1823.}> 
whole again.” - The other was an-ac- 
count of the death of a nobleman 
much beloved by the doctor,—the 
Duke of Beaufort; which he took so 
much to heart, that (I quote again) he 
said, ‘in the hearing: of several per- 
sons, at the Bull-head tavern, in 
Clare-market, (whither he never came 
after,) that, now he Ilad lost the only 
person whom he took pleasure in 
conversing with, it was high time for 
him to retire from the world, to make 
his will, and set his house in order; 
for he had notices within, that told 
him his abode in this world could not 
be twelve months longer ;” and he did 
die in less than twelve months after, 
There is at the prescnt moment, in 
Vere-street, close to Clare-market, the 
sign of the Bull’s-head; but I have no 
means of ascertaining whether it is the 
house alluded to or not. 
_ Adjoining to Vere-street is Bear- 
yard, being at this time-a filthy place, 
almost beyond belief; occupied, as it 
is, by tallow-melters, cow-keepers, 
slaughtermen, tripe-boilers, and. sta- 
blings: yet here was once the play- 
house where the first actress appeared 
upon the stage. 
Descending from Clare-market, by 
Clement’s-lane,—now one of the lowest 
neighbourhoods in London, though 
inhabited, about and Joug after the 
period I have been speaking of, by 
men of consequence, and many of the 
houses then having gardens~ behind 
them,—you come to St. Clement’s 
Church, built by Sir Christopher 
Wren. At this church there are 
chimes, which very inelegantly play 
the 104th Psalm; but there is a clas- 
sical recollection about these chimes, 
as Shakspeare has incidentally men- 
tioned thein in one of his plays, though 
I cannot recollect which.* 
Close below the church, historical 
* Although I am confident I have met 
with this allusion in Shakspeare, yet -it 
eannot be to the present chimes which it 
applies; for, upon enquiry, I find they 
lave been constructed since Shakspeare’s 
time: indeed, I believe that Wren only 
built the body of the church, which was 
in 1682, and the present steeple,—the 
principal part, to be sure; but the great 
entrance, beneath the steeple, is under. 
stood to be much older: it is therefore 
probable that there were chimes used in 
the more ancient church of this parish 
to which Shakspeare’s allusion may refer, 
Mr. Lacey's Reminiscences of St.Clement Danes. 
117 
remembrances are awakened by four 
streets leading to the ‘Thames, which 
mark the site of the residences and gar- 
dens ofsome noble families: the firstis 
Essex-street, whereabouts once stood. 
the house of Hlizabeth’s celebrated 
favourite; and farther on are Arundel, 
Norfolk, and Surrey, streets, the names 
of course indicating that there the 
Norfolk family used to live. Their 
gardens used to stretch down to the 
river; and those banks, which are now 
defiled and blackened by the gloomy- 
looking coal-barges, and the swarthy 
labourers in them, were in those days 
gay with elegant pleasure-boats; bear-. 
ing in them the brave and the beau- 
tiful of England. A similar recollec- 
tion is awakened at the lower end of 
the parish, where Beaufort-buildings 
is situated, which was anciently the 
residence of the duke of that name. 
But, to return to the neighbourhood 
of the church, we have a celebrated 
reminiscence in the once well-known 
place for oratorical display—the Robin 
Hood. The house in which this room 
is still situated is now in the posses- 
sion of an industrious carpenter; and. 
the place where some of the greatest 
men of their day first launched out, 
into the sea of debate, and tricd and 
confirmed their powers, is now let out 
by the carpenter to a Mr. Chivers, I 
believe, who teaches grown gentlemen 
and ladies to dance there; or gives an 
occasional ball for the city appren- 
tices and the temple clerks to show off 
with their fair partners in aquadrille, 
What a falling off! ‘This room was 
formerly approached ‘by a narrow 
court, leading out of Butcher-row, a 
street no longer in existence, called 
Robin Hood court; but is now shut-in 
by the large new houses built in 
Picket-street. 
The Olympic Theatre in Wych- 
street, where M. Alexaudre is now 
ventriloquizing, is built upon the spot 
where formerly stood one of those 
great taverns, then so common, called, 
I think, the Queen-of-Bohemia; in part 
of which old premises, about twenty- 
five or thirty years ago, a discovery 
was made of a considerable quantity 
of the remains of human bodies, bones, 
dissections, &c. which some unknown 
surgeons had deserted, upon finding 
they were discovered. I remember 
(though a boy at the time,) it pro- 
duced a tremendous sensation in the 
neighbourhood; and the crowds that 
went, 
