CHAPTER II 

 LAMBETH PALACE 



THE vicissitudes in the fortunes of England, political as 

 well as ecclesiastical, may be followed in the story of 

 Lambeth Palace with scarcely less completeness than in 

 that of the Tower of London itself. So truly is this the case, 

 that a series of pictures by a competent brush, of events of which 

 Lambeth has been the scene from the time of the building of 

 the chapel about 1270, up to the Gordon Riots in 1780 would, 

 if they could be executed, be almost a sufficient substitute for a 

 text-book for the use of the previously! well- instructed student 

 of English history, inasmuch as they would suffice to recall to him 

 the entire course of his studies. 



Such a sequence of pictures in their right order would be es- 

 pecially serviceable in the regrettable absence of a really complete 

 history of the building. This, as Mr. Arthur Sheppard, secretary 

 to the present Archbishop, says, has "yet to be written" and 

 to write it the historian will require much help from within and 

 access to all the archives. 



Dr. Ducarel, who was Librarian at Lambeth in 1758, is the 

 chief authority on its early history. His account is interesting 

 but confused ; he gives undue prominence to events comparatively 

 unimportant, and omits mention of some of greater interest. 

 The " Lambeth Palace " of the Rev. Cave-Brown is an admirable 

 paraphrase of Ducarel's work, but fails to throw much new light 

 on the subject. In the short account offered in the present chapter 

 I acknowledge considerable indebtedness to both writers, and 

 nil up the gaps in their evidence with data gleaned from general 



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