A Bit Of Old London.

hut I do not think enough has been made of the circumstances that , unlike her compeers , she seldom used her influence with the King for evil , or that she retained a strong hold in the affections of the people by her sympathies Avith their more innocent pleasures ancl pastimes . Buried in the old church of St Martin ' sin-the-fieldsa Tillotson did not disdain to preacn her funeral sermon . Shire

, Lane , Boswell Court , and one side of Bell Yard were cleared away for the neiv Law Courts . The lane is said to have derived its name from forming the boundary between the city and the shire . At the " Trumpet , " since called the " Duke of York , " in Shire Lane , Isaac Bickerstaff met his club , and hence dates many of his papers in The Tattler . Here also was the " Bible Tavern , " a favourite haunt , together with the " White Lion " in Wych Street ( pulled clown 1880 ) , of Jack

Sheppard . The " Bible Tavern " communicated by a subterranean passage with Bell Yard . To Bell Yard Pope often came , visiting Portescue , afterwards Master of the Rolls . At the house of Christopher Katt , a pastrycook famous for his mutton pies , in Shire Lane , was held the Hanoverian Kit-Kat Club . Jacob Tonson , the secretary , had the portraits of its members , with his own , painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller . These ictures form the celebrated Kit-Kat series

p , now preserved at Bayfordbury , in Hertfordshire . The six houses which I show in my drawing stand—or , rather , stood , for their demolition , with the exception of No . 193 to the east , has already been begun— -on the north side of Fleet Street , between the southern openings of Bell Yard and Chancery Lane . One of the group , iu particular , will be of lasting interest to all readers of this journalas being the premises of Mr . George

, Kenning , and the publishing office of The Freemason ancl kindred publications . The house itself is said to have been a residence of Izaak Walton , who shared it with one John Mason , a hosier . The next house to the east was an inn , long known by the sign of " The Harrow . " Some assert that when Walton moved

to Fleet Street—which he did in 1624—it was to the house on the other side of " The Harrow ; that is , to the house which stood on the site of Attenborough and Son ' s , No . 193 , at the south-western corner of Chancery Lane . I am told , though , that Walton lived for a while in Crown Court , at the rear , part of which was latel y pulled doAvn . Walton moved from'Fleet Street , in 1632 , to a house on the western side of Chancery Lane , a few doors from Fleet Street , and opposite to what wasin later the shop of Jacob Tonsonthe

book-, years , , seller . There he kept a sempster ' s , or man-milliner ' s , shop . If Mr . Kenning ' s was the house inhabited by Walton in Fleet Street , it had not then its present elevation , but resembled the two a little further eastwards , near the southern end of Fetter Lane . In one of those lived Drayton , who composed the "PolyoTbion . " The court passing between Prosser ' s warehouse and the " Cock " tavern ( to the west of the latter ) is Apollo Courtleading into Bell Yard ;

, it is a curious little thoroughfare , and well worth a visit . The destruction of the five houses in Fleet Street , threatens the time-honoured . " Cock " tavern , though only the front portion , happily , will fall a victim to the Dasmon of Improvement . Hither Pepys , to the great delight of his wife , would come gallivanting with the pretty , fascinating Mrs . Knipp , of the King ' s Theatre , Killigrew ' s new house in Drury Lane . He records how , on one occasion , they

" drank , ate a lobster , and sang , ancl mighty merry till almost midnight . " The scene of a lyrical " monologue " of the Laureate is laid at the " Cock , " and opens Avith a call for some of its celebrated port . The exterior of the tavern has no interesting features , but within one may see the high-backed settees—as at the " Cheshire Cheese , " in Wine Office Court ( where they yet shoAV Dr . Johnson ' s customary seatnext to the window in the first box on the riht hand

, g side as you enter ) , Avith a finely-carved oak mantelpiece of the Jacobean period . With small effort the visitor may picture what the room was as far back as , it is said—and I would be the last to deprive Mrs . Colnett of her inherited renown—the time of King Charles I .