The steeple was erected in 1421, and a ring of five bells placed in the bellfry; to this a sixth was added by the gift of several benefactors, to be rung out at eight o'clock, every evening. These were afterwards encreased to ten, forming one of the most musical peals in England.

Beside those whom we have already mentioned as having been buried in the old church, there is another of too much consequence to be omitted, Robert Fabian, alderman and sheriff, as well as the most eminent historian of his time *.

The great fire, however, having levelled that, as well as other buildings; the ingenuity of Sir Christopher Wren, rebuilt the present elegant fabric.

It should be mentioned, that towards the rebuilding of the present church in 1672, considerable benefactions were received, among these the following are recorded: Sir John

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ROBERT FABIAN, author of the Chronicle of England and France, or, as he himself calls it, "The Concordaunce of Stories," was born in London, in the fifteenth century, and being brought up to trade, became so considerable a merchant, that he was chosen an alderinan, and, in 1493, one of the sheriffs. He was a man of learning for the times in which he lived; was skilled in English, Latin, and French poetry; but applied himself chiefly to history. Stow, in his "Survey of London," has preserved the following verses, which were formerly upon Fabian's monument :

"Like as the day his course doth consume,
And the new morrow springeth again as fast;
So man and woman, by Nature's custome,
This life to passe, at last in earth are cast,
In joy and sorrow, which here their time de waste.
Never in one state, but in course transitory,

So full of change, is of this world the glory."

His Chronicle was first printed at London, in 1516; and afterwards in 1553, and is divided into two volumes folio; the first of which begins with Brute, and ends at the death of Henry II. The second, which is the most valuable, begins with Richard I. and ends at the twentieth of Henry VII. in 1504. Stow calls the work, "a painful labour, to the great honour of the city, and of the whole realm." Fa bian is very circumstantial respecting the affairs of London; and notices several things relating to the government of that city, which are not ta be met with elsewhere. We are told, that cardinal Wolsey caused as many copies of this book to he could obtain to be burnt, because the author had made too clear a discovery of the large revenues of the clergy.

t

Langham,

Langham, bart. 500l. Sir John Mounson, 201. Sir John Cutler, 20/. Sir Andrew Riccard, 1007. James Clitherow, 50%. and Mary Scottow, 201.

The walls were mostly stone, with a camerated roof, the groyns and imposts are covered with lead, and supported by columns of the Tuscan order: the floor, several steps above the street, is paved with stone, and the chancel with marble. The building is divided into three aisles, on the south side of which are six light windows. The north side is blank. The arches of the church are enriched on the key stones with shields. The pews and pulpit are of oak, and the altar-piece, with two columns, entablature, and pediment of the Corinthian order, are highly ornamented. To correspond, at the west end is an elegant door case and gallery, in which is a good organ. The body is seventy feet long and sixty broad.

The tombs of greatest note within the church, are those erected to the early branches of the noble family of Cowper.

But the peculiarity of this church is its stately tower, one hundred and thirty feet high, containing twelve bells. The lower part of the tower occupies the centre, in St. Michael's Alley, and on each side there is a regular extent of building. The principal door opens in the lower stage of the fabric, which rises with angulated corners from the ground, forming a kind of base, terminated at the height of the body of the church. The second stage, which is plain and lofty, has two tall windows, one over the other, properly shaped for the style of the building, this is terminated by a Saracenic cornice. The third stage is in the form of the two others, except that they are plain, and this is very much ornamented; the angular corners are fluted, and terminated by cherubims heads under a cornice: the plain face between, has four windows in two series. Above the cornice, over the uppermost of these windows, runs a battlement; on the plain faces of the tower, and from the corners are carried up four beautiful fluted turrets, cased a part of their height with Doric turrets; these terminate in pinnacle heads, from within each of which, rises a short spire, ornamented, with crotchets, crowned with fanes.

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Mr.

Mr. Ralph observes," that this Gothic tower is very magnificent, and justly deserves to be esteemed the finest thing of that sort in London *.”

In the church-yard were buried the grandfather, and father, (both named Thomas,) of John Stow, the hiftorian. The will of Thomas, the elder, proves that the hiftorian of London, was of respectable ancestry. It runs thus; and is a very curious document, descriptive of the superstitious manners of those times :

"In the name of God, Amen. In the year of our Lord God MCCCCCXXVI, the last day of December, I Thomas Stow, citizen and tallow chandler, of London, in good and hole mynde, thanckes be to our Lord Jhu, make this my pre-. sent testament. Fyrst, I bequayth my soul to Jhu Christ, and to our blessed lady Seynt Mary, the Virgin, &c. My body to be buryed in the litell grene church-yard, of the parysshe church of Seynt Myghel, in Cornehyll, betwene the crosse and the church wall, nigh the wall as may be, by my father and mother, systers and brothers, and also my own childerne.

"Also, I bequeith to the hye aulter of the foreseid church, for my ty this forgeten, 12d. Item, to Jhus brotherhedde 12d. I give to our lady's and seint brotherhedde, 12d. I give to Seynt Cristofer and Seynt George, 12d. Alsoe, I give to the vii. aultars, in the church aforeseyd, in the worship of the vii. sacraments every yere, during iii. yeres, 20d. Item, vsh. to have on every aultar a wacchyng candell, burning from vi. of the clocke, tyll it be past vii. in worship of vii. sacraments. And this candell shall begynne to burne, and to be set upon the aultar, upon Allhalowen Day, tyll it be Candlemas Day following; and it shall bee wacchyng candell of viii. în the pound. Also, I gyve to the brotherhedde of Clarcks, to dryncke, 20d: also, I give to them that shall bayre me to church, every man 4d.: also, I gyve to a pore man or woman, every Sunday in one yere, 1d. to say v. pr. nosters and Aves, and a crede, for my soule. Also, I gyve to the reparations of Polls (St. Paul's Cathedral) 8d.: also, I will have vi. nue torches, and

*Critical Review of Public Buildings.

ii. torches of Seynt Myghel, and ii. of Seynt Anne, and ii. of Seynt Christofer, and ii. of Jhus, (Jesus,) of the best torchys.

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"Also, I bequeith Thomas Stow, my son, xxl. in stuff of howshold, as here followeth, that is to say, my grete melting panne, withal the instruments that belongèth thereto. Also, I bequeith my son Thomas, vil. xiiis. iiiid. in plate, as hereafter followith. Item, a nut of sylver and gylt, liiiish. iiiid. Item, a pounsed pece, weiing vi. ounces and more, xlsh. Item, a mass of a pynt, xxvish. viiid. Item, a litel maser, xiiish. iiiid. Item, of this my present testament, I make Elizabeth, my wife, mine executrix, and Thomas Stowe, my son, my overseer, and Mr. Trendal, as a solicitor, with my son Thomas; and he to have for his labour, xsh."This will is extracted from the office of the registrar to the bishop of London, Tunstal, fol. lxxxix. b. and was proved on the 4th of April, 1527,

ST. PETER, CORNHILL

Whatever attention may be paid to the evidently,

fabulous account of this church as the seat of the ar. chiepiscopal see of London, it undoubtedly was a structure of great antiquity; as appears from the circumstance, that VOL. II. No. 33.

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in the reign of Henry III. an affray among some priests, occasioned the murder of Amice, deacon of the church of St. Peter de Cornhull.

A chantry was founded here, besides other benefactions, by William de Kyngston, citizen and fishmonger, 1275.

Stow, however, relates, that the building, in his time, was of the architecture of Edward IV. but that it had lately been repaired, nay almost rebuilt, except the steeple, which was very antient : Newcourt says, at the charge of 1,4007.

Here was one of the principal gramınar schools erected, in 1425, and Leland mentions a library which was originally constructed of stone; when that decayed, it was repaired by brick-work, agreeably to the will of Sir John Crosby, alderman; but in Stow's time, the books were all dispersed, and a grammar school re-established...

In the parish, were no less than seventeen tenements belonging to chantries, which in the third of Edward VI. were all dissolved, and the premises sold.

The advowson of the rectory was formerly in the disposal of the lords of Leadenhall manor, but having come into the possession of the corporation of London, by gift, they have ever since presented.

The present edifice is substantial, plain, and neat; the body being eighty feet long, and forty-seven broad; it is forty feet high to the roof, and the height of the steeple is one hundred and forty feet. The body is enlightened by a single series of windows, except the east end, where the church forms a sort of front to Gracechurch Street. The tower is plain, having a small window in each stage, and the dome, which supports the spire, is of the lanthorn kind; the spire is terminated by a fane in the form of a key.

The interior ornaments most distinguishable, are a handsome carved screen, which divides the chancel from the body of the church, the altar-piece which has a stately appearance, and a neat gallery at the west end, in which is a fine organ *.

* Sir Benjamin Thorowgood, knight and alderman, in 1682, built three shops at the west end of the church-yard, and settled them upon the parish for maintenance of the organ, and the organist to play upon it in the time of Divine Service, on Sundays and holidays, for ever.Newcourt's Repertorium.

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