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.

But who is this?-O, my daughter Cis;
Minc'd-pie, with her do not dally,

On pain o' your life: she's an honest cook's wife,
And comes out of Scalding-alley.†

Next in the trace, comes Gambol in place;
And to make my tale the shorter,
My son Hercules, tane, out of Distaff-lane,
But an active man, and a porter.

Now Post and Pair, old Christmas's heir,
Doth make, and a gingling sally:
And wot you who, 'tis one of my two
Sons, card-makers in Pur-alley.

Next in a trice, with his box and his dice,
Mac-pipin my son, but younger,

Brings Mumming in; and the knave will win,
For a' 'tis a costermonger.

But New-year's gift of himself makes shift,

With orange on head, and his gingerbread,
Clem. Waspe of Honey lane 'tis.

This, I you tell, is our jolly Wassel,

And for Twelfth-night more meet too : She works by the ell, and her name is Nell, And she dwells in Threadneedle-street too.

+ Scalding-alley, Stow says, was so called, as "nearest to the most ancient denomination thereof, which was 'Scalding House,' alias' Scalding-wike,' and Scalding-lane, as appeareth by good records extant, of two hundred years continuance." Ibid. p. 470. It was near the present Mansion House. Peneritch-street was a short avenue, connecting Bucklersbury with St. Swithin's Lane.

Then Offering, he, with his dish and his tree,
That in every great house keepeth,
Is by my son, young Little-worth, done,
And in Penny rich street he sleepeth.

Last, Baby cake, that an end doth make
Of Christmas merry, merry vein-a,
Is child Rolan, and a straight young man,
Though he come out of Crooked-lane-a.”

CLOTHWORKERS' COMPANY, AND HALL.

THE Clothworker's Company, though a very ancient Guild, was not incorporated till the year 1482, when Edward the IVth granted the members his letters patent, by the style of "The Fraternity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Sheermen of London;" but this appellation was changed on their re-incorporation by Queen Elizabeth, to that of "The Master, Wardens, and Commonalty, of Freemen of the Art and Mystery of Clothworkers of the City of London." Elizabeth's Charter was confirmed by Charles the First, in the year 1634. This Company is governed by a Master, four Wardens, and a Court of about forty Assistants. Its Members possess considerable estates, both in their own right, and in trust for charitable purposes, their annual expenditure for which is stated at about £1,500.

CLOTHWORKERS' HALL is a small building, principally of red brick, on the east side of Mincing Lane, Fenchurch Street; the front is ornamented with four fluted columns, crowned with Corinthian capitals, of stone, and supporting a frieze and cornice. The Hall