WELLCLOSE-SQUARE. Danish church. WEST SMITHFIELD is remarkable as the largest cattle market in England, and is the place where Bartholomew fair is held, the charter for which was granted by Henry II. It has likewise been the scene of tournaments, theatrical performances, and martyrdoms. The spot where the latter took place is situated in the centre of the pens, where the gas-lamp now stands.-Here Wat Tyler was killed by the lord mayor Walworth, in consequence of which the dagger was added to the city arms.-On the south side, St. Bartholomew's hospital, and church of St. Bartholomew the Less.-In the south-east corner, St. Bartholomew the Great. WESTMINSTER BRIDGE-ROAD. At the north end, Westminsterbridge. To the right, Lambeth-palace. Astley's Amphitheatre. In the York-road, General Lying-in-hospital. Asylum.-Bethlem-hospital. WHITECHAPEL is principally inhabited by butchers.-St. Mary's church. WHITE-CROSS-STREET. New Debtors' prison. WHITEHALL. Admiralty.-Army Pay-office, from which, through Whitehall-place, there is a fine view of St. Paul's cathedral.-Horse-guards.-Whitehall-chapel, or Banqueting-house. -Behind Whitehall, statue of James II.-Melbourn-house.Treasury.-New Council-office, and Board of Trade. WINCHESTER-STREET. In the south-west corner are vestiges of Winchester-house, which was erected by the marquis of that name in the reign of Edward VI. WOOD-STREET. Between Nos. 114 and 115, St. Michael's church. At the corner of Love-lane, St. Alban's church.-No. 83, Parish Clerks'-hall. WYCH-STREET. See NEWCASTLE-STREET. LITERARY RECOLLECTIONS. Blackstone was BORN in Cheapside; lord Byron in Holles-street, Cavendish-square; Camden, the antiquary, in the Old Bailey; Colley Cibber in Southampton-street, Strand; Cowley in Fleetstreet, at the corner of Chancery-lane; Gray in Cornhill; Hogarth in Ship-court, Old Bailey; Holcroft, the dramatic writer, in Orange-court, Leicester-square; Ben Jonson in Hartshornlane, which was near Charing-cross; Milton in Bread-street, where his father was a scrivener; lord chancellor More in Milkstreet; Pope in Lombard-street; Spenser in East Smithfield; Stow, the historian, in Cornhill. Y Lord Bacon RESIDED in Gray's-inn; Barry, the painter, in Castle-street, Oxford-street; Beaumont and Fletcher at Bankside; Butler, the author of "Hudibras," in Rose-street, Coventgarden; Cibber, the elder, in Holborn, near St. Andrew'schurch; sir Edward Coke in Hatton-garden; Defoe in Cornhill, where he kept a hosier's shop; John Fox in Grub-street, where he compiled the greater part of his "Martyrology;" Garrick in Southampton-street, as well as in the Adelphi ; Gibbon in Bentinck-street; Handel in Brook-street, Grosvenor-square; Hans Holbein in Duke's-place, as well as on old London-bridge; Hume in Lisle-street, Leicester-square; Dr. Johnson in Templelane, and in Bolt-court, Fleet-street; Ben Jonson in Bartholomew-close; sir Godfrey Kneller in Great Queen-street; Milton in St. Bride's Church-yard, Aldersgate-street, Jewin-street, Barbican, Bartholomew-close, and Scotland-yard; Prior in Dukestreet, Westminster; sir J. Reynolds in Newport-street, St. Martin's-lane, and Leicester-square; sir R. Steele in Bury-street; Dr. Stillingfleet in Hatton-garden; sir J. Thornhill in Coventgarden; and Voltaire, while at London, in Maiden-lane. Boswell, the biographer of Johnson, DIED in Great Portlandstreet; sir Francis Bourgeois in Portland-place; Chatterton in Brook-street, Hatton-garden; Congreve in Surrey-street; Dryden in Gerrard-street; Garrick in the Adelphi; Glover in Albemarle-street; Gibbon in St. James's-street; Holcroft in Clipstone-street; Hoyle, the whist-player, in Welbeck-street; archbishop Leighton at the Bell-inn, Warwick-lane; Milton in Artillery-walk, Bunhill-fields; Nollekens, the sculptor, in Mortimerstreet, Cavendish-square; sir J. Reynolds in Leicester-square ; Richardson, the novelist, in a passage leading from Water-lane to Salisbury-court; Sheridan in Saville-row; Spenser at an inn in King-street, Westminster; Sterne in Old Bond-street; H. Walpole in Berkeley-square. CHAPTER VII. PUBLIC CHARITIES, STATE OF EDUCATION, ENDOWED SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, DISPENSARIES, ETC. LONDON contains 45 free schools, with perpetual endowments for educating and maintaining near 4000 children; 17 other schools for poor and deserted children; 237 parish schools, supported by voluntary contributions, &c., in which about 10 or 12,000 boys and girls are constantly clothed and educated; 3 colleges; 22 hospitals for sick, lame, and pregnant women; 107 alms-houses for the maintenance of aged persons of both sexes; 18 institutions for the support of the indigent of various descriptions, and about 30 dispensaries for the gratuitous supply of medicine and medical aid to the poor. Besides these various establishments, each parish has a workhouse for the occupation and maintenance of its own distressed or helpless poor; and the several livery companies of the city of London distribute about 75,000l. annually in charities. The sums annually expended in public charities have been estimated at 850,000. The hospitals were chiefly founded by private munificence; some of them are endowed with perpetual revenues, and others supported by annual or occasional voluntary subscriptions. The alms-houses were built and endowed, either by private persons or corporate bodies of tradesmen, and many of the free schools owe their origin to the same sources. The medical assistance in the hospitals is the best which the profession can supply; the attendance is ample, the rooms are generally very clean and wholesome, and the food is suitable to the condition of the patients. The alms-houses and other institutions for the support of the aged and indigent, exhibit not merely an appearance, but the real possession, of competence and ease. From some of the free schools, pupils have been sent to the universities, as well prepared as those from any of the most expensive seminaries, and all the scholars receive an education adapted to the stations for which they are designed. We shall first notice those charities which more strictly come within the meaning of public endowments; but although they are now chiefly known as public schools, the charters and endowments of most of them contain provisions for the aged and infirm. CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, Newgate-street. This noble establishment is generally known by the name of the Blue-Coat School, the title having reference to the costume of the children supported and educated there. The institution is indebted for its establishment to the piety of Edward VI. Dr. Ridley, bishop of London, had the singular and enviable felicity of suggesting before the king, in a sermon preached at Westminster, the imperious demands of poverty upon the attention and commiseration of the powerful and rich. A general report was made to the king on the state and condition of the poor, and the best means of relief and reform; they were divided into three classes the poor by impotency, by casualty, and by idleness. For the innocent and fatherless was provided Christ's Hospital, late the Grey Friars; for the wounded and diseased, the hospitals of St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew; and for the idle and vagabond, Bridewell, where they might be chastised and compelled to labour. Decayed householders, and the poor afflicted with incurable diseases, were to be relieved at their own homes. The establishment, as first founded, consisted only of a grammar-school for boys, and a separate school for girls, where they were taught to read, sew, and mark. In addition to these, Charles II. founded a mathematical school and ward, on the west part of the hospital, for the instruction of 40 boys in the mathematics and navigation, and liberally endowed it with 1000., paid out of the exchequer for seven years. Another mathematical school, now joined to the preceding, was afterwards founded by Mr. Travers, for 37 boys. The lord mayor and corporation of London are directors and promoters of the institution, and the whole community of Great Britain have the opportunity of carrying on this glorious work. A donation of 4007. constitutes a governor. The annual expenditure for the support of the institution is about 30,000%. There are generally in this establishment from 1000 to 1200 boys and girls receiving their education, besides being clothed and boarded. The following is a recent annual return :— The buildings of Christ's Hospital are extensive, but irregular; and having been for some time in a state of decay, the governors determined on rebuilding the whole, from designs by Mr. Shaw. In 1822, a new infirmary was completed; and on April 28, 1825, the late duke of York laid the first stone of the New Hall. This noble structure is in the Tudor style of architecture. It is 182 feet in length, and 50 in width. The south front is of stone, and is flanked by towers, which rise above the other parts. Between these are eight lofty windows, separated by buttresses. The interior is adorned with the arms of the governors, and with several portraits, amongst which are Charles II., by sir Peter Lely, and queen Anne. Another picture represents James II. and his courtiers, and contains portraits of judge Jefferies, and the painter Verrio himself. At each end of the hall is a gallery. The Court-room is likewise ornamented with numerous fine portraits, particularly one of Edward VI., by Holbein. On the front of the writing-school is a marble statue of sir John Moore, its founder, and over the south entrance to Christ's Hospital is a statue of Edward VI. An interesting sight is exhibited in the hall every Sunday evening from March to May inclusive, to which strangers are admitted by tickets, easily obtained from any person connected with the establishment. All the children sup together at six o'clock. The ceremony commences by three strokes of a hammer, intended to enforce silence. One of the senior boys reads a chapter, after which prayers are read and a hymn sung, all the boys standing and pronouncing Amen together. The company are seated at one end of the hall, and the steward, master, matron, &c., occupy the other. When the supper is concluded, the doors of the wards are opened, and a procession is formed in the following order :-The nurse; a boy carrying two lighted candles; several with bread-baskets and trays, and the others in pairs, who all bow as they pass the company. In this hall, likewise, the lord mayor, aldermen, &c., attend on St. Matthew's day, to hear orations from the senior boys. Visiters can only be admitted on this occasion by tickets. Among the eminent persons buried in the cloisters of Christ's Hospital may be mentioned, John of Bourbon, one of the prisoners taken at the battle of Agincourt; Thomas Burdett, the ancestor of sir Francis, who was put to death in the reign of Edward IV., for wishing the horns of a favourite white stag, which the king had killed, in the body of the person who advised him to do it; and Isabella, the wife of Edward II. CHARTER-HOUSE, The name of this establishment is derived, by an easy and evident corruption, from Chartreuse, the place in which it is situated having been a convent of Carthusian monks, who were treated with great cruelty when their possessions were seized by Henry VIII. On May 9, 1611, Thomas Sutton, a man of immense wealth and unbounded liberality, purchased of the heirs of the duke of Norfolk the charter-house, with its appurtenances, for 13,000/.; and on the 22d of June, in the same year, he obtained letters patent, with a license in mortmain, to found an hospital and free-school there. This admirable charity was perfected under the directions of his will, making a total expense of 20,0001.; and the founder left estates for its endowment, valued at 45007. per annum. The scholars have handsome lodg |