on each side, each surmounted by an angular pediment resting on trusses. A cornice surrounds the building at the distance of a few feet below the parapet.

On the west front are three square-headed and three circular windows, together with the principal entrance, which opens into the basement story of the steeple. The doorcase is of the Ionic order: it consists of a segment pediment and an entablature supported by a half-column on each side; a seraph and the words Domus Dei are sculptured on the keystone. Immediately within the entrance is a lofty semicircular arch; the soffite is ornamented with a double row of roses in enriched panels, and at the sides are small niches; a corresponding arch leads into the vestibule, and these, together with the intervening dome which springs from the great piers that support the steeple, form a well-proportioned and handsome porch, into which the light has been recently admitted from the tower by means of a glazed horizontal opening in the centre of the dome. The vestibule is separated from the choir by a glazed screen; at the sides, westward, are staircases to the galleries, and to the north and south are rich doorways of the composite order, forming the inner entrances from the burial-grounds.

The architectural arrangements and decorations of the interior of this edifice produce an extremely grand and powerful effect, and this will be heightened into magnificence whenever the superb picture from Rubens' "Descent from the Cross" shall be raised to its destined situation in the east window. Five noble arches on each side, springing from Doric columns, coupled and placed transversely, separate the nave from the aisles; these support a lofty attic, which is lit by elliptical windows, and has an arched ceiling. The columns in every duplication rise from one plinth and terminate in one impost. During the late repairs they were painted in imitation of porphyry, and the ornamental work of the arches was pleasingly varied by imitations of veined marbles. The keystones are sculptured with cherubim, and the soffites are enriched by an arrangement of roses within panels in bold relief; and in place of a plain arras, the archivaults have been altered to correspond. The pilasters supporting the galleries are painted to imitate Sienna marble. A large expanded flower, stuccoed, ornaments the middle of the ceiling, which is crossed by six arched ribs, terminating in shield-like brackets, with scroll borderings, and being enriched in their soffites by panelled roses. The aisles are plainly groined; the impost cornices from which the arches spring are supported by cherubs.

An altar-piece, designed by Mr. Dykes, the architect, occupies the whole of the recess of the east end, and consists principally of two stories of the Ionic order, crowned by an entablature and a circular pediment, the respective pilasters and compartments of which are very tastefully decorated in imitation of verd-antique porphyry,

Sienna and veined marbles, interspersed with and relieved by rich and massive gildings; large festoons, having the effect of solid gold, are introduced over the panels of the upper story. In the recessed division beneath the window, and which includes an enriched entablature, supported by two half and three quarter columns of the Corinthian order, gilt, are the tables of the Law, and on the panels on each side the Lord's Prayer and the Belief. The centre panel is embellished by a very effective, yet chastely coloured, picture by Willement of the descending dove, with the initials I.H.S. in resplendent stars. The soffite of the arch above the altar, and the large panelled roses which diversify it, correspond in decorative sumptuousness with the other parts. In the lower compartments of each of the side returns is a spacious niche painted in imitation of Sienna marble.

The area is well pewed, and on the north, south, and west sides are spacious galleries of wainscot. The pews are lined with a watered morine of a rich puce colour. In the west gallery is a large and excellent organ by Harris, resplendent with gilding and ornamented with mitres, a crown, statues of Fame, etc. In front of this gallery is a clock. Some bold carving and oaken wreaths and foliage embellish the pulpit, which is executed in a good style, and stands near the eastern extremity of the nave. At the west end on the south side is the font, which was preserved from the ruins of the old church, and consists of a basin of white marble on an ornamented shaft of black marble. The following inscription and arms are on it: "Deo et Ecclesiæ ex dono Henrici Hothersall, anno 1615. Azure, a lion rampant or, a crescent for difference, Hothersall; impaling gules, a chevron ermine, between three buckles or."

[1735, p. 680.]

A motion was made in the Court of Common Pleas, Westminster, upon a petition signed by 4,000 prisoners of the Fleet, that their bounds might be extended as far as St. Bride's Church for a place of worship. The consideration thereof was referred to a protho-notary, to report his opinion next term.

ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE.

[1795, Part II., pp. 749-750.]

Enclosed are several entries from the parish register of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. E. H.

Christenings.

"1591. Robart, sonne of Sir John Wingfield, knight; and the Countess of Kent, the Earle of Essex, and the Earle of Ormond, godfathers, and the Lady Fitzwaters, godmother, bapt. 19 Julie."

"1592. Henry, sonne of Sir Horatio Paulavicino, knight; the Countisse of Shrosburie (the younge deputie) for the queen's majestie

being godmother, the lord treasurer and the Earle of Shrosbury godfathers, bapt. Aprill 25."

Burials.

"1627. Lady Eliz. Gilford, wife to Sir Henry Gilford, who dyed the 6th day of this month at hir house in St. Mary Spittle, beinge the da. of... Earle of Woster, and was buryed at Benonden in the county of Kent, and caryed away by night. She was of age 8 Aug. Kentt."

"1628. Will'm, Earle of Devonsheir, his bowels bur. at night in the ch. June 21. The body of this nobleman was buryed at All Saints church by the Peak of Derby."

"1650. Sir Paule Pindar, died the 22d of Auguste, 1650, about 11 or 12 o'clock att night, and was buried the third of Sept. at 7 o'clock att night. A worthie benefactor to the poore."

The following entries relate to the family of Edward Alleyn, the munificent founder of Dulwich College, the first of which contains the account of his baptism:

Baptisms.

"1566. Edward Allen, Henry Wood, and Olive Clerk, the 2de Sept."

"1600. George, the sonne of George Alleigne, bapt. the 25 daye of Maye."

"1606. Willyam, sonne of Walter Alleigne, 4 of Maye."

Burials.

"1570. Edward Allein, poete to the queene, bur. the 13 Sept." 1603. Jane Alleigne, infant, bur. the 1 of June."

Willyam Alleigne, buried the 15 of June."

"Moses Alleigne, chrisomer, was buried the 9 day of June."

In addition to what Mr. Newcourt has said concerning the rectors of this parish, I find by the register that Mr. William Hutchinson, rector here 1584-1590, had one son, William, baptized February 19, 1586.

Mr. Arthur Bright, rector, 1590-1600, had a son named Francis, who was baptized on May 30, 1591.

Of Mr. Stephen Gosson, presented to this rectory 1600, I find this entry :

"Feb., 1623, buried Mr. Stephen Gosson, rector of this p'rish for 20 odd yeares past, who departed this mortal life about five o'clock on friday in the afternoone, beinge the 13th of this moneth, and buried in the night in the 17th of february."

I have seen a book, entitled " Playe, confuted in five several actions,

by Stephen Gosson, 1580," but whether the same with our Stephen Gosson I know not.

In 1624 I find :

"Richard Worral Clarke, of Low Layton, in Essex, brother to the worshipfull Dr. Worral, Rector of this p'rish Churche, and Mris. Abigail Austen, the daughter of Mr. Richard Austen, of the same p'rish, were married on the 16th day of December by lycense from Sir Henry Martin, Kt., Chancellor."

On July 5, 1665, "William, Son of John Lake, D.D., Rector of this Parish, and Judith his wife," who was himself buried here on September 3, 1689, having resigned the rectory in 1670.

Robert Clarke, rector 1677-1678, was buried, together with his wife, on August 22, 1678, in the same grave; in illustration of which I find in the British Museum "Bibl. Sloan.," 1106, mention made of a book entitled:

"Bishopsgate's Lamentation for the loss of their late Rector, Robert Clarke, who died Monday, the 19th of August (of a fever), 1678; was buried, together with his deceased consort, who departed the 22d of the same month."

Dr. Zaccheus Isham, rector here from 1688-1701, had two sons and one daughter buried at this church, viz.: (1) Thomas, buried 1692. (2) Elizabeth, an infant, March 28, 1692-93, in the margin of the entry of which is in Dr. Isham's own hand :

"Fratrem soror sequitur, quasi cursus æmula; nos utrumque sequamur ad cœlos."

(3) Francis, buried July, 1698, and in the margin thus: "Cantuariæ infans suavissimus in cœlum migravit, Jun. 2, 1699. Z. Ishram, rector," who was succeeded by Roger Altham, D.D., 1701, whose father, Michæl Altham, M.A., and Rector of Latton, in Essex, and Eastwick, in Herts, was buried at this church March 30, 1704-1705. E. H.

ST. DUNSTAN'S IN THE WEST.

[1832, Part II., pp. 297-302.]

We regard with painful feelings the removal of an object to which we have been familiarized from our earliest years; the associations connected with it, and the reminiscences to which it often gives rise, create an interest in its existence which we cannot see destroyed without regret. An object of this kind—at least, to all who, like ourselves, have found their natal place within the sound of Bow Bellwas the old church of St. Dunstan, with its singular clock and colossal hour-strikers or "quarter-jacks," as less imposing effigies of this description are usually styled-pigmies in comparison with the ex-giants of St. Dunstan. The date of these statues is more recent than some other striking apparatus of the same description, and we

must therefore allow to the novelist the license of the poet, in giving to them an existence at a period above half a century earlier than their construction; for we find Sir Walter Scott first introducing Richie Moniplies into Fleet Street when "the twa iron carles yonder, at the kirk beside the port, were just banging out sax o' the clock."

The fact seems to be that the clock and figures were only set up in the year 1671, by Mr. Thomas Harrys, then living at the end of Water Lane, Fleet Street,* and there is no evidence that any effigies of the same description were in existence at an earlier period.

Our present object is to describe the new church, which forms the subject of our engraving (Plate I.). We shall not, therefore, go into a description of the previous structure further than to notice it briefly, with the improvements which have occasioned its destruction. It was one of the few churches which escaped the Fire of London, the conflagration having ended three houses to the eastward. The house recently occupied by Mr. Cobbett (No. 183, Fleet Street) was that at which the fire was arrested. At the baker's shop next door some of the remains of the burned rafters of the house at which the Fire of 1666 stopped were discovered in the old walls, which are now standing, and were exposed to view at Mr. Cobbett's late house, on some repairs being made. In the extensive vaults at the back of Mr. Cobbett's house various materials have been discovered, leading to the belief that an extensive private still had been worked many years ago.

An Act of Parliament was obtained in June, 1820,† for the purpose of taking down the old church and building a new one, and for raising the necessary supplies. Trustees were appointed for carrying the Act into execution, consisting of the Rector for the time being, several of the inhabitants, and "the principal and two senior resident rules of the ancient and honourable Society of Clifford's Inn." The trustees were empowered, with the consent of the diocesan, to take down the old church and erect a new one capable of seating 800 persons, with other parochial buildings; to remove the present burial-ground and procure a new one of larger dimensions; to cause proper and convenient streets, avenues, and approaches to be made to the new church and burial-ground, and to alter, widen, and improve the present streets. The new church was to contain 200 free sittings for the use of the poor, and the trustees were empowered to let the other seats. They were also authorized to borrow on the credit of the rates £40,000 for the purposes of the Act. By Section 59 of the Act, a very proper provision is made—that all the monuments, gravestones, and monu* Denham's "Historical Account of the Church," p. 8. † 10 Geo. IV., c. xcvi. (local).