Apprentices now, for the most part, received from Christ's Hospital, brought up in divers trades and manufactures, and maintained in, and at the charge of this hospital *

27

1355

The apprentices were formerly distinguished by blue trowsers and white hats; this habit has been changed, and they now appear in the usual dress of other young persons, except that the buttons are impressed with the bust of Ed

"The first time I visited the place," says Pennant, "there was not a single male prisoner, and about twenty female. They were confined on a ground floor, and employed in beating of hemp. When the door was opened by the keeper, they ran towards it like so many hounds in kennel, and presented a most moving sight: about twenty young creatures, the eldest not exceeding sixteen, many of them with angelic faces, divested of every angelic expression; and featured with impudence, impenitency, and profligacy; and cloathed in the silken tatters of squalid finery. A magisterial! a national opprobrium ! ! !~ What a disadvantageous contrast to the Spinhuis, in Amsterdam, where the confined sit under the eye of a matron spinning or sewing, in plain and neat dresses, provided by the public. No trace of their former lives appears in their countenances; a thorough reformation seems to have been effected, equally to the emolument and honour of the republic.

"This is also the place of confinement for disobedient and idle ap-. prentices. They are kept separate, in airy cells; and have an allotted task to be performed in a certain time. They, the men, and women, are employed in beating hemp, picking oakum, and packing of goods, and are said to earn their maintenance.

"But Bridewell is not only a prison for the dissolute, but an hospital for the education of the industrious youth. Here twenty Arts-masters (as they are styled) consisting of decayed tradesmen, such as shoemakers, taylors, flax-dressers, and weavers, have houses, and receive apprentices, who are instructed in several trades; the masters receiving the profits of their labours. After the boys have served their time with credit, they are payed ten pounds to begin the world with; and are entitled to the freedom of the city. The procession of these, and the children of Christ's Hospital, on Easter Monday and Tuesday, affords to the humane mind the most pleasing spectacle, as it excites the reflection of the multitudes thus rescued from want, profligacy, and perdition."

ward

ward VI.

They were also accustomed to frequent fires with the hospital engine; but on account of the profligacy which the custom introduced, and the injury it did their employers, by quitting their work, the practice has been wholly laid aside.

REVENUES OF BRIDEWELL.

Estates in Bridewell Precinct.

Wapping.

Holborn, and Fleet Street.

Oxfordshire.

Annuities from royal hospitals, parishes, and public companies.

3550l. 3 per cent. East India annuities.

3300l. 3 per cent. reduced annuities.

Besides legacies, benefactions, and casual receipts; to which may be added the rental of the new houses lately erected in New Bridge Street.

There are no remains of the antient palace. The last remnant of that structure, which crossed the quadrangle from north to south, is now covered by a plain chapel.

The front of the hospital is converted to a row of stately houses, the centre of which is a stone front, which serves as an entrance to the hospital; it is ornamented with pilasters and pediment. Over the door is a bust of king Edward; the other parts are decorated with the arms of the corporation, portcullises, &c.

The place most worthy of inspection is

THE HALL.

A vast room, thirty-nine paces in length, and fifteen in breadth, with an handsome chimney piece at each end, and arcades at the sides. Two lustres are suspended from flowers, which are the only ornaments of the horizontal cieling. The windows are variously embellished.

A large picture, by Holbein, nearly square, is placed over the chimney-piece at the west. It represents EnWARD VI. bestowing the charter of Bridewell on Sir

George

George Barnes, the lord mayor: by him, is William, earl of Pembroke, a great favourite and distinguished character; with Thomas Goodrich, bishop of Ely, lord chancellor. In a corner Holbein has placed his own head. The king holds the charter in his left hand; and gently rests the base of the sceptre, which he holds in his right hand, upon it. He is seated on his throne, is crowned, and cloathed in robes of crimson, lined with ermine: the doublet white cloth of gold. A print from the picture has been engraved by Vertue.

On the sides of this picture are whole length portraits of CHARLES II. and JAMES II.

The other pictures represent Sir WILLIAM TURNER, president, 1669. Sir ROBERT JEFFERY, president, 1693. Sir THOMAS RAWLINSON, president, 1705. Sir WILLIAM WITHERS, president, 1708; representing him on horseback, as lord mayor, when he attended queen Anne to St. Paul's, to return thanks to the Almighty, for the victory near Audenard. Sir SAMUEL GARRARD, president, 1720. WILLIAM BENN, Esq. lord mayor, president, 1746. Sir RICHARD GLYN, bart. lord mayor, president, 1755. Sir JAMES SANDERSON, bart, president, 1798. Sir RICHARD CARR GLYN, bart. and alderman, president, 1798. which office he still continues.

In

Opposite the north end of Bridewell, was formerly the town residence of the bishops of St. David's.

BRIDEWELL PRECINCT extends from some houses in Bride Lane to Bridge Street, thence to the water side, and the lower end of Dorset Street, on the east side, nearly to St. Bride's charity school. Including Water Street, Tudor Street, Edward Street, part of Chatham Square, &c. and is represented by a chaplain, two chapel wardens, a constable, and subordinate officers.

Passing down TUDOR STREET, a narrow passage leads to Dorset Street.

The whole site from Fleet Street to the river was formerly occupied by the mansion of the bishops of Salisbury, which was situated on the spot now called Bell's Build

ings; the rest of the ground being gardens, and a Wilder. ness; the recollection of which is preserved in the name of one of the adjoining streets. For the above reason it took the name of SALISBURY COURT, or SQUARE.

Having been subjected to a long lease by bishop Capon, during the reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and queen Mary, and by such means become useless for the purposes at first intended, bishop Jewel, in the next reign, was therefore easily persuaded to exchange the whole for a recompence of lands in his own diocese, and the neighbourhood, of equal value.

It was then possessed by Sir Richard Sackville, and called SACKVILLE HOUSE. His son, Sir Thomas Sackville, baron Buckhurst, one of queen Elizabeth's privy council, and afterwards lord treasurer, enlarged and improved the preinises with stately buildings; and when lord Buckhurst became further enobled with the title of earl of DORSET*, the estate took the same denomination which is still retains.

The house was taken down by one of the earls, and the whole, with the gardens, converted to streets and courts. Here afterwards was constructed a magnificent playhouse, by Sir William D'Avenant. His life having been saved by means of Milton, when forfeited to the criminal code established by the High Court of Justice, during the Oliverian. usurpation; he was admitted a prisoner at large; yet his circumstances being considerably reduced, he made a bold effort towards at once redressing them, and redeeming the public from that cynical and austere gloom which had long hung over it, occasioned by the suppression of theatrical amusements. He well knew that a theatre, if conducted with skill and address, would still find a sufficient number of partizans to support it; and having obtained the coun

Here his lordship wrote his Porrex and Ferrex, a tragedy, which was performed at Whitehall, before the queen. He was equally great as a statesman and author. Here also died two of his successors: the last was the gallant earl (of whom lord Clarendon gives so great a character) who retired here on the murder of his royal master, Charles I. and never quitted the place. Pennant.

tenance

tenance of lord Whitelocke, Sir John Maynard, and other persons of rank, who were in reality no friends to the cant and hypocrisy which then so strongly prevailed, Sir William got permission to open a sort of theatre at Rutland House, in Charter-house Yard, where he began with a representation which he called an Opera; but in reality quite a different exhibition. Meeting with encouragement, he still proceeded, till at length growing bolder by success, he wrote and caused to be acted several regular plays, which, by the great profits arising from them, perfectly answered the more important part of his design, that of amending his fortune. Immediately after the restoration of Charles II. however, which brought with it that of the British stage in a state of unrestrained liberty, Sir William D'Avenant obtained a patent for the representation of dramatic pieces, under the title of the Duke's Theatre, in Lincoln's Inn Fields; afterwards, in 1663, he procured another patent for erecting a grand theatre, after a design of Sir Christopher Wren, upon a piece of ground near or behind an ordinary in Fleet Street, or any other place in the parishes of St. Bride's, or St. Dunstan's, assigned to him by Thomas, earl of Arundel and Surrey." He chose Dorset Gardens, where there had been a small theatre, the company of which stiled themselves "The Prince's Servants," and their representations were by candle light. Sir William continued at the head of his company at this place till 1668, when he died on the 17th of April, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, universally beloved and lamented, and was interred, in Westminster Abbey; his grave-stone being inscribed,

"ORARE SIR WILLIAM D'AVENANT!"

His son, Dr. D'Avenant, an excellent political writer in the time of the Revolution, succeeded to the management of Dorset Gardens theatre; where Betterton, and the best actors of that period, entertained the public, till its taste Vol. IV. No. 77.

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