the houses on
the south side, looking upon Lincoln's Inn Fields; and Dr. Johnson, who
lived at the sign of the Golden Anchor, Holborn Bars. There were also
the Bishops of Ely, Sir Christopher Hatton, Francis Bacon, Sir Thomas
More, Charles Dickens, Fulke Greville, Thomas Chatterton, Lord Russell,
Dr. Sacheverell, and many others.

It is necessary now, however, to leave off generalization, and to begin
with a detailed account of the parishes which fall within the district;
of these, St. Giles-in-the-Fields is the most interesting.

ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS.

The name of the parish is derived from the hospital which stood on the
site of the present parish church, and was dedicated to the Greek saint
St. Giles. It was at first known as St. Giles of the Lepers, but when
the hospital was demolished became St. Giles-in-the-Fields.

In a plan dated 1600 St. Giles's is shown to consist largely of open
fields. The buildings, which before the dissolution had belonged to the
hospital, form a group about the site of the church. A few more
buildings run along the north side of the present Broad Street. There
are one or two at the north end of Drury Lane, and Drury House is at
the south end. Southampton House, in the fields to the north, is marked,
but the parish is otherwise open ground. In spite of many edicts to
restrain the increase of houses, early in the reign of James I. the
meadows began to be built upon, and, though a little checked during the
Commonwealth, after the Restoration the building proceeded rapidly,
stimulated by the new square at Lincoln's Inn Fields then being carried
out by Inigo Jones. To St. Giles's may be attributed the distinction of
having originated the Great Plague, which broke out in an alley at the
north end of Drury Lane. Several times before this there had been
smaller outbreaks, which had resulted in the building of a pest-house.
Even after this check the parish continued to increase rapidly, and by
the early part of the last century was a byword for all that was squalid
and filthy. Its rookeries and slums are thus described in a newspaper
cutting of 1845: "All around are poverty and wretchedness; the streets
and alleys are rank with the filth of half a century; the windows are
half of them broken, or patched with rags and paper, and when whole are
begrimed with dirt and smoke; little brokers' shops abound, filled with
lumber, the odour of which taints even that tainted atmosphere; the
pavement