interesting anecdote is told of Trelawney's
marriage in 1778. For his bride he took a beautiful girl, who,
apparently without her lover's knowledge, annulled a prior engagement,
in order to please her parents by securing for herself a more splendid
station. The spectacle was a gay one when, after their honeymoon, Sir
Harry and his wife returned to his seat at Looe, to be welcomed home by
his friend Clayton and the servants of the establishment. The young
baronet proceeded to open a number of letters, and during the perusal of
one in particular his countenance changed, betokening some shock
sustained by his nervous system. Evening wore into night, but he would
neither eat nor converse. At length he confessed to Clayton that he had
received an affecting expostulation from his wife's former lover, who
had written, while ignorant of the marriage, calling on Trelawney as a
gentleman to withdraw his claims on the lady's affections. This affair
is supposed to have influenced Sir Harry more or less till the end of
his days, although his married life continued to flow on happily.

Clayton was ordained at the Weigh House Chapel in 1778; the church, with
one exception, unanimously voted for him--the one exception, a lady,
afterwards became the new minister's wife. Of Clayton Robert Hall said,
"He was the most favoured man I ever saw or ever heard of." He died in
1843. Clayton's successor, the eloquent Thomas Binney, was pastor of
Weigh House Chapel for more than forty years. So ends the chronicle of
the Weigh House worthies.

[Illustration: MILES COVERDALE (_see page 574_).]

CHAPTER L.

THE MONUMENT AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

The Monument--How shall it be fashioned?--Commemorative
Inscriptions--The Monument's Place in History--Suicides and the
Monument--The Great Fire of London--On the Top of the Monument by
Night--The Source of the Fire--A Terrible Description--Miles
Coverdale--St. Magnus, London Bridge.

The Monument, a fluted Doric column, raised to commemorate the Great
Fire of London, was designed by Wren, who, as usual, was thwarted in his
original intentions. It stands 202 feet from the site of the baker's
house in Pudding Lane where the fire first broke out. Wren's son, in his
"Parentalia," thus describes the difficulties which his father met with
in carrying out his design. Says Wren, Junior: "In the place of the
brass urn on the top (which is not artfully performed, and was set up
contra