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7
This Ward contains 2,468 assessments, of a rateable value
of £105,050, and returns eighteen members to the Vestry.
Ward No. 5 (St. John's), comprises all that portion of
the Parish which lies south of the southern boundary of
Ward 4, bounded on the east by a line drawn along the
ccntre of Goswell Road from Percival Street to Clerkenwell
Road, on the west by the Old Fleet Ditch, and on the
south by a line drawn from Goswell Road down Clerkenwell
road, thence irregularly, accordingly to the boundary
of the Parish, to the Old Fleet Ditch.
This Ward contains 1,506 assessments, of a rateable
value of £75,604, and returns fifteen members to the
Vestry.
With regard to the outlying portion of the Parish at
Muswell Hill the following extract from Cromwell's History
of Clerkenwell will be of interest, especially to those
unacquainted with its history : —
" There is a small detached portion of the Parish, situate at Muswell,
or Muswell Hill, about five miles and a half from London, and
on the north-western confiues of Hornsey. This little tract (about 65
acres) was given to the Nunnery of Clerkenwell by Beauvais, Bishop
of London, about the year 1112; and having become famous through
a legendary tale of a 'great cure performed upon a King of Scots,
who was, by some divine intelligence, advised to take the water of a
well in England, called Muswell,' a Chapel was erected on the spot,
'sometime bearing the name of our Lady of Muswell.' Here was
placed an image of 'Our Lady, whereunto was a continual resort in
the way of pilgrimage.' This Chapel (which of course was an
appendage to the Nunnery) had sunk, along with many other fabrics
originating in religious romance, before the reign of Elizabeth; and,
when Norden wrote, an Alderman Roe had 'a proper house occupying
the site.'
"The Wells, from which this tract, and the hill comprising it, take
name, are two in number, and continue in good preservation, being
bricked round to the depth from which they seemingly spring, (about
live feet and a half), and enclosed besides from the field, wherein they
are situated, by wooden railings. Though a few yards only asunder,