hobby horses, and some rode off to the play, others to the river-stairs to take a pair of oars to the Surrey side."

66

The Castle," where Tarleton had so often talked of Shakespeare and his wit, perished in the Great Fire; but was afterwards rebuilt, and here "The Castle Society of Music" gave their performances," no doubt aided by many of the St. Paul's Choir. Part of the old premises were subsequently (says Mr. Timbs) the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in 1822, and since rebuilt. "Dolly's Tavern," which stood near the "Castle," derived its name from Dolly, an old cook of the establishment, whose portrait Gainsborough painted. Bonnell Thornton mentions the beefsteaks and gill ale at "Dolly's." The coffee-room, with its projecting fire-place, is as old as Queen Anne. The head of that queen is painted on a window at "Dolly's," and the entrance in Queen's Head Passage is christened from this painting.

starved, and listened with eager ears
to great
authors talking. Oliver Goldsmith dined there,
with Lloyd, that reckless friend of still more reck-
less Churchill, and some Grub Street cronies, and
had to pay for the lot, Lloyd having quite for-
gotten the important fact that he was moneyless.
Goldsmith's favourite seat at the "Chapter" became
a seat of honour, and was long pointed out to
visitors. Leather tokens of the coffee-house are
still in existence.

Mrs. Gaskell has sketched the "Chapter" in 1848, with its low heavy-beamed ceilings, wainscoted rooms, and its broad, dark, shallow staircase. She describes it as formerly frequented by university men, country clergymen, and country booksellers, who, friendless in London, liked to hear the literary chat. Few persons slept there, and in a long, low, dingy room up-stairs the periodical meetings of "the trade were held. "The high, narrow windows looked into the gloomy Row." Nothing of motion or of change could be seen in the grim, dark houses opposite, so near and close, although the whole width of the Row was between. The mighty roar of London ran round like the sound of an unseen ocean, yet every footfall on the pavement below might be heard distinctly in that unfrequented street.

The old taverns of London are to be found in the strangest nooks and corners, hiding away behind shops, or secreting themselves up alleys. Unlike the Paris café, which delights in the free sunshine of the boulevard, and displays its harmless revellers to the passers-by, the London tavern aims at cosiness, quiet, and privacy. It partitions and curtains-off its guests as if they were con- The frequenters of the "Chapter Coffee House" spirators and the wine they drank was forbidden by (1797-1805) have been carefully described by the law. Of such taverns the " 'Chapter" is a good Sir Richard Phillips. Alexander Stevens, editor example. of the "Annual Biography and Obituary," was The " Chapter Coffee House," at the corner of one of the choice spirits who met nightly in the Chapter House Court, was in the last century "Wittenagemot," as it was called, or the northfamous for its punch, its pamphlets, and its news- east corner box in the coffee-room. The neighpapers. As lawyers and authors frequented the bours, who dropped in directly the morning papers Fleet Street taverns, so booksellers haunted the arrived, and before they were dried by the waiter, "Chapter." Bonnell Thornton, in the Connoisseur, were called the "Wet Paper Club," and another set Jan., 1754, says · "The conversation here natu- intercepted the wet evening papers. Dr. Buchan, rally turns upon che newest publications, but their author of that murderous book, "Domestic Medicriticisms are somewhat singular. When they say cine," which teaches a man how to kill himself a good book, they do not mean to praise the style and family cheaply, generally acted as moderator. or sentiment, but the quick and extensive sale of He was a handsome, white-haired man, a Tory, it. That book is best which sells most." a good-humoured companion, and a bon vivant. If any one began to complain, or appear hypochondriacal, he used to say—

In 1770 Chatterton, in one of those apparently hopeful letters which he wrote home while in reality his proud heart was breaking, says: "I am quite familiar at the 'Chapter Coffee House,' and know all the geniuses there." He desires a friend to send him whatever he has published, to be left at the "Chapter." So, again, writing from the King's Bench, he says a gentleman whom he met at the "Chapter" had promised to introduce him as a travelling tutor to the young Duke of Northumberland; "but, alas! I spoke no tongue but my own." Perhaps that vy day Chatterton came, half

"Now let me prescribe for you, without a fee. Here, John, bring a glass of punch for Mr. unless he likes brandy and water better. Now, take that, sir, and I'll warrant you'll soon be well. You're a peg too low; you want stimulus; and if one glass won't do, call for a second."

Dr. Gower, the urbane and able physician of the Middlesex Hospital, was another frequent visitor, as also that great eater and worker, Dr. Fordyce, whose balance no potations could disturb.

Paternoster Row.]

EVENINGS AT THE CHAPTER COFFEE HOUSE.

279

Fordyce had fashionable practice, and brought succeeded each other regularly, like the figures in rare news and much sound information on general a magic lantern. subjects. He came to the "Chapter" from his wine, stayed about an hour, and sipped a glass of brandy and water. He then took another glass at the "London Coffee House," and a third at the "Oxford," then wound home to his house in Essex Street, Strand. The three doctors seldom agreed on medical subjects, and laughed loudly at each other's theories. They all, however, agreed in regarding the "Chapter" punch as an infallible and safe remedy for all ills.

Alexander Chalmers, editor of many works, enlivened the Wittenagemot by many sallies of wit and humour. He took great pains not to be mistaken for a namesake of his, who, he used to say, carried "the leaden mace." Other habitués were the two Parrys, of the Courier and Jacobite papers, and Captain Skinner, a man of elegant manners, who represented England in the absurd procession of all nations, devised by that German revolutionary fanatic, Anacharsis Clootz, in Paris

a great talker and eater, joined the coterie regularly, till he shot himself at his lodgings in Kirby Street. It was discovered that his only meal in the day had been the nightly supper at the "Chapter," at the fixed price of a shilling, with a supplementary pint of porter. When the shilling could no longer be found for the supper, he killed himself.

Among other members of these pleasant coteries were Lowndes, the electrician; Dr. Busby, the musician; Cooke, the well-bred writer of conversation; and Macfarlane, the author of "The History of George III.," who was eventually killed by a blow from the pole of a coach during an election procession of Sir Francis Burdett at Brentford. Another celebrity was a young man named Wilson, called Langton, from his stories of the haut ton. He ran up a score of £40, and then disappeared, to the vexation of Mrs. Brown, the landlady, who would willingly have welcomed him, even though he never paid, as a means of amusing and detaining customers. Waithman, the Common Councilman and Alderman, was always clear-headed and agreeable. There was also Mr. Paterson, a long-headed, speculative North Briton, who had taught Pitt mathematics. But such coteries are like empires; they have their rise and their fall. Dr. Buchan died; some pert young sparks offended the Nestor, Hammond, who gave up the place, after forty-five years' attendance, and before 1820 the "Chapter" grew silent and dull.

The standing men in the box were Hammond in 1793. Baker, an ex-Spitalfields manufacturer, and Murray. Hammond, a Coventry manufacturer, had scarcely missed an evening at the "Chapter" for forty-five years. His strictures on the events of the day were thought severe but able, and as a friend of liberty he had argued all through the times of Wilkes and the French and American wars. His Socratic arguments were very amusing. Mr. Murray, the great referee of the Wittenagemot, was a Scotch minister, who generally sat at the "Chapter" reading papers from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. He was known to have read straight through every morning and evening paper published in London for thirty years. His memory was so good that he was always appealed to for dates and matters of fact, but his mind was not remarkable for general lucidity. Other friends of Stevens's were Dr. Birdmore, the Master of the Charterhouse, who abounded in anecdote; Walker, the rhetorician and dictionary - maker, a most intelligent man, with a fine enunciation; and Dr. Towers, a political writer, who over his half-pint of Lisbon grew sarcastic and lively. Also a grumbling man named Dobson, who between asthmatic paroxysms vented his spleen on all sides. Dobson was an author and paradox-monger, but so devoid of principle that he was deserted by all his friends, and would have died from want, if Dr. Garthshore had not placed him as a patient in an empty fever hospital. Robinson, "the king of booksellers," and his sensible brother John were also frequenters of the "Chapter," as well as Joseph Johnson, the friend of Priestley, Paine, Cowper, and Fuseli, from St. Paul's Churchyard. Phillips, the speculative bookseller, then commencing his Monthly Magazine, came to the "Chapter" to look out for recruits, and with his pockets well lined with guineas to enlist them. He used to describe all the odd characters at this coffee-house, from the glutton in politics, who waited at daylight for the morning papers, to the moping and disconsolate bachelor, who sat till the fire was raked out by the sleepy waiter at half-past twelve at night. These strange figures

The fourth edition of the well-known "Antient and Modern Geography," says Nicholls, was published by an association of respectable booksellers, who about the year 1719 entered into an especial partnership, for the purpose of printing some expensive works, and styled themselves "the Printing Conger." The term "Conger" was supposed to have been at first applied to them invidiously, alluding to the conger eel, which is said to swallow the smaller fry; or it may possibly have been taken from con geries. The "Conger" met at the "Chapter."

The

One tragic memory, and one alone, as far as we know, attaches to Paternoster Row. It was here, in the reign of James I., that Mrs. Anne Turner lived, at whose house the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury was planned. It was here that Viscount Rochester met the infamous Countess of Essex; and it was Overbury's violent opposition to this shameful intrigue that led to his death from arsenic and diamond-dust, administered in the Tower by Weston, a servant of Mrs. Turner's, who received £180 for his trouble. Rochester and the Countess were disgraced, but their lives were spared. The Earl of Northampton, an accomplice of the countess, died before Overbury succumbed to his three months of torture.

Chapter" closed as a coffee-house in 1854, the reign of Edward III. Thomas Newton, first and was altered into a tavern. parson there, was buried in the quire, in the year 1361, which was the 35th of Edward III. At the east end of this church stood an old cross called the Old Cross in West-cheap, which was taken down in the 13th Richard II.; since the which time the said parish church was also taken down, but new builded and enlarged in the year 1430; the 8th Henry VI., William Eastfield, mayor, and the commonalty, granting of the common soil of the City three foot and a half in breadth on the north part, and four foot in breadth towards the east, for the inlarging thereof. This church was repaired, and with all things either for use or beauty, richly supplied and furnished, at the sole cost and charge of the parishioners, in 1617. This church was burnt down in the Great Fire, and remains unbuilt, and laid into the street, but the conduit which was formerly at the east end of the church still remains. The parish is united to St. Vedast, Foster Lane. At the east end of this church, in place of the old cross, is now a water-conduit placed. William Eastfield, maior, the 9th Henry VI., at the request of divers common councels, granted it so to be. Whereupon, in the 19th of the said Henry, 1,000 marks was granted by a common councel towards the works of this conduit, and the reparation of others. This is called the Little Conduit in West Cheap, by Paul's Gate. At the west end of this parish church is a small passage for people on foot, thorow the same church; and west from the same church, some distance, is another passage out of Paternoster Row, and is called (of such a sign) Panyer Alley, which cometh out into the north, over against St. Martin's Lane.

"Mrs. Turner," says Sir Simonds d'Ewes, had "first brought up that vain and foolish use of yellow starch, coming herself to her trial in a yellow band and cuffs; and therefore, when she was afterwards executed at Tyburn, the hangman had his band and cuffs of the same colour, which made many after that day, of either sex, to forbear the use of that coloured starch, till at last it grew generally to be detested and disused."

In a curious old print of West Chepe, date 1585, in the vestry-room of St. Vedast's, Foster Lane, we see St. Michael's Church on the north side of Paternoster Row. It is a plain building, with a low square tower and pointed-headed windows. It was chiefly remarkable as the burial-place of that indefatigable antiquary, John Leland. This laborious man, educated at St. Paul's School, was one of the earliest Greek scholars in England, and one of the deepest students of Welsh and Saxon. Henry VIII. made him one of his chaplains, bestowed on him several benefices, and gave him a roving commission to visit the ruins of England and Wales and inspect the records of collegiate and cathedral libraries. He spent six years in this search, and collected a vast mass of material, then retired to his house in the parish of St. Michael-le-Quern to note and arrange his treasures. His mind, however, broke down under the load: he became insane, and died in that dreadful darkness of the soul, 1552. His great work, "The Itinerary of Great Britain," was not published till after his death. His large collections relating to London. antiquities were, unfortunately for us, lost. The old church of "St. Michael ad Bladum," says Strype, "or ' at the Corn' (corruptly called the 'Quern') was so called because in place thereof was some time a cornmarket, stretching up west to the shambles. It seemeth that this church was first builded about

'When you have sought the city round,
Yet still this is the highest ground.
August 27, 1688.'

This is writ upon a stone raised, about the middle
of this Panier Alley, having the figure of a panier,
with a boy sitting upon it, with a bunch of grapes,
as it seems to be, held between his naked foot
and hand, in tɔken, perhaps, of plenty.”

At the end of a somewhat long Latin epitaph to Marcus Erington in this church occurred the following lines:

"Vita bonos, sed pœna malos, æterna capessit, Vitæ bonis, sed pœna malis, per secula crescit. His mors, his vita, perpetuatur ita." John Bankes, mercer and squire, who was interred here, had a long epitaph, adorned with the following

verses:

"Imbalmed in pious arts, wrapt in a shroud
Of white, innocuous charity, who vowed,
Having enough, the world should understand
No need of money might escape his hand;

Baron Fitzwalter and King John-The Duties of the Chief Bannerer of London-An Old-fashioned Punishment for Treason-Shakespearian Allusions to Baynard's Castle-Doctors' Commons and its Five Courts-The Court of Probate Act, 1857-The Court of Arches-The Will Office-Business of the Court-Prerogative Court-Faculty Office-Lord Stowell, the Admiralty Judge-Stories of Him-His MarriageSir Herbert Jenner Fust-The Court "Rising "-Dr. Lushington-Marriage Licences-Old Weller and the "Touters "-Doctors' Commons at the Present Day.

THE FIGURE IN PANIER ALLEY (see page 280).