434 BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL. St. Paul's Cathedral, in order to obtain materials for his new palace in the Strand. Bedlam, or rather Bethlehem Hospital, dedicated to St. Mary of Bethlehem, and formerly situated in Moorfields, was originally an hospital or priory, founded in 1246 by Simon Fitz-Mary, Sheriff of London, for the reception and cure of lunatics. It stood originally between the east side of Moorfields and Bishopsgate Street, and consisted of a prior, canons, brethren, and sisters, who dressed in a black habit, and were distinguished by a star on their breasts. In the churchyard of the Hospital was interred Robert Greene, the celebrated wit and dramatic writer of the reign of Elizabeth. According to Anthony Wood, he died after a short life of riot and dissipation, of a surfeit brought on by too free an indulgence in pickled herrings and Rhenish wine. Here also was interred the stern republican, John Lilburne, who died in 1657. The old building having fallen into a ruinous state, in 1675 the Corporation of London granted a plot of ground on the south side of Moorfields for the erection of a larger and more commodious hospital. Large sums were raised by public subscription, and in 1675 the new hospital was erected at an expense of £17,000. It was built on the plan of the palace of the Tuileries at Paris; a circumstance which so deeply offended Louis the Fourteenth, that he is said to have ordered a plan to be taken of St. James's Palace, with the intention of making it the model of a building to be adapted to the vilest purposes. Bethlehem, in the form in which it stood at the commencement of the present century, presented an imposing appearance, being five hundred feet long and forty broad. Not the least striking objects which distinguished its exterior were the famous statues over the gates, of raving and melancholy MOORGATE STREET. 435 madness, the work of Caius Gabriel Cibber, the father of the comedian and poet laureate, Colley Cibber. "Where o'er the gates, by his famed father's hand, Great Cibber's brazen brainless brothers stand."*-The Dunciad. In 1814-partly on account of its dilapidated state, and partly from the site being required for some projected improvements in Moorfields-Bethlehem Hospital was taken down and the establishment removed to St. George's Fields, Lambeth. On the north side of Moorfields, opposite to Bethlehem, stood formerly the hospital of St. Luke. Having been found too small, however, for the purposes for which it was intended, it was taken down and superseded by the present extensive building in Old Street Road, erected in 1784 at an expense of £55,000. Running out of London Wall, nearly opposite to Little Moorfields, is Moorgate Street, the site of an old postern gate in the City wall, opened in 1415, by Thomas Falconer, Lord Mayor of London, for the convenience of the citizens. "The Lord Mayor," says Stow, "caused the wall of the City to be broken near unto Coleman Street, and built a postern, now called Moorgate, upon the Moor side, where was never gate before. This gate he made for the ease of the citizens, that way to pass upon causeways into the fields for their recreation." Close to Moorgate was born, on the 4th of * These statues are preserved in the vestibule of the present Hospital in St. George's Fields. One of them, it is said, was intended to represent Oliver Cromwell's gigantic porter, who was long confined in Bethlehem. It may be remarked, that they are not brazen, but of Portland stone. They were painted, in order to protect them from the weather, and were probably originally of a bronze colour, for which white has since been substituted. For an interesting account of that singular race of licensed mendicants, the Tom o' Bedlams, see D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," pp. 285, 286, ed. 1839. 436 ARTILLERY GROUND. February, 1693, the well-known dramatic writer, George Lillo, the author of "George Barnwell,” and of "The Fatal Curiosity." Almost adjoining Finsbury Square is the New Artillery Ground, of which mention has already been made. Close by was a most interesting spot-Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields-containing the house in which Milton completed his "Paradise Lost," and in which he breathed his last in November, 1674. The site is pointed out by the present Artillery Place, Bunhill Row. Milton's nephew and biographer, Phillips, informs us that during the time the great poet lived in Artillery Walk, he used, in fine summer weather, to sit at the door of his house, habited in a coarse grey cloth cloak, and in this manner received the visits of persons of rank and genius, who came either to pay homage to him or to enjoy his conversation. A Dr. Wright, a clergyman of Dorsetshire, informed Phillips that he once paid a visit to the blind poet in Artillery Walk. He found him in a small apartment on the first floor, where he was seated in an elbow-chair, neatly dressed in a black suit. His face was pale, but not cadaverous. He was suffering much from gout, and especially from chalk-stones, yet he told Dr. Wright that were it not for the pain he endured his blindness would be tolerable. It was in this house that he was visited by Dryden. Aubrey tells us: "John Dryden, Esq., Poet Laureate, who very much admired him, went to him to have leave to put his 'Paradise Lost' into a drama in rhyme. Mr. Milton received him civilly, and told him he would give him leave to tagge his verses." On the west side of the Artillery Ground is Bunhill Row, forming a part of the site of the old Bunhill Fields. Close by stood one of the principal pest-houses during the raging of the great plague. Here, too, was dug another of those frightful plague-pits of which Defoe has given us so harrowing a description. "I have heard," he says, "that in a great pit in Finsbury, in the parish of Cripplegate-it lying open to the fields, for it was not then walled about-many who were infected and near their end, and delirious also, ran, wrapt in blankets or rags, and threw themselves in and expired there, before any earth could be thrown upon them. When they came to bury others and found them, they were quite dead, though not cold." The spot was shortly afterwards walled in, and became the principal burial-place of the dissenters in London. Anthony Wood speaks of it as the "fanatical burying-place, called by some, Tindals' buryingplace." It is now known as the "Bunhill Fields Burial Ground." Here, in 1688, was interred John Bunyan, author of the "Pilgrim's Progress," whose memory, according to Southey, was held in such high veneration that "many are said to have made it their desire to be interred as near as possible to the spot where his remains are deposited." Here also were interred Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the popular Independent preacher, who attended Oliver Cromwell on his death-bed, and who died in 1679; Charles Fleetwood, the celebrated Parliamentary General, and son-in-law to Oliver Cromwell, who died in 1692; Dr. Isaac Watts, the author of the Hymns, who died in 1748; Joseph Ritson, the collector of our early national poetry, who died in a mad-house at Hoxton, in 1803; and Thomas Stothard, the royal academician, who died in 1834. Lastly, let us not omit to mention that here—close to the plague-pit, the horrors of which his pen has so vividly described-lies buried Daniel Defoe, the author of "Robinson Crusoe." The spot was selected by him in his lifetime, being close to the grave of his sister, who had died a few years previously.* *For further particulars respecting this interesting burial-ground, see Cunningham's "London," vol. i., p. 151. In a neighbouring burial-ground belonging to the Society of Friends lie the remains of their celebrated founder, George Fox, who died in 1690. In Old Street, "near London," lived Samuel Daniel, the poet and historian. His residence consisted of a small house and garden, where he lived in comparative retirement, and where he composed most of his dramatic pieces. In this street also, in 1763, died the celebrated George Psalmanazer. Within a short distance from Old Street, stood Grub Street, now Milton Street, the supposititious residence of needy authors, and so often the subject of ridicule and satire both in prose and verse, as almost to be rendered classic ground.* "A spot near Cripplegate extends; Grub Street 'tis called, the modern Pindus, Where (but that bards are never friends) Bards might shake hands from adverse windows." JAMES SMITH. In this street lived John Fox, author of the "Book of Martyrs." Here also, according to Pennant, lived and died the "very remarkable Henry Welby, Esq., of Lincolnshire, who lived in his house in this street forty-four years, without ever being seen by any human being." He was a man possessed of large property, but his brother having made an attempt to kill him, it produced such an effect on his mind that he determined to seclude himself entirely from the world. For nearly half a century all that was known of him were his extensive and munificent charities. He died on the 29th of October, 1636.† * "Grub Street, n. 8., originally the name of a street near Moorfields, in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called Grub Street.”— JOHNSON'S "Dictionary." "Let Budgell charge low Grub Street with his quill."-POPE. For a more detailed account of this eccentric person, see the "Phoenix Britannicus," p. 369. |