Here they were housed until 1825, and, from the Fleet, could be seen the Apothecaries' Hall, in Water Lane, Blackfriars,
"Nigh where _Fleet Ditch_ descends in sable Streams To wash his sooty _Naiads_ in the _Thames_; There stands a Structure on a Rising Hill, Where _Tyro's_ take their Freedom out to Kill."
Then there was the Monastery of the Dominicans, or Blackfriars, which has given its name to a whole district; and there was a fortification, or postern, on the little river, near Ludgate Hill; and, close to its junction with the Thames, was Bridewell Bridge, so called from the Royal Palace of that name, which, in its turn, received its cognomen from another well, which went to form the "River of Wells," St. Bridget's or Bride's Well. This bridge is shown in the frontispiece, and was necessarily made very high in order to allow sailing craft to go under it.
It was here that Pope, in his "Dunciad" (book ii.), thus sings:
"This labour past, by Bridewell all descend, (As morning pray'r, and flagellation end) To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames, The King of Dykes! than whom, no sluice of mud, With deeper sable blots the silver flood. 'Here strip, my children! here at once leap in, Here prove who best can dash thro' thick and thin.'"[76]
Ward bursts into song over Bridewell, thus:--
"'Twas once the Palace of a Prince, If we may Books Confide in; But given was, by him long since, For Vagrants to Reside in."
The Royal Palace of Bridewell stood on the site of the Castle of Montfichet, who is believed to have come over with William the Conqueror. Tradition assigns it a still earlier date, even Roman, but then, I don't say there was not a Roman fortress here, but I cannot say there was. Certainly Cardinal Wolsey lived here, and Henry VIII. held occasional Court.
Strype, in his edition of Stow (1720) says that after the destruction of Montfichet Castle and its Stone being given away:--
"This Tower or Castle being thus destroyed, stood, as it may seem, in Place where now standeth the House called _Bridewell_. For, notwithstanding the Destruction of the said Castle or Tower, the House remained large, so that the Kings of this Realm long after were lodged there and kept their Courts. For, in the Ninth Year of _Henry_ the Third, the Courts of Law, and Justice were kept in the King's House, wheresoever he was lodged, and not else where. And that the Kings have been lodged, and kept their Law Courts in this Place, I could shew you many Authorities of Record....