There stood I only to receive Abuse, CHURCH OF ST. MARY LE STRAND. After the demolition of the old church of St. Mary le Strand, as mentioned in the account of Somerset House, the parishioners were obliged to join the congregations in the Savoy and other neighbouring districts, until the erection of the present church, under the commission for building fifty new churches, issued in Queen Anne's reign. This was the first so built, but it was made the subject of a particular act, passed in July, 1713, for " a new Church near the May Pole in the Strand." Part of the ground was purchased of John Walker, Esq. for 244l. 11s. 1d., and the first stone was laid on the 25th of February, 1714 the steeple was completed in September, 1717, but the church was not consecrated till the 1st of January, 1723. The charge of erecting it amounted to 16,341. 1s. 2d. : The prominent situation of this building has occasioned it to be subjected to much severe criticism ; not undeserved, probably, in respect to its merits as an architectural composition, but the architect him Ibid. Malcolm states that the new May Pole was taken down in May, 1718, and then relates the same particulars as Strype has done respecting the removal of the Pole to Wanstead Park, self is far less to blame than is generally imagined. He had the caprices of the Commissioners to consult, and it was their determination to spare no cost “to beautify it," on account of its being situated in such a very public place. Hence every part is loaded with a redundancy of ornaments, and the eye, having no repose, seeks in vain for that harmonious simplicity which conduces to elegance. The oblong plan of the steeple is, also, extremely objectionable, and, as Gwynn remarks, it forms "a confused jumble of rich parts, piled one upon another without any regard to the shape of the whole," and having the "additional fault" of appearing "to stand on the roof of the church."* Gibbs, the architect of this building, says, that it was the first on which he was employed after his arrival from Italy. He states, likewise, that it was originally intended to have had only a small campanile, or bell-tower, over the west end, and no steeple. Instead of the latter, a majestic column, 250 feet high, was to have been erected in honour of Queen Anne, at the distance of 80 feet from the west front of the church. On the top, the Queen's statue was to have been placed, and a great quantity of stone was brought to the spot for laying the foundations of the column, but after her Majesty's decease the design was relinquished, and the architect was ordered to erect a steeple in place of the * "London and Westminster Improved," p. 46. + Vide, his "Book of Architecture," p. vii. campanile first proposed. "The building," continues Gibbs, being then advanced twenty feet above ground, and therefore admitting of no alteration from east to west, which was only fourteen feet, I was obliged to spread it from south to north, which makes the plan oblong, which otherwise should have been square." The exterior of this edifice consists of two stories, or orders, an Ionic one below, and a Composite one above, the entablature of which is surmounted by a balustrade crowned by large urns.* Within the intercolumniations of the lower story, the walls " being solid, to keep out noises from the street," are ornamental niches. With the latter, the windows of the upper story correspond in situation, and they are enriched by pilasters, pediments, (both angular and circular,) &c., but the entablature is too much broken into parts by those adornments. At the west end is a semicircular portico of the Ionic order, ascended by a flight of steps, and crowned by a flaming urn. A pediment, supported by Corinthian columns, ornaments the upper story of this front. The steeple is lofty, and consists of three receding stories, surmounted by a vane. There is an air of much grandeur in the interior of this church, but its architectural character is too florid. The side walls display two ranges of pilasters, with their proper entablatures, the lower order being Corinthian, the upper order, Composite: the inter During the Procession to proclaim Peace in 1802, a sad calamity occurred by one of these urns having been accidentally pushed down on the assembled multitude below : three persons were killed, and several others much hurt. columniations of the latter, contain semicircular headed windows and pannels alternately, with entablatures and enrichments complete. The ceiling is semi-oval, crowded with stuccoed ornaments, in lozenge-shaped and square compartments: at the sides small arches open over each window. The east end, or altar part, which is semicircular, is flanked with duplicated columns of the above order, supporting a pediment containing the royal arms of George I.: interiorily, it consists of a Corinthian story only, having tables of the Decalogue, &c. within the central intercolumniations, and in the cove, or arch, of the ceiling, is the triangular symbol of the Trinity, glorified, with cherubim and other enrichments. The windows are hung with crimson drapery, and in the side intercolumniations are paintings of the Annunciation and the Passion, by Brown. ANECDOTES OF GENERAL MONCK AND ANNE CLARGES, It was mentioned in a preceding article, that the raising of the Strand May Pole has been assigned to John Clarges, a blacksmith, whose daughter had the good fortune to become the wife of General Monck, afterwards Duke of Albemarle. The following sirgular circumstances respecting that alliance are related in the "Gentleman's Magazine," for the year 1793, as having appeared in evidence in the Court of King's Bench, on the 15th of November, 1700, during the trial of an action of trespass, between William Sherwin, plaintiff, and Sir William Clarges, Bart, and others defendants. The plaintiff, as heir and representative of Thomas Monk, Esq. elder brother of George, Duke of Albemarle, claimed the manor of Sutton, in the county of York, and other lands in Newton, Eaton Bridge, and Shipton, as heir at law to the said Duke, against the defendant, devisee under the will of Duke Christopher, his [the Duke's] only child, who died in 1688, sine prole. Upon this trial some very curious particulars came out respecting the family of Anne, wife of George, created Duke of Albemarle. It appeared that she was daughter of John Clarges, a farrier in the Savoy, and farrier to General Monk. In 1632 she was married in the church of St. Laurence Pountney to Thomas Ratford, son of Thomas Ratford, late a farrier, servant to Prince Charles, and resident in the Mews. She had a daughter, who was born in 1634, and died in 1638. Her husband and she lived at the Three Spanish Gipsies, in the New Exchange, and sold wash-balls, powder, gloves, and such things, and she taught girls plain work. About 1647, she, being a sempstress to Colonel Monk, used to carry him linen. In 1648, her father and mother died. In 1649, she and her husband fell out, and parted.' But no certificate from any parish register appears reciting his burial. In 1652, she was married in the church of St. George, Southwark, to General George Monk;' and, in the following year, was delivered of a son, Christopher (afterwards the second and last Duke of Albemarle, above mentioned,) who' was suckled by Honour Mills, who sold apples, herbs, oysters, &c.' One of the plaintiff's witnesses swore, that' a little before the sickness, Thomas Ratford demanded |