CHAPTER XLI.
SCOTLAND YARD AND THE METROPOLITAN POLICE.
"Stands Scotland where it did?"—Shakespeare.
Situation and Extent—Originally the Residence of the Scottish Kings and Ambassadors when in England—Margaret Queen of Scots entertained here—Decay of the Palace—John Milton and "Beau" Fielding Residents here—Inigo Jones, Sir John Denham, and Sir Christopher Wren—Sir John Vanbrugh and his "Goose Pie"—Sir Joshua Reynolds' Encomiums on Vanbrugh's Merits—Rowe's Poetical
Allusion to him—Josiah Wedgwood's Residence—The "Well's" Coffee House—Attack on Lord Herbert of Cherbury—The Palace
Court or Marshalsea—The Metropolitan Police Force—Cabs and Hackney Coaches—Sedan Chairs—Care of "Tipplers"—Harrington
House—Cox and Co.'s Army Agency—"Man's" Coffee House—Whitehall Place—Middle Scotland Yard—Royal United Service Institution—Government Offices—Fife House—A "canny" Scotch Earl—Whitehall Stairs.
Having finished our "tour of the Thames" by way
of the new Embankment, we must ask our readers
to throw themselves in imagination back a century
or so, and to step with ourselves mentally out of a
Thames wherry alongside of the old Palace stairs
at Whitehall, at the end abutting on Scotland Yard,
which lies immediately on our right as we land.
To this spot, most interesting on account of its
old associations, it is our intention to devote the
present chapter.
Scotland Yard, since 1829, has been chiefly
known as the head-quarters of the Metropolitan
Police, a force first instituted in that year, under the
auspices of Sir Robert Peel. It is bounded on the
east by what were once the grounds of Northumberland House, and is now divided into Great and
Middle Scotland Yard, the latter division lying
close to Whitehall Yard. Both yards together
constitute a poor and mean space, irregularly built,
and which certainly is no credit to the city of
which it forms so important a part. How few of
our readers, or of the Metropolitan Police Force
themselves, are aware that those mean buildings
cover the site of what was once a magnificent
palace, built by our Saxon sovereigns for the reception of the kings of Scotland, as often as they
visited this country.
Old writers describe the locality as lying a little
to the south of Charing Cross, on the eastern side
of the highway leading thence to Whitehall, where
there stood a "palace with large pleasure-grounds
extending to the river;" and where, according to
Stow, "great buildings have been, for the receipt
of the kings of Scotland, and other estates of that
country." The old chronicler speaks of the site
as "a large plot of ground enclosed with brick
[walls], and called 'Scotland.'" "This property,"
says Mr. Newton, in his "London in the Olden
Time," "was given by the Saxon King Edgar to
Kenneth III., King of Scotland, for his residence,
upon his annual visit to London to do homage for
his kingdom to the Crown of England. It continued afterwards to be the residence of the Scottish
kings when they attended the English Parliament
as barons of the realm. The last of the Scottish
royal family who resided here," he adds, "was
Margaret, Queen of Scots, and sister to King
Henry VIII., who had her abiding there when she
came to England after the death of her husband,"
James IV., who fell at the battle of Flodden Field.
She was here entertained with great splendour by
her brother, as soon as he was reconciled to her
second marriage with the Earl of Arran; afterwards she lived here as became a widow, in privacy,
keeping up little or no semblance of state. A note
in Brayley's "Londoniana" states: "The Scottish
kings appear to have been anciently regarded as
members of the English Parliament; and there
are instances among the Tower Records of the
issuing of writs to summon their attendance at
Westminster. Thus in Pinkerton's 'Iconographia
Scotica' is an engraving of Edward I. sitting in
Parliament, with Alexander King of Scots on his
right, and Llewellyn Prince of Wales on his left;
and this is said to have been taken from a copy of
an ancient limning formerly in the English College
of Arms." It may be added that it was for their
fiefs in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and not
for their dominions to the north of the Tweed, that
the Scottish sovereigns did homage. Besides the
Scottish kings, their ambassadors also were lodged
here from time to time.
The situation and extent of the mansion and
grounds which occupied this site are well known to
the antiquary and topographer. Concerning the
details of the palace, however, we are much in the
dark. There is no print of it in existence, so far as
we have been able to discover; and almost all that
is known about it prior to the Reformation is that
it was allowed to fall into decay by Henry VIII.—most probably on account of the part which James
had taken in siding with the French in the wars
between the two countries.
In the reign of Elizabeth the palace had become
a ruin; and upon the union of the Scottish and
English crowns the raison d'être of the palace had
ceased to exist. It was therefore dismantled, and
partly demolished, its site being devoted to some
of the offices of the Government, for which its
proximity to Whitehall fitted it admirably.
Here John Milton lived whilst serving the
Government of the Commonwealth, and acting as
Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and here he
lost an infant son. Here died, in the early part of
the last century, that mixture of Hercules and
Adonis, the eccentric "Beau Fielding," divorced
from the notorious Duchess of Cleveland on the
ground of bigamy, as being already the husband of
the Dowager Countess of Purbeck. A full account
of the career of Beau Fielding will be found in
Nos. 50 and 51 of the Tatler, drawn by the pen
of Sir Richard Steele.
Part of the remains of the Palace was, for many
years, the official residence of the Surveyor of
Works to the Crown. "Here," writes Mr. Peter
Cunningham, "lived Inigo Jones; here died his
successor, Sir John Denham, the poet of Cooper's
Hill, and his successor again, Sir Christopher Wren;
and here, in a fantastic house, immortalised by
Swift in some ludicrous lines, lived Sir John Vanbrugh. The house of the latter was designed and
built by himself, from the ruins of Whitehall, destroyed by fire in 1697."
Mr. P. Cunningham, in his "Life of Inigo Jones,"
tells us an anecdote of the great architect connected
with this place, illustrative of the insecurity of the
times: "Near his house in Scotland Yard, Inigo
Jones, uniting with Nicholas Stone, the sculptor,
buried his money in a private place. The Parliament published an order encouraging servants to
inform of such concealments, and as four of the
workmen were privy to the deposit, Jones and his
friends removed it privately, and with their own
hands buried it in Lambeth Marsh."
SCOTLAND YARD, ABOUT 1720.
Sir John Vanbrugh, who died in 1726, was celebrated in his day not merely as an architect, but
also as a comic poet and an accomplished man of
letters. He was Comptroller of the Royal Works
and Palaces, and his house between Scotland Yard
and Whitehall, which he built for himself, was remarkable for its tiny dimensions. His friends
called it a "pill-box," and Swift compared it to a
goose-pie. The small size of his own house certainly was a fair object of ridicule when contrasted
with the ponderous dimensions of his palace of
Blenheim, and his other public buildings. The
epitaph on his tomb is witty and well known—
"Lie heavy on him, earth, for he
Laid many a heavy load on thee."
When he was made Clarencieux King-at-Arms Swift
said he might now "build houses." The secret of
this ridicule was that Vanbrugh was a Whig. Sir
Joshua Reynolds has left the following high encomium on his merits as an architect:—"In the
buildings of Vanbrugh, who was a poet as well as
an architect, there is a greater display of imagination than we shall find, perhaps, in any other; and
this is the ground of the effect we feel in many of
his works, notwithstanding the faults with which
many of them are charged. For this purpose Vanbrugh appears to have had recourse to some principles of the Gothic architecture, which, though not
so ancient as the Grecian, is more so to our imagination, with which the artist is more concerned than
with absolute truth. "To speak of Vanbrugh,"
adds Sir Joshua, "in the language of a painter, he
had originality of invention, he understood light
and shadow, and had great skill in composition.
To support his principal object he produced his
second and third groups in masses. He perfectly
understood, in his art, what is the most difficult in
ours, the conduct of the background, by which the
design and invention are set off to the greatest
advantage. What the background is in painting,
in architecture is the real ground on which the
building is erected; and no architect took greater
care that his work should not appear crude and
hard—that is, that it did not abruptly start out of
the ground without expectation or preparation."
"This is a tribute which a painter owes to an
architect who composed like a painter, and was
defrauded of the due reward of his merit by the
wits of his time, who did not understand the principles of composition in poetry better than he, and who
knew little or nothing of what he understood perfectly—the general ruling principles of architecture and painting. Vanbrugh's fate was that of the great Perrault.
Both were the objects of the petulant sarcasms of
factious men of letters, and both have left some of
the fairest monuments which to this day decorate
their several countries—the façade of the Louvre,
Blenheim, and Castle Howard."
It need scarcely be remarked here, in explanation
of the allusion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, that Vanbrugh was almost as celebrated for his comedies as
for his architecture. Rowe thus mentions him:—
"I'm in with Captain Vanbrugh at the present,
A most sweet-mannered gentleman and pleasant;
He writes your comedies, draws schemes and models,
And builds dukes' houses upon very odd hills.
For him, so much I dote on him, that I,
If I was sure to go to heaven, would die."
There was, in 1767–8, at the corner of Scotland
Yard, opposite the Admiralty, a large house for
which Josiah Wedgwood was in treaty, in order to
establish a show-room or gallery of his pottery and
porcelain at the West End; but, from some reason
or other, the negotiation dropped through.
Here, too, was a celebrated coffee-house named
"Well's," as appears from the following advertisement in Salisbury's Flying Post, preserved in the
first volume of Malcolm's "Manners and Customs of London:"—"Whereas, six gentlemen (all
of the same honourable profession), having been
more than ordinarily put to it for a little pocketmoney, did, on the 14th instant, in the evening,
near Kentish Town, borrow of two persons (in a
coach) a certain sum of money, without staying to
give bond for the repayment; and whereas, fancy
was taken to the hat, peruke, cravat, sword, and
cane of one of the creditors, which were all lent as
freely as the money: these are therefore to desire
the said six worthies, how fond soever they may be
of the other loans, to un-fancy the cane again, and
send it to 'Well's' Coffee-house, in Scotland Yard,
it being too short for any such proper gentlemen as
they are to walk with, and too small for any of
their important uses, and, withal, only valuable as
having been the gift of a friend."
It was in Scotland Yard that a knight, Sir John
Ayres, with the aid of four retainers, in a fit of ungrounded jealousy, waylaid Lord Herbert of Cherbury, whom he attacked with swords and daggers,
though he did not succeed in wounding him, as we
learn from that noble lord's "Life."
Early in the present century the Palace Court or
Marshalsea was held in Scotland Yard. The court
had jurisdiction of all civil suits within twelve
miles of the palace. The process was short and
not expensive, judgment being obtained in three
weeks.
In 1829, on the formation of the new police,
introduced by Sir Robert Peel to supersede the
ancient "Charlies," Scotland Yard was made, as
we have said, the principal station of the Metropolitan Force. The area under their jurisdiction
(which excludes the City of London proper) extends from Cheshunt in the north to Chipstead in
the south, and from Chadwell Heath in the east
to Staines in the west. The Metropolitan Police
district contains the whole of the county of Middlesex, and the parishes in the counties of Surrey,
Hertford, Essex, and Kent of which any part is
within twelve miles of Charing Cross, and those
also of which any part is not more than fifteen
miles in a straight line from Charing Cross, except
the City of London and the Liberties. It is also
employed in Her Majesty's dockyards and military
stations situated beyond the Metropolitan Police
district.
In 1874 the Metropolitan Police Force consisted
of 9,883 men. Of this number the duties absorbed
38 superintendents, 275 inspectors, 854 sergeants,
and 8,089 constables. The proportion of old constables in the Metropolitan Police shows a steady
increase, and is a good test of the popularity of
the service. In 1864 there were 4,136 men whose
service exceeded five years, and in 1874 that number had increased to 5,934; the number of young
constables in the year 1864, with an authorised
strength of 7,410 men, being very nearly the same
as in 1874, when the strength had increased to
9,883. In Scotland Yard there are various other
departments besides that connected with the Police
Force. Here is the Prisoners' Property Office, and
also the office for cab and omnibus licences. If
articles are left in a cab they can be applied for at
the Police Office in Scotland Yard, whither every
cab-driver is bound to take them.
The office for cab licences and regulations,
before its removal to Scotland Yard, had been for
many years located in Essex Street, in the Strand.
We learn from a letter addressed to the Earl of
Strafford in 1634, that "The Maypole" in the Strand
was the place where the first stand of hackney
carriages was established in London; the enterprising gentleman who introduced them to the
public was a Captain Bailey—the same, it is supposed, who had served under Raleigh in one of his
expeditions to Guiana. The following is an extract
from the letter:—"He hath erected, accg to his
ability, some four hackney coaches, put his men in
livery, and appointed them to stand at 'The Maypole,' in the Strand, giving them instructions at what
rates to carry men into several parts of the town,
where all day they may be had. Other hackney
men seeing this way, they flocked to the same
place, and perform their journeys at the same rate,
so that sometimes there is twenty of them together,
which disperse up and down, so that they and
others are to be had everywhere, as watermen are
to be had at the waterside. Everybody is much
pleased with it, for whereas before coaches could
not be had but at great rates, now a man may have
one much cheaper." A strange contrast these four
hackney coaches of 1634 make to the thousands of
hansoms and four-wheeled cabs which now ply for
hire in the great metropolis!
The use of hackney coaches was but very
trifling in 1626; for among the many monopolies
granted by the king was one which gave rise to the
use of sedan chairs in London. This grant was
made to Sir Sanders Duncombe, who had probably
seen them at Sedan, in France, where they were
first made; it is expressed in the following terms:—"Whereas the streets of our cities of London and
Westminster, and their suburbs, are of late so much
encumbered with the unnecessary multitude of
coaches that many of our subjects are thereby
exposed to great danger, and the necessary use of
carts and carriages for provisions thereby much
hindered; and Sir Sanders Duncombe's petition,
representing that in many parts beyond sea people
are much carried in chairs that are covered, whereby
few coaches are used among them; wherefore we
have granted to him the sole privilege to use, let,
or hire a number of the said covered chairs for
fourteen years."
This patent was soon followed by a proclamation against hackney coaches, strictly commanding,
"That no hackney coach should be used in the
City of London, or suburbs thereof, other than by
carrying of people to and from their habitations in
the country; and that no person should make use
of a coach in the City except such persons as could
keep four able horses fit for his Majesty's service,
which were to be ready when called for under a
severe penalty."
That sedan chairs were in use in the East long
before they were known in France or in London is
clear from the fact that one is introduced in Sir G.
Staunton's Embassy to China. And if a classical
origin be sought for them, it is on record that Pliny
states that his own uncle was accustomed to be
carried abroad in a chair.
At the end of the seventeenth, and throughout
the greater part of the eighteenth century, the
sedan chair was the vehicle almost always employed by "the quality" at the West End in going
backwards and forwards between each other's
houses, and to Court. Even at the coronation of
William III. the peers and peeresses who desire to
be present are desired, in the official programme,
to come in chairs, carriages and coaches not being
allowed on that day to approach the Abbey. At
the coronation of George I. and George II. both
were allowed.
Hackney coaches, superseding as they did the
old "sedans," were, at first, often called "hackney
chairs," the word chaise being a sort of equivalent
for a "chair," and also for a "carriage." Thus, in
his "Book for a Rainy Day," Mr. Smith remarks
that in 1766 "hackney chairs were so numerous that
their stands extended round Covent Garden, and
often down the adjacent streets." Not only was the
sedan chair one of the necessary social appliances of
the London people in the early part of the present
century, but the same may be said of the good old
lumbering hackney coach. This genteel vehicle, in
the natural order of events, like the heavy stagecoaches, has long ago become a thing of history.
It is a sorry thing to reflect upon how the cherished
objects of our youth pass away, and are superseded
by modern inventions, to be in their turn associated
with notions of antiquity in the minds of a generation of beings having new ideas and new habits.
Apropos of cabs and the police—or, rather,
parliamentary regulations for the suppression of
drunkenness—we may be pardoned for giving the
following curious piece of information relating to
the "Jarveys" of old, for which we are indebted
to Walker's "Original:"—"I will add one more
instance of change. A retired hackney-coachman,
giving an account of his life to a friend of mine,
stated that his principal gains had been derived
from cruising at late hours in particular quarters of
the town to pick up drunken gentlemen. If they
were able to tell their address, he conveyed them
straight home; if not, he carried them to certain
taverns, where the custom was to secure their
property and put them to bed. In the morning
he called to take them home, and was generally
handsomely rewarded. He said there were other
gentlemen who pursued the same course, and they
all considered it their policy to be strictly honest.
The same calling is said to have been pursued for
many years in Paris. The tariff for taking the
drunkard home is—or was—ten sous; and his
conductor was known as L'Ange Gardien."
Instead of a few dozens of chairs and hackney
coaches, the people of London, writes Mr. Diprose, in his "Book about London," "are now
daily whisked about the town in upwards of three
thousand cabs and twelve hundred omnibuses, besides a fleet of river steamers. These conveyances
annually carry more passengers than three times
the number of the whole population of the United
Kingdom."
Hard by the north side of Scotland Yard, in a
blind alley called Craig's Court, opening out of
Charing Cross and backing upon what was once
the western side of the garden of Northumberland
House, is Harrington House, a dull, heavy, and
gloomy mansion, belonging to the Earls of Harrington. Here, too, is the establishment of Messrs.
Cox and Co., the great army agents; whilst close
by, as nearly as possible on the site of what is now
Mr. Wyld's map repository, stood the "Northumberland" Coffee-house, one of Sheridan's favourite
haunts at the beginning of the present century.
Between Scotland Yard and the river-side in
the rear was "Man's," or as it was sometimes
styled, "Old Man's" Coffee-house; and another,
possibly a rival one, known as "Young Man's."
The former is said by Mr. Peter Cunningham to
have been so called after the first keeper—one
Alexander Man—and to have dated from the reign
of Charles II. Defoe, in his "Journey through
England," mentions them among the lesser though
favourite coffee-houses of the day. "The Scots,"
he writes, "go generally to the 'British,' and a
mixture of all sorts to the 'Smyrna.' There are
also other little coffee-houses much frequented in
this neighbourhood—'Young Man's' for officers;
'Old Man's' for stock-jobbers, paymasters, and
courtiers; and 'Little Man's' for sharpers."
Whitehall Place, which we cross on our way to
Middle Scotland Yard, was formed about the year
1820. It is a broad thoroughfare now connecting
the Embankment with Whitehall, opposite the
Admiralty. Here several of the houses are used
as Government offices—such as those of the
Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, and Church
Estates Commissioners; Parks, Palaces, and Public
Buildings; and Commissioners in Lunacy. No. 4
is one of the offices of the Metropolitan Police,
of whom we have already spoken. Here, too, are
the offices of the Habitual Criminals' Registers
and Receivers. The house No. 15, adjoining the
entrance to Middle Scotland Yard, was for many
years occupied by the Royal Geographical Society,
whose rooms are now in Savile Row.
A portion of Middle Scotland Yard is occupied
by the United Service Museum, the entrance to
which is in Whitehall Yard. This institution was
founded in 1831, and contains a splendid collection of arms and accoutrements, and models illustrative of the naval architecture of various nations.
Two of the models are particularly worthy of
notice—that of "The Field and Battle of Waterloo,"
by Captain Siborne; and "The South of the Crimea
and Siege of Sebastopol," by Colonel Hamilton.
A smaller model, but one of equal interest to the
above, gives the visitor a clear idea of Nelson's
last and greatest victory, the battle of Trafalgar.
There is also a Chinese cabinet, and a variety of
naval and military curiosities. Here the curious
visitor may see, among the articles exhibited, the
jaws of a shark enclosing a tin box. The history
of this tin box is thus told by Mr. John Timbs:—"A ship on her way to the West Indies fell in
with and chased a suspicious-looking craft, which
had all the appearance of a slaver. During the
pursuit the chased vessel threw something overboard. She was subsequently captured, and taken
into Port Royal to be tried as a slaver. In absence of the ship's papers and other proofs, the
slaver was not only in a fair way to escape condemnation, but her captain was anticipating the
recovery of pecuniary damages against his captor
for illegal detention. While the subject was under
discussion, a vessel came into port which had followed closely in the track in the chase above
described. She had caught a shark; and in its
stomach was found a tin box, which contained the
slaver's papers. Upon the strength of this evidence
the slaver was condemned. The written account
is attached to the box." There is here also an
extensive and valuable collection of natural history,
particularly of insects and reptiles; the animals,
which are in good preservation, are chiefly from
tropical climates. The mineralogical cabinet,
which consists of many thousand species, is very
valuable. There is also a collection of Grecian
and Roman vases and coins, and general antiquities. In the armoury chamber are many remarkable relics, which associate us with the great and
perilous events in the history of our own and other
countries. From the savage's war-dress of skin
and feathers to the latest improvement in armourplated vessels—from clubs and bows and arrows
to the Gatling gun, the development of war
material may be traced through almost every stage.
Of the Gatling gun, by the way, there is here an
actual specimen—not a model—having ten barrels
and a range of 1,000 yards, capable of pouring out
a torrent of bullets at the rate of seventy a minute
by the mere turning of a handle, after the fashion of
a barrel-organ. This will be found in an inner room
of the institution, the first section of which comprises a vast accumulation of the implements of
savage warfare. One interesting relic of a bygone
system of naval warfare may be discovered in a
piece of clockwork, which formed part of the
paraphernalia of an old-fashioned fire-ship. This
mechanism was so contrived that at the end of a
given time it would set fire to the vessel as it bore
down to the enemy. Another means of accomplishing a somewhat similar result, though without
any reference to the enemy, is shown in the nest of
a family of rats discovered on board the Revenge.
These frugal creatures had laid by a store of
matches, which ignited and set fire to the nest, the
burnt remnant of which shows what a very narrow
escape the vessel had from destruction. The
gradual development of the lifeboat into its present
form is shown in a very interesting series of models
running back to a very primitive type, and an old
suggestion for lessening the danger of the Goodwin
Sands is embodied in the model of a floating
refuge. Here, too, are kept the sad relics of the
unfortunate expedition to the Arctic regions, conducted by Sir John Franklin, and discovered by
Sir Leopold M'Clintock, of H.M.S. Fox, in 1859.
The United Service Institution was established
as a central repository for objects of professional
art, science, and natural history, and for books
and documents relative to those studies, or of
general information. The annual subscription is
ten shillings, and the sum of six pounds constitutes a member for life. The Museum consists
of a commodious suite of rooms, and a library
on the ground-floor. Admission free is afforded
to soldiers and sailors in uniform, and to the
general public by a member's order. Lectures
are delivered, and papers read on naval and
military subjects, at frequent intervals, by officers
and professional men; to these lectures members
have the privilege of introducing two friends (ladies
or gentlemen) either personally or by ticket.
At No. 3 in Whitehall Yard (now demolished)
was the office of the Comptroller-General of the
Exchequer, where was formerly held "The Trial of
the Pyx," a ceremony of late years performed at
the hall of the Goldsmiths' Company, as described
in page 357 of the first volume of this work. At
No. 6 is the office of the Army Medical Board.
In the course of the last century the greater
part of what had been the "Private" or "Privy"
Gardens of Whitehall Palace became gradually
covered by the houses of favoured nobles, who
obtained leases from the Crown at easy rents.
"Among the first of these," says Pennant, "on
the site of the small-beer cellar [of which a view is
preserved in No. 4 of Hollar's prints of Whitehall],
is the house of the Earl of Fife." Scotch to the
backbone, the noble earl who built it was resolved,
it would appear, that even when in London he
would never tread on other than Scottish soil; and,
therefore, when he embanked the river to form a
terrace commanding the water, he ordered that all
the gravel necessary to form it should be brought
up from his native Fifeshire. Fife House in the
last century was rich in curious relics of the past,
and must have been well worth a visit. Lord Fife
used to show with
pride a collection
of Gobelin tapestry, which he had
brought from
Paris, and a small
but select gallery
of paintings, including a portrait
of Charles I. when
Prince of Wales,
which was painted
by Velasquez at
Madrid. In one
of the walls of this
house was an archway of the Tudor
style which had a
direct communication with the Palace or Privy
Stairs at Whitehall.
A SEDAN CHAIR.
Fife House was for some years occupied by the
Earl of Liverpool during his premiership; and it
was within its walls that he breathed his last, in the
month of December, 1828. The house was pulled
down about the year 1862, to make room for improvements. It had for a few years been used as
the receptacle of the collection forming the East
India Museum, which was removed hither on the
demolition of the East India House in Leadenhall
street. The contents of this Museum were afterwards removed to the new India Office in Charles
Street. Here, close by, in 1835, lived the Right
Honourable James Abercromby, before he became
Speaker of the House of Commons; the last Lord
Liverpool at the same time occupying Fife House,
where his half-brother, the Premier, had died some
seven years before.
COACHES: REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.
Leading from the palace down to the river
were two pairs of
stairs—the one
public, the other
known as the
"privy" stairs, for
the use of the
Court. The first
was still in use in
Pennant's time;
"the other," says
that writer, "is
made up in the
old wall adjacent
to the house of the
Earl of Fife, where
the arch of the
portal remains
entire." Henry
and his daughter Elizabeth, as we know, made
by water such of their journeys and progresses as
they did not make on horseback, though on some
occasions they went mounted on a litter carried
on men's shoulders. "Coaches," says Pennant,
"had been introduced into England by Henry
Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, one of Elizabeth's admirers, but the spirited princess seems to have disdained their use. The author of "An Estimate
of the Manners of the Times," published in 1758,
asks, with reference to the Sedan chairs, of which
we have spoken above, "How would he have been
laughed at in the days of Elizabeth, when a great
queen rode on horseback to St. Paul's, who should
have foretold that in less than two centuries no
man of fashion would cross the street at the westend to dinner, without the effeminate covering and
conveyance of an easy chair?"
The last occasion on which Her Majesty went
by state upon the Thames was in 1849, when she
opened the new Coal Exchange in the City. On
that occasion she embarked and landed on her
return at Whitehall Stairs, as her proud predecessor
Elizabeth had often landed before her. Since
that year we believe that the royal barge has been
allowed to slumber in its dry-dock, and the royal
bargemaster and watermen have enjoyed a sinecure.