Books: London in 1731
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Don Manoel Gonzales >> London in 1731
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10 *END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
from the 1888 Cassell & Co. edition.
LONDON IN 1731
by Don Manoel Gonzales
INTRODUCTION.
Don Manoel Gonzales is the assumed name of the writer of a "Voyage
to Great Britain, containing an Account of England and Scotland,"
which was first printed in the first of the two folio volumes of "A
Collection of Voyages and Travels, compiled from the Library of the
Earl of Oxford" (Robert Harley, who died in 1724, but whose industry
in collection was continued by his son Edward, the second Earl),
"interspersed and illustrated with Notes." These volumes, known as
the "Harleian Collection," were published in 1745 and 1746. The
narrative was reproduced early in the present century in the second
of the seventeen quartos of John Pinkerton's "General Collection of
the best and the most interesting Voyages and Travels of the World"
(1808-1814), from which this account of London is taken. The writer
does here, no doubt, keep up his character of Portuguese by a light
allusion to "our extensive city of Lisbon," but he forgets to show
his nationality when speaking of Portugal among the countries with
which London has trade, and he writes of London altogether like one
to the City born, when he describes its inner life together with its
institutions and its buildings.
The book is one of those that have been attributed to Defoe, who
died in 1731, and the London it describes was dated by Pinkerton in
the last year of Defoe's life. This is also the latest date to be
found in the narrative. On page 93 of this volume, old buildings at
St. Bartholomew's are said to have been pulled down in the year
1731, "and a magnificent pile erected in the room of them, about 150
feet in length, faced with a pure white stone, besides other
additions now building." That passage was written, therefore, after
1731, and could not possibly have been written by Defoe. But if the
book was in Robert Harley's collection, and not one of the additions
made by his son the second earl, the main body of the account of
London must be of a date earlier than the first earl's death in
1724. Note, for instance, the references on pages 27, 28, to "the
late Queen Mary," and to "her Majesty" Queen Anne, as if Anne were
living. It would afterwards have been brought to date of
publication by additions made in or before 1745. The writer,
whoever he may have been, was an able man, who joined to the detail
of a guide-book the clear observation of one who writes like an
educated and not untravelled London merchant, giving a description
of his native town as it was in the reign of George the First, with
addition of a later touch or two from the beginning of the reign of
George the Second.
His London is London of the time when Pope published his translation
of the "Iliad," and was nettled at the report that Addison, at
Button's Coffee House, had given to Tickell's little venture in the
same direction the praise of having more in it of Homer's fire.
Button's Coffee House was of Addison's foundation, for the benefit
of Daniel Button, an old steward of the Countess of Warwick's, whom
he had settled there in 1812. It was in Russell Street, Covent
Garden, and Addison brought the wits to it by using it himself.
"Don Manoel Gonzales" describes very clearly in the latter part of
this account of London, the manner of using taverns and coffee-
houses by the Londoners of his days, and other ways of life with
high and low. It is noticeable, however, that his glance does not
include the ways of men of letters. His four orders of society are,
the noblemen and gentlemen, whose wives breakfast at twelve; the
merchants and richer tradesmen; after whom he places the lawyers and
doctors; whose professional class is followed by that of the small
tradesmen, costermongers, and other people of the lower orders.
This, and the clearness of detail upon London commerce, may
strengthen the general impression that the description comes rather
from a shrewd, clear-headed, and successful merchant than from a man
of letters.
The London described is that of Addison who died in 1719, of Steele
who died in 1729, of Pope who died in 1744. It is the London into
which Samuel Johnson came in 1738, at the age of twenty-nine--seven
years before the manuscript of "Manoel de Gonzales" appeared in
print. "How different a place," said Johnson, "London is to
different people; but the intellectual man is struck with it as
comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the
contemplation of which is inexhaustible." Its hard features were
shown in the poem entitled London--an imitation of the third satire
of Juvenal--with which Johnson began his career in the great city,
pressed by poverty, but not to be subdued:-
"By numbers here from shame or censure free,
All crimes are safe but hated poverty.
This, only this, the rigid law pursues,
This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse.
The sober trader, at a tattered cloak,
Wakes from his dream and labours for a joke;
With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze,
And turn the varied taunt a thousand ways.
Of all the griefs that harass the distressed,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart."
When Don Manoel's account of London was written the fashionable
world was only beginning to migrate from Covent Garden--once a
garden belonging to the Convent of Westminster, and the first London
square inhabited by persons of rank and fashion--to Grosvenor
Square, of which Don Manoel describes the new glories. They
included a gilt equestrian statue of King George I. in the middle of
its garden, to say nothing of kitchen areas to its houses, then
unusual enough to need special description: "To the kitchens and
offices, which have little paved yards with vaults before them, they
descend by twelve or fifteen steps, and these yards are defended by
a high palisade of iron." Altogether, we are told, Grosvenor Square
"may well be looked upon as the beauty of the town, and those who
have not seen it cannot have an adequate idea of the place."
But Covent Garden is named by "Don Manoel Gonzales," with St.
James's Park, as a gathering-place of the London world of fashion.
The neighbouring streets, it may be added, had many coffee-houses,
wine-cellars, fruit and jelly shops; fruit, flowers, and herbs were
sold in its central space; and one large woman thoughtfully
considering the fashion of the place, sat at her stall in a lace
dress of which the lowest estimate was that it must have cost a
hundred guineas.
H. M.
LONDON IN 1731.
CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON; BOTH IN REGARD TO
ITS EXTENT, BUILDINGS, GOVERNMENT, TRADE, ETC.
London, the capital of the kingdom of England, taken in its largest
extent, comprehends the cities of London and Westminster, with their
respective suburbs, and the borough of Southwark, with the buildings
contiguous thereto on the south side of the river, both on the east
and west sides of the bridge.
The length thereof, if we measure in a direct line from Hyde Park
gate, on the west side of Grosvenor Square, to the farthest
buildings that are contiguous in Limehouse, that is, from west to
east, is very near five miles in a direct line; but if we take in
the turnings and windings of the streets, it cannot be less than six
miles. The breadth in many places from north to south is about two
miles and a half, but in others not above a mile and a half; the
circumference of the whole being about sixteen miles.
The situation next the river is hilly, and in some places very
steep; but the streets are for the most part upon a level, and the
principal of them nowhere to be paralleled for their length,
breadth, beauty, and regularity of the buildings, any more than the
spacious and magnificent squares with which this city abounds.
As to the dimensions of the city within the walls, I find that the
late wall on the land side from the Tower in the east, to the mouth
of Fleet Ditch in the west, was two miles wanting ten poles; and the
line along the Thames, where there has been no walls for many
hundred years, if ever, contains from the Tower in the east, to the
mouth of the same ditch in the west, a mile and forty poles; which
added to the circuit of the wall, on the land side, makes in the
whole three miles thirty poles; and as it is of an irregular figure,
narrow at each end, and the broadest part not half the length of it,
the content of the ground within the walls, upon the most accurate
survey, does not contain more than three hundred and eighty acres;
which is not a third part of the contents of our extensive city of
Lisbon: but then this must be remembered, Lisbon contains a great
quantity of arable and waste ground within its walls, whereas London
is one continued pile of buildings. The city gates are at this day
eight, besides posterns, viz.: 1, Aldgate; 2, Bishopsgate; 3,
Moorgate; 4, Cripplegate; 5, Aldersgate; 6, Newgate; 7, Ludgate;
and, 8, The Bridgegate.
1. Aldgate, or Ealdgate, in the east, is of great antiquity, even
as old as the days of King Edgar, who mentions it in a charter to
the knights of Knighton-Guild. Upon the top of it, to the eastward,
is placed a golden sphere; and on the upper battlements, the figures
of two soldiers as sentinels: beneath, in a large square, King
James I. is represented standing in gilt armour, at whose feet are a
lion and unicorn, both couchant, the first the supporter of England,
and the other for Scotland. On the west side of the gate is the
figure of Fortune, finely gilded and carved, with a prosperous sail
over her head, standing on a globe, overlooking the city. Beneath
it is the King's arms, with the usual motto, Dieu et mon droit, and
under it, Vivat rex. A little lower, on one side, is the figure of
a woman, being the emblem of peace, with a dove in one hand, and a
gilded wreath or garland in the other; and on the other side is the
figure of charity, with a child at her breast, and another in her
hand; and over the arch of the gate is this inscription, viz.,
Senatus populusque Londinensis fecit, 1609, and under it, Humphrey
Weld, Mayor, in whose mayoralty it was finished.
2. Bishopsgate, which stands north-west of Aldgate, is supposed to
have been built by some bishop about the year 1200. It was
afterwards several times repaired by the merchants of the Hanse
Towns, on account of the confirmation of their privileges in this
city. The figures of the two bishops on the north side are pretty
much defaced, as are the city arms engraven on the south side of it.
3. Aldersgate, the ancient north gate of the city, stands to the
westward of Bishopsgate. On the north, or outside of it, is the
figure of King James I. on horseback, who entered the city at this
gate when he came from Scotland, on his accession to the throne of
England. Over the head of this figure are the arms of England,
Scotland, and Ireland; and on one side the image of the prophet
Jeremy, with this text engraved, "Then shall enter into the gates of
this city, kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding
on chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." And on the other side, the
figure of the prophet Samuel, with the following passage, "And
Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your
voice in all that you have said unto me, and have made a king over
you." On the south, or inside of the gate, is the effigy of King
James I. sitting on his throne in his robes.
4. Newgate, so called from its being built later than the other
principal gates, is situated on the north-west corner of the city,
said to be erected in the reign of Henry I. or King Stephen, when
the way through Ludgate was interrupted by enlarging the cathedral
of St. Paul's and the churchyard about it. This gate hath been the
county jail for Middlesex at least five hundred years. The west, or
outside of the gate is adorned with three ranges of pilasters and
their entablements of the Tuscan order. Over the lowest is a
circular pediment, and above it the King's arms. The inter columns
are four niches, and as many figures in them, well carved, and large
as the life. The east, or inside of the gate, is adorned with a
range of pilasters with entablements as the other, and in three
niches are the figures of justice, mercy, and truth, with this
inscription, viz., "This part of Newgate was begun to be repaired in
the mayoralty of Sir James Campel, Knight, anno 1630, and finished
in the mayoralty of Sir Robert Ducie, Bart., anno 1631; and being
damnified by the fire in 1666, it was repaired in the mayoralty of
Sir George Waterman, anno 1672."
5. Ludgate, the ancient western gate of the city, stands between
Newgate and the Thames, built by King Lud about threescore years
before the birth of our Saviour. It was repaired in the reign of
King John, anno 1215, and afterwards in the year 1260, when it was
adorned with the figures of King Lud and his two sons, Androgeus and
Theomantius; but at the Reformation, in the reign of Edward VI.,
some zealous people struck off all their heads, looking upon images
of all kinds to be Popish and idolatrous. In the reign of Queen
Mary, new heads were placed on the bodies of these kings, and so
remained till the 28th of Queen Elizabeth, anno 1586, when the gate,
being very ruinous, was pulled down, and beautifully rebuilt: the
east or inside whereof was adorned with four pilasters and
entablature of the Doric order, and in the intercolumns were placed
the figures of King Lud and his two sons (who are supposed to have
succeeded him) in their British habits again; and above them the
queen's arms, viz., those of France and England quarterly, the
supporters a lion and a dragon. It was afterwards repaired and
beautified, anno 1699, Sir Francis Child lord mayor. The west or
outside of the gate is adorned with two pilasters and entablature of
the Ionic order; also two columns and a pediment adorning a niche,
wherein is placed a good statue of Queen Elizabeth in her robes and
the regalia; and over it the queen's arms between the city
supporters, placed at some distance. This gate was made a prison
for debtors who were free of the city, anno 1 Richard II., 1378,
Nicholas Brember then mayor, and confirmed such by the mayor and
common council, anno 1382, John Northampton mayor.
The Tower of London is situated at the south-east end of the city,
on the river Thames, and consists in reality of a great number of
towers or forts, built at several times, which still retain their
several names, though at present most of them, together with a
little town and church, are enclosed within one wall and ditch, and
compose but one entire fortress.
It was the vulgar opinion that the Tower was built by Julius Caesar;
but, as I have before shown, history informs us that Caesar made no
stay in England, that he erected no town or fortress, unless that
with which he enclosed his ships on the coast of Kent, nor left a
single garrison or soldier in the island on his departure.
This Tower, as now encompassed, stands upon twelve acres of ground,
and something more, being of an irregular form, but approaching near
to that of an oblong, one of the longest sides lying next the river,
from whence it rises gradually towards the north, by a pretty deep
ascent, to the armoury, which stands upon the highest ground in the
Tower, overlooking the White Tower built by William the Conqueror,
and the remains of the castle below it on the Thames side, said to
be built by William Rufus.
As to the strength of the place, the works being all antique, would
not be able to hold out four-and-twenty hours against an army
prepared for a siege: the ditch indeed is of a great depth, and
upwards of a hundred feet broad, into which the water of the Thames
may be introduced at pleasure; but I question whether the walls on
the inside would bear the firing of their own guns: certain it is,
two or three battering-pieces would soon lay them even with the
ground, though, after all, the ditch alone is sufficient to defend
it against a sudden assault. There are several small towers upon
the walls; those of the largest dimensions, and which appear the
most formidable, are the Divelin Tower, on the north-west; and the
Martin Tower on the north-east; and St. Thomas's Tower on the river
by Traitor's Bridge; which I take to be part of the castle said to
be built by William Rufus. There is also a large tower on the
outside the ditch, called the Lions' Tower, on the south-west
corner, near which is the principal gate and bridge by which coaches
and carriages enter the Tower; and there are two posterns with
bridges over the ditch to the wharf on the Thames side, one whereof
is called Traitor's Bridge, under which state prisoners used to
enter the Tower.
The principal places and buildings within the Tower, are (1) The
parochial church of St. Peter (for the Tower is a parish of itself,
in which are fifty houses and upwards, inhabited by the governor,
deputy-governor, warders, and other officers belonging to the
fortress).
(2) To the eastward of the church stands a noble pile of building,
usually called the armoury, begun by King James II. and finished by
King William III., being three hundred and ninety feet in length,
and sixty in breadth: the stately door-case on the south side is
adorned with four columns, entablature and triangular pediment, of
the Doric order. Under the pediment are the king's arms, with
enrichments of trophy-work, very ornamental. It consists of two
lofty rooms, reaching the whole length of the building: in the
lower room is a complete train of artillery, consisting of brass
cannon and mortars fit to attend an army of a hundred-thousand men;
but none of the cannon I observe there were above four-and-twenty
pounders; the large battering-pieces, which carry balls of thirty-
two and forty-eight pounds weight, I perceive, are in the king's
store-houses at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, and Portsmouth. In the
armoury also we find a great many of the little cohorn mortars, so
called from the Dutch engineer Cohorn, who invented them for firing
a great number of hand-grenades from them at once; with other
extraordinary pieces cast at home, or taken from the enemy.
In the room over the artillery is the armoury of small arms, of
equal dimensions with that underneath, in which are placed, in
admirable order, muskets and other small arms for fourscore thousand
men, most of them of the newest make, having the best locks,
barrels, and stocks, that can be contrived for service; neither the
locks or barrels indeed are wrought, but I look upon them to be the
more durable and serviceable, and much easier cleaned. There are
abundance of hands always employed in keeping them bright, and they
are so artfully laid up, that any one piece may be taken down
without moving another. Besides these, which with pilasters of
pikes furnish all the middle of the room from top to bottom, leaving
only a walk through the middle, and another on each side, the north
and south walls of the armoury are each of them adorned with eight
pilasters of pikes and pistols of the Corinthian order, whose
intercolumns are chequer-work of carbines and pistols; waves of the
sea in cutlasses, swords, and bayonets; half moons, semicircles, and
a target of bayonets; the form of a battery in swords and pistols;
suns, with circles of pistols; a pair of gates in halberts and
pistols; the Witch of Endor, as it is called, within three ellipses
of pistols; the backbone of a whale in carbines; a fiery serpent,
Jupiter and the Hydra, in bayonets, &c. But nothing looks more
beautiful and magnificent than the four lofty wreathed columns
formed with pistols in the middle of the room, which seem to support
it. They show us also some other arms, which are only remarkable
for the use they have been put to; as the two swords of state,
carried before the Pretender when he invaded Scotland in the year
1715; and the arms taken from the Spaniards who landed in Scotland
in the year 1719, &c.
The small arms were placed in this beautiful order by one Mr.
Harris, originally a blacksmith, who was properly the forger of his
own fortune, having raised himself by his merit: he had a place or
pension granted him by the government for this piece of service in
particular, which he richly deserved, no nation in Europe being able
to show a magazine of small arms so good in their kind, and so
ingeniously disposed. In the place where the armoury now stands was
formerly a bowling-green, a garden, and some buildings, which were
demolished to make room for the grand arsenal I have been
describing.
In the horse-armoury the most remarkable things are some of the
English kings on horseback in complete armour, among which the chief
are Edward III., Henrys V. and VII., King Charles I. and II., and
King William, and a suit of silver armour, said to belong to John of
Gaunt, seven feet and a half high. Here also they show us the
armour of the Lord Kingsale, with the sword he took from the French
general, which gained him the privilege of being covered in the
king's presence, which his posterity enjoy to this day.
The office of ordnance is in the Tower, with the several apartments
of the officers that belong to it, who have the direction of all the
arms, ammunition, artillery, magazines, and stores of war in the
kingdom.
The White Tower is a lofty, square stone building, with a turret at
each angle, standing on the declivity of the hill, a little below
the armoury, and disengaged from the other buildings, where some
thousand barrels of powder were formerly kept; but great part of the
public magazine of powder is now distributed in the several yards
and storehouses belonging to the government, as at Woolwich,
Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth, &c., to prevent accidents, I presume;
for should such a prodigious quantity of powder take fire, it must
be of fatal consequence to the city, as well as the Tower. The main
guard of the Tower, with the lodgings of the officers, are on the
east side of this building.
In the chapel of the White Tower, usually called Caesar's Chapel,
and in a large room adjoining on the east side thereof, sixty-four
feet long, and thirty-one broad, are kept many ancient records, such
as privy-seals in several reigns, bills, answers, and depositions in
chancery, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, King James I., and King
Charles I., writs of distringas, supersedeas, de excommunicato
capiendo, and other writs relating to the courts of law; but the
records of the greatest importance are lodged in the Tower called
Wakefield Tower, consisting of statute rolls from the 6th of Edward
I. to the 8th of Edward III.
Parliament rolls beginning anno 5 of Edward II. and ending with the
reign of Edward IV.
Patent rolls beginning anno 3 of John, and ending with the reign of
Edward IV. In these are contained grants of offices, hands,
tenements, temporalities, &c., passing under the great seal.
Charter rolls, from the 1st of King John to the end of Edward IV. in
which are enrolments of grants, and confirmations of liberties and
privileges to cities and towns corporate, and to private persons, as
markets, fairs, free warren, common of pasture, waifs, strays,
felons' goods, &c.
The foundations of abbeys and priories, of colleges and schools,
together with lands and privileges granted to them.
The patents of creation of noblemen.
Close rolls, from the 6th of King John, to the end of Edward IV., in
which are writs of various kinds, but more especially on the back of
the roll are entered the writs of summons to parliament, both to the
lords and commons, and of the bishops and inferior clergy to
convocations. There are also proclamations, and enrolments of deeds
between party and party.
French rolls, beginning anno 1 of Edward II. and ending with Edward
IV., in which are leagues and treaties with the kings of France, and
other matters relating to that kingdom.
Scotch rolls, containing transactions with that kingdom.
Rome, touching the affairs of that see.
Vascon rolls, relating to Gascoign.
There are also other rolls and records of different natures.
In this tower are also kept the inquisitions post mortem, from the
first year of King Henry III., to the third year of Richard III.
The inquisitions ad quod damnum, from the first of Edward II. to the
end of Henry V.
Writs of summons, and returns to Parliament, from the reign of
Edward I. to the 17th of Edward IV.
Popes' bulls, and original letters from foreign princes.
All which were put into order, and secured in excellent wainscot
presses, by order of the house of peers, in the year 1719 and 1720.
Attendance is given at this office, and searches may be made from
seven o'clock in the morning to eleven, and from one to five in the
afternoon, unless in December, January, and February, when the
office is open only from eight to eleven in the morning, and from
one to four, except holidays.
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