VENICE
(Map H5)
(area only; site unmarked)
The name of a house of ill-fame in Whitefriars, Lond. It may have been named so because of the reputation of V. as an immoral city. In. Brome's Covent G. i. 1, Madge says, "I lay not long ago at the V. by Whitefryers Dock."

VERE STREET
Lond., running from the W. corner of Clare Market to Duke St. It was named after Elizabeth V., daughter of Lord V. of Tilbury, who died 1683. Gibbon's Tennis Court was in V. St. and was converted into a theatre by Thomas Killigrew and so used from 1660 to 1669. In Davenant's Playhouse i., the Musician says, "There is another playhouse to let in V.-st "

VERGE
(Map A–B5–8)
(area only; site unmarked)
or, more fully, The V. of the Court. The dist. around the palaces of Whitehall and St. James's in Lond. within which arrests could not be effected. It extended from Charing Cross down Whitehall to the river, and included also Hyde Park, St. James's Park, and the Green Park. Its privilege from arrests made it a favourite resort of insolvent debtors and members of the criminal classes. In Jonson's Cynthia iv. 1, Moria says, "There should not a nymph or a widow be got with child in the V. but I would guess within one or two who was the right father." In Randolph's Muses' iv. 4, Colax says, "Flattery, that was wont To be confined within the V. is now Grown epidemical."

VINE
(Map Q4)
(area only; site unmarked)
A tavern sign in Lond. Taylor, in Carriers Cosmography, mentions a Vine Inn in Bishopsgate St In T. Heywood's Lucrece iii. 5, Valerius sings: "The drunkard [goes] to the Vine."

VINE COURT
(Map G5)
(area only, site unmarked)
A range of buildings in the Middle Temple, London. Strode's Float. Isl. was "Printed by T.C. for H. Twyford in Vine-Court Middle Temple. 1655."

VINTNERS' HALL
(Map N6)
The Hall of the Vintners' Company in Lond., at No. 68 on the S. side of Upper Thames St. The Company received its 1st charter from Edward III and the Hall was built on a site presented to them by John de Stody, who was Lord Mayor in 1357, It was burnt down in the Gt. Fire and rebuilt by Wren; but of this second Hall only the Council Chamber remains, the rest having been rebuilt in 1820. Dekker, in Jests, says, "Serjeants are good benefactors to V.-H." In Massinger's Virgin ii. 1, Spungius speaks of Bacchus as "head-warden of V.-H." In Nabbes' Bride 1, 4, Rhenish says, "There's that will make the crookedest horner in the lane speak Latin with the Beadle of Vintiners-H." To speak Latin means to gabble unintelligibly, like a drunken man.

VINTRY
(Map N6)
A wharf on the N. bank of the Thames just above the present Southwark Bdge., between Queen Hythe and the Stillyard. It was set apart in the reign of Edward I for the use of the Bourdeaux wine merchants and was furnished with 3 cranes for the unloading of their vessels; from them the famous tavern "The Three Cranes" (q.v.) derived its name. The heading of one of Scogan's Ballads (circ. 1450) is "At a supper of feorthe merchande in the vyntre in Lond." Skelton, Works I 208 (1529), says, "They judge themselves able to be doctors of the chair in the Vyntre at the Three Cranes." In Edwardes' Damon xv., Aristippus says, "In him there is as much virtue, truth, and honesty, As there are true feathers in the three cranes of the v." In the list of taverns in News Barthol. Fair, we find "three Cranes in the Vintree." The name is still preserved in the Ch. of St. Martin V. See also THREE CRANES.