The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 10

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 10

As time went on, the place did not improve, as we may see by the _New

Monthly Magazine_ for 1833, in an article--part of "Four Views of

London." Speaking of the White Conduit--"Here too is that Paradise of

apprentice boys, White _Cundick Couse_, as it is cacophoniously

pronounced by its visitors, which has done much to expel the decencies

of the district. Thirty years ago this place was better frequented--that

is, there was a larger number of respectable adults--fathers and

mothers, with their children, and a smaller moiety of shop lads, and

such like Sunday bucks, who were awed into decency by their elders.

The manners, perhaps, are much upon a _par_ with what they were. The

ballroom gentlemen then went through country dances with their hats on,

and their coats off:--hats are now taken off, but coats are still

unfashionable on these gala nights. The belles of that day wore long

trains to their gowns: it was a favourite mode of introduction to a lady

there, to tread on it, and then, apologizing handsomely, acquaintance

was begun, and soon ripened into an invitation to tea, and the hot

loaves for which these gardens were once celebrated. Being now a popular

haunt, those who hang on the rear of the march of human nature, the

suttlers, camp followers, and plunderers, know that where large numbers

of men and boys are in pursuit of pleasure, there is a sprinkling of

the number to whom vice and debauchery are ever welcome: they have,

therefore, supplied what these wanted; and Pentonville may now hold up

its head, and boast of its depravities before any part of London."[28]

 

It got more and more disreputable, until it was pulled down in 1849,

and the present White Conduit Tavern was built upon a portion of its

site.

 

[Footnote 21: Cart. Antiq. in Off. Augm. vol. ii. No. 43.]

 

[Footnote 22: Pat. 36 Henry VIII. p. 13, m. 31.]

 

[Footnote 23: See next page.]

 

[Footnote 24: In an early sixteenth century book (unique)

printed by Wynkyn de Worde, called "Cocke Lorelles Boke" the

dairy farming at Islington is mentioned--

 

"Also mathewe to the drawer of London, And sybly sole

mylke-wyfe of Islington."]

 

[Footnote 25: These Rolls were as famous as Chelsea Buns.

"White Conduit loaves" being a familiar street cry.]

 

[Footnote 26: This revivalist used these initials as meaning

"Sinner Saved."]

 

[Footnote 27: A somewhat famous singer in the latter part of

the eighteenth and first quarter of the nineteenth centuries.

She sang and acted at Drury Lane and the Haymarket--and also

sang at Vauxhall. She became poor, and on July 5, 1824, she

had a benefit at Drury Lane, which, with a public

subscription, produced about £800. Lord Egremont also allowed

her £80 a year. She was somewhat related to Royalty: her

husband, Bland, an actor at Drury Lane, being the brother of

Mrs. Jordan, who was the wife of William the Fourth.]

 

[Footnote 28: A frequent visitor at these gardens was the late

George Cruikshank, and many subjects were transferred to his

sketch book. He was so well known, as to become a sort of

terror to the habitués of the place, and children were

threatened, when fractious, "that if they made such ugly

faces, Mr. Cruikshank would put them in his book."]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI.

 

 

Sadler's Wells does not really feed the Fleet River, but I notice the

spring, for the same reason that I noticed the White Conduit.

 

A very fair account of its early history is given in a little pamphlet

entitled "A True and Exact Account of Sadlers Well: or the New Mineral

Waters. Lately found out at Islington: Treating of its nature and

Virtues. Together with an Enumeration of the Chiefest Diseases which it

is good for, and against which it may be used, and the Manner and Order

of Taking of it. Published for publick good by T. G. (Thomas Guidot)

Doctor of Physick. Printed for _Thomas Malthus_ at the _Sun_ in the

_Poultry_. 1684."

 

It begins thus:--"The New Well at _Islington_ is a certain Spring in

the middle of a Garden, belonging to the Musick House built by Mr.

_Sadler_, on the North side of the Great Cistern that receives the

New River Water near Islington, the Water whereof was, before the

Reformation, very much famed for several extraordinary Cures performed

thereby, and was, thereupon, accounted sacred, and called _Holy Well_.

The Priests belonging to the Priory of _Clarkenwell_ using to attend

there, made the People believe that the virtues of the Waters proceeded

from the efficacy of their Prayers. But upon the Reformation the Well

was stopt up, upon a supposition that the frequenting it was altogether

superstitious, and so, by degrees, it grew out of remembrance, and was

wholly lost, until found out, and the Fame of it revived again by the

following accident.

 

"Mr. _Sadler_ being made Surveyor of the High Ways, and having good

Gravel in his own Gardens, employed two Men to Dig there, and when they

had Dug pretty deep, one of them found his Pickax strike upon some

thing that was very hard; whereupon he endeavoured to break it, but

could not: whereupon thinking with himself that it might, peradventure,

be some Treasure hid there, he uncovered it very carefully, and found

it to be a Broad, Flat Stone: which, having loosened, and lifted up,

he saw it was supported by four Oaken Posts, and had under it a large

Well of Stone Arched over, and curiously carved; and, having viewed

it, he called his fellow Labourer to see it likewise, and asked him

whether they should fetch Mr. _Sadler_, and shew it to him? Who, having

no kindness for _Sadler_, said no; he should not know of it, but as

they had found it, so they would stop it up again, and take no notice

of it; which he that found it consented to at first, but after a little

time he found himself (whether out of Curiosity, or some other reason,

I shall not determine) strongly inclined to tell _Sadler_ of the Well;

which he did, one Sabbath Day in the Evening.

 

"_Sadler_, upon this, went down to see the Well, and observing the

Curiosity of the Stone Work, that was about it, and fancying within

himself that it was a Medicinal Water, formerly had in great esteem,

but by some accident or other lost, he took some of it in a Bottle, and

carryed it to an Eminent Physician, telling him how the Well was found

out, and desiring his Judgment of the Water; who having tasted and

tried it, told him it was very strong of a Mineral taste, and advised

him to Brew some Beer with it, and carry it to some Persons, to whom he

would recommend him; which he did accordingly. And some of those who

used to have it of him in Bottles, found so much good by it, that they

desired him to bring it in Roundlets."

 

Sadler's success, for such it was, provoked the envy of others, and one

or two satires upon the Wells were produced.

 

* * * * *

 

Soon after he opened the Wells, Evelyn visited them, as we read in his

invaluable diary. "June 11, 1686. I went to see Middleton's receptacle

of water[29] and the New Spa Wells, near Islington." The Spring was

still known as Sadler's up to 1697 as we find in advertisements in the

_Post Boy_ and _Flying Post_ of June, in that year. But the "Musick

House" seems to have passed into other hands, for in 1699 it was called

"Miles's Musick House." They seem to have had peculiar entertainments

here, judging by an account in _Dawk's Protestant Mercury_ of May 24,

1699. "On Tuesday last a fellow at Sadler's Wells, near Islington,

after he had dined heartily on a buttock of beef, for the lucre of five

guineas, eat a live cock, feathers, guts, and all, with only a plate of

oil and vinegar for sawce, and half a pint of brandy to wash it down,

and afterwards proffered to lay five guineas more, that he could do the

same again in two hours' time."

 

That this was a fact is amply borne out by the testimony of Ned Ward,

who managed to see most of what was going on in town, and he thus

describes the sight in his rough, but vigorous language.

 

"With much difficulty we crowded upstairs, where we soon got

intelligence of the beastly scene in agitation. At last a table was

spread with a dirty cloth in the middle of the room, furnished with

bread, pepper, oil, and vinegar; but neither knife, plate, fork, or

napkin; and when the beholders had conveniently mounted themselves

upon one another's shoulders to take a fair view of his Beastlyness's

banquet, in comes the lord of the feast, disguised in an Antick's Cap,

like a country hangman, attended by a train of Newmarket executioners.

When a chair was set, and he had placed himself in sight of the

whole assembly, a live Cock was given into the ravenous paws of this

ingurgitating monster."

 

In the same year, in his "Walk to Islington," Ward gives a description

of the people who frequented this "Musick House."

 

"---- mixed with a vermin trained up for the gallows, As Bullocks[30]

and files,[31] housebreakers and padders.[32] With prize fighters,

sweetners,[33] and such sort of traders, Informers, thief-takers,

deer-stealers, and bullies."

 

It seems to have been kept by Francis Forcer, a musician, about 1725,

and the scene at the Wells is graphically described in "The New River,

a Poem, by William Garbott."

 

"Through Islington then glides my best loved theme

And Miles's garden washes with his stream:

Now F--r's Garden is its proper name,

Though Miles the man was, who first got it fame;

And tho' it's own'd, Miles first did make it known,

F--r improves the same we all must own.

There you may sit under the shady trees,