ng statues of Edward VI., Elizabeth, and Charles
I. (now preserved in the Guildhall Library), and with a glorious west
window of seven lights, a perfect example of the Perpendicular style.
Adjoining the chapel on the south was Blackwell Hall, which was for so
many centuries the great Cloth Mart of the city.

Among the religious services which formed so bright a feature in ancient
civic life those of the Guildhall Chapel held an important place.
Besides their attendances at the Cathedral, at Paul's Cross, and at the
'Spital, the Lord Mayor and his brethren, with the City officers,
attended Divine service at this chapel on Michaelmas Day before the
election of a new Lord Mayor, and on many other occasions throughout the
year. The sermons preached on these occasions were printed, and form
quite a large body of civic homiletics, many of the preachers being men
of great fame and reputation. The practice of attending the Mass of the
Holy Spirit (for which a celebration of Holy Communion with sermon is
now substituted) was revived, if not originated, by the celebrated Sir
Richard Whittington on the day of his own election as Lord Mayor in
1406.

Another of the good deeds of this worthy mayor was the foundation,
through his executor, of a library to be attached to the Guildhall
College, under the custody of one of its chaplains. This was duly
carried out in 1425 by the erection of a separate building of two
floors, well supplied with books "for the profit of the students there,
and those discoursing to the common people." This public library, which
appears to have been the first of its kind in England, had,
unfortunately, but a brief existence, _all_ of its books having been
"borrowed" in 1550 by the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector, by whom, as
we learn from Stow the historian, they were never returned. The loss has
since been, to some extent, supplied by the present library, founded at
Guildhall in 1824, and rebuilt in 1873.

In the reign of Henry VI., after the completion of the great hall, other
apartments, such as "the mayor's chamber, the council chamber, with
other rooms above the stairs," were built. Of these no trace at present
remains, and two Common Council chambers have since been erected. The
first of these was a picturesque apartment, its walls being covered with
statuary and paintings, the latter being chiefly presented to the
Corporation by Alderman John Boydell. A new council chamber, of handsome
and commodi