The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 11

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 11

What capers does he cut! how backward leaps!

With Andrew Merry eyeing all his steps:

His comick humours with delight you see,

Pleasing unto the best of company," &c.

 

But a very vivid description of Sadler's Wells is given in

"Mackliniana, or Anecdotes of the late Mr. Charles Macklin, Comedian"

in the _European Magazine_ for 1801 (vol. xl. p. 16):--

 

"Being met one night at Sadler's Wells by a friend, who afterwards saw

him home, he went into a history of that place, with an accuracy which,

though nature generally denies to the recollection of old age in recent

events, seems to atone for it in the remembrance of more remote periods.

 

"Sir, I remember the time when the price of admission _here_ was

but _threepence_, except a few places scuttled off at the sides

of the stage at sixpence, and which was usually reserved for

people of fashion, who occasionally came to see the fun. Here we

smoked, and drank porter and rum and water, as much as we could

pay for, and every man had his doxy that liked it, and so forth;

and though we had a mixture of very odd company (for I believe

it was a good deal the baiting place of thieves and highwaymen)

there was little or no rioting. There was a _public_ then, Sir,

that kept one another in awe.

 

"_Q._ Were the entertainments anything like the present? _A._

No, no; nothing in the shape of them; some hornpipes and ballad

singing, with a kind of pantomimic ballet, and some lofty

tumbling--and all this was done by daylight, and there were four

or five exhibitions every day.

 

"_Q._ How long did these continue at a time? _A._ Why, Sir,

it depended upon circumstances. The proprietors had always a

fellow on the outside of the booth, to calculate how many people

were collected for a second exhibition, and when he thought

there were enough, he came to the back of the upper seats,

and cried out, 'Is _Hiram Fisteman_ here?' This was the cant

word agreed upon between the parties, to know the state of the

people without--upon which they concluded the entertainment

with a song, dismissed that audience, and prepared for a second

representation.

 

"_Q._ Was this in Rozamon's time? _A._ No, no, Sir; long

before--not but old Rozamon improved it a good deal, and, I

believe, raised the price generally to sixpence, and in this way

got a great deal of money."

 

Space prevents one going into the merits of the Theatre here, but it

may not be out of place if I mention some of the singers, and actors,

who have appeared on those boards--Joey Grimaldi, Braham, Miss Shields

(afterwards Mrs. Leffler), Edmund Kean, the great traveller Belzoni,

Miss Tree, Phelps, of Shakespearian fame, Marston, and others, testify

to the talent which has had its home in this theatre. One peculiarity

about Sadler's Wells Theatre was the introduction of real water as a

scenic effect. It seems to have been first used on Easter Monday, April

2, 1804, in an entertainment called _Naumachia_. A very large tank was

made under the stage, and filled with water from the New River; and in

this tank mimic men o' war bombarded Gibraltar, but were repulsed, with

loss, by the heroic garrison. Afterwards, it was frequently used for

_Spectacles_, in which water was used as an adjunct.

 

After this digression let us follow the course of the River Fleet.

Leaving St. Chad's Well, and before coming to Bagnigge Wells, there

stood in Gray's Inn Road an old public-house called the Pindar of

Wakefield, the pounder, or keeper of the pound at that town, the famous

George à Green, who gave Robin Hood a notable thrashing, extorting from

that bold outlaw this confession--

 

"For this was one of the best pinders

That ever I tryed with sword."

 

This old house was destroyed by a hurricane in November, 1723, when the

two daughters of the landlord were killed by the falling walls. It was,

however, at once rebuilt, and a public-house, bearing the same sign,

exists at 328, Gray's Inn Road--most probably occupying the original

site.

 

[Footnote 29: The New River Head.]

 

[Footnote 30: A hector, or bully.]

 

[Footnote 31: A pickpocket.]

 

[Footnote 32: A tramp.]

 

[Footnote 33: A Sharper.]

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration: THE PINDAR OF WAKEFIELD.]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VII.

 

 

Between this house, and Bagnigge Wells, was Bagnigge Wash, or Marsh,

and Black Mary's Wells, or Hole. The etymology of this place is

contested. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1813, part ii. p. 557, in

an "Account of various Mineral Wells near London," is the following:

"Lastly, in the same neighbourhood, may be mentioned the spring or

conduit on the eastern side of the road leading from Clerken Well to

Bagnigge Wells, and which has given name to a very few small houses

as _Black Mary's Hole_. The land here was, formerly, called Bagnigg

Marsh, from the river Bagnigg,[34] which passes through it. But, in

after-time, the citizens resorting to drink the waters of the conduit,

which then was leased to one Mary, who kept a black Cow, whose milk

the gentlemen and ladies drank with the waters of the Conduit, from

whence, the wits of that age used to say, 'Come, let us go to Mary's

black hole.' However, Mary dying, and the place degenerating into

licentiousness, about 1687, Walter Baynes Esqre, of the Inner Temple,

enclosed the Conduit in the manner it now is, which looks like a

great oven. He is supposed to have left a fund for keeping the same

in perpetual repair. The stone with the inscription was carried away

during the night about ten years ago. The water (which formerly fed two

ponds on the other side of the road) falls into the old Bagnigge river."

 

This etymon, however, is contested in a pamphlet called _An

experimental enquiry concerning the Contents, Qualities, Medicinal

Virtues of the two Mineral Waters of_ Bagnigge Wells, &c., by John

Bevis, M.D. This pamphlet was originally published in 1767, but I

quote from the third edition of 1819. "At what time these waters

were first known cannot be made out with any degree of evidence. A

tradition goes that the place of old was called Blessed Mary's Well;

but that the name of the Holy Virgin having, in some measure, fallen

into disrepute after the Reformation, the title was altered to Black

Mary's Well, as it now stands upon Mr. Rocque's map, and then to Black

Mary's Hole; though there is a very different account of these latter

appellations; for there are those who insist they were taken from one

Mary Woolaston, whose occupation was attending at a well, now covered

in, on an opposite eminence, by the footway from Bagnigge to Islington

to supply the soldiery, encamped in the adjacent fields, with water.

But waving such uncertainties, it may be relied on for truth, that a

late proprietor, upon taking possession of the estate, found two wells

thereon, both steaned in a workmanlike manner; but when, or for what

purpose, they were sunk, he is entirely ignorant."

 

But Black Mary's Hole, during the first half of the last century, had a

very queer reputation. There was a little public-house with the sign of

"The Fox at Bay," which probably had something to do with the numerous

highway robberies that occurred thereabouts.

 

In Cromwell's "History of Clerkenwell," pp. 318, 319, we hear of the

last of Black Mary's Hole. He says, "Beneath the front garden of a

house in SPRING PLACE, and extending under the foot-pavement almost

to the turnpike gate called the Pantheon Gate, lies the capacious

receptacle of a _Mineral Spring_, which in former times was in

considerable repute, both as a chalybeate, and for its supposed

efficacy in the cure of sore eyes.... About ten years back, when Spring

Place was erected, the builder removed every external appearance of

Walter Baynes's labours, and converted the receptacle beneath into a

cesspool for the drainage of his houses. The spring thus degraded, and

its situation concealed, it is probable that the lapse of a few more

years would have effaced the memory of it for ever, had not an accident

re-discovered it in the summer of 1826. Its covering, which was only of

boards, having rotted, suddenly gave way, and left a large chasm in the

footpath. After some efforts, not perfectly successful, to turn off the

drainage, it was then arched with brickwork, and a leaden pump placed

over it, in the garden where it chiefly lies. But the pump being stolen

during the following winter, the spring has again fallen into neglect,

and possibly this page alone will prevent its being totally forgotten."

 

Still following the Fleet to its outfall, we next come to Bagnigge

Well, a chalybeate spring, first used medicinally, and then, like all

these Spas, merely as a promenade, and place of out-of-door recreation.

 

Originally, this spring probably belonged to the Nunnery at

Clerkenwell, and may possibly be the "Rode Well" mentioned in the

Register of Clerkenwell. But we are indebted to Dr. Bevis, from whose

pamphlet I have already quoted, for a history of its modern rise and

development (p. 38).

 

"In the year 1757, the spot of ground in which this well is sunk

was let out to a gentleman curious in gardening, who observed that

the oftener he watered his flowers from it the worse they throve. I

happened, toward the end of that summer, to be in company with a friend

who made a transient visit to Mr. HUGHES, and was asked to taste the

water; and, being surprised to find its flavour so near that of the

best German chalybeates, did not hesitate to declare my opinion, that

it might be made of great benefit both to the public and himself. At my

request, he sent me some of the water, in a large stone bottle, well

corked, the next day; a gallon whereof I immediately set over a fire,

and by a hasty evaporation found it very rich in mineral contents,

though much less so than I afterwards experienced it to be when more

leisurely exhaled by a gentle heat. Whilst this operation was carrying

on, I made some experiments on the remainder of the water, particularly

with powdered galls, which I found to give, in less than a minute, a

very rich and deep purple tincture to it, that lasted many days without

any great alteration. I reported these matters to Mr. Hughes, but, soon

after, a very dangerous illness put a stop to my experiments, which I

did not resume for a considerable time, when the proprietor called, and

told me his waters were in very great repute, and known by the name

of BAGNIGGE WELLS; which I remembered to have seen in the newspapers,

without so much as guessing it had been given to these springs. Mr.

HUGHES took me to his wells, where I was not a little pleased with the

elegant accommodations he had provided for company in so short a time."