Part 53 (2/2)

”As the Earth the Earth doth cover, So under this stone Lyes another; Sir William _Stone_, Who long deceased, Ere the world's love Him released; So much it loved him, For they say, He answered Death Before his day; But, 'tis not so; For he was sought Of One that both him Made and bought.

He remain'd The Great Lord's Treasurer, Who called for him At his pleasure, And received him.

Yet be it said, Earth grieved that Heaven So soon was paid.

”Here likewise lyes Inhumed in one bed, Dear Barbara, The well-beloved wife Of this remembered Knight; Whose souls are fled From this dimure vale To everlasting life, Where no more change, Nor no more separation, Shall make them flye From their blest habitation.

Gra.s.se of levitie, Span in brevity, Flower's felicity, Fire of misery, Wind's stability, Is mortality.”

”Honey Lane,” says good old Stow, ”is so called not of sweetness thereof, being very narrow and small and dark, but rather of often was.h.i.+ng and sweeping to keep it clean.” With all due respect to Stow, we suspect that the lane did not derive its name from any superlative cleanliness, but more probably from honey being sold here in the times before sugar became common and honey alone was used by cooks for sweetening.

On the site of All Hallows' Church, destroyed in the Great Fire, a market was afterwards established.

”There be no monuments,” says Stow, ”in this church worth the noting; I find that John Norman, Maior, 1453, was buried there. He gave to the drapers his tenements on the north side of the said church; they to allow for the beam light and lamp 13s. 4d. yearly, from this lane to the Standard.

”This church hath the misfortune to have no bequests to church or poor, nor to any publick use.

”There was a parsonage house before the Great Fire, but now the ground on which it stood is swallowed up by the market. The parish of St.

Mary-le-Bow (to which it is united) hath received all the money paid for the site of the ground of the said parsonage.”

All Hallows' Church was repaired and beautified at the cost of the paris.h.i.+oners in 1625.

Lawrence Lane derives its name from the church of St. Lawrence, at its north end. ”Antiquities,” says Stow, ”in this lane I find none other than among many fair houses. There is one large inn for receipt of travellers, called 'Blossoms Inn,' but corruptly 'Bosoms Inn,' and hath for a sign 'St. Lawrence, the Deacon,' in a border of blossoms or flowers.” This was one of the great City inns set apart for Charles V.'s suite, when he came over to visit Henry VIII. in 1522. At the sign of ”St. Lawrence Bosoms” twenty beds and stabling for sixty horses were ordered.

The curious old tract about Bankes and his trained horse was written under the a.s.sumed names of ”John Dando, the wier-drawer of Hadley, and Harrie Runt, head ostler of Besomes Inne,” which is probably the same place.

St. Lawrence Church is situate on the north side of Cateaton Street, ”and is denominated,” says Maitland, ”from its dedication to Lawrence, a Spanish saint, born at Huesca, in the kingdom of Arragon; who, after having undergone the most grievous tortures, in the persecution under Valerian, the emperor, was cruelly broiled alive upon a gridiron, with a slow fire, till he died, for his strict adherence to Christianity; and the additional epithet of Jewry, from its situation among the Jews, was conferred upon it, to distinguish it from the church of St. Lawrence Pulteney, now demolished.

”This church, which was anciently a rectory, being given by Hugo de Wickenbroke to Baliol College in Oxford, anno 1294, the rectory ceased; wherefore Richard, Bishop of London, converted the same into a vicarage; the advowson whereof still continues in the same college. This church sharing the common fate in 1666, it has since been beautifully rebuilt, and the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, thereunto annexed.”

The famous Sir Richard Gresham lies buried here, with the following inscription on his tomb:--

”Here lyeth the great Sir Richard Gresham, Knight, some time Lord Maior of London; and Audrey, his first wife, by whom he had issue, Sir John Gresham and Sir Thomas Gresham, Knights, William and Margaret; which Sir Richard deceased the 20th day of February, An.

Domini 1548, and the third yeere of King Edward the Sixth his Reigne, and Audrey deceased the 28th day of December, An. Dom.

1522.”

There is also this epitaph:--

”Lo here the Lady Margaret North, In tombe and earth do lye; Of husbands four the faithfull spouse, Whose fame shall never dye.

One Andrew Franncis was the first, The second Robert hight, Surnamed Chartsey, Alderman; Sir David Brooke, a knight, Was third. But he that pa.s.sed all, And was in number fourth, And for his virtue made a Lord, Was called Sir Edward North.

These altogether do I wish A joyful rising day; That of the Lord and of his Christ, All honour they may say.

Obiit 2 die Junii, An. Dom. 1575.”

In Ironmonger Lane, inhabited by ironmongers _temp._ Edward I., is Mercers' Hall, an interesting building.

The Mercers, though not formally incorporated till the 17th of Richard II. (1393), are traced back by Herbert as early as 1172. Soon afterwards they are mentioned as patrons of one of the great London charities. In 1214, Robert Spencer, a mercer, was mayor. In 1296 the mercers joined the company of merchant adventurers in establis.h.i.+ng in Edward I.'s reign, a woollen manufacture in England, with a branch at Antwerp. In Edward II.'s reign they are mentioned as ”the Fraternity of Mercers,” and in 1406 (Henry IV.) they are styled in a charter, ”Brothers of St. Thomas a Becket.”

Mercers were at first general dealers in all small wares, including wigs, haberdashery, and even spices and drugs. They attended fairs and markets, and even sat on the ground to sell their wares--in fact, were little more than high-cla.s.s pedlers. The poet Gower talks of ”the depression of such mercerie.” In late times the silk trade formed the main feature of their business; the greater use of silk beginning about 1573.

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