the Fortune Theatre, one of the earliest places for theatrical entertainment in London. It was first opened in 1599, for Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn. The latter, it is needless to remark, was also sole proprietor of the Bear Garden in Bankside, Southwark, and founder of Dulwich College. Alleyn's theatre was burnt down in 1621, but was shortly afterwards replaced by another, which was destroyed by a party of fanatical soldiers during the Commonwealth. In the Register of burials at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, may be traced the names of several of the actors at the Fortune Theatre. Playhouse Yard, which connects Golden Lane with Whitecross Street, still points out the site of the old theatre.

In Golden Lane also stood the Nursery, a seminary for educating children for the profession of the stage, established in the reign of Charles the Second, under the auspices of Colonel William Legge, Groom of the Bedchamber to that monarch, and uncle to the first Lord Dartmouth. Dryden speaks of it in his "Mac Flecknoe:".

Near these a Nursery erects its head,

Where Queens are formed, and future heroes bred;
Where unfledged actors learn to laugh and cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try,

And little Maximins the gods defy:

Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here,

Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear.

In Pepys's Diary are the following notices of the Nursery :-

“2 Aug. 1664. To the King's Playhouse, and

avoid his fury, she hastened with her husband to the Continent, where they suffered great privations, till the King of Poland received them under his protection, and installed them in the Earldom of Crozan.

Another noble family who resided in Barbican were the Egertons, Earls of Bridgewater, whose mansion, Bridgewater House, was once famous for the productiveness of its orchards. It was burnt down in April, 1687, during the occupancy of John third Earl of Bridgewater; when his two infant heirs, Charles Viscount Brackley, and his second son, Thomas, perished in the flames. The site of the mansion and gardens is now covered by Bridgewater Square.

The learned antiquary, Sir Henry Spelman, author of the "Archæological Glossary," died in Barbican in 1641.

On the south side of Beech Lane, Barbican, stood the residence of Prince Rupert, a portion of which was standing in the present century. In the parish-books of St. Giles's Cripplegate, is an entry of the payment of a guinea to the church ringers, for complimenting Charles the Second with a peal on the occasion of his visiting his kinsman in Barbican. Prince Rupert subsequently removed to a house in Spring Gardens, where he died. According to Stow, Beech Street derives its name from Nicholas de la Beech, Lieutenant of the Tower in the reign of Edward the Third.

In Golden, or Golding, Lane, Barbican, stood

the Fortune Theatre, one of the earliest places for theatrical entertainment in London. It was first opened in 1599, for Philip Henslowe and Edward Alleyn. The latter, it is needless to remark, was also sole proprietor of the Bear Garden in Bankside, Southwark, and founder of Dulwich College. Alleyn's theatre was burnt down in 1621, but was shortly afterwards replaced by another, which was destroyed by a party of fanatical soldiers during the Commonwealth. In the Register of burials at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, may be traced the names of several of the actors at the Fortune Theatre. Playhouse Yard, which connects Golden Lane with Whitecross Street, still points out the site of the old theatre.

In Golden Lane also stood the Nursery, a seminary for educating children for the profession of the stage, established in the reign of Charles the Second, under the auspices of Colonel William Legge, Groom of the Bedchamber to that monarch, and uncle to the first Lord Dartmouth. Dryden speaks of it in his "Mac Flecknoe :".

Near these a Nursery erects its head,

Where Queens are formed, and future heroes bred;

Where unfledged actors learn to laugh and cry,

Where infant punks their tender voices try,

And little Maximins the gods defy:

Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here,

Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear.

In Pepys's Diary are the following notices of the Nursery :-

"2 Aug. 1664. To the King's Playhouse, and

there I chanced to sit by Tom Killigrew, who tells me that he is setting up a Nursery; that is, going to build a house in Moorfields, wherein he will have common plays acted."

"24 Feb. 1667-8. To the Nursery, where none of us ever were before; where the house is better and the music better than we looked for, and the acting not much worse, because I expected as bad as could be; and I was not much mistaken, for it was so. Their play was a bad one, called 'Jeronimo is mad again,' a tragedy."

SMITHFIELD.

SMITHFIELD CATTLE-MARKET

IN

FORMER TIMES THE PLACE FOR

TOURNAMENTS, TRIALS BY DUELS, EXECUTIONS AND AUTOS DA FÈ.-TOURNAMENTS BEFORE EDWARD THE THIRD AND RICHARD THE SECOND.-TRIALS BY DUEL BETWEEN CATOUR AND DAVY, AND THE BASTARD OF BURGUNDY AND LORD SCALES.-REMARKABLE EXECUTIONS.-PERSONS WHO SUFFERED MARTYRDOM IN THE FLAMES AT SMITHFIELD.-INTERVIEW THERE BETWEEN WAT TYLER AND RICHARD THE SECOND.-SIR WILLIAM WALWORTH.

SMITHFIELD, corrupted from Smooth-Field, has been used for the purposes of a cattle-market for nearly seven centuries. Fitstephen, in his account of London, written before the twelfth century, describes it as a plain field, where, every Friday, a number of valuable horses were exposed for sale. "Thither," he says, "come to look, or buy, a great number of Earls, Barons, Knights, and a swarm of citizens. It is a pleasing sight to behold the ambling nags and generous colts proudly prancing."

Shakespeare has an allusion to the sale of horses in Smithfield :

Falstaff. Where's Bardolph ?

Page.-He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse. Falstaff. I bought him in Paul's, and he 'll buy me a horse in Smithfield an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.

Second Part of King Henry IV. act i. sc. 2.