“Here lawyers received their clients; here men sought service; here usurers met their victims, and the tombs and font were mightily convenient for counters for the exchange of money and the transaction of bargains, and the rattle of gold and silver was constantly heard amidst the loud talking of the crowd. Gallants enter the Cathedral wearing spurs, having just left their steeds at The Bell and Savage and are immediately besieged by the choristers, who have the right of demanding spur money from any one entering the building wearing spurs. Nor are the fair sex absent, and Paul’s Walk was used as a convenient place for assignations. Old plays are full of references to this practice. Later on the nave was nothing but a public thoroughfare, where men tramped, carrying baskets of bread and fish, flesh and fruit, vessels of ale, sacks of coal, and even dead mules and horses and other beasts. Hucksters and peddlers sold their wares. Duke Humphrey’s tomb was the great meeting-place of all beggars and low rascals, and they euphemistically called their gathering ‘a dining with Duke Humphrey.’ Much more could be written of this assembly of all sorts and conditions of men, but we have said enough to show that the Cathedral had suffered greatly from desecration and abuse. Indeed an old writer in 1561 declared that the burning of the steeple in that year was a judgment for the scenes of profanation which were daily witnessed in old St. Paul’s.”--(P. H. D.) Cromwell’s army demolished shrines and destroyed all the relics and works of art, and seamstresses and hucksters took up their abode in the western portico, built by Charles I. after designs by Inigo Jones. At the Restoration plans to repair and restore the Cathedral were being made by Wren when the Great Fire destroyed it. Wren had the task of rebuilding it, and produced a masterpiece that takes rank with St. Peter’s in Rome and even surpasses it in some of its details. “The stones of Paul’s,” wrote Evelyn, “flew like granados, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with fiery redness, so as no horse or man was able to tread on them, and the demolition had stopped all the passages, so that no help could be applied.” It took a long time to remove the ruins and to decide upon the plan for the successor of Old St. Paul’s. Wren made numerous designs and drawings and there was great delay. At length the royal warrant was obtained and the first stone was laid June 21, 1675, at the south-east corner of the choir. The Cathedral was building for thirty-five years. The choir was finished and service held in it on December 2, 1697. It is sad to remember that the great architect was a victim of jealousy and intrigue, and pleasant to know that he lived to see the glorious church that had taken form in his mind completed. It was finished in 1710.