the register as "householder and preacher," was interred here in 1587; as also Sir Martin Frobisher, an early arctic voyager; and in 1615, the famous author of Paradise Lost. The bust of this glory of our literature, and the commemorative tablet, were set up by Samuel Whitbread in 1793. Oliver Cromwell was married in this church to Elizabeth Bowchier, on the 20th August 1620. In the churchyard is a bastion of old London Wall.

ST. GILES'-IN-THE-FIELDS, High Street, Holborn, is the third church erected on this site, and was completed in 1734. This church gives a name to a parish of poor people, which comes to be often contrasted with St. James'. Over the entrance gateway is a bas-relief of the Last Judgment, preserved from the Lich gate (ie., the gate under which the corpse rested for a while at a funeral) of the old church. Chapman, the translator of Homer, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shirley, the dramatist, Sir Roger l'Estrange, the political writer, and Andrew Marvell, the incorruptible patriot, were buried here. Chapman's monument, erected at the expense of Inigo Jones, is placed against the exterior south wall of the church. In the cemetery in the Lower St. Pancras Road are the remains of Flaxman, the sculptor, and Sir John Soane, the architect. Not far distant from the church, to the south-west, was a place of public execution, where, in the reign of Henry V., Lord Cobham was roasted in chains.

ST. GEORGE'S, Hanover Square, the most fashionable church for marriages in London, was opened in 1724, having been erected from the designs of John Jones. It has an ambitious portico; the altar picture of the Last Supper is attributed to Sir James Thornhill, Hogarth's father-in-law. Three painted windows are of Belgian work, dating from the early part of the sixteenth century. Emma Harte, who fascinated Nelson, and whom Romney painted so often, was married in this church to Sir William Hamilton.

ST. GEORGE'S, Hart Street, Bloomsbury, designed by Hawksmoor, consecrated 1731, is remarkable for a fine portico of eight Corinthian columns, but still more for having a statue, in Roman costume, of George I., on the top of the steeple, which is composed of a series of steps-a masterpiece of absurdity said Walpole.

"When Harry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch,
The people of England made him head of the church;
But George's good subjects, the Bloomsbury people,
Instead of the church, made him head of the steeple."

ST. HELEN'S, Bishopgate, City, was the church of the priory of St. Helen, founded 1216, by Basing, Dean of St. Paul's. A series of the nun's seats is to be seen against the north wall. The interior is rich with old brasses and monuments. Amongst the latter, observe the freestone altar-tomb, with effigies, of Sir John Crosby of Crosby Hall, and his wife; the knight has an alderman's gown over plate armour. Sir William Pickering, in dressarmour, reclining under a canopy; Sir Andrew Judd, founder of Tunbridge School, in armour, with several kneeling figures, painted and gilt; Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange, a large altar tomb; Martin Bond, a captain of train bands at the time of the Spanish Armada, represented as seated in a tent with sentinels; Francis Baneroft, the founder of almshouses at Mile End-it was built in his lifetime; Sir Julius Cæsar, Master of the Rolls in the time of James I.; a deed with a pendant seal is represented, and the Latin words purport that he had given his bond to Heaven to yield up his life willingly when God should appoint-this was carved by N. Stone; Sir John Spencer, ancestor of the marqueses of Northampton, and Lord Mayor in 1594.

ST. JAMES', Piccadilly, was designed by Wren for Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, and was consecrated in 1684. The exterior is very plain; the interior is thought a masterpiece of the architect. The stained glass in the east window was inserted in 1846. The organ was built for James II.'s oratory at Whitehall, and was given by his daughter to this parish in 1691. The white marble font is the work of Gibbons. The cover was stolen about sixty years ago. The flowers and garlands in wood over the altar was also by Gibbons. The list of the celebrated dead interred here includes Tom d'Urfey, the play writer; Charles Cotton, Walton's friend; Dr. Sydenham; the two marine painters, the Vanderveldes; Dr. Arbuthnot, Pope's friend; Dr. Akenside; Gillray, the caricaturist; and Sir John Malcolm. Lord Chesterfield, the letter writer, and the first Lord Chatham, were baptised here. In the vestry is a collection of the portraits of the rectors, three of whom became Archbishops of Canterbury-Tenison, Wake, and Secker.

ST. MARGARET's, Westminster, on the east side of the Abbey, the church of the House of Commons, stands on the site of a church built by Edward the Confessor, about 1064. The crucifixion is represented on the painted glass of the great east window. This was executed at Gonda, in Holland, for the purpose of being

presented, it is said, by the magistrates of Dort to Henry VII. It was given by the king to Waltham Abbey. At the Dissolution it was sent for safety to the abbot's private chapel at New Hall, which came into the possession of General Monk, who, to preserve the window from the Puritans, caused it to be buried in the earth; but it was replaced at the Restoration. When the chapel was pulled down, the window was preserved in a case. In 1758 it was purchased by the churchwardens of St. Margaret's for 400 guineas, and placed in its present position. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster, however, were not willing that it should remain there, for they commenced a suit in the ecclesiastical courts against the parishioners for setting up "a superstitious image or picture." The suit lasted seven years, and was then decided in favour of the parishioners. Notice the richly-carved pulpit and recording-desk put up in 1802; the Speaker's chair of state in front of the west gallery; and the painted glass of the north-east window. On certain occasions the chaplain of the House of Commons preaches here, and the Speaker with his officers, and a few members, represent the House. The walls have echoed the voices of some eminent Puritan divines, such as Calamy, Baxter, and Lightfoot. Case had the boldness to censure Cromwell, one of his auditors; and the same preacher, when General Monk was present, said, "There are some who will betray three kingdoms for filthy lucre's sake,” and then, that there might be no mistake, he cast his handkerchief into the where Monk sat. Amongst the persons buried here, were Skelton, Henry VIII.'s poet laureate; Sir Walter Raleigh; Sir William Waller, the general of the Parliament; Hollar, the engraver; and Blood, who stole the regalia. After Charles II. had returned, several bodies which had been previously buried in Westminster Abbey, were dug up and thrown into a pit in St. Margaret's churchyard. Amongst them were the bodies of Cromwell's mother, Sir W. Constable, one of the judges of Charles I., Admiral Blake, Pym, and May the poet. One ancient brass alone remains in the church, the others having been sold in 1644, at fourpence a pound. Amongst the monuments, notice—the Roxburgh Club's tablet to Caxton put up in 1820; the alabaster figures at the tomb of Marie Lady Dudley (d. 1600); a brass to the memory of Sir W. Raleigh, who was interred in the chancel the day he was beheaded in Old Palace yard; Mrs. Corbet's monument, the epitaph written by Pope; Sir Peter Parker's monument with Byron's

pew

lines; Cornelius Van Dun's bust, in the uniform of a yeoman of the guard (d. 1577). The removal of this church has often been proposed on account of its interfering with the view, and not harmonising with the surrounding buildings.

ST. MARTINS-IN-THE-FIELDS, Trafalgar Square, was erected by Gibbs, 1721-26, at a cost of nearly £37,000. Its length is 161 feet, and the width 80 feet. The portico is much admired, but the position of the steeple does much to spoil its effect. This is the church of the parish in which Buckingham Palace stands, and the births of some of the Queen's children are entered in its register books. The register of 1561 records the baptism of Lord Bacon. Amongst the persons interred here may be mentioned Nell Gwynn; the painters Vansomer, Laguerre, and Dobson; the sculptors Stone and Roubiliac; Robert Boyle, the chemist; Farquhar, the play writer; Jack Shepherd, and John Hunter. In the vaults is the tomb of Sir Theodore Mayerne, physician to James I. and Charles I., and the coffins of Miss Reay, and her murderer Hackman, connected by a chain.

ST. MARY-LE-BONE NEW CHURCH, Marylebone Road, was completed in 1817, from the designs of Thomas Hardwicke, at a cost of £60,000. The name of the district signifies St. Mary on the bourne or brook, viz., Tyburn stream.

The

ST. MARY-LE-Bow (Bow Church), Cheapside, City, is one of the most admired of Wren's churches, especially the steeple, 225 feet high, which, however, wants the grace of St. Bride's. dragon upon it is nearly nine feet long. To have been born within the sound of Bow bell is the criterion of a cockney. A church stood on this site in very early times. It is said to derive its name, de arcubus, from having been built upon arches. The Ecclesiastical Court of Arches, the Supreme Court of Appeal in the Archbishopric of Canterbury, derives its name from having formerly been held in this church. There is an ancient Norman crypt here, consisting of columns and simple groinings, used by Wren to support his church. The crypt is full of coffins.

ST. MARY-LE-SAVOY, a church standing south of the Strand, near Waterloo Bridge, which derives its name from having been built on the site of the chapel of the hospital of St. John the Baptist in a palace called the Savoy, erected by Peter, Earl of Savoy, uncle of Eleanor, queen of Henry III. The present church was built in 1505.

Henry VII. endowed the chapel, and

the incumbent still receives a stipend from the Crown. The ceiling, a curious relic of the old palace, was much damaged by fire in 1860, but has been restored at the expense of Her Majesty. Notice the altar screen, which has been restored of late years; also the remaining niche of tabernacle work. George Wither, the poet, was interred here (1667). Here is a recumbent figure, doubtfully called the monument of the dowager Countess of Nottingham, who died 1681; a tablet to Mrs. Anne Killigrew, celebrated by the poets; a brass on the floor near the stove, indicating the resting-place of Gawin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, known in literature as the translator of Virgil (d. 1522); a tablet to Richard Lander, the African traveller. It was here that the "Savoy Conference" between the bishops and Presbyterian clergymen took place in the reign of Charles II., with a view to a compromise. Here the Book of Common Prayer was settled. Fuller, the quaint author of "The Worthies of England," was lecturer here. A German Lutheran church is in the Savoy, as the neighbourhood is called.

ST. MICHAEL'S, Cornhill, one of Wren's churches, is remarkable for having a Gothic tower (130 feet high), whilst the body is Italian. A Gothic porch has been recently added by Mr. G. C. Scott, under whose superintendence the interior has been renovated in good taste, and at great expense.

ST. PANCRAS, Euston Square, one of the handsomest of the modern churches, was commenced in 1819 from Messrs. Jerwood's designs, and cost £76,679. The body was designed from the Erectheum at Athens; the steeple, 168 feet high, from the Tower of the Winds, also at Athens. The grand portico is supported by six columns with ornate capitals; and the three doorways are copied from the Erectheum. The lateral porticoes at the east end are apparently supported by caryatides in terra cotta, but really by iron pillars inside the figures. The wood for the pulpit and reading-desk was furnished by the once celebrated Fairlop oak in Hainhault Forest. Beneath the church are catacombs sufficient for the reception of 2000 coffins.

ST. PAUL'S, Covent Garden, was built 1631-38, from the designs of Inigo Jones, at a cost of £4500, defrayed by the Earl of Bedford. In 1795 a fire destroyed everything but the walls, but the church was restored soon afterwards. Butler, the author of "Hudibras"; Sir Peter Lely, who expressed a wish not to be laid in Westminster Abbey; Wycherley, the dramatist, and many actors of celebrity; Mrs. Centlivre; Grinling Gibbons;