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LONDON IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

The changes in a great metropolis are ever best seen in the comparison of its maps at different periods; indeed, these maps are the best illustrations of its history, since events often furnish name to sites and localities, and thus give a sort of living interest to the past. We have already glanced at London of the thirteenth century, temp. Henry III. We now propose to take the reader onward three centuries, and view the London of great Eliza's golden reign. In its second year (1560) Ralph Aggas drew a bird's-eye view of London, which has been reproduced in a form accessible to a very large number of readers. This reproduction of Aggas's map was issued with Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper, accompanied by a description, which, by permission, is here reproduced, with additions.

It is curious to find that three centuries ago the town had so far increased as to alarm our rural-minded queen, who issued a proclamation for pulling down newly-built houses in and within three miles of London and Westminster. The number of inhabitants did not then exceed 145,000, or considerably less than those in the present parish of Marylebone. Even the small extent of the old city was so much occupied with gardens, enclosures, and open spaces, as to bear but remote comparison with the over-crowded metropolis of the present day. The streets were mostly winding and narrow a state of things best described by the tenant of an overhanging garret being able to shake hands with his opposite neighbour. Nevertheless the pageants, processions, and stately displays during the reign of Elizabeth were very frequent; and the multitudes who

took part in such shows, or were spectators, were very great. Many thousands, doubtless, flocked in from the surrounding country; and the long train gathered wonder-struck numbers as it poured through the streets, and dazzled them with its splendour and picturesque appearance.

In this plan of Aggas's we see the City seated on a gentle slope, descending to the margin of a noble river ; its plain bounded north and south by two beautiful ranges of hills, affording at once easy access and facilities to cleanliness and ventilation. In the foreground, or Surrey side, on the left we see the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lambeth Church, with only a single house at a small distance; more northward is a road opposite the state landing-place in New Palace-yard. The principal ditch of Lambeth Marsh falls into the Thames opposite the Temple gardens, the ground being unoccupied except by a solitary dwelling. On the river- bank opposite Whitefriars, a line of houses, with gardens and groves behind them, commences, and is continued with little intermission to the stairs and the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, on Bankside. One of the most noted places in this line was Paris garden, the site of which is now occupied by Christ Church, Blackfriars-rcad, and its annexed parish. Farther eastward, but behind the houses, are the circular buildings for bull- and bear-baiting—amusements to which Queen Elizabeth was partial. Near the bearbaiting place is a dog-kennel, from which several dogs are seen issuing. From Winchester Palace to the Borough High-street, and along Tooley-street to Battle Bridge, the houses stand thickly; but towards Horselydown the ground is open, and the buildings stand in gardens. We see here London Bridge, crowded with

buildings, among which the celebrated Nonsuch House is conspicuous. Another striking object is the noble cross church of St. Mary Overie, in magnitude and architectural character the third church in the metropolis; its pinnacled tower is 150 feet high. The poet Gower and his wife, Edmund Shakspeare (the great bard's brother), and Massinger the dramatist, are buried here. The park of the Bishop of Winchester is walled in: hence Park-street. On the right of the road is St. Olave's Church, built before the Norman Conquest.

Returning leftward, we see the venerable Abbey of Westminster, on Thorney Island, with the Chapel of Henry VII., and beyond it St. Margaret's Church. The adjacent palace of Edward the Confessor covers both the Palace-yards, and extends as far as Whitehall, where it joins the precincts of York House. On the disgrace of Wolsey, the latter was seized by King Henry VIII., who from that time kept his court here. In the old palace we see the Parliament House, the fountain, and the clock-tower, not far from Barry's clock-tower of the new palace. King-street was then and long after the only road by which the sovereign proceeded to parliament. This street is guarded by a gate; and another, of noble dimensions, stands in Whitehall, and forms the principal entrance to the palace. To the left is the Tilt-yard and the Cockpit; on the site of the latter is the present Council-office. Beyond the Tilt-yard is a sheet of water, now the Horse-guards Parade. The gardens of Whitehall are shown, with the stairs by which Wolsey quitted the palace in his barge for Esher. Eastward we see St. James's-park, with the deer, and Spring-gardens, with groves, reaching as far as the present Admiralty. Beyond the north wall of the park are a few houses, about the middle of Pall

mall; and beyond them St. James's Hospital, which in the former reign had been converted into a palace; the swampy field was also then enclosed as a park, the canal being supplied by the creek surrounding three sides of Thorney Island.

At Charing-cross we see a rude sketch of Eleanor's cross, where now is the statue of Charles I. Opposite is the Hospital of St. Mary Rouncival, which gave way to Northumberland House and Gardens. Beyond Charing-cross is the Royal Mews, where the falcons were kept, upon the site of our National Gallery. Here are three rural roads leading to the fields: 1. The Haymarket, in which hay was then sold, and so continued until 1830; 2. Hedge-lane, now Whitcomb-street; 3. A large field, crossed by a path to St. Martin's-lane, and at its lower end St. Martin's Church, built by Henry VIII., in the fields. The Haymarket leads to "the way to Redinge," now Piccadilly. Then we have a triangular field, and beyond is "the way to Vxbridge,” and Oxford-road, now Oxford-street. In the distance are fields, hedges, and dotting trees; but still more rural is the village of St. Giles, commencing at Drury-lane, its cluster of buildings (Broad-street) and a few houses within the precincts of St. Giles's Hospital and Church, partly enclosed and surrounded with trees. Far away in the fields is the little church of St. Pancras, "all alone, old, and weather-beaten."

St. Martin's-lane has scarcely a house beyond the church, which nearly abuts on Convent-garden, belonging to the abbot and monks of Westminster: it is walled in, and extends to Drury-lane, and from the back of the garden in the Strand to the present Long Acre, there being only three or four buildings within its bounds. Not a house is built in Long Acre or Seven Dials, nor in

Drury-lane, from near Holborn to Drury House. The old Angel Inn, St. Clements, was then in the fields.

Nearly the whole of the Strand is a straggling street of mansions and their offices, the residences of noblemen and prelates, those on the south side having gardens reaching to the Thames; and they have mostly given names to the streets built on their sites. First of these historical houses is York-place, where Francis Bacon was born in the same year that Aggas drew his plan: here the Great Seal was taken from Bacon in 1621. Next is Durham-place, where Lady Jane Grey lodged when she assumed the crown; and she was thence escorted to the Tower. Sir Walter Raleigh possessed Durham-place twenty years; his study was a little turret which looked upon the Thames: the site is now part of the Adelphi. Next is the Savoy, through centuries a palace, a prison, and hospital: there are few sites of such historic interest as this spot. Next is Somersetplace, assigned by Edward VI. to the Princess Elizabeth, and whence, as queen, she went to open Gresham's Royal Exchange, 1570-1; we also read of her going in great state, with a torchlight procession, to the council; "for shows and pageants," says the account, "are ever best seen by torchlight." In the roadway of the Strand we see a few straggling buildings (one of which is Lyon's-Inn, lately taken down), and beyond is St. Clement's Church, where the Danes had worshipped centuries ago; and so we reach Temple Bar, a timber gateway across the street, upon the site of Wren's present Bar of stone.

Returning to the Thames bank, next Somerset-place is Arundel-place, where the Countess of Nottingham died, after her interview with Queen Elizabeth to implore forgiveness for having withheld from her Essex's