the personal injury sustained on this occasion might have had its share as well as loyalty in producing the action for which Walworth is particularly distinguished. The ordinances respecting these houses were, however, again confirmed by Henry VI. but in 1506, as Fabian informs us, they were for some time uninhabited. It was not long before they were again opened, that is, so many as were permitted; " for whereas before were eighteen houses, from thenceforth were appointed to be used but twelve only." These privileged stews had signs painted on the fronts which looked towards the Thames, as the Boar's Head, the Cross Keys, the Gun, the Cardinal's Hat, &c. Stow relates, that the women who frequented them were forbidden the rights of the church, and excluded from Christian burial, unless they were reconciled to it before they died. A plot of ground called the Single Women's Church-yard, at some distance from the parish church, was therefore appointed for their interment. In 1546, these stews were suppressed by Henry VIII. and it was proclaimed by sound of trumpet, that they should be no longer privileged and used as a common brothel, but that the inhabitants were to keep good and honest rules as in other places of this realm.

The Clink was a gaol for the confinement of such as should "brabble, fray, or break the peace on the said bank, or in the brothel-houses." This prison still exists, and has been represented as a filthy, noisome dungeon. The Bishop of Winchester's steward tries pleas of debt, damages, or trespass, within the Clink liberty for any sum.

On the Bank-side was situated the principal theatre of its time, called the Globe, where the plays of our inimitable Shakspeare were first represented. The contrast which these early places of dramatic entertainment must form with those of the present day is evident from a passage in Stow, who relates, that in 1613, "by negligent discharging of a peale of ordnance" in this theatre, "the thatch touke fire, and the wind sodainly disperst the flame round about, and in a very short time the whole building was quite consumed, and no man hurt, the house being filled with

people

The following entry is also remarkable:

"James Herriott, Esq. and Elizabeth Josey, Gent. were married Jan. 4, 1624-5. N. B. This James Herriott was one of the forty children of his father, a Scotchman."

In this parish is a Free School, founded with the sum of 7001 bequeathed for that purpose by Mr. Josiah Bacon, who also endowed it with 1501. per annum, for the education of not more than sixty, or fewer than forty, boys. The master receives 801. per annum, the usher 501. and the remainder is appropriated to repairs. Here is also a Charity School, established by the joint contributions of various persons, and towards which, in 1755, Mr. Nathaniel Smith bequeathed 401. per annum. It affords education to fifty boys and thirty girls.

A well-known place of entertainment in this parish was called the Bermondsey Spa, from some water of a chalybeate nature discovered there about 1770. The late Mr. Thomas Keyse had a few years before opened his premises as a place for tea-drinking, and exhibited a collection of the productions of his own pencil, which, as the works of a self-taught artist, possessed considerable merit. About 1780 he procured a licence for musical entertainments, after the manner of Vauxhall, and for several years his gardens were open every evening in the summer season. Fire-works were occasionally exhibited; and a few times in the course of the year an excellent representation of the siege of Gibraltar, consisting of fire-works and transparencies, the whole contrived by the proprietor of the gardens, who possessed considerable mechanical abilities. The height of the rock was about fifty feet, the length 200, and the whole apparatus covered about four acres. Mr. Keyse died in 1800, when his pictures were sold by auction, The gardens were shut up about the year 1805, and the site has since been built upon.*

Eastward of Bermondsey, on the banks of the Thames, is ROTHERHITHE, commonly called Redriff. Lysons derives its

name

Lysons' Environs of London, Vol. I. p. 54.

owner.

Near the same spot was also the house of the Abbots of

Waverley.

Not far from St. Saviour's church is the Borough Market, a spacious area, surrounded with stalls and other conveniences for the sale of various kinds of provisions, especially vegetables, the principal market for flesh being on the west side of the Borough High Street. In Deadman's Place, on the west side of this market, is a hospital, or college, founded in the reign of Elizabeth, by Thomas Cure. It consists of sixteen rooms for as many poor men and women of St. Saviour's parish, each of whom has 20d. a week. To this institution a chapel is attached; and here are also habitations for six other poor persons, founded by different benefactors.

At the end of the High Street is St. Margaret's Hill, the site of the ancient church of the same name, which, being forsaken on the union of the parish with St. Saviour's, was converted into a Sessions House and prison, since removed to Mill Lane, and denominated the Borough Compter. The whole has lately been rebuilt, but has nothing worthy of particular notice. In the front facing Blackman Street, which is a continuation of the High Street, the hustings for the election of representatives for this borough are usually erected. On the opposite side of the street was the Tabard Inn, which was the residence of the Abbots of Hyde, in Hampshire, whenever business, or their parliamentary duty, required their presence in the metropolis. This was the house celebrated by Chaucer as the place of rendezvous for pilgrims repairing to Becket's shrine at Canterbury; and the very building described by him existed till 1676, when it was burned with the Sessions House, and other contiguous edifices. When rebuilt it was ignorantly called the Talbot, under the idea that this was the same with Tabard, and by that appellation it still continues to be known. * On

* Talbot was a name formerly given to a particular kind of dog; a Tabard is a coat without sleeves, anciently worn by noblemen and others, but the use of which is now confined to the Heralds at Arms,

On the east side of Blackman Street is the Marshalsea, a court of law and a prison, originally intended for the determination of causes and differences between the king's menial servants, and under the controul of the knight-marshal of the royal household. It had particular cognizance of murders and other offences committed within the king's court. To this place also persons guilty of piracies, and other offences on the high seas, are com mitted, though the offenders are tried at the Old Bailey. The ju risdiction of this court extends to the distance of twelve miles round Whitehall, excepting the city of London, for actions of debt, damages, trespasses, &c. but liable to be removed to a higher tribunal when the subject of litigation exceeds the value of five pounds. The prison which contains about sixty rooms is too small, and much out of repair.

Southward of the Marshalsea, and on the same side of the street, is the parish church of St. GEORGE THE MARTYR. The original edifice was of very ancient foundation, and belonged to the Abbey of Bermondsey, to which it was given in 1122, by Thomas Arderne. Being in a very ruinous state, the parishioners obtained an Act of Parliament for taking down the old church, and erecting another; in consequence of which the present structure was begun in 1734, and finished in 1736. The principal entrance to this church is at the west end which faces the street, and to which there is an ascent by a flight of steps. Above the door is a semicircular pediment, supported by Ionic columns: and on each side of this pediment, which rises to the height of the roof, the front is adorned with a balustrade and vases. From this part rises the tower, which, like the body of the building, is strengthened with rustic quoins. A series of Ionic columns, raised upon the tower, support the base of the spire, which has ribs on the angles and openings in all the faces. The interior is composed of a nave and two aisles, with galleries on the north, south, and west sides, in the latter of which is a good organ. The ceilings are handsomely decorated, and the whole is well lighted by a double range of windows.

In the old church was interred Edward Cocker, the celebrated arithmetician, and the infamous Bishop Bonner, who died miserably in the Marshalsea, in 1569, is said to have been buried in the church-yard under the east window.

Opposite to St. George's Church, formerly stood Suffolk Place, a magnificent mansion, erected in the reign of Henry VIII. by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who exchanged it with the king for the palace of the Bishop of Norwich, in St. Martin's in the Fields. Its name was then altered to Southwark Place, and it was used as a Royal Mint for the coining of money. It was afterwards given by Queen Mary to the see of York as a recompence for York House, which her father had forcibly taken from it; and was sold by Archbishop Heath, who, with the produce, purchased another residence for himself and his successors. This mansion was then pulled down, the site was converted into streets, and still retaining the name of the Mint, the inhabitants assumed a privilege of protection from arrests, on which it became for many years the retreat of bankrupts and fraudulent debtors. Though this privilege was taken away by Parliament, in the reign of William III. it was nevertheless maintained by violence in defiance of the law, till totally suppressed under George I.

In Union Street, northward of the Mint, is Union Hall, a handsome structure, appropriated to the purposes of a police office; and at the south-east end of Blackman Street, in Horsemonger Lane, is the County Gaol and House of Correction for Surrey. The premises formerly devoted to the purposes of this prison were situated near St. George's Church, and called the White Lion, from having once been an inn, bearing that sign. The present spacious edifice was erected on the suggestion of the benevolent Howard, and contains a good room for a court-hall, a chapel, offices, and other suitable accommodations. Upon the platform, on the top of this prison, executions are performed. Here in 1802, Colonel Despard, and six of his associates, convicted of high treason, underwent the sentence of the law; and in

March