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carried out at Tyburn, they have taken place here: one of the most important has been that of Bellingham, for the murder of Mr. Percival. The late amelioration in the condition of prisoners in Newgate is in great measure due to the exertions of Mrs. Fry, who has left a terrible account of their state even in 1838.

Close by is the Old Bailey Sessions House, for the trial of prisoners within twelve miles of St. Paul's. Over it is a dining-room, where the judges dine when business is over, whence the line

"And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.”

The space between Newgate and the Old Bailey is called the Press Yard, from having been the scene of the horrible punishment of pressing to death for "standing mute" when arraigned for treason. Persons sentenced to this peine forte et dure were stretched naked on the floor of a dark room, and were fed with just sufficient bread and water to sustain life, a heavy weight of iron being laid upon the body, and increased till the victim either answered or died. In 1659 Major Strangways was thus pressed to death for refusing to plead, when accused of the murder of John Fussel; and the punishment existed as late as 1770, being voluntarily undergone by some offenders as the only means of preserving their estates to their children.

Jonathan Wild, infamous even in the annals of crime, lived at No. 68, the second house south of Ship Court in the Old Bailey. He used to receive stolen goods and restore them to their owners for a consideration, the larger share of which he appropriated. If thieves opposed his rapacity, he, knowing all their secrets, was able to bring

about their capture. At his trial he delivered to the judge a list of thirty-five robbers, twenty-two housebreakers, and ten returned convicts, whom he was proud of having been instrumental in hanging. He was hung himself on May 24, 1725. Green Anchor Court in the Old Bailey (now destroyed) was the miserable residence of Oliver Goldsmith in 1788.

Opposite Newgate is St. Sepulchre's Church, formerly "Saint Pulchre's," chiefly modern, but with a remarkable porch which has a beautiful fan-tracery roof. It is much to be lamented that, in a recent "restoration," the silly churchwardens have substituted an oriel window for the niche over the entrance, containing the statue of Sir John Popham, Chancellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King's household, who was buried in the cloister of the Charterhouse in the time of Edward IV.; this statue was one of the landmarks of the City. The perpendicular tower is very handsome, but spoilt by its heavy pinnacles.

"Unreasonable people are as hard to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's tower, which never looked all four upon one part of the heavens."-Howell.

In the old church the unfortunate Thomas Fienes, Lord Dacre of the South, was buried, who was executed at Tyburn, June 29, 1544, for accidentally killing John Busbrig, a keeper, in a poaching fray in Laughton Park. The interior of the present building is Georgian commonplace. Many, however, are the Americans who visit it, to see a grey grave-stone "in the church choir, on the south side thereof," with an almost obliterated epitaph, which began"Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings!"

for it covers the remains of Captain John Smith (1579* See The Builder, Aug. 21, 1875.

1631), "sometime Governour of Virginia and Admirall of New England," and author of many works upon the History of Virginia. The three Turks' Heads which are still visible on his shield of arms were granted by Sigismund, Duke of Transylvania, in honour of his having, in three single combats, overcome three Turks and cut off their heads, in the wars of Hungary in 1602. A ballad entitled "The Honour of a London Prentice, being an account of his matchless manhood and brave adventures done in Turkey, and by what means he married the king's daughter," tells how Smith killed one of these Turks by a box on the ear, and how he tore out the tongue of a lion which came to devour him!

"Wherever upon this continent (of America) the English language is spoken, his deeds should be recounted and his memory hallowed. Poetry has imagined nothing more stirring and romantic than his life and adventures, and History upon her ample page has recorded few more honourable and spotless names."-G. S. Hilliard, Life of Captain John Smith.

"I made acquaintance with brave Captain Smith as a boy, in my grandfather's library at home, where I remember how I would sit at the good man's knees, with my favourite volume on my own, spelling out the exploits of our Virginian hero. I loved to read of Smith's travels, sufferings, captivities, escapes, not only in America, but Europe."-Thackeray's "Virginians."

John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr, was vicar of St. Sepulchre's, having previously been chaplain to the merchant-adventurers of Antwerp, where he became the friend of Tyndale, the translator of the Bible, whose work was finally carried out by him after Tyndale's death.

"There is no doubt that the first complete English Bible came from Antwerp under his superintendence and auspices. It bore then, and still bears, the name of Matthews' Bible. Of Matthews, however, no

trace has ever been discovered. He is altogether a myth, and there is every reason for believing that the untraceable Matthews was John Rogers. If so, Rogers was not only the proto-martyr of the English Church, but, with due respect for Tyndale, the proto-martyr of the English Bible, which first came whole and complete from his hands. The fact rests on what appears to be the irrefragable testimony of his enemies. On his trial Rogers was arraigned as John Rogers alias Matthews."-Dean Milman.

It is the bell of St. Sepulchre's which is tolled when prisoners in Newgate are executed, and by an old custom a nosegay was presented at this church to every prisoner who was on his way to Tyburn. The church clock still regulates the hour of executions, and the church bellman used to go under the walls of Newgate on the night before an execution and ring his bell and recite

"All you that in the condemned hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;
Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near,
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not to eternall flames be sent,
And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls.
Past twelve o'clock!"

CHAPTER V.

SMITHFIELD, CLERKENWELL, AND CANONBURY.

BY

Y St. Sepulchre's Church is the entrance of Giltspur Street, which was formerly a continuation of Knightrider Street, and is named from the gilded spurs of the knights who rode that way to the tournaments. Near the end of Giltspur Street on the left is the entrance of Cock Lane, of which we shall hear more when we reach Canonbury, and hard by is Pie Corner, where the Great Fire ended, which began in Pudding Lane. It is probably some association with these names which caused the inscription (now obliterated) beneath the commemorative figure of a very fat boy (once painted in colours), still existing against the wall of a public-house near the corner of Cock Lane:"This boy is in memory put up of the late Fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666." Pie Corner is frequently mentioned in the Plays of Ben Jonson, Massinger, and Shadwell. Hard by is Hosier Street, which was the especial centre for the hosiers in the fourteenth century.

Giltspur Street leads into Smithfield or Smoothfield, around which many of London's most sacred memories are folded. But as its market is the first object which strikes

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