London in 1731

This Royal founder’s epitaph:

Septimus Henricus tumulo requiescit in isto,  Qui regum splendor, lumen et orbis erat.Rex vigil et sapiens, comes virtutis, amatur,   Egregius forma, strenuus atque potens.Qui peperit pacem regno, qui bella peregit   Plurima, qui victor semper ab hoste redit,Qui natas binis conjunxit regibus ambas,   Regibus et cunctis fædere junctus erat. Qui sacrum hoc struxit templum, statuitque; sepulchrum  Pro se, proque sua conjuge, proque domo.Lustra decem atque; annos tres plus compleverit annos,   Nam tribus octenis regia sceptra tulit;Quindecies Domini centenus fluxerat annus,   Currebat nonus, cum venit atra dies;Septima ter mensis lux tunc fulgebat Aprilis,   Cum clausit summum tanta corona diem.Nulla dedere prius tantum sibi sæcula regem   Anglia, vix similem posteriora dabunt.Septimus hic situs est Henricus gloria regumCunctorum, ipsius qui tempestate fuerunt;Ingenio atque; opibus gestarum et nomine rerum,Accessere quibus naturæ dona benignæ:Frontis honos facies augusta heroica forma,Junctaque ei suavis conjux per pulchra pudica,Et fæcunda fuit; felices prole parentes,Henricum quibus octavum terra Anglia debet.

Under the figure of the king.

Hic jacet Henricus ejus nominis septimus, Anglicæ quondam rex, Edmundi Richmondiæ comitis filius, qui die 22 Aug. Rex creatus, statim post apud Westmonasterium die 30 Octob. coronatur 1485. Moritur deinde 21 die Aprilis anno ætat. 53, regnavit annos 23, menses 8, minus uno die.

Under the queen’s figure.

Hic jacet regina Elizabetha, Edvardi quarti quondam regis filia, Edvardi quinti regis quondam nominatur soror: Henrici septimi olim regis conjux, atque; Henrici octavi regis mater inclyta; obiit autem suum diem in turri Londoniarum die secund. Feb. anno Domini 1502, 37 annorum ætate functa.

The modern tombs in the abbey, best worth the viewing, are those of the duke of Newcastle, on the left hand as we enter the north door, of Sir Isaac Newton, at the west end of the choir, of Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Mr. Secretary Craggs at the west end of the abbey, of Mr. Prior among the poets at the door which faces the Old Palace Yard, of the Duke of Buckingham in Henry VII.th’s chapel, and that of Doctor Chamberlain on the North side of the choir: most of these are admirable pieces of sculpture, and show that the statuary’s art is not entirely lost in this country; though it must be confessed the English fall short of the Italians in this science.

Westminster Hall is one of the largest rooms in Europe, being two hundred and twenty-eight feet in length, fifty-six feet broad, and ninety feet high. The walls are of stone, the windows of the Gothic form, the floor stone, and the roof of timber covered with lead; and having not one pillar in it, is supported by buttresses. It is usually observed that there are no cobwebs ever seen in this hall, and the reason given for this is, that the timber of which the roof is composed is Irish oak, in which spiders will not harbour; but I am inclined to believe that this is a fact not to be depended on, for I find the timber for rebuilding and repairing the Palace of Westminster in the reign of Richard III. was brought from the forests in Essex; and as there is no colour from history to surmise that the timber of this hall was Irish oak, so is there no imaginable reason why timber should be fetched from another kingdom for the repair of the hall, when the counties of Middlesex and Essex were great part of them forest, and afforded timber enough to have built twenty such places; and we find that the timber of the Essex forests was in fact applied to the repairs of this palace; for it cannot be pretended that the present roof is the same that was erected by William Rufus when it was first built, it appearing that Richard II., about the year 1397, caused the old roof to be taken down and a new one made (as has been observed already) and this is probably the same we now see. Here are hung up as trophies, 138 colours, and 34 standards, taken from the French and Bavarians at Hochstadt, anno 1704.

The House of Lords, or chamber where the peers assemble in Parliament, is situated between the Old Palace Yard and the Thames. It is a spacious room, of an oblong form, at the south end whereof is the King’s throne, to which he ascends by several steps: on the right hand of the throne is a seat for the Prince of Wales, and on the left another for the princes of the blood, and behind the throne the seats of the peers under age.

On the east side of the house, to the right of the throne, sit the archbishops and bishops; on the opposite side of the house sit the dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts; and on forms crossing the area, the barons under the degree of viscounts.

Before the throne are three wool-sacks, or broad seats stuffed with wool, to put the Legislature in mind, it is said, that the right management of this trade is of the last importance to the kingdom. On the first of these wool-sacks, next to the throne, sits the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper, who is Speaker of the House of Peers; and on the other two, the Lord Chief Justices and the rest of the judges, with the Master of the Rolls, and the other Masters in Chancery: about the middle of the house, on the east side, is a chimney, where a fire is usually kept in the winter; and towards the north, or lower end of the house, is a bar that runs across it, to which the commons advance when they bring up bills or impeachments, or when the King sends for them, and without this bar the council and witnesses stand at trials before the peers. The house is at present hung with tapestry, containing the history of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, anno 1588.

The house or chamber where the commons assemble is to the northward of the House of Lords, and stands east and west, as the other does north and south. The room is pretty near square, and towards the upper end is the Speaker’s armed chair, to which he ascends by a step or two; before it is a table where the clerks sit, on which the mace lies when the Speaker is in the chair, and at other times the mace is laid under the table. On the north and south sides, and at the west end, are seats gradually ascending as in a theatre, and between the seats at the west end is the entrance by a pair of folding-doors. There are galleries also on the north, south, and west, where strangers are frequently admitted to hear the debates.

This room was anciently a chapel, founded by King Stephen about the year 1141, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; however, it obtained the name of St. Stephen’s Chapel. It was rebuilt by King Edward III., anno 1347, who placed in it a dean, twelve secular canons, thirteen vicars, four clerks, five choristers, a verger, and a keeper of the chapel, and built them a convent, which extended along the Thames, endowing it with large revenues, which at the dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Edward VI. amounted to near eleven thousand pounds per annum. Almost ever since the dissolution, this chapel has been converted to the use we find it at present, viz., for the session of the Lower House of Parliament, who, before that time, usually assembled in the chapter-house belonging to the Abbey, when the Parliament met at Westminster. The Painted Chamber lies between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and here the committees of both houses usually meet at a conference; but neither this nor the other remaining apartments of this Palace of Westminster have anything in them that merit a particular description.

The open place usually called Charing Cross, from a fine cross which stood there before the grand rebellion, is of a triangular form, having the Pall Mall and the Haymarket on the north-west, the Strand on the east, and the street before Whitehall on the south. In the middle of this space is erected a brazen equestrian statue of King Charles I., looking towards the place where that prince was murdered by the rebels, who had erected a scaffold for that purpose before the gates of his own palace. This statue is erected on a stone pedestal seventeen feet high, enriched with his Majesty’s arms, trophy-work, palm-branches, &c., enclosed with an iron palisade, and was erected by King Charles II. after his restoration. The brick buildings south-east of Charing Cross are mostly beautiful and uniform, and the King’s stables in the Mews, which lie north of it, and are now magnificently rebuilding of hewn stone, will probably make Charing Cross as fine a place as any we have in town; especially as it stands upon an eminence overlooking Whitehall.

The Banqueting-house stands on the east side of the street adjoining to the great gate of Whitehall on the south. This edifice is built of hewn stone, and consists of one stately room, of an oblong form, upwards of forty feet in height, the length and breadth proportionable, having galleries round it on the inside, the ceiling beautifully painted by that celebrated history-painter, Sir Peter Paul Rubens: it is adorned on the outside with a lower and upper range of columns of the Ionic and Composite orders, their capitals enriched with fruit, foliage, &c., the intercolumns of the upper and lower range being handsome sashed windows. It is surrounded on the top with stone rails or banisters, and covered with lead.

St. James’s Palace, where the Royal Family now resides in the winter season, stands pleasantly upon the north side of the Park, and has several noble rooms in it, but is an irregular building, by no means suitable to the grandeur of the British monarch its master. In the front next St. James’s Street there appears little more than an old gate-house, by which we enter a little square court, with a piazza on the west side of it leading to the grand staircase; and there are two other courts beyond, which have not much the air of a prince’s palace. This palace was a hospital, suppressed by Henry VIII., who built this edifice in the room of it.

But the house most admired for its situation is that of the Duke of Buckingham at the west end of the Park; in the front of which, towards the Mall and the grand canal, is a spacious court, the offices on each side having a communication with the house by two little bending piazzas and galleries that form the wings. This front is adorned with two ranges of pilasters of the Corinthian and Tuscan orders, and over them is an acroteria of figures, representing Mercury, Secrecy, Equity, and Liberty, and under them this inscription in large golden characters, viz., Sic siti Lætantvr Lares (Thus situated, may the household gods rejoice).

Behind the house is a fine garden and terrace, from whence there is prospect adjacent on the house on that side, viz., Rvs in Vrbe, intimating that it has the advantages both of city and country; above which are figures representing the four seasons: The hall is paved with marble, and adorned with pilasters, the intercolumns exquisite paintings in great variety; and on a pedestal, near the foot of the grand staircase, is a marble figure of Cain killing his brother Abel; the whole structure exceeding magnificent, rich, and beautiful, but especially in the finishing and furniture.

Grosvenor or Gravenor Square is bounded on the north by Oxford Road, on the east by Hanover Square, by Mayfair on the south, and by Hyde Park on the west; the area whereof contains about five acres of ground, in which is a large garden laid out into walks, and adorned with an equestrian statue of King George I. gilded with gold, and standing on a pedestal, in the centre of the garden, the whole surrounded with palisades placed upon a dwarf wall. The buildings generally are the most magnificent we meet with in this great town; though the fronts of the houses are not all alike, for some of them are entirely of stone, others of brick and stone, and others of rubbed brick, with only their quoins, fascias, windows, and door-cases of stone; some of them are adorned with stone columns of the several orders, while others have only plain fronts; but they are so far uniform as to be all sashed, and of pretty near an equal height. To the kitchens and offices, which have little paved yards with vaults before them, they descend by twelve or fifteen steps, and these yards are defended by a high palisade of iron. Every house has a garden behind it, and many of them coach-houses and stables adjoining; and others have stables near the square, in a place that has obtained the name of Grosvenor Mews. The finishing of the houses within is equal to the figure they make without; the staircases of some of them I saw were inlaid, and perfect cabinet-work, and the paintings on the roof and sides by the best hands. The apartments usually consist of a long range of fine rooms, equally commodious and beautiful; none of the houses are without two or three staircases for the convenience of the family. The grand staircase is generally in the hall or saloon at the entrance. In short, this square may well be looked upon as the beauty of the town, and those who have not seen it cannot have an adequate idea of the place.

The city of Westminster at this day consists of the parishes of St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist, and the liberties of Westminster, viz., St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields; St. Mary le Savoy; St. Mary le Strand; St. Clement’s Danes; St. Paul’s, Covent Garden; St. James’s, Westminster; St. George’s, Hanover Square; and St. Anne’s, Westminster; all under the government of the dean and chapter of Westminster, and their subordinate officers; or rather, of a high steward, and such other officers as are appointed by them; for since the Reformation, the dean and chapter seem to have delegated their civil power to such officers as they elect for life, who are not accountable to, or liable to be displaced by them, nor are they liable to forfeit their offices, but for such offences as a private man may lose his estate, namely, for high treason, felony, &c., as happened in the case of their high steward, the Duke of Ormond, upon whose attainder the dean and chapter proceeded to a new election.

The next officer to the high steward is the deputy steward, appointed by the high steward, and confirmed by the dean and chapter, who is usually a gentleman learned in the law, being judge of their court for trial of civil actions between party and party, which is held usually on Wednesday every week. They have also a court-leet, held annually on St. Thomas’s Day, for the choice of officers, and removal of nuisances. The deputy-steward supplies the place of sheriff of Westminster, except in the return of members of Parliament, which is done by the high bailiff, an officer nominated by the dean and chapter, and confirmed by the high steward. The high-bailiff also is entitled to all fines, forfeitures, waifs and strays in Westminster, which makes it a very profitable post.

The high constable, chosen by the burgesses at their court-leet, and approved by the steward or his deputy, is an officer of some consideration in this city also, to whom all the rest of the constables are subject.

The burgesses are sixteen in number, seven for the city and nine for the liberties of Westminster, appointed by the high steward or his deputy, every one of whom has his assistant, and has particular wards or districts: out of these burgesses are chosen two chief burgesses, one for the city, the other for the liberties. The dean, high steward, or his deputy, the bailiffs and burgesses, or a quorum of them, are empowered to make bye-laws, and take cognisance of small offences, within the city and liberties of Westminster. But I look upon it that the justices of peace for Westminster have in a great measure superseded the authority of the burgesses (except as to weights, measures, and nuisances), by virtue of whose warrants all petty offenders almost are apprehended and sent to Tothill Fields Bridewell; and for higher offences, the same justices commit criminals to Newgate, or the Gatehouse, who receive their trials before commissioners of oyer and terminer at the Old Bailey, as notorious criminals in the City of London do; and so far the two united cities may be said to be under the same government.

The precinct of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, in London, is deemed a part of the city of Westminster, and the inhabitants vote in the elections of members of Parliament for Westminster.

The ecclesiastical government of the city of Westminster is in the dean, and chapter, whose commissary has the jurisdiction in all ecclesiastical causes, and the probate of wills; from whom there lies no appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury or other spiritual judge, but to the King in Chancery alone, who upon such appeal issues a commission under the Great Seal of England, constituting a court of delegates to determine the cause finally.

I next proceed to survey the out-parishes in the Counties of Middlesex and Surrey which are comprehended within the bills of mortality, and esteemed part of this great town. And first, St. Giles’s in the Fields contains these chief streets and places: Great Lincoln’s Inn Fields, part of Lincoln’s Inn Garden, Turnstile, Whetstone Park, part of High Holborn, part of Duke Street, Old and New Wild Street, Princes Street, Queen Street, part of Drury Lane, Brownlow Street, Bolton Street, Castle Street, King Street, the Seven Dials, or seven streets comprehending Earl Street, Queen Street, White Lion Street, and St. Andrew’s Street, Monmouth Street, the east side of Hog Lane, Stedwell Street, and Staig Street.

Great Lincoln’s Inn Fields or Square contains about ten acres of ground, and is something longer than it is broad, the longest sides extending from east to west. The buildings on the west and south generally make a grand figure.

In the parish of St. Sepulchre, which is without the liberties of the City of London, we meet with Hicks’s Hall and the Charter House.

Hicks’s Hall is situated in the middle of St. John’s Street, towards the south end, and is the sessions house for the justices of peace of the County of Middlesex, having been erected for this end, anno 1612, by Sir Baptist Hicks, a mercer in Cheapside, then a justice of the peace. The justices before holding their sessions at the Castle Inn, near Smithfield Bars.

To the eastward of Hicks’s Hall stood the late dissolved monastery of the Charter House, founded by Sir Walter Manny, a native of the Low Countries, knighted by King Edward III. for services done to this crown, probably in the wars against France.

Sir Walter Manny at first erected only a chapel, and assigned it to be the burial-place of all strangers; but in the year 1371 Sir Walter founded a monastery of Carthusian monks here, transferring to these fathers thirteen acres and a rood of land with the said chapel: the revenues of which convent, on the dissolution of monasteries, 30 Henry VIII., amounted to £642 4d. 1ob. per annum.

Sir Thomas Audley soon after obtained a grant of this Carthusian monastery, together with Duke’s Place, and gave the former in marriage with his daughter Margaret to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, from whom it descended to the Earl of Suffolk, and was called Howard House, the surname of that noble family. By which name Thomas Sutton, Esq., purchased it of the Earl of Suffolk for £13,000, anno 1611, and converted it into a hospital by virtue of letters patent obtained from King James I., which were afterwards confirmed by Act of Parliament, 3 Charles I.

But the revenues now amount to upwards of £6,000 per annum by the improvement of the rents. This charity was given for the maintenance of fourscore old men, who were to be either gentlemen by descent reduced to poverty, soldiers by sea or land, merchants who had suffered by piracy or shipwreck, or servants of the King’s household, and were to be fifty years of age and upwards at their admission, except maimed soldiers, who are capable of being admitted at forty years of age. Nor are any to be admitted who are afflicted with leprosy, or any unclean or infectious disease, or who shall be possessed of the value of £200, or £14 per annum for life, or who are married men. No poor brother to go beyond sea without the licence of six of the governors, nor to go into the country for above two months without the master’s leave, and during such absence shall be allowed but two-thirds of his commons in money besides his salary; and if a brother go out and is arrested he shall have no allowance during his absence, but his place to be reserved till the governors’ pleasure be known.

No brother to pass the gates of the hospital in his livery gown, or to lie out of the house, or solicit causes, or molest any of the King’s subjects, under a certain pecuniary pain; and all other duties, such as frequenting chapel, decent clothing and behaviour, to be regulated by the governors.

This munificent benefactor also founded a grammar school in the Charter House, to consist of a master, usher, and forty scholars.

No scholars to be admitted at above fourteen or under ten years of age.

The scholars are habited in black gowns, and when any of them are fit for the university, and are elected, each of them receives £20 per annum for eight years out of the revenues of the house. And such boys who are found more fit for trades are bound out, and a considerable sum of money given with them.

When any of the forty boys are disposed of, or any of the old men die, others are placed in their rooms by the governors in their turns.

The master is to be an unmarried man, aged about forty; one that hath no preferment in Church or State which may draw him from his residence and care of the hospital.

The preacher must be a Master of Arts, of seven years’ standing in one of the universities of England, and one who has preached four years.

The governors meet in December, to take the year’s accounts, view the state of the hospital, and to determine other affairs; and again in June or July, to dispose of the scholars to the university or trades, make elections, &c. And a committee of five at the least is appointed at the assembly in December yearly, to visit the school between Easter and Midsummer, &c.

The buildings of the Charter House take up a great deal of ground, and are commodious enough, but have no great share of beauty. This house has pretty much the air of a college or monastery, of which the principal rooms are the chapel and the hall; and the old men who are members of the society have their several cells, as the monks have in Portugal.

The chapel is built of brick and boulder, and is about sixty-three feet in length, thirty-eight in breadth, and twenty-four in height. Here Sir William Manny, founder of the Carthusian monastery, was buried; and here was interred Mr. Sutton, the founder of the hospital, whose monument is at the north-east angle of the chapel, being of black and white marble, adorned with four columns, with pedestals and entablature of the Corinthian order, between which lies his effigy at length in a fur gown, his face upwards and the palms of his hands joined over his breast; and on the tomb is the following inscription: —

“Sacred to the glory of God, in grateful memory of Thomas Sutton, Esq. Here lieth buried the body of Thomas Sutton, late of Castle Camps, in the County of Cambridge, Esq., at whose only cost and charges this Hospital was founded and endowed with large possessions, for the relief of poor men and children. He was a gentleman born at Knayth, in the County of Lincoln, of worthy and honest parentage. He lived to the age of seventy-nine years, and deceased the 12th day of December, 1611.”

The Charter House gardens are exceeding pleasant, and of a very great extent, considering they stand so far within this great town.

I shall, in the next place, survey the free schools and charity schools.

Anciently I have read that there were three principal churches in London that had each of them a famous school belonging to it; and these three churches are supposed to be – (1) The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, because, at a general council holden at Rome, anno 1176, it was decreed, “That every cathedral church should have its schoolmaster, to teach poor scholars and others as had been accustomed, and that no man should take any reward for licence to teach.” (2) The Abbey Church of St Peter at Westminster; for of the school here Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, in the reign of William the Conqueror, writes as follows: “I, Ingulphus, a humble servant of God, born of English parents, in the most beautiful city of London, for attaining to learning was first put to Westminster, and after to study at Oxford,” &c. (3) The Abbey Church of St. Saviour, at Bermondsey, in Southwark; for this is supposed to be the most ancient and most considerable monastery about the city at that time, next to that of St. Peter at Westminster, though there is no doubt but the convents of St. John by Clerkenwell, St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, St. Mary Overy in Southwark, that of the Holy Trinity by Aldgate, and other monasteries about the city, had their respective schools, though not in such reputation as the three first. Of these none are now existing but St. Paul’s and Westminster, though perhaps on different and later foundations. Yet other schools have been erected in this metropolis from time to time, amongst which I find that called Merchant Taylors’ to be the most considerable.