John Donne had entered as a law student at Lincoln’s Inn, and, after taking Orders, he was appointed preacher to the Inn. Before this, when Secretary to Lord Keeper Egerton, he had been secretly married to Anne, Lady Egerton’s niece. Ruin stared him in the face when, on discovery of the marriage, he was dismissed. With a characteristic ‘conceit’ he ‘sent a sad letter to his wife,’ as Walton[53] says, ‘and signed it John Donne, Anne Done, Un-done.’
Having taken Orders at the instance of King James, he was soon afterwards ‘importuned by the grave Benchers of Lincoln’s Inn, who were once the companions and friends of his youth, to accept of their lecture.’ Before he finally left the Inn to be Dean of St. Paul’s, he laid the foundation-stone of the new Chapel, and at the consecration ceremony, 1623, Ascension Day, he preached a sermon on the text, ‘And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.’ So great was the throng of listeners that ‘two or three were endangered and taken up dead for the time with the extreme press.’ But Donne, great preacher as he was, lives, not by his sermons, but by his poems and by the Life with which the pen of Izaak Walton conferred immortality upon him.
Like the Master of the Temple, the Chaplain of Lincoln’s Inn presides over the Chapel and attends in Hall during term-time. A Preachership was instituted in 1581, and the office has been filled by such men as Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta and hymnologist, and Thomson, Archbishop of York. Amongst earlier Preachers may be mentioned Herring (1726), afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Warburton (1746), Bishop of Gloucester, who founded the Warburton Lectures on Religion, which are annually delivered in the Chapel.
The old coloured glass, representing Old Testament figures and the Twelve Apostles, made by Hall, of Fetter Lane, but probably designed by the Flemish artist, Bernard van Linge, is very good. It is contemporary with the original building, and was paid for by subscribers, who included in their number Noy, the Attorney-General, and Southampton and Pembroke, the friends of Shakespeare.
In the Vaults lie Prynne, whose grave is unmarked, and the youthful daughter of the great Lord Brougham (1839), the only woman ever buried here. Lord Wellesley composed a Latin epitaph to grace her tomb. It has no great merit as a composition.
The Old Hall stands at right angles to the Chapel. Older than the Gatehouse itself, it has been quite ruined by frequent alterations, restorations, and by hideous plastering. It was stuccoed by Bernasconi about the year 1800. ‘The Loover or Lanthorn,’ according to the Records of the Society, was ‘set up in the sixth of Edward VI.’
That the same customs obtained in Lincoln’s Inn as in the other Inns, and were celebrated in this Hall, is indicated by an order of the Society during the reign of Henry VIII., that the ‘King of Cockneys on Childermass Day should sit and have due service; and that he and all his officers should use honest manner and good order, without any waste or destruction making, in wine, brawn, chely, or other vitails ... and that Jack Straw and all his adherents should be banisht and no more be used in this House.’
It was in this Hall that the Lord Chancellor used to sit and hold his Court, under a picture by Hogarth of ‘S. Paul before Felix’ (1750), before the new Law Courts were built.
Adjoining the Hall, on the South side, was the Library. The building is now let out in chambers. This Library was founded by John Nethersale, a member of the Society, who bequeathed forty marks to be spent on the building and on Masses for the repose of his soul (1497). Ever since, it has been increased, and, passing from Old Square to Stone Buildings, and from Stone Buildings to its present noble home, has grown in wealth and usefulness.
Many of the volumes still retain the iron rings attached to their covers, by which, in old times, books in a Library were chained to the desks—as may be seen in the College and University Libraries at Oxford and Cambridge. The Library was further enriched by Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice, 1671, who bequeathed his MSS. to it.