Of the strange name, St. Clement Danes, various explanations are given. Stow tells how the body of Harold, the illegitimate son of King Canute, buried at Westminster after a reign of three years, was exhumed by his successor, the legitimate Hardicanute, and thrown ignominiously into the Thames, and how a fisherman, seeing it floating upon the river, took it up and buried it reverently on this spot. This is the more picturesque story; but perhaps that of Strype is more likely, who says that when Alfred expelled the remnant of the Danish nation in 886, those who had married English wives were still permitted to live here, whence the name-St. Clement Danes.

The "fair fountain," formerly called St. Clement's Well, after becoming a pump, was finally destroyed in 1874, but is commemorated in Clement's Inn-to the left, at the entrance of Wych Street, now an Inn of Court dependent on the Temple, but originally intended for the use of patients coming to the miraculous waters of the well. Shakespeare introduces it in his Henry IV. as the home of "Master Shallow." We should walk through its quiet red-brick courts, by the quaint chapel, where an anchor commemorates the martyrdom of the sainted Pope Clement, who was tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. Hence, through a brick archway, we have a pleasant glimpse of trees and flowers, and enter a garden square, in the centre of which, in front of "the Garden House," a picturesque relic of Queen Anne's time, is a curious kneeling figure of a Moor supporting a sun-dial, brought from Italy by Holles, Lord Clare. At the time when these examples of "God's image carved in ebony" were popular in ancient gardens,* a clever

* There are similar figures at Knowsley, and at Arley in Cheshire.

squib upon its owners was once found attached to the Moor

of Clement's Inn :

"From cannibals thou fled'st in vain;

Lawyers less quarter give;

The first won't eat you till you're slain,

The last will do't alive."

A further archway leads into the poor and crowded district of Clare Market, named, as is told by a tablet on

one of the houses, "by Gilbert Earl of Clare, in memory of his uncle Denzil, Lord Holles, who died in 1679, a great honour to name, and the exact paturne of his father's great meritt, John, Earl of Clare." From the same person the neighbouring Denzil Street takes its name, which became notorious as the resort of the thieves known as the "Denzil Street Gang," while Houghton Street marks the residence of William Holles, created Baron Houghton in 1616, and Holles Street, built 1647, is associated with the second Earl,

who lived on the site of Clare House Court. In Pope's time Clare Market was famous for the lectures of the insolent

66

Orator Henley," commemorated in the "Dunciad."

"Imbrowned with native brass, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice and balancing his hands.

Still break the benches, Henley, with thy strain,
While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain."

Wych Street (Via de Aldwych), which opens behind Holywell Street, close to the entrance of Clement's Inn, contains some curious old houses and is excessively narrow. Theodore Hook said he "never passed through Wych Street in a hackney coach, without being blocked up by a hearse and coal-waggon in the van, and a mud cart and the Lord Mayor's carriage in the rear." This street is famous in the annals of London thieving for the exploits of Jack Sheppard, who gave rendezvous to his boon companions at the White Lion (now pulled down) in White Lion Passage. It was from the Angel Inn in Wych Street that Bishop Hooper, in 1554, was taken to die for his faith at Gloucester.

A hosier's shop, which occupies one of three picturesque houses built in the time of Charles I. in the Strand parallel with Holywell Street, has an old street sign of the Golden Lamb swinging over its door. The streets which debouch here from the Strand-Surrey Street, Norfolk Street, and Howard Street-mark the site of Arundel House, originally the palace of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, in which, according to the parish register of Chelsea, died (February 25th, 1603) Catherine, Countess of Nottingham, who yielded to her husband's solicitation in not sending the ring intrusted to her by Lord Essex for Elizabeth,

and confessing this to the Queen upon her deathbed, was answered by "God may forgive you, but I never can." The house was sold by Edward VI. to his uncle, Lord Thomas Seymour, described by Latimer as "a man the furthest from the fear of God that ever he knew or heard

of in England." Here he married and greatly ill-treated the Queen-Dowager Katherine Parr, and incurred much. censure for his impertinent familiarities with the Princess Elizabeth, who was living under her protection. After the execution of Seymour for treason the house was sold to the Earl of Arundel, and being thenceforth called Arundel House,

became the receptacle of his busts and statues, a portion of which, now at Oxford, are still known as the "Arundel Marbles." It was Lord Arundel who brought up "Old Parr" to London from Shropshire to make acquaintance with Charles I., when far advanced in his hundred and fifty-third year. The Earl's good fare killed him, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his epitaph narrates how he lived in the reign of ten sovereigns, and had a son by his second wife when he was a hundred and twenty years old. After the Great Fire, Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, gave a shelter at Arundel House to the Royal Society, who were driven out of Gresham College, which was temporarily needed as a Royal Exchange.

Norfolk Street will recall Sir Roger de Coverley, who there, "by doubling the corner, threw out the Mohocks," who "attacked all that were so unfortunate as to walk through the streets which they parade."* Peter the Great was lodged here," in a house prepared for him near the water-side," on his first arrival in England in the reign of William III., and in the same house-that nearest the river-lived William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. He had a peeping-hole at the entrance, through which he surveyed every one who came to see him before they were admitted. One of these having been made to wait for a long time, asked the servant impatiently if his master would not see him. "Friend," said the servant, hath seen thee, but he doth not like thee."

he had discovered him to be a creditor.

"he

The fact was

• The follies and cruelties perpetrated by the Mohocks are described in the

Spectator, No. 324, 332, 335, 347.

t Hawkins' Life of Johnson.