Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/130

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [IIS.XIL AUG. H, 1015.

and that, subsequently to the demolition of the Playhouse in 1644, the name was trans- ferred to an alley on the south of Maid Lane, the first alley, however, being still allowed to remain, though under a changed name.

I will examine this hypothetical Globe Alley in regard to (a) the boundary sewer between the Bishop of Winchester's Park and the Brand estate ; (b) an interpretation of the Visscher view of London, 1616 ; and (c) the evidence of the Southwark Sacra- mental Token Books.

(a) As regards the boundary sewer between the Bishop's Park and the Brand estate, MB. HUBBABD, after reciting the relevant lines on the Roll, and accepting as the only reading that its " way or lane " lay to the north of Maid Lane, continues :

" In Maiden Lane ran the common sewer, the centre of which doubtless formed the southern boundary of Nicholas Brand's property, and divided hi-? land' from the Lord Bishop of Winchester's Park."

In common with other scholars, MB. HUBBABD here exhibits an amiable weakness. He suggests a theory under cover of the unobtrusive word " doubtless," and then, having slid in his suggestion, builds upon it as though it were admittedly true.

Although the deed of 1626, which MB. HUBBABD cites, and which for my paper (23 Surrey Arch. Coll.) I transcribed from the Close Rolls, speaks of the common sewer as dividing Brand's land from the Park of the Bishop of Winchester, and although the position of this sewer is common knowledge, yet in all innocence he places it in the centre of Maid Lane, and, apparently unnoticed by him, to the north of the lower portion oi Brand's property. Then, measuring north- ward from the centre of Maid Lane a distance of 124 ft. a distance taken from the deed of 1626 he discovers a pair of wooden gates from which ensue " interesting and con elusive results." These gates lead to Iron works Yard, behind which is a way, and th< conclusion is arrived at : " This way or lam could only have been the original Globe Alley leading to the Globe Playhouse."

Apart from the fact that the centre o Maid Lane ran through the Brand estate and did not bound it, it is unfortunate fo MB. HUBBABD 's procedure that the Sewer Commission Records of the time add ar interesting item of information, which i missing from the Roll, viz., that the sewe which divided the Park from the land leasec for the Globe ran at the back of the yards o Burt and Morris, who, according to the Rol were the former tenants or occupiers of th land. Consequently, the common sewer from

vhich he takes his measurement should not lave been placed in the centre of Maid Lane, >ut, according to the Roll, the accuracy of ich MB. HUBBABD sets out to defend, at ome distance northward.

This distance is composed of 100 ft., as nentioned in the Roll, the width of " a way r lane," and also the unnamed length of the

yards " of Burt and Morris. These distances when added together should give, according o MB. HUBBABD'S interpretation of the Roll, he position of the boundary sewer north of Vlaid Lane. If, from that boundary, we neasure northward the further distance of

24 ft., we arrive, according to this method, at Globe Alley. The total distance includes neasured distances amounting to 224 ft. Since Maid Lane is well within a distance of 250 ft. from the river (v. Ordnance Map), we hould, if we could grant MB. HUBBABD his )remises, end by placing the site of the Globe n the river-bed.

An entirely independent proof that the urlobe Alley of the Close Rolls of 1626 was situated within the limits of the estate now leld by Barclay, Perkins & Co., which is wholly to the south of Maid Lane, is furnished the deed by which the brewery estate was conveyed to Barclay & Perkins in 1787. Among the recitals in that deed is one which, alluding to Sun Court and a cellar, both of which are included in the conveyance, says that the cellar fronted " a certain alley or passage called Globe Alley in antient times leading from Deadmans Place aforesaid to the then Globe Playhouse." This wording substantially reproduces that of the Close Rolls, which speaks of

" the alley or way leading to the Gloabe Play- house commonly called Gloabe Alley on the north, and contained in length from the king's highway called Deadman's Place on the east," &c.

The Globe Alley in both cases is the same.

Of course, the true state of affairs is that Brand owned a strip of land on the south side of Maid Lane, and that the common sewer of 1626, dividing this strip of Brand's land from the Park, is still in existence at the south of the existing Globe Alley, and, in places, 124 ft. from that Alley.

In the course of his argument MB. HUBBABD makes an observation which he would not have made if he had carried his researches further :

" So far as I have been able to discover [he says], the first reference to Globe Alley appears as a marginal note under the heading ' Brand's Rents ' on p. 61 in the Token Book for the Clink Liberty for the year 1619. The Alley dividing Brand's property was not apparently known as Globe Alley until that year."