is shown in the City of London Library, at Guildhall. The street leading down to Puddle Dock is now called St. Andrew's Hill, from the church of St. Andrew-in-the-Wardrobe, the old name was Puddle Dock Hill. Irish Society (Honorable), GUILDHALL YARD, incorporated in the reign of James I. as "The Society of the Governor and Assistants in London of the new Plantations in Ulster, within the realm of Ireland." The charter of the Society was taken away in 1637 and restored after various changes in 1670. At the office the business connected with the Irish property of the London Companies is carried on. Irongate Stairs, a landing-place on the Thames, at the bottom of Little Tower Hill, east of the Tower of London, so called from the iron gate which there opened on to Tower Wharf. Then towards the East [of the Water Gate] is a great and strong gate, commonly called the Iron Gate, but not usually opened.-Stow, p. 19. Pepys, February 23, 1663, on account of an Exchequer writ issued for his arrest, not daring to go home from Westminster by land, "was forced to go to Whitehall and take boat, and so land below the Tower, at the Iron Gate, and so the back way over Little Tower Hill; and, with my cloak over my face, took one of the watermen along with me." Ironmonger Lane, CHEAPSIDE. Next beyond the Mercers' Chapel and their Hall is Ironmonger Lane, so called of Ironmongers dwelling there, whereof I read in the reign of Edward I., etc. In this lane is the small parish church of St. Martin, called Pomary, upon what occasion I certainly know not. It is supposed to be of apples growing where houses are now lately built; for myself have seen large void places there.-Stow, p. 102. The church of St. Martin, which was situated on the still vacant piece of ground west of the church of St. Olave, Jewry, was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. The lane, spelt Ismongerelane, is mentioned in a Coroner's Roll of 1276-1277, on occasion of the murder of a taverner there by his servant Roger de Westminster. A century later (1351-1382) we find it still called Ismongerelane. In Ironmonger Lane lived Dr. Johnson's stepson, Joseph Porter (d. 1749). He was an intimate friend of Hogarth, who painted his portrait, and is said to have spent much of his time in this house.1 Alderman Boydell (d. 1804), the eminent publisher of engravings and patron of engravers, lived at his shop, No. 90 Cheapside, the corner of Ironmonger Lane. It was the regular custom of Mr. Alderman Boydell, who was a very early riser, at five o'clock, to go immediately to the pump in Ironmonger Lane. There, after placing his wig upon the ball at the top of it, he used to sluice his head with its water.-J. T. Smith, Book for a Rainy Day, p. 221. Ironmonger Row, OLD STREET, ST. LUKE'S, first turning east of the church. Here, May 3, 1763, died George Psalmanazar. He is 1 Nichols's Anecdotes (1783), p. 99. said to have spent his evenings at a public-house in Old Street, where many persons, including Dr. Johnson, went to talk with him. Johnson was asked whether he ever contradicted Psalmanazar: “I When should as soon," said he, "have contradicted a Bishop;" and in his own neighbourhood he was Hawksworth told Sir John Hawkins, so much looked up to that, as Dr. children, passed him without showing him signs of respect." "scarce any person, even Ironmongers' Hall, on the north side of FENCHURCH STREET, nearly opposite Mark Lane-the Hall of the Ironmongers, the tenth on the list of the Twelve Great Companies. The present hall was erected on the site of an Elizabethan hall which escaped destruction in the Great Fire the name of the architect, Thomas Holden, with the date, 1748, appears on the front. The front, of Portland stone, is classic of the time, and has a rustic basement, pilasters of the Ionic order, a central pediment with the Company's arms in the sympanum, and an attic with balusters and vases. The interior was remodelled in 1847 and richly fitted and decorated. Observe. On the landing of the great staircase, marble statue of Alderman Beckford (Ironmonger and Master of the Company), formerly at Fonthill, presented to the Company by his son, the author of Vathek. Portrait of Admiral Lord Viscount Hood, by Gainsborough; presented by Lord Hood, on his admission into this Company in 1783. Admiral Lord Exmouth, by Sir William Beechey. Izaak Walton, who was admitted in November 1618, and served as Warden, 1637-1639; the portrait is a copy of that in the national collection, but of interest here from his connection with the Company. eminent members and benefactors of the Company, but There are several portraits of remarkable as works of art. In the 17th century the hall appears to have been much in request for grand funerals and funeral banquets several are recorded, but it will be enough to quote Pepys's notice of one :— none November 28, 1662.—By ten o'clock to Ironmongers' Hall, to the funeral of Sir Richard Stayner. Here we were, all the officers of the Navy, and my Lord Sandwich. Here we had good rings, and by and by were to take coach; and I, being got in with Mr. Creed into a four-horse coach, which they come and told us were only for mourners, I went out, and so took this occasion to go home.-Pepys. Evelyn was at one of the banquets for which Ironmongers' Hall always has been and still is famous. September 21, 1671.—I dined in the City at the fraternity feast in Yronmongers' Hall, where the four stewards chose their successors for the next year, with a solemn procession, garlands about their heads and musiq playing before them, so coming up to the upper tables where the gentlemen sate, they drank to the new stewards, and so we parted.—Evelyn. Ironmongers appear to have been first mentioned as a guild in the reign of Edward III. (1330); but an ordinance regulating the trade. within the City was issued as early as the reign of Edward I. They were incorporated by letters patent of 3 Edward IV. (1463-1464), by the name of the Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of the mistery or craft of Ironmongers of London. ["Maister and Wardeyns and the Comynaltie of the Mistere or Craft of the Ire'mongers."] The fees upon admission to the freedom by patrimony or servitude are £3: 5s. ; by purchase £110: 1S.; to the livery £45:55. The Company possess a large income, of which they dispense liberally in pensions, gifts, almshouses and schools. Isle of Dogs, a low marshy tract on the left bank of the Thames, facing Deptford and Greenwich, encircled on its east, west, and south side by a bend of the river, giving it the form of a peninsula, but converted into an island within the present century by the West India Dock Canal, which cuts across it from Limehouse to Blackwall. Its area was about 800 acres, but reduced to 500 by the construction of the West India Docks. In 1830 it was thinly inhabited, and only along the river side, though there were an anchor-smith's, and barge-building and rope-yards. A conspicuous object was a much-battered but very picturesque old windmill. Locally it was best known as Mill Wall-the passage by the river side along which the houses were built. In some early documents it is called Stebonheath, or Stepney Marsh. In the 15th century there was a chapel or hermitage here dedicated to St. Mary. Since that time it has been gradually assuming the aspect of a great colony of manufactures. Several large iron shipbuilders' yards, chemical works, telegraph works, wire-rope works, etc. have been erected on it; the Mill Wall Docks have been constructed; a branch of the Great Eastern Railway has been carried to it and the North Green Station opened; and a church, chapels, steamboat pier, etc., built, with of course a large number of houses for the busy and teeming population. A low marshy ground near Blackwall, so called, as is reported, for that a waterman carried a man into this marsh and there murthered him. The man having a dog with him he would not leave his master; but hunger forced him many times to swim over the Thames to Greenwich; which the watermen who plied at the bridge [or pier] observing, followed the dog over, and by that means the murthered man was discovered. Soon after the dog swimming over to Greenwich Bridge, where there was a waterman seated, at him the dog snarled and would not be beat off; which the other watermen perceiving (and knowing of the murther), apprehended this strange waterman; who confessed the fact, and was condemned and executed. -R.B., in Strype, vol. i. p. 43. The fertile soil of the Marsh, usually known as the Isle of Dogs, was so called because when our former princes made Greenwich their country seat, and used it for hunting (they say), the Kennels for their Dogs were kept on this Marsh; which usually making a great noise, the seamen and others thereupon called the place the Isle of Dogs: though it is not an Isle, indeed scarce a Peninsula—the neck being about a mile in length.-Dr. Woodward, in Strype, Circuit Walk, p. 102. The Isle of Dogs-a fine rich level for fattening of cattle. Eight oxen fed here of late were sold for £34 a-piece and a Hog fed here was sold for £20 and 6d. — Strype, B. iv. p. 44. 1 Lysons, vol. ii. pp. 706, 707. Bawdber. Where could I wish myself now? In the Isle of Dogs, so I might 'scape scratching.-Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and Theodoret, Act iii. Sc. 2. Moll Cutpurse. O Sir, he hath been brought up in the Isle of Dogs, and can both fawn like a spaniel and bite like a mastiff as he finds occasion.—Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl, 4to, 1611. It is described in Norden's Map of Middlesex (4to, 1593) as "Isle of Dogs Ferme." Nash wrote a play called The Isle of Dogs, for which, in 1598, he was imprisoned in the Fleet. Mr. Dyce is of opinion that it was a place where persons took refuge from their creditors and the officers of justice. But this is very doubtful. The traditional origin of the name is very unlikely. The royal dogs would hardly have been kennelled on a marsh across the river. In the 17th century the dogs were kept at Deptford. In the Works Accounts of the Crown for 1623-1624 are entries of payments made in respect of the "works and reparations done upon the King's Majesty's Dog House at Deptford." Norden mentions the horse-ferry from Deptford, and a ferry still exists. Pepys used it and tells of a frolic in the Isle of Dogs, of himself, Sir George and Lady Carteret, and their little daughter Louisonne. They crossed here in the morning by the ferry and drove in their "coach and six horses nobly for Dagenham," where they "were bravely entertained and spent the day most pleasantly,' and "at night about seven o'clock took coach" to return. We set out so late, that it grew dark, so we doubted the losing of our way; and a long time it was, or seemed, before we could get to the water side, and that about eleven at night, when we come, all merry, we found no ferry-boat was there, nor no oares to carry us to Deptford. However, oares was called from the other side at Greenwich; but when it come, a frolick, being mighty merry, took us, and there we would sleep all night in the coach in the Isle of Doggs: so we did, there being now with us my Lady Scott; and with great pleasure drew up the glasses, and slept till daylight, and then some victuals and wine being brought us, we ate a bit, and so up and took boat, merry as might be; and when come to Sir G. Carteret's, there all to bed.-Pepys, July 24, 1665. Islington, an extensive suburban parish, extending north from Clerkenwell to Highgate and Hornsey, and east and west from Shoreditch, Hackney, and Stoke Newington to St. Pancras. It is 3 miles long, 2 wide, and 10 miles in circumference, and has an area of 3107 acres. It includes the town of Islington and the hamlets of Holloway, Highbury, Canonbury, Barnsbury, Kingsland, Ball's Pond, and other places. In the 17th century a country village,—when the first census was taken in 1801, it was still rural, and the entire parish had only 10,212 inhabitants. Since then the population has gone on increasing with constantly accelerating rapidity, and in 1871 amounted to 213,778. In 1881 it was 282,628, an increase of 68,850 in ten years; an addition equal to that of the entire population of a town like Rochdale, or a county like Westmoreland or Montgomery. As a village, Islington was originally considered remote from London; but, like Chelsea, on the other side, it is now a part of this great and increasing metropolis "the monster London" of Cowley's poem upon "Solitude." - Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, Not only London echoes with thy fame, but also Islington has heard the same.--DRYDEN (?) For what was Ninive? A noble, a rich, and a wealthy city. What is London to Ninive? Like a village, as Islington or such another, in comparison of London. Latimer's Last Sermon to Edward VI., 1550. The origin of the name is uncertain. In ancient records it is written Isendone, Iseldone, Yseldon, Eyseldon (Domesday and City Books, 1398). From about the middle of the 16th century it was commonly written Hisselton. Hither came alle the men of that contray Turnament of Tottenham. Stow (1598, 1604) writes Iseldon, but Islington was in use much earlier. In 1559 William Fleetwood, Recorder of London, writes to Cecil: My Singular Good Lord-Uppon Thursday at even, her Majestie in her cooche nere Islyngton, taking of the air, her Highnes was environed with a number of Rooges. One Mr. Stone, a footeman, cam in all hast to my Lord Maior, and after to me and told us of the same. I dyd the same night send warrants out into the sayd quarters and into Westminster and the Duchie; and in the mornyng went abroad myself, and took that daye lxxiij roogs, whereof some were blynd and yet great usurers, and very rich. What these blind usurers had to do with environing the Queen's coach does not appear; but no doubt the Recorder deemed it necessary to prove his zeal by arresting "roogs" of some kind or other. By a later report it would seem that "the brick-kilns by Islyngton ". were a favourite haunt of the sturdy rogues and vagrants who infested the neighbourhood; and for beggars and thieves Islington, as the first halting-place from London on the great North Road, was a favourable place for the pursuit of their calling. Go away! betake you to the end of the town; let me find you between Wood's close stile and Islington, with "Will it please your Worship to bestow the price of two cans upon a poor Soldier, that hath served in the face of the Soldan," and so forth.-Haywood, The Royal King, etc., circ. 1608, p. 61. Islington was famous for its dairies, brick-kilns, houses of entertainment with their tea-gardens and ducking-ponds, cheesecakes and custards, and fields, the favourite Sunday resort of rural-minded citizens. Master Stephen. What do you talk on it? Because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company with none but the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come aducking to Islington Ponds.-Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour. March 27, 1664.-Walked through the Ducking Pond Fields; but they are so altered since my father used to carry us to Islington, to the old man's, at the King's 1 A couplet fathered on Dryden, in the Whig Examiner, by Addison. |