Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

the sculptor and carver in wood. Susannah Centlivre (d. 1723), author of The Busy Body and The Wonder. Robert Wilks (d. 1732), the original Sir Harry Wildair, celebrated by Steele for acting with the easy frankness of a gentleman. James Worsdale, the painter (d. 1767). He carried Pope's letters to Curll; and was buried in the churchyard, with an inscription (removed 1848) of his own composing:

Eager to get, but not to keep the pelf,

A friend to all mankind except himself.

Dr. Thomas Arne (d. 1778), composer of "Rule Britannia." Dr. John Armstrong, author of the "Art of Preserving Health,” a poem (d. 1779), in the vault under the communion table. Tom Davies, the bookseller (d. 1785), and his "very pretty wife" (d. 1801). Sir Robert Strange, the engraver (d. 1792), in the churchyard. He lived in Henrietta Street, at the sign of "The Golden Head." Thomas Girtin, the father of the school of English water-colour painting, died "at his lodgings in the Strand, November 9, 1802, at the early age of twenty-seven years; but intemperance and irregularity have no claim to longevity."1 Charles Macklin, the actor (d. 1797), at the age of 107, buried in the vault under the communion table. There is a tablet to his memory in the church. John Wolcot (Peter Pindar), died 1819, "in a very appropriate position," says his biographer, "for it was so contrived, at his own request, that the coffin of the author of the Lousiad should be so near as to touch that of the bard who had produced Hudibras, whose genius and originality he greatly admired."2 Fielding's "Inimitable Betty Careless," the "charming Betty Careless" of the mad scene in the Rake's Progress, was buried here from the parish poorhouse. William Linley (d. 1835), the celebrated musician, and father of Mrs. Sheridan. The whole of the churchyard has been levelled and all the gravestones cleared away. In front of this church the hustings were raised for the general elections of Westminster. Here, before the Reform Bill, raged those fierce contests of many days' duration in which Fox, Sir Francis Burdett, and others were popular candidates.3 Archbishop Usher is said to have been preaching in this church when sent for by Charles I. to resolve his scruples respecting the signing of Strafford's deathwarrant. The learned Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely, was many years rector of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and his name, in his own handwriting, is still to be seen affixed to the pages of the parish register.

Paul's Cross, a pulpit Cross of timber, mounted upon steps of stone and covered with a conical roof of lead, from which sermons were preached by learned divines every Sunday in the forenoon. "The very antiquity," says Stow, "is to me unknown." "It stood," says Dugdale, "on the north side of St. Paul's Churchyard, towards the east end." What was traditionally said to be the site was, within the last fifty years, distinguished by a lofty elm; but the exact spot was ascertained by Mr. F. C. Penrose, architect for the Cathedral, when the 1 Edwards, Anecdotes of Painting, p. 280. Ann. Biog., 1820.

3 In the Microcosm of London is a good view of the election hustings in front of the portico.

burial-ground was being dug over preparatory to converting it into a garden. [See St. Paul's Cathedral.] At a depth of about 6 feet below the surface he came upon the octagonal stone basement, and judiciously marked the site by a pavement level with the surface, as a permanent memorial of a structure unique in its historical associations. The north-east (Cheapside) angle of the present cathedral cuts one side of the octagon. The choir of the old cathedral was a short distance from it.

"2

In early times the three great annual Folkmotes of the Londoners were held at Paul's Cross. In the 13th century (temp. Henry III. and Edward I.) it was ordered that "if any man of London neglects to attend at one of these three folkmotes, he is to forfeit forty shillings to the King," and the sheriff is to see that such attendance is given or to enforce the fine, the ringing "of the great bell for the folkmote at St. Paul's," to be held a sufficient summons.1 Later it was more especially employed for sermons, the promulgation of papal bulls, royal proclamations and explanations, the publication of state information, excommunications, and the public penance of important offenders, becoming, as Dean Milman observes, "the pulpit not only of the Cathedral, but almost of the Church in England," and also, in Carlyle's quaint phraseology, "a kind of Times newspaper.' At special sermons, or important announcements, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attended in state, and on some occasions the Sovereign and Court were present. The congregation sat in the open air. For the King and his retinue a covered gallery was built against the wall of the Cathedral. In foul and rainy weather the sermons were preached in The Shrowds, or "The Crowds, according to the vulgar expression," says Dugdale. What these Shrowds were has been differently explained. Strype suggested that they were "by the side of the Cathedral church, where was covering and shelter," others have absurdly said they were the triforium; they were beyond doubt the "crypt," where was already the church of "St. Faith in the Shrowds." Shrowds is a term often used for the crypt of a church.

I read that in the year 1259 King Henry III. commanded a general assembly to be made at this Cross, where he in proper person commanded the Mayor, that on the next day following, he should cause to be sworn before the aldermen, every stripling of twelve years of age, or upward, to be true to the King and his heirs, Kings of England.-Stow, p. 123.

The Cross before which this assembly was brought, being defaced by a tempest of lightning in 1382, was rebuilt by Thomas Kemp, Bishop of London from 1448 to 1449, Milman says as "a more splendid stone cross with a pulpit. It became one of the buildings of which, from its grace and beauty, the City of London was most proud." This, however, is hardly borne out by contemporary statements. The platform was of stone, but the superstructure was certainly of wood. Stow says that Kemp "new built it in form as it now standeth," and he describes it as "a pulpit cross of timber, mounted upon steps of

1 Liber Albus, pp. 72, 92, 105.

2 Milman's Annals of St. Pauls, p. 61; Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i. p. 93.

stone, and covered with lead," 1 which agrees exactly with the contemporary painting of it in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. At this Cross the whole battle of the Reformation in England was fought over, and the controversy between the Reformed Church and Papacy on the one hand, and Puritanism on the other, was submitted to public consideration by a succession of prelates so memorable, however different, as Ridley, Latimer, Farrar, Gardiner, Bonner, Coverdale, Sandys, Jewel, Grindal, Pilkington, and Laud, as well as by a host of divines conspicuous by their learning and oratorical and controversial powers. Before this Cross Tindall's translation of the Bible was publicly burnt, by order of Bishop Stokesley; the Pope's sentence on Martin Luther was pronounced from it, in a sermon preached by Bishop Fisher, Wolsey being present as the Pope's legate. "For the whole seven years during which the question of the King's divorce was in agitation . . . the pulpit of S. Paul's Cross rang more or less loudly with the arguments and invectives of the disputants on either side." 2 When Henry consummated his revolt from the Pope, a royal edict was issued that "Orders be taken that such as preach at Paul's Cross shall henceforth continually, Sunday after Sunday, teach and declare unto the people, that he that now calleth himself Pope, and any of his predecessors, is and were only Bishops of Rome, and have no more authority or jurisdiction, by God's laws, within this realm, than any other Bishop had, which is nothing at all." The "Holy Maid of Kent" knelt in shame and silence, with her confederates the Dean of Bocking and the parson of Aldermanbury beside her, whilst her confession was read aloud; the Bishop of Bangor set forth in his sermon the heinousness of the imposture. Here four years later the famous miraculous Boxley Rood was exhibited, and all the hidden machinery exposed wherewith it had been made to bow its head and open its eyes and lips and seem to speak. Here in the reign of Mary the Protestants were anathematised, King Philip lauded by Gardiner as "the most perfect Prince," and a few years later the Perfect Prince was held up to public execration as a merciless persecutor, and the people exhorted to give thanks to God for his discomfiture in the overthrow of the "Invincible Armada," while a gaudy streamer taken from one of the ships waved over the head of the preacher. Here the Maypole, from which the church of St. Andrew Undershaft derives its name, was denounced as an idol by the curate of St. Catherine Cree, and its fate sealed. Recantations were made here; royal marriages and public victories proclaimed. It was used for other purposes: a certain Dr. Shaw, in a sermon preached here, sounded the feeling of the people in favour of the Duke of Gloucester before the ambitious Richard assumed the crown; and the memory of the Earl of Essex in Elizabeth's reign was blackened by command in a Sunday's sermon. When the Stuarts came to the crown the preachers at the Cross had royal listeners: King James, on one occasion, to countenance a sermon on 1 Stow, pp. 121, 122.

2 Milman, p. 192.

3 Strype, Memorials, vol. i. p. 196.

the reparation of the Cathedral; and King Charles I. on the occasion of the birth of his son, afterwards Charles II. Jane Shore did penance here when accused by Richard of witchcraft; and here, in the reign of James I. (1617), Lady Markham, the wife of Sir Griffin Markham, stood in a white sheet (and was amerced in a penalty of £1000), for marrying one of her servants, her husband being still alive. A house for lodging and entertaining the preachers who came from a distance was provided in Watling Street. [See Shunamite's House.]

This celebrated Cross,1 with the rest of the crosses in London and Westminster, was pulled down in 1643, by order of Parliament, Isaac Pennington being then Lord Mayor. Sermons still continued to be preached and distinguished as Paul's Cross sermons. The following document is among Archbishop Sheldon's papers in the British Museum; it was written between 1685 and 1691, and merits preservation :

Whereas the sermon which for time immemorial hath been preach'd at St. Paul's Cross, upon pulling downe that Crosse in the time of the Rebellion was removed to St. Paul's Church, and upon the burning of that church in 1666 was by order and appointment of the Lord Bishop of London removed to St. Catherine Cree Church, and upon good reason hath since been removed by the appointment of the Lord Bishop of London aforesayd to Guild Hall Chappell; and is now thought fit by Nathaniel, Lord Bp of Duresme, Thomas Lord Bishop of Rochester, and Thomas, Lord Bishop of Peterborough, Comrs for the exercise of Episcopal Jurisdiction within the city and diocess of London, during the suspension of the present Bp of the same, to be remov'd againe to some other church, and they judging that St. Mary Le Bow (one of our Peculiars) will be the most convenient for that use at present, have besought us, that our leave and license be granted thereto : Wee taking their humble request into consideracon, doe hereby give our full consent and license that the sermon commonly called the Paul's Cross Sermon be for the future preach'd at St. Mary Le Bow in Cheapside, so long as it shall be thought meet by the say'd Comrs. In witness whereof wee have hereunto set our hand and seale this

.-Harleian MS. 3788, fol. 69.

day of

At the Restoration the Paul's Cross Sermons, with their endowments, were removed into the Cathedral itself; and they still belong to the Sunday morning preachers, now chiefly the honorary Prebendaries of the Church.-Milman's History of St. Paul's, p. 354.

Paul's (St.), GREAT PORTLAND STREET, or PORTLAND CHAPEL, a chapel of ease to the parish of St. Marylebone, designed by S. Leadbetter, architect, and built 1765-1766 at a cost of £5000, but not consecrated (by some unaccountable neglect) till 1831. It was restored in 1883 under the superintendence of Sir Arthur Blomfield.

At the end of Union Street, Middlesex Hospital, stood two magnificent rows of elms, one on each side of a rope walk; and beneath their shade have I frequently seen Joseph Baretti and Richard Wilson [the painter] perambulate, until Portland Chapel clock announced "five," the hour of Joseph Wilton's dinner. They both wore cocked hats and walked with canes.-J. T. Smith, Nollekens, vol. ii. p. 174.

Paul's (St.), KNIGHTSBRIDGE, WILTON PLACE, a Gothic edifice, surmounted by a stately tower (Thomas Cundy, architect), consecrated

1 There are several very excellent views of this Cross, but the best (representing the preaching before King James) is engraved in Wilkinson (Londina Illustrata, and very well copied as a woodcut in Longmans' Three Cathedrals of St.

Paul's, p. 19), from a picture in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries: a second, very good, is in Henry Farley's St. Paul's Church, her Bill for the Parliament, 4to, 1621.

May 30, 1843. The church cost £15,000. This was the church of the Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, during whose incumbency it was more talked about than any other church in London. It obtained its notoriety owing to the lawsuits (Westerton v. Liddell) which were brought about the ritual. The Hon. and Rev. R. Liddell was Mr. Bennett's successor.

Paul's (St.) School, a celebrated school formerly on the east side of St. Paul's Churchyard, founded in 1512 for 153 poor men's children, by Dr. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, the friend of Erasmus, and son of Sir Henry Colet, mercer, and Mayor of London in 1486 and 1495. The boys were to be admitted without restriction of kin, country, or station; to be taught, free of expense, by a master, sur-master, and chaplain; and the oversight of the school was committed by the founder to the Mercers' Company. The number (153) was chosen in allusion to the number of fishes taken by St. Peter. The school was dedicated by Colet to the Child Jesus, but the saint, as Strype remarks, has robbed his master of his title. The lands left by Colet to support his school were estimated by Stow in 1598 at the yearly value of £120 and better.1 Their present value is upwards of £13,000. The education is classical, but there is now a modern side as well, and the presentations to the school are in the gift of the Master of the Mercers' Company for the time being. There are now (1890) 1000 boys in the school. Lilly, the grammarian, and friend of Erasmus, was the first master, and the grammar which he compiled, Lilly's Grammar, is still used in the school. Eminent Scholars.-John Leland, our earliest English antiquary; Sir Anthony Denny, the friend of Henry VIII.; William Whitaker, a famous master of St. John's College, Cambridge; William Camden, the great antiquary, after having been for a time at Christ's Hospital; John Milton, when Alexander Gill was master; the great Duke of Marlborough; Robert Nelson, author of Fasts and Festivals; Edmund Halley, the astronomer; Knight, the biographer of Colet; Samuel Pepys, the diarist; John Strype, the ecclesiastical historian; Sir Philip Francis (supposed to be Junius); Chief Baron Sir Frederick Pollock; Lord Chancellor Truro, who founded (1851) the Truro Prize "in grateful acknowledgment of the benefits derived by him from his education in St. Paul's School." Strype has left an interesting account of this school in his annotations upon Stow. The late school was built in 1823, from a design by George Smith, architect to the Mercers' Company, and was the third building erected on the same site. Colet's school was destroyed in the Great Fire, "but built up again," says Strype, "much after the same manner and proportion it was before." 2 The school was removed in 1880 to West Kensington, near Addison Road Station, where the Mercers' Company had purchased 16 acres and erected a new school from the designs of Mr. Barnes Williams, architect. The building in St. Paul's Churchyard has been pulled down and warehouses built on the site.

1 Stow, p. 123.

2 Strype, B. i. p. 167.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »