handsome room; but it is now, with the rest of the inn, much neglected. The exterior is decorated with a handsome doorway, to which there is an afcent by a flight of stone steps and balluftrades: the roof terminates in a pointed pediment, in the midst of which is the armorial bearing of the fociety; a lion in alto relievo; indifferently fculptured.

CLEMENT'S INN. Clement's Inn appears to have derived its name from the church near which it ftands, and a celebrated holy well adjoining; both which were dedicated to the Roman pontiff St. Clement. A houfe, or inn of chancery, for the education of students at law, was fituated on this fite in the time of Edward IV. To whom the inheritance anciently belonged is not known. In the year 1486, (2 Henry VII.) Sir John Cantlowe, knight, by a leafe, bearing date the 20th of December, in confideration of eleven marks fine, and 47. 6s. 8d. yearly rent, demifed it for eighty years to William Elyot and John Elyot, (in truft, as may be prefumed, for the ftudents of the law.) About the year 1528 (20th Henry VIII.) Cantlowe's right and intereft paffed to William Holles, citizen of London, afterwards knight, and lord-mayor of that city, and ancestor of the dukes of Newcastle, one of whom, John earl of Clare, fon and succesfor of Sir John Holles, the first earl, and whofe refidence was on the fite of the prefent Clare-market, demifed it to the then principal and fellows. The buildings of the prefent inn are all modern, and occupy three fmall courts; through which there is a thoroughfare in the day time to Clare-market, and into New Inn.

HALL AND ARMS. The hall fills one fide of the middle fquare or court, and is a well proportioned and elegant room. It contains a good portrait of Sir Matthew Hale, and five other pictures of no importance. On the outfide, the front of which has a refpectable and handfome appearance, are placed the arms of the fociety, argent, an anchor (without a stock) in pale proper, and a C fable paffing through the middle.

In the centre of the garden, which adjoins that of New Inn, and is kept with particular heatness, is a fun-dial, fupported by a figure of confiderable merit kneeling, (a naked Moor or African,) which was brought from Italy by lord Clare, and prefented to the fociety: it attracts much attention.

SOCIETY. St. Clement's Inn is an appendage of the Inner Temple. The focięty confifts of a principal and twelve ancients; the principal being removed every three years, and his place fupplied by election from among the ancients. The bufinefs of the fociety is tranfacted by the fteward, and there are two porters.

NEW INN. Since the deftruction of Strand Inn, which was demolished

demolished by the protector Somerset to make room for his pa lace called Somerfet-houfe, New Inn is the only inn of chancery remaining in the poffeffion of the Middle Temple. It stands contiguous to Clement's Inn, on the weft, and has little to intereft, being built of brick and entirely modern.

The fits, about 1485, was occupied as a common inn, of hoftery for travellers and others, and was called, from its fign of the Virgin Mary, " Our Lady Inn.”

HALL. The hall is a high, fquare brick building, and stands towards the south-east corner of the fquare: the front is adorned with a large clock. It has nothing within fide remarkable, but is a fpacious and good room.

SOCIETY. The fociety is governed by a treasurer and twelve ancients. The members are to be in commons, in their gowns and caps, one week in every term, or pay abfent commons, They had alfo anciently mootings once or twice a term.

ARMS. Their armorial enfigns are, vert, a flower-pot ar

gent.

LINCOLN'S INN. This principal inn of court occupies a large plot of ground on the weft fide of Chancery-lane, formerly call ed Chancellor's-lane. Its government and rules for receiving of students, and calling them to the bar, vary in flight, but in no important particulars from those already mentioned in the Temple. Like that inn too, Lincoln's Inn had its ancient feftivities, its mafks, its revels, and all the strange pomp of aukward gaiety, which diftinguished the learned and unpolished merry-makings of our ancestors.

Lincoln's Inn was founded partly on the ruins of the monaf tery of the "Blackfriars," who refided here previous to their removal to the quarter which now bears their name, and a manfion formerly belonging to Ralph Nevil, bishop of Chiches ter and chancellor of England in the reign of Henry III. In 1245, Richard de Wihtz, afterward called Saint Richard, became bishop of Chichester, and held the houfe near Holborn, as fucceffor to bishop Neville. About that period both that manfion, and the contiguous houfe of the Blackfriars, which was deferted by them, became appropriated to the study of the law; but in what particular way does not appear. Tradition reports, that Henry Lacy, the great earl of Lincoln, who in the next age had a grant by patent from Edward I. of " the old "friary-house near Holborn, being a perfon well studied in the "law," affigned to the profeffors of it this refidence; but whether by gift or purchafe is not faid. From this nobleman, however, it derived its name of Lincoln's Inn. Several temporary demifes were afterward made of the spot in queftion, and additional lands granted, until the 12th of November, in the twelfth year VOL. II. LI

of

of Elizabeth, when Edward Sulyard, in whom the estate of inheritance had become vested, did, in confideration of 520/. convey to Richard Kingfmill, and the reft of the then benchers, all the premises in fee; and a fine was levied accordingly.

GATE. Among the most striking parts of Lincoln's Inn, is the gate from Chancery-lane. This venerable ftructure confifts of two wings or fquare towers, with a handsome stone arch in the centre, in the Gothic ftyle. The building is of black or dark grey bricks, interfecting each other at right angles. Over the gateway are three circular compartments, containing in the centre the arms of England, encircled with the motto: "Honi "foit qui mal y penfe." The arms on the dexter fide, are those of Lacy, earl of Lincoln; and on the finifter, thofe of Sir Thomas Lovel, knight of the garter. On a label beneath, in Arabic characters, is infcribed" Anno Dom. 1518." Over this entrance Oliver Cromwell is reported to have had chambers.

CHAPEL. On entering the grand arch, the venerable buildings of the hall and chapel cannot fail to ftrike the attention of the antiquary; although it must be confeffed, they are both deficient in thofe elegancies and enrichments, that conftitute the grandeur of the moft admired Gothic ftructures. The chapel is from a defign of Inigo Jones: it appears from the register of the inn, that on the 22d June, in the eighth of James, it was ordered that the whole chapel, being then in a ruinous ftate, and not fufficiently large for the fociety, fhould be pulled down, and a new one erected in the fame court. Seven years afterward, measures were taken for carrying this order into execution; a plan was formed by Inigo Jones, and the requifite fum was raised, partly by voluntary contributions, and partly by an affeffment on the members of the fociety. This chapel has recently undergone a thorough repair, but is ftill defective in point of ornament. The parapet wall is very ponderous, and the neceffity for raifing the ground above the bafe of this building, has, by lowering the height of the cloyster, destroyed, in a great measure, the effect of its most beautiful part. The cloysters are regularly divided, and confift of fix Gothic groined arches, which, though rather a flat curve, appear elegant; they are highly enriched with Gothic ribs, closely interfecting each other, and at thefe interfections are embellished with rofes, shields, and various clustered decorations. The space between the bands which spring from the piers, is enriched with Gothic tracery, which adds much to the general effect. Within this cloyster was interred Thurleo, fecretary of state to Qliver Cromwell.

HALL. Lincoln's Inn hall was finished in the twenty-second year of Henry VIII. The principal part of the outfide is cafed

With ftone, particularly the coigns; the roof is fharp and cumbrous; the turrets above are of timber and covered with lead; the smaller one appears to be coeval with the more ancient parts of the building, and was, according to the register of the Inn, described; as" the loover or lanthorn fet up in the fixth " of Edward VI." The arms on the lead are thofe of Lacy, earl of Lincoln, with Quincy, and the earl of Chefter. The date 1682, the period when the whole underwent a thorough repair. In. the interior, the roof appears of an elliptical form, with pointed groined interfections fpringing from the piers, inclofing an elliptical arch over the three centre windows. At the extremities are complete Gothic arched windows, in receffes evidently as ancient as its foundation. In the front of thefe recesses are moulded ribs, fpringing from heads of the grotefque kind, in the ftyle of architecture of the period at which it was erected. The windows are decorated with coats of arms, in stained glass, of the many dignified characters who have belonged to, and by their abilities conferred honour on, the fociety. Viewing the hall from the justice feat, the fcreen at the lower end, which was added in the fixth of Elizabeth, has every characteristic feature of the buildings of that period; and, except its eccentric decorations and maffiveness, it has not any thing ftriking to arrest attention. Over the justice seat, where the lord chancellor fits in vacation, is a picture by Hogarth, more celebrated than admired, representing Paul before Felix; as the forte of this truly great painter was the comic ftyle, this ferious attempt has been moft feverely criticifed, and on the whole more cenfured than it deferves; though no one will attempt to prove that it is entitled to the highest praise.

LIBRARY. The library, which is fituated in the ftone buildings, contains, befides a good collection of books, many very fine and curious manufcripts. These were removed in 1787 from the old library to the prefent, which is a handfome, fpacious, and commodious apartment, being made out of the three fets of chambers. The manufcripts are in clofe preffes at one end of the library, where fires are daily kept in winter.

The building is very fubftantial, with ftone ftaircases, and folid party walls. The keys of the preffes are kept by the maf ter of the library, who is chofen annually by the benchers from their own body, and the manufcripts cannot be viewed without a special order from one or two of the mafters of the bench. The first formation of the library was in the time of Henry VII., and in the carly part of the reign of Elizabeth, the building was erected; but the books accumulated fo flowly, that, in the fixth of James I., a tax was laid on the benchers and barrifters for the purpofe of augmenting it. The greater part of

the

the valuable manufcripts was bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale, and they have been accurately claffed and explained in the return made to the select commitee for examining into the public records. The collection is very large and valuable, and continually augmenting.

The old buildings in this inn have a venerable appearance; while the new fquare and ftone buildings are models of elegance and convenience. The garden is handfomely laid out, and commands from its terrace a view of Lincoln's Inn Fields; the largest, and, for building and plantation, among the finest of the fquares in the metropolis.

To Lincoln's Inn belong two inns of chancery, of which one is no longer effectually, though ftill nominally to be confidered

as an inn.

THAVIE'S INN. This place is at least as old as the time of Edward III. It took its name from one John Thaive, or Tavie, whofe house it then was, and who directed, that after the decease of his wife Alice, his eftates, and the hotel in which apprentices to the law were used to inhabit, fhould be fold, in order to maintain a chaplain, who was to pray for his foul and that of his spouse. In the reign of Edward VI. Gregory Nichols, citizen and mercer of London, being poffeffed by inheritance of the property of this manfion, granted it to the benchers of Lincoln's Inn for the ufe of ftudents; which fociety foon afterwards conftituted it one of their inns of chancery, and vefted the government in a principal and fellows, who were to pay as an acknowledgment to the mother houfe the annual rent of 31. 6s. 4d. By the ancient orders of this fociety the members of Thavie's Inn were to be ten days in commons in iffuable terms, and in the rest of the terms a week, and were allowed the fame privileges for the admiflion of students into Lincoln's Inn, as were enjoyed by the members of Furnival's Inn. But this inn having been burnt down, is now converted into a private court, compofed of ordinary dwelling houses, not divided into chambers, but enclofed, and feparated from the street by an iron gate.

ARMS. The arms are, azure, two garbs or, bands guelfe; on a chief fable a letter, T argent.

FURNIVAL'S INN. This inn of chancery is fituated in Holborn, between Brook-ftreet and Leather-lane: it occupies a confiderable plot of ground, and is divided into two fquares or courts. The firit, towards Holborn, is of a good width, but fallow, and built round on the four fides. The fecond or inner court extends the depth of great part of Brook-street, and has chambers on one fide only: the buildings of both are in a state of decay, and appear to be much neglected. It is first

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