and also the West Ham Cemetery, are in this neighbourhood are either let out to gardeners or district. West Ham, although third in point of size of the nine parishes comprised in the Hundred of Becontree, is by far the most densely populated. "West Ham," writes Mr. Coller in 1861, in his "History of Essex," "from its traffic, trade, and importance the capital of the Hundred, is the most thickly-peopled parish in Essex, more than doubling the whole population of some of the smaller Hundreds in the county. It has, in fact, become a busy suburb of the metropolis, which has rubbed off its once rural character. Its little hamlets have grown into large towns. Fields over which the plough passed a quarter of a century ago are covered with workshops and teeming factories. On its river bank have risen up the largest ship-building works in the world. Its quiet creek and marsh land have been converted into mighty docks, furnishing a haven and a home for commerce from all countries of the earth. Its pleasant spots, on the edge of business, but just beyond reach of the sound of the hammer and wheel, and the wearying hum of the London hive, are studded over with handsome residences." We touched so lightly upon Stratford in OLD AND NEW LONDON,* that there is ample opportunity for a further description. This place is described in the "British Traveller," 1771, as "formerly a small village, but now greatly increased by a vast number of additional buildings. It stands," he adds, "in the parish of West Ham, and is only parted from Bow in Middlesex by the river Lea, over which there is a bridge." This is the celebrated Bow Bridge, said to have been the first stone bridge built in England. + It is amusing to read in the work above quoted:"Many of the rich citizens of London have fine houses in Stratford and its neighbourhood, it being particularly convenient for such as live eastward of the Royal Exchange. Almost all the lands in the improved in the culture of potatoes. Vast quantities of all kinds of roots, herbs, and greens, are daily sent hence to the London markets; and upon the whole the place is in a very thriving condition, having many good inns, with other places of public entertainment. If the new buildings from Mile End to Bow, and from thence to Stratford, are continued, both these places will be, as it were, joined to London." What would the writer have said if he could have looked forward a century, to see a population of 30,000 covering the market gardens, and the place "joined to London " literally by railways, tramcars, and omnibuses. The Abbey of Stratford-Langthorne stood on the marshes, a little to the west of West Ham. The pumping-station of the northern system of the Metropolitan Main Drainage Works at Abbey Mills occupies part of the site, whilst a few fragments of the old monastery may with difficulty be traced in the walls of the "Adam and Eve" public-house, close by. The abbey itself was founded about the year 1135 by William de Montfitchett for brethren of the Cistercian order, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and All Saints. It was richly endowed by its founder, who gave it all his lordship here. In the days of its splendour it possessed 1,500 acres of land in this parish, with the manors of West Ham, Wood-Grange, East Ham, and Plaiz (now Plaistow); thirteen manors in other parts of the county, besides lands in other counties. The abbey grounds and gardens covered sixteen acres, and were enclosed by a moat; but at that time no scientific improvements had been made in the way of drainage, and the consequence was that the waters of the Lea occasionally invaded the sacred precincts of the monks. On one occasion they were actually driven away by the floods, and were compelled to seek refuge on their property at Billericay, some miles off. The story is thus told by Leland :— "This house, first sett amonge the lowe marshes, was after with sore fludes defacyd, and removed to a celle or graunge longinge to it called Burgestide, in Essex, a mile from Billirica. These monks remained in Burgestide untyll entrete was made that they might have sum helpe otherwyse. Then one of Richards, kings of Englande, tooke the ground and abbey of Strateforde into his protection, and recdifienge it, brought the foresayd monks agayne to Strateforde, where among the marsches they re-inhabytyd." Thus re-established, the abbey seems to have gone on prosperously, and to have taken a leading position among the religious houses in the kingdom, many high personages resorting to it. In 1307 the abbot was summoned to Parliament; in 1335, John de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, High Constable of England, was buried within its precincts; and the Countess of Salisbury, whom the remorseless Henry VIII. caused to be beheaded in her old age on a charge of high treason, appears to have resided in the abbey about the time of its dissolution, at which period its revenues were valued at £652 3s. 1d. Its possessions were subsequently granted to Sir Peter Mewtis, or Meautis, who had been Ambassador to the Court of France. The building itself, like many of these religious edifices, was allowed to fall into decay when the monks had been expelled. Early in the seventeenth century a descendant of Sir Peter alienated "the site of the abbey, with the abbey mills and 240 acres of land," to Sir John Nulls, and since that period the property has passed through many different hands. In the "Beauties of England," published in 1803, Mr. Britton writes :-" The chief remains of the monastic buildings now standing are a brick gateway, which was formerly the entrance to the conventual precincts, and an ornamental arch, which appears to have been the entrance to the chapel." Lysons, writing a few years previously, observes :-"The foundations of the convent were dug up and removed by the present proprietor, in doing which, no antiquities worthy of note were found, except a small onyx seal, with the impress. of a griffin, set in silver, on which is the following legend: 'Nuncio vobis gaudium et salutem,' perhaps the priory seal of one of the abbots." The "brick gateway" and the "ornamented arch" have now disappeared from the scene. Indeed, the obliteration of the abbey has been so complete that we cannot even record of it, in the words of the poet, that "The sacred tapers' lights are gone, The bell has ceased to toll; The long-ribbed aisles are burst and shrunk, God's blessing on his soul." With the exception of a few that may have been worked into the walls of some of the neighbouring houses, it would be difficult for the most diligent searcher to discover a stone of the once important abbey of Stratford-Langthorne. The pumping-station in connection with the northern sewer of metropolitan main drainage at Abbey Mills covers about seven acres of the 507 ground once covered by Stratford Abbey. The sewer itself enters the parish at Old Ford, and crosses the West Ham Marshes by a grass-covered embankment. It afterwards traverses Plaistow, and then passes eastward in a straight line through East Ham, on its way to the outlet into the Thames, at the mouth of the Roding at Barking Reach. The works at Abbey Mills are of great capacity, comprising sixteen pumps, worked by steam-engines of immense power, their combined force being capable of lifting some 15,000 cubic feet of sewage per minute from the low-level sewer, and forcing it through large iron cylinders into the outfall sewer. The buildings, which are mostly of brick, are of an ornamental character, two octagonal chimney-shafts, each more than 200 feet high, being conspicuous for miles round. The ecclesiastical parish of St. John was formed in 1844 from the mother parish of West Ham. The church, a handsome building in the Early English style, had been built about ten years previously. It stands in the middle of the town, at the point where the main road from the east of London diverges towards Romford and Leytonstone. Christ Church was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1852 out of the parish of West Ham. The church, which stands in the High Street, close by the Main Drainage Works, is built of stone in the Decorated style, and is conspicuous by its tall spire. St. Paul's Church, in the Maryland Road, Stratford New Town, dates its erection from 1865, when the district was carved out of the mother parish, and converted into a separate ecclesiastical parish. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Francis of Assisi, in Grove Crescent Road, was built in 1868, and is in the Italian style of architecture. Near it is a Congregational Church, also of Italian design, but erected in a much larger and more costly manner. The Town Hall, in the Broadway, at the corner of West Ham Lane, is a large and handsome building, of Italian design, opened in 1869. The façade towards the Broadway consists of a portico of two stages, formed with columns of polished red granite. To the right of the main front is a tower 100 feet high; the building itself is surmounted with statues of Science, Art, Commerce, Britannia, St. George, &c. Stratford is included in the Local Board district of West Ham. Stratford New Town may be said to owe its existence to the Great Eastern Railway, the two main branches of which, leading respectively to Cambridge and Colchester, diverge at this point. A market for the sale of vegetables, fruit, &c., has been established, adjoining Stratford Bridge Station, by the Great Eastern Railway Company, warehouses and sidings being constructed for the development of the trade. Here, about the year 1847, the company established to Dunwich, in Suffolk, which, having crossed the its chief depôt for carriages, engines, and rolling Watling Street at Tyburn, passed along Old Street, stock, and yards for their repairs. Employment north of the city, continued forward to Colchester, is here given to about 3,000 hands. following as nearly as possible the course of the high Essex road of the present day. The same author also informs us that "when the Romans enlarged the city, and enclosed it by a new wall, they also made a branch from St. Giles's, which is now called Holborn, built a gate at Newgate, and continued the road to Cheapside." This line of communication was continued east of the city; and Maitland, in his "History of London," describes it to be the "Roman vicinal way through Aldgate by Bethnal Green, to the trajectus or ferry at Old Ferry," where it, no doubt, joined the Via Icenaia described by Dr. Stukeley. From this it would appear that the great Roman road into Essex crossed the river Lea by means of a ferry at Old Ford, in which direction it continued for many centuries after the Romans left this island, or, in fact, until the erection of a bridge at Bow. In the olden days, when a pilgrimage to the image of "Our Ladye of Berkynge" was thought conducive to the health of the soul, a procession of courtly equipages was no unfrequent sight on the dull road leading through Whitechapel into Essex and the other eastern counties, though now almost wholly abandoned to farmers, graziers, and butchers. For example, the Princess Maud, after she had become the consort of King Henry I., would often strive to keep alive the flame of that piety which, as a child, she had imbibed in the convent of Romsey, by going on this pilgrimage at Eastertide or Whitsuntide. At this period the river Lea was crossed by the pilgrims and other travellers at the Old Ford, as the place is still called, but the inconvenience and danger of wading through so considerable a river induced the royal devotee to turn the road to a more convenient part of the stream, where she erected Bow Bridge, which is said to have been the finest example of pontine architecture then in the kingdom, and of which, as well as of its successor, an account will be found in OLD AND NEW LONDON.* The name of Stratford evidently points to the existence near this spot of a ford, which doubtless connected London with the old Roman street or road (stratum) to Camelodunum, whether that was at Maldon or, as is more probable, at Colchester. At Old Ford have been found several sarcophagi of a plain description, with flat covers. They are fully described, and some of them are engraved, in the third volume of the "Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society;" whilst in a lane at Stratford, called Blind Lane, between Old Ford and Leyton, were dug up about the middle of the last century a large Roman urn and fragments of pottery, confirming the derivation of Stratford from the Latin stratum. The line of communication anterior to the erection of Bow Bridge was, in the opinion of Dr. Stukeley, who wrote very largely-and sometimes very fancifully-upon the Roman remains in this country, by a road extending from Chichester See Vol. V., p 571. Morant, in his "History of Essex," has particularly noticed these roads, as also the circumstances which led to the erection of the bridge. "The ancient road from this county to London was by Old Ford, that is, through the ford there without a bridge; but that passage being difficult and dangerous, and many persons losing their lives or being thoroughly wetted, which happened to be the case of Maud, Queen Consort of King Henry I., she turned the road from Old Ford to the place where it now is, between Stratford, Bow, and West Ham, and caused also the bridges and causeway to be built and made at her own charge." In the Itinerary of Antoninus, two of the great Roman roads are stated to have passed through Essex. One of these followed very nearly the track of the present highway through Stratford and Ilford, and some remnants of what appear to have been parts of its banks are, or were til recently, visible at West Ham, and again near Ingatestone, this conclusion being strengthened by the fact that this road was made long prior to the fixing of boundaries of the ancient forest on that side. The native Britons, as readers of ancient history know, suffered severely under their Roman masters, large bodies of them being forced to work in making causeways across marsh lands, cutting down woods, draining morasses, and embanking the Thames with river walls. Campbell writes thus of the Roman roads in England, Vol. II., p. 250:"The commodious communication between the several parts of a country by means of roads, causeways where necessary, and bridges over intervening rivers, is of general convenience to the inhabitants, a constant source of opulence, and a signal proof of sound policy. The Romans were distinguished by their attention to the straightness, solidity, and admirable disposition of their larger and their lesser roads, which, though used for other purposes, were chiefly intended for military ways; and this wise economy of theirs was carried through all the provinces of their extensive empire. It is, however, remarkable that scarce in any of the countries they possessed there are still remaining more authentic monuments of these useful and stupendous works than in Great Britain, which, with indefatigable pains and most extensive learning, have been studiously traced, accurately described, and the stations on them, with as much certainty as might be pointed out by our industrious and laborious antiquaries. "The Roman roads, while yet in a great measure entire, appeared of such amazing grandeur and solidity, manifested such a wonderful sagacity in the design, and such prodigious labour and expense in the execution, that it is no wonder, in the barbarous ages succeeding to the ruin of that empire, we find these noble and stately works confidently ascribed to giants and art magic. The intention of these military ways was worthy of the genius, and expressive of the policy, of that wise and potent people. They were so many links or lines uniting the provinces to the seat of empire. 509 limits (however remote) of her dominions. To The Saxons, on becoming masters of the south of England, showed their appreciation of the use and value of the roads bequeathed to them by their predecessors, the Romans. The Danes, however, wreaked their vengeance on them as well as on the churches, and after the Norman Conquest, when trade and commerce were at a low ebb, they fell into disrepute, and were allowed to be gradually destroyed, especially in the neighbourhood of towns, where their materials were made "They extended, therefore, from Rome to the of use for building purposes. Flat and unattractive Appearance of Plaistow-Its Sedate Aspect in Former Times-Its Sources of Wealth-The Destitute Children's Home-The Metropolitan Main Drainage Works-Census Returns-Silver Town, Canning Town, and Hall Ville-Plaistow Church-St. Andrew's Church -Congregational Church-East London Cemetery-Poplar Small-pox and Fever Hospital-Chemical Works and other Manufactories-The Royal Victoria and Albert Docks-North Woolwich- St. Mark's Church-St. John's Church-North Woolwich Gardens-Distinguished Residents at Plaistow-Descent of the Manor of East Ham-St. Nicholas's Roman Catholic School-A Curious Manorial Custom-Situation and Extent of the Parish-The Parish Church-Emmanuel Church-St. John the Baptist-Plashet House-Greenstreet House-Anne Boleyn's Tower-St. Edward's Reformatory-The High Level Sewer-Beckton Gas and Coke Works. product of the soil, whilst the grass-land in the "Potatoes now are Plaistow's pride, THOUGH level and dull, this locality has inspired the poets; at all events, there is extant a poem of eight pages, "In Praise of Plaistow "-from which the motto of this chapter is extracted-printed anonymously, without the author's name, place, or date, about the middle of the last century. At that time the land hereabouts was to a great extent unencumbered by houses, and no doubt highly is a "ward" of the parish of West Ham, and the productive, from an agricultural point of view. place is passed over in the "British Traveller Potatoes would seem to have been the chief Plaistow, as shown in the preceding chapter, • White's "Eastern Counties," Vol. II., p. 299. The huge sewer of the Metropolitan Main Drainage Works passes through the village, and is then carried over the level market-gardens and meadow-land south-east to its outfall at Barking Creek. From a little, straggling, obscure village of "genteel houses," Plaistow has grown to be the larger ward of West Ham parish; and the population, which a century ago amounted to but a few hundreds, may now be reckoned by thousands, the combined districts of Plaistow (proper), Canning Town, and Silver Town, containing rather more (1771) with the curt remark that it "contains several genteel houses." These houses were occupied mostly by wealthy citizens and merchants of London, among whom were the Howards, the Gurneys, and the Sturges. Altogether, the village in those days must have worn a very sedate appearance. There was no church in the hamlet, but there was a Friends' meeting house and a Congregational chapel. The former now serves the purposes of a School Board school, and the latter has been adapted to business purposes. The Victoria Docks, and the large manufactories and centres of industry of Canning Town, Silver Town, and Hall Ville-all of which places lie southward of the village of Plaistow-have absorbed the greater part of the marsh-land and market-gardens between it and the Thames. Since the introduction of these works into the neighbourhood, the whole aspect of the locality has changed. Most of the old mansions have been either pulled down, cut up into tenements, or converted to other uses than those for which they were built. One antiquated building in the Broadway, formerly known as the "great house," or Broadway House, is now a "Destitute Children's Home;" it was established in 1872, is supported by voluntary contributions, and provides a home for sixty outcasts. than 67,000 inhabitants, or more than double the number when the census was taken in 1871. Silver Town is the name given to the district that has sprung up around Mr. Silver's India-rubber Clothing Works at North Woolwich; and Canning Town and Hall Ville are also named after the principal employers of labour in their respective districts. The most thickly populated parts are in the neighbourhood of the docks. The London and Tilbury Railway Company have two stations here, and the North Woolwich branch of the Great Eastern line has a station in the Barking Road, Canning Town. Plaistow was constituted an ecclesiastical parish, formed out of the mother parish of West Ham, in 1844. The church, which was erected a few |