London (England) -- History; London (England) -- Social life and customs
ordinary consecration, Margaret, wife of Edward I.; Isabel, wife of
Edward II.; Joan of the Tower, Queen of Scots, daughter of Edward II.;
Isabel, daughter of Edward III.; Beatrice, daughter of Henry III.; and
an extraordinary number of persons great and honorable in their day.
What became of their monuments and of the church itself belongs to Tudor
London.
[Illustration: SOUTH-WEST VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST.
HELEN, BISHOPSGATE STREET]
All those who visit London are recommended by the guide-books to see the
famous Blue-coat School. The main entrance is at the end of a narrow
lane leading north from Newgate Street. On the right hand of the lane
stands a great ugly pile built by Wren twenty years after the Great
Fire. This is Christ Church, and it stands on part of the site of the
old church of the Grey Friars. At the Dissolution, Henry VIII. made
their church into a parish church, assigning to it the two parishes of
St. Nicolas Shambles and St. Ewin, together with the ground occupied by
the Monastery. The church within is as ugly as it is without. One
shudders to think of the change from the great and splendid monastic
church. On the other side of the lane is an open space, a church-yard
now disused. The old church covered both this open space and the area of
the modern church. Behind it stood the cloisters, the burial-ground, and
the monastic buildings of the House, covering a great extent of ground.
Those who go through the gate find themselves in a large quadrangle
asphalted. This is now part of the boys' play-ground; their feet run
every day over the old tombs and graves of the Grey Friars'
burial-ground; the soil, though not accounted so sacred as that within
the church itself, was considered greatly superior to that of any common
church-yard. Most of the dead were buried in the habit of the Grey
Friars, as if to cheat Peter into a belief of their sanctity. On the
south of the quadrangle two or three arches may be observed. These are
the only fragments remaining of the cloisters. The view of Christ's
Hospital after the Great Fire of 1666 shows the old courts of the Abbey.
The church formerly extended over the whole front of the picture; the
buildings now seen are wholly modern; the cloistered square was the
church-yard; the Hall stood across the north side of the first court;
beyond were the courts appropriated to the service of the monks; the
cells, libraries, etc., were round the great court and the small courts
on the right. The Franciscan House is gone; the Friars are gone. Let us
not think, however, that their work is gone. On the contrary, all that
was good in it remains. That is the quality and the test of good work.
It is imperishable. If you ask what is this work and where it may be
found, look about you. In the prosperity of the City; in the energy, the
industry, the courage, the soberness of its people; in whatever virtues
they possess, the Franciscans have their share; the Grey Friars, who
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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