Sun Tavern. [See Fulwood's Rents.]

Sun Tavern behind the Royal Exchange, was built immediately after the Great Fire of 1666, at the expense of John Wadloe, son of old Simon Wadloe and his successor as landlord of the Devil Tavern.

June 28, 1667.-Mr. Lowther tells me that the Duke of Buckingham do dine publicly at Wadlow's at the Sun Tavern.—Pepys.

In Wit and Drollery (12mo, 1682, p. 28) is a poem "Upon Mr. Wadloe's New Tavern and Sign behind the Royal Exchange." The sign, it appears from this, was painted by Isaac Fuller. Among the Luttrell Ballads and Broadsides was a poem, called "The Glory of the Sun Tavern behind the Exchange" (1672). It seems to have been built in a very magnificent manner. The writer calls Wadloe the Wolsey of tavern magnificence.

Sun Tavern Fields, UPPER SHADWELL, east of King David Lane, notorious a century ago as a meeting-place for East End roughs, but long since built over. In 1768, when the London coal-whippers "struck" for higher wages, seven of them were hanged in these fields for shooting at the landlord of the Roundabout Tavern in Shadwell. The sailors who manned the colliers in the Pool being detained by the strike of the coal-whippers, began to unload the cargoes themselves, and were set upon in consequence.

Surgeons, Royal College of, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, south side. In the year 1745 the barbers and surgeons, who from 1540 until that date had formed one company, separated, and the latter were incorporated under the title of "The Masters, Governors and Commonalty of the Art and Science of Surgery." At the dissolution the barbers retained the hall in Monkwell Street [see Barber-Surgeons' Hall], the surgeons finding a temporary home at Stationers' Hall until 1751, when their premises, known as Surgeons' Hall in the Old Bailey, were ready for occupation. In 1796 the Company came to a premature end through their holding an illegal court. It was attempted to put matters right by a Bill in Parliament, but there was so much opposition from those persons who were practising without the diploma of the Corporation, that the Bill, after passing safely through the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. In the following year attempts were made to come to terms with the opponents of the Bill, and finally it was agreed to petition for a Charter from the Crown to establish a Royal College of Surgeons in London. These negotiations were successfully carried out in 1800, and the old corporation having disposed of their Old Bailey property to the City authorities, the College took possession of a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the site of the present building.

The Hunterian collection, which forms the basis and still a large proportion of the contents of the present Museum, was originally arranged in a building which its founder, John Hunter, erected for it

in 1785, behind his house in Leicester Square. In 1787 he had completed its arrangement, the principle of which is still adhered to; and the Museum was opened for inspection during the month of October to the medical profession, and in May to non-professional patrons, cultivators, or lovers of physiology and natural history.

John Hunter died October 16, 1793, aged sixty-four. By his will he directed his Museum to be offered in the first instance to the British Government, on such terms as might be considered reasonable, and in case of refusal, to be sold in one lot, either to some foreign state, or as his executors might think proper.

In the year 1799 Parliament voted the sum of £15,000 for the Museum, and an offer of it being made to the Corporation of Surgeons, it was accepted on the terms proposed by Government.

In 1806 the sum of £15,000 was voted by Parliament in aid of the erection of an edifice for the display and arrangement of the Hunterian Collection; a second grant of £12,500 was subsequently voted, and upwards of £21,000 having been supplied from the funds of the College, George Dance, jun., and James Lewis designed the building in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1806-1813, and in this the Museum was opened for the inspection of visitors in the year 1813.

From the number of the additions the Museum became too small for their adequate display and arrangement, and more space being at the same time required for the rapidly increasing Library, the greater portion of the present building was erected by Sir Charles Barry, wholly at the expense of the College, in 1835, at a cost of about £40,000, and the Hunterian and Collegiate Collections were rearranged in what are now termed the Western and Middle Museums, which were opened for the inspection of visitors in 1836.

Further enlargement of the building having become necessary by the continued increase of the collection, the College, in 1847, purchased the premises of Mr. Alderman Copeland, in Portugal Street, in the rear, for the sum of £16,000, and in 1852 proceeded to the erection of the Eastern Museum at the expense of £25,000, Parliament granting £15,000 in aid thereof.

Through the munificence of the late Sir Erasmus Wilson the College has been able to again materially extend its premises. In 1888 the house at the east end of the front building was pulled down, and on its site a handsome addition to the Library was erected, the already existing premises being at the same time greatly improved. Two new museums are now (1890) in course of erection; in the upper gallery of these will be displayed a collection of drawings and photographs illustrating rare or curious diseases.

The collection is arranged in three apartments: the Western contains on the ground-floor the Anthropological series-specimens illustrating human anatomy and the external forms of Invertebrata; the gallery is devoted to Pathology. In the Middle Museum will be found on the ground-floor the commencement of the Comparative Osteological series;

in the first gallery part of the Physiological series, and in the upper gallery Entozoa and specimens illustrating Teratology. The remaining portions of Comparative Osteology and Physiology are in the Eastern Museum.

The College possesses a fine Library of 45,000 volumes of books relating to medicine, surgery and the allied sciences; there is also a good collection of portraits of medical men. On the staircase are several busts of eminent surgeons, the majority of them past presidents of the College; and also the cartoon of the so-called Holbein's picture representing Henry VIII. granting the Charter to the Barber-Surgeons ; the painting itself is in Barber-Surgeons' Hall. In the council room and office are portraits of celebrated surgeons, including Reynolds's well-known painting of John Hunter.

The Museum is open to the members of the College, to the trustees of the Hunterian Collection, and to visitors introduced by them personally or by written orders on the public days, which are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in each week, from eleven to five o'clock from March 1 to August 31; and from eleven to four o'clock from October 1 to the last day of February.

The Library is open to members of the College and to persons personally introduced by them. On the recommendation of a member tickets may be granted to non-members. In the case of students, the application must be accompanied by a recommendation signed by two of their teachers, members of the College. During the month of September both the Museum and Library are closed.

Surrey Chapel. [See Blackfriars Road.]

Surrey Institution, BLACKFRIARS ROAD, a few doors over the bridge, on the right passing into Surrey, was founded in 1808 on a similar plan to that of the Royal Institution. The premises were those of the old Leverian Museum. Dr. Adam Clarke was appointed Principal Librarian and Secretary, but he resigned in 1809. Here Coleridge delivered his lectures on Shakespeare, and Hazlitt his lectures on the Comic Writers of England. The Surrey Institution died of slow decay, and the building was let for occasional concerts and lectures; and eventually the "Rotunda," as it came to be called, obtained an evil fame as the theatre of the exhibitions of the Rev. Robert Taylor, known as "the Devil's Chaplain," and other infidel lecturers. is now converted into business premises.

Surrey Street, STRAND, to the Victoria Embankment.

It

Surrey Street, also, replenished with good buildings, especially that of Nevison Fox, Esq., towards the Strand, which is a fine, large, and curious house of his own building; and the two houses that front the Thames; that on the East Side being the House of the Honourable Charles Howard, Esq., brother to Henry Duke of Norfolk, both fine houses with pleasant though small gardens towards the Thames.-Strype, B. iv. p. 118.

John Evelyn was residing in this street in 1696. His house is particularised as "William Draper's, Esq., Surrey Street, near Norfolk

"1

Buildings." William Congreve the dramatist. He writes, June 26, 1706, "I am removed to Mr. Porter's in Surrey Steeet." It was here that Voltaire paid him the oft-cited visit.

He was infirm and come to the verge of life when I knew him. . . . He spoke of his Works as of Trifles that were beneath him; and hinted to me in our first conversation that I should visit him upon no other foot than that of a Gentleman, who led a life of plainness and simplicity. I answered that had he been so unfortunate as to be a mere Gentleman I should never have come to see him; and I was very much disgusted at so unseasonable a piece of Vanity.-Voltaire, Letters Concerning the English Nation, London, 8vo, 1733, p. 188.

"It is worthy of remark," says Thackeray, "that the anecdote does not appear in the text of the same letters in the edition of Voltaire's Euvres Complètes, Paris, 1837." It will be found, however, in the first French edition, published at Basle in 1734. Congreve died here, January 29, 1728-1729, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. George Sale, translator of the Koran, died here in 1736. The commissioners appointed for the regulation of hackney-coaches held their office in Surrey Street. This will explain the allusion in Book iv. of the Ghost. Churchill no doubt had many disputes with the cabmen of his day.

Why should we mention Surrey Street,
Where every week grave judges meet

All fitted out with hum and ha,

In proper form to drawl out law,

To see all causes duly tried

'Twixt knaves who drive and fools who ride.

Surrey Theatre (The), south end of the BLACKFRIARS ROAD, was opened November 7, 1782, by Messrs. Hughes and Charles Dibdin, in opposition to the elder Astley. It was originally called the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, and was long an unsuccessful speculation.

And burnt the Royal Circus in a hurry,

(Twas called the Circus then, but now the Surrey).

Rejected Addresses.

The interior was rebuilt in 1799, and the whole theatre burnt, August 12, 1805; the insurance had run out, and there was a consequent loss of £25,000. The new theatre, built at a cost of £14,500 from the designs of Rudolph Cabanel, jun., was opened Easter Monday, 1806. Elliston, who held it from February 1809 to March 1814, changed its name to The Surrey. Tom Dibdin was lessee from 1816 to 1822, and quitted it, a loser of £18,000 by the speculation. He was well acquainted with all the London theatres, and he said of the Surrey that "the house itself is without exception the best constructed, both for audience and actors, in or near the metropolis." 2 Subsequently Mr. Davidge acquired a handsome fortune by his management; and later, under the management of Mr. Creswick, it obtained some distinction for the performance of the legitimate drama. This theatre, like its predecessor, was destroyed by fire, January 30, 1865; and the present, 1 Berkeley's Relics, p. 347. 2 T. Dibdin's Autob. vol. ii. p. 113. Z

VOL. III

erected at a cost of £25,000 from the designs of Mr. J. Ellis, was opened on December 26 of the same year.

John Palmer, the actor (d. 1798), was stage manager, and played in the second theatre (1789) while a prisoner within the Rules of the King's Bench. His salary, £20 a week, and the way in which he squandered his money, are said to have suggested the clause in the then Debtors' Act, which made all public-houses and places of amusement out of the Rules.

Surrey Zoological Gardens, PANTON PLACE, KENNINGTON, contained the menagerie of Mr. Cross, by whom the grounds were laid out in 1831-1832, after the demolition of Exeter 'Change and the Mews at Charing Cross. The collection, of animals was a very good one, the lions and tigers having been especially noted. The fêtes and exhibitions in the summer months in these gardens were among the attractions of the Surrey side of London. The grounds were about 15 acres in extent, with a sheet of water of nearly 3 acres. The building for the animals was 300 feet in circumference. In 1837 fireworks were introduced and a series of fire spectacles were exhibited for many years. The Surrey Music Hall was erected on a portion of the ground in 1856 at a cost of about £18,000, Sir Horace Jones, architect; it was very successful in its acoustic properties. Jullien was manager for a time, and Thackeray gave here some readings of his Four Georges. The hall was not long successful, and it was temporarily used for St. Thomas's Hospital while the building at Stangate was being erected; subsequently it was occupied by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon during the building of his Tabernacle at Newington Butts. During a religious service a panic was caused by a false alarm of fire, which caused the death and serious injury of about forty persons. It was destroyed by fire, June 11, 1861, and the Gardens were purchased for building purposes in 1877, and have been since built upon.

Sussex Place, REGENT'S PARK. At No. 24 lived from 1826 to 1853 J. G. Lockhart, editor of the Quarterly Review.

Sutton's Hospital. [See Charter House.]

Swallow Street, PICCADILLY, was so called from "Swallow Close," referred to in the grant from the Crown in 1664 of lands in Westminster to Lord Chancellor Clarendon. 1 But an earlier mention is to be found in the Vestry Minutes of St. Martin's, where, under April 29, 1658, the "Lamas of Swallow field" is referred to; and in the Patent Roll, dated July 1, 1536, reciting the exchange of lands between Henry VIII. and the Abbey of Westminster, mention is made of "two acres of land in Charyng crosse Felde now in the tenure of Thomas Swallow."

Swallow Street, very long, coming out of Pickadilly, and runneth northwards, to Tyburn Road, against Neb's Pound, but of no great account for buildings or inhabitants.-Strype, B. vi. p. 84.

1 Lister's Life of Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 525.