66 ceeded Arundel as primate. None of these had any effect for several years; but at length he was apprehended, after some resistance, by Lord Powis, in December, 1418, and brought to Westminster, where a Parliament was sitting, by which he was condemned on his former sentence, to be strangled and burnt." Upon the day appointed he was brought out from the Tower, the 25th of December, with his arms bound behind him, having a very chearful countenance. Then was he laid on a hurdle, as though he had been a most haynous traitoure to the crowne, and so drawne forth into Sainct Gyles Felde, whereat they had set up a new paire of gallowes. As he was comen to the place of execution, and was taken from the hurdle, he fell downe devoutly upon his knees, desyring Almighty God to forgive his ennemies. The cruel preparations of his torments, could make no impression of terror upon him, nor shock his illustrious constancy, but in him were seen united the fearless spirit of a soldier, and the resignation of a christian. Then he was hanged up ther by the middle in chayns of yron, and so consumed alive in the fyre, praysing the name of God so long as his life lasted."See Hume and Henry's History of England, Fox's Acts and Monuments, State Trials, &c. The first toll ever imposed in England had its origin in St. Giles's, of which the following account is given :-In 1346, King Edward III. granted a commission to the master of the hospital of St. Giles, and to John de Holborne, empowering them to levy tolls, (" perhaps," says Anderson," the earliest known by any remaining records,") "upon all cattle, merchandize, and other goods for two years, passing along the public highways leading from the bar of the old Temple," (i. e. Holborn Bar, between which and Chancery Lane, then called New Street, the ancient house of the Knight Templars stood) to the said hospital, and also along the Charing Road, (probably St. Martin's Lane,) and another Highway called Portpoole, (now Gray's Inn Lane,) for the purpose of repairing the said highways, which, by the frequent passing of carts, wains, horses, and cattle, hath become so miry and deep as to be nearly impassable." The rates upon the several articles amounted to about one penny in the pound on their value, and were to be paid by all, except lords, ladies, and persons belonging to religious establishments, or the church.-See Rymer's Foedera. CHAPTER II St. Giles viewed as a Suburb Village-Its rural Character-Gradual Extension of Buildings and a variety of other Information, Illustrations, &c. HITHERTO Our attention has been chiefly drawn towards the history of the Hospital, an object of veneration to the antiquarian, and of some interest to the local residents; we will now devote ourselves to St. Giles, in its progress from a village to its present consequence. doing which, it may not be unuseful to premise some notices of the metropolis and its vicinity at an early period. In The suburbs of London and Westminster, and the parishes thereunto belonging, may be considered anciently as forming so many distinct villages. For instance, the village of Tyburn, or Tyborn, formed part of the district we are treating of, and it is said to have stood where the north-west part of Oxford Street now is; Mary-la-bonne Court House, near Stratford Place, being supposed, from the number of human bones dug up there in 1729, to stand upon the site of the old church and cemetery. Mary-la-bonne owes its rise to the decay of Tyborne, it having with its village church fallen into decay and desertion, and been robbed of its vestments, bells, images, and other decorations. There was a brook or rivulet near this decayed church, which was of such antiquity as to be made mention of in Doomsday Book; and in the decretal sentence of Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1222, it is expressly called Tyburn, from which it doubtlessly derived its ancient names. Near the east end of this village, in what is now Oxford Street, there was a bridge over the rivulet alluded to, and near it stood the Lord Mayor's Banqueting House, in the vicinity of which the citizens had nine conduits erected about the year 1238, for supplying the city with water; but having been better supplied from the New River, the citizens in the year 1703, let the water of these conduits on lease for £700 per annum. Malcolm, and other writers on the metropolis, have remarked on the rural state of its vicinity, even at an early period of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and aided by the much celebrated Plan of Aggas, published in the year 1578, it is competent for any one to observe how much has been effected in buildings and extension up to the present time. In her reign the chief part of London lay between Cornhill and the Thames. Cornhill was then a corn market, and D had been so time out of mind, from which it derived its name. Goodman's fields was a ten ter ground, and Smithfield used for bleaching cloth; Goswell Street was the high road to St. Albans; Covent Garden was the rich garden of the Convent of Westminster; whilst magnificent rows of trees lined Long Acre and St. Martin's Lane, leading from the mansion of the Lords Cobham at the village of Charing, near which stood the Spring Gardens. At Queenhithe was the large structure for bull and bear baiting, the favourite amusement of the Queen and the court; Gray's Inn Lane only extended, at this period, to a short distance beyond the Inn; whilst the ground from the back of Cowcross towards the Fleet river, and towards Ely House, was either entirely vacant or occupied in gardens. From Holborn Bridge to the vicinity of the present Red Lion Street the houses were continued on both sides, but farther up to about Hart Street, Bloomsbury, the road was entirely open; a garden wall there commenced, and continued to near Broad St. Giles and the end of Drury Lane, where a cluster of houses, chiefly on the right, formed the principal part of the village of St. Giles, only a few other buildings appearing in the neighbourhood of the church and hospital, the precincts of which were spacious and surrounded with trees. Beyond this all was country, both north and south, and |