Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/531

 ii s. v. JUNE 1. 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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on IB oaks.

Survey of TAnvdon. Vol. III. The Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. Part I. Lincoln's Inn Field*. (London County Council.)

Ar.1. students of London local history will hail with delight the volumes now being issued by the London County Council, under the able general editorship of Sir Laurence Gomme, for the Council, and Mr. Philip Norman, for the Survey Committee. The first volume was devoted to Broniley-by- Bow, the second related to the parish of Chelsea, and this first part of the third volume contains the history of Lincoln's Inn Fields, while part ii. will deal with the rest of the parish of St. Giles- in-the Fields.

To our readers Lincoln's Inn Fields is familiar ground to which our pages are full of references. Sir Laurence, in his Introduction, before dealing with the individual houses, devotes a few pages to the history of the area as a whole, and describes the evolution of the modern square from the " three waste common fields, called by the names of Purse Field, Fickets Field, and Cup Field."

The first historical occurrence which can be definitely located in Lincoln's Inn Fields is the execution, on the 20th and 21st of September, 1586, of Anthony Babington and his fellow- conspirators.

At the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury the increase in the population of the City began to press threateningly upon this area. On 24th March, 1613, the Morgan and Home Irase of Purse Field was settled on Sir Charles Corn- wallis, who, without losing any time, applied for a licence to build a house there. The Society of Lincoln's Inn made a successful protest to the Privy Council ; the Fields were saved for a time, and proposals were put forward for laying them out in walks similar to those laid " quite re- cently ("1607] outside Moorgate " ; Among the Commissioners appointed to that end in 1618 was Inigo Jones, the Surveyor - General, and here Sir I.aurence traverses the statement freely made by many authors " that under this Commission he was instructed to draw up a design for building in the Fields," whereas the object of the Commission was to frustrate any such building. This confirms the opinion of Col. Prideaux as given in our columns on the 4th inst. The Commission was a failure, and, not- withstanding the continued opposition of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, William Newton, evidently a sharp man of business, obtained licence to build thirty-two houses. He had represented to Charles I. that under the existing conditions the Crown received only an annual rent of 51. 6.*. Sd.. whereas he was prepared to pay a rental of 200?. Operations were com- menced at once, and, it being left for the Society to make the best terms it could, in 1639 it obtained the important concession, ever to be gratefully remembered by the thousands who now enjoy the beautiful gardens, that "the square piece of ground extending from Turne- Style Lane to the new buildings neere Queene's streeto, and from thence to or neere Lowche's Buildings, and from thence to the south-east corner of Lyiiuolu'* Inn Wall shall from thence

fourth and for ever hereafter lye open and un- built."

In 1683, on the 21st of July, the Fields were the scene of the execution of Lord Russell. In 1897 a brass tablet was placed by the London County Council in the floor of the shelter in the Fields, purporting to indicate the exact spot where Lord Russell suffered ; but Sir Laurence Gomme states that this is probably a mistake, his reasons being that " the site of the shelter is wholly within Cup Field, and it is most likely, having regard to the different condition of the two fields at the time, that the execution took place on the open space of Purse Field rather than in Cup Field, which was intersected by rows of fencing. This, indeed, is placed beyond reasonable doubt by the fact that Lord Russell entered the Fields by way of Little Queen Street.''

For many years the Fields were grossly neglected and became a "receptacle for rubbish, dirt,, and nastiness of all sorts," and at night the resort of dangerous characters.

More than once there was an idea of erecting a church within them; while in 1842 it was suggested that the Royal Courts of Justice should stand there. Fortunately these projects came to nothing, and on the 7th of November, 1894, the London County Council, by arrangement with the trustees, acquired the Fields for the sum of 12.000J., and thus secured them for the use of the public for ever.

A full account is given of the Sardinian arch* way and chapel. Under ' Vanishing London ' we have recently had notes on this by Col. Prideaux, by K. T. L., and by Mr. Cecil Clarke, who gives the references to yet earlier notes on the subject (ante, pp. 351-2).

As to the date of the first chapel in the rear of No. 54, given as 1648 on the strength of the in- scription above the arch, Sir Laurence remarks that " it has been shown that it is not certain that this date refers to anything more than the date of the naming of the street." The chapel was opened on the 2nd of February, 1688. Father Cross took a ten years' lease of the house. On the night of the llth of December, after the flight of James, it was gutted by the mob, and all the wainscot, pictures, books, &c., were pulled down and burnt in the Fields. The scene is depicted among the illustrations. It would seem, according to the rate-book for 1700 in the possession of the Council, that after the disaster " Don Lewis Da Cunha," the Portuguese Ambassador, took possession of Nos. 53-4, which remained the head-quarters of the Embassy until some time subsequent to 1708. Before 1723 it

Eassed into the occupation of the Sardinian Em- assy, and from that circumstance it obtained the name of the Sardinian Chapel, by which it [has ever since been generally known. It has passed through many vicissitudes. On the 30th of November, 1759, together with the house of the Ambassador, Count Viri, and two houses adjoining, it was burnt to the ground. Shortly afterwards the new building erected at the expense of the King of Sardinia in turn encountered misfortune, for on the 2nd of June, 1780, during the Gordon Riots, it was attacked by the mob and materially damaged. Although in 1799 the chapel passed out of the hands of the Sardinian Embassy.it continued under the patronage of the King of Sardinia until 1858. It was demolished