The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages — John Shaqi
The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and MarriagesAshton, John
History
The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages
Ashton, John
Fleet Prison (London, England); Fleet, River (England)
Before taking leave of Kentish Town, I cannot help recording a legal
squabble, which resulted in a victory for the public.--_Times_,
February 12, 1841:--
"COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, _Thursday, February 11, 1841_.
(Sittings at Nisi Prius, at Westminster, before Lord Denman and
a special jury.)
"THE QUEEN _v._ TUBB.
"This was an Indictment against the Defendant for obstructing a
footpath leading from Pond Lane, at Hampstead, over Traitors'
and Parliament Hill, to Highgate.
"The case lasted the whole day.
"The jury brought a verdict for the Crown, thus establishing the
right of the Public to one of the most beautiful walks in the
neighbourhood of the metropolis."
The Fleet babbled through the meadows, until its junction with that
other stream which flowed from the pond in the Vale of Health at
Hampstead, which took place where now is Hawley Street, and the united
brook, or river, ran across what are now the Kentish, and Camden, Town
Roads, and between Great College Street, and King Street; it then
followed the course of the present road to King's Cross, passing by St.
Pancras Church--which, originally, was of great antiquity, and close
by which was a celebrated healing well, known as Pancras' Wells. These
waters cured everything--scurvy, king's evil, leprosy, cancers, ulcers,
rheumatism, disorders of the eyes, and pains of the stomach and bowels,
colds, worms, &c., &c.
In the Church, and Churchyard, were interred many illustrious dead,
especially Roman Catholics, who seem to have taken a particular
fancy to have their remains buried there, probably on account of the
tradition that this was the last church in which mass was celebrated.
It was a favourite burial-place of the French clergy--and a story is
told (how true I know not) that, down to the French Revolution, masses
were celebrated in a church in the south of France, dedicated to St.
Pancras, for the souls of the faithful interred here.
[Illustration: THE BRILL.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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