History of the Company. 125 



be done with care and speede." The result of 

 the proposal is, however, not recorded. 



The same month, the Company being informed 



jg g^ that the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and 



Loan to William Common Council had agreed to ad- 



and Mary. yance a Considerable loan to the 

 King and Queen, upon the security of the 

 hereditary revenue to be settled on their Majes- 

 ties by Act of Parliament, at the rate of six per 

 cent, interest, decided to advance ^100. In 

 order, however, to furnish this sum they were 

 reduced to borrowing it of one of their members, 

 which they did at five per cent. This was 

 followed by another loan of ^100 to the Crown 

 six years later, which was raised in a similar 

 manner. Both loans, however, were duly re- 

 paid with interest. 



About this period Saddlers' Hall becomes 

 ^. ^. , , associated with the name of Sir 



hir Richard 



Biackmore and Richard Blackmore, the epic poet. 



Saddlers' Hall. ^ i ^^ i . . ttt-i 



one 01 the Court physicians to Wil- 

 liam HI. and Oueen Anne. Blackmore was 

 formerly a schoolmaster, but he exchanged his 

 profession for that of medicine, and supplemented 

 this again by indulging his taste for poetry. His 

 poems, which are ponderous and voluminous, 

 earned him favour at the Court, but although 

 Addison considered his '' Creation " one '' of the 

 most useful and noble productions of our English 

 verse,'" the merits of his works has not been 

 sufficient to earn a similar judgment by posterity. 



K 2 



