able evidence of its having also been a burial-place of the ancient British, he discovered numerous pins of wood and ivory, which had formerly fastened the garments of the dead; and lastly, still nearer to the surface of the earth, he found the stone coffins, and graves lined with chalk-stones, which were the peculiar characteristics of a Saxon cemetery. Whether there be any truth in the surmise that a temple of Diana stood anciently on the site of the present St. Paul's Cathedral, must ever be a disputed question; but putting all fanciful theories aside, we can scarcely imagine a sight more suggestive of deep and interesting reflections, whether to the philosopher or to the antiquary, than that which was presented by the discovery of the relics of successive ages, on digging the vast foundations of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Although Sir Christopher Wren expresses his conviction that there existed a place of Christian worship on the site of St. Paul's, as early as the days of the Roman empire in Britain, he explodes the idea of its having been preceded by a pagan temple. He could discover, he says, neither the slightest remains of Roman ornamental architecture, nor the horns of any animal which it was the custom to sacrifice to the Goddess of Chastity. That, after a lapse of upwards of twelve centuries, and after the ground had been so repeatedly disturbed by the erection and destruction of successive edifices, no trace was to be found of the graceful cornices and capitals of the Romans, is, perhaps, not much to be wondered at. But when we find Sir Christopher

himself speaking of the discovery of some ancient foundations, consisting of "Kentish rubble-stone, artfully worked and consolidated with exceeding hard mortar, in the Roman manner;"-moreover, when we find a Roman burial-place existing in the immediate neighbourhood,—when we remember, too, how common it was for the early Christians to convert pagan temples into places of Christian worship,and lastly, when we find it an established fact, that the horns of animals used in the sacrifices to Diana, have been actually discovered near the spot, though none such happened to be found by Wren,-we feel ourselves almost justified in clinging to an ancient tradition, which serves to throw so much additional interest over St. Paul's. In Bishop Gibson's edition of Camden's "Britannia," is the following passage, with which we will conclude our notices of this curious question:-"Some have fancied that the temple of Diana formerly stood here; and there are circumstances that strengthen the conjecture;—as the old adjacent buildings being called in their records Diana Camera, the chamber of Diana; the digging up in the churchyard, in Edward the First's reign, as we find by our annals, an incredible number of ox-heads, which the common people at that time not without great admiration, looked upon to have been Gentile sacrifices; and the learned know that the Tauropolia were celebrated in honour of Diana. But, much rather should I found this opinion of a temple of Diana upon the witty conceit of Mr. Selden, who upon occasion of some ox-heads, sacred

also to Diana, that were discovered in digging the foundations of a new chapel on the south side of St. Paul's (1316), would insinuate that the name of London imported no more than Llan Dien, i.e. Templum Diana. And against the foregoing conjecture it is urged, that as for the tenements called Camera Dianæ, they stood not so near the church as some would have us think, but on St. Paul's Wharf Hill, near Doctors' Commons; and they seem to have taken their denomination from a spacious building, full of intricate turnings, wherein King Henry the Second, as he did at Woodstock, kept his heart's delight, whom he there called Fair Rosamond, and here Diana." Some remains of these "intricate turnings," existed as late as the reign of Elizabeth ; as also of an underground passage leading to it, from Baynard's Castle, by which communication it has been presumed, the King used to find his way to his Camera Diana, or secret apartment of his beloved mistress.

It has been conjectured that a place of Christian worship existed on the site of the present Cathedral as early as the end of the second century; about which time (185), Faganus and Damianus were sent by Pope Eleutherius, to convert the natives of Britain to Christianity. This early church, it has been supposed, was destroyed during the famous persecution of the Christians, in the reign of Dioclesian ; it being the great object of that Emperor to efface, throughout the Roman dominions, the name and worship of Christ, and to restore the religion of the

heathen gods. It was then, according to some authorities, that a temple dedicated to Diana, was erected on this spot. In the words of an old monkish chronicler, Flete, "the old abomination was restored, wherever the Britons were expelled their place. London worshipped Diana; and the suburbs of Thorney offered incense to Apollo.'

After the death of the Emperor Dioclesian, a place of Christian worship again arose on the site of St. Paul's. This building was destroyed by the pagan Saxons; but when that people subsequently embraced Christianity, early in the seventh century, it was re-built by Ethelbert, King of Kent (610), on its ancient foundations; Melitus, at the instance of St. Augustine, being consecrated first Bishop of London. In 675 we find Erkenwald, son of King Offa, fourth bishop of London from Melitus, expending large sums of money in repairing and beautifying the ancient edifice, as well as obtaining for it considerable privileges both from the Pope and the Saxon princes of England. For these good deeds, Erkenwald was canonized at his death, and his body placed in a shrine above the high altar, where it continued to be an object of adoration till the destruction of the edifice by fire in 1086. William the Conqueror not only secured to St. Paul's its ancient privileges, but appears also to have regarded it with peculiar reve

* It is needless to remind the reader, that by Thorney is meant Westminster Abbey, on the site of which is said to have stood a temple of Apollo; Thorney Island being so called, from its having been insulated by a branch of the Thames, and covered with thorns and briers.

rence, and to have taken it under his immediate protection.

Such,

After the destruction of the old church by fire, in 1086, Mauritius, or Maurice, then Bishop of London, commenced rebuilding it on a most extensive and magnificent scale. William Rufus granted him the stones of the old Palatine Tower on the banks of the Thames: and in the following reign, we find Henry the First exempting from toll or custom all vessels entering the river Fleet with stones and other materials for the new cathedral. however, was the vastness of the undertaking, that although Bishop Maurice lived twenty years after the commencement of his pious labours, and although his successor, Bishop Beauvages, enjoyed the See twenty years more, and appropriated nearly the whole of his ecclesiastical revenue in advancing this great work, yet its completion was left to succeeding generations. The steeple was not finished till 1221, nor the choir till 1240. When completed, this magnificent structure, with the buildings attached to it, covered upwards of three acres and a half of ground. Its length was six hundred and ninety feet; its breadth one hundred and thirty; and its extreme height, to the summit of the spire, five hundred and thirty four feet.

The interior of old St. Paul's corresponded in splendour with the grandeur of its external appearance. The immense length of the vista-the double line of graceful gothic arches-the gorgeous decorations of the high altar-the sublime effect of the