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OCR
COMMERCE 147 second existed at the corner of Lothbury and Old Jewry. Mr. Jacobs has identified the actual sites of the houses of some twenty wealthy Jews, and the fact that after the expulsion some of these houses were occupied by the most eminent citizens goes to show the truth of the remark of Ralph of Coggeshale that Jews’ houses were like kings’ palaces. Iwo fine examples survive at Lincoln, but in London all have perished. The Jews were probably the first Londoners to build in stone instead of timber. Mr. Jacobs is inclined to derive the name Backwell Hall—a name which, in one form or another, is very ancient—from the former existence of a synagogue —~ os in what is now th ázh rare Masami Guildhall Yard ; and more particularly from the bath for women which used to be attached to every synagogue. As to the Old Jewry itself, there seems to be good ground for believing that it was so called even before the final expulsion of the Jews, for we find the king granting away some of their houses to his relations and favourites, and can almost with certainty identify their houses as being in that particular street. It had thus before the expulsion become the old, that is, the former Jewry. Mr. Jacobs makes
