My biggest regret about the research for this book is that I failed to determine when or by whom the original Stationers’ Hall was purchased. I discovered who sold it, and much of the Tudor history of the buildings on all sides of it, but the grail itself eluded me.

Figure 24 shows the various parcels into which the grounds of Peter College had been divided by 1560. Originally a residential community of twelve chantry priests, the college had owned property bounded on the north by Bowyer Row and Paul's Churchyard, on the west by Creed Lane, and on the south by the Deanery of St Paul's. On 24 November 1548 the whole estate was granted by the Court of Augmentations for £72 10s. to a pair of brokers acting on behalf of William Cecil and his Lincolnshire neighbour Lawrence Eresby. When the brokers transferred it to Cecil and Eresby the following day somebody needed to be present to take formal possession of the property, so two of Cecil's most trusted servants acted for him as his ‘attornati’ or agents: his clerk Roger Alford and William Seres.