ST. SAVIOUR'S CHURCH. 49 kneeding trough; in another, I have heard, a hog's trough; in another a storehouse to store up their hoarded meal; and in all of it something of this sordid kind and condition." For more than sixty years in this solemn temple, intended as a resort for those who humbly seek the Bread of Life, did the bakers continue to make the "bread that perisheth." This church was rebuilt in the year 1400, and when Henry VIII. seized its revenues, and disposed of them, the two parishes of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalen, in Southwark, were united, and the church of the priory of St. Mary Overy made the parish church, and called by the name of St. Saviour's. Of the old church nothing remains except the choir and the Lady Chapel, the former being restored in 1822, and the latter in 1832. The church consists of three aisles running from east to west, and a cross aisle after the manner of a cathedral. It is in the Gothic style. The roof of the body and the chancel are sustained by twentysix pillars, those of our Lady's new chapel with six smaller pillars, and that of the former church of St. Mary Magdalen, on the south side, by six pillars, like the last. Its length from the altar to the iron gates is 126 feet, from that gate to the west end of the church 71 feet, and from the altar to the east end of the Lady chapel 72 feet; the whole length 269 feet, and the whole breadth 54. Many eminent persons have been buried in this church, among whom may be named the early English poet John Gower, one of its chief benefactors, and a contemporary of Chaucer; Fletcher, the dramatic poet, who died of the plague; Sir Edward Dyer, also a poet of reputation; Edmund Shakspere, brother to the great dramatist; and Philip Massinger, one of the greatest dramatic poets of this country. The epitaphs in this church are very singular; some of them no better than advertisements of the stock in trade left by the deceased; others offering most fulsome tribute to the imputed virtues of the departed; and some few moral, and suited to the place and the occasion. Among VOL. II. H the latter is the inscription on the monument of Richard Humble, his two wives, and children. It is worth transcribing, and runs thus : Like to the damask rose you see, The gourd consumes, and man he dies. In the rear of St. Saviour's Church, in Park-street, Southwark, is the brewhouse of Barclay and Perkins, of which Mr. Peter Cunningham furnishes a very concise and interesting description. He informs us that it was founded by Henry Thrale, the friend of Dr. Johnson, and sold by Johnson to his brother executor, in behalf of Mrs. Thrale, for £135,000. Barclay was a descendant of the celebrated Barclay, author of the Apology of the Quakers, and Perkins was the chief clerk in Thrale's establishment. The brewhouse in Park-street is now the largest of the kind in the world. The buildings cover 10 acres, and the store cellars contain 126 vats, varying in their contents from 4,000 barrels down to 500. In the year ending 1850, the malt consumed reached the immense quantity of 115,542 quarters. Those noble institutions for the relief of the sick and for the amelioration of the evils which disease brings, Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, are situate in Southwark, but we do not propose to notice them here, reserving an account of them for another portion of this work, in which the leading hospitals will be named collectively. Bankside, Southwark, on the south side of the Thames, extending from that point of the river near St. Saviour's Church to the Surrey end of Blackfriars, now offers THE GLOBE THEATRE 51 ample evidence of capital, commerce, and manufacturing industry, it being covered with warehouses and wharfs. Very different was the aspect which it presented in early times, when it was the chosen resort of dissipation. Not to dwell on some of its more offensive peculiarities, it will suffice to state that here stood a royal garden or amphitheatre for the exhibition of bear and bull baiting; until towards the close of the reign of William III. To this place Queen Elizabeth invited the French ambassadors to amuse them with the savage spectacle. That pleasant chronicler, Pepys, relates with much satisfaction his visits to this place, where he "saw some good sport of the bulls tossing the dogs; one into the very boxes." This Bear Garden was called Paris Garden, and was let on lease to Henslowe, and Alleyne, the founder of Dulwich college. Under their management it was sometimes converted into a theatre. At a subsequent period the manor of Paris Garden was formed into a parish, and a church founded, under the name of Christ. Perhaps the most interesting memorials of Southwark are those connected with the Globe Theatre, on the Bankside, the summer theatre of Shakspere. It was built in 1594, was of an hexagonal shape without, and open to the weather except that part of it immediately over the stage, which was thatched. The interior was circular in form. In 1613 it was consumed by fire, and soon afterwards rebuilt, James I. and his nobility contributing chiefly towards the cost. Here Shakspere, Fletcher, Hemmings, and other actors of the time performed, and some of the great poet's plays were originally represented on the boards of this theatre. This interesting memorial of the Augustan age of the drama was taken down by Sir Matthew Brand in 1634, and houses built upon its site. Globe-alley, a mean, long, and narrow court, is named after it, and partly indicates the ancient neighbourhood of the theatre. The Bishops of Winchester, who were lords of the manor of Southwark, had their palatial residence in this borough. The episcopal residence was built in 1107 by William Gifford, Bishop of Winchester, and called Winchester House. This house, before it fell into decay, was one of the most magnificent in the city or suburbs of London. With the other buildings connected with it, it occupied in front most of the Bankside, called Clinkstreet, and had an open view of that part of the Thames where wharfs and warehouses now cover the bank. This edifice was composed of two courts, with offices and other messuages. On the south, beautiful gardens enriched with the most exquisite statuary, and where numerous fountains played, and an extensive park were its boundaries, and the monastery of St. Saviour was its eastern limit; the Paris garden being its western one. In 1663 an act of parliament was passed, authorizing the then Bishop of Winchester to let Winchester House, in Southwark, on lease, and erect a new episcopal residence. The bishops then removed to Chelsea, and old Winchester House, after passing through many changes, became converted into warehouses and magazines for corn. In August, 1814, a fire broke out, which destroyed the ancient Gothic hall of the house, and exposed some of the gorgeous architecture to view. The alterations which this portion of Southwark has undergone since the foundation of the bridge and the widening of High-street, have left hardly a memorial of the once powerful and admired Winchester House. Descending High-street we reach the Town Hall, in which the borough sessions, over which an alderman presides, are held. Some distance lower down, on the west side, is that miserable squalid neighbourhood the Mint, composed of several narrow, dark, and dirty streets and alleys, for which the sanitary commission exists in vain. If the stranger in London is anxious to gain some idea of the unenviable peculiarities by which the extinct Rookery was marked, if he desire to see the appearance which Field-lane and its avenues presented before modern improvements invaded that sanctuary for the fraternity of |