_Episcopal Residences_ were those of the Archbishops of Canterbury and
York, at Lambeth and Whitehall respectively; of the Bishop of Durham
(Durham House, Strand); of those of Bath, Chester, Lichfield, Llandaff,
Worcester, Exeter, Carlisle, all in the Strand; of Hereford, on Fish
Street Hill. The Bishop of Ely dwelt in Ely Place, Holborn: the chapel
still exists, in the possession of the Roman Catholics. Readers of
Shakespeare will remember how the bishop grew strawberries in his garden.
The Bishop of Salisbury's house was in Salisbury Square; of St. David's,
near Bridewell; of Winchester and Rochester, in Southwark. Parts of
Winchester House still exist there.
As the Thames on the south side of the city did noble service as the
principal highway for its commerce and its corn supply, so the fields on
the north furnished large pasture-land for its cattle. Across these fields
a road led away to the village of Islington. In the Moor Fields were the
Artillery Butts, whither young London resorted to be trained in the use of
the bow. Readers may remember the description of them in the opening
portion of Lord Lytton's novel, _The Last of the Barons_. Within the walls
adjacent to this part the manufacturers of bows and arrows were settled.
Very strange and curious have been the various associations of the name
"Grub Street." Grobes were feathers for arrows, and originally Grub Street
was that in which arrows were finished. That manufacture died out, and the
street, being in a Puritan neighbourhood, in the days of Elizabeth became
the publishing place for violent attacks upon the bishops. "Martin
Marprelate," the well-known series of that class of publication, was
issued from this street. Then, by a natural transition, scurrilous
lampoons in general, and not merely theological, came to be called "Grub
Street tracts," because the phrase had become current; and the name stuck,
and was applied to literary rubbish of any kind, Pope having endorsed the
title in his satire. The name has, unfortunately, disappeared from the
street within the last decade. The authorities, because the name had
become obnoxious to fastidious ears, have changed it to Milton Street, the
poet having been borne down it from Bunhill Fields, where he died, to be
buried in St. Giles's Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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