Poultry. Where Bow Church now stands, Edward I. and his queen sat in a wooden gallery to see one of the city pageants pass through Cheapside. An accident on that occasion led to the construction of a stone gallery; and when all this part of the city was laid in ashes in 1666, Sir Christopher Wren included a pageant-gallery in the front of his beautiful steeple of Bow Church, just over the arched entrance. That gallery, in which Charles II. and Queen Anne were royal visitors, is still existing, though no longer used in a similar way. Concerning the street itself, Howes, writing about 1631, said: 'At this time and for divers years past, the Goldsmith's Row' (a jutting row of wooden tenements), 'in Cheapside, was very much abated of her wonted store of goldsmiths, which was the beauty of that famous street; for the young goldsmiths, for cheapnesse of dwelling, take their houses in Fleet Street, Holborne, and the Strand, and in other streets and suburbs; and goldsmiths' shops were turned to milliners, linen-drapers, and the like.' Two centuries or more ago, therefore, Cheapside, which had already been a mart for mercery and drapery, became still more extensively associated with those trades. It was about that time that Charles I. dined on one occasion with Mr Bradborne, one of the wealthy Cheapside mercers. If we turn into any one of the streets branching from this great artery, we should find strange contrasts to the old times now exhibited. In Friday Street, now occupied much in the same way as Bread Street, there was at one time a fishmarket on Fridays; the Nag's Head,' at the corner of Cheapside, was concerned in some of the notable events of Elizabeth's reign; and a club held the meeting which led eventually to the establishment of the Bank of England. In Old Change-once the 'Old Exchange,' for the receipt of bullion to be coined; and where dealers in 'ventilating corsets' and 'elastic crinolines' now share most of the houses with mercers and drapers -Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, had a fine house and garden in the time of James I.; and early in the last century, there was a colony of Armenian merchants there. In Bow Lane, Tom Coryat, the eccentric traveller, died in 1617. In Soper's Lane, changed, after the great fire, to Queen Street, the 'pepperers' used to reside in some force; they were the wholesale-dealers in drugs and spices. In the Old Jewry, Sir Robert Clayton had a fine house in the time of Charles II.; and in this street Professor Porson died. Bucklersbury, where Sir Thomas More lived, and where his daughter Margaret was born, was a famous place for druggists, apothecaries, herbalists, and dealers in 'simples.'

BRAMAH LOCK-PICKING.

Joseph Bramah, the mechanical engineer, is better remembered, perhaps, in connection with lock-making than with any other department of his labours, although others were of a more important character. Born in 1749, he was intended, like his brothers, to follow the avocation of their father, who was a farmer in Yorkshire; but a preference for the use of mechanical tools led him to the trade of a carpenter and cabinet-maker. He became an inventor, and then a manufacturer, of valves and other small articles in metal-work; and in 1784, he devised the 'impregnable' lock,

BRAMAH LOCK-PICKING.

His

which has ever since obtained so much celebrity. Then ensued a long series of inventions in taps, tubes, pumps, fire-engines, beer-engines for taverns, steam-engines, boilers, fire-plugs, and the like. His hydraulic-press is one of the most valuable contributions ever made by inventive skill to manufacturing and engineering purposes. planing-machine for wood and metal surfaces has proved little less valuable. He made a machine for cutting several pen-nibs out of one quill, and a machine for numbering bank-notes, and devised a new mode of rendering timber proof against dryrot. In the versatile nature of his mechanical genius, he bears a strong resemblance to the elder Brunel. His useful life, passed in an almost incessant series of inventions, was brought to a close, characteristically enough, on December 9, 1814, by a cold caught while using his own hydraulic-press for uprooting trees in Holt Forest.

The reason why Bramah's locks have been more publicly known than any other of his inventions is, because there was a mystery or puzzle connected with them. How to lock a door which can be opened only by means of a proper key, is a problem nearly four thousand years old; for Denon, in his great work on Egypt, has given figures of a lock found depicted among the basreliefs which decorate the great temple at Karnak : it is precisely similar in principle to the wooden locks now commonly used in Egypt and Turkey. The principle is simple, but exceedingly ingenious. Shortly before Mr Bramah's time, English inventors sought to improve upon the old Egyptian locks; but he struck into a new path, and devised a lock of singularly ingenious and complex character. To open it without its proper key, would be (to use his own language) as difficult as it would be to determine what kind of impression had been made in any fluid, when the cause of such impression was wholly unknown; or to determine the separate magnitudes of any given number of unequal substances, without being permitted to see them; or to counterfeit the tally of a banker's cheque, without having either part in possession.' One particular lock made by him, having thirteen small pieces of mechanism called 'sliders,' was intended to defy lock-pickers to this extent: that there were the odds of 6,227,019,500 to 1, against any person, unprovided with the proper key, finding the means of opening the lock without injuring it! Mr Chubb, and many other persons both in England and America, invented locks which attained, by different means, the same kind of security sought by Mr Bramah; and it became a custom with the makers to challenge each other-each daring the others to pick his lock. The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought this subject into public notice in a singular way. An American lockmaker, Mr Hobbs, declared openly at that time that all the English locks, including Bramah's, might be picked; and, in the presence of eleven witnesses, he picked one of Chubb's safety-locks in twenty-five minutes, without having seen or used the key, and without injuring the lock. After much controversy concerning the fairness or unfairness of the process, a bolder attempt was made. There had, for many years, been exhibited in the shop-window of Messrs Bramah (representatives of the original Joseph Bramah), a padlock of great size, beauty, and complexity; to

which an announcement was affixed, offering a reward of two hundred guineas to any person who should succeed in picking that lock. Mr Hobbs accepted the challenge; the lock was removed to an apartment specially selected; and a committee was appointed, chosen in equal number by Messrs Bramah and Mr Hobbs, to act as arbitrators. The lock was screwed to, and between two boards, and so fixed and sealed that no access could be obtained to any part of it except through the keyhole. Mr Hobbs, without once seeing the key, was to open the lock within thirty days, by means of groping with small instruments through the keyhole, and in such way as to avoid injury to the lock. By one curious clause in the written agreement, Messrs Bramah were to be allowed to use the key in the lock at any time or times when Mr Hobbs was not engaged upon it; to insure that he had not, even temporarily, either added to or taken from the mechanism in the interior, or disarranged it in any way. This right, however, was afterwards relinquished; the key was kept by the committee during the whole of the period, under seal; and the keyhole was also sealed up whenever Mr Hobbs was not engaged upon it. This agreement, elaborate enough for a great commercial enterprise, instead of merely the picking of a lock, was signed in July 1851; and Mr Hobbs began operations on the 24th. For sixteen days, spreading over a period of a month, he shut himself in the room, trying and testing the numerous bits of iron and steel that were to enable him to open the lock; the hours thus employed were fifty-one in number, averaging rather more than three on each of the days engaged. On the 23d of August Mr Hobbs exhibited the padlock open, in presence of Dr Black, Professor Cowper, Mr Edward Bramah, and Mr Bazalgette. In presence of two of these gentlemen, he then both locked and unlocked it, by means of the implements which he had constructed, without ever having once seen the key. On the 29th he again locked and unlocked it, under the scrutiny of all the members of the committee. On the 30th the proper key was unsealed, and the lock opened and shut with it in the usual way: thus shewing that the delicate mechanism of the lock had not been injured. Mr Hobbs then produced the instruments which he used. The makers of the lock took exception to some of the proceedings, as not being in accordance with the terms of the challenge; but the arbitrators were unanimous in their decision that Mr Hobbs had fairly achieved his task. The two hundred guineas were paid. Of the stormy controversy that arose among the lock-makers, we have not here to speak: suffice it to say, that the lock which was thus picked was one which Joseph Bramah had made forty years earlier. All the intricate details on which the lockpicker was engaged, were contained within a small brass barrel about two inches long.

THE FORTUNE THEATRE.

1621, Dec. 9, Md.-This night att 12 of the clock the Fortune was burnt.' Such is the brief account given by Alleyn, in his diary, of the destruction of his theatre after an existence of twenty-one years. In two hours the building was burned to the ground, and all its contents destroyed.

THE FORTUNE THEATRE.

The Fortune stood on the east of Golding (now Golden) Lane, Barbican, and was built in the year 1599 for Alleyn and his partner Henslowe, by Peter Streete, citizen and carpenter. The contract for its erection has been preserved, and we find it therein stipulated that the frame of the house was to be set square, and contain fourscore feet' every way square' without, and fifty feet square within. The foundation, reaching a foot above the ground, was of brick, the building itself being constructed of timber, lath, and plaster. It consisted of three stories; the lowest, twelve, the second, eleven, and the upper one, nine feet in height; with four convenient divisions for 'gentlemen's rooms' and twopenny rooms.'* The stage was forty-three feet wide, and projected into the middle of the yard-the open space where the groundlings congregated. The theatre was covered with tiles, instead of being thatched like the Globe, and the supports of the rooms or galleries were wrought like pilasters, and surmounted by carved satyrs. Streete contracted to do all the work, except the painting, for £440, but the entire cost was considerably more. Alleyn's pocket-book contains the following memorandum, made in 1610:

Bought the inheritance of the land of the Gills of the Isle of Man within the Fortune, and all the howses in Wight Cross Street, June 1610, for the sum of £340.

Bought John Garret's leas in reversion from the Gills for twenty-one years, for £100, so in all it cost me £1320.

Blessed be the Lord God Everlasting.'

While the Fortune was in course of erection, a complaint was laid by sundry persons against building of the new theatre,' which led to an order in council limiting the theatres to be allowed to the Globe on the Surrey side, and the Fortune on the Middlesex side of the river-the latter being licensed, contingent on the Curtain Theatre, in Shoreditch, being pulled down or applied to other The performances were only to take place twice a week; and the house was on no account to be opened on Sundays, during Lent, or at such time as any extraordinary sickness shall appear in or about the city.'

uses.

In May 1601, the 'Admiral's servants' were transferred from the Curtain to Alleyn's new house, where they appear to have prospered. After it was burned down, it was rebuilt with brick, and the shape altered from square to round; and, in 1633, Prynne speaks of it as lately re-edified and enlarged. When Alleyn founded Dulwich College (the charity from which his own profession have been so strangely excluded), the Fortune formed part of its endowment, and the funds of the college suffered greatly when the theatre was closed during the Civil War. In 1649,

* The gentlemen's rooms are represented by our modern boxes, and the twopenny rooms by our gallery-taking their name from the charge for admission

'I'll go to the Bull or Fortune, and there see
A play for twopence, and a jig to boot.'
Goffe's Careless Shepherdess, 1656.

for want of meat, for the half-penny loaf is worth five pence; we pray to God to send us home speedily; and we freeze for want of winter garments, having nothing but thin linen between us and the wind." On the other hand, the Welsh were always ready to take advantage of any commotions across the border. In 1268, Llewellyn was compelled to accept terms which Henry III. imposed upon him, and which rendered him little else than a feudal vassal to the king of England. When Henry died, and Edward I. became king, Llewellyn was summoned to London, to render homage to the new monarch. The angry blood of the Welshman chafed at this humiliation; but he yielded-more especially as Edward held in his power the daughter of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, to whom Llewellyn was betrothed, and he could only obtain her by coming to London. In 1278, Llewellyn and the lady were married, the king himself giving away the bride. The Prince and Princess of Wales went to their future home in the principality. Their happiness, however, was short-lived: the princess died in giving birth to a daughter, who afterwards ended her days as a nun in a Lincolnshire convent. Peace did not long endure between Llewellyn and Edward. A desolating war broke out, marked by much barbarity on both sides. Llewellyn's friends fell away one by one, and made terms with the powerful king of England. The year 1282 saw the close of the scene. While some of his adherents were combating the Earl of Gloucester and Sir Edmund Mortimer in South Wales, Llewellyn himself was fighting in the north. Leaving the bulk of his soldiers, and coming almost unattended to Builth, he fell into an ambush, which cost him his life. Dr Powel, in 1584, translated into English an account of the scene, written by Caradoc of Llanfargan: The prince departed from his men, and went to the valley with his squire alone, to talk with certain lords of the country, who had promised to meet him there. Then some of his men, seeing his enemies come down from the hill, kept the bridge called the Pont Orewyn, and defended the passage manfully, till one declared to the Englishmen where a ford was, a little beneath, through the which they sent a number of their men with Elias Walwyn, who suddenly fell upon them that defended the bridge, in their backs, and put them to flight. The prince's esquire told the prince, as he stood secretly abiding the coming of such as promised to meet him in a little grove, that he heard a great noise and cry at the bridge; and the prince asked whether his men had taken the bridge, and he said, "Yes." "Then," said the prince," I pass not if all the power of England were on the other side." But suddenly, behold the horsemen about the grove; and as he would have escaped to his men, they pursued him so hard that one Adam Francton ran him through with a staff, being unarmed, and knew him not. And his men being but a few, stood and fought boldly, looking for their prince, till the Englishmen, by force of archers, mixed with the horsemen, won the hill, and put them to flight. And as they returned, Francton went to despoil him whom he had slain; and when he saw his face, he knew him very well, and stroke off his head, and sent it to the king at the abbey of Conway, who received it with great joy, and caused it to be

PRINCE OF WALES.

set upon one of the highest turrets of the Tower of London.'

Thus closed the career of Llewellyn, the last native sovereign of Wales. Edward I. speedily brought the whole principality under his sway, and Wales has ever since been closely allied to England. Edward's queen gave birth to a son in Caernarvon Castle; and this son, while yet a child, was formally instituted Prince of Wales. It thenceforward became a custom, departed from in only a few instances, to give this dignity to the eldest son, or heir-apparent of the English king or queen. The title is not actually inherited; it is conferred by special creation and investiture, generally soon after the birth of the prince to whom it relates. It is said, by an old tradition, that Edward I., to gratify the national feelings of the Welsh people, promised to give them a prince without blemish on his honour, Welsh by birth, and one who could not speak a word of English. He then, in order to fulfil his promise literally, sent Queen Eleanor to be confined at Caernarvon Castle, and the infant born there had, of course, all the three characteristics. Be this tradition true or false, the later sovereign cared very little whether the Princes of Wales were acceptable or not to the people of the principality. In the mutations of various dynasties, the Prince of Wales was not, in every case, the eldest son and heir-apparent; and in two instances, there was a princess without a prince. Henry VIII. gave this title to his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, in succession; but the general rule has been as above stated. It may be useful here to state, in chronological order, the eighteen Princes of Wales, from the time of Edward I. to that of Victoria. We shall construct the list from details given in Dr Doran's Book of the Princes of Wales. Each prince has a kind of surname, according to the place where he was born. (1.) Edward of Caernarvon, son of Edward I., born 1284; died, 1327, as Edward II. (2.) Edward of Windsor, son of Edward II., born 1312; died, 1377, as Edward III. (3.) Edward of Woodstock, son of Edward III., born 1330; known as Edward the Black Prince, and died 1376. (4.) Richard of Bordeaux, son of Edward the Black Prince, born 1367; died, 1399, as Richard II. (5.) Henry of Monmouth, son_of Henry IV., born 1387; died, 1422, as Henry V.; (6.) Edward of Westminster, son of Henry VI., born 1453; died 1471. (7.) Edward of the Sanctuary, son of Edward IV., born 1470; died, 1483, as Edward V. (8.) Edward of Middleham, son of Richard III., born 1474; died 1484. (9.) Arthur of Winchester, eldest son of Henry VII., born 1486; died 1502. (10.) Henry of Greenwich, second son of Henry VII., born 1491; died, 1547, as Henry VIII. (11.) Henry of Stirling, eldest son of James I., born 1594; died 1612. (12.) Charles of Dunfermline, second son of James I., born 1600; died, 1649, as Charles I. (13.) Charles of St James's, son of Charles I., born 1630; died, 1685, as Charles II. (14.) George Augustus of Hanover, son of George I., born 1683; died, 1760, as George II. (15.) Frederick Louis of Hanover, son of George II., born 1707; died 1751. (16.) George William Frederick of Norfolk House, son of the last named, born 1738; died, 1820, as George III. (17.) George Augustus Frederick of St James's, son of George III., born 1762; died, 1830, as George IV. (18.) Albert Edward, son of Queen Victoria, born 1841; and