the rent and sum of fourscore pounds of lawful money of England.” 1 The following year the market was rated to the poor for the first time, when there were twenty-three salesmen, severally rated at 2s. and Is. When Bedford House was taken down in 1704, and Tavistock Row, etc., built on the site of the boundary wall of that house, the marketpeople were pushed from off the foot-pavement into the centre of the square, and afterwards increasing in business and in number, they came to engross by degrees the whole area of the garden. What the market was like at the end of the 17th century we are told by Strype :

It

The south side of Covent Garden Square lieth open to Bedford Garden, where there is a small grotto of trees, most pleasant in the summer season; and on this side there is kept a market for fruits, herbs, roots, and flowers, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, which is grown to a considerable account and well served with choice goods, which makes it much resorted unto.-Strype, B. vi. p. 89. It was, however, he tells us in another place (B. ii. p. 199), inferior to the Stocks Market, "surpassing," as that market did, "all the other fruit markets in London." This refers to 1698, or perhaps a little later; and in 1710 the market was of so little account or extent that the view of the piazza, as engraved in that year by Sutton Nichols, represents the market as limited to a few stalls or temporary sheds. increased, however, with the surrounding population, and, from a memorial of the vestry of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, addressed in April 1748 to the Duke of Bedford (the ground landlord of the market), it would appear that the sheds in the market-place, mere stalls or tenements of one storey at the first, had been increased by upper sheds, converted into bedchambers and other apartments inhabited by bakers, cooks, retailers of Geneva, "to the injury and prejudice of the fair trader." 2 Edmund Burke may be placed among the "marketgardeners" who have helped to supply Covent Garden. On September 10, 1771, he writes to Arthur Young :

-

My carrots last year were remarkably fine. I sold as much as brought fourteen pounds, and I am convinced that if I had understood Covent Garden Market so well last year as I do now, I should have sold the same weight for near thirty.-Burke's Letters, vol. i. p. 258.

The present market-place was erected in 1830 by the late Duke of Bedford, from the designs of Mr. Charles Fowler, architect, at a cost of £50,000; but it has since been greatly altered. The stranger in London who wishes to see what Covent Garden Market is like-and it is worth seeing-should visit it on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday morning, not later than six o'clock. The market, with its motley array of buyers and sellers, is an animated and picturesque sight. The display of vegetables is wondrous. The piled and well-packed waggons and carts begin to arrive before midnight, are marshalled in the streets leading to the market, and begin to dispose of their loads about four in the morn

1 Printed in Gentleman's Magazine, November 1853, p. 380.

2 There is a capital view of part of the old market in Hogarth's print of Morning; and a

very good engraving by T. Bowles (1751) showing the Dial, and that part of the piazza or arcade which no longer exists.

ing. The vegetables and fruit are sold in the open space, flowers in the new flower-market which extends into Wellington Street. When the wholesale and larger dealers have made their purchases, and trade is slackening, the stock remaining is disposed of, chiefly to costermongers, by a sort of Dutch auction. To see the supply of fruit and vegetables carted off, 7 A.M. is early enough. To enjoy the sight and smell of flowers and fruit, the finest in the world, any time from 10 A.M. to 4 or 5 P.M. will answer. The centre arcade at midday is a pretty sight, but it is not what it once was. Saturday is the best day. 48 Covent Garden Theatre, or the ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA HOUSE, on the west side of Bow Street, Covent Garden, is the third, or rather the fourth theatre on the same spot. The first was built by subscription (Edward Shepherd, architect), and was opened, December 7, 1733, by John Rich, the famous harlequin and patentee of the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.1 Sixty years after it was so enlarged and altered, at a cost of £30,000, as to be in effect a new house, and was opened on September 17, 1792, when the prices were made-Boxes 6s., Pit 3s. 6d., and Gallery 25. This second theatre, during the management of John Kemble, was burnt to the ground on the morning of September 20, 1808. Thirty lives were lost, and property of great value destroyed, together with Handel's organ and the stock of wines of the Beef-Steak Society. The first stone of the third theatre was laid by the Prince of Wales (George IV.) on December 31, 1808. This theatre, which cost £150,000, was much larger than its predecessor. Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., was the architect, and the exterior was marked by a fine tetrastyle Doric portico, statues in niches of Melpomene and Thalia by Flaxman and Rossi, and bas-reliefs of the ancient and modern drama by Flaxman. It was opened on September 10, 1809, with a new tariff of prices, which gave occasion to the celebrated O.P. riots.

The new Covent Garden Theatre opened September 18, 1809, when a cry of "Old Prices" (afterwards diminished to "O.P.") burst out from every part of the house. This continued and increased in violence till the 23d, when rattles, drums, whistles, and cat-calls, having completely drowned the voices of the actors, Mr. Kemble, the stage-manager, came forward and said, that a committee of gentlemen had undertaken to examine the finances of the concern, and that till they were prepared with their report the theatre would continue closed. "Name them!" was shouted from all sides. The names were declared. "All shareholders !" bawled a wag from the gallery. In a few days, the theatre reopened: the public paid no attention to the report of the referees, and the tumult was renewed for several weeks with even increased violence. The proprietors now sent in hired bruisers, to mill the refractory into subjection. This irritated most of their former friends, and amongst the rest the annotator, who accordingly wrote the song of "Heigh-ho, says Kemble," which was caught up by the ballad-singers and sung under Mr. Kemble's house-windows in Great Russell Street. A dinner was given [December 14], at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand, to celebrate the victory obtained by W. Clifford in his action against Brandon the box-keeper for wearing the letters O. P. in his hat. At this dinner Mr. Kemble attended, and matters were compromised by allowing the advanced price (seven shillings) to the boxes.-Notes of Horace and James Smith in Rejected Addresses, p. 48.

1 There is a print by Hogarth called Rich's Glory, or his Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden. VOL. I 2 H

The new prices on the first night were-Boxes 78., Pit 4s., the Lower and Upper Galleries the same as usual. The riot lasted sixty-seven nights, after which the pit was reduced to 3s. 6d.

The expenses of Covent Garden Theatre were so great that it was long unlet for the purposes of the legitimate drama. M. Jullien held his Promenade Concerts in it for some time, and in the years 18431845 it was leased by the members of the Anti-Corn-Law League. Great alterations were made in the spring of 1847, under the direction of Mr. Benedict Albano, and on Tuesday, April 6, 1847, it was publicly opened as an Italian Opera, but with such an extravagance of expenditure that in 1848 there was a loss of £34,756, and in 1849 of £25.455. In one year (1848) the Vocal Department cost £33,349; the Ballet £8105, and the Orchestra £10,048. It continued, however, to be maintained as an Italian Opera, but was let occasionally for other purposes, and on the morning of March 5, 1856, after the holding of a bal-masqué, it was burned to the ground.

The new theatre (E. M. Barry, R.A., architect) was designed expressly for Italian Opera, and was opened in May 1858. It is a fifth larger than its predecessor, and is almost as large as La Scala at Milan. The interior is nearly a semicircle, with the sides somewhat prolonged towards the stage; it is 75 feet deep, 65 wide and 80 high, and will seat an audience of nearly 2000. The stage is 90 feet deep and 50 feet high; the proscenium 50 feet high and 40 feet wide. Of the exterior, the main feature is a lofty Corinthian portico of six columns, each 36 feet high and 3 feet in diameter; the basement forms a covered carriage entrance to the theatre. The statues and rilievi by Flaxman and Rossi, saved from the former theatre, occupy conspicuous positions on either side of the portico. After the opera season the theatre is usually let for Promenade Concerts. Concerts were also given occasionally in the adjoining glass building, the Floral Hall, constructed originally for a flower-market, attached and now reattached to Covent Garden.

Coventry House, PICCADILLY. On the site of No. 106 stood the old inn called “The Greyhound," which was bought by William, sixth Earl of Coventry, in 1764, soon after his second marriage, from Sir Hugh Hunlock for 10,000 guineas, subject to a ground-rent of £75 per annum. The Earl, whose first wife was Maria, the elder of the two beautiful Miss Gunnings, built on the site a new house, in which he died in 1809. George, seventh Earl of Coventry, was living here in 1829. It afterwards became the "Coventry House Club," which was closed in March 1854. It is now the St. James's Club.

Coventry Street, HAYMARKET. Commenced circa 1681, and so called after Coventry House, the London residence of Henry Coventry, third son of Lord Keeper Coventry, and himself Secretary of State to Charles II. It is a common error to suppose, and one moreover made by Walpole, that Coventry Street derived its name from the residence

here of Lord Keeper Coventry. Lord Keeper Coventry died in Durham House in the Strand in 1640; his son, the second lord, died at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661; and the third lord in the same house in 1680.

Lost, on Friday night last, between London and Barnet, a white Land Spaniel, somewhat long-haired, both ears red, his Tale lately shorne, and a steel Collar about his neck. Whoever will give notice to the Porter, at Mr. Secretary Coventry's House in Pickadilly, shall be well rewarded.-London Gazette, July 30 to August 3, 1674, No. 908.

Henry Coventry died in Coventry House, in 1686, leaving his property in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields to his nephew, Mr. Henry Coventry. The house was sometimes called Piccadilly House. When Sir William Coventry died at Tunbridge Wells, June 23, 1685, Henry Savile wrote to his brother, the Marquis of Halifax :

He said he had left his Will in the hands of my cousin Nat Coventry to whom we have sent to be at Piccadilly House this afternoon at three of clock, and we have also sent word to both our Uncles Frank and Harry to be there.-Savile's Corresp. (Camden Soc.), p. 293.

Among the Private Acts of the first years of William and Mary are"I W. and M., c. 9. An Act for the Sale or Leasing the Capital Messuage, late Henry Coventry's, Esq., in Piccadilly"; and "2 W. and M. An Act to supply a defect in an Act for the Sale or Leasing of a House, late Mr. Secretary Coventry's in Piccadilly." The house stood on the north side of Panton Street, and abutted on Oxenden Street, the garden wall adjoining Baxter's Chapel in that street. The continuation of the present Coventry Street, through Sydney Alley and Cranbourne Alley into Long Acre, was made (with the adjoining improvement) in 1843-1845. The sum of £71,827 was paid to the Marquis of Salisbury for freehold purchases required in clearing the site, but a still larger sum was paid to shopkeepers and residents for the "goodwill" of their houses.

Cow Cross, now Cow CROSS STREET, SMITHFIELD, between St. John Street and Turnmill Street.

On the left-hand side of St. John Street lieth a lane called Cow Cross, of a cross some time standing there; which lane turneth down to another lane, called Turnmill Street, which stretcheth up to the west of Clerkenwell.-Stow, p. 161.

SIR JOHN CROSBY, the Lord Mayor (ruminating)—

But soft, John Crosby ! thou forget'st thyself,

And dost not mind thy birth and parentage;

Where thou wast born, and whence thou art derived.

I do not shame to say, the Hospital

Of London was my chiefest fost'ring place:
There did I learn that, near unto a cross,
Commonly called Cow Cross, near Islington,
An honest citizen did chance to find me:

A poor shoemaker by his trade he was;
And doubting of my christendom or no,
Call'd me according to the place he found me,

John Crosby, finding me so by a cross.

King Edward IV., by T. Heywood, 4to, 1600.

1563

V

"The Hospital" was Christ's Hospital, but the Crosby of Edward IV.'s reign could not very well have been educated (except in a play) in an hospital founded by Edward VI. Our fine old dramatists disregarded anachronisms of this kind. Cow Cross, and especially the narrow streets and courts leading out of it, long had a very bad reputation, and as late as 1861 Lord Shaftesbury described the neighbourhood to the House of Lords in the following terms: "In sixteen courts there I found 173 houses, having 586 rooms in all, and in them 586 families; the number of persons was 3754, being an average of 6 persons to a room. The rooms were from 15 by 12 to 9 by 9 feet. They were low, dark, dismal, and dirty; so low indeed that it was with great difficulty I could stand upright in them, and, when I extended my arms, I could touch the walls on either side with my fingers' ends. In these rooms I found five, six, seven, eight, or even nine persons living." Some improvements have been made since then, but the purlieus of Cow Cross are still, it is to be feared, in a very unsatisfactory condition, alike in a moral and a sanitary point of view.

Cow Lane, WEST SMITHFIELD, now KING STREET, runs from the north-west corner of Smithfield to Snow Hill.

Mrs. Littlewit. Sir, my mother has had her nativity-water cast by the cunningmen in Cow Lane, and they have told her her fortune, etc. Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, Act i. Sc. I.

In those early days Cow Lane seems to have been the abode of booksellers and coachmakers as well as cunning-men.

The Fraternitie of Vacabondes. Imprinted at London by W. White, dwelling in Cow Lane, 1663.

When Pepys resolved to set up a carriage he lighted on one in Cow Lane (October 20, 1668), for which he bid £50, and which "did please me mightily." The next day he took his "wife to Cow Lane, and there showed her the coach which I did pitch on, and she is out of herself for joy almost." Then they consulted a friend, who (as a similar friend would in our own day) "finds most infinite fault with it," tells them their selection is heavy and old-fashioned, and took them to his own coachmaker, near Lincoln's Inn (Queen Street, perhaps, or Long Acre); but, after all, Pepys comes back to Cow Lane.

November 5.-With Mr. Povy spent all the afternoon going up and down among the coachmakers in Cow Lane, and did see several, and at last did pitch upon a little chariott, at the widow's that made Mr. Lowther's fine coach; and we are mightily pleased with it, it being light, and will be very genteel and sober.-Pepys.

It is noteworthy that so late as 1784 the firm of Collingridge— renowned among coachmakers-had their headquarters in Cow Lane. "Well, Sir," said I [Mrs. Thrale], "how did you like little Miss? I hope she was fine enough." "It was the finery of a beggar," said he [Johnson], "and you know it was she looked like a native of Cow Lane dressed up to be carried to Bartholomew Fair." Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 286.

Richard Earlom, the mezzotint engraver, was born in Cow Lane in 1742.