On the outside of these a harvest man with wings is seated on each side, one with a fork behind him, and the other with a rake. They have straw hats, and lean their heads upon their hands, the elbows resting upon their knees, as if fatigued with labour, and under them are these words, Messores congregabunt, i.e. The reapers shall gather. Under all is a winnowing fan, upon which is stretched a sheet of parchment bearing a long inscription in Latin.
Though the name of this church has been changed from St. Mary Overies to that of St. Saviour, yet the former still prevails. It is a rectory in the gift of the parish, and the profits arising to the two Chaplains, are said to amount to above 300l. per annum.
Savory dock. See St. Saviour’s dock.
Savory Mill. See St. Saviour’s mill.
Savory mill stairs, corruptly so called, Rotherhith. See St. Saviour’s mill stairs.
Savoy, or Lancaster Palace, is situated to the westward of Somerset house, between the Strand and the Thames. This place obtained the name of the Savoy, from Peter Earl of Savoy and Richmond, who built it about the year 1245, and afterwards transferred it to the friars of Montjoy, of whom Queen Eleanor, the wife of King Henry III. purchased it for her son Henry Duke of Lancaster. The Duke afterwards enlarged and beautified it, at the expence of 52,000 marks, at that time an immense sum. Here John King of France resided, when a prisoner in England in the year 1357, and upon his return hither in 1363, when it was esteemed one of the finest palaces in England.
This edifice was burnt in 1381 by the Kentish rebels, on account of some pique they had conceived against John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who was then the proprietor. But the ground afterwards devolving to the Crown, King Henry VII. began to rebuild it as it at present appears, for an hospital, for the reception of an hundred distressed objects; but that Prince not living to see it compleated, Henry VIII. his son, not only granted his manor of the Savoy to the Bishop of Winchester and others, the executors of his father’s will, towards finishing the hospital; but by his charter of the 5th of July 1513, constituted them a body politic and corporate, to consist of a Master, five secular Chaplains, and four Regulars, in honour of Jesus Christ, his Mother, and St. John Baptist; the foundation to be denominated The hospital of King Henry VII. late King of England, of the Savoy.
This hospital was suppressed in the reign of Edward VI. when the revenues were found to amount to 530l. per annum, which that Prince gave to the city of London towards making a provision for the hospitals of Bridewell, Christ-church, and St. Thomas: but Queen Mary converted it into an hospital again, and having endowed it anew, her Ladies and Maids of honour completely furnished it, at their own expence, with all necessaries. However the hospital was again suppressed upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne, and the revenues applied to the uses intended by her brother.
Nothing here is now to be seen, but the ruins of the ancient edifice built with free-stone and flints, among which is still remaining part of a great building, in which detachments of the King’s guards lie, and where they have their Marshalsea prison for the confinement of deserters and other offenders, and to lodge their recruits.
A part of the Savoy was assigned by King William III. for the residence of the French refugees, who have still a chapel here, in which they conform to the church of England. Stowe. Dugdale’s Mon. Ang.