Bayswater was famous of old for its springs, reservoirs, and conduits, supplying the greater part of the City of London with water. Part of the great main pipe of lead which conveyed water from this place to the City conduits was discovered during the repavement of the Strand in June 1765; and as late as 1795 the houses in Bond Street standing upon the City lands were supplied from Bayswater.1 Two of the original springs on Craven Hill were covered in as late as 1849. In the early years of the present century there was a popular Tea Garden and place of entertainment at Bayswater, the house and gardens having previously acquired notoriety as the place where the famous quack doctor and author, Sir John Hill, wrote his books,-British Herbal, History of the Materia Medica, General Natural History, and Vegetable System, in twenty-six folio volumes,-received his patients, and grew the simples with which he treated them. Besides the churches and chapels which have been erected here, two rather remarkable places of worship have been recently opened in Moscow Road and Petersburg Place: one is a Greek Church, very richly fitted internally, and now the chief church of the wealthy Greek community settled in London; the other the New West End Synagogue, a structure of some external display and much internal splendour, designed by Messrs. Nathan and Pearson, and consecrated March 29, 1879. The Hebrew name of the new synagogue, it was said in the consecration sermon, is "The Western Wall," and it is so called from the sole relic of the great Temple in Jerusalem, now "the Wailing Place" of the Jews in the Holy City. At Bayswater House (which stood by itself in the road somewhere between Lancaster Gate and Orme Square) lived Fauntleroy, the banker and forger. Fronting Hyde Park, and formed in 1764, is a spacious burial-ground belonging to the parish of St. George, Hanover Square. Eminent Persons interred.- Lawrence Sterne (d. 1768), on the west side, about the middle of the ground, and against the wall; there is a head-stone to his memory, raised by certain free

masons.

The graveyard lay far from houses; no watch was kept after dark; all shunned the ill-famed neighbourhood. Sterne's grave was marked down by the body-snatchers, the corpse dug up and sold to the Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge. A student present at the dissection recognised under the scalpel the face.-Leslie's Reynolds, vol. i. p. 293.

Sir Thomas Picton, who fell at Waterloo, this body was removed to the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the family vault. Mrs. Radcliffe, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho (d. 1823); Sir John Parnell, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ireland (1744-1801), and his son, Henry Brooke Parnell, first Lord Congleton (1776-1842); Paul Sandby, R.A., (1725-1809); Horace Hone, minature painter (d. 1825), in the vaults of the chapel. J. T. Smith, the engraver of so many curious London views (d. 1833), keeper of the prints in the British Museum, and author of Nollekens and his Times, and the gossiping Streets of London, and

1 Of the "Conduit near Bayswater" there is a view by J. T. Smith.

Book for a Rainy Day. Sterne's tomb is in a very neglected condition, as indeed are all the monuments. In the ante-chapel is the tablet to Mrs. Molony with its singular inscription. As this is usually misquoted it may be well to give the main portion of it here :

Sacred to the memory of Mrs Jane Molony who lies interred in a vault underneath this chapel, daughter of Anthony Shee of Castle Bar in the County of Mayo, Esq who was married to Miss Burke of Curry in the said County and Cousin to the Rt Hon Edmond Burke commonly called the Sublime, whose bust is here surmounted or subjoined. The said Jane was cousin to the late Countess of Buckinghamshire, and was married to three successive husbands. The said Mrs Molony otherwise Shee died in London in January 1839 aged 74. She was hot, passionate and tender, and a highly accomplished lady, and a superb drawer in Water Colours, which was much admired in the Exhibition room in Somerset House some years past. "Though lost for ever, still a friend is dear. The heart yet pays a tributary tear.” This monument was erected by her deeply afflicted husband, the said Edmond Molony in memory of her great virtue and talents. Beloved and deeply regretted by all who knew her. For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

The chapel is closed and semi-ruinous, and the whole place looks desolate. It has been proposed to convert it into a public garden; but seeing how near are Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, it may be doubted if for recreation it is required, or on sanitary grounds it is advisable. For several years before it was closed for interments upwards of 1000 persons were buried in it annually, and it was with great difficulty that room for a new grave could be found. The vaults beneath the chapel contained, in 1850, as many as 1120 coffins.

Bayswater Hill. At No. 8 died in 1883 Sir Charles Hall, exVice-Chancellor. Here was the house which local tradition assigned as the habitation of Peter the Great when in London.

Beaconsfield Club, PALL MALL, was established in 1878, and named in honour of the then Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Members were expected to give a general support to the Conservative party. The club-house provided a limited number of furnished bedrooms for the convenience of country members. Not proving successful, it closed in 1887. The house is now occupied by the Unionist Club.

Beak Street, REGENT STREET, so called from "Thomas Beake, carpenter," to whom the property was demised in 1685. [See Pulteney Street.] Thomas Beake, clerk of the council, was the second of the name, and presumably son of the carpenter.

Late on Wednesday night last the corpse of Tho. Beake, Esq., one of the Clerks of the Council, was carried from his house in Beak Street by Golden Square, and interred in St. James's Church.-The Daily Journal, March 23, 1733.

Silver Street, Golden Square, was renamed Beak Street in 1883. Bear (The) at the Bridge Foot, a celebrated tavern at the Southwark end of old London Bridge, on the west side of High Street. It was pulled down in December 1761, when the houses on the bridge

1 There is no bust.

were removed and the bridge widened. One of the earliest references to it is in the printed accounts of Sir John Howard, under 1463-1464.1 Later allusions are frequent.2

More news? Ay by yon Bear at Bridge Foot, in even shalt thou.-The Puritaine : or, the Widow of Watling Street, written by W. S., 1607.

Kickshaw. Madam, you gave your nephew for my pupil,

I read but in a tavern; if you'll honour us,

The Bear at the Bridge Foot shall entertain you.

SHIRLEY, The Lady of Pleasure, 4to, 1637.

All back-doors to taverns on the Thames are commanded to be shut up, only the Bear at the Bridge Foot is exempted by reason of the passage to Greenwich.— Garrard to Lord Strafford, January 9, 1633.

From Greenwich toward the Bear at Bridge Foot,

He was wafted with wind that had water to't,
But I think they brought the Devil to boot,
Which nobody can deny,

Rump Songs, ed. 1662, p. 309.

The Earl of Buccleugh being newly returned out of the Low Countries, where he had been long a colonel, Sir Jacob Astley and he coming that day post from Rochester, lighted at the Bear at Bridge Foot, when they drank a glass of sack with a toast; putting instantly to water, being not many boats' lengths from the shore, my Lord Buccleugh cried out, "I am deadly sick, row back; Lord have mercy upon me!" without more words spoken, died that night.—Garrard to Lord Strafford, December 6, 1633.

February 24, 1666-67.—Going through Bridge [London Bridge] by water, my waterman told me how the mistress of the Beare Tavern, at the Bridge Foot, did lately fling herself into the Thames, and drown herself.-Pepys.

April 3, 1667.-I hear how the King is not so well pleased of this marriage between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stuart, as is talked; and that he by a wile did fetch her to the Bear at the Bridge Foot, where a coach was ready, and they are stole away into Kent [Cobham] without the King's leave.—Pepys.

3

Major Pack repeats one piece of [coarse] gallantry, among many others, that Mr. Wycherly related, in which he took part, in "a house at the Bridge Foot, where persons of better condition used to resort" to drink canary and toast their mistresses. When Bulstrode Whitelocke returned from the Swedish Embassy in 1654, he made a halt at the Bear before proceeding to see the Protector at Whitehall or his own wife at Chelsea. Sir John Suckling dates his Letter from the Winedrinkers to the Water-drinkers from this tavern.

Bear Binder Lane, CITY, was at the Lombard Street end of St. Swithin's Lane, east of the Mansion House. The name first appears in the City records under the date 1358. This was the spot at which the plague of 1665 first made its appearance within the City walls.

To the great affliction of the City, one died within the walls, in the parish of St.

1 Mr. Riley printed the lease of a tavern, D. 1319, which he believed to be identical with this famous house. It is described as in the parish of St. Olave, "which tavern the same Thomas (Drinkwater] has recently built at the head of London Bridge."-Memorials of London, p. 132.

2 Gifford makes a great mistake about it. "This tavern," he says, "is frequently mentioned by our old dramatists. The bridge meant was in Shirley's time called the Strand Bridge."-Shirley's Works, vol. iv. p. 72.

3 Miscellanies, 8vo, 1719, p. 185.

し

It

Mary Wool Church, that is to say, in Bear Binder Lane, near Stock's Market. was, however, upon inquiry found that the Frenchman who lived in Bear Binder Lane was one who, having lived in Long Acre, near the infected houses, had removed for fear of the distemper, not knowing that he was already infected.

was in the beginning of May.-De Foe, History of the Plague.

This

Bear Garden, BANKSIDE, SOUTHWARK, a royal garden or amphi

theatre for the exhibition of bear and bull baitings; a favourite amusement with the people of England till late in the reign of William III. There was a garden here from a very early date, and Mr. Rendle mentions that in 1586 "Morgan Pope agrees to pay unto ye parish for the bear garden and for the ground adjoining to the same where the dogs are 6s. 8d. at Christmas next; and so on after 6s. 8d. by the year for tithes."-Harrison's England, pt. 2, ed. Furnivall (New Shakspere Society). The Tudors and Stuarts enjoyed the sport, and generally introduced a new ambassador to the Bear Garden as soon as the first audience was over. Froude relates that Elizabeth invited the Spanish Ambassador to the Bear Garden when "Europe was ringing with the first intelligence of Drake's exploits in the Pacific," in the hope that she might be able, during the intervals of the engrossing sport, to wheedle out of him the secret of what Philip II. really thought on the subject.1 One of the bears of this time, Shakerton, has found enduring celebrity in Shakespeare; and the last Master of importance was Edward Alleyn, the actor, and founder of Dulwich College. It appears from an epigram of Crowley, the printer, that Sunday, in the reign of Henry VIII., was the favourite day of exhibition,2 and from a letter of Henslowe to Alleyn, that this custom, "which was the cheffest meanes and benyfite to the place," continued till the reign of James I.3 Stow does not mention the Bear Garden in the first edition of his Survey (1598), but in the second edition (1603) he says the baiting of bulls and bears is much frequented, "namely in Bear Gardens, on the Bank's side, wherein be prepared scaffolds for beholders to stand upon." Further on he says "there be two Bear Gardens, the Old and New Places."

In 1583 one of the amphitheatres fell down, during a Sunday performance, killing some of the audience. As Stow says, "a friendly warning to such as more delight in the cruelties of beastes than in the works of mercy, which ought to be the Sabbath day's exercise."-Annales.

There is still another place built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of bulls and bears. They are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs; but not without great risque to the dogs, from the horns of the one and the teeth of the other; and it sometimes happens they are killed upon the spot. Fresh ones are immediately supplied in the place of those that are wounded or tired. To this entertainment there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear, which is performed by five or six men, standing circularly with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his chain. He defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come within his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips out of their hands and breaking them. At these spectacles and everywhere else, the 2 Strype, B. iv. p. 6.

1 History of England, vol. xi. p. 389.

3 Collier's Life of Alleyn, p. 75.

English are constantly smoking tobacco. In these theatres fruits, such as apples, pears, and nuts, according to their season, are carried about to be sold, as well as ale and wine.-Hentzner's Travels, A.D. 1590.

The White Bull at the Beare-garden, who tosseth up dogges like tennis balles and catching them againe upon his horns, makes them gaiter their legges with their owne guts.-A New Booke of Mistakes, 1637, quoted in Huth's Prefaces, Dedications, and Epistles, p. 358.

February, 1655.-Colonel Pride, now Sir Thomas Pride, by reason of some difference between him and the Keeper Godfrey of the Beares in the Bear Garden in Southwark, as a Justice of Peace, then caused all the beares to be fast tyed up by the noses, and then valiantly brought some files of musketeers, drew up, and gave fyre; and kil'd six or more beares in the Place (only leaving one white innocent cubb), and also cockes of the game. It is said all the mastives are to be shipt for Jamaica.-Townsend's Annals, MS., p. 285; Prattenton's Coll., Soc. of Antiq.

The Hope on the Bank's side in Southwarke, commonly called the Beare Garden, a play house for Stage Playes on Mundayes, Wedensdayes, Fridayes, and Saterdayes; and for the Baiting of the Beares on Tuesdayes and Thursdayes, the stage being made to take up and downe when they please. It was built in the year 1610, and now pulled downe to make tennementes by Thomas Walker, a petticoate maker in Cannon Streete, on Tuesday the 25 day of March, 1656. Seven of Mr. Godfries beares, by the command of Thomas Pride, then hie Sheriefe of Surry, were then shot to death on Saterday the 9 day of February 1655 by a company of Souldiers. -Notes on London Churches and Buildings, A.D. 1631-1658; Harrison's England, vol. ii. (New Shakspere Society).

Pepys went often to the Bear Garden, and sometimes took his wife there; and even the sage and serious Evelyn went with some friends and stayed to the end, though he got "most heartily weary of the rude and dirty pastime."

August 14, 1666.—After dinner with my wife and Mercer to the Beare-garden; where I have not been I think of many years, and saw some good sport of the bulls tossing of the dogs: one into the very boxes. But it is a very rude and nasty pleasure. We had a great many hectors in the same box with us, and one very fine went into the pit and played his dog for a wager, which was strange sport for a gentleman.-Pepys.

May 27, 1667.-Abroad, and stopped at Bear Garden Stairs, there to see a prize fought. But the house so full there was no getting in there, so forced to go through an ale-house into the pit, where the bears are baited; and upon a stool did see them fight, which they did very furiously, a butcher and a waterman. The former had the better all along, till, by and by, the latter dropped his sword out of his hand, and the butcher, whether not seeing his sword dropped I know not, but did give him a cut over the wrist, so as he was disabled to fight any longer. But Lord! to see how in a minute the whole stage was full of watermen to revenge the foul play, and the butchers to defend their fellow, though most blamed him; and there they all fell to it, to knocking down and cutting many on each side. It was pleasant to see, but that I stood in the pit, and feared that in the tumult I might get some hurt. At last the battle broke up, and so I away.-Pepys. See also September 9, 1667, and April 12, 1669.

June 16, 1670.-I went with some friends to the Bear Garden, where was cock-fighting, dog-fighting, beare and bull baiting, it being a famous day for all these butcherly sports, or rather barbarous cruelties. The bulls did exceedingly well, but the Irish woolfe-dog exceeded, which was a tall greyhound, a stately creature indeed, who beat a cruel mastif. One of the bulls tossed a dog full into a lady's lap, as she sate in one of the boxes at a considerable height from the arena. Two poor dogs were killed and so all ended with the ape on horseback, and I most heartily weary of the rude and dirty pastime, which I had not seen I think in twenty years before. -Evelyn, Diary.

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