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Grays Inn, London

Historical Description

Gray's Inn, an extra-parochial place in Middlesex, in the metropolis, on the N side of Holborn, 1 mile NW of St Paul's. Acreage, 12; population, 253. The Inn of Court here, Grays Inn, is named after Lord Gray of Wilton, of the time of Henry VII. The hall was built in 1560, is plain Tudor, and has a carved oak roof, a rich screen, and a great window full of armorial bearings. The chambers are spacious and comfortable, and are less costly than those of the Temple or Lincoln's Inn. There is a fine library which was rebuilt in 1884. The number of students is about eighty. The Gardens or Inn Walks were planted about 1600, and in Charles II.'s time and the times of the Tatler and the Spectator were a fashionable promenade. The chief entrance from Holborn was then elegant, but is not now remarkable. The great Lord Burleigh and the great Lord Bacon lived in Grays Inn, and a remarkable number of distinguished noblemen, prelates, and judges have been among its inmates.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

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