Chapter I: Introduction: 1

CHAPTER I.

ROMAN LONDON.

Buried London--Our Early Relations--The Founder of London--A Distinguished Visitor at Romney Marsh--Caesar re-visits the "Town on the Lake"--The Borders of Old London--Caesar fails to make much out of the Britons--King _Brown_--The Derivation of the Name of London--The Queen of the Iceni--London Stone and London Roads--London's Earlier and Newer Walls--The Site of St. Paul's--Fabulous Claims to Idolatrous Renown--Existing Relics of Roman London--Treasures from the Bed of the Thames--What we Tread underfoot in London--A vast Field of Story 16

CHAPTER II.

TEMPLE BAR.

Temple Bar--The Golgotha of English Traitors--When Temple Bar was made of Wood--Historical Pageants at Temple Bar--The Associations of Temple Bar--Mischievous Processions through Temple Bar--The First Grim Trophy--Rye-House Plot Conspirators 22

CHAPTER III.

FLEET STREET:--GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Frays in Fleet Street--Chaucer and the Friar--The Duchess of Gloucester doing Penance for Witchcraft--Riots between Law Students and Citizens--'Prentice Riots--Oates in the Pillory--Entertainments in Fleet Street--Shop Signs--Burning the Boot--Trial of Hardy--Queen Caroline's Funeral 32

CHAPTER IV.

FLEET STREET (_continued_).

Dr. Johnson in Ambuscade at Temple Bar--The First Child--Dryden and Black Will--Rupert's Jewels--Telson's Bank--The Apollo Club at the "Devil"--"Old Sir Simon the King"--"Mull Sack"--Dr. Johnson's Supper to Mrs. Lennox--Will Waterproof at the "Cock"--The Duel at "Dick's Coffee House"--Lintot's Shop--Pope and Warburton--Lamb and the _Albion_--The Palace of Cardinal Wolsey--Mrs. Salmon's Waxwork--Isaak Walton--Praed's Bank--Murray and Byron--St. Dunstan's--Fleet Street Printers--Hoare's Bank and the "Golden Bottle"--The Real and Spurious "Mitre"--Hone's Trial--Cobbett's Shop--"Peele's Coffee House" 35

CHAPTER V.

FLEET STREET (_continued_).

The "Green Dragon"--Tompion and Pinchbeck--The _Record_--St. Bride's and its Memories--_Punch_ and his Contributors--The _Dispatch_--The _Daily Telegraph_--The "Globe Tavern" and Goldsmith--The _Morning Advertiser_--The _Standard_--The _London Magazine_--A Strange Story--Alderman Waithman--Brutus Billy--Hardham and his "37" 53

CHAPTER VI.

FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--SHIRE LANE AND BELL YARD).

The Kit-Kat Club--The Toast for the Year--Little Lady Mary--Drunken John Sly--Garth's Patients--Club Removed to Barn Elms--Steele at the "Trumpet"--Rogues' Lane--Murder--Beggars' Haunts--Thieves' Dens--Coiners--Theodore Hook in Hemp's Sponging-house--Pope in Bell Yard--Minor Celebrities--Apollo Court 70

CHAPTER VII.

FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--CHANCERY LANE).

The Asylum for Jewish Converts--The Rolls Chapel--Ancient Monuments--A Speaker Expelled for Bribery--"Remember Caesar"--Trampling on a Master of the Rolls--Sir William Grant's Oddities--Sir John Leach--Funeral of Lord Gifford--Mrs. Clark and the Duke of York--Wolsey in his Pomp--Strafford--"Honest Isaak"--The Lord Keeper--Lady Fanshawe--Jack Randal--Serjeants' Inn--An Evening with Hazlitt at the "Southampton"--Charles Lamb--Sheridan--The Sponging Houses--The Law Institute--A Tragical Story 76

CHAPTER VIII.

FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--_continued_).

Clifford's Inn--Dyer's Chambers--The Settlement after the Great Fire--Peter Wilkins and his Flying Wives--Fetter Lane--Waller's Plot and its Victims--Praise-God Barebone and his Doings--Charles Lamb at School--Hobbes the Philosopher--A Strange Marriage--Mrs. Brownrigge--Paul Whitehead--The Moravians--The Record Office and its Treasures--Rival Poets 92

CHAPTER IX.

FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--CRANE COURT, JOHNSON'S COURT, BOLT COURT.

Removal of the Royal Society from Gresham College--Opposition to Newton--Objections to Removal--The First Catalogue--Swift's Jeer at the Society--Franklin's Lightning Conductor and King George III.--Sir Hans Sloane insulted--The Scottish Society--Wilkes's Printer--The Delphin Classics--Johnson's Court--Johnson's Opinion on Pope and Dryden--His Removal to Bolt Court--The _John Bull_--Hook and Terry--Prosecutions for Libel--Hook's Impudence 104

CHAPTER X.

FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES.

Dr. Johnson in Bolt Court--His Motley Household--His Life there--Still existing--The Gallant "Lumber Troop"--Reform Bill Riots--Sir Claudius Hunter--Cobbett in Bolt Court--The Bird Boy--The Private Soldier--In the House--Dr. Johnson in Gough Square--Busy at the Dictionary--Goldsmith in Wine Office Court--Selling "The Vicar of Wakefield"--Goldsmith's Troubles--Wine Office Court--The Old "Cheshire Cheese" 112

CHAPTER XI.

FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--SHOE LANE.

The First Lucifers--Perkins' Steam Gun--A Link between Shakespeare and Shoe Lane--Florio and his Labours--"Cogers' Hall"--Famous "Cogers"--A Saturday Night's Debate--Gunpowder Alley--Richard Lovelace, the Cavalier Poet--"To Althea, from Prison"--Lilly the Astrologer and his Knaveries--A Search for Treasure with Davy Ramsay--Hogarth in Harp Alley--The "Society of Sign Painters"--Hudson, the Song Writer--"Jack Robinson"--The Bishop's Residence--Bangor House--A Strange Story of Unstamped Newspapers--Chatterton's Death--Curious Legend of his Burial--A well-timed Joke 123

CHAPTER XII.

FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--SOUTH.

Worthy Mr. Fisher--Lamb's Wednesday Evenings--Persons one would wish to have seen--Ram Alley--Serjeants' Inn--The _Daily News_--"Memory" Woodfall--A Mug-House Riot--Richardson's Printing Office--Fielding and Richardson--Johnson's Estimate of Richardson--Hogarth and Richardson's Guest--An Egotist Rebuked--The King's "Housewife"--Caleb Colton: his Life, Works, and Sentiments 135

CHAPTER XIII.

THE TEMPLE.--GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Origin of the Order of Templars--First Home of the Order--Removal to the Banks of the Thames--Rules of the Order--The Templars at the Crusades, and their Deeds of Valour--Decay and Corruption of the Order--Charges brought against the Knights--Abolition of the Order 147

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TEMPLE CHURCH AND PRECINCT.

The Temple Church--Its Restorations--Discoveries of Antiquities--The Penitential Cell--Discipline in the Temple--The Tombs of the Templars in the "Round"--William and Gilbert Marshall--Stone Coffins in the Churchyard--Masters of the Temple--The "Judicious" Hooker--Edmund Gibbon, the Historian--The Organ in the Temple Church--The Rival Builders--"Straw Bail"--History of the Precinct--Chaucer and the Friar--His Mention of the Temple--The Serjeants--Erection of New Buildings--The "Roses"--Sumptuary Edicts--The Flying Horse 149

CHAPTER XV.

THE TEMPLE (_continued_).

The Middle Temple Hall: its Roof, Busts, and Portraits--Manningham's Diary--Fox Hunts in Hall--The Grand Revels--Spenser--Sir J. Davis--A Present to a King--Masques and Royal Visitors at the Temple--Fires in the Temple--The Last Great Revel in the Hall--Temple Anecdotes--The Gordon Riots--John Scott and his Pretty Wife--Colman "Keeping Terms"--Blackstone's "Farewell"--Burke--Sheridan--A Pair of Epigrams--Hare Court--The Barber's Shop--Johnson and the Literary Club--Charles Lamb--Goldsmith: his Life, Troubles, and Extravagances--"Hack Work" for Booksellers--_The Deserted Village_--_She Stoops to Conquer_--Goldsmith's Death and Burial 158

CHAPTER XVI.

THE TEMPLE (_continued_).

Fountain Court and the Temple Fountain--Ruth Pinch--L.E.L.'s Poem--Fig-tree Court--The Inner Temple Library--Paper Buildings--The Temple Gate--Guildford North and Jeffreys--Cowper, the Poet: his Melancholy and Attempted Suicide--A Tragedy in Tanfield Court--Lord Mansfield--"Mr. Murray" and his Client--Lamb's Pictures of the Temple--The Sun-dials--Porson and his Eccentricities--Rules of the Temple--Coke and his Labours--Temple Riots--Scuffles with the Alsatians--Temple Dinners--"Calling" to the Bar--The Temple Gardens--The Chrysanthemums--Sir Matthew Hale's Tree--Revenues of the Temple--Temple Celebrities 171

CHAPTER XVII.

WHITEFRIARS.

The Present Whitefriars--The Carmelite Convent--Dr. Butts--The Sanctuary--Lord Sanquhar murders the Fencing-Master--His Trial--Bacon and Yelverton--His Execution--Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel"--Shadwell's _Squire of Alsatia_--A Riot in Whitefriars--Elizabethan Edicts against the Ruffians of Alsatia--Bridewell--A Roman Fortification--A Saxon Palace--Wolsey's Residence--Queen Katherine's Trial--Her Behaviour in Court--Persecution of the first Congregationalists--Granaries and Coal Stores destroyed by the Great Fire--The Flogging in Bridewell--Sermon on Madame Creswell--Hogarth and the "Harlot's Progress"--Pennant's Account of Bridewell--Bridewell in 1843--Its Latter Days--Pictures in the Court Room--Bridewell Dock--The Gas Works--Theatres in Whitefriars--Pepys' Visits to the Theatre--Dryden and the Dorset Gardens Theatre--Davenant--Kynaston--Dorset House--The Poet-Earl 182

CHAPTER XVIII.

BLACKFRIARS.

Three Norman Fortresses on the Thames' Bank--The Black Parliament--The Trial of Katherine of Arragon--Shakespeare a Blackfriars Manager--The Blackfriars Puritans--The Jesuit Sermon at Hunsdon House--Fatal Accident--Extraordinary Escapes--Queen Elizabeth at Lord Herbert's Marriage--Old Blackfriars Bridge--Johnson and Mylne--Laying of the Stone--The Inscription--A Toll Riot--Failure of the Bridge--The New Bridge--Bridge Street--Sir Richard Phillips and his Works--Painters in Blackfriars--The King's Printing Office--Printing House Square--The _Times_ and its History--Walter's Enterprise--War with the _Dispatch_--The gigantic Swindling Scheme exposed by the _Times_--Apothecaries' Hall--Quarrel with the College of Physicians 200

CHAPTER XIX.

LUDGATE HILL.

An Ugly Bridge and "Ye Belle Savage"--A Radical Publisher--The Principal Gate of London--From a Fortress to a Prison--"Remember the Poor Prisoners"--Relics of Early Times--St. Martin's, Ludgate--The London Coffee House--Celebrated Goldsmiths on Ludgate Hill--Mrs. Rundell's Cookery Book--Stationers' Hall--Old Burgavenny House and its History--Early Days of the Stationers' Company--The Almanacks--An Awkward Misprint--The Hall and its Decorations--The St. Cecilia Festivals--Dryden's "St. Cecilia's Day" and "Alexander's Feast"--Handel's Setting of them--A Modest Poet--Funeral Feasts and Political Banquets--The Company's Plate--Their Charities--The Pictures at Stationers' Hall--The Company's Arms--Famous Masters 220