deur of the ancient church. The accompanying engraving comprises the ground plan, and the best view of the architecture existing, and which will sufficiently elucidate the following description: The plan shews a centre, with two side aisles, divided by partition walls of great thickness and solidity, and communicating with each other by openings; the central aisle is subdivided at the eastern extremity, by two ranges of columns, into three aisles, the continuation of which, westward, is cut off by modern brick work.

The columns are cylindrical, with regular bases set upon square plinths, and the capitals are also square, convexed, and diminished, to unite with the shafts, and surmounted by abaci; the height of the columns, including the capital and base, is 8 feet 2 inches; the side walls are broken at intervals, corresponding with the intercolumniations, by piers, composed of three pilasters of different breadths, in advance of each other; they are capped by a plain impost moulding, and, conjointly with the insulated columns, sustain the groined roof of stone, which has been repaired in brick work; this part formed a large and regularly built sub-chapel, of which the portion remaining open formed the chancel. The northern side aisle is much broken into by alterations; from the eastern angle our view is taken. The southern aisle still remains perfect. The communication between these and the grand central aisle is kept up by well turned semicircular arches without imposts; the simplicity of the architecture, as well as the excellence of the construction, is very creditable to the age, and so much do they resemble Roman works, that it is not surprizing that sir Christopher Wren, who was ill acquainted with our ancient buildings, should mistake this crypt for a Roman temple. The south aisle is in a perfect state; it is made in length by piers as before into five divisions, vaulted in stone, and groined, and in the whole composition a severe and bold character is displayed; the vaulting is of the same description as is found in all the early Norman churches. A home specimen may be seen in the priory church of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield. The materials of which the vault, with the walls and pillars are constructed, is the Caen stone of Normandy. The whole of the crypt is appropriated to the reception of the dead. An interesting natural curiosity may be seen in two human bodies, in which the flesh has decayed, leaving the skeleton entire, covered with the skin as perfect as alive; one, the least perfect, has attained a dark hue by age, the other, a female, which is preserved in a glazed case, retains its natural colour, a ghastly remnant of mortality.

At the time of the late repairs, the vaults were cleared out, and the foundations inspected; in removing the coffins the two bodies were discovered. The expense of these latter repairs amounted to about 6,000l. The highest credit is due to the inhabitants of the united parishes, for the care taken of the church and spire, in the considerable information has been de rived.

• Vide a communication to the Gent. Mag., vol. xc. pt. 2, p. 223, from which

preservation of which they have proved themselves worthy to be the guardians of so valuable a trust.

The dimensions are as follows:

Church.

Feet. In.

Length..

Breadth.

Height..

From the pavement in street to the bottom of the vault 13 6 From bottom of old church to foundation of steeple.... 5 0 Height of Steeple.

From the pavement of the street to the upper cornice

of the square tower....

......

37 0

From cornice of tower to ditto of first peristyle
From cornice of first to ditto of second peristyle...... 38 0

Obelisk and vane.....

Total height of steeple*.

38 0

235 0

32 6

The new work is said to be six inches higher than the old.
Square of tower

The account of this church would be imperfect if it did not notice the bells, the celebrity of which has rendered the name of the church a proverb. They are mentioned as early as 1469, in which year an order of common council directed them to be rung regularly at nine P. M.

The keeper of the bells, however, did not always pay such strict attention to the ringing the bells at a proper hour, as the city apprentices thought was due to the sacredness of those hours appropriated by common consent to mirth and recreation. They resolved, therefore, to give the clerk an admonitory hint on the subject, and, with this view, affixed the following pasquinade to the walls of the church:

Clerk of the Bow Bell,

With the yellow locks,
For thy late ringing,

Thy head shall have knocks.

The clerk, sensible of the danger he run from these dispensers of club law, wrote for answer, in equally good poetry :

Children of Cheap,
Hold you all still,

For you shall have the

Bow Bells ring at your will.

A citizen, of the name of John Donne, left two houses in Hosier (now Bow) lane, for the maintenance of the great bell. After the

These dimensions are taken from the section given in Britton's public Duildings.

The communication in the Gents. Mag. before quoted, makes the height but 221 feet.

great fire, the sum of 4007. paid by the city for the purchase of the site of Allhallows church and yard, for the erection of Honey-lane market, was appropriated to purchase new bells. The belfry was prepared for twelve, but only eight were placed in it; in 1739 the great bell was cracked, and the peal was made good at an expense of 2907. In 1758 a petition was presented to the vestry, from several respectable citizens, setting forth the bad state of seven of the bells, and praying for leave to recast them at their own expense, and to add two trebles; after an examination of the steeple by Messrs. Dance and Chambers, architects, the petitioners were allowed to set up a new peal, and the present bells were, in consequence, first rung on the 4th June, 1762, being his late Majesty's birth-day. The bells have been put in order twice since that period; the weight is as follows* :

In 1827 the fears of the parishioners having been created by the fall of a stone from the cornice of the tower, the bells were examined, and the wood work was found out of order; in consequence, further ringing has been suspended, except on extraordinary occasions. In the vestry, which is a spacious apartment, at the northern side of the church, is a well executed bust of Charles II., and several plans of estates belonging to the parish.

North of this church, between the church-yard and the end of Bow-lane, stood the building, called the crown-sild, or shed, in which the royal family and their attendants took their stations, to see the justings, processions, &c. After the fall of the wooden stage, in 1329,† Edward III. caused a spacious stone building to be erected here; which continued to be used for this purpose until the time of Henry IV. who, in the twelfth year of his reign, sold it to Stephen Spilman, and others. And in Bow church-yard stood one of the public grammar schools founded by Henry VI. This venerable piece of antiquity remained until the year 1737; though the purposes for which it was erected had been long discontinued. This church, which is the chief of the thirteen peculiars in the city belonging to the see of Canterbury, is a rectory, the patronage of which appears to have been always in the archbishop. After the fire, the • Gents. Mag. xc., pt. 2, p. 391. + See vol. i. p. 108.

parishes of Allhallows, Honey-lane, and St. Pancras, were annexed to it, both of which are in Cheap-ward.

The celebrated metaphysical lectures, instituted by the honourable Robert Boyle, have been generally preached at this church. This gentleman vested a sum of fifty pounds per annum in trustees, to be applied for preaching eight sermons yearly, viz. on the first Mondays of January, February, March, April, May, September, October, and November, by such minister and at such church, as the trustees should think proper: but no preacher to be continued longer than three years. The object of these sermons is to prove and establish the Christian religion against Pagans, Jews, Mahometans, Atheists, and Deists; but not to interfere in controversies among Christians. Budge-row is so called from the budge fur and skinners residing

there.

In the autumn of 1825, several houses in Watling-street having been pulled down, the cellars were found to contain the remains of an ancient vaulted crypt. It is described in the Gent. Mag.* to be about 50 feet from north to south, and about 10 feet in breadth; five arches in length were disclosed, and the whole had once been vaulted with chalk; the arches were of the low pointed form which came into use in the sixteenth century; at the points of intersection were bosses without ornament, having a concavity in the centre. On the east side appeared some remains of a door. In the work referred to, the remains are erroneously supposed to be part of the church of St. Mary, Aldermary, for which there is not the least foundation; the remains, which were only removed in the present year, were evidently of the same description as the strong vaulted apartments which constituted the basement stories of most of the ancient mansion houses formerly existing in the metropolis.

CHAPTER XIV.

History and Topography of Cornhill Ward.

This ward derives its name from the principal street therein, which is known from the most early ages by the name of Cornhill, because the corn market was kept there. It is divided into four precincts, designated as the first, second, third, and fourth. This ward is bounded on the east by Bishopsgate ward; on the north by Broad-street ward; on the west by Cheap ward; and, on the south, by Langbourn ward. It is under the governinent of an alderman and six common council men. There are two churches in this ward, St. Michael and St. Peter.

St. Michael, Cornhill.

On the south side of Cornhill stands the parochial church of St. Michael, which was founded before the year 1133, and was then * Vol. xc. pt. 11, p. 208.