Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/362

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. vi. OCT. 12, 1912.

Fleet Street in Seven Centuries. By Waltsr George Bell. (Pitman & Sons.)

TILL near the close of Elizabeth's reign Fleet Street was habitually referred to as "in the suburb of London," and the earlier portion of this book gives us the results of Mr. Bell's research into the conditions of the western suburb in mediaeval times, and its conversion into a closely built town area under Elizabeth and James I.

Looking at the scanty material available, the author is disposed to think that the idea that the birth of Fleet Street is to be found in the up- raising of the Thames marsh and mud is altogether illusory. The street is much later. Allowance being made for superficial deposits, the levels indicate that, except above Ludgate Circus, the marsh can have had but little effect on the street, the line of which is well above it. The City, in exercising its authority beyond the walls to Temple Bar, only took the obvious course of following, not changes in the land surface, but the settlement of the citizens ; and it is perhaps not without significance that quite early in the history of the suburb an established trade that of the cappers or capmakers is already found settled in Fleet Street.

Mr. Bell differs from those authorities who give to Fleet Street an earlier date than the thirteenth century, the first reference he finds to it being in the year 1228. He supplies a picturesque description of the scene when, one morning late in the thirteenth century, that prosperous capper John de Flete came from the altar of St. Bride's with his newly-made bride, and the townsfolk clustered at the church porch while the bride- groom made a declaration of endowment. This practice was not formally abolished until the reign of William IV. The bells of course were rung ; but they were always ringing or tolling about Fleet Street, surrounded as it was by ecclesiastical establishments. " Fancy the clamour of all the belfries clustered together in a space of little above a square mile, one or another of them rarely silent the livelong day ! As evening fell, the great bell of St. Martin's-le- Grand gave the signal, and St. Bride's rang out the Curfew to the suburb." At this signal Richard de Fletbrigge, William de Lodgate, the Freshfysshes, the Piggesflesshes, the John Out- lawes, and the other inhabitants would retire to rest ; for the proverb then ran :

To rise at five, to dine at nine, To sup at five, to bed at nine, Makes a man live to ninety and nine. The larger establishments stood well back in their own grounds, but the houses which fringed the line of Fleet Street were very mean, " few containing more than a single room, the walls rising directly out of the earth floor. Where there was a shop, it was entirely open, without defence to wind or weather," a ladder giving access to the room above. In the shop the crafts- men worked, and there was a pageant of bright colour, " for men and women alike favoured simple hues, and emerald greens, and blues, and bright reds were very much in vogue. Every man went hooded."

About this time, on the left, where now is the west corner of Ludgate Circus, the Bishop of St. David's built his hostel against Bridewell, anil opposite, also at the end of the street, was the town hostel of the Abbot and Convent of Ciren- cester. This was known as the Popingay, and its site and name are preserved in Poppin's Court. Another hostel was that of the Bishop of Salis- bury, some of whose spacious grounds, which ex- tended to the river, are now represented by Salis- bury Square. In the north-west corner Richard- son lived, and there wrote his ' Pamela.' The offices of Lloyd's Newspaper now occupy the site of his house. There was yet another hostel ii> Fleet Street in mediaeval days that of the Abbot of Peterborough. The name still survives- in Peterborough Court, now covered by the premises of The Daily Telegraph.

Mr. Bell thinks (and we are inclined to agree with him) that these Churchmen were the original appropriators of the side wastes, and that thus the narrowness of Fleet Street is to be accounted for, the opportunity of having a magnificent boulevard being lost for ever. It is evident that there was- great discontent caused by the exactions of the clergy, and this at length in 1457 broke into- open rioting in St. Dunstan's Church.

In reference to the title of St. Bride's Church,, though Mr. Bell " has no gift in hagiology, and timidly enters into controversy about the par- ticular St. Bridget or St. Bride to whom the church is dedicated," he says : " Why have a dozen writers assumed her to have been a Danish saint ? No one knows the particular St. Bridget to whom the unknown founders of the church dedicated the structure. The first authen- tic mention of the church is a decree of the Arch- bishop of Canterbury in 1222, in which year an ecclesiastical franchise dispute between the Abbot of Westminster and the See of London was at length settled, and the boundary of the former's jurisdiction driven back to the Strand. An interesting survival of its [St- Bride's] ancient dependence on the mother church of St. Margaret's is to be found in the fact that the presentation to St. Bride's, a City church, is- still in the gift of the Dean of Westminster."

Coming to St. Dunstan's, one is reminded that ' The Compleat Angler ' was published by Richard Marriot in the churchyard there, price Is. 6rf. What would he think of its present price, 1,290?. ? One would like a few " remainders " of these. Round St. Dunstan's Churchyard in later years- many booksellers gathered. George Bell & Sons- were there in 1845 at 186, Fleet Street, next the church, and there, as Mr. Edward Bell is- pleased to remember, his father published N. & Q.' when started by Thorns in 1849, Opposite, in the house now occupied by George Philip & Son, map publishers, is the place where the firm of John Murray was founded.

Mr. Bell's researches have been mostly devoted to Fleet Street in mediaeval times, and the result renders his work of permanent interest to the antiquary. He is conscious of having worried ('?) a great many people in the years during which his book has been in preparation. We have put a note of interrogation after " worried," because we feel that those he has mentioned (who include two valued contributors to our pages Mr. Aleck Abrahams, an ardent collector of all that relates to Fleet Street, and Dr. Reginald Sharpe)