in the reign of Edward III., 1829, for a warden, priest, and one hundred blind paupers. It was subsequently improved into a priory of regular nuns, by the name of St. Mary of Elsynge, the founder being its first prior. When the dissolution of religious houses took place in the reign. of Henry the Eighth, it was valued at £193. 15s. 5d., and bestowed on John Williams, Esq. afterwards sir John, and ultimately lord Williams of Thame, being likewise keeper of the king's jewels, who converted the hospital, with the lodgings of the prior and canons, into a dwelling-house. The church-yard was metamorphosed into a garden, and the cloister transformed into a gallery; whilst the apartments, so benevolently intended to shelter the aged and blind, were changed into stabling for horses. However, the displeasure of Heaven seemed to visit this perversion of pious purposes, for shortly after lord Williams had made it his residence, à fire broke out in the gallery on Christmas-eve, with such fury, that the whole house and adjoining buildings were consumed, and many of the royal jewel's were destroyed, or embezzled. The house having been rebuilt, Margery, daughter of lord Williams, and wife of lord Norris, upon the death of her father, disposed of the whole estate to sir Roland Haywood, alderman and lord mayor of London, for £700. Sir Rowland's son, sir John, sold it again to Mr. Robert Packhurst, alderman, reserving a quit rent, and £4. per annum, bequeathed by his father as a perpetual annuity to the poor of St. Alphage. Sion College, erected upon the site of the hospital and priory, owes its foundation to Dr. Thomas White, vicar of St. Dunstan in the West, Fleet-street, who directed by his will bearing date 1st Oct. 1623, that £3000 should be employed in building a college for the use of the London clergy, who were incorporated by Charles I. under the title of "The President and Fellows of the College of Sion, within the city of London," and for almshouses for twenty persons, ten men and ten women. For the support of the establishment, Dr. White bequeathed £160 per annum, out of which the sum of £120 was to be appropriated to the support of the almshouses, and the remaining £40 to defray the com mon expences of the College, out of which it was ordered that the clergy should be provided with four dinners yearly, and on those days a Latin sermon was to be preached. The bishop of London was by the charter appointed visitor, and the corporation made to consist of a president, two deans, and four assistants (to be chosen on Tuesday three weeks after Easter yearly); and all the rectors, vicars, licensed lecturers and curates within the city of London, and the suburbs thereof, and the presidents, deans, and assistants, were appointed governors and rectors of the almshouses and almspeople, and to elect proper objects. Dr. White dying ere the foundation he had thus projected could be brought to maturity, he left the execution of his benevolent intentions to the Rev. Mr. John Simpson, rector of St. Olave Hartstreet, who not only fulfilled the important trust, but added, at his own cost of £2000, a spacious library 120 feet long by 25 feet broad, and erected a house on the south side for the residence of the governors. In the year 1632, the corporation decided on a common seal, representing the good Samaritan, with this inscription,-" Vade et fac similiter," and round it," Sigillium Collegii de Sion Londini." The books were presented by various beuefactors, and a considerable number were brought hither from the old cathedral of St. Paul, in 1647: but in the year 1666, a third part of the books, almshouses, several apartments intended for students, and the chambers set aside for the governors and fellows to meet in, as well as the residence of the librarian and clerk, were destroyed in the awful fire of London. However, the whole edifice was shortly afterwards rebuilt in a plain manner with brick-work, and the library has been from time to time enriched with part of the Jesuits' books seized in the year 1672. Lord Berkeley likewise assisted in improving the library, by presenting it with half the books of his uncle, sir Robert Cooke. Many legacies were left, directing the sums given to be laid out yearly in books. Many private benefactors bestowed their contributions; and still further to increase the extent of the library, it was enacted that every incumbent within the city and suburbs should, upon his taking possession of his living, present the library with a book of at least ten shillings value: it is further enriched by the copies of new publications which booksellers are obliged, by an act of the tenth year of queen Anne, to present it with, in order to secure their own copyright and property. A librarian is appointed for the care and preservation of this library; he occupies a genteel apartment at the south side of the College, communicating by a door with the library. The following (with many other) pictures, are to be seen in the hall and library, both of which were repaired and beautified in the year 1800: A curious piece of antiquity, bearing on one side the image of the Deity, with a Saxon inscription; on the other side, the decapitation of St. John the Baptist,-very possibly the painting of an altar belonging to the old priory. Charles I. drawn with a particularly melancholy expression of countenance. Georgius comes de Berkeley, the nobleman mentioned above as being a great benefactor to the library. Edwardus baron de Cherbury obiit 1673. Robertus Cooke Miles, who was the original possessor of the books alluded to. Samuel Brewer, armiger: this gentleman was a member of the Inner Temple, and intended that Sion College should have had his books, but his intentions were frustrated, and it was not till after a suit in chancery, that they obtained an estate which he had bequeathed. Thomas Secker, archiep. Cantuar. 1758, in his robes. Edmund Gibson, Lond. ep. 1723, by Vanderbank. Thomas Tennison, archiep. Cantuar. 1691. Henry Compton, ep. Lond. 1675. A whole length portrait of Charles II. Thomas Sherlock, ep. Lond. 1718. the The almshouses are built under the library, on the west side of square, ten rooms for the ten poor men within the College, |