ty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among;
Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door."

The anniversary Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, in the middle of
May, when the choirs of Westminster and the Chapel Royal sing selections
from Handel and other great masters, is also a day not easily to be
forgotten, for St. Paul's is excellent for sound, and the fine music
rises like incense to the dome, and lingers there as "loth to die,"
arousing thoughts that, as Wordsworth beautifully says, are in
themselves proofs of our immortality. It is on such occasions we feel
how great a genius reared St. Paul's, and cry out with the poet--

"He thought not of a perishable home
Who thus could build."

CHAPTER XXII.

ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

St. Paul's Churchyard and Literature--Queen Anne's Statue--Execution of
a Jesuit in St. Paul's Churchyard--Miracle of the "Face in the
Straw"--Wilkinson's Story--Newbery the Bookseller--Paul's
Chain--"Cocker"--Chapter House of St. Paul's--St. Paul's Coffee
House--Child's Coffee House and the Clergy--Garrick's Club at the
"Queen's Arms," and the Company there--"Sir Benjamin" Figgins--Johnson the
Bookseller--Hunter and his Guests--Fuseli--Bonnycastle--Kinnaird--Musical
Associations of the Churchyard--Jeremiah Clark and his Works--Handel at
Meares' Shop--Young the Violin Maker--The "Castle" Concerts--An Old
Advertisement--Wren at the "Goose and Gridiron"--St. Paul's School--Famous
Paulines--Pepys visiting his Old School--Milton at St. Paul's.

The shape of St. Paul's Churchyard has been compared to that of a bow
and a string. The south side is the bow, the north the string. The
booksellers overflowing from Fleet Street mustered strong here, till the
Fire scared them off to Little Britain, from whence they regurgitated to
the Row. At the sign of the "White Greyhound" the first editions of
Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece," the
first-fruits of a great harvest, were published by John Harrison. At the
"Flower de Luce" and the "Crown" appeared the _Merry Wives of Windsor_;
at the "Green Dragon," in the same locality, the _Merchant of Venice_;
at the "Fox," _Richard II._; at the "Angel," _Richard III._; at the
"Gun," _Titus Andronicus_; and at the "Red Bull," that masterp