eyn,[35] and that Alleyn was willing to lease a part of his
holding on the conditions of development customary in this section of
London. These conditions are clearly revealed in a chancery suit of
1591:

The ground there was for the most part converted first into
garden plots, and then leasing the same to diverse tenants
caused them to covenant or promise to build upon the same,
by occasion whereof the buildings which are there were for
the most part erected and the rents increased.[36]

[Footnote 35: For a detailed history of the property from the year
1128, and for the changes in the ownership of Alleyn's portion after
the dissolution, see Braines, _Holywell Priory_.]

[Footnote 36: Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 365. The suit
concerns the Curtain property, somewhat south of the Alleyn property,
but a part of the Priory.]

The part of Alleyn's property on which Burbage had his eye was in sore
need of improvement. It consisted of five "paltry tenements,"
described as "old, decayed, and ruinated for want of reparation, and
the best of them was but of two stories high," and a long barn "very
ruinous and decayed and ready to have fallen down," one half of which
was used as a storage-room, the other half as a slaughter-house. Three
of the tenements had small gardens extending back to the Field, and
just north of the barn was a bit of "void ground," also adjoining the
Field. It was this bit of "void ground" that Burbage had selected as a
suitable location for his proposed playhouse. The accompanying map of
the property[37] will make clear the position of this "void ground"
and of the barns and tenements about it. Moreover, it will serve to
indicate the exact site of the Theatre. If one will bear in mind the
fact that in the London of to-day Curtain Road marks the eastern
boundary of Finsbury Field, and New Inn Yard cuts off the lower half
of the Great Barn, he will be able to place Burbage's structure within
a few yards.[38]

[Footnote 37: I have based this map in large measure on the documents
presented by Braines in his excellent pamphlet, _Holywell Priory_.]

[Footnote 38: For proof see Braines, _op. cit._]

[Illustration: A PLAN OF BURBAGE'S HOLYWELL PROPERTY

Based on the lease, and on the miscellaneous documents printed by
Halliwell-Phillipps and by Braines. The "common sewer" is now marked
by Curtain Road, and the "ditch from the horse-pond" by New Inn Yard.]

The property is