70 TEE MODEL MERCHANT 



the foremost' of them carries in his right hand a rosary, and in his left 

 a staff; the sorrow depicted on the countenances of this group is as 

 well expressed as so minute an illumination will admit. One is in- 

 clined, on looking on this picture, to utter the exclamation, "let me 

 die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." The 

 drawing bears the strictest examination of a powerful magnifying glass, 

 when the character of each individual comes out with very striking effect, 

 especially that of John Carpenter, small in stature, (bearing out his 

 soubriquet of Jenkin, or little John) active, zealous, with his hands 

 stretched out, evidently full of admiration of his friend's munificent 

 disposal of his worldly substance, and fully purposed, as far as he is 

 couccrned, to discharge faithfully the trust reposed in him. The 

 tapestry of the room, the worked border of counterpane, the marquetrie 

 of the floor, are all indications of the wealth of the proprietor of such 

 a chamber. According to the desire expressed in his will, his body 

 was buried by his executors in that Church, St. Michaels, Paternoster, 

 to which he had been so liberal a benefactor, and in which his wife 

 had been previously buried. Here, until destroyed by the Great Fire 

 of London, his monument might have been seen, and thanks to worthy 

 old Stow, his Epitaph has been preserved to us as follows : — 



" Ut fragrans nardus 



Fama fuit iste Richardus 



Albificans Yillam, '" 



Qui jxiste rexerat illam, 



Flos mercatonim, 



Fundator presbyteroruni, 



Sic et cgcnorum, 



Testis sit ccrtus eorum ; 



Omnibus cxcmplum, 



Barathrum vincendo inorosum ; » 



that the drinking fountain at Billingsgate, alluded to in the Note at p. 54 of this 

 Memoir, must have entered into the number of the objects left to be completed by 

 his executors, for we find that it was erected by them according to his orders. 

 See Peter Cunningham's London. 



I This is supposed by Stiype to be Robert Chesterton, the first tutor of the Alms 

 House.— Sec also Dugdales3/b«OT<fVo«, Bolin's Edition, Charter of Foundation, y>.1A.A. 



m "Albificans Villam" is a play upon the name of Whiting — ton, or town. 



M " Overcoming the sad gulf" may cither signify (1) his having raised himself 

 from poverty to riches, or it may mean (2) his bridging over the diflerence between 



