..■1 LONDON CHURCHES ANCIENT Q MODERN >> / . -s . i ' ■ / , ■2 vjr/^ K - •V 1 LONDON CHURCHES ANCIENT ^ MODERN T. ERANCIS BUMPUS FIRST SERIES The Cathedral Series Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt top, profusely illustrated. 6s. net. The Cathedrals of Northern France. B v fra nc/s mil to un. The Cathedrals of Southern France, b y fra ncis mil to un. The Cathedrals of England and Wales, j mis. by t. FRANCIS BUM PUS. The Cathedrals of Northern Germany, by t. francis BUM PUS. The Cathedrals of Northern Spain. BY CHARLES RUDY. The Cathedrals a?id Churches of Northern Italy, by t. FRANCIS BUM PUS. i6s.net. The English Castles, by e. b. d'A UVERGNE. 6s. net. The Abbeys of Great Britain. BY H. CLAIRBORNE DIXON. 6s. net. T. WERNER LA UR IE CLIFFORD’S INN, LONDON LONDON CHURCHES ANCIENT & MODERN By T. FRANCIS BUMPUS tAuthor of ^^"The Cathedrals of England and Wales" *‘^T‘he Glories of Northern France" Cathedrals and Churches of Northern Italy" Isfc. FIRST SERIES MEDIEVAL & EARLY RENAISSANCE T. WERNER LAURIE CLIFFORD’S INN LONDON To The T{ight Reverend the Lord Bishop of Stepney These Volumes are respe^full'j inscribed by one who has striven to appreciate the Consecrated Thoughts of Artists CONTENTS OF FIRST SERIES Chap, I. Introductory Sketch of London Church Architecture Page i II. The Churches of the Norman and Early English Periods 46 III. The Churches of the Decorated and Per- pendicular Periods 1 1 1 IV. The Riverside and Suburban Mediaeval Churches 199 V. The Churches of the Early Renaissance Period 239 VI. The Churches of Sir Christopher Wren {Parti') 256 VII. The Churches of Sir Christopher Wren {Part II) 329 List of Illustrations The Tower of St Michael, Cornhill Frontispiece St John’s Chapel in the White Tower 54 St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, View across the Choir 68 The Temple Church; the “Round” and part of the Choir 86 The Chapel within Lambeth Palace 106 St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place, the East End 116 The Lower Chapel, St Stephen’s, Westminster 1 24 West Front of the Austin Friars’ Church 128 St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, View across Nave from the North Aisle 136 All Hallows’, Barking, Interior looking East 166 ' St Margaret’s, Westminster, Interior looking East 184 St Mary the Virgin, Lambeth, from the S.W. 202 St Dunstan’s, Stepney, from the S.E. 220 All Hallows’, Tottenham, from the S.E. 232 St Catherine Cree, Interior looking East 244 St Andrew’s, Holborn, Exterior from the South in 1866 258 Some Steeples of Sir Christopher W rtn'See endpapers St Mary Abchurch, the Altarpiece 268 St Stephen’s, Walbrook, the Organ 272 St Andrew’s, Holborn, Interior looking East 282 X London Churches St Bride’s, Fleet Street, from the South-east 292 St James’, Piccadilly, the Altarpiece 320 St James’, Piccadilly, the Organ 324 St Lawrence, Jewry, Interior looking West 322 St Magnus’, London Bridge 336 St Margaret’s, Lothbury, Interior looking East 340 St Margaret’s, Lothbury, the Font 344 St Mary Abchurch, the Font 350 St Mary-le-Bow 358 St Stephen’s, Walbrook, Interior looking West 392 LONDON CHURCHES Ancient and Modern CHAPTER I Introductory Sketch of London Church Archi- tecture O ecclesiologist needs repine whose lot is cast in London. To the student, or to him who takes it up as a pleasant relaxation, the ecclesiastical architecture of theMetropolis, whether it be looked at from its Mediaeval, Revived Classi- cal or Modern Gothic side, affords a field for research as fascinating as it is wellnigh inexhaus- tible inj interest. Without exaggeration, one may say of London church architecture: It is true that, to the outward eye, London is a modern city. The havoc of Henry VIII swept away many of her fairest and most glorious re- mains of olden days. The Great Fire, while — one cannot shrink from the confession — it improved the sanitary condition of the Metropolis, was yet fatal to her interest as a mediaeval tradition. Apathy, neglect, ignorance and the march of modern improvement ” have each contributed their quota to the devastation, so that London is now for the most part but a symbol of the last two centuries. Age cannot stale, nor custom dim Its infinite variety. I- 1 2 London Churches But yet there are remains of mediaeval times, which should be highly prized and carefully studied, and in which the history of English Gothic architecture may be read from the Nor- man Conquest to its decline and fall under the Tudors; and, what is more, each representative of the styles through which dt successively passed — those beautiful gradations from Norman to Per- pendicular, in which the germ of each develop- ment is to be discovered in the antecedent work — is the best of its kind. These I now desire to mention, in as brief and generalizing a manner as possible, by way of pre- paration for a more detailed account in subse- quent chapters, and to win for them the attention of such of my readers as may desire to visit them, either as an agreeable pastime or a profitable study, as their knowledge of ecclesiology may be more or less matured. This done, I shall proceed to trace the history of church-building in London from the era of Classicism, which commenced with that memorable event of 1666, through the period of debasement under the later Hanoverian rule to the time when it began once more to raise its head within the memory of many yet living. I may be allowed to state here that the expres- sions Norman, Early English, Decorated and Per- pendicular, as denoting the successive periods of English Gothic architecture, were, if not actually invented, always employed by those two pioneers in the study of its true principles, Thomas Rick- man and John Henry Parker, and, if somewhat comprehensive, are at least very suggestive and appropriate. Introdudlory Sketch 3 The Ecclesiological Society, founded at Cam- bridge in 1838,* adopted another nomenclature, styling the several periods Romanesque, First, Second or Middle, and Third Pointed; while other enthusiastic labourers in the same field, as, e.g., Edmund Sharpe and George Aycliffe Poole, pre- ferred the terms Round-Arched, Lancet, Geo- metrical, Curvilinear and Rectilinear. In the course of these pages I propose making use of Rickman’s nomenclature, introducing the syno- nymous terms now and again for the sake of variety. To those unversed in architectural chronology the following table, in which the three nomencla- tures are given, may be useful. It is, however, only possible to fix the dates approximately, as the changes in style were very gradual, one style mak- ing its appearance in one part of the country sooner than in another, as, for instance, the Per- pendicular, which was being practised in the West* of England as early as 1 340, while in other parts the Late Decorated was still in vogue. Between each style there was a period of transi- tion, but that from Norman to Early English was the most important, having very marked charac- teristics. 1 070-1 1 54. — Norman. Romanesque, Round- Arched. 1 1 54-1 1 90. — Transition from Norman to Early English. From Romanesque to First Pointed. From Round-Arched to Lancet. 1190-1270. — Early English. First Pointed. Lan- cet. * Styled until its removal to London, about seven years later, “The Cambridge Camden Society.” 1-ia 4 London Churches 1270-1320. — Early Decorated. Second or Mid- dle Pointed. Geometrical. 1320-1377. — Late Decorated. Late or Flowing Middle Pointed. Curvilinear. 1377-1550. — Perpendicular. Third Pointed. Rec- tilinear. Of Early Norman work London possesses typical examples in the solemn old Chapel of St John in the White Tower, and the crypt under the Church of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. The choir of St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, and some details pre- served in the nave of St Saviour’s Cathedral, Southwark, illustrate the style in a later phase. The circular portion of the Temple Church carries us on to the period when, towards the close of the twelfth century, the pointed arch was striving to push out the round; while in the oblong choir of the same building we find it perfectly established. The choir and eastern chapels of St Saviour’s Cathedral, and the chapel within Lambeth Palace, exhibit the Early English style in the same Lancet phase of its existence. More advanced are the corona of chapels, “ Sacrarium,” transepts and choir of Westminster Abbey, than which a more glorious specimen of First Pointed architecture hardly exists. The whole building is a complete epitome of English Gothic from the middle of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the sixteenth. It should, however, be borne in mind that the style of the nave, by which I mean that portion west of the choir-screen, is retrospective in character, i.e. Early English, carried out during the Perpendicu- lar epoch of architecture. Between the reign of Introductory Sketch 5 Henry V and the dissolution of the monastery the western limb of the Abbey slowly progressed, the central window being finished by Abbot Esteney in the reign of Henry VHI, and the western towers being left unfinished by Islip, the last abbot worthy of the name. The most remarkable charac- teristic in this western portion of the nave at Westminster is its continuing the general design of the earlier portions, not copying the details, as was done in the cloister, but applying details of their own period to the general forms of the pre- ceding age; so that, to the casual observer, the building appears to be the offspring of one mind and the work of one age. The Chapel of St Etheldreda in Ely Place, Holborn, and the lower Chapel of St Stephen in the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, illus- trate the geometrical phase of the Decorated style, while the windows in the nave of the great Augus- tinian Friars’ Church, near Broad Street, may be taken as good examples of the Curvilinear phase of the same style, also the south transept of St Saviour’s Cathedral. It is to the Perpendicular period that the churches situated in those northern and eastern parts of the city, which escaped the flames of 1666, chiefly belong. They are St Giles’, Cripplegate; St Helen and St Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate; St Andrew Under- shaft; St Olave’s, Hart Street; All Hallows, Barking; and St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower. In an entirely opposite direction we find the little Chapel of St John in the Savoy, and the stately St Margaret, Westminster. 6 London Churches Besides these more perfect examples of mediae- val architecture there are the tower arches of St Alphege, London Wall (Late Decorated); the lower part of the tower of St Andrew’s, Holborn; the tower and south porch of St Sepulchre’s, Snow Hill; the lower portion of the tower of St Mary Aldermary, Queen Victoria Street; and the noble central tower of St Saviour’s Cathedral, South- wark (all Perpendicular). Then, if we pursue our researches six miles or so from the heart of the city, we shall find some in- teresting mediaeval relics in the churches of Step- ney, Stratford-le-Bow and West Ham; at Hack- ney, in the tower of the old St John’s; at Stoke Newington, in the low south aisle of the old Church of St Mary; at Hornsey, in the tower at- tached to the now disused old church (a specimen of the Gothic of 1830); and at Tottenham, in the tower, porch, nave arcades, and south aisle of All Hallows. In all these examples Perpendicular is the pre- vailing style. Old Chelsea church, near the river, rich in associations of Sir Thomas More, retains its Perpendicular chancel and chapels; Lambeth, Fulham and Chiswick their towers; and Putney its tower, nave arcade, and chantry of Bishop West. In the north-western suburbs the churches of Hendon and Willesden will be found to contain work of various periods. The old churches of Middlesex are not elabo- rate, nor do they afford examples of very refined or artistic detail, or of features that have a novelty for Introdu-* -■ • 'A'-V. The T emple Church 8 7 “in cross-legged effigy devoutly stretched ” but originally placed upon altar tombs and pedestals.* These effigies of feudal warriors are sculptured out of freestone. The attitudes of all are different, but they are all recumbent, with the legs crossed. They are in complete mail with surcoats; one only is bareheaded, and has the cowl of a monk. The shields are of the heater or Norman shape, but the size is not the same in all; one of them is very long, and reaches from the shoulder to the middle of the leg. Their heads, with one exception, repose on cushions, and have hoods of mail. Three of them have flattish helmets over the armour, and one has a sort of casque. These figures were conscientiously restored be- tween 1839 and 1843 by Mr Richardson. The best authorities assign five of them as follow: To Geoffrey de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, a.d. 1144 (right arm on his breast, and large sword at his right) — he is not mentioned by Weever in his Funeral Monuments \ William Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, a.d. 1129 (sculptured in Sussex marble, with his sword through a lion’s head); Robert Lord de Ros, a.d. 1245 (head uncovered, * Their designation is somewhat uncertain. That an effigy has the legs crossed, while the right hand is placed on the sword, does not prove a tomb to be that of a Templar. The tomb of a Tem- plar would represent him in his religious habit — a white cloak with a simple red cross on the left shoulder over a habit fastened at the waist by a belt. These monuments at the Temple Church are those of pilgrims to the Holy Land, who had laid their swords on the altar at the Redeemer’s tomb, or of those who, after hav- ing actually engaged in the Holy War, their vow fulfilled, are seen to sheathe their , swords, whilst their feet rest on the enemy that has beset their path; “conculcabis leonem et draconem” (Ps. xc, 13). 8 8 London Churches with long flowing hair), whose effigy is said to have been brought from Helmsley Church, Yorkshire; William Mareschall, junior, Earl of Pembroke, 1231 (with lion rampant on shield, and sheathing his sword); Gilbert Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, 1281 (drawing his sword, with winged dragon at his feet). In 1841 the ancient lead coffins containing the bodies of these knights were discovered. They do not appear to have been buried in their armour; and none of the coffin ornaments were of earlier date than the beginning of the thirteenth century. The choir or oblong portion of the Temple Church is a magnificent transcript of the eastern chapels of Southwark Cathedral, being, like them, vaulted throughout upon pillars of equal height, and is probably about the most perfect specimen in England of this beautiful mode of construction. Thus in the same structure we have a specimen of the earliest era of true Pointed-arched vaulting, and of the most typical specimen conceivable of vaulting all springing from a given level, and with level ridges rendered the more marked in character by the division of the three ranges of vaulting by means of the pier arches, which, coming close under the vaulting, assume the character of en- larged ribs. Of five bays, the choir of the Temple Church is conceived in the purest Lancet phase of the Early English style. ;^-The central aisle is about a third broader than the other two, and each is roofed under a separate The Temple Church 89 gable — a far more pleasing arrangement than the huge steep mass with which the German archi- tects covered their unclerestoried, or as they styled them, ‘‘hall” churches. There are four clus- tered columns of marble on either side, here form- ing solid piers, but of great lightness and elegance. The groining is formed by cross-springers, with bosses at the intersections. In the aisles the vault is more pointed than in the centre, to redress the effect of their inequality of width. Triplets of lancets, with jamb-shafts of Purbeck marble, light the choir throughout. The east window of the central aisle is larger than any of the others. There are quatrefoil panels in the spandrels to give this, the principal window in the church, a more ornate character. The side-aisle vaults are loaded to counteract the pressure of the central vault aris- ing from its greater width, but the expedient has failed, the weight imposed not having been suffi- cient. The pillars incline slightly outwards. In the south aisle is the effigy of Sylvester de Everdon, Bishop of Carlisle (1246-1255). He wears the episcopal vestments with his mitre, and with his crosier in his hand. In 1810 the tomb was opened and the skeleton found wrapped in sheet lead. The crosier lay by the bishop’s side, but the episcopal ring was missing. The leaden covering appeared to have been broken, perhaps when the Temple was seized in the disturbances of Richard IPs time. Between 1840 and 1843 the interior of the Temple Church was subjected to a very drastic restoration under James Savage — most widely re- membered as the architect of St Luke’s Church, Chelsea, but who seceded from the works at a very 9© London Churches early stage — Sydney Smirke and Decimus Burton. An entire clearance was made of the furniture, which to some extent was to be regretted; as for the period of its execution it was by no means despicable. By those versed in ecclesiology, these works of 1840-43 were loudly condemned, but to the general public, and those uninitiated in that science, they gave unlimited satisfaction. One of the first events chronicled in the pages of The Ecclesiologist was this restoration of the Temple Church. General admiration was ex- pressed in the critique for the spirit and generosity in which the works were conducted, but several points, particularly of the internal arrangements, were, as was the wont of that periodical, protested against and freely commented upon. Complaints were directed chiefly against the want of space left free from seats near the altar, and the general un- satisfactoriness of the sanctuary and its arrange- ments; the absence of a central passage to the altar; the undue height of the longitudinal stalls in the aisles; the absence of a Rood-screen; the groining of the Round Church in wood; and the new tran- sept built for the organ. No details are to hand respecting the condition of the Temple Church prior to 1666. That the Puritanism of the preceding generations had de- faced this beautiful building, and the indifference of their successors had perpetuated the barbarism, is very probable, and would account for the depth of whitewash accumulated on the walls. We read in an account taken from the New V tew of Lon- douy which only extends to what was done to The Temple Church 9 1 the church since the latter part of the seventeenth century, that the structure ‘‘having narrowly es- caped the flames in 1666, was in 1682 beautifled, and the curious wainscot screen set up. The south- west part was, in the year 1695, newly built with stone. In the year 1706 the church was wholly new white-washed^ gilt and painted within, and the pillars of the round tower wainscoted, with a new battlement and buttresses on the south side, and other parts of the outside were well repaired; also the figures of the Knights Templars were cleaned and painted, and the ironwork enclosing them was painted and gilt with gold. The east end of the church was repaired and beautified in 1707.’’ The New View of London (1708) describes the church as then being “wellpaved, and wainscoted with right wainscof^\ and, in 1737, we are told the exteriors of the north side and east end were again repaired. In 1 81 1 the church was, what is termed, “gener- ally repaired.” In a tract cited in Burge’s account of the restoration of the Temple Church and en- titled, Facts and Observations relating to the Female Church;* after describing these repairs, the hope is expressed “that, by the very complete manner in which it had been repaired, it was restored to the full appearance of that beauty and elegance generally allowed to belong to it.” So differently do different ages judge of “beauty ’’and propriety, that what this author deemed the height of successful repair, the next denounced as the perfection of perverted ingenuity and stupid pre- sumption. Did the horrid thought ever cross the •For a diverting anecdote anent Burge, see p. 102. 92 London Churches mind of the restoration committee of 1840, that peradventure their zealous and ingenious efforts might be one day condemned as costly blunders? From internal evidence one is inclined to think that such an idea never overshadowed their happi- ness. In 1825, under the direction of Sir Robert Smirke, the repair of the south side (externally) and the lower portion of “ the Round ” was com- menced. In 1827 this job was completed. Some of the wainscoting round the columns and some of the monuments which had been stuck to them were then removed; but the paint and whitewash were left, and the oblong part of the church re- mained in all the perfection of its eighteenth-cen- tury adornment. It was at this time that St Anne’s Chapel, which connected the convent of the Temple with the church to the south of “the Round,” was removed. That the Temple Church had shared a common fate with many other relics of mediaeval art, and had suffered from neglect and modern innovations, was not to be disputed. The choir was filled with pews which rivalled a jury box in size. The grace- ful marble pillars were coated with whitewash. The walls were wainscoted. The floor was raised to a height of some feet above its original level, and such mural decorations as remained had been obscured by monumental tablets of execrable taste.* Conceived and executed as they were at a period of the Gothic Revival when experience in *A plate in Godwin’s History of the Churches of London shows the choir of the Temple Church as it existed prior to 1840. The Temple Chureh 93 such matters was but young, it would be invidious to compare the works of 1840-42 with the more scholarly ones carried out twenty years later by Mr St Aubyn in the Round Church. At that time, when half the cathedrals and churches of England were undergoing similar treatment, it would be surprising indeed if any obvious mistake were made in reproducing the original design. But all things considered, the world of art may be thankful for the general success which attended those renova- tions of 1840-43; and it may be conceded that if he who in 1185 consecrated the church — I refer to Heraclius, the patriarch of Jerusalem — had seen the Round Duilding when plastered, paved and wainscoted, by order of the benchers of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries, and if he could again be allowed to look in at the present day, he would, if he recognized the building at all, admit - that they left it in a state, not only more admir- able than the former one, but also with some con- siderable resemblance to the circular building he officiated in whilst on his crusading canvass at the Court of Henry II. Willement’s decoration of the walls and vaults; his stained glass in the great eastern triplet of lancets; Minton’s tiled floors, and Richardson’s restoration of the knightly effigies, were perhaps the most satisfactory features in the works carried out between 1840 and 1843, producing together an effect as novel at that time as it was interesting. A brief history of the Templars in England and of this church may be read in the rude effigies of the successive kings, during whose reigns they flourished, now painted on the wall above the 94 London Churches arches connecting the round with the oblong portion. At the south corner sits Henry I, holding the first banner of the Crusaders, half black, half white, entitled “Beauseant”; white typifying fairness towards friends; black, terror to foes. This banner was changed during the reign of Stephen for the red cross. And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lorde. Henry II and the Round Church are represented by the third figure. Richard I, with the sword which he wielded as Crusader, and John, his brother, are the next kings; and in the north aisle is portrayed Henry HI holding the two churches; the choir or oblong part having been added in his reign, and consecrated on Ascension Day 1240. Willement’s stained glass in the lancets over the altar was a decided departure from the semi- naturalistic treatment of such work at that period. Perhaps that eminent revivalist, to whom there is no doubt we owe much, ran into the opposite extreme, since he copied with a too scrupulous ex- actness the early thirteenth-century French speci- men suggested to him as a model. From the west end of the church the general effect of this glass is very pleasing, but on a nearer approach the figures composing the groups in the medallions appear distorted and grotesque, for they are of such a re- duced size that they are not only out of all propor- tion to the ornament which surrounds them, but the groups themselves, owing to their ‘‘antiqua- tion” are hardly intelligible. It is said that in order to give these windows depth of tone and save them from a lean and thin effect, it was found necessary The Temple Church 95 to load them with coats of oil paint on the outside. The oil, as might have been expected, was acted upon hy the atmosphere, and, cracking off, left the window spotty. Far superior in design and colour — it would have been scandalous had they not been so — are the windows in the circumambient aisle of ‘‘the Round,” executed by Ward and Nixon, and pre- sented to the church by a member of the Inner Temple Mr Charles Winston, an accomplished person who very laudably bestowed an immense deal of time and study on old painted glass, which he submitted to chemical analysis. Perhaps Mr Winston’s technical knowledge was superior to his theoretical skill. In criticizing the texture of glass, in settling its date and country, Winston acquired great familiarity, but in settling the character of the drawing to be employed in glass paintings he was happily inconsistent, as, for instance, when in the very same page of his Hints on Glass Painting he proscribed the use of glass painting when the walls were frescoed (with subjects), but admitted it when they were more richly decorated with paint and gilding (in patterns). So in the same work he assured the wondering world that “the Raising of Lazarus by Sebastian del Piombo, and Raphael’s cartoons would form, with a little modification, good designs for glass paintings.” However, what Mr Winston said was one thing, and what he did was another. The window which, in 1853, he put up in “ the Round ” of the Temple Church, is as unlike Raphael’s cartoons as the artist was unlike his old friend, the monk, Theo- philus. It is conventionalized in drawing and as g6 London Churches unlike an oil painting as could be conceived. It consists of five little medallions, very much indeed too small, of the early events of Our Lord’s life. The draperies are all white and the effect is some- what piebald and spotty. The flesh has no tints, and the drapery is of an early type, but the glass, as to its material, is bright and clear, and contrasts favourably with Willement’s antiquated windows in the choir. As to the drawing, this window of Winston’s in “the Round” is rather outre and extravagant, an indescribable something between Flaxman and Fuseli. However, the result is far from unpleasing, and Mr Winston, in this instance, pro- duced a window in which none of his favourite Cinquecento axioms were enunciated. The one stained glass window in the clerestory of “the Round” — a Majesty archaically treated, was the work of Willement, and his gift to the church on the completion of the restoration in 1843. In the earlier general restoration of the church (1839-1842) that of the circular nave and western porch had not been comprised. The northern half of the nave had been scarcely touched on that occasion; its base was deeply imbedded in the soil, the surface of the walls was crumbling, the quoins, mouldings and corbel tables were decayed, the nookshafts dropping away or already gone. The porch had been, time out of mind, incorporated into adjoining secular buildings, and formed the basement of a substantial three-storied block of chambers. The wonder was that its deeply- moulded arches had not been crushed long before by the incumbent weight; but the builders of the The Temple Church 97 superstructure — who displayed more trust than love for the beautiful gate — were justified in their reliance on its solidity, for the glorious old Tran- sitional porch, refusing to point the moral, “sic transit gloria” by a crash, bore the superimposed burden to the last. This porch, with open arches on its north and south, as well as western sides, is a very remarkable monument of late twelfth-century architecture. It gabled north and south, as well as westward, if, indeed, as is most probable, it did not project with one or more bays in that direction, thus forming a species of narthex. The capitals of the nook- shafts of the north arch of the porch are of unique and peculiarly elegant design; one of them seems to represent a coronal of tubular flowers, probably honeysuckles set vertically, with the mouths turned outwards. In spite of considerable difficulties from the nature of the site, crowded as it is with buildings, and valuable as is consequently everysquare foot of space, a sufficient and, under the circumstances, an ample area was cleared about the church, so as to completely open to view the entire north and west sides of the structure. The accumulated soil was removed for some distance around, and several tombs and sepulchral slabs, long buried at the original level, were again uncovered. The walls and buttresses were repaired, the defective shafts and corbel tables made good, the sets of chambers over the porch demolished, and the exterior face of the circular window over the west door, which they concealed, was brought to light and renovated. 1-7 98 London Churches But these satisfactory works were not all. The opportunity was favourable for executing others of a more distinctly artistic character, and Mr St Aubyn and his colleague, Mr Sydney Smirke, well improved it. An earlier restoration had furnished the aisle and clerestory walls of the Round church with a heavy parapet, hardly permitting the low roof to appear at all above the upper coping. This parapet was removed at both stages, and a new lead roof springing from eaves which rest on the corbel table, now rises steeply to a considerable elevation. When the drawings for this cone-shaped top were first put forth, ecclesiologists were afraid that it would prove too acute and spire-like, and thus, however elegant, scarcely in accord with the style of the substructure. But the Temple Church is so closely environed with lofty buildings, that its higher portions, seen from any practicable point of view, must neces- sarily appear foreshortened, and the result showed that any less degree of elevation would have been insufficient. As it is, the effect is harmonious and picturesque; and the entire roof, with its long lines of lead ridges converging as they rise, decked to- wards the apex with a little reticular ornamenta- tion and then terminating with a plain finial, sur- mounted by a cross and vane, forms a striking em- bellishment to this most interesting church. It was a pity the Benchers could not extend their liberality one step further and to remedy, at least in part, the chief error of their noble restoration of the interior of the choir of 1839-42 — the mis- arrangement of the seating, and especially the The Temple Church 99 want of a direct floor line of sight and approach from the door to the altar. Yet by simply dividing the middle block of benches and putting each half aside to the range of columns (still not encroaching on the passages to the aisle seats, which are exter- nal to that range) a central avenue would at once be gained, carrying the eye along without inter- ruption from the western entrance to the altar, which, together with its immediate surroundings, forms in its present condition a most inadequate termination to the vista. And not alone would the general effect be much thus enhanced, but the convenience of the congregation would also be promoted by the separation of the channels of ingress and egress appertaining to the quasi-nave seats and those in the aisles respectively. Seldom, indeed, can so great an improvement as such a re- distribution of fittings be accomplished at so trifling a cost. The Temple Church organ is of much historical interest. About 1683 the Benchers were desirous of obtaining the best possible organ. Bernhardt Schmidt, a German, who afterwards became Angli- cized as Father Smith,” competed with Renatus Harris for the honour of supplying the instru- ment. Each builder erected an organ in the church; Father Smith’s organ was placed in a gallery at the west end of the oblong portion, and Harris placed his at the east end of the south aisle. The two organs were played on alternate Sundays, Dr Blow and Henry Purcell playing upon Smith’s organ, while Draghi, organist to the Queen Con- sort, Catherine of Braganza, touched Harris’s. So severe was the contest that both organs were i-'ja loo London Churches played upon at the same services;* and after re- peated trials, lasting for nearly a year, the Ben- chers decided upon Smith’s instrument, by reason of its “Depthe and Strengthe of Sound.” How far Smith’s success was due to the judicious choice he made of organists to show oif the quali- ties and varieties of his stops it is only possible now to guess, but certainly no more skilful per- formers could have been found than the composers of ‘‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,” and “The Bell Anthem. ”t Harris’ organ having been removed, one portion of it was acquired by the parishioners of St An- drew’s, Holborn, while the other was shipped to Dublin, where it remained in Christ Church Cathedral until 1750, when it was purchased for the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton. Though additions have been made to Schmidt’s organ at various times, it retains all the original pipes in the great and choir organs. The swell was constructed by Byfield, and perhaps still contains the pipes of the original also. This organ is remarkable for possessing quarter- tones, so that there is a difference of tone between G sharp and A flat, and also between D sharp and E flat. Originally this arrangement occurred only in the choir-organ and great organ, and it seems * The partisanship ran so high that, according to the Hon. Roger North, Attorney General to James II, “in the night pre- ceding the last trial of the reed-stops, the friends of Harris cut the bellows of Smith’s organ in such a manner that, when the time came for playing upon it, no wind could be conveyed into the wind-chest.” t '^Rejoice in the Lord alway.” lOI The Temple Church to have been introduced either as an object of curiosity, or to make it in some way more perfect than its rival, since probably Harris was unpre- pared for the novel contrivance. When the church was restored in 1842, the organ was removed to a transept built out for its recep- tion from the north aisle, but. Gothic being then in the ascendant, the Renaissance case was re- grettably discarded. Hitherto the music at the Temple Church had been sung by a quartet choir of ladies and gentlemen, who occupied seats in the gallery before the organ; but on the re- opening of the building in November, 1842, a surpliced choir was introduced, and the service performed in the cathedral style. Under the late Dr E. J. Hopkins, who held the post of organist from May 7, 1843, to his re- tirement in 1898, the musical portion of the Temple Church services acquired a world-wide celebrity. As an exponent of the Anglican style of Church music Dr Hopkins was as unrivalled in his day as Dr Monk of the Gregorian at St Matthias’, Stoke Newington ; and it is not sur- prising that both these churches should have been veritable Meccas for young organists, who have greatly profited by the lessons taught by two such masters of their respective schools. Until Hopkins played at the morning and even- ing services at the Temple on that 7th of May, with such excellent judgement and effect as to satisfy the Benchers of the Temple that he was well qualified to be their organist, George Cooper, and several other candidates for the appointment officiated at the organ. 102 London Churches With the establishment of the full Cathedral Service, three men in surplices and four small boys were crammed in the little stone gallery in front of the organ. This arrangement was felt to be so emi- nently ridiculous, both architecturally and musi- cally, that it was accordingly amended, and an awkward chorus cantorum invented and placed in the body of the church.* One of these four small boys who sang at the re- opening of the church in November, 1842, was Dr W. H. Cummings, the present Principal of the Guildhall School of Music, who tells us that the musical arrangements were made by “a select num- ber of the Benchers, of whom not one had any knowledge of music.’’ “There was, however, amongst them a kind and benevolent old lawyer, William B.,f who had a great love for music, and, I suppose, read much of current music-literature, and had formed an idea *Beside that at the Temple Church, there were only five sur- pliced choirs in London at this period, viz., at St Paul’s Cathe- dral, Westminster Abbey, the Chapel Royal St James’, Mar- garet Chapel, and ( a very singular instance) at the Rev. Dr Mor- timer’s Chapel (now St Bartholomew’s), Gray’s Inn Road. Here the Psalms were always chanted antiphonally, by twenty boys wearing surplices, and who were regularly taught by the organist, and sang in parts. Externally, this church is an unattractive pile of brick, but it contains some good wood-carving in the sterling Louis Quatorze style. The altarpiece is a perfect morceau, which would do honour to a nobleman’s chapel. On this account, therefore, the church is worth a visit. The Rev. Dr Mortimer, alluded to, was first Head Master of the City of London School. tWilliam Burge, author of several pamphlets on architecture and music, among which may be named Facts and Observations relating to the Femfle Church and Fhe Music of the Anglo- Catholic Church, published in 1844, and now scarce. The T emple Church 103 that all church music composed later than Thomas Tallis was vain and effeminate. His self-assertion and confidence imposed on his brethren, who looked upon him as an authority; and, under the circumstances, Hopkins experienced some diffi- culty in recommending such music as he thought desirable. I remember, one Saturday afternoon, we were rehearsing in the church the music for the following day, and were singing the Psalms to a well-known double chant adapted from Spohr, exhibiting the composer’s predilection for chro- matic harmonies. Mr William B., at the close of the Psalms, addressed one of the choir-boys and asked who was the composer of the chant. The boy, who, in common with his fellows, loved the chant, knowing if he replied Spohr it would be disapproved, boldly and unblushingly said he thought it was by Byrd, whereupon the old gentle- man remarked, ‘‘Ah, beautiful! There’s nothing like Elizabethan music.” When a new set of thirty-two feet pedal pipes were supplied to the Temple organ by Bishop, Mr Burge declared they were magnificent, because when they sounded they shook the spectacles on his nose. In the burial-ground, east of the choir and without the building, Oliver Goldsmith was buried on April 9, 1774, at five o’clock in the evening. The place is distinguished by a coped tomb stone with inscriptions merely recording his name on one side and the dates of his birth and death on the other. A tablet erected about half a century ago in a recess on the north side of the choir, commemo- rates the circumstance with greater particularity. 1 04 London Churches It was in those chambers in Brick Court, Middle Temple, that the last act of Goldsmith’s life- drama was played out. His comedy of ^he Good- Natured Man^ acted in 1768, brought him nearly j^500, but which, with the true Grub Street im- providence, he scattered to the winds at once. Furnishing these chambers in mahogany and blue moreen, he gave in them frequent dinners and suppers, startling all the quiet barristers round him with noisy games at blind man’s buff and the choruses of jovial songs. He was constantly in the society of Johnson, Burke and Reynolds, and lived far beyond his means. Leaving the quiet precincts of the Temple, a walk along the Victoria and Albert Embankments brings us to another specimen of Early English architecture, coeval with the Choir of the Temple Church and almost exactly corresponding with it in character — the Private Chapel of the Arch- bishop of Canterbury within Lambeth Palace. The original building here was erected by Arch- bishop Baldwin, who obtained the site by exchange with the then Bishop of Rochester, for other land in the Isle of Grain, in the year 1189. Elis object was, that his proposed new church and dwelling should be at a distance from, and be- yond the influence of, the monks of Canterbury, who had prevented him from establishing a cell of secular canons in their vicinity. Baldwin then commenced a chapel at Lam- beth, with the intention of making it collegiate, but his death in the Holy Land in 1190 prevented his completing his purpose. After his decease the manor became the pro- Chapel of Lambeth Palace 105 perty of the See; but the monks at Canterbury, jealous lest the metropolitan See itself should be transferred to London, continued their opposition to the design and prevailed on the Pope, Inno- cent III, to issue a bull commanding its abandon- ment. This feud between the secular and monastic bodies continued till it was agreed, in 1202, that a church and establishment of not more than twenty Premonstratensian Canons might be built else- where in Lambeth than upon this site. Archbishop Hubert relinquished this project, but made Lambeth his metropolitan palace, and his successor, Langton, improved it. Archbishop Boniface, however, in 1216, was ordered by Pope Urban IV to build and repair the house at Lam- beth, and this chapel, which is the earliest portion of the extant buildings, is probably his work, though it is difficult exactly to distinguish the buildings of that prelate and his immediate successors. Of the interesting group of buildings composing this Archiepiscopal Palace at Lambeth, the oldest and finest is the chapel. It consists of a simple parallelogram in plan, of stately proportion, being about seventy-two feet by twenty-six feet clear internal dimensions, with walls four feet thick, and is entered from the Guard Room by a doorway composed of a deeply-moulded round arch, rising on either side from two slender shafts, and enclos- ing two trefoil-headed ones. The tympanum is pierced with a quatrefoil, and the whole bears a similarity to the western doorway of St Cross, Winchester. io6 London Churches The chapel, like that of Ely House, is raised upon a crypt, divided into two aisles by circular pillars, and with plain groining supported at the angles by moulded corbels. Bold buttresses without and corbels for vault- ing within divide the length of the chapel into four bays, each lighted by a graceful triplet of lancets, having detached internal bearing shafts of Purbeck marble, with moulded caps and bases, and beautifully moulded arches above. At the east end is a graduated row of five lan- cets also with elegant detached shafts, and at the west end is a similar group, which was walled up when Archbishop Chichele built his tower a hun- dred years later against it, leaving the opening in the central lancet to serve as a hagioscope for the use of the inmates of the tower. In Archbishop Juxon’s time this opening was filled up, and a small bay window substituted for the hagioscope. The present quadripartite groined roof was erected during the Archiepiscopate of DrHowley* in 1846, from the designs of Blore, an alteration that was much criticized by antiquaries at the time. Although of poor design and workmanship, this roof certainly gives an air of greater dignity to the chapel, while the poverty of its execution was to a great extent palliated by the refined taste and liberality of Archbishop and Mrs Tait and their friends, which gave a beauty by that colour- ing which it now displays. *Dr Howley was consecrated Bishop of London in this Chapel on Oct. 3, 1813. The ceremony was witnessed by Queen Char- lotte when seventy years of age, her Majesty having long wished to witness the hallowing of a bishop. TIIK CIlAPIiL WITHIN LAMlHiTlI PAI.ACH. Chapel of Lambeth Palace 107 Until 1846 a flat-panelled ceiling covered the whole of the chapel, just above the lancets, a type of roof that seems to have been always here, no indications of a high-pitched and groined one being visible. The colouring of the present roof, together with the stained glass which fills all the windows, was executed by Messrs Clayton and Bell from the designs of the late Mr J. P. Seddon, under whose direction this little gem of Early English architec- ture was restored to something of its pristine beauty thirty years ago.* When Archbishop Howley repaired the Chapel in 1846, he caused simple diapered glass to be in- serted in the lancets throughout, not a fragment remaining of the very curious and interesting stained-glass with which Archbishop Laud with the assistance of his secretary, Mr Dell, had equipped them in imitation of the fifteenth-cen- tury work of Cardinal Morton’s time. That prelate had filled the windows with stained glass, all no doubt of the richest and best work- manship to be had at the time, but when Laud came to the See in 1633 he found these ‘‘goodly windows,” as he tells us in the History of his Troubles and Tryal, “shameful to look on, all diversely patched like a poor beggar’s coat,” they having been sacrificed to the iconoclastic propen- sities of some Elizabethan prelate. There can be no doubt that Cardinal Morton took his original designs from such books as the Speculum Humance Salvationis and the Biblia •Excellent drawings of this Chapel and its details are given in Dollman’s Examples of Ancient Domestic ArchitectuTCy Series ii. io8 London Churches Pauferum^ which were in reality monuments of monastic piety, and the windows of that day were the only Scriptural Lesson of that time, “for through them, as through ‘the windows of the mind,’ flowed in to the devout worshipper the light of Gospel Truth, a knowledge and a hope of Salvation.” One of the articles of impeachment against Laud was that he had put in the windows of stained glass in the chapel, which windows were presumed in their painting to have reference to Romanism. But Laud’s answer to this was, that he did not take the subject from the Mass books, but from the fragments of the windows that remained, and which represented — as do the present ones — the types and antitypes of Our Lord, showing forth by such the history of the world from the Creation to the Day of Judgement. One of the windows was given by the Bishops of the American Church as a mark of appreciation of the welcome they had received from Arch- bishop Tait at the Pan- Anglican Synod of 1878. There is some interesting old early seventeenth- century wood-carving in the stalls and the screen which, placed between the first and second bays from the west, makes of the former a species of antechapel. In 1642 this Chapel was horribly desecrated by the Parliamentary soldiers, who under their com- mander Colonel Scott, destroyed the tomb of Archbishop Parker, “erected while he was yet alive” near the spot where he “used to pray,” and cast the prelate’s remains upon a dung heap. At the Restoration, Parker’s remains were recovered by Archbishop Sancroft, who reinterred them Chapel of Lambeth Palace 109 before the altar, marking the spot by a lozenge- shaped tablet, inscribed ‘‘Corpus Matthaei Archie- piscopi tandem hie quiescit.” Since the date of Archbishop Parker’s consecra- tion, December 17, 1559, to that of Dr Pelham to Norwich, St Barnabas’ Day, 1857, nearly every bishop in the Southern Province was consecrated in Lambeth Palace Chapel.* A few consecrations took place at Croydon, in some private chapels of episcopal residences, and in Henry VII’s Chapel at Westminster. Since 1842 Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s have been principally used. In the mediaeval period, Canterbury, Lambeth, St Paul’s, Westminster, with many other places, were the scenes of consecrations, while some pre- lates were “hallowed” at Rome or other cities on the Continent. If the majority of consecrations of Diocesan Bishops could take place in their respec- tive Cathedrals, large numbers of persons who can never witness the “hallowing” of their chief pas- tors would be enabled to do so, and there would be the further advantage that if the homage could always be done to the King afterwards, the Arch- bishop in person might, during the afternoon of the same day, enthrone the newly-consecrated prelate. Spiritual ties of the utmost value would thus be established between the Metropolitan, his Suffragan and the Diocese which, on the occasion so solemn, was visited by the Archbishop. The tradition, however, of consecrations in Lambeth ^Between the time of Archbishop Warham (1532) and Arch- bishop Sumner (1862) Lambeth Palace Chapel has been the scene of some 400 consecrations. no London Churches Palace Chapel — one of the most sacred of shrines to all English Churchmen — Canterbury, St Paul’s, the Abbey and Southwark, should be occasionally maintained. Ill CHAPTER III The Churches of the Decorated and Perpendicu- lar Periods T he Chapel of St Etheldreda, in Ely Place, Holborn, all that exists of the once magnifi- cent town house of the Bishops of Ely, which was occasionally let by the See to distinguished noble- men, is a gem of which any city might be proud. Built as it was at the close of the thirteenth century, it is perhaps, for its size, one of the most perfect examples of the perfect period of Christian architecture — a specimen of the art exactly at that point of perfection at which nothing on earth is permitted to stop — after the bud and before the rankness — the flower just blown. ‘‘‘My Lord [said the Duke of Gloucester, after- wards Richard III], you have very good straw- berries at your garden in Holborn; I require you let us have a mess of them.’ ‘ Gladly, my Lord,’ quoth he [the Bishop of Ely], ‘would God I had some better thing as ready to your pleasure as that,’ wherewith, in haste, he sent his servant for a mess of strawberries.” This incident, as narrated by Holinshed, and introduced by Shakespeare into the third Act of his Richard III,* has probably, more than any *D. of Glou . — My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there: I do beseech you send for some of them. B. of Ely. — Marry, and will, my" Lord, with all my heart. 1 1 2 London Churches Other cause, preserved the little interest there is in the place, but apart from this the palace and chapel have been the scene of events of sufficient importance to throw an historic halo around them. We first hear of Ely Place as a part of London at the end of the thirteenth century, when John of Kirkby, who was consecrated Bishop of Ely in 1286 and died in 1290, bequeathed a messuage known as ‘‘The Bell” with nine cottages, as a site for a palace for his successors. Bishop de Luda, who died in 1297, left other houses and appurtenances in Oldbourne for the same purpose. He is supposed to have founded the existing chapel, which was dedicated to St Ethel- dreda, the patroness of Ely Cathedral. Bishop John de Hotham, who occupied the See for twenty years, and whose name is associated with the first three bays of the choir of Ely Cathedral — those beautiful specimens of the Flowing Decorated style which were built after the central tower had fallen and crushed the original Norman ones — also disbursed large sums on the buildings, and purchased the gardens and fields adjoining the palace, and which, according to Stow, contained forty acres. Camden describes Ely Place as “well becoming bishops to live in, for which they were beholden to John de Hotham, Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Ely, under Edward II and HI.” Thomas de Arundel, according to Stow, “beauti- fully built of new his palace at Elie, and likewise his manors in divers places, especially this in Old- bourne, which he did not only repair, new built and augmented it with a large post gatehouse, or front, toward the street or highway; his arms are St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place 1 1 3 yet to be discerned in the stonework thereof; ” and adds, ‘‘in this house, for the large and com- modious rooms thereof, divers great and solemn feasts have been kept, especially by the serjeants- at-law.” On the deprivation of Bishop Thirlby,* who had refused the oath of supremacy to Elizabeth, Richard Cox was consecrated in 1559 to the See of Ely, from which, under the pressure of the Queen and courtiers, he was compelled to alienate many of the best manors. As Bishop-elect, Cox, in con- junction with Parker, then Archbishop-elect of Canterbury, ?nd some other Bishops, petitioned the Queen that she would forbear exchanging lands for tenths, and impropriate rectories on the vacancy of the different Sees, which, by an Act passed in her first Parliament, she was entitled to do. The petition was without effect, and fourteen manors, belonging to the See of Ely, were at the time exchanged for tenths and impropriations of much less value. Subsequently, the Lord Keeper, Hatton, pro- cured the alienation of a portion of the Bishop’s property at Holborn; and it was on making resis- tance to this spoliation “by a well-penned letter in Latin” that Cox received the following character- istic epistle from the Queen: “Proud Prelate! I understand you are backward in complying with your agreement, but I would have you to know that I, who made you what you are, can unmake you; and if you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement, by God! I will immediately *The first and only Bishop of Westminster, see p. 202. 1-8 1 14 London Churches unfrock you! — Your’s, as you demean yourself, — Elizabeth.” Further remonstrances were not to be thought of, and Ely Place, vineyard, meadow, kitchen gar- den and orchard, were demised to the Crown, and by the Crown made over to Sir Christopher Hatton. The names of Hatton Garden and Ely Place Mantua, vae, miserae nimium vicina Cremonae Still bear witness to the encroaching Lord Keeper and the elbowed Bishop. Notwithstanding some persecution, it was not until after the Bishop’s death that the temporali- ties came into the Queen’s hands, and were as- signed to Sir Christopher, and became part of the site of Hatton Garden. As Ely Place was held by the Hatton family under a mortgage, the bishop possessed little power over it, and during the imprisonment of Bishop Wren under the Commonwealth, the palace was dismantled. On his liberation at the Restoration a lawsuit was commenced, which resulted even- tually in a fee farm grant of ;^ioo a year being accepted as a compromise. In 1772 an Act was passed by which, with the consent of the Bishop — Edmund Keene — all rights and property of the Bishop of Ely, in Ely Place, were transferred to the Crown for ^6,500, with an annuity of £200 a year to be paid to the Bishops of Ely. It was proposed that the Excise Office should be erected on the site of the palace but the position was an obstacle. Then there was a project for removing the old Fleet Prison to Ely Place, but owing to remonstrances of the inhabi- St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place 1 1 5 tants of Hatton Garden and the parishioners of St Andrew’s, this was abandoned. Eventually the property was sold to Mr Charles Cole, one of the Crown surveyors, and the present grim double row of buildings known as Ely Place, erected on its site.* The chapel, however, fortunately escaped, and after some vicissitudes became on December 19, 1843, a place of worship for the Welsh Church. At various times during the last century the degraded state of this gem of English Gothic art was called attention to by architects, notably by Mr Butterfield, in an early number of The Eccle- siologist^ and by Mr Francis Dollman in The Civil Engineers and Architects'^ Journal for 1861. The mouldings of its richly traceried windows, dis- tinguished for their delicacy and refinement of design, were clogged with dirt; its oaken roof was masked by a plaster ceiling; its walls, though in the main substantially sound, were bedaubed with whitewash internally, and covered with plaster outside ; while wretched fittings obscured the fine proportions of the chapel. The east front, to- wards Ely Place, had been ‘‘beautified” and reno- vated with a facing of stucco “neatly jointed with the most careful symmetry,” and under the great window two literally Gothic, quoad barbarous doorways had been inserted. Both the octagonal turrets flanking the eastern gable had disappeared, and the Souterrein or crypt was merely a place of lumber, and a receptacle for casks of all sorts and sizes. *In Britton’s Picturesque Antiquities of the English Cities^ published in 1830, there is a beautiful engraving by Le Keux, after a drawing by John Carter, of this chapel, showing such re- mains of the adjacent palace as existed before 1775. 1 - 8 ^ 2 : 1 1 6 London Churches ‘‘Contrasting its glories,” said Mr Dollman in his description, “ with its present desolation, it is surely not too late or quite in vain to plead with those who are interested in the few remaining antiquities of our gigantic Metropolis for the faithful and thorough restoration of a building so historically interesting and so architecturally valuable.” Unfortunately this appeal met with no result, and so the building remained until 1874, when on its being put up for auction it was knocked down on January 28 of that year for ^5,250, to the Fathers of the Order of Charity (Rosminians), who, aided by individual generosity, have subjected the structure to that “faithful and thorough restoration” for which Mr Dollman had so earnestly pleaded thirteen years before. Mr John Young and Mr Bernard Whelan were the architects to whom the work of restoration was entrusted, and they have certainly carried it out most conscientiously, great praise being like- wise due to Mr Doherty, the master mason, who may be said to have inherited the traditions of the school of Pugin. In plan St Etheldreda’s is a simple parallelogram about eighty feet long by thirty feet wide, and its height from the floor to the apex of the roof, a most interesting piece of ancient carpentry, is fifty feet. The whole was raised on a crypt to bring it on to a level with the episcopal apartments. Erected between 1290 and 1298, when our ecclesiastical architecture was at its highest excel- lence, “Ely Chapel” may be considered, for its size, one of the most beautiful specimens of Geo- metrical Decorated art in Christendom, and from St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place 1 1 7 the resemblance it bears to such works as the tombs of Edmund Earl of Lancaster and Aveline, his wife, at Westminster, of Archbishop Peckham, at Canterbur}^, and of Bishop de Luda in the presbytery of Ely Cathedral, may have been de- signed by the same hand. The chief glories of the chapel are its great east and west windows. The former, of five lights of equal height, has its tracery composed of mullions crossing each other in the head, and the spaces formed by the interlacing, cusped. It has been filled with rich stained glass, at the cost of the Duke of Norfolk, by Saunders, to whom William Burges entrusted the windows in his cathedral at Cork and his churches at Studleigh Royal and Skelton, near Ripon. In the centre light is the Majesty; that on either side contains the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph; while in the outer ones are St Etheldreda and St Bridget. The grand west window has its tracery differ- ently treated. Here we have also five lights with a large circle above traceried with three smaller ones cusped, the two lights on either side the central one being grouped beneath a pointed head to form subfenestrations. In this window Mr Hardman has made a commencement of stained glass of excel- lent character in commemoration of ‘‘the martyrs who suffered under the Tudors and Stuarts,” as the inscription informs us. The walls, north and south, are divided into seven bays by a beautiful and delicate arcading, the five wide bays having windows of Decorated tracery, which have been restored from the single example that remained at the eastern end. 1 1 8 London Churches The whole of the wall gablets between the windows have been restored where defective, and altogether, with the window tracery, produce an effective arcading on either side. The gablets are acutely pointed and rise to the height of the window arches. Their heads are filled with light tracery, consisting of trefoiled cusping, and are enriched by crockets and finials. The carved stone corbels support modern statues, which give much richness to the ensemble. The windows are of two lights each, having a cusped head with a trefoil above, while a sexfoiled circle occupies the head of the window. All have received their complement of stained glass by Saunders. Each light contains two groups, well separated by pattern work, and as the whole has been carried out on one uniform plan the general effect is very pleasing. The jamb and mullion shafts have delicately carved foliaged capitals, and the manner in which the stonework has been executed is everything the most conservative restorer could desire, the sec- tion of the mouldings having been carefully taken from the remaining fragments of the original work. Two bays at the west end have merely the blank cusped tracery to relieve the wall surfaces. The roof is most interesting. It had long been suspected that the chapel still possessed its ancient timber roof, although carefully concealed by modern disfigurements. Any doubts on the subject were set at rest, when on Monday, April 19, 1875, by removing slates in a line up to the ridge, a roof in the simple and severe style adopted by four- teenth-century architects, was laid bare. Its con- St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place 1 1 9 struction is that of a coupled rafter roof; there is no ridge-piece and no longitudinal tie, except the two wall-plates and the external boarding; the rafters averaging eight inches by six inches laid flatways, are about nine inches apart; there is a vertical strut framed into the inner wall-plate and the rafters, and above are crosspieces and a collar all about eight inches by four inches; all the pieces are united by double tenons and secured with projecting wooden pegs. The shape is a plain barrel polygonal one, and the material used — chestnut wood — contrasts very agreeably with the Caen stone ashlared walls. One of the most interesting relics of the older chapel is the Saxon font, found in the crypt covered with a mass of concrete and forming the base of one of the great chestnut posts that sup- ported the roof. It is of Purbeck marble, and con- sists of a plain circular bowl, with four rib-like projections on the outside. It now stands on a cir- cular stone base, and is used as a stoop for holy water. The main south entrance to the chapel is per- haps unsurpassed as a doorway of its period. The three jamb-shafts have been carefully restored, and the mouldings look as sharp as when cut. The doorway on the opposite side has been blocked, so that only the inner work can be seen. It is of much elegance, comprising a low acutely pointed arch- way within a depressed headed one, which takes a short vertical form on springing from the jamb- shafts. The west end of the building to the depth of these doorways forms an antechapel, separated 120 London Churches from the chapel proper by a tall open screen of wood, from the designs of the late Mr J. F. Ben- tley, in the style transitionary between Late Decorated and Perpendicular, and sustaining the organ loft. A large rood is suspended from the roof of the chapel towards its eastern extremity. There are two interesting entries in the Diary of John Evelyn with reference to this Chapel of Ely House: November 14, 1668. ‘‘To London, invited to the consecration of that excellent person, the Deane of Ripon, Dr Wilkins, now made Bishop of Ches- ter; it was at Ely House, Archbp of Canterbury, Dr Cosin, Bishop of Durham, the Bishops of Ely, Salisbury, Rochester and others officiating. Dr Tillotson preached. Then we went to a sumptuous dinner in the Hall, where were the Duke of Bucking- ham, Judges, Secretaries of State, Loid Keeper, Council, Noblemen and innumerable other com- pany, who were honourers of this incomparable man, universally beloved by all who knew him.” April 27, 1693. “My daughter Susanna was married to William Draper, Esq., in the Chapel of Ely House, by Dr Tenison, Bp of Lincoln (since Archbishop). I gave her in portion, ^^4,000, her jointure is ^^500 fer ann. I pray Almighty God to give His blessing with this marriage. She is a good child, religious, discreet, ingenious, and qualified with all the ornaments of her sex. She has a peculiar talent in designe, as painting in oil and miniature, and an extraordinary genius for whatever hands can do with a needle. She has the French tongue, has read most of the Greek and Roman authors, and Poets, using her talents with St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster 1 2 1 greate modesty; exquisitely shaped, and of an agree- able countenance. This character is due to her tho’ coming from her father.” An exemplary young lady this, truly! Cowperthus chronicles an amusing occurrence in this chapel at the time of the defeat of the Young Pretender by the Duke of Cumberland in 1746: So in the chapel of old Ely House, When wandering Charles, who meant to be the Third, Had fled from William, and the news was fresh. The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce. And eke did roar rightly merrily two staves. Sung to the praise and glory of King George. — 7 he Task^ Book vi. A pride and glory of that meridian hour of Eng- lish Gothic art, the first half of the fourteenth century, is the Lower Chapel of St Stephen, in the Palace of Westminster, whose rescue and restora- tion for sacred purposes, after a long period of misuse, must rank among the most important and interesting works of forty years ago. It is hardly necessary to premise that the apart- ment which Mr E. M. Barry so boldly and succes- fully renovated is the Under Chapel of the old St Stephen’s, commonly, but quite mistakenly, called the Crypt, a word wholly inapplicable to a room which stands upon the surface of the ground. St Stephen’s Chapel, that gem a friori of Eng- lish art, and upon which was lavished all that the Metropolis could produce most exquisite in the arts of design, like every similar structure, notably the Ste Chapelle at Paris, the church at Assisi, and to name a smaller instance, the little chapel which was enlarged by Mr Butterfield to serve the reli- 12 2 London Churches gious wants of St Augustine’s College, Canterbury, was of two stories, of which the upper one became in time the House of Commons, and the lower at a later date the Speaker’s dining-room. When Sir Charles Barry came to design the New Houses of Parliament after that fire of October 1 6, 1834, which was the indirect means of raising him to fame and fortune, he found the Upper Chapel of St Stephen’s, not exactly in ruins, but in such a condition that its preservation was im- possible, while to restore it with anything like accuracy would have been an hazardous under- taking.* Its charred remains were therefore — ruthlessly it must be owned — swept away in the name of architectural uniformity, to give place to the present meaningless “St Stephen’s Hall.” After its destruction there still remained of the old St Stephen’s, that is to say of the religious portion of the Palace of Westminster, the Under Chapel of the time of Edward HI,t and the Tudor *In Buckler’s design for the New Houses of Parliament, St Stephen’s Chapel, restored, formed a conspicuous object. Cot- tingham and Savage, two other competitors, exhibited models for its restoration. Wyatt and Goodridge were for lengthening it. fit appears from the Patent Roll of 22 Edward III, that the foundations of the new chapel were laid in that year — “De fundatione capellae S. Stephani in palatio Westmonasterii” — and it seems to have been completed in about fifteen years, as another Roll of the 37th of the same King gives directions for its decoration. A beautiful series of engravings and a complete restoration of this chapel, most carefully and conscientiously drawn out by Mackenzie, was published by the Government in 1844, in royal folio. Mackenzie was the best architectural draughtsman of his day, and some of his drawings are as accurate as photographs. He was largely employed by John Britton to illustrate his Cathedral Antiquities (1814-1835). St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster 123 cloisters, which latter indeed furnished Sir Charles Barry with the motif for the main decoration of the entire new palace. Early in the work the cloisters were carefully restored, but no practical use was at that time discovered for the ex-dining-room of the Speaker, which long remained untouched and unmoder- nized in the condition of ruin to which the fire had reduced it. Then it was restored architectu- rally, and remained for a long period clean, and white and empty. At last, in 1863, it was placed in the hands of Mr E. M. Barry (third son of Sir Charles) for decoration and furniture in a style consistent with its sacred intended destination — that of the Chapel of the Parliament; and corre- sponding with the style of its architecture. In 1865 it was thrown open for public inspection. The Chapel is composed of five bays with simple vaulting, complicated in appearance by the ribs and the windows. On the north side each of the foremost eastern bays enclosed a window of four lights, with trefoiled heads without ramifica- tions,* while the western bay was filled with screenwork similar to the windows, but pierced with doorways in the two central lights. The west end was a blank, and the south side similar to the north, except that the western bay was blank. At the east end where the vaulting dies away against the east wall with a curvature so graceful as almost to produce the effect of an apse, there were three windows each of three lights, all filled with bold tracery, recalling rather the Geometric of the earlier Edwardian style than that which was in vogue *Vide the drawings h'y Mackenzie already alluded to. 124 London Churches when the chapel was built. The main bosses of the vault, happily preserved, though not without some mutilations, through the days of desecration and the epoch of the fire, represented famous mar- tyrdoms, in reference to the dedicating of the whole chapel to the first martyr. To accommodate the chapel to a condition of imprisonment within gigantic structures which had no existence, or thought of existence, while St Stephen’s then stood on the very bank of the silver Thames, was Mr Barry’s task. He had also to invest what was originally only the undercroft with the dignity and proportions which it had the right to assume when on the destruction of the upper story it had become the chapel of the ‘Talace of Westminster.” These two demands were ably met. The first, of course, involved the darkening of an already dark building, but for this Mr Barry was not responsible. The western win- dows had to be filled up, leaving the tracery to mark the now fenestriform panels. Then doors had to be contrived in the west wall and in the wes- tern bay of the south side. Furthermore, the eastern bay had to be taken in hand and converted into a sanctuary, by raising it on three steps, in addition to the altar footpace of one step. Also the most eastern window on the north side has been pierced in its two central lights with openings copied from the original ones in the most western bay on the same side. With the exception of these changes, the under- croft of St Stephen’s is what it was when it left the hands of its Edwardian architect, and there can be no doubt the Victorian one had full and THE LOWER CHAEEL— ST. SFEl^HEN’S, \Vi:STMINSTEK St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster 125 ample justification for all the modifications which he introduced. The damage of time and weather was, of course, repaired, and as in other details, so especially in the mouldings of the roof-ribs, the architectural student may study a series of examples of peculiar originality and boldness. I may refer in particular to one oft-repeated moulding, which is actually identical with, and no doubt copied from, some example of the Greek fret. One feature that contributes greatly to the general effect is the very bold trefoiled feathering — if so constructional a feature can be called by that name — of the windows. The nine pictures of saints on a gold ground were executed under the direction of Messrs Clayton and Bell, who also decorated that bay of the roof over the altar, the subjects being angels in graceful attitudes on a ground of gold and scroll- work. The decoration of the remainder of the roof and the west end was entrusted to Grace, and for the stained glass, some of which stood out among the best examples in the Exhibition of 1862, Hardman was responsible. Altogether this interes- ting remains of fourteenth-century Gothic presents an admirable study in artificial polychromy, rich, yet at the same time tempered with judgement. Of the conventual establishments of mediaeval London, the house of the Augustinian Friars in Erode Street, as it was then called, was one of the most notable, both for the renown of the Order, for its wealth and learning, and for the magnificence of the buildings and grounds, which covered many acres. 126 London Churches Of the conventual buildings naught exists, and scarcely anything is known; but of the church, the nave with its aisles still remains, and enables us to form a good idea of the grandeur and magnificent scale of the whole. This portion has a peculiar value, on account of its being a type of those large churches which are so well suited for crowded cities; not a Cathedral or a Minster, but something more imposing than a mere parish church. Richard Carpenter, one of the most distinguished architects of the earlier period of the Gothic Revival, is said to have founded his style upon it, and it furnished Pugin with the idea which he worked out, with cramped means at his disposal, in St George’s, Lambeth. Sir Gilbert Scott likewise had a great admiration for it, holding it up as a noble model of a preach- ing nave, for which purpose it was, no doubt, origi- nally intended, being of great size and, for an un- clerestoried one, of unusual loftiness. It is, in fact, a perfect model of what is most prac- tically useful in the nave of a head town church. As I have already detailed the circumstances of its passing into the hands of its present possessors,* I will pass on to speak of the architecture of this church of the Augustine Friars. It was founded in 1253 by Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and a century later was rebuilt by his namesake and successor to the title, in doing which it is highly probable that, to some extent at least, the original plan was fol- lowed, and perhaps some of the old foundations re-used. Chapter ii, p. 5 i. Church of the Austin Friars 127 The first nave, in its style and arrangement, probably resembled that of the Temple Church, which was in course of erection at the same time, and was dedicated in 1240. This arrangement consists of a broad nave, with side aisles of unusual breadth, covered at one level with three high-pitched roofs, and lighted by large windows in the side walls.* These windows in the first church were pro- bably triple lancets in the Early English style, as may now be seen in the Temple Church, but at the second building were altered to four-light windows, with curvilinear tracery of that peculiar flamboyant character which marks the reign of the Third Edward. Although there appears to be no record or even allusion to such fact, the existing fabric affords clear and indubitable evidence of a third building: for with the exception of the window tracery above referred to, every part of it bears the im- press of the fifteenth century. The mouldings throughout, including the inner and outer arch and jamb-mouldings to the windows, are unmis- takably of this period. The piers of the arches separating the nave from the aisles are identical in plan with those of St Mary’s, Stamford. The bases are circular next the shaft, and octagonal below; the capitals, circular at the junction of the shaft, have octagonal abaci; •This type of church is of constant occurrence in Northern Germany, very imposing examples existing in MUnster, Soest, Paderborn, Herford, Halle, Marburg and G5rlitz. There, how- ever, the three aisles were always included under one enormous high-pitched roof. 12 8 London Churches the mouldings to the external jambs and arches of the windows are Late Perpendicular; the label moulding to the same is simply hollowed below and splayed above. From these tokens we may conclude that the nave was rebuilt during the last half of the fifteenth century, and that the window tracery of the second church was inserted in the new walls. This tracery features very strongly that in the windows of the Latin Chapel in Oxford Cathedral, said to have been founded by Lady Montacute (d. 1353) and that of the rose window in the south transept of Lincoln Cathedral (c. 1350). It also approaches some French flamboyant work, such as we see in the choir windows of St Sernin at Toulouse. From old chronicles and official documents it would appear that there were nave and choir, with north and south aisles, transepts. Chapels of St John and St Thomas, cloisters, etc. Of these the nave, with its aisles, is all that remains. That they are entire is clear from the fact of the large piers and arches, at the junction with the transept, be- ing still in existence, though sadly mutilated. The nave is divided into nine bays of equal width, the easternmost of the arches being about one foot narrower than the others. In point of size this nave of the Austin Friars’ Church will bear comparison with some great cathedral churches. Thus the extreme length of Austin Friars between the walls is 153 feet, while that of Exeter measures 140 feet. The clear width of the nave of Austin Friars is eighty-three feet, that of Exeter is seventy feet, of Ely and Peter- WEST FRONT OF THE AUSTIN FRIARS’ CHURCH. Church of the Austin Friars 129 borough seventy-five feet, and of Winchester eighty feet. Old chroniclers are loud in praise of the steeple, which, it appears, rose at the intersection of the four arms. Stow, in his Survey of London, calls it ‘‘a most fine spired steeple, small, high and straight”; adding, have not seen the like.” Previously he had stated that ‘‘the church, en- closed from the steefle and the choir^ was given to the Dutch”; which passages, read together, and coupled with the fact that the remaining piers are too slight to have carried a stone spire, lead to the conclusion that it was a wooden fleche at the in- tersection of the roofs. This “spired steeple ” was blown down in 1362, but was rebuilt forthwith, and in 1603, though much impaired, was still standing. In 1600 the parishioners of St Peter-le- Poer petitioned the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and through them the Marquis of Winchester, to repair the ruinous steeple, the fall of which was imminent, but no notice seems to have been taken, for the steeple with the eastern part of the church was soon after removed. The interior of the church appears to have been a favourite burying place for nobles as well as citizens, for in the Harleian MSS. a list of persons buried here is given, which includes some sixty Marquises and other noblemen of various ranks. In the pavement of the church are still existing many slabs of Purbeck marble bearing the sockets of brasses, but every vestige of brass has long since disappeared. There is also a portion of a Purbeck marble altar slab bearing two of the five crosses. In 1829 whole of the exterior was covered 1-9 130 London Churches with Roman cement, the mouldings pared away, the water tables to the buttresses on the north side altered, and their original character de- stroyed, the ingenious perpetrator of all this mis- chief concluding his labours by facetiously in- scribing in the stucco of the gable the date a.d. 1254, in large Roman capitals. In November, 1862, this noble fragment fell a victim to the carelessness of plumbers, the roofs of the nave and the north aisle being burnt. The rest of the building was but little injured, in fact it could scarcely be said to have suffered at all, the walls and arcades sustaining no injury worth men- tioning. Fears, however, were entertained lest the Church should be swept away and replaced by some degraded substitute. Happily, public opi- nion, backed by the urgent and timely remon- strances addressed to the Dutch Consistory by the Ecclesiological and other Architectural Societies was brought to bear, and the work placed in the hands of a young architect named Lightly (too soon lost to the world), who was given carte blanche in the matter, and the church was satisfactorily restored. The interior of the vast nave of the Austin Friars’ Church still presents, amidst all its desola- tion, a most affecting and magnificent spectacle. The clustered piers and exquisite windows, and the noble air and grand proportions of the whole, still possess inspiration for all who can appreciate the beautiful and true in architectural science. Not only can art discourse to us of her mar- vels, but religion herself can whisper to us of much — much to be learned, much to be loved, St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 1 3 1 much to be prayed for, much to be deprecated — on the time-worn pavement, beneath the lofty arches, and amidst the venerable walls of ‘‘Austin Friars.’’ Were I asked to name the most truly pictorial of old London church interiors, I should point without hesitation to that of St Helen’s, Bishops- gate. If not remarkable for magnitude or architec- tural excellence, St Helen’s contains specimens of almost every variation of the Pointed Style, from the commencement of the thirteenth century to the last declension of its use, when it yielded to the newly imported architecture of Italy, one of the earliest specimens of which is also to be seen in the woodwork of this building. To the outward eye St Helen’s appears to be- long exclusively to the Perpendicular or Third Pointed epoch of Gothic, and to consist of two parallel naves of equal height and length, with a south transept from which open two chapels. But the structure is of much more remote foundation, and owing to the numerous strata that time has deposited upon its original nucleus, it presents a more intricate problem for solution than might at first sight be supposed. Dedicated to St Helen, the mother of Con- stantine, born, it is said, at Colchester, the church was in existence previously to loio, as appears from a circumstance recorded that in this year the remains of King Edmund the Martyr, whose name is commemorated by one London City church, St Edmund the King and Martyr, in Lombard Street, were removed from St Edmundsbury, and i-qa 132 London Churches deposited at St Helen’s for three years, until the depredations of the Danes had ceased. In 1180 one Ranulph and Robert his son, granted St Helen’s to the Canons of St Paul’s. These gave lease to William Fitzwilliam, a goldsmith, to found a priory of Benedictine nuns, dedicated to the Holy Cross and St Helen. Of the ancient church before the foundation of this religious house by Fitz- william nothing remains to this day to show us what manner of building it was; we can only sur- mise that it would have been a plain Norman structure, consisting of a nave and chancel and possibly a south porch and western tower, and occupying much about the same site as the pre- sent parish church. But when the priory of Bene- dictine nuns was founded, the simple Norman church was rebuilt (c. 1212) on a* grander scale. A second nave and choir were added on the north side of the parish church — a not unusual arrange- ment, the church of Higham Ferrers being an ex- ample — thus solving the problem of converting a parish church into one suitable for a religious com- munity, while preserving to the parishioners their vested rights in their own church and high altar. At that period, to judge from such existing thirteenth-century remains as the small lancet window at the north-west angle of the “nuns’ choir,” and some blocked ones of the same form in the south transept, the church first assumed the appearance that it presents to-day, for the plan, with one or two additions, remains the same. This Norman and Early English structure seems to have undergone considerable alterations in the reign of Edward II, when William de Basing, St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 133 Sheriff of London, became a most liberal benefac- tor to the church and convent. Of the work of this period the outer piers and arch of the fifth bay, counting from the west, in the arcade dividing the two naves, and the jambs and arches of the great eastern window of the ‘‘nuns’ choir” may be cited as specimens. Another benefactor was Adam Francis, Lord Mayor of London, who built the Chapels of the Holy Ghost and St Mary, thus dedicated accord- ing to the terms of his will; but the most impor- tant change in the church, and one which must have revolutionized both its external and internal aspect completely, took place shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century, when Sir John Crosbie, the owner and builder of that gem of old English architecture, I mean, of course, Crosby Hall, left a large sum of money, 500 marks, for the repair of the church, and for the solemn obits for his soul. Sir John was buried in the Chapel of the Holy Ghost in 1475, where his tomb and effigy, and that of his wife, Agnes, who predeceased him by eleven years, still remains. Since the foundation of the priory 260 years previously, the soil had accumulated considerably around the church, and Crosbie’s 500 marks were expended in altering the levels to suit this accu- mulation. The arcade between the two naves, with the exception of one arch, was entirely rebuilt, and the church re-roofed; the original high-pitched roofs giving place to the present ones, or to roofe very similar. The lancet windows were either re- 134 London Churches moved or blocked up, and others whose original design has been lost, introduced. The framework of the window above the high altar may be as- signed to this period, likewise the two arches dividing the parochial chancel from the transept and its chapels, and the doorways of the staircase leading to the conventual buildings at the north- east corner of the ‘‘nuns’ choir.” The two arches dividing the transept from the chapels would appear to have been rebuilt about Henry VII’s reign. In 1631 extensive repairs and alterations were carried out from the designs of Inigo Jones, who gave us those large three-light windows in the north wall of the “ nuns’ choir,” altered the form of others, and designed the beautiful western and southern inner door cases. At the Reformation this parish church, which had existed from time immemorial, before this sumptuous growth of the priory church, welded as it were to its side, had overshadowed but never obliterated the parent stem, was saved — a curious instance of the intense vitality of that ancient parochial system instituted in the purest and earliest ages of Christianity and surviving to our own times, its manifold blessings divine, its im- perfections the work of men’s hands. Of the conventual buildings — an admirable description of which may be read in the Transac- tions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Journal for 1856 — now nothing remains, unless there may be some forgotten crypts among the modern cellars of St Helen’s Place, which was built on the site of the nunnery in 1799. The St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 135 buildings which had fallen into the capacious maw of that truly infamous Richard Williams, •alias Cromwell, were sold to the Leathersellers Company, who occupied them as their hall. Numerous old illustrations are extant showing these, with the Elizabethan Hall occupying probably the place of the dormitory, with the vaulted sub-structure still standing. The nuns’ hall, or refectory, was to the north of the cloister; a view of this in its ruined state is given in Wilkinson’s Londina lllustrata; the end wall would appear to have had three lancet win- dows. During the great Rebellion the only record is one of destruction, ‘^paid a carver for defa- cing the superstitious inscriptions, twenty-two shillings.” In 1696 repairs were again necessary, and it was agreed that Sir Christooher Wren should be con- sulted. Whether this was ever done is uncertain, but at this time the bells in the belfry, over the entrance in Bishopsgate Street, were removed and three of them were sold, the rest being retained and placed in the present bell-turret, which was then erected. In 1723 Mr Francis Bancroft, carver to the Lord Mayor, carved for himself a goodly slice of ground in the north nave whereon to erect an enormous and hideous tomb, which, since the lowering of the pavement in that portion of the church, has been made to take a less exalted posi- tion. After passing through the usual stages of in- difference and bad taste during the eighteenth and early part of the last centuries, St Helen’s was 136 London Churches restored to something of its pristine condition, firstly between 1865 and 1868, under Messrs Wadmore and Baker, who made many interesting discoveries; secondly, under Mr PAnson; and lastly, under the late Mr J. L. Pearson.* f^s:>That unusual picturesqueness of the interior of St Helen’s to which I have alluded is due, in some degree, to the descent into the body of the church from the west door by a few steps. The two parallel naves and chancels are separa- ted from one another by six arches, of which the first four counting from the west are the very graceful Perpendicular ones, introduced after the alterations in the middle of the fifteenth century, while the fifth would appear to be a mingling of the remains of the Early English and Decorated periods. The last bay belongs to the Perpendicular period, as do the two separated by a thick pier — between the chancel and the south transept, with its adjacent chapel. To understand the peculiar arrangement of St Helen’s, it must be remembered that the northern portion was formed by the nave and choir of the nuns’ church having been added to the parish church for the use of the inmates of the adjoining convent. A continuous screen separated the two halves until the dissolution of the house in 1537, when it was removed, and the whole space thrown into the parish church. Prior to 1865 southern nave was divided by a screen erected in 1744, which crossed it at the second pillar from the west end, making a small *Many interesting fragments of stonework, tiles, etc., are preserved in cases at the west end of the northern nave. ST. HHLEN’S, BlSHOPSG.Vl'E. View across Nave from the North Aisle. St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 137 ante-nave. This screen was surmounted by a gal- lery, in which stood the organ, originally built in 1742 by Bridge,* but since its removal to the tran- sept, altered and enlarged, the old case being hap- pily retained. The inner door-case to the western entrance, attributed to Inigo Jones, is enriched with Corin- thian pilasters and a profusion of carving, and bears the inscription, ‘‘This is none other than the howse of God. This is the gate of Heaven.” Equally rich is the door-case of the Ionic Order to the southern entrance. It now supports the cen- tral portion of the cornice of the old Wrennian altarpiece removed in 1865. The pulpit is noteworthy as an elaborate piece of seventeenth-century carving, with a large sounding board, the design for which has been attributed to Inigo Jones. Another interesting piece of woodwork is the case containing the stairs to the bell-turret, be- tween the two naves at the .west end. Constructed in imitation of rustic work, it shows in height suc- cessively three orders of architecture in pilasters. The poor-box, supported on a terminal figure re- presenting a beggar soliciting alms, also deserves attention. Until the Late Perpendicular alterations, the windows throughout generally were, there can be no doubt, simple lancets; now they are not very graceful, almost flat-headed ones of three or more lights, whose heaviness is accentuated by the over- *One of the most celebrated builders of the eighteenth cen- tury. He built the great organs in Spitalfields and Shoreditch churches. 138 London Churches rich stained glass with which they are mostly- equipped. White, that characteristic feature of old Perpendicular work has been used far too spar- ingly- by their artists; regrettably so in a church where as much light as possible was required. Perhaps the most satisfactory window is the lancet at the west end of the north nave wall, containing the effigy of a bishop in pontijicalibus^ and inserted by gift of Mr Wadmore — one of the architects of the restoration — as a memorial to his ancestor, Dr Robinson, Bishop of London from 1714 to 1723.^ The large windows at the east end of the paro- chial and nuns’ choirs had been gutted of their tracery during some debased epoch, so that that which now fills them is modern and purely con- jectural. It cannot, however, be said that the mingling of Decorated and Perpendicular tracery in the seven-light window above the high altar is at all happy; but the stained glass, by Heaton Butler and Bayne, which fills it, is certainly more trans- lucent than that in the great east window of the nuns’ choir, where Messrs Powell’s figures of St Helen and the Evangelists are absolute scare- crows and, in a dim light, hardly distinguishable from the positive colouring with which the artists *John Robinson was the successor of Henry Compton in the See of London. On this occasion there was a return to the old practice of rewarding services to the State by high ecclesiastical dignity. Robinson (like Pace of old) was a diplomatist, rather than a divine. He had done useful service as Ambassador at Warsaw; far more useful and distinguished as a plenipotentiary at the all-important Treaty of Utrecht. He had held high pre- ferment — a stall, a deanery, and a bishopric — that of Bristol. St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 139 have thought proper to overload their back- grounds. Really Messrs Powell ought to have done better, seeing that this window was erected by the Gresham Committee as a memorial to so great a benefactor to the church and City as Sir Thomas. Previous to the restoration of 1865 there were many fragments of old stained glass in St Helen’s, mostly of an armorial character. Such as had es- caped destruction was then reglazed elsewhere and utilized. That formerly in the window over the altar was introduced into the window of the Holy Ghost Chapel, and skilfully blended with modern glass. The present arrangement of the parochial chancel, with its richly carved screen and parclose, founded on the best West Anglian models, and its imposing altarpiece in the form of a carved and painted triptych, are due to the late Mr J. L. Pearson, under whose direction the floor of the conventual portion of the church, which had been raised a few steps above that of the parochial one in 1633, was reduced to the present and original level. The series of old stalls which had been appro- priated to the poor of the parish, and which were in all probability those of the nuns of St Helen’s, have been placed for the choir in the chancel. Their construction is very simple; they are merely separated by sweeping elbows, and have neither backs nor canopies. Some seventeenth-century pewing has been worked up to form subsellse for the junior choristers, with remarkably happy effect. While the restorations of forty years ago were in progress, some criticisms were passed upon the 140 London Churches removal of these stalls from their supposed original position. Whatever site they may have occupied in olden times, it certainly was not that from which they were then removed; a fact which was proved by the various openings in the north wall, and by the different levels of the church floor in former times. It was the first intention of Messrs Wadmore and Baker to leave the stalls as they found them, i.e. against the north wall of the nuns’ choir; but in removing some deal boarding which formed the backing, and which was carried up some five or six feet above the top rail, they dis- covered the head of an Early Pointed arch, of the date of the foundation of the convent (1212), and about ten feet further westwards the head of a Tudor doorway, when the seats were removed and the ground excavated. The Pointed arch proved to be a former opening to the cloisters of the con- vent; and at the depth of three feet ten inches below the flooring, as it existed previously to its lowering under Mr Pearson, some of the original tile paving was found; in the other doorway the stone sill, two feet below the same level; and in the thickness of the wall, stairs which formerly led to the dormitory, as in every other similar instance, for the convenience of the religious when attend- ing the night-hours. Other openings, apparently hagioscopes, were also discovered at intervals, and to these iron grilles appear to have been fixed; but all had been hidden and closed by the benches. It follows, therefore, that these stalls, as placed before their removal to the parochial choir, in St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 14 1 1868, could not have been in situ; and that they had not been placed there until the floor had been raised to its late level in 1633, while the suppres- sion of the convent took place in 1537. In addition to this we And, in the parish re- cords, that in the year 1699 the corporation of the poor of London obtained permission for the chil- dren and servants to sit in the nuns’ choir, a situa- tion which they continued to occupy until the alterations of 1865. Therefore, in the absence of any evidence of their original position, the archi- tects deemed it best to place these stalls where they might be of use, and where they were likely to receive the attention which they merit. To the roof over the choir, during the Laudian restoration, were added a series of paintings of apostles and saints which fell victims to the des- tructive propensities of a Protestant vicar about sixty years ago. The quaint piece of carved work against the pier, between the two arches on the south side of the choir, is used to sustain the Lord Mayor’s sword when he visits the church in state. It consists of two Corinthian columns supporting an entablature highly enriched, and an attic panel. The shafts of the columns are set off with a wreath of foliage running round them with remarkably happy effect. There is also an elaborate rest for the mayoral insignia in wrought iron, with the Royal, the Mercers’, and another Company’s arms em- blazoned. A curious relic, in the form of a small sitting flgure of a female in the act of reading from a book, which rests on the knee and is supported by the right hand, is preserved here. 142 London Churches It is evidently a Roman Sybil, but has been said to represent St Helen. When it had been thoroughly cleansed of numerous coats of black paint, it proved to be of alabaster and of rare Italian workmanship, previous to the time of Michael Angelo, and but little injured, though how it came into the posses- sion of the church has never been found out. The church is extremely rich in monuments and brasses, certain of which were removed hither from St Martin Outwich, on its demolition in 1874. tomb of Sir John Crosbie, and that of Otewiche and his wife, two of the finest and most interesting monumental effigies in England of the date of Henry VI, will perhaps secure the greatest attention from the student of ancient sepulchral memorials ; thence going on from the tomb of Sir William Pickering, with its exquisite and life-like effigy, of the date 1574, to that less ornate but beautiful tomb of Sir Thomas Gresham, and the mural tablets of Judd, the Bonds and Sir John and Lady Spencer, we find a complete and valuable representation of the costume in vogue for up- wards of a century (1470-1599). From St Martin’s was also brought the cano- pied altar tomb of Alderman Pemberton. It was once inlaid with brasses, now unhappily stolen, and it has been further disfigured with a squint cut clean through where the brasses were. One coat- of-arms left is interesting as showing the ancient coat of the Merchant Taylors. There is also a mural monument of Elizabeth’s time to Alderman Staper, restored some years ago by Mr Poole; and lastly, several very interesting brasses: a man and his wife, 1470; a lady in heraldic mantle, 1490; St Helen’s, Bishopsgate 143 Thomas Williams and wife, 1495; John Leven- thorpe, Esq., 1516; Robert Rochester,* Esq., 1514; John Breieux (1459) and Nicholas Wotton (1483), Rectors of St Martin, Outwich. All except the last two are in situ at St Helen’s. Allusion was made just now to Crosby Hall, whose fate, as these pages are passing through the press, trembles in the balance. When this unique specimen of the mediaeval domestic architecture of London was first built in the fifteenth century, it was described as ‘‘ye highest and fairest in ye Citie.” It was here, on June 23, 14S3, that the Lord Mayor and citizens offered the crown to the Duke of Gloucester. Shakespeare lived hard by, and refers to Crosby Hall as “ Crosby Place” in King Richard HI, Gloucester . — That it may please you leave these sad designs To him that hath most cause to be a mourner, And presently repair to Crosby Place; Where, after I have solemnly interred At Chertsey Monastery this noble King, And wet his grave with my repentant tears, I will with all expedient duty see you: For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you Grant me this boon. Richard III, Act i. Sc. 2. Gloucester . — Well thought upon; I have it here about me: When you have done, repair to Crosby Place. Ibid. Act I, Sc. 3. Here Katherine of Arragon and Queen Elizabeth were in turn feted with all that pomp and circum- stance which characterized alike the beginning and the end of the sixteenth century. The oak roofs, the throne room, the hall of Kings, of city 1 44 London Churches magnates, of great nobles — a mansion, a prison, a meeting house, a literary institute, a wine merchant’s warehouse and a restaurant — the pile has played a varied part in ‘‘our rough island story.” Seventy years ago Crosby Hall was care- fully and conservatively restored under the direc- tion of the architect, Blackburn, to whom But- terfield was articled at the time, and one of the most zealous promoters of, and most gracious donors towards the fund for its conservation, was Miss Maria Hackett, the “choristers’ friend,” then resident in Crosby Square, close by.* In his Choristers^ School of St PauVs Cathedral Mr John S. Bumpus, among many other pleasant remin- iscencesof thisexemplary Christian lady, whogained the love and respect of everybody, and whose fine public spirit and refined antiquarian taste led to the restoration of Crosby Hall, tells us that she founded an annual prize for the encouragement of the composition' of Church Music in its purest form. This was a gold medal of value, and called the “Gresham Prize.” Among the winners were the names of several who afterwards distinguished themselves as organists and composers, such as John Goss, G. J. Elvey, C. Lucas, Rev. W. H. Havergal, E. J. Hopkins and J. K. Pyne. Some of these compositions were first sung at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, at the commemorations of Sir *Miss Maria Hackett died at the age of ninety, Nov. 5, 1874, whilst receiving the Blessed Sacrament at the hands of the Rev. W. J. Hall, one of the Minor Canons of St Paul’s, for which Cathedral she had so remarkable a devotion. In the possession of Mr John S. Bumpus is a letter from Mr Butterfield to Miss Hackett, respecting some details in connexion with the restora- tion of Crosby Hall. It is dated June 2, 1836. St Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate 145 Thomas Gresham, and others at Crosby Hall, the Mansion House and some of the Halls of the City Companies. The first prize was awarded in 1831, and the last in 1845, when they ceased to be given. In the possession of Mr Bumpus is an album, formerly kept at Crosby Hall, in which visitors wrote their names when they came to view the works of re- storation. It contains many autographs of the high- est interest. Of the little church of St Ethelburga, Bishops- gate Street, so curiously sandwiched in between two shops, with another shop forming a species of penthouse above the doorway, the earliest ac- count on record is 1366, when Robert Kilwardeby was rector. The advowson, which is a rectory, was vested in the prioress and nuns of St Helen’s, till the suppression of the convent in 1539, when, passing to the Crown, it was, some time after, granted by Queen Elizabeth to the Bishop of London and his successors, who have ever since collated and inducted to the living. The present turret and cupola were substituted some time during the latter part of the eighteenth century, for the little spire shown in West and Tom’s view (c. 1750). Measuring but fifty-four feet in length by twenty-five feet in breadth and but thirty-one feet high, St Ethelburga’s is the smallest of the mediaeval City churches. There is only a nave and south aisle divided by a very good arcade of Per- pendicular columns and arches dating from the reign of King Henry VI. Otherwise there is little architectural merit in St Ethelburga’s, it having been much spoilt during successive debased epochs. I- 10 146 London Churches In Godwin and Britton’s Churches of London there is a charming engraving of the interior as it appeared about 1838, showing the classic altar- piece with its seven candlesticks, a fine old brass chandelier or ‘‘branch,” the pulpit against the north wall, the old Renaissance font in the fore- ground, high pews, and large round-headed win- dow over the altar, containing the arms of the Mercers’, Sadlers’ and Vintners’ Companies in stained glass. This armorial work was removed to the window on the north side of the chancel about 1873, when the old Wrennian (?) window was re- placed by one consisting of five cinquefoil lights within a depressed arch, and filled with stained glass, by the late Mr C. E. Kempe. As this window in St Ethelburga’s is one of that artist’s earliest works, it must be regarded with interest. Much white glass is used, and the whole is fre- quently taken by the uninitiated for a genuine piece of fifteenth-century work. The present ritual arrangements date from 1862, when the church was placed in the hands of Mr R. J. Withers by the late rector, the Rev. J. M. Rodwell, who subsequently enriched the church with a beautiful altarpiece, containing six panels of minutely carved subjects. This disap- peared during the troubles consequent upon the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act, the church having been singled out for attack, and the large congregation gathered within its walls on Sundays and weekdays* dispersed by the Bishop *St Ethelburga’s was one of the first City Churches to adopt the short midday service. The use of the Eucharistic vestments — cope, altar lights and incense — was introduced by Mr Rodwell early in the ’sixties, and until 1878 St Ethelburga’s was the most advanced church in the city. St Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate 147 of London (Dr Jackson) in his efforts to ‘‘stamp out ritualism.” It is pleasant, however, to chronicle in these pages that, after passing through some vicissi- tudes, St Ethelburga’s is now pursuing the even tenor of its way under its present energetic rector, the Rev. Dr Cobb. The saint to whom this church is dedicated was the sister of Erconwald, Bishop of London, who, in compliance with the earnest desire of his relative, founded, about the year 670, the Abbey of Barking, in Essex, of which Ethelburga was appointed first abbess. Most of her successors were of high rank — like the German abbesses of Essen, Gandersheim, Herford and Quedlinburg — and some of them were of blood-royal. The nuns of Barking were of the Benedictine Order, and the abbess was one of the four who were baronesses in right of their station; for she held her lands by a barony, and though her sex prevented her from sitting in Parliament or attending the King in his wars,. she furnished her quota of men, and took precedency of the other abbesses. The abbey was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1539, when a pen- sion of two hundred marks per annum was granted to Dorothy Barley, the last abbess, and various pensions to the nuns, thirty in number. To St Ethelburga’s came John Hudson and many of his crew to receive the Blessed Sacrament, before they left their native shores in 1610 for that expedition to the Northern Seas which ended so disastrously. The churchwardens of this parish appear, from the accounts, to have provided profusely for their i-ioa 148 London Churches Ascension Day dinner in 1686: ‘‘Three quarters of lamb; 600 of sparagrasse, sallatering and spinach; 400 oranges and lemmons, three hams, Westphalia bacon, and half pound of tobaccoe.” There are also charges for “Yew and box to decke ye church,” “hearbes” for the same, “wands and nosegays,” “strawings and greenes.” Dryden’s antagonist, Luke Milbourne, died April 15, 1720, rector of St Ethelburga’s.* Returning to “Great St Helen’s,” and passing thence to St Mary Axe, we encounter the large Late Perpendicular Church of St Andrew Under- shaft, so-called, as Stow informs us, “ because that of old time every year (on May day in the morn- ing) it was used that an high or long shaft or May- pole was set up there before the south door of the said church.” As the shaft overtopped the steeple, the church in St Mary Axe received the addi- tional name of St Andrew Undershaft, to distin- guish it from other churches in London dedicated to the same saint. This shaft is alluded to in “A Chance of Dice,” a poem attributed to Chaucer, but now unknown. The last year of its overlooking the church was on “Evil May-day ” 1517, when a serious fray took *Milbourne is immortalized by Pope in his Dunciad, Bk II: And Milbourn chief, deputed by the rest, Gave him the cassock, surcingle and vest, “Receive,” he said, “these robes which once were mine, Dulness is sacred in a sound divine.” “The Rev. Luke Milbourne, the fairest of critics; who when he wrote against Mr Dryden’s V irgil^ did him justice in printing at the same time his own translations of him, which were intoler- able. His manner of writing has a great resemblance with that of the gentleman of the Dunciad against an author.” — Po'pe, St Andrew Undershaft 149 place, amid the gaieties of the occasion, between the apprentices and the settled foreigners of the parish. This was good reason for not hoisting it again; and for two-and-thirty years the shaft re- mained unraised. Another fate yet awaited it. A certain curate of the neighbouring St Catherine Cree, whom Stow calls Sir Stephen, preached against it at Paul’s Cross, and accused the inhabi- tants of the parish it was in of setting up for themselves an idol, inasmuch as they had named their church with the addition of ^‘under the shaft.” “I heard his sermon at Paul’s Cross,” says Stow, ‘‘and I saw the effect that followed.” The effect was that the inhabitants first sawed into pieces, and then burnt, the old Maypole of their parish. The original Church of St Andrew Undershaft was built in 1362, and ‘rebuilt on a larger scale in 1520 by Stephen Jennings, Merchant Tailor, and sometime Lord Mayor, as appears by his arms, which are carved on every pier. Architecturally this church is not particularly good or remarkable, being of thedatest Perpen- dicular character, but it is lightsome, lofty and town-like, consisting of a clerestoried nave, two aisles, and a tower at the west end of the south aisle. As in all the old London Perpendicular churches there is no arch between the nave and the chancel. This peculiarity is not confined to Middle- sex, but is common in the great churches of the same epoch in East Anglia. The east and west windows are super-mullioned and transomed; the aisle and clerestory windows, all of three lights cinquefoiled, are poorly traceried. 150 London Churches In the west window is some curious stained glass, representing figures of Edward VI, Queen Elizabeth, James I, Charles I and Charles II. Of the maker of this glass which, until the restora- tion of the church about forty years ago under Sir Arthur Blomfield and Mr Ewan Christian, was in the east window, I have not been able to glean any particulars. It is not improbable that it was the work of Gyles of York, who was largely employed during the reigns of Charles II and James II, in refurnishing our churches with the stained glass of which they had been deprived by the Elizabethan and Cromwellian Puritans.* St Andrew’s retains its ancient roofs throughout. They are of oak, nearly flat, divided into square compartments by ribs, with gilded bosses at their intersections. The clustered piers are light and elegant, and the arches are obtuse-angled; in the north aisle wall, marking the junction of nave and chancel, is the staircase to the rood loft. It is much to be regretted that during the *This glass is frequently described as having been the gift of Sir Christopher Clitheroe, Lord Mayor, buried here in 1642. If so the figure of Charles II must have been added after the Restoration. Indeed, there is some doubt as to whether the fifth figure in the west window is really that of Charles II or not. The donor of the window died in 1642, while Charles I still lived, but it would seem probable that the whole window was not erected until after the Restoration, and, if such were the case, the figure probably may be intended for Charles II. On the other hand, the face is very unlike the traditional portraits of the Merry Monarch, whereas the four other figures appear to be taken from portraits of the Sovereigns represented. It has been suggested that this figure may be intended for William III. A careful examination of the churchwardens’ accounts would probably settle the matter. St Andrew Undershaft 1 5 1 restoration of St Andrew’s the interesting fresco paintings with which the walls of the clerestory and the spandrels of the arches were adorned early in the eighteenth century, at the expense of Mr Henry Tombes, a liberal benefactor to the parish, were all obliterated. Verily the modern “restorer” has many a sin to answer for! * These paintings were executed, not in colours but in grisaille, in imitation of sculpture, and repre- sented subjects from the life of Christ in the span- drels, and whole-length figures of the Apostles and other saints, in the spaces between the clerestory windows. The roof of the sanctuary represented the angelic choirs in adoration. Here is still much beautiful wood-carving by Gibbons; and late brasses to Simon Burton and his two wives (1593), and to Nicholas Leveson, who is represented with his wife and eighteen children kneeling (1539). A figure engraved in brass representing the Trinity has been removed. f The church possessed several books chained to •There is an interesting description of the appearance St Andrew’s presented before the restoration of 1875-6 in The Netv Vietv of London, published in 1708. Among other things, we read of the altarpiece “new railed round, and paved with marble, the Commandments done in gold on black — the Creed and Lord’s Prayer are enriched with cherubims,” and so forth. What has become of this delightful old altarpiece, wLich, if not “Gothic,” must have been infinitely superior to the feeble thing now in its place? We are also told that there are prayers at six every morning, from Lady Day to Michaelmas, and at seven from Michaelmas to Lady Day. tOf these brasses a long account will be found in the Transac- tions of the London and Middlesex Archaological Society, iv, 268. 152 London Churches the desks, ‘‘one of Mr Jewel’s work, three of Mr Perkins’, two books of Marters’, the first and second ‘tombe,’ and a book of Erasmus, his exposi- tion on the Gospel. A home lanthorne to hang up at the upper end of St Mary Axe in winter.” In 1673 further gifts are recorded of a “silver bason for the Holy Sacrament, 34 oz; one book of Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World; and one other book. Bishop Andrewes, his Sermons; one large silver gilt spoone for the Holy Sacrament, the gift of Hester Gibbons.” In his Pietas Londiniensis* Paterson speaks of the organ in St Andrew Undershaft, as “a most excellent and costly instrument, made by Mr Harris”; and Hatton in his New View of London^ calls it “ a fine large organ,” adding, “severalgentle- men (whose names I am not allowed to men- tion) contributed for the Organ, etc., the sum of ^1,400.” This organ was opened on May 31, 1696, a Mr Goodgroome being organist, when the Rev. Dr Towerson preached a sermon on Vocal and Instrumental Music in the Church. Since then the organ in St Andrew’s has been repeatedly altered and enlarged, and in 1875 was removed from the *Pietas Londiniensis^ or the present Ecclesiastical State of London, containing an account of all the Churches and Chapels of Ease in and about the Cities of London and Westminster; of the Set Times of their publick Prayers^ Sacraments and Sermons, both ordinary and extraordinary: with the Names of the present Dignitaries, Ministers and Lecturers, thereunto belonging, by James Paterson, A.M. Together with Historical Observations of their Foundations, Situation, ancient and present Structure, Dedi- cation, and several other things worthy of remark. To which is added a postscript recommending the duty of public prayer. Printed for William Taylor at the shop in Paternoster Row, 1714 . St Andrew Undershaft 153 western gallery and placed in the usual ‘^correct Gothic” position on the floor of the south aisle. The organ in St Andrew Undershaft, is the instrument mentioned in the eighth query of the Broadside^ entitled ‘‘Queries about St Paul’s Organ,” and of which a copy is preserved in the British Museum: VIII. — “Whether there been’t organs in the City, lowder, sweeter, and of more variety than St Paul’s (which cost not more than one-third of the Price) and particularly, whether Smith at the Temple has not outdone Smith of St Paul’s. And whether St Andrew Undershaft has not outdone them both?” IX. — “Whether the Open Diapason of metal that speaks on the lower set of keys at St Andrew Undershaft be not a stop of extraordinary Use and Variety, and such as neither St Paul’s has or can have?” This Broadside^ which was evidently written by Harris or some of his friends, consists of twelve questions, all of which aim at the disparagement of Smith’s knowledge and skill as an organ builder. A brass plate commemorates Dr John Worgan, organist from 1749 179^^? concerning whose re- election on Monday, March 28, 1785 (at the Easter Vestry it is to be presumed), we learn that a complaint was made of him “that he very seldom attended, and that the performance of his duties was very indifferent.” Whereupon the Order of the Vestry of April 8, 1752, was directed to be read, and “that a copy of it be sent to Dr Worgan, with a letter that the Parishioners expected his compliance with the said Order in future.” 1 54 London Churches It passed, and he was re-elected. Twenty years before Dr Worgan’s deputy got into trouble with the vestry for ‘‘bad behaviour and indifferent performance”; the Doctor pleaded for him to be tried again, “as good players were very scarce.” This was agreed to. As an organist Dr Worgan was celebrated, and he was much sought after as an “opener” of the King of Instruments. He “opened” the organ originally built by Byfield and Green in St Mary’s, Islington, in 1772. His powers were dis- played chiefly in extemporaneous fugue, and at St Andrew’s he was accustomed to attract quite a congregation of listeners into the middle aisle to attend his voluntary after the service, much as George Cooper used a century later at St Sepul- chre’s. On one occasion an admirer of Worgan’s, hastening to the church to be in time for the Doctor’s voluntary, found the doors open, and the place silent and deserted, save by one stranger who stood ruminating by the fire. The hurry, the dis- appointed look of the new comer and his late arrival at church made his object easily under- stood. Without any introduction, therefore, the stranger accosted him, “The Doctor was very greats to-day. Sir.” He, himself, had evidently been enjoying the “Doctor,” and the admirer, though vexed that he had -arrived too late for the feast, could not help noticing the incident as a pleasant illustration of the freemasonry or brotherhood of musical amateurs. Dr Worgan composed two Oratorios, Hannah and Manassehy various anthems, organ-music. St Andrew Undershaft 155 canzonets, and 7 he Agreeable Choice, a collection of Songs, Pieces for the Harpsichord, etc. Since the death of Dr Worgan in 1790 St Andrew’s has been served hy two hdy organists. Miss Mary Allen, who filled the post from 1790 to 1836, and Miss Elizabeth Sterling (afterwards Mrs Bridge), who officiated from 1858 to 1880. The latter lady was the composer of several very tuneful part songs, such as ‘‘All among the barley” and “Red leaves are falling on the ground.” Of the several monuments in St Andrew Undershaft the most interesting is that of John Stow, the compiler of the Annals of England, and the still more famous Survey of London, with- out which latter we should practically have no knowledge of the appearance of London before the Great Fire. It may not be generally known that it was Stow who received a Royal sanction to beg, James I having granted it owing to the antiquary’s impoverished condition. Poor in this world’s goods, spoken of even by his contemporaries with contempt and disdain (al- though Fuller finds a place for him among his Worthies), honest John Stow, historian, citizen and tailor, worn and weary with fourscore years, sleeps his last sleep at the east end of the north aisle of St Andrew Undershaft. The monument, raised by his widow to his memory, is an ornamen- ted niche of alabaster, adorned with masks and cross-bones, in which is a figure of the antiquary seated at his studies, having a desk before him with an open book upon it, in which he appears to be writing. He is represented as attired in his livery gown, and has a ruff round his neck. The whole is 156 London Churches in excellent preservation, and the real pen placed in the hand, with the gentle inclination of the head, gives to the whole an incredible animation. It is difficult, however, in the monument before us to realize Howes’ description of Stow. We miss the leanness of the face, the pleasant and cheerful countenance and crystalline eye, but in its general disposition it reminds us forcibly of another monu- ment of a contemporary of John Stow’s, more famous stiU and who survived him ten years, on the wall of that beautiful chancel of St Mary, Stratford-upon-Avon, the same open counte- nance and position, the pen in that right hand long since mouldered into dust; and we could wish that the resemblance, trifling as it may be, might have been pursued even to those quaint lines of Good friend, for Jesu’s sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased here, to shield from profanation aU that was mortal of John Stow, citizen and tailor. He seems to have been twice married, for be- sides the wife Elizabeth, who erected the monu- ment, the burial is recorded here of “Ann Stow, wiffe of John Stow,” Jan. 18, 1580; and a daugh- ter was baptized here of the name of Mary, in 1563. Stow died in the parish of St Andrew Undershaft, April 5, 1605, old, poor and neglected. His remains were, on the authority of Maitland in his History and Survey of London (ed. 1739, p. 368), disturbed and removed in 1732 to make room for another. Let us hope that this is a tradi- tion, and nothing more. Another apocryphal story of a great man’s re- St Giles’, Cripplegate 157 mains being irreverently disturbed, attaches to the grand old church of St Giles, Cripplegate, a veri- table Mecca of pilgrims to the shrine of the author of England’s greatest epic. Paradise Lost; but the evidence of identity is weak, and it is recorded that the corpse then found was that of a female, and of smaller stature than that of the poet. The story of the assumed desecration is told in “The Diary of General Murray” in The Monthly Maga- zine^ of August, 1833. Cowper penned some stanzas on the subject: 111 fare the hands that heaved the stones Where Milton’s ashes lay, That troubled not to grasp his bones And steal his dust away. O ill requited hand! neglect Thy living worth repaid, And blind idolatrous respect As much affronts thee dead. The monument to Milton’s memory — a bust by the elder Bacon — was erected in 1793, at the expense of Samuel Whitbread, but during a “resto- ration” of the church, when a certain number of windows were filled with an uniformly and incon- ceivably bad jumble of miscellaneous painted glass, the bust was hoisted into a pseudo-Gothic cross between a shrine and a buffet. St Giles’, Cripplegate, is the successor of a church founded by Alfun, subsequently the first hospitaller of the Priory of St Bartholomew. It was founded in 1090, near the postern in the City wall, called Cripplegate, from an adjoining Hospi- tal for lame people (as Camden informs us), or as Stow says, from the numerous cripples begging 158 London Churches there; and it was dedicated to St Giles as the patron of cripples. It was small, and its site was ‘^where now standeth the vicarage house. ’*An interesting relic of this Norman church was discovered during the late renovation of the north aisle in the shape of a slab of Purbeck marble, supposed to have been a door- step, and now preserved at the west end of the church. The present church dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century, is a good example of a town church, large, lofty and spacious, and in common with that of St Andrew Undershaft, and two or three other specimens of City churches, is in all probability a counterpart of many of those des- troyed in the Great Fire. St Giles’ is not, however, of very great archi- tectural interest. The ground plan is three parallel aisles of equal length, and a short sanctuary pro- jects from the east end of the chancel, of debased architecture. At the west end is a nobly propor- tioned tower opening into the nave by an arch, and groined. The arcade dividing the nave and chancel from the aisles is of seven bays, of which five go to the nave. There is no chancel arch, but the division between the two members is accentuated by a pier with attached shafts, instead of the isolated four- clustered pillars used elsewhere. A peculiarity noticeable on the north side of the arcade is that a narrow strip of space is left be- tween the detached shafts of the piers. This pecu- liarity does not occur on the south of the arcade, although it is in a line, carried transversely, with St Giles’, Cripplegate 159 the recess for the staircase to the rood loft, the position of which staircase is still clearly to be seen on the exterior south wall. The windows, Perpendicular ones of three lights with restored tracery, contain much indifferent stained glass. There is a clerestory, between each window of which is a slender shaft resting upon a carved corbel and sustaining the principals of the flat modern roof. Much excellent wood-carving remains, mostly the work of Gibbons. The pulpit, the high altar- piece, lately furbished up and its panels filled with paintings by Buckeridge (representing our Lord seated in Majesty, St Giles and St Paul), and the font cover are specially worthy of notice. The old organ case has disappeared under the hands of some obliterator of historical records, and given place to one of the feeblest Gothic type. It is a marvel how the lemon-coloured glass by Pearson (c. 1780-90) representing cherubs’ heads, sur- rounding the Sacred Name in Hebrew characters within a triangle, in the oval window above the high altar, has escaped. The altarpiece at the east end of the spacious north aisle was removed here from St Bartholomew’s, Moor Lane, on the demolition of that church a few years ago. It ex- hibits much beautiful carving, and Mr Innes Frip has filled the large central panel, formerly in- scribed with the Decalogue, etc., with a delicate painting of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, though the importation of a more Renaissance feeling into it would have been pre- ferable. The old paintings of Moses and Aaron remain in the side panels. i6o London Churches To the brush of the same artist are due the three very beautiful paintings within panels on the north wall of this aisle, and representing the Annuncia- tion, the Nativity and the Epiphany. The chancel fittings are excellent. St Giles’, Cripplegate, has passed through many ‘‘restorations.” The latest and most satisfactory piece of work in this direction was the removal, in 1903, of the ancient “quest-house” and the “four shoppes” which had been erected against the north aisle in 1656. Mr F. S. Hammond was the architect em- ployed, and he is to be congratulated upon the very pleasing manner in which he has executed his task. The depressed ogee shaped arch of the porch, with the statue of St Giles within a niche above it, forms a very refreshing feature in the architec- tural ensemble. In 1682 the western tower was raised, the brick belfry stage, the turrets and the picturesque cupola dating from that period. Here is a fine peal of twelve bells, besides.one in the turret, and a very musical set of chimes, said to have been con- structed by a working mechanic. Besides Milton several eminent persons are in- terred in St Giles’, Cripplegate. To John Foxe,the martyrologist,who died in 1 5 87, there is a plain mon- ument on the south wall. Robert Glover, Somerset Herald (d. 1588), and called by Stow “skilful Robert Glover,” is also commemorated by a tablet in the south aisle. Sir Martin Frobisher, the bold mariner (d. 1594-5), John Speed the topographer (d. 1629) and the father of John Milton (d. 1646) lie here. St Olave’s, Hart Street 1 6 1 John Milton himself (d. 1674) buried in the same grave with his father, but says Aubrey in his Lives (iii, 450), “ His stone is now removed : about two years since (now 1681). The two steppes to the communion table were raysed. I ghesse Jo Speed and he lie together.” Thomas Lucy of Charlecote (d. 1634), Constance Whitney, whose mother was the fourth daughter of the said Sir Thomas Lucy, have monuments in St Giles’. The parish register records the marriage of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bowchier (August 20, 1620). The future Protector was then in his twenty-first year. Lancelot Andrewes, afterwards Bishop of Win- chester, was appointed to the living of St Giles’, Cripplegate, in 1589, through the instrumentality of Walsingham. Here he preached constantly, and it was at this time that he made his often quoted remark that ‘‘when he preached twice he prated once.” In the adjoining burial ground, opposite the west door, remains a bastion of the old London Wall. St Olave’s, Hart Street, is a good specimen of one of the smaller City churches spared by the Great Fire. The early accounts of St Olave’s are very meagre. Tradition points to Richard and Robert Cely, fellmongers, not as founders, but as principal builders and benefactors to the fabric, and they rest here; but Newcourt in his Refertorium^ records a William de Saneford to have been rector in 1319, and Stow mentions a Robert Byrche, i-ii 1 62 London Churches woolpacker, here buried, 1433. But of the actual period when this church was built as we now see it there is at present no record. The plan of St Olave’s, Hart Street, includes a nave and chancel under one continuous roof, both clerestoried, but without any arch to mark the separation internally, as at St Andrew Under- shaft, St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, St Margaret’s, West- minster, and other Perpendicular churches. A square tower rises at the south-west angle. The columns of the nave arcades are probably of Purbeck marble, and in character good Early Perpendicular; throughout the church the roofs are of oak, flat, and divided into panels, with good carved bosses. The roof principals spring from corbelled angels bearing shields, on the north side; those on the south form shields alone. Although the east window has an earlier appear- ance than the rest of the church, it is an architec- tural forgery, having been inserted in 1822. For the form of its tracery there is no authority. In 1863 some repairs were executed under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott, a more thorough restoration taking place eight years later under the late Sir Arthur Blomfleld, when the galleries were removed. About twenty-five years ago a bust of Samuel Pepys was appropriately placed in St Olave’s, which is the “our own church” so frequently alluded to by the Diarist. “Nov. 4, 1660. — In the morn to our own church, where Mr Mills did begin to nibble at the Book of Common Prayer by saying ‘Glory be to the Father,’ etc., after he had read the two St Olave’s, Hart Street 163 psalms, but the people had been so little used to it that they could not tell what to answer.” ‘‘Oct. 9, 1663. — To church, where I found that my coming in a new periwig did not prove so strange as I thought it would; for I was afraid that all the church would presently have cast their eyes upon me, but I found no such thing.” Until the erection of this bust, there was no memorial of Pepys himself, although he lies buried in a vault by the side of his wife, whose marble bust, with a long Latin inscription, is here. Samuel Pepys was interred at nine o’clock at night, June 14, 1703, the circumstance being re- corded in The Postboy of that date. St Olave’s is rich in monuments and brasses. Below the bust of Mrs Pepys is the fine monument of the Baynings family. Sir Andrew Riccard’s tomb, with its rich hexagonal canopy, and other seventeenth-century details, should be carefully noted; dying in 1672, Sir Andrew bequeathed the advowson of the living to the parish. At the end of the north aisle is the figure of an armed Knight — presumably Sir John Radcliffe — a son of the Earl of Essex. The number of monuments in St Olave’s, Hart Street, to distinguished foreigners, is very notice- able, as, e.g., to Petrus Caponius (a Florentine), and to Schraader de Werder, and to Elssenheimer (Germans). The brass of Sir John Orgone and his wife Ellyne, at the end of the south aisle, dates from 1584, and bears the curious inscription, sometimes found in Latin, commencing, “As I was, so be ye,” etc. The bells of St Olave’s are of the early part of I- 1 la 1 64 London Churches the Restoration period. Of the six, five date from 1662, the other is thirty- two years later. All Hallows’, Barking, at the east end of Tower Street, is perhaps the most architecturally inter- esting of the churches that escaped the Fire in this quarter of the City. The distinguishing title of Barking was appended thereto by the Abbess and Convent of Barking, in Essex, to whom the vicar- age originally belonged. The three western bays of the nave are a portion of a structure dating from the end of the twelfth century. Their stout cy- lindrical piers, with plain capitals supporting pointed arches, proclaim their Transitional character. The rest of the church, the three easternmost bays, which are made to range with the three earlier ones, the very broad aisles and the clere- story, are good Perpendicular of about the year 1450, but the east window, lately enriched with a fine “Majesty” by Clayton and Bell, is an early nineteenth-century copy, in the Flowing Decora- ted style of one of Richard II’s time. The whole building had a narrow escape at the Great Fire, for, as Pepys records, the dial and porch were burnt, and the fire there quenched. The tall plain brick western tower was built about the middle of the seventeenth century. From its near neighbourhood to the Tower, All Hallows’, Barking, was a ready receptacle for the remains of those who fell on the scaffold on Tower HiU. The headless bodies of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet, Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Archbishop Laud, were buried here, but have All Hallows’, Barking 165 long since been removed for honourable interment elsewhere. The brasses are among the best in London. The finest is a Flemish brass to Andrew Evyngar and his wife (c. 1535), but the most interesting is one, injured and inaccurately relaid, representing Wil- liam Thynne and his wife. We owe the first edition of the entire works of Chaucer to the industry of this William Thynne, who, in 1532 (when the fine old folio was published) was ‘‘chefe clerk of the Kechyn” to King Henry VIII. Other brasses commemorate William Tonge, with an inscription in French (1400); John Bacon, merchant of the staple, and wife (1437), a very good and perfect brass, having between the figures a heart, in- scribed Midy and flowing scrolls with legends; John Rusche, 1498; a man, his wife and eleven children (a mural brass of 1500); a represen- tation of the Resurrection (1510); Christopher Rawson and his two wives (1519); William Armar and his wife (1560); and Roger James Brewer (1591). Besides these there are several inscriptions on brass, and one in black letter on stone. In each chancel aisle is a late and elaborate canopied altar tomb of Purbeck marble, with mural brasses. No mediaeval City church has undergone so quiet and conservative a restoration as All Hal- lows’, Barking, evidently at the hands of those whose pride and pleasure it was stare super antiquas vias^ all the fine old Caroline woodwork of the altarpiece, pulpit, pews and organ case having been scrupulously respected. 1 66 London Churches Of unusual beauty are the railings of wrought brass enclosing the altar; on the retable, behind which stand those candlesticks whose use has ever been retained in this church, and which, just be- fore the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, gave great offence, together with other decorations, to the Puritan party. It appears that in 1639 Layfield the Vicar, was charged with several innovations that he had made in the church service, tending to “the en- couragement of Popery,” which caused much dis- sension throughout the parish, such as the erection of a variety of images, a cross over the font, bow- ing when administering the Sacrament, at the rails, within the rails, and at the table; placing I.H.S. upon the Communion Table and in forty other places, in consequence of which he was ordered to appear before the House of Commons as a delinquent; but it seems the matter was settled amicably. A benevolent lady. Miss Letitia Rist, was organist of All Hallows’, Barking, during the ’fif- ties and ’sixties of the last century. Miss Rist not only played the organ well, but enjoyed the sweet music which the memory of good deeds affords. She used, in frosty weather, to collect ashes from the neighbouring houses, and scatter them on Tower Hill, which from its steepness, at all times tested the strength of the horses drawing up heavy loads from the wharves, and especially so during the winter months when the stones were slippery, and many a good horse was thus saved from falling. From many a sturdy carter might have been heard the words — “Thank you, M’am,” as he and his ALL HALLOWS ’ BARKING Interior, looking East. r I I I f / I '3 i. I St Peter ad Vincula 167 horses passed in safety over the frosty ground. The Rev. Thomas Jackson, Prebendary of' St Paul’s, and Rector of Stoke Newington, relates this anec- dote in his charming book. Our Dumb Com- f anions^ first published in 1865. Within the precinct and liberty of the neigh- bouring Tower is the little Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, consisting of a chancel and nave divided from its north aisle by a pretty arcade of Late Perpendicular columns and arches. ‘‘There is no sadder spot on earth than this little cemetery,” says Lord Macaulay in that eloquent passage of his History of England descriptive of the execution of the Duke of Monmouth. “Death is there associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s, with genius and virtue, with public veneration and with imperishable renown; not, as in our humblest churches and churchyards, with everything that is most endearing in social and domestic charities; but with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny, with the savage triumph of implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice of friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness and of blighted fame.” Thither have been carried, through successive ages, by the rude hands of gaolers, without one mourner following, the bleeding relics of men who had been the captains of armies, the leaders of parties, the oracles of senates and the ornaments of courts. Thither was borne, before the window where Jane Grey was praying, the mangled corpse of Guildford Dudley. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and Protector of the realm, reposes there 1 68 London Churches by the brother whom he murdered. There has mouldered away the headless trunk of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and Cardinal of St Vitalis, a man worthy to have lived in a better age, and to have died in a better cause. There are laid John Dudley, Duke of Northum- berland, Lord High Admiral; and Thomas Crom- well, Earl of Essex, Lord High Treasurer. There, too, is another Essex, on whom nature and for- tune had lavished all their bounties in vain, and whom valour, grace, genius, royal favour, popular applause, conducted to an early and ignominious doom. Not far off sleep two chiefs of the great House of Howard, Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk, and Philip, eleventh Earl of Arundel. Here and there, among the thick graves of unquiet and aspiring statesmen, lie more delicate sufferers; Margaret of Salisbury, the last of the proud name of Plantagenet, and those two fair Queens who perished by the jealous rage of Henry.” Here is an altar tomb, with effigies of Sir Richard Cholmondeley (Lieutenant of the Tower temf. Henry VII) and his wife; and a monument with kneeling figures to Sir Richard Blount, Lieu- tenant of the Tower (d. 1564) and his son. Sir Michael Blount, his successor in the office. Talbot Edwards, Keeper of the Regalia in the Tower, when Blood stole the crown, is commemorated by a stone on the floor of the nave. It was in St Peter ad Vincula that, during the lieutenancy of Alderman Pennington, the regicide Lord Mayor of London, one Kem, Vicar of Low Leyton, in Essex, preached in a gown over a buff Chapel in the Savoy 169 coat and scarf. Laud, who was a prisoner in the Tower at the time, records the circumstance, with becoming horror, in The History of his Troubles. The little Perpendicular Chapel of St Mary in the Savoy, is all that remains of a house or palace on the river-side, built in 1245 by Peter, Earl of Savoy and Richmond, uncle to Eleanor, wife of Henry III. The Earl bestowed it on the fraternity of Mount joy (Fratres de Monte Jovis, or Priory de Cornuto by Havering-atte-Bower, in Essex), of whom it was purchased by Queen Eleanor, for Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, second son of Henry III (d. 1295). Henry Plantagenet, fourth Earl and first Duke of Lancaster, repaired, or rather “new- built” it, and here, John, King of France, was con- fined after the battle of Poictiers (1356). The King, not long after his release, died on a visit to this country, in his ancient prison of the Savoy. Blanche Plantagenet, daughter and co-heir of Henry, first Duke of Lancaster, married John Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward HI (“old John of Gaunt”); and while the Savoy was in his possession it was burnt and en- tirely destroyed by Wat Tyler and his rebels in 1331* The Savoy lay neglected long after this, nor would it appear to have been rebuilt, or indeed employed for any particular purpose before 1505, when it was endowed by Henry VII, as a Hos- pital of St John the Baptist, for the relief of one hundred poor people. The King makes particular mention of it in his will. At the suppression of the hospital in 1553, the beds, bedding and other furniture, were given by lyo London Churches Edward VI to Bridewell and St Thomas’s Hospitals. Queen Mary re-endowed it, and it was continued and maintained, not suppressed, as Pennant says, by Queen Elizabeth. Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, describes the Savoy, in 1581, in a letter to Lord Burghley, as a nursery of rogues and masterless men: “The chief nurserie of all these evell people is the Savoy, and the brick-kilnes near Islington.” The Queen, when taking the air, was troubled with their attendance; complaints were made, and warrants issued for the apprehension of all rogues and masterless people. But the master of the Savoy Hospital was unwilling to allow of their apprehen- sion in his precinct, as he was “sworne to lodge claudicantes, egrotantes, et peregrinantes.”* At the Restoration the meetings of the Com- missioners for the revision of the Liturgy took place in the Savoy — April 15 to July 25, 1661. Twelve bishops appeared for the Church of Eng- land; and Calamy, Baxter, Reynolds and others, for the Presbyterians. This was called the Savoy Conference, and under that name has passed into history. The Savoy Chapel has occasionally been chosen for episcopal consecrations. The first took place August 19, 1537, when Robert Aldridge was consecrated to the See of Carlisle by John Stokesley, Bonner’s predecessor in the throne of London, Robert Parfew, Bishop of St Asaph, and John Hilsey, the successor of Fisher in the See of Rochester. A century and a half later — January 16, 1691 — Wilson was con- *Sir Henry Ellis’s Letters, ii, 285. Chapel in the Savoy 1 7 1 secrated here to the bishopric of Sodor and Man, by Sharpe, Archbishop of York, assisted by Strat- ford of Chester, and Moore of Norwich. ‘‘Quaint old Thomas Fuller” — who at thirty years of age had already won a distinguished repu- tation in the London pulpits, became lecturer at the Savoy shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, whose clouds were fast darkening over Britain as he laboured in this prominent sphere. At last the deluge burst upon the land; and the eloquent lecturer at the Savoy, upon whom the Parliament looked with jealous eyes, was forced to leave his pulpit and betake himself to Oxford, where Charles I had fixed his court. The Restora- tion brought Fuller once more prominently into view after several years’ wanderings. He received again his lectureship at the Savoy, and his pre- bendal stall at Salisbury; he was chosen chaplain to the King, and created Doctor of Divinity by the University of Cambridge. But he lived only a year to enjoy these honours, dying on August i6, 1661, of a violent fever, which was then known as “the new disease.” King Charles II established a French church here, called “The French Church in the Savoy,” where its congregation remained until 1733, when want of funds to repair it caused them to abandon it. The following is an extract from The Public Advertiser of Jan. 2, 1754* “ By authority. Marriages performed with the utmost privacy, decency, and regularity, at the Ancient Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist in the Savoy, where regular and authentic registers have been kept from the time of the Reformation 172 London Churches (being 200 years and upwards) to this day. The expense not more than one guinea, the five shilling stamp included. There are five private ways by land to this chapel, and two by water.” The Savoy was last used as barracks and a prison for deserters until 1819, when the premises were removed to form the approach to Waterloo Bridge. The roadway to the Bridge from the Strand or Wellington Street, and Lancaster Place, covers the entire site of the old Duchy Lane, and great part of the Hospital. Hollar’s prints and Canaletti’s pictures show us the river front of the Savoy, and Vertue’s ground plan, the Middle Savoy Gate, where Savoy Street now is. Ackermann published a view of the ruins as they were in their last con- dition, before they were swept away, and some portions of the buildings, in a more complete state, are shown in a plate in David Hughson’s History and Description of London and its Neighbourhood^ published in 1807. The chapel, the sole-surviving portion of the Hospital, was built in 1 505, and is an aisleless paral- lelogram, lighted by depressed headed windows of three compartments crossed by a transom. Stand- ing as it does now, isolated, and in a small burial ground amid a few trees and evergreens, it has more the appearance of a church in some remote Welsh hamlet. It was originally dedicated to our Lord, the Blessed Virgin and St John the Baptist; but when the old church of St Mary-le-Strand was destroyed by the Protector, Somerset, the parishioners united themselves to the precinct of the Savoy, and the chapel, being used as their church, acquired the name of St Mary-le-Savoy, Chapel in the Savoy 173 though before the householders beyond the pre- cinct were permitted to use it as their parish church they signed an instrument renouncing all claim to any right or property in the chapel itself. There is a tradition that when the liturgy in the vernacular tongue was restored by Queen Eliza- beth, the Chapel of the Savoy was the first place in which the service was performed. The chapel, which had been used as the parish church of St Mary-le-Strand from 1564 to 1717, was made a Royal Chapel by George III in 1773. The prayer-book he presented on this occasion was lost after the building was burnt on July 7, 1864, but being discovered by one of the assistant chaplains, was bought and returned to its old place. In 1842 the chapel, which had been restored chiefly through the instrumentality of George IV, was injured by fire, but was again restored at the expense of Queen Victoria under the direction of Mr Sydney Smirke, when the ceiling, one of the finest pieces of carved work in the Metropolis, was renovated and emblazoned by Willement, to whom the reglazing of the east window was also entrusted. This roof of the Savoy Chapel was wholly of oak and pear-tree, and divided into 138 quatrefoil panels, each enriched with a carved ornament sacred or historical. The panels numbered twenty- three in the length of the chapel, and six in its width. Two of the ranges had each a shield in the centre, presenting in high relief some feature or emblem of the Passion and Death of the Saviour; and all devised and arranged in a style of which 1 74 London Churches there are many examples in churches of the fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries. The panels through- out the rest of the ceiling contained bearings or badges indicating the various families from which the Royal lineage was derived, and more particu- larly the alliances of the House of Lancaster, each panel being surrounded by a wreath richly blazoned and tinted with the livery colours of the different families. For a long series of years they were hidden under repeated coats of whitewash, but in 1843 Mr John Cochrane, a bookseller in the Strand, having been appointed Chapel warden, brought his antiquarian knowledge to bear on the neglected ceiling, and it was restored. In 1864 the chapel was once more destroyed by fire save the walls; the altar screen, said to have been the work of Sir Reginald Bray, the east window, the carved ceiling, and many of the old monuments, were entirely consumed. The second restoration of the Savoy Chapel was once more undertaken at the expense of Her late Majesty, in memory of the Prince Consort,* Mr Sydney Smirke being again the architect, while the decoration of the walls and most of the stained glass, but not that in the east window,f was en- *The reopening services took place on the First Sunday in Advent, December 3, 1865, Dean Stanley preaching in the morning, and Frederic^Denison Maurice in the evening. tThis was again placed in the hands of Thomas Willement, who cannot be said to have ever grasped the true principles of Perpendicular glass painting. The Savoy window was almost his last work. Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ glass, in one of the windows on the south side of the chapel, with figures of SS. John, James and Andrew; Peter, Paul and Philip, should be observed, treated as it is quite unconventionally. chapel in the Savoy 175 trusted to Messrs Clayton and Bell. The roof was embellished much after the design of that which had been destroyed, but different in detail, and other furniture supplied chiefly at the expense of individuals. The Sacristy, porch and entrance, were sub- sequently added, at an expense to the late Queen of j^2,ooo. A new and ingeniously designed sand glass was also given by Her Majesty for the pulpit, to replace the one used in Puritan times. It runs twenty minutes. On the north wall is a curious painting of the early Sienese School, representing the Blessed Virgin and Child, with eight Saints. It was in the Master’s house at the time the Savoy Hospital was closed in 1702. Then it was sold, and for a century and a half was lost sight of. In 1876 this picture was discovered at Hereford, and the Queen having been apprised of the fact, it was purchased by Her Majesty, and placed where we now see it. A small piscina and two kneeling figures of ancient date have also been rescued, and restored to places which they occupied before the con- flagration of 1864. A brass commemorative of Bishops Douglas and Halsey* has also been recovered, and inserted in a *Gavan Douglas, the'celebrated Scottish poet and statesman, was Bishop of Dunkeld 1516-22. He died of the plague in London at the house of his staunch friend Lord Dacre, in St Clement’s Parish, and in accordance with his own request was buried in the Savoy Hospital Chapel, on the left side of Thomas Halsey, Bishop of Leighlin, who died about the same time, and in all probability from the same cause. iy6 London Churches black marble slab in the chancel over the vault where the bishops were buried. The Savoy Chapel is a parochial benefice in the gift of the Sovereign, in right of his Duchy of Lancaster, who pays every current expense be- longing to the building, its officers and services, which are performed with proper ritual and musical accompaniment. On the Sunday after Christmas Day it has been customary to place near the door a chair covered with a cloth: on the chair being an orange on a plate. This curious custom at the Savoy has never been explained. Nestling, as it were, under the very wing of the great Abbey adjacent, the large Late Perpendicu- lar Church of St Margaret of Antioch* at West- minster occupies so prominent a position that it cannot fail to be a matter of speculation as to how it came there at all and why it was wanted. Some writers have laid it down authoritatively .that when the Confessor rebuilt the ancient abbey founded by Sebert, he thought it would be a dis- honour to the new and stately edifice, and an an- noyance to his beloved monks, if the neighbouring people assembled for worship in the Abbey as they had been wont to do, and that about 1064 (so cir- cumstantial are they), he caused to be erected on the north side of the Abbey Church of St Peter a church dedicated to the Virgin Martyr of Antioch for their use. *St Margaret of Antioch, to whom this church, in common with two others in London, is dedicated, was greatly in favour with our forefathers in the Middle Ages, and in sacred and legen- dary art she occupied a very prominent place in common with St Catharine, St Baj-bgra and St Ursula. St Margaret’s, Westminster 177 No authority can be found for these state- ments. The earliest notice of the boundaries of the parish is contained in the Charter of King Edgar, A.D. 962. At the prayer of St Dunstan he granted or sold a confirmation to the abbey of a certain portion of land, only containing then five houses. The money equivalent was a golden armilla. This grant is preserved in the British Museum, and attached to it is a description, in Saxon, of the boundaries of the land, which may thus be trans- lated. “First up from the Thames along Merfleet (the marshy ^ide of Whitehall) to Pollen Stock, so to Bullinger Fen (Tothill Fields), afterwards along the Fen by the Ditch to Cowford (Buckingham Palace), from Cowford up along Tybourne (by Vauxhall Bridge) to the broad military road (Oxford Street), following the road to the old Stock of St Andrew’s Church then within London. Lastly, proceeding south on Thames to mid- stream, and along the stream by land and strand to Merfieet.” This ancient parish was subsequently sub- divided into many others — St Clement Danes, St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, St Mary-le-Strand, St George’s, Hanover Square, St Anne’s, Soho, St Paul’s, Covent Garden, St John the Evangelist’s, Westminster, etc., and these again into other parishes. The Church of St Margaret, said to have been erected at the instance of Edward the Confessor, was in all likelihood a small and inconvenient structure, which remained until the reign of Edward I, when it was rebuilt. This church gave I- 1 2 ij8 London Churches place in its turn, towards the latter part of the fifteenth century, to the present structure, some portions of the earlier one being incorporated into it. From a similarity existing between the nave arcades of St Margaret’s, and those of St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, it may be inferred that the two churches were being reconstructed contemporane- ously, and about the year 1475. Although St Margaret’s appears dwarfed by its contiguity to the Abbey, it is in reality of great length and height, and its grand proportions are fully realized on entering by the south-east door, which is open for the greater part of the day. It consists of a clerestoried nave and chancel, contained under one unbroken linejof roof; very broad aisles, almost co-terminous with the chancel; a north-western tower forming a porch; and porches at the west end of the nave and the east end of the south aisle. The church is lighted by very large Perpendicular windows, which together with the eight graceful arches separating the nave from its aisles, cause the structure to assume an appearance of great lightness and elegance within. The shallow sanctuary just projecting beyond the ends of the aisles is an addition of last year only. The arcades, two of which are screened off so as to form a chancel — the chancel arch is absent here as from other London churches of its epoch — con- sist of broad four-centred arches springing from four slender shafts, raised on high bases and dis- posed around a diamond-shaped pier, and their dripstones terminate in half figures of angels bear- ing the shafts which are carried up through the St Margaret’s, Westminster 179 traceried spandrels of the arches and the clere- story, to sustain the principals of the almost flat roof. There are a monotony and tameness in the arcades of such London churches of the Late Per- pendicular period as St Andrew Undershaft, St Giles, Cripplegate, and St Olave’s, Hart Street, which are wholly absent from St Margaret’s, where the detail of the work is so vastly superior. It would be difficult to And a better propor- tioned arcade anywhere. The rather stilted pro- portions of the bases, the tracery in the spandrels and the richness of mouldings, are very superior to the same items in the churches above-mentioned, where the mouldings of the arches and piers are continuous, and the arches themselves four- centred. In Weever’s Funeral Monuments there is a de- scription of a curious tomb formerly existing in the north aisle, of Lady Pulley (1499), painted with a representation of the Almighty shedding rays from above on the Blessed Virgin, who, by label, was saying, “Behold thine Handmaid.” On the right was an angel, with the label inscribed “Hail! Mary.” During the restorations of 1877-78, this monu- mental recess was discovered in the north aisle be- hind some pewing, with remains of this painting of the Annunciation, as usually depicted. The traces of colouring were more distinct when flrst un- covered, but a solution of shellac was applied under Sir Gilbert Scott’s directions to preserve what remained. At the back of the recess, there seems to have 1 - 12 ^ i8o London Churches been a small brass inscription, and the top of the tomb appears to have been inlaid with brass figures. The arch and spandrel had been knocked away, leaving only the square opening and the outer moulding. The lower door of the staircase and the door- way which opened to the rood loft, still remain in the south aisle. In 1641 a gallery was built in the north aisle, and forty years later another in the south aisle, “exclusively for persons of quality,” at the ex- pense of Sir John Cutler, the miser satirized by rope in the third of his Moral Essays, In Smith’s Antiquities of W estminster is a curious plate representing the interior of the church from a rare print by Brook, prefixed to Warner’s edition of the Book of Common Prayer, printed for Croc- kett and Hodges. The view is taken looking east. Here we see a gallery in the north aisle stopping short at the chancel, the last two bays being left clear. The altarpiece seems to be of the usual Wrennian character, and consists of a broken curved pedi- ment, with a central urn and the usual Tables of the Law, cherubs heads, etc. Within the rails — which are spiked at the top presumably to prevent people sitting upon them — is a monumental effigy in a kneeling position against the north wall, and a recumbent effigy below it. So accurately is the interior represented that even a small stone corbel, supporting one of the shafts for the roof principals, is shown correctly as it still exists — an angel bearing a shield, on which is a Catherine Wheel. St Margaret’s, W estminster 1 8 1 Doctors Burnet and Sprat,* old rivals, once preached here before Parliament in one morning; and on Palm Sunday, 1713, Dr Sacheverell preached here first, after the term of his suspen- sion; 40,000 copies of this sermon were sold. ‘‘There prevailed in those days an indecent custom: when the preacher touched any favourite topic, in a manner that delighted his audiences, their approbation was expressed by a loud hum, continued in proportion to their zeal and pleasure. When Burnet preached, part of his congregation hummed so loudly and so long that he sat down to enjoy it, and rubbed his face with his handker- chief. When Sprat preached, he likewise was honoured with a like animating hum, but he stretched out his hand to the congregation, and cried, ‘ Peace, peace, I pray you, peace.’ ” — Dr Johnson. In 1735 St Margaret’s was repaired at the ex- pense of Parliament, when the tower was faced with Portland stone and raised twenty feet, being now eighty feet high. It contains a fine ring of bells; the tenor weighing 26 cwt., formerly known as “Great Tom of Westminster,” was, in 1698, called “Edward of Westminster.” In 1753 a relievo of The Supper at Emmaus, sculptured in lime-wood by Aiken of Soho, from Titian’s celebrated picture in the Louvre, was placed over the altar, and five years later the east end was rebuilt on an apsidal plan in what must have been very fair Perpendicular, to judge from a coloured view preserved in George Ill’s Collec- tion of Prints .and Engravings in the British Museum. It was at this time that the celebrated *The celebrated Bishops of Salisbury and Rochester 1 8 2 London Churches Stained glass, of which a description appears anon, was placed in the central window of this newly formed apsidal sanctuary, and in 1759 the “beautified” church was reopened, an anthem being composed for the occasion by Dr Boyce.* A prosecution was now instituted against the parishioners by the Dean and Chapter of West- minster, for putting up what was attempted to be proved “a superstitious image or picture.” After seven years’ suit the bill was dismissed, in memory of which Mr Churchwarden Peirson pre- sented, as a gift for ever to the churchwardens of the parish, a richly chased cup, stand and cover, of silver gilt, and weighing 930Z. I5dwt., which is the loving cup of St Margaret’s, and is produced with espe- cial ceremony at the chief parochial entertainments. The north and south windows of this apsidal recess, which had a roof elaborately groined in lath and plaster, were likewise glazed. The former was filled with glass of a gold mosaic design; the Sacred Monogram, the red and white roses and portcullis and a saint, perhaps St James of Com- postella, being introduced. Thomas Rickman, the enthusiastic writer on Mediaeval Architecture and a pioneer of the Gothic Revival, thought that the crescent beside the rose denoted some “expectancy of regal ampli- tude”; so Shakespeare: Pom'pey, My power’s a crescent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to the full. — Ant. and Cleo., Act ii, Scene i. *This was, “I have surely built Thee an house,” which has ever since held an honoured place in the weekly service lists of “ choirs and places where they sing,” St Margaret’s, Westminster 183 In this and the south-east window were the arms of Edward the Confessor, represented as blazoned by the heralds temf. Henry VII. The saint in the centre light of the latter was St Michael overcoming the Dragon. When in 1877, during the vicariate of Dr Farrar, St Margaret’s passed into the hands of Sir Gilbert Scott for restoration, it was found to have undergone great degradation, both internally and externally. It had been shorn of its length by one bay of the nave being divided off to form a vestibule at the west end, and again at the east end by the intru- sion of the apsidal sanctuary above mentioned. The north and south aisles had been curtailed of their length by the introduction of vestibules, with staircases conducting to the galleries, with which the church was encumbered on three sides. The area was choked with high pews of no merit whatever; the stonework and walls had been be- daubed with plaster and paint, which had dar- kened to a treacly hue by age and dirt, and the tracery of the windows throughout the church had been barbarously altered. The galleries and pews were swept away, the space wasted by the lobbies and passages was thrown into the church; the west window was opened; the tracery of all the clerestory windows and of as many of those in the aisles as funds per- mitted, restored to its original condition; the paint was removed from the walls and pillars; the plaster ceiling was replaced by one of solid oak; the nave seated with handsome open seats, and the last two bays screened off and raised to form a 184 London Churches chancel; the old false apse of lath and plaster was removed, and the east end made square, and enriched, above, and on either side of ,^the east window, with fresco painting by Clayton and Bell. Subsequently new western and south-eastern porches were added from the designs of Pearson, and much stained glass inserted. Last year the east end was extended a few feet to form a more dignified sanctuary, the walls richly panelled and Aiken’s Supper at Emmaus placed in the centre of a triptych with figures of saints, all richly coloured and gilt, on the insides of the wings. The effect is excellent, and has been en- hanced by the cleaning of the celebrated stained glass in the east window, which has been placed higher up in the wall, to its manifest improve- ment. The stained glass in this east window of St Mar- garet’s may be cited as an example of the pictorial excellence attainable in a glass painting, without any violation of the fundamental rules and condi- tions of the art. The harmonious arrangement of the colouring is worthy of attention, and the whole is perhaps one of the best specimens of glass paint- ing just before its decline. The three middle compartments represent the Crucifixion, with the usual accompaniments of angels receiving in a chalice the blood which drops from the wounds of the Saviour. Over the good thief, an angel is represented wafting his soul to Paradise, and over the wicked, the Devil in the shape of a dragon, carrying his soul to a place of punishment. In the six upper compartments are as ST. M.VRGARET’S, WESTMINSTI-R. Interior, looking East. ' V ■ " i St Margaret’s, Westminster 185 many angels holding the emblems of crucifixion; the cross, the sponge, the crown of thorns, the hammer, the rods and the nails. In the right-hand lower compartment, is Arthur, Prince of Wales (eldest son of Henry VII); and in the companion or left side, Catharine of Aragon, his bride — after- wards married to his brother Henry VHI and divorced by him. Over the head of Prince Arthur is a full-length figure of St George, with the red and white rose of England; and over Catharine of Aragon a full-length figure of St Catharine, with the bursting pomegranate, the emblem of the Kingdom of Granada. The history of this window is of singular in- terest, and briefly thus: The magistrates of Dordrecht, in Holland, de- siring to present Henry VII with something worthy to adorn his magnificent chapel, then building at Westminster, directed this window to be made, and Henry and his Queen sent their pictures to Dordrecht, whence their portraits and those of their eldest son and his bride, in this win- dow are delineated. Prince Arthur died before it was finished; the King himself before it could be erected. Succeeding events, the marriage of Henry VHI, to the widow of his brother, with the subsequent divorce of Catharine, rendered it wholly unfit for the place for which it was in- tended. It then became the property of an Abbot of Waltham, who placed it in his Abbey, where it remained till the Dissolution. Robert Fuller, the last abbot, removed it to a chapel in New Hall, Lord Ormond’s seat, in Wilt- shire, which was afterwards possessed by Thomas 1 86 London Churches Boleyn, father of Anne Boleyn. In Elizabeth’s reign New Hall belonged to the Earl of Sussex. Of his family, Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, James Ps favourite, bought it. His son sold it to General Monk, who buried the window underground, but after the Restora- tion replaced it in the chapel. On the death of General Monk’s son. New Hall was purchased by- John Olmins, who, finding the house and chapel in a neglected condition, demolished both, but pre- served the window in the hopes of selling it to a church. It lay cased up in boxes until purchased by Mr Conyers, of Epping, for his chapel at Copt Hall. Mr Conyers, building a new house, sold the window to the Parliamentary committee for re- pairing St Margaret’s, in 1758, and consigned it to its present, and let us hope its final resting-place, close to the building, singularly enough, for which it was originally designed. There is much modern stained glass in St Mar- garet’s. The very fine series of “single figure and canopy” windows in the south aisle is entirely Messrs Clayton and Bell’s work, and it is almost needless to say that those artists have shown them- selves mindful of the peculiar attributes of Early Perpendicular glass, such as we see in the clerestory of the choir of York Minster. The glass in the great west window, inserted by Transatlantic generosity as a memorial to Sir Walter Raleigh, who, it will be remembered, was beheaded in Palace Yard, hard by St Margaret’s, is likewise excellent. It contains one tier of figures, with, in predellae beneath them, subjects from the life of Sir Walter. Queen Elizabeth occupies the St Margaret’s, W estminster 187 central light, and on either side are Prince Henry and Sir Walter Raleigh; Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Edmund Spenser. Another Transatlantic friend has given the stained glass in the four-light window at the west end of the north aisle, in memory of John Milton, three scenes from whose life are depicted in the two central compartments, and subjects from his great epics, each with its appropriate legend, in the outer one on either side. Above all are four small, but very beautifully treated subjects, also appropriately legended. They are as follows: The Annunciation, I sent thee to the Virgin fure; The Nativity, In the inn was left no better room; The Baptism in Jordan, He humbly among them was baptized; and our Lord bidding the Tempter to get behind Him, The Tempter foil’d in all his power. Of the glass in the north aisle it is hardly pos- sible to speak in terms of such commendation. Various artists have been employed, and the effect, as usual under such circumstances, is unsatisfactory. The stained glass in the window above the door, opening from Palace Yard, forms a memorial to Caxton, to whom there is, just below, a small marble tablet, erected in 1820, by the Roxburgh Club. The walls of St Margaret’s are encrusted with monuments; few are offensive, and several are good specimens of Elizabethan and Early Jacobean work. Of these the best is the tomb of Lady Dudley (d. 1600). ItTas an alabaster effigy, and bears a striking resemblance to the founder’s tomb in the Chapel of the Charterhouse. 1 8 8 London Churches Others worthy of notice are those of Blanche Parry (1589) and Lady Dorothea Stafford (1604), one on either side of the west door. St Margaret’s enshrines the dust of many eminent persons, among whom may be named: William Caxton (d. 1491), John Skelton (d. 1519), Poet Laureate to Henry VIII, a coarse, bold satirist, who, in his short-lined poem called Colin Clout, belaboured the clergy unmercifully with cudgel-words, making no choice of weapons, but striking with the first that came to hand; Nicholas Udall (d. 1556), author of the earliest existing English comedy, Ral'ph Royster Doyster, and master of Eton, where his cruel floggings won for him a more dubious kind of renown than his learning or his wit; Sir Walter Raleigh (beheaded in Palace Yard, Oct. 29, 1618), and Carew Raleigh, his son (d. 1666-67): ‘fin the chancel at the upper end, almost near the altar”;* Alphonso Ferrabosco, musician (d. 1652), and probably grandfather of John Ferrabosco, organist of Ely Cathedral from 1662 to 1682; James Harrington, author of Oceana (d. 1667); ‘fin the chancel next to the grave of Sir Walter Raleigh, under the south side of the altar where the priest stands” ;f the second wife of John Milton (d. 1657); the mother of Oliver Cromwell: she was originally buried in Henry VIPs Chapel, but at the Restoration her body was taken up. Sept. 12, 1661, with Admiral Blake’s, May the poet’s, and others, and buried in a pit dug for the purpose in St Margaret’s Churchyard;^ Lady Wood’s Ath. Oxon. i, 440. + Wood’s Fasti, p. 88. tibid. St Margaret’s, Westminster 1 8 9 Dereham, wife of Sir John Dereham, the poet whose fame rests upon his ‘‘Cooper’s Hill,” a descriptive poem, varied by the thoughts sug- gested by such striking objects in the landscape as the Thames, Windsor Forest and the flats of Runny- mede; Wenceslaus Hollar, the engraver, “dyed on our Ladie-Day (25 Martij) 1677, and is buried in St Margaret’s Churchyard at Westminster, neer the north-west corner of theTower”;^ Thomas Ford, composer of the famous Part Song, When -first I saw your face^ and of the tune, adapted by the compi- lers of Hymns Ancient and Modern to O Merciful Creator^ hear^ translated from the Audi benigne Creator of St Gregory the Great, and appointed in the Salisbury Office Books for use In Quadra- gesima, ad Laudes, et quotidie usque ad Dominicam III. (Ford’s name appears in the registers of St Margaret’s as Mr Tho. fforud); Bernard Schmidt, the great organ builder; James Nares, organist and composer to the Chapel Royal (1756-1785); and G. F. Pinto, English violinist and composer (d. 1806). Dr Hickes, whose Thesaurus is so well known (d. 1715), lies in the churchyard. At St Margaret’s were married. Lord Chan- cellor Clarendon, to his second wife, Frances Aylesbury, the grandmother of Queen Mary and Queen Anne. Here Milton buried his second wife, Katherine Woodcocke, whom he dearly loved, but who died in fifteen months after their union, his three daughters, by his first wife, Mary Powell, growing up wild and undisciplined, to cost their father many a heart-ache in his declining •Aubrey, iii, 403 1 90 London Churches days. Samuel Pepys,* the entertaining diarist, was married here Oct. 1 9, 1 65 5 ; also Thomas Campbell, the poet, author of T he Pleasures of Hope, Dean Aldrich was baptized at St Margaret’s; also the children of Titus Oates and Judge Jeffries. Here were preached the lengthy Fast Day Ser- mons; and Hugh Peters, ‘‘the pulpit buffoon,” persuaded the Parliament to bring Charles “to condign, speedy, and capital punishment,” while the churchyard was guarded by soldiers with pikes and muskets. “The Fast-Day Sermons at St Margaret’s, Westminster, in spite of printers, are all grown dumb! In long rows of dumpy little quartos, gathered from the bookstalls, they indeed stand here bodily before us; by human volition they can be read, but not by any human memory be re- membered. We forget them as soon as read; they have become a weariness to the soul of man. They are dead and gone, they and what they shadowed. Alas, and did not the honourable Houses of Parlia- ment listen to them with rapt earnestness, as to an indisputable message from Heaven itself? Learned and painful Dr Owen, learned and painful Dr Burgess, Stephen Marshall, Mr Spurstow, Adoni- ram Byfield, Hugh Peters, Philip Nye; the printer has done for them what he could — and no most astonishing Review Article of our days can have half *“May 26, 1667. — After dinner, I by water alone to Westmins- ter to the parish church, and there did entertain myself with my perspective glass up and down the church, by which I had the great pleasure of seeing and gazing at a great many very fine women, and what with that and sleeping, I passed away the time till service was done .’’ — Diary of Samuel Pc'pys. St Margaret’s, Westminster 1 9 1 such ‘ brilliancy/ such potency, half such virtue for producing beliefs as these poor little dumpy quartos once had.” — Carlyle, CromzoelPs Letters. On a curious old fifteenth-century bench, un- happily destroyed, a quantity of loaves and six- pences were arranged prior to their distribution after the morning service on Sundays, to certain poor widows resident in the parish, agreeably to the bequest of a Miss Joyce Goddard, in 1621. In the vestry hang two curious engravings of the interior of St Margaret’s, with the House of Com- mons attending. It was formerly the custom for the members of the Lower House to attend here on what were called State Service Days, viz. : November 5 (Gunpowder Plot), January 30 (King Charles the Martyr), May 29 (Restoration of King Charles II), and the anniversary of the Sove- reign’s accession. The custom has long fallen into disuse, though seats for members are still set apart. At the Restoration an organ was built in St Margaret’s by Father Smith. This remained until 1803, when an entirely new one by Avery* took its place; the old organ, case and all, which valued at £200, passing into Avery’s possession. In 1859 Avery’s organ was rebuilt by Holditch, and again in 1868 by Hill, and in 1878 was re- moved from the western gallery to the north side of the chancel, still, however, retaining the pseudo Gothic case of 1803. Subsequently, however, it was enclosed in a very handsome case, from the designs of Mr A. G. Hill, and in 1897 an entirely new organ was built by Walker. * For some account of this organ builder, see Bumpus’ Cathedrals of England and WaleSy Vol. ii, 156. 192 London Churches Among those who have held the post of organist at St Margaret’s, may be named: John Parsons (1616), subsequently organist and master of the choristers of Westminster Abbey; John Hilton, to whom the anthem, Lord^ for 7 hy tender mercies^ sake^ usually ascribed to Farrant is with greater probability attributed; Edward Purcell, the only surviving son of the great Henry Purcell (1726- 1740); and John B. Sale (1809-1856), Lay Vicar of Westminster Abbey, Instructor in music to Queen Victoria, and Organist of the Chapel Royal. The present organist of St Margaret’s is Mr Reginald Goss Custard, grandnephew of Sir John Goss. Mr Custard was appointed in 1902, and his weekly recitals deservedly attract large audiences. It was in the churchyard of St Margaret’s, while a boy at Westminster School, that, late one even- ing, in a glimmering light, Cowper received the second of his serious impressions, which gave a colour and a character to his after-life. “Crossing St Margaret’s Churchyard late one evening,” says Southey, “a glimmering light in the midst of it excited his curiosity, and instead of quickening his speed, and whistling to keep his courage up the while, he went to see from whence it proceeded. A grave-digger was at work there by lantern-light; and, just as Cowper came to the spot, he threw up a skull which struck him on the leg. This gave an alarm to his conscience, and he remembered the incident as among the best religious impressions which he had received at Westminster.” Foolish recommendations for demolishing St Margaret’s, on account of its contiguity to the St Margaret’s, Westminster 193 Abbey, have several times been made. The church groups well with that noble pile, which would not be a whit advantaged by its absence, from every point, and does not injure it from any. That the Abbey was never meant to stand alone without precincts, is quite clear; indeed, Pugin is said to have replied to a query as to the removal of this church, that so far from doing so he should feel inclined to build some more. We have no right, except for very urgent reasons, to interfere with public buildings, especially churches, that have their histories and associations. The wholesale demolition cf Wren’s City churches is bad enough, but when we come to a mediaeval building, any disturbance of the kind is still more to be deprecated. Luckily, in the case of St Margaret’s, good counsels have prevailed, and the church still stands to give scale to the noble pile which rises to the south of it. The Chapel Royal within St James’ Palace, of the very latest Perpendicular architecture, is chiefly interesting from the important place it holds in the history of English Church music, and for the numerous royal functions that have taken place within its walls. It was not, however, until the reign of Henry VIII that the duties of the Chapel Royal were performed at St James’ Palace, which was first built by that monarch. This spot, now so interest- ing in British history, was originally occupied by a Hospital, dedicated to St James, founded by some pious citizens before the Conquest, for four- teen leprous females, and eight brethren were 1-13 194 London Churches added afterwards to perform divine service. It was rebuilt in the time of Henry III. The custody was given to Eton College by a grant of the 28th of Henry VI. It is said the living of Chattisham was given in exchange for it, the College having for that consideration resigned it to Henry VHI, at which time its revenue was valued at ;^ioo per annum. It was surrendered to the King in 1531, who founded on its site the present palace which Stow calls a goodly manor. The chapel, of very little architectural pretensions, is placed just to the west of the great entrance gateway to the palace, and is distinguished externally by its tall, square- headed northern, or altar window of nine lights. It is oblong in plan, with side galleries, the Royal Gallery being at the west end. The superb ceiling, painted by Holbein in 1540, is one of the earliest specimens of the new style introduced by him into England. The rib-mould- ings are of wooden framework, suspended to the roof above; the panels have plaster grounds, the centres displaying the Tudor emblems and de- vices. The subject is gilt, shaded boldly with bistre; the roses glazed with a red colour, and the arms emblazoned in their proper colours; leaves painted dark green ornamented each subject; the general ground of the whole was light blue. The mouldings of the ribs are painted green, and some are gilt. The ceiling has at various times undergone repairs, in one of which the blue ground was painted white. In 1836, when the chapel was enlarged, under the direction of Sir The Chapel Royal, St James’ 195 Robert Smirke,* the blue ground was discovered, as were likewise some of the mottoes in the small panels; thus, “STETDIEV FELIX : HENRICQ REX 8 — H. A. VIVAT REX. 1540. DIEU ET MON DROIT,” etC. I The musical annals of the Chapel Royal are re- j‘ plete with interest, but for much information ( upon the subject the reader must be referred to I ^he Old Cheque Book^ or^ Book of Remembrance of the Chafel Royal^ from 1561 to 1744. Edited from the original MS. preserved among the Monu- ments of the Chapel Royal, St James’ Palace, by * Dr Rimbault, this interesting volume, printed * for the Camden Society in 1872, contains a curious history of the Chapel Royal, St James’, for nearly two centuries, as recorded in the book kept by the Clerk of the Cheque for the time being. 1 It was the duty of this officer to keep an account f of the attendance, and to note the absence of the priests and gentlemen of the choir, in order to lay the same before the Dean or Subdean, and to re- cord all rules and regulations made by the Dean and Chapter for the government of the chapel. This Cheque Book^ which, from the irregularity with which the entries are inserted, seems more like a commonplace book than an official record, contains many curious and minute particulars of Royal ceremonies, funerals, coronations, church- ings, baptisms, royal and noble marriages, etc., I many of these entries being of great historical value. While many of them, as may well be imagined, throw great light on the changes intro- *The Chapel Royal was reopened after these repairs on Sun- day, May 21, 1837. King William IV was to have been present, but was prevented by illness. He died a month afterwards. 1-13^ 196 London Churches duced from time to time in the performance of Divine Service in the Chapel Royal, they are also especially rich in biographical notices of eminent musicians, organists and composers, often supplying new and valuable dates; and the editor, an enthusiastic antiquary, who for a long series of years paid special attention to this subject, was very successful in turning this portion of the work to good account and illus- trating it with his notes — of which it indeed may be said, generally, they are all pertinent and instructive. Divine service is performed at the Chapel Royal as at our cathedrals, by the gentlemen of the choir and ten choristers (or ‘‘children,” as they are termed), the latter of whom, on Sundays and festivals and other great occasions, present a most picturesque appearance in their gold-embroidered scarlet coats, and knee-breeches. The establishment consists of a Dean (the Bis- hop of London), Subdean, Chaplains-in-Ordinary, Priests-in-waiting, Organist and Composer, and Master of the Children. Until 1833 there was a “Confessor to the Royal Household.”* The hours of service on Sunday are at 12.15 and at 5.30. Admission to the midday service is only obtainable by order from the Lord Cham- berlain; that at 5.30 is open to the public, and is but scantily attended. For much interesting information respecting the musical associations of the Chapel Royal, I may refer the reader to some interesting papers, con- * The last ‘‘Confessor” was the Rev. Henry Fly, D.D., Sub- dean, and one of the Minor Canons of St Paul’s. The Chapel Royal, St James’ 197 tributed by Mr John S. Bumpus, to The St PauVs Cathedral Choristers^ Magazine for October, No- vember and December, 1894. The list of organists and composers of distinc- tion, who have been connected with the Chapel from the sixteenth century to the present time, is too long for complete insertion; suffice it, therefore, to mention such well-known names in the history of English Church music as Tallis, Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Child, Blow, Henry Purcell, Croft, Weldon, Greene, Travers, Boyce, Nares, Dupuis, Arnold, John Stafford Smith, Sir George Smart, Thomas Attwood, William Hawes, George Cooper, C. S. Jekyll, Sir John Goss and the Rev. Thos. Helmore. George HI invariably attended the Chapel Royal, St James’, when a nobleman carried the Sword of State before him, and heralds, pursui- vants-at-arms, and other officers, walked in pro- cession. So persevering was his attendance at prayers, that in her Diary^ Madame D’Arblay, one of Queen Charlotte’s robing-women, tells us, in November, 1777, of the Queen and family dropping off, one by one, and leaving the King, the priest-in-waiting and His Majesty’s equerry to ‘ffreeze it out together.” Here were married Prince George of Denmark and the Princess Anne; Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha; George IV and Queen Caroline; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the Princess Victoria (the late “Empress Frederick”) to Prince Frederick William of Prussia; and the Prince of Wales to ‘Princess May’ of Teck. 198 London Churches Before the formation of the Chapel at Bucking- ham Palace in 1843, Her late Majesty and the Court attended the Chapel Royal, St James’. The silver candelabra, plate and other appointments of the altar are superb. 199 CHAPTER IV The Riverside and Suburban £Mediczval Churches S T MARY THE VIRGIN, Lambeth, the mother church of the manor and parish, stands facing the Thames within the patriarchal shade of Lambeth Palace, immediately adjoining Cardinal Morton’s red-brick gateway. Its Per- pendicular tower, with beacon-turret, groups finely with the mass of archiepiscopal buildings, but the body of the church was rebuilt in the Flowing Decorated style, from the designs of P. C. Hardwick in 1851-52. The old structure was a poor patched-up thing, with little or nothing of architectural interest, but several mementoes of it were incorporated with the present building, which has a clerestoried nave divided from its separately gabled aisles by tall octagonal columns, with thin capitals and acutely-pointed arches, and a deep chancel lighted by a large five-light east window, filled in 1852 with stained glass, by O’Connor, in memory of Archbishop Howley. There is a good deal of modern glass, mostly good, a pretty altarpiece, with sculpture by Tinworth; some memorial tablets, with sculpture by the same hand; a fine old Renaissance organ-case; and an elaborately canopied font, behind which is a semicircular sunk bapistery for total immersion by those who desire it. In the Bishop’s Register at Winchester, date 1377, h a commission to compel the inhabitants to 200 London Churches erect the existing tower for their church, then newly built. In the churchwardens’ accounts, “pewes” are mentioned as early as the reign of Philip and Mary. The eastern end of the north aisle, built in 1522, by the Duke of Norfolk, is called the Howard Chapel. Here is a brass to Thomas Clere, Esq. (d. 1545). Over it was formerly an epitaph, in English verse, by the celebrated Earl of Surrey. The epitaph on the monument of white and black marble, with bust, to Robert Scott, Esq., of Bawerie, in Scotland (d. 1631), who “invented a leather ordnance,” is worth reading. In the small square window of the south aisle is the full-length figure of a pedlar with his pack, his staff and dog, the unknown person who gave Pedlar^s Acre to the Parish of Lambeth, upon con- dition that his portrait and that of his dog be per- petually preserved in painted glass in one of the windows of the church. When the painting was first put up is unknown, but it existed in 1608. “A new glass pedlar” was put up in 1703, but removed in 1816. It has been suggested that this portrait was in- tended rather as a rebus upon the name “Chap- man” than upon his trade; for in Swaffham Church, Norfolk, is the portrait of John Chap- man, a great benefactor to that parish; and the device of a pedlar and his pack occurs in several parts of the church, which has given rise to nearly the same tradition at Swaffham as at Lambeth. Besides, Pedlar’s Acre was not originally so called, but the Church Hopes, or Hopys (an isthmus of land projecting into the river), and is St Mary the Virgin, Lambeth 201 entered in the Register as bequeathed by ‘‘a per- son unknown.” The bells and Communion plate are of con- siderable age, the latter of great value. Several Archbishops of Canterbury are interred in Lambeth Church: Parker (d. 1575), Bancroft (d. 1610), Tenison (d. 1715), Hutton (d. 1758), Seeker (in the passage between the church and the palace, d. 1768), Cornwallis (d. 1783) and Moore (d. 1805). In burying Archbishop Cornwallis were found the remains of Thirlby, the first and only Bishop of Westminster: he died a prisoner in Lambeth Palace during the reign of Elizabeth (1570). The body was discovered wrapped in fine linen, the face perfect, the beard long and white, the linen and woollen garments well preserved; the cap, silk, and point lace, as in portraits of Archbishop Juxon; slouched hat, under left arm; cassock, like apron with strings; and pieces of garments like a pilgrim’s habit. Prior to the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VHI had resolved to convert some of them into episcopal Sees, to be endowed with a portion of the lands or revenues which that dissolution would place at his disposal. Of the projected Sees, Westminster was to be one; and on December 17, 1540, the Abbey Church was, by letters patent, constituted a Cathedral, with a bishop, a dean, twelve prebendaries and other inferior officers.* *If Gloucester and Peterborough had not been converted into Cathedral churches, they would doubtless have perished, like Abingdon, Croyland, Fountains, Glastonbury, Reading, Rievaulx, and others which were little inferior to them, either in extent, grandeur, or sacred associations. 202 London Churches The new bishop was Thomas Thirlby, then dean of the Chapel Royal. On January i6, 1539-40, a surrender of the whole establishment, for the pur- pose of carrying this project into effect, was made by Abbot Benson and twenty-four of the monks. The annual revenue is stated to have been nearly ^4,000, a sum of great real value, when the pound of beef was regulated at one halfpenny, and that of veal and mutton at three farthings. Benson, for his ready compliance with Henry’s wishes, was appointed dean of the new cathedral; certain monks became prebendaries, minor canons, and students in the university; the others were dis- missed with pensions, decreasing from down to five marks. The abbatial mansion was converted into a palace for the bishop, whose annual revenue is vari- ously stated from^6oo to^Soo.The diocese included the whole county of Middlesex, with the exception of Fulham, the rural residence of the Bishop of Lon- don. The endowment of the dean and chapter was not completed till 1542, when lands in various parts of the Kingdom were assigned, of the yearly value of ^2,598; out of which, however, the sum of ;^400 was to be paid, for the salaries of five pro- fessors of divinity, law, physic, Hebrew and Greek, in each of the universities. A further sum of £166 13s. 4d. was to support twenty students in the Universities; and two masters, with forty grammar scholars, were to be maintained in the school of Westminster. The new bishopric was, however, but of short duration; for on March 29, 1550, Bishop Thirlby was required to surrender it to Edward VI, and it was soon afterwards united to that of London. From the South-West St Mary the Virgin, Lambeth 203 Thirlby was then translated to Norwich; thence he was removed to Ely, by Queen Mary, on the death of Goodrich, a zealous supporter of the Re- formation, during whose tenure of the see the great shrines of St Etheldreda, and of the three other sainted abbesses, were removed and des- troyed; and was soon afterwards sent ambassador to Rome, to represent the state of the kingdom, and promise obedience to the Apostolic See. The degrading of Archbishop Cranmer in the cloisters of Oxford Cathedral was performed by Thirlby, who was observed to weep during the ceremony. Thirlby continued in favour for a short time after the accession of Elizabeth, but on refusing the Oath of Supremacy he was committed to the Tower, whence he was removed to Lambeth, where he lived for ten years under the guardian- ship of Archbishop Parker. On the dissolution of the short-lived West- minster bishopric, part of the possessions of St Peter’s Cathedral (the reader will remember that this is the collegiate title of Westminster Abbey) were appropriated to the repairs of St Paul’s Cathedral, whence arose the saying, ‘‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul.” A marble slab commemorates Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Peter Dollond, the inventor of the achromatic telescope, lies here; also Madame Storace, a soprano vocalist of repute. She appeared at con- certs in London between 1774 and 1788, and died at Dulwich, August 24, 1817. Her brother, Stephen Storace, became, about 1787, composer to Drury Lane Theatre, where he produced his melodious. 2 04 London Churches but now hardly-remembered operas, l^he Siege of Belgrade^ The Haunted Tozver^ Lodoiska^ No Song no Suffer and The Pirates. He died in 1796, while his Mahomet was in rehearsal, which was brought out a few days after his death. Such songs, from the operas above mentioned, as T oil the Knell^ Down by the River there Grows a Green Willow^ The Safling Oak, Peaceful SlumbWing on the Ocean, With lowly suit and flaintive ditty and There the SilvePd Waters roam, may be found in most old- fashioned collections, and are still admired by lovers of unaffected melody. On the south side of the churchyard is the en- riched seventeenth-century altar tomb of the Tradescants, father and son: That had been Both gardeners to the Rose and Lily queen. — Epitaph. It was under the walls of Lambeth Church that the Queen of James II (Mary d’Este, sister of the Duke of Modena) took refuge with her infant son, James Francis Edward (afterwards known as the Young Pretender), while awaiting the boat that was to convey her to France, after her escape from Whitehall Palace, on December 10, 1688 — the night before the flight of her arbitrary and misguided husband. Queen Mary d’Este makes but little figure in history. The second wife of James II, she appears to have been a woman of gentle and pious disposition, lived in comparative poverty and almost monastic seclusion in the nunnery of Chaillot, after the death of her hus- band in 1701, and expired at St-Germains, May 7, 1718. old Chelsea Church 205 The old Church of St Luke, Chelsea, pictur- esquely situated at the west end of Cheyne Row, is more remarkable for the historical associations which cluster about it than for its architecture. Of the original building the only remaining portion is the chancel, which may date from the eleventh century, but the east window is an Early Perpendicular insertion of about 1350. The north chancel aisle belongs to the fifteenth century, while the corresponding south aisle was added in 1535 by Sir Thomas More. The nave and square tower were built in a non- descript style during the middle of the seven- teenth century, and if not possessing much ele- gance are sufficiently characteristic to deserve preservation. Internally, old Chelsea Church, quietly and conservatively restored in 1857 under the auspices of its present rector. Rev. R. H. Davies, is pic- turesque, and has been thus feelingly described by Henry Kingsley in his novel, ^he Hilly ars and Burtons. ‘Tour hundred years of memory are crowded into this dark old church, and the flood of change beats round its walls and shakes the door in vain, but never enters. The dead stand thick together here, as if to make a brave resistance to the moving world outside, which jars upon their slumber. It is a church of the dead. I cannot fancy anyone being married at that church — its air would chill the boldest bride who ever walked to the altar. No; it is a place for old people to creep into, and pray until their prayers are answered and they sleep with the rest.’^ 2o6 London Churches In the broad, pillarless nave at the south-west corner, is a desk containing Bible and Prayer Book, Book of Homilies and Foxe^s Martyrs^ held by chains, whose manufacture shows them to be of the time when such volumes were scarce. On the north side of the nave is the large and costly monument of Lady Jane Cheyne (1669), ascribed to Bernini, and said to have cost £^00. Immediately opposite is the fine Corinthian monument of Lord and Lady Dacre (1595) with their effigies, life-size. The chancel is approached from the nave by three round-headed arches, above which are dis- posed several old tattered flags, worked and pre- sented to the Royal Volunteers by Princess Char- lotte, and placed here on the disbanding of the regiment. The chief interest of old Chelsea Church centres in Sir Thomas More, whose tomb, erected by himself in 1532, three years before his death, is in the chancel. During the reign of Charles I it was restored, and again in 1833. A vault was constructed on the south side of the chancel by Sir Thomas More during his lifetime, to which he removed the bones of his first wife, and which he designed for his own place of burial. The inscription which he placed there has been renewed. A sentence describes him as ‘‘Furibus autem et homicidis . . . molestus,” the blank space being originally supplied with the word ‘‘herati- cisque,” which his descendant, or admirer, who had the stone recut did not care to perpetuate. The character of Sir Thomas More is not more distinguished by the lively deportment which old Chelsea Church 207 he exhibited at all times, and under almost every circumstance, in his general intercourse with the world, than by his deep sense of religion and fre- quent devotional exercises. Whole pages illustrative of this feature of his disposition might be quoted from the life written by his great-grandson. It had distinguished him from an early age, when he lived four years amongst the Carthusians in Lon- don, “frequenting daily their spiritual exercises, but without any vow. He had an earnest mind also to be a Franciscan friar.” The practice which he had thus acquired of assisting in the public services of the Church, he continued during his life. When Chancellor, “he would often in public processions carry the cross,” walking on foot;* and was even accustomed to wear the surplice of a singing man, “both at High Mass and Matins” in the parish church of Chelsea. “The Duke of Norfolk, coming one day to dine with him during his Chancellorship, found him in church with a surplice on, and singing with the quire. “ ‘God’s body, my Lord Chancellor,’ said the Duke, as they returned to his house, ‘what, a parish clerk? You dishonour the King and his office.’ “ ‘Nay,’ said Sir Thomas, ‘you may not think your master and mine will be offended with me for serving God, his Master, or thereby count his office dishonoured.’ ” Soon after settling at Chelsea, More erected in *When many counselled him in the long processions in Roga- tion Week, to use a horse for his dignity and age, he would answer, “It beseemed not the servant to follow his Master pran- cing on cock horse, his Master [the Host] going on foot.” 2o8 ■ London Churches his garden a detached edifice, containing a chapel, a library, and a gallery, which were called the New Buildings. In this private chapel he said prayers with his family, morning and evening, and would, usually on Fridays, spend the whole day in devotion. His biographers also notice his having added a chapel to the parish church of Chelsea; ‘‘where the parish had all ornaments belonging thereunto, abundantly supplied at his charge, and he be- stowed thereon much plate, often speaking these words, ‘Good men give it, and bad men take it away.’ ” Hoddesdon, in his Life of More^ particularly says this chapel was built before he was Chan- cellor; and that fact is confirmed by the date found on one of the capitals. He was not appointed Lord Chancellor until October 25, 1529; on this capital is the year 1528. His monument, which is not within this chapel, but in the chancel, bears the date 1532, which was the year of his resigning his high office. The More Chapel is attached to the southern side of the “lower chancel” of Chelsea Church. It is twenty feet long, .and fifteen feet wide; its nor- thern side is opened into the church for its whole length, except three feet; and the upper part of the opening consists of a pointed arch, springing from capitals carved in the style of the Early Renaissance by Torrigiano, a sculptor largely em- ployed in England by Henry VII and VHI. Each of these capitals, which were resuscitated, as it were, from a grave of whitewash in 1833, has five sculptured faces, about eighteen inches high. Old Chelsea Church 209 Those on the western capital of the arch represent various instrumenta of Catholic worship — bundles of candles, two candlesticks with great prickets for lights, a bucket for holy water with a small brush or wisp, and a book; all articles remarkable both as connected with More’s recorded attachment to the services of the Church, and as actual repre- sentations of ecclesiastical furniture in use shortly before the Reformation. Indeed, the whole performance is probably unique in its way. The sculptures on the other capital are not so perfectly intelligible. In the centre are Sir Thomas More’s arms, of two coats quarterly, as they occur on the cornice of his monument. One coat is a chevron engrailed between three moor cocks, allu- sive, as is the crest, a moor'^s head, to his name. The quartering is a chevron between three unicorns’ heads erased; on the chevron ought to be three bezants, as on Sir Thos More’s monument; this coat is that of Ley. The crest, placed on a helmet and wreath, is a moor’s head, laureated. Five Moorish cherubim, the first weeping and the others making various grimaces, form the crown- ing ornaments of each side; and answer to other heads, of men and women, in the attire of the times, on the other capital. Within the volutes below the angelic Moors are smaller heads, which have been carved with much delicacy, as are the two grotesque masks which adorn the sarcophagus on the second side. On the fourth side the date 1528 occurs on a tablet. The devices on the first and fifth sides are still subjects for conjecture. 1-14 210 London Churches Sir Thomas More was not Chancellor when this chapel was built; but he had other offices (he was then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster), and these may represent some of the official insignia. It may be remarked that some of the protruding knobs, particularly a large one on the fifth side, are fossil remains in the substance of the stone, which the sculptor appears to have found too hard for his chisel. Here then, was the pew to which belongs the anecdote told of the manner in which he first acquainted his wife with his resignation of the Great Seal, which is as follows; “The next morning being a holiday, and few yet knowing what had been done, he went to Chelsea Church with his lady and family; where, during divine service, he sat as usual in the quire^ wearing a surplice; and because it had been a custom after Mass was done for one of his gentlemen to go to his lady’s fezu^ and say, ‘My Lord is gone before,’ he came now himself, and making a low bow, said, ‘Madam, my Lord is gone,’ who thinking [it to be no more than his usual humour, took no notice of it; but in the way home, to her great mortification, he unriddled the jest, by acquainting her with what he had done the preceding day.” On the enlargement of the church in 1667 the western wall of the chapel was nearly removed, and a large elliptical arch formed in it, so that now the More Chapel is perfectly open to the re- mainder of the south aisle, which was formed by this alteration, and might be deemed a part of it, except that the latter is considerably higher, and that the old pointed roof and open beams of the old Chelsea Church 211 chapel remain. There are still two windows in the south wall, but now round-headed, although the form of their original flattened point remains in the interior recesses, and there is one of the same description at the east end. The exterior walls have been entirely faced with brick, together with the greater part of the church. It does not appear that Sir Thomas More used, or even intended, his Chapel for a place of sepulchre; for his monument, which, as before mentioned, was erected four years after, he placed in the chancel. There, as recorded in the epitaph, he de- posited the remains of his first wife; and there he intended his own, and those of his second wife, should rest.* Neither of these intentions were fulfilled. His wife was subsequently buried at Northaw in Hertfordshire. More’s own body, after decapita- tion, was buried in the Tower, near that of his friend. Bishop Fisher; whilst his head, after it had been for some time exposed on London Bridge, was recovered by his daughter, Mrs Roper, and deposited in a vault at St Dunstan’s Church, Can- terbury. Who can forget that most touching scene in English history, when Margaret Roper found her way through the crowd, and falling on her knees in a passion of grief, besought the blessing of her condemned father. Samuel Rogers, in his Human Life^ has pathetically retold this inci- dent: *Chara Thomas jacet hie Joanna uxorcula Mori, Qui tumulum Alicias hunc destius, quique mihi 1-14^ 2 12 London Churches The blushing maid* Who through the streets as through a desert strayed, And when her dear, dear father passed along. Would not be held, but bursting through the throng. Halberd, and battle axe, kissed him o’er and o’er; Then turned and went — then sought him as before, Believing she should see his face no more. Reverting to the More Chantry, it may be re- marked that this chapel was merely intended to furnish accommodation for his own large house- hold during divine service, the church itself being small. In this More Chantry is the fine but sadly mutilated tomb of Jane Dudley (d. 1555), mother- in-law of Lady Jane Grey. The north chancel aisle or Lawrence Chantry is entered from the chancel proper by a large Renaissance arch, about ten feet high; it is orna- mented with fluted carving, and forms the monu- ment of Richard Gervoise, Sheriff of London (d. 1557). In the Lawrence Chantry should be observed the monument of Sir John Lawrence (d. 1638), of his father Thomas Lawrence (d. 1593) and the expressive white marble tomb of Mrs Colvill, daughter of Thomas Lawrence (d. 1631). The curious monument of Sir Hans Sloane, at the south east-corner of the churchyard, an urn entwined by serpents, was erected by his daugh- ters, Sarah Stanley and Eliza Cadogan. The parish church of Fulham, dedicated to All Saints, and, like Lambeth, Chelsea, Putney and Chiswick, picturesquely placed near the river, was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, by the *Has not the author of ^he Pleasures of Memory availed him- self of poetic licence here? All Saints’, Fulham 213 late Sir Arthur Blomfield, twenty-seven years ago.* It consists of a nave, with aisles and clerestory, transepts and square-ended chancel, all carried out in rather hard and cold Perpendicular. The tower, restored by George Godwin about half a century ago, stands at the west end, and is one of the best in the county. Of the Early Per- pendicular period, and dating from about 1370, it consists of five stages, the lowest containing a plain west doorway surmounted by a large win- dow of five lights with tracery mingling the curvilinear with the rectilinear, and filled with stained glass, representing the arms of several Bis- hops of London and vicars of Fulham. The middle stages contain two series of windows of two lights each, while the upper or belfry story has three-light windows with incipient vertical tracery. The parapet is embattled, and at the south-west corner of the tower is a bold newel or beacon turret, carried up about eight feet above the parapet of the tower and bearing the vane. Here ^Besides his reconstruction of Fulham Church, Sir Arthur Blomfield’s most important London works were: the nave of St Saviour’s Cathedral, Southwark, St Luke’s, Stepney, St John’s, Wilton Road, St James’s, Paddington (in conjunction with Mr Street), St Mary’s, Bourdon Street, Berkeley Square, and St Andrew’s, Stoke Newington. He also renovated and rearranged with success several Wrennian and eighteenth- and early nine- teenth-century classical churches, notably, St Lawrence Jewry, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Luke’s, Old Street, St Giles’-in-the- Fields, St Mark’s, North Audley Street, and St Peter’s, Eaton Square. The chancel of the latter, edited, so to speak in an Auvergnat type of Romanesque is undoubtedly a masterpiece. In the country his two finest works are St Barnabas’, Oxford, and St Mary’s, Portsea, the one a Byzantine-Romanesque basilica, the other a vast English Perpendicular church. 214 London Churches are eight bells and a small lozenge-shaped Flemish brass with a demi-figure of Margaret Saunders, 1529. The great east window of Fulham Church is an admirable specimen of modern glass painting, as is that in the north transept representing scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin. The four-light window of Late Decorated charac- ter in the south transept,withWailes’ stock figures of the Evangelists, was formerly at the east end. It was given in 1 840 by Bishop Blomfield, who died at Ful- ham Palace, August 5,1857, and was buried in a plot of ground which he had himself consecrated as an addition to the churchyard some few years before, beside the palace moat, and with the trees of the garden that he loved so well overshadowing his tomb. Thus was fulfilled the desire which the Bishop had expressed. A simple tombstone of white marble, designed by the late Sir Arthur Blomfield, was erected over the grave, but a memorial of a more public character was placed, some years later, in St Paul’s Cathedral, from the designs and execution of Sir George Richmond, R.A., viz. a noble recumbent effigy of the Bishop vested in his episcopal robes lying upon a low couch as if stricken down while still engaged in the duties of his office. A pastoral staff lies broken at his side. Thus the artist has endeavoured to ex- press the abrupt termination of Bishop Blom- field’s labours by illness, so long before his death. The expression given to the countenance is that of resignation and cheerful acceptance of the blow which laid him low. Curiously enough. Dr Blom- field was the first Bishop of London to be com- All Saints’, Fulham 215 memorated by a monument in the cathedral church of his diocese. This beautiful monument stands within the second recess of the south choir aisle, and, since the free passage allowed to visitors round this portion of the cathedral, has gained that notice which had hitherto been denied to it. Several Bishops of London are buried in the eastern part of Fulham churchyard beneath the altar window; among them, Compton (1713), Robinson (1723), Gibson (1748), Sherlock (1761), Terrick (1777) and Lowth (1787). From Bishop Sherlock’s death in 1761 to Blomfield’s taking possession of the See in 1829 there was a rapid succession of Prelates of little note, but who no doubt discharged their functions with quiet dig- nity, and lived their blameless lives in respect and in esteem. Terrick, it will be remembered, was the Bishop of London who, when in 1773 certain Royal Academicians volunteered to decorate the interior of St Paul’s, opposed the scheme quite violently, for on the Dean’s (Dr Newton, Bishop of Bristol) waiting upon him, and telling him with much exultation of the progress that had been made, vetoed the whole project. ‘‘My good Lord Bishop of Bristol,” he said, “I have been already distantly and imperfectly in- formed of such an affair having been in contem- plation; but as the sole power remains with myself, I therefore inform your lordship, that whilst I live and have the power, I will never suffer the doors of the Metropolitan Cathedral to be opened for the introduction of Popery into it.” St Paul’s suffered no loss through Bishop Ter- 2 1 6 London Churches rick’s sturdy Protestantism. ‘‘I confess,” says Dean Milman in his Annals^ shudder at the idea of our walls being covered with the audacious designs and tawdry colouring of West, Cipriani, Dance, and Angelica Kauffman.” The Church of St Mary the Virgin at Putney, exactly opposite Fulham, was rebuilt, with the ex- ception of its tower, nave arcade, and Chapel of Bishop West, in the Perpendicular of 1836. The tower is a fair specimen of the Home County type, with battlements and angle turret, and the little two-bayed chapel or chantry of Bishop West, on the north side of the chancel, has a richly fan- traceried roof, springing partly from a corbelled shaft and partly from continuous ones. There are two small brasses and a trefoil-headed niche in the northern wall, and stained glass in the three win- dows, that in the eastern one being by Warrington, in which, as in the generality of that artist’s works, we perceive too strong a desire for antiquation. Nicholas West, to whom this little gem of the expiring Gothic of England is due, was the son of a baker at Putney. He was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, rose to be Archdeacon of Derby in 1501, and Dean of Windsor in 1510. Patronized by Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, West early became distinguished for his knowledge of civil and canon law, and on that account was much employed throughout his life in public affairs and on embassies, under Henry VII and VHI; the latter of whom he attended at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1515 he was made Bishop of Ely, and is said to have lived in greater splen- dour than any other prelate of his time, having St Mary the Virgin, Putney 217 more than one hundred servants. Two hundred poor were daily relieved at his gate. His learning and acquirements were very con- siderable, and are especially praised by Bishop Fisher. He was a zealous advocate on the side of Queen Catharine of Aragon, and the loss of the King’s favour on that account is said to have has- tened his death, which occurred April 28, 1533. At Putney, his native place. West built this chantry, adjoining the chancel of the parish church, its architecture affording an interesting comparative study with that of the same prelate’s chapel at the end of the south choir aisle of Ely Cathedral, where it forms a pendant to the some- what earlier, but equally sumptuous one of Bishop Alcock. Of the mediaeval churches in the north and east of London, the largest and finest is that of St Dunstan, Stepney, the mother church of all this part of Middlesex. The parish of Stepney — anciently Stebbon Heath — was originally of such vast extent, that it included the present parishes of St Mary, Strat- ford-le-Bow, St Mary, Whitechapel, St Anne, Limehouse, St John, Wapping, St Paul, Shadwell, St George-in-the-East, Christ Church, Spitalfields, and St Matthew, Bethnal Green.* The present church of Stepney was rebuilt *Shadwell was made a separate parish in 1669; St George’s in 1727; Limehouse and Bow in 1730; and Bethnal Green in 1743. Paterson in his Pietas Londiniensis (1714) says: “Both church and churchyard are too little for a large and populous parish; for it’s the most ample Parish about London, consisting of about nine thousand dwelling houses; or in all England and perhaps in EuropeP 2 1 8 London Churches shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century, its predecessor having been erected, on the autho- rity of Matthew Paris, by Archbishop Dunstan, in place of one which had been dedicated to All Saints. After Dunstan’s death and canonization the church was rededicated in his name, a title which it has borne for nine hundred years. Vestiges of earlier structures are to be seen in the present spacious Perpendicular edifice. Thus, the round-headed opening in the clerestory on the north side, towards the east, may be one of the windows of the pre-Norman church; a piece of sculpture, until recently in the south porch, but now affixed to the eastern respond on the north side, and representing the Crucifixion, is un- questionably pre- Norman; the extraordinary corbel forming the western respond on the north side would appear to be of the Tran- sitional Period; the font, though over-restored, is in the main Norman;* the sedilia are Early Eng- lish; and portions of the north aisle, including a window, are Late Decorated; and there can be no doubt that the tower is much earlier than its pre- sent appearance warrants. Stepney Church has passed under the hand of the restorer at several periods within the last sixty years, each successive restoration bringing to light * 01 d woodcuts of this font in Lyson’s Environs of London^ Hughson’s Walks in London (1817) and Lime's Telescope (1829) show it with a square bowl arcaded, supported by a central stem and four corner ones with bases and flowered caps; the base square and the whole raised upon a cruciform step, with'[a [large circular one underneath. St Dunstan’s, Stepney 219 some long-hidden feature of archaeological interest and importance. The first restoration took place in 1847, under Benjamin Ferrey; the second in 1872 under New- man and Billing; and the third in 1899 under Cutts, when the galleries were removed, the stone- work repaired, the walls stripped of their plaster, the seats remodelled, and the organ rebuilt, the church being reopened on December 7 of the latter year. On October 12, 1901, the roof of the chancel, the greater portion of that over the nave, the organ case, and other fittings, and the vestries, were destroyed by fire.* The loss of the organ case was particularly re- grettable, as it belonged to the latter part of the seventeenth century, was handsomely carved in oak and resembled that in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and the one formerly in Worcester Cathedral. In the centre was a figure of King David play- ing upon his harp; but the angels which sur- mounted the towers when the organ stood in the western gallery were removed when, in 1847, the instrument was placed on the north side of the chancel, under an arch. The ground plan of St Dunstan’s, Stepney, comprises a large sanctuary, a chancel of two bays with aisles, clerestoried nave of five bays, with two aisles, porches, and western tower, whose appear- ance has not been improved by the removal of the little cupola from its summit, so familiar in all the old views of the church. •A tall cross in the western walk of the churchyard, formed out of the charred remains, commemorates this catastrophe. 2 20 London Churches The windows generally are very good, with acutely pointed arches and the lights super-mul- lioned. The clerestory has low two-light windows, filled with minute subjects on flowered quarry grounds, by Clayton and Bell, to whom is likewise due the glass in the three-light window above the western entrance. There is now no architectural separation be- tween the nave and the chancel, as during the restoration under Cutts, a low window filled with stained glass, and overlooking the gable of the chancel-roof, was taken away. The Perpendicular arcade of seven bays is con- tinuous, five going to the nave and two to the chancel. The piers are all in clusters of four shafts, and very good. The upper rood door appears over one of the northern arcades, and that opening to the staircase from the south aisle can still be seen in the south aisle. The screen crossed the church between the fifth and sixth bays. On the south side of the sanctuary is a good super-mullioned four-light window containing small figures in excellent stained glass, and a plain, square-headed priest’s door. In the opposite wall is an arch, the lower portion of which is occupied by the canopied altar tomb of Sir Henry Colet, Lord Mayor in i486 and 1495, and father of the founder of St Paul’s School. The Early English sedilia in the south wall of the sanctuary have been restored since the fire of 1901; the easternmost is graduated, and the three lancet arches are sup- ported on coupled pillarets. All the appointments are substantial and hand- some, and the interior of old Stepney Church, with Sr. DUNSTAN’S, STEPNEY. From the South-East. St Dunstan’s, Stepney 221 its low, open seats, and disencumbered of its gal- leries, is remarkably impressive. A few other details deserve mention, as e.g., the porches, modern, rather tall and narrow, and not very good; a stone, believed, according to the in- scription on it, to have been brought from Car- thage; the rood turret, marking the junction of the south aisle of. the nave with that of the chan- cel; a curious little piece of sculpture representing the Annunciation, over the vestry door on the north side of the chancel; a few matrices of brasses; some monuments dating from the com- mencement of the seventeenth century; and West- cott’s marble monument of the Good Samaritan, to B. Kenton, Esq., who died in 1800, leaving ^63,500 to charity schools. and ^30,000 to his friends. Stepney Church is famed in story for its legend of “The Fish and the Ring,” and the popular ballad oiJhe Cruel Knight^ or^A Fortunate Farmers Daugh- ter. Her identity is referred to Lady Berry, whose tomb, with the fish and annulet in the arms thereon is here; but the finding of a ring in a fish is an incident of much greater antiquity than Lady Berry’s time, and occurs in the Arabia^i Nights^ Entertainment. In No. 518 of Fhe Spectator Richard Steele’s good-natured wit wells out as fresh and natural as usual, over the number and oddity of the epitaphs in the vast churchyard of Stepney; “I have made a discovery of a churchyard in which I believe you might spend an afternoon with great pleasure to yourself and to the public. It belongs to the church of Stebon Heath, com- 2 2 2 London Churches monly called Stepney. Whether or no it be that the people of that parish have particular genius for an epitaph, or that there be some poet among them who undertakes that work by the great, I cannot tell; but there are more remarkable in- scriptions in that place than in any other I have met with.” Here lie the Rev. W. Vickers, author of The Companion to the Altar; and a certain Roger Crab, who lived long on bran, dock-leaves, grass and water. From Stepney Church, the little Late Perpen- dicular one of St Mary’s, Stratford-le-Bow, at the extremity of the Bow Road, may be visited. It stands in the centre of that thoroughfare, and consists of a chancel, nave, two aisles and western tower, possessing the usual features of the locality, i.e., an embattled parapet, with newel turret car- ried right up the south-east angle. This church is remarkable for its very narrow aisles, probably accounted for by its situation, the south aisle being barely four feet in width, while the northern one is only a foot wider. A similarly narrow aisle is found at All Saints’, Harston, Cambridgeshire. The six-bayed nave appears to be partly Early and partly Late Perpendicular, the three eastern- most arches belonging to the former period. All the piers are octagonal, and the arches are extremely irregular, both in size and shape. There is a low, Perpendicular clerestory, with square-headed, three-light windows, but, as usual in Middlesex churches of its date, there is no chancel arch at Bow. St Mary-atte- Bow 223 The ancient roof, of very good pitch, after being hid for ages by a plaster ceiling, was brought to light a little over fifty years ago. It is what is technically termed a truss roof, and consists of a series of curved braces set close to- gether and tied together under the collars. The Perpendicular font, after years of ignomini- ous treatment in the parish workhouse, was res- tored to the church about the same time. In the south aisle is a small double-canopied monumental niche dating from about 1500, and now containing a brass inscription of sixty years later. The church has lately undergone further restora- tion, and though of poor architecture is not wholly devoid of interest. In the neighbouring St Leonard’s, Bromley-by- Bow, rebuilt in a pseudo-Anglo-Norman style, between 1840 and 1850, from the designs of Rail- ton, are some relics of the ancient church, which was of Norman foundation, and consisted of a nave and chancel with, on the gable of the former, a bell-cote. These relics comprise an octagonal Per- pendicular font of considerable interest, from be- ing incised with twelve rude dedication crosses, ten of which are on the bowl and the remaining two on the stem; an old brass chandelier, and some monuments, the earliest of which, about 1620, re- presents a merchant of London and his wife kneel- ing at faldstools. From Bromley-by-Bow, passing through Hack- ney, whose sole relic of ecclesiastical antiquity is the isolated Perpendicular tower of St John’s (for- merly St Augustine’s), we reach Stoke Newington, whose old parish church of St Mary, so pictur- 2 24 London Churches esquely situated on the confines of Clissold Park, and at the west end of the once old-world and winding Church Street, retains some Perpendicular por- tions.* These are to be found in the core of the tower and in the low south aisle, the remainder of the structure having been rebuilt in 1829-30, from the designs of Sir Charles Barry. What old Stoke Newington church was like prior to that date may be gathered from several engrav- ings in the Public Library close by. It consisted of an imperfectly developed chancel, nave, aisles and square tower, all of Perpendicular architecture. The last-named was surmounted by a bell-cote. Early in the eighteenth century an exterior shell of brick was added, the windows mostly removed, and others of the pseudo-Classical style then in vogue substituted, the low south aisle alone retain- ing its original character. This would appear to date from 1562, and is of late, and, therefore, poor Gothic detail. When Sir Charles Barry came to work upon old Stoke Newington Church, he removed the coating of brick, restored the windows, added a clerestory to the nave and a shingled spire and pinnacles to the tower. At the same time he pulled down the northern arcade of the nave, rebuilt it on a larger scale and added a second north aisle. A diminutive chancel was also thrown out eastward of the origi- nal east wall, and some ancient stained glass, which had been brought from the Continent in 1805, *It is gratifying to observe that this curious relic of Old Stoke Newington was spared on the completion, in 1858, of the magni- ficent new church, opposite, from the designs of Sir G. G. Scott. Old Stoke Newington Church 225 placed in its five-light Perpendicular east window. The whole of Sir Charles Barry’s work is, as might be expected from its date, poor, but on the whole the church presents a very pretty and pleasing group; indeed, by those unversed in ecclesiology, it is frequently taken for a veritable country church of the sixteenth century. The interior is picturesque, and here may be seen some of the old-fashioned square pews, now almost obsolete. The spiral canopy to the pulpit; the Elizabethan tomb of John Dudley, erected by his widow, who afterwards married Thomas Sutton founder of the Charterhouse, and restored early in the present century at the expense of several grateful old Carthusians; and a tablet to Dr Gaskin (Rector from 1797 to 1829),* are worth notice. In the churchyard, close to the south-west gate, is the plain brick tomb of Dr Aikin, and his sister, Mrs Anna Letitia Barbauld (d. 1825), a name sel- dom mentioned now, although she was one of the most gracefully accomplished among the literary women of her time. She is best remembered by her Hymns in Prose for Children^ and by the several papers which she contributed to her brother’s (Dr Aikin’s) Evenings at Home, Old St Mary’s, Stoke Newington, is alluded to by Edgar Allan Poe in William Wilson^ one of the weirdest of his Pales of Imagination and Fancy, *Dr Gaskin was one of the most prominent clergymen of his day. His memoir occupies a large portion of three numbers of The GentlemarCs Magazine oi He was a native of Stoke Newington, having been born on Newington Green in 1751. The Rev. Thomas Jackson, Rector of Stoke Newington from 1852 to 1885, used to recount many droll stories of Dr Gaskin. I-15 2 26 London Churches It was in i8i6 that the future author of The Raven and The Bells was placed at a school in Church Street, kept by the Rev. Dr Bransby. Here he remained for five years, appearing to have made a good impression upon his master, who re- ferred to him in after years as ‘‘a quick, clever boy,” and as a boy whom he liked, but who was spoilt by the extravagant amount of pocket-money his guardians — the Allans, of Richmond, Virginia — allowed him. What impression the Manor House School at Stoke Newington, and its master, made upon the plastic mind of the child may be found vividly and faithfully narrated in the partly autobiographical story to which I have alluded. Those who refer to parental influences, the funeral gloom and sombre side of Poe’s character, have probably good grounds for the theory; but apart from that, and the almost chronic ill-fortune which accompanied him, there is little doubt that the friendless isolation of that lustrum of childhood spent in a foreign land, and in such a solemn old place as Stoke Newington then was, must have had an awe-inspiring effect upon the exiled orphan. Whatever may have been the influence upon the boy’s morbidly sensitive mind of the ‘‘venerable old town” with its “deeply shadowed avenues” and its “thousand shrubberies,” and “the deep hollow note of the church bell breaking each hour with sudden and sullen roar upon the stillness of the dusky atmosphere, in which the Gothic steeple lay imbedded and asleep,”* it is certain that when he •In Miss Shipley’s Barbara Pelham, a very charmingly written story published last year by the S.P.C.K., is a capital dc- St Mary’s, Hornsey 227 returned to Virginia in 1821, it was with a good groundwork of knowledge. Between Stoke Newington and Tottenham lies Hornsey, of whose old church of St Mary the only relic of antiquity is the tower, a good example of Late Perpendicular, and, with its beacon turret, very like a Kentish tower. It is built of a kind of reddish sandstone,* and bears the arms of Savage and Warham, successively bishops of London, who were presumably contributors to the fabric. The old church, views of which still exist in- dicating a building of considerable interest, was removed between 1830 and 1833, and the present but now disused pseudo-Gothic structure sub- stituted for it. The stained glass in the east win- dow, by Evans of Shrewsbury, was inserted at the same time. It seems a pity that the new church, a truly noble piece of Perpendicular work, completed in 1889 from the designs of Mr Brooks, could not have been joined on to the old tower. New St Mary’s, Hornsey, stands due north and south, and, owing to the unfinished state of the tower, has at present a somewhat low and heavy appearance. To judge from the designs, the tower and spire will be extremely beautiful. The former, which is to rise three stages above the roof, will have a richly em- battled parapet and small pinnacles, and is to have scription of Stoke Newington as it existed during the early ’fifties. The church of Saint Matthias is frequently alluded to by the authoress in her charming book. •This material is said to have been brought from Bishop’s Lodge, not far off, the site of which is marked on a large ord- nance map. 1-15^ 2 2 8 London Churches a somewhat elaborate belfry stage, with four arcades between pinnacles. The -two central lights will have barge-boards, while the outer ones are to receive statuary. The steeple will be octagonal, with crocketed sides, one row of bands, and a triangular-headed squinch on each cardinal face. Architectural students should observe the western doorway and window in this tower, perhaps two of the most refined specimens of Perpendicular work produced in recent times. It was in the spring of 1817 that Tom Moore took a cottage at Hornsey, where he resided until the autumn of the same year, when he removed to Sloperton, near Devizes, and it was during his brief sojourn in this then secluded village, that in May, his Lalla Rookh was published. Moore’s joy at this event was, however, clouded five months later by the death, from a fall, of his youngest daughter, Barbara. This sad event took place on September 18, and a few days afterwards the burial took place in Hornsey Churchyard, where, thirty-eight years afterwards (December 27, 1855), was laid to rest, that patriarch of English poets, wits, and patrons of art, Samuel Rogers, chiefly remembered by his Italy and T he Pleasures of Memory, Rogers, a North London man, was born on July 30, 1763, at Stoke Newington, in a large detached house which, it may be remembered, stood at the junction of the Green with the Ferntower Road. Few lives so long protracted as Rogers’ have afforded less incident — few have yielded so much anecdote to biographers of the “Poets of England.” Like John Ruskin’s the life of Samuel Rogers was a St Mary’s, Hornsey 229 life of easy fortunes spent among memorable people, a life of taste acquired in foreign travel, before foreign travel had ceased to be a luxury — a life of poetical creations — few, far between and finished so highly, that the best thoughts and lines in them will not perish from among the ‘‘pleasures of memory.” Rogers’ affection for music was greater than his knowledge of it. This amounted to a gentle dilettantism^ recalling that of Thomas Gray, writ- ing canzonets to an air by Geminiani, to be sung by Miss Speed; and stopping short of the boldness, romance and discovery which has marked the art since Haydn and Beethoven were in their prime. Until an accident confined him to a chair, Rogers continued to be an attendant at the Opera and the Ancient Concerts, and when these died out, at the Exeter Hall Oratorios. Till a very late period of his life Rogers might be seen at midnight feebly hurrying home from these on foot, no matter what the weather, thinly dressed, and as resentful of the slightest offer of assistance as was “the Duke” when- he was scarcely able to mount his horse.* The passion for pleasure did not for- sake Rogers till a very late period. Only a few years before his death a street accident, caused by this imprudent manner of wandering home alone (when he was run over by a carriage) sentenced him to a chair for the rest of his days. All Hallows’, Tottenham, a large and, in some • Rogers resided in St James’ Place, and the breakfasts he gave in this pleasant home, which he filled with the finest pictures wealth could buy, used to draw some of the first men in London round his table. 230 London Churches points, interesting church, belongs to the Per- pendicular Period (c. 1380), though the date of its foundation is quite three centuries earlier. The period during which the church was origin- ally founded is uncertain. It is recorded in 1125 that the church was given about that time by Bruce, King of Scotland, to the canons of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Lon- don, a religious house founded by his sister Matilda. Henry VHI gave the patronage of the living to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s, in whose gift it still is. Until Butterfield added the transepts and chan- cel in 1875-76, Tottenham Church consisted simply of three parallel aisles, without any archi- tectural division from east to west; a western tower and south porch. At the east end was a little circular paganized Grecian temple, capped by a dome and pillar. It was erected as a vestry in 1699 by Lord Coleraine, who made a vault of it for himself and his family. The north aisle was rebuilt of brick in the Perpen- dicular style of 1816. Parochial needs calling for an enlargement somewhere, the circular erection above mentioned was removed in 1875, the length of the nave was increased by one bay, and transepts and a square- ended chancel were built in the Geometrical De- corated style from the designs of Butterfield. The whole work is quite characteristic of that architect, but whether he was justified in employ- ing red brick, I must leave others to judge. At the same time Butterfield added a clerestory to the All Hallows’, T ottenham 231 nave, which was cleared of its cumbrous pews, and restored several windows on the south side which had been debased. An interesting external feature is the bold turret containing the stairs to the quondam rood loft, but by far the noblest is the red-brick south porch — commonly styled ‘‘the parvise” — with its square- headed outer doorway, richly carved as to its spandrels and square-headed two-light windows. The derivation of the term “parvise” is some- what ambiguous, some archaeologists considering it to be a corruption of “paradise,” while others trace it to the woids, “pour viser,” i.e., the room used ‘Hour viser Peglise,^^ “to watch the church from.” On this point one can only remark that until it is known who was the first antiquary to apply the term to a room over the porch, it is not much use discussing these reasons. The French word, farvis (see Ducange, Par- visus^ i.q. faradisus) had nothing to do with four viser^ one may be sure, either in its old or modern signification; and it is more probable that some antiquary took the word as he found it, rather than that he invented a similar word with a different signification. If we look at the list below, of numerous examples of rooms over porches, only a few will be found to have any traces of a window looking into the church; the majority seem to have had no connexion with the church at all.* *Of examples of churches having porches with rooms over them I have culled thirty from a hostof others: Chester Cathedral; Sher- borne, Southwell and Wimborne Minsters; Cirencester; Glouces- tershire;Portlemouth,Loddiswed, Malborough and Plympton-St- Mary, Devon; Boston and Louth, Lincolnshire; Mere and Purton, 232 London Churches The uses for which the rooms over porches were constructed were as various probably almost as that to which they were applied. The architect suggested utilizing the space, at the same time adding to the beauty of the structure. In some cases it was, perhaps, for the priest; at other times for an anchorite. In some cases, perhaps, for the Sacristan.* Again, when not a living room, it may have been applied even to teaching the children, or as a quiet study, so to speak, a place of retirement for the priest when he wished to read. Hence, in it, MSS. and books were kept. Little different from this was its use as a parish library, to which any learned person in the parish might have access, and beyond this the receptacle for the chest containing the muniments and other documents connected with the parish. All these uses, nearly connected with one another, seem implied by the arrangements remaining. The tower of All Hallows’, Tottenham, once completely overgrown with ivy, appears to be Decorated; at least, the arch opening to the nave is of that period. The west doorway and window, upper story and battlements were rebuilt in 1846. The lower windows yet remain; they are quatre- Wilts; Fotheringhayand Stanwick,Northants; Great Milton and Chipping Norton, Oxon; Bridgewater and Clevedon, Somerset; Ludlow, Herefordshire; Barcheston (two, one over the other) Warwickshire ; Patrington, Yorkshire ; Helmsley, Norfolk ; Chelmsford, Essex; Priory Church, Great Malvern, Worces- tershire; Bodmin, Cornwall; St Sepulchre, Holborn, Harrow, and Tottenham, Middlesex. *At Tottenham, since the Reformation this chamber over the porch, has often been assigned as a residence to a poor parishioner. ALL HALLOWS, TOTTENHAM. I'roiii the South-East. ;> < ■€ f.^ '*i^ «> < ••.;■•'•* "-m jljp,v.»j '1" ., " - « 'T '•■ W , ,^V '.' , M. i .>-.''j.' v v>^ •xW-' '•.*^.;.i*1'^,j6 >'*■■• •'■'-• ♦ ■'•• ■•• -'■^ % .•-f.t . : .■ >>.■ *• > . ”2 . - - - - - . ■ * V W 4-'- . -.-. :■ V v; ■' r ■■ ■'i "'X ■■■ All Hallows’, Tottenham 233 foiled circles. Here are six bells, recast from five in 1696. The ancient tenor bell had this inscription: Robertus Bacar et Christiana uxor ejus me fieri fecerunt in honorem beatce Maries Virginis. The nave is separated from its aisles by arcades of six bays, the piers being octagonal and the arches of a gracefully pointed form. In the aisles the windows are all square-headed, mostly of two lights, and filled with stained glass by Gibbs, from the designs of Butterfield.* There is a good octagonal Perpendicular font. The bowl has quatrefoiled circles in each face, with roses, fieur-de-lys, a pelican, a dragon, a mermaid, etc., in each; the stem is transomed and double panelled, three of its sides being left plain. In the west window of the north ai^le is some valuable and perfect Flemish glass dating- 1500, presented to the church in 1809, when it was placed in the east window. In the centre light is a canopied figure of St Mark, with the prophet Isaiah below; in the side lights are SS. Matthew and Luke, with the prophets David and Jeremiah. When Butterfield added the present chancel, and altered the east window from a Perpendicular one of three lights to a Geometrical Decorated one of five, this glass was removed to the position it now occupies. That now in the east window is of the usual Gibbs-Butterfield fabrique^ with rather hot tinctures resembling those in contemporary works of the architect, Keble College, Oxford, and St Augustine’s, Queen’s Gate. *The three-light window with its curvilinear tracery in the last bay of the south aisle is a portion of Butterfield’s addition to the nave. 2 34 London Churches There are some interesting Jacobean monu- ments: Sir Robert Barkham, of Wainfleet, Lincoln- shire, and Maria, his wife, kneeling at faldstools (1644); R. Chandeler and wife (1602-22); Sir Ferdinand Heybourne, gentleman of the privy chamber to Queen Elizabeth and King James I (1618), and Anne, his wife (1615); Sir John Melton, and Margaret, his wife, kneeling at faldstools, (i 640) . Of the numerous brasses once belonging to Tot- tenham Church, all except three of not a particu- larly good post-Reformation date, have now perished. The names and etchings of some of the lost brasses are preserved in Robinson’s History of Jottenham^ where are numerous details of the church, chiefly historical. An engraving of the brass of Walter Hunt, priest and vicar, 1419, copied from a tracing preserved in the Coleraine MSS., circa 1690, forms the frontispiece to Sperling’s Church Walks in Middlesex. This brass was stolen from Tottenham Church in 1742. The Reformation had been the cause of the destruction of many brasses, but the Great Rebel- lion was to witness the disappearance of more. That on the dissolution of the religious houses, the monuments aflixed to the churches which were attached to them should be removed or lost was not unnatural. But monumental brasses were not images put to superstitious uses, and the destruc- tion of brasses which followed on the Reformation was either mere spoliation, or acts done for greed under cover of an apparent legality. When we read how, in 1 546, four hundred and a quarter of brass were sold from St Martin’s, All Hallows’, T ottenham 235 Leicester, for 19s. per cwt to one man, and three hundredweight and three-quarters were sold to another at the same price, we are able to realize how the monumental brasses predominated as memorials of all classes, how full the churches were of them in large districts of England, and how men and women of all degrees looked to them to per- petuate their names and their features and their family virtues. It is not, however, the fanatic and the rebel only upon whom we must charge the dilapidated state of our monumental brasses. Their com.bined injuries, wholesale and deplor- able as they were, have probably been almost equalled by those arising from the dishonesty, carelessness and apathy of the proper guardians of them. Many that were perfect when Gough pub- lished his work in 1786-99, and even at the date of Cotman’s plates (1819), are now sought for in vain, or, if found, are sadly spoiled. Brasses were sold during the apathetic Georgian era to curiosity hunters, tinkers and brass-founders, recast for bells, and melted down for chandeliers. Over and over again, during restorations and alterations of the edifice within which they rested, they have, chiefly owing to a want of proper care, been lost or stolen. In the cemetery attached to All Hallows’, Tot- tenham, lie its restorer, the distinguished archi- tect, William Butterfleld, and his great friend Robert Brett. The latter, who may not inaptly be styled the Robert Nelson of his day, was not only the co- founder of St Matthias’, Stoke Newington, and the 236 London Churches zealous promoter of several churches in North and North-East London, but theleadingspiritin all ques- tions touching the welfare of the Church of England during one of the stormiest periods of her existence. Brett’s name is remembered far and wide, but comparatively few are aware how many sides there were to his character, or how admirably strength and courage, tenderness, charity and reverence, were combined in it. No one who knew him at all well, or watched his course, could doubt where was the root of his great strength. Faith in the Church Catholic, faith in the Church of England, as the part of it in which his lot was cast, and to which his allegiance was due, faith to an extent which is so seldom reached and so little even imagined in these days, was the in- vigorating atmosphere in which he breathed. It produced in him that manly, healthful, un- tiring energy which bore so much good fruit, and made him so firm an ally to those who had any work in hand. And the courage he displayed was equally remarkable. He fought, inch by inch, for all those privileges which we now enjoy — the free and open church, the reverent and dignified service, the altar lights, Eucharistic vestments and incense; but he could prevent an impolitic and rash step the more effectually, because no one suspected that it was want of courage which withheld him. From 1861 till his death in 1 874, Robert Brett was church- warden of St Matthias’, Stoke Newington, and from his upright character and sterling worth, no less than from the religious feeling with which he performed his duties, he added real dignity to an All Hallows’, T ottenham 237 office, the importance of which was not so appre- ciated in those days as it is now. Of the Free and Open Church Movement, Brett was an unflinching and uncompromising advocate, so much so as to cause him to become the subject of one of Dr Littledale’s witty nursery rhymes in the style of The Book of Nonsense: A surgeon there was at Stoke Newington, Who never would have any pewing done; If the church wasn’t free, He exclaimed, “Oh dear me! Those boxes I soon must be hewing down.” He died — ‘‘a cause of weeping to many good men” — February 3, 1874, house on Stoke Newington Green, in which he had resided since 1839,* funeral, both at St Matthias’ Church and at the grave in Tottenham Church- yard, was a sight to be remembered. f The obituary notice of Robert Brett in The Guardian was written by his life-long friend, Wil- liam Butterfleld, who survived him a quarter of a century.J *The site is now occupied by a bank, but some bricks from Brett’s old house have been worked into the St Matthias’ Church Institute. t Brett’s last public act in church work was laying the founda- tion stone on September 27, 1873, of the vicarage house for St Chad’s, Haggerston, one of the several churches in that district which, together with Mr Richard Foster, the Rev. John Ross (Vicar of St Mary’s, Haggerston) and the Rev. T. Simpson Evans (Vicar of Shoreditch), he had been instrumental in founding. See Chapter iii, Vol. II, p. 1 30. JBrett was born in 1808, Butterfield in 1814. The latter rests beneath a graceful coped tombstone relieved with a fleuriated cross. A monument of similar design covers the remains of Butterfield’s great friend, the Rev. Alexander Wilson, Vicar of Tottenham from 1870 to 1898. The two graves lie side by side. 238 London Churches The distinguished architect was a frequent wor- shipper at Tottenham, and dying on the Vigil of St Matthias’ Day (Feb. 23, 1900) was interred in the spot already alluded to on St Chad’s Day (March 2), when the writer of this book was, with the relatives and a few chosen friends, privileged to be present. 239 CHAPTER V The Churches of the Early T^art of the Sever- teenth Century I T is an incontrovertible fact that the Reforma- tion acted as a ‘‘heavy blow and discourage- ment” to church building. Though a decline had taken place in ecclesiasti- cal architecture, the building and embellishment of churches and religious houses continued with great activity up to that period, when it received ^ suddenly a check from which it has only recovered within the last seventy years. Purity of style and zeal in church building seem at once to have come to an end; the ecclesiastical structures built until up to the period just alluded to were very few, and the greater part of them bear strong evidence, either of a niggardly spirit or of a complete ignor- ance of true Church principles. In the churches built in England from the reign of Queen Mary to that of Charles II, debased Gothic forms mingled with Renaissance ones, prevailed, but in most of them some attention to ecclesiastical arrangement may be observed. Of these churches, interesting as showing how hard the old Gothic style died in our island, while on the Continent the Renaissance had swept all before it, I have collected a goodly number of specimens. The list is too long to be included here, but I cannot refrain from quoting such examples as the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, 240 London Churches begun by Queen Mary and finished by Elizabeth; St Wilfrid, Standish, Lancashire (1584); St John, Leeds (1634); Charles, Plymouth (1646); Stan- ton Harold Church, Leicestershire (1653);* St Mary, Ingestre, Staffordshire (1676); Falmouth Church (1664); St Alban’s, Wood Street, London, ascribed to Inigo Jones; and several College Chapels at Oxford and Cambridge, built between 1613 and 1632, as e.g.,Wadham, Jesus, Lincoln, Lfniversity, Oriel and Brazenose in the former, and Peter- house in the latter. Then as a proof that Gothic never completely died out among us we have such specimens as: St Martin’s, Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire (1724); St Mary, Tetbury, Gloucestershire (1789); St Swithin, East Grinstead, Sussex (1785); and the parish church of Hertford, destroyed by fire in 1891. To these examples may be added the central spire of Lichfield Cathedral and that of Higham Ferrers Church, Northamptonshire, both rebuilt during the seventeenth century; also the steeples of St Edmund^ Salisbury (1653), Brampton and Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire (1625-35), and Doddington, Oxfordshire (1640). Of this period of our ecclesiastical architecture, when the Renaissance of the Classical was trying its hardest to beat out the Gothic, London pos- sesses three very interesting examples, the church of St Catherine Cree, in Leadenhall Street, and the Chapels of Lincoln’s Inn and the Charter- house. Until about five-and-twenty years ago *One of the most ecclesiastical specimens of Debased Gothic, with chancel, aisles, and clerestory. St Catherine Cree 241 there was another specimen of what may not be inaptly styled “Laudian” architecture and arrange- ment in the church of St Paul, Hammersmith, removed on the completion of the present struc- ture from the designs of Messrs Gough and Seddon. The church of St Catherine Cree, a corruption of Christ Church, stood in the precincts of the Austin Canons’ priory of the Holy Trinity, Christ Church, Aldgate, founded by Matilda, Queen of Henry I, at the suggestion of Archbishop Anselm in 1108. Duke’s Place occupies the site of the priory. In 1115 or 1125, it is uncertain which, the barons of London who held the English Cnichten Guild or Portsoken (franchise at the gate) which lay at Aldgate without the City walls, and ex- tended to the river, bestowed it upon the church of the Holy Trinity, and themselves assumed the habit. The prior thus became an alderman, and wore the alderman’s livery, though altered in shape. Stow, in his childhood, saw the prior of his day in this costume. Holy Trinity was the richest priory in England, and was in consequence one of the first to be dis- solved. It was bestowed by Henry VHI upon Sir Thomas Audley. Two gateways and other portions long remained among the ruins of the south tran- sept of the church. The architecture appears to have been Romanesque. A water-colour by F. Nash shows a double gateway of early fourteenth- century work; the same gateway was etched by J. T. Smith in 1790. The parishes of St Mary Magdalen, St Michael, St Catherine and the Trinity, were united, and the parishioners of St Catherine’s repaired to the conventual church. 1-16 242 London Churches Subsequently, a chapel was built for their convenience in the churchyard of the priory, in which one of the Austin Canons said Mass. From 1414 the chapel was maintained by the parishioners. Of the pre-Reformation church all that now re- mains is an intricately clustered Perpendicular pier at the west end of the south aisle. From base to cap it is eighteen feet high. The small portion of the pier that is now visible shows that the floor of St Catherine Cree is raised nearly fifteen feet above that of the old — a plain proof of the gradual rise of the streets of London. It is interesting to consider first the link that this church forms in the chain of ecclesiology be- tween those buildings which preceded it and those which have been subsequently erected, and how this chain, whose origin dates from remote ages when churches were first built to contain the faithful, has been lengthened out to our own days with but little variance or chance. Its special con- nexion with St Catherine’s, both architecturally and historically, is likewise to be considered. As to the first, we see in its general form and arrangement but little change from the ancient churches just described — a nave and aisles and a tower, even that peculiarity so marked in all our large town churches of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the absence of a chancel arch, is also here apparent. Why this old type was reproduced in St Catherine Cree it is easy to understand, because the Church of England has never departed from old traditions. She has been content to carry on and to transmit all that was really good and really St. Catherine Cree 243 ancient; and this type is a natural one where pub- lic worship is concerned. If merely an auditorium were wanted, one could be built four-square, cir- cular, octagonal, semicircular, or what not; but when Church of England people want a church they must necessarily build it as they did in times past, and leave to factious, peevish and perverse spirits those buildings whose sides and angles are as multitudinous as their several opinions or as cir- cumscribed as their own notions. Let us carry our minds back to the year 1629, in which this church was built. They were stirring times. Charles I had not been on the throne four years, and already a cloud not bigger than a man’s hand, but soon to assume blacker and larger proportions, loomed on the horizon. Abbot was still Archbishop of Canterbury, but under a cloud, for he had un- wittingly shot a man to death while hunting, and Laud was Bishop of London, endeavouring to stem that torrent which, in the next twenty years, was to sweep all before it — Church and King and liturgy. Consecrated on January 16, 1630-31, by Laud, when Bishop of London, St Catherine Cree is a curious mingling of Gothic and Renaissance, the vaulting, and the windows of the aisles and clere- story being in the former style, and the truly grace- ful Corinthian columns and round arches in the latter. The great east window is very singular, and would appear to have been modelled on that at the east end of the choir of Old St Paul’s. It is a large rectangular parallelogram and is divided into five i-i6a 244 London Churches cinquefoiled lights, all of the ‘ same height, sur- mounted by an immense Catherine wheel, with pierced spandrels. The lights are filled with rather commonplace stained glass, in commemoration of the ‘Tlower Sermon” which, preached annually on Whit-Tuesday in St James’, Aldgate, has, since the demolition of that church in 1874, been delivered in St Catherine’s. The armorial work with which these lights were originally filled has been disposed in several of the square-headed three-light windows of the aisles In the rose is patterned glass, very crudely drawn and coarsely coloured. Among the monuments recovered from Old St Catherine’s is a canopied tomb, with full-sized recumbent figure of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton (d. 1 5 70), from which Throgmorton Street is named. By the will of Sir John Gayer, Lord Mayor in 1646, provision is made for a sermon to be annually preached on October 16, in Cree Church, in com- memoration of his happy deliverance from a lion, which he met in a desert whilst travelling in the Turkish dominions, and which suffered him to pass unmolested. There is a modern brass to this worthy within the encaustic tiledpavement of the sanctuary. The organ case, happily in the western gallery, is fine, but such early post-Reformation fittings as the church contained have vanished at different periods. Inigo Jones is generally credited with the design of St Catherine Cree, but, beyond a vague tradi- tion, there is no evidence that he had anything to do with it. As far as we can now infer, the tastes of Laud ST. CATHERINE CREE Interior, looking East St Catherine Cree 245 had but little in common with the then rising school of architecture. Indeed, it is not difficult to imagine that a prelate so zealous for the constitution and privileges of his order, so conservative in his notions of matters ecclesiastic, so attached to ceremonial, and that form of worship which had most sympathy with Rome and least with Geneva, must have looked with some jealousy on a style of art which England owed to the Revival of Literature and to the Reformation. If the architecture of St Catherine Cree Church was extraordinary, none the less so were the cere- monies observed by Archbishop Laud (then Bis- hop of London) at its consecration, or rather re- conciliation,” on January l6, 1630-31, all of which, fully described in Rushworth^ were made grave accusations against him, and brought about not only his downfall, but that of his royal master, Charles L* ‘‘Persons were stationed at the doors of the church to call with a loud voice on his approach, ‘Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may enter in.’ When he had reached the interior he fell on his knees, and lifting his hands, exclaimed, ‘This place is holy, the ground is holy; in the Name^of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I pronounce it holy!’ Then, throwing dust from the *It should be remembered that the account of the ceremonies which Laud practised, or was supposed to have practised, on this occasion, was written by one of the Archbishop’s bitterest ene- mies; and is so worded as to throw ridicule over the simplest reverential act of devotion; and such was*the fiendish malice with which he was persecuted, that in defiance of all law, these acts formed some of the articles of his impeachment. 246 London Churches ground into the air, he bowed to the chancel, and went in procession round the church. “After this the bishop pronounced curses on those who should profane this holy place, and blessings on those who should contribute towards its sup- port. Then followed the sermon. This ended, as the bishop approached the communion table, he made several lowly bowings, and coming up to the side of the table where the bread and wine were covered, he bowed seven times, and after the read- ing of many prayers, he came near the bread, and gently lifted up the cover of the napkin wherein the bread was laid, and when he beheld the bread, he laid it down again, stepped back, bowed three times before it, then drew near again, and opened the napkin, and bowed as before. “Then he laid his hand on the cup which was full of wine, with a cover upon it, which he let go again, went back, bowed thrice towards it, then he came near again, and lifting up the cover of the cup, looked into it, and seeing the wine, retired back and bowed as before. Then he received the Sacrament and gave it to some principal men; after which, with many prayers, the consecration ended.” Now, curious as all these ceremonies may seem, it is not possible to discern in them one act which was performed in accordance with any ancient ritual or pontifical; the whole was an invention of the archbishop’s, and filled with inconsistencies. For instance, the antiphon, “Be ye open,” etc., said at the doors, is very appropriate at the conse- cration of a new church; fora “reconciliation,” the bishop should commence with the more appro- priate antiphon, Asperges me Domine, etc. St Catherine Cree 247 Of all English Churchmen, Laud ventured the furthest in his endeavours towards a partial restora- tion of ancient solemnities. The particulars of the charges brought against him are so curious, and bear so strongly on events that have so constantly occurred during the last half century to disturb the peace of the Church of England, that it is interest- ing to take note of them. One of the chief articles was the ceremonial as above described, that he used at the consecration of St Catherine Cree Church. The term ‘‘consecration” is used by all his- torians who have described the event, but as St Catherine’s was an old church, and had only been desecrated by repairs, a “reconciliation” would have been a more correct expression. It is said that Laud wanted prudence. Had he possessed what the world usually calls prudence. Lord Clarendon must have sought for other materials wherewith to embalm his memory. The consecration of a church or setting it apart from all worldly purposes and placing it under episcopal jurisdiction, as a place of common prayer to Almighty God, and for a due performance of the Rites and Ceremonies of religion, was, from the earliest ages of Christianity, regarded as a becoming duty. From the time that we have any certain evidence on the subject, the work was performed by the faithful, with grateful feelings, and external acknowledgements to God, for the provision herein made for their spiritual welfare; and with religious exercises, suitable to the occa- sion, accompanied by appropriate acts and cere- monies. But this attention to the work, at the ter- 248 London Churches mination of it, did not prevent a pious regard be- ing paid to it at its commencement; the foun- dation of it being laid with a becoming demon- stration of like gratitude to the Almighty as well on the part of the rulers of the church as on the congregation, for whose benefit the building was undertaken. The ceremonies observed in mediaeval times in England at the consecration or dedication of a parish church may be briefly described: All the people being put forth, except the deacon, the bishop stood before the church door, and then consecrated a quantity of the holy water; and then followed by the clergy and the people he went three times about the outside of the church, and, with a branch of hyssop sprinkled its walls with holy water; at every time as he passed by the door, knocking with his pastoral staff and saying, ^‘Atto- lite fortas principes vestras, et elevamini i^ortce ceternales^ et introibit Rex ^oriceP To which the deacon answering within, cried, ^^Quis est iste Rex glorieeP^^ To which the bishop replied, ^‘Dominus fortis et potens: Dominus potens in prcelioP^ At the third time, the door was opened, and the bishop entered alone, saying aloud, ‘^Pax huic domui^'* and rehearsing the Litanies; after which he made crosses up and down the church, and then, mixing some more holy water, with that and the chrism he consecrated the altar. All these ceremonies, and many others like them, may be found fully set forth in Durandus,* who endeavours also to unfold the mystery and * Rationale Divinorum Officiorum a R. D. Gulielmo Durando, lib. i, c. 6, s. 6. St Catherine Cree 249 signification of them; as also, of all the parts of the Church, as the foundation, pavement, walls, pil- lars, doors, windows, etc. In 1843 the Revs. John Mason Neale and Ben- jamin Webb, two of the founders of the Cambridge Camden Society, published the First Book of Durandus^ Rationale^ accompanied by an original Essay on Symbolism^ an undertaking which produced a great effect upon the ecclesiological movement. Its main result was to establish the Truth that, whether a thing fer se is ridiculous or not, yet as a fact, minute and systematic symbolizing was in fashion in the days when our great churches were built. It became no longer necessary to prove his- torically the existence of such theories, but only to defend them on logical grounds. This work was solely undertaken for the benefit of English- men and members of the Anglo-Catholic Church; at that time extra-English relations had not yet entered into the scope of the Cambridge Camden Society. The fact, therefore, of the work being adopted several years after its appearance by so dis- tinguished a leader of the ecclesiological move- ment in France as M. I’Abbe Bourasse (Canon of Tours) under the title Du Symbolisme dans les Eglises du Moyen Age^ was a well-merited com- pliment to the two accomplished ecclesiologists who were the primary means of bringing Duran- dus’s work before the public. Whatever may be the doubts as to the author- ship of St Catherine Cree, we certainly have an attempt at Gothic by Inigo Jones in the Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn, the plan of which was submitted in 1619. 250 London Churches Consecrated by Bishop Montaigne * on Ascen- sion Day, 1623, Dr Donne, Dean of St Paul’s preaching the sermon on that occasion, Lincoln’s Inn Chapel is an interesting example of how hard the old Pointed architecture died in England. As originally designed, it was only three bays in length, the fourth or westernly one having been added about a quarter of a century ago, the same design being adhered to, and the west window re- placed as heretofore. The plan is that of a square-ended aisleless parallelogram raised upon an open crypt or clois- ter, divided into two aisles by low pointed arches on Roman Doric pilasters. The groining of this undercroft is very creditable for its period. This crypt, like the cloisters in the Temple, was built as a place for the students and lawyers “to walk in and talk and confer their learnings.” Pepys speaks of his going to Lincoln’s Inn “to walk under the Chapel by agreement,” while Butler in his Hudibras (Pt iii, iii) thus alludes to this custom: Retain all sorts of witnesses That ply i’ the Temple under trees, Or walk the Round with knights o’ th’ Posts, About their cross-legg’d knights their hosts; Or wait for customers between The pillar rows in Lincoln’s Inn. The ascent to the chapel is by a flight of steps under an archway and porch in the newly-added bay of the building. * Remarkable only for the quick rapidity with which he ascended the steps of ecclesiastical dignity; as Dean of West- minster, Bishop of Lincoln, Bishop of London, Bishop of Durham, Archbishop of York. Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn 251 In the three original windows of fair Perpendi- cular character on either side of the chapel is some remarkably fine coeval stained glass. There seems to be considerable doubt as to its authorship. Bagford, in the Harleian MSS. (5900, fol. 31) attributes it to Hall, a glass painter in Fetter Lane. It is, however, commonly said that this glass was executed by the Van Linges, but the authority for this statement rests on a suggestion of Vertue’s, printed by Walpole in his Anecdotes of Painting.* The records of the Inn throw no light on the matter, for all the windows were presented, as the inscriptions on them show; so that they do not come into the treasurer’s accounts. The sole basis for Vertue’s guess is, in all probability, the fact that the name ‘‘Bernard” occurs in one or two places, strongly suggesting an unknown R. Ber- nard as the artist. Most of the glass on the south side is dated, 1623; that in the middle window on the north side, 1624; and that in the westernmost one, on the north side, 1626. Whoever was the artist of these windows at Lincoln’s Inn, he must be considered, for the period, an accomplished person, and his work a most valuable specimen of the art after it had passed its grand climacteric at the commencement of the sixteenth century. In- deed, in point of colour they are as rich as the best Decorated Work of the best period. The lights on the south side are filled with the Twelve Apostles; on the north by Moses and the Prophets, St John the Baptist and St Paul. An inscription under the figure of the Baptist records that it was executed * Dallaway, ii, 37. 252 London Churches at the expense of William Noy (d. 1634), famous Attorney-General of Charles I. “I could not but wonder that Mr Browne should be so earnest in this point [Laud’s repairing the stained windows in his private chapel at Lambeth] considering he is of Lincoln’s Inn, where Mr Prynn’s zeal hath not yet beaten down the images of the Apostles in the fair windows of that chapel, which windows were set up new long since that statute of Edward VI. And it is well known that I was once resolved to have returned this upon Mr Browne in the House of Commons, but changed my mind, lest thereby I might have set some furious spirit on work to destroy those harmless, goodly windows to the just dislike of that worthy Society.” * The carved oaken seats are of James I’s time, but the pulpit, from which such divines as Donne, Usher, Tillotson, Warburton and Heber have preached, is later. The organ, originally built in 1820, by Flight and Robson, is of great power and sweetness of tone, and Divine Service is admirably performed in the cathedral style on Sundays, at eleven and three o’clock. The chapel within the Charterhouse,f between Aldersgate Street and Smithfield, has been lov- *Archbishop Laud, State Trials, fol. ed., iv, 455. tThe Charterhouse buildings have a threefold history: (i) as a monastic establishment; (2) as a nobleman’s residence; (3) as a “hospital” and school. In their present form, the sixteenth century arrangements of a nobleman’s town-house predominate, but the earlier monastic buildings may be easily traced, and the changes made in the seventeenth century, when the house was rearranged for its charitable purposes, also deserve attention. Chapel of the Charterhouse 253 ingly painted by Thackeray in more than one of his works. The Charterhouse School, removed in 1872 to Godaiming, was the novelist’s place of education, and his name is the latest of those household words which that quiet cloister has given to the literature of England. The monastery was founded in 1361 by Sir Walter Manny and Bishop Northburgh, of Lon- don, for the Carthusian Order, whose chief seat was at the Chartreuse in Savoy, generally known as ‘Ta Grande Chartreuse.” Each small establishment of this Order bore the name in England of Charterhouse, in Italy of Certosa (of which the most celebrated is that near Pavia), in Spain of Cartuja.* The Order was founded by St Bruno in 1084, and the severe rules which he imposed do not seem to have been relaxed amid the general decline of monastic discipline. The calm austerity of the lives of the London Carthusians seems to have had great attractions for such men as Sir Thomas More, who occasionally sought relaxation from cares of the State in the Charterhouse, spending weeks there ‘^in retreat” as the guest of the monks. At the Dissolution the Carthusians were treated with savage cruelty, on account of their refusal to accept the supremacy of the King.f The last prior — John Houghton — was executed *The title and address of the Carthusian House in London was “The House of the Salutation of the Mother of God, without the Bars of West Smithfield, near London.” tA touching account of the sufferings of the English Carthu- sians will be found in Froude’s History of England; and their “m'artyrdoms” were a favourite subject for the pencils of Carducho and other Spanish painters who worked for the Order. 2 54 London Churches at Tyburn, May 4, 1535. His head was set on London Bridge and one of his limbs over the gate- way of his own convent. The priory, thus sternly dissolved by Henry VHI, was first set apart as a place of deposit for his “hales and tents” — i.e., his “nets and pavilions,” and after passing through several 'hands was sold. May 9, 1611, by Lord Suffolk to Thomas Sutton, of Camp’s Castle, Cam- bridgeshire, for ^13,000. The chapel, like St Catherine Cree and Lin- coln’s Inn Chapel, is a quaint admixture of Gothic and Renaissance, but retains some fourteenth- century portions. Here are several fine monu- ments, besides that of Thomas Sutton, who pur- chased the old Charterhouse on June 22, 1611, subsequently endowing it as a charity by the name of “The Hospital of King James,” “for poor brethren and scholars,” and the buildings under- went some change with a view to adapting them for their new destination. The original chapel of the monks required enlargement, so a north aisle was built, and the whole building was refitted. Much of the woodwork of Sutton’s time remains at the west end of his aisle, and his tomb is a fine specimen of the monumental art of his age. The altar-table also, which was restored to the chapel about twenty-two years ago, after having been banished for a time to the Master’s drawing-room, is a good and picturesque specimen of Jacobean church furniture. Throughout the buildings much internal fitting was done by Sutton, and his arms may almost everywhere be seen. Sutton died almost an octogenarian, December 12, 1 61 1, before his good work was complete, and Chapel of the Charterhouse 255 was buried in the chapel of the Hospital, beneath a sumptuous monument, the work of Stone andj ansen . On opening the vault in 1842 the body of the founder was discovered ‘‘lapt in lead,” like an Egyptian mummy case. Sutton has been charged with avarice in acquiring the money he be- queathed, and has been pointed out as the original of V olpone the Fox^ but this has been disproved by Gifford. In the chapel, Burrell, the preacher to the Hospital, paid the first tribute of praise to Sutton in a sermon, printed in 1629 but now as rare as a manuscript. Until 1 872 Sutton’s twin foundations existed side by side. The poor brethren and the scholars met for daily worship in the chapel, and for meals in the hall. But in 1872 the school was removed to Godai- ming, and the brethren alone were left. A con- siderable portion of the land and buildings were purchased by the Merchant Taylors’ Company, and a large building was erected to accommodate 500 boys on the site of the former school building. It will thus be seen that the Charterhouse is of no common interest. Its monastic remains, with the exception of Mount Grace, afford the most complete illustration of Carthusian life that can be found in England. In its present form it is a unique specimen of a nobleman’s town-house of the sixteenth century; and the changes subsequently made remind us of the grand scale on which the founder framed his benefactions in the early part of the seventeenth century. Long may these pages of English history, written in stone, remain intact ! 256 CHAPTER VI The Churches of Sir Christopher JVren W HAT are styled ‘‘The City Churches” have, as everybody knows, one especial value to Londoners, and indeed to all Englishmen — let me say to all English-speaking people throughout the globe. They are Wren’s churches. The idea here in- volved is a peculiar one, in fact, one that is without exact parallel anywhere else. In other words. Sir Christopher, taking him precisely as he was, is to us an architect such as no other architect has ever been, either here or elsewhere, and his churches, taking them for just what they are worth, are works of architecture such as no other place has ever possessed or probably ever will possess. Not quite half a century ago a movement was rife for the demolition of certain City churches on the score of their uselessness, but, thanks to the remonstrances of a very useful body calling itself “The City Church and Churchyard Protection Society,”the mischief has been considerably abated. In estimating the precise character of the movement for the protection of the City churches, these are the considerations which perhaps have the most practical value. The City is not a senti- mental region at any time, and the feeling of veneration which is experienced within its limits for sacred things in general is never intense, and therefore it may be said that the sacredness of a Wren’s City Churches 257 church or a churchyard, even to such elevated minds as those of the aldermen or common council- men of the ward, will scarcely be obtrusive or irk- some in any case, however honestly patriotic and parochial these leading inhabitants may be. But when what little of the sense of sacredness remains in the civic breast in such circumstances is supple- mented by a sense of civic dignity and pride, then the case assumes a different form, and the interest excited is almost more powerful in its way. In a word. Sir Christopher Wren is the pride of London. Nor is this all, for the glory which Eng- lishmen at large associate with the name and fame of their great architect is even greater than paro- chial pride; and all regard themselves as citizens of London where the ownership of St Paul’s and its satellites as a unique cluster of artistic gems is in question. Indeed, it may almost be supposed that if the City churches happened to be the veritable old structures which were swept away by the Great Fire, and which would be so venerable to- day, with all their mediaeval traditions hanging thick upon them, the desire to protect them would be even a feebler impulse than that which brought the Society to which I have alluded into existence, to protest in the face of the world, even when protest might no longer have hoped to avail, against the sacriligious touch which would spoil them for the sake of money. Sir Christopher Wren was, as the phrase goes, a heaven-born architect; and that such a pheno- menon should make its appearance in the extreme West of Europe at the middle of the seventeenth century was, and is, truly astonishing. 1-17 258 London Churches It is not too much to say that the design of these churches of his as a whole was only equalled in its ever-present grace by its constant variety, and in- deed unstinted originality.* One may almost say of Wren’s work, that his instinct of elegant propor- tion never failed him, and that no subsequent efforts of English architects have ever equalled his excellence. But for this, London, with all its wealth of building, would never have been, in the estima- tion of the world, what it is. Thus it happens that the demolition of the City churches is a double sacrilege. They are conse- crated not only to our religious sympathies, but to our national pride. Besides, in their ritual arrangements, they typify a most inter- esting period in the history of the English Church. That some of Wren’s churches — the unimpor- tant ones they may be called, as regards both their art and their use — have, from time to time, yielded to the necessities of the increased crowding of the town, and the widening of its thoroughfares, it is best frankly to admit at all hazards; but what one has to fear is that others, which can ill be spared, will one by one be doomed to destruction for the sake of the poor ground they stand on. These City churches are memorials of the faith, the fervour, and the piety of the nation, at a period of harassing troubles and anxieties, of a period of general desolation which had broken down every man’s landmark and swept away his dwelling place; and to remember that they arose Phoenix-like from their ashes within a very short time of that *See Vol. I, Chapter i, page 8. Wren’s City Churches 259 momentous epoch in our history is indeed^ a sub- ject for wonder and admiration. I am not exaggerating when I say, what I doubt not many of my readers have felt also, that when I return from some foreign travel, and cross the railway bridge into Cannon Street, I feel a pride in the architectural beauty of the City of London, which is never lessened by contrast with what I have been seeing elsewhere. And to what, it may be asked, is the beauty of this view owing? There are a magnificent river and noble bridges; but beyond and above these a cluster of towers and spires — sadly diminished, it is true — of so much variety of design, so skilfully treated, so picturesque from every point of view as to afford unending delight. There is no work in which better service can be done to art than by sturdily opposing all schemes for the destruction of existing works of art, or con- structions of historical or archaeological interest, and in the case of the City churches every nerve should be strained in order to save any more such regrettable destruction of these buildings, to which London owes so much of its pre-eminent beauty. As I write these lines, I hear that the removal of another City church — lately bereft of its rector, an eminent ecclesiologist and musician, and under whom it acquired a celebrity apart from its archi- tectural one — has been ‘‘recommended.” If men go on in this cheap and easy fashion of making our ancestors’ piety and liberality pay for building and endowing suburban churches which we, with all our increased wealth, think we cannot afford to erect, we shall awake to the discovery I- 1 7a I ‘ 260 London Churches that the architectural beauty of the City is a thing of the past, and that the loss is irremediable. From an artistic point of view the majority of the suburban London churches, built out of the proceeds of the sale of old City ones, are beneath contempt. Melancholy is the list of Wren’s churches that, commencing in 1781, with the removal of St Christopher-le-Stocks, to make way for the en- largement of the Bank, have been sacrificed to the utilitarian spirit of the age. Here it is: — All Hallows’, Bread Street; All Hallows’ the Great and Less, Thames Street; St Antholin, Watling Street; St Benet Fink; St Benet, Grace- church Street; St Bartholomew, Moor Lane; St Christopher-le-Stocks; St Dionis Backchurch; St George, Botolph Lane; St Mary, Somerset;* St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street;f St Michael, Bassishaw; St Michael, Queenhithe; St Michael, Crooked Lane; St Michael, Wood Street; St Mil- dred, Poultry; St Matthew, Friday Street; and St Olave, Old Jewry.* The crowded and irregular forms of the different sites called forth the fertility of Wren’s talents and ingenuity in overcoming numerous difficulties out of which he contrived to produce effects full of beauty and excellence as the happy results. Of the exterior of the larger portion of these churches there is little to notice, facing as they do narrow lanes and courts, which allow no space for architec- tural display. It was Wren’s wish to keep each church detached by setting back the surrounding *The towers of these churches have been left standing fDestroyed by fire about twenty years ago and not rebuilt. W ren’s City Churches 2 6 1 houses; he was, however, prevented from accom- plishing his object, so that many of his churches have but one front, and that only visible at the distance of a few yards. The want of any oppor- tunity for the display of any architectural fa9ade, such as a portico, has been, however, compensated for by the importance given to the towers and spires. In nothing was the fertility of Wren’s invention so strikingly displayed as in these towers and spires, which, being frequently the only parts visible at all from a right distance, received much attention. Their extraordinary diversity of forms, as seen from the bridges, has no parallel in any other city, and contrasts strangely with the monotonous repe- tition of two round or square temples and an attic of the late Georgian Commissioners’ churches. In the middle of the seventeenth century one self-taught man builds fifty things, strikingly different; at the beginning of the nineteenth, fifty architects could not make two that may be dis- tinguished by ordinary observers, nor one that is ever thought an ornament, though built for noth- ing else. Wren, writing on the subject of steeples, ob- serves, “Handsome spires or lanterns, rising in good proportion above the neighbouring houses (of which I have given several in the City, of different forms) may be of sufficient ornament to the town without great expense for enriching the outward walls of the churches, in which plainness and duration ought principally, if not wholly, to be studied. “When a parish is divided, I suppose it may be 262 London Churches thought sufficient if the mother church has a tower large enough for a good ring of bells, and the other churches smaller towers for two or three bells, because great towers and lofty steeples are sometimes more than half the charge of the church.” In the course of his remarks Wren observes that spires were of Gothic extraction, to which, how- ever, his imitations have no further resemblance than their pyramidal outline. The nearest ap- proaching Wren’s are the Lombardic and other Italian campanili, of whose existence and forms he was well aware, though his Continental journeys never took him beyond Paris. One is inclined to think that it is as well, on the whole, that Wren did not go to Italy. His work would, in all likelihood, have been far more delicate and refined in detail had he done so, but he would have inevitably lost much of the originality and freedom of treatment, which is undoubtedly the great charm of his work, which fits it so admirably for the northern climate, and particularly for London, where in St Paul’s and its satellite City churches he was destined to find the subjects of his chief and happiest efforts. The steeples of Wren all rise from the ground, and not from the roof of a building; they all have a regular increase of decoration, from the plain and solid basement to the broken and fanciful finish; they are all square and undiminished up to half their entire height, often more, but perhaps always to the middle of that portion expected to be generally visible above the houses; and in all, ex- cept those of St Paul’s, the upper or pyramidal Wren’s City Churches 263 portion is so arranged that in almost every view its outlines may touch and be confined by two straight lines meeting at the summit. Wren em- ployed this convex outline in the belfries, St Paul’s alone plainly showing his sense of its fitness to a situation requiring more breadth and majesty; in fact, a character altogether distinct from that of parochial steeples, where he has given a lighter and more feminine expression by the triangular outline. The proportions of his triangle vary from an equila- teral to one whose height is six times its base St Mary-le-Bow, St Bride’s, Fleet Street, Christ Church, Newgate Street, St Vedast’s, Foster Lane, and St Magnus’, London Bridge, are the tallest and finest of Wren’s steeples, in whose composition, except one, stone is entirely employed. The diver- sity of these five steeples is admirable. That of Bow Church has been the general favourite, probably from the variety of plan in its different stories. In three of the others one plan, different in each, is preserved throughout the pyramid; in Christ Church a square; in St Bride’s an octagon; in St Vedast’s a figure of four concave quadrants; in St Magnus’ the square tower is surmounted by an octagonal turret, crowned by a dome from which rises a short lead spire. The depth of hollowing in St Vedast’s does not, in an English climate, form a sufficient substitute for thorough piercing or de- tached members, so that the whole is rather too solid and flat, but would answer well in Italian sunshine. Chrst Church, Newgate Street, has one great merit, that of more connexion and. mutual dependence between the stories than usual, but its outline has been destroyed by the removal, eighty 264 London Churches years ago, of some vases from the angles of the last story but one. St Bride’s steeple is, considered by itself, one of the loveliest creations of Wren’s genius. It is abso- lutely unique, adding a pleasing variety to the general assemblage; and though one design on this principle — a series of six octagons diminishing as they ascend — is enough, that one required to be on a large scale to carry out the idea thoroughly. The less grandiose, but none the less graceful stone steeples of St Stephen, Walbrook, St Michael, College Hill, and St James’, Garlick-Hythe, con- sisting of a square tower supporting a pyramidal lantern, to which detached colonettes, placed anglewise, impart a fine play of outline, feature the western camfanili of St Paul’s more than anything in their contour. The towers of St Andrew, Holborn, St An- drew-by-the-Wardrobe in Queen Victoria Street, St Mary Somerset, Thames Street, and St Olave, Old Jewry, surmounted as they are by urns or obelisks, faintly recall the Perpendicular ones of mediaeval days; while in the variously outlined, and in some instances, fantastic lead spires which crown the towers of St Augustine, Watling Street, St Edmund, Lombard Street, St Lawrence, Jewry, St Margaret, Lothbury, St Martin, Ludgate, St Mildred, Bread Street, St Nicholas, Knight- rider Street, St Peter, Cornhill, and in the much simpler and indeed almost Gothic ones of St Margaret, Rood Lane, and St Swithin, Cannon Street, we have remarkable proofs of Wren’s skill in forming a pleasing object out of the commonest materials. Wren’s City Churches 265 The steeples of St Michael, Cornhill, the upper stories of that of St Mary Aldermary, in Queen Victoria Street, and that of St Dunstan-in-the- East, near Tower Street, are specimens of Wren’s work, which, for some particular reason, he was obliged to design in Gothic. Although very impure in detail, it was by his great architectural capacity that Wren was enabled to avoid gross faults of outline and proportion in these three steeples. That of St Dunstan’s, though it has been ab- surdly over-praised, “is a skilful piece of construc- tion, but the details are preposterous. They are obviously insincere, and that Wren could have tolerated such work shows either that his taste must have been uncertain, or his artistic conscience somewhat lax.”* I have dwelt at some length on this subject of Wren’s steeples, because I have always admired them. His fancy loved to rove over untrodden ground, and having only the ancient steeples of the Pointed Style before him, the construction of similar structures in the Roman style of architec- ture required an effort of genius almost equal to that which was necessary for the invention of a new species of buildings. In the arrangement of his interiors Wren may, on the whole,be pronounced to have been successful. Conditions of site prevented him from settling down into a method, so that in these thirty odd City Churches interiors we have a succession of ex- periments from his able hands. Thus, in St Stephen’s, Walbrook, he intro- • Blomfield, A History of Renaissancg Architecturg in England. 266 London Churches duced the double-aisled basilica crossed by the transept and combined with the dome. The Greek Cross plan occurs in St Anne and St Agnes, Gresham Street, in St Mary at Hill, and in St Martin, Ludgate. The simple basilican plan, with north and south aisles separated from the nave by lofty arcades or colonnades, confronts us in St Sepulchre’s, Christ Church, Newgate Street, St Bride’s, St Martin’s, Ludgate, St Michael’s and St Peter’s, Cornhill, St Mary-le-Bow, and St Magnus;* or with only one aisle, as in St Lawrence, Gresham Street, St Vedast Foster Lane, St Margaret Pattens, and St Mar- garet, Lothbury. In St Andrew’s, Holborn, St Andrew-by-the- Wardrobe, St James’, Piccadilly, and St Clement Danes, the gallery forms an integral and very noble feature in the design. St Mildred’s, Bread Street, St Swithin’s, Cannon Street, and St Mary Abchurch, are simple rectan- gles, roofed with domes of much elegance; while St Michael’s, College Hill, All Hallows’ and St Ed- mund’s, Lombard Street, and St Stephen’s, Cole- man Street, are pillarless rooms, owing their in- terest to excellence of proportion and rich furni- ture. In the interval which had elapsed between the days when the mediaeval churches of London were built and the epoch of which this chapter treats, vast changes had come over England. The irresistible tide of the Reformation had *One of Wren’s most pleasing interiors of this class was St Michael Bassishaw in Basinghall Street, removed only a few years since. The Corinthian pillars were very finely proportioned Wren’s City Churches 267 passed over it. The reversion to Classic modes of thought and to Classic modes of expression had long been universally gaining ground. First literature, then architecture, re-echoed the movement. But it was not without a struggle that Gothic was driven out of England, its last stronghold. Even then it was only moribund, flickering up ever and anon during the Stuart and Hanoverian periods, until the romanticism of Sir Walter Scott, and other causes, fanned it into a flame during the early part of the last century. When Wren was called upon to rebuild the City churches, the need for wide processional aisles and ample sanctuary space no longer existed; the ritual did not require them. England had just emerged from twenty years of Puritanism, and churches were now treated as auditories, the one consideration to be studied above all others being their suitability for large congregations, and that all should be able to hear the service and to see the preacher. Wren fully recognized this, and whenever he was able to do so he met the demand by designing a pillarless area, surmounted by a cupola in such cases as the geometrical flgure permitted him to do so. It is worthy of observation that in only one in- stance has Wren employed the apse, i.e., at St Cle- ment Danes, where the nature of the site dictated its use. The foundations of the greater portion of the City churches follow those of the mediaeval ones, all of which had been rebuilt at a period of English architecture when the apse had gone out of fashion. It is lemarkable, too, that in only two of the 268 London Churches rebuilt City churches do we find stained glass coeval with their period, these being St Andrew’s, Holborn, and St Edmund’s, Lombard Street. But we have, in compensation, much fine furniture in the shape of brass chandeliers and black and white marble pavements; altarpieces, fonts and font covers, pulpits with sounding boards, organ cases, pewing, sideboards for the weekly dole of bread, and inner door-cases, all exhibiting that beauty of carving for which their epoch is so justly re- nowned. No period in modern English architecture is more justly noted for foliated carving than that belonging to the school of Sir Christopher Wren, at the head of which stood Grinling Gibbons. For skill in workmanship, dexterity of manipulation and close imitation of nature, this period stands perhaps higher than any previous or later one. It is, however, extremely unfortunate that so much of this remarkably beautiful carving should be afterwards applied and added to the construction which it is intended to enrich. Ornament, to be true, must be subservient to the purpose and to the architectural forms of the work itself. The features themselves should be enriched, and, as a general rule, ornament should be taken out of the material — sunk below the surface, and not laid upon it. A work may be literally covered with ornament which will immeasurably aid the beauty of the architecture when used in its legiti- mate place, as in the walls of the Alhambra, or, to take a more humble but not less striking example, in the elaborately carved but simple form of an Indian sandal-wood box — it is enriched without i Sr. MARY ABCIIURCH: the Altakpiece. Grinling Gibbons’ Carving 269 anything being added to it, or altering its primi- tive form of construction. The great defect of modern ornamentation is that it is so often represented as if it had weight in itself, and that it was absolutely necessary to hang it up, or that it should stand upon its own base, as in many of the otherwise very beautiful Italian arabesque pilasters. The festoon, as a means of ornamenting a work has been used in French and Italian Renais- sance more than any other form, but it is a some- what questionable form of constructed ornament. Grinling Gibbons appears never to have been able to get on without festoons, ribbons and drops, or pendants in his work. The stalls in the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral afford a good specimen of this. It is executed in the usual manner that he adopted for nearly all his important works, that is, it is carved in lime tree and planted upon an oak panel. The composition is rich and bold, but somewhat confused, and at first sight the manner in which it is composed cannot be clearly distinguished In the centre of the portions once forming the decoration of the organ cases there are a pair of cross trumpets tied together by a ribbon.* Then there are in the upper part interlacing scrolls of a conven- tional type peculiar to Gibbons, out of the upper portion of which there drops a swag or festoon of small flowers, either periwinkles or primroses, which runs to the upper angle of the panel, and from which, hung to a single flower, drops per- pendicularly a bunch of trilobed leaves, forming *These portions may now be seen above the stalls on the north side of the choir, between those of the greater dignitaries and that of the Lord Mayor 2"]o London Churches the end of the design. But besides this there is a larger and bolder festoon, -which is in much higher relief than any other part, extending from the knot of the ribbon at the junction of the trumpets, sweeping to the bottom of the panel, and going right up to the extreme angle again, from which the smaller festoon and drop hang. This is repeated in the other half of the design, all, except the scrolls being supposed to be hung up by artificial means. A portion hangs from the scrolls, but how they and the angle flowers are supported does not appear. The peculiarity of the scrolls is that, instead of the leafage forming a sheath, as in nearly all Classi- cal foliage, it grows out of the stem itself, or arises from the other side of the stem, as in the altar- piece of St Mary Abchurch, which exhibits some of the most beautiful wood-carving by Gibbons in the City. The leafage is from Nature, taken evi- dently from the hawthorn, and in some cases from the celery-leaved crowfoot. It goes without saying that within the last half century it has been found necessary to redistribute the furniture of the majority of the City churches in accordance with present-day needs, the arrange- ment of the chancel being the point to which par- ticular attention has been directed. It is a curious sight to see how the forgotten things of old are often inevitably revived in the long cycle of the Christian Church. The glorious structures of the Middle Ages, with their deep chancels, seem for ever to have banished the ancient detached chorus cantorum in the nave. But Church tradition became lost, and Paganized churches were built for many a year, which have Rearrangement of Wren’s Interiors 271 required precisely the same expedient to Chris- tianize them which was adopted in the case of hea- then basilicas and churches built after their type. The detached and parclosed chancel was the best and only expedient to adopt in the case of Wren’s City churches, some of which have a shallow recess for the altar, but no one of them anything that corresponds to the mediaeval chancel.* Not a few churches have, from their spacious- ness, lent themselves admirably to such a re- distribution, as for instance, St Anne’s, Soho, St James’, Piccadilly, St Andrew’s, Holborn and St Stephen’s, Walbrook. In some cases the work of adapting Wren’s churches to modern requirements has been carried out thoughtfully and with a restraint which should be observed in handling the works of so great a master. In others, it is sad to say, irreparable mis- chief has been done. Organs have been removed from their legitimate positions in galleries at west ends, and in some instances their cases ruthlessly sacrificed; chandeliers have been cast out; gase- liers, tiles and stained glass of the crudest possible patterns introduced, and, in more than one case, pseudo-Italian Gothic tracery has been inserted *In a few of these seventeenth-century City churches we find a shallow recess for the altar, as, for instance, in St Michael’s, Corn- hill, St Edmund’s and All Hallows’, Lombard Street, St James’, Garlick-Hythe, St Lawrence Jewry, St Andrew’s, Holborn and St Bride’s, Fleet Street; but as a rule the three divisions terminate in a line with one another, as in many of the mediaeval churches. It may be observed, that, until their rearrangement, commencing about forty years ago, not one Wrennian church, save St AndrewWardrobe was destitute of a partition of open carved work answering the purpose of a screen, 272 London Churches in large plain round-headed windows. England has a histor)^ in art as well as in other matters, and in that history Wren and his contemporaries, Hawks- moor and Gibbs, bear a conspicuous place, and they were all far too great men to deserve being tam- pered with by any of the Browns and Robinsons of the mid-Victorian epoch. Wren knew very well what he was about, as did Gibbs and Hawksmoor and Flitcroft; they did not make a design which might be Italian or Gothic according to the taste of the client. They despised Gothic, more’s the pity, but still it is a fact, and it is silly nonsense to attempt to transmute them into Goths. The whole spirit of their work was antagonistic to Medisevalism. But even supposing the thing could be done in the most complete and entirely satis- factory manner; suppose their churches could be turned into first-rate Gothic or Romanesque ones, it would be a cruel barbarism to do so. We have no earthly right to tear this page out of our history or to make a poor palimpsest of it. It is not only the more splendid and magnificent productions of Wren whichare interesting, but every church erected from his designs, however humble its appearance or obscure its situation may be, displays in some degree the hand of a superior genius; and the most ardent mediaevalist must derive pleasure and instruction from the examination of this great architect’s buildings, second only to the feelings produced by our ancient English architecture. Sir Christopher had imbibed the prejudice of his day against the Pointed styles: he was as ignorant of their details as he was of their history; but at the same time he borrowed some of his 1 ST. STEPHEN’S, WALBROOK. The Organ. St Alban’s, Wood. Street 273 ideas from their buildings; witness the spire of St Bride’s, the outline and proportions of which are strongly suggestive of that at St Sernin, Toulouse. It is not proposed in this place to deal with Wren’s City churches, in regard to size or merit, classification of plans or arrangements, but in alphabetical order. The descriptions of the large number of these churches must, of necessity, be somewhat brief, but all that is most interesting and noteworthy re- specting them, architecturally and historically, will be pointed out in this and the succeeding chapter. The late Perpendicular church of St Alban, Wood Street, was extensively rebuilt by Inigo Jones about thirty years before the Great Fire. Probably it only suffered a little, and that Wren was responsible for the upper part of the tower and for repairs generally. Anyhow, it is evident from the different styles of the architecture that considerable portions of a building older than either period have been pre- served, and stiff exist in the present structure. The plan — owing to the foundations of the old church having been followed by Inigo Jones — are irregular. It includes a nave and aisles, a chapel on the north, and a tower — finely proportioned and with two belfry windows on each face — at the west end of the north aisle, a portion of what would be the south aisle being occupied by houses. The pen- tagonal apse was added from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott in 1858, until when the church ter- minated abruptly in a square east end lighted by a window in three compartments, with super- mullions and a foliated circle. 1-18 2 74 London Churches The stained glass in the apse is early work of Messrs Clayton and Bell. The lights are filled with small subjects, several incidents in the life of the protomartyr of Britain being introduced as pre- dellae to the larger groups. Here is preserved a pulpit hour-glass of brass. On each side of it is a raised rim of fleur-de-lys and crosses fatee. It is further ornamented with angels blowing trumpets. The stand, of the same material, is raised on a twisted column. Such hour-glasses were common in churches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, “that when the preacher maketh a sermon he may know the hour passeth away.’’ So, Butler in his Hudibras: As gifted brethren preaching by A carnal hour-glass do imply. Canto 3, V. io6i, am/ Note. The font, a circular basin of white marble, is supported upon a baluster enriched with four cherubs’ heads with expanded wings and covered with fruit and foliage in basso-relievo. Doubtless, from its resemblance to that in St Margaret’s, Lothbury, this font is by Gibbons. Among the rectors of St Alban’s, Wood Street, may be mentioned Dr Watts (d. 1649), assisted Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary^ and edited Matthew Paris’ and Edward James Beckwith, Minor Canon and Succentor of St Paul’s. He was presented by the Dean and Chapter to the living in 1799, was a good musician, and composed chants which are still sung. Mr Beckwith, who died in 1833, was brother of Dr John Christmas Beckwith, the writer of some All Hallows’, Lombard Street 275 fine anthems, and for a year, 1808-1809, organist of Norwich Cathedral. The parish of St Alban’s, Wood Street, is his- torically interesting. There are in the City of Lon- don a round dozen of parishes named after St Mary, nearly all of which belong to a single group closely packed together. Some topographers are of opinion that anciently there was one great parish of St Mary, the church of which appropriately still bears the name of Aldermary. From this mother parish a number of others originated — as St Mary Abchurch, St Mary Cole-church (at the south-west corner of Old Jewry, whose church was not rebuilt after the Great Fire), and St Mary-le-Bow. On the opposite bank ofWalbrook sprang up St Mary Woolchurch (on the site of the Mansion House), St Mary Wool- noth, and St Mary Bothaw (i.e. “boathaven”), now occupied by Cannon Street Station. But the fact ^ that the two branch parishes of St Mary Staining, and St Mary, Aldermanbury, are cut off from their parent stem by the interposition of St Alban’s, Wood Street, goes to show that this process of sub- division had, at any rate, begun before the time of King Offa, who granted that parish to St Alban’s Abbey, which he had founded in 793. To the interior of the large plain church of All Hallows, Lombard Street, Wren has contrived to impart an appearance of great grandeur. This is as remarkable as it is extraordinary, for except at the west end, where they form a separation be- tween the nave and a kind of ante-church, it is destitute of detached pillars. There is a fairly deep recess at the east end of 1-18^3: 276 London Churches the oblong portion, forming the sanctuary, en- riched with one of the most imposing altarpieces in the City, composed of four columns, with their entablature and five pediments, all of the Corin- thian order. Within the inter-columniations were the Decalogue, Creed and Lord’s Prayer, and in the middle, between the arching parts of the frames for the Commandments, was the Emble- matic Pelican. There was likewise a ‘‘Glory” finely painted and adorned, with an enrichment of carving, flowers, fruit, etc., but these decorations have been replaced by modern paintings of the Ecce Homo, the Procession to Calvary, and the Agnus Dei. Surmounting the whole is a large triangular pediment supporting the Seven Candle- sticks, emblematical of the Seven Churches in Asia. Beneath the altar is carved the Holy Lamb on a chalice, now concealed by the frontal. All Hallows’ contains other fine wood-carving, among which must be named the pulpit, organ case, and two doorways between the vestibule and the church, in which figures of Time and Death play conspicuous parts. An artificial white curtain is introduced into the carved work of these door- ways, but so naturally, that many have attempted to draw it aside, the better to view the carving that seems to be behind. Just inside the entrance to the church from Lombard Street is another remarkable piece of wood-carving, which from the death’s heads, which form conspicuous features in it, would appear to have formed a part of a kind of Resurrection Gate, such as we see at St Stephen’s, Coleman Street, and St Giles’-in-the-Fields. St Andrew’s, Holborn 277 It was erected at the entrance to the church- yard from Lombard Street soon after the Great Fire, but was removed to its present position when the buildings in Lombard Street adjoining, were reconstructed in 1865. In perusing the Journals of John Wesley^ it is astonishing to find how numerous, how steady, and how constant were his sermons in City churches from 1738 to 1790. He was a false prophet in one respect, for, in 1738 and 1739 he constantly re- corded what proved to be untrue: ‘‘ I am not to preach again,” for, like every other great reformer in the Church of England, he found respectability at first against him, but towards the close of his ministry he is bound to admit: “ So are the tables turned, that I have more invitations to preach in the churches than I can accept of.” It was All Hallows’, Lombard Street, that first produced from Wesley an extempore sermon, and a touching incident in connexion with this cir- cumstance is recorded on the north-eastern wall of the nave. St Andrew’s, Holborn, was, until the construe tion of the Viaduct between 1867 and 1869, the best placed churches in London, for as the west end was nearly at the summit of Holborn Hill, the foundation was necessarily continued through- out on this level to the east end in Shoe Lane, so that the basement was there considerably elevated above the houses.* *A view of St Andrew’s as it appeared in the old Holborn Hill days is given on page 258. The tower is perhaps seen to the greatest advantage from one of a congeries of narrow thorough- fares lying between Fetter Lane and St Andrew’s Street. 278 London Churches The old church escaped the Fire of 1666, but being found ruinous was taken down about twenty years afterwards, with the exception of the lower part of the tower. This is good but rather Late Perpendicular of about 1446, and three of its most interesting features, the west window, the arch opening into the church, and the low blocked ones which communicated with the aisles — continued as at St Sepulchre’s along the sides of the tower — were brought to light and restored, under the direction of Mr S. S. Teulon in 1872. The upper story, which is Wren’s work and very gracefully proportioned, is terminated by a balustrade and pinnacles in the form of altars, crowned by pine- apples and vanes. Observe the square erections containing the handsome staircases to the galleries on either side of the tower; the curious piece of sculpture in the north wall representing the General Resurrection; the dignified east end, with its large Venetian window of six compartments; and the iron en- trance gateway with its figure of the patron bear- ing the emblem of his martyrdom. Internally, St Andrew’s, Holborn, is one of the finest churches of the galleried basilican type in the country. Short, wainscoted Doric columns support the galleries, from whose fronts rise grace- fully proportioned Corinthian columns, sustaining the richly fretted and camerated roof. The walls, pillars and roof, are enriched with polychromatic ornament. Parts of Teulon’s work were open to very grave censure, especially the removal of the magnificent organ case, and, perhaps in a lesser degree, because inevitable^ that of the curious old St Andrew’s, Holborn 279 christening pew. To be sure, the removal of the organ gallery has disclosed the fine Perpendicular tower arch, but something more worthy of the dignity of St Andrew’s might have been de- vised than the feeble Gothic woodwork enclosing the organ, remarkable as being, in its original state, a portion of the instrument by Renatus Harris, discarded in the contest for superiority between that builder and Schmidt, at the Temple Church.* When Dr Sacheverell entered upon the living of St Andrew’s, he found that the organ, not having been paid for, had, from its erection in 1699, been shut up; when the Doctor, by a collection amongst his parishioners, raised the amount, and paid for the instrument. As this statement rests upon the authority of Sir John Hawkins, who is not always to be relied upon, it must be taken cum gram. The matter has, however, been well threshed out by Mr F. G. Edwards in a sketch of St Andrew’s and its organ- ists in The Musical Times of March, 1905. Hatton, in his New View of London^ published in 1708, speaks of the ^‘most splendid case” of the organ in St Andrew’s, and among other informa- tion, we are told that the church is very well and regularly Pew’d uniform,” and that “ there are Prayers every day in the week at 6, 1 1 •Smith and Harris were men whose inventive genius and artistic skill were destined, figuratively speaking, to more than compensate that noble instrument, the organ, for the insults and indignities which during the previous seventeen years it had undergone at the hands of the Roundheads. With these two great builders the history of modern organ construction began. 2 8o London Churches and 3 in the summer, and 7, ii and 3 in the winter.”* Harris’s organ was enlarged in 1842 and 1872 by Messrs Hill, and still further in 1905 by the same builders. Among those who have filled the post of organist here may be named Daniel Purcell (d. 1713); Dr Maurice Greene (but only for about a month, being elected organist of St Paul’s Cathedral on the death of Richard Brind in 1718); John Stanley, the cele- brated blind performer (1714-1786), and Dr James Higgs (1867-1895). _ The stained glass in the great east window of St Andrew’s, Holborn, representing the Last Supper and the Resurrection, was the work of Joshua Price, one of a family of glass painters, whose works are of the greatest interest and importance in the history of the art. William Price the elder (d. 1722) executed the stained glass which filled the east window of Oxford Cathedral prior to 1856. The cartoons were *The Pietas Londiniensis ^ compiled by the Rev. James Paterson, M.A., and printed in 1714 is also interesting not only as giving some historical account of the London churches and parishes early in the eighteenth century, but because it gives lists of services held in them, together with the hours at which they commenced. Here are a few instances: St Andrezu^s, Holborn. — Morning prayers every day at six of the clock in summer-time, and seven in the winter. Holy Sacrament on Easter Day at seven and twelve. St Anne^s, Soho. — Matins, six in the summer, seven in the winter. The Sacrament on Christmas Day, Easter Day and Whitsun Day, at seven and twelve o’clock. St Dunstan-in-the-W est. — Holy Sacrament every day in the octaves of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun Day at eight, after Morning Prayer. St Andrew’s, Holborn 281 by Sir James Thornhill. The present east window of Merton College Chapel was likewise his work. Long may it remain ! Joshua Price, besides the window in St An- drew’s, Holborn, repaired the ancient glass in Queen’s College Chapel, Oxford, executed the Holy Family for the same Chapel, and restored Van Linge’s windows in the Cathedral. To William Price, the younger, who died in 1765, we owe the stained glass in the great west and north transept rose windows of Westminster Abbey, between 1722 and 1735. He also filled several windows in New College Chapel, Oxford, with pieces of stained glass which, painted by artists of the school of Rubens, he had acquired, in Flanders. We owe much to men like the Prices, Peckitt, Eginton, Jervois, Pearson and others of the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the last centuries, for they served to keep alive the art of glass-painting until the revival of its true prin- ciples with the ecclesiological movement at Oxford and Cambridge in 1839. Together with the decoration of the Sanctuary, Price’s glass in St Andrew’s, Holborn, forms an interesting memorial of Dr Sacheverell, who as far as his day permitted, did much for the beautifying of the most sacred part of the church. There is some fine contemporary stained glass of an armorial character in the east window of either aisle in the gallery tier. That in the restored Perpendicular window of the tower is by Messrs Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1872). In the south aisle a pleasing window has been inserted to the 282 London Churches memory of the Rev. Henry Blunt, Rector from 1857 to 1899. It is gratifying to note that the font, which during the upheaval of 1871-72 under Teulon,* was removed to an obscure south-eastern corner of the building, thus completely nullifying the beautiful symbolism of the entrance to the spiritual church by baptism, has been replaced in its proper position at the west end of the nave. John Racket, Bishop of Lichfield from 1661 to 1670, was rector of St Andrew’s at the time of the Great Rebellion. His intrepid character is well illustrated by the following anecdote. Although the use of the Prayer Book was pro- scribed under a severe penalty, he continued the use of it. At length a sergeant and armed trooper were sent to the church to compel his obedience, but he, with a firm voice and unintimidated man- ner, read the service as he was wont to do. When the soldiers, placing a pistol at his head, threatened him with instant death, he calmly replied: ‘‘Soldiers, I am doing my duty, do you do yours!” Then, with a voice equally composed, he resumed the prayers. The soldiers, awestruck by his pious courage, left the church in astonishment. Another eminent Rector of St Andrew’s, Hol- born, was Stillingfleet, afterwards Bishop of Wor- *He ought never to have been allowed to touch a church of this kind. St George the Martyr, Queen Square, Bloomsbury, a very respectable, and internally really elegant, Renaissance building, erected in 1706 as a chapel of ease to St Andrew’s, Hol- born, was horribly “Gothicized” by this architect in 1869. Another illustration of a similar performance is St Mary’s, Ealing. ST. ANDREW’S, HOLBORN. Interior, looking East. St Andrew’s, Holborn .283 cester; and a third, eminent in a different way, was the already mentioned far-famed Sacheverell, whose trial is a matter of English history. Sacheverell, who received the living of St Andrew’s as a solatium for the trial he had gone through, is buried in the Sanctuary, the embel- lishment of which, with paintings and stained glass, was his peculiar care. He died June 5, 1724, at his house where he habitually resided in The Grove, Highgate. A small inscribed stone indicates the whereabouts of his remains in St Andrew’s. William Whiston, the Nonconformist preacher, was a constant attendant at St Andrew’s. His principles becoming known, Sacheverell admon- ished him to forbear communicating in his church; but still persisting, he had him ejected. Whiston complained in print, and then moved into another parish. Sacheverell was described by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, as “an ignorant and impudent in- cendiary, the scorn of those who made him their tool”; and by Hearne, who, though approving of his sermons, had private reasons for disliking him, as “conceited, ignorant, impudent, a rascal and a knave.” The registers record the baptism and burial of two of our most unfortunate poets: Richard Savage, the illegitimate child of noble parents, and whose history is a miserable tale, was baptized here January 18, 1696-7. Drink and debauchery plunged him lower and lower, until in 1743 he was found dead in his bed in Bristol Jail, where he lay a prisoner for debt, ^he Wanderer is his principal work. 284 London Churches Thomas Chatterton, The marvellous boy, The sleepless soul, that perished in his pride, the leading charm of whose poems is picturesque description, went up to London from his native place, Bristol, to write for bread and fame. He toiled hard, but sank into infidelity and intem- perance, and his prospects proving a deceptive mirage, his proud heart, stung to its core by neglect and increasing want, whispered to him to form the desperate resolve of suicide. One August day in 1770 the lad, not yet eighteen, took a dose of arsenic and died in an attic in Brooke Street, Holborn, amid the fragments of his torn papers.* On August 28 he was buried in a pauper’s grave in ground now occupied by Farringdon Avenue. In the register Chatterton’s Christian name is wrongly stated, William being written instead of Thomas. It is not a little strange that Savage, who was born in Fox Court, Brooke Street, should have died in Bristol, and that Chatterton, who was born in Bristol, should have ended his blighted exis- tence so close to the birthplace of his equally un- fortunate ‘‘brother of song.” There are other interesting and happier entries in the registers of St Andrew’s, Holborn: The Baptism of Benjamin D’Israeli (Lord Beacons- field), July 31, 1817, when twelve years old; the irregular marriage, in'1598, of Edward Coke, “the Queen’s Attorney General,” and “My Lady Eliza- *Mrs Hamilton King has a very touching poem on this subject in her Ballads of the North. The church of St Alban the Martyr is very beautifully introduced into it. St Andrew Wardrobe 285 beth Hatton”; the marriage of Colonel Hutchin- son and Lucy Apsley (1638) : Mrs Hutchinson’s Memoirs are well known; and that on May i, 1808, of William Hazlitt, the Essayist, to Sarah Stoddart.* Here too are recorded the burial in 1643 of Nathaniel Tomkins, executed for his share in Waller’s plot; the burial in 1690, of Theodore Haak, the founder of the Royal Society; and the burial of Joseph Strutt, author of Sports and Pas- times (1802). Very similar in plan and arrangement, though less rich in detail than St Andrew’s, Holborn, is the imposingly situated St Andrew’s by the Ward,- robe, now a prominent feature on the north side of Queen Victoria Street. It was so called from its contiguity to the office of the King’s Great Wardrobe, and to distinguish it from other churches in London dedicated to the same saint. The old church having perished in the Great Fire, the present one was completed from Wren’s designs in 1692 for the united parishes of St An- drew’s-by-the-Wardrobe and St Ann’s, Blackfriars. *One of the witnesses to Hazlitt’s marriage was Mary Anne Lamb, the bridesmaid. Her brother, Charles, was also present, as he recalls in a letter written seven years later to Southey. “I am going to stand godfather” (writes “Elia” in his own inimi- table style) “I don’t like the business,! cannot muster up decorum enough for these occasions. I shall certainly disgrace the font. I was at Hazlitt’s marriage, and had like to have been turned out several times during the ceremony. Anything awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral. Yet I can read about these ceremonies with pious and proper feelings. The realities of life only seem the mockeries.” — Letters. 2 86 London Churches Externally, it honestly exposes its dark red brick material, and presents a square south-western tower surmounted by a balustrade and pinnacles, and two tiers of windows, round-headed above and obtuse-headed below, in the body. The interior, very quietly and conservatively rearranged about twenty years ago,* has galleries forming a constructional feature. The columns, below and upon them, are very simple ones of the Doric order, except at the west end, where they are fluted. The last bay on either side of the gallery has been removed and metal screens of good design to mark off the Sanctuary placed across the space thus vacated. The roof of the nave is arched and richly decorated, while those over the galleries have a simple quadripartite groiningwithoutribs. In the lower aisles a commencement of excellent stained gla^ has been made, and Mr W. E. F. Britten has enriched the panels of the altarpiece with highly- finished oil paintings in Flemish style of our Lord in Majesty, with St Andrew and St Anne on either side. There is some good colouring in the stained glass inserted about 1862 in the window above the altar, but the unities were not preserved. Gothic detail being stupidly introduced. A monument, by the elder Bacon, to the Rev. William Romaine, rector from 1766 to 1795, is not devoid of beauty. The bust is very good. Romaine was an ardent follower of Whitfield, and proclaimed his belief not only to the citizens of St Dunstan’s-in-the- West, where in 1749 he was instituted to a double lectureship, but to the fashionable world at St George’s, Hanover Square. Persecution followed. * The late Mr Thomas Garner was the architect called in. St Andrew Wardrobe 287 The Hite of Hanover Square could not tolerate the poor folk that crowded to hear Romaine’s preach- ing, although the old Earl of Northampton de- fended him by dryly remarking that no complaint was made of crowds in the ball-rooms or in the play-house. Romaine, consequently, at the request of the vicar, resigned his lectureship at St George’s. Trouble next arose at St Dunstan’s; the parish- ioners complained that they had to force their way to their pews through a “ragged, unsavoury multi- tude,” “squeezing,” “shoving,” “panting,” “rid- ing on one another’s backs.” The rector sat in the pulpit to prevent Romaine occupying it. The matter was carried to the King’s Bench, and that Court deprived him of one parish lectureship, sup- ported by voluntary contributions, but confirmed him in the other, which was endowed with ;^i8 a year, and granted him the use of the church at seven o’clock in the evening. The churchwardens, however, refused to open the church until the exact hour, and declined to light it. Romaine had frequently to perform his office by the light of a single candle, which he held in his hand; until Terrick, the Bishop of London, who happened on one occasion to precede him to the pulpit, observ- ing the crowd at the closed door, interfered, and obtained fair and decent arrangements for the service. In 1766, after an unsettled phase of existence, Romaine was presented to the living of St Andrew Wardrobe, not, however, until after con- siderable opposition. When he had at last an as- sured position and a satisfied congregation here, the communicants on his first Good Friday rose to 288 London Churches the unprecedented number of five hundred, and on Easter Day there were as many as three hun- dred. Additional accommodation had to be pro- vided for the crowds who flocked to St Andrew’s to attend Romaine’s ministrations, and here he re- mained until his death in 1795. As a preacher he exercised great power. His theology and his con- ception of the spiritual life are most fully exhibited in his three treatises: The Life of Faith (1763), The Walk of Faith (1771), and The Triumfh of Faith (1795), which contain many passages full of tender and passionate devotion. Another rector of St Andrew Wardrobe, was the Rev. Phocion Henley (1759-64), composer of a double chant in E, retained in most collections. St Anne and St Agnes in Gresham Street, on the north side of the General Post Office, was generally known as St Anne-in-the-Willows. “I know not upon what occasion,” says Stow, ‘‘but some say of willows growing thereabouts; but now there is no such void place for willows to grow, more than the churchyard, wherein do grow some high ash- trees.” Strype in his Ecclesiastical Memorials* informs us that St Anne’s “was burnt down [1666] and re- built of rubbed brick: and stands in the church- yard, planted before the 'church with lime-trees that flourish there. So that, as it was formerly called St Anne-in-the-Willows, it may now be named St Anne-in-the-Limes.” Externally there is little to remark in this church beyond its well-proportioned square tower sur- mounted by a turret, but the interior, in plan a *Vol. Ill, p. loi. .1 SS. Augustine and Faith 289 Greek cross, is most elegant. Four Corinthian columns on tall pedestals form a square in the centre of the church; they support a rich entabla- ture issuing from the side walls where they rest upon corbels of a Composite character; and meet- ing as they do in a right angle above the columns, a cruciform shape very appropriate to the nature of the building, and one of the best forms for dis- tributing light into the church, is the result. The four compartments forming the arms of the cross are each covered with an arched ceiling richly panelled and bounded by four arches, whose soffits are charged with coffers and roses forming a large square centre. This is simply groined, and adorned with an expanded flower upon the point of junc- tion of the groin. The flat ceilings occupying the spaces of the angles not comprised in the cross- formed plan, are enriched with circles enclosing wreaths of foliage and fruit, with cherubim in the angles. The spire of the little church of SS. Augustine and Faith at the corner of Oid Change and Wat- ling Street was designed by Wren, like that of St Martin’s, Ludgate, to contrast by its softly modelled contour with the robust and vigorous masses of the Cathedral close by. Ionic columns carrying a wagon-headed ceiling divide the church into a nave and aisles. These columns are raised on such exceedingly lofty plinths that their height and consequent character is so small as to degrade them to mere props and to produce altogether an unpleasing effect. The present aspect of the interior is due to the late Sir Arthur Blomfield, who quietly and conservatively 1-19 290 London Churches rearranged and decorated it about twenty-five years ago. St Benet, Paul’s Wharf, now occupied by a con- gregation of the Welsh Church, is one of Wren’s pillarless interiors, and like its near neighbour, St Andrew’s-by-the-Wardrobe, shows its brick ma- terial exteriorly. In the old church destroyed by the Fire were buried Inigo Jones, the architect (June 26, 1652); Sir William Le Neve (Clarenceux), the friend of Ashmole; John Philipott (Somerset Herald), whose labours have added largely to the value of Camden’s Remaines; and William Oldys (Norroy), the literary antiquary. Inigo Jones’ monument (for which he left ;^ioo) was destroyed in the Fire; Le Neve and Philipott lie no one knows where, and Oldys sleeps in the north aisle without a stone to mark the place of his interment. It was at St Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf, that, on No- vember 27, 1747, Henry Fielding, the novelist, was married to his second wife,Mary Daniel, whose name has also been given as MacDainell and Macdonald. She is described in the register as of ‘‘St Clement Danes, Middlesex, Spinster.” Lady Louisa Stuart reports that this second wife had been the maid of Fielding’s first wife, Charlotte Cradock. She had “few personal charms” but had been strongly attached to her mistress and had sympathized with Fielding’s sorrow at her loss. He told his friends that he could not have found a better mother for his children or nurse for him- self. The result fully justified this opinion.* *It was in his Amelia that Fielding commemorated the domes- tic virtue either of his first wife or of that amiable maid-servant St Bride’s, Fleet Street 291 The living of St Benet, Paul’s Wharf, was held for a short time by Samuel Clarke, author of the Attributes of the Deity * and from 1835, until his promotion to the Vicarage of Tottenham, by the Rev. W. J. Hall. Mr Hall was editor of the Christian Remembrancer and compiler of the well- known Mitre Hymn Book^ first published in 1836, and from 1825 until his death in 1861 was one of the Minor Canons of St Paul’s. Charles King, Mus.B., Almoner and Master of the Choristers of St Paul’s, was on his death, March 17, 1748, buried under the middle aisle of St Benet’s. On the evening before the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, the several choirs selected to perform the music on that occasion assembled in St Paul’s for the purpose of rehearsal, but the noise of preparation was so great as to necessitate an adjournment to the neighbouring church of St Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf. The steeple of St Bride’s, Fleet Street, is a com- position of equalities, in which there is a pleasant succession of vertical and horizontal lines, beauty being obtained by agreeable repetitions, and not, as in most of the other instances, by harmonious varieties. The spire, which is formed of a series of open arches, rising in succession above each other, shows how well Wren could repeat forms without at the same time rendering them monotonous. The construction of this spire materially differs from who sorrowed so deeply for the loss of her mistress, that in grati- tude and tender concern for his motherless children, he made her their second mother. *See under St James, Piccadilly, p. 319. l-iqa 292 London Churches any other, Italian or Gothic. The arches form vaults or cells within, which are firmly bound to- gether by the central spiral cord or staircase, and this equally distributes the pressure over the surface below, imitating in a beautiful manner some of the strongest forms of nature — the shell turitella for example. The provision made for carrying the spire is excel- lent. Within the belfry are angle corbels with flat surfaces, which contract the square to the octangu- lar form. The latter is reduced to a circle by a bold rounded moulding level with the top of the external cornice. The circle measures 17 feet diameter and above it rises a lofty conical dome measuring 14 feet 6 inches to the crown. The sides of this dome are somewhat of an ogee form, but nearly flat to within a very short distance of the apex, and it should be distinctly observed that the joints of the masonry do not radiate but are kept perfectly horizontal, each layer corbelling over, with a slightly bevelled surface, until within a few courses of the keystone. Had any other construc- tion been adopted, even metal bands would not have long retained the whole together. The masonry of this part is extremely massive and carefully connected, the depth of the keystone being not less than 4 feet 9 inches. The spaced between the sides of the dome and the exterior measures nearly double this dimension, and it is probable that voids are left at intervals within, though there is now no opportunity of ascertaining the fact. As originally built between 1701 and 1703 by Wren, the tower and spire of St Bride’s rose to a ST. BRIDE’S, FLEET STREET, From the South-East. , St Bride’s, Fleet Street 293 total height of 234 feet. On June 18, 1764, it was struck by lightning and so greatly damaged that it was found necessary to take down and recon- struct 85 feet of the masonry. In repairing the injury, at a cost of ^3,000, Sir William Staines lowered the masonry by 8 feet. In 1803 the steeple was again struck by light- ning. In the storm of July 15, 1887, it narrowly escaped destruction by a memorable stroke of lightning, which, however, expended its force beneath the stone paving at the base of the tower. The fastenings of the conductor, which had become worn and insecure, were then repaired, and in 1888 the outer stonework of the tower and spire was repointed and reinstated. The opening of St Bride’s Avenue into Fleet Street was designed by J. B. Papworth, at a cost of about ^10,000, in place of Bride Passage, a narrow alley which was consumed by the fire in Fleet Street on November 14, 1824. Interiorly, round arches, moulded with a rose between two large battens and springing from Doric columns coupled transversely, support the fragment of an entablature. The aisles are groined over the galleries, which cut rather unpleasantly into the pillars, while the nave has a slightly ellip- tical vault richly camerated and pierced over each bay by a semicircular one which encloses a round clerestory window. A somewhat feeble decoration of the altar recess took place about twenty years ago from the de- signs of Mr Basil Champneys, when a copy in stained glass by Muss (1824) of Rubens’ Descent from the Cross was removed from the east window, 294 London Churches and work of modern manufacture, in which, how- ever, the same subject is introduced, substituted. The marble font of 1615, a relic of the former church, stands in a large square christening pew in the south aisle. Here are buried Ogilby, the translator of Homer, (d. 1676); and Flatman, the poet and pain- ter; he died in 1688 and was interred “ near to the rails of the Communion Table.” Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains, And rides a jaded Musewhipt with loose reins. — Lord Rochester. Francis Sandford, author of the Genealogical His- tory which bears his name, and who died 1693 in the Fleet Prison, lies here; also the widow of Sir William Davenant the poet, who, on the death of Ben Jonson, became laureate. A keen Royalist, he suffered many changes of fortune in the Civil War, and while an exile in France wrote part of the tedious heroic poem Gondibert^ which is the chief work associated with his name. In the middle of the central passage lies Samuel Richardson. About 1712 he set up in business for himself as a printer in Salisbury Court hard by, and his position as a business man may be judged from the fact that the printing of the Journals of the House of Commons was given to him while he was comparatively young. But it is not as King’s Printer that we remember Samuel Richardson with such reverent affection. When more than fifty years of this printer’s ’life had passed, a talent, which had been slumbering almost unknown in the keen business brain, awoke to active life. St Bride’s, Fleet Street 295 A couple of bookselling friends requested him to draw up a series of familiar letters, containing hints for guiding the affairs of common life. Rich- ardson undertook the task, but, inspired with the happy idea of giving a human interest to the letters, he made them tell a connected story, which he justly thought would barb the moral with a keener and surer point. In a similar way the Pickwick Pd'pers grew into being. A young writer, who had already furnished picturesque sketches of London life* to an evening paper, was invited by a publishing firm to write some comic adventures in illustration of a set of sporting plates. He began to write, and, losing sight very soon of the original idea of the work, he produced the narrative over which so many hearty, honest laughs have been enjoyed. Thus grew Samuel Richardson’s first novel, Pamela. It is customary to describe Fielding as the father of the English novel. Really, however, Richardson with his Pamela was the father, and that mad wag Henry Fielding the ‘‘ wicked uncle who stole the baby, ” for Joseph Andrews was a wicked mockery of those virtuous lessons which the respectable printer of Salisbury Court had endea- voured to inculcate by his first book. In St Bride’s Churchyard was one of Milton’s many London residences. Here he read with his pupils — among them his own nephews, the Phil- lipses — an extensive course, comprising several uncommon Classics, some Hebrew, a sprinkling of Chaldee and Syriac, mathematics and astromony, not omitting the Greek Testament and some Dutch divinity on Sundays. "^Sketches by Boz, first published in a collected form in 1836. 296 London Churches From 1835 to 1846 the living of St Bride’s was held by the Rev. Thomas Dale, Canon Residen- tiary of St Paul’s, than whom few were more sought after and admired as a spiritual guide and preacher. “His correspondence with those seeking for advice and direction in sin and sorrow was very large; for, by whatever name it is called, to hear confession and give direction are the inalienable offices of every leader of religious thought. We have seen how John Wesley discharged these offices. Thomas Dale had much of this work to do. He received — and bore it unmoved — that constant adulation and praise that follows successful preach- ing. His parochial works and organizations were highly estimated.” * In 1846 Mr Dale left St Bride’s for St Pancras’, where his untiring zeal in the cause of church ex- tension in that vast parish will ever be remem- bered. From his grave in Highgate Cemetery may be seen many of the churches he caused to be built. Advancing years was the reason of his resigning St Pancras for Therfield, near Royston, a Hertford- shire living in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s. In 1870, on the death of Dr Stevens, Mr Dale was appointed by Mr Gladstone to the Deanery of Rochester, but he died very shortly after his installation, having preached but one sermon in the cathedral — a sermon on “The Life to Come,” and long remembered by those who heard it as a very beautiful one. Mr Dale was a poet of much elegance. His longer poems. The Daughter of Jairus^ The Outlaw of *From Life and Letters of his son Thomas Pelham Dale, Rector of St Vedast, Foster Lane. St Bride’s, Fleet Street ^ 297 Taurus Irad and Adah ^ are out of print and now hardly known, though at one time they enjoyed great popularity. Of his shorter pieces perhaps one of the most beautiful is that beginning Weep not for me^ set to music by Sir John Goss, and published in his Sacred Minstrel (1834). original sketch of this song is in the possession of Dr T. L. Southgate, The Rev. John W. Burgon, of Oriel, Vicar of St Mary’s, Oxford, and subsequently Dean of Chichester — a man beloved of all who knew him — accomplished, erudite, a great Biblical scholar and an earnest and fearless defender of the Faith; a man of great sanctity and yet with a most acute percep- tion of the ludicrous, had conceived an ardent admiration in his youthful days for the preaching of Mr Dale, and, as he never cared to attend church alone (the exuberant sympathy in his nature made this distasteful to him) used fre- quently to persuade his mother, whom he loved to have by his side at church, and other members of his family, to accompany him to St Bride’s.* ‘‘Against the Sundays in Burgon’s Journals — the S denoting which is always written in red ink, to mark it to the eye — we find such entries as these: “ Heard dear old Dale at St Bride’s preach a beautiful sermon; ” “ M.C. and I went to hear Dale preach at St Giles’s — capital — divine sermon — was delighted to hear his old voice again”; “Mother’s birthday. Gave her Dale’s Sermons — pd I os. 6d.” . . . The following entry will be read with interest in reference to his own future ser- mons, which were so original and instructive : “Dec. *The Burgons had sittings at St Pancras under the incumbency of Dr Moore and usually attended that church. 298 London Churches 6, 1835 [^tat. 22] Heard Dale. — ‘ Come to Me ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest ’ — the text I have always thought I would make my first sermon on if I were in the Church. He made a powerful sermon, but did not handle the text as I think of handling it . * Mather, the blind organist, who opened the new organ in Peterborough Cathedral in 1830, was organist of St Bride’s during Mr Dale’s vicariate. He was a man of simple unostentatious piety, and while playing such solemn old English psalm tunes as Rockingham^ Abridge^ Carey’s, Mount Ephraim and St Bride’s, the tears were observed to roll down his cheeks. On one occasion Mr Dale preached a sermon on behalf of the parish schools. At its con- clusion, a number of the infants ranged along the altar-rails, sang a hymn written by Mr Dale and set to music by Mather for the occasion, with such artlessness and sweetness that the greater part of the vast congregation was affected to tears. Mather wrote an organ-piece on the melody of the St Bride’s bells. The psalm tune St Bride’s derives its title from the circumstance of its com- position by Dr Samuel Howard, who was organist of this church as well as of St Clement Danes in 1780. Christ Church, Newgate Street, represents the choir of the great church of the Grey Friars’ Monastery which was 300 feet long, 89 broad and 64ft 2in. high. As it was consecrated in 1325, we may infer that this magnificent structure belonged *~Fiom John William Bur gon: A Biography with Extracts from his Letters and Journals, by Edward Meyrick Goulburn, late Dean of Norwich. Christ Church, Newgate Street 299 to the best Decorated or complete Gothic style of architecture. This noble fragment remained, after the dis- solution of the house until the Great Fire of 1666, and was left untouched until 1687, when the present structure was commenced and completed in 1704. The steeple, alluded to on page 263 and illustrated on the end pages, rises directly from the ground and is 153 feet high, the basement story being open on three sides and forming a porch to the church. The style is the Composite Order of Italian Grecian, and the enormous breadth of the nave and aisles is due to the fact that Wren used the founda- tions of the original pillars and walls for his new structure. The whole is imposing, but from lack of apparent length cannot be pronounced pleasing or impressive. There is some excellent stained glass by Heaton Butler and Bayne, inserted in the great east win- dow in 1869, and finely carved choir stalls and altar- piece. Deep galleries, formerly occupied on Sunday mornings and certain other occasions by the boys of Christ’s Hospital, occupy the aisles, and in the western gallery is a noble organ, originally built in 1690 by Renatus Harris and more than once recon- structed and enlarged by Hill. When, in 1837, Mendelssohn paid his fifth visit to England, he gave a particularly interesting performance, on September 10, on the Christ Church organ which had lately been reconstructed under the direction of Dr Gauntlett, and on June 16, 1 842, when he was again in London, he once more repaired to the organ loft in Newgate Street and extemporized 300 London Churches upon the theme with which he had delighted his auditors at St Peter’s, Cornhill, four days pre- viously'*' — Haydn’s Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser^ though in a wholly different manner, terminating with a long and elaborately-developed fugue. “ During the course of the fantasia by which this fugue was introduced,” says Mr W. S. Rockstro in his short biography of the great com- poser, “ a treble A began to sound on the swell. Mendelssohn accompanied it in the form of an inverted organ-point of prodigious length, treating it with the most ingenious and beautiful harmonies, his invention of which seemed to be inexhaustible. We were very young in those days, but we well remember whispering to our kind old friend, Mr Vincent Novello, who was sitting next to us at the east end of the church: ‘ It must be a cypher and he quite agreed with us. “After harmonizing the note in an infinity of different ways, with ever-varying passages which would probably have filled some pages of music paper, he at last confirmed our impression by leaving it to sound, for some considerable time, alone. By this time all present were convinced that, during the remainder of the performance, that particular manual would be useless, when, to our astonishment, the A quietly glided through G sharp and G natural to F sharp; and the organ point came to the most natural conclusion imagina- ble. While he was amusing himself with this little flaisanterie^ a number of inconsiderate persons had the bad taste to crowd so closely round the un- usually confined and inconvenient organ-loft, that, *See page 383. Christ Church, Newgate Street 301 to save himself from fainting, Mendelssohn was compelled to leave off in the middle of an unfinished passage, and make his way to the staircase. He was so ghastly pale that it was feared he really would faint, but after breathing the fresh air he speedily revived and as he passed down the stairs, he laughed and said, ‘ You thought it was a cypher, I know you did.’ ” Since 1797 the Spital Sermons have been preached at Christ Church, Newgate Street. On Easter Tues- day, 1800, during the mayoralty of Mr Harvey Combe, Dr Parr preached that celebrated Spital Sermon, which, occupying three hours in delivery, tended to display the stores of his erudition and added to his already great reputation. In this sermon Dr Parr attacked some of the theories of Godwin, who replied with feelings of considerable personal hostility.lt was here that the learned preacher for the first time embarked on metaphysical subjects; and his work is spoken of in terms of high panegyric by Dugald Stuart. Born in 1747, Dr Parr became a Prebendary of St Paul’s and Perpetual Curate of Hatton, in War- wickshire, enriching his church there with a quantity of stained glass, which, had it been preserved to this day, would be looked upon as a valuable ecclesiological fact. For many years Dr Parr spent a month’s holiday in London, never failing to call upon Dr Johnson. When Parr became a candidate for the Mastership of the School at Colchester, it was Johnson who granted him a letter of recommendation. Not only was Dr Parr always admitted to Dr Johnson’s resi- dence, but welcomed by the great man himself. 302 London Churches Parr had intended to write the Life of Johnson; and, as we are told in some Anecdotes and Remarks from the Memoir and Works of Dr Parr contributed to Johnsoniana or Supplement to Boswell (Murray, 1836),* ‘Maid by sixty or seventy bo6ks for the purpose of writing it in such a manner as would do no discredit to myself. I intended to spread my thoughts over two volumes quarto; and if I had filled three pages the rest would have followed. Often have I lamented my ill-fortune in not building this monument to the fame of Johnson, and let me not be accused of arrogance when I add, my own.” It should be added that the inscription on the monument to Dr Johnson, at the entrance to the north choir aisle of St Paul’s Cathedral, was com- posed by Dr Parr. To return, however, from this digression to Christ Church, Newgate Street. The Spital Sermons originated in an old custom by which some learned person was appointed yearly by the Bishop of London to preach at St Paul’s Cross on Good Friday, on the subject of “ Christ’s Passion.” On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Easter Week, three other divines were appointed to uphold the doctrine of “ The Resurrection ” at the Pulpit Cross in the “ Spital ” (Spitalfields). On Low Sunday a fifth preached at Paul’s Cross, and passed judgement upon the merits of those who had preceded him. At these sermons, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attended; *Nos. 505 to 5 16 of these anecdotes are selected from the Life and Works of Parr in 8 vols. 8vo, 1828; edited by Dr John Johnstone Christ Church, Newgate Street 303 ladies also on the Monday forming part of the pro- cession; and at the close of each day’s ceremony his Lordship and the Sheriffs gave a private dinner to such of their friends among the Aldermen as attended the sermon. From this practice the civic festivities at Easter were at length extended to a magnificent scale. The children of Christ’s Hos- pital took part in the above solemnities; so that in 1594, when it became necessary to rebuild the Pulpit Cross at the Spital, a gallery was erected also for their accommodation. In the Great Rebel- lion the pulpit was destroyed and the sermons were discontinued till the Restoration; after which the three Spital Sermons, as they were still called, were revived at St Bride’s, Fleet Street. These were afterwards reduced to two, and within recent years to one, and, as I have already stated, have been since 1797 delivered at Christ Church, Newgate Street. This sermon is now preached annually on Easter Tuesday by a bishop, chosen by the Arch- bishop of Canterbury through the Court of Aider- men. It was on their first appearance at the Spital that the boys of Christ’s Hospital wore the blue costume by which they have since been distinguished. Trapp, who translated Virgil and occasioned a well-known epigram, was Vicar of Christ Church, Newgate Street (d. 1747), and there is a monument to him with epitaph written by himself on the east wall. In the old church were buried Lady Venetia Digby, the wife of Sir Kenelm Digby (Van Dyck painted her with a serpent in one hand, a dove in the other, and Slander helpless at her feet); and the wife of Richard Baxter, the Noncon- 304 London Churches formist. She was buried,” as Baxter himself in- forms us, ‘‘ on J une 1 7 [i 68 1 ], in Christ Church in the mines, in her own mother’s grave. The grave was the highest next to the old altar or table in the chancel.” Richard Baxter himself lies here; he died Decem- ber 8, 1691, and his tablet bears the brief but expressive inscription, ‘‘ The Saints’ Rest.” On May 30, Baxter was tried for reflections on the Church contained in his Paraphrase on the New T estament^ and a month later was sentenced to flne and imprisonment. He had been imprisoned on this charge from February 28. When on May 18 he appeared to plead, Jefferies likened him to Titus Oates who was then in the pillory before the court, and expressed a wish that he could send him to bear him company. On the trial Jefferies displayed the same insolent coarseness; he silenced the counsel with threats that “ he would set a mark on them,” and ad- dressed the prisoner with, Oh, Richard, Richard, thou art an old rogue! . . .Times are changed now; no more of your binding kings in chains and nobles in fetters of iron 1 ” The affix “Danes” to the name of St Clement’s, whose graceful and original Classic steeple forms, together with that of St Mary’s, the architectural centre of the Strand vista, is somewhat dubious. Strype is of opinion “ that when the Danes were utterly driven out of this kingdom and none left but a few who were married to English women, they were constrained to inhabit between the Isle of Thorne (that which is now called Westminster) and Caer Lud, now called Ludgate. And there they builded a synagogue, the which being afterwards St Clement Danes 305 consecrated, was called ‘ Ecclesia dementis Da- norum.’ This account of the name did the learned antiquarian Fleetwood, some time Recorder of London, give to the Lord Treasurer Burghley who lived in this parish.” The fornier church, described by Stow, escaped the Great Fire, but being ruinous was taken down, with the exception of the lower portion of the tower, and rebuilt between 1680 and 1688 at a cost of ^^8,787, from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren, by Fdward Pierce and John Shorthose, masons. Their agreement, dated May 13, 1680, with the churchwardens, and receipts for IS. 9^d. endorsed, is preserved in the British Museum. He [Fdward Pierce] much assisted Sir Christo- pher Wren in many of his designs, and built the Church of St Clement under his directions.”* By a strange coincidence, the first person buried in St Clement’s after it was rebuilt was Nicholas Byer, the painter, a Norwegian, employed by Sir William Temple at his house at Shene. Wren modified and recased the tower, his work there including all up to the stage next above the clock dials, as may be seen in Kips’ view of 1 7 1 5 . f A later view by Kips (1725) shows the belfry-stage and spire designed in 1719 by Gibbs, whose Book of Architecture^ published in 1728, contains a plate of the elevation from the west, with a plan of his additions to the tower. •Walpole’s Anecdotes^ ed. Dallaway, ii, 315. tit had a square turret at each corner, and an octagonal cupola in the centre, and somewhat resembled the steeple of St Giles’, Cripplegate, in its uppermost portion. 1-20 3o 6 London Churches Originally the south entrance had a portico of six Ionic columns, similar to that of St Mary-le- Strand, but it was removed in 1813 by Alderman Pickett on the widening of the thoroughfares round the church. The apse, connected with the nave by a “canted” bay, was probably adopted on account of the narrowness of the former roadway and a block of houses which stood at that end of the church. Internally, St Clement Danes, although less airy and spacious than St Andrew’s, Holborn, and St James’, Piccadilly — churches of a similar type — is a very impressive andfine specimen of its age and class. The galleries on the north, west and south sides support well-proportioned Corinthian columns. The roof is camerated, and highly enriched with fretwork, and an interesting feature is the “canted” bay before alluded to. Its employment effects a more gradual and pleasing junction of the wide nave with the contracted sanctuary. Dr Johnson, one of the best Churchmen of his day and generation, was a regular and devout worshipper at St Clement’s during his residence in London. It having been satisfactorily ascertained that the pew occupied by the Doctor was No. 18 in the north gallery, where it meets the Sanctuary, an inscription, from the pen of Dr Croly, rector of St Stephen, Walbrook, was placed here in 1851; it runs thus: “ In this pew, and beside this pillar, for many years attended Divine Service, the celebrated Dr Johnson, the philosopher, the poet, the great lexicographer, the profound moralist and chief writer of his time. Born 1709; died 1784. In remem- St clement Danes 307 brance and honour of noble faculties nobly em- ployed, some inhabitants of the parish of St Clement Danes have placed this slight memorial. A.D; 1851.” Boswell frequently accompanied the Doctor to St Clement’s, and several times records the circum- stance in his Life of Johnson. “Good Friday, April 9, 1773. ‘ I breakfasted with him on tea and cross buns. . . . He carried me with him to the Church of St Clement Danes, where he had his seat, and his behaviour was, as I imagined to myself, solemnly devout. I shall never forget the tremulous earnestness with which he pronounced the awful petition in the Litany, “ In the hour of death and in the day of judgement. Good Lord deliver us ! ’ “ On Friday, April 14, 1775, being Good Friday, I repaired to him in the morning, according to my usual custom on that day, and breakfasted with him. I observed that he fasted so very strictly, that he did not even taste bread, and took no milk with his tea .... “As we walked to St Clement’s Church, and saw several shops open upon this most solemn fast-day of the Christian world, I remarked that one disad- vantage arising from the inconsistency of London was that nobody was heeded by his neighbour; there was no fear of censure for not observing Good Friday, as it ought to be kept and as it is kept in country towns. He said it was, upon the whole, very well observed even in London. . . .We went again to St Clement’s in the afternoon. He had found fault with the preacher in the morning for not choosing a text adapted to the day. The 1-20^ 3o 8 London Churches preacher in the afternoon had chosen one ex- tremely proper, ‘ It is finished.’ After the evening service he said, ^Come, you shall go home with me, and sit just an hour.’ But he was better than his word, for after we had drunk tea with Mrs Williams he asked me to go up to his study with him, where we sat a long while together in a serene, undisturbed frame of mind, some- times in silence and sometimes conversing, as we felt ourselves inclined, or, more properly speaking, as he was inclined.” ‘‘April 17, 1778. — ‘Being Good Friday, I waited on Dr Johnson as usual. There was a very nume- rous congregation at St Clement’s to-day, which Dr Johnson said he observed with pleasure.” “ London, April 21, 1784. After a confinement of 129 days, more than the third part of a year and no inconsiderable part of human life, I this day returned thanks to God in St Clement’s Church for my recovery; a recovery, in my 75th year, from a distemper which few in the vigour of youth are known to surmount.”* At one time St Clement’s had an altarpiece painted by Kent, a then fashionable painter, but in 1725 a peremptory order was sent by Dr Gibson, then Bishop of London, ordering its instant re- moval, on the plea that it contained portraits of the Pretender’s wife and children. Mr Diprose, writing in 1868, says, in his account of St Clement’s, that this picture “ was for some years one of the ornaments of the Coffee Room of the “Crown and Anchor,”whence it was removed to the vestry room of the church, over the old alms- * Johnson to Mrs Thrale. St clement Danes 309 houses in the churchyard. After 1803 it was trans- ported to the new vestry-room on the north side of the churchyard, where it remains at the present time.” From the Weekly Journal of August 28, 1726, we are able to glean some intelligence of this picture: “ The altarpiece of the Church of St Clement Danes, being a whimsical representation variously explained, some finding in it St Cecilia and her harp, and some Madame de St George and her eldest son; and the generalityof people agreeingit was not a proper decoration for the sanctum sanctorum, upon complaint made to the Bishop of London, at his last visitation of the said church, we hear that his Lordship wisely ordered it to be taken down, in order to secure the solemnity of the place and worship, and preserve a right understanding among the parishioners.” The carved pulpit of Wren’s time, the font and the organ-case are admiranda. The organ, origin- ally the work of Father Smith, has lately been re- novated by Mr Alfred Kirkland. Between 1897 and 1898 the interior of St Clement Danes underwent extensive yet conserva- tive decoration and repair under the direction of Messrs H. and P. Currey. Some of the stone louvres in the belfry being much worn were re- placed in oak. All the pews were lowered, and, together with the rest of the woodwork, cleaned and polished. In the apse the two lower windows were opened out, and some stained glass, executed by Collins in 1844 and representing the Three Cardinal Virtues, removed. The five windows in the apse are now 310 London Churches filled with stained glass by Messrs Burlison and Grylls. There is also some very excellent stained glass by Mr Thomas Curtis, the present repre- sentative of the firm of Ward and Hughes. The aisle-groining in plaster, and the arched ceiling and spandrels of the vaulting, which are pro- fusely decorated with panelling, festoons and other enrichments, were at the same time cleaned and repaired. The two wooden gates, now inserted outside the west doors, were designed by G. E. Street for another church. Being fashioned in the Gothic style they are out of keeping with the general character of the fabric, but the removal of the trefoil cusp- ing from their upper railing would reduce the in- congruity. St Clement’s, Eastcheap, in Clement’s Lane, between Lombard Street and King William Street, is chiefly remarkable as having one of the most grandly elevated but most shabbily appointed altars in the City.* For its size this church is unusually lofty, having a clerestory of depressed headed windows in the northern wall and also above the tall colonnade of Corinthian columns separating the nave from its southern aisle, which, however, is not coextensive with the former. These windows contain good brilliant modern stained glass representing the Apostles in pairs, but it is impossible to praise what has been inserted in the five windows of the west *In 1830, the altar of St Clement’s, Eastcheap, was described as “supporting three splendidly-bound books having crimson velvet covers with silver clasps and corners, and other enrichments of the same material.” St Clement’s, Eastcheap 3 1 1 front. The organ-case, removed, of course, from its proper place at the west end to the south aisle, in 1872, when the interior was rearranged and col- oured under Butterfield; the altarpiece, the marble font with its canopy, the pulpit, doorcases and pewing, are remarkable for the beauty of their carved workmanship. It was in the old church described by Stow as ‘‘ small ” and void of monuments ” that Pearson preached those sermons upon the Creed which led to his well-known Exposition, a work which is, with- in its limits, the most perfect and complete produc- tion of English dogmatic theology.* Pearson, who had been deprived of his rectory, Thornington, Suffolk, in 1646, accepted an invita- tion from the parishioners of St Clement’s, East- cheap, to deliver a weekly sermon in their church. This he appears to have regularly continued from 1654 Restoration without receiving any pecuniary recompense. John Evelyn writes in his Z)f^ry, April 15, 1655 : “In the afternoon Mr Pierson (since Bishop of Chester) preached at East Cheape, but was disturb’d by an alarm of fire, which about this time was very frequent in the cittie.” In 1673 Pearson became Bishop of Chester in succession to John Wilkins (q.v. under St Lawrence, Jewry), holding that see till his death in 1686. Three Church musicians, each distinguished in his way, have held the post of organist at St Clement’s at various times during the last two centuries viz. Edward Purcell (d. 1740), youngest *They were dedicated, on their publication in volume form, “to the right-worshipful and well-beloved, the parishioners of St Clement’s, Eastcheap.” 312 London Churches son of Henry Purcell the younger; Jonathan Battishill, composer of many chants and anthems still in use, and an organist of most sterling qualities, specially good at extemporaneous playing (d. i8oi); and John Whitaker (d.1847), the com- poser of many songs and ballads, some of which ac- quired a large share of popularity, as e.g., O Say not Woman^s Heart is Bought; My poor Dog Tray^ and Molly Malone, It is perhaps as the arranger of a collection of psalms, hymn-tunes and ‘‘ pieces,” selected from the works of the great foreign com- posers, together with many of his own com- positions, under the title of l^he Seraph^ that Whi- taker is best remembered, though an even more lasting claim to celebrity is afforded by his beauti- ful glee for three voices. Winds y Gently Whisper. The first volume of appeared with a very ap- propriate steel-engraved frontispiece and a sensibly penned preface or “ advertisement,” in 1818. The second volume, with a far less appropriate illustra- tion, Conscience, as a Recording Angel, veiled, in the act of noting down the Sin of Intemperance in a Bacchanalian,” by William Blake, made its appear- ance subsequently. Whitaker took part, j ointly with Sir Henry Bishop,- in the composition of Guy Manneringy 7 he Heir of Verona and other musical pieces produced with suc- cess at Covent Garden in 1816 and 1817, and held the post of musical director at the Surrey Theatre for some years, but died in distressed circumstances at the age of seventy-one on December 4, 1847. For some time he was partner in the firm of Button and Whitaker, music publishers in St Paul’s Churchyard. St Edmund the King 313 St Edmund the King and Martyr, Lombard Street, is, with the exception of St Botolph’s, Aid- gate and St Dunstan’s-in-the-West the only City church which does not orientate. At St Edmund’s the space of ground from east to west was not sufficient to allow of proper orientation. The south front, which would have been im- proved by the omission of the two square-headed windows in the lower part, displays a handsomely proportioned tower surmounted by an octagonal turret and concave spire of wood covered with lead, very pleasing in contour. Within, St Edmund’s, from its limited dimensions and the richness and beauty of its furniture and decoration, resembles the private chapel of a noble- man’s house. The eastern and western walls are relieved by a series of arched recesses, only two of which are pierced by windows. One of these con- tains stained glass whose history is interesting. When, during the later ’sixties, the scheme for the decoration of St Paul’s Cathedral began to take some definite shape, a quantity of stained glass of Munich manufacture was ordered, and several windows filled with it.* Some portions, however, were not inserted, and lay idle in the crypt. One of these was a representation of the Resurrection, *The two windows in the eastern aisle of the south transept representing the Agony and the Crucifixion, are part of this glass. These two subjects were in the lower windows of the apse until the scheme of decoration under Sir W. Richmond was com- menced. Another specimen of Munich glass is the window above the western doorway. It was the gift of Mr Thomas Brown of the publishing house of Longmans and Co., and under conditions of a fine sunset looks remarkably well. 314 London Churches intended for the northern clerestory window of the apse, but it was rejected by the influence, it is said, of Canon Liddon, on the ground that the angel was arrayed in scarlet instead of the proper colour, white. This was about the year 1870. When, a quarter of a century later, the Rev. Blomfleld Jackson became Vicar of St Bartholomew’s, Moor Lane, he begged this “ Resurrection ” window for his church, and the request having been acceded to, it was, in due course, placed therein. Upon the demolition of St Bartholomew’s, a few years ago, the present Rector of St Edmund’s, Rev. W. Benham, D.D., treated for the removal of this window to his church, to serve as a memorial to the Duke of Clarence, and his offices being successful it was inserted in the eastern wall of St Edmund’s, where it looks very well; for notwithstanding the iconographical mistake above alluded to, this glass is a very successful piece of work of the Munich school, the colours being rich, and the architectural accessories consonant with its locale. The Latin inscriptions on brass beneath the window are from the pen of the late Prebendary Blomfield Jackson, son of the Rev. Thomas Jackson, Preben- dary of St Paul’s and Rector of Stoke Newington from 1852 to 1885. The armorial glass work in the central window at the south end, set up in the memorable year of Union, 1707,” is valuable as one of the few speci- mens of early eighteenth-century glass in London.* The figures of SS. Peter and Paul in the side windows are very early works of Ward and Nixon *It was originally in the window above the altar. Other speci- mens are the west window and the northern transeptal rose- St James’, Garlick-Hythe 315 (1839), great east window, whose principal subject is our Lord Judging the Twelve Tribes, is a splendid specimen of the abilities of the Messrs Powell, of Whitefriars. In the altarpiece, now concealed by a dossal and tester, are paintings of Moses and Aaron by Etty (1833). The font with its cover* and enclosing banisters; the low chancel-screen, the pulpit, the pavement of the chancel and sanctuary, and the two organ-cases are admiranda. From 1833 1^62 the living of St Edmund’s was held by the Rev. Thomas Hartwell Horne, one of the most distinguished Biblical scholars of his day. Bibliography and polemics also employed the pen of Horne, who, until Christmas, i860, was librarian in the British Museum. His chief work was an Introduction to the Study of the Scri'ptures.\ St James’, Garlick-Hythe, J was rebuilt by Wren between 1676 and 1683. One of the precursors of the present structure was rebuilt in 1326, among the persons interred in it being Richard Lyons, a wine-merchant and lapidary, beheaded in Cheap- side by Wat Tyler in the reign of Richard H. Stow describes his ‘‘ picture on his gravestone very window at Westminster Abbey; the east window of St Andrew’s, Holborn, and probably that in the west window of St Andrew Undershaft. * This is of exceeding beauty. It resembles that in St Mary Abchurch, but is of rather a more elaborate character. It is in two stages, the lower being domed, and above are seated figures of the Cardinal Virtues. tAn interesting volume of Reminiscences — Personal and Bio- graphical — of the Rev. T. Hartwell Horne, appeared from the pen of his daughter, Mrs McCaul, in 1862. For that of old time, on the bank of the river of Thames, near to this church, garlick was usually sold” (Stow). 3 1 6 London Churches fair and large, with his hair rounded by his ears and curled; a little beard forked ; a gown girt to him down to his feet, of branched damask, wrought with the likeness of flowers, a large purse on his right side hanging in a belt from his left shoulder, a plain hood about his neck covering his shoulders and hanging back behind him.” Here were also interred the following citizens who had served as Mayors: John of Oxenford, mayor 1341; Sir John Wrotch, of Wroth, 1360; William Venor, 1389; William More, 1385; Robert Chichell, 1421; James Spencer, 1527. The stone lantern of the tower, which projects from the centre of the west front forming a porch, is of great elegance. It is square in plan, and presents the peculiarity in its construction of being carried on a dome springing from piers in the internal angles of the belfry, which piers are built independent of the walls and transmit the weight to the thicker work below.* The eight columns of the lantern of the neighbouring St Michael’s, Paternoster Royal, are placed octagonally and stand out singly, each bearing an urn; at St James’ the same number of columns are placed in pairs. The projecting clock dial has a carved and gilt figure of St James represented as he fre- quently is in art, with pilgrim’s staff, shell, wallet and hat, as connected with the honour in which he was held in Spain. Celto-Iberian fancy pictured the elder of the Boanerges as riding a white charger to lead the Christians to victory over the Moors. St James became the patron of Spain from the moment when, in 816, a marble coffin, pre- * See illustration on end pages. St James’, Garlick-Hythe 317 sumed to contain his body, was discovered by a peasant in Galicia. Over the shrine in what is now the Campus Apostoli, there grew the Cathedral of Compostella, for ages a leading resort of pilgrims, for whose protection was founded in the twelfth century, the military order of St James. In England the oyster-shell still figures perhaps as the badge of St James in the custom, at the time this festival is observed (July 25), of “ remembering the grotto.” Internally the nave of St James’, Garlick-Hythe, is separated from the very narrow aisles by four Ionic columns on either side. The centre portion of the ceiling is brought down on a large cove, which, when repeated, forms a barrel vault over the recess for the altar, and transversely over the internal transepts formed at the central inter-columnia- tion. The entablature returns square into the walls as in SS. Anne and Agnes, St Martin, Lud- gate and St Mary at Hill. The circular windows in the transepts have been injudiciously filled with plate tracery and stained glass by no' means in accordance with the archi- tecture, but the general effect of the interior is picturesque. There are fine staircases to the organ gallery (on the front of which is fixed the gilt figure of a seraph), a fair organ-case, font cover, and altar- piece — a painting by Geddes of the Ascension. It is difficult to picture good-humoured, rollick- ing Richard Steele in devout attendance upon the Church Service. We know that during the wild life he spent about town, stung sometimes by his upbraiding conscience, he wrote and published a devotional work, called The Christian Hero^ by 3 1 8 London Churches which he intended to correct his errors and force himself to pull up in time. But his only reward was the laughter of the town; for the idea of a fast- living soldier, who could never resist the attractions of the Rose Tavern or the delight of beating the watch at midnight, appearing in print as a religious character, seemed to have in it something irresisti- bly comic. Yet for the time Steele was sincere in his intentions of reform.* Going one Sunday to the church of St James’, Garlick-Hythe, he heard the service read so devoutly that he records his im- pressions of it in the Spectator (No. 147, August 18, 1711). You must know, sir, I have been a constant frequenter of the service of the Church of England for above these four years last past, and till Sunday was seven-night never discovered, to so great a degree, the excellency of the Common Prayer; when, being at St James’, Garlick Hill, Church, I heard the service read so distinctly, so emphati- cally, and so fervently, that it was next to an im- possibility to be inattentive. My eyes and my thoughts could not wander as usual, but were con- fined to my prayers. I then considered I addressed myself to the Almighty and not to a beautiful face. And when I reflected on my former performance of that duty I found I had run it over as a matter of form, in comparison to the measure in which I then discharged it. “ My mind was really affected, and fervent wishes accompanied my words. The Confession was read with such resigned humility, the Absolution *There are several fine essays on religious topics from Steele’s pen in ^he S-pectator St James’, Piccadilly 319 with such a comfortable authority, the Thanks- givings with such a religious joy, as made me feel those affections of the mind in a manner I never did before. To remedy, therefore, the grievance above complained of, I humbly propose, that this excel- lent reader* upon the next and every annual assembly of the clergy of Sion College, and all other conventions, should read prayers before them, for those that are afraid of stretching their mouths and spoiling their soft voices will learn to read with clearness, loudness and strength.’’ St James’, Piccadilly, consecrated Sunday, July 13, 1684, was erected at the expense of Henry Jermyn, Eari of St Albans, the patron of Cowley, and the husband, it is said, of Henrietta Maria widow of Charles I, the parish being taken out of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The first rector was Dr Tenison and the second Dr Wake, both successively Archbishops of Can- terbury. A third eminent rector was Samuel Clarke, author of Attributes of the Deity. He disliked going out, and yet was fond of exercise, so he amused and exercised himself at home with leaping over forms and chairs and tables. Dr Seeker, the seventh rector, who became Archbishop of Canter- bury in 1758, married and crowned King George III. Dr Trimnell, who subsequently became Bishop of Norwich was rector from 1706 to 1709. Dr Jackson, Bishop of Lincoln and afterwards of London, was rector for one year only (1853). Who would conceive that unattractive brick- cased pile with its wretched wooden spire — the design for which, by one Wilcox, a carpenter in *Mr Philip Stubbs, afterwards Archdeacon of St Albans. 320 London Churches the parish, was chosen by the vestry in preference to one for the same furnished by Wren himself, and the cost of whose erection was estimated to exceed the other by only ;^ioo — encloses one of the choicest and most elegantly formed interiors which London can boast? — one which displays in the highest degree, the extraordinary talents of our great architect Sir Christopher Wren. The interior of St James’ is a masterpiece, light, airy, graceful and capacious — an example of Wren’s love of harmony in proportions, and well worthy the study of an architect. Its breadth is half the sum of its height and length, its height half its length, and its breadth the sesquialteral of its height, the numbers being 84, 63 and 42 feet. In plan St James’ is basilical, nave and aisles being formed by two ranges of six piers and columns in two stories. The piers which are of the Doric Order, panelled, carry the galleries, the fronts of the latter, of oak, with carved enrich- mients, forming the entablature of the Order, with a low attic above, to complete the breastwork. The upper Order is the Corinthian. Columns rise from the breastwork of the galleries, and the highly enriched entablature of these, stretching across from each column to the side walls, serves as imposts to a series of transverse arches from column to column, forming the covering to the aisles, whilst from the abaci also springs the great semi- circular vault that covers the nave. The whole roof is divided into sunk panels, ornamented with festoons of drapery and flowers in relief, producing by its unity, richness, and harmonious proportions, a result truly enchanting. These ceilings and their ST. J.AMES', PICCADILLY. The Altarimece. i St James’, Piccadilly 321 enrichments, as we now see them, date only from 1837, when the decayed state of the timbers had rendered an entire new roof to the church neces- sary. The work was strictly a restoration. Wren, in a letter printed by Elmes, says: ‘‘I can hardly think it practicable to make a single room so capacious, with pews and galleries, as to hold 2,000 persons and all to hear the service and see the preacher. I endeavoured to effect this in building the parish church of St James’, West- minster, which, I presume, is the most capacious with those qualifications that hath yet been built.” The large Venetian window above the altar was filled in 1846 with stained glass by Wailes, but it is inconsistent with the environments, being too much in the mediaeval style. This glass formed the subject of an angry controversy between Wailes and another contemporary glass painter, Warring- ton, whose design, to judge by the description of it, would appear to have been more in keeping with the architecture. The appointments of the altar are truly superb, especially Grinling Gibbons’ carving about the altarpiece, upon which Evelyn so dilates in his Diary, December 16, 1684. — I went to see the new Church at St James’, elegantly built. The altar was especialy adorn’d, the white marble inclosure curiously and richly carved, the flowers and gar- lands about the walls by Mr Gibbons, in wood; a pelican, with her young at her breast, just over the altar in the carv’d compartment and bor- der’d, invironing the purple velvet fring’d with I.H.S. richly embroider’d, and most noble plate, 1-2 1 1 322 London Churches were given by Sir R. Geere, to the value (as was said) of £200. There was no altar anywhere in England, nor has there ben any abroad, more handsomely adorn’d.” The wood is lime, with cedar for the reredos; the marble scrolls have been replaced by bronze. In addition, a noble festoon ending in two pendants, which extends nearly the whole length of the screen, displays all the varied representations of fruit and flowers in the highest relief. This elabor- ate and delicate work having become much injured by the casualties of 160 years, was thoroughly repaired in 1846 by two Italian artists — a work of much protracted labour; several thousand bits of carving, more or less minute, requiring to be added in order to restore the groupings to their pristine state. Of equal beauty is the white marble font, ex- quisitely sculptured by Gibbons. It is nearly five feet high, and the bowl is about six feet in circum- ference. The shaft represents the Tree of Life, with the serpent twining round it, and offering the forbidden fruit to Eve, who, with Adam, stands beneath. These figures are 18 inches high. On the bowl are bas-reliefs of the Baptism of Our Lord, the Baptizing of the Treasurer of Candace by St Philip the Deacon, and the Ark of Noah, with the Dove bearing the olive-branch. The cover of this font (shown in an engraving by Vertue in George Ill’s Collection of Prints in the British Museum) held by a flying angel and a group of cherubim, was stolen about the beginning of the last century, and subsequently hung up as a sign at a spirit shop in the neighbourhood. No less superb than the instrumenta ecclesiastica St James’, Piccadilly 323 just described is the organ, built for James II and intended for his Roman Catholic Chapel at White- hall, but given to this parish by his daughter Queen Mary II in 1694. It is in two oaken cases standing one before the other, the organist’s place being between them. The great case is in the florid style of the period of its original construction (Louis Quatorze). The carving of fames, angels, cherubs’ heads, etc., with which it is adorned strikingly mark by their great beauty, the master hand of Gibbons. This favourite old instrument, originally built by the celebrated Renatus Harris in 1678, was entirely rebuilt by Bishop in 1852 on a much more comprehensive scale, but retaining the old pipes — for these, the mellowing hand of time had rendered of more than ordinary value — when the old case was likewise restored with the original decoration, and the detached front choir organ erected. Unlike St Martin’s or St Margaret’s, St James’, Westminster, cannot boast of any organist or church composers of distinction. During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the earlier part of the succeeding one, Raphael, or as he is usually styled Ralph, Courteville,*held the post. The son of Raphael Courteville, a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in the time of Charles I and founder of the Courteville family, he is chiefly remembered by that solid old English psalm tune styled St James'^ and set in Hymns Ancient and •Raphael Courteville, son of the organist of St Janies’, suc- ceeded his father in that post, probably in 1735. He was a severe political writer and gained the nickname of Court Evil. He died in 1771. The Burrows, father and son, were organists of St James’, for nearly a century. l-2ia 324 London Churches Modern to Thou art the W ay ^ by Thee alone ^ and For all Thy Saints^ a noble throng. Courteville also wrote, in conjunction with Purcell, the opera Don Quixote ,the libretto being furnished by Tom d’Urfey. Six sonatas for two violins, sonatas for two flutes, and some songs in contemporary collections are other productions of Courteville’s muse. Of late years,, under the care of successive rectors, the interior of St James’, Piccadilly, has not only been well arranged for modern requirements, but has been decorated with much taste.* Many of the windows are filled with stained glass, which in spite of an absence of uni- formity is on the whole satisfactory. Indeed, there are few London church interiors of its epoch more satisfying in general effect. The [paint- ings of the Institution of the Eucharist, and of the Epistolers and Gospellers, within and on either side of the altarpiece, are by the late Mr Alfred Bell. Among the celebrities interred in St James’ may be named: Charles Cotton, the companion of Walton in the Complete Angler; Dr Sydenham, with a marble tablet erected by the College of Physicians, in 1810; Hayman, the portrait-painter; the two Vanderveldes, the marine painters, and Michael Dahl, the Swedish portrait-painter; Dr Arbuthnot, the friend of Pope, Gay, Swift and Prior; Benjamin Stillingfleet, the naturalist, so touchingly deplored by Pennant in the preface to his British Zoology; Akenside, author of the *The choristers’ desks supported on fluted Corinthian pillarets are of unusual elegance and should be particularly noticed. ST. JAMES’, PICCADILLY, The Organ. St James’, Piccadilly 325 Pleasures of Imagination (d. 1770); Gillray, the caricaturist (1815), James Dodsley, the bookseller, with a tablet; and G. H. Harlow, the painter of The Trial of Queen Katherine, In the church-room is a tablet (formerly on the southern face of the tower), to Thomas d’Urfey, dramatist and song-writer, inscribed “ Tom d’Ur- fey, died February 26, 1723.” Nollekens, the sculptor, when a lad, had an idle propensity for bell-tolling, and whenever his master missed him, and the dead-bell of St James’ Church was tolling, he knew perfectly well what “ Joey ” was at. The collection of portraits of the rectors of St James’ in the vestry is well worth seeing. From its situation in one of the most fashionable quarters of the town, St James’, Piccadilly, is fre- quently alluded to in books and plays of the last two centuries. Here are a few extracts: “ St James’ Church is also worth seeing more especially on a holiday or Sunday, when the fine assembly of beauties and quality come there. But there is one fault in the churches here, and that is, that a stranger cannot have a convenient seat without paying for it; and particularly at this St James’ where it costs one about as dear as to see a play.”^ “Another foolish thing that was done by the same advice, as I suppose, was sending to the minister of St James’ Church, where the Princessf used to go while she lived at Berkeley House, to forbid them to lay the text upon her cushion, or * De Foe, A Journey through England, t Afterwards Queen Anne 326 London Churches take any more notice of her than other people. But the minister refusing to obey without some written order from the Crown in writing, which they did not care to give, that noble design dropt.”* ^‘Berinthia, Pray which church does your lord- ship most oblige with your presence? ^‘LordFopfington. Oh! St James’, madam: there’s much the best company. ^‘Amanda, Is there good preaching too? ‘^Lord Foppington. Why, faith, madam, I can’t tell. A man must have very little to do there that can give an account of the sermon. ”f ^‘Lucinda, For my part I hate solitude, churches and prayers. ‘‘Belliza, So do I, directly; for except St James’ Church, one scarce sees a well drest man, or ever receives a bow from anything above one’s mercer.” J From a volume bearing the title. Select Psalms U 7 id Hymns for the use of the Parish Church and Chappell belonging to the Parish of St James\ West- minster^ and dating from about the year 1735, it appears that prayers were said there four times every weekday, viz., at six (seven in winter), eleven, three, and six “of the clock” in the evening. On “every Lord’s Day” there were prayers and sermon at ten and three, as also prayers at six or seven in the morning and five in the afternoon. It appears to have been the rule to have a celebration of the Holy Communion throughout the year on the second Sunday in the month, and also on every *An Account oj the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marl- borough. tVanbrugh, 7 he Relapse; or^ Virtue in Danger. :{:Mrs Centlivre, Lovers Contrivance. St James’, Piccadilly 327 Sunday from Palm Sunday to Whit Sunday. On Palm Sunday, Easter Day, Whit Sunday and Christmas Day, Holy Communion was celebrated twice, and it is stated in a note that “when there are two Sacraments the first morning service begins between six and seven.” On the Sunday after Michaelmas there was “one Sacrament early.” Catechizing took place on Thursdays from Michaelmas to Christmas, from Epiphany to Ash- Wednesday, and from Easter to Midsummer. The principal services at the “Chappel in King Street ”* were daily prayer four times, as at the church, and on Sundays, prayers and sermon at ten and three. There was a celebration on the last Sunday of every month. “ At the Chappel in Barwick Street”f daily prayers were said at eleven and five, prayers and sermon on Sundays at ten and three, and a celebration on the first Sunday in each month.On the whole then, the parish of St James’, Westminster, was well provided for in the matter of services during the later Stuart and earlier Georgian periods. That the people appreciated these privileges is abundantly clear, for in a fare- well sermon preached January 30, 1708, by the Rector, Dr Trimnell, who had just been appointed Bishop of Norwich, he speaks of “ the numerous and orderly assemblies on the return of these days, and those multitudes that, without superstition or tumult, every month crowd up to the altar; the good congregations there are at all the four courses *Now St Thomas’, Regent Street, founded by Archbishop Tenison and, in John Evelyn’s day popularly styled “The Tabernacle.” tWhether this “chappel” occupied the site of the present St Luke’s, Berwick Street, I am unable to say. 328 London Churches of the daily prayers; the encouragement that is given by those who are advanced in knowledge and years to the catechizing of children; by a greater appearance than ordinary on the days of that exercise; the calling for more opportunities of wor- ship, which has added a course to the daily service in one part of the parish, and occasioned the open- ing of a new chapel in another.”* When in June 1687, King James II established, for the second time, a camp on Hounslow Heath, it in every way disappointed the expectations of His Majesty. The commanders vied, Evelyn says, in the expense and magnificence of their tents, and the Londoners resorted thither in thousands; but the result was, that by freely mixing with the sol- diers, they rendered them, in general, as discon- tented with his measures as they themselves were. A large Romish chapel was built of wood in the camp, the timbers of which were, after the Revo- lution, obtained by Dr Tenison (then Vicar of St Martin-in- the-Fields and eventually Archbishop of Canterbury) and by him applied to the erection of a new church in his large parish; it was known as Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street, Regent Street, but is no longer in existence. *This refer? to Archbishop Tenison’s chapel and to the chapel in Berwick Street. 329 CHAPTER VII The Churches of Sir Christopher Wren {continued^ S T LAWRENCE, JEWRY, Gresham Street, of which the first stone was laid April 12, 1671, cost 1,870 IS. 9 d., the largest sum paid for any of the City churches which Wren erected.* The original church was of very ancient origin. In the twenty-second year of the reign of Edward I, we find Hugo de Wickenbroke giving the right of patronage to Baliol College, Oxford, then newly founded by the parents of John Baliol, King of Scotland. Two years later, in December, 1295, Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London, con- stituted the church a vicarage, appropriating it to the masters and scholars of the College. From that date the incumbent of the church has always been a Vicar, presented either by the College, or in some instances by the parishioners, by virtue of a lease granted to them by the College, and latterly by the Dean and Chapter of St PauEs alternately with the College. In the ancient church were buried several eminent personages including Sir Godfrey Bullen, *A marble slab on the south wall of the church has the follow- ing inscription; “Against this stone is the opening of the vault of the families of the Rawstones and of Robert Baxter, church- warden, who set the first foundation stone of this church the 1 2th of April, 1671.” i 330 London Churches Mayor of London in 1457, great-grandfather of Anne Boleyn, the wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth; and Sir Richard Gresham, Mayor, 1537, father of the celebrated Sir Thomas Gresham. In the fourteenth year of the reign of Edward II we learn from S tow’s Survey that Walter Blun- dell established a chantry in the^church; other chantries were established as time rolled on, and the church became exceedingly rich in jewels, plate, vestments, bells and other ornaments, all of which are set forth in an Inventory taken on July 20, “in the VI yere of the King’s [Edward VI] maiesties reign.” In 1618 the church was restored and beautified, but in 1666 it shared the fate of so many of the ancient buildings of the city, being completely burnt to the ground. The present church, built throughout of stone, consists of a very wide nave and shallow sanctuary, a north aisle partly forming the vestry, and a western tower and spire 150 feet high. The latter is of wood covered with lead, and is surmounted by a vane in the form of a gridiron, the emblem of the patron Saint and upon which he suffered martyrdom. The style is the Corinthian, and the eastern fagade with its two round-headed windows between attached columns is not only the most finished of all Wren’s east ends but one of the purest and most classical exhibitions of his talents on a similar scale. In 1706 a gallery was erected on the north side of the church which was removed during the alterations made in 1866-67, when the St Lawrence, Gresham Street 331 interior was reseated with open pews, the floor of the sanctuary raised, a chorus cantorum formed, and many decorations added in various parts, includ- ing the insertion of much rich stained glass by various artists, under the direction of the late Sir Arthur Blomfield. Among the flne paintings is one, in the vestry, of the Martyrdom of St Lawrence, by Spagnaletto, saved from destruction out of the former church. The vestry walls are entirely covered with the flnest dark oak. The ceiling has upon it elaborately modelled foliage and other devices, and a painting of the Apotheosis of St Lawrence, ascribed to Sir James Thornhill. The decorations of the east end of the church are very elaborate, including a mosaic picture of the Ascension by Messrs Clayton and Bell, between the two windows, which contain an admirable series of subjects in stained glass by the same artists. The north and south windows of the sanctuary, plain circular ones and representing St Lawrence before the Emperor, and St Mary Magdalen washing our Lord’s feet with her tears,* are by Heaton and Butler. In the north aisle, partly separated from the nave, where the gallery was erected in 1706, and now used as a choir vestry, are several curious and some flne monuments of late seventeenth-century character. The organ, which happily retains its place upon a screen richly carved in dark oak at the west end of the nave, was the work of Renatus Harris. Father *In allusion to the Church of St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, not rebuilt after the Fire, but whose parish was united to that of St Lawrence. 332 London Churches Smith competed with Harris for the contract, but it was given to the latter in 1684. In the following February he was paid ^^loo on account, and in August, 1686, ;^300 as the balance due to him. The case and gallery cost It appears by the parish records that before a final settlement with Harris, Dr Blow and Henry Purcell were called in to try it. The organ was originally placed between the first pillar on the north side and the west wall, and was removed to its present position in 1707. Important additions were made to it in 1710 and 1725, and about thirty years ago it was completely re- built. Formerly the front portion of the larger organ and the small choir-organ, bracketed^forward from the gallery, formed the entire instrument, which was remarkable alone for the great beauty of its case, designed, as it was, by Wren and carved by the masterly hand of Gibbons. When, in 1875, an entirely new organ was con- structed by Gray and Davison, it was necessary, in order to accommodate the greatly enlarged instru- ment, to make additions to the case. Side organ cases with ‘‘towers” and “flats” were introduced, corresponding with the original work. The gallery, which is also finely carved in oak, was projected further into the church, and the choir-organ en- larged. This was carried out from the_designs of the Messrs Young, architects; and the care taken by those gentlemen to make their additions corre- j spond as nearly as possible with the original work ! reflects great credit upon their taste^and judge- ment. The richness of the carving may be imagined when it is stated that one panel, which was required 1 S r . LA \V R E N C E , J E W R V . Interior, looking West. .^■f- ' ■ • " - 'US "r r j^r ■■ ■ -' >!, r ■ ■' " r5 ’ <': .;.! 5cgh;;t^ 4- • v'"i. '.- ■"■ -V^' “ - . . 't j .'■!^'’ - 7- •'--'+^^J L'-iT '> ^9 -iife-' "-o; ■■•^•-■' ^rr '■ W7 • :X ,. V*i5.i ' ^ ^ ^ "If 1 • ''* - '^'u* St Lawrence, Gresham Street 333 to match another originally carved by Gibbons, cost ^140. Parochial church music, as well, indeed, as the whole service, seems to have been sadly out of order at times during the eighteenth century. The manners described by hilarious Dick Steele and stately Mr Addison in the Tattler and Spectator certainly existed. There werej'igs from the organ loft, and vocal ladies in the congregation sometimes quavered and trilled an unreasonable time after the conclusion of the psalm. John Robinson,* the organist of St Lawrence’s, was one of the nimble- fingered offenders who used to rattle away in this manner, in quick solos on the cornet stop, as if he really desired that his hearers should ^^go home in a coranto.” But Dr Boyce has gravely recorded his disapproval of this bad style; he has shown how much better adapted to a sacred service is the sober and soothing diapason movement, well-conducted in four parts. He has also taken occasion to correct the taste for modulation which some musicians evince in their laborious search for remoteness of key, by showing true science is rather found in the display of variety in a small circle of keys than by repeated or startling transitions. Soon after the reopening of St Lawrence’s, on the completion of the alterations under Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1867, a request was made to the Vicar, the Rev. B. Morgan Cowie,t (Minor Canon of St Paul’s), by some laymen residing in and near *For some further particulars respecting John Robinson see under St Magnus the Martyr, p. 340. tin 1873 Mr Cowie was promoted to the Deanery of Man- chester and subsequently to that of Exeter 334 London Churches the parish, that there should be a celebration of the Blessed Eucharist at 7.30 a.m. on every Holy Day, and a Litany at the same hour on Wednesdays and Fridays. The suggestion was most willingly ac- quiesced in bythe Vicar,and the services so arranged were very greatly appreciated, mostly by business men. As the time drew on for the first Pan- Anglican Conference to be held at Lambeth during the autumn of 1867, it was suggested that advan- tage might well be taken of the presence of so many American and Colonial Bishops, to hold a course of missionary services and so give the prelates an opportunity to state publicly what was doing in their respective fields of labour, and to urge the necessity of larger and more systematic efforts being made to spread abroad the Gospel of Christ. Mr Cowie having obtained the sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Longley) and the Bishop of London (Dr Tait), communications were entered into with the various bishops with a view to secure their co-operation. A choir of 100 voices, consisting entirely of volunteers, was also organized, and the result was a series of services which brought this hitherto but little known old City church prominently before the church-going public. Some of the newspaper reports of these services were extremely ridiculous, ^he Pall Mall Gazette of September 16, in noticing the opening service of the series, describing the choir as “consisting of about seventy boys, priests and acolytes, each at- tired in a white cope (!) or surplice of the precise Roman Catholic cut, over long black gowns or cas- socks.” St Magnus the Martyr 335 It is worthy of note that three successive vicars of St Lawrence Jewry attained the high office of the episcopate, viz., Edward Reynolds, who was consecrated to the see of Norwich in i66i; Seth Ward who was consecrated to the see of Exeter in 1662; and John Wilkins,* consecrated to that of Chester in 1668. Two of the Parish Lecturers rose to thearchiepis- copal dignity, viz.. Dr John Tillotson to be Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and Dr John Sharp to be Archbishop of York, both in the year 1691. The old church of St Magnus the Martyr, near London Bridge, was one of the first churches to fall a prey to that conflagration which is commemor- ated by the Monument that dominates this quarter of the town. The present church was commenced in 1675, but the beautiful steeple, said, on the authority of Gwilt,to be Wren’s original design for that of Bow Church, was not completed until thirty years afterwards. St Magnus’ steeple is the loftiest and hand- somest of the lead dome and spirelet type in the City. The cupola, which is of masonry below, is of an octagonal shape, and, like the tower,measures a foot more in one direction than the other; this irregu- larity is, however, so treated as to be imperceptible. It is relieved by large openings, and is furnished with a dome and upper lantern of exceedingly graceful contour. •Wilkins died while the present church of St Lawrence was building, November 19, 1672, and was interred in it. The register records the marriage of Tillotson (February 23, 1663-4) and his burial in 1694. funeral sermon was preached here by Bishop Burnet. 336 London Churches The extraordinary manner in which Wren’s churches were adapted to the streets they were placed in is remarkable, one being this of St Magnus. Originally, the lower part of the tower was closed, but when public convenience rendered it necessary to carry a way through it for foot pas- sengers, it was found|that in the construction of the work. Wren had anticipated and provided for such a measure by leaving a straight joint in the masonry. At that time the only entrance way to the tower was from the west, where the steps in descent now are. But hereupon Wren’s prescience came to light. Foreseeing the requirements of a later age, the architect had constructed the base of the tower in such a manner that the necessary passages might be made without imperilling the stability of his work. For in the tower walls, north and south, two arches were found already embodied in the masonry, and these are the arches of the present day. In this respect the tower of St Magnus’ should be compared with that of Christ Church, Newgate Street. It is to be observed that the two openings no longer serve for their adopted purpose ; much space to the south is now thrown into the church- yard, and the wharfs beyond are approached by a detour opening out of Lower Thames Street. Until the basement of the tower was pierced to admit of a thoroughfare for foot-passengers, the side aisles of St Magnus were continued to include the tower. After a fire in 1760,* which destroyed many *It is said that this fire at St Magnus in 1760 was caused by a workman who had left some oil boiling, while he ran off to see Earl Ferrers return from his trial and conviction Nearly all the ST. MAGNUS, LONDON BRIDGE, St Magnus the Martyr 337 houses on Old London Bridge, the footway was made to the aisles of the church, consequently re- duced to their present length. The north side formerly presented one of the finest specimens of Wren’s architecture, now reduced to an orna- mental wall and deprived of the beauty resulting from uniformity by this alteration. Formerly it had eight windows in the aisles similar to those now existing in blank in the west front, and a doorway, arched and surmounted with a pediment beneath a circular window, above which is a festoon of flowers and fruits. The design was then broken into three divisions, the central one projecting in like manner. Seven of these windows remain but are walled up to the greater proportion of their height, and by the addition of a reversed arch are con- verted into circular windows, as was the case some years later at St Michael’s, Cornhill. The east front of the church is built against by a warehouse, and a portion of the south side was, until a fire on July 31, 1827, concealed by other buildings.* This part of the church, having been damaged by the previous fire in 1760, was rebuilt in brick covered with compo. In the vestibule are doorcases belong- ing to the side entrance in the old front. They are of the Corinthian order. The Ionic columns dividing the nave from its aisles are cabled to about one-third of their height, but the effect of the colonnade, otherwise elegant, is marred by the irregularity of the intercolumnia- roof was destroyed, the organ damaged and the vestry quite con- sumed. *St Magnus was only saved on this occasion by the strenuous and praiseworthy efforts of the firemen. 1-22 338 London Churches tions, the second from the west being as broad as the one which precedes it and the two succeeding ones. The extreme intercolumniations at the east end are still narrower. This apparent irregularity, which existed also in the removed church of St George, Botolph Lane, is explained by the circumstance of the alteration which took place when the church was shortened, by which means the widest space, which was intended by the architect for a centre, was removed from its distinguishing situation to one in which it appears to be out of all propriety. The peculiar arrangement of these colonnades does away with the once-believed but vague idea of the architect having pierced his tower in anticipa- tion of the change which would take place. If this were the case, we must believe that Wren acted most absurdly in not building the body of the church in a form which would have allowed the change to be effected with less violence to the harmony of the design. St Magnus’ contains a splendid Corinthian altar- piece with carvings by Gibbons, and paintings of Moses and Aaron, and a font, a circular basin of marble on a stone terminal pillar. The. cover is a square temple, with a flower pot and bouquet, tastefully carved, attached to each face. The organ in St Magnus’, the gift of Sir Charles Buncombe, was the work of Jordan, who deserves special recognition as the inventor of the swell- organ in 1712. Of the swell-organ, in its approved treatment. Green may be justly styled the father, his mecha- nical genius leading him to greatly improve the V St Magnus the Martyr 339 construction of the swell-box. For refinement and sweetness of tone Green’s organs have probably never been surpassed. His reed-stops were finer than any made by his contemporaries, and during the latter part of the eighteenth century he was facile 'princefs among builders of what Balzac has styled “ the King of Instruments.” While on the subject of eighteenth-century organ builders, Glyn and Parker, who built an organ for Manchester Collegiate Church (now the Cathedral) in 1730, should be mentioned. The first organ in the chapel of the Foundling Hospital was built by them in 1749. Handel opened it, and it is probable that it was through his recommendation that the work was entrusted to Glyn and Parker, to the disappointment of the Metropolitan builders. Besides Father Smith, Renatus Harris, and the two just mentioned, the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries produced a long line of organ builders, all of them noted in their several ways, and who carried the art on with a succession of improvements until we reach the era of Willis, Walker, Hill and their confreres; as, e.g., Avery, Bridge, Byfield, England, Gray, Lincoln, Nicholls, and Snetzler, whose names will be found alluded to at different times in the course of these pages. To return to the organ at St Magnus’, The Spectator of February 8, 1712, has the following announcement: “Whereas, Mr Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have with their own hands, joynery excepted, made and erected a very large organ in St Magnus’ Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of four sets of keys, one of which 1-22U 340 London Churches is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling the notes, which never was in any organ before; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next, the performance by Mr John Robinson. The abovesaid Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers, that he will attend every day next week at the said church to accommodate all those gentlemen who shall have a curiosity to hear it.” The John Robinson, alluded To above, was a pluralist. Together with that of St Magnus’ he held the organistship of St Lawrence Jewry, and from 1727 to 1762 was organist of Westminster Abbey, still retaining the other two posts. Robinson is best remembered by a double chant in E flat, said to have been a favourite with King George III, and retained in most modern collections. Jordan’s instrument in St Magnus’ still exists, but has been much altered and modernized at various times, i.e.,in 1825 by Parsons, in 1852 by Gray and Davison, and later by Hill. Only three of the original four sets of keys remain. The tower has a fine peal of ten bells, and from the western face projects a handsomely carved and gilt projecting dial the gift of Sir Charles Dun- combe, Alderman of the Ward, in the year of his Mayoralty, 1709. It was made by Langley Bradley, at a cost to Sir Charles of ;^485 5s. 4d., but shorn of much of its ornamentation it now bears the date 1883. Sir Charles Duncombe is said to have pre- sented this clock in fulfilment of a vow taken when, as a boy, he missed his master through not knowing the hour, and lost his time waiting onLondon Bridge. Within the church is a Gothic panel, placed here ST. MARGARET’S, LOTHBIIRY. Interior, looking East. St Margaret’s, Lothbury 341 in 1837 commemorate Miles Coverdale, rector for some time of St Magnus and afterwards Bishop of Exeter. Coverdale was buried in St Bartholo- mew’s by the Exchange, and when that church was removed about sixty-five years ago and rebuilt in Moor Lane, his remains were transferred to and interred in St Magnus. The beautifully carved foliage and flowers beneath the monument of Thomas Collet (1733) should be remarked. Eew City church interiors are more pictur- esque than that of St Margaret’s, Lothbury. This is due in a measure to the taste of the pre- sent Rector, the Rev. Prebendary Ingram, who called in Mr Bodley to superintend the arrange- ment of the beautiful woodwork, including the chancel screen, removed here from All Hallows the Great and Less, Thames Street, and the altar- piece and other woodwork, transferred from St Olave’s, Old Jewry. The great screen which spans the nave at St Margaret’s has an unusually interest- ing history. The neighbourhood of Thames Street and the river bank may be called the ‘‘Cradle of the City,” as the earliest place of commerce was at Queen- hithe. Ever since the time of the Normans, the Customs have formed a source of revenue, and here, in 1250, Henry Ill’s brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, had jurisdiction over weights. In the Steelyard, the site of which is now occupied by Cannon Street Station, the Hanseatic merchants were established and had their Guildhall, their charter of liberty being granted in 1259. They, however, possessed no chapel, but worshipped in 342 London Churches the Church of All Hallows the Great, which they beautified by presenting windows and founding altars, at length endowing a chapel therein. The church was entirely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, with the exception of the tower. After the Fire the parishes of All Hallows the Great and Less were united, and the church, a broad pillar- less expanse, was rebuilt by Wren, the cost of the fabric being defrayed out of the coal dues, and amounted to ^5,640. The parishioners, however, raised a rate for the sum of ^500 for the interior fittings. At that time the Alaster of the Steelyard was Jacob Jacobson, a very rich and benevolent man, who gave ^10 to the poor of the parish and rebuilt the Guildhall; he died in 1680. There is a curious legend to the effect that this famous screen, now in St Margaret’s, Lothbury, was made in Hamburg and was the gift of the Dutch merchants; but recent research has quite disposed of this tradition; for it appears to have been put forward by Malcolm in 1803,* a hundred and twenty years after the re-edification of All Hallows’ Church. It has also been said that Jacob Jacobson gave the screen, but the church was not ready to receive any fittings until three years after his death. The truth seems to be that the parish- ioners had always desired to have a screen, but they were in want of money and could not pay for it. Theodore Jacobson, who had succeeded his brother as Master of the Steelyard, had given the pulpit to the church, and thereupon came forward and presented the screen. *In his Londinium Redivivum, a work highly praised at the time of its publication by 7 he British Critic, St Margaret’s, Lothbury 343 An interesting comparison between the screens of St Margaret’s, Lothbury, and of St Peter’s, Cornhill — the only other instance of this appen- dage on so grandiose a scale, to a City church — strongly confirms the belief that both are of English design and workmanship, only differing in some small details. The measurements of both are identical, the cost of each was about the same, and there are other entries in the parish books as to the charges for the screen; and, finally, it is known that the screen in St Peter’s was carved by Englishmen. St Margaret’s, which this screen fits so admir- ably, consists of a broad nave divided from its south aisle by a colonnade of graceful Corinthian columns, and a shallow sanctuary of which the northern side is shorter than the southern. In this instance Wren doubtless had, as at St Mary Alder- mary, to follow the lines of the old church, hence the curious declension of the east end. The nave is well enlightened by large round-headed windows which it is proposed to fill with stained glass representing the patron saints of the six demo- lished churches whose parishes are now united with St Margaret’s, Lothbury, i.e., St Christopher-le- Stocks, St Bartholomew by the Exchange, St Olave, Old Jewry, St Martin Pomeroy, St Mil- dred, Poultry and St Mary Colechurch.* Messrs Burlison and Grylls are to be entrusted with the execution of this stained glass, which from the designs on view in one of the vestries, promises to be of the best and most appropriate character. It is also in contemplation to fill the central space over *The churches of St Martin Pomeroy and St Mary Cole- church were not rebuilt after the Great Fire. - 4 344 London Churches the high altar with a bas-relief of the Ascension from the late Mr Bodley’s pencil. Observe the view up the south aisle from the vestibule, including the marble font with its bas- reliefs of the Temptation of Adam by Eve, the Return of the Dove to the Ark, the Baptism of Our Lord, and that of the Eunuch by St Philip, and its canopy of cherubs’ heads enclosing the Dove bearing the olive branch — all from the masterly hand of Gibbons; the screens between the colon- nades, partly of the seventeenth century and partly modern from Mr Bodley’s designs; the pavements of varied marbles; the two altarpieces rich in carving, the pulpit with its magnificent enrich- ments of fruit and flowers and its sounding-board, and the refined taste which characterizes the ar- rangements generally. The two vestries should be visited by those interested in such apartments. The two large paintings of Moses and Aaron, in the blocked windows on either side of the altar came from St Christopher-le-Stocks on its demoli- tion towards the end of the eighteenth century. Concerning the affix “Pattens” to St Margaret’s, Rood Lane, no definite information can be gleaned. Stow says it was called “Pattens” “because of old,” in what is now Rood Lane, “pattens were there usually made and sold; while others represent it as having been called St Margaret, “ad patinas” (i.e., of the dishes) because it was built upon what had been the site of an earthenware shop or market. Externally it is chiefly remarkable for its steeple, which consists of a beautifully proportioned stone tower with pinnacles, and supporting a tall lead spire which approaches the Gothic model more ST. MARGARET’S, LOTHBURY, The Font. St Margaret Pattens 345 closely than any other in the City. It is interesting to see a form so universally associated with stone construction so cleverly adapted to a different material. Like St Lawrence Jewry and St Margaret’s Lothbury, the church in Rood Lane consists of a broad nave with one aisle, in this instance on the north side, the three Corinthian columns separat- ing it from the nave, standing, as usual, upon high pedestals. The gallery front breaks round the lower part of these columns in a curve, somewhat injur- ing their apparent proportion as it thereby ac- centuates the line of the woodwork.* Here is an unbroken entablature with groined cove and flat ceiling; much good woodwork, especially about the canopied seats of the parish officials; a fine altar- piece — Angels ministering to Christ in the Garden — ascribed to Carlo Maratti; two sword rests, one exceptionally good; and a marble font whose cover* is quite unworthy of it. There is a monument by Rysbrach, to Sir P. Delme, Lord Mayor in 1723, and a tablet to Dr Thomas Birch (d. 1766), author of the General Dictionary^ and an important contributor to the illustration of British History. Birch was buried in the chancel of St Margaret’s, of which he had been rector nineteen years, according to the desire ex- pressed in his will. The inventories and churchwardens’ accounts of St Margaret Pattens are of unusual value and interest. During the rectorate of the Rev. J. L. Fish, an able ecclesiologist and musician, the services at St *This formed no part of the original design, the gallery having been deepened at a much more subsequent period. 346 London Churches Margaret’s attained both musically and ritually a well-deserved reputation for the dignity and beauty with which they were carried out. Now an Anglican commonplaceness is the order of the day at this celebrated old City church where the mid- day Eucharist on great festivals and Saints’ days was invariably attended by large and devout con- gregations, accompanied as it was with all the grandeur of lights, vestments and incense, and music by the greatest English and foreign church composers. St Martin’s, Ludgate, is unique among City churches in that it has its greater dimensions from north to south, instead of from east to west, and hemmed in as it is on three sides, can only be ap- proached from the south. Wren, who was never at a loss for an expedient, took advantage of any irregularity of site for con- structing something that should be at once useful and adding to the dignity of his interior. At St Martin’s he formed a spacious vestibule on the south side, which not only affords a commodious entrance and keeps out noises from the street, but enhances the relative dimensions of the interior. In the centre of this vestibule, over which a gallery is , formed, he placed his tower, whose gracefully contoured spire of wood covered with lead affords exactly the contrast that was required to the cam- panili and dome of the neighbouring cathedral. St Martin’s, one of the three churches built in- ternally on the Greek-cross plan, is as imposing and satisfying as any within the City area. The nave is divided from its aisles by two graceful Corinthian columns, with their capitals tastefully gilt, and St Martin’s, Ludgate 34.7 elevated on unusually tall octagonal pedestals. They carry an entablature with modillion cornice, above which springs a plain circular vault covering each arm of the cross. There is no central dome, the vaults intersecting over in a regular groin which is relieved at the apex by a large circular flower. The walls are lined with wainscot, which is carried round the pedestals of the columns to a height of nearly eight feet. Of all the City churches whose interiors have been made subservient to present-day require- ments, there is perhaps no one in which the neces- sary work has been carried out in a more quiet and sympathetic spirit. Could Wren come to life again and behold it, the interior of St Martin’s at the present day would rejoice his heart, for one can scarcely think it possible that had be been able to have his own way, he would have tolerated those huge horse-boxes of pews with which all his churches were equipped. The late C. E. Kempe’s treatment of the stained glass is also praiseworthy. Round the font is a Greek inscription, which reads the same backwards as forwards: Nl^ON ANOMHMA MH MONAN ()'?1N. The above palindromical inscription or anagram, which in English reads thus: “Wash the guilt,* not the face only,” is to be found on the font at Sandbach, Cheshire, Harlow, Essex, Dulwich College Chapel, and elsewhere. The font in Rufford Church, Lancashire, is mentioned by Jeremy Taylor as bearing this inscription. On the font in •Sometimes rendered as “the whole body.” 348 London Churches the church of the Petits Peres at Paris the Latin equivalent is given in addition, Ablue feccatUy non solum faciem. Extraordinary antiquity has been claimed for the ancient church of St Martin’s, Ludgate. Accord- ing to Newcourt, it is alleged that Cadwallo, the valiant King of the Britons, after he had reigned for forty years, died in 677 and was buried in this place; and Robert of Gloucester tells us of the said monarch: A Church of St Martyn, livyng he let rere, In whych yat men shold Goddys seruyse do, And sing for his Soule and Christene also. The former church dated from the first half of the fifteenth century. Samuel Purchas, known by his Pilgrimages^ was rector here in 1613. He has been styled “the English Ptolemy,” but gained more fame than profit by his publications, for he died in 1628, in distressed circumstances, occasioned by the publication of the Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes of which the best edition is that in five volumes, folio, 1625-26. Of St Mary Abchurch,* in Abchurch Lane, between King William Street, and Cannon Street, the chief feature is the domed ceiling formed by eight arches springing from corbels affixed to the walls, and from a column and pilaster at the west end, all of the Corinthian order, corbels being formed by the capitals of a pilaster. These arches gather over into pendentives and sustain a modil- lion cornice which serves as impost toahemispheri- *“St Mary Abchurch, Apechurch, or Upchurch, as I have read it, standeth on a rising ground.^’ — Stozv. The dark red brick material of the exterior walls is very charming. St Mary Abchurch 349 cal dome, the whole surface of which is painted. It is pierced with four windows of the port-hole kind, and just above them is a painted repetition of the cornice, the interval between that and the lower cornice being occupied by a painting in chiaroscuro of eight seated female figures in imitation of sculpture representing saints and martyrs. The remainder of the dome is painted in colours with a cherubic choir, some of whom are playing on various musical instruments, some singing, and others in the act of adoration. In the centre is an irradiation surrounding the Hebrew name of the Deity. About the altarpiece is some of the loveliest carving ever executed by the cunning hand of Grinling Gibbons. Indeed, when viewing it, we feel that the story of the pot of flowers carved by Gib- bons when he lived in Belle Sauvage Court on Lud- gate Hill, and which shook surprisingly with the motion of the hackney coaches that passed by, is no fable. Walpole truly observed of Gibbons that “there is no instance of a man before him who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a fine disorder natural to each.” These carvings were originally painted after nature by Sir James Thornhill, but afterwards covered with white paint. They are now, however, of the colour of oak. At the south-west end of the church is the bap- tistery. The font is of white marble, of an irregular octagon shape and stands on a platform raised by two steps; it is surrounded by an oaken balustrade with square pedestals at the corners, with sunk 350 London Churches panels carved in foliage. The font cover is a superb piece of Renaissance work; it is of oak, with a square miniature architectural composition with curved pediments, and on each of the four faces a niche containing a statuette, either in lime or some lighter wood, of the four Evangelists, surmounted by a sort of conical top, from which rises a twisted shaft to the ceiling. This last has the appearance of being modern. The alms box is original. The pulpit and sounding board are not behind any of the other work in beauty and elaboration, the latter being particularly rich; indeed, the woodwork generally throughout this church is thoroughly typical of the solid, dignified and handsome work to be found in most City churches. That interesting and on so large a scale unique example of Wren’s Gothic, St Mary Aldermary, Queen Victoria Street, had been rebuilt in 1510 by Sir Henry Keble, Lord Mayor, who contributed liberally towards the work. ‘‘ A fair church, called Aldermarie Church, because the same was very old, and elder than any church of St Marie in the City, till of late years the foundation of a very fair new church was laid there by Henry Keble, grocer, mayor, who deceased 1518 and was there buried.” — Stow. In 1626 William Rodoway gave towards the building of the tower, then greatly decayed,^3,ooo, and Richard Pierson about the same year, 200 marks towards the same work, on the condition that it should follow its ancient pattern and go forward and be finished according to the founda- tion of it laid 120 years before by Sir Henry Keble and which was finished three years later.. The ST. MARY ABCHURCH: the Font. ; -V ‘c# ;; r •*■ **r»iLV^ '• *•* ' '• li^. ■ *•<*’ »- * - ^SjBB V* ^ 'Bt' St Mary Aldermary 351 church was burnt in 1666 but the tower remained firm and good. “Affected by the almost irreparable loss of religious edifices, and actuated by sincere motives of piety,” Henry Rogers, Esq., gave^5,ooo towards the rebuilding of St Mary Aldermary, with the express proviso that the new church should be a copy of the old one, and the fact is recorded in a lengthy Latin inscription on the wall behind the font. The structure which we see now is, excepting the tower, the restoration of Sir Christopher Wren, built upon the ancient model as directed by Sir Henry Keble or Kebyll. The lower part of the tower is evidently of the date of Keble’s work; as shown by the old four-centre arched door leading from the tower into the staircase-turret, and also by the Caen stone of which this part of the tower is built, which has indications of fire upon its surface. The upper portion of the tower was rebuilt in 1 71 1. The intermediate portion is, I believe, the work of 1632 and if that is admitted, it is curious as an example of construction at that period, in an older style than that prevalent and in fashion at the time. The semi-Elizabethan character of the detail of the strings and ornamentation seems to confirm this conclusion, as they are just such as might be looked for in Gothic work of Charles the First’s time. In dealing with the restoration of the church, Wren must have not only followed the style of the burned edifice, but in part employed the old material. On examining the tracery of the window heads on the south side, they will be found to be 352 London Churches worked in Caen^stone; and from the freedom of the lines of the tracery and the absence of anything Wren-like|^even in the minutest details, we may ascribe these heads to the Perpendicular period of 1510. With this exception, the church bears the stamp of Sir Christopher’s handiwork; and while directing our attention to points which we, in this age of architectural correctness, know to be crude and incorrect, and inconsistent with the spirit of Gothic architecture, we must take into considera- tion the time at which this labour was undertaken, and under what circumstances it was performed. Then we shall arrive at the conclusion that the genius of the architect is not diminished in his treatment of a subject so new and difficult and so discordant with his style and practice. The time, too, at which this task was imposed upon him was immediately after the Great Fire — when such an enormous amount of work was thrown upon his hands, when in addition to the general laying out of a great city, commissions for the re-edification of its cathedral, palaces and public buildings, as well as the bulk of the fifty new churches upon which his talent was employed, were pressing upon his attention; when also, it was not only the pencil of the artist and the calculations of the mathematician that were required of him, but oftentimes an application of construction to meet pecuniary difficulty, and consultation with guilds and bodies of citizens forming the committees of those days; and it appears that they were little more tractable than church committees of the present age. Amidst such overwhelming occupations the St Mary Aldermary 353 instructions to Wren to restore St Mary Alder- mary in its Gothic type must have cost him a great amount of thought, since it was a style in which he had not practised; for Wren has not elsewhere left any record of his Gothic restoration of an entire church, a style exploded in England. It is, never- theless, to the credit of the great architect that he so thoroughly entered upon his task as to produce so good a restoration as we see, with so much that is in the spirit of the original at the same time that is so unmistakably his own.* The east end of the church is not at right angles with the chancel, an accident which we may be sure Wren’s love of eurythmia would not have per- mitted had he not been compelled to adhere to the ancient boundary by some stringent conditions. The interior was so ‘^gutted” imi 876 by Messrs Tress and Innes, to whom are due the feeble and meaningless screen crossing the nave at the west end (a chancel screen would, it is presumed have ‘‘smacked of the paip”), and the reredos, a valuable specimen of the Twelfth Cake style of Gothic architecture, that little or none of the original fur- niture of St Mary Aldermary remains, except the pulpit, font, rails to the christening pew, and western doorcase. *The saucer domes in the fan-vaults, and the scroll ornament in the spandrels of the arcades show us how loth Wren was to keep his classical proclivities in the background. The spandrels are occupied by reliefs consisting of shields of the arms of the bene- factor, Rogers, surmounted by cherubic-heads attached as cor- bels to a shaft carrying the main ribs of the vaulted roof. The arms are repeated in every entrance except in the two arches next the chancel, where those of the See of Canterbury and of Archbishop Bancroft are introduced. 1-23 354 London Churches The font is interesting and bears the following inscription: “Dutton Seaman generos: natus in hac parochia, Nov. anno salut 1627, ac in ejusdem ecclesia renatus, hoc baptisterion. Nov. 1682, lubens dedit.” In designing the furniture of St Mary Alder- mary, Wren did not follow the Gothic type, and in such as remains we perceive the exquisite taste that guided him even to the minutest details, in his own peculiar style, where the great master’s genius was left unshackled. Few City churches possess a more beautiful sword-holder than St Mary Aldermary, or present a more favourable example of the careful thought which Wren bestowed upon his decoration. It is free and artistic in design and exquisitely carved. The sword-holder is almost universally found in the City churches, and more or less prominence and elaboration is given to it, as the parish is more or less subject to civic visitation, or the church more or less decorated. The City swords are four in number, (i) The Common Sword, borne at the Courts of Session, as well as the Courts of Aider- men and Common Council; (2) The Black Sword, used on Good Friday, all fast days and on the anniversary of the Fire of London; (3) The Sunday Sword; and (4) the Pearl Sword, the two latter of which are carried on very rare occasions. St Mary Aldermary is rich in modern stained glass. That by Clayton and Bell in the aisle and east windows, and comprising a multiplicity of small but clearly treated groups, is excellent, and thoroughly Perpendicular in character, white glass being liberally used. The great west window, a St Mary Aldermary 355 large composition of seven lights representing the Tree of Jesse, is a triumph of these artists’ skill both as regards drawing and coloration. ' In the clerestory Mr Moore has placed rather too large single figures of Saints, and the tinctures, though very beautiful, are not so strictly in accord- ance with the style of the architecture. The church of St Mary, Aldermanbury, miser- ably modernized in 1864, is only interesting as con- taining the remains of Lord Chief Justice Jefferies, which were interred here in a crimson velvet coffin in the family vault beneath the altar, November 2, 1693. Jefferies, whose name has become a byword for all that can disgrace the judicial character, was born in Denbighshire about 1640, was bred to the Bar, and became Recorder of London; in the dis- putes with the City he joined the court party and was promoted to the office of Chief Justice in 1683. By James II he was made Lord Chancellor, in Sep- tember, 1685, as a reward for his exertions in pun- ishing the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth. His conduct on the Bench had long been dis- tinguished for coarseness,* but in his ‘^campayn,” as the King himself called it, Jefferies displayed such atrocious cruelty as rendered him the object of abhorrence. On the flight of his master in 1688 he attempted to flee also, but on December 13 was taken at Wapping, disguised as a sailor, and being with difficulty saved from summary execu- tion, was lodged in the Tower, where he died, April 18, 1689. Observe, within a niche over the entrance, the *See under Christ Church, Newgate Street, p. 304. l-23» 356 London Churches little effigy of the Blessed Virgin with the Infant Christ, and internally, over the opposite door, a painting of the Last Supper, by Old Franks, presented to the church by a Mr Whitchurch, Clerk to the Company of Brewers. Until the terrible upheaval of 1864 this picture formed the altarpiece. The two arcades of Composite columns supporting an architrave and cornice are worthy of notice. The steeple of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, has been ever regarded as the happiest of Wren’s efforts. With liberal funds at his disposal,* the architect had the boldness to challenge a compari- son with the proudest specimens of antiquity. Aware he could never excel these masterpieces, he had the confidence to imitate them in a different style of architecture, and Bow Church hands down to posterity his success. How beautiful are the proportions, how har- moniously does the spire decrease from its base to its vane, without abruptness! Viewed in detail, how delightful are the parts so admirably selected and adapted to their office without the least discordant feature! Columns, scrolls, trusses and entablatures, all the constituents and ornaments of architecture, appear to have been as perfectly subservient to the master-genius of the architect as if he had in- vented them for the use of this splendid com- position. St Bride’s spire would have immortalized any man; if Wren’s fame had rested on that alone he would have stood in the first rank of his profes- sion, but the designer of Bow steeple is deserving of *Chiefly by a donation of £ 2^000 from Dame Dyonis William- son of Hale’s Hall, Norfolk, besides other liberal subscriptions St Mary-le-Bow 357 a higher place, than that which is occupied by original genius alone. It is not surprising that this noble piece of work- manship has met with so few imitators. The design appears too grand for ordinary talent to undertake. Dance, the elder, at Shoreditch, produced a pleasing imitation, but it is still far below the original, while at Shadwell, Hollis has kept Sir Christopher in his eye as a model without descend- ing to a mere copyist. Of the old tower of Bow Church a view is pre- served, not only in Hollar’s General View of Lon- don^ but in a brass seal made by the parish in 1580. This latter shows the upper part of the steeple with the following legend: Sigillum. Ecclice. BeatcSy Marice, de. Arcuhus. Londini. 1580. At the angles were four open-work turrets from which’sprang four flying buttresses, which, uniting in a common centre, sustained at their junction a fifth turret. All five were glazed and used as beacons, or land lighthouses, on winter nights to direct travellers to the Metropolis. It was from this that Wren took his idea for the spire of St Dun- stan’s-in-the-East. When the church was rebuilt, the architect determined to bring forward his new structure to the street, and the site of two houses was pur- chased to make room for it. In digging to a great depth to ensure a firm foundation he came to an ancient Roman causeway, 18 feet below the level of the street, and so firm was this pavement that he resolved to build his superstructure upon it. The old church stood back 40 feet from Cheapside. 3 5 8 London Churches The spire of St Mary-le-Bow is a composition of varieties, the solid and the open, the square and the circular, the horizontal and the flowing. The solid square tower and the light circular spire with its beautiful peristyle where the columns are lost in succession, the flowing lines of the open arches above, the return to columns in the next story, and the finish by repeating the flat forms of the tower, the play of light and shade and the elegance of the outline, render it a masterpiece of its kind which will probably never be surpassed. The walls of the tower are 7 feet thick as high as the belfry. The terminations in the form of scrolls, placed at the corners of the tower and sur- mounted by vases, have great beauty of form, and admirably prevent any abruptness in the transition from the square tower to the circular spire. The spire, the centre of which is a cylinder of masonry 9 inches thick, is supported on a dome resting on massive moulded corbellings, at the angles of the belfry. The dome is- circular in plan and 20 feet 8 inches in diameter at the base. It is slightly curved in section, and rises to a height of 18 feet above the springing. The joints in the masonry of the dome are horizontal, as may be observed in the entrance to the upper part which passes through one of the sides. The staircase in Bow steeple, like that at St Bride’s, is very interesting. I believe the hint for the way in which the latter was carried, and the strength afforded by it, was derived from natural objects, from a study of conchology. The bells at Bow Church were originally six in number, and on these was played the celebrated ST. MARY-LE-BOW. St Mary-le-Bow 359 “ Whittington tune,” named after Sir Richard W hit- tington, who was ‘‘thrice Lord Mayor of London,” 1397-8, 1406-7 and 1419-20. Of course they per- ished in the Great Fire of 1666. A new set of eight were cast between then and 1680 for the present steeple by Hodsons, of St Mary Cray, Kent. In 1 738 the tenor, which had cracked, was recast by Phelps and Lester, of Whitechapel. Twenty years later, all the bells but the tenor were condemned, and a new set, making ten in all, were hung by the same firm. In 1881 Messrs Mears and Stainbank, their succes- sors, added two bells at top of the scale, making twelve in all. This complete set of bells has now great beauty of tone. The 1758 set of ten “Bow Bells”were first rung in long peal in 1762, on the occasion of George Ill’s twenty-fifth birthday. The 1881 set of twelve were not rung with all the full honours of a “maximus,” or twelve-bell method, till January 19 of the present year, 1907. On that occasion a select party from the “Ancient Society of College Youths” — who were established in 1637, have always since that date been the Bow Church ringers — rang a touch on the method known among campanologists as “Triple Bob Maximus,” which, if I mistake not, is the ne flus ultra of twelve-bell ringing. The completion of the same would have taken nearly thirty-eight years.The “Youths” got as far as 5,088 changes, which appears to be a cer- tain stage in the proceedings, in four hours and one minute, working at terrific speed. This would give four bell-strokes per second, and each ringer would pull once in three seconds. To do this for the larger bells must require enormous skill. There was a con- 360 London Churches tinuous roar of sound, but one can hardly say much campanological beauty, for the whole of the four hours. The noise in the belfry must have been pandemoniac. However, after this ceremony, one must suppose that the bells, which have cost lately a great deal of money, in their final equipment, may be considered to be fully baptized and ready for any sort of service. A short time ago Sir Villiers Stanford composed a new set of quarter chimes for the Bow Church clock, operating on the set of twelve bells, and these chimes were played for the first time on St Luke’s Day, October 18, 1905. As a matter of fact. Sir Villiers used only eleven bells. When ‘‘pealing” goes on, the chiming apparatus is switched off. In preparing the foundations for the new struc- ture, we are told in the Parentalia that Wren found one “firm enough for the intended fabric, which, on further inspection, after digging down suf- ficiently and removing what earth and rubbish lay in the way, appear to be the walls, with the windows also and the pavement of a temple or church of Roman workmanship, entirely buried under the level of the present street.” Had Wren studied such a crypt as that of Wor- cester Cathedral, he would not have mistaken a Norman church for a Roman temple. He was led into this mistake by the round arches of the build- ing. Having been accustomed to treat all the ancient buildings in the country with pointed arches (called by him “Gothic”) as barbarisms, he never supposed workmen whom he held in such profound contempt could construct arches which would not shrink from a comparison with Roman St Mary-le-Bow 361 works; and the excellence of which is proved by the deception into which so great a master was led by them. The dimensions and plan of the present church, whose interior is poor and disappointing, were taken from the Temple of Peace, at Rome. A spacious vestibule connects the north aisle of the nave with the tower, while the space lying between the houses in Cheapside and the aisle is occupied by the vestry-room. It appears to have been the architect’s wish to have erected a piazza of two bays surmounted by an open balcony and statues, and a drawing of this design by Hawksmoor, Wren’s scholar and domes- tic clerk, is included in George Ill’s valuable collection of original drawings and sketches for the churches of Wren and his contemporaries, pre- served in the King’s Library of the British Mu- seum.'*' In the same collection is a fine elevation of Bow steeple, drawn by Hawksmoor and engraved by Hulsbergh, also a most delicate outline drawing in pencil of the same subject, unfortunately not signed. The balcony above the noble Doric entrance, a piece of work which Palladio himself might have designed, is a pleasing memorial of the saldam or shed which King Edward HI ‘‘caused to be made and to be strongly builded of stone, for himself, the Queen and other estates to stand in, there to behold the j oustings and other shows,” for which in mediaeval times Chepe Syde was renowned, “at their pleasures.” The ceremony of “confirmation” of bishops of *This drawing bears the inscription, “Porticus olim designata.” 362 London Churches the southern Province takes place in St Mary-le- Bow, and on three occasions within the last sixty years has not been attended without some dis- turbance, viz., Bishop Hampden’s in 1848, Bishop Creighton’s in 1897 and Bishop Winnington In- gram’s in 1901. St Mary-at-Hill, “called on the Hill because of the Ascent from Billingsgate” is perhaps the most successful of the three churches whose interiors were designed by Wren on the plan of a Greek cross. Here we have a skilful combination of the domed and vaulted church, but the barrel vaults cover the four arms of the cross, instead of intersecting in a groin as in SS. Anne and Agnes, and St Martin’s, Ludgate, and carry a pleasingly designed cupola resting on pendentives. The columns in St Mary-at-Hill are of a type only employed by Wren in this instance, viz., a union of the Doric and Composite Orders, fluted and cabled. They are elevated on pedestals as high as the pews, and the entablature is continuous round the building. The tower of the old church was but little injured by the Fire of 1666, and it was retained until 1780 when the present uninteresting one of brick was built. Indeed, a considerable portion of the mediaeval church is incorporated with the present structure,* *Traces of the previous building are invariably found whenever one of Wren’s churches is removed. Great alterations and repairs were made to St Mary-at-Hill in 1827-8, when it was, in fact, nearly rebuilt, under James Savage, the architect of St Luke’s, Chelsea, and the same hand was occupied in other alterations and beautifyings shortly before his death in 1852. St Mary-at-Hill 363 which' has been so much altered at various times that Wren’s work is almost lost. The interior of St Mary-at-Hill recalls in general outline St Stephen’s, Walbrook, and during the rectorate of the Rev. John Clarke Crosthwaite was entirely refitted with such an extent of wood- carving as had not been executed before in the City for many years. The pillars supporting the organ-gallery are enriched with fruit and flowers. The great screen has a frame of oak, the rector’s pew and reading desk are enriched with carved open tracery and brackets surmounted with the royal supporters, bearing shields with V.R., 1849. The pulpit was entirely reconstructed and very elaborately carved, and in the sounding board are bosses of flowers of twelve-inch projection. From the eyes of the volutes, garlands of flowers are sus- pended, which pass through the split trusses and fall down, crossing and uniting behind. Within the pulpit at the back is a well-executed bunch of fruit and flowers, and on the front of the organ gallery are bold clusters of musical trophies and garlands of flowers, with birds and fruit. The royal arms, with a mantle scroll about ten feet long, form a perfora- ted screen on the top of the gallery. The whole of this beautiful wood-carving was executed by William Gibbs Rogers, who ten years later, was employed by Sir Gilbert Scott upon similar work at St Michael’s, Cornhill. Brand, author of the Popular Antiquities^ and Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, was rector of St Mary-at-Hill from 1 789 till his death in 1 806. He was buried in the chancel. 3 64 London Churches The register records the marriage in May, 173 1, of Dr Young, author of Night Thoughts. I alluded just now to the Rev. J. C. Crosthwaite. ‘‘An earnest and highly cultured church musician, he was born in Dublin in 1799 and took holy orders in 1827, becoming Precentor’s Vicar in Christ Church Cathedral in 1834 Dean’s Vicar in 1837. He quitted Ireland in 1844 on his acceptance of the living of St Mary-at-Hill. Here he minis- tered till his death in 1874. Mr Crosthwaite took a deep interest in the church committed to his charge, the beautiful interior being embellished during his rectorate by a quantity of fine wood- carving by W. Gibbs Rogers, one of the most eminent of modern workers in that branch of ecclesiastical art. Mr Crosthwaite’s church composi- tions include an Evening Service in G, a Sanctus and arranged from Martini, a set of Responses and a Litany. He also wrote some excellent double chants, seven of which were printed in the Dublin Collection of 1883. arranged an anthem. Praise the Lord^ O my soul, to music from Haydn’s Crea- tion. While a City rector he published by subscrip- tion a collection of his psalm and hymn tunes. “Mr Crosthwaite was esteemed as a theologian. Discourses on the Christian Ministry, Modern Hagiology and A Treatise on the Holy Communion proceeding at various time from his pen. He also found leisure to cultivate archaeology, for in 1843 he edited The Book of Obits and Martyrology of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, for the Irish and Celtic Archaeological Society, of which the Hon. Sec. was the Rev. Dr James Henthorn Todd,* for some years * The Irish Pusey. St Michael’s, Cornhill 365 Precentor of St Patrick’s Cathedral. Dr Todd edited for the same society Liber Hymnorum^ the Book of Hymns of the Ancient Church of Ireland.^'^*’ Of St Mary Somerhythe, in Thames Street, the tower was left when the church was removed about thirty-five years ago. It was spared by an agitation led by the late Mr Ewan Christian, architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. With its obelisks and vases it is a curious rather than an actually beautiful composition, though like all Wren’s steeples of excellent proportions.f The church was merely a pillarless oblong, but contained some fairly good fittings, removed in 1873 to St Mary’s, Britannia Street, Hoxton, one of the several unsatisfactory structures built out of the proceeds of the sale of one of Wren’s churches. St Michael’s, Cornhill, as remarkable for the curious agglomeration of architectural styles found within its comparatively small area, as for its magni- ficently proportioned pinnacled tower, is pre- sumed to occupy the site of a church dating from the Saxon dynasty. In his Survey Stow tells us that the mediaeval St Michael’s “hath been a fair and beautiful church, but of late years, since the surrender of their lands to Edward VI, greatly blemished by the building of lower tenements on the north side thereof to- wards the High Street, in place of a green church- yard, whereby the church is darkened and other ways annoyed. . . . This parish church hath on the south side thereof a proper cloister and a fair * From Sir John Stevenson^ a. Biographical sketch by John S. Bumpus. tSee the drawing by Mr Herbert Nelson on the endpapers. 366 London Churches churchyard with a pulpit cross, not much unlike to that in Paul’s churchyard.” In the Great Fire the body of the church was destroyed, but the tower escaped. This tower had been rebuilt in 1421, and of its predecessor, a pen and ink drawing upon vellum is preserved on the fly-leaf of a vellum vestry book {terri'p, Henry V) belonging to the parish. Wilkinson gives an engra- vingof it in hisLondinalllustrata, Appended to the original drawing is the following: “This representeth the symylitude of th’ olde steeple A° Dni, 1421. “Remembrance that the Monday the xxviith day of May, the yere of our Lord God m.ccccxxi, and the yere of the reigne of King Harry, the fyfte after the Conquest, ix; in the time of the forsayd chirch wardeins, the olde steeple of the forsayd chirch was beginne to drawe adowne. “ Remembrance that the Tewesday, the xxv day of September, being that day the fest of Seynte Fyrmin the Byshop, the yere of our Lorde Christ m.ccccxxi: in the tyme of the forsayd chirch wardeins, the first ston of fundement of the newe steeple was leyd be the rev’ent & discrete p’son Mr Piers Hynewke, p’son of the chirch forsayd, and he the forsayd chirch wardeins and many of worthy men of the p’ishe, in the worship of the Holy Trynyte and of oure Lady Seynte Mary and of Seynte Myghell the Archangell, and of all the Holy Company of Hevein. ‘Of the which begyn- nyng God grante a good endying. Amen.’ ” This second steeple which was begun in 1421 and probably finished about 1430, escaped (as I have said) the Great Fire, but was taken down and re- St Michael’s, Cornhill 367 built some time after the completion of the present church, the last stone having been laid August 29, 1721. In George Ill’s collection of Drawings and Engravings now in the King’s Library, British Museum, are two designs by Wren for St Michael’s tower, one dated May, the other July, 1716, and differing from each other in several particulars. The first design, which is merely in outline, shows a classic doorway at the base, and in each of the next three stages a pointed window. There are battle- ments and octangular turrets crowned by very tall, sharply pointed and plain pinnacles. Between each pair of pinnacles is a smaller one. In the second design, which is done in water-colours, is an ogee- headed doorway surmounted by a circular window of eight cuspings. The three next stages have each a Gothic window as in the first design, i.e., in the stage immediately above the doorway there is an acutely pointed one of two lights, in the next story a depressed headed one of three, and in the third story a window similar to that in number one. In this design one of the turrets is shown with its eight sides enriched with shallow gabled arcades and crockets, and the pinnacle has crocketed sides and a large finial at the apex. The other pinnacle, as well as the small intermediate one is left plain as in the first sketch. In the second design the angle turrets of the tower are divided by their sets-off into eight equal compartments, whereas in the first there are only four divisions corresponding to those of the tower, and quite devoid of ornament. We may perhaps congratulate ourselves that neither of these designs was carried out, for the 368 London Churches present tower, in spite of its solecisms of detail, is certainly a noble composition, and were the pin- nacles which crown its turrets pointed instead of concave, the whole might, as regards elegance of pro- portion, challenge comparison with the celebrated fifteenth - century tower of Magdalen College, Oxford.* The pinnacles were formerly surmounted by vanes in the form of comets, which were removed early in the last century. The windows on the south side of the nave were • originally large round-headed ones of the usual Wrennian type, but when the church was repaired in 1790, they were converted, by the addition of a reversed arch to their headways, into circles. Sir Gilbert Scott reopened these windows to their full length in 1859-60, but inserted mullions and tracery in an Italian style transitional from Roman- esque to Pointed Gothic. In 1856 a fine work was achieved in pulling down a house which had been built against,or rather formed, the wall, and had absorbed a porch which apparently consisted of fan-tracery vaulting with pendants. Curiously enough the church never had, and has not now, its own north wall. The houses abut on it and do duty for the church wall. When the house was demolished. Sir Gilbert Scott was called upon to design a porch to the tower, and it was suggested to him to take his motif from the florid and efflo- rescent — it is not flamboyant — pointed work of *The tower of St Michael’s, Cornhill, was one of Sir Christo- pher’s latest works. It must have been designed when he was 90 years of age and during the period of his forced retirement at Hampton Court. St Michael’s, Cornhill 369 Burgos; where there is a happy combination of luxuriance in this later Spanish Pointed style with something that would not have been altogether incongruous with the dignified, solemn and aspir- ing tower of St Michael’s. In the sequel, however. Sir Gilbert gave us that truly beautiful, if not somewhat incongruous, por- tal, rich in sculpture, and edited, so to speak, in that Franco-Italian Gothic style to which the architect had been directing his studies at that epoch of his career. It was completed in 1859, and at the same time the interior of the church — a basilica with two rows of Doric columns on unusually low bases and supporting round arches and a clerestory of circu- lar windows — was rearranged. A chorus cantorum was formed at the east end of the nave; an altar- piece of Early Italian Gothic character took the place of the Wrennian one; the tracery above men- tioned was inserted in the windows; much beau- tiful wood-carving introduced from the hand of Rogers; colour and gilding lavishly applied; and all the windows filled with stained glass by Clayton and Bell, which, although it may be reckoned among the early works of those artists, must still be spoken of in terms of the greatest commenda- tion. The circumstances of the case emancipated Messrs Clayton and Bell from conventionalism, and they accordingly combined fine vigorous drawing with hieratic feeling. The tinctures, which are full, are yet harmonious, and in this instance we hardly desiderate white glass. The subjects are the History of our Lord, from the Annunciation in the first window of the south aisle to the Crucifixion in the 1-24 370 London Churches great west window and the Session in Majesty in . the circle above the altar. The west window, i though a striking production, is perhaps in some respects the least successful of the series, the large scale of the figures somewhat dwarfing the remain- ing design, while the whole effect is more remi- niscent of sixteenth-century glass than any other , window. But the eastern Majesty deserves all ' praise. It is treated conventionally and mystically. i Our Lord’s arms are extended in the form of a i cross to bless the world; He is surrounded with a | circular aureole of seraphim, and adoring angels complete the composition. The whole effect, seen down the entire church, is most impressive. It is almost needless to say that such a work as the remodelling of the interior of St Michael’s at- tracted much attention at the time, though such a mode of procedure in our own day with one of Wren’s churches would meet with a storm of disap- proval, and rightly, for reasons too obvious to need commenting upon here. Remodelled St Michael’s gained the honour of a Royal visit. The Prince Consort inspected it on March 3, i860, when he passed many encomiums upon its rich ensemble, and on April 20 the Bishop of London, Dr Tait, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, paid St Michael’s a special visit, after holding a Confirmation at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, when he likewise expressed his approval of what had been done. The reopening took place on May 1 3 of the same year. In a building which has a stately Gothic tower and a ground plan formed on mediaeval precedents, with a body composed of Classic features, a com- t St Michael’s, Cornhill 371 promise between the two styles was justifiably made throughout the decorative additions of St Michael’s. Much of the colouring of the interior was added in 1867-68, additions being made at the same time to the marble decorations of the sanctuary and the present tiled floor of the church laid down. A recess under the west window is filled with a large, deep green marble slab bordered with red, forming a good background to what is, indeed, a treasure belonging to the church. I refer to a most vigorous representation of the Pelican in her piety feeding her young and standing upon a nest. This group, formerly over the altarpiece and removed during the alterations of 1860-67. is attributed to Gibbons, but is replete with a true mediaeval char- acter and quaintness. The poor-box, an antique pedestal on clawed feet, fluted, and with drapery fastened to the upper part, is inscribed: ‘‘The poor cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed at the resur- rection of the just.” The vase for the money is sup- ported on two dolphins. There is some rich armo- rial glass in a window of the western vestibule. It was placed here long before Scott’s renovations, and was originally in the window over the altar which was then glazed with kaleidescopic patterns. The musical services at St Michael’s have en- joyed a celebrity since the reopening of the church in i860. In 1725 Obadiah Shuttleworth was organist. A violinist at the Swan Tavern concerts, Cornhill, Shuttleworth is described by Sir John Hawkins, the musical historian, as “a mere harpsichord player 1-24^ 372 London Churches who, having the advantage of a good finger, charmed his hearers with such music as was alone fit for that instrument, and drew after him greater numbers than came to hear the preacher.” Joseph Kelway, organist of St Michael’s from 1734 to 1736, and son of Thomas Kelway, organist of Chichester Cathedral, appears to have been a remarkable performer, drawing crowds of musi- cians including Handel, to hear him at St Martin’s- in-the-Fields, of which church he was organist between 1736 and 1782. Kelway’s successor at St Michael’s was William Boyce, who also filled the post of organist and com- poser to the Chapel Royal. One of the greatest Church composers of his period. Dr Boyce remained at St Michael’s until 1768, dying eleven years later. Another eighteenth-century organist was Theo- dore Aylward who held the post from 1768 to 1788, when he became organist of St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Aylward, who died in 1801, filled the Chair of Professor of Music at Gresham College. R. D. Limpus, founder of the Royal College of Organists, and E. H.Thorne, formerly of Chichester Cathedral and now of St Anne’s, Soho, are the most distinguished organists St Michael’s had during the last century (1849-1875). The following eminent persons were interred in the old church and churchyard: Robert Fabyan the chronicler and sheriff (i 5 1 1), and the father and grandfather of Stow the antiquary (1559, 1526). The grandfather, in his will, directs “his body to be buryed in the litell grene Churchyard of the Paryshe Churche of Seynt Myghel in Cornehill, St Michael’s, College Hill 373 betwene the Crosse and the Church wall, nigh the wall as may be by my father and mother, systers and brothers, and also my own childerne.” In the church was buried Philip Nye, with ‘^the thanks- giving beard,” ‘‘buried in the uppermost vault of the church,” in 1672. Nye was curate of St Michael’s from 1620 to 1633, when, by not com- plying with the ecclesiastical constitution, he became obnoxious to the censure of the Ecclesias- tical Court and was ejected. St Michael’s, Paternoster Royal, College Hill, Thames Street, was rebuilt and made a collegiate church (hence the derivation of its locale) by the executors of Richard Whittington, “thrice Lord Mayor of London,” who, as Stow informs us, “was in this church thrice buried; first, by his executors under a fair monument; then, in the reign of Edward VI, the parson of that church, thinking some great riches (as he said) to be buried with him, caused his monument to be broken, his body to be spoiled of his leaden sheet, and again the second time to be buried; and in the reign of Queen Mary, the parishioners were forced to take him up, to lap him in lead as before, to bury him the third time, and to place his monument, or the like, over him again, which remaineth, and so he resteth.” The church and its memorial of the great Lord Mayor perished in the Fire of 1666, and was rebuilt by Wren in the form of an aisleless paralle- logram, showing in its main lines a resemblance to another large, square-roomed interior. All Hallows’, Lombard Street, especially as regards the tower and the arrangement of the west end. The former, 374 London Churches placed in the south-west angle, features those of St James’ Garlick-Hythe and St Stephen’s, Walbrook. At St Michael’s, the tower is surmounted by two diminishing octagons, with concave sides and detached Ionic pillars between each side of the lower one, which is supported on a dome resting on deep corbels in the angles of the belfry. The interior of St Michael’s contains some of the fine wood-carving characteristic of its epoch, and was “ rearranged ” during the rectorate of the Rev. Thomas Darling * in 1866, under the direction of Butterfield, when some stained glass windows were introduced; one of them, a memorial to Whitting- ton being by Preedy from the designs of the archi- tect above named. There are three other windows of similar design by this artist. The picture above the altar, St Mary Magdalene Anointing the Feet of our Lord, is by Hilton, and was presented to the church in 1820 by the Directors of the British Institution. William Hilton was born at Lincoln in 1786, and first exhibited in 1803. From 1806 he attended the Schools of the Royal Academy, where he studied anatomy and made himself complete master of the human figure. Hilton, who was for many years Keeper of the Royal Academy, was imbued with a strong poetic feeling, as evidenced by his choice of subjects, selecting such as would admit the intro- *The Rev.Thomas Darling was Rector of St Michael’s from 1 848 to 1893. In 1855 he published Hymns of the Church of England^ arranged according to the Book of Common Prayer. Tho. last edition, published in 1887 contains 336 hymns, of which about 20 are by the editor. Great liberties appear to have been taken with many well-known hymns St Mildred’s, Bread Street 375 duction of the most beautiful human forms — the Rapes of Proserpine, Ganymede, Europa and Amphitrite; and Hebe, Comus and others, as des- cribed by Milton and Spenser, his favourite poets; but fewer of his pictures have been engraved than those of most artists of celebrity. He married in 1828 the sister of his fellow-pupil, Peter de Wint; died in London, December 30, 1839, and was buried in the Chapel of the Savoy. Another of Hilton’s pictures, ‘‘ Christ crowned with Thorns,” was presented by the Directors of the British Institution to St Peter’s, Eaton Square, on its completion in 1826, but in 1877 was sold by the churchwardens for ^^1,000, the purchase- money being invested in consols and the dividends being applied to the ornamentation of the church. It is a thousand pities that when Sir Arthur Blomfield built the handsome Auvergnat-Roman- esque chancel and sanctuary to St Peter’s, a suitable altarpiece was not prepared to contain this picture of Hilton’s. In 1864 a sumptuous monument from the designs of Blore was erected at the east end of the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral to Hilton and his brother-in-law, De Wint. A favourite subject with the latter was the noble minster which crowns the hill of Lincoln. Several of the originals are in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. In the pretty little church of St Mildred, Bread Street, which must have had a very narrow escape on the formation of Queen Victoria Street, the dome is the governing feature of the interior, whose plan is a rectangle 60 feet by 37, with a shallow 376 London Churches vestibule and organ gallery at the west end, and a north-western tower with lead spire. There are no pillars, and all the enrichment is centred in its domical roof which is reduced in length by a small portion being cut off at each of the extremities; both the portions so made are bounded by two semi- circular arches, partly attached to and dying into the walls of the church, and partly sustained on imposts composed of a group of consoles surmoun- ted by a fascia. The soffits of the architraves of the unengaged arches are ornamented with sunk panels; the ceilings of those divisions are also semicircular and panelled into square and oblong compartments, and at the springings are the Arms of the F our King- doms in relief, with regal accompaniments. Thus a square centre is formed, covered by a dome sup- ported on pendentives resting on the four arches just described, with the addition of others partly concealed and dying into the side walls. The whole design is, in the mass, very grand, and gives a grace and size to a building which would hardly be expected from its exterior. St Nicholas, Cole Abbey, Knight Rider Street, the first church built and finished after the Fire, has a pillarless interior beautifully decorated du- ring the rectorate of Henry Cary Shuttleworth (1885-1900) from the designs of Mr G. H. Birch. It is a perfect picture, and the type of how a City church interior should be treated. The great chandelier or “branch” suspended from the roof in the centre of the church is one of the finest of its date in London. The concave leaden spire of this church, with the balcony en- circling it towards the top, cannot be pronounced St Peter’s, Cornhill 377 graceful. In striving after originality, Wren appears in this instance to have lost sight of fitness and propriety. The foundation of St Peter’s, Cornhill, is at- tributed to Lucius, the first Christian King of Britain, who is said to have lived in the latter half of the second century of the Christian era. It claimed even a higher rank than a parochial church, and to have been not only the first Chris- tian church founded in London, but the metro- politan church when London was the seat of an archbishop. This great antiquity is supported prin- cipally by an inscription on a brass plate, of which we read in Holinshed’s Chronicles of Great Britain^ 1574* Weaver, in Funeral Monuments^ 1631, p. 413, sets out the original, destroyed in the Fire of 1666, in the old style of spelling: ‘‘Be hit known to all Men, that the Yeerys of our Lord God, An clxxix, Lucius, the fyrst Christen King of this Lond, then callyd Brytayne, foundyd the fyrst Chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent Peter, apon Cornhyl; and he foundyd then an Archbishop’s See, and made that Chirch the Metropolitant and cheef Chirch of this Kindom, and so enduryd the space of cccc yeerys and more, unto the Commyng of Sent Austen, an Apostyl of Englond, the whych was sent into the Lond by Sent Gregory, the Doctor of the Chirch, in the tyme of King Ethelbert, and then was the Archbyshoppys See and Pol removyd from the *Howbeit by the Tables hanging in the revestrie of Saint Paules at London, and also a table hanging in St Peter’s church in Cornehill was the same that Lucius builded. 378 London Churches aforeseyd Cliirch of Sent Peter’s apon Cornhyl unto Derebernaum, that now ys callyd Canter- bury, and ther y‘ remeynyth to this Dey. ‘‘And Millet* Monk, whych came into this Lond wyth Sent Austen, was made the fyrst Bishop of London, and hys See was made in Powllys Chyrch. And this Lucius, Kyng, was the fyrst Foundyr of Peters Chyrch apon Cornhyl; and he regnyd King in thys llond after Brut mccxlv yeerys. And the yeerysof our Lord God a cxxiv Lucius was crownyd Kyng, and the yeerys of hys Reygne Ixxvii yeerys, and he was beryd aftyr sum Cronekil at London, and aftyr sum Cronekil he was beryd at Glow- cester, at that Place wher the Ordyrs of Sent Francys standyth.” The exact year in which the original was set up is unknown. Strype says it is supposed to be of the date of Edward IV, and that the plate which is now preserved in the vestry of the present church over the mantelpiece is “the old one revived.” Bishop Usher, who died in 1655, personally in- spected the plate in old St Paul’s. Another proof of the important, if not cathedral, character of this church may be inferred from the school which anciently belonged to it. By a decree of the eleventh General Council of Lateran, dated 1179, it was ordained that a school should be at- tached to every cathedral church, and in the 25th Henry VI, 1447, the school of St Peter’s appears as one of the four parochial schools directed by Parliament to be maintained in London. Stow cites authorities for the great antiquity of the library belonging to this school. He says it was •Mellitus. St Peter’s, Cornhill 379 established by Elvanus, second Archbishop of Lon- don. There are frequent allusions in the vestry books to this school from 1576 to 1717. From an occurrence related in the Liber Alhus*\ loth Henry III, we find that, as early as 1226, this church was of sufficient importance to have three chaplains: “ On the morrow of Saint Luke the Evangelist (October 18) it happened that Amise, deacon of the church of Saint Peter on Cornhulle, was found slain at the door of Martin the priest, in the soke of Cornhulle. Wakelin, a vicar of St Paul’s in London, slew him with an anelace [dagger] and took to flight. Thereupon Martin, John and William, chap- lains of the church of St Peter, and Robert, clerk of the same church, who were in the house before the door of which he was found slain, were arrested on suspicion of such death; and were afterwards de- livered to Master John de Ponte, official of the Arch- deacon of London, by the aforesaid Chamberlain and Sheriffs. Judgement was given against them, but they were afterwards acquitted.” Very little is known of the style of the church which preceded the Fire. That considerable repairs were executed during the early part of the seven- teenth century appears from the parish books. The early entries relate to whitewashing and show the custom to have been then in use. The information derived from these parochial books respecting the church before 1666 is but slight, and from other sources we gain little in addition. All that Stow writes about St Peter’s is evidently taken from these books. A view of the *P- 75* 380 London Churches church is given by Cornelius Visscher in his Plan of London^ 1618, and a more accurate representation appears by Hollar in his View of London^ published in 1647. The tow'er is shown square and of two stories surmounted by battlements, within which was a pointed dome or cupola raised upon clustered columns and crowned by a vane. At the south-west corner of the church in St Peter’s Alley, Hollar places a round tower embattled. The chancel of the old church extended 10 feet further eastward than at present and occupied a portion of what is now Gracechurch Street. The Great Fire of September 2, 1666, consumed all that was inflammable in this church. The walls of the church and all the upper part of the tower were afterwards taken down. The foundations may have been used for the present building, but the only part now above ground of the old church is the lower story of the tower, a picturesque struc- ture of red brick crowned by a timber-framed lantern and cupola, latterly covered with copper, and supporting a short spire whose vane assumes the form of a large key, the emblem of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. We learn from a number of very interesting entries in the vestry books that, although two surveyors were employed at an early period of the preparations for rebuilding the church, and a model was ordered of the same, still but little if any pro- gress was made in the works before the employ- ment of Sir Christopher Wren as surveyor or archi- tect of the new church in 1670. We may, therefore, consider that the present church is mainly his work. It was completed in 1682 and opened November St Peter’s, Cornhill 381 27, when Beveridge,* then Rector of this parish, delivered his famous sermon on the excellence and usefulness of the Common Prayer. The church, he said, had lain waste for above five times three years, but is now rebuilt and fitted again for service. He also alludes to the great feature of St Peter’s, the magnificent oak chancel screen, designed by Wren’s daughter, and carved by Thomas Poultney and Thomas Athew.f Speaking of the chancel on this occasion, Beveridge observed that it ^‘was always made and represented the highest place in the church,” and, therefore, he adds, “it was wont to be separated from the rest of the church by a screen or partition of net- work, in Latin cancelli^ and that so generally that from thence the place itself is called the chancel.” After having said that this was generally to be found in all considerable churches of old, he adds: “I mention it only because some perhaps may wonder why this screen should be observed in one church rather than in all the other churches which have lately been built in this City, whereas they should rather wonder why it was not observed in all other as well as this.” He further proceeds to say that the chancel in all Christian churches was *Afterwards the eminent and pious Bishop of St Asaph. He was appointed Rector of St Peter’s, Cornhill, by the Corporation of London in 1672, before the church was rebuilt. He died March 5, 1708 and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. His arms (date 1704) with those of his immediate successor in the rectory, Dr Waugh, Bishop of Chichester, who was buried in the chancel, were until the insertion of the present stained glass in 1872, in the east window. tit was to be thirteen feet high from the pavement and made according to model. 382 London Churches always looked upon as answerable to the Holy of Holies in the Temple, and that all the seats should look towards the chancel.” The interior of St Peter’s, Cornhill, rearranged and coloured in 1872, when the present coarse stained glass by Gibbs was introduced into the double tier of round-headed windows at the east end, is divided into a chancel, nave and two aisles. Its length within the walls is 80 feet, the breadth 47 feet and the height 40 feet, being nearly a double cube. The aisles are very narrow, and vaulted transversely by barrel vaults, in bays con- centric with the nave arcade, which springs from Doric pilasters attached to square piers. The very fine organ in the western gallery was built by Bernard Schmidt in 1681. He was appoint- ed organ-builder to Charles II in 1671, and apart- ments were allotted to him at Whitehall. In 1644, under the Puritan rule, organs were banished from churches, but at the Restoration organ-builders from abroad were invited to furnish churches with new instruments, and amongst them were “Father” Smith* and his great rival Renatus Harris.t *Schmidt soon gained great fame and much employment. St Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, the Temple, St Margaret’s, West- minster, and many other churches were enriched with organs from his hand. One stop of Father Smith has often sufficed to give a reputation to an instrument. The beauty and sweetness of his tone has always been unrivalled. But Father Smith (we must accept the Anglicism) had his mechanical defects, and the action, packing and general arrangement was bad even for his own day, and now would not be tolerated. Even his pipes were externally ill finished. When he was remonstrated with in respect of the latter incompleteness, he is reported to have replied, “I do not care if ze pipe looks like von teufel [devil]; I shall make him schfeak like von engeV^ {angel). tSee Chapter II; in description of the Temple Church. St Peter’s, Cornhill 383 The organ in St Peter’s, Cornhill, was remodelled by Messrs Hill in 1840 under the inspection of Dr Gauntlett, at a cost to the parish of about ^1,000.* On Sunday, June 12, 1842, Mendelssohn ex- temporized on this organ. The congregation had been engaged in singing a hymn to Haydn’s well- known tune, Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser^ and on this he poured forth all his magnificent powers in a fantasia as a concluding voluntary. Mendelssohn had a very high opinion of the organ in St Peter’s, Cornhill, and of all these instruments that had come under his notice, he considered it second only to the large one built by Messrs Hill in the Town Hall at Birmingham. It was on this occasion that the composer of Paul and Elijah distinguished Miss Elizabeth Mounsey, the organist of St Peter’s from 1834 to 1881, with his autograph which is still preserved in the church. This lady was a member of the Phil- harmonic Society and composer of works for the pianoforte, guitar, organ and voice. Her equally talented sister, Anne Sheppard Mounsey, was another veteran lady church organist officiating at St Vedast’s, Foster Lane, from 1837 till 1 891. t Miss Anne, who was likewise a member of the Philharmonic Society and member of the Royal Society of Musicians, married in 1855 Mr W. Bartholomew, who is chiefiy remembered •From the Vestry Minute Book, Smith’s organ at St Peter’s cost £ 210 . tThe writer has distinct recollections of seeing this venerable lady step into the vehicle which was in waiting at the door of St Vedast’s church to convey her to her residence in Brunswick Place, City Road. 3 84 London Churches as the adapter of the librettos of Mendelssohn’s works. Bartholomew was also a composer, and many, of his hymns have considerable merit; but he is best known for his connexion with Mendelssohn than for any eminence gained by works of his owm production. His intercourse with Mendelssohn was friendly and intimate, and he was always mentioned by him in terms of respect. His care- ful selection of Scripture passages for the Elijah is highly creditable to his good taste. Mr Bartholomew, who died in 1 867, also arranged the librettos for Mendelssohn’s Antigone^ (Edipus ad Colonos, Lorely and Christu 5 \ those of Eli and Naaman by Sir Michael Costa were also entrusted to him. The font in St Peter’s, Cornhill, does not require any particular notice, but its cover is interesting as being perhaps the only portion of the furniture preserved from the Great Fire, and even this has not escaped unmarked by the destroying element. Nor are the monuments of any great interest. A mural monument on the south side of the church commemorates the destruction by fire of the seven children of James Woodmanson, of Leadenhall Street. This fire caused no little stir, as several other persons perished at the same time. Mr Woodman- son was present at a ball at St James’ Palace on the late Queen’s birthday, and was called out only to find his seven children consumed in the flames. This was deeply felt by the Royal Family, some of whom visited the scene of the sad occurrence. In the vestry of St Peter’s, Cornhill, is preserved a copy of Jerome’s Vulgate^ very beautifully written throughout in a bold hand on fine white St Sepulchre’s, Holborn 385 vellum. It consists of 586 leaves. The miniature paintings, which are 150 in number, are very curious, comprising historical scenes, portraits of the Patriarchs, Evangelists and others, and afford interesting examples of English costume at that early period. The painted borders which decorate some of the pages are beautiful specimens of mediaeval art, and proximately fix the date. But what renders this volume the most interesting and valuable to St Peter’s is that by the colophon at the end we learn that it was written for this church. It runs thus: ‘^Iste liber fertinet ferfetuee Cantarie duorum cafellanorum celebrantium ad altar e Sanctee Trini- tatis in Ecclesia Sancti Petri super Cornhill. St Sepulchre’s, Holborn, which has the largest area of any church within the City boundaries,* dates, according to the earliest notice, from 1178, when it was given to the prior and canons of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, by Roger, Bishop of Sarum. About the middle of the fifteenth century it was rebuilt, one of the Popham family, who was Chan- cellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King’s Household, becoming a munificent patron, and, according to Stow, erected a handsome chapel ‘‘on the south side” of the choir, and the interesting and beautiful south-western parvise porch, which, to- gether with the tower and some other mediaeval features discovered during the restoration of 1879- 80, still remain. Between 1630 and 1634 the tower was rebuilt. *It is 150 feet long, by 62 feet wide, and, with the addition of St Stephen’s Chapel on the North, 81 feet wide internally. 1-25 386 London Churches The church was not destroyed but very much injured in the Great Fire, which stopped at Pye Corner, near St Sepulchre’s. The inhabitants, how- ever, would not wait until Sir Christopher Wren could attend to them,but repaired their own church, and did it so badly that a long time elapsed before he would grant the certificate necessary to enable them to obtain the money from the Commissioners. The Perpendicular nave, arcade, and roofs, were entirely removed, and a long range of Roman Doric columns supporting semicircular arches substituted, but the walls, retaining the Perpendicular windows and battlemented parapets, stood until 1790 when the former were replaced by simple round-headed ones, such as may still be seen at the east end and in St Stephen’s Chapel,and the latter removed altogether. At the same time, columns and arches in the style of architecture then prevalent were built within the old Gothic ones of the tower. In 1834 the erection of a new roof and ceiling, together with some repairs to the exterior of the tower, took place. In 1867 the large round-headed window above the altar was filled with stained glass by Lavers and Barraud, and between 1873 and 1878 the porch and tower, whose pinnacles had become impoverished, were restored under the direction of Mr W. P. Griffiths. Ini 879-80 more extensive works took place under Mr Billings, when the galleries and pews were taken out, the Perpendicular win- dows restored to the south side and east ends of the aisles, the arches which had been inserted in the original Gothic ones of the tower removed, and the interior almost entirely refitted.* •Some of the late seventeenth-century carved panels have been I St Sepulchre’s, Holborn 387 Whatever may be thought of the manner in which St Sepulchre’s was refitted and decorated in 1879, itiust be admitted that the removal of the pews and galleries has brought to light many- interesting relics of its mediaeval predecessors, inter alia the remains of the ancient window jambs and arches. Though much calcined in places by the Great Fire, it was not a difficult task to make out the mouldings and restore the same through- out, the new tracery portions being designed in the same character as they originally existed about 1450. That these windows should have been filled with anything so offensive as their present glazing is truly lamentable, when we remember those beautiful ‘‘stamped quarries” of Powell’s, which we so often find supplying the place, pro tanto^ of figured glass. The remains of a two-light window with a transom placed midway were also discovered near the angle of the south-east wall, having been filled up with brickwork when the south side of the church was altered in 1790.* There is still extant a view of the south side of St Sepulchre’s taken in 1737 showing the church with Gothic windows complete, together with a portion of the wagon-headed roof over the east end of the nave. Some remains of Scripture texts were also discovered in 1879 painted in old black letter under the east window-sill in the north aisle. The removal of the organ gallery brought to inserted in the base of the screen dividing the nave from the ante- church. *These old remaining portions were found to be of either Kentish rag or fire-stone. 1-25^ 388 London Churches light the original arches forming the lower struc- ture of the tower. These three arches were found to have been filled up in 1790, and not by Wren as alleged, when circular arches were inserted within the ancient Perpendicular ones of the tower, not with the intention of strengthening that structure, which it did not require, but to invest the work with a ‘‘classical” dress, and to cover the surface of the damaged stonework where it had been much calcined by the fire. A perfect restoration of each arch being found possible, it was faithfully carried out in stone with their original beautiful mould- ings, and columns, with caps and bases beneath the arches. The walls are 6 feet in thickness, the largest arch, that on the east side of the tower, being 30 feet high. These piers and arches were composed of Kentish rag formed of large sizes laid in courses, very finely set and pointed. Many old portions of moulded stone forming these arches are still to be seen. The restored west window of the tower, a good Perpendicular one of four lights, once transomed, was filled in 1884 with excellent stained glass by Clayton and Bell. It should be observed that the aisles are continued alongside of the tower as was the case at St Andrew’s until Wren made the present square erections to contain the gallery staircases. Upon the removal of the old loft connected with the vestry-clerk’s office upon the south side near the west end of the church, was found remains of an old stone doorway leading into the chamber over the porch from the church, and at the side of this doorway part of a window, which from its position and small size is supposed to have been St Sepulchre’s, Holborn 389 a watching window, as from this spot an uninter- rupted view from the ‘‘parvise” chamber to the high altar could be obtained. Some distance up the south aisle was also discovered (having been filled up with rubble) the remains of an old sepulchre or tomb of large size with a well-moulded arch formed contemporary with the church itself, and thought by some to have been the tomb of Sir John Popham, whose statue whilome existed in a niche immediately over the doorway of the porch. A few feet beyond are the remains of a piscina, with portions of the shelf for the cruets, and a water drain. Another piscina was discovered at the south-eastern respond of the north aisle, being double, having a small column dividing it in two, with two water drains and a shelf above. These were much injured by the fire. One other piscina still exists in St Stephen’s Chapel, but in a good state of preservation, with the exception of the projecting basin at the bottom of the same. Almost immediately opposite this piscina was discovered a recessed tomb cut out in the thickness of the wall, having a groined head with reticulated pattern tracery upon it; the lower portion with its slab placed about three feet above the floor had been, however, almost entirely destroyed and after- wards broken up. Near the piscina in the south wall of the aisle was found the remains of a stone doorway partially destroyed, but ranging in a line with a similarly placed doorway on the north side of the church in the north aisle, indicating at once the position of the ancient rood-screen marking the commence- ment of the chancel; also portions of several stone 390 London Churches steps built up at the back, and a small stone door- way with its original door-hooks about twelve feet above the floor is now to be seen. This gave access to the rood-loft from one doorway to the other across the church from north to south, immediately in front of the chancel. There were also discovered, buried beneath the floor, two large sculptured blocks of stone, with remains of the wings of angels cut out upon them. These probably formed corbels for timbers of an ancient roof. There were several other portions of stone tracery and mouldings of a Decorated char- acter and many more were to be seen built up in- side of the walls, particularly in St Stephen’s Chapel, giving evidence of there having been a former church of much earlier date. There are two large corbels upon the face of the east wall of St Stephen’s Chapel formed ap- parently by the wall below being cut away for the altar space immediately beneath. These corbels correspond in both form and moulding with corbels to be seen on the inside face of the south wall of the tower of St Margaret’s, Westminster, and would appear to indicate that the same hands had been engaged in the masonry of both churches, from their style and date being nearly coeval. The most interesting feature of the church is its fan-groined south-western porch. There are seven- teen carved bosses placed at the intersection of the ribs, some consisting of angels (some with shields), and others of wreaths of foliage, birds, knots and^a variety of devices. The small niches immediately above the heads of the doorway upon the inside of the porch contain figures, one apparently that 1 I St Sepulchre’s, Holborn 391 1 of a male, the other of a female, but together with the whole of the carving these were much damaged in the Fire of 1666. In 1880 the floor of the porch was lowered down to its original level, the column supporting the groin reinstated as before, and the old wrought-iron gate lengthened and refixed. Stained glass has been placed in the Perpendicular windows lighting the sides. The pinnacled tower,* of noble contour con- tains one of the finest rings of ten bells in the Metropolis. While they were ringing a merry peal as the Lord Mayor’s Procession passed on Novem- ber 9, 1829, the tenor or great bell, weighing 3,300 lb. fell out of its hangings with a most tremendous crash into the pit beneath, to the great alarm of the ringers who were three floors beneath. The accident was caused by one of the gudgeons, by which the bell was suspended, giving way owing to their having been worn by constant friction during I a period of nearly three centuries. The crown and I upper part of the bell were completely severed \ from the remaining part as if with a knife. 1 The pulpit of St Sepulchre’s was formerly sur- ; mounted by a sounding-board in the shape of a large parabolic reflector about twelve feet in diameter, put up during the vicariate of the Rev. J. Natt. It was constructed of ribs of mahogany, so arranged that the grain of the wood radiated all h’ *On April 10, 1600, one William Dorrington threw himself from the roof of this tower, leaving there a written prayer for forgiveness. “Unreasonable people,” says Howell, “are as hard to reconcile 1 as the vanes of St Sepulchre’s tower, “which in his day never looked all four upon one point of the heavens.” 392 London Churches ways from the centre, and the face was var- nished. The organ has long been famous. It was built in 1677 by Renatus Harris, and until the alterations of 1879-80 stood in the western gallery. It was then rebuilt by Messrs Gray and Davison and placed in St Stephen’s Chapel, the magnificent old case being preserved, though it has lost much of the grand effect that its elevated position imparted to it. InNewcourt’s time,* St Sepulchre’s was^remark- able for possessing an exceedingly fine organ, and the playing is thought so beautiful that large congre- gations areattracted,thoughsomeof the parishioners object to the mode of performing Divine Service.” George Cooper, deputy organist of St Paul’s Cathedral under Sir John Goss and Sir John Stainer, was organist of St Sepulchre’s from 1843 till his death in 1876. His accompaniments to the parochial psalmody were considered remarkably fine, and many musical amateurs found their way to St Sepulchre’s on Sunday evenings to hear his concluding voluntaries. St Stephen’s, Walbrook, internally the most original and beautiful of the fifty parochial churches rebuilt by Wren, is, at the same time, the one in which the greatest deviation from the basilican model is apparent. This is tantamount to pronouncing it his masterpiece. Though the steeple is graceful, the exterior of the body is un- promising, but the interior is all elegance and even grandeur. Never was so sweet a kernel in so rough a shell — so rich a jewel in so poor a setting. The tame- ness of its form, a simple cell enclosed by four * The early part of the eighteenth century. ST. STEPHEN’S, W.\LBROOK Interior, looking West St Stephen’s, Walbrook 393 walls, wholly disappears behind the unique and varied arrangement of its sixteen Corinthian col- umns. They reproduce and unite almost every beauty of plan to be’ found in all the cathedrals of Europe. Now they form the Latin cross, with its nave, transept and chancel; anon they divide the whole space into five aisles, regularly diminishing from the centre to the sides; again we perceive, in the midst, a square apartment with recesses on all its sides — a square, nay, an octagon — no, a circle. It changes at every giance, as we view the enta- blature or the a; jhes above it, or the all-uniting dome through vvhicJh. a glorious flood of light is poured into tl e church. With the same harmoni- . ous variety, we iiave every form of ceiling brought together at once — flat, camerated, groined, pen- dentive, domical — yet without any confusion or straining after effect. The fitness of St Stephen’s to its destination is perfect; every eye can see the altar, the pulpit and the reading desk, and every ear is within hearing of the officiant in every part of the service. The ensemble, as the visitor enters by the western doorway after ascending the flight of steps within the vestibule, bursts upon him like some wondrous vision. Even John Carter, who was seldom disposed to regard Wren’s works favourably, admits that in St Stephen’s, Walbrook,“much novelty is on view; embellishments, many, but not profusely distribu- ted; judicious continuance of the plan; and lastly, the attempt of setting up a dome, a comparative imitation (though on a diminutive scale) of the Pantheon at Rome (ever adulated, ever admired) and which, no doubt, was a probationary trial 394 London Churches previous to his gigantic operation of fixing one on his octagonal superstructure in the centre of his new St Paul’s.” ‘‘I was desired,” says John Wesley in his Diarjy under date, Monday, December 4, 1758, ‘‘to step into the little church behind the Mansion House, commonly called St Stephen’s, Walbrook. It is nothing grand, but neat and elegant beyond ex- pression, so that I do not wonder at the speech of the famous Italian architect who met Lord Bur- lington in Italy, ‘My lord, go back and see St Stephen’s in London. We have not so fine a piece of architecture in Rome.’ ” In 1861 the oval windows in the north and south aisles, and the large round-headed one at the east end of either aisle were filled with stained glass by Gibbs as a memorial to Dr Croly, Rector of St Stephen’s from 1835 to i860. Dr Croly, a writer of tragedy and comedy, an almost universal poet, a painter of rich and glowing romance,a daring inter- preter of the darkest mystery of the Scriptures — the Apocalypse of St John — and an eloquent and accomplished preacher, was as much sought after in his day as Dale at St Bride’s and St Pancras, and Melvill at Camberwell and Lothbury. His poems did not obtain a popularity adequate to their merit, perhaps because he manifested but little sym- pathy with his kind. He was grand and gorgeous, but rarely tender and affectionate; he built a lofty and magnificent temple, but it was too cold and stately to be a home for the heart. His first prose work, full of fancy and imagination, was Salathiel^ a Story of the Past ^ the Present and the Future. Founded on the legend of the W andering Jew., it is the liter- St Stephen’s, Walbrook 395 ary production by which Dr Croly’s name is best When, in June, 1848, Currer and Acton Bell (Charlotte and Anne Bronte) paid their first visit to London to prove their separate identity to their publishers, Messrs Smith, Elder and Co., as the authors of Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall^ their wish had been to hear Dr Croly on the Sunday morning. Mr Williams, a gentleman con- nected with the firm of publishers alluded to, escorted the sisters to St Stephen’s, but they were disappointed, as Dr Croly did not preach. Here are the bust of Dr Croly, by Behnes, and the monument to him by Birnie Philip. The former, placed in St Stephen’s in 1862, was presen- ted to the Rector at the Mansion House shortly before his death by the parishioners and friends as an expression of esteem and regard, and was bequeathed by him to the parish over which he had been the pastor for a quarter of a century. Sir Benjamin West’s picture of ‘^Devout Men Carrying Stephen to his Burial,” now on the wall of the northern transept, was, until 1850, at the east end above the altar. Some repairs taking place about that year, the great east window was opened out and the present stained glass by Thomas Willement placed in it. There is much fine wood-carving about the pulpit, altarpiece and organ case, but the entire removal of the old pewing and the substitution of meagre-looking open benches is open to question. The original organ, by Byfield, was removed in 1888 to St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, and an entirely new instrument by Messrs Hill introduced. 39^ London Churches the old case being happily retained. This organ has lately been rebuilt by the same hands, and is now one of the finest in the City. It stands at the west end of the nave, in an apse, the radius of which is only 8 feet ii inches, and the extreme height 23 feet 2 inches. The capacity of this space is exactly equal to that of a room 16 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet 6 inches high; yet in the extremely limited space are stored reservoir, sound-board, console, the whole of the action and 2,002 pipes, as well as a convenient gangway for tuning purposes. At St Stephen’s a full choral service is well rendered by an excellent surpliced choir under Mr H. J. White, who has held the post of organist since 1873. That Mr White is an expert in “matters organic” is clearly proved by his skilful design for the rebuilding of his organ, which, containing but thirty-five sounding stops, is a veritable multum in parvo. In striking contrast to the church just described is the other City church dedicated to St Stephen, in Coleman Street, the poorest and least interesting of all Wren’s works, and remarkable only for the curious piece of square oak carving (about 5 feet by 2i) in alto-relief, inserted over the gateway to the churchyard. It represents the Last Judgement. From the two upper corners seems to hang a festoon of clouds, upon which, in the centre, the Saviour is seated in cumbrous drapery, holding the banner of Redemp- tion in the right hand, and the orb and cross in the left; the significant action of the Judge is, therefore, entirely lost. He has a large beard and rough hair, but no nimbus. St .Stephen’s, Coleman Street 397 Immediately beneath the Saviour, in front of the clouds, Satan is falling. He is represented of a slim, human form, with hideous face, horn and bat’s wings; his feet are tied together. The entire space below is filled with the dead — all entirely naked — issuing from their coffins, which are shaped like those now in use. At each end some figures are seen issuing from caverns. The central figures below are large, fat children; but otherwise there is no distinction of age or sex. One angel, to the left of the Saviour, sounds the trumpet. There are no musical instruments nor indications of entrance to the places of final reward. The Book of Life also is not represented. The remaining space within the line of clouds is filled with winged angels, many of them exceedingly graceful, busied in assisting the aspirants to heaven by reaching their hands over the clouds. Many of the figures, in their excitement, seem ready to scale the walls of heaven, but the treatment of the whole is hardly worthy of the subject. As a piece of carving it is remarkably good, and superior to that over the “Resurrection Gate” of St Giles’-in-the-Fields.*' In the old church was buried Master Antony Munday, who wrote a continuation of Stow’s Survey^ and for more than forty years arranged the City pageants and shows. Of this parish John Hayward was under-sexton during the Great Plague, when he carried the dead to their graves and fetched the bodies with the Dead Cart and Bell, yet escaped the fearful scourge as narrated by Defoe in his Memoirs of the Plague: “John Hayward, at that time under-sexton of *See vol. II, page 72. 398 London Churches the parish of St Stephen, Coleman Street, carried or assisted to carry all the dead to their graves, which were buried in that large parish, and who were carried in form, and after that form of bury- ing was stopped, he went with the Dead Cart and the Bell to fetch the dead bodies from the houses where they lay and fetched many of them out of the chambers and houses. For the parish was and is still remarkable, particularly above all the parishes in London, for a great number of alleys and thoroughfares, very long, into which no carts could come and where they were obliged to go and fetch the bodies a very long way; which alleys now remain to witness it; such as White’s Alley, Cross Key Court, Swan Alley, Bell Alley, White Horse Alley and many more. Here he went with a kind of hand barrow and laid the dead bodies on it and carried them out to the carts; which work he performed and never had the distemper at all, but lived about twenty years after it and was sexton of the parish to the time of his death.” A tablet has lately been erected in St Stephen’s by one of his descendants in America to perpetu- ate the memory of the Rev. John Davenport, vicar of this church from 1624 to 1633. Davenport sailed from England in 1637 the“Hector,”and was foremost in the founding of a colony in the New World, in which he served as a minister for more than thirty years. This colony was composed in part of members of this parish, and has since become the City of New Haven in the State of Connecticut, U.S.A., which is the location of the Yale University. In designing the domed church of St Swithin, St Swithin’s, Cannon Street 399 London Stone, Cannon Street, Wren first reduced it to a square and then, by means of attached col- umns, covered it with a dome springing from an octagonal architrave. In this instance, however, the dome is not spherical, but keeps its octagonal shape to the crown. The interior is not very picturesque, as it was completely spoilt in 1869 by a Mr Woodthorpe, who, intolerant of Wren’s large simple round- headed windows, inserted mullions and tracery of would-be early Italian Renaissance in them; and the stained glass is equally feeble. The same architect was responsible for the mischief at St Mary, Aldermanbury. The last leaf of a mouldering register records on December i, 1663, the marriage of the poet Dryden to the Lady Elizabeth Howard, an entry which escaped the anxious researches of Malone.* They were married in the old church destroyed in the Great Fire. London Stone is a rounded block, set in a large stone case and built into the outer or street wall of St Swithin’s. The top is seen through an oval open- ing. Camden considers it to have been the ancient Milliarium^ or milestone, similar to that in the forum at Rome, from which the British highroads radiated, and from which the distances on them were reckoned. “On the south side of this high street [Candle- wick or Cannon Street] near unto the church is pitched upright a great stone called London Stone, *In his Frose Works, Critical and Miscellaneous of John Dryden, with notes and illustrations, and Life of the author, with selections from his Letters, 4 vols, 8vo, 1800. 400 London Churches fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron and otherwise so strongly set that if carts do run against it through negligence the wheels be broken and the stone itself unshaken. The cause why this stone was set there, the time when, or other memory hereof is none.” — Stow. Stow, as we have seen, describes London Stone as standing on the south side of the street.* The removal from the south side of the channel to the north side, close to the wall and south-west door of St Swithin’s church, took place on December 13, 1742. In 1798 it was again removed, and but for the praiseworthy interposition of Mr Thomas Maiden, a printer in Sherbourne Lane, would, it is said, have been destroyed. On both occasions it was complained of as a nuisance and obstruction to the neighbourhood. StVedast’s,Foster Lane, in the rear of the General Post Office, is the possessor of a south-western stone tower and spire to which allusion has been made earlier in these pages as a charming composition of varieties — the square, the concave, the convex, and the square repeated in the spiral termination, giving hard and soft shadows most agreeably distributed. Above the western doorway, whose tympanum has an expressive bas-relief of Religion and Charity y is a large square-headed window of four lights, crossed near the top by a transom. It is quite Jacobean, and of so pleasing a character that one cannot help regretting Wren did not employ the same type of window more often. *In Strype’s map of Walb rook Ward the position of the stone on the south side of the street is distinctly laid down. See his edition of Stow’s Survey, ii, 171. 1720. St Vedast’s, Foster Lane 401 The interior is somewhat injured by want of symmetry and regularity, caused by the intrusion of the tower, and by the introduction of a single aisle divided from the nave by round arches on Doric columns. Besides this, the sides of the church do not form right angles one with another, owing probably to the circumstance that the architect, when rebuilding the church, used all the old walls that were available. There is some fine wood-carving about the interior of St Vedast’s, notably the altarpiece, and ■ some tolerable modern stained glass in the side windows,* inserted when the building was quietly and conservatively renovated and rearranged during the rectorate of tne Rev. W. Sparrow Simp- son. On the demolition of his former church, St Matthew’s, Friday Street,f in 1880, Dr Simpson succeeded to the cure of St Vedast’s, which during the latter part of the life of its previous rector, the Rev. T. Pelham Dale, had been on every one’s lips, owing to the ritual persecution of that clergyman by the ‘‘ Church Association.” With the single exception of Tathwell in Lin- colnshire, St Vedast’s, Foster Lane, is the only church in England dedicated to that Saint, who *In 1839, when Godwin and Britton published their Churches of London, the windows at the east end of the aisles were covered by transparent blinds, painted to represent the Delivery of St Peter from prison and the Transfiguration. fThe parish of St Matthew’s was then united with that of St Vedast, which after the great Fire had had two others (whose churches were not rebuilt) amalgamated with it, viz., St Michael le Querne and St Peter’s, Cheap. For some account of Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson see Lhe Cathedrals of England and Wales, ii, 120. 1-26 402 London Churches was Bishop of Arras in French Flanders in the sixth century. He left his country, which is sup- posed to have been Aquitaine, at an early age, and led a holy life in the diocese of Toul, where he was ordained priest by the bishop of that city. Soon afterwards he was appointed by Clovis I, King of France, to instruct and prepare him for baptism. He was next consecrated Bishop of Arras by St Remigius, Archbishop of Rheims. The diocese of Arras, which had formerly been evangelized, had now again become heathen, and it was with the utmost difficulty that our Saint overcame his people’s unbelief. He succeeded, however, at last and planted the Cross of Christ, where for a long time naught but superstition and ignorance had prevailed. In 510 the diocese of Cambrai was added to his own, and the two sees for long re- mained united. St Vedast (styled in France, St Vaast) worked thus for nearly forty years and died in the odour of sanctity, February 6, 539. He was buried in his own cathedral, one of the predecessors of a building entirely destroyed during the great French Revolution, but rebuilt under Napoleon I. Together with St Amandus, the Sarum Breviary honoured St Vedast with an Office of nine les- sons. He was chiefly noted for his patience, meek- ness and charity, and, of course, worked several miracles. In Christian art St Vedast is represented as a bishop with near him a wolf holding a goose in its mouth, which he is legended to have rescued from it. In his Lives of the Saints Alban Butler says our ancestors had a particular devotion to St Vedast, whom they called St Foster, whence descends the St Vedast’s, Foster Lane 403 family name of Foster, as Camden takes notice of in his Remains. Foster Lane, in which St Vedast’s stands, was originally Vedast’s Lane, but became corrupted into Foster Lane, while in many old histories of London we find St Vedast’s styled alias St Foster. Thus in the Calendar of State Papers of Charles I (Domestic) a.d. 1635, p. 47, is the following: “Petition of James Batty, priest and rector of St Vedast’s, alias St Foster’s, London, to Archbishop Laud. There are many disorders and ‘ undecencies ’ among his parishioners in receiving the most blessed Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, for want of a frame of wood, commonly called a rail, about the communion table, to which they may come kneeling in most humble manner. Prays the Arch- bishop to give order for a rail, and also for the man- ner of setting the communion table.” Dr Simpson was most assiduous in his endeavours to glean all the particulars he could respecting the saint to whom his church is dedicated, and in 1894 made a special journey to Arras for this purpose.* With regard to this, the following passage from The Memoir of the Rev. W . Sparrow Simpson^ com- piled and edited by his son, the Rev. W. J. Sparrow Simpson, M.A., published in 1899, may be inter- esting: The dream of visiting x^rras was at length ful- filled in 1894, and its fulfilment was at once a joy and a disappointment — a joy to visit the actual The History and Legend of St Vedast”originally appeared in Transactions of the British Archceological Association, xliii, 56-81, in 1887. After Dr Simpson’s visit to Arras it was reprinted and expanded to fifty pages. 1-26^? 404 London Churches place of St Vedast’s labour, a disappointment to find that the saintly bishop’s name had been practically eclipsed by the more popular Joan of Arc. It was somewhat singular for French priests to hear inquiries about the altar of St Vedast from a priest of the Anglican Church whose zeal for the Saint evidently far exceeded that which prevailed among themselves. They mournfully confessed, ‘‘ II est tout a fait oublie.” And so it was! In the shops, the prints and figures were Joan of Arc, not St Vedast; in his own cathedral it was she who was commemorated in popular esteem, and not the ‘‘9 Amen Court, ‘‘All Saints’ Day, 1894. “I had a grand time at Arras and opened up a rich mine of material. The accomplished librarians introduced me to a good copyist, who writes, not an angular, spider-legged Frenchified hand, but a clear, round, legible hand, with well-formed letters. And I have given him plenty of work to do. The matter to be transcribed is all Latin, and this gentleman can speak Latin.” The outcome of this pilgrimage to the shrine of St Vedast was a large, minute, exhaustive bio- graphy, which he dedicated to Vedast’s memory. The approval which his work on St Vedast met with was remarkable. Like so much of his work, it was cast in a form chiefiy attractive to scholars, but it was welcomed by Roman and Anglican alike. He valued particularly the following graceful words from the Abbess of a Roman convent in England: St Anne’s, Soho 405 . 1 trust that the dear Saint will reward your labours to make him known and to restore his hon- our by obtaining much blessing from Almighty God on you and yours; and by coming to meet you on the eternal shores when your labours are ended.” The History and Legend of St V edast was Dr Simpson’s only attempt at mediaeval biography. ‘‘It led him quite away from his habitual studies and into problems of a totally different kind. In writing this work one of the chief difficulties to be considered was a problem confronting all readers of mediaeval history — that of ecclesiastical miracles. He read everything that he could find bearing upon the subject and formed his own conclusions.” As to many of the legends he says, without hesitation, “ T he day has gone by when they can be taken as veritable histories; perhaps they were never intended to be so taken^^ I have not included the massive, though heavy, if not dignified, St Anne’s, Soho, among Sir Chris- topher Wren’s churches, as, although it has been attributed to him by some writers, I am quite unable to afford any confirmation that he was engaged upon it. Regarded as an ecclesiastical structure, little that is favourable can be said for this church. Like certain of the City churchesf St Anne’s was supposed to have been the work of that *From the Memoir of Dr Sim-pson by his son; from which, as well as from the Life and Letters of the Rev, Lhcs Pelham Dale, by his daughter, 2 vols. Geo. Allen, 1894, many interesting parti- culars relating to St Vedast’s Church and parish may be gleaned. fAs, for instance, St Stephen’s, Coleman Street, the nave arcade of St Sepulchre’s, Holborn, and the now demolished St Mat- thew’s, Friday Street. 4o 6 London Churches architect, but, for his reputation, it is to be hoped that he had nothing to do with its erection. From the Autobiography of Sir John Bramston^ p. 223, we learn that,“Vpon the twentie-first of the same March, 1685-8, was the new parish church St Anne’s, Soho, consecrated by the Lord Bishop of London, Henry Compton, a most pious prelate and admirable governor. This parish is taken, as was St James’s, out of St Mai tin’s-in-the-Fields, by Act of Parliament, and the patronage thereof set- tled in the Bishop of London and his successors. The consecration (as was the buildinge) of it was the more hastened, for that, by the Act of Parlia- ment, it was to be a parish from the Lady Day next after the consecration; and had it not been con- secrated that day, it must have lost the benefit of a year, for there was noe other Sunday before Our Lady Day. But the materiall parts being finished, though all the pewes were nott sett, neither below nor in the galleries, his lordship made no scruple of consecrating it; yet he would be ascertained that all the workmen were payd or secured their monie and dues first, and to that end made particular enquiries of the workmen.” No architect’s name is mentioned. In his Original Letters Illustrative of English History (1825-27) Sir Henry Ellis gives one from Sir John Bramston, dated April 6, 1686, containing the following passage : ‘‘I imagine your Countess of Dorchester [Sedley’s daughter] will speedily move hitherward, for the house is furnishing very fine in St James’s Square, and a seat taking for her in the new consecrated St Anne’s Church.” St Anne’s, Soho 407 These extracts are interesting, but they throw no light upon the designer of St Anne’s. The tower of St Anne’s, Soho, as depicted by Cole in Maitland’s History of London (1756), had originally four angle-vases, and carried an ogee- shaped eight-sided cupola which supported an open octagonal lantern surmounted with a con- caved base bearing a bulbous spire and a finial, the whole being very similar to those seventeenth- century steeples one encounters so frequently in the Netherlands, North Germany, and Denmark. These interesting features were regrettably re- moved in 1800 and the upper portion of the steeple rebuilt in its present form in 1803. Malcolm in his Londinium Redivivum assigns it to Professor Cocke- rell, others to Henry Hakewill the elder (1771-1830). In Crace’s Collection is a view by Cole taken in 1754 and showing the church from the north. The plain interior of St Anne’s, with its deep galleries and spacious apsidal sanctuary, was placed in the hands of the late Sir Arthur Blomfield about 1865, when a chorus cantorum was formed at the east end of the nave, and a low screen effectively carved in a style of ornamentation founded on early eighteenth-century examples, was erected. Unfortunately, some obtrusive monuments have militated against a more complete decoration of the apse, which it should be remarked is only visible internally, like the semicircular recesses in the aisles of St Paul’s Cathedral. The stained glass in the east window, by Ward and Hughes, attracted much notice in the Great Exhibition of 1862. As a specimen of revived Renaissance glass it is very praiseworthy. London Churches St Anne’s has long been noted for the excellence of its choral services,* principally under the late Sir Joseph Barnby (organist from 1871 to 1875), and Mr E. H. Thorne (the present organist). During the Christmas and Lenten seasons, Bach’s Christ- mas Oratorio and his Passion Music according to St John, are given on weekday evenings and attract very large auditories. Here is a tablet to the memory of Theodore Anthony Neuhoff, King of Corsica, who died in the parish of St Anne’s in 1756, soon after his liberation from the King’s Bench Prison by the Act of Insolvency. The friend who gave shelter to this unfortunate monarch, whom nobles could praise when praise could not reach his ear, and who refused to succour him in his miseries, was himself so poor as to be unable to defray the cost of his funeral. His remains were, therefore, about to be interred as a parish pauper, when one John Wright, an oilman in Compton Street, declared, he for once would 'pay the funeral expenses of a king^ which he did. The tablet was erected by Horace Walpole, who inscribed upon it: The grave, great teacher to a level brings Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings; But THEODORE this moral learn’d ere dead; Fate poured its lesson on his living head, Bestow’d a kingdom and denied him bread. In the church is buried David Williams, founder of the Literary Fund (d. 1816); and in the church- * Dr Croft was organist of St Anne’s, Soho, from 1700 to 171 1, his famous psalm-tune St Anne’s being named in compliment of that church. St Anne’s, Soho 409 yard is a headstone over 'the grave of William Hazlitt (d. 1830), with a pompous inscription very unlike the style of the writer it celebrated. ‘‘Many parts of this parish,” says Maitland in his History and Survey of London (1756), “so greatly abound with French, that it is an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France.” This is true of the parish a century and a half after: it is still a petty France. The emigrants from all the Revolu- tions have congregated hereabouts. ADDENDA The Founder’s Tomb, and Prior Bolton’s Oriel Window in St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield HE tomb of Rahere, the founder and first prior of St Bartholomew’s, stands within the eastern- most arch on the north side of the choir. The tabernacle work over the tomb and the panels beneath it are of Perpendicular date. The effigy of the founder is certainly anterior to this, and, those who have studied the effigies of William Longspee, Earl of Salisbury (d. 1226), in Salisbury Cathedral, will perceive that Rahere’s figure is decidedly the earlier. The effigy was pro- bably placed upon Rahere’s tomb by Thomas ot St Osyth, his successor. Prior of St Bartholomew’s till 1 174. Rahere is represented with shaven crown, and habited in the black robe of a Canon of the Augustinian Order. At his feet a crowned angel holds a shield bearing the arms of the priory, viz, ‘‘gules, two lions passant guardant, with two crowns or in chief.” At each side of the prior is a small kneeling figure of a monk reading from a book. The effigy has well-marked features, and is certainly a portrait of Rahere, who built the church in which his bones still repose. The projedling bay window, of the latest and plainest Perpendicular architedure, above the third 412 London Churches bay on the opposite side of the choir, was probably built as a watching chamber for keeping guard over the high altar, though by some antiquaries it is considered to have been the private seat of the prior. From the rebus of Bolton — a cross-bow through a wine-tun, we may infer that this oriel was the work of that ecclesiastic who ruled the house from 1532 to 1536. It is alluded to by Ben Jonson, “Prior Bolton, with his bolt in tun.” * There is a watching chamber in the shape of a small oriel window of Perpendicular date, formerly communicating with the Sacrist’s lodgings in the north choir aisle of Worcester Cathedral. From it the high altar, and the shrines of St Oswald and St W ulfstan could be watched. Ecclesiologists hardly need to be reminded of the magnificent watching chambers over against the shrines of St Frideswide and St Alban in Oxford and St Albans Cathedrals. T/ie Chapel of Gray s Inn T his is a small, aisleless building ot the late Perpendicular Period, and not particularly interesting architedlurally. It is lighted at the sides by poor obtuse-headed windows of three lights, but at the east end by a very good window of five compartments with super-mullions. Before the Reformation the Chapel of Gray’s Inn had a stained glass window representing St Thomas of Canterbury, but by an order of May 1 6, 3 1 Henry * For some of the above information I am indebted to Dr Norman Moore of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Addenda 413 VIII, ‘‘Consideration being had of the King’s com- mand that all images of Thomas Becket, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury, in any windows, either of churches or chapels, should be obliterated, it was ordered that Ed. Hall, then one of the readers of this house shall take out a certain window in the chapel wherein the pidure of the said Archbishop was gloriously painted, and place another instead thereof, in memory of our Lord praying in the wilderness.” At the reopening of the chapel after a restoration of its interior under the diredion of Mr C. H. Shoppee (January 28, 1894), the Bishop of Marl- borough (Dr Earle, now Dean of Exeter), called attention to the fad of five primates having been students of the Inn, and an offer was made to the Benchers by one of the barristers of Gray’s Inn to replace the Becket window. Shortly after this a new Becket window, from the designs of Mr Ostrehan, was inserted in the chapel. It represents the primate as Archbishop and Lord Chancellor. Above the figure, which occupies more than half the space of the light, are the towers and outline of Canterbury Cathedral, and beneath is the scene of his martyrdom, with figures of monks en- gaged in prayer. A suitable Latin inscription records the removal of the old window, and its restoration by the donor, the late Mr H. C. Richards, M.P., treasurer to the Inn at the time of his death. During the late autumn (1907) Gray’s Inn 414 London Churches Chapel has been enriched with another stained glass window, under circumstances equally interesting, and making a notable addition to the series which commemorates the association of Archbishop Wake, Whitgift, Laud and Juxon, with the ancient and honourable society. In the new window, which is also a memorial to Mr Richards, the connexion ot Bishop Lancelot Andrewes as a student is recalled. Mr Selwyn Image is the artist who designed the window, which is exceedingly dignified in effedl, and shows the figure of the Bishop vested in a cope of subdued crimson, with a cassock of ecclesiastical purple, a rich green carpet being underfoot. In one hand is a copy of the Holy Bible, recalling his deep research into the Scriptures, and a reminder of his devotional writings. In his sermon at the dedication of this window on Sunday, Odober 27, 1907, the preacher of the Inn, the Rev. R. J. Fletcher, said it was an example of Christian culture that Bishop Andrewes was to be remembered. His sermons were marked by eru- dition and piety, seamed with humour and knowledge of human nature, but he was wont to say if he preached twice on a Sunday he prated once. In brief outline, Mr Fletcher traced Andrewes’ career at Cambridge, his association with Walsingham, and the purpose of his admission to Gray’s Inn, which was not improbably that he should use there, as he had elsewhere, his influence to counterad the Roman propaganda. It was here, the preacher suggested, that his friendship with Francis Bacon began. Addenda 415 There appears to be no record of the preachers earlier than 1574, when Mr W. Cherke or Charke was appointed; he was afterwards Preacher of Lin- coln’s Inn, and Fellow of Eton College. Among those who have filled the office of Preacher at Gray’s Inn since Cherke’s time may be mentioned, Dr Roger Fenton, one of the translators of the Bible ; Dr Richard Sibbs, the celebrated Puritan, author of The Bruised Reed; Dean Nicholas Bernard, Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and one of his almoners; Dr Wilkins, Bishop of Chester; Archbishop Wake; Dean Robert Moss; Archdeacon Stebbing; Bishop Walker King; Dr Matthew Ramm, Head Master of Charterhouse School; Dr George Sheppard, an accomplished and sound scholar, who died in 1849; and the Rev. Dr Hessey, afterwards Archdeacon of Middlesex. Divine Service is performed on Sundays (except during vacation) at eleven o’clock, with services and anthems in the cathedral manner. The choral ser- vice was first established at Gray’s Inn Chapel in 1850, Mr Turle Lee officiating for some years as organist. 417 Index Abchurch, St Mary, 348 Alban, St, Wood Street, 273 Aldermanbury, St Mary, 355 Aldermary, St Mary, 350 All Hallows, Barking, 164; Lom- bard Street, 275; Thames St,, 342; Tottenham, 229-238 All Saints, Fulham, 212-216 All Souls, Langham Place, 22 Altarpieces, 159, 1 81, 184, 275, 308, 321, 338 Andrew, St, Holborn, 277; Un- dershaft, 148-156; by the Wardrobe, 285 Andrewes, Bishop, 161 Anne, St, Soho, 406 Anne and Agnes, SS., Gresham Street, 288 Anne Queen, churches promo- ted during reign of, 16 Archer, Thos, architect, 16 Architectural styles, nomen- clature of, 3 Architecture, London Church, short history of, 1-45 Augustinian Church, the, 51, 125-130 Augustine and Faith, SS., Wat- ling Street, 289 Barbauld, Mrs, poetess, etc., 22 5 Barking, Abbey of, 147 Barking, All Hallows, 164 Barry, Sir Charles, architect, 26, 122, 224 Barry, E. M., architect, 121 Bartholomew-the-Great, St, Smithfield, 4, 51, 58-79 Baxter, Richard, divine, 303 Bells, 66, 163, 181, 358 Benet, St, Paul’s Wharf, 290 Bethnal Gieen, Church Exten- sion in, 30 Beveridge, Bishop, 381 Bishopsgate,St Ethelburga,i45 ; St Helen, 131 Blomfield, Bishop, 29; monu- ment to in St Paul’s, 214 Blomfield, Sir Arthur, architect, 213 Boswell, James, 306 Bow Church, 356-362 Boyce, Dr, composer, 182 Brasses, 142, 151, 165, 175, 234 Bread Street, St Mildred, 375 Brett Robert, distinguished layman, 235 Bride, St, Fleet Street, 263, 291- 298 Bromley-by-Bow, St Leonard, 223 Burgon, Dean, 297 Burlison and Grylls, stained glass by, 310 Butterfield, William, architect, 39, 42, 230, 235, 237 Cambridge Camden Society, 33 Cannon Street, St Swithin, 399 Carlos, E. J., antiquary, 27 Carlyle, Thos, 190 Carving in Wren’s churches, 268, 276, 321, 349, 363, 396 Catherine Cree, St, Leadenhall Street, 241-249 Ceremonies and customs, 78, 176, 245 Chapels, Royal and Private, 52 Chapel Royal, Savoy, 169; St James, 193 1-27 4 1 8 London Churches Chapel within Lambeth Palace, 4, 104; Lincoln’s Inn, 249; the Charterhouse, 252 Chapel in Ely Place, 5 , 1 1 1 , 121 Charterhouse, the, 252 Chatterton, Thomas, 284 Cheap Church, epoch of the, 28 Chelsea, old Church of St Luke, 205, 212 Choirs, surpliced, 102 Christ Church, Newgate Street, 263, 298-304 Church Extension in Bethnal Green, etc., 29 City Churches of Sir C. Wren, 8, 256 Clayton and Bell, stained glass by, 107, 164, 174, 186, 354, 369 Clement, St, Danes, 304; East- cheap, 310 Clerkenwell, crypt of St John’s, 51 Cloisters of St Bartholomew- the-Great, 76 Coleman St., St Stephen, 396 College Hill, St Michael Royal, 373 Commissioners’ churches, the, 19, 24 Cowie, Rev. B. M., 333 Cowper, William, 12 1, 157, 192 Cox, Bishop of Ely, 1 1 3 Cripplegate, St Giles, 157 Croly, Dr, poet and divine, 394 Crosby Hall, 133, 143 Crosby, Sir John, 133 Crost Waite, Rev. J. C., 364 Crusaders’ effigies in Temple Church, 87 Crypts, 79, 360 Customs and ceremonies, 78, 176, 245 Dale, Rev. Thomas, 296 Decorated Period, churches of the. III, 121, 125 Demolition of City Churches, 9, 14, 256 De Wint, Peter, artist, 374 Dickens Charles, on the City Churches, 10 Dollman, Francis, architect, 116 Domed churches, 348, 375, 393 398 Douglas, Bishop Gavan, 175 Dunstan-in-the-East, St, 265; Stepney, 217-222 Durandus’ Rationale, 249 Early English Period, Churches of the, 4, 88 Early Hanoverian Period, Chur- ches of the, 16 Early Post- Ref ormationPeriod , Churches of the, 8, 239-255 Early Victorian Period, Chur- ches of the, 32 Eastcheap, St Clement, 310 Ecclesiological Revival, the, 33, 36 Edmund the King, St,. Lom- bard Street, 313 Effigies, monumental, 87, 89, 142, 155, 157, 185 Elizabeth, Queen, 113 Ely Chapel and House, 111-121 Ethelburga, St, Bishopsgate, 145 Etheldreda, St, Ely Place, 5, 111-121 Evangelical Revival, the, 33 Evelyn, John, 120, 31 1, 321 Fast Day Sermons, 190 Fielding, Henry, novelist, 290 Fire, the Great, 8; churches re- built after the, 256-408 Fleet Street, St Bride, 291-298; St Clement Danes, 304 Flitcroft, Henry, architect, 17 Fonts, 1 19, 218, 315, 322, 338, 344, 347, 349. 354 Foreign influence on English Gothic, 40 Foster Lane, St Vedast, 402- 405 Fulham, All Saints, 212-216 Fuller, Thomas, historian and divine, 171 Index 419 Furniture of Wren’s churches, 268 Galleried churches, 278, 306 Garlick-Hythe, St James, 315 George IV, churches built in reign of, 20 Gibbons, Grinling, wood carv- ing by, 268, 321, 349; fonts carved by, 322, 344 Giles, St, Cripplegate, 157-161 Goldsmith, Oliver, 103 Good Friday, Dr Johnson and, 306; custom at St Bartholo- mew the Great, 78 Gothic churches of Wren, 15, 265. 350. 367 Gothic Revival, the, 25, 33 Gresham Street, SS., Anne and Agnes, 288; J^t Laurence, 329-335 Gundulph, Bishop, 5 3 Racket, Bishop, 282 Hackett, Miss Maria, 144 Hanover Chapel, 22 Harris, Renatus, organ-builder, 99, 152, 279, 332 Hart Street, St Olave, 161-163 Hatton, Sir Christopher, 1 1 3 Hawksmoor, Nicholas, archi- tect, 16 Helen, St, Bishopsgate, 131-143 Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusa- lem, 81 Hilton, William, artist, 374 Holborn, St Andrew, 277-285; St Sepulchre, 385-392 Hopkins, Dr E. J., organist and composer, loi Horne, Rev. T. Hartwell, 315 Hornsey, St Mary, 227 Howley, Archbishop, 106 Hunt, Leigh, poet and journa- list, 24 Jackson, Rev. Thos, 167 Jacobean Period, churches of the, 239 James, St, Garlick-Hythe, 315; Piccadilly, 319-328 Jefferies, Lord Chief Justice, 304. 355 John, St, Chapel of, in the Tower, 4, 53; in the Savoy, 169-176 John of Jerusalem, St, Clerken well, 51,79 Johnson, Dr, 301, 306 Jones, Inigo, 249 Jordan, Abraham, organ-buil- der, 338 Kingsley, Heriy, novelist, 205 Knights Hospitallers, church of the, 51,79 Lady Chapel, St Bartholomew the Great, 74 < Lamb, Charles, 285 Lambeth Palace,Chapel within, 4 . 104 Lambeth, St Mary the Virgin, 199 Later Hanoverian Period, chur- ches of the, 18 Laud, Archbishop, 107, 243,252 Laurence, St, Gresham Street, 329-335 Leadenhall Street, St Andrew Undershaft, 148-156; St Catherine Cree, 241-249 Leonard, St, Bromley-by-Bow, 223 Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, 250 Lombard Street, All Hallows, 275; St Edmund, 313 Londina Illusirata, 62 London Church Architecture, short history of, 1-45 London, mediaeval aspect of, 46 London Stone, 399 Lothbury, St Margaret, 341 Ludgate Hill, St Martin, 346 Luke, St, Chelsea, old church, 205-212; new church, 25 Macaulay, Lord, 167 Magnus, St, London Bridge, 263, 335-341 1-27^ 420 London Ch\irches Margaret, St, Lothbury, 341; Pattens, 344; Westminster, 176-193 Martin, St, Ludgate, 346 Mary,|St, Abchurch, 348; Alder- manbury, 355; Aldermary, 350; at Hill, 362; Hornsey, 227; le-Bow, 263, 356-362; Overy, 4, 50; Somerhythe, 365; Stoke Newington, 223; Stratford-le-Bcw 222 Mary, the Virgin, Sr \.ambeth, 199; Putney, 216 Mediaeval London, aspect of, 46 Mediaeval Remains, 4, 49, 387- 390 Melvill, Rev. Henry, 30 Mendelssohn, Felix, 299, 383 Metropolis Churches Fund, 29 Metropolitan Improvements, 20 Michael, St, Cornhill, 365-373; Paternoster Royal, 373 Middlesex, ancient churches of, 6 Milbourne, Rev. Luke, 148 Mildred, St, Bread Street, 375 “Million Act,” churches built under the, 19, 24 Milton John, 157, 189, 295 Monuments, 87, 89, 142, 155, 157. 163, 185, 206, 212, 214, 221, 225, 234, 254, 408 Montaigne, Archbishop, 250 More, Sir Thomas, 206 Moore, Tom, 228 Musical Associations of London Churches, loi, 144, 166, 192, 195. 311. 323. 371 Nash, John, architect, 20 Newgate Street, Christ Church, 298-304 Nicholas, St, Cole Abbey, 376 Norman Period, churches of the, 4, 53, 57 Olave, St, Hart Street, 161-164 Organists and composers, 10 1, 144, 153, 166, 192, 197, 280, 297. 323. 333. 340.37L 383. 392, 408 Organs and organ cases, 99,137, 152, 191, 219, 252, 279, 299, 323. 331. 338. 382, 392, 395 Oxford Movement, the, 33 Paintings and Pictures, 93, 125, I5L 159. 175. 194. 308, 324. 33L 349, 374. 395 Pancras, St, 23 Parker, Archbishop, 108 “Parliamentary” churches, 19, 24 Parr, Rev. Dr, 301 Parvise porches, 231, 388 Paul’s Wharf, St Benet, 290 Pearson, Bishop of Chester, 31 1 Pepys, Samuel, 162, 250 Perpendicular Period, churches of the, 5, 131, 145, 148, 157, 161, 164, 167, 169, 176, 212, 2 t6, 2 v 7, 222, 278, 388 Peter, St, ad Vincula, 167; Cornhill, 377-385 Philip, St, Regent Street, 22 Piccadilly, St James, 319-328 Pietas Londiniensis, 152, 280 Plans of Wren’s churches, 265 Poe, Edgar Allan, poet and novelist, 225 . Porches, 96, 231, 388, 390 Prices, the, glass painters, 280 Private Chapels, 52 Pugin,A.W., architect, 35,37, 47 Putney, St Mary-the- Virgin, 216 Rahere, 58; tomb of, in St Bartholomew-the-Great ,note to Vol. I Recastings of churches, 270 Reformation, the. influence of on church architecture, 239 Renaissance, the, 8, 15, 243 Reredoses and altarpieces, 159, 181, 184 Restoration, churches built after the, 256-408 Resurrection gateway, 396 Revival, the Gothic, 25, 33 Rich, Sir Richard, 61, 74, 76 Richardson, Samuel, novelist, 294 Index Robinson, Bishop of London, 138 Rogers, W. Gibbs, wood-carver, 363 Rogers, Samuel, poet, 228 Romaine, Rev. W., 286 Rood Lane, St Margaret Pat- tens, 344 Roof and wall painting, 93, 125, ISL 194 “Round,” the, of the Temple Church, 84 Ruskin, John, 40 Sacheverell, Dr, 279, 281, 283 Savage, Richard, poet, 283 Saviour's, St, Cathedral, 4, 50 Savoy, Chapel of St John ie the, 169-176 Schmidt or Smith, Fatlier, organ-builder, 99, 270^ ^82 Scott, Sir Gilbert, architect, 36, 42, 368 Screens, 341, 381 Sepulchre, St, Holborn, 385- 392 Seventeenth century, churches of the, 239 Simpson, Rev. W. Sparrow, 403 Slater and Lewis, architects, 62 Smithfield, St Bartholomew- the-Great, 57 Soho, St Anne, 406 Somerhythe, St Mary, 365 Southwark, St Saviour's Cathe- dral, 4, 50 Spectator, The, 221, 317 Spital Sermons, 301 Stained glass, 94, 107, 117, 138, 146, 150, 174, 182, 184, 186, 200, 233, 243, 251, 280, 313, 321, 354, 369. 394 Stalls, 139 Steele, Sir Richard, 221, 317 Steelyard, the, 341 Steeples of Sir C. Wren, 9, 261, 291. 316, 335, 356. 367. 374 » 380 Stephen, St, Coleman Street, 396; Walbrook, 392-396 421 Stephen’s, St, Chapel, West- minster, 1 21-125 Stepney, St Dunstan, 217-222 Stoke Newington, St Mary, 223 Stow, John, historian, 58, 129, 149. 155. 399 Stratford-le-Bow, St Mary, 222 Street, G. E., architect, 42 Styles, architectural, 3 Sutton, Thomas, 254 Swithin, St, Cannon Street, 399 Sword-ho'ders, 14 1, 354 Temple Church, the, 4, 50, 81- 104 Terrick, Bishop of London, 215, 287 Teulon, S. S., architect, 278, 282 Thirlby, Bishop, 8, 201 Tombs, 87, 89, 142, 155, 168, 201, 204, 221 Tottenham, All Hallows, 229- 238 Tower, Chapel of St John in the, S 3 Tower Street, All Hallows, 164 Tractarian Movement, the, 33 Transition Period, work of the, 4.83 Undershaft, St Andrew, 148- 156 Vedast, St, Foster Lane, 263, 400-405 Wadmore, Mr, architect, 136, 138, 140 Walbrook, St Stephen, 392 Wall and roof-painting, 93, 125 , ISC 194 Wardrobe, St Andrew, 285 Watling Street, SS. Augustine and Faith, 289 Webb, Sir Aston, architect, 64, 66, 74 Wesley, John, 78, 277, 394 West, Bishop of Ely, 216 42 2 London Churches Westminster, St James, 319 ; StMarg.tret,i76; St Stephen’s Chapel, 12 1 Westminster Abhey, 4 Westminster, Bishopric of, 201 Whitaker, John, organist and composer, 312 Whittington, Sir Richard, 373 Willement, Thomas, stained glass by, 94, 174 Winston, Wm, artist in stained glass, 95 Wood-carving, 268, 276, 363 Wood Street, St Alban, 273 Worgan, Dr, organist and com- poser, 153 Wren, Sir Christopher, 8, 15, 256-274, 352 Letcbworth: %At the tArden Tresi I T he cathedrals and CHURCHES OF NORTHERN ITALY By T. FRANCIS BUMPUS With Eighty Plates (many of them in Colour) and a Coloured Frontispiece oy F. L. Gviggs, 9x6^ in. 1 6s. net ^lCNG tie numerous Cathedrals and Churches described in this Volume are those of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Venice, Ferrara, Bologna, Ravenna, Modena, Piacen- za, Cremona, Bergamo, Milan, Pavia, Asti, Vercelli, Novara and Turin. Although the author sets out to deal with architedlure, he is not exclusively archaeological, the arts auxiliary finding a place in his descriptions ; and in his volume he says not a little about the music and ceremonial connedled with the numerous Cathedrals and Churches. The book should prove as attradlive to the eccle- siologist as to the student of architedlure. The most interesting points in the text are illus- trated by means of a number of the best archi- tectural photographs and pidlures in colour. T. WERNER LAURIE, Clifford’s Inn, London THE CATHEDRAL SERIES 0 Each Volume very fully illustrated and tastefully printed ^ bound. The Standard Series Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s. each net T his Senesisprobablythemost artistic, scholarly, complete, and cheap sec of books yet published. Infinite pains have been expended on every branch of reproduction employed. The Daily News said of The Cathedrals of Northern France : In paper, print, binding- and reprodudlion this record is a joy to the reader.” “ We question if there is anything about any of our Cathedrals of which Mr Bumpus is ignorant. He is a delightful companion in exploring these great churches. His Cathedrals ought to become a standard book.” — Morning Post. LIST OF SERIES I. The Cathedrals of Northern France. By Francis Miltoun. With 8o illustrations. 6s. net. 2. The Cathedrals of Southern France. By Francis Miltoun. Cloth gilt, 6s. net. *3, 4, 5. The Cathedrals of England and Wales. By T. Francis Bumpus. 3 vols. 6s. net each. *6. The Cathedrals of Northern Germany and the Rhine. By T. Francis Bumpus. With plates. 6s. net. 7. The Cathedrals of Northern Spain. By Charles Rudy. Many illustrations. 6s. net. • These volumes are also issued In leather binding- at los. 6d. each net. T. WERNER LAURIE, Clifford’s Inn, London GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 7732