506 LON 
tation, engraved, confpicuoufly enough, but without of- 
tentation, on a fmall plate, level with the eye of the per- 
fon v\'ho fets the pump at work: “Fear God, and give 
glory to him ; and worlhip him that made heaven and 
earth, and the fea, and the fountains of waters.” This 
is truly beautiful, becaufe it is Ample : for, if we consi¬ 
der that water- is, after the air we breathe, the greatest 
benefit bellowed by the Almighty upon mankind, we 
ought naturally to wilh fuch warnings oftener to accom¬ 
pany thefe public eftabliShments. Hobbling along from the 
pump, as we have often feen her, the good old woman 
blefles, after her Creator, the benevolence of Hopton at 
her evening board, 
“ Where clear and fparkling in the humble glafs 
The wholefome crystal, by fweet blooming fruit 
Gather’d at home, and loaves of home-bak’d bread, 
Invites the third.” 
We had withed to give a more explicit defcription of 
this excellent foundation ; but the limits of our work do 
not allow us to expatiate longer about it. 
After eroding Church-dreet, facing Chrid-church in the 
Surrey Road, of which w>e Shall fpeak prefently, we enter 
Bear-lane. As a flight memento of Bear-gardens, which 
onceexided hereabouts, we find a public-houfe with the Sign 
of the Bear. A few yards on the right is a very extenfive 
iron-foundery, and above a workhoufe.—Dreary windings, 
intricate lanes and alleys, give to this fpot, at night, an 
appearance the contrary of fafety ; buti owing to their 
Jonelinefs and folitude, one may often pafs there more Se¬ 
curely than in Fleet-dreet or the Strand. Thefe places 
were formerly the dews, or public bawdy-houfes, licenfed 
and regulated (though it mud appear now mod prepof- 
terous) by the bishop of Winchelier—for the government 
of which certain regulations w-ere made by the Said bifhop, 
that were confirmecl by parliament. Thefe orders were to 
be obferved by the faid (lew-holders on very Severe penal¬ 
ties; and, for fecuring all perfons accufed of crimes com¬ 
mitted in this diftriCt, a prifon was ereCted, denominated 
the Clink. This prifon is dill in being, and the biftiop 
of Wincheder’s Steward tries pleas of debt, damages, or 
trelpafs, in the liberty, for any fum. Thefe dews were 
plundered by Wat Tyler in the year 1381, at which time 
it appears that they were kept by Flemings. In the year 
1506, they were Shut up by order of Henry VII. but, be¬ 
ing again opened foon after, their number was reduced 
from eighteen to twelve; and, in the year 154.6, they were, 
by proclamation of Henry VIII. entirely Supprelfed. See 
the article Bawdy-house, vol. ii. p. 818. 
Much has been faid, and with apparent ground, upon 
the prepofleroufnefs of a bishop’s granting licenfes to 
bordellos, as Stow and other ancient writers call them, 
(from the borders or outskirts of towns where they were 
hardly differed.) Yet, if we confider that the facrednefs 
of the matrimonial couch was at that time, as it is now, 
under the jurisdiction of an ecclefialtical court, which was 
and Still is the proper tribunal to decide upon adultery, for¬ 
nications, divorces, and other matters relating to matri¬ 
mony ; the Stews, being as a fort of remedy againft the 
ruthlefs lull of fome individuals, were fuppofed to be fo 
connected with the objects of the faid jurifdiCtipn, that it 
was naturally thought convenient and proper that the pre¬ 
vention of the caufe might be properly placed in the hands 
of thofe who were, by the law, the proper judges of the 
ultimate ejfedl. 
On the South of thefe was Paris Garden, in which was 
Situated one of the ancient play-houfes of the metropolis, 
and here were alfo exhibited the bear-baitings fo much 
in requell among our ancestors. Speaking of the Bear¬ 
garden, Stow fays, “Herein were kept bears, bulls, and 
other beads to be bayted; as alfo maftives in Several ken¬ 
nels, nourished to bayt them. Thefe bears and other 
beads are there kept in plots of ground fcaffolded about 
for the beholders to Hand Safe.” The fafety of this Scaf¬ 
folding was, however, very problematical 3 for, in the year 
DON. 
1582, one of them fuddenly fell, by which accident mul¬ 
titudes of people were killed, or miferably maimed. 
The remembrance of thefe places Hill exid, as we faid 
above, in Bear-lane, which leads to Gravel-lane, in a wind¬ 
ing road towards the Bench. 
Gravel-lane, Ewer-Slreet, and others in the neighbour¬ 
hood, are particularly- inhabited by Irishmen, molt of them 
of the lower clafs. A Sign of which is the Show of fait 
fiSh generally exhibited on the eve of Friday, Saturday, 
and Wednelday, in Ember-weeks, as well as in Advent 
and in Lent, when thefe good catholics driCtly abdain 
from fledi-eating; but not always from flefli-bruifing— 
for this fpot is a fort of diminutive of St. Giles’s, On a 
Sunday evening fometimes, or on any particular occafion, 
thefe gentry exhibit their pugilidic Skilland bodily drength, 
fird in public-houfes, and, when the tap-room begins to 
be too hot for their exertions and too fmall for the dif- 
play of their milling talents, then they all together turn out, 
pell-mell, into the Street, which becomes direCtly the area 
of their Sports. We happened to witnefs once a fpecimen 
of one of thefe Hibernian jokes, and feats of bravery ; and, 
though taking no active part in the fray, we could not re¬ 
frain engraving upon our mind the oddity of a feene the 
reprefentation of which in words would cover Several of 
our columns; we therefore give up the talk. 
Gravel-lane winds down to the back of the Falcon- 
glafs-houfe, the manufactory belonging to Meliks. Pellatt 
and Green, whofe principal chimney often exhibits the 
mod curious and bulky volumes of curled fleecy and 
brown fmoke, warped by the wind into multifarious 
Shapes.—On the eaSt fide of Gravel-lane we long fought 
lor the remains of the houfe where John Bunyan, of Pil¬ 
grim. memory, is faid to have broken the “ bread of the 
word” to a riling congregation. The houfe was in Zoar- 
dreet, mod likely and fcripturally called fo from the place 
where Lot feceded from Abraham. 
Having been indefatigable in our refearches about this 
houfe, we at lad alighted upon the fpot, where we could ob¬ 
tain a comfortable view of the premifes fuppofed to have 
been the place where this drange man exerted himfelf for 
the comfort of fearful fouls in the dangerous pilgrimage of 
life. We could only get at the back-front-, and indeed it has 
a very romantic appearance, on account of feveral wooden 
houfes of all diapes, and placedin curiousguife about it, be- 
fuies the brook, which,ofcillating along with flow andfilent 
l'ipplings as the tide orders it, Seems to nibble gently, but 
perpetually, at the foundations of thefe ancient mefluages 
and tenements. Jud adjoining to the fuppofed meeting- 
houfe of John Bunyan, is a fmall cottage, which attracted 
our attention. It is decorated with Shrubs and creeping 
plants, in a little garden doping to the paling that fences 
its flower-plats from the water of the dream. The neat 
.dilpofition of this little pleafure-ground, the luxuriantand 
Spontaneous plants, uniting with thofe which Seem to 
evince the hand of induflry, were animated by the pre¬ 
fence of a good-looking old man, “ bordering,” as he laid, 
“ upon eighty ;” with the contrail of a little living flower, 
a girl, his relation, about ten years of age, fluttering, with 
butterflies and moths, about him. The whole of this 
pleafant, though confined, lcenery, was fo intereding, that 
we could not help bringing back to our recollection the 
fourth book of Virgil’s Georgies, where he deferibes the 
old gardener, who, under the high walls and towers of 
CEbalia, now Taranto in Italy, cultivated his lilies, his 
poppies, the role and the vervain, on the banks of the Ga- 
leSuSj and ufed to chide, the pruning hook in his hand, 
the tardinefs of the fummer. 
When our old man, here, was talking freely though re- 
fpeCtfully o s Squire Pott, the vinegar-merchant, and Squire 
Brady, a wealthy citizen of the neighbourhood, the words 
of the Latin poet, “ Reg uni aquabat epesanimis," fl-ilhed at 
once full upon our mind. We law the Corycian happy 
in his little garden, and envying not.the wealth or power 
of kings.—Thefe tranfitory ideas brought us to a con- 
verfation with this old tenant of one of the houfes in 
Zoaf- 
