s I have already told you, a library to the Grey Friars; and he
arranged that after his death a great deal of his money should be used
to help London. His friends, who had to see to this, knew that good
water is one of the things most necessary for a great city, so they
arched over a spring to keep it clean and sweet, and they placed
"drinking-bosses," or taps, in the conduits or channels and pipes which
brought the water from country springs and streams into London.
Newgate Prison was "feble, over-litel, and so contagious of eyre [air]
yat [that] hit caused the deth of many men," so Whittington's money was
used to rebuild it. It was also used to repair St. Thomas's Hospital,
and to make a new hospital or almshouse where always thirteen old men
should live, who were to pray for Dick Whittington's soul, and the
souls of his father and mother and wife. These almshouses are no
longer in the City; they have been moved out to Highgate, and stand not
far from the stone which marks the place where Whittington heard the
chime of Bow bells; and through them Dick Whittington's wealth is still
doing good to the poor of London.

{47}

VI.

WHEN ELIZABETH WAS QUEEN

In the reign of Henry VI., Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the King's
uncle, built himself a palace at Greenwich, and he called it
"Placentia" or "Plaisance," which means a pleasant thing or place.
(Turn over this page and the next, and you will find a picture of it.)
I think the Tudor Kings really found it a pleasant place, for they
lived there a great deal; here Henry VIII. and his daughters, Mary and
Elizabeth, were born, and here Edward VI. died.

In those days the road we now call the Strand led from the City to the
village of Charing Cross; and all along it stood great and beautiful
houses with gardens which stretched down to the river. Each house,
most likely, had its water-gate or landing-place, where the master of
the house and his guests could step on board their barges, which might
take them up the river to Westminster and the royal palace near
Richmond, or down to London and beyond it to Greenwich; for in those
days the river was London's greatest and most stately highway. Very
stately were the barges, very gay, too, with flags and the fine
liveries of servants; and very often people on the banks or in little
boats near-by heard music sounding from their decks as they moved
swiftly along. How beautiful, how stately, must Queen Elizabeth's
bar