mere dead leaf into the street. It does not say much for the state of
the highway that four of the huge rafters, twenty-six feet long, were
driven (so the chroniclers say) twenty-two feet into the ground.

In 1270 part of the steeple fell, and caused the death of several
persons; so that the work of mediaeval builders does not seem to have
been always irreproachable.

It was in 1284 (Edward I.) that blood was shed, and the right of
sanctuary violated, in Bow Church. One Duckett, a goldsmith, having in
that warlike age wounded in some fray a person named Ralph Crepin, took
refuge in this church, and slept in the steeple. While there, certain
friends of Crepin entered during the night, and violating the sanctuary,
first slew Duckett, and then so placed the body as to induce the belief
that he had committed suicide. A verdict to this effect was accordingly
returned at the inquisition, and the body was interred with the
customary indignities. The real circumstances, however, being afterwards
discovered, through the evidence of a boy, who, it appears, was with
Duckett in his voluntary confinement, and had hid himself during the
struggle, the murderers, among whom was a woman, were apprehended and
executed. After this occurrence the church was interdicted for a time,
and the doors and windows stopped with brambles.

[Illustration: OLD MAP OF THE WARD OF CHEAP--ABOUT 1750.]

The first we hear of the nightly ringing of Bow bell at nine o'clock--a
reminiscence, probably, of the tyrannical Norman curfew, or signal for
extinguishing the lights at eight p.m.--is in 1315 (Edward II.). It was
the go-to-bed bell of those early days; and two old couplets still
exist, supposed to be the complaint of the sleepy 'prentices of Chepe
and the obsequious reply of the Bow Church clerk. In the reign of Henry
VI. the steeple was completed, and the ringing of the bell was,
perhaps, the revival of an old and favourite usage. The rhymes are--

"Clarke of the Bow bell, with the yellow lockes,
For thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes."

To this the clerk replies--

"Children of Chepe, hold you all still,
For you shall have Bow bell rung at your will."

In 1315 (Edward II.) William Copeland, churchwarden of Bow, gave a new
bell to the church, or had the old one re-cast.

In 1512 (Henry VIII.) the upper part of the steeple was repaired, and
the lanthorn and the stone arches forming the open coronet of the tower
were