Part 4

The rest of this reign exhibited a dreadful scene of religious bigotry, by a most cruel persecution of the Protestants; for the principal instance she gave of her tender maternal love to the citizens, was, her causing many of them to be burnt in Smithfield, in order to put a stop to the reformation begun by her father, and continued by her brother: but Providence soon interposed; her reign was short; and the fires which were then kindled for the holy martyrs, who sealed their faith with their blood, were the last effort, under the sanction of law, made by religious tyranny in this kingdom to overthrow the reformation. Happy would it have been for the Protestants, if this cruel spirit had never prevailed amongst them; if, upon this change, universal benevolence had taken place, and every Briton would have allowed his neighbour the same liberty of enquiry, which he claimed for himself! but though both the national church and the dissenters from it, have disclaimed the pretended infallibility they so justly censured in the church of Rome, and have even constantly owned that they themselves are fallible, yet, contrary to the mild, the humane spirit of the Gospel, they have absurdly persecuted those who would not allow them to be infallible, and have presumed to differ from the unerring standard of their judgment!

We are now come to the period when our streets were no longer to be crouded with monks and friars of various orders, and in very different and uncouth habits, walking with their heads shaven and bare, with long beards, and a rosary hanging at their girdles; when our nobility and gentry were to be no longer affronted in the streets by Cardinals, attended by a great retinue of servants: by the lordly Knights of religious orders, or the wealthy Priors of convents: when our streets were no longer to be adorned with crosses and the images of the saints, the objects of much superstition; and when many of our largest, most conspicuous, and stately buildings, were no longer to consist of priories, friaries, nunneries, and guilds of religious fraternities.

Thus the appearance of the city, with respect to its buildings, ornaments, and inhabitants, received a considerable alteration from the abolition of popery in these kingdoms; and the reader will probably be pleased at seeing, at one view, a list of these religious houses, which will the better enable him to form an idea of the difference between London at that time and the present.

The priories then were, that of St. John of Jerusalem, near Clerkenwell.

That of the Holy Trinity of Christ church, or Creechurch, within Aldgate.

That of St. Bartholomew the Great, between Newgate street and West Smithfield.

The priory or abbey of Bermondsey, Southwark.

The priory of the Knights Templars, in Fleet street. And

The old Temple of Holborn.

The friaries were, that of the crutched or crossed friars, in St. Olave’s, Hart street.

That of the brethren _de sacca_, or _de pœnitentia Jesu Christi_, in the Old Jewry.

The Charter house monks, or the house of the Carthusians, between St. John’s street and Goswell street.

The New Abbey, by East Smithfield.

And that of Westminster Abbey.

The five following were convents of begging friars;

Black friars in Holborn, and

The black friars, Dominicans, or preaching friars, near Ludgate.

The gray friars, or Franciscans, near Newgate.

The Augustine friars, in Broad street.

And the white friars, or Carmelites, in Fleet street.

The convents of women were, that of Clerkenwell.

That of St. Helen, within Bishopsgate.

That of St. Clare, in the Minories.

And that of Holiwell by Shoreditch.

The guilds or fraternities were, the brotherhood of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, in St. Botolph’s, Aldgate.

The fraternity and chapel of the Holy Trinity, in Leadenhall; and innumerable others, founded in most churches.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the far greatest part of this metropolis was contained within the walls, and even in these narrow limits were many gardens, which have been since converted into lanes, courts, and alleys. The buildings of London were, on the west, bounded by the monastery of St. Catharine’s; East Smithfield was open to Tower hill, and Rosemary lane was unbuilt. The Minories were built only on the east side, which fronted the city wall: cattle grazed in Goodman’s Fields, and Whitechapel extended but a little beyond the bars, and had no houses to the north; for Spitalfields, which of themselves would now compose a very large town, were then really fields, separated from each other by hedges and rows of trees. Houndsditch consisted only of a row of houses fronting the city wall, and the little yards and gardens behind them also opened into those fields. Bishopsgate street, Norton Falgate, and the street called Shoreditch, were then however built as far as the church, but there were only a few houses and gardens on each side, and no streets or lanes on either hand. Moorfields lay entirely open to the village of Hoxton; and Finsbury Fields, in which were several windmills, extended to the east side of Whitecross street. Chiswell street was not erected, and St. John’s street extended by the side of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, to the monastery of Clerkenwell, and Cow Cross, which opened into the fields.

But on leaving the city walls, the buildings were much less extensive; for though the village of Holborn was now joined to London, the backs of the houses, particularly on the north side, opened into gardens and fields; part of Gray’s Inn lane were the only houses that extended beyond the main street; great part of High Holborn had no existence, and St. Giles’s was a village contiguous to no part of London.

If we turn to the Strand, we also find, that spacious street had gardens on each side, and to the north, fields behind those gardens, except a few houses where is now the west end of Drury lane. On the south side of the street, the gardens generally extended to the Thames; though some of the nobility had houses on the back of their gardens, next the water side. Covent Garden, so called from its belonging to the convent at Westminster, extended to St. Martin’s lane, and the field behind it reached to St. Giles’s. That lane had few edifices besides the church; for Covent Garden wall was on one side, and a wall which inclosed the Mews, on the other, and all the upper part was a lane between two hedges, which extended a little to the west of the village of St. Giles’s. Hedge lane was also a lane between two hedges; the extensive street now called the Hay Market, had a hedge on one side, and a few bushes on the other. Neither Pall Mall, St. James’s street, Piccadilly, or any of the streets or fine squares in that part of the town, were built; and Westminster was a small town on the south west, and south sides of St. James’s Park.

Lambeth was, at that time, a little village at a considerable distance from Southwark, and there were no buildings on the south bank of the Thames, till a row of houses began opposite to White Friars, and extended along the river, with gardens, fields, or groves behind them, till almost opposite the Steel Yard, where several streets began: the Borough extended a considerable distance from the bridge to the south, and the buildings to the east as far as the Tower.

This was the state of this great metropolis, so lately as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and how inconsiderable soever it must appear, when compared with its present dimensions, yet, by order of that Queen, a proclamation was published, by which all persons were forbid to build upon new foundations, and this order was twice repeated in the following reign.

On the 1st of January 1559, the Litany, as now used, was first read in all the churches of London; and about this time the populace not only destroyed all the statues and pictures of the saints in the churches, but most of their rich robes, altar cloths, books, and sepulchral banners.

In the year 1582, expence in dress having prevailed in the city, among people of all ranks, particularly among apprentices, which was then apprehended might prove of dangerous consequence to their masters, the following orders were published by the Lord Mayor and Common Council, which will be now thought very extraordinary, viz. That from thence forward no apprentice whatsoever should presume,

To wear any apparel but what he receives from his master.

To wear no hat within the city and liberty thereof, nor any thing instead of it but a woollen cap, without any silk about it.

To wear no ruffles, cuffs, loose collar, nor any thing more than a ruff at the collar, and that only of a yard and a half long.

To wear no doublets but what were made of canvas, sackcloth, fustian, English leather, or woollen cloth, without being enriched in any manner with gold, silver, or silk.

To wear no other coloured cloth or kersey, in hose or stockings, than white, blue, or russet.

To wear little breeches of the same stuffs as the doublets, without being stitched, laced, or bordered.

To wear a plain upper coat of cloth or leather, without pinking, stitching, guarding, lace, or silk about it.

To wear no other surtout than a cloth gown or cloak, lined or faced with cloth, cotton, or bays, with a fixed round collar, without stitching, guarding, lace, or silk.

To wear no pumps, slippers, nor shoes, but of English leather, without being pinked, edged, or stitched; nor girdles nor garters except of crewel, woollen, thread, or leather, without being garnished.

And to wear no sword, dagger, or other weapon, but a knife; nor neither a ring, nor a jewel, gold, silver, nor silk in any part of his apparel.

Rigorous as these laws were, and unsufferable as they would be now thought, yet any apprentice offending against any of the above particulars, was, for the first offence, to be punished at the discretion of his master; for the second he was to be publickly whipped at the hall of his company; and for the third, to serve six months longer than specified in his indentures. And every master conniving at his apprentice’s violating the above severe decree, was to forfeit 6s. 8d. to the poor of the parish in which he dwelt.

The plague, which had broke out many times in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, appeared afresh in 1603, on the accession of King James I. to the throne, and made such dreadful devastation, that, within the space of a year, it swept away 30,578 persons: but it having at length happily ceased, the King, Queen, and Prince Henry, made their public entry from the Tower on the 15th of March 1604, on which occasion the city was embellished with seven magnificent triumphal arches, numerous pageants, and other pompous decorations. The streets were adorned with the richest silks and carpets, and lined with the stands of the several corporations, with their flags and bands of music.

In the year 1608, King James I. granted the city a charter, by which he not only confirmed all the ancient rights, liberties, and immunities of the citizens, but added to the bounds and jurisdiction of the city the precincts of Duke’s Place, St. Bartholomew’s the Great and Less, Black and White Friars, and Cold Harbour. That King also granted the city two other charters.

In 1613, the water of the New River, brought from Ware by the great Sir Hugh Middleton, was let into the lower reservoir at Islington, with great ceremony: the next year Smithfield was first paved, and in 1615, the sides of the streets of this city being paved with pebble stones, which had hitherto rendered walking very troublesome, the inhabitants of the principal streets first began to pave their doors with broad free stone and flags.

In the year 1625, when King Charles I. ascended the throne, a most dreadful pestilence raged in London; the fatal effects of this distemper had been frequently felt; but it now carried off, within the space of a year, in the city and suburbs, 35,417 persons, besides those who died of other distempers, which, in the whole, amounted to 54,265, said to be one third of the inhabitants.

It is remarkable that in the year 1629, the goldsmiths shops in the south row of Cheapside, reached from the Old Change to Buckler’s Bury, exclusive of only four shops of other trades in all that space; but these four shops gave King Charles I. and his Privy Council such offence, that they sent an order to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, commanding them to turn out the tenants, and to oblige all the goldsmiths in the city, to settle in Cheapside and Lombard street. This arbitrary order however not being complied with, several others were sent, both by the Council and the court of Star-chamber, in which they were commanded to commit the tenants to prison, if they refused to give security to quit their houses by a certain day: and the court of Star-chamber even threatened the Alderman of the ward, that if he or his deputy did not immediately cause every such shop to be shut up, he or his deputy should be sent to prison, by warrant from the Board.

In 1633, King Charles I. being returned from his progress into Scotland, the gentlemen of the four Inns of Court entertained their Majesties with a pompous masque, which excelled every thing of the kind that had been seen in England, the expence amounting to 21,000l. the greatest sum probably ever expended in this kingdom in mere shew, except at a coronation; we shall therefore give it our readers, as a specimen of the taste of the times; the following account being the more curious, as these kinds of entertainments are now entirely laid aside.

The masquers, musicians, and all who were actors, met on Candlemas day in the afternoon, at Ely House in Holborn, where the Committee for the management of it sat all day, and in the evening they set forward, in the following order, down Chancery lane to Whitehall.

The march began with twenty footmen in scarlet liveries, trimmed with silver lace, each having his sword by his side, a baton in one hand, and a lighted torch in the other. These were the Marshal’s men, who cleared the streets, and were about the Marshal, waiting his commands. After them, and sometimes in the midst of them, came Mr. Darrel the Marshal, a very handsome gentleman, of Lincoln’s Inn, mounted upon one of the King’s best horses, and richest saddles. He was magnificently dressed, and, besides his Marshal’s men, had two lacquies who carried torches, and a page in livery carrying his cloak.

He was followed by an hundred of the handsomest young gentlemen of the Inns of Court, twenty-five chosen out of each house, all of them mounted on the best horses, and with the best furniture that the King’s stables, and those of all the noblemen in town could afford. These hundred gentlemen were so richly dressed, that scarce any thing but gold and silver lace could be seen, and every one of them had two lacquies, in his own livery, carrying torches by his horse’s side, and a page carrying his cloak. These gentlemen had about a dozen of the best trumpeters, in their own livery, sounding before them.

After this noble troop, came the antimasquers; preceded by the sound of keys and tongs, playing in concert. The first antimasque consisted of beggars and cripples, mounted on the poorest leanest jades that could be got out of the dust carts or elsewhere, a change, which from the nobleness of the music, the fineness of the horses, and the magnificent appearance of the gentlemen, afforded a very odd and surprizing contrast; the habits and every thing belonging to these cripples and beggars being ingeniously fitted by the direction of the commissioners, among whom were Mr. Attorney Noy, Sir John Finch, Sir Edward Herbert, and Mr. Selden.

After the beggars antimasque, came men on horseback, playing upon pipes, whistles, and instruments, imitating the notes of all sorts of birds, and playing in excellent concert.

These were followed by an antimasque of birds, consisting of an owl in an ivy bush, with many different sorts of birds, in a cluster gazing upon her; these were little boys put in covers in the shape of those birds, nicely fitted, sitting on small horses, with footmen going before them with torches in their hands, and others to look after them, to prevent their falling.

After this antimasque, came other musicians on horseback, playing upon bagpipes and other kinds of Northern music, to shew that the following projectors were Scots; and these, like the rest, had many footmen with torches waiting on them.

First in this antimasque rode a fellow upon a little horse with a great bit in his mouth, carrying upon his head a bit with a headstall and reins; a projector, who begged a patent, that none in the kingdom might ride their horses, without such bits as they should buy of him.

Then came another fellow with a capon upon his fist, and a bunch of carrots upon his head, representing a projector, who begged a patent of monopoly, as the first inventor of the art of feeding capons fat with carrots.

Several other projectors were personated in this antimasque, which pleased the spectators the more, because an information was thus covertly given to the King, of the unfitness and ridiculousness of these projects against the law. The Attorney Noy, who had most knowledge of them, had a great hand in this antimasque of the projectors.

After this and the rest of the antimasques, came six of the chief musicians on horseback upon foot-cloths, and in the habits of Heathen priests, footmen carrying torches by their sides. These were followed by a large open chariot, drawn by six fine horses with large plumes of feathers on their heads and cruppers. In this chariot were about a dozen persons, in the habits of Gods and Goddesses, many footmen walking an all sides with torches.

This chariot was followed by six more of the musicians on horseback, dressed and attended with torches like the former, proceeding before another large open chariot, drawn by six fine horses, with feathers, liveries, and torches, like the other. Within it were twelve musicians, as variously dressed as the others, to represent, like them, Pagan deities. These chariots were made for this occasion, and, preceding the grand masquers chariots, played upon excellent loud music all the way.

After this chariot came six more musicians, dressed and attended like the former, followed by the first chariot of the grand masquers, which was not so large as those that went before, but was curiously carved and painted. It was in the form of a Roman triumphal chariot, and richly painted with crimson and silver all over, not excepting the wheels. It was drawn by four horses all in a breast, covered to the heels with crimson and silver tissue, and with huge plumes of red and white feathers on their heads and cruppers. The coachman’s cap and feather, his long coat, his cushion, and his very whip, were of the same stuff and colour. In this chariot sat the four grand masquers of Gray’s Inn, who were handsome young gentlemen. Their habits, doublets, trunk hose and caps, were of the richest tissue, covered as thick with silver spangles as they could be placed; large white silk stockings up to their trunk hose, and very fine sprigs in their caps.

On each side of the chariot were four footmen, in liveries of the colour of the chariot, carrying huge flambeaus, which, with the torches, gave the greatest lustre to the paintings, spangles and habits.

After this chariot came six more musicians, in habits like the former, followed by the second chariot, which differed only from the other in its being painted silver and blue. The chariot and horses were covered with tissue of blue and silver, as the former was with silver and crimson.

In this second triumphal chariot were four grand masquers of the Middle Temple, in the same habits as the other masquers, and had the like attendance, torches and flambeaus, as the former.

After these followed the third and fourth triumphal chariots, with six musicians between each; both they and their horses dressed as before. The triumphal chariots were all of the same make, and alike carved and painted, only differing in the colours. In the third of these chariots rode the grand masquers of the Inner Temple, and in the fourth those of Lincoln’s Inn; each taking the place assigned them by lot.

In this order they proceeded to Whitehall, where the King and Queen, from a window of the Banquetting house, beheld this procession, and were so highly delighted with it, that the King sent to desire the Marshal to take a turn round the Tilt Yard, that he and his consort might have a second view of this pompous procession; which being accordingly performed, they entered the palace, and were conducted to several apartments prepared for their entertainment; where the Ladies of honour, and even the Queen herself, danced with the principal masquers.

With this fine cavalcade her Majesty was so delighted, that she desired to have it repeated, which being intimated to the Lord Mayor, he invited the King and Queen, with the above masquers, to an entertainment in Merchant Taylors Hall; and on this occasion they came in procession into the city, in exactly the same order, and with equal splendor and applause as at Whitehall. _Whitlock’s Memoirs._

During this unhappy reign, great disputes arose between the King and the city, in relation to ship-money, loans, &c. the city was deprived not only of the new plantation of Ulster in Ireland, which had been granted to the Lord Mayor and citizens by King James I. but fined 50,000l. Several of the Aldermen were imprisoned, for neglecting to send to court an account of such persons as were able to lend his Majesty money, and the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs prosecuted in the Star-chamber; the five members whom the King himself went with a guard to seize in the Parliament House, took refuge in the city, and were conducted back by water to the House of Commons, by a great number of citizens, while the Trained-Bands, as a farther guard, marched by land to Westminster. But even in the midst of these disputes, while the King was actually opposing the liberties of the citizens, he granted them several charters, by which he confirmed all their former privileges, and added some new ones. At length the Lord Mayor, contrary to an order of Parliament, endeavouring by proclamation to raise troops for his Majesty, he was committed to the Tower; and several articles of impeachment being brought against him, he was, by the sentence of the House of Peers, degraded from the Mayoralty, and rendered incapable of bearing any office, or receiving any farther honour.

There being some time after but little prospect of an agreement between the King and Parliament, and the greatest part of the city being averse to all thoughts of an accommodation, the Common Council passed an act for fortifying the city with out-works; agreed that all the ways leading to the city should be shut up, except those entering at Charing Cross, St. Giles’s in the Fields, St. John’s street, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel, and that the exterior ends of those streets should be fortified with breastworks and turnpikes, musket proof; that the several courts of guards, and rails at the extreme parts of the liberty of the city, should be fortified with turnpikes, musket proof; that all the sheds and buildings contiguous to the outside of London Wall should be taken down; and that the city wall with its bulwarks should be not only repaired and mounted with artillery, but that several new works should be added to it, at the places most exposed.