A. D. 1666. 



5^5 



Since that terrible conflagration, the increafe of our foreign com- 

 merce and our home manufadures has been fo great, that the fub- 

 urbs of the city, as well as the adjacent villages and hamlets, have fo 

 vaftly increafed, as in point of magnitude, though not of wealth, to vie 

 with, and taken together, even to furpafs, the city itfelf ; particularly 

 the vaft increafe of the hamlet of Spitalfields occafions furprife to all 

 %vho know, or have heard from their friends of but one or two genera- 

 tions backward, that almofl; all that fpace of ground running from Ar- 

 tillery-lane on the eafl fide of Bifliopfgate-flreet quite down to Shoreditch 

 church, next turning eaftwai'd towards Bethnal-green, and then louth- 

 eaftwurd to Whitechapel road, containing by common eftimation be- 

 tween three and four hundred acres of ground, fhould have fince then 

 been built up into almoft numberlefs ftreets, lanes, alleys, and courts, 

 filled with induftrious manufaclurers, chiefly in the filk trade, and others 

 depending thereon, to the amount perhaps of above 100,000 people, 

 where probably not one fingle houfe flood little above 150 years ago. An- 

 other vaft increafe of buildings on new foundations is the great number 

 of ftreets contained within the compafs of ground ftill called Goodmans- 

 fields, with Wellclofe-fquare, Ratcliff-highway, and the adjacent flreets. 

 Northward there is the greateft part of the village of Hoxton built on 

 fince about the year 1688, and all about Old-ftreet, on each fide, and 

 up to Iflington road, to a place where a wind-mill fl;ood, ftill called 

 Mount-mill. The fine and extenfive ftreet of Hatton-garden, on the 

 fite of the fingle houfe and garden of the Lord Hatton, the great num- 

 ber of alleys in and about Saftron-hill (formerly called the bifliop of 

 Ely's vineyard), Brook-ftreet, Grevil-ftreet, 8cc. where formerly flood 

 Lord Brook's houfe and garden, as were alio all the flreets from the 

 Strand down to the Thames, formerly only noblemen's houfes and 

 gardens. Weflward, on Red- lion-fields near Holborn, on which ground 

 now flands Red-lion-fquare and Red-lion-flreet, and many other flreets 

 built in and fince the reign of King James II, quite up to Bloomfbury- 

 fquare (othervvife called Southampton-fquare), and thence to the town, 

 as it was then called, of St. Giles's in the fields, formerly a detached 

 village, all the vacancy of which was bnilt fince 1680. More weflward 

 and Ibuth-weftward flill, all the buildings north of the ftreet named 

 Long-acre, up to the place now called the Seven Dials ; Govent-garden 

 and its neighbourhood, built up in the reigns of Kings Charles I and 

 II, though Ibme part of it in the memory of many ftill living ; and north- 

 ward from Leiccfter-fields and St. Martin's-lane up to Soho and St. 

 Giles's-road, and weft ward to the farther end of Piccadilly, and froni 

 the north fide of Piccadilly up to Tyburn-road, including Soho) otlier- 

 wife named King's) fquare and Goklen-fquare ; and on the louth lide 

 of Piccadilly, St. Jamcs's-fquare, Pall-mall, St. jamcs's-ftreet, Arhng- 



