commons were comprised in the manor: Walworth Common, about 48 acres, and Lowenmoor Common, of about 19 acres. It is now the property of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, a classical structure erected from the designs of Sir John Soane at a cost of £19,126, was consecrated by Archbishop Sutton, February 28, 1825. There are besides the district churches of St. John, St. Paul, St. Mark, and St. Stephen, the last a Gothic edifice of florid design erected in 1871 by Messrs. Jarvis. The fields and open spaces about Walworth have all been covered with houses, and at the census of 1881 the registration sub-district contained 59,562 inhabitants. The population is mostly of the artisan and labouring class, and many parts of the district are ill-built, crowded, and unwholesome. A worthy attempt to provide better accommodation for the inhabitants of one of these districts was made by the Fishmongers' Company, who, in 1876, erected, at a cost of £13,000, ten admirably fitted blocks of dwellings on their estate in Lock's Fields, providing comfortable tenements for 800 families.

In Manor Place, Walworth, died, November 1, 1835, aged seventyseven, the friend and correspondent of Southey, Thomas Taylor, the Platonist.

"1

Wapping, a hamlet of St. Mary, Whitechapel, on the Middlesex side of the River Thames, a little below The Tower, "and chiefly inhabited by seafaring men and tradesmen dealing in commodities for the supply of shipping and shipmen." 1 It was originally a great wash, watered by the Thames, and was first recovered in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Stow calls it "Wapping in the Wose "2 (really Wapping in the Ooze), signifying as much, says Strype, "as in the wash or in the drain." 3 The usual place of execution for pirates was at "Wapping in the Wose."4 [See Execution Dock.] But other offenders sometimes suffered here.

March 10, 1618.-Sir George Sandys hanged at Wapping for taking purses on the highway, having been formerly pardoned for like offences: his lady and son in prison as accomplices. -Sir G. Herbert to Sir Dudley Carleton (Cal. State Pap., 1611-1618, p. 527.

was

Lord Chancellor Jeffreys attempting, after the abdication of King James, to make his escape in the disguise of a common seaman— having on a "furre cap, a seaman's neckcloth, and a dirty coat" captured in an obscure alehouse, called the Red Cow, in Anchor-andHope Alley, near King Edward's Stairs in Wapping. He was found by a scrivener he had formerly insulted, lolling out of window in all the confidence of misplaced security. Among the papers preserved in the Record Office connected with the great Overbury poisoning case, is one in which the "Old Man of Wapping" is denounced as an "eminent Witch." Strype relates at length the curious history of a large house of timber" which was built by the river side "in this 2 Stow, p. 157. In the second edition it is misprinted "in the West." 4 Stow, by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 697.

1 Strype, B. iv. p. 39.

3 Strype, B. iv. p. 37.

hamlet of Wappin, anno 1626 . . . for the making of allom, and which grew to such an inconvenience and annoyance . . . that upon complaint of the inhabitants to the King and Council, it was proceeded withal as appeareth." He gives this "complaint," which set forth as a special case, that "a lighter of allom grease lying in the Hermitage Dock, which was taken out of a ship lying there overthwart the mouth of the Dock; and upon the emptying of the water out of the lighter, which issued from the grease, there did arise a most noysome stinking .. and it did so stink that we were not able to endure the scent of it, insomuch that it endangered all the ponds and wells thereabouts." Another petition from the inhabitants of the hamlet of Wapping and the neighbouring parishes declares, with a fine redundancy of expletives, that "being continually choaked and poysoned up with the daily and continual stink and most noisome and infectious smell that is lately begun among us by a workhouse for making of allome," we "are not able to live in our houses, nor keep our families at work about us, the detestable stink thereof is so infectious and intolerable." If allowed to be continued they affirm "it is generally thought it will be a decay and dangerous infection to all inhabitants both on this side and the other side the water within two miles' compass of the place it standeth." And they conclude by asking that "reformation be given," otherwise "we shall be compelled to leave our houses and dwellings to our utter undoings, for the noysome smell is so dangerous, that no man will dwell thereabouts, if he might have his house rent free!" Then there is another petition of his "Majesty's liege subjects, being in number many thousands," which points out the injury done to the "many great brewhouses, which breweth beer for the use and service of your Majesty's navy," to "all passengers that way, or by the River of Thamnes," many of whom have already been "cast into extremity of great sicknesses and diseases"; that "of late many fishes in the Thames have been found ready to die and dead, supposed to be poysoned by some ill substance issuing into the River of Thames; " that "all the pasture ground lying near thereabouts is tainted and spoiled in such manner that the cattel do refuse to feed on the ;" and they ask for "speedy redress in that behalf, the same annoyance being so great and unsavoury that otherwise your poor subjects, being many thousands in number, shall be compelled to forsake their houses, and abandon their dwellings, to the loss of their trades and lives, and the utter undoing of them and their families."

same;

These petitions were considered in Council at Whitehall, July 25, 1627, and an order made that the works should be continued until Lady Day next ensuing, and no longer, and in the meantime no new works should be erected. The inhabitants demurred to the delay, and on their further petition an Order in Council was issued, September 12, that "the said Allome works should be presently suppressed from working," and the farmers thereof are commanded to 'see the same duly executed; and of the performance thereof to give account to their

Lordships within ten or twelve days after the date hereof." Still the works went on, and the Council at their meeting, December 12, 1627, for reasons stated, authorise the continuance of the works to Lady Day, 1628, when they are to be removed "to some other place more remote from the City of London and the suburbs thereof;" and this, we may suppose, was done, as nothing more is said on the subject.1

Friday, July 24, 1629.-King Charles having hunted a Stag or Hart from Wansted in Essex, killed him in Nightingale Lane in the hamlet of Wappin, in a garden belonging to one who had some damage among his herbs, by

reason the multitude of people there assembled suddenly.-Strype, B. iv. p. 39.

The first (Pope's) Duke of Chandos married the widow of Sir Thomas Duval, regarding whom Mrs. Pendarves [Mrs. Delaney] writes to Swift, April 22, 1736, "The marriage has made a great noise, and the poor Duchess is often reproached with being bred up in Burr Street, Wapping." Oddly enough, Swift, in writing to Mrs. Pendarves in January 1736, says, "A woman of quality, who had excellent good sense, was formerly my correspondent, but she scrawled and spelt like a Wapping wench."

He [Johnson] talked to-day [April 12, 1783] a good deal of the wonderful extent and variety of London, and observed that men of curious inquiry might see in it such modes of life as very few could ever imagine. He in particular recommended us to explore Wapping, which we resolved to do. [We accordingly carried our scheme into execution in October 1792, but whether from that uniformity which has in a great degree spread through every part of the metropolis, or from our want of sufficient exertion, we were disappointed.]—Croker's Boswell, p. 724, and Boswell's

note.

Any one seeking to "explore Wapping" now, would find less to repay his trouble than Boswell might have discovered in 1792. There must then have been much that was curious and characteristic in the lowlying semi-maritime suburb, with its narrow ways, quaint shops, and river-side manners. But all this has been swept away by the recent rapid march of improvement. A few years ago the notoriety of the "Claimant" and his asserted riparian origin led many to visit Wapping, if not to explore its byways. But even the Orton house has now disappeared. It was pulled down in 1876, and it may save the future annotator of our criminal annals some trouble to record its exact site.

It stood near the Wapping entrance of the London Docks, and adjoined that in which it is said Lord Nelson got his outfit when he first went to sea. Both are now demolished to make way for warehouses, which promise to displace most of the old residences by the river-side in these parts. Indeed, the High Street of Wapping is gradually being skirted by enormous piles of these buildings, and before long few beyond the model lodging-houses of Sir Sidney Waterlow and the residences of the dock officers will be left for domestic use.-Rev. H. Jones, East and West London, p. 50.

In Wapping High Street was the entrance to the Thames Tunnel [which see].

Much of Wapping is considerably below high-water level, and as very inadequate provision has been made to prevent overflows, the

1 Strype, vol. ii. pp. 39-43.

"1

streets are flooded and the basements of the houses filled with water whenever the spring tides rise above the ordinary level. It can hardly be regretted, therefore, that dwellings are giving place to warehouses. When these are general their owners and occupants will take care that a sufficient embankment is provided. Joseph Ames, the antiquary, and author of Typographical Antiquities, or the History of Printing in England, "lived in a strange alley or lane in Wapping." His very useful work, first printed in 1749, has been edited and enlarged by William Herbert, and again in the present century by T. F. Dibdin. The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The Rev. Francis Willis, the "mad doctor," whose treatment of George III. was considered to be so beneficial that he was rewarded with a pension of £1500 a year for twenty-nine years, was rector of Wapping. So later was Dr. Le Bas.

War Office, PALL MALL. The War Office, of which the headquarters were formerly at the Horse Guards, now occupies the old Ordnance Office, built for the Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III., and the adjoining Buckingham House to the east and Schomberg House to the west, on the south side of Pall Mall. Here are concentrated the offices of the Adjutant-General, the Quarter-Master-General, the Inspector-General of Artillery, the Chaplain-General, and other heads of departments. [See Horse Guards.] In the front of the old Ordnance Office is a bronze statue of Sidney Herbert, Lord Herbert of Lea, by Foley, erected in 1867. [See Ordnance Office, Pall Mall, Schomberg House.]

Wardour Street, SOHO, or, WARDOUR STREET, OXFORD STREET, ran from Oxford Street to Compton Street, but now, by the incorporation of Princes Street, extends to Coventry Street. [See Princes Street.] It was built circ. 1686,2 and so called after Henry, third Lord Arundel of Wardour (d. 1694), a steady adherent to the cause of King James II. Henry, the fifth Lord Arundel, married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Panton, of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. [See Panton Square.] Flaxman, the sculptor, lived at No. 27, a small house in this street, from 1781 to 1787. No. 99, the corner of Peter Street, is The Intrepid Fox, so called in honour of Charles James Fox, by the landlord, Sam House, one of his most enthusiastic worshippers. House died in 1785, and on the day of his death Mr. Fox sat for a considerable time by his bedside. He is celebrated in the Rolliad.

Why should I tell the Election's honest tale,
That scene of libels, riots, blood and ale?
There, of Sam House the horrid form appeared;
Round his white apron howling monsters reared
Their angry clubs; and broken heads they polled,
And Hood's best sailors in the kennel rolled.

1 Brydges' Restituta, vol. iv. p, 235.

Charles Jenkinson, Political Eclogues.

2 Stone, corner of Edward Street.

Wardour Street is famous for book-stalls and curiosity-shops. Charles Lamb was fond of this street; and Hazlitt lies on the other side of the wall which encloses the burial ground of St. Anne's. I have heard Lamb expatiate on the pleasure of strolling up "Wardour Street on a summer's day."-Leigh Hunt.

Rummaging over the contents of an old stall at a half book, half old-iron shop, in an alley leading from Wardour Street to Soho Square, yesterday, I lit upon a ragged duodecimo, which had been the strange delight of my infancy. . The price demanded was sixpence, which the owner (a little squab duodecimo of a character himself) enforced with the assurance that his "own mother should not have it for a farthing less."-Elia: The Months.

The York Chop House in this street was the favourite (and inexpensive) resort of successive generations of young painters and art students attending the schools in St. Martin's Lane and the Royal Academy.

Nothing could be more agreeable than my daily intercourse at this period (the Spring of 1820) with Irving and Newton. We visited in the same families, chiefly Americans resident in London, and generally dined together at the York Chop House in Wardour Street.-Leslie, R. A., Autob. Recollections, vol. i. p. 63.

Here are many shops exclusively devoted to the sale of old furniture, pictures, china, and other articles of vertu. Rumour says that the back premises of Wardour Street are largely devoted to the manufacture of sham antiques of all kinds. [See St. Anne's, Soho.]

Wardrobe (The), a house near Puddle Wharf, Blackfriars, built by Sir John Beauchamp (d. 1359), whose tomb in old St. Paul's was mistaken for the tomb of the good Duke Humphrey. Beauchamp's executors sold it to Edward III., and it was subsequently converted into the office of the Master of the Wardrobe and the repository for the royal clothes. When Stow drew up his Survey, Sir John Fortescue was lodged in the house as Master of the Wardrobe.

Lord's Day, June 9, 1661.-By and by we got a sculler, and landing at Worcester House, went to the Wardrobe. I went up to Jane Shore's Tower, and there W.

Howe and I sang.-Pepys.

There were also kept in this place the ancient cloathes of our English Kings, which they wore on great festivals; so that this Wardrobe was in effect a Library for Antiquaries, therein to read the mode and fashion of garments in all ages. These King James in the beginning of his reign gave to the Earl of Dunbar, by whom they were sold, re-sold, and re-re-sold at as many hands almost as Briareus had, some gaining vast estates thereby.-Fuller's Worthies, ed. 1662, p. 193.

I gyve, will, bequeath, and devise unto my daughter, Susannah Hall, all that messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, situat, lying, and being in the Blackfriers in London, nere the Wardrobe.-Shakespeare's Will.

After the Great Fire the Wardrobe was removed, first to the Savoy, and afterwards to Buckingham Street in the Strand.1 It was the duty of the officers of the Wardrobe to provide "proper furniture for coronations, marriages, and funerals" of the sovereign and royal family, "cloaths of state, beds, hangings, and other necessaries for the houses of foreign ambassadors, cloaths of state for Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Prince of Wales, and ambassadors abroad," as also to provide robes for

1 Chamberlayne, ed. 1669, p. 263; Hatton, p. 729.