"Cakewoman.-Why, what stuff are they made on, brother Leatherhead? Nothing but what's wholesome, I assure you. Hobbyhorse.-Yes! stale bread, rotten eggs, musty ginger and dead honey, you know. "Cakewoman.-Thou, too, proud pedlar! do thy worst, I defy thee,-I, and thy stable of hobbyhorses: I pay for my ground as well as thou dost, and thou wrongst me, for thou art a parcel poet, and an engineer! I'll find a friend shall right me, and make ballads on thee and thy cattle! "Hobbyhorse.-Go to, old Joan, I'll talk with you anon; and take you down too,—I'll ha' you i' the pie pouldres." From the slough-like state of the City in general, and the sparing use of pavement, stagnant pools and filthy drains still disfigured the principal highways-draining being in a very inefficient state; consequently the plague was hardly ever banished from the City, which from its confined alleys and courts, swarming with poor, who lived like cattle huddled together, nursed the disease, and depopulated whole districts. A proclamation by James, soon after his coronation, was worded thus: "The solemnities of our coronation being over, and now performed, we command the nobility of Scotland, and all English noblemen and gentry (not the King's servants in ordinary) to repair homewards to prevent the spreading of the contagion of the plague." This order was immediately obeyed, except, it is believed, by the Scotch nobility and their retainers, who, from historical records it is currently reported, did not return. the sur James was continually haunted by the apprehension of the plague spreading from the City to Whitehall and Greenwich, his two favourite residences, and the daily increasing population was sufficient to prompt him in his timidity to the issuing of continual proclamations and prosecutions on the subject of building in the precincts of the City and the suburbs. The monied and powerful citizens, however, regarded them as much as those that had gone before: new edifices arose, veyors connived at the delinquency, or were bought off, and, of course, the poor king had not the courage to inflict the penalties on his good citizens, to whom he was so often obliged for loans to liquidate debts and promises made in his days of misfortune with his rapacious followers. Thus, Spitalfields began to be covered with houses; Wapping, formerly a small detached village, from the increase of trade, gradually encroached along the brink of the river till it reached the Tower; a large pond in the vicinity of West Smithfield was filled up, and covered with streets; the beautiful fields and gardens of St. John of Jerusalem, and of another convent close by, were built upon; and Holborn, stretching imperceptibly westward, at last touched the village of Saint Giles'-in-the-Fields. The eastern inlet of the City was, from the nature of the materials, in a very dilapidated state; Aldgate and much surrounding it, was found upon examination to be so ruinous that it was levelled with the ground and rebuilt. Though the reign of James I. was anything but an auspicious one, not only trade and commerce, but every species of domestic comfort gradually improved in the good City of London. The rude contrivances, hitherto looked upon as sufficient by the opulent merchants, were now replaced, as their increased means allowed, by furniture and ornaments of taste and elegance; and these were also supplied by them to the upper classes, whose limited tastes had hitherto been exhausted in the adornment of their own persons, equipages, and varlets,—a mere outside show; for that which has become so dear to Englishmen"home"-was then little understood, for the English, like their continental neighbours, were content and pleased to shine only in public, in the malls of the parks, or the aisles of old Saint Paul's. "The year 1612," says Hughson, "is sacred to one of the noblest acts of philanthropy which can dignify human nature." Mr. Thomas Sutton, a wealthy bachelor, purchased the monastery of the Carthusian Friars, by corruption called the Charter-house,-on the suppression of the order. The noble family of Suffolk came into possession by special grant. By them it was sold to Mr. Sutton for 13,000Z., who laid out 70001. more in repairs and improvements, intending to make it a receptacle and retreat for decayed gentry. He obtained letters patent and an act of Parliament for fully establishing this benevolent foundation, endowing it with lands even then producing 4490l. a year. What must now be the value of this princely merchant's gift, and how is his benevolent intention carried out? Another proof of the great increase of the wealth of London by commerce was shown by Sir Baptist Hicks, one of the justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex, afterwards created Lord Viscount Campden, who, at his own expense, built a magnificent sessions-house for the accommodation of the county magistracy, at the bottom of St. John's Street.* It was called Hicks's Hall, in honour of the founder. -He, with many others, who were anxious for the better administration of justice, obtained an act of Parliament, in the first year of that reign, to confirm the power and jurisdiction of the Court of Requests, which had been originally established only by an act of Common Council. King James, who wished to give his subjects an exalted idea of his love towards them, and to get them into a fit humour to supply him with the means which he so much lacked, showered down titles of honour upon them, until the value became sadly deteriorated. These cheap marks of royal favour were not, however, it appears, equally dispensed, for the Scots had them in the greatest proportion. This gave rise to a pasquinade, that was fixed upon the gateway of St. Paul's, which seemed in those days to be the arena of all kinds of folly and impertinence. It proposed to teach a new art of memory, in the hope that it might not be found impossible to remember the titles of the new race of nobles! This impolitic lavishing of honours, even among the citizens of London, did not cause them to open their hearts or their purses for the accommodation of the King; for they looked with wary eyes and shaking heads upon the King's facility of disposition towards his favourites, who, in his moments of hilarity, contrived to extract from him the very means provided for the respectably carrying on his private and domestic expenses. A courtier, in a letter dated about this period, writes that "My Lord Treasurer is much disquieted how to find money to supply the King's necessities, and protested to some of us poor men that were suitors to him for relief, that he knoweth not how to procure money to pay for the King's diet." In the year 1605, James granted to the citizens his first charter, by which he recognized all their ancient rights and privileges, and also Where" Hicks's Hall formerly stood," has long been a question by the uninformed, who have passed many cutting sarcasms upon the man who erected a mile, or distance, stone, now in existence, on which is chiselled "one mile from where Hicks's Hall formerly stood." adjusted the disputes which had frequently taken place between the Corporation and the Lieutenant of the Tower respecting the metage of coals, which the latter claimed as his right; but the King, no doubt for an understood consideration, determined that it was vested in the Corporation of London. On the 3rd of July 1606, his Majesty paid to the City a debt of sixty thousand pounds, contracted by Queen Elizabeth, and left unpaid at her decease. But, in the following May, he, again wanting money, applied to the citizens, who, it is said, readily advanced him the sum of sixty-three thousand pounds. In acknowledgment of this favour, he, in the most ample manner, granted them a charter that added to their jurisdiction Duke's-place, St. Bartholomew's (the Great and Less), Black and White Friars, and Coldharbour. Thus were our good citizen forefathers continually bargaining with their monarchs, and buying, inch by inch, the privileges and immunities enjoyed by their descendants at the present day. The Levant, or Turkey Company, were now incorporated under a perpetual charter, by the designation of "The Merchants of England Trading to the Levant Seas." By this, a most profitable commerce was established for our woollen manufactures and other merchandise, such as watches, jewels, trinkets, and cutlery, which were exported to an unprecedented amount. Alum was first manufactured in 1608, and was successfully worked, under the patronage of the King, by Lord Sheffield and Sir John Bourcher, who opened manufactories of this article in Yorkshire, and also large warehouses in the City of London. "A matchless benefactor to London," at this period, however, was Sir Hugh Middleton, the author of one of the principal sources of health, comfort, and cleanliness to his native city, by bringing the New River to the metropolis. It appeared, at first, a most doubtful undertaking, but the experience of more than two hundred years has demonstrated the extreme value of the plan, and the profound skill and judgment with which it was accomplished-" a work suitable to the power and grandeur of ancient Rome in its zenith of glory." Yet a scheme so highly beneficial to his fellows ought not to have been allowed to prove ruinous to its noble and generous projector; but such was the case, from the blameable supineness of some, and the vexatious opposition of others, who, in their blindness, thought it but a mad and impossible experiment. Stow's quaint account of its opening, is worthy of an extract. He says "That the depth of the trench, in some places, descended full thirty feet, if not more; whereas, in other places, it required a sprightful art againe to mount it over a valley, in a trough between a couple of hills." Being brought to the intended cistern, but not, as yet, the water admitted entrance thereunto, on Michaelmas-day, in anno 1613, Sir Thomas Middleton, Kt., brother to the said Sir Hugh, was elected Lord Mayor of London for the year ensuing. In the afternoon of the same day, Sir John Swinerton, Kt., the Lord Mayor of London, accompanied by Sir Thomas and Sir Henry Montague, Knights, and the Recorder of London, and many of the worthy Aldermen, rode to see the cisterne, and first issuing of the river thereinto, which was performed in this manner :-A troop of labourers, to the number of sixty or more, well apparelled and wearing green Monmouth caps, all alike, carryed spades, shovels, pickaxes, and such like instruments of laborious employment, marching, after drummers, twice or thrice about the cisterne, presented themselves before the mount, where the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and a worthy company beside, stood to behold them; and one man, in behalf of all the rest, delivered this speech : "Long have we labour'd, long desir'd and pray'd, For this great work's perfection; and, by th' ayd Further, at the letting open of the sluice, "Now for the frutes then, flow forth precious spring, And with thy chrystal murmurs strook together, In the next year, Smithfield was first paved, and became a field no longer. The sides of the principal streets, which before had been only laid with small round pebbles or rubble, were new improved by a path of broad free-stone or flags. In the year 1610, the largest and finest ship was built ever possessed by England, carrying sixty-four cannon, and of one thousand four hundred tons burthen, named "The Prince." As she was a war-vessel, she was nominally built at the expense of the King and Government; but the true supply came from those that this leviathan of the deep was to protect in their money-seeking paths upon the seas. The London as also the Liverpool merchants had for a long time gone on unrivalled in the Greenland fishery, but their great success at last roused the trading Dutch to attempt speculation in the same quarter. Alas for the poor Dutchmen! the English ships, keeping company in force, seized upon their whale-oil, fishing-tackle, and implements, and obliged them to return home, carrying this menace with them-"That if ever they were found on those seas hereafter, that they, the English, would make prizes of both ships and cargoes, their master, the King of Great Britain, having the sole right to that fishery in virtue of a primary discovery." The next year, being fully prepared by the munificence of the London traders to carry out their menace, they did so to the letter, by seizing every Dutch ship and cargo, which were looked upon as legal prizes. The citizens, whose power so rapidly increased with their wellgarnered wealth, used at this time their combined energies to such a fruitful end, that the success of "The Merchant Adventurers' Company," and of the " Staple," the "Russia," and the "East India" Companies, was such as to astonish and alarm the rest of the world. The amazing supply of all kinds of manufactures was, by their indefatigable zeal thrust, into every corner of the earth, where any traffic could be had. Their fleets of merchant-ships were only rivalled by their fleets of war-vessels, which secured to them extensive settle ments in every quarter of the globe, and gave an early proof of what perseverance and courage, backed by industry, can do even in such perilous and distant speculations, existing and prospering without any of the treaties, safeguards, and nautical improvements of the present advanced age. Notwithstanding the powerful arms, which extended far into foreign climes, to grasp at the distant good, hands equally powerful were working for the improvement of the city and the homes that all this speculation and daring were intended to enrich. Buildings were no longer sheds. Merchants now began to lavish some of their stores upon their mansions, that they might serve for them and their generation for centuries; for they were content to live amongst their fellows, and were proud of the name of Citizen,-little dreaming that a day would come when the City would be looked upon as the place where it was only necessary to go to fetch the money, that it might be spent in more fashionable quarters, among more fashionable people; or that citizens' wives and daughters would ever turn up their noses at the idea of living in contact with the dreadful machinery of trade, or would shudder at a whisper being circulated, amongst their aristocratic acquaintance, that their Eldorado was a warehouse or a shop! But now, alas, it is too condescending even to the imp of a tiger, who would not, for any sum within his income, disclose the fatal secret of the place where he is obliged to accompany his master every morning. He, like the other west-end part of the family, looks upon it as a fatal degradation. Where the poor man makes his money is kept as secret as if he were in truth only a disreputable coiner! Winton. DAVID ET BATHSHEBA. FORS, labente die (scriptum est) absentis Uriæ, 99 Nec scio (crede mihi) cur hæc mea carmina mittam, W. H. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."1 Cor. x. 12. |