to fifty of his poor relations; but the will being in print, I refer
the reader to it for a more particular account of this noble
charity.

The first church and hospital, dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, was
erected by the Prior of Bermondsey, so long since as the year 1013;
but the hospital was refounded, and the revenues increased, anno
1215, by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese it
was situated, continuing, however, to be held of the priors of
Bermondsey till the year 1428, when the Abbot of Bermondsey
relinquished his interest to the master of the hospital for a
valuable consideration. In the year 1538 this hospital was
surrendered to King Henry VIII., being then valued at 266 pounds
17s. 6d. per annum. And in the following reign, the City of London
having purchased the buildings of the Crown, continued them a
hospital for sick and wounded people; and King Edward VI. granted
them some of the revenues of the dissolved hospitals and monasteries
towards maintaining it: but these were inconsiderable in comparison
of the large and numerous benefactions that have since been bestowed
upon it by the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and other wealthy citizens and
men of quality, governors of it, who are seldom fewer than two or
three hundred, every one of them looking upon themselves to be under
some obligation of making an addition to the revenues of the
hospital they have the direction of. A committee of the governors
sit every Thursday, to consider what patients are fit to be
discharged, and to admit others.

The government of the City of London, it is observed, resembles that
of the kingdom in general; the Lord Mayor is compared to the king,
the aldermen to the nobility or upper house, and the common