Photo. S.B. Bolas & Co.
CHURCH OF ST. FAITH IN THE CRYPT.[ToList]
The monuments include two removed from the choir to make room for the organ. John Cooke, killed in command of the Bellerophon (Westmacott), and George Duff, killed in command of the Mars (Bacon), both at Trafalgar. Tablets, busts, or brasses, are in honour of Lord Mayo, the Canadian statesman Macdonald, the Australian statesman Dally, the Press correspondents who fell in the Soudan, the soldiers who fell in the Transvaal, Goss, the organist and composer, and Bishop Piers Claughton, a residentiary. At the east end, where service is held on a weekday morning at eight, are a few fragments of the old monuments—Nicholas Bacon (in armour and legs missing), Christopher Hatton, John Wolley, and others. Some slight carvings of the old buildings are also left.
THE GALLERIES AND LIBRARY.
Photo. S.B. Bolas & Co.
THE LIBRARY.[ToList]
Above the aisles are long and spacious galleries, and after mounting the staircase to the south-west of the dome, we pass through one of these—that over the south aisle—to the Library over the South-West Chapel. A gallery is supported by brackets carved by Jonathan Maine, and the flooring is of 2,300 pieces of oak, inlaid and without pegs or nails. There is a portrait of Bishop Compton, who may be considered the founder; and later donations and bequests include those of Bishop Sumner of Winchester, Archdeacon Hale, and notably Dr. Sparrow-Simpson. Altogether many thousands of MSS. and books. A beautiful "Avicenna Canon Medicinæ," a psalter supposed to have been used in the old Latin services, and another bought by Dr. Simpson at a second-hand book-stall, are of the fourteenth century. A subscription book for the rebuilding contains the following: "I will give one thousand pounds a yeare whitehall 20 March 1677/8 Charles R." These subscriptions never found their way into the fund; and forgetful how readily the Merry Monarch's money might have been intercepted en route, it has been assumed that he never parted with it. In the same book James also promises "two hundred pounds a yeare to begin from Midsommer day last past." The printed books include Tyndale's Pentateuch and his New Testament; and the Sumner and Hale bequests include large numbers of curious tracts and pamphlets. Richard Jennings' model of the centre of the west front is preserved. In the eighteenth century St. Paul's was a favourite place for weddings, and the registers, with many interesting names, are being edited for the Harleian Society. The Trophy Room above the North-West Chapel contains Wren's model, which was restored when Sydney Smith was a Canon.