d bring any of your friends the mandarins
with you. My best room commands a court in which are trees and a pump, the
water of which is excellent cold--with brandy, and not very insipid
without." At about the same time we find Mary Lamb recording that her
genial brother had suddenly taken to living like an anchorite. He tabooed
all alcoholic drinks, and confined himself to cold water and cold tea. But
the beverage drawn from Hare Court did not agree with his internal
economy: he suffered in consequence from cramps and rheumatism, and his
abstention from generous fluids was, we are forced to infer, exceedingly
brief.

The poet Garth, who exposed the apothecaries of London to reprobation and
ridicule in his satirical poem "The Dispensary," also humorously alludes
to Hare Court's pump:

And dare the college insolently aim
To equal our fraternity in fame?
Then let crabs' eyes with pearls for virtue try,
Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie;
So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams,
And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams.

The one structure in the Temple area that overshadows all others in point
of interest is the famous round church, consecrated to St. Mary by
Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the year 1185. This prelate's
presence in England was on an errand to invoke the assistance of Henry II.
against Saladin, who had recently inflicted several disastrous defeats on
the Templars in the Holy Land.

The church was finished about 1240. It is one of the four round churches
still remaining in England. Its plan is that of a central round tower,
supported by six beautiful clustered columns, crossed by a nave and
transepts. Notwithstanding the lapse of ages, and although its beauties
were for centuries hidden beneath a variety of hideous excrescences, it
remains to-day one of the best specimens of early Gothic architecture
extant. In 1682, 1695, 1706, 1737, and 1811 extensive repairs were made.
In 1828 the exterior was thoroughly restored and recased with stone, and
several unsightly structures that impeded the view of the church were
removed. All of these so-called restorations were, however, but partial in
extent. Many outrageous additions and much meretricious ornamentation,
added at various epochs, were allowed to remain.

Finally, in 1845, steps were taken looking to a thorough renovation and
restoration of the venerable pile. The purity of the marble columns had
been