Pasture Ground.
The whole of the remainder of the Precinct to the south of the Hospital was, in the days of Elizabeth, pasture ground, and is probably to be identified with the close lying within the Precinct, commonly called the Pale Close, which is stated[[615]] to have formed part of the property transferred to Lord Lisle. The first specific mention of the ground occurs in 1564, when the jurors holding the Inquisitionem Post Mortem on Francis Downes found[[616]] that he was seized, inter alia, of and in four messuages and four acres of pasture in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. Downes, it is stated, purchased the property from Thomas Carew, son and heir of Sir Wymonde Carew, to whom it had been sold by Lord Lisle.
The four acres subsequently passed to John Graunge, in 1566, whose son sold them in 1611 to Robert Lloyd (otherwise called Floyd or Flood). On the latter’s death in 1617, he was found to be seized of and in a house with a garden on the east side, a barn and garden on the south of the house, and a stable and two closes of pasture, containing four acres, adjoining the barn and garden.[[617]] The next reference to the ground is in 1622, when it is referred to[[618]] as “two closes, formerly pasture, late converted into gardens and purchased ... by Abraham Speckard and Dorothy his wife.” It next passed to Sir Richard Stydolph, for Charles Tryon, his grandson, refers in his will,[[619]] signed 2nd November, 1705, to “a piece or parcell of ground containing about four acres lying in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields ... near the church ... on which said ground are now standing ... severall houses and other buildings held by severall leases thereof granted by Sir Richard Stydolphe ... all or most whereof will in few years expire.” With this fact is undoubtedly to be connected the licence granted in July, 1671, to Sir Richard Stydolph to continue building at the back of St. Giles’s church. The licence[[620]] sets forth that Stydolph had let ground “on the backside of St. Giles’ Church in the way to Pickadilly to severall poore men who build hansome and uniforme houses, some whereof were quite covered and the fundacions of the rest laid,” before the proclamation prohibiting building on new foundations had been issued. In due course, “Christopher Wren, Esq.,” viewed the place and made a report, approving generally of the scheme and suggesting that it might “tend in some measure to cure the noisomnesse of that part,” provided that the building was carried out in accordance with a settled design. On this condition the necessary permission was given, and it was provided that two copies of the “designe, mapp or charte” should be made, neither of which, unfortunately, is available at the present day. Stidwell Street preserved for some time, in garbled form, the name of the owner of these lands.