ROSES AS RENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 July 1936, Page 14

ROSES AS RENT

OLD CEREMONY REVIVED. After a lapse of five centuries, a ceremony was revived in the City of London when a red rose and a white rose were handed to the Lord Mayor, Sir Percy Vincent, as rent for a. window in Seething Lane, E.C., says the “Daily Telegraph.”

Actually the window no longer exlt was built by Robert Knolles, or Knollys, a military commander who served at the siege of La Roche <1 Orient in 1346, was a resident of Seething Lane at the time of Wat Tyler’s rebellion and was presefit when the rebel was felled at Smithfield by the Mayor, Walworth. As a reward for his services he was made a Freeman of the City by the City and the King granted him the manor of St. Pancras.

When he “built out” the window, objections were raised, but a compromise was arrived at. He was allowed to retain the window on condition “that he pay a yearly rent of a rose on the Feast of St. John the Baptist.” This was June 24. As the election of Sheriffs was on that day, the rent was paid the day before, the first time since Knolles’s death in 1407.

Revival of the payment is due to the Rev. P. B. Clayton, vicar of All Hallows, Barking by the Tower, of which church Knolles was a good friend when he lived near by in Seething Lane. The roses were handed to the Lord Mayor when he. received members of Toe H at the Mansion House in connection with the birthday celebrations of that institution.