The Town: Its Memorable Characters and EventsHunt, Leigh
History
The Town: Its Memorable Characters and Events
Hunt, Leigh
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
Jane's penance, Richard's chagrin, Wolsey's exaltation, clergymen
preaching for and against the pope; a coach coming as a wonder, where
coaches now throng at every one's service; and finally, a puritanical
lord-mayor, who "blasphemed custard," laying the axe to the tree, and
cutting down the pulpit and all its works.
The next appendage to the old church, in point of importance, was the
Bishop's or London House, the name of which survives in that of London
House Yard. This, with other buildings, perished in the Great Fire;
and on the site of it were built the houses now standing between the
yard just mentioned and the present Chapter House. The latter was
built by Wren. The old one stood on the other side of the cathedral,
where the modern deanery is to be found, only more eastward. The
bishop's house was often used for the reception of princes. Edward the
Third and his queen were entertained there after a great tournament in
Smithfield; and there poor little Edward the Fifth was lodged,
previously to his appointed coronation. To the east of the bishop's
house, stretching towards Cheapside, was a chapel, erected by the
father of Thomas Becket, called Pardon-Church-Haugh, which was
surrounded by a cloister, presenting a painting of the Dance of Death
on the walls, a subject rendered famous by Holbein.[40]
Another chapel called the Charnel, a proper neighbour to this
_fresco_, stood at the back of the two buildings just mentioned. It
received its name from the quantity of human bones collected from St.
Paul's Churchyard, and deposited in a vault beneath. The Charnel was
taken down by the Protector Somerset about 1549, and the stones were
employed in the building of the new palace of Somerset House. On this
occasion it is stated that more than a thousand cart-loads of bones
were removed to Finsbury Fields where they formed a large mount, on
which three windmills were erected. From these Windmill Street in that
neighbourhood derives its name. The ground on which the chapel stood
was afterwards built over with dwellings and warehouses, having sheds
before them for the use of stationers. Immediately to the north of St.
Paul's School, and towards the spot where the churchyard looks into
Cheapside, was a campanile, or bell-house; that is to say, a belfry,
forming a distinct building from the cathedral, such as it is
accustomed to be in Italy. It was by the ringing of this bell that the
people were anciently called together to the general assemblage,
called the Folkmote. The campanile was very high, and was won at dice
from King Henry the Eighth by Sir Miles Partridge, who took it down
and sold the materials. On the side of the cathedral directly the
reverse of this (the south-west), and forming a part of the great pile
of building, was the parish church of St. Gregory, over which was the
Lollards' Tower, or prison, infamous, like its namesake at Lambeth,
for the ill-treatment of heretics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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