Lord Eldon. At that period, when the punishment of death was much more common than in the present day, it happened that a foot-pad had been sentenced to be hanged on account of a street robbery which he had committed close to Lord Eldon's house in this square. When the Recorder subsequently presented his report to the King, all the Ministers, with the exception of one, gave it as their opinion that the man should be left for execution. The King, however, observing that Lord Eldon had been silent, called upon him for his opinion, which the Chancellor gave in favour of mercy. “Very well," said the King; "since his lordship, who lives in Bedford Square, thinks there is no great harm in committing robberies there, the poor fellow shall not be hanged."* In Store Street, Bedford Square, the celebrated actor, Thomas King, breathed his last in December, 1805. Before quitting this neighbourhood, let us not omit to mention that in Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, lived John George Morland and Richard Wilson, the painters, and that in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, John Flaxman, the sculptor, breathed his last. Let us not forget also the residence of the delightful actor, Jack Bannister, who lived and died in Gower Street. A strange superstition had impressed itself on his mind that he should die at the age of sixty-five, the number corresponding with that of his house in Gower Street. He survived, however, till his seventy-seventh year. In Gower Street Lord Eldon lived for thirteen years, and here also resided John Adolphus, the historian, and Harley, the comedian. *Twiss's "Life of Eldon," vol. i., p. 399. CHEAPSIDE. 66 CHEAPSIDE AT AN EARLY PERIOD CALLED THE CROWN FIELD."-TOURNAMENTS HELD THERE.-PERSONS EXECUTED AT THE STANDARD IN CHEAPSIDE.—“ EVIL MAY-DAY."—ELIZABETH'S CORONATION PROCESSION.—THE CROSS. THE CONDUIT.-CELEBRATED RESIDENCE IN CHEAPSIDE. -STREETS IN THE VICINITY.—“ MERMAID TAVERN."-GUILDHALL.-TRIAL-SCENES, AND ENTERTAINMENTS THERE.-ST. MARY-LE-BOW.-" CROWN SELD."WATLING STREET.-GOLDSMITHS' AND COACHMAKERS' HALL. L ET us retrace our steps into Cheapside. This celebrated street, which derives its name from chepe, a market, was in the middle of the thirteenth century an open space called the "Crown Field," from the Crown Inn, which stood at the east end of it. In the reign of Edward the Fourth, the sign of the "Crown" in Cheapside was kept by one Walter Walker, who happened to observe in joke that he intended to make his son "heir to the crown." The words reached the jealous ears of royalty. The foolish equivoque was construed into the crime of high treason, and the man was hanged opposite to his own door. In the days of our Norman sovereigns, when Cheapside was still the "Crown Field," it shared with Smithfield the honour of witnessing those gorgeous tournaments of which the old chroniclers have bequeathed us such vivid descriptions. There is, in fact, no street in London more intimately associated with the romantic history of the past. Here, in 1329, between Wood Street and Queen Street, Edward the Third held a solemn tournament in honour of the French Ambassadors; the street being covered with sand to pre vent the horses from slipping, while across it ran a scaffold, richly decorated, in which sat Queen Philippa and her ladies in all the blaze of beauty and precious stones. The King, surrounded by the rank and chivalry of the land, was also present; while apart sat the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council in their scarlet robes and chains of massive gold. Unfortunately, in the midst of the tilting the gallery on which the Queen and her ladies sat suddenly gave way, "whereby," writes Stow, "they were, with some shame, forced to fall down." Some injuries occurred to the knights and others who were standing close to the gallery, but happily the ladies escaped unhurt. The King, nevertheless, was so exasperated against the master-carpenter who had erected the scaffolding, that he ordered him to be forthwith led to the gallows. The Queen, however, threw herself on her knees, and so pathetically pleaded to the King to save the life of the offender, that with some difficulty he consented. Philippa's reward for her generous interference was a unanimous shout of applause from the surrounding multitude. In the same reign (1339) we find Cheapside the scene of a sanguinary encounter between the rival companies of the Skinners and Fishmongers. In the heat of the fray, the Lord Mayor arrived on the spot with a band of armed citizens, but it was in vain that he attempted to restore quiet. The rival factions, making common cause, drove him and his men-at-arms from the field; nor was it till the Sheriffs made their appearance with a large reinforcement that the riot was quelled and the ringleaders were seized. On the following day seven of them were hanged in Cheapside without even the pretence of a trial. Edward the Third died in 1377, shortly after which event his grandson, Richard the Second, proceeded in great state through Cheapside in his way from the Tower to his coronation at Westminster. In the centre of a brilliant assemblage of peers, knights, and esquires, the young King, clad in white robes, rode solemnly, we are told, through the public ways" till he came "to the noble street called the Chepe," the houses of which were hung with tapestry and cloth of arras, and thence to "Flete-strete," and so direct to the royal palace of Westminster. Similarly animated was the scene at Cheapside when, four years afterwards, Richard conducted his young betrothed, Anne of Bohemia, through London, on her way to her bridal and coronation at Westminster. At the upper end of Cheapside, we are told, was erected a castle, from which flowed fountains of wine, and from which beautiful maidens blew gold leaf in the faces of the King and Queen, and threw florins of counterfeited gold over their horses' heads. During Wat Tyler's insurrection we find several persons beheaded by the infuriated mob at the Standard in Cheapside. Here also, in 1450, when Jack Cade made himself master of the metropolis, Lord Say, High Treasurer of England, was put to death by the insurgents. It was to little purpose that he claimed the privilege of being tried by his peers. Having been wrested from the officers of justice, he was hurried to the Standard at Cheapside, where he was decapitated, after which his head was carried in triumph through the streets of London. "Say.-Tell me wherein have I offended most? Have I affected wealth or honour? speak. Is my apparel sumptuous to behold? Whom have I injured, that ye seek my death? Cade [Aside].-I feel remorse in myself with his words: but I'll bridle it; he shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for his life. Away with him! he has a familiar under his tongue; he speaks not o' God's name. Go, take him away, I say, and strike off his head presently: and then break into his son-in-law's house, Sir James Cromer, and strike off his head, and bring them both upon two poles hither. All.-It shall be done! Say.-Ah, countrymen! if when you make your prayers, King Henry VI., part 2, act iv., sc. 7. Another notorious political offender whose fate is associated with Cheapside, was the handsome and accomplished Perkin Warbeck. After his arrest in the priory of Sheen, in Surrey, he was brought to London, and compelled to sit for a whole day in the stocks before the entrance of Westminster Hall. On the following day he was brought to Cheapside, where he was again placed in the stocks, and forced to read a confession which he is said to have written with his own hand. At night he was lodged in the dungeons of the Tower, where he remained till the 23rd of November, 1499, when he was led forth to be hanged at Tyburn. The Standard in Cheapside-anciently the spot where criminals were executed-is said to have stood in the middle of the street, near Bow Church. The date of its foundation remains unascertained; but inasmuch as so early as the reign of Henry the Fourth it was in such a ruinous state that it was necessary to rebuild it, the presumption is that it was of considerable antiquity. It was at the Standard in Cheapside that William Fitz-Osbert, commonly called William Longbeard-after having been dragged with his concubine from the neighbouring church of St. Mary-le-Bow, where he had defended himself by force of arms-was exe |