535 
LON 
the 9th of May, 1552* granted It, with a field on the 
north fide, denominated the Seven Acres, though, from 
its length, more commonly called the Long Acres, to 
John earl of Bedford. Long Acre is now a handfome 
llreet, abounding with coach-makers.—Soon after Edward 
had granted the precinft of Covent-garden to the earl of 
Bedford, he built a houfe therein for his town refidence. 
This houfe, which, till the year 1704, flood on the north 
fide of the Strand, where at prelent the lower end of 
Southampton-ftreet is fitinted, was a mean wooden build¬ 
ing, fhut out from the ftreet by a brick wall, and with a 
garden behind, under the north wall of which the mar¬ 
ket was kept; but, when Southampton-ftreet, Taviftock- 
ftreet, and Maiden-lane, were erefted on the lite of Bed- 
ford-houfe and gardens, the market was moved farther 
into the fquare. 
Coming down again into the Strand, through Catha¬ 
rine-ftreet, we turn weft toward Exeter’Change. Where 
Doiley’s warehoufe now (lands, was a large tnanfion, 
erefted by fir Edward Cecil, fon of the firft earl of Exeter, 
who was, by Charles I. created Vifcount Wimbledon and 
Baron Putney. Stow, in his Annales, p. 1044, fays, that 
it was burned quite down in November 1628 ; and that 
the day before his lord (hip had the misfortune of having 
part of his houfe at Wimbledon, in Surry, blown up by 
gunpowder. At the back of Doiley’s, toward Exeter- 
ftreet, there were formerly ruins, which were probably 
once a part of Wimbledon-houfe.—There have been few 
ihops in the metropolis that have acquired more celebrity 
than Doiley’s warehoufe ; which induces us to go a little 
into the hiftory of it, indeed as far as the tradition of the 
neighbourhood has furnilhed us with the means. We 
have been told, that the original founder of the houfe 
(who probably was a refugee that, after the revocation of 
the ediCt of Nantz, fought an afylum in this kingdom) 
formed a connexion in the weaving-branch of bufinefs 
with fome perfons in Spital-fields, whofe manufactures, 
molt judicioufly foftered by government, and molt pa¬ 
triotically encouraged by the nobility, See. were juft then 
afeending toward that eminence which they afterward at¬ 
tained. Doiley was a man, it is faid, of great ingenuity ; 
and probably having alfo the bell aftiftance, he invented, 
fabricated, and introduced, a variety of fluffs, forr.e of 
which were new, and all fuch as had never been feen in 
this kingdom. He combined the different articles, filk 
and woollen, and fpread them into fuch an infinite num¬ 
ber of forms and patterns, that his (hop became a mart of 
iafte, and his goods, when firft ilfued, the height of falhion. 
To this the Speftator alludes in one of his papers, when 
he fays to this effeft, viz. that, “ if Doiley had not, by 
his ingenious inventions, enabled us to drefs our wives 
and daughters in cheap Huffs, we Ihould not have had the 
means to carry on the war.”'—In another paper, the gen¬ 
tleman that was fo fond of linking bold ftrokes in drefs 
characleriltically obferves, “ A few months after I brought 
up the moduli jacket, or the coat with clofe lleeves. I 
liruck this firft in a plain Doiley; but, that failing, I (truck 
it a fecond time in blue camlet;” which alfo was one of 
Doiley’s (tuffs..—In Vanbrugh’s Provok’d Wife, the feene 
Spring Gardens, Lady Fanciful fays to Mademoifelle, 
pointing to Lady Brute and Belinda ; “ I fear thofe Doi¬ 
ley Hulls are not worn for the want of better clothes.”— 
This warehoufe was equally famous, indeed, in our very 
early times; it was the grand emporium for gentlemen’s 
night-gowns and caps. In the former part of the eigh¬ 
teenth century, all the beaux that ufed to breakfalt in 
the coffee houfes appendant to the inns of court liruck 
their morning ftrokes in this elegant dilhabille, which was 
carelefsly confined by a falh of yellow, red, blue, green, 
See. according to the tafte of the wearer 5 thefe were alfo 
of Doiley’s manufacture. This idle falhion was not quite 
worn out even in the year 1765 ; we can remember hav¬ 
ing feen fome of thofe early loungers, in their night¬ 
gowns, caps, Sec. at Will’s, (Lincoln’s-inn-gate, Ssrle- 
ftreetj) about that period. 
DON 
It appears, by the plan of London puhHfhed in the year 
1600, that the great width of the Strand lay before the (at 
that time) magnificent palace of Somerfet-houfe; which 
width continued exactly as it does at prefent, to the build¬ 
ings of the earl of Exeter, the wall of whole court made 
the fame angle as is now to be obferved at the corner of 
Polito’s Menagerie. The ground behind the adjoining 
lioufes, and extending to the backs of thofe on the fouth 
fide of Exeter-ftreet, for a great number of years lay en¬ 
tirely wafte. When the l'urveyors, appointed by MeflYs. 
Garrick and Lacey to examine Old Drury, reported that 
that theatre was in a very infirm Hate, they contemplated 
the purchafe of this ground in order to ereft a new one 
upon it. But whether the two managers wanted to make 
too good a bargain, or the proprietor had too great an 
idea of its value ; or whether, upon a clofer inlpeftion, 
they found, by lightening the upper works and extend¬ 
ing the lower, (that is, taking oft’ half the (hilling-gallery 
and adding it to the boxes, thus inverting the column of 
fociety and placing the capital at the bafe,) Drury, as 
Quidnunc fays, “would laft their time,” is uncertain ; but 
certain it is, that the negociation failed ; and, although 
they did not wilh to pull an old houfe over their heads. 
Hill they thought the chance of it was a lefs evil than the 
l'ilk of building a new one: they therefore, by the help 
of propping, patching, and plaftering, fuppprted, in its 
declining ltate, the old fabric which liad long fupported 
them. 
Upon the incorporation of the Society of Artifts in 
1765, a part of the ground that we have mentioned was 
taken by James Paine, efq. who had juft then finilhed Sa- 
lilbury-ftreet, and who built upon it that elegant fabric 
which is now the Lyceum. This was intended for an 
academy and exhibition-room to anticipate the royal efta- 
blilhment then in content plation ; and we think that there 
were leveral annual exhibitions in it. To ereft this build¬ 
ing the laft velliges of Exeter-houfe were demolilhed. 
Thefe confided of a large room, and one or two fmaller, 
which had been ufed for a variety of purpofes. As, for 
inllances; one time, in an evening, a fquare paper lan- 
thorn, in illuminated charafters, informed the public, that 
books, Sec. were to be fold by auftion ; at another, the 
ingenious Mr. Fiockton, with a brazen trumpet and a 
brazen face, announced that the facetious Mr. Punch and 
his merry family were ready to receive company of any 
defeription. This room had firft been ufed as a Roman- 
catholic private chapel; and in our own times had, we 
think, been a receptacle of wild beads, a fchooj of defence, 
the audience-chamber of thofe beautiful Houynhnms the 
panther mare and coll, the. apartment wherein the white 
negro girl and the porcupine man held their levees ; and, 
in Ihort, applied to many other purpofes equally extra¬ 
ordinary.—The Lyceum itfelf, to come to our own time, 
has been employed for various purpofes, having had no 
fixed defignation. In the year 1789, the veteran Dibdin 
(lately deceafed) firft occupied a part of it, where he pro¬ 
duced his Whim of the Moment, the firft of a feries of 
entertainments of a fimilar kind (under other names and 
at different places), of which the whole was written and 
compofed, recited and fung, by himfelf. Here he pro¬ 
duced his Poor Jack, his Greenwich Penfioner, Chelfea 
Penlicner, and many more of the bell fongs in the Eng- 
lifih language ; and fome perfons will Hill contrail the ex¬ 
cellence of thefe fongs with the trifling (not to fay def- 
picable) nature of the recitations by which they were 
lining together and introduced.—This place has been 
more recently ufed for exhibitions of views on the pano¬ 
rama principle, Monf. Philipftall’s Phantafmagoria, and 
other marvellous Shows. It was occupied by the Drury- 
lane company while that theatre lay in its alhes ; and at 
prefent it is fitted up for the performance of Engiilh 
operas, under the direftion of Mr. Arnold, fon of the' late 
found mufician, Dr. Arnold. 
Exeter ’Change was erefted as a new mart for milli¬ 
nary, clothes, trinkets, hangings, books, &c. with an in¬ 
tention 
