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In the hall of Clifford's Inn Sir Matthew Hale and the principal judges sat after the Great Fire to settle all disputes about property and boundaries. This difficult task they performed so satisfactorily that their portraits were painted for the Corporation and hung in the Guildhall, where they still remain.1 Sir Edward Coke, on leaving the university, resided for a month in Clifford's Inn, where he was entered at the Inner Temple, and John Selden followed the same course. Harrison, the regicide, was a clerk in the office of Thomas Houlker, an attorney in this Inn.2

John, the third sonn, was putt to an attorney a clerke, but when the warr begann, his fellow clerke, Harrison, perswaded him to take armes (this is that famous rogue, Harrison, one of the King's judges), which he did, etc.—Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, p. 22.

Here, at No. 13, "like a dove in an asp's nest," dwelt George Dyer, the Amicus Redivivus of Elia; and it was in his chambers that Leigh Hunt came, an invited guest, to a breakfast, when "there was no butter, no knife to cut the beef with, and the teapot was without a spout." Dyer became so wedded to these chambers that he at last wedded the laundress also, a very worthy woman, "but," he used to say, "not literate"; that is to say, she could neither read nor write. Dyer died in his chambers, 1841, aged eighty-five.

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The dinners of "the antient and honourable" society of Clifford's Inn are curious feasts, in which the grace before meat consists of the words, Pro hoc convivus-Deo Gratia;" while that after meat is a ceremony only. The chairman takes up four little loaves baked together so as to form a cross, and raising this symbol above his head, strikes it down on the table. This is done three times, with reference, it is understood, to the three persons of the Trinity. The four little loaves forming the cross are then pushed along to the bottom of the table, to intimate, as the ceremony is explained, that what is left of the repast is to go to the poor. Till a few years ago this was done, a number of old women waiting at the door of the buttery to receive the broken meats. The only two toasts are "Antient and Honourable" and "Absent Members." No speeches are allowed. The ancients of the society consist of a Principal and eleven rulers.

Clifford Street, BOND STREET, east side, leading to Savile Row. Charles Lyttelton, Bishop of Carlisle, a member of "Johnson's Club," and President of the Society of Antiquaries, died at his house in this street on December 22, 1768. No. 7 was Dr. Addington's, the father of Henry Addington, Lord Sidmouth, familiarly called "The Doctor," partly from his father's profession, and partly from his having himself prescribed for George III., in his illness of 1801, a pillow of hops as a soporific. Lord Sidmouth himself lived in this house, and on August 24, 1805, mentions two visits from Nelson.3 Bishop Hurd was living at No. 5

1 Herbert.

2 Clarendon calls him "Hoselker," but Smith

in his Obituary, in mentioning Harrison the

regicide, says, Once my brother Houlker's

clerk."

3 Pettigrew, vol. i. p. 509.

in 1792. In that year Sophy Streatfield, of whom Mrs. Thrale was so jealous, was living at No. 9. As late as October 8, 1820, Mrs. Piozzi writes to Madame D'Arblay, "Do you ever see any of the friends we used to live among? Fell, the bookseller in Bond Street, told me, a fortnight or three weeks ago, that Miss Streatfield lives where she did in his neighbourhood in Clifford Street-S. S. still."1 But Madame D'Arblay in answer says (December 15), "I am told that S. S. now resides in Queen Street, May Fair."2 Both ladies were dreadfully behindhand in their information. S. S. had left Clifford Street in 1799 and gone to 20 Queen Street, May Fair; had left Queen Street in 1806, and gone to 20 Upper Seymour Street; and in the year in which they were writing about her had taken No. 5 Sackville Street, whence she vanishes in 1826. Sir Arthur Wellesley was living at No. 14 Clifford Street in May 1806. When the Prince of Orange was wooing (and temporarily winning) the Princess Charlotte of Wales, he was lodging at his tailor's, No. 8 in this street.

February 21, 1828.-In walking up Clifford Street, Mackintosh pointed to the house where sat the debating society, of which we had been both members about thirty years before, and in which, he observed, he had first heard Canning speak in public. It is now a tailor's shop.-G. Moore, Life of Mackintosh, vol. ii. p. 337. This debating club was held at the Clifford Street Coffee-house at the corner of Bond Street. Richard (Conversation) Sharpe and Lord Charles Townshead were among the debaters.

Clink (The), SOUTHWARK. The Bishop of Winchester's liberty or manor known as the Clink consisted of about 70 acres, most of which were included in the park attached to Winchester House, the Bishop's palace. The liberty extended north to the Thames, west to Christ Church or Paris Garden, east to St. Saviour's Dock, south to the boundary of St. George's parish. The mansion of John de Mowbray was here in 1363, but the locality was known as the Stews Bank, notwithstanding that it contained houses of distinguished persons. The minutes of the Privy Council in the reign of Mary I. are often dated from this place, probably from its near neighbourhood to the palace of the Bishops of Winchester. The name "Clynke" was year by year repeated from about 1588 to 1630 in the token books in. which were written down the names of all inhabitants of the age of sixteen and over, upon whom it was obligatory to partake of the Sacrament at the Church.

The Globe, the Rose, and the Hope playhouses were all situated in the liberty of the Clink. The park referred to was by Act of Parliament (1663) let for building, and was divided into streets, which we find in the maps as Red Cross Street, Queen Street, Duke Street, Ewer Street, Worcester Street, Castle Street and others.

A plan of the liberty of the Clink was in 1827 printed for the Commissioners of Pavements. The name, except for certain parochial purposes, is now dying out. Eminent Inhabitants of the Liberty.-Philip 1 Diary, vol. vii. p. 352. 2 Ibid. vol. vii. p. 355.

Henslowe, the stage manager and master of the bears (temp. Queen Elizabeth and James I.), "on the bank sid [Bankside] right over against the Clink."1 Edward Alleyn, the actor, and founder of Dulwich College: "Mr. Allen dwells harde by the Clynke, by the bank syde, neere Wynchester Howse." 2 William Shakespeare.

From a paper now before me, which formerly belonged to Edward Alleyn, the player, our poet appears to have lived in Southwark, near the Bear Garden, in 1596. Another curious document in my possession affords the strongest presumptive evidence that he continued to reside in Southwark to the year 1608.—Malone's Inquiry into the authenticity of the Shakespeare Papers, 1796, pp. 215, 216.

Clink Prison was at the corner of Gravel Lane and Maid Lane. In 1745 it was so decayed that a dwelling-house on Bankside was substituted. This was burnt down by the mob in the riots of 1780, and no other was erected in its place.

Then next is the Clinke, a gaol or prison for the trespassers in those parts; namely, in old time, for such as should brabble, frey, or break the peace on the said Bank, or in the brothel-houses; they were by the inhabitants thereabout apprehended and committed to this gaol, where they were straitly imprisoned.-Stow, p. 151.

We shall see presently that debtors were also confined here.

Clink Street begins at Deadman's Place, and runs to St. Mary Overies Dock, a straggling place, indifferently inhabited. Here is the prison so called, belonging to the liberty of the Bishop of Winchester, called the Clink Liberty; where he had his house to reside in, when he came to London, but at present disused and very ruinous, and the prison of little or no concern.-Strype, B. iv. p. 28.

The Protestant minister is least regarded, appears by the old story of the Keeper of the Clink. He had priests of several sorts sent unto him; as they came in he asked them who they were. "Who are you?" to the first. "I am a priest of the Church of Rome." "You are welcome," quoth the keeper; "there are those who will take care of you. And who are you?"—"A silenced minister."—"You are welcome, too; I shall fare the better for you. And who are you?"-"A minister of the Church of England." "O God help me," quoth the keeper, "I shall get nothing by you; I am sure you may lie and starve and rot, before anybody will look after you."-Selden's Table Talk, ed. Singer, p. 129.3

Eminent Persons confined in.—John Bradford, the martyr, 1555.

After the excommunication was read, he was delivered to the Sheriffs of London, and so had to the Clink, from thence to the Comptor in the Poultry.-Bradford's Last Examination.

Bishop Hooper, Massinger, Daborne, William Haughton, the dramatist, March 1600.

Lent unto Robarte Shaw, the 10 of Marche 1599, to lend Wm. Harton, to releace him out of the Clyncke, the some of ———x—Henslowe's Diary, p. 166.

John Wolfe, the printer, was confined here during the period of his dispute with the Stationers' Company. John Duke, the player (temp. James I.)

1 Letters in Collier's Memoirs of Allen, p. 25. 2 Ibid. p. 77.

3 Article 30 of Harleian MS., No. 161, is a curious petition to the House from the Marshal of Middlesex, in the reign of James I., detailing

his seizure of four priests in the prison of the Clink, and describing with great minuteness the property they had with them.

4 Arber's Registers, vol. ii. p. 781.

Pd. for the companye, the 16 of Marche, 1602, unto the mercer's man, Puleston, for his Mr. John Willett deate, the some of eight powndes and xs which they owght hime for satten, and charges in the Clynke, for arestynge John Ducke―viij. Henslowe's Diary, p. 250.

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Clipstone Street, FITZROY SQUARE, leading from Great Portland Street to Cleveland Street, called after a village in Nottinghamshire, on the Duke of Portland's estate. Sir James Mackintosh, at his first arrival in London from Edinburgh in 1788, lodged with Fraser, a wine merchant in this street. A portion of the street was built 1790-1793. Thomas Holcroft, author of the Road to Ruin, died at his house here, March 23, 1809.

Cloak Lane, DOWGATE HILL to Queen Street, originally Horse Bridge Street. In the Fire of London Papers in the British Museum (vol. xix. p. 21) it is also called Horsupbridge. Stow says (p. 90) the "street is called Horshew Bridge, of such a bridge sometime over the brook there, which is now vaulted over." For the present name Elmes suggests a questionable origin: "It probably derives its name from Cloaca, a sewer which anciently ran along it from Queen Street into the Wallbrook." But as its early name was Horse Bridge Lane it is not likely in later times to have been called Cloak Lane from an ancient sewer. Cutlers' Hall was formerly at No. 6, but all the houses have been rebuilt. The churchyard of St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook (burnt in the Great Fire and not rebuilt) was cleared away in consequence of the formation of the District Railway, and a monument marks the spot where the remains were deposited.

Clockmakers' Company. The original Charter of Incorporation of this guild is dated August 22, 1631. The Company is governed by a master, wardens and court of assistants; has a livery fixed by the Court of Aldermen in 1827 at 250, but has no hall. It formed some years since a good technical library; has a fine collection of watches and watch and clock movements; and a choice display of silver cups and tankards, and portraits of eminent watch and clockmakers. The library, watches, and portraits are deposited in the City of London Museum and Library, Guildhall.

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Cloth Fair, WEST SMITHFIELD, derives its name from the resort of the clothiers of England and the drapers of London to the churchyard of the Priory of St. Bartholomew, near Smithfield, where a fair -Bartholomew Fair-was kept every Bartholomew tide, and there, on the vigil of the eve of St. Bartholomew," fit persons appointed by the Court of the Merchant Taylors' Company, attended with a silver standard yard, "to see that a proper yard measure be used," and to arrest and prosecute all such as were found in possession of an "unlawful yard." 1

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Cloth Fair comes out of Smithfield, a place generally inhabited by drapers and mercers, and is of some note.-Strype, B. iii. p. 284.

1 Herbert, City Companies, vol. i. pp. 47, 399.

It is in form of a T, the right end of the upper part running to Bartholomew Close, and the left to Long Lane.-Hatton (1708), p. 18.

As late as 1815 Cloth Fair was "still occupied chiefly by tailors, clothiers, and what are called piece-brokers, dealers in materials for the use of tailors, and pieces or small remnants of cloth for repairs etc.”1 A very few years since the piece-brokers were numerous. Some of the houses are old and picturesque; but houses of this class are every year disappearing.

Clothworkers' Hall, on the east side of MINCING LANE, FENCHURCH STREET; the Hall of the Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of Freemen of the Art and Mystery of Clothworkers of the City of London, the twelfth on the list of the Twelve Great Companies. The original hall was destroyed in the Great Fire. The restored hall was taken down in 1856-1857, and the present capacious edifice erected from the designs of Mr. Samuel Angell, architect. The front, the only portion seen of the exterior, is of Portland stone, Italian in style, with Corinthian pilasters and a good deal of florid carving. The court-room and court dining-room etc. are on the ground floor, whence a grand staircase, lighted by a cupola, leads to the Great Hall, a splendid room, 80 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 40 high, with a richly coffered ceiling, carried by a cove decorated with figures between semicircular lights, springing from a rich entablature, supported by columns of polished red granite with Corinthian capitals of Caen stone. The windows are filled with painted glass, representing the arms of the Company and of masters and distinguished members, among them being those of William Lambe, master in 1569; of Samuel Pepys, master in 1677; and of his friend, William Hewer, master in 1682. At the end of the hall are life-sized and fully gilt statues of James I. and Charles I., executed in 1679 to replace similar statues destroyed in the Great Fire. The hall was opened by the Prince Consort, March 27, 1860.

King James I. incorporated himself into the Clothworkers, as men dealing in the principal and noblest staple ware of all these Islands, viz., woollen cloths.--Strype, B. i. p. 206.

Beeing in the open hall, he [James I.] asked who was master of the company, and the Lord Mayor answered, Syr William Stone; unto whom the King said, "Wilt thou make me free of the Clothworkers ?" "Yea," quoth the master, "and thinke myselfe a happy man that I live to see this day." Then the King said, "Stone, give me thy hand, and now I am a Clothworker."-Howes, ed. 1631, p. 890.

September 7, 1666.—But strange it is to see Clothworkers' Hall on fire, these three days and nights in one body of flame, it being the cellar full of oyle.—Pepys. Pepys presented in 1678 a "Loving Cup," which is used on all festive occasions. It is a large standing goblet and cover of silver, with flowers and scrolls, weighing 116 ounces. The Company also possesses, besides a splendid service of modern ornamental plate, a quaint hour-glass salt-cellar, presented by Roger Dunster in 1640, a "drum

1 Brayley, vol. iii. p. 429.

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