CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.

5

at an outlay of £7,000, was commenced in 1675. The writing school was originated in 1694 by Sir John More, knight and alderman, and finished at his own expense. It stands at the west side of the play-ground, and rests upon columns, the space under which is allotted for play and exercise. This school contains a desk at which 300 boys may write at the same time. The hospital comprehends several buildings, which extend from east to west on the northern side of Newgate-street. The most magnificent part of this hospital is the New Hall, the first stone of which was laid by his royal highness the late Duke of York in 1825, and it was opened in 1829. It is in the Elizabethan style, and was built from designs by the late Mr. Shaw, the architect of St. Dunstan's-inthe-West. It is partly raised on the old wall of London, and partly on the foundations of the refectory of the Grey Friars. Its southern part faces Newgate-street. It is sustained by buttresses, and at each extremity an octagon tower is erected. The summit is embattled and ornamented with pinnacles; and the upper part of the western tower is used as an observatory. On the grand story is an open arcade 187 feet long and 16 wide, for the shelter or recreation of the boys in hot or wet weather; a meeting-room for the governors, &c., with the staircases and passages of communication. The dining-room, with its lobby and organ-gallery, occupies the entire upper story, which is 187 feet long, 51 wide, and 47 high. On the south side are nine large and handsome windows; at the east end is a dais or stage for the governors, and along the west and north sides are galleries for the accommodation of visitors. The arcade, under the hall, is built with blocks of Haytor granite, highly wrought; the remainder of the front is of Portland stone. The two leading classes in the school are called Grecians and Deputy-Grecians. Several university exhibitions or fellowships are attached to the Hospital, the revenues of which proceeding from royal and private donations, and from a grant by the city of various pri

vileges are extensive. The yearly expenditure exceeds £30,000. Its government is placed in the hands of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and a certain number of Common Councilmen, elected by lot; and benefactors to the amount of £500 are also governors. Every Sunday, from Christmas to Easter, the boys sup in the large hall, a domestic spectacle to which the public are admitted by tickets. These banquets commence at 6 o'clock. "Three tables are covered with neat cloths, wooden platters, little wooden buckets of beer, with bread, &c. The ceremony begins with three strokes of a mallet, producing the most profound silence. One of the seniors having ascended the pulpit, reads a chapter from the Bible; and during prayers the boys stand; and the 'Amen,' pronounced by such a number of voices, has a striking effect. A hymn, sung by the whole youthful assembly, accompanied by the organ, concludes this part of the solemnity at the supper. The treasurers, governors, and those of the public who procure admission, are seated at the south end of the hall; the master, steward, matron, &c., at the north end; and the several nurses at the table to preserve good order. At the conclusion of the whole, the doors of the wards are thrown open, and the boys pass by the company in procession; first the nurse, then a boy carrying two lighted candles; others with bread baskets and trays, and the remainder, two by two, who all pay their obedience as they pass.' On Easter Monday and Tuesday the boys attend the Spital Sermons, preached to recommend the various charities under the care of the Corporation of London to the consideration of the affluent. The sermon on the Monday is invariably delivered by a bishop; that on Tuesday by some distinguished divine. On the Monday the Bluecoat Boys walk in procession to the Royal Exchange, where they wait for the Lord Mayor, who on this occasion comes in state, and whom they accompany to Christ Church to hear the sermon. On Tuesday they

* Cooke.

go in procession to the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayoress, and the Members of the Corporation are in attendance in the Egyptian Hall to receive them; the boys are all entertained with plumcake and wine, and each is presented with a new shilling. They then pass in procession before the company, and withdraw. On these occasions each boy bears a paper on his breast with the inscription :-" He is risen." Among the eminent scholars educated at this school were William Camden, author of the Britannia; Bishop Stillingfleet; Samuel Richardson, the novelist; Thomas Mitchell, the translator of Aristophanes; Thomas Barnes, who edited for many years the Times Newspaper; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet.

Arriving at the west end of Newgate-street, and crossing the road which intersects the Old Bailey and Giltspur-street, Skinner-street is reached, the old name of which was Snow-hill, a corruption of Snor-hill, a Saxon word of the same meaning. Skinner-street was built in 1802 by Mr. Alderman Skinner on Snow-hill, and a spacious and handsome communication made between Newgate-street and Holborn, in lieu of the former narrow, steep, and circuitous route. At the corner of Skinnerstreet and Giltspur-street is St. Sepulchre's Church, to some of the mournful associations of which we have had occasion to refer in our notice of Newgate. It is built upon the site of a former church dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The body of the edifice sustained some injury from the fire of 1666, the course of which was arrested at Pie-corner, a few yards to the north of the church. The celebrated Roger Ascham was buried here.

At the end of Skinner-street, where the road passes between Farringdon-street and Victoria-street, stood Holborn, or Ouidbourne-bridge, a stone bridge over the Fleet. The origin of Holborn is thus mentioned by Stow "Oldborne, or Hilborn, breaking out about the place where now the Bars do stand, and run down the

old street to Oldborn-bridge, into the river of the Wells, or Turnemill Brook. This bourne was likewise long since stopped up at the head and in other places, where the same hath broken out, but yet till this day the said street is there, called High Oldborne Hill, and both sides thereof, together with all the ground adjoining, which lie between it and the river Thames, remain full of springs, so that water is there found at hand, and hard to be stopped in every house." From Farringdon-street to Fetterlane, the thoroughfare is called Holborn-hill; from Fetter-lane to Brook-street, it is styled Holborn; and from Brook-street to Drury-lane, High Holborn. In the last century the steep ascent up Holborn-hill witnessed many a dismal cavalcade of unhappy convicts on their way to the place of execution at Tyburn. Up this hill Lord William Russell was conveyed to the Scaffold in Lincoln'sInn-fields, where that estimable nobleman terminated his earthly career. On the north side of Holborn-hill is Fieldlane, one side of which has been removed to facilitate the improvements now in progress in the dense and squalid neighbourhood to which it conducts. This lane for many years has preserved a most unenviable notoriety as being the receptacle of stolen goods, especially of silk handkerchiefs abstracted by the ingenuity of the light-fingered conveyancers from their rightful owners. It leads to the narrow streets and alleys in connection with Saffron-hill, which, some three centuries ago, presented a very different aspect to that which it now offers. In 1560 the denomination of Saffron-hill was not misplaced, being then a neighbourhood where saffron meads and blooming gardens gratified the senses. Upon the spot where it stands, there was a narrow path through a long pasture, with Turnmill-brook on one side, and Lord Hatton's garden on the other, while Field-lane was a mere opening to the fields. A passage between two hedges passed to Smithfield, on the site of Chick-lane, noted some hundred years since for the Black Boy-alley gang, twenty-one of whom were simultaneously hung at Tyburn for murder com

mitted on this ill-starred spot. Proceeding up Holborn, Ely-place, which covers the ground once occupied by Hatton House, the residence of Sir Christoper Hatton, the favourite chancellor of Queen Elizabeth next claims attention. Upon this spot originally John de Kirkley, Bishop of Ely, who died in 1290, laid the foundation of a palace, which was improved by his successor, on the whole consisting of more than twenty acres walled in. The strawberries cultivated in the garden of Ely House were famous, and Holinshed records that Richard, Duke of Gloucester (afterwards Richard III.), at the council held in the Tower on the morning he put Lord Hastings to death, requested a dish of them from the Bishop. In Ely House John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, died in 1399. Sir Christoper Hatton in 1576 became the tenant of the greater part of the house for a period of twentyone years. "The rent," says Mr. Cunningham, "was a red rose, ten loads of hay, and £10 per annum; Bishop Cox, on whom this hard bargain was forced by the Queen, reserving to himself and successors the right of walking in the gardens, and gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly." Eventually the luckless prelate was compelled by Elizabeth to transfer the entire house and gardens to Sir Christopher Hatton. That eminent personage died here in 1591, and was succeeded in his property by his nephew, Newport, who assumed the name of Hatton, and whose widow, the Lady Hatton, whom tradition asserts to have made a fearful compact with the Evil One, was married to Sir Edward Coke, the eminent lawyer. On the death of the last Lord Hatton the property reverted to the crown, and upon its site the present buildings were erected. The wide street called Hatton-garden, leading from Holborn to Clerkenwell, with some streets branching therefrom, cover the ground where formerly the vineyard, meadow, orchard, and garden of Ely House existed, and is named after Sir Christopher Hatton, who wrested that fair domain from the prelate. The foundations of the present street were laid in 1659.

VOL. II.

C