P A N C R A S. 
318 
hamlet of Hicjhcpatp, lint the InmUlc of Kcnt!ili-iumi, 
Battle-bridge, Camden-town, Somers-town, as well as all 
Tottenham-court-road, and all the ftreets to the well, as 
far as Cleveland-ftreet and Rathbone-place. It comprifes 
about 2700 acres of land, including the fcite of buildings. 
It is bounded by the parilhes of Iflington, Hornfey, and 
Finchley, on the north ; by Hatnpftead and Mary-le-Bone 
on the weft; by St. Giles’s in the Fields, St. George the 
Martyr, St. George’s Bloomfbury, and St. Andrew’s Hol- 
born, on the fouth ; and by St. James’s, Clerkenwell, on 
the eaft. 
The ipcreafe of houfes in this parilh within the lall 
forty years has excited the aftonilhment of all perfons 
who can recoiled! its condition previous to that period : 
for then, as we are credibly informed, there were but 
two houfes between the Foundling-hofpital and the old 
church ; whereas the whole diftance, about a mile, is now 
covered with well-built ftreets. The firft augmentation 
of much confequence happened in the neighbourhood of 
Tottenham-court road, about the year 1765, when all 
the ftreets near Percy-chapel were built. Somers-town 
was begun in 1786, Camden-town in 1791, Fitzroy- 
fquare in 1793, Brunfwick-fqtiare in 1797, Taviftock- 
fquare about 1800, and Eufton-fquare fince that time. Of 
thefe, however, Brunfwick-fquare is the only one that is 
finifhed; Fitzroy-fquare never will be completed accor¬ 
ding to the original plan. 
Kentilh-town has been enlarged more than two-thirds 
within thefe twenty-five years, and a confiderable num¬ 
ber of ftreets have been built between Brunfwick and 
Ruffel fquares, and the New Road. Many houfes have 
likewife been added at Battle-bridge; and hence this pa- 
rifh is now by far the moft populous of any in the vicinity 
of London. According to the late parliamentary returns 
(1811), it contained 6743 houfes, and 46,333 inhabitants ; 
and it is generally fuppofed that the forth-coming returns 
for the prefent year (1820), will carry the numbers up to 
60,000. 
Pancras is faid to have been a parifh before the Con- 
queft ; and is mentioned in Domefday-book. It derived 
its name from the faint to whom the church is dedicated. 
That edifice is of very ancient date, and is certainly the 
fmalleft parochial church in London or its vicinity: it 
confiits only of a nave and chancel, with a low tower at 
the weft end, crowned with a dome : it is built of ftones 
and flint, fince covered with plafter. Norden, who wrote 
his Speculum Britannia1 about the end of Elizabeth’s 
reign, defcribes the church as “ Handing all alone, utterly 
forfaken, old, and weather-beaten:” and, in fome MS. 
additions to his work now' in the poffeflion of Mr. Nichols, 
he adds, “ Although this place be, as it were, forfaken 
of all, and true men feldom frequent the fame but upon 
devyne occafions ; yet it is vifyted by thieves, who af- 
femble there, not to pray, but to waite for praye; and 
men fall into their handes clothed, that are glad when 
they are efcaped naked. Walke not there too late.” It 
has been lately afcertained, that this church was built 
about the latter end of the fourth century: the date was 
found at Rome fome years ago by the Rev. Dr. Champ- 
neys, a former vicar. The church contains fome very old 
tablets and monuments. One in brafs, in German! text, 
is as follows: “ At this pues end here Iyeth buryed Marye 
Beresford, the daughter of Alexander Glover, of Tot¬ 
tenham Courte, and the deare and well-beloved wife of 
John Beresford, Gentleman and Barefter, of Grayes Inne, 
who departed this life the 21 day of Auguft, in the yeare 
of our Lorde God 1388, whole foule is with God, forlhe 
trailed in the Lorde, and repofed her faivation wholyein 
Jefus Chrift, in whome is all peace and reft, all ioye and 
confolation, all filicity and faivation, and in whome arre 
all the promifes, yea and amen.” There are fome very 
ancient, without name or date. We fhall copy one more : 
“ A memoriall both to Danieil Clarke, efq. who left this 
life moft cornfortablie the laft of June 1626, Anno Etat. 
fine 79, having been Mailer Cooke to Queene Elizabeth 
cujQ Cw KLiiig JRUIGS yctiLC) tailed to tliafc Vl 0 t 
for his worthines, beloved there and elfewhere for his 
lioneft heart and open hand ; and alfo of Katherine, his 
good and loving wife, who left this life the 24 of June 
1613, A 0 Etat. fuse 50. 
Reader, before this monumental Hone 
Two bodyes lye interr’d that once were one; 
Whom Death did for a time divorce, 
But now hath married coarfe to coarfe,, 
Their alhes meete in death, and have 
For their new marriage-bed the grave 5 
A third they yet expedl, that fate 
Nor time nor force (hall violate, 
Wher both lhall married and unmarried bee. 
Not to themfelves but to eternitie. 
Then fleep ye happy alhes there, 
Nor let a groane, a figh, cr teare, 
Difturbe your reft, till the glad noyfe 
Of the world waking trumpitts voyfe 
Raifeyou from this dead fleep, and call 
Your dull from this fad funeral], 
To wed their fouls, and foul and bodye bring 
Unto the marriage of their Lambe and King.” 
In this church and in the furrounding cemetery, are 
buried moft of the Roman Catholics who die in the me¬ 
tropolis, among whom are feveral eminent French refu¬ 
gees. Here alfo reft the alhes of Jeremy Collier, the per¬ 
tinacious non-juror ; and William Woollet, the celebrated 
engraver, whole monument, in the cloifters of Weftmin- 
fter-abbey, is criticifed under our article London, vol. xiih 
P- 557 - 
The church-yard was enlarged in 1793, by the addition 
of a large piece of ground to the fouth-eall, in which is 
to be l'een the monument of Airs. Godwin, (the cele¬ 
brated Mary Woolftonecraft,) the author of the Rights 
of Woman, and of other publications which excited ge¬ 
neral attention : fire died in child-bed, September 10,1797, 
in her forty-ninth year. Here likewife were buried the 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary ; the celebrated Corfican general 
Paoli, who died in 1807, aged eighty-two years ; the Che¬ 
valier d’Eon, 1810, aged eighty-three years ; Mr, Edwards, 
author of a Treatife on Perfpedive ; Tiberias Cavallo, a 
well-known writer on fubjeds of Natural Philofophy ; 
Air. John Walker, author of the Pronouncing and Rhy¬ 
ming Didionaries ; and many other perfons of eminence 
for their aftions or their writings. 
The deficiency in the flzeof the parilh-church has been 
in fome degree fupplied by chapels diftributed in different 
quarters : the principal of thefe are—Kentilh-town cha¬ 
pel ; Percy-chapel, near Tottenham-court-road ; Fitzroy- 
chapel; Wo.burn-chapel; Bethel-chapel, at Somers-town ; 
St. James’s Chapel; and St. Giles’s chapel belonging to 
the parilh of St. Giles’s in the Fields. The large.metho- 
dift-chapel in Tottenham-court-road, called Whitfield’s 
Tabernacle, is alfo within this parilh : it contains a mo¬ 
nument commemorating his pious labours. Several bu- 
rying-grounds annexed to other parilhes are likewife lo¬ 
cally fituated.in Pancras; as the cemeteries of St. Andrew, 
Holborn, St. George the Martyr, and St. George’s 
Bloomlbury. 
At length it has been thought proper to build a new 
church in a more central part of the parilh. This edi¬ 
fice, which is now pretty well advanced, will form the 
fouth-eaft fide of Euilon-fquare, the New Road dividing 
it from the north-weft fide. It is of plain Grecian archi- 
tedure, and will be capable of containing upwards of 
four thoufand perfons. We have been favoured with a 
drawing of the church, as it is to be when completed, 
which is reprefented on the annexed Engraving. The 
portico, which fronts the weft, is copied from the Erech- 
theum, or Temple of Neptune Erechtheus, at Athens; 
(fee Athens, vol. ii. p. 468.) The tower is to referable 
that of the Temple of the Winds ; and the entrance to 
the vaults is to have cyprefs pillars after the manner ot 
fome 
