns of Charles the Second and James the Second, several large ancient mansions belonging to the Nobility, in and near the Strand, were either separated into divers tenements, or pulled down, and had their sites, gardens, &c. covered with buildings. Essex Street and Devereux Court, arose from a house of the Bishops of Exeter, afterwards called Essex House, from the unfortunate favorite to Queen Elizabeth. Arundel House, a mansion of the Dukes of Norfolk, was the site of Howard Street, Arundel Street, Norfolk Street, and Surrey Street; so called from the family name and titles. Bedford Street, Tavistock Street, Southampton Street, &c. were built on the spot formerly occupied by Bedford House and its extensive garden, the residence of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford. York House, which had been magnificently rebuilt by George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, was sold by the second Duke, and had its site covered by the various avenues which bear his name and titles; as George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Of Alley, and Buckingham Street. Hungerford Market was partly formed by the separation into tenements, &c. of the large house of Sir Edward Hungerford, K. B. The neighbourhoods of Pall Mall and St. James's Street, were also greatly increased during the above reigns; and Soho Square, then called Monmouth Square, arose about the same period.

About the year 1687, the Suburbs of the Metropolis were much increased, through the settlement here of between thirteen

and

In Mait. Lond. Vol. II. p. 462 + 471, all these Acts are inserted at length.

and fourteen thousand French Protestants, who had fled from the bigotted 'intolerance of Lewis the Fourteenth. Many hundred families of these refugees fixed their abode in the neighbourhood of Long Acre, Seven Dials, Soho, &c. and the remainder in the vicinity of Spittle Fields, which was then a hamlet to Stepney Parish. In Stepney itself also, and in its various hamlets in the vicinity of the river Thames, a vast augmentation, both in the buildings and the population, was apparent through the whole course of this century.*

During the reigns of William the Third and Queen Anne, the Metropolis continued greatly to expand, particularly to the west. The distant villages, as they had once been, of St. Martin's in the Fields and St. Giles's in the Fields, were now incorporated with the Capital, which, as will presently be seen, began to stretch away towards the yet remote village of St. Mary le Bone. The increase was so abundant, that in the ninth year of Queen Anne, the Legislature deemed it expedient to pass an Act for the erection of Fifty New Churches,' within the Cities of London and Westminster, and their respective Suburbs. This Statute was not grounded alone on the acknowledged insufficiency of places of established worship to contain the augmented multitudes of inhabitants, but likewise, as the Commission subsequently issued to effect the purposes of the Act, expressed it, for redressing the inconveniences and growing mischiefs' which resulted from the increase of Dissenters and the growth of Popery. By a statement laid before Parliament, during the progress of the Bill, it appeared, that the Metropolis and its Suburbs contained at that time about 200,000 persons more than could be accommodated in the Churches and Chapels belonging to the Establishment.

*"It is not improbable," says Mr. Lysons," that the Statutes against new Buildings within three miles of London, were dispensed with in this neighBourhood, from the necessity of providing habitations for seamen, and other persons connected with the shipping." Env. of Lond. Vol. III. p. 446. This remark is corroborated by the exemption before noticed, (p. 71) from the Act made during the Protectorate.

Among other improvements in London in the reign of Queen Anne, was the introduction of Globular Glass Lamps, with oil burners, in place of the lanthorns with candles and common Jamps that had previously been used. The patent was obtained in July, 1708, by a person named Michael Cole, who in the following year first exhibited his globe lamp at the door of the St. James's Coffee-house; and afterwards offered to dispose of his right for the benefit of this Kingdom, as he resided in Ireland.* Among the larger buildings erected in the Metropolis in this reign, were Arlington House, now Buckingham House, in St. James's Park; and Marlborough House, in Pall Mall. The Parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, in the vicinity of Cold Bath Fields, was much increased about this period; as was also the neighbourhood of Old Street, near the present St. Luke's Church; the lower parts of Shoreditch; Marlborough Street, Soho, &c. During

G

Malm. Man, &c. Lond. p. 461-2; 4to. The docquet states, that a grant was made unto Michael Cole, Gent. his executors, &c. for fourteen years, “of the sole use and benefit in England and Ireland of his invention of a new kind of Light, composed of one entire glass of a globular shape, with a lamp, which will give a clearer and more certain light from all parts thereof, without any dark shadows, or what else may be confounding or troublesome to the sight, than any other lamps that have bitherto been in use." There was a proviso, however, that the "said invention should not be used within the City of London and its Liberties, to the prejudice of the proprietors of the Public Glass Lights, called Convex Lights, now used in the said City and Liberties thereof," till the determination of the term of twenty-one years, from the twenty-fourth of June, 1694. How very insufficiently the streets were lighted about the period of this invention, and before the regular lighting was made a parochial business, may be conceived from an Act of Common Council, passed in December, 1716, which enacted, that "all Housekeepers within the City of London, whose house, door, gateway, or fronts lie next to any street, lane, or public passage or place of the said City or Liberties thereof, shall in every dark night, that is, every night between the second night after each full moon, and the seventh night after each new moon, set or hang out one or more lights, with sufficient cotton wicks, that shall continue to buru from six o'clock at night till eleven o'clock the same night, on penalty of one shilling," &c.