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MANY buildings have acquired a degree of celebrity by some singularity of appearance or defective construction, rather than by any legitimate claim to notice or admiration; and though the famous Leaning Tower at Pisa cannot justly be denied to possess much architectural merit, yet 'tis certain that were it not for its notorious deviation from the perpendicular, few people would know that Pisa possessed a Tower at all.

Another building indebted for its notoriety to a similar circumstance is depicted in our cut, which represents the South-East view of a Monument formerly standing on Brough Marsh, about six miles from Carlisle, erected in 1685, by Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk (at that time Lord of the Barony of Brough), to the memory of King Edward the 1st. who died there in July 1307, when on his way, at tlie head of a formidable army, to put into execution the plans of vengeance he had formed against the Scotch.

The Monument bore the following inscriptions, viz. On the West side:

"Memoriæ æternæ

EDWARDI I. Regis Angliæ longe clarissimi; qui in belli apparatu contra Scotos occupatus, hic in castris obiit, 7 Julii, A. D. 1307." On the North side:

"Nobilissimus Princeps HENRICUS HOWARD, Dux Norfolciæ, Comes Mareschall Angliæ, Comes Arund. &c. -ab Edwardo I. Angliæ,

oriundus, P. A. D. 1685." On the South side:"JOHANNES AGLIONBY, J. C. F. C."* Beneath:

"THO. LANGSTON fecit, 1685."

The height of this pillar was originally thirty feet; but the foundation on the North-West side having given way, occasioned it to deviate considerably from the perpendicular, as shewn in our print, and hence the summit * i. e. "Jurisconsultus fieri causavit.

was not actually more than 25 feet from the ground. The sinking of the foundation, was caused by the earth being worn away by cattle during the summer-time, and the water settling in the winter in the hollow thus created. The monument, however, stood several years in this position, though the inclination gradually but perceptibly increased, and at length the whole fell to the ground on Wednesday, March 4, 1795. Another pillar was erected by Lord Low ther in 1803, the same in appearance and dimensions as the original one, with the exception of a flight of steps around it. It bears a Latin inscription, detailing the above circumstances. The hill in the distance, marked A, represents Skiddaw, and B, Boness, the Blatum Bulgium of the Romans.

MURDER OF CAPTAIN PORTEOUS. (Resumed from page 146.) We shall now proceed to relate the vircumstances of the fact for which Captain Porteous was condemned, and we hope the reader will pardon us if we are as minute as possible in our relation.

At that time the people in Scotland were so much addicted to smug gling, that they looked upon all laws to restrain it as oppressive, and contrary to their rights, as a free people.

They sometimes went in great bodies together, so that the revenue of ficers were afraid to stop them, lest they should fall upon them and murder them. Mr. Stark, the collector for the county of Fife, was very active in suppressing smuggling, and having notice that one Andrew Wilson had landed a great cargo of goods from France and other parts, he gathered together as many men as he could persuade to accompany him, and going to Wilson's, seized the goods, and lodged them in the custom-house.

Wilson was a resolute fellow, and looking upon himself as injured, he went to the custom-house, with one Robertson, and some others, who all assisted to break open the door. Wilson took nothing but his own goods, which he put into carts, and

drove them home, in defiance of the civil power.

When Mr. Stark found that such an insult had been committed agamst the government, he sent an account thereof to the barons of the Exche→ quer at Edinburgh, who applied to the lord justice Clark, and his lord ship issued his warrant to the sheriff of Fife, commanding him to raise al the people in his jurisdiction, that the goods might be replaced, and the delinquents brought to justice.

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Accordingly many of them were apprehended, but all, except Wilson and Robertson, were discharged for want of proper evidence. Wilson and Robertson were both found guilty, and received sentence of death; but Robertson made his escape in the following manner

At that time, but never since, it was the custom to take the condemned criminals to one of the churches, every Sunday, under the care of three or four of the city guard. On the Sunday before they were to suffer they were taken to church a little before the service was to begin, but just as they got within the door, Wilson, although handcuffed, laid hold of one soldier with his teeth, and keeping the others from turning upon him, called out to Robertson to make his escape.

Robertson took to his heels, and the streets being full of people, going to the churches, nobody took any notice of him, so that he escaped out of one of the gates just as the men were going to shut it, which custom was then observed during the time of di vine service.

The whole city was instantly alarmed, and Porteous, as usual, was sent to search for him, but in vain, for although he swore the most dreadful oaths, that "he would have him if he was out of hell," yet Robertson met with a friend, who procured him a horse, knocked off his handcuffs; and the same evening he got on board a ship at Dunbar, in which he escaped to Holland.

In 1756 he was alive, and kept a public house, near the bridge at Rotterdam, behaving to every person as

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an upright, honest man, and lamentng that he had ever been concerned in such practices.

Indeed these smugglers in Scotland were, in most respects, worthy men, only that nothing could persuade them that it was necessary to pay such duties as would support the go

vernment.

The heroic action of Wilson in helping Robertson to escape, because he had led him into the snare, would have done honour to one of the greatest heroes of antiquity; and it shews the man to have been possessed of a noble disinterestedness of spirit that is seldom met with.

In the mean time search was made for Robertson to no purpose, by Porteous, who knocked down several of the inhabitants, for no other reason but that of their telling him, they were glad the poor man had got off.

On the Wednesday following, Porteous was ordered to conduct Wilson, under a strong guard of fifty men, to the place of execution, which is in one of the streets, called the Grass Market, a temporary gallows being fixed up for the purpose.

When Porteous received his order, he represented that there was reason to apprehend an attempt to rescue the prisoner, and therefore it was necessary that soldiers should be drawn up to keep the peace. Upon this the Provost sent to the governor of the castle, who ordered five companies of Welch fazileers, under the command of a major, to be drawn up in the street, called the Lawn Market, near the place of execution, to be ready in case any attempt was made.

The prisoner having finished his devotions, ascended the ladder with the hangman, and being turned over, hung the usual time, no disturbance happening, for the people were all quiet. At last, as the hangman was going up the ladder to cut him down, a stone thrown by one of the people struck him on the nose, and caused it to bleed.

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Although no person had any reason to believe that this was a signal given, yet as soon as the stone had struck the hangman, it was followed by many others, which so enraged

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Porteous, that he called out to his men, Fire and be damned;" at the same time discharging his own piece, by which a young man, apprentice to a confectioner, was shot dead.

Some of the soldiers fired their pieces over the heads of the mob; but unfortunately some of the shot killed two or three of the people who were looking out of the windows. Others of the soldiers fired among the people's feet, by which some of them were so wounded, that they were obliged to have their limbs cut off.

The mob then became outrageous, throwing stones, with every thing they could lay hold of, which obliged Porteous to draw off his men, in order to lead them to the guard-house ; but the people still pressing upon them, the captain and two of the men turned about and fired, by which three more, making nine in the whole, were left dead on the spot, besides those who were wounded, some of who died within a few days afterwards.-(Concluded at p. 163.)

THE

LONDON TOPOGRAPHER.
No. 5.

LONDON, in the Saxon times, was chiefly situated from Ludgate westward, and was but thinly built where the city, properly so called, now stands. This appears by what Fabian, the chronicler, found in an old record called Doomsday, belonging to the city, who writes, that in King Ethelred's reign, about the year 981, the metropolis had most buildings or houses from Ludgate to Westminster; and few or none where the heart of the city now is; not, he says, but there were dwellings, but they were scattered and stood without order: so that many other places, as Canterbury, York, and others, excelled London in buildings in those days; but after the conquest it increased, and soon surpassed all others.

In numerous places in the immediate suburbs, though now thickly populated, there were not, however, any dwellings, or very few, at least, for many ages after.

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WAPPING; and its immense neigh bourhood, may, perhaps, be mentioned as one of the most remarkable of these From the precinct of St. Ka therine to Wapping in the Wash (or marsh) and Wapping itself (the usual place of execution for pirates), there was, according to Stowe, not a house standing within forty years of the period at which he wrote, or at the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the whole being before one great wash, covered with the water of the Thames. Afterwards, he adds, it was, by paius and art, gained from the river, and made a marsh or mea dow ground, commonly called Wapping Marsh, and was defended from the irruptions of the Thames by Yet so few buildings were

walls.

there in that part of the town in 1629, that King Charles the First having hunted a stag from Wanstead, in Essex, killed him in a garden in Nightingale-lane.

RATCLIFFE-HIGHWAY, the same writer tells us, he remembered a large highway, or road, with long rows of elm and other trees on both sides. On this spot the Romans appear to have had a burying-place. Sir Robert Cotton, the antiquary, discovered in Ratcliffe-field, in the year 1614, the monument of a pro-prætor's wife, of which he has left a particular de scription: the coffin was enclosed in a chest of lead, the upper part being garnished with scallop shells, and a crotister border. At the head of the coffin, and at the foot, there were two jars of three feet high standing, and on the sides a number of bottles, of red shining, earth, some painted, together with several large glass phials, filled with a whitish liquor. Within the coffin was the skeleton of a female (as was supposed by the skull); on either side of her were two sceptres of ivory, eighteen inches long, and on her breast a little figure of Cupid, neatly cut in white stone; and among the bones two pointed pieces of jet, with round heads in form of nails, three inches long. There was also found near it the body of a man in a stone coffin. These bodies, in the opinion of Sir Robert

Cotton, had been buried there about the year 239, there being found with them various coins of Pupienus Gor dian, and the Emperors of that time.

On the shore at Ratcliffe-highway there was formerly fixed a long pole, with rams-horns upon it, the inten tion of which, an old traveller informs us, was vulgarly said to be a reflection upon wilful and contented cuckolds. This, probably, gave name to Cuckold's Point.

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LITTLE TOWER-HILL and ROSE MARY-LANE were, near this period, unbuilt, the former being called **** King's soil of Little Tower-hill,” and the latter the King's waste of Rosemary-lane, or Hog-lane." An adjoining mill and a garden, which belonged to stand a garden, which

St. Katherine's Hospital,

were removed for making the Towerditch. EAST SMITHFIELD was a vineyard, belonging to Geoffrey de Magnaville, Earl of Essex; and one of the privileges of Knighten Guild was, that a fair should be held there, which was accordingly kept, till the dissolution of monastries, nearly opposite the present new building of the Mint, The City ditch, which ran down the Minories, lay at this time open,

and was so wide and deep that many persons watering horses, where they thought it the shallowest, were drowned, both man and horse."

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SPITALFIELDS, so called from its ancient vicinity to the Spittle," or Hospital of St. Mary, which stood where is now Spital-square, was, in very old times, called Lolesworth; and is supposed, like Ratcliffe just mentioned, to have been one of the Roman cemeteries without the City. Stowe relates, that in the year 1576, Lolesworth Field being broken up for clay to make brick, preparatory tô building there, they found many earthern pots, called úrns, which were full of ashes and burnt bones of men-to wit, of the Romans inhabi ting here anciently. For it was the custom," says he, "of the Romans to burn their dead, and put their ashes in an urn, and then to bury the same, with certain ceremonies, in some field appointed for that purpose near the City." Numerous

coins, some of Claudius, Vespasian, Nero, Antonius Pius, Trajan, and other Emperors, were found in these urns, together with lachrymatories, and great quantities of earthenware of fine red earth, highly glazed, besides lamps, images, and other antiquities. In the same field were also found several stone coffins, containing human reinains.

The OLD ARTILLERY YARD adjoining, was anciently called Tasselclose, because there were tassels planted in it for the use of clothworkers. It was afterwards let to the crossbow makers, where they used to shoot for games at the popinjay. This being enclosed with a brick wall, was made use of as an Artillery Yard, where the gunners of the Tower were accustomed to repair weekly on a Thursday, and there levelling certain brass cannon against a butt of earth, made for that purpose, they discharged them for their exertise." This ground being afterwards called the Artillery Ground, gave name to Artillery-lane.

STEPNEY, in the year 1292, was about being inclosed for a park by the Bishop of London, whose manor there had then large woods attached to it, but he was opposed by the citizens of London, who claimed the privilege of hunting there, which they had enjoyed time out of mind. The disforesting of the forest of Middlesex and the warren of Staines, hear this time (2d Henry III.), first began here, and in the other parts of the east suburbs mentioned, to invite inhabitants, though no buildings of consequence were erected, as we have seen, for several ages afterwards.

In the west suburb of London, the progress of building was still more tardy. Until the time of Henry VIII., all the way leading from Holborn to St. Giles's, is described as being "exceedingly foul and full of pits and sloughs, and very perilous and noisome to all that passed that way, as well on foot as on horseback, and with carriages." And so were other lanes and places that led out of or into Holborn as Shoe-lane, Fetter-lane, Chancery-lane, Gray's-Inn-lane, &c.

And afterwards, when upon complaint an Act of Parliament was made for paving them, so little appears to have been done, that the great thorough fare of Drury-lane, as late as the third year of James I., is mentioned "by reason of the continual rodė there, and often carriages, to have be come deepe, foule, and dangerous to all who passed those ways. The way from Aldgate to Whitechapel, Shoreditch, and the other great outlets from the city, had, till nearly that time, the same bad passage.

THE STRAND, from Temple-bar to the Savoy, seems to have been first paved about the year 1385; but the paving went no farther until the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign; insomuch that Sir Robert Cecil, when he built his noble mansion a little beyond, called Salisbury-House, was obliged to level and pave all the adjoining highway himself.

The ancient division of the City', the east from the west, was not, as at present, by streets, but by a large brook which ran from the north fields, through the wall and middle of the city into the Thames, and which, on that account, was called wall brook. The course of this stream was from the wall to St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury; from thence beneath the lower part of Grocers' Hall, about the east part of their kitchen, under St. Mildred's Church; from thence under Bucklersbury (by a great house called the Old Bargehouse, because barges out of the Thames were rowed up so far into this brook), on the back side of the houses in the present Walbrookstreet, by the west end of the church there, under Horseshoe-bridge, by Tallow Chandlers' and Skinners' Halls, and so behind the houses in Elbow-lane, and thence into the Thames. This current in after times was arched over, and now forms the

common sewer.

At the corner of Bread-street, in the year 1595, in digging a vault, there was found, at the depth of fifteen feet, a pavement in as perfect a state as that above ground, and a tree sawed into five steps, apparently

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