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bathers and skaters, but, thanks to the vigilance and skill of the Humane Society's officers, very few lives are lost. When young Benjamin West arrived in England he was told that he could get excellent skating on "the Serpentine River in Hyde Park" or the Basin in Kensington Gardens. Skating in those days was much better understood in New than in Old England, and the performance of the handsome young American made a great sensation. He was recognised by General Howe, who had known him at Philadelphia, and requested by him to show the bystanders what was called in Pennsylvania "The Salute." "Out of this trivial incident an acquaintance arose between him and the young noblemen present," and, as he told Galt, "he perhaps received more encouragement as a portrait-painter on account of his accomplishment as a skater than he could have hoped by any ordinary means to obtain." 1 Franklin won equal admiration by his skating on the Serpentine. The carriage drive along the north bank is called The Ladies' Mile.

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Seven Dials, an open area in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, on what was once Cock and Pye Fields," from which seven streets— Great Earl Street, Little Earl Street, Great White Lion Street, Little White Lion Street, Great St. Andrew's Street, Little St. Andrew's Street, Queen Street-radiate, and so called because there was formerly a column in the centre, on the summit of which were (as was always said) seven sun-dials, with a dial facing each of the streets.

October 5, 1694.-I went to see the building beginning neere St. Giles's, where 7 streets make a star from a Doric pillar placed in the middle of a circular area ; said to be built by Mr. Neale, introducer of the late Lotteries in imitation of those at Venice.-Evelyn.

Where fam'd St. Giles's ancient limits spread,

An inrail'd column rears its lofty head;
Here to seven streets seven dials count the day,
And from each other catch the circling ray:
Here oft the peasant with inquiring face,
Bewilder'd trudges on from place to place;
He dwells on every sign with stupid gaze,
Enters the narrow alley's doubtful maze;

Tries every winding court and street in vain,

And doubles o'er his weary steps again.-Gay's Trivia.

The column on which the seven dials stood was removed in July 1773, on the supposition that a considerable sum of money was lodged at the base. But the search was ineffectual, and the pillar was removed to Sayes Court, Addlestone, with a view to its erection in the park. This, however, was not done, and it lay there neglected until the death of Frederica, Duchess of York, in 1820, when the inhabitants of Weybridge, desiring to commemorate her thirty years' residence at Oatlands and her active benevolence to the poor of the neighbourhood, bethought them of the prostrate column, purchased it, placed a coronet instead of the dials on the summit, and a suitable inscription on the

1 Galt's Life of West, vol. ii. p. 31.

base, and erected it, August 1822, on the green. The stone on which were the dials not being required was utilised as the horse-block at a neighbouring inn, but has been removed and now reposes on the edge of the green, opposite the column. The most curious thing is that, notwithstanding the concurrent testimony of all who described it during the eighty years it stood at Seven Dials, it is a hexagonal block, and has most distinctly only six faces-too much battered to make out what was on them, but which are said to have had the marks where the styles were fixed plainly discernible when the column was erected.1

The accounts are not so certain of the exact time and place of his [Martinus Scriblerus's] birth. As to the first he had the common frailty of old men to conceal his age; as to the second, I only remember to have heard him say, that he first saw the light in Saint Giles's parish. But in the investigation of this point, Fortune hath favoured our diligence. For one day as I was passing by the Seven Dials I overheard a dispute concerning the place of nativity of a great astrologer, which each man alleged to have been in his own street. The circumstances of the time and the description of the person, made me imagine it might be that universal genius whose life I am writing. I returned home, and having maturely considered their several arguments, which I found to be of equal weight, I quieted my curiosity with this natural conclusion, that he was born in some point common to all the seven streets : which must be that on which the Column is now erected. And it is with infinite pleasure that I since find my conjecture confirmed by the following passage in the codicil to Mr. Neale's will: "I appoint my executors to engrave the following inscription on the Column in the centre of the Seven Streets which I erected: LOC. NAT. INCLYT. PHILOS. MAR. SCR.'" But Mr. Neale's order was never performed, because the Executors durst not administer.—Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.

Seven Dials was long famous for its ballad-mongers and balladprinters. The Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Giles's, between the years 1640 and 1657, exhibit the payment of small sums to "Tottenham Court Meg" and "Ballet-singing Cobler," and the sum of two shillings and sixpence "for a shroude for oulde Guy, the poet." The late Mr. Catnach, whose name is affixed to a large collection of ballads, lived in the Seven Dials.

Portraits that cost twenty, thirty, sixty guineas, and that proudly take possession of the drawing-room, give way in the next generation to those of the new married couples, descending into the parlour, where they are slightly mentioned as my father's and mother's pictures. When they become my grandfather and grandmother, they mount to the two pair of stairs; and then unless dispatched to the mansion-house in the country, or crowded into the housekeeper's room, they perish among the lumber of garrets, or flutter into rags before a broker's shop in the Seven Dials.Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iv. p. 22.

Here Taylor has laid the scene of his Monsieur Tonson.

and

Be gar there's Monsieur Tonson come again.

One night our hero, rambling with a friend,
Near famed St. Giles's chanced his course to bend,
Just by that spot the Seven Dials hight :
'Twas silence all around, and clear the coast,
The watch as usual dozing on his post,

And scarce a lamp displayed a twinkling light.

1 Thorne, Handbook to the Environs, p. 692.

Dickens, in one of his earliest sketches, doubts whether any Frenchman ever lived in the Seven Dials, and then goes on to describe the neighbourhood :—

The stranger who finds himself in the Dials for the first time, and stands, Belzoni like, at the entrance of seven obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep his curiosity and attention awake for no inconsiderable time. From the irregular square into which he has plunged, the streets and courts dart in all directions, until they are lost in the unwholesome vapour which hangs over the house-tops, and renders the dirty perspective uncertain and confined; and lounging at every corner, as if they came there to take a few gasps of such fresh air as has found its way so far, but is too much exhausted already to be enabled to force itself into the narrow alleys around, are groups of people, whose appearance and dwellings would fill any mind but a regular Londoner's with astonishment. . . . In addition to the numerous groups who are idling about the ginshops, and squabbling in the centre of the road, every post in the open space has its occupant who leans against it for hours with listless perseverance.-Sketches by Boz, 1836.

Of late years the Seven Dials has been greatly improved. Much of the district, however, has been cleared away to make room for Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue.

Seymour Street (West), PORTMAN SQUARE to CONNAUGHT SQUARE, was so called from the noble family of the Seymours, Dukes of Somerset, connected by marriage with the Portman family, the ground landlords of the Seymour Street property. Eminent Inhabitants.— General Paoli.1 In the drawing-room of No. 45, the residence of Lady Floyd, Sir Robert Peel was married, in 1820, to Julia, her step-daughter, and daughter of the late General Sir John Floyd, Bart. Campbell, author of The Pleasures of Hope, at No. 10. He came to live here in 1823.

September 5, 1823.—Every article of the drawing room is now purchased: the most amiable curtains—the sweetest of carpets—the most accomplished chairs—and a highly interesting set of tongs and fenders! I hope to have the pleasure of showing you through the magnificent suite of chambers-the front one of which is actually 16 feet long!-Campbell to Mr. Gray.

Some of Campbell's saddest days were spent in this house; for here his only son became a hopeless lunatic, and here (May 9, 1828) his wife sank into the grave.

Shades, UPPER THAMES STREET and OLD SWAN STAIRS, LONDON BRIDGE, a tavern of great civic celebrity for the purity and flavour of its wines. The coffee-room was a dark, low room built out from the Old Fishmongers' Hall, and divided into compartments, overlooking the river. The wine was drawn from the butt into silver tankards, the Shades being said to be the last of the old taverns that retained that

custom.

Shadwell, on the left bank of the Thames, between Wapping and Limehouse, formerly a hamlet of Stepney, but created a distinct parish

1 See a letter from Boswell to Lord Thurlow, dated from "General Paoli's, Upper Seymour

Street, Portman Square, June 24, 1784."--
Croker's Boswell. p. 773-

in 1670. [See St. Paul's, Shadwell.] London Docks are partly within this parish. The occupations are chiefly maritime. The population, 11,702 in 1851, had decreased to 10,395 in 1881, owing mainly to the demolition of small houses for the London Docks' extensions.

Shaftesbury Avenue, a new road leading from Piccadilly to New Oxford Street, which was completed and opened to the public in June 1886. The line of route cuts through Seven Dials and includes the old Dudley Street, King Street, and Richmond Street. At the point where Shaftesbury Avenue intersects Charing Cross Road has been built Cambridge Circus (named after the Duke of Cambridge, who opened Charing Cross Road in January 1887). The opening up of these poor neighbourhoods has constituted one of the greatest improvements in Western London during the second half of the present century, and the need of these thoroughfares is shown by the use made of them as new routes for omnibuses, etc. There are three theatres in Shaftesbury Avenue, viz. the Lyric (near the Piccadilly Circus end of the Road), built from the designs of C. J. Phipps, architect; the Shaftesbury (near Cambridge Circus), which is isolated on four sides, also built from the designs of Mr. Phipps; and a theatre built for Mr. D'Oyley Carte, which is not yet (1890) named. This building is also isolated on four sides, and fronts Cambridge Circus, Shaftesbury Avenue, Greek Street and Church Street. It is built from the designs of T. E. Collcutt, architect.

Shaftesbury House, ALDERSGATE STREET. [See Aldersgate

Street.]

Shakespeare Gallery. [See British Institution.]

Shanley's, a Coffee-house in COVENT GARDEN.

The two theatres, and all the public Coffee-houses I shall constantly frequent, but principally the Coffee-house under my lodge, Button's, and the play-house in Covent Garden: but as I set up for the judge of pleasures, I think it necessary to assign particular places of resort to my young gentlemen as they come to town, who cannot expect to pop in at Button's on the first day of their arrival in town. I recommend it, therefore, to young men to frequent SHANLEY'S some days before they take upon them to appear at Button's.-Steele's Lover, No. 5, March 6, 1714 (and see No. 2).

Shaver's Hall, the cant and common name for the celebrated gaming-house, erected in the reign of Charles I. by a gentlemanbarber, servant to Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. It faced Piccadilly Hall, and occupied the whole south side of the present Coventry Street, between the Haymarket and Hedge Lane.

Since Spring Gardens was put down, we have, by a servant of the Lord Chamberlain's, a new Spring Gardens, erected in the fielde beyond the Mews, where is built a fair house and two bowling greens, made to entertain gamesters and bowlers at an excessive rate, for I believe it hath cost him above four thousand pounds, a dear undertaking for a gentleman barber. My Lord Chamberlain [Pembroke] much frequents this place, where they bowl great matches.-Garrard to Lord Strafford, June 24, 1635.

All that Tenemt called Shaver's Hall, strongly built wth Brick, and covered with lead, consistinge of one Large Seller, commodiously devided into 6 Roomes, and over the same fower fair Roomes, 10 stepps in ascent from ye ground, at 3 seurall wayes to the goeinge into the said house, all very well paved wth Purbeck stone well fitted and joynted, and above stayres in the first story 4 spacious Roomes; also out of one of the said Roomes one faire Belcony, opening wth a pleasant prospect southwards to the Bowling Alleyes, and in the second story 6 Roomes, and over the same a fair walk leaded and inclosed wth Rayles, very curiously carved and wrought; alsoe one very fayr stayr Case, very strong and curiously wrought, leadinge from the bottome of the said house, very conveniently and pleasantly upp into all the said Roomes, and upp to one Leaded walk at the topp of the said house; as alsoe adioyninge to a Wall on the west part thereof, one shedd devided into 6 Roomes, and adioyninge to the North part, one Rainge consisting of 3 Large Roomes, used for Kitchens, and one other room, used for a coale house, and over the Kitchens 2 Lofts, devided into faire chambers; as alsoe one faire Tennis Court, very strongly built wth Brick and covered with Tyle, well accommodated with all things fitting for the same; as alsoe one Tenement thereunto adioyninge, consisting of 3 Roomes below stayres, and 3 Roomes above stayres; alsoe at the gate, or comeing in to the upper Bowlinge Alley, one Parlour Lodge, consisting of one faire Roome at each side of the gate; as alsoe one faire pair of stayres wth 12 stepps of Descent leading down into the Lower Bowlinge Alley 2 wayes, and meeting at the bottom in a faire Roome under the Highway or footpath, leading between the 2 bowlinge Alleys, between two brick walls east and west, and the Lower ground, one fair bowling Alley and one Orchard wall, planted wth seurall choyce of fruite trees; as also one pleasant banquetting house and one other faire and pleasant Roome, called the greene Roome, and one other Conduit house and 2 other Turretts adioyninge to the walls, consisting of 2 Roomes in each of them, one above the other. The ground whereon the said buildings stand, together wth 2 fayre Bowlinge Alleyes, orchard gardens, gravily walks, and other green walks and Courts and Courtyards, containinge, by estimacon, 3 acres and, lyeing betweene a Road way leading from Charinge Crosse to Knightsbridge west, and a high way leadinge from Charinge crosse towards So-Hoe, abutting on the Earl of Suffolk's brick wall south, and a way leading from St. Gyles to Knightsbridge west, now in the occupacon of Captayne Geeres, and is worth per ann. cl.-A Survey [made in 1650] of Certain Lands and Tenements, scituate and being at Pickadilley, the Blue Muse and others thereunto adioyninge (No. 73 of the Augmentation Records).

[See Piccadilly.]

Shepherd's Market, MAY FAIR (south of Curzon Street), was formed about 1735, and was so called after "Edward Shepherd, Esq., an architect, owner of Shepherd's Market and many other buildings about May Fair," who died September 24, 1747.1

Shepherdess Walk, CITY ROAD to PACKINGTON STREET, ISLINGTON, formerly SHEPHERD and SHEPHERDESS WALK. The walk led across the Shepherd and Shepherdess Fields and Hoxton Fields, appropriated as grounds for the archery practice of the Royal Artillery Company. On the east of the walk was the old manor-house of Wenlocksbarn, known in the early part of the present century as Wenlock Farm; Wenlock Street marks the site. At the south-east corner of the walk, by the City Road, stood the Shepherd and Shepherdess Tavern and Tea-gardens, long a popular place of resort

To the Shepherd and Shepherdess then they go,
To tea with their wives for a constant rule.

1 Gent. Mag., October 1747, vol. xvii. p. 496.

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