$14 
CORNHILL. : 
The houfe in this ftreet in which Mr. 
Gray the poet received his birth, was 
burnt in the well-known fire of 1748. 
His father had been an exchange-broker ; 
and ‘he injury which the property he left 
fuftained, occafioned Mr. Gray to fink a 
good part of the remainder in the pur-. 
chafe of an asnuity. From Mr. Gray’s 
will it appeavs that the tenement wh ch 
rofe upon its fite was in 1774 in the occu. 
pation of Mr. Natzell, a perfumer. It is 
now marked 4x 5 and is ftill inhabited by 
a perfumer, of the name of Tate, a few 
doors from Birchin-lane. 
HOUNDSDITCH. 
The name of Houndiditch, though now '- 
confined toa fingle ftreet in the neigh- 
bourhocd of Bifhoplgate, appears former- 
ly to have been the appellation of different 
parts of the moat or moats by which the 
walis of London were furrounded. 
a chartulary of St. Giles’s Hofpital, made 
as long ago as the beginning of the fif- 
teenth century, 1402, (but in which many 
deeds of a more ancient date are preferv- 
ed,) Houndefdic and Hunde‘dich are the 
appellations of a part of the town-ditch in 
the parifh of St. Sepulchre. From How- 
ell’s Londisopclis it appears that another 
‘part of the foffe between Ludgate and 
Newgate had the fame denomination: and 
a third by Barbican. Into which of thefe, 
or whether into that we have already men- 
tioned, under the eaft wall] of thecity, the 
body of Eric was thrown, after the mur- 
der of Edmund Ircnfide, does not feem 
clear. 
The ditch nigh Bifhopfgate, fays Stow, 
was arched over and paved by the citizens 
iM 15023 withina century after which the 
houfes that arofe upon its fite became re- 
markable as the refort of brokers, as ap- 
pears from one of the fatires in ‘* The 
Letting of Humour’s Blood in the Head- 
Veine,”’ Lond. 1611: 
Oh Sir, why that’s as true as you are heere: 
With one example I will make it cleere ; 
And far to fetch the fame I wil! not goe, 
But unto Houndfditch, to the Brokers-row ; 
Or any place where that trade doth remaine, 
hether ar Holborne Conduit, or Long-lane, 
TEMPLE-GARDEN. 
‘The red and white rofes, the badges of 
the houfes of York and Lancatier, are 
faid to have had their origin inthe Temple 
- Garden ; and the fcene is preferved by 
Shak fpeare in the Firft Part of Henry VL, 
(act i., fc. iv.,) where the Earls of So- 
merfet, Suffolk, and Warwick, Richard 
Londintana. 
From ’ 
[May }, 
Plantagenet, Vernoh, and another lawyer, 
enter into converfation. Plantagenet 
plucks a white rofe, and Somerfet a red 
one, till after a heated converfation War- 
wick prophecies : . 
This brawl to-day, 
Grown to this faétionin the Temple Garden, 
Shall fend, between the red rofe and ths 
white, 
A thoufand fouls to death and endlefs night. 
GERARD’S-HALL INN. ' 
To the eaft of Knight-Rider-ftreet, on 
the fouth fide of Bafing-lane, ftand the re- 
lics of an ancient manion, onee inhab:ted 
by Sir John Gifcrs, mayor of London, and 
coniable of the Tower in 13113 now con- 
verted toan inn. Me 
This manion, of the fee of William 
Fitz Alan, was held by the priory of St. 
John of Jerufalem, af no great diftance 
after its toundation, to which it had been 
given by William Cotell. In 1189 it was 
granted by the prior and convent to Ste- 
phen Je Bluid. The exact time when it 
became tenanted by the Gicr family does 
not appear. Inthe :urbulent time of Ed- 
ward II., Sir John Gifors, we are told, 
was charged with feveral harfh and unjuit 
proceedings ; and being fummoned to ap- 
pear before the King’s juftices, to anfwer 
to the accufation, he and other principal 
citizens fled, and put themfelyes under the 
protection of the rebellious barons. In 
the lofty roofed hall, fays Stow, in his 
Survaie, p. 665, ftood a large fir pole, 
near forty feet higs, which was feigned to 
have been the ftaff of Gerardus, a mighty 
giant ; which proved to be no more than 
a May-pole, which, according to ancient 
cufom, ufed to be decked and placed an- 
nually before the door. From this fable 
the houfe long bore the name of Gerard’s 
Hall, but it was properly changed to that 
of Gifors. (See the Chartularies of the 
Monaitery of St.* John; and Pennant’s 
London, p.409-) 
In the g'h ot Edward IL, 1316, it was 
fill in the poffeffion of the Gifors. James, 
then tenant, is :eprefented as the fucceflor 
of Anketun Gitors, by the tenure of ten 
fhillings a-year to the prior as fuperior lord, 
Mr. Pennant fays it remained in the fami- 
ly till 1386, when it was alienated by 4 
Thomas Gifors. Withina fhort time af- 
terwards the houfe was divided into feve- 
ral parts, and before Stow’s time had be- 
come a common hofterie or inn. The 
vault below the prefent inn, engraved by 
Smith in the Hluftrations of Pennant, is 
the only remnant of the ancient-houfe. 
Far 
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