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KING JOHN'S PALACE.

Also to breathe their last nine years before,
And now have left their father to deplore
The loss of all his children, with his wife,
Who was the joy and comfort of his life.

Deceased, June 18, 1687."

221

Other monumental inscriptions may be found in St. Dunstan's Church, scarcely less curious than the foregoing. In modern maps of London may still be traced a small site designated as "King John's Palace." King John's Palace." According to tradition, King John had a palace here, and as there is no doubt that Edward the First held a parliament at Stepney in 1292, it is not impossible that his predecessors may have erected a suburban palace in this vicinity. Here also stood Worcester House, which, in the reigns of Charles the First and Second, was successively the residence of Henry and Edward, first and second Marquises of Worcester, alike distinguished for their chivalrous attachment to Charles the First. Worcester House, it may be remarked, formed but a small part of what had been formerly distinguished as "the great place," namely, the princely palace of Sir Henry Colet, Lord Mayor of London.

The inhabitants of the parish of Stepney appear to have suffered frightfully during the raging of the great plague in 1665. "Stepney parish," says Defoe, "had a piece of ground taken in to bury their dead, close to the churchyard, and which, for that very reason, was left open, and is since, I suppose, taken into the same churchyard." We learn from

the same authority, that within one year Stepney had no fewer than one hundred and sixteen sextons, grave-diggers, and their assistants; the latter consisting of bearers, bellmen, and the drivers of the carts which were employed in removing the dead.

BILLINGSGATE, COLE HARBOUR, STEEL

YARD, THE VINTRY, &c.

ETYMOLOGY

OF BILLINGSGATE.

FISH

PRINCIPAL PORTS OF LONDON. MONGERS' COMPANY.-SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH.-SEMINARY FOR PICKPOCKETS. GREAT FIRE OF LONDON.-HUBERT'S CONFESSION.-REMARKABLE EDIFICES IN AND NEAR THAMES STREET.

L

ET us return to Tower Hill, and skirting Thames Street from Billingsgate to Blackfriars Bridge, point out in our route the principal objects worthy of

notice.

Billingsgate, one of the ancient water-gates, or ports, of the city of London, is situated close to the Custom House, between the Tower and London Bridge. Antiquaries have ingeniously derived its name from Belin, King of the Britons, who reigned about four hundred and sixty years before the Christian era, and whose bones, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, having been burned to ashes, were placed in a vessel of brass, and set on a high pinnacle over the gate. Stow, however, considers that it took its name from one Beling or Billing, "as Somer's Key, Smart's Key, Frost Wharf, and others thereby, took their names of their owners."

At all events, Billingsgate was unquestionably the principal port or landing-place in London as early as the time of Ethelred the Second, whose reign commenced in the tenth century. At a council held at Wantage, in Berkshire, in this reign, the toll, or custom, to be levied on merchant-ves

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sels discharging their goods at Billingsgate was fixed at proportionate rates. It was ordered that every small boat should pay a halfpenny; a large boat with sails, one penny; ships, four pennies; vessels laden with wood, one piece of timber; and vessels laden with fish, one halfpenny or one penny, according to their size. The two other principal ports of London in the days of our Norman sovereigns, were Down-gate, the present Dowgate, and the Queen's Hythe, still known as Queenhithe. As late as the fifteenth century we find an enactment, that if one vessel only should. come up the river to London, it should discharge its cargo at the Queen's Hythe; if two should come up at the same time, that one should discharge at Billingsgate; if three, two were to proceed to the Queen's Hythe, or harbour, and the third to Billingsgate: but "always the more" to Queenhithe. The reason for the preference is evident; the customs, or tolls, received at Queenhithe having been the perquisites of the Queen of England.

Billingsgate continued to be a flourishing port long after Dowgate had ceased to be a landing-place for merchandise, and also after the harbour-dues of Queenhithe had so fallen off that they realised no more than fifteen pounds a year. In the days of Stow it stood alone, for size, convenience, and superiority of every kind. "It is at this present," writes the old antiquary, "a large water-gate, port, or harbour, for ships and boats, commonly arriving there with fish, both fresh and salt, shell-fishes, salt, onions, oranges, and other fruits and roots, wheat, rye, and grain of diverse sorts, for the service of the city and the parts of this realm adjoining." The great advantage possessed by Billingsgate consisted in its being on the east, or near, side of the bridge; thus precluding the necessity and risk of vessels passing under it; the fall of water between the arches having been

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as late as our own time an obstacle to traffic, as well as dangerous to smaller vessels.

Although, singularly enough, Billingsgate was not constituted "a free market for the sale of fish" till the reign of William the Third, it was unquestionably the great landingplace for fish from the earliest times; indeed, the very preamble to the Act of Parliament speaks of it as having been, "time out of mind, a free market in all manner of floating and salt fish, as also for all manner of floating and shell-fish." The very names of the streets in the vicinity of Billingsgate show how closely associated was the trade of this locality with the fish-market of Billingsgate. Fish Street Hill, Fish Yard, near Eastcheap, and Fishmongers' Hall, are all in this immediate neighbourhood, reminding us of the olden time, when "no number of knights or strangers could enter the city at any hour of the day or night," without being able to supply themselves with the choicest fish in season. Stow, speaking of a row of houses in Old Fish Street, observes, "These houses, now possessed by fishmongers, were at the first but moveable. boards, or stalls, set out on market-days, to show their fish there to be sold; but, procuring licence to set up sheds, they grew to shops, and by little and little to tall houses, of three or four stories in height, and now are called Fish Street. Walter Tuck, Fishmonger and Mayor, 1349, had two shops in Old Fish Street, over against St. Nicholas Church, the one rented five shillings the year, the other four shillings." According to Stow, Friday Street derives its name from its having been inhabited by fishmongers, who attended Friday's market; Friday, in Roman Catholic times, having been the great day for the sale of fish.

Anciently the fishmongers were divided into two companies, the Salt-fishmongers, incorporated in 1433, and the

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Stock-fishmongers, in 1509,-nor was it till 1536 that the two companies were united by Henry the Eighth. Till within the last few years the Hall of the Fishmongers, built by Sir Christopher Wren, was situated in Thames Street; but the Company now occupy a fine modern building, erected in 1831, close to the north approach of London Bridge. The famous Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth, who killed Wat Tyler at Smithfield, was a member of this company, his statue being still a conspicuous object in Fishmongers' Hall. He is represented in the act of striking the insolent rebel with a real dagger, which is affirmed to be the identical weapon used by him on the memorable occasion. On the pedestal is the following inscription :

"Brave Walworth, knight, Lord Mayor, yt slew
Rebellious Tyler in his alarmes ;
The King, therefor, did give in lieu

The dagger to the city's armes ;

In the 4th year of Richard II., Anno Domini 1381."

Unfortunately for the veracity of this inscription, the dagger formed the first quarter of the City arms long before the days of Sir William Walworth. It was, indeed, intended to represent the sword of St. Peter, the patron saint of the Corporation.

Adjoining Billingsgate, on the east side, stood Smart's Quay, or wharf, which we find noticed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth as containing an ingenious seminary for the instruction of young thieves. The following extract of a letter, addressed to Lord Burghleigh, in July, 1585, by Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, evinces that the "art and mystery" of picking pockets was brought to considerable perfection in the sixteenth century :

the

Amongst our travels this one matter tumbled out by
One Wotton, a gentleman born, and sometime a

way.

VOL. II.

15

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