VESTIGES, collected and recollected. By JOSEPH MOSER, Efq. No. XXXI.

JOHN RUSHWORTH, ESQ. THAT large tract of ground within the

borough of Southwark, which extends from Blackman-ftreet to Gravellane, was formerly the fite of the palace, gardens, and appurtenances, of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; a Nobleman that had the good fortune, or addrefs, to retain the favour of the moft capricious Monarch that ever fat upon the English throne, during the whole of his life.

This palace, which he erected in the moft magnificent manner, and furnished in the most elegant tile, was, at first, called Duke's-place, then Suffolkhoufe; but the noble proprietor after wards exchanged it for the palace of the Bishop of Norwich, which devolved to the King in confequence of an Act of Parliament, 27 Hen. VIII, and was fituated in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, near to York-houfe, (White hall,) which the fall of Wolfey had alfo put into his hands

The with of Henry the VIIIth to become the poffeffor of the new palace in Southwark, (whether it arofe from a defire to have his brother-in-law near him, or from whatsoever other caufe it proceeded,) the Duke was too much of à courtier to oppofe. The oftenfible reafon that appeared for it was, that the King might erect a mint for coining f, which the bad state of the circulating medium rendered neceffary, and

There had been anciently a palace in Southwark, (probably that in Bermondfey,) wherein Henry the IId refided, and held his firft parliament, Chriflmas 1154, which was afterwards occupied by the de la Poles, Marquiffes and Dukes of Suffolk. Margaret de la Pole, it appears by her will, bequeathed her body to be laid in the monaftery of St. Saviour's, Bermondsey, in the chapel called the Virgin's Chapel.

†There were formerly mints at Briftol, Exeter, Chester, and perhaps at other places; in fome of which they have, or had till within these thirty years, aflaymatters. The mints in the Tower of London and Southwark are recognized in the pardons granted by Edward the VIth to Sir John York and others, dated July 22, 1552.

VOL. XLVII. JAN. 1805.

the improved ftate of the arts and of commerce feemed to demand.

When the operations of this Mint began, it appears that the coin became more correct, both in its design and execution 1.

The

The best coins of Henry the VIIIth are, the angel, with his face taken in front; and the fovereign, on the obverse of which he is feated upon his throne, with the rofe at his feet, and the arms of England and France, fupported by a lion and a dragon, quartered on the reverfe. Hall was at this time engraver to the Mint. The artifts in the nummifmatic branch were then very few; and although the coin of this Monarch does not, compared with the beautiful productions of the prefent day, do any great credit to his talents, it yet exhibits a confiderable improvement upon that of Henry the VIIth, and feems to indicate at least the dawning of a more correct taste. The progrefs of the arts, and their concomitants, refinement and civilization, are, as has been obferved, to be traced, in every nation, more particularly by the coins and medals, than even by thofe larger veftiges of antiquity ftill extant; because in the former we may difcern the fimpler effufions of genius, while in the latter we are taught to admire its more elaborate efforts. The one was a common medium paffing from hand to hand, which recorded diurnal or annual events, while the ftatues or public architectural monuments (the former of which, in Rome alone, were faid to be more numerous than the inhabitants,) were intended to convey to pofterity the memory of perfons and tranfactions fingular in themfelves, yet fo important in their lives and in their confequences, as to be deemed worthy of univerfal (and, as those that decreed them intended, of eternal) commemoration.

In this country, (leaving the coin from the Saxon thrymes to the filver threepences of the present day out of our confideration, in this inftance, as with the whole feries,) every one who has turned his attention to the fubject is well acquainted, there appears to have been an. other branch of minute fculptime to which the Greeks and Romans paid the greatest regard, and of which they have left fpecimens equally numerous and beautiful. This was feal-engraving;

C

which

The name of this manfion was again changed, from Suffolk to Southwark place; and about this period it affumed the privilege of protection from arrefts, in actions of debt, trefpafs *, &c.; which affumption was tolerated until long after the palace from which it was fuppofed to have been derived was dilapidated, and the bufinefs of coining folely centered in the mint of the Tower of London, in the fame manner

which was among thofe nations confidered as of immenfe importance, but which in this (although in former ages the greatest Noblemer, and even Bishops, were more ufed to fign than to fubfcribe) was paid little attention to. Individual feals were, in thofe ages, moft wretched in their compofition and execution; and even thofe of corporations (that of the Bridge houfe, for instance, the idea of which in fome degree produced thefe obfervations,) were much inferior to the other fpecimens of the arts produced at the fame remote periods.

This feal, which exhibited the image of the patron faint of Southwark, Thomas à Becket, from whom (probably in confequence of the meetings of pilgrims to proceed to his fhrine,) a large part of the Borough derived its cognomen, became at the Reformation an object of confideration and of reprobation; for although it had, perhaps, from the reign of Henry the IId, been the fymbol of the Trustees of London-bridge, and impreffed and fanctified all the leafes of the Bridgehoufe eftates and other documents from that period, it was, on July 14, in the thirty-third of Henry the VIIIth, deemed to be heterodox, and confequently obnoxious to the new fyftem; and after, as we may fuppofe, much learning had been wafted to profecute and defend it, "a new feal was ordered to be devifed and engraved by Mr. Hall, to whom the old one was delivered."

"Formerly one of the greateft obftructions to public juice, both of the civil and criminal kind, was the multitude of pretended privileged places, where indigent perfons affembled together to fhelter themselves from juftice, efpecially in London and Southwark, under pretence of their having been the ancient palaces of the crown, or the like; all of which fanctuaries for iniquity are now demolished, and the oppofing any procefs therein is made highly criminal." Blackfone's Com. 129.

as the precinct of Bridewell, White Friars, and other places †. Until the middle of the last century, fome veftiges of this manfion, and of its extenfive garden, are faid to have remained. The latter had been rendered remarkable by a very large fummer-houfe, which was faid to have been erected by John Ruthworth, Efq. while he was a prifoner within the Rules of the King's Bench, and for being the place wherein he compiled his valuable col→ lections, as we may reasonably fuppofe, from materials collected when he was able to take more extenfive excursions. It appears by the Athen. Oxon. and other works, that this laborious collector of tracts and veftiges was born, as we fhould fuppofe, in the first quarter of the feventeenth century; that he tudied a fhort time at Oxford, whence he removed to Lincoln's-inn, and was in due courfe called to the Bar. He feems to have been early endued with that property (or rather, if the bull may be allowed, with that want of property,) which we once heard a moft eminent lawyer declare to be the ftrongest stimulus to legal exertions ; but his genius more inclining him to the great ftudy of the law of nations,

The ftatutes to which the learned Judge alludes in the preceding quotation, which took away even the pretence of protection from the White-friars, Savoy, Salisbury-court, Ram-alley, Mitre-court, Fuller's-rents, Baldwin's-gardens, Montague-clafe, Clink, or Deadman's-place, &c. &c., are the 8th and 9th of Will. III, chap. 27, which proving in fome refpects ineffectual, were followed by the 9th of Geo. I, chap. 28, in which Suffolkplace, or the Mint, is particularly mentioned; and the provisions of which A& are enlarged and made more general by the 11th of Geo. I, chap. 22, which gave the death-blow to the fyftem, as far as it regarded criminal tranfactions, thoughwe think what were termed the privileges of the Board of Green Cloth with refpect to arrefts in actions of debt were continued long after. Every one must remember why the hero of Fielding's Amelia (Booth) lived in the vicinity of Charingcross; and although this was a creation of that ingenious author, many muit know, that, in alluding to the place where the fcene is laid, it had its foundation in fact.

The late Mr. Barcroft.

and

and to the political confiderations of the bearings of treaties and the inAuence of events upon the rights and difpofitions of mankind, than to the common law of the country, he endeavoured to extend his ideas upon thofe elaborate and philofophical fubjects, by making himself master of general history, and to enlarge his knowledge of its detail by affiduously Audying the operations of the paihions of the people, as they acted, and were reacted upon by public proceedings and local circumftances.

To do this with greater effect, he began the practice of taking parliamentary speeches, thofe of the King, &c., in hort-hand; and during the intermifion of the Seffions, he used to attend for the fame purpofe in the Star Chamber, Court of Honour, Exchequer, and even at the Council Table; nay, when matters of import. ance arole further off, he would travel after them. In this manner he unquestionably began and continued to colect thofe materials which formed a large part of the eight volumes after wards published.

It appears, that in the long Parlia. ment he was chofen affittant to Henry Elfing, Efq., Clerk of the House of Commons, and was employed to carry their addreffes to the King at York.

In 1648, he took the Covenant, and became Secretary to Sir Thomas Fairfax, Generalitimo of the Rebellious Army.

In 1651, Rushworth was engaged in a moft arduous task, being nominated one of the Committee appointed to confult about the reformation and im

In this point of view, he feems to have been one of our earlich Reporters. Dr. Naifin, who published his Collec tans in 1682, has taken upon him to cenlure and abute Ruthworth, at the fame time that he adopted verbatim all his principal papers. However, Coke, who Lad opportunities of knowing the merit both of the pieces and of their Editor which few had, has much commended his works, while he (who in his diction leems to have paid more regard to truth than politene:s) terms Franklin (who 21 publied Collections) and Dr. Nalfan backney-writers; though it must be obierved, that the works of the latter were published at the efpecial command of his Majefty Charles the ¡Id.

provement of the common law t; which feems as wife and judicious a meafure as if a Committee were ap pointed to reform and improve common, fenfe.

In 1658, Rushworth was chofen a Burgefs for Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was likewife a Member of the Parliaments of 1679 and that which met at Oxford 1681. After the diffolution of this Parliament, the interest of his party being funk, he lived very privately, and it is probable in the fitua tion already stated, where he employed the eccentricity of his mind in feveral ways, particularly in the planning and erection of the fummer-houfe already alluded to, which, like many other architectural fingularities, became at firit the admiration, and ultimately the ridicule, of the neighbourhood ‡.

ALSATIA-WHITE-FRIARS.

Recurring to the numerous pretende ed privileged places mentioned in one of the notes on the preceding article, it does appear very extraordinary, that fuch a diffolute imperium in imperie fhould fo long have been fuffered to exift. The reader who wishes to fee a picture, probably a very accurate one, of the tranfactions of one of thofe places, may turn to a very pleasant, though coarfe, Comedy of Shadwell's, built upon the model of the Adelphi of Terence; though in its adaptation of the manners of the age and country, and in its fingular locality, the original

Sir Matthew Hale was not quite fɔ adventurous as thole eminent improvers and reformers were: all that he contend ed for was, that thofe combinations of ancient ftatutes, ulages, and customs, not only of this, but of most other countries, tranfmitted from time immemorial, and founded upon the broad and fubitantial bafis of the experience of ages and the universal approbation of maskind, which is termed the Common Law, were only to be meddled with in order to reduce its various branches into a method which, he lays, "may be a good means to help the memory to find media of protection, and help the method of nudy,”

"In the Borough of Southwark," fays Camden, " was a itately house, built by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, which was pulled down again atter it had been fome time the delight of its mafter."-Gibson's Edition, page 322.

Ca

is entirely loft fight of; we mean, the Squire of Alfatia, (White-friars.)

In this piece, the licentioufnefs of the diftrict, and the protection which the wicked, the idle, and profligate, afforded to each other, are molt ably, and at the fame time moft humourously, depicted; and it is curious enough to obferve, that the fcenés of Ben Jonfon's Alchymift, Randolph's Mules'

Shadwell, although he was fo feverely cenfured by Dryden, feems, in this Comedy, mot ably to have delineated fcenes to which it is very probable that he was himself, from motives of curiofity, frequently a witnefs. That he drew from nature, the bold, broad outlines of his characters clearly evince, to which the vicinity of his refidence (the Temple) to this mart of diffipation added a facility; and that he ftudied not only the characters, but the language of the place, is evident, by the latter being now unintelligible without a gloffary. The theatre in Dorfet-garden, which fronted the river Thames, was within the limits of Alfatia; and it is to be remarked, that there were very often private plays, diffolute balls, and 'fhows, at the taverns within the liberty: of thefe the Horns feem to have been the capital houfe. All the operas of Dryden were first performed at the theatre in Dorfet-gardens, and fome of Sir William Davenant's, who was its proprietor. Banks's Virtue Betrayed, or Anna Bul len, after the Innocent Ufurper, or the Death of Lady Jane Gray, and the Inland Queen, or the Death of Mary, Queen of Scots, "had, for political reafons, been denied the juftice of the stage," was acted there under the patronage of the Duchefs of Somerfet. Some of the comedies of Crown, the three parts of Durfey's Don Quixote, and many other pieces, were firit performed at this

theatre.

Looking-glafs, and fome other plays, are laid in the fame place; by which we may fee, that the Friars was not only the refort of the diffolute and criminal, but of the hypocritical; and that anong its buildings were to be obferved a ftrange affemblage of theatres, meeting-houses, and ftews.

OBSERVATIONS ON SEALS.

It is a fingular circumftance, and connected in fome degree with the fecond note in thefe veftiges, that the particular art of nummifmatical engraving made a flower progrefs in this country, than it did after its revival in Italy, in France, in Germany, and many other parts of Europe, even fubfequent to the Norman Conqueft. Before this important change in our political fyftem, it would be ufelefs to allude to this branch of sculpture, without we were to recur to periods as far remote as thofe times when this Illand was a province of the Roman Empire, which is by no means neceffary, as we know that among the ancient Britons, and during fome part of their vaffalage, iron rings were the circulating medium; and when, for the purpofe of paying tribute, it was made incumbent upon them to fabri cate coin which would pafs current in Italy, the whole bufinefs of the Mint was conducted by Roman artists, and every trace of the art of engraving (which, it should be obferved, had declined even at Rome,) feems to have been totally obliterated in Britain, when, by the conquerors withdrawing their legions, liberty, if it could be to termed, was forced upon the reluctant people.

the

Under the different dynaflies of Briti, Saxon, and Danish Monarchs, the marks (for they could not be termed figures) upon their various coin were barbarous and unintelligible, as on thofe tokens impreffed with Egyptian hieroglyphics, or the talif manic fymbols of the African coafts, or the rude and fantastic figures derived for the mythology of ancient Hindoostan; nor (although upon our pieces many of the mint-mafiers' names are preferved,) did we appear to exhibit, in their execution, any thing like graphic accuracy until the beginning of the fifteenth century; which is the more extraordinary, as the ftained glafs in our ancient churches, and many of the tombs, nay the churches themfelves,