The following epitaphs are quoted by Strype:--

JOHN ROGERS, DIED 1576.

"Like thee I was sometime,
But now am turned to dust;
As thou at length, O earth and slime,
Returne to ashes must.
Of the Company of Clothworkers
A brother I became;
A long time in the Livery
I lived of the same.
Then Death that deadly stroke did give,
Which now my joys doth frame.
In Christ I dyed, by Christ to live;
John Rogers was my name.
My loving wife and children two
My place behind supply;
God grant them living so to doe,
That they in him may dye."

GEORGE BOLLES, LORD MAYOR OF LONDON, DIED 1632.

"He possessed Earth as he might Heaven possesse;
Wise to doe right, but never to oppresse.
His charity was better felt than knowne,
For when he gave there was no trumpet blowne.
What more can be comprized in one man's fame,
To crown a soule, and leave a living name?"

Founders' Hall, now in St. Swithin's Lane, was formerly at Founders'
Court, Lothbury. The Founders' Company, incorporated in 1614, had the
power of testing all brass weights and brass and copper wares within the
City and three miles round. The old Founders' Hall was noted for its
political meetings, and was in 1792 nicknamed "The Cauldron of
Sedition." Here Waithman made his first political speech, and, with his
fellow-orators, was put to flight by constables, sent by the Lord Mayor,
Sir James Sanderson, to disperse the meeting.

Watling Street, now laid open by the new street leading to the Mansion
House, is probably the oldest street in London. It is part of the old
Roman military road that, following an old British forest-track, led
from London to Dover, and from Dover to South Wales. The name, according
to Leland, is from the Saxon _atheling_--a noble street. At the
north-west end of it is the church of St. Augustine, anciently styled
_Ecclesia Sancti Augustini ad Portam_, from its vicinity to the
south-east gate of St. Paul's Cathedral. This church was described on
page 349.

Tower Royal, Watling Street, preserves the memory of one of those
strange old palatial forts that were not unfrequent in mediaeval
London--half fortresses, half dwelling-houses; half courting, half
distrusting the City. "It was of old time the king's house," says Stow,
solemnly, "but was afterwards called the Queen's Wardrobe. By whom the
same was first built, or of what antiquity c