WESTMINSTER. 



reigned from I2i6 to 1272, iVie court ufually refided in 

 Weftminfter. The courts of juftice, which had before ac- 

 companied the king in his motions, were, by his confirm- 

 ation of Magna Charta in 1225, made ftationary in Weft- 

 minfter, where the parliament alfo generally met. For the 

 convenience of attendance on the king, the courts of juftice, 

 and the parliament, for the enjoyment alfo of good open 

 air, and an agreeable profpeft, many of the nobles, and ef- 

 pecially of the bifhops, ereAed palaces along the banks of 

 the river. Perfons of inferior ftation, whofe chief depend- 

 ance for bufmefs and fubfiftence reited on thofe great men, 

 were neceflarily induced to fix their abode m their vicinity. 

 In this way, a chain of dwellings, of various forts, was pro- 

 grefGvely raifed between the cities of London and Weft- 

 minfter, and united both with the intervening village of 

 Charing. The fituations of thofe palaces, or inns, as they 

 were called, are preferved to the prefent day, in the fnccef- 

 fion of ftreets retaining their names, which communicate 

 from the Strand on both fides, efpecially to the river. 

 Thus, for inftance, from Temple-bar we come to ftreets 

 bearing the names of Effex, Arundel, Norfolk, Surry, 

 Somerfet, Savoy, Beaufort, Cecil, Salilbury, Durham, 

 York, &c., all calling up perfonages memorable in former 

 times ; but of the houfes to which thofe names belonged, no 

 veftige, if we except the fragments of the palace of the Savoy, 

 and the prefent Northumberland-houfe, can now be faid to 

 remain. The oppofite fide of the Strand being cut off 

 from the ufe and the view of the Thames, was of courfe 

 little frequented ; but Exeter-change ftill indicates the refi- 

 dence of the celebrated Cecil, lord Burleigh, whofe fon 

 Thomas became earl of Exeter. Bedford and Southampton 

 ftreets declare the origin of their names. As late as in the 

 year 1353, when Edwardlll. was on thetlirone, the Strand 

 was an open highway, croffed and cut up by water-courfes from 

 the higher grounds. It was then repaired, but not before great 

 complaints had been made: for in the petition of the per- 

 fons who lived near the palace of Weftminfter to Edward II., 

 " the footway from Temple-bar to the palace" is ftated to 

 be fo bad, that " the feet of horfes, and rich and poor men, 

 received conftant damage, efpecially in the rainy feafon ; the 

 footway being interrupted by thickets and bufhes." From 

 Temple-bar to the palace of Savoy, the Strand feems to have 

 been paved, or properly made about 1385, in the reign of 

 Richard II. : but the paving went no further till the latter 

 part of Elizabeth's reign ; and in the 35th of Henry VIII. 

 the road was ftated to be " full of pits and floughs, very 

 perilous and noifome." In the year 1533 the Strand took 

 the form of a ftreet, bordered on each fide with houfes and 

 gardens ; among which was Covent -garden, corruptcdly fo 

 called from the garden of the convent, or abbey of Weft- 

 minfter, to which it belonged. Charing was ftill a detached 

 village ; St. Martin's church ftood literally in the fields ; 

 and St. Giles's, alfo furnamed in the fields, ftood in a 

 diftant hamlet in the country. Such, however, was the in- 

 creafe of the town in the end of Elizabeth's reign, that in 

 l6oo St. Martin's-lane was built on both fides; and al- 

 though St. Giles's church ftill ftood detached, the great 

 weft road, now called Holborn, (properly Old-bourne, from 

 the name of a fmall brook running along it,) was formed 

 into a ftreet all the way into London at Fleet-ditch. 

 Covent-garden and Lincoln's-inn-fields were partially built 

 on, as were Drury-lane and Long-acre, and principally in- 

 habited by the gentry. The village of Charing was long 

 before this time, or in 1292, adorned with a crofs by Ed- 

 ward I., being the laft fpot where the body of his queen 

 refted on the way to Wtftminfter. In 1647 '' ^^^ re- 

 moved, and in part employed in pavement at Whitehall ; 



9 



but foon after the Reftoration, its place was filled, as it now 

 is, by a ftatue of Charles I. on horfeback. From Charing 

 to Weftminfter, the ,bank of the Thames was occupied by 

 the refidences of royal, or other diftinguiftied perfonages. 

 Firft was a palace for the king of Scotland, when he came 

 to court to attend the parliament, of which, on account of 

 lands he held in England, he was confidered a member. An 

 ancient painting, formerly in the college of arms in London, 

 reprefented Edward I. fitting in parliament, having on his 

 right-hand Alexander III., king of Scotland ; and on 

 his left, Llewellyn, prince of Wales. The palace has long 

 been effaced, but its fcite is ftill called Scotland-yard. To 

 this fucceeded in pofition the palace of Whitehall, which 

 will be noticed in another place. The church of St. Martin 

 ftands within the limits of the old quarter, but its parifli 

 originally extended over the whole of the new quarter of 

 Weftminfter ; and out of it, as buildings increafed, the pa- 

 rifhes of St. Paul, Covent-garden, St. James, St. Anne, and 

 St. George, have fucceffively been formed. 



Among the various improvements lately introduced into 

 the ftreets of Weftminfter, muft be reckoned the fubltitution 

 of gas-lights for oil-lamps, now much in ufe in fhops as 

 well as without doors. The gas, or vapour, is extrafted, 

 by a fpecies of diftillation, from pit-coal. Purified from the 

 incombuftible aerial fubftances with which it is extricated 

 from the coal, by tranfmiflion through a body of water, the 

 inflammable or carburetted hydrogen gas is conveyed by 

 pipes, like water, to the places where it is wanted. By the 

 admiflion of flame to the orifice of the pipe, the gas takes 

 fire, producing together with a ftrong heat, a lively light of 

 peculiar force and brilliancy. The coals from which, in 

 London and Weftminfter, the gas is obtained with the 

 greateft effeft, are the Lancaftiire cannel, and the Scotch 

 fplint coals. Newcaftle coal is found to be much lefs 

 pure, but from its cheapnefs is now moftly ufed. 



Origin and Hijlory of Wejiminjler. — Much learning and 

 more fancy have been employed in devifing an etymology 

 for the name of London ; but the name of Weftminfter is 

 too obvious to afford exercife for the fl<ill or the ingenuity 

 of the philologift or the antiquary. The Saxon terms cora- 

 pofing the latter name evidently refer to the church of St. 

 Paul, in London, in the eaft. Stowe indeed, and feme 

 later writers, carry the reference to a monaftery, not far 

 from the Tower of London, called the Eaft-mintter. But 

 that eftablifliment was founded only by Edward III., in the 

 middle of the fourteenth century, long pofterior to that of 

 Weftminfter, and could not therefore have given origin 

 to the latter inftitution. The hiftory of Weftminfter is 

 founded on, and clofely interwoven with that of the mo- 

 naftery of St. Peter : for to the exiftence and importance 

 of the latter, the rife, progrefs, and profperity of the formep 

 muft be attributed. 



The fcite of the church and monaftery of St. Peter was 

 in early times an ifland, inclofed by the main channel of the 

 Thames on the eaft, and by a collateral branch of that river 

 on the weft. Hiftory furnifhes no information concerning 

 the limits or the extent of this infulated traft ; but by a 

 careful examination of the ground, even under all its 

 alterations, the courfe of the collateral branch may ftill 

 be difcovered. This branch feems to have broken off 

 from the Thames to the eaft of Chelfea hofpital, to 

 have paffed northward, along the natural hollow in which 

 the water ftill flows to fupply Chelfea water-works, and 

 thence over a fhort interval, now covered with the houfes of 

 Pimlico, into the depreffion occupied by the canal in 

 St. James's park, acrofs the fcite of Whitehall into the 

 Thamea. In this cafe th« iflaad was in length from S.W. 



to 



