History of the Company. 67 



but the Company's tenant at the time refused to 

 rebuild it, notwithstanding that they offered him 

 an extended lease. The stones remaininir in the 

 ruins of the Hall after the Great Fire of London 

 were ordered to be collected and secured in the 

 vaults of the " Mermaid." 



How far the '' Mermaid Tavern " is identical 

 with the ''Mermaid" of Jonson, Beaumont and 

 Fletcher, and contemporary wits, is a question 

 which, notwithstanding its attractiveness, w^e 

 refrain from entering upon. All the property 

 owned by the Saddlers' Company in Cheapside 

 was situated on the north side of the street 

 between Foster Lane and Gutter Lane, and has 

 been retained by them to the present day. It 

 may be mentioned that the position of this '* IMer- 

 maid " is clearly discernible in La Serre's print 

 attached, which represents it as situated some 

 fifteen houses westward of St. Peter, at the corner 

 of Wood Street, a distance which, if any one will 

 take the trouble to inspect that part of Cheapside, 

 allocates it with a fair amount of precision to the 

 position claimed for It, namely, midway between 

 Gutter Lane and Foster Lane. 



In the immediate vicinity of Cheapside or West- 

 chepe stood two famous institutions repeatedly 

 mentioned in the Order Books of the Company. 

 These were the Compters or Counters. They 

 were prisons for debt and minor offences, and 

 were under the control of the Sheriff One stood 

 in the Poultry, upon the site of the present Grocers' 

 Alley, the other on the east side of Wood Street. 



