when there was a banquet and a show and antimasque, with mountebanks, &c. These mountebanks delivered comic speeches, and sang humorous songs, in which they took considerable latitude : "Maids of the chamber or the kitchen, If you be troubled with an itching, Did ever do such cures as these." On Shrovetide the Prince of Purpoole was received at Greenwich by Queen Elizabeth where a masque, representing Proteus and Tritons, Thamesis and Amphitrite, sea nymphs, &c., was presented to her majesty. The queen was much pleased at the performances, and gave her hand to the prince and the masquers to kiss; praising Gray's Inn "as an house she was much indebted to, for it did always study for some sports to present unto her." The same night there was fighting at Barriers;' the Earl of Essex and others challengers, and the Earl of Cumberland and his company defendants. The Prince of Purpoole, who was among the latter, appeared in the lists, and behaved himself so valiantly and skilfully, that the prize-a jewel, set with seventeen diamonds and fourteen rubies, in value one hundred marks-was awarded to him, and was presented to the prince by Her Majesty the Queen, with her own hands, who was pleased highly to commend "his desert and good behaviour in those exercises." In the reign of Charles I., the revels at the Middle Temple were kept up with great magnificence; Sir Simonds d'Ewes tells us that he felt shocked at the excesses, saying, "I began seriously to loathe it, though at the time I conceived the sport of itself to be lawful." Again, speaking of the 1st of January, 1623, he remarks, "at night I came into commons at the Temple where there was a lieutenant chosen, and all manner of gaming and vanity practised, as if the church had not at all groaned under those heavy desolations which it did." Garrard, in one of his letters to Strafford, gives us the following account of the doings of one of these Christmas princes.* "The Middle Temple House have set up a prince who carries himself in great state, one Mr. Vivian, a Cornish gentleman, whose father, Sir Francis Vivian, was fined in the Star Chamber about a castle he held in Cornwall about three years since. He hath all his great officers attending him, lord keeper, lord treasurer, eight white staves at the least, captain of his pensioners, captain of his guard, two chaplains who on Sunday last preached before him, and in the pulpit made three low legs to his excellency before they began, which is much laughed at. My lord chamberlain lent him two fair cloths of state, one hung up in the hall, under which he dines, the other in his privy chamber; he is served on the knee, and all that come to see him kiss his hand on their knee. *Letters and despatches of Thomas, Earl of Strafford, 8th of January, 1635. My lord of Salisbury hath sent him pole-axes for his pensioners. He sent to my lord of Holland, his justice in eyre, for venison, which he willingly sends him; to the lord mayor and sheriffs of London for wine; all obey. Twelfth day was a great day; going to the chapel many petitions were delivered to him, which he gave to his masters of the requests. He hath a favourite whom, with some others of great quality, he knighted on his return from church, and dined in great state. At the going out of the chambers into the garden, when he drank the king's health, the glass being at his mouth, he let it fall, which much defaced his purple sattin suit, for so he was clothed that day, having a cloke of the same down to his foot, for he mourns for his father, who lately died. It costs this prince 2000l. out of his own purse; I hear of no other design, but all this is done to make him fit to give the prince elector a royal entertainment, with masks, dancings, and some other exercises of wit in orations or arraignments that day that they invite him." The Czar of Muscovy, Peter the Great, was present at the Christmas revels in the Temple, 1697-8. A masque was presented on the occasion, when there was a riotous and revelling Christmas according to custom." The last of the revels in the Inns of Court took place in the Inner Temple Hall, on the elevation of Mr. Talbot to the woolsack, in 1733.* * See chap. VIII. INNER TEMPLE. CHAPTER VII. Lincoln's Inn. LINCOLN'S INN is built on the site of an episcopal palace erected in the time of King Henry III., by Radulphus de Nova Villa, otherwise Ralph Nevil, Bishop of Chichester, and Chancellor of England, and partly on the ruins of Black Friars House, Holborn, which, prior to the year 1276, was inhabited by a religious community, who, about that period, removed to a new convent near Baynard's Castle, situate in Upper Thames Street, near the pre* Lincoln's Inn comprises-1. The Old Buildings. 2. The Garden. 3. Serle Court, or New Square. 4. Stone Buildings. K sent Black Friars Bridge. The land was granted by King Henry III. to the Bishop of Chichester; it is described as all that place with the garden and appurtenances which John Herlirum* forfeited in the street called New Street, which was the original name of Chancellor's Lane, now called Chancery Lane, which place was escheated to the crown by the liberty of the city of London, as acknowledged in the pleas of the crown of that city in his Majesty's court at the Tower of London. The following copy of grant made by the king to Nevil, is taken from a record preserved in the British Museum: "Henricus dei gra Rex Anglie Dñs Hibernie Dux Normanie Acquitaine et Comes Andeg. Archiepiscopis Epis Abbatibus Prioribus Com Baronibus Justič Vicecom pposiť ministris et omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis Saltm Noveritis nos dedisse concessisse et hac carta nĩa confirmasse venerabili patri Rado Cycestrensi Epo Cancellerio não placeam illam cũ gardino et pertinencijs suis que fuit Johis Herlizun qui terras suas forisfecit in vico illo qui dicit Newstrete ex opposito terre ejusdem Epi in eodem vico que quidem placea cũ gardino et pertinencijs suis escaeta nĩa est per libertates civitat nře London secundum quam omes terre eorum qui terras forisfacint escaete nře sunt de quocumque teneantur sicut recognitum fuit coram curia nra apud Turrim London ad ultima plita ejusdem civitat de corona habendam et tenendam eidem Epo et quibuscũque dare assignare vel legare voluerit in feodo et hereditate bene et in pace libere et quiete integre et pacifice faciendo inde Dñis feodi illius debitum eis inde servicium Quare volumus et firmit' pcipimus qd påcus Epus et illi quibus pâcam * Harlizun in Lansd. MS. |