LONDON CHURCHES It OF THE XVII mW XVIU th CF.NTVRIES JO WITH:ILLVSTRATED HISTORICALACCOYNTS CEORCE.H.BIRCH F.S.A. 'LONDON=PVBLISHEDBY:B-.T:BATSFORD 1 AT94 : HIGH : H0LB0RN : AD : MDCCCXCV1, LONDON CHURCHES OF THE XVII th and XVIII th CENTURIES. A SELECTION OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS, INCLUDING ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, ERECTED WITHIN AND AROUND THE ANCIENT CITY WALLS BETWEEN THE YEARS 1630 AND 1730, FROM THE DESIGNS OF INIGO JONES, SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, NICHOLAS HAWKSMOOR, and JAMES GIBBS. A Series of Sixty-four Plates, and numerous other Illustrations. WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS GEORGE H.(BIRCH) F.S.A. LONDON: B. T. BATSFORD, 94, HIGH HOLBORN. 1896. CHISWICK PRESS :—CHARLES WH1TTINGHAM AND TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. The Hon. Percy Allsopp. The Astor Library, New York, U.S.A. The Art Library, South Kensington Museum. The Society of Antiquaries, London. The Architectural Association, London. The Architectural Association, Birmingham. The Architectural Book Club Zingari, London. A. S. P. Book Club, London. Adam, P., Esq., Kidderminster. Adams, John G., Esq., Edinburgh. Agutter, T. C., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., New Brampton. Aickman, W. A., Esq., London. Alison, James P., Esq., Hawick, N.B. Aldwinckle, T. W., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London. Allen, Mr. E. G., London. Allen, E. J. Milner, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London. Anderson, John, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London. Annan, James, Esq., London. Antrobus, The Rev. Frederick, London. Arber, W. H., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London. Aspen, W. Valentyne, Esq., London. Atkinson, R. Frank, Esq., Liverpool. Sir Walter Besant. Sir Arthur Blomfield, A.R.A., F.S.A. The Battersea Public Library. The Birmingham Public Library. The Boston Public Library, U.S.A. The Boston Athenaeum, U.S.A. The British Architectural Book Club, London. Bacon, Nicholas H., Esq., Norwich. Baker, Frank, Esq., Canterbury. Baillie, J. T., Esq., Edinburgh. Barclay, Messrs. H. and D., Glasgow. 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HIS work is an attempt to draw attention to, and to illustrate in a manner worthy of its importance, a most remarkable phase in the history of Art in this country, and more especially that particular development of it exem¬ plified in the wonderful series of ecclesiastical buildings ere&ed in London from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren and of his immediate successors. In order to render this attempt as complete as possible, it is necessary to show what changes were taking place and what deviations and departures from ancient rules and regula¬ tions with regard to the plan and arrangement of ecclesiastical buildings in the Metropolis had already been effe&ed, under the Laudian Revival, by Inigo Jones. This last phase of the Renaissance period in England had been already foreshadowed in a few churches which are illustrated in these pages. Few as they are, they form part of this chapter of English Art, and as no change ever took place without signs of its coming, showing themselves first almost imperceptibly and tentatively, as the first streaks of dawn in the eastern sky herald the coming day, so they heralded that day of splendour which arose for this city of London, when, after it had been laid low in the dust and ashes of the Great Fire of 1666, the genius of Sir Christopher Wren caused the innumerable towers and spires of rebuilt churches to cluster around the greatest effort of that genius—the Cathedral church of St. Paul. Infinite and varied in outline, they formed graceful contrasts to its crowning mass; from it they borrowed nothing, but they added much to its central dignity, and made the London of our grandfathers a city viii perfectly unique in Europe, for no sight could be more beautiful than the views of the City obtained from the bridges that spanned the then silver Thames. Ugly railway stations and iron bridges have now blocked such views for ever, and even the towers and spires are fast disappearing, while the churches they surmounted have given place to huge blocks of buildings, to which it would be the greatest stretch of courtesy to apply the term “ Architectural. Utilitarian they are, and are meant to be; it is their purpose and destiny, but they have taken away from us centres of interest around which were clustered the memories of centuries beautiful interiors, rich with oaken carving, and other good honest and solid work, the pride of those who wrought it. Iron girders, glazed bricks, and plate-glass fronts, may be well enough in themselves, but they will never compensate us for that which has been ruthlessly and irrevocably destroyed to make place for them. Considering this faCt, is there need of any apology for the appearance of such a work as the present ? Reliable illustrations of what we yet have, but soon may lose, are to be found in its pages, truthfully presented by the aid of photography, and in permanent print. Mr. Charles Latham has succeeded in producing for it a splendid series of photographs, overcoming many difficulties; and no trouble has been spared in securing the best reproductions of these remarkable views—views to which no drawing, however excellent, could have done justice. If it be said that the work is incomplete, inasmuch as it does not give all the London churches of the period, it may well be pointed out that this objection is of little importance, as only those are omitted which are not of sufficient architectural merit to warrant such extension of the work as would have been necessary to include them. To have given large views of every one, of Wren’s only, would have considerably added to it, but plans and descriptions are given of all his, including those which have been destroyed up to the present date; and to do more might have rendered it necessary to omit such works of his successors as St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, St. Giles’s-in-the-Fields, St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Mary Woolnoth, St. George’s Bloomsbury, and Christchurch Spitalfields. It forms a complete record of the churches ereded in London during the century commencing 1630 (in the reign of Charles I.), and includes those of Charles II., James II., William and Mary, Anne, and George I. In the letterpress will be found, besides many architeflural details, numerous examples of wood and metal-work, thus illustrating not only the particular phase of the art of architecture, but also the subsidiary arts of the period. IX In writing his accounts of some of these churches, the author has been fully aware of the difficulty of saying anything new with regard to them. All that can be told of some of them has already been told in the pages of John Stow, Hatton, and others, and his task has often been to abridge and compress, while much has been necessarily omitted which was purely of antiquarian interest and would only weary many readers, besides rendering the text much too voluminous. Cordial thanks are due to Mr. J. Starkie Gardner, for his kindness in giving numerous illustrations of wrought-iron work ; to Mr. C. W. Baker and Mr. D. J. Ebbetts, for permission to reproduce some details of their drawings of St. Paul’s Cathedral; to Mr. C. Innes and Mr. A. C. Harston, for supplying some plans; to Francis Penrose, M.A., President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, for the large plan of St. Paul’s ; to Mr. Thomas Henry, for his drawing of the font cover St. Edmund the King; and to Mr. Alexander Bentham, for the careful and effective drawings he has made especially for the work. From amongst those who have so materially assisted in the production of this work, the name of Mr. Bradley Batsford must not be omitted, and although mentioned last, his services in connection with it are not therefore the least, for the general conception of such a work as “ London Churches of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries ” is indeed mainly due to him, and one cannot be too grateful for the care with which he has sub-edited it, suggesting alterations and revisions of the text, and for his general supervision, which has involved a considerable amount of labour. GEORGE H. BIRCH, F.S.A., A.R.I.B.A. CURATOR OF THE SOANE MUSEUM. Sir John Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. March, 1896. ALPHABETICAL LIST OF CHURCHES. PAGE St. Alban Wood Street . . . . . . . . . . .108 Allhallows the Great Thames Street ........ 89 Allhallows Bread Street . . . . . . . . . . .101 Allhallows Lombard Street . . . . . . . . . . 135 Allhallows Barking . . . . . . . . . . . .164 St. Andrew Holborn . . . . . . . . . . . 118 St. Andrew Wardrobe . . . . . . . . . . .134 St. Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate ........ 81 St. Anne Limehouse ........ ... 163 St. Antholin Budge Row .......... 87 St. Augustine and St. Faith . . . . . . . . . .91 St. Bartholomew Exchange .......... 74 St. Benet Fink ............. 44 St. Benet Paul’s Wharf .......... 93 St. Benet Gracechurch . . . . . . . . . . ,107 St. Bride Fleet Street ........... 75 St. Catherine Cree . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Christ Church Newgate . . . . . . . . . 120 Christ Church Spitalfields . . . . . . . . . . .157 St. Christophf.r-le-Stocks .......... 145 St. Clement Danes . . . . . . . . . . . .78 St. Clement Eastcheap ....... ... 92 St. Dionis Backchurch ........... 45 St. Dunstan in the East .... ..... 146 St. Edmund the King Lombard Street . . . . . . . .127 St. George Bloomsbury . . . . . . . . . . . 156 St. George Botolph Lane ........... 46 St. Giles in the Fields . . . . . . . . . . . 159 St. James Garlickhythe . . . . . ... . . . .54 St. James Piccadilly ........... 94 St. Lawrence Jewry . . . . . . . . . . . .58 St. Leonard Shoreditch ........... 164 St. Magnus London Bridge ....... ... 49 St. Margaret Pattens . ......... 125 \ xii St. Margaret Lothbury St. Martin in the Fields St. Martin Ludgate . St. Mary Aldermanbury . St. Mary at Hill . St. Mary-le-Bow . St. Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street . St. Mary Abchurch St. Mary Somerset . St. Mary Aldermary St. Mary Woolnoth . St. Mary-le-Strand St. Matthew Friday Street St. Michael Cornhill St. Michael Wood Street . St. Michael Queenhythe St. Michael Bassishaw St. Michael Paternoster Royal St. Mildred Bread Street St. Mildred Poultry St. Nicholas Cole Abbey St. Olave Jewry .... St. Paul’s Cathedral . St. Paul Covent Garden St. Peter Cornhill . St. Stephen Walbrook St. Stephen Coleman Street St. Swithin London Stone St. Vedast Foster . . . . . 130 151 ■ 103 67 4 1 33 hi 113 • 143 i47 160 !54 112 • 38,15° . 48 69 7< 136 97 56 61 +3 15 31 ■ 83 36 57 72 • 139 IS LIST OF THE PLATES. After St. Paul's the churches in this List follow in chronological order. P1.ATE Ornamental title-page, drawn BY G. H. Birch. Frontispiece. View of St. Paul’s Cathedral, from the Steeple of St. Martin Ludgate. I. St. Paul’s Cathedral. The West Front. II. 55 55 View from the North-west. III. 55 5) Part of the South Front. IV. 55 55 Interior View. V. 55 55 The North Transept. VI. 55 55 The South Aisle. VII. 55 55 The North-west Chapel. VIII. 55 55 The Organ Case, South side. IX. 55 55 The Choir Stalls, Cantoris side. X. 55 55 The South Choir Aisle. XI. 55 55 The Bishop’s Throne. XII. St. Catherine Cree. Interior View. XIII. St. Mary-le-Bow. The Steeple. XIV. St. Stephen Walbrook. The Steeple. XV. 55 55 Interior View. XVI. 55 55 ,, ,, West End. XVII. 55 55 The Pulpit. XVIII. 55 55 The Font. XIX. 55 55 The Dome. XX. St. Mary at Hill. Interior View. XXI. 55 55 „ ,, The Organ Gallery. XXII. St. Magnus London Bridge. The Steeple. XXIII. St. James Garlickhythe. 55 55 XXIV. 5 5 55 Interior View. XXV. St. Lawrence Jewry. The Organ Case. XXVI. 55 55 The Vestry. XXVII. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. Interior View. XXVIII. St. Swithin Cannon Street. 55 55 XXIX. St. Bride Fleet Street. The Steeple. XXX. 55 55 Interior View. XXXI. St. Clement Danes. The Steeple. XXXII. 55 55 Interior, looking East. XXXIII. 55 55 55 55 West. XXXIV. XIV St. Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate. St. Peter Cornhill. Allhallows Thames Street. St. James Piccadilly. » St. Mildred Bread Street. St. Martin Ludgate. St. Mary Abchurch. St. Andrew Holborn. Christ Church Newgate. 55 55 St. Margaret Pattens. Allhallows Lombard Street. St. Michael Paternoster Royal. St. Vedast Foster. St. Dunstan in the East. St. Mary Aldermary. St. Michael Cornhill. St. Martin in the Fields. 55 55 55 St. Mary-le-Strand. St. Giles in the Fields. Christ Church Spitalfields. St. George Bloomsbury. 55 55 St. Mary Woolnoth. St. Leonard Shoreditch. Allhallows Barking. PLATE Interior View. XXXV. XXXVI. 55 55 The Screen. XXXVII. Interior View. XXXVIII. The Altar. XXXIX. Interior View of West End. XL. View from the South-west. XLI. Interior View. XLII. XLIII. The Steeple. XLIV. Interior View of West End. XLV. The Steeple. XLVI. The Altar and Pulpit. XLVII. The Steeple. XLVIII. XLIX. L. Interior View from the West. LI. The Tower. LII. View from the North-west. LIII. Interior View. LIV. View from the West. LV. The Steeple. LVI. View of the West End. LVII. Interior, looking West. LVIII. View from the South-east. LIX. Interior View. LX. The Altar. LXI. The Steeple. LXII. Sword Rests. LXIII. The Font Cover. LXIV. INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. PAGE St. Alban. Wood Street. Interior View, looking West. A. Bent ham. 109 Altar. St. Paul’s Cathedral. From a Photograph. 22 Altar. St. Vedast Foster. J. MS. Stonhold. 140 Altar. St. Magnus London Bridge. A. Be?itham. 5 ° Altar, Details of. St. Magnus London Bridge. 55 51 Altar Rail. St. Mary Woolnoth. F. Stuart Taylor. 161 „ „ St. John Westminster. J. Starkie Gardner. 80 ,, ,, St. Matthew Spring Gardens. 55 5 5 88 „ ,, St. Martin in the Fields. 55 55 153 ,5 „ St. Giles in the Fields. 5 5 55 1 57 Arms of the Stuarts. Tailpiece. G. H. B. 95 Arms of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s. Headpiece. 55 15 Bishop’s Throne. Details of Front, St. Paul’s Cathedral. C. IV. Baker. 18 Capitals, Doric Order. St. Bride Fleet Street. G. H. B. 76 Chandelier, Brass. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. A. Bentham. 63 Chancel Screen and Details. St. Peter Cornhill. y> 84 Christ Church Newgate Street. Transverse Section. G. H. B. 122 Console and Head of Door, back of Stalls. St. Paul’s Cathedral. C. W. Baker. 18 ,, of Dignitaries’ Stalls. St. Paul’s Cathedral. 55 I 9 Corbels and Keystones. St. Catherine Cree. A. Bentha7n. 27 Cruets, Silver-Gilt. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. 55 64 Crypt. St. Mary-le-Bow, Plan of. G. H. B. 33 „ Norman. St. Mary-le-Bow, Section through. 55 34 Dome, Section through, showing Construction. St. Paul’s Cathedral. ,, '7 Door-Case and Gallery Front. St. Mary Abchurch. A. Bentham. 115 Door-Case and Details. ,, „ 55 114 Door-Case and Details. St. Martin Ludgate. 55 104 Door-Case. St. Magnus London Bridge. „ 53 Door Head and Console back of Stalls. St. Paul’s Cathedral. C. IV. Baker. 18 Doorway. St. Mary-le-Bow. G. H. B. 35 Font Cover. St. Mary Abchurch. A. Bentham. 117 Font Cover. St. Edmund the King. T. Henry. 129 Font and Details. St. Catherine Cree. A. Bentham. 26 Note.— The Plan of St. Paul’s Cathedral is drawn to a scale of 50 feet to 1 inch, and the whole of the others, except the few which have scales attached, are to an uniform scale of 32 feet to 1 inch.—G. H. B. Font and Cover. Gallery Front. A. Bent ham. C. W. Baker. G. H. B. A. Bent ham. J. Starkie Gardner. D. J. Ebbetts. Paul’s Paul’s St. Magnus London Bridge. St. Mildred Bread Street. Christ Church Newgate. St. Margaret Lothbury. St. Magnus London Bridge. ,, St. Mary Abchurch. Grilles. Back of Stalls, St. Paul’s Cathedral. Headpiece. Royal Arms of the House of Stuart. Iron Column. St. James Garlickhythe. Iron Gates. St. Paul Covent Garden. ,, ,, North Aisle, St. Paul’s Cathedral. „ „ South „ „ „ Iron Hat Rail. St. James Garlickhythe. „ „ „ St. Michael Paternoster Royal. Iron Terminal to Gate. The Geometrical Staircase, St. Cathedral. Iron Screens. North and South side of Choir, St. Cathedral. Jones, Inigo, Portrait of. Headpiece. Keystones and Corbels. St. Catherine Cree. St. Margaret Lothbury. Interior View showing Screen removed from Allhallows Thames Street. Monument and Details. The Spencer, St. Catherine Cree. „ „ The Cheney, ,, ,, Norman Crypt. St. Mary-le-Bow, Section through. Organ Case. St. Magnus London Bridge. ,, Front. St. Mary Woolnoth. Ornamental Tailpiece. Panel and Details. Pulpit, St. Vedast Foster. Panels. Carved and Pierced. St. Mary Abchurch. St. Paul’s Cathedral. View from the South-east. „ „ Ground Plan. F. C. Penrose , opposite „ „ Plan of one Bay of Choir Stalls. „ „ „ Plan showing arrangement of Choir in 1894. C. W. Baker. „ ,, „ Se&ion showing Construction of Dome. G. H. B. „ „ South Choir Aisle, looking West. From a Photograph. „ „ View of the Nave, looking West. 3 ,, „ Choir as completed, with Altar. St. Paul Covent Garden. East Front, before removal of side Porticoes. G. H. B. Plan 1 of the Monastery of the old Greyffiars. „ 1 Plans to all the churches included in this work will be found at the commencement of the accounts of them, with the exception of St. Dunstan in the East, St Giles in the Fields, St. Leonard Shoreditch, and Allhallows Barking. A. Bent ham. C. W. Baker. D. y. Ebbetts. A. Bent ham. A. Bentham. G. H. B. A. Bentha?n. F. Stuart Taylor. G. H. B. y. IF. Stonhold. A. Bentham. From a Photograph. F. C. Penrose , 53 99 124 133 52 115 20 1 55 32 T 9 !9 55 137 20 *9 25 27 132 28 2 9 34 52 162 14 142 116 16 16 16 *7 21 22 22 3 1 XVII PAGE Plan showing Wren’s Church relative to the old Friary Church. G. H. B. 122 „ Wren’s original, for St. Paul’s Cathedral. 55 16 „ ,, as carried out. 55 16 St. Mary-le-Bow. Transverse Se&ion through Church and Crypt. „ 34 Plaster Work. St. Mildred Bread Street. A. Bent ham. 97 Portrait. Inigo Jones. Headpiece. 25 Pulpit and Sounding Board. St. Mildred Bread Street. A. Bent ham. IOO „ ,, ,, St. Margaret Lothbury. 55 I 3 I Screen, Iron. North and South side of Choir, St. Paul’s. D. J. Ebbetts. I 9 Screen, Chancel. St. Peter Cornhill. A. Bent ham. 84 „ ,, 55 55 Details of. 55 84 Screen. St. Margaret Lothbury, removed from Allhallows Thames Street. ,, 132 Stall Ends, Details of. St. Paul’s Cathedral. C. W. Baker. 18 55 ,, Console of. St. Paul’s Cathedral. 55 19 Sword Rest. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. A. Bent ham. 63 55 ,, St. Mildred Bread Street. 55 99 55 ,, St. Edmund the King. J. Starkie Gardner. 129 55 ,, St. Magnus London Bridge. A. Bent ham. 52 Tower. St. Benet Fink. G. H. B. 44 55 St. Benet Paul’s Wharf. 55 92 5> St. Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street. 55 111 55 St. Mary Somerset. 55 143 55 St. Michael Bassishaw. ,, 71 Tower and Spire. St. Andrew Holborn. 55 1 19 55 „ St. Antholin Budge Row. 55 87 „ ,, St. Augustine and St. Faith. 55 9 1 55 „ St. Benet Gracechurch. 55 107 55 „ St. Dunstan in the East. 55 146 55 „ with South Front. St. Edmund the King. 55 128 55 ,, St. Lawrence Jewry. 55 59 55 „ St. Margaret Lothbury. 55 130 55 „ St. Mary Abchurch. 55 H3 55 ,, Upper part of St. Martin Ludgate. 55 i°5 55 ,, St. Mildred Bread Street. 55 97 55 ,, St. Michael Queenhythe. 55 70 5’ ,, St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. 55 65 55 ,, St. Swithin London Stone. ,, 73 Wood Carving. Head of Door and Console, Back of Stalls, St. Paul’s Cathedral. C. IV. Baker. 18 55 „ Details of Stall Ends, „ „ 55 18 55 „ „ „ and Small Doors. 55 18 55 „ Console supporting Canopies of Dignitaries’ Stalls, St. Paul’s Cathedral. 55 1 9 XV 111 PAGE Wood Carving. Font Cover, St. Catherine Cree. A. Bent ham. 26 55 55 Organ Case, St. Magnus London Bridge. 55 5 2 „ Door Head „ 55 55 53 „ Font Cover „ 55 55 53 „ St. Mildred Bread Street. 55 99 55 „ Pulpit and Sounding Board, St. Mildred Bread Street. „ 100 „ Door Head, St. Martin Ludgate. 55 104 55 „ St. Mary Abchurch. 55 114 55 „ Gallery Front „ „ 55 115 55 „ Pierced Panels „ „ 55 116 „ Font Cover „ „ 55 n 7 „ St. Edmund the King. 55 129 ” , Pulpit and Sounding Board, St. Margaret, Lothbury. ,, I 3 I „ Altar-piece, St. Vedast Foster. J. IV. St on hold. 140 „ Panel from Pulpit, „ „ 55 141 „ Organ Case, St. Mary Woolnoth. FStuart Taylor. 162 Wren. Crest of Sir Christopher. Tailpiece. G. H. B. 24 55 Portrait of. 1 itle-page 151571 LONDON CHURCHES OF THE SEVENTEENTH & EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. INTRODUCTION. EFORE the great and dreadful Fire of 1666 here stood the Parish Church of-This inscription, which is to be found in one or two places within the boundaries of the City, at once arrests the attention of the thoughtful passer, and takes him back to those few awful days of September, a little more than two centuries ago, when that whirlwind of flame swept over nearly the whole area within the walls, and the largest and most magnificent Cathedral in England, together with ninety-three parish churches and chapels; the Guildhall, the Royal Exchange, fifty of the City Companies’ Halls, and thirteen thousand houses, went down before it, like so much stubble, leaving nothing but ruined and blackened fragments to tell of what the piety, the freedom, the accumulated wealth, and the private enterprise of past generations had established there. Truly such an awful catastrophe, unequalled even by the conflagrations of modern American cities, might well be termed “ the great and dreadful Fire of 1666,” destroying, as it did, property to the value of ten millions of money, at that time. Far beyond this, the loss to the Art of this country was irreparable; yet it was instrumental in giving us handsome public buildings, well-lighted and airy churches, with wider streets, and houses built of less inflammable material, in exchange for the narrow tortuous thorough¬ fares, lined with wooden and plaster houses of several projecting storeys, and the small, low, dark, and half-buried churches of the preceding ages. The ground had been well prepared; a complete tabula rasa had been made of all that had hitherto adorned the City, and there was ample room for new ideas, and new projects, with a complete emancipation from all the trammels which had hitherto fettered and bound men’s minds by the associations and traditions of the past. But these new ideas, these magnificent projects, were never to be realized in their entirety; the old traditions proved too 2 strong; they could not be lightly thrust on one side; and the New Ctty arose from its ashes very much on the lines of the old, so far as the direSion of the streets and lanes was concerned^ the improvements effeded being only with regard to the extra widths of the streets, the better materials of the buildings. f , ,, r - The old historic names of the streets survived, and the greater number of the old City Churches were rebuilt on exaaly the same sites, and, in most cases, utilizing t e o foundations. In almost every instance, where one of them has been removed, the process of demolition reveals this faft. St. Dionis Backchurcb, St. Michael Queenhythe, St. Benet Gracechurch, St. Benet Fink, St. Olave Jewry, St. Mildred Poultry, St. Mary Magdalene Fish Street Hill, St. Antholin Budge Row, St. Mary Somerset, St. Matthew Friday Street (partly), St. Christopher-le-Stocks and St. Bartholomew Exchange, are all cases m point; while the various reparations which have taken place, from time to time, in the following churches, Christ Church Newgate, St. Mary-at-Hill, St. Stephen Walbrook, St Magnus London Bridge, St. Stephen Coleman Street, St. Vedast Foster, St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, St. Martin Ludgate, etc., reveal the fad that the old walls have been made use of, and in many cases only faced with Portland stone. At St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, in removing the oak panelling in order to repair and strengthen it, the whole of the south wall was found to be ancient, and in making a converter station for the Eleftric Light Company, about two years ago, a large obtusely pointed arch was found, existing below the present level, and too wide for a doorway. Unless it was the archway of a porch, with steps leading up to the church (for the difference of levels has always been very marked), it is difficult to say what could have been the use of it: the arch and jambs were plainly chamfered, and it had been walled with rough masses of chalk and stone rubble. The north and east walls of the same church were partly ancient, with fragments of mouldings, and broken Purbeck shafts built in; the presence of the latter indicating that the old church, consumed in the Fire, must have been early thirteenth century work. When the unfortunate demolition of St. Michael’s Bassishaw, and All Hallows the Great Thames Street, is completed, the same conditions will probably be found in these cases. Some of the larger churches, as St. Dunstan’s in the East, St. Mary Aldermary, St. Sepulchre Snow Hill, are known to follow exactly the old lines, as does also St. Alban’s Wood Street. In Christchurch Newgate Street, eredted on the site of the choir of the old Franciscan Friary Church, the old buttresses exist just below the ground, and still mark the modern divisions of the present church. These instances are adduced to show that the churches rebuilt after the Fire occupied the identical positions of the ancient structures, and that the plan of the rebuilt church was more or less influenced by these walls and foundations. How Wren effedted this in most cases is shown hereafter, and it will be seen that, although fettered by the boundaries of the ancient churches, he departed in most cases from the ground plan and arrangement of them, and in his own particular style, gave us manv buildings which we may well be proud of. Prior to this time, most churches had followed one particular plan ; a nave separated from its aisles by columns and arches, sometimes with only one aisle north or south. A strudtional chancel was rare in London churches, most of which had been rebuilt in the fifteenth century without a chancel arch, the aisles being usually prolonged to the extreme east end, and their eastern parts screened off with oak parcloses, separating this part from both nave and 3 chancel; the position of the chancel arch being occupied by the rood screen. In most of the London churches this screen had been removed, together with the rood, in consequence of religious troubles; they mostly possessed towers, placed either at the west end of the nave, or at the west end of either the north or south aisles. Most of these towers were low, with an oCtagonal turret at one corner, carried up above the embattled parapet and finished with a vane, but some of the larger churches had more stately towers, with fine high corner pinnacles, as at St. Sepulchre’s, St. Michael Cornhill, St. Mary Aldermary, etc., while St. Mary-le-Bow possessed one which was unique, so far as London was concerned, for here the four corner pinnacles were connected by flying buttresses supporting a central pinnacle.' Spires were comparatively rare ; St. Lawrence Pountney had a very fine one, and, according to John Stow, the Austin Friars church possessed one, of which he speaks with great admiration. The types of these ancient churches can still be seen in a few which fortunately escaped the flames. Of the larger of these, All Hallows Barking, St. Andrew Undershaft, and St. Mary Aldermary (rebuilt by Wren in the ancient form), St. Giles Cripplegate, St. Olave Hart Street, St. Ethelburga Bishopsgate, and St. Peter’s in the Tower, show us exactly what they all were like; while others which also escaped, but have since been rebuilt; St. Peter- le-Poer, St. Botolph’s Aldersgate, All Hallows Staining, All Hallows in the Wall, and St. Martin’s Outwich, closely resembled them. St. Helen’s Bishopsgate (happily also still standing), was only partly parochial ; the church of the Benedictine Nunnery was attached to it, and formed a nave and choir parallel to the parish church, only separated from it by an arcade. This multiplicity of churches (which numbered a hundred and thirteen, besides the Cathedral), was essentially English, for in all our cities the parishes were very small in extent, which is observable at York, Bristol, Exeter, and Chichester, and, apart from the large conventual churches, the parish churches were necessarily small; such vast and roomy churches as one sees in many continental cities being conspicuous by their absence. Architecturally this was a distinCt loss, but very few foreign cities could show such superb structures as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the great priories of the Austin Canons, Christchurch or Holy Trinity Aldgate, St. Bartholomew’s Smithfield, St. Mary Overie, each as large as a cathedral; the great Friary Churches of the Dominicans, Franciscans, Austins, Carmelites, Hospitallers, Templars, Crutched Friars, Minoresses, St. Katherine’s, and the Abbey of Grace (the last belonging to the Cistercian Order), all within the City walls, or not far from them. Although some of these structures had then disappeared, an idea can be formed of the ecclesiastical appearance of London in the reign of Charles I., when Inigo Jones was in full pradice as an architect, and would naturally have been called in to ereCt any new church in London, if, in consequence of decay, any one of the numerous old ones had become ruinous, and required rebuilding. Tradition points to two churches in the City of London as coming from his hand, one remaining, and the other having been rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire, in the same form as Inigo Jones had rebuilt it in 1632 ; the first being St. Katherine Cree or Christchurch, and the second, St. Alban Wood Street. The traditional plan is followed in both these churches, but Classic details invest them, especially the Sir Christopher Wren used a modification of this in his well-known spire of St. Dunstan’s in the East. 4 first mentioned, with an next half century, were architeftural interest, pointing to those coming changes, which, in the to be so fully developed under Sir Christopher Wren. Little beyond tradition can be adduced to show that Inigo Jones was the architeift of either of them, and it is indeed difficult to imagine how the man who designed a fajade of such Classic purity as the Banqueting House, Whitehall, or the church of St. Paul s Covent Garden, could possibly have been the author of this peculiar blending of Classic detail on Gothic forms, especially when he had publicly evinced his known contempt for the latter, by adding the Corinthian portico to the west front of Old St. Paul’s, and disguising the Norman work of the nave (externally) under a Classic covering. Yet, on the other hand, it is a known fadl, that he did design the Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn, where the same mixture of the two styles is apparent, as it also is (or was) at the old church of St. Paul’s Hammersmith, built for his friend Sir Nicholas Crispe. If he designed these he surely could also have designed the others, and it may be asked, who was there at that time (1625 to 1640) who could possibly have been their author but Inigo Jones ? Nor does this seem so improbable, when one considers that William Laud, afterwards the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, then filled the see of London, and administered the diocese with no uncertain hand. He had clearly foreseen the rising torrent of Puritanism, and attempted to stem that torrent, leading men back into the old paths by setting before them their true inheritance in their own Church of England. He had revived many old customs and ceremonies, which the statecraft of Elizabeth and the weak apathy of James, had allowed to fall into desuetude, and in this matter of architedture, although he may have had no wish to interfere with the fashionable taste for Classic details, he was determined that the buildings, so far as plan and arrangement were concerned, should follow the old models, and Inigo Jones worked accordingly; but when the latter could throw off the trammels of ecclesiastical tradition, he did so, as at Whitehall, and at the Queen’s Chapel, Somerset House. Here he had to reckon with the King and not the Bishop, and he was free to follow his own bent. Again, at St. Paul’s Covent Garden, it was a private patron, Francis, Earl of Bedford, who only wanted a “ barn,” with whom he had to deal. A view of this church is not included in the present series, for the reason that the two disastrous fires which have occurred here have destroyed every portion of Imgo Jones’s work. The first of these fires happened on Sept. 17th, 1795, and the church was totally destroyed, but it was rebuilt by John Hardwick on the same plan and of the same proportions, but before this, however (in 1727), the Earl of Burlington had repaired it, and again the interior has been demolished by fire in quite recent years. The eastern portico has also been a tprpn in 1-hp* loci- 4-pMTr imovs _:__ . • r , . 1 12 Car. II., 1660. s Horace Walpole’s strictures upon this church were singularly correCt; he could find nothing to admire in it, although the sum spent upon it (^4,500) was a large one for those days. If architecturally it was a failure, it is interesting as being the first church on the new model, in which galleries were to form an important part. St. Paul’s Shadwell, built in 1656, by an unknown architect, was originally without galleries, but they were added in 1683. The design was Classic, and the camerated roof was supported by columns. It was taken down and rebuilt in 1817, from the design of John Walters. These churches were the recognized models of ecclesiastical art in the two or three decades preceding the Great Fire. Immediately after the Restoration, in 1661, Charles II. proposed certain works to be commenced, the most important being the reparation of the Old Cathedral Church of St. Paul, for the repairs which had been commenced by Inigo Jones, had of course been completely stopped by the Puritans, and the cathedral was in a worse state than ever, threatening ruin in several places; and it is in connection with this fabric that we find Sir Christopher (or rather “ Dr.”) Wren’s name first associated with architecture in London. At Oxford he had already a con¬ siderable reputation, and this faCt influenced the King to appoint him Assistant Surveyor General to his Majesty’s Works, a post then held, oddly enough, by Sir John Denham, the poet, to whom the reversion of the office had been promised in the lifetime of Inigo Jones. Denham, on the evidence of Evelyn, knew nothing about architecture, and, to quote the latter’s diary with regard to the new palace at Greenwich : “I knew him to be a better poet than an architect, although he had Mr. Webb, Inigo Jones’s man (his son-in-law), to assist him.” It is not only possible, but highly probable, that Evelyn had mentioned Wren’s name to the King. He was then only twenty-nine years of age, was the son of Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor, and nephew to the famous Dr. Matthew Wren, Lord Bishop of Ely. It is a curious faCt that his father the Dean seems to have possessed some knowledge of architecture, for among the Clarendon papers is an estimate for a house for Queen Henrietta Maria, which Dr. Wren had designed, so that the son’s taste and skill in this particular art was evidently inherited. We have no evidence that he had studied the art as Inigo Jones had done, by going abroad and seeing Palladio’s works; certainly not at this period of his career, for he did not travel abroad until 1665. “ Poeta nascitur non fit ” is an adage applicable to him as an architect, as it may be to others, for no amount of “ examinations ” can discover artistic skill where it is not inherent! It is not necessary to go into the question of what Wren proposed with regard to the old Cathedral, for the Great Fire swept all before it, and rendered the various schemes useless. Immediately afterwards we find Wren hard at work on a scheme for rebuilding the City, on an entirely new plan, but the necessary interference with the rights of private property prevented this from being carried out, and the new City arose from the ashes of, and on the same lines as, the old. In Longman’s “ History of the Three Cathedrals of St. Paul,” a full account is given of the various ideas held as to the rebuilding of it at this period, but not until nine years had elapsed was the first stone of the new Cathedral laid (June 21st, 1675). During these years Wren had not been idle; the rebuilding of the City had been going on at a rapid rate, and it is marvellous to observe that such awful calamities as the Plague, which swept away over one hundred thousand of its inhabitants, and then the Fire which followed so quickly upon it, proved insufficient to utterly demoralize the remaining citizens. But such was the case; no gloomy c 6 views as to London being a “doomed city” seem to have prevailed, and although the nation was a&ually at war at this period, the spirit and energy of the people were undaunted, and not even the “law’s delay” and the necessary delicate and nice adjustment of boundaries, consequent upon the ancient lines of streets, and lanes, and properties, being buried beneath piles ol rubbish, stopped the rapid progress of the rebuilding. It may or it may not be a matter of regret that Evelyn and Wren’s scheme for the rebuilding of the City on an entirely new plan, was abandoned, but it is certainly deplorable that the quay, forty feet wide, from London Bridge to the Temple, for which two Adis had been obtained, was never carried out; the loss to London has been incalculable, and it seems now that the realization of this idea is more utterly hopeless than ever, owing to the increase of the value of property, and that this magnificent opportunity has been lost, must we say, for ever ! To have rebuilt, not only the Cathedral, but also some fifty or sixty parish churches, would have been absolutely impossible if private enterprise and private munificence had alone to be depended upon, to raise the necessary funds. Accordingly in 1670 we find an additional Adt was passed to raise two shillings additional per chaldron on coals, one shilling having already been levied, and this was to be divided into certain moieties, of which the rebuilding of the churches was to take three fourths, and that of St. Paul’s Cathedral one fourth; and there can be very little doubt that the rebuilding of the City had proceeded so rapidly, that some such provision was necessary. The first church to be rebuilt was St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, and this was commenced in 1671,' but was not completely finished, with its tower and spire, until 1680. There was a special fitness in this precedence, for this church had always been, after the Cathedral, the most important ecclesiastical building in the City, and might justly be termed the “ Citizens’ church.” It was from the curious tower, surmounted by a central and four corner lanterns, and carried by flying buttresses, that the curfew was rung nightly, and so anxiously expe&ed by the prentices, as commemorated in the well-known distich and reply : .... 1 l 11 me yenuw IUCKS, For thy late ringing thy head shall have knocks. Children of Chepe, hold you all still For you shall have Bow Bell rung at your will.” With funds thus provided from the public exchequer, the work of rebuilding the City churches on the old sites proceeded rapidly; provision seems to have been made for divine worship in many of the parishes, if not in all, by the eredtion of “tabernacles,” a sort of temporary building, which was licensed not only for the services, but also for the celebration of marriages In the archive chamber of St. Paul’s Cathedral, there is a volume entitled “ Schemes of Tabernacles quoted by Dr. Sparrow Simpson in his account of St. Matthew Friday Street.* ,r 2 ^infcT/d Was de W ed b 7 Private subscriptions (^,375 being colluded in this way), which is mentioned here only to draw attention to the ‘ The re P» irs to St - Sepulchre Holborn, and St. Christouher Thr„a„ j, c case was rebuilding necessary. v aaneecue street, were commenced in 1670, but in neither - ‘‘Transafilions, London and Middlesex Archeological Society" vol ill „ , ,. minutes of the vestry of St. Peter Cornhill, 31st December 1672 • “O H A u ^ m V0 ' ‘ V- ’ P- 3 ° 5 > * n the 5 guineas as a gratuitee for his paines and furtherance of a Tabernacle forThis p • ^ churchwardens do present Dr. Wren with 7 fad: that these churches were not entirely rebuilt from public moneys, but that the private munificence of church-people largely contributed to their erection. A more detailed account of this church will be found under its proper heading. The next church taken in hand was St. Stephen’s Walbrook, which, after the Cathedral, is very justly looked upon as Wren’s masterpiece. The rebuilding of this church took place in 1672, and was followed in the same year by that of St. Michael Cornhill, and St. Mary-at-Hill. This group of four churches is therefore important in the history of Art, as it gives us representative types of plan and arrangement, and thoroughly exemplifies the fertility of Wren’s genius. In St. Michael Cornhill we get the ordinary basilican plan, that is to say, a long parallelogram divided into a central nave and side-aisles, by columns and arches. In St. Mary-le-Bow we get a modification of this, by a wide central nave of three bays only, divided from rather narrow aisles by arches; and the vaulting over the aisles is concentric with the arches, and groined over the transverse arch. St. Mary-at-Hill is nearly square in plan, with a central dome carried by four arches and pendentives ; these four arches open into four compartments with plain barrel vaults, and the lour corner spaces have flat ceilings at the level of the impost — a very simple but most effective arrangement. The last example, St. Stephen’s Walbrook, has a more complex treatment, combining the basilican plan, with a central dome carried on an oCtagon; the ceilings over the chancel and nave and short transepts, are barrel-vaulted, and those of the aisles, which in this case are double, have flat ceilings. This is but a rough description of one of the most beautiful interiors imaginable; the plan is very simple, and the proportions most harmonious, and, so far as internal beauty is concerned, Wren never surpassed this church, which is one of his earliest works. In quick succession to these four churches came, in 1673, St. Olave Jewry, and St. Benet Fink; in 1674, St. Dionis Backchurch, St. George Botolph, and St. Michael Wood Street, the latter finished in 1675; in 1676, St. Magnus London Bridge, St. James Garlick Hythe, St. Mildred Poultry, and St. Stephen Coleman Street; in 1677, St. Lawrence Jewry, St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, St. Mary Aldermanbury, and St. Michael Queenhythe. Of these churches, St. Magnus and St. James are basilican in type, but the last-mentioned has a kind of transeptal arrangement. St. Magnus has a very fine tower and spire, almost rivalling in beauty and harmony of outline, the spire of Bow Church, but this fine campanile was not added until long after the church was completed—indeed, not until 1705. St. Lawrence Jewry is a simple parallelogram, with a broad aisle on the north side, only partially occupied by the area of the church, the upper part forming a gallery with roomy vestibules below, very useful for purposes of civic state, as this church became the Corporation Church, on the destruction of the Guildhall Chapel on the opposite side of the yard. The chief beauty of this church is its unusually rich woodwork. At the west end is a very stately vestry, superbly panelled in oak, and with a painted ceiling, of which a view is given in this work; views are also given of the organ-case and gallery. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey is a simple parallelogram, without aisles, and with a flat trabiated ceiling, but the west end is treated in a very original manner with three lofty arches, which contain organ and side galleries; the lower part is screened off from the church, and forms a vestibule and vestry, and the north-west arch opens into the tower, the lower part of which, with the spiral staircase, seems to be the ancient tower re-cased. St. Olave Jewry was a simple parallelogram in plan with a west tower, and was remarkable for _ , , ■ r |, P east end being much narrower than gularity, being almost coffin-shaped in plan, the e S its irre; thC T Dionis Backchurch had a short and broad nave and aisles. St. Stephen Coleman is a parallelogram without aisles. St. Mildred Poultry was nearly square without aisles, but had a paraneiog Mirliael Oueenhythe was oblong without aisles, a tower breaking awkwardly into the area. St. M chad ^ ^ ^ St. Mary Aldermanbury isbasilican with a wert ■ ' mos£ remarkable 0 f without aisles. St. Benet Fink had a very curious and interesting P > all this group, for it consisted of an elliptical dome in the centre, earned by six columns and , • , , , , n western tower; each of the six arches opened pendentives, and surrounded by a decagon with a western iuwc , r into recesses, of which two on the south and two on the north were parallel, and the east and west at right angles, the four triangular spaces having flat ceilings. Of this group of churches, all built between 1673 and 1677, no less than five have already been destroyed, and another (St. George Botolph) is threatened. From 1678 to 1688 (the year of James II.’s forced retirement from the throne), Wren was exceedingly busy. One would have thought that the Cathedral alone would have been sufficient to occupy his time, but he designed in rapid succession St. Michael Bassishaw, St. Swithin Cannon Street, and St. Bartholomew by the Bank in 1678 ; St. Bride Fleet Street, one of his largest and finest churches, in 1679; St. Clement Danes and St. Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate, in 1680; St. Peter Cornhill, another fine handsome church, in 1681 ; St. Antholin Budge Row, a very curious domed plan, elliptical, like St. Benet Fink, but carried on eight columns and pendentives, with a finely proportioned western tower and spire in stone, in 1682 ; All Hallows Thames Street, called generally All Hallows the Great, St. Augustine and St. Faith Wading Street, St. Clement Eastcheap, St. Benet Paul’s Wharf, St. James Piccadilly (a large and fine church), St. Mildred Bread Street, in 1683; All Hallows Bread Street, and St. Martin Ludgate, in 1684.; St. Alban Wood Street (Gothic in style), St. Mary Magdalene Old Fish Street, and St. Matthew Friday Street, in 1685; St. Mary Abchurch in 1686; St. Andrew Holborn (the largest of all his churches), Christ Church Newgate Street, and St. Margaret Pattens in 1687, and St. Michael Crooked Lane, in 1688. Eight of these have been destroyed, or, more correctly speaking, seven, as St. Michael Bassishaw is still in process of demolition, the most deplorable losses being the churches of St. Antholin Budge Row, with its fine spire, and St. Mary Magdalene Old Fish Street,' with its remarkably fine oak carving, probably by Grinling Gibbons, as it is so much more delicate and light in character than the carving in most of these churches. In this group are included some one or two churches of the most original design and conception. St. Swithin, which is an odtagon contained within a square, carries an elegant and well-proportioned dome, the square being prolonged to the west, so as to include a tower at the south-west corner, and a deep west gallery, with a flat plaster ceiling over it. St. Mildred Bread Street, which is exceedingly simple; a plain parallelogram without aisles, but broken up internally by a shallow circular dome, on pendentives, and two arched recesses on the east and west sides. St. Mary Abchurch is another domed church, similar in plan and arrangement to St. Swithin, but that the tower occupies the north-west corner, while the dome (painted by Sir James Thornhill) is carried on semicircular arches or groins, and has lucarne lights. St. Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate, and St. Martin Ludgate, are both similar as to plan, but not in 1 ThC 1085 ° f ^ ChUrCh ^ attributabIe to an ^fortunate fire in a neighbouring warehouse, and not to wanton destruction. 9 arrangement. The plan is a square, divided by four columns into four nearly equal arms, which are arched, and meet in a groined vault over the central area, while over the four angle squares the ceilings are flat, and lower. Both churches are separated from the street, on the west by a central tower and flanking vestibules. St. Martin’s Ludgate, with its graceful lead spire and gallery, forms a splendid contrast to the overpowering mass of the Cathedral in the back¬ ground, and makes the view of the latter wonderfully picturesque when approached from the west—a view which has however been ruined by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company’s hideous iron bridge (bristling with griffins), built right across the thoroughfare, so that the winding street and the little spire have lost all their poetry. It was from the gallery of this spire that the magnificent view of the Cathedral forming the frontispiece to this volume was taken. All Hallows the Great, now demolished, was chiefly remarkable for its splendid high screen in oak, which has recently been placed in the church of St. Margaret Lothbury. All Hallows had previously been shorn of its north aisle and tower, and with singular incongruity the site has lately been purchased by a firm of brewers. Although during the next year (1689) no new church seems to have been commenced, the work of rebuilding and finishing progressed rapidly, and Wren was fully occupied with many large and important works, including the College of Physicians, Chelsea Hospital, and Hampton Court Palace, the latter for William and Mary, who both entertained for Wren a warm regard. During the next decade we find him again busy on the churches : in 1690 the fabrics of St. Edmund the King Lombard Street, St. Margaret Lothbury (begun in 1686), St. Andrew by the Wardrobe (finished 1692). In 1694 were built All Hallows Lombard Street, St. Michael Royal, and in 1695 St. Mary Somerset. In the latter year towers and spires were added to St. Augustine and St. Faith Wading Street, also to St. Vedast Foster. In 1696 St. Christopher-le-Stocks was further embellished, and a painted monument placed in it to the memory of Mary II., then lately deceased. On December 2nd, 1697, the choir oi the new Cathedral of St. Paul was formally consecrated for divine service, which has continued uninterruptedly ever since. The occa¬ sion was the Peace of Ryswick, and Wren was then sixty-five years of age. In 1699 the very beautiful spire of St. Dunstan in the East was finished by him. It is Gothic in form and outline, reminding one somewhat of the departed glory of the old spire of St. Mary-le-Bow or St. Nicholas Newcastle, yet differing from them both in that the central lantern is carried up much higher, as a perfect spire. In this year he also repaired the body of the church, which had only been hastily patched up after the Fire, and he was then busy with the Collegiate Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, which, from the decayed nature of the external stonework, demanded immediate attention. Whether he was really responsible for the design of the western towers is a moot point. In his report to Dr. Atterbury, then Dean, he strongly urges that the towers should be carried up above the roof to a uniform height, and that the west gable should be completed, and the west window strengthened, and mentions that he has made a design for the central tower and spire, but adds nothing as to having made a design for the western towers. Possibly the model still preserved in Westminster Abbey was made from his design. In 1704 he completed the towers of St. Andrew Holborn, and Christchurch Newgate Street, and in 1705 the spire of St. Magnus. In 1708 the Ad: for building fifty new churches in the neighbourhood of London, was D IO passed, and Wren was appointed one of the Commissioners. He made a long report to his brother Commissioners as to many points he thought very necessary to be observed, in the erection of the proposed churches. This report is curious, and very valuable, but it is too long for insertion here. It presents the ideas of a man who, having built many churches, knew perfe&ly what he was talking about. There are important points observable in all Wren’s churches, which it is a pity his successors did not profit by. They were eminently Christian; he never attempted huge columns, porticoes, and pediments borrowed from heathen temples; he was not afraid of good honest brick, and the introduction of galleries, sometimes unfortunately rendered necessary, was never objectionable in his works, and in his report he recommends that the c£ churches should not be filled with pews, which, to his honour, he much disliked. His words are: “ It were to be wished there were to be no pews, but benches; but there is no stemming the tide of profit and the advantage of pew-keepers.” Another remark strikes us in these days as curious: ££ That the poor may have room enough to stand and sit in the alleys ,” a fatal mistake, which the Church has suffered from, and is suffering from to this day, and which led to the alienation of the lower classes. In 1710, Wren, being in his seventy-eighth year, assisted by his son Christopher and Mr. Strong, the Master-mason to the Cathedral, laid the top stone. Although old, he was still as active and vigorous as ever, and in 17 n he built the beautiful Gothic church of St. Mary Aldermary upon the plan of the old church as it was before the Fire. In 1721 (two years before his death), he completed the new Gothic tower to St. Michael Cornhill, nearly fifty years after he had built the body of the church. Half a century ! and what a half-century of work ! Truly it may be said of him, ££ Whatsoever his hand found to do, he did it with his might,” and no more appropriate epitaph, nor one more touching in its very brevity, could be written, than that which is found on the simple stone covering the spot where he sleeps after life’s fitful fever : CHRISTOPHORUS • WREN QUI • VIXIT ANNOS ULTRA • NONAGINTA NON SIBI • SED BONO • PUBLICO LECTOR • SI • MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE. From the foregoing remarks it will be noticed that these churches of Wren may be roughly grouped into five distind types j first, the basilican, of which there are eighteen, and whrch have the nave and aisles, with towers, generally at the west end of the nave, but occasionally at the north-west or south-west corner; secondly, the plain parallelogram with one aisle, either on the north or south, of which tVDe there arp op™,, .1 • 11 1 , . ,, -i fiLi , ^ are seven j thirdly, the plain parallelogram without aisles, or which there are thirteen- fonrt-hlv • 1 • , , . . , , a • «. r l • , 1 ’ fourthly, those in which the principle of the dome predominates, of which there are six; and, fifthlv the Greek c u• u u three Rut Jr, ™ i , , ni y> tne ' jree k cross, of which there are three. But m no s.ngle case are these plans copies of one another. There is a distinft individuality about each; local considerations of site, relation to leading thoroughfare the position from which the tower and spire could best be seen, were all points which he care’i considered. The internal fittings were of the best ■ the n a l- j r , carefully was well selected, the plaster work rich and varied ’a^d th ” 7 "ff “ g P anellin g a varied, and the carving admirably executed. Wren rarely built constructional chancels, but almost invariably marked the division between nave and chancel by a low screen of carved work, placed on the top of the very high pews. The pulpits were always admirably designed and carved, and many had highly enriched sounding-boards, but the altars were generally very low and small in size—a fashion which he introduced, for during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., they were rather large. Marble altars were not uncommon. St. Antholin, St. Mary Aldermary, and All Hallows the Great, St. Clement Danes, St. Andrew Holborn, and several others possessed them; but the altar at St. Stephen’s Walbrook is of oak, and is semicircular. Some of these oak altars have their carved supports, taking the form of angels and cherubs, as at St. Vedast Foster, and they were invariably raised on a foot-pace of marble. The fonts were small basin¬ shaped vases, supported on baluster shafts, and usually provided with a rich oak cover. Many of these are very beautiful works of art, notably those at All Hallows Barking, St. Margaret Lothbury, St. Stephen Walbrook, and St. James Piccadilly; in the last-named church the font itself is very beautiful. Wren generally placed the organ in a west gallery, also occupied by the choir; for choir-stalls in the chancel did not exist in his time, except in large cathedral or collegiate churches, or in the old parish churches, where the ancient arrangement had not been disturbed. Many of his City churches did not possess organs until long after his time ; the most prominent feature in all of them was the lofty carved oak altar-piece, which, in obedience to the Canon, displayed the Decalogue, flanked by the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and by figures of Moses and Aaron, surmounted by the Royal Arms, and sometimes the seven golden candlesticks (with sham tapers and gilt flames), in allusion to the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine, were to be found. Real candlesticks decorated the altars of St. Benet Gracechurch, and All Hallows Barking, these being placed on the altar itself. In these churches the galleries formed an integral part of the design, and the approaches to them were easy and commodious. The passages between the pews were wide; altar-rails were generally returned at the sides, and very handsome metal work in the shape of brass branches or chandeliers, and wrought-iron sword-rests of most varied design, were to be found in nearly all. Stone spires were not so general as those of timber covered with lead, which Wren also used largely in roofing. Perhaps it will not be out of place here to allude to the services which were held in these churches at this time. Prayers were said twice daily (morning and evening) in many, and, in almost all, there were services on Wednesdays and Fridays and Holydays, besides the ordinary Sunday services, which were generally three in number; while the large and important churches had always two, and on Wednesdays and Fridays three services daily. Our forefathers must have been earlier risers than we, for morning prayers were often said at six or seven o’clock. Nicholas Hawksmoor, the most original of Wren’s pupils and successors, was born in the year of the Great Fire, and was articled to Wren in 1683, so that he was associated with the great master in many of his most important works. His style is not so graceful as Wren’s, but partakes more of the heaviness of Vanbrugh. His finest works are Christchurch Spitalfields (1715), which has a remarkably fine interior, St. George’s Bloomsbury, St. Mary Woolnoth (1719), which had only been patched up by Wren after the Fire, St. Anne Limehouse (1724), and St. George’s in the East (1728). 12 Of these churches only three are illustrated in this work, namely, Christchurch Spitalfields, which is a parallelogram with aisles, and western tower and spire, and in many ways shows a marked divergence from Wren’s plans. Its western entrance and spire are entirely different from anything which preceded them, the latter resembling the upper part of a Norman or Early English spire. This peculiarly original treatment by Hawksmoor is still more marked in St. Mary Woolnoth, the interior of which is like the atrium or covered hall of a classical domestic building, in which a heavy baldachino with twisted columns, and a sort of imitation tester all in oak (a faint sort of reminiscence of St. Peter’s at Rome), almost fills the eastern recess. This church formerly possessed galleries, but when the alterations were carried out by Mr. Butterfield these were removed, and their fronts stuck upon the side walls in a very meaningless manner. As in all Hawksmoor s churches, the floor is raised on vaults, considerably above the street level. The interior, in spite of the alterations, remains a very fine arrangement, and if the central square had been covered with a small dome on pendentives, it would certainly have been one of the most original and effective church interiors in London. The baldachino is very curious, and bears a strong resemblance to that at St. Peter’s, and it is worthy of note that Wren contem¬ plated placing one in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Neither St. George’s in the East or St. Anne’s Limehouse (a plan of which is given), finished in 1728 and 1724 respectively, call for any particular remarks, but they are both large and spacious churches. Hawksmoor had his imitators, and in that most extraordinary building, St. John the Evangelist, Westminister, Archer, who was the architect (although Sir John Vanbrugh has usually the discredit), tried to imitate the solidity and massiveness of Hawksmoor’s peculiar style, but failed lamentably. In so far as the internal arrangements are concerned, St. George’s Bloomsbury has been so greatly altered that really nothing of the original remains, and the altar, which stood in its correct liturgical position, in an apse on the east side, has been transferred to the recess on the north side, while the old oak pews have been cut down and made to face north. Hawksmoor was rather given to the use of a depressed or elliptical arch, which one finds in nearly all his churches; his towers and spires were certainly original, perhaps more original than beautiful. St. Mary Woolnoth has a most extraordinary western fa9ade, the upper part of which breaks out into what may be described as a twin tower arrangement, and St. George’s Bloomsbury has a remarkable pyramidical steeple of diminishing steps, which is surmounted by a statue, not of St. George, but of King George I. Hogarth’s well- known print of cc Gin Lane ” gives a view of this steeple, seen above that awful rookery which then existed and was only cleared away when New Oxford Street was formed. The following well-known lines refer to this remarkable spire: “ When Henry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch The Protestants made him Head of the Church; But George’s good subjects, the Bloomsbury people. Instead of the church made him head of the steeple.” Another prominent church architea during the first two decades of the seventeenth century was James Gibbs, whom we find completing one of Wren’s churches: the upper part of the tower and spire of St. Clement Danes being his work. His own contributions to the ij architecture of London were of no ordinary merit. They possess an amount of originality in treatment which makes them distinCt both from Wren’s graceful conceptions, and from Hawksmoor s heavier productions, while in the use of the Orders he certainly showed greater knowledge than the last-named architect. Gibbs was born about 1674 at Aberdeen, and after taking his degree of Master of Arts there (about 1700), he went to Holland, where he studied architecture, and afterwards, by the help of his patron, the Earl of Mar, he proceeded to Italy, where he continued his studies, in Rome, under an architect named Garroli. On his return to England he was, through die influence of the same nobleman (then in the Ministry), employed by the Commis¬ sioners as one of their architects for building the fifty new churches. His principal work in London was the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which was commenced in 1720. This church shows how thoroughly Gibbs was imbued with the Classic spirit, for we here find the regular Classical portico attached to a church, a feature much affeCted by succeeding architects, but the first three examples of which are St. Martin’s, by Gibbs, 172c, St. George’s Hanover Square, by John James, 1724, and St. George’s Bloomsbury, by Hawksmoor, 1731, all satisfactory and stately enough. Another well-known London church from Gibbs’ hand is St. Mary-le-Strand, a very beautiful specimen of architecture, the contrast between which and St. Mary Woolnoth shows the extraordinary divergence between the styles of the two men —Hawksmoor, vigorous and bold almost to coarseness, and Gibbs, over-refined and delicate, almost to fussiness. Some may feel inclined to give the palm to St. Mary Woolnoth, not for its beauty, but for its extreme originality. St. Mary-le-Strand is certainly most advan¬ tageously placed in a very wide part of the Strand, on the site of the old maypole which Pope, in the “ Dunciad,” alludes to in the well-known lines: “ Amid that area wide they took their stand, Where the tall maypole once o’erlooked the Strand ; But now, so Anne and Piety ordain, A church collects the saints of Drury Lane.” The church is still most needed, not so much for the saints, as for the sinners who may yet be found in its neighbourhood. Gibbs was equally successful in his civil architecture, as witness the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, the new buildings at King’s College, Cambridge, and the great quadrangle of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, the gateway of which however, towards Smithfield, was not his work. He died in 1754, and in grateful recognition of his patron, the Earl of Mar, left both money and estates to his lordship’s son. St. Giles-in-the-Fields, the work of Henry Flitcroft, may justly be described as a poor copy of St. Martin’s, but there is considerable merit about the spire, which is original in treatment. Flitcroft built another church, St. Olave’s Southwark, which is but a poor production, and the same may be said of most of the churches which followed. They seemed to get worse and worse, and one has only to point to such buildings as St. Luke’s Old Street, St. John’s Westminster, by Archer, St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, by Dance (the spire of which, however, is both graceful and original), St. Botolph’s Aldgate, and St. Botolph’s Bishopsgate, by James Gold, to see to what utter bathos ecclesiastical architecture could descend, were it not that beneath this lowest depth, there was still a lower. The last shreds of ecclesiastical E 4 arrangement and tradition were finally abandoned, and the closer a church could be made, externally to resemble a Greek temple, the better was the critical taste of the period satisfied. It is not intended in this work to illustrate or further to discuss these later buildings, of which in London we unfortunately possess so many examples. In many cases the interiors have been remodelled in an entirely different style to the exteriors, and in one or two instances the Greek temple remains externally, while the pewed and galleried interior may be Romanesque or Byzantine, or anything else. Nothing surely could make them worse than they were originally. Unfortunately this mania for altering the interiors of old churches did not stop short at those built in the reigns of the two Georges, but was extended with disastrous results even to the works of Sir Christopher Wren, and several of his churches have had to bear the indignity of stone tracery inserted in their windows, and of flimsy Gothic woodwork replacing the old wainscot fittings, with Birmingham brass gas standards and staring tile pavements, and other gewgaws of the latest “ correct ” mediaeval taste, including stained glass of wretchedly “ poor ” Gothic drawing and colouring. Good in themselves, they have been tricked out in a meretricious fashion utterly repugnant to the style in which they were originally designed, and now present such a pitiable appearance, that it is to be hoped we have seen the last of this fashion, and that in future they will be left in peace, secure alike from the hand of the destroyer, and the equally fatal touch of the renovator with a Gothic craze. WWWBBBBP S. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL VIEW FROM THE NORTH WEST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL Plate V. Plate VI S. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL THE NORTH TRANSEPT. SLADE LIBRARY. SLADE LIBRARY. SLfcDE. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL Plate X. S. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL Plate XI. Plan of One. Bav of Choir Stalls. South Side. Arrangement of Choir in 1854. Ground Plan of ST Pauls Cathedral, THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. PAUL. O F the old cathedral of St. Paul we can say nothing here, for however fascinating its history may be, and however keen may be the regret felt for its departed glories, which have been so imperfe&ly delineated by Hollar, but which caused the blind Puritan poet, Milton, who as an old Pauline must have known it well, to proclaim his love for the “ High embowed roof With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight Casting a dim, religious light ”— it has past and gone, the greatest and best of all those artistic treasures which London lost in the Great Fire of 1666, and on its site has arisen a new Cathedral, wonderful, stately, and magnificent. Wonderful as the culminating effort of the genius of a single architect, and in that it should have been built in so short a time, under the fostering care of one bishop and the administrative skill of one master-mason. How great is the contrast between it and that other colossal structure, the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter’s at Rome, which, magnificent as it is, scarcely deserves Byron’s eulogistic lines — “ But thou of temples old, or altars new, Standest alone, with nothing like to thee, Worthiest of God.” St. Peter’s took 176 years to build, and fourteen architeds were employed upon its design and construction, amongst tbeir names being those “famous for all time, San Gallo, Bramante, Raphael, Michael Angelo, Giulio Romano, Vignola, Bernini, etc., yet all this wonderfhl array of talent, helped by the expenditure of ten millions of money, up to the close ot the seventeenth century (not including the cost of the sacristy and bell towers, mosaics, etc.), did not succeed in producing a building finer than St. Paul’s. Although it exceeds it in size and in richness of internal decoration, in external effed it is admittedly inferior, and yet the total cost of St. Paul’s Cathedral was under one million, and the time occupied in its building, from the first laying of the foundation stone on June 21st, 1675, to the laying of the last stone on the top o the lantern in tyro, was exadly thirty-five years. Long before this, the building had been used for divine service, the choir being formally opened on the occasion of the Peace of Ryswick in r6 97 , only twenty-two years from the laying of the foundation stone. It may 16 be well here briefly to mention the trials which Wren experienced before any definite plan was adopted, and the many preparatory schemes, which are duly set forth in Elmes’s “ Memoir,” and in the “ Parentalia ” compiled by his son Christopher, and published by his grandson, Stephen Wren, and also in Longman’s “History of the Three Cathedrals dedicated to St. Paul. 5 ’ One cannot be too thankful that the design for which Wren had a model made (it may still be seen in the model room in the Cathedral), was not carried out, for externally it would have been an architectural failure. The plan was decidedly clever and original, and almost gives one the impression that it was designed as a plan only, without any thought as to how the elevation would turn out, and that the talented designer’s regrets at its reje&ion were more on account of the plan, than the elevation, which would have been unworthy of his genius. But rejected it was, and some say through the influence of the clergy, who desired a plan which would carry on the traditional Cathedral arrange¬ ment. The fadd is curious that the addual plan and elevation of his new design, approved by the King, and for which a royal warrant was granted, May 14th, 1675, was, as a design, absolutely worse than the first, for in this the central feature was a low, squat, spreading dome, surmounted by a high drum, or stylobate, which carried a secondary dome, surmounted by a lofty spire of diminishing oddagonal stages (like St. Bride’s Fleet Street); a com¬ position almost approaching the ab¬ surd, and yet the warrant speaks of this design as “very artificial, proper and useful.” In this same document, permission, or rather “ liberty,” is given to Wren in the prosecution of his work to “make some variations, rather ornamental than essential, as from time to time he should see proper, and to leave the whole to his 1 7 management. How Wren ever evolved the present Cathedral from that accepted design is a marvel; he certainly did take considerable liberty, a good deal in the “ essential,” although more m the “ornamental, for the present plan does not fit dre proposed west elevation signed by the King. Spence, in his “ Anecdotes,” says that the north and south chapels were added at the suggestion of the Duke of York (afterwards James II.), to fit the Cathedral for a revival of the Papist service, and it was the forced addition of these which caused Wren to shed the traditional tears. The whole anecdote seems unlikely, for any interference from the Duke „ Romanist, would have been of York, then an avowed strongly resented, and the fad: a consistory court, and a a few worshippers could be service, seems to have been said that the addition of these building and broke in very design, but there again one the critics, for internally the is a very beautiful feature carried on the nave by two have increased the tunnel-like monotonous. Per- may not be quite true, if they had two feet, the west- have risen from the and would have general effed. It of time to no¬ remarks of the points as the the two orders, columns, etc., them, and are, glad that Wren employed them, for we know how poor in effed St. Peter s one order, and Wren realized that his building would not long enjoy the advantage of standing in the midst of a wide piazza, but that the streets and houses would encroach upon it on every side; therefore he was wise to do as he did. One has but to look at the Cathedral from one of the bridges, or from the Surrey side of the river, to see how immensely it has gained by the adoption of these two orders. As to the interior, the only criticism which seems really just, is that the appearance of the four subsidiary arches of the dome, where the arch breaks into the entablature, dividing it up into detached pieces, i „n r » . ,o. ftRt-nm that time the surveyor resolved to make no more models ■ There is a significant note in the Parentaha page a 3, * ^ d J d mbjefled his business many times or publicly expose his drawings, which, as he had found by exper , to incompetent judges.’’ SECTION SHOWING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOME. that Wren had to provide for morning prayer chapel, where gathered together at the early forgotten. It has always been two chapels narrowed the much upon the beauty of the feels disposed to disagree with addition of these two chapels (Plate VIII.), and to have bays, or even by one, would effed:, and would have proved haps externally they so happy; but it is only been set back ern towers would ground in mass, been handsomer in would be a waste tice any further critics, on such employment of the coupled etc.; we accept on the whole, looks with its is somewhat awkward. This defedt is really a blemish, and is. the weakest part of the design; but taking the building as a whole, externally and internally, it is one upon which any nation or people might justly pride themselves, and is vastly superior to such buildings as the Pantheon, the Church of the Invalides, the Val de Grace, the Church of the Sacre Cceur, in Paris, or even the new Cathedral at Marseilles. Apart from its stridlly architectural merit, St. Paul’s Cathedral possesses in its fittings, such as the carved wood-work and metal-work, specimens of the handicrafts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries marking a distinct school or epoch, which can here be studied better perhaps than elsewhere. To claim this work as essentially English seems an anomaly on the face of it, seeing that Grinling Gibbons is supposed to have been a Dutchman and John Tijou a Frenchman. But was Gibbons a Dutchman? The statement rests solely on the authority of DETAIL OF STALLS, ENDS, AND SMALL DOORS. J 9 Horace Walpole, whose account of him in the « , r „ . Evelyn, who knew much more about him and h ° f Pamters >” ls veI 7 incorred. anout him, and was the diredt means of bringing him into notice, mentions nothing about his Dutch extradion, and the name Gibbons is as distinftly English as Brown, Jones, - or Robinson. Evelyn intro¬ duced him to Wren, and it is to his incomparable skill that we owe the exquisite carving of the stalls of the choir, and of the bishop’s throne. The name of Tijou or Tijon, Tijau or Tigoue, for it is thus variably spelt, is certainly a French one, but we know little or next to nothing about its owner, beyond the faCt that he executed all the exquisite grille-work of the choir. Here again French influence is scarcely felt, and one has but to contrast this work and the grilles CONSOLE SUPPORTING CANOPIES OF DIGNITARIES’ STALLS. FRONT AND SIDE VIEW. at St. Paul’s which enclose the choir of the abbey church of St. Ouen at Rouen to note the difference. Tijou also executed those ex¬ quisite gates to Hampton Court Palace (now at South Kensing¬ ton Museum), erroneously attri¬ buted to Huntingdon Shaw, and in these one does trace an in¬ fluence distinctly French. For St. Paul’s he undoubtedly de¬ signed the ironwork, but English artificers executed it and stamped it with a markedly English character. Gibbons has also been credited with a good deal of the stone carving, but most of this was executed by Thomas and Edward Strong, Francis Bird, and Caius Gabriel Cibber (the father of Colley Cibber), while the wood-carving in the Morning Prayer Chapel, and in the Library, was done by Jonathan Maine. Cibber’s work in stone seems to have been confined principally to the eight great keystones of the arches of 20 the dome, for each of which he received £35. For the great figure of the phoenix in the tympanum of the south transept, (18 feet by 9 feet) he charged £ r 06, and these, with four “censers” at £7 10s. each, four double festoons, and eight cherubim at £13 each, are the only works charged in the books under Cibber s name. Francis Bird s work consisted of the western tympanum, the Conversion of St. Paul (£650), the panels in the portico (£75 each), the west door [£ 300). Anne and accessory the Cathedral (re¬ years ago, and re¬ copy) cost ^1,180. carvers we find the Latham and Samuel carving the capitals for which he received The large plan duced from a draw- by Francis Penrose, presents the Cathe TERMINAL TO GATE, GEOMETRICAL STAIRCASE. and the reliefs over His statue of Queen figures in front of moved some fifteen placed by a modern Among other stone- names of Jasper Fulks, the last-named of the west portico, £60 each, here given was re- ing kindly supplied Esq., M.A., and re- dral as left by Wren, showing the return stalls, etc., and the organ screen. There is some doubt whether Wren intended the organ to be placed in the position it occupies on the plan, for the supporting arches and columns in the crypt were evidently interpolated to carry the extra weight. It was, however, in his day the usual position in cathedrals and choirs, but he may at first perhaps SMALL GRILLES AT BACKS OF STALLS. only have contemplated an oak screen, and the marble columns being inserted afterwards necessitated the sub-structures. These marble columns, which now form a kind of internal porch and gallery to the northern entrance, were the work of Edward Strong, who was paid £52 tor. for each. There is a curious story to the effeft that Bernard Smith, the builder of this organ, competed with Renatus Harris for that of the Temple Church, when their merits were so equal that the question which was the better instrument was submitted to an 21 open court with counsel on each side, when the , 1 Jefferies, decided in favour of Smith. d S ’ W "° WaS none oldler t * lan Judge t " *• “ f *■ services then instituted proved so successful that iTb f ^ l858 ’ When ^ Sunda y evenin g » ft ft. Cathedr.il „ pj, of the “ Sons of the Cletg,,- „j « thc fP“ "/ *' “""-I a u A iu , occasion ot public funerals, the great area of the dome had rarely been used, as the usual services were entirely confined to the choir Tht was so enclosed and cut off torn the rest of the church, by reason of the organ screen and return s ails preventing the area of the dome being used in connexion wihthe choir services, that the first step necessary to improve matters seemed to the authorities at the time to be the removal of the organ and the choir screen, with the return stalls. The organ was then placed in the second bay on the north side, and the stalls were moved bodily one bay westward; the return stalls were placed on the north and south sides of the space or bay just westward of the apse, and the altar-rails were brought forward so as to enclose them, thus separating the cathedral dignitaries from the prebends and minor canons, the dean himself sitting on the cantoris side, while the third bay of die choir, thus left free, was seated for congre¬ gational purposes. It was then found that the organ was not of much use for the services under the dome, and another very large one was built over the south porch. These alterations, which many considered unfortunate, in consequence of their complete departure from cathedral precedent, were effeded between 1858 and i860, while Dr. Henry Milman was dean. The principle on which they were made, and with which all must agree, was to make the Cathedral more useful and better fitted for divine worship. Certainly one good thing was then done for the first time—the Cathedral was warmed ; and, in spite of the Rev. Canon Sydney Smith s bon mot , made some time previously, when the desirability of such a course was mentioned £c Warm St. Paul’s ! they might as well set about warming Salisbury Plain ! It was done, and done effedively. From i860 to 1870 this alteration held good, but in that year further changes became absolutely necessary, and the cathedral choir was again altered, and mainly to the present arrangement. The Nelson and Cornwallis monuments, which had hitherto occupied their original positions on the north and south sides of the ante-choir, were rernoi ed to other places; the dignitaries’ stalls were replaced in their proper position, westward of all the others, but still facing north and south, and the organ was divided and placed over them, thus SOUTH CHOIR AISLE, LOOKING WEST. 22 restoring it to a position where it was useful for a position which is very picturesque, but has the VE, LOOKING WEST. choir services and also those under the dome — effect of still further narrowing the appearance of the choir, and suggesting a carved beam connecting the two portions, as at Milan Cathedral. The whole choir was raised, and with it, the stalls. The altar, which the flood of light at the east end rendered almost in¬ visible, was brought forward to the chord of the apse and considerably raised. Much more recently a magnificent reredos of rare and costly marbles has been added, the centre portion of which recalls Wren’s original idea for the baldachino, for which he had a model made. This altar-piece is flanked by curved wings, connecting it with the first piers of the choir arcade, and leaving a presbytery behind, which is now fitted up as the Liddon memorial chapel. The two easternmost bays of the choir were separated from the aisle by Tijou’s beautiful grilles, which were altered to fit their new position. The old stained-glass Munich windows, put in at the previous alteration, were removed to other parts of the Cathedral, where one can better see how bad they are; a new altar was erecfied, of ebony and bronze- gilt, and the pavement in front was inlaid with rich marbles. When the present beautiful mosaic decorations ot the choir walls and vaulting are completed, the interior ol this choir will be, for costly and beautiful decoration and furniture, the richest in Christendom — so that it may be said, “the glory of this latter house shall far surpass the former.” It is devoutly to be wished that a sweep might be made of some of the tasteless allegories in the shape of marble monuments, which once pro¬ voked a sneer from a high dignitary of the Roman obedience: “ Ah, yes, St. Paul’s Cathedral—a building which has the blessed Apostles outside and the heathen gods within.” If that worthy ecclesiastic had but looked at home he would have found St. Paul’s Cathedral not singular in this, the fashion of the day, CHOIR AS COMPLETED, WITH REREDOS. 2 3 deplorable as it may be. But happily since that ,, , such as Christian faith would diflate mrl r] ■ • C mormments added have been only Dean Mansel, who was remarkaUe fo^ a PFove. extras quiet fun out of any subjefl, utterly free' from niTat^d ^ ^ ^ was being shown round the cathedral by the present Sub de "" v ““‘“i SeVenty ’ unmistakable Neptune, trident and all as nor b P ; ■ i™"’ Wh ° dreW hlS attentlon to an of a Christian cathedral. “ Well yes ” he said « = F ° Per f ° r the decoration in a Protestant church.” ’ 7 ’ *“ Sald> “ “ ° dd C ° s « th <- ‘ ^dentine formula: ’ 1 he mosaic decoration, now in progress and before alluded to, is part of a very beautiful iconographical tdea due to the genius of W. B. Richmond, A.R.k., and is gradually b W completed ,n portions as funds permit. In a footnote in the “ Parentalia,” Wren is credited with having entertained the idea that mosaic work was the best method of decoration, and of saying that m his judgment that material as employed at St. Peter’s at Rome, was far superior to painting on account of it being so much more durable, and he proposed sending to Italy for four of the most eminent workers in that art. ObjedHons were raised on the score of expense and the time such work would take, and although he fully answered such Objections, the scheme fell through, and in what manner he intended to use mosaic there is no evidence to show. In the Gardner colledtion there is an old print showing the spandrels between the main arches in the dome filled in with figures of the four Evangelists and their symbols. This was engraved by William Emmett about 1702, and Wren may probably have approved of it, but the painting of the dome by Sir James Thornhill, in a series of architefiural perspectives and figures, in heavy and dark colour, was strongly disapproved by him and repudiated in a letter to the Commissioners, February 1st, 1710, his words being: “ Nothing can be said now to remain unperfedled but ... . and painting the cupola, the directing of which is taken out of my hands, and therefore I hope I am not answerable. . . . As to painting the cupola, your Lordships know it has been long under consideration, and that I have no power left me concerning it.” The paintings do possess considerable merit, but in both tone and design they are unfortunate in the position they occupy. The mosaics on the vaulting and pendentives of the choir are now fast approaching completion, and are doubly interesting for their own artistic merit, and also for being genuinely English work, designed and executed by Englishmen. The peculiarity of the medium employed is well brought out and contrasts with the smooth almost painted-like effect of the Italian work in the spandrels of the dome. The two massive candlesticks standing in front of the altar, on each side, are copied from the originals, of which there are four in the Cathedral at St. Bavon, Ghent, traditionally said to have once belonged to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The space behind the reredos is now known as the Jesus Chapel, or the memorial chapel to Canon Liddon; the altar-piece is a copy of Cima’s “ Incredulity of St. Thomas in the National Gallery, and the tomb and recumbent effigy of the deceased canon occupy a position to the right, in front of the altar. Allusion has already been made to the lofty and superb reredos erected in the Cathedral in 1888. The idea intended to be conveyed by the groups of sculpture is that of the Incarnation, the Redemption (as a central subjefi) and the Resurredtion. The lower 24 portion forms a basement, with two doors in the curved wings leading to the Jesus Chapel. These doors are of bronze-gilt and pierced, with angels supporting the arms of the see and the emblems (the sword, and cross keys) of St. Peter and St. Paul. Ihis basement is beautifully panelled with coloured marble in a framework of white Parian marble, and sculptured with festoons of fruit and flowers. Immediately above the pure white marble ol the gradine, over the altar, is a long low panel of the Entombment, and to the right and left the Nativity and Resurrection. Both above and below this panel run bands of a darker marble the whole width of the reredos, the effeCt of which is rather unfortunate, as it seems to cut the reredos in half. The centre portion contains the Crucifixion, with St. Mary, St. John, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Mary the wife of Cleophas, and St. Longinus the centurion. This group, the figures of which are larger than life, is outlined against a coloured marble background contained within an arch, which springs from a colonnade continued in a curved line on each side. Immediately in front of this group are two massive twisted columns of Brescia with gilt bronze wreathing twining up them, and these support an entablature and pediment. The massiveness of this portion contrasts rather strikingly with the more slender proportions of the intersecting colonnade and entablature of the curved wings. On the frieze of this massive centre portion are the words a SIC . DEUS : DILEXII : MUNDUM in bronze-gilt letters on a rosso antico ground. Surmounting the pediment is a niche containing figures of the Blessed Virgin with the Infant Christ, an embodiment of the Incarnation; and on each side stand St. Peter and St. Paul and angels. Above this niche on the apex is the figure of the risen Saviour, some sixty or seventy feet from the ground. At the two extremities of the curved wings are single figures, that on the left is the Archangel Gabriel, and that on the right the Blessed Virgin; both look too small for their position. Besides the above-mentioned figures there are many others in the panels, of angels bearing the instruments of the Passion. Messrs. Bodley and Garner designed this superb addition to the Cathedral, and it was executed in London by Messrs. Farmer and Brindley i5 l57;l ST. CATHERINE CREE, LEADENHALL STREET. 1B 9 11 11 1 B jp ji' ffl IB S ® Vr* Precedence having been given to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, the parish churches will now be considered in chronological order, as indicated in the Introduction, and for the reasons there given. This very extraordinary church, designed by Inigo Jones, is one of the most curious in the city, and almost deserves a monograph to itself. It is not only valuable in the history of art, but also for its place and connection in the ecclesiastical history of this country. The “ old order changeth,” and nowhere can this change be seen, this transition noted, better than in this fabric. In plan we still find here the typical mediaeval church, such as was formerly to be found in many a parish of Old London, and which exists untouched in the neighbouring parish of St. Andrew Undershaft. Nave and chancel under one roof, aisles pro¬ longed to the extreme east end, a tower at the south-west corner, opening into the nave and south aisle by arches; in few respedts differing from other churches of the fifteenth century, and yet if we look closely, we cannot help noting one or two departures from the usual plan. The tower, for instance, does not entirely fill the south-west angle, and it is entirely inde¬ pendent of the arcade, suggesting that when the church was rebuilt and enlarged, the original tower had been left, and only recased and altered externally. The arcade again is not equally spaced, the last bay being much narrower; and another striking peculiarity is that the north aisle suddenly narrows to only half its width for the last two bays westward. The irregu anty of the site probably had much to do with this, bounded as it was by a narrow lane, anything but parallel with the eastern boundary. At present there is only one entrance, that under t e tower, but another existed at the east end of the north aisle. Encroachments up to the very walls have robbed the church of this, and have also considerably darkened the great east window, and blocked those at the ends of the aisles. H 2 6 The piers or columns are not moulded, but are columns of the Composite order, carrying semicircular arches, the soffites of which are coffered with a circular flower in the centre of each coffer; the arches have well-moulded architraves, and above them runs a cornice the lower mouldings of which mitre with the architraves. Above the cornice is a lofty and well-proportioned clerestory, the windows of which, as also those of the aisles, are peculiar. They are of three lights with cinque-foiled heads; the centre light in each case is higher, and a square-headed moulding breaks round them; the cills are splayed, and between each is a square pilaster with a boldly moulded cap and base, springing from corbels of which not two are alike, and these corbels partly occupy the spandrels between the arches. (Plate XIII.) From the caps of these pilasters spring the vaulting ribs ; the vault itself is very flat in seCtion, and in the centre of each compartment is a large boss or centre flower with the arms of one of the City Com¬ panies, Goldsmiths, Fishmongers, Merchant Taylors, etc., in high relief, coloured and gilt. The vaulting of the aisles is quadripartite with moulded wall, diagonal and ridge ribs, springing from corbels only. The vaulting of the two bays forming the chancel is much richer. The great east window is a very fine composition, consisting of a wheel or rose contained in a square, with the corners filled with tracery, separated by a horizontal transom from five lower lights with cinque- foiled heads, in form recalling slightly the magnificent rose window which once closed the eastern perspective of Old St. Paul’s. Some of the glass in this window is early eighteenth century, being the gift of Sir Samuel Stanier, who was Lord Mayor in the first year of the reign of George I.; some glass in the rose itself may be earlier still, dating probably from 1628. The lower lights have been subsequently filled in with figure subjects and heraldry. The oak reredos below has been considerably altered. Originally it had a painted perspective of columns with cherubim and seraphim, and full-length figures of Moses and Aaron, surmounted by the royal arms. The still earlier one, of Laud’s time, was of Bermuda cedar, and the rails were removed during the Civil War. The area within the rails was paved with black and white marble. All this work was probably executed subsequent to the reign of 2 7 1 o each of the arches there is Queen Anne. _ _ __ aiulcs and here again, as in the corbels, much graceful \ ^ t! 0 "! WhlCh ° CCUrS 011 both sides > their treatment. On three of these hey sLes 7 u n pkyed “ the rariet 7 of this carving work deserves study, or hZ TaZ H ^°' A “ above the average. 7 ™ the deS1 S ner was P°—d lability far KEY-STONES AND CORBELS. Another most curious feature in this church is the font, with its contemporary carved and gilt oak cover, which for quaintness and quiet harmony of proportion is unrivalled. Internally, the seats have been lowered, but the oak wainscoting has been retained, the chancel has been stalled, and the old carving inserted. Two sword-rests, of similar design, are affixed to the two front seats, and there is a very beautiful oak oor- 28 case now forming the entrance to the vestry, but which originally screened the door at the east end of the north aisle. Externally the church is very curious, with its mullioned windows, low tower, and battlements, which alone would arrest the steps of any lover of architecture, yet they afford no indication of the beauties within. It should be mentioned that there is a small organ gallery, access to which blocks both the west door and west window, if ever they were in¬ tended to be of use, which is doubtful. The organ case itself is very richly carved, and pro¬ bably dates from 1686, when the church was repaired and beautified. The history of this church deserves to be recorded. Matilda, eighth in direCt descent from Alfred the Great, and tenth from Egbert, the first King of England, married Henry I., by which marriage Henry considerably augmented and consolidated his power. She herself was the daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, by his wife, Margaret, the sainted Queen, sister of Edgar Atheling, and was much beloved by the people of England. About 1108 she founded the magnificent Norman priory of the Holy Trinity Aldgate, just within the walls, and to do this and to get sufficient ground for the ereCtion of this huge priory church and its dependencies, four parishes already existing were united, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Michael, St. Catherine, and Holy Trinity, and the parishioners were allowed the use of the nave of the Priory Church of the Austin Canons. This led to inconvenience, and the result was that a church was built in the cemetery of the priory, and called St. Catherine Cree, an abbreviation of Christchurch, by which the priory was more generally known. At the Dissolution, unlike the other two fine sister churches of the Austin Canons in London (St. Mary Overie and St. Bartholomew Smithfield), Christchurch, the finest of the three, was entirely destroyed, and the tale church of St. Catherine passed with the other possessions of the prior,, to Thomas Lord Audley, but eventually the parish,oners managed to regain their own. fa l ' 6a8 it had ^ so ruinous that it was deeded to rebuild it. Inigo Jones was then the only architea of repute, and although no documentary evidence is at present forthcoming to substantiate the statement, there is but httle doubt, from points of resemblance to' other well-known and authenticated works of his, that he was the architea. Laud was then Bishop of London and in that capacity consecrated this church on January 16th, 1630. As already men¬ tioned in the Introduftion, that prelate exerted his influence to maintain the continuity of the Church, not only in dofinne, but in the visible fabric, and this church was the natural outcome. The ceremonies he used, which were no more than the ordinary consecration services, aSually formed one of the articles of his impeach¬ ment. Prynne’s garbled version of these would be almost grotesque in its ludicrousness, were it not that it led to Laud’s martyrdom on Tower Hill, on the 10th of January, 1645, fifteen years afterwards, and on the same day that the use of the Book of Common Prayer was decreed to be felony by that paramount power which the so-called House of Commons had arrogated to itself. For this reason the church of St. Catherine Cree becomes inseparably linked with the history of the Church and nation, and possesses more than ordinary interest. The monuments are interesting; a very fine one of Sir Nicholas Throck¬ morton, who died in 1570, was evidently saved from the old church. He was ambassador from Elizabeth to the court of France, and some curious letters are preserved which passed between him and Cecil, in regard to the ugly rumours which he had heard, and about which he wanted information respeding the death, or murder, of Amy Robsart, Countess of Leicester. The monument to Richard Spencer, Turkey Merchant, 1667, and the Cheney monument, both mural, are very good and charmingly designed. The inscriptions are as follows : T . . a/t c* Cnthprinp Cree. “here rests in hope of a blessed Inscription on Spencer Monument , ot. Catherine u * * r . tttrkfy merchant, whose change from mortall RESURRECTION THE BODY OF RICHARD SPENCER ESQ., TURKEY Kr ,onN d „t d A1 . T o ri » /flN rt 1667 jETAT CO. WHILE HE LIVED ON EARTH REASON TO MORTALITY COMENC ON SEP 3 AN DMNI IOO7 & 5 „„ p ,rahcE HIS MEASURES GRAVITIE AND DISCRETION AND RELIGION WERE HIS RULES JUSTICE AND TEMPERANC HIMSELF , nmIt ur , 5T ACCFPTABLE TO NONE INJURIOUS. TO HlM&bLP HIS ORNAMENTS. HE WAS TO MANY HELPFUL TO M CHANGES y HE gyATE THE DREADFUL AND FRIENDS CONSTANT. AFTER HE HAD SEENE TH T[oN QF THE CITy „Y FIRE HE PIOUSLY TRYUMPS OF DEATH BY PESTILENCE THE ASTOPHSHIN ^ p^TH 0 F CHRIST IN COMMUNION LAMENTED THE MISERIES AND THEN IN PEACE AND CHARI HENEY MONUMENT. 3 ° \ OF THE CHURCH HE FINISHED HIS COURSE AND LEFT BEHIND HIM A GOOD NAME A VERTUOUS EXAMPLE A DEARE WIFE AND THREE DAUGHTERS. WHO FOR THE HIGH ESTEEME AND INTIRE AFFECTION TO HER DECEASED HATH ERECTED THIS MONUMENT AND MEMORIAL TO POSTERITIE. IF WEALTH NOR WORTH NOR FRIENDS NOR PARTS CAN RESCUE FROM DEATH’S KILLING DARTS THEN MIND THY DOOM AND PASSING BY BE WISE IN TIME PREPARE TO DIE.” Inscription on the Cheney Monumetit , St. Catherine Cree. £< spe laetissimae RESURRECTIONIS. IN ADYTU & NAVE HUJUS ECCLESIAE SEPULTA JACENT CORPORA BARTHOLOMEI ELLNOR GENEROSI ET ALICIAE UXORIS EJUS RICHARDI CHENEY ET BARTHOLOMEI. IN QUORUM OMNIUM MEMORIAM ANNA CHENEY, VIDUA VINCA FILIA ET HAERES DICTORUM BARTHOLOMEI AUT ET ALICIAE RELICT A DICT RICHARDI PATRIS ET MATER DICTORUM RICHARDI ET BARTHOLOMEI FILIORUM HOC MONUMENTUM IN AESTISSIMA POSUIT. PRAEDICT RICHARDUS PATER 2 7 ° JUNII 1624 29 j RICHARDUS FILIUS AB HAC LUCE 24 JUNII | l62C AN° 2 BARTHOLOMEUS FILIUS IMP D 4 VTT 18 DIE AUGUSTlJ AETAT 1 S I BARTHOLOMEUS (AMIs)? IINIjKA V 1 1 16° OCTOBRIS 1636 77 ALICIAE 2° AUGUSTI 1637 67 j There is a curious doorway at the south-east angle of the church, built by William Avenon, 1631, which has one of those recumbent figures, a skeleton in a shroud, to remind one of mortality, and in this church is preached, on the 16th of Odtober, the Lion sermon, commemorating the narrow escape of Sir John Gayer from a lion, 1643, and the Flower sermon. ST. PAUL CO VENT GARDEN. It will be hardly necessary to give a detailed description of this church for the reasons stated in the Introduction. The apparent discrepancy as to the dates of its construction and consecration has probably arisen from a confusion between the latter event and its being made a parish church, which took place upon the petition of the inhabitants. At a council held at Whitehall April 6th, 1638, the king being present, the church was said to have been built by Francis, Earl of Bedford, but, in consequence of disagree¬ ments with the Vicar of the mother parish of St. Martin s in the Fields, it had remained unconsecrated. It was decided that the petition be heard and the church consecrated forthwith, and to be a chapel of ease to the mother church until such time as the Earl and the Vicar of St. Martin’s had settled their differences. The date of the deed extracted from the principal Register of the Bishop of London is September 26 th, 1638, and it is quaintly worded, commencing: “In the name of God, Amen. Know all men present and to come that I, Francis, Earl of Bedford, for me and my heirs have offered up, in memorial of the Blessed Apostle St. Paul,” etc., etc. In 1645 Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled constituted it a parish church, totally 32 - separate from St. Martin’s in the Fields, and so it remained until an adt was passed in 1657, which altered the status of it; but this adt was rescinded at the Restoration, and another passed in 1660, reconstituting it a parish church, and the patronage, which had been given to the Vicar of St. Martin’s, was then vested in William, Earl of Bedford, his heirs and assigns. The building, although stately, can scarcely be called ecclesiastical in appearance. When first built the interior was richly decorated, and contained some contemporary stained glass. In 1727 Lord Burlington restored the portico to its primitive form at an expense of three or four hundred pounds, which shows that alterations had already been made that had probably cost the parishioners twice as much to effedt. The detached porticoes or gates which flanked the main portico, and gave access to the churchyard, were very simple, but of charming proportion, and there are entrances to the churchyard from Henrietta Street on the south, and King Street on the north, with very good scroll iron gates. Sir Peter Lely, the artist, was buried in the church. Several adtors are interred in the churchyard, including Edwin, Macklin, King, and others. THE STEEPLE. ST. MARY-LE-BOW, WITH ST. PANCRAS SOPER AND ALL HALLOWS HONEY LANE. St. Mary of the Arches, as this church was originally called, now represents the church of the three united parishes above-named, St. Pancras, and All Hallows, not having been rebuilt after the Fire. It is difficult to account for the pre-eminence enjoyed by this, over all other parochial churches, except from its being placed in the most prominent and busy part of the mediffiyal city, “ in Chepe,” and from its tower having been rung out nightly the signal for the closing of the shops, and release of the ’prentices. In 1469 the Court of Common Council ordered this to be rung at nine instead of at eight o clock, and if this “ late ringing ” was the one ’prentices complained of, they did so with some amount of justice, for their working hours must have been fearfully long, especially as our ancestors were early risers, but let us hope that the tocsin sounded earlier for them. No one was held a true citizen unless born within the sound of these bells, and they are interwoven in the pretty legend of Whittington, four times Lord Mayor. This was the first of the thirteen churches exempted from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, and placed under the care of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and called “ peculiars.” The Archbishop’s Court was called the Court of Arches, from being held here, and here, to this day, the bishops of the southern province have to take the oath of their allegiance to the primatial chair of Canterbury, before their own enthronization elsewhere. Another curious fa£t is that if the sovereign desired to see the pageants of the various companies, it was from a gallery eredted in front of this church, towards Cheapside, that it was viewed. Few of the thousands who daily pass and repass the church are aware that beneath it exists a relic of Norman London, in the shape of a beautiful crypt, over which Wren built his church, which does not, however, stand exactly over it, for he extended his building to the south and PLAN OF THE CRYPT. 34 west beyond the walls, and the crypt evidently marked the size and position of the older church. In plan it has a central nave, subdivided into three aisles by six cylindrical detached columns, with cushion caps. The twelve compartments or bays thus have a plain groined vault without ribs, and flanking this central compartment, divided by walls of immense thickness, pierced with plain arches, are aisles, north and south, also vaulted. The north aisle is coterminous with the central portion, but the south aisle is prolonged westward to the full extent of the present church. Wren had to break through the central portion in order to carry up the foundations for his walls above, which rather destroys its symmetry, and in building his superb tower, he found, at a level even lower than the crypt, a Roman causeway, ROMAN CAUSEWAY, EIGHTEEN FEET SECTION THROUGH NORMAN BELOW PRESENT LEVEL. CRYPT. which was so solid that he used it as a foundation, eighteen feet below the present level. Judging from the gradual rise of the ground, the Norman crypt could not originally have been very much underground, and it was well lighted, so that the name of St. Mary-le-Bow, or St. Mary of the Arches, was particularly applicable. Some derive the name, not from anything underground, but from the four curious bows or arches which sprung from each lofty corner pinnacle of the tower, and carried a central lantern or pinnacle, like Wren’s own church of St. Dunstan in the West; but as it was called St. Mary de Arcubus before the tower was built, this derivation is absurd. This church, which was one of the first to be rebuilt, is rather irregular and curious; the church proper has a central nave, with an elliptical plaster vault very richly panelled, and with north and south aisles, the latter being slightly the narrower. They are divided from the church by three arches on each side, with vaulting concentric with the arches. Attached 35 A a ^ a ^ ar ^ e vestr y> which opens at its western end into a roomy vestibule, ^ C . ^ t . 6 ower sta g e of the tower, and serving as a porch, with entrances north and wes t 1 he interior has been modernized, and the lofty oak altar-piece, with its seven C ^ S, _ CUt ^ own to show the east window, which is now filled with modern stained glass. It is stalled for a choir; the organ has been brought down from the west gallery and placed at t le east end, and all the galleries have been removed, which makes the church look rather bare, but has made it much lighter, and has generally improved the look of the interior. Within the recollection of many it was a very dark church, having no windows on the north side, while the narrow lanes on the south, west, and east, with their lofty warehouses, prevented very much light from entering, and the principal windows were blocked by the galleries and altar-piece, and the principal light came from the clerestory. The seats have all been lowered and made regular and uniform. The font, which is of marble, is not so good as many others. Externally the church, where one can see it, is of red brick, except the east side, and this brick, up to a few years back, was covered with cement. Its chief glory is the superb tower and spire (Plate XIV.), but as the plate does not show all of it from the ground, one of the grand doorways which occupy the lowest stage is here given, to show that we need not go to Genoa or any other Italian city to find a beautiful doorway, since our own Cheapside can show one to rival any foreign example. Although the church and tower were commenced in 1671, the spire was not completed until 1680; the masons’ names are recorded as Tompson and Cartwright. In the last repairs, the circular peristyle of columns round the lower part of the spire, which were originally of Portland stone, were reconstructed of granite, and it will be interesting to see which of these two materials proves the more lasting in the London atmosphere. The spire is surmounted by a vane in the form of a flying dragon, and whether seen from the east or from the west, whether outlined against the flaming glory of the setting sun, or against the pure light of early dawn, the spire of St. Mary-le-Bow is one of the most beautiful objects that the master-mind of man ever conceived, and as a vision of beauty it is a joy, and will be so for ever, if “ ever ” may be applied to things finite and temporal. THE CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN WALBROOK WITH ST. BENET SHEREHOG (1676-1678). This very beautiful church, one of the earliest to be ere&ed so soon as the accumulated rubbish of the Great Fire could be removed and the ancient site cleared, would alone be a monument of Wren’s architectural genius and taste, had he not designed the Cathedral and other churches to more fully establish and confirm his reputation. The most ancient of the three parish churches of St. Stephen appears to have been on a different site, and the patronage had been given to the Priory of St. John at Colchester by Eudo, a retainer of Henry I.; but in 1429 it was rebuilt on the present site, on ground left for that purpose by William Stondon or Standen, Lord Mayor in 1392, and Lord Mayor Chicheley laid the first stone, but the church was not completed until 1439. Several chantries were afterwards added. It has been supposed that Wren designedly made this an exceedingly beautiful interior on account of its immediate vicinity to the Mansion House, but, unfortunately for that theory, when the church was first built no Mansion House existed, but was ereCted subsequently, partly on the site of the ancient stocks market. The exterior was so very little seen that Wren concentrated his efforts, so far as concerned the exterior, on the tower and spire. (Plate XV.) The interior, as shown on the accompanying plan, is very simple in arrangement, and nowhere else could one find a simple parallelogram, eighty-two feet six inches in length by about seventy- five feet in width, so admirably arranged. This area, roughly speaking, is divided into five aisles, the centre being the widest, and the two outer ones the narrowest, but after the second bay from the west the two centre rows of columns (that is, four columns) are absent, and the remainder worked into an o&agon, surmounted by a dome carried on pendentives. The central aisle, which is lofty, has a groined ceiling, and forms, with the single bays of the transepts and choir, a cruciform arrangement; to this loftier portion of the church there is a clerestory, while the ceiling over the two outer aisles is flat. The dome itself is surmounted by a lantern light, and is coffered horizontally, in four compartments, and divided vertically by sixteen bands, but in the second range of panels the central vertical band is omitted, thus forming a larger panel, which is filled in with circular wreath-work and a large central flower, the band again reappearing in the two upper ranges. By this arrangement the monotony of a series of equal-sized coffers, diminishing to the centre of the dome, is avoided. The pendentives are also ornamented with triangular panels of wreath-work starting from a central shield-like SLADE L I E R-.. R Y \ 37 ornament, and the whole of this plaster work is of exceedingly bold projecftion, and carefully modelled. Above runs a circular cornice, carried on small trusses, with a coffered flower between each, and from this cornice rises the dome, which is nearly a semicircle. The groined ceiling over the nave is divided by a band of bold scrollwork, and at the intersection is a finely moulded circular flower. The columns are of the Corinthian order, and support a rich entablature, of which the frieze is decorated with acanthus leaves, alternately close and open raffled. The first member of the cornice is egg and dart, the second perfefily plain, unsupported by trusses, and of a very moderate proje&ion, the top member only being enriched. The soffites of the eight arches supporting the dome have each the same bold scroll ornament as the transverse division between the two bays of the nave, and a small cherub with folded wings forms the keystone. Originally the columns had lofty octagonal bases of oak, but when the high pews were removed, under Mr. Penrose’s direction, these lofty stilted bases looked absurd, and he substituted square stone ones, probably returning to Wren’s original idea, for in the early prints illustrating this church they are all undoubtedly shown as square. The high pewings have given way to light open seats, but the lofty wainscoting round the walls has been retained, and the central carved pediment over the altar-piece, which was removed when West’s large painting of “ The Stoning of St. Stephen,” (which now occupies the north wall of the transept,) was placed there, has been restored. The east window has been opened out again and filled with stained glass, and several other windows have been similarly treated, as to which little can be said—by way of commendation. The altar-piece is richly executed, and the old altar remains; it is semicircular in shape, and very low and mean-looking. The altar-rail is also semicircular. There are no ornaments on the altar, nor even a decent cloth, while in the place of altar candlesticks there are two gas brackets with glass shades. In Hatton’s “New View of London” (1708), he describes the altar-piece as “ adorned with 2 columns their Architrave Frise and cornish of the aforesaid order, on the cornish are the Queen’s arms (Anne’s) with supporters carved gilt and painted between 2 lamps standing 1 at each end of the pediment. The Intercolumns are the Commandments done in gold on black between the pourtraitures of Moses and Aaron and under a cherubim and these under a glory, without the columns are the Creed and Lord’s prayer done in black on gold each under the figure of a dove descending above which are two shields with compartments and festoons,” etc., etc. The shields alluded to were probably those of Chicheley and Standen. The description of this altar-piece is given rather fully here, because it may apply to many other of the City churches, and there will be no occasion to repeat these details when describing them. The organ, with its finely-carved case (Plate XVII.), fills up nearly the whole west wall, and with its gallery and supporting columns, forms a very rich and beautifully designed composition. When Hatton wrote his notes there was no organ, only the gallery and door-case; the organ was built by England in 1765. The font, which is of white marble, is of the usual vase or baluster pattern, but is surmounted by a wonderful oak cover, beautifully carved in panels and wreaths, and cherubs’ heads, terminating with an ogee-shaped top, round the base of which are grouped eight little figures, probably representing the Christian graces and virtues. (Plate XIX.) The pulpit also is very richly carved, and is surmounted by a superb sounding-board. (Plate XVIII.) The old L 3 8 brass branches remain; the floor has been concreted all over, and covered with mosaic tessera:. In the “Transaftions of the Royal Institute of British Architefts,” new series, vol. vi., is a very interesting communication on this church from the President, Mr. F. C. Penrose, m which he sets forth the wonderful harmonic proportions of this truly beautiful and unique building, the real secret of its beauty. This he has worked out very carefully, but he adds that Wren was not a slave to these proportional numbers, and did not hesitate to depart from them when he had sufficient reasons for so doing. He makes known the remarkable faft, which the eye would never detea, that the oaagon is not a true one. Among the notable interments in the old church were Sir Rowland Hill, of Hodnet, Salop, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London, in 1549; and Dr. Owen, Physician to Henry VIII. ST. MICHAEL CORNHILL. The patronage of many of the City churches was in the hands of the large abbeys and priories — West¬ minster, St. Albans, Evesham, the Priory of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary Overie, St. Helen Bishopsgate, and many others, possessed the advowsons of two or more. St. Michael Cornhill belonged to the Abbey of Evesham from 1133 to 1503. In the first- mentioned year Alnothus, the priest who then possessed the advowson, conveyed it to the abbot and convent. Abbot Reynold and his monks con¬ veyed it to one Sperling, a priest, together with all the land which they had there, for which he was to pay annually one mark, and to find the abbot in lodging, salt, water and fire, when he came to London. This probably was only for Sperling’s life, as the patronage was still held by them until 1503. Soon after this it was in the possession of Elizabeth Peake, widow, by whom it was, in 1518, conveyed to the Worshipful Company of the Drapers, who still present to it. The old church, which is described by Stow as “ fair and beautiful,” was open on the north side to Cornhill, but in the reign of Edward VI., on the suppression of the chantries and sale of their lands, the churchyard, which was called “ the green churchyard,” was allowed to be built on, and soon four tenements greatly darkened 39 the church, and caused other annoyances. On the south side of the church was a fair cloister surrounding a burial garth, in which was placed a pulpit cross, not unlike the one at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and from which sermons were ordered to be preached. Over the cloisters were lodgings for the choir, as the daily mass was sung here musically. At the west end of the church stood a very stately tower, of which a representation still exists. This tower had been built in 1421, and had a fine peal of bells, one of which, called the “ Rus ” (from the donor’s name), was rung nightly at curfew. It had four lofty corner pinnacles, a leaden spire, with a very fine traceried window lighting the church, and it must have been one of the finest in the mediaeval City. Long before the Great Fire the choristers’ lodgings had been turned into almshouses, the chantries destroyed, and many of the fair tombs demolished, while much of the property which had been left for charitable use was diverted and appropriated by private persons. This fine church must have contained at least seven altars. Robert Fabian, Alderman of London, and author of the famous “ Chronicle,” was buried here, and Stow mentions the graves of both his own father and grandfather, and many other persons of more or less note. The Great Fire swept over the whole of it, and its departed glories now are memories only. It was not until 1672 that the present building was taken in hand by Wren, but only the body of the church and aisles were then dealt with; the fine western tower was not built until sixty years after the Fire, and was not finished until 1721 according to most accounts ; indeed Elmes, in his “ Life of Wren,” says 1722, which was the year preceding Wren’s death, and it would therefore have been his very last work, completed in the ninetieth year of his age j yet it is, both in design and proportion, as bold and as vigorous a composition as any he had ever produced, and it was produced at a time when he was living in the cold shade of distrust, a vidlim to the petty spite and open attack of those in high favour at the Court of George I. Pope, in the Dunciad, refers to this in the following lines. “ See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall, While Jones’ and Boyle’s united labours fall, While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends. Gay dies unpensioned with a hundred friends.” It is not improbable that Wren built his new church of St. Michael very much on the lines of the old one, if not a&ually upon the walls of it. The plan and arrangement is essentially mediaeval. It has a nave and chancel with north and south aisles, the latter not continued quite to the east end. The nave has four bays, the tower is at the west end, opening into the nave, and, so far as the lower part is concerned, may possibly be the old tower of 1421 recased and altered. When Hatton wrote, in 1708, he mentions the church having been destroyed in 1666, “ except the tower,” which probably was patched up and made to do duty until rebuilt by Wren, as described above. Maitland’s view of this church is very curious, but, like all his illustrations of the churches, it cannot well be relied upon. The full-page illustration of the west view of the church in his “ History and Survey of London ” shows the aisles continued westward so as to include the tower, and flanked on each side, north and south, with lofty porches or vestibules of the same height as the aisles. If this representation be correct, these vestibules have long since disappeared. Over the Doric columns (Hatton says “ Tuscan ”) and arches there is a clerestory of circular windows, four on each side, and the 4 ° south aisle was also lighted with circular windows, as shown in Godwin’s view, and there was a large circular window at the east end, with another, smaller, at the west end. The north aisle had blank windows only, which were inserted opposite, to correspond with the south side. Hatton makes no mention of these windows being circular, and from his description we gather that they were not so; he says, “ they are adorned with ranges of columns all of the Corinthian order, with entablatures and arches, and all painted in perspective. The pews were of oak, and the church was wainscoted in the same, eight feet high. The pulpit was adorned with a cornish , and had enrichments of cherubim and a lamp.” He goes on to say that “ the altar-piece had two columns with entablature and pediment of the Corinthian order, the columns were painted Flake stone colour and the rest olive colour. On each side of the columns are the two tables of the Decalogue, between the portraits of Moses and Aaron, finely painted under a Seraphim between two Cherubims (Hatton’s Hebrew is shaky), and as many festoons. The cornish and pediment are adorned with cantilevers, all which enrichments are gilt with gold. In the window above this are the Queen’s arms, painted on the glass, which aperture is adorned with a scarlet festoon curtain, painted as edged with a gold fringe. On the north and south sides of the altar is a spacious pied droit , and another on the south side painted, and a chalice, paten, incense pot, Aaron’s budded rod, and the pot of manna, etc., painted. On the roof over the table is a glory appearing in clouds, painted and gilt, some of whose rays are about eight feet in length. At the east end of the south aisle are painted the Drapers’ arms on the glass of the window there. At the west end of the church is a handsome wainscot door-case adorned with two columns, and their entablament of the Corinthian order enriched with festoons, and over that a pretty organ gallery; this was done in 1688.” The roof is groined both over nave and aisles, and that over the chancel has a barrel vault. Malcolm describes the altar as “ raised on three steps above the chancel, and that again one step above the nave, and that an iron railing incloses the inner, which is most exquisitely carved , and that the pulpit is an absolute goblet , the inlaid work and carving on which deserves every commendation, and that the font is very plain and the organ very handsome.” In 1790 the side windows were made circular, the roof was covered with copper instead of lead, a new circular pulpit and reading-desk, and the following fittings were put in : — two new stoves and chimneys (how redolent of the dark ages when George III. was king), new iron railing to the altar (probably cast instead of the wrought-iron one), twelve new brass branches, and the velvet and cloth entirely new. Wren’s superb tower, soaring high above even the high buildings of the modern Cornhill, still stands, and the church internally, so far as its columns and arches and vaulted roof are concerned, is yet in existence, but all these beautiful fittings of his time, and the less tasteful ones of 1790, have been swept away, and the whole of the interior has been remodelled, terribly out of harmony either with the tower or with Wren’s architeaure. This was done many years ago, under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and beautiful as some of the work is, and sensible as one must be of the spirit in which it was carried out, in order that everything should be of the best and richest that money and talent could procure, one cannot but deplore that all this should have been wasted, in giving us an interior which is neither Gothic nor Classic, neither Italian nor Wrennian, but merely a compound of painted and gilded, carved and bedizened, incongruity. From the half French, half Italian, entrance porch, to the’ >. MARY-AT-HILL THE ORGAN GALLERY. 4 1 east wall, there is nothing to remind us of the English Art of the seventeenth century ; all is altered, all is changed, and unfortunately the example set here, by the hand of a great master, has been copied in other of the City churches, by imitators who did not possess a tithe of Scott’s genius or taste. Stone tracery put into seventeenth-century windows, Minton’s tiles, heavy coloured glass, and brass twisted Birmingham gas-fittings have disfigured many an interior, and most unfortunately much of this mischief is now irreparable. St. Michael’s, which is 87 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 35 feet high, narrowly escaped destruction in a dreadful fire which burnt down Exchange Alley in 1748. 1 I 57 I ST. MARY-AT-HILL, WITH ST. ANDREW HUBBARD. Sancta Maria ad Montem, for thus was it anciently called, possesses one of Wren’s most charming interiors. There never was much of a mountain, the eminence on which it stands being more in the nature of a molehill, for the declivity down to Billingsgate is not very steep, and the present levels are not much altered from the ancient. The church stands considerably to the east of where the Great Fire commenced, yet the flames crept back against the wind, and partially destroyed this, and the neighbouring church of St. Andrew Hubbard, which was never rebuilt, the parish being annexed to St. Mary-at-Hill. We know from various accounts that the old church, which was of ancient foundation, possessed nave and aisles, and western tower, and that the aisles had been added subsequently to the nave. It possessed at least seven altars—the high altar dedicated to St. Mary, and others to St. Thomas, St. Edmund, St. Catherine, St. John Baptist, St. Stephen, St. Christopher, and St. Anne. The north aisle was commenced in 1487, and the south in 1500, the kitchen of the Abbot of Waltham’s house, which adjoined, being pulled down to make room for it. Immediately after the Great Fire steps were taken to rebuild so much of this church as was injured. The tower and side walls, as also the west wall with its windows, being almost intact, Wren only cleared the old interior and constructed this, certainly one of his most beautiful, leaving the old windows and tower. The church is nearly square in plan, slightly longer from east to west, and divided by four columns in the centre into a Greek cross. The com¬ partments forming nave, choir, and transepts, have plain arched ceilings, and at the intersection there is a prettily-designed cupola, carried on pendentives. The ceilings over the four square compartments forming the aisles are flat, the plaster work is boldly designed, and the cornices are of good projection. In Hatton’s “ New View,” he speaks of the north and south windows M 4 2 being “of the Gothic order, evidently the old ones,” and adds that ‘‘the spacious window over & r j nf tlip workman s own invention. (Plate the altar-piece is adorned with pilasters of an ord other C hurches-St. XXI.) This simple plan was also carried out by Wren m se e Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate, St. Martin Ludgate, and St. George Botolph Lane, bu none are so successful as this. Nondescript is the only term that can be applied to the order employed for the internal columns, but it is very good and effective in its free treatment. Hatton calls it “ of no order at all, but a specie partly composed of the Donck and Corinthian. In Maitland’s “ View” the old tower and west end of the church is shown. The tower, which resembled very many others, was a low squat one of four stages, with an o&agonal turret at the north-west angle carried well up above the parapet, and on the roof of the tower was a lantern of timber and lead, surmounted by a vane. All this quaintly pi&uresque part of the church was altered at the commencement of the present century, into the existing flat ana uninteresting work of brick with stone quoins. The extension of the aisles westward beyond Wren’s work gives roomy vestibules, with north and south doors. The only external part of the church visible is the east end, which abuts on the lane called St. Mary Hill; this is of Portland stone, and shows a flat central gable and horizontal sides. In the centre is a blocked window of three divisions, the centre arched and the sides flat, with an entablature over. The main cornice is broken in the centre to allow the insertion of a semicircular window, Venetian in type, and the pediment is also broken, the top of the window being carried up into it. A quaint clock projects on a beam from this front, and is well seen both up and down the lane. The vestry, a long panelled room, which has a good chimney-piece, is at the south-east corner. The chief glories of this church are its wonderfully beautiful fittings, which have fortunately suffered very little from alteration, and to which has been added a good deal of modern work, so admirably executed by Rogers that it is difficult to distinguish it from the ancient, d he organ, rebuilt by Hill and Sons, is a very large and finely-toned one, and is placed in a western gallery. (Plate XXII.) There are no less than four sword rests, one a modern one of most elaborate design, and the pulpit retains its sounding board. The present lofty altar-piece hardly can be the one described by Hatton, for he mentions the Queen’s arms and supporters, and the east window, which is now blocked, has above it a “ glory ” gilt, with rays emanating from a triangle. But if the altar-piece is not original, it is an excellent imitation of one of Wren’s, and fits its position very well. In Malcolm’s « Lon- dmnm Rcdivivum the description tallies with its present appearance, but a century had elapsed between Hatton s and Malcolm’s accounts. The cost of rebuilding was £3,980 1 U 3 d. ST. OLAVE JEWRY, WITH ST. MARTIN POMERY. This church has but very recently been destroyed. The east end, which was of stone, abutted on to the west side of Old Jewry, called also in olden time St. Olave Upwell. After the Fire the church of St. Martin Pomery or Pomary was not rebuilt, and the parish was annexed to this; the one building serving for the two parishes. It was an early founda¬ tion, existing in 1181, and probably long before that. St. Olave, a Norwegian by birth, was the son of Herald Grinska, and was one of those dreaded Norsemen who ravaged our shores and sailed up our rivers, spreading devastation far and wide. Newcourt says of him that during the reign of Ethelred II., for the space of three years he remained here to assist Ethelred against the Danes, and then returned to Norway, of which country he afterwards became king. He had become a Christian, and as his subje&s had not embraced that faith, a party was formed against him, who united with the Danes. Olaf or Olave lost both his life and kingdom in the year 1028, and was soon after canonized. His memory was held in such esteem here, that many churches were dedicated to him, three, if not four, in London alone. St. Martin Pomery took that name from being situated in the “ pomcerium,” a space left behind the walls to allow the free passage of troops in defending weak points of the wall. In Roman times houses were not allowed to be built on this space, but in later London the growth of the City absorbed it. The church of St. Olave certainly could not be called a handsome one. The plan was very eccentiic, being wider at the west end, and the north and south walls tapering to the east, which gave it a coffin-like shape, still further increased by the canting of the angles at the west end. It had a western tower, and a large portion of the internal area at the west was partitioned off, and formed vestibules and a vestry. There was a west gallery, returned slightly along the north and south walls; the ceiling was flat, with a deep cornice round, and the side windows had enrichments of cherubim and festoons, over each. The pulpit and font were good, but of no original merit; the internal door-cases were richly carved. Hatton describes three paintings which adorned the church in his time; one of Elizabeth, representing her as lying in effigy on a tomb and another of Charles I. in his royal robes, kneeling and holding a crown of thorns; in the background is a ship, tempest-tossed. A third picture at the west end represented Time, with his scythe and hourglass, apparently triumphing over 44 a sleeping cupid, and trampling on a skeleton, but none of the three have survived. John Boydel theftlus alderman, was buried here, and there was a tablet to hts memory. Externally only the east and west ends were of Portland stone. The tower was very plam, with four corner pinnacles rising from the parapet, above a bold proving cornice and taking the church altogether it was not a very favourable specimen of Wren s arch,tenure. The united parishes have now been annexed to St. Margaret Lothbury, and everyth,ng worth preserving has been taken there. The tower still stands, and has been utilized for some purely secular purpose, and at present there is no intention of removing it. It is to be most earnestly hoped that in this case funds have been reserved out of the general “ loot ’ to keep it in repair, and not to let it go to ruin as in the case of St. Mary Somerset! ST. BENET FINK. This beautiful little church, which stood on the site now occupied by the Peabody statue at the back of the Royal Exchange, was removed by an A6t of Parliament for “ the improve¬ ment of the approaches to London Bridge” about 1841, although it is rather difficult to see how in any way it could possibly have interfered with them. It is an instance of the apathy and negledt of real art on the part of the City authorities, made doubly painful by the substitution of an awful example of a bronze statue, comfortably seated in an easy chair; one of the worst of the many bad statues of public men which dVr-grace our public thoroughfares. St. Benet, as he was popularly called in London, where there were several churches dedicated to him, was St. Benedift the Abbot the founder of the BenediSines, and the second name, Fink, was from the original founder or rebuilder of the church, Robert Fink or Finch the eider, whose name is perpetuated in the adjacent Finch Lane. It was an old foundation and the patronage was vested in the neighbouring hospiml Of St. Anthony on the site of what is now the new addition to the Stock Exchange. The foundations of the hospital were laid bare when the add.tlon was made a few years since Th 1 r , - • *7* TOWER. the building were 45 received on each column. The spaces between the columns were arched, forming a series of vaulted recesses round the building; a singularly picturesque arrangement. Externally the windows, which were of the Venetian type, with stone mullions, had been partially blocked at some subsequent period, leaving only the upper parts open. The tower was a very pleasing design and nicely proportioned, with oval belfry lights, over which the main cornice was carried, and boldly carved swags of fruit and flowers in stone, decorated the lower part. The lead-covered upper part and lantern harmonized well with the lower part. Although one of the smallest of Wren’s towers, 87 feet being its total height, exclusive of the vane, it is certainly one of the most pleasing. One of the principal subscribers to the rebuilding after the Fire, was a Roman Catholic gentleman named Holman, who gave ^1,000, and would have given the organ also, but this offer was refused. In one of the south windows was a “ south declining west ” dial, finely painted with the motto c ‘ Sine Lumine Inane,” and in another window were the arms of Holman. The font and cover, reredos, panelling, and carving, all seem to have been exceptionally good, but there is no record of what became of them at die destruction. The parish was annexed to St. Peter-le-Poer Broad Street. ST. DIONIS BACKCHURCH. This church is dedicated to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who, according to tradition, was baptized by the Apostle St. Paul and laboured as a missionary bishop in Gaul, converting many. He is better known under his French name of St. Denys, and was beheaded at Montmartre, Paris. Manchester Cathedral is dedicated to him in association with St. Mary and St. George. The term “ Backchurch ” evidently alluded to its position, it being set a little way “ back ” from Fenchurch Street, while the neighbouring church of St. Gabriel stood more prominently forth in the road¬ way. St. Dionis has been destroyed within the last fifteen years. In plan it was an irregular parallelogram, consisting of nave and north and south aisles, continued to the east wall, but terminating at the west end in a tower and vestry respectively. The aisles were separated by Ionic columns and pilasters, carrying an entablature from which sprang the arched and groined plaster ceiling. In each of the groins so formed was a circular clerestory window, and the ceilings of the aisles were flat, with round-headed windows in each bay. There was a western gallery, containing a fine organ, supported on wrought-iron square pilasters, with gilt caps, similar to those of St. James Garlick Hill. The pulpit with its sounding board, and the reredos were all good specimens of seventeenth-eentury art, and many of its mural monuments were very fine. Externally the tower, rather Italian in character, rose well above the houses, and with the row of small shops in front was picturesque. The late George Edmund Street, R.A., made a design for converting the whole N 4 6 church and tower into a sort of Lombardic church, with traceried windows and horizontally striped cnurcn ana tower iiilo a f ront and substituting an open cloister walls of red brick and stone, clearing away the p^ ^ ^ church a very perfeft court, which fortunately was not carried ou . h ribs and bosse s of the fifteenth crvpt was found at the east end of the north aisle, vaulted win. century. The whole church seemed to have been ereded on the remains of the pre-reforma¬ tion strudure. Fenchurch Street in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had a good many wealthy residents, and their liberal benefadions and gifts, helped towards the rebuilding of their parish church. We read that several persons lent ^2,000 towards the rebuild,ng, and that the whole of the oak seating was also given. Sir Thomas Cullum gave the marble footpace and Steps, Sir Arthur Ingram the altar and rails, Sir Henry Tulse the font steps and pavement, Sir Robert Jeffreys the velvet carpet or cover for the altar, the cushions, and books, Thomas Sturges the gallery, Phillip Jackson the reredos, his wife the altar linen, and a friend the chalice, patten, and spoon, Peter Hoet another chalice and basin, Daniel Rawlmson a brass branch of sixteen sockets, and there were many other gifts. Provision was made for prayers twice a day. When the church was destroyed the then redor retired upon his full stipend, and, having seceded to the Roman church still draws his stipend as redtor of St. Dionis ! At the west end of the church were preserved four of those large syringes or squirts for the extinction of fire, veritable “parish squirts.” The church was commenced in 1674, and finished in 1677, but the tower was not added until ST. GEORGE BOTOLPH LANE, WITH ST. BOTOLPH BILLINGSGATE. Standing in close proximity to the spot where the flames first burst forth on that fatal September night, this church was one of the first to succumb to its ravages. It was soon rebuilt, and the neighbouring parish of St. Botolph was annexed to it; the new church, which was finished in 1674, being made to serve the two parishes. Small as to size, and standing on a declivity from west to east, Wren made use of t e opportunity to raise it on a plinth, or basement. The plan is nearly a square, with a tower breaking into it at the north-west angle, menially the area is divided into nave and aisles by four Composite columns, carrying an entablature from which springs the arched roof of thl nave whfie the ceilings over the aisles are flat. The arched celling is j ■ , > bands of a running scroll ornament and each r n g lded . lnto Aree compartments by flat The centre and western divisions have each circular deram 4 ^ -T 1 " SUbdmded into P anek while that of the eastern has no clerestory. The side wall 7 WS ,’ f °' ned lnto the vault > alls are pierced by windows, three on 47 each side, except the west wall, which has one only, at the west end of the south aisle. The south-east window of this aisle is circular, a vestry abutting on to the church at this corner. Exception perhaps might be made to the unusual width of the inter-columniation, but the interior is light and graceful. Wren used this arrangement of a square plan with four columns in three other churches — St. Anne Aldersgate, St. Martin Ludgate, and St. Mary-at-Hill_but in each case he varied the treatment, so that no two are alike. The reredos and the pulpit are richly carved, and there is a very handsome sword rest of wrought iron, embellished with the arms of William Beckford, twice Lord Mayor during a rather stormy period in George III.’s reign, when the Court and the City were not on the best of terms. His first mayoralty was in 1762, and his second and more memorable one in 1770. A similar sword rest, bearing his arms, was also erefted in St. Mary-at-Hill, but the one at St. George’s has this inscription:—“ Sacred to the memory of that real patriot, the Right Honourable W. Beckford, twice Lord Mayor of London, whose incessant spirited efforts to serve his country hastened his dissolution, on the 21st of June, 1770, in the time of his Mayoralty, and in the 62nd year of his age.” There is also a plainer sword rest in the same church. Externally the walls are of stone, and the windows, with the exception of the east one, which is larger and round-headed, have segmental arched heads. The tower rises boldly from the ground, but is very plain, with square-headed belfry lights, plain cornice, and solid parapet. At each corner of the parapet is an urn, surmounted by flames. The east front is plain, but in good proportion ; the centre projects slightly, and is finished at the top with a cornice and pediment, while the aisles on each side have half pediments and a cornice, the cornice being continued round the sides. The organ was not built until 1723. The paintings of Moses and Aaron which adorn the reredos, were added subsequently to the time when Hatton wrote (1708). St. Botolph the Abbot is a saint of whom very little is known, and Baring-Gould, in his “ Lives of the Saints, has little to say of him. By some he is called Botolph the Briton, and is claimed as a Cornishman, but the name is evidently Saxon. Whether he specially defended travellers or not, it is curious that his churches are generally placed near the gates of the City; for at Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, and Billingsgate there were churches dedicated to him. The original church of St. Botolph, destroyed in the Fire, was a very ancient foundation, dating from Saxon times. Stow describes it as a “ proper church, and hath had many fair monuments within now defaced and gone.” The adjoining wharf, called “ Buttolphs,” belonged to the Crown. St. George’s Church is one of those threatened with destruction at no distant date, probably on the next voidance of the living, now held by Canon McColl. It was stated at a public meeting held in the vestry of St. Edmund the King, that the church had been closed for three years, and that a scheme was on foot for amalgamating it with St. Margaret Pattens. ST. MICHAEL WOOD STREET, WITH ST. MARY STAINING. Proceeding westward along Gresham Street, just at the angle where Wood Street intersects it, one sees the east gable of this church, almost buried by the lofty buildings close to it, and even the spire, a lead-covered one, looks puny and stunted. On the south side it is bounded by Huggin Lane, a very narrow thoroughfare j so that the east end was the only one where any architectural effeCt could possibly be displayed. This consists of three large round-headed windows divided by Ionic pilasters, supporting a cornice and pediment, and in the centre of the pediment is a circular window. Plain and commonplace as this exterior is, the interior of this small church is still plainer, for it is merely a short parallelogram with a coved ceiling, and whatever interest it may formerly have possessed recent alterations have robbed it of, with the exception of the oak reredos. The seats are all new, with bench ends of mediaeval design, and brass gas standards in the same incongruous style t£ decorate ” the interior. The organ loft and panelling, together with the churchwardens’ seats, have all disappeared, and the organ is now placed on the floor at the west end; it has lost its old case, and the pipes have been stencilled with a diaper pattern in the “ correCt ” Gothic style. The old tower remains; evidently the Great Fire only injured the upper part of it, and the belfry, which was never rebuilt. A timber spire, covered with either lead or copper, was stuck abruptly on the stunted portion left*;-it-originally retained the old four-light fifteenth century window, but this has now been- replaced by an ordinary round-headed one. There is a tradition that the head of James IV. King of Scotland, was at one time kept here. It is said that after he was slain at Flodden Field, his body was embalmed, and brought to the monastery at Sheen, but at the Dissolution it was wrapped in lead, and placed in a umber-room, where Stow saw it, and that some workmen, out of pure wantonness removed the head winch was taken away by Lancelot Young, Elizabeth’s master-glazier, and brought to his house in Wood Street, and that he, weary of possessing the gruesome objedt, subsequently gave it to the sexton of this church. A curious coincidence, and a rather remarkable one in ts way, is conneaed with this. The monastery at Sheen was given to Henry Grey, Duke of He Jv n k 7 TV 11 ? thC r ° yal was despoiled of Jhead; the head of Henry, Duke of Suffolk, after being separated from his body by the headsman’s axe, was long shown at Holy Trinity Minories, as a curious obiedt in ti,, 77 neatismaii s axe, King of Scotland, had been shown at St. Michael’s Wood trZ \ TT? 7 -'“J J ‘T the authority for these two traditional heads is very slender Th ^ "7 7 7 sword rest here, but the parish wanting monev for the r r • \ ^ KCeD ^ a g °° d Company of Haberdashers, and as a movement is on 777 ; t *7 “ C ° ^ W ° rshi P ful well that it should be in their keeping. St. Michael’s wa destr< V Ae church ’ P erha P s k Is as jC 2 ’554 tan ntf. The church of the adioiniiw n ■ h C °“P leted ln i6 75 , and the cost was in the Great Fire, it was not rebuilt, and the parhh^ 18 ° ^ Stainin § bein g destro y ed parish was annexed to St. Michael’s. ST. MAGNUS LONDON BRIDGE, WITH ST. MARGARET NEW FISH STREET AND ST. MICHAEL CROOKED LANE. This fine church, whose lofty and beautiful tower and spire is such a conspicuous objeCt, stands close to the present London Bridge; but to the old bridge, which was a little further eastward it was even closer, the footway passing under the tower. This will perhaps help one better to realize the advantages of new London Bridge and its approaches, for there was formerly a steep descent down New Fish Street, and then a considerable rise again until the centre of the old bridge was gained, whereas now, Thames Street is carried through one of the arches of the new bridge, and one looks down upon this church. Much has been said of Wren’s foresight in building the tower on such a plan that it could be utilized and thrown into the public way j but, if Maitland’s view of the church can be relied on, the north and south aisles were then carried further westward, and terminated in a straight line with the west wall of the tower, which rather militates against this theory. The present building suffered severely in a fire, which broke out at an oil-shop close to it, in 1760, burning off the roofs and very much injuring the interior; but it still retains many of its old fittings, and very soon after the needful repairs were executed, this alteration at the west end was decided on, and carried out. The dedication to St. Magnus is curious, for he was a Norwegian, a son of Erlendr, Earl of Orkney, and on account of family dissensions had retired to Orkney, where he was most treacherously murdered by his cousin Hako, a.d. mo. Both the Magnus Helga Saga and the Orkneyinga Saga, give a detailed account of his life and martyrdom. In the Roman Calendar there are two other saints of this name—St. Magnus, Bishop of Avignon, and St. Magnus, Bishop of Amagni; but evidently the northern saint is commemorated here, as elsewhere in this island. The building and foundation of this church could not therefore have been so early as many others in London. The church internally is very disappointing, and probably the injury done by the fire before referred to, and the utter dearth of all architectural talent at the time of the repairs, may be answerable for this; but what strikes one most is the extraordinary width and irregular spacing of the intercolumniation; the second bay from the west looks as if it had o 5 ° , . ■ to account for an omission which Wren certainly was never lost its columns, and i is ^ ^ eastward again is on l y half the width of the others. The guilty of anywhere e s J horizontal entablature and oval clerestory columns are Ionic, and look weak, they-- oyer the windows , but with very little aisles are perfoaly Hat, Without any ornament; all of which is probably due to the taste prevalent in 1760. The altar-piece is very line, and so are the font and pulpit; unfortunately the last has been shorn of its superb sounding board, which now stands on end in the vestibule, terribly knocked about. The font cover is not unlike that of St. Mary Abchurch. The organ and case, a magnificent piece of work fills up the whole west wall over the gallery. The instrument itself was built by the two Jordans, and was presented to the church by Sir Charles Duncombe, Lord Mayor, who also gave the clock, which was originally decorated with the figures of Atlas and Hercules, St. Magnus and St. Margaret (curious company), and two cupids to maintain harmony, all richly carved and gilt with gold. There is some very good wrought-iron work in the church, especially the altar-rails here shown, and a curious sword rest. The standards in front of the organ gallery have the initials A. R. surmounted by a crown. Over the door-case at the west end of the south aisle, rather high up, is now placed the carved oak and painted centre portion of the reredos, which is of unusual shape and form, and was removed to show more of the east window. The windows are all filled with modern stained glass, heavy in colour and poor in design, and the east window, which is unfortunately very large, is also filled with a sort of kaleidoscopic pattern. The galleries have been removed, except the organ one, and the loss of these contributes greatly to the poor and bare look of the interior ; but all these internal imperfections are compensated for by the ex¬ ceedingly fine tower and spire, certainly one of Wren’s most original and graceful ideas (Plate XXIII.), and, like St. Paul’s, thoroughly identified with London. In the plate the Tower Bridge is well seen in the distance, and the enormous size and scale of it is better realized when contrasted with a building like St. Magnus. St. Margaret’s New Fish Street stood very much on the site which the monument now occupies, commemorating the Great Fire to which St. Margaret and St. Magnus were the two first churches to succumb. There is a beautiful door-case, which originally formed one of the entrances at the west end, but it has been removed now to the south¬ east end, and forms a small vestry. St. Michael’s Crooked Lane was destroyed to improve the approach to the new London Bridge. The tower and spire were very good in outline, although the church was but ordinary. Malcolm, in the “ Lon- dinum Redivivum,” dismisses it in very few words : “ The church of St. Michael is really so plain as to be indescribable; the altar-piece, of the Corinthian order, consists of four pillars and a divided pediment and the usual tables; there is no organ, and but three tablets,” yet, like so many of these churches, it was inseparably connected with the national history. It had been rebuilt by John Lovekin, who was four times Lord Mayor, and a new chancel and chapel were added by Sir William Walworth, who lies buried here. 53 And one more entry to connect this church with events which are familiar to our minds like household words. Walter Warden gave towards the finding of one chaplain all his tenement called “ The Boar’s Head in East Cheap.” DOOR-CASE, FORMERLY ONE OF THE ENTRANCES AT THE WEST END, ALSO THE FONT. ST. JAMES GARLICK HYTHE OR HILL, TO WHICH IS NOW ANNEXED THE PARISH OF ST. MICHAEL QUEENHYTHE. The dedication of this church is to St. James the Great, the Apostle of our Lord and first Bishop or Patriarch of Jerusalem, beheaded by Herod Agrippa. It was a very old foundation, and the first re¬ building of which we have any notice was in 1326. After the Great Fire the foundation of the present church was laid in 1676; it was consecrated in 1682, and completely finished as to its tower and spire in 1683. Originally it was isolated on all sides, but encroachments have been allowed which almost entirely block the south side. The interior is very fine and stately, and there are one or two features peculiar to it, and not found elsewhere. The plan comprises a nave and aisles, with a short chancel and western tower and spire, with a small vestry at the south-eastern angle, and a western organ gallery. The nave is divided from the aisles by four detached Ionic columns on each side, and wall pilasters. The central bay on each side is wider, and opens into a short transept, which does not project beyond the line of the aisle, but is carried up into the main roof. The columns support a deep cornice, over which is a clerestory. The ceiling in the centre is flat, divided into five panels, with a deep cove groined over the windows, and the groin carried as a barrel vault into the chancel and transepts. The ceiling of the aisles is flat, with deep moulded plaster beams from the columns to the walls, dividing the ceiling into panels. In the main ceiling, where the cove meets the flat part, there is a very bold and highly enriched cornice, and the panels on the flat are also framed with a deep enrichment; the two end ones are filled with scroll foliage, and the centre one with a circular flower. From the number and size of the windows the church was called « Wren’s lantern,” but the blocking of the whole of the aisle windows on the south side, and the covering of the east window with a huge painting of the Ascension, by Geddes, with the destruction of the north and south transept windows, have entirety altered this. To make matters still worse, every remammg window has been filled with dark and heavy stained glass, and wheel windows in the tran f v’T' u ch “ aa ' r With the desi S n of the buildin g> have been inserted oWnTZ wlT ! r UICh dark even °“ the <%, while the scheme of nouT is not! t f ^ngs -creases the gloomy effe* of the interior, which, oddly enough, is not so not.ceable in the illustration (Plate XXV.) as in the reality. It retains its S. JAMES.. GARLICK HITHE INTERIOR VIEW. Plate XXV. ante ss high oak wainscot round the walls, but the seats have been lowered. Most unusually for a church of this period they were not of oak, but deal, painted and grained. The east end has been fitted up for a choir with the oak fittings from St. Michael’s Queenhythe. Two doorways from this church form the backs of the stalls and screen off the aisles behind. The pulpit also comes from St. Michael’s, together with the quaint wrought-iron hat-rails and one of the sword rests. The reredos has been curtailed to get in the large painting above, which was a gift to the church in 1815 by the curate, afterwards redtor, Dr. Burnet. It is of no great merit, being boldly, but coarsely, painted. The spaces of the reredos once occupied by the decalogue, etc., are nowfilled in with paintings, the central one | ^ being the Supper at Emmaus, jl and the side ones angels and scrolls, of more recent date j [ than the large upper painting, . v* but, as works of art, of even less hat-rail. merit. The old paving has been replaced by mediaeval tiles, and in the sandtuary the old black and white marble paving is left in the centre, but it has a broad border of mediaeval tiles, of a particularly aggressive pattern. Brass standards of the ordinary Birmingham Gothic type, bristle all over the church; the columns are painted to represent yellow Sienna marble; and the walls are of a sad green colour. The church did not possess any monuments of particular interest or merit, and since the amalgamation of the two parishes those of St. Michael are added to the number. 1 The wrought-iron columns supporting the organ gallery are very good, and are similar to those formerly existing in St. Dionis Backchurch. The whole space beneath this gallery is screened off from the church, and forms roomy vestibules. In 1838 the windows were blocked in the south aisle, and two new windows inserted at the west end. Godwin, in his “ Churches of London,” says four windows were inserted, but in old views two only are shown as then existing. □ The chief feature of the exterior is the tower and lantern, which is of the same type as St. Michael’s Paternoster, and St. Stephen’s Walbrook, but entirely column under different from either in its arrangement of coupled columns at the angles (Plate THE GALLERY. _ ° A 0 ' XXIV.). The parish is small, but contains perhaps a larger residential population than many others in the City, and is well provided with services. The church is kept open during the day. 1 Since this was written the church has been redecorated in soft ivory white, and the walls in a toned buff with a light red frieze working in the cockle shell of St. James. The tiles in the sandtuary have been suppressed, the brass standards abolished, and the whole of the heavy stained glass in the upper windows has been removed, plain glass substituted ; several other minor improvements have also been effected. ST. MILDRED POULTRY, WITH ST. MARY COLECHURCH. This diminutive church was long a familiar objedt in the Poultry, opposite the Mansion House. Its site is now occupied partly by the Union Bank of London, and the Equitable Life Assurance. The dedication is to St. Mildred, a Saxon princess and abbess of Minster, j£ en t. Jr was an old foundation, and had been rebuilt in 145°) previous to the Great Fire, but was then totally destroyed, and rebuilt in 1676. The plan was a parallelogram, with the tower breaking into the south-west corner. It had a flat roof, with a circle inscribed, and coved at the sides, while the angle of the tower was carried by a single Ionic column, and the space westward of this was occupied by a vestibule below, and an organ gallery above. The reredos was of the ordinary type, and neither the pulpit or the font had any special features to distinguish them from many others. The front towards the Poultry was a little more ornate, but the windows had been blocked, possibly to prevent the noise of the passing traffic disturbing the services, and presented a very blank appearance. The tower was a very low one, with square-headed belfry lights, a bold cornice, and a rather high parapet, with a small lead-covered lantern. There was a large and commodious vestry-room added on the north side, which had the appearance of being built later than the main building. The front towards St. Mildred’s Court was the best, but the court was so narrow that it could not be properly seen. The living originally belonged to the canons of the Priory church of St. Mary Overie, and in old documents is styled “ Ecclesia Mildredas super Walbrooke, vel in Pulletria, una cum capell Beatse Marias de Conyhop eidem annexa.” This chapel of St. Mary Coneyhope Lane, had been destroyed by Henry VIII. Its dimensions were 56 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 36 feet high. The cost was ^4,654 91. j\d. St. Paul s Clerkenwell, was built out of the proceeds of the sale of the site and materials. ST. STEPHEN COLEMAN STREET. This church is dedicated to the glorious proto-martyr, and is a very plain and unobtrusive building, possessing but little interest now, for the demon of destruction has swept over the interior, and has left it plain, bald, and most uninteresting. Traditionally it was supposed to have been a chapelry attached to St. Olave Jewry, but it occurs on the list of livings drawn up by Ralph de Diceto as belonging to St. Paul’s in 1182. The interior is a plain oblong, with the sides far from parallel; the ceiling is flat and has coved sides. The galleries have been removed and the church reseated with open benches. With the exception of the west one, which was continued a short distance along the north and south walls, the galleries were comparatively modern, and supported by iron columns. The tower, which carries a short lead-covered lantern, is at the north-west corner, and the church is lighted on the north and south sides by round-headed windows, now filled with ornamental glazing. The east window, of similar form, but larger, contains a repre¬ sentation of the Deposition from the Cross, after Rubens. It is heavy and dark, the light being transmitted through certain portions to give the effedt of a picture. The oak panelling at the west end, screening the vestibule, is modern and poor. Externally the church has no architectural merit, but in the stone gateway, leading into the churchyard, is a curious representation of the Last Judgment; somewhat similar to the one at St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It was rebuilt in 1676. Hatton’s description of the east end does not agree with the present arrangement, for he speaks of a u circular pediment between two pine-apples, and under the pediment the figure of a cock carved within a handsome compartment between two festoons, and two windows environed with enrichments,” all of which have given way to the present bald arrangement. It is a striking example of “ how not to do it” when altering Wren’s work. ST. LAURENCE JEWRY, WITH ST. MARY MAGDALEN MILK STREET. A little to the south of the Guildhall, with the east end abutting on to Guildhall Yard, and quite clear of houses on all sides, this church possesses advantages, as to both light and position, beyond many others. It is dedicated to St. Laurence the Deacon, whose martyrdom is symbolized by the gridiron, which serves as a vane to the lead-covered spire. There was only one other church in London dedicated to this saint, St. Laurence Pountney, which was not rebuilt after the Fire. St. Laurence took the name of “Jewry” from being near to the Ghetto, or quarter where the Jews had been compelled to reside, now called “ Old Jewry.” In an outburst of popular fury, which occurred in the forty-seventh year of the reign of Henry III., seven hundred of these unfortu¬ nate people were massacred, and their goods and houses utterly ruined. Their synagogue was afterwards assigned to the Friars of the Sack, “ Fratres de Sacca, or <£ de penitentia, who derived their name not from the ■ ti , the letters T 1ST n r n -v “ ^ he centre panel now contains a cross between most nf rh ’ w • A ^ ei 0Ver C ^ e a ' s ^ es ’ which are proportionately narrower than Z ve st h m • r heS (with the eXCe P ti ™ Peter Cornhill), is groined, and has Ze oZn bv eS R Prl t gl T m COTbdS ° n thC WaU dde > ^ entablature of the main arcade. figures, and F Le bLTng aZmpZeZ The Z Z “ C " e > Z P 5 ■ The seats have been lowered, and the chancel properly 77 stalled for a choir. The altar rail is not a very rich specimen of wrought iron work, and the same design is made to do duty again in the front of the choristers’ desks. The pulpit, which is now placed on the north side, is well carved, but of no other particular merit, and it has no sounding board. The font, which tradition says came from the old church, bears this inscription, “Deo et ecclesias ex dono Henrici Hethersall, anno 1615,” which supports the tradition; the bason is of white marble, with the arms of Hethersall, and the stem is of black marble, but the design is very much like Wren’s usual fonts. The old pavement has been replaced by tiles. The three fine brass branches mentioned by Hatton are no longer here, but the present brass fittings and standards for gas are in very good taste, being in marked contrast to the usual style of gas standards elsewhere. The gallery fronts are very curious, the centre portion having the appearance of being reversed. The whole church has been decorated in colour, very judiciously applied, and the effed is quiet and reposeful. It is a little richer in tone at the east end, and the gilding, which is not overdone, is applied with great judgment. There is a very plain sword rest; the oak wainscoting has not been interfered with, and taking it as a whole, the most rabid anti-restorer could find very little fault with the manner in which this church has been treated. In Hatton’s time the east window had some stained or painted glass, which he describes as “ Nebulous,” and “ above the clouds appears, from within a large crimson velvet festoon-painted curtain, a celestial choir, or a representation of the church triumphant in the vision and presence of a glory in the shape of a dove, all finely painted.” In his time also the large east window had a neat scarlet silk curtain edged with gold fringe, and he speaks of the “ pourtraidlures ” of Moses with the two tables in his hands, and Aaron in his priest’s habit. These have long since disappeared. Externally the church is built of Portland stone. A good view of it is difficult to get, as it is surrounded by houses. The upper part of the spire (Plate XXX.) is curious, perhaps more curious than stridfly beautiful, as the diminishing odtagon stages give it a pagoda-like effiedt, but the lower part of the tower is very fine. It has been struck by lightning three times, the last being but recently. The services were, daily prayers at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. The living, now in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, was formerly in that of the abbot and convent. The rebuilding, which cost ^11,430, was finished in 1680. There are an unusual number of monumental tablets which cover the walls internally, some very good, but many mere blisters on the walls. One quaint inscription is worth quoting from Stow. “ Here lyeth James Kinnon, a gentleman of Lentillo Monmouthshire, a Citizen Cannoneer and Soldier, he died aged 67 years overheating his blood in preparing 40 Chambers at the entertainment to the Prince in the Artillery Garden. To which Society he gave 40 chambers and 5 marks in money he had one wife and one son, obiit 19 Dec. 1615. The Prince was Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of James. x ST. CLEMENT DANES TO THE GLORY OF GOD And for the Solemn Worship of His Holy Name, This old Church being greatly decayed WAS TAKEN DOWN IN THE YEAR 1680 AND REBUILT AND FINISHED IN THE YEAR 1682 BY THE PIOUS ASSISTANCE OF THE ReV D D r GREGORY HaSKARD Rector and the bountiful contributions of THE INHABITANTS OF THIS PARISH AND SOME OTHER noble Benefactors. Sir Christopher Wren, his Majesties Surveyor freely and generously bestowing his great care and skill towards the contriving and building of it. Which good Work was all along greatly promoted and encouraged, by the Zeal and Diligence of the Vestry. Hugh Owen, William Jarman, Thomas Cox, William Thompson and John Radford being Churchwardens. So the Workmen wrought and the work was perfected by them, and they set the House of God in his state, and strengthened it. — 2 Chronicles 24. 13. SOLI DEO GLORIA. This was erected in the tear 1684, Roger Franklin and James Deely, being Church- WARDENS. Such are the words of an inscription on a marble tablet within this church, a worthy commemoranon of the prety and zeal of former parishioners of St. Clement Danes, who have ntrish whi 'T gU,shed> and are Pre-eminently so to this day, for a love of their church and elemvainffl T7 T ^ benefka ° rs > in zealous and painstaking of administerin' 1 1’ f T mlnIStrations and in arduous and too often thankless task ut h!“v! b and ; Wtable b ^sts-trusts which have never been negledled, hirers Tt rel“ T l ^ ^ -cording to the intentions of former Commissioners misnamed Ch'aritWsincfth^T’ Whether - Under the administration of those charity), and who are compS.^L*^^ “““ “ * “ d a hind ™ Ce “ f benefit of their poorer brethren P? f ■ tamentar 5 r bequests which men devise for the legitimate use, to ends never co’ntemplatfd'of ^ funds fr ° m th f poorer brethren will benefit as they did • 1, by th ° Se wb ° P lousl 7 left them—the the friends and neighbours who knew thenTand'th 375 '“h ‘ rUStS ^ administered ^ tnem and their wants and privations. SLADE LIBRARY. 79 The dedication to St. Clement is not a very common one. He was the third Bishop of A Oil AAAA/lirW¥ Of- T in.." L _ 1 1 1 1 1 Alfred the Great after the conquest of London compelled the Danes to settle in this spot, outside the City boundaries. There seems no good ground for doubting that the church thus obtained this distinguishing appellation. Another derivation, however, attributes it to Harold, a Danish king, being buried here, but which of the Harolds it does not say, and no doubt this is purely legendary. The tower of the medieval church still exists, but recased and altered by Wren. Subsequently it was heightened, and the spire built by Gibbs. (Plate XXXII.) On the south side there was originally a very beautiful semi-circular portico, resembling the west portico of the adjoining church of St. Mary-le-Strand, but this was removed when the Strand improvements were carried out by Alderman Pickett at the com¬ mencement of the century. The plan is peculiar, the eastern termination of the nave being semi-circular, with a semi-circular apse projecting. The ceiling is arched, and profusely decorated with panels and enrichments (Plate XXXIII.), and the spandrels of the vaulting, springing from the rather slight columns which support it, contain very beautiful panels of unusually rich design. (Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV.) The aisles are groined in plaster, and the way in which this lower ceiling sweeps round and opens into the chancel ceiling is exceedingly clever. :.•.]» .. This church is airy and spacious, and is a beautiful specimen;; ©f;-Wren’s work. The galleries are well treated, and the beautiful oak fittings give an air of solidity and comfort to the interior. The organ, which has very recently been enlarged, was originally built by Bernard Smith. (Plate XXXIV.) The pulpit is very beautifully carved. It is worthy of note that there were formerly three daily services in this church—at ten in the morning, three in the afternoon, and eight in the evening. Dr. Samuel Johnson was an habitual worshipper here, and his seat is still pointed out. The south gallery fronts were decorated with the arms of the Dukes of Norfolk and Earls of Arundel and Salisbury, all of whom, including the Earls of Essex, were parishioners. The parish was once very densely populated, but wholesale clearances for the New Law Courts, Court of Bankruptcy, etc., have eliminated large traCts of ancient and most insalubrious courts and alleys. Gibbs’ spire is not particularly pleasing as an architectural composition, the successive stages giving it rather a pagoda-like look, but it is very quaint, and contrasts well with the towers and spires of the New Law Courts. A very good view of the church is obtained from the top of the flight of steps on the north, leading from Carey Street to the Strand, and another, still more picturesque, from Holywell Street. It seems almost incredible that schemes should have been devised to remove, not only St. Clement, but St. Mary-le-Strand also, to open out the view of the Law Courts (which were never designed to be seen as a whole), thereby destroying two of the finest works in architecture of a past age which London can boast, and they form one of the most pleasing vistas in any city of the world. To see these two spires outlined against either the rising or the setting sun is a revelation, and anyone who could 8o advocate such an aft of vandalism as their destrudion would involve, must be utterly dead to The real obstrufiion, however, is that middle row of houses between the Strand and Holywell Street, which, if we did but possess a County Council alive to real improvements, and not given over to problematical theories and endless talk, might have been carried out long ago. Malcolm, in his work, “ Londinum Redivivum,” vol. iii., page 395, speaks of the architefture of St. Clement’s as “ a deranged collection of handsome and ridiculous parts, and further ascribes the credit of the design (in dired contradidion to the tablet hanging in the church) to one Edward Pierce. Changes have taken place in the interior. Seats, of a wretchedly poor and meagre design, have been put up in the choir. The old altar, which is of porphyry on solid supports, has been raised, rather burying the two old gradines or shelves which still exist behind it, and the statues of Moses and Aaron have disappeared, as have also the seven candlesticks which once surmounted the entablature, and the handsome brass branches or chandeliers. The stained glass in the three east windows is comparatively modern and very bad. The font cover is handsome. The font is of white marble, of the vase pattern and unusually large. The churchwardens’ seats have raised desks and stalls, and in the fronts there is some old wrought iron work. It is singular that the first person interred in this church after its rebuilding was one Nicholas Byer, a Dane. In 1725 there was a great commotion in the parish about a new altar-pidture, painted by Kent, the artist, in which it was said he had made the faces of his figures portraits of the exiled royal family, and the pi&ure was removed by order of the Bishop of London. If this is the same pi&ure which hangs in the Vestry Hall, Clare Market, it is certainly a very bad specimen of art, atrociously drawn, and one can forgive the opposition. It represents a heavenly choir, and was satirized by Hogarth. ALTAR-RAIL, ST. JOHN’S WESTMINSTER. ST. ANNE AND ST. AGNES ALDERSGATE, WITH ST. JOHN ZACHARY. John Stow’s derivation of Aldersgate, “ so called not of Aldrich or of Elders, that is to say ancient men, nor of Eldern trees [alders] growing there more abundantly than in other places, as some have fabled, but of the very antiquity of the gate itself, signifying the c older gate,” is doubtless correct, but it is a curious fad that this church was distinguished in olden times by the addition of the name “ Willows.” St. Anne in the Willows seemed to point to a rather damp situation in which both willows and alders would have flourished, but Stow goes on to say that there were no willows in his time, “ nor any void place where they could have grown except the churchyard, wherein only do grow some tall ash trees.” This leafy character never seems to have deserted the locality, for the quiet peaceful churchyard through which one passes to the south door, is still green with foliage in summer, and this, together with the old red tiles on the roof, and the low tower and lead lantern, gives an antique appearance to the church. It is a very small building, an irregular square in plan, the east wall not being at right angles. The internal area is divided by four beautifully proportioned Corinthian columns, on lofty bases, placed in a square parallel to the sides, and although this also is irregular, the difference is not perceptible, so admirable is the treatment. The plaster ceiling (Plate XXXV.) may be best described as an intersecting segmental vault, not quite a semicircle, and this intersection, springing from a deep frieze and cornice carried by the columns, forms a groined vault over the centre. The four compartments of the ceiling, which thus form a cross, are divided into large panels with deeply moulded borders, enriched with foliage. Crossing the church, from column to column, are deep coffered bands, hardly deep enough to be called arches, and a moulded rib is taken diagonally from each column, thus forming a regular groin. The ceiling springs from the cornice, which is highly enriched with projecting modillions. Over the four square angles the ceilings are flat, with circular wreaths of foliage, and each arm of the Greek cross, except the west, where the tower is placed, has a large round-headed window, which is flanked by smaller ones of similar form on each side. The church has been re-seated and re-arranged, and the organ has been removed from the west gallery and placed in the north-east angle. There is now a low chancel screen formed out of the old oak pewing, in which some very good pierced and carved panels are placed. Within this, and raised two steps above the nave, are the seats of the choir, and the altar is still further raised on another step. The organ is screened off with a modern screen, closed below by panelling, and 82 the upper part is filled with turned balusters, surmounted by a frieze of open carved panels. The whole of the woodwork is distinguished by a quiet treatment thoroughly in keeping with the architecture, the only defeCt being that the bench ends look rather too mediaeval. The east window is filled with modern stained glass depicting the Ascension, with a broad border round. The oak reredos beneath has undergone some alteration of late years, the royal arms having been removed from the centre and their place filled by a vase of the “ soup tureen ” pattern, with wreaths connecting it with the two scroll half-pediments on each side. Between the two panels for the Decalogue is a very puffy-cheeked cherub with four wings. The side panels, which are lower and were for the Creed and Lord’s prayer, have some beautiful wreath work over them. The altar-rail is modern with wrought-iron standards. The fine old pulpit with its enrichments of cherubim, flowers, and leaves, disappeared some time before the late alterations, and a modern plain oak one with an ugly base and staircase was substituted for it. The font is not remarkable, and there is only a very plain sword rest, little more than an upright standard, surmounted by a crown. The church was considerably altered about 1837, and it was then that many of its beautiful fittings disappeared. It is lighted by the usual nineteenth-century mediaeval type of brass gas standards. The old church, which was first burnt down in 1548, and was then repaired, was beautified in 1629, but was again totally destroyed in 1666. The exterior, beyond its quaint look of antiquity, is not remarkable, but many of Wren’s roughest outside shells have very beautiful kernels, and this interior is such an one. The cost was ^2,448 os. 1 or/., and it was finished in 1680. Stow deplores the destruction of the monuments it contained, in the fire of 1548. There was one quaint and beautiful epitaph which deserves quoting for its originality: Qu an tris di c vul stra os guis ti ro um nere vit H san Chris mi t mu la The last syllable of each word in the upper line answers also for the corresponding word in the lower line. St. John Zachary was not rebuilt after the Fire, and the parish was annexed to this. It was not far from this church of St. Anne, and the churchyard still exists. The churches about here must have been very close to one another, for, in addition to the one just described, there were also St. Mary Stayning, St. Olave Silver Street, St. Leonard Foster, St. Vedast Foster, and St. John Zachary, all of them beneath the shadow of the great collegiate church of St. Martin le-Grand. In St. John s was buried Alderman John Sutton, goldsmith, who was slain m that black and dismal battle by night, which took place on old London Bridge, between J Cade with his followers, and the citizens of London, The name Zachary does not appear to have been used here in connexion with Zecharias the father of St. John the Baptist, as the 1 "as edicated to St. John the Evangelist, and its name was derived from a rebuilder of the church, named Zachary. ST. PETER CORNHILL. Among the various traditions of the establish¬ ment of Christianity in these islands there is one connected with this church of St. Peter. It is often difficult to trace where tradition ends and history begins, but the tradition is that there was a certain Lucius, King of Britain, who had been converted to Chris¬ tianity, and had founded this, the first Christian church in London, somewhere about a.d. 179, and had constituted it the metropolitan church, and the seat of an archbishop or primate. History is not very clear about Lucius, but with regard to Christianity it is positive enough, and even before his time we have it upon the authority of Tacitus, the Roman historian, that London was no inconsiderable city; a fail thus placed beyond the region of tradition. History further lifts the veil a little more than a century later, when we find three British bishops attending that great council of the early church held at Arles a.d. 314, Restitutus, the Primate or Archbishop of London, being one of them. This was long before the advent of Austin the Monk and his mission to the Pagan Saxons, or the establishment of a cathedral on the present site. The Roman city of Londinium, although greatly extended in subsequent periods, both northwards and westwards, was in its earliest time confined to a rectangular area, starting from the Thames at the arx or citadel, now the Tower, proceeding northward to Cornhill, just including this church, and then running westward to Walbrook, and returning southwards to the Thames again at Dowgate, near the site of the present Cannon Street Station. These were its earliest boundaries, and within this area interments were prohibited, and none have been found, but beyond its limits they have been discovered in several places. Another facS, pointing to a very early foundation, was the existence of a round tower, separate and distinct from the old church, which stood at the south-west corner of St. Peter’s Alley, and was taken down, by order of the vestry, October 21st, 1667. Further, there was a school here in days when schools were invariably connected with churches of some importance; and in Henry the Sixth’s reign (1447) this was one of the four ordered by Parliament to be maintained. All these are points deserving of consideration, and although the inscription on the present tablet in the vestry may not be altogether reliable, yet it is to a certain extent corroborated by collateral evidence, and is a copy of one quoted by Weever as existing in the church in his time, and which was known to have been there in the reign of Edward IV. The history of the old church was like many others ; we read of constant repairs and patchings up, until the Great Fire swept oyer it and left nothing but blackened walls and heaps of rubbish. It must have been a fine church, a little longer than the present one, for the chancel projefled into Gracechurch Street. There is an entry in the vestry minutes, CHANCEL SCREEN, March 2nd, 1674, that the redtor and churchwardens had received the ^150 due from the City for tc melioration ” money (a better word than <£ betterment ”) for the ground taken away at the east end and laid into cc Gracious” Street. Seven altars were known to have existed in the old church. DETAILS OF SCREEN. There are many entries in these minutes immediately after the Fire, which throw considerable light on the modus operandi of setting to work on the rebuilding of the church; probably they occurred in other cases, but are more carefully set forth in this one. In 1667 it was ordered that the foundations and site should be cleared of the rubbish, and that a 8 5 surveyor might be found to survey the same, and give a model for rebuilding, with an estimate, n 1668 the houses adjoining the church were being rapidly rebuilt, and ‘‘Mr. Jermyn is to 00k to all chimn.es and flues built against the walls, and only to allow them into the buttence or peere, and that Mr. Jermyn have £a . for drawing several drafts and ‘ platts ’ for rebuilding, and that the old rag-stone be sold and the proceeds to go towards buying bricks, etc. Then follow some allowances made to neighbouring owners “ for the annoyance caused by the rebuilding, showing that a certain amount of rebuilding was being done, and so on to 1669, when Mr. John Oliver is appointed surveyor as Mr. Jermyn had deceased. In 1670 the churchwardens are to consult with workmen about securing the east and north walls lately rebuilt, with copings. And in the same year, on the 20th of September, we find Wren’s name first mentioned about an encroachment on the churchyard. In 1672 a vestry is held in the chapel of old Leadenhall Market, which had escaped the flames, and it is ordered that Dr. Wren have five guineas for his pains in getting a “ tabernacle for the parish,” and in 1673 another £10 is voted to him, so that the scheme for patching up the old church had fallen through, and they had made up their minds to rebuild entirely. In 1675 (April 8th), Mr. Beveridge, the redtor, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, and the churchwardens, do treat and discourse with Dr. Wren and his surveyor, as to receiving his proposals about the new church. The church was then commenced, and was so far finished in 1680, that they “contract for the wood fittings and for a screen to divide the chancel from the body of the church, and for a pulpit, with its canopy and stairs and rail, and that the Royal Arms set up over the screen be carved both sides. The church as rebuilt is divided into a nave and north and south aisles, with a north porch and a tower at the west end, not central to the nave, but placed partly between it and the south aisle, an anomalous position, accounted for by its occupying the site of the old tower, to the north of which is a spacious vestry. The aisles are rather narrow, and there is a large west gallery containing the organ, the space beneath which forms a vestibule. There are five bays to the nave on each side, but no constructional chancel; the chancel screen dividing the ritual chancel from the nave screens off one bay and a half at the east end. These bays have semicircular arches, which spring from pilasters standing on high panelled bases, from which rise Corinthian pilasters carrying an entablature and cornice; the former is not continuous, but the cornice runs round the whole church, and is enriched with a bold egg and tongue moulding. On the north and south sides this cornice supports an attic stage, divided into compartments by low pilasters, standing over the pier below ; each pilaster is panelled, and has a rich cornice, not so deep, however, as the main cornice. From this attic stage springs the roof, which is slightly elliptical, and is divided into compartments by bands of slight projection, corresponding to the bays below, with a sunk double guilloche in the centre of each, and further divided into three by similar longitudinal bands. Of the com¬ partments thus formed the central have circular panels, while those on each side have square. The aisles have transverse arches from the central piers to the. wall, where they finish on corbels and a barrel vault, concentric with the main arches, between each bay. The design of the east end is curious, and not particularly beautiful (Plate XXXVI.); it has an arcade of five windows, right across, and over the central window is another, flanked by two circular lights. The main pilasters which occur between the piers are continued here, and between the windows, but the entablature which is broken at the sides is complete, and 86 has some very pretty wreath work over each window. In 1872 the east windows were filled with stained glass of poor design at an expense of £goo. The seats have been lowered, but the doors are still retained, and within the beautifirl screen the chancel has been seated stall-wise. The pulpit retains its canopy, and occupies its original position, but is not so rich in design and ornamentation as many others, a remark which also applies to the oak teredos, which was grained “ maple,” at the time when the whole church was re-paved and concreted, and lighted by gas, with the usual brass standards. The whole of these works were carried out in 1872 at a cost of £1,222. The very fine organ, which was originally built in 1681 by Bernard Smith, has since been remodelled by Messrs. Hill at a cost of £ 1,000, yet Smith received only £2 10 1 It is worthy of note in passing that the great composer Mendelssohn has played upon the instrument. The font is good, and there is a tradition that the carved oak cover was saved from the old church. In 1880 the old lead of the roof was replaced by zinc at a cost of £591. Of late years wiser counsels have prevailed, and the alterations and repairs have been in much better taste than heretofore. The brickwork of the tower has been repaired and the spire covered with copper, and in 1889 the zinc on the roof was taken off and replaced by 20 oz. copper. As at that time it was found that the roof timbers were defective, and that the internal arcades were slightly out of the perpendicular, the arched roof was strengthened by iron ties, which, although they may not be an improvement, were an absolute necessity, as the walls were spreading. The maple graining at the east end was cleared off, the oak work was waxed, and the side panels of the reredos were filled with cloisonne enamel panels of the four evangelistic symbols, while the body of the church was decorated in colour of a quiet tone. In the vestry of the church is now preserved a most beautiful manuscript of St. Jerome s Vulgate, which has survived the various chances and changes that have taken place in the material fabric. It was written for this church, as a note at the end tells us, “ Iste liber pertinet perpetue Cantarie duorum Capellanorum celebrantium ad altare Sanfle Trinitatis in Ecclesia Sandi Petri super Corn h ill.” Private subscriptions contributed largely to the rebuilding of the church, and the remainder was paid from the coal dues; the total cost being £5,647 8r. 2d. The length is 80 feet, the width 47 feet, and the height 40 feet. Prayers were said daily at ri and 4, and the Sacrament was administered every Sunday. With the exception of the east front, in Gracechurch Street, and the upper part of the tower and spire, the church cannot be well seen. The spire has a quaint vane in the form of a key. The east front has a series of five round-headed windows between Ionic pilasters, raised on a high stylobate; these carry an entablature, and above is an attic mas ing t e gable, with a central window taken up very high into the pediment, and anked by two circu ar lights. There is a story of rather an amusing squabble between the reftor of this church and those of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, and St. Magnus, as to their proper place in the grand procession on Corpus Christi day, when all the parishes and the various guilds, confraternities, etc., in their best copes, and with banners and crosses, decided f ; , P “ ° f honour ( to walk last) was claimed by all three, but it was anT that th IS 1 ° f ^ ^ C ° mhi11 ’ that ** P>-e belonged to him of old, comenfron wa th W T ° the *e thL disputants, the ‘Cho w^eTead t r h a l° n f ^ tUt “ n0t 80 *e part of the parishioners, who were ready to light the torch of discord.” ST. ANTHOLIN BUDGE ROW, WITH ST. JOHN BAPTIST WALBROOK. The destruftion of these City churches must always be a matter of keen regret to any one who appreciates architecture; but archite&ure is not the only thing which suffers. These buildings, occupying the sites of the ancient churches, were the centres of parochial life ; the hopes, the sorrows, and joys of generation after generation had gathered around them, and invested them with something far beyond the ordinary antiquarian interest. True as this may be of all, it is perhaps more particularly so in the case of St. Antholin, for in losing this the City of London lost one of its chief ornaments. Its beautiful tower and spire was the one existing object which could possibly have relieved the utter banality and commonplace appearance of Queen Victoria Street, but it has gone, with all its associations and memories of olden times, and there is litde left in the new [street to interest any one. The dedication was to St. Anthony, one of those hermits of the early ages of Christianity, who accepting too literally the command of with¬ drawal from the world, chose to shut the door upon their fellow creatures, retired themselves to deserted and solitary places, and spent their lives in austerities of the most dreadful description in order to win Heaven’s gate. With the exception of St. Anthony’s Hospital in Broad Street, there was no other dedication to this saint in London. It was one of Wren’s most curious churches, and singularly beautiful. In plan it was an odagon, lengthened so as to form an oval, and it had a dome of this shape carried on eight Composite columns, supporting a deep architrave and cornice, the dome being pierced by four circular windows. The external wall did not follow the internal oCtagon, but at the east end was prolonged out to a square, while the north-west and south-west sides were canted. The tower and spire was placed at the west end, and there was a vestry and vestibule filling up the north-west angle. The cupola over the central part was adorned with fretwork and festoons, and the ceilings 88 of the aisles were flat, with panels formed by moulded plaster beams extending from each column to the angles. The gallery was at the west end, beautifully enriched with carving, as were also the reredos and pulpit. The altar itself was a marble slab, supported by a carved frame, and on the north side, near the east end, stood the font, which had a wrought iron railing round it; there was also a fine brass chandelier. The east window was circular and filled with seventeenth century glass. The seats were all of oak, and the church was handsomely wainscoted all round. The spire, of which an illustration is here given, was very pleasingly proportioned, and after the destrudlion of the church it was thought that this might be spared, but private greed proved too strong, and it was finally taken down, in spite of several public protests It is interesting to know that the sale of the site did not lealize the amount which was expected. One corner of the site was left and railed off, and the bodies of those formerly interred within it were placed there, and a monument was erefled, which forms a sort of framework for an illustration of the tower and spire made with incised lead-lines on a marble slab. Long before the Great Fire St, Antholin’s had been repaired and re-edified by Thomas Knowles, Lord Mayor of London, to whom there was a curious epitaph : “ Here lyeth graven under this stone Thomas Knowles both flesh and bone, Grocer and Alderman, yeares fortie, Sheriffe and twice Mayor truly. And for he should not lie alone Here lyeth with him his good wife Joane,” etc. Henry Colet, the father of the famous Dean Colet, was a great benefa∨ he was buried at Stepney, but in one of the windows of the old church he was represented with his wife, ten sons and ten daughters. The church was 66 feet long, 54 feet wide, and 44 feet high. The proceeds of the sale of site and materials went towards the building of St. Antholin’s Nunhead, and St. Antholins Stepney. St. Antholin’s was completed in 1682. ■ LTAR-RAIL. ST. MATTHEW SPRING GARDENS. ALLHALLOWS, THAMES STREET ALL HALLOWS THE GREAT, WITH ALL HALLOWS THE LESS, THAMES STREET. All Hallows the Great, or as it was also called, All Hallows the More, to distinguish it from All Hallows the Less because the parish was larger, stood on the south side of Thames Street until 1893, when it was destroyed. A small portion of the south side of the church is still in existence, the destroyers not being able to remove it, as it forms the party wall of a house immediately adjoining. All that can be seen of it is a blank arch, with a key-stone carved into a cherub’s head, surveying the ruin with a look of ineffable disgust. This fragment is all that is left of one of Wren’s most characteristic churches. A painted board now proclaims the faCt that this desirable site is for sale, but the legality of such sale has yet to be proved, and a sum of money has been collected for the purpose of trying the question. The parish has been annexed to St. Michael Paternoster Royal, or, as it is now more commonly called, St. Michael College Hill. The old distinction of More or Less is more strictly grammatical than Great and Less. All Hallows had another name, “Ad Fcenum,” on account of the Hay Wharf which was close by, and it was still further localised by the description of ££ In the Ropery,” for, incredible as it may seem, ropes were both made and sold in this same Thames Street, in olden times. Before its final demolition it had undergone considerable mutilation in the loss of the north aisle and tower, which were removed, ostensibly to widen Thames Street. The plan of the church was very irregular; a parallelogram with a north aisle broken in the centre by a tower. This aisle was not open to the church, but was inclosed by panelled and glazed partitions, screening it off from the church, and forming a parish vestry and a clergy vestry. The chancel was also screened off by a fine lofty oak screen, All Hallows being the only church beside St. Peter Cornhill which, in London, possessed this distinction, and thus handed down the old traditional rood-screen of the Middle Ages, to more modern times. Plate XXXVII. shows the interior of the church from the inside of the chancel, looking west through the screen, but this view was taken after the demolition of the north aisle and tower, the arches of which are shown blocked. The order used by Wren in the interior was Doric. Flat pilasters carrying their entablature divided the interior into four bays, and from this entablature sprung a very deep cove, groined over the windows, which had segmental arched heads. The centre of the ceiling formed a long square panel, with a very deeply moulded and rich cornice round it. The east and west ends were both divided into three narrower bays of which the centre ones were the widest, and the 9 ° cove was groined over these divisions in a similar way to those at the sides. The soffites of the arches of the north aisle had square coffers, with circular flowers in each. Although there was no aisle on the south side, the upper range of windows or clerestory was repeated over a lower one of larger windows. The church was wainscoted all round, and retained its high pews. There was a small low gallery at the west end, but probably this was not erefted until the organ was built in 1749, for neither organ or gallery existed in 1708. In front of the gallery was a very spirited figure of Charity with her infants treading on Avarice. As both the superb pulpit, with its sounding board, and the screen, have been taken to St. Margaret Lothbury, they are described in the chapter devoted to that church. The altar-piece, instead of being of oak, as it is in most of the City churches, was of stone and of the Corinthian order, with the Decalogue, Creed, and Lord’s Prayer on marble slabs, and the usual entablature and pediment, adorned with lamps, cartouches, and cherubs, and with stone images of Moses and Aaron on each side. The altar itself was of marble, supported by a kneeling figure of the angel Gabriel. From the roof depended two very fine brass branches, with double tiers for candles. The screen was the gift of James Jacobsen, who may probably have been of German extraction hailing from Hamburg, hence the tradition, which is entirely erroneous, that it was the gift of the Hanse merchants, was made at Hamburg, and was the work of a foreign artist. That it is essentially native work, a very slight acquaintance with the style of carving and mouldings to be seen everywhere in the City churches sufficiently establishes. Jacobsen’s monument still exists, and was probably moved to St. Michael College Hill. The ugly curved iron supports which were added have not been re-eredled at St. Margaret’s, as the screen was found to stand very well without them. The font was of marble, very plain both as to design and cover, and there was a quantity of good carved oak panels. What has become of all this, with the figure of Charity, the reredos and altar, and other adornments ? All Hallows the Less, which was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, appears from description to have been a most curious church. In documents it was called “ Ecclesia Omnium Sanfiorum super Cellarium, on account of the crypts below it, and Stow in describing it says, “ the steeple and choir of the church standeth on an arched gate, being the entry to a great house called Cold Harbrough.” In this house resided Sir John Pultney, four times Lord Mayor, and rebuilder of St. Laurence Pultney or Pountney. All Hallows the More, before the Fire, possessed a cloister, for in the parish books it is recorded, that immediately after that awful conflagration, the north side of the cloister should be repaired and made fit for entrance into the Tabernacle or temporary church built on the ruins of the old, and that the other sides be levefled and made fit for funerals.” Stow mentions that in the choir was a brass, “ to one 1 lam Lichfield, D.D., who was a great student and compiled many books, and that he made, in his time, three thousand and eighty-three sermons (1 1 1) as appeared by his own landwriting, and were found when he was dead.” He died in 1447. In the old church, before the Fire, there was one of those extremely laudatory epitaphs to Queen Elizabeth, which were very common at the time. r t ^ le c ' u,rc ^ was a ve ry heavy looking stone strudfure, with a plain tower terminatmg m a cornice and pediment, and could not be called beautiful. It was 87 feet long, a W1 , C ’ , an , 33 f a et kgh ’ Hatton preserves to us the name of Mr. William Hamon, a mason, who built it under Wren’s diredtion. ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. FAITH WATLING STREET. Built in 1682, the old church was called “ Ecclesia SanCti Augustini ad Portam,” from its position at one of the gateways which led into St. Paul s Close. The saint to whom it is dedicated is the missionary bishop who was sent by St. Gregory to convert the Saxons, and who found, to his surprise and perplexity, that there was already a British Church, dating from the earliest days of Christianity, having its own bishops. The earliest notice of the church is in the survey made by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, of the livings in their patronage in 1171. After the Fire the parish church of St. Faith, which was a part of the crypt of the Cathedral, was annexed to this. The Watling Street, which left the old Roman city probably at Dowgate, crossed the site of the present Cathedral, and when this old Roman city was extended westward and the Cathedral built, the street was diverted. Wren discovered the foundations of a row of houses when digging for those of St. Paul’s, but it was probably when the “ new work ” at St. Paul’s, eastward of the choir, was carried out, that the old church of St. Faith was swallowed up, and the parishioners were granted the use of the crypt. The church, with the exception of the stone tower and lead spire, is not a very beautiful one, and is very small. Its plan is a parallelogram divided into nave and aisle, the whole length, and the tower is placed within this area at the south-west angle. The roof over the nave is waggon-headed, the aisles are groined, and some ugly skylights have been opened in the nave roof. The columns are of the Ionic order, very much stilted, and look very slight, but both the reredos and font are good of their kind. Before the intro¬ duction of the skylights the church must have been very dark. There are three windows in the south aisle, but the adjoining street is very narrow; there are also two at the west end, but these are obscured by the organ gallery, and there is one only on the north side. The organ, which was not added until 1767, is by Lewer, and cost 9 2 £2I\ 7 5. 6 d. Externally the tower and spire form a prominent objed at the angle of Watling Street and St. Paul’s Churchyard, and make a pleasing foil to the vast mass of the Cathedral on the east, as the spire of St. Martin Ludgate does on the west. There was an instance here of a temporary wooden tabernacle being ereded for the accommodation of the parishioners, until the church was rebuilt. During the great Rebellion the then redor, the Rev. Ephraim Udall, was ejeded under circumstances of great barbarity, his wife, who had been a confirmed invalid and bedridden for some years, being carried out of the house and deposited in the street. In this church, on the 7th of January, 1663, Sir Richard Corbet of Shropshire was married to a Miss Vidoria Udall of St. Paul’s Covent Garden. Both the Udalls (or Uvedales) and the Corbets suffered terribly in those days of Puritan piety, the latter having their beautiful house at Moreton Corbet burnt to the ground. The total cost of this church was ^3,14.5, to which sum the parishioners of both parishes contributed largely; the spire was not added until 1695. In 1708 there was service here daily. Among the many interred within the precinds of the church was one who in his lifetime rejoiced in the name of Raphael Titian Correggio Bartolozzi Coleman ! ST. CLEMENT EAST CHEAP, WITH ST. MARTIN ORGAR. Rebuilt in 1686, this is not a favourable specimen of Wren’s work, and it stands on a most irregular site. The church is in plan a parallelogram, with a tower at the south-west angle, and a short aisle of three bays separated by two columns. The aisle, diminishing rapidly in width, and stopping short of the east end, contains a gallery, and there is also a western organ gallery. ... , pl aster ceiling, which has a large oval with beautiful enrich- men around it, is remarkably handsome. The whole church has undergone a fearful bedizen- ment of colour in mediaeval style, and has lost its distimfiively Wrennian charafter. The font On f T ° rgan ’ ° riginall > r V Harris ’ the woodwork is mostly excellent. Deriod° tht . rea ° rS ’ a . Dr ' , Ben J amm Stone > ^red during the Commonwealth, that London th mm ^ pT^ u ^ ^ ^ rdi g ious lib «X 5 he was imprisoned first in bv pavi’ AoT ° ^ m ° Uth ’P r0bal A to be sold as a slave, but recovering his liberty theC ^'^we; fir t V dV° T ^ ^ Parsons « Ledtures on tne c-reed were first delivered in this church If . , . . , . on account of its admirable oak work it ■ f 7 "° tlCeable m the lntenor > ““P 1 surmounted by a balustrade The na i W T* S ° eXternall y’ havln S a P lain s fi uare tower •% - f. pl “' df " " «•* ST. BENET PAUL’S WHARF. WITH ST. PETER PAUL’S WHARF. This church stands nearly opposite the Civil Service Stores in Queen Vidtoria Street, and was brought rather prominently into view by the formation of this fine thoroughfare. Its red brick walls and tower, and its old tiled roof, give an air of antiquity to the fabric, which is increased by the effect of the hipped tiled gables over the north aisle. The plan is nearly square, with a short western and northern aisle, the latter separated from the main part of the church by two columns ; the tower stands at the north-west angle, and there is a vestry to the north of this again. The main front is in Upper Thames Street, the site being on a steep declivity. Internally, the ceiling is flat, carried by a deep cornice supported by columns. The arrangement of the east and west walls is novel, that of the east being divided into three bays, of which the centre is the narrowest; the oak reredos, handsomely panelled and carved, is carried across the lower part of the pilasters, and the side bays have round-headed windows. The west wall corresponds as to spacing, but here instead of pilasters are two columns, one disengaged, the other partly engaged in the south-eastern angle of the tower; there are galleries in the north aisle and western aisle. Both the font and the pulpit are handsome; the latter, which is placed against the south wall, bears the legend “ Donum C. M. 1683.” The altar is richly carved and evidently intended to be seen uncovered ; it is composed of festoons of flowers, with a cherubim and a heart pierced with two arrows. The supports are four caryatide figures of angels and a group of “ Charity ” with children ; on the edge is carved cc All that look in love, sing praises to God above, Who can increase your love.” Stow calls this church St. Benet Hude (or Hithe), and speaks of it as “a proper church.” It was much frequented by noble families, several of whom resided in its vicinity, and its proximity to Castle Baynard and the College of Heralds makes the registers very interesting. It has ceased to exist as a parish church, and has been given to a Welsh congregation, the service being now performed in that tongue. The parish has been annexed to St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. The beadle’s staff is surmounted by a silver-gilt image of St. Benedict, and should properly have gone to St. Nicholas, as all parish rights have ceased. One notable interment invests this church with more than ordinary interest; Inigo Jones B B sleeps his last sleep within its precinfts! Among others, of lesser note, but of exalted rank among the Heralds, are Sir Gilbert Dethick or Dethik, Garter King, Gregory King, Rouge Dragon, John Charles Brooke, Somerset Herald, and others. The plate belonging to the church was very rich, the gift of Mrs. Ellinor James, and consisted of a large bason furbelowed and gilt for alms, 55 oz.; a large dish embossed and gilt, 40 oz. ; a large salver furbelowed and gilt, 41 oz.; a pair of embossed candlesticks and sockets, 30 oz.; a small dish embossed and gilt, 7 oz.; a salver of 18 oz., and two others of 14 oz.; one chalice and patten, 6 oz.; two chalices without pattens, and several other articles. She also gave largely to the parochial charities. The Heralds’ College is in this parish. It stands on the site of a house presented to the Heralds by the Earl of Derby, and Lords Stanley and Strange. ST. JAMES PICCADILLY (WESTMINSTER). Soon after the Restoration the buildings in this part of London increased so rapidly, that the example set by the Earl of Bedford, in Covent Garden, had to be followed, and a church was built for the accommodation of the inhabitants. Colonel Panton had already covered with houses his estate lying south and south-west of Leicester Fields, and Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans (privately married to Henrietta Maria, Queen Dowager,) did the same on his, further westward, and ere&ed a market, first called St. Albans market, and subsequently St. James’s. The scheme for the church, although entertained, and the site secured long before, did not receive official sandion by Parliament until 168 5, when this parish was formally separated from St. Martin’s in the Fields. The church w ic i had been built, was consecrated July 13th, 1684, and in compliment to the King (James .), it was dedicated to the Apostle St. James. Wren was always rather proud of this church, amd 111,708, when the Aft was passed for building fifty new churches, he cites St. James Westminster, to his brother commissioners as a type to be followed, but more for its internal arrangement and construflion, than for its external architeflural design. With regard to the atter, there is very little to recommend it, for it is a plain brick building, with stone dressings, and a brick tower surmounted by a leaden spire at the west end. It lacks both the grace and for the tota'f m ? y , ChurcheS '. He P robabl y was hampered by the want of funds, Jermyn and others'™ ^ 7 ^ 7 ’°°°’ whlch Was defra y ed by private subscriptions from Lord interior ^which ^ T ^ ^ pkin CXterior ’ »« b in g can be urged against the lterior, which is very fine and stately. (Plate XXXVTTT \ ml, i ■ A, , there were no difficulties of crooked sites h 7 Y P “ “ ^ regular ’ “ divided into nave and aisles, the later no, h ‘“’l " f ™ ndations ’ to deal with. It is t being so long as the former, and it has a western .JAMES.. PICCADILLY INTERIOR VI EW. JAMES, PICCADILLY 1 95 tower The windows are all regularly placed. The aisles are separated from the nave by six Corinthian columns on each side, with their complete entablature set at right angles to the nave, and carried back to the side walls, where they rest on corbels. From this entablature springs the main elliptical ceding, while that over the aisles is a plain barrel vault over each compartment forming a series of deeply arched recesses. The main ceiling is decorated with transverse bands of a double guilloche ornament, from column to column, and the same orna¬ ment is carried round the soffites of the arches of the side aisles, which are groined into the mam vault. The compartment formed by these transverse bands is further divided into three square panels with flowers in the central one. Each panel has a very richly moulded border to it, and over the arches of the arcade is a spandrel ornamental panel, filled in with a cherub’s head and wings, and wreathing. There are galleries round the north, south, and west sides supported by square piers, panelled in wood, with a wood capping, but their effeft is rather spoilt by the number of white marble memorial tablets fixed against them. The columns stand on the gallery fronts, which are treated as a continuous pedestal. At the west end there is a second gallery for the organ, given by Mary II. (1691), which has a superb case, surmounted by seated figures with trumpets, and groups of cherubs; there is also a small choir organ in front of the main one. Under the date December 7 th, 1684, Evelyn mentions this church in his diary. “I went to see the new church at St. James’s elegantly built; the altar was especially adorn’d, the white marble inclosure curiously and richly carved, the flowers and garlands about the walls by Mr. Gibbons in wood j a pelican with her young at her breast, just over the altar in the carv’d compartment and border, invironing the purple velvet fring’d with I. H. S. richly embroider’d, and most noble plate, were given by S r R. Geere, to the value (as was said) of £ 200. There was no altar anywhere in England, nor has there been any abroad, more handsomely adorned.” Hatton describes this a little more in detail, and says: “The altar-piece is very curious and spacious, consisting of fine Boletftion Panels with Architrave Frieze and Cornish of Cedar, and here is a large compass pediment under which is very admirably carved work, being a Pelican feeding its young between two doves, also a noble festoon, with exceeding large fruit of several kinds, fine leaves, etc., all very neatly done in Limewood, and this is fenced in with a strong and graceful rail and Banister of white marble, artfully carved, and the Footpace within that is the same kind of stone.” On reference to Plate XXXIX., it will be seen that most, if not all of this work is still extant, and comparison can be drawn between this admirable carving, and that existing in many of the City churches, and attributed to Grinling Gibbons. The most casual observer cannot fail to discover the immense difference between them, however excellent the latter may be. The Tables of the Law have (if they ever existed) been replaced by a representation of the “ Cena ” or Last Supper, in a long panel, which scarcely fits its position, and the side panelling has figures of the Apostles again, although they all appear in the centre subjeff. The east window above the altar-piece is of the Venetian type, in two divisions, and is filled with modern glass. The font, which has been so frequently illustrated and is therefore not given here, is a beautiful work of art, and the idea intended to be conveyed by the use of type and anti-type is very well worked out. The stem takes the form of the tree bearing the forbidden fruit of 9 6 the “ knowledge of good and evil,” and the tempter, in the form of a serpent, twines round the stem. Standing on either side of the tree are our first parents, Adam and Eve. The tree and its foliage support the marble basin, on the exterior of which, carved in low relief, are the baptism in Jordan, and the ark floating safely on the waters. Its canopy is also very fine. Hatton describes it “ as a ‘ spacious ’ angel descending from a celestial choir of cherubims all gilt with gold.” The seats have been lowered, the wainscoting has been removed, and some of the side windows have been filled with modern stained glass. Service was held in this church four times daily, at 6 and 11 a.m., and at 3 and 6 p.m. The custom of having portraits of the rectors hanging in the vestry is followed here as at St. Martin’s in the Fields. The rectory seems always to have been a stepping stone to higher preferment. Thomas Tenison was the first rector, resigning the vicarage of St. Martin’s in order to accept this. He died Archbishop of Canterbury, and two of his successors in the rectory, Wake and Seeker, followed him also in their preferment to the primatial chair. In 1738, George, Prince of Wales, gave magnificent draperies of crimson velvet embroidered with gold, which were valued at ^700, for the altar, pulpit, and reading-desk. The dimensions of the church are length 84 feet, width 63 feet, height about 42 feet. The height of the tower and spire is 149 feet. The experiment of placing the clock dials higher than usual was first tried here, and as they were made very large with the figures well gilt, it was a success, as the time of day could be seen a long way off, or according to Hatton, “a vast distance several ways.” There are numerous mural tablets and monuments, but none of special interest. the ARMS OF THE STUARTS. ST. MILDRED BREAD STREET, WITH ST. MARGARET MOSES. the re&ors back to 1333 a respedtable antiquity, The dedication of this church, as well as one in the Poultry, to St. Mildred, the Saxon Princess and Abbess of Minster, testifies to the esteem and veneration that the earlier inhabitants of London had for her. There is but little doubt that the foundation of this church and parish dates back to Saxon times, yet history is silent as to the precise date, and only lifts her veil in a.d. 1300, when we hear that the Lord Trenchaunt of St. Albans rebuilt it; and Newcourt can only trace . In 1626 this building, which could then boast of was repaired and beautified, and the account is sufficiently detailed to show that it was divided by columns and arches into nave and aisle or aisles, and that the north wall had to be rebuilt, as well as the arches in the middle of the church, “with four fair windows over them.” It is difficult to realize this if the area of the existing church represents the only ground upon which the ancient one stood, for the present is a very small church, one of the smallest, 9 § yet it boldly asserts itself by its lofty leaded spire (which, by the way, is out of the perpen¬ dicular), tapering far above the lofty warehouses of Cannon Street and Queen ViSoria Street, which now so closely hem it in. How long it will yet be permitted to point heavenward is doubtful, since it has long been marked out for destrufiion under that most infamous of a£ts, called the “ Union of Benefices.” If anyone wishes to see a perfectly untouched City church just as Wren left it, let him wend his way to St. Mildred’s, which is innocent alike of mediaeval adornment, or nineteenth-century arrangements. It seems as if the people of this parish have gone to sleep, and that only the hungry eyes of those on the constant look-out for eligible sites are open to the extreme desirability of this particular one for the purpose of erefting towering warehouses upon it, and so still further to block out heaven’s light and air from the surrounding neighbourhood. Small and unencumbered as the area looks on the plan, Wren has given us here one of his most charming productions; as simple as it is elegant. (Plate XL.) Two deep arches coffered and panelled, and enriched with foliated scroll-work, and crossed palm branches, span the church from north to south at both the east and west ends, forming the area above into an exact square. From this square, and supported by pendentives, springs a beautiful dome, round the base of which runs a deep band, in bold plaster work, of fruits, flowers, and foliage, while the surfaces of the pendentives are also enriched with triangular panels, containing foliage in high relief. The arches spring from very graceful corbels, and the first portion of the arch on each side is slightly groined to form a smaller semi-circular arch, whose tympanum is decorated with a kind of scroll ornament, differing in each panel; the one represented is at the south-west angle, and the scroll is surmounted by a royal crown, while on the opposite side, the crown is replaced by the crossed swords of the See of London. The dome is shallow in sedion, and has two groups of cherubs, in high relief, coupled and supporting crowns, and four groups at the top, not well designed; probably intended to be painted, like that at St. Mary Abchurch. The interior is lighted by large windows on each of the four sides, but that on the north has been blocked, while the organ is placed in front of the west, and partially conceals it; these win¬ dows have segmental arched heads. The tower and spire stands on the south side near the east end, and there is a western gallery containing a small organ, with a glazed screen below divided into three parts, two forming a porch and the remaining one containing, or screening, the stairs to the gallery; the front of this is beautifully panelled with some fine carving, and is supported by two rather dwarfed Ionic columns. The sides of the church are panelled in oak, and the very high pews are in the same material. It is curious that there is no centre alley up to the altar, the middle of the church being occupied by seats, but the chancel is marked, as is often the case, by carved figures of the Lion and Unicorn in oak gilt. These beasts are still to be seen in several of the churches, but in many cases they have been moved and made to do duty as supporters, not to the royal arms, but to the civic sword-rest. There is a good sword-rest of rather quaint design, and of English work in this church, also the Lion and Unicorn which are here illustrated with it, but in the church they are some distance apart. Two very fine brass branches remain. The reredos, which is a very fine one, is of oak, with Corinthian columns and entablature, and a segmental arched pediment; besides the usual altholl r contains paintings of Moses and Aaron. All the carving is good, and although ,t may not lay claim to be the work of that master hand, Grinling Gibbons, yet 99 it is undoubtedly of bis school, for mint „„ . , Selden, Watson, Dievot of Brussels !md Laurer ' VerS 1 !™^ Umler him> amon g st them bein g and graceful, that no pupil or assistant ever ecu" 11 7 S ° eSSentiall y U S ht ■ , , ’ , F r , Slbtant ever equalled, much less surpassed it, and durinsr all this penod when the Ctty churches were being erefied, Gibbons wasWd at work at St Pa dl Cathedral, Hampton Court Windsor, Petworth, and other buildings, under royal and noU patronage. The font is of white marble, beautifully carved 7 with cherubs heads and foliage, and is surmounted by an oak canopy or cover of rich design; but both marble and oak are SWORD REST AND ROYAL SUPPORTERS. FONT AND COVER. now hidden under coats of stone-coloured paint. In the blocked north window there is a very fine representation of the royal arms of the house of Stuart (see page 96), and below this is a table of benefactions inscribed, cc The parishioners of St. Mildred Bread Street, for the preserving of the memory of their noble benefactors, have in gratitude caused these inscriptions to be here affixed, a.d. 1684,” and here follow the names of Lord Trenchaunt, Sir John Chadworth or Shadworth, Mr. Copinger, and Mr. Thomas Langham. One of the most beautiful things in the church is the pulpit and sounding board fixed to the north wall. It might perhaps be described as what used irreverently to be called a “ three-decker,” for it contains places for the preacher, the parson, and the clerk. It retains its staircase and balustrade, and also a wrought-iron rail. The canopy or sounding board is unusually rich with cherub heads and festoons, and the whole composition is very fine. Indeed, if any student or lover of seventeenth-century art wishes to see what that art could produce in plaster work, IOI oak carving, and metal-work let him go to St. Mildred Bread Street, before the church and fell work° neS " e §S PaSt ’ and bef ° re tHe and hammerS haV£ “—need ** Externally, beyond the west front, which is of stone, very little can be seen of the church, unless one excepts the tower and spire. The west front is curious and piduresque, and there u nothing m the exterior to prepare one for the charm of the interior and its fittings. The Crisp fanuly were inhabitants of this parish and great benefadors to the church, and many of them were buried within its walls; but Sir Nicholas Crisp, the generous and devoted adherent of Charles I., was interred at St. Paul’s Hammersmith, in the old church lately destroyed. Strype gives a description of the east window of the old church here, which he says was full of costly beauty. It had five lights, and contained representations in stained glass of remarkable events and monuments; the Spanish Armada, the Gunpowder Plot the plague of 1625, a monument to Queen Elizabeth, and another to a Captain Nicholas Crisp and his family, During the reign of James I., in many churches in the City were set up painted monuments to Elizabeth, with most extraordinary and fulsome epitaphs. The church of St. Margaret “ Moses,” was not rebuilt after the Fire, but the parish was annexed to St. Mildred s. Its distinguishing title of Moses, was according to Stow derived from one “ Moyses ” who rebuilt it. It stood in Friday Street. ALL HALLOWS BREAD STREET, WITH ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST WATLING STREET. Eighteen years elapsed after the destru&ion of this church in the Great Fire, before the parishioners .set about rebuilding it. St. John’s Wading Street which adjoined it was never rebuilt, and All Hallows served for the two parishes. In 1680 the vestry obtained a grant of £600 from the Coal Tax, and with that and other money they had borrowed and raised by subscription, they rebuilt this in 1684., but the tower was not added until 1697. The old church possessed a tower and spire, for Stow records that in 1559 a violent storm of thunder and lightning destroyed about ten feet of the top, and that the whole spire was taken down to the level of the tower, to save the parish the expense of rebuilding it. It also appears that in 1531 a serious affray took place between two priests in the church, when bloodshed ensued and the church was closed for a month, the two brawlers having to do penance by walking bare-footed, bare-headed and bare-legged, from St. Paul’s along Cheapside and Cornhill, while repeating the penitential psalms. The times were indeed stormy for the old church, but there is another record which sheds a lustre on it, for to the font of this church was brought D D 102 to be baptized John Milton, the poet. He was born in Bread Street hard by, in a house known by the sign of the “ Spread Eagle,” and here he spent his early years. The church which replaced this old one might not have been a strikingly beautiful specimen of Wren’s genius, but its association with Milton’s name and fame would alone have been sufficient to preserve it in any city but London. It was a plain parallelogram without aisles, with a tower at the south-west corner, preceded by a porch and vestibule, and on the south side was a sort of transept or chapel with a curious projecting gallery above and a vestry beneath : this transept probably occupied the position of the Beaumont chapel in the old church, which also went by the name of the Salters’ Chapel. The ceiling was flat, with plaster enrichments and coved sides, and at the west end was a gallery supported in the centre by a Corinthian column. The altar-piece which was very fine and lofty, was enriched with a good deal of very beautiful carving, and had a large pediment above, surmounted by the royal arms, lamps, and flaming tapers, altogether a very rich piece of work ; the pulpit and sounding board were equally rich. Externally the church, standing at the corner of Watling Street and Bread Street, had only the north and west sides open. It was of stone, very plain, with a series of eight round-headed windows placed rather close together. A plain parapet, surmounting a projecting cornice, concealed the roof, high above which rose the tower, the upper part very well designed. The belfry stage had three round-headed lights on each side, with carved key¬ stones and a very bold projecting cornice, and finished with a parapet and four lofty stone obelisks at the corners, almost Gothic in outline. The carving of the festooned wreaths on the stage below the belfry was very bold and effective, and it certainly was one of Wren’s best towers. Its destruction, to make room for warehouses and offices, is a matter of everlasting regret, and a standing reproach to the City. The church was 72 feet long by 35 feet wide and about 30 feet high; the cost was ^ 3 j 348 7 s • 2 d- It was one of the Archbishop’s “peculiars,” exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. All Hallows Poplar was built out of the proceeds of the sale of the site and materials. ST. MARTIN LUDGATE. The great popularity which the sainted Bishop of Tours enjoyed in this country could not be better demonstrated than by the existence of a church dedicated to him, immediately within the walls of the City and close to one of the most important gates. This gate crossed Ludgate Hill only a few feet westward of the church, and starting westward at right angles to it, flanked the public street for some little distance before it turned southward towards the river. The deviation was of medieval origin, and consequent upon the Dominican Priory, or Blackfriars, being included within the walls, but the ward in which most of the parish is situated is known as Farringdon Without. This church must have been of very ancient foundation, although there is no historical mention of it before 1322, when the patronage was vested in the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. It is much to be regretted that they had no Ralph de Diceto to give us a record of the livings in their gift in early times, such as he gave us of the cathedral church of St. Paul. At the suppression the patronage was granted to the Bishops of London. Few of the City churches have such interesting records, or have been able to preserve them so well as St. Martin’s. It possesses an ancient parchment book, the entries in which begin in the twelfth year of the reign of Henry IV., and a perusal of its pages gives us great insight into, and helps us to a fuller knowledge of, what these old City churches were like, and how faith¬ fully they represented the desires and aspirations, the hopes and fears, of generation after generation of worshippers, who once thronged their sacred precin&s. St. Martin’s must have been a church of some size, with its east end pointing up the hill, for we find two, if not more, chapels mentioned. One Richard Baret, in 1482, desired to be buried at St. Martin’s, “to wit, within the chapel of the same church where I was woned to sit before the image of St. James.” Robert Howner, 1380, after desiring his body to be buried here, bequeathed “ 6 d to Robert, Chaplain of the Blessed Virgin, and two marks per an. to the repairs of the Chapel.” There was another chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, for John Kermerdyn, who was re&or in 1351, met his parishioners there to fix the charges for tolling the bells. The list of vestments, corporas cloths, and frontals, was very voluminous. The principal colours seem to have been blue, white, red, and cloth of gold. The church plate was very rich, for we read of seven chalices with their patens, of silver crosses, cups, censers, ships, chrismatories, taber¬ nacles, and a “ bezile.” In 1612 there was only one chalice left, and another had to be borrowed for the administration of the Sacrament, until Henry Syvedall, “ at his own proper cost, did provide one.” The fashion of giving them set in once more, and “ Ralph Brooke of his piety gave for the adorning of the pulpit one cushion of crimson velvet with gold tassels, and Sir Francis Bridge.! gave for the pulpit a crimson velvet hanging and border fringed with gold, and a cushion, and to the altar a cloth of velvet and Cushion fringed with gold, and a prayer-book bound in velvet and embroidered in velvet and gold. The reign of the “ Saints ” naturally made its mark on this church, and Dr. Jermin, the reftor, was deprived of the living. The pulpit was placed against the altar-piece, entirely blocking the Ten Com¬ mandments, a fad al¬ luded to by Dr. Jermin’s successor in the follow¬ ing amusing couplet: “ The fifth commandment did their souls so gall, They moved their canting tub to hide them all,” and there it remained until 1660. A few short years and then the old church went down before the Great Fire, which must have been at its greatest heat here, for the melted lead from the long roofs of the cathe¬ dral ran down Ludgate Hill in a stream. The church was not rebuilt until eighteen years after this, and al¬ though this is recorded in the “ Parentalia,” the only , . , , / INTERNAL DOOR-CASE. entry m the parish book is, that “ D' Christopher Wren had staked off 127 feet of ground, part of the Stationers garden which the parish purchased for £25.” The plan is nearly a square, and is similar in arrange¬ ment to St. Anne and St. Agnes. The main portion forms a Greek cross, with plain barrel vaults over each arm, intersecting in the centre and forming a groin, and the four square compartments in the corners have flat ceilings at a lower level. Four lofty composite columns on unusually Ugh and stilted bases, are placed centrally in the square, and support a very rich entablature from which springs the vaulted ceiling. There are three windows on the north side, and three on the west (now blocked). The tower is placed in the centre of the south side and has roomy vestibules on either side of it, which are the same height as the aisles, and with the tower form three lofty arches, with panelled soffites opening into the church, and with io 5 entrances from the street, but the two side entrances have lately been blocked, and only the centra door, under the tower, is now used. This church, which was closed for some years has only recently been re-opened, and considerable alterations have been made in the interior All the bodtes have been removed from under the pavement, which is three feet above the street level; the east end has been re-arranged for a choir, and the seats have been lowered The internal door-cases and panelling, which screen off the vestibules and tower, are very good, and vary in design. The church is now entered from the side ones only. The centre of the groin has a circular flower, from which used to hang a very fine brass chandelier. The font, inclosed by a rail, is handsome, and has on it one of those curious inscriptions in Greek which can be read either backwards or forwards— NITON : ANOMHMA : MH : MONAN : OTIN Literally “ cleanse my transgression not my outer part only.” The same inscription occurs in one or two other places in this country and in France, and it is also to be found at Santa Sophia, Constantinople. It is curious that the date on this font is 1673, eleven years before the church was built. The altar-piece has four Corinthian pilasters, with an entablature and pediment, and above these an attic stage, with pilasters and divided pediment, in the centre of which were the royal arms, standing between two lamps. The Decalogue occupies the centre division, and the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer the outer ones. Above the Commandments, in the centre of a “ glory,” is the Holy Lamb between two cheru¬ bim, and the whole was enriched with festoons and palm branches, but a good deal of this has now disappeared. The pulpit is a fine specimen of carved work. Both the walls, up to nine feet in height, and the high, stilted bases of the four central columns are wainscoted. Some of the wood-carving from St. Mary Magdalen, which was uninjured, has been worked in here, and the sword rest, which is a very plain one, also finds a place. The galleries which formerly existed at the south and west sides have been swept away, except a portion of the west one, which now forms a regular organ loft, and looks very well. The old carved ledgers have been retained in the new stone paving in the nave; that of the chancel is in black and white marble squares, and the steps to the altar, which is well elevated (standing five steps above the nave), are of polished black marble. The altar-rail is returned, E E io6 and is an oak balustrade. The choir seats and low chancel screen are made out of the old oak fittings, and some very beautiful open panels are introduced. At the east end of both aisles hang two oil paintings; that on the north was the old altar-piece of St. Mary Magdalen, while that on the south, a very good one, is St. Martin dividing his cloak. The whole of the re-arrangement, re-seating, and other alterations, have been carried out in a thoroughly conservative spirit, and are distinguished for their solidity, and handsome appearance. The paint has been cleared off the columns, and the capitals have been gilt. Externally the church can be seen only on the south side. It is divided into three compartments, of which the tower forms the centre. The lowest stage has three doorways, only the central one being used; then above these come three large windows, and the two side divisions terminate in a cornice and parapet, which stop against the tower, and are set a little back, so that the latter projeds slightly. The square of the tower is carried up a stage above this, with a belfry light above a blank panel; this stage is finished with a bold cornice, and on each side are large scroll buttresses, which finish on the parapet of the side divisions. Above the cornice the square turns into an oft agon, with scroll buttresses at each angle, and above this starts the timber and lead spire, the lower part swelling out into an octangular cupola, with small spire lights. This carries an open wrought-iron balcony, surrounding an open lantern, from which starts the tapering spire, surmounted in turn by a vane. The whole composition, which is very graceful, has only very recently been thoroughly repaired and re-leaded. From the balcony the splendid view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which forms the frontispiece to this work, was taken. The contrast between this slender, graceful spire, standing in relief, with the overpowering mass of the cathedral as a background, and the winding and ascending street, formed one of the most beautiful and picturesque views that could be seen in any city, but, alas! an ugly railway bridge, rendered perfectly hideous in the attempt to make it ornamental, has ruined this view for ever. (Plate XLI.) The dimensions of the church are 57 feet in length from east to west, 66 feet in breadth from north to south, and it is about 59 feet high. The spire is 168 feet in height. When St. Mary Magdalen Fish Street Hill was burnt down, that parish was annexed to this, and the redtor of St. Mary Magdalen is now the redtor of the united parishes. The small brass, of a benefadtor, now fixed against the south wall in St. Martin’s, was in the church of St. Mary Magdalen, and was saved from the Fire. ST. BENET GRACECHURCH, WITH ST. LEONARD EASTCHEAP. At the junction of Gracechurch Street and Fenchurch Street formerly stood this very beautiful little church, its graceful tower and spire grouping well with the Monument and the spire of St. Magnus. It was destroyed about five-and-twenty years ago, and another church was built out of the proceeds of the sale of the site and materials, in the Bow Road, Stepney, which, on a recent visit, was quite as poorly attended as the old church was said to be, although one of the principal arguments for the destruction of these churches was, that by removing them and their endowments to crowded suburbs, much good would be done. St. Benet’s church was small but very nicely pro¬ portioned. It was a simple parallelogram, without aisles, of five bays, with a groined plaster ceiling. The west end was divided into two bays, one occupied by the tower, the other by a vestibule, and a staircase to the west gallery. The reredos was unusually rich in carving, and beside the usual paintings of Moses and Aaron had a painted perspective above, representing the arched roof and columns of a building appearing from under the folds of a velvet festooned-curtain, raised by cupids. The font was nicely carved and had a good canopy, and the pulpit and sounding board was richly adorned with carving and parquetry. The body of the church was lighted by a double range of windows, those in the lower tier being round-headed, and above these was a second tier, of circular form. The tower was lofty, and was surmounted by a leaden cupola, lantern, and spire. The internal groining sprung from corbels, and was slightly flattened, being more of an ellipse than a true semicircle; each bay was divided by a broad band of ornament. The internal dimensions were only 60 feet long by 30 feet wide by 32 feet high. The retained its two altar lights. It was finished in THE STEEPLE. church had always 685 at a cost of ^3,583 gr. 5 d. ST. ALBAN WOOD STREET, WITH ST. OLAVE SILVER STREET. In Strype’s edition of Stow’s “Survey” there occurs a very curious passage in connexion with this church, going, as it does, to prove the extreme antiquity of the building, which is certainly one of the most interesting in the whole City. He describes it as being “ of great antiquity from the manner of the turning of the arches of the windows, and the capitals of the columns,” and adds that Roman bricks were used in its construction. This passage, which by the way is not to be found in the original edition, shows unmistakably that these marks of antiquity were sufficiently in evidence to draw his attention and excite his curiosity. Offa, the first royal founder of the Abbey of St. Alban, is credited by Matthew Paris with having been the first builder of this church, which doubtless belonged to the Abbey of St. Alban in 1077, for we read that Abbot Paul exchanged the right of presentation to it for one belonging to the Abbey of Westminster. Offa, King of Mercia, is not the only royal name connected with the church, for the foundation is also attributed to Athelstane, a.d. 924, who is said, like the former, to have had a house or palace at the east end of the church. Athelstane’s name still survives in Adel Street, which Stow says was in his day called King Adel Street. After Stow’s time, in course of years, the church became so ruinous, that Inigo Jones, Sir Henry Spiller, and others, were deputed to examine it, and the result of their deliberations was to the effeCf that unless the parishioners pulled it down at once it would tumble down about their heads—“ That they must suddenly pluck it down, or it would suddenly prevent that labour and fall to the ground of itself.” This was in an< 3 t ^ le following year the church was rebuilt by Inigo Jones, and is said to have perished in the Great Fire only thirty-two years afterwards! It is an interesting question whether this church did perish, and whether Wren had to entirely rebuild it? Judging from internal evidence, the answer would seem to be that the walls and windows and arches are of Inigo Jones’s original structure, and that Wren only re-roofed and repaired it where necessary, and added or rebuilt the tower; on this latter point the “Parentalia” is clear. The p an is completely Gothic, with a nave, north and south aisles, and a tower at the western end ot the north aisle. On the north side of this same aisle, in the last bay, is a chapel. The south aisle is not coterminous with the nave, but stops short westward by two bays, the remainder of the aisle being occupied by the Reflory House, now used as offices; the five¬ sided apse is only a recent addition to the fabric. The body of the church terminates 109 ‘ Straight , H " e ™ th Ae f le , S > and had a three-light east window super-mullioned, with tracery head, the centre of wh.ch was a many-foiled circle. The west window is a very fair specimen of an ordinary five-light Perpendicular window, with transom and good tracery head; the lights are all cinque-foiled. The clerestory windows are coupled over each arch, and are traceried, as are also the aisle windows, but the stone¬ work of these is probably a re¬ storation. The piers are clus¬ tered, and are precisely what one would find in an ordinary fifteenth-century church. The arches are well moulded in a similar manner, but are without hood mouldings. From the capitals of the piers run vaulting shafts, with caps and bases, which sup¬ port a rather flat plaster vault, in¬ tersected by well moulded ribs, with bosses at the intersections. The aisles are also INTERIOR VIEW, LOOKING WEST. Vaulted, blit with a flat quadripar¬ tite vault springing from corbels on the wall side, and from the caps on the arcade side. The whole of this detail looks too good for Wren, but only in the sense that it shows a greater knowledge of the late Gothic which preceded it, than is suggested by the version of it which he gives us at St. Mary Aldermary, and one cannot help thinking that this is the original church which Inigo Jones built for the parishioners in 1634, as the detail is so similar to that in other of his churches. Probably all the fittings perished in the Great Fire, and very F F I IO little is left of those with which Wren may be supposed to have replaced them. The interior has been modernized, the seats cut down, and the chancel stalled with the ordinary modern type of seats. The pulpit (which is Wren’s) has also been cut down, and has lost its sounding board, but still retains its quaint old hour-glass in a brass frame. In consequence of the alteration at the east end of the church, and the erection of the apse, the old oak altar-piece has gone. Hatton describes it in the following words “ The altar-piece is very ornamental, consisting of four columns fluted with their bases, pedestal and entablature, and open pediment of the Corinthian order. And over each column, upon acroters, is a lamp with a gilded taper. Between the inner columns are the ten commandments done in gold letters upon black; between the two northward is the Lord’s Prayer, and the two southward the Creed done in gold upon blue. Over the commandments is a glory between two cherubims, and above the cornish the Queen’s arms, with the supporters, helmet, and crest richly carved under a triangular pediment, and on the north and south side of the above described ornaments are two large cartouches ; all which parts are carved in fine wainscot.” There was a west gallery with deeply moulded front, and the church was wainscoted round, seven feet high. The old sounding board was a hexagon, and the cornice was enriched with cherubs and foliage. Two large brass branches hung from the roof, and on one of the monuments on the north side is this inscription: — “ Near this place lies the body of Benjamin Harvey, Esq., late Major to the Yellow Regiment of Trained bands, who, by his last will, gave the white marble font to this parish church, which was set up by Joseph Rand, his executor; he died the 14th December, 1684, aged 44 years.” In the old church were buried the following Lord Mayors of London : — Thomas Catworth, or Chatworth, 1443 ; John Woodcock, 1405 ; and Thomas Halton, 1550; and Sir Richard Illingworth, Baron of the Exchequer. Stow quotes another epitaph, existing in his time : “ Hie jacet Tom Short-hose Sine Tomb, sine sheets, sine riches Qui vixit sine gown Sine cloak, sine shirt, sine ‘ Britches.’ ” Externally, the best part of the design is the tower, which is 92 feet in height. It has eight pinnacles, one at each corner, and one in the centre of each side, all similar in design, panelled and crocketed; between them is an open-work parapet of Gothic design. Each side is divided by a flat buttress in the centre, with two belfry windows having traceried heads, in each compartment of the upper stage. A horizontal string-course separates this upper stage from the next, which has two single-light windows on each side. Below this is a narrower stage divided by horizontal string-courses, and containing circular windows with foliations. The lowest stage has a large three-light window on both the north and west sides. Under the great west window of the nave is a Gothic door of poor design and debased detail, hardly in keeping with the remainder of the detail of the windows and arches. The side buttresses of the tower are carried down to the ground, but the centre one is corbelled out above the second stage; they are all of slight projeflion. The sides of the west front are flanked with square buttresses, surmounted by pedestals, which are without finish, and look as if they were intended for vases. The west gable is finished with a parapet, whose sloping 111 .des are decorated wuh panels. The length of the church, without the new apse, is about 66 feet, and the breadth across .inching the chapel, 59 feet; the height is about 33 feet The church was finished. in 1685 at a total cost of ^65, and the organ was built, b y subscription, mr^. The parish church of St. Olave stood at the north end of Noble Street and perishing in the Great Fire, was not rebuilt. The parish was annexed to St. Albans’ In I572 Cornelius jhanson, supposed to be the father of the celebrated painter, was married to Joan Warde in this church, and in the churchyard were interred the remains of the subjects who had been cut up for anatomy at Barber-Surgeons’ Hall. ST. MARY MAGDALEN OLD FISH STREET, WITH ST. GREGORY BY ST. PAUL’S. The Union of Benefices Ad is not answerable for the destruction of this church, although its clauses have been ultimately applied to its revenues. A fire broke out in a neighbouring warehouse stored with millinery, and the fierceness of the flames extended to the roof of the church and completely gutted it. This happened about nine or ten years ago, when, although insured, the church was not rebuilt, the parish being annexed to St. Martin Ludgate, and the redor transferred to that church. The interior had been altered some time previously by Mr. Butterfield, in his own peculiar style. It was not a handsome church architedurally, but whatever might have been wanting in that resped was amply made up for by the extreme beauty of its fittings. The gallery front had the most exquisite carvings of fruit and flowers, apparently executed in a lighter wood, and undoubtedly from the hand of that incomparable artist, Grinling Gibbons. The plan was a parallelogram without aisles, and rather unusually wide, and there was a gallery on the west and north sides only. The ceiling was flat, with a deep cove groined over the windows on the south and east sides. The square panel in the centre was surrounded by a very deep and rich cornice, and had a circular flower in the centre. The windows, of which there were four on the south side, were round-headed and decorated externally with pilasters and carved trusses, and keystones carried up to the underside of the stone cornice, which was of bold projection and finished with a parapet and stone balustrade. The small tower was placed at the north-west corner, and had a curious stone lantern composed of a diminishing range of oftagonal steps, surmounted by a lantern with openings on the eight sides, and finished at the top with a pyramidal pedestal supporting a stone vase. The altar-piece was handsome and inclosed a painting of the Transfiguration, by Robert Browne, executed in 1720. The pulpit, placed against the south wall, had a very handsomely carved sounding board. The font was good, with a carved oak cover, and enriched with I 12 cherubim; on it was a coat of arms, a cross between four bucks trippant borne on a lozenge. At the west end was a small brass tablet, with the figure of a man at the side, also the date i 5 86, and the following inscription upon it. (This figure is now in St. Martin Ludgate.) “ In God the Lord put all your truste So Lord increase good councelers Repente your formar wicked waies And preachers of His Holie Worde Elizabethe our Queen most juste Mislike off all papistes disiers Bless her O Lord in all her date. O Lord, cut them off with thy sworde. How small so ever the gifte shal be Thanke God for him who gave it thee Twelve penie loaves to twelve poor foulkes Gave every Sabbath day for aye.” The individual thus anxious to record his gift of twelve penny loaves was a Thomas Berrie, “ merchant of the staple.” The church was finished in 1685, and its dimensions were, length 60 feet, width 48 feet, and height 30 feet, the cost of rebuilding was ^4,291 12s. 9 d. ST. MATTHEW FRIDAY STREET, WITH ST. PETER CHEAP. This, which was one of the smallest of the City churches, was situated on the west side of Friday Street, Cheapside, and was dedicated to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. The patronage formerly belonged to the Abbey of Westminster, and was afterwards vested in the Bishop of London, but in 1708 it was described as being in the gift of the Duke of Montague. Stow has very little to say about it, calling it only a “ proper church.” Before his time, it had been rebuilt (in 1501) by Sir John Shaw, Lord Mayor, and both this and the neighbouring church of St. Peter Westcheap falling a prey to the flames, St. Matthew’s alone was rebuilt and the other parish annexed to it, the one church serving for the two parishes. It was a plain parallelogram in plan, without aisles, but with a tower at the south-west corner, and a vestibule and vestry beyond. Its total length was only 60 feet, and its width was 33 feet, while the height of the tower was only 74 feet. The interior was exceedingly plain, with a flat ceiling and coved sides; it was principally lighted from the east end, where there was a range of five round-headed windows, forming a sort of arcade. Externally these were carried on a stylobate, and had flat pilasters between them. Above the windows was a projecting cornice which was carried round the church, and a stone parapet and balustrade completed the composition. There was a west gallery, and other woodwork, pulpit seats, reredos, and wainscoting which were of oak, but of no special merit. The pulpit, which was placed against the north wall, was, with the reredos, the altar, and the rails, the gift of James Smyth, Esq., in 1685, in which year the church was finished at a cost of ^"2,381 8 j-. 2 d. Only the end in Friday Street was of stone, and the sides and tower were in red brick. Sir Hugh Middleton, of New River fame, was once churchwarden here. ST. MARY ABCHURCH, WITH ST. LAWRENCE POUNTNEY. Neither beautiful or striking externally, the interior of this church is not only exceedingly beautiful, but also very curious, and the richness of the decorations renders it a complete storehouse of late seventeenth century art, and one wherein that art can be studied to the greatest advantage, for three of the greatest artists of their day, to wit, Sir Christopher Wren, architect; Sir James Thornhill, painter ; and Grinling Gibbons, wood-carver, com¬ bined in their efforts to make it all glorious within. Situated on the west side of Abchurch Lane, it receives its distinguishing title from its position on ground rising rapidly from the river; for in old records it is often called Upchurch, which has been corrupted to “ Abchurch.” In plan it is nearly a square, 60 feet broad by 65 feet long, and unencumbered with pillars, except for one at the west end, which is introduced to make the remainder of the area quite square, and is in a line with the tower, which proje&s into the church at the north-west angle; the space behind this column is occupied by a west gallery above, with a vestibule and vestry below. The internal area is domed, the dome being carried by penden- tives springing from Corinthian pilasters and corbels, from eight points in the circle; these pendentives, which are arched between each springer, are groined back into the angles of the square. The arches have no enrichment whatever, but at their crown there is a very bold circular cantilever cornice, from which springs the dome proper, which is pierced on the north, south, east, and west sides by oval lucarne lights (Plate XLII.) ; a difficult arrangement to describe, but beautifully simple in execution. On the east wall there are two large windows, and over them oval ones, while the centre window of this side is blocked by the lofty oak altar-piece. On the south side is a similar arrangement of windows, but here the central one is glazed, and the south-west one gives place to a door, which has a most beautiful carved-oak door-case, with Composite pilasters and segmental arched pediment, the tympanum of which is filled with beautiful carving in high relief, and the frieze is also carved G G ii4 with foliage flowers, and shell patterns; the doorway itself is arched, and vases on square pedestals flank the pediment. The whole composition is most charmingly proportioned, and the carving is very beautifbl. Across the west end, separating the vestry and vestibule from the church, and beneath the west gallery, is a panelled oak screen with another beautiful door-case, having an arched head, more simple in design than the south door-case, with an oval centre (page 115). The front of the gallery above is a fine specimen of moulded and carved panel work, and the upper panels of the seats, below this screen, have pierced scroll panels of exquisite beauty and varied design (page 116). The church is wainscoted round 11 feet high, the seats have been cut down, and the chancel has been stalled out of the old material, and executed with a little more regard to style and fitness than one finds else¬ where. A low oak screen now separates the chancel from the body of the church, and in the top of this are more of those carved scroll pierced panels. The chancel floor has been relaid with an ornamental pavement. The altar, which is original and left perfectly uncovered, has a ve neered top and scroll supports with cherubs’ heads; it is enclosed in a rail with turned and twisted oak balusters. Two very modern¬ looking Glastonbury chairs flank it north and south. The chief glory of the church is the mag¬ nificent carved altar-piece, which Hatton fitly describes as the “ most magnificent carved work I have thus far met with. As the plate shows this so clearly it would be superfluous to describe it, but it may be mentioned that all the beautiful wreath and festoon work is really from the hands of Grinling Gibbons, and, dreadful to relate, when Sir [ames Thornhill painted the dome, he thought he could improve these flowers and fruits by painting them in their natural colours. In the course of time the painting became very shabby, and then a coating of stone-coloured paint was given to them; after this they were for the third time painted, and this time grained in imitation of oak ! The pulpit, with its sounding board, is also very fine, ”5 but similar in design to others of Wren’s; it retains its original stairease. The font eover which is of carved oak, ,s curious, and not unlike that in the church of St Magnus On a carved ofiagonal base there is a four-sided pedestal, with little niches on each side containing statuettes of the four Evangelists; the sides have curved pediments, leading up into a pyramidal roof, and ending with a circular finial, with a screw to work it up and down as wanted. Sir James Thornhill’s paint¬ ings in the dome have now become exceedingly dark and discoloured, and it is difficult to see what the subjects are, except on a very bright day. The first range between the lucarne lights are evidently the Christian virtues and graces, with shells and heavy wreath work, etc., and above is the heavenly host adoring the name of Jehovah, in Hebrew at the top. Always diffi¬ cult to see, they are still more so now on account of the stained glass in the windows. There is a fine monument on the east wall, shown on the plate, to Sir Patience Ward, Lord Mayor 1696. Externally, the church is not much seen ex- GALLERY FRONT AND DOOR INTO VESTRY. Cept On the SOUth side, where there is an open yard, once the churchyard, but now thrown open by a dispensation from the Bishop of London. It is of red brick with stone quoins, as is also the tower, which is surmounted by a lofty lead-covered spire, 140 feet in height. The body of the church was stuccoed over, and the roof was formerly covered with lead, but is now covered with slates. The church was finished in 1686. Although not exactly in the same untouched state as St. Mildreds ii 6 Bread Street, the alterations made in it of late years have been carried out in a more conservative manner, and there are no glaring medievalisms to complain of. Originally it was in the gift of the Prior and Convent of St. Mary Overie, but it passed from them to the neighbouring college of Corpus Christi, founded in the church of St. Lawrence Pountney, and again, at the suppression, passed to the Crown, and was then given to Archbishop Parker, who presented it in 1568 to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge. St. Lawrence Pountney or Poultney, destroyed in the Great Fire, was not rebuilt. It received its second name (to distinguish it from St. Lawrence Jewry) from Sir John Poultney, Lord Mayor in 1330, who rebuilt it and founded the Corpus Christi college for twelve chaplains and a master. The old church of St. CARVED AND PIERCED PANELS. Lawrence was one of the most conspicuous before the Great Fire, as it possessed a very high spire, and in the old views of London it forms a very striking objedf. The churchyard is still preserved, and with its old trees and sunken tombs, is like a little green oasis in the surrounding desert of houses. The reftors of the united parishes were non-resident for many years (1733 to 1816), and five curates in succession served the living. They were all masters or under-masters at 1I 7 Merchant Taylors’ School, the chief reason for which was a long lawsuit between the redtors and parishioners respe&ng the parsonage house. In the parish of St. Lawrence stood the old Merchant Taylors School tn Suffolk Lane, and on the west side of Lawrence Pountney Hill there is an old undercroft or crypt, with a stone vault and ribs. Merchant Taylors' School founded in IS 6i by the master, wardens, and assistants of the company, is supposed to occupy’ the site of the Manor of the Rose,” a town house formerly belonging to one of the Dukes of Buckingham. THE FONT COVER. H H ST. ANDREW HOLBORN. This was one of the largest and most densely populated parishes, “ beyond the walls,” al¬ though a large portion was included within the liberties of the City. From very early times it possessed a church on this same site, the patronage being given to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s in 1297. Although the church escaped the flames of 1666, it had, in another twenty years, become so ruinous, that it was found necessary to rebuild it, and the present noble structure, one of Wren s largest churches, was commenced in 1686. Built on the rising slope of the hill westward of the Fleet, it was always a most conspicuous object, but the formation of the Holborn ViaduCt has shorn it of some of its dignity, and to those who remember it in the days previous to this alteration, when one had to ascend by many steps unto this House of the Lord, it seems strange that this has all been reversed, and that now one has to descend many steps to enter it. The body of the church has a sort of half-buried look. Structurally, it is basilican in plan, having nave and aisles separated by seven arches on either side, with north and south vestries flanking a shallow chancel, and a fine western tower with roomy vestibules, north and south, containing the approaches to the galleries. The lower part of the tower, is older than the church, being a survival from the mediaeval, but it has been recased and heightened. Internally, however, the three old arches which opened respectively into the aisles and nave remain. The west window also is ancient, and the lower part of the buttresses. There are galleries north, south, and west, the latter containing a fine organ. These galleries are supported by piers encased in oak panelling, and from them arise plinths, on which are placed Corinthian columns, with a kind of apology for an entablature which should have been made of the right proportion, or omitted altogether. From this springs the elliptical curve of the plaster ceiling, which, with the intersecting groins of the aisles, forms something of an arch between each column. The spandrels are filled with beautiful foliage and riband, flowers and fruit, worked in plaster in high relief, somewhat similar to St. Clement Danes, and in the centre is a cherub’s head and wings, from which spring the divisions between the panels of the ceiling. These are plain squares with broad moulded borders, beautifully enriched with foliage. In the centres there were formerly flowers in bold relief, but these have in several places given way to ugly sun-burners. The centre of the groins over the side aisles also have flowers at the intersections. The ceiling over the sacrarium is more elaborate, and has smaller panels, more highly enriched. The east window is lofty, and in six compartments, the central upper one being arched. This window is filled with early eighteenth century glass by Price of York (1718), the subjeCt in the lower three HOLBORN II 9 compartments being the Last Supper and that of the upper three the Ascension. On each side of the Last Supper are paintings, in boldly moulded frames, of St. Peter and St. Andrew and in the smaller panels above these, the Holy Family and St. John the Baptist. The glass’ first placed in the east window (before 1718) represented the royal arms of the House of Stuart. This has been moved to the east window of the north aisle, which also contains the arms of the donor, Thomas Hodgson, while the corresponding window on the opposite side contains the arms of John Thavie, a great benefaflor. The reredos has undergone considerable mutilation and alteration; the six lamps have all been removed, together with a good deal of the carving, including the tables of the Law, and the space has been filled in with a very weak mediaeval design. The chancel has been stalled for a choir, but the design is quite out of keeping with the rest of the church, and the nicely carved pulpit has been placed on a nondescript base, and has lost its old sounding board and staircase. The seating is new. There is a rest of wrought iron for the Lord Mayor’s state sword, and at the westernmost seats are two other standards or ornaments of wrought iron, which may originally have been lamp stands. The font is of the usual baluster shape, and without a cover, although a fine carved one formerly existed. It now stands at the east end of the north aisle. The double tier of galleries at the west end has been removed, and the organ has been corbelled out on each side above the old mediaeval tower arch, through which is seen the fifteenth-century west window. The church has been entirely painted from: end to end in a quasi- mediasval style, and the side windows'regldfedjn/tinted glass of the same character. The altar has a marble rnensa : rfn solid supports, with a wrought iron ornament in front, and above it are two marble gradines or shelves. In design and arrangement this altar is similar to that of St. Clement Danes, to which church this bears some resem¬ blance in the arrangement of ceiling and arches, and carved spandrels, already alluded to, but it is much larger, and gives us a perfefi model of what Wren considered necessary for a large parish church, spoilt by the subsequent tasteless alterations to his handiwork, which are simply deplorable. The services in this church were formerly very frequent and numerous. There were prayers daily at six, eleven, and three, in the summer, and seven, eleven, and three in the winter, contrasting, not very happily, with the present arrangements for divine worship. The original organ was by Renatus Harris. Externally the church is of stone, and retains the old tower heightened and cased with stone, and surmounted by corner pinnacles, with an open parapet, which, although simple in design, is stately in effefi. Much of the fine effed of the church has been curtailed by the Holborn Viadubt, yet it still retains much dignity, contrasting strongly with a large but poor specimen of modern archi¬ tecture by its side, the two buildings reminding one of Landseers pibture, Dignity and Impudence.” CHRIST CHURCH NEWGATE STREET, WITH ST. LEONARD FOSTER LANE. This church, the tower and spire of which is so conspicuous an object on the left hand side of Newgate Street, is one of Wren’s largest, but unfortunately not one of his finest. It occupies the site of the old Franciscan Friary Church, being built on the choir of that stately and magnificent edifice, which perished in the Fire. The old church was usually known as the Greyfriars, and was the largest of the churches belonging to the mendicant orders j being over three hundred feet in length. The other orders in London were the Dominican or Blackfriars, the Carmelites or Whitefriars, the Augustinian or Austin Friars, and the Crutched Friars. With the sole exception of the Austin Friars, and a small portion of the crypt of Whitefriars, their churches have all disappeared, and of Austin Friars only the nave remains; but that alone will give a very fair idea of the appearance of these huge structures, for as it now stands, it is longer than most of our cathedral churches. Unlike the churches of the Benedictines, and canons regular of the order of St. Augustine, which had the usual arrangement of arcade, triforium, and clerestory, with central and western towers, these churches were essentially preaching churches, the arcades being light, spacious, and lofty, while they possessed no triforium or clerestory. The roofs were of oak with arched rafters and tie beams, and the internal areas were unencumbered with chapels, so as to allow for vast congregations, attracted principally by the forcible and sometimes coarse sermons preached within their walls. The friars were cordially disliked both by the regular and secular clergy, as they diverted sources of income from both alike, and drew people away from their own parish churches. The Franciscans began in a very humble way in 1224, when four of them arrived in London and lodged with the Dominicans, who also had only just arrived, and were then located in the buildings of the Old Temple in Hoi born, just at the back of what is now the London and County Bank, a site which had been abandoned by the Knights Templars for their new one south of Fleet Street. They stayed with the Dominicans nineteen days, and then moved to Cornhill, where they were lodged by John Trevers, citizen and sheriff, and subsequently removed to a void piece of ground near Newgate, between the street and the city wall, given to them by John Ewins, citizen, upon which site they soon ereCted their church and convent. The first part of the I 21 choir was built in 1239 by William Joyner, Lord Mayor, and the body of the church by Henry Walleis, but in less than a hundred years the whole church was rebuilt on a grander scale, principally through Margaret of France, Queen of England; John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond; Mary, Countess of Pembroke; Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester; Isabel de France, Queen of England; and Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England, being finally completed soon after 1327. Its length is recorded as 300 feet, “of Paul’s feet,” and the style would have been flowing or late decorated, similar to the side walls of Austin Friars. Greyfriars Church was 89 feet wide and 64 feet 2 inches high, this last dimension being probably the internal height, and not to the apex of the gable. It is difficult to say if IE MONASTERY OF THE GREYFRIARS. the church had transepts, but the probability is that it did; and, from the width and spaciousness of the aisles that they did not project beyond them. There were fifteen windows on each side, the names of the donors of each being recorded, also three windows at the east and three at the west ends, and it is the fafl of there being only fifteen windows enumerated that creates the doubt as to transepts, for if these were present they would have large north and south windows, which would only give fourteen windows each side. In the rough representation of the church preserved in the hospital adjoining (made in 1617), no transept is shown, but little reliance can be placed on what is only a con¬ ventional representation. The eighth window, the glazing of which was given by Robert Benet, is described as being “under the belfry,” and the stalls are recorded as terminating westward “sub lampide.” It was regarded as a privilege to be buried within the precinfls, and accordingly we read of magnificent tombs, of which there must have been at least five, a ong 1 1 122 the choir; four queens—Margaret, Isabella, Joan of Scotland, and Isabel, Queen of the Isle of Man, described as “ high tombs of alabaster with figures.” Sir Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor, took all these tombs down and sold the materials and a quantity of brasses for £ 50; the bodies probably still rest in the centre of the present church. The foregoing is but a brief description of what must have been one of the most conspicuous and largest churches in London. Immediately after the surrender, when all its property passed to the King’s use, the nave was used as a storehouse for prizes taken from the French, but it was again used as a church in 1546, when it was made parochial; but here again the avarice and greed of Henry were apparent, for two other parish churches—St. Nicholas in the Shambles, and St. Ewins—were pulled down that their endowments might be taken to form the new parish. Its subsequent history, showing how its buildings developed in Christ’s Hospital, is too well known to need repeating here. After the Fire, in which it was totally destroyed, Wren built the present church on the choir only of the ancient edifice, while the space where the nave stood was left as a churchyard. He built his columns and walls on the actual site of the older ones, and the proportions which suited the former fabric so well are not very happy in this ; the columns are without arches, and support a continuous cornice, while the intercolumniation being necessarily wide, gives a weak appearance to the whole, which is increased by the absence of a boldly moulded cornice (Plate XLV.). The columns stand on unusually lofty square bases, wainscoted in oak, and from the weak cornice spring elliptical arches in plaster, soflited with square panels or coffers, with a circular flower in each. Between these arches the ceiling is plainly groined, with centre circular flowers at the intersection, from which now depend huge tubes with sun-burners; an atrocious arrangement for lighting, which no amount of utili¬ tarianism can excuse. There is a well developed clerestory, from which the interior derives its principal light, as the side windows are blocked by the galleries. .... - , , , The u PP er windows have on each side a scroll orna- ment filling the spandrel and the juxtaposition of this ornament with the groin of the plaster ceiling, makes the latter look unusually plain. The ceilings over the aisles are flat, divided GROUND-PLAN SHOWING WREN’S CHURCH RELATIVE TO THE OLD FRIARY CHURCH. I2 3 into square panels by trabiated cornices, similar to rh- „ • Composite. The pulpit, which is richly carved with COTniCe ’ ^ ^ USed bein g and the twelve apostles in the central one and the fn„r a . re P resentation of our Lord board has been removed, but is still preserved. Th r . eVange 1StS m tbe otllers J its sounding south side of the church, from which the prayers are reaV* ^ ^ e . COnc ^ or companion pulpit on the brought from some other church (tradition says the Temnle'T ^ haS evidentl y been The chancel has been re-seated choir ways with onen 1 ’ ”!!!” blgber than tbe other - and spacious one, filled with modern stained glass but the ^ ^ eaS * window is a kr S e surrounding architectural framework is pleasing in’d ■ c ° In P osl «on of the window and so good, as St. Bride’s Fleet Street. The ^whilTf ^ ^ ™ and possesses a very handsome carved cover, and the organ Tkr eS1S "’ u ^ ^ “ arble ’ case. The church retains its old oak seating with 'I ’ ° ne ’ ^ a finel f carPed seating, with a wide central passage occupied by « free seats. The oak reredos, of the usual type, remains. The spacious galleries accommodate the boys from the adjacent Christ’s Hospital. The interior of this large and spacious church cannot be considered one of the happiest of Wren’s efforts, but externally it possesses a beautiful tower (Plate XLIV.), which, although shorn of its upper range of vases, the loss of which gives a pagoda-like appearance to it, is still a very fine one. It is much to be regretted that these vases cannot be replaced, as they greatly helped the pyramidal effeS. It is said that they had become dangerous, and were removed in consequence. The church was not rebuilt until 1686-87, so that the parishioners had been without a church for over twenty years, during which time provision for divine worship seems to have been made by building a tabernacle among the ruins; interment still went on in the pave¬ ment of the present church, which is the ancient one, dated during this period. Malcolm, m 1803, speaks of the pavement being partly composed of coarse red marble from the former church, and this still exists. The church possessed a very fine brass chandelier (a gift), and there are still two very good ones. Judging from the indenture between Henry VIII. 124 and the Mayor and Commonalty of London, the ecclesiastical foundation for the new parish was peculiar. “ There shall be in Christ Church one priest to declare, preach and teach the word of God, who shall be called Vicar; and in the same, one other priest to be termed the Visitor of Newgate, and five other priests to sing and celebrate divine service, and to adm,Ulster sacraments;” and further, “that the Mayor and Commonalty shall have the appointment of the Visitor of Newgate and the five other priests, and shall have the power to expel the same persons, the Vicar excepted.” This patronage of the five other priests seems to have lapsed to the Governors of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, who pay an annual sum to the vicar of £120 in lieu of paying the five priests. THE FONT WITH COVER. ST. MARGARET PATTENS. ST. GABRIEL FENCHURCH. England that her day, July 20th, became a holy day in which no work was to be done. In London and the neighbourhood there were four churches dedicated to her, and this one, distinguished by the name of Pattens, was certainly in existence before the thirteenth century. Newcourt in his “ Repertorium ” records the name of a redtor in 1324. The term Pattens is supposed to be derived from the patten-makers dwelling hard by. The extreme antiquity of the patten is indisputable, and they must have been made and sold somewhere in London. This derivation, although commonplace, is intelligible, while that of St. Margaret of the Patens is altogether unsatisfactory. The present church was built in 1687, twenty-one years after the Fire. It has a wide nave, with an aisle on the north side only, terminating in a tower at the north-west angle; there is a shallow recess for the altar at the east end, and galleries in the north aisle and at the west end. The church is well lighted by a range of windows on the south side, between which are pilasters supporting the coved cornice and ceiling. These windows have over them an upper range of circular ones, and the cove is groined to allow space for them. The ceiling is flat, with a boldly moulded enrichment, forming one large panel. The aisle is separated from K K I 2 6 the nave by three Corinthian columns on lofty bases, and these support a cornice, above which the circular lights and groined cove are continued all round the church. The treatment of the north gallery is peculiar, the ornamental front of it being carried round the circular columns. Beneath the gallery two bays at the east end are now divided off by glazed partitions, forming an inner vestry, leaving two bays clear, which are fitted up as a chapel, with an altar, and a reredos which has evidently been formed from an inner door-case. The seats have been re¬ arranged and lowered, the old oak being worked up in them, and they have new bench ends of a very solid and substantial description. The central aisle between the seats is unusually wide and has wood-block paving. The chancel is now stalled, and the altar, evidently new (from its size), is well elevated, and has a dossel hanging above it, concealing part of the old oak altar- piece. Crucifixes now stand on this altar, and on the other in the side chapel. On the old reredos there is some very beautiful wood-carving in wreaths and foliage, and it used to possess an oil painting of the Agony in the Garden, attributed to Carlo Maratti, which now hangs in the church with one or two other oil paintings of considerable merit. The pulpit has been much altered and cut down, and is very plain ; the font is of white marble and prettily carved, but of no particular merit, and its present cover is modern; it does not seem ever to have pos¬ sessed one of those beautifully carved ones which are the glory of some of the City churches. The organ gallery at the west end contains a small organ; the front is well panelled, and there is a very good carving of the royal arms. The gallery beneath is treated as a vestibule, and in front of this, on each side, are the churchwardens’ seats, which have a kind of tester or canopy over them in oak; the fronts of these seats have some very delicately executed pierced panels carved in oak. Much of this work, both here and on the reredos, has been attributed to Gibbons, but, although perhaps more delicately carved than most in the churches, it lacks his wonderful execution, and fidelity to nature. There are two sword rests, one rather elaborate, the other perfectly plain; both are very oddly placed now, being on the ground, and resting against the churchwardens’ seats. The monuments are numerous, and some of the tablets good. Amongst them were some to the Birch family, including Dr. Thomas Birch, formerly retftor, who was secretary to, and wrote the history of, the Royal Society; another to John Birch, an eminent surgeon, with an inscription of inordinate length, of which the only portion worth quoting is, “ The practice of Cow poxing.he uniformly and until death perseveringly opposed.” Godwin and Britton, in “The Churches of London,” mention the tradition of their arms, azure, three fleur-de-lis argent, being granted for seizing the royal standard of France at Poidtiers, but it really was granted to the then “ Byrche ” for seizing the royal bridle of John, King of France, and making him prisoner; he was afterwards appointed one of the knights in attendance on the king at the Savoy Palace. The arms of Birch, or Byrche, were originally sable a chevron between three mullets argent. On the south wall is a large monument by Rysbrack of Sir Peter Delm£, Lord Mayor 1723. Externally the church is not very striking, except for its beautiful tower and spire. (Plate XLVI.) The composition is medieval, although the treatment is classic; the building rises nearly 200 feet from the ground, and the view of it looking down Rood Lane is very fine; the upper part, or spire, is lead, and there is a squareness and simplicity about it which is'very pleasing. The body of the church, which has been rendered over in cement, is built of red brick 12 ? with stone dressings, with the exception of the west front Th a very odd look to the church. Internallv all rt, ■ ’ , 6 numerous round windows give and hideous glazing of the kdeido^T^STS ” f ^ T **** very light and cheerful interior. The LensJs’ aTe £? Th TT * 1 32 feet. The alterations were made in 1880. § ’ ’ Wldth ’ 52 feet i height, The position of St. Gabriel Fenchurch is nor • , the middle of the street of that name, and Stow describesTt\sTmalTT’T'“ - tO0d “ unusual, and, until modern times, disused. It was burnt in , A e dedlcatlon was being annexed to St. Margaret Pattens. a " d n0t rebullt > the P a ™h SX. EDMUND THE KING AND MARTYR LOMBARD STREET, WITH ST. NICHOLAS ACONS. St. Edmund, a very popular saint with our forefathers, was King of East Anglia, a.d. 870, and being taken in battle by the Danes, was tied to an oak and shot to death with arrows. His place of sepulture took the name of St. Edmund’s Bury, where one of the most magnificent churches in England was subsequently erected. This church, which is on the north side of Lombard Street, is peculiar in its orientation, for it stands north and south, instead of east and west, and is the only instance where Wren departed from the usual custom of the Church in England. Hatton, in noticing this peculiarity, says: cc I can meet with no good reason given for this, but believe it done to save ground whereon to build houses fronting the street, which here fetch very great rents.” That author would probably be much astonished if he knew what those rents are now. Not very many years ago even the small forecourt, only five feet deep from the railings, was occupied by a gunsmith s shop on one side of the door, and an engine-house on the other. At some period subsequent to Wren all the side windows were blocked and a skylight inserted in the ceiling. The plan is oblong, without aisles, with a recess about 12 feet deep and 16 feet 8 inches wide, at the north end, for the altar, so that the true eastward position would be impossible in this church. It has a flat ceiling with coved sides; has been re-seated and otherwise altered from the original arrangement, and the old oak work has been very beautifully worked up in the present chancel fittings, screen, and stalls. The tower, which is at the south end of the church, proje&s well within the building, and only slightly so externally, making a small break in the fa5ade. There were small galleries on each side of the tower, and the organ, a small one, stood within it, but has now been moved to the ground-floor at the north-west corner. The side walls are panelled in oak, but the cornice to this panelling has the appearance of having been lowered, and the top panels seem to have been considerably curtailed. The carving throughout is very rich and good, particularly that on the oak reredos ; there is a tradition that the paintings of Moses and Aaron, on either side of it, were done by Etty in 1833, but in Malcolm’s description of the church (about 1807) he refers to these paint¬ ings as tolerable.” Hatton also mentions them in 1708, but it is quite possible that Etty might have retouched or repainted them later. The pulpit with its handsome sounding board of cherubim, festoons, etc., was originally on the east side, but is now placed on the west. The font (page 129) has a very finely carved oak cover, but is unfortunately mutilated ; it formerly possessed small standing figures of the twelve Apostles, of which only four are now left, but a reference to the illustration shows the spaces where the others stood, and, if still in existence, it is strange that they have not been restored to their proper place. The only front of this church which can be seen is the south end, in Lombard Street, and this is a very pleasing composition, with a central tower surmounted by a lead-covered spire, of unusually quaint design. This front has three round-headed windows, each surmounted by a cornice carried on trusses, while the main cornice is broken by a pediment on the front of the tower. Beneath the central window is the only entrance, flanked on each side by square-headed low windows, which rather spoil what would otherwise be a very good compo¬ sition. Curved buttresses occur on each side of the tower, terminating on the parapet against two well-designed vases. The lead spire is odtagonal in plan, with belfry lights, and is decorated with little urns and vases, which break the line of the inverted curved sides of the cone. It terminates in a boldly moulded cornice, surmounted by a vane. Referring to the mutilated top panels of the wainscoting, Hatton says, “ here are also certain pertinent texts of Scripture painted on carved boards, and placed round the church about the space of eight foot from each other.” The disappearance of these south front to street. “ pertinent texts ” may perhaps account for the un¬ finished appearance of the panelling. There is a monument, of statuary marble (representing Hope reclining on an urn), to the memory of Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter and re&or of the united parishes, President of the Society of Antiquaries in 1784; and the love of antiquity which distinguished him, seems to have descended, like Elijah’s mantle, to the present re