80 WESTMINSTER. THE playhouses, in and about London, were by this time extremely numerous, there not being fewer than seventeen between the years 1570 and 1629. WESTMINSTER. name from a mill Here, in my boyish I Now return to the extremity of the western part of our capital, on the northern bank of the river. In the time of queen Elizabeth, the shore opposite to Lambeth was a mere marshy tract. MILL-BANK. Mill-bank, the last dwelling in Westminster, is a large house, which took its which once occupied its site. days, I often experienced the hospitality of the late Sir Robert Grovenor,* its worthy owner, by an ancestor of whom, it was purchased from the Mordaunts, earls of Peterborough. All the rest of his vast property about London devolved on him in right of his mother, Mary, daughter and heiress of Alexander Davies of Ebury, in the county of Middleser. I find, in the plan of London by Hollar, a mansion on this spot, under the name of Peterborough-house. It probably was built by the first earl of Peterborough. It was inhabited by his successors, and retained its name till the time of the death of that great but * Grandfather to the present Robert earl Grosvenor. ED. WESTMINSTER ABBY. irregular genius Charles, earl of Peterborough, in 1785. It was rebuilt in its present form by the Grovenor family. A LITTLE farther was the antient Horse-ferry HORSEbetween Westminster and Lambeth: suppressed - on the building of Westminster-bridge. The ferry having been the property of the archbishops of Canterbury, they were allowed the sum of 3,000l. which was funded. A LITTLE beyond the Horse-ferry stands the church of St. John the Evangelist, one of the fifty voted by parlement, to give this part of the town the air of the capital of a Christian country. It was begun in 1721, and finished in 1728. The architect was Mr. Archer, but Sir John Vanbrugh has usually the discredit of this pile.* Notwithstanding it is deservedly censured for its load of ornaments, they are by no means destitute of beauty. The aim at excess of magnificence is not a fault peculiar to the builder. FERRY. ST. JOHN GELIST'S. THE EVAN 81 Ar a small distance to the east is that noble WESTMINSTER ABBY. specimen of gothic architecture, the conventual church of St. Peter's abby of Westminster. The church is said to have been founded about the FOUNDED BY year 610, by Sebert king of the East-Saxons, on For this, and a number of other corrections and additions, I am obliged to the MS. notes of Mr. GRAY, in an interleaved copy of London and its Environs, which I had the honor of perusing, by the favor of the Earl of HARCOURT. SEBERT. G 82 WESTMINSTER ABBY. the ruins of the temple of Apollo, flung down, quoth legend, by an earthquake. The king dedicated his new church to St. Peter; who descended in person, with a host of heavenly choristers, to save the bishop, Mellitus, the trouble of consecration. The saint descended on the Surry side, in a stormy night; but, prevaling on Edric, a fisherman, to waft him over, performed the ceremony: and, as a proof, left behind the chrism, and precious droppings of the wax candles, with which the astonished fisherman saw the church illuminated. He conveyed the saint safely back; who directed him to inform the bishop that there was no farther need of consecration. He likewise directed Edric to fling out his nets, who was rewarded with a miraculous draught of salmons: the saint also promised to the fisherman and his successors, that they never should want plenty of salmon, provided they presented every tenth to his church. This custom was observed till at lest the year 1382. The fisherman that day had a right to sit at the same table with the prior; and he might demand of the cellarer, ale and bread; and the cellarer again might take of the fish's tail as much as he could, with four fingers and his thumb erect. THE place in which it was built was then styled Thornie island, from its being over-run with thorns and briers; and it was besides insu |