gilt suit was worn by James I.'s
ill-starred son, Prince Henry, whom many thought was poisoned by
Buckingham; and this quaint mask, with ram's horns and spectacles,
belonged to Will Somers, Henry VIII.'s jester.

From the Tower we break away into the far east, among the old clothes
shops, the bird markets, the costermongers, and the weavers of
Whitechapel and Spitalfields. We are far from jewels here and Court
splendour, and we come to plain working people and their homely ways.
Spitalfields was the site of a priory of Augustine canons, however, and
has ancient traditions of its own. The weavers, of French origin, are an
interesting race--we shall have to sketch their sayings and doings; and
we shall search Whitechapel diligently for old houses and odd people.
The district may not furnish so many interesting scenes and anecdotes as
the West End, but it is well worthy of study from many modern points of
view.

Smithfield and Holborn are regions fertile in associations. Smithfield,
that broad plain, the scene of so many martyrdoms, tournaments, and
executions, forms an interesting subject for a diversified chapter. In
this market-place the ruffians of Henry VIII.'s time met to fight out
their quarrels with sword and buckler. Here the brave Wallace was
executed like a common robber; and here "the gentle Mortimer" was led to
a shameful death. The spot was the scene of great jousts in Edward
III.'s chivalrous reign, when, after the battle of Poictiers, the Kings
of France and Scotland came seven days running to see spears shivered
and "the Lady of the Sun" bestow the prizes of valour. In this same
field Walworth slew the rebel Wat Tyler, who had treated Richard II.
with insolence, and by this prompt blow dispersed the insurgents, who
had grown so dangerously strong. In Henry VIII.'s reign poisoners were
boiled to death in Smithfield; and in cruel Mary's reign the Protestant
martyrs were burned in the same place. "Of the two hundred and
seventy-seven persons burnt for heresy in Mary's reign," says a modern
antiquary, "the greater number perished in Smithfield;" and ashes and
charred bodies have been dug up opposite to the gateway of Bartholomew's
Church and at the west end of Long Lane. After the Great Fire the
houseless citizens were sheltered here in tents. Over against the corner
where the Great Fire abated is Cock Lane, the scene of the rapping
ghost, in which Dr. Johnson believed and concerning which Goldsmith
wrote a