perhaps the most atrocious of the sentences inflicted by the court, but others nearly as severe and quite as iniquitous were about this time not infrequent. The Chamber had become in fact an intolerable tyranny. It was abolished by the Act of 16 Charles I. c. 10, the first year of the Long Parliament, and the memory of its misdeeds contributed powerfully to bring about the tragic fate of Laud, if not that of his royal Master.1 In the Chamber of Stars He rolleth in his Records; He sayeth how say ye my Lords, Is not my reason good? Some say yes, and some Sit still as they were dumb. Skelton, Why Come ye not to Court? 85-96 (Dyce's Then is there the Star Chamber, where in the Term time, every week once at the least, which is commonly on Fridays and Wednesdays, and on the next day after the term endeth, the Lord Chancellor, and the Lords and other of the Privy Council, and the Chief Justices of England from nine of the clock till it be eleven do sit. This place is called the Star Chamber, because the roof thereof is decked with the likeness of stars gilt.-Stow, p. 175. The Starre Chamber is a chamber at the one End of Westminster Hall. It is written the Starred Chamber. Now it hath the signe of a Starre ouer the doore as you one way enter therein.-Minsheu, ed. 1617. Lord Carew writes to Sir Thomas Roe, then absent on his embassy to the Great Mogul, that on June 20, 1616, the King, James I., sat in person in the Star Chamber and "made a large speeche to the admiration of the hearers, speaking more like an angel than a man.' About this time James purposed building a new Star Chamber. There is a Council Warrant of June 27, 1619, for payment to Inigo Jones of £37, "for making two several models, the one for the Star Chamber, the other for the Banqueting House;" but the design had been prepared by him at least two years earlier. June 21, 1617.-The Queen is building at Greenwich after a plan of Inigo Jones he has a design for a new Star Chamber which the King would fain have built if there were money.-Cal. Stat. Pap., 1611-18, p. 473. : The building itself was evidently of the Elizabethan age, and the date 1602, with the initials E. R. separated by an open rose on a star, was carved over one of the doorways. The ceiling was of oak, and had been very curiously devised in moulded compartments, ornamented with roses, pomegranates, portcullises and fleurs-des-lys: it had also been gilt and diversely coloured.-Britton and Brayley's Westminster Palace, p. 443. 1 Hallam, Const. Hist. of England, chaps. i., viii., ix. ; Sir F. Palgrave, Original Authority of the King's Council; "Account of Star Chamber," by John Bruce, Archæo., vol. v. p. xxv. 2 Cardinal Wolsey, who made much use of the Star Chamber. 3 Cal. State Pap., 1611-18, p. 425. There is an engraving of the ceiling by J. T. Smith, and an interesting view of the Chamber in Britton and Brayley's Westminster, Plate XX. In the curious Illumination 1 in the Lambeth Library of Earl Rivers presenting his book, and Caxton his printer, to King Edward IV., the King is represented seated in a chamber, the roof of which is powdered with stars. Star and Garter, PALL MALL, a tavern of considerable note in the 18th century. Smollett makes Matthew Bramble say that the servants at private houses were so greedy and rapacious that he could "dine better, and for less expense, at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall than at our Cousin's castle in Yorkshire." Swift has also a good opinion of the house and the moderation of the charges. March 20, 1712.-I made our Society change their house, and we met to-day at the Star and Garter in the Pelmall. Lord Arran was president. The other dog was so extravagant in his bills that for four dishes, and four, first and second course, without wine or desert, he charged £21:6:8 to the Duke of Ormond.-Swift to Stella. Here, 1760-1770 met George Selwyn's Thursday Club, famous for wit and whist. "There is nobody at White's," writes Gilly Williams to George Selwyn, July 18, 1763; "our jovial club meets at the Star-in-Garter." The Dilettanti Society met here, at least occasionally. The instructions for the famous Classical Mission sent out by the Society are dated, "Star and Garter, May 17, 1764." The meeting of another club at the Star and Garter had a melancholy termination. Ten members of the Nottinghamshire Club sat down to their weekly dinner one afternoon in January, in "a mighty oddshaped room on the second floor." Dinner was served precisely at a quarter after four. About seven o'clock a dispute arose between William, fifth Lord Byron, and Mr. Chaworth,-neighbours and hitherto friends,—about the game on their respective estates. Hot words were exchanged, but it was thought the quarrel had died away. About eight o'clock Mr. Chaworth left the room, and five minutes after was followed by Lord Byron. They met on the first floor landing, and asked the waiter for an empty room. He showed them into the back room on that floor, placed a very small tallow candle on the table, and closed the door upon them. The room was about 16 feet square, with one corner cut off for the fireplace and chimney. They drew, fought, and Mr. Chaworth fell mortally wounded. Lord Byron was tried for murder and acquitted. "So far was he from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr. Chaworth," wrote his grand-nephew, Lord Byron, the poet, that "he always kept the sword which he used. upon that occasion in his bedchamber, and there it still was when he died." State Paper Office, in ST. JAMES'S PARK, at the bottom of Duke Street West, where a flight of stone steps now leads into the Parade, 1 Engraved as a frontispiece to Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors. VOL. III X was a repository for the reception and arrangement of the documents accumulating in the offices of the Privy Council and the Secretaries of state, at whose disposal the documents are held. The office was established in 1578, and enlarged and made into a "set form or library" in the reign of James I. The papers were originally kept in the uppermost rooms of the Gate House at Whitehall, and were first put in order during the Grenville administration in the reign of George III. They are now deposited in the Record Office, Fetter Lane. [See Record Office.] The building in St. James's Park, the last design by Sir John Soane, R.A., was erected in 1829-1833, and demolished in 1862 to make way for the New India Office. Stationers' Hall, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL. The Stationers' Company was incorporated May 4, 1557, by letters patent of Philip and Mary, under the title of "The Master and Keepers, or Wardens, and Commonalty of the Mistery or Art of Stationers of the City of London," and a livery was granted by the Court of Mayor and Aldermen, February 1, 1560. Its foundation, however, took place at a much earlier date, as we find it mentioned in 1403, when a set of by-laws were allowed by the Court of Aldermen. The first hall of the Brotherhood was situate in Milk Street, Cheapside; and in 1553 they moved to St. Peter's College, near the Deanery of St. Paul's. In 1611 the Stationers' Company purchased the site of their present hall, which was then occupied by Abergavenny House, the residence successively of the Dukes of Brittany and the Earls of Pembroke and Abergavenny. The house was renovated and enlarged for the purposes of the Company, but was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, when the Stationers' Company suffered heavy losses. Only the poor booksellers have been indeed ill-treated by Vulcan: so many noble impressions consumed by their trusting them to the churches, as the loss is estimated near two hundred thousand pounds, which will be an extraordinary detriment to the whole republic of learning.-Evelyn to Sir S. Tuke, September 27, 1666. The first meeting of the court after the Fire was held at Cook's Hall, and the subsequent courts until the hall was rebuilt were held at the Lame Hospital Hall, ie. St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The present edifice was erected on the site of the former hall in 1670. It was built of brick, but in 1800 received a casing of Portland stone, from the designs of Robert Mylne, architect. St. Cecilia's Feast and several County Feasts were annually held in Stationers' Hall. Various lotteries have been drawn here, and in 1745 the Surgeons' Company were allowed the use of the hall. Alterations were made in 1888, when a new wing was added. Observe.-Painted window by Eginton, given by Alderman Cadell; portraits of Prior and Steele (good), presented by John Nichols; of Richardson, the novelist, Master of the Company in 1754, and of Mrs. Richardson, the novelist's wife (both by Highmore); of Alderman Boydell, by Graham; portrait of Tycho Wing, son of Vincent Wing, the astrologer; he died in 1668, but his name is still continued on one of the sheet almanacks of the Stationers' Company. The Stationers' Company, for two important centuries in English history, occupied by the terms of their charters a commanding position in literature. Printers were obliged to serve their time to a member of the Company, and publications were required to be "Entered at Stationers' Hall." This was, however, far from always being the case, as during the reigns of Elizabeth and succeeding sovereigns special letters patent of permission to print specified works were issued, and these letters patent really exempted them from the jurisdiction of the Stationers' Company, the fees being in such cases paid to the Crown. Thus, to give one example, Elizabeth granted Richard Tottel, the publisher of the first Poetical Miscellany, the privilege of printing every law-book published in England. Registration is not compulsory, but under the Copyright Act of 1842 the proprietor of every published work is required to register his claim, for his own protection, in the books of the Stationers' Company before any legal proceedings can take place. The Stationers' is not a wealthy Company, but it possesses an important treasure in the series of registers of works entered for publication at Stationers' Hall from 1557, which constitutes a most valuable source of information relating to the history of literature of the last 300 years. These registers, however, do not by any means include every work since their introduction, for, as already mentioned, many works issued by special license were not entered therein. Mr. J. Payne Collier's two volumes of carefully selected extracts from their earlier pages, and the accurate "Transcripts" edited by Mr. Edward Arber, have opened up a mass of interesting matter previously lying hidden. There are several charities connected with the Company, and a Grammar School in Bolt Court, founded in 1858. Stationery Office (Her Majesty's), PRINCES STREET, STOREY'S GATE, WESTMINSTER, was established in 1785 for the supply of stationery, books and printing to the several public departments of Government, prior to which time the chief offices of Government were supplied by private individuals, under patents from the Crown. The printing of the Excise was long executed under patent by Jacob Tonson, the eminent bookseller, and in 1757 a patent was granted to George Walpole, Earl of Orford, for the supply of stationery to the Treasury for the period of forty years. The old office was in James Street, Buckingham Gate, in the house long the residence of Lord Milford, where Mr. J. R. M'Culloch (1780-1864), comptroller, lived for many years. The present Stationery Office was erected about 1847, from the designs of Sir J. Pennethorne, at a cost of £25,792. Statistical Society (Royal), ADELPHI TERRACE, founded 1834; incorporated 1887. The members are styled "Fellows," and pay 2 guineas annually. The Society issues a quarterly Journal, which contains many papers of great research and permanent value. Steaks (The). [See Beaf Steak Society.] Steelyard, STELEYARD, or STILLIARD in UPPER THAMES STreet, in the ward of Dowgate (facing the river), where the Cannon Street Railway Station now stands. "Their hall," says Stow, "is large, built of stone, with three arched gates towards the street, the middlemost whereof is far bigger than the others, and is seldom opened; the other two bemured up; the same is now called the old hall.”1 The Steelyard, a place for merchants of Almaine, that used to bring hither as well wheat, rye, and other grain, as cables, ropes, masts, pitch, tar, flax, hemp, linen cloth, wainscots, wax, steel, and other profitable merchandises.—-Stow, p. 87. Steelyard, a place in London where the fraternity of the Easterling Merchants, otherwise the Merchants of the Hannse and Almaine are wont to have their abode. It is so called Stilliard of a broad place or court, wherein steele was much sold.— Minsheu, ed. 1617, and H. Blount both in his Law Dictionary and his Glossographia. The Steelyard was lately famous for Rhenish Wines, Neats' Tongues, etc.Blount's Glossographia, ed. 1670. Other writers derive the name from its being the place where the King's steelyard, or beam, for weighing the tonnage of goods imported into London, was erected before its transference to Cornhill. Lambecius explains the name Steel-yard (or as he calls it Stealhof) to be only a contraction of Stapelhof, softened into Stafelhof, and synonymous with the English word Staple, which is in the civil law Latin style of Edward III. termed Stabile emporium, a fixed port depôt.—Herbert's Twelve Livery Companies, p. 12, note. This latter derivation is by far the most likely; Minsheu is without doubt wrong, as steel until long after the adoption of the name Steelyard for their guild by the Merchants of the Hanse was only quite a secondary item in their trade. In their hall were the two great pictures by Holbein, the triumphs of Riches and Poverty, thus described by Walpole: "The former was represented by Plutus riding in a golden car; before him sat Fortune scattering money, the chariot being loaded with coin, and drawn by four white horses, but blind and led by women, whose names were written beneath; round the car were crowds with extended hands catching at the favours of the god. Fame and Fortune attended him, and the procession was closed by Croesus and Midas, and other avaricious persons of note. . . . Poverty was an old woman, sitting in a vehicle as shattered as the other was superb; her garments squalid, and every emblem of wretchedness around her. She was drawn by asses and oxen, which were guided by Hope and Diligence, and other emblematic figures, and attended by mechanics and labourers. It was on the sight of these pictures that Zucchero expressed such esteem of this master. . . . The large pictures themselves Felibien and Depiles say were carried into France and Flanders, whither they were trans 1 Stow, p. 88. |