62. Part of Barnard's Inn, Holborn, 1886 (Water-colour).
(15516 × 1238) D. 54-1896.
63. The old Hall, Barnard's Inn, 1886 (Water-colour).
Barnard's Inn, on the south side of Holborn, was originally called Mackworth's Inn, from having been the residence of Dr. John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln in the reign of Henry VI. His successor and the Chapter of Lincoln leased it to Lyonel Barnard, from whom was derived the name by which it has so long been known. As early as the middle of the fifteenth century it was let to legal students, for Stow tells us that anno 1454 there was "a great fray" in Fleet Street between "men of court" and the inhabitants there, in the course of which the Queen's attorney was killed. For this act the principal governors of Clifford's Inn, Furnival's Inn, and Barnard's Inn, were sent prisoners to Hertford Castle. Barnard's Inn, like its neighbour, Staple Inn, was a place of legal study—an Inn of Chancery attached to Gray's Inn. The establishment was governed by a Principal and various Ancients. A Reader also was appointed from Gray's Inn, and great respect was shown to him. The Principal, accompanied by the Ancients and gentlemen in commons in their gowns, used to meet him on his coming and conduct him into the hall. Barnard's Inn had latterly no more than a nominal connection with Gray's Inn, the houses being let out as chambers, and not occupied by students of the law. In 1854 the Society consisted of a Principal, nine Ancients, and five Companions. The advantage of being a Companion was stated to be "the dining," and the advantage of being an Ancient, "dinners and some little fees." In 1888 the whole was advertised for sale, and early in the nineties it was bought by the Mercers' Company and adapted for the purposes of their school, which was removed thither from College Hill in 1894.
The hall, still in existence, is only 36 feet long by 22 feet in width, and faces the narrow passage by which one enters from Holborn. It certainly dates from the foundation of the building in the fifteenth century, but has been altered and renovated from time to time. A louvre still adorns the roof, designed doubtless for the emission of smoke from a central hearth, but it must have been closed many years ago. There is at each end a projecting fireplace, apparently Tudor, though the stonework has of late been renewed. Their carved wooden overmantels have friezes in style belonging to the sixteenth century, which surmount panelling of the linen pattern. Similar panelling decorates the walls. Although this has been much renewed, portions of it are original. The drawing of the interior (No. 61) shows portraits above the panelling; the full length over the western mantelpiece, representing Chief Justice Holt, is now at the National Portrait Gallery. The heraldic glass in the windows dates mostly from the eighteenth century. The figure seated at a table is clad in one of the cloaks which were worn on certain occasions by the Ancients. Beyond the hall was a somewhat irregular quadrangle; part of it is represented in the painting No. 62. The quaint gabled houses to the spectator's right, which were close to the yard of the White Horse Inn, disappeared in the year 1893. Those in the centre of the drawing, their fronts abutting on Fetter Lane, remained until quite recently. At No. 2 dwelt Peter Woulfe, F.R.S., known as the last true believer in Alchemy, who here strove at the impossible task of making gold. Sir Humphrey Davy said of him that he used to hang up written prayers and recommendations of his processes to Providence. The chambers were then so filled with furniture and apparatus that it was difficult to reach the fireside. His remedy for illness was a journey to Edinburgh and back by coach, and a cold taken on one of these expeditions brought on inflammation of the lungs, from which he died. Other houses in the quadrangle have been replaced by the new school buildings. There are various references to Barnard's Inn, not quite of a complimentary nature, in "Great Expectations," by Charles Dickens.
(1538 × 1858) D. 71-1896.
64. Old Butchers' Shops, Clare Market, destroyed 1891 (Black and white).
Much property in this neighbourhood was owned by the Earls of Clare of the Holles Family, and John Holles, second Earl, whose mansion was at the end of Clare Court, Drury Lane, founded the market soon after the middle of the seventeenth century. A stone bas-relief of the Holles Arms, surmounted by an earl's coronet with the date 1659, was formerly at the corner of Gilbert passage, and afterwards on the house numbered 8, Clare Street. The butchers of Clare Market were for years flourishing, and here "Orator" Henley erected his "gilt tub" commemorated by Pope, and used to preach on such Scripture texts or subjects as admitted of a burlesque treatment. By degrees the place degenerated, and in 1891 most of the buildings here were cleared away; among others, the old "bulk-shop," in the foreground. It stood at the north-east corner of Holles Street, and adjoining it on the north were other shops of a similar kind. For some time before their destruction they had been unoccupied. According to Oldys, Nat Lee, the dramatic poet, when one night returning overladen with wine from the Bear and Harrow in Butcher Row, Strand, through Clare Market, to his lodging in Duke (now Sardinia) Street, "fell down on the ground, as some say, according to others on a bulk, and was killed or stifled in the snow." He was buried in the parish church of St. Clement Danes, 6th May, 1692.
(638 × 812) D. 88-1896.