“Come forth, Adam and Eve, with the,
     And all my fryends that herein be;
     In Paradyse come forth with me,
       In blysse for to dwell. 
     The fende of hell that is your foe,
     He shall be wrappyd and woundyn in woo;
     Fro wo to welth now shall ye go,
       With myrth ever mo to melle.”

Adam replies: 

     “I thank the Lord of thy grete grace,
     That now is forgiven my great trespase;
     No shall we dwell in blyssful place.”

The accompanying print of the Descent into Hell was engraved by Michael Burghers from an ancient drawing for our Berkshire antiquary, Thomas Herne.

Modern buildings have obliterated the scene of this ancient drama acted by the clerks of London, but some traces of the association of the fraternity with the neighbourhood can still be found.  The two famous conventual houses, for which Clerkenwell was famous, the nunnery of St. Mary and the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, founded in 1100, have long since disappeared.  Clerks’ Close is mentioned in numerous documents, and formed part of the estate belonging to the Skinners’ Company, where Skinner Street now runs.  Clerks’ Well was close to the modern church of St. James’s, Clerkenwell, which occupies the site of the church and nunnery of St. Mary de fonte clericorum, which once possessed one of the six water-pots in which Jesus turned the water into wine.  Vine Street formerly delighted in the name Mutton Lane, which is said to be a corruption of meeting or moteing lane, referring to the clerks’ mote or meeting place by the well.  When Mr. Pink wrote his history of Clerkenwell forty years ago, there was at the east side of Ray Street a broken iron pump let into the front wall of a dilapidated house which showed the site of Clerks’ Well.  In 1673 the spring and plot of ground were given by the Earl of Northampton to the poor of the parish, but the vestry leased the spring to a brewer.  Strype, writing in 1720, states that “the old well at Clerkenwell, whence the parish had its name, is still known among the inhabitants.  It is on the right hand of a lane that leads from Clerkenwell to Hockley-in-the-Hole, in a bottom.  One Mr. Crosse, a brewer, hath this well enclosed; but the water runs from him, by means of a watercourse above-mentioned, into the said place.  It is enclosed with a high wall, which was formerly built to bound in Clerkenwell Close; the present well (the conduit head) being also enclosed by another lower wall from the street.  The way to it is through a little house, which was the watch-house.  You go down a good many steps to it.  The well had formerly ironwork and brass cocks, which are now cut off; the water spins through the old wall.  I was there and tasted the water, and found it excellently clear, sweet, and well tasted.”

[Illustration]

In 1800 a pump was erected on the east side of Ray Street to celebrate the parish clerks’ ancient performances, which were immortalised in raised letters of iron with this inscription: