232 Londimana. [April 1, 
the great faummes of money bequeathed, 
are {ome probabilities; and the charity 
of fome good men already, in cleathing 
and repayring the infide, is a great en- 
couragement ; and there isa fpeech that 
the houfes that are about it muft be 
pulled down, for Paules church is old 
enough to ftand alone. Here are pray- 
ers often, but finifter {ufpition doubts 
more formal than zealous; they thould 
not be worldly, becanfe al church-men ; 
there are none dumbe, for they can 
fpeake loud enough. I leave it and 
them, withing all might be amended.” 
FINSBURY FIELDS. 
Fitzftephen, who wrote his Deferip- 
tion of London before 1182, is very.ac- 
curate in defcribing the winter amufe- 
ments of the Londoners in Finibury 
fields; and particularly mentions a fpe- 
cies of fkaiti ting. The following isa tran- 
flation of the paflage : 
“ When that vait lake, which waters 
the walls of the city toward the north, 
is hard frozen, the youth in great num- 
bers go to divert themfelves on the ice. 
Some taking a fmall run for an increment 
of velocity, place their feet at the pro- 
per diftance, and are carried fliding fide- 
ways a great way; others will make a 
large cake of ice, ‘and feating one of their 
companions upon it, they take hold of 
ome another’s hands, and draw him 
along; when it fometimes happens, that 
moving fwiftly on fo flippery a plain, 
they ail fail down headlong. Others 
there ave who are full more expert in 
thefe amufements on the ice; they place 
certain bones, the leg-bones of fome ani- 
mal, under the foles of their fect, by 
tying them round their ankles, and phen 
taking a pole thod with ion into their 
hands, they pufh themfelves forward by 
firiking it againf the ice, and are carried 
along Grae a velocity equal to the fight 
of a bird, or a bolt difcha arged froma 
crofs-bow. Sometimes, two of them thus 
furnifhed agree to ftart oppofite one to - 
ae ata great diffance ; ey meet, 
evate their poles, attack and firike each 
eager a one or both of them fall, 
and not without anc bodily burt; and 
even after their fall, thev thall be catried 
a good diftance from each other by the 
rapidity of the motion; and wha tever 
part of your head comes upon the ice, 
it is fnre to be laid bare to the fkull. 
Very often the leg or the arm of the 
party that falls, if he chances to licht 
upen them, is broken: but youth isan 
age ambitious of glory, fond and cov et- 
ous of victory ; ; and that in future times 
it may agguit itfelf boldly and valiantly 
in real engagements, it “will run thefe 
hazards in fham ones.’ 
Finfbury, or Moor fclds, were at this 
period but a vaft morals. | 
ELY HOUSE. 
Here, according to Stowe, died,- 
February 3d, anno 1399, John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancafter. 
It feems from the following pafiage in 
Stowe’s Annals, that the gardens here 
were famous for producing fine ftraw- 
berries. He fays, {peaking of Richard IIT. 
* And after a little talking to them, he 
faid to the Bithop of Ely, M y Lord, you 
have very good firawberries at your Gar- 
den in Holborn, I require you to let me 
have a mefie of them? -Gladly, my Lord, 
quoth he, would to God I had fome bet- 
‘ter thing as ready to your pleafure as . 
that; and therewith he fent in all hafte 
his fervant for a mefie of ftrawberries.” 
This circumftance has been minutely 
copied by Shakefpeare in his play7of  _ 
Richard IL. where he puts the ote 
words in that prince’s mouth. ' 
«© My Lord of Ely, when I was: laft in 
Holbourne, 
I faw good linzwbereea in your Grace’s 
garden there, 
Ido befeech you fend for fome of them. ” 
During the civil. war, this houfe was 
converted into an hofpital, as appears by 
an entry in Refhworth, vol. ii, part iv. 
page 1097. “The Lords concurred - 
with the Commons, in a meffage fent u 
to their Lordihips for Ely Houfe, in Hol- 
bourne, to be for the ufe of the fick and 
maimed foldiers.”—Grofée’s Ann iguatere f 
England and Wales. 
STREETS IN LONDON IN THE SAXON TIMES. 
London is ‘mentioned in Bede as the 
pesag ial of the Eait Saxons in the year 
4, lying on the barks of the Thames, 
“ aan emporium of many people coming 
by fea and land.”* ; 
In agraut, dated 889, a Conrt a Lon- 
don is conveyed “ at the ancient ftony 
edifice, called by the citizens hwat mun- 
des ftone, from the public fireet to the 
wall of the fame city.”+> From this we 
learn that fo early as 589, the walls of 
Loadon exifted, 
_ Tn 857 we find a conveyance of a place 
in Lendon, called Ceolmundinge haga, 
not far from the Weft Gate. = This Wet 
Gate may have been either Temple Bar 
or Holborn Bars. ; 
Ethelbakl, the Mercian King, gave-a 
wp Se ee a ee aa 
* #ede, 1.2. c.3. f Heming, 42. 
: Hems. 4a, 4 ‘ 
Court 
Phas 2 hei 
