The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 5

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 5

"Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow,

And bear their trophies with them as they go:

Filth of all hues and odours seem to tell

What street they sail'd from, by their sight and smell.

They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force,

From Smithfield or St. Pulchre's shape their course,

And in huge confluent join'd at Snow Hill ridge,

Fall from the Conduit, prone to Holborn Bridge.

Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood,

Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud,

Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood."

 

We get a glimpse of prehistoric London, and the valley of the Fleet, in

Gough's "British Topography," vol. i. p. 719 (ed. 1780). Speaking of

John Conyers, "apothecary, one of the first Collectors of antiquities,

especially those relating to London, when the City was rebuilding....

He inspected most of the gravel-pits near town for different sorts and

shapes of stones. In one near the sign of Sir J. Oldcastle, about 1680,

he discovered the skeleton of an elephant, which he supposed had lain

there only since the time of the Romans, who, in the reign of Claudius,

fought the Britons near this place, according to Selden's notes on

the Polyolbion. In the same pit he found the head of a British spear

of flint, afterwards in the hands of Dr. Charlett, and engraved in

Bagford's letter." We, now-a-days, with our more accurate knowledge of

Geology and Palæontology, would have ascribed a far higher ancestry to

the "elephant."

 

As a matter of course, a little river like the Fleet must have become

the receptacle of many articles, which, once dropped in its waters,

could not be recovered; so that it is not surprising to read in the

_Mirror_ of March 22, 1834 (No. 653, p. 180), an account of antiquarian

discoveries therein, which, if not archæologically correct, is at least

interesting.

 

"In digging this Canal between Fleet Prison and Holborn Bridge,

several Roman utensils were lately discovered at the depth of 15 feet;

and a little deeper, a great quantity of Roman Coins, in silver,

brass, copper, and all other metals except gold. Those of silver were

ring money, of several sizes, the largest about the bigness of a

Crown, but gradually decreasing; the smallest were about the size of a

silver Twopence, each having a snip at the edge. And at Holborn Bridge

were dug up two brazen lares, or household gods, about four inches in

length, which were almost incrusted with a petrified matter: one of

these was Bacchus, and the other Ceres; but the coins lying at the

bottom of the current, their lustre was in a great measure preserved,

by the water incessantly washing off the oxydizing metal. Probably

the great quantity of coin found in this ditch, was thrown in by the

Roman inhabitants of this city for its preservation at the approach

of Boadicæa at the head of her army: but the Roman Citizens, without

distinction of age or sex, being barbarously murdered by the justly

enraged Britons, it was not discovered till this time.

 

"Besides the above-mentioned antiquities, several articles of a more

modern date were discovered, as arrow-heads, scales, seals with

the proprietors' names upon them in Saxon characters; spur rowels

of a hand's breadth, keys and daggers, covered over with livid

rust; together with a considerable number of medals, with crosses,

crucifixes, and Ave Marias engraven thereon."

 

A paper was read, on June 11, 1862, to the members of the British

Archæological Association, by Mr. Ganston, who exhibited various relics

lately recovered from the bed of the river Fleet, but they were not

even of archæological importance--a few knives, the earliest dating

from the fifteenth century, and a few knife handles.

 

Previously, at a meeting of the same Society, on December 9, 1857, Mr.

C. H. Luxmore exhibited a green glazed earthenware jug of the sixteenth

century, found in the Fleet.

 

And, before closing this antiquarian notice of the Fleet, I cannot but

record some early mention of the river which occur in the archives of

the Corporation of the City of London:--

 

(17 Edward III., A.D. 1343, Letter-book F, fol. 67.) "Be it

remembered that at the Hustings of Common Pleas, holden on

the Monday next before the Feast of Gregory the Pope, in the

17th year of the reign of King Edward, after the Conquest, the

Third, Simon Traunceys, Mayor, the Aldermen and the Commonalty,

of the City of London, for the decency and cleanliness of the

same city, granted upon lease to the butchers in the Parish of

St. Nicholas Shambles, in London, a piece of land in the lane

called 'Secollane' (sea coal), neare to the water of Flete, for

the purpose of there, in such water, cleansing the entrails

of beasts. And upon such piece of land the butchers aforesaid

were to repair a certain quay at their charges, and to keep the

same in repair; they paying yearly to the Mayor of London for

the time being, at the Feast of our Lord's Nativity, one boar's

head."[10]

 

(31 Edward III., A.D. 1357, Letter-book G, fol. 72.) "Also, it

is ordered, that no man shall take, or cause to be carried,

any manner of rubbish, earth, gravel, or dung, from out of his

stables or elsewhere, to throw, and put the same into the rivers

of Thames and Flete, or into the Fosses around the walls of the

City: and as to the dung that is found in the streets and lanes,

the same shall be carried and taken elsewhere out of the City by

carts, as heretofore; or else by the _raykers_[11] to certain

spots, that the same may be put into the _dongebotes_,[12]

without throwing anything into the Thames; for saving the body

of the river, and preserving the quays, such as Dowegate,

Quenhethe, and Castle Baynards, (and) elsewhere, for lading

and unlading; as also, for avoiding the filthiness that is

increasing in the water, and upon the banks of the Thames, to

the great abomination and damage of the people. And, if any

one shall be found doing the Contrary hereof, let him have the

prison for his body, and other heavy punishment as well, at the

discretion of the Mayor and of the Aldermen."[13]

 

(7 Henry V. A.D. 1419, Journal 1, fol. 61.) "It is granted that

the _risshbotes_[14] at the Flete and elsewhere in London shall

be taken into the hands of the Chamberlain; and the Chamberlain

shall cause all the streets to be cleansed."[15]

 

The northern heights of London, the "ultima Thule" of men like Keats,

and Shelley, abound in springs, which form the bases of several little

streams, which are fed on their journey to their bourne, the Thames

(to which they act as tributaries), by numerous little brooklets and

rivulets, which help to swell their volume. On the northern side of

the ridge which runs from Hampstead to Highgate, birth is given to

the Brent, which, springing from a pond in the grounds of Sir Spencer

Wells, is pent up in a large reservoir at Hendon, and finally debouches

into the Thames at Brentford, where, from a little spring, which it is

at starting, it becomes so far a "fleet" as to allow barges to go up

some distance.

 

[Illustration: SHEPHERD'S WELL, HAMPSTEAD.]

 

On the southern side of the ridge rise the Tybourne, and the

Westbourne. The former had its rise in a spring called Shepherd's Well,

in Shepherd's Fields, Hampstead, which formed part of the district now

known as Belsize Park and FitzJohn's Avenue, which is the finest road

of private houses in London. Shepherd's Well is depicted in Hone's

"Table Book," pp. 381, 2, and shows it as it was over fifty years

since. Alas! it is a thing of the past; a railway tunnel drained the

spring, and a mansion, now known as The Conduit Lodge, occupies its

site. It meandered by Belsize House, through St. John's Wood, running

into Regent's Park, where St. Dunstan's now is, and, close to the

Ornamental Water, it was joined by a little rivulet which sprang from

where now, is the Zoological Gardens. It went across Marylebone Road,

and, as nearly as possible, Marylebone Lane shows its course; then

down South Molton Street, passing Brook Street, and Conduit Street,

by Mayfair, to Clarges Street, across Oxford Street and into a pond

in the Green Park called the Ducking Pond, which was possibly used as

a place of punishment for scolds, or may have been an ornamental pond

for water-fowl. Thence it ran in front of Buckingham Palace, where it

divided, which was the cause of its name. Twy, or Teo (double), and

Bourne, Brook--one stream running into the Thames west of Millbank,

doing duty by the way in turning the Abbey Mill (whence the name),

and the other debouching east of Westminster Bridge, thus forming

the Island of Thorns, or Thorney Isle, on which Edward the Confessor

founded his abbey, and the City of Westminster.

 

The Westbourne took its rise in a small pond near "Telegraph Hill,"

at Hampstead; two or three brooklets joined it, and it ran its course

across the Finchley Road, to the bottom of Alexandra Road, Kilburn,

where it was met by another stream, which had its source at Frognal,

Hampstead. It then became the West bourne, as being the most westerly

of all the rivers near London, taking the Wallbrook, the Fleet, and the

Tybourne.

 

Its course may be traced down Kilburn Park Road, and Shirland Road.

Crossing the Harrow Road where now is Westbourne Park Station,

_Eastbourne_ and _Westbourne_ Terraces mark the respective banks, and,

after crossing the Uxbridge Road, it runs into the Serpentine at the

Engine House. Feeding that sheet of water, it comes out again at the

Albert Gate end, runs by Lowndes Square, Cadogan Place, &c., and,

finally, falls into the river at Chelsea Hospital.

 

[Footnote 9: _Journal to Stella_, October 17, 1710--"This day

came out _The Tatler_, made up wholly of my Shower, and a

preface to it. They say it is the best thing I ever writ, and

I think so too."]