A poor statue of Queen Anne, in whose reign the church was finished, stands in the middle of the front area, with the figures of Britain, France, Ireland, and America, round the base. Garth, who was a Whig, and angry with the councils which had dismissed his hero Marlborough, wrote some bitter lines upon it, which must have had double effect, coming from so good-natured a man. Near the vast bulk of that stupendous frame, Known by the Gentiles' great apostle's name, With grace divine great Anna's seen to rise, An awful form that glads a nation's eyes: Beneath her feet four mighty realms appear, And with due reverence pay their homage there. Britain and Ireland seem to own her grace, And e'en wild India wears a smiling face. But France alone with downcast eyes is seen, The sad attendant on so good a queen. Ungrateful country! to forget so soon All that great Anna for thy sake has done, When sworn the kind defender of thy cause, Spite of her dear religion, spite of laws, For thee she sheath'd the terrors of her sword, For thee she broke her gen'ral--and her word: For thee her mind in doubtful terms she told, And learn'd to speak like oracles of old: For thee, for thee alone, what could she more? She lost the honour she had gain'd before; Lost all the trophies which her arms had won, (Such Cæsar never knew, nor Philip's son;) Resign'd the glories of a ten years' reign, And such as none but Marlborough's arm could gain: For thee in annals she's content to shine, Like other monarchs of the Stuart line. Many irreverent remarks were also made by the coarser wits of the day, in reference to the position of her Majesty, with her back to the church and her face to a brandy shop, which was then kept in that part of the churchyard. The calumny was worthy of the coarseness. Anne, who was not a very clever woman, had a difficult task to perform; and though we differ with her politics, we cannot, even at this distance of time, help expressing our disgust at personalities like these, especially against a female. [Illustration: PAUL'S CROSS.] FOOTNOTES: [14] Parentalia, p. 290, quoted in the work next mentioned. [15] Brayley's London and Middlesex, vol. i. p. 87. [16] Parentalia, p. 27. [17] Survey of London, p. 262. First edition. [18] Fine Arts of the English School, quoted in Brayley, vol. ii. p. 217. [19] Londinium Redivivum, iii., p. 134. [20] Londinium Redivivum, iii., p. 81. [21] Londinium Redivivum, vol. iii., pp. 71, 73. [22] Moser, in the European Magazine, July, 1807. [23] Poems. Gilchrist's edition, 1807, p. 5. [24] Microcosmographie, quoted in Pennant. [25] Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 281. [26] London and Middlesex, vol. ii., p. 229. [27] Ancient Mysteries described, &c., 1823, p. 195.