450 
LON 
erefted ; however, there was a church here fo long ago as 
the time of the Saxons, when it was called the church of 
All Saints ; and we read of the manor of Stepney under the 
reign of William the Conqueror, by the name of Stipen- 
hade, or Slibcn's htalk ; it does not appear when the church 
again changed its name, by being dedicated to St. Dun- 
flan ; but, if we confider the word Stibtn or Stipen as a 
corruption of Stephen or Stephanies, we may conje&ure, and 
with great plaufibiiity, that this church palled from under 
the patronage of All Saints to that of a tingle laint, Ste¬ 
phen ; and from him to that of one who perhaps was no 
faint at all, though called St. Dunltan. 
From this place we deambulate through feveral agree¬ 
able walks, among which Stepney Green is not the leafl 
interefling; and, entering Mile End at Affiembly-row, 
and oppoiite nearly to the Trinity and Bancroft’s alms- 
houfes, we direCl our way back to the welt.—The alms- 
houles of the Trinity company were founded in the year 
3695 by the corporation, on a piece of ground given to 
them for that purpofe by Capt. Henry Mudd, who was 
an elder brother. They are twenty-eight in number, and 
devoted to the relidence of decayed commanders of ffiips, 
or mates or pilots, and their wives or widows, whofe pen- 
fions are j 81. per annum, and a chaldron and a half of 
coals. In the centre of the quadrangle is the ftatue of 
Capt. Saunders, who died in 1721, having bequeathed 
100I. and the reverfion of an c-llate in Lincolnlhire of 147I. 
per annum to thefe alms-houfes ; this reverfion fell in 
about the year 1746, when this ftatue was eredted. On 
the north fide of the fquare is a very neat chapel, in the 
windows of which are fome coats of arms in ftained glafs, 
which were removed from the old hall of the Trinity 
Houfe at Deptford, when it was taken down in 1787, and 
were fet up in this chapel in 1793. 
A little beyond this, Hands a handfome building,called 
Bancroft’s alms-houfes, in which the founder has blended 
the objects of providing a comfortable retirement for old 
age, and the inflrudtion of young boys.—Francis Ban¬ 
croft was the grandfon of archbilhop Bancroft; his cir- 
cumflances becoming much reduced, he was engaged for 
many years as one of the lord-mayor’s officers, during 
which time he acquired a fortune of 28,000k in real and 
perfonal ellate, which he bequeathed by his will, dated 
March 18, 1727, to the Company of Drapers, in trufl, for 
she purchafe of a piece of ground for erebting and endow¬ 
ing an alms-houfe, with convenient apartments for twenty- 
four alms-men, poor old members of that company, a 
chapel, and fchool-rooin for a hundred boys, with two 
dwelling-houfes for the mafters of the fchool. He di¬ 
rected for each alms-man 81 . with half a chaldron of coals, 
pnd a gown of baize every third year ; and the fchool- 
boys to be clothed, and taught to read, write, and calf ac¬ 
counts, for which the matters were to receive falaries of 
30I. each, in addition to their dwelling-houfe; he alio 
bequeathed 20k yearly for coals and candles, for the ule 
of the malters and fchools, betides books, paper, pens, 
and ink; 5I. for a dinner to the committee of the court 
of affiflants of the Di apers’ Company at their annual vio¬ 
lation ; 3I. xos. for two half-yearly fermons to be preached 
at the pariffi churches of St. Helen Bilhopfgate, and St. 
Michael Cornhill, or elfewhere, in commemoration of 
the founder, out of which the minilter to have 20s. the 
reader 10s. and the clerk and fexton 2s. 6d. each; at which 
the alms-men are to be prefent, and the boys alfo, who 
are to be catechifed by the reader; and, when placed as 
apprentices, 4I. to be given with each of them; but, if 
they are only put to fervice, they are to receive 50s. for 
clothing. In the year 1735, the company, purfuant to 
their trull, ereffed a fchool at Mile End. The whole 
building occupies three lides of a fpacious quadrangle; 
on the ealt and well fules are the habitations of the pen- 
lioners ; in the centre of the north fide is the chapel, 
which has a handfome Hone portico, fupported by pillars 
of the Ionic order; the fchool and the dwelling-houfe of 
themnfleradjointhechapel. The company have taken fuch 
D O N. 
care of the eftafe as to be enabled to inereaie their annual 
penfions to the alms-men from 81 . to 18k each. Bancroft 
lies buried at the church of Great St. Helen’s, Biffiopf- 
gate-ffreet, in a vault, over which he eredted a monument 
in his life-time. His body is embowelled and embalmed, 
and laid in a kind of chelt, with a lid that lifts up and 
down, but not fattened; and his face is covered with a 
fquare glafs, fixed in the lid. 
Let us remark, with lively feelings of gratitude, how 
careful our anceltors were in feledting places of a falu- 
brious and pleafing retirement for old age. Moft of thofe 
houfes of refuge for the decrepid and the feeble were fur- 
rounded with groves of trees; and brooks of clear water 
ufed to run acrofs the gardens, cultivated by the aged 
hands of the peaceful inhabitants. But the inereaie of 
trade in the metropolis, and a contagious rage for build¬ 
ing, have furrounded thofe tranquil abodes with Hacks of 
fmoaky chimneys, covered the brooks with bufy Hreets,. 
and transformed the gardens into noify u'arehoufes ; fo 
that, although they were diflant from London, London 
has built itfelf up to them ; and, in fpite of their ffiabby 
titles, Duck-lane, Dog-lane, Red-Cow-lane, &c. found 
plenty of inhabitants. 
O11 our left, and nearly oppofite to thefe charitable efta- 
bliffiments, vve meet another called the London Hofpital. 
It is a plain neat building in brick, well adapted for the be¬ 
nevolent purpofe to which it is devoted—the reception of 
fick and lame indigent perfons, efpecially manufacturers 
or feamen in the merchant-fervice. This extenfive cha¬ 
rity is fupported by voluntary contribution, and has acr 
commodation for nearly 300 psrfons. At its inflitution, 
the patients were received into a large lioufe in Prefcot- 
Hreet; but, that being too fmali for the purpofe, this fpa¬ 
cious edifice was erected in a fituation which, by its airi- 
nefs is conducive to the reHoration of health and Hrength. 
Looking towards the fouth-weH, our eyes dart through 
Whitechapel nearly as far as the pump at the end of Aid- 
gate, through clouds of dull raifed by the carts, waggons, 
ltages, gigs. See . which crowd the itreet. On the left- 
hand fide is a long range of butchers’ ffiops; many of 
thefe are carcafe-butchers, and not retailers : others kill 
meat in a peculiar manner for the Jews.—The great quan¬ 
tity of calves brought from ElTex and other ealtern coun¬ 
ties, has probably given rife to the following anecdote; 
An apprentice-boy being with his mailer in Epping-foreH, 
employed in the cruel amufement of bird-netting, were 
dilturbed by the appearance of a couple of flout robbers. 
Thefe fellows, (the robbers we mean,) finding their prey 
of little value, left them,and walked off. As loon as they 
were out of tight, the mailer fays, “jack, how did I look 
when they came up ? I was not frightened, was I ?” “ No, 
mailer,” laid the lad, “you looked like a lion.”—“ A lion !” 
replied the praife-tickled colder with afloniffirrient; “an-d 
how do you know a lion? have you ever l'een one?”— 
“ Aye, mailer, 1 have leen many cart-leads of them ia 
Whitechapel.”—Hence the joke of calling a calf a White - 
chapel lion. 
The oppoiite fide of the way abounds with inns for tra¬ 
vellers ; and has not any other appearance but what it is, 
one of the fuburbs of a great town. The church from 
which it derives its name is St. Mary Matfellon, a chapel 
of eafe to St. Dunflan’s pariih, Stepney. The etymon of 
the appellation Matfellon is not ealy to afeertain. Some 
are ot opinion that it arifes from a Jclon having been put 
to death by the women of Whitechapel for having mur¬ 
dered his bene fact refs—he was a native of Brittany. Others 
pretend that it means in Hebrew the fame as puerpera 
in Latin, “a woman lately delivered of a. child.”—The 
altar-piece in this church, ddigned to libel the dean of 
Peterborough, has been noticed under the article Kennej, 
vol. xi. p. 667. Tiie pidture has lince been replaced ; but 
the oflenfive likenels is expunged. 
In this.pariih lome of our nobility had formerly their 
villas, tor the fake ol country air. Here Cromwell earl 
of Lifex, the ffiort-lived minilter of Henry VIII. had a 
1 houfe; 
