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The seat of learning [at the Smyrna] is now removed from the corner of the chimney on the left hand towards the window, to the round table in the middle of the floor, over-against the fire; a revolution much lamented by the porters and chairmen, who were much edified through a pane of glass that remained broken all the last summer.-The Tatler, No. 78, October 8, 1709.

I have known Peter publishing the whisper of the day by eight o'clock in the morning at Garaway's, by twelve at Will's, and before two at the Smyrna.-The Spectator, No. 457.

Prior and I came away at nine, and sat at the Smyrna till eleven receiving acquaintance.-Swift, Journal to Stella (Scott, vol. ii. p. 49).

February 19, 1711.-I walked a little in the Park till Prior made me go with him to the Smyrna Coffee House.—Ibid. (Scott, vol. ii. p. 180).

If it is fine weather, we take a turn in the Park till two, when we go to dinner ; and if it be dirty, you are entertained at picket or basset at White's; or you may talk politics at the Smyrna and St. James's.—Macky, A Journey through England, 8vo, 1722, vol. i. p. 168.

I have known him [Beau Nash] wait a whole day at a window in the Smyrna Coffee House, in order to receive a bow from the Prince, or the Duchess of Marlborough as they passed by where he was standing, and he would then look round upon the company for admiration and respect.-Goldsmith, Life of Nash.

To the printed copy of Thomson's Proposals for publishing, by subscription, the Four Seasons with a hymn on their succession, the following note is appended: "Subscriptions are taken in by the author at the Smyrna Coffee House in Pall Mall."

Snow Hill, HOLBORN, the confined, circuitous, narrow and steep highway between Holborn Bridge and Newgate. Stow writes it Snor Hill and Snore Hill (pp. 144, 145); Howell, Sore Hill, adding, "now vulgarly called Snow Hill;"1 but Hatton writes Snow Hill without any comment. When Skinner Street was built in 1802 Snow Hill ceased to be the highway between Newgate Street and Holborn. It remained little improved till cleared away in forming the Holborn Viaduct and approaches, 1867. The present Snow Hill is a new and wider street, carried partly on the old lines, from the eastern end of the Holborn Viaduct to Farringdon Street. The steepness of Snow Hill is suggestive of a species of ruffianly violence which Gay has described in his account of the "Scowrers" and "Mohocks" in his Trivia:

I pass their desp'rate deeds, and mischiefs done
Where from Snow Hill black steepy torrents run;
How matrons hooped within the hogshead's womb

-

Were tumbled furious thence.-Gay's Trivia, B. iii. p. 329, etc.

Snow Hill in Charles II.'s days was famous for its ballads and ballad-mongers. Dorset asks Howard :

Whence

Does all this mighty mass of dulness spring

Which in such loads thou to the stage dost bring?
Is't all thy own? or hast thou from Snow Hill
The assistance of some ballad-making quill?

1 Londinopolis, fol. 1657, p. 344. In a contemporary document describing property destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, it is written "Snore

Buckingham, Misc. p. 75.

Hill, alias Snow Hill."-Additional MSS., Brit.
Mus., No. 5063, fol. 37.

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I knew a Unitarian minister who was generally to be seen upon Snow Hill (as yet Skinner Street was not) between the hours of ten and eleven in the morning, studying a volume of Lardner. I own this to have been a strain of abstraction beyond my reach. I used to admire how he sidled along keeping clear of secular contacts.-Elia's Essays, "Detached Thoughts."

Where Snow Hill joined Holborn Bridge and Cow Lane (near the end of the present Cock Lane) the roadway widened, and in the midst. was a conduit about which idlers used to gather and gossip and occasionally to quarrel. Here in 1715, on the anniversary of Queen Anne's coronation, a Jacobite mob collected, and with banners and trumpets toasted the memory of King James, drank Queen Anne and High Church, cursed King William and abused King George, and beat and stripped all passers-by who would not do the same.1

By the advantage of copying some pictures of Titian and Vandyck, Dobson profited so much that a picture he had drawn being exposed in the window of a shop on Snow Hill, Vandyck passing by was struck with it; and inquiring for the author, found him at work in a poor garret, from whence he took him and recommended him to the king.—Walpole's Anecdotes, 1st ed., 4to, 1762, vol. ii. p. 106; ed. 4to, 1798, vol. iii. p. 235.

John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim's Progress, died (1688) at the house of his friend, Mr. Strudwick, a grocer at the sign of the Star on Snow Hill. Thomas Cromwell, great grandson of the Protector and grandson of Henry Cromwell, the Lord Deputy, carried on the business of a grocer on Snow Hill, and there died in 1748.

Soane Museum (Sir John Soane's Museum), 13 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, north side; formed by Sir John Soane, architect of the Bank of England (d. 1837). The house was built by Sir John Soane in 1812, and the collection is distributed over twenty-four rooms. Every corner and passage is turned to account. On the north and west sides of the picture-room are cabinets, and on the south are movable shutters, with sufficient space between for pictures. By this arrangement the small space of 13 feet 8 inches in length, 12 feet 4 inches in breadth, and 19 feet 6 inches high, is rendered capable of containing as many pictures as a gallery of the same height 45 feet long and 20 feet broad.

Observe.-The Egyptian sarcophagus, discovered by Belzoni, October 18, 1815, in a tomb in the valley of Biban el Molook, near Gournou. It is formed of one single piece of alabaster, or arragonite, measuring 9 feet 4 inches in length by 3 feet 8 inches in width, and 2 feet 8 inches in depth, and covered internally and externally with elaborate hieroglyphics. When a lamp is placed within it the light shines through, though it is 2 to 4 inches in thickness. On the interior of the bottom is a full-length figure, representing the Egyptian Isis, the guardian of the dead. It was purchased by Soane from Mr. Salt in 1824 for £2000. The lid or cover has been broken into numerous pieces, of which there are seventeen in the Museum; it was itself a hollowed

1 Doran, London in Jacobite Times, vol. i. p. 69.

block, which when placed upon the chest added 15 inches to its height. The pieces were put together by Joseph Bonomi. Sixteen original sketches and models, by Flaxman, including one of the few casts in plaster of the Shield of Achilles. Six original sketches and models by T. Banks, R.A., including the Boothby Monument, one of his finest works. A large collection of ancient gems, intaglios, etc., under glass, and in a good light. Set of the Napoleon medals, selected by the Baron Denon for the Empress Josephine, and once in her possession. Sir Christopher Wren's watch. Carved and gilt ivory table and four ivory chairs, formerly in Tippoo Saib's palace at Seringapatam. Richly mounted pistol, said to have been taken by Peter the Great from the Bey, Commander of the Turkish army at Azof, 1696, and presented by the Emperor Alexander to Napoleon at the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. Napoleon took it to St. Helena, from whence it was brought by a French officer, to whom he had presented it. The original copy of the Gerusalemme Liberata, in the handwriting of Tasso. The first four folio editions of Shakespeare (J. P. Kemble's copies). An exceedingly interesting folio of designs for Elizabethan and James I. houses by John Thorpe, an architect of those reigns. Fauntleroy's Illustrated copy of Pennant's London; purchased by Soane for 650 guineas. Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, illuminated by Giulio Clovio for Cardinal Grimani. Three Canalettis-one A View on the Grand Canal of Venice, extremely fine. The Snake in the Grass, or Love unloosing the Zone of Beauty, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; purchased at the sale of the Marchioness of Thomond's pictures for £500. The Rake's Progress, by Hogarth, a series of eight pictures; purchased by Soane in 1802 for £598. The Election, by Hogarth, a series of four pictures; purchased by Soane, at Mrs. Garrick's sale in 1823 for £1732: 10S. Van Tromp's Barge entering the Texel, by J. M. W. Turner, R.A. Portrait of Napoleon in 1797, by Francesco Goma. Miniature of Napoleon, painted at Elba in 1814, by Isabey. In the dining-room is a portrait of Soane, by Sir T. Lawrence; and in the gallery under the dome a bust of him by Sir F. Chantrey. The contents of the Museum are very crowded, but the trustees having succeeded in obtaining some additional premises near, new rooms are now (1890) in course of completion which will give more space and cause some rearrangement of the Museum.

Admission by tickets, which may be obtained on application at the hall. The Museum is open to general visitors on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from ten to five during the months of April, May, June, July, and August; and on Tuesdays and Thursdays in February and March. Access to the Books, Drawings, MSS., or permission to copy Pictures or other Works of Art, is to be obtained by special application to the Curator.

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. [See Christian Knowledge Society.]

262

SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATION OF GOSPEL

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; Office, 19 Delahay Street, Westminster. An offshoot of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; this Society was founded in 1701 to establish and support Church of England Missions in the colonies and heathen countries. Its income in 1888 was £138,366.

Society of Painters in Water Colours, PALL MALL EAST, was established in 1805, and held its first exhibition at No. 20 Lower Brook Street, Bond Street.

Here [at the house of Samuel Shelley, a miniature painter of considerable eminence in his day], Shelley, W. F. Wills, W. H. Pyne, and R. Hills first laid their heads together and projected the institution of a Society of Painters in Water Colours. This was about the years 1800-1802, and it was not till 1804 that they had succeeded in getting nine others to join them in the speculation. -MS. Letter of the late Robert Hills, President of the Society of Painters in Water Colours.

The original members were George Barrett, Joshua Cristall, W. S. Gilpin, John Glover, William Havell, Robert Hills, J. Holworthy, J. C. Nattes, F. Nicholson, N. Pocock, W. H. Pyne, S. Rigaud, S. Shelley, J. Varley, and W. F. Wells. The annual spring exhibition of this Society, commonly called the Old Water Colour Society, is one of the most agreeable and attractive in London. They also have a winter exhibition of the members' studies and sketches. Painters in Water Colours.]

Soho Bazaar. [See Soho Square.]

[See Institute of

Soho Square, on the south side of OXFORD STREET, contains some good houses, well inhabited till within the last fifty or sixty years. So-ho, or So-how, was an old cry in hunting when the hare was found. Pennant gives a very erroneous account of the square :

Soho Square was begun in the time of Charles II. The Duke of Monmouth lived in the centre house [on the South side] facing the statue. Originally the square was called in honour of him Monmouth Square; and afterwards changed to that of King Square. I have a tradition 1 that on his death, the admirers of that unfortunate man changed it to Soho, being the word of the day at the field of Sedgemoor. The house was purchased by the late Lord Bateman [hence Bateman's Buildings] and let by the present Lord [1791] to the Comte de Guerchy, the French ambassador. After which it was let on building leases. The form of the house is preserved by Mr. Nathaniel Smith, in the first number of the Illustrations of London. The name of the unfortunate Duke is still preserved in Monmouth Street.-Pennant.

The square was not named from "the word of the day at Sedgemoor," but "the word" at Sedgemoor was given from the name of the neighbourhood in which Monmouth dwelt. The battle of Sedgemoor was fought in 1685, and the ground on which Soho Square stands was called "Soho" or So-hoe as early as the year 1632,2 and perhaps before. hoe frequently occurs in the Records and in the parish books from that time onwards. In 1634 there is a grant of the lease of a watercourse of spring water coming and rising from a place called So-howe," etc. In 1636 people were living at the "Brick-kilns near Sohoe," and in

1 S. Pegge, Esq., to whom I am indebted for several interesting remarks.-Pennant. The reverse of Pegge's tradition is the fact.

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2 Rate-books of St. Martin's.

3 Ibid.

1650 Shavers' Hall, or Piccadilly Hall, is described in the Commonwealth Survey as "lying between a roadway leading from Charing Cross to Knightsbridge West, and a high-way leading from Charing Cross towards So-Hoe." In the burial register of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, is the following entry

1660. Dec. 16. A pr'sh child from Soeho in chy'd.

"The fields about So-Hoe" are mentioned in a proclamation of April 7, 1671, prohibiting the further erecting of small habitations and cottages in the fields, called the Windmill Fields, Dog Felds, and the fields adjoining to "So-Hoe," which building, it is said, "choak up the air of his Majesty's palaces and parks, and endanger the total loss of the waters, which, by expensive conduits, etc., are conveyed from those fields to his Majesty's Palace at Whitehall." In 1675 the fields about Soho were so much built upon that there was a separate receiver of the rates of this part of the then parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; and the book in which the rates are entered is called the "Soho Book." To this information it may be added that Alexander Radcliffe's Epistle from Hypsipyle to Jason, in his Ovid Travestie (4to, 1680), is dated from "So-hoe Fields, February 27th, 1679-1680;" that Soho, and certain fields adjoining, south of the present Oxford Street, were granted (July 17, 1672) by the trustees of Henrietta Maria to Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans; by Charles II. to the Duke of Monmouth; by James II., after the duke's attainder, to his duchess; and by William III. (May 13, 1700) to William Bentinck, Earl of Portland, and his heirs for ever. The grant to the Earl of Portland includes "all those pieces or parcels of land situate, lying, and being in or near the parish of St. Anne, within the liberty of Westminster, anciently called or known by the names of Kemp's Field and Bunches Close, Coleman Hedge, or Coleman Hedge Field, containing together by estimation 220 acres, and Doghouse Field, alias Brown's Close, containing by estimation 5 acres, and were since more lately called or known by the name or names of Soho or Soho Fields, which premises are now laid out into streets and other places, with many tenements and buildings erected thereon, the chief of which are at present known and distinguished by the names following-King's Square, alias Soho Square, Greek Street, Church Street, Moor Street, Compton Street, Frith Street, Charles Street, Sutton Street, Queen Street, Dean Street, King's Court, Falconberg Court, Rose Street, north side of King Street, west side of Crown Street, alias Hog Lane, south side of the road called Acton Road [Oxford Street], leading from St. Giles's towards Tyburn, the whole ground aforesaid being limited and bounded as followeth, viz.-by the said high road leading to Tyburn on the north; by the said lane or street, called Crown Street, alias Hog Lane, towards the east; by the said street or high road leading towards Piccadilly, called King Street, over against the land called the Military Ground (now also built upon), towards the south; and by the back part of houses and lands late in

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