Anonymous

“ The great park is fourteen miles in circumference, and is well stocked with deer and other game; many foreign beasts and birds are here also kept by his Royal Highness, who is continually adding new improvements. The new erected building on Shrub’s hill, adorned beneath with the prospect of the most beautiful verdure, and a young plantation of trees, is very elegant, and promises in a short time to afford the most delightful rural scene, the noble piece of water below, produced at a great expence from a small stream, is now rendered capable of carrying barges and boats of pleasure. ”

“ And yet the buildings which have been erected at very different times, with very little order or regularity are perfectly united, and it is impossible for a stranger to know where the Inner Temple ends and the Middle Temple begins, except at the entrances, which are the only visible fronts to the street. Backwards there are many courts of handsome new built houses, and behind them, the buildings of the Temple have gardens and walks fronting the Thames. That side lies open and airy, and enjoys a delightful prospect into Surry. ”

“ On the inside are three galleries and an organ, and the altar-piece is adorned with four Corinthian pilasters, with their entablature and a pediment; these have gilt capitals; with the arms of Queen Anne carved: but what is most singular is a stone on the east side of the portico, leading up to the gallery, on which is the following inscription.
Of Carthage great I was a stone,
O mortals read with pity!
Time consumes all, it spareth none,
Men, mountains, towns, nor city:
Therefore O mortals! ”

“ Hercules is driving away Rebellion, Sedition and Ignorance; Britannia and Neptune, properly attended, are paying obedience to the Monarch as he passes; and the whole is a lively representation of the restoration of that Monarch, and the introduction of arts, and sciences in these kingdoms. In the other parts of the cieling are painted the labours of Hercules, with festoons of fruit and flowers, the whole beautifully decorated in gold and stone colour. ”

“ The benefits of inoculation appear every year, by fresh trials, greater and more certain. This dreadful, this destructive distemper is thereby rendered mild and manageable, and becomes rather a purgation of the body from the latent seeds of an expected disease, than creating a disease itself. It delivers people from those apprehensions, with which, till they have had the small-pox, they are always haunted. It frees them from the objections, that are continually made to their being received into any family, while they remain exposed to that disease in the natural way. ”

“ The roof is admired for the excellence of the workmanship, and the sides contain a number of shops belonging to booksellers, &c. It is paved with stone, and to the courts of justice at the end is an assent by a flight of steps. The inside is most remarkable for being so wide and having no columns to support a roof so large. It is a regular Gothic, and gives us a good idea of the skill in architecture of our fore fathers so early as the time of Richard II.
Westminster Hall court, Dunning’s alley, Bishopsgate street. ”

“ The author of The Critical Review of the public buildings, mentioning this steeple says, “It is not a glaring pile that strikes the eye at the first view with an idea of grandeur and magnificence; but then the beautiful pyramid it forms, and the just and well proportioned simplicity of all its parts, satisfy the mind so effectually, that nothing seems to be wanting, and nothing can be spared.” ”

“ Though the architect appears to have understood ornaments, he has not been too lavish in the use of them. The edifice consists of a tall and handsome body, with a tower and turret. The body is divided by the projection of the middle part, into a fore front in the center, and two smaller: at the west end is the tower, and at the east it swells into the sweep of circle; the corners of the building are faced with rustic. The windows, which are large and well proportioned, are cased with stone with a cherub’s head at the top of the arch, and the roof is concealed by a blocking course. ”

“ The print exhibits the entrance of the Middle Temple, which is elegant, together with the east side of Temple Bar, as it appears from the end of Chancery lane in Fleet street, the situation of the Temple along the side of the river is very fine, yet nothing can be more void of harmony or decoration than the buildings of which it is composed, owing chiefly to the division and subdivision of property, which renders regularity next to impossible. The thing most worthy of notice in the Temple is the old church which belonged to the knights Templars of Jerusalem. ”

“ When it grows dark the garden near the orchestre is illuminated, almost in an instant, with about 1500 glass lamps, which glitter among the trees, and render it exceeding light and brilliant: and soon after a very extraordinary piece of machinery has of late been exhibited, on the inside of one of the hedges near the entrance into the vistas: by removing a curtain is shewn a very fine landscape illuminated by concealed light; in which [216] the principal objects that strike the eyes are the cascade or waterfall, and a miller’s house. ”

“ By the endeavours of this society many thousands of lewd and scandalous persons have been brought to legal punishment: great numbers have been convicted in the court of King’s Bench, and at the sessions, for keeping houses of lewdness, and punished by fine and imprisonment, by which means the streets have been much cleared of night-walkers, and other public places of gangs of detestable sodomites. ”

“ IX. Persons changing the habitations or wherehouses, may preserve the benefit of their policies, if the nature and circumstance of such policy is not alter’d; but [89] such insurance will be of no force, till such removal or alteration is allow’d at the office by indorsement on the policy. Insurances on buildings and goods are deemed distinct and separate risks; so that the premium on goods is not advanced by reason of any insurance on the building wherein the goods are kept, nor the premium on the buildings by reason of any insurance on the goods. ”

“ No person whatsoever shall fish for smelts or shads, or any other fish whatsoever, or lay leaps, or rods, for eels in any place within the Lord Mayor’s jurisdiction, without a licence from the water bailiff, who shall appoint the proper seasons for fishing: And that upon every such occasion all the fishermen shall upon due summons or notice given, repair to the water bailiff at the chapel at Guildhall, to take out their several licences for going to fish, and to hear the ordinances for the preservation of the fisheries publicly read, that they may be the better able to preserve and keep them ”

“ George’s chapel, with those of the minor canons, clerks and other officers; and on the south and west sides of the outer part, are the houses of the poor knights of Windsor. In this court are also several towers belonging to the officers of the crown, when the court is at Windsor, and to the officers of the order of the garter.
The royal apartments are on the north side of the Upper court, and are usually termed the Star building, from a star and garter in gold in the middle of the structure, on the out side next the terrace. ”

“ There is also a High Constable, who is also chosen by the court leet, and has all the other constables under his direction.
Thus the government of Westminster has but little resemblance to that of an opulent and noble city; it being much more like that of a little country borough, since its representatives are chosen by its householders, and it has not the power of making freemen; has no trading companies; nor any other courts, besides those of the leet, the sessions, and a court of requests lately erected, and yet, according to Maitland, it contains 15,445 houses ”

“ A neat little suit of armour worn by a carved figure representing Richard Duke of York, the youngest son of King Edward IV. who, with his brother Edward V. were smothered in the Tower, by order of their uncle and guardian, Richard III.
10. The armour of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, who was the son of a King, the father of a King, and the uncle of a King, but was never King himself: and Dugdale observes, that more kings and sovereign princes sprang from his loins, than from any King in Christendom. The armour here shewn is seven feet high, and the sword and lance of an enormous size. ”

“ That the court of Aldermen should assess the fares of watermen, which being subscribed by two at least of the privy council, should be set up in Guildhall and Westminster Hall, &c. and the waterman that takes more than according to the fare so assessed, shall, for every such offence, suffer half a year’s imprisonment, and forfeit 40s.
That any waterman withdrawing himself in time of pressing, shall suffer a fortnight’s imprisonment, and be prohibited rowing any more on the Thames for a year and a day. ”

“ The island thus formed was in a manner a waste over grown with thorns and briars, and was thence called Thorny Island.
In this situation was the abbey, minster, or monastery founded; for the convenience of which a few houses were probably first erected, and these at length grew into a small town, in ancient books called the town of Westminster.
It was thus for many ages a place entirely distinct from London, and there was a large space between them. The Strand was the road which led from London to that town, and it was open on either side to the Thames and to the fields. ”

“ The society is every year to give an account in writing to the Lord Chancellor, or Lord Keeper of the great seal, the Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, or the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, or any two of them, of the several sums of money by them received and laid out, and of the management and disposition of the revenues and charities of the society. ”

“ To these considerations, it is proper to add one circumstance, which, duly considered, cannot but have great weight with all, who have any feeling for their fellow-creatures in distress; which is, that it is an hospital, in aid of all other hospitals, being calculated, by its very constitution, to receive those miserable creatures, whom the rules of all other charities expresly and prudentially exclude. ”

“ XII. The insurance of any goods, &c. in this society, which shall be insured in any other office at the same time, to be void: And yet such insurer shall be liable to his covenants. Nevertheless a liberty is given to insure in any other office, so as such other insurance is indorsed on this society’s policy, and subscribed by two of the trustees, for which 6d. per cent. is to be paid; and in which case a proportionable part of any loss is to be paid by this society. ”

“ Other regulations were made in the succeeding reigns, particularly in that of William III. when for the better ordering and governing the watermen, wherrymen and lightermen, on the river Thames, it was enacted, that every lighterman, or owner, keeper, or worker of any lighter, or other large craft on the Thames between Gravesend and Windsor, shall be taken to be of the society, or company of wherrymen, watermen and lightermen, who by this act are made a society, or company under the direction of the court of Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this city ”

“ At the east, or farther end, in the opposite corner are two suits of armour, one made for that warlike prince Henry V. and the other for his son Henry VI. over each of which is a semicircle of pistols: between these is represented an organ, the large pipes composed of brass blunderbusses, the small of pistols. On one side of the organ is the representation of a fiery serpent, the head and tail of carved work, and the body of pistols winding round in the form of a snake; and on the other an hydra, whose seven heads are artfully combined by links of pistols. ”

“ There were at first eighteen of these houses, but afterwards only twelve were allowed: they stood in a row, and had signs on their fronts towards the Thames, not hung out, but painted on the walls, as the Boar’s Head, the Cross Keys, the Castle, the Cardinal’s Hat, the Bell, the Swan, &c. These houses which were frequently kept by Flemish bawds, were under very strict regulations, among which were the following, confirmed [74] by act of parliament, in the reign of Henry II.
That no stewholder or his wife should hinder any single woman from going and coming as often as she pleased. ”

“ II. Every person designing to insure, shall before surveying the goods, pay 10s. earnest money, to go towards the charge of insuring, if agreed to, and the policy be taken up within three months after, otherwise the said 10s. is sunk to the society: but if the directors do not agree to such insurance, the earnest money to be returned. Also old policies directed to be renewed, and not taken away within three months are also to be cancelled, and the charge of the policies and stamps of such renewals deducted out of the deposit-money of such insurers. ”

“ The Lions Tower. In examining the curiosities of the Tower, it will be proper to begin with those on the outside the principal gate, the first thing a stranger, usually goes to visit is the wild beasts, which from their situation first present [156] themselves: for having entered the outer gate, and passed what is called the spur-guard, the keeper’s house presents itself before you, which is known by a painted lion on the wall, and another over the door which leads to their dens; and by ringing a bell, and paying six pence each person, you may easily gain admittance. ”