Charing.
The cross at Charing was the work of Richard de Crundale. He was responsible for the design of this cross, but his design no doubt influenced the ideas of the other builders, for we know that much of the finer work of the other crosses was executed under his observation. Most of the statues of the Queen were carved near Charing, and many of the ornaments so frequently referred to as the “virgæ, capita et annuli,” were also made by the Westminster artists. The cross was built approximately on the plot of ground now occupied by the statue of Charles I, facing the great thoroughfare now known as “Charing Cross.”
Richard Crundale himself died in 1293, and Roger Crundale came from Waltham to carry on his work. Nearly £700 can be traced as being paid to the Crundales for their work at Charing, but this sum obviously includes work done and materials supplied for other crosses. The finer materials used in the construction of the crosses, such as Caen stone, Purbeck stone and marble, seem to have been distributed to the other crosses by way of Charing. Considerable additional sums of money are mentioned as being paid to merchants of stone, such as William Canon, Robert Blunt, and others who brought the stone from Corfe, and Henry Mauger who supplied stone from Caen. Alexander of Abingdon, the “Imaginator,” carved the statues of the Queen for Charing; William of Ireland, also working at Charing, carved the statues of the Queen which found their way to the crosses built by John Battle and Richard Stowe; while Ralph of Chichester carved much of the fine stonework for the crosses.
Unfortunately no adequate idea can now be obtained of Charing Cross. It is admitted, however, to have been the finest of the series; but it must have been subject to the same vicissitudes as its neighbour in Chepe, and the sketches which exist, purporting to be Charing Cross, can only have been obtained from the mutilated structure which survived to the middle of the seventeenth century. The drawing in the Crowle Collection of the British Museum, which has been reproduced by Wilkinson, is one of these. The suggestion of the cross in van den Wyngaerde’s view of London gives, perhaps, a better idea of its probable appearance.[[52]] John Norden’s account is that of an eye witness, and tells of its condition about the year 1590. He speaks of it as “an old weather-beaten monument erected about 1290 by Edward I. Amongst all the crosses which the King caused to be built ... Charing Cross was most stately, though now defaced by antiquity.”[[53]]
[52]. Vide fig. 1.
[53]. John Norden. MS. Harl. 570 (circ. 1593), quoted by Lethaby; cf. “Speculum Britanniæ, the first parte,” 1593, p. 45, and the maps of London.
Fig. 19.
The fragments of two panels of the Cross in Chepe, City of London, now in the Guildhall Museum. The panels show the heraldic bearings of England, and of Castile and Leon, with portions of moulding. These relics are probably portions of the Cross as restored by John Hatherley in the fifteenth century. From a drawing by Mr. J. C. Hallinan.
Charing Cross suffered many indignities in the Parliamentary period. After many years of neglect, it was sentenced by Parliament to be taken down in 1643. An old rhyme mentions the event:—
“The Parliament to vote it down
Conceived it very fitting,
For fear it should fall and kill them all
In the house as they were sitting.
They were told God wot, it had a plot,
It made them so hard-hearted,
To give command it should not stand,
But be taken down and carted.”
Lilly,[[54]] writing in 1715, says that part of the stones were employed in paving the front of Whitehall, whilst some other stones were made into knife hafts and other articles which, when polished, looked like marble.
[54]. Lilly, “Observations on the Life of King Charles I.” cf. Edward Walford, “Old and New London,” iii, pp. 123 et seq.
The cross in the forecourt of the South Eastern Railway station at Charing Cross was erected from the designs of the late Mr. Edward Middleton Barry in 1864-1865, and is the result of his own desire to have the opportunity of reproducing the Eleanor memorial at Charing. Mr. Barry was a learned as well as a distinguished architect, and visited Northampton and Waltham Crosses many times before deciding on the design of the monument he proposed to erect. It is well worthy of careful study as expressing the ideas formed by a conscientious artist and student of the appearance of the old cross; especially it shows the desire to give the idea of the original builders, and to avoid the travesties of construction which have not infrequently been erected purporting to be after the fashion of an Eleanor Cross. Unhappily the motive which renders the crosses at Geddington, Northampton and Waltham so entirely appropriate, and which adds so much to their interest, cannot be transferred to the new site.[[55]]
[55]. The author is indebted for information respecting Mr. Barry’s cross to Mr. T. Harrison Myres, of Preston, who was one of Mr. Barry’s pupils in 1864, and afterwards his confidential clerk.