sequently formed one of the chief charges against him; the curious little church of St. Ethelburgh, in Bishopsgate Street, so diminutive that the pettiest houses and shops seem, in very contempt of its insignificance, to have half smothered it up, pressing it on each side, and creeping across its front till the door below and the tip of its fine window above, with the surmounting turret, are all that can be scen; St. Helen's, close by, in every way the most perfect and interesting of the whole; St. Giles's, Cripplegate, rich in many recollections, were they not almost rendered as nothing in contrast with the one-Milton's burial within its walls; St. Olave, Hart Street, with its elegant architecture, and remains of antique decoration on the roof of its aisles; Lambeth; St. Margaret's, Westminster; and, still more distant, Chelsea, where Sir Thomas More, when Chancellor, sang with the boys in the choir, and now lies in that last sleep which, with such a spirit, could not but be sweet; Fulham, Putney, &c. If to these are added the structures already described in our pages as St. Mary Overies (or St. Saviour's), Bartholomew the Great (the Less also has remains of the ancient structure), Ely Place, and the Savoy-the reader will have a tolerably complete general view of the old churches that remain. The Dutch church, Austin Friars, may here also be mentioned. This priory was founded by Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex; the date is shown on the exterior, 1253. Strikingly handsome as this building still is, with its long range of pointed windows of great size on each side, its magnificent western front, and its elegantly-clustered columns in the interior, both exterior and interior give but a partial view of the original splendour of this house of the bare-footed friars; the one wanting its spire, which formed the "beautifullest and rarest spectacle" in London, and the other the sumptuous and all but innumerable monuments which formerly adorned it: whilst the whole forms but the nave of the perfect structure. For all these deficiencies we have to thank my lord Marquis of Winchester, into the hands of whose family the place fell after the dissolution: the mayor and many other influential persons bestirred themselves greatly, in 1600, to induce his lordship to assist in the repair of the steeple, then in a dangerous state, for which they asked only 50l. or 601. from him; his answer was-first, a refusal, and then the pulling down of the steeple and choir, with the sale, for 100%., of all the rich tombs. We may judge of the character of those memorials from the individuals to whom they related. There were buried in this church-Edmond, half-brother to Richard II.; the founder, Humphrey Bohun; Richard, the great Earl of Arundel, Surrey and Warren, beheaded 1397; Vere, Earl of Oxford, beheaded 1463; the lords barons slain at Barnet, in 1471, who were interred together in the body of the church; "poor Edward Bohun," Duke of Buckingham, beheaded 1521; with several other noblemen, many knights and ladies, and a countless number of less distinguishable persons.

Of the churches enumerated in the preceding paragraph, it will be necessary to notice in detail only the more important. The name of Barking church, Allhallows, was evidently a great favourite with our ancestors; our list exhibiting no less than eight metropolitan buildings similarly dedicated; a circumstance no doubt to be attributed to the great popularity of the holiday of All-hallowmas, which having, it is supposed, its origin in pagan times, seems to have been first incorporated into the Christian system by Pope Boniface IV. in

* great-great-grandson of the founder

the seventh century. The Pope's object in so doing is stated in a passage from an old manuscript transcribed by Strutt, in his Horda Angel Cynnan,' to be the correction of "our omissions for many a Saint's day in the year we have unserved, for there be so many that we may not serve them all;" but Mr. Forster, in his Perennial Calendar,' says that "the Church, in this great festival, honours all the Saints rising together in glory:" so when a new church was to be dedicated in the earlier ages of Christianity, and the perfections of the different apostles, saints, and martyrs were canvassed, whenever there was much difficulty of choice, we may easily imagine how All Saints would carry the day. What better watchers and warders, too, either for the living or the dead, could be desired? Some such feeling possibly it was that led Richard I. to found a" fair chapel" here, on the north side, apparently with the intention of being buried in it; and it is said that his heart was actually interred in the church under the high altar. Legend connects another monarch with Allhallows, Barking, in an interesting point of view. Edward I., when Prince of Wales, is said to have been admonished in a vision to erect an image to the Virgin, and told at the same time, that if he visited the said image five times a year, he should be victorious over all nations, and more particularly over those which he most yearned to conquer, Scotland and Wales. He did erect one accordingly, as well as further augment the revenues and establishment of the chapel; and the image became so famous, that pilgrimages were regularly performed to it, down even to the period of the suppression: forty days' indulgence was the reward for all such pilgrimages. The chapel continuing still an object of royal solicitude, we find Edward IV. calling it "the King's," and empowering his brother John, Earl of Worcester, to found a brotherhood in it; whilst Richard III. rebuilt it, and founded a regular college of priests there. All these notices indicate great antiquity, as well as great interest in the structure in early times; and the sight of the interior confirms, in some degree, all that the enthusiastic antiquary might be apt to imagine from them. The church generally is of the Gothic style prevalent in the Tudor era, but there are certain pillars on each side of the nave, toward the western extremity, that at once attract the eye by their dissimilarity to the remainder: these are low, massive, round-in a word, Norman. antique inscriptions, nonuments, and brasses too, all about us, point far backwards over the stream of time. If from among the latter, where all are so interesting, we select one for mention, the best perhaps is the brass plate of John Rulche, 1459, who appears in a close-fitting gown, with long hair, hands clasped upon his breast, a pouch at his girdle, and a rosary on his arm. We have already mentioned that the Earl of Surrey, and the Bishops Fisher and Laud, were interred here after their executions, but it was only for a limited period in each case. Surrcy's remains were removed in 1614 to Framlingham; Fisher's, first buried in the churchyard here, were taken to the chapel in the Tower, and placed by the side of his murdered friend the great Chancellor More; and Laud's, whose temporary resting-place was the chancel, were afterwards taken down to St. John's College, Oxford. A terrible and, in one respect, curious accident injured the church in 1649-the explosion of a quantity of gunpowder, which at the same time destroyed fifty or sixty of the neighbouring houses with their inhabitants one of these was an alehouse full of people at the time. The first

The

person who ascended the steeple afterwards was not a little surprised at what he saw there a female infant in a cradle, unhurt. The parents could not be traced, and in consequence some good Samaritan stepped forward and brought her up as his own. To the repair of the injuries done on this occasion was added the erection of a new and ugly brick steeple.

That the majority of the earliest churches built in London were of wood seems sufficiently probable, if we consider merely the length of time that structures of greater pretension must have required for their erection, and how unwilling the enthusiastic builders must frequently have been to wait any longer than was absolutely necessary for a temple in which to worship; and the name of Allhallows Staining points no doubt to some such state of things. Stane is the Saxon word for stone, and was most probably applied to this church to distinguish it from the others of the same name of wood; and if the view be a correct one, the choice of the word shows how uncommon was the use of the more durable material at the time. Looking at the modern front of this church in Mark Lane, a model of plain deformity, one would never suspect there was aught behind it worth a single glance; but if we step through the little court close by, the eye at once rests upon a tower of unmistakeable antiquity. Sad reverses that tower has known! The body to which it belonged fell in 1671, and was replaced by the structure, of which the front already mentioned is a worthy representative; and, as if that was not enough degradation for a venerable steeple which could possibly date its birth from the days of the third Henry, they have actually thrust one of those abominable round-headed windows into its walls. But it has had its consolations too. If tradition speak truly, it was the merry peal of its bells pouring forth their congratulations to the parish on the release of Elizabeth from the Tower, that attracted the Princess herself hither, as the most agreeable place in which to perform her devotions. Whether it was that the parish had not previously coquetted much with princesses, or that Elizabeth had in truth won their entire hearts and souls, who shall say? but certain it is that in 'The King's Head' tavern adjoining, certain dishes of pork and peas appear once a-year in commemoration of the visit, Elizabeth having regaled herself on the occasion with such delicacies from this very house: witness those dark-looking vessels that hang up over the fire-place in the coffee-room, the dish and cover used by her, with an inscription between, detailing the circumstances, from Hughson's 'London,' and a print above of the Princess from a painting by Holbein, where the future Virgin-Queen appears in all the pride of high shoes, square waist, and outswelling petticoats. But apart from personal considerations, Elizabeth could hardly have come to a more beautiful or more interesting, or, therefore, a more suitable place. The entries of the churchwardens in their parish books, dry and succinct as they are, conjure up many a vision of surpassing ecclesiastical splendour which we should else little dream of attributing to the apparently insignificant-looking church of Allhallows Staining-this thing of yesterday, as its aspect seems to speak it. We read of a high altar dedicated to Allhallows, with" carved tabernacle" work, and drapery of red Bruges satin, bearing a representation of the Ascension; of a silver gilt cross on the high-altar, with small statues at its base of the Virgin Mary and St. John; and another (very large probably) of wood, plated with silver and gilt, having silver figures of our Saviour, the Virgin, and

St. John, the five wounds of the first marked by as many precious stones (rubies perhaps), and having at its base a piece of inserted crystal covering, but not concealing, the word JESUS. We read of three other altars similarly decorated; of a statue of St. Katherine, with a lamp constantly burning before it; of a rood-loft, with a great crucifix, and twenty-two tapers of extraordinary size burning about it. Then, to people the scene, come the priests in their robes of red damask with leaves of gold, red velvet embroidered with golden roses, white, green, and crimson satin, with their cross-banners lifted high, their streamers, their incense, their choral songs; and lastly, shutting in the whole picture, the kneeling, devout, adoring crowds of worshippers. Then the festivals: where, it may be asked with allowable parochial pride, were these observed with greater regularity and zeal than at Allhallows Staining, though its reputation in this matter be now dwindled away into a line in the register? The simplest statement of some facts, however, produces eloquence; and so it is with this passage, reviving all the jovial hilarity of the ecclesiastical Saturnalia, the rule of the boy-bishop: "Paid unto Goodman Chese, broiderer, for making a new mitre for the bishop ayenst St. Nicholas' night, 2s. 8d. ;" and this, referring to another and scarcely less popular festival," Paid for the hiring of a pair of wings and a crest for an angel on Palm Sunday, 8d.," when the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was dramatised, though by no irreverent artist, nor before an irreverent auditory; and when Allhallows, like many other churches, would present some such spectacle as that here shown. The parish books so frequently referred to show two noticeable

signatures-Sir Cloudesley Shovel's, in connexion with his own marriage; and Ireton's, as the alderman and justice of the peace, who married certain parties in pursuance of the Marriage Act of the time, which made the ceremony a civil, instead of a religious contract, as before, and which, subsequently annulled, has been again and in all probability permanently revived of late years.

The objects of our inquiry now grow thick around us: here we see the low but elegant Gothic exterior of St. Olave's, in Hart Street, there the more imposing range of pointed windows belonging to St. Katherine Cree, in Leadenhall Street, and scarcely a stone's-throw distant, the modern and beautiful tower of St. Andrew Undershaft, looking so light and so lofty that one could almost fancy the architect had the idea of the famous May-pole floating in his mind as he designed it. The interior of St. Andrew's forms a very interesting specimen of the Tudor architecture of the fifteenth century; and is rich in large fresco paintings of the Apostles, in its stained glass, with portraits of Edward VI. and succeeding monarchs down to Charles II., in its monuments, its noble organ, and its painted and gilded roof. But one thinks little of these things on the spot, for there in the north-east corner is Stow's monument. Poor Stow! the fate that followed him in life deserted not his remains in death; the story of the removal of his bones from his own monument to make room for some wealthier new-comer, forms the appropriate pendant to that of his begging his bread in his eightieth year,—is equally disgraceful and equally true: it occurred, states Maitland, in 1732. The history of St. Katherine Cree's-the latter word being a corruption for Christ's -church, like many others of the metropolis, impresses upon the mind the dateless antiquity of its foundation; the original edifice was pulled down about 1107, with three other churches, to make way for the great convent of Trinity, and the church of the latter, under the appellation of Christ's, having been made parochial, was devoted to the use of the four united parishes. The body of this church having become, it is said, old and crazy, was pulled down and rebuilt in 1628; if so, there must have been a very praiseworthy determination on the part of the architect to follow in some degree the style of the preceding building or of some of the neighbouring churches; but it was probably only an extensive repair of the exterior that took place at the times mentioned, for the interior exhibits proofs that there was no such self-denial in the artist's thoughts: here Gothic and Corinthian jostle in strange, but certainly picturesque confusion. It is said that Inigo Jones was the author of the repair or rebuilding in 1628. We hope he is not answerable for walling up the magnificent western window, the tracery of which is just visible at the top. That it was magnificent any one may easily assure himself by stepping up the narrow alley in Leadenhall Street, at the eastern extremity of the building, and gazing, as well as the place will permit, upon the correspondent work that there lies before him. Within, among other noticeable dead, we are reminded of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, the gallant spirit who so baffled the hunters in Guildhall, by the sight of his canopied effigy, and we remember without such aid that in all probability somewhere beneath our feet, or in the adjoining churchyard, lies all that remains of Hans Holbein. In the beautiful monument to Samuel Thorpe, 1791, by Bacon, St. Katherine Cree possesses another claim to the attention of the lovers of art. It was after the repair or rebuilding of 1628, that the consecration took place by Laud, who having