The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 7

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 7

In the Church, and Churchyard, were interred many illustrious dead,

especially Roman Catholics, who seem to have taken a particular

fancy to have their remains buried there, probably on account of the

tradition that this was the last church in which mass was celebrated.

It was a favourite burial-place of the French clergy--and a story is

told (how true I know not) that, down to the French Revolution, masses

were celebrated in a church in the south of France, dedicated to St.

Pancras, for the souls of the faithful interred here.

 

[Illustration: THE BRILL.]

 

Many historical names are here preserved--amongst whom are Pasco de

Paoli, the famous Corsican; Walker, whose dictionary is still a text

book; the Chevalier d'Eon, respecting whose sex there was once such a

controversy; Count O'Rourke, famous in the world of fashion in 1785;

Mrs. Godwin--better known, perhaps, as Mary Woolstencraft--who also

was married here; William Woollett, the eminent landscape engraver,

a branch of art in which he may be said to have been the father;

Samuel Cooper, whose miniatures cannot be surpassed; Scheemaker the

younger, a sculptor of no small note. Nor in this _campo santo_ was

Music unrepresented, for there, amongst others, lie the bodies of

Mazzinghi, who brought the violin into fashion here in 1740; and Beard,

a celebrated singer in 1753. The river flows hence to Battle Bridge, or

King's Cross, as it is now termed, forming in its way a sort of pond

called "Pancras Wash," and running through a low-lying district called

"The Brill."[17] This peculiarly unsavoury neighbourhood has now been

cleared away, in order to afford siding room, &c., for the Midland

Railway.

 

But Dr. Stukeley, who certainly had Roman Camps on the brain,

discovered one in the Brill. He planned it out beautifully. Here were

the Equites posted, there the Hastati, and there were the Auxiliarii.

He made the Fleet do duty for a moat which nearly surrounded Cæsar's

Prætorium, and he placed a Forum close by St. Pancras' Church, to the

northward of which he assigned a Prætorium to Prince Mandubrace. Is it

not true? for is it not all written in his "Itinerary"? and does he not

devote the first seventeen pages of the second volume of that work,

entirely to the Brill, assuring us of the great pleasure he received in

striding over the ground--following, in imagination, the footsteps of

the Roman Camp Master, who _paced_ out the dimensions of the Camp?

 

 

[Footnote 16: See pages 28, 29, 30, 31, &c.]

 

[Footnote 17: See previous page.]

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV.

 

 

That it was _countrified_ about this part of London, is shown by the

accompanying Copy of an engraving, by J. T. Smith, of a view "near

Battle Bridge."[18]

 

The etymology of Battle Bridge, which consists of only one arch, and

now forms a part of the Fleet Sewer, is a much vexed question. At one

time it was an article of faith, not to be impugned, that here, A.D.

61, was fought the famous battle between the Romans, under Suetonius

Paulinus, and the Britons, under Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, which

ended so disastrously for the natives--eighty thousand of whom are

said to have been killed. But there seems to be a doubt, as to whether

this was the exact spot where this historical contest took place, for

Tacitus makes no mention of the little river Fleet, which must then

have been navigable for light and small craft, for an anchor was found,

in its bed, at Kentish Town. He only describes it (Tacit. Ann. lib.

xiv. c. 34) a spot of ground, "narrow at the entrance, and sheltered

in the rear by a thick forest." No remains have ever been exhumed,

nor have Roman, or British, relics been found near the spot.

 

[Illustration: BATTLE BRIDGE.]

 

In the first quarter of this century the Fleet, for the greater part

of its time, ran placidly along, as we see by these two pen-and-ink

sketches, taken at Battle Bridge.[19] But, occasionally, it forgot its

good manners, and overflowed its banks, flooding portions of Kentish

Town, Somers Town, and Battle Bridge, as we read in the _Gentlemans

Magazine_, vol. lxxxviii. part i. p. 462, Saturday, May 9, 1818:--

 

"From the heavy rain, which commenced yesterday afternoon at

six o'clock, and continued pouring incessantly till four this

morning, Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, and part of Somers Town

were inundated. The water was several feet deep in many of the

houses, and covered an extent of upwards of a mile. The carcases

of several sheep and goats were found near Hampstead Reservoir,

and property was damaged to a very considerable amount."

 

[Illustration: BATTLE BRIDGE.]

 

There must have been a Mill here, for Stow tells us that in the reign

of Edward VI. "A Miller of Battaile Bridge was set on the Pillory in

Cheape, and had both his eares cut off, for seditious words by him

spoken against the Duke of Somerset."

 

[Illustration: BATTLE BRIDGE.]

 

Here, as elsewhere, just outside London, the road was not too safe for

travellers, as the following account of a highway robbery will show. It

was committed by one John Everett, whose career in life had been rather

chequered. As an apprentice he ran away, and enlisted in Flanders,

rising to the rank of sergeant. When the troops returned, he purchased

his discharge, and got a situation in the Whitechapel Debtors' Court,

but had to leave it, and he became a companion of thieves, against whom

he turned king's evidence. He got into debt, and was locked up in the

Fleet Prison, but was allowed to reside within the Rules, a district

round about the prison, out of which no prisoner might wander; and

there, in the Old Bailey, he kept a public-house. But he could not

keep away from evil doing, and was sent to Newgate. On the expiration

of his sentence, he turned highwayman. In the course of his

professional career he, on December 24, 1730, stopped a Coach at Battle

Bridge, which coach contained two ladies, a child, and a maidservant,

and he despoiled them, but not uncivilly. The husband of one of the

ladies coming up, pursued him, and next day he was caught. It was not

then, any more than it is now, that every rogue got his deserts, but

this one did, for he was hanged at Tyburn, February 20, 1731.

 

The name of "Battle Bridge" is well-nigh forgotten, and "King's Cross"

reigns in its stead. Yet how few Londoners of the present generation

know whence the name is derived! If they ever trouble their heads about

it at all, they probably imagine that it was a cross, like the Eleanor

Crosses, raised to the memory of some king.

 

And what king, think you, was it intended to keep in perpetual

remembrance? None other than his Most Gracious Majesty King George the

Fourth, of pious memory. Why this monument was raised I have never

been able to learn, unless it was to celebrate his death, which took

place in 1830, and probably to hold up his many virtues, as bright

exemplars, to ages yet unborn; but a mad fit came over the inhabitants

of Battle Bridge, and the hideous structure arose. It was all shoddy;

in the form of an octagon building ornamented with pilasters, all

substantially built of brick, and covered over with compo or cement,

in order to render it more enduring. It was used as a police-station,

and afterwards as a public-house, whilst the pediment of the statue

was utilized as a camera obscura. I don't think they knew exactly what

they were about, for one party wanted it to be called Boadicea's Cross,

another went in for it being nationally named St. George's Cross; but

the goodness of the late king was more popular, and carried the day,

and we now enjoy the _nominis umbra_ of King's Cross, instead of the

old cognomen of Battle Bridge. It had a very brief existence. It was

built between 1830 and 1835, and was demolished in 1845; the stucco

statue only having been _in situ_ for ten years. It is said that the

nose of this regal statue had, for its base, an earthen draining tile,

and that it was offered to a gentleman for sixpence!

 

There hardly seems to be any connection between "the first gentleman

in Europe" and dustmen, but there is a slight link. Battle Bridge was

peculiarly the home of the necessary dustman, and in a song called "The

Literary Dustman," commencing--

 

"They call me Adam Bell, 'tis clear

That Adam vos the fust man,

And by a co-in-side-ance queer

Vy I'm the fust of dustmen,"

 

is the following verse:--

 

"Great sculptors all conwarse wi' me,

And call my taste divine, sirs,

King George's statty at King's Cross,

Vos built from my design, sirs."

 

Close by here, in Gray's Inn Road, was a mountain of refuse and dust;

but it was as profitable as were the heaps of Mr. Boffin in Charles

Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend." This mound once had a curious clearance,

so it is said. It was bought in its entirety, and sent over to Russia,

to help make bricks to rebuild Moscow; and the ground on which it stood

was, in 1826, sold to a Company for £15,000.   

"My dawning Genus fust did peep,

Near Battle Bridge,'tis plain, sirs:

You recollect the cinder heap,

Vot stood in Gray's Inn Lane, sirs?"