London (England) -- Antiquities; London (England) -- History
The favourite haunt of booksellers and publishers, Paternoster
Row, derives its name, according to Stow, "from the stationers or
text-writers that dwelled there, who wrote and sold all sorts of books
then in use, namely, A. B. C. or Absies, with the Paternoster, Ave,
Creed, Graces, etc. There dwelled also turners of beads, and they are
called Paternoster-makers. At the end of Paternoster Row is Ave Mary
Lane, so called upon the like occasion of text-writers and bead-makers
then dwelling there." Creed Lane and Amen Corner make up the names of
these streets where the worshippers in Old St. Paul's found their helps
to devotion.
Old London was a city of palaces as well as of trade. All the great
nobles of England had their town houses, or inns, as they were called.
They had vast retinues of armed men, and required no small lodging.
The Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and many
others, had their town houses, every vestige of which has passed away,
though their names are preserved by the streets and sites on which they
stood. The Strand, for example, is full of the memories of these old
mansions, which began to be erected along the river bank when the Wars
of the Roses had ceased, and greater security was felt by the people
of England, who then began to perceive that it might be possible to
live in safety outside the walls of the city. Northumberland Avenue
tells of the house of the Earls of Northumberland, which stood so
late as 1875; Burleigh Street and Essex Street recall the famous Sir
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, whose son was created Earl of Essex.
Arundel House, the mansion of the Howards, is marked by Arundel Street,
Surrey Street, Howard Street, Norfolk Street, these being the titles
borne by scions of this famous family. The readers of the chapter on
the Royal Palaces need not be told of the traditions preserved by the
names Somerset House and the Savoy. Cecil Street and Salisbury Street
recall the memory of Salisbury House, built by Sir Robert Cecil, Earl
of Salisbury, brother of the Earl of Essex mentioned above. Then we
have Bedford Street, with Russell Street, Southampton Street, Tavistock
Street, around Covent Garden. These names unfold historical truths.
Covent Garden is an abbreviated form of Convent Garden, the garden
of the monks of Westminster. It was granted to the Russell family at
the dissolution of monasteries, and the Russells, Earls of Bedford,
erected a mansion here, which has long disappeared, but has left traces
behind in the streets named after the various titles to which members
of the Russell family attained. In another part of London we find
traces of the same family. After leaving Covent Garden they migrated
to Bloomsbury, and there we find Bedford Square, Southampton Street,
Russell Square, Tavistock Square, and Chenies Street, this latter being
named after their seat in Buckinghamshire. Craven buildings, near
Drury Lane, tells of the home of Lord Craven, the devoted admirer of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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