Lincolns Inn, London

Historical Description

Lincoln's Inn, the third of the Inns of Court in importance, is situated without the City, on a site once occupied by the mansion of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. At his death in 1312, it became an Inn of Court, retaining the Earl's name. The gatehouse in Chancery Lane, which forms the chief entrance, was built in 1518 by Sir Thomas Lovell, whose coat of arms it bears, and it is said that Ben Jonson was employed as a bricklayer in constructing the adjacent wall about a century later. This tradition, however, rests on very slender authority. The new hall, built in 1843-45, is 120 feet in length, 45 in breadth, and 64 in height. It contains a painting by Hogarth, a large fresco by Watts, and a statue of Lord Eldon by Westmacott. The library, founded in 1497, is one of the oldest in London, and is singularly rich in ancient volumes and MSS.

Churches

Lincoln's Inn chapel, built by Inigo Jones in 1623, in a style of modernised Gothic, and altered and enlarged in 1882-83, is remarkable for its beautiful stained glass windows, its wood carving, and its bell, which was brought by the Earl of Essex from Cadiz after the capture of that town in the reign of Elizabeth.