Jewish Lord Mayor, and the first Jew admitted into the municipality of
London. This gentleman, of Prussian descent, had the honour of
entertaining, at the Mansion House, the Prince of Wales and the King and
Queen of the Belgians, and was knighted at the close of his mayoralty.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE POULTRY.

The Early Home of the London Poulterers--Its Mysterious
Desertion--Noteworthy Sites in the Poultry--The Birthplace of Tom
Hood, Senior--A Pretty Quarrel at the Rose Tavern--A Costly
Sign-board--The Three Cranes--The Home of the
Dillys--Johnsoniana--St. Mildred's Church, Poultry--Quaint
Epitaphs--The Poultry Compter--Attack on Dr. Lamb, the
Conjurer--Dekker, the Dramatist--Ned Ward's Description of the
Compter--Granville Sharp and the Slave Trade--Important Decision in
favour of the Slave--Boyse--Dunton.

The busy street extending between Cheapside and Cornhill is described by
Stow (Queen Elizabeth) as the special quarter, almost up to his time, of
the London poulterers, who sent their fowls and feathered game to be
prepared in Scalding Alley (anciently called Scalding House, or Scalding
Wike). The pluckers and scorchers of the feathered fowl occupied the
shops between the Stocks' Market (now the Mansion House) and the Great
Conduit. Just before Stow's time the poulterers seem to have taken wing
in a unanimous covey, and settled down, for reasons now unknown to us,
and not very material to any one, in Gracious (Gracechurch) Street, and
the end of St. Nicholas flesh shambles (now Newgate Market). Poultry was
not worth its weight in silver then.

The chief points of interest in the street (past and present) are the
Compter Prison, Grocers' Hall, Old Jewry, and several shops with
memorable associations. Lubbock's Banking House, for instance, is leased
of the Goldsmiths' Company, being part of Sir Martin Bowes' bequest to
the Company in Elizabeth's time. Sir Martin Bowes we have already
mentioned in our chapter on the Goldsmiths' Company.

The name of one of our greatest English wits is indissolubly connected
with the neighbourhood of the Poultry. It falls like a cracker, with
merry bang and sparkle, among the graver histories with which this great
street is associated. Tom Hood was the son of a Scotch bookseller in the
Poultry. The firm was "Vernor and Hood." "Mr. Hood," says Mrs. Broderip,
"was one of the 'Associated Booksellers,' who selected valuable old
books for r