~ an introduction at Austin Friars ~

The sunshine of mid-April is temperate on our faces, a cooling breeze from
the River away to the south. The parks are a magnificent green on this glorious Spring day and now at five o’clock there is full light  as the season approaches the longest day of all, on April the 30^th.
We begin our walk here at the cathedral of St Paul's where the accustomed crowd gathers for the evening Mass.
This is Europe’s largest cathedral, with its spire the tallest landmark in the south of England.
Our journey is almost a mile exactly and the going is comfortable in the wide streets of London’s City.

Our appointment is privileged and our arrival is eagerly-anticipated at around the half-hour.
West along the streets of Cheapside at a comfortable pace, with cautious steps for the horses have been here. People are about, making their way homeward at the end of a
working day, though not as crowded now having left the shadows of St Paul’s. We will return there many times in the months and years ahead.
Here and there a glow of a hearth or fire behind house-windows as the evening suppers are prepared in this thriving metropolis of near-200,000 in the ever-expanding boroughs of London.
Our destination is hard-by the ancient City wall to the south-east of Moorgate.

Children and adults enjoy the new season’s warmth, and the timbered-houses and streets have been cleansed anew by the thunderstorms of last night.  The largest homes, mostly of three-storeys front the streets but in-between, the gloomy alleyways a maze of lesser dwellings. Ale-houses are cheerful with light and the casual laughter of a thousand revellers although no persons are rowdy and our walk is unhindered. We exchange smiles with the curious; our conversation being unusual although not that of strangers. A sense of gladness is everywhere now that the monarch is preparing the Treaty that we all know will safeguard an enduring peace both in the realm and abroad.

Our progress is slower here, having swung left into the arc of Broad Street.
Our hosts’ grand house is unmistakable. The family moved here five years ago and have gradually expanded the three-story mansion to include fourteen rooms, an inner courtyard, gentle gardens to the sides and a candle-lit chapel close to the entrance. Here the house-porter greets us as friends and respected guests, and from within the big home the ring of the girls' laughter carries through the gables.
From the entry we go into the parlor where young Anne, 11, and Grace, now 9 years-old, smile eagerly. Summer evenings are for entertainments here and dinner-guests are embraced inside this happy home.
A timber doorway reveals a second parlor which is being converted to a study, its walls lined with texts, their titles flashing gold in the setting-sun alighting through the open windows to the west. This is the home and workplace of one of the City’s most thriving lawyers and he has now been gathered by the prestigious Gray’s Inn, one of London’s four Inns of Court.

In the hall, Elizabeth is fine and quietly enthralling, and her husband Thomas moves forward to receive our hands in gentle, sincere welcome.
The year is 1527 and we have arrived in Austin Friars, the London mansion of Thomas Cromwell.

Sources:
- Borman, T. Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's most Faithful Servant. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 2014. pp. 46-48.
- Schofield, J. London 1100-1600: The Archaeology of a Capital City. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2011