a former Magazine, been stated, that it came into the possession of CHARLES BRANDON, Duke of Suffolk, who exchanged his magnificent house, called Southwark Place, for it. The Chancellors EGERTON and BACON resided in it. It was afterwards granted to the favourite VILLARS, Duke of Buckingham, who, splendid in all his ideas, rebuilt it in a stile of grandeur till then not very often applied to domestic architecture. In 1648 the Parliament bestowed this mansion on Lord FAIRFAX, in reward for his good services; whose daughter and heiress marrying that eccentric being, the second GEORGE VILLARS, Duke of Buckingham, it reverted again to the true owner, who for several years after the restoration resided therein.

The streets built upon the site of this house and garden, which form the whole of York buildings, are too well known to render a description necessary.

It is impossible to pass by without taking some slight notice of the ancient church of ST. MARTIN in the Fields, which, according to the view that we have of it, was a small fabric, consisting of a barn-like body, and a square low tower; the date of the building of which is unknown. This church, for ages before, and through the whole of the sixteenth century, stood alone; the parish annexed to it was immensely large in proportion to the building, if we consider that those of St. Paul, Covent Garden, St. James, and St. Anne, Westminster, have been taken out of it.

The circumstance of its serving for so considerable an extent of district, unequivocally shows how slenderly that district must have been inhabited.

At

*The water-gate is thus spoken of by the ingenious author of the Critical Review of Buildings, &c.

"York-stairs is unquestionably the most perfect piece of building that does honour to the name of Inigo Jones. It is planned with so exquisite a taste, formed of such equal and harmonious parts, and adorned with such proper and elegant deco rations, that nothing can be censured or added. It is at once happy in its situation, beyond comparison, and fancied in a stile exactly suited to that situation. The rock work, or rustic, can never be introduced better than in buldings by the side of the water."-Why it is more adapted to buildings in aquatic situations, than to the temple of Pan, or an ornamented farm-house, we do not conceive. Rustic, (for it is not rock work,) if judiciously introduced, is admirable *memy situations,

the beginning of the seventeenth century, a few houses began to creep about the church of St. Martin, and the lane also to be here and there spangled with a habitation: the site of a part of Newport Market was occupied by a coтTAGE of entertainment situated among trees. During the sixteenth century, Long Acre had only one house, which stood at the corner of St. Martin's-lane, and Covent Garden was a square smooth field, with a building, probably the coNVENT, situated near the north east. corner. About the year 1552, this fabric and the field were granted to the EARL OF BEDFORD; and in little more than half a century after, under the elegant and improving hand of INIGO JONES, the two sides of the Piazza arose, on a plan which, had the design of this great architect been completed, would have formed one of the most magnificent squares in Europe *.

The field in the vicinity of Covent Garden, to which there was a road and Lammas gate, which has lately obtained the title of Leicester Square, was formerly the site of the new buildings extending from Portaville (vulgarly termed Porto-bello †) Passage,

has, in former periods, been distinguished by *There is no part of the metropolis that

scenes of greater elegance, or of greater gaiety, than Covent Garden, the Piazza, and its vicinity. Soon after its foundation, it was inhabited by the EARL OF BEDFORD, and others of the Nobility, whose names are identified with the streets where their mansions stood. In the luxurious reign of Charles, it appears to have a little fallen in its reputation, and to have been chiefly occupied with boardinghouses; some, it is most probable, of a virtuons description, and others of a class rather more suspicious. Dryden has made a boarding-house in Covent Garden the scene of one of his comedies; which does very little credit either to his poetical talents or his morality. Such an assemblage of dramatis person was hardly ever collected. Other authors, down to Hoadley and the elder Colman, have availed themselves of its celebrity. It has been displayed in the prints of Hogarth and the pantomimes of RICH; in the Bovels of Sinollet, and in the literary and verbal controversies betwixt Dr. Franks and Dr. Rock. In fact, with the exception of the place of St. Mark, at Venice, and perhaps the Palais Royal, Paris, its fame, we do not say of what nature, has been unrivalled.

This appellation was derived from a public-house, in this, which Shakspeare would have called "a retired nook of the Island." Yet was it not so retired, but that wy in-

succeeded him in his house, and in it finished his days *."

We find (for we cannot resist while we have a bit of paper to spare,) that the Earl soon after had a suit of white satin, &c. 1101. When King James went through London, (a circumstance that clicited the genius of Ben Jonson,) the said "Earl had a suit of Murrey colord satin embroiderd with seed pearl, &c. 2501. a cloak of ditto embroiderd in the same manner, 1071. odd nomic. at the marriage of Ld Montgomery a suit of russet taffaty. &c 2601 at the prince's creation* one of black silver tissue, black silk and silver lace, &c. 100!.-at the late Queens Maske at Whitehall, another sute &c 100-at the Tilting day and two other suits against masks which the Queen bad-1801-Att the marriage of the Queen of Bohemia a suit of Tissue of 51. 10s. a yard: in short, other dresses that are computed at S00l. for 20 years--amounted to 60001. Such was the Court splendor of foraner periods."-Antiquarian Repertory, p. 274 et passim.

In this house we can recollect, that about the years 1781 or 1782 a most curious exhibition took place, under the direction of that extraordinary and eccentric gemus, Loutherbourg, which he called the ExportEICON, and which, as exhibiting numature representations of great, and, in some instances, awful physical changes, was certainly never equalled: the effects of the rising sun, the splendor of a meridian moon, the horrors of a storm, and the sublime, though terrific, ebullitions of a volcano, were imitated iu a manner which, while it impressed a succession of pleasing and awful sensations en the mud, filled us with astonishment at the taste and talents of the pamter and wachumist.

During a part of the Interregnum she resided in Bohemia House, Wych-street; the site of which is now Astley's Theatre.

* Leicester House was the residence of the Princess Dowager until she removed to Carlton House. His Majesty, at the time of the death of his royal grandfather, Saturday, October 25, 1760, resided in Saville House. We can well remember the universal agitation that seemed to pervade the metropolis that morning. Every thing was neglected, and the people poured down from every direction to the palace of St. James and Leicestersquare. This place, indeed, exhibited a scene of most uncommon bustle: it was entirely filled with the carriages of the Nobility and the crowd of spectators. If the former, as appeared by their horses, had driven with a velocity which bespoke a desire to outstrip each other in their eagerness to pay their duty to the young Monarch, the latter were no less anxious to see who attended upon this solemn occasion, and to hear every cir cumstance that transpired as soon as the atmosphere caught the breath of any who were, or pretended to be, well informed. In short, there perhaps have been few periods when the passions have been more strongly depicted upon human countenances, or more broadly displayed in human actions. There are times, saith the philosopher, when the ruling passion, be it what it will," bursts the bonds of dissimulation, and rises superior to fixed and settled rules: and this was one of those epochs.

This establishment occupied a large space. In the reign of Charles the IId, when love was more thought of than war, Major Foubert, a refugee soldier, erected here a military academy, which he afterward removed to Swallow-street. The passage to this school still retains the name of Major Foubert's passage.

I appears, from the trial of the Earl of Warwich and Lord Mohun, for the murder of Mr. Richard, or, as he was called, Captain Coote, before the House of Lords, (Lord Somers, Lord High Steward,) the 28th and 9th of March, 1699, that at that time Leicester-fields were enclosed with low wooden rails. The quarrel from which this trial originated happened the 29th of October, 1698. at Lockett's, the name of a man well known in the dramatic history of that period, who kept the Greyhound Ta vern, near St. Martin's-iane, in the Strand. Applegate, one of the chairman, (there were

gradations: it seems that Panton-street was first erected, and was once a place of very considerable traffic.

Returning once more to the Strand *, from which we have made rather a wide excursion, we must remark, that that

"

twelve,) deposed, that betwixt one and two o'clock on Sunday morning he carried Lord Mohun+; that after he had set down at the end of Green-street, and had just lighted his pipe, he heard "Chairs" called again; that he and his partner run with their chair to the upper end of the fields, where he saw Lord Warwick within the rails. He," says he, "bid us put our chair over into the fields; but we told him, that if we did we could not get it over again." At this time Leicesterfields had paths cross them for foot passengers, During the period of the reign of Charles the Ild, it appears that taverns had much increased in this neighbourhood: the Greyhound, the Cross Keys, the Standard, are mentioned in this trial; and the Bagnio in Long-acre. There were also the Cardigan Head, the Lebeck's Head, (a most famous Cook, who derived such credit for his culi

nary exertions, that his very portrait promised good eating ;) the Bedford Head. These we can remember, and several others; among which was the house wherein the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, &c. was first established, 1753, and which having been a police office, a register office, &c., is now the Westminster and British insurance offices.

It should have been noted, that among the buildings in Hartshorn-lane, some of which were in a very rumous state, stood an old wooden house, where, by tradition, it is said that Ben Jonson was born. The houses in this place, by the raising of the road to the wharfs, had their lower stories considerably sunk below the surface of the street: and this, which exhibited a mean appearance, was a chandler's shop.

It does seem a singular trait of the ferocity of those times, that quarrels of this kind should be so frequent; and still more extraordinary, that so great a violator of the laws of his country, and such a nuisance to society, should escape their infliction. Lord Mohun was, 31st Jan., 1692, tried for the murder of William Mountford 4, the player. He then, in 1699, was again tried, for being concerned in the murder of Captain Coote; and, as if it was by Providence intended that his death should exhibit moral lesson, was at length killed in a duel with the Duke of Hamilton, in Hyde Park, November 15, 1712. Upon this event Swift comments, in one of his letters or journals.

The house in Craven-buildings, Drurylane, wherein Mrs. Bracegirdle lived, was afterward inhabited by Mis. Pritchard.

heap of ruins, called Durham-yard, upon which we have, in a former Magazine, observed, was once a splendid appendage to the see of Durham, and called DURHAM HOUSE; which, from the vestiges of wails, &c. that remained before the building of that very sin gularly constructed pile, the ADELPHI, appeared to have been of stone. was erected by Thomas de Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, 1345. It remained annexed to the see till the 28th of Henry the Villth, when Bishop TUNSTAL Conveyed it to the King, who assigned him Cold Harbour, and other houses, in lieu of it.

It

King Edward the VIth granted Durham House to his sister, the Lady Elizabeth, for life, or until she was otherwise advanced; but upon the dissolution of the bishopric of Durham, that Prince conveyed it to FRANCIS, the fifth MARY, about the fifth or sixth year of Earl of Shrewsbury, and his heirs. her reign, having re-established the bishoprie, granted to the Bishop of

Durham the reversion of Durham

*Cuthbert Tunstall appears to have been one of those luminaries that derived their splendour from the brilliancy of their own talents. Little indebted to his birth for adventitious advantages, being the illicit offspring of one of the ancient family of Tun stall, he yet, by the energy of his abilities, became successively Master of the Rolls Prebendary of York, Dean of Sarum, Bishop of London, Lord Privy Seal, and, in 1550, Bishop of Durham. He was born at Hackford, in Richmondshire, 1476; appeared at Court carly in life; and served Henry the VIIth, who loved to try his juvenile states. man in the diplomatic school, in several important embassies. The character of this Prelate, as we learn from Camden, and more from the affairs in which he was engaged, was that of an able negociator. He is also stated te have been a complete master of all critical learning, at a time when critical learning was but little diffused. But what was far better, he is, by most writers, said to have been a man of an amiable character. He was deprived by Edward the VIth, under the pretence of having opposed the Reformetion, but, in fact, for the purpose of investing the ambitious Earl of Warwick with his palatine dignity. Mary restored him diately after her succession, and appointed him one of her ecclesiastical Commissioners In that dreadful oflice he is said to have distinguished himself by his mildness and humanity. He was again deprived by Elizabeth, 1559, and died at Lambeth, November 12, in the same year, in the house of Doctor, afterward Archbishop, Parker.

Place in succession; which coming into possession by the death of Queen Elizabeth, that Prelate entered into and erjoyed the same in right of his see. The most remarkable circumstance recorded of the transactions at Durham House, is the grand justing feast which was celebrated before the King, HENRY THE VIIITH, and the Queen, ANN OF CLEVES, on May-day and the four following, A.D. 1546, in the thirty-second year of the reign of that Monarch. Henry, at this time pretty far advanced in life, seems to have entered into the spirit of this festival with all the ardour that distinguished his youth. The Knights, it appears, not only feasted the King, Queen, Ladies, and the whole Court, but the Members of the House of Commons, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, their Ladies, &c. +

Durham House, it is said, at the

+ Among the defendants in this long series of uncivil actions, we find the names of Lord Cromwell and Sir Richard Cromwell; the former the son to Thomas Cromwell, Earl

of Essex, who was beheaded in 1510. In the play which we have quoted he is called Henry; but it appears that his Christian name was Gregory. The title of Farl of Essex fell with his father; but the barony was only extinct at the beginning of the last century. Sir Richard Cromwell was, upon this occasion, the most distinguished champion; for he overthrew Mr. Palmer and his horse in the field on the third day; and on the fifth, Mr. Culpepper: the sixth, the challengers broke up their household. It is stated that the King rewarded their actiity with a pension, or yearly revenue, of a hundred marks each, and a house to dwell im, ont of the lands pertaining to the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem: so admirably were the monastic revenues disposed of. Thomas, Lord Cromwell, had had a grant of the manor of Canonbury, (Islington, charged with an annuity of 201. to Ann of Cleves,) 1539; on whose attainder, next year, it reverted to the King.

To that great, but in some respects eccentric, genius, Sir Walter Raleigh, it has been said, that Queen Elizabeth granted this palace for his (temporary) residence. How long he lived in it does not appear; or indeed, considering the establishment that it required, how he could afford to live in it at ali, is not ascertained. Sir Walter, though he had considerable grants from thus Princess, who was pleased with his gallantry and romanoc ideas, yet she thought that he carried the former rather too far with respect to one of her Mards of Honour, whom, however, he

beginning of the sixteenth century, exhibited a very unsightly appearance, On the north side it was deformed by a row of stables that ranged along the Strand. These, which were probably the stables belonging to the palace, had fallen into ruin; and as, from the great increase of buildings in Westminster, the line of street which formed the communication betwixt the eastern and western divisions of the metropolis had become extremely frequented, both by carriages and foot passengers; "upon consideration, or some more special respect in the mind of ROBERT, Earl of Salisbury," at that time Lord High Treasurer of England, "it pleased him to take such order that (at his own cost and charges) that deformed row of stabling, which extended more than half

afterwards married. His ideas of a new El

dorado, of visionary realms of gold, were to the highest degree romantic: his sentence, and long protracted execution, were a disgrace to the justice of the nation, and fixed an indelible stain upon the character of James. He is, by Pennant, said to have once resided at Islington, in a house near the church, which is now the Pied Bull Inn: but this is denied by Lysons, who says, that the tradition of his living there is altogether groundless. Oldys, in his Life of Sir Walter Ra

leigh, observes, that there is no proot of it; and John Shirley, of Islington, who wrote a life of him, takes no notice of his re sidence there. Yet it is a tradition that has been often repeated, and is, from his conPennant nexions, extremely probable. wishes that some curious peripatetic would examine and favour us with the arms with which the apartments abound; but as he does not direct us to those of Sir Walter, we will endeavour to supply that defect in a manner which, though rude, is intelligible.