request was complied with, and the vicious place brought under the rule of the city. Driven in some measure from this nest, the thieves took refuge in Lambeth, and still set the authorities at defiance. From that day to this the two boroughs have had the same character, and been known as the favourite resort of thieves and vagabonds of every description. It was here, under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester, that all the stews existed for centuries, being licensed by that prelate for a fee.

Their inhabitants and frequenters were long known in London as the "Bishop of Winchester's birds." Players also, then ranking with these and similar characters, under the common designation of "vagabonds," flocked to the same spot, together with fraudulent bankrupts, swindlers, debtors, and all men who had misunderstandings with the law, and were fearful of clearing them up, lest their goods and bodies might be demanded in expiation. Here, in former days, stood the privileged "Mint" and "Clink;" and here in the present day stands the privileged Bench," within whose "Rules" are congregated the same vicious and demoralized class of people that always inhabited it. Stews also abound, though

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no bishop receives fees from them; and penny theatres, where the performers are indeed vagabonds, and the audience thieves.

But the low shore of Southwark has more agreeable reminiscences. It was here, near the spot still called Bankside, that stood the Globe Theatre at the commencement of the seventeenth century;-the theatre of which Shakspeare was in part proprietor, where some of his plays were first produced, and where he himself performed in them. It was of an octagonal form, partly covered with thatch, as we learn from the account of Stowe, who says, that in the year 1613, ten years after it was first licensed to Shakspeare and Burbage, and the rest, the thatch took fire by the negligent discharge of a piece of ordnance, and in a very short time the whole building was consumed. The house was filled with people to witness the representation of Henry the Eighth, but they all escaped unhurt. This was the end of Shakspeare's theatre. It was rebuilt, apparently, in a similar style, early in the following year.

Besides this, there were three other theatres on the Bankside, called the Rose, the Hope, and the Swan. These appear to have been, for some undiscovered reason, called private theThere was this difference between them

atres.

and the Globe and other public theatres; the latter were open to the sky, except over the stage and galleries; but the private theatres were completely covered in from the weather. On the roof of all of them, whether public or private, a flag was always hoisted to mark the time of the performances.

Two other places of amusement on the river-side deserve to be mentioned; the Paris Garden, and the Bear Garden, in which, besides dramatic entertainments of an inferior class, there were combats of animals. Ben Jonson is reproached by Dekker, with having been so degraded as to perform at Paris Garden. These places always seem to have been in bad repute, even when they flourished most. Crowley, a rhymer of the reign of Henry the Eighth, thus speaks of Paris Garden.

What folly is this to keep with danger
A great mastiff dog and foul ugly bear,
And to this anent, to see them two fight
With terrible tearings, a full ugly sight;
And methinks these men are most fools of all
Whose store of money is but very small,
And yet every Sunday they will surely spend
One penny or two, the Bearward's living to mend.

At Paris Garden each Sunday a man shall not fail,
To find two or three hundred for the Bearward's vale,

One halfpenny a piece they use for to give,
When some have not more in their purses, I believe.
Well, at the last day their conscience will declare,
That the poor ought to have all that they may spare ;
If you, therefore, go to see a bear fight,

Be sure God his curse will upon you light."

Pennant, who quotes these verses, seems to consider the last two lines as a prophecy of the calamity that happened at the Garden in the year 1582. An accident, Heaven directed, says he, befell the spectators; the scaffolding, crowded with people, suddenly fell, and more than a hundred persons were killed or severely wounded. The Bear Garden, notwithstanding its name, was chiefly used for bull-baiting.

Sailing onwards to the Southwark or ironbridge we pass on the Middlesex shore many places, now wharfs and warehouses, which were formerly the abodes of nobles, or palaces and fortresses. Here stood the famous Baynard's Castle, where Richard the Third pretended such coyness to accept the crown; Cold or Cole Harbour, the residence of the celebrated Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex, in the reign of Edward the Third; of the Earls of Huntingdon, in the time of Richard the Second; and of the Earls of Cambridge shortly afterwards. It was also inhabited by Henry the Fifth when he was Prince of

Wales, and by Tonstal Bishop of Durham, in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Not a vestige of it now exists. Dowgate Hill, near this spot, was formerly the port or water-gate of the city, where, in the Saxon times, all vessels proceeded to unload their cargoes. As early as the time of the Romans there was here a gate for passengers who wanted to cross the ferry. The little rivulet of Walbrook, clear in the days of barbarism, but rendered filthy as London grew civilized, runs into the Thames at this place. It takes its rise to the north of Moorfields, and gives its name to one of the most considerable streets of ancient London. Near Dow-gate stood the ancient palace, called for distinction the Erber or Harbour; a corruption, probably, of Herberge, an inn. It was a large building, inhabited in the reign of Edward the Third by the noble family of Scroope, from whom it came into the possession of the as noble family of Neville. The Earl of Salisbury, father-in-law to Warwick, the "kingmaker," lodged here with five hundred of his retainers, in the famous congress of the barons, after the defeat of the Lancasterian party at the battle of St. Alban's, when Henry the Sixth was deposed and Edward the Fourth ascended the throne in his stead. It was in