1806. ] 
For the Monthhf Magazine. 
LONDINIANA. 
No. V. 
PEWS IN CHURCHES. 
 CTOWE fays, that about the year 
; 1520, half of the church of Saint 
Andrew Underfhaft was rebuilt by Ste- 
phen Gennings, Mayor of London, ** and 
the PEWES in the fouth chapcll made of 
his cofis, as appcar-th in every window, 
and upon the faid pewes.”-—(Surv. Lond. 
p. 109. Eli’. 1599. 4to.)—That is, he 
furnifhed the fouth chapel with a. fet of 
uniform benches, or fub/ellia, for the ge- 
neral ufe of the parifhioners. Before the 
Reformation benefastions were o‘ten be- 
queath-d for feating a church in this man- 
ner. Blomfield cites legacies about the 
year 1502, for flolyng various parts of the 
church of Swafham, in Norfotk, the 
choir b-ing fitted up. with ftalls.—(Hift. 
Norf. iii. g511.)——That is for fooling, or 
benching, various parts of the church. 
Particularly for making ‘ all the gret 
fiolys of borh fydes the myd alley—(p. 
512.) Lord Bacon fomewhere fays, that 
Sir Thomas More when at mals fite inthe 
chancel, and h's lady in a pew. He 
means, that fhe fate in one of the com- 
mon pari/b feats, without, and in the 
nave. Weever, who lived in the reigns 
of El'zabe:h and James the Firft, fpeak- 
ing of epitaphs on the pavements of 
churches in and about London, his the 
following paffige: ‘* Many monuments 
are coucred with feates or pewes, made 
high and eafie for parifhioners to fit or 
fleepe in, a fafhicn of no long continu 
ance, and worthy of reformation.” — 
(Fun. Mon. p. 7o1. Edit. 1631.)—See 
Warton’s Hift of Kiddington, p. §. 
RED CROSS-STREET. 
Mr. Pennant fays, ‘* This was one of 
the antient reets. In it the mitred ab- 
bot of Ramfey had his town houle. It 
was afterwards called Diury Houle, from 
its haying been in after times the refidence 
of Sir Drue Drury .”"—( Account of Lon- 
don, p. 254.) Whether this was the 
fame which was called Bas-Court, granted 
by rhe King in fee to Robert de Uffurd, 
Earl of Suffolk, 15 Edw. III. does not 
apoear.—(Pat. 15. Edw. Til. p 2. m. 
44.)—-This latter in the 30th of Hen. 6, 
1452, was in the pofieffion of Robert Wil- 
loughby. 
The ttreet itfelf feems to have taken its 
name from a crofs which formerly adorned 
it. A deed, of the thirteenth century, in 
an ancient chartulary once belonging to 
N 
Londiniana. 507 
the nuns of Clerkenwell, recites a gift of 
Alan dela Welle, of a houfe in Old-ftreety . 
“ verfus rubeam Crucem.” 
Sir Thomas More, in ‘ The pittiful 
Life of King Edward the Fifth,” Lond. 
1641, 12mo. p.27, Mentions a circum- 
ftance which occurred here at the clofe of 
Edward the Fourth’s reign, worth relat- 
ing, as it points at Richard's a‘piring to 
the throne at aiime when it is ufually 
fuppofed he had no ambition for it.— 
‘s And firft to thew you, that by conjec- 
ture he pretended this thing in his bro- 
ther’s life, yee fhall underftand for a truth 
that the fame night that King Edward 
dyed, cne called Miflelbrooke, long ere 
the day Sprung, came to the houfe of one 
Portier dwelling in Red Croffe-ftreet, 
without Cripple Gate of London, and 
when he was w:th hatty vrapping quickly 
let in, the faid Miftelbrooke fiewed unto 
Pottier that king Edward was that night 
deceafed. ‘ By my truth,” quoth Pottier, 
‘then will my matter, the Duke of Glou- 
cefter, be king, and that I warrant thee.” 
What caufe he had fo to think, hard it is 
to fay, whether hee being his fervant, 
knew any fuch thing pretended, or other- 
wife had any inkling thereof, but of all 
Jikelibood {pake it not of ought.” 
RICHARD WHITTINGTON. 
Among the returas of chantries, and 
the appropriation of money for religious 
purpofcs in the 2d of Edward the 6h, 
#548, was the following by the Mercers’ 
Company. 
_  Paide yerely for the obitte of Maf- 
ter Whittington, for fpicet brede with 
the fpices and whyte bunes and burter, 
with other thinges there'o apperteyninge, 
xli,. vij*. For perres, apples, pvfkattes, 
chefe, ale and wyne; a:d the buttclers 
fee, with other thmges, xxviljs. Vilfge 
For waxe and ringing ot bells ij*. To the 
poor m-n for to offer xiuj*. To the Lord 
Maior of London vjs. vi*. To the thre 
warde s of the Meicers ij. And ta the 
rent warden xlS. To the clake of the 
Mercers vjs. viij*. And as tor prieftes 
and clarkes we never paid nome . . o 
PRATER EAE LAPS 
ALDERSGATE. 
Vertue found that at the period when 
N rhumberland Houfe was built, lived 
Gerard Chritmas, an arehite& and carver 
of reputation, who gave the defign for 
Alderigate, and cut the bas-relief on it 
of James the Firft on harieback.——(See 
Lord Orfori*s Works, vol iii, p. 173.) 
OLD PALACE AT WESTMINSTER, 
The beauty of the old palace at Wett- 
minfter may be gathered froma fragment 
14 . in 
