room. Leigh Hunt describes West's garden as "small but elegant, with a grass-plot in the middle, and busts on stands under an arcade." This gallery of West's was the best lighted picture gallery of any in London, and led to the formation of several after its principles. It was for a time occupied as Irving's Apostolic Church. Thomas Stothard, R.A., at No. 28, from 1794 to his death in 1834. James Heath (d. 1834) was living at No. 42 when he engraved his fine full length of General Washington after Stuart. Charles Kemble, when his daughter Frances Ann (Fanny) was born, November 27, 1809.

Newman's ROW, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS (on the north-east corner, near Great Turnstile), was so called after "a Mr. Newman, a great builder in Lincoln's Inn Fields," so described at page 15 of the Life of the notorious Richard Farr, executed at Tyburn, April 12, 1665.

Newport Market. [See Newport Street.] About 1725-1726 John Henley, a clerk in priest's orders, hired a large room over the market-house in Newport Market, and registered it as a place for religious worship. He then, by advertisements in the papers, invited all persons to come and take seats for twopence a piece, promising them diversion under the titles of Voluntaries, Chimes of the Times, Roundelays, College Bobs, etc. Great numbers of people flocked to witness his idiotic and indecent buffooneries, until at last they were put a stop to in this place by a presentment of the Grand Jury of Middlesex in January 1729. His next appearance was at "The Oratory" in Clare Market. Horne Tooke was the son of a poulterer named Horne in Newport Market. When asked what his father was by some of his schoolfellows, he is said to have replied, "A Turkey merchant." Frederick, Prince of Wales, at this time kept his court at Leicester House, and some of his household desiring to have a backway to Newport Market, without any ceremony caused an opening to be made in the wall and a door placed in it, the way thence being through Horne's premises. Horne remonstrated, but no notice being taken of his protest, he applied to the law courts and obtained "an order for the immediate removal of the obnoxious door." 1 In Newport Market and its neighbourhood there were formerly from forty to fifty butchers, and several slaughter-houses, and these butchers used to kill weekly upon an average from 300 to 400 bullocks, from 500 to 700 sheep, according to circumstances, and from 50 to 100 calves; 1000 to 1100 sheep have been known to be killed in one week. By the erection of Sandringham Buildings and the alterations caused by the new thoroughfare of Charing Cross Road the place has almost entirely disappeared.

Newport Street, Great, west of LONG ACRE, derives its name from "Newport House," the London residence of Montjoy Blount,

1 Life of Horne Tooke, vol. i. p. 11 (quoted in Lord John Russell's Essay on the English Constitution, etc., p. 317).

created Earl of Newport by King Charles I. (d. 1665). Lord Newport was living in 1635 in Military Street [see Military Garden], next door to the Earl of Leicester.1 In February 1644 Garrard writes to the Lord Deputy Wentworth that Lord Newport had "removed to the house that was Sir William Howard's in the Fields, which he gave his brother my Lord Howard, and he hath sold it to my Lord Newport for £2500."2 A few years later George Fox, the Quaker, was here.

I had not been long come to London [in 1658], before I heard that a Jesuit, who came over with an Embassador from Spain, had challenged all the Quakers, to dispute with them at the Earl of Newport's House: whereupon some Friends let him know, That we would meet him. Then he sent us word, He would meet with twelve of the wisest learned men we had. After awhile he sent us word, He would meet with but six; and after that he sent us word again, He would have but three to come. We hast'ned what we could, lest, for all his great boast, he should put it quite off at last. When we were come to the house, I bid Nicolas Bond and Edward Burrough go up, and enter the discourse with him, and I would walk awhile in the Yard, and then come up after them.-George Fox's Journal, 1658, p. 286, sub. ann.

William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, died in Newport House, described at the time as "neere Leicester Fields in the suburbs of London." In the Accounts of the Overseers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields for the year 1647 the Earl of Newport is rated in the sum of £2: 105. "for the Lamas of the ground whereon his house and garden stands ;" and a few years earlier (1641-1642), in the Lamas Grounds Receipts, the same charge is entered "for rent of the Lamas Comon, builded upon heretofore by Sir William Howard, Knight," which house Lord Newport had just purchased. By 1672 the property had passed into other hands. The Earl of Newport's house stood at the north-west corner of Newport Street, Lord Bolingbroke's at the north-east.

Leicester House was originally included in this street. In 1663 the following persons were rated to the poor of the parish of St. Martin'sin-the-Fields under the head of "Newport Street :"

The Earl of Bollinbrooke. The Lord Crofts. The Lady Cornwallis. The Earle of Holland. The Lady Eurett. Mr. Man. Hen. Murray, Esq. The Lady Harris. Esq. Hollis. The Earle of Newport. The Ea. of Leicester. The Lord Jarrard [Gerard] in the Military Garden. Richard Ffolkes. Mr. Dancett. Mr. Parsons.

Chas. Locke.

In the next year (1664) Captain Ryder had succeeded Mr. Dancett. [See Ryder's Court.] From the following entry in the Accounts of the Surveyor of Ways to the Crown for 1681-1684, Newport Street would seem to have been regarded as a portion of the "King's Private Way" to the royal hunting grounds: "For gravel laid down at Newport Wall to repair the King's Private Way to Enfield Chase, St. John's Wood, and Highgate."

Newport Street fronts Long Acre.

The north side, which is in this parish [St.

207) under February 27, 1633, but this appears to be an error.

1 Rate-books of St. Martin's. Newport Street is mentioned in the Strafford Papers (vol. i. 2 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 207.

p.

Ann's, Soho], hath far the best buildings, and is inhabited by gentry; whereas on the other side dwell ordinary tradespeople, of which several are of the French nation.-Strype, B. vi. p. 86.

Eminent Inhabitants.-The first Earl of Carlisle, of the Howard family. Rymer, for many years in a house on the south side. Carte, the historian, at "Mr. Ker's at the Golden Head." Sir Joshua Reynolds at No. 5, on the north side, from 1753 to 1761, when he removed to Leicester Fields. His prices then were, for a head 12 guineas, for a half-length, 24, and for a whole length, 28. "This period," says his pupil and biographer, Northcote, "was the dawn of his splendour;"1 but it was more than the dawn, some of the very finest of his portraits having been painted here. Reynolds's rival, George Romney, was also in his earlier years resident for a time in Newport Street.

When I first knew Romney, he was poorly lodged in Newport Street, and painted at the small price of eight guineas for a three-quarter portrait: I sate to him, and was the first who encouraged him to advance his terms, by paying him ten guineas for his performance.-Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, p. 465.

Vivares, the engraver, kept a print shop at the right-hand corner by Newport Market, what is now No. 12. Smith, who knew him, describes him as "a little man who usually wore a velvet cap;" he had heard that originally Vivares kept a tailor's shop in this street.2 Ozias Humphry, the miniature painter, in 1772 "took lodgings at the Golden Head, the usual sign of artists, in Great Newport Street." 3 About 1787, when he wrote his insolent letter to Northcote, Dr. Wolcot was living at No. 7 in this street. In 1768 Wedgwood established his warehouse and showrooms at the corner of Newport Street and St. Martin's Lane. In a letter dated March 31, 1768, he describes it as "at the top of St. Martin's Lane, a corner house, 60 feet long, the streets wide which lie to it, and carriages may come to it, either from Westminster or the City, without being inconvenienced with drays full of timber, coal, etc. The rent is 100 guineas a year." Its success was immediate. Writing to Bentley, his partner, May 1, 1769, he says, "Mrs. Byerley is just returned from London, and brings a strange account of their goings on in Newport Street. No getting in the door for coaches, nor into the rooms for ladies and gentlemen ; and vases are all the rage." Queen Charlotte maintained a school in this street "for a limited number of Young Ladies of good family, whose parents had not been so fortunate as they merited." 4

The west end of Great Newport Street has been cleared away to make room for Charing Cross Road.

Nicholas (St.) Acon, LOMBARD STREET, in Langbourne Ward, a church destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. The name survives in Nicholas Lane, but the origin of the second name Acon 3 Smith, vol. ii. p. 360.

1 Northcote, Life of Reynolds, vol. i. p. 59. 2 Smith's Nollekens, vol. ii. p. 249; O'Keefe, vol. i. p. 66.

A Gentleman's Magazine, 1817, p. 470.

(or Acres) is unknown. A part of the old burial-ground still remains in Nicholas Lane.

Nicholas (St.) Cold Abbey, OLD FISH STREET, now KnightRIDER STREET, corner of Fish Street Hill, a church in the ward of Queenhithe, destroyed in the Great Fire, rebuilt from the designs of Sir C. Wren, and completed in 1677. It was the first church built after the Fire. It is a plain building of brick and stone, the angles rusticated, with, at the west end, a square tower and lead-covered spire of peculiar rather than graceful form, but affording a picturesque variety in the general view of City spires. The interior is 63 feet long, 43 wide, and 36 high, and has, like most of Wren's churches, some effective carving. The cost was £5500.

St. Nicholas Cold Abbey hath been called of many Golden Abbey, of some Gold Abbey, or Cold Bey, and so hath the most ancient writings, as standing in a cold place, as Cold harbour and such like.—Stow, p. 132.

The advowson of this living belonged to the Hacker family, and passed to the Crown on the execution and attainder of Colonel Francis Hacker, to whom the warrant for the execution of Charles I. was addressed, and who commanded the guard before Whitehall when the sentence was carried out. It now serves as well for St. Nicholas Olave, St. Mary Mounthaw, and St. Mary Somerset, the two latter having been united with it by an Order in Council, November 1866.

Nicholas (St.) Olave, BREAD STREET HILL, a church in the ward of Queenhithe, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. The old burying-ground is still to be seen on the west side of Bread Street Hill. The church of the parish is St. Nicholas Cold Abbey.

Nicholas (St.) Shambles, a church in or near NEWGATE STREET, in the ward of Farringdon Within, pulled down at the Reformation, when the church of the Grey Friars' Monastery was called Christ Church, and made to answer the purposes of the church of St. Nicholas Shambles. It derives its name of Shambles from the Shambles or Butchery in which it was situated. [See Butcher Hall Lane.]

In the 11th Richard II., 1588, William Wettone, Alderman of the Ward of Dowgate, on Saturday the eve of Pentecost, went to the Shambles of St. Nicholas, and seeing some pieces of meat lying for sale on the stall of Richard Bole, butcher, asked the price, and being told "four shillings" said it was too dear. "I do surely believe that the meat is too dear for thee," said the butcher, "who I suppose never bought so much meat as that for thy own use;" and then noticing that the Alderman had on an Alderman's hood, he added some coarse words derogatory to the whole Aldermanie. For these words he was summoned before the Mayor and committed to Newgate till the Mayor and Alderman should have taken counsel as to the punishment meet for such misconduct. Eventually he was sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment in Newgate and "on his leaving prison, with his head uncovered, and bare legs and feet, he should carry in his hand a wax torch, weighing one pound, and lighted, from Newgate through the shambles aforesaid, and so straight through Cheap, as far as St. Lawrence Lane, and through that lane to the Chapel of the Guild Hall, and there make an offering of the same." The imprisonment was

remitted at the request of the Archbishop of Armagh, and "the entreaty of the reputable men of the said trade of butchers."1

Butchers at the shambles no doubt used ample license of language in those as in later days, but it was no light matter then to speak disrespectfully to or of an alderman. Richard Bole and his reputable brethren of the trade of butchers we may hope laid the lesson to heart.

The Act of 4 Henry VII., c. 3 (1488), after reciting a petition of the parishioners of St. Faith's and St. Gregory's complaining that great concourse of people at St. Paul's were annoyed, etc., "by the slaughter of beasts, and scalding of swine in the butchery of St. Nicholas Shambles, which corruption and foul ordure compasseth two parts of the Palace, where the Kyng was wont to abide when he came to the Cathedral, to the 'jeopardous abydynge of his most royal persoun,' and to his great annoyance, enacted certain penalties against any butcher or his servant slaying beasts there."

First I was sent to the Marshalsey by Doctor Story, and was carried to his house besides S. Nicholas Shambles.-Fox, Martyrology, ed. 1597, p. 1805.

Marshall. What made you abroad?

Wood. The Bishop of Chichester sent for me to talke with me at home, at his house beside S. Nicholas Shambles.-Ibid., p. 1808.

Nicholas Lane, LOMBARD STREET to CANNON STREET, crossing King William Street, was so called from the church of St. Nicholas Acon, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt: a portion of the churchyard, with a few green trees in it, remains on the west side of the lane, and is a pleasant relief to the eye. The emblem of St. Nicholas (the patron saint of citizens, merchants and mariners) is three purses of gold, or three golden balls; hence the arms of the Lombard merchants who settled in Lombard Street (now represented by the London bankers), and the three golden balls of the pawnbrokers of the present day. Several costly blocks of offices have been erected here within the last few years. No. 35, Lombard Street end, is the Agra Bank; No. 37 the National Bank of Scotland. In June 1850 the workmen, excavating in the centre of the lane for a sewer, came upon a large slab of stone with an inscription in good preservation—

NVMC [or O]. . . . PROV ... BRITA.

It was believed that other stones might have been found, but the workmen were not allowed to diverge to the right or the left, "though a gentleman offered to pay any expense incurred by the research." 2

Nightingale Lane, EAST SMITHFIELD, separates St. Katherine's Docks from the London Docks, and derives its name from the men of the Cnihten Guild [Knights' Guild], and was originally Cnihten Guild Lane. [See Portsoken Ward.]

Noble Street, CHEAPSIDE, from FALCON SQUARE to GRESHAM STREET; "pretty long," says Stow, "and indifferently well inhabited; 2 Gentleman's Magazine, July 1850, p. 114.

1 Riley, Memorials, p. 502.