Prisoners were taken from Newgate to Tyburn for execution, and as they
passed the church of St. Sepulchre, each was given a nosegay of flowers.
Another custom of this church, carried on for many years by means of a
legacy left by a Christian Londoner, was in having the church clerk
ring a bell beneath the windows of the cell of the condemned the night
before his execution, so that he might be reminded to make his peace
with God, reciting as he rang his bell:
All you that in the condemned hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;
Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty shall appear;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent;
And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls.
Within this church of St. Sepulchre were interred the remains of Captain
John Smith, who is said to have married the Indian princess Pocahontas.
He died in 1631, and his epitaph reads:
Here lies one conquered
that hath conquered kings.
St. Sepulchre was the last church edifice swept away by the great fire
of 1666.
Where Cock Lane touches Giltspur Street, is Pie Corner, the extreme
limit of the Great Fire of 1666. It was finally stopped here, after it
had burned its destroying way quite across London from Pudding Lane.
On a Giltspur Street house wall, near Pie Corner, there is part of a
carved figure of a child, placed here where the Great Fire was finally
extinguished. The inscription beneath the figure is now obliterated, but
it originally read:
This boy is in memory put up
of the Fire of London,
occasioned by the sin
of Gluttony, 1666.
Just what the inscription meant is uncertain, but perhaps it referred to
the fact that the Great Fire started in Pudding Lane and burned itself
out in Pie Corner, which would seem to indicate that some Old Londoners
had a nice sense of humour. This Giltspur Street was in olden times a
continuation of Knightrider Street, taking its name from the spurs worn
by the knights who galloped along the road on their way to the
tournaments at Smithfield.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account