Eighteenth Century Vignettes (Volume 3) - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896. Excerpt: ... THE TOUR OF COVENT GARDEN. "XTHO would imagine that the Covent Garden of to-day, with its shady, many-scented arcade,--with its Babel of voices and crush of baskets,--its flowers 'a-growing and a-blowing,'--its curious mingling of town and country--who would now imagine that this had once been an 'Enclosure or Pasture,' browsed by deep-udder'd kine,' and where, maybe, the nightingale--'in April suddenly Brake from a coppice gemm'd with green and red?' Yet so it was. Covent Garden or 'Convent Garden,' lying between Long Acre and the Strand, originally formed part of the grounds of the ancient Abbey of Westminster. There is still extant a document,' writ in choice Italian ' (if one may so style law Latin), describing it as 'le Covent Garden.., nuper pertinens Monasterio Sancti Petri Westmonasteriensis.' Under Edward the Sixth it was granted by that king to his uncle, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Jane Seymour's brother. At Somerset's attainder it reverted to the Crown; and then, says the meritorious Strype, ' with seven acres called Long Acre,' was re-granted by patent to John, Earl of Bedford. This was in May, 1552. Upon part of the 'terre, et pasture' so acquired, the earl built the old semi-wooden structure known as Bedford House, which looked into the Strand, and the long wall of whose spacious garden at the back corresponded to what is now the south side of the market. Under Francis the fourth Earl about 1631, the square was laid out, and the arcades or piazzas erected.1 Next came St. Paul's Church; and Russell Street, Bow Street, Charles Street, Henrietta Street, and King Street followed in quick succession. For several years after this the square was little more than a gravelled space, and the market was confined to a 'small grotto' or grove of t...