" be pleased to restore unto our Places, the Benefit of serving in the said Office of Alienations. "

" And so shall we be found no less ready than we stand bound to employ our best Endeavours, in the same His Majesty's Service, under you: And will also testify our humble Thankfulness, by yielding unto your Honour our most willing Duties, and by recommending you always to the gracious Favour of the Almighty.] "

Jackanapes Lane lately a bad, as well as frequent Passage for Coaches and Carts into Lincolns Inn fields, and those Parts; being very troublesome by reason of its narrowness, that two could not pass by one another. But now by a late Act of Parliament this Lane is widened. On the South side, about the middle, there is a Passage into Popes Head Court, which is a pretty square place, with a Freestone Pavement. And of this there is another Passage into Bell Yard, and another through the Popes Head Tavern.

Bell-Yard, a place of a good Thorowfare from Lincolns Inn into Fleetstreet, and chiefly consisting of Publick Houses.

Shear Lane cometh out of Little Lincolns Inn Fields, and falleth into Fleetstreet by Temple Bar: the upper part hath good old Buildings, well Inhabited; but the lower part is very narrow, and more ordinary. In this Lane is a certain small Court.

Then on the East side of Chancery Lane is Cursitors Alley, so called from the Cursitors Office there adjoining. This Alley, at the entrance into Chancery Lane, is but narrow, but openeth wider, where it hath good Houses well Inhabited.

Whites Alley, or rather Alleys, (for there are several) which lead to Buildings all old, and generally ill Inhabited. These Buildings have two Passages into Chancery Lane, the one called Three Crane Alley, and the other the Hole in the Wall, both very narrow and ordinary.

Bonds Stables hath a Passage into Whites Alley, and another into Symonds Inn, but the best into Fetter Lane, where there be some Houses, the part towards Whites Alley being an Inn. In this place is a small Court called Crack Pitcher Court.

Symonds Inn, lately new built, and now a pretty handsome Place, in which several Offices are kept, as the Registers Office, &c.]

Then was the House of Converts, wherein now the Rolls of Chancery be kept.

Thus much for the Rolls and the Liberty thereof. Then is Sergeants Inn.

On the West side of Newstreet was antiently and still is, the House and Office of the Six Clerks, of old called Harflu Inn. It belonged sometime to Nocton Park Priory in Lincolnshire. Upon the Dissolution it came to King Henry VIII. who in the 30 of his Reign gave it to Charles Duke of Suffolk, and Katharine his Wife. It consisted of a Messuage, a Garden and Curtelage. And here the Six Clarks sat. In the 31 H. 8. the said Duke and Dutchess parted with it to the said Six Clerks. In In which Year an Act of Parliament was made, whereby they were made a Corporation, under the Name of the Six Clerks of the Kings Court of Chancery: And for them to hold and enjoy the said Messuage, Garden and Curtelage, to them and their Successors, the Six Clerks of Chancery, for ever in Succession; and to hold it of the King in Fealty.]

On this West Side of Newstreet, towards the North end thereof, was (of old time) the Church, and House of the Preaching Fryers: Of the which House I find, that in the Year of Christ, 1221. the Fryers Preachers, thirteen in Number, came into England, and having to their Prior one named Gilbert de Fraxineto, in Company of Peter de la Roche Bishop of Winchester, came to Canterbury: Where presenting themselves before the Archbishop Steven, he commanded the said Prior to preach, whose Sermon he liked so well, that ever after he loved that Order. These Fryers came to London, and had their first House without the Wall of the City by Holborn, near unto the Old Temple.

Hubert de Burgo, Earl of Kent, was a great Benefactor unto these Fryers, and deceasing at his Mannor at Bansted in Surrey, or after some Writers, at his Castle of Barkhamsted in Hartfordshire, in the Year 1242. was buried in their Church. Unto the which Church he had given his Place at Westminster; which the said Fryers afterward sold to Walter Gray, Archbishop of York, and he left it to his Successors in that See, for ever to be their House, when they should repair to the City of London. And therefore the same was called York Place, which Name so continued, until the Year 1529. that King Henry the Eighth took it from Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal and Archbishop of York, and then gave it to name, White Hall.

Margaret, Sister to the King of Scots, Widow to Geffery, Earl Marshal, deceased 1244. and was buried in this Church.

In the Year 1250 the Fryers of this Order of Preachers, thorough Christendome, and from Jerusalem, were by a Convocation assembled together, at this their House by Holborn, to entreat of their Estate, to the Number of 400, having Meat and Drink found them of Alms, because they had no Possessions of their own. The first Day the King came to their Chapter, found them Meat and Drink, and dined with them. Another Day the Queen found them Meat and Drink: Afterward the Bishop of London, then Abbots of Westminster, of St. Albans, Waltham, and others. In the Year 1276. Gregory Rokesly, Maior, and the Barons of London, granted and gave to Robert Kilwerby, Archbishop of Canterbury, two Lanes or Ways next the Street of Baynards Castel, and the Tower of Mount-fichet, to be destroyed. On the which Place the said Robert builded the late new Church, with the rest of the Stones that were left of the said Tower. And thus the Black Fryers left their Church and House by Holborn, and departed to their new.

This old Frier House, (juxta Holborn saith the Patent) was by King Edward the First in the sixteenth of his Reign, given to Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Next to this House of Fryers, was one other great House, sometime belonging to the Bishop of Chichester, whereof Matthew Paris writeth thus:

Raph de nova villa, or Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, and Chancellor of England, sometime builded a Noble House, even from the Ground, not far from the New Temple and House of Converts, in the which Place he deceased, in the Year 1244. [His Gardens on the other side of the Street mentioned before. Matthew Paris called it the Bishop of Chichester's Palace (such it seems was the Magnificence of it,) and writes, that the Archbishop of Canterbury visiting St. Bartholomews, did lie at this House. It is said to be Let in Lease by the Bishop's Predecessors for divers Years. Here Spelman writes, that Sir Richard Read, sometimes a Master of Chancery, and Mr. Atkinson a Counsellor at Law, Men eminent in their Times, (viz. under Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth,) and others dwelt.]

In this Place after the decease of the foresaid Bishop, and in Place of the House of Black Fryers before spoken, Henry Lacy Earl of Lincoln, Constable of Chester, and Custos of England, builded his Inn, and for the most Part was lodged there: He deceased in this House in the Year, 1310. and was buried in the new Work (whereunto he had been a great Benefactor) of St Pauls Church, betwixt