The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828

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Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828

OLD COVENT GARDEN

ANCIENT ROMAN FESTIVALS DECEMBER

CELTIC ETYMOLOGIES

TURKISH CANNON

AN ORIGINAL SCOTCH SONG FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF ST. ANDREW'S DAY

ORIGIN OF THE WORD BANKRUPT

ORIGIN OF THE WORD BROKER, &c

SELECT BIOGRAPHY

DR. GALL

FROM CATULLUS

THE NOVELIST

GERMAN TRADITIONS

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS

NOTES OF A READER

KNOWING PEOPLE

NEW CHURCHES

SHORT-HAND

LOVE'S MASTERY

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

WOMANKIND

CAPTAIN ROCK

THE LIBRARY AT HOLKHAM

PHRENOLOGY

EPIGRAM

PORTRAIT PAINTING

LOSING A SHOE AND A DINNER

SENTIMENT AND APPETITE

FORTIFICATION

SONNET TO THE CAMELLA JAPONICA

PIGS

TURKISH FIREMEN

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

FLIES

THE CORONATION OF INEZ DE CASTRO.7

ART THOU THE MAID?

The Gatherer

A GOOD FELLOW

MERCHANT TAILORS' SCHOOL

ROYAL LEARNING

COMPLIMENT MAL—APROPOS

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The notoriety of Covent Garden is of too multifarious a description to render the above illustration uninteresting to either of our readers. It is copied from one of Hollar's prints, and represents the Garden about the time of Charles II., before its area had been polluted with filth and vegetable odours.

The spot was originally the garden belonging to the abbot of Westminster, which extended to St. Martin's church, was called the Convent Garden, and may be distinctly traced in Ralph Agar's View of London, bearing date about 1570. It was granted, after the dissolution, by Edward VI. first to the protector Somerset, on whose attainder, in 1582, it passed into the Bedford family. About the year 1634, Francis, Earl of Bedford, began to clear away the old buildings, and to form the present handsome square. Its execution was confided to Inigo Jones, but unfortunately, only the north, and part of the east side, was completed; for, had the piazza been continued on the other this would have been one of the noblest quadrangles in the metropolis. Previously to the erection of the present mass of huts and sheds, the area was neatly gravelled, had a handsome dial in the centre, and was railed in on all sides, at the distance of sixty feet from the buildings. The south side was bounded by the garden wall of Bedford-House, the town house of the noble family of that name; and along this wall only were the market booths. But the mansion has long given way to Little Bedford-street.

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In a note at page 236 of vol. x. of the MIRROR, we adverted to the disgraceful state of Covent Garden Market, which of late years has been little better than a public nuisance. The broom of reform at length promises to cleanse this Augean area; and a new market is in the course of erection. The design, it will be recollected, was in this year's Exhibition at Somerset House, and in an early Number we may probably give a view of the Elevation.

The celebrity of Covent Garden as a depot for vegetable produce is of considerable antiquity; and it is but reasonable that such an improvement should be made, consistent with the increased and increasing wants of this overgrown metropolis, and the augmented supplies which are poured in from all quarters. When this improvement is completed, it may lead to the finishing of the quadrangle. The parish (in extent, not in feeling) is, perhaps, one of the most compact in London; but when its proximity to the theatres is considered, little surprise can reasonably be felt at the immorality of the district. It may not be so easy a matter to mend the public morals as to build new markets; but the links of popular improvement are too closely connected to make the case hopeless.

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