ry Road just below the bend, and
Rochester Row stretching like an arm out into the open ground. Two of
the great marshy pools are also marked. If all accounts are to be
believed, this spot was noted for its fertility and the beauty of its
wild-flowers. From Strype's Survey we learn that the fields supplied
London and Westminster with "asparagus, artichokes, cauliflowers and
musk melons." The author of "Parochial Memorials" says that the names of
Orchard Street, Pear Street and Vine Street are reminiscent of the
cultivation of fruit in Westminster, but these names more probably have
reference to the Abbot's garden. Walcott says that Tothill Fields,
before the Statute of Restraints, was considered to be within the limits
of the sanctuary of the Abbey. Stow gives a long and minute account of a
trial by battle held here. One of the earliest recorded tournaments held
in these fields was at the coronation of Queen Eleanor in 1226.

A great fair held in the fields in 1248 was a failure. All the shops and
places of merchandise were shut during the fifteen days that it lasted,
by the King's command, but the wind and rain ruined the project.

In 1256 John Mansell, the King's Counsellor and a priest, entertained
the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland and so many Dukes, Lords,
and Barons, at Westminster that he had not room for them in his own
house, but set up tents and pavilions in Tothill.

In 1441 "was the fighting at the Tothill between two thefes, a pelour
and a defendant; the pelour hadde the field, and victory of the
defendour withinne three strokes."

Both the armies of the Royalists and the Commonwealth were at different
times paraded in these fields; of the latter, 14,000 men were here at
one time. During 1851-52 Scottish prisoners were brought to Tothill, and
many died there, as the churchwardens' accounts show. In the latter
year we read the entry: "Paid to Thomas Wright for 67 load of soyle laid
on the graves in Tuthill Fields wherein 1,200 Scotch prisoners (taken at
the fight at Worcester) were buried."

It was fifteen years later, in the time of the Great Plague, that the
pesthouses came into full use, for we read in the parish records July
14, 1665, "that the Churchwardens doe forthwith proceed to the making of
an additional Provision for the reception of the Poore visited of the
Plague, at the Pesthouse in Tuttle ffieldes." The first two cases of
this terrible visitation occurred in Westminster, and duri