Dr Moore writes in his preface: "The History is a gift from me to St
Bartholomew's, and I hope that the labour of investigating historical
events, of meditating upon them, and of finally writing the book in such
hours as my profession allowed during more than thirty years, may be
taken as a proof of the gratitude I feel to the noble hospital with which
my whole professional life has been connected."
The book seems to me eminently worthy of its subject and of its learned
author. {137b} As a record of the 800 years during which the Hospital
has existed it naturally contains an enormous mass of detail, and this
means that the book is physically very big. The first volume is of 614
quarto pages, and the second of 992 pages. The index contains at least
20,000 entries.
The Hospital and the Priory of St Bartholomew were the first buildings
erected on the open space of Smithfield. The foundation took place in
1123, and Rahere, the founder, was the first Prior. He is said to have
been of lowly race, and to have made himself popular in the houses of
nobles and princes "by witcisms and flattering talk." Then he repented
of such a mode of life and made a pilgrimage to Rome to obtain
forgiveness. On his way back he had a vision of St Bartholomew, by whom
he was directed to found a church in Smithfield.
It seems that "no part of the hospital as built by Rahere is now
standing, but within the present building, which covers the original
site, there still remains one thing which was there in his time. It is a
legal document which his eyes beheld, and which was sealed in his
presence. This charter is written on vellum in the clear hand-writing of
the first half of the twelfth century." The seal shows a "turreted
building, which is probably the Priory of St Bartholomew's as it looked
in the first twenty years of its existence."
The two parts of an indented chirograph have been preserved in the
hospital, which give (i., p. 239) a view of the state of agriculture in
Essex in the reign of King John. Mention is made of fields of wheat,
rye, barley, oats and beans; of oxen, horses, of brew-house and barn.
Rent was paid in kind and sent by water to the hospital quay, which may
have been on the River Fleet and therefore nearer to the hospital than a
landing-place on the Thames. The Fleet river, as Dr Moore happily points
out (i., p. 246), is now shut up in a tubular dungeon, "as if to remind
it of all the unhappiness it had passed by in the Gaola de Flete from the
time" when the prisoners watched "the ships passing up it with corn for
St Bartholomew's Hospital . . . to the days when the body of Samuel
Pickwick was confided to the custody of the tipstaff, to be by him taken
to the Warden of the Fleet Prison, and there detained until the amount of
the damages and costs in the action of Bardell against Pickwick was fully
paid and satisfied."
The author never fails to make interesting use of the driest of charters.
Thus in the reign of King John a person with the pleasant name of Adam
Pepercorn grants to the hospital ten shillings quit-rent for some land in
Grub Street, a region full of unhappy memories. Dr Moore quotes passages
from Johnson, Swift, and Goldsmith to show that the name Grub Street
should have been protected by such associations from any change; but
nothing is sacred, and Grub Street is now known as Milton Street.
The author (i., p. 279) asks whether the brethren of St Bartholomew's
made any medical studies, and points out they may well have read parts of
the _Liber Etymologiarum_ by St Isidore of Seville, who flourished A.D.
601. The book is a general summary of knowledge in Isidore's day, and
few religious houses in England were without a copy.
I like the facts in the region of domestic economy which are given. For
instance, that in 1229 Richard of Muntfichet was ordered by Henry III. to
give "six leafless oaks for the hospital fire." We want to know whether
they were the King's oaks, or was Muntfichet forced to supply the wood?
If Dr R. W. Darwin (father of Charles Darwin) had then been King of
England he would have ordered apple-trees, for these he considered much
superior to all other fuel. The reader is constantly meeting interesting
stories. Thus Bishop Roger Niger was, in the year 1230, celebrating mass
in St Paul's when a great thunderstorm burst over the church and the
congregation fled in terror. But Roger and one deacon were not to be
frightened, and went on with the Mass.
In the 13th Century John of Marsham (i., p. 390) made oath that he would
carry through the affairs of Alan of Culing at the Court of Rome. Did
John die on his journey, or did he fail in his suit? He never claimed
the charter which he left at the hospital, where it may still be seen.
A charter recording a grant by the Master of St Bartholomew's to the
Bishop of Bath is preserved in St Paul's; Sir Norman Moore says (i., p.
392), "It was pleasant to find this original document in the charter room
of the cathedral, where mine was probably the first hand from St
Bartholomew's Hospital which had touched it since it received the seal of
William the master and the brethren, six hundred and seventy years ago."
I cannot resist quoting (i., p. 412) one more of the many touching and
interesting episodes with which the history of St Bartholomew's
abounds:--
Cecilia, a widow, devoted herself to the altar of St Edmund and received
a wedding ring. When she was dying (1251), a Dominican father, giving
her the last sacrament, noticed the ring and said, "Take off that ring,
lest she die so decked out." Cecilia roused herself and said she would
offer the ring "before the judgement seat of God my betrothed."
It is interesting to find that surnames were beginning to be established
in the reign of Henry III. Thus a certain Thomas Niger is described as
the son of Walter Niger. {141}
There are innumerable facts given in the history of St Bartholomew which
illustrate the permanence of the London 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 patient said that he came from Sawbridgeworth. The
physician, {142} who had been instructed by Henry Bradshaw, remarked that
the patient did not know how to pronounce the name of his own home. On
this the patient exclaimed, "Oh, I know it is Sabstead, but I thought the
gentleman would not understand."
Names have a fascination for me, and I cannot resist quoting the name of
Henry Pikebone, who, I hope, pronounced it Pickbone, and might well have
been one of Falstaff's men. We meet (p. 510) with a reference to John of
Yvingho, which is said to have suggested Ivanhoe to Walter Scott. I
regret to say that John was a fishmonger. Elsewhere we meet another
pleasing name, Cecilia Pidekin, but unfortunately she is not known in any
other way than as the recipient, by a will of 1281, of a chemise and a
little brass pail. There are innumerable points of interest in the
matter of names. Thus the author points out that Shoe Lane has nothing
to do with shoes nor indeed with lanes; it is a corruption of the
_solanda_ or prebend through which it passes.
The author often helps us to realise the appearance of the inhabitants of
St Bartholomew's. Thus (p. 551) the Bishop of London in his ordinance of
1316 settled that "those of the brethren who were priests were to wear
round cloaks of frieze or other cloth, the lay brethren shorter cloaks;
the sisters tunics and over-tunics of grey cloth, these not to be longer
than to their ankles." This last regulation is curious. We should have
expected the limitation to have been applied to shortness rather than to
length.
Walter of Basingbourne {144} was Master of the Hospital during the
greatest epidemic of plague which "the Western world had experienced
since the time of Justinian." It is generally known as the Black Death,
and was the same disease as that which terrified London in 1665, and the
epidemic which has destroyed nearly nine millions of people in India
since 1894.
Speaking (i., p. 584) of the Charter House, Sir Norman says: "Our
hospital . . . saw the noble foundation of Thomas Sutton built, and
became familiar with its brethren in their black cloaks and with the gown
boys." He quotes appositely enough Thackeray's well-known words on the
death of Colonel Newcome:--
"And just as the last bell struck, a peculiar sweet smile shone over his
face, and he lifted up his head a little, and quickly said 'Adsum,' and
fell back. It was the word we used at school when names were called, and
lo he, whose heart was as that of a little child, had answered to his
name, and stood in the presence of his Master."
In 1381 Wat Tyler and his mob sacked and burnt the Temple and the Priory
of Clerkenwell. A few days later the brethren could see from their walls
the blow struck by Walworth the Mayor, the fall of Tyler from his horse,
and the courageous behaviour of King Richard. Wat Tyler was carried into
the hospital, but the Mayor went in and brought him out and had him
beheaded. Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, was beheaded by
the rebels. Sir Norman Moore once asked a patient whence she came, and
she answered "from Sudbury in Suffolk." Dr Moore told his students the
story of Simon's death, and added that his head is said to be "preserved
to this day at Sudbury." The woman raised herself in bed and said, "My
father keeps it." Simon's tomb at Canterbury has been opened, and was
found to contain a headless body.
During the mastership of William Wakering, who died in 1405, and that of
Sutton, John Mirfeld flourished in the priory of St Bartholomew and wrote
his _Breviarium Bartholomei_, which may "fairly be regarded as the first
book on medicine connected with St Bartholomew's Hospital."
The brethren had no watches, and had to measure "the time for heating
fluids or making decoctions by reciting certain psalms and prayers." I
remember to have heard Sir Norman say how he demonstrated to his pupils
the efficacy of the words which our ancestors prescribed for the cure of
epilepsy. Their magic depended on the fact that they required some
minutes to recite, and this allowed the patient to recover from his fit.
I did not expect to find any evidence in regard to Falstaff, but the
following passage (ii., p. 2) shows that he must have been damped (in two
senses) on a memorable occasion {145}:--"In the year 1413, on the ninth
day of the month of April, which day was Passion Sunday, and a very rainy
day, the coronation of Henry V. took place at Westminster, at which
coronation I, Brother John Cok, who have recorded that royal coronation
for the refreshing of memory, was present and beheld it."
Sir Norman says (ii., p. 40):--"I was present at the coronation of King
George V., and watched the splendid assemblage gradually filling
Westminster Abbey, . . . and heard the shouts of 'God save King George!'
. . . and saw the King in his crown, with the orb in his left hand and
the sceptre in his right, walk in solemn procession down the nave. . . .
It was a solemn as well as a splendid sight. More than once during the
day I thought of John Cok, the brother of St Bartholomew's beholding five
centuries ago within the same walls and under the same noble vault, the
coronation of the future victor of Agincourt. . . ."
John Cok is a valuable witness as regards the history of the hospital,
especially as to the mastership of John Wakeryng, who held office for
forty years. Cok became Rentar of the Hospital, and the chief work of
his life was the writing of the Cartulary (which he called a Rental),
recording rents due to the hospital, deeds of gift, papal bulls, and
other documents. Cok's book (dated 1456) is a large volume written in
Latin on 636 leaves of vellum and enclosed in an ancient binding of oak
boards covered with leather.
In a transaction of 14th June 1423 is the first appearance of the arms at
present used by the hospital (ii., p. 16), namely, party per pale argent
and sable a chevron counter-changed. It was probably Wakeryng's coat of
arms, but ended by being regarded as that of the hospital. The author
suggests that the chevron "might symbolise the hospital roof, while the
equally divided and counter-changed argent and sable suggested that each
patient admitted had an even chance of recovery or of death."
In 1432 arrangements were made for a water-supply to the hospital from
Islington (Iseldon); and the "waste of water at the Cisterne" was to be
conveyed "to the Gailes of Newgate and Ludgate for the reliefe of the
prisoners."
Cock Lane, near the hospital, has, I fear, no connection with brother
John Cok (ii., p. 53); it was so called from the shops of the cooks who
prepared refreshments for the crowds who came to Smithfield. It was at
the end of Cock Lane that the fire of London stopped in 1666, but it is
better known as the scene of the Cock Lane ghost.
Sir Richard Owen, who had been a student at St Bartholomew's, told Dr
Moore (ii., p. 54) a grim story of Cock Lane. It was there that the
hospital authorities hired a house for the reception of the dead bodies
of criminals hung at Newgate. "Owen was in a room on the first floor
with Sir William Blizard, the President, who was attired in court dress
as the proper costume for an official act. They heard the shouts of the
crowd and then the noise of an approaching cart, which turned down Cock
Lane and stopped at the door. Then came the heavy steps of the
executioner tramping up the stairs. He had the body of a man who had
been hanged on his back, and entering the room, let it fall on a table. . . .
Sir William Blizard with a scalpel made a small cut over the
breast-bone, and bowed to the executioner. This was, I suppose, the
formal recognition of the purpose for which the body had been delivered.
The rumbling of the cart, the contrast between the stiff figure of Sir
William Blizard in his court dress and the executioner in coarse clothes,
and the thud of each dead body on the table remained in Owen's memory to
the end of his days; and his skill in telling the story has made me
remember it nearly every time that I have walked down Cock Lane."
On 1st March 1711, a piece of literature destined "to be famous as long
as English is read, was published near the end of Duck Lane in Little
Britain." This was the first number of the _Spectator_, and "all London
read it and enjoyed it, from the motto to the end." The author (ii., p.
63) imagines Mr Addison walking down Duck Lane the Wednesday evening
before its appearance, from Mr Buckley's in Little Britain where he had
corrected his last revise.
Sir Norman Moore adds: "For me . . . Duke Street, Little Britain, has
innumerable memories of twenty-one happy years. I lived there as a
student and as house physician, and then as Warden of the College of St
Bartholomew's." He adds that his election as Warden was his first
professional success, which was followed by a place on the permanent
staff of the hospital. It was the home of his early married life, and
here his eldest child was born. He need not have apologised (as he
does); such details will surely please all sympathetic readers.
There is an interest in even the modern inhabitants of Little Britain.
We hear of dealers in gold lace and gold leaf, and also a representative
of that rare genus the teapot-handle maker. These handles could not be
worked on a lathe, and had to be sawn out of the ivory. Dr Moore learned
that in all London there was but one other teapot-handle maker: he felt
what a favour it was when the great man mended a fan for Mrs Moore.
It is pleasant to meet with the well-known lines from Wordsworth's poem
of "Poor Susan":--
"Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside."
I regret to say that our author quotes only to criticise, since he denies
that the mists of Lothbury are visible in Cheapside.
In 1535 the hospital estate was valued at 305 pounds, 6s. 7d. according
to one authority, and at 371 pounds, 13s. 2d. by another. St
Bartholomew's was then the third hospital in London in order of wealth.
Henry VII.'s Hospital in the Savoy and the New Hospital of Our Lady
outside Bishopsgate were richer (ii., p. 125).
The Act of Dissolution was passed in 1536, and the property of the
hospital was given into the King's hands in 1537. Thus the "old order,
which had existed for more than four hundred years, was at an end, and
the hospital was in the eye of the law vacant and altogether destitute of
a master, and of all fellows or brethren" (ii., p. 126).
"Augustinians, Benedictines, Carthusians, Gilbertines, Franciscans,
Dominicans, and more, all were banished from their ancient homes. . . .
St Bartholomew's Hospital was one of the few places where the injured
tree of charity began to put forth new branches, and soon flourished
again" (ii., p. 148).
The King, after five years' delay, granted, on 23rd June 1544, {150}
letters patent reconstituting the hospital for its original uses.
William Turges, the King's Chaplain, was the first Master, and "the body
corporate was to be called 'The Master and Chaplains of the Hospital of
St Bartholomew in West Smithfield, near London.'" The grant did little
for the poor, but it prevented the destruction of St Bartholomew's and
carried on its existence.
The figure of Henry VIII. is above the Smithfield Gate of the hospital.
A full-length portrait of him hangs at the end of the Great Hall. He is
also represented in a window of the hall handing the letters patent to
the Lord Mayor and citizens. "Thus," says the author, "do we commemorate
this destroying King, who might have taken away all the estate of St
Bartholomew's, but only took a small portion of it" (ii., p. 161).
The constitution under which the hospital is ruled was established in
1547, and confirmed, with an alteration in but one important particular,
in 1782. "Most of the offices created by the Deed of Covenant of
December 1546, and the letters patent of January 1547, exist at the
present day. The treasurer, the almoners, the physician, the surgeon,
the rentar, the steward, the matron and sisters, the porter bearing a
figure of St Bartholomew on his staff of office, and the beadles with
silver badges engraved with the hospital arms, are all parts of the
present life of the hospital" (ii., p. 191).
Beside the grave benefactors of the hospital we hear of serio-comic
personages who remind us of the curious lunatics recorded by de Morgan in
his _Budget of Paradoxes_. Thus in 1774 Mr W. Gardiner offered 2000
pounds to St Bartholomew's "as a sacrifice for God's having put it in his
power to overturn Sir Isaac Newton's system" (ii., p. 245).
From 1547 the treasurer was "a very important officer, but the president
also took an active part in the affairs of the hospital." But now the
treasurer is the responsible head of the administration.
In 1518 the College of Physicians was founded by Henry VIII. (ii., p.
408) on the advice of Dr Thomas Linacre. Its active existence began in
his house in Knightrider Street. The most pious and the most learned men
of England were Linacre's intimate friends, and the "example of his life,
as felt in the College of Physicians, continues a living force to this
day" (ii., p. 411).
Dr John Caius (ii., p. 412) was a devoted follower of Linacre; he was
born 1510, went to Cambridge in 1529, and in 1533 was elected Fellow of
Gonville Hall. In 1539 he went to Padua, where Vesalius, the founder of
modern anatomy, was Professor. In 1547 Caius was admitted a Fellow of
the College of Physicians, and not long after he came to live within St
Bartholomew's Hospital.
Caius wrote on the sweating sickness in 1552, and his work was printed
near St Bartholomew's. "Thus were the proofs of the first medical
monograph in the English tongue, and, indeed, the first book written by
an English physician . . . on a particular disease, corrected in St
Bartholomew's" (ii., p. 418).
Caius was in 1555 elected President of the College of Physicians, to
which he presented their silver caduceus with four serpents at its head,
a book of statutes, and a seal. In 1557-69 he was engaged in the
refoundation and building at Cambridge of what was to be known as
Gonville and Caius College. On his death his viscera were buried in St
Bartholomew's the Less, while the rest of his body was placed in an
alabaster tomb in the chapel of his college with the inscription: "Fui
Caius."
We meet with many proofs of the consideration shown by the authorities
towards the patients. For instance (ii., p. 279):--
13_th March_ 1568.--"This day it is graunted by the courte that Griffen
Davye shall departe forthwith into his countrye, and also that he shall
have 20s. in his purse to bringe him home in consideracion that he is
lame and impotent."
Again (ii., p. 293), "30_th April_ 1597.--Ordered that curtaynes be
provided for certain beds of the poor." The author adds that "moveable
curtains hang over the beds to this day, and are of great use in
providing privacy when patients are washing and dressing."
We meet with some trifling records of great events. Thus on 7th May 1660
it is ordered that "the shield of the States armes being the Redd Cross
and Harpe be taken downe in the Court Hall and the King's arms put in the
Roome thereof."
But even the King could not impose on the hospital. Thus in 1661 there
was a vacancy for a surgeon at the Lock. The King wrote in favour of
John Knight, but John Dorrington was elected (ii., p. 316).
In 1666 the great fire of London was only prevented from reaching the
hospital by pulling down houses. The consequent loss to the hospital may
be set down as 2000 pounds per annum. We are constantly meeting in the
history of St Bartholomew's interesting lights on the natural history of
the patients. An entry as to the supply of beer (of which, by the way,
the patients were allowed three pints daily) pleases me:--"Sir Jonathan
Reymond, Knt. and Alderman, is to serve the matron's cellar. Alderman
Lt.-col. Freind is to supply small beer" (ii., p. 339). These personages
doubtless belonged to the established church, for dissenters were not
allowed to serve the hospital with any commodity.
An entry under 26th February 1704 throws a sinister light on the
condition of the wards:--"Elizabeth Bond did propose to kill and clear
the beds and wards of bugs within this house for 6s. per bed." I hope
Elizabeth Bond was more careful in her work than was the writer of the
resolution (ii., p. 352).