buildings pulled down to make room for this splendid structure, among
which he enumerates the original parish church of St. Mary-le-Strand;
Chester's or Strand Inne; a house belonging to the Bishop of Llandaff;
"in the high street a fayre bridge, called _Strand Bridge_, and under it
a lane or waye, down to the landing-place on the banke of Thames;" and
the _Inne_ or London lodging of the Bishop of Chester and the Bishop of
Worcester. Seymour states, that the site of St. Mary's church became a
part of the garden of Somerset House; and that when the Protector pulled
down the old church, he promised to build a new one for the parishioners,
but his death prevented his fulfilling that engagement. The Strand Bridge
formed part of the public highway; and through it, according to Maitland,
"ran a small watercourse from the fields, which, gliding along a lane
below, had its influx to the Thames near Somerset Stairs."[1]

[1] The present _Strand Lane_ (as it would seem to have been called in
Strype's time) skirts the eastern side of Somerset House, and forms
a boundary between the parishes of St. Mary and St. Clement Danes.
At its stairs, which are still, as formerly, "a place of some note
to take water at," is the outlet of a small underground stream.

Besides the places above mentioned, the palace-building Protector pulled
down part of the Priory church of St. John, Clerkenwell, a chapel and
cloisters near St. Paul's cathedral, for the sake of the materials. He
was, however, soon overtaken by justice, for in the proclamation, October
8, 1549, against the Duke of Somerset, previously to his arrest, he is
charged with "enriching himselfe," and building "sumptuous and faire
houses," during "all times of the wars in France and Scotland, leaving
the king's poore soldiers unpaid of their wages." After the attainder and
execution of the Protector, on Tower Hill, January 22, 1552-3, Somerset
Place devolved to the Crown, and was conferred by the king upon his