240 
WANDERINGS IN THE BYE- WAYS OF LONDON. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 1866. 
“ You invito me to dine on wild boar, Gallicus. You 
set before me a bome-fed pig-. I am a mongrel, Gallicus, if 
you can take me in.” 
The cooking of a wild boar appears to have been 
an expensive matter. Martial thus laments his 
having to return a present of this animal, sent him 
by his friend Dexter : — 
“ A wild boar — the consumer of many a Tuscan acorn, 
and now quite fat with the produce of oak trees, second 
in fame only to the wild beast of YEtolia — which my 
friend Dexter pierced with shining spear, lies an envied 
prey for the fire. May my Penates grow fat on the smell, 
and my cheerful kitchen blaze with hills of felled timber ! 
but my cook -will consume a whole heap of pepper, and 
will mix Falernian wine in her mysterious sauce. Return 
to your master, my fire is not large enough for you, O 
most expensive wild boar ! I must be hungry at a less cost.” 
(Ep. vii. 27.) 
WANDERINGS IN THE BYE-WAYS OF LONDON. 
L IKE the, voyager on a vast roaring river, who, 
toil-worn, runs his bark up some quiet creek 
or tributary stream for rest and repose, we often 
turn from the living, rushing stream of headlong 
bustle, ever flowing through the streets of busy 
London, to ramble amongst the half-forgotten nooks 
and corners to be found scattered here and there in 
localities little known, save perhaps to the ubi- 
quitous old-clothes man and the regular explorer. 
There are other places which, although better 
known and more frequented, still have associated 
with them matters of interest too often unobserved 
and unrecorded. It is our intention, therefore, to com- 
municate from time to time through the columns of 
“ Nature and Art ” the result of our explorations 
and researches. There are few localities where the 
transition from rattle and turmoil to peace and 
tranquillity may be more rapidly brought about 
than in the immediate vicinity of the Temple. 
As there is said to be but one step from the sublime 
to the ridiculous, so is there one short lane leading 
from throngs to solitude ; and as the pert chirping 
sparrows flit through the spray of the Temple 
fountain, as it flashes and tinkles pleasantly 
beneath the trees, or preen their smoke-stained 
feathers on its brink, it is difficult to realize the 
fact that one of the most crowded thoroughfares 
of the town lies little more than a stone’s-cast from 
you. 
The old “ Knights Templars,” from whom the 
place derives its name, no doubt thoroughly appre- 
ciated the advantages which its river-side site con- 
ferred, when they emigrated from the ancient “ Pre- 
ceptory,” long held by them on the south side of 
Holborn, and which stood where Southampton 
Buildings now stand ; and it is remarkable that 
these extraordinary men, the poverty of whose order 
was once so notorious as to have led them to adopt 
a seal representing two men riding on one horse, 
should have so rapidly, and almost unaccountably, 
acquired immense wealth and power ; for we find, 
when they purchased all the tract of land on the 
banks of the Thames lying between Wliitefriars 
and Essex Street, in the reign of Henry II., 
they then possessed fifteen thousand manors in their 
own right. It appears that on taking possession 
of their newly-acquired estate, they at once caused 
a splendid building, under the name of the New 
Temple, to be erected, in which we learn, “ Parlia- 
ments and general councils were often held, from 
the halls being so spacious and magnificent.” The 
jewels of the Crown, as well as those of the nobility 
and families of wealth, were lodged here for se- 
curity. The Knights Templars, like certain nations 
of the earth and the order of Jesuits of the New 
World, appear to have increased their power and 
influence until a culminating point being reached, 
their prosperity as rapidly declined as it had grown. 
We find that on the suppression of the order in 
1312, the Temple and all its accessories were 
granted to Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 
by Edward II., in the sixth year of his reign ; but, 
alas for the mutability of human affairs and the 
fickleness of royalty ! we find him, two years after, 
making a grant of the property to his uncle, 
Thomas, earl of Lancaster, who in his turn appears 
to have derived little benefit from the accession, as, 
being convicted of political offences, it passed from 
him, and again was taken possession of by the 
Crown. One “ Hugh Despenser, junior,” appears 
shortly afterwards to have had the greater portion 
of the Temple property granted to him, for life : 
but he, like his predecessor, could not rest in 
peace, but was found guilty of treasonable practices 
in the reign of Edward III., when, from all the 
possessions of the Knights Templars having been 
granted to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 
by the decree of the Council of Vienne, in 1 324, 
the Temple passed into their hands ; and they, in 
their turn, for a consideration of ten pounds per 
annum, conveyed it to a body of lawyers, who 
removed from Thavies Inn, here established them- 
selves, and, as it is needless to say, have since held 
their own by force of the nine points of the law. 
Quoting from an old English song — 
“King Solomon had temples, with pillars made of 
brass ; 
But our Temples of lawyers all temples surpass ; 
For there’s brass enough in them to prove Solomon an 
ass.” 
So the lawyers having once fairly taken their 
stand, there was little chance of Templars, or even 
Saracens, ever getting them out again ; and it is to 
be hoped that, even should their shortcomings be 
only half as numerous as they are popularly re- 
presented to be, the daily sight of the beautiful 
and venerable church of St. Mary, standing close 
to thevery office doors, will incline them to deal mer- 
cifully with their clients. The poet Gay appears to 
have had at least one faithful friend amongst the 
