in Fenchurch Street, afforded them temporary accommodation.  In 1669 they began to arrange for a new hall to be built off Wood Street, which was completed in 1671, and has since been their home.  Various sums of money have been voted at different times for its repair or embellishment.  It has once been damaged by fire, and on another occasion severely threatened.  In 1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked up and the entrance into Silver Street opened.  The hall has been a favourite place of meeting for several other companies—­the Fruiterers’ Company, the Tinplate Workers’ Company, the Society of Porters, and other private companies have been their tenants.

[Illustration:  PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM ROPER SON-IN-LAW AND BIOGRAPHER OF SIR THOMAS MORE, BENEFACTOR OF THE CLERKS’ COMPANY]

[Illustration:  THE GRANT OF ARMS TO THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS.]

I had recently the privilege of visiting the Parish Clerks’ Hall, and was kindly conducted there by Mr. William John Smith, the “Father” of the company, and a liberal benefactor, whose portrait hangs in the hall.  He has been three times master, and his father and grandfather were members of the fraternity.

The premises consist of a ground floor with cellars, which are let for private purposes, and a first floor with two rooms of moderate size.  The old courtyard is now covered with business offices.  Over the court-room door stands a copy of the Clerks’ Arms, which are thus described:  “The feyld azur, a flower de lice goulde on chieffe gules, a leopard’s head betwen two pricksonge bookes of the second, the laces that bind the books next, and to the creast upon the healme, on a wreathe gules and azur, an arm, from the elbow upwards, holding a pricking book, 30th March, 1582.”  These are the arms “purged of superstition” by Robert Cook, Clarencieux Herald, on the aforementioned date.  The company’s motto is, Unitas Societatis Stabilitas.  The arms over the court-room door have the motto Pange lingua gloriosa, which is accounted for by the fact that this copy of the clerks’ heraldic achievement formerly stood over the organ in the hall.  This organ is a small but pleasant instrument, and was purchased in 1737 in order to enable the members to practise psalmody.  Several portraits of worthy clerks adorn the walls.  Amongst them we notice that of William Roper, a benefactor of the company, whose name has been already mentioned.

The portrait of John Clarke shows a firm, dignified old man, who was the parish clerk of St. Michael’s, Cornhill, in 1805, and wrote extracts from the minute-books of the company.  The picture was presented to the company in 1827.  There are other portraits of worthy clerks, of Richard Hust, who died in 1835, and was a great benefactor of the company and the restorer of the almshouses; of James Mayhew (1896), and of William John Smith (1903).

In one of the windows is the portrait, in stained glass, of John Clarke, parish clerk of Bartholomew-the-Less, London, master of the company, A.D. 1675, aetatis suae 45.  He is represented with a dark skull cap on his head, long hair, a moustache, and a large falling band or collar.