t deep near Basing Lane, New
Cannon Street.

According to Dugdale, Eudo, Steward of the Household to King Henry I.
(1100-1135), gave the Church of St. Stephen, which stood on the west
side of Walbrook, to the Monastery of St. John at Colchester. In the
reign of Henry VI. Robert Chicheley, Mayor of London, gave a piece of
ground on the east side of Walbrook, for a new church, 125 feet long and
67 feet broad. It was in this church, in Queen Mary's time, that Dr.
Feckenham, her confessor and the fanatical Dean of St. Paul's, used to
preach the doctrines of the old faith. The church was destroyed in the
Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in 1672-9. The following is one of the
old epitaphs here:--

"This life hath on earth no certain while,
Example by John, Mary, and Oliver Stile,
Who under this stone lye buried in the dust,
And putteth you in memory that dye all must."

[Illustration: OLD SIGN OF THE "BOAR'S HEAD" (_see page 561_).]

The parish of St. Stephen is now united to that of St. Bennet Sherehog
(Pancras Lane), the church of which was destroyed in the Fire. The
cupola of St. Stephen's is supposed by some writers to have been a
rehearsal for the dome of St. Paul's. "The interior," says Mr. Godwin,
"is certainly more worthy of admiration in respect of its general
arrangement, which displays great skill, than of the details, which are
in many respects faulty. The body of the church, which is nearly a
parallelogram, is divided into five unequal aisles (the centre being the
largest) by four rows of Corinthian columns, within one
intercolumniation from the east end. Two columns from each of the two
centre rows are omitted, and the area thus formed is covered by an
enriched cupola, supported on light arches, which rise from the
entablature of the columns. By the distribution of the columns and their
entablature, an elegant cruciform arrangement is given to this part of
the church. But this is marred in some degree," says the writer, "by the
want of connection which exists between the square area formed by the
columns and their entablature and the cupola which covers it. The
columns are raised on plinths. The spandrels of the arches bearing the
cupola present panels containing shields and foliage of unmeaning form.
The pilasters at the chancel end and the brackets on the side wall are
also condemned. The windows in the clerestory are mean; the enrichments
of the meagre entablature clumsy. The fine cupola i