Thomas Bambridge, commemorated by his crimes and the pencil of Hogarth. Under the wardenship of Bambridge fees of an exorbitant character were demanded of every prisoner; and men committed for not being able to pay their debts were charged with pay fees which they had no means of meeting. The prison was divided into two sides, the common side and the master's side. The common side contained three wards, the upper chapel, the lower chapel, and Julius Cæsar's, with a strong room or vault, which is thus described: "This vault is a place like those in which the dead are interred, and wherein the bodies of persons dying are usually deposited till the Coroner's Inquest hath passed them." Every prisoner at his entrance was forced to pay six shillings to the tipstaff towards a bowl of punch; to bring his own bedding; or hire it of the warden, or lie on the floor. Prisoners were called pigeons, and it was proved against Bambridge that he had retained men in prison long after they had been ordered to be discharged, and had even gone so far as to make a person of the name of Hogg a prisoner.by force. Bambridge, Huggins, and their accomplices were subsequently committed to Newgate, and a bill brought in to disable Bambridge from again acting, and for the better regulation of the prison.

The old method of punishing drunken and disorderly persons was by putting them in the stocks. Prisoners attempting to escape were put in a tub at the gate of the prison by way of public shame.

The Liberties or Rules of The Fleet, or the limits within which prisoners for debt were allowed under certain conditions to reside outside the prison walls, comprised the north side of Ludgate Hill and the Old Bailey up to Fleet Lane; down that lane into Fleet Market, and thence southward by the prison wall to the bottom of Ludgate Hill. Bambridge had his prototype in a warden of the reign of James I.

August 2, 1619.-The Warden [of the Fleet] has put into the dungeon called Boulton's Ward, a place newly made to exercise his cruelty, three poor men, Pecke, Seager, and Myners, notwithstanding the express command of the Council that they should be favourably dealt with till further orders; they are starving for want of food."-Rookwood to Sir Clement Edmondes (Cal. State Pap., 1619-1623, p. 68).

October 16, 1619.-Sir John Whitbrook killed in the Fleet by Boughton, a fellow prisoner, of whose turbulence he had often complained.-Cal. State Pap., 1619-1623, p. 86.

Why should I sing what bards the nightly Muse
Did slumbering visit, and convey to stews;
Who prouder march'd with magistrates in state,
To some fam'd roundhouse' ever-open gate!

While others, timely, to the neighbouring Fleet
(Haunt of the Muses) made their safe retreat.

Pope, Dunciad, B. ii.

Soon shall we see the Fleet thy carcase wring,
When through the prison gate for farthings angling;

Suspending feet of stockings by a string,

Or glove, or night-cap, for our bounty dangling.

Peter Pindar, Subjects for Painters.

Eminent Persons confined in.-Lord Surrey, the poet; he describes it as a "noisome place with a pestilent atmosphere." Bishop Hooper, the martyr, who was confined here, was treated most barbarously from September 1553 to February 1555, when he was carried to the stake at Gloucester. Keys, for marrying the Lady Mary Grey, the sister of Lady Jane Grey. In 1593 Sir Anthony Shirley, the celebrated traveller, was committed to the Fleet by Queen Elizabeth for accepting the Order of St. Michael and St. George from Henri IV. without first obtaining her permission. "I will not," she said, "have my sheep marked with a strange brand, nor suffer them to follow the pipe of a strange shepherd." It does not appear that his imprisonment was of long duration, but he was deprived of the offensive Order. Nash, the poet and prose satirist, for writing "The Isle of Dogs." William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke in 1601, on account of a liaison with one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour.1 Dr. Donne, for marrying Sir George More's daughter without her father's knowledge. Countess of Dorset.

The last Widow Lady Dorset found the way into the Fleet again, where she lay six or seven days, for pressing into the Privy Chamber, and importuning the king contrary to commandment.-Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood, May 2, 1610 (Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 155).

Sir Robert Killigrew.

Sir Robert Killigrew was yesterday committed to the Fleet from the Counsayle Table, for having some little speech with Sir Thomas Overbury, who called to him as he passed by his window as he came from visiting Sir Walter Raleigh.—Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood, May 6, 1613.

August 1607, Toby Matthew, Bacon's friend, was committed to the Fleet shortly after his return from the Continent, where he had become a convert to the Romish faith, and he was kept there till the following February, when he was "allotted six weeks' space to set his affairs in order, and depart the realm." Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland, "for sending a challenge." Prynne, for writing his Histriomastix, and not only was he sentenced to "perpetual imprisonment" for his unlucky book, but to see it burnt before his face as he stood in the pillory, and to be "branded on the forehead, have his nose slit and his ears cropped," and be fined an enormous sum, "put from the bar [of Lincoln's Inn], and degraded in the University." puritan, John Lilburne, of the time of the Commonwealth, for publishing his News from Ipswich, "to be whipped through the street from the prison" to Whitehall, and "to be laid alone with irons on his hands and legs in the wards of the Fleet." Sir Richard Baker, author of Baker's Chronicle, having imprudently become surety for his wife's relations, was imprisoned here for many years; he composed several works, and died in the Fleet, February 18, 1644-1645. James Howell; here he wrote several of his entertaining Letters, addressed to celebrated persons from feigned places and without dates. Wycherley, the poet; he was here seven years. Francis Sandford, author of

1 Cal. State Pap. 1601-1603, p. 19.

the Genealogical History; he died in the Fleet, January 16, 1693. Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was living "within the rules," in 1707. Curll's "Corinna," Mrs. Thomas, for a few months before her death in 1731. Richard Savage; to be secure from his creditors he was directed by his friends to take a lodging "within the liberties of the Fleet," and here his friends sent him every Monday a guinea. Parson Ford died here in 1731. [See Hummums.] Parson Keith in 1758. [See May Fair.] Robert Lloyd, the poet and friend of Churchill, in 1764; and Mrs. Cornelys in 1797. [See Soho Square.] The list of noted persons who have been temporary residents in the Fleet during the present century is too long and of too little interest to be given here. Fleet Marriages.-Irregular marriages, or marriages contracted without a licence or any previous formalities, but in which the ceremony was performed by a priest in however informal a manner, being legally binding, appear to have become systematically organised in the chapel of the Fleet Prison in the early part of the 17th century, the ceremony being performed by any clergyman who might happen to be confined there for debt. The first marriage of the kind recorded was in 1613, but there is reason to believe that many had been previously solemnised there. The ecclesiastical commissioners issued an order in 1674 against this form of marriage, but it only served to give an impetus to marriages at the Fleet, and it is from this year that the Fleet Marriage Register dates. Marriages in the Fleet Chapel were prohibited by 10 Anne c. 19 (1711), but the only effect was to change the place of celebration to any building-commonly a tavern-within the Liberty of the Fleet, and at this time many unprincipled clergymen were living within the rules. The scandal became at length insufferable, and Lord Hardwicke's Act, passed in 1774, by declaring such marriages to be henceforth null and void, brought the system to an end. Here was married Charles Churchill, the poet.

It had been a Fleet marriage, and soon after it had been solemnised (if that term may be applied to such a ceremony performed under such circumstances) the father properly received the rash couple into his own house. -Southey's Life of Cowper, vol. i. p. 70.

The register books of the Fleet marriages, some 1200 in number, but including places outside the Liberty of the Fleet, were purchased by Government in 1821, and are now deposited in the office of the Registrar-General, Somerset House, where they may be consulted on the payment of a small fee. They are only admitted as collateral evidence of marriage.

Fleet Street, between LUDGATE HILL and the STRAND, one of the principal thoroughfares in London, and one of the most famous, deriving its name from the streamlet called THE FLEET. In the 13th century (1228) it was named Fleet Bridge Street, or "the Street of Fleet Bridge"; but early in the 14th century (1311) it occurs as "Fletestrete, in the suburbs of London.” 2

1 Liber Albus, p. 76.

2 Riley, Memorials, p. 89.

The two churches, St. Dunstan's-in-the-West and St. Bride's, and the following places of interest are described under their respective titles. South or Thames Side-Middle Temple Gate; Inner Temple Gate; Falcon Court; Mitre Court; Ram Alley, now Hare Place; Serjeants' Inn; Water Lane; Whitefriars; Salisbury Court. North Side-Shoe Lane; Peterborough Court; Bolt Court; Johnson's Court; Crane Court; Fetter Lane; Chancery Lane; Apollo Court; Bell Yard; Shire Lane; Temple Bar. The Fire of London stopped at the church of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West on the one side, and within a few houses of the Inner Temple Gate on the other.1

Fleet Street was famous for its waxwork and moving exhibitions from Queen Elizabeth's time to Queen Victoria's, "probably," says Gifford, "from its being the great thoroughfare of the City."

Sogliardo. They say there's a new motion of the city of Nineveh, with Jonas and the whale, to be seen at Fleet Bridge. You can tell, cousin?

Fungoso.

Yes, I think there be such a thing; I saw the picture.-Ben

Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour, Act. ii. Sc. 1.

And now at length he's brought

Unto fair London city,

Where, in Fleet Street,

All those may see't

That will not believe my ditty.

Butler, Ballad on Cromwell.

I design to expose it to the public view at my Secretary, Mr. Lillie's, who shall have an explication of all the terms of Art; and I doubt not but it will give as good content as the Moving-Picture in Fleet Street.-The Tatler, No. 129.

Mrs. Salmon's celebrated waxwork exhibition (for many years a permanent exhibition like Madame Tussaud's) was shown near the Horn Tavern in Fleet Street." The house was distinguished by the sign of the salmon, and has been engraved by J. T. Smith.

It would have been ridiculous for the ingenious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the sign of the Trout; for which reason she has erected before her House the figure of a fish that is her namesake.-The Spectator, No. 28.

The tent of Darius is to be peopled by the ingenious Mrs. Salmon, where Alexander is to fall in love with a piece of waxwork, that represents the beautiful Statira. The Spectator, No. 31.

Some cheap waxwork exhibitions were to be seen on the north side, about St. Dunstan's Church, as late as 1850 or even later; so that the street retained its celebrity for this species of exhibition for at least two centuries and a half. Eminent Inhabitants.-Bradford, one of the most eminent of the Marian martyrs, was, 1553, "taken at Mr. Elsing's house in Fleet Street." 2 Sir Symonds D'Ewes.

Sir Henry Spelman, an aged and learned antiquary, came to visit me at my lodgings near the Inner Temple Gate in Fleet Street, where I had lain since my coming to town, who dining with me, we spent a great part of the day in solid and fruitful discourse.-D'Ewes's Journal, vol. ii. p. 97.

Michael Drayton, the poet,

1 There is a good view of Fleet Street and the execution of Sarah Malcolm in Johnson's Lives of Highwaymen, fol. 1736. 2 Foxe, vol. vi. p. 538.

lived at the bay-windowe house, nex tthe east end of St. Dunstan's ch: in Fleet Street.-Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 335.

Bulstrode Whitelocke was born in the house of his mother's uncle, Sir George Croke, in Fleet Street, and baptized at St. Dunstan's, August 19, 1605. Cowley, the poet.

He was born in Fleet Street, London, near Chancery Lane. His father was a grocer, at the sign of . . .-Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 295.

Henry de Vere, eighteenth Earl of Oxford, and Great Chamberlain (d. 1626), was living in Fleet Street in March 1622, when he was committed to the Tower for aiding the Earl of Berkshire's daughter to escape from marrying "Kit Villiers." General Monk.

He [General Monk] has sent directions for his old lodgings to be taken up for him in Fleet Street near the Conduit, though there are great preparations made to receive him at the Prince's lodgings at Whitehall.-E. A. to Lady Rachel Vaughan afterwards Lady Rachel Russell, January 20, 1659 (Letters, p. 263).

Monck does wisely if he continues his resolution of quartering in Fleet Street, to keep the peace between those two great bodies, the City and Parliament.-E. A. to Lady Rachel Vaughan (Ibid. p. 265).

Praise-God Barebone. He was a leather-seller in Fleet Street, and owner of a house called "The Lock and Key," in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, let to a family of the name of Speight, in whose occupation it was when it was consumed in the Great Fire of London. It was rebuilt by Barebone.1 Catharine Philips, the matchless Orinda, to whom Jeremy Taylor addressed his Discourse on Friendship, and whose memory was celebrated by Cowley, died in Fleet Street, June 22, 1664. James Shirley, the dramatic poet, was living in Fleet Street when burnt out in the Great Fire of September 1666. He took refuge in St. Giles-in-the-Fields, where he died of exposure and suffering about six weeks after. His wife died the same day, and they were buried in one grave, October 29, 1666. T. Snelling, known by his works on Coins. One of his books has the imprint, "London: printed for T. Snelling, next the Horn Tavern in Fleet Street, 1766, who buys and sells all sorts of coins and medals." The Horn Tavern is now "Anderton's Hotel," No. 164 Fleet Street. Whenever Shenstone came to London in his early days he lived at "Mr. Wintle's, perfumer, at the King's Arms by Temple Bar, Fleet Street," and he had his letters addressed to "Mr. Shuckburgh's, Bookseller, in Fleet Street." Edward Troughton, the eminent astronomical instrument maker, died at his house, No. 138 Fleet Street, June 12, 1835. The business is still carried on there under the name of Troughton and Sims. Eminent Printers, Stationers, and Booksellers.—Wynkyn de Worde: 'Emprynted at London in Flete Street at the sygne of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde," 1506. Richard Pynson: "emprentyed by me Rycharde Pynson, at the temple barre of London, 1493." In his will his house is described as "besides Saynt Dunstan's churche." Rastell, "at the signe of the Star." Richard Tottel, "within Temple Barre; at the signe of the Hande and Starre;" John Jaggard, in the reign of James 1 Addit. MS. 5070, in Brit. Museum.