5'.26 LON 
fhortly afterwards produced his Play-honfe to Lett, alludes 
to it by making a mufician fay, “Reft you merry ; there 
is another play-lioufe to left in Vere-ftreet.” Probably it 
remained unoccupied until Mr. Ogilby, the author of 
“ llinerarium Angliee, or Book of Roads,” adopted it, as 
(landing in a populous neighbourhood, for the temporary 
purpofe of drawing a lottery of books, which took place 
in 1668 ; and it was then, to diftinguifh it from the two 
neighbouring edifices in Lincoln’s-inn Fields and Drury- 
Jane, called the “ Old Theatre.” By another tranfition 
we find the volatile players fucceeded by auftere puritans. 
In 1675, the parifli-rates paid by the widow Gibbons 
(whofe hufband had then been dead feveral years) are en¬ 
tered for the “ Tennis-court i” which might be an error 
in the collector, who could not but remember that “ fuch 
things were,” as in the following year it is fitly defcribed 
as “ The Meeting-houfe.” The fame title is ufed in 1682, 
when, in confequence of an order in council for fup- 
prefling conventicles, feveral attempts were made by the 
conftables to take into cuftody the preachers who held 
forth at the “ Old Play-houfe in Vere-ftreet.” The build¬ 
ing muft have beer, very fubllantial, as, reputedly, it was 
the fame that was deftroyed by fire in 1809. 
Front Clare-market we naturally drop, through a nar¬ 
row paflage on the left, into Clement’s Inn.—The anti¬ 
quity of this inn carmot be afcertained, but it is men¬ 
tioned in a book of entries, dated in the 19th of Edward IV. 
Could Shakefpeare’s authority on the fubjeft of dates be 
relied on, it muft have been much older; for in the fe- 
cond part of his hiftorical play of Henry IV. he makes 
one of his juftices a member of that fociety : “ He muft 
to the inns of court. I was of Clement’s once myfelf, 
where they will talk of mad Shallow ftill.”—Adjoining to 
Clement’s Inn, on the weft, is New Inn.—Palling through 
this on the left, we get into Wych-ftreet, and crofs over 
into Lion’s Inn, faid to have been anciently a common 
inn, having the fign of the lion, and yet to have been 
in the pofttflion of the Undents and practitioners of the 
law ever fince the year 1420. For farther particulars of 
thefe three inns, fee vol. xi. p. 76, 7.—The opening into 
Holy well-ftreet has been lately faced, elegantly enough, 
with compofition or ftucco ; and a fhield, bearing the un¬ 
couth reprefentatidn of an ill-looking and cluinfily-drawn 
lion, imperfeClly informs the paffenger that this leads to 
Lion’s Inn. 
Meditating on this ill-ufed and mifreprefented animal, 
we prefently came to a fmoke-jack manufactory at the 
corner of Holywell-ftreet and Newcaftle-ftreet.: this re¬ 
minded us of another fet of formerly ill-ufed animals; for 
here the jacks, themfelves in motion with every breath of 
wind, feerned to proclaim a fweet and lafting repofe to 
the poor dogs, who, fome forty or fifty years paft, ufed to 
travel the whole day in a wheel, without getting any for¬ 
warder, in order to forward the meat of their mailers. 
The turnfpit-race of dogs is now loft in England, and we 
hope,every where elfe—for indeed, but little ingenuity 
was required to invent fome fort of machine to fet the 
mutton in motion before the fire. Farther, we confefs 
that it pains us to fee this faithful friend of man, the guar¬ 
dian of our houfes, who facrifices his own deep to our 
fecurity, the averruncus or defender of our perfons, de- 
bafed to drag in unfitting harnefs the butcher’s or baker’s 
truck. 
From Lion’s Inn we return to Temple Bar, in order to 
proceed from that point by another route.— Temple Bar 
has been fufficiently defcribed at p. 106. and the Temple, 
part of which is within and part without the city, under 
the article Inns of Court, vol. xi. p. 68 & feq. 
Clofe to Temple Bar is Shire lane, fo called from the 
circumftance of its dividing the city from the Ihire or 
county of Middlefex. It would be a uork.deferving of 
the thanks of the neighbourhood, if the magiftrates could 
hunt out a neft of cyprian harpies who hover about the 
entrance of this lane, to the great annoyance of the paf- 
D O N. 
fengers. But thofe wafps have their hive there ; and, tHB 
it is completely overturned, there is no remedy to the evil.- 
It is a curious remark, that molt of thofe ftreet-walkers- 
have their particular diftriCV, a certain length upon which- 
they may parade night and day, but the limits of which 
they are not allowed to pafs. From the top of Ludgate- 
hill to Temple Bar, is one of the molt extenfive walks y. 
but fome are confined to the fpace from Bridge-ftreet to 
the Bar, while another fet goes as far as the entrance of 
St. Paul’s church-yard, but not a ftep farther.—The law,, 
of courfe, can have nothing to do with thefe regulations 5 
but they arife from certain bye-laws, or a kind of con¬ 
vention which they have made among themfelves; and atv 
initiation to the fifterhood is generally paid in gin or other 
palatable fees. One fet does not crofs the way, to intrude 
on the other fide, which exclufively belongs to another 
fet entirely different in manners and drefs, and not ap¬ 
pearing abroad perhaps till a later hour in the evening. 
“ They manage thefe matters better in France ;” where 
we underftand that every convent where thefe nuns go to 
perform their vefpers is under the direction of an abbefs , 
jocofely fo called ; and that the whole eftablifhment is 
under the immediate eye of the police. 
It might be interefting, perhaps, to fome of our readers, 
to have here a topographical defcription, and a fort of 
ichnography, of the appearance which the Strand, at its 
opening from the weft front of Temple Bar prefented a 
few years ago. The houfes approached in the Ihape of a 
wedge between the narrow opening of the Strand on the 
fouth, (fome of the houfes of which are yet (landing with 
over-hanging (lories,) and on the north a narrow lane 
called Butcher-row. There were old and ill-looking alros- 
houfes on the eaft of the church; and Butcher-row was 
continued by Holywell-ftreet, which ftill preferves a like-- 
nefs of it in the architecture of feveral of its houfes as 
well as in the narrownefs of the place.—Picket-ftreet, a 
noble and femicircular place, fo called in honour of the 
projector of this improvement, an alderman of London, 
has fuperfeded that dark and dirty row, and winds round 
the north fide of the church called St. Clement Danes. 
The houfes, which have been very unwifely built of an 
uncommon height, are more elegant than commodious 5 . 
and the difficulty of finding purchafers fuggefted the ne- 
ceffity of difpofing of moft of them by lottery. Several 
are ftill uninhabited ; others are let to auctioneers, who 
(eem to be eager to make this fpot a fort of emulative 
market-place for all kind of merchandife of which their 
owners may wifh to difpofe for ready money. The en¬ 
trance towards Clement’s Inn prefents a (hort piazza 
adorned with columns, and contrafting moft abfurdly with 
the fliabby and narrow lanes to which it leads on the right, 
filled up with old-iron-ftiops, ballad-fingers, bird-fellersj 
and beggars. The other fide of the Strand has alfo re- 
fpeCtfully retired about forty feet from the church towards 
the fouth j daylight has been let into Milford-lane; and 
a femi-circular or crefcent-like row of good houfes, al¬ 
ready inhabited by reputable tradefmen, anfwers the north 
fide, and opens an eafier paftage to carriages. 
This part of the county of Middlefex is called the Li¬ 
berty of the Duchy of Lancaster, which was granted to Pe¬ 
ter of Savoy,from whom it pafled to the houfe of Lancafter, 
by Henry III. in the thirtieth year of his reign, in the fol¬ 
lowing words: “ All thofe houfes upon the Thames, which 
fometimes pertained to Brian de Infula, or 1’Ille, without 
the walls of the city of London,in the way or ftreet called 
the Strand, to hold to him and to his heirs, yielding yearly 
in the Exchequer, at the feaft of St. Michael the Arch¬ 
angel, three barbed arrows, for all fervices. Dated at 
Reading, &c.” The extent of this liberty includes ^11 
the buildings between the fouth fide of the Strand and 
the Thames, from Temple Bar to the eaft fide of Cecil- 
Itreet. On the north fide of the Strand, it reaches from 
Temple Bar to where the may-pole ltood ; that is, near 
the weft end of the church of St. Mary-le-Strand, and re- 
3 turns 
