what that name implies, a place where the residents of the adjoining cloisters used to exercise; and it had also a view over the gardens upon which Peter-street, Great and Little Smith-street, Cowley, and North-street, and, indeed, all the ground upon which the church of St. John the Evangelist, and the various streets in its vicinity have been erected.* In Horseferry-road is the Gasometer and works belonging to the Gas Light and Coke Company. This is the most extensive, and, perhaps, the very best establishment of the kind in the metropolis. This company may be said to owe its origin to Frederick Albert Winsor, who made a public exhibition of the effect of gas, the evening of the king's birth-day in 1807, on the wall between the mall and the park. Mr. Winsor, however, has long ceased to have any concern with the establishment; and since he retired an act of parliament has been obtained, by which the company is become an incorporated body; and under the very able direction of Mr. Clegg, a scientific gentleman, of great information, who came from Manchester for that purpose, the works have been greatly improved, and the most busy and active part of the city of Westminster is already illuminated by the gas produced at the gasometer in Peter-street. The premises are very extensive, and the gasometers are protected from the weather by strong brick buildings. The farthest extremity of the city of Westminster is at Mill-bank, a long row of houses, some of them very neat, extending along the south west bank of the Thames, and looking over to the county of Surrey, where the venerable palace of Lambeth presents itself as an object of great interest and importance in the annals and history of this country. In the reign of queen Elizabeth, Millbank was a mere marshy tract. Here is situate a house called Peterborough-house, supposed to have been built by the first earl of Peterborough, in whose family it continued till the year 1735, when it was purchased by sir Robert Grosvenor, from whom it descended to earl Grosvenor, whose family rebuilt it in its present form. At one time the Horse-ferry was one of the most frequented pas sages over the Thames. It is in contemplation to erect a chain bridge across the river from this spot on the principles laid down by captain Brown, R. N. the architect of the chain pier, Brighton, Hammersmith-bridge, &c. Penitentiary. After nearly half a century spent in deliberation, even when the necessity of the measure was acknowledged, a penitentiary, as a substitute for transportation, was erected at an expense of more than * European Mag. Aug. 1808. half a million of money; and, after an experiment of seven years, the mal' aria of Millbank has defeated the views of the legislature, and the principal part of the prisoners have all been removed either to the ci-devant Ophthalmic Hospital, Regent's Park, or the hulks at Woolwich. So early as the year 1779, a plan was formed for a system of penitentiary imprisonment, calculated to reform offenders; and an act was drawn up under the direction of sir William Blackstone, with the advice and concurrence of Mr. Howard. In the preamble of this act (which passed the legislature), a conviction was expressed, that if many offenders convicted of crimes for which transportation has been usually inflicted, were ordered to solitary confinement, accompanied by well regulated labour and religious instruction, it might be the means, under Providence, not only of deterring others from the commission of the like crimes, but also of reforming the individuals and inuring them to habits of industry.' Fifteen years after this declaratory statute had passed, it was followed by a new act of parliament for carrying the plan into effect, and a contract was entered into with Mr. Jeremy Bentham for that purpose; but so many difficulties arose in the mode of carrying this measure into execution, that the contract was re-purchased for the sum of 23,5781. and the plan abandoned until the year 1811, when a committee of the house of commons recommended that it should be resumed. acres. Millbank was fixed upon as the site of the new Penitentiary, which was almost immediately commenced, under the direction of Mr. Harvey; and so rapidly was the work conducted, that in 1816 a part of the building was opened for the reception of convicts. The building is of a sexagonal form, and occupies a space of eighteen In the centre are the apartments of the governor, whence he can have a complete view of the seven distinct wards which surround him. The rooms for the prisoners are about twelve feet by seven, and are supplied with a bedstead and comfortable clothing; the prisoners are kept to hard labour, but are entitled to a per centage of their earnings, which is set apart as a fund for them on their discharge. The Penitentiary was at first only intended for 400 male, and an equal number of female convicts; but it is capable of holding 1000: and it appears from a report of the select committee of the house of commons in 1823, that when the committee visited the prison, there were 869 prisoners, of whom 566 were males, and 303 females Of these 101 had been sentenced to transportation for life, 57 for fourteen, and 711 for seven years. The ratio in which the transportation is commuted for imprisonment in the Penitentiary is, that all those who have been capitally convicted are imprisoned for ten years; those who are sentenced to fourteen years transportation for seven; and all seven years' cases for five. This commutation is disproportionate, but the smallest term was fixed conformably to an opinion expressed by Mr. Howard, that five years should be the minimum of imprisonment on the Penitentiary system. Although solitary confinement and hard labour may in some cases be an excellent mode of prison discipline, yet the experiment at the Millbank Penitentiary has not been a successful one; and it is perhaps doubtful, how far a system which is calculated to excite feelings of despair and weariness of thought can be conducive to the reformation of the offenders; though it may insure a dreadful punishment. The motto which Dante gives for the gates of the Infernal Regions, might with little qualification be inscribed on the entrance of the Millbank Penitentiary. Lassat' ogni speranza, vio che 'ntrate. An evil attending the Penitentiary at Millbank, though it does not apply to the system, is, that although the prisoners are employed in the manufacturing trades, yet, says the report, it is in evidence that the best class of work is not taught, and that those who are brought up as tailors, can hardly hope to gain their daily bread, at their discharge. That it may happen that persons who have passed from five to ten years in the Penitentiary, may be discharged from it, without any means of gaining their subsistence, and may thus be exposed to temptations by which poverty and want are assailed, and which perhaps originally induced them to commit the crimes which had subjected them to punishment.' At the western extremity of Millbank is Vauxhall Bridge. This bridge was projected in 1808, by Ralph Dodd, the father of the projector of Waterloo bridge; and a company was incorporated in the next year for the purpose of building a bridge from the south side of the river, at or near Cumberland gardens, or Vauxhall turnpike, in Lambeth, to the opposite shore, called Millbank, in the parish of St. John, Westminster.' The first stone on the Middlesex side was laid by lord Dundas, as proxy of his royal highness the prince regent, on May 9, 1811; and the bridge. was finished and thrown open to the public, in August 1816. It is a light and elegant structure, consisting of nine arches of cast iron, each 78 feet span, and between 11 and 12 feet rise, which rest on eight piers of 13 feet each, formed by building on wooden framing for a foundation, with a casing of stone. The total expence of the structure is stated to have been upwards of 300 0007 CHAPTER V. History and Topography of the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, Westminster. This parish was formerly of great extent, and reached from Drury-lane to Hyde-park; the several parishes of St. George, St. James, St. Anne, and St. Paul, have been taken out of it. This parish is bounded on the north by the parishes of St. George, Hanover-square; St. James, St. Anne, and St. George's Bloomsbury; on the east by St. Clement, Dane, and the precinct of the Savoy; on the south by St. Paul's, and St. Margaret's; and on the west by St. George, Hanover-square. Its precise bounds are as follows: Commencing at Whitehall stairs it pursues a westerly direction through the Horse Guards, across St. James's-park to Cumberlandgate, where it turns to the north across the court before the principal front of the palace, (which is in St. George's, Hanover-square) thence to Grosvenor-place, and on to Hyde-park corner; along Piccadilly to the east side of the Green-park where it turns to the south; thence through Cleveland-row, including the palace of St. James's, behind the houses on the south side of Pall Mall to Warwick-street, up the Haymarket, along Coventry-street, down Whitcomb-street, Spur-street, and across Leicester-square, from the south west corner to the north east corner, thence through Bearstreet, along Castle-street, Newport-street and Upper St. Martin'slane, thence through Castle-street, (Seven Dials) to Drurylane, where it takes a southerly direction to White-hart-yard, thence along Brydges-street, on the east side of Bow-street, and on the north side of Hart-street, at the western extent of which it takes a southerly direction to the south side of Chandos-street; here it again bends eastward to Southampton-street, and turns across the Strand, down Cecil-street, to the Thames. St. Martin's Church. There was very early a church on this spot; for it appears that in 1225 there was a dispute between the abbot of Westminster and the bishop of London, concerning the exemption of the church from the jurisdiction of the latter. It is not improbable that it might at that time have been a chapel for the use of the monks, when they visited their convent-garden, which reached to the church. Be that as it may, the endowments fell with their possessions, and the living is at present in the gift of the bishop of London. During the reign of Henry VIII. the parish was so poor that the king built them a small church at his own expence; this structure lasted till the year 1607, when the inhabitants having become more numerous, it was enlarged. At length, becoming ruinous, after many expensive repairs, it was wholly taken down in the year 1720-1. Dr. Richard Willis, bishop of Salisbury, by order of George 1. laid the first stone of the present structure, on which is fixed the following inscription: D. S. SERENISSIMUS REX GEORGIUS PER DEPUTATUM SUUM REVDUM ADMODUM IN XTO PATREM RICARDUM EPISCOP. SARISBUR. SUMMUM SUUM ELEEMOSY NARIUM ADSISTENTE (REGIS JUSSU) D THO. HEWYT, EQU. AUR. ÆDIFICIORUM REGIORUM CURATORE PRINCIPALI PRIMUM NUJUS ECCLESIA LAPIDEM POSUIT MARTII XIXO ANO DNI MDCCXXI, ANNOQUE REGNI SUI VIVO. It was intended to have made this a round church, and two plans were presented by Mr. Gibbs to the commissioners, but were properly rejected. The model of one is preserved in Westminster abbey, and engravings of both are inserted in the architect's work 'Architecture.' The church was consecrated on October 20, 1726. On the laying the first stone, the king gave one hundred guineas to be distributed among the workmen, and sometime after 1,500l. to purchase an organ. The whole expense of building and decorating the church amounted to 36,8917. 108. 4d.; the detail is as follows: 1. 8. d. 33,017 9 3 Artificers for building.... 3 1,500 0 0 £36,891 10 4 £33,450 of this sum was granted by parliament, and the rest |