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| Of all the persons whom the mighty business of providing sustenance for the population of London leads among the pens, and crowds, and filth of the great Metropolitan beast-market--of all those whom pleasure attracts to the gingerbread, and shows, and gong-resounding din of the great Fair-or, lastly, of all those whom chance, or a dim remembrance of the popular memories of the place, its burnings, tournaments, &c., or any other motive, brings into Smithfield-we wonder how many, as they pass the south-western corner of the area, look through the ancient gateway which leads up to the still more ancient church of St. Bartholomew, with a kindly remembrance of the man (whose ashes there repose) from whom these, and most of the other interesting features and recollections of Smithfield, are directly or indirectly derived? We fear very few. Time has wrought strange changes in the scene around; and it is not at all |
34 | surprising that we should forget what has ceased to be readily visible. Who could suppose, from a mere hasty glance at the comparatively mean-looking brick tower, and the narrow restricted site of St. Bartholomew, that that very edifice was once the centre, and the centre only, of the splendid church of a splendid monastery--a church which extended its spacious transepts on either side, and sent up a noble tower high into the air, to overlook, and, as it were, to guard, the stately halls, far-extending cloisters, and delightful gardens that surrounded the sacred edifice? Or, again, who would suspect that the site of this extensive establishment (now in a great measure covered with houses), and most probably the entire space of Smithfield, was, prior to the foundation of the former, nothing but a marsh dunge and fenny,
with the exception of a solitary spot of dry land, occupied by the travellers' token of civilization, a gallows?--Yet such are the changes that have taken place, and for all that is valuable in them our gratitude is due to the man to whom we have referred-Rahere.
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| The history of the Priory is indeed the history of this single individual; and, by a fortunate coincidence, the historical materials we possess are as ample as they are important. Among the manuscripts of the [n.34.1] is entirely devoted to the life, character, and doings of Rahere, written evidently shortly after his death by a monk of the establishment, and which, for the details it also gives of the circumstances attending the establishment of a great religious house in the century, its glimpses into the manners and customs, the modes of thought and feeling of the time-and, above all, for its marked superiority of style to the writings that then generally issued from the cloister-forms perhaps of the most extraordinary, as it certainly is of the most interesting, of monastical documents. In consideration of all these circumstances, we shall make no scruple to transcribe largely from the good old monk's papers; valuing them all the more for the impossible but characteristic marvels they detail in matters of faith, as being an additional testimony to their authentic character with regard to matters of fact.
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| We have said that the manuscript in question was written soon after Rahere's death; its author says he shows that which they testified to us that sey him, herd hym, and were presente yn his werkys and dedis; of the whiche sume have take their slepe yn Cryiste, and sume of them be zitte alyve, and wytnesseth of that that we shall after say.
His motives in the task he had undertaken are thus explained in the outset[n.34.2] :--
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| For as much that the meritorious and notable operations of famous good and devout fathers in God should be remembered, for instruction of after-comers, to their consolation and increase of devotion; this abbreviated treatise shall commodiously express and declare the wonderful, and of celestial counsel, gracious foundation of our holy place, called the Priory of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, and of the hospital of old time belonging to the same; with other notabilities expedient to be known; and most specially the glorious and excellent miracles wrought within them, by the intercessions, suffrages, and merits of the aforesaid benign, faithful, and blessed of God, Apostle Saint Bartholomew.
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| Rahere, it appears, was a man sprung and born from low kynage : when he attained the flower of youth he began to haunt the households of noblemen and the palaces of princes; where, under every elbow of them, he spread their cushions, with japes and flatterings delectably anointing their eyes, by this manner to draw to him their friendships. And still he was not content with this, but often haunted the king's palace, and among the noiseful press of that tumultuous court informed himself with polity and cardinal suavity, by the which he might draw to him the hearts of many a one . There in spectacles, in meetings, in plays, and other courtly mockeries and trifles intending, he led forth the business of all the day. This wise to the king and great men, gentle and courteous known, familiar and fellowly he was.
The king here referred to is Henry I. Stow says Rahere was a pleasant-witted gentleman; and therefore in his time called the king's minstrel .
To continue: This manner of living he chose in his beginning, and in this excused his youth. But the inward Seer and merciful God of all, the which out of Mary Magdalen cast out seven fiends, the which to the Fisher gave the Keys of Heaven, mercifully converted this man from the error of his way, and added to him so many gifts of virtue.
Foremost in repentance as he had been in sin, Rahere now decreed in himself to go to the court of Rome, coveting in so great a labour to do the works of penance. There, at the shrine of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, he, weeping his deeds, prayed to our Lord for remission of them. Those two clear lights of Heaven, two men of mercy, Peter and Paul, he ordained mediators. And while he tarried there, in that mean while, he began to be vexed with grievous sickness; and his dolours little and little taking their increase, he drew to the extreme of life: the which dreading within himself that he had, not still for his sins satisfied to God, therefore he supposed that God took vengeance of him for his sins, amongst outlandish people, and deemed the last hour of his death drew him nigh. This remembering inwardly, he shed out as water his heart in the sight of God, and all brake out in tears; that he avowed that if health God would him grant, that he might return to his country, he would make an hospital in recreation of poor men, and to them so there gathered, necessaries minister after his power. And not long after the benign and merciful Lord beheld this weeping man, gave him his health, approved his vow.
When he would perfect his way that he had begun, in a certain night he saw a vision full of dread and sweetness. It seemed him to be borne up on high of a certain beast, having four feet and two wings, and set him in an high place. And when he, from so great a height, would inflect and bow down his eye to the lower part downward, he beheld a horrible pit, whose beholding impressed in him great dread: for the deepness of the same pit was deeper than any man might attain to see; therefore he (secret knower of his defaults) deemed himself to slide into that cruel a downcast. And therefore (as seemed him inwardly) he fremyshid,Quaked perhaps, from the French verb Fremir. and for dread trembled, and great cries of his mouth proceeded. To whom appeared a certain man, pretending in cheer the majesty of a king, of great beauty and imperial authority, and his eye on him fastened. 0 man, he said, what and how much service shouldest thou give to him that in so great a peril hath brought help to thee? Anon he answered to this saint, Whatsoever might be of heart and of might, diligently should I give in recompence to my deliverer. And then, said he, I am Bartholomew, the apostle of Jesus Christ, that come to succour thee in thine anguish, and to open to thee the secret mysteries of Heaven. Know me truly, by the will and commandment of the Holy Trinity, and the common favour of the celestial court and council, to have chosen a place in the suburbs of London, at Smithfield, where in mine name thou shalt found a church. This spiritual house Almighty God shall inhabit, and hallow it, and glorify it. Wherefore doubt thee nought; only give thy diligence, and my part shall be to provide necessaries, direct, build, and end this work. Rahere now came to London, and of his knowledge and friends with great joy was received; with which also, with the barons of London he spake familiarly of these things that were turned and stirred in his heart, and of that was done about him in the way he told it out; and what should be done of this he counselled of them. He took this answer, that none of these might be perfected, but the King were first counselled: namely, since the place godly to him showed was contained within the King's market. In opportune time Rahere addressed him to the King; and nigh him was He in whose hands it was to what he would the King's heart incline: and ineffectual these prayers might not be whose author is the apostle, whose gracious hearer is God. Rahere's word therefore was pleasant and acceptable, and when the King had praised the good wit of the man (prudently, as he was witty), granted to the petitioner his kingly favour.
Then Rahere, omitting nothing of care and diligence, two works of piety began to make-one for the vow he had made, another as to him by precept was enjoined.
The place where these great works were to be erected was no common , having been previously showed to King Edward the Confessor in a revelation:-- the which, in a certain night, when he was bodily sleeping, his heart to God waking, he was warned of this place with an heavenly dream made to him, that God this place had chosen: thereupon this holy King, early arising, came to this place that God had showed him; and to them that about him stood expressed the vision that night made to him, and prophesied this place to be great before God.
It was also said that men of Greece, who came to London, went to this place and worshipped God; and before them that there were present (and beheld them as simple idiots) they began wonderful things to say and prophesy of this place, saying, Wonder not; see us here to worship God, where a full acceptable temple to him shall be builded; and the fame of this place shall attain from the spring of the sun to the going down.
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| Rahere had no easy task before him. For truly the place before his cleansing pretended no hope of goodness. Right unclean it was; and as a marsh, dunge and fenny, with water almost every time abounding; and that that was eminent above the water, dry, was deputed and ordained to be the gallows of thieves, and to the torment of other, that were condemned by judicial authority.
What follows is very extraordinary :-- Truly, when Rahere had applied his study to the purgation of this place, and decreed to put his hand to that holy building, he was not ignorant of Satan's wiles, for he made and feigned himself unwise, and outwardly pretended the cheer of an idiot, and began a little while to hide the secretness of his soul. And the more secretly he wrought the more wisely he did his work. Truly, in playing unwise he drew to him the fellowship of children and servants, assembling himself as one of them; and with their use and help, stones and other things profitable to the building lightly he gathered together.
Rahere's object in this conduct was, we presume, to avail himself of a kind of superstitious reverence that appears to have been not unfrequently felt for persons of the class to which he made it appear that he belonged. With all his enthusiasm, this must have been a painful time. He played with them, and from day to day made himself more vile in his own eyes, in so mickle that he pleased the apostle; through whose grace and help he raised up a great frame. And now he was proved not unwise as he we have trowed, but very wise.
Rahere, it seems, sought assistance for the accomplishment of his great work by every means in his power, and more particularly by instructing with cunning of truth,
saying the word of God faithfully in divine churches,
and constantly exhorting the multitude both of clerks and of the laity to follow and fulfil those things that were of charity and alms-deed. And in this wise he compassed his sermon :that now he stirred his audience to gladness,--that all the people applauded him; and incontinent anon he proffered sadness, and so now of their sins, that all the people were compelled unto sighing and weeping. But he truly ever more expressed wholesome doctrine, and after God and faithful sermon preached.
A man like this could not but succeed in whatever he essayed; and accordingly the work prosperously succeeded, and after the Apostle's word all necessaries flowed unto the hand. The church he made of comely stone-work, tablewise. And an hospital-house, a little longer off from the church by himself he began to edify. The church was founded (as we have taken of our elders) in the month of March 1113 . President in the Church of England, William Archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard Bishop of London;
who of due law and right
hallowed a part of the adjoining field as a cemetery. Clerks to live under regular institution
were brought together, and Rahere, of course, was appointed Prior, who ministered unto his fellows necessaries, not of certain rents, but plenteously of oblations of faithful people.
The completion of the work, under such circumstances, evidently excited a large amount of wonder and admiration, not unmixed with a kind of superstitious awe. People were greatly astonied both of the novelty of the raised frame, and of the founder. Who would trow this place with so sudden a cleansing to be purged, and there to be set up the token of the Cross? And God there to be worshipped, where sometime stood the horrible hanging of thieves? Who should not be astonied there to see construct and builded the honourable building of piety? That should be a sanctuary to them that fled thereto, where sometime was a common offering of condemned people? Who should not marvel it to be haunted ?
The writer then finely asks,[n.37.1] Whose heart lightly should take or admit such a man, not product of gentle blood--not greatly endowed with literature, or of divine kynage?
When the Priory began to flourish and its fame spread, Rahere joined to him a certain old man, Alfun by name, to whom was sad age, with experience of long time. This same old man not long before had builded the church of St. Giles, at the gate of the city that in English tongue is called Cripplegate; and that good work happily he had ended.
Rahere, deeming this man profitable to him, deputed him as his compeer; and from his council and help appears to have derived much encouragement. It was manner and custom to this Alfun, with ministers of the church to compass and go about the nigh places of the church busily to seek and provide necessaries to the need of the poor men that lay in the hospital; and to them that were hired to the making up of their church.
To help Alfun in the performance of this duty St. Bartholomew occasionally honoured him by a miracle, which, doubtless, had an amazing effect in stimulating the charity of the neighbours. If the following miracle was thoroughly believed, wonderful must have been the emulation it produced among the benefactors of the priory. Alfun having applied to a widow, she told him she had but measures of malt, and that indeed it was no more than but absolutely necessary for her family's use. She was, however, prevailed on to give measure. Alfun was no sooner gone than, casting her eyes on the remaining measures, she counted still. Thinking herself mistaken, she tried again, and found , and so on . No sooner was the receptacle ready than many yearly, with lights and oblations, peaceful vows, and prayers, visited this holy church;
and the fame of cures performed was supported by magnificent festivals; the year 1148 , after the obiit of Harry the First , King ,of England, the twelfth year, when the golden path of the son reduced to us the desired joys of feastful celebrity, then, with a new solemnity of the blessed Apostle, was illumined with new miracles this holy place. Languishing men, grieved with varying sorrows, softly lay in the church; prostrate beseeching the mercy of God, and the presence of St. Bartholomew.
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| But now new troubles arose, and darkened the last hours of Rahere. Some said he was a deceiver, for cause that in the net of the great fisher evil fishes were mixed with good. Before the hour of his last deliverance his household people were made his enemies, and wicked men wickedness laid to himself. Therefore, with pricking envy, many privately, many also openly, against the servant of God ceased not to grudge, and brought many slanders and threatenings. The good that they might they withdrew and took away; constrained him with wickedness; made weary him with injuries; provoked him with despites, beguiled him with simulated friendships; and some of them broke out into so bold avowedness that they drew amongst themselves a contract of wicked conspiration, what day, sette, and place, the servant of God they might through wiles and subtlety draw to their council with deceit,
and so slay him. But there is no wisdom, there is no cunning, there is no council against God, in whom he (Rahere) cast his thought. When the day came, one of them, partner of so great a wickedness, secretly to himself abhorring so great a sin, before the hour of peril drawing near, showed by order to the servant of God the sum of all their council.
Rahere now went to the King, begging that he would open the bosom of hispity to them that were desolate,
and restrain the barking rudeness of unfaithful people.
The King's answer was the confirmation of his previous grant by a |
39 | formal charter, drawn up in terms unusually expressive of his favour and his determination to see it carried into effect.
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| In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 1st Henry King of England, to William, Archbishop of Canterbury, and George, Bishop of London, and to all bishops and abbots, and earls, justiciary barons, sheriffs, and ministers, and to all men, and their lieges, and to the citizens of London, greeting:--Know ye that I have granted, and by my charter confirmed, tow the church of St. Bartholomew, London, and to Rahere the Prior, and canons regular, in the same church serving God, and to the poor of the hospital of the same church, that they may be free from all earthly servitude, and earthly power and subjection, except episcopal customs; to wit, only consecration of the church, baptism, and ordination of clerks; and that, as any church in all England is free, so this church be free; and all the lands to it appertaining, which it now has, or which Rahere the Prior, or the canons, may be able reasonably to acquire, whether by purchase or by gift; and have soccage and saccage, and thol and theme, and infangtheof; and all liberties and free customs and acquittances in all things which belong to the same church, in wood and in plain, in meadow and pastures, in water and mills, in ways and paths, in pools and parks, in moors and fisheries, in granges and shrubberies, within and without, and in all places now and for ever. And this church, with all things that appertain unto the same, know ye that I will to maintain and defend, and to be free as my crown, and to have taken in my hand in defence against all men. Wherefore I grant to Rahere, and to the same church, in all its own rights and possession, the breach of peace and skirmish made in the house, and the invasion of house or court, and all forfeitures in its own jurisdiction made, and forestall and flemenefermden, in the way and without, in the fend and without, in the city and without: also, that it may have discussions of causes and the rights of causes concerning all plea which may happen in their land, and all customs, whether in ecclesiasticals or seculars, as fully and freely as I should have of my own domain and table. I release also and acquit Rahere the Prior, and the aforesaid church and all belonging to the same, of shire and hundred , of pleas and plaints and murders, and scutage, and gold, and Danigelds, and hydages, and sarts, and assizes, and castle-works, or the rebuilding of castles and bridges, of enclosing parks, of removing woods or other things, of fordwit and hengwit, of ward-penny and ave-penny, and bloodwite and fightwite and childwite, of hundred -penny and thring-penny and manbratre and mischinige, and schewinge, and frithsoke, and westgeilteof, of warden, and outlawry, and forefenge, and whitfonge; and they be quit in all my land of the tollage, and passage, and pontage, and lastage, and stallage, and of all secular service in land and in water and ports of the sea, so that they may be loaded with no burdens of expedition, or occasions or aids of sheriffs or reeves of the hundred , or pontifical ministers: I prohibit also by my authority royal, that no men, whether my minister or any other in my whole land, be troublesome to Rahere the Prior, or the aforesaid church, concerning anything which belongs thereto; and that no man, of the clergy or laity, presume to usurp dominion of that place, or introduce himself without the consent of the Prior or brethren.
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| If this did not content Rahere, he must certainly have been a most unreasonable man. What a list of privileges is here given! and what an idea does such a document afford of the state of society in the century! Very pleasant, no doubt, were such privileges for the Prior and his brethren; but what must it have been to the people at large, who had no share in them, and whose natural burdens would be enhanced in proportion to the number of those who had? Rahere was satisfied, no doubt, so far as the King of England could satisfy him. But that was not all. His biographer continues, Thus, when he was strengthened and comfortably defended, glad he went out from the face of the King; and when he was come home to his [people], what he had obtained of the royal majesty expressed to others that there should be afraid. Also this worshipful man proposed for to depose the quarrel of his calamities before the See of Rome (God's grace him helping), and of the same See writings to bring, to him and to his aftercomers profitable. But divers under growing impediments, and at the last letting the article of death, that he would have fulfilled, he might not. And so only the reward of good will be deserved. After his decease, three men of the same congregation (whose memory be blessed in bliss), sundry went to sundry bishops of the See of Rome, and three privileges of three bishops obtained; that is to say, of St. Anastatius, Adrian, and Alexander, this church with three dowries, as it were with an impenetrable scochyn , warded and defended against impetuous hostility. And now behold that prophecy of the blessed King and Confessor of St. Edward fulfilled. Behold truly that this holy church and chosen to God shineth with manifold beauty.
Miracles as usual glorified the new edifice. It will suffice to give as a specimen. It appears that from among the great plenty of books in the place was stolen an antiphoner, which was necessary to them that should sing in the church. When it was told to Rahere, he took the harm with a soft heart, patiently.
Not so St. Bartholomew, who doubtless considered his own reputation as a guardian of the place was concerned; so he commanded Rahere to mount horse, ride into the Jews street,
where his horse would stop, and point his foot to the door where the book was. We need scarcely add, that there, true enough, the book was found.
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| After the service of his prelacy, twenty-two years and six months,
Rahere on the the clay house of this world forsook, and the house everlasting he entered.
The character drawn of him by his biographer is, we think, very beautiful. He was a man not having cunning of liberal science, but that that is more eminent than all cunning; for he was rich in purity of conscience.
His goodness showed itself towards God by devotion;
towards his brethren by humility;
towards his enemies by benevolence. And thus himself he exercised them, patiently suffering; whose proved purity of soul, bright manners, with honest probity, expert diligence in divine service, prudent business in temporal manifestations, in him were greatly to praise and commendable. In feasts he was sober, and namely the follower of hospitality. Tribulatious of wretches and necessities of the poor people, opportunely admitting, patiently supporting, competently spending. In prosperity not yuprided ; in adversity patient. Thus he, subject to the King of bliss with all meekness, provided with all diligence that were necessary to his subjects; and so providing, increased daily to himself; before God and man, grace; to the place reverence; to his friends gladness; to his enemies pain; to his aftercomers joy.
Rahere left, it seems, his small flock of canons with little land and right few rents. Nevertheless, with copious oblations of the altar, and helping of the populous city,
they appear to have managed pretty well. Soothly,
continues our good monk, they flourish now with less fruit than that time when the aforesaid solemnities of miracles were exercised; by a like wise, as it were a plant, when it is well rooted, the oft watering of him ceaseth.
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| Rahere (whose memory was held in great veneration- when the day of his
nativity into heaven was known, it was solemnised and honoured with great mirth and dancing on earth
) was succeeded by Thomas, of the canons of the church of St. Osyth, whose character is happily hit off by the author of the manuscript. This Thomas,
he says, (as we have proved in common,) was a man of jocund company, of great eloquence, and of great cunning; instruct in philosophy, and (in) divine books exercised. And he had it in prompt whatsoever he would utter to speak it metrely . And he had in use every solemn day what the case required, to dispense the word of God, and flowing to him the press of the people. He was prelate to us meekly almost 30 years; and in age an hundred winter, almost with whole wits, with all Christian solemnity, he deceased in 1174 . In this man's time grew the plant of the apostolic branch in glory and in grace before God and man. And with more ample buildings were the skins of our tabernacle dilated. To the laud and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
Thus ends this valuable manuscript, affording
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perhaps a more complete and interesting account of the foundation of St. Bartholomew than exists in connexion with the foundation of any other English edifice of equal antiquity and importance. In , during the prelacy perhaps of brother John,
the Priory was rebuilt. At this time, and perhaps before, it possessed within itself every possible convenience for the solace and comfort of its inmates. We read of Le Fermery, Le Dorter, Le Frater, Les Cloysters, Les Galleries, Le Hall, Le Kitchen, Le Buttry, Le Pantry, Le olde Kitchen, Le Woodehouse, Le Garner, and Le Prior's stable, so late as the period of the dissolution in the century. There was also the Prior's house, the Mulberry-garden, the Chapel, now the church of St. Bartholomew the Less, &c. &c. It was entirely enclosed within walls, the boundaries of which have been carefully traced in the Londini Illustrata,
and from which we abbreviate the following description :--The north wall ran from Smithfield, along the south side of , to its junction with the east wall, about yards west from . It is mentioned by Stow, and shown in Aggas' plan, who represents a small gate or postern in it. This gate stood immediately opposite Lane, where is now the entrance into and . The west wall commenced at the south-west corner of , and continued along Smithfield, and the middle of Due Lane (or ) to the south gate, or Great Gate House, now tie principal entrance into . The south wall, commencing from this gate, ran eastward in a direct line toward , where it formed an angle and passed southward about yards, enclosing the site of the present Albion Buildings, then resumed its eastern direction and joined the corner of the eastern wall, which ran parallel with , at the distance of about yards. This wall was fronted for the most part by houses in the street just mentioned, some of them large and magnificent, particularly London House, between which and the wall was a ditch. At , as we have before stated, there were no houses in the immediate neighbourhood; but the establishment of the monastery, and the fair granted to it, speedily caused a considerable population to spring up all around, and ultimately within. This grant was obtained from Henry II. The fair was to be kept at Bartholomewtide for days, namely, the eve, the next day, and the morrow; and unto it the clothiers of England and drapers of London repaired, and had their booths and standings within the churchyard of this priory, closed in with walls and gates, locked every night and watched, for safety of men's goods and wares. A Court of Pie-powders sat daily during the fair holden for debts and contracts. But now,
continues Stow, notwithstanding all proclamations of the prince, and also the act of parliament, in place of booths within the churchyard, only let out in the fair-time, and closed up all the year after, are many large houses built; and the north wall, towards Long Lane , being taken down, a number of tenements are there erected for such as will give great rents.
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The churchyard here referred to occasionally presented a scene of a very interesting kind, and which Stow, who personally witnessed the discussions to which we refer, has described in his usual graphic style. We must premise that so early as the period of Fitz-Stephen it appears that it was the custom upon the holidays for assemblies of persons to flock together about the churches to dispute; some, he says, using demonstrations, others topical and probable arguments; some practise enthimems, others are better at perfect syllogisms; some for a show dispute, and, for exercising themselves, and strive like adversaries; others for truth, which is the grace of perfection,
&c. Again, the boys of divers schools wrangle together in versifying, and canvass the principles of grammar, as the rules of the preterperfect and future tenses. Some, after an old custom of prating, use rhymes and epigrams; these can freely quip their fellows, suppressing their names with a festinine and railing liberty; these cast out most abusive jests, and with Socratical witnesses either they give a touch at the vices of superiors, or fall upon them with a satiric bitterness. The hearers prepare for laughter, and make themselves merry in the mean time.
It is in reference to this passage that Stow writes:-- As for the meeting of schoolmasters on festival-days at festival churches, and the disputing of their scholars logically, &c., whereof I have before spoken, the same was long since discontinued. But the arguing of schoolboys about the principles of grammar hath been continued even till our time; for I myself (in my youth) have yearly seen, on the eve of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, the scholars of divers grammar-schools repair unto the churchyard of Saint Bartholomew, the Priory in Smithfield, where, upon a bank boarded about under a tree, some one scholar hath stepped up, and there hath opposed and answered, till he was by some better scholar overcome and put down; and then the overcomer, taking the place, did like the first : and in the end the best opposers and answerers had rewards, which I observed not: but it made both good schoolmasters and also good scholars (diligently against such times) to prepare themselves for the obtaining of this garland. I remember there repaired to these exercises (amongst others) the masters and scholars of the free schools of Saint Paul's in London, of Saint Peter's at Westminster , of Saint Thomas Acon's Hospital, and of Saint Anthony's Hospital, whereof the last-named commonly presented the best scholars and had the prize in those days. This Priory of Saint Bartholomew being surrendered to Henry VIII., those disputations of scholars in that place surceased, and was again, only for a year or two in the reign of Edward VI., revived in the cloister of Christ's Hospital , where the best scholars (then still of Saint Anthony's school) were rewarded with bows and arrows of silver, given to them by Sir Martin Bowes, goldsmith. Nevertheless, however, the encouragement failed; the scholars of Paul's, meeting with them of Saint Anthony's, would call them Saint Anthony's pigs, and they again would call the others pigeons of Paul's because many pigeons were bred in Paul's church, and Saint Anthony was always figured with a pig following him: and, mindful of the former usage, did for a long season disorderly in the open street provoke one another with Salve tu quoque, placet tibi mecum disputare, placet ; and so, proceeding from this to questions in grammar, they usually fell from words to blows, with their satchels full of books, many times in great heaps, that they troubled the streets and passengers: so that finally they were restrained with the decay of Saint Anthony's school.
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| Encroachments of the character pointed out by Stow of course could not have been made but for the previous dissolution of the Priory--an event which rapidly altered the entire aspect of the place. In the grant of the Priory, in , to Sir Richard, afterwards Lord Rich, the man to whose baseness and treachery the executions of the venerable Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and his illustrious fellow-prisoner in the Tower, Sir Thomas More, were in no slight degree referrible, we |
44 | find an accurate description of the then state of Rahere's famous establishment. The grant included the capital messuage or mansion-house, the close called Great St. Bartholomew, the Fermery, Dorter, &c., before mentioned, tenements lying within the precincts of the said close, other messuages and tenements, water from the conduit-head at Canonbury (the country residence of the Priors at ), and lastly, the fair of St. Bartholomew. The grant concludes with the words: And whereas the great close of St. Bartholomew hath been before the memory of man used as a parish within itself, and distinct from other parishes; and the inhabitants thereof had their parish church and churchyard within the church of the late Monastery and Priory, and to the same church annexed, and have had divine service performed by a curate from the appointment of the Prior and Convent; and whereas a certain chapel, called the Parish Chapel, with part of the great parish church, have been taken away, and the materials sold for our use ; nevertheless, there still remains a part fit for erecting a parish church, and already raised and built: we do grant to the said Richard Rich, Knt., and to the present and future inhabitants within the great close, that part of the said church of the said late Monastery or Priory which remains raised and built to be a parish church for ever for the use of the said inhabitants.
The parish was declared to be distinct and separate from other parishes, and a void piece of ground, feet long by broad, next adjoining the west side of the church, was to be taken for a churchyard. Such is the origin of the parish, the present church, and churchyard. The parish formerly possessed numerous and valuable privileges, derived no doubt from those of the Priory, some of which have been lost. Of those that still exist, of the most striking is that any resident may keep a shop, or exercise whatever calling or trade he pleases, without becoming free of the City. The parishioners are also exempt from serving on juries or ward offices; they appoint their own constables subject to the control of the City magistrates, and tax themselves for paving, watching, lighting, &c. or brief notices of events of a minor importance connected with the church may here be given. The original structure had a fine peal of bells, which were taken out and sold to the neighbouring church of St. Sepulchre. During the reign of Mary a partial attempt was made to revive something of the olden aspect and purpose of the place, by giving it to the Black or Preaching Friars, as their conventual church. But in the very year of her sister and successor's reign the friars were driven out, and the place appropriated as before.[n.44.1]
We have already given picture of a peculiar and primitive kind, that used to be often presented in the churchyard; the cloisters, it appears, in later times, |
45 | had also its picture, but of a very different kind, if we may trust its delineator, in the pages of the Observator
of . We must premise that within the space of a century or so there stood a gateway, leading to the wood-yard, kitchen, and other inferior offices. A mulberry-tree grew near it, and beneath its branches people were accustomed to promenade. In process of time this spot and the adjoining cloisters had become, according to the writer we have mentioned, notorious for the bad characters who resorted to it. Does this market of lewdness,
asks the author of the paper, tend to anything else but the ruin of the bodies, souls, and estates of the young men and women of the City of London, who here meet with all the temptations to destruction? The lotteries to ruin their estates; the drolls, comedies, interludes and farces, to poison their minds with lust, &c. ... . What strange medley of lewdness has not this place long since afforded:--lords and ladies, aldermen and their wives, squires and fiddlers, citizens and rope-dancers, jack-puddings and lawyers, mistresses and maids, masters and «prentices! This is not an ark like Noah's, which received the clean and unclean; only the unclean beasts enter this ark, and such as have the devil's livery on their backs.
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| We have dwelt thus long upon the history of the Priory, not only on account of the intrinsic importance of the establishment, but also from its being so generally little known. Except in and around the church there are no visible evidences of its original splendour, and these, not being particularly conspicuous, must be sought for. In the accomplishment of this task we now, however, approach what may be called the more generally interesting part of our subject--the description of the present remains, the contrast these present to their former state, and the more interesting memories which the place affords. As it were impossible to do justice to these matters in our present number, we shall conclude this paper with a notice of an appendage of St. Bartholomew, scarcely less interesting than itself:--we refer to Canonbury, the place so well known as the residence of Goldsmith, in of the rooms of the tower of which was written, under a pressing pecuniary necessity, that most admirable of fictions, the Vicar of Wakefield.
These pressing necessities unfortunately occurred very often; and another and less agreeable memory of Canonbury House than that of the composition of the Vicar of Wakefield
is that Goldsmith here frequently hid himself for fear of arrest. The warm-hearted bookseller, Newberry, for whom Goldsmith wrote so much, then rented the house. From hence the poet was frequently accustomed to set out, with some or other of his numerous and distinguished list of friends, on excursions through the surrounding country. The beauties of Highgate and Hampstead, distinctly visible from his windows, no doubt were often a temptation to him to throw aside his books. Various other literary men have lived at Canonbury; amongst whom we may mention Chambers, the author of the Cyclopaedia known by his name. Nor are interesting names belonging to men of a different class wanting. Here the Rich Spencer,
for instance, of whom and his moderate-minded daughter we have spoken in a former paper,[n.45.1] lived, and has bequeathed to Canonbury some noticeable recollections. In a curious pamphlet, entitled The Vanity of the Lives and Passions of Men, by D. Papillon, gent., 1651 ,
occurs the following remarkable passage, in |
46 | connexion with this great of the century : In Queen Elizabeth's days a pirate of Dunkirk laid a plot, with twelve of his mates, to carry away Sir John Spencer; which if he had done, fifty thousand pounds had not redeemed him. He came over the seas on a shallop with twelve musketeers, and in the night came into Barking Creek, and left the shallop in the custody of six of his men, and with the other six came as far as Islington , and there hid themselves in ditches near the path in which Sir John always came to his house; but, by the providence of God, Sir John, upon some extraordinary occasion, was forced to stay in London that night, otherwise they had taken him away; and they, fearing they should be discovered in the night time, came to their shallop, and so came safe to Dunkirk again.
The author adds that he obtained this story from a private record. At Sir John's death in some men were present, in mourning cloaks and gowns, amongst whom were persons who had each a basket given to him containing a black gown, of beef, loaves of bread, a little bottle of wine, a candlestick, a pound of candles, saucers, spoons, a black pudding, a pair of gloves, a dozen of points to tie his garments with, red herrings, white herrings, sprats, and eggs. We must add to these reminiscences of the family, that his daughter, the writer of the letter transcribed in Crosby Place,
is said to have been carried off from Canonbury in a baker's basket by Lord Compton, who became her husband, and who at her father's death was unable to bear with equanimity the immense fortune that devolved to him: he was distracted for some time afterwards. His death happened under strange circumstances : Yesterday se'nnight the Earl of Northampton (he had now succeeded to this earldom), Lord President of Wales, after he had waited on the King at supper, and he had also supped, went in a boat with others to wash himself in the Thames, and so soon as his legs were in the water but to the knees, he had the colic, and cried out, Have me into the boat again, or I am a dead man! and died in a few hours afterwards, June 24, 1630 .
[n.46.1]
The manor appears to have been originally presented to the priory by Ralph de Berners, in the time of Edward I., and most probably obtained its present name on the erection (about , that date having long existed on of the walls) of a place of residence for the or Prior, and from that circumstance :-- signifying mansion or dwelling-house. There seems to exist a kind of tradition that at this or some earlier period a fortified mansion stood on the spot, of which the moat in front is still a remain. All the ancient parts, however, that now meet our gaze, are attributed to Prior Bolton, the predecessor of Fuller, who surrendered the possessions of the canons to the king. This is the man of whom Hall writes in the following curious passage:-- The people
(saith he), being feared by prognostications which declared that in the year of Christ 1524 there should be such eclipses in watery signs, and such conjunctions, that by waters and floods many people should perish, people victualled themselves, and went to high grounds for fear of drowning, and especially one Bolton, which was Prior of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, builded him a house upon Harrow on the Hill , only for fear of this flood: thither he went and made provision of all things necessary within him, for the space of two months.
Stow says that |
47 | this was not so indeed,
as he had been credibly informed, and that his predecessor was following a fable then on foot.
Bolton the parson of Harrow as well as Prior of St. Bartholomew, and therefore repaired the parsonage-house; but he builded there nothing more than a dovehouse, to serve him when he had foregone his Priory.
This is he also to whom Ben Jonson alludes when he speaks
Of prior Bolton, with his bolt and ton ;
referring to the rebus on his name, of which the Prior is said to have been the inventor, and for which he certainly had an inventor's love, for we find it everywhere--in the church, in some of the houses of , and here again at Canonbury. Although great alterations have been made in this place (a house of entertainment opened within its park walls for instance), yet there is much remaining to interest the visitor. We should have been glad to have commenced our notice with a brief glimpse of the room still pointed out as that in which Goldsmith wrote, but being, we presume, deemed even too precious for exhibition, we must, as Stow says, overpass it.
Immediately behind the tower is a house now used as a boarding-school, which is supposed to have belonged to Queen Elizabeth, and to have even been occasionally inhabited by her; and the internal evidence is certainly of a formidable character. The staircase alone would show that it has been a very splendid mansion: but there are more important parts. The drawing-room, now divided into apartments, has evidently originally formed but , with a circular end, and a richly ornamented ceiling, bearing representations of ships of war, medallion heads of ancient heroes, as Alexander and Julius Caesar; and in combination with these decorations are a variety of scroll-work ornaments, with the thistle strikingly predominant. In the centre are the initials . The material is a most delicately wrought stucco. The mantelpiece is also well worthy of attention; it contains figures, arms, caryatides, and an endless variety of other ornaments. The whole forms of the most superb pieces of workmanship conceivable. In the same house a room, called the Stone Parlour, on the ground-floor, has also a stuccoed ceiling, embossed and with pendants, and a decorated mantelpiece, with figures of the Cardinal Virtues. Adjoining this house is that which was Prior Bolton's, now occupied also as a boarding-school. It stands on a beautiful lawn, somewhat elevated, and must have originally commanded a beautiful prospect; as a part of which, and not the least interesting part, was the splendid establishment of which the resident here was master: the peculiarly dense smoke of cloud was as yet a thing unknown, and but few buildings intervened, so that the Prior could see it at all times. The most interesting feature of this mansion is a stone passage or corridor leading to the kitchen and other offices, in which is a Tudor door of a peculiarly elegant shape, containing Bolton's rebus. Among the other noticeable matters are a mantelpiece of the period of Elizabeth, and a curious coat of arms with some uncouth supporters, apparently goats, painted, and with an inscription of a later period, stating them to belong to Sir Walter Dennys, of Gloucestershire, who was made a knight by bathing at the creation of Arthur Prince of Wales, in November, 1489 ,
&c. From the house we pass to the lawn, which is terminated by a wall with a raised and embowered terrace, from which we look over on the other side to the kitchen-garden, the , and thence onwards |
48 | towards London. At each extremity of this wall is an octagonal garden-house, built by Prior Bolton--the to the left having a small Gothic window in the basement story. Proceeding along the wall towards the other, we find it in the grounds of another mansion; this also contains the Prior's rebus. The spot here is at the same time so beautiful and yet so antique in its character, that we have only to forget the lapse of centuries, and expect to see the stately abbot himself coming forth into his pleasance, book in hand perhaps, to enable him to forget the little vexations of his government, or the darker shadows of the coming Reformation, which, fortunately for him, he did not live to see-his death took place in . The fig and mulberry trees, probably planted by him,--certainly no recent denizens of the soil,--appear here in all their perfection. On the wall which runs up to the house occurs another rebus, near to a stone basin called the fish-pond, where the Prior probably kept some of the choicest of the finny tribe for the supply of his table. We cannot quit this very interesting place without a tribute of admiration to the taste and munificence of its principal founder. Next to Rahere, his is the great memory of the Priory-we meet with him everywhere. The church, the beautiful oriel window which overlooks it, Rahere's tomb, which he carefully and admirably restored, the gardens and buildings of Canonbury, all speak of an enlightened and generous mind; and we do not see that it is at all necessary to quarrel with him because he took care to refer their merit to its right owner by the everlasting in |
| (To be concluded in No. XXIX.)
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Footnotes:
[n.34.1] Cottonian Collection. [n.34.2] We shall not trouble our readers any further with the antiquated spelling. We may also here observe that, in the following account of Rahere and of his foundation, whilst we give throughout the author's language, we take the liberty of occasionally departing from his arrangement, in order to preserve the narrative regular and unbroken, and, for the same reason, of making such omissions as seem advisable. [n.37.1] He has, it will be remembered, previously stated Rahere to be of low kynage, in the ordinary sense of the words. [n.42.1] Stow, p. 419, ed. 1633. [n.44.1] In the Londini Illustrata an opinion is expressed that the church was erected on a Saxon foundation. The reasons given are these- The Saxons generally made their churches with descents into them; and it is observable that all the entrances into this church are by descents of several steps; whereas the Normans built their churches with ascents. The Saxons made their lights and roofs small and mean; the Normans, on the contrary, made theirs high and large. The few churches that the Saxons had of stone were low with thick walls, and consequently dark and damp; those of the Normans were far more stately, lightsome, and pleasant. And the late Mr. Carter, who drew, engraved, and published specimens of Ancient Architecture, was decidedly of opinion, from drawings he had taken in this church of capitals, ornaments, tiers of columns, and arches, that the workmanship was Saxon, and long prior to the arrival of the Normans. Whatever may have been the cause of this discrepancy, it seems, from the absence of any mention of such Saxon building in the manuscript, that there was no church ,here prior to the erection of Rahere's. [n.45.1] Crosby Place. [n.46.1] Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 39. |
