NONE SUCH HOUSE! We have seen in the neigbourhood of London, and in various parts of the country, "None such House," or "None such Cottage," &c. This term originated from the residence of Hans Holbein, the celebrated painter to Henry 8th, which stood on London Bridge. It was entirely framed of wood, was made in Holland, and when placed on the bridge was completed without a single nail; in consequence of which, Sir Thomas More christened it, "None such House!" and which has since become a cognomen for various residences and villas throughout the country. COAL-HOLE TAVERN. A tavern so called in Fountain Court, Strand, a well known site for midnight gossipping. Here the most celebrated comedians have long entertained their private convivial friends after they have de lighted the town. Here, too, certain poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, and other ingenious wights, who prefer late hours, a smoaky room, and hilarity, to the sober comforts of domestic home, waste the night in glorious independence, fearless of the curtain lecture that appals the uxorious wight, who sometimes trespasses against the orders of the house. The Coal-hole merely derives its name from its gloomy situation, and its original contiguity to a coal-yard. BLOSSOM'S INN. The Blossom's Inn, Lawrence Lane, derives its name from the rich borders of flowers which adorned the original sign of St. Lawrence. These were the effects of his martyrdom-" for," says the legend, "flowers sprung up on the spot of his cruel martyrdom." CATHERINE WHEEL. Allan Butler says, St. Catherine was beheaded under the Emperor Mexentius, or Maximinius the Second. He adds, "she is said first to have been put upon an engine made of four wheels, joined together and stuck with sharp pointed spikes, that when the wheels were moved her body might be torn to pieces. At the first stirring of this terrible engine, the cords with which the martyr was tied was broke asunder by the invisible power of an angel, and, the engine falling to pieces by the wheels separating one from another, she was delivered from that death." Hence the name of Saint Catherine's Wheel. THE THREE LEGS. This public house sign, and which is more general in the country than in London, is the arms of the Isle of Man. Its ancient bearing was a ship; but the arms are now, and have been for centuries, gules, “three armed legs" proper, or rather argent, conjoined in fess, at the upper part of the thigh, fleshed in triangle, garnished and spurred topaz. So long as the King of Man wrote Rex Manniae et Insularum, they bore the ship; but when the Scots had possession, with the Western Islands, the legs were substituted. It is said of the "three legs," that with the toe of the one they spurn at Ireland, with the spur of the other they kick at Scotland, and with the third they bow to England. TUMBLE DOWN DICK! This sign, once so well known in that part of the borough of Southwark, near to London Bridge, was set up on the restoration of Charles the Second, and was intended as a burlesque on Richard Cromwell, who had too much simplicity and honesty to manage the reins of government, which devolved on him on the death of his father. LARK-HALL TAVERN. This place is of great antiquity; it stood in the midst of meadows, and corn fields, and was much resorted to by bird catchers, who frequented this place with their nets; and in time it became noted, and much resorted to by the Londoners on Sundays, who came here to purchase larks, and other singing birds, from the bird catchers, from whence it was called Lark-hall. At this period, also, the bath-room, which now stands at the brow of the hill, a quarter of a mile west of Lark-hall, towards Clapham, was much frequented; and the spring which now supplies the present bath was also reckoned very salubrious, and boasted many fashionable visitors during the summer months; but there being no high road, both that and the Lark were inacessible in the winter months. Over the entrance to Lark-hall Tavern, is the following whimsical notice, which must be read backwards to be understood,— "Tsurt Tonnac, In, os; duh, sie Man Ymts uje, Ru, Saem dna, doogro, uQil, hTiW." GOLDEN FLEECE. This sign, supposed to be the most ancient of any, and which we meet with in almost every provincial town, has a classical derivation; applying to the Golden Fleece which was brought from Colchis by Jason, about 1263 years before Christ, SECTION XIII. PUBLIC BUILDINGS, INNS OF COURT, WARDS, - LONDON. "Where has commerce such a mart So rich, so throng'd, so drain'd, and so supplied, Cowper. The first mention we find of the City of London in history, says Maitland, is by the illustrious and celebrated Roman historian, Tacitus, by the appellation of Londinium, when he acquaints us, that Suetonius Paulinus, the Romau general, being employed in the conquest of the Isle of Mona, or Anglesy, in North Wales, he received advice of the revolt of the Britons; wherefore, with the utmost expedition, he began his march to the assistance of the veterans and colonies; and marching through the midst of the enemy, arrived at London, which then was celebrated for its great number of merchants and plenty of merchandize. As to the etymology of the word London, it has only been aecounted for according to the caprice of divers authors: Geffrey of Monmouth, derives it from Caer-Lud, or Lud's-town: Erasmus, from Lindum, a city of Rhodes: Vitus, from Lugdus, a Celtic prince, Lugdon: Selden, from Llan-Dyn, the Temple of Diana; this conjecture is founded upon the great number of boar's tusks, (found in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's cathedral), horns of oxen, and stags, whose bodies were proper sacrifices to that deity. This supposition seems no better grounded than the rest; for the Druid's places of worship, were no other than groves or woods. Somner, derives it from Llawn, Plenus, and Dyn, Homo, a po. pulous place, which he imagines London always to have been, which I take to be, (continues Maitland), an appellation very unsuitable with the low condition this city has been many times reduced to; especially, when the whole of its inhabitants were destroyed by Boadicea. Camden, derives it from Lhong and Dinas, Lhong, signifying a ship, and Dinas, a town, that is, ship town, or a city of ships. I am, however, of opinion, that London is a corruption of Londinium; and that the same is entirely Roman; but how to account for its etymology I know not; therefore, in so great an uncertainty, the reader may chuse such of the above as he shall best approve of. PAVING OF LONDON. London was unpaved till 1417; when Henry 4th, convinced that Holbourn was deep and dangerous, ordered two ships to be laden with stones, at his own expence, each 20 tons in burden, to repair it. LONDON BRIDGE. "When Neptune from his billows London spy'd, As if the Thames with Nile had chang'd her shore; Let the whole earth now all the wonders count, Stowe, in his Survey of London, says, a ferry being kept in the place where now the bridge is built, at length the ferryman and his wife deceasing, left the said ferry to their daughter Mary, which, with the goods left her by her parents, as also with profits arising from said ferry, built a House of Sisters, in the place where now standeth the east part of St. Mary Over'ier's Church,* above the quire * A corruption of St. Mary, over the river.-Ed. where she (Mary) was buried; into which house she gave the profits and oversight of the ferry. But afterwards, the said House of Sisters, being converted into a College of Priests, the priests built the bridge of timber, as all other great bridges of the land were, and from time to time kept the same in reparations; till at length, considering the great charges of repairing the same, there was, by aid of citizens and others, a bridge built with arches of stone. Now, touching the foundation of the stone bridge, it followeth thus: about the year 1176, the stone bridge over the river Thames, at London, was begun to be founded by Peter of Cole Church, near unto the bridge of timber, but somewhat more towards the west, for I read that Botolph Wharf, was, in the Conqueror's time; at the head of London Bridge. The king assisted this work, a cardinal then being legate here; and Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, gave 1000 marks towards the foundation. The course of the river for the time, was turned another way about, by a trench cast for that purpose, beginning as it is supposed, east about Rotherhithe, and ending in the west about Patricksey, now termed Battersea. This work, to wit, the arches, chapel, and stone bridge, having been 33 years in building, was, in the year 1209, finished by the worthy merchants of London,-Serle Mercer, William Almaine, and Benedict Botewright, principal masters of the works, for Peter of Colechurch, deceased four years before it was completed. THE THAMES. "Majestic river! fraught with riches From ev'ry shore. The Indus and the Ganges, Hail thee as their chief; Yield thee the produce of their clime This river, so famed in the commercial world, derives its name from a compound of Thame and Isis, and which in process of time, came under the familiar denomination of Thames. The junction was formed a little above Oxford, but the Isis now is lost in the compound term, as the river is denominated the Thames even to its very source. The banks of the Thames have long been famed for the beauty of verdure, and taste with which they are adorned. They are studded with neat cottages, or elegant villas crown the gentle heights; the lawns come sweeping down like carpets of green velvet to the edge of its soft-flowing waters, and the grace of the scenery improves until we are borne into the full bosom of its beauty-the village of Richmond, or as it was anciently called, Sheen.* Below London Bridge we have Greenwich, and other beautiful scenery of the county of Kent. The opposite bank on the Essex side is flat, and is famed for nothing but Tilbury Fort, where Elizabeth, when the Spanish Armada threatened this country, reviewed her troops who were collected to repel the invaders. THE NEW RIVER. During the reigns of queen Elizabeth and James I. acts of parliament were obtained for the better supplying of the metropolis with water; but the enterprise seemed too great for any individual, or *See Richmond. even for the city collectively, to venture upon, until Mr. Hugh Middleton, a native of Denbigh, and goldsmith of London, offered to begin the work. The Court of Common Council accepted his offer; and having vested him with ample powers, this gentleman, with a spirit equal to the importance of the undertaking, at his own risk and charge, began the work. He had not proceeded far, when innumerable and unforeseen difficulties presented themselves. The art of civil engineering was then little understood in this country, and he experienced many obstructions from the occupiers and proprietors of the lands through which he was under the necessity of conducting this stream. The distance of the springs of Amwell and Chadwell, whence the water was to be brought, is twenty miles from London; but it was found necessary, in order to avoid the eminences and valleys in the way, to make it run a course of more than thirty-eight miles. "The depth of the trench," says Stowe, "in some places, descended full thirty feet, if not more; whereas, in other places, it required as sprightful arte againe to mount it over a valley, in a trough betweene a couple of hils, and the trough all the while borne up by wooden arches, some of them fixed in the ground very deepe, and rising in height above twenty-three foot." The industrious projector soon found himself so harassed and impeded by interested persons in Middlesex and Hertfordshire, that he was obliged to solicit a prolongation of the time, to accomplish his undertaking. This the city granted, but they refused to interest themselves in this great and useful work, although Mr. Middleton was quite impoverished by it. He then applied, with more success, to the king himself; who, upon a moiety of the concern being made over to him, agreed to pay half the expense of the work already incurred, as well as of the future. It now went on without interruption, and was finished according to Mr. Middleton's original agreement with the city; when, on the 29th of September, 1613, the water was let into the bason, now called the New River Head, which was prepared for its reception. By an exact admeasurement of the course of the New River, taken in 1723, it appeared to be nearly thirty-nine miles in length; it has between two or three hundred bridges over it, and upwards of forty sluices in its course; and in divers parts, both over and under the same, considerable currents of land waters, as well as a great number of brooks and rivulets, have their passage. This great undertaking cost half a million of money, and was the ruin of its first projector; some of whose descendants have received a paltry annuity of 201. from the city, that was so much benefited by the work, by which they were rendered destitute. The property of the New River is divided into seventy-two shares; for the first nineteen years after the finishing of the work, the annual profit upon each share scarcely amounted to twelve shillings. A share is now considered to be worth 11,500l. and they have been sold as high as 14,000l.-Percy Anecdotes of Enterprise. WATER PIPES. Water was first conveyed to London by leaden pipes, 21 Henry 3d, 1237. It took near fifty years to complete it; the whole being finished, and Cheapside Conduit erected, only in 1285. An engine erected at Broken Wharf, to convey water by leaden pipes, 1594. The New River brought to London from Amwell, in Hertfordshire, at an immense expense by Sir Hugh Middleton, in 1613. The city |