Parsons, who was suspected of causing the ghostly sounds, was spirited away from her home and taken to the crypt of St. John's Church, close by the square of that name. There Dr. Samuel Johnson and others of prominence who had taken deep interest in the affair, by inducement, argument and threats, cleared up the deception. It was learned that the girl had taken a board into bed with her and by scratching upon it had produced the mysterious sounds. As a result of the exposure, Parsons was prosecuted for imposture, and condemned to stand three hours in the pillory.

The Martyrs' Memorial—Smithfield

Wide-spreading Smithfield Market stretches over ground that for centuries has witnessed scenes of butchery, both human and animal. It was originally a "smoothfield" beyond the wall of the City, where tournaments took place, and where Bartholomew Fair was held annually for more than seven centuries until its extinction in 1855. This Fair, planned to foster trade and establish useful relations in buying and selling, degenerated into an excuse for unrestrained license and pleasure seeking. In the 13th century, Smithfield became a place of public execution, the forerunner of Tyburn and Newgate, and on this ground was beheaded in 1305, William Wallace, the Scotch patriot, hero of Jane Porter's once famous "Scottish Chiefs." It was here, too, that Wat Tyler was slain by Lord Mayor Sir William Walworth in 1381; here too Protestants were burned at the stake in the days of "Bloody Mary," and Nonconformists in Queen Elizabeth's time. To the south of the market there is an open square, and in the centre of this is a statue erected as a memorial to the Martyrs. Smithfield came to be the great cattle mart of London, and so remained until 1855 when it was removed and the present market soon after established.

The Square, where stands the memorial to the Martyrs, is between the market and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, the oldest institution of its kind in London and one of the wealthiest. Rahere, the favourite of Henry I., founded it in 1123, and it has been restored in parts and enlarged many times. You can see above the west gate the statue of Henry VIII. where it was set when the gate was built in 1702. Close by in the wall is a commemorative tablet that recites the burning of the Protestant martyrs. Many world famous men have been connected with the Hospital. Sir Richard Owen, noted as an anatomist was a surgeon here, and so was Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of the blood.

St. Bartholomew the Less is the name of the church inside of the walls of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. This church was built by Rahere, but has been modernized several times and[Pg 33]
[Pg 34] partly rebuilt in 1824. It was here, that Inigo Jones, the great architect, was baptised.

Quaintly picturesque in its location is the mediæval burying ground of St. Bartholomew the Great; its monuments crumbling to decay, its greenery growing rank—a strangely hidden spot, hemmed in by church walls, and on one side by tottering, hundreds-of-year-old buildings whose seething humanity makes the place the more ancient by contrast. The church of St. Bartholomew the Great, of which this is the old time burying ground, lies hidden beyond the West Smithfield houses, hemmed in by the overcrowded human hives of Little Britain and Cloth Fair. From some points, just a glimpse can be had of its ancient red brick tower. This church is very old, next to the chapel in the Tower the oldest in London, founded by Rahere in 1123. Entrance to it is through an Early English gateway between the houses of West Smithfield, and so past the mouldering graveyard. The overhanging houses of Cloth Fair seem to have turned their backs on this home of long dead people.

Like a wraith of bygone romance is dingy Cloth Fair, with its lath-and-plaster houses and the tottering remains of the grandeur of other days. Once the habitation of merchant princes and their wealthy neighbours, it has degenerated into the abode of swarming small tradesmen and day workers whose scant means find expression in ugliness and penury. In this street, in times when the Bartholomew Fair held yearly sway in Smithfield, the quaintly named "Court of Pie Powder" was held, where licenses were granted for the Fair and where weights and measures were corrected.

Exterior of the Dining Hall, Charterhouse

The ancient and picturesque Charterhouse extends over the ground once used as a field in which were buried victims of the Plague. Parts of the Charterhouse have been there since 1371, and the buildings of to-day have been gradually added during the passing centuries. This was originally a Carthusian monastery, but after its dissolution in 1537, the property passed through many hands before it came to that of a wealthy coal owner of the North, Thomas Sutton, in 1611, who here set up his school for "40 poor boys" and "80 poor men." Thackeray's Colonel Newcomb was one of the "poor boys." The school occupied the buildings until 1872 when it was transferred to Surrey, and the place is now an almshouse for the "poor men" and for the Charterhouse School of the ancient Merchant Taylors' Company.

Gothic St. John's Gate, a mediæval survival in St. John's Lane out of Clerkenwell Road, is all that remains of a priory which was the chief English seat of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and which was erected in 1504. Dr. Johnson lived in a room over the old gateway in 1731, and did hack work for Cave, the founder of the "Gentleman's Magazine," whose office was here also. Nowadays the building is headquarters for the Order of St. John which is engaged in hospital work.

The church of St. John in nearby St. John's Square, was built upon a crypt which was part of the old priory church of the Knights of St. John. The crypt is still to be seen, and it was here that the final exposure of the Cock Lane Ghost was made by Dr. Johnson.

Delightful memories of Dickens' folk crowd strong upon the journeyer into Goswell Road beyond St. John's Square, for it was in this thoroughfare that Mr. Pickwick lodged with Mrs. Bardell.

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TWO

On the Way to Great St. Helen's

The eastern section of the General Post Office stands on the site of the ancient church and sanctuary of St. Martin's, commemorated in the street of St. Martin's-le-Grand. This sanctuary was the outcome of a very old custom—a place consecrated, where criminals who sought refuge within its precincts were protected from all law. The Sanctuary of St. Martin's was founded in the days of Edward the Confessor, and came to have a most unsavoury reputation, for the rights of sanctuary brought a great gathering of criminals of every sort and people of the lowest degree. Within the shelter of the Sanctuary of St. Martin's, Miles Forest, one of the murderers of the princes in the Tower, took refuge and finally died.

The quiet little garden beside the church of St. Botolph Without Aldersgate, was built over the graveyard that surrounded the church for more than half a century. The church has stood here since 1796, and the garden spot of to-day is called Postman's Park, because of the many employes from