ntroduction.

"Anent ye Gate and Clubbe.”

"Scholar-This is a very big GATEWAY to fo fmall a house, Master Builder?

"Palladio-All the fault of the HOUSE, Nicolas, for not being larger; would that it were!"

"Chronicles of Nirgends College," Tom. LVI., p. 38.

N the quaint old Hall of St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, the Urban Club regularly meets, confifting of gentlemen connected with Literature, Science, Art, and the Drama. It was originally formed in January, 1858, and was named the Friday Knights, in confequence of its members meeting on Friday evenings; but on the 15th of November of that year the name was changed to that of the Urban Club, in honour of Edward Cave, who firft projected the Gentleman's Magazine (January, 1731), and printed, edited, and published the fame at the old Gate,

C

To hint only at the past history of this old edifice, conjures up in the mind of the student of England's landmarks the deeds of prowefs and charity of the Chivalrous Knights Hofpitallers, and the fubfequent downfall of one of the most powerful Orders of Christendom. The difpenfing of alms to the poor and weary at the Priory, of which this building was the gate, and the kingly

entertainment of invited and felf-invited guests, for indefinite periods, muft, I am fure, caufe no fmall amount of regret for the times that have gone for ever. What can compare with the following? "A fingle perfon might, in strict law, claim food and lodging for three days in a preceptory, which would be fupplied as befitted his condition; but that ftrict law was not likely to be very clofely followed. It is more likely that the family' would do pretty much as they liked about guests of a

certain fort; not, perhaps, refusing relief, but taking care that it fhould not be fo given as to render a fecond. application very probable. They may poffibly have had their equivalents for the crank and the ftone-heap. At the open table of the liberi fervientes, or garciones, a good fellow might, and perhaps often did, make himself welcome, and no one would ask him how long he had ftayed, or meant to stay.'

*יי

The news from all parts were detailed by the travellers thus entertained; fo that the lavishment of wealth in hofpitality was not an unprofitable virtue.†

*The Knights Hofpitallers in England. Being the Report of Prior Philip de Thame to the Grand Mafter Elyan de Villanova. Edited by the Rev. Lambert B. Larking, M.A., with an Historical Introduction by John Mitchell Kemble, M.A.

Camden Society Pub., 1857, p. xlvii. The Hiftory of the Knights Hofpitallers of St. John of Jerufalem, by Mons. L'Abbé de Vertot, 1770, Vol. I., Preface.

To the antiquarian, one vifit to the Gate will be fure to be quickly followed by others-its ancient interiors, with groined ceilings, capacious fireplaces, circular staircase, with the original folid oak newel, the extraordinary thickness of the walls, the chair faid to have been the one ufed by Dr. Samuel Johnfon,* the numerous and

valuable prints of local topography, covering the walls of the quaint Coffee-Room, and the large Hall over the gateway, render it one of the most interesting

* For a history of this innocent hoax on the part of the late proprietor, Mr. B. Fofter, fee Pinks and Wood's Hiftory of Clerkenwell, page 245.

The curious in Tavern-lore will do well to take heed of the warning conveyed in the verfes, fufpended over this Chair, before refting the body that has become wearied by, it may be, a long journey to this home of good-fellowship. Many are the worshippers who wander hither from all parts of the world, and to fit in this Chair is confidered by them a duty, which not even the