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entrance to the hospital. The foundling was left in the basket, the mother rang the bell and departed, leaving her infant with its ‘distinguishing mark or token’ to add to the hospital’s growing collection. On the first day 117 children were left in the basket.
Since the children were nameless they were often given names like William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer and Francis Drake. All the children were inoculated against smallpox and a doctor attended in the case of any illnesses which could not be treated by the resident nurse. In the 19th century Charles Dickens lived nearby in Doughty Street and in March 1853 in his journal
Household Words
Dickens wrote ‘this home of the blank children is by no means a blank place… the Governors of this charity are a model to all others’. Thomas Coram died on 29th March 1751, probably aged 83, and his tomb is to be found at St Andrew’s, Holborn, at the southern end of Hatton Garden. Brunswick Square remains the home of the Foundling Museum with its fine collection of paintings and Foundling tokens. Outside the museum stands a statue of Thomas Coram. In 1852 the Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children was built on neighbouring land. The adjacent land – ‘Coram’s Fields’ – is the park which can be entered by adults only if they are accompanied by a child.
Sub judice in absentia
The lost Inns of Court
M ost Londoners know of the four Inns of Court: Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, the Middle Temple and Inner Temple. They date from the 14th century, possibly earlier, the word ‘Inn’ referring to a building in which barristers and those learning to practise the law were accommodated. Each of the Inns of Court, whose gardens are open to the public, resembles an Oxbridge college, consisting of staircases which accommodate the ‘chambers’ of barristers. Anyone wishing to practise as a barrister must be accepted by an Inn of Court, follow a course of study, pass examinations and then be taken on by one of the chambers. Each student also has to attend a certain number of formal dinners in the magnificent dining hall of his or her Inn. That of the Middle Temple contains a long table made from a single oak tree given to the Inn by Queen Elizabeth I and a cupboard made from the timbers of the
Golden Hind
, in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world in 1577-80.
There used to be many more Inns, known as Inns of Chancery which specialised in preparing writs for all the sovereign’s courts. They have all gradually closed or been taken over by one of the four remaining Inns of Court but some buildings survive. Barnard’s Inn (1435), situated in a passage off the south side of Holborn, became the site of Mercers’ School in 1892 and is now the home of Gresham College. Clifford’s Inn (1480) was the home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf but is recalled now only by Clifford’s Inn Passage. Clement’s Inn (1480), remembered by the road of that name running north of the Strand to the west of the Law Courts, was the Inn of Shakespeare’s Justice Shallow.
THE VIRGIN QUEEN’S INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Sir Thomas Gresham (c.1518-79) was a City merchant who managed the finances of Elizabeth I’s government. He coined the expression ‘bad money tends to drive out good’: in other words people will hoard sound currencies and gold coins and spend fake or debased coins and currencies which are losing value. It remains the classic argument against inflation. In 1566 he founded the Royal Exchange, thus laying the foundations for London’s pre-eminence as a centre for trade and especially for finance. His will endowed Gresham College which continues to flourish in the 21st century as a provider of free public lectures by eminent scholars on every subject.
Doctors dissolved
Doctors’ Commons was the name given to a college (an Inn of Court in all but name) which housed advocates who were qualified in Civil Law (i.e. non-criminal law). Based in Paternoster Row,
Since the children were nameless they were often given names like William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer and Francis Drake. All the children were inoculated against smallpox and a doctor attended in the case of any illnesses which could not be treated by the resident nurse. In the 19th century Charles Dickens lived nearby in Doughty Street and in March 1853 in his journal
Household Words
Dickens wrote ‘this home of the blank children is by no means a blank place… the Governors of this charity are a model to all others’. Thomas Coram died on 29th March 1751, probably aged 83, and his tomb is to be found at St Andrew’s, Holborn, at the southern end of Hatton Garden. Brunswick Square remains the home of the Foundling Museum with its fine collection of paintings and Foundling tokens. Outside the museum stands a statue of Thomas Coram. In 1852 the Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children was built on neighbouring land. The adjacent land – ‘Coram’s Fields’ – is the park which can be entered by adults only if they are accompanied by a child.
Sub judice in absentia
The lost Inns of Court
M ost Londoners know of the four Inns of Court: Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, the Middle Temple and Inner Temple. They date from the 14th century, possibly earlier, the word ‘Inn’ referring to a building in which barristers and those learning to practise the law were accommodated. Each of the Inns of Court, whose gardens are open to the public, resembles an Oxbridge college, consisting of staircases which accommodate the ‘chambers’ of barristers. Anyone wishing to practise as a barrister must be accepted by an Inn of Court, follow a course of study, pass examinations and then be taken on by one of the chambers. Each student also has to attend a certain number of formal dinners in the magnificent dining hall of his or her Inn. That of the Middle Temple contains a long table made from a single oak tree given to the Inn by Queen Elizabeth I and a cupboard made from the timbers of the
Golden Hind
, in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world in 1577-80.
There used to be many more Inns, known as Inns of Chancery which specialised in preparing writs for all the sovereign’s courts. They have all gradually closed or been taken over by one of the four remaining Inns of Court but some buildings survive. Barnard’s Inn (1435), situated in a passage off the south side of Holborn, became the site of Mercers’ School in 1892 and is now the home of Gresham College. Clifford’s Inn (1480) was the home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf but is recalled now only by Clifford’s Inn Passage. Clement’s Inn (1480), remembered by the road of that name running north of the Strand to the west of the Law Courts, was the Inn of Shakespeare’s Justice Shallow.
THE VIRGIN QUEEN’S INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Sir Thomas Gresham (c.1518-79) was a City merchant who managed the finances of Elizabeth I’s government. He coined the expression ‘bad money tends to drive out good’: in other words people will hoard sound currencies and gold coins and spend fake or debased coins and currencies which are losing value. It remains the classic argument against inflation. In 1566 he founded the Royal Exchange, thus laying the foundations for London’s pre-eminence as a centre for trade and especially for finance. His will endowed Gresham College which continues to flourish in the 21st century as a provider of free public lectures by eminent scholars on every subject.
Doctors dissolved
Doctors’ Commons was the name given to a college (an Inn of Court in all but name) which housed advocates who were qualified in Civil Law (i.e. non-criminal law). Based in Paternoster Row,
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