London church staves Author:Mary Thorpe 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: V V V' V A A A A ( a 5S. at i x x x CHAPTER X. CROSS Holborn Circus, and descending into Far- ringdon Road, we soon see the tall spire of the... more » parish church of St. James, Clerkenwell, built upon the site of the Benedictine nunnery of St. Mary. In St. James's Church we find an old and curious silver staff-head, measuring fourteen inches in height, with the inscription : " This Staff Was REPAIRED AND BEAUTYFIED IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1722, Thomas Shadd, William Atkinson Churchwardens." The ornament consists of addorsed figures of St. James the Less and of St. John the Divine, who stand with their feet in an almost vertical position upon a mound which rests upon an embattled and entowered gateway, the latter perhaps in allusion to the neighbouring gate of the Hospitallers of St. John. And here it must be noted that when the Patriarch Heraclius dedicated the Hospitallers' church at Clerkenwell to St. John Baptist, he also, at the same time, consecrated an altar in the church to St. John the Evangelist, hence the possible explanation of the Apostle's statue in combination with that of St. James. The design upon the staff appears, at first sight, to represent but one figure, though, upon closer examination, the emblem of the saint on the reverse is plainly seen, and through the loop of St. James's pastoral crook is visible the eagle's quill which St. John is holding in his left hand. The latter symbol has been fitly introduced by Domenichino, in his picture of the Evangelist, who, with uplifted eyes, is gazing steadfastly heavenward to where the eagle is bearing down to him the inspired pen. STAFF OF ST. JAMES THE LESS, CLERKENWELI. (OBVERSE). The accepted traditions concerning the Apostle John are well known: his miraculous escape from a cruel death at ...« less