"ADVERTISEMENT.

"Whereas some persons have maliciously reported, that the famous bookseller was on Thursday, the 4th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1704, infamously expelled a certain society call'd the K―t C-t Club: and that the said bookseller, for his ill-timed freedom with some of the principal members, at the reading of a late satyr upon his parts and person, was beaten to an ungentleman-like degree, and is since clapt up in a madhouse. This is to certify, that the said bookseller did of his own free motion valiantly withdraw himself from the said society, in scorn of being their jest any longer; and that he was not beaten (whatever he had reason to fear) in his intellects, but at this very day walks the publick streets without a keeper, and to satisfy any gentleman's curiosity, is still ready to talk as sensibly as

ever.

"Subscribed

"Jurat. coiam me

"Nosno T. loca J.

"JACOB.

"There is now in the press, and will speedily be published, a POEM, call'd

66

"Jacob's Revenge;

Being a comical account of the grounds and reasons of the bookseller's quitting the K-t C-t Club, to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster."

In the "New View of London," published in 1708, it is mentioned as a remarkable circumstance attaching to the history of Prescott Street, Goodman's Fields, that instead of signs, the houses were distinguished by numbers, as the staircases in the Inns of Court, and Chancery. The following advertisement, taken from newspapers a century and a half old, are interesting at this distance of time, as they show the shifts to which advertisers were reduced, to point out their houses to their customers, in the absence of numbers :

"Doctor James Tilborgh, a German doctor, states that he liveth at present over against the New Exchange in Bedford St., at the sign of the Peacock,' where you shall see at night two candles burning within one of the chambers before the balcony; and a lanthorn with a candle in it upon the balcony: where he

may be spoke withal alone, from 8 in the morning till 10 at night."

The following is of the year 1699 :—

"Dr. Anderson's pills, sold by J. Inglis, now living at the - Golden Unicorn,' over against the Maypole in the Strand." The next is from the " Spectator " of the 29th of April, 1718, when numbers were becoming more common:—

"In George Street, in York Buildings in the Strand, the third house on the right hand, number 3 being over the door, may be had money lent, upon plate and jewels, at reasonable rates.

Attendance from 8 o'clock in the morning till 2 in the after

noon."

CHAPTER XV.

FROM TEMPLE BAR TO BLACKFRIARS.

Temple Bar-Heads of the Scotch Stuart Adherents affixed to-Civic Ceremonies performed at-Fleet Street, memorabilia connected with; Wynkyn de Worde, Isaac Walton, Ben Jonson, and Dr. Johnson-The Devil Tavern-Celebrated coffee-houses in the neighbourhood-The TempleTreasury of the Templars robbed-The Master of the Temple-Persecution of the Knights Templars-The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem-Lawyers first settled there-Depredations committed by Jack Cade's rioters-The Temple Gardens-Grand Chivalric entertainment in Queen Elizabeth's reign-Celebrated residents in the Temple-Boswell's introduction to Dr. Johnson-Witty lines on the Armorial Bearings of the Temple-The Round Church-Effigies of the Knights Templars thereInner Temple Hall-Middle Temple Hall-King's Bench Walk.

TEMPLE BAR, at which we have now arrived, is the western limit of the city of London. In early times, the bounds at this place were marked by posts, rails, and a chain, and merely consisted of a bar and not a gate, whence, from its contiguity to the Temple, the name by which it has been so long known. Early in the seventeenth century, a wooden house was erected across the street, with a narrow gateway underneath, and an entrance on the south side to the house above. This was burned down in the great fire of 1666, when the present gate was erected by Sir Christopher Wren. It was begun in the year 1670, and finished in 1672. It has been several times in contemplation to have it pulled down; but a very general feeling in the city has opposed this proposition. People acknowledge

that it is not very ornamental, and that, moreover, it is in the way of the traffic: nevertheless, the gate has been spared. Temple Bar is built of Portland stone, and rusticated, having a large flattened arch in the centre for the carriage way, and a smaller arch at each side for foot passengers. Over the gateway is an apartment, with a semicircular arched window on the eastern and western sides, the whole being crowned with a sweeping pediment. On the western side, towards Westminster, are two niches, in which are placed statues of Charles I. and II. in Roman costume; and on the east or London side, are corresponding niches with statues of Queen Elizabeth and James I. The gate house is held of the City by the representatives of the very ancient firm of Childs', the bankers. Upon Temple Bar were affixed the heads of many unhappy persons, who suffered execution during the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745. One of the iron poles or spikes on which the heads were affixed, was only removed at the commencement of the present century. Nichols, in his "Literary Anecdotes," has the following passage, relating to the head of one councillor Layer, who was executed for high treason in 1723. The head it appears was blown off the spike many years afterwards during a violent storm. "When the head of Layer was blown off Temple Bar, it was picked up by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, Mr. John Pearce, an attorney, who showed it to some friends at a public-house, under the floor of which, I have been assured, it was buried. Dr. Rawlinson, meanwhile, having made inquiry after the head, with a wish to purchase it, was imposed on with another instead of Layer's, which he preserved as a valuable relic, and directed it to be buried in his right hand." Whether this odd wish of the antiquary were complied with, does not appear. It seems, however, that political feeling, as well as antiquarian, was at the bottom of it; for the doctor was a Jacobite.

Various ceremonies are performed at Temple Bar, whenever the Sovereign enters the City of London. The gate is shut, and permission to enter is asked of the lord mayor. Permission, of course, being granted, the gate is opened, and the lord mayor presents the keys of the city to the Sovereign, who returns them with many flattering expressions, that they cannot be in better hands. The last time this ceremony was performed was the opening of the Royal Exchange in 1844, when Her Majesty partook of a collation with the civic authorities and the members of the Gresham Committee. The following ceremonies took place at this gate, on the proclamation of peace in 1802. The

on

gate having been shut, to show that the jurisdiction was in the lord mayor, the King's marshal with his officers having ridden down the Strand from Westminster, stopped before it, while the trumpets were blown thrice. The junior officer of arms then knocked at the gate with his cane, upon which the city marshal, on the other side, demanded "who was there ?" The herald replied, "the officers of arms, who ask entrance into the City, to publish his Majesty's proclamation of peace." On this, the gates were opened, and the herald alone admitted and conducted to the lord mayor. The latter, having read the royal warrant and returned it to the bearer, ordered the city marshal to open the gate for the procession. The lord mayor and civic authorities then joined it, and proceeded to the Royal Exchange, when the proclamation was read for the last time. A similar form is always performed upon the proclamation either of peace or war.

Having passed through Temple Bar, we find ourselves in Fleet Street, rich in remembrance of the olden time;-of Templars, of booksellers, of wits, and poets, and lawyers, and of hosts of persons whose residences it is interesting to know. Here Wynkyn de Worde, Isaac Walton, and Bernard Lintot kept shops; here Ben Jonson drank and was merry; here Samuel Johnson meditated upon the vanity of human life; and here regiments of lawyers have for ages passed continually to and fro, musing on their deep-laid schemes of ambition and aggrandisement, or bent as determinately on increasing their pelf.

This celebrated street takes its name from the little stream called the "Fleet," once a clear and ornamental water, but now covered over in nearly all its course, as too offensive to be looked upon, and the channel conveying half the filth of London into the capacious reservoir of the Thames. The street seems to have borne this name long before the Conquest.

Close to Temple Bar, to the right, is the banking-house of Messrs. Childs, supposed to stand on the site of the famous Devil Tavern, the resort of all the wits from Ben Jonson to Addison. At this tavern, rare Ben reigned the arbiter of wit and judge of poetry, and drew up his well-known "Leges Conviviales," for the guidance of the members of the club he founded. Swift, in a letter to Stella, says, "I dined to-day with Dr. Garth and Mr. Addison, at the Devil Tavern, near Temple Bar, and Garth treated." The house continued to be the resort of literary people till the year 1750. It was pulled down in 1787 by Messrs. Childs, the bankers, and a row of houses erected on the site.

Near this, and between the Temple gate, are several houses

tenanted by Messrs. Cook, which are of the Elizabethan style of architecture. These houses have been renovated, but they are as old as they appear. One of them was inhabited by Bernard Lintot, the great bookseller of the last century, and close by were Nando's, Dick's, the Rainbow, and other coffee-houses, so frequently mentioned by the essayists of that age.

Lintot's shop is called by Pope, "the rubric post ;" and it appears from the notes to the "Dunciad," that the reason for this appellation was, that he usually adorned his shop with the titles of his books in large red letters. Within a door or two of Lintot's, was the house of another bookseller, named Benjamin Motte, to whom Swift, under the assumed name of Richard Sympson, sold the copyright of " Gulliver's Travels," for £200.

We have now arrived at the entrance to the Temple,-the prime seat of law; rife with reminiscences of some of the most glorious names in English history and literature. The Templars appear to have established themselves in England in the reign of King Stephen, and their first house in London was in Holborn, on the site of the present Southampton Buildings. Increasing in power and wealth, they removed in the reign of Henry II. to the spot in Fleet Street, which is still named after them. Prince, afterwards King Edward I., during the riots occasioned by the great revolt of the barons under Simon de Montfort, broke open the treasury of the Templars at the head of an armed force, and carried away £1000 belonging to some citizens of London, which had been deposited there for security. This outrage so exasperated the Londoners, that they arose and plundered the houses of Lord Grey and other friends of the King, and afterwards marched to join the banners of Simon de Montfort against the King at Isleworth. The result was, that the charters of the city were for a considerable period in abeyance, its magistrates deposed, and a heavy fine levied upon its principal inhabitants.

The Master of the Temple, or of the New Temple as it was then called, was summoned to parliament in the 49th of Henry III., and continued to sit among the peers until the dissolution of the order. The persecution raised against them in France is well known, and the calamitous results are a blot upon the age. In England they were treated with less rigour than in France and other countries in Europe; and it would appear that this was chiefly owing to the good offices of Edward II., who wrote letters, dated the 4th of December, 1307, to the Kings of Portugal, Castile, Sicily, and Arragon, and on the 10th of December