100 HUGH MYDDELTON, GOLDSMITH AND PART II. 



as by frequent debasement. 1 It was to the goldsmiths 

 that persons in want of money then resorted, as tliry 

 would now resort to money-lenders and bankers ; and 

 their notes or warrants of deposit circulated as money, 

 and suggested the establishment of a bank-note issue, 

 similar to our present system of bullion and paper 

 currency. They held the largest proportion of the 

 precious metals in their possession ; hence, when Sir 

 Thomas Gresham, one of the earliest bankers, died, it 

 was found that the principal part of his wealth was com- 

 prised in gold chains. 2 



The place in which Myddelton's goldsmith's shop was 

 situated was in Bassishaw (now called Basinghall) Street, 

 and he lived in the overhanging tenement above it, as 

 was then the custom of city merchants. Few, if any, 

 lived away from their places of business. The roads 

 into the country, close at hand, were impassable in bad 

 weather, and dangerous at all times. Basing Hall was 

 only about a bow-shot from the City Wall, beyond which 

 lay Finsbury Fields, the archery ground of London, which 

 extended from the open country to the very wall itself, 

 where stood Moor Gate. The London of that day con- 

 sisted almost exclusively of what is now called The City ; 

 and there were few or no buildings east of Aldgate, 

 north of Cripplegate, or west of Smithfield. At the 

 accession of James I. there were only a few rows of 

 thatched cottages in the Strand, along which, on the 

 river's side, the boats lay upon the beach. At the same 

 time there were groves of trees in Finsbury, and green 

 pastures in Holborn ; Clerkenwell was a village ; St. 

 Pancras boasted only of a little church standing in 

 meadows ; and St. Martin's, like St. Giles's, was literally 



1 Henry VIII. suffered his coin to ! for English coins. Macpherson's 



be so lav debased that no regular ex- * Annals of Commerce.' 4to., 1805. 



changes could be made ; and the con- j Vol. ii., p. 357. 



fusion made way for the London | 2 It may be remembered that Rubens 

 goldsmiths to leave off their proper was accustomed to be paid for his pic- 

 trade of goldsmith rie, and to turn ex- tures by so many links of gold chain, 

 changers of plate and foreign money ! 



