64 



History of the Company. 



an open chamber, or seld, which projected from 

 the general front outhne of the house into the 

 street to the heio-ht of the first floor. The same 

 four walls that contained his stock In trade con- 

 tained his lares and penates ; the same roof 

 sheltered his family and his apprentices. 



Cheapslde was famous for Its churches ; the 

 number of which to be met with In the City 

 before the Great Fire seems to us marvellously 

 out of proportion to the population. Three 

 churches formerly stood In Cheapslde ; all were 

 destroyed In the Fire, but two disappeared en- 

 tirely from the scene and were not rebuilt. These 

 were the parish churches of St. MIchael-le-Querne 

 and of St. Peter Cheap. ^ The former stood at the 

 western extremity of the street, on a spot now 

 occupied by Peel's Monument ; the latter at the 

 west corner of Wood Street. Happily, the church 

 of St. Mary-le-Bow% which was rebuilt after the 

 Fire, still remains to recall much that Is dear to 

 Londoners In the legendary past of their historic 

 City. From the spire and arches of Its tower 

 were hung lanterns at night as beacons to the 

 few solitary travellers that frequented the streets 

 of the City after nightfall ;^ while from the belfry 

 of the same church curfew rang out at nine 

 o'clock each night for centuries, after Henry I. 



^ The parishes of St. Michael-le-Querne and St. Peter 

 Cheap are now joined with that of St. Vedast, with which the 

 Company are still associated. 



^ These are shown in the View of London, 1643, in the 

 Sutherland Collection. 



