DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1213#0075
ST. GEORGE'S-EIELDS. 57
road, and the Lambeth-road. In the middle of the circus
is a stone column called the Obelisk, erected in 1771, in
honour of Brass Crosby, Esq., Lord Mayor of London.
Upon its sides the distances from Fleet-street, London
and Westminster bridges are marked. The circus covers
a portion of St.. George's-fields, originally a large piece of
marsh land, but which the embankment of the Thames
and draining rendered valuable property. From this ground
tesselated pavements, coins, and bones have been taken,
affording satisfactory proofs that it was in remote times
the seat of a Roman encampment. St. George's-fields
were named after the adjacent church of St. George the
Martyr, and appear once to have been marked by all the
floral beauty of meadows, uninvaded by London smoke.
We learn from Mr. Cunningham, that Gerrard came here
to collect specimens of his Herbal. " Of water violets/'
he says, " I have not found such plenty in any one place,
as the water ditches adjoining too St. George his fielde
near London." In Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata is
copied the following inscription on a stone inserted in
the front of Finch's Grotto Gardens:—
Here herbs did grow
And flowers sweet,
But now 'tis called
St. George's street
Political mobs were wont to assemble here even as early
as the days of Charles I., and the rioters who, under the
guidance of that madman, Lord George Gordon, burnt
the Roman Catholic Chapels, Newgate, and other public
buildings, made these fields their principal rendezvous in
1780. In fact, with seditious assemblages of past cen-
turies St. George's-fields appear to have been considered
pretty much a similar arena of turbulence to that which
modern malcontents impotently endeavoured to convert
Kennington-common. The Dog-and-I)uck tea-gardens
in these fields was a favourite place of amusement, to
which the Londoners were accustomed to stroll on a Sun-
VOL. II. I
road, and the Lambeth-road. In the middle of the circus
is a stone column called the Obelisk, erected in 1771, in
honour of Brass Crosby, Esq., Lord Mayor of London.
Upon its sides the distances from Fleet-street, London
and Westminster bridges are marked. The circus covers
a portion of St.. George's-fields, originally a large piece of
marsh land, but which the embankment of the Thames
and draining rendered valuable property. From this ground
tesselated pavements, coins, and bones have been taken,
affording satisfactory proofs that it was in remote times
the seat of a Roman encampment. St. George's-fields
were named after the adjacent church of St. George the
Martyr, and appear once to have been marked by all the
floral beauty of meadows, uninvaded by London smoke.
We learn from Mr. Cunningham, that Gerrard came here
to collect specimens of his Herbal. " Of water violets/'
he says, " I have not found such plenty in any one place,
as the water ditches adjoining too St. George his fielde
near London." In Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata is
copied the following inscription on a stone inserted in
the front of Finch's Grotto Gardens:—
Here herbs did grow
And flowers sweet,
But now 'tis called
St. George's street
Political mobs were wont to assemble here even as early
as the days of Charles I., and the rioters who, under the
guidance of that madman, Lord George Gordon, burnt
the Roman Catholic Chapels, Newgate, and other public
buildings, made these fields their principal rendezvous in
1780. In fact, with seditious assemblages of past cen-
turies St. George's-fields appear to have been considered
pretty much a similar arena of turbulence to that which
modern malcontents impotently endeavoured to convert
Kennington-common. The Dog-and-I)uck tea-gardens
in these fields was a favourite place of amusement, to
which the Londoners were accustomed to stroll on a Sun-
VOL. II. I