Stowe, in his Chronicle, describes a quarrel which took place in this church as follows: “In the year 1417, and on the afternoon of Easter Sunday, a violent quarrel took place in this church, between the ladies of the Lord Strange and Sir John Trussel, Knt., which involved the husbands, and at length terminated in a general contest. Several persons were seriously wounded, and an unlucky fishmonger, named Thomas Petwarden, killed. The two great men who chose a church for their field of battle were seized and committed to the Poultry Compter, and the Archbishop of Canterbury excommunicated them. On the 21st of April, that prelate heard the particulars at St. Magnus Church; and finding Lord Strange and his lady the aggressors, he cited them to appear before him, the Lord Mayor, and others, on the 1st of May, at St. Paul’s, and there submit to penance, which was inflicted by compelling all their servants to march before the rector of St. Dunstan’s in their shirts, followed by the lord bareheaded, and the lady barefooted [rather too hard on the lady], and Kentwode, Archdeacon of London, to the church of St. Dunstan, where, at the hallowing of it, Lady Strange was compelled to fill all the sacred vessels with water, and offer an ornament, value 10l., and her husband a piece of silver, worth 5l.”
Leaving Eastcheap, with its Shakspearean Boar’s Head (long ago destroyed), and Great Tower-street, memorable for the carousals of Peter the Great, we come to Mincing-lane, where stands Clothworkers’ Hall, a company to which Pepys belonged, and which still possesses the “loving cup” he presented to the Clothworkers.
King James I. was a member of this company; and the following extract from Nichol’s Progresses furnishes us with the speech he made on the day he enrolled himself among the Clothworkers: “Now, I drink unto all my good brethren, the clothworkers; and I pray God to bless them all, and all good clothworkers; and for proof of our especial favour to this fraternity, and for their increase of mutual amity, I do here give unto this company two brace of bucks yearly, for ever, against the time of the election of the master and wardens of this society.” This was on the 12th of June, 1607, after the king had privately dined “at the house of Sir John Watts, then lord mayor.”
In Mark-lane we find the great Corn Exchange (lately damaged by fire). About three centuries ago, the corn-market was held at Queenhithe, although the oldest place for the sale of corn was Cornhill, a market having been held there, according to Stowe, “time out of mind.”
In Knight’s London, vol. iii. p. 364, we find the following curious remarks on this great metropolitan corn-market: “The market-days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the first being by far the busiest day of the three; and the hours of business are from ten to three. A bargain does not become valid until an hour after the commencement of business on the next market-day. The general commercial reader will perhaps be interested in knowing that wheat is paid for in bills at one month, and all other descriptions of corn and grain in bills of two months. But the Kentish ‘hoymen,’ who may be distinguished by their sailors’ jackets, are privileged, by the custom of the market, to sell for ready money, though, of course, they sell only what they bring up themselves. They have stands free of expense, and pay less for metage and dues than others. The Essex dealers also enjoy some privileges. Their origin, in both cases, is said to have been in consideration of the men of Kent and Essex having continued to supply the City at a time when it was ravaged by the plague.”
In Mark-lane stands the church of Allhallows Staining, which escaped the Fire, though the tower is all that remains of the ancient edifice. Here it is said Queen Elizabeth went to return thanks after her release from the Tower; and when the service was over, she adjourned to the adjoining tavern, the King’s-head, in Fenchurch-street, where she dined off the unladylike luxuries of pork and peas, in memory of which event the dish and cover are still preserved. In the parish-books of Allhallows are the following entries relating to old ecclesiastical holidays: “Paid unto Goodman Chese, broiderer, for making a new mitre for the Bishop, against St. Nicholas’s night, 2s. 8d.;” and again, “Paid for the hiring of a pair of wings and a crest for an angel on Palm Sunday, 8d.” Merry doings were there in the olden time at church-ales and Easter-tide, and many another ancient holiday which now lives but in name.
At the corner of Seething-lane stands the church of Allhallows Barking. In this lane died Sir Francis Walsingham, who in Elizabeth’s time planted so many spies around the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. Here also lived Pepys, adjoining the old Navy-office. He makes frequent mention of Seething-lane in his Diary. The church of Allhallows Barking very nearly marks the site of the termination of the Great Fire eastward; for though the church itself escaped destruction, its walls were licked by the flames and the porch destroyed. A glance at the map of London will shew its proximity to the Tower, and readily suggest that many a headless victim was removed from the scaffold to the grave in the old churchyard of Allhallows. The Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in 1547, was buried here; also Bishop Fisher, beheaded in 1535, though his body was afterwards removed; so were the remains of Archbishop Laud. The first chapel founded on the site of the present church dates as far back as the time of Richard I.; and there is an old tradition that the heart of the king of the Crusaders was buried under the altar of that church. Here Edward I. set up an image of the Virgin Mary, which almost became as famous as the shrine of Thomas à Becket, so many were the pilgrims who visited it. Our engraving represents a silver-gilt shrine, in which, in ancient times, the relics of saints were deposited.
