276 SIR WOLSTAN DIXIE. PICTURES AT CHRIST-CHURCH. HERE is the longest picture I ever saw. King James II. amidst his courtiers, receiving the president of this hospital, several of the governors, and numbers of the children, all kneeling; one of the governors with grey hair, and some of the heads of the children, are admirably executed. Chancellor Jefferies is standing by the king. This was painted by Verrio, who has placed himself in the piece, in a long wig. THE founder is represented in another picture sitting, and giving the charter to the governors, who are in their red gowns kneeling; the boys and girls are ranged in two rows; a bishop, possibly Ridley, is in the piece. If this was the work of Holbein, it has certainly been much injured by repair. In the court-room is a three-quarters length of Edward, a most beautiful portrait, indisputably by the hand of that great painter. He is most richly dressed, with one of his hands upon a dagger. In this room are the portraits of two persons of uncommon merit. The first is of Sir Wolstan Dixie, lord mayor in 1585. in 1585. He is represented in a red gown furred, a rich chain, and with a rough beard. The date on his portrait is 1593. He was descended from Wolstan Dixie, who was seated at Catworth, in Huntingdonshire, about the reign of Edward III. Sir Wolstan was the founder of the family of baronets, settled at Mar PICTURES AT CHRIST-CHURCH. ket-Bosworth, in Leicestershire, which was bestowed by him on his great nephew, in the reign of queen Elizabeth.* Sir Wolstan was distinguished by the magnificent pageantry of his mayor's day; and by the poetical incense bestowed on the occasion by George Peele, A. M. of Christ-church College, Oxford: who, among other things, wrote the life of our last prince Llewelyn, the loves of king David and the fair Bathsheba, and the tragedy of Absalom. But Sir Wolstan immortalized himself by his good deeds, and the greatness of his charities. At Bosworth he founded a free-school; every prison in the capital felt his bounty: he portioned poor maidens in marriage; contributed largely to build a pest-house; established two fellowships in Emanuel College, Cambridge, and two scholarships; and left to this hospital an annual endowment of forty-two pounds for ever. 277 RAMSAY. BUT a lady, dame Mary Ramsay, wife of Sir DAME MARY Thomas Ramsay, lord mayor in 1577, greatly surpassed Sir Wolstan in her charitable deeds, by the gift of twenty pounds a year, to be annually paid to the master and usher of the school belonging to this hospital; and also to the hospital the reversion of a hundred and twenty pounds annually. She was complimented with having her picture placed in this room. She is dressed in a red-bodied gown * Collins's Baronets, iii. 103. + Wood's Athena Oxon. i. 300. 278 CHARTER- CHARTER-HOUSE. and petticoat. She augmented fellowships and scholarships; cloathed ten maimed soldiers, at the expence of twenty pounds annually: she did not forget the prisoners in the several gaols; she gave the sum of twelve hundred pounds, to five of the companies, to be lent to young tradesmen for four years; she gave to Bristol a thousand pounds, to be laid out in an hospital; she married and portioned poor virgins; and, besides other charities which I omit, left three thousand pounds to good and pious uses. This excellent woman died about the year 1596, and was interred in the church of St. Mary Woolnoth.* In this square, at the time called the CharterSQUARE. house Yard, was a town-house belonging to the earls of Rutland, which, in the year 1656, was converted into an opera-house, over which Sir William d' Avenant presided; † for in those times of hypocrisy, tragedies and comedies were not permitted. CHARTER HOUSE. THE Charter-house is the next object of attention. This was a house of Carthusians (whence the name is corrupted) founded by Sir Walter de Manni, a most successful commander in the French wars, under Edward III. He purchased, in the year 1349, a piece of ground consisting of thirteen The charities of both these worthy characters may be seen in Stow's Survaie, 203, 207. ↑ British Biogr. 2d ed. ii. 286. |