Page:Catalogue of a collection of early drawings and pictures of London, with some contemporary furniture (1920).djvu/57

 92 WESTMINSTER FROM LAMBETH.

Oil picture. 35 by 20-1/2 in.

Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's church tower, Westminster Hall, and St. Stephen's Chapel are prominent, the last foreshortened. The old bridge is already finished. In foreground the painter has introduced part of a tower of Lambeth Palace, much too near the bridge, but improving composition. Nets with large meshes, doubtless salmon nets, are hanging on the rails.

By (?) (about 1710-1772).

Lent by Mr. P. Norman.

93 THE OLD STOCKS MARKET.

Oil picture. 50 by 37-1/2 in.

The Stocks Market was established in 1282, "where some time had stood a pair of stocks for punishment of offenders." It was for sale of meat and fish until the Great Fire, afterwards a market for fruit and vegetables. Of the equestrian statue here shown, Pennant in his "London" gives the following account: it was "erected in honour of Charles II by his most loyal subject Sir Robert Viner, lord mayor. Fortunately his lordship discovered one (made at Leghorn) of John Sobieski trampling on a Turk. The good Knight caused some alterations to be made, christened the Polish monarch by the name of Charles, and bestowed on the turbaned Turk that of Oliver Cromwell." Horace Walpole says the statue "came over unfinished, and a head was added by Latham." Stocks Market was removed in 1737 to clear ground for the present Mansion House. The statue lay neglected until 1779, and was then given to Mr. Robert Vyner, descendant of the Lord Mayor. He set it up in Gautby Park, Lincolnshire, and in 1883 it migrated to Newby Hall, Ripon, the home of the last Mr. Robert Vyner, who died in 1915.

The picture is pleasantly lighted by the gay costumes of those engaged in marketing. In background appear the tower and dome of church of St. Stephen, Walbrook, one of Wren's masterpieces. There is a well-known print of Stocks Market from similar point of view.

Josef van Aken, who painted this, was born at Antwerp, and passed much of his life in England. He was much employed by