=St. Mary Somerset= was situated on the north side of Upper Thames Street, opposite Broken Wharf, and was so-called from a man’s name Summer’s Hith. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1695, when St. Mary Mounthaw was annexed to it. The building, with the exception of the tower, was pulled down in 1868. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1280. The patronage of the church was in the hands of: William de Staundon, who gave it by will, dated November 20, 1273, to Arabella de Staundon, his wife; Sir John de Peyton, 1335; Edward III., 1363 (see Braybroke, _London Review_, 146, as to a dispute about the patronage when Thomas de Bradeston claimed it); Richard II., as custodian of Thomas de Bradeston, 1387; Walter de la Pole, in right of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas de Bradeston; Thomas de Ingaldesthorp, cousin and heir of Walter de la Pole; Henry VI., 1435; William Norris, Knight, married to Isabel, daughter of Edmund de Ingaldesthorp, 1478; Edward VI., 1550; Mary, 1554; G. Comb, generosus, 1560; Elizabeth, 1585; George Coton, 1596; and several others until the Great Fire in 1666, when the parish was annexed to St. Mary Mounthaw. Houseling people in 1548 were 300. Chantries were founded here: By and for John Gildesburgh, in the time of Edward III., at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the King granted in mortmain to Richard, son of W. de Segrave, May 18—the endowment fetched £4 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when John Bordell was priest; by Thomas Wilforde, who had a licence from Henry IV., whose endowment fetched £3 : 7 : 4 in 1548, when John Moryalle was priest. Most of the monuments of the original church were defaced by Stow’s time, and those which he records are of individuals of little eminence. In later times the memory of Gilbert Ironside, Bishop of Hereford, was honoured by a stone inscription within the communion rails. Ralph Bernard left 8s. per annum, and John Moysier 7s. 6d. per annum. No other gifts or charities are recorded by Stow. Twenty-four boys and twenty girls were clothed and educated at the charge of the gentlemen of Queenhithe Ward. Samuel Croxall, D.D. (d. 1752), Chancellor of Hereford, was rector here. Timber Hithe crossed the narrow lanes parallel to Thames Street. It is now called High Timber Street. These lanes have changed their names; “Dunghill Lane,” for instance, became Gardeners’ Lane. There used to be here a quaint little figure of a gardener, dated 1670, of the kind to be found at one time in many parts of London, but now very scarce. [Illustration: A BAS-RELIEF OF A GARDENER, GARDENERS’ LANE, 1791 ]