Walks in London, vol. I

Hare, Augustus J. C.

1878

Chapter IV: St. Paul's and its Surroundings.

Chapter IV: St. Paul's and its Surroundings.

 

We have now arrived where, black and grand, occupies the platform on the top of the hill. Sublimely grandiose in its general outlines, it has a peculiar sooty dignity all its own, which, externally, raises it immeasurably above the fresh modern-looking at Rome. As G. A. Sala says, in of his capital papers, it is really the better for

all the incense which all the chimneys since the time of Wren have offered at its shrine, and are still flinging up every day from their foul and grimy censers.

Here and there only is the original grey of the stone seen through the overlying blackness, which in early spring is intensified by the green grass and trees of the churchyard which surrounds the eastern part of the building. When you are near it, the mighty dome is lost, but you have always an inward all-pervading impression of its existence, as you have seen it a times rising in dark majesty over the city; or as, lighted up by the sun, it is sometimes visible from the river, when all minor objects are obliterated in mist. And, apart from the dome, the noble proportions of every pillar and cornice of the great church cannot fail to strike those who linger to look at them, while even the

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soot-begrimed garlands, which would be offensive were they clean, have here an indescribable stateliness.

St. Paul's appears to me unspeakably grand and noble, and the more so from the throng and bustle continually going on around its base, without in the least disturbing the sublime repose of its great dome, and, indeed of all its massive height and breadth. Other edifices may crowd close to its foundation and people may tramp as they like about it; but still the great cathedral is as quiet and serene as if it stood in the middle of Salisbury Plain. There cannot be any thing else in its way so good in the world as just this effect of St. Paul's in the very heart and densest tumult of London. It is much better than staring white; the edifice would not be nearly so grand without this drapery of black.-Hawthorne. English Note Books.

When Sir Christopher Wren was laying the foundations of the present cathedral, he found relics of different ages at successive depths beneath the site of his church --, Saxon coffins and tombs; secondly, British graves, with the wooden and ivory pins which fastened the shrouds of those who lay in them; thirdly, Roman lamps, lacrymatories, and urns, proving the existence of a Roman cemetery on the spot.[n.129.1]  It has never with any certainty been ascertained when the church was built here, but, according to Bede, it was erected by Ethelbert, King of Kent, and his nephew Sebert, King of the East Angles, and was the church where Bishop Mellitus refused the sacrament to the pagan princes.

Sebert, departing to the everlasting kingdom of Heaven, left his three sons, who were yet pagans; heirs of his temporal kingdom on earth. Immediately on their father's decease they began openly to practise idolatry (though whilst he lived they had somewhat refrained), and also gave free license to their subjects to worship idols. Al a certain time these princes, seeing the Bishop (of London) administering the Sacrament to the people of the church, after the celebration of mass, and being puffed up with rude and barbarous folly, spake, as the common report is, thus unto him: Why dost thou not give us, also, some of that white bread which thou didst give unto our father Saba and which thou does not yet cease to give to the people in the church? He answered, If ye will be washed in that wholesome font wherein your father was washed, ye may likewise eat of this blessed bread of which he was a partaker; but if ye condemn the lavatory of life, ye can in no wise taste the bread of life. We will not, they rejoined, enter into this font of water, for we know that we have no need to do so; but we will eat of that bread nevertheless. And when they had been often and earnestly warned by the bishop that it could not be, and that no man could partake of this holy oblation without purification and cleansing by baptism, they at length, in the height of their rage, said to him, Well, if thou wilt not comply with us in the small matter we ask, thou shalt no longer abide in our province and dominions, and straightway they expelled him, commanding that he and all his company should quit their realm.-Bede.

has been burnt times; thrice by fire from heaven. It attained its final magnificence when, in the century, it was a vista of Gothic arches, feet in length. At the east end was the shrine of St. Erkenwald, its bishop, the son of King Offa, containing a great sapphire which had the reputation of curing diseases of the eye. In the centre of the nave was the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp, son of the great Earl of Warwick, and Constable of Dover--a tomb which was popularly known as that of Duke Humphrey (of Gloucester), really buried at St. Albans. The rest of the church was crowded with monuments. Against the south wall were the tombs of Bishops of London, Eustace de Fauconberge, Justice of Common Pleas in the reign of John, and Henry de Wengham, Chancellor of Henry III. In St. Dunstan's Chapel was the fine tomb of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln (), who left his name to . Kemp, Bishop of London, who built Paul's Cross Pulpit, also had

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a chapel of his own. In the north aisle were the tombs of Ralph de Hengham, judge in the time of Edward I.; of Sir Simon Burley, tutor and guardian to Richard II. (a noble figure in armour in a tomb with Gothic arches); and, ascending to a far earlier time, of Sebba, King of the East Angles, in the century; and of Ethelred the Unready (), son of Edgar and Elfrida, in whose grave his grandson Edward Atheling is also believed to have been buried.

The choir of was as entirely surrounded by important tombs as those of Canterbury and are now. On the left were the shrine of Bishop Roger Niger; the oratory of Roger de Waltham, canon in the time of Edward II.; and the magnificent tomb of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (), son, father, and uncle of kings, upon which he was represented with his wife Blanche, who died of the plague, , and in which his wife, Constance, [n.131.1]  was also buried. On the right was the tomb of Sir Nicholas Bacon (), father of the Lord Chancellor Bacon; and the gorgeous monument of Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor (), of the great fashionable tombs of Elizabeth's time, which took so much room as only to allow of tablets to Sir Philip Sydney and his father-in-law, Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's secretary, thus occasioning Stow's epigram:--

Philip and Francis have no tomb,

For great Christopher takes all the room.

In the south aisle of the choir were monuments to Dean Colet, founder of School, and to Dr. Donne,

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the poet, also Dean of . In the north choir aisle, behind the tomb of John of Gaunt, Vandyke was buried in .[n.132.1] 

Against the wall of old at the S.W. corner was the parish church of St. Gregory, which was pulled down c. . It was the existence of this building which caused Fuller to describe old as being

truly the mother church, having

one

babe in her body-St. Faith's, and another in her arms-St. Gregory's.

The north cloister, or

Pardon Churchyard,

was surrounded by the frescoes of the Dance of Death, the executed for John Carpenter, town-clerk of London in the reign of Henry V. Here was the long-remembered epitaph:

Vixi, peccavi, penitui, Naturae cessi.

A chapel founded by Thomas-à--Becket's father, Gilbert, rose in the midst of the cloister, where he was buried with his family in a tomb which was always visited by a new Lord Mayor when he attended service in : it was destroyed with the cloister in by Edward, Duke of Somerset.

Old S. Paul's must have been a magnificent building. The long perspective view of the twelve-bayed nave and twelve-bayed choir, with a splendid wheel window at the East end, must have been very striking. The Chapter House embosomed in its Cloister; the little Church of S. Gregory nestling against the breast of the tall Cathedral; the enormously lofty and majestic steeple with its graceful flying buttresses, together with the various chapels and shrines filled with precious stones, must have combined to produce a most magnificent effect; and the number of tombs and monuments of illustrious men must have given an interest to the building, perhaps even more than equal to that now felt in Westminster Abbey.W. Longman.

It was in the old that King John, in , acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. There () Wickliffe was cited to appear and answer for his heresies before Courtenay, Bishop of London, and came attended and protected by John of Gaunt, and a long train of illustrious persons. There John of Gaunt's son, afterwards Henry IV., wept by his father's grave, and there with mocking solemnity he exposed the body of Richard II. after his murder at Pontefract, and-

At Poules his Masse was done and diryge,

In hers royall, semely to royalte;

The Kyng and Lordes, clothes of golde there offerde,

Some VIII. some IX, upon his hers were proferde.

In the English martyr, William Sawtre, was stripped of all his priestly vestments in before being sent to the stake at Smithfield. Hither, after the death of Henry V., came his widow, Katherine de Valois, in a state litter with her child upon her knee, and the little Henry VI. was led into the choir by the Duke Protector and the Duke of Exeter that he might be seen by the people. Here the body of the same unhappy king was exhibited that his death might be believed. Here also the bodies of Warwick the king-maker and his brother were exposed for days. On Shrove-Tuesday, , the Protestant Bible was publicly burnt in by Cardinal Wolsey.

Early in the century had been desecrated to such an extent as to have become known rather as an exchange and house of merchandise than as a church. Its central aisle, says Bishop Earle,[n.133.1]  resounded to

a kind of still roar or loud whisper.

The south alley,

writes Dekker, in ,

was the place for usury and popery,

the north for simony, the horse-fair in the midst for all kind of bargains, meetings, brawlings, murthers, conspiracies, and the font for ordinary payments of money.

The simony in was famous even in Chaucer's time. His parson is described as who-

sette not his benefice to hire

And left his sheep accombered in the mire

And ran unto London, unto S. Paul's

To seeken him a chanterie for souls, &c.

In the north aisle was the

Si Quis Door,

so called from the placards beginning

Si quis invenerit

with which it was defiled. Its situation is pointed out by a passage in Hall's satires.

Sawst thou ever Si quis patched on Paul's Church door, To seek some vacant vicarage before? Who wants a churchman that can service say, Read fast and fair his monthly homily, And wed, and bury, and make christian souls, Come to the left-side alley of Saint Paul's. Virgidemiarum, Sat. v. Bk. iii.

That people were in the habit of bringing burthens into the church is proved by the inscription over the poor-box-

And those that shall enter within the church doore,

With burthen or basket, must give to the poore.

And if there be any aske what they must pay,

--To this Box a penny, ere they pass away.

The middle aisle of the nave, called

Paul's Walk,

or

Duke Humphrey's Walk

from the tomb there, was the fashionable promenade of London, and

Paul's Walkers

was the popular name for

young men about town.

It was the fashion of the times, for the principal gentry, lords, commons, and all professions, not meerely mechanick, to meet in St. Paul's Church by eleven, and walk in the middle ile till twelve, and after dinner frum three to six, during which time some discoursed of businesse, others of newes.-Francis Osborne. 1658.

While Devotion meets at her prayers, doth Profanation walk under her nose in contempt of religion.-Dekker. 1607.

A Corinthian portico, of which the stone was laid by Laud, was built by Inigo Jones, to lessen this confusion, being intended, says Dryden, as

an ambulatory for such as usually.walking in the body of the church destroyed the solemn service of the choir.

It is believed that Charles I. meant this portico merely as the instalment of a new cathedral, but his attention was otherwise occupied, and under the Commonwealth, the. soldiers of Cromwell stabled their horses in the nave. With the Restoration it was intended to restore the old church, but, in the words of Dryden,--

The daring flames peep'd in, and saw from far The awful beauties of the sacred quire: And since it was profan'd by civil war, Heaven thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire. >Annus Mirabilis.

Christopher Wren, son of a Dean of Windsor, was chosen as the architect of the new church, and on , was laid the stone of the , which was finished in years. When he was occupied on , Wren was consulted as to the repairs of Ely Cathedral, a building which took such hold upon his mind, that, in spite of the difference of styles, an architect may detect his admiration for the great church of the eastern counties in many details of , not always with advantage, as in the case of the meaningless arches which break the simplicity of the cornice in the pillars of the dome. The whole cost, , was

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paid by a tax on every chaldron of coal brought into the Port of London, on which account it is said that the cathedral has a special claim of its own to its smoky exterior. It will be admitted that, though in general effect there is nothing in the same style of architecture which exceeds the exterior of , it has not a single deserving of attention, except the Phoenix over the south portico, which was executed by , and commemorates the curious fact narrated in the that the very stone which Sir Christopher Wren directed a mason to bring from the rubbish of the old church to serve as a mark for the centre of the dome in his plans, was inscribed with the single word --I shall rise again. The other ornaments and statues are chiefly by , a most inferior sculptor. Those who find greater faults must, however, remember that , as it now stands, is not according to the design of Wren, the rejection of which cost him bitter tears. Even in his after work he met with so many rubs and ruffles, and was so insufficiently paid, that the Duchess of Marlborough said, in allusion to his scaffold labours,

He is dragged up and down in a basket

two

or

three

times in a week for an insignificant

£ 200

a year.

The exterior of S. Paul's consists throughout of two orders, the lower being Corinthian, the upper Composite. It is built externally in two stories, in both of which, except at the north and south porticos and at the west front, the whole of the entablatures rest on coupled pilasters, between which, in the lower order, a range of circular-headed windows is introduced. But in the order above, the corresponding spaces are occupied by dressed niches standing on pedestals pierced with openings to light the passages in the roof over the side aisles. The upper order is nothing but a screen to hide the flying buttresses carried across from the outer walls to resist the thrust of the great vaulting.W. Longman.

That the west front of the cathedral does not exactly face is due to the fact that too many houses were already built to allow of it, the commissioners for reconstructing the city having made their plans before anything was decided about the new cathedral. The , in front of the church, has gained a certain picturesqueness through age, and the fine old

railing of wrought Lamberhurst iron which surrounds it. It is historically interesting here as commemorating the frequent state visits of Queen Anne to the church to return public thanks for the repeated victories of the Duke of Marlborough. Lately the effect of the west front has, in the opinion of many, been much injured by the removal of the iron railing of the churchyard which (though not

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part of Wren's design) was invaluable for comparison and measurement, and which fully carried out the old Gothic theory that a slight and partial concealment only gives additional dignity to a really grand building. Besides, the railing was in itself fine, and (part of it remains at the sides) cost above . II,. It must, however, be conceded that the railing was put up in opposition to the wish of Wren, who objected to its height as concealing the base of the cathedral and the western flight of steps; and that its destruction was chiefly due to the wish of Dean Milman, who abused it as a

heavy, clumsy, misplaced fence.

It may be interesting to those who are acquainted with the great churches to compare their proportions on the spot

 St. Paul's.St. Peter's. According to Fontana's plan.
Length500630
Breadth250440
Width of nave118220
Height to top of Cross365437

The of is not without a grandeur of its own, but in detail it is bare, cold, and uninteresting, though Wren intended to have lined the dome with mosaics, and to have placed a grand baldacchino in the choir. Though a comparison with inevitably forces itself upon those who are familiar with the great Roman basilica, there can scarcely be a greater contrast than between the buildings. There, all is blazing with precious marbles; here, there is no colour except from the poor glass of the eastern windows, or where a tattered banner waves above a hero's monument. In the blue depths of the

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misty dome, the London fog loves to linger, and hides the remains of some feeble frescoes by Thornhill, Hogarth's father-in-law. In , as in , the statues on the monuments destroy the natural proportion of the arches by their monstrous size, but they have seldom any beauty or grace to excuse them. The week-day services [n.139.1]  are thinly attended, and, from the nave, it seems as if the knot of worshippers near the choir were lost in the immensity, and the peals of the organ and the voices of the choristers were vibrating through an arcaded solitude. In , Dr. Newton, as Dean of , conceded to the wish of Sir Joshua Reynolds, then President of the Academy, that the unsightly blank spaces on the walls of the cathedral should be filled with works by academicians. Sir Joshua himself promised the Nativity, West the Delivery of the Law by Moses. Barry, Dance, Cipriani, and Angelica Kaufmann were selected by the Academy for the other works. But when Dr. Terrick, then Bishop of London, heard of the intention, he peremptorily refused his consent. --

Whilst I live and have the power,

he wrote to Bishop Newton,

I will never suffer the doors of the Metropolitan Church to be opened to Popery.

It was then proposed only to put up the works of West and Reynolds-the Foundation of the Law and Gospel-over the doors of the north and south aisles, but the concession was absolutely refused, and the cathedral was left in its bareness.[n.139.2] 

The central space under the dome is now employed for the Sunday Evening Service, a use which Dean Milman considered

was no doubt contemplated by Wren.

Many persons entering the cathedral suppose that the dome over their heads is the actual lining of the external dome. They are not aware that it is a shell, of a different form from the outer structure, with a brick cone between it and the outer skin-so to speak; that this brick cone is supported by the main walls and the great arches of the Cathedral, and that the brick cone supports the outer structure, the lantern, the upper cupola, and the gilt cross and ball; or that again between the brick cone and the outer skin is a curious net-work of wooden beams supporting the latter.-W. Longman.

the north porch is an inscription to Sir Christopher Wren, ending with the

four

words which comprehend his merit and his fame,

--

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.

The oratories at the sides of the nave were added against the wishes of Wren, at the instance of the Duke of York, who secretly wished to have them ready for Roman Catholic services, as soon as an opportunity occurred. They have been greatly condemned, as interfering in the lines of the building on the outside, but do not affect the interior. of them is appropriated as a Baptistery. That which opens from the south aisle, long the Bishop's Consistory Court, contains the monument, by , of Arthur, Duke of Wellington, the noblest tomb erected in England since Torregiano was working at . The aged Duke lies, like a Scaliger of Verona, deeply sleeping upon a lofty bronze sarcophagus. Around the base are the names of his victories. At the sides of the canopy, which is supported by noble pillars of the best period of the Renaissance, are grand figures in bronze, of Courage suppressing Cowardice, and Virtue suppressing Vice. The whole was to have been surmounted, like the great tomb of Can Grande, by an equestrian statue; but this was opposed by Dean Milman, and the artist, the greatest sculptor of our time, was snatched away before his

141

work was completed, and before England had awaked to realise that it possessed a worthy follower of Michael Angelo.

The narrow effect of the choir is much increased by the organ galleries on either side the entrance, and the carved stalls by Grinling Gibbons, for which he received The organ () is by Dr. Schmydt, who constructed that at the Temple.

I should wish to see such decorations introduced into St. Paul's as may give splendour, while they would not disturb the solemnity, or the exquisitely harmonious simplicity, of the edifice; some colour to enliven and gladden the eye, from foreign or native marbles, the most permanent and safe modes of embellishing a building exposed to the atmosphere of London. I would see the dome, instead of brooding like a dead weight over the area below, expanding and elevating the soul towards Heaven. I would see the sullen white of the roof, the arches, the cornices, the capitals, and the walls, broken and relieved by gilding, as we find it by experience the most lasting, as well as the most appropriate decoration. I would see the adornment carried out in a rich and harmonious (and as far as possible from gaudy) style, in unison with our simpler form of worship.-Dean Milman, Letter to the Bishop of London.

The monuments are mostly merely commemorative, and are nearly all feeble and meretricious, in many cases absolutely ludicrous. Beneath the dome are the which were erected in the cathedral. Those of Howard and Johnson, on either side of the entrance to the choir, are , whose works had such extraordinary renown in the last century. The prison key which is held by Howard and the scroll in the hand of Johnson

countenance the mistake of a distinguished foreigner who paid his respects to them as St. Peter and St. Paul.

[n.141.1]  The statue on the right in a Roman toga and tunic, bare-legged and

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sandalled, is intended for Howard, who died, , at Cherson in Russian Tartary, whither he went in the benevolent hope of discovering a remedy for the Plague.

The first statue admitted at S. Paul's was, not that of statesman, warrior; or even of sovereign; it was that of John Howard the pilgrim, not to gorgeous shrines of saints and martyrs, not even to holy lands, but to the loathsome depths and darkness of the prisons throughout what called itself the civilised world. Howard first exposed to the shuddering sight of mankind the horrible barbarities, the foul and abominable secrets, of those dens of unmitigated suffering. By the exposure he at least let some light and air into those earthly hells. Perhaps no man has assuaged so much human misery as John Howard; and John Howard rightly took his place at one corner of the dome of S. Paul's, the genuine disciple of Him among whose titles to our veneration and love not the least befitting, not the least glorious, was that He went about doing good. -Dean Milman.

The statue of Dr. Johnson (buried at ) was erected at the urgent desire of Sir Joshua Reynolds. The figure, representing a half-naked muscular athlete, is utterly uncharacteristic, yet its associations are interesting.

Though Johnson was buried in the Abbey among his brother men of letters, yet there was a singular propriety in the erection of Johnson's statue in S. Paul's. Among the most frequent and regular communicants at the altar of the cathedral might be seen a man whose ungainly gestures and contortions of countenance evinced his profound awe, reverence, and satisfaction at that awful mystery; this was Samuel Johnson, who on all the great festivals wandered up from his humble lodgings in Bolt Court, or its neighbourhood, to the Cathedral. Johnson might be well received as the representative of the literature of England.

The pedestal, on which the statue stands, bears a long Latin inscription by Dr. Parr, which aptly describes Johnson as

ponderibus verborum admirabilis.

The inscription is in a language which ten millions out of twelve that see it cannot read. To come a step lower, there is a period inserted between every word. In the ancient inscription, which this professes to imitate, similar marks are placed, but then spaces were not left between the words. In short, the mark in the old Latin inscriptions had a meaning--the dot in the modern pedantic epitaph has no meaning at all, and merely embarrasses the sense.-Allan Cunningham.

The next monument erected was that by to Sir Joshua Reynolds--

pictorum sui saeculi facile princeps.

Then came the monument, by , of Sir William Jones, who

first

opened the poetry and wisdom of our Indian Empire to wondering Europe.

[n.143.1]  After these statues followed a series of the heroes of Nelson's naval victories and of Indian warriors and statesmen. Few of these call for attention except from their absurdity, yet, as many visitors make the round of the church, we may notice (omitting reliefs invisible from their high position, and beginning at the south-west door, where the banners from Inkerman hang) those of-

Captain R. Rundle Burgess (1797), the last work of Banks. The captain, Commander of the Ardent, who fell in the naval battle with the Dutch off Camperdown, under Admiral Rodney, is represented perfectly naked, apathetically receiving a sword from Victory.

Thomas Fanshawe Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta (1822), is represented theatrically blessing two native converts, in a group by J. G. Lough.

Captain E. M. Lyons, mortally wounded (1855) on board the Miranda at Sebastopol--a relief by G. Noble.

Captain G. Blagdon Westcott, who fell at the Battle of the Nile (1805), by Banks-he is represented sinking into the arms of Victory and upsetting her by his fall.

The two naval officers (Westcott and Burgess) are naked, which destroys historic probability; it cannot be a representation of what happened, for no British warriors go naked into battle, or wear sandals or Asiatic mantles. As little can it be accepted as strictly poetic, for the heads of the heroes are modern and the bodies antique; every-day noses and chins must not be supported on bodies moulded according to the god-like proportions of the Greek statues. Having offended alike the lovers of poetry and the lovers of truth, Banks next gave offence to certain grave divines, who noted that the small line of drapery which droops over the shoulder as far as the middle of Captain Burgess, In longitude was sairly scanty, like the drapery of the young witch of the poet. Banks added a hand-breadth to it with no little reluctance. When churchmen declared themselves satisfied, the ladies thought they might venture to draw near-but the flutter of fans and the averting of faces was prodigious. That Victory, a modest and well-draped dame, should approach an undrest dying man, and crown him with laurel, might be endured--but how a well-dressed young lady could think of presenting a sword to a naked gentleman went far beyond all their notions of propriety. --Allan Cunningham.

Sir Isaac Brock, who fell in the defence of Queenstown (1812)-a relief by Westmacott.

Dr. William Babington (1833)-a statue by Behnes.

Admiral Lord Lyons (1858)-a statue by Noble.

Sir Ralph Abercromby (1800), mortally wounded on the landing of the British troops in Egypt--a wildly confused group by Westmacott.

Sir John Moore, who fell at Corunna (1809), by Bacon-he is represented as lowered into his coffin by Fame and a naked soldier.

Sir Astley Paston Cooper, the eminent surgeon (1842)-a statue by Baily.

Sir W. Hoste (1833)-a statue by T. Campbell.

Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie (1804), who fell at Kalunga in Napaul-a statue by Chantrey.

Horatio, Lord Nelson, who fell at Trafalgar (1805)-a group by Flaxman, with a most abominable lion.

Charles Marquis Cornwallis, Governor-General of Bengal (1805)- a group by Rossi.

Sir E. Pakenham and General Samuel Gibbs, who fell at the siege of New Orleans (1815)-statues by Westmacott.

George Elliott, Lord Heathfield (1790), the Defender of Gibraltara statue by Rossi.

J. M. W. Turner, the artist (18511)-a statue by Macdowell.

Cuthbert, Lord Collingwood (1810), who died in command of the Mediterranean Fleet--a monument by R. Westmacott. The almost naked body of the Admiral lies in a galley.

Admiral Earl Howe (1799), who vanquished the French fleet off Ushant--a fine statue, in a group by Flaxman.

Sir John Thomas ones (1843)-statue by Behnes.

Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, who died in the defence of Lucknow (1857)-a statue by Lough.

(South aisle of Choir) Henry Milman, Dean of St. Paul's (1869)- an altar tomb with an admirable portrait statue by F. 5. Williamson.

Charles fames Blomfield, Bishop of London (1756)-an altar tomb with a striking statue by G. Richmond, R.A.

*Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta-a striking figure and likeness by Chantrey.

(Over door) General Foord Bowes, who fell at Salamanca (1812)-a relief by Chantrey.

Passing the Choir, in the North Aisle) Henry Hallam, the historian (1859)-a statue by Theed.

Admiral Charles Napier (1860)-a relief by Adams.

Captain Robert Mosse and Captain Edmond Riou, who fell in attacking Copenhagen (1800)-a group of angels holding medallions by C. Rossi.

Sir William Ponsonby, who fell at Waterloo (1815). The hero is re. presented stark naked in this ridiculous monument by E. H. Baily.

General Charles T. Napier (1853)-a statue by Adams.

Adam, Viscount Duncan (1814), victorious over the Dutch fleet in 1799-a statue by Westmacott.

General Arthur Gore and General John Byrne Skeritt, who fell at the siege of Bergen ap Zoom, 1814-a group by Chantrey.

General T. Dundas (1795), distinguished by the reduction of the French West Indian Islands-monument by J. Bacon, jun.

Captain Robert Faulknor, commander of the Blanche, who fell in a naval battle in the West Indies, 1796-monument by Rossi.

General William Francis Patrick Napier (1860)-a statue by Adams.

General Andrew Hay, who fell at Bayonne, 1814. The general is seen falling, in full uniform, into the arms of a naked soldier, in a marvellous group by H. Hopper.

John, Earl of St. Vincent, the hero of Cape St. Vincent (1823)-by Baily.

Sir Thomas Picton, killed at Waterloo (1815)-a ludicrous figure of a Roman Warrior receiving a wreath from Victory by Gahagan.

Admiral Lord Rodney (1792)-a group by C. Rossi.

Mountstuart Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay (1859)-a statue by Noble.

Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm (1838)--a statue by Baily.

Brass Plates to the Officers and Seamen lost in H.M.S. Captain, Sept. I, 18700.

*Frederick, Viscount Melbourne, the early Prime Minister of Queen Victoria-two grand sleeping angels leaning on their swords by a bronze doorway; a fine work of Marochetti.

Sir A. Wellesley Torrens, who fell at Inkerman, 1855. Relief in memory of Officers and Privates who fell in the Crimean war, 1854-1856.

The most interesting portion of the church is the , where, at the eastern extremity, are gathered nearly all the remains of the tombs which were saved from the old . Here repose the head and half the body of (), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the reign of Elizabeth and father of Francis, Lord Bacon. Other fragments represent William Cokain, ; William Hewit, ; and John Wolley and his wife, , There are tablets to

Sir Simon Baskerville the rich,

physician to James I. and Charles I., ; and to Brian, Bishop of Chester, . The tomb of John Martin, bookseller, and his wife, , was probably the monument erected in the crypt of new . The east end of the crypt is used for service as a chapel: its mosaic pavement is the work of the female penitents at Wokingham. Only figure from the old has been lately given a place in the new church. In the Dean's Aisle now stands erect the strange figure from the monument of , whose sermons, in the words of Dr. Milman, held the congregation

enthralled, unwearied, unsatiated,

and caused of his poetical panegyrists to write-

And never were we wearied, till we saw

The hour, nd but an hour, to end did draw.

Donne's friend, Sir Henry Wootton, said of this statue,

It seems to breathe faintly, and posterity shall look upon it as a kind of artificial miracle.

The Dean is represented in

147

a winding-sheet. By the suggestion of his friend Dr. Fox, he stripped himself in his study, draped himself in his shroud, and, standing upon an urn, which he had procured for the purpose, closed his eyes, and so stood for a portrait, which was afterwards the object of his perpetual conttemplation, and which after his death in was reproduced in stone by , the famous sculptor. The present position of the statue unfortunately renders abortive the concluding lines of the Latin epitaph, which refer to the eastward position of the figure.

John Donne, Doctor of Divinity, after various studies--pursued by him from his earliest years with assiduity, and not without success,entered into Holy Orders, under the influence and impulse of the Divine Spirit, and by the advice and exhortation of King James, in the year of his Saviour,

1614

, and of his own age,

42

. Having been invested with the Deanery of this church,

Nov. 27th, 1621

, he was stripped of it by death, on the last day of

March, 1631

, and here, though set in dust, he beholdeth Him whose name is the Rising.

Translation by Archdeacon Wrangham in Walton's Lives.

Dryden calls Donne-

The greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of our nation;

and Izaak Walton describes him as-

A preacher in earnest; weeping sometimes for his auditory, sometimes with them; always preaching to himself like an angel from a cloud, but in none; carrying some, as St. Paul was, to heaven, in holy raptures; and enticing others by a sacred art and courtship to amend their lives; here picturing a vice so as to make it ugly to those that practised it, and a virtue so as to make it beloved even by those who loved it not; and all this with a most particular grace and an inexpressible addition of comeliness.

In the Crypt, not far from the old tombs, the revered Dean Milman, the great historian of the church (best known, perhaps, by his his

148

and his contributions to ), is now buried under a simple tomb ornamented with a raised cross. In a recess on the south is the slab tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, and near him, in other chapels, Robert Mylne, the architect of old , and John Rennie, the architect of . Beneath the pavement lies Sir Joshua Reynolds (), who had an almost royal funeral in , dukes and.marquises contending for.the honour of being his pall-bearers. Around him are buried his disciples and followers- Lawrence (), Barry (), Opie (), West (), Fuseli () ; but the most remarkable grave is that of William Mallory Turner, whose dying request was that he might be buried as near as possible to Sir Joshua.

Where the heavy pillars and arches gather thick beneath the dome, in spite of his memorable words at the battle of the Nile-

Victory or Westminster-Abbey

--is the grave of . Followed to the grave by the sons of his sovereign, he was buried here in , when Dean Milman, who was present,

heard, or seemed to hear, the low wail of the sailors who encircled the remains of their admiral.

They tore to pieces the largest of the flags of the , which waved above his grave; the rest were buried with his coffin.[n.148.1] 

The sarcophagus of Nelson was designed and executed for Cardinal Wolsey by the famous , and was intended to contain the body of Henry VIII. in the tombhouse at Windsor. It encloses the coffin made from the mast of the ship , which was presented to Nelson,

149

after the battle of the Nile, by Ben Hallowell, captain of the , that, when he was tired of life, he might

be buried in

one

of his own trophies.

On either side of Nelson repose the minor heroes of Trafalgar, () and ; also lies near him, but outside the surrounding arches.

A huge sarcophagus of porphyry resting on lions is the tomb where , was laid in , in the presence of spectators, Dean Milman, who had been present at Nelson's funeral, then reading the service. Beyond the tomb of Nelson, in a ghastly ghost-befitting chamber hung with the velvet which surrounded his lying in state at , and on which, by --the flickering torchlight, we see emblazoned the many Orders presented to him by foreign sovereigns, is the funeral car of Wellington, modelled and constructed in weeks, at an expense of,, from the guns taken in his different campaigns.

In the south-west pier of the dome a staircase ascends by steps to the highest point of the cathedral. No feeble person. should attempt the fatigue, and, except to architects, the undertaking is scarcely worth while. An easy ascent leads to the immense passages of the triforium, in which, opening from the gallery above the south aisle, is the , founded by Bishop Compton, who crowned William and Mary, Archbishop Seeker refusing to do so. It contains the bishop's portrait, and some carving by Gibbons.

At the corner of the gallery, on the left, a very narrow stair leads to the , of enormous size, with a pendulum feet long, constructed by in .

150

Ever since, the oaken seats behind it have been occupied by a changing crowd, waiting with anxious curiosity to see the hammer strike its bell, and tremulously hoping to tremble at the vibration.

Returning, another long ascent leads to the , below the windows of the cupola, where visitors are requested to sit down upon a matted seat, that they may be shown how a low whisper uttered against the wall can be distinctly heard from the other side of the dome. Hence we reach the , outside the base of the dome, whence we may ascend to the at its summit. This last ascent is interesting, as being between the outer and inner domes, and showing how completely different in construction is from the other. The view from the gallery is vast, but generally, beyond a certain distance, it is shrouded in smoke. Sometimes, stands aloft in a clear atmosphere, while beneath the fog rolls like a sea, through which the steeples and towers are just visible

like the masts of stranded vessels.

Hence may study the anatomy of the towers which Wren was obliged to build after the Fire in a space of time which would only have properly sufficed for the construction of . The same characteristics, more and more painfully diluted, but always slightly varied, occur in each. Bow Church, St. Magnus, St. Bride, and St. Vedast are the best.

The (of ), which hangs in the south tower, bears the inscription

Richard Phelps made me,

1716

.

It only tolls on the deaths and funerals of the royal family, of Bishops of London, Deans of St. Pauls, and Lord Mayors who die in their mayoralty.

There is an erroneous notion that--most of its metal was derived from the remelting of Great Tom of Westminster. This bell, so replete with venerable associations, was given or sold by William III. to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and recast by one Wightman. It was speedily broken in consequence of the cathedral authorities permitting visitors to strike it, on payment of a fee, with an iron hammer, and Phelps was employed by Sir Christopher Wren to make its fine. toned successor. It was agreed, however, that he should not remove the old bell till he delivered the new, and thus there is not a single ounce of Great Tom in the mass.-Quarterly Review, CXC.

Lily the grammarian, who died of the Plague, is buried on the north side of the , opposite the school to whose celebrity he so much contributed. Father Garnet was executed in , , on an accusation of having shared in the conspiracy of the Gunpowder Plot, and died with the protest of innocence on his lips. Not years ago a large elm at the northeast corner of the graveyard marked the site of Cross, a canopied cross standing on stone steps, whence open-air sermons, denounced and ridiculed when they were re-introduced by Wesley and Whitefield, were preached every Sunday afternoon till the time of the Commonwealth.

Paul's Cross was the pulpit not only of the cathedral; it might almost be said, as preaching became more popular, and began more and more to rule the public mind, to have become that of the Church of England. The most distinguished ecclesiastics, especially from the Universities, were summoned to preach before the Court (for the Court sometimes attended) and the City of London. Nobles vied with each other in giving hospitality to those strangers. The Mayor and Aldermen were required (this was at a later period) to provide sweet and convenient lodgings, for them, with fire, candles, and all other necessaries. Excepting the king and his retinue, who had a covered gallery, the congregation, even the Mayor and Aldermen, stood in the open air. Paul's Cross was not only the great scene for the display of eloquence by distinguished preachers; it was that of many public acts, some relating to ecclesiastical affairs, some of mingled cast, some simply political. Here Papal Bulls were promulgated; here excommunications were thundered out; here sinners of high position did penance; here heretics knelt and read their recantations, or, if obstinate, were marched off to Smithfield. Paul's Cross was never darkened by the smoke of human sacrifice. Here miserable men, and women suspected of witchcraft, confessed their wicked dealings; here great impostures were exposed, and strange frauds unveiled in the face of day. Here too occasionally Royal Edicts were published; here addresses were made on matters of state to the thronging multitudes supposed to represent the metropolis; here kings were proclaimed, probably traitors denounced.--Dean Milman.

It was at Cross that Jane Shore did public penance, as is touchingly described by Holinshed-

In hir penance she went, in countenance and pase demure, so womanlie, that albeit she were out of all araie, save hir kertle onlie, yet went she so faire and lovelie, namelie, while the wondering of the people cast a comelie rud in hir cheeks (of which she before had most misse), that hir great shame wan hir much praise among those that were more amorous of hir bodie, than curious of hir soule.

Here Dr. Shaw suggested the kingship of Richard III. with fatal consequences to himself. Here likewise Tindall's translation of the Bible was publicly burnt, by order of Bishop Stokesley, and here the Pope's sentence on Martin Luther was pronounced in a sermon by Bishop Fisher in the presence of Wolsey, who himself here exposed the imposture of the rood of Boxley. Hence Ridley denounced both the royal sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, as bastards, and then

stole away to Cambridge to throw himself at the feet of the triumphant Mary.

Elizabeth, immediately on her accession, showed her appreciation of the importance of

St. Paul's

Cross,

for of her acts was to select a safe preacher for the next Sunday's sermon,

that no

occasion might be given to stir any dispute touching the governance of the realm.

Here the great queen listened to the thanksgiving sermon of Dr. Pierce, Bishop of Salisbury (), for the defeat of the Armada. James I. was among those who sate beneath the preachers at Paul's Cross, and Charles . heard a sermon here on the occasion of the birth of his son, afterwards Charles II. The eminent preachers selected for the public sermons were entertained by the Mayor and Corporation at a kind of inn, called

the Shunamite's House.

An order of Parliament caused the destruction of

Paules Cross

in .

An ugly Grecian portico immediately behind the cathedral marks , founded in by Dean Colet, the friend of Erasmus, for poor children--a number chosen as being that of the fishes taken by St. Peter. Colet dedicated his foundation to the Child Jesus, so that, says Strype,

the true name of this school is Jesus' School, rather than Paul's School; but the saint hath robbed his Master of his title.

Erasmus has left an interesting description of Dean Colet's school, and relates how over the master's chair was a figure of the Child Jesus

of excellent work, in the act of teaching, whom all the assembly, both at coming in and going out of school, salute with a short hymn.

[n.153.1] 

Over the figure was the inscription-

Discite me primum, pueri, atque effingite puris

Moribus, inde pias addite literulas.

Children learn first to form pure minds by me, Then add fair learning to your piety. Milman.

John Milton was educated at School from his to his year. The existing buildings are quite modern, but the founder is commemorated over the doors of the school by his motto,

Disce aut discede,

and at the end of the schoolroom in a bust by .

It may seem false Latin that this Colet, being Dean of Paul's, the school dedicated to St. Paul, and distanced but the breadth of a street from St. Paul's Church, should not intrust it to the inspection of his successors, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, but committed it to the care of the Company of Mercers for the managing thereof. But Erasmus rendereth a good reason from the mouth and minde of Colet himself, who had found by experience many laymen as conscientious as clergymen in discharging this trust in this kinde; conceiving also that a whole company was not so easy to be bowed to corruption as any single person, how eminent and publick soever. For my own part, I behold Colet's act herein as not only prudential, but something prophetical, as foreseeing the ruin of church-lands, and fearing that this his school, if made an ecclesiastical appendage, might in the fall of church-lands get a bruise, if not lose a limb thereby.-Fuller's Church History.

It was for Dean Colet's School that Lily composed the Latin verses called from their words,

Propria quae maribus,

containing rules for distinguishing the genders of nouns. In the Mercers' Company purchased acres of ground in Hammersmith, whither it is intended to remove the school.

It was in front of the school in that George Jeffreys, the famous judge, then a schoolboy, after watching the judges go to dine with the

155

Lord Mayor, astonished his father, who was about to bind him apprentice to a mercer, by swearing that he too would day be the guest of the Mayor, and would die Lord Chancellor-so that the Lord Mayor's coach had the Bloody Assizes to answer for.

Near School stood, before the Fire, a belfry-tower containing the famous

Jesus Bells,

won at dice by Sir Giles Partridge from Henry VIII.

South of is the , and close beside is built by Dean Church, . This is the especial district of ecclesiastical law, , so called from the Doctors of Civil Law here living and

commoning

together in a collegiate manner. Several of its Courts have been removed to , but the , by which marriage licences are granted, and the are still held here. At the foot of , facing , is the , a red brick building surrounding sides of a court, with a well-designed outer staircase. It occupies the site of Derby House, built by Thomas, that Earl of Derby who married the Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII. Here, where

the records of the blood of all the families in the kingdom

are kept, the sword, dagger, and turquoise ring of James IV. of Scotland, slain at Flodden Field, are preserved. In the chambers of the Herald's College preside kings, namely,--

Garter King-at-Arms, established by Henry V. for the dignity of the Order of the Garter. He corrects all arms usurped or borne unjustly, and has the power of granting arms to deserving persons, &c.

Clarencieux King at Arms, who takes his name from the Duke of Clarence, 3rd son of Edward III. He has the care of the arms, and all questions of descent regarding families south of the Humber, not under the discretion of the Garter.

Norroy (North Roy), who has the same jurisdiction north of the Humber as Clarencieux in the south.

As for nobility in particular persons, it is a reverend thing to see an antient castle or building not in decay; or to see a fair timber tree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an antient noble family, which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time: for new nobility is but the act of power; but antient nobility is the act of time.-Lord Bacon.

What is now called was surrounded before the Fire by shops of booksellers, who have since betaken themselves to , , and , on the north of the Church, so called, says Stow,

because of stationers or text-writers that dwelt there, who wrote and sold all sorts of books then in use, namely, A B C., with the Pater-noster, Ave, Creed, Graces, &c.

At the corner of and was, till , the

Chapter Coffee House,

of much literary celebrity, where authors and booksellers of the last century were greatly wont to congregate. Here also the club of the

Wittenagemot

was held, which was much frequented by physicians of the last century. In the room which bore the name of the club, the famous Dr. Buchan, author of used to see his patients, a man

of venerable aspect, neat in his dress, his hair tied behind with a large black ribbon, and a gold-headed cane in his hand, realising the idea of an Esculapian dignitary.

It was at the Chapter Coffee House that the famous

Threepenny Curates

could be hired for and a cup of coffee to hold service anywhere within the boundary.

(so called from the rosary makers?) is

157

still the booksellers' paradise. Its entrance is' guarded by the establishments of Messrs. Blackwood and Nelson, and a mighty bust of Aldus presides over the narrow busy pavement, while every window at the sides is filled with books, chiefly Bibles, Prayer-Books, and religious tracts. The
Church of St. Michael le Quern, , destroyed in the Fire, derived its name from, the use in the adjacent market of the handmill of Scripture: it continued to be employed for the grinding of malt till the time of the Commonwealth. John Leland, the antiquary, was buried in this church.

, leading into , being close to the Corn-market, marks the residence of the

Panyers,

makers of bakers' baskets, in the century. Here,, built in the wall, is a stone with a relief of a boy sitting on a panyer, inscribed-

When ye have sovght The Citty round Yet still ths is The hihest ground.

, .

, close to this (so called from an old cook of the tavern, whose portrait was painted by Gains. borough), has a curious old coffee-room of Queen Anne's time. The head of that queen painted on a window of the tavern has given a name to Queen's Head Passage.

There is a passage leading from Paternoster Row to St. Paul's Churchyard. It is a slit, through which the cathedral is seen more grandly than from any other point I can call to mind. It would make a fine dreamy picture, as we saw it one moonlight night, with some belated creatures resting against the walls in the foreground-mere spots set against the base of Wren's mighty work, that, through the narrow opening, seemed to have its cross set against the sky.-Preface to Dore's London.

At the bottom of leads into , where till lately stood (on the west of ) the , whither Dryden's body was brought by Dr. Garth, to whom it was indebted for suitable burial, where he was honoured by

a solemn performance of music,

[n.158.1]  and whence () it was followed by more than a coaches to . The buildings of the College (which originally met at Linacre's house in Knightrider Street) were erected by Wren (),

159

and were conspicuous from their dome, surmounted by a golden ball.

A golden globe, placed high with artful skill, Seems to the distant sight a gilded pill. Garth. The Dispensary.

The original name of this street was Eldenesse Lane; it derives its present appellation from the inn or palace of the Earls of Warwick. This Warwick Inn was in the possession of Cecily Duchess of Warwick c. . years later, when the greater estates of the realm were called up to London, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the

Kingmaker,

came with

six hundred

men, all in red jackets, embroidered with ragged staves before and behind, and was lodged in

Warwick Lane

; in whose house there was often

six

oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every tavern was full of his meat; for he that had any acquaintance in that house might have there so much of sodden or roast meat as he could pick and carry on a long dagger.

Midway down on the east side is the (rebuilt), where () the holy Archbishop Leighton died peacefully in his sleep, thereby fulfilling his often expressed desire that he might not trouble his friends in his death.

He used often to say, that, if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn; it looking like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in it. He added that the officious tenderness and care of friends was an entanglement to a dying man; and that the unconcerned attendance of those that could be procured in such a place would give less disturbance. And he obtained what he desired; for he died at the Bell Inn, in Warwick Lane.-Burnet's Own Times.

Opposite the Bell, closing an alley on the left, stood the Oxford Arms, of the most curious old hostelries in

160

England, demolished in . It belonged to the Dean and Chapter of , and was restored immediately after the Great Fire, on the exact plan of an older inn on the site, which was then destroyed. In the of -, we find the words-

These are to notify that Edward Bartlett, Oxford Carrier, has removed his inn in London from the Swan, in

Holborn

Bridge, to the Oxford Arms in

Warwick Lane

, where he did inn before the Fire; his coaches and waggons going forth on their usual days, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He hath also a hearse, with all things convenient to carry a corpse to the burial.

The leases of the property forbade the closing of a door leading to the houses of the residentiary Canons of , by which Roman Catholics who frequented the Inn escaped during the riots of . The great court of the Inn, constantly crowded with waggons and filled with people, horses, donkeys, dogs, geese-life of every kind-presented a series of Teniers pictures in its double tiers of blackened, balustraded, open galleries, with figures hanging over them, with clothes of every form and hue suspended from pillar to pillar, and with outside staircases, where children sate to chatter and play in the shadow of the immensely broad eaves which supported the steep red roofs. Amongst those who lived here in former days was John Roberts the bookseller, and from hence he sent forth his squibs and libels on Pope. On the wall of the last house (left), where enters , Warwick the King-maker is commemorated in a very curious relief, of , of an armed knight with shield and sword.

The neighbourhood of Newgate has always been

the Butchers' Quarter.

St. Nicholas's Shambles originally

161

stood here, which took their name from the old Church of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, destroyed at the Dissolution, and till the Great Fire the market continued to be held in the middle of the street in open stalls, which were a great nuisance to the neighbourhood, and gave the name of

Stinking Lane

to the present , from the filth which they accumulated. After the Fire a markethouse was erected in the open space between and , where the ivy-covered houses of the Prebends of , commemorated in ,[n.161.1] 
stood amidst orchards, whose apples were a great temptation to London street-boys, and frequently proved fatal to them, as is shown by the coroners' inquests of centuries ago. Newgate Market continued to be the principal meatmarket of London till the recent erection of that in Smithfield-

Shall the large mutton smoke upon your boards! Such Newgate's copious market best affords.

Gay. Trivia, bk.ii.

A curious relic in , which has lately disappeared, was the sculpture over the entrance to Bull Head Court, representing William Evans, the giant porter of Charles I., with Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of Henrietta Maria, who could travel in his pocket-Evans was feet inches in height, Hudson feet inches; but the dwarf was so fiery that he killed Mr. Crofts, who ventured to laugh at him, in a duel, and he commanded a troop of horse in the king's service.

On the north side of , through an open screen, are seen some of the modern buildings of , erected in by , the architect of St. Dunstan's in the West. The foundation of was of the last acts of Edward VI., who died days after. He was so touched by an affecting sermon which he heard from Bishop Ridley on , upon the duty of providing for the sick and needy, that after the service was over he sent for the bishop, thanked him for his advice, and, after inquiring what class of persons was in most need of being benefited, founded a hospital for destitute and fatherless children. The buildings, which had belonged to the Grey Friars, and which were set apart for this purpose, had been given to the City of London by Henry VIII. at the Dissolution.

The monastery of Grey Friars, which was of the most important religious houses in London, was founded by the Franciscans who came over to England in the reign of Henry III. Its buildings were raised by the charity of various pious benefactors, and its glorious church was given by Margaret, wife of Edward I. It became a favourite burial-place of the queens of England, as well as

163

the usual place of interment for the foreign attendants of the Plantagenet Queens Consort. Here were the tombs of Beatrix, Duchess of Brittany, daughter of Henry III., who died when she came over to the coronation of Edward I. in ; of the generous Queen Margaret, --

good withouten lacke

-- wife and widow of Edward I.,[n.163.1]  and of her niece the wicked Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II. Joan of the Tower, wife of David Bruce, King of Scotland, and daughter of Edward II., driven to seek a refuge in England by the infidelities of her husband, died in the arms of her sister-in-law Queen Philippa, in , and was buried by her mother's side. Near her was laid Isabel, Countess of Bedford, the eldest and favourite daughter of Edward III., who was separated from her husband Ingelram de Coucy by the wars between France and England. Other tombs were those of Baron Fitzwarren and his wife Isabel, sometime Queen of Man; Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of England, executed at Tyburn, ; Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, beheaded ; John Philpot, Lord Mayor, ; Sir Nicholas Brember, Lord Mayor, ; John, Duc de Bourbon, taken prisoner at Agincourt, who died after a captivity of eighteen years, ; and Thomas Burdett, , who was beheaded for having too vigorously lamented over a favourite buck of his, which had been killed by Edward IV. Here also () was buried who

possessed every advantage which nature and art and an excellent education could give,

[n.163.2]  the accomplished Sir Kenelm Digby, who was laid in the magnificent tomb

164

where he had buried his wayward wife, the beautiful Venetia Stanley,[n.164.1]  lamented in the verses of Ben Jonson.

All the monuments in Grey Friars, many of them of marble and alabaster, and extremely magnificent, were sold for by Sir Martin Bowes, goldsmith and alderman, a destruction which signifies little now, as they would all have perished otherwise in the Great Fire. Even the name of Grey Friars became extinct when was founded, and nothing remains of the monastery except some low brick arches of the western cloister on the left of the entrance.

The Hospital is approached from by a brick gate-way surmounted by a statue of Edward VI. in his robes. The courts, used as playgrounds by the boys, are handsome and spacious. There are boys lodged and boarded in the surrounding buildings; and belonging to the same foundation is the preparatory school of boys and the school of or girls at Hertford. The boys sleep in dormitories crowded with little beds, and wash in lavatories. A line in their swimming-bath marks the junction of parishes-Christ Church, St. Sepulchre's, and St. Bartholomew's.

London smoke has already given a venerable aspect to the noble , feet in length, and the long oak tables are really old. In the centre of the side wall is a pulpit whence graces are read, and the lessons of the day in the morning. The walls are decorated beyond the pulpit by the arms of the Presidents, below the pulpit by the arms of the Treasurers, beginning with those of Grafton, Treasurer in , the year after the foundation. The raised seats at the end

165

of the hall are intended for spectators admitted by ticket to witness the

Public Suppings

at P.M. on the Thursdays in Lent, a very curious sight. Above is an old picture of Edward VI. giving a charter to the Hospital. The other pictures include-

Verio. An immense and very curious representation of the scholars of Christ Hospital, both boys and girls, bringing their drawings to be examined by James II. in the midst of his court. Charles II. was originally introduced, but as he died before the picture was finished, his figure was altered to that of his brother. The custom pourtrayed here is still kept up, and every year the scholars go to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Pennant describes this as the largest picture I ever saw.

Sir F. Grant. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

J. Singleton Copley. The Adventure of Brook Watson, a Christ Church scholar, in escaping from a shark.

The was founded by the famous Sir Richard Whittington, who flourished in the time of Richard II. and Henry IV., and, in the latter reign, was times Lord Mayor.

The boys educated at are generally called

Blue-Coat Boys,

from their dress, which recalls that of the citizens of the time of Edward VI., and consists of a blue gown, red leathern girdle, yellow stockings, and bands. The classes of the school are called

Grecians

and

Deputy Grecians.

Among eminent Blue-Coat boys were Bishop Stillingfleet, Camden the Antiquary, Campion the Jesuit, Mitchell the translator of Aristophanes, Charles Lamb, Bishop Middleton, Jeremiah Markland, Richardson the novelist, and above all Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was educated here under James Boyer and who said, when he heard of his head-master's death, that

it was fortunate the cherubs who took him to

heaven were nothing but faces and wings, or he would infallibly have flogged them by the way.

Christ's Hospital is an institution to keep those who have yet held up their heads in the world from sinking; to keep alive the spirit of a decent household, when poverty was in danger of crushing it; to assist those who are the most willing, but not always the most able, to assist themselves; to separate a child from his family for a season, in order to render him back hereafter, with feelings and habits more congenial to it, than he could ever have attained by remaining at home in the bosom of it. It is a preserving and renovating principle, an antidote for the res angusta domi, when it presses, as it always does, most heavily upon the most ingenuous natures.Charles Lamb.

In Passage was

Pontack's,

the Restaurant of a better class opened in London (c. ) where a dinner could be ordered.

Where (now chiefly devoted to butchers) is crossed by and the stood the New Gate, of the principal gates of the City, which was also celebrated as a prison. Its story, over the arch, was, according to custom,

common to all prisoners, to walk in and beg out of.

Ellwood the Quaker narrates the horrors of the nights in the gate-prison where all were crowded into room, and

the breath and steam which came from so many bodies, of different ages, conditions, and constitutions, packed up so close together, was sufficient to cause sickness.

In fact, in the Plague, persons died over Newgate alone.

The gate-house was the origin of the existing , which now looms, grim and grimy, at the end of , and whose very name is fraught with reminiscences of Claude Duval, Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, Greenacre, Courvoisier, Franz Miller, and others celebrated in the annals of crime. The Prison was

167

rebuilt, -, under , architect of the .

His chef-d'oeuvre was the design for Newgate, which, though only a prison, and pretending to be nothing else, is still one of the best public buildings in the metropolis. It attained this eminence by a process which amounts as much to a discovery on the part of its architect as Columbus's celebrated invention of making an egg stand on its end-by his simply setting his mind to think of the purpose to which his building was to be appropriated. There is nothing in it but two great windowless blocks, each ninety feet square, and between them a very common-place gaoler's residence, five windows wide, and five stories high, and two simple entrances. With these slight materials, he has made up a facade two hundred and ninety-seven feet in extent, and satisfied every requisite of good architecture.--Fergusson. On the south front are allegorical statues of Concord, Mercy, Justice, Truth, Peace, and Plenty-interesting as having once adorned the New Gate, which also bore a now lost statue of Sir R. Whittington with the renowned cat of his story. Those who have been imprisoned here include Sackville and Wither the poets; Penn, for street preaching; De Foe, for publishing his Shortest Way with Dissenters; Jack Sheppard, who was painted here by Sir James Thornhill; and Dr. Dodd, who preached his own funeral sermon in the chapel (on Acts xv. 23) before he was hanged for forgery in 1777. Lord George Gordon was imprisoned in Newgate for a libel on the Queen of France, and died within its walls of the gaol distemper. In the chapel is a condemned bench, only used for the prisoners under sentence of death. There are those still living who remember as many as twenty-one prisoners (when men were hung for stealing a handkerchief) sitting on the condemned bench at once. Since executions have ceased to be carried out at Tyburn, they have taken place here: one: of the most important has been that of Bellingham, for the murder of Mr. Percival. The late amelioration in the condition of prisoners in Newgate is in great measure due to the exertions of Mrs. Fry, who has left a terrible account of their state even in 1838.

Close by is the , for the trial of prisoners within miles of . Over it is a dining-room, where the judges dine when business is over, whence the line-

And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

The space between Newgate and the is called the , from having been the scene of the horrible punishment of pressing to death for

standing mute

when arraigned for treason. Persons sentenced to this were stretched naked on the floor of a dark room, and were fed with just sufficient bread and water to sustain life, a heavy weight of iron being laid upon the body, and increased till the victim either answered or died. In Major Strangways was thus pressed to death for refusing to plead, when accused of the murder of John Fussel; and the punishment existed as late as , being voluntarily undergone by some offenders as the only means of preserving their estates to their children.

Jonathan Wild, infamous even in the annals of crime, lived at No. , the house south of Ship Court in the . He used to receive stolen goods and restore them to their owners for a consideration, the larger share of which he appropriated. If thieves opposed his rapacity, he, knowing all their secrets, was able to bring

169

about their capture. At his trial he delivered to the judge a list of robbers, housebreakers, and returned convicts, whom he was proud of having been instrumental in hanging. He was hung himself on . Green Anchor Court in the (now destroyed) was the miserable residence of Oliver Goldsmith in .

Opposite Newgate is , formerly

Saint Pulchre's,

chiefly modern, but with a remarkable porch which has a beautiful fan-tracery roof. It is much to be lamented that, in a recent

restoration,

the silly church-wardens have substituted an oriel window for the niche over the entrance, containing the statue of Sir John Popham, Chancellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King's household, who was buried in the cloister of the Charterhouse in the time of Edward IV.; this statue was of the landmarks of the City.[n.169.1]  The perpendicular tower is very handsome, but spoilt by its heavy pinnacles.

Unreasonable people are as hard to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's tower, which never looked all four upon one part of the heavens.-Howell.

In the old church the unfortunate Thomas Fienes, Lord Dacre of the South, was buried, who was executed at Tyburn, , for accidentally killing John Busbrig, a keeper, in a poaching fray in Laughton Park. The interior of the present building is Georgian commonplace. Many, however, are the Americans who visit it, to see a grey grave-stone

in the church choir, on the south side thereof,

with an almost obliterated epitaph, which began-

Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings!

for it covers the remains of Captain John Smith (-),

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sometime Governour of Virginia and Admirall of New England,

and author of many works upon the History of Virginia. The Turks' Heads which are still visible on his shield of arms were granted by Sigismund, Duke of Transylvania, in honour of his having, in single combats, overcome Turks and cut off their heads, in the wars of Hungary in . A ballad entitled tells how Smith killed of these Turks by a box on the ear, and how he tore out the tongue of a lion which came to devour him!

Wherever upon this continent (of America) the English language is spoken, his deeds should be recounted and his memory hallowed. ... Poetry has imagined nothing more stirring and romantic than his life and adventures, and History upon her ample page has recorded few more honourable and spotless names.-C. S. Hilliard, Life of Captain John Smith.

I made acquaintance with brave Captain Smith as a boy, in my grandfather's library at home, where I remember how I would sit at the good man's knees, with my favourite volume on my own, spelling out the exploits of our Virginian hero. I loved to read of Smith's travels, sufferings, captivities, escapes, not only in America, but Europe.-Thackeray's Virginians.

John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr, was vicar of St. Sepulchre's, having previously been chaplain to the merchant-adventurers of Antwerp, where he became the friend of Tyndale, the translator of the Bible, whose work was finally carried out by him after Tyndale's death.

There is no doubt that the first complete English Bible came from Antwerp under his superintendence and auspices. It bore then, and still bears, the name of Matthews' Bible. Of Matthews, however, no trace has ever been discovered. He is altogether a myth, and there is every reason for believing that the untraceable Matthews was John Rogers. If so, Rogers was not only the proto-martyr of the English Church, but, with due respect for Tyndale, the proto-martyr of the English Bible, which first came whole and complete from his hands. The fact rests on what appears to be the irrefragable testimony of his enemies. On his trial Rogers was arraigned as John Rogers alias Matthews.-Dean Milman.

It is the bell of St. Sepulchre's which is tolled when prisoners in Newgate are executed, and by an old custom a nosegay was presented at this church to every prisoner who was on his way to Tyburn. The church clock still regulates the hour of executions, and the church bellman used to go under the walls of Newgate on the night before an execution and ring his bell and recite-

All you that in the condemned hold do lie,

Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;

Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near,

That you before the Almighty must appear;

Examine well yourselves, in time repent,

That you may not to eternall flames be sent,

And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls,

The Lord above have mercy on your souls.

Past twelve o'clock!

 
 
Footnotes:

[n.129.1] Parentalia (by Wren's grandson), p. 226.

[n.131.1] Walsingham.

[n.132.1] For the other tombs of St. Paul's see Weever's Funeral Monuments.

[n.133.1] Microcosmographia.

[] Moser's Europ. Mag., July, 1817.

[n.139.1] The services are at 10 A.M. and 3.30 P.M.

[n.139.2] See Leslie and Taylor's Life of Sir J. Reynolds.

[n.141.1] Allan Cunningham's Life of Bacon.

[n.143.1] Dean Milman.

[n.148.1] The Times, Jan, 10, 8006.

[n.153.1] 0 my most sweet Lord Jesus, who, whilst as yet a child in the twelfth year of thine age, didst so discourse with the doctors in the temple at Jerusalem as that they all marvelled with amazement at thy super-excellent wisdom; I beseech thee that--in this thy school, by the tutors and patrons whereof I am daily taught in letters and instruction,--I may be enabled chiefly to know thee, 0 Jesus, who art the only true wisdom; and afterwards to have knowledge both to worship and to imitate thee; and also in this brief life so to walk in the way of thy doctrine, following in thy footsteps, that, as thou hast attained mete glory, I also departing out of this life, happily may attain to some part thereof. Amen. --Knight's Life of Cole, xi. 446.

[n.158.1] See The London Spy.

[n.161.1] Stow.

[n.163.1] The heart of his mother, Queen Eleanor, who died at Ambresbury; was also preserved here.

[n.163.2] Clarendon.

[n.164.1] Aubrey.

[n.169.1] See The Builder, Aug. 21, 1875.