Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/149

 us. m. FEB. 25, i9ii.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

143

(p. 173) the carriers are announced to set out from " The Catherine Wheel " (not " The Cat and Wheel ") in Bishopsgate Street.

There was another " Catherine Wheel " at probably No. 80, which was known in the middle of the eighteenth century as " The Katherine Wheel and George " ; and there is still a George and Katherine Wheel Alley between Nos. 80 and 81 : " To be Sold,

At the Katherine Wheel and George in

Bishopsgate-Street,

A Gelding, fourteen Hands and a half high, comes six Years old, walks, trots, and gallops well, and warranted sound. Likewise a handsome Glass Coach, fit for Town or Country, to be sold at a reasonable price." Daily Advertiser, 22 June, 1712.

Dunning' s Alley, between 151 and 152, was named after the ground landlord who built it. But Farrar's Rents, between 163 and 164, are not mentioned at all by Dodsley. They are, however, later by both kockie and Elmes in their Topographical Dictionaries, where in both instances the name is spelt Farrer.

Next comes Half-Moon Street, between 167 and 169. " The Half Moon," as a token indicates, was a brewhouse (Beaufoy Coll., No. 177). Joan Wood in 1600, by her last will, gave a rent charge arising from the brewhouse called " The Half -Moon," and a house in Half-Moon Alley, with the lands and tenements, to St. Botolph's for charitable uses (Stow's ' Survey of London,' 1754, vol. i. p. 423).

Another person no doubt benefited greatly the parish of St. Buttolph, in the church of which his monument may be seen. This was the wealthy and generous (he seems to have been something more than merely liberal) Sir Paul Pindar. His town mansion, and the tavern that succeeded it, stood at the corner of Half -Moon Street, No. 169, Bishopsgate Street Without. The sign- board, bearing a half-length portrait of this famous merchant of the Stuart period, was considered by the Society of Anti- quaries sufficiently authentic for engraving and publication. Before it was discarded, it was to be seen placed flat against the wall beneath the central window of the wealthy knight's town mansion, for such it was or, to be more correct, a portion of it before its conversion to the uses of a tavern. But the whole of the remains the great reception room, and the famous panelled bay-windows, two stories in height, adorned with grotesque carvings were removed in 1891 to make way for the Great Eastern

Railway Company's terminus - widening scheme. The fact that the Company pre- sented these remains to the South Kensing- ton Museum, where they formed a valuable addition to the Architectural Court, testifies eloquently to the value placed by experts upon their artistic importance as an example of the domestic architecture of the period.

"The Sir Paul Pindar's Head," as the tavern was called, was one of the first places to vend " Butt beer, commonly called Porter." An announcement in The Daily Advertiser, 15 October, 1742, is as follows :

A CHALLENGE to the whole

Town for

BUTT BEER, commonly call'd PORTER. This " Butt beer," or " entire butt beer," or " porter," is said to have been first in- vented and used by a brewer named Har- wood, in 1722, to save the drawer (or " skinker," as he was called in Ben Jonson's time) the trouble of going to three different taps for what was called " half-and-half " and later " three threads," i.e., a third of ale, beer, and twopenny combined. Hence the frequent legend " So-and-So's Entire," the concoction deriving its name " porter " from being in such great demand by porters.

Sir Paul Pindar's monument may be seen in St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate. He was born at Wellingborough in North- amptonshire. At sixteen he was taken from school and put apprentice to Mr. Parvish, an Italian merchant, who sent him at eigh- teen as his factor to Venice, where, and in parts adjacent, he resided for fifteen years or so, trading upon his own account, and on commissions both from his old master and from others of different countries, and accumulating a large estate. After trading five years in England, he became, through the instrumentality of the Turkey Company, Ambassador from the Court of James I. to the Grand Signior at Constantinople , where he much improved the Levant trade in British manufactures, which had been greatly injured by the competition of the Dutch and French. His wealth enabled him to become the possessor of a diamond from Turkey valued at 30,OOOZ., which he sold to James I. on credit " to wear at divers times on days of great solemnity." It was afterwards sold to Charles I., by whom it was transmuted into funds for securing the safety of Henrietta Maria and her children during the Civil War.

There are many other instances of Sir Paul Pindar's generosity and benefactions, and of his loyalty to Charles I. when that monarch was in difficulties. But of all his