reserved upon the said lease
made to Gunnell and Blagrove." Herne's lease was for a term of
sixty-one years. The effect of this second lease was merely to make
Herne, instead of the Earl of Dorset, the landlord of the players.

[Illustration: A PLAN OF THE SALISBURY COURT PROPERTY

To illustrate the lease. (Drawn by the author.)]

The plot of ground selected for the playhouse is described with
exactness in the lease printed below. The letters inserted in brackets
refer to the accompanying diagram (see page 371):

All that soil and ground whereupon the Barn {A}, at the
lower end of the great back court, or yard of Salisbury
Court, now stands; and so much of the soil whereupon the
whole south end of the great stable in the said court or
yard stands, or contains, from that end of that stable
towards the north end thereof sixteen foot of assize, and
the whole breadth of the said stable {B}; and all the ground
and soil on the east and west side of that stable lying
directly against the said sixteen foot of ground at the
south end thereof between the wall of the great garden
belonging to the mansion called Dorset House and the wall
that severs the said Court from the lane called Water Lane
{C and D}; and all the ground and soil being between the
said walls on the east and west part thereof, and the said
barn, stable, and ground on both side the same on the south
and north parts thereof {E}. Which said several parcells of
soil and ground ... contain, in the whole length ... one
hundred and forty foot of assize, and in breadth ... forty
and two foot of assize, and lies together at the lower end
of the said Court.

This plot, one hundred and forty feet in length by forty-two in
breadth, was small for its purpose, and the playhouse must have
covered all the breadth and most of the length of the leased
ground;[625] there was no actual need of leaving any part of the plot
vacant, for the theatre adjoined the Court, and "free ingress, egress,
and regress" to the building were stipulated in the lease "by,
through, and on any part of the Court called Salisbury Court."

[Footnote 625: The Blackfriars auditorium was sixty-six feet in length
and forty-six feet in breadth.]

At once Gunnell and Blagrove set about the erection of their
playhouse. They may have utilized in some way the "great barn" which
occupied most of their prope