ndon streets. Thus in a document of
1256 is mentioned a little lane going towards the church of St Mary
Staining Lane. The little lane is easily found at this day leading from
Wood Street to a small churchyard, on a stone in the wall of which is cut
"Before the dreadful fire of 1666, here stood the church of St Mary
Staining" (i., p. 441).

A document quoted (i., p. 454) is of interest in regard to the value of
money in mediaeval times; the following extract shows what in the reign
of Henry II. was considered a serious sum. The hospital owed the butcher
eleven pounds, and the master and brethren agreed to pay it in eight
years and a quarter by a rent charge on a house.

The reader of Sir Norman Moore's book is continually coming across
unexpected facts. For instance, that St James' Palace is on the site of
what, in the reign of Henry III., was known as the Hospital of St James.

On 15th June 1253, St Bartholomew's Hospital obtained from Henry III. two
important charters, one confirming them in their possessions, the other
in their rights and privileges. The gift was made, among other reasons,
for the soul "of King Henry my grandfather."

The author succeeds in conveying to his readers the personal interest
which he evidently feels in the writers of the deeds of which he makes
such good use. Thus (i., p. 477) he quotes Maelbrigte, who made a copy
of the later Gospels at Armagh in the time of Rahere, as writing "at the
foot of a very small page of vellum in a minute and exquisite hand, 'If
it was my wish I could write the whole treatise like this,' thus handing
down to succeeding ages a scribe's pride in his art." Again in a charter
copied into the hospital cartulary the last witness is "Master Simon, who
wrote this charter."

The author (i., p. 485) has occasion to refer to a grant by Stephen of
Gosewelle of certain lands. And this reminds him how he heard Dickens
read the trial in _Pickwick_. He says, in "almost every part I can
recall his emphasis and the tone of his voice.--'Mrs Bardell shrunk from
the world and courted the retirement and tranquillity of Goswell Street.'
. . . Very few know that this thoroughfare was the street of a hamlet,
extra barram de Aldredesgate."

In a charter probably belonging to the earlier half of the reign of Henry
III., a witness, Sabrichet, "has a name which survives in Sabrichetestead
or Sabstead, the native pronunciation of Sawbridgeworth." In the
out-patient room a p