The lodge or entrance to this side from the lane stands back behind picturesque iron gates with red brick piers surmounted by great urns. Over the foot entry is a Latin inscription, and in the street on a stone slab set in the brickwork under a projecting cornice are the words:
Pro omnibus mortus christus ut et qui vivunt jam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit.
In Ave Maria Lane are the ordinary business houses.
Amen Corner formerly ran from Ave Maria Lane as far as the wall. The present court has been constructed on part of the ground formerly occupied by the Oxford Arms Inn. Stationers’ Hall (see p. [199]) was also built against the wall; its small garden is the old burial-ground of St. Martin, Ludgate Hill.
St. Martin’s Lane had St. Martin-le-Grand on the east side. This was a house for Augustine canons, and William of Wykeham was one of its deans. It formed a precinct with its own liberty, which survived the Dissolution. In the sanctuary Forrest, the murderer of the little princes in the Tower, died (see Mediæval London, vol. ii. p. 234). Stow tells the story of the famous action in which the City challenged the claims of sanctuary set up by St. Martin’s in the year 1442.
“This college claimed great privileges of sanctuary and otherwise, as appeareth in a book, written by a notary of that house, about the year 1442, 19 Henry VI., wherein, amongst other things, is set down and declared, that on the 1st of September, in the year aforesaid, a soldier, prisoner in Newgate, as he was led by an officer towards the Guildhall of London, there came out of Panyer Alley five of his fellowship, and took him from the officer, brought him into sanctuary at the west door of St. Martin’s church, and took grithe of that place; but the same day Philip Malpas and Robert Marshall, then sheriffs of London, with many others, entered the said church, and forcibly took out with them the said five men thither fled, led them fettered to the Compter, and from thence, chained by the necks, to Newgate; of which violent taking the dean and chapter in large manner complained to the king, and required him, as their patron, to defend their privileges, like as his predecessors had done, etc. All which complaint and suit the citizens by their counsel, Markham, sergeant at the law, John Carpenter, late common clerk of the city, and other, learnedly answered, offering to prove that the said place of St. Martin had no such immunity or liberty as was pretended; namely, Carpenter offered to lose his livelihood, if that church had more immunity than the least church in London. Notwithstanding, after long debating of this controversy, by the king’s commandment, and assent of his council in the starred chamber, the chancellor and treasurer sent a writ unto the sheriffs of London, charging them to bring the said five persons with the cause of their taking and withholding afore the king in his Chancery, on the vigil of Allhallows. On which day the said sheriffs, with the recorder and counsel of the City, brought and delivered them accordingly, afore the said lords; whereas the chancellor, after he had declared the king’s commandment, sent them to St. Martin’s, there to abide freely, as in a place having franchises, whiles them liked, etc.” (Stow). The whole of the district is now being gradually covered by the mighty buildings of the General Post Office, which has inherited the name of its predecessor, and is known as St. Martin-le-Grand. For the history see London in the Nineteenth Century, p. 307.
THE CITY BOUNDARY, ALDERSGATE
Aldersgate, formerly called Aldrechegate and Aldresgate, was built during the Saxon occupation. It is named in the laws of Ethelred. It is also mentioned in the Calendar of Wills, but not very early. Riley contains some interesting notices of the gate and the ward.
Thus in 1277 an inquest is held on the unlucky Matilda, wife of Henry le Coffeur, who fell down, being drunk, broke her right arm, and soon after died, and was laid in the house of the said Henry in the ward of Anketin de Auvergne, i.e. Aldersgate. In 1339 the Chamberlain of Guildhall expended 20s. 4d. on the pavement of the gate of Aldersgate, the pavement being one of cobbled stones laid close and rammed down. The first pavements were those laid down in much frequented places such as the City gates and markets, where otherwise the feet of the passers-by would make pools of mud. In 1346 a certain Simon is hanged for robbery in the ward of Aldersgate—observe that the name of the alderman is no longer given to the ward. In 1350 mention is made of shops within Aldersgate. In 1375, there are ordinances, already referred to, concerning “foreign” poulterers. In 1379 there are ordinances respecting the cattle-market of Smithfield without Aldersgate. In 1391 a scrivener stands in pillory without Aldersgate for forgery.