OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 45 



and worthy executor, who caused this very illumination to be made, 

 was, we learn, a great patron of the art, then, for the first time, in- 

 troduced into England, "^'e read in Stow's' Surveij of London, that 

 "John Carpenter, Town Clerk of London, in the reign of Henry V., 

 caused, with great expences, to be curiously painted upon board, about 

 the North Cloister of St. Paul's, a monument of Death leading all 

 estates, with the speeches of Death and answers of every estate." 

 Is it not then very probable that Carpenter had caused a portrait taken 

 of his dear and excellent friend "Wliittington, wliich, doubtless, shared 

 the fate of many other valuable records and specimens of art, in that 

 all devouring element, the great fire of London in 1666." 



I Stow's Survey of London, vol. 1. p. 261., and Walpole's Anecd<ites of Painting, 

 vol. 1. p. 71. 



m The over zealous promoters of the Reformation are also culpable for the 

 destruction of some of our most valuable historical documents. At the time of the 

 dissolution of the Abbey of Tewkesbury, the records and evidences belonging to 

 the monastery were directed to be left in the treasury there, under the custody 

 of John "Whittington, Knight. The houses and buildings assigned to remain 

 undcfaced, were also committed to the custody of John "Whittington (Bennett's 

 Hist, of TewJcesbury, 8vo. 1830, p. 12-5.) This John Whittington was probably 

 John of Pauntley and Xotgrove, who was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1-517; 

 or it might have been John, son of Richard, the direct ancestor of the "^Tiitting- 

 tons of Saint Briavels and Hamswell, though I have discovered no other evidence 

 that either of these Johns received the honor of knighthood. 



The portions of the monasteiy deemed to be superfluous were the Church, 

 Chapels, Cloisters, Chapter-house, Library, &c. These, too, were committed to 

 Sir John "WTiittington's custody. How little he cared for the Library is shown 

 in the fact that the greater part of the records belonging to the monastery have 

 been lost. What an unworthy representative of that AVhittington to whose 

 suggestions we are indebted for the preservation of the Becords of the City of 

 London, and the compilation of the Liber Albtts I Would that there were more 

 Richard Whittingtons and fewer Sir Johns ! 



Our materials for English history have, at various times, suffered great 

 losses. First, from the way in which, in the time of the Romans, the invaders 

 barbarously endeavoured to destroy all vestiges of the history of the previous 

 inhabitants of the island. Secondly, from the ruthless destruction of the 

 Saxons and Danes. Then, again, in the rebellions of Wat Tyler and Jack 

 Straw, there was a wholesale destruction made of eveiy document they could 

 get at. The injudicious promoters of the Reformation next gave another 

 serious blow to our country's e\'idence3. Bale, who was made Bishop of 

 Ossery by Edward VI., and was obliged to fly to HollaQd on the accession 



