atient 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 wer