The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction
Volume 17, Number 490, Saturday, May 21, 1831

Author: Various

Release Date: June 22, 2004 [EBook #12676]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 490 ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Garcia and the Online Distributed
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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XVII, NO. 490.] SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1831. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

[Illustration: OLD HOUSE IN SOUTHWARK.]

This crazy, but not unpicturesque building, was taken down in the autumn
of last year, in forming an approach to the New London Bridge. It stood
on the eastern side of the High-street, and is worthy of record among
the pleasing relics of antiquity, which it has ever been the object of
_The Mirror_ to rescue from oblivion. Its style of architecture--that of
the seventh Henry--is interesting: there is a florid picturesqueness in
the carvings on the fronts of the first and second stories, and probably
this ornament extended originally to the uppermost stories, which had
subsequently been covered with plaster.

We remember the house for the last twenty years, but cannot trace this
or any other alteration in its front. The windows, it will be seen, are
of different periods, those on the right-hand second and the left-hand
third floor being of the oldest date.

Apart from these attractions, and as a specimen of the olden domestic
architecture of the metropolis, the annexed Cut bears an historic
interest, in its having been the residence of the ill-starred Anne
Boleyn, queen of Henry the Eighth. The interior was in palatial style,
having been elaborately finished; and in one of the apartments, we learn
that the royal arms were very conspicuous.

In early times, Southwark was one of the most celebrated of the
metropolitan suburbs; and it is much to be regretted that the liberality
of our times has not encouraged the production of its ancient history.
Every one at