paper, in minute detail, showing even the stables of the horse soldiers. Dr. Stukeley affirmed that the old church of St. Pancras covered part of the encampment, the outline and plan of which he gave in the "Itinerarium Curiosum," as far back as 1758; but notwithstanding that his opinion has been strongly condemned by more trustworthy antiquaries and topographers, the supposition of Dr. Stukeley may derive some confirmation from the fact that in 1842 a stone was found at King's Cross or Battle Bridge, bearing on it the words LEG. XX. (Legio Vicesima), one of those Roman legions which we know from Tacitus to have formed part of the army under Suetonius. It may further be mentioned that the spot known for so many centuries as Battle Bridge, and the traditional scene of a fierce battle between the Britons and the Romans, corresponds very closely to the description of the battle-field as still extant in the pages of the 14th book of the "Annals” of Tacitus. We learn from a writer in Notes and Queries (No. 230), that during the Civil War a fortification was erected at the Brill Farm, near Old St. Pancras Church, where, some hundred and twenty years later, Somers Town was built. A view of it, published in 1642, is engraved on page 330. We may add, in concluding this chapter, that the desecration of the St. Pancras churchyard, of which we have spoken above, was as nothing compared to the demolition of the hundreds of houses of the poorer working classes in Agar Town and Somers Town, occasioned by the extension of the Midland Railway. The extent of this clean sweep was, and is still, comparatively unknown, and has caused a very considerable portion of St. Pancras parish to be effaced from the map of London. Perhaps no part of London or its neighbourhood has undergone such rapid and extensive transformation. It will, perhaps, be said that in the long run the vicinity has benefited in every way; but it is to be feared that in the process of improvement the weakest have been thrust rather rudely to the wall. CHAPTER XXVI. SOMERS TOWN AND EUSTON SQUARE. "Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes ?"-Virgil, “Æn.” Cradual Rise and Decline of Somers Town-The Place largely Colonised by Foreigners-A Modern Miracle-Skinner Street-The Brill-A Wholesale Clearance of Dwelling-houses-Ossulston Street-Charlton Street-The "Coffee House "-Clarendon Square and the PolygonMary Wollstoncraft Godwin-The Chapel of St. Aloysius-The Abbé Carron-The Rev. John Nerinckx-Seymour Street-The Railway Clearing House-The Euston Day Schools-St. Mary's Episcopal Chapel-Drummond Street-The Railway Benevolent Institution-The London and North-Western Railway Terminus-Euston Square-Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar)-The Euston Road-Gower Street-Sir George Rose and Jack Bannister-New St. Pancras Church-The Rev. Thomas Dale-Woburn Place. Down to about the close of the last century, the locality now known as Somers Town--or, in other words, the whole of the triangular space between the Hampstead, Pancras, and Euston Roads-was almost exclusively pastoral; and with the exception of a few straggling houses near the "Mother Red Cap," at Camden Town, and also a few round about the old church of St. Pancras, there was nothing to intercept the view of the Hampstead uplands from Queen's Square and the Foundling Hospital. An interesting account of the gradual rise and decline of this district is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1813, wherein the writer says:-" Commencing at Southampton Row, near Holborn, is an excellent private road, belonging to the Duke of Bedford, and the fields along the road are intersected with paths in various directions. The pleasantness of the situation, and the temptation offered by the New Road, induced some people to build on the land, and the Somers places, east and west, arose ; a few low buildings near the Duke's road (now near the 'Lord Nelson') first made their appearance, accompanied by others of the same description; and after a while Somers Town was planned. Mr. Jacob Leroux became the principal landowner under Lord Somers. The former built a handsome house for himself, and various streets were named from the title of the noble lord (Somers); a chapel was opened, and a polygon began in a square. Everything seemed to prosper favourably, when some unforeseen cause arose which checked the fervour of building, and many carcases of houses were sold for less than the value of the building materials. In the meantime gradual advances were made on the north side of the New Road (now the Euston Road), from Tottenham Court Road, and, finally, the buildings on the south side reached the line of Gower Street. Somewhat lower, and nearer to Battle Bridge, there was a long grove of stunted trees, which never seemed to thrive; and on the site of the Bedford Nursery a pavilion was erected, in which Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York gave away colours to a volunteer regiment. The interval between Southampton Place and Somers Town was soon one vast brick-field. On the death of Mr. Leroux," continues the writer, "and the large property being submitted to the hammer, numbers of small houses were sold for less than £150, at rents of £20 per annum each. The value of money decreasing at this time, from thirty to forty guineas were demanded as rents for these paltry habitations; hence everybody who could obtain the means became a builder: carpenters, retired publicans, leather workers, haymakers, &c., each contrived to raise his house or houses, and every street was lengthened in its turn. The barracks for the Life Guards, in Charlton Street, became a very diminutive square, and now we really find several of these streets approaching the old Pancras Road. The Company of Skinners, who own thirty acres of land, perceiving these projectors succeed in covering the north side of the New Road from Somers Place to Battle Bridge, and that the street named from them has reached the 'Brill Tavern,' have offered the ground to Mr. Burton to build upon, and it is now covered by Judd Street, Tonbridge Place, and a new chapel for some description of Dissenters or other." Mr. Burton, as we have previously stated, was the builder, not only of the houses covering the land belonging to the Skinners' Company, but also of Russell Square, Bedford Place, &c.* At the end of the last century this district, rents being cheap, was largely colonised by foreign artisans, mostly from France, who were driven on our shores by the events of the Reign of Terror and the first French Revolution. Indeed, it became nearly as great a home of industry as Clerkenwell and Soho. It may be added that, as the neighbourhood of Manchester and Portman Squares formed the head-quarters of the émigrés of the wealthier class who were thrown on our shores by the waves of the first French Revolution, so the exiles of the poorer class found their way to St. Pancras, and settled down around Somers Town, where they opened a Catholic chapel, at first in Charlton Street, Clarendon Square, and subsequently in the square itself. Of this church, which is dedicated to St. Aloysius, we shall have more to say presently. "Somers Town," wrote the Brothers Percy in 1823, "has now no other division from the rest of the metropolis but a road, and Kentish and * See Vol. IV., p. 576. 341 Camden Towns will soon be closely connected with it." During the ten subsequent years we find that great strides had been made in the progress of building in Somers Town, for a correspondent of Hone's "Year Book," in 1832, tells us that, though it had then become little better than another arm to the "Monster Briareus" of London, he remembered it as "isolated and sunny, when he first haunted it as a boy." Under the heading of "A Miracle at Somers Town," Hone, in his "Every-day Book," tells the following laughable tale :-" Mr. a middleaged gentleman who had long been afflicted by various disorders, and especially by the gout, had so far recovered from a severe attack of the latter complaint, that he was enabled to stand, yet with so little advantage, that he could not walk more than fifty yards, and it took him nearly an hour to perform that distance. While thus enfeebled by suffering, and safely creeping in great difficulty, on a sunny day, along a footpath by the side of a field near Somers Town, he was alarmed by loud cries intermingled with the screams of many voices behind him. From his infirmity he could only turn very slowly round, and then, to his astonishment, he saw, within a yard of his coat-tail, the horns of a mad bullock-when, to the equal astonishment of its pursuers, this unhappy gentleman instantly leaped the fence, and, overcome by terror, continued to run with amazing celerity nearly the whole distance of the field, while the animal kept its own course along the road. gentleman, who had thus miraculously recovered the use of his legs, retained his power of speed until he reached his own house, where he related the miraculous circumstance; nor did his quickly restored faculty of walking abate until it ceased. with his life several years afterwards. This miraculous cure," adds Mr. Hone, "can be attested by his surviving relatives.” The Skinner Street, where we now resume Our perambulation, lies in the south-east corner of Somers Town, and connects the Euston Road with Brill Row; this street is so called after the Skinners' Company, who, as above stated, own a great part of this district. The company hold the land on behalf of their grammar school, at Tonbridge, in Kent. The property, which was originally known as the Sandhills Estate, and was comparatively worthless three centuries ago, was bequeathed by Sir Andrew Judd, Lord Mayor of London, in 1558, to endow the said school;† hence the nomenclature of the streets in this neighbourhood-Judd + See Vol. IV., p 576. Street, Skinner Street, Tonbridge Place, &c. The property now brings in a regular income of several thousands a year. known fish, our early riser will most probably find that the Somers 'Brill' claims no special relationship to the scaly tribe. . . Here is the Brill' Brill Row, at the northern end of Skinner Street, tavern, and how it came to have this name would, together with the "Brill" tavern close by, are no doubt, be as interesting as to know the origin nearly all that remains of the locality once familiarly of the names given to other public-houses. Some known by that name, which was nothing more nor landlord of old may have had a particular liking less than a crowd of narrow streets crossing each for this fish, or may have been fortunate in proother at right angles, and full of costermongers' curing a super-excellent cook who could satisfy the shops and barrows, but which were swept away during the formation of the Midland Railway Terminus. Dr. Stukeley derives the name of the "Brill" as a contraction from Burgh Hill, a Saxon name for a place on an elevated site; but surely that derivation will scarcely apply here, as it certainly does not lie so high as the land on its eastern or western side. The place on a Sunday morning was thus facetiously described by a writer in the Illustrated News of the World, just before the time of its demolition:-"The Brill' is situated between Euston Square and the station of the Great Northern Railway, and is a place of great attraction to thousands who inhabit Somers, Camden, and Kentish Towns. Though bearing the name of a well most fastidious appetite of the most fastidious customer by placing before him a superior dish. Very likely some local antiquarian could tell us all about it and much else. He could tell us, no doubt, when, and under what circumstances, this north-west suburb of London itself was so named from the noble family of Somers; that this very Brill' was known in days gone by as Cæsar's Camp, and for this latter statement might quote as an authority the distinguished and well-known Dr. Stukeley himself. The oldest inhabitant could also talk with great volubility respecting the site on which Somers Town now stands-how, some sixty or seventy or more years ago, it was a piece of wild common or barren brick-field, whither resorted on Sundays the bird-fanciers and many of the 'roughs' from London to witness dog-fights, bull- the street preachers are those who occupy posts in baiting, and other rude sports, now happily un- the immediate vicinity, and 'hold forth' in familiar known in the locality. This 'oldest inhabitant' strains on the advantages of teetotalism, and the would most probably contrast the dark ages of evil consequences following intemperance." Somers Town with its present enlightened and Although, as we have stated, a large portion of civilised days, and conclude an animated harangue the houses in this locality have been swept away, with the words 'Nobody would believe that here, some few remain. Of these we may take as a speciwhere I can now purchase tea, coffee, beef, every-men, Chapel Street, in which the same attractions as thing I want, on a Sunday morning, such very those above mentioned are still held out, especially barbarous practices were followed while bishops on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. and divines were preaching in St. Paul's, St. Pancras, and in all the churches and chapels around on the Divine obligation of the Sunday; nobody would believe such a thing now.' "As the philanthropic or curious visitor enters Skinner Street, about eleven o'clock some bright Sunday morning, his ears will be greeted, not by the barking of dogs and the roaring of infuriated bulls, as of old, but by the unnaturally loud cries of men, women, boys, and girls, anxious to sell edibles and drinkables-in fact, everything which a hard-working man or poor sempstress is supposed to need in order to keep body and soul together. The various so-called necessaries of life have here their special advocates. The well-known 'buy, buy, buy,' has, at the 'Brill,' a peculiar shrillness of tone, passing often into a scream-and well it may, for the meat is all ticketed at 44d. per pound. Here the female purchasers are not generally styled 'ladies,' but 'women,' and somewhat after this fashion-This is the sort of cabbage, or meat, or potatoes to buy, women;' and each salesman seems to think that his success depends upon the loudness of his cry. The purchasers not only come from all parts of Somers Town itself to this spot on a Sunday morning, but from Camden Town, Holloway, Hampstead, and Highgate, and even from distances of five and six miles. The leading impression made by the moving scene is that of great activity and an 'eye to business.' Every one at the 'Brill,' as a rule, comes there on a Sunday morning for a definite purpose. The women come to buy meat, fish, vegetables, and crockery; and the men, chiefly 'navigators,' as they are termed, come to purchase boots, boot-laces, blouses, trousers, coats, caps, and other articles of wearing apparel. "On inquiry," says the writer above quoted, "it will be found that this market is in every way a very profitable concern, both to those who expose their goods for sale and those who own the property in the surrounding neighbourhood. The small paltry-looking houses, with a front shop, and very restricted accommodation, yield a yearly rental of from £60 to £80 per annum. It is not likely, therefore, everything considered, that either the owners of the property, the proprietors of the shops and stalls, or the purchasers themselves, who have special advantages given them, will take the initiative in abolishing the Sunday morning Brill trade. Whatever is done in this direction must be brought to bear ab extra; wages must be paid earlier in the week, facilities afforded to the poorer classes for purchasing in the cheapest markets, and other changes, which in due course the philanthropic and humane will bring about when they once know the actual state of things, and recognise the necessity of abolishing Sunday trading altogether." The fourteen acres of land taken by the Midland Railway Company were covered with dwellings occupied by poor people, and the whole of this population, as we have said, were driven out and compelled to seek fresh accommodation elsewhere: most of them migrated to Kentish Town and the Gospel Oak Fields, already mentioned above. Ossulston Street, the next turning westward from Skinner Street, keeps in remembrance the name of the ancient hundred of Ossulston, a geographical division which still, as in the days of our Saxon ancestors, embraces a great part of the north-western districts of London, but is now forgotten, though it furnishes the Earl of Tankerville with his second title. Passing still further along the Euston Road, we Altogether, at the Brill matters are carried on arrive at Charlton Street. In this street is a publicin a business-like way. The salesmen, many of house called the "Coffee House." The name them young boys, are too intent on selling, and the seems inappropriate now, but is not really so, for purchasers too intent on buying, to warrant the sup- in early times it really was what that name imports position that they derive much spiritual benefit-the only coffee-house in the neighbourhood. from the preachers of all persuasions and of no "Early in the last century Somers Town was a persuasions who frequent the neighbourhood. The delightful and rural suburb, with fields and flowermost ardent, and apparently the most successful, of gardens. A short distance down the hill," writes |