Stories That Words Tell UsO'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
History
Stories That Words Tell Us
O'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
English language -- Etymology
People who go along Ludgate Hill to St. Paul's must have noticed many
curious names. Perhaps the quaintest of all is _Paternoster Row_.
This street, which takes its name from the Latin name of the "Our
Father," or Lord's Prayer, got its name from the fact that in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many sellers of prayer-books and
texts collected at this spot, on account of it being near the great
church of St. Paul's. Paternoster Row is still full of booksellers.
_Ave Maria Lane_ and _Amen Corner_, just near, got their names in
imitation of Paternoster Row, the _Ave Maria_, or "Hail, Mary!" being
the words used by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin at the
Annunciation, and _Amen_ being, of course, the ending to the
_paternoster_, as to most prayers.
Not far from St. Paul's is the Church of _St. Mary-le-Bow_. It used to
be said that the true Londoner had to be born within the sound of
Bow-bells, and the old story tells us that it was these bells which
Dick Whittington heard telling him to turn back when he had lost hope
of making his fortune, and was leaving London for the country again.
The present Church of St. Mary-le-Bow was built by Sir Christopher
Wren, the great seventeenth-century architect, who built St. Paul's
and several other of the most beautiful London churches after they had
been destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. But underneath the present
Church of St. Mary-le-Bow is the crypt, which was not destroyed in the
fire. This crypt was built, like the former church, in Norman times,
and the church took its name of _bow_ from the arches upon which it
was built in the Norman way, it being the first church in London to be
built in this way. The church is generally called "Bow Church."
Another famous old London church, the _Temple Church_, which is now
used as the chapel of the lawyers at the Inns of Court, got its name
from the fact that it belonged to and was built by the Knights
Templars in the twelfth century. These knights were one of those
peculiar religious orders which joined the life of a soldier to that
of a monk, and played a great part in the Crusades. King Edward III.
brought the order to an end, and took their property; but the Temple
Church, with its tombs and figures of armoured knights in brass,
remains to keep their memory fresh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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