of recreation with her learned Chancellor, Sir Edward North; her kinsman, Lord Hunsdon, carrying the sword of state before her; her ladies following close behind her on their ambling palfreys; and a magnificent procession bringing up the rear. Passing through the gate, which still bears the heraldic badge of the Duke of Norfolk, she was probably led to this, the principal apartment of the old mansion; and here, surrounded by her ladies, received the homage of the statesmen and warriors of that chivalrous age.

Girt with many a baron bold,

Sublime their starry fronts they rear;
And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old
In bearded majesty appear.

In the midst, a form divine!

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line;
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,
Attempered sweet to virgin-grace;

What strings symphonious tremble in the air!

Charter House Square stands on the site of the burial-place of the ancient monastery. At the north-east corner stood the residence of the Rutland family, and when the old mansion was pulled down, on its site rose, in 1656, the well-known theatre of Sir William Davenant.

In Charter House Square died, on the 8th of December 1691, Richard Baxter, the eminent nonconformist divine.

Pardon Passage, in the immediate vicinity of Charter House Square, forms a curious link between

the days of Edward the Third and our own time. It is needless to remark that it derives its name from Pardon Churchyard, the designation originally given to the ground purchased by Bishop Stratford, in 1348, for the interment of the victims of the giant pestilence, whose ravages we have already recorded.

ST. JOHN'S GATE, CLERKENWELL, &c.

ST. JOHN'S GATE.-BECOMES THE RESIDENCE OF CAVE. -ANECDOTE
OF DR. JOHNSON AND CAVE.-ST. JOHN'S GATE NOW CONVERTED
INTO A PUBLIC HOUSE.-HISTORY OF THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN
OF JERUSALEM.—THE ORDER SUPPRESSED.-ST. JAMES, CLERKEN-
WELL.-MONUMENTS THERE. DERIVATION OF NAME OF CLERK-
ENWELL.
NEWCASTLE HOUSE.
BAGNIGGE WELLS.—SADLER'S WELLS.-HOCKLEY IN THE HOLE.

SIR THOMAS CHALONER.

TURNING from St. John's Street into St. John's Lane, we face the ancient gateway of the Hospital, or Priory, of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In the reign of James the First, this interesting gateway formed the residence of Sir Roger Wilbraham, to whom it was granted by that monarch. From this period little is known of its history, till the commencement of the last century, when it had become the private residence of the well-known Cave, the proprietor of the "Gentleman's Magazine," the first number of which issued from St. John's Gate.

Boswell mentions the feelings of "reverence," with which Dr. Johnson first gazed upon the old gateway, which he attributes to its association with the Gentleman's Magazine. "I suppose," he says, "that every young author has had the same

kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him. I myself recollect such impressions from the Scots' Magazine.'" But when Dr. Johnson gazed with "reverence" on St. John's Gateway, the "Gentleman's Magazine" had, in all probability, but little place in his thoughts. Mr. Croker justly observes, "If, as Boswell supposes, Johnson looked at St. John's Gate as the printing-office of Cave, surely a less emphatical term than reverence would have been more just. The Gentleman's Magazine' had been, at this time, but six years before the public, and its contents were, until Johnson himself contributed to improve it, entitled to anything rather than reverence; but it is more probable that Johnson's reverence was excited by the recollections connected with the ancient gate itself, the last relic of the once extensive and magnificent Priory of the heroic Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, suppressed at the Dissolution, and destroyed by successive dilapidations."

Malone relates a curious anecdote in connexion with Dr. Johnson and St. John's Gate. Shortly after the publication of Johnson's "Life of Savage," Walter Harte, the author of the "Life of Gustavus Adolphus," dined with Cave. A few days afterwards, Harte and Cave happened accidentally to meet, when the latter observed, "You made a man very happy the other day."—"How could that be," said Harte, "there was no one there but ourselves?" Cave then reminded him that during

dinner a plate of victuals had been sent behind a screen. They were for Johnson, he said, who was dressed so shabbily that he declined sitting down to table, but who had overheard the conversation, and was highly delighted with the encomiums on his work.

St. John's Gate, with all its interesting associations, has been long since converted into a publichouse. When the author of these "Memorials" recently paid a visit to the spot, he was struck by observing a copy of MS. verses, framed and glazed, hanging up in the tap-room, purporting that in that apartment Dr. Johnson used to dance attendance on Cave, the bookseller. The principal apartment he found hung with tawdry banners and tinsel armour, and on enquiry, was told that it was used as a refectory by a modern Order of Knights of St. John, consisting of tradesmen residing in the neighbourhood, who, entitling themselves Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, elect their Prior, or Grand Master, drink beer and smoke tobacco, and are not too proud to admit strangers to their social board, on payment of twopence a head.

The military Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem was founded, about the year 1100, by Jordan Briset, a Norman Baron, and Muriel, his wife. The dress of the Order was originally a black upper garment, with a white cross in front.

The Knights were required to take an oath of chastity; to be rigid in the performance of their devotions; to yield implicit obedience to their su