gable. There was a skittle alley in its rear, and a little bit of bright garden at its side, all that was left of the gentle angler's sweet shady arbor, woven by Nature herself, with her own fine fingers, of woodbine, sweet-brier, jessamine, and myrtle. While a drink like nectar was still brewed in the interesting old inn, no fishermen went there to sup it in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and Izaak Walton was absolutely unknown to those who served or quaffed it. The river Lea is about five minutes' walk from the doors of the Swan. One of the most interesting memorials of Walton left us is the monogram 'I. W.' and the date '1658' scratched by Walton himself on the mural tablet to Isaac Casaubon in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley was very fond of pointing this out to his personal friends as he escorted them to the Poets' Corner; and it is the only desecration ever committed in the Abbey that he heartily forgave. NED EDWARD WARD. 1667-1731. ED WARD, the droll author of the 'London Spy,' is said by William Oldys to have lived for a while in Gray's Inn, and later to have kept a public house in Moorfields, afterwards in Clerkenwell, and lastly a punch-house in Fulwood's Rents. His Clerkenwell establishment he described as at the Great Gates in Red Bull Yard, between St. John Street and Clerkenwell Green;' and he claimed that on 'That ancient venerable ground, Where Shakspere in heroic buskin trod, A good old fabric may be found, Celestial liquors fit to charm a god.' This alludes to the unfounded tradition that Shakspere was a player in the Red Bull Theatre, in Red Bull Yard, which has since been called Woodbridge Street (see DAVENANT, p. 75, and SHAKSPERE, p. 264). Fulwood's Rents, at No. 34 High Holborn, nearly opposite Chancery Lane, contained in 1885 a number of very old and dilapidated buildings, doubtless standing there in Ward's time. His house, according to Oldys, was 'within one door of Gray's Inn,' and here 'he would entertain any company that invited him, with many stories and adventures of the poets and authors he had acquaintance with.' He died at this house, and was buried in Old St. Pancras Churchyard (see GODWIN, p. 118) in the most quiet manner, and in accordance with the directions of his poetic will :— 'No costly funeral prepare ; "Twixt Sun and Sun I only crave ISAAC WATTS. 1674-1748. ISAAC WATTS came to London in 1690 to enter the College for Dissenters in Newington Green (see DE FOE, p. 76). In 1693 he 'was admitted to Mr. Rowe's Church,' which then worshipped at Girdlers' Hall, still standing in 1885, at Nos. 38 to 40 Basinghall Street. In 1698-99 he preached as Dr. Chauncey's assistant in Ye Church in Mark Lane' (City). His connection with this congregation lasted until his death, fifty years later. In June, 1704, as is recorded in his Diary, 'we removed our meeting place to Pinner's Hall [Old Broad Street, see BAXTER, p. 18], and began exposition of Scripture.' In 1708 the congregation removed again to Duke's Place, Bury Street, St. Mary Axe; but there is now no trace left of either of these chapels. Watts lived with Mr. Thomas Hollis in the Minories' in 1702, and here probably wrote the poems which, in his Diary, he says were published in 1705. In 1710 he 'removed from Mr. Hollis's and went to live with Mr. Bowes, December 30. With this year his brief and unsatisfactory Diary ends; and his biographers have not cared to say more definitely where his homes in London were situated. In the year 1713 or 1714 he became a guest in the house of Sir Thomas Abney, at Theobalds, Cheshunt, Herts, about fifteen miles from London. Subsequently he went with the Abneys to Stoke Newington; and in 1748 died in their house at the end of a somewhat protracted visit of thirty-five years. Sir Thomas Abney's house at Stoke Newington was taken down in 1844, and its site is now occupied by Abney Park Cemetery, in which stands a statue of Watts. Dr. Watts was buried in Bunhill Fields Rev. Thomas deep in the earth, among the relics of many of his pious fathers and brethren whom he had known in the flesh, and with whom he wished to be found in the resurrection. . . . In order that his grave might read a lecture of that Milner's Life moderation which his life had exemplified and his of Watts, pen advocated, he desired that his funeral should be attended by two Independent ministers, two Presbyterian and two Baptist. chap. xviii. An altar tomb covers his grave, in the northeastern corner of the ground, not far from the City Road entrance. WESL JOHN WESLEY. 1703-1791. ESLEY was sent at an early age to the Charter House School (see ADDISON, p. 1), from which he went to Oxford in 1720. In after life he frequently asserted that much of his good health was due to the command of his father that he should run around the Charter House playground three times every morning, a task which he conscientiously performed. For some years Wesley was pastor of the congregation which worshipped in Pinner's Hall, Old Broad Street (see BAXTER, p. 18); and he preached at Bromley, and at the Foundry at Moorfields, which stood on the site of the Chapel subsequently erected in Tabernacle Row, Finsbury, near City Road. In 1752 Wesley took possession of the New Wells, a place of popular amusement in Clerkenwell, which he opened as a tabernacle, and in which he preached. It stood on Lower Rosoman Street, on the site of the houses afterwards numbered 5, 6, 7, and 8, according to Pink in his 'History of Clerkenwell;' and it was taken down shortly after the expiration of Wesley's lease. Wesley preached Whitefield's funeral sermon (1770) in the Tottenham Court Road Chapel, in 1885 numbered 79 Tottenham Court Road; and in 1777 he laid the foundation stone of the Chapel, No. 48 City Road, opposite the Cemetery of Bunhill Fields, where, as Southey shows, great multitudes assembled to hear and see him, and assist at the ceremony. 36 Opposite the Eastern Gate of the Artillery Ground in the City Road is a handsome Chapel, built by the late Rev. John Wesley, |