ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Abchurch Lane on the other, was, as I believe, the 

 famous Cardmal's Hat Tavern (though it is proper to 

 add that a recent authority assigns to the corner of a 

 court leading from Abchurch Lane to Cornhill the 

 site of the Cardinal's Caj) Tavern) and a host of other 

 tenements. Of these the Great Fire made a clean 

 sweep, stopping short at, or at all events but slightly 

 injuring, St. Mary Woolnoth, while it utterly destroyed 

 the adjacent church of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw. 



On the vacant ground, circa 1675, Sir Robert Yiner, 

 then Lord Mayor, or his father, built a large house. 

 In it, according to Pennant, Sir Eobert entertained 

 King Charles H. With a license which now seems 

 remarkable, the Knight, when the King was about to 

 retire, laid hold of his royal guest and swore, ' Sir, 

 you shall take t'other bottle,' to which the not wholly 

 reluctant monarch rejoined appropriately, 'He that's 

 drunk is as great as a king.' And, turning back, he 

 did as he was bidden. 



About the end of the last century a deep excavation 

 was made near this spot, when, fifteen feet nine inches 

 below the surface, the workmen came on the trace of 

 an old Roman street. Overlying it, and beneath a 

 stratum of brick, two feet thick, were found three 

 inches of ashes. 



Curiously enough, I remember that when the 

 foundations were being got out for the new General 

 Post-Office (West), a thick layer of ashes was cut 

 through, as though the buildings then removed had 

 been erected on the burnt remains of the earlier city 



