assuredly would, we would say, "This dirty place is hallowed ground-this is Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey, where Oliver Goldsmith resided in the outset of his career-ere his fame dawned upon the world, and where he completed his Enquiry into the present state of Polite Literature in Europe,' and wrote those amusing papers which were afterwards collected under the title of a 'Citizen of the World." "The doctor was writing his Enquiry," says the author of a life of Goldsmith, prefixed to his works, "in a wretched dirty room in which there was but one chair, and when he from civility offered it to his visitors, himself was obliged to sit in the window. While they were conversing, some one gently tapped at the door, and being desired to come in, a poor ragged little girl, of very decent behaviour, entered, who, dropping a curtsey, said, 'My mamma sends her compliments, and begs the favour of you to lend her a chamber-pot full of coals."" The very house is still standing, the last in the alley, looking on to a dangerous descent, into some back region which we will not penetrate, known by the name of Break-neck Stairs. Issuing from this dreary region, we find ourselves near the top of Skinner Street, Snow Hill, and within sight of St. Sepulchre's church. "At the time that Skinner Street was made," says Mr. Smith, in a memorandum left among his papers, "the masses of human bones which were piled up to the height of twenty-five feet in St. Sepulchre's churchyard, were carried out by night and thrown into holes, and spread over the middle of the street, and then covered over with rubbish to raise the level of the thoroughfare." Mr. Smith does not mention his authority for this statement. St. Sepulchre's church is known to fame as the church whose bell tolls the death-knell of condemned criminals. This church is supposed to have been founded about the year 1100, and appears to have been four or five times rebuilt since that period. It escaped total destruction in the fire of 1666, and, although considerably damaged, was soon renovated by the parishioners. Among the persons who are buried within its walls, may be mentioned one of the countless family of the Smiths. Yes, reader, John Smith is buried here. "John Smith?-which," exclaims the reader, "of the myriads of Englishmen who have borne that illustrious name ?" John Smith, Governor of Virginia, and Admiral of New England, who died in 1631. A detail of his exploits, written by himself, may be found in the History of Virginia." Of him Grainger says, "Captain John Smith deserves to be ranked with the greatest travellers and adventurers of his age. He was some time in the service of the Emperor Sigismund, and the Prince of Transylvania, against the Grand Seignior, where he distinguished himself by challenging the Turks of quality to single combat, and cutting off their heads; for which heroic exploit he bore a chevron between three Turks' heads in his coat of arms. He afterwards went to America, where he was taken prisoner by the savage Indians, from whom he found means to escape. He often hazarded his life in naval engage ments with pirates, Spanish men-of-war, and in other adventures; and had a considerable hand in reducing New England to the obedience of Great Britain, and in reclaiming the inhabitants from barbarism.” The gallant captain, a popular man in his day, was probably the hero of a ballad, of which a black letter copy is preserved in the British Museum, and which was published in a collection of ballads in 1727, and lately for the Percy Society. It is intituled "The Honour of a London Prentice, being an account of his matchless manhood, and brave Adventures done in Turkey, and by what means he married the King's Daughter," &c. The ballad-maker however, with a licence invariably allowed to balladmakers above all poets and rhymers whatsoever, makes the number of the slain Turks twenty instead of three; and adds, that he killed one by a box on the ear; and subsequently tore out the tongue from the jaws of a roaring lion that was turned upon him to devour him. As Newgate literature has become the fashion, it may not be amiss to mention some circumstances connected with this church, and the condemned malefactors of the neighbouring gaol. Mr. Robert Dow, merchant tailor and parishioner, left by will in the year 1612, the sum of 11. 6s. 8d. annually, as a fee to the sexton of St. Sepulchre's, for pronouncing two solemn exhortations to condemned criminals on the night preceding, and the morning of, their execution, as they passed the church door in their cart on the way to Tyburn. Accordingly, at midnight, before the fatal morning, the sexton, with a large bell in his hand, followed by other persons with torches, entered the cell of the doomed man, and having rung his bell, pronounced in melancholy voice the following exhortation: "You prisoners that are within, Who for wickedness and sin. "After many mercies shown to you, you are now appointed to die to-morrow in the forenoon. Give ear, and understand, that to-morrow morning the greatest bell of St. Sepulchre's shall toll for you, in form and manner of a passing bell, as used to be tolled for those that are at the point of death, to the end that all godly people hearing that bell, and knowing it is for you going to your deaths, may be stirred up heartily to pray to God to bestow his grace and mercy upon you whilst you live. I beseech you, for Jesus Christ his sake, to keep this night in watching and prayer for the salvation of your own souls, while is yet time and place for mercy, as knowing to-morrow you must appear at the judgment seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this life, and to suffer eternal torments for your sins committed against Him, unless, upon hearty and unfeigned repentance, you find mercy through the merits, death, and passion of your only mediator and advocate, Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God to make interces sion for as many of you as penitently return to Him.” Having pronounced this, the sexton withdrew, and early on the following morning was in attendance at the gate of the church, to pronounce exhortation the second, which was in form as follows-the first part to the spectators, the latter to the criminals: "All good people, pray heartily unto God for these poor sinners, who are now going to their deaths, and for whom this great bell doth toll. You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears; ask mercy of the Lord for the salvation of your own souls, through the merits, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return unto him. "Lord have mercy upon you! Giltspur Compter, forming the side of Giltspur Street opposite to the east end of St. Sepulchre's, is another prison in the jurisdiction of the city of London, which is principally occupied by persons committed by the sheriff, for non-payment of fines, and by debtors, for whom there is said to be much better accommodation than in the Queen's Bench. The prison is divided into nine yards or wards, appropriated to prisoners of different descriptions, belonging both to the Poultry Compter and the Giltspur Street Compter debtors, male and female; |