A STRANGE PEEP AT OLD LONDON.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1409, 4 June 1884, Page 2

A STRANGE PEEP AT OLD LONDON.

— — » I Even the family of the great hanker, Mr Lord, lived over their J»ank in Loth bury, where their • only "ciritelj-lbe present Lord Overstone, was born. Mrs Loyd was adear^frjend of thy mother's, and never came to see us withouf'a parcel of beautiful tbys for us, She was a large, plain woman, speaking broad Lancashire, the truest and warmest of friends. Her carriage was always ready to take us anywhere we wanted. I remember driving with her and my mother over the Thames ■ during the long frost of 1814, when i the river was bard frozen for some mouths and a kind of fair held on it. ' Opposite to onr house, was a passage i called " Spinning Wheel Alley," in I which.; E tfectfltectr 1 seemg ■•• fchQse old < arsjjjlßs fttfl sale* which were then used in every cottage in the country. It i led into the famous Moorfields, where j the children held their meetings in 1 old times. I can just remember trees " and grass there. The whole of one side ] was filled with Bethlehem Hospital — ] a fine old building, with front garden i enclosed by high iron railings and I gat'?s. The hospital and its inmates i

were then one of the shilling sights of London. I was never within it ; but our maids nsed to be fond of taking us to walk, in front of it, where they could see pale wild faces peeping through ; the barred windows, aud were occasionally' gratified l»y hearing shouts and screatnsk " There were two tine stautes of maniacs in the court, which I believe Were removed to the new place when the old building was pulleddown. lean just recollect going with my father • to a place near, where I. saw a very ! high brick mound with grass at the I top, which workmen were pulling down, with great difficulty as it seemed. I was told it was the last bit of the old London wall, and my father bade me remember it. It must hu've bv«ui mor^ than seventy years ago. — " Memories of Seventy Years, by One of a Literary Family ."