ST. MICHAEL'S,

CORNHILL.

THIS church is one of the seven in the city of London which are dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the patron Saint of France; and, as its distinguishing name implies, formerly stood in Cornhill. In the reign of Edward VI. however, it was excluded from the street so called, by the erection of four houses; so that it must now be described as standing on the east side of St. Michael's Alley. The site of the present fabric was occupied by a church at a very early period,-probably during the Saxon dynasty, but no record of it remains. The earliest statement in regard to a church here, that we can find, shews that previous to 1133, the patronage was vested in Alnothus a priest, who transferred it to the Abbot and Convent of Evesham. In that year it was granted by them, together with certain lands, to Sparling, a priest, on condition that he paid a rent of one mark per annum to the Abbot, and provided him lodging, salt, water, and firing, when he was in London.1 Afterwards it reverted to the convent of Evesham, and in the year 1503, was conveyed

1 Stow's "Survey of London." Strype's edit. Book II. p. 143. A M.S. in the Cottonian Library says, "In Londiniis Ecclesia S. Mich. de Cornhill pertinet ad Ecclesiam de Evesham cum tribus domibus, et reddit annuatim Ecclesiæ duas marcas, et semel in anno Ignem, Salem et Literiam." Ves. B. 24. f. 9. Newcourt's " Repertorium," Vol. I. p. 476.

by them to the Drapers' Company, the latter, settling on the Abbot, in consequence, an annuity of £5. 6s. 8d., "besides an ancient pension of six shillings and eightpence annually paid them out of the said church; " and in the Drapers' Company the right of presentation is still vested. William Rus, or Rous, sheriff of London in 1429, appears to have been a great benefactor to the church, and was buried there in the chapel of St. Mary. He left, besides lands and tenements for other purposes, £100. to form an altar, (" Unum Dorsum Altaris,”) in the chancel, and £40. towards the new tower, or steeple, which was commenced in the year 1421. In this year it appears that the old tower was burned down: for in the present robingroom there is an engraving from a curious pen and ink drawing, which purports to be a representation of the tower "before the fire of 1421." According to this engraving it was square; had a large window over the west door; and was surmounted by turrets at the angles, and a spire.

On the south side of the church there was originally a cloister; and in the church yard was a pulpit cross similar to that which formerly stood in St. Paul's church yard: 2 this was built by Sir John Rudston, Lord Mayor of London, who died in 1531, and was buried under the cross.

In the church rested the remains of Robert Fabian, Alderman of London, well known by his Chronicles of England and France which he termed "The Concordance of Histories." He was sheriff in 1493, and died in 1511. And in the church-yard Thomas Stow, grandfather of the antiquary John Stow, was buried in the year 1526.3

Maitland's "History of London." p. 464.

2 See" London Churches," History of St. Paul's. p 9.

3 Strype has printed his will " Survey," B. II. p. 145, and from this (a singular example of the superstition of the age in which he lived;) it appears that there were, at the least, seven altars in the church under consideration.

1

By the great fire of 1666, the old church, with the exception of the tower, which contained a celebrated set of ten bells, was destroyed; and the present building was commenced by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672. The tower itself was much weakened, and fifty years afterwards, that also was taken down and rebuilt by the same architect, the last stone being laid Aug. 29, 1721. The body of the church is in the Italian style of architecture. It is divided into nave and ailes by Doric columns and arches, which support a plain groined ceiling, but presents no features requiring notice. There is an organ at the west end, and a handsome altar-piece opposite to it, adorned by two paintings of Moses and Aaron. The walls of the church do not form right angles one with another; from which it may be inferred, that Wren availed himself of the old foundations.2

The bold and lofty tower, as may be seen in the annexed engraving, is of a totally different character, namely, that which distinguished the last period of pointed architecture in England, known as the florid, or perpendicular style;

1 Malcolm's "Londinium Redivivum." A tablet within the church says, however, that the tower was rebuilt 1723. Stow relates the following circumstance in connection with the old tower. 66 Upon St. James' night certain men in the loft next under the bells, ringing of a peal, a tempest of lightning and thunder did arise, and an ugly shapen sight appeared to them coming in at the south window and lighted on the north. For fear whereof they all fell down, and lay as dead for the time, letting the bells ring and cease of their own accord. When the ringers came to themselves, they found certain stones of the north window to be raised and scrat, as if they had been so much butter printed with a Lyon's claw: the same stones were fastened there and so remain till this day. I have seen them oft, and have put a feather, or small stick, into the holes where the claws had entered three or four inches deep." The electric fluid appears to have been mistaken for something less natural.

2 The length of the church is 87 feet; the breadth 60 feet, and the height 30 feet.

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and one cannot well understand the motives which induced Wren to build the church entirely different in style to the tower which was standing, or why, having built the church, he did not afterwards, when called on to erect the tower, design that in conformity with it.

The tower is an imitation of the splendid Chapel Tower" at Magdalen College, Oxford, (which was built at the end of the fifteenth century,1) and, soaring as it does to the height of 130 feet, forms one of the most prominent ornaments of the city when viewed at a distance. Ralph when speaking of this tower says, "that though (!) in the Gothic style of architecture, it is undoubtedly a verv magnificent pile of building, and deserves very justly to be esteemed the first thing of that sort in London," 2 and this opinion has been echoed by many after writers. We cannot however entirely agree with this; for the same inattention to the details-the same mixture of Italian mouldings, that we have elsewhere spoken of, is observable here, (although perhaps, not so strikingly as in some other examples ;) and tends materially to lessen the beauty of the tower, when closely viewed. This fault is more apparent in the lower part, where, as an example, the windows are circular-headed, than in the upper portion of it, which is beautiful in outline. The church is surrounded by houses, so that it is almost impossible to obtain a general view of it; but the discrepancy which exists between the two portions of the building, as we have mentioned, renders this circumstance the less to be regretted.

1 The first stone was laid on the 9th of August 1492; but it was not finished until 1505. The height of this tower is 145 feet. See Le Keux's "Memorials of Oxford."

2 "Critical Review of Public Buildings in and about London." Edition 1783.