THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1824. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. Mr. URBAN, GREAT FIRE ON LONDON BRIDGE, IN 1633. London Institution, Nov. 9. TRUST that no apology is necesI sary for occupying a page of your valuable Miscellany with the following very curious particulars of a fact noticed by Stowe, vol. I. p. 61. It is faithfully copied from an original Manuscript Journal of Remarkable Providences from 1618 to about 1636, kept by one NEHEMIAH WALLINGTON, a Puritan Citizen and Turner, of London, who lived in Little Eastcheap, and who was evidently a friend of Prynne and Bastwick, having been examined concerning them before the Star Chamber. This MS. which is in my possession, is a 4to volume, of 517 pages, written in the small print hand of the 17th century, and is entitled "A Record of the Mercies of God, or a Thankfull Remembrance." On perusing it, I discovered several curious circumstances relating to his time; but the following Narrative appearing to possess a singular interest, have much pleasure in recording it in the volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine. WILLIAM UPCOTT. On the x1 of February (being Monday) 1633, began by God's iust hand a fearefull fire in the house of one Mr. Iohn Brigges neere tenn of the clocke att night: it burnt doun his house and the next house, with all the goods that were in them, and as I heere that Briggs, his wife, childe, and maid, escaped with their lives. The fire burnquenched till it had consumed all the ed so fearcely, that it could not be houses on both sides of the way from place. And although there was water St. Magnus Church to the first open safely come at it; but all the conduittes enough very neere, yet they could not neere were opened, and the pipes that carried water through the streets were cutt open, and ye water swept doun with broomes with help enough, but it was the will of God it should not prevaile. For the three engines, which are such excellent things, that nothing good: yet none of these did prosper, that ever was devised could do so much for they were all broken, and the tide water, and the pipes that were cut was verie low, that they could get no yielded but littel. Some ladders were broke to the hurt of many: for several had their legges broke, some their armes, and some their ribes, and many lost their lives. This fire burnt fiercely all was destroyed and pulled down to all night and part of the next day, till the ground; yet the timber, wood, and quenched all that weeke, till the Tuescoales in the sellers could not be He states, that "at the latter end of the year 1632, viz. on the 13th of Feb. between 11 and 12 at night, there happened, in the house of one Briggs, a needle-maker, near St. Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a maid servant, setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge, to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses: water being then very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over. Beneath, in the vaults and cellars, the fire remained glowing and burning a whole week after. After which fire, this North end of the bridge lay unbuilt for many years: only deal boards were set up on both sides, to prevent people's falling into the Thames; many of which deals were, by high winds, blown down, which made it very dangerous in the nights, although there were lanthorns and candles hung upon all the cross beams that held the pales together." day 388 Great Fire on London Bridge in 1633. day following in the afternoone the XIX of February: for I was then there my selfe, and a live cole of fire in my hand which burnt my fingers. Notwithstanding there were as many night and day as could labour one by another to carry away timber, and brickes, and tiles, and rubbish cast doune into the liters [lighters]. So that on Wednesday the Bridge was cleared that passengers might goe over. At the beginning of this fire as I lay in my bed and heard ye sweeping of the channels and crying for "water -water"-I arose about one of the clocke and looked downe Fish-street Hill, and did behold such a fearefull and dreadfull fire, vaunting it selfe over the tops of houses like a captaine florishing and displaying his banner, and seeing so much means and little good it did, it made me think of that fire which the Lord thretneth against Jerusalem for the breach of his sabbathday. Jeremiah xvii. verse 27. I did heer that on the other side of the bridge the brewers brought abundance of water in vessels on their draies, which did much good. Had the wind been as high as it was a weeke before, I think it would have indangered ye most part of the Citie: for in Thamesstreet there is much pitch, tarre, rosen, and oyle in their houses. Therefore as God remembers mercy in justice, let us remember thankefullnesse in [Nov. 23. Matthew Harding, Salter. 25, 26. Lyne Daniell, Haberdasher of hatts; a double house. 27. Mrs. Brookes, Glover. wares. 36. John Sherley, do. 37. John Lawrymore, Grocer. 43. Mr. Hewlett, the Clarke at St. Magnus In the same MS. volume, are likewise some interesting particulars of the great plague in London in the year 1625. Mr. URBAN, THE Nov. 6. HE accompanying prayer of Queen think, well de 66 serving of being given to the publick. It is not only interesting as being one of the few religious compositions of her Majesty's which are extant, but from the occasion on which it was written. In 1597 the King of Spain having prepared a fleet for the invasion of Ireland, a navy was fitted out to oppose him, which Baker informs us consisted of a hundred and twenty ships, of which seventeen were the Queen's, three and forty lesser ships of war, and the rest for the carriage of provision: they were parted into three squadrons; Essex commanded the first, who was also chief commander in the expedition, the Lord Thomas Howard the second, and Raleigh the third." The ill success which attended this celebrated fleet is too well known to justify repetition. Elizabeth was, it appears, accustomed on particular occasions to compose prayers for her own use, and of which we have an example in the Appendix to vol. i. of Nichols's Progresses, 2d edit. and also in vol. ii. p. 540 of that interesting work, the one being her prayer after a Progress, 15 Aug. 1574, and the other a thanksgiving, for the memofable 1824.] Prayer by Q. Elizabeth.-Dr. Meyrick on Armour, &c. memorable defeat of the Armada. That which I now send you is copied from the original in her own autograph, in Harl. MSS. 6986, f. 15, and of which there is a copy in Harl. MSS. 7188, entitled, "Queen Elizabeth's prayer at the going out of her Navy, A° 1597" it is chiefly remarkable from the omission of the usual intercessary supplication to the second person, and for its being literally a prayer, the two other specimens alluded to being thanksgivings. Yours, &c. CLIONAS. "O God, all maker, keeper, and guider: Inurement of thy rare-seen, unused, and seeld-heard-of goodnes powred in so plentifull sort upon us full oft, breeds now this boldnes to crave with bowed knees and heartes of humilitye thy large hande of helping power to assist with wonder oure just cause, not founded on Pride's motion, nor begun on Malice' stock; but, as thou best knowest, to whome nought is hid, grounded on just defence from wronges, hates, and bloody desire of conquest. For, scince meanes thou hast imparted to save that thou hast given, by enjoying such a people as scornes their bloodshed, where [of] surelie ours is one, fortifie, deare God, such heartes in such sort as their best part may be worst, that to the truest part meant worst, with least losse to such a nation as despise their lives for their cuntrye's good. That all forreine landes may laud and admire the omnipotency of thy worke, a fact alone for thee only to performe. "So shall thy name be spread for wonders wrought, and the faithfull encouraged to repose in thy unfellowed grace. And wee that minded nought but right, inchained in thy bondes for perpetual slavery, and live and dye the sacrificers of our soules for such obtayned favoure. Warrant, deare Lorde, all this with thy command. Amen." I Nov. 4. Mr. URBAN, SHOULD be sorry to do injustice to any one, therefore I thank your Correspondent, "C.S. B." for setting me right. I certainly quoted from memory, and had thought that Grose coincided in the opinion that had induced Dr. Ward to give five hundred pounds for the shield. But I cannot allow it to remain uncontradicted that Grose's "supposition that the shield was a performance of the fifteenth century coincides with Dr. Meyrick's discovery," as it would appear that my ideas had been borrowed from that author while I suppressed the fact. Now what I have said of the shield is, that it is of the time. of Henry the Second of France, and therefore so far from 389 coinciding with Grose, who considered it of the fifteenth, I assert that it is of the sixteenth century. I will take this opportunity of adding to what your Correspondents “T. A." and "E. I. C." have said in answer to Mr. Duke's observations on the alabaster sculptures, a word on "the incongruity of a two-fold representation of the same person in the sculpture." This was a very frequent practice. In the two pictures in the apartments of the Society of Antiquaries of Henry the Eighth's embarkation at Dover, and his interview with Francis the First, that monarch is several times represented in the first embarking, and on board the vessel; in the second, in his procession through Calais, his meeting with the French King, and his presence with that Monarch at a tournament. But what comes still closer to the subject in question, in my son's possession, is an embossed breast-plate of the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, a beautiful work of art, on which are the Virgin and St. Jerome by the side of one another, each holding an infant Christ. Nor was the incongruity laid aside even in the early part of the last century, for which I refer the Rev. Mr. Duke to the plates accompanying the Gospels in some of the duodecimo prayer-books then printed. Should it be of any service to your Correspondent GEORGIUS, I would observe that the Tewkesbury effigies are of the time of Richard the Second, or latter part of Edward the Third, and, without multiplying authorities, direct his attention to those of William of Windsor, in Westminster Abbey, and William of Hatfield, in the Cathedral of York, children of the latter monarch.-Whatever discrepancies he may find in the costume (if correctly drawn) will merely place the Tewkesbury figures in the next reign. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, S. R. MEYRICK. Gloucester-terrace, Hoxton, Nov. 15. SOME of a little time, appear to of your valuable columns, me to have been unavailingly occupied in attempts to sustain notions to which few of your Antiquarian readers will be disposed to subscribe: namely, that the sculptures engraved in your present volume at p. 209, represent either the Trinity or the Holy Handkerchief, commonly called Sancta Veronica. With 390 Sculptures of John the Baptist.-Lichfield Cathedral. With respect to the first opinion, that these sculptures represent the Trinity, allow me to observe, that there is among the remains of the Church of Rome still extant in this country, a well-known representation of the Trinity, which describes the father as a venerable old man seated, and in the act of benediction, sustaining between his knees the Saviour, suspended on a cross, and a dove passing from the lips of the father to the head of the son as an indicative of the holy spirit. Of this representation of the Trinity, with very few and slight changes, there are many examples yet to be found*; and as paintings and sculptures were deemed by the Romish Church, after she had allowed the use of them, " lewd people's bookes," and their admission was defended by her upon the ground of their being more intelligible to the vulgar than language, I conceive it to be very unlikely that any less obvious representation than that above mentioned, should be employed by her to describe a subject of which she had adopted a well known and well understood symbol. With respect to the holy handkerchief, or Sancta Veronica, allow me to observe, that the many representations of that subject which I have seen, describe the portrait of the Saviour with the eyes open, and the handkerchief as square, and that this is in perfect accordance with the legend; on the contrary, the sculptures engraved in your September number exhibit a sleeping or dead head in a round hollow vessel or dish, and for that reason cannot, I conceive, have been de signed to represent Suncta Veronica. The features in those to which I have last adverted appear to me to point out their true explanation, with which all the parts well agreeing, it is somewhat surprising that it should not have been perceived and admitted by your Correspondents. I take the centre or principal figure to represent a dead head in a dish or charger, which brings us immediately to the History of St. John the Baptist for an explanation of the sculptures. The figures above and beneath the head in the first sculpture describe the Saviour as an infant, and as rising from the tomba correct allusion to the subject of John's ministry. The corresponding *See vols. LVI. 375. LVIII. 9. LXIII. 321. [Nov. figure in the other sculpture is a lamb, This curious subject having been amply discussed, we must now beg leave to close it. From the arguments of our respective Correspondents, our readers will be enabled to form their own opinions. Mr. URBAN, Lichfield, Nov. 18. 295) asserts, that the "whole' of the beautiful West front of Lichfield Cathedral is now of plaster." This is not true; the restoration has been effected partly in stone, but principally, and in the ornamental parts, with the Roman Cement, which is not plaster, but a very different material in almost all respects, though worked by the hand of the professed plasterer. Plaster, it is well known, will not long stand against the trial of weather externally, but crumbles and dissolves before it. But this cement has been found, by long experience, to compose a more hard and impenetrable substance than any stone which can be found in the vicinity of Lichfield, or has been ever generally employed in the works of the Cathedral. To me it seems wonderful, that your Correspondent is not aware of this extraordinary property in the cement, which constitutes so decided a difference between it and plaster. For he professes himself "well acquainted with Lichfield Cathedral;" and certainly there is no person who has visited this building with Architectural curiosity who has not had an easy opportunity of satisfying himself with respect to the durability of this mate 1824.] Lichfield Cathedral.—City Library: rial for a great length of time, and in all exposures of weather. If, with the prejudice which he has entertained against it, but at the same time with a spirit of candid enquiry, he had applied himself to those who shew the Church, or to the workmen employed in it, he would have received such information, founded on the experience of many years of trial, as no candid mind would be able to resist. For instance, when he was expressing his admiration (as he does indeed very handsomely in his letter to you) of the high perfection of the interior ornaments of this Cathedral, at the same time abusing its late exterior decorations, "why, Sir," he would be answered, "you are not aware that 34 years ago all this inside work, which you now admire so much, was in a state of ruin, but the restoration of it was at that time begun by Mr. James Wyatt, and has since been continued till it became what you see it.-Restoration and by what means?"-Ans. by the means of the Roman Cement, this "mean, despicable, detestable substance of plaster," as you are pleased to term it. Thus, Mr. Urban, your Correspondent "B.", if he have any candour, would be obliged to admit the admirable effect and durability of this material as applied to internal decoration. And if he should still doubt the safety of using it in external works, he might be immediately taken by the same conductor to a large window, the tracery of which, above 30 years ago, was executed in cement, and remains at this time in perfect preservation, while one of the mullions that support it, worked in stone at the same time, has evidently suffered by weather. He might also be shewn a great quantity and variety of external work in the same material, put up during the last 20 years, in which it is not easy to find a flaw. Hence, Mr. Urban, from the undeniable evidence of long-tried and oftrepeated experiment, it must be admitted, that the Roman Cement, used at Lichfield in its purity, is a firm and durable material for exterior ornamental building, and that the Dean and Chapter are completely justified in such an application of it, and may safely smile at the terrific prophecy which announces the speedy destruction of their works, like the fall of the Mitcham plaster. Yours, &c. A. C. I 391 Mr. URBAN, Lothbury, Nov. 7... a communication under the siguature of "J.W.S." in your last Supple ment, that the attention of the City of London was directed to a very interesting and important object; viz. the establishment of a Library in their Guildhall; that its formation was actually in progress, and that a Committee of Members of the Corporation was appointed to superintend the same. To you, Mr. Urban, this circumstance must be peculiarly gratifying, not only from your former long connexion with the Corporation, but pleasing in affording an additional stimulus to Literature and the Arts, which has been the pride and study of a long life devoted by you to protect and assist; and I am certain that any assistance you can afford, or any suggestions you can give to promote this very desirable and laudable undertaking will not be withheld; for I am well assured that no one would. be more pleased than yourself to witness this little bantling (if I may so term it) obtain a giant's growth, and worthy that Metropolis whose name it is destined to bear-a Library whose principal object it will be to embrace every thing connected with this vast Metropolis; to trace it from its origin, to mark its progress, to collect in one view its laws, its customs, and its immunities, and high privileges, and to shew the causes which have promoted it to the exalted rank it at present holds, must not only be in the highest degree gratifying to a Citizen, but to every one who is an admirer of the arts, or a lover of his country. To complete therefore so desirable an object, much indeed is to be done, and although the effort may appear Herculean, still the assistance of the many" may accomplish it, and it is with this view that I wish to draw the public attention to it. Had it been formed at an earlier period, as alluded to by J. W.S." it would not now have had to regret the loss of some in-. valuable treasures. There is, however, no doubt, but as soon as it is generally, known that many individuals in private life and public station, in private societies, as well as public bodies, will lend their aid, and contribute largely to its resources; in fact, it is only by measures of this kind that it can accomplish the full extent of the wish of those whose aim it should be to see it unrivalled; and let me ask, Mr. Urban, what |