Gardens is the Lying-in Hospital, the
oldest institution of the kind in England. On the west side, between
Castle Street and Short's Gardens, the remains of an ancient bath were
discovered at what was once No. 3, Belton Street, now 23 and 25, Endell
Street. Tradition wildly asserts that this was used by Queen Anne.
Fragments of it still remain in the room used for iron lumber, for the
premises are in the occupation of an iron merchant, but the water has
long since ceased to flow.

Drury Lane has been in great part described in _The Strand_, which see,
p. 97. The Coal Yard at the north-east end, where Nell Gwynne was born,
is now Goldsmith Street. Pit Place, on the west of Great Wild Street,
derives its name from the cockpit or theatre, the original of the Drury
Lane Theatre, which stood here. The cockpit was built previous to 1617,
for in that year an incensed mob destroyed it, and tore all the dresses.
It was afterwards known as the Phoenix Theatre. At one time it seems
to have been used as a school, though this may very well have been at
the same time as it fulfilled its legitimate functions. Betterton and
Kynaston both made their first public appearance here. The actual date
of the theatre's demolition is not known. Parton judges it to have been
at the time of the building of Wild, then Weld, Street. Its performances
are described, 1642, as having degenerated into an inferior kind, and
having been attended by inferior audiences.

At the north-east end of Drury Lane is the site of the ancient hostelry,
the White Hart. Here also was a stone cross, known as Aldewych Cross,
for the lane was anciently the Via de Aldewych, and is one of the oldest
roads in the parish; Saxon Ald = old, and Wych = a village, a name to be
preserved in the new Crescent. It is difficult to understand, looking
down Drury Lane to-day from Holborn, that this most mean and unlovely
street was once a place of aristocratic resort--of gardens, great
houses, and orchards. Here was Craven House, here was Clare House; here
lived the Earl of Stirling, the Marquis of Argyll, and the Earl of
Anglesey. Here lived for a time Nell Gwynne. Pepys says:

"Saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodgings door in Drury Lane in her
smock-sleeves and bodice, looking upon one. She seemed a mighty pretty
creature."

The Lane fell into disrepute early in the eighteenth century. The
"saints of Drury Lane," the "drabs of Drury Lane," the starving poets of
Drury Lane, are fre