"as cast up" by his own cashiers, and consisting "of ready money, allum, and good debts upon tallies and obligations from noblemen and others at court," was computed at the enormous sum of £215,600; yet, from the distractions of the times, the subsequent civil war, and the bad faith of many whom he had trusted, his losses were so great, and his affairs became so perplexed, that his executor, William Toomes, (who had long been his accountant and assistant,) found his expectations so entirely frustrated, that he committed suicide, in 1655, " and was found a felo de se."

Sir Paul Pindar died on the 22nd of August, 1650, at the advanced age of eighty-four, and was buried in St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate, to which he had been a considerable benefactor. His "leaden coffin," Malcolm says, 66 may at this time, be seen by the curious, with a hole in it, through which the very curious may possibly touch a part of his decayed body."* He was an inhabitant of that parish, as his epitaph informs us, twenty-six years; and "eminent for piety, charity, loyalty, and prudence." His Mansion is still remarkable for its bow front, and ample extent of windows; but it has been otherwise much

In the same

* See "Londinium Redivivum," vol. i. p. 330. work, are numerous extracts from the parish books, relating to the gifts and charities of this worthy man. In two instances, in 1637 and 1647, he is stated to have paid £2. for a license, for three years, to eat flesh on fish days! The arms of Sir Paul, viz. a chevron between three Lions' heads, erased, ermine, crowned or, appear among the ornaments of the ceiling of his ancient dining-room.

altered. At a little distance, in Half-Moon Alley, is an old structure, ornamented with figures, as represented in the annexed print; which is traditionally reported to have been the Keeper's Lodge, in the Park attached to Sir Paul's residence; and mulberry trees, and other park-like vestiges in this neighbourhood, are still within memory.

Whitelock says, "that Sir Paul Pindar is remembered to have laid out £19,000, of his own money, towards repairing St. Paul's Cathedral;" and also, "that in 1649, he, and the other old commissioners of the Customs, offered to advance £100,000 for the Parliament, provided a debt of £300,000 owing by the last King was secured to them;" but that offer was not accepted.*

BEN JONSON'S MASQUE OF CHRISTMAS.-PLACES IN LONDON, IN JAMES THE FIRST'S REIGN.

THIS Masque "was presented at Court," in 1616. It is more valuable for the light which it affords as to the costume exhibited by the characters introduced in the Christmas Mummeries of that period, than for any other quality. But this singularity attends it, that all the dramatis persone are denizens of the City. Old Gregory Christmas, the devisor of the Masque, and "as good a Protestant as any in his parish," comes out of Pope's Head Alley; Robin Cupid is “a 'prentice in Love Lane, with a bugle-maker, that makes

* Whitelock's " Memorials," pp. 17 and 410.

of your bobs, and bird-bolts for ladies;" and Venus, his mother, is a tyre-woman of Pudding Lane. The Masquers, viz. Mis-Rule, Carol, Minc'd Pie, Gambol, Post and Pair, New-Year's-Gift, Mumming, Wassel, Offering, and Baby-Cake, are the sons and daughters of Old Christmas, from whose Song, on presenting them to his audience, the following are gleanings:

"And now to ye, who in place are to see,
With roll and farthingale hooped;

I pray you know, though he want his bow,
By the wings, that this is Cupid.

And he leads on, though he now be gone,
For that was only his rule:

But now comes in, Tom of Bosom's-Inn,"
And he presenteth Mis-rule.

Which you may know, by the very show,
Albeit you never ask it :

For there you may see what his ensigns be,
The rope, the cheese, and the basket.

This Carol plays, and has been in his days
A chirping boy and a kill-pot:

Kit Cobler it is, I'm a father of his,

And he dwells in the lane call'd Fill-pot.

• Bosom's-Inn, a corruption from Blossom's Inn, as Stow informs us, hath to Signe St. Lawrence the Deacon, in a border of Blossoms or Flowers."-" Survey of London," p. 489, edit. 1618. This Inn still exists in St. Lawrence Lane, and has the same sign.