Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/686

Rh LONDON. 678 LONDON. the ministers not only used the utmost personal exer- tions during the conflagration in order to prevent its spreading, but contributed largely to relieve the wants of the sutt'erers ; while provisions and stores were sent in from all sides of the country to those citizens who were driven from their dwellings and many of them reduced to absolute want. On 1st October the Commons voted the thanks of the House to the king for his magnanimous behaviour during the fire. On the 10th a day of fast- ing and humiliation was observed, and a medal, with the motto " So He punishes," "was struck to commem- orate the double visitation of the plague and the fire. Towards the end of this year a Bill was passed levying one shilling on every ton of coal which was brought to the port of London, in order to enable the Lord Mayor and the Corporation to indemnify those whose ground was taken from them in order to carry out the enlarge- ment and improvement of the streets and thoroughfares. The first office for insuring buildings against fire was now established, and Sir Christopher Wren prepared a plan for erecting the new city, not only upon a safer principle, but so as to render it more commodious for trade and commerce, and more sightly in its architec- tural arrangement and structure. From one cause or another, however, his plans were laid aside, and were never put into execution. In 1667 the Royal Exchange was rebuilt, and St. James's Park planted with trees ; and in May, 1671, a disbanded officer named Blood carried nwiiy the crown jewels from the Tower. In 1679 the theatres, which had been suppressed by the Puritans during the time of the Commonwealth, were reopened, and women were first allowed to perform the female characters. Bull-baiting and athletic sports formed the chief amusements of the people, and the court and the City gave themselves up to all kinds of licentiousness and de- bauchery. In 1678 the rumour of a supposed Popish plot was circulated by Titus Gates, and Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, who first denounced Oates, was found murdered on Primrose Hill, near the Itegent's-park. These false accusations led to a great deal of excitement, and many executions of supposed traitors took place in consequence. In 1683 the celebrated Eye House Plot occurred, and on the 21st July Lord William Russell, who had been tried for complicity in it at Hide's Hall, Clerkenwell, was executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the same year a severe frost set in, and in January, 1684, the cold was so intense that whole streets of booths were formed on the Thames, and all sorts of trades and amusements carried on there for a period of nine weeks. During this reign Chelsea Hospital and Greenwich Observatory were founded, and insurances offices regularly established. A penny post carried letters in the London district, and a Post- master-General was first appointed. The master printers in London were limited to twenty, and no book was allowed to be printed out of London, except in York and by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, which extend over part of this and the whole of the two suc- ceeding reigns, give full and interesting details of the state of London at this period, and are well worthy of attentive perusal. On 14th February, 1685, Charles II. was buried at Westminster ; and on 23rd April James II. and his queen were crowned there. On the loth July the Duke of Monmouth "was beheaded on Tower Hill ; and between this and September Titus Oates underwent the sentence that had been passed upon him, and stood in the pillories, which were erected at Westminster Hall Gate, Charing Cross, the Temple, the Royal Exchange, and Tyburn. The antagonism between the king and the nation on religious matters produced great excitement in the metropolis during this reign, and the imprisonment of the seven Protestant bishops in the Tower, the cruelties of the notorious Judge Jeffreys and of Colonel Kirke, and the favour and encouragement shown to the Roman Catholics, which it was thought would lead to the interference of the Pope in the affairs of the state, influenced the minds of the citizens so much that James, finding himself deserted by his friends and the army, resolved upon flight. Accordingly, ha embarked at Whitehall Stairs, on 10th December, 1688, for France, having first thrown the great seal into the Thames, so that nothing could be legally done in his absence. On the llth April, 1689, William and Mary were crowned at Westminster ; and the infamous Jeffreys died in the Tower, and was buried there. In this year their Majesties dined at the Guildhall with the Lord Mayor ; and it having been found that the king's picture there had been defaced, a reward of .500 was offered by the City for the detection of the male- factors. Titus Oates was set at liberty, and many attainders reversed. In 1693, as the coinage had be' very much depreciated, a new one was ordered, and if by Sir Isaac Newton, who was then the Master of Mint, the loss being provided for by a house and windo' tax. In 1694 the first public lottery was drawn in London, and during this reign Chelsea Hospital, for invalid sol- diers, was finished, and Greenwich Palace given up by the crown to be henceforth a hospital for sick and disabli sailors. Various Acts for the regulation of carria] plying for hire and the street traffic of London w passed, as well as Acts for completing and adorni: St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey. In 1696 Evel complains of the extension of the metropolis, and pays, " No less exhauster and waster of public treasure is the progress and increase of buildings about this already monstrous city, wherein, one year take another, art erected about 800 houses, as I am credibly informed. '' In 1698 a fire occurred at Whitehall, which burnt it all down except the baiiqueting-house ; and in this year Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, came to England and lodged at Deptford, where he worked as a shiji's car- penter. During his stay his portrait was painted b Sir G. Kneller, and it now adorns the walls of Windso* Castle. Upon his departure the king presented hint with a yacht, in return for which Peter sent him a ruby valued at 10,000, which is now in the imperial crown of England. In the last year of this reign an Act was passed for the preservation of the library ia the house in Westminster then known as Cotton House, in which were those celebrated manuscripts the Cottonian, which now form one of the principal collections of MSS. in the Britinh Museum. On 7th March, 1702, King William III. died at Kensington Palace, and was buried at Westminster, where (Jueui Anne, who had been born at St. James's Palace, was crowned on 23rd April. In the November of the following year a terrible storm destroyed upwards of a million's worth of property in London alone, and caused so much damage to the navy that the Commons petitioned the queen to give directions for a sum to be specially applied for rebuilding and repairing the injured ships, and for providing for the families of those who had perished. In 1705 a theatre was opened in the Haymarket by Van- brugh and Cibber; and this portion of the town had by this time become the resort of a dense population devoted both to business and pleasure. At the cnd_ ol 1709 Dr. Sacheverell preached the two sermon led to his trial before the House of Lords ; and up.m his progress there the mob which attended him pull' several meeting-houses, and made a bonfire of pulpits, pews, &c., in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The rei of the riot was that many of the ringleaders punished, and several obnoxious books upon religi' were burnt by the common hangman. In 1711 an Ai was passed for building 50 new churches in London and Westminster, and an estimate was sent in of tin each of them by Sir Christopher Wren. On 23rd June a proclamation was issued for the establishment nf the General Post Office ; and at the end of the year the first Italian opera ever performed in England was : the theatre in the Haymarket. On 15th November, 1712, the celebrated duel between the Duke of 1 ! and Colonel Hamilton against Lord Mohun anl Lieut. - General Macartney was fought in Hyde Park Mohun was killed, the duke mortally wound Colonel Hamilton was wounded in the foot, while Macartney made his escape, and a reward was offered for