The inn is mentioned by John Taylor (1637) as a place of call for carriers. It eventually became a coaching house of considerable reputation, this part of its business being, about the year 1836, in the hands of Messrs. B. W. and H. Horne, the most famous coach proprietors in London, except William Chaplin. For many years until finally closed, September 25th, 1897, the inn was occupied by the Bunyer family. Architecturally the Bell was interesting, because, with one possible exception, it was the last galleried inn in London on the Middlesex side of the river, though until the advent of railways such houses were common. The galleries were perhaps as old as the reign of Charles II. A still older portion was a cellar immediately to the left of the entrance, which was built of stone with well laid masonry and might have been mediæval. All the rest of the buildings seem to have dated from the earlier part of the eighteenth century. There is a sympathetic reference to the old Bell Inn by William Black in his "Strange Adventures of a Phaeton." (10-1/4 × 7-11/16) D. 53-1896. 62. Part of Barnard's Inn, Holborn, 1886 (Water-colour). (15-5/16 × 12-3/8) D. 54-1896. 63. The old Hall, Barnard's Inn, 1886 (Water-colour). Barnard's Inn, on the south side of Holborn, was originally called Mackworth's Inn, from having been the residence of Dr. John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln in the reign of Henry VI. His successor and the Chapter of Lincoln leased it to Lyonel Barnard, from whom was derived the name by which it has so long been known. As early as the middle of the fifteenth century it was let to legal students, for Stow tells us that anno 1454 there was "a great fray" in Fleet Street between "men of court" and the inhabitants there, in the course of which the Queen's attorney was killed. For this act the principal governors of Clifford's Inn, Furnival's Inn, and Barnard's Inn, were sent prisoners to Hertford Castle. Barnard's Inn, like its neighbour, Staple Inn, was a place of legal study—an Inn of Chancery attached to Gray's Inn. The establishment was governed by a Principal and various Ancients. A Reader also was appointed from Gray's Inn, and great respect was shown to him. The Principal, accompanied by the Ancients and gentlemen in commons in their gowns, used to meet him on his coming and conduct him into the hall. Barnard's Inn had latterly no more than a nominal connection with Gray's Inn, the houses being let out as chambers, and not occupied by students of the law. In 1854 the Society consisted of a Principal, nine Ancients, and five Companions. The advantage of being a Companion was stated to be "the dining," and the advantage of being an Ancient, "dinners and some little fees." In 1888 the whole was advertised for sale, and early in the nineties it was bought by the Mercers' Company and adapted for the purposes of their school, which