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The Town, Its Memorable Characters and Events
The Town Its Memorable Characters and Events Author:Ferdinand Kürnberger, Leigh Hunt, Anonymous 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: 29 CHAPTER I. ST. PAUL'S, AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. The Roman Temple of Diana—the first Christian Church. Old St. Paul's. Inigo Jones's Portico. Strange Usage... more »s of Former Times. Encroachments on the Fabric of the Cathedral. Paul's Walkers. Dining with Duke Humphrey. Catholic Customs. The Boy-Bishop. The Children of the Revels. Strange Ceremony on the Festivals of the Commemoration and Conversion of St. Paul. Ancient Tombs in the Cathedral. Scene between John of Gaunt and the Anti-Wickliffites. Paul's Cross. The Folkmote. The Sermons. Jane Shore. See-saw of Popery and Protestantism. London House. The Charnel. The Lollards' Tower. St. Paul's School. Desecration of the Cathedral during the Commonwealth. The present Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren. Statue of Queen Anne. " s St. Paul's Churchyard is probably the oldest ground built upon in London, we begin our perambulations in that quarter. The cross which formerly stood north of the cathedral, and of which Stowe could not tell the antiquity, is supposed by some to have originated in one of those sacred stones which the Druids made use of in worship; but at least it is more than probable that here was a burial-ground of the ancient Britons; because when Sir Christopher Wren dug for a foundation to his cathedral, he discovered abundance of ivory and wooden pins, apparently of box, which are supposed to have fastened their winding sheets. The graves of the Saxons lay above them, lined with chalk- stones, or consisting of stones hollowed out: and in the same row with the pins, but deeper, lay Roman horns, lamps, lachrymatories, and all the elegancies of classic sculpture. Sir Christopher dug till he came to sand, and sea-shells, and to the London clay, which has since become 30 THE ROMAN TEMPLE OF DIANA, famous in geology ; so...« less