. During the terrible Gordon Riots, in 1780, Brasbridge, the
silversmith, who wrote an autobiography, says he went up to the top of
St. Bride's steeple to see the awful spectacle of the conflagration of
the Fleet Prison, but the flakes of fire, even at that great height,
fell so thickly as to render the situation untenable.

Many great people lie in and around St. Bride's; and Mr. Noble gives
several curious extracts from the registers. Among the names we find
Wynkyn de Worde, the second printer in London; Baker, the chronicler;
Lovelace, the Cavalier poet, who died of want in Gunpowder Alley, Shoe
Lane; Ogilby, the translator of Homer; the Countess of Orrery (1710);
Elizabeth Thomas, a lady immortalised by Pope; and John Hardham, the
Fleet Street tobacconist. The entrance to the vault of Mr. Holden (a
friend of Pepys), on the north side of the church, is a relic of the
older building. Inside St. Bride's are monuments to Richardson, the
novelist; Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire; and Alderman
Waithman. Among the clergy of St. Bride's Mr. Noble notes John
Cardmaker, who was burnt at Smithfield for heresy, in 1555; Fuller, the
Church historian and author of the "Worthies," who was lecturer here;
Dr. Isaac Madox, originally an apprentice to a pastrycook, and who died
Bishop of Winchester in 1759; and Dr. John Thomas, vicar, who died in
1793. There were two John Thomases among the City clergy of that time.
They were both chaplains to the king, both good preachers, both
squinted, and both died bishops!

The present approach to St. Bride's, designed by J.P. Papworth, in 1824,
cost L10,000, and was urged forward by Mr. Blades, a Tory tradesman of
Ludgate Hill, and a great opponent of Alderman Waithman. A fire that had
destroyed some ricketty old houses gave the requisite opportunity for
letting air and light round poor, smothered-up St. Bride's.

The office of _Punch_ (No. 85, south side) is said to occupy the site of
the small school, in the house of a tailor, in which Milton once earned
a precarious living. Here, ever since 1841, the pleasant jester of
Fleet Street has scared folly by the jangle of his bells and the blows
of his staff. The best and most authentic account of the origin of
_Punch_ is to be found in the following communication to _Notes and
Queries_, September 30, 1870. Mr. W.H. Wills, who was one of the
earliest contributors to _Punch_, says:--

"The idea of converting _Punch_ from a strolling to a