298 
taught so large a portion of the com- 
munity to gaze upon one of the finest 
ornaments of the capital with horror 
and disgust, as it perpetuated a vile 
slander, emanating from a brutal fac- 
tion. 
“ Where London’s column pointing at the 
skies, : 
Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies,” 
exclaims the incensed poet. The witty 
Duke of Buckingham, more desirous to 
excite ridicule than to condemn injus- 
tice, is said to have written the follow- 
ing distich on the Monument in chalk. 
“ Here stand f, 
The Lord knows why : 
But if I fall, 
Have at ye all.” 
A piece of doggrel only worthy of re- 
cord as the extempore effusion of a 
nobleman,’ so ready and frequently so. 
powerful in his sallies.* Nearly oppo- 
site to this fast-decaying trophy of 
hatred, stood a large stone house, 
the habitation of our famous Black 
Prince, the white-plumed hero of Crecy 
and Poitiers ! ~He who, by the judicious 
disposition of his troops, first taught 
the art of war; and by the courtesy 
and magnanimity of his disposition, di- 
vested defeat of its most poignant sting, 
and obliged the vanquished to honour 
their conqueror. The graceful feathers 
which he wrested from the helm of a 
king, and the garter which he wore on 
his knee, are still the brightest orna- 
ments of the heir apparent and the peers 
of England. The most illustrious of the 
orders of knighthood,—that which has 
only been bestowed upon one com- 
moner, Sir RobertWalpole, and which, 
in the days of Camden, had been worn 
by twenty-two kings beside those who 
sate on the British throne,—was insti- 
tuted by his gallant father; one of our 
erudite historians observes, there is 
no good reason for rejecting the pic- 
turesque tale of the order’s origin. Ed- 
ward, we are told, having at a dance 
* We are told that the Duke occasioned 
the utter condemnation of a play of Dry- 
den’s by a witty impromptu. One of the 
characters exclaimed— 
*« My wound is great because it is so small.” 
And Buckingham instantly replied— 
“Then ’twould be greater were it none at all.” 
His own drama, however, did not escape 
criticism. We are informed, by Evelyn in 
his diary, that he went to see the rehearsal : 
then follows his opinion, “ A ridiculous 
farce and rhapsody, buffooning all plays, 
yet profane enough.” 
Walks in London.—The Monument. 
[ Nov. 1, 
picked up a garter, which the beautiful 
Countess of Salisburyhad dropped, and 
observing a sarcastic smile on the faces 
of the company, swore loudly, “ that 
the greatest amongst the spectators 
should be proud of wearing such a gar- 
ter,” and straightway founded the order, 
the motto, “ Honi soit qui mal y pense.” 
** Shame to the man who thinks amiss.” 
It must not, however, be concealed, that 
Bastelle, in his chronicle, speaking of this 
institution says, “‘ Howbeit some do af- 
ferme that this order beganne fyrst by 
King Richard Cure de Lyon, at the sege 
of the cytye of Acres, wherein his greate 
necessyte there were but 25 knighte 
that fyrmly and surelye abode by him, 
where he caused all them to weare 
thonges of blue leg there aboute their 
legges, and afterwards they were called 
the knightes of the blue thonge.” It 
wotld be needless to expatiate upon the 
deeds of the Black Prince, since the 
bare mention of his name is sufficient 
to recal his exploits to the mind, but 
those who are curious respecting the 
domestic ornaments of the thirteenth 
century, may be gratified by an extract 
from the will of the Princess Joan, 
widow of the warlike Edward, who be- 
queathed to King Richard II. “ her new 
bed of red velvet, embroidered in ostrich 
feathers of silver, and leopards’ heads of 
gold; also to her son Thomas, Earl of 
Kent, her bed of red camak, paled with 
red and rays of gold; and to John Hol- 
land, her other son, one bed of red ca- 
mak,”’ a description which implies mag; 
nificence, scarcely to be surpassed by 
the luxury of any succeeding age. At 
this period, the invitations given by 
Edward III. to foreign artificers, occa- 
sioned the general use of clocks through- 
out England; and though the wars in 
France drained the kingdom both of 
men and money, the English acquired 
many conveniences, before unknown to 
them, by their intercourse with their 
continental neighbours. In Stow’s time, 
the residence of the Conqueror of France 
had become a common hostelrie, having 
a black bell for the sign. Near this 
spot stood a mansion, called Poultney’s 
Inn, the usual title given to the habita- 
tions of great persons; it took its name 
from its founder, Sir John Poultney, 
four times Lord Mayor of London, and 
was afterwards tenanted by the Hollands, 
Dukes of Exeter, a potent but most 
unfortunate race. Pennant remarks 
upon the tomb of John Holland, in St. 
Catherine’s Church, East Smithfield, 
that “he died in his bed in 1447, a 
