The Fascination of London: Bloomsbury by Walter Besant

Author:Walter Besant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: travel, history, guide, tourist, holborn, british museum, university college london, camden
ISBN: 9781781664988
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

GRAY'S INN.

By W. J. Loftie.

An archway on the north side of Holborn, nearly opposite Chancery Lane, admits us to Gray's Inn. It is not the original entrance, which was round the corner in Portpool Lane, now called Gray's Inn Road. The Lords Grey of Wilton obtained the Manor of Portpool at some remote period from the Canon of St. Paul's, who held it; we have no direct evidence as to whether the Canon had a house on the spot, but there are some traces of a chapel and a chaplain. In 1315 Lord Grey gave some land in trust to the Canons of St. Bartholomew to endow the chaplain in his mansion of Portpool. From its situation near London, the ready access both to the City and the country, with the fine views northward towards Hampstead and Highgate, this must have been a more desirable place of residence than even the neighbouring manor of the Bishop of Ely. It consisted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of a gate-house which faced eastward, the chapel close to it on the left, and various other buildings, some of them apparently forming separate houses, with spacious gardens and a windmill. Here the Lords Grey lived for a couple of centuries in great state, apparently letting or lending the smaller houses to tenants or retainers - it would seem not unlikely to lawyers or students of the law, possibly their own men of business. This is no mere theory or guesswork. There has been too much conjecture about the early history of Gray's Inn, and the sober-minded topographer is warned off at the outset by a number of inconsistent assertions as to the early existence here of a school of law. Dugdale tells us that the manor was granted to the Priory of Shene in the reign of Henry VII., and after the dissolution it was rented by a society of students of the law. A fictitious list of Readers goes back to the reign of Edward III., but will not bear critical examination. The lawyers paid a rent of £6 13s. 4d. to Henry VIII., and this charge passed into private hands by grant of Charles II. The lawyers bought it from the heir of the first grantee, and since 1733 have enjoyed the Inn rent-free. The opening into Holborn was made on the purchase by the society, in 1594, of the Hart on the Hoop, which then belonged to Fulwood, whose name is commemorated by Fulwood's Rents, now nearly wiped out by a station of the Central London Railway.

The chief entrance is by the archway in Holborn. In 1867 the old brick arch was beplastered, obliterating a reminiscence of Dickens, who makes David Copperfield and Dora lodge over it. A narrow road leads into South Square, the north side of which is formed by the hall and library. The houses round the east and south sides are of uniform design, with handsome doorways. The hall has been much "restored," but was originally built in the reign of Queen Mary.

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