rule required, a member of one of the twelve
Great Companies, left the Barber Chirurgeons, and joined the Grocers,
who welcomed him with a great pageant. In 1664, the Grocers took a
zealous part with their friends and allies, the Druggists, against the
College of Physicians, who were trying to obtain a bill granting them
power of search, seizure, fine, and imprisonment. The Plague year no
election feast was held. The Great Fire followed, and not only greatly
damaged Grocers' Hall, but also consumed the whole of their house
property, excepting a few small tenements in Grub Street. They found it
necessary to try and raise L20,000 to pay their debts, to sell their
melted plate, and to add ninety-four members to the livery. Only
succeeding, amid the general distress, in raising L6,000, the Company
was almost bankrupt, their hall being seized, and attachments laid on
their rent. By a great effort, however, they wore round, called more
freemen on the livery, and added in two months eighty-one new members to
the Court of Assistants; so that before the Revolution of 1688 they had
restored their hall and mowed down most of their rents. Indeed, one of
their most brilliant epochs was in 1689, when William III. accepted the
office of their sovereign master.

[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF GROCERS' HALL.]

Some writers credit the Grocers' Company with the enrolment of five
kings, several princes, eight dukes, three earls, and twenty lords. Of
these five kings, Mr. Herbert could, however, only trace Charles II. and
William III. Their list of honorary members is one emblazoned with many
great names, including Sir Philip Sidney (at whose funeral they
assisted), Pitt, Lord Chief Justice Tenterden, the Marquis of
Cornwallis, George Canning, &c. Of Grocer Mayors, Strype notes
sixty-four between 1231 and 1710 alone.

The garden of the Hall must have been a pleasant place in the old times,
as it is now. It is mentioned in 1427 as having vines spreading up
before the parlour windows. It had also an arbour; and in 1433 it was
generously thrown open to the citizens generally, who had petitioned for
this privilege. It contained hedge-rows and a bowling alley, with an
ancient tower of stone or brick, called "the Turret," at the north-west
corner, which had probably formed part of Lord Fitzwalter's mansion. The
garden remained unchanged till the new hall was built in 1798, when it
was much curtailed, and in 1802 it was nearly cut in half by the
e