346 LAUD AND THE PURITAN PRYNNE. three times towards it and the table. When he beheld the bread, then he came near, and opened the napkin again, and bowed as before. Then he laid his hand upon the gilt cup, which was full of wine, with a cover upon it. So soon as he had pulled the cup a little nearer to him, he let the cup go, flew back, and bowed again three times towards it; then he came near again, and lifting up the cover of the cup, peeped into it, and seeing the wine, he let fall the cover on it again, and flew nimbly back, and bowed as before. After these, and many other apish, antic gestures, he himself received, and then gave the sacrament to some principal men only, they devoutly kneeling near the table; after which more prayers being said, this scene and interlude ended." of That these and similar satirical attacks on the part Prynne sank deeply into the lieart of Laud, may be assumed from the extreme rigour of the sentence passed upon the former the following year when brought before the Star Chamber for publishing his famous "Histrio Mastix." He was sentenced to be expelled the University of Oxford and the Society of Lincoln's Inn, to be degraded from his profession of the law, to stand twice in the pillory, to lose an ear each time, and to be incarcerated for life. Nevertheless, Prynne lived to conduct the famous prosecution against Laud, and to bring the haughty prelate to the block. He survived, moreover, the loss of his ears nearly forty years and after having opposed the despotism of Cromwell and the bigotry of the Independents with the same undaunted spirit with which he had combated the intolerance of Laud and the aggressive domination of Strafford, he lived to be grateful at the Restoration for a livelihood which he ol tained as Keeper of the Records in the Tower, and to forget the storms of the past in the literary seclusion of his chambers in Lincoln's Inn. THE MAYPOLE AT ST. MARY-AXE. 347 On the north side of Leadenhall Street, at the east corner of St. Mary-Axe, stands the beautiful church of St. Andrew Undershaft, dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle. It derives its second name from a shaft, or Maypole, which stood opposite to it, and which towered above the church itself. As we have already mentioned, this Maypole, which was more celebrated even than that in the Strand, owed its downfall to the fanaticism of one Sir Stephen, curate of St. Catherine Cree, who in a sermon which he preached at Paul's Cross, contrived to convince his ignorant audience that it was associated with idolatry, and so wrought upon their bigotry that they severed it into pieces and committed it piecemeal to the flames. It was a sad sacrilege, for the old Maypole had, from time immemorial, been associated with many innocent pastimes. “Happy the age, and harmless were the days, For then true love and amity were found, When every village did a Maypole raise, And Whitsun-ales and May-games did abound." On the return of every first of May, the Maypole, decorated with scarfs, ribbons, and flowers, was raised into the air with great ceremony by yokes of oxen in front of the south door of the church; the horns of the oxen being tipped with nosegays of flowers. Bands of music; men, women, and children, carrying boughs and branches for which they had gone "a-maying" in the neighbouring meadows and lanes of Hampstead, Highgate, and Greenwich; arbours, summerhalls, and bowers; the Queen of the May, with her blushing face and laughing eyes; the revelling and merriment, and harmless jokes; and, above all, the light forms circling the Maypole in the merry dance,-such were the scenes which the first of May witnessed in England in the olden time. 348 MONUMENT OF STOW. But we must return to St. Andrew's Church, still a most interesting relic of the past with its ancient monuments, its rich specimens of Tudor architecture, its fresco paintings of the Apostles between the windows; the nave, with its square panels painted blue and its gilded ornaments of shields and flowers; and lastly, its pulpit of carved oak, and its large painted window at the east end of the nave, in which, in stained glass, are portraits of the sovereigns of England from Edward the Sixth to Charles the Second. The first notice which we find of St. Andrew's Church is in 1362, when William of Chichester was the rector. The present building was erected between the years 1520 and 1532. Among the more curious and ancient monuments which it contains may be mentioned a brass plate, with figures engraved on it, in memory of Simon Burton, citizen, who died in 1595; another to the memory of Thomas Levison, Sheriff, who died in 1534; a fine monument of Sir Thomas Offley, Knight and Alderman, who died in 1582; and a sumptuous tomb to the memory of Sir Hugh Hammersly and his wife, erected in 1637. But by far the most interesting monument in the church is that of the indefatigable antiquary, JOHN STOW. His monument, which is of considerable size, and fenced with an iron rail, represents him in effigy sitting at a desk, in a furred gown, in the attitude of study. It is said to be formed of terra cotta, or clay burned, but has all the appearance of being of alabaster or marble. Neglected and persecuted during his lifetime, his remains, according to Maitland, were not even permitted to rest in peace after his death, having been removed, in 1732, to make room for the body of another person. In St. Andrew's Church lies buried Peter Anthony Motteux, once popular as a poet, and the translator of Don Quixote and of Rabelais. He carried on a prosperous business as a vendor of East India wares in Leadenhall Street, and died in a disreputable house in the Strand in 1718. St. Mary Axe, on the north side of Leadenhall Street, derives its name, according to Stow, from the sign of an Axe, which was formerly a conspicuous object at one end of it. Nearly on this spot, facing Leadenhall Street, stood, in the reign of Henry the Fifth, the London residence of the powerful family of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford. Here in this reign, resided Richard the eleventh Earl, who fought by the side of his royal master during the wars in France, and who died in that country in 1417. In Lime Street, on the south side of Leadenhall Street, stood the mansion and chapel of the accomplished Sir Simon de Burley, formerly in the possession of Lord Neville. Lime Street is said to take its name from lime having been made or sold here. In this street the first Penny Post Office was established in the reign of Charles the Second. CORNHILL, SAINT MICHAEL'S CHURCH, ROYAL EXCHANGE, &c. CORNHILL FREQUENTED BY OLD CLOTHES SELLERS.- COMPANY.-PLAGUE IN LOTHBURY. L EADENHALL STREET leads us into Cornhill, which derives its name from its having been from time immemorial the principal corn-market in London. In the reign of Elizabeth, Cornhill appears to have been principally frequented by the vendors of worn-out apparel, who, according to Stow, were not among the most honest classes of the community. "I have read of a countryman,” he writes, "that, having lost his hood in Westminster Hall, found the same in Cornhill, hanged out to be sold, which he challenged, but was forced to buy or go without it.” In Cornhill stood a large building called the Pope's Head, said to be one of the most ancient taverns in London, and which unquestionably existed in the early part of the reign of Edward the Fourth. Here, in the reign of Henry the Sixth, wine was sold for one penny the pint; no charge being made for bread. According to Stow, the Pope's Head had not improbably been a royal palace. In his time the ancient arms of England, consisting of three leopards, supported between two angels, were still to be seen engraved in stone on the walls. In this tavern, on the 14th of April, 1718, Bowen, a |