Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/451

 9* s. ii. DEC. 3, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES

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and provincial thoroughfares. Whatever virtues may have existed in this perioc cleanliness was certainly not one of them which probably explains the frequent recur- rence of epidemic diseases. We may fed some astonishment in these days that a street in which for centuries there had been mansions, and which was long distinguishec for its orchards and gardens, as well as for the shops of traders, should have remained in such a condition* as compelled the sovereign himself to have it mended ; but it was the common state of the streets at this time.

"Occasionally a side pavement added to the comfort of foot passengers, and spared them the necessity of floundering through the deep mire oi the roadway. These pavements, however, were very partial, and passengers made use of the high- way soft with mud and filth thrown from the houses, and obstructed with heaps of manure, which dogs and swine made their lair. The latter animal was so useful a scavenger, and could be kept at so little expense, as to account for the pigsties which stood in the main streets of all our towns, even in London. When a royal procession was expected to pass along the narrow roadway dogs and pigs were driven indoors and gravel was thrown down to make the road passable. Usually, how- ever, the streets were left in their primitive noisomeness. "t

The history of the Inn appears to have been uneventful until, in 1530, the lease was renewed in favour of the Society of FurriivaTa Inn, a society that continued to exist until near the end of the second decade of the present century,! an d appears to have been governed by a principal and a certain number of fellows. This renewal of the lease was made during the ownership of George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury (d. 1538). His son Francis, fifth earl, who had been associated with his father in a number of offices, and who was summoned to Parlia- ment during his father's lifetime as Lord Talbot, 17 February, 1532/3, was the last of his family who owned the Inn. He sold it by deed bearing date 16 December, 1 Edward VI., in consideration of the sum of 120/., to Edward Gryffin, Esq., the King's Solicitor - General, William Ropere and Richard Heydone, Esqs., and their heirs, to the use of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, which paid the purchase price out of its treasury.

The principal and fellows of Furnival's Inn

ments at the commencement of the fourteenth century, although they were unknown in Paris." Turner, 'Hist, of Domestic Architecture,' vol. i. p. 96.
 * " London was partially supplied with side pave-

f Denton, ' England in the Fifteenth Century,' Introd., p. 47.

J The date is given as 1817 or 1818.

were granted a lease at a yearly rent of 31. 6s. 4d., together with certain privileges to those fellows who should become members of Lincoln's Inn.* Among the notable person- ages who, either as residents or officially, were connected with the Inn was Thomas More (1478-1535), the distinguished Chancellor of Henry VIII. In February, 1496, he. removed from New Inn to Lincoln's Inn, and was appointed reader of and lecturer on law at Furnival's Inn :

"His lectures were so satisfactory that he was invited to repeat them in three successive years." ' D.N.B.'

Another name connected with the Inn was that of Thomas Ken, father of the bishop of the same name. One authority describes him as "of Furnival's Inn, Barber-Surgeon and Sheriff's Attorney accomptant." The ' D.N.B.' says he was an attorney of the Inn, and apparently a clerk of the House of Lords and clerk of assize for Glamorgan, Brecon, and Radnor. His death is thought to have taken place about 1651. One of the three sons of James Shirley, the dramatic author, is said to have been butler of the Inn. The younger Linley, author arid musician, was also a resident of the Inn. He had been a writer in the service of the East India Company, but on returning to England, on account of the state of his health, he took to composing the music to ballads, and, like his father and other members of his family, con- tinued to the end, leaving a considerable quantity of compositions. He was the youngest and last of his family, and died at his chambers in the Inn after a few hours' illness, 6 May, 1835, at the age of sixty-four. No name that has been connected with the Inn will possess more interest for the present generation than that of Charles Dickens, who, on quitting his father's house, took up his residence in chambers on the third floor at No. 13 in the Inn, removing afterwards to third -floor chambers at No. 15. It was during his residence in Furnival's Inn that an announcement appeared in the Times newspaper of 26 March, 1836, stating that on the 31st the first shilling part of "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, dited by Boz, would be published. On 2 April he married Catherine, eldest daughter of Mr. George Hogarth, his colleague on the Morning Chronicle. He continued to reside n the Inn until he removed to Doughty Street in March, 1837. His career has been so amply detailed by Forster and others that t is not necessary to dwell upon it further.


 * Herbert, 'Antiquities, &c., p. 324,