27th. Up by four o'clock. Mr. Blayton and I took
horse and straight to Saffron Walden, where at the White Hart we
set up our horses and took the master to show us Audley End House,
where the housekeeper showed us all the house, in which the
stateliness of the ceilings, chimney-pieces, and form of the whole
was exceedingly worth seeing. He took us into the cellar, where we
drank most admirable drink, a health to the King. Here I played on
my flageolette, there being an excellent echo. He showed us
excellent pictures; two especially, those of the four Evangelists
and Henry VIII. In our going my landlord carried us through a very
old hospital or almshouse, where forty poor people were
maintained; a very old foundation, and over the chimney-piece was
an inscription in brass: 'Orato pro anima Thomae Bird,' &c. They
brought me a draft of their drink in a brown bowl, tipt with
silver, which I drank off, and at the bottom was a picture of the
Virgin with the child in her arms done in silver. So we took
leave...."
The inscription and the "brown bowl" (which is a mazer cup) still
remain, but the picturesque front of the hospital, built in the reign
of Edward VI, disappeared during the awful "improvements" which took
place during the "fifties.
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