eat benefactor
of London left a share in his water-works to the Goldsmiths' Company,
which is now worth more than L1,000 a year. Another portrait is that of
Sir Thomas Vyner, that jovial Lord Mayor, who dragged Charles II. back
for a second bottle. A third is a portrait (after Holbein) of Sir Martin
Bowes, Lord Mayor in 1545 (Henry VIII.); and there is also a large
picture (attributed to Giulio Romano, the only painter Shakespeare
mentions in his plays). In the foreground is St. Dunstan, in rich robes
and crozier in hand, while behind, the saint takes the Devil by the
nose, much to the approval of flocks of angels above. The great white
marble mantelpiece came from Canons, the seat of the Duke of Chandos;
and the two large terminal busts are attributed to Roubiliac. The
sumptuous drawing-room, adorned with crimson satin, white and gold, has
immense mirrors, and a stucco ceiling, wrought with fruit, flowers,
birds, and animals, with coats of arms blazoned on the four corners. The
court dining-room displays on the marble chimney-piece two boys holding
a wreath encircling the portrait of Richard II., by whom the Goldsmiths
were first incorporated. In the livery tea-room is a conversation piece,
by Hudson (Reynolds' master), containing portraits of six Lord Mayors,
all Goldsmiths. The Company's plate, as one might suppose, is very
magnificent, and comprises a chandelier of chased gold, weighing 1,000
ounces; two superb old gold plates, having on them the arms of France
quartered with those of England; and, last of all, there is the gold cup
(attributed to Cellini) out of which Queen Elizabeth is said to have
drank at her coronation, and which was bequeathed to the Company by Sir
Martin Bowes. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 this spirited Company
awarded L1,000 to the best artist in gold and silver plate, and at the
same time resolved to spend L5,000 on plate of British manufacture.

From the Report of the Charity Commissioners it appears that the
Goldsmiths' charitable funds, exclusive of gifts by Sir Martin Bowes,
amount to L2,013 per annum.

Foster Lane was in old times chiefly inhabited by working goldsmiths.

"Dark Entry, Foster Lane," says Strype, "gives a passage into St.
Martin's-le-Grand. On the north side of this entry was seated the parish
church of St. Leonard, Foster Lane, which being consumed in the Fire of
London, is not rebuilt, but the parish united to Christ Church; and the
place where it stood is inclose