File:Old and new London - a narrative of its history, its people, and its places (1873) (14782131744).jpg

Identifier: oldnewlondonnarr03thor (find matches)
Title: Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Thornbury, Walter, 1828-1876
Subjects: Old Cockspur Street
Publisher: London : Cassell, Petter, & Galpin
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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toCovent Garden; and this, no doubt, was theoriginal St. Martins-in-the-Fields. But this isonly a tradition. More trustworthy is the state-ment that St. Martins was built by order and atthe cost of Henry VIII., who disliked to see the like its sister church of St. Giles, from its situationoutside the City proper, when it was first takeninto the bills of mortality, in order to distinguish itfrom other churches eastwards under the samededication. That there was a church on or near this spotas far back as the times of our Norman kings isshown by a dispute, in the year 1222, betweenWilliam, Abbot of Westminster, and Eustace,Bishop of London, in which the former claimedfor it exemption from the bishops authority—aclaim which was decided by the Archbishop ofCanterbury in favour of the abbot. This wouldappear to confirm the tradition that originally itwas a chapel for the use of the monks of A\est-minster, when they visited the convent whose St. Martinsir thf Fields Sr. MARTINS CHURCH. 151
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OLD AND NEW LONDON. (St. Martins in-the-Fields. garden abutted on it to the east. Be this, how-ever, as it may, the endowments of St. MartinsChapel fell, along with the monks to whom itbelonged, under the ruthless paw of Henry VIIL,who is said, as already remarked, to have erectedin its stead a small parochial church. In 1607 thischurch was enlarged, at the cost of Prince Henry,son of King James L While the Strand was inhabited by the highesttitled families, it is no matter of wonder that St.Martins-in-the-Fields should have been a somewhatfashionable parish in the early Georgian era. In1721 the church was pulled down, and the presentedifice was erected in its-place. It was built byGibbs, the architect of the Radcliffe Library atOxford, and cost nearly ;!^6o,ooo. George I. tooka great interest in the building of the church, andis said to have been so delighted at its completionthat he gave ;:£ioo to be distributed among theworkmen employed on it, and ^1,500 more topurchase an organ.

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