[28] Respecting the age of St. Paul’s Cross, Stow declares himself ignorant. Dugdale, however, records, on the authority of Ingulphus, that its prototype, a cross of stone, was erected on the same spot, A.D. 870, to induce the passers-by to offer prayers for certain monks slain by the Danes. St. Paul’s Cross consisted of some steps, on which was formed a wooden pulpit, covered with lead, whence sermons were preached to the people every Sunday morning. It was not, however, specially reserved for this purpose; since from this place, at times, the anathema of the Pope was thundered forth, or the ordinances of the reigning king were published, heresies were recanted, and sins atoned for by penance. So early as 1256, we find John Mancell calling a meeting at _Powly’s Crosse_, and showing the people that it was the king’s desire that they should be “rulyd with justyce, and that the libertyes of the cytie shulde be maynteyned in every poynt.” In 1299 the Dean of St. Paul’s proclaimed from the Cross that all persons who searched for treasure in the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, or consented to the searching, were accursed; and it was here that Jane Shore, with a taper in one hand, and arrayed in her ‘kyrtell onelye,’ was exposed to open penance. After 1633, sermons were no longer preached at the Cross, but within the cathedral; and in 1643 it was altogether taken down.--Godwin and Britton, _Churches of London_, 1839; Pennant, _Account of London_, 1793; Brayley, _Londiniana_, 1829. At the church of All Hallows, Lombard Street, a sermon is preached every Good Friday in accordance with the directions of the will of Peter Symonds, dated 1587. Gifts, also, are distributed, consisting of a new penny and a packet of raisins, to a certain number of the younger scholars of Christ’s Hospital.--_City Press_, April 12th, 1873.[29] [29] Under the same will the children of Langbourn Ward Schools who help in the choir, and the children of the Sunday School, receive each a bun, and various sums of new money, ranging from 1_d._ to 1_s._, besides the poor of the parish, on whom it bestowed 1_s._ each and a loaf. The money used to be given away over the tomb of the donor, until the railway in Liverpool Street effaced the spot.--_City Press_, April 12, 1873. Just outside the church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, the rector places twenty-one sixpences on a gravestone, which the same number of poor widows pick up. The custom is nearly as old as the church, and originated in the will of a lady, who left a sum of money to pay for the sermon, and to yield these sixpences to be distributed over her grave. As however, her will is lost, and her tomb gone, the traditionary spot of her interment is chosen for the distribution, a strange part of the tradition being that any one being too stiff in the joints to pick up the money is not to receive it.--_Ibid._