£>atnt haul’s Cafye&taL

131

^at it might remain as a perpetual and un- changeable rule and direction for the conduct

I'arliament.had

s °mctimes moist, they will rot. His endeavours were to build for eternity. He therefore sunk a Pit of aboutei ghteen feet square, wharfing up the sand with timber, till he came forty feet lower into water and sea-shells,vv here there was a firm sea-beach, which confirmed what was before asserted, that the Sea had been, in ages past,' v here now Paul’s is; he bored through this beach till he came to the original clay; being then satisfied, he beganhorn the beach a square pier of solid good masonry, ten feet square, till he came within fifteen feet of the presentt> r °und, then he turned a short arch under ground to the former foundation, which was broken off by the untowardacc ident of the Pit.

The reasons for changing the site of the Church, and taking up all the old foundations, were chiefly these;fr rst > the Act of Parliament for rebuilding the City had enacted, that all the high streets (of which that which leadsr °und the South-side of St. Paul’s was one) should be forty feet broad, but the old foundations streightened theStreet towards the East-end to under thirty feet.

Secondly, the Church-yard on the North side was wide, and afforded room that way to give the new fabricka more free and graceful aspect.

Thirdly, to have built on the old foundations must have confined the Surveyor too much to the old planaud form; the ruinous walls in no part were to be trusted again, nor would old and new work firmly unite, orsfan d together without cracks.

b being found expedient therefore to change the foundations, he took the advantage of more room northward,atld the middle line of the new work more declining to the North-East than it was before, which was notdue East and West; neither did the old front of the Cathedral lie directly from Ludgate, as it does not atPresent, which was not practicable, without purchasing, and taking down a great number of houses; and the aid ofThis, tho’ much wished for, he was not able to effect; the Commissioners for rebuilding the City ,ln the first place, marked and staked out all the streets, and the Parliament confirmed their Report, beforea y thing had been fully determined about the design of the new fabrick. The Proprietors of the ground with1T1Uc fr eagerness and haste, had begun to build accordingly; an incredible progress had been made in a very short

tlmc ; many large and fair houses erected; and every foot of ground in that trading and populous part of the Town

' v as highly estimated.” ' (Parentalia, Part II. Sect. v. p. 283-7.)

* The Surveyor (says another passage of Parentalia) gave but little credit to the common story that a Templefrad been here to Diana, (which some have believed, upon the report of the digging up, formerly, and of lateryears, Horns of Stags, Ox-heads, Tusks of Boars, &c.) meeting with no such indications in all his searches; butthat the North-side of this ground had been very anciently a great burying-place, was manifest; for upon diggingl he foundations of the present Fabrick of St. Paul's, he found under the graves of the latter ages, in a row belowthem, the burial places of the Saxon times: the Saxons , as it appeared, were accustomed to line their Graves

^*th chalk-stones, though some more eminent were entombed in Coffins of whole stones. Below these were British

faves, vvhere were found ivory and wooden pins, of a hard wood, seemingly Box, in abundance, of about six’" Ches lon g; it seems the bodies were only wrapped up, and pinned in woollen shrouds, which being consumed,

P'ns remained entire. In the same row, and deeper, were Roman Urns intermixed; this was eighteen feet deep

Inore , and belonged to the Colony when Romans and Britains lived and died together.

“Th

ine most remarkable Roman Urns, Lamps , Lachrymatories, and Fragments of Sacrificing Vessels, &c. wereUn d deep in the ground, towards the North-East corner of St. Paul’s Church, near Cheapside; these were generallyk . ' vrou ght, and embossed with various figures and devices, of the colour of the modern red Portugal ware, some^ ‘ghter like coral, and of a hardness equal to China Ware , and as well glaz’d. Among divers pieces whichPpened to have been preserved, are, a fragment of a vessel, in shape of a bason, whereon Charon is represented

his Oar in his hand receiving a Ghost; a patera sacrificalis, with an Inscription, pater, clo. ; a remarkablesm all Urn of a fine hard Earth , and leaden colour, containing about half a pint; many pieces of Urns with thenarnes of the potters embossed on the bottoms, such as, for instance, albvci. m*. victorinvs. pater. f+. mossi.Ch ° F ^" NlGRI ‘ ad. mapii.ii. m. &c. a sepulchral earthen Lamp, figured with two branches of Palms, supposedNshan; an( j two Lacrymatories of Glass .”

r ‘ Conyers, an assiduous Collector of the Antiquities found at this time in different parts of the metropolis, inIn ^ anuscr ‘P* : std l preserved among Sir Hans Sloane ’s Collections in the British Museum , notices several otherjj Cri Pfr°ns. He adds, the only Coins found were also Roman; one, of a metal finer than bell-metal, was ofAdrian, with a galley on the reverse; the rest, much corroded by time, were principally of Constantine. (MS.loan > 958.)

j ^ fr le Roman Lamps which were found, several are described in the “ Monumenta Vetustatis Kempiana,” 8vo.

1 • 1720. pp. 179, 180. One of these Lamps is engraved in Knight’s. Life of Erasmus , p. 301. It was

t Fecit.

3 M

* Manibus,

Officina.