This rent was reduced in 1336 to 6s. 8d., because the tenement was ruinous, Robert the Marshall promising to rebuild it. Eventually, in the year 1361, it came into the hands of Gaillard Pete, or Pecche, and eighteen years afterwards he granted it to Robert de Cherlton, Chief Justice of the Common Bench, John atte Mulle, chaplain, Thomas de Worston, and William Camme, their heirs and assigns, "to hold of the chief lord of that fee for the accustomed services."[105] They demised it to the same Gaillard and Agnes his wife for their lives, with remainder to Roger, son of Gaillard, for his life. And eight years afterwards the Chief Justice and his fellow feoffees granted this property also to the Abbot of Malmesbury.[106] In the Inquisition ad quod damnum already quoted, it is stated that "the messuage and garden are held of the King by Gailard Pete," which seems to imply that the Chief Justice and his fellows had been acting all along as trustees; and it is also stated that

"they are worth yearly according to their true value 13s. 4d. and not more because they are charged yearly to the Master of the Church of the New Temple within the Bar of London in 6s. 8d. quit rent."

The Abbot of Malmesbury had now become possessed of three properties in Holborn: the tenement of Walter Barton, next to Staple Inn, acquired in 1387; Lyncolnesynne, acquired in 1369; and the tenement of Gailard Pete, acquired, like that of Walter Barton, in 1387. In the reign of Henry VIII., at the dissolution of the monasteries, there was still at this spot a chapel, a hall, a kitchen, and a "great garden," where the monks had "liberty to walk" when they came to London; and the brewery also was still in existence.[107]

In 1399 a rental of the property of the Convent of Malmesbury was drawn up, in which the following items appear[108]:—

"De Firmario novi hospicii apud Londoniam vocati { VIII li. { pro missa Lyncolnesynne ad iiii^{or} terminos solvendo per annum { Abbatis

De tenemento quondam Gaillardi Poet in Holbourne XX s

De tenemento quondam Walter Bartone Allutarii XIII s IIII d"

Written in a different hand, with different coloured ink, at the bottom margin of the page, and certainly of a later date, the following remarks have been added:—

"London Hospicium Armigeri jam magnum hospitium quod est ruinosum reddit per annum XL s

Tenura Celda proxima annexa hospicio reddit per annum IX s

tenencium Secunda celda reddit per annum X s

infra silvam Tertia celda reddit per annum VIII s

magni hospicii Quarta celda que est ..."

[Here the page is cut away.]

The "Inn of the Esquire ... which is ruinous" of the marginal note is obviously the same as the "Lyncolnesynne" of the original entry, with the rent reduced from L8 to 40s. per annum. It is not possible to date this note, but it was probably made in the fifteenth century. In 1422 the Society of Lincoln's Inn took what is believed to be their first lease of the Bishop of Chichester property on the west side of Chancery Lane; but the society existed before that date, as in the Corporation letter books Thomas Broun is described as Maunciple of Lincoln's Inn, under date of 1417. In 1466 the society was paying 9s. yearly to the prior of St. Giles' Hospital for Lepers for another part of its property; and no other rents, apparently, were being paid for any other part on the west side of Chancery Lane. But in the Black Books of that Inn (vol. i., p. 8), under a date only sixteen years later than that of their lease of the Bishop's Inn, the following entry occurs:—

"In the vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul 16 Henry VI. (1438) John Row delivered to John Fortescue and others in the name of the Society to be paid to ... Halssewylle for the farm of Lyncollysyn in arrear for the 15th year (Henry VI.) in the time of Bartholomew Bolney then Pensioner in full payment 40s. out of money received by him."

The yearly rent for the farm of Lyncollysyn is the same, therefore, as was paid for the ruinous "Hospicium Armigeri"; and in the fourteenth century, as Foss has pointed out, the term "esquire" was often used as a synonym for "serjeant." The Black Books also show that in 1457 a payment was made by the society to the gardener of Staple Inn, from which Inn access could be easily obtained to the "great garden" in which the "Hospicium Armigeri" was situated. It would seem not improbable, therefore, that the second and third Lincoln's Inns may, in the year 1438, have been coexistent and under the same rule. But there is at present no evidence that this same society was connected with the Inn in Shoe Lane, which 130 years earlier had belonged to Henry de Lacy.

John Fortescue, who received the 40s. for payment to Halssewyll, became serjeant in 1441 and Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1442. In 1465 he wrote his famous work, De Laudibus Legum Angliae, in which he says:

"The laws are taught in a certain place of public study nigh to the King's Courts.... There are ten lesser houses or Inns (and sometimes more) which are called houses of Chancery, and to every one of them belongeth 100 students at least, who, as they grow to ripeness, are admitted into the greater Inns, called Inns of Court, of which there are four in number, and to the least of which belongeth 200 students or more."

It is clear, then, that the difference between the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery was recognised in 1465, and it is also certain that one of those four Inns of Court was that to which he himself had belonged, namely, Lincoln's Inn. The others were undoubtedly Gray's Inn and the Inner and Middle Temples. We have seen that in 1387 Lincoln's Inn in Holborn was held directly of the King; we shall find that the other Inns of Court came to be similarly held.

In the year 1294, Reginald de Grey, a member of one of the leading administrative and legal families, was Justiciar of Chester. He received in that year from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a feoffment of the manor of Portpool, which they had received in mortmain from Richard de Chyggewell, alderman and mercer of London. It is doubtful whether Reginald de Grey lived here; it is more likely that he acquired the property for the training of his clerks, having found himself under much the same necessity as his contemporaries, Sir John de Metyngham and the Earl of Lincoln. In 1296 he was in association with Prince Edward, as one of the Regency, during the expedition of Edward I. to Flanders. In 1307 he died, when an inquisition was taken, at which the jurors reported that Reginald le Grey was seized at Purtepol of a certain messuage with gardens and one dove house worth 10s. a year, 30 acres of arable land worth 20s. a year, price 8d. the acre, and a certain windmill worth 20s. all held of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.[109]

In 1316 his successor, Sir John de Grey, created a rent-charge on the property in favour of the prior and convent of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, to provide a chaplain to perform daily service in the chapel of the manor; and at an inquisition held in that year, at the Stone Cross in the parish of the Blessed Mary at the Strand, to know whether it would be to the King's damage if he granted the necessary permission, the jurors reported that the property was

"holden of Robert de Chiggewelle by the service of rendering to the same Robert one rose yearly, and the same Robert holds the tenements, together with others, of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and the said Dean and Chapter hold the same of the king in pure and perpetual alms."[110]

The grandson of Sir John de Grey, another Reginald, died in 1370, and was succeeded by Henry de Grey, under whom the first feoffment-in-trust of this property that we know of took place. For when he died in 1397 it was found by inquisition that Henry, Lord Grey de Wilton, held no land in Middlesex, because by deed he had enfeoffed Roger Harecourt, Justice for Co. Derby; John de Broughton, Escheator for the counties of Bucks and Beds; William Danbury; John Boner, rector of the Church of Shirland (one of the manors of the De Greys), and others, of his manor of Portpoole, called Gray's Inn.[111] This was probably in 1371. Similar feoffments-in-trust were made by successive Lords de Grey until 1506, when Edmund, Lord de Grey of Wilton, sold the manor to Hugh Denys, verger of Windsor Castle, and others, the said Hugh's feoffees.[112]

Hugh Denys died in 1511, and by his will he desired that all such persons as had been feoffed of his manor of "Greysynte" should be seized of it to the use of his heirs, "until such time as the Prior and Convent of the Charterhouse at Shene, in the county of Surrey, have obtained of the king's grace sufficient licence for the amortisement" of the manor to them.[113] And five years later the necessary authority was granted, the manor being described as having escheated to the King, "by the death of Robert de Chiggewell without an heir," to be held to the annual value of L6 13s. 4d.

At the dissolution of the monasteries the Benchers of Gray's Inn had to pay this amount to the Crown, instead of to the Charterhouse at Shene. Charles II. sold the rent to Sir Philip Matthews, and in 1733 the Benchers purchased it from parties deriving title from his co-heirs.[114] The hall of Gray's Inn dates from 1560; the chapel is of unknown, but of ancient date.

The New Temple was in occupation by the Knights Templars before 1186. They were bankers for the King, who sometimes lodged there. Their chapel was the muniment house of the rolls of chancery; there the treasure and regalia were stored; and there Parliaments and Courts, both criminal and civil, were held. Naturally, they needed their own fratres servientes, who were provided with food "at the clerks' tables," and yearly robes at Christmas "of the suit of the free servants of the house."[115]

The chief lord was the Earl of Lancaster. But when the Knighthood was suppressed, in 1308, their clerks were pensioned, and Edward II. granted the property to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, he receiving the issues, but holding the manor of the lord, to whom, however, he made a "quit claim" in October, 1314, the Pope having granted the possessions of the Templars to the Knights of St. John. Upon the execution and attainder of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in 1322, the King gave the lordship to Hugh le Despencer, who also obtained from the Prior of St. John's a feoffment of the houses and appurtenances,[116] and on the attainder of Hugh le Despencer, in 1327, the lordship and also the ferm came into the hands of Edward III., who put William de Langeford, clerk of the Prior and "chief servitor of the King's religion," in charge as "fermor" at L24 yearly. He repaired the old houses for the King's clerks to occupy;[117] and for some years following litigants coming into chancery would take their oaths in the Temple Church; though sometimes at this period they would attend in the church of St. Andrew in Holborn, Thomas de Cotyngham, one of the Chancery clerks, then being rector there. It was William de Langeford who, in 1335, took a lease from the mayor and commonalty of "a piece of land" without Newgate "for making a hall and three fit chambers at his own expense, for the sessions of the Justices appointed to deliver Newgate Gaol."[118] This early Sessions House is described as being in the King's high street, on the way towards Holebourne. It would have stood at the north-west corner of the present Newgate Street.

The Temple contained an inner consecrated area, which was occupied by the Knights, and some houses adjacent on the west owned by them, but not improbably occupied by students of the law. It appears that when the manor was handed over to the Knights of St. John the King retained part of it, which, however, in 1338, he allowed them to purchase for L100, and from that date we read no more of the chancery being held in the Temple Church. In gratitude to William de Langeford, whose services had secured to the Order the restitution of their property, the prior granted him a lease of "all their messuages and places of the sometime Temple lying from the lane called Chauncellereslane to the Templebarre without the gates of the New Temple." This lease was dated June 11th, 1339,[119] and the lawyers have held the property ever since.

The consecrated and secular areas may, perhaps, be the origin of the division of the property into two Inns of Court; for the lease of 1339 obviously refers only to what is now known as the Middle Temple.

There is a tradition that the students of the Inner Temple came from Davy's Inn, which could hardly have existed at that time under that name, but it may be noted that in the records of that Inn it is stated, under date of 1525, that "Master Barnardston is pardoned the office of Steward because he executed the office of Principal of Davy's Inn at the instance of this Society,"[120] thus showing that this Inn of Court had the right in that year of supplying one of its own members to that office.

In 1521 the Prior of St. John's made complaint that the Society of the Inner Temple was occupying his lands against his will; but at the dissolution of the religious houses in 1541, the rentals became due to the Crown; and James I., in his sixth year, granted the property to the Benchers of the Middle and Inner Temples in perpetuity for a fixed rental of L20,[121] their several moieties of which Charles II. allowed them to purchase in 1673 and 1675 respectively.[122]

The "round" of the church was completed in 1185, the choir in 1240, and the whole building was "restored" in 1842 at a cost of L70,000. The hall of the Middle Temple was built in 1572, that of the Inner Temple in 1870.

The property on the west side of New Street, or Chancery Lane, had been granted to, or acquired by, the Knights Templars. Henry III.'s Chancellor, Ralph Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, died at his house there in 1244, and the King arbitrarily authorised his Treasurer, William de Haverhill, to secure the property upon the Chancellor's death, so that neither the Templars nor any other person should lay hands on it.[123] To the north of it was a garden once held by William Cottrell, which he had given to the Knights of St. John, who in turn had given it to St. Giles' Hospital for Lepers.[124] In the year 1310, when Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, died, another Bishop of Chichester, John de Langton, was Chancellor, and was occupying the Inn of the see, whilst the hospital of St. Giles was still receiving rent for Cottrell's garden. No Black Friars house, therefore, ever existed here, nor did Henry de Lacy die here; and all traditions to the contrary can be disproved.

In 1422 the Society of Lincoln's Inn, coming probably from Holborn, took a lease of the Bishop of Chichester's property, and afterwards a lease of Cottrell's garden. In 1537 Bishop Sampson sold the house and land belonging to the see to William and Eustace Sulyard, members of the Inn, from whom it descended to Edward Sulyard, who sold it in 1579 to the society. Subscriptions for this purchase were received by the Benchers, as is evident from the will of Sir Roger Cholmeley, dated 1565, who gave to certain trustees a house in Newgate Market "to hold to them and their heirs for ever towards the purchase of Lincoln's Inn and in the mean season towards the repairs of the same."[125] The hall of this Inn was pulled down and rebuilt in 1489; but since then, in 1845, a new hall, Gothic in character, and of great dignity and beauty, has been erected. The chapel, by Inigo Jones, dates from 1621, and the fine old gateway from 1518.

The Inns of Chancery were at first independent of the four Inns of Court, but, inasmuch as serjeants were chosen only from the latter, it became the custom for students in the lesser Inns, when "they came to ripeness," as Fortescue puts it, to enter one of the higher Inns if they desired advancement. Gradually each Inn of Court took special interest in certain of the lesser Inns, by sending to them Readers and by other marks of patronage, until an impression came to exist, which was much strengthened by various Orders in Council, that a certain governorship of one over the other was a normal, legal, and time-honoured institution. And in a few instances the Inns of Court put the coping stone to this theory by purchasing the property of those lesser Inns, of which they were the patrons. Thus Lincoln's Inn bought Furnival's on December 16th, 1547, having previously held a lease of it, and Davy's on November 24th, 1548; and the Inner Temple bought Lyon's Inn in 1581, which they sold in 1863, the Globe Theatre being built upon its site.

It is doubtful whether Furnival's Inn was ever occupied by the Lords Furnival. In 1331 the property belonged to Roger atte Bowe, a wool-stapler, who died in that year, leaving his tenements in Holbourne and a garden in Lyverounelane to his children. How or when it came into the hands of the De Furnivals is not known; but in 1383 an inquisition post mortem was taken by the Mayor, at which the jurors recorded that

"William Furnyvall, knight, did not die seised of any lands or tenements in the city of London nor in the suburbs thereof. But that in his life time he was seised of two shops and 13 messuages with appurtenances in the street called Holbourne in the suburb of London situated between a tenement of Jordain de Barton on the east (he was a Chauff-cier, i.e., an officer of Chancery who prepared the wax for the sealing of writs to be issued) and a tenement of John Tonyngton on the west and which formerly belonged to Roger atte Bogh. And William de Furnyvale enfeoffed William Savage, parson of the church of Handsworth and John Redesere, chaplain, of the aforesaid messuages and shops to hold to them, their heirs and assigns for ever and they are still thereof seised. And the messuages and shops are worth 100s. and are held in free burgage of the king by the service of 11s. 4d. for all services. William Furnyvall died 12th April last past. Joan his daughter, wife of Thomas Nevill, is his nearest heir, aged 14 years and 6 months."[126]

William de Furnival had succeeded his brother in 1364. Six years before he died—namely, in 1377—he was reported to be feeble and infirm, and it seems most probable from the above inquisition that his Inn was occupied by clerks. Maude, the heiress of Thomas de Neville, married John Talbot, Lord Strange of Blackmere, who was summoned to Parliament as Lord Furnival in 1442, and created Earl of Shrewsbury in 1446. His son, John Talbot, second Earl, was also Treasurer of England. The fifth Earl, Francis Talbot, sold the property in 1547, then in a ruinous condition, to the Society of Lincoln's Inn,[127] who, after holding it for nearly 340 years, sold it to the Prudential Assurance Company, in 1888, who demolished it for their present offices. John Staynford was principal of the Inn in 1425, and John Courtenay in 1450. It was sometimes called an Inn of Court,[128] and had its own chapel, which, however, was in St. Andrew's Church.[129] A coloured drawing of its quaint little Hall, built in 1588, is in the Guildhall Library.

Barnard's Inn, situated to the east of the second Lincoln's Inn, and opposite to Furnival's Inn, was so named from one Lionel Barnard, who was in occupation of it in 1435. But the real owner was John Mackworth, who was Dean of Lincoln from 1412 to 1451. He had inherited it probably from his brother, Thomas Mackworth, of Mackworth, co. Derby, who in 1431 became owner, having married Alice de Basing.[130] At an inquisition ad quod damnum held February 2nd, 1454, permission was given to Thomas Atkyn, citizen of London,

"An executor of the will of John Macworthe, Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, to assign a messuage in Holbourne called Macworth Inne, now commonly called Barnard's Inne, to the Dean and Chapter of the aforesaid Cathedral towards this work, extraordinary fees were raised, and divine service in the Chapel of St. George, in the southern part of the said church, where the body of the said John is buried, for the soul of the said John for ever, in part satisfaction of L20 of land which Edward III. licenced the said Dean and Chapter to acquire. The said messuage is held of the king in free burgage as is the whole city of London and is worth yearly beyond deductions six marks (L4) and there is no mean between the king and the said Thomas Atkyn; whether he has enough of lands, &c, to support all dues and services, &c., remaining after the said donation and assignment or whether he will be able to be sworn on assizes as before this donation the jurors are thoroughly ignorant; but the country will not by this donation in defect of the said Thomas be burdened."[131]

This Inn became attached to Gray's Inn. In 1894 the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral sold it to the Mercers' Company for the Mercers' School, and the old hall of the Inn is now used as a dining-room for the boys.

Brooke House, to the west of Furnival's Inn, stood where now is Brooke Street, and was probably at one time an Inn for lawyers. In the reign of Henry V. it was held by John Gascoigne, who demised it to Justice Richard Hankeford,[132] who died in 1431, and whose heir, Thomasina, married Sir William Bourchier, brother of the Treasurer Henry, Earl of Essex. In 1480 his descendant, Fulk Bourchier, died, and it was found that he had enfeoffed John Sapcote and Guy Wollaston, esquires of the King's body (pro corpore domini Regis), and others, of his property in Holborn.[133] His descendant, John Bourchier, was created Earl of Bath in 1536, and in 1623 Bath House passed into the possession of Lord Brooke and took his name.

The earliest evidence yet obtained respecting the name of Staple Inn is in the will of Richard Starcolf, a wool-stapler, which was proved in the Court of Hustings on February 14th, 1334, and dated July 22nd, 1333, wherein he bequeaths his tenement in Holborn, called le Stapled halle, to be sold for pious uses.[134] No less than four stapled halles are known to have been in existence, at this time, at various trade gates of the city, and the meaning of the title has been much discussed.



Richard Starkulf was a Norfolk man of Danish origin, and was admitted to the freedom of the city of London in 1310. He is described as a mercer, but no mercer could carry on his trade in those days without belonging to a staple. After his death, as his son Thomas was still a minor, his lands were placed in the custody of William de Hampton, of Shrewsbury, controller of the customs in the King's staple there, and to Richard de Elsyng, another mercer. But the tenement of le Stapled halle, which he directed should be sold, came into the hands of William de Elsyng,[135] also a wool-stapler, a brother of Richard, and the founder of St. Mary's Hospital, commonly known as Elsyng Spital. Five years later, when William de Elsyng made further gifts to the hospital, an inquisition was held to know if the gift might be made without injury to anyone, and thereat some interesting particulars respecting his Holborn property were recorded. We are told that

"there remains to William a tenement in the parish of St. Andrew of Holbourne which is worth yearly in all its issues 100s.; thence should be subtracted 3s. 4d. quit rent yearly to the church of St. Paul, London, and 6s. 8d. for yearly repairs, the clear value thus being L4 10s.; which tenement (with others), remaining after the aforesaid assignment are held of the king in free burgage as is the whole of the aforesaid city and are sufficient for the maintenance of all dues and services and William can be put on assizes, juries and recognisances as before his assignment."[136]

The next person to hold Staple Inn was Thomas de Brenchesle.[137] No record of his appointment to any duties at Holborn Bars has been discovered, but on April 12th, 1343, he was ordered to "attach" Thomas Tirwhitt, of Pokelynton,

"who has taken without the realm twelve sarples of wool uncustomed and uncoketed (i.e., unsealed), as the king is certainly informed, and bring him before the council with all speed to answer for his contempt."[138]

And on April 1st, 1349, Thomas de Brynchesle was ordered,

"upon pain of forfeiture, to be at Westminster with all the evidence in his possession for the time when he was appointed with others to supervise the state of the king's staple in Flanders, before the king and his council on the morrow of the close of Easter next, to inform them of things that will be set forth to him."[139]

It seems apparent, then, that Staple Inn was not unconnected in those days with the staple of wool.

The Ordinance of the Staple was issued in 1313,[140] but there are good grounds for believing that long before this date the site was already in use as a custom house and wool court. The ordinance was embodied in a statute of the realm in 1353.[141] London was no longer mentioned as a staple, Westminster being substituted, the bounds of which were defined as commencing at Temple Bar, and ending at Tothill.[142] But it is likely that the Inn at Holborn Bars was still occupied by attorneys who practised for their patrons of the Staple, and that the Merchants for Wools still had their meetings there. In 1401 Hamond Elyot sued a plaint of debt against Martyn Dyne, of Haydon, Norfolk, for the sum of L26 2s. 3d., in the Court of Staple at Westminster;[143] and one hundred years later, John Dyne, his descendant, also of Haydon, Norfolk, was a member of Staple Inn. In his will, proved 1505, he gives the names of the company of the Inn. Edmund Paston, grandson of the Judge, was a member in 1467, and we learn from one of his letters that the Inn had a Principal at that date.

In 1529, John Knighton and Alice, his wife, daughter of John Copwode of the Remembrancer's Office of the Exchequer, sold the inheritance of the Inn to the Ancients of Gray's Inn, after which there were other feoffments in trust, the last of which, that we know of, dated June 4th, 1622, being that of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, to Edward Moseley, Attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster and others, Readers of Gray's Inn, "to hold to them, their heirs and assigns of the chief lords of that fee by the services thence due and of right accustomed."[144] The society eventually became its own master, and in 1811 had no connection whatever with Gray's Inn. It was dissolved in 1884, when its property was sold to a firm of auctioneers, who parted with it in the same year, the Government buying the southern portion for an extension of the Patent Office, and the Prudential Assurance Company the remainder. The lawyers still congregate there; the only difference being a change of landlords, though the hall has been leased to the Institute of Actuaries. The frontage of the Inn dates from 1570 and 1586, the hall from 1581.



Davy's Inn is most probably the correct name of the Inn, which for three centuries past has unaccountably, possibly through Stow's mistake, gone by the name of Thavies Inn. No record has yet been found earlier than the reign of Queen Elizabeth in which the name of this Inn is any other than Davy's or David's. The will of John Davy was proved in the Court of Hustings in 1398.[145] He desired to be buried in the church of St. Andrew. To Alice, his wife, he left his lands and tenements in Holborn for life, with remainder to John Osbern and his wife, Emma, testator's daughter, in tail; with remainder in trust for the maintenance of a chantry in St. Mary's Chapel in the church of St. Andrew. The annual proceeds of this latter bequest were still being received by the church in the reign of Henry VIII. The testator was an attorney, and his name occurs in many legal documents relating to Holborn in the reign of Edward III.; he was also associated with others of the neighbourhood in various pavage commissions. It is quite possible, however, and probable, that the Inn which bore his name was an Inn long before his time. It was bought by Lincoln's Inn in 1548, and sold in 1769. It has since been demolished.

New Inn, in the Strand, also called St. Mary's Inn, was a guest Inn, says Sir George Buck, writing in 1615, hired by Sir John Fineux, Chief Justice of King's Bench, in the reign of Edward IV., for L6 per annum, to place therein those students who were lodged in "la Baillie," in a house called St George's Inn, near the upper end of St. George's Lane. In the year 1348 the will of John Tavy, armourer, was proved in the Court of Hustings.[146] He therein orders that after the decease of his wife an Inn, where the apprentices were wont to dwell, should be sold, and the proceeds devoted to the maintenance of a chantry. These apprentices are not in the original will described as ad legem, but these words have crept into a subsequent transcription. The testator was, in 1342, one of the four members of the Company of Armourers appointed by the mayor and aldermen, and sworn to observe and supervise the then new regulations respecting the making and selling of armour.[147] He would certainly have had his apprentices, and it may be he referred to them in his will. He would have been a member of the Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the men of the Mistery of Armourers, St. George being the Armourers' patron saint. This fact seems to suggest that his Inn became St. George's Inn, which would have stood not far from the Sessions House, built by William de Langeford.

The Six Clerks Inn, formerly Herfleet's Inn, and then Kidderminster Inn, was on the west side of Chancery Lane, opposite the Rolls Office, and was probably an Inn of Chancery, though unattached, at a very early date. In 1454 Nicholas Wymbyssh, one of the clerks of the King's Chancery, assigned it to the prior of Necton Park, co. Lincoln, to hold of the King in free burgage.[148] It was then in the parish of St. Dunstan. It acquired the name of Kidderminster Inn from John Kidderminster, one of the society, who purchased it at the time of the dissolution of the monastery. In the eighteenth century the Six Clerks Inn Society moved to the north-western end of Chancery Lane. Stone Buildings, part of Lincoln's Inn, now occupies the site.

Cursitors' Inn, also in Chancery Lane, was sometimes known as Bacon's Inn, having been founded, in 1574, by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In 1478 it was known as the Bores hedde, and then consisted of one tenement and a large garden, about two and a half acres in extent, bounded on the north by the grounds of the Old Temple and of Staple Inn; on the east by that property of the Convent of Malmesbury which had formerly been known as "Lyncolnesynne"; and on the south by a lane now known as Cursitor Street. The rent was then being paid to the Corporation of the City of London, who were probably feoffees of the bishopric of Lincoln; but in 1561 they purchased it of Edward VI., into whose hands it had come at the dissolution of chantries and chapels; and they, in 1574, granted it to Sir Nicholas Bacon,[149] who there housed the cursitor clerks. There were twenty-four cursitor clerks—i.e., Clerks of the Course—whose business was to draw up the writs. The Cursitor Baron administered the oaths to the sheriffs, bailiffs, and officers of the Customs, etc. Cursitor Street perpetuates the name of the Inn.

Clifford's Inn, adjacent to, and south of, the House of Converts, came into the hands of Edward I. in 1298, for the debts of Malcolm de Harley, Escheator on this side Trent. The Earl of Richmond was placed in custody of it, but in 1310 Edward II. gave it to Robert de Clifford, a customs' officer of the Wool Staple, and Marshal of England.[150] When he died in 1316 a third of it only was granted to his widow. During the nonage of the heir in 1345, Edward III. put his clerk, David de Wollore, who was also Keeper of the Rolls of Chancery, in charge of the property.[151] It is said to have possessed its society at this period. It passed from the Clifford family in June, 1468, when a grant was made to "John Kendale, Esq., and his heirs male, of Clifford Inne, late of John Clifford, knight, late Lord Clifford, by reason of forfeiture."[152] The Society of Clifford's Inn was the last of the Inns of Chancery to dissolve.

Clement's Inn, an Inn of Chancery attached to the Inner Temple, was divided within recent years from New Inn, which belonged to the Middle Temple, only by iron railings with a gate. Its origin is unknown, but its name connects it either with St. Clement's Church, or St. Clement's Well. It was certainly in existence before the time of Henry VII.

Lyon's Inn is said to have been an Inn of Chancery in the time of Henry V., but the evidence on this point is uncertain. It was situated in Newcastle Street, Strand, and was attached to the Inner Temple, who bought it in 1581. The Aldwych improvements have wiped out the Globe Theatre which had succeeded it.

Besides the Inns of Court and Chancery, there existed also Inns for Judges and Serjeants, of which the most important were Scrope's Inn, opposite to St. Andrew's Church, in Holborn, and the two Serjeants' Inns in Chancery Lane and Fleet Street, which, however, cannot be treated of here.

Documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries make it quite clear that Staple Inn, Furnival's Inn, Brooke House, and, of course, the old Inn of the Earl of Lincoln, in Shoe Lane, were all within the city boundaries. It was not until December, 1645, that the House of Lords passed a resolution that the Inns of Court were to form a province by themselves,[153] and the resolution was interpreted to cover also their Inns of Chancery dependencies, so that Furnival's Inn and Staple Inn became cut off from the city, and all the Inns became extra-parochial.

It will have been noticed that the properties of the Inns of Court, and most of the Inns of Chancery, came to be held directly of the King. The legal artifice of feoffment to "uses" was adopted in regard to most of these properties; but though the feoffees were chiefly legal persons, they did not apparently always represent the societies; nor is it quite clear whom they did represent; but the societies had no security of tenure until they purchased their respective properties.



It has been shown that the deep hollow, at the bottom of which flowed the stream of Holborn, formed a natural barrier between the walled city and its suburb. It also divided the guilds and trade associations of London from that plexus of schools of laws which at first radiated from Holborn Bars. The guilds recognised the leading of the Mayor and Commonalty; the schools of law looked for direction chiefly to the law officers of the Crown. In Florence, and other cities of the Middle Ages, the associations of judges, attorneys, and wool-merchant lawyers were as much a part of civic and communal life as any other guild; the different conditions which existed in England led to different consequences.

But the hold which the King's officers obtained, both over the machinery of the Courts and over the voluntary societies of law students, was the cause, no doubt, of the attempts which were made during the Tudor and early Stuart periods to organise all the Inns of Court and Chancery into a University of Law. Those attempts failed; chiefly through the lack of wisdom displayed in issuing arbitrary and meddlesome Orders in Council, instead of allowing unification to mature on those natural and voluntary lines which had already been laid down.

Now the Inns of Chancery have practically vanished, leaving the Inns of Court to monopolise all the glory of the great future which undoubtedly still lies before them.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] Inq. ad quod damnum, 46 Hen. III., file ii., No. 47.

[76] Duchy of Lancaster, Ancient Deeds, L. 132-140.

[77] Close Rolls, 14 Ed. I., m. 2d.

[78] Court of Hustings Wills, R. R. Sharpe.

[79] Survey of London, pp. 32, 33. John Stow, reprint, 1876.

[80] Patent Rolls, 16 Ed. II., pt. i., m. 31.

[81] Inq. p.m. Chan., 20 Ed. IV., 99.

[82] Feet of Fines, London Trin., 44 Eliz.

[83] Ancient Deeds, B. 2191.

[84] Placita Parl., 35 Edw. I.

[85] Memorials of London, p. 357. H. T. Riley, 1868.

[86] Historical Charters, W. De Gray Birch.

[87] The Commune of London, J. H. Round.

[88] Charter Rolls, 19 Hen. III., m. ii.

[89] Pat. Rolls, 1 Ed. VI., pt. vi., m. 37.

[90] Rot. Parl., vol. i., p. 84, No. 22.

[91] Chart. Convent of Malmesbury, Cotton MS. Faust., B. viii., f. 158.

[92] Ibid., ff. 245, 245b.

[93] Ibid., f. 248.

[94] Chart. Convent of Malmesbury, Cotton MS. Faust., B. viii., f. 265.

[95] Ibid., ff. 239, 239b, 195b, 192.

[96] Ibid., f. 157b.

[97] Ancient Deeds, B. 2264.

[98] Pat. Rolls, 24 Ed. I., m. 17.

[99] Cotton MS., Faust., B. viii., f. 159.

[100] Ibid., f. 160b.

[101] Ibid., f. 161.

[102] Ibid., f. 162b.

[103] Cotton MS., Faust., B. viii., ff. 164b, 163b.

[104] Ibid., f. 165.

[105] Ibid., f. 168b.

[106] Ibid., f. 265b.

[107] Augmentation Office Grants, 36 Hen. VIII., No. 105.

[108] Cotton MS., Faust., B. viii., f. 253b.

[109] Inq. p.m.; 1 Edw. II., 54, m. 11.

[110] Inq. ad quod dam., 8 Ed. II., 169.

[111] Inq. p. m., 44 Ed. III., 30, m. 16.

[112] Close Rolls, 22 Hen. VII., pt. ii.

[113] Home Counties Mag., Jan., 1904.

[114] Gray's Inn, p. 18. W. R. Douthwaite.

[115] Close Rolls, 5 Ed. II., m. 2.

[116] Pat. Rolls, 12 Ed. III., pt. i., m. 34.

[117] Pat. Rolls, 6 Ed. III., pt. iii., m. 9.

[118] Ibid., 9 Ed. III., pt. ii., m. 27.

[119] Patent Rolls, 13 Ed. III., pt. ii., m. 29.

[120] Inner Temple Records. F. A. Inderwick.

[121] Close Rolls, 165i, pt. x., No. 35.

[122] Ibid., 25 Chas. II., 5, m. 14, and 28 Chas. II., 6, m. 31.

[123] Close Rolls, Hen. III., 58, m. 15.

[124] Harl. MS., No. 4015, f. 198 vo.

[125] Inq. p. m. Chan., 8 Eliz., pt. i., No. 85.

[126] Inq. p. m., 6 Rich. II., No. 41.

[127] Fines, 1 Ed. VI., Hil.

[128] P.C.C. Humphry Cade, 21 Nodes.

[129] Ibid., John Devereux, 47, Alen.

[130] Notes and Queries, ser. vii., vol. ii.

[131] Inq. ad quod dam., 32 Hen. VI., file 451, No. 37.

[132] Inq. p. m. Chan., Series i., 9 Hen. VI., 54.

[133] Inq. p. m., 20 Ed. IV., No. 65.

[134] Court of Hustings Wills. R. R. Sharpe.

[135] Cotton MS., Faust., B. viii., ff. 247, 247b, 248.

[136] Inq. ad quod dam., 247, No. 14.

[137] Cotton MS., Faust., B. viii., f. 248.

[138] Pat. Rolls, 17 Ed. III., pt. i., m. 25d.

[139] Close Rolls, 23 Ed. III., m. 20d.

[140] Pat. Rolls, 6 Ed. II., pt. ii., m. 5.

[141] Stat. of Realm, 27 Ed. III., ii., c. i.

[142] Rolls of Parl., xxxiii., 28 Ed. III.

[143] Selden Soc., vol. x., 53.

[144] Gray's Inn Pension Book, p. 247. R. J. Fletcher.

[145] Court of Hustings Wills. R. R. Sharpe.

[146] Ibid.

[147] Memorials of London. H. T. Riley.

[148] Inq. ad quod dam. Chan., f. 451, No. 36.

[149] Add. MS. 25,590.

[150] Pat. Rolls, 3 Ed. II., mm. 19, 8.

[151] Ibid., 19 Ed. III., part iii., mm. 3, 11; 20 Ed. III., part i., m. 25.

[152] Ibid., 8 Ed. IV., part i., m. 12.

[153] Lords' Journals, viii., p. 50.



THE GUILDHALL

BY CHARLES WELCH, F.S.A.

Guildhall, the home of civic government and the battle-ground of many a hard-won fight for civil and religious liberty, was built anew by the self-denying efforts of a generation of London citizens just five hundred years ago. This great work took ten years and more in building, and, like its sister edifices of still earlier days, the Tower of London, London Bridge, and Westminster Hall, tested to the utmost the energy and resources of the Londoners of those times. We learn from Fabyan, the alderman chronicler, that the building was begun in the year 1411 by Thomas Knowles, then mayor, and his brethren the aldermen. He tells us:—

"The same was made of a little cottage a large and great house as now it standeth, towards the charges whereof the companies gave large benevolences; also offences of men were pardoned for sums of money church for the maintenance of a chaplain to celebrate fines, amercements, and other things employed."



King Henry V., in 1415—the year of his famous victory at Agincourt—granted the City free passage for four boats by water, and as many carts by land, to bring lime, ragstone, and freestone for the work at Guildhall. Private citizens also came forward with contributions. The executors of Sir Richard Whittington, in 1422-3, gave two sums of L60 and L15 for paving the hall with Purbeck stone, and glazed some of the windows, placing in each the arms of Whittington. The rest of the windows in the hall and many of those in its various courts were glazed by various aldermen. So much of this ancient glass as survived the iconoclasm of the Commonwealth period was swept away by the Great Fire. The two handsome louvres which formed such conspicuous objects on the roof of the building were given by Alderman Sir William Hariot during his mayoralty in 1481. The mayor's chamber, council chamber, and several rooms above were built in 1425-6. An important part of the building was still wanting, for the mayors could not keep their feasts at the Guildhall until the time of Sir John Shaa. Under his leadership, and by the help of the Fellowships of the City, wealthy widows, and other well-disposed persons, the kitchens and other necessary offices were completed for use at his mayoralty feast in 1501. Since that year these famous banquets, which had till then been held in Merchant Taylors' Hall, or Grocers' Hall, have regularly taken place at the Guildhall.

On Tuesday, 4th September, 1666, in the course of the Great Fire, the Guildhall was ablaze, and its oak roof entirely destroyed. Vincent describes its appearance in his little book, God's Terrible Voice to the City:

"That night the sight of Guildhall was a fearfull spectacle, which stood the whole body of it for several hours together, after the fire had taken it without flames (I suppose because the timber was such solid oake) in a bright shining coale as if it had been a palace of gold or a great building of burnished brass."

After the Fire the original open roof was not rebuilt, but the walls were raised an additional storey, the ceiling covering this being flat and square panelled; eight circular windows on each side were added. This poor substitute for a roof was built, as Elmes states, "in haste and for immediate use, and evidently a temporary covering." It lasted, nevertheless, nearly two hundred years, until in 1861 the plans for a new open roof corresponding with the original design of the Guildhall were approved by the Corporation. The dimensions of this magnificent building are 152 feet in length, 49 feet 6 inches in width, and 89 feet in height, from the pavement to the ridge of the roof.

In the angles at the west end of the hall, on lofty pedestals, are the celebrated figures of the giants Gog and Magog. They have been believed by some to be Gogmagog and Corinaeus, two mystical personages who were said to have fought together in some of those imaginary conflicts between the Trojans and the early inhabitants of Britain, which are recorded by monkish chroniclers of the Middle Ages. These figures were made by Captain Richard Saunders, a noted carver in King Street, Cheapside, and were put up about the year 1708. They took the place of two old wicker-work giants, which it had formerly been the custom to carry in procession at the mayoralty pageants.

The basement of the Guildhall consists of two crypts, which extend beneath the full length of the hall above. The eastern crypt is entirely vaulted and divided into three aisles by two rows of clustered columns of Purbeck marble, the intersections of the vaulting being covered with a most curious series of carved bosses representing flowers, heads, and shields. This crypt, which, fortunately, escaped the Great Fire, is the finest and most extensive undercroft remaining in London, and for excellence of design and sound preservation may be considered a unique example of its kind. For many years it was neglected and choked with rubbish, which covered its floors to the depth of several feet. In 1851 it was restored to its original condition, and was used as a supper-room for H.M. Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort on the 9th July, when the Corporation entertained the leading persons associated with the Great Exhibition held in that year. On that occasion it was fitted up as a baronial hall, the valuable plate lent by the City Companies being displayed upon an oak sideboard. Around each of the columns stood men clad in armour brought from the Tower of London, each holding a torch of gas for lighting the crypt. A charming feature of the decoration was the treatment of the passage in the western crypt—this was filled with trees and flowers of various kinds, and hundreds of singing birds were let free, thus giving the appearance of a forest glade in summer-time. There is no evidence that this crypt was appropriated to any special use in former times, but to-day it serves the useful, if unromantic, purpose of a kitchen for preparing the mayoralty banquet on the historic ninth of November.

The western crypt, which is separated from that just described by a massive wall of contemporary date, has a roof of arched brickwork dating, probably, from the period of the Great Fire. It is doubtful whether it ever formed an open chamber, and it is now, with the exception of its central passage, entirely devoted to cellarage. In one of its deeply-recessed windows were discovered, in 1902, together with some mediaeval stone coffin-lids, some portions of the famous Cheapside cross, which was pulled down by order of the Long Parliament in 1643. These fragments, which were removed to the Guildhall Museum, bear the sculptured arms and badges of King Edward I. and his consort Queen Eleanor. The cross was taken down at the request of the Corporation, and, doubtless, by their officials, the mutilated fragments being removed to Guildhall, where these two pieces evidently lay for over 250 years.

On the south side of the Guildhall, and providing an entrance to it from Guildhall Yard, is a large Gothic porch, or archway. This last addition to the hall, erected in 1425, was one of its most beautiful features, and has been preserved, practically uninjured, to the present day. The porch consists of two bays of groined vaulting, the walls having deeply-recessed moulded and traceried panelling, and being provided with a convenient seat throughout their length on either side. The front of the porch was materially altered in the reign either of Elizabeth or James I., so that we cannot form a complete idea of its magnificent appearance. It was ornamented with seven finely sculptured statues, representing at the top our Saviour, a little below Law and Learning, and lower still, flanking the doorway on either side, Discipline, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. The statue of our Saviour disappeared at an early date, but the other six figures may still be in existence, for they were presented by the Corporation, in 1794, to Banks the sculptor, at whose death, in 1809, they were purchased for L100 by Henry Bankes, M.P. for Corfe Castle. The present front of the Guildhall, of which the east wing was removed in 1873, was built by George Dance, the City Architect, in 1789.



Guildhall Chapel, or College, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen and All Saints, stood in the north-east corner of Guildhall Yard, immediately adjoining the Guildhall. The chapel is said to have been built at the end of the thirteenth century, when Adam Franceys and Peter Faulore obtained licence from Edward III. to convey a piece of land for the erection of houses for the custos and chaplains of this college. The original building became in course of time too small for the requirements of the citizens, and in 1429, when the new Guildhall was nearing completion, a new chapel was built. This beautiful building, though injured and defaced, was not destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and continued to be used as a chapel until the latter part of the eighteenth century, when its religious services were discontinued. The chapel was then devoted to secular use, and became the Court of Requests until its final demolition in 1822 to make room for the new Law Courts. The great charm of this building was its beautiful western front, which faced the Guildhall Yard. This was adorned with three canopied niches containing statues of Edward VI., Elizabeth, and Charles I. (now preserved in the Guildhall Library), and with a glorious west window of seven lights, a perfect example of the Perpendicular style. Adjoining the chapel on the south was Blackwell Hall, which was for so many centuries the great Cloth Mart of the city.

Among the religious services which formed so bright a feature in ancient civic life those of the Guildhall Chapel held an important place. Besides their attendances at the Cathedral, at Paul's Cross, and at the 'Spital, the Lord Mayor and his brethren, with the City officers, attended Divine service at this chapel on Michaelmas Day before the election of a new Lord Mayor, and on many other occasions throughout the year. The sermons preached on these occasions were printed, and form quite a large body of civic homiletics, many of the preachers being men of great fame and reputation. The practice of attending the Mass of the Holy Spirit (for which a celebration of Holy Communion with sermon is now substituted) was revived, if not originated, by the celebrated Sir Richard Whittington on the day of his own election as Lord Mayor in 1406.

Another of the good deeds of this worthy mayor was the foundation, through his executor, of a library to be attached to the Guildhall College, under the custody of one of its chaplains. This was duly carried out in 1425 by the erection of a separate building of two floors, well supplied with books "for the profit of the students there, and those discoursing to the common people." This public library, which appears to have been the first of its kind in England, had, unfortunately, but a brief existence, all of its books having been "borrowed" in 1550 by the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector, by whom, as we learn from Stow the historian, they were never returned. The loss has since been, to some extent, supplied by the present library, founded at Guildhall in 1824, and rebuilt in 1873.

In the reign of Henry VI., after the completion of the great hall, other apartments, such as "the mayor's chamber, the council chamber, with other rooms above the stairs," were built. Of these no trace at present remains, and two Common Council chambers have since been erected. The first of these was a picturesque apartment, its walls being covered with statuary and paintings, the latter being chiefly presented to the Corporation by Alderman John Boydell. A new council chamber, of handsome and commodious design, was erected by the Corporation in 1884, from the designs of Sir Horace Jones, City Architect. The Court of Aldermen's present chamber was built in the latter half of the seventeenth century, and is a small but handsome room. The ceiling is painted with allegorical figures of the City of London—Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude—executed by Sir James Thornhill, who was presented by the Corporation with a gold cup of L225 7s. in value. Around the walls and in the windows are shields containing the arms of most of the Lord Mayors of the last 127 years.



The artistic decoration of the Guildhall and its various apartments includes monuments, busts, and portraits of men whom the City has delighted to honour. In the great hall are the monuments to Admiral Lord Nelson, by J. Smith; to the "Iron Duke," by J. Bell; to the Earl of Chatham, by Bacon, with inscription by Burke; to the younger Pitt, by Bubb, with Canning's inscription; and to Alderman Beckford, by Moore. On Beckford's monument is inscribed, in letters of gold, the speech which that famous citizen addressed, or is said to have addressed, as Lord Mayor, to King George IV. on his throne. Around the hall were formerly hung portraits of twenty-two judges who assisted in the special Court of Judicature appointed to decide the disputes which arose as to sites of property in the City after the Great Fire. These portraits, which are now hung in the old Common Council chamber, were painted at the Corporation's expense by Michael Wright, Sir Peter Lely having declined the commission because the judges refused to wait upon him at his house for the necessary sittings. In the vestibule of the council chambers are a series of portrait-busts of statesmen, philanthropists, warriors, and men of high eminence in the general estimation of their fellow-countrymen. The decoration of the outer lobby was executed as a memorial of his shrievalty in 1889-90 by the late Alderman Sir Stuart Knill, Bart., and exhibits the Corporation and the City Livery Companies in a very pleasing symbolical design.

At the west end of the great hall are two law courts, where the City judges, the Recorder, and the Common Sergeant administer justice in the Mayor's Court. The aldermen sit in rotation as magistrates in the Police Court in the Guildhall Yard, and in Guildhall Buildings is the City of London Court (anciently the Sheriff's Court), over which two judges preside for the Poultry and Giltspur Street Compters respectively.

Besides the courts above mentioned, there are the departments of the various officers of the Corporation, chief in importance among them being that of the Chamberlain. The court over which this officer presides deals with admission to the freedom of the City and the oversight of apprentices. The Freedom of London was a much-coveted privilege in former times, as without it no one was allowed to carry on business in the City. The benefits now are wholly of a posthumous nature, the children and widows of deceased freemen being eligible for election respectively to benefits of an educational and charitable kind. There is, however, an inner circle of honorary freemen, whose names have been enrolled on the City's Roll of Fame. This highly-prized distinction is reserved for those who, in the unanimous judgment of the Corporation, have rendered conspicuous services to their country in their various callings. The roll was reserved almost exclusively in former times for eminent statesmen and naval and military commanders. In more modern times the claims of great explorers, scientific discoverers, philanthropists, social reformers, etc., have been freely admitted, and the honour is bestowed without distinction of politics or creed. In January, 1900, the Honorary Freedom was conferred upon every member of the City Imperial Volunteers before the departure of the regiment for active service in the South African War. The Chamberlain also deals with disputes between masters and their apprentices, and has power to commit refractory apprentices to Bridewell for imprisonment. There was formerly attached to his office a little prison-cell, known as "Little Ease," which exercised a wholesome dread upon the turbulent 'prentices of days gone by. In addition to his judicial duties the Chamberlain has the responsibility of receiving and disbursing the City's cash, and all other moneys which the Corporation administers.



The great purpose of the Guildhall as a place of meeting for the citizens is well seen in its use on various official occasions. Here are held the meetings of the Court of Common Hall, that court being an assemblage of all the liverymen of the various guilds. The Common Hall on Midsummer Day is for election by the liverymen of the two Sheriffs and various minor officials. The Sheriffs thus elected are admitted into office in the Guildhall on Michaelmas Eve, and preside on the following day at the Common Hall held for the election of Lord Mayor. The Lord Mayor Elect is formally installed in office at Guildhall, with a quaint and dignified ceremony, on November 8th, and enters upon his duties after a further ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice on the following day. The Livery also meet in Guildhall to take part in and to hear the result of elections of Members of Parliament for the City. On all these occasions an elevated hustings is raised at the east end of the hall, and strewn with sweet-smelling herbs, the civic party being also provided with nosegays. This old custom is supposed to have originated in the days when the City was ravaged by pestilence, the herbs and flowers being employed as prophylactics.

Now taking leave of the building, it is time to glance very briefly at some of the important events which have taken place within these historic walls. It was here, in 1483, that the Duke of Buckingham, sent by Richard Duke of Gloucester, with his persuasive tongue, prevailed with the citizens to hail the usurper as King Richard III. A different scene was enacted in 1546, when Guildhall was the scene of the trial of the youthful and accomplished Anne Askew, which ended in her condemnation, her torture on the rack, and her martyrdom in Smithfield. The next year saw the trial of the Earl of Surrey, one who was distinguished by every accomplishment which became a scholar, a courtier, and a soldier, and who, to gratify the malice of Henry VIII., was convicted of high treason. This unhappy period also saw the tragic trial and condemnation, in 1553, of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey and her husband. The trial of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton at Guildhall in 1554, for taking part in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, had a different result. This trial is one of the most interesting on record for the exhibition of intellectual power, and is remarkable for the courage displayed by the jury in returning a verdict of "acquittal" in opposition to the despotic wishes of the court, though at the expense of imprisonment and fine. In 1642 Charles I. attended at a Common Council and claimed the Corporation's assistance an apprehending the five members whom he had denounced as guilty of high treason, and who had fled to the City to avoid arrest. This incident is commemorated by an inscription affixed to one of the pillars in the new council chamber. During the Civil War and the Commonwealth period the Guildhall became the arena of many an important incident connected with the political events of the times. At a later period, when, in 1689, the Government of James II. had become so intolerable that he was forced to abdicate, Guildhall was the spot where the Lords of Parliament met and agreed on a declaration in favour of the assumption of regal authority by the Prince of Orange, afterwards William III.

Guildhall has been famous also for the many sumptuous entertainments which have been given in it to royalty and other personages of distinction at various times, apart from the annual festivity which marks the entry into office of each Lord Mayor. From the banquet given in 1421 to Henry V. and his Queen, on the successful termination of his campaigns in France—when Sir Richard Whittington, in addition to the luxuries provided for his royal guests, is said to have gratified and astonished the King by throwing into the fire bonds for which he was indebted to the citizens to the amount of L60,000—down to the reign of his present Majesty, nearly every sovereign of this country has honoured the City by accepting its hospitality in the Guildhall. Charles II. showed so much fondness for the civic entertainments that he dined there as many as nine times in the course of his reign.



Apart from its strictly official use, the Guildhall is the place of meeting for the citizens generally when any important public question calls for the expression of their views. During the reign of George III. the views of the citizens were in frequent conflict with those of the Ministry of the day. Special meetings of Common Hall were summoned, at which addresses to the King were voted, praying His Majesty to dismiss his Ministers, and terminate the conflict with the American Colonies. More than once the citizens have been in conflict with the House of Commons: for the liberty of the press in 1770, when Brass Crosby, the Lord Mayor, was committed to the Tower; and in 1805, when the liverymen in their Common Hall supported Sir Francis Burdett, who was upholding against the House of Commons the cherished right of liberty of speech. In the long struggle connected with the Reform Bill the City supported the cause of Reform, and, on the Passing of the Reform Act of 1832, entertained in the Guildhall Earl Grey and his principal supporters in both Houses of Parliament.

The voice of the City sounding far and wide from its ancient Guildhall has similarly supported the great causes of Catholic Emancipation, the removal of Jewish Disabilities, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade. In modern times the character of the gatherings at the Guildhall has been still more varied. Foreign sovereigns have been entertained: the allied monarchs in 1814, the Emperor and Empress of the French (1855), the Sultan of Turkey (1867), the Shah of Persia (1889), Alexander II., Czar of Russia (1875), the King of the Hellenes (1881); indeed, almost every crowned head in Europe and the civilised world has been sumptuously received at Guildhall. In 1886, the year of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, the representatives of our Colonies were warmly welcomed. Then followed the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, and the Diamond Jubilee in 1897, each occasion being celebrated by entertainments of a memorable character.

The two great windows in the Guildhall have also memories of the deepest interest. That at the west end was placed there by the Corporation in 1869 to recall the many virtues and the "high and spotless character" of the Prince Consort. The window at the east end was subscribed for by the Lancashire operatives in 1868 in gratitude for the help extended to them during the distress occasioned by the Cotton Famine. Of unique interest was the Jubilee Anniversary of Penny Postage, celebrated on the 16th May, 1890, at Guildhall, when the scene within its ancient walls resembled a huge post-office and telegraph-office combined.

Among its many services to humanity at large the Guildhall has voiced, more than once, the outcry against Jewish persecution in Russia. A working-classes industrial exhibition, bazaars and concerts for charitable objects, International congresses of scientific and social bodies, Christmas entertainments to poor and crippled children: these are some of the present-day uses of the Guildhall. It only remains to add the furtherance of religious effort which it has afforded by welcoming such gatherings as those of the Sunday School Centenary, the mission of Canon Aitken, and the yearly meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, when one of the youngest collectors present (some small personage of four or five years) cuts the Society's birthday cake after some hearty words of welcome from the Lord Mayor, as the genial host of the City's Guildhall.



THE CITY COMPANIES OF LONDON

BY P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A.

In these days of change, which have obliterated most of the old landmarks of the city, when the County Council has almost transformed London, and high warehouses and glaring shops have replaced the old picturesque buildings of our forefathers, it is refreshing to find some institutions which have preserved through the ages their ancient customs and usages, and retain their ancient homes and treasures. Such are the Livery Companies of the City of London, the history of which teems with vivid pictures of bygone times and manners, and the accounts of their pageantries, their feasts, and customs furnish us with curious glimpses of ancient civic life. When we visit the ancient homes of these venerable societies, we are impressed by their magnificence and interesting associations. Portraits of old city worthies gaze at us from the walls and link our times with theirs, when they, too, strove to uphold the honour of their guild and benefit their generation. Many a quaint old-time custom and curious ceremonial usage linger on within the old walls, and there, too, are enshrined cuirass and targe, helmet, sword and buckler, which tell the story of the past and of the part which the companies played in national defence, or in the protection of civic rights. Turning down some little alley and entering the portals of one of these halls, we are transported at once from the busy streets and din of modern London into a region of old-world memories, which has a fascination that is all its own. We see the old city merchants resplendent in their liveries of "red and white with the connuzances of their mysteries embroidered on their sleeves," or when fashions changed, then dominating the sterner sex as it now does only the fair, clad in "scarlet and green," or "scarlet and black," or "murrey and plunket," a "darkly red," or a "kind of blue," preparing to attend some great State function, or to march in procession through the streets to their guild services. Again, the great hall is filled with a gallant company. Nobles and princes are the guests of the company, and the mighty "baron" makes the table groan, and "frumentie with venyson," brawn, fat swan, boar, conger, sea-hog, and other delicacies crown the feast, while the merry music of the minstrels or the performance of the players delights the gay throng. Pictures of ancient pageantry, their triumphs, their magnificent shows and gorgeous ceremonies, flit before our eyes when we visit the halls of the companies.



There was a grand procession in 1686, when Sir John Peake, mercer, was Lord Mayor. The master, wardens, and assistants, dressed in their gowns faced with foins and their hoods, marched first, followed by the livery in their gowns faced with satin, and the company's almsmen, each one bearing a banner. Then came the gentlemen ushers in velvet coats, each wearing a chain of gold, followed by the bachelors invested in gowns and scarlet satin hoods, banner-bearers, trumpeters, drummers, the city marshals, and many others, while the gentlemen of the Artillery Company, led by Sir John Moore, brought up the rear. From the hall of the Grocers' Company, which was the usual rendezvous on account of its convenient situation or its size, they marched to the Guildhall, the lord mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen riding on horseback. Thence they went to Three-cranes Wharf and took barge to Westminster. On their return the pageants met them at St. Paul's Churchyard. These were most gorgeous. The first consisted of a rock of coral with sea-weeds, with Neptune at the summit mounted on a dolphin which bore a throne of mother-of-pearl, tritons, mermaids, and other marine creatures being in attendance. But the most magnificent of all was the maiden chariot, a virgin's head being the arms of the company. Strype tells us that

"... when any one of this company is chosen mayor, or makes one of the triumph of the day wherein he goes to Westminster to be sworn, a most beautiful virgin is carried through the streets in a chariot, with all the glory and majesty possible, with her hair all dishevelled about her shoulders, to represent the maidenhead which the company give for their arms. And this lady is plentifully gratified for her pains, besides the gift of all the rich attire she wears."

The chariot in which she rode was

"... an imperial triumphal car of Roman form, elegantly adorned with variety of paintings, commixed with richest metals, beautified and embellished with several embellishments of gold and silver, illustrated with divers inestimable and various-coloured jewels of dazzling splendour, adorned and replenished with several lively figures bearing the banners of the kings, the lords mayor, and companies."

Upon a throne sits the virgin in great state, "hieroglyphically attired" in a robe of white satin, richly adorned with precious stones, fringed and embroidered with gold, signifying the graceful blushes of virginity; on her head a long dishevelled hair of flaxen colour, decked with pearls and precious gems, on which is a coronet of gold beset with emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, and other precious jewels of inestimable value. Her buskins are of gold, laced with scarlet ribbons, adorned with pearls and other costly jewels. In one hand she holds a sceptre; in the other, a shield with the arms of the right honourable the Company of Mercers.

Such is the gorgeous being who presides over the maiden's chariot. But she rides not in solitary state. Fame perched on a golden canopy blows her trumpet; Vigilance, Wisdom, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Faith, Hope, Charity, Loyalty, and the nine muses, attend upon her. She has eight pages of honour dressed in cloth of silver walk by her side, and Triumph acts as charioteer. The whole machine is drawn by nine white Flanders horses, each horse ridden by some emblematical personage—such as Victory, Fame, Loyalty, Europe attended by Peace and Plenty, Africa, Asia and America. The foot attendants are numerous—eight grooms, forty Roman lictors in crimson garb, twenty servants to clear the way, and twenty "savages" or green men throwing squibs and fireworks to keep off the crowd, and a crowd of workmen ready to repair any part of the cumbersome chariot which might, as was not unlikely, get out of order during its progress through the city.

Beside such magnificent pageants, our present Lord Mayors' processions seem poor and insignificant. We might go back to an earlier day and see Henry V. returning from his victorious campaign in France, and being greeted by his loyal subjects at Blackheath, the mayor and brethren of the City Companies wearing red gowns with hoods of red and white, "well mounted and gorgeously horsed with rich collars and great chains, rejoicing in his victorious returne." The river, too, was often the scene of their splendour, as when Elizabeth, the Queen of King Henry VII., was crowned. At her coming forth from Greenwich by water

"... there was attending upon her then the maior, shrifes, and aldermen of the citie, and divers and many worshipful comoners, chosen out of evry crafte, in their liveries, in barges freshly furnished with banners and streamers of silke, rechly beaton with the arms and bagges of their craftes; and in especiall a barge, called the bachelors' barge, garnished and apparelled, passing all other, wherein was ordeyned a great redd dragon, spowting flames of fyer into the Thames; and many other gentlemanlie pagiaunts, well and curiously devised, to do Her Highness sport and pleasure with."

CHARITY AND RELIGION

But pleasure, pomp, and pageantry were not the sole uses of these guilds in olden days. A study of the preamble to their numerous charters shows that to maintain the poor members of their companies was one of their chief objects. The Fishmongers had a grant of power to hold land "for the sustentation of the poor men and women of the said commonalty." The Goldsmiths' charter recites that

"... many persons of that trade, by fire and the smoke of quicksilver, had lost their sight, and that others of them by working in that trade became so crazed and infirm that they were disabled to subsist but of relief from others; and that divers of the said city, compassionating the condition of such, were disposed to give and grant divers tenements and rents in the said city to the value of twenty pounds per annum to the company of the said craft towards the maintenance of the said blind, weak and infirm."

Legacies were also bequeathed to the companies for the same object, and thus we find them in the fourteenth century administering large charities for the benefit of the poor of London, and with the help of the monasteries providing a system of relief and educational organisation in the absence of any poor-law administration or State education.



These city guilds were also of a distinctly religious character, and prescribed rules for the attendance of members at the services of the Church, for pilgrimages, and the celebration of masses for the dead. Each company had its patron saint, and maintained a chantry priest or chaplain. They founded altars in churches in honour of their patron saint, who was usually selected on account of his emblem or symbol being in some way connected with the particular trade of the guild. Thus, St. Dunstan, who was a worker in precious metals, became the patron saint of the Goldsmiths; the Fishmongers selected St. Peter, a fisherman, and held their services at St. Peter's Church; the Merchant Taylors venerated St. John Baptist, whose symbol is the Agnus Dei. In several cases, the saint to whom the church where they attended was dedicated, was adopted as their own patron. Thus, the Grocers called themselves "the fraternity of St. Anthony," because they had their altar in St. Anthony's Church; the Vintners, "the fraternity of St. Martin," from the like connection with St. Martin's Vintry Church. Indeed, it has been truly observed that the maintenance of their arts and mysteries during several ages was blended with so many customs and observances, that it was not till the times subsequent to the Reformation that the fraternities could be regarded as strictly secular. On election days, when the master and wardens were chosen, the company marched in solemn procession to the church to hear Mass. Stow tells of the Skinners going to the church of St. Lawrence, Poultry, on Corpus Christi day, with more than 200 torches of wax borne before them, costly garnished, burning bright, and about 200 clerks and priests in surplices and copes, singing. The brethren were clad in their new liveries, the mayor and aldermen in scarlet, and on their return to their hall enjoyed a great feast. On the Sunday following the election day the brethren attended a mass of requiem for their deceased members, when the Bede Roll was read and prayers offered for the souls of the departed members, as well as for those who still survived, each brother being mentioned by name.

THE PROMOTION OF TRADE

But the chief object of the existence of the companies was the promotion of the prosperity of the trades with which they were associated. They were appointed by charter "to settle and govern their mysteries," to elect officers "to inquire of the concerns of their trades," and to correct and amend the same. They had the right of search through their respective trades, in order that each of them might detect dishonest practices in his own craft and punish offenders, and to keep out and suppress all "foreigners" who dared to carry on a trade and yet did not belong to the particular company which governed and regulated it. To preserve the secrets of the craft and to regulate apprenticeships were also some of the duties of the guilds. Each fraternity had its own duties to perform. Thus, the Grocers had the oversight of all drugs, and their officers were ordered "to go and assay weights, powders, confeccions, plasters, oyntments, and all other things belonging to the same craft"; the Goldsmiths had the assay of metals; the Fishmongers the oversight and rejection of fish brought to London which they did not deem fit for the use of the people; the Vintners had the tasting and gauging of wines. Many curious and obsolete trades are disclosed in the records of the companies. The Mercers were the Mercatores, or Merchants, no simple pedlars or small tradesmen, but persons who dealt in a varied assortment of goods, such as linen cloths, buckrams, fustians, satin, jewels, fine woollen and other English cloths, drugs, cotton, thread and wool, silk, wood, oil, copper, wine, lead, and salt. The Grocer was one who dealt en gros—wholesale, as opposed to retail merchandise. The original title of the guild was "the Company of Pepperers of Soper's Lane." The Drapers were makers of woollen cloth. The Fishmongers united into one body the two ancient guilds of the Salt-fishmongers and the Stock-fishmongers. The title of the Merchant Taylors in the time of Edward I. was "the Fraternity of the Taylors and Linen Armourers of St. John the Baptist," and manufactured everything pertaining to armour, including the linings, surcoats, caparisons and accoutrements, Royal pavilions and robes of state, tents for soldiers, as well as ordinary garments and wardrobe requirements, except only the actual metal work. It may be observed how minutely the work of the trades was divided and subdivided, and how zealously each craft was guarded, lest one tradesman or craftsman should interfere with the work of another. The whole system of the companies was to form an absolute monopoly for each craft. A Universal Provider, or a man who could "turn his hand to anything," was unknown in the palmy days of the City Companies.



The Skinners, or Pelliparii, naturally dealt in skins and furs, which, before the days of sombre black coats and tweed suits, were in great request, and were the distinguishing badge of rank and high estate. The Haberdashers united into one guild the Hat Merchants; the Haberdashers of Hats including the crafts of the Hurriers or Cappers, and the Millianers or Milliners, who derived their name from the fact that they imported their goods chiefly from Milan. The Salters naturally dealt in that necessary article of consumption, and conveniently had their quarters near the Fishmongers. The Ironmongers were both merchants and traders, having large warehouses and yards whence they exported and sold bar iron and iron rods, and also had shops for the retail of manufactured iron goods. The Vintners, or Merchant Wine-Tonners of Gascoyne, were divided into two classes—the Vinetarii, or importers of wine, residing in stately stone houses adjoining the wharves; and the Tabernarii, or keepers of taverns, inns, or cook-houses. The Clothworkers combined the ancient guilds of the Fullers and Sheermen.

The above twelve companies are styled the Great Companies, and in addition to these there are sixty-two minor companies, several of which are less only in name than their greater brethren. In point of numbers and wealth some are equal to the less opulent of the great companies. The Armourers, Carpenters, Leather-sellers, and Saddlers are especially wealthy corporations, and have fine halls, which are scarcely surpassed by any in the city. Some have no halls and small incomes, but there is scarcely a company which has not an interesting history, or which does not have some attractive and interesting historical associations.



THE MINOR COMPANIES

The Apothecaries have a charming little hall in Blackfriars, and have for centuries waged war against unsound medicines and ignorant quacks. They would not allow anyone to "use or exercise any drugs, simples, or compounds, or any kynde or sorte of poticarie wares, but such as shall be pure and perfyt good." Their good work continues. The Armourers' and Braziers' Company performed useful duties in the days when the lives of knights and warriors depended on the good and true work of the makers of armour. They have an interesting modern hall containing a good collection of their wares. The Bakers' Company is an ancient corporation, and received its charter in 1307. The Barbers, or Barber Surgeons, were incorporated in 1461, but they existed at least a century earlier. They combined the skill of "healing wounds, blows, and other infirmities, as in letting of blood and drawing teeth," with that of shaving, and no one was allowed to perform these duties unless he were a member of the company. In their hall they have the well-known picture of King Henry VIII. granting a charter to Barber Surgeons in 1512, but more probably it represents the union of the Barbers' Company with the Guild of Surgeons in 1540. The Blacksmiths have a long history, dating back to their incorporation by Edward III. in 1325. They combined the trade of makers of ironwork with that of Dentists and Clockmakers, and were by Queen Elizabeth united with the Spurriers, or makers of spurs. The motto of the Bowyers' Company, "Crecy, Poictiers, Agincourt," tells of the prowess of our English archers when archery was the national pastime of Englishmen, as well as their support in war. Other allied crafts were connected with the bowyers' art, including the Stringers, or long-bow string makers, and the Fletchers, who made the arrows. The guild of the latter still exists, and forms one of our minor companies. The Brewers were in existence in 1418, and were incorporated by Henry VI. The Broderers, or makers of embroidery, flourished in the fourteenth century, and with them were united the Tapissers, or tapestry makers; their artistic skill was remarkable, and the funeral palls, still in the possession of the Merchant Taylors, the Vintners, and Fishmongers, are evidences of their excellent workmanship.

The Carpenters' Company ranks high among its fellows, and has a very interesting history. Its first charter was granted by Edward IV. in 1477, but it existed years before, as Chaucer witnesses—

"An Haberdasher and a Carpenter, A Webbe, a Deyer and a Tapiser, Were alle y clothed in a livere Of a solempne and grete fraternitie."

In the days of half-timbered houses their skill was in great request, and they had a large and flourishing guild, which failed not to take part in all the pageants, processions, and "ridings in the Chepe," and in all the State functions of the city. They have a noble modern hall, but one rather regrets the disappearance in 1876 of the old mansion house of the Carpenters, which survived the Great Fire and recalled many memories of the past. In order to "seek for and destroy faulty and deceitful work of clock and watchmakers or mathematical instrument makers," the Clockmakers' Company was formed in 1631. Some of the members wanted a hall, and objected to meet "in alehouses and taverns to the great disparagement of them all"; but this dream has not been realised, and the company use the halls of other guilds. The Coach and Coach-Harness makers have a hall in Noble Street, noteworthy as being the place where the Gordon riots were organized. The company was formed in 1677, and performed useful functions in examining defective wheels and axle-trees and in the construction of coaches. The Cooks, formerly known as pastelers or piebakers, are a very ancient fraternity, but most of their documents were destroyed in the Great Fire. An inspeximus charter of George III., however, informs us that it was incorporated by Edward IV., but their history has been uneventful. The Coopers can date back their existence to the reign of Edward II., but were not incorporated until 1501, one of their duties being to pray for the health of King Henry VII. and his Royal consort Elizabeth while they lived, and for their souls when they shall have "migrated from this light." The wardens had power to gauge all casks in the city of London, and to mark such barrels when gauged. Brewers were not allowed to use vessels which did not bear the Coopers' marks. They have a hall, and a very interesting history, upon which we should like to dwell if space permitted.

The Cordwainers, or Allutarii, regulated the trades connected with the leather industry, and included the flaying, tanning, and currying of hides, and the making and sale of shoes, boots, goloshes, and other articles of leather. The Curriers have a hall, and at one time were associated with the Cordwainers. Their documents were burnt in the Great Fire, but their records are complete since that date. Their ranks were greatly thinned at the close of the sixteenth century, as we gather from the record, "the journeymen free of the company are altogether dead of the late plague." The Cutlers date back to the time of Edward III., and their trade embraced all manner of swords, daggers, rapiers, hangers, wood-knives, pen-knives, razors, surgeons' instruments, skeynes, hilts, pommels, battle-axes, halberds, and many other weapons. They have a modern hall in Warwick Lane, their former home having been destroyed by the erection of the Cannon Street railway station.

The Distillers' Company was founded by Sir Theodore de Mayerne, Court physician to Charles I., for the regulation of the trade of distillers and vinegar makers, and of those engaged in the preparation of artificial and strong waters, and of making beeregar and alegar. The Dyers have an ancient and honourable company, which once ranked among the first twelve. Theirs was a very flourishing industry in mediaeval and later times, when the coloured liveries of guilds and the brilliant hues of the garments of both male and female city-folk testified to the extent of the Dyers' industry. A charter was granted to them by Edward IV., and they have taken their share in the great events of civic and national history. They, with the Vintners, have the right to keep a "game of swans" on the Thames. The Dyers' mark was formerly four bars and one nick; now it has been simplified, and one nick denotes the ownership of the swan by the company.

The Fanmakers obtained a charter from good Queen Anne, their company being the youngest of all the guilds. They encourage the production of a female weapon, which is often used with much effect in the warfare of courtly fashion and intrigue. The Farriers were incorporated by the Merry Monarch, in order to prevent unexpert and unskilful persons destroying horses by bad shoeing, and have extended their good work to the present day by devising an admirable system of examination and national registration of shoeing smiths. The trade is naturally an ancient one, and a guild existed as early as 1356, and we read of one Walter de Brun, farrier, in the Strand, in the time of Edward I., who had a forge in the parish of St. Clement on the peculiar tenure of paying to the King six horse-shoes.

The Feltmakers, incorporated by James I., regulated the manufacture of felt hats. Of the Fletchers, or arrow makers, whose motto is "True and sure" we have already written. The Founders extended their jurisdiction over the manufacture of candlesticks, buckles, spurs, stirrups, straps, lavers, pots, ewers and basins made of brass, latten, or pewter, and have an interesting history. They had a guild in 1472, when they began their career with "twenty-four poor, honest men." Their ancient ordinances contain directions about masses, burials, and almsgiving, the carrying of wares to fairs, hawking them, and the governing of apprentices. Their young men caused much difficulty. They loved riots and sport, and one of the ordinances of 1608 prohibited the playing of bowls, betting at cards, dice, table and shovel-board. One of the principal duties of the company was the approving and signing of all brass weights within the city, which were ordered to be brought to Founders' Hall and there "sized and made lawful according to our standard of England," and then marked with the common mark of the mystery, "being the form of a ewer," the company taking the ancient allowance for sizing. This was a very important public trust, which the Founders continue to discharge.

The Framework Knitters' Company owes its existence to an ingenious curate, one William Lee, of Calverton, who invented the stocking-loom in 1589. We should like, if space permitted, to dwell on his romantic story, but in this brief sketch it is impossible. The company of Framework Knitters sprang into being in the time of Charles II., and was then extremely prosperous, indulging in expensive pomp and pageantries. A gilded barge, a large band of musicians, a master's carriage, attendants resplendent in gold-lace liveries, and banners emblazoned with their arms, were some of the luxuries in which they indulged. But their glory waned and their trade passed from London to the Midlands, and little of their ancient state remains.

The Fruiterers have an active little company incorporated by James I., and still do useful work in promoting the cultivation of home-grown fruit by cottagers and small holders of land. The Girdlers' Company is an ancient fraternity, once styled the "Zonars," and formerly had the regulation of the manufacture of girdles of silk or wool, or linen and garters. Though the use of girdles has died out more than two centuries, the company remains, and has a charming hall and some valuable property. It owed its origin to a lay brotherhood of the Order of St. Laurence, the members of which maintained themselves by the making of girdles, and the guild was in existence in the days of Edward III., who addressed them as "Les ceincturiers de notre Citee de Loundres."

The Glass-sellers have a charter granted by Charles II. to his "well-beloved subjects the glass-sellers and looking-glass makers, which authorised them to search in all places where glasses, looking-glasses, hour-glasses and stone pots, or bottles, shall be made, showed, or put to sale." The ordinances are very severe on apprentices, who, if guilty of haunting taverns, alehouses, bowling alleys, or other misdemeanour, were brought to the hall and stripped and whipped by persons appointed for that purpose. Another company connected with the same substance, the Glaziers, has little history, and we pass on to the Glovers, who existed in 1349, and have had an honourable career. Gloves have played such a notable part in our national life, that it would be a pleasant task to record their history, but we must confine ourselves to their makers. These had many allies and were united with the Pursers, and later on with the Leather-sellers. In 1638 they recovered their independence, and their charter states that 400 families were engaged in the trade, and were impoverished by the confluence of persons of the same art, a disordered multitude, working in chambers and corners, and making naughty and deceitful gloves. Queen Victoria confirmed the charter of the Glovers, whose corporation was the only guild so honoured during her late Majesty's long reign.

The Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers have an ancient guild incorporated by James I., though existing in 1461. They were concerned in fashioning the gold and silver embroidered finery of our forefathers, who loved to make themselves, their pages, and their horse-gear resplendent with gold and silver. The Gunmakers perform the useful work of protecting our countrymen from the dangers of defective guns, and their company was incorporated by Charles I., on the ground that divers blacksmiths and others inexpert in the art of gunmaking had taken upon them to make, try, and prove guns after their unskilful way, whereby the trade was not only damnified, but much harm and danger through such unskilfulness had happened to his Majesty's subjects. They had the power of destroying all false hand-guns, dogs, and pistols—to stamp all sound goods with the letters G P crowned. This good work is still carried on by the company. The Horners, in the days of horn cups and winding horns, were a prosperous community, and their company existed in the days of Edward III., exercising the right of search at the fairs of "Stirbridge and Elie," their fortunes declining when glass vessels were used instead of the old horn cups. The Innholders remind us of the old-time inns of London, which Mr. Philip Norman in these volumes so well describes. At one time they were styled hostelers or herbergeours, and objected to the former title, inasmuch as their servants were really called hostillers, the hostlers or ostlers of modern time. St. Julian was their patron saint, for he made a hospital or inn by a river where men passed oft in great peril. Very curious regulations were ordained for their government, and no one was allowed to remain at an inn more than one day and a night unless the innholder was willing to answer for him. They have a hall, which has been newly erected, and some good portraits.

In no work was the amazing subdivision of labour so marked as in that which related to wood. Carpenters, joiners, sawyers, and planers had each their own separate work and organization. The joiners' work was concerned with cupboards, bedsteads, tables and chairs, and "rayles, sealinge boards, wainscott, chappboards and bedd timber" were their raw materials. Their company was in existence in 1309, and they have a hall in the Vintry. The Leather-sellers have an active and flourishing guild, which is first mentioned in 1372, when their probi homines or bonz gentz petitioned for some regulations for the prevention of the sale of fraudulent leather. By the charter of James I. they have the full oversight of "skins and felts called buff leather, shamoy leather, Spanish leather, and that of stags, bucks, calves, sheep, lambs, kids frized or grained, dressed in oil, allum, shoemack, or bark or rawed." All proper leather was stamped with the arms of the company. They have a fine modern hall, and can show a good record of useful work.

The ancient Loriner made bits, spurs, and all the smaller trinkets of a horse's harness, and the guild dates back to the days of Henry III., but its history is uneventful. The Masons have few records. By their charter of Elizabeth they had power to view stones intended for building—as to whether these were of proper length and measure, and well and sufficiently wrought. The Musicians have recently celebrated their tercentenary, commemorating the granting of their charter by James I. in 1604. They might have claimed a longer period of existence, as their first charter was granted by Edward IV. Their bye-laws are particularly interesting, and give minute directions with regard to their profession. They tested the skill of music and dancing masters, forbade the singing of ribald, wanton, or lascivious songs, or the playing of any instrument under any knight or gentleman's window without the company's licence. The Needlemakers existed in the time of Henry VIII., but have little history. The Painters' or Painter-stainers' Company suggests many reflections on their art and skill, and its history would require many pages. Their guild existed in the time of Edward III., and received its first charter from Edward IV. Their bye-laws order that if any member be found rebel or contrariwise to the wardens he shall pay one pound of wax for certain altar-lights. No tin-foil might be used, but only oil colours. They derive their name Painter-stainers from the custom of calling a picture a "stained cloth." The principal artists in England were members of the guild, and in their hall are numerous examples of the work of its members. The Pattenmakers' Company suggests a picture of the condition of the streets of London in mediaeval times, when garbage and refuse were thrown into them, when drains and watercourses were things unknown, and pattens were invented as a useful foot-gear, and clogs and goloshes were sorely needed. The company appears on the scene in the fifteenth century, and the name of the city church of St. Margaret Pattens, Rood Lane, points out that locality as the seat of the industry. The Pewterers, a company of "friendly and neighbouring men," existed in 1348, and did much to make English pewter famous and highly esteemed in other lands. They visited markets and fairs throughout England, and seized and condemned base pewter ware, brass goods, and false scales. They furnished men with arms for the defence of the city, and kept in their hall corselets, calyvers, bill pikes, and other weapons, and paid an armourer to keep them in good order. Their history, written by Mr. Charles Welch in two large volumes, abounds in interesting facts, and we can only here refer our readers to those records.

The Plaisterers, formerly known as Pargetters, were skilful in contriving curious elaborate and beautiful ceilings, which form such an attractive feature in many old houses. They were incorporated by a charter of Henry VII. The Playing-card Makers' Company was founded in 1628, with the object of counteracting the deceits and abuses practised by the inexpert in the art and trade of making playing-cards, and by the importation of foreign cards into this country. It has no records and little history. The Plumbers' Company stands high in public estimation, and has been in existence several centuries, though not incorporated until 1611, when a charter was granted for "the utility, advantage, and relief of the good and honest, and for the terror and correction of the evil, deceitful, and dishonest." Their modern efforts to initiate a national registration and training of plumbers are worthy of the highest praise.

Every citizen knows the Poultry in the city—the locality where the Poulters anciently carried on their trade, selling "rabbits, fowls, and other poultry." The trade was not without its dangers. Unsound poultry doomed the seller to the pillory, the articles being burnt under him—a peculiarly disagreeable penalty. The company existed in 1345, but was not incorporated until 1504, and its history has been uneventful. The Saddlers' Company is a very honourable and wealthy corporation, and possesses records of unusual importance, dating back to Saxon times. The early colony of saddlers settled near the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, and they have never strayed far from there, their present hall being in Foster Lane. They can boast of having received many charters, the earliest having been granted by Edward I. In early days they were associated with a collegiate brotherhood, the house of which was situated where the General Post Office now stands. This religious fraternity offered masses for the souls of deceased saddlers, and shared with them a common graveyard. They disputed much with the joiners, painters, and loriners, who were always trying to trespass upon the rights of the saddlers. The introduction of coaches alarmed them as much as the invention of railways frightened the coachmen, but with less cause. The saddle trade prospered. The Civil War caused many saddles to be made and many emptied. Their records tell of much old-time civic life and customs. They had a barge on the river; they buried their deceased members with much ceremony, and their old hearse-cloth still remains; they can boast of having a Royal master, Frederick Prince of Wales, in 1751.