econd of his reign, he gave it to his
college, or Free Chapel of St. Stephen, at Westminster, by the name of
his tower, called Cornettes-Tower, at Bucklesbury, in London. This tower
of late years was taken down by one Buckle, a grocer, meaning, in place
thereof, to have set up and builded a goodly frame of timber; but the
said Buckle greedily labouring to pull down the old tower, a piece
thereof fell upon him, which so bruised him, that his life was thereby
shortened; and another, that married his widow, set up the new prepared
frame of timber, and finished the work.

"This whole street, called Bucklesbury, on both sides, throughout, is
possessed by grocers, and apothecaries toward the west end thereof. On
the south side breaketh out some other short lane, called in records
_Peneritch Street_. It reacheth but to St. Syth's Lane, and St. Syth's
Church is the farthest part thereof, for by the west end of the said
church beginneth Needlers Lane."

"I have heard," says Pennant, "that Bucklersbury was, in the reign of
King William, noted for the great resort of ladies of fashion, to
purchase tea, fans, and other Indian goods. King William, in some of his
letters, appears to be angry with his queen for visiting these shops,
which, it would seem, by the following lines of Prior, were sometimes
perverted to places of intrigue, for, speaking of Hans Carvel's wife,
the poet says:--

"'The first of all the Town was told,
Where newest Indian things were sold;
So in a morning, without boddice,
Slipt sometimes out to Mrs. Thody's,
To cheapen tea, or buy a skreen;
What else could so much virtue mean?'"

In the time of Queen Elizabeth this street was inhabited by chemists,
druggists, and apothecaries. Mouffet, in his treatise on foods, calls on
them to decide whether sweet smells correct pestilent air; and adds,
that Bucklersbury being replete with physic, drugs, and spicery, and
being perfumed in the time of the plague with the pounding of spices,
melting of gum, and making perfumes, escaped that great plague, whereof
such multitudes died, that scarce any house was left unvisited.

Shakespeare mentions Bucklersbury in his _Merry Wives of Windsor_,
written at Queen Elizabeth's request. He makes Falstaff say to Mrs.
Ford--

"What made me love thee? Let that persuade thee, there's something
extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say thou art this and
that, like a many of these lisping