We have often wondered how the mind of a stranger to London is impressed
by seeing bare-headed young men moving about our city-thoroughfares
wearing the costume of the period of the boy-king Edward VI.;--what he
thinks of the blue-gown, orange-coloured petticoat, leather belt, yellow
stockings, and clerkly band worn by the unmonk-like young gentry, who
have succeeded the old Grey-Friars, those who in their day were seen in
the narrow streets of ancient London. We have often seen a green-looking
countryman peeping through the palisades in Newgate-street, while the
boys have been at play in the open space before the hall; but could
never divine what he thought, though his open mouth and fixed eyes told
that something or another was passing through his brain; but whether he
was struck by the dimensions of the building, the quaint dress of the
schoolboys, or their cheerful laughter and merry romps, was alone known
to himself. How few, except they are lovers of history, know or care any
thing about Edward VI.! They may have heard that his brutal father
beheaded wives as fast as he married them; that Lady Jane Grey perished
on the scaffold; but of the events between, during the brief reign of
the boy-king, they know nothing. More than one of our old chroniclers
assert that he was poisoned. We often marvel that no one has closely
examined contemporary authorities, and, by comparing them with the many
documents of that period, which have of late years been brought to
light, endeavoured to settle this disputed point of history.
The remains of the monastery of Grey Friars were repaired for the
reception of the "poor fatherless children" in 1552; and before the
close of the year nearly four hundred found shelter within the old
monastic walls. At first they wore a dress of russet-cotton, which was
afterwards changed for blue, and which colour they have no doubt worn
ever since.
Stowe has left us a most interesting and beautifully-written account of
the origin of Christ's Hospital, with something so nervous and touching
in the language, that we feel the good old man's heart must have been
fixed on the subject while he wrote. He tells us how "Mr. Doctor Ridley,
then Bishop of London, came and preached before the king's majesty at
Westminster, in which sermon he made a fruitful and goodly exhortation
to the rich to be merciful to the poor; and also to move such as were in
authority to travail by some charitable way and means to comfort and
relieve them."