as the work of Flitcroft,
and was opened April 14, 1734. The steeple is 160 feet high, with a
rustic pedestal, a Doric story, an octagonal tower, and spire. The
basement is of rusticated Portland stone, of which the church is built,
and quoins of the same material decorate the windows and angles within.
It follows the lines of the period, with hardly any chancel, wide
galleries on three sides standing on piers, from which columns rise to
the elliptical ceiling. The part of the roof over the galleries is
bayed at right angles to the curve of the central part. Monuments hang
on the walls and columns, and occupy every available space. By far the
most striking of these is the full-length figure of a woman in repose
which is set on a broad window-seat. This is the monument of Lady
Frances Kniveton, daughter of Alice Leigh, Duchess of Dudley. The
daughter's tomb remains a memorial of her mother's benefactions to the
parish. The monument of Andrew Marvell, a plain black marble slab, is on
the north wall. Marvell was buried in the church "under the pews in the
south side," but the present monument was not erected until 1764,
eighty-six years after his death, owing to the opposition of the
incumbent of the church. The inscription on it slightly varies from that
intended for the original monument. Besides a handsome brass cross on
the chancel floor to the Rector, Canon Nisbett, a tomb in form of a
Roman altar, designed by Inigo Jones, and commemorating George Chapman,
the translator of Homer, and a touching monument in the lobby to "John
Belayse," put up by his two daughters, there is nothing further worth
seeing.

The graveyard which surrounds the church is supposed to have been the
ancient interment-ground of the hospital. The first mention of it in the
parish books is in 1628, when three cottages were pulled down to
increase its size. It was enlarged again in 1666. Part of the old
hospital wall enclosing it remained until 1630, when it fell down, and
after the lapse of some time a new wall was built. In St. Giles's
Churchyard were buried Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shirley, Roger
L'Estrange, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Pendrell, who assisted in
Charles II.'s escape; his altar-tomb is easily seen near the east end of
the church. By 1718 the graveyard had risen 8 feet, so that the church
stood in a pit or well. The further burial-ground at St. Pancras was
taken in 1805, and after that burials at St. Giles's were not very
frequent