J CHAPTER VI. CHEAPSIDE. UST outside St. Paul's Churchyard on the north-east, we are in the sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand, founded in the reign of Edward the Confessor by Ingelric, Earl of Essex, and his brother Girard. It had a collegiate church with a Dean and Chapter. When Henry VII. built his famous chapel, the estates of St. Martin's were conferred upon the Abbey of Westminster for its support, and the Abbots of Westminster became Deans of St. Martin's. Here the curfew tolled, at the sound of which the great gates of the city were shut and every wicket closed till sunrise.* The rights of sanctuary filled this corner of London with bad characters, who for the most part employed themselves in the manufacture of false jewellery. "St. Martin's Lace" was made of copper; t "St. Martin's beads" became a popular expression, and they are alluded to in Hudibras. It is in the sanctuary of St. Martin's that Sir Thomas More describes Miles Forest, one of the murderers of the princes in the Tower, as "rotting away piecemeal." The privileges of the place were abolished in the reign of James I., to the great advantage of the Londoners, for "St. Martin's appears to have been a sanctuary for great disorders, and a shelter for the lowest sort of people, rogues and ruffians, thieves, felons, and murderers. From hence used to rush violent persons, committers of riots, robberies, and manslaughters; hither they brought in their preys and stolen goods, and concealed them here, or shared and sold them to those that dwelt here. Here were also harboured picklocks, counterfeiters of keys and seals, forgers of false evidences, such as made counterfeit chains, beads, ouches, plates, copper gilt for gold, &c."-Maitland. At the crossways near the site of Paul's Cross now stands Behnes' Statue of Sir Robert Peel. From this there is one of the most characteristic views in London, looking down the busy street of Cheapside (or "Market-side," from the Saxon word "Chepe," a market). This is the best point from which to examine the beauties of the steeple of Bow Church, the finest of the fifty-three towers which Wren built after the Fire, and in which, though he had more work than he could possibly attend to properly, he never failed to exhibit the extraordinary variety of his designs. It is a square tower (32 ft. 6 in. wide by 83 ft. high) above which are four stories averaging 38 ft. each. The first is a square belfry with Ionic pilasters, next is a circular peristyle of twelve Corinthian columns, third a lantern, fourth a spire, the whole height being 235 ft. "There is a play of light and shade, a variety of outline, and an elegance of detail, in this, which it would be very difficult to match in any other steeple. There is no greater proof of Wren's genius than to observe that, after he had set the example, not only has no architect since his day surpassed him, but no other modern steeple can compare with this, either for beauty of outline or the appropriateness with which classical details are applied to so novel a purpose."-Fergusson... No one will look upon Cheapside for the first time without recalling the famous tale of John Gilpin→ "Smack went the whip, round went the wheel, Were never folk so glad; The stones did rattle underneath As if Cheapside were mad." Before the time of the Commonwealth, Cheapside, with its avenue of stately buildings, and its fountains and statues dispersed at intervals down the centre of the street, cannot have been unlike the beautiful Maximilian's Strasse of Augsburg, Opposite the entrance of Foster Lane stood "the Little Conduit." Then, opposite the entrance of Wood Street, rose the beautiful Cheapside Cross, one of the nine crosses erected by Edward I. to Queen Eleanor. It was gilt all over for the arrival of Charles V. in 1522; again for the coronation of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn; again for the coronation of Edward VI., and again for the arrival of the Spanish Philip. In 1581 it was "broken and defaced." In 1595 and 1600 it was "fastened and repaired," and it was finally destroyed in 1643, when Evelyn went to London on May 2 and "saw the furious and zealous people demolish that stately cross in Cheapside." Beyond the cross, at the entrance of Poultry, stood "the Great Conduit," where Jack Cade beheaded Lord Saye and Sele. It was erected early in the thirteenth century, and ever flowing with clear rushing waters, supplied from the reservoir where Stratford Place now stands, by a pipe 4,752 feet in length, which crossed the fields between modern Brook Street and Regent * See the curious pamphlets entitled "The Downefall of Dagon, or the taking downe of Cheapside Crosse," and "The Pope's Proclamation, or Six Articles exhibited against Cheapside Crosse, whereby it pleads guilty of high-treason, and ought to be beheaded,' Street to Piccadilly, and from thence found its way by Leicester Fields, the Strand, and Fleet Street, "a remarkable work of engineering and the first of its kind in England of which we have any knowledge."* The Conduit itself was a plain octagonal stone edifice, 45 feet high, surmounted by a cupola with a statue of a man blowing a horn on the top. It was encircled by a balcony, beneath which were figures of those who had interested themselves in laying the pipe or erecting the building. Here, on the site of many executions, the most beautiful young girls in London, standing garland-crowned, prophetically welcomed Anne Boleyn. Here also Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen; and here stood the pillory in which Defoe was placed for his second punishment, receiving all the time a triumphant ovation from the people. Lastly, at the entrance of Poultry, stood "the Standard in Chepe," where Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, was beheaded in the time of Edward II. During the reigns of the Henrys and Edwards, Cheapside was frequently the scene of conflicts between the prentices. of the different city guilds, in constant rivalry with one another. They were always a turbulent set, and in the reign of Edward III. Thomas the Fishmonger and another were beheaded in Chepe for striking the august person of the Lord Mayor himself. The gay prentices of Chepe are commemorated by Chaucer in "The Coke's Tale " VOL. I. "A prentis dwelled whilom in our citee At every bridal would he sing and hoppe; * The Builder, Sept. 18, 1875. Q And til that he had all the sight ysein, On the left, divided by the great street of St. Martin's le Grand, are the buildings of the Post Office. Those on the west are from designs of J. Williams, 1873; those on the east, built 1825-29, from designs of Sir R. Smirke—“who, if he never sunk below respectable mediocrity, has as little risen above it "*. *-occupy the site of the famous church and sanctuary of St. Martin's. Behind, in Foster Lane, is the Church of St. Vedast, one of Wren's rebuildings. The tower is peculiar and well-proportioned, and a marked feature in London views. Over the west door is a curious allegorical bas-relief, representing Religion and Charity. Farther down Foster Lane (right) is the great pillared front of the Hall of the Goldsmiths' Company, which was incorporated by Edward III. in 1327, but had existed as a guild from much earlier times. The Hall, rebuilt by Hardwicke in 1835, contains one of the most magnificent marble staircases in London, leading to broad open galleries with pillars of coloured marbles. The Banqueting Hall (80 ft. by 40 and 35 high) contains Northcote. George IV. Hayter. William IV. M. A. Shee. Queen Adelaide. Hayter. Queen Victoria. In the Committee Room are *Cornelius Jansen (one of the finest works of the master). A noble portrait of Sir Hugh Myddelton, 1644 (a goldsmith), who gave the New River to London. His hand is resting on a shell. A poor portrait of Sir Martin Bowes (1566), the Lord Mayor * Quarterly Review, cxc. |