4-16 LON 
amicable arrangement might be made for their admiflion 
and claliical education there. 
The right of the abbey-chorifters to their education at 
Weftminlter-fchool was nearly extinfl; but has lately 
been recovered for them by the exertions of their nuific- 
mafter, fupported by one of the members of the choir. 
We do '.lot mean to.notice this as a cafe in point. Dean 
Colet’s fchool is a private foundation; and the dean had 
a right to make what exceptions and excluiions he thought 
proper; or to leave fuch difcretionary power, dearly and 
fully exprejfed, to the mercers’ company. We have only 
indulged a hope, that a friendly arrangement might be 
made.—And we now take leave of the lubject by obferv- 
ing', that the prefent enquiry may probably lead to a more 
general invefiigation into the rights of the choir-boys in 
every cathedral in the kingdom; and particularly in that 
of Winchelter, in which city there is (as at Weftminfter) 
a royal grammar-fchool, in which the young chorifters 
have a right to their education, commons, &c. in lieu of 
which, they are allowed a very few (hillings per week for 
their maintenance, as was the cafe at St. Paul’s; befides 
their education at a common day-fchool. That thefe boys 
are under the authority of the head-mafter of Winchefter- 
college is evident from this—that, if in his walks he finds 
any of them doing any mifcbief, or behaving improperly, 
he will inquire their names, and fend an order to their 
fchool-maftc-r to flog them; and, in certain cafes, the late 
Dr. Warton has been known to require the culprit him- 
lelf to bring him a note from the laid fchool-rnalter, tefti- 
fying that execution had been performed ! 
We now return to our furvey of St. Paul’s church-yard. 
—The ground of this church-yard, though at firlt light 
it appears level when you confider it from the top of Lud- 
gate-lireet, is very far from being fo; for the laft Hep 
of the fout’n portico is about ten or twelve feet higher 
than the fame on the north fide; which difference is ow¬ 
ing to the Hope of the hill upon which the church is built. 
Panier-allsy, a palfage from Paternofter-row to Newgate- 
ftreet, is faid to be the h.ighelt point of the hill; and, having 
confulted one of our antiquaries on the fubjefl, he molt 
readily fent us, with a (ketch, the following intcrefting re¬ 
marks,which we lhall lay before our readers in bis own words. 
“ After thegzrf of London, as it is called by way of emi¬ 
nence, had laid watte the greateft part of the city, it was na¬ 
tural for every one to meafure the fpot where the deftroyed 
property formerly Hood, in order to rebuild the houfes 
and churches according to the deeds and leafes ; but more 
efpecially when the re-edification of the metropolitan 
church came under ferious confideration. It was the in¬ 
tention, and a very wife and proper one, of fir Chrifto- 
pher Wren, to place the beautiful edifice he had conceived 
and defigned on the higheft: ground on the hill between 
tlie valleys of Fleet-ditch and Walbrook, but (till as near 
as poffible to the fpot where the Gothic fabric which the 
fire had devoured formerly Hood. In conlequence .of 
this, feveral meafurements were made from the level of 
the Thames at low water; and the refult was, that in a 
little pnflage from Pater-nofter-row to Newgate-ftreet, 
they found the higheft point of the arc defcribed by the 
hill. It is probable alfo, that, from this circumftance, 
fome perfons, wilhing to preferve the information they 
had accidentally obtained, caufed a Itone to be cut, and 
the ftatement to be engraved upon it ; and, in order to 
attraft the attention of palfengers in thi# narrow lane, 
they annexed to it a fort of bas-relief, reprefenting a boy 
upon a balkct, which had probably been placed fome- 
where as a fign in nllufion to the name of the alley. This 
hypothecs acquires ftrength from the confideration of the 
following points, i. The alley was called Panier-altey in 
the time of Stow, (that is, about 1598,) who mentions it 
in his Survey, and lays that it had received this denomi¬ 
nation from a “ figne.” Had the prefent little monu¬ 
ment exifted then, he would no doubt have mentioned it. 
a. The infcribed fto'ne and the boy and panier above ap- 
D O N. 
pear nearly coeval. 5. The panier ami the boy have it# 
allufion to the height of a fpot of ground. Hence it fol¬ 
lows, that the bas-relief and the ftone under it had no 
connection with each other before the year 1688; and 
that the bas-relief was not made antecedently, but confe- 
quently, to the adopted name of the alley. Now, if wc 
confider the figure of the boy and the balket, as they are, 
(not as they have been reprefented in the engraving an¬ 
nexed to Pennant’s London, where only one hand of the 
boy appears, the other being concealed by the left leg,) 
we lhall find, that the whole has nothing to do with a fe- 
pulchral device, as this celebrated author moft unwarrant¬ 
ed']^ fuppofes ; for, upon a near and lined infpeftion, we 
perceive that the boy holds fome grapes or other fruit in 
liis fingers. This particularly induces us to conclude, 
that the panier he fits upon is a fruit-balket; an idea which 
the man who afterwards fculptured the infcription-ilone 
to fupport it feems to have entertained, fince he has or¬ 
namented the Tides with fruit and leaves. Before Black- 
friars-bridge was built, the Surry gardeners ufed molt 
probably to bring the produce of their labours, as they 
do to this day, in fmall barges to the Hairs between the 
wharfs oppolite to St. Paul’s—Paul’s-wharf, Puddie-\ harf, 
&c. and then, in their way to Nevvgate-market, to pals 
through, and reft themfelves in, that Ihort palfage—the 
avenue by Ave-maria-lane being crowded by thofe who 
landed at the bottom of Ludgate-hill, in Fleet-ditch. 
Probably alfo, there was in this palfage a public houfe, at 
the door of which they laid down their fruit-paniers, 
leaving their boys to watch them while they were drinking 
within. This number of balkets with boys fitting upon 
them gave a name to the alley, occafion to the fign men¬ 
tioned by Stow, and rife to the bas-relief now in exiftence. 
This is the molt probable origin we can fugged:; and we 
mult adhere to it till we are furnilhed by fome keener an¬ 
tiquaries with a better explanation. However, fome 
might fuppofe that the next houfe had been for many years, 
as it is now, occupied by a baker; and this idea was 
brought to our min'd at the moment we took the lketch 
(which appears on Plate VII b.) for a baker’s balket full of 
bread was Handing by the fide of this little interelting 
piece of antiquit}', which has been fo often befrneared w ith 
coarfe paint, that the merit of the workmanlhip is hardly 
perceivable. We now conclude, that this fculpture was 
likely to reprefent, in alluiion to the boys’ fitting on their 
fruit-balkets, at the door of the wine-vaults, a Tittle Bac¬ 
chus fqueezjnggrapes in his hands. We lliould not have 
been fo prolix on this fubjett, had we not thought it ma¬ 
terial with regard to the higheft fpot of the city-ground. 
The lketch for the plate was made on the 24th of'January, 
1814. The Iteps reprefented in Pennant’s London have 
difappeared; and, if the ground has been railed and bu¬ 
ried them, we mull naturally conclude that the fpot is 
Hill higher than when the infeription was made! It has 
been conjectured alfo, that the boy was picking a thorn 
from his foot'. A mere inflection of the figure, or of our 
engraving which is correct, will contradict this.” 
_ The general appearance of the church-yard is elegant, 
rich, and grand; and the accefs to it is noble and ealy 
from Watling-ftreet and Cheapfide on the eaft, but rather 
fteep from the fouth, and weft by Paul’s Chain and Lud- 
gate-hill. Befides thefe openings, there are feveral others: 
Dean’s-court from Great Carter-lane, and two narrow 
paifages from Little Carter-lane ; and London-houfe-yard,. 
Canon-alley, and Paul’s-alley, from Pater-nofter-row. 
Thefe lall admit no' carriages: they are like veins, the 
others like arteries, ferving for the communication of the 
reft of the body with the heart of the city. Except fuch 
as take Newgate-ftreet in their way, all thofe who'from ' 
the great extent of habitations on the weft are attracted to 
the focus of bufind's, the Bank, the Royal Exchange, the 
Corn-market, the Eaft-India Houfe, and all the Docks, 
mull crofs the church-yard in their way to their refpec- 
tive offices or places where the grand mover, interell, calls 
them 
