Star.
London, England, 1824-09-03 00:00:00

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• 111SAirII EASE: - .
FROM ,TIIR LONDON MAOAiI:CR•
' I used to love thee, simple fiow'r,
. To love thee dearly when a boy
,
'For thou dt4l'it seem, b childhood's hbur,
The smiling type of childhood's joy ! . • *
But:nOW time only modest my grief, ' • • ;
•
By walling thOughts of pleasures fled ;
Give me--:give me the wither'd leaf„ •
That fall; on Autumn's boson—dead;
•,? For that ne'er tells of what has been,
• • Dot t•.•arns me what f soon shalt be ;
Itloolra hot back to Pleasure's scene,
But pOints unto futurity !
• , I love thee not, thou simple Artw'r, , •
' For thou art gay and El
am lune— ••
Thy beauty died with childhood's hour— 7C'
The heart's ease from my path is gene!

• I'OPOGRAPHICA SXET Clf ES.
ISLINGTON.
• •, .
Sn'diffe'rent was the state of this place and its neigh-
bourhood fifty yaks' ago,•:to what it is at present; that
it was then not uncommon for robberies to be Commit-
ted even. in the of the village; both carriages and
foot pisiengers were" trelinently stopped. in the most
darilg manntr;..and it was usual for persons walking
from the city lathe evening to-wait at the end of St.
John's-street till a sufficient party was collected, who
were then escorted to Islington by an armed patrol ap-
pointed for; ttidetiiirpose. The annals of the Old Bai-
ley abound with instances oldelinquents whohaveteen
apprelken4p4 for robbeties and Murders committed in
the neiglitiourhood, till of late years that the police has
been kept on a more respectable footing. A cpiarto
sheet, published in 1674; bears the following title:—
FOur great and horiible Muidir4 or., Bloody Needs'
frooaldington r being a lull and Vtie.Relation how". a
Wl:titan's Brains were knocked out with her own Pat-
ten, and her Throat cut,- on Tuesday, the sth of Fe-
brearriiistaiatt a .Man beaten to Death on the Bth of

in a

the same Month ; and a Woman drowoeu
Pend at Islington, &c.
. Among the Records in the 'tower
.is a patent for a
pavage" for the highway from Smithfield-bars to
Gore's-place, Iseldon, about the year 138044nd certain
customs were granted in' the preceding reign for repair:
ing the highway between Highgate and Sarithfield.--
Slieb, lidwever, was the state of the highways in this
district, almost Within memory, that travellers were
frequently obliged, in their journies to and from the
metropolis, in the winter seasons, to riiiiaitt all night at
the inns in the village, as the roads were Absolutely
dangerous after the close of day. The Red Lion, the
Angel, and the Pied Bull, were at. that time houses of
great resort for persdns journeying from the north.
Stowe informs us that Sir T. Falconer, Lord Mayor
of London the year 1415:.“ caused the Wall of the
city to bee broken towards the Morefield, aid banded
the postern called More-gate, for ease of the citizens to
walke that way upoq cauge's tewird's• Iseldon anclHox-
ton." This appears to be the origin of the old highway
leading from Moor-gate to the Dog-house Bar.* He
alio remarks, that in his time "many faire houses were
budged by the highway leading from the Priory of St.
Johii towards Iselifon ;" and, that persons used to come
that way-to Clerkenwell church, Highgate, Muswell,&c.
ThoMas.Sisttion,.Esq. (founder of the Charter-house'),
gave, in the reiti of James 1. forty Maas to the Mend-.
ing of the highsiiiis of Islington and Newington. •
The road called the City-road, was formed in conse-
quence of a
,scheme prijected in 1756, by a Mr. Ding-
_ leY,'for making 4 new road &oils the d'orth end of
Islington,
.over the fields to the Dog Hoy* Bar, before
mentioned, and thereby to open a coineauhieation be-
tween the City and,the western paits of the metropolis,
&C. For this an Oct of Parliament was procured,
1 George 111. and the same was opened in 176/, byi
the name of the City-road, and contains at this day one
of the finest highways leading from the metropolis.
Of pastimes used anciently by the citizens of Lon-
. don,, none seems to have been more attended to than
the practice of shooting with the long bow, and the
fields in the vicinity of Islington', Holton, and Shore-
ditch, were kept in common for that purpose. In the
Walk leading_ froth the Eagle Tavern and Tea Gardens
(formerly the Shepherd and Shepherdess), acrpss the
fields to Islington town, are an ancient set of alms-
houses for widows, built by Dame Alice Owen, in con-
sequence of A:providential deliverance horn death, in
the reign of Queen Mary; on this very spot, which was
then principally OccUpied for the prActice alluded to:
'This Lady, walking in the fields with her Maid, at the
ime the archers were exercising themselves by shooting
with theit•bows and arrows. at the' beta here; and ob-
seiving A viol iiiifi Milking a Ctiii,` desirous of
trying to milk, the, eilsi hersrelf; iehieli she did; when,
sin *leaving. the . kieriea file crown of
her hat (high croined hAti being then in fashion),
without doing her the least injury. In commemo-
ration of this deliverance, she erecredthese alms-houses,
and -a school in the parish fot tiventy:fiee boys,
about three' years-before. her death. For many years
an arrow was fixed on the top of these house', which
stand on the very spot wire this accident happened.
The old treatise, called • An Ayme for FinsbUrie
Archers," printed in 1594, notices all the marks or
district (amounting to upwards of 160),
.corroborate this story.. They were chiefly
posts of wood fixed, in the ground, having
unequal height, and were scattered over the
`ing from Finsbury to as far as Islington
'ond the Rosemary Branch.t
amusement 'of archery, the predilection
neys.for the cheiritil walks and salubrious
of this place and its neighbour, Hoz-
purposes of both health and pleasure, ap-
,ve been as strong Once centuries ago as it
latelY, before the spot has been bujk over.
Ip..a comedy. by Thomas. Alordan, Gent. (1641), called
rm Walks iff IdijigtOn and Hogsden, &c. the scene is
1614211 y lied at the Safaceurs Head, at Islington,"
where the characters call for wine, and in the prologue
A so cail;cl froin being contiguous to the house
--ity,bsisscy --heft, tear the end of 0,1d-street. 'Else
had - Oyeatng - fields about the
stands.
_ last four
mad-house, or
everted to by
Hood, un-

butts in this
and tends to ex
made by post u
tops of an m
fields extendir
Corn Mon, bey
Besides the
of the cockne
atmosphere
tim, for the pu
pears to have
was Ulitil late

WIWI/le, city *lads were kept, mar the eod. of yiu-street.
City huntsmen had also aillyelling in the fields hard by, abot
spire trberudaeAmie! pithbf-lsouse in the City-road now stand
6 •if ASi Old plibilibibiusu (Don rebuilt) remained ;tail the las
at.ilhus.librukobilblrebef)elds.# Boston, near the mail4rou
JIM George Whitmore s, which was formerly much resorted
Vane Fiarburysaptigu, lt,bseut the_ sjilmof the Bahia How
derneach whic*rurdi.rllowlpipioar,ripqoo.:
• • "IN krc.4eobol4ol4 iloojs
. Pray stop and drinkwitb hood
FiR4.l IP APts Pris
The atop k wab Lirrb: John."