Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/685

Rh LONDON. 677 LONDON. I connecting Westminster with the City. The N. of odon was almost entirely open country, and Oovent rden, or the garden of the convent of Westminster, occu- I. . ;o space about St. Martin's-lane, and extended as far as the village of St. Giles. Notwithstanding the limited space thus occupied for habitable purposes, a pro- itiuii was issued in 1580 prohibiting new buildings, which were springing up rapidly; for London now first began to exhibit symptoms of its growth, and it was feared there would not be space enough left for the sports and amusements of the people ! Notwithstanding, how- over, the alarm of the queen and her successor, James I., the town continued to increase and spread, and buildings arose and extended towards St. Giles's, and even so far as the Haymarket. New streets wore branching out in all directions, and by the time of Charles I. even so remote a district as Hyde Park had become a fashion- able place of resort. On the Reading road was a gambling-house and public place of promenade called I'iccadilly, and the " Spring Gardens" was a lounge for those who sauntered round and drank the clear and limpid waters which then flowed from a fountain placed in their centre. During the reign of the house of Stuart, considerable attention was paid to the internal improvements of the town. In 1G13 the New River was brought to London by Sir Hugh Hyddelton ; and within the next three years Moorlields was levelled, the ditches cleaned, and the walks planted, while Smith- field was also levelled and paved. In 1622 appeared the first newspaper which has been strictly authenticated, cull, d the Weekly Nncs. In 1619 Charles I. was beheaded before the banqueting-house in Whitehall, and St. Paul's Cathedral was used as a stable for some of the cavalry regiments of the Commonwealth. During the time of . lus II. the City walls, as wo are told by Stow, were a little over 2 miles in circumference, having in them the six gates of Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegato, Alders- gate, Newgate, and Ludgate ; but the nobility and gentry had already began to migrate westward, and many of them lived in the neighbourhood of Lincoln's Inn Fields, Great Queen-street, and Covent-gardcn. From the latter spot a street ran to Charing-cross, and from K] ^ing-gardens where Prince Rupert once had a house Whitehall Palace extended along St. James's Park, and was connected with Whitehall-gardens by an arch- way. The present parade ground at the back of the Horso Guards was then the tilting yard, and closo by was the " cock-pit," the apartments over which were appropriated to the use of the younger branches of the royal family and their attendants. The great mcr- chanU and traders continued to reside in the City, which, however, was still unpaved, unlighted, and un- drained. In 1625 hackney carriages first began to ply for hire; but it was found that they crowded the thoroughfares so much that a proclamation was issued against them, and sedan chairs were used instead. By, however, they bad again become so numerous that it was found necessary to license them, and they have ever since been subject to regulations which have been constantly changed so as to suit the requirements of the population. An excise and landed property tax was introduced by parliament to support the war against the king, and licenses were granted to public-houses ans destroyed the crosses in Cheapside and Charing, i.shed many fine statues and ornaments in the 'if London; and in 1641 the court of Star was finally abolished. In 1655 the Jews mwell a large sum of money to bo allowed to in Kugland, and a tacit agreement having been iiiny of them settled in London, and a syna- 'P'TU d in 1656. In 1650 the Royal Society was I many of the inhabitants of London who i il largo sums of money entrusted it to the uiths, who alluwcd them interest upon it, and ! ir banking lirmsi'S. When Charles II. l.'ind'iu in im I Hin Uii ath, a gorgeous bai him in St. (In.rL.":'-* l-'ii Ids, and the s 1 from Li ,nd ;!! Bridge to Whitehall were strewed with VOL. II. flowers, vnile the houses were decorated with flags and tapestry, and fountains filled with wine played alonsf the route. A splendid procession attended him on his entrance into London, and ho was crowned at Westminster 23rd April, 1661. At this period the streets were so ex- cessively narrow that the upper portions of the houses, which with few exceptions were of wood, nearly touched each other across the way. The fronts of them were deco- rated with numerous pictures and sign-boards, which pointed out to passers-by the trades and occupations car- ried on by the inmates of the shops, public-houses, and warehouses ; so that, as has been observed, ' ' a long street on a windy day looked like a great fluttering picture gallery, in which all animated nature and many monsters were depicted : lions and swans of every colour, dragons and unicorns of every shape, flaunted in the air. In the warehouses beneath and the eating- houses, very curious articles of apparel and luxury showed dimly through the dull and narrow panes, or appealed to the appetite with very different luxuries from ours. On the outspread board, though devoid of linen or of three-pronged forks, were often to be seen the flesh of wild beeves and bustards, and sometimes even of that royal favourite the boar. Cygnets and herons, too, had no business there, being rigidly pre- served ; but there they were. ' Marinated ' manchets and marchpane, alias and dishes of haiiyou, flanked by large flasks and choppins of canary and sherries-sack ; but no tea, coffee, or chocolate, asparagus, lettuce, or cauliflower, until 16GO." Five years later the terriblo plague which devastated London made its appearance, and destroyed upwards of 100,000 people. Whole streets became depopulated, and so few passengers ven- tured out of doors that the thoroughfares became over- grown with grass and weeds, and the dead bodies wero carted away and thrown into huge pits dug expressly for the purpose of receiving them. Of the details of this awful visitation a most graphic, although, doubtless, a somewhat imaginative description will be found in the " Journal of the Plague," by the cele- brated Daniel Defoe. On the 2nd September in the next year, the great fire of London occurred. It broke out on a spot close to Fish-street-hill, and its origin was attributed to the Roman Catholics. The Monument was built in order to commemorate the event ; and the gilt ornament at its top represents a mass of flame. Till 1830 it bore an inscription which stated that the con- flagration was caused by the Papists, and the falsity of this assertion gave occasion to Pope's lines in " Sir Balaam:" " Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies." The real truth seems to be that the fire was occasioned by the over-heating of the oven of the bakehouse in which flames first made their appearance. But, whatever was the cause of it, it spread with frightful rapidity, and the difficulty of extinguishing it was increased, not only by the inflammable materials of which the London houses and buildings wero then composed, but by the fact that the pipes of the New River Company were empty, and tho Thames fire-engine was burnt to ashes. It is computed that about 13,200 houses and 89 churches, amongst -which was St. Paul's, were destroyed ; but only eight persons lost their lives. The Exchange, the City gates, tho Custom House, the Guildhall, Sion College, and various public buildings, such as libraries, hospitals, and schools, were laid in ruins; and ware- houses, containing all kinds of valuable goods and stores, were totally consumed. The flames, we are told, formed a column a mile in diameter, and their reflection could bo seen for hundreds of miles off, while in London itself their glare made tho night as light as the day. The ruins caused by tho firo included an area of 436 acres, extending along tho north side of tho river from tho Tower to the Temple, and from the north-east gate along the City wall to Holborn Bridge. The total loss was estimated at about 7,335,000 ; and tho king, and tho Duke of York, and many of tho nobility and I 11
 * ivment of a certain sum to the exchequer. The