AN

ANTIQUARIAN RAMBLE

IN

THE STREETS OF LONDON.

FROM TEMPLE BAR TO BLACKFRIARS.

TEMPLE BAR, at which we have now arrived, is the western limit of the city of London. In early times, the bounds at this place were marked by posts, rails, and a chain, and merely consisted of a bar and not a gate, whence, from its contiguity to the Temple, the name by which it has been so long known. Early in the seventeenth century, a wooden house was erected across the street, with a narrow gateway underneath, and an entrance on the south side to the house above. This was burned down in the great fire of 1666, when the present gate was erected by Sir Christopher Wren. It was begun in the year 1670, and finished in 1672. It has been several times in contemplation to have it pulled down; but

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there has been a very general feeling in the city against it. People acknowledge that it is not very ornamental, and that, moreover, it is in the way of the traffic; but, nevertheless, the lovers of antiquity have proved in the majority, and the gate has been spared. The other city gates were pulled down, and the material sold in 1672. Temple Bar is built of Portland stone, and rusticated, having a large flattened arch in the centre for the carriage-way, and a smaller arch at each side for foot passengers. Over the gateway is an apartment, with a semi-circular arched window on the eastern and western sides, the whole being crowned with a sweeping pediment. On the western side, towards Westminster, are two niches, in which are placed statues of Charles I. and II. in most inappropriate Roman costume; and on the east or London side, are corresponding niches with statues of Queen Elizabeth and James I. The gate-house is held of the city by the representatives of the very ancient firm of Childs', the bankers. Upon Temple Bar were affixed the heads of many unhappy persons, who suffered execution during the rebellion of 1715 and 1745. "One of the iron poles or spikes," says Mr. Brayley, "on which the heads were affixed, was only removed at the commencement of the present century." Nicholls, in his "Literary Anecdotes," has the following passage, relating to the head of one councillor Layer, who was executed for high treason in 1723. The head, it appears, was blown off the spike many years afterwards, during a violent storm. "When the

head of Layer was blown off Temple Bar, it was picked up by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, Mr. John Pearce, an attorney, who showed it to some friends at a public house, under the floor of which, I have been assured, it was buried. Dr. Rawlinson, meanwhile, having made inquiry after the head, with a wish to purchase it, was imposed on with another instead of Layer's, which he preserved as a valuable relic, and directed it to be buried in his right hand." Whether this odd wish of the antiquary were complied with, does not appear. It seems, however, that political feeling, as well as antiquarian, was at the bottom of it; for the doctor was a Jacobite.

Various ceremonies are performed at Temple Bar, whenever the sovereign enters the city of London. The gate is shut, and permission to enter is asked of the lord mayor. Permission, of course, being granted, the gate is opened, and the lord mayor presents the keys of the city to the sovereign, who returns them with many flattering expressions, that they cannot be in better hands. The last time this ceremony was performed, was on the opening of the Royal Exchange in 1844, when Her Majesty partook of a collation with the civic authorities and the members of the Gresham Committee. The following ceremonies took place at this gate, on the proclamation of peace in 1802. The gate having been shut, to show that the jurisdiction was in the lord mayor, the king's marshal with his officers having ridden down the Strand from Westminster, stopped

before it, while the trumpets were blown thrice. The junior officer of arms then knocked at the gate with his cane, upon which the city marshal on the other side, demanded "who was there?" The herald replied, "the officers of arms, who ask entrance into the city, to publish his majesty's proclamation of peace." On this, the gates were opened, and the herald alone admitted and conducted to the lord mayor. The latter having read the royal warrant, and returned it to the bearer, ordered the city marshal to open the gate for the procession. The lord mayor and civic authorities then joined it, and proceeded to the Royal Exchange, when the proclamation was read for the last time. A similar mummery is always performed upon the proclamation either of peace or war.

Having passed through this venerable bar, we find ourselves in Fleet Street, rich in remembrance of the olden time;—of Templars, of booksellers, of wits, and poets, and lawyers, and of hosts of persons whose residences it is interesting to know;-where Wynkyn de Worde, Isaac Walton, and Bernard Lintot kept shops; where Ben Jonson drank and was merry; where Samuel Johnson meditated upon the vanity of human life; and where regiments of lawyers have for ages passed continually to and fro, musing on their deep-laid schemes of ambition and aggrandizement, or bent as determinately on increasing their pelf.

This celebrated street takes its name from the little stream called the "Fleet," once a clear and ornamental water, but now covered over in nearly all its

course, as a thing too offensive to be looked upon, and the channel conveying half the filth of London into the capacious reservoir of the Thames. The street seems to have borne this name long before the Conquest.

A few yards down the street, to the right, is the banking-house of Messrs. Hoare and Co., supposed to stand on the site of the famous Devil Tavern, the resort of all the wits from Ben Jonson to Addison. At this tavern, rare Ben reigned the arbiter of wit and judge of poetry, and drew up his well known "Leges Conviviales," for the guidance of the members of the club he founded. Swift, in a letter to Stella, says, "I dined to-day with Dr. Garth and Mr. Addison, at the Devil Tavern near Temple Bar, and Garth treated." The house continued to be the resort of literary people till the year 1750. It was pulled down in 1787 by Messrs. Childs, the bankers, and a row of houses erected on the site. Several of the latter were pulled down, after standing for little more than half a century, to make way for the elegant building where Messrs. Hoare transact their business.

Near this, and between the Temple gate, are several houses tenanted by Messrs. Cook, which are of the Elizabethan style of architecture. These houses have been renovated, but they are as old as they appear. One of them was inhabited by Bernard Lintot, the great bookseller of the last century, and close by were Nando's, Dick's, the Rainbow, and other coffee-houses, so frequently mentioned by the essayists of that age.