The Sun.
London, England, 1826-07-12 00:00:00

CRIMINAL SIDS.

Maria Standeven, the wife of John Standeven, a good-
looking woman, aged 26, was indicted for having, on the
sth or April 'last, feloniously taken away from Leeds one
daimon Taylor, aged 18 months, the son of Joseph
Taylor wool-sorter, of that town.
Mr:Hardy stated the case for the prosecution, and
called the grandmother of the child, Who proved thai on
the day in question the child was under her care, - when
the prisoner came up. and made an inquiry of her; she
then gave the child into' the care of a boy, and went to
point out the place the priioner inquired for she -after-
wards. went into her own house to wash up some tea
things, and was absent about three minutes ; on her return
the child was gone; witness caused an immediate pursuit,
and the child was recovered.

The prisoner, on being called on for' her defence, de-
nied having taken away the child with any intention of
stealing it ; she found it crying, and took it up outof pity.
Mr. Baron Hullock told the Jury
.they must determine
whether, in the absence of the father, and on the evidence
of the boy Holdsworth alone, they were 'of opinion that
the circumstances which they had now heard were suffi-
ciently clear to warrant them in finding the prisoner
guilty.—The Jury acquitted the prisoner.

The ALTERATIONS at CHA,RING CROSS.

At a period coeval with, or rather before the erection
of its cross, John Mugge, rector of St. Clements, owned
all the site of the present, Pall Mall East, and for a consi-
derable space beyond, northward, which he gave to. St.
Giles's Hospital ; and which is described as being then
" a garden walled in, situate next les Mwes, aiid contain-
ing twenty-seven acres."
Better than a century later we find this site, and the
whole of the ground behind the Mews, changed to a Com-
mon, and known by the name of " The Down" (Le
Doune), as appears by a deed 9 Richard H.
In this state it seems to have continued until the reign
of Henry VIII., when it is described in the Deed, of :Fax
change alluded to between that Monarch and the Abbot
of Westminster,. as Charing-cross. Field. ," Two acres of
lande in Charinge-crosse Felde, in the parysshe of Seynt
Martyn-in-the-Felde."

Oncoming to the Crown at the Dissolution, Henry
VIII. granted the right of commoning on this land to the
parishioners of St. Margaret's and St. Martin's, who held
such right until the' commencement of the reign of 'Eliza-
beth. It is shoWn in the state mentioned quite open, with
cattle grazing, a female spreading clothes on it to dry, &c.
in the large Plan of. London. by Aggas, first engraved
about that period, together with Hedge-lane, a country
by-way bounded by hedges (and from which it probably
derived its name) ; the Hay-market, more anciently Hay-
hill, and all the northern part open fields as far as to
Hampstead and. Highgate.
• It was a few years after that the ground abutting on St.
Martin's-lane began to be built 'on. Other parts of the
site were covered soon after, and both sides of St. Mar-
tin's-lane built for .a considerable way northward towards
St. Giles's.

The'fist houses mentioned had
.decayed by. the .year
1701, and it was found necessary to take them doWn.
Hemmings-row was at this time so narrow that carriages
could not pass, each other, upon which Parliament was ap-
plied to:for leave to take part of the land granted for wi-
dening the passage, and for the confirmation of the Free
School and Library at its back, which had then recently
been founded by Archbishop Tennison.
The first traces of the history of St. Martin's Church
are to 6e found in a dispute which occurred 'in the year
1222, concerning an exemption claimed by Westminster
Abbey from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London,when
it was degree(' that the Abbey and St. Margaret's parish
Were exempted, whieli parish of St. Margaret's probably
then included the church, chapel, or oratory of St. Martin,
built, perhaps, by. the Abbot and Convent for particular
religious service, when- they visited their garden, now cor-
ruptly. called Covent-garden.
The old church of St. Martin was in a state of ruin in
the reign of Henry VIII, and remained so still James 1.,
When he rebuilt it. Prince Henry and the nobility added
a. church in 1600, but the building and tower, according
to Vertue's print of them, were in his time, wretched and
ruinous.. Divine- .service was performed. in it,. for the last
time, June 11, 1721, when the morning sermon was preach-
by the eelebrated.Bishop Gibson. • •
The present fabric of St. Martin, so justly admired for
its'beauty (arid to the magnificent portico of which a road
has just, been opened from Pall Mall East), was began
March 19; 1722, when the first stone was laid by the
Bishop of Salisbury, the, King's Almoner, on the behalf
of his Majesty.
,It cost nearly 37,000/. exclusively of
some of its internal decorations. The funds and contri-
butions for its building were so abundant, that the news-
papers of the year 1724 mention the refusal of 5004 from
a lady, who would have given that sum towards enrich-
ing the altar-piece. The Prince of Wales, they. observe,
intended to give a peal of bells. , It was finished in little
better than two years, the last stone of the steeple being
placed in Dec. 1724. The architect was James Gibbs,
and it is not only the finest of his works, but without
doubt the most perfect Grecian church in England, ex-
cepting St. Paul's,
The whole of the
,ground eastward of St. Martini's
church, or behind the buildings on the south-side of the
Strand from that to Drury-lane end, appears in the begin-
ning of Elizabeth's reign to have formed gardens to the
respective houses.to which it was attached, which reach-
. •ed as far back ax to the wall of Covent-garden and were
divided from each other by hedges: The site of' St. Mar-
tin's churchyard is also shown in old plans, laid out as
garden, but extends further back northward than the Others,
as though occupying apart of the Covent-garden. This
circumstance seems to justify the 'conjecture that the
church was originally only an oratory for the Abbots
of Westminster when visiting the latter, as j'ust observed.
Covent-garden itself appears, in the same plan, merely a
large enclosed field, not confined to its present small limits,
but occupying the entire site from the back of the Strand
to Long-acre on the north, and from St. Martin's-lane to
Drury-line on the west and east.
The first building on.this site began towards the latter
end of the reign of Elizabeth. In a lease from Francis
Earl of Bedford,. to John Powell and others, of part of the
site of Henrietta-street to build on, it is described as being
• then paxt of the said Earl's pasture,' called Covent-garden
and Long Acre. Exeter House, to the eastward of Bed-
ford House `had previous been built by the Lord Trea-
surer Burlei gh, froM whom it was at first called
,Burleigh
House; and from his successor, afterwards created Earl of
Exeter, Exeter House.
The more western part of the Strand, on this side, some Years after the period alluded to, acquired celebrity from
a foundation winch stood- nearly opposite Durham-yard,
and which was afterwards known by the name of the New
Exchange. Pennant deScribes it as built somewhat on the
model of the Royal Exchange,-with cellars beneath, a walk
above, and rows of shops over that, filled chiefly with mil.
liners, sempstresses, an such like.'
' It was near this time, that the Strand beginning to be
esteemed an elegant situation, all the ground on this, as
well us on the Tlutmes Side, came to be built on,
and. to
grow more and more .vuluuble. Hence Ben Jonson, in
d
his comedy of Epioene,t or, the Silent Woman act, i. se.
4,, -introduces Sir Amorous la Poole as commenting Clesi-
, mont's lodging, by telling him it would be as debt-Ate a
lodging as his-own, if it were but in the Strand. And
WilGsoond'abmernZerntleul.lti°Snpeadnishin Ambassador
hislifeorJa7l:ll 1s lof . speaking
that
eaking
were the where most of
iphre9gatrnyelahneddt,hteb6Sctrard
ovierit.iarden
heitlg.
then
an
enehm.
ed field: The whole was completely built on in the reign
of Charles 11,