Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1895-07-27
loNpoN,s SEVEN pIALs.
The Name Identified with Crime an'
May Be Changed.

The Name Identified with Crime and
May Be Changed.
The Seven Dials were never notable
for anything worse than thieves, deal
ers in live animals, old clothes and
theatrical properties, and publishers
of the Cntnatch literature, for speci'
mems Of which collectors are now will.
ing to pay such high prices. The
opening mp Of the radinting streets has
long rendered the neighborhood ms
harmless to the pedestrian rs the once
equally notorious Gray's Inn road. Yet
middle-agcd Londoners have no Diff
Guilty In recalling when they had to
keep sharp outlook in running the
gauntlet OF Little st. Andrews street
and its sisters after nightfall. How u
drifted into being the dens OF the Grim.
inal classes il is hard to say. For
originally-so Evelyn tells us-the
Seven Dials. thus named from the clock
faces on Doric pillar ut the point
where seven streets meet, was intend
ed ms thu residence Of highly-respectn-
bic people who liked TO be near the
fashionable coffee houses In Covent
garden, the court In Whitehall and the
gny world which then conferred in bow
street and Drury lane. At first, in
deed, the locality was called the
Seven streets. though in l70s only four
Of them had been actually built on the
rrounl known as the Cock and Pie
Fields, surrounded by II fetid ditch.
which cinpticd into the Thames. The
houses were 'afler the Venetian style"
lust then introduced by Mr.. Neale,
who made fortune in lottery specu'a.
ton. For many years its ncighbor.
hood maintained its gentility, and was,
| indeed. regarded as quite triumph IN
arch lecture. In Gays Trivia it is re-
ferrcd la Us ''Scven streets Seven Dials
count their day. and from each other
catch the circling ray" though, rs a
matter OF fact. the dial pillar had but
six faces, two of the seven streets open
ing into one angle.
A curious legend getting into vogue
to the effect that great treasure was
buried under the column, It was re-
moved in June. l77i, and never re-
placed. Some fifty years afterward 1t
and the dals were bought OF stone
mason, who had in some way become
possessed of them. and. with the addi-
,iun. of "a ducal coronet. were set up on
Wcybrilge green rs memorial to the
duchess II York. Until very recently
If It does not do so still-the dial
stone formed u stepping stone ut an
adjoining inn But before the begin
ming If the century the Seven Dials
had begun to share in the general
squalor # st. tiles, and less than fifty
years ago it was II collection Of rooh-
cries ut which modern sanitnrians
would stand aghast, Whole families
lived in cellars, as an eyewitness de-
scribed them, like cell" in n convent
of the order of La Trappe. or like on
ions of rope" The inmates
descended into these underground
warrens by means of trap-ladders,
and ut interval, came up to
breathe, disappearing with amazing
alncrty when constable or Bow
street runner happened to come with
|
lodging house, and thieves kitch-
ems" were frequent, and were rather
encouraged by the police, for the con-
venicnce they afforded the latter OF
being able to lay hands upon any par
ticular individual when wanted. Men
about town used to form parties to
visit these haunts. The regent and
Mai. Hanger are said 10 have attended
carnival in the seven dials, but
wished they had abandoned their adj
venture when that ere gemman with
shirt was called on for song. The
prince thus designated) finding 1t inn
possible to escape altogether. per-
shaded his friend to chant. THE beg
CARS Wedding" and left, after add
ing one more memory to the locali-
". which. 1t is hop,d, is conscious of
the distinction intended for 1t in the
suggestion to rename 1t st, Andrews
circus. London Standard.