house had ceased to be the boundary, and a yard of More's had been substituted. Finally, More's successor, Sir George More, was in a position in 1603 to sell to one John Tice a strip of land bounded by Tice's house on the south, Water Lane on the west, and the kitchen yard on the north and east, which must have been just about where Portinari's parlour stood at the time of the 1548 survey.[1] I am now approaching the region of conjecture, but there is only one way of accounting for the facts. More must have acquired and pulled down Portinari's house, and thus not only let light and air into the somewhat congested district west of the frater, but also left room for extensions in the rear of the little houses fronting on the way to Lady Kingston's. The extension of the little chamber he had probably himself undertaken before 1564. It did not interfere with the chalices and singing cakes in the window, or prevent the house from being in decay in 1585. In 1572 it could be seen that the house had been covered with lead, but presumably was so no longer.[2] The extension of the little kitchen seems to have been an enterprise of Bonetti, of which More reaped the profits. The rest of the space gained was utilized for the fencing-school kitchen, for a staircase behind the Duchy Chamber, and for certain yards, all of which were in existence in 1596.[3] It is just possible that More also pulled down the west end of the Duchy Chamber.
By 1596 both the fencing-school and the butler's lodging had passed from the occupation of Bonetti. One Thomas Bruskett had the former and one John Favour the latter. This is the year of James Burbadge's great enterprise of the second Blackfriars theatre. Our first intimation of it is from Lord Hunsdon, in a letter to More of 9 January 1596.[4] He has heard that More has parted with part of his house for a play-house, and makes an offer for 'your other howse, which once I had also'. The deed of sale by More to James Burbadge is dated 4 February 1596.[5] The purchase money was £600. The rooms transferred are carefully described, but only a few of the measurements and boundaries are given. There were seven great upper rooms, 'sometyme being one
- ↑ Ibid. 125. An unfortunate hiatus in a document (ibid. 70) leaves it uncertain whether Tice occupied one of Mrs. Pole's houses or More's enlarged 'little kitchen'.
- ↑ Ibid. 50.
- ↑ Cf. p. 504.
- ↑ Kempe, 496; Wallace, i. 195; M. S. C. ii. 125, misdated 1595. The 'other' house was probably the mansion house, which was let to Ralph Bowes on 3 March 1596 (cf. p. 497). Hunsdon died on 22 July 1596.
- ↑ Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 299, from enrolment in R. O.; M. S. C. ii. 60, from counterpart executed by Burbadge in Loseley MS. 348.
