Among them is John of Bourbon, one
of the prisoners taken at the battle of Agincourt. Here also lies Thomas
Burdet, ancestor of the present Sir Francis, who was put to death in the
reign of Edward IV., for wishing the horns of a favourite white stag,
which the King had killed, in the body of the person who advised him to
do it. And here too (a sufficing contrast) lies Isabella, wife of Edward
II.
'She, wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,
Who tore the bowels of her mangled mate'
GRAY.
"Her 'mate's' heart was buried with her, and placed upon her bosom! a
thing that looks like the fantastic incoherence of a dream. It is well
we did not know of her presence when at school; or after reading one of
Shakspeare's tragedies, we should have run twice as fast round the
cloisters at night time, as we used. Camden, 'the nourrice of
antiquitie,' received part of his education in this school; and here
also, not to mention a variety of others known in the literary world,
were bred two of the most powerful and deep-spirited writers of the
present day; whose visits to the cloisters we well remember.
"In a palace on the site of Hatton-garden, died John of Gaunt.
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