olborn was
called the Rose. It was from here that the poet Taylor started to join
Charles I. in the Isle of Wight, of which journey he says,

"We took one coach, two coachmen, and four horses,
And merrily from London made our courses;
We wheeled the top of the heavy hill called Holborn,
Up which hath been full many a sinful soul borne,"

which is quoted merely to show that there is a possible rhyme to
Holborn.

Pennant says also there was a hospital for the poor in Holborn, and a
cell of the House of Clugny in France, but does not indicate their
whereabouts. Before the building of the Viaduct in 1869 (see p. 54),
there was a steep and toilsome descent up and down the valley of the
Fleet. This was sometimes called "the Heavy Hill," as in the verse
already quoted, and in consequence of the melancholy processions which
frequently passed from Newgate bound Tyburn-wards, "riding in a cart up
the Heavy Hill" became a euphemism for being hanged. From Farringdon
Street to Fetter Lane was Holborn Hill, and Holborn proper extended from
Fetter Lane to Brooke Street.

In James II.'s reign Oates and Dangerfield suffered the punishment of
being whipped at the cart's tail all the way along Holborn.

There were Bridewell Bridge, Fleet Bridge, Fleet Lane Bridge, and
Holborn Bridge across the Fleet River. Holborn Bridge was the most
northerly of the four. It was a bridge of stone, serving for passengers
from the west to the City by way of Newgate. The whole thoroughfare of
Oxford Street and Holborn is the result of the diversion of the north
highway into the City from the route by Westminster Marshes.

The antiquities of Holborn and its streets north and south are not
connected with the trade or with the municipal history of London. On the
other hand, the associations of this group of streets are full of
interest. If we take the south side of the street, we find ourselves
walking past Shoe Lane, St. Andrew's Church, Thavies' Inn, Fetter Lane,
Staple Inn, Barnard's Inn, Chancery Lane, Great and Little Turnstiles,
Little Queen Street, Drury Lane, and St. Giles's. On the north side we
pass Field Lane, Ely Place, Hatton Garden, Brooke Street, Furnival's
Inn, Gray's Inn, Red Lion Street, and Tottenham Court Road. All these
will be found described in detail further on. Of eminent residents in
Holborn itself, Cunningham mentions Gerarde, the author of the "Herbal";
Sir Kenelm Digby; Milton, who lived for a time in one of