Old and New London Part 51

Among the odd monumental inscriptions in this church are the following:--

"Lord, of thy infinite grace and Pittee Have mercy on me Agnes, somtym the wyf Of William Milborne, Chamberlain of this citte, Which toke my pa.s.sage fro this wretched lyf, The year of gras one thousand fyf hundryd and fyf, The xii. day of July; no longer was my spase, It plesy'd then my Lord to call me to his Grase; Now ye that are living, and see this picture, Pray for me here, whyle ye have tyme and spase, That G.o.d of his goodnes wold me a.s.sure, In his everlasting mansion to have a plase.

Obiit Anno 1505."

"Here lyeth interred the body of Christopher Wase, late citizen and goldsmith of London, aged 66 yeeres, and dyed the 22nd September, 1605; who had to wife Anne, the daughter of William Prettyman, and had by her three sons and three daughters.

"Reader, stay, and thou shalt know What he is, that here doth sleepe; Lodged amidst the Stones below, Stones that oft are seen to weepe.

Gentle was his Birth and Breed, His carriage gentle, much contenting; His word accorded with his Deed, Sweete his nature, soone relenting.

From above he seem'd protected, Father dead before his Birth.

An orphane only, but neglected.

Yet his Branches spread on Earth, Earth that must his Bones containe, Sleeping, till _Christ's_ Trumpet shall wake them, Joyning them to Soule againe, And to Blisse eternal take them.

It is not this rude and little Heap of Stones, Can hold the Fame, although't containes the Bones; Light be the Earth, and hallowed for thy sake, Resting in Peace, Peace that thou so oft didst make."

Coachmakers' Hall, n.o.ble Street, Foster Lane originally built by the Scriveners' Company, was afterwards sold to the Coachmakers. Here the "Protestant a.s.sociation" held its meetings, and here originated the dreadful riots of the year 1780. The Protestant a.s.sociation was formed in February, 1778, in consequence of a bill brought into the House of Commons to repeal certain penalties and liabilities imposed upon Roman Catholics. When the bill was pa.s.sed, a pet.i.tion was framed for its repeal; and here, in this very hall (May 29, 1780), the following resolution was proposed and carried:--

"That the whole body of the Protestant a.s.sociation do attend in St.

George's Fields, on Friday next, at ten of the clock in the morning, to accompany Lord George Gordon to the House of Commons, on the delivery of the Protestant pet.i.tion." His lordship, who was present on this occasion, remarked that "if less than 20,000 of his fellow-citizens attended him on that day, he would not present their pet.i.tion."

Upwards of 50,000 "true Protestants" promptly answered the summons of the a.s.sociation, and the Gordon riots commenced, to the six days' terror of the metropolis.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH:--WOOD STREET.

Wood Street--Pleasant Memories--St. Peter's in Chepe--St. Michael's and St. Mary Staining--St. Alban's, Wood Street--Some Quaint Epitaphs--Wood Street Compter and the Hapless Prisoners therein--Wood Street Painful, Wood Street Cheerful--Thomas Ripley--The Anabaptist Rising--A Remarkable Wine Cooper--St. John Zachary and St. Anne-in-the-Willows--Haberdashers' Hall--Something about the Mercers.

Wood Street runs from Cheapside to London Wall. Stow has two conjectures as to its name--first, that it was so called because the houses in it were built all of wood, contrary to Richard I.'s edict that London houses should be built of stone, to prevent fire; secondly, that it was called after one Thomas Wood, sheriff in 1491 (Henry VII.), who dwelt in this street, was a benefactor to St. Peter in Chepe, and built "the beautiful row of houses over against Wood Street end."

At Cheapside Cross, which stood at the corner of Wood Street, all royal proclamations used to be read, even long after the cross was removed.

Thus, in 1666, we find Charles II.'s declaration of war against Louis XIV. proclaimed by the officers at arms, serjeants at arms, trumpeters, &c., at Whitehall Gate, Temple Bar, the end of Chancery Lane, Wood Street, Cheapside, and the Royal Exchange. Huggin's Lane, in this street, derives its name, as Stow tells us, from a London citizen who dwelt here in the reign of Edward I., and was called Hugan in the Lane.

That pleasant tree at the left-hand corner of Wood Street, which has cheered many a weary business man with memories of the fresh green fields far away, was for long the residence of rooks, who built there.

In 1845 two fresh nests were built, and one is still visible; but the sable birds deserted their noisy town residence several years ago.

Probably, as the north of London was more built over, and such feeding-grounds as Belsize Park turned to brick and mortar, the birds found the fatigue of going miles in search of food for their young unbearable, and so migrated. Leigh Hunt, in one of his agreeable books, remarks that there are few districts in London where you will not find a tree. "A child was shown us," says Leigh Hunt, "who was said never to have beheld a tree but one in St. Paul's Churchyard (now gone). Whenever a tree was mentioned, it was this one; she had no conception of any other, not even of the remote tree in Cheapside." This famous tree marks the site of St. Peter in Chepe, a church destroyed by the Great Fire.

The terms of the lease of the low houses at the west-end corner are said to forbid the erection of another storey or the removal of the tree.

Whether this restriction arose from a love of the tree, as we should like to think, we cannot say.

St. Peter's in Chepe is a rectory (says Stow), "the church whereof stood at the south-west corner of Wood Street, in the ward of Farringdon Within, but of what antiquity I know not, other than that Thomas de Winton was rector thereof in 1324."

The patronage of this church was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, with whom it continued till the suppression of their monastery, when Henry VIII., in the year 1546, granted the same to the Earl of Southampton. It afterwards belonged to the Duke of Montague.

This church being destroyed in the fire and not rebuilt, the parish is united to the Church of St. Matthew, Friday Street. "In the year 1401,"

says Maitland, "licence was granted to the inhabitants of this parish to erect a shed or shop before their church in Cheapside. On the site of this building, anciently called the 'Long Shop,' are now erected four shops, with rooms over them."

Wordsworth has immortalised Wood Street by his plaintive little ballad--

THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN.

"At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears, Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years; Poor Susan has pa.s.sed by the spot, and has heard In the silence of morning the song of the bird.

"'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? she sees A mountain ascending, a vision of trees; Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.

"Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale, Down which she so often has tripped with her pail; And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's, The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

"She looks, and her heart is in heaven; but they fade, The mist and the river, the hill and the shade; The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise, And the colours have all pa.s.sed away from her eyes."

Perhaps some summer morning the poet, pa.s.sing down Cheapside, saw the plane-tree at the corner wave its branches to him as a friend waves a hand, and at that sight there pa.s.sed through his mind an imagination of some poor c.u.mberland servant-girl toiling in London, and regretting her far-off home among the pleasant hills.

St. Michael's, Wood Street, is a rectory situated on the west side of Wood Street, in the ward of Cripplegate Within. John de Eppewell was rector thereof before the year 1328. "The patronage was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, in whom it continued till the suppression of their monastery, when, coming to the Crown, it was, with the appurtenances, in the year 1544, sold by Henry VIII. to William Barwell, who, in the year 1588, conveyed the same to John Marsh and others, in trust for the parish, in which it still continues." Being destroyed in the Great Fire, it was rebuilt, in 1675, from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. At the east end four Ionic pillars support an entablature and pediment, and the three circular-headed windows are well proportioned. The south side faces Huggin Lane, but the tower and spire are of no interest. The interior of the church is a large parallelogram, with an ornamented carved ceiling. In 1831 the church was repaired and the tower thrown open. The altar-piece represents Moses and Aaron. The vestry-books date from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and contain, among others, memoranda of parochial rejoicings, such as--"1620. Nov. 9. Paid for ringing and a bonfire, 4s."

The Church of St. Mary Staining being destroyed in the Great Fire, the parish was annexed to that of St. Michael's. The following is the most curious of the monumental inscriptions:--

"John Casey, of this parish, whose dwelling was In the north-corner house as to Lad Lane you pa.s.s; For better knowledge, the name it hath now Is called and known by the name of the Plow; Out of that house yearly did geeve Twenty shillings to the poore, their neede to releeve; Which money the tenant must yearlie pay To the parish and churchwardens on St. Thomas' Day.

The heire of that house, Thomas Bowrman by name, Hath since, by his deed, confirmed the same; Whose love to the poore doth hereby appear, And after his death shall live many a yeare.

Therefore in your life do good while yee may, That when meagre death shall take yee away; You may live like form'd as Casey and Bowrman-- For he that doth well shall never be a poore man."

Here was also a monument to Queen Elizabeth, with this inscription, found in many other London churches:--

"Here lyes her type, who was of late The prop of Belgia, stay of France, Spaine's foile, Faith's shield, and queen of State, Of arms, of learning, fate and chance.

In brief, of women ne'er was seen So great a prince, so good a queen.

"Sith Vertue her immortal made, Death, envying all that cannot dye, Her earthly parts did so invade As in it wrackt self-majesty.

But so her spirits inspired her parts, That she still lives in loyal hearts."

There was buried here (but without any outward monument) the head of James, the fourth King of Scots, slain at Flodden Field. After the battle, the body of the said king being found, was closed in lead, and conveyed from thence to London, and so to the monastery of Shene, in Surrey, where it remained for a time. "But since the dissolution of that house," says Stow, "in the reign of Edward VI., Henry Gray, Duke of Suffolk, lodged and kept house there. I have been shown the said body, so lapped in lead. The head and body were thrown into a waste room, amongst the old timber, lead, and other rubble; since which time workmen there, for their foolish pleasure, hewed off his head; and Launcelot Young, master glazier to Queen Elizabeth, feeling a sweet savour to come from thence, and seeing the same dried from moisture, and yet the form remaining with the hair of the head and beard red, brought it to London, to his house in Wood Street, where for a time he kept it for the sweetness, but in the end caused the s.e.xton of that church to bury it amongst other bones taken out of their charnel."

"The parish church of St. Michael, in Wood Street, is a proper thing,"

says Strype, "and lately well repaired; John Iue, parson of this church, John Forster, goldsmith, and Peter Fikelden, taylor, gave two messuages and shops, in the same parish and street, and in Ladle Lane, to the reparation of the church, the 16th of Richard II. In the year 1627 the parishioners made a new door to this church into Wood Street, where till then it had only one door, standing in Huggin Lane."

St. Mary Staining, in Wood Street, destroyed by the Great Fire, stood on the north side of Oat Lane, in the Ward of Aldersgate Within. "The additional epithet of _staining_," says Maitland, "is as uncertain as the time of the foundation; some imagining it to be derived from the painters' stainers, who probably lived near it; and others from its being built with stone, to distinguish it from those in the City that were built with wood. The advowson of the rectory anciently belonged to the Prioress and Convent of Clerkenwell, in whom it continued till their suppression by Henry VIII., when it came to the Crown. The parish, as previously observed, is now united to St. Michael's, Wood Street. That this church is not of a modern foundation, is manifest from John de Lukenore's being rector thereof before the year 1328."

St. Alban's, Wood Street, in the time of Paul, the fourteenth Abbot of St. Alban's, belonged to the Verulam monastery, but in 1077 the abbot exchanged the right of presentation to this church for the patronage of one belonging to the Abbot of Westminster. Matthew Paris says that this Wood Street Church was the chapel of King Offa, the founder of St.

Alban's Abbey, who had a palace near it. Stow says it was of great antiquity, and that Roman bricks were visible here and there among the stones. Maitland thinks it probable that it was one of the first churches built by Alfred in London after he had driven out the Danes.

The right of presentation to the church was originally possessed by the master, brethren, and sisters of St. James's Leper Hospital (site of St.

James's Palace), and after the death of Henry VI. it was vested in the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. In the reign of Charles II. the parish was united to that of St. Olave, Silver Street, and the right of presentation is now exercised alternately by Eton College and the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. The style of the interior of the church is late pointed. The windows appear older than the rest of the building.

The ceiling in the nave exhibits bold groining, and the general effect is not unpleasing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOOD STREET COMPTER. _From a View published in 1793._ (_See page 368._)]

"One note of the great antiquity of this church," says Seymour, "is the name, by which it was first dedicated to St. Alban, the first martyr of England. Another character of the antiquity of it is to be seen in the manner of the turning of the arches to the windows, and the heads of the pillars. A third note appears in the Roman bricks, here and there inlaid amongst the stones of the building. Very probable it is that this church is, at least, of as ancient a standing as King Adelstane, the Saxon, who, as tradition says, had his house at the east end of this church.

This king's house, having a door also into Adel Street, in this parish, gave name, as 'tis thought, to the said Adel Street, which, in all evidences, to this day is written King Adel Street. One great square tower of this king's house seemed, in Stow's time, to be then remaining, and to be seen at the north corner of Love Lane, as you come from Aldermanbury, which tower was of the very same stone and manner of building with St. Alban's Church."

About the commencement of the seventeenth century St. Alban's, being in a state of great decay, was surveyed by Sir Henry Spiller and Inigo Jones, and in accordance with their advice, apparently, in 1632 it was pulled down, and rebuilt _anno_ 1634; but, perishing in the flames of 1666, it was re-erected as it now appears, and finished in the year 1688, from Wren's design.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TREE AT THE CORNER OF WOOD STREET.]