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to illustrating periodicals and other works of got over the difficulty by running their tunnel
popular literature.
The son of a water-colour under the house, which their engineer supported
on huge posts of timber during the process, thus
dispensing with its removal. To the north of this
tavern much of the land facing Eden Street was
not built upon down to about the year 1860.
Here were large waterworks and a reservoir,
sheltered by a grove of trees. The site is now
covered by Tolmer's Square, a small square, the
centre of which is occupied by a handsome Gothic
Nonconformist chapel, with a tall spire.

draughtsman and caricaturist, he had an hereditary claim to some artistic gifts, the humorous turn of which he began to develop at a very early age. Among Mr. Cruikshank's best-known etchings are those in "Sketches by Boz," "Oliver Twist," "Jack Sheppard," "The Tower of London," "Windsor Castle," &c. In 1842 appeared the first number of "Cruikshank's Omnibus," the letterpress of which was edited by Leman Blanchard. From the first this artist had shown a strong vein of virtuous reproof in his treatment of intoxication and its accompanying vices: some instances of this tendency are to be found in his "Sunday in London," "The Gin Juggernaut," "The Gin Trap," and more especially in his series of eight prints entitled "The Bottle." These also brought the artist into direct personal connection with the leaders of the temperance movement. He moreover, himself became a convert to their doctrines, and was for many years one of the ablest advocates of the temperance cause. Late in life Mr. Cruikshank turned his attention to oil-painting, and contributed to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy and the British Institution; among his latest productions in oil is a large picture called "The Worship of Bacchus," which was exhibited to the Queen at Windsor Castle in 1863. The whole of Mr. Cruikshank's etchings, extending over a period of more than seventy years, and illustrating the fashions, tastes, follies, and frivolities of four reigns, including the Regency, were purchased, in 1876, by the managers of the Royal Aquarium, at Westminster, and were placed in their picture-gallery. Mr. Cruikshank's talents were not confined merely to painting or etching, but he possessed no little dramatic taste, and often took part in amateur performances at the public theatres for benevolent purposes. He died in 1878. We must now retrace our steps to the Euston Road, in order to deal with the east side of the Hampstead Road. The "Old King's Head," at the corner opposite to the "Adam and Eve," has long presented an awkward break in the uniform width of the Euston Road, by projecting some feet beyond its neighbours, and so narrowing the thoroughfare. At the time of the formation of the "Underground Railway" it was considered that there was at last a chance of its removal. Such, however, was not the case; for the owner not being satisfied with the amount of compensation which was offered by the railway company, who, by the way, offered to rebuild the house, but setting it at the same time farther back, the latter

Drummond Street, the next turning northward, extends along by the principal front of Euston Square Railway Terminus. This street crosses George Street, which forms a direct line of communication from Gower Street to the Hampstead Road. Between George Street and Cardington Street is St. James's Church, formerly a chapel of ease to the mother church of St. James's, Piccadilly. It is a large brick building, and has a large, dreary, and ill-kept burial-ground attached to it. Here lie George Morland, the painter, who died in 1804; John Hoppner, the portrait-painter, who died in 1810; Admiral Lord Gardner, the hero of Port l'Orient, and the friend of Howe, Bridport, and Nelson; and, without a memorial, Lord George Gordon, the mad leader of the AntiCatholic Riots in 1780, who died a prisoner in Newgate in 1793, having become a Jew before his death! One of the best-known vicars of this church was the Rev. Henry Stebbing, author of the "History of the Reformation," "History of the Christian Church," "History of Chivalry and the Crusades," and "Lives of the Italian Poets." He died in 1883. Close by are the St. Pancras Female Charity School and the Temperance Hospital.

It may interest some of our readers who do not advocate strict temperance principles to hear that the celebrated article now called "Old Tom" or "Jackey" was originally distilled at Carre's Brewery (formerly Deady and Hanley's distillery), in the Hampstead Road.

We are now once more upon Russell property, as is testified by the names of several of the streets and squares round about; indeed, a considerable part of the district is called Bedford New Town.

Ampthill Square, which we have now reached, and which is in reality not a square, but a triangle, is so named after Ampthill Park, in Bedfordshire, formerly the seat of the Earls of Upper Ossory, but afterwards the property of the ducal house of Bedford, to whom the land about this part belongs. The south-west corner of the square is crossed by a deep cutting, through which passes the NorthWestern Railway, spanned by a level bridge. At

T

Camden Town.]

STATUE OF RICHARD COBDEN.

309

the boy, by driving him home from the theatre in his own private royal carriage-a thing in itself enough to turn a boy's head. The mania for the "young Roscius" is one of the earlier "Reminiscences" of the veteran Mr. Planché; and an account of him will be found in Timbs' "English Eccentrics."

his residence in this square, died, in September, | Clarence, it is said, used to show his partiality for 1874, at a good old age, Henry West Betty, better known as the "infant Roscius," more than seventy years after he had first appeared on the boards, under Rich, at Covent Garden, and had "taken the town by storm." He was born on the 13th of September, 1791, and having made his début before a provincial audience at Belfast, he first appeared as a "star" at Covent Garden, December 1, 1803, as "Selim," in Barbarossa. He is said to have cleared in his first season upwards of £17,000. When quite young he retired and left the stage, but afterwards, being induced to come back, he was unsuccessful, and found that the public taste is a fickle jade. He was a great favourite with many ladies of fashion and title, and the Duke of

Harrington Square-which, however, is a square in name alone, seeing that it faces only two sides of a triangular plot of ground, facing Mornington Crescent-adjoins Ampthill Square on the north, and ends close to the corner of the High Street, Camden Town. It is so called after the Earl of Harrington, one of whose daughters married the seventh Duke of Bedford.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CAMDEN TOWN AND KENTISH TOWN.

"Vix rure urbem dignoscere possis."

Camden Town-Statue of Richard Cobden-Oakley Square-The "Bedford Arms"-The Royal Park Theatre-The "Mother Red Cap"-The "Mother Shipton "-The Alderney Dairy-The Grand Junction Canal-Bayham Street, and its Former Inhabitants-Camden RoadCamden Town Railway Station-The Tailors' Almshouses-St. Pancras Almshouses-Maitland Park-The Orphan Working SchoolThe Dominican Monastery-Gospel Oak-St. Martin's Church-Kentish Town: its Buildings and its Residents-Great College Street-The Royal Veterinary College-Pratt Street-St. Stephen's Church-Sir Henry Bishop-Agar Town.

and on Saturday evenings the upper part of the street, thronged as it is with stalls of itinerant vendors of the necessaries of daily life, and with the dwellers in the surrounding districts, presents to an ordinary spectator all the attributes of a market place.

CAMDEN TOWN, says Mr. Peter Cunningham, | on a par with the other business parts of London; "was so called (but indirectly) after William Camden, author of the 'Britannia.' Charles Pratt, Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor in the reign of George III., created, in 1765, Baron Camden of Camden Place, in Kent, derived his title from his seat at Chislehurst, in Kent, formerly the residence of William Camden, the historian. His lordship, who died in 1794, married the daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Jeffreys, Esq., son and heir of Sir Geoffery Jeffreys, of Brecknock; and his lordship's eldest son was created, in 1812, Earl of Brecknock and Marquis Camden. Lord Camden's second title was Viscount Bayham; and all these names, Pratt, Jeffreys, Brecknock, and Bayham, may be found in Camden Town."

Camden Town, we may here remark, was commenced towards the close of the last century, Lord Camden having, in the year 1791, let out the ground on leases for building 1,400 houses. The houses in Camden Road and Square have perhaps the most aristocratic appearance of any in the district. The High Street, which originally consisted of a row of small shops with one floor above, and trim gardens in their fronts, separated by hedges of privet, have within the last few years been for the most part either rebuilt or enlarged, and are now

At the lower end of High Street, facing Eversholt Street, is a marble statue of Richard Cobden, which was erected by subscription in the year 1863. The statue, which stands in a conspicuous position, is rather above life-size, and is placed upon a granite pedestal of two stages, about twelve feet high, the plinth of which is simply inscribed "Cobden. The Corn-Laws Repealed, June, 1846." The great politician is represented in a standing attitude, as if delivering an address in the House of Commons. He is attired in the ordinary dress of a gentleman of the present day, and holds in one hand a Parliamentary roll. The sculptor's name was Wills. Born at Dunford, in Sussex, in the year 1804, Cobden was brought up as a lad to business, and served behind a counter in a large establishment at Manchester. About the year 1840 he helped to found the Anti-Corn Law League, whose efforts in less than ten years' time set aside the restrictions imposed by the old Corn

Laws on the importation of foreign grain, and Street. The "Mother Black Cap" stands within eventually secured to the country the advantages a few doors of the corner of Park Street. of free trade. He was offered, but refused, all honours and offices; but he represented Stockport, the West Riding, and Rochdale from 1841 down to his death, in 1865.

Oakley Square, which lies on the east side of Eversholt Street and Harrington Square, is so called after Oakley House, one of the seats of the ducal owner, near Bedford. In this square is St. Matthew's Church, a large and handsome Gothic building, with a lofty tower and spire. It was erected in 1854, from the designs of Mr. J. Johnson, F.R.S., and is capable of seating upwards of 1,200 persons.

The "Bedford Arms," in Grove Street, on the west side of the High Street, has been a tavern of some note in its day. Formerly, the tea-gardens attached to the house were occasionally the scene of balloon ascents. The Morning Chronicle of July 5, 1824, contains an account of an aerial voyage made from these gardens by a Mr. Rossiter and another gentleman. The ascent took place shortly after five o'clock, and the balloon alighted safely in Havering Park, two miles from Romford, in Essex. The two aëronauts, having been provided with a post-coach, returned at once to Camden Town, and arrived at the "Bedford Arms about half-past ten o'clock. On the 14th of June, 1825, as we learn from the Morning Herald, Mr. Graham took a trip into the aërial regions from these grounds, accompanied by two ladies. Their ascent was witnessed by a large concourse of spectators; and after a pleasant voyage of nearly an hour, they alighted at Feltham, near Hounslow. Of late years the "Bedford Arms" has added the attractions of a music-hall, called "The Bedford."

In Park Street, which connects Camden Town with the north-east corner of Regent's Park, stood the Park Theatre, a place of dramatic entertainment, originally opened in 1873, under the name of the Alexandra Theatre. The theatre was burnt down in 1881, and its site is now occupied as stabling by an omnibus company.

From a manuscript list of inns in this neighbourhood about the year 1830, we find that in Camden Town at that time there were the "Mother Red Cap," the "Mother Black Cap," the "Laurel Tree," the "Britannia," the "Camden Arms," the "Bedford Arms," the "Southampton Arms," the "Wheatsheaf," the “ Hope and Anchor," and the "Elephant and Castle." The two first-named of these houses were, and are still, rival establishments at the northern, or upper, end of the High

The "Mother Red Cap," observes Mr. J. T. Smith, in his "Book for a Rainy Day," was in former times a house of no small terror to travellers. "It has been stated," he adds, " that 'Mother Red Cap' was the 'Mother Damnable' of Kentish Town in early days, and that it was at her house that the notorious Moll Cut-purse,' the highway woman of Oliver Cromwell's days, dismounted, and frequently lodged." The old house was taken down, and another rebuilt on its site, with the former sign, about the year 1850. This, again, in its turn, was removed; and a third house, in the modern style, and of still greater pretensions, was built on the same site some quarter of a century afterwards.

Great doubts have been entertained as to the real history of the semi-mythic personage whose name stands on the sign-board of this inn. It has been stated that the original Mother Red Cap was a follower of the army under Marlborough, in the reign of Queen Anne; but this idea is negatived by the existence of a rude copper coin, or token, dated 1667, and mentioning in its inscription, "Mother Read Cap's (sic) in Holl(o)way." Further arguments in refutation of this idea will be found in the Monthly Magazine for 1812. Again, some writers have attempted to identify her with the renowned Eleanor Rumming, of Leatherhead, in Surrey, who lived under Henry VIII. This noted alewife is mentioned by Skelton, the poet laureate of Henry VIII., as having lived

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The portrait of Eleanor on the frontispiece of an original edition of the "Tunning of Eleanor Rumming," by Skelton, will satisfy the reader that her description is no exaggeration.

Perhaps there may be more of truth in the following "biographical sketch" of the original Mother Red Cap, which we now quote from Mr. Palmer's work on "St. Pancras, and its History," above referred to "This singular character, known as 'Mother Damnable,' is also called 'Mother Red Cap,' and sometimes The Shrew of Kentish Town.' Her father's name was Jacob Bingham, by trade a brickmaker in the neigh

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bourhood of Kentish Town. He enlisted in the army, and went with it to Scotland, where he married a Scotch pedlar's daughter. They had one daughter, this 'Mother Damnable.' This daughter they named Jinney. Her father, on leaving the army, took again to his old trade of brickmaking, occasionally travelling with his wife and child as a pedlar. When the girl had reached her sixteenth year, she had a child by one Coulter, who was better known as Gipsey George. This man lived no one knew how; but he was a great trouble to the magistrates. Jinney and Coulter after this lived together; but being brought into trouble for stealing a sheep from some lands near Holloway, Coulter was sent to Newgate, tried at the Old Bailey, and hung at Tyburn. Jinney then associated with one Darby; but this union produced a cat-and-dog life, for Darby was constantly drunk; so Jinney and her mother consulted together, Darby was suddenly missed, and no one knew whither he went. About this time her parents were carried before the justices for practising the black art, and therewith causing the death of a maiden, for which they were both hung. Jinney then associated herself with one Pitcher, though who or what he was, never was known; but after a time his body was found crouched up in the oven, burnt to a cinder. Jinney was tried for the murder, but acquitted, because one of her associates proved he had often got into the oven to hide himself from her tongue.' Jinney was now a 'lone woman,' for her former companions were afraid of her. She was scarcely ever seen, or if she were, it was at nightfall, under the hedges or in the lanes; but how she subsisted was a miracle to her neighbours. It happened during the troubles of the Commonwealth, that a man, sorely pressed by his pursuers, got into her house by the back door, and begged on his knees for a night's lodging. He was haggard in his countenance, and full of trouble. He offered Jinney money, of which he had plenty, and she gave him a lodging. This man, it is said, lived with her many years, during which time she wanted for nothing, though hard words and sometimes blows were heard from her cottage. The man at length died, and an inquest was held on the body; but though every one thought him poisoned, no proof could be found, and so she again escaped harmless. After this Jinney never wanted money, as the cottage she lived in was her own, built on waste land by her father. Years thus passed, Jinney using her foul tongue against every one, and the rabble in return baiting her as if she were a wild beast. The occasion of this arose principally from Jinney being

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reputed a practiser of the black art—a very witch. She was resorted to by numbers as a fortune-teller and healer of strange diseases; and when any mishap occurred, then the old crone was set upon by the mob and hooted without mercy. The old, ill-favoured creature would at such times lean out of her hatch-door, with a grotesque red cap on her head. She had a large broad nose, heavy shaggy eyebrows, sunken eyes, and lank and leathern cheeks; her forehead wrinkled, her mouth wide, and her looks sullen and unmoved. On her shoulders was thrown a dark grey striped frieze, with black patches, which looked at a distance like flying bats. Suddenly she would let her huge black cat jump upon the hatch by her side, when the mob instantly retreated from a superstitious dread of the double foe.

"The extraordinary death of this singular character is given in an old pamphlet :- Hundreds of men, women, and children were witnesses of the devil entering her house in his very appearance and state, and that, although his return was narrowly watched for, he was not seen again; and that Mother Damnable was found dead on the following morning, sitting before the fire-place, holding a crutch over it, with a tea-pot full of herbs, drugs, and liquid, part of which being given to the cat, the hair fell off in two hours, and the cat soon after died; that the body was stiff when found, and that the undertaker was obliged to break her limbs before he could place them in the coffin, and that the justices have put men in possession of the house to examine its contents.'

"Such is the history of this strange being, whose name will ever be associated with Camden Town, and whose reminiscence will ever be revived by the old wayside house which, built on the site of the old beldame's cottage, wears her head as the sign of the tavern."

The figure of Mother Red Cap, as it was represented on the sign, exhibited that venerable ladywhether she was ale-wife or witch-with a tall extinguisher-shaped hat, not unlike that ascribed to Mother Shipton; and it is not a little remarkable that two inns bearing the names of these semimythical ladies exist within half a mile of each other.

Although the tavern bearing the sign of "Mother Shipton" is thus far off, at the corner of Malden Road, near Chalk Farm, some account of the other weird woman may not be altogether out of place here. "The prophecies of Mother Shipton," writes Dr. C. Mackay, in his "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions," "are still believed in many of the rural districts of England. In

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usual witches' fate, and died peaceably in her bed at an extreme old age, near Clifton, in Yorkshire. A stone is said to have been erected to her memory in the churchyard of the place, with the following epitaph :

"Here lies she who never lied,
Whose skill often has been tried;
Her prophecies shall still survive,
And ever keep her name alive.''

"Never a day passed," says her traditionary biography, "wherein she did not relate something remarkable, and that required the most serious consideration. People flocked to her from far and near, her fame was so great. They went to her of all sorts, both old and young, rich and poor, especially young maidens, to be resolved of their

told the accession of James I. to the English throne, adding that with him—

"From the cold north

Every evil shall come forth.

On a subsequent visit, she is said to have uttered another prophecy, which, perhaps, may be realised during the present century :

"The time shall come when seas of blood

Shall mingle with a greater flood:

Great noise shall there be heard; great shouts and cries,

And seas shall thunder louder than the skies;
Then shall three lions fight with three, and bring
Joy to a people, honour to a king.
That fiery year as soon as o'er
Peace shall then be as before;
Plenty shall everywhere be found,

And men with swords shall plough the ground.'

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