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 RELIGIOUS HOUSES priests ^t, 6s. 8d., and the others in proportion,^^ all except the master being fed at the expense of the hospital.'^ The uniform of all officials, male and female, was blue with a Tudor rose in red and gold embroidered on the breast." Every evening an hour before sunset, the hospitaller, the vice-matrons and others stood at the great door and received the poor, who, on being admitted, proceeded first to the chapel to pray for the founder, and then to the dormitory, where the matron and some of the women allotted the beds to them,^* and four others prepared the baths and cleansed their clothing. The hospital only provided a lodging for the night except in the case of the sick, who were allowed to re- main after the departure of the other men and were tended by the doctor and surgeon and the sisters.*^ The daily accounts of the clerk of the kitchen and the monthly accounts of the seneschal were to be made in the counting-house, but those of the master and all other officers in a room called the exchequer.^^ Two rooms in the tower opposite the great gate were appointed for a treasury, in which were to be kept the chests containing a reserve-fund of 500 marks, the yearly surplus, the money for the daily expenses, the legacies and gifts to the hospital, the jewels and ornaments not in every-day use, and charters and muniments.^' The vis ration of the hospital was entrusted to the abbot of Westminster.^* William Holgill, the first master, seems to have been rather a privileged person : he received a larger salary than was to be given to any future master," and in spite of the statute for- bidding the master to accept any other office or administration,^" he was allowed to act as sur- veyor to Wolsey," and afterwards to hold the prebend of South Cave.^^ The income of the hospital, ^^567 16s. 3|(/. in 1535,^^ can have been barely sufficient to meet the necessary ex- penses, since when food rose in price Holgill had to draw on the reserve fund,^* and the com- " Cott. MS. Cleop. C. v, fol. 20^-22. Holgill was to have £^0 a year on account of his many labours and continuous diligence in building the house, fol. 2 0iJ. " Ibid. For the sums allowed for food see fol. 40^-4 I . " Ibid. fol. 26^, 27. " Each bed was well furnished with bed clothes, including counterpanes decorated with the red rose and three portcullises. Ibid. fol. 34^, 35. " Ibid. fol. 24-25^. '« Ibid. fol. 44. " Ibid. fol. 45-463. " Ibid. fol. 30. "Ibid. fol. 2o3. "Ibid. fol. 18. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 4073, 5954. " Ibid, ix, 66l. In 1537 a certain John Parkyns begged Cromwell to give him the post of master of the Savoy, as Holgill had sufficient without it. Ibid, xii (l), 270. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 359. " Lansd. MS. 20, No. 15. missioners who under Sir Roger Cholmley, chief baron of the Exchequer, visited the hospital in 1 55 1, found that the revenues fell short of expenditure by ;^205 4;. ^d.^^ and they had evidently no fault to find with the way the es- tablishment was conducted.^^ The house was dissolved in 1553,^' and its lands given by the king to Bridewell and St. Thomas's, South wark,"* but in 1556 it was re- founded and endowed afresh by Queen Mary,^' whose maids of honour provided the beds and other furniture.'" This new foundation had been in existence only a few years when it was almost ruined '^ by Thomas Thurland, the master, who was removed in 1570, but not before he had bur- dened the hospital with his private debts by a misuse of the common seal, granted unprofitable leases, taken away the beds, and disposed of jewels and other treasures of the house.'^ During the Civil War the place was used for the accommodation of sick and wounded soldiers,^' and the master was superseded by a governor " or overseer.'^ At the accession of Charles II, the hospital was restored to its former state,^^ but some of the buildings were taken by the king in 1670 for the use of the men wounded in the Dutch war," and the promise to give them back was not fulfilled either by him or his successors.'* It is probable that long before this time the office of master had practically become a sine- cure. At any rate Dr. Walter Balconquall, who was master from 1621 to 1640, managed to « Ibid. No. 14. " Ibid. No. 15. The behaviour of the officials was good, and the statutes had been kept since the death of the first master except in such respects as they were not in accordance with the law of the land. " Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 85. '* Stow, Surv. ofLond. iv, 1 06. " Cal. of S.P. Dom. I 547-80, p. 85. '" Stow, op. cit. iv, 106. " Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 383. Archbishop Grindal and the other visitors writing to Cecil in I 5 70 said that if Thurland continues in office the house cannot long stand. " Lansd. MS. 20, No. 21. He was also accused of not being resident, of going very seldom to church, and spending his time in playing bowls and gam- bling, of maintaining his relations at the expense of the hospital, etc. .. . He docs not seem to have been able to deny the more serious charges, see Lansd. MS. 20, No. 19. ^' Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1650, pp. 282, 366; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 386. '* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. x, App. iv, 5 lo. '' Cal. of S.P. Dom. 1652-3, p. 224. " Ibid. 1 660-1, pp. 16, 107, 113, about the ap- pointment of the master. " Stowe MS. 865, fol. 2i. '* A regiment of foot was stationed there by Charles II ; James II assigned places of residence there to Jesuits, and William III to French Pro- testants. Ibid. ; Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 726. 547