Hell

[Hell.] Under the [Westminster] Hall are certain subterraneous Apartments, which are called, one Paradise, and another Hell: Consisting of Tenements, Houses, Mansions. Which, with other Tenements and Lands, were held in King Edward the Sixth's Days by one William Fryes. These were given by that King to Sir Andrew Dudley, Brother to the Great Duke of Northumberland, with other Lands and Tenements in Westminster, to him, for the Term of his Life, An. Regn. 3. in Consideration of Services.]

[Hell Tavern] There was a tavern at the north end of Lindsay-lane, upon the site of the Committee-rooms of the House, called "Heaven;" and under the old Exchequer-chamber were two subterraneous passages called "Hell" and "Purgatory." In his "Hudibras," Samuel Butler mentions the first as

"False Heaven at the end of the Hell;"

and Pepys, in his "Diary," mentions that he dined there.

At the time of the Restoration, four days before the King landed, in one of these coffee-houses Pepys was spending the evening with Locke and Purcell, and hearing a variety of brave Italian and Spanish songs, and a new canon of Locke's on the words "DOMINE salvum fac Regem." "Here out of the windows," says he, "it was a most pleasant sight to see the City, from one end to the other, with a glory about it, so high was the light of the bonfires, and thick round the City, and the bells rang everywhere."

"Hell" was formerly a prison of the King's debtors. The King granted, A. D. 1485, 1 Hen. VII., to Antony Kene the Wardenship of "Heaven" and "Hell" within the Hall, and "Purgatory" and the "Potans House," and the Tower "Le Grenlates," the annual rent not exceeding £21. 6s. 8d. King Edward VI. gave to Sir Andrew Dudley "Paradise," valued yearly at £4, "Hell" at 11s., "Purgatory" at 26s. 4d., and five houses near the Exchequer, one of which had been the residence of Thomas Sternhold, educated at Winchester and Oxford, with Hopkins, the author of the old Metrical Version of the Psalter: but as these houses were used for the purpose of containing Records and Exchequer Rolls, the Knight was to receive yearly £13. 12s. 8d. paid out of the Treasury. "Hell" appears to have been a petty tavern, frequented by lawyers' clerks; for Ben Jonson, in his play of the "Alchemist," represents "Dapper" forbidden

"To break his fast in Heaven or Hell."

Within "Purgatory," apparently an ancient prison (the keys of which, attached to a leather girdle, are still preserved), were kept the "ducking-stools" for scolds, who were placed in a fatal chair fastened on an iron pivot to the end of a long pole, which was balanced at the middle upon a high trestle, thus allowing the angry culprit's body readily to be submerged in the cooling Thames. By statute 27 Eliz., the Burgesses of Westminster were empowered to exercise no easy office, "to punish common scolds, inmates, and common annoyances."

Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, three places within or adjoining Westminster Hall, mentioned together in a grant of wardenship by Henry VII., 1485, to Antony Kene.¹ Heaven was a tavern, where, as we shall see, Pepys occasionally dined. Hell, formerly a prison for king's debtors, was also a tavern, but of meaner grade, though much frequented by lawyers. Purgatory was anciently a temporary prison, or "lock-up," and here was kept the Westminster ducking-stool for scolds. According to the Rev. Mackenzie Walcott "the keys, attached to a leather girdle, are still preserved."

Subtle. Her grace would have you eat no more Woolsack pies. Nor Dagger frumety.
Dot Common. Nor break his fast
In Heaven and Hell.—Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, Act 5.

There is a place partly under, partly by the Exchequer Court, commonly called Hell. I could wish it had another name, seeing it is ill jesting with, edged tools. I am informed that formerly this place was appointed a prison for the King's debtors, who never were freed thence until they had paid their uttermost due demanded of them.—Fuller's Worthies, ed. 1662, p. 236.

Hell, a place near to Westminster Hall, where very good meat is dressed all the Term Time.—The Worth of a Penny, by Henry Peacham, 4to, 1667, p. 10.

False Heaven at the end of the Hall.—Hudibras.

January 28, 1659–1660—And so I returned and went to Heaven, where Luellin and I dined.—Pepys.

Under the Hall [Westminster Hall] are certain subterraneous apartments, which are called, one Paradise, and another Hell: consisting of Tenements, Houses, Mansions, which, with other Tenements and Lands, were held in King Edward the Sixth's days by one William Fryes. These were given by the King to Sir Andrew Dudley, brother to the great Duke of Northumberland, with other Lands and Tenements in Westminster, to him for the term of his life. An. Regn. 3, in consideration of services.—Strype, B. vi. p. 52.

Hell, near Westminster Hall, a place very much frequented by lawyers.—New Remarks of London, by the Company of Parish Clerks, 12mo, 1732, p. 273.

When Pride "purged" the Parliament on December 6, 1648, the forty-one he excepted were shut up for the night in a tavern called Hell, kept by a Mr. Duke.²

Of whose names Mr. Hugh Peters came to take a list; and then conveyed them into their great Victualling-house, near Westminster Hall, called Hell, where they kept them all night without any beds.—Dugdale's Troubles, fol. 1681, p. 363.

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¹ Rymer's Fœdera Syllabus, 1873, p. 719; Gifford's Jonson, vol. iv. p. 174.

² Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i. p. 399; Rushworth, vol. vii. p. 1355.

Hell. Formerly a debtors' prison under Westminster Hall, but it became a tavern, and was much frequented by lawyers. In Jonson's Alchemist v. 2, Subtle tells Dapper, "Her Grace would have you eat no more Woolsack pies, no Dagger frumety"; and Doll adds, "Nor break his fast in Heaven and H." Peacham, in Worth of a Penny (1647), says that if one marries a wife that is a perfect "linguist," he were better to take his diet in H. than his dinner at home."

558 Hell near Westminster Hall. Eating-house or Tavern c1485–1764. See Paradise No. 1860.

Hell.

John Taylor writes of Hell Tavern:

Newes from Hell, with a short description of the Hell at Westminster.

Not from that Hell where souls tormented lye
In endlesse Death, and yet shall never die,
Where gnashing cold, commixt with flames still burning,
Where's entrance free, but never back returning:
Where nought but horrour, fiends, and torments dwell;
I bring no news from that accursed Hell;
Yet mine own merits are of such low price,
To barre me from Celestiall Paradise,
And sinke me in that horrid Lake infernall,
But that my hope and faith is fixt supernall.
The Hell I write of is well known to be
A place of pleasure, and for all men free,
Where wretched Ghosts are not in torments stayd,
For all the pains upon the purse is laid.
To finde this Hell you need not travell farre,
'Tis understood the high Exchequer Barre
At Westminster, and those who thither venter,
Do not give Cerberus a sop to enter,
For Charons fury, you need never feare it,
(Although ten thousand do land somwhat neer it)
Within this Hell is good content and quiet,
Good entertainment, various sorts of diet,
Tables a score at once, in sundry places,
Where hungry mouthes fall to, and say short Graces,
And then (in some sort) I may parallell
This earthly Hell, with the infernall Hell.
Hot sweltring vapours, Pots, and Cauldrons boyling,
Great vehement fires, with roasting, stewing, broyling;
The Cooks & Scullions, all be smear'd and smoak'd,
And in their Masters Grease well stew'd & soak'd,
And had the Devill a stomack unto it,
The Cook himselfe is not the rawest bit.
Like as th'infernall Hell doth entertain
All commers, so this Hell doth not refrain
To give free welcome unto every one
If money fayle not, there's excepted None.
This Hell is govern'd by a worthy Duke
That Pluto like, his under fiends rebuke,
There the tormenting Tapster is control'd,
If courteously he Nick not (as he should)
He must attend at every knock and rap,
His reverend Iugge deckt with a frothy cap,
He fils and empts, and empts and fils again
Like Sisyphus, he toyles, but not so vain,
Like Danaus daughters, taking up, and spilling,
He's always emptying, and he's never filling.
Thither the Counsellour for comfort comes
To rince his toyling tongue, and wash his gums,
The Client having Tityus empty maw
(His guts tormented with the Vulture Law)
He comming to this Hell may finde reliefe,
Of comfortable Plumbroath, and Roast Biefe.
There, for your solace you may feed upon
Whole Seas of Pottage, hot as Phlegeton,
And midst those Seas, by art, the Cooks hath laid
Small Iles of Mutton, which you may invade
With stomack, knife and spoon, or tooth and naile,
With these, the victory you cannot faile.
Therefore this earthly Hell is easier farre,
Then where the miserable damned are,
There's no redemption from that black Abisse,
And here regresse, as well as egresse is,
Therefore they falsly do mistake the story,
To call this Hell, which is but Purgatory,
For here's no Thraldome, from this place you may
Get present freedome, if the shot you pay.

—Part of this Summers Travels, or News from Hell, Hull, and Hallifax (1639)

The anonymous author of St. Hillarires Teares writes of the desertion in midsummer of Heaven and Hell Taverns, normally frequented by clerks and lawyers:

On both sides of the Hall they complaine, At Heaven they say ther's not a Lawier no Clerke comes neere them: And at hell where they had wont to flock like Swallowes to a Reede bush, they come but dropping in now and then one, as apportunity of businesse makes them able, the Coaches which had wont to rumble up and downe as they would chalenge Heaven to thunder for a wager, and did use to lie in the Pallace yard, and before the Innes of Court gates, like so many Busses, or fleetes of fisherboats in harbour, pearing over the haven keyes, now seeme like westerne Barges on the Thames at a high tide, here and there one.

And you are no sooner out of the Hall-yard but entring into Kings streete, you finde the Cookes leaning against the Dore-postes, ruminating upon those Halcion Termes, when whole herds of Clerks, Solicitors and their Clyents, had wont to come with their sharpe-set noses, and stomacke, from the Hall, and devoure the Puddings, and minc't Pyes by dozins, as swiftly as a kennell of Hounds would worry up a dead Horse, And now the Courts are risen before they are hungry, The Tavernes, where an Iron Mill would hardly have drown'd the noise of the yawling boyes, the Bar-bell, the fidling, and roreing above staires, now so silent you may rock a child asleepe: The spruce Mistris that had wont to sit in the Bar, domineering over the Drawers, and not to be spoken withall if you would kisse her arse to speake with her, now so familiar, bids you so heartily welcome, and will come and joyne her halfe pint with yee, and let you salute her, and thanke you, And thinke it very well if all that courtesie will invite you to mount the reckoning to a pottle, The Ale-houses and Tobacko-shops are growne sweete for want of takings, you may walke by them without danger of being choack't.

—Saint Hillaries Teares, Shed upon all Professions ... written by one of his secretaries that had nothing else to do. (1642).

Francis Grose (1787) explains the proverb,

There is no redemption from hell.

There is a place partly under, partly by the Exchequer-chamber, commonly called hell, formerly appointed a prison for the king's debtors, who were never released from thence until they had fully discharged what they owed.

—A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions, London, 1787.