This church is of the new churches built by act of parliament. The stone was laid by general Stewart, on the . This stone being placed in the east wall, the general struck it several times with a mallet; then making a libation of wine, pronounced the following short prayer:

The Lord God of Heaven preserve the church of St. George.

It was dedicated to St. George the Martyr, in honour of the reigning monarch; and being situated near , received its additional epithet.

The ground on which it is built was given by general Stewart who some time after bequeathed to this parish the sum of , towards erecting and endowing a charity-school therein.

The church is a rectory, and was consecrated by Edmund, bishop of London, on the .

This new parish, consisting of the out wards of , was constituted a distinct parish by act of parliament, which gave the perpetual advowson of the rectory to the bishop of London and his successors. The only disbursement, on account of the cure, procuration, which is paid to the bishop rather by compliment than right.

The parish consists of wards, denominated , , , and the out-ward.

The plan of the church shows a parallelogram, with a portico at the west end. The west front consists of a centre and small wings. The former is entirely occupied by the portico, which is hexastyle, of the Corinthian order, and crowned with a pediment, the raking cornice of which is enriched with modillions as well as the horizontal , and in the tympanum is a circular aperture enriched with foliage; on the cornice are square acroteria. The returns of the entablature are received on pilasters, at their entrance into the walls of the church. The wall behind the portico is made by pilasters into divisions, corresponding with the intercolumniations; between every pilaster is a lintelled doorway; over the centre is a square window. The portico has been justly the subject of the highest admiration amongst architectural critics; it is, perhaps, only excelled by the magnificent front of in the fields. The tower rises from the centre of the church, behind the pediment; it is more admired for its proportions than its size; the plan is square: the elevation consists of a plain stylobate, in every face of which is a circular dial, over which the cornice rises in the same form; the upper story has the angles truncated, and fronted by composite columns, in pairs, standing on pedestals; in each aspect is an arched window filled with weather boarding; and the elevation is crowned with an entablature breaking above the columns, over which are vases. The entablature is surmounted by an attic, which is crowned by a spherical dome; on the apex of the latter is a square pedestal, pierced with openings in each face, and ending in a vane. The north side is in divisions: the is the return of the wing of the west front. Each division contains series of windows; the lower slightly arched, and are covered with a bold cornice resting on consoles; the upper are round-headed, and are enclosed in rusticated niches, composed of pilasters, crowned with an entablature and pediment; the horizontal cornice broken to let in the head of the window. The elevation is finished with a modillion cornice continued from the west front, except the division, which is crowned with a low attic and pediment. The east front is in divisions; the lateral ones having doorways surmounted by windows, in accordance with the arrangement of the north front. The centre division is occupied by a Venetian window of the composite order; the entablature is sustained on insulated columns, at the sides and in pairs, in the centre; the

The interior is made into a nave and side aisles by square piers faced with pilasters, which sustain, with the intervention of pedestals of equal height with the breast-work of the galleries, the same number of columns of the Corinthian order; the entablature of the order crowns the whole, from which springs an elliptically vaulted ceiling; the soffits occupied with square moulded pannels; the ceiling of the aisles is made into divisions corresponding with the intercolumniations, by entablatures entering the principal above the columns, and received on corbels formed of the capital of a pilaster of the order attached to the said walls; the divisions so formed are each arched in a segment of a circle, and pannelled; a gallery with a pannelled front extends along the side aisles, and across the west end; it rests on the main piers at the sides and on veined marble columns of the Ionic order at the west end; the organ is contained in an upper gallery erected at the west end. The fronts of the galleries are nearly covered with the names and titles of the various members of the aristocracy of the country, who have served the office of churchwarden. On the western gallery is inscribed,

This Church Was Consecrated the 18th day of March

,

1724

.

The altar is situated in a slight recess in the eastern wall, bounded by piers, and covered with an elliptical arch, with pannelled soffits; the screen occupies the dado of the Venetian window, which, like its exterior front, is decorated with insulated composite columns; the centre of the screen is occupied by a large painting by sir James Thornhill, the subject

the last supper;

It was built at the expense of the commissioners for building new churches. The architect was John James, of Greenwich- No burials are allowed in this church, although it is built on vaults; there are, in consequence, no monuments.

Among many eminent men who have filled the rectory of this parish may be enumerated Dr. Charles Moss, bishop of St. David's in , and bishop of Bath and Wells in ; and the hon. Dr. Courtenay, afterwards bishop of Exeter.

It was by an indirect attempt to procure this valuable rectory, that the unfortunate Dr. Dodd was ruined in the public estimation.

North of is

[] Mal. Lond. iv. p. 232.

[] Mait. Lond. ii. 1337.