their appurtenances, and the advowsons of their several churches, besides lands in Surrey, &c. to feoffees, for the endowment of this abbey of St. Mary de Gratiis, which he denominated also, Eastminster.

These feoffees, in compliance with his will, conveyed all the premises to the abbot and monks, for a term of years, to the intent that they might be given by king Richard II. in mortmain to them for ever. They afterwards granted their interest in the manors at a certain yearly rent, to Sir Simon Burley, of whom we have made mention, in Leadenhall Street; who, having forfeited them with his life, the king, by his letters patent, in the twelfth year of his reign, at the petition of the abbot and convent, granted to them the rents and profits, as a sufficient endowment, until he should otherwise provide for them. After which, by other letters patent, in his twenty-second year, he granted all the original domains, to hold in pure and perpetual alms for ever, for the performance of the religious purposes therein mentioned, and he gave licence to the surviving feoffees of Edward III. to release these manors and lands to them*,

At the final dissolution of monasteries, the lands and revenues having been given to the king, for ever, he granted it to Sir Arthur Darcy, second son of Thomas Lord Darcy, who was beheaded in the reign of Henry; but who, on the family honours being restored, was employed in the wars against Scotland. He executed these orders so punctually, and so much to the king's satisfaction, that he was made governor of Jersey; and after he had possession of the dissolved abbey, he entirely demolished it. The greatest part was afterwards occupied by the Victualling Office, and the adjoining grounds converted to smaller tenements. On the removal of the Victualling Office to Somerset House, the premises were occupied by tobacco warehouses. These also are giving way to the foundation of an extensive building, about to be constructed for THE MINT, which is to be removed from the Tower, where it has subsisted for ages; in room of which the site of the Mint, in the Tower, is to be occupied by barracks.

*Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum.

Proceeding

Proceeding to East Smithfield, we find that here was antiently a fair fifteen days, from the eve of Pentecost to the octaves of Trinity, granted by Henry III in 1229; and, for this purpose, the king issued his briefs to the fheriffs of Lincoln, Gloucester, Kent, Worcester, York, Norfolk, and Suffolk, as well as to the mayor and fheriffs of London, by which, the latter were to proclaim the fair, throughout the whole bailiwick; causing all merchants of their bailiwick alfo to know, that they might fecurely come to the fair. We have before had occasion to fpeak of the extortions ufed by this monarch, it was therefore necessary that the above proviso should be particularly specified in the writ, the necessity of which might have induced the continuation of such specifi cation in future instruments of the same kind.

In this neighbourhood was a vineyard belonging to Geoffrey de Magnavilla*, (corruptly Mandevill) in the time of king Stephen.

This Geoffrey, fteward of Normandy by defcent from his mother, was sent by king Stephen, with Gilbert earl of Clare, to quell the rebellion in the Ifle of Ely, which had been fomented by Baldwin de Rivers, and Nigel, bishop of Ely. Being also conftable of the Tower of London, he was raised from a baren to be earl of Essex, but the empress Maud, having bribed him to her interest by large donations and privileges, such as the fortification of his caftles at pleasure, the office of hereditary chief justice of Essex, and a confirmation to him of the shriev alty of that county and Hertfordshire, the stewardship of Normandy, and the shrievalty of London and Middlesex, he deserted the cause of king Stephen, of which the latter having notice, seized the earl in the court, then at St. Albans ; nor could he obtain his liberty till he had yielded up the Tower of London, and his castles of Walden and Pleshey. So much was he reduced in his circumstances by these seizures, that he became a depredator; he invaded the demesne lands of his sovereign, as well as private property, and plundered the abbies of St. Alban and Ramsey; the latter he surprized in the night, and expelling the religious, sold their religious ornaments, with the price of which, he rewarded his adherents, and fortified the church. Such accumulated outrages urged his public excommunication; and having committed additional enormities, whilst he besieged the castle of Burwell, in the county of Kent, hẹ was shot through the head by an arrow, whilst he was passing without his helmet on account of heat.

From

From East Smithfield a narrow circuitous lane leads to the bank of the Thames, where stood the great Breweries, òr as called by the antient maps, the Bere Houfe. This part of public fustenance, was subject to regulation as early as the reign of Henry VII. who, in 1492 licenced John Merchant, a Fleming, to export fifty tuns of Ale, called Berre: and in the same reign, one Geffry Gate, probably a king's officer, spoiled the brew houses at St. Catharine's twice, either for sending too much abroad unlicenced, or for brewing it too weak for home consumption. The demand for this article from foreign parts, encreased to a high degree; in the reign of Elizabeth, five hundred tuns were exported at once, for the queen's use; probably for the service of her army in the Low Countries, three hundred and fifty barrels to Embden, three hundred to Amsterdam, and again eight hundred to Embden There seems at this period to have been a free exportation, except when checked by proclamation, on account of the scarcity of corn; but even then it was permitted by royal licence*.

One of the most confiderable brewers of the laft reign, was Humphry Parsons, Efq. twice lord mayor. This gentleman, upon a hunting party with Lewis XV. being mounted on a spirited English courfer, contrary to the politesse of the then French court, outstripped the reft of the company, and was first in at the death. His majefty enquiring, who that gentleman was; one of his adulating attendants, indignantly answered, that he was "un Chevalier de Malte." The king, however, entering into conversation with Mr. Parfons, asked the price of his horse; which, the chevalier, with true politenes, auswered was beyond any price, otherwise "than his majesty's acceptance." The horfe was delivered, and ever afterwards chevalier Parfons had the honour of ferving the French nation with his extract of Malte, exclufively of any other.

*Pennant. The same author, from "Customs, &c. of London," printed by Pynson, about 1521, has furnished us with the receipt for making the boasted British liquor: “x quarters malte, ii quarters wheete, ji quarters ootes, xi pound weight of hoppys, to make lx barrels of sengyll beer."

Before

Before we dismiss this part of our fubject, it will be neces sary to make a few observations on the jurisdiction of the city of London within these precincts, as it formerly did, and still ought to exist.

In our first volume, p. 61. mention is made of the soke, denominated Knighteh Guild. The object we have in view, renders it necessary, that a more diffuse account should be given in this place.

It appears, as we have before stated, that, in the reign of king Edgar, thirteen knights, well beloved by the king and realm, for the services they had achieved, requested a certain desolate portion of land, on the east side of the city, with the liberty of a guild, or fraternity for ever. On the following conditions, their request was granted: "That each of them should victoriously accomplish three combats, one above the ground, one under the ground, and one under the water;" and that after this, they should, at a certain day, in East Smithfield, run with spears against all comers. The monarch named this tract Knighten Guild, and founded it as follows: From Aldgate to the place, where the bars are now fixed, on the East; northernly, to Bishopsgate; and southward to the river Thames, and as far into the water, as a horseman entering the same, might ride at low water, and throw his spear. So that all East Smithfield, with the right side of the street to Dodding pond, (now St. Catharine's dock) into the Thames, and also the hospital of St. Catharine, with the mills, that were founded in the reign of king Stephen; besides the outward stone wall, and the Tower ditch, were all esteemed to be in this see and liberty.

Their descendants having given this domain to the prior of the Holy Trinity; he was constituted by these means, not only the superior of a religious assembly, but in consequence of such acquisition, an alderman of London; so that it appears, the privileges of the city were duly preserved; for the prior and his successors being then seized of the soke, as a part of the suburb, and within the liberties of the city, were admitted, as aldermen, and sat in court, attended the mayor, and rode with the. other aldermen, clothed in the usual habiliments of office, till the dissolution of the house

in 1531; after which the dignity was supported by a temporal citizen elected by the free inhabitants of the ward.

These various privileges and boundaries were acknowledged and confirmed by several English monarchs, the right being contested by the city, and allowed against all invaders of their property; and they enjoyed, among other liberties belonging to the citizens of London, and ratified by divers parliaments, "That no arrest, attachment, or execution, should be made by any officers of the king within the said liberty, either by writ or without writ; but only by the officers of the city. That the inhabitants of Portsoken, and the Tower, were to be impleaded only in the courts of the City, for all matters, causes, and contracts, howsoever arising. That the Tower had no proper court of its own, but only the court of the baron, which is no court of record, as appears by various records exemplified in the King's Bench. That when any murder or drowning had been within the said hospital of St. Catharine, or the Tower, the City officers attached the malefactors within the Tower, notwithstanding that the king himself sometimes happened to be present within the said Tower; and have carried the said men, so arrested, into some of the king's prisons within the City. That, when the justices itinerant have used to come to keep assizes in the Tower, the officers have had the keeping both of the inner and outer gates of the said Tower; and that nothing was executed within the Tower, which pertained to the office of a serjeant, but by the ser vants of the City: That the sheriffs of London have had the charge of all the prisons in the Tower, so often as the said justices itinerant had come, as appears by the many rolls of pleas of the crown, and of the said itinerant jus tices."

These valuable privileges, by violence on one side, and by neglect and compliance on the other, have long since been abolished."

Returning towards Tower Hill, over the wooden bridge which crosses the dock, in a small enclosure denominated St. Catharine's Square, stands the collegiate church of