CHURCH MEDALS. No. II ERS CHURCH BIRMINGHAM crosse,) or dead ones stolne out of their graves, the | such as are absent, and have no care to be assoygned, which they are to boyle to a jelly; and then drinking are amerced to this penalty, so to be beaten on the one part, and besmearing themselves with another, palms of their feete, to be whipt with iron rods, to be they forthwith feel themselves imprest and endowed pincht and suckt by their familiars, till their heart with the faculties of this mysticall art. Further, the blood come, till they repent them of their sloath, and witch (for his or her part) vowes, (either by word of promise more attendance and diligence for the future. mouth, or peradventure by writing, and that in their own blood,) to give both body and soule to the Devill. To deny and defie God the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghost; but especially the blessed Virgin, convitiating her with one infamous nickname or other. To abhor the Word and Sacraments, but especially to spit at the saying of masse. To spurne at the crosse, and tread saints' images under feet; and, as much as possibly they may, to profane all saints reliques, holy water, consecrated salt, waxe, &c. To bee sure to fast on Sundayes, and eate flesh on Fridays; not to confesse their sinnes however they do, especially to a priest. To separate from the Catholike church, and despise his vicar's supremacy. To attend the Devill's nocturnall conventicles, sabbaths, sacrifices: take him for their God, worship, invoke, and obey him. To devote their children to him, and to labour all they may to bring others into the same confederacy. Then the Devill, for his part, promises to be always present with them, to serve them at their beck. That they shall have their wills upon any body, that they shall have what riches, honours, pleasures, they can imagine. And if any be so wary as to thinke of their future being, he tells them they shall be principalities ruling in the aire; or shall bee turned into imps at worst. Then hee preaches to them to be mindfull of their covenant, and not to faile to revenge themselves upon their enemies. Then he commends to them (for these purposes) an impe, or familiar, in the shape of a dogge, cat, mouse, rat, weazle, &c. After this they shake hands, embrace in armes, dance, feast, and banquet, according as the Devill hath provided in imitation of the supper. Nay, oft times he marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or their familiar, or to one another, and that by the Book of Common Prayer. After this they part, till the next great conventicle or sabbath of theirs, which is to meet thrice in a year, conveyed as swift as the winds from remotest places of the earth, where the most notorious of them meet to reintegrate their covenant, and give account of their improvement; where they that have done the most execrable mischiefe, and can brag of it, make most merry with the Devill, and they that have been indiligent, and have done but petty services in comparison, are jeered and derided by the Devill and all the rest of the company. And THE Foundation was begun the 11th day of May, 1825. The first stone was laid the 26th day of July, 1825, by the Rev. Charles Curtis; Rev. Laurence Gardner, D. D.; and James Taylor, Esq. the local Commissioners for building Churches in this district. The Church was consecrated the 10th day of August, 1827, by the Honbe & Right Rev. Henry Ryder, D. D., Lord Bishop of the Diocese. The total cost of erecting the Church amounted to £13,087. 12s. 3d. being £882. 10s. 8d. less than the approved Estimate; which sum, together with £5,718., the cost of site, was defrayed by his Majesty's Commissioners for Building new Churches, out of the Parliamentary grant of £1,000,000. The Church contains 1903 Sittings, of which 1381 are appropriated to the accommodation of the Poor.Rev. L. Gardner, D. D. Rector of the parish. Rev. A. J. Clarke, A. M., Minister. J W. Whateley and John Cope, Esqs. Churchwardens. - Rickman and Hutchinson, Architects. CROSBY HALL, BISHOPSGATE STREET. THE improved state of public feeling upon matters of antiquarian interest has, of late, been the source of various laudable and successful attempts to restore the fading beauties of those architectural subjects which have been transmitted to us from our forefathers. Two hundred years ago, if any one of the old edifices of that class, since known by the appellation of "Gothic," had fallen into a state of dilapidation, its remains would either have been summarily cleared away, or forthwith subjected to the patchwork operations of the architects of the day, with whom it should really seem to have been a not-uncommon maxim, that reparation was never so judiciously effected as when its productions bore no possible resemblance to the style of the original. Such a reparation was that which extended over a great part of the old St. Paul's Cathedral, and which was consummated by that masterpiece of absurdity the Corinthian portico of Inigo Jones. The expediency, in such cases, of the adoption of a mode somewhat more conformable to that of the antique was felt by Sir Christopher Wren when erecting the towers, &c. of Westminster Abbey; but, even in this instance, while the intention was better, the result was almost as incongruous. In our own times, however, we have seen that a real feeling for and application to the subject will produce works of a far higher order than these. Thus the antiquary may now view the front of such a building at Westminster Hall, or such an exterior as that of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, with the consciousness that in restorations of this class he has presented to him the forms wrought by the hand of the ancient workman. It is this feeling of confidence in modern architectural skill which later works have tended to produce, united with the more cultivated state of public taste, that has excited such zealous efforts for the preservation of the well-known and interesting adjunct to St. Saviour's Church; and it would have been paradoxical indeed if the same sentiments had not operated also in favour of that more admirable relic (for such it is) of whose external aspect we have inserted a representation.* The building now known by the name of CROSBY HALL, (and which lies back to the east of about the middle of Bishopsgate-street within,) formed part of an extensive mansion erected about the year 1465 by Sir John Crosbie, a citizen of London, and member of the Grocer's Company, who had amassed great wealth in the prosecution of the wool-trade. He appears to have been a man of considerable influence, having been invested with some important trusts, and standing in esteem for beneficence and liberality. Sir John lies buried in the adjacent church of St. Helen, where a neat old altar-tomb, with recumbent figures of himself and his wife, perpetuates his memory. Some time after his decease the edifice under consideration was purchased by the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III., who made it his place of residence. Shakespeare has given an intimation of this circumstance in a well-known passage which Gloucester is represented to utter in the course of his interview with the Lady Anne, during the funeral procession of the unfortunate Henry VI., wherein the Duke, having already "taken her in her heart's extremest hate," makes the request, "That it may please you leave these sad designs The scene of several other parts of the drama from which these lines are taken is laid in the same locality. It should seem, however, as if the execration which is attached to the memory of the "crookbacked tyrant" had been attended with a correspondent fatality on the place of his abode; for the latter has from that time been progressively "curtailed of its fair proportions," and had its remains much injured by their application to a variety of mean purposes. The great hall indeed, which constitutes the principal part of the present structure, was for a considerable time rescued from the effect of worse usage by its appropriation as a dissenting chapel; but its beauties have subsequently suffered much from the division of its interior into several stories, and from its merciless treatment while occupied as an ordinary warehouse, for which it has been used up to a very recent period. To afford a correct idea of the architectural character of these remains, as distinctly considered from the intermixture of modern barbarism, we may observe that they consist principally of two fine rooms The great hall before mentioned, which extends in a direction from north to south, and a smaller apartment lying north-west of the former, which has usually, unrivalled excellence. Its general form is that of one though perhaps accidentally, received the appellation long vault, whose section or curvature is a flattened of the "Council-chamber." Of these the great hall arch, corresponding in style to that which occurs in forms a parallelogram of about eighty-seven feet in various other parts of the building. This vault is length, twenty-eight in width, and thirty-six in height, then divided by a number of large moulded ribs which deriving an increase of size from a large oriel or bay-spring across it, one occurring at every window-pier, window near to the north-west extremity. Besides and rising on each side from a richly-moulded corbel, this oriel window, the west side, which is the only or bracket. Each of the arches so formed by these exposed front, has also a tier of six other windows, ribs, is then made to contain within its sweep four each of them of lofty proportion, having a depressed smaller arches of a flattened description, but distorted or flat-pointed arch for its head, and being divided to suit the curvature of the former. The three points into two lights by a vertical mullion, whose top, part- at which these smaller arched ribs unite, and which ing in a corresponding curve, forms an arched head under other circumstances would have been springof tracery to each light: all the windows are sur-ings, are finished with beautiful pendants, very similar mounted externally by one continued hood-moulding. to the former corbels. These small arches are then The oriel, which has five sides or faces, comprehends connected, also, in an opposite or longitudinal direction three whole and two half windows, similar in compo- by a number of similar arches, occurring between each sition to the others, except that, as being longer, they set of the former and its neighbour, and terminating are divided by transoms, or cross mullions, into three in the same common pendants; the whole forming heights, each subdivision being finished with a head consequently three parallel lines of arches running of tracery as before. This oriel is externally fortified from end to end of the hall. The spandrels, or triat each angle by a small graduated buttress, having a angular spaces left by the sides of the smaller arches, panel of tracery on its front at every gradation. Our are in all instances filled with neat vertical panels of description of the exterior will be complete by adding tracery. The surface of the ceiling-vault is formed that it is in part, and should be entirely, based upon a into long panels by moulded ribs or styles; and all high continued plinth with bold mouldings; and that the larger mouldings in their continuation and at their it is finished above by the usual hollow cornice or intersections, are profusely adorned with rosettes and string at a little distance from the tops of the win- foliage. Each of the side walls, at the level from which dows, with the characteristic coping-moulding sur- the ceiling rises, is decorated with a beautiful line of mounting it. quatrefoil panels of tracery in wood, with arches beneath them corresponding with those last described. This ceiling is constructed of chesnut, and not less admirably managed as a piece of carpentry, than striking for its splendid richness in perspective. This front exhibits no remains of any original doorway, the present entrance being by an opening of more recent date, at a considerable height, close to the oriel window, and to which access is gained by an unsightly flight of stone steps against the wall. The formation of this aperture has added to the reckless work of mutilation by interfering with and removing the lower half of the window next the oriel. There is, however, in the adjoining avenue of Great St. Helen's, where just a corner of the building makes its appearance, an old doorway, which, though it should seem scarcely suitable for the principal entrance to so large an edifice, is of a bold and good character, having a head in the ordinary style of the day, viz. a plain flattened arch inscribed within square lines, and finished with a label. Above this occurs a small window of the simplest description, being square and divided by two mullions into three vertical compart ments. On entering the great hall, our attention is soon arrested by the beauty of the ceiling, which constitutes a specimen of ancient ornamental carpentry of The oriel window, which is connected with the hall by a lofty archway of the flattened kind, possesses a stone ceiling of much merit, intersected by beautiful lines of ribs, rising from the capitals of tall columns, which grace each angle of the bay; these ribs being also embellished with varied knots of foliage, the armorial bearings of Sir John Crosbie, and other subjects. This hall further contains a large flat-arched chimney-piece, now closed up like a gateway with doors. The whole room has suffered greatly, not only from its modern division into more stories than one, but from the removal of a large portion of the bottom part of its south end and area to form a passage into Crosby-square. The adjoining room before noticed as being called the council-chamber, and which has shared the maltreatment of the former, is particularly remarkable, on account of another fine ceiling of wood of the same To the above account of Crosby Hall, by an architectural friend, we shall subjoin a few particulars from other sources; and first from the description communicated by A. J. Kempe, Esq. F. S. A. to our much respected and venerable contemporary, Mr. Urban; that is if we, a mere Hebdomadal, and scarcely a month old, may be allowed the privilege of so distinguishing ourselves. 66 edifice which adorned the city of London in the fifteenth century; and although it would require some labour to obtain a tolerable idea of its original plan, data exists for such an undertaking. Portions of its groined vaults remain, I believe, under several of the houses in the present Crosby Square; and in a cellar, on the right of the outer approach towards the hall, is a crypt and some architectural remains; these per Crosby Place was the most important domestic haps belonged to an entrance gate. My idea of the building is, that it consisted of two courts, divided by the hall, the outer one the smaller, the inner about thirty yards in depth by twenty in breadth, placed a little to the S. E. of the outer. The entrance to the inner court was, as at present, under that portion of the south end of the hall which was anciently appropriated as a music gallery. The modern buildings in Crosby Square, in all probability, occupy the line of the original apartments and offices which surrounded the quadrangle. Access from the mansion to the priory precinct and church was had by a doorway which still remains. "The founder of this building was a rare exception in the class of persons who generally constructed these costly mansions. Sir John Crosby was no potent feudatory in capite of the crown, but an eminent grocer and wool merchant of the City of London. He accumulated a large fortune by his commercial pursuits in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV. A current tradition, arising perhaps from the passion of the vulgar for the marvellous, was, that he was a foundling and derived his name from being taken up near one of those public crosses, so common for merly in our highways; hence he was called Crossby. Stowe rejects the story as fabulous, and thinks he might be the son of one John Crosby, a servant of Henry IV. to whom he granted the wardship of Joan, the daughter of John Jordaine, a wealthy fishmonger. This John Crosby might have married his ward, and thus established himself as a person of consequence in the city. His son, of whom I am speaking as the founder of Crosby Place, was an alderman of London, and one of the sheriffs for that city in 1470. In 1471, he met Edward IV. on his entry into the city, and was then knighted. In the following year he was a commissioner for treating with the Hanse Towns relative to some differences in which the Duke of Burgundy was concerned. "Having obtained, in 1466, of Alice Ashted, the prioress of the Convent of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, a lease for ninety-nine years of certain lands and tenements adjoining the precinct of her nunnery, at the rent of 17 marks (£11. 6s. 8d.) per annum, Sir John Crosby erected for himself the magnificent mansion now under review. He died in 1475, and was buried in the chapel of the Holy Ghost, near Agnes his [first] wife. Their effigies, beautifully sculptured in alabaster, remain in the church at this day, and his helmet is suspended from the wall in the vestry. He is said to have been a zealous Yorkist, and it is very remarkable that his effigy does not wear the Lancastrian Numerous benevolent bequests were made by Sir John Crosby, (in his last will, bearing date March 6th, 1471, and proved on February the 6th, 1475,) to religious houses, prisons, buildings, &c., and the residue of his effects, in de VOL. I. badge, the collar of SS., a very general distinction for persons of gentility or noble blood, but a collar composed of roses and suns alternately disposed;---the white rose and sun being the badge adopted by Edward IV. after the ominous parhelion which apfault of heirs, were, agreeably to the instrument, applied to charitable uses under the direction of the Grocers' Company. His will has been printed at length, in Gough's " Sepulchral Monuments." Appendix, No. IV. ED. G |