The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 490, May 21, 1831Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 490, May 21, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
Miss Benger, in her agreeable _Memoirs of Anne Boleyn_, does not
mention the Queen's abode in Southwark; but the date of the architecture
of the annexed house, and its closer identification with Queen
Elizabeth, render the first mentioned circumstance by no means
improbable. Previous to the marriage of Anne Boleyn, we learn that Henry
passed not a few of his leisure hours "in the delightful society of Anne
Boleyn." "Every day they met and spent many hours in riding or walking
together." Her family at this time resided at Durham House, on the site
of the Adelphi, and Anne frequently made excursions with Henry in the
vicinity of London.
Of the antiquity of this district we could quote more proofs. The
_galleried_ inn-yards, and among them that at which the Pilgrims
sojourned on their road to Canterbury, are among them. In our last
volume too, at page 160, we engraved an ancient Vault in Tooley-street,
the remains of the "great house, builded of stone, with arched gates,
which pertained to the Prior of Lewis, in Sussex, and was his lodging
when he came to London." Not far from this was "another great House of
Stone and Timber," which, in the thirteenth century, was held of John,
"Earl Warren, by the Abbot of St. Augustins, at Canterbury." Stowe
says--"It was an ancient piece of worke, and seemeth to be one of the
first builded houses on that side of the river, over against the city:
it was called the Abbot's Inne of St. Augustine in Southwark."
There was also another "Inne" near this spot, which belonged to the
Abbey of Battle, in Sussex, and formed the town residence of its Abbots.
This stood on the banks of the Thames, between the Bridge House and
Battle Bridge, which was so called, "for that it standeth on the ground,
and over a water-course (flowing out of Thames) pertayning to that
Abbey, and was therefore both builded and repayred by the Abbots of that
house, as being hard adjoyning to the Abbot's lodging." Its situation
is known by the landing-place called Battle Stairs. On the opposite
side of Tooley-street is a low neighbourhood of meanly-built streets
and passages, still denominated the Maze, from the intricacies of a
labyrinth in the gardens of the Abbot of Battle's Inn, and which fronted
its entrance-gate.
With these few quotations of the ancient importance of Southwark, we can
but repeat our regret that no regular history of this district has yet
been published. There are three or four gentlemen resident there, whose
antiquarian attainments highly qualify them for the task. The public
would surely find them patronage.
The Engraving is from an original sketch by an ingenious Correspondent,
M.P. of Upton, near Windsor, whom we thank for this specimen of good
taste. We are always happy to receive antiquarian illustrations of our
Metropolis, and in this instance the zeal of the artist, who resides
twenty miles distant, deserves special mention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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