finished with Caen stone. It was then proposed to glaze the five
corner lanthorns and the top lanthorn, and light them up with torches or
cressets at night, to serve as beacons for travellers on the northern
roads to London; but the idea was never carried out.

[Illustration: THE SEAL OF BOW CHURCH.

(_See page 338._)]

By the Great Fire of 1666, the old church was destroyed; and in 1671 the
present edifice was commenced by Sir C. Wren. After it was erected the
parish was united to two others, Allhallows, Honey Lane, and St.
Pancras, Soper Lane. As the right of presentation to the latter of them
is also vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of the former
in the Grocers' Company, the Archbishop nominates twice consecutively,
and the Grocers' Company once. We learn from the "Parentalia," that the
former church had been mean and low. On digging out the ground, a
foundation was discovered sufficiently firm for the intended fabric,
which, on further examination, the account states, appeared to be the
walls and pavement of a temple, or church, of Roman workmanship,
entirely buried under the level of the present street. In reality,
however (unless other remains were found below those since seen, which
is not probable), this was nothing more than the crypt of the ancient
Norman church, and it may still be examined in the vaults of the present
building; for, as the account informs us, upon these walls was commenced
the new church. The former building stood about forty feet backwards
from Cheapside; and in order to bring the new steeple forward to the
line of the street, the site of a house not yet rebuilt was purchased,
and on it the excavations were commenced for the foundation of the
tower. Here a Roman causeway was found, supposed to be the once northern
boundary of the colony. The church was completed (chiefly at the expense
of subscribers) in 1680. A certain Dame Dyonis Williamson, of Hale's
Hall, in the county of Norfolk, gave L2,000 towards the rebuilding. Of
the monuments in the church, that to the memory of Dr. Newton, Bishop of
Bristol, and twenty-five years rector of Bow Church, is the most
noticeable. In 1820 the spire was repaired by George Gwilt, architect,
and the upper part of it taken down and rebuilt. There used to be a
large building, called the Crown-sild, or shed, on the north side of the
old church (now the site of houses in Cheapside), which was erected by
Edward III., as a place from which t