inscriptions seen at the back was originally supported by a Virgin crowned; the first named "Charity," with the lines,* "In thee who art the Son of God the Father, Be he saved that lies under this stone!" - the second named " Mercy," with the lines, "O good Jesu, show thy mercy To the soul whose body lies here;" and the third named "Pity," with the lines, "For thy pity, Jesu, have regard And put this soul in safe keeping." The words "Charity," "Mercy," and "Pity," are painted in red above their respective couplets, which are in black, with the exception of the initial letters, also in red. Running across beneath these inscriptions is another, to the following effect, similarly painted, which has been thus rendered :— "His shield henceforth is useless grown; To pay Death's tribute slain : His soul's with pious freedom flown; 6 In the front we read, "Here lies John Gower, Esquire, a celebrated English poet, also a benefactor to the sacred edifice in the time of Edward III. and Richard II." On the purple and gold band, with fillets of roses, which encircles his head, are the words "Merci Jhu." The three gilded volumes which support the latter bear the names of Gower's principal works, the Speculum Meditantis,' written in French, a work of precepts and examples, recommending the chastity of the marriage-bed; the Vox Clamantis,' in Latin, having the insurrection of Wat Tyler for its subject; and the Confessio Amantis,' in English, where an unhappy lover is solaced by his priest's pouring out a profusion of stories and disquisitions. The last alone has been printed, and it is upon that his fame as a poet deservedly rests. The very interesting circumstance attending its production, when Richard II. asked him " to book some new thing," has been already described in the 'Silent Highway.' On the wall at his feet are his arms, and a hat or helmet, with a red hood bordered with ermine, and surmounted by his crest, a dog. In the last four or five years of Gower's life he became blind, and was, he pathetically complains, "Condemn'd to suffer life, devoid of light." One would like to know whether he had previously seen the beautiful edifice he had expended his treasure to rear, or whether he knew that beauty only by listening to its praises from other and much less deeply interested admirers. Two years after Gower's death, and the magnificent funeral obsequies which doubtless ushered the mortal remains to their last earthly home, a very different but still more magnificent spectacle graced St. Mary Overies. This was the marriage of Edmund Holland, Earl of Kent, in 1406, with Lucia, eldest daughter of Barnaby, Lord of Milan. The bridegroom received 100,000 ducats as a por* These inscriptions are here translated literally and prosaically from the original couplets; of which we here transcribe the first : "En toy qui es Filz de Dieu le Pere, Sauve soit qui gist sous cest pierre." tion. Henry IV. himself gave away the bride at the church-door, and afterwards led her to the banquet prepared at Winchester Palace. The princess did not, we may presume, find her recollections of the church or of the act there solemnized unpleasing, for at her death she left the canons six thousand crowns for masses for the souls of her husband and self. Will our readers look once more upon the engraving of Gower's monument? They will there see on the pillar at the side a cardinal's hat, with certain arms beneath. To that slight memorial is attached a long train of recollections, many of them of the highest interest. The arms are of the Beaufort family; the hat is Cardinal Beaufort's-that wealthy and ambitious prelate, whose deathbed has been painted by Shakspere in such awful colours: "Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, There is reason, however, to hope that Beaufort's deathbed was not of so fearful a character as the poet intimates. The memorials of him placed here are supposed to commemorate his assistance to the rebuilding of the church, which Gower, perhaps, had but partially completed. Beaufort was consecrated Bishop of Winchester in 1404, the very year in which Gower died. But the principal associations suggested by those memorials are of a much more absorbing nature than any we have yet intimated; to us they speak of an event in which the wily Cardinal had, it is said, the principal share,—the marriage of the royal poet of Scotland, James I., to Jane, a young lady of great personal and mental accomplishments, daughter of the Cardinal's deceased brother, the Earl of Somerset, and a near relation of the King. If one were to seek no further than the pages of many of the old chroniclers, we should say that the whole end and aim of the match was to allay whatever angry feelings might have been produced by James's long captivity in England, and connect the crowns of England and Scotland by a powerful tie; but we know, from the exquisite poem which records James's feelings and sentiments whilst in captivity,* that a deeper emotion than statesmen take account of thrilled through his heart when that marriage was made. Windsor Castle had ceased to be a prison long before its gates were flung wide open for his departure. Looking out upon the garden which lay before his window, “I saw," he says, "one fresh May morrow, 66 ---- walking under the tower Full secretly new coming her to plain, The fairest and the freshest youngé flower Lost in wonder he doubted whether it was " a worldly creature, Or heavenly thing in likeness of natúre," that he saw before him, with that "golden hair" and "chaplet fresh of hue," and Was he prisoner after this? Yes, but it was Jane Beaufort who held the keys. The "King's Quair." This is not the place to enter into the transactions of the time concerning his release; suffice it to say he was released, and a considerable portion of the sum charged for his eighteen years' maintenance was resigned by way of dowry. The marriage feast was of course held at the Cardinal's palace adjoining, and in a style befitting the rank of the guests, the importance of the occasion, and the station and opulence of the entertainer, who was then the richest man in England. The mother of Jane (now Queen of Scotland), her uncles, and other kindred, literally showered presents upon her of "plate, jewels, gold, and silver, rich furniture, cloths of arras, such as at that time had not been seen in Scotland; and, amongst other gorgeous ornaments, a suit of hangings in which the labours of Hercules were most curiously wrought. And being thus furnished of all things fit for her estate, her two uncles (the Cardinal and the Duke of Exeter), and divers other noble men and ladies, accompanied her and King James her husband into his own kingdom of Scotland, where they were received of his subjects with all joy and gladness." The connection so romantically begun was blessed with more than ordinary happiness: the hearts of the Scottish writers seem to warm as they speak of the Queen's beauty, virtue, and conjugal affection. And as to him, the accomplished student-musician-poet, did the title king enhance or diminish his claims to love and admiration? Drummond of Hawthornden answers for us:-"Of the former kings (of Scotland) it might be said, the nation made the kings, but this king made that people a nation."‡ A terrible death, however, awaited him. The turbulent nobles, whom his vigour kept in awe, conspired against James. On the 24th of February, 1437, whilst he was conversing with the Queen and her attendant ladies just before retiring to rest, the murderers were heard at the door. James, knowing their aim, instantly tore up one of the planks of the flooring and descended into the vaults beneath; but he could not escape his remorseless pursuers. In vain did the Queen throw herself between him and the assailants: she was twice wounded, and at length torn forcibly away, and the murder accomplished. Yet in the history of the poetking even this atrocious deed stands not without its own peculiar relief. A sublime spirit of self-devotion characterized that dreadful hour, and exhibited itself, as the purest and highest self-devotion generally does, in a woman's gentle form. In the Lansdowne MS. § there is a curious record concerning a charge of heresy, brought against Joane Baker in 1510, for having said that "she was sorry she had gone in so many pilgrimages, as to St. Saviour's, and divers other pilgrimages." St. Mary Overies is supposed to have received its modern name of St. Saviour's after its dissolution, in 1539, at the general breaking up of the religious houses, when the parishes of St. Mary Magdalen and St. Margaret were consolidated, and the Priory church purchased from the King for divine worship. The passage just quoted, however, shows that the latter was known as St. Sa * Though the detention of James was a most unjustifiable proceeding, never was captive more honourably used. The very best possible education that the age could furnish was given to him. Bishop Leighton said only the truth when, addressing Henry VI. for his release, he observed, "His abode with you seemeth rather to have been a remaining in an academy than in any captivity." + Drake's Historia Anglo-Scotica. History of the Lives and Reigns of the Five Jameses, Kings of Scotland. § 978, v. 44, p. 129. viour's nearly thirty years before. In 1532 a dole was given here at the door, which attracted such multitudes of people that several persons were smothered in the crowd. Two or three years later the King, Henry VIII., ordered a public procession to take place in the church, with what object does not appear; but it was performed with great ceremony and splendour. The canons, perhaps, had a foreboding that it would be the last opportunity of the kind afforded them. Fosbroke* has minutely described a scene of this nature : "Then two and two they march'd, and loud bells toll'd; One from a sprinkle holy water flung; This bore the relics in a chest of gold, On arm of that the swinging censer hung: And banners of the church went waving in the wind." In 1539 the Priory was dissolved, and its prior, Linsted, pensioned off with 1001. a year. The annual revenue at this period was 6247. 6s. 6d. During Wyatt's insurrection, in 1554, St. Mary Overies had a narrow escape from destruction; he and his soldiers having posted themselves in Southwark, the lieutenant of the Tower "bent seven great pieces of ordnance, culverins, and demicannons, full against the foot of the bridge, and against Southwark, and the two steeples of St. Olave's and St. Mary Overies, beside all the pieces on the White Tower, and three fauconets over the Water-gate."+ The inhabitants of Southwark were greatly alarmed, and begged Wyatt to depart, which he did. His soldiers, however, sacked the palace, and destroyed its extensive library. The next year showed but too clearly that Wyatt had not struggled against any imaginary evils. Persecution in its worst shape-religious persecution and carried to an extreme which England has never known before or since-was then begun, by the appointment of a commission to sit in St. Mary Overies for the trial of heretics. On the 28th of January Bishop Hooper and John Rogers were called before this council, excommunicated, and sent to prison till the following day, when they were again brought up with John Bradford, and sentence passed. Drs. Croome and Ferrars, and Mr. Saunders, appeared the next day before this dread tribunal of bigots. On the 4th of February the first victim, John Rogers, went, with indomitable courage, to the stake at Smithfield. Others rapidly followed, and within the three years next ensuing between two and three hundred persons thus perished. Of the spirit that actuated these martyrs, plain John Bradford's letter to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, written about this period, affords as good an example as some of the more brilliant passages which have been preserved in connexion with this subject. "This day, I think, or tomorrow at the uttermost, hearty Hooper, sincere Saunders, and trusty Taylor end their course and receive their crown. The next am I, which hourly look for the porter to open me the gates after them, to enter into the desired rest." What could persecution do with men like these? Not four years after the commission + Chron. of London Bridge. * Economy of Monastic Life. had sat, and sent its Protestant victims by wholesale to the stake, we find an order to dispose of the "Popish vestments," for the purpose of repairing the church; consisting of robes of black velvet and crimson satin, with "lyans" of silver, and knobs of gold, a deacon's cope of green velvet and crimson, with flowers of gold, &c.; and two years later all the valuable Latin records of the Priory were burnt, as we have before intimated, as "superstitious" remains of Popery. About 1578 the church was repaired in many parts, "and within throughout richly and very worthily beautified." Under the year 1607 we find in the Register of Burials of St. Mary Overies a few words that serve rather to stimulate than to satisfy the imagination :-" Edmond Shakspere, player, in the church." This was the great dramatist's brother; and who, doubtless, was followed to the grave by him as chief mourner. A somewhat similar recollection belongs to the year 1625, when the same register records the death and burial of "Mr. John Fletcher, a man, in the church."* It is curious that Mr. should be prefixed to the name of this great poet; a feature which distinguishes it from hundreds of others. Aubrey thus describes the circumstances attending his death:-" In the great plague of 1625 a knight of Norfolk or Suffolk invited him into the country: he stayed but to make himself a suit of clothes, and, while it was making, fell sick and died; this I heard from the tailor, who is now a very old man and clerk of St. Mary Overy." We conclude this (the historical) portion of our notice with a passage from Strype's Stow, written about 1713, and describing its state, &c., at that time:-" This is now a very magnificent church, since the late reparation. It hath an huge organ, which was procured by voluntary subscription. The repair (it is said) cost the parish 26007., and that well laid out. The old monuments are all refreshed and new painted." A still more important reparation has taken place within the last few years, both of the building and its exceedingly interesting monuments. In all, we believe, above eighty thousand pounds have been expended on this structure in the present century. No one who has passed over the present London Bridge can be at a loss to know the site of St. Mary Overies; and there can be but few who have not in so passing stopped some time or other at its foot to gaze upon that noble cathedrallooking edifice, partly buried in the hollow on the western side of the High Street. Whatever advantages belong to a commanding position are absent here; yet St. Mary Overies has advantages even of position which belong peculiarly to itself. Its very lowness enables you, as it were, to look over it, and take in at a glance the great size and noble proportions. Its plan is very simple, being that of a cross, formed by the Lady Chapel, choir, and nave, extending in a straight line nearly three hundred feet eastward from where we stand, and by the transepts extending from the main body about forty feet north and south. Where the nave, choir, and transepts join, about the centre of the pile, rises the tower, some thirty-five feet square, and one hundred and fifty high, yet light-looking and handsome from the numerous windows with which it is pierced and the elegant pinnacles that surmount it. In the last repair of the tower, in 1818, it was found necessary to circle its entire breadth with three stages of iron bars or ties; they દ * In the ❝ Tabard," page 58, it is stated that Fletcher and Massinger lie in one grave in the churchyard. The above record proves this to have been a mistake. |