534 LON 
July. It feems as if Flora had tranfported thither the 
whole of her empire; and the perfumes of the divers fruits 
and flowers brought from under the dewy hands of morn, 
with all their native flavour and delightful bloom, is, 
without exaggeration, wafted by the riling zephyr to a 
great diftance around.—We have fometimes furmifed 
the prefence of that combination of multifarious fweets 
from Temple Bar between four and five o’clock in the 
morning, when the wind blew gently from the weft; and 
it reminded us of the pleafant groves of Portugal, Pro¬ 
vence, Italy, and the Archipelago Iflands. As an original 
defcription of this market will undoubtedly be relilhed 
by our readers, we fhall endeavour to write it on the fpot, 
as the prefent objects ftrike us, and the moving fcene fets 
our mind alfo in lympathetic motion. 
Approaching from Rufl'el-ftreet, we pre at firft invited 
to take a walk under the piazza, which extends from part 
of the eaft to nearly the whole northern fide of the fquare. 
This piazza, which, we doubt not, the architect had in 
his mental view when he erected the Palais Royal at Pa¬ 
ris, as it now Hands, is a remaining proof of the Ikill of 
Inigo Jones, who here is more liiinfelf than where we 
mentioned him laft. It was intended to go all round 
the fquare. Hotels, confectioners’ fl’.cps, and auctioneers’ - 
rooms, occupy the ground-floor of the colonnade, if we 
may call it fo, and add confiderable life and agitation 
to the place. The fouth-ealt fide of the market is occu¬ 
pied by the Hummums, a fort of bagnio, where, upon tem¬ 
porary emergencies, town and country gentlemen may 
find all forts of accommodations confident with morality 
and decency, if not more. The fouth fide offers nothing 
■worthy of our mention ; but on the weft we find the 
church of St. Paul, tovent-garden ; for this diftinClive 
appellation is generally and properly added, in order to 
prevent confufion. This church was erefted by the earl 
of Bedford, for the ufe of his tenants, prior to the year 
1638; in which year, as appears from a manufcript in the 
Harleian collection, a difpute between the earl and the 
vicar of St. Martin’s in the Fields, relative to the right of 
patronage, was heard before the privy council; by whom 
it was determined, that it Ihould be a chapel of eafe to St. 
Martin’s parilh, until an aft of parliament could be palled 
for making it parochial. After the fettlement of this djf- 
pute, the chapel was confecrated by William Juxon, bi- 
Ihop of London, on the 27th of September in the fame 
year. The unlettled period which followed prevented the 
palling of an aft as agreed on; however, on the 7th of 
January, 164.5, the lords and commons, fitting at Weft- 
minfter, iffued an ordinance, whereby it was leparated 
from St. Martin’s, and conftituted an independent parilh, 
with power to eleft officers, and raife money for the necef- 
fary expenfes of the new eftablifliment. But, this being 
an illegal ordinance, an aft of parliament was obtained 
immediately after the reiteration of Charles II. for the 
lame purpofe, by which the patronage of it was vefted in 
the earl of Bedford, his heirs and afligns. 
This church is remarkable for its majeftic fimplicity. It 
is faid, on the authority of lord Oxford, that, when the 
earl engaged Inigo Jones to build it, he told him that the 
pariftiioners had long importuned him with begging for a 
church, “ were it even as plain as a barn.” To which the 
architect replied, “Well, then, they (hall have the hand- 
fomeft barn in England.” In the front is a plain but no¬ 
ble portico, of the Tufcan order, executed in the molt 
tnalteriy manner; the columns are maffy, and the inter- 
columniation large. Though as plain as poflible, the 
building is happily proportioned. The walls are of brick, 
but were cafed with ftor.e about the year 1788, at an ex- 
penfe of eleven thoufand pounds, including the other re¬ 
pairs at that time. The windows are of the Tufcan or- 
•der, to correfpond with the portico; and the altar-piece 
is adorned with eight fluted columns of the Corinthian 
•order. The roof was entirely of wood, and confidered a 
■molt inimitable piece of architefture, being fupported by 
ike walls alone. Unfortunately this was deltroyed by a 
DON, 
fire, which confumed the whole interior of the church* 
on the 17th of September, 1795 ; fince which it has been 
repaired, and is very little different from its original ap¬ 
pearance. The patron of this parilh enjoys the unuliul 
privilege of dominating a churchwarden ; the reftor no¬ 
minates another, and the parilhioners eleft a third. 
In front of this church, whenever an eleftion of mem- 
bers to ferve in parliament for the city of Weltminlter 
takes place, temporary huttings are erefted, wherefrom 
pledges of honour, of impartiality, and of patriotifm 
chiefly, are verbally given to the gaping conllituents and 
the multitude attending the ceremony—where the moft 
grofs abufe flies from the mouths, and fometimes the 
hands, of the liberty-boys and democracy-mad populace, 
to the very face and ears of the patient candidates, who, 
like martyrs in their agonies, bear the cruelty of their 
tormentors with cheerfulnefs and good grace, in hopes of 
obtaining the crown of viftory. Chairing is a ceremony 
often performed round the market and adjacent llreets, 
when, after a ftrenuous oppofttion and a labouring poll, 
fome favourite of the free people is carried in a chair upon 
the (boulders of the mob; a fcene not peculiar to Welt- 
minfter, and 16 well reprefented by 'the celebrated Ho¬ 
garth, that we need only refer our readers to it. From 
tiiefe huftings the populace generally repair to their pub¬ 
lic breakfalls, dinners, and other entertainments offered 
to the independent eleftors as far as can be done citrd the 
limits of “ bribery and corruption.” And then we are 
reminded of what Montefquieu in hisEfprit des Loix, tells 
us about “ a people who are never free but one fortnight 
in feven years, and then do not know how to ufe their 
liberty:” an obfervation the depth of which is aftonilh- 
ing in a foreign author, and ought to have been made by 
a countryman of Locke. Yet juftice compels us to own, 
that our belt hiftorian, and our belt commentator on the 
Englilh laws, were both Frenchmen. It is curious to re¬ 
mark, that the light and volatile fpirits of that nation will 
fometimes take thetroubleof thinkingforothers, when they 
generally (brink from the talk of thinking for themfelves. 
Within the fquare is held the market for vegetables, 
flowers, and fruit; and it is indifputably the belt for 
thofe articles in the metropolis. Several rows of booths 
and (hops are erefted tranfverfely from north to fouth and 
from eaft to weft. The herb-ftiops, and higher clafs of 
fruiterers, whofe windows often exhibit the anticipated 
produce of fumrner in fpring, and the haltened treafures 
of autumn at the beginning of fummer, occupy the fouth 
row, with two or three delightful nurfery-like (hops for 
living plants, blowing and bloflbming oppoflte to them ; 
and where the decent matron purchales beauties to adorn 
her drawing-room ; the humble mechanic mignionet and 
fweet-williams to decorate the little garden at the front 
of his houfe; and the Cyprian, a well-known index to 
her apartments in fetting-off her window with flower-pots. 
This laft cultom, it is worthy of remark, was known fo 
early as the times of Horace and Juvenal. The welt fide 
is occupied by flowers and nofegay-fellers; the north is 
more particularly devoted to roots and larger forts of kit¬ 
chen-garden produce, as cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, 
artichokes, &c. whilft the eaft feems to have appropriated 
to itfelf the department of fmaller merchandile, as peafe 
and beans in their feafon, cherries and ftrawberries in 
their turn, See. The centre (by what fort of accident 
and incongruous affociation, we cannot guefs) is filled up 
with bird-lellers, dealers in old iron, and large difplays of 
crockery-ware. 
The place whereon the greateft part of the church and 
market is fitualed, was anciently a large garden, belong¬ 
ing to the abbot and convent of Weltminller; whence it 
received the appellation of the Convent Garden, which it 
(till retains, with a tiifling variation. At the fuppreflion 
of the religious houfes by Henry VIII. this garden de¬ 
volved to the crown ; and, in the year 154.7, Edward VI. 
conferred it upon the duke of Somerfet. Upon his at¬ 
tainder, it returned into the hands of the king j who, on 
th a 
