66 •

City; yet within forty years after, (about 1580) they had greatly increased, and we are told, though doubtless with much exaggeration, that "the whole street from Westminster was crowded with them." They dealt largely in most of the minor articles of foreign manufacture; and among the Haberdashery of that period were daggers, swords, owches, broaches, aiglets, Spanish girdles, French cloths, Milan caps, glasses, painted cruizes, dials, tables, cards, balls, puppets, ink-horns, tooth-picks, fine earthern pots, pins and points, hawks' bells, salt cellars, spoons, knives, and tin dishes."—A yet more curious enumeration of goods vended by the "Millo. ners, or Haberdashers," who dwelt at the Royal Exchange, within two or three years after it had been built by Sir Thomas Gresham, occurs in Howe, who says, they "sould mouse-trappes, bird-cages, shooinghornes, lanthornes, and Jew's trumpes." The article pins before the introduction of which the English ladies used points, or skewers made of thorns, &c. formed a lucrative branch of trade; and 60,0001. annually is said to have been paid for them to foreigners in the early years of Queen Elizabeth; but long before the decease of that princess, they were manufactured in this country in great quantities; and in the time of James I., the English artisan is reported to have "exceeded every foreign competitor in the production of this diminutive, though useful article of dress." This Company is governed by a Master,

* Howe's "Stow's Annals," p. 869.

four Wardens, and a Court of about twenty Assistants; the Livery consists of between three and four thousand persons. The charitable disbursements of this affluent community, in the support of FreeSchools, Alms-Houses, Lectures, Exhibitions, &c. are said to amount to £3500 per annum.

Haberdashers' HALL is a respectable brick building, standing in Maiden Lane, Wood Street; the arms of the Company (but without the supporters) are exhibited on a small shield over the entrance.* The Hall is a lofty and spacious room, with a wainscotting twelve feet high, painted in white and blue. Over the screen at the lower end is a music gallery, and several large glass chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling; this apartment being appropriated, during the winter season, for City balls and assemblies. Among the portraits in this edifice, are whole-lengths of George I.; George II. (when Prince of Wales ;) and Caroline, his consort; Prince Frederick, when a youth, (father of George III.) and Augusta, his consort, when Princess Dowager; William Adams, Esq. founder of the Grammar School, and AlmsHouses at Newport, in Shropshire; T. G. Knapp, Esq. late clerk to the Company (probably by Lawrence ;) and Micajah Perry, Esq. Lord Mayor in

The Haberdashers' Arms are barry nebule of six, argent and azure, on a bend, gules, a lion passant, guardant, or crest, two arms holding a laurel wreath, supported by Chamois goats, arg. : motto," Serve and Obey." The crest and supporters were granted by Thomas Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1571.

1739; a half-length of George Whitmore, Esq. Lord. Mayor in 1631 ;* Sir Hugh Hammersley, Knt. Lord Mayor in 1627; Mr. Thomas Aldersey, Merchant, of Banbury, in Cheshire, who, in 1594, vested a considerable estate in this Company, for charitable uses; Mr. William Jones, Merchant Adventurer, who be queathed £18,000 for benevolent purposes; and Røbt. Aske, the worthy founder of the Haberdashers* Hospital, at Hoxton:

PRISON OF NEWGATE,

This prison derives its name from one of the City gates which stood near it, (crossing the highway) in Newgate Street, and a portion of the site of which is included in the ground plot of the present edifice. Originally, there was no other passage through the walls of London, on the western side, but Ludgate; but in consequence of the enclosure, and great enlargement of the cemetry of St. Paul's Cathedral, by Mauritius, the first Norman Bishop of London, the avenue from Cheapside to Ludgate was rendered so inconvenient, that it was deemed requisite to open another passage through the wall, near the North end of the Old Bailey (to connect with Old-bourne, Holborn, and Smithfield,) where previously there had been an outwork, or fort, to defend the ramparts. At this new outlet, which was made either in the reign of Henry the First, or in that of King Stephen,

* This was presented to the Company a few years ago, by one of his descendants.

a New-Gate was built, in the castellated style; and every successive structure erected upon the same site has been distinguished by a similar appellation.*

Newgate became a prison for trespassers and felons as early as the reign of King John, if not previously; and it was afterwards used for offenders against the state. There is extant, among the close rolls in the Tower, a mandate of the 3rd of Henry III. requiring the Sheriffs of London "to repair the gaol of Newgate, for the safe keeping of the King's prisoners," but promising that the charge shall be reimbursed from their accounts in the Exchequer." Here, according to Fabian's "Chronicle," Robert Baldocke, Chancellor to Edward the Third, was confined, and ended his days miserably. In the 1st of Henry the Sixth, anno 1442, license was granted to the executors of Sir Richard Whittington, to re-edify Newgate, for which, and many other charitable purposes, that ever-to-be-respected citizen had bequeathed considerable property.

This prison was substantially rebuilt, and most probably enlarged after the Fire of London. The

Pennant, drawing a false conclusion from an inferential opinion of Maitland's, says (London, p. 202, edit. 1805) “asa military way has been traced under it, there can be no doubt but there had been a Gate here during the time the city was possessed by the Romans; but the place had been made up, and no vestiges of it left."-Yet no military way was ever traced to this spot, nor is there the least valid authority for placing a Roman gate here, the idea of which was first broached by Howell in his " Londinopolis."

Gate itself, under which was a great arch for carriages, and a postern for passengers, was enbattled, and had half hexagon towers on each side. It was ornamented on each front with niches of the Tuscan order, within which were statues of Justice, Mercy, Truth, and Liberty; at the feet of the latter figure was a Cat, in allusion both to Sir Richard Whittington, and to the reputed origin of his affluence.

Newgate was the constant residence of contagion and disease, and of every other kind of evil that want of air, putrid water, murky dungeons, and consummate wretchedness could produce. "However ornamental," says Maitland, "this prison may be without, it is a dismal place within. The prisoners are sometimes packed so close together, and the air so corrupted by their stench and nastiness, that it occasions a disease called the gaol distemper, of which they die by dozens, and cart-loads of them are carried out and thrown into a pit in the church-yard of Christ Church without ceremony."*

That this statement was not exaggerated, was proved by the evidence laid before Parliament, about the year 1770, after the Corporation of London had applied for a grant of money to rebuild the gaol. The late Mr. Akerman, the then keeper, stated, that "independently of the mortality among the prisoners, he had had nearly two sets of servants die of the gaoldistemper, since he had been in office, and that he remembered when, some years ago, at the Old Bailey,

"History of London," vol. ii. p. 951.