6o History of the Company. 



He returns the former Deed of Svirrender, and offers to grant the 

 Company a New Charter. — Abdication of James II. and Succession 

 of William III. and Mary II. — The Company propose to raise two 

 Dragoons. — Loans to William III. Repaid. ^ — Sir Richard Blackmore 

 and Saddlers' Hall.- — Saddlers' Hall in the Eighteenth Century ; De- 

 scription of, by Hatton and Maitland. — Entry of George I. into 

 London. — "A Good Trumpett and Kettledrum." — The Company 

 in iheir " Stands." — Frederick, Prince of Wales, visits Saddlers' 

 Hall, 1736. — Accepts the Freedom of the Company, and is elected 

 Perpetual Master. — Presents his and the Princess's Pictures. — The 

 Freedom of the Company conferred on Members of his Household. 

 — Birth of George III. — The Company attend and congratulate 

 Princess Augusta. — -A Bonfire in Cheapside, " when the Princess is 

 brought to Bed." — -The Scotch Rebellion ; Devotion of the Com- 

 pany. — Death of the Prince in 1751. — Voluntary Fund for the 

 Defence of the Country. — Saddlers' Hall partially destroyed in 

 1815 ; completely destroyed in 182 1 ; re-built in 1822. — Worthless 

 Saddles destroyed in 1822. — Aldf-rman Sir Peter Laurie's Mayor- 

 alty. — -Processions by Water. — Almshouses at Isleworth. — Saddlers' 

 Company Prizes for improvements in Military Saddles. — Livery 

 Companies' Commission, 1880. 



E have now arrived at a period when the 

 earliest extant minutes of the Company 

 commence, and when, in consequence, 

 we cease to be dependent upon the 

 records of the Corporation and upon the informa- 

 tion derivable from other sources. The condition 

 The Company in of the Company in the beginning of 

 \he^e5emeenth^^^^ Seventeenth century, as it Is ex- 

 century, hiblted to us In the light of their own 

 records, presents a peculiarly Interesting picture. 

 The Company then represented practically the 

 whole saddlery craft of London, and the powers 

 vested In them by their Charter from Elizabeth, 

 and by their ordinances, constituted them a very 

 impermni in iniperio for all purposes touching the 

 problems and customs of the trade. They fixed 



