court-room, two of the latest in the latter room being those of Mr. John Nicholl, F.S.A., the Company’s historian, and Mr. S. Adams Beck, who for nearly fifty years was the clerk and sincere friend of the Company, as mentioned in our last chapter. From Ironmongers’ Hall were conducted the last remains of many a notable member or citizen in the olden time. The funeral pall or hearse cloth used on these occasions was the gift of John Gyva, ironmonger, in 1515, and Elizabeth, his wife. It is of crimson velvet and cloth of gold tissue, and is described and illustrated at pages 454-7 of Mr. French’s “Catalogue.” Notes of the sixteenth century funerals are given in “The Diary of Henry Machyn” (Camden Society), 1848. In the “Diary of Samuel Pepys” he tells us of the funeral from the Hall in November, 1662, of Sir Richard Stayner, where “good rings” were distributed and the mourners had “a four-horse coach,” in which he by mistake took a place. There have been many meetings at the Hall, some of national and others of great civic interest, especially in the making free and entertainments to distinguished men like Lords Hood and Exmouth. In 1694 the Company let the Hall for a lottery, which was called “the best and fairest chance at last,” and five years later the whole of the old armour then standing in and about the premises was sold to Mr. Thomas Saunders for eight guineas, “the musketts 2_s._ 6_d._ apiece!” It is not generally known that the national anthem of “God Save the King,” so repeatedly sung at the old City feasts and all over the world, was the composition of Dr. John Bull, who, with the children of the King’s Chapel, sung and played it before James I. and Prince Henry at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall feast, July 16, 1607. In Ironmongers’ Hall have dined Dr. Livingstone, Admiral Dawes, and Sir Garnet Wolseley, the latter just before leaving England for the Gold Coast. An interesting article, entitled “Banqueting with the Ironmongers,” and giving a good picture of these modern entertainments, appeared in the _City Press_, August 21, 1875. The Company’s plate is not so extensive as that possessed by some of the City Guilds. The collection will be found described by Mr. French in his “Catalogue,” pp. 616-624. There are two mazer bowls (thirteenth to sixteenth century drinking-vessels), of which only fifty are supposed to be extant, and therefore curious and interesting. They are described by Mr. St. John Hope in “Archæologia,” vol. 50, 1887, pp. 129-193. In the old views of the exterior of the Hall are shown the houses on the east side adjoining Billiter Street. These were pulled down and rebuilt some twenty years ago. Finally, in bringing our description of the Hall to a close, we cannot forbear mentioning a curious fact. In the first report of the City Livery Companies’ Commission, 1884, p. 36, there is a list given of all the existing halls of the City Guilds, thirty-four in number, and yet the