man of the guard, to witness the procession of the city watch at night, on the eve of St. John. "The city music," we are told, "preceded the Lord Mayor's officers in party-coloured liveries ; then followed the sword-bearer, on horseback, in beautiful armour, before the Lord Mayor, mounted also on a stately horse, richly caparisoned, and attended by a giant and two pages on horseback, three pageants, morrice-dancers, and footmen. The Sheriffs marched next, preceded also by their officers in proper liveries, and attended by their giants, pages, morrice-dancers, and pageants; then followed a large body of demi-lancers in bright armour on stately horses; and after them a body of carabineers in white fustian coats, with the city arms upon their backs and breasts; a division of archers, with their bows bent, and shafts of arrows by their side; a party of pikemen in crosslets and helmets; a body of halberdiers also in crosslets and helmets; and a great party of billmen, with helmets and aprons of mail, brought up the rear. The whole consisted of about two thousand, in several divisions, with musicians, drums, standards, and ensigns, ranked and answering each other in proper places; who marched from the Conduit at the west end of Cheapside, through Cheapside, Poultry, Cornhill, and Leadenhall Street, to Aldgate; and back again through Fenchurch Street, Gracechurch Street, Cornhill, and so back to the Conduit from whence it first set out; illuminated with nine hundred and forty cressets, or large lanthorns, fixed at the ends

of poles, and carried on men's shoulders; of which two hundred were provided at the expense of the city; five hundred at the expense of the incorporated Companies, and two hundred and forty at the expense of the city constables. And besides these, the streets were well lighted with a great number of lamps hung against the houses on each side, decorated with garlands of flowers and greens. So delighted was King Henry with the spectacle, that on the occasion of the next procession, which took place on the eve of St. Peter and St. Paul, he carried the Queen and her ladies to witness the sight, from the "crown-sild" in Cheapside.

Charles the Second and Queen Anne are severally mentioned as witnessing the pageantry of Lord Mayor's Day from "a balcony" in Cheapside, but whether or no it was from the "crown-sild" of Bow Church, we have no means of ascertaining.

The Dragon, which surmounts the steeple of Bow Church, has long been famous. Otway, in his comedy of "The Soldier's Fortune," (1681), makes Sir D. Dunce exclaim: "Oh, Lord! here are doings; here are vagaries! I'll run mad; I'll climb Bow steeple presently, bestride the Dragon, and preach cuckoldom to the whole city." Again, in the "State Poems," we find :

When Jacob Hall,* on his high rope, shews tricks,
The Dragon flutters; the Lord Mayor's horse kicks;

* A famous rope-dancer in the reign of Charles the Second, on whom the Duchess of Cleveland is said to have conferred her favours.

The Cheapside crowds and pageants scarcely know
Which most t' admire-Hall, hobby-horse, or Bow."*

There are one or two other churches in the immediate vicinity of Cheapside, which require a passing notice. On the east side of Bread Street, at the corner of Watling Street, stands the church of Allhallows, or All Saints, Bread Street. Little is known of the history of the old church, but its antiquity, of which we have sufficient evidence, from the circumstance of Walter de Sonnebries having been preferred to the rectorship in 1365, by the Prior and Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury. Here, in 1531, a discreditable quarrel took place between two priests, in which the blood of one was shed by the other. To purify it from the sacrilege which had been committed within its walls, the church was ordered to be closed for the space of a month, and at the same time the offenders were committed to prison. In due time they were led forth bare-headed, bare-footed, and bare-legged, and having been placed at the head of a procession, with beads and books in their hands, were compelled to do penance by walking from St. Paul's Cathedral, along Cheapside and Cornhill, to the eastern limit of the city. Milton was baptized in the old church. The modern edifice was erected by Wren in 1680.

In Bread Street,-also on the east side,—a little below Basing Lane, stands the parish church of

66

Upon the stately Structure of Bow Church and Steeple, burnt ann. 1666, re-built 1679. State Poems, v. iv. 379."

St. Mildred, so called from having been dedicated to Mildred, a Saxon saint, daughter of a Prince of West Anglia, and Abbess of a monastery in the Isle of Thanet. The present edifice is another of Sir Christopher Wren's churches, built shortly after the destruction of the old place of worship in 1666. The interior has been much admired by architects. It is principally remarkable, however, for its fine altar-piece, and its beautifully carved pulpit and sounding-board, which, if they are not the work of Grinling Gibbons, would at least have reflected no discredit upon that eminent artist.

Running parallel with, and to the south of Cheapside, is Watling Street, the name of which, according to Leland, is corrupted from Atheling, or Noble Street, from its contiguity to the Old Change, where a Mint was established in the reign of the Saxon Kings. According to others, it derives its name from Adeling, a Saxon nobleman; from whence Watheling and Watling. This street forms the site of part of the ancient Roman road, which traversed England from Dover to South Wales. At the north-west end of it is the church of St. Augustine, Watling Street, dedicated to St. Augustine, a Roman monk of the order of St. Benedict, who, in 596, was sent to England by the Pope, for the purpose of converting the AngloSaxons to Christianity. It was anciently styled Ecclesia Sancti Augustini ad Portam, from its vicinity to the south-east gate of St. Paul's Cathedral. The old church having been burnt down in 1666,

the present uninteresting edifice was erected in 1682, after designs by Sir Christopher Wren.

St. Anthony's, vulgarly called St. Antholin's, Watling Street, is a religious foundation of great antiquity. In 1399, it was rebuilt, principally at the expense of Sir Thomas Knowles, Grocer and Lord Mayor, to whose memory there was formerly a monument in the church, with the following quaint inscription:—

Here lyeth graven under this stone,
Thomas Knowles, both flesh and bone;
Grocer and Alderman, years forty;
Sheriff and twice Mayor truly.
And (for he should not lye alone),
Here lyeth with him his good wife Joan.
They were together sixty year,

And nineteen children they had in fear.

The tower and spire of this church though not in the purest style of architecture, have been much admired. The carpentry work, also, of the roof has been quoted as affording a very favourable specimen of Wren's constructive science.

Opposite to the Old Change, on the north side of Cheapside, is Foster Lane, in which stands the church of St. Vedast, an ancient foundation dedicated to Vedast, who was Bishop of Arras, in the province of Artois, about the close of the fifth, or the commencement of the sixth century. The old church having been burnt down in 1666, the present edifice was erected by Wren, between the years 1694 and 1698. St. Vedast's Church, -with its graceful spire and its panelled roof, richly