SAINT JOHN'S GATE.

WHEN Samuel Johnson first saw St. John's Gate, he "beheld it with reverence," as he subsequently told Boswell. But Boswell gives his own interpretation of the cause of this reverence. St. John's Gate, he says, was the place where the 'Gentleman's Magazine' was originally printed and he adds, "I suppose, indeed, that every young author has had the same kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him. " He continues, with happy naïveté, “I, myself, recollect such impressions from the 'Scot's Magazine.' Mr. Croker, in his valuable notes to Boswell's 'Johnson,' has a very rational doubt of the correctness of this explanation: "If, as Mr. Boswell supposes, Johnson looked at St. John's Gate as the printing-office of Cave, surely a less emphatical term than reverence would have been more just. The Gentleman's Magazine' had been, at this time, but six years before the public, and its contents were, until Johnson himself contributed to improve it, entitled to anything rather than reverence; but it is more probable that Johnson's reverence was excited by the recollections connected with the ancient gate itself, the last relic of the once extensive and magnificent priory of the

heroic knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, suppressed at the dissolution, and destroyed by successive dilapidations."

More than a century is passed away since Johnson, from whatever motive, beheld with reverence the old gate of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. There it still remains, in a quarter of the town little visited, with scarcely another relic of antiquity immediately about it. Extensive improvements are going forward in its neighbourhood; and it may probably be one day swept away with as ruthless a hand as that of the Protector Somerset, who blew up the stately buildings of the hospital to procure materials for his own palace in the Strand. May it be preserved from the most complete of all destroyers—the building speculator! It has, to me, a double interest. It is the representative of the days of chivalrous enthusiasm on the one hand, and of popular improvement on the other. The Order, which dates from the days of Godfrey of Bouillon, has perished, even in our own time—an anomaly in the age up to which it had survived. The general desire for knowledge, which gave birth to the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' is an increasing power, and one which depends upon no splendid endowments and no stately mansions for its maintenance and ornament. Cave, the printer, was the accidental successor of the Prior of the Hospital of St. John. But, representing the freedom of public opinion, he was the natural successor of the despotic power of a secret society. At

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any rate, the accident invests St. John's Gate with an interest which would not otherwise belong to it; and in its double character we may not be ashamed to behold it "with reverence."

It was in 1841 that I first saw St. John's Gate. Turning out of St. John's Street to enter St. John's Lane-a narrow street which runs obliquely from that wide thoroughfare-the Gate presented itself to view, completely closing the road, and leaving a passage into St. John's Square only through the archway. The large masses of stone of which the gate is composed were then much decayed; but the groined arch had recently been restored. A huge board which surmounted the archway informed the few passers-by that they might here solace themselves with the hospitalities of the 'Jerusalem Tavern; and, lest they might dread to be subjected to any of the original notions of abstinence which a pilgrim might once have been expected to bring within these walls, a window of a house or bulk on the eastern side of the gateway displayed all the attractions of bottles with golden labels of Cordial Gin,' 'Pine-apple Rum,' and 'Real Cognac.' Passing under the arch, I perceived that the modern hospitium ran through the eastern side of the gateway, and connected with premises at either end. Invited To the Parlour,' I entered. A comfortable room was that parlour, with its tables checquered with many a liquor-stain; and genius had here its due honours, for Dr. Johnson's favourite seat was carefully pointed out. But the tavern

had then higher attractions than its parlour fireside with Dr. Johnson's corner: It had a Grand Hall,' where the 'Knights of Jerusalem' still assembled in solemn conclave every Monday evening. It was long before I ventured to ask whether any uninitiated eyes might see that Grand Hall; but I did take courage, and most obligingly was I conducted to it. I ascended the eastern turret by a broad staircase (but certainly not one of the date of the original building), and was soon in the central room of the Gateway. It was a fine lofty room, and if there were few remains of ancient magnificence -no elaborate carvings, no quaint inscriptions, nor "storied windows," the spirit of the past had been evoked from the ruins of the great military order, to confer dignities and splendours on the peaceful burghers who were wont here to congregate. Banners, gaudy with gold and vermilion, floated upon the walls; and, if the actual "armoury of the invincible knights" were wanting, there were two or three cuirasses which looked as grim and awful as any

"Bruised arms hung up for monuments."

Nor were the fine arts absent from the decoration of that apartment. Sculpture had here given us a coloured effigy of some redoubted Hospitaller; and Painting had lovingly united under the same ceiling the stern countenance of Prior Dockwra, the builder of the Gate, and the sleek and benign likenesses of the worshipful founders of the modern

order. History records not their exploits, and I shall be silent as to their names. They were quiet lawgivers, and not rampaging warriors. They had done the wise thing which poetry abhors-changed "swords for ledgers." Instead of secret oaths and terrible mysteries, they invited all men to enter their community at the small price of twopence each night. Instead of vain covenants to drink nothing but water, and rejoice in a crust of mouldy bread, the visitor might call for anything for which he had the means of payment, even to the delicacies of kidneys, tripe, and Welch rabbits. The edicts of this happy brotherhood were inscribed in letters of gold for all men to read; and the virtuous regard which they displayed for the morals of their community presented a striking contrast to the reputed excesses of the military orders. The code had only four articles, and one of them was especially directed against the singing of improper songs. Here, then, was mirth without licentiousness, ambition without violence, power without oppression. When the Grand Master ascended the throne which was here erected, as the best eminence to which a modern Knight of Jerusalem might aspire, wearing his robes of state, and surrounded by his great commanders, also in their "weeds of peace," no clangour of trumpets rent the air; but the mahogany tables were drummed upon by a hundred ungauntleted hands, and a gentle cloud of incense arose from the pipes which sent forth their perfumes from every mouth. Would I had partaken