Whetstone Park

Lincoln's Inn Fields (WC2) Here in a squalid house once lived Milton. In the reign of Charles II this was one of the worst neighbourhoods in London, a great resort of thieves and vagabonds. In the State Poems there is a set of verses entitled "On the three Dukes killing the Beadle on Sunday morning, Feb. 26, 1671." Smith says: "The three Dukes were sons of Charles II," but he does not say which. In a drunken frolic they assaulted the beadle, who unfortunately lost his life. It does not appear that the young men were ever called to account for what they had done.