London: It's Celebrated Characters And Remarkable Places

ANTIQUITY OF ST. GILES'S CRIPPLEGATE CHURCH.--CELEBRATED MEN BURIED THERE: SPEED, JOHN FOX,-ROBERT GLOVER,-SIR MARTIN FROBISHER, -WILLIAM BULLEYN,-MILTON,-MARGARET LUCY,-THOMAS BUSBY.MONKWELL STREET.-BARBER-SURGEONS' HALL.-SILVER STREET.-SION COLLEGE.-WOOD STREET.-ST. MARY, ALDERMANBURY.-JUDGE JEFFREYS. -THOMAS FARNABY.-JEWIN STREET.-ALDERSGATE STREET.-SHAFTESBURY, PETRE, AND LONSDALE HOUSES.-MILTON.-BARBICAN.-FORTUNE THEATRE.

ET us now retrace our steps to London Wall, and stroll into the interesting and venerable church of St. Giles's Cripplegate. There are few religious edifices in London, through which the poet, the antiquary, or the historian may wander with greater pleasure or quit with greater regret.

The church of St. Giles "without Cripplegate" was originally founded about the year 1090, by Alfune, Bishop of London, and dedicated by him to St. Egidius, or St. Giles, a wealthy native saint of Athens, whose tenderness of heart is said to have been so great, that having expended his whole fortune in acts of charity, he gave the coat on his back to a

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sick beggar whom he had no other means of relieving. In 1545 the old church was injured by fire, but was shortly afterwards repaired and partially rebuilt. The name of Cripplegate was derived from the neighbouring postern, or Cripple-gate, so called, according to Stow, from the number of cripples who were in the daily habit of assembling there for the purpose of begging alms from those who passed into or out of the City.

The great interest possessed by St. Giles's Church is from its historical associations; from the many celebrated men who lie buried beneath its roof, and lastly, from the very interesting remains of the old fortified wall, which can only be seen by a visit to its gloomy churchyard.

In the south aisle is the monument of the celebrated antiquary, John Speed, who, as the Latin inscription on it informs us,* died on the 28th of July, 1629, and was buried within the church. His monument, of marble, consists of a bust, which was once gilt and painted, representing the old antiquary with his right hand resting upon a book and his left upon a skull.

Another monument in the south aisle is a mural tablet in memory of Robert Glover, the well-known antiquary and herald, who died in 1588. The tablet contains a long Latin inscription, commemorative of his genius and indefatigable diligence, his blameless life and pious end.

At the west end of the north aisle is a simple tablet to the

* "Piæ Memoriæ charissimorum Parentum, Johannis Speed, Civis Londinensis, Mercatorum Scissorum Fratris, Servi fidelissimi Regiarum Majestatum Elizabethæ, Jacobi, et Caroli nunc superstitis. Terrarum nostrarum Geographi accurati, et fidi Antiquitatis, Britannica Historiographi, Genealogiæ Sacræ elegantissimi Delineatoris. Qui postquam annos 77 superaverat, non tam morbo confectus, quam mortalitatis tædio lassatus, corpore se levavit Julii 28, 1629, et jucundissimo Redemptoris sui desiderio sursum elatus carnem hic in custodiam posuit, denuo cum Christus venerit, recepturus," &c.

memory of John Fox, the author of the "Book of Martyrs," who died in the neighbourhood in April, 1587, and who is believed to have been buried on the south side of the chancel. The fact is well known that after Fox was reduced in circumstances, he lived for a considerable time in the house of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, in Warwickshire, as tutor to his sons, and consequently it is not a little interesting to find a child and grandchild of Sir Thomas buried beneath the same roof as the venerable tutor of the family,. and mingling their dust with his. Not improbably the London residence of the Lucys may have been in this immediate neighbourhood. Sir Thomas Lucy was the same knight whose park was the scene of Shakspeare's deerstealing frolic, and whom he has immortalized as

"A Parliament man, a justice of peace,

At home a poor scare-crow, in London an ass.'

Near the centre of the north aisle is a striking-looking monument, representing a female figure in a shroud rising from a coffin. According to tradition it commemorates the story of a lady who, after having been buried while in a trance, was not only restored to life, but subsequently became the mother of several children; her resuscitation, it is said, having been brought about by the cupidity of a sexton, which induced him to open the coffin in order to obtain possession of a valuable ring which was on her finger. The story, however, is entirely fabulous. The monument in ques

* "Christo, S.S. Johanni Foxo, Ecclesiæ Anglicana Martyrologo fidelissimo, Antiquitatis Historica Indagatori sagacissimo, Evangelica Veritatis Propugnatori acerrimo, Thaumaturgo admirabili; qui Martyres Marianos, tanquam Phoenices, ex cineribus redivivos præstitit; Patri suo omni pietatis officio imprimis colendo, Samuel Foxus, illius primogenitus, hoc Monumentum posuit, non sine lachrymis. 'Obiit die 18 Mens. April. An. Dom. 1587, jam septuagenarius. Vita vitæ mortalis est, spes vitæ immortalis.' The inscription is perfect only as far as the word "hoc."

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