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The Temple Church.

This elegant structure affords one of the most beautiful specimens of early Gothic architecture in England. Its exquisite lancet windows, fine stained glass, marble pillars, the general design of the Round and Oblong, arched doorway, and the figures of the Knights Templars, have been admired by every person who has visited this celebrated structure; which, thanks to the taste, spirit, and liberality of the two honourable and learned societies of the Middle and Inner Temple, we are now enabled to see restored in all its original splendour and beauty. Worthily to describe the Temple Church would of itself require a volume, and I feel it the less necessary to dwell upon the subject, as its history has recently been ably written by a learned member of the Inner Temple.* "The Round," was consecrated A.D. 1185, by Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, on his arrival in England, accompanied by the Grand Master of the Temple, to obtain succour from Hen. II. against the power of the famous Saladin. It was dedicated to the blessed Virgin, and an indulgence of fifty days was granted to those yearly seeking it. The oblong portion of the church was consecrated Ascension Day, 1240, in the presence of the king and many of the nobility, who, on the same day, after the solemnities of the consecration had been completed, were enter

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* See History of the Temple Church,' by C. G. Addison, Esq., Barrister of the Inner Temple.

tained at a magnificent banquet, prepared at the expense of the Hospitallers.

The church narrowly escaped the flames in 1666, and was beautified,' and a wainscot-screen (now happily swept away) set up in 1682. The south-west part was newly built with stone in 1695. In 1706 the church was whitewashed, gilt, and painted within, and the pillars of the round tower wainscoted. A new battle

ment and buttresses were added to the south side, and other parts of the exterior were repaired. The figures of the Knights Templars also were 'cleaned and painted,' and the iron work inclosing them was painted and gilt. The east end was beautified in 1707, and again with the north side repaired in 1736, and in 1811. In 1827 the whole south side of the church, externally, and the lower part of the circular portion, internally, underwent a restoration, under the direction of Sir Robert Smirke; and since then the whole of the interior has been perfectly restored.

The length of the choir is eighty-three feet; its breadth sixty feet; the circumference of the Round is one hundred and sixty feet. Before the recent restoration there were several tombs, tablets, and monuments in the church, among others those of Sir Nicholas Hare, Plowden, Selden, Howell, Sir John Vaughan, &c., which have now been removed to the top of the Round. An account of the early monuments are in Dugdale, and in Maitland's History of London.

Since the dissolution of the

Hospitallers in the time of Henry VIII., there has been appointed a divine, by the name of the Master, or Custos, belonging to this church, who is constituted by the queen's letters patent without institution or induction.

MASTERS OF THE TEMPLE FROM THE SUPPRESSION OF THE HOSPITALLERS.*

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Hugh de Litchfield.

WILLIAM LANGHAM.

WILLIAM ERMSTEAD, 1560.

RICH. ALNEY, B.D., 1568.

DR. HOOKER, 1585.

DR. BAYLEY, 1591.

THOMAS MASTER, B. D.

DR. PAUL MICKLETHWAITE.

DR. JOHN LITTLETON, 1638.

MR. TOMBS, 1645,

MR. RICHARD JOHNSON, 1647.

DR. BROWNRICK, Bishop of Exeter, 1658.

DR. GAUDEN, Bishop of Exeter, 1659.
DR. BALL, 1660.

DR. WM. SHERLOCK, Dean of St. Paul's.
DR. THOMAS SHERLOCK, Bishop of Bangor.

DR. SAMUEL NICHOLS, 1753.
DR. GREGORY SHARPE, 1764.
DR. WATTS, 4th June, 1771.
REV. MR. THURLOW, 1772.

REV. WM. PEARCE, 1787.

REV. THOS. RENNELL, 1798.

REV. CH. BENSON, 18th Oct., 1826.

REV. THOS. ROBINSON, 23rd May, 1845.

From information politely afforded me in the Treasurer's office, Inner Temple.

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THIS ancient Seminary of the Law is situated in the manor of Portepole, or Purpoole, near Holborn, in the county of Middlesex; which manor, and the lands thereunto belonging, were

the property of the noble family of the Grays of Wilton, from the 22nd year of the reign of King Edward I. until the 21st year of the reign of King Henry VII.; from which circumstance the inn has derived its

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name.*

Our legal antiquaries agree in the opinion. that, in the reign of Edward III., this inn was the residence of a society of students of the law, whose successors have remained, first as tenants, and subsequently as proprietors there, from that time until the present day. Mr. Sayntlow Kniveton, a person of great knowledge in antiquities,+ came to this conclusion, on what he considered good authority, and both Stow and Sir William Dugdale concur in opinion with him. In the MS. in the Lansdown Collection, entitled 'A View of all the Fowre Famous Colledges, or Inns of Court, &c.,' it is asserted that, as early as the reign of Edward III., it was an Inn of Court, and that the students of this society took a grant of it from Baron Grey, who lived in those days. Dugdale mentions that, in his time, the tradition among the ancients of the house assigned pretty nearly the same date to the removal of the society to this locality. The list of readers of the inn, too, exists, in nearly unbroken succession, from the reign of Edward III. All which is confirmed by the record

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* In the old authorities and manuscripts, Gray's Inn is written in various ways; in 'Hall's Chronicles,' and the early entries. in the books of the Society it is Greis-Inne; in a MS. Harl. Coll. and in the Masque called Certain Devises,' &c. it is Grayes Inn; Greye's Inn, 'Parl. Hist.' Graies Inn is the mode adopted by Lord Bacon, by Cooke in his Vindication of the Law,' &c.; and in the Masque of Flowers;' Lord Burghley was accustomed to write it Gray's Inn, as it is now universally written.

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+ See Archæologia,' vol. iii., and Dug. Orig.' I regret very much my inability to discover his observations on this subject. They do not seem to be extant.

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