Many of the residences of eminent men in this interesting locality are described elsewhere. [See Bedford Street; Bow Street; Charles Street; Henrietta Street; King's Coffee-house; King Street; Piazza; Russell Street; St. Paul's Church; Tavistock Row, etc.]

Evans's Hotel, at the west end of the piazza, was built for Russell, Earl of Orford, the English admiral who defeated the French off Cape La Hogue. The Earl died here in 1727. People are found who see a fancied resemblance in the façade of the house to the hull of a vessel. The fine old staircase was formed of part of the vessel commanded by Admiral Russell at La Hogue-the Britannia, 100 guns. It is handsomely carved with anchors, ropes, etc., coronet and initials of Lord Orford. Lord Orford left his house to Archer, afterwards Thomas, Lord Archer (d. 1768). James West, the great collector of books, etc., and president of the Royal Society (d. 1772), father-in-law of Lord Archer, lived in the house during that nobleman's life. In January 1774 it was opened by David Low as an hotel; the first family hotel, or Hotel Garni, as Walpole terms it,1 established in London. It was long famous as Evans's supper rooms, and is now (1889) occupied by the New Club.

Covent Garden Market, the great fruit, vegetable, and herb market of London, originated (circa 1656) in a few temporary stalls and sheds at the back of the garden wall of Bedford House on the south side of the square. Perhaps the earliest allusion to it is in the entry of a payment made by the churchwardens of St. Paul's, Covent Garden.

March 21, 1656.-Paid to the Painter for painting the Benches and Seates in the Markett-place, £1:10:0.

In 1666 a payment occurs "for trees planted in the broad place," meaning the area of the open square; and in 1668 is an entry of certain sums received from wealthy inhabitants towards the expense of erecting the dial column in the centre of the square. [See note to Covent Garden, p. 461.] The market rising in character and importance, a grant was made of it by Charles II. to William, Earl of Bedford, by letters patent, dated May 12, 1671. In 1678 the Earl of Bedford granted a lease to Adam Pigott and Thomas Day, citizens, and others, of "all that market in the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden . . . for buying and selling all manner of ffruits, fflowers, roots, and herbs whatsoever; and also liberty to build and make cellars and shops all along on the outside of the garden wall of Bedford House garden, so as in such buildings no chimneys or tunnells be made or putt, and so as each shop be made uniform in roofs and ffronts one with another, and be one foot lower than the new garden wall, and not above eight foot from the wall all along. . . . The said market to be kept without the rayles there, and the market people to sitt in order between the said rayles and the said garden wall . . . for and during the full term of six-and-twenty years . . paying yearly

1 Walpole to Mann, March 11, 1776.

the rent and sum of fourscore pounds of lawful money of England.” 1 The following year the market was rated to the poor for the first time, when there were twenty-three salesmen, severally rated at 2s. and Is. When Bedford House was taken down in 1704, and Tavistock Row, etc., built on the site of the boundary wall of that house, the marketpeople were pushed from off the foot-pavement into the centre of the square, and afterwards increasing in business and in number, they came to engross by degrees the whole area of the garden. What the market was like at the end of the 17th century we are told by Strype :—

The south side of Covent Garden Square lieth open to Bedford Garden, where there is a small grotto of trees, most pleasant in the summer season; and on this side there is kept a market for fruits, herbs, roots, and flowers, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, which is grown to a considerable account and well served with choice goods, which makes it much resorted unto.-Strype, B. vi. p. 89.

It

It was, however, he tells us in another place (B. ii. p. 199), inferior to the Stocks Market, "surpassing," as that market did, "all the other fruit markets in London." This refers to 1698, or perhaps a little later; and in 1710 the market was of so little account or extent that the view of the piazza, as engraved in that year by Sutton Nichols, represents the market as limited to a few stalls or temporary sheds. increased, however, with the surrounding population, and, from a memorial of the vestry of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, addressed in April 1748 to the Duke of Bedford (the ground landlord of the market), it would appear that the sheds in the market-place, mere stalls or tenements of one storey at the first, had been increased by upper sheds, converted into bedchambers and other apartments inhabited by bakers, cooks, retailers of Geneva, "to the injury and prejudice of the fair trader." 2 Edmund Burke may be placed among the "marketgardeners" who have helped to supply Covent Garden. On September 10, 1771, he writes to Arthur Young :

My carrots last year were remarkably fine. I sold as much as brought fourteen pounds, and I am convinced that if I had understood Covent Garden Market so well last year as I do now, I should have sold the same weight for near thirty.—Burke's Letters, vol. i. p. 258.

The present market-place was erected in 1830 by the late Duke of Bedford, from the designs of Mr. Charles Fowler, architect, at a cost of £50,000; but it has since been greatly altered. The stranger in London who wishes to see what Covent Garden Market is like—and it is worth seeing-should visit it on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday morning, not later than six o'clock. The market, with its motley array of buyers and sellers, is an animated and picturesque sight. The display of vegetables is wondrous. The piled and well-packed waggons and carts begin to arrive before midnight, are marshalled in the streets leading to the market, and begin to dispose of their loads about four in the morn

1 Printed in Gentleman's Magazine, November 1853, p. 380.

2 There is a capital view of part of the old market in Hogarth's print of Morning; and a

very good engraving by T. Bowles (1751) showing the Dial, and that part of the piazza or arcade which no longer exists.

ing. The vegetables and fruit are sold in the open space, flowers in the new flower-market which extends into Wellington Street. When the wholesale and larger dealers have made their purchases, and trade is slackening, the stock remaining is disposed of, chiefly to costermongers, by a sort of Dutch auction. To see the supply of fruit and vegetables carted off, 7 A.M. is early enough. To enjoy the sight and smell of flowers and fruit, the finest in the world, any time from 10 A.M. to 4 or 5 P.M. will answer. The centre arcade at midday is a pretty sight, but it is not what it once was. Saturday is the best day.

Covent Garden Theatre, or the ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA HOUSE, on the west side of Bow Street, Covent Garden, is the third, or rather the fourth theatre on the same spot. The first was built by subscription (Edward Shepherd, architect), and was opened, December 7, 1733, by John Rich, the famous harlequin and patentee of the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.1 Sixty years after it was so enlarged and altered, at a cost of £30,000, as to be in effect a new house, and was opened on September 17, 1792, when the prices were made-Boxes 6s., Pit 3s. 6d., and Gallery 2s. This second theatre, during the management of John Kemble, was burnt to the ground on the morning of September 20, 1808. Thirty lives were lost, and property of great value destroyed, together with Handel's organ and the stock of wines of the Beef-Steak Society. The first stone of the third theatre was laid by the Prince of Wales (George IV.) on December 31, 1808. This theatre, which cost £150,000, was much larger than its predecessor. Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., was the architect, and the exterior was marked by a fine tetrastyle Doric portico, statues in niches of Melpomene and Thalia by • Flaxman and Rossi, and bas-reliefs of the ancient and modern drama by Flaxman. It was opened on September 10, 1809, with a new tariff of prices, which gave occasion to the celebrated O.P. riots.

The new Covent Garden Theatre opened September 18, 1809, when a cry of "Old Prices" (afterwards diminished to "O.P.") burst out from every part of the house. This continued and increased in violence till the 23d, when rattles, drums, whistles, and cat-calls, having completely drowned the voices of the actors, Mr. Kemble, the stage-manager, came forward and said, that a committee of gentlemen had undertaken to examine the finances of the concern, and that till they were prepared with their report the theatre would continue closed. "Name them!" was shouted from all sides. The names were declared. "All shareholders!" bawled a wag from the gallery. In a few days, the theatre reopened: the public paid no attention to the report of the referees, and the tumult was renewed for several weeks with even increased violence. The proprietors now sent in hired bruisers, to mill the refractory into subjection. This irritated most of their former friends, and amongst the rest the annotator, who accordingly wrote the song of "Heigh-ho, says Kemble," which was caught up by the ballad-singers and sung under Mr. Kemble's house-windows in Great Russell Street. A dinner was given [December 14], at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand, to celebrate the victory obtained by W. Clifford in his action against Brandon the box-keeper for wearing the letters O. P. in his hat. At this dinner Mr. Kemble attended, and matters were compromised by allowing the advanced price (seven shillings) to the boxes.-Notes of Horace and James Smith in Rejected Addresses, p. 48.

1 There is a print by Hogarth called Rich's Glory, or his Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden. VOL. I 2 H

The new prices on the first night were-Boxes 7s., Pit 4s., the Lower and Upper Galleries the same as usual. The riot lasted sixty-seven nights, after which the pit was reduced to 3s. 6d.

The expenses of Covent Garden Theatre were so great that it was long unlet for the purposes of the legitimate drama. M. Jullien held his Promenade Concerts in it for some time, and in the years 18431845 it was leased by the members of the Anti-Corn-Law League. Great alterations were made in the spring of 1847, under the direction of Mr. Benedict Albano, and on Tuesday, April 6, 1847, it was publicly opened as an Italian Opera, but with such an extravagance of expenditure that in 1848 there was a loss of £34,756, and in 1849 of £25.455. In one year (1848) the Vocal Department cost £33,349; the Ballet £8105, and the Orchestra £10,048. It continued, however, to be maintained as an Italian Opera, but was let occasionally for other purposes, and on the morning of March 5, 1856, after the holding of a bal-masqué, it was burned to the ground.

The new theatre (E. M. Barry, R.A., architect) was designed expressly for Italian Opera, and was opened in May 1858. It is a fifth larger than its predecessor, and is almost as large as La Scala at Milan. The interior is nearly a semicircle, with the sides somewhat prolonged towards the stage; it is 75 feet deep, 65 wide and 80 high, and will seat an audience of nearly 2000. The stage is 90 feet deep and 50 feet high; the proscenium 50 feet high and 40 feet wide. Of the exterior, the main feature is a lofty Corinthian portico of six columns, each 36 feet high and 3 feet in diameter; the basement forms a covered carriage entrance to the theatre. The statues and rilievi by Flaxman and Rossi, saved from the former theatre, occupy conspicuous positions on either side of the portico. After the opera season the theatre is usually let for Promenade Concerts. Concerts were also given occasionally in the adjoining glass building, the Floral Hall, constructed originally for a flower-market, attached and now reattached to Covent Garden.

Coventry House, PICCADILLY. On the site of No. 106 stood the old inn called "The Greyhound," which was bought by William, sixth Earl of Coventry, in 1764, soon after his second marriage, from Sir Hugh Hunlock for 10,000 guineas, subject to a ground-rent of £75 per annum. The Earl, whose first wife was Maria, the elder of the two beautiful Miss Gunnings, built on the site a new house, in which he died in 1809. George, seventh Earl of Coventry, was living here in 1829. It afterwards became the "Coventry House Club," which was closed in March 1854. It is now the St. James's Club.

Coventry Street, HAYMARKET. Commenced circa 1681, and so called after Coventry House, the London residence of Henry Coventry, third son of Lord Keeper Coventry, and himself Secretary of State to Charles II. It is a common error to suppose, and one moreover made by Walpole, that Coventry Street derived its name from the residence

here of Lord Keeper Coventry. Lord Keeper Coventry died in Durham House in the Strand in 1640; his son, the second lord, died at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661; and the third lord in the same house in 1680.

Lost, on Friday night last, between London and Barnet, a white Land Spaniel, somewhat long-haired, both ears red, his Tale lately shorne, and a steel Collar about his neck. Whoever will give notice to the Porter, at Mr. Secretary Coventry's House in Pickadilly, shall be well rewarded.-London Gazette, July 30 to August 3, 1674, No. 908.

Henry Coventry died in Coventry House, in 1686, leaving his property in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields to his nephew, Mr. Henry Coventry. The house was sometimes called Piccadilly House. When Sir William Coventry died at Tunbridge Wells, June 23, 1685, Henry Savile wrote to his brother, the Marquis of Halifax :—

He said he had left his Will in the hands of my cousin Nat Coventry to whom we have sent to be at Piccadilly House this afternoon at three of clock, and we have also sent word to both our Uncles Frank and Harry to be there.-Savile's Corresp. (Camden Soc.), p. 293.

Among the Private Acts of the first years of William and Mary are— "I W. and M., c. 9. An Act for the Sale or Leasing the Capital Messuage, late Henry Coventry's, Esq., in Piccadilly"; and "2 W. and M. An Act to supply a defect in an Act for the Sale or Leasing of a House, late Mr. Secretary Coventry's in Piccadilly." The house stood on the north side of Panton Street, and abutted on Oxenden Street, the garden wall adjoining Baxter's Chapel in that street. The continuation of the present Coventry Street, through Sydney Alley and Cranbourne Alley into Long Acre, was made (with the adjoining improvement) in 1843-1845. The sum of £71,827 was paid to the Marquis of Salisbury for freehold purchases required in clearing the site, but a still larger sum was paid to shopkeepers and residents for the "goodwill" of their houses.

Cow Cross, now Cow CROSS STREET, SMITHFIELD, between St. John Street and Turnmill Street.

On the left-hand side of St. John Street lieth a lane called Cow Cross, of a cross some time standing there; which lane turneth down to another lane, called Turnmill Street, which stretcheth up to the west of Clerkenwell.-Stow, p. 161.

SIR JOHN CROSBY, the Lord Mayor (ruminating)—

But soft, John Crosby ! thou forget'st thyself,

And dost not mind thy birth and parentage;

Where thou wast born, and whence thou art derived.

I do not shame to say, the Hospital

Of London was my chiefest fost'ring place:
There did I learn that, near unto a cross,
Commonly called Cow Cross, near Islington,
An honest citizen did chance to find me:

A poor shoemaker by his trade he was;
And doubting of my christendom or no,
Call'd me according to the place he found me,

John Crosby, finding me so by a cross,

King Edward IV., by T. Heywood, 4to, 1600.