On the eastern side of Shoe Lane, is the New Fleet Market, which was formerly held in the middle of the now clear and open thoroughfare of Farringdon Street, but which, being found a great inconvenience to the traffic, was removed here in 1829. As its contemplation offers few attractions to stay the steps of a rambler, we continue our course down Shoe Lane, and are once more on the north side of Fleet Street. There are a great number of small courts or alleys branching from this side, of which it will be necessary to speak, and we will therefore take them altogether. This district was the principal part of the ancient Saxon city of London. It was nearly all burnt down in the year 982. Stow, in his "Annals," recording the event, says, "Great part of London was burnt, which city had at this time most buildings from Ludgate towards Westminster, and little or none where the heart of the city now is, except in divers places was housing that stood without order." The district has been always densely peopled; and some of the courts seem so close and narrow as scarcely to afford breathing room to a healthy per

son.

The most famous of these courts is Bolt Court, so long inhabited by Samuel Johnson. We have already spoken of him so frequently, that it is needless to mention more than the mere fact of his residence here. The house itself which he inhabited exists no more. The accomplished author of the "Pleasures of Memory," who has enriched the English language with so many fine effusions of his genius, relates that, when he was a boy of fourteen,

he had a violent desire to see the great lexicographer, who was then the acknowledged head of English literature. He did not know him, nor was he acquainted with any one who had that advantage; and in this emergency he determined to introduce himself, with the hope that the visit of so young an admirer would prove its own excuse. He went accordingly to Bolt Court; but when he had got his hand upon the knocker, his heart failed him, and he came away, and never renewed the attempt. They never met; and, as lovers of literary history, we may be permitted to regret that they did not. Pope had a similar desire to see and know Dryden, but with a happier result. Johnson, in narrating the visit of Pope-then twelve years of age---to Dryden, in the coffee-house, says, "Who does not wish that Dryden could have known the value of the homage that was paid him, and foreseen the future greatness of his young admirer?" And the reader of this anecdote will be tempted to indulge in the same exclamation.

Bolt Court is also well known as being the place of residence of the celebrated William Cobbett, and where he wrote, printed, and published his "Register," and dealt in flower-seeds and Indian corn. His well-known "Register," which died with its author, was the last work of its kind, a sort of hybrid between the pamphlet and the newspaper, which, whatever may have been its success, is not likely to be imitated or revived.

Among the other courts branching off Fleet Street is Crane Court, at the extremity of which stands the

Scottish Hospital, incorporated in the reign of Charles II., for the relief of poor Scotch people resident in London. It affords weekly, monthly, or quarterly allowances, and medical relief when necessary, to the objects of its bounty; and also sends them home to Scotland when desired. The institution dates its first incorporation from the year 1665, and its re-incorporation from 1775. It is now under the presidency of the Duke of Sutherland.

The only other courts in Fleet Street worthy of record are Johnson's Court and Wine Office Court. In the former, Dr. Johnson resided for many years, and Goldsmith had lodgings in the latter for a short time.

Fleet Street was the scene of the annual grand procession and burning of the pope in the reign of Charles II. After the discovery of the Meal-tub Plot, as it was called, this annual mummery was performed with additional pomp and ceremony. The day was the 17th of November, the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth-then observed as a Protestant festival. Black friars, black, white, and grey bishops, cardinals, and, finally, the pope himself, formed the procession, which was headed by a man on horseback personating the dead body of Sir Edmonbury Godfrey, whose mysterious death at that time exercised the imaginations and inflamed the passions of the people of England. The pope was tricked out in grotesque habiliments, and a representative of the devil, as his prime minister, sat on his shoulders, and hopped from ear to ear, as if

whispering evil counsels. The procession began at Bishopsgate and ended in Fleet Street, where the final ceremony of the burning took place. It is described by an eye-witness, who saw it from the windows of a tavern. Roger North thus writes in his "Examen :"

"When the day of execution was come, all the shrew fools of the town had made sure of places, and towards the evening there was a great clatter in the streets with taking down of glass windows, and faces began to show themselves thereat, and the hubbub was great with the shoals of people come there to take or seek accommodation. For the greater amusement of the people, somebody got up to the statue of Queen Elizabeth in the niche of Temple Bar, and set her face out like a heathen idol. A bright shield was hung upon her arm, and a spear put in or leaned upon the other hand, and lamps and candles were put about on the wall of the niche to enlighten her person, that the people might have a full view of the deity that, like the goddess Pallas, stood there as the object of the solemn sacrifice about to be made. There seemed to be an inscription upon the shield, but I could not get near enough to discern what it was, and divers other decorations. I could fix in no nearer part than the Green Dragon Tavern, below in Fleet Street; but before I settled in my quarter, I rounded the crowd, to observe as well as I could what was doing, and saw much, but afterwards heard more, of the hard battles and skirmishes that were maintained from the windows and

balconies, of several parties with one another, and the floor, as the fancy of the whig and tory incited— all which were managed with the artillery of squibs, whereof thousands of volleys went off, to the great expense of powder and paper, and profit of the poor manufacturers, for the price of ammunition rose continually, and the whole trade could not supply the consumption of an hour or two.

"When we had posted ourselves at windows, expecting the play to begin, it was very dark; but we could perceive the street to fill, and the hum of the crowd grew louder and louder; and at length, with help of some lights below, we could discern, not only upwards towards the bar, where the squibwar was maintained, but downwards towards Fleet Bridge, the whole street was crowded with people, which made that which followed seem very strange; for, about eight at night, we heard a din from below, which came up the street, continually increasing, till we could perceive a motion, and that was a row of stout fellows, that came, shouldered together, cross the street, from wall to wall on each side. How the people melted away I cannot tell; but it was plain that those fellows made clear board, as if they had swept the street for what was to come after. They went along like a wave; and it was wonderful to see how the crowd made way. I suppose the good people were willing to give obedience to lawful authority. Behind this wave (which, as all the rest, had many lights attending), there was a vacancy, but it filled apace, till another like wave came up; and so four or five of these waves passed, one after