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ROMANCE has of late years borrowed much from the stores which our antiquaries and topographers have been so long and so industriously heaping up, and with its "wizard" touch has re-animated the dry bones and crumbling particles, till the past has again become the present, and the shapes around which hang so many of our dearest recollections have once more lived and moved before our eyes,— their entire being, physical, moral, and mental, revealed to our earnest curiosity. It is pity that the antiquaries and the topographers, on their part, do not reciprocate such friendly advances. Romance would do much for them. So far, however, are they from thinking so, that, even when anything of the kind comes in their way— is so forced upon their attention that they must notice it-nothing can be more characteristic than their treatment of the impertinence. How suspiciously they peer into its genealogy; how curtly they dismiss it if no flaw be there discoverable; how triumphantly if there be! They want no Rosamond's Bower to bloom for them. The Lion Heart may remain in captivity for ever, rather than Blondel, under such touching and beautiful circumstances, shall discover his abode, and be the means of his relief. So, in the history of the noble church we are about to describe, Mary Overy, plying to and fro between the opposite shores of the great river, before a single metropolitan bridge existed, and devoting her earnings, as well as the earnings of her parents before her, to the erection of a religious house on its banks,-even she, poor maiden, hardly escapes their hands: they would

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deprive her of all honours, based though they be upon nine or ten centuries of grateful recollection. And why would they do this? Why, whilst few traditions are better authenticated than this of the ferryman's daughter, should few or none of the local historians give it frank and hearty credence? Why should most of them make a point of questioning its truth? Let us see what the evidence is. And first we shall call one of their own body (honest John Stow, the prince of topographers, because he has some of the spirit of poetry about him) into court. He favours us with two separate depositions. The first, where he states his authority to be "Linsted, last prior of St. Mary Overies," we have already transcribed in our account of London Bridge;* the other, in which we find some important additions made, runs as follows: "This church, or some other in place thereof, was of old time, long before the Conquest, an house of sisters, founded by a maiden named Mary. Unto the which house and sisters she left (as was left her by her parents) the oversight and profits of a cross ferry over the Thames there kept before that any bridge was builded. This House of Sisters was afterwards by Swithin, a noble lady, converted into a college of priests, who, in place of the ferry, builded a bridge of timber, &c. **** In the year 1106 was this church again founded for canons regular, by William Pont de l'Arche and William Dauncy, Kts., Normans." It will be observed that the statement here put upon record is direct and unqualified; indeed it is highly probable that Linsted spoke not only from the traditional, but also from the written, records of the house, which, being in Latin, were all destroyed a few years after the dissolution of the house at the Reformation, as "superstitious" remains of the Catholic church. At all events, whatever Linsted's story may be worth as regards the bridge, it is, as regards St. Mary Overies, deserving of every credit, because supported by other and most satisfactory proofs. Thus we learn from him, and in express words from him only, that the foundation of St. Mary Overies dated from a period "long before the Conquest." Now, first, it is certain that there was a religious house in Southwark at the early period referred to:-" The Bishop [of Bayeux] has in Southwark one monastery and one harbour. King Edward [the Confessor] held it on the day he died. Whoever held the church held it of the King." And, secondly, it is almost equally certain that St. Mary Overies was that religious house, "there being no pretence," says Bishop Tanner (a high authority), "for any other to claim to be as old as the Confessor's time." Surely this is good evidence; but it is not all. There is much reason to believe that a portion of that very early building still remains. "Recently, when digging for a family vault in the centre of the choir of the church, near the altar, it was found necessary to cut through a very ancient foundation wall, which never could have formed any part of the present edifice; the situation exactly corresponds with that of the House of Sisters," described by Stow as near the east part of the present St. Mary Overies, "above the choir," and where he says Mary was buried. Lastly, there is the name itself. Who is meant by St. Mary? Not certainly the mother of Jesus, for a part of the edifice (the well-known Lady

* Pages 77, 78.

+ Strype's Stow, vol. ii. p. 773.

Taylor's Annals of St. Mary Overy;' a work to which we are bound to express our obligations for much interesting matter overlooked by preceding historians.

Chapel) is expressly dedicated to her; on the other hand, it was a matter of common occurrence in the early ages of the Christian church to enter the names of the benefactors of religious communities in their "canon" books, which names were recited from time to time with honour, and the persons thenceforward held as sancti, or saints; and hence the word "canonization." Such, doubtless, was the process that transformed the ferryman's daughter into St. Mary Overy: the latter word meaning either Over the Rhé (the Saxon word for river), or, o' the Ferry, easily corrupted into Overy, when the bridge had put aside the more primitive method of transport, and the original meaning of the phrase was forgotten. The last is, in all probability, the true derivation; "for in some very ancient records the church is called St. Mary at the Ferry."* So that, on the whole, we think we are fully justified in once more declaring our faith in the history of the ferryman's daughter, and in stating our firm belief that tradition, Linsted, and Stow, are right in this their account of the foundation of one of the most interesting, beautiful, and least known of London edifices.

The second foundation of St. Mary Overies was, as we have seen, for canons regular; and the founders were "William Pont de l'Arche, and William †

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Dauney, Knights, Normans." Aldgod was the first prior. Gifford, the then bishop of Winchester, who about the same period built the splendid palace adjoining, was also a great benefactor: indeed the erection of the entire nave is attributed to him. Others rendered assistance of a different but no less.

* Moss and Nightingale's St. Saviour's.

Canons of the order of St. Augustine, who were less strict in their discipline than the monks generally Their costume was a white tunic, with a black cloak, and a hood covering the head, neck, and shoulders.

useful kind. Alexander Fitzgerald gave two weys of cheese, and his grandson Henry a field of wheat. The ceremonies attending the presentation of important gifts are strikingly illustrated in the instance of the second Earl of Warren, who, in presenting his church of Kircesfield to the new priory, placed a knife upon the altar, in confirmation of the grant. Of the building erected at this period, there remained in the nave, till the late alterations, four massy round pillars (differing from all the others, of a later date, which supported the roof), and the very ancient Norman arch which was discovered a few years since buried in the thickness of the wall of the north aisle, and which led, it is supposed, into the cloisters that extended along the northern side of St. Mary Overies.

In the great fire of Southwark in 1212* the Priory received so much damage, that the canons founded an hospital in the neighbourhood, where they performed all the services of their church until St. Mary Overies was repaired. From this hospital arose the well-known St. Thomas's. About five-and-twenty years after this sad calamity the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen was founded by Peter de Rupibus [Peter des Roches], who was consecrated Bishop of Winchester, at Rome, by the Pope, having previously distinguished himself as a follower of Richard I., and received the honour of knighthood at his hands. On the death of the Earl of Pembroke he was appointed guardian of the young king, Henry III., but was soon supplanted by his great rival, Hubert de Burgh. Of the state of the Priory in the beginning of the fourteenth century there is an interesting record; it is an answer to the application of the king, Edward I., to admit one of his aged servants into their body. They state that they are so poor that the whole of their goods, rents, and possessions cannot afford sufficient for their own maintenance without the "pious bounty of the faithful;" and then continue :-" our church, too, which now for thirty years last past (oh shame!) has been in ruin, we have laboured our utmost about the repairs of, since the beginning of that time, yet we have only been able to proceed so far in its restoration (hindered by vexatious and burdensome exactions, as well in spiritual as in temporal) as to build our campanile. Moreover, through that continued resistance which without ceasing we attempt against the violence of the River Thames (on whose banks our little house is situated), and for the safety of our church, our strength would not suffice for our own security, were the danger not lessened happily on the one hand by a subsidy, on the other by our being immediately furnished by ourselves," &c. † During the period that the monks had been so piously struggling to repair their church, Walter Archbishop of York (in 1273) promulgated thirty days' indulgence to all who should assist them; with what success does not appear. Another ancient record recalls a custom of the Catholic church in the olden times, which must have presented many pleasing and picturesque features. The Priory passed a statute in 1337, restricting the boy-bishop to the limits of his own parish. The personage thus referred to was a child commonly chosen from among the choristers by them on St. Nicholas' Day (December 6), to assume the dignity and perform some of the offices of a bishop, until the following Innocents' Day, wearing all the while the mitre, and bearing the pastoral staff. On the eve * See 'London Bridge,' p. 82.

+ Bundela Brevium et Literam in Turro, London. Ann. 32 Edw. I. Translated in Taylor's 'Annals.'

of that day, the chorister as bishop, and his companions as prebends, walked in procession to the church, preceded by the dean and canons. As he went he was feasted by the people, and bestowed in return his blessing, which was highly coveted.

We arrive now at one of the most interesting events in the history of St. Mary Overies-its restoration about the close of the fourteenth century, when the poet Gower contributed the principal funds. This church was doubtless endeared to him by a peculiar tie: he was married here, in 1397, to Alice Groundolf, by the celebrated William of Wickham, who then held the see of Winchester; and here their ashes repose. A small monument marked the site of her resting-place, according to Leland, which has long disappeared; his is doubtless destined to last as long as the beautiful edifice which enshrines it.

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This monument, now in the south transept, was originally in a part of the north aisle of the nave, called St. John's Chapel, where it was placed in accordance with the poet's directions as expressed in his will. He writes, "I leave my soul to God my Creator; and my body to be buried in the church of the Canons of the blessed Mary de Overes, in a place expressly provided for it."

The gratitude of the canons to their generous benefactor was marked by their long continuing to perform a yearly obiit to his memory, and by hanging up a tablet beside the monument with the inscription " that whosoever prayeth for the soul of John Gower, he shall, so oft as he so doth, have a M and a D days of pardon." Of the sumptuous beauty of this monument our engraving furnishes the best description; we confine ourselves, therefore, to a notice of the inscriptions, and of such other portions as are not there distinguishable. Each of the three

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