128 THE LIFE OF 



I CHAP. And when he died, his goods of all sorts came to about 



1000/. ; which was most of it spent upon his funerals. 

 His diiapi- But notwithstanding all the charges and expenses which 

 the Bishop bestowed in necessary reparations, such were the 

 decays of that great structure of St. Paul s, and his ancient 

 palace at London, that three years after the Bishop s death 

 the cost of putting them in repair was computed at 651 3/. 

 14s. as Bishop Bancroft, his next successor but one, brought 

 For which in ; who sued Mr. Aylmer, the Bishop s son and heir, for 

 croft sues dilapidations, (as the Bishop had sued his predecessor,) and 

 his son. obtained a sentence in the Arches against him for 421 QL Is. 

 8d. But, to speak the truth, Paul s church had been in a 

 decaying condition before Aylmer came to the see ; and 

 what he and his predecessors could do themselves, or gather 

 from others, towards the repairs, could not effect it. The 

 sentence aforesaid took not effect, because the personal estate 

 was not sufficient to satisfy the sum awarded. Bancroft 

 thereupon desired the Lord Treasurer s good liking and 

 furtherance, to prefer a bill in the High Court of Parlia 

 ment for sale of so much of his lands as should suffice to 

 discharge the dilapidations, considering the said lands were 

 bought with part of that money that should have kept the 

 church and houses in repair : and added, that it had cost 

 him a thousand marks to repair the house at London, being 

 ready to fall down when he came to it. It was said also by 

 the said Bancroft, that Bishop Aylmer made 6000/. of his 

 woods, and left scarce enough to find the present Bishop 

 yearly fuel ; and that he let out leases, some for an hundred 

 years and above, and some for fifty. But he now suing 

 Mr. Aylmer at the law, some caution must be had in the 

 reader how he takes all in the strictest sense, especially 

 having no opportunity of hearing the other side, and re 

 membering what the Bishop himself in his lifetime urged 

 concerning his woods. I do not know what issue this came 

 to : it seems Mr. Aylmer set him at defiance, and said, Let 

 the Bishop of London repair how he list, but he should re 

 pair nothing with his money. But I have been told by 

 some of his posterity, that he was fain to part with a round 



