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1911] 6
coast for a similar reason, Indeed, this was so well known, that an old author
writes of it that its " bracing air is often had resource to by persons in the
decline of life,"
Nelson, too, in his History, Topography and Antiquities of Islington
prints on the title page a verse of a poem by Wm, Fox, jun,, of which the concluding
six lines are as follows:—
And Iseldon, as ancient records tell,
In distant time as now, had much to boast
Of other praise, in Nature's bounty rich,
For thither, then, from London's hectic town
Her famed chalybeates oft allur'd the sick;
Her fresh lactarian draughts the babe sustain'd,
The same Fox also wrote:—
There Addison from public haunts withdrew
To polish, to correct, to charm mankind,
Close on these skirts our Milton passed his days
Of waning life—forsaken, blind and poor;
Thither the melancholy Collins fled
The wand'rings of a 'wildered mind to soothe,
The number of inhabitants of the parish in 1801 was 10,212, 4,189 males
and 6,023 females, of whom 115 were stated to be employed in agriculture ; 892
chiefly in trade, manufactures, or handicraft; and 9,205 not included in either
of these classes, The number of inhabited houses was 1,6(55, occupied by
2,228 families, and 80 uninhabited, making a total of 1,745,
Nelson also writes, when discussing these returns, made under the " Population
Act," with regard to some of the above particulars, that " the statement is
without doubt erroneous, The excess in the number of families in proportion
to the houses inhabited, may, however, be accounted for, by many having
apartments here, especially during the summer months,"
Its fame as a place of pleasure was celebrated in prose and verse, as well
as on the stage, and mention of it is to be found in Ben Jonson's plays,
in The Spectator, in Goldsmith's Essays, Defoe's History of the Plague, and
other works,
The " village " in the early days was practically confined to the neighbourhood
of Islington Green, whence as the population increased, it extended along