98 
NATURE NOTES 
Moses downwards. In the bay is old glass, all heraldic, while the rest is modern, 
the work of Wilmot, in his time a well-known glass painter. 
A brief period was devoted to the Council Chamber and the Benchers’ 
Drawing Room. The last is an extremely pleasant apartment, overlooking 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Here are portraits of Pitt and Sir John Skinner, both by 
Gainsborough, and in a frame is preserved Hogarth’s receipt for .^200, the sum 
paid him for his painting, “ Paul before t'eUx,” which hangs in the adjacent 
corridor. 
The chapel was consecrated in 1623. It was built from the designs of Inigo 
Jones, and is remarkable for its fine stained-glass windows. Who made these is 
not known. There is some rather noteworthy carving on the pews, the doors of 
which in the reign of Queen Anne were wddened in order to admit ladies with 
large hoop skirts. Buried in the cloisters beneath the chapel are Prynne, the 
pamphleteer, who was first of all pilloried and then had his ears removed ; and 
Thurloe, Secretary to Oliver Cromwell and collector of the State Papers named 
after him. Lincoln’s Inn was at one time a rabbit warren known as “Coney- 
Garth,” where the students shot the animals with bow' and arrow. In the garden 
was a bed of clay, and as this was needed, leave was given to the students to kill 
off the rabbits. 
In the Old Hall, finished in 1491, Mr Baildon delivered an address full of 
interest and instruction to his listeners. This hall, he explained, was provided 
with four bays, quite an unique equipment. On the demolition of the previous 
hall in 1489, the students got out one night, piled up the timbers and had a 
bonfire. 
As to the origin of the title “ Lincoln’s Inn,” Mr. Baildon remarked, as the 
result of investigations which he had conducted, that the Earl of Lincoln had had 
nothing to do with the property at Lincoln’s Inn. When the Society came to the 
present site in 1422, it brought its old name, and the suggestion was that it had 
started in Thavies Inn, which was exactly opposite the Earl of Lincoln's house in 
Shoe Lane, under the patronage of the Earl. The old Gate House, fronting 
Chancery Lane, was erected in 1518. Its demolition was contemplated a few 
years ago, but happily the idea was abandoned. The timber used in its construc- 
tion was supplied by Sir Thomas Lovell, and for that reason his arms were placed 
over the archway. 
Gladstone and Disraeli were members of the Inn, which was able to count 
among its legal lights Sir Thomas More, Sir Matthew Hale and Lords Mansfield 
and Hardwicke. Literature was represented by two great names — Macaulay and 
Kingsley. Oliver Cromwell was never, as some supposed, a member of the Inn, 
though two of his relations, his uncle Oliver and his son Richard, “ Tumble 
Down Dick,” as he was called, were both connected with it. 
.Some eighty Selbornians as.sembled on April 9, to visit Stafford House, no 
mean conclusion to the series of Selborne Saturday Afternoons arranged during the 
past winter. A fly in the ointment was the holland which covered much of the 
furniture, decorations, and a large part of the walls and ceilings. During what is 
known as the “season” the wraps are removed, and then is the time to view’ 
the rooms at their best. 
The house dates from 1825, having been built by the then Duke of York. Its 
site, however, is also that ot an older mansion named Cleveland House, the 
home in its time of that Duchess of Cleveland who was mistress of Charles H. 
The four fronts of the house are cased with stone. The party entered by the 
north or princi()al front, which has a portico supported by eight Corinthian pillars. 
Through a small corridor, adorned with prints, bronzes, and other works of 
art, acce.ss is given to the grand hall, which is decorated with well-executed copies 
of large pictures by I’aolo \’eronese. In the hall is the famous staircase, le.ading 
to the first floor, where are the state apartments. The first entered is the 
banqueting hall, a magnificent chamber, with a ceiling done out in white and 
gold. Then comes the noble picture gallery containing “ Christ Bearing the 
Cross,” ascribed to Raphael ; “ A Magdalen’s Head,” by Guido ; three portraits 
by Titian, as well as his “ Mercury Giving Cupid a Reading Lesson” ; Murillo’s 
“ Prodigal Son ” and “ Abraham and the Thiee Angels ” ; Van Dyck’s portrait 
of the Earl of Arundel ; and Delaroche’s “ Lord .Strallord On His Way to the 
•Scaffold Blessed by Archbishop Laud.” Velasquez, Lawrence, Landseer, and 
