Part 4

Kemble and Sardinia were formerly Prince's and Duke's Streets. The latter contains some very old houses, and a chapel used by the Roman Catholics. This is said to be the oldest foundation now in the hands of the Roman Catholics in London. It was built in 1648, and was the object of virulent attack during the Gordon Riots; the exterior is singularly plain. Sardinia Street communicates with Lincoln's Inn Fields by a heavy and quaint archway.

Even in Strype's time Little Queen Street was "a place pestered with coaches," a reputation which, curiously enough, it still retains, the heavy traffic of the King's Cross omnibuses passing through it. Trinity Church is in a late decorative style, with ornamental pinnacles, flying buttresses, and two deeply-recessed porches. Within it is a very plain, roomlike structure. The church is on the site of a house in which lived the Lambs, and where Mary Lamb in a fit of insanity murdered her mother. The Holborn Restaurant forms part of the side of this street; this is a very gorgeous building, and within is a very palace of modern luxury. It stands on the site formerly occupied by the Holborn Casino or Dancing Saloon.

Little Queen Street will be wiped out by the broad new thoroughfare from the Strand to Holborn to be called Kingsway (see plan).

Gate Street was formerly Little Princes Street. The present name is derived from the gate or carriage-entrance to Lincoln's Inn Fields.

In Strype's map half of Whetstone Park is called by its present title, and the western half is Phillips Rents. He mentions it as "once famous for its infamous and vicious inhabitants."

Great and Little Turnstile were so named from the turning stiles which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stood at their north ends to prevent the cattle straying from Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Holborn Music-hall in Little Turnstile was originally a Nonconformist chapel. After 1840 it served as a hall, lectures, etc., being given by free-thinkers, and in 1857 was adapted to its present purpose.

LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.--All the ground on which the present square is built formed part of Fickett's Field, which was anciently the jousting-place of the Knights Templars. A curious petition of the reign of Edward III. shows us that then it was a favourite recreation-ground or promenade for clerks, apprentices, students, as well as the citizens. In this petition a complaint is made that one Roger Leget had laid caltrappes or engines of iron in a trench, to the danger of those who walked in the fields. Inigo Jones was entrusted by King James I. to form a square of houses which should be worthy of so fine a situation. Before this time it appears that there had been one or two irregular buildings. Inigo Jones conceived the curious idea of giving his square the exact size of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, and it is accordingly the largest square in London. But when he had completed the west side only, the unsettled state of the country hindered further progress, and for many years the land lay waste, and was unenclosed save by wooden posts and rails; during this period it was the daily and nightly haunt of all the beggars, rogues, pickpockets, wrestlers, and vile vagrants in London. Gay thus speaks of it:

"Where Lincoln's Inn, wide space, is rail'd around, Cross not with venturous step; there oft is found The lurking thief, who, while the daylight shone, Made the walls echo with his begging tone: That crutch, which late compassion moved, shall wound Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the ground. Though thou art tempted by the linkman's call, Yet trust him not along the lonely wall; In the midway he'll quench the flaming brand, And share the booty with the pilfering band. Still keep the public streets where oily rays, Shot from the crystal lamp, o'erspread the ways."

At this time three fields are mentioned as being included in the square--namely, Purse Field, Fickett's Field, and Cap Field. In 1657 the inhabitants made an agreement with Lincoln's Inn, to whom some of the rights of the Templars seem to have descended (Parton), as to the completion of the square. But even after the two further sides had been added, the centre seems to have been left in a disorderly and pestilent state, and it was not until 1735 that the place was properly laid out. In Strype's map of 1720 the sides are marked Newman's Row North, the Arch Row West, Portugal Row South, and the wall of Lincoln's Inn completes the fourth side. Strype speaks of the first two as being of large houses, generally taken by the nobility and gentry. The historical event of prominence connected with the centre of the square is the execution of William, Lord Russell, which took place here in 1683, on accusation of high treason and complicity in the Rye House Plot. He was beheaded in Lincoln's Inn Fields, lest the mob should rise and rescue him were he conveyed to the more public Tower Hill. In spite of his defiance of lawful authority, Russell's name has always been regarded as that of a patriot. He and Algernon Sydney are remembered as single-minded and high-souled men.

Many other executions were held in those fields, notably those of Babington and his accomplices in 1586, fourteen in all. They were "hanged, bowelled, and quartered, on a stage or scaffold of timber strongly made for that purpose, even in the place where they used to meet and conferre of their traitorous purposes." At present the centre of the square forms a charming garden, open free to the public, with fine plane-trees shading grass plots not too severely trimmed, and flocks of opal-hued pigeons add a touch of bird-life. It is true the grass is railed in, but the railings are not obtrusive, and do not interfere with the pleasure of those who sit on the seats or walk under the trees. Here is assuredly one of the places where we can most feel the fascination of London as we contrast the present with the past.

On the north side is the Inns of Court Hotel, a massive pile faced with stone, and with a portico of polished granite columns. This is on the site of an ancient hostelry in Holborn, the George and Blue Boar, a famous coaching inn (see p. 3).

The Soane Museum is further westward, and is differentiated from two similarly built neighbours by a slightly projecting frontage. It was the former residence of Sir John Soane, who left his collection to the nation. There are many valuable pictures, as well as curious and interesting objects. The museum is open free to the public on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

On the west side of the square, near Queen Street, stands a very solid mansion, known first as Powis, then as Newcastle House. The footway in Great Queen Street runs under an arcade on the north side of this house, which was built by the first Marquis of Powis, created Duke of Powis by James II., whom he followed into exile, and bought in 1705 by Holles, Duke of Newcastle, whose nephew, who led the Pelham Administration under George II., inherited it. Further south on the same side is Lindsey House, a large building with pilasters; this was built by Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey, and was later called Ancaster House. It was described by Hatton as a handsome building, with six spacious brick piers before it, surmounted by vases and with ironwork between. Only two of these vases remain. The fleurs-de-lis on the house over the Sardinia Street entry were put up in compliment to Queen Henrietta Maria, who was the daughter of Henry IV. of France. The third great house on this side was Portsmouth House, over Portsmouth Place.

The remainder of the houses have the same general character of stuccoed and pilastered uniformity, broken here and there by uncovered brick surfaces or frontages of stone. They are almost uninterruptedly occupied by solicitors. This is the oldest side of the square, being that built by Inigo Jones.

At the south corner of the square there is a quaint red-brick, gable-ended house, with a bit of rusticated woodwork. This is all part of the same block as the Old Curiosity Shop, supposed to be that described by Dickens.

On the south side rises the Royal College of Surgeons. The central part is carried up a story and an entresol higher than the wings, and, like the wings, is capped by a balustrade. The legend, "AEdes Collegii Chirurgorum Anglici--Diplomate Regio Corporate A.D. MDCCC," runs across the frontage. A massive colonnade of six Ionic columns gives solidity to the basement. The museum of this college has absorbed the site of the old Duke's Theatre. Its nucleus was John Hunter's collection, purchased by the college, and first opened in 1813.

This side of the square is outside our present district. (See The Strand, in the same series.)

The origin of the Company of Barber-Surgeons is very ancient, for the two guilds, Barbers and Surgeons, were incorporated in 1540; but in 1745 they separated, and the Surgeons continued as a body alone. However, they came to grief in 1790, and the charter establishing the Royal College of Surgeons of London was granted in 1800; in 1845 the title was changed to that of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The present building, however, dates only from 1835, and is the work of Sir C. Barry. It has since been enlarged and altered.

With this the ancient parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields ends, but our district includes Lincoln's Inn, and beyond it the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, into which we pass.

LINCOLN'S INN.

BY W. J. LOFTIE.

The old brick gateway in Chancery Lane is familiar to most Londoners. It ranks with the stone gateway of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell, with the tower of St. James's Palace, and with the gate of Lambeth Palace, as one of the three or four relics of the Gothic style left in London. Even Gothic churches are scarce, while specimens of the domestic style are still scarcer. It need hardly be said that this tower has been constantly threatened, by "restorers" on the one hand, as well as by open destroyers on the other. It was built while Cardinal Wolsey was Chancellor, and was still new when Sir Thomas More sat in the hall as his successor. The windows have been altered, and the groining of the archway has been changed for a flat roof. It is said that the bricks of which the gate is built were made in the Coney Garth, which much later remained an open field, but is now New Square. A pillar, said to have been designed by Inigo Jones, stood in New Square, or, as it was called from a lessee at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Searle's Court. This ground and the site of the Law Courts formed part of Fickett's Field, the tilting-place of the Templars. Over the arch of the gate are carved three shields of arms. In the centre are the fleurs-de-lis and lions of Henry VIII., crowned within the garter. On the north side are the arms of Sir Thomas Lovell, who was a bencher of the Inn, and who rebuilt the gate in 1518. At the other side is the shield of Lacy. It was Henry Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1311, by whom the lawyers are said to have been first established here. It is certain that soon after his death the house and gardens, which before his time had belonged in part to the Blackfriars, and which he had obtained on their removal to the corner of the City since called after them, were in the occupation of a society of students of the law. An adjoining house and grounds belonged to the Bishops of Chichester: Bishop's Court and Chichester's Rents are still local names. Richard Sampson, Bishop in 1537, made over the estate to Suliard, a bencher of the Inn, and his son in 1580 granted it to the lawyers. The gate is at 76, Chancery Lane, formerly New Street, and later Chancellor's Lane. In Old Square, the first court we enter, are situated the ancient hall and the chapel, the south side being occupied by chambers, some of them ancient. The turret in the corner, and one at the south-western corner, behind the hall, are very like those at St. James's Palace, and probably date very soon after the gate. Here at No. 13 Thurloe, Oliver Cromwell's Secretary of State, concealed a large collection of letters, which were discovered long after and have been published. The hall is low, and cannot be praised for any external architectural features of interest. The brickwork, which is older by twelve years than that of the gate, is concealed under a coat of stucco. There are three Gothic windows on each side, and the dimensions are about 70 feet by 32 feet high. The interior is not much more imposing, but the screen, in richly-carved oak, set up in 1565, is handsome, and there is a picture by Hogarth of St. Paul before Felix.

Mr. Spilsbury, the librarian, seems to have proved conclusively that the chapel, which stands at right angles to the old hall, was a new building when it was consecrated in 1623. There is no direct evidence that it was designed by Inigo Jones; on the other hand, there is a record in existence which testifies that the Society intended to employ him. John Clarke was the builder. There was an older chapel in a ruinous condition, which there is reason to believe had been that of the Bishops, as it was dedicated to St. Richard of Chichester. Mr. Spilsbury quotes one of the Harleian manuscripts, written in or about 1700, in which Inigo is named as the architect, and Vertue's engraving of 1751 also mentions him. The chapel is elevated on an open crypt, which was intended for a cloister. Butler's "Hudibras" speaks of the lawyers as waiting for customers between "the pillar-rows of Lincoln's Inn." There were three bays, divided by buttresses, each of which was surmounted by a stone vase, a picturesque but incongruous arrangement, which was altered in the early days of the Gothic revival, being the first of a series of "restorations" to which the chapel has been subjected. A more serious offence against taste was the erection of a fourth bay at the west end, by which the old proportions are lost. It looks worst on the outside, however, and the fine old windows of glass stained in England, apparently after a Flemish design, are calculated to disarm criticism. Mr. Spilsbury attributes them to Bernard and Abraham van Linge, but the glass was made by Hall, of Fetter Lane. The monuments commemorate, among others, Spencer Perceval, murdered in 1812, and a daughter of Lord Brougham, who died in 1839, and was buried in the crypt. The office of chaplain was in existence as early as the reign of Henry VI. The preachership was instituted in 1581, and among those who held the office were John Donne, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, who preached the first sermon when the chapel was new. Herring, another preacher, was made Archbishop of York in 1743, and of Canterbury in 1747. Another Archbishop of York, William Thomson, was preacher here, and was promoted in 1862. The greatest of the list was, perhaps, Reginald Heber, though he was only here for a year before he was appointed Bishop of Calcutta.

The garden extends along the east side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the New Square occupying the south portion, the new hall and library the middle part, and the west part of Stone Buildings facing the northern part. A terrace divides them, and there is a gate into the Fields, the roadway leading north to Great Turnstile and Holborn. North of the Old Buildings and the chapel is Stone Buildings, in a handsome classical style, with a wing which looks into Chancery Lane near its Holborn end, and is half concealed by low shop-fronts. The history of the Stone Buildings is connected with that of the new hall and the library. Hardwick, one of the last of the school which might be connected with Chambers, the Adams, Payne, and other architects of the English Renaissance, was employed to complete Stone Buildings, begun by Sir Robert Taylor, before the end of the eighteenth century. Hardwick was at work in 1843, and his initials and a date, "P. H., 1843," are on the south gable of the hall. The new Houses of Parliament had just set the fashion for an attempt to revive the Tudor style, and Hardwick added to it the strong feeling for proportion which he had imbibed with his classical training. This gable is exceedingly satisfactory, the architect having given it a dignity wanting in most modern Gothic. It is of brick, with diagonal fretwork in darker bricks, as in the gate tower. The library had been removed to the Stone Buildings in 1787 from a small room south of the old hall, and, more accommodation being required, Hardwick designed a library to adjoin the new hall. The two looked very well, the hall being of six bays, with a great bow-window at the north end. The interior is embellished with heraldry in stained glass, carved oak, metal work, and fresco painting. At the north end, over the dais, is Mr. G. F. Watts' great picture, "The School of Legislation." The hall is 120 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 62 feet high. The roof of oak is an excellent imitation of an open timber roof of the fifteenth century, and is carved and gilt. The windows were filled with heraldry by Willement, and show us the arms of the legal luminaries who have adorned Lincoln's Inn, many of whom are also represented by busts and painted portraits. The hall is connected with an ample kitchen, and a series of butteries, pantries, and sculleries of suitable size.

Adjoining the hall, the library and a reading-room, which as first built were calculated to enhance the dignity of the hall, were soon found to be too small. Sir Gilbert Scott was called in to add to them. The delicate proportions of Hardwick suffered in the process, the younger architect having evidently thought more of the details, as was the fashion of his school. The additions were carried out in 1873, and the library is now 130 feet long, but shuts out a large part of the view northward through the gardens. It is believed that Ben Jonson worked here as a bricklayer, and we are told by Fuller that he had a trowel in his hand and a book in his pocket. Aubrey says his mother had married a bricklayer, and that he was sent to Cambridge by a bencher who heard him repeating Homer as he worked. Of actual members of eminence, Lincoln's Inn numbers almost as many as the Inner Temple. Sir Thomas More among these comes first, but his father, who was a Judge, should be named with him. The handsome Lord Keeper Egerton, ancestor of so many eminent holders of the Bridgwater title, belonged to Lincoln's Inn during the reign of Elizabeth. The second Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, was a student here in 1647, and Lenthall, his contemporary, was Reader. A little later Sir Matthew Hale, whose father had also been a member, was of this inn, and became Chief Justice in 1671. The first Earl of Mansfield was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, and four or five Lords Chancellor in a row, including Bathurst, Campbell, St. Leonards, and Brougham.

From the antiquarian or the picturesque point of view Lincoln's Inn is not so fascinating as the two Temples. It looks rather frowning from Chancery Lane, where it rises against the western sky. The old hall and the chapel are rather curious than beautiful, and cannot compare with Middle Temple Hall or the Church of the Knights. The fine buildings which overlook the gardens and trees of Lincoln's Inn Fields owe much to their open situation. The Stone Buildings where they look on the green turf of the garden are really magnificent, but they stand back from the public gaze, and are but seldom seen by the casual visitor.

CHANCERY LANE.

Strype says the Lane "received the name of Chancellor's Lane in the time of Edward I. The way was so foul and miry that John le Breton, Custos of London, and the Bishop of Chichester, kept bars with staples across it to prevent carts from passing. The roadway was repaired in the reign of Edward III., and acquired its present name under his successor, Richard II."