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On the east side, at the north end of Aldersgate Street, stood Lauderdale House, the residence of John Duke of Lauderdale, who died in 1682. The site is still pointed out by Lauderdale Buildings. It is almost needless to remark that this nobleman and his unprincipled friend, Lord Shaftesbury, formed two of the famous Cabal in the reign of Charles the Second.

In Aldersgate Street was another of the numerous London residences of the author of "Paradise Lost." Hither it was, to "a handsome garden-house," that he removed from St. Bride's Churchyard in 1643, and it was during his residence here that he was reconciled to his first wife, Mary Powell. As a first step towards their recohabitation, he placed her in the house of one Widow Weber, in St. Clement's Churchyard, whence, after a short interval, he took her back to his heart and hearth. In his beautiful description of Adam's reconciliation with Eve after their fall, Milton had evidently in his mind his own first interview with his repentant wife after her unhappy estrangement:

"She, not repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing,

And tresses all disordered, at his feet

Fell humble, and embracing them, besought

His peace."

And again,

"Soon his heart relented

Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,
Now at his feet submissive in distress."

Milton's reconciliation with his wife took place in July, 1645, in which year he removed from Aldersgate Street to a larger house in Barbican. Here he remained till 1647, when he took a smaller house in High Holborn, overlooking Lincoln's-inn Fields.

In Aldersgate Street was born, in 1633, Thomas Flatman, the lawyer, painter, and poet.

Aldersgate Street leads us into Barbican, a street deriving its name from the Barbican, or burgh-kenning, a watchtower which was anciently an appendage of every fortified place. The remains of the tower, which stood a little to the north of this thoroughfare, on the site of the old Roman specula, were visible in the latter half of the last century. "Here," writes Bagford, "the Romans kept cohorts of soldiers in continual service to watch in the night, that if any sudden fire should happen, they might be in readiness. to extinguish it; as also to give notice if an enemy were gathering or marching towards the City to surprise them. In short, it was a watch-tower by day, and at night they lighted some combustible matter on the top thereof, to give directions to the weary traveller repairing to the City, either with provision, or upon some other occasion."

In the reign of Edward the Third the custody of the Barbican was committed to Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, in whose family it appears to have been made hereditary, in the female line, till the reign of Queen Mary. In this reign it was in the keeping of Katherine, Baroness Willoughby d'Eresby in her own right, and widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Adjoining the Barbican was her residence, Willoughby House, of great size and splendour. Here she was residing with her second husband, Richard Bertie, ancestor of the Barons Willoughby d'Eresby and Dukes of Ancaster, when an unlucky act of imprudence drew down. upon her the vengeance of the dreaded Bishop Gardiner. In her hatred of the Romish faith, she was induced to call her lapdog by the name of the Bishop, and to dress it up in the episcopal rochet and surplice, a circumstance which gave such offence to Gardiner that, in order to avoid his fury, she flew with her husband to the Continent, where they suffered great privations till the King of Poland received them

under his protection, and installed them in the Earldom of Crozan.

Another noble family who resided in Barbican were the Egertons, Earls of Bridgewater, whose mansion, Bridgewater House, was once famous for the productiveness of its orchards. It was burnt down in April, 1687, during the occupancy of John, third Earl of Bridgewater, when his two infant heirs, Charles Viscount Brackley, and his second son Thomas, perished in the flames. The site of the mansion and gardens is now covered by Bridgewater Square.

The learned antiquary, Sir Henry Spelman, author of the "Archæological Glossary," died in Barbican in 1641.

On the south side of Beech Lane, Barbican, stood the residence of Prince Rupert, a portion of which was standing in the present century. In the parish books of St. Giles's Cripplegate is an entry of the payment of a guinea to the church ringers, for complimenting Charles the Second with a peal on the occasion of his visiting his kinsman in Barbican. Prince Rupert subsequently removed to a house in Spring Gardens, where he died. According to Stow, Beech Street derives its name from Nicholas de la Beech, Lieutenant of the Tower in the reign of Edward the Third.

In Golden, or Golding, Lane, Barbican, stood the Fortune Theatre, one of the earliest places for theatrical entertainment in London. It was first opened in 1599 for Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn. The latter was also proprietor of the Bear Garden in Bankside, Southwark, and founder of Dulwich College. Alleyn's theatre having been burnt down in 1621, it was shortly afterwards replaced by another, which was destroyed by a party of fanatical soldiers during the Commonwealth. In the register of burials at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, may be traced the names of several of the actors at the Fortune Theatre. Playhouse

Yard, which connects Golden Lane with Whitecross Street, still points out the site of the old theatre.

In Golden Lane also stood the Nursery, a seminary for educating children for the profession of the stage, established in the reign of Charles the Second, under the auspices of Colonel William Legge, Groom of the Bedchamber to that monarch and uncle to the first Lord Dartmouth. Dryden speaks of it in his "Mac Flecknoe:"-

"Near these a Nursery erects its head,

Where Queens are formed, and future heroes bred;
Where unfledged actors learn to laugh and cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try,

And little Maximins the gods defy :

Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here,
Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear."

In Pepys's Diary are the following notices of the Nursery :

"2 Aug. 1664. To the King's Playhouse, and there I chanced to sit by Tom Killigrew, who tells me that he is setting up a Nursery; that is, going to build a house in Moorfields, wherein he will have common plays acted."

"24 Feb. 1667-8. To the Nursery, where none of us ever were before; where the house is better and the music better than we looked for, and the acting not much worse, because I expected as bad as could be; and I was not much mistaken, for it was so. Their play was a bad one, called 'Jeronimo is mad again,' a tragedy."

SMITHFIELD.

SMITHFIELD CATTLE MARKET IN FORMER TIMES THE PLACE FOR TOURNAMENTS, TRIALS BY BATTLE, EXECUTIONS AND AUTOS-DA-FÈ.-TOURNAMENTS BEFORE EDWARD THE THIRD AND RICHARD THE SECOND.-TRIALS BY DUEL BETWEEN CATOUR AND DAVY, AND THE BASTARD OF BURGUNDY AND LORD SCALES.-REMARKABLE EXECUTIONS.-PERSONS WHO SUFFERED MARTYRDOM IN THE FLAMES AT SMITHFIELD.-INTERVIEW THERE BETWEEN WAT TYLER AND RICHARD THE SECOND.-SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH.

S

|MITHFIELD, corrupted from Smoothfield, continued to be used for the purposes of a cattle market for nearly seven centuries. Fitzstephen, in his account of London written before the twelfth century, describes it as a plain field, where, every Friday, a number of valuable horses were exposed for sale. "Thither," he says, "come to look, or buy, a great number of Earls, Barons, Knights, and a swarm of citizens. It is a pleasing sight to behold the ambling nags and generous colts proudly prancing."

Shakspeare has an allusion to the sale of horses in Smith

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"Falstaff.-Where's Bardolph ?

Page.—He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse.

Falstaff. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could but get me a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived."

King Henry IV., part 2, act i., sc. 2.

With the exception of the Tower and of the Old Palace

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