Lettered inside plate, lower left: "Percy Thomas 1987"; lower center: "The King's Bench Walk"; lower right: "Published at 47 Queen's Road and 8 Clare Street Bristol by Frost & Reed Dec. 1st 1897"; lettered on verso, center: "DOORWAY AND STEPS IN KING'S | BENCH WALK | At the northern end of King's Bench Walk survive some of the | oldest Doorways in the Temple. The row of buildings--| taking their name from the original presence among them of the | Offices of the Court of King's Bench-- dates from early in the | 17th century. The Chambers at the northern extremity suffered by | fire-- as from time to time, especially when timber entered largely | into its architecture, the Temple has had to suffer -- and an | Inscriptions over No. 4 in the row records that it was rebuilt | with others after one such conflagration in 1678 |Oliver Goldsmith sojourned for while at No. 3 William | Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, had chambers in No. 5. It | was Pope's encomium on his friend, -- "So known, so hononed at the House of Lords" | that provoked the Parody, attributed to Colley Cibber:-- | "Persuasion tips his tongue, whene'er he talks, | And he has Chambers in the King's Bench Walks"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art; Gift of John W. Davis