The old brick gateway in Chancery Lane is familiar to most Londoners. It ranks with the stone gateway of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell, with the tower of St. James's Palace, and with the gate of Lambeth Palace, as one of the three or four relics of the Gothic style left in London. Even Gothic churches are scarce, while specimens of the domestic style are still scarcer. It need hardly be said that this tower has been constantly threatened, by "restorers" on the one hand, as well as by open destroyers on the other. It was built while Cardinal Wolsey was Chancellor, and was still new when Sir Thomas More sat in the hall as his successor. The windows have been altered, and the groining of the archway has been changed for a flat roof. It is said that the bricks of which the gate is built were made in the Coney Garth, which much later remained an open field, but is now New Square. A pillar, said to have been designed by Inigo Jones, stood in New Square, or, as it was called from a lessee at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Searle's Court. This ground and the site of the Law Courts formed part of Fickett's Field, the tilting-place of the Templars. Over the arch of the gate are carved three shields of arms. In the centre are the fleurs-de-lis and lions of Henry VIII., crowned within the garter. On the north side are the arms of Sir Thomas Lovell, who was a bencher of the Inn, and who rebuilt the gate in 1518. At the other side is the shield of Lacy. It was Henry Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1311, by whom the lawyers are said to have been first established here. It is certain that soon after his death the house and gardens, which before his time had belonged in part to the Blackfriars, and which he had obtained on their removal to the corner of the City since called after them, were in the occupation of a society of students of the law. An adjoining house and grounds belonged to the Bishops of Chichester: Bishop's Court and Chichester's Rents are still local names. Richard Sampson, Bishop in 1537, made over the estate to Suliard, a bencher of the Inn, and his son in 1580 granted it to the lawyers. The gate is at 76, Chancery Lane, formerly New Street, and later Chancellor's Lane. In Old Square, the first court we enter, are situated the ancient hall and the chapel, the south side being occupied by chambers, some of them ancient. The turret in the corner, and one at the south-western corner, behind the hall, are very like those at St. James's Palace, and probably date very soon after the gate. Here at No. 13 Thurloe, Oliver Cromwell's Secretary of State, concealed a large collection of letters, which were discovered long after and have been published. The hall is low, and cannot be praised for any external architectural features of interest. The brickwork, which is older by twelve years than that of the gate, is concealed under a coat of stucco. There are three Gothic windows on each side, and the dimensions are about 70 feet by 32 feet high. The interior is not much more imposing, but the screen, in richly-carved oak, set up in 1565, is handsome, and there is a picture by Hogarth of St. Paul before Felix.
Mr. Spilsbury, the librarian, seems to have proved conclusively that the chapel, which stands at right angles to the old hall, was a new building when it was consecrated in 1623. There is no direct evidence that it was designed by Inigo Jones; on the other hand, there is a record in existence which testifies that the Society intended to employ him. John Clarke was the builder. There was an older chapel in a ruinous condition, which there is reason to believe had been that of the Bishops, as it was dedicated to St. Richard of Chichester. Mr. Spilsbury quotes one of the Harleian manuscripts, written in or about 1700, in which Inigo is named as the architect, and Vertue's engraving of 1751 also mentions him. The chapel is elevated on an open crypt, which was intended for a cloister. Butler's "Hudibras" speaks of the lawyers as waiting for customers between "the pillar-rows of Lincoln's Inn." There were three bays, divided by buttresses, each of which was surmounted by a stone vase, a picturesque but incongruous arrangement, which was altered in the early days of the Gothic revival, being the first of a series of "restorations" to which the chapel has been subjected. A more serious offence against taste was the erection of a fourth bay at the west end, by which the old proportions are lost. It looks worst on the outside, however, and the fine old windows of glass stained in England, apparently after a Flemish design, are calculated to disarm criticism. Mr. Spilsbury attributes them to Bernard and Abraham van Linge, but the glass was made by Hall, of Fetter Lane. The monuments commemorate, among others, Spencer Perceval, murdered in 1812, and a daughter of Lord Brougham, who died in 1839, and was buried in the crypt. The office of chaplain was in existence as early as the reign of Henry VI. The preachership was instituted in 1581, and among those who held the office were John Donne, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, who preached the first sermon when the chapel was new. Herring, another preacher, was made Archbishop of York in 1743, and of Canterbury in 1747. Another Archbishop of York, William Thomson, was preacher here, and was promoted in 1862. The greatest of the list was, perhaps, Reginald Heber, though he was only here for a year before he was appointed Bishop of Calcutta.
The garden extends along the east side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the New Square occupying the south portion, the new hall and library the middle part, and the west part of Stone Buildings facing the northern part. A terrace divides them, and there is a gate into the Fields, the roadway leading north to Great Turnstile and Holborn. North of the Old Buildings and the chapel is Stone Buildings, in a handsome classical style, with a wing which looks into Chancery Lane near its Holborn end, and is half concealed by low shop-fronts. The history of the Stone Buildings is connected with that of the new hall and the library. Hardwick, one of the last of the school which might be connected with Chambers, the Adams, Payne, and other architects of the English Renaissance, was employed to complete Stone Buildings, begun by Sir Robert Taylor, before the end of the eighteenth century. Hardwick was at work in 1843, and his initials and a date, "P. H., 1843," are on the south gable of the hall. The new Houses of Parliament had just set the fashion for an attempt to revive the Tudor style, and Hardwick added to it the strong feeling for proportion which he had imbibed with his classical training. This gable is exceedingly satisfactory, the architect having given it a dignity wanting in most modern Gothic. It is of brick, with diagonal fretwork in darker bricks, as in the gate tower. The library had been removed to the Stone Buildings in 1787 from a small room south of the old hall, and, more accommodation being required, Hardwick designed a library to adjoin the new hall. The two looked very well, the hall being of six bays, with a great bow-window at the north end. The interior is embellished with heraldry in stained glass, carved oak, metal work, and fresco painting. At the north end, over the daïs, is Mr. G. F. Watts' great picture, "The School of Legislation." The hall is 120 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 62 feet high. The roof of oak is an excellent imitation of an open timber roof of the fifteenth century, and is carved and gilt. The windows were filled with heraldry by Willement, and show us the arms of the legal luminaries who have adorned Lincoln's Inn, many of whom are also represented by busts and painted portraits. The hall is connected with an ample kitchen, and a series of butteries, pantries, and sculleries of suitable size.
Adjoining the hall, the library and a reading-room, which as first built were calculated to enhance the dignity of the hall, were soon found to be too small. Sir Gilbert Scott was called in to add to them. The delicate proportions of Hardwick suffered in the process, the younger architect having evidently thought more of the details, as was the fashion of his school. The additions were carried out in 1873, and the library is now 130 feet long, but shuts out a large part of the view northward through the gardens. It is believed that Ben Jonson worked here as a bricklayer, and we are told by Fuller that he had a trowel in his hand and a book in his pocket. Aubrey says his mother had married a bricklayer, and that he was sent to Cambridge by a bencher who heard him repeating Homer as he worked. Of actual members of eminence, Lincoln's Inn numbers almost as many as the Inner Temple. Sir Thomas More among these comes first, but his father, who was a Judge, should be named with him. The handsome Lord Keeper Egerton, ancestor of so many eminent holders of the Bridgwater title, belonged to Lincoln's Inn during the reign of Elizabeth. The second Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, was a student here in 1647, and Lenthall, his contemporary, was Reader. A little later Sir Matthew Hale, whose father had also been a member, was of this inn, and became Chief Justice in 1671. The first Earl of Mansfield was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, and four or five Lords Chancellor in a row, including Bathurst, Campbell, St. Leonards, and Brougham.
From the antiquarian or the picturesque point of view Lincoln's Inn is not so fascinating as the two Temples. It looks rather frowning from Chancery Lane, where it rises against the western sky. The old hall and the chapel are rather curious than beautiful, and cannot compare with Middle Temple Hall or the Church of the Knights. The fine buildings which overlook the gardens and trees of Lincoln's Inn Fields owe much to their open situation. The Stone Buildings where they look on the green turf of the garden are really magnificent, but they stand back from the public gaze, and are but seldom seen by the casual visitor.
CHANCERY LANE.
Strype says the Lane "received the name of Chancellor's Lane in the time of Edward I. The way was so foul and miry that John le Breton, Custos of London, and the Bishop of Chichester, kept bars with staples across it to prevent carts from passing. The roadway was repaired in the reign of Edward III., and acquired its present name under his successor, Richard II."
About half of the Lane falls within the district, being in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn. In it at the present time there is nothing worthy of remark, except the gateway of Lincoln's Inn, mentioned elsewhere. Offices, flats, and chambers in the solid modern style rise above shops. Near the north end is the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit. On the opposite side the old buildings of Lincoln's Inn frown defiance. Chancery Lane has for long been the chief connection between the Strand and Holborn, but will soon be superseded by Kingsway further west.
Near the north end are Southampton Buildings, rigidly modern, containing the Birkbeck Bank and Chambers. They are built on the site once covered by Southampton House, which came to William, Lord Russell, by his marriage with the daughter and heiress of the last Lord Southampton. It is difficult to realize now the scene thus described by J. Wykeham Archer: "It was in passing this house, the scene of his domestic happiness, on his way to the scaffold in Lincoln's Inn Fields, that the fortitude of the martyr for a moment forsook him; but, overmastering his emotion, he said, 'The bitterness of death is now past.'"
Cursitor Street was in the eighteenth century noted for its sponging-houses, and many a reference is made to it in contemporary literature. We are now in the Liberties of the Rolls, a parish in itself.