Mr. Cunningham, in his _Handbook of London_ (2nd edition, p. 540.), has
the following passage, under the head of "Westminster Abbey:"
"_Observe._--Effigies in south cloister of several of the early
abbots; large blue stone, uninscribed, (south cloister), marking
the grave of Long Meg of Westminster, a noted virago of the
reign of Henry VIII."
This amazon is often alluded to by our old writers. Her life was printed
in 1582; and she was the heroine of a play noticed in Henslowe's
_Diary_, under the date February 14, 1594. She also figured in a ballad
entered on the Stationers' books in that year. In _Holland's Leaguer_,
1632, mention is made of a house kept by Long Meg in Southwark:--
"It was out of the citie, yet in the view of the citie, only
divided by a delicate river: there was many handsome buildings,
and many hearty neighbours, yet at the first foundation it was
renowned for nothing so much as for the memory of that famous
amazon _Longa Margarita_, who had there for many yeeres kept a
famous _infamous_ house of open hospitality."