Whetstone Park, now a small quiet passage, full of printing-offices and stables, between Great Turnstile and Gate Street, derived its name from a vestryman of the time of Charles I. It is now chiefly occupied by mews, but was once filled by infamous houses and low brandy-shops. In 1671, the Duke of Monmouth, the Duke of Grafton, and the Duke of St. Alban’s, three of King Charles II.’s illegitimate sons, killed here a beadle in a drunken brawl. A street-ballad was written on the occasion, more full of spite against the corrupt court than of sympathy with the slain man. In poor doggerel the Catnach of 1671 describes the watch coming in, disturbed from sleep, to appease their graces-- “Straight rose mortal jars, ’Twixt the night blackguard and (the) silver stars; Then fell the beadle by a ducal hand, For daring to pronounce the saucy ‘Stand!’” Sadly enough, the silly fellow’s death led to a dance at Whitehall being put off,-- “Disappoints the queen, ‘poor little chuck!’”[693] and all the brisk courtiers in their gay coats bought with the nation’s subsidies. The last two lines are vigorous, sarcastic, and worthy of a humble imitator of Dryden. The poet sums up-- “Yet shall Whitehall, the innocent and good, See these men dance, all daubed with lace and blood.” In 1682 the misnamed “Park” grew so infamous, that a countryman, having been decoyed into one of the houses and robbed, went into Smithfield and collected an angry mob of about 500 apprentices, who marched on Whetstone Park, broke open the houses, and destroyed the furniture. The constables and watchmen, being outnumbered, sent for the king’s guard, who dispersed them and took eleven of them. Nevertheless, the next night another mob stormed the place, again broke in the doors, smashed the windows, and cut the feather-beds to pieces. Lincoln’s Inn Fields formed part of the ancient Fickett’s Fields, a plot of ground of about ten acres, extending formerly from Bell Yard to Portugal Street and Carey Street. It seems to have been used in the Middle Ages for jousts and tournaments by the Templars and Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, to the priory of which last order it belonged till Henry VIII. dissolved the monasteries, when it was granted to Anthony Stringer. In an inquest of the time of James I. it is described as having two gates for horses and carriages at the east end--one gate leading into Chancery Lane, the other gate at the western end.[694]