[149] “Reserving the churchyard for a garden plot.”—1st edition, p. 124.

[150] Liber Papie.

[151] “To Master Cornewallos.”—1st edition, p. 128.

[152] “Of our blessed lady.”—1st edition, p. 129.

[153] “At twenty-two pounds in London, and in the Exchequer twenty-one pounds ten shillings.”—1st edition, p. 136.

[154] “Pembroke.”—1st edition, p. 136.

[155] “Courtney.”—1st edition, ibid.

[156] “In some matters.”—1st edition, p. 141.

[157] “This goodly foundation having a free schoole and almes houses for poore men (builded of hard stone) adjoyning to the west end of the church, was of olde time confirmed by Henry the Sixt, in the year 1447. The outward work of this new church was finished in the year 1501, the said John Tate deceased about the year 1514, and was there buried in a monument by him prepared, as appeareth by an indenture tripartite made between the said John Tate, the Deane of Windsor, and William Milbourn, chamberlaine.”—1st edition, p. 145.

[158] “Their beef and mutton by weight, to wit.”—1st edition, p. 148.

[159] “But the true cause of enhanceing the prices both of those and other victuals are not to be disputed here.”—1st edition, p. 148.

[160] It would seem, from the addition of these words, which are not in the first edition, that this conduit ceased so to run between the years 1598 and 1603.

[161] “Ringleaders of inquests will proffer their service, and bend every way for gain. Careful choice of jurors is to be had; a man detected, and that had sworn foolishly against his brother, is not to be admitted a common juror; neither butcher nor surgeon is to be admitted.”—Stow.

[162] “Archbishops of London hard to be proved, and therefore not be affirmed.”—Stow.

[163] “This was accounted the best ring of six belles, to bee rung by six men, that was in England, for harmonye, sweetness of sound, and tune.”—Stow.

[164] “To the poor at his burial sixteen pounds, to prisons, hospitals, and lazar houses, liberally; he also gave his house in Cornehill to be sold, and the price thereof to be spent on the amendment of highways.”—1st edition, p. 153.

[165] “My godfathers.”—1st edition, p. 153.

[166] “My godmother.”—Ibid.

[167] “Wine one pint for a pennie, and bread to drink it was given free in every tavern.”—Stow.

[168] “Noblemen of this realm of old time, as also of late years, have dealt in merchandises.”—Stow.

[169] “If it had been in brasse, it would not have remained there so long.”—1st edition, p. 159.

[170] In the first edition, p. 159, the following passage is here inserted:—

“Alice, William, and John, wife and sons to Thomas Clarell; Agnes, daughter to Thomas Niter, gent.; William Atwell; Felix, daughter to Sir Thomas Gisers, and wife to Travers Thomas Mason, esquire; Edmond Wartar, esquire; Joan, wife to John Chamberlaine, esquire, daughter to Roger Lewkner, esquire; William Frier; John Hamburger, esquire; Hugh Moresby; Gilbert Prince, alderman; Oliver Chorley, gentleman; Sir John Writh, or Writhesley, alias Garter principal king at arms, sometime laid under a fair tomb in the choir, now broken down and gone; Joan, wife to Thomas Writhesley, son to Sir John Writhesley, Garter, daughter and heir to William Hall, esquire; John Writhesley the younger, son to Sir John Writhesley, and Alienor, Eleanor, second wife to John Writhesley, daughter and heir to Thomas Arnalde, and Agnes his wife; John Writhesley, son of Thomas; Agnes Arnold, first married to William Writhesley, daughter of Richard Warmeforde; Barbara Hungerford, daughter to Sir John Writhesley, wife to Anthony Hungerford, son to Sir Thomas Hungerford, of Denmampney, in the county of Gloucester.”

The cause for the omission of these names is explained at the close of the paragraph in the text; which is however so indistinctly expressed, that its meaning could not very well be ascertained except by a reference to what was originally written.

[171] “Mother of William Lambert, yet living.”—1st edition, p. 160.

[172] “Hugh Acton, tailor.”—Ibid.

[173] “In London at twenty-one pound.”—Ibid.

[174] “Alice Hackney found uncorrupted more than one hundred and seventy yeres after she was buried.”—Stow.

[175] “W. Walworth slandered by a fable of Jack Straw.”—Stow.

[176] “In London at fifty pounds, and in the Exchequer at forty-nine pounds ten shillings.”—1st edition, p. 169.

[177] “The king’s sons beaten to Eastcheape; there was no tavern then in Eastcheape.”—Stow.

[178] “In Westcheape linen cloth sold, but no silks spoken of.”—Stow.

[179] “Fripparia, upholders upon Cornhill, sellers of old apparel and household stuff in Eastcheape.”—Stow.

The following is the stanza alluded to by Stow (see Lydgate’s Minor Poems).

[180] “Wike is a working place.”—Stow.

[181] “In Smithfield, and there to have been knighted by the king, but that is not true.”—1st edition, p. 172.

[182] “Fable of William Walworth and Jack Straw reproved. Praise of W. Walworth for his manhood in arresting of Wat Tyler. The mayor was well armed, and had on his head a basonet.”—Stow.

[183] Dunthorne.

[184] “The armies of this citty were not altered, but remayne as afore; to witte, argent, a playne crosse gules, a sword of S. Paul in the first quarter, and no dagger of W. Walworth, as is fabuled.”—Stow.

[185] Liber Trinitate.

[186] “In London to forty pound, and in the Exchequer to thirty-nine pound.”—1st edition, p. 181.

[187] “In London at thirty-six pound, and in the Exchequer at thirty-four pound ten shillings.”—1st edition, p. 189.

[188] “Having thus much, not without travail and some charges, noted for the antiquitie of the Vintners, about two years since or more I repayred to the common-hall of that company, and there showed and read it in a court of assistance, requiring them, as being one of the principal companies in the citie (of whom I meant therefore to write the more at large) that if they knew any more which might sound to their worship or commendation, at their leisure to send it me, and I would joyne it to my former collection; at which time I was answered by some that tooke upon them the speech, that they were none of the principall, but of the inferior companies; and so willing me to leave them, I departed, and never since heard from them, which hath somewhat discouraged me any farther to travail amongst the companies to learne ought at their handes.”—1st edition, p. 192.

His comment (in a side note) is equally worth preserving: “The readiest to speake not alwaies the wisest men.”

[189] “In London at six and thirty pounds, and in the Exchequer at thirty-five pounds five shillings.”—1st edition, p. 195.

[190] “Gray sope made in London dearer than bought from Bristol.”—Stow.

[191] “Richard Chaucer, father to Geffrey Chaucer, the poet, as may be supposed.”—Stow.

[192] “Sir William Laxton, grocer, mayor, deceased 1556, was buried in the vault prepared by Henry Keble, principall founder of that church, for himself, but now his bones are unkindly cast out, his monuments pulled downe, and the bodies of the said Sir William Laxton, and of Sir Thomas Lodge, grocer, mayor, are laid in place, with monuments over them for the time, till an other give money for their place, and then away with them.”—1st edition, p. 199.

[193] “Called de Arcubus of the stone arches or bowes on the top of the steeple or bell tower thereof, which arching was as well on the old steeple as on the new, for no other part of the church seemeth to have been arched at any time; yet hath the said church never been knowne by any other name than St. Mary Bow, or le Bow; neither is that church so called of the court there kept, but the said court taketh name of the place wherein it is kept, and is called the Court of Arches.”—1st edition, p. 203.

[194] “A false accuser of his elder brother, in the end was hanged.”—Stow.

In his first edition, p. 203, this note is continued as follows: “God amend, or shortly send such an end to such false brethren.”

[195] “Of some unknowne founder.”—1st edition, p. 205.

[196] “And in the 8th of the same Henry called Tamarsilde.”—1st edition, p. 206.

[197] “In London at £72 16s., in the Exchequer at £72.”—1st edition, p. 207.

[198] “Justices charged to punish such as sel bels from their churches, Elizabeth 14.”—Stow.

[199] “The 13th of November.”—1st edition, p. 210.

[200] “This conduite was the first sweete water that was conveyed by pipes of lead under ground to this place in the citie from Paddington.”—1st edition, p. 210.

[201] This is obviously an error. It occurs in the first edition, is repeated in that of 1603, and by Anthony Munday, in his edition of 1618. Strype (vol. i. book iii. p. 35), endeavours to correct it, by reading “Mary,” who was crowned in 1553, instead of Anne. The error, however, is in the date, which should be 1533, the year of Anne Boleyn’s coronation, as we learn from the description of that ceremony given by Stow in his Annals, “that she went forward by the crosse which was newly gilt.”

[202] Soler is described by Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as originally signifying an open gallery or balcony at the top of the house, though latterly used for any upper room, loft, or garret. Tyrwhitt refers in his Glossary, to the Cook’s Tale of Gamelyn, for an authority for the use of the word in the latter sense—

The German SÖller is used by Luther in his magnificent translation of the Bible in both senses:—“Peter went up upon the house-top to pray”—“Stieg Petrus hinauf auf den SÖller zu beten.” Acts x. 9. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room”—“Und als sie hinein kamen, stiegen sie auf den SÖller.” Acts i. 13.

[203] “There is also a preaching in the Italian tongue to the Italians and others on the Sondaies.”—1st edition, p. 214.

[204] “Henry Frowicke.”—Ibid.

[205] “Locke his armes in the windowes.”—Stow.

[206] Because “of old time, since the raigne of William the Conqueror (that first brought Jewes from Roan into this realme), many Jewes inhabited thereabouts, until that in the year 1290, the 18th of Edw. I., they were wholly and for ever by the said king banished this realme, having of their owne goodes to beare their charges, till they were out of dominions. The number of the Jewes at that time banished were 15,060 persons, whose houses being sold, the king made of them a mightie masse of money.”—1st edition, p. 219.

[207] “Sixty years since.”—Ibid.

[208] “The tooth of some monstrous fish, as I take it. A shank-bone, of twenty-five inches long, of a man, as is said, but might be of an oliphant.”—Stow.

[209] “A Countess of Cornwall and Chester, but her name and time is not apparent.”—1st edition, p. 220.

[210] “In the Exchequer at seventy-two pound.”—Ibid.

[211] “A well was under the east end of this church, late turned to a pumpe, but decayed.”—Stow.

[212] “This may be some argument which I overpasse.”—1st edition, p. 223.

[213] “There is one tomb on the south side the quire, but without inscription.”—1st edition, p. 225.

[214] “It is taxed to the fifteen in London at nineteen pound, and in the Exchequer at nineteen pound”—Ibid.

[215] Patent.

[216] Matthew Paris.

[217] The Girdlers were incorporated by letters patent of 27th Henry VI. 6th Aug. 1449, which were confirmed by Elizabeth in 1568, when the pinners and wire-drawers were incorporated with them. Strype says they seem to have been a fraternity of St. Lawrence, because of the three gridirons their arms; but those north country readers, who know what a girdle iron is, will probably agree with me in thinking the gridirons or girdle irons are borne with reference to the name of the company.

[218] “Only I read of a branch of this family of Bassinges to have spread itself into Cambridgeshire, near unto a water or bourne, and was therefore, for a difference from other of that name, called Bassing at the bourn, and more shortly Bassing borne. But this family is also worne out, and hath left the name to the place where they dwell.”—1st edition, p. 228.

[219] “Reyne Wolf, a grave antiquary, collected the great chronicles, increased and published by his executors, under the name of Ralph Holonshead.”—Stow.

The first edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was printed for John Harrison the elder in 1577. From Holinshed’s dedicatory epistle to Lord Burleigh, it would seem that Reginald Wolfe projected and even executed the greater part of the work, it having “pleased God to call him to his mercie after xxv. years travail spent therein.” Wolfe, in fact, intended to make these Chronicles the foundation of “An Universall Cosmographie of the Whole World.”

[220] “Obtaining first the king’s licence of mortmain under the great seal of England.”—1st edition, p. 234.

[221] “The Lord William of Thame was buried in this church, and so was his successor in that house, Sir Rowland Heyward.”—1st edition, p. 235.

[222] “As is supposed.”—Ibid.

[223] “Without being bounden to reparations or other charge.”—Ibid.

[224] “John Collet.”—1st edition, p. 257.

[225] “My loving friend.”—1st edition, p. 238.

[226] “At this present.”—Ibid.

[227] “It is taxed in London to the fifteene at forty pound, and in the Exchequer at thirty-nine pound ten shillings.”—1st edition, p. 242.

[228] “Thomas Leichfield.”—1st edition, p. 244.

[229] R. Grafton.

[230] These disjointed syllables, it will be seen, may be so read as to form the following rhyming couplet:—

[231] “Likewise in the exchequer.”—1st edition, p. 247.

[232] The word clove is from the Anglo-Saxon Clifian (the low German KlÖven, and Dutch Klooven), to split, or clufe, an ear of corn or clove of garlic. In this case the flower is the common Stock, or Stock Gilliflower, so long a favourite in the gardens of England, and indeed a native of the cliffs by the sea-side. “The old English name of Gilliflower,” says the author of the Flora Domestica, “which is now almost lost in the prefix Stock, is corrupted from the French Giroflier. Chaucer writes it Gylofre; but, by associating it with the nutmeg and other spices, appears to mean the clove-tree, which is in fact the proper signification of that word. Turner calls it Gelover and Gelyflower, Gerrarde and Parkinson Gilloflower.”

[233] The Anglo-Saxon GÆrsuma—treasure, riches, fine, etc.

[234] “John Palmer.”—1st edition, p. 252.

[235] “John Standelfe and John Standelfe.”—1st edition, p. 253.

[236] “The maior and communalty of London, parsons of Christ’s church, the vicar to be at their appointment.”—Stow.

[237] “Treasurer of England.”—1st edition, p. 258.

[238] “And father to Edward Lord Mountjoy; James Blunt, knighte, son to Walter Blunt, captain of Gwynes, 1492.”—Ibid.

[239] In the first edition, Sir Nicholas Twiford is described as having a monument in the church.

[240] Lydgate’s verses were first printed at the end of Tottell’s edition of the translation of his Fall of Princes, from Boccaccio, 1554, folio, and afterwards in Sir W. Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

[241] Reign Wolfe.

[242] “Born in London, and son to Henry Collet.”—1st edition, p. 267.

[243] “And brought to the hands of Edmond Grendall, then Bishop of London.”—1st edition, p. 269.

[244] W. Paston.

[245] “Was first builded about the reigne of Edward III. Thomas Newton, the first parson there, was buried in the quire, the year 1361, which was the 35th of Edward the Thirde.”—1st edition, p. 277.

[246] “Prebend almes houses.”—1st edition, p. 277.

[247] “In London at fifty-four pounds, and in the Exchequer at fifty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence.”—1st edition, p. 345.

[248] Water Bougets—heraldic representations of the leathern bottles in which water was anciently carried.

[249] “A pole of forty foote long, and fifteen inches about, fabuled to be the iusting staffe of Gerrard a giant.”—Stow.

[250] “Which aunswere seemed to me insufficient, for hee meant the description of Brittaine, before Reinwolfe’s Chronicle, wherein the author writing a chapter of Gyaunts, and having been deceived by some authours, too much crediting their smoothe speeche, hath set down more matter than troth, as partly (and also against my will) I am enforced to touch.”—1st edition, p. 283.

[251] “R. G. saw a stone, and said the same to bee a tooth, but being by my selfe proued a stone, there fayled both scull and shank-bone, and followed a cluster of lies together, yet since increased by other.”—Stow.

[252] “Gerrard’s hall overthrowne with Gerrard the giant, and his great spear.”—Stow.

[253] “Every man’s house of old time was decked with holly and ivy in the winter, especially at Christmas.”—Stow.

[254] “Quest of inquiry indight the keepers of the gayles for dealing hardly with their prisoners. They indighted the bowling alleys, etc.”—Stow.

[255] “In the Exchequer thirty-six pounds, ten shillings.”—1st edition, p. 285.

[256] “But I could never learne the cause why it should be so called, and therefore I will let it passe.”—1st edition, p. 287.

[257] “There bee monumentes in this church of Andrew Awbery, grocer, mayor, and Thomas Fryar, fishmonger, in the yeare 1351, who gave to this church and parish one plot of ground, containing fiftie-six foote in length, and fortie-three foote in breadth at both endes, to be a buriall place for the dead of the said parish, the twenty-sixt of Edward the third. Also Thomas Madefry, clarke, and John Pylot, gave to the wardens of that parish one shop and a house in Distar lane, for the continual repairing of the body of that church, the belles and ornaments, the twentieth of Richard II.”—1st edition, p. 287.

[258] Liber Trinitate.

[259] It appears from Strype’s Stow (i. p, 214, ed. 1720), that “Were path or Wore path, is in the east part of the Flete of Barking, about seven miles from London; and Anedeheth is near Westminster, on the west part of London.”

[260] Liber Trinitate, Lon.

[261] Liber Constitut.

[262] “But now that case is altered.”—1st edition, p. 293.

[263] For Lowlardes’ Tower, read M. Foxe.—Stow.

[264] With the following inscription: “Hic jacet Raherus primus canonicus, et primus prior istius EcclesiÆ.”

[265] “The forrens were licensed for three dayes; the freemen so long as they would, which was sixe or seven dayes.”—Stow.

[266] “John Davy, a false accuser of his master, of him was raised the by-word,—If ye serve me so, I will call you Davy.”—Stow.