426 LONDON. 
utmoft munificence, loaded him with gifts, and fettled on 
him a thoufand pounds a-year for life. After two months 
ftay, he returned into France, where he alfo met with a 
reception fuitable to his rank ; and, dying at Paris in 
1393, was interred in the Celeftins, where his tomb was 
to be feen previous to the French revolution. 
College Hill contains ftill fome antiquities.—Two large 
gates on the eaft fide, both ornamented at top with flowers 
and mafks in baffo-relievo, and both with a circular win¬ 
dow encircled with a garland. The firft opens into the 
yard occupied by packers ; the fecond into a fnfall court 
furrounded with houfes.—Next to thefe is Mercers’ School; 
and lower down the well-known alms-houfes founded by 
fir Richard Whittington, called God’s Houfe. A narrow 
paflage leads to them ; and at the entrance is a fmall ftone 
gate, with a door which (huts every night. The gate is 
Turmounted by a ftone with a confolon each fide; and on 
it an infcription which is hardly legible, and fliould be 
cleaned. The fouth fide of the court is bounded by the 
walls of St. Michael’s church ; which, as our female Ci¬ 
cerone, (April 16, 1814.) one of the inhabitants of the 
college,informed us, goes by fo many names,-that fhe could 
not exactly tell by which it fliould be called. The church, 
however, is a re&ory, the patronage of which appears to 
have been in the prior and canons of Canterbury as early 
as the year 1285, when Hugh de Derby was collated 
thereto. The church was rebuilt, and, by licenfe from 
Henry IV. in the year 1410, made a College of the Holy 
Spirit and St. Mary, by fir Richard Whittington, three 
times mayor, for a matter, four fellows, clerks, chorifters, 
&c. contiguous to which were alms-houfes, for the accom¬ 
modation of thirteen perfons, one of whom to be chief, 
with the appellation of tutor. To encourage fo laudable 
an undertaking, the lord-mayor and commonalty of Lon¬ 
don, in the year ■14-11, granted a fpot of ground whereon 
to ereft the intended college and hofpital. But, fir Richard 
dying before the accomplifliment of the work, it was foon 
after finiflied by his executors; who made laws for the 
good government thereof, by which, the matter of the 
college (befides the accuftomed rights and profits of the 
church) was to have an annual falary of ten marks ; the 
chaplains eleven marks each ; the firft clerk eight marks ; 
the fecond feven and. a half; the chorifters, each five 
marks a-year; the tutor of the alms-houfes fixteen-pence 
a-week ; and each of the brethren, fourteen-pence. This 
foundation was fubfequently re-confirmed by parliament in 
the third and tenth years of the reign of Henry VI. and 
was afterwards Tupprefled by the ftatute of Edward VI. 
The alms-houfe, on its original foundation, ftill remains, 
and is fupported by the Mercers’ Company ; and in their 
pofleflion ftil’ remain the original ordinances of this cha¬ 
rity, a very curious fpecimen of the ftyle and manner of 
that remote age ; but which is too long for us to copy. 
Sir Richard, however, did not confine himfelf to afts 
of piety in his public benevolence; but proved himlelf a 
friend to learning, by building a library in Grey Friars, 
and by a liberal endowment to Chrift’s Hofpital. Bartho¬ 
lomew’s Hofpital alio owed much of its profperity to his 
liberality ; and Guildhall was greatly beautified and im¬ 
proved under his management, and at his individual ex- 
penfe. He alfo expended a confiderable fum in building 
Newgate as it flood previous to the fire of London. So that 
here is raoft ample evidence of his princely beneficence, 
nof in the inttitution of a fingle charitable eflablilh- 
ment, but in the foundation, enlargement, or fupport, of 
many. 
But the exteniive charity and numerous acts of bene¬ 
volence of this worthy citizen, could not fecure an un- 
difturbed repofe to his allies ; for, as he was thrice mayor, 
fo u'as he thrice buried. In the reign of Edward VI. the 
incumbent of the parifh, a wicked and rapacious prieft, 
imagining that Whittington’s beautiful monument was a 
vepolitory of fomething more valuable than his terreftrial 
remains, caufed it to be broken open ; but, being difap- 
pointed of his expected prey, robbed the bodyof its’leaden 
.covering, and re-committed it to the tomb. In the fol¬ 
lowing reign the body was again difinterred, and inclofed 
in lead, and for the third time depofited in its fepulchre, 
where it remained unmolefted till the great fire of London 
involved its refting-place in the common ruin. But Stow 
has pheferved the epitaph, which, according to the tafte of 
the time, is full of puns and rhimes in the true Leonine 
ftyle. (See vol. xii. p. 463.) It begins thus : 
Ut fragrans nardus fama fuit ifte Ricardus 
Albificans Viliam , qui jufte rexerat illam. 
Flos Mercatorum, fundator Prefbiterorum ; 
Sic et egenorum teftis fit certus eorum. &c. 
The words Albificans Viliam, “ whitening the city,” allude 
to his name Whittington. 
The old church was deftroyed by the fire in 1666 ; after 
which the prefent ftrufture was erefited in its ftead, and 
made parochial for this and the adjoining paritti of St. 
Martin Vintry, the church of which was not rebuilt. It 
is a plain fubftantial ftone building, lighted by a fingle 
leries of large arched windows, placed fo high that the 
doors open under them. The tower is divided into three 
ftages, and is furrounded at top with carved open-work, 
inllead of a baluftrade : from hence rifes a light and ele¬ 
gant turret, adorned with Ionic columns, which ends ia 
a regular diminution, and fupports the vane. 
The fouth-weft corner of the church is that of Elbow- 
lane, well denominated on account of its crooked fiiape. 
At tile end of St. Thomas the Apoftle, is Cloak-lane, at 
the north-eaft corner of which is an ancient church-yard, 
well railed, and planted with a few (hrubs and one or two 
elm-trees. Sand-walks and grafs-plots decorate this long- 
abandoned manfion of the dead ; and nearly in the centre 
remains a handfome tomb in ftone, elevated about three 
feet and a half from the ground, of an elegant form, and 
with an infcription which is nearly obliterated. At the 
fight of feveral flower-pots difpofed in rows upon the flat 
flab of the tomb, we could not help indulging in the me¬ 
lancholy fancy of the owner, who, perhaps, tends them 
with care, and places them there to (how, by a fad contraft, 
that every fpring calls his rofes and auriculas out of the 
ground ; but that it is not fo with man, who, once laid 
in his parent duft, never riles again. An old gardener, 
treading the peale he had juft fown, allured us that fome- 
times a burial took place in this cemetery, which belongs 
to the parifties of St. Stephen Walbrook and St. John the 
Baptift : but we faw no appearance of any fuch thing. 
Dowgate-hill received its name from an ancient gate, in 
the original wall that ran along the north fide of the 
Thames, which was called the Dwr, or Water-gate, and 
was fituated on the fpot where the Roman trajeetus, or 
ferry, palled. It became a noted wharf, and was called 
the Port of Downgate. In the time of Henry III. and 
Edward III. cultoms were to be paid by Ihips refting there, 
in the fame manner as if they rode at Queenhithe. 
Crofting Dowgate Hill, we reach Cannon-ftreet; but, af- 
cending a little towards the north, we enter Walbrook, 
whilft concealed under our feet the old Nayad of the river 
Wells {peeds her courfe to the Thames; this river, more 
properly called brook, originates on the north of Moor- 
fields, and probably from the heights of Illington, follow¬ 
ing the vale which feparates St. Paul’s Hill from Tower 
Hill. It patted, anciently, through London Wall, between 
Bflhopfgate and Moorgate, and ran through the city ; for 
a long time it was quite expofed, and had over it feveral 
bridges, which were maintained by the priors of certain, 
religious houfes, and others. Between two and three cen¬ 
turies ago it was vaulted over with brick; the top paved, 
and formed into a ttreet; and, for a long time paft, known 
only by name. It is mentioned in a charter of the Con¬ 
queror to the College of St. Martin le Grand ; and its courfe 
is molt accurately marked by Stow, who tells us that 
barges were rowed up to Bucklerfbury from the Thames 
by the entrance of the tide into this brook. 
We are too near the church of St. Stephen not to take 
a furvey of it in our way. It is dedicated to the proto- 
martyr of that name. It appears from ancient records, 
that 
