Very few people, of the thousands who daily walk up and down Fleet
Street, know anything about the statue in the wall of St. Dunstan's
Church. This is the statue of Queen Elizabeth which formerly stood on
the west side of Lud Gate. This gate was taken down in the year 1760,
and some time after the statue was placed here. One of the sights of
London before the old church was pulled down was a clock with the figure
of a savage on each side who struck the hours and the quarters on a bell
with clubs. London has seldom been without some such show. As long ago
as the fifteenth century there was a clock with figures in Fleet Street.
Tyndal the Reformer, and Baxter the famous Nonconformist were preachers
in this church.
St. Mary le Bow, was so called because it was the first church in the
City built on arches--bows--of stone. The church is most intimately
connected with the life and history of the City. Bow Bell rang for the
closing of the shops. If the ringer was late the prentice boys reminded
him pretty plainly.
'Clarke of the Bow Bell with thy yellow lockes:
In thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes.'
To which the clerk replied:
'Children of Chepe, hold you all stille:
For you shall have Bow Bell ring at your will.'
St. Mary's Woolnoth was for many years the church of the Rev. John
Newton, once the poet Cowper's friend. He began his life in the merchant
service and was for many years engaged in the slave trade.
For these reasons--their antiquity, their history, their
associations--the destruction of the City churches ought to be resisted
with the utmost determination. You who read this page may very possibly
become parishioners of such a church. Learn that, without the consent of
the parishioners, no church can be destroyed. A meeting of parishioners
must be called: they must vote and decide. Do not forget this privilege.
The time may come when your vote and your's alone, may retain for your
posterity a church rich in history and venerable with the traditions of
the past.
29. THE STREETS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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