angles, and openings in all the faces. The top is crowned with a ball, from which rises the fane. Within the tower are eight small bells.

The interior is composed of a nave and two aisles, with galleries on the north, south, and west sides, in the latter of which is a good organ. The ceilings, &c. are handsomely decorated, and the whole well lighted by a double series of windows. The advowson of the living is in the gift of the crown.

In the old church was contained the unhallowed remains of the cruel bishop BONNER, who had for many years been confined in the Marshalsea, where he died miserably, unpitied, and unlamented.

Opposite St. George's church formerly stood the mag nificent mansion built by Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, in the reign of Henry the Eighth. It was called SUFFOLK HOUSE; but coming afterwards into the king's hands *, it took the name of SOUTHWARK PLACE, and a Mint was established here for the king's use; whence its present name.

Edward the Sixth, in the second year of his reign, came from Hampton Court, and dined in this house, where he knighted JOHN YORKE, one of the sheriffs of London, and returned through the city to Westminster.

Mary I. gave the mansion to NICHOLAS HETH, archbishop of York, and to his successors for ever, to be their inn or lodging for their repair to London, as a recompence for York House, near Westminster, which king Henry, her father, had taken from cardinal Wolsey, and the see of York.

Archbishop Heth sold the premises †, and the purchasers

pulled

* This house was also called, while it was in the duke's possession, The Duke's Place; which place he exchanged with the said king Henry the Eighth; and the king, in exchange, gave him the bishop of Norwich's Place, in St. Martin's in the Fields; and this exchange was enacted the twenty-eighth of Henry the Eighth.-Stow.

The said archbishop, August 6, 1557, obtained a license for the alienation of this capital messuage of Suffolk Place, and to apply the

pulled it down, sold the lead, stone, iron, &c. and built on the site many small cottages, on which they imposed great -rents," to the increasing of beggars in that borough." The archbishop bought Norwich House abovementioned, on account of its vicinity to the court, and left it to his suc

cessors.

The Mint continued for many years an asylum for deb. tors and fraudulent persons, who took refuge here with their effects, and set their creditors at defiance*; but this, and similar privileges, were entirely suppressed by parlia

price thereof for the buying of other houses, called also Suffolk Place, lying near Charing Cross, as appears from a register belonging to the dean and chapter of York.-Stow.

The inhabitants of Whitefryars, Savoy, Salisbury Court, Ram Alley, Mitre Court, Fullwood's Rents, Baldwin's Gardens, Montague Close, the Minories, Clink, and Deadman's Place, assumed to themselves a privilege of protection from arrests, for debt; against whom a severe, though just statute was made, 8 and 9 William III. chap. 27. "whereby any person having monies owing from any in these pretended privileged places, may, upon a legal process taken out, require the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, the head bailiff of the dutchy, liberty, or the high sheriff of Surrey, or bailiff of Southwark, or their deputies, to take a posse comitatus, and arrest such persons, or take their goods upon execution or extent; and the sheriffs or officers neglecting, to forfeit to the plaintiff 1001. and every person opposing them, to forfeit 501. and to be sent to gaol till the next assize, and suffer such imprisonment, and be set in the pillory, as the court shall think fit; and any person rescuing or aiding therein, forfeits to the plaintiff 500l. and upon non-payment of the forfeitures, the person neglecting, to be transported to some of the plantations for seven years; and returning again within that time, to be guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy; and persons harbouring those that have made such rescues, shall be transported as aforesaid, unless they pay the plaintiff the whole debt and costs. Yet this place pretends to as much privilege as before, though this act has suppressed all the other places; and these streets are reckoned within the compass of this Mint, viz. Mint Street, Crooked Lane there, Bell's Rents, Exchange Alley, Cheapside, and Lombard Street there; also Cannon Street, Suffolk Street, St. George Street, Queen Street, King Street, Peter Street, Harrow Alley, Anchor Alley, and Duke Street, all in the parish of St. George, Southwark.-New View of Lon don, Vol. I. p. 153.

ment in the reign of George I. The place is at present one of the most filthy and inconvenient districts in the Borough.

Northward of the MINT is UNION STREET, in which is UNION HALL, a very handsome structure, appropriated as a police office, appointed by government for the administration of justice. Adjoining to which is the SURREY DISPENSARY, on the same plan and for the same purposes as the London, and other Dispensaries in the metropolis.

At the south-east end of Blackman Street, in HORSEMONGER LANE, is the COUNTY GAOL and HOUSE OF CORRECTION FOR THE COUNTY OF SURREY. This prison was formerly kept in a place near St. George's church, called the WHITE LION, so called on account of its having been a common inn, bearing that sign., Mi

辈

Speaking of that residence of misery, Mr. Howard observes, that in so close a prison, situated in a populous neighbourhood, I did not wonder to see in March 1776 several felons sick on the floors: no bedding nor straw: no infirmary: no chapel: divine service performed in the parlour; which is too small for the purpose; about sixteen feet square. If the county do not build a new gaol, more roomy and airy, and in a better situation, it would at least be adviseable to add to this an infirmary, chapel, &c."

The county took the hint, and erected the present spacious premises in HORSEMONGER LANE. Here is a good room for a court hall, a chapel, offices, &c. adapted for such a mass of structures; the situation is also more open, and consequently more healthy.

At the south-west corner of BLACKMAN STREET, in the road to the Obelisk, St. George's Fields, is situated the KING'S BENCH PRISON, a place of confinement for debtors, and for every one sentenced by the court of King's Bench to suffer imprisonment: but those who can purchase the liberties have the benefit of walking through Blackman Street, and a part of the Borough, and in St. George's Fields. It is a brick building, in a fine air, and surrounded with a very high brick wall: without which inclosure the

marshal,