Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/38

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. JULY s, me.

bilder," held the site under a lease from the City Corporation which would expire in 1801. But the City were not the freeholders ; they had it " on lease from the Lady Went- worth for 600 years, of which about 440 were yet to come " in 1748. The Wentworths " acquired " the Stepney manor from the London Bishopric at the Refonnation. From the Whitechapel Mount all the historic events, national and civic, of which Mile End Common was the scene pageants, parades, reviews, tournaments, riots, election fights, battles, &c. could be witnessed, and the panorama of open count ry from the Northern Heights to Greenwich was visible, with the wide ribbon of the winding Thames from the Tower eastward to the Creeks of the Lea and Barking.

For a hundred and fifty years after the citizens of London and the eastern precincts, in 1642, prepared for the approach of the army of King Charles by throwing up earth- works on the eastern front of the Whitechapel Mount, it remained neglected, although occasionally it was adorned with gibbets for the admonition of highwaymen and footpads infesting the Great Road to Essex, and occasionally it was made a local Primrose Hill for holiday-makers. There used to be a tradition that it was the site of one of the Plague pits supplementary to the Great Pit in Aldgate Churchyard in 1665 ; and it was common belief that " The Mount " received large additions from the rubbish of the Fire of 1666. The discoveries of human remains thereabout suggest that the City Corpora- tion's levelling in the early part of the last century was effected without much regard for the uses to which the site may have been applied in Stuart times. But at the end of January, 1855, the newspapers of the day stated that,

"on the removal of a mound of rubbi8h at White- chapel brought there after the Great Fire, a carved boxwood bas-relief boar's head was found, set in a circular frame formed by two boars' tusks mounted and united with silver."

An inscription to the following effect was printed on the back : " Wm. Brooke, Land- lord of The Bores Hedde, Estchepe. 1566." This object, formerly in the possession of Mr. Stanford, the publisher, was sold at Christie & Manson's on Jan. 27, 1855, and was bought by Mr. Halliwell, the Shake- spearian critic and collector. A drawing of the very curious relic was published in The Illustrated London News. This Boar's Head in Eastcheap was, of course, the famous inn patronized by Jack Falstaff and Prince Hal. William Warden, in the reign of King

Richard II., gave it to a neighbouring college of priests founded by Sir W. Wal- vorth ; and on its sign, even in the time of Maitland, the Georgian City historian, it proudly proclaimed : " This is the Chief Tavern in London." (There was, by the by, a great Shakespearian dinner-party at the Boar's Head in 1784, and Wilberforce and Pitt were of the party. ) The discovery of the boxwood boar's head at the Whitechapel Mount site was regarded as a strong support of the popular tradition, for it is known that the original inn was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. It was rebuilt, and continued in existence until 1831, when it was de- molished to make way for avenues to the new London Bridge. Me.

In The Illustrated London News for April 28, 1860, there is an engraving of 'Whitechapel Mount from a Drawing made in 1801.' According to the accompanying letter- press :

" The formation of the East and West India Docks in the early part of the present century caused roads to be made through the low, marshy fields extending from Shadwell and Ratcliff to Whitechapel - road. Cannon-street-road, leading from the acclivity called Whitechapel Mount to St. George's-in-the-East, so increased the value of the land on each side of it that it was determined by the Corporation of the City of London to take down the Mount. This was effected in 1807 and 1808, and Mount-place, Mount-terrace, and Mount- street were built on the site, not only preserving the remembrance of the Mount, but marking the space it occupied. In Lysons's 'Antiquities of Middlesex ' the dimensions of Whitechapel Mount are stated to be in length 329 feet ; breadth 182 feet. It was considerably higher than the London Hospital ; an extensive view was obtained of the villages of Limehouse, Shadwell, and Ratcliff. Our Engraving shows that face of the Mount on the south side of Whitechapel-road, and part of the London Hospital. The churches in the distance are Old Shadwell, Limehouse, and St. George's-in- the-East. In Stow's 'Annals' mention is made of an encampment of the Commons near the Mount at Mile-end during Jack Cade's rebellion."

The article terminates with the statement that neither the remains of dead bodies nor any objects of interest or value were found during the removal of the Mount.

RHYS JENKINS. [MB. JOHN T. PAGE thanked for reply.]

THE " FLY " : THE " HACKNEY " : THE " MIDGE" (12 S. i. 150, 254, 398, 494). As regards the " midge," this little vehicle was quite a feature in the life of hilly Ventnor. But I fear it, also, is becoming extinct, as a friend writes me :

" ' Midges ' are not now in general use. Suspicion as to their safety was referred to at an inquest a few years ago, as one of them capsized They