Tothill Fields

Tothill Fields (particularly so called) comprised that portion of land between Tothill Street, Pimlico, and the river Thames; this is a somewhat uncertain boundary but it is the best that can be given, or, as Jeremy Bentham says, writing in 1798, "If a place could exist of which it could be said that it was in no neighbourhood, it would be Tothill Fields."¹

In early times Tothill Fields was the theatre of great tournaments and ceremonies. On occasion of the coronation of Eleanor, Queen of Henry III., 1236, "royal solemnities and goodly jousts" were held in Tothill Fields; and in 1256—

John Mansell, the King's councillor and priest, did invite to a stately dinner the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland, Edward the King's son, Earls, Barons, and Knights, the Bishop of London, and divers citizens, whereby his guests did grow to such a number, that his house at Totehill could not receive them, but that he was forced to set up tents and pavilions to receive his guests, whereof there was such a multitude that seven hundred messes of meat did not serve for the first dinner.—Stow, p. 176.

It was also the place in which were held wagers of battle.

In the same yere [1441] was a fightyng at the Tothill between too thefes, a pelour and a defendant, and the pelour hadde the field and victory of the defendant withinne thre strokes.—A Chronicle of London, 4to, 1827, p. 128.

Such scenes were not uncommon in Tothill Fields. Stow describes a challenge of this kind, which should have been fought in Trinity term, 1571, respecting "a certain Manour, and demaine lands belonging thereunto, in the Isle of Harty, adjoining to the Isle of Sheppey in Kent," with all his usual interesting minuteness of dress and circumstance, but the passage is too long to cite.² Later it was a frequent scene of more private combats.

Staines. I accept it: the meeting place?
Spendall. Beyond the Maze in Tuttle.
Staines. What weapon?
Spendall. Single rapier.
Staines. The time?
Spendall. To morrow.
Staines. The hour?
Spendall. 'Twixt nine and ten.
Staines. 'Tis good. I shall expect you.—Greene's Tu Quoque.

Lod. I have expected you these two hours, which is more than I have done to all the men I have fought withal since I slew the High German in Tuttle.—Shirley, The Wedding, Act iv. Sc. 3 (1629).

The last duel in Tothill Fields of which we have any account took place, May 9, 1711, between Sir Cholmley Dering, Knight of the Shire for Kent, and a gentleman of the name of Thornhill. Swift tells Stella on the same day, on the authority of Dr. Freind (who had just left the dying man), "They fought at sword and pistol this morning in Tuttle Fields, the pistols so near that the muzzles touched. Thornhill discharged first, and Dering having received the shot discharged his pistol as he was falling, so it went into the air. ... This makes a noise here, but you don't value it." On the 21st of the following August Swift completes the story. "Thornhill, who killed Sir Cholmley Dering, was murdered by two men at Turnham Green last Monday night: as they stabbed him they bid him remember Sir Cholmley Dering." Dering was to have been married the week after the duel.

Punishments for various offences, and particularly, as would seem, for necromancy and witchcraft, were often inflicted here;¹ and archery and other sports practised.

According to my Lord's saying, my cousin Thomas and I, the Sunday after I had your letters, when the King [Henry VIII.] schote yn Tothylle [no date, but before 1514], I spoke two times unto the King's Grace for your servants, and he asked of me where they were, "let me see them," and I called them unto the King and Nott shot afore him. My Lord Treasurer said good words of you and them both, and so did Mr. Cumton [William Compton], M. Brandon [Duke of Suffolk] and Mr. Garnys.—Trevelyan Papers, vol. ii. p. 10.

The privilege of holding a weekly market and an annual fair was granted to the Abbot of Westminster by Henry III. in 1248, the market to be held in Tuthill, the fair in St. Margaret's churchyard, but in 1542 the fair also was removed to Tothill Fields. As long as they remained unbuilt on Tothill Fields were used for military musters and as public playing-ground.

The men of Hartfordshire lie at Mile-End,
Suffolk and Essex traine in Tuttle Fields,
The Londoners and those of Middlesex
All gallantly prepar'd in Finsbury.
Decker, The Gentle Craft, vol. i. p. 11.

August 25, 1651.—The Trained Bands of London, Westminster, etc., drew out into Tuttle Fields, in all about 14,000, the Speaker and divers members of the Parliament were there to see them.—Whitelocke.

We have done him no injury, but once I stroke his shins at foot-ball in Tuttle.—Randolph, Hey for Honesty (1651), Works, p. 474.

Locke in the directions for a foreigner visiting London, which he wrote in 1679, says he may see "shooting in the long-bow and stobball in Tothill Fields." Howell refers to the gardens.

July 25, 1629.—I have sent you herewith a hamper of melons, the best I could find in any of Tothill Field Gardens.—Howell to Sir Arthur Ingram (Letters, p. 214).

The Maze, represented in Hollar's View of Tothill Fields, was made anew in 1672.²

There is a Maze at this day in Tuthill Fields, Westminster, and much frequented in the summer time in fair afternoons.—Aubrey, Anec. and Trad., p. 105.

In emergencies Tothill Fields were used as a place of sepulture after a fashion very strange to modern notions. Thus, in the plague year of 1665, Pepys writes:—

July 18.—I was much troubled this day to hear at Westminster how the officers do bury the dead in the open Tuttle-fields, pretending want of room elsewhere; whereas the new chapel churchyard was walled-in at the publick charge in the last plague time, merely for want of room; and now none, but such as are able to pay dear for it, can be buried there.—Pepys.

The churchwardens' Accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, exhibit a payment of thirty shillings to Thomas Wright, for sixty-seven loads of soil "laid on the graves in Tothill Fields, wherein 1200 Scotch prisoners, taken at the Battle of Worcester, were buried."

A Bridewell House of Correction or Prison was built here in 1655, enlarged in 1788, and continued to be used till the opening of the New Prison in 1834. On the side of the Sessions House, Broad Sanctuary, is fixed the doorway of the old Tothill Fields Prison, which was removed in 1836. A bear-garden was in existence here as late as 1793.¹ Vincent Square occupies part of the site.

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¹ Twenty-eighth Report of Finance Committee, p. 79.
² Stow, by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 669.

¹ Walcott's Westminster, p. 325.
² Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster.

¹ Walcott's Westminster, p. 329.