Chronicles of an Old Inn; Or, A Few Words about Gray's InnHope, Andrée
History
Chronicles of an Old Inn; Or, A Few Words about Gray's Inn
Hope, Andrée
Gray's Inn; Inns of Court; Lawyers -- Great Britain
To conduct the unconscious dead to their last resting-place with
every circumstance of lugubrious state and grandeur, was then deemed
but fitting expressions of affection and respect on the part of the
relatives and mourners.
Amongst the many cruel actions of which the odium has been cast upon
Gardiner is the mournful tragedy of Lady Jane Grey. This poor girl was
a victim to the political intrigues of an unscrupulous and ambitious
party, and she paid by the sacrifice of her life, and that of her
husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, for her brief and unwilling reign.
Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Peter Carew were the originators of a
deep-laid and formidable plot, by which Mary and her sister were to be
deprived of their rights of inheritance. They flattered the ambition
of the Duke of Suffolk by suggesting that his daughter-in-law should
ascend the throne, and thereby succeeded in implicating him and
his children so completely in their projects that the heads of all
ultimately fell upon the scaffold.
The alarm occasioned to the Queen and her adherents by the discovery of
this plot was, no doubt, considerable; but against Gardiner is brought
the grave charge of having fomented this panic, rather than having
endeavoured to allay it.
But for his influence, the deaths of the principal conspirators, Wyatt
and Carew, would have sufficed, and have been deemed a sufficient
sacrifice. Many others amongst those who suffered in connection with
the attempt might have been spared; but the Bishop is reported to have
said:
"We may shake off the leaves and lop the branches, but if we do not
utterly destroy the root, the hope of hereticks, we do nothing."
THE CHAPEL.
Amongst the many nooks and corners of this ancient Inn of Gray's, the
little chapel must not be forgotten. Within its tranquil precincts all
things speak of the past, for little has been changed therein for many
generations.
Small and unpretentious as it is, few can enter this tiny place
of worship without experiencing some emotion, without giving some
thought to the many great and illustrious men--lawyers, Churchmen, and
statesmen, now long numbered with the dead--who have knelt here for
prayer and praise.
Centuries have elapsed since they have passed away, but their noble
deeds and writings are still remembered and cherished.
Happily for England, this great race is not extinct. Some of those
who now assemble within these walls have already made for themselves
illustrious names--names that will be honoured and revered when they,
in the fulness of time, depart; but others come here in sorrow, and
perchance remorse, for many a promising but wasted life.
Poor, feeble mortals that we are! How many of us live but to exist; and
often, indeed, that existence is but the puerile flutter of a day!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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