St. Bennet’s Sherehog, stood opposite to St. Sythe’s lane, in St. Pancras lane, and in the ward of Cheap. In the year 1323, it went by the name of St. Osyth, from its being dedicated to a queen and martyr of that name; but she was divested of the tutelage of this church, by Benedict Shorne, a fishmonger of London, who was a rebuilder, repairer, or benefactor to it; and Shorne his surname, being corrupted into Shrog, was at last converted into Sherehog. This church sharing the common fate of the general conflagration in 1666, and not being rebuilt, the parish was annexed to that of St. Stephen’s Walbrook. Newc. Rep. Eccl. Paroch.
Bennet street, a short street, westward into Arlington street, Piccadilly.
Bennet’s Bridge lane, Upper Ground street, Southwark.†
Bennet’s court. 1. Beggars hill, Southwark.† 2. Canon row.† 3. Drury lane.† 4. Limehouse causeway.† 5. Long lane, Southwark.† 6. The Strand.† 7. White street.†
Bennet’s hill, Thames street, thus named from the church of St. Bennet’s Paul’s Wharf.
Bennet’s street. 1. Longditch.† 2. Near the Upper ground, Southwark.† 3. St. James’s street.†
Bennet’s yard, near Tufton street.†
Benson’s alley, Shoreditch.†
Bentinck street, Berwick street.
Berkhamsted, an ancient town in Hertfordshire, situated 30 miles to the N. W. of London. It was anciently a Roman town, and here some of the Saxon kings kept their court. William the Conqueror here swore to the nobility to preserve the laws made by his predecessors; and here Henry II. kept his court, and granted the town all the laws and liberties it had enjoyed under Edward the Confessor. It was a borough in the reign of Henry III. and James I. to whose children this place was a nursery, made it a corporation, by the name of the Bailiff and Burgesses of Berkhamsted St. Peter; the Burgesses to be twelve, to chuse a Recorder, and Town Clerk, to have a prison, &c. but in the next reign it was so impoverished by the civil wars, that the government was dropp’d, and has not been since renewed. Its market is also much decayed. The town, though situated on the south side of a marsh, extends itself far in a broad street, and handsome buildings, and is pleasantly surrounded with high and hard ground, full of pastures, hedgerows, and arable land. What remains of the castle, which is but one third of it, was not long ago the seat of the Careys, and is now the seat of the family of the Ropers. Here is a spacious church dedicated to St. Peter, which has eleven of the Apostles on its pillars, with a sentence of the creed on each, and on the twelfth pillar is St. George killing the dragon. The other public buildings are, a free school, which is a handsome brick structure, well endowed, the King being patron, and the Warden of All Souls College in Oxford, Visitor; and a handsome almshouse, built and endowed by Mr. John Sayer and his wife, who gave 1300l. for that purpose.