The Vandalism of Civilization : " The New Inn." will, " for more cannot be gotten of them; and much less will they be put from it." The fare provided was simple, but not so plain as that at the Oxford Inn. No plates were provided, the scholars using thick slices of bread in lieu of them. Pocket knives were the only ones used and the stu dents had to drink out of wooden cups. Later, however, more style was put on and plates, knives and spoons were provided. .Perhaps this was the result of the visits paid by the judges, who got into a habit of " slip ping in with their black silk gowns and powdered wigs " to breakfast. Sir Thomas Moore studied at New Inn prior to entering Lincoln's Inn. When he lost the chancellorship of the kingdom and had but a very small income he thought of his student days and remarked to his friends : "It shall not be best to fall to the lowest fare first, we will not therefore descend to Oxford fare, nor to the fare of New Inn, but we will begin with Lincoln's Inn diet, where many a right worshipful, and of good years, do live full well. Which if we find not our selves the first year able to maintain, step down to New Inn fare, wherewith many an honest man is well contented." The gifted author of " Utopia " was not allowed to en joy the fare of either Inn, for he was thrown into the Tower, where he remained thirteen months. When he was placed on trial it was . said that " no such culprit had stood at any European bar for a thousand years." He died at the hands of the executioner, July 6, 1535. In the words of Addison : " The in nocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in his life did not forsake him to the last." When he left his cell he turned to a friend who was offering sympathy and said : " I pray you see me safe up the scaffold, and as fpr my coming down let me shift for my self." When he laid his head on the block, he desired the executioner to wait until he had removed his beard, " for that had never offended his highness." Sir Edward Coke, whose book " Coke on
339
Littleton " is known to every educated lay men as well as being a text-book for law stu dents, was one of the historic celebrities of New Inn. Coke used to carry about with him an enormous fan, the handle of which was an excellent weapon in case of attack, though it was sometimes used as a corrective in the homes, for Dugdale mentions the " fans with long handles — with which the gentlemen of those days slasht their daughters when they were perfect women." Coke was notorious for his matrimonial troubles, and through his second wife was connected with the strange legend of Bleeding Heart-yard, off Hatton Garden. Lady Hatton, Coke's second wife, was said to have made a contract with the devil, and the legend tells how his satanic majesty entered her house in Cross street, and seized her, bearing her bodily away. It was said that he " dashed her against the pump and tore her heart out of her bosom with his iron claws." For many years the people believed in the legend, and the place was called " Bleeding Heart-yard." A horse shoe was nailed on the door of the house to keep witches and demons away. For several generations the house was pointed out and the room shown with a great amount of wholesome awe, and when scoffers doubted the truth of the legend they were shown the pump on which was an indentation said to have been made by the head of the victim, and for still further corroboration, a dark red spot was pointed out on the other side of the square as being the exact spot where her heart was found, and the historian says that "neither grass nor flowers would grow there, but the soil remained red to this day." At the time of the Restoration of the Stuart dynasty, the body of Oliver Cromwell was taken from its grave and carried, with all his effects, to Tyburn and there burned; a student of New Inn managed to hide a bust of the Protector which had been modeled from life, and later presented it to the library of New Inn, in which place it has remained until the ruthless destroyer came
