1806.] Londiniana, 



For the Monthly Magavne. 



LONDINIANA. 



No. I. 



THE ROYAL MEVSE. 



MONG the improvements of modern 

 London, few are more confpicuous 

 than the ranges of ftables. which now form 

 fo frequent an appendage to our llreefs 

 and fquares. Many of thefe are dignified 

 with an appellation fimilar to the title of 

 the prefent article, and Oxford, Portland, 

 Maiiborough, or Portman, Mews, are fa- 

 miliar to the ears of every pafTenger ; 

 merely becaufe Henry VIII., in con/e- 

 quence of an accidental fire, in 1534, 

 transferred his horfes to the place where 

 his anceftors had mued thw hawks. 

 ' Meive, in its ^riginai application, figni- 

 fied a kiad of cage, where hawks were 

 wintered, or kept when ihey mued, or 

 changed their feathers 5 whence it was af- 

 terwaid taken in a more extended fenfe, 

 and fignified a cag€ of any lort, or even 

 confinemtnt in general. 



Long previous to the Norman Conqueft, 

 hawking was a favourite paftime with the 

 Englifh ; our Saxon anceltors perhaps 

 brought it with them from the wood* of 

 Germany j and even as late as the reign 

 of Henry III. the bed hawks were brought 

 from Norway. In 1250 the ftealing hawks 

 from their mews was deemed worthy le- 

 giflaiive interference (Pat. 34Hen. III., 

 m. 2.) ; and among the indulgences 

 granted by Edward III. to the Duke of 

 Orleans, wliile prifoner in London, 1361, 

 r.one were perhaps more valued than the 

 liberty to hunt and hawk at pleafure— 

 (Pat. 35 Edw. III., pi. m 24). 



From the tafte of ihe times, it feems 

 more than probable that every royal pa- 

 lace had a meufe attached to it ; although 

 the ore at Weftminfler was the chief — 

 The earlieft mention I have found of it is 

 among the Wardrobe Accounts of Ed- 

 waid I., in 1299, where a payment oc- 

 curs of two /hillings and four-pence for 

 win'er-fhots to Hanckin, the keeper of the 

 mews at Wcftminller : — 



" Hanekins culfodi mutarum 



Regisapud Wcftm' (iro cal- 



ciamrntis hietr^aiibus anni 



prefentis, per compotum 



iaflum apud Wettm' menl'e 



Januar' anno 29, - - £ o is 4(/." 



In 1350 Ralph de Maners was made 

 keeper. In 1377 the office was given to 

 Sir Simon Jiurley, the accomplifhed fa. 

 vouiite of Richard II. (Stowe's Survey) 



Monthly Mag. No. 137, 



505 



ed. 1755, vol. 11'., p. 576) ; and. ^cven 

 years afterward, 1384, we find the cele- 

 brated GtfFrey Chauctr appointed, atnong 

 other offices, to be clerk of the King's 

 vvorks in tlie palace of Weftminfter and 

 in the Mews at Charing. 



Chaucer, it (h ^uld feem, was alway* 

 afifenibling the materials for poetry ; and 

 it is perhaps to tlie office jult mentioned 

 that we are indebted for the following 

 Jittle fimile in TroVlus and Creffide (lib. iii., 

 1.1798):— 

 '< And whan that he come riding into the 



town, 

 Full oft his Lady from her window down, 

 As frefh as faucon comin out of miie, 

 Ful redy was him godely to falu":." 



In 1390 Sir Baldwin deBeieford, Knt., 

 occurs as mailer of the royal falcons (Pat. 

 I 3 Ric. 2., m. 14)"; and in 1460 the office 

 of mafter of the mews and falcons, with a 

 mar.fion called the Mew-houfe annexed, 

 was granted by a patent from Henry VI. 

 to Richard Earl of Salifbury ; and Fabian 

 fays (P. 7, c. ccxviii.), that a few years 

 after Lord Rivers and his fon were taken 

 hence to Northampton and beheaded. — 

 Richard III., in the firlt year of his reign, 

 gave the office ti John Grey, of Wiltone 

 (Harl. MS. 433 f. 53b.) 



Mr.Pennant (Hift. of Lond., p. 113) 

 fays, that the office ^.f keeper of the king's 

 fakons v/zi by Charles II. granted to his 

 fon by Nell Gwynne, Charles Duke of St. 

 Alban's, and the heirs male of his body. 



Henry VIII. was the firlt of our mo- 

 narchs who turned the royal meufe to 

 ftables, in confequence of a fire which had 

 dettroyed the ftabling at Bloomfbury — 

 (Stowe's Survey, ed. 1755, vol. ii., p. 



Edward VI. rebuilt them in a more 

 convenient form, but left the finifhing to 

 his fifter ar.d fucctffor. The prefent flruc- 

 ture was ereifed in 1732 ; and, from the 

 buildings wiih which it is furrounded, 

 may be deemed rather a difgrace than an 

 ornament to Charing-crofs. 



ST. James's park. 



About 1717 appeared a variety of 

 fongs, whole chief objeft it feems to have 

 bten to reprefent King George I. in the 

 chaiafter of a turnip-hoer, Hearne, in 

 one of his manufcript-diaries, now at Ox- 

 ford, fays, that, when his Majefty came 

 fi.lf to England, " he lalked of turning 

 St. Jaii,e»'s Paik into a turnip-ground, 

 and to employ turnip-hoer»." The bal- 

 lad which goes by that name was written 

 by Mr. Warion, lather to the poet-lau- 

 leat. 



3 S ST. 



