was the daughter church built in the churchyard of Wol[nothmari] church. Mr. Round's reasons are stated in the number of the Athenæum for August 17, 1889, p. 223. Mary (St.) Woolnoth, at the angle where Lombard Street and King William Street diverge, a church in Langbourne Ward; damaged in the Great Fire, and repaired by Sir C. Wren in 1677. The present building was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor (d. 1736), the "domestic clerk" and assistant of Sir C. Wren, and erected in 1716. It serves as well for the parish of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw. The right of presentation belongs to the Crown for St. Mary Woolchurch, and to the Goldsmiths' Company for St. Mary Woolnoth. The banner of the Goldsmiths' Company is kept in this church, and the prime warden and wardens of the Company attend the service annually on St. Martin's day, when certain bequests to the poor were distributed after the sermon, in accordance with the will of Sir Martin Bowes, who was buried with his three wives in the vaults of this church, and of whose charities the Goldsmiths' Company were trustees. Here too was buried Dame Mary Ramsey, who, towards the end of the 16th century, was so munificent a benefactress to Christ's Hospital and to the poor of London generally. Simon Eyre, the founder of Leadenhall Market, was buried in the old church in 1459. Tablet to the Rev. John Newton (Cowper's friend), rector of this church for a period of twenty-eight years, is thus inscribed :— John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy; near 16 years at Olney in Bucks; and 28 years in this Church." He was buried in the vault of this church on September 31, 1807. The epitaph was written by himself. Newton whilst here was much consulted by persons in doubt or difficulty on religious subjects. When strong religious convictions were struggling in Wilberforce's mind with more worldly aspirations, he turned spontaneously for counsel to John Newton; and on December 2, 1785, wrote him a letter which on the following Sunday he took with him to the City. "I delivered it myself," he notes in his Diary, "to old Newton at his Church." 1 Newton recommended him to become a hearer of Thomas Scott, the Commentator, who preached in Bread Street. Mr. Round supposes Woolnoth to be a corruption of the name Wulfnoth (see Athenæum, March 31, 1888). In 1876 the church was "restored" throughout and the interior remodelled. The galleries and pews were swept away, the organ and pulpit were transferred to new positions, a lectern took the place of the old reading-desk, the altar and its adjuncts were rearranged, a new pavement was laid, and the whole adapted to current ecclesiological requirements. Grave complaints having been made by members of the congregation respecting the unpleasant smells pervading the build 1 Life, vol. i. p. 96. ing, it was closed in September 1889 for the purpose of investigating into the cause of these. Marylebone, a manor and parish in the hundred of Ossulston, in Middlesex, celebrated in former times for its park, bowling-green, and gardens. It was anciently called Tyburn, from its situation near a small bourn or rivulet of that name (known in records as Aye-brook or Eye-brook), and acquired its present name from the church of St. Mary-le-Bourne (St. Mary-on-the-Brook), now corruptly written Marylebone or Marybone. The parish church is still called St. Marylebone [which see]. Next unto this [the Brane or Brent] is Mariburne rill, on the other side which cometh in by St. James's.-Harrison's Descrip. of England (Holinshed, ed. 1586, p. 50). In the year 1544 Thomas Hobson, the then Lord of the Manor of Marylebone, exchanged it with Henry VIII. for certain church lands recently annexed to the Crown. From Edward Forset, Esq., to whom it was sold by James I., it passed by intermarriage into the hands of Thomas Austen, Esq.; and from the Austen family it was purchased in 1710 by John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, whose only daughter and heir married Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. The purchase money was £17,500; the rental then £900 per annum ! By the marriage, in 1734, of the Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley (only daughter and heir to Edward, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer), to William Bentinck, second Duke of Portland, the manor passed to the Portland family, from whom it was obtained by the Crown (circ. 1813) by an exchange of land in Sherwood Forest, valued at £40,000.1 The manor-house, which stood on the site of Devonshire Mews, Devonshire Street, New Road, was pulled down in 1791.2 When James I. granted the manor to Edward Forset, he reserved the park in his own hands, but seems to have thought about selling it also, as there is a petition from Garway, the contractor, dated April 1610, "to be allowed the preference of purchasing a piece of ground in Marybone Park. He must, however, have soon altered his intention, for under date May 5 of the same year there is a warrant to pay Sir Henry Carey £80 for "repairing the lodges and pales;" and on January 25, 1612, another warrant to pay to "Wm. Stacey, under keeper of Marybone Park, £100 for his great charge in keeping deer there for His Majesty's recreation in hunting." On July 27, 1614, there is a warrant to pay Sir H. Carey "£25: 13:6 for repairs, and building six new bridges;" on February 27, 1615, Sir Phil. Carey is appointed keeper of Marybone Park for life; on March 7, 1623, John Carey obtains a grant of the reversion for life; and on January 12, 1625, a warrant was issued to the "keeper of Hyde Park to cause 3 1 Third Report of Woods and Forests. 2 There are four drawings of it, by M. A. Rooker, in the Crowle Pennant in the British Museum. 3 Sir Henry Carey was granted, July 26, 1604, in reversion after Sir Edward Carey, the keepership of Marybone Park (Cal. State Pap., 1603-1610, p. 137. three brace of bucks to be taken and conveyed to Marybone Park to supply the scarcity caused by the great rain there," to effect which another warrant was issued to the "Master of the Toils to cause the toils to be sent to Hyde Park." Charles I., in 1646, assigned Marybone Park as a security for a debt for arms and ammunition supplied to him during his troubles. Cromwell set the assignment aside, and sold the park to John Spencer, of London, gentleman, for the sum of £13,21568, including £130 for the deer (124 in number, of several sorts), and £1774: 8s. for the timber, exclusive of 2976 tons marked for the navy. At the Restoration the original assignment of Charles I. was held good, and the park, till such time as the debt was liquidated, assigned by the King to the original grantees; but the park had been disparked before the Restoration, and was not again stocked.2 Leases of portions of the site were subsequently granted by the Crown, the last lessees being the Duke of Portland and Jacob Hinde, Esq., from whom Hinde Street, Manchester Square, derives its name. These leases expired during the regency of George IV., when Marylebone Park began to be laid out as we now see it, and called by its new name of the Regent's Park [which see]. Behind the manor-house, on what is now Beaumont Street, part of Devonshire Street, and part of Devonshire Place, stood the celebrated Marylebone Gardens [which see]; and bear gardens, cockpits, rotundas for fighting dogs, and for human prize-fighters of both sexes, bowling-greens, and other places of entertainment gave distinctive notoriety to Marylebone as late as the middle of the 18th century. It was Captain Macheath's favourite haunt. Here Long lived the great Figg, by the prize-fighting swains Figg's amphitheatre, in which "the bold and famous city championess" displayed her prowess against all comers, was succeeded by that of "the unconquered Broughton." Boxing matches and dog-fights were varied by encounters between animals of different species. In November 1718 a great company assembled at "the Bear Garden at Marybone," to see a Spaniard encounter "three bulls, the fiercest that could be had," but the man played his part so badly that the spectators set upon him, and he nearly payed for his want of courage with his life.3 Both Hockley Hole and Marybone The combats of my dog have known.-Gay's Fables. Peachum. The Captain keeps too good company ever to grow rich. Mary-bone and the chocolate-houses are his undoing.-Gay, The Beggar's Opera. Mrs. Peachum. You should go to Hockley-in-the-Hole and to Marybone, child, to learn valour.--Ibid. Macheath. There will be deep play to-night at Marybone, and consequently money may be pick'd up upon the road. Meet me there, and I'll give you the hint who is worth setting.-Ibid. 1 In the Board of Works' Accounts for the year 1582 is an entry of payment "for making of two new standings in Marebone and Hide Parkes for the Queenes Majestie and the noble. 3 Whitehall Evening Post, November 18, 1718. At Broughton's Amphitheatre this day, the 11th instant, will be a tremendous decision of manhood between the celebrated Champions James and Smallwood. The various proofs these heroes have given of their superior skill in the manual combat having justly made them the delicia pugnacis generis, and being too ambitious to admit of rivalship in the lists of fame, are determined by death or victory, to decide their pretensions to the palm. . . . Note: As this contest is likely to be rendered horrible with blood and bruises, all Frenchmen are desired to come fortified with a proper quantity of hartshorn; and it is hoped the ladies of Hockley and St. Giles's who may happen to be pregnant will absent themselves upon this occasion lest the terror of the spectacle should unhappily occasion the loss of some young champion to posterity. "Noblemen and gentlemen" are told that they may obtain tickets, price 55., "which will admit them into a part of the house appropriated for their better accommodation."-Daily Advertiser, December 11, 1745. Marylebone Fields was a recognised duelling ground. The duel between George Townshend and Lord Albemarle, November 1760, was fought here;1 so was that between the Duke of Bolton and Mr. Stewart; and in 1773 Lord Townshend shot Lord Bellamont in the side. Here has just been a duel between the Duke of Bolton and Mr. Stewart (a candidate for the county of Hampshire at the late election): what the quarrel was I do not know; but they met near Mary-le-bone and the D in making a pass overreached himself, fell down and hurt his knee; the other bid him get up, but he could not then he bid him ask his life, but he would not; so he let him alone, and that's all.-Gray to Wharton, April 1760, vol. iii. p. 238. In 1728 the Daily Journal informed its readers that many persons had "arrived in London from their country-houses in Marylebone." 2 But already the builder was invading the green fields, and by 1739 there were 577 houses in Marylebone parish and 35 persons who kept coaches, though there still "remained a considerable void between the new buildings and the village of Marylebone, which consisted of pasture fields."3 Thenceforward building went on rapidly, and at the census of 1801 there were 7764 houses in the parish, and 63,982 inhabitants. In 1871 the inhabitants had increased to 159,254. But Marylebone has passed the stage of growth. Building has for some years been confined to rebuilding, all green pastures and vacant spaces having long been occupied. In 1881 the inhabitants were 155,004, a decrease of 4250 in ten years. Besides that of the mother church the parish is divided into seventeen regularly constituted ecclesiastical districts, and possesses eight licensed chapels, where the service of the Church of England is performed. The parliamentary borough of Marylebone formerly comprised the parishes of St. Marylebone, St. Pancras and Paddington, and elected two members, but by the Reform Act of 1885 the borough was divided into East and West Marylebone, each returning one member. Marylebone Gardens, a place of entertainment famous during the latter part of the 17th and the first three-quarters of the 18th century, was situated in the fields at the back of the manor-house, on ground now occupied by Beaumont Street and part of Devonshire 1 Walpole, vol. iii. p. 359. 2 Smith, p. 30. 3 Maitland; Lysons. Street. It occupied a considerable space, was encompassed with "a brick wall set with fruit trees," was diversified with gravel walks and lawns, and a great "circular walk of 485 paces, and six broad." In the centre was a bowling-green "112 paces one way, 88 another," walks and green being "double set with quickset hedges, full-grown and kept in excellent order, and indented like town walls." The carriage entrance was in High Street, the back entrance was from the fields. The orchestra stood on the site of what is now No. 17 Devonshire Place. May 7, 1668.-Then we abroad to Marrowbone, and there walked in the garden, the first time I ever was there, and a pretty place it is.-Pepys. The bowling-green was a chief attraction. Locke, writing in 1699 directions for "a foreigner about to visit England," says: The sports of England which perhaps a curious stranger would be glad to see, are horse-racing, hawking, and hunting. Bowling.-At Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or three all the summer.-Lord King, Life and Letters of John Locke, p. 153, ed. 1858. In rain to Marrobone no Bowler goes. D'Urfey, Prol. to Massaniello, 1699. Lady Among the "persons of quality" who a little later might be seen bowling here, was Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (d. 1721). Mary Wortley alludes to his Grace's fondness for this place. Some Dukes at Marybone bowl time away. After I have dined (either agreeably with friends, or at worst with better company than your country neighbours), I drive away to a place of air and exercise, which some constitutions are in absolute need of; agitation of the body and diversion of the mind being a composition for health above all the skill of Hippocrates.—Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (Works, vol. ii. p. 256.)1 Here, at the end of the season, as Quin told Pennant, the duke gave a dinner to the chief frequenters of the place, drinking the toast which he thought appropriate, "May as many of us as remain unhanged next spring meet here again." A few years later the gardens were enlarged, a spacious orchestra was erected, an organ by Bridge was added, and evening concerts of considerable pretension were given, some of the best singers and instrumental performers being usually engaged. About the middle of the century John Trusler, the father of Dr. Trusler, kept the gardens for several years. He was a cook, and his dinners and public breakfasts came into vogue. Miss Trusler, his daughter, made the popular Marylebone tarts and cakes. "Tarts of a twelvepenny size," says the Advertisement of May 1760, "will be made every day from one to three o'clock. . . . The almond cheesecakes will be always hot at one o'clock as usual; and the rich seed and plum cakes sent to any part of the town, at 2s. 6d. each. Coffee, tea, and chocolate, at any time of the day, and fine Epping butter may also be had." The evening concerts were varied by pyrotechnic displays, "splendid beyond conception." Torré for many 1 The duke adds in a note that the place was "Marybone." |