ST JAMES'S PALACE and part of the CITY of WESTMINSTER,
Taken From the

as they appeared

Nside of Pall Mall.

about the Year 1660.

用。

J. Cook sc

121.

PALL MALL.

FORMER STATE OF PALL MALL.-SIR THOMAS WYATT.-MURDER OF THYNNE. CHARLES THE SECOND'S MISTRESSES.-BEAU FIELDING'S STRANGE ADVENTURE.-SCHOMBERG HOUSE.-STAR AND GARTER. -Duke of BUCKINGHAM'S RESIDENCE.-CARLTON HOUSE.

ABOUT the year 1660, the tract of ground on which Pall Mall, St. James's Square, and Piccadilly now stand, consisted of open fields; St. James's Street alone being partially built. The wall of St. James's Park ran along the site of the houses on the south side of Pall Mall, and the only buildings to be seen west of Charing Cross were a small church, the name of which is not remembered, -the conduit, a small Gothic building, which stood nearly on the site of St. James's Square,-and a house of public refreshment. The latter building was probably the tavern, called the "Old Pall Mall," at which Pepys informs us that he occasionally supped. Anderson, who wrote in the middle of the last century, observes, "I have met with several old persons in my younger days, who remembered when there was but one single house (a cake-house) between the Mews Gate at Charing Cross and St. James's Palace Gate, where now stand the stately piles of St. James's Square, Pall Mall, and other

fine streets." The tract of ground on which Pall Mall now stands, was apparently the meadow, "always green," to which Le Serre alludes in his "Entrée Royale," "Near the avenues of the palace," he says, "is a large meadow, always green, in which the ladies walk in summer. Its great gate has a long street in front, reaching nearly to the fields. The palace itself is built of brick, very ancient, with a flat leaden roof, and is surrounded at top by crenelles."

It was along the site of the present Pall Mall that Sir Thomas Wyatt marched his troops in his rash attempt on London in 1554. The Earl of Pembroke, who advanced to oppose him at the head of the royal forces, planted his artillery on the high ground, where Hay Hill and Piccadilly now stand, when a piece of the Queen's ordnance, we are told, slew three of Wyatt's followers in a rank, and after carrying off their heads, passed through the wall into the Park. Stowe, in his brief narrative of the insurrection, affords us an interesting account of the locality of this part of London in the middle of the sixteenth century, "The same night, (February 6th) about five of the clock, a trumpeter went about and warned all horsemen and men of arms to be at St. James's Field, and all footmen to be there by six of the clock on the next morning. The Queen's scout, upon his return to the Court, declared Wyatt's being at Brentford, which sudden news made all the Court wonderfully afraid. Drums went through London at four of the clock in the

SIR THOMAS WYATT.

123

morning, commanding all soldiers to armour, and so to Charing Cross.

66

Wyatt, hearing the Earl of Pembroke was come into the field, stayed at Knightsbridge until day, where his men being very weary with travel of that night and the day before, and also partly feebled and faint, having received small sustenance since their coming out of Southwark, rested. There was no small ado in London; and likewise the Tower made great preparation of defence. By ten of the clock the Earl of Pembroke had set his troop of horsemen on the hill in the highway, above the new bridge over against St. James's; his footmen were set in two battles, somewhat lower and nearer Charing Cross, at the lane turning down the brick wall from Islington ward, where he also placed certain other horsemen; and he had planted his ordnance upon the hill side. In the mean season, Wyatt and his company planted his ordnance upon a hill beyond St. James's, almost over against the Park corner; and himself, after a few words spoken to his soldiers, came down the old lane on foot, hard by the court gate at St. James's, with four or five ancients, his men marching in good array. The Earl of Pembroke's horsemen hovered all this while without moving, until all was passed by, saving the tail, upon which they did set and cut off. The other marched forward in array, and never stayed or returned to the aid of their tail. The great ordnance shot off freshly on both sides, Wyatt's ordnance overshot the troop of horsemen. The

Queen's ordnance, one piece, struck three of Wyatt's company in a rank, upon the heads, and slaying them, struck through the wall into the Park. More harm was not done by the great shot of either party.

"The Queen's whole battle of footmen standing still, Wyatt passed along by the wall towards Charing Cross, when the said horsemen that were there set upon part of them, but were soon forced back. At Charing Cross there stood Sir John Gage, Lord Chamberlain with the Guard, and a number of others, being almost a thousand; the which, upon Wyatt's coming, shot at his company, but at the last fled to the Court gates, which certain pursued, and forced with shot to shut the Court gates against them. In this repulse, the said Lord Chamberlain and others were so amazed, that many cried treason in the Court, and had thought that the Earl of Pembroke, who was assaulting the tail of his enemies, had gone to Wyatt, taking his part against the Queen. There was running and crying out of ladies and gentlemen, shutting of doors and windows, and such a shrieking and noise as was wonderful to hear. The noise of women and children," adds Stow, "when the conflict was at Charing-Cross was so great, that it was heard at the top of the White Tower, and also the great shot was well discerned there out of St. James's Fields." On the leads of St. James's Palace stood the Marquis of Northampton, Sir Nicholas Penn, Sir Thomas Pope, and others, anxious spectators of the