Addle-Hill, which corruptly and unworthily retains his name. Canute had a better taste, and began the fashion of living at Westminster; though even then the British Sovereigns were almost as frequently at "our Tower of London," as their Charters express it, as at any other residence. From the time of John to that of Henry VIII. they occasionally sojourned within the dark castellations of Bridewell, by the mud and melancholy of Fleet-Ditch; and though one would scarcely have thought it a fitting lodging for an Emperor, yet the latter Monarch put the famous Charles V. there, when he made him a visit. Then we are told that Edward I. had a house in Lime-Street; and his great-grandson, the Black Prince of Wales, owned a tenement in New Fish-Street, that is to say, about opposite the Monument; whilst Henry VI., Richard III., and Henry VII., often set up their staff at Baynard's Castle, in Upper Thames-Street; and he of crooked memory, sometime had a habitation at Crosby House, in Bishopsgate-Within. It would ask a whole volume,-and that one of no little extent, only to enumerate all the several parts of London, both City and Suburbs, which have been honoured by the visits and dwellings of

Royalty, to say nothing of foreign Princes and Nobility. Many of these, are doubtless now altogether forgotten or unknown; others live but upon the page of history; and some preserve their faded glories only in their names. Thus, that quiet-looking area by Whitehall, which, as Stow says, "is called Scotland to this day," marks the ancient residence of the tributary Sovereigns of Caledonia, when they came hither to the English Parliament; and the Eastern Palace of the heir to the British throne, is yet commemorated in the half-forgotten name of Petty Wales: which is a place, however, that the opening scene of the ensuing narrative invites us for a few moments to contemplate more particularly.

The knaveries of London having become notorious at so early a period of our history as the fourteenth century, it is not very surprising to discover, that in the days of Elizabeth, they had increased to such an extent, that stealing had become a regular science; for which there were several academies in the Metropolis, where it was taught in all it's branches, and on the most improved principles. Without enumerating these Schola Mercurii, or discoursing of all that Time and John Stow have left us of

their ingenious arts, which are well known to every London Antiquary,we will state only that one of the most famous of these seminaries was established at Smart's Quay, at the Eastern entrance of Billingsgate Dock, under the disguise of an Ale-house, kept by one Wotton," a gentleman born, and once a Merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay." This house, however, with fifteen others of like reputation, was discovered and suppressed in 1585; though it appears from the following curious history, that Master Wotton's was not the first of the kind beside the Thames; and, indeed, it is most probable that he learned his art in that which is now about to be noticed.

Amidst the reliques of those ancient stone buildings, which for so many years obstructed the South side of Lower Thames Street, between the Custom-House and the Tower, there stood, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a curious wooden erection, of a long, low, and narrow shape, known by the sign of the Old Galley; it being rather a popular house of entertainment, kept by Ursula Wolfe, the sturdy widow of one of bluff King Harry's foreign soldiers, who had fought with him at the siege

of Boulogne, about five-and-twenty years before. As the ruins in which it was situate, had, even then, worn out of memory as to their owner and founders, popular tradition very liberally gave them to no less a personage than Julius Cæsar; who, indeed, I have little doubt, erected them in the very same year that he set up the embattled walls of the White Tower. But whether they had been really the work of the Imperial Veni, Vidi, Vici himself, or only indicated the ancient residence of the Princes of Wales, when they lodged in the City, it is most certain that the vicinage of this spot, on the South-West side of Tower-hill, was called Petty Wales; and consisted of several antique houses of Norman stone, at this time fallen into decay both of structure and reputation. Near the ruins was formed that old Dock, still known by the name of Galley Quay, because, at a very early period, the Italians who brought wine into England used to anchor and unload their Galleys in it, and chiefly to reside in that quarter of London; though when the trade declined, or the vessels sought other harbours, the adjoining houses were left to ruin, or let out for Ale-houses, Stables, and such inferior purposes. One of the Publicans and sinners of Petty

Wales, was our Mrs. Ursula Wolfe; who, being a good-looking hostess, of as jovial and blustering a disposition as the wildest Haquebutman in her husband's troop, having the skill, too, to forage, or even fight, for herself, grew rich, and became a general favourite with all the frequenters of the spot; as the soldiers and warders from the Tower, boatmen and mariners from the River, waggoners and dealers from the country, and rustic passengers from the tilt-boats; who enjoyed her blustering as a hearty freedom, and regarded all her boldness. as wit. Her dress was usually a wide gown of dark blue, with a kind of red jacket over it; high-heeled shoes of brown skin, broidered with black; her brown hair loosely gathered up in a bush, or roll; and her head covered, either with a large hood, or a lofty hat. Such was the Hostess of the Old Galley, in Petty Wales, who doubtless was the same person whom Stow commemorates under the name of Mother Mampudding, which was probably only an endearing title bestowed upon her by her more familiar visitors; and he also gives a few particulars of that curious residence built for her by some of her marine guests, with their own peculiar architecture and materials, with which