the Manor House, Dalston. Another charitable institution, in Dalston Lane, is the German Hospital, which was erected in 1845. It is a handsome building of red brick, capable of affording relief to a considerable number of patients. It was established for the benefit of Germans suffering from disease, and also of English in cases of accidents. The total number of persons annually relieved is about 28,000. There are in London, principally at the East-end, about 30,000 Germans, chiefly of the working classes, and occupied as sugar-bakers, skin-dressers, and skin-dyers.

Shacklewell, on the north side of Dalston Lane, is said to have been named after some springs or wells which were of high repute in former days, but the very site of which is now forgotten. It is a

hamlet to the parish of Hackney lying on the east side of the Stoke Newington Road, and covering a triangular plot of ground. the north-east side of which is bounded by Amhurst Road and Hackney Downs. The old manor-house originally belonged to the family of Heron, and is worthy of mention, as having been the abode of Cecilia, the daughter of the great Sir Thomas More, who married George Heron, "of Shacklewell." Her husband becoming involved in the ruin of his father-in-law, and her only son dying in infancy, the family became extinct. The estate then passed into other hands, and in 1700 was sold to Mr. Francis Tyssen, by its then owner, a gentleman named Rowe, who, it is said, late in life was forced to apply for relief to the parish in which he had once owned a manor.

66

CHAPTER XLIII.

STOKE NEWINGTON.

"I like the neighbourhood, too, the ancient places
That bring back the past ages to the eye,
Filling the gap of centuries-the traces
Mouldering beneath your head that lie!

Adam and Eve, a Margate Story.

Stoke Newington in the Last Century-The Old Roman Road, called Ermine Street-Beaumont and Fletcher's Reference to May-day Doings at Newington in the Olden Times-Mildmay Park-The Village Green-Mildmay House-Remains of the King's House-King Henry's Walk-St. Jude's Church and the Conference Hall-Bishop's Place--The Residence of Samuel Rogers, the Poet-James Burgh's Academy --Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin-St. Matthias' Church-The New and Old Parish Churches-Sir John Hartopp and his Family-Queen Elizabeth's Walk-The Old Rectory House-The Green Lanes-Church Street-The House of Isaac D'Israeli-The School of Edgar Allan Poe-John Howard, the Prison Reformer-Sandford House-Defoe Street-Defoe's House-The Mansion of the Old Earls of Essex-The Manor House-Fleetwood Road-The Old "Rose and Crown"-The Residence of Dr. John Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld-The "Three Crowns"-The Reservoirs of the New River Company-Remarks on the Gradual Extension of London. We are now about to traverse another of the northern suburbs of London, but one which it would not be possible to include among the northern heights" of the great metropolis. We shall find ourselves in far less romantic scenery than that which we have so lately seen at Highgate and Hampstead, but still the neighbourhood now before us is not deficient in interest; at all events, to those who in their youth have strolled along the banks of the Lea, rod in hand, or mused in its meadows over the pleasant pages of Izaak Walton; or to those who remember the legend of Johnny Gilpin and his ride to Edmonton, as told by Cowper; or who rejoice in the "Essays of Elia" and the other desultory writings of Charles Lamb. | To such persons, and doubtless they may be counted by millions, even the full straight level road which leads from Dalston and Kingsland, through Stoke Newington, and Stamford Hill, and Tottenham, to Edmonton, can scarcely be wholly devoid of interest and of pleasant reminiscences. There is also another section of the community to

| whom this part of the northern suburbs of London will always be a welcome subject; we mean the Nonconformist portion of the religious world, in whose eyes the cemetery of Abney Park is scarcely less sacred than that of Bunhill Fields.

Stoke Newington is described in the "Ambulator" (1774) as "a pleasant village near Islington, where a great number of the citizens of London have built houses, and rendered it extremely populous, more like a large flourishing town than a village. The church," adds the writer, "is a small low Gothic building, belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. Behind the church is

a pleasant grove of tall trees, where the inhabitants resort for the benefit of shade and a wholesome air."

"Our village," writes the Rev. Thomas Jackson, rector, 66 was once called Newenton Canonicorum, in order to distinguish it from all other Stokes, Newtowns, and Newingtowns in the world, and especially from its rival on the south of the Thames, Newington Butts; and it was so called

doubtless because the manor was given by Athelstan or by Edward the Confessor to the canons of St. Paul's."

The name of the village carries us back to the Saxon times, denoting the new village or town built on the borders of a wood. We may remind the reader that our land is full of Stokes, and that wherever there is a Stoke we may be sure that there was once a wood. Newington, indeed, appears formerly to have been situated in a wood, which was part of the great Middlesex forest already mentioned by us. At the time when King Charles was beheaded there were still seventy-seven acres of woodland in the parish. The timber of Stoke Newington probably helped to build again that London which had perished in the Great Fire of 1666, and possibly at an earlier date it furnished fagots for the fires lit at Smithfield alternately by the Protestants and the Catholics.

The old Roman road, known as the Ermine or Irmin Street, ran northwards through Stoke Newington to Enfield, though its exact route is a subject of debate. Mr. Jackson, in his "Lecture on Stoke Newington," says:-"One boundary of our Saxon manor is the Irmin Street, one of the central highways which our forefathers dedicated to the Hero-god, the illustrious War-man, or Man of Hosts, as his name literally means-that Herman or Arminius, the mighty Cheruscan, who fought the fight of Winfield on the Weser, who turned back the tide of Roman invasion, routing Varus and his legions, and delivering Germany from Italian despotism-a hero truly national, the benefactor and relative of us all. Coming a little down the stream of time, I find Newington Manor among the first of religious endowments in this country. . . . I find the rents and profits of our lands, the fruits of the fields that we daily tread, supporting the men who chanted at the funeral of Edward the Confessor, and assisted at the coronation of William the Norman."

We read of Stoke Newington in the plays of the seventeenth century as a place of pleasant conviviality. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Knight of the Burning Pestle, first published in 1613, introduce Ralph, dressed as a king of the May, who thus speaks :

531

the testimony of some historians, to have become conspicuous for its Puritanism, through the influence, probably, of the Pophams and the Fleetwoods, and afterwards through the worthy family of Abney, who had purchased the manor.

The parish is described in Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary" (1835), as consisting principally of one long street, extending from Kingsland Road to Stamford Hill, on the high road from London to Cambridge, and containing at that time a population of nearly 3,500 souls. The eastern side of this street is actually in the parish of Hackney, and from the western side, near the centre of it, branches off a street, called Church Street, leading to the parish church and the "Green Lanes."

From the western end of Ball's Pond Road, a thoroughfare called Mildmay Park-a good roadway lined on either side by private residences— leads direct to Newington Green. This place, says the "Ambulator" about a century ago, "consists of a handsome square of considerable extent, surrounded by houses which are in general well built; before each side is a row of trees, and an extensive grass-plat in the middle." The green is still adorned with lofty elms, has an oldworld appearance, and forms really a handsome, though somewhat irregular square. It is situated partly in the parish of Newington, and partly in that of Islington, and is principally inhabited by merchants and private families.

In the "Beauties of England and Wales " (1816), we read of an old dwelling situated here, called Mildmay House, then a boarding-school for young ladies. It is said to have been, in the reign of Charles I., the property of Sir Henry Mildmay, who had acquired the estate by marriage with the daughter and heiress of William Halliday, an alderman of London. On one of the chimneypieces appeared the arms of Halliday; and the ceilings contained the arms of England, with the initials of King James, and medallions of Hector, Alexander, &c. Mildmay Park Road, mentioned above, was so named from this house.

On the southern side of the green is an old mansion, now divided into two, which is traditionally said to have been at one time a residence of Henry VIII., when his Majesty wished to divert himself with the pleasures of the chase, which about three centuries ago extended northerly hence to Harringay and Enfield. On the ceiling of the principal room in the house are to be seen the armorial bearings and royal monogram of James I. This room contains a very fine and lofty carved mantelpiece of the "Jacobean" style, Soon afterwards Stoke Newington appears, by not unlike that in the Governor's Room at the

"London, to thee I do present this merry month of May; Let each true subject be content to hear me what I say. March out and show your willing minds by twenty and by

twenty,

To Hogsdon (Hoxton) or to Newington, where ale and cakes are plenty."

Charterhouse. Most of the rooms have also their of the "late Decorated" style of architecture, built walls handsomely panelled in oak. It is probable that this residence caused the adjoining fields to the south to be called the King's Land-now abridged into Kingsland.

in 1855 from the designs of Mr. A. D. Gough. It was enlarged, and indeed almost reconstructed, in 1871. In connection with this church, but situated in Mildmay Park, near Newington Green, is a large building known as the Conference Hall.

Dr. Robinson, in his "History of Stoke Newington," describes Bishop's Place as having been a quadrangular building of wood and plaster, and as having had a square court in the centre, with communications to the various apartments all round by means of small doors opening from one room into another. The house, prior to its demolition, had been for many years divided into a number of small tenements, occupied by poor people. When the house was taken down, some parts of the old wainscot were found to be richly gilt, and ornamented with paintings, but well-nigh obliterated from the effects of time.

At the north-west corner of the green there formerly stood a large building, called Bishop's Place; it is said to have been the residence of Percy, Earl of Northumberland, when he wrote the memorable letter disclaiming any matrimonial contract between himself and Queen Anne Boleyn, referred to in our account of Hackney Church, and which was dated from Newington Green the 13th of May, in the 28th year of Henry VIII. "This house," writes the author of the "Beauties of England and Wales," "was popularly reported to have been occupied by Henry VIII. for the convenience of his irregular amours. The tradition is supported chiefly by the circumstance of a pleasant winding path, which leads to the turn- Newington Green, in its time, seems to have pike road by Ball's Pond, bearing the name of had among its residents many members of the 'King Henry's Walk.'" Mr. Jackson, in his nobility and of the world of letters. An old house "Lecture on Stoke Newington," thus muses on on the western side, not far from that above this old mansion in connection with Bluff King described, was for many years the residence of Hal:-"Let us imagine that we see him, blunt, big, Samuel Rogers, the poet. The building, which and sturdy, with his feet wide apart, and his chin was considerably altered in appearance by its already doubling, sallying forth with a crowd of subsequent owners, was pulled down about 1879 obsequious attendants from the house afterwards to make room for shops. The hall, mentioned called Mildmay House, or from that just mentioned, by Rogers in his "Pleasures of Memory," and the to disport himself in the woodlands of Newington. little room on the first floor in which he used to Is Catharine of Arragon his queen, or the hapless sit and write, together with the three rooms on Anne, of the swan-like neck, or Jane Seymour, the ground floor, facing the south and the sunny who died so young? Is he plotting the death of garden, remained unchanged. But the hall became a wife, or of his chancellor? Look at him as lined with modern canvas, spread over the old represented in the portraits of Holbein. His eye panelling, and had lost its venerable appearance. good-natured; his mouth indicative of an iron and The plane-tree, under which the poet would sit unscrupulous will; his brow strong in intellectual and entertain his friends in summer evenings, also vigour; his whole physiognomy sensual and selfish. flourished; but the greater part of the little paddock Can you not suppose that you meet him in some of in the rear had disappeared, and a new street our by-lanes wondering at the changes which have was carried across the poet's garden, destroying passed upon the London of the sixteenth century, a part of the mushroom-beds which he cultivated or musing on the suspicions which he entertained with such care and pride. Though nearly a respecting a contract of marriage presumed to have quarter of a century had passed since Samuel been made between the Earl of Northumberland Rogers was its master, the house bore to the and Anne Boleyn previous to her marriage with end tokens of his former presence; and it required the king? Poor earl! he writes to Lord Cromwell no great stretch of imagination to picture the from his house on Newington Green a letter of venerable face and figure of the author of "The such abject earnestness, that one would imagine Pleasures of Memory" seated in his arm-chair his neck already felt the halter, or his eye caught here among his books and his friends. the cold gleam of the executioner's axe, while he denies with the greatest solemnity the fact of any such contract."

In King Henry's Walk, at the corner of Queen Margaret's Grove, and near the North London Railway, stands St. Jude's Church, a large edifice

Although the poem is stated by the author to refer to "an obscure village," there can be little doubt in the minds of those who read the "Pleasures of Memory" with attention, that many of the opening lines reflect the old house at Stoke Newington :

Stoke Newington.]

ST. MARY'S CHURCH.

As jars the hinge what sullen echoes call!
Oh! haste, unfold the hospitable hall!
That hall where once in antiquated state
The chair of justice held the grave debate;
Now stained with dews, with cobwebs darkly hung,
Oft has its roof with peals of rapture rung,
When round yon ample board in one degree
We sweetened every meal with social glee.

Ye household deities, whose guardian eye
Marked each pure thought, ere registered on high,
Still, still ye walk the consecrated ground,
And breathe the soul of Inspiration round.

*

As o'er the dusky furniture I bend,
Each chair awakes the feelings of a friend.
The storied arras, source of fond delight,
With old achievement charms the wildered sight.

That massive beam, with curious carvings wrought,
Whence the caged linnet soothed my pensive thought;
Those muskets, cased with venerable rust,

533 is a large Gothic edifice, and was built from the designs of Mr. W. Butterfield.

From Newington Green a short walk by way of Albion Road brings us near to the western end of Church Street, mentioned above, where stands the new parish church, dedicated to St. Mary. It is a very spacious and handsome structure, consisting of nave, side aisles, chancel, choir, and transepts, in the Early Decorated style, and was built from the designs of Sir G. Gilbert Scott. The interior is enriched with an elaborate reredos, representing the "Last Supper;" and the capitals of the pillars of the nave are sculptured with English foliage. The church was consecrated in 1858, and the tower and spire were completed in 1890. They are nearly 250 feet high; the spire is said to be the finest modern spire in England. It is from the designs of Mr. J. O. Scott.

The church stands on the south of the road

Those once-loved forms, still breathing through their facing the former parish church, which is still

dust;

Still from the frame, in mould gigantic cast,
Starting to life-all whisper of the past.
As through the garden's desert paths I rove,
What fond illusions swarm in every grove.

*

Childhood's lov'd group revisits every scene,
The tangled wood-walk and the tufted green;
Indulgent memory wakes, and lo! they live,
Clothed with far softer hues than light can give."

A writer in the Mirror (1824), in giving his "Recollections of Newington Green," says that it is memorable for having been the residence of persons of distinguished talents. An academy, which was some years since pulled down, formerly (1747) belonged to the celebrated James Burgh, which he supported with great reputation to himself and benefit to his scholars for nineteen years. He was the author of "The Dignity of Human Nature," "Thoughts on Education," "A Warning to Dram-drinkers," &c. Its last master was Dr. James Lindsay, who suddenly expired at Dr. Williams's Library, Red Cross Street, whilst advocating the cause of public education. He was long pastor of the Dissenting meeting-house upon the green, whose pulpit had been occupied by Dr. Price, Dr. Towers, &c. On this spot, too, at one time, resided Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, of whom we have already spoken in our account of St. Pancras.*

allowed to remain as hitherto, though practically reduced to the second rank of a chapel of ease to the daughter edifice. The old parish church is a low-roofed structure. It was erected, in the place of a still older edifice, by William Patten, the lessee of the manor in 1563, which date appears over the south doorway. The building has since been repeatedly enlarged, and a spire added. It is small and unattractive, especially in its interior, where are to be seen a variety of specimens of the square family pews, now almost obsolete. It was enlarged and "beautified" about the year 1829 by Sir Charles Barry, and was one of his first and poorest attempts in the Gothic style. The only part of the structure that can boast of antiquity is the south aisle, which contains the manorial pew, where it is said that the Princess Elizabeth was a worshipper during the reign of her sister Mary. In 1891 the fabric was put into thorough repair at the cost of £1,000, its character being unchanged.

In the chancel is a fine mural monument to Mrs, Sutton, who was married first to a Mr. Dudley, and whose second husband was Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School and Hospital. It was restored some years ago by a subscription among gentlemen who had been educated at the Charterhouse. The Rev. Dr. Gaskin, a former rector, lies in a vault on the north side of the church. Fearing that his body might be The handsome church of St. Matthias, once noted removed from its grave after his death, he was for its "ritualistic" services, is situated at the end buried, by his own desire, not here, but in St. of Howard Road, between the green and the main Gabriel's, Fenchurch Street. When that church road. It was consecrated about the year 1854. It was taken down in order to carry out improve