OF THE 2IIDDLE AGES. 69 



emaciated with sickness ; he has a night cap on his head, of the 

 same shape as those still worn bj- gentlemen, (when they wear 

 any at all,) and he is supported by a short pillow and a longer 

 pillow, or bolster. His bedside is surroimded by his executors, 

 whom there is no mistaking, for, according to the custom of early 

 paintings and illuminations, their names are written on their robes, 

 and the likenesses arc doubtless original. AVIiite's name alone is ab- 

 sent, but his clerical robe and tonsure supply the defect. Grove is a 

 man of considerable stature, of grave and venerable aspect, with a 

 goodly beard, inclining to grey, his hands apparently lifted in the 

 attitude of offering counsel, or, more probably, of approval of the sug- 

 gestion of the dying man who describes with the finger of his right 

 hand against his left arm, with as much emphasis as his failing breath 

 will allow, how his wishes on certain points are to be carried out.* 

 Coven tre stands at the bed's head, on the right hand side, in the atti- 

 tude of the greatest attention, the curtain being drawn aside on purpose, 

 and his head bent forward towards the pillow that he may catch every 

 whisper of his dying friend. On Whittington's left, occupying a pro- 

 minent feature of the back ground, is a man in the habit of a lay bro- 

 ther, who is doubtless the physician (medicine having been the study 

 of the monks of those days); with his left hand he appears to be reach- 

 ing down a bottle of medicine, and holding it up to the light, or shaking 

 it, that the ingredients may be well mixed. The rest of the group is 

 formed of twelve bedesmen, recipients of this pious man's charities ; 



in those days, and until Henry the Eighth's time, people wore no garments in bed, 

 either male or female. — Strutt, vol. II., p. 335. 



Mr. Eiley, in his Introduction to the Ziber Albtis, says tnat " night gowns, or 

 night shirts, were in use in those days, and that it was not by any means wiiverscdli/ 

 the fashion in the middle ages, as antiquarians have asserted, to tumble into bed 

 in a state of nudity," This contemporary illumination, however, wonderfully 

 bears out what Strutt and other antiquaries have asserted, and clearly shows what 

 the general custom was ; for no one woxild pretend to say that Richard Whittington, 

 thrice, if not four times, Lord Mayor of London, and money lender to the Crown, 

 could not afford a night gown, if he wished to have one ; for if he could not aftbrd 

 one, who else could ? It clearly was not the fashion, however singular it may ap- 

 pear to our notions of cleanliness, decency, or propriety. 



k Du-ections for the completion of his College, and the prison at Newgate, 

 doubtless formed the subject of his instructions. It is interesting also to to find. 



