The Trinity House Almshouses, in the Mile End Road, founded in 1695, for decayed commanders of ships, mates, or pilots, and their wives and widows, have characteristic ornaments of shipping on their roofs, and a statue of Captain Saunders, a benefactor to the charity; died 1721.

Bancroft's Almshouses and School, Mile End, were built in 1735, with the ill-gotten fortune bequeathed by Francis Bancroft, grandson of Archbishop Bancroft, and an officer of the Lord Mayor's Court; and so hated for his mercenary and oppressive practices, that at his funeral, a mob, for very joy, rang the church bells of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, where is a tomb to his memory, erected in his life-time. The almsmen are twenty-four poor old members of the Drapers' Company; and the school boards, clothes, educates, and apprentices 100 boys. In May, 1850, there was a public dinner of persons brought up in Bancroft's School.

The Almshouses erected of late years are mostly picturesque buildings, in the old English style, with gables, turrets, and twisted chimneyshafts, of red brick, with handsome stone dressings.

The Marylebone Almshouses, built in St. John's Wood Terrace, Regent's Park, in 1836, originated in a legacy of 500l. from Count Woronzow; the site being leased for ninety-nine years, at a peppercorn rent, by Colonel Eyre, with two presentations to the Charity.

The London Almshouses were erected at Brixton, in 1833, to commemorate the passing of the Reform Bill, instead of by illumination.

The King William Naval Asylum, at Penge, opened 1849, for the widows of Commanders, Lieutenants, Masters, and Pursers in the Royal Navy, was built by Queen Adelaide, to the memory of William IV.

AMUSEMENTS, PAST AND PRESENT.

ARCHERY is mentioned among the summer pastimes of the London youth by Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry II.; and the repeated statutes from the 13th to the 16th centuries, enforcing the use of the Bow, invariably ordered the leisure time upon holidays to be passed in its exercise. Finsbury appears to have been a very early locality for Archery; for in the reign of Edward I. there was formed a society entitled the Archers of Finsbury, subsequently known as the Artillery Company. In the reign of Henry VII., all the gardens in Finsbury were destroyed by law," and of them was made a plain field for archers to shoote in ;" this being the appropriation of what is now called "the Artillery Ground." Among the curious books on Archery are the Ayme for Finsburie Archers, 1628; and the Ayme for the Archers of St. George's Fields, 1664.

Henry VIII. shot with the longbow as well as any of his guards: he chartered a society for shooting; and jocosely dignified a successful archer as Duke of Shoreditch, at which place his Grace resided. This title was long preserved by the Captain of the London Archers, who used to summon the officers of his several divisions under the titles of Marquis of Barlo, of Clerkenwell, of Islington, of Hoxton, of Shacklewell, &c., Earl of Paneras, &c. We read of a grand pageant in this reign, of three thousand archers, guarded by whifflers and billmen, pages and footmen, proceeding from Merchant Taylors' Hall, through Broad-street, the residence of their captain; thence into Moorfields by Finsbury, and so on to Smithfield, where they performed evolutions, and shot at a target for honour.

Stow, (who died in 1605) informs us, that before his time it had been customary at Bartholomew-tide for the Lord Mayor, with the sheriffs and aldermen, to go into the fields at Finsbury, where the citizens were assembled, and shoot at the standard with broad and flight arrows for games; and this exercise was continued for several days.

Edward VI. was fond of archery; and in his reign the scholars of

St. Bartholomew, who held their disputations in cloisters, were rewarded with a bow and silver arrows. Charles I. was an excellent archer, and forbade by proclamation the inclosure of shooting-grounds Dear London. Archery, however, seems then to have fallen into disrepute. Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem, entitled The Long Vacation in London, describes the attorneys and proctors as making matches in Finsbury Fields:

"With loynes in canvas bow-case tied,
Where arrows stick with mickle pride;
Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme:
Sol set for fear they'll shoot at him!"

Pepys records (1667), that, when a boy, he used to shoot with his bow and arrows in the fields at Kingsland.

In 1781, the remains of the "Old Finsbury Archers" established the Toxophilite Society, at Leicester House, then in Leicester Fields; it is stated, principally through Sir Ashton Lever, who shewed his Musuem there. The Society held their meetings in Bloomsbury Fields, behind the present site of Gower-street. In about twenty-five years they removed on "target days" to Highbury Barn; from thence to Bayswater; and in 1834, to the Inner Circle, Regent's Park, where they have a rustic lodge, and between five and six acres of ground. The Society consisted in 1850 of 100 members; terms, 51. annually, entrance-fee 51., and other expenses. They meet every Friday during the Spring and Summer; the shooting is at 60, 80, and 100 yards; and many prizes are shot for during the season; Prince Albert, patron. They possess the original silver badge of the old Finsbury Archers.

The most numerous Society of the kind now existing is, however, "The Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's body-guard of Scotland," whose captain-general, the Duke of Buccleuch, rode in the coronation procession of Queen Victoria.

In 1849, the Society of Cantelows Archers was established; their shooting-ground is at Camden Square, Camden New Town; the prize, a large silver medal.

There was a fine display of Archery at the Fête of the Scottish Society of London, in Holland Park, Kensington, June 20 and 21, 1849, when 3007. worth of prize plate was shot for.

BALLAD-SINGING, the vestige of the minstrelsy which Cromwell, in 1656, silenced for a time, was common in the last century. "The Blind Beggar" had conferred poetic celebrity upon Bethnal Green; " Blackeyed Susan," and ""Twas when the seas were roaring," were the lyrics that landsmen delighted to sing of the sea; and "Jemmy Dawson," (set to music by Dr. Arne,) grew into historic fame elsewhere than on the scene of the tragedy, Kennington Common. To these succeeded the sea-songs of Charles Dibdin, which were commonly sung about the streets by the very tars who had first felt their patriotic inspiration: a sailor, who wore a model of the brig Nelson upon his hat, long maintained a vocal celebrity upon Tower Hill. Hogarth, in his "Wedding of the Industrious Apprentice," has painted the famous ballad-singer "Philip in the Tub;" and Gravelot, a portrait-painter in the Strand, had several sittings from ballad-singers. The great factory of the ballads has long been Seven Dials, where Pitts employed Bat Corcoran, the patron of "slender Ben" and "over-head-and-ears Nic." Among its earlier lyrists were "Tottenham Court Meg," the "Balladsinging Cobler," and "oulde Guy, the poet." Mr. Catnach, another noted printer of ballads, lived in Seven Dials; and, at his death, left a considerable fortune. He was the first ballad-printer who polished yards of songs for one penny, in former days the price of a single ballad;

and here he accumulated the largest stock on record of whole sheets last-dying speeches, ballads, and other wares of the flying stationers.

BEAR AND BULL BAITING.-A map of London, three centuries ago, gives the "Spitel Field" for archers; "Fynsburie Fyeld," with "Dogge House," for the citizens to hunt in; "Moore Fyeld," with marks, if used by clothiers; "the Banck" by the side of the River; "the Bolle Bayting Theatre," near "the Beare Baitynge House," nigh where London Bridge now commences. Pepys describes a visit to the "beare. garden" in 1666, where he saw some good sport of the bull's tossing of the dogs, one into the very boxes. But it is a very rude and nasty pleasure." Hockley-in-the-Hole, Clerkenwell, was styled "His Majesty's Bear-Garden" in 1700, and was the scene of bull and bear baiting, wrestling, and boxing; but it was neglected for Figg's Amphitheatre, in Oxford Road:

66

"Long liv'd the great Figg, by the prize-fighting swains
Sole monarch acknowledged of Mary bone plains."

At Tothill Fields, Westminster, was, in 1793, a noted bear-garden, a portion of which now forms Vincent Square.

BOWLS was formerly a popular game in the metropolis: it succeeded archery before Stow's time, when many gardens of the City and its suburbs were converted into bowling-alleyes; our author, in 1579, wrote:-"Common bowling-alleyes are privy mothes that eat up the credit of many idle citizens, whose gaynes at home are not able to weigh downe theyr losses abroad;" elsewhere he says:-"Our bowes are turned into bowls." The game of bowls, however, is as old as the 13th century, and in the country was played upon greens; but the alleys required less room, and were covered over, so that the game could be played there in all weathers, whence they became greatly muitiplied in London. Bowls was played by Henry VIII., who added to Whitehall" tennise-courtes, bowling-alleys, and a cock-pit."

Spring Garden, St. James's, had its ordinary and bowling-green kept by a servant of Charles the First's Court, and Piccadilly Hall, at the corner of Windmill-street and Coventry-street, had its upper and lower bowling-greens.

In the last century, Bowls was much played in the suburbs, especially at Marybone Gardens, mentioned by Pepys in 1668 as "a pretty place." Its bowling-greens were frequented by the nobility, among whom was Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, to whose partiality for the game Lady Mary Wortley Montague refers in the line

"Sme dukes at Mary bone bowl time away."

The place grew into disrepute, and was closed in 1777; it is made by Gay a scene of Macheath's debauchery in the Beggar's Opera.

The grave John Locke, in one of his private journals (1679) records "bowling at Marebone and Putney by persons of quality; wrestling in Lincoln's Inn Fields on summer evenings; bear and bull baiting at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the longbow and stob-ball in Tothil Fields." Greens remain attached to a few old taverns round London. the town, bowling-alleys were abolished in the last century, and gave rise to long-bowling, or bowling in a narrow inclosure at nine pins upon a square frame. The ball-games next merged into cricket.

Bowling-street, Westminster, commemorates the spot where the members of the Convent of St. Peter amused themselves at bowls.

CARD-PLAYING would appear to have become early a favourite pas time with the Londoners; for in 1643 a law was passed, on a petition of the cardmakers of the city, prohibiting the importation of playingcards It was a very fashionable court amusement in the reign of Henry VII.; and so general, that it became necessary to prohibit by

law apprentices from using cards, except in the Christmas holidays, and then only in their masters' houses. Agreeable to this privilege, Stow, speaking of the customs at London, says, "From Allhallows Eve to the day following Candlemas-day, there was, among other sports, playing at cards, for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gayne." Whist, in its present state, was not played till about 1730, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford Row.

The name of "Hells," applied in our time to gambling-houses, originated in the room in St. James's Palace formerly appropriated to Hazard being remarkably dark, and on that account called "hell."

A few years ago there were more of these infamous places of resort in London than in any other city in the world. The handsome gas-lamp and the green or red baize door at the end of the passage (as well known a sign as the Golden Cross or Spread Eagle) were conspicuous objects in the vicinity of St. James's; and of St. George's, Hanover Square: and the nuisances still linger about the Regent's Quadrant and Leicester Square; notwithstanding, for the suppression of gaming, the police are armed with the power of breaking into the houses of her Majesty's lieges at all hours of the day and night.

COCK-FIGHTING was a London pastime in 1190, and very fashionable from temp. Edward III almost to our time. Henry VIII added a cockpit to Whitehall Palace, where James I. went to see the sport twice a-week; this pit being upon the site of the present Privy Council Office: hence the Cockpit Gate, built by Holbein, across the road at Whitehall. Besides this Royal Cockpit, there was formerly a Cockpit in Drury Lane, now corrupted to Pitt-place, and where was the Cockpit or Phoenix Theatre. There were other Cockpits, in Jewin-street, Cripplegate, and near Bedford Row, whence the Cockpit Yards there; and another in Shoe Lane, temp. James I., whence Cockpit Court in that neighbourhood; and another noted Cockpit was "behind Gray's Inn." Hogarth's print best illustrates the brutal refinement of the Cock-fighting of the last century; and the barbarous sport is, we believe, encouraged at some low haunt in Westminster, not far distant from the spot where in kindred pastime Royalty relieved the weighty cares of state. Cock-fighting is now forbidden and punishable by statute.

CRICKET.-This noble game, first mentioned in 1719, was played by the "White Conduit" and other clubs before 1780, when the Marylebone Club was formed, and Lord's Ground was established by Thomas Lord. The latter is in St. John's Wood Road, and is about 7 acres in extent, and devoted almost exclusively, in May, June, and July, to the matches and practice of the Marylebone Club; in 1850, consisting of 578 members, with Prince Albert as patron; at the annual meeting, early in May, the Laws of Cricket are revised, and matches for the season arranged. Attached to Lord's Ground are a Tennis Court and Baths.

Among the other principal Cricket Grounds are the Oval (larger than Lord's, near Kennington Church: the Royal Artillery Ground, Finsbury, is, perhaps, the oldest Ground in London; for here a match was played between Kent and All England in 1746. There are also grounds in Copenhagen Fields; at the Brecknock Arms, Camden Town; at Brixton, near the church; adjoining the New Cattle Market, Islington; in Lord Holland's Park, Kensington; and the Scholars' Ground, Vauxhall Bridge Road: here "the Westminster Boys" play: their cricket-flag bears "R. S. W.," surrounded by the motto, In Patriam Populumque. (See The Cricketer's Manual, by "Bat," 1850.)

DOCK-HUNTING with Dogs was a barbarous pastime of the last century in the neighbourhood of London, happily put an end to by the

want of ponds of water. St. George's Fields was a notorious locality for this sport; hence the infamous Dog and Duck Tavern and Tea Gardens, from a noted dog which hunted ducks in a sheet of water there: Hannah More makes it a favourite resort of her Cheapside Apprentice. The premises were afterwards let to the School for the Indigent Blind, and were taken down in 1812, when Bethlem Hospital was built upon the site; in its front wall is preserved the original sign-stone of a Dog with a Duck thrown across his back. Ingenious lesson this, of setting up a memorial of profligacy and cruelty upon a site devoted to the restoration of reason!

EQUESTRIANISM appears to have been a favourite amusement with the Londoners for nearly a century past. One of the first performers was Thomas Johnson, who exhibited in a field behind the Three Hats, at Islington, in 1758; he was succeeded by one Sampson, in 1767, whose wife was the first female equestrian performer in England. In the same year, rode one Price at Dobney's Gardens, nearly opposite the Belvidere Tavern, Pentonville, and where Wildman exhibited his docile Bees, in 1772. About this time, Hughes established himself in St. George's Fields, and Astley in Westminster Bridge Road, the latter being succeeded by Ducrow and Batty. Horses in England were taught dancing as early as the 13th century; but the first mention of feats on horseback occurs in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII.

FAIRS. The three great Fairs of old London belonged, in Catholic times, to the heads of religious houses: Westminster to its abbot; and St. Bartholomew and Southwark, (or St. Mary Overie, as it is oftener called,) to the priors of those monasteries.

Westminster, or St. Edward's, Fair, (held on that Saint's Day,) was commanded by proclamation of Edward III. in 1248; it was first held in St. Margaret's Churchyard, and then was removed to Tothill Fields, where the Fair continued to be held so lately as 1823.

Two Fairs were held in Smithfield at Bartholomew-tide: that within the Priory precincts was one of the great Cloth Fairs of England: the other Fair was held in the field, and granted to the City of London, for cattle and goods. The latter remains, but is limited to one day, and has nearly as few booths and stalls.

Southwark Fair was held on St. Margaret's Hill, on the day after Bartholomew Fair; and was by charter limited to three days, but usually lasted fourteen. Evelyn records among its wonders, monkeys and asses dancing on the tight rope, and the tricks of an Italian wench, whom all the Court went to see. Pepys tells of its puppet-shows, especially that of Whittington, and of Jacob Hall's dancing on the ropes. The Fair was suppressed in 1762; but it lives in one of Hogarth's prints. St. James's Fair, held in the month of May, in Brook Field, gave name to "May Fair." It was abolished in 1709; but was revived, and was not finally suppressed until late in the reign of George III.

Fairs have been occasionally held in Hyde Park; as at Coronations, and the Peace Commemoration in 1814.

FIREWORKS, for pastime, are rarely spoken of previous to the reign of Elizabeth; when the foyste, or galley, with a great red dragon, and "wilde men casting of fire," accompanied the lord-mayor's barge upon the Thames. A writer in the reign of James I. assures us there were then "abiding in the city of London men very skilful in the art of pyrotechnie, or of fireworkes:" which were principally displayed by persons fantastically dressed, and called Green Men. In the last century, the train of Artillery displayed annually a grand firework upon Tower Hill on the evening of His Majesty's birthday. Fireworks were exhibited regularly at Marybone Gardens and at Ranelagh; but not at