were directed to be paved: the street or way from the end of Petty France to St. James's House; the street (now St. James's Street) leading from St. James's House up to the highway; a street in St. James's Fields (now Pall Mall); a street extending from the Mews to Piccadilly (now Hedge Lane or Whitcomb Street), and from thence towards the Stone Bridge, to the furthermost building, near the Bull,' the corner of Air Street. Among the places to be widened, were the street near the Stocks Market, the entrance, called the Passage and Gate-house, from Cheapside into St. Paul's Church-yard, the street or passage from Fleet Conduit to St. Paul's Church; the passages at St. Dunstan in the West, and Temple Bar; the passages by and near Exeter House and the Savoy; and the way from the White-Hart Inn in the Strand into Covent Garden. Candles, or lights in lanterns, were also directed by the Act to be hung out by every householder, from Michaelmas to Lady-day, from the time of its becoming dark till nine o'clock in the evening. A curious account of the extent and population of London at this period may be found in the Observations made upon the Bills of Mortality,' by Captain John Graunt, F. R. S. and afterwards printed by order of the Royal Society. Among other remarks in his Epistle Dedicatory, he says, that London, the Metropolis of England, is perhaps a head too big for the body, and possibly too strong; that this head grows three times as fast as the body to which it belongs; that our parishes are now grown madly disproportionable; that our Temples are not suitable to our Religion; that the trade, and very City, of London removes westward; that the walled City is but a fifth of the whole pyle; that the old streets are unfit for the present frequency of Coaches; and that the passage of Ludgate is a throat too straight for the body.'* The * In the illustrations of those positions which more directly regard the present subject, the Writer observes, that since the commencement of the regular Bills of Mortality in 1603, the Increase of the Ninety-seven Parishes The amazing alteration that was made in the state of London by the Great Fire of 1666, and the vast extent of the ravages of that conflagration, have already been extensively detailed,*, and but little addition is here necessary. However disastrous to thou sands Parishes within the Walls, was not discernable, except where great houses, formerly belonging to Noblemen (before they built others near Whitehall) had been turned into tenements; on which account Alhallows upon the Wall had increased through the conversion of the Marquis of Winchester's house, lately the Spanish Ambassador's, into a new street; the same of Alderman Freeman's, (now Freeman's Court,) and La Motte's, near the Exchange; of the Earl of Arundel's, in Lothbury; of the Bishop of London's Palace, the Dean of St. Paul's, and the Lord River's House, now in hand, (Savage Gardens, Tower Hill;) as also of the Duke's Place, and others. Of the sixteen newest Parishes without the Walls, St. Giles's, Cripplegate, had been most inlarged, next St. Olave's, Southwark, then St. Andrew's, Holborn, then Whitechapel; the difference in the rest not considerable.-Of the Out-Parishes, then called ten, formerly nine, and before that eight, St. Giles's and St. Martin's in the Fields were most increased, notwithstanding St. Paul's Covent Garden was taken out of them both. 'The general observation,' he proceeds, which arose from hence was, that the City of London gradually removed westward, and did not the Royal Exchange and London Bridge stay the trade, it would remove much faster: for Leadenhall Street, Bishopsgate, and part of Fenchurch Street, had lost their ancient trade; Gracechurch Street, had indeed kept itself yet entire, by reason of its conjunction with and relation to London Bridge. Canning Street, and Watling Street, had lost their trade of Woollen-Drapery to Paul's Church-yard, Ludgate Hill, and Fleet Street: the Mercery was gone out of Lombard Street and Cheapside, into Paternoster Row, and Fleet Street. The reasons whereof were, that the King's Court, in old times frequently kept in the City,' was now always at Westminster. Secondly, the use of Coaches, whereunto the narrow streets of the Old City were unfit, had caused the building of those broader streets in Covent Garden, &c. Thirdly, where the consumption of commodity was, viz. among the Gentry, the venders of the same must seat themselves. Fourthly, the cramming up of the void spaces and gardens within the Walls, with houses, to the prejudice of Light and Air, have made men build new ones, where they less feared those inconveniences. Conformity *See preceding Volume, p. 406-412, in sands that event proved at the time when it happened, there cannot be a doubt but that in its consequences it has been most beneficial to this City; far beyond indeed any other occurrence that has ever taken place since the period of its origin. All the interested restraints of civic policy, and every false and contracted consideration that had swayed the councils of successive Governments, were now forced to bend to the necessity of the case; and in the extension of the Suburbs, conjoined with the widening of the avenues, and the improvement in the modes of building, the healthfulness and comfort of a vastly increased population were at once augmented and secured. The marring of the City,' says Rolle, was the making of the Suburbs; and some places of despicable termination, and as mean account (such as Houndsditch and Shor-ditch), do now contain not a few Citizens of very good fashion.'* Westminster and Southwark were much enlarged in building also, to other civil nations, hath disposed us to let our old Wooden dark houses fall to decay, and build new ones, whereby to answer all the ends above mentioned. When Ludgate was the only western Gate of the City, little building was westward thereof; but when Holborn began to increase, New Gate was made: but now both these Gates are not sufficient for the communication between the walled City, and its enlarged western Suburbs, as daily appears by the intolerable stops and embarresses of Coaches near both these Gates, especially Ludgate.' Observations, p. 110→ 114. 'Burning of London,' Med. XXXVI. p. 144. The following quaint account of the Spoiling' of the City Conduits in the Great Fire, is given in the same work. "As nature, by veins and arteries, some great and some small, placed up and down all parts of the body, ministreth blood and nourishment to every part thereof, so was that wholesome water, which was as necessary for the good of London, as blood is for the life and health of the body, conveyed by pipes, wooden or metalline, as by veins, into all parts of that famous City. If water were, as we may call it, the blood of London, then were its several Conduits as it were the Liver and Spleen of that City; (which are reckoned as the fountains of blood in human bodies,) for that the great trunks of veins conveying blood about the body, are seated therein, enlarged about this period; and the neighbourhoods of Spittle-. fields and East Smithfield were greatly increased within a few years afterwards. Though many extensive improvements were effected in the rebuilding of the City, the tenacious claims of the multitudes, who, from whatever cause, were unconquerably attached to the sites of their ancient dwellings, prevented the execution of either of the ingenious plans that had been devised for the more elegant and regular re-construction of the Capital. While yet, however, as Philips said of Troy, the City lay smoaking on the ground, "it was determined to widen the more public streets, and therein, as great roots fixed in the earth, shooting out their branches divers and sundry wayes: but, alas! how were these livers inflamed, and how unfit have they since been to do their wonted office? They were lovely streams indeed, which did refresh that noble City, one of which was always at work, pouring out itself when the rest lay still.---Methinks these several Conduits of London stood like so many little, but strong, forts, to confront and give check to that great enemy Fire, if any occasion should be. There methinks the water was as it were, intrenched and ingarrisoned. The several pipes and vehicles of water, that were within those Conduits, all of them charged with water, till by the turning of the cocks they were discharged again; were as so many soldiers within those forts, with their musquetry charged, ready to keep and defend those places. And look how enemies are wont to deal with those castles, which they take to be impregnable and despair of ever getting by storm; that is, to attempt the starving of them by a close siege-so went the Fire to work with those little castles of stone, which were not easy for it to burn down (witness their standing to this day ;) spoiled them, or almost spoiled them it hath for the present, by cutting off those supplies of water which had wont to flow to them, melting those leaden channels in which it had been conveyed, and thereby, as it were, starving those garrisons which they could not take by storm.---As if the Fire had been angry with the poor old Tankard-bearers, both men and women, for propagating that element which was contrary to it, and carrying it upon their shoulders as it were in state and triumph; it hath even destroyed their trade, and threatned to make them perish by fire who had wont to live by water.” Med. XL. p. 153 -156. See preceding Volume, p. 436---440. and to clear away, as much as possible, those nuisances termed Middle-rows, with which the old City abounded. Aldgate Street had a middle-row; Cornhill, Cheapside, Newgate Street, Ludgate Street, and many others had middle-rows. Some of these were temporary, consisting only of moveable stands, erected, or rather put together, on market days; the others were permanent, but in either case, they were considerable obstructions and impediments to the free passage of the streets. At this time it was also determined, that much of the ground-plot of the ancient City should be given to the public, and that many gateways that had formerly stood before those buildings which had courts, should be turned into the open streets. Yet it is a curious circumstance, that while the surveyors of those times were widening the larger avenues, they were crowding the intervening buildings much closer than before; as it is well known, that the houses of capital merchants, the City Halls, and many other edifices, stood in the centre of large gardens and courts, which were afterwards covered with inferior buildings. Indeed so much ground was covered after the conflagration, and so closely were the buildings within the walls of the new City connected, that it has been said to contain four thousand houses more than the old, and conse quently a far greater number of inhabitants"+ Among The middle-rows in Holborn and Broad St. Giles's are now the only specimens remaining of these kind of avenues. Vestiges, &c. Eur. Mag. Vol. LII. p. 341, 342. After the Fire, "the streets of the City may be said to have been raised out of their own ruins: the accumulation of rubbish was immense; this it was found much easier to spread over in order to level, in some degree, the ground-plot which devastation had cleared, than to cart away the ashes it had left. Upon this made ground the houses that formed the new streets were erected; and it is a curious circumstance, that the workmen in digging through it, in order to form their foundations, found three different streets above each other; and that at more than twenty feet under the surface, they disco yered Roman walls and tessellated pavements." Ibid, |