in her lappe, rydynge on a horse in Saynt Georgys Felde was slayne, and the horse swellyd with the heyt of the wylde fyre, as grete as the skynne myght holde; and the norse beyng with chylde, aftyr she was dede v. owres, the chylde was cut out of her bely, and was crysten yd, and lyued aftyr ii. owres." PORTRAITS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. It is well known that Queen Elizabeth was exceedingly particular in regard to personal figure, and that with all her superior manliness of character, she was animated by her full share of female vanity. This trait of her disposition will be aptly illustrated by referring to a Proclamation respecting her Portraitures which was issued in the year 1563, and a copy of which is here given from the original draught in the hand-writing of Secretary Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, now preserved amongst his papers in the State-Paper Office. "Forasmuch as thrugh the natural desire that all sorts of subjects and people, both noble and mean, have to procure the Portrait and Picture of the Queen's Majestie, great number of Paynters, and some Printers and Gravers have allredy and doe dayly attempt to make in divers manners Portraictures of her Majestie in paynting, graving, and pryntyng, wherein is evidently shewn that hytherto none hath sufficiently expressed the naturall representation of hir Majesties person, favor, or grace, but for the most part have also erred therein, as thereof dayly complaynts are made amongst hir Majesties loving subjects, in so much that for redress hereof hir Majestie hath lately bene so instantly and so importunately sued unto by the Lords of hir Consell and others of hir nobi lity, in respect of the gret disorder herein used, not onely to be content that some speciall cōning Paynter might be permitted by access to hir Majestie, to take the naturall representation of hir Majestie, whereof she hath bene allwise of hir own right disposition very unwillyng, but also to prohibit all manner of other persons to draw, paint, grave, or pourtrayit her Majesties personage or visage for a time, untill by some perfect patron and example the same may be by others followed. Therfor hir Majestie being herein as it were overcome with the contynuall requests of so many of hir Nobility and Lords, whom she cannot well deny, is pleased that for thir contentations, some cōnyng Person mete therefor, shall shortly make a Pourtraict of hir person or visage to be participated to others for satisfaction of hir loving subjects, and fardermore commandeth all manner of persons in the mean tyme to forbear from payntyng, graving, printing, or making of any portraict of hir Majestie, until some speciall Person that shall be by hir allowed shall have first finished a Pourtraicture thereof, after which fynished, hir Majestie will be content that all other painters, printers, or gravers, that shall be known men of understanding, and so thereto licensed by the hed officers of the plaices where they shall dwell (as reason it is that every person should not without consideration attempt the same), shall and maye at their pleasures follow the sayd patron or first portraicture. And for that hir Majestie perceiveth that a grete nomber of hir loving subjects are much greved and take great offence with the errors and deformities already committed by sondry persons in this behalf, She straightly chargeth all hir officers and ministers to see to the due observation hereof, and as soon as may be to reform the errors already committed, and in the mean tyme to forbydd and prohibit the shewing or publication of such as are apparently deformed, until they may be reformed which are reasonable." BLACKFRIARS'- t BISHOP THIRLBY, or Thirleby, who was the only bishop of Westminster that ever was appointed, was at some period a resident within the precincts of Blackfriars; as appears from a Letter in the Lansdowne Collection, written to the great Lord Burghley, (when an invalid at Buxton, in the year 1577,) by Fleetwood, or as he subscribes himself, Fleetewoode, the celebrated Recorder of London. The Letter is dated from Bacon House, Foster Lane, on "this first Sunday after Michaelmas."-Among a variety of miscellaneous information, he says, Kathtryn Carns, the late Justice wiffe, my Countrywoman, w all her pryde and popery is this week gone (as I trust) to God. She died in Bishop Thirlby's chamber, in Mr. Blackwell's house, in the Black ffryars." Thirleby died on the 22d of August, 1570, and was interred at Lambeth; having previously, according to Bishop Godwin, been upwards often years imprisoned in Lambeth Palace, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy on the accession of Queen Elizabeth. He had been committed to the custody of Archbishop Parker, who treated him with much kindness, (more as 66 a guest than a prisoner,") and it was, perhaps, under his connivance, that he was occasionally permitted to lodge within the verge of the City. In another Letter to Lord Burghley, bearing date on the 30th of July, 1577, Fleetwood tells him, that at the Mercers' Feast, on the preceding day, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir William Damsell, and Mr. Sackford, had drank a " Bowl of Rhenish wyne to his Lordship's health, and the Recorder pledged them." In the same Letter he mentions the great sickness which arose at the gaol delivery at Oxford, and caused the deaths of many. He likewise notices the first opening of the Shoemakers' new Hall, in these words. "Vpon Tuesday we had little or no busines, saving that the Shomakers of London, having builded a faire and a newe Hall, made a royall feast for theire frends, wth. they call theire howse warming.' "'* CORDWAINERS' OR SHOEMAKERS' HALL, Is situated on the north side of Great Distaff Lane, which, according to Stow, was anciently called Distar Lane, as mentioned in a record concerning a brewhouse" there. This is a small stone-fronted edifice, and not unhandsome, but from the confined situation, the entrance is placed on the west side: in the pediment is a sculpture of the Cordwainers' Arms.† This is the third Hall which has occupied this spot; that mentioned by Fleetwood was destroyed in the Great Fire: the present building was erected from the designs of Sylvanus Hall, architect, in the year 1788. * Lansdowne MSS. No. 24, 79; in the British Museum. These are, Azure, a cheveron, Gules, between three goats' heads, erased, Proper. It contains a handsome hall and ball-room, of equal dimensions, viz. 60 feet in length, and 30 feet in height and width. Over the fire-place, in the hall, is a good Portrait by Sir William Beechey, of William Williams, Esq. who was three times Master of this Company he died on the 5th of November, 1809, aged 87 years. At the opposite end, in a square niche, is a sepulchral urn and tablet, by Nollekens, in commemoration of Mr. John Came, who by his will, dated on the 12th of August, 1782, bequeathed the interest of 37,2001. in the 3 per Cents, and 1001. per annum, short annuities, in trust, to this Company (but subject to annual payments to the amount of 2051.) to be distributed yearly, in donations of 51. each, to Clergymen's widows, blind persons, and the deaf and dumb. He died on the 13th of May, 1796, and was buried in the Church of St. Mary-le-bow. The Cordwainers' Company was first incorporated by Henry IV. in the year 1410, under the style of the "Cordwainers and Coblers," the latter appellation not being regarded, at that period, as a term of vulgar contempt, as it now is. It seems, indeed, to have designated both the dealer in shoes, and the shoe-maker, and the latter epithet was but rarely used in ancient times. "Of these Cord-wayners, I reade, that since the fift of Richard the second, (when he tooke to wife Anne, daughter to Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia) by her example, the English people had vsed piked Shooes, tyed to their knees with Silken Laces, or Chaynes of Siluer and Gilt: Wherefore, in the fourth of Edward the fourth it was ordained and proclaimed, that Beakes of Shoone |