At this angle of the Bow the original city-wall crossed the line of the
street, and there was, accordingly, a gate at this spot,[35] of which
the only existing memorial is one of the hooks for the suspension of
the hinges, fixed in the front wall of a house, at the height of about
five feet from the ground. It is from the arch forming this gateway
that the street takes its name, _bow_ being an old word for an arch.
The house immediately _without_ this ancient port, on the east side of
the street, was occupied, about the beginning of the last century, and
perhaps at an earlier period, by Paul Romieu, an eminent watchmaker,
supposed to have been one of the French refugees driven over to this
country in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This
is the more likely, as he seems, from the workmanship of his watches,
to have been a contemporary of Tompion, the famous London horologist
of the reign of Charles II. In the front of the house, upon the third
story, there is still to be seen the remains of a curious piece of
mechanism—namely, a gilt ball representing the moon, which was made to
revolve by means of a clock.[36]
‘HE THAT THOLES OVERCOMES.’
Pursuing our way down the steep and devious street, we pass an antique
wooden-faced house, bearing the odd name of the _Mahogany Land_,
and just before turning the second corner, pause before a stone one
of equally antiquated structure,[37] having a wooden-screened outer
stair. Over the door at the head of this stair is a legend in very old
lettering—certainly not later than 1530—and hardly to be deciphered.
With difficulty we make it out to be: