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I., and Joel Stephens, in the reign of George I., both using Tottel's old sign, and all three living in what is now the house of Mr. J. W. Butterworth, the law publisher, who possesses the original leases from the earliest grant in the reign of Henry VIII. down to the period of his father's own purchase, about 1815. Mr. Joseph Butterworth, afterwards M.P. for Coventry and for Dover, came to 43 Fleet Street in 1780, and established there the first central law publishing business. Mr. Butterworth, besides being an eminent publisher, was a foremost philanthropist and religious leader. It was in his house that the British and Foreign Bible Society was founded. Tottel's printingoffice was immediately behind his house, in what was afterwards Dick's Coffee-house. W. Copeland, "at the signe of the Rose Garland." Bernard Lintot (1706-1736), at "the Cross Keys," "between the Temple-gates," and next door to Nando's. Tonson's first shop was at the Fleet Street end of Chancery Lane. Rowe's imitation of Horace, B. iii. Ode 9, Tonson to Congreve :

While at my house in Fleet Street once you lay

How merrily dear Sir, time pass'd away.

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Edmund Curll, "at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church." Lawton Gilliver, "at Homer's Head against St. Dunstan's Church." Jacob Robinson, "on the west side of the gateway leading down the Inner Temple Lane," now Groom's Coffee-house. According to Hawkins,1 "the friendship of Pope and Warburton had its commencement in an accidental meeting in Robinson's shop. Arthur Collins, "at the Black Boy in Fleet Street;" here, in 1709, he published the first edition of his Peerage. T. White, at No. 63. H. Lowndes, at No. 77. John Murray, the elder, at No. 32, where he succeeded Mr. Sandby "at the Ship, over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street." Here Wilkie first met Sir Walter Scott, April 17, 1809, who repeated "Lochiel's Warning."2 [See Falcon Court.] Messrs. Taylor and Hessey were at No. 93, where were held the once famous London Magazine dinners. William Hone, editor of the Every Day Book, at one time kept a bookseller's shop by St. Bride's Church.

Eminent Bankers still existing.-Child's, at Temple Bar Within, the oldest existing banking-house in London; "Richard Blanchard and Francis Child, at the Marygold in Fleet Street," were goldsmiths with "running cashes" (= drawing accounts) in the reign of Charles II. The old sign of the house, the Marygold, is still preserved. Alderman Backwell, ruined by the shutting up of the Exchequer in the reign of Charles II., was for some time a partner with Blanchard and Child; and his accounts for the sale of Dunkirk to the French are among the records of the firm. "In the hands of Mr. Blanchard, Goldsmith, next door to Temple Bar," Dryden deposited his £50 for the discovery of Lord Rochester's bullies. [See Rose Street.] Hoare's: "James Hore, at the Golden Bottle in Cheapside," was a goldsmith with a "running cash" in 1677; and Mr. Richard Hoare, a goldsmith "at the 1 Life of Joknson, p. 691. Life of Wilkie, vol. i. p. 239.

Golden Bottle in Fleet Street" in 1693.1 Among the debts of the great Lord Clarendon occurs, "To Mr. Hore for plate, £27: 10:3." Gosling's, at "The Three Squirrels, over against St. Dunstan's;" Major Pinckey, a goldsmith, lived, in 1673-1674, at "The Three Squirrels, over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street." 2

Celebrated Taverns and Coffee Houses:

From thence, along that tipling Street,
Distinguish'd by the Name of Fleet,
Where Tavern-Signs hang thicker far,
Than Trophies down at Westminster ;
And ev'ry Bacchanalian Landlord
Displays his Ensign, or his Standard,
Bidding Defiance to each Brother,
As if at Wars with one another.

Hudibras Redivivus, 4to, 1707.

The Devil Tavern; the King's Head Tavern, "at the corner of Chancery Lane;" the Bolt-in-Tun; the Horn Tavern (No. 164, now Anderton's Hotel); the Mitre; the Cock; the Rainbow; Hercules Pillars, by St. Dunstan's Church; Dick's; Nando's; Peele's, at the corner of Fetter Lane (in existence as early as 1722), were all famous taverns, of which notices are given under their several titles. There were besides the Castle by Fleet Conduit noted in its day; the Boar's Head by Water Lane; Dolphin, Temple Bar; Seven Stars; St. Dunstan's, and others. Chaucer is said to have beaten a Franciscan friar in Fleet Street, and to have been fined two shillings for the offence by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple; so Speght had heard from Master Barkly, who had seen the entry in the records of the Inner Temple. Bales, seminary priest, was hanged and quartered in Fleet Street on Ash Wednesday, March 4, 1590.

In eighty-eight when the Queen [Elizabeth] went from Temple Bar along Fleet Street, the lawyers were ranked on one side and the Companies of the City on the other; said Master Bacon to a lawyer that stood next him "Do but observe the courtiers; if they bow first to the citizens they are in debt; if first to us they are in law."-Spedding, Baconiana, vol. vii. p. 175.

By sitting on the stage, if you be a knight you may happily get you a mistress; if a mere Fleet Street gentleman, a wife.—Gull's Hornbook (1609), p. 33.

Sir Dauphine. He has got on his whole nest of nightcaps and locked himself up in the top of the house, as high as ever he can climb, from the noise. I peeped in at a cranny, and saw him sitting over a cross-beam of the roof, like him on the saddler's horse in Fleet Street, upright: and he will sleep there. - Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman, Act iv. Sc. I.

In 1619 the Council of the Prince of Wales (Charles I.) had their chambers in Fleet Street.3 In August 1628 Eleanor Felton (mother of John Felton, who assassinated George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham) was living over a haberdasher's in Fleet Street. Her son came to ask her for money, and when she told him she had not to give him, he said he would "go to Portsmouth, and seek for his arrears of pay."-Forster's Eliot, vol. ii. p. 338.

1 London Gazette, November 20, 1693.

2 London Gazette, Nos. 868, 833.

3 Cal. State Pap., 1619-1623, p. 18.

May 13, 1653.-My father Backhouse, lying sick in Fleet Street, over against St. Dunstan's Church, and not knowing whether he would live or die, about eleven of the clock, told me in syllables, the true matter of the philosopher's stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy.—Elias Ashmole's Diary.

We walked in the evening in Greenwich Park. He asked me, I suppose by way of trying my disposition, "Is not this very fine?" Having no exquisite relish for the beauties of nature, and being more delighted with the busy hum of men, I answered, "Yes, sir, but not equal to Fleet Street." Johnson: "You are right, sir."-Boswell, by Croker, p. 157.

It was a delightful day: as we walked to St. Clement's Church, I again remarked that Fleet Street was the most cheerful scene in the world: "Fleet Street," said I, "is in my mind more delightful than Tempé." Johnson. “Ay, sir, but let it be compared with Mull."-Boswell, by Croker, p. 597.

The offices of some of the chief London newspapers, and the London offices of some of the provincial papers, are in this street.

Fleet Street has been greatly altered in appearance of late years, and most markedly by the erection of Ludgate Circus at its eastern end, and the removal of Temple Bar and widening of the street at its western end, the erection of the Courts of Law, the Temple Bar Memorial, Child's New Bank, and the Branch of the Bank of England.

Fletchers' Hall, ST. MARY AXE, now let as a warehouse. The Fletchers (Arrow-makers, Fr. flèche, an arrow), the thirty-ninth of the City Companies, is a Company by prescription, dating from 1467, when they received a grant of arms. They had previously been united with the Bowyers Company. The government is in two wardens, ten assistants, and a small livery, each member of which pays a fine of £8:19:6 upon admission. The Company has no hall now.

Floral Hall, COVENT GARDEN, runs through from Bow Street to the north-east corner of the Piazza. It was built by the side of Covent Garden Theatre when that building was erected after the fire of 1856 (E. M. Barry, architect), and was originally intended for a flower market, but it was long used for concerts. It is now exclusively a market. The building was opened on March 7, 1860, with a volunteer ball. A south wall of brick was built at the end of 1888, after the houses to the south and a portion of the Piazza were pulled down, in connection with the enlargement of Covent Garden Market.

Flower de Luce Court (FLEUR DE LIS COURT), FETTER LANE. In a house looking into Fetter Lane and Flower de Luce Court lived Mrs. Brownrigg, who was hanged, September 4, 1767, for the murder of Mary Clifford, her apprentice. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767 are views of the kitchen in which the poor girls were employed after being "whipped and tortured," and of the "hole under the stairs. where one of the girls lay, and where both were confined on Sundays." Mrs. Brownrigg's husband was a journeyman printer, and the apprentices were employed in grinding colours.

VOL. II

-Dost thou ask her crime?
She whipp'd two female 'prentices to death,
And hid them in the coal-hole. For this act

F

Did Brownrigg swing. Harsh laws! But time shall come,
When France shall reign and laws be all repeal'd!

Canning, Imitation of Southey.

In what is now No. 171, the Chapel of the Scottish Corporation, Coleridge delivered in 1818 a Course of Lectures on "Language, Literature, and Social and Moral Questions."

This was once a common name in London. Some thirteen places so named are indexed in the New Remarks, 1732.

It

Fludyer Street, between King Street, Westminster, and St. James's Park-swept away, 1864-1865, for the new Government Offices. was built (circ. 1767) on the site of Axe Yard and Duffin's Alley, and called after Sir Samuel Fludyer, Bart. (Lord Mayor in 1761), the ground landlord, and godfather and near relation of Sir Samuel Romilly.

Does any one hesitate at the appellation of Fludyer and Crown Streets, Westminster? and yet both these were not long ago Axe Yard and Crown Court.Captain Grose's Essays, No. 17.

Burke wrote to the Marquis of Rockingham from "Fludyer Street, November 14, 1769," but it was merely a temporary residence. James Macpherson (Ossian) was living here in 1792. Sir Charles Bell's first lodgings in London (1804) were at No. 22. He afterwards removed to No. 10. Harriet Martineau lived with her mother and aunt at No. 17 Fludyer Street from September 1833 till failure of health caused her to "remove from London altogether in 1839."1 learn from the Auckland Correspondence (vol. i. p. was the scene of a romantic love affair.

In 1788, as we 467), this street

Lady Anna Maria Bowes [daughter of Lord Strathmore] lived in Fludyer Street, which you know is very narrow, and well it was, considering the bridge she passed to get to her lover, Mr. Jessop. She excused herself to her father for not coming down to supper, saying that it was inconsistent with female delicacy to be in company with so many men as were to sup with her father. As soon as everybody was gone to bed, she passed a ladder which had a plank laid upon it, and which reached from her window to that of her lover. She must pass this bridge. Leander was a fool to her. She had never seen this man but at his window before she went over to him. much for our marriages!

So

Foley House, with its grounds, occupied the space between Mortimer Street and Duchess Street, now occupied by the Langham Hotel. Lord Foley built his house on the Portland Estate about the middle of the 18th century from the designs of S. Leadbetter; subsequently Portland Place was built exactly the width of the front of Foley House, in consequence of a covenant in Lord Foley's lease that no houses were to be built to the north of it. As originally planned Regent Street was in a straight line with Portland Place, and the freehold of Foley House was sold and the house pulled down. Sir James Langham bought a portion of the site, and employed Nash to build him a house. This was so ill constructed that Langham dismissed

1 Autobiography, vol. i. p. 180.

Nash, who then altered the intended straight line into the present crooked one.1 A house in Portland Place is now named Foley House.

Foley Place, REGENT STREET, was so called after Lord Foley, who was connected with the Harley family by marriage, and had a fine mansion where the Langham Hotel now stands. It was at first called Queen Anne Street, East, and Malone, who lived at No. 23,2 wrote that "he had gone to bed in one street, and rose in the morning in another." The name has been again changed, and at present is Langham Street. Joseph Wilton, R.A., the sculptor, inherited a number of houses in this street, which he mortgaged in 1774 to Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Chambers. Perhaps this transaction may tend to explain what Johnson wrote to Boswell :

March 5, 1774.-Chambers is either married, or almost to be married, to Miss Wilton, a girl of sixteen, exquisitely beautiful, whom he has with his lawyer's tongue persuaded to take her chance with him in the East.—Boswell, p. 411.

Lady Chambers lived at No. 53 in 1796, and Sir Robert, when he returned from India in 1799, at No. 56. No. I was built by James Wyatt, the architect, for his own residence. At No. 30 lived Campbell, author of "The Pleasures of Hope." Sir Charles Barry, the architect, lived at No. 27 from 1827 to 1841, and here "his chief designs (including that for the New Palace of Westminster) were made." 3

Foley Street, FOLEY PLACE. The young Edwin Landseer was living at No. 33 (the house of his father, John Landseer, the line engraver) in 1817, when his first picture was exhibited at Somerset House: "No. 343. Portrait of Brutus, the property of W. W.

Simpson, Esq."

Folkmares Lane. This name appears in deeds of the reign of Henry III. among the MSS. of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, as describing a place in the parish of St. Faith, and seems to have been the ancient name for Ivy Lane. [See Maxwell Lyte's Report; Hist. MSS. Comm., Appendix to Ninth Report.]

Folly (The), on the THAMES, a timber building erected in William III.'s reign, on a strong barge, and usually anchored on the Thames near the Savoy. It occasionally shifted its quarters, and in the Gardner Collection are maps which show it as moored off the Bankside. Tom Brown calls it a "musical summer house." The real name was the Royal Diversion, but it is "commonly called the Folly," says Hatton, "perhaps from the foolish things there sometimes acted." It is mentioned as the Folly in the anonymous comedy of the Woman turned Bully, 1675. It was frequented at first by persons of quality,

1 Builder, October 3, 1863, p. 703.

* Smith, Nollekens, vol. i. p. 12; it stood, he says, on the south side, on the site of Wilton the sculptor's studio, but Prior, Malone's biographer,

says it was No. 55 in Queen Street; possibly the houses were renumbered when the name of the street was changed.

3 Life, by his son, p. 324.

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