THE CHAPEL.
Amongst the many nooks and corners of this ancient Inn of Gray's, the little chapel must not be forgotten. Within its tranquil precincts all things speak of the past, for little has been changed therein for many generations.
Small and unpretentious as it is, few can enter this tiny place of worship without experiencing some emotion, without giving some thought to the many great and illustrious men—lawyers, Churchmen, and statesmen, now long numbered with the dead—who have knelt here for prayer and praise.
Centuries have elapsed since they have passed away, but their noble deeds and writings are still remembered and cherished.
Happily for England, this great race is not extinct. Some of those who now assemble within these walls have already made for themselves illustrious names—names that will be honoured and revered when they, in the fulness of time, depart; but others come here in sorrow, and perchance remorse, for many a promising but wasted life.
Poor, feeble mortals that we are! How many of us live but to exist; and often, indeed, that existence is but the puerile flutter of a day!
Truly, we are but as the sand upon the sea-shore. The tiny atoms shine, perhaps brilliantly, while the sun looks down upon them; but when clouds darken the sky, their brightness fades and soon is gone. Then a little later comes the rising tide—that overwhelming tide of Time, that sweeps them rapidly away. They are gone, and the place where they dwelt, and perchance glittered, knows them no more. No one asks for them; no one misses them. The sand is again as smooth as when they were there. The atoms around still quiver and shimmer in the sunshine as those now departed did of yore.
Not only from association with the past is the quiet little chapel attractive, but there is something soothing in its very aspect.
The fact that so little change has been made in the building or its arrangements for some hundred years is interesting, and it is touching to see the number of gray-headed men who usually attend the services. The memorials around also speak of those who are gone—the painted glass windows, the decorations, the richly-carved book of the Communion Service, are all gifts from those who dearly loved the old place.
In these days of greatly increased form, it is rare also to find a preacher who appears in the pulpit arrayed in the old black Geneva gown.
This quaintly-fashioned gown is precisely that to which our Puritan forefathers attached so much importance, deeming that it savoured less of Popery than any other raiment, inasmuch as its severe simplicity was as far removed as possible from the more imposing and, in their opinion, gaudy vestments of Rome.
From the pulpit in Gray's Inn Chapel may be heard sermons that stir men's hearts, that enlighten men's minds.
No man can hope to obtain the post of preacher to Gray's Inn, unless he possesses talents that entitle him to be listened to with respect and interest. Therefore, though quiet, though old-fashioned, though unemotional in ceremonies, many who think deeply, and who wish to listen to the words of those who also think deeply, may be found amongst the congregation gathered together in Gray's Inn Chapel.
The present little building stands upon the site of the ancient chapel that received its Royal license from Edward II. in 1314, when John, the son of Reginald de Grey, was authorised to convey thirty acres of land, two acres of meadow, and ten shillings rent, with the appurtenances, in Kentish Town, and in the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, to the Prior and Convent of St. Bartholomew's, in Smithfield, and to their successors, to provide a chaplain to perform divine service daily for the repose of the soul of the said John, and for the repose of the souls of his ancestors for ever.
The Prior of St. Bartholomew's, however, instead of providing a chaplain for the service of the chapel, appears, according to the accounts of the rents and payments of that monastery, to have paid the Society of Gray's Inn an annual sum of £7 13s. 4d.
When the monasteries were dissolved, Henry VIII. decreed that the Treasurer and Fellows of this same Society should receive yearly from the King's Highness, during the King's pleasure, the sum of £6 13s. 4d., to be paid in even portions, namely, at the "Feasts of The Natyvytie of Our Lord God, of the Annunciation of Our Blessed Ladye, the Vyrgyne, of the Natyvytie of Seynt John Baptist, and of Seynt Michaell, the Archaungell."
But in 1651, during the time of the Commonwealth, this payment ceased, and has never been revived, though during the reign of Elizabeth the officiating minister received a salary of £4 a year.
By an order of Pension, 15th November, 1598, it was ordered that the "Reader in Divinity" to be chosen, shall be a man unmarried, having no ecclesiastical living other than a Prebend, that he be without the care of souls, and that he shall keep the same place while he continues unmarried.
This order corresponds with an usage formerly existing with regard to the vergers of St. Paul's Cathedral, who, by one of the Cathedral statutes, were to be in a state of celibacy. They had either to relinquish their wives or their office.
According to Dean Milman, this statute declares: "That because having a wife is a troublesome and disturbing affair, and because husbands are apt to study the washes of their wives, or their mistresses, and no man can serve two masters, the vergers are to be either bachelors, or to give up their wives."
Since these times either wives have improved and become less troublesome, or else the vergers have become less subservient to them, for at St. Paul's this rule has been abolished. As regards the Reader of Gray's Inn, it still remains in force.
Unfortunately the chapel is, architecturally speaking, of no importance. It is low and insignificant, and quite unworthy externally of the venerable Inn to which it belongs.
Strype, in his edition of "Stowe," much praises the Hall of Gray's Inn, but laments that the chapel is so small, and wishes the Society would build a new one raised on arches, so that there would be a good dry walk underneath them in rainy weather.
The same writer mentions also a new entrance made into Holborn, where had been erected, he says:
"A fayre Gate and Gatehouse that were great improvements, making a more convenient and honourable passage, whereof this house stood in much neede, as the other entrances were rather posterns than gates."
To the shop beneath this gateway a certain interest is attached from its having been the place of business of Jacob Tonson, the celebrated bookseller, who removed here from Chancery Lane in 1697.
Several of the most ancient buildings were destroyed by fire in 1604, and unhappily also nearly all the earliest records of the Society perished in the same flames.
Subsequently the increasing number of students has necessitated the demolition of many more of the ancient houses, for some details respecting them that still exist, describe these old buildings as being not only dark and ill-convenient, but so deficient in space that the students had frequently to lodge double.
In 1688 the Inn appears to have been divided into three courts, but two of these have been thrown into one large area, called Gray's Inn Square.
This same lamentable fire of 1604 destroyed the greater part of the once valuable library. The present library contains about 13,000 volumes, a large proportion being, of course, works on law. There is also a small but valuable collection of manuscripts in twenty-four volumes, some of which are finely illuminated. They mostly relate to theological subjects, and date from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. One amongst them, Bracton's "De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ," in folio, written about the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, was presented to the Society of Gray's Inn in 1635 by John Godbolt, then Reader of the Inn.