[Illustration: 133, 134: LONDON, WEST CHEAP THE THIRD CROSS ERECTED ON THE SPOT] [Illustration: 135. CHARING DETAIL OF OLD PROSPECT, SHOWING POSITION OF CHARING CROSS] West Cheap Cross (Figs. 130-134) stood in the middle of the roadway, opposite to the spot where Wood Street opens at right angles out of Cheapside. Three successive crosses have occupied this identical position. The first was an Eleanor cross, built by the mason, Michael, of Canterbury, who contracted to execute the work for £300. The character of the design may be judged from two fragments of the stone panelling of the lowest storey, now preserved in the Guildhall Museum (Figs. 130 and 131). These exhibit trefoil cusping, and the same armorial shields which occur in the three existing crosses at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham. Some twenty years after its erection, Cheapside Cross figured in the festivities which followed the birth of Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward III.) on 13th November 1312. A great pageant was organised in the City in honour of the occasion, and at the cross in Cheap a pavilion was set up, and in it a tun of wine placed, from which all who passed by might freely drink. From whatever cause, the cross was so soon allowed to fall into disrepair that its reconstruction came to be contemplated when it had been standing only about seventy-five years, Sir Robert Launde, knight, whose will is dated 1367, making a bequest to the building of the cross in Cheapside. The matter at last became so urgent that, in 1441, Henry VI. issued a licence to the Mayor of London to rebuild the cross "in more beautiful manner." The new cross, raised mainly at the cost of the City, was not finished until 1486. Why it should have taken so long a space of time to bring it to completion is not apparent. It was a very sumptuous and elaborate structure; but its builders did not attempt to adhere to the model of an Eleanor cross, Scripture subjects and figures of saints taking the place of the statues of the Queen. The monument was surmounted by a crucifix, with a dove over it; the other sculptures comprising the Resurrection, the Blessed Virgin and Child, and St Edward the Confessor. During the night of 21st June 1581, unknown iconoclasts defaced all these figures, that of the Blessed Virgin in the upper tier being subjected to greater indignities than the rest. In addition to being mutilated it was discovered to have been bound with ropes, ready to be torn down. A reward was offered for the apprehension of the offenders, but they were never caught. Queen Elizabeth notified to the Court of Aldermen her wish that the damage should be made good. "The Lord Mayor thereupon wrote to the Lords of the Council, asking Her Majesty's further directions; and he was particularly anxious touching the repairing and garnishing of the images of the cross." In 1595 the image of the Blessed Virgin was renovated and made secure. In 1596