elevated part of which it is situated. The inn, which is extra-parochial, now contains 109 sets of chambers, consisting of two, three, four, or five rooms each, besides the basements; all well lighted and ventilated, with good stone stair-cases secure from fire, and well supplied with water. The Society of Furnival's Inn seems to have ceased to exist as a community in 1817. The gentlemen of Thavie's Inn and Furnival's formerly enjoyed many privileges at Lincoln's Inn. In 27 Eliz., by an order of the bench at Lincoln's Inn the admission of the gentlemen of those two Inns of Chancery was fixed at 40s., while for students from other Inns of Chancery it was five marks; and in 36 Eliz. it was ordered that gentlemen of those two lesser houses might, after their admittance in Lincoln's Inn, stay two years in those houses, paying their pensions during those two years, and that they should be discharged of casting into commons and of all vacations and charges of Christmas during the time of their stay in Lincoln's Inn for those first two years. Sir William Jones, Chief Justice of Ireland, afterwards a Justice of the Common Pleas and King's Bench in England, was for two years a student in Furnival's Inn previously to his admission to Lincoln's Inn, and many other eminent lawyers acquired the elements of the law in this seminary. The studies and exercises in the two Inns of Chancery, as well as all others, were under the direction of the benchers of the Inn of Court to which they belonged. In 38 Eliz. it was ordered at a council in Lincoln's Inn that the readers in chancery

should thenceforth keep their summer and Lent readings by the space of three weeks in each vacation, and each of them perform three grand moots with their pleadings, two lectures for every of their cases and also reading each of those weeks, and in the term time that they should hold two petty mootes in each week, as also in each week of the term read two lectures at the least, and leave the same written in paper in the house, accordingly as in former times had been used and accustomed. Sir Thomas More for three years filled the office of reader in this inn with great reputation. The arms of Furnival's Inn are Arg. a bend betwixt six martlets with a bordure azure.*

In the beginning of the reign of King Henry II. the Knights Templars, who were then in the plenitude of their power throughout Europe, removed from the

Old Temple in Holborn, which stood on the site of the present Southampton Buildings, and took up their residence on the banks of the Thames, on the space of ground extending from White Friars to Essex House without Temple Bar. From henceforth this residence obtained the name of Novum Templum:

"Here whilom wont the Templar knights to bide."

and here, in imitation of the temple near to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem, they erected that exquisite church which still remains as a monument of their grandeur, and of which it may be said, without any exaggeration,

crown.

"Ut rosa flos florum,

Sic est domus ista domorum."

In the early part of the reign of Edward II. Clement V., at the instigation of Philip of France, by the exercise of his apostolic power, suppressed the order throughout Christendom. Their possessions in England came to the crown; and the king bestowed the Temple upon Thomas Earl of Lancaster; but that earl forfeited it by rebellion, and it reverted to the The king now granted it to Adomare de Valence Earl of Pembroke, and after his decease to Hugh le Despenser the younger for life. It, however, devolved once more to the crown, Despenser being attainted in the first year of King Edward the Third. By a decree of the council at Vienna the lands of the Templars were ordered to be transferred to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem; in accordance with which King Edward the Third granted the Temple to that order in England; who soon afterwards, according to tradition,* demised the same for the rent of 107. per annum to contain professors and students or the law, who came from Thavie's Inn in Holborn. We find that in the 18 Edw. III., Clifford's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery, dependant on the Inner

* Dug. Orig.

Temple, was then inhabited by apprenticiis de banco ; from which it may be inferred that the College of Common Lawyers had been settled in the Temple prior to that date. Notwithstanding the destruction. of the records of the Temple by Wat Tyler and several subsequent calamities from fire, there is sufficient testimony to prove that in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., the Temple was then the residence of those learned communities which have since made the name of Templar' even more renowned than the Red Cross Knights had in their time done. Chaucer gives us the following account of the Temple in his day :

6

"A manciple there was of the Temple,

Of which all catours might taken ensemple,
For to be wise in buying of vitaile;
For whether he pay'd or took by taile,
Algate he wayted so in his ashate,
That he was aye before in good estate.
Now is not that of God a full faire grace,
That such a leude man's wit shall pace
The wisdome of an heape of learned men?
Of masters had he no than thrice ten,
That were of Law expert and curious,
Of which there was a dozen in that house,
Worthy to been stewards of rent and land
Of any lord that is in England.

To maken him live by his proper good
In honour debtless, but if he were wood;
Or live as scarcely as him list desire,
And able to helpen all a shire,
In any case that might have fallen or hap
And yet the manciple sett all her capp."

* See Chap. MIDdle Temple.