Scot, a follower of Gustavus Adolphus, and the inventor of leathern artillery, - Lambeth Church contains but few monuments of interest. Here, however, may be seen a marble slab to the memory of the celebrated antiquary, Elias Ashmole, who, as Anthony Wood informs us, died at his house in Little, or South Lambeth. Here also was buried the notorious astrologer, Simon Forman, one of the greatest knaves on record, but who is now principally remembered for the share which he had in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. He lived in Lambeth, and, notwithstanding his knavery and his crimes, is represented as having been extremely charitable to the poor.

Lilly, in his curious work, his Life of Himself, thus gravely relates the circumstances which attended the end of his brother-impostor:-" His death happened as follows:-The Sunday night before he died, his wife and he being at supper in their garden-house, she being pleasant, told him, that she had been informed he could resolve, whether man or wife should die first? Whether

shall I,' quoth she, bury you or no?" 'Oh, Trunco!' for so he called her, thou wilt bury me, but thou wilt much repent it.'-' Yea, but how long first?' I shall die,' said he, 'ere Thursday night.' -Monday came; all was well. Tuesday came; he not sick. Wednesday came, and still he was well; with which his impertinent wife did much twit him in the teeth. Thursday came, and dinner was ended; he very well.

He went down to the water

side, and took a pair of oars to go to some buildings he was in hand with in Puddle Dock. Being in the middle of the Thames, he presently fell down, only saying- An impost, an impost,' and so died; a most sad storm of wind immediately following." Forman's "rarities and secret manuscripts, of what quality soever," fell into the possession of his scholar," Dr. Napper, of Lindford, in Buckinghamshire, whose son presented them to Ashmole, the antiquary.

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In inspecting one of the windows of Lambeth Church, the stranger will be struck by a curious painted figure of a Pedlar and his dog. According to a popular tradition, a piece of land known as "The Pedlar's Acre," is said to have been bequeathed to the parish by the person here represented, on condition that his portrait, and that of his dog, should be preserved for ever in one of the windows of Lambeth Church.

In Lambeth Churchyard may be seen an interesting monument to the memory of John Tradescant and his son; of whom the former may be fairly styled the father of natural history in this country. Both were great travellers; both were men of taste and genius, and indefatigable in adding to the scientific and antiquarian stores of their country. The garden of the Tradescants, at South Lambeth, is said to have presented a rare and beautiful sight in the days of the first and second Charles; while their collection of coins, medals, and other antiquities, appears to have been scarcely less curious and valuable. Their

as

collection of antiquities, as well as their house at Lambeth, fell into the possession of Elias Ashmole. The garden, with its rare plants, were allowed by Ashmole to fall into decay; but the antiquities he preserved with great care, and they now form a part of the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford. Pennant informs us that the house of the Tradescants was in existence in his time; and that, as late 1749, there were still to be seen some trees in the neglected garden, which had evidently been introduced by the "illustrious founder." The site is now occupied by the Nine Elms Brewery, nearly opposite to Spring Lane. We must not omit to mention, that Thomas Cooke, the translator of "Hesiod," and Edward Moore, the author of the "Gamester" and of the "Fables for the Female Sex," lie buried in Lambeth Church.* *

It was on an inclement December night, in 1688, that Mary of Modena, the young Queen of James the Second, with her infant son in her arms, found shelter from the fury of the elements, under the walls of Lambeth Church. England being no longer a safe place for her, she entered an open boat at the private water-stairs of Whitehall Palace, and, in the dead of night, was carried over to Lambeth, where a hired coach was expected to be in readiness to receive her. By some accident, however, it was delayed, and accordingly her attendants led her under the walls of the old church,

* For many minute and curious particulars respecting Lambeth Church, see Cunningham's "London." Art. St. Mary, Lambeth.

where says Dalrymple, she "sometimes turned her eyes, streaming with tears, upon the Prince, unconscious of the miseries which attend upon royalty, and sometimes on the innumerable lights of the city, amidst the glimmering of which she in vain explored the palace in which her husband was left, and started at every sound she heard from thence." At length, however, the coach made its appearance, in which she proceeded to Gravesend, where a vessel was waiting to convey her to the coast of France.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth, the London residence of the Dukes of Norfolk was in Lambeth; Norfolk Row still pointing out the site of their mansion. In South Lambeth stood Caroone House, a stately mansion erected by Sir Noel de Caron, ambassador from the Netherlands in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James the First. In 1566, the house, with its gardens and orchards, were conferred by Charles the Second on Lord Chancellor Clarendon. A part of the old mansion was standing at the commencement of the present century, but in 1809, the last remains of it were swept away. Near the Vauxhall turnpike may be seen a row of alms-houses, which were founded by Sir Noel de Caron, in 1622.

Nearly opposite to Somerset House, on the site of the present Waterloo Bridge Road, stood Cuper's Gardens, which continued to be a favourite place of resort of the gay and profligate, from the end of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth

century. Its principal features of attraction were its retired arbours, its shady walks, ornamented with statues and other ancient marbles, and especially its fireworks. These statues had been brought from Arundel House, in the Strand, by one Boyder Cuper, from whom the gardens derived their name, who had been gardener to Thomas, Earl of Arundel. Cuper's Gardens were suppressed as a place of public entertainment in 1753.

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