"There is a peculiarly interesting circumstance connected with his death, told by Allan Cunningham in his _Lives of the British Sculptors_ (p. 359), which we cannot resist the temptation of transcribing. He says 'the winter had set in, and, as he was never a very early mover, a stranger found him rising one morning when he called about nine o'clock. 'Sir,' said the visitant, presenting a book as he spoke, 'this work was sent to me by the author, an Italian artist, to present to you, and at the same time to apologise for its extraordinary dedication. In truth, sir, it was so generally believed throughout Italy that you were dead, that my friend determined to shew the world how much he esteemed your genius, and having this book ready for publication, he has inscribed it _Al Ombra di Flaxman_. No sooner was the book published than the story of your death was contradicted, and the author, affected by his mistake, which, nevertheless, he rejoices at, begs you will receive his work and his apology.' Flaxman smiled, and accepted the volume with unaffected modesty, and mentioned the circumstance, as curious, to his own family and some of his friends. This occurred on Saturday the 2d of December, when he was well and cheerful; the next day he was taken suddenly ill with cold, and on the 7th was dead. "In the churchyard, too, is the tomb of the Pendrells, who aided in the escape of Charles II.; and a few years since was revived the custom of decorating this tomb on Restoration Day (May 29), with branches of oak, in commemoration of Pendrell's loyalty and attachment to the 'unkingship.' "In the tower is a clock, the dials of which are illuminated at night with gas; this being, if we remember rightly, the first improvement of the kind introduced into the metropolis. "The church is a rectory, in the county and archdeaconry of Middlesex, in the diocese of London, and the patronage of the Lord Chancellor. "Although the church is very capacious, it is altogether inadequate to the spiritual wants of the parish. "It was in front of the site of St. Giles's Church that Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was so savagely burnt during the reign of Henry V., his early friend. The phrase, 'St. Giles's Bowl,' will remind many of the custom that formerly prevailed here of giving every malefactor on his way to Tyburn a bowl of ale, as his last worldly draught. Thus is the site associated with the fierceness and coarse spirit of bygone ages; and probably the most grateful relics are the trees in the churchyard, which carry the mind's eye back to 'the fields.' The illuminated clock and the wood pavement of the roadway are unquestionably of our own time." Besides the church, there is a curious old bath in the neighbourhood of St. Giles (of which we give an engraving), accompanied with the following quotation from the _Times_: