cipally frequented by London drapers as well as by country clothiers who flocked hither with their goods from all parts of England; these persons being allowed to place their booths and standings within the walls of the churchyard, the gates of which were carefully locked at night.*

Such was the constitution of Bartholomew Fair till the reign of Henry the Eighth, when there sprung up those humours and saturnalia for which it continued to be celebrated even in recent times. In our own time the Lord Mayor still opened the fair in person; stopping his horse at Newgate in his way, to receive from the hands of the keeper of the prison a "cool tankard of wine, nutmeg, and sugar." In 1688, this custom proved fatal to Sir John Shorter, Lord Mayor, grandfather of the beautiful Catherine Shorter, the first wife of Sir Robert Walpole. While holding the tankard the lid suddenly fell, when his horse, frightened at the noise, plunged and threw his rider. So severe were the injuries which he received that he died on the following day.

Bartholomew Fair was long celebrated for its theatrical entertainments. Pepys writes on the 30th of August, 1667: "I to Bartholomew Fayre to walk up and down; and there, among other things find my Lady Castlemaine at a puppetplay, and the street full of people expecting her coming out. I confess I did wonder at her courage to come abroad, thinking the people would abuse her. But they, silly people, do not know the work she makes, and therefore suffered her with great respect to take coach, and she away without trouble at all." It was in a booth at Bartholomew Fair that Rich is said to have been so struck with the acting of Walker, afterwards the original Macheath, that he engaged him for the theatre in Lincoln's Inn. Another well-known person connected with Bartholomew Fair was the unfortu* Stow, p. 141.

any

VOL. III.

4

nate poet, Elkanah Settle, who was once so reduced in circumstances as to be compelled to write pantomimes and contrive machinery for a Smithfield booth. Here, in fact, it was that in one of his own wretched theatrical exhibitions, called "St. George and the Dragon," he was reduced to personate the dragon, enclosed in a case of green leather-a circumstance to which Dr. Young, the author of the "Night Thoughts," alludes in his Epistles to Pope:

"Poor Elkanah, all other changes past,

For bread in Smithfield-dragons hissed at last ;
Spit streams of fire to make the butchers gape,
And found his manners suited to his shape.
Such is the fate of talents misapplied," &c.

It was at Bartholomew Fair that the great actress, Mrs.
Pritchard, first attracted public attention.

We have the authority of Mrs. Piozzi, that Dr. Johnson's uncle, Andrew Johnson, "for a whole year kept the ring at Smithfield, where they wrestled and boxed, and never was thrown or conquered."

THE CHARTER HOUSE.

CHARTER HOUSE ORIGINALLY A BURIAL-GROUND. SIR WALTER DE MANNY FOUNDS A CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY THERE. DREADFUL PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED ON THE CARTHUSIANS BY HENRY THE EIGHTH. — CHARTER HOUSE PURCHASED BY DUKE OF NORFOLK.-GIVEN TO EARL OF SUFFOLK. -HISTORY OF SIR THOMAS SUTTON, FOUNDER OF THE PRESENT CHARTER HOUSE. - SCHOLARS AND PENSIONERS. -OLD COURT ROOM. CHARTER HOUSE SQUARE.

THE

HERE is perhaps no spot in London which has witnessed so much dreary horror as the ground occupied by the Charter House. Beneath and around us lie the remains of no fewer than one hundred thousand human beings, who fell victims to the frightful plague which devastated the metropolis in the reign of Edward the Third.* "No Man's Land," as it was styled by our ancestors, bore a frightful reputation. Long after the earth had closed over the vast plague-pit, it was the custom to inter there all who had either perished on the gibbet or by their own hands. Their mutilated corpses, according to Stow, were conveyed hither with terrifying ceremony, "usually in a close cart, bailed over and covered with black, having a plain white cross thwarting; and at the fore-end a St. John's cross without; and within a bell ringing by shaking of the cart,

"It is to be noted, that above one hundred thousand bodies of Christian people had in that churchyard been buried; for the said knight (Sir Walter de Manny) had purchased that place for the burial of poor people, travellers, and other that were deceased, to remain for ever."-Stow,

P. 161.

whereby the same might be heard when it passed; and this was called the Friary cart, which belonged to St. John's, and had the privilege of sanctuary."

At the time of the great plague in the reign of Edward the Third, the ground on which the Charter House now stands consisted of open fields. Then it was [1348] that in consequence of the ordinary London churchyards having been filled to overflowing by the victims of the pestilence, the ground was purchased from philanthropic motives by Ralph Stratford, Bishop of London, who surrounded it with a wall of brick, and built a chapel for the performance of the burial service over the dead. This immediate spot was known by the name of Pardon Churchyard, a name which it continued to retain in the days of Stow. The chapel stood on the ground between the present north wall of the Charter House and Sutton Street.

There existed at that fearful period another beneficent philanthropist, to whom, in fact, we indirectly owe the present magnificent establishment, the Charter House. That person was Sir Walter de Manny, a native of Hainault and a Knight of the Garter, a man not only endeared to his contemporaries by his singular virtues, but whose personal gallantry shone pre-eminent in every battle and tournament of that chivalrous age. As compassionate as he was brave, he not only during the raging of the pestilence added thirteen acres to the ground already purchased by Bishop Stratford; but subsequently perfected his pious work by founding and endowing on the spot a religious establishment, which survived till the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry the Eighth.

In founding his new order, Sir Walter had the advice and experience of Simon Sudbury, Bishop of London. It consisted of twenty-four Carthusian monks, who were formed

into a branch of the Benedictines, originally established at Chartreux, in France, about the year 1080, an order principally distinguished by its austerity and self-denial. Hence the modern word, Charter House, is corrupted. Over their single under-garment, which was white, they wore a black cloak; no other covering being permitted them, even in winter, but a single blanket. With the exception of the prior and the proctor, they were confined entirely to the walls of the monastery. Even in the most inclement weather they were compelled to attend divine service in the middle of the night. Once a week they fasted on bread, salt, and water, and on no occasion were they allowed to eat meat, nor even fish, unless it were a free gift. When Shakspeare, in his play of Henry the Eighth, speaks of "a monk o' the Chartreux," he alludes to one of the fraternity of the ancient Charter House.

Sir Walter de Manny breathed his last in 1372, deeply and deservedly lamented. Froissart, indeed, tells us that "all the barons and knights of England were much affected at his death, on account of the loyalty and prudence they had always found in him." He was buried with great pomp in the chapel of the monastery of the Carthusians, his funeral being attended by the King in person, and by the principal nobles and prelates of the realm. By his own wish a tomb of alabaster was placed in the choir over his remains.

The Carthusians, from the time of the foundation till the extinction of their order, continued to be respected for their peaceful and exemplary lives; living entirely secluded from the vanities and temptations of the busy world around them, practising self-denial, and dispensing alms to the poor. Their virtues, however, availed them little against the grasping avarice of Henry the Eighth; and accordingly, at the dissolution of the religious houses, they received a