The Sun.
London, England, 1806-01-09 00:00:00

THE • ROYAL MEUSE.

Among the improvements: of modern London,
few are more conspicuous than the ranges of stables
which nOw form so frequent an appendage to our
streets and suareS. Many of these are dignified
with an appellation similar to the title of the preent
article; and Oxford, Portland, 'Marlborough or
Portman Mews, are familiar to the ears of every
passenger ;
.inerely because Henry VIII. in 'conse-
quence of an accidental fire in 1534, transferred his
horses_to the place where his ancestors had. mued
their hawks.

Mewe, in its original application,signifiect'a kind
of cage, where hawks were wintered, or kept when
'they coned; or changed their feathers whence it
was afterward taken in a more.eatended sense, and
signified a cage of any sort, or even confinement in
cri.neral.
Long previous to the Norrnan Conquest, -haWk-
ing was a f4vouritepaStime with the English 3 our
SaXpn aliceStOrg, 'perhaps;"..brbught it With them,
from the woods of Germany ; and even as late as
the reign of Henry- In. the best hawks were
bronght from Norway. In 1250 the stealing hawks
from their inews was deeMed worthy legislative in-
terferenee (Pat. 34 Hen. m. m. 2.) ; and among
the indulgences granted by Edward HI. to the Duke
of OrleanS, while prisoner in:London, 1362, none.
were perhaps more valued . than the liberty to hunt
and hawk at pleasure.-- (Pat: 35 .Edw. 111. pl. m..
24.)
From the taste of the times, it seems more than
probable that, every Royal Palace had a mews at-
tached to it, although the one at Westminster was
the chief. ,The earliest mention .I haVe found of it
is among the Wardrobe Accounts.nf Edward I. in
L 299, where a payment occurs. of Ts. 4d. for winter.
shoes to Hanekin, the keeper of the Mews at We.st-
minster

‘' Ilanckins custodi rrnitarurn Iterialptni
• %Vestin' pro calclaineritis hiernalibus an- , •
ni presentis, per cornporum latturn
aped %Vestal' mense I anuae arm 29, o 2 4.'s
In 1350, Ralph de Mailers was made keeper.—
; In 1377 the Office was given. to Sir Simon
the accomplished favourite of Richard H. (Stowe's
Swvey, ed. 1755, vol. ; and seven years
afterwards, 384,we find theeelebratedGeoffreyChau-
cer appointed, among other Offices, to. be Clerk of
. the King's Works in the Palace of Westminker and
in the Mews at Charing.
Chaucer, it s'hou,kl seem, was _always assembling
the materials for poetry; and,it is to the Office just
mentiOned.that we' are indebted for the following
little simile in Troilus and Cresside (lib. iii. .1.
1793.)
" And when Uralic came riding into the town; •
• Full 'oft his Lady from trr window down,
As fresh asiamon co,nin out pl mire,
Yul redy was Ilitugodely to salute."
In 1390 Sir BaldNVin de Bereford; Knt. occurs as
'Master of the Royal Falcons (Pat. 13 Ric. M. 14.)
and in 1460 theOffiee of Master of MeWesand
Falcons, with a rnansioncalled. the lleWe4iouse an-

ncxed, !; g ntec. 117 a pitent- frGin llenry
to. RiChard 11-,:trl of Sall:;bnry ; and Fabian says (P.
7, c. that a few years after Lord and
his son were taken hence to Northampton and -be-
headed. Richard 111. in the first year Of his reign,
nave the office to John Gr&y, of Wiltone (Had.
M. S. 433 f. 53 b.)

Mr. Pennant (Hist. of Lond.p. t 13) says.„ that the
office .of Keeper Of the King's Falcons was by
Charles 11. granted to his son, by leii Gwynne,
Charles.Dulte of St. Albaq's, and the heirs male of
his body. .
'Henry VIII. was the first of our Mon'archs who
turned the Royal Mews to .';'tables, in consequence
esaifire which had destroyed the stabling at BloomS-
bury---(Stowe's Survey, ed. 1755, vol. ii. p, 57G,)

. _
Edward VI. rebuilt them in a more convenient
form, but left the finishing to. his sister and.succes7
sOr. The present structure was ereaed in 1732.

ST. AUGUSTINE'S IN THE WALL.

. .
Among the churches of London that are-no longer
known, was: that of St. Augustine the Wall. It
stood just within .Bishopgate, in Camomile-street,
and was destroyed in the great fire of 1666. In.
1430 the church and church-yard,.with. the con-
sent the Holy Trinity Priory, by. Aldgatz!, who
had been the patrons, were granted to the Brethren
of the Papey, whose, fraternity had just been found-
ed by Wm. Cleve, Win. , Barnaby, and John Staf-
ford, Chautry Priests in London. The lieetory of
.St. Austin's, it appears, had become too poor to sup-
port a Priest, and had just been united to the parish
of Allhallows in the Wall. Paper appears to have
I;een a word synoninious with priesthbod ; and the
fbundation was principally 'for the aid and mainte7
nance of poor Priests. It consisted of a Master,
Wardens, Chaplains,' Chantey-priests, Condu&s,
and other Brethren and Sisters ; and appears to have
been constituted in honour of Holy Charity and John
the kitrangelist. The Priests being skilled in church
offices, were 'frequently called upon to attend at
sumptuouS funeral's, and had 'occasional legacies be-
queathed them to, pray for the-Souls of the departed.
.Among the MSS. in the Cotton Library, now in the
Museum, is one
,(Vitcll; xvi. 2,3) whiCh cnii-
tainS the deeds relating' to-the fonndatiOn, with the
Statutes, and a list of the Masters, from 1.443 to
1548, when, in the *second 'year ' of Edward VI. it
Was dissolved. The few e,xtraaS made froM this,
register in StoWe are; particularly valuable, as the
manuscript was so damaged in th-ere of 1738, that
the.greaterpart of it is unintelligible. In 1539, only
nine years previous to their dissolution, the. Priests
obtained leave to sell the burying-ground adjoining
to their church for the sum of 21. 13s. 6d. to the
parish of St. Martin Out-Cvich (Par. Accompt.)