Ray Street

117, Farringdon Road. (EC1) This street is built partly on the site of the Bear-garden of Hockley-in-the-Hole, which was not only the resort of the mob, but of noblemen and ambassadors, to witness the cruelties of bear- and bull-baiting by greater brutes, and " the noble science of defence," for, says Mrs. Peachum (Beggar's Opera) , "You should go to Hockley-in-the-Hole to learn valour"; but the nuisance was abolished soon after 1728. (Reference: Timbs's Curiosities of London, p. 237)

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