3-101-167 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Clement's Inn - Garden House, 1885. 'Clement's Inn [one of the London Inns of Court] was so named, according to Stow, "because it standeth near to St Clement's Church, but nearer to the fair fountain called Clement's Well". According to Fitzstephen, Clement's Well (fons Sancti Clementis), Holy Well, and Clerks' Well were the most famous of the springs near the City, "frequented by scholars and youths of the City on Summer evenings when they walk forth to take the air." "I was once of Clement's Inn," says, in Shakespeare's " Henry IV.," Justice Shallow - the most notable student of whom the Inn can boast. The photograph shows the well-known Garden House, with the trim lawn before and the sun-dial, sold in 1884 by the Ancients for twenty guineas. The background on the right shows a portion of New Inn, where the great Sir Thomas More studied. The Doric Pilasters and the cornices of the ground and first floors of Garden House seem to show that it is generally of an earlier date than would be inferred from the windows and balconies. The second storey is also a much later addition. The figure of the Moor supporting the sun-dial was presented to the Inn by Holles, Lord Clare, who brought it from Italy.' Description by Alfred Marks.