Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/187

 n s. vi. AUG. 24, 1912. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

151

Mr. Wheatley says (' London Past and Present,' vol. ii. p. 295) that the Pagoda and bridge were taken down about 1825.

The Sundial in Covent Garden.

The sundial in Covent Garden was erected in 1668, and was subscribed for by various inhabitants of the neighbourhood and others. In nearly all eighteenth-century prints of Covent Garden the dial appears upon a tall column surmounted by a block of stone, and with four dial faces. The following extracts from the parochial accounts, &c., will illustrate better than anything else what was the origin of the dial.

17 July, 1668. This day being appointed for the auditing of several parochial accounts, and some of them being not ready, Mr. Tomlinson did exate leave before they departed to acquaint them that he and his gentlemen had a desire to erect a Doricke columne of polished marble, for the support of a quadrangular dyall in the midst of the railes where now the trees are, it being very improbable that they should ever come to any maturity ; which he then demonstrated by several arguments urging them being placed there with much indignation they not at all becoming the aspect of such a place, declaring that he had already communicated it to the Earl of Bedford, proprietor of the said, and most of the nobility and gentry.

20 Nov., 1668. For drawing a Modell of. d. the Column to be presented to the

........ 10

086

2 Dec., 1668. To Mr. Wainwright for 4 gnomons. . . . . . ..

Dec. 7, 1668. Received of the Right Honourable the Earlof Bedford as a gratuity towards the erecting of y* column. . . . . . . . 20

Received from the Honourable S* Charles Cotterill, Master of the Ceremonys, as a gift towards the said column. . . . 10

April 29, 1669. Received from the Bight Honourable the Lord Denzil Holies as a present towards the erecting of the aforesaid column. . 1000

March, 1669. March 18th. To Mr. Browne, ye mathematician, for his pains about the dyall.

20. To Mr. Dansce, for painting and

guilding ye Dyall. . . . ..100

To the work-men at ye taking downe of ye scaffold. . . . 026

To Mr. Browne, for his dayes attendance at ye finishing of ye Dyall.. ...... 050

August 29, 1669. Upon consideration had of his many signal services that the Honourable Sir John Baber hath done this parish from time to time, it was thought good to engrave his coat of _ armes in one of the shields belonging to ye said column as a perpetual acknowledgment of

our gratitude, and do refuse any present from him that should be tendered.

The column was raised on six steps of black marble, and there old women sold barley broth and milk porridge. A brochure, 'The Humours of Covent Garden,' 1738, describes the scene :

High in the midst of this most happy land, A well-built marble pyramid doth stand, By which spectators know the time o' the day, From beams reflecting of the solar ray ; The basis with ascending steps is graced, Around whose area cleanly matrons placed, Vend their most wholesome food, by nature good, To cheer the spirits and enrich the blood.

In ' Old and New London,' vol. iii. p. 243, we read :

" The prints of the square, at the time of which we write [eighteenth century], show the inclosure as gravelled, and fenced in with rows of low posts and chains. In its centre was a fluted column of the Corinthian order, with a sun-dial on the top, which would appear by an inscription to have been erected in 1668. Thornton, in his 'Survey of London and Westminster* (1786), speaks of the column as surrounded by four sun- dials, and informs us that the inner portion of the Square at that time was surrounded by light wooden rails.

" The column, as we learn from another source, stood on a pedestal, which was raised upon six steps of black marble. The capital was very much enriched ; it supported a square stone, three sides of which served as sun-dials. Upon this stone stood a globe, supported by four scrolls. It was removed in June, 1790.

" Upon the steps of this column sat sundry old women who sold milk, porridge, barley-broth, &c., and to whom allusion is thus made in a brochure entitled ' The Humours of Covent Garden,' published in 1738."

I find that the statement of the sundial being removed in June, 1790, is corroborated by another authority, viz., the pamphlet issued about 1866 in connexion with Evans's Music and Supper Rooms, and entitled ' Odds and Ends about Covent Garden and its Vicinity,' by Mr. John Green (the author was George Henry Townsend). This is in many ways the best collection of historical matter relating to Covent Garden. It is put together with zeal, but without skill, and it is vilely printed. It was issued as an advertisement of Evans's Rooms. The Covent Garden pillar was one of several which existed in London in the seventeenth century. One designed by Inigo Jones stood in the middle of New Square, Lincoln's Inn ; Sir John Dethick, Lord Mayor of London in 1655, placed a pillar and dial and fountain at Leadenhall Corner; and there was something of the sort in Seven Dials.