Volume 1

Microcosm of London / [Anon].

Date:: [1808-1811]

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Microcosm of London / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

143/248 page 131

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. It is an observation often made, and the truth of it is obvious to the most careless observer, that the beauty of our principal buildings in the metropolis is in a great measure obscured, or the effect, as architectural ornaments, entirely destroyed, by their situation or neighbourhood. There are few public buildings to which this observation applies more pointedly than the College of Physicians. It is situated in Warwick-lane*, and its appearance is thus wittily described by Garth: il Where stands a dome, majestic to the sight, u And sumptuous arches bear its oval height, t£ A golden globe, placed high with artful skill, i( Seems to the distant sight a gilded pill.” * Warwick-lane took its name from being the town residence of the Earls of Warwick. We have a curious mention in Stow, of Richard Neville, the famous king-making earl, who is described as c< coming to London, in the memorable convention of 1458, with 600 men, all in red jackets imbrodered, with ragged staves before and behind, and was lodged in Warwicke- lane: in whose house there was often six oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every taverne was full of his meate; for he that had any acquaintance in that house, might have there so much of sodden and rost meate as he could pricke and carry upon a long dagger.”—Stow’s Survaie, p. 130. s 2

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