institutions are the
City companies, that, curious to relate, the present body hardly
includes one mercer among them. In Henry VIII.'s reign the Company
(freemen, householders, and livery) amounted to fifty-three persons; in
1701 it had almost quadrupled. Strype (1754) only enumerates fifty-two
mayors who had been mercers, from 1214 to 1701; this is below the mark.
Halkins over-estimates the mercer mayors as ninety-eight up to 1708. Few
monarchs have been mercers, yet Richard II. was a free brother, and
Queen Elizabeth a free sister.

Half our modern nobility have sprung from the trades they now despise.
Many of the great mercers became the founders of noble houses; for
instance--Sir John Coventry (1425), ancestor of the present Earl of
Coventry; Sir Geoffrey Bullen, grandfather of Queen Elizabeth; Sir
William Hollis, ancestor of the Earls of Clare. From Sir Richard Dormer
(1542) sprang the Lords Dormer; from Sir Thomas Baldry (1523) the Lords
Kensington (Rich); from Sir Thomas Seymour (1527) the Dukes of Somerset;
from Sir Baptist Hicks, the great mercer of James I., who built Hicks'
Hall, on Clerkenwell Green, sprang the Viscounts Camden; from Sir
Rowland Hill, the Lords Hill; from James Butler (Henry II.) the Earls of
Ormond; from Sir Geoffrey Fielding, Privy Councillor to Henry II. and
Richard I., the Earls of Denbigh.

The costume of the Mercers became fixed about the reign of Charles I.
The master and wardens led the civic processions, "faced in furs," with
the lords; the livery followed in gowns faced with satins, the livery of
all other Companies wearing facings of fringe.

"In Ironmonger Lane," says Stow, giving us a glimpse of old London, "is
the small parish church of St. Martin, called Pomary, upon what occasion
certainly I know not; but it is supposed to be of apples growing where
now houses are lately builded, for myself have seen the large void
places there." The church was repaired in the year 1629. Mr. Stodder
left 40s. for a sermon to be preached on St. James's Day by an
unbeneficed minister, in commemoration of the deliverance in the year
1588 (Armada); and 50s. more to the use of the poor of the same parish,
to be paid by the Ironmongers.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

GUILDHALL.

The Original Guildhall--A fearful Civic Spectacle--The Value of Land
increased by the Great Fire--Guildhall as it was and is--The Statues
over the South Porch--Dance's Disfigurements--The Renovation in
1864