of Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and

other scientific works.

WATER LANE, a wide, but dirty street, antiently passed by a house which bore the name of the Hanging Sword, for what reason has not been ascertained; the name is preserved in HANGING SWORD ALLEY *.

In a narrow passage between Water Lane, and Salisbury Square, is the house in which resided SAMUEL RICHARDSON, Esq. author of Pamela, Clarissa Harlowe, Sir Charles Grandison, &c.

The history of PAMELA is said to have been founded on a fact, which was communicated to Mr. Richardson, by a gentleman with whom he was intimate. Pamela's master was the earl of Gainsborough, in the reign of George II. who rewarded the inflexible virtue of Elizabeth Chapman, his gamekeeper's daughter, by exalting her to the rank of countess; an elevation which she adorned not less by her accomplishments than her virtues. She brought his lordship twelve children; and what a virtuous ascendancy she ever maintained, may be imagined from the excellent character of his lordship in Collins's Peerage. The earl died in 1751; and the countess again married in 1756, to Thomas Noel, Esq. of the same family; she died in 1771.

CLARISSA, intended to warn the inconsiderate and thoughtless, of the one sex, against the base arts and designs of specious contrivers of the other, is comprized in eight volumes, and met with such success, that several editions were sold in a few years.

On the evening of the 12th of December, 1805, a dreadful fire broke out in the lower warehouse of Mr. Gillet's printing office, the back of which was in this alley; by this accident, besides the destruction of houses, &c. in Salisbury Square, an immense property of various booksellers, was burnt; and what is singular, an edition of a work, called "The Travels of Anarcharsis," having been consumed in the fire which happened at Mr. Hamilton's printing office, in Falcon

Court, Fleet Street, two years before; another copy, given to Mr. &

Gillet to print, experienced the same fate at this fire. X

The

P604

The History of Sir CHARLES GRANDISON, in which is exhibited a man acting uniformly well through a variety of trying scenes, because all his actions are regulated by one steady principle; a man of religion and virtue; of liveliness and spirit; accomplished and agreeable; happy in himself, and a blessing to others; was always supposed by Dr. Johnson to be intended for Robert Nelson, Esq. who possessed the "graces of a gentleman, and the piety of the Christian."

In this neighbourhood also lived the famous antient printer Wynkyn de Worde, at his "messuage, or inn," called the Falcon. It afterwards belonged to the priory of Ankerwyke, and was given by king Edward VI. in the third year of his reign, to William Breton, in consideration of service and surrender of letters patent for divers other lands, of the yearly value of 91. 6s. 8d.

Opposite Salisbury Court stood the famous CONDUIT, of which Sir William Estfield was the founder. Stow informs us, "that the mayor and commonalty had been possessed of a conduit-head, with divers springs of water gathered thereinto, and the water conveyed from thence, by pipes of lead, towards London, unto Tyburu, where it had lain for the space of six years and more. The executors of Sir William Estfield obtained licence of the mayor and commonalty for them, in the year 1453, with the goods of Sir William, to convey the said water, first, in pipes of lead, into a pipe begun to be laid by the great conduit-head at Marybone; which stretcheth from thence unto another, late before made against the chapel of Rounseval, by Charing Cross, and no further. And then from thence to convey the water into the city, and there to make receipt or receipts for the same, unto the common weal of the commonalty; to wit, the poor to drink, the rich to dress their meats. Which water was by them thus brought into Fleet Street, to a standard which they had made and finished, 1471, near unto Shoe Lane.

ob

"The inhabitants of Fleet Street, in the year 1478, tained licence of the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty, to

make

make at their own charges two cisterns, the one to be set at the said standard, the other at Fleet Bridge, for the receipt of the waste water. This cistern at the standard they built, and on the same a fair tower of stone, garnished with the images of St. Christopher on the top, and angels round about lower down, with sweetly sounding bells before them; whereupon, by an engine placed in the tower, they, divers hours of the day and night, with hammers, chimed such an hymn as was appointed.

"This conduit, or standard, was again new built, with a larger cistern, at the charges of the city, iu the year

1589."

ST. BRIDGET, ALIAS ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH,

TOLO

IS so called on account of being dedicated to a female Irish saint, eminent in that country for her life and conversation.

According to Mr. Stow, this church was antiently very small; and was afterwards only the choir to the body of the church and side aisles, which were built at the charge of William Vinor, Esq. warden of the Fleet, in the year 1480, and John Ulsthorp, William Evesham, John Wigan, &c. VOL. IV. No. 79. founders

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founders of several chauntries. The church was demolished by the fire in 1666, but was rebuilt very solidly of stone, in the year 1680. It has been several times beautified in the years 1698 and 1699; and particularly, by authority of parliament, in the year 1796. In 1797, a new, vestry room was erected at the south-west corner, of uncommon elegance and convenience.

It has a camerated roof, beautifully adorned with arches of fret-work, between each of which is a pannel of crocket and fret-work, and a port-hole window.

It is strong, pleasant, well built, and very regular; all the apertures, &c. exactly conformed to each other. The roof is elevated on pillars, and arches, with entablaments of the Tuscan order; the groinings of the arches are neatly carved, having a rose between two large moulded battens; on the key-stone of each arch a seraph, and in the middle a shield, with compartments and imposts beautifully executed.

The body is wainscoted round with oak eight feet high, having spacious galleries on the north, south, and west sides as is the pulpit, being carved and veneered; the galleries, however, injure the symmetry of the church. In the west gallery is a good organ, by Harris.

The entrances are two on the north, and two on the south sides, of the Composite order; and one very spacious toward the west, adorned with pilasters, entablature, and arched pediment, of the Ionic order, of wainscot. At the west end of the church is likewise a large strong outer door case, of the Ionic order, over which are these words under a seraph, Domus Dei. The other doors are of the same order. The church is well pewed.

The altar-piece is beautiful and magnificent. The lower part consists of six carved columns, painted stone colour, with entablature and circular pediment, of the Corinthian order, embellished with lamps, cherubims, &c. gilt. Above the circular pediment, are the arms of England, finely carved, gilt, and painted, with the supporters. The win-' dow over this is stained in imitation of a glory, &c. in an

excellent

excellent stile. The upper part over the Decalogue, &c. is painted, and consists of six columns, (three on each side of a handsome arched five-light window, adorned with a neat scarlet silk curtain, edged with gold fringe) with their ar chitrave, frieze, and cornice finely executed in perspective. In the front of which are the portraitures of Moses, with the two tables in his hands, and Aaron in his priest's habit; the enrichments are gilt. The whole is enclosed with rail and bannister, and the floor paved with black and white marble. Here are three fine branches, and the church is also richly illuminated with patent lamps, and warmed during the winter season with spiral stoves.

The length of the church is one hundred and eleven feet, breadth fifty-seven, height forty-one, and the altitude of the steeple was two hundred and thirty-four fect; but on account of various accidents that have happened, it is lowered very considerably. It consists of a tower and lofty new spire of stone, adorned with pilasters and entablature, of the Corinthian order, arched pediments, lamps, &c. and the spirie lanterns are of the Tuscan order. The tower contains a fine peal of twelve bells *.

MONUMENTS

On the 18th of June, 1764, about three o'clock in the afternoon, happened a most dreadful storm of thunder and lightning, which, in particular, damaged the west and north-west sides of this steeple, shattered part of the spire, and started one of the stones on the west side a considerable distance from its place; another stone was driven from the bottom of the spire, which broke through the roof of the church into the north gallery; and another near three quarters of an hundred in weight, torn from the steeple quite over the east end of the church, and cast upon the roof of an house in Bride Lane. The roofs, and the windows of other houses on the north side, were materially damaged; and several large pieces of stone were precipitated as far as Fleet Street, to the terror of the passengers. Part of a column under the spire was almost chipped away; as was also a large part of the north-east corner, at the bottom of the spire, with some of the vases, and one of the chain bars split asunder. A window in the belfry was much injured; and one of the great bells (which are always fixed in stays with the mouths uppermost, when not used for ringing) almost filled with pieces of stone, and the clapper greatly battered. Several places in the steeple were cracked;

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