This was "ballad-royal," which, Ben Jonson says, Scogan "For the King's sons writ daintily well." 1 Vintry (Ward of), one of the twenty-six wards into which the City of London is divided, was so named as containing the Vintry [which see]. It is bounded on the north by Cannon Street, south by the Thames, east by Dowgate, and west by Queenhithe. Stow enumerates four churches and four Halls of Companies as situated in this ward: St. Michael's, called Paternoster Church-in-the-Royal, College Hill; St. Thomas the Apostle (destroyed in the Fire, and not rebuilt); St. Martin's-in-the-Vintry (destroyed in the Fire, and not rebuilt); St. James's, Garlickhithe; Vintners' Hall; Cutlers' Hall; Glaziers' Hall, but this Company now has no hall; Parish Clerks' Hall (now in Silver Street, Cripplegate Ward). [See all these names.] Southwark Bridge abuts from near the centre of this ward, and the larger part of the Cannon Street terminus of the South Eastern Railway is within it. Wager Hall. Wits, cheats, and fops are free of Wager Hall, says Dryden in his Prologue to King Arthur (1691), but we find no other trace of such a place, which is probably an imaginary one invented by the poet for the purpose of his attack on the prevalent vice of betting. Walbrook was in early days, as Stow tells us, a "fair brook of sweet water, which came from out the north fields, through the wall and midst of the City, into the river of Thames, and which Division is till this day constantly and without change maintained." Thus in the City ordinances we find that "when a person is bound to clear himself under the Great Law," or under pleas of the Crown, it is declared that there must be a jury provided of "six-and-thirty reputable men of the City"; and in choosing these six-and-thirty men "the procedure, according to the ancient usage of the City of London, is wont to be, and should be,” that "eighteen men must be chosen from the east side of the Walebroke, and eighteen men from the west side of Walebroke." 2 But important as it must have been as a boundary mark, it must very early have ceased to be "a fair brook of sweet water," and was, in fact, the first of the many similar streamlets which have fallen victims to the exigences of the growing city, being first polluted and then blotted out. As early as 16 Edward I. A.D. 1288, it was ordained "that the watercourse of Walbrook should be made free from dung and other nuisances, and that the rakes [jakes?] should be put back again upon every tenement extending from the Moor [of Finsbury] to the Thames." At this time it had been partially covered in, and in 28 Edward I. 1300, it was ordered that the portion of "the covering over the water-course of Walebroc, over against the chancel of the church of St. Stephen," should be repaired at the cost of that parish; and it had been previously determined by whom the bridges over the brook should be kept in 1 Ben Jonson, Fortunate Isles. 2 Liber Albus, pp. 51, 98. order.1 Seventy-four years later, in 48 Edward III. (1374), the Moor of Finsbury was leased to Thomas atte Ram, a brewer, "for seven years then next ensuing, without paying any rent therefor: upon the understanding that the same Thomas shall keep the said moor well and properly, and shall have the Watercourse of Walbrok cleansed for the whole of the term aforesaid; and shall have the same cleared of dung and other filth thrown or deposited therein, or that may be there placed during the term aforesaid: he taking for every latrine built upon the said watercourse 12 pence yearly, during such term, for his trouble, as from of old has been wont to be paid. And if in so cleansing it, as aforesaid, he shall find aught therein, he shall have for his own all that he shall so find in the dung and filth thereof.” 2 But even this last liberal concession was insufficient to procure the desired end; and in 6 Richard II. (1383) the nuisance had become greater than ever, although the charge for latrines had been doubled. Up to this time its name as a stream, Wall Brook, is still preserved, but in 3 Henry V. (1415) the "fair brook of sweet water" has sunk into the "Foss of Walbrooke" (as Fleet River became the Fleet Ditch); its "horrible, infected and corrupt" atmosphere is spoken of; and provision is made for the construction of a scluys or speye, by which it might from time to time be flooded by water little less filthy than its own. Later it was in part vaulted over, and by the end of the reign of Elizabeth the whole was covered over and hidden from view. This water was called not Galus, brook of a Roman Captain, slain by Asclepiodatus, and thrown therein as some have fabled, but of running through and from the wall of the city, the course whereof, to prosecute it particularly, was and is from the said [city] wall to St. Margaret's Church in Lothbury; from thence beneath the lower part of the Grocers' Hall about the East part of their Kitchen under St. Mildred's Church, somewhat west from the Stocks' Market; from thence through Buckelsbury, by one great house built of stone and timber, called the Old Barge, because barges out of the river of Thames were rowed up so far into this brook . . . and so behind the other houses to Elbow Lane, and by a part thereof down Greenwich Lane into the river of Thames.-Stow, p. 45. This water-course having divers bridges, was afterwards vaulted over with brick, and paved level with the streets and lanes wherethrough it passed; and since that, also houses have been built thereon, so that the course of Walbrook is now hidden under ground, and thereby hardly known.-Stow, p. 6. The writer of Sir Richard Phillips's History of London he saw the Walbrook in November 1803, "still trickling among the foundations of the new buildings at the Bank." In digging for the foundations of new buildings in recent years, stout timber piles have been at different times excavated in the course of the old Walbrook, and it has been suggested that a cluster of these had formed the basis of a primeval pile dwelling or dwellings; but the piles bore no marks of such extreme antiquity, and there can be little doubt that they were the supports of some of the structures that we know abounded along the banks of "the fair brook." 1 Riley, Memorials, pp. 23, 43-47. 2 Ibid., p. 379; and see Liber Albus, p. 501. 3 Riley, p. 615. 4 History of London, 4to, 1805, p. 20. Walbrook, a street in the City, running from the POULTRY into BUDGE ROW and CANNON STREET. In 35 Edward I. (1307) "John Le Marischale of Walebroke" is associated with the Aldermen and other good men of the City in a business of importance. In 39 Edward III. (1365), when ordinances were made for Pelterers and Pelliperes, or furriers and skinners, as they would now be called, it was specially directed that "all the freemen of the said trade shall dwell in Walebroke, Cornehulle, and Bogerowe " [Walbrook, Cornhill, and Budge Row]; and later it was ordered "that no one shall cause his furs to be scoured in the high streets in the day-time." 1 Sir Christopher Wren is said to have lived in a house subsequently No. 5. Observe.-Church of St. Stephen's Walbrook [which see]. No. 5, the handsome new building of the City Liberal Club. On a house (No. 11) on the west side is a tablet with bracket and cornice dated 1668. Walbrook Ward, one of the twenty-six wards of London, and so called from the brook by the City wall, described in the preceding article. Stow enumerates five churches in this ward: St. Swithin-byLondon-Stone; St. Mary Woolchurch; St. Stephen's, Walbrook; St. Johnupon-Walbrook; St. Mary Bothaw. The Mansion House is in this ward. In 1382 (5 Richard II.) an occurrence took place which is amusingly illustrative of old City ways. Whereas the Mayor and Aldermen with common assent had agreed that all the Aldermen of London, for the dignity of the said City, should be arrayed upon the Feast of Pentecost, in the 5th year, etc., in cloaks of green, lined with green taffeta or tartaryn [a thin silk] under a penalty, at the discretion of the Mayor and the other Aldermen, so arrayed, to be assessed :—On Monday, the same Feast, when the said Mayor and Aldermen went to the Church of St. Peter on Cornhill, to go in procession from thence through the City, according to the ancient custom, to the Church of St. Paul, John Sely, the Alderman of Walbrook, appeared there in a cloak that was single and without a lining, contrary to the Ordinance and assent aforesaid. Whereupon, by the advice of the Mayor and other Aldermen, it was then adjudged and assented to, that the said Mayor and other Aldermen should dine with the same John at his house, and that at the proper costs of the said John, on the Thursday following, and further the said John was to line his cloak in manner aforesaid: and so it was done. And this judgment shall extend to all other Aldermen, hereafter to come, without sparing any one, if any person among them shall act contrary to the Ordinance aforesaid.-Riley, Memorials, p. 466. Wallingford House stood on the site of the present Admiralty, and was so called after Sir William Knollys, Treasurer of the Household to Queen Elizabeth and King James, Baron Knollys, Viscount Wallingford, and Earl of Banbury. His father was Treasurer of the Household before him, and inhabited the same official house at the end of the Tilt Yard. The first Duke of Buckingham of the Villiers family purchased the house from Lord Wallingford in 1621-1622. Carleton's correspondent, John Chamberlain, says that he paid partly by "some money" and partly by "making Sir Thomas Howard 1 Riley's Memorials; Liber Albus. Baron of Charlton and Viscount Andover; and some think the relieving of the Lord of Somerset and his Lady out of the Tower." 1 Buckingham's first child, called Jacobina after the King, was born here in March 1622. "During the illness of the Marchioness," we are told, "the King prayed heartily for her, and was at Wallingford House early and late." Here Buckingham's eldest son, the author of the Rehearsal, was born January 30, 1627. Bassompierre calls the house Valinforth. The house assumed the character of an official residence very early. When Buckingham was created Lord High Admiral he established at Wallingford House a Council of the Sea, or Board of Admiralty. The Duke was assassinated August 23, 1628, and the young Duke being a minor the Council was continued at Wallingford House.2 The Lord Treasurer's Office 3 was also here. Warrants are extant addressed to the Auditors of the Imprests, and signed "R. Weston," and "Fra. Cottington"; and "Portland" and "Fra. Cottington," dated from Wallingford House, April 21, 1632, and April 29, 1634. Weston (afterwards Earl of Portland) was treasurer and Cottington under-treasurer at this time, so that Wallingford House must, during those years, have continued to serve as a Government office. Whether it continued to be thus employed in the following years is not so certain. April 14, 1635.-The Duchess of Buckingham was married about a week since to the Lord Dunluce, and are to live at Wallingford House, whence the Treasurer's family removes. My Lord Chamberlain takes home his daughter, and the King places the young Duke and his brother with the Archbishop of Canterbury to be bred up there.-Garrard to Wentworth (Strafford Letters, vol. i. p. 413). The infamous Countess of Essex is said to have died in this house, but this is a mistake; she died in 1632 at Chiswick. From the roof of Wallingford House, then in the occupation of the Earl and Countess of Peterborough, Archbishop Ussher saw Charles I. led to execution. Ussher swooned at the sight and was carried to his apartments.1 The "General Council of the Officers of the Army," otherwise known as the Wallingford House Party, assembled here after Cromwell's death. Their chief object seems to have been to frustrate the designs of Monk, but they had no settled plan, and the party, though supported by Fleetwood and Vane, was a powerless faction. Ludlow describes their movements with great minuteness in his Memoirs. Fleetwood was at this time living in the house. Wallingford House reverted to the second Duke of Buckingham at the Restoration; here the corpse of Cowley, his brother-collegian and intimate friend, lay in state, and here the Duke was living in 1671, when the following advertisement appeared in the London Gazette of that year : On Wednesday, March 26, 1671, was lost from Brentwood in Essex, a couple of young Hounds of his Grace the Duke of Buckingham; the one a black Tanned, with a little white under his neck; the other a white one, with black spots, both marked 1 Cal. State Papers, 1603-1610, p. 337. 2 Strafford Letters, vol. i. p. 209. 3 Ibid., vol. i. p. 221. Parr's Life of Ussher, fol. 1686. with B. on the left shoulder; whoever can give notice of them to the Porter at Wallingford House in the Strand, shall be well rewarded for their pains.-London Gazette, No. 563. Lord Clifford, the Lord Treasurer, afterwards inhabited it, and here Evelyn called to take leave of his lordship. August 18, 1673.-I went to take leave of him [My Lord Clifford] at Wallingford House. He was packing up pictures, most of which were of hunting wild beasts, and vast pieces of bull-baiting, beare-baiting, etc. I found him in his study, and restored to him several papers of state and others of importance, which he had furnished me with, on engaging me to write the Historie of the Holland War. . . . Taking leave of my Lord Clifford he wrung me by the hand, and looking earnestly on me, bid me God b'ye, adding, "Mr. E., I shall never see thee more." "No!" said I. "My Lord, what is the meaning of this? I hope I shall see you often, and as greate a person againe." "No, Mr. E., do not expect it, I will never see this place, this City, or Courte againe." In this manner, not without almost mutual tears, I parted from him; nor was it long after but the news was that he was dead, and I heard from some one, who I believe knew, he made himself away, after an extraordinary melancholy.-Evelyn. The Lord Treasurer dated public documents from this house, 16741676. Wallingford House was sold to the Crown in 1680, and about 1726 the present Admiralty was erected where it stood. To Sir Christopher Wren. Sir-My Lord Treasurer has ordered me to let you know that he would have the Duke of Buckingham's building at Wallingford House and so on, in what relates to the building itself, but as to the way out of the street into Old Spring Gardens, that must be stopt up till my Lord is satisfied that it may be legally made into that ground.— I am Sir yours etc., H. G. Treasury Letter Book. Tunbridge Wells, Walnut Tree Tavern, TOOLEY STREET, SOUTHWARK. Over against this parish church [St. Olave's], on the south side of the street, was sometime one great house built of stone, with arched gates, pertaining to the Prior of Lewes in Sussex, and was his lodging when he came to London : it is now a common hostelrie for travellers, and hath to sign the Walnut Tree.-Stow, p. 154. Walnut Tree Alley preserved the memory of the old hostelry, and when this alley was swept away for the approaches to New London Bridge, a vaulted chamber, or crypt, was discovered underneath the houses, curiously confirming the statement of Stow that the Walnut Tree Inn was the mansion of the Priors of Lewes. Cuthbert Beeston, citizen and girdler of London, died in 1582, seized of the Walnut Tree Inn, together with the garden belonging thereto, and fifteen messuages in Walnut Tree Lane, otherwise Carter Lane, in St. Olave's, Southwark, "held of the Queen in chief, worth yearly £5:6:8." It appears that the Walnut Tree Inn occupied the east side of the building. The west wing was purchased by the parish for the use of the Grammar School of St. Olave's, founded in 1571.1 Walworth, a manor so named in Domesday, now and for about 500 years included in Newington and Newington Butts, the birthplace, Lysons thought, of the celebrated citizen who bore its name. Two 1 Archælogia, vol. v. p. xxiii. |
