LONDON. 
591 
-royal notice by his fine perfon and fine dancing ; but his 
intellectual accomplifimnents were far from l'uperficial. 
The place he built his houfe upon was the orchard and 
garden belonging toEly-houfe. Here fir Chriftopher died 
in'1591. By his interelt with the queen he had extorted 
the ground from the bid)op, Richard Cox, who for a long 
time refilled the facrilege. Her letter to the poor bilhop 
was dictated in terms as infolent as indecent. “Proud 
Prelate! You know what you was before I made you 
what you are now. If you do not immediately comply 
■with my requeft, by G—d I will unfrock you. Eliza¬ 
beth.” —This palace was long before dillinguifhed by the 
death of a much greater man ; for, at this houfe of the bi¬ 
llion of Ely, fay hiftorians, John duke of Lancafter, other- 
tvife John of Gaunt, breathed his lad, in 1399, after (ac¬ 
cording to Shakefpeare) giving his dying fruitlefs admo¬ 
nition to his difiipated nephew Richard II. It was poffi- 
bly lent to him, during the long poflellion that bilhop Ford- 
Iiam had of the fee, after t! duke’s own palace, the Savoy, 
was burnt by the infurgents. 
Adjacent flood, in my memory, (fays Pennant,) Ely 
Houle, the refidence of the bilhops of Ely. John de Kirk- 
by, who died bilhop of Ely in 1290, laid the foundation 
of this palace, by bequeathing feveral melluages in this 
place; others were purchafed by his fucceffor Wiiliam de 
Luda : at length the whole, confiding of twenty, fome 
fay of forty, acres, was inclofed within a wall. Holin- 
flied has recorded the excellency of the ftrawberries culti¬ 
vated in the garden by bilhop Morton: he informs us 
that Richard duke of Gloucefter (afterwards Richard III.) 
at the council held in the Tower on the morning he put 
I-Ialtings to death, requefted a dilh of them from the bi- 
fhop. Grofe has given turn reprefentations of the build¬ 
ings and chapel. Here was a molt venerable hall, feventy- 
four feet long, lighted with fix gothic windows; and the 
furniture limed the hofpitality of the times. This room 
the ferjeants at law frequently borrowed to hold their 
fealls in, on account of its lize. In the year 1531^ eleven 
gentlemen, who had jull been honoured with the coif, 
gave a grand fealt here five days fuccelfively. On the 
fird, the king and his queen, Catharine of Arragon, graced 
them with their prefence. For quantity of provifions it 
refembled a coronation-feaft : the minutiae are not given ; 
but the following particulars (from Stow) will fuffice to 
fhow its greatnefs, as well as the wonderful fcarcity of 
money in thofe days, evinced by the ftnallnefs ot the prices 
compared thole ol the prefent day : 
Brought to the flaughter-houfe 24 beeves, each 
One carcale of an oxe from the lliatnbles 
One hundred fat muttons, each 
Fifty-one great veales, at 
Thirty-four porkes, at - - - 
Ninety-one pigs, at - - 
Capons of Greece, ten dozens, at apiece 
Capons of Kent, nine dozen and fix, at 
Cocks of grofe, feaven doz; n and nine, at_ - 
Cocks courfe xiii dozen at 8d. and 3d. apiece 
Pullets, the belt 2|d. each. Other pullets 
Pigeons 37 dozen, each dozen 
Swans xiii dozen. 
Larkes 340 dozen, each dozen 
The chapel (which was dedicated to St. Etheldreda, 
foundrefs of the monaftery at Ely) has at the call: end a 
very handfome gothic window, which looks into the court 
called Ely Place. Beneath is a crypt of the length of the 
chapel. The cloifters formed a fquare on the louth fide. 
The feveral buildings belonging to this palace falling into 
ruin, it was thought proper to enable, by ait of par¬ 
liament, in 1772, the bifhop to alienate the whole. It 
was accordingly fold to the crown, for the Aim of fix 
thoufand five hundred pounds, together with an annuity 
of two hundred 1 pounds a-year, to be paid to the bilhop 
and his fuccefTors for ever. Out of the firlt five thoufand, 
fix hundred was applied towards the purchafe of Albe- 
snarle-houle, in Dover-ftiteet, with other mefl'uages and 
gardens. The remainder, together with three thoufand 
pounds paid as dilapidations by the executors of bifhop 
Mawfon, was applied towards building a handfome houfe 
in Dover-ftreet, which was named E.ly-lioufe, and is fet¬ 
tled on the bifhops of Ely for ever. 
At the eallern extremity of Holborn is Snow-hill, (Stow 
writes it Snore-hill,') an irregular and formerly very-incon¬ 
venient avenue into the city from the north weftern p3rts 
of the metropolis; but the ereftion of a new llreet, in a 
direfct line from the bottom of the hill to the end of the 
Old Bailey, has removed the inconvenience, and added 
greatly to the beauty of this part of the city. It is named 
Skinner-ftreet, in honourof the late alderman Skinner,ari 
ailive member of the committee for improving the en¬ 
trances into the city at Temple-bar and Snow-hill.—We 
are of opinion, that, if a bridge had been erefled between 
the croupe of Snow-hill and that of Holborn, leaving on 
each fide a pafiage for foot-paflengers, it would have made 
a grander appearance, and been more commodious. The 
market might have been removed under the arches of this 
bridge, and thus have been fheltered fromtlie inclemency 
of the weather. A large centre-arch might have opened 
into a prolongation of the (Ireet leading to Clerkenwell 
Green, oppofite to Hicks’s Hall. However, it has in its pre¬ 
fent Hate a fine appearance; and the perambulator cannot 
help (lopping a few minutes on the brow of Holborn to give 
a circumipedtive glance to the objedts which furround him. 
Having once more arrived nearly at the point whence 
we let out at p. 31. we here take our leave; and, though 
we have drawn this article to an unprecedented length, 
we are fenfible how much it (till wants to make it com¬ 
plete ; yet we hope i: will not fuff'er by a comparifon with 
others. We have, as carefully as it was in our power, pe¬ 
rambulated the whole of this wonderful and extenfive me¬ 
tropolis, ftrewing now and then our paths with the flowers 
of defciiption, and reaping here and there the fruit of 
reflection and obfervation ; endeavouring, at all times, to 
conform to the principle of the poet, utile dulci, mingling 
conltantly pleafure and amufenient with real utility. We 
conclude by referring our readers to the Pian of Survey 
which we have given upon Plate V. but we ought parti¬ 
cularly to Warn them not to look, in this fort of fynopfis, 
for corredfnefs and accuracy of diftances, fince our inten¬ 
tion has been merely to fhow tlie tracks v.e have perufed, 
and to bring under the eye, through the attradlion of fe¬ 
veral focufles of light, fome of the molt linking objects 
deferibed in this article. The Arabic characters mark the 
pages of the f'urvey, and the Roman letters the plates 5 
in order that, at firlt fight, any one may find the fpot, 
where either the pen or the graver feems to have dwelt 
with well-grounded partiality or pardonable complacency. 
GOVERNMENT and POLICE of the CITY of 
LONDON. 
Civil Government. —No authentic documents arc 
in exillence to fhow what was the nature of the govern¬ 
ment of London during the time it was under the do¬ 
minion of the Romans and Saxons ; and as, when it vvas 
brought under the Daniili yoke, they made no other uls 
of it but as a place of fecurity to fiy to, in cafe of necef- 
fity, for fhelter and defence; there is, therefore, no pro¬ 
bability that a regular government exiited during that 
period. At length, in 886, Alfred, having diflodged thefe 
freebooters, rebuilt the city in a more magnificent man¬ 
ner than it had formerly been, and committed the govern¬ 
ment of it to Ethelred duke of Mercia. From this time 
to the reign of Edward the Confefl'or, no mention is made 
of the names or functions of the municipal officers, though 
it is evident that London had a government and privileges 
peculiar to itfelf, before the reign of the lad-named king, 
from fome fragments of a charter granted by him, and 
addrefi’ed to the portgrave, whereby all the ancient culloms 
and ufages were confirmed, and others were added. This 
title of portgrave, or portreve, in its more confined fenfe, 
belonged to an officer appointed by the king, whole 
duty it was to collect the public imports of a commer- 
