private heresy any the nearer to becoming the creed of the Catholic Church. Of St. Bartholomew’s Fair an account will be found in another place. (See _London in the Eighteenth Century_, p. 465 _et seq._) On October 25, 1540, Fuller, the last Prior, surrendered the House. The revenue was then £773: 0: 1-1/2; the net income was £693: 0: 10-3/4. The nave was destroyed, and the stones were used by the King for other buildings. The Priory buildings, consisting of the Prior’s house, the Infirmary, the Dormitory, the Refectory, the cloisters, kitchens, stables, and gardens, were sold to Sir Richard Rich for £1064. The site of the nave, eighty-seven feet in length, became a churchyard, and the choir became a Parish Church. The King appointed the first Rector, after which the patronage belonged to Sir Richard Rich as his successor. Sir Richard Rich, as Lord Chancellor, presided at the trial of Anne Askew, and, according to report, assisted with his own hands in her torture. He was also present at her execution. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT] In 1516 Queen Mary gave the Priory to the Black Friars, who lived here until their expulsion in 1559 by Elizabeth. In _Londina Illustrata_ it is said that the old Parish Church adjoined the Priory Church; that when the Black Friars were turned out, the Priory Church, together with the old Parish Church, was made the Parish Church. In that case the old Parish Church must have been part of the structure of the Priory Church. The account is confused, because the writer goes on to relate that the old Parish Church was pulled down, except the steeple of wood, which became ruinous, and was taken down in 1628, the present tower being then erected. The Great Fire was happily stopped before it could cross Smithfield. In 1697 Hogarth was baptized in this church. In 1863 Restoration was begun. The Lady Chapel had been converted first into a dwelling-house and next into a fringe manufactory; part of the factory projected into the church, and was supported by an iron girder and two iron columns. In the north Transept was a blacksmith’s forge; in the south the boys’ school. The following is an account of the most interesting Restoration—may one who is no architect be permitted to say the most valuable?—as set forth in the papers prepared for the reopening of the Lady Chapel on May 18, 1897:— At the commencement of the Restoration in 1863, the floor was lowered to its original level, the pews removed, a dry area formed round the outside of the Church, and the walls and piers, which had perished, were made good. The Apse was also completed on the ground-floor level by the insertion of the two central piers, the storey above being occupied by a fringe manufactory. Some £5000 in all was collected and expended. (Late Rev. J. Abbiss, M.A., Rector.)