The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 23

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 23

Sir Christopher Wren built this bridge, which was meant to be the

ornamental end of "The New Canal," as it is described in the map of

Farringdon Ward in Stow's "Survey" (ed. 1720). It must have taken some

time to complete, for it was not finished until the Mayoralty of Sir

William Hooker, whose name appeared carved upon it (although somewhat

mutilated) when it was uncovered in March, 1840. Sir William Tite,

C.B., M.P., F.S.A., &c., Architect to the City of London, writing at

that date, says: "The Sewer at Holborn Hill was opened, and as I was

passing, I saw the southern face of the Bridge which crossed the Fleet

at this place uncovered to some extent. It was built of red brick, and

the arch was about twenty feet span. The road from the east intersected

the bridge obliquely, which irregularity was obviated from a moulded

and well-executed stone corbel arising out of the angle thus formed,

which carried the parapet. On the plinth course of the parapet was

cut the inscription following, recording the fact of the erection of

the bridge, with the name of the Lord Mayor at the period:--"William

Hooke(r). (A)nno D. 1674."

 

Sir William Tite says it was a red brick bridge; Hatton, in his "New

View of London" (1708), says it was of stone; but then, probably, he

never really saw it, and Tite did. Hatton's description is: "_Holbourn

Bridge_ is built of Stone, it leads from _Holbourn_ to _Snow Hill_,

over the N. end of the _Fleet Brook_, where a little rivulet called

_Wells_, falls by _Hockley Hole_, running a little E'd of _Saffron

Hill_, crossing near the W. end of _Chick Lane_, and so into this

Brook."

 

The canalization of the Fleet after 1666 was a useful work, as it

enabled barges to go up to Holborn Bridge; and that it was availed of,

we can judge by the frontispiece, which was painted in the middle of

the eighteenth century; but it was not much used, if we can trust Ned

Ward, whose sharp eyes looked everywhere, and whose pen recorded his

scrutiny[71]: "From thence we took a turn down by the Ditch side, I

desiring my Friend to inform me what great Advantages this costly Brook

contributed to the Town, to Countervail the Expence of Seventy four

Thousand Pounds, which I read in a very Credible Author, was the Charge

of its making: He told me he was wholly unacquainted with any, unless

it was now and then to bring up a few Chaldron of Coles to two or three

Pedling _Fewel-Marchants_, who sell them never the Cheaper to the Poor

for such a Conveniency: and, as for those Cellars you see on each side

design'd for Ware-Houses, they are render'd by their dampness so unfit

for that purpose that they are wholly useless, except... or to harbour

Frogs, Toads, and other Vermin. The greatest good that ever I heard it

did was to the Undertaker, who is bound to acknowledge he has found

better Fishing in that muddy Stream, than ever he did in clear Water."

 

[Illustration: END OF HOLBORN BRIDGE, TAKEN FROM THE SOUTH, AND PART OF

HOLBORN HILL. JUNE 2, 1840. (_Art. Crosby._)]

 

Gay, too, in his "Trivia," more than once mentions the foulness of the

Fleet in book ii.

 

"Or who that rugged street[72] would traverse o'er,

That stretches, O Fleet-Ditch, from thy black shore

To the Tour's moated walls?"

 

And again:

 

"If where Fleet-Ditch with muddy current flows."

 

Here is a pen-and-ink sketch of Holborn Bridge--from some old engraving

or painting (Crosby does not give his authority), which gives an

excellent idea of old London--squalid and filthy according to our

ideas. How different from that noble viaduct which now spans the course

of the Fleet River! which her Majesty opened on November 6, 1869.

 

[Illustration: HOLBORN BRIDGE.]

 

[Footnote 66: Hollinshed says--speaking of a Council at the Tower,

relative to the Coronation of Edward V., at which the Protector

presided, "After a little talking with them, he said unto the Bishop

of Ely, 'My Lord, you have verie good strawberries at your garden in

Holborne, I require you let us have a messe of them.' 'Gladlie, my

Lord,' quoth he, 'would God I had some better thing as readie to

your pleasure as that!' And there withall, in all haste, he sent his

servant for a messe of strawberries."]

 

[Footnote 67: Gray, "_A long Story_."]

 

[Footnote 68: Afterwards Anglicised into Audrey.]

 

[Footnote 69: There is now _Bowling Green Street_, Farringdon

Street.]

 

[Footnote 70: See next two pages.]

 

[Footnote 71: "London Spy," part vi.]

 

[Footnote 72: Thames Street.]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XV.

 

 

Then, close by (still keeping up its title of the River of the Wells)

was Lamb's Conduit, on Snow Hill, which was fed from a little rill

which had its source near where the Foundling Hospital now stands, its

course being perpetuated by the name of Lamb's Conduit Street, where,

according to the "Old English Herbal," watercresses used to flourish.

"It groweth of its own accord in gardens and fields by the way side,

in divers places, and particularly in the next pasture to the Conduit

Head, behind Gray's Inn, that brings water to Mr. Lamb's Conduit in

Holborn."

 

William Lamb was a citizen of London, and of the Guild of

Cloth-workers, besides which, he was some time Gentleman of the Chapel

to Henry VIII. He benefited his fellow-citizens by restoring a conduit

in 1577, which had been in existence since the fifteenth century; and,

after the Great Fire, the busy Sir Christopher Wren was employed to

design a covering for the spring, which he did, putting a _lamb_ on the

top, with a very short inscription on the front panel, to the effect

that it was "Rebuilt in the year 1677 S^r Tho^s Davis Kn^t L^d Mayor."

 

It is curious to learn how the suburbs of London have grown within the

memory of living men. Take, for instance, the following, from _Notes

and Queries_ (April, 1857, p. 265), referring to Lamb's Conduit. A

correspondent writes that "About sixty years since, I was travelling

from the West of England in one of the old stage coaches of that

day, and my fellow-travellers were an octogenarian clergyman and his

daughter. In speaking of the then increasing size of London, the old

gentleman said that when he was a boy, and recovering from an attack of

smallpox, he was sent into the country to a row of houses standing on

the west side of the present Lamb's Conduit Street; that all the space

before him was open fields; that a streamlet of water ran under his

window; and he saw a man snipe-shooting, who sprung a snipe near to the

house, and shot it."

 

It was no small gift of William Lamb to the City, for it cost him

£1,500, which was equivalent to thrice that sum at present, and, to

make it complete, he gave to one hundred and twenty poor women, pails

wherewith to serve and carry water, whereby they earned an honest,

although a somewhat laborious, living. Lamb left many charitable

bequests, and also founded a chapel, by Monkwell Street, now pulled

down. This Conduit existed until about 1755, when it was demolished,

and an obelisk with lamps erected in its place, but, that being found a

nuisance, was, in its turn, soon done away with.

 

[Illustration: LAMB'S CONDUIT, SNOW HILL.]

 

Lamb was buried in the Church of St. Faith's, under St. Paul's, and on

a pillar was a brass to his memory, which is so quaint, that I make no

apology for introducing it.

 

"William Lambe so sometime was my name,

Whiles alive dyd runne my mortall race,

Serving a Prince of most immortall fame,

Henry the Eight, who of his Princely grace

In his Chapell allowed me a place.

By whose favour, from Gentleman to Esquire

I was preferr'd, with worship, for my hire.

With wives three I joyned wedlock band,

Which (all alive) true lovers were to me,

Joane, Alice, and Joane; for so they came to hand,

What needeth prayse regarding their degree?

In wively truth none stedfast more could be.

Who, though on earth, death's force did once dissever,

Heaven, yet, I trust, shall joyn us all together.

O Lambe of God, which sinne didst take away;

And as a Lambe, was offred up for sinne,

Where I (poor Lambe) went from thy flock astray,

Yet thou, good Lord, vouchsafe thy Lambe to winne

Home to thy folde, and holde thy Lambe therein;

That at the day, when Lambes and Goates shall sever,

Of thy choice Lambes, Lambe may be one for ever.

I pray you all, that receive Bread and Pence,

To say the Lord's Prayer before ye go hence."

 

It is said, also, that the old verses, so well known, were appended to

the brass, or, rather, engraved on his tombstone.

 

"As I was, so are ye,

As I am, you shall be,

That I had, that I gave,

That I gave, that I have.

Thus I end all my cost,

That I felt, that I lost."

 

But there is one well must not be lost sight of; for, in its small

way, it was tributary to the Fleet--and that is Clerk's Well, or

Clerkenwell, which gives its name to a large district of London. It was

of old repute, for we see, in Ralph Aggas' Map of London, published

about 1560, a conduit spouting from a wall, into a stone tank or

trough. This is, perhaps, the earliest pictorial delineation of it;

but FitzStephen mentions it under "_fons Clericorum_" so called,

it is said, from the Parish Clerks of London, who chose this place

for a representation of _Miracle Plays_, or scenes from scripture

realistically rendered, as now survives in the Ober Ammergau Passion

Play. This little Company, which still exists as one of the City

Guilds, has never attained to the dignity of having a livery, but

they have a Hall of their own (in Silver Street, Wood Street, E.C.),

and in their time have done good service in composing the "Bills of

Mortality;" and gruesome pamphlets they were--all skulls, skeletons, and cross-bones--especially during the great Plague.