SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS 

 OF THE STREETS OF LONDON. 



No. II. 



ADELPHI Durham Place Chivalry Henry VIII. Lady Jane Grey, 

 &c. SAVOY John of Gaunt Chaucer Richard II. and Bolingbroke 

 SOMERSET HOUSE The Protector Somerset Catherine Parr 

 Henrietta Maria Catherine of Braganza. 



As we were pursuing our way along the Strand, for the purpose of 

 glancing at Temple-bar and the Temple, and parts " that there- 

 abouts do lie," my college friend deflected into the Adelphi, and 

 said 



" There are few, if any, places in London, that I could longer 

 linger in than this; not, as you may suppose, from any thing regarding 

 its present aspect or history, but because it recalls to my memory the 

 gallant manners of our forefathers. Like other historic and tradi- 

 tionary scites, woe and suffering mingle with our reminiscences of 

 joust and banquet, of crosier and cross, of peer and pilgrim. Not 

 a vestige remains of Durham-place the costly erection of De Beck, 

 patriarch of Jerusalem and Bishop of Durham nor of that of De 

 Hatfield, built in the reign of the first Edward nor of the magnifi- 

 cent building and tilt-yard, where, in 1540, the eighth Henry gave a 

 splendid tournament, which brought together the flower of chivalry 

 from Spain, France, and Flanders. How different is the whole 

 scene,- how choked up and even suffocating, when one calls to remem- 

 brance the pleasant road, lined at intervals with the mansion of our 

 warlike nobles, which led from hence to Whitehall ! The eye may, 

 indeed, for a moment cheat itself, and gaze along the vista of brick 

 walls, and summon up a gallant train of knights in all the pride and 

 pomp of state ; and lo! the barriers are opened, and the cry resounds 

 ' St. George for England.' I know not how it is, but the era of 

 chivalry has always had a peculiar hold on my imagination ; and 

 when I see the crowd of human beings, that, like a great stream, is 

 pouring along the Strand, intent, apparently, on mere pelf or sordid 

 gain, I sigh and think of past ages. I am to some extent a recluse, 

 and people the world with beings of my own temperament; yet 

 surely there was something most ennobling in the lives, actions, and 

 pursuits of a ' true knight.' The race is, indeed, utterly extinct 



'The knights are dust, 

 Their good swords are rust, 

 Their souls are with the saints, I trust.' " 



" Yes, it certainly requires some stretch of imagination to recall 

 sights and sounds that were once familiar to the spot on which we are 

 now standing. The era of chivalry, although it nursed many vices, 



