ARTIRCE, THE KING'S

   In Lime Street.

   Stow describes it as a mansion house of the Kings, 14 Ed. I. (S. 152), and Strype says that Queen's Square was erected on the site of a large house, anciently supposed to belong to the Kings and Queens (Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 89).

   Described as the King's mansion called the kynges " artery " in Lymestrete, 14 Ed. IV. 1474 (Cal. P.R. Ed. IV. 1467-77, p. 439). Ed. I. is evidently an error for Ed. IV. in Stow and the ' c ' probably an error for ' e,' which would make the word " artiree."

   See Queen's Colledge Passage Square.

   It does not seem to be possible to arrive at any satisfactory explanation or derivation of this word unless it is a contracted form of the word " artelries " = " artillery," and was a storehouse for arms. The word " artelleries " occurs in this sense in Chaucer's " Tale of Melibeus " and " artery " might be a contraction, originally written thus : " arteries." The form " artry " is given in N.E.D., s.v. " artillery."