Lincoln's Inn Fields

The Prospect of Lincoln's Inn, For Stow's Survey of London, c.1755 Giclee Print 24" x 18" $49.99 Unframed

Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of:

The south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields only is within our boundaries, but the square is worth seeing.

It is the largest in London, and was partly designed by Inigo Jones, who built the west side, called the Arch Row; the east side was bounded by the garden wall of Lincoln's Inn; on the north was Holborn Row; the south side was Portugal Row.

The history of Lincoln's Inn Fields is a curious combination of rascality and of aristocracy.

The rascals infested the fields, which were filled with wrestlers, rogues and cheats, pick-pockets, cripples and footpads; the aristocrats occupied the stately houses on the west side.

Among the residents here were Lord Somers, the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Kenyon, Lord Erskine, and Spencer Percival.

In the fields Babington and his accomplices were executed, some of them on the 20th, and some on the 21st, of September, 1586.

Here also on July 21, 1683, William, Lord Russell was beheaded.

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