Search -
Illustrations of the Site and Neighbourhood of the New Post Office
Illustrations of the Site and Neighbourhood of the New Post Office Author:London Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the discovery of a stone coffin, in digging a vault in it, the age and decay of which, rendered it impracticable to remove it, so as to make those observations w... more »hich would have been desirable. It appears, from documents preserved in the vestry, that St. Anne's church, before it was rebuilt, contained two chapels, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Katherine, each having an altar and image of its respective saint, and that the various chantries in it maintained no less than six priests. The most remarkable object, in the way of monumental record, was the tomb of Peter Heiwood, great grandson of the person who seized Guy Fawkes with his lantern, as he was quitting the cellar of the parliament-house, preparatory to the execution of that horrible treason, called the Gunpowder Plot, and who, his epitaph informs us, " for his zealous prosecution of papists, as justice of peace, was stabbed in Westmister Hall, by John James, a Dominican Friar, A.d. 1640. " Reader, if not a papist bred, Upon such ashes gently tread." Of the more antient interments known, the principal was Sir William Gregory, Lord Mayor in 1451, who was a distinguished parishioner and benefactor, and some of whose bequests still remain to the parish. The Church of St. Anne was burnt in 1548, andagain in 1660, when every house was destroyed. The last rebuilding cost 2448Z. The front is of brick, and very little decorated, but having an open yard before it with several trees, the effect is rather pleasing. The inside ought to be more known for its beauty ; and at the first glance the similarity it bears to St. Stephen Walbroke, speaks both to be the work of the same architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Like that, the site here is confined, and the artist has made the most of it. Itconsists of a square, in which are ...« less