house might be deluged with water on the outbreak of a fire. The "Lane," as it is familiarly called by members of the profession, is the oldest theatre in London with the exception of Sadlers' Wells. Drury Lane Theatre, though not actually in Drury Lane, derives its name from the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane, where Killigrew acted before he removed to the site of the present theatre. The first Drury Lane Theatre (so called) was often described as the theatre in Covent Garden. Thus, under February 6, 1663, Pepys writes, "I walked up and down and looked upon the outside of the new theatre building in Covent Garden, which will be very fine." And thus Shadwell, in the preface to The Miser, "This play was the last that was acted at the King's Theatre in Covent Garden before the fatal fire there." There was no Covent Garden Theatre, commonly so called, before 1732.1 [See Playhouse Yard.] Duchess Street, PORTLAND PLACE, so called after Margaret Harley, Duchess of Portland (married to the duke, July 11, 1734). The mansion of Thomas Hope, the author of Anastasius, is often referred to as belonging to this street. [See Mansfield Street.] The gallery attached to Mr. Hope's house is in Duchess Street; it was built by his brother, Mr. Philip Henry Hope. Duchy of Lancaster, a liberty in the Strand, so called after John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. [See the Savoy.] This liberty begins without Temple Bar, and runs as far as Cecil Street, it included Picket Street and part of old Butcher Row. Duck Island, ST. JAMES'S PARK, a small island at the south-east end of the canal, of which place the chevalier de St. Evremond was appointed governor by Charles II. July 25, 1673.-These two days we have expected something from the Fleet, the King himself, as he thinks, hearing the guns on Wednesday morning in the Island in the Park.-Williamson, Letters, vol. i. p. 130. In 1739 General Churchill was made Deputy Ranger of the Park, and Sir Hanbury Williams wrote in his name an Address to Venus, calling upon her to Quit Paphos and the Cyprian Isle, And reign in my Duck Island.—Work, vol. i. p. 235. February 9, 1751.-My Lord Pomfret is made Ranger of the Parks, and by consequence my Lady is Queen of Duck Island.-Walpole to Sir H. Mann. Duck Island, SOUTHWARK. The Isle of Ducks, St. Olave's, Southwark, was granted (51 Geo. III.) by St. John's parish to Magdalen College, Oxford. Most of the land (as well as the Isle of Ducks) on this spot once belonged to Sir John Fastolfe, and was given through his executor, Bishop Wainflete, for founding the college.2 1 Of the exteriors of the early theatres we have unhappily no views. Of the new Catherine Street façade by the brothers Adam there is a large engraving by Begbie, and a small one by J. T. Smith. Of the interior there is a view in the Londina Illustrata. Views of Holland's Theatre are of common occurrence. 2 Information from Mr. Rendle. Duck Lane, afterwards DUKE STREET, and now LITTLE BRITAIN, WEST SMITHFIELD. "Duck Lane cometh out of Little Britain and falls into Smithfield, a place generally inhabited by Booksellers that sell second-hand books.”—R. B., in Strype, B. iii. p. 284. I will not let you run so much o' th' score, Poor Duck Lane braine, trust me, I'll trust no more. Randolph's Pedler; Poems, 1668, p. 325. Touching your Poet Laureate Skelton, I found him at last skulking in Duck Lane, pitifully tattered and torn.-Howell's Letters, ed. 1737, p. 484. March 18, 1668.-To Duck Lane, and there bought Montaigne's Essays in English.-Pepys. April 10 (Friday), 1668.—To Duck Lane, and there kissed bookseller's wife, and bought Legend.—Pepys. July 13, 1668.—Walked to Duck Lane, and there to the bookseller's at the Bible. I did there look upon and buy some books, and made way for coming again to the man.-Pepys. Last Monday, to the Pastry Cook's."-SWIFT. To the passage in the Essay on Criticism Pope appends a note: "A place where old and second-hand books were sold formerly, near Smithfield." But it was not formerly confined to the sale of old and second-hand books. New books were also published there. Thus Alexander Gill ("Infamous Gill," as Jonson styles him), in his "railing rhymes" "Upon Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady," tells him that if it is to come to the press, In cap paper let it printed be Indeed brown paper is too good for thee From Bucklers' Bury let it not be barde [barred] But think not of Duck Lane or Paul's-Church Yard.1 Implying evidently that the publishers of Duck Lane were too good for the publication of such a work. 1 Gill's satire is printed, with Ben Jonson's reply, by Gifford in his Notes at the end of the VOL. I. "The Cyprian Academy, by Robert "Magnetic Lady," Gifford's Jonson, vol. vi. p. 125; Brown of Gray's Inne, Gent. London, 1648," was "printed by W. W., and are to be sold by J. Hardesty, J. Huntington, and T. Jackson, at their shops in Duck Lane." "The Famous History of Friar Bacon: Very Pleasant and Delightful to the End," was printed (without a date) "for W. Thackery at the Angel in Duck Lane." One at least of Lord Brooke's productions was published, 1641, "at the Signe of the Hand and Bible in Duck Lane," and there were other booksellers at the Bell (1671, W. Whitewood) and the Black Raven (J. Conyers) on Duck Lane. A notice in A View of Sundry Examples, etc., imprinted at London for William Wright [4to, no date, but probably about 1580], carries back the character of the place farther than any of the above quotations, without adding to its credit. It states that in February 1, 1575, "Anne Oueries, a widdowe, who dwelled in Duck Lane, comming to the house of one Richard Williamson in Wood Streete, whose wife used to dress Flax and Towe, she took six pound of Towe, and departed without paying therefor.” Ducking Pond Fields. [See Spa Fields.] Ducksfoot Lane, leading from Upper Thames Street to Lawrence Poultney Hill, properly Duke's Foot Lane, from the Dukes of Suffolk, who lived at the Manor of the Rose, in the parish of St. Lawrence Poultney. In some maps it appears as Duxford's Lane. [See Suffolk Lane and St. Lawrence Poultney.] Ducks' Pond (or Ducking Pond) Mews, MAY FAIR, runs south from Shepherd Street. Duck's Pond Row, WHITECHAPEL ROAD, afterwards called Buck's Row, and now Great Eastern Square. Dodsley (1761) describes it as "on Whitechapel Common." Dudley House, PARK LANE, built from the designs of William Atkinson in 1824,-the ball room (50 feet by 24 feet and 27 feet high), and the picture gallery (82 feet by 21 feet and 33 feet high), formed into three rooms by double columns projecting 4 feet from the wall, and each division lighted by a large dome, were added in 1858 by Samuel W. Daukes,—contains a fine collection of pictures which were lent for exhibition by the late Earl Dudley at the Egyptian Hall. For several years the room in which the pictures were shown was called the Dudley Gallery. The eccentric Earl of Dudley, at one time Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who died in 1833, lived here. Dudley Street, ST. GILES'S, a name given in the year 1845 to what was formerly called Monmouth Street, and previously Le Lane. The west side now forms a part of Shaftesbury Avenue. Alice, Duchess of Dudley (d. 1669), who lived at the mansion house of St. Giles's, was a munificent benefactor to the parish of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields. Duke's Court, Covent Garden, between Bow Street and Drury Lane. The first shop of Tom Davies, the bookseller and actor, was in this Court.1 Macklin, in extreme old age, frequented a tavern in this court, and many resorted to it to hear him talk of the old actors. Duke Humphrey's, BLACKFRIARS. A broad passage from Puddle Dock westward to Blackfriars. This name was given to this place from the duke's keeping his court here, as many believe, and there is yet one house called Duke Humphrey's.-Hatton, p. 26. Duke Humphrey's, ST. PAUL'S. The phrase of dining with Duke Humphrey, which is still current, originated in the following manner: Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, though really buried at St. Alban's, was supposed to have a monument in old St. Paul's, from which one part of the church was termed Duke Humphrey's Walk. In this (as the church was then a place of the most public resort) they who had no means of procuring a dinner, frequently loitered about, probably in hopes of meeting with an invitation, but under pretence of looking at the monuments.-Nares's Glossary. The so-called Duke Humphrey's tomb (really that of Sir John Beauchamp, K.G.) was the only monument in the middle aisle of the nave; and Nares should have said that the loiterers occupied their time in examining the bills set up for service, or counting the paces between the choir and the west door. Poets of Paules, those of Duke Humfrye's messe, Bishop Corbet's Letter to the Duke of Buckingham. 'Tis Ruffio: Trow'st thou where he dined to-day? Than stake his twelvepence to a meaner host. Bishop Hall's Satires, B. iii. Sat. 7. I, hearing of this cold comfort, took my leave of him very faintly, and, like a careless mal-content, that knew not which way to turne, retyred me to Paule's, to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.-T. Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592. I know the walkes in Paules are stale to yee; yee could tell extemporally, I am sure, how many paces 'twere betweene the quire and the west dore.-To all Those That Lack Money, being the address before A Search for Money, by William Rowley, 4to, 1606. Duchess of York. What comfortable hour canst thou name, That ever graced me in thy company? K. Richard. 'Faith, none but Humphrey Hour, that call'd your Grace Antony Munday (one of Stow's many continuators) preserves two curious customs connected with Duke Humphrey's tomb. One was a solemn meeting of men (idle and frivolous men he calls them) who 1 Granger, Letters, p. 60. assembled at the tomb upon St. Andrew's Day, in the morning, “and concluded on a breakfast or dinner; as assuming themselves to be servants, and to hold diversity of offices under the good Duke Humfrey." The other he describes in this way: "Like wise on May-day, tankard-bearers, watermen, and some other of like quality beside, would use to come to the same tomb early in the morning, and (according as the other) have delivered serviceable presentation at the same monument, by strewing herbs and sprinkling fair water upon it; as in the duty of servants, and according to their degrees and charges in office." When Duke Humphrey's tomb was consumed in the Great Fire, his walk was removed to the nave of Westminster Abbey; when Ward published his London Spy, it was in St. James's Park, and in the same locality five and fifty years afterwards (1754) it is described in The Connoisseur (No. 19). "To dine with Duke Humphrey" is still a common phrase; Mr. Croker heard George IV. use it, bantering Lord Stowell on his supposed reluctance to give dinners. Duke's Place, ALDGATE,-now merged in DUKE STREET, of which it is the northern portion,—was so called after Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (beheaded 1572), to whom the precinct of the Priory of the Holy Trinity without Aldgate descended by his marriage with the daughter and sole heir of Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Audley of Walden. This priory, founded by Matilda, Queen of Henry I., was given by Henry VIII. to Sir Thomas Audley, "whilst as yet," says Fuller, "all other abbeys flourished in their height as safely and securely as before." Stow describes it as "a very fair and large church, rich in lands and ornaments, and passed all the priories in the city of London or shire of Middlesex; and the prior whereof was an alderman of London, to wit, of Portsoken Ward.” 2 I find the said Duke, anno 1562, with his Duchess riding thither [to Duke's Place] through Bishopsgate Street to Leadenhall, and so to Cree Church to his own Place; attended with 100 horse in his livery, with his gentlemen afore, their coats guarded with velvet; and four Heralds riding before him, viz. Clarencieux, Somerset, Red Cross, and Blue Mantle.-Strype, B. ii. p. 58. The Earl of Suffolk, son of the duke who was beheaded, sold the priory precinct and mansion house of his mother to the City of London. A new church in the priory precinct, dedicated to St. James, was consecrated January 2, 1622-1623, and became one of the most notorious places in London for those irregular marriages which, under the name of Fleet Marriages, were the cause of so much scandal in the latter half of the 17th century, and until they were put an end to by the Act of 1753. "So we drove hard to Duke's Place," says the servant to Mirabell in Congreve's Way of the World, "and there they were rivetted in a trice." "I'm brought to fine uses," says Lady Wishfort in the same play, "to become a botcher of second-hand marriages . . . I'll Duke's Place you." St. 1 Hall's Satires, by Singer, p. 63. 2 Stow, p. 53. |