The labyrinthine but most busy streets which form the centre of the City of London to the south of the are filled with objects of interest, though of minor interest, amid which it will be difficult to thread our way, and impossible to keep up any continuous connection of associations. The houses, which have looked down upon so many generations of toilers, are often curious in themselves. The City churches for the most part are dying a slow death; their congregations have ebbed and will never flow back. Very few are worth visiting for their own sakes, yet almost every contains some tomb or other fragment which gives it a historic interest. Dickens vividly describes their general aspect and the kind of thoughts which are awakened by attending a service in of these queer old churches.

There is a pale heap of books in the corner of every pew, and while the organ, which is hoarse and sleepy, plays in such a fashion that I can hear more of the rusty working of the stops than of the music, I look at the books, which are mostly bound in faded baize and stuff. They belonged, in 1754, to the Dowgate family. And who were they? Jane Comport must have married young Dowgate, and come into the family that way. Young Dowgate was courting Jane Comport when he gave her her prayer-book, and recorded the presentation in the fly leaf. If Jane were fond of young Dowgate, why did she die and leave the book here? Perhaps at the rickety altar, and before the damp Commandments, she, Comport, had taken him, Dowgate, in a flush of youthful hope and joy, and perhaps it had not turned out in the long run as great a success as was expected. The opening of the service recalls my wandering thoughts. I then find to my astonishment that I have been, and still am, taking a strong kind of invisible snuff up my nose, into my eyes, and down my throat. I wink, sneeze, and cough. The clerk sneezes; the clergyman winks; the unseen organist sneezes and coughs (and probably winks); all our little party wink, sneeze, and cough. The snuff seems to be made of the decay of matting, wood, cloth, stone, iron, earth, and something else. Is the something else the decay of dead citizens in the vaults below? As sure as death it is! Not only in the cold damp February day, do we cough and sneeze dead citizens, all through the service, but dead citizens have got into the very bellows of the organ and half choked the same. We stamp our feet to warm them, and dead citizens arise in heavy clouds. Dead citizens stick upon the walls, and lie pulverised on the sounding-board over the clergyman's head, and when a gust of air comes, tumble down upon him. In the churches about Mark Lane there was a dry whiff of wheat; and I accidentally struck an airy sample of barley out of an aged hassock in one of them. From Rood Lane to Tower Street, and thereabouts, there was sometimes a subtle flavour of wine; sometimes of tea. One church, near Mincing Lane, smelt like a druggist's drawer. Behind the Monument, the service had a flavour of damaged oranges, which, a little farther down the river, tempered into herrings, and gradually turned into a cosmopolitan blast of fish. In one church, the exact counterpart of the church in the Rake's Progress, where the hero is being married to the horrible old lady, there was no speciality of atmosphere, until the organ shook a perfume of hides all over us from some adjacent warehouse. The dark vestries and registries into which I have peeped, and the little hemmed in churchyards that have echoed to my feet, have left impressions on my memory as distinct and quaint as any it has in that way received. In all those dusty registers that the worms are eating, there is not a line but made some hearts leap, or some tears flow, in their day. Still and dry now, still and dry and the old tree at the window, with no room for its branches, has seen them all out. So with the tomb of the Master of the old Company, on which it drips. His son restored it and died, his daughter restored it and died, and then he had been remembered long enough, and the tree took possession of him, and his name cracked out.--The Uncommercial Traveller.

The great new street which leads out of to the S.W. is , originally Candlewick Street, the head-quarters of the wax-chandlers who flourished by Roman Catholicism. In the formation of the new street, many old buildings were destroyed, the most interesting being Gerard's (Gisor's?) Hall in , with a noble crypt probably built by Sir John Gisors, Mayor in : in which a gigantic firpole was shown as the staff of

Gerard the Giant.

In God the Lord put all your trust,

Repent your former wicked daies.

Elizabeth, our queen most just,

Bless her, O Lord, in all her waies.

So, Lord, increase good counsellours

And preachers of His holy word;

Mislike of all papists desires-

Oh Lord, cut them off with thy sword.

How small soever the gift shall bee,

Thank God for him who gave it thee:

XII. penie loaves to XII. poor foulkes

Give, every Sabbath day for aye.

, which opens hence to the west, is supposed to derive its name from the processions of knights riding from to tournaments in Smithfield. No. was the house of the great physician Linacre, bequeathed by him to the .

is now crossed by , so called from the market in which bakers of and Stratford-le-Bow were forced to sell their bread before the reign of Edward I., being forbidden to sell it in their houses. On the right is , of Wren's worst rebuildings, dedicated to a Saxon princess who was abbess of Minster. It is wretched externally, but has an elegantly supported dome. The pulpit is attributed to Grinling Gibbons. An interesting monument commemorates Sir Nicholas Crisp, the indefatigable agent of Charles I., who at time would wait for information at the water's edge dressed as a porter, with a basket of fish on his head, and at another would disguise himself as a butterwoman and carry his news out of London mounted between panniers. His epitaph tells how

Sir Nicholas Crisp, anciently inhabitant in this parish and a great benefactor to it, was the old faithful servant to King Charles I. and King Charles II., for whom he suffered very much, and lost above

£ 100,000

in their service, but this was repaid in some measure by King Charles II.

In , at the sign of the Spread Eagle, the armorial ensign of his family, John Milton was born, , being the son of a scrivener. His birthplace was destroyed in the Great Fire of , before the publication of The poet was baptised in the old at the corner of Bread

Three poets, in three distant ages born,

Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn.

The first in loftiness of thought surpast,

The next in majesty--in both the last.

The force of nature could no further go:

To make a third, she joined the former two.Dryden.

John Milton was born in on Friday the , And was baptised in the parish church of Allhallows, , on Tuesday the .

In the old church was buried Alderman Richard Reed, who refused to pay his contribution to the Northern Wars of Henry VIII. and was sent down to serve as a soldier, at his own cost,

that, as he could not find it in his heart to disburse a little quantity of his substance, he might do some service for his country with his body, whereby he might be somewhat instructed of the difference between the sitting quietly in his house and the travail and danger which others daily do sustain, whereby he hath hitherto been maintained in the same.

In memory of the Rev. W. Lawrence Saunders, M.A., Rector of All Hallows, who, for sermons here preached in defence of the doctrines of the Reformation of the Church of England from the corruptions of the Church of Rome, suffered martyrdom in ye

third

of Queen Mary, being burned at Coventry, February ye

8th

,

1555

.

-so called from the Saxon word Atheling, -is part of the old from London to Dover. As we look down it we see of the most picturesque views in the City. The tower on the right belongs to Wren's restoration of the , formerly called

Ecclesia Sancti Augustini ad Portam

Here,

the fraternity met on the eve of St. Austin, and in the morning at High Mass, when every brother offered a penny and was ready afterwards either to eat or to revel as the master and wardens directed.

huge and dusky, with here and there a space on its vast form where the original whiteness of the marble comes out like a streak of moonshine amid the blackness with which time has made it grander than it was in its newness.

The or St. Mary the Elder,

A famous worthy wight

Which did this Aldermary Church

Erect and set upright.

Richard Chawcer, Vintner, gave to this church his tenement and tavern, with the appurtenances in the

Royal Street

, the corner of Kirion Lane, and was there buried,

1348

St. , on the left of , leads to a quiet little churchyard, where, an inscription says,

Before ye dreadful fire anno

1666

, stood ye church of St. Benet, Sherehog

(on the left of ) now marks the site of an old Royal Palace, inhabited by King Stephen and restored by Queen Philippa, after which it was known as the

Queen's Wardrobe.

King Richard, having in Smithfield overcome and dispersed the rebels, he, his lords, and all his company entered the City of London with great joy, and went to the lady princess his mother, who was then lodged in the Tower Royal, called the Queen's Wardrobe, where she had remained three days and two nights right sore abashed. But when she saw the king her son she was greatly rejoiced, and said, Ah! son, what great sorrow have I suffered for you this day! The king answered and said, Certainly, madam, I know it well, but now rejoice, and thank God, for I have this day recovered mine heritage, and the realm of England, which I had near-hand lost. Stow.

Riley derives the name of from a street built in the century by merchants of the Vintry, who imported wine from the town of La Reole near Bordeaux. The

great house

Jockey of Norfolk

stable for the king's horses

On the left, between the end of and , so called from sellers of Budge (lamb-skin) fur, was St. Antholin's or St. Anthony's, of Wren's churches, destroyed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in , and its site built over. Great intercession was vainly made for the preservation of the tower, built -, which was a noble work of the great City architect, and might have been the greatest ornament to the new street and utilised as a clock-tower. It only occupied square yards and in no way interfered with the traffic, but the impossibility of doing without the rent of this space in the most richly endowed square mile of the whole territory of the Church was considered a sufficient excuse for its destruction! The Commissioners from the Church of Scotland were lodged close by St. Antholin's, with a gallery opening from their house into the church, where their own chaplains preached,

To hear these sermons,

there was so great a conflux and resort by the citizens, out of humour and faction, by others of all qualities, part of curiosity, by some that they might the better justify the contempt they had of them, that from the

first

appearance of day in the morning of every Sunday to the shutting in of the light the church was never empty; they (especially the women) who had the happiness to get into the church in the morning (they who could not hung upon or about the windows without, to be auditors or spectators) keeping the places till the afternoon exercises were finished.

S. Antholine's,

(from its

Morning Lectures

), was the grand nursery whence most of the Seditious Preachers were after sent abroad throughout all England to poyson the people with their anti-monarchical principles.

Facing , opposite the Railway Station, is the , rebuilt by Wren, in the Roman Renaissance style, but remodelled as a mongrel Gothic church in . In the old church Dryden had been married to Lady Elizabeth Howard, .

Built into this church, facing the Station, is the famous , now encased in masonry and only visible through a circular opening with an iron grille. It is supposed by Camden to have been a Roman Milliarium--the central terminus whence all the great Roman roads radiated over England, and which answered to the Golden

On the south side of this high street, neere unto the channell, is pitched upright a great stone, called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and otherwise so stronglie set, that if cartes do runne against it through negligence, the wheeles

London Stone.

be broken, and the stone itselfe unshaken. The cause why this stone was there set, the verie time when, or other memory hereof, is there none; but that the same hath long continued there, is manifest, namely since, or rather before the time of the Conquest. For in the end of a fayre written Gospell booke, given to Christes Church in Canterburie, by Ethelstane, King of the West Saxons, I find noted of lands or rents in London, belonging to the said Church, whereof

one

parcel is described to lye near unto

London Stone

. Of later time we read that, in the year of Christ

135

, the

1st

of King Stephen, a fire

which began in the house of

one

Ailwarde, neare unto

London Stone

, consumed all east to Ealdgate .... and those be the eldest notes that I read thereof.

Now is Mortimer lord of the City.

Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that the conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls me Lord Mortimer.Hen. I. pt. ii. Act iv. sc. 6.

Dryden alludes to this in his fable of the

Cock and the Fox

The bees in arms

Drive headlong from the waxen cells in swarms.

Jack Straw at London Stone, with all his rout,

Struck not the city with so loud a shout.

The brick church of (from Up-church, being on rising ground), finished , is externally of Wren's ugliest rebuildings, but internally of peculiar and beautiful design. Its cupola, painted by is supported by arches and pendentives. The altar-piece is an exquisite work of , and the fontcover a fine piece of Renaissance work. Here are monuments to Sir Patience Ward, the Lord Mayor () under whom the Monument was built (of whom the Merchant

Here under lyeth a mon of fame,

William Walworth called by name.

Fishmonger he was in lyff time here,

And twise Lord Maior, as in bookes appere;

Who with courage stout and manly myght

Slew Jack Straw in Kyng Richard's syght.

For which act done and trew content,

The kyng made him knyght incontinent,

And gave hym armes, as here you see,

To declare his fact and chivalrie.

He left this lyff the yere of our God,

Thirteen hundred fourscore and three odd.

falls into opposite the statue of William IV. Behind the junction of and Grace is the , of Wren's restorations. In the old church Bishop Pearson (. ) was rector.. His exposition of the Creed is dedicated

to the right worshipful and well-beloved, the parishioners of

St. Clement's

Eastcheap

.

The name of this church is now the only relic of the street of , swallowed up in . It was once the especial mart of the Butchers, afterwards removed to Leadenhall.

Then I hyed me into Est-Chepe, One cryes rybbs of befe, and many a pye; Pewter pottes they clattered on a heape, But for lacke of money I myght not spede/quote> John Lydgate's London Lyckpenny.

Here was the famous tavern of the Boar's Head, immortalised by Shakspeare, burnt in the Fire, rebuilt, and finally destroyed in

1831

: William IV.'s statue marks its site. Washington Irving describes his vain search for the tavern, but narrates that he saw at the

Mason's Arms,

in Mile Lane, a snuff-box presented to the Vestry Meetings at the Boar's Head Tavern in

1767

, with a representation of the tavern on the lid, and a goblet from the tavern, which he fondly believed was the

parcel-gilt

goblet on which Falstaff made his loving but faithless vow to Dame Quickly.

Grace takes its name.from the demolished church of St. Benet, called

Grass Church

Gracious Street.

Leaving;

the Monument

Here, on the right, in the junction of and , is the grotesque [n.333.1]  designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the

domestic Clerk

John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.

I remember, when a lad of about fifteen, being taken by my uncle to hear the well-known Mr. Newton (the friend of Cowper the poet) preach his wife's funeral sermon in the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, in Lombard Street. Newton was then well stricken in years, with a tremulous voice, and in the costume of the full-bottomed wig of the day. He had, and always had, the entire possession of the ear of his congregation. He spoke at first feebly and leisurely, but as he warmed, his ideas and his periods seemed mutually to enlarge: the tears trickled down his cheeks, and his action and expression were at times quite out of the ordinary course of things. It was as the mens agitans molem et magno se corpore miscens. In fact the preacher was one with his discourse. To this day I have not forgotten his text, Hab. iii. 17, 18: Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Newton always preached extemporaneous.-Dibdin's Reminiscences of a Literary Life.

Let us now turn down. -the street of Bankers, which derived its name from the Italian merchants who frequented it before the reign of Edward II. Jane Shore, the beloved of Edward IV., was the wife of a

The

Three

Foxes

On the left of is another poor work of Wren, the . The church is of Saxon foundation and is mentioned in records of . It is now called

the Invisible Church,

From , leads to , taking its name from the fenny ground caused by the overflowings of the Lang Bourne, a clear brook of sweet water which ran down Fen and as

Fanchurch Street, Gracious Street, and

Lombard Street

all in dust.

Forechurch,

On the right of , records its ownership by Sir John Philpot, grocer and mayor under Richard II. Hard by, in , the next turn on the right, is the , rebuilt by Wren, and so named

because, of old, pattens were there usually made and sold.

(right) is named from houses which belonged to the Minchuns or nuns of St. Helen's. Near the entrance of the lane, on the left, an iron gate is the entrance to the , whose badge is a ram. About poor men and the same number of women are clothed throughout by this Company, and receive a guinea each after attending a service at of the neighbouring churches on the . The Hall is very handsome, with stained windows and curious gilt statues of James I. and Charles I. saved from the Great Fire. The cash-books of the Company exist,

brought forward,

To this churchyard has been removed a fragment of the beautiful , which was pulled down in , when the chapel built above it by William Lambe the Clothworker (-) was removed from Cripplegate to . It has low zig-zag Roman arches.

Returning to , on the left is the , rebuilt in , on the site of a tavern which was

I remember the time,

when I have gone moping into the City with scarce a shilling, but

as soon as I have obtained

two

guineas for a plate, I have returned home, put on my sword, and sallied forth again with all the confidence of a man with thousands in his pockets.

Modern Midnight Conversation

Hudson's Bay Company Porters going to dinner,

The next house is the incorporated by a charter of Edward IV. At the foot of

Izaak Walton the angler.

Sir R. Jeffreys, founder of almshouses in Whitechapel.

Thomas Belton, who, dying in 1723, left 20,000 guineas to be applied to the redemption of Christian slaves taken by pirates. The bequest of late years has enormously increased in value, a portion of the building land purchased for £ 9,000 having been sold for £ 87,000. In 1847 the Company got a scheme passed by which the freemen and widows of the Company participated in the bequest, as well as 800 National Schools in England and Wales.

Admiral Lord Hood, a noble portrait by Gainsborough, presented on his admission to the Company.

Lord Exmouth, by Sir W. Beechey.

No. on the opposite side of was the Queen's Head Tavern, pulled down in . In it were preserved the metal dish and cover used by the Princess Elizabeth when she dined here on pork and peas upon her release from the Tower in . The modern building erected on the site of the old tavern bears a commemorative statue of Elizabeth. On the left, in , is the truly hideous , occupying the site of an ancient garden called Coleman Haw.

(right) is of the busiest streets in London. It was originally

Mart Lane from the privilege of fair accorded by Edward I. to Sir Thomas Ross of Hamlake, whose manor of Blanch Appleton became corrupted into Blind

Chapel Court

.

Descending , we find, on the left, , where ( doors from ) stood the richly ornamented timber house called

Whittington's Palace,

Never had king such a subject,

Surely, sire, never had subject such a king.

The interesting , is dedicated to a Norwegian who came to England and fought on behalf of Ethelred II. against the Danes.--Being afterwards himself made king of Norway, he became a Christian, which irritated his subjects, who invited Canute to supplant him, by whom he was defeated and slain in . Several churches were dedicated to him in England and in London, on account of the assistance he had given to the Saxons against the Danes. This church[n.341.1]  escaped the Great Fire, and is full of interest. It is the

our owne church

just under my mother's pew.

restoration,

The Tomb of Sir Andrew Riccard, Turkey merchant and Chairman of the East India Company, 1672

.

Monument to Sir John Radcliffe, son of Robert, Earl of Sussex, 1568.

Half-figure of Peter Turner, 1614, son of the herbalist.

Inscription to William Turner, author of the first English Herbal, 1568. The fore-mentioned William Turner, father of Peter, was an antient gospeller, contemporary, fellow-collegian, and friend to Bishop Ridley, the martyr. He was doctor of physic in King Edward the Sixth's days, and domestic physician to the Duke of Somerset, Protector to that king; he was also a divine and preacher, and wrote several books against the errors of Rome; and was preferred by King Edward to be Dean of Wells; and, being an exile under Queen Mary the First, returned home upon her death, and enjoyed his deanery again. He was the first that, by great labour and travel into Germany, Italy, and other foreign parts, put forth an Herbal in English, anno 1568, the groundwork of Gerard's Herbal, and then lived in Crutched Friars, from which he dated his epistle dedicatory of that book to the queen.-Stow. Dr. Turner's Book of Herbs will always grow green, and never wither as long as Dioscorides is held in mind by us mortal wights.-Dr. Bulleyn.

Kneeling Effigy of the Florentine merchant, Pietro Capponi, 1582.

Two curious Monuments (delightful in colour) of Andrew Bayninge, 1610, and Paul Bayninge, 1616, aldermen, with an epitaph which tells how- The happy summe and end of their affaires, Provided well both for their soules and heires. Above the tombs of these brothers the Bust of the foolish beauty, with whose little affectations and jealousies we are so singularly well acquainted--the Wife of Samuel Pepys.

(Right of altar) The admirable Figure, beautiful in profile, of Dame Anne Radcliffe, 1585.

The Monument of Sir John Mennys, 1671, the witty Comptroller of the Navy under Charles II., who wrote some of the best poems in the Musarum Deliciae. This is the Sir John Minnes mentioned in Pepys's Diary of June 6, 1666, when he says, To our church, it being the common Fast-day, and it was just before sermon; but, Lord! how all the people in the church did stare upon me, to see me whisper the news of the victory over the Dutch to Sir John Minnes and my Lady Pen! Anon I saw people stirring and whispering below; and by and by comes up the sexton from my Lady Ford, to tell me the news which I had brought, being now sent into the church by Sir W. Batten, in writing, and passed from pew to pew. The Gate of the Dead, Seething Lane.

(South Aisle) The curious Brass, much mutilated, of Sir Richard Haddon, Lord Mayor, and his family.

The Brass of John Orgone and his wife. Ellyne, 1584, with the inscription- As I was, so be ye; As I am, you shall be, That I gave, that I have; That I spent, that I had; Thus I ende all my coste, That I lefte, that I loste.

Admirable Jacobian Monument of Sir J. Deane, 1608, with his wives and children.

Devereux, Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary general, was baptised in this church, , by Lancelot Andrews, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. Its churchyard was of those used for burial during the Plague, a fact commemorated in the skulls over its picturesque and grimy gateway, which is surmounted by a curious of ancient ironwork. Pepys, writing on -, says-

Home, finding the town keeping the day solemnly, it being the day of the king's murther; and they being at church, I presently went into the church. This is the

first

time

I

have been in the church since I left London for the Plague; and it frightened me indeed to go through the church, more than I thought it could have done, to see so many graves lie so high upon the churchyard where people have been buried of the Plague. I was much troubled at it, and do not think to go through it again a good while.

The gateway looks out upon , where Pepys lived during the last years of his life, being here during the Great Fire, which this street escaped. Sir Francis Walsingham and his son-in-law the Earl of Essex lived here in a house built by Sir John Allen, Lord Mayor in the time of Henry VIII.

The Convent of Crossed or Crouched Friars () in , founded by Ralph Hosier and William Saberner in , has given a name to the neighbouring street of . Here, in , were Sir John Milbome's Almshouses (lately removed to Sisters Road, Holloway), built in , in honour of God and of the Virgin, where, having strangely survived Puritan iconoclasm, a relief of the Assumption of the Virgin remained to the last over the entrance gate. Near this was an early , inhabited by the Earl of Northumberland, who was slain at the Battle of St.

Returning to , we pass, on the left, , formerly

Bell-yeter Lane,

Belzettars Lane, so called of the

first

owner and builder thereof.

was of the great gates of the City, and the chief outlet to the eastern counties from the time of the Romans to its destruction in . Its antiquity is shown in the name of Aeld or Old gate. It was rebuilt in the reign of John by the Barons, with money robbed from the coffers of the monks and stone taken from the houses of the Jews, for they feared that others might not experience more difficulty than they had done themselves, in entering the City on this side. The dwelling-house above the gate was leased by the corporation in ( Edward III.) to the poet Chaucer for life, though he was not allowed to underlet any portion of the building to others. In was attacked by Thomas Nevill, the

Bastard of Falconbergh,

The name of just outside the site of is an odd corruption of

Knighten Guild Lane,

a certain portion of land on the east part of the City, left desolate and forsaken by the inhabitants, by reason of too

much servitude,

thirteen

knights or soldiers well-beloved, for service by them done,

Stow, the antiquary, lived in , and here witnessed the death of the Bailiff of Romford,

a man very well beloved,

I heard the words of the prisoner,

for he was executed upon the pavement of my door, where I kept house;

, on the left, commemorates Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who married the heiress of the property on this site. On the right is (leading into ), called even in Stow's time

the poor Jurie, of Jews dwelling there.

The ugly , was built by George Dance in on the site of an earlier church, for there were churches to this popular saint at of the gates-Billingsgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, and . Retained from the older church are the curious painted bust of Robert Dow, merchant tailor, , and a figure in

The (left) near St. Botolph's is mentioned in Defoe's History of the Plague. It takes its name of the nuns of the Minorite convent which gave its name to the opposite street of the .

The name of (on the left) has been ludicrously changed into ; it is the

Hog Lane

the Spanish Ambassador's House,

Tripe Yard

Petticoat Lane is essentially the old clothes district. Embracing the streets and alleys adjacent to Petticoat Lane, and including the rows of old boots and shoes on the ground, there is, perhaps, between two and three miles of old clothes. Petticoat Lane proper is long and narrow, and to look down it is to look down a vista of many-coloured garments, alike on the sides and on the ground. The effect sometimes is very striking, from the variety of hues and the constant flitting or gathering of the crowd into little groups of bargainers. Gowns of every shade and every pattern are hanging up, but none, perhaps, look either bright or white; it is a vista of dinginess, but many-coloured dinginess, as regards female attire. Dress-coats, frock-coats, greatcoats, livery and game-keepers' coats, paletots, tunics, trowsers, knee. breeches, waistcoats, capes, pilot-coats, working jackets, plaids, hats, dressing-gowns, shirts, Guernsey frocks, are all displayed. The predominant colours are black and blue, but there is every colour; the light dress of some aristocratic livery, the dull brown-green of velveteen, the deep blue of a pilot jacket, the variegated figures of the shawl dressing-gown, the glossy black of the restored garments, the shine of the newly-turpentined black satin waistcoats, the scarlet and green of some flaming tartan-these things, mixed with the hues of the women's garments, spotted and striped, certainly present a scene which cannot be beheld in any other part of the greatest city in the world, nor in any other portion of the world itself. The ground has also its array of colours. It is covered with lines of boots and shoes, their shining black relieved here and there by the admixture of females' boots, with drab, green, plum, or lavender-coloured legs, as the upper part of the boot is always called in the trade. There is, too, an admixture of men's button-boots, with drab-cloth legs; and of a few red, yellow, and russet-coloured slippers; and of children's coloured morocco boots and shoes. Handkerchiefs, sometimes of a gaudy orange pattern, are leaped on a chair. Lace and muslin occupy small stands, or are spread on the ground. Black and drab and straw hats are hung up, or piled one upon another, and kept from falling by means of strings; while incessantly threading their way through all this intricacy is a mass of people, some of whose dresses speak of a recent purchase in this lane.--H. Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor.

now falls into the poverty-stricken district of . The name of (left) commemorates Thomas Wentworth, Lord Chamberlain to Edward VI. On the right of the main street is the ,, which once occupied an important position, as before the time of railways most of the great roads into the eastern counties and all the coast lines on this side of London were measured from

Whitechapel Church

,

shared with

Shoreditch

Church, Hick's Hall, Tyburn Turnpike, and

Hyde Park Corner

the position now occupied by the great railway-termini north of the Thames.

The church was rebuilt -, with a spire feet high in the place of a hideous building of Charles I.»s time. It is of the few churches in which,

St. Mary Matfelon,

On the st of , a man named Charles Brandon was buried in this churchyard--

a man out of

Rosemary Lane

, where he kept a rag-shop.

This man was the executioner of Charles I.

The Confession of Richard Brandon, the Hangman, upon his death-bed, concerning the beheading of his late Majesty,

Hang the rogue! Bury him in the dung-hill

[From Whitechapel the long broad thoroughfare of the leads (right) to -the Stibbenhidde or Stebenheth of early deeds: the affix indicating the or haeredium of a Saxon freeman. We must turn here to the left down , past the Radcliffe Schools,

utriusque literature calentissimus

endowed with many excellent gifts of nature: courteous, pleasant, and delighting in music; highly in the king's favour and well heard in matters of weight.

St. Dunstan's is a handsome perpendicular building,. and contains a number of monuments, chiefly Jacobean. In the porch is a stone inscribed-

Of Carthage wall I was a stone, Oh, mortals, read with pity, Time consumes all, it spareth none, Man, mountain, town, or city. Therefore oh mortals now bethink Go where unto you must, Since now such stately buildings Lie buried in the dust. Thomas Hughes. 1663.

On the right, on entering the church, is the monument of Dame Rebecca Berry, , wife of Sir John Berry, and

Come, ladies, you that would appear

Like angels fair, and dress you here.

Come dress you at this marble stone,

And make that humble grace your own

Which once adorn'd as fair a mind

As e'er yet lodged in womankind.

So she was dress'd, whose humble life

Was free from pride, was free from strife,

Free from all envious brawls and jarrs

Of human life the civil warrs,

These ne'er disturbed her peaceful mind,

Which still was gentle, still was kind,

Her very looks, her garb, her mien,

Disclos'd the humble soul within.

Trace her through every scene of life,

View her as widow, virgin, wife,

Still the same humble she appears,

The same in youth, the same in years.

The same in high and low estate,

Ne'er.vex't with this, ne'er moved with that.

Go ladies now, and if you'd be,

As fair, as great, as good as she,

Go learn of her humility.

On the left of the altar is the handsome canopied tomb of Sir Henry Colet, Knight, , twice Mayor of London, the father of Dean Colet. Sir Thomas Spert, founder of the Trinity House and Comptroller of the Navy under Henry VIII., is also buried here. In the churchyard is the altar-tomb of Admiral Sir John Leake, ,

the brave and fortunate,

in which you may spend an afternoon with great pleasure to yourself,

dock-leaves, mallows, or grass.

Stepney was the scene of a parliament under Edward I., and the Bishops of London had a country palace and park here till the reign of Elizabeth. There is a tradition that all children born at sea are parishioners of Stepney-

He who sails on the wide sea

Is a parishioner of Stepney.

We may return from to the Exchange through . On the left is , so called from--the manor of Sir Hugh Nevile, by whom it was founded.

Would'st thou with mighty beef augment thy meal, Seek Leadenhall.--Gay. Trivia.

On the north (right) of the street is the , rebuilt , interesting because its interior was the work executed by Inigo Jones, after his return from Italy, and as having been consecrated (in the place of an older church) by Laud, as Bishop of London (), with ceremonies which were afterwards made a principal accusation of Popery against him, and were greatly conducive to his death. Hans Holbein, who died of the plague at the Duke of Norfolk's house in , , was buried in the old church. The south-eastern porch of the existing building was the gate of the watchhouse. It bears an inscription stating that

this gate was built at the cost and charges of William Avernon, Citizen and Goldsmith of London, who died December, anno dni.

1631

.

The church contains the tomb of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, , Chief Butler of England (the father-in-law of Sir Walter Raleigh), from whom takes its name. His effigy in armour is interesting as that of who played a conspicuous part in the reigns of the Tudors. Having been server to Henry VIII., he followed the fortunes of the queen-dowager, Katherine Parr, resided with her as

one

of the Chamberlains of

the Exchequer

, and Ambassador lieger to the Queen's Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, in France.

He was a man of large experience, piercing judgment, and singular prudence; but he died very luckily for himself and his family, his life and estate being in great danger by reason of his turbulent spirit.-Camden.

The epitaph of R. Spencer, a Turkey Merchant, records his death in after he had seen

the prodigious changes

in the state, the dreadful triumphs of death by pestilence, and the astonishing conflagration of the city by fire.

The Lion Sermon,

, which runs along the western wall of the church, once led to the magnificent Priory of Holy Trinity, also called , which was founded by

good Queen Maude,

Duke's Place.

We now reach, on the right (at the entrance of the ancient street called , where the famous surgeon Sir Astley Cooper commenced practice), the , so called, says Stow,

because

that of old time every year (on May-day in the morning), it was used that a high or long shaft or May-pole was set up there before the south door.

Evil May Day

under the shaft.

three

husbands, all

Stow's Tomb.

Bachelors and stationers.

Surveyor London,

cost many a weary mile's travel, many a hard-earned penny and pound, and many a cold winter night's study.

a license to beg.

The fact that Stowe was originally a tailor may account for the interest which he always took in matters of dress, in which he was the grave chronicler of matters not grave. Disraeli.

I confess, I have heard Stow often accused, that (as learned Guicciardini is charged for telling magnarum rerum minutias) he reporteth res in se minutas, toys and trifles, being such a Smell-feast, that he cannot pass by Guildhall, but his pen must taste of the good chear therein. However this must be indulged to his education; so hard is it for a citizen to write an history, but that the fur of his gown will be felt therein. Sure I am, our most elegant historians who have wrote since his time (Sir Francis Bacon, Master Camden, &c.), though throwing away the basket, have taken the fruit; though not mentioning his name, making use of his endeavours. Let me adde of John Stow, that (however he kept tune) he kept time very well, no author being more accurate in the notation thereof.Fuller's Worthies.

On the opposite side of , at the

the most celebrated commercial association of ancient or modern times.

My printed works,

were my recreations-my true works may be found on the shelves in

Leadenhall Street

, filling some

hundred

folios.

joins (so called from a cornmarket) where the conduit-fountain called the Standard (built ) formerly stood like a high round tower. also had its may-pole, which was of prodigious size, for Chaucer, writing of vain-boasters, says that they look as if they could

bear the great shaft of Corn-hill.

the Standard at

Cornhill

, is of the churches built by Wren after the Fire. Robert Fabyan, Alderman and Sheriff, who wrote the (), and the father and grandfather of John Stow the historian were buried in the old church. The marked feature of the present building is its great Perpendicular tower, a bad imitation of that of Magdalen College at Oxford. There is a rich modern door with a relief of St. Michael weighing souls. The interior is covered with foolish decorations in polychrome. seats at the end of the nave are set apart as--the Royal pew, Diocesan, Corporation, Drapers', Merchant Tailors' and Rector's pews.

-hideous outside- of Wren's rebuildings and a singularly bad specimen of his work, claims to stand on the earliest consecrated ground in England, and to take precedence of Canterbury itself for there (according to a tablet preserved in the vestry) King Lucius was baptized years before the coming of Augustine and the conversion of Ethelbert, when he made it the metropolitan church of the whole kingdom. The wood screen in this church was set up by Bishop Beveridge (of St. Asaph), who was rector here --, and is mentioned in of his sermons. A touching monument by Ryley commemorates the children of Mr. and Mrs. Woodmason, burnt in their beds in their father's house in , . The cherub heads upon the monument are known from a beautiful engraving by Bartolozzi.

(formerly Exchange Alley), leading into , was the chief centre of the money transactions of the last century, when the Stock Exchange was held here at

Jonathan's Coffee House.

Another Coffee House in this alley which played a great part in the same time of excitement was

Garraway's,

There is a gulf where thousands fall, There all the bold adventurers came; A narrow sound, though deep as hell, Change Alley is the dreadful name. Meanwhile, secure on Garway's cliffs, A savage race by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead. Swift.

Now we reach the , whence we set forth,

[n.326.1] Hawthorne.

[n.329.1] Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. 1820, i. 33r.

[n.329.2] Dugdale's Troubles in England, fol. 1681, p. 37.

[n.333.1] The origin of this name is unknown.

[n.339.1] Orator Henley, the famous but eccentric and profligate preacher, who was the orator of brazen face and lungs of Pope's Dunciad, was introduced here.

[n.339.2] See The Builder, Sept. ii, 1875.

[n.340.1] Edinburgh Review, No. 267

[n.341.1] The keys are to be found near-at 10, Gould Square, Crutched Friars,

[n.348.1] The Builder, May ii, 1877.

[n.349.1] Saturday Review, Feb. 1?, 1877

[] See The Trial of Charles I., The Family Library, No, xxxi.