Civic dinner was honoured by the presence of this King; in 1673, when Sir Robert Hanson, Grocer, and in 1674, when Sir William Hooker, Grocer, took possession of the Mayoralty. On all these occasions the general splendour of the processional Show was increased by much pageantry, &c. at the charge of the repective Companies in which the Lord Mayors had taken up their freedoms.

*

GROCERS' HALL is situated on the north side of the Poultry, within an enclosed court, the entrance to which is along a narrow passage, now called Grocers' Alley. The site of this edifice, with the "building thereupon," was originally purchased by the Company in 1411, for the sum of 320 marks, of the Baron, Robert Fitz-Walter, hereditary CastellanBanneret, or Standard-bearer to the City of London. Here they laid the foundation of a stately Hall,

* This passage, as appears from Stow, (Sur. of Lond. p. 212,) was anciently called "Cony-hope Lane," from the sign of three Conies (Rabbits) hanging over a poulterer's stall at the Lane end; or more properly, as the historian has spelt it in the same page, "Conningshop Lane," i. e. "Coney-shop Lane. At the upper end of this lane, or rather between it and the Poultry Compter, stood the Chapel of Corpus Christi, and St. Mary, which was founded, says Stow, by a citizen named Jonyrunnes,' in the reign of Edward III., and to which belonged a Guild, or Fraternity, that might expend 201. by the year. After the suppression of that foundation, the premises were purchased by a Haberdasher, who "turned the Chapel into a fair warehouse, with shops towards the Street, and lodgings over them;"-but not any vestige of this building now remains.

which being mostly destroyed by the Fire of London, was rebuilt "with a gothic front and bow window :" the charge for the great parlour and court-room was defrayed by Sir John Cutler, Bart. who was four times Master of the Company.* In that edifice were kept the accounts, and transacted the business of the Bank of England, from the time of its incorporation, till its removal into Threadneedle-street, in June, 1734. The present Hall was built upon the ancient site between the years 1798 and 1802, from designs, by Mr. Leverton, Architect; and though not a splendid fabric, is well adapted to its inclosed situation. It is chiefly constructed of brick, but the basement story is faced with stone, and the entrance porch is ornamented with rustic work. From the base rise ten pair of stone pilasters, of the Tuscan order, (between which range the principal windows) supporting an architrave and cornice of the same material; and on the summit, over the centre of the building, on a large pedestal, are the arms and sup

* Sir John Cutler, whom the rancid Satires of Pope, and the ironical representations of Pennant, have damned to immortality, as a complete picture of avarice, has been unjustly stigmatized; and were the particulars of his life fully and fairly detailed, his character would be seen to be very far removed from that disgustingly-iniquitous, and unblushing parsimony which those writers have attributed to it. Sir John Cutler was created a Baronet by Charles II. in November, 1660, for various services to the crown, but more particularly from promoting the civic subscriptions in favour of the Royal cause.

porters of the Company; having on each side a loaded Camel, in emblematical commemoration of the manner in which the commodities of the Grocers' trade were anciently conveyed over the Deserts of Arabia. These are of considerable size, and, as well as the arms, are composed of Coade's artificial stone.*

Here are full-length portraits of Sir John Cutler, Bart.; Sir John Moore, Lord Mayor in 1682; and Sir John Fleet, Lord Mayor in 1693, of tolerable execution. Various Free Schools, Alms Houses, Exhibitions, &c. are supported in different parts of England by this Company. About the middle of the last century, the garden of this Hall served as a public promenade for the citizens; and a part of the ancient building, which had been purchased from Lord Fitzwalter, and had been his family mansion, was inhabited by the Beadle of the Company; but it has since given place to other erections.

SPITAL FIELDS' weavers.

Those acquainted with the neighbourhood of Spital Fields must have often heard the Weavers singing at their looms, a practice which their fore-fathers brought with them from the Low Countries, and other parts

The Grocers' arms are, argent, a chevron, gules, between nine cloves, sable 4, 2, and 3; an esquire's helmet: crest, a loaded camel, passant, proper: the supporters, griffins: motto, God grant Grace." The arms are ancient; the supporters were granted by William Benote, Clarencieux, temp. Hen. VIII.

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of the Continent, when despotism and intolerance obliged them to abandon their native land. Such also was the case with the Protestants at an earlier period, who coming into England from Flanders, extended our knowledge of certain branches of the woollen manufactory.-Shakspeare, in his 1st part of Henry IV. act 2, makes Falstaff allude to this custom in his interview with Prince Henry, after the memorable adventure at Gad's Hill, when he "I says, would I were a Weaver, I could sing all manner of songs."*-Ben Jonson, also, in his Silent Woman, (act 3, scene iv.) has a similar allusion, where Cutbard, in humourous apology for the minister, with 'a soft, low voice,' tells Morose, "He got this cold with sitting up late, and singing catches with clothworkers."

ST. GEORGE'S SOUTHWARK.-PRACTICE OF

THE BLACK ART.

There is a copy, in Rymer's "Foedera," of a pardon granted by James the First, in February, 1608, to one Simon Read, Professor of Physic, who had been indicted for practising the Black Art, at different times, in the Parish of St. George, Southwark, by the 'Invocation of Wicked Spirits,' in order to discover the name of the person who, in the preceding October, had stolen 391. 10s. from Tobias

So the folio edition of Shakspeare, in 1623. Modern Editors have introduced-"I could sing psalms, or any thing."

Mathew, of St. Mary Steynings, London.

From

this Pardon, which is drawn up in all the fullness of legal verbosity, we learn that the three Spirits and Cacodæmons' which he invoked, were named Heawelon, Faternon, and Cleveton!

PEWS IN CHURCHES.

Weever, in his "Funeral Monuments," (p. 701,) which was first published in 1631, though partly compiled in the reign of James the First, has the following passage, when speaking of inscribed gravestones in Church pavements.-"Many monuments are covered with Seats or pewes, made high and easie for parishioners to sit or sleep in, a fashion of no long continuance and worthy of reformation." Pews, however, appear to have been introduced much

earlier than Weever's time, for Stow, in his account of the "faire and beautiful" Church of St. Andrew Undershaft, which "hath beene new builded by the Parishioners there, since the yeare 1520, every man putting to his helpyng hand, some with their purses, other, with their bodies,"-states, that Stephen Jennings, some time Mayor of London, (besides erecting all the northern half) had "the whole South side of the Church glazed, and the Pewes in the South Chappell made of his costs, as appeareth in every window, and upon the said Pewes.”*

Lord Bacon, somewhere, says, "When Sir Thomas Moore was Lord Chancellor, he did use, at mass,