The house to which these arms belonged had been built in the latter part of the seventeenth century, possibly before the great fire, which did not extend so far north. In the year 1705 it came into the hands of Herman Olmius, merchant, descended from an ancient family of Arlon in the Duchy of Luxembourg, and naturalised by Act of Parliament, 29 Charles II. He was a member of the French Protestant Church in Threadneedle Street, and made a large fortune; he died in 1718. His eldest son was a deputy-governor of the Bank of England, and his grandson was raised to the Irish peerage as Lord Waltham, but the title became extinct in the next generation. For many years, beginning in 1783, the well-known Huguenot family of Minet occupied the house, and in 1838 Messrs. Thomas, Son & Lefevre were established here, the last-named being a brother of the late Lord Eversley. This house, a drawing of which the writer hopes at some future time to add to the collection, was remarkable as having come down to us in almost unchanged condition from its earliest time. To the west it formerly overlooked the Drapers' Garden, and it had a garden of its own about half an acre in extent, with brewery, coach-house, and stables. Inside, there was a good staircase, some of the rooms were charmingly panelled, a strong room and parts of the kitchen were lined with Dutch tiles, and in front of a Purbeck marble mantelpiece there was a coat of arms in white marble (No. 37), with various foreign quarterings. It may be described as follows:—
Quarterly: 1. Per fess azure and argent, a fess counter embattled or; in chief a mullet of six points of the second; in base on a mount vert an elm tree proper. OLMIUS.
2. Sable, a dexter hand proper, issuing out of a cloud and grasping five wheat ears or. GERVERDINE.
3. In chief a deer's head couped azure, crowned argent; in base six besants or. REYNSTEIN.
4. Azure, a goat erect argent, hoofed and horned or, browsing on a vine proper. CAPPRÉ.
On an escutcheon of pretence sable, a herring or in bend. DRIGUE.
These are the arms of Herman Olmius, whose name was the Latinised form of the Flemish or Dutch word for elm. The Gerverdine arms are those of his mother Margareta; the arms on the escutcheon of pretence are those of his wife Judith. No. 21, Austin Friars was swept away in 1888. The boundary at the end of its garden had been formed by one side of the premises known as No. 23, Great Winchester Street, to which allusion will next be made.
(434 × 414) D. 38-1896.
38. Kitchen Range in No. 23, Great Winchester Street, 1889 (Black and white).
(10 × 1212) D. 40-1896.