Cheapside, for which they were to pay annually to the Chamber of London, the sum of thirty shillings and four-pence; but this ground-rent proving too high, it was reduced to thirteen shillings and four-pence. On the site of this building, which was called THE LONG SHOP, four shops were afterwards erected, with rooms over them.

In the fifteenth century, Thomas Wood, one of the Sheriffs, was a principal benefactor, the roof being supported by images of Woodmen. Sir John Shaw, Mayor in 1501, appointed by will that the church and steeple should be rebuilt out of his estate, with a flat roof. An eminent rector of this church was Thomas Goodryche, LL. D. Bishop of Ely, and Lord Chancellor during the reign of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. He was a great friend to the Reformation.

WEST CHEAP CONDUIT, which stood between Bucklersbury and the Poultry, brought the first supply of sweet water, which was conveyed from Paddington by means of leaden pipes; it was erected by Henry Walleis, between 1281 to 1284, the watercourse to James's Head being five hundred and ten rods; from thence to the Mews Gate, one hundred and two rods, and to the Cross in Westcheap four hundred and eighty-four rods. The building was castellated with stone, and the cistern of lead. In 1479 it was rebuilt by Thomas Ilam, one of the Sheriffs; but as the supply of the Thames and the New River water had rendered this conduit unnecessary, the magistracy, after the great fire, laid the site into the street; this had been before a kind of nuisance.

THE STANDARD IN CHEAPSIDE, it should have been observed, nearly opposite Honey Lane, was a place of execution. From the Standard, in 1439, Eleanor Cobham, wife to Humphrey, the Good Duke of Gloucester, being charged with sorcery, and intending the death of Henry VI. walked barefoot with a taper in her hand to St. Paul's.

Here, too, Queen Anne Bullen, in her passage to her coronation, was received by pageants representing Pallas, Juno, and Venus, and was presented with a golden ball, divided into three

parts,

1

parts, signifying Wisdom, Riches, and Felicity. "But, alas!" says Mr. Pennant, "beneath them lurked speedy disgrace, imprisonment, the block, and the axe."

At the north-east corner of Bread Street a vault being dug, a perfect pavement was found fifteen feet from the surface. Burton, in his account of London during the reign of Charles II. observed," that within fourscore years and less, Cheapside had been raised several feet higher; and that from the late laying of the foundation of St. Paul's Church after the fire, it appeared, by several eminent marks, that it was twenty-eight feet higher than it was when St. Paul's was first built."

CHEAPSIDE, and particularly Bow CHURCH, have afforded events highly remarkable in the course of history. This edifice is supposed to have been first erected in the reign of William the Conqueror, and named New Mary Church, to distinguish it from Aldermary in its vicinity. Great part of the steeple fell down in the year 1271, and killed several persons. In 1469, the Common Council ordered that Bow Bell should be rung every night at nine. It was nearly rebuilt in 1512, and finished, except the lanthorns and bows, built of stone at Caen in Normandy, and delivered at Custom House Key at 4s. 8d. the ton. The lauthorns were intended to have been glazed, and to have lights put in them every night. In 1620 the church was new pewed and beautified; but it was nearly destroyed by the flames in 1666, when the steeple fell, with a most melodious ring of twelve bells. It was rebuilt in 1673, and the dial put up in 1681, and has since that period been several times repaired and beautified. In digging the foundation for the new ground, as the present edifice was brought about forty feet forwarder than the old one, to range with the street, Sir Christopher Wren, to his great surprise, sunk about eighteen feet through made ground, under which he found a Roman causeway, four feet thick, of rough stone, close, and well rammed with Roman brick and rubbish at the bottom. On this causeway Sir Christopher laid the foundation of this weighty and lofty tower.

The

The principal ornament of Bow Church is its steeple, erected near the north-west angle, and made contiguous by a lobby between the church and the steeple, the latter is all of Portland stone, and consists of a tower and spire. The tower is square; on the north side is a door and beautiful door-case, the piers and arch are of the Tuscan order, adorned with two columns and entablement of the Doric, enriched with cherubim. Above the cornice is an elliptical aperture; on the key-piece a cherub; whence, by way of compartment, extend two festoons of large fruit, sustained by two angels in a sitting posture, their feet resting on the cornice, and the whole adorned with rustic. Above another door-case of the same form, on the opposite side, is a similar aperture and balcony; and, a little higher, a medallion cornice above that are four belfry windows, each adorned with four pilasters and entablement of the Ionic: on the cornice an acroteria; at each angle four cartouches erected tapering; and, on the meeting of the upper ends a spacious vase, which termipates the tower.

The spire begins with a circular mure; a little higher, on the top of the vases, is a range of Corinthian columns; with entablature and acroteria of the Corinthian order. This balcony is adorned with bows, or arches, all of which may be passed under in walking round this part. The spire a little higher is adorned with pedestals, their columns and entablature of the Composite order; so that here are the five orders, placed exactly in the manner in which they are commonly expressed. Several cartouches stand on the corner of this last order, supporting a pyramidal body of considerable altitude; and, at the vertex, a spacious ball; above, as a vane, is the figure of a dragon, of polished brass, ten feet long, with the wings partially expanded; but though of considerable bulk, it is turned by the least wind.

A writer of considerable critical knowledge in architectural beauty, observes, that "the steeple of Bow is another masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren's, in a peculiar kind of building, which has no fixed rule to direct it, nor is it to be reduced to

any