of Queen Anne, but grew afterwards into such disrepute, that Gay, in his 'Beggar's Opera,' made it one of the scenes of Macheath's orgies. The gardens were opened for public breakfasts and other entertainments about the year 1740, and continued to be a place of public resort, under the name of Marylebone Gardens, till the year 1777, when the whole was let, and the site since occupied by Devonshire Place.

"Having thus adverted briefly to the ancient condition of this now densely populated parish,* I will offer a sketch of the progression which has brought it to its modern greatness. I find that in 1700 Bond Street was built no further than the end of Clifford Street. It took its name from the proprietor, a baronet of a family now extinct. New Bond Street was then an open field, called Conduit Mead, from the conduits already mentioned; and Conduit Street, built in 1718, received its name for the same reason.

"In 1716 Hanover and Cavendish Squares were unbuilt, but their names appear on the plans of London in 1720. Oxford Street, from Princess Street eastward, as far as Saint Giles's, had only a few houses on the north side, and the roadway is described by Pennant as a deep hollow road, and full of sloughs, with here and there a rugged house, the lurking place of cutthroats, insomuch so, says the same authority, that he never was taken that way by night in his hackney coach, to a worthy uncle's, who gave him lodgings for the night, in George Street, but he went in dread the whole way, and, he adds, I will sum up the description of this part of the parish by mentioning that the late Carew Mildmay, esquire, who, after a very long life, died a few years ago, used to say that he remembered killing a woodcock on the site of Conduit Street.'

"In the year 1715 a plan was formed for building Cavendish Square, and several streets on the north of Tybourn Road. In 1717 or 1718 the ground was laid out, the circle in the centre inclosed, and the equestrian statue of William Duke of Cumberland erected. The row of houses on the north side of Tybourn Road was completed in 1729, and it was then called Oxford Street. About the same time most of the streets leading out of Cavendish Square were built, and the ground laid out for several others, viz., Vere Street, Holles Street, Margaret Street, Cavendish Street, Harley Street, Wigmore Street, Mortimer Street, &c. named from the names, titles, and family estates of the noble houses of Oxford and Newcastle. Maitland says, that in his time (1739) there were 570 houses only in the parish of Saint Marylebone, which chiefly consisted of pasture fields.

"In 1770 the continuation of Harley Street was begun, and Mansfield Street, on ground where had formerly been a basin of water. Soon afterwards Portland Place was built, which at that time was considered one of the finest streets in London, and, although not very remarkable for beauty of architecture, it was formerly, from its agreeable position and pure air

* For further historical particulars see "A Topographical and Historical Account of the Parish of Saint Mary-le-bone, by Thomas Smith. 1833." 8vo.

from Hampstead and Highgate, which are seen to the north, much used as a promenade for the rank and fashion of the town. Its noble width was, however, partly owing to an accident, from a clause in the lease held by the then Lord Foley of the Duke of Portland, which prevented the building a street to interrupt the view of Foley House.

"The very pleasant and agreeable site, upon which so many noble edifices overlooking the park now stand, denominated Park Lane, was called originally Tybourn Lane, until its more fashionable inhabitants changed the name; and the Crescent, which is now called Cumberland Place (originally intended for a circus), was begun about 1774.

"From 1786 till the commencement of the French War, the buildings increased in Marylebone very rapidly, and all the Duke of Portland's property, except one farm, was let on building leases, and the buildings on the north-west part became equally numerous.

"Portman Square was, at the time of its erection, considered the handsomest in London; it was, however, laid out only in 1764, and it was nearly twenty years before the whole was completed. The several squares to the west of Portman Square, which comprised the noble estate of Lord Portman, have, I doubt not, been built within the memory of many persons present; and I may add as a personal reminiscence, that I remember conversing with an inhabitant of Marylebone who had himself rented a portion of the ground on which Bryanston Square now stands, so recently as 1815, as a cabbage garden."

Objects and Works of Art exhibited.

By Dr. PURLAND. A case of London Antiquities collected by himself in various localities.

By Professor TENNANT. Photographs of the Imperial Crown, which had been taken by permission of Her Majesty, to illustrate his paper, read at Islington.

By Mr. Asн. Some Rubbings of Brasses from Edmonton Church.

FIFTEENTH GENERAL MEETING,

Being the first of a Series of Meetings for the Investigation of the Antiquities of the City of London, assembled in the Court Room, Christ's Hospital, on Wednesday, April 13th, 1859,

The Hon. and Right Rev. the LORD BISHOP OF CARLISLE in the Chair.

The Company met in the Court-room of Christ's Hospital, and were received by William Gilpin, Esq., Treasurer, George Trollope, Esq., &c.

Letters from H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Londesborough, Lord Talbot de Malahide, and other noblemen taking an interest in the subject of archæology, were read, in which they regretted their unavoidable absence.

The Rev. THOMAS HUGO, M.A., F.S.A, read a paper on Christ's Hospital, of which the following is a summary :—

"In presenting a sketch of the history of so well-known an institution as that within the precincts of which we are now assembled, I claim no merit, save that of placing before you in one collection the scattered notices of former writers. Dugdale and Stevens, among authors of the past, and Trollope and Nichols, among those of our own day, have left little or nothing to reward the labours of subsequent explorers. It may serve, however, to make our visit more agreeable, and our examination more instructive, if I remind you of a few of the more memorable points in the eventful history of this very remarkable place.

"It was in the year 1224, that a deputation of nine of the fraternity of Franciscans, or Grey Friars, four clerics and five laics, arrived in England. Pope Honorius III. had given them letters of recommendation, and these procured them admission, in the first instance, into the Benedictine Priory of the Holy Trinity at Cambridge. Four of them soon visited London, and were received and entertained for fifteen days in the house of the Dominicans, in Holborn. They afterwards hired a house in Cornhill, belonging to John Travers, and therein made themselves cells; till their number so increased, that, through the charity of the citizens, they removed to the site of their afterwards magnificent monastery near Newgate. John Iwyn, mercer, was their principal benefactor. He gave them a piece of land near the church of St. Nicholas in the Shambles, upon which their first house was erected. Sir William Joyner, Mayor, built them a chapel, which subsequently formed part of the chancel of their church. This was about the year 1239. Sir Henry Waleys built the nave, Walter the Potter the chapterhouse, Bartholomew de Castro the refectory, Sir Gregory de Rokesley, Mayor, the dormitory, and the rest of the house was the gift of other worthy and worshipful citizens, whose names are duly chronicled in the records of the order. I may add, that the early annals of the brethren in England can nowhere be read so agreeably and so accurately as in the "Monumenta Franciscana," lately published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls.

"It was their second church, however, about which we possess most information, and which was undoubtedly the more sumptuous and extensive. This was commenced about a century later, and was one of the most magnificent structures in London. The choir was built chiefly at the cost of Queen Margaret, second wife of Edward I., the nave by John Earl of Britany and Richmond; the seats in the choir by Margaret Segrave, Duchess of Norfolk; and the library was added by the famous Sir Richard

Whityngton, in 1429. Among the benefactors are specially recorded Mary Countess of Pembroke, Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. The church, which was consecrated in 1329, was 300 feet long, 89 broad, and 64 high. The pillars and pavement were of marble, and the windows were marvels of exquisite art.

“But, after all, the great glory of this superb edifice, at least that which seems to have presented the greatest point of attraction to its ancient describers, lay in the numerous monumental treasures with which it was enriched. In these it must have nearly, if not quite, rivalled the church of the Austin Friars itself. Here lay interred, it is said by Weever,* four queens, four duchesses, four countesses, one duke, two earls, eight barons, and some thirty-five knights; and in all, 663 persons of quality. The queens were, Margaret, queen of Edward I.; Isabella, queen of Edward II.; Joan, Queen of Scots, his daughter; and Isabella, Queen of Man. The church was also possessed of the heart of a fifth queen, Alianor, consort of Henry III., and of the heart of King Edward II., which was placed beneath the breast of his queen's effigy. The duchesses were, Beatrice, Duchess of Britany, daughter of Henry III., and Alianor, Duchess of Buckingham, 1530; the duke was John Duke of Bourbon, 1433; the earls were John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, 1389; and Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, in 1329; the countesses were Margaret Rivers, Countess of Devon; Margaret Marshall, Countess of Norfolk, 1389; Isabella, Countess of Bedford, daughter of Edward I., and Elizabeth, mother of Ralph, Earl of Westmerland. Besides these, there were many others, including those of Alice Lady Kingston, 1439, in the Lady Chapel; Sir John Blount and Lord Mountjoy, 1485, in the Chapel of the Apostles; in the Chapel of St. Francis, that of Sir John Robsard, Knight of the Garter; in the north aisle, that of William Harmer, citizen, 1512; and in the south aisle, that of Dr. John Taulle, Chancellor of St. David's, 1509. These, although the memorials of a very noble fellowship of death, were but a few of the most conspicuous. Stowe says, that 'there were nine tombs of alabaster and marble, environed with bars or strikes of iron, in the choir; and one tomb in the body of the church, also coped with iron, besides seven-score gravestones of marble.' In the time of the troubles of the sixteenth century, the whole of these were sold for-fifty pounds!

"Little is known of the House during the two hundred years after its foundation, except the funereal notices which I have laid before you. It is not until the reign of Henry VIII., that it acquires particular notoriety. The brethren, if they did not acquiesce in the tyrant's designs, took little further part in the events of the times than to give a place of sepulture to some of his victims. Among others of this class are mentioned the

*The register from which Weever and Stowe derived their information has been edited by Mr. J. G. Nichols in the Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica, vol. v. from the original now in the Cottonian collection of MSS.

Maid of Kent, and some of the Northern so-called rebels. Soon, however, came the final catastrophe, which involved all such establishments in one common ruin. On the 12th of November, 1539, Thomas Chapman the warden and twenty-five of the brethren signed and sealed the deed of surrender, and accompanied their act by certain declarations, which force upon us the conviction that they are, in part at least, the composition of the unscrupulous Cromwell himself. Every word reveals its parentage, and does its worst to add another and darker stain to an already execrable character.

"After the surrender in 1539, the Grey Friars' house was not given up to the destruction which visited the generality of similar institutions. It seems to have caused the King some trouble to determine what to do with it. Religious houses in London were possessions that even greedy courtiers did not at once affect, nor appropriate till the novelty of the spoliation wore off, and men could hold such property without remark. In the country it was otherwise. There great people did more as they pleased, unrestrained by popular opinion and the wholesome awe which it not unfrequently inspires. Thus, the house of the Grey Friars lay for a long while unemployed. At last, in the year 1544, it became the receptacle of merchandise taken by sea from the French. Just at the end of Henry's life, however, he seemed to awake to a sense of his previous enormities, and to be willing to make some slight restitution. Among a few others of a similar kind was a grant to the city for the general relief of the poor and the maintenance of divine service. In this gift were included the site of the house of the Grey Friars and the adjoining precinct, together with the Hospital of St. Bartholomew and many tenements pertaining thereto. On the 3rd of January, 1546, the church was again opened for divine service, and Ridley, the famous Bishop of Rochester, preached at the neighbouring Paul's Cross, and declared to the audience the King's liberality.

"Of the property whereof the city thus came into possession the house of the lately-dissolved monastery was a very important part. For its employment no specific directions were given, but its disposal was left to the taste of the citizens. And nobly, indeed, did they set to work to devote their possession to the mitigation of a terrible and appalling evil. You will recollect that the time in which this took place was the interval between the suppression of the monasteries and the enactment of the Elizabethan poor-law, the latter rendered absolutely necessary by the misery that abounded on every side. Multitudes died of starvation in the streets, deprived of that charitable aid which they had ever hitherto enjoyed. On the 26th of July, 1552, the citizens began to prepare the Grey Friars' house for the wretched children that infested the town, and by the end of four months the place was ready. On the 23rd of November about four hundred poor children were received; and we are told that when the Lord Mayor and Aldermen visited St. Paul's, on the afternoon