Lion was the same house as that used for the county prison; for at that time, when houses were not numbered, especially if they were occupied by tradesmen, they were known by signs; from which it did not follow that they were public-houses. But Stow distinctly states that there was in the High-street of Southwark an inn called the White Lion, which was used as a prison for the county of Surrey; and during the reign of Queen Elizabeth Roman Catholic recusants were confined here.

Other Southwark inns named by Stow remain, except the Christopher; but they have mostly lost their galleries and their antique features. The King's Head was, within our recollection, a well-painted half-length of Henry VIII. The Catherine Wheel remains; but we miss the Dog and Bear, which sign, as well as Maypole-alley, hard by, points to olden sport and pastime.*

TOTHILL-FIELDS IN FORMER DAYS.

Jeremy Bentham once said, in his quaint way, that "if a place could exist of which it could be said that it was in no neighbourhood, it would be Tothill-fields ;" -this astute definition implying the uncertainty of boundary which this noted old district possesses. First, as to name. An early topographer says, it taketh name of a hill called Toote-hill, otherwise the Beacon-field -the name of a close in an ancient lease, thought to have been the highest level in the immediate vicinity

* Abridged from Mr. Corner's paper in the collections of the Surrey Archæological Society, vol. ii. part 1; with additions by the Author of the present work,

of Westminster, and therefore suitable for a beacon. In Rocque's map, 1746, a hill is shown in Tothill-fields, just at the bend in the Horseferry-road; but this eminence is now undiscernible, owing to the gradual accumulation of soil upon the adjacent ground.

The name of Tot is the old British word Teut (the German Tuesco), god of wayfarers and merchants-the third day of the week is still called after him. Sacred stones were set up on heights, hence called Tot-hills. "To toot" in the north of England was a common phrase to express the observation of a watchman set upon a high station looking over the lower country.

Tothill was the name of a manor in Westminster, possessed, in the reign of Henry III., by John Maunsell, who rose to the dignity of Chancellor of England. Here he entertained the kings and queens of England and Scotland, the Prince Edward, the Bishop of London, nobles, knights, and chief citizens-guests so many in number that no common roof would cover them, so that the host was obliged to erect tents and pavilions to receive them: "700 messes were served up in this marvellous cheere."

Tothill-fields, before the Statute of Restraints, was considered to be within the limits of the sanctuary of the Abbey. On account of its dry soil and extent, wagers of battle were often decided here, and combats specially granted by princes, as well as those proceeding by ordinary award in law. Necromancers were punished here, and their instruments destroyed; as in the reign of Edward III., when a man was taken "prac_ tising with a dead man's head, and brought to the bar at the King's Bench, where, after abjuration of his art, his trinkets were taken from him, carried to Tothill, and burned before his face." In the time of Richard I., too,

a chaplain to the Archbishop of York "had provided a girdle and ring cunningly intoxicated, wherewith he meant to have destroyed Simon (the Dean of York), and others; but his messenger was intercepted, and his girdle burned at this place before the people."

In 1441 "was taken Margarie Gourdemaine, a witch of Eye, beside Westminster, whose sorcerie and witchcraft Dame Eleanor Cobham had long time used, and by hir medicines and drinkes enforced the Duke of Gloucester to wed hir; wherefore, and for cause of relapse, the same witch was brent in Smithfield on the 27 of October." In the same year 66 a combat was fought at Tothill betweene two theeves; the pelour (appealor) hadde the feld, and victory of the defendour withinne three strokes."

We now come to the Fairs held here. In 1248 the king "did command that proclamation should be made by voice of herald through all the City of London, and in other parts, that he gave command to celebrate a new fair, to last for fifteen days. All other fairs, and all merchandise wont to be held and exercised at London, in door and out of door, under pain of loss and confiscation, he strictly forbade, so that the fair of Westminster might be more fully furnished with company and wares." But this fair proved a failure: it appears to have been but a device of the king to exact money from the citizens of London; for they were compelled "to redeem it with two thousand pounds." This mart, St. Edward's Fair, was first held in St. Margaret's churchyard, until the reign of Henry III., when it was removed to Tothill-fields; and hence it became known as Tothill-fields Fair. Henry III. gave the Abbot of Westminster leave to keep a three days' fair (St. Mary's), and Edward III. a fair thirty-one days long, in Tuthill ;

but this was not long observed. It is said that the Mayor and Corporation of London, by a bribe of 8000l., induced the abbot to yield up his privilege. There was also a small Fair (St. Peter's) held in St. Margaret's churchyard.

After the coronation of Queen Eleanor, consort of Henry III., "royal solemnities and goodly jousts were held in Tuthill." "A strange sight must the wild marshy field have been, with the coarse turf spread with bright yellow sand; the stout barriers; the galleries hung with silken canopies; awnings intermingled with green boughs and fragrant garlands, stooping down to shade the groups of fair maidens clustered beneath; the steelclad challengers, seated firm as rocks on their neighing steeds, awaiting the herald's blast, and the shock of the opponent in the glittering list; the wavy plume, the broidered mantle, the token scarf, the particoloured tabard, brilliant as a flowery garden."-Walcott's Westminster.

The next picture is a gloomy one. On the ruins of the fortifications, erected here in 1642, was built a lazaretto of boards, called the Five Houses, or Seven Chimneys, for the reception of the unhappy persons who were attacked by the plague. In the work just quoted we read: "Terrible, indeed, though the skies were bright, as if in mockery, must have been the state of Westminster at this time. Not here alone in this solitary lazar-house was the abode of death and misery, -the rude pallet with its ghastly burden, the tainted atmosphere, the despairing sob and frenzied shriek of the sick; but the destroying angel held his course along the forlorn streets and the deserted lanes. While large fires in vain burned in the midst to purify the damp air -the heavy smoke-wreaths, unable to rise, forming a

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sable pall,—the noisome contagion was spreading fast. At the closely-guarded door, marked with the foot-long cross of blue, and the penitential verse of despair above it, ‘Lord, have mercy on us!'—stood the gloomy watchman; while ever and anon the intolerable profound hush, as of a charnel, was broken by the toll of the funeral bell, and vigilant searchers, with red wands, passed to and fro; and through the long night the deep-laden death-cart heavily rolled by toward the plague-pit, surfeited with hideous corruption, with the doleful cry of the burier, 'Bring out your dead!'"

Of this awful visitation numerous entries occur in the parish books. In 1563 five shillings is paid to John Welsh for killing and carrying away dogs during the plague, and for putting them into the ground; also sixpence to the painter of Totehill-street for painting of certain blue crosses, to be fixed upon sundrie houses infected. In 1625 nine shillings and eightpence is again paid to the dog-killer for killing dogs, and "17. 10s. 8d. to the bricklayer for stuff and workmanship at the vault at Tuthill."

In 1665, during the summer, Pepys says: "I was much troubled to hear at Westminster how the officers do bury the dead in the open Tuttle-fields, pretending want of room elsewhere; whereas the new chapelyard was walled in at the public charge, in the last plaguetime, merely for want of room; and now none but such as are able to pay dear for it can be buried there."

Here, some short while afterwards, "1200 Scotch prisoners, taken at the battle of Worcester," were interred; for the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, Westminster, exhibit a payment of thirty shillings for sixty-seven loads of soil laid on the graves of Tothill-fields, wherein, it is added, "the Scotch pri