Preface

This address is printed in accordance with the wish of many members of the Abernethian Society, before whom it was delivered at the first meeting of the Session 1885-1886.

Since its delivery, Dr. Norman Moore has published in the 21st. vol. of our Hospital Reports the complete text of the MS. Life of Rahere, from which I have made many extracts; and I am indebted to his kindness, in permitting me to look at the proof sheets, for an opportunity of correcting several verbal misprints which were present in the previous editions from which I had taken my quotations.

A few additions have been made in the account of the Second Foundation.

The Frontispiece is a reproduction of a portion of an engraving contained in the Vetusta Monumenta of the Society of Antiquaries.

Note to the Reader

I (tbird) have transcribed the manuscript exactly as published. The King & Barnard translation published in Webb's Records uses more modern English than Moore's translation; I recommend a comparison in case what follows is confusing or apparently non-sensical.

The Two Foundations. I.

St. Bartholomew's Hospital was founded more than seven centuries ago by Rayer (commonly called Rahere, from the Latin Raherus). Thus we may always boast of being members of the oldest Hospital in London, and claim whatever honour and glory may belong to that distinction; not forgetting, however, that with such honour comes also the greater responsibility -- the responsibility of Inheritance.

Among the manuscripts preserved in the British Museum is one devoted almost entirely to the life and acts of the founder of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

It was written, a few years after Rahere's death, by one of the monks of the Priory of St. Bartholomew the Great, the foundation of which may be considered practically identical with that of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which at first formed a part of it.

The author begins --


[In my quotations from the Life of Rahere I have used, for the most part, a modernised version as to spelling, and have followed Mr. Saunders in his interesting article in "Knight's London" in the order in which the quotations are taken.]

Rahere, continues the author of the old chronicle, was a


Rahere is often referred to as the King's minstrel, or even his jester; but there is no good reason for believing that he ever held any official position in either capacity. He seems to have been rather the kind of man who would have been more properly termed the King's favourite, had his birth been noble or his social position more assured. As it was, the inferiority of his birth was probably overlooked for the sake of the brilliancy of his social gifts; although we may well believe that by those who were jealous of his success he may have been nicknamed the minstrel or the jester; and the tradition of his having held some such position at Court may have been thus originated.

Stow says, "Rahere was a pleasant-witted gentleman, and therefore in his time called the King's minstrel."

But to continue in the words of the old MS. --


Rahere, repending of his follies and sins, determined to go to the Court of Rome --



Rahere now "came to London," the monk continues --



The Hospital was founded at about the same time as the church, the most probable date of its foundation being 1123.

But, indeed, Rahere was not the first to whom Smithfield had been pointed out as a place with a great future. King Edward the Confessor had dreamed a dream concerning it. In the words of the MS. --


Three men of Greece also, of noble lineage, who were on pilgrimage and had entered England,


Rahere set himself no easy task when he determined to build in Smithfield.


And here we meet with a very remarkable circumstance in the life of Rahere.


Mr Saunders observes ["Knight's London," vol. ii. p. 37.] -- "Rahere's object in this conduct was, we presume, to avail himself of a kind of superstitious reverence that appears to have been not infrequently felt for persons of this class to which he made it appear that he belonged."

But Rahere used many other means for accomplishing his object, and especially that of preaching; his manner of preaching being that which in our own day, as in his, would be likeliest to obtain liberal contributions. His biographer says --


This chapter of the MS. concludes --


Several miracles are related as occurring at the period of the building of the Priory and Hospital; and the fame of these brought many gifts to this church. When the church was being built a light was seen at Evensong to play upon it for the space of an hour, then suddenly flash up into the sky and disappear.

A man who had been paralytic for many years was taken in a basket to the altar of the new church, and recovered the use of his limbs.

A young man, Osberne by name, whose right hand stuck to his left shoulder, and whose head stuck to his hand, was also cured at St. Bartholomew's.

A woman's tongue could not be contained in her mouth. Rahere touched it with relics and painted it with holy water, and within the same hour it went back between her teeth.

Many other miracles are related by the good monk; but these will suffice to show at what an early period of English history St. Bartholomew's became famous for gifts of healing.

When the Hospital was finished its full staff of officers was composed of a Master, of eight Brethren, and four Sisters.

The first master was appointed by Rahere himself -- an old man, Alfun by name, "to whom was," as the MS. states, "sad age, and sadness of age, with experience of long time."

The other titles of Alfun were Hospitaler or Proctor for tending the poor. His chief duties consisted in begging provisions and other necessaries for the Priory and Hospital, these supplementing, without doubt, in a very useful manner, the gifts that were obtained through the preaching and the fame of the miracles. In the words of the MS. --


Alfun himself was a church-builder, having not long before built the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate.

Towards the end of his life troubles of a new kind assailed Rahere.


There was even a plot against his life, which, however, failed on account of the confession of a penitent conspirator.

Rahere came well out of his troubles. For he appealed to the King, begging that he


The King thereupon confirmed his previous grant by a charter, which gave full liberty and great privileges to the Priory and Hospital.

Rahere died, after having been Prior twenty-two years and six months. In the words of his biographer --


Rahere was a man, says his biographer,


Different views have been taken of the character of Rahere. It has been said that what he did in the latter part of his life was as much an evidence of his cunning and desire of self-advancement as the japes and flatterings which obtained promotion for him in his yough. Mr. Henry Morley in his book, "Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair," adopts this view, and looks upon all the miracles so-called, by means of which offerings were obtained, as so many pieces of jugglery not far removed from those which formed a staple part of the entertainment provided in the booths of the great Fair which was held annually just outside, and indeed inside, the Priory walls. And of course, if we think of Rahere as a man of the nineteenth instead of the twelfth century, the accusation would be sufficiently well founded. A man who now used the word "miracle" as appropriate to the unglueing of a young man whose left hand stuck to his right shoulder would deserve no better title than that of an impostor. But we cannot justly estimate the character of Rahere on such grounds as these. We may as well complain of his not speaking modern English. Human nature remains the same in all the times about which we have any record. And it is from this fact, as well as from the details provided by the monk of St. Bartholomew's Priory, that we are able to realise the character of Rahere. It is not difficult to imagine the man who, after living a life of gaiety and fashion, the companion and flatterer of the rich and noble, became conscious of the true value of the wares which were bought and sold in the Vanity Fair in which he dwelt. Weary of the life he was leading, and perhaps as much disgusted by the very success of his worldly career as by anything else, he determines to do all in his power to make amends for his wasted youth and opportunities. The vision of the four-footed winged beast and the manifestation of St. Bartholomew are but expressions of the spirit of the age in which he lived, and the natural result, in such a time, of a vivid and poetic imagination; but the feeling which led him to found the Hospital is with us in the nineteenth as it was with him in the twelfth century, and many good works are now done with the same aspirations.

As we think of Rahere's work, his energy, his perseverance, his difficulties; his determination to accomplish what he felt to be his duty to do; his refusal to be discouraged by the feeble support of friends or the calumnies of enemies; his willingness to be reckoned a fanatic, or, much worse to bear, even a fool, if he may only by that means help on the good work -- as we think of all this we may well be proud of our Founder, and be stirred up to follow in his footsteps. The motto which is written over the entrance of our new school-buildings (for they still seem new to the seniors amongst us) might have been chosen by Rahere himself -- "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."

Rahere was buried in his own church, of which, however, only a part -- the choir -- now remains. But this is a noble fragment; and within the last few years much has been done to guard it from further decay, and to clear away from its walls and foundations various ignoble structures which the carelessness of past generations had allowed to accumulate. Without doubt every one who is now entering St. Bartholomew's Hospital for the first time will take an early oppotunity of visiting this building, now the parish church of St. Bartholomew the Great, which stands just outside the Hospital walls. And when he does so he will not fail to be impressed by its beautiful proportions, and to regret that so small a part of the original structure remains.

Rahere's tomb is in the north wall of the chancel (see Frontispiece, above). It consists of a highly wrought stone-work screen or, rather, canopy, with finely groined roof, beneath which is the sarcophagus; and on this the effigy of Rahere in black robes is seen, extended at full length, with shaven crown, and hands elevated as in prayer. At his feet, on a cloud, stands an angel, crowned, holding the arms of the Priory; while by him kneel two monks, habited, like Rahere, in black robes, each with a Bible in his hands, open at the 51st chapter of the prophet Isaiah. The third verse of the chapter, which is inscribed on the little stone tablets, is significant of the work which Rahere did when he covered the marshy ground of Smithfield with beautiful buildings for the praise and worship of God and good deeds to men -- "He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."

On the front of the sarcophagus are the four following shields of arms: --


And round the ledge is this inscription --


The date of Rahere's tomb is not certainly known, but it is much later than that of the Priory church. Some have thought that the painted stone figure of the Founder is older than the tomb, and that it is a portrait executed when the features of the Prior were known. Mr. Morley observes, "The statue has undoubtedly a real and individual, not a conventional face," and, he adds, "answers very well to our impression of the person whom it represents." ["Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair," pg. 48.]

Some mental effort is required before we can in any way realize the great difference between a Hospital so-called of the twelfth century, or indeed of a much later period, and a Hospital of the present day. In a grant of privileges to St. Bartholomew's Hospital by Edward III. its functions are thus stated-- "Ad omnes pauperes infirmos ad idem hospitale confluentes quousque de infirmitatibus suis convaluerint, ac mulieres prægnantes quousque de puerperio surrexerint, necnon ad omnes pueros de eisdem mulieribus genitos, usque septennium, si dictæ mulieres intra hospitale prædictum decesserint." And it seems probable that these corresponded pretty nearly with the work assigned to it by the Founder.

However this may be, the lying-in and sick wards of a parish Workhouse of the present day probably represent more nearly the condition of the Hospital for some centuries after its foundation than any department of a modern Hospital.

But indeed we know very little plan of its plan or extent until after the lapse of several generations, by which time it would have undergone many changes and reconstructions. (I may mention in passing that one of those restorations of the Hospital was carried out in accordance with a bequest by that hero of our childhood, Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, in the year 1423.)

Whether St. Bartholomew's Hospital was in its early days much resorted to in cases of surgical emergencies I cannot tell; probably not. But with regard to this point a word or two may be said.

As all know, Smithfield or Smoothfield was notes as a place for tournaments; indeed the name of the street which leads into it from Holburn (Giltspur Street) is derived, as Stow seems to assume, from "the Knightes and other riding that way into Smithfielde." And I hope I may be forgiven for digressing for a moment to quote a description from Stow [Stow's "Survey of London," 1603, p. 383.] of one of the cavalcades of which there is now so little in our surroundings to remind us.


With scenes such as these in Smithfield, it appears to me not too fanciful a notion that many a dismounted knight has been taken within the friendly shelter of the Hospital to be mended of his wounds and bruises by the priestly house-surgeons and dressers of the period, who would staunch the bleeding with the red-hot iron or the boiling pitch with kindly sympathy and in as tender a manner of the nature of the case permitted.

And that it is not a mere fancy which would lead one to think that the wounded would be taken from Smithfield into St. Bartholomew's Hospital may be gathered from an interesting historical fact which is thus recorded in Stow's Chronicles (second edit., p. 461).

The scene is that so well known in English history, in which Richard the Second rides to Smithfield to meet the rebels there assembled under the leadership of Wat Tyler.


The cattle markets and the horse fairs and the great annual Fair at St. Bartholomew-tide would also, it may be imagined, provide plenty of surgical cases in the early periods of the Hospital's existence. But whether this be so or not, we may be certain that during the four centuries which elapsed between its first and second Foundations St. Bartholomew's Hospital did much good work; and that while many were cured of their injuries and diseases, there were also many sick and weary folk, then as now, who were thankful to lie down and take their final rest within its walls.

The Two Foundations II.

In the downfall of the monastic institutions of the time of the Reformation the Priory and Hospital of Saint Bartholomew did not escape, and the ecclesiastical part, the Prior and his black-robed Canons, the religious rites and ceremonies, disappeared without much regret, probably, on the part of the majority of the people.

But with the Hospital the case was different. It was necessary to provide still for the diseased and the infirm; and what the Church was now unable to do must be done by the State or by civic or private benevolence. In 1537 Sir Thomas Gresham, the Lord Mayor, with the Aldermen and the citizens, begged the King to grant to them the governance of the Hospitals then existing in London, and among them of St. Bartholomew's.

The spirit of the times is expressed in the petition, or perhaps this was worded with the special intention of pleasing the King.

It speaks of such institutions being


No attention seems to have been paid at first to the petition, or at least to the part of it which begged the transfer of the revenues of the several establishments specified therein to the Corporation of the City of London. Their property was in the meanwhile held by the Crown. After about six years, however, letters patent of the date June 23 1544, were issued, by which, after reciting that the Hospital of St. Bartholomew's was then altogether vacant and destitute of Masters and Fellows or Brethren, and that the same and possessions thereof had therefore fallen to the Crown, the said King, endeavouring that there should be


The government of the Hospital was lodged in the body thus constituted, but the possessions were not regranted to them, nor was any visitatorial or any other authority over them vested in the Corporation of the City of London.

As might have been anticipated, this attempt to refound the Hospital without its revenues, which the King retained in his own hands, only resulted in failure; and, indeed, it does not appear that the new constitution ever came into active operation. But about two years afterwards, induced by the earnest solicitations of the citizens, and perhaps by the distress consequent upon the suppression of the religious houses, the King consented to grant to the Corporation of the City of London a new charter, by which the Hospital should be refounded for the reception of one hundred poor and sick, and to endow it from its former possessions to the extent of five hundred marks per annum, upon condition that the citizens should be bound yearly for ever to give a like sum. The actual instrument by which this obligation was entered into is not now extant; but the fact of its execution on the 13th April 1546, is recited in an Act of Common Council, 20th December 1548. ["Report of Commissioners for Inquiring concerning Charities, 1840."]

Thus the second Foundation of the Hospital came about, and we call King Henry VIII. the second Founder.

The gift of the Hospital to the city had been previously announced by the Bishop of Rochester in a sermon at Paul's Cross.

It must not be supposed, however, that all troubles were past with the handing over of the Hospital to the Corporation. There were some, it seems, in those days, who assumed such to be the case, and who expected that all at once the Hospital would be able to get into good working order, and maintain its hundred poor men and women. They appear, indeed, to have openly slandered those who were responsible for the management because this was not so.

The accusations were considered worthy of a replay on the part of the governing body; and this reply was issued in the form of a Preface, with an account of the rules and regulations of the Hospital, so that all men might know exactly how matters stood with the New Foundation.

This preface and copy of the regulations was first published in the reign of Edward VI., and again printed in 1580 and 1652.

A copy which I bought at a second-hand bookseller's, and carried off as a great prize, many years ago, is the reprint of 1652; and this, with the permission of the Editors, I published in the last volume of our Hospital Reports.

In the Preface the writer begins by saying: --


Then, after reciting the gift and endowment of the King, and the amount to be contributed by the citizens, the writer proceeds to describe the dilapidated condition of the houses which formed the King's part of the new endowment, and the expenditure which was necessary to restore them to a decent condition. As for the Hospital itself, there was found in it, to quote the writer's words only


And then, after a few more hard knocks at the slanderers -- "I fear me, having all their zeal in their tongue onely."


And then, after referring to the large expenditure necessary,


However, as he says, it is "doubtfull whether they will do as they may, and of conscience are bounden."

And we shall certainly agree with the writer in this; as he would be a very rare kind of slanderer who confessed and tried to make amends when he was proved to be in the wrong.

The writer continues--


Then, after the Preface, from which I have not time to quote more, follows an account of the Governors and Officers of the New Foundation.

The Governors were --


Then follow the charges, or directions concerning their duties, to the various Governors and Officers; this custom of delivering a charge to each Officer on his appointment being kept up at the present day. And although, in accordance with alterations in the duties, many changes have been made, the quaint language of the old forms is still to some extent preserved.

As this little book of "Orders and Ordinances" has been so recently reprinted ["St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports," vol. xx., 1884.], and is now accessible to all, I will touch but briefly on its contents. But I shall be pardoned, I hope, for giving a few extracts.

Not the least of its charms is the religious spirit (in the best sense of the term) in which the orders are conceived. In undertaking the duties of Treasurer, for example, or Almoner, or other honorary officer, it is assumed that a Governor undertakes a solemn religious duty, and he is remind of this in the concluding sentence of his charge. Thus, after reciting the duties of the Treasurer, the charge concludes with these words --


The chirurgeons too are admonished not to neglect to give good counsel to their patients.


And at the end of the book is a form of thanksgiving --


In comparing the charges of the various officers of the Hospital now with those which were delivered to them in the time of the second Founder, Henry VIII., one is struck by the differences which the lapse of time has brought about.

The Hospitaler, besides looking after the spiritual welfare of the patients by reading and preaching, received the provisions from the steward, and delivered so much as he thought necessary to the cook; and the provisions being dressed, he was to see that they were truly delivered and distributed to the patients.

The Matron was to receive of the Hospitaler the sick and diseased persons to be admitted, and to bestow them in such convenient places as she should think meet.

The Matron, too, was to receive the flax provided by the Governors, and set the


In the Matron's charge is also the following: --


The Sisters seem to have requried a deal of looking after in the reign of Henry VIII. There were not to leave the woman's ward after the hour of seven of the clock in the winter, and nine of the clock in the summer --


But some selection even here was exercised, for at


And then in the Sisters' charge follows the special command --


An order which, I have no doubt, was as implicitly obeyed then as any similar command would be now.

The Porters had certain duties more or less resembling those belonging to them now, but they also exercised a general supervision over the patients, to see that there was no disorderly conduct in the wards. They had also a power of summary punishment.


The Beadles (Bedells or Byddles) then performed the duties of constables for the city. When not specially on duty in the Hospital, they were to walk about the city,


The Beadles were to be also on the watch for any who had been healed in the Hospital, and who should afterwards counterfeit any disease and beg for charity.


Among the list of officers of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was also, as I have said, a Visitour of the neighbouring prison of Newgate, whose charge was to visit


Then the Clerk gives us an account of the annual expenditure of the Hospital; but I fear he will get but little sympathy from us with regard to the "excessive prices of all things," of which he speaks in the Preface.

Thus the Matron's board wages were eighteen-pence the week, and her livery thirteen shillings and fourpence a year. A Sister received sixteen-pence a week for board wages and ten shillings a year for her livery. The diet of each patient was reckoned to cost twopence per day. The salary of the Steward (Steward and Baker) was £6, 13s. 3d. The Cook received but £6 a year for his meat, drink, and wages. In comparison with these the Chirurgeons seem to have been well paid, for each of the three received about £20 a year.

The total amount of the certain charges was £798, 2s. per annum.

The uncertain charges are thus given --


These uncertain charges amounted in one year to £60. The endowment of the Hospital by the King and by the City of London amounting only to £666, 13s., 4d., there was a deficit of about £130, in addition to the sum expended in the uncertain items --


In 1552 the repairing of the Hospital was begun; and it was carried out and completed by means of subscriptions raised in the city after the following manner, as related by Stow [Stow's "Survey of London," second ed., p. 378.]: --


The Hospital was governed as a separate institution for about ten years; but in 1557 it was agreed to associate it with the rest of the Royal Hospitals, namely, Christ's Hospital, Bridewell, and St. Thomas's Hospital; the whole of them being under a comptroller-general and surveyor-general, while for each of the four was appointed, for its special government, three aldermen, a treasurer, and eight other citizens.

Probably the union of the Royal Hospitals under one government made but little alteration in the actual working of the differing institutions. Each had its own particular governing body, and gradually each became more and more independent, even of the Lord Mayor and Corporation. At first, beginning in the year 1564, it was the custom to hold a meeting annually at Christ's Hospital on St. Matthew's Day, and to select a President, Treasurer, and other Governors for each of the Royal Hospitals; but after 1587 there meetings became irregular, though they were still held down to the year 1652. After this date the elections were made at the several Hospitals, the elections being apparently confirmed, in a formal manner only, by the Lord Mayor. New Governors, moreover, were introduced in consideration of pecuniary donations, independently of the Court of Aldermen; and these naturally would not consider themselves under any bond of allegiance to the Corporation. The consequence of all this was continual squabbling between the Corporation on the one hand and the Governors of the Royal Hospitals on the other; the former endeavouriung to retain its ancient powers and privileges, while the latter fought each for the particular Hospital of which he was a Governor, insisting, apparently with good success, upon its right to manage its own affairs.

At length there was a general agreement that all these disputes should be settled by Act of Parliament, and accordingly, in 1782, such an act was passed. By it the mode of government of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was arranged in the fashion which holds good at the present time, the Hospital being completely separated from its alliance with the other Hospitals. The Corporation of the City of London retained, and still retains, a considerable share in its management, in virtue of the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen and twelve members of the Common Council being ex officio Governors. But as the voting power of the ex officio Governors is only equal to that of a like number of the other Governors, the Hospital is now practically independent; while it may be said to be materially strengthened by having as part of its governing body the influential members of the Corporation who take a share in its management.

The final separation of the Hospital from what may be termed the patronage of the Corporation of the City of London occurred in 1866, when a lawsuit was instituted to determine whether the Lord Mayor for the time being should, in accordance with ancient custom, be elected President on the occasion of a vacancy in this office, or whether the Governors had the power of electing whom they might choose. The suit was determined in favour of the Governors, and the first President thereafter elected was His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who has continued to preside over us to the present time.

I have spoken of St. Bartholomew's Hospital only as an institution, and have but little time to refer to its buildings; but I hope you will be the more interested in looking at the engravings which I have placed in the library. You will be able to trace with their help many of the structural alterations which have taken place during the last two centuries.

Unfortunately we have little or nothing to show us what the Hospital was like in the first few centuries of its existence, the earliest representation of any kind, so far as I know, being that which is given in Aggas's Map of London, supposed to have been made in the reign of Elizabeth. But, of course, little can be gathered from this, excepting the fact that the Hospital was made up of detached houses, or groups of houses, intersected by the narrow lanes or streets which formed the thoroughfares of the parish of St. Bartholomew the Less. As you will see from the facsimile of the map, the Hospital stands just outside the wall of London; and instead of being, as now, with reference to the rest of London, almost in the centre, it was really on the outskirts. For the country began just beyond Smithfield, and London proper stretched away towards the east; although at the date of this map (which was more than four hundred years after the first foundation of St. Bartholomew's) houses were becoming continuous along the line of Holborn, and the green fields did not begin westwards until one had walked to about what is now the corner of Gray's Inn Road.

The earliest separate engraving of the Hospital, so far as I am aware, is that which was published in Stow's "Survey of London" (ed. 1720), and of which I am able to show you a good impression this evening.

We see by it that the Hospital had two small quadrangles instead of one large as at present, besides various detached or semi-detached houses near them.

In 1729-1760 the Hospital was rebuilt from the foundations, and, with some modifications, these buildings remain to the present day.

In its buildings, as in other things, St. Bartholomew's has grown largely, and is still increasing. New wards are at this present time just being completed. Its annual income was at the time of the second foundation about £800; in 1837, £30,000; in 1885, £60,000.


St. Bartholomew's Hospital, though growing for centuries, is, indeed, growing still. Long may it grow! For when it has ceased to grow it may indeed have come to the perfection of maturity; but such perfection will be the signal for the beginning of decay.