London in 1731 Part 1

London in 1731.

by Don Manoel Gonzales.

INTRODUCTION.

Don Manoel Gonzales is the a.s.sumed name of the writer of a "Voyage to Great Britain, containing an Account of England and Scotland,"

which was first printed in the first of the two folio volumes of "A Collection of Voyages and Travels, compiled from the Library of the Earl of Oxford" (Robert Harley, who died in 1724, but whose industry in collection was continued by his son Edward, the second Earl), "interspersed and ill.u.s.trated with Notes." These volumes, known as the "Harleian Collection," were published in 1745 and 1746. The narrative was reproduced early in the present century in the second of the seventeen quartos of John Pinkerton's "General Collection of the best and the most interesting Voyages and Travels of the World"

(1808-1814), from which this account of London is taken. The writer does here, no doubt, keep up his character of Portuguese by a light allusion to "our extensive city of Lisbon," but he forgets to show his nationality when speaking of Portugal among the countries with which London has trade, and he writes of London altogether like one to the City born, when he describes its inner life together with its inst.i.tutions and its buildings.

The book is one of those that have been attributed to Defoe, who died in 1731, and the London it describes was dated by Pinkerton in the last year of Defoe's life. This is also the latest date to be found in the narrative. On page 93 of this volume, old buildings at St. Bartholomew's are said to have been pulled down in the year 1731, "and a magnificent pile erected in the room of them, about 150 feet in length, faced with a pure white stone, besides other additions now building." That pa.s.sage was written, therefore, after 1731, and could not possibly have been written by Defoe. But if the book was in Robert Harley's collection, and not one of the additions made by his son the second earl, the main body of the account of London must be of a date earlier than the first earl's death in 1724. Note, for instance, the references on pages 27, 28, to "the late Queen Mary," and to "her Majesty" Queen Anne, as if Anne were living. It would afterwards have been brought to date of publication by additions made in or before 1745. The writer, whoever he may have been, was an able man, who joined to the detail of a guide-book the clear observation of one who writes like an educated and not untravelled London merchant, giving a description of his native town as it was in the reign of George the First, with addition of a later touch or two from the beginning of the reign of George the Second.

His London is London of the time when Pope published his translation of the "Iliad," and was nettled at the report that Addison, at b.u.t.ton's Coffee House, had given to Tickell's little venture in the same direction the praise of having more in it of Homer's fire.

b.u.t.ton's Coffee House was of Addison's foundation, for the benefit of Daniel b.u.t.ton, an old steward of the Countess of Warwick's, whom he had settled there in 1812. It was in Russell Street, Covent Garden, and Addison brought the wits to it by using it himself.

"Don Manoel Gonzales" describes very clearly in the latter part of this account of London, the manner of using taverns and coffee- houses by the Londoners of his days, and other ways of life with high and low. It is noticeable, however, that his glance does not include the ways of men of letters. His four orders of society are, the n.o.blemen and gentlemen, whose wives breakfast at twelve; the merchants and richer tradesmen; after whom he places the lawyers and doctors; whose professional cla.s.s is followed by that of the small tradesmen, costermongers, and other people of the lower orders.

This, and the clearness of detail upon London commerce, may strengthen the general impression that the description comes rather from a shrewd, clear-headed, and successful merchant than from a man of letters.

The London described is that of Addison who died in 1719, of Steele who died in 1729, of Pope who died in 1744. It is the London into which Samuel Johnson came in 1738, at the age of twenty-nine--seven years before the ma.n.u.script of "Manoel de Gonzales" appeared in print. "How different a place," said Johnson, "London is to different people; but the intellectual man is struck with it as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible." Its hard features were shown in the poem ent.i.tled London--an imitation of the third satire of Juvenal--with which Johnson began his career in the great city, pressed by poverty, but not to be subdued:-

"By numbers here from shame or censure free, All crimes are safe but hated poverty.

This, only this, the rigid law pursues, This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse.

The sober trader, at a tattered cloak, Wakes from his dream and labours for a joke; With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze, And turn the varied taunt a thousand ways.

Of all the griefs that hara.s.s the distressed, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart."

When Don Manoel's account of London was written the fashionable world was only beginning to migrate from Covent Garden--once a garden belonging to the Convent of Westminster, and the first London square inhabited by persons of rank and fashion--to Grosvenor Square, of which Don Manoel describes the new glories. They included a gilt equestrian statue of King George I. in the middle of its garden, to say nothing of kitchen areas to its houses, then unusual enough to need special description: "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." Altogether, we are told, Grosvenor 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."

But Covent Garden is named by "Don Manoel Gonzales," with St.

James's Park, as a gathering-place of the London world of fashion.

The neighbouring streets, it may be added, had many coffee-houses, wine-cellars, fruit and jelly shops; fruit, flowers, and herbs were sold in its central s.p.a.ce; and one large woman thoughtfully considering the fashion of the place, sat at her stall in a lace dress of which the lowest estimate was that it must have cost a hundred guineas.

H. M.

LONDON IN 1731.

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON; BOTH IN REGARD TO ITS EXTENT, BUILDINGS, GOVERNMENT, TRADE, ETC.

London, the capital of the kingdom of England, taken in its largest extent, comprehends the cities of London and Westminster, with their respective suburbs, and the borough of Southwark, with the buildings contiguous thereto on the south side of the river, both on the east and west sides of the bridge.

The length thereof, if we measure in a direct line from Hyde Park gate, on the west side of Grosvenor Square, to the farthest buildings that are contiguous in Limehouse, that is, from west to east, is very near five miles in a direct line; but if we take in the turnings and windings of the streets, it cannot be less than six miles. The breadth in many places from north to south is about two miles and a half, but in others not above a mile and a half; the circ.u.mference of the whole being about sixteen miles.

The situation next the river is hilly, and in some places very steep; but the streets are for the most part upon a level, and the princ.i.p.al of them nowhere to be paralleled for their length, breadth, beauty, and regularity of the buildings, any more than the s.p.a.cious and magnificent squares with which this city abounds.

As to the dimensions of the city within the walls, I find that the late wall on the land side from the Tower in the east, to the mouth of Fleet Ditch in the west, was two miles wanting ten poles; and the line along the Thames, where there has been no walls for many hundred years, if ever, contains from the Tower in the east, to the mouth of the same ditch in the west, a mile and forty poles; which added to the circuit of the wall, on the land side, makes in the whole three miles thirty poles; and as it is of an irregular figure, narrow at each end, and the broadest part not half the length of it, the content of the ground within the walls, upon the most accurate survey, does not contain more than three hundred and eighty acres; which is not a third part of the contents of our extensive city of Lisbon: but then this must be remembered, Lisbon contains a great quant.i.ty of arable and waste ground within its walls, whereas London is one continued pile of buildings. The city gates are at this day eight, besides posterns, viz.: 1, Aldgate; 2, Bishopsgate; 3, Moorgate; 4, Cripplegate; 5, Aldersgate; 6, Newgate; 7, Ludgate; and, 8, The Bridgegate.

1. Aldgate, or Ealdgate, in the east, is of great antiquity, even as old as the days of King Edgar, who mentions it in a charter to the knights of Knighton-Guild. Upon the top of it, to the eastward, is placed a golden sphere; and on the upper battlements, the figures of two soldiers as sentinels: beneath, in a large square, King James I. is represented standing in gilt armour, at whose feet are a lion and unicorn, both couchant, the first the supporter of England, and the other for Scotland. On the west side of the gate is the figure of Fortune, finely gilded and carved, with a prosperous sail over her head, standing on a globe, overlooking the city. Beneath it is the King's arms, with the usual motto, Dieu et mon droit, and under it, Vivat rex. A little lower, on one side, is the figure of a woman, being the emblem of peace, with a dove in one hand, and a gilded wreath or garland in the other; and on the other side is the figure of charity, with a child at her breast, and another in her hand; and over the arch of the gate is this inscription, viz., Senatus populusque Londinensis fecit, 1609, and under it, Humphrey Weld, Mayor, in whose mayoralty it was finished.

2. Bishopsgate, which stands north-west of Aldgate, is supposed to have been built by some bishop about the year 1200. It was afterwards several times repaired by the merchants of the Hanse Towns, on account of the confirmation of their privileges in this city. The figures of the two bishops on the north side are pretty much defaced, as are the city arms engraven on the south side of it.

3. Aldersgate, the ancient north gate of the city, stands to the westward of Bishopsgate. On the north, or outside of it, is the figure of King James I. on horseback, who entered the city at this gate when he came from Scotland, on his accession to the throne of England. Over the head of this figure are the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and on one side the image of the prophet Jeremy, with this text engraved, "Then shall enter into the gates of this city, kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding on chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." And on the other side, the figure of the prophet Samuel, with the following pa.s.sage, "And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that you have said unto me, and have made a king over you." On the south, or inside of the gate, is the effigy of King James I. sitting on his throne in his robes.

4. Newgate, so called from its being built later than the other princ.i.p.al gates, is situated on the north-west corner of the city, said to be erected in the reign of Henry I. or King Stephen, when the way through Ludgate was interrupted by enlarging the cathedral of St. Paul's and the churchyard about it. This gate hath been the county jail for Middles.e.x at least five hundred years. The west, or outside of the gate is adorned with three ranges of pilasters and their entablements of the Tuscan order. Over the lowest is a circular pediment, and above it the King's arms. The inter columns are four niches, and as many figures in them, well carved, and large as the life. The east, or inside of the gate, is adorned with a range of pilasters with entablements as the other, and in three niches are the figures of justice, mercy, and truth, with this inscription, viz., "This part of Newgate was begun to be repaired in the mayoralty of Sir James Campel, Knight, anno 1630, and finished in the mayoralty of Sir Robert Ducie, Bart., anno 1631; and being d.a.m.nified by the fire in 1666, it was repaired in the mayoralty of Sir George Waterman, anno 1672."

5. Ludgate, the ancient western gate of the city, stands between Newgate and the Thames, built by King Lud about threescore years before the birth of our Saviour. It was repaired in the reign of King John, anno 1215, and afterwards in the year 1260, when it was adorned with the figures of King Lud and his two sons, Androgeus and Theomantius; but at the Reformation, in the reign of Edward VI., some zealous people struck off all their heads, looking upon images of all kinds to be Popish and idolatrous. In the reign of Queen Mary, new heads were placed on the bodies of these kings, and so remained till the 28th of Queen Elizabeth, anno 1586, when the gate, being very ruinous, was pulled down, and beautifully rebuilt: the east or inside whereof was adorned with four pilasters and entablature of the Doric order, and in the intercolumns were placed the figures of King Lud and his two sons (who are supposed to have succeeded him) in their British habits again; and above them the queen's arms, viz., those of France and England quarterly, the supporters a lion and a dragon. It was afterwards repaired and beautified, anno 1699, Sir Francis Child lord mayor. The west or outside of the gate is adorned with two pilasters and entablature of the Ionic order; also two columns and a pediment adorning a niche, wherein is placed a good statue of Queen Elizabeth in her robes and the regalia; and over it the queen's arms between the city supporters, placed at some distance. This gate was made a prison for debtors who were free of the city, anno 1 Richard II., 1378, Nicholas Brember then mayor, and confirmed such by the mayor and common council, anno 1382, John Northampton mayor.

The Tower of London is situated at the south-east end of the city, on the river Thames, and consists in reality of a great number of towers or forts, built at several times, which still retain their several names, though at present most of them, together with a little town and church, are enclosed within one wall and ditch, and compose but one entire fortress.

It was the vulgar opinion that the Tower was built by Julius Caesar; but, as I have before shown, history informs us that Caesar made no stay in England, that he erected no town or fortress, unless that with which he enclosed his ships on the coast of Kent, nor left a single garrison or soldier in the island on his departure.

This Tower, as now encompa.s.sed, stands upon twelve acres of ground, and something more, being of an irregular form, but approaching near to that of an oblong, one of the longest sides lying next the river, from whence it rises gradually towards the north, by a pretty deep ascent, to the armoury, which stands upon the highest ground in the Tower, overlooking the White Tower built by William the Conqueror, and the remains of the castle below it on the Thames side, said to be built by William Rufus.

As to the strength of the place, the works being all antique, would not be able to hold out four-and-twenty hours against an army prepared for a siege: the ditch indeed is of a great depth, and upwards of a hundred feet broad, into which the water of the Thames may be introduced at pleasure; but I question whether the walls on the inside would bear the firing of their own guns: certain it is, two or three battering-pieces would soon lay them even with the ground, though, after all, the ditch alone is sufficient to defend it against a sudden a.s.sault. There are several small towers upon the walls; those of the largest dimensions, and which appear the most formidable, are the Divelin Tower, on the north-west; and the Martin Tower on the north-east; and St. Thomas's Tower on the river by Traitor's Bridge; which I take to be part of the castle said to be built by William Rufus. There is also a large tower on the outside the ditch, called the Lions' Tower, on the south-west corner, near which is the princ.i.p.al gate and bridge by which coaches and carriages enter the Tower; and there are two posterns with bridges over the ditch to the wharf on the Thames side, one whereof is called Traitor's Bridge, under which state prisoners used to enter the Tower.

The princ.i.p.al places and buildings within the Tower, are (1) The parochial church of St. Peter (for the Tower is a parish of itself, in which are fifty houses and upwards, inhabited by the governor, deputy-governor, warders, and other officers belonging to the fortress).

(2) To the eastward of the church stands a n.o.ble pile of building, usually called the armoury, begun by King James II. and finished by King William III., being three hundred and ninety feet in length, and sixty in breadth: the stately door-case on the south side is adorned with four columns, entablature and triangular pediment, of the Doric order. Under the pediment are the king's arms, with enrichments of trophy-work, very ornamental. It consists of two lofty rooms, reaching the whole length of the building: in the lower room is a complete train of artillery, consisting of bra.s.s cannon and mortars fit to attend an army of a hundred-thousand men; but none of the cannon I observe there were above four-and-twenty pounders; the large battering-pieces, which carry b.a.l.l.s of thirty- two and forty-eight pounds weight, I perceive, are in the king's store-houses at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, and Portsmouth. In the armoury also we find a great many of the little cohorn mortars, so called from the Dutch engineer Cohorn, who invented them for firing a great number of hand-grenades from them at once; with other extraordinary pieces cast at home, or taken from the enemy.

In the room over the artillery is the armoury of small arms, of equal dimensions with that underneath, in which are placed, in admirable order, muskets and other small arms for fourscore thousand men, most of them of the newest make, having the best locks, barrels, and stocks, that can be contrived for service; neither the locks or barrels indeed are wrought, but I look upon them to be the more durable and serviceable, and much easier cleaned. There are abundance of hands always employed in keeping them bright, and they are so artfully laid up, that any one piece may be taken down without moving another. Besides these, which with pilasters of pikes furnish all the middle of the room from top to bottom, leaving only a walk through the middle, and another on each side, the north and south walls of the armoury are each of them adorned with eight pilasters of pikes and pistols of the Corinthian order, whose intercolumns are chequer-work of carbines and pistols; waves of the sea in cutla.s.ses, swords, and bayonets; half moons, semicircles, and a target of bayonets; the form of a battery in swords and pistols; suns, with circles of pistols; a pair of gates in halberts and pistols; the Witch of Endor, as it is called, within three ellipses of pistols; the backbone of a whale in carbines; a fiery serpent, Jupiter and the Hydra, in bayonets, &c. But nothing looks more beautiful and magnificent than the four lofty wreathed columns formed with pistols in the middle of the room, which seem to support it. They show us also some other arms, which are only remarkable for the use they have been put to; as the two swords of state, carried before the Pretender when he invaded Scotland in the year 1715; and the arms taken from the Spaniards who landed in Scotland in the year 1719, &c.

The small arms were placed in this beautiful order by one Mr.

Harris, originally a blacksmith, who was properly the forger of his own fortune, having raised himself by his merit: he had a place or pension granted him by the government for this piece of service in particular, which he richly deserved, no nation in Europe being able to show a magazine of small arms so good in their kind, and so ingeniously disposed. In the place where the armoury now stands was formerly a bowling-green, a garden, and some buildings, which were demolished to make room for the grand a.r.s.enal I have been describing.

In the horse-armoury the most remarkable things are some of the English kings on horseback in complete armour, among which the chief are Edward III., Henrys V. and VII., King Charles I. and II., and King William, and a suit of silver armour, said to belong to John of Gaunt, seven feet and a half high. Here also they show us the armour of the Lord Kingsale, with the sword he took from the French general, which gained him the privilege of being covered in the king's presence, which his posterity enjoy to this day.

The office of ordnance is in the Tower, with the several apartments of the officers that belong to it, who have the direction of all the arms, ammunition, artillery, magazines, and stores of war in the kingdom.

The White Tower is a lofty, square stone building, with a turret at each angle, standing on the declivity of the hill, a little below the armoury, and disengaged from the other buildings, where some thousand barrels of powder were formerly kept; but great part of the public magazine of powder is now distributed in the several yards and storehouses belonging to the government, as at Woolwich, Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth, &c., to prevent accidents, I presume; for should such a prodigious quant.i.ty of powder take fire, it must be of fatal consequence to the city, as well as the Tower. The main guard of the Tower, with the lodgings of the officers, are on the east side of this building.

In the chapel of the White Tower, usually called Caesar's Chapel, and in a large room adjoining on the east side thereof, sixty-four feet long, and thirty-one broad, are kept many ancient records, such as privy-seals in several reigns, bills, answers, and depositions in chancery, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, King James I., and King Charles I., writs of distringas, supersedeas, de excommunicato capiendo, and other writs relating to the courts of law; but the records of the greatest importance are lodged in the Tower called Wakefield Tower, consisting of statute rolls from the 6th of Edward I. to the 8th of Edward III.

Parliament rolls beginning anno 5 of Edward II. and ending with the reign of Edward IV.

Patent rolls beginning anno 3 of John, and ending with the reign of Edward IV. In these are contained grants of offices, hands, tenements, temporalities, &c., pa.s.sing under the great seal.

Charter rolls, from the 1st of King John to the end of Edward IV. in which are enrolments of grants, and confirmations of liberties and privileges to cities and towns corporate, and to private persons, as markets, fairs, free warren, common of pasture, waifs, strays, felons' goods, &c.

The foundations of abbeys and priories, of colleges and schools, together with lands and privileges granted to them.

The patents of creation of n.o.blemen.

Close rolls, from the 6th of King John, to the end of Edward IV., in which are writs of various kinds, but more especially on the back of the roll are entered the writs of summons to parliament, both to the lords and commons, and of the bishops and inferior clergy to convocations. There are also proclamations, and enrolments of deeds between party and party.

French rolls, beginning anno 1 of Edward II. and ending with Edward IV., in which are leagues and treaties with the kings of France, and other matters relating to that kingdom.

Scotch rolls, containing transactions with that kingdom.