Hackney.]

JOHN HOWARD'S HOUSE.

521

towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, in a state of chapel in the centre, the following inscription :destitution, at the age of ninety-six.

Early in the seventeenth century, George Lord Zouch, a noted man in his day, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, had a house at Hackney, where he amused himself with experimental gardening. He died there, and was buried in a small chapel adjoining his house. Ben Jonson, who was his intimate friend, discovered that there was a hole in the wall affording communication between the last resting-place of Lord Zouch and the winecellar, and thereupon vented this impromptu :

"Wherever I die, let this be my fate,

To lye by my good Lord Zouch,
That when I am dry, to the tap I may hye,

And so back again to my couch."

Owen Rowe, one of those who sat as "judges" at the trial of King Charles, died and was buried at Hackney, in 1660.

:

"For the Glory of God, and the comfort of twelve widows of Dissenting Ministers, this retreat was erected and endowed by Samuel Robinson, A.D. 1812."

Homerton High Street leads direct to Hackney Marsh, where, says the "Ambulator" of 1774, "there have been discovered within the last few years the remains of a great causeway of stone, which, by the Roman coins found there, would appear to have been one of the famous highways made by the Romans." The Marsh Road, too, leads straight on to Temple Mills, of which we have already had occasion to make mention.

The City of London Union covers a large space of ground to the north-east of Hackney churchyard, abutting upon Templar Road. Northward lies the rapidly extending hamlet of Lower Clapton. Here, in a curious old house, which was pulled Another memorable inhabitant of Hackney at down many years ago, was born, in the year 1727, this time was Susanna Prewick, or Perwick, a John Howard, the future prison reformer and young musical phenomenon, whose death, at the philanthropist. The house had been the "country age of twenty-five, in 1661, was celebrated in residence" of John Howard's father, who was an some lengthy poems, chiefly commendatory of her upholsterer in London; and it descended to the personal graces. We have no means of judging son, who sold it in 1785. In an article in the of her musical powers, which created an extra-Mirror in 1826, this house, so interesting to ordinary sensation at the time; but it is gratifying humanity, is said to have been "taken down some to know that

"All vain, conceited affectation

Was unto her abomination.
With body she ne'er sat ascue,

Or mouth awry, as others do."

years ago." Much of Howard's early life seems to have been passed here; and his education, which was rather imperfect, was gained among one of the Dissenting sects, of which his father was a member. On the death of his father he was apprenticed to a

Dr. Thomas Wood, Bishop of Lichfield, who wholesale grocer in the City. On quitting business died in 1692, was a native of Hackney.

Defoe, who at one time lived at Stoke Newington, in all probability also was a resident here; for in 1701 his daughter Sophia was baptised in Hackney Church; and in 1724, an infant son, named Daniel, after his distinguished father, was

buried in the same church.

Eastward of Hackney churchyard lies Homerton, which, together with Lower Clapton, may be said to form part of the town of itself. Hackney Union is here situated in High Street.

In 1843 a college was founded close by, for the purpose of giving unsectarian religious training to young men and women who wish to become teachers in Government-aided schools.

Homerton was noted in the last and early part of the present century for its academy for the education of young men designed for Dissenting ministers. The late Dr. John Pye Smith was some time divinity tutor here.

A row of almshouses in the village, termed the Widows' Retreat, has upon the front of a small

he indulged in a tour through France and Italy. He subsequently, for the benefit of his health, took lodgings at Stoke Newington. We shall have more to say about him on reaching that place. The old house at Clapton where Howard was born is said to have been built in the early part of the last century; it had large bay-windows, a pedimented roof, numerous and well-proportioned rooms, and a large garden. The site of the house was afterwards covered by Laura Place, and its memory is now kept up by the name of Howard Villas, which has been given to some houses lately erected on the opposite side of the road. A view of the house in which Howard was born will be found in "Smith's Historical and Literary Curiosities," and also in the seventh volume of the Mirror.

At no great distance from the site of Howard's old house, but on the west side of the road, was a school, known by the name of Hackney School, which had flourished for upwards of a century on the same spot. This academy was

long under the direction of the Newcome family. | fortune by manufacturing and selling sundry articles "It was celebrated," says Mr. Lysons, "for the excellence of the dramatic performances exhibited every third year by the scholars. In these dramas Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, author of the Suspicious Husband, and his brother, Dr. John Hoadly, a dramatic writer also, who were both educated at this school, formerly distinguished themselves." In 1813, the London Orphan Asylum was in

of bed-room ware adorned with the head of Dr. Sacheverell. "The date of its erection is not exactly known; but it probably was after the year 1710, because the trial of Sacheverell did not take place till the February or March of that year... There are at the present time (1842)," he adds, "two urns with flowers, surmounting the gate-piers at the entrance." The building was subsequently

HOWARD'S HOUSE, AT CLAPTON, ABOUT 1800. (See page 521.)

stituted at Lower Clapton; but about the year 1870 its inmates were removed to new buildings erected at Watford, in Hertfordshire. The building here, which consisted of a centre, with a spacious portico and wings, together with the outlying grounds, was bought in 1882, for about £23,000, by the Salvation Army, and converted into a "Barrack and Congress Hall." What was once an extensive lawn in front of the building is now covered with houses.

Dr. Robinson, in his "History of Hackney," says that on the west side of the road, nearly opposite the Congress Hall, stood an old house, which many years ago was known by a very vulgar appellation, from the circumstance of the person who built it having made a considerable

converted into an Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Females.

Among the historical characters connected with this place whom we have not already named, was Major André, hanged by Washington as a spy; he was born at Clapton. He was originally intended for a merchant; but being disappointed in love for Honora Sneyd (the friend of Anna Seward), who became afterwards the mother-in-law of Miss Maria Edgeworth, he entered the army, and ultimately met with the fate above mentioned.

To go back a little into the reign of antiquity, we may remark that, though far removed from the crowded city, and generally considered a salubrious spot, Hackney suffered much from visitations of the plague, which in 1593 carried off 42 persons; in

'

1603, 269; in 1625, 170; and in the terrible year hackney carriages which were the immediate 1665, as many as 225.

In the early part of the eighteenth century Hackney was much infested by robbers, which rendered travelling after dark very insecure. The roads between London and this rural suburb were then lonely and unprotected; and it was not until January, 1756, that lamps were placed between Shoreditch and Hackney, and patrols, armed with guns and bayonets, placed on the road. In the Marshes towards Hackney Wick were low publichouses, the haunt of highwaymen and their Dulcineas. Dick Turpin was a constant guest at the "White House," or "Tyler's Ferry," near Joe Sowter's cock-pit, at Temple Mills; and few police-officers were bold enough to approach the spot.

Maitland, in his "History of London," says, "The village of Hackney being anciently celebrated for the numerous seats of the nobility and gentry, occasioned a mighty resort thither of persons of all conditions from the City of London, whereby so great a number of horses were daily hired in the City on that account, that at length all horses to be let received the common appellation of 'Hackney horses;' which denomination has since communicated itself both to public coaches and chairs; and though this place at present be deserted by the nobility, yet it so greatly abounds with merchants and persons of distinction, that it excels all other villages in the kingdom, and probably on earth, in the riches and opulence of its inhabitants, as may be judged from the great number of persons who keep coaches there." But it is to be feared that in this matter Maitland is not to be trusted; for though it has often been supposed, and occasionally assumed even by wellinformed writers, that as Sedan-chairs and Bathchairs were named from the places where they were first respectively used, so the village of Hackney has had the honour of giving the name to those

forerunners of the London cabriolet, it is simply a
fact that the word "hackney" may be traced to
the Dutch, French, Spanish, and Italian languages.
In our own tongue it is at least as old as Chaucer
and Froissart, who borrowed it from the French
haquenée, a slow-paced nag. At all events, in
Chaucer's "Romaunt of the Rose," we find the
phrase thus used :-

"Dame Richesse on her hand gan lede
A yonge man full of semely hede,
That she best loved of any thing,
His lust was much in householdyng;

In clothyng was he full fetyse,

And loved wel to have horse of prise;
He wende to have reproved be

Of thrifte or murdre, if that be
Had in his stable an hackenay."

Froissart, in one of his Chronicles, says, "The knights are well horsed, and the common people and others on litell hakeneys and geldyngs." The word subsequently acquired the meaning of "let for hire," and was soon applied to other matters than horses. In Love's Labour's Lost Shakespeare says, "Your love, perhaps, is a hacknie." In "Hudibras" we meet with "a broom, the nag and hackney of a Lapland hag." Pope calls himself "a hackney scribbler." Addison and Steele, in the Spectator and Tatler, speak of "driving in a hack," and our readers surely remember the hackney coach in which Sir Roger de Coverley went to Westminster Abbey. Hogarth gave the expressive name of "Kate Hackabout" to the poor harlot whose progress he depicted. Cowper, in the "Task," uses "hackneyed" as a passive verb; and Churchill employs it as an adjective. So there are authorities enough for the meaning of "hackney ;" and the pleasant village, now the centre of a suburban town, must, we fear, be deprived of the honour of having invented hackney coaches.

CHAPTER XLII.

HOXTON, KINGSLAND, DALSTON, &c.

"Dalston, or Shacklewell, or some other suburban retreat northerly."-C. Lamb, “Essays of Elia.”

Kingsland Road-Harmer's Almshouses-Gefferey's Almshouses--The Almshouses of the Framework Knitters-Shoreditch WorkhouseSt. Columba's Church-Hoxton-" Pimlico "-Discovery of a Medicinal Spring-Charles Square-Aske's Hospital-Balmes, or Baumes House -The Practising Ground of the Artillery Company-De Beauvoir Town-The Tyssen Family--St. Peter's Church, De Beauvoir Square The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St. Joseph-Ball's Pond-Kingsland-A Hospital for Lepers-Dalston-The Refuge for Destitute Females-The German Hospital-Shacklewell.

HERE, it is true, we have no historian or old | not old enough to have a history. Its records are annalist to guide our steps, for the district had no the annals of a "quiet neighbourhood." Beyond entity of its own till quite a recent date, and it is an occasional remark, too, we can glean nothing

Hoxton.]

BALMES HOUSE.

525

of interest about the neighbourhood from the pages remembrance by Pimlico Walk, near the junction of Strype, Maitland, or honest John Stow;

"The quaint and antique Stow, whose words alone Seem letter'd records graven upon stone." These close-lying suburbs-which we scarcely know whether to reckon as parts and parcels of the great metropolis or not-have been wittily defined by Mr. G. O. Trevelyan, in his "Life of Lord Macaulay," as "places which, as regards the company and the way of living, are little else than sections of London removed into a purer air." And so rapidly is London growing year by year that even Mr. Trevelyan's words will soon prove out of date, so far as regards purity of air.

This district is approached from the City by Bishopsgate Street and the broad and open thoroughfare called Kingsland Road, which runs northward from the end of Old Street Road, diverging at Shoreditch Church from the road by which we have travelled towards Hackney.

as

66

of the New North Road and Pitfield Street. The origin of the name of Hoxton is somewhat involved in obscurity. The place was formerly sometimes called Hogsdon, as we have already seen ;* and Hog Lane, in Norton Folgate, close by, would lead to the inference that it was so named in consequence of the number of hogs that might have been reared there; but this seems doubtful, for in the "Domesday" record we find the name of the place entered as Hocheston, and in a lease of the time of Edward III. it is mentioned as Hoggeston. Stow, in 1598, describes the place a large street with houses on both sides;" but it has long since lost all pretensions to a rural or retired character. A medicinal spring was discovered at Hoxton in the seventeenth century, on digging the cellar for a house near Charles Square; but it does not appear to have attained any eminence or reputation. In Charles Square lived the Rev. John Newton, Cowper's friend and correspondent, many years rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, in Lombard Street, and who died in 1807. Peter Cunningham, in his "Handbook of London" (1850), speaks of the house of Oliver, third Lord St. John of Bletsoe, who died in 1618, as still standing.

On the east side of the road we pass several almshouses. The first of these belong to the Drapers' Company, and are known as Harmer's Almshouses. The buildings, which were erected in 1713, have a somewhat picturesque appearance, and afford homes for twelve single men and women. Gefferey's Almshouses and Charity, in the gift of the Ironmongers' Company, are situated close to the above; these were founded in 1703, for the purpose of providing homes and pensions for a certain number of poor persons. Next we have the almshouses belonging to the Framework Knitters' Company. These were established in the early part of the last century as homes, &c., for twelve poor freemen and widows of the above-poor freemen of that company, and for the educamentioned company.

The only buildings worthy of mention in the Kingsland Road, which we pass on the west side on our way northward, are the Workhouse of the parish of Shoreditch, and St. Columba's Church. The latter building, a large and lofty red-brick edifice, with a clergy house adjoining, was built about the year 1868 from the designs of Mr. P. Brooks; and the services in the church are conducted on "Ritualistic" principles.

Hoxton, which lies on the west side of the Kingsland Road, and north of Old Street Road, now included in Shoreditch parish, was formerly, as we have stated in the previous chapter, reckoned as part of Hackney. The locality in bygone times acquired a certain celebrity from a noted tavern or ale-house, called "Pimlico," which existed there; it is referred to by Ben Jonson, Dodsley, and others in plays of the seventeenth century. The name of "Pimlico" is kept in

Hoxton has long been noted for the number of its charitable institutions, among which Aske's Hospital, at the upper end of Pitfield Street, held a prominent place. It consisted of some almshouses and schools, founded by Robert Aske, an alderman of London, and a member of the Haberdashers' Company, in 1688, as homes for twenty

tion of 220 sons of freemen. The buildings were extensive, and had in front a piazza upwards of 300 feet in length. The chapel was consecrated by Archbishop Tillotson in 1695. In 1875-6 the almshouses were removed, and a large middle-class school, called Aske's Haberdashers' School, now occupies the site.

Hoxton in former times boasted of at least one mansion of some importance; this was Balmes House-termed in old writings Bawmes, or Baulmes. In the early part of the seventeenth century the old house was rebuilt on a scale of great magnificence by Sir George Whitmore, who was Lord Mayor of London, and a considerable sufferer for his loyalty to Charles I. The mansion was purchased about fifty years afterwards by Richard de Beauvoir, a Guernsey gentleman, who lived there in great style. Foreigners visited the

See ante, p. 39.