CARRINGTON MEWS,
SHEPHERD MARKET,
_6th December._
Dear Agatha,--Mrs. Darling has announced that she doesn't want to go to
any more dead people's houses. She says they give her a "nasty, sleepy
feelin'". She is, moreover, of the opinion that, in these days, when
living people can't get homes, it's downright wicked to waste bricks and
mortar on ghosts.
She said she wanted to go to St. Paul's Churchyard to see the shops, and
in a moment of weak amiability I consented to accompany her. If my good
nature had stopped at that point all would have been well, but putting
on the brakes halfway down hill is a thing I've never been able to
accomplish, and I was lured into a draper's to help the old lady choose
a blouse for Christmas.
I had never in my most imaginative moments thought of Mrs. D. as a vain
woman, but her conduct over the purchase of that blouse was a
revelation! If she looked at one she looked at twenty; moreover, she
insisted on trying some of them on with disastrous results. Blouses that
looked quite attractive off, assumed a curious appearance of bodginess
when on. The little minx who served us could, I suspect, have explained
the reason. _I_ could only grope for it whilst I watched Mrs. D., with
the help of the little minx, push a fat arm clothed in a cloth sleeve
into another sleeve composed of gossamer fabric which the assistant
called "_Georgette_"!
"It's too tight," said Mrs. D. "'Tisn't my colour neither. 'Aven't you
got somethink in a red silk, with a bit er lace on it?"
At this moment I became conscious of a perfume with familiar
associations, and some one put a hand on my sleeve from behind.
"George!" Then a laugh--you know Katherine's laugh. It used to be one of
her assets, but there's a thin note in it now which betrays her age.
"You look so absurd," said she. "What _are_ you doing?"
"Helping Mrs. Darling to choose a blouse," said I, with a nod in the
direction of Mrs. D., who at that moment was entangled in the georgette
creation which the little minx was removing from above.
Now Katherine may be a cat, but she knows how to behave, and she didn't
turn a hair.
"How sporting of you!" she exclaimed, with a sympathetic glance towards
Mrs. D., who emerged from the entanglements of the blouse like a diver
coming to the surface to take breath.
"That'll be ninepence, and you can keep the change," remarked the old
lady, with a satirical glance towards the saleswoman. (I may add, in
parenthesis, that the offer was not intended to be taken seriously.)
"Talk about skinnin' a rabbit! I dunno who they make these blouses for!"
Then she caught sight of Katherine, and assumed what one might call her
"company smile" with a jerk of her facial machinery.
"This is my sister, Mrs. Darling," said I, "the one who lives in Curzon
Street."
There was a moment's pause whilst Mrs. D. adjusted herself to the
situation, then, getting on the stilts with much more ease than she had
got out of the blouse, she said, "Hindeed! I 'ope you're well and can
get wot you want, mam. Shoppin' ain't ixactly a dream in these days.
They don't seem to make anythink suitable for middle-aged people like
your ladyship and myself."
"But don't you think that's very kind of them," argued Katherine with
undiminished amiability. "You see, they want to help us keep up the
illusion of youth."
"Well, I got a few grains er common sense," announced the old lady,
"and ain't goin' to make a igiot er meself in one er them tom fool
blouses. I know what I want. I got in me mind's eye, but I ain't seen it
in this shop."
"Why not take the advice offered with such dreary persistency in the
tube, 'Get it at Harrods'!'" suggested Katherine.
"A good idea," said I to Mrs. D., "and we'll explore Kensington at the
same time. We haven't been there yet."
Katherine glanced from Mrs. Darling to myself. I foresaw that the scene
would be reproduced for the benefit of her guests next time she gave a
dinner party. She had already grasped the situation and _got_ Mrs. D.
You know Katherine's powers of mimicry. Well, I don't grudge her the
fun. She's entitled to a little return for the two hundred a year she
allows me, and she has a pretty dull time with her eternal round of
so-called gaieties.
"No, we _'aven't_ bin to Kensington," agreed Mrs. D., "and wot's more,
you know quite well, sir, we ain't goin'," with a warning glance in my
direction. "It's quite a haccident your ladyship finds me 'ere with your
brother," the old lady went on. "I little thought when I come out this
mornin' ter buy a blouse I should meet Mr. Tallenach in the shop." Oh,
Mrs. Darling, and I had imagined you a truthful woman!
"Fate arranges such meetings for us," declared Katherine fervently, and
her self-congratulation was obviously genuine. I had provided her with
that most desirable thing in life, a _sensation_, and it is long since
she bestowed on me any invitation so genuine as the one she gave for
dinner that night.
But I had no intention of satisfying her curiosity, and excused myself
on the plea that my dinner jacket had gone to the tailor's to be
pressed. She said there was no need to dress as she would be alone, and
Mrs. D. signalled frantically to me to accept.
I, however, persisted in my refusal, and, with a growing feeling for the
dramatic possibilities of the situation, mentioned that, as a matter of
fact, Mrs. Darling and I usually went to the pictures on Wednesday
evening. There is no telling to what further lengths I might have gone
had not Mrs. D. began to display symptoms of apoplexy, whilst
Katherine's desire for my company became so urgent that, to get rid of
her at the moment, I promised to go to Curzon Street on the morrow.
"I see _this_ comin' all along," remarked Mrs. D., with tragic emphasis,
as we made our way down Cheapside. "You bin and done it with a vengeance
now, sir. I drempt I 'ad a tooth out last night, and that's a bad sign.
I shouldn't wonder if the Countess didn't wash 'er 'ands of you after
_this_!"
I reassured the old lady by telling her the Countess hadn't been so
gracious for years--not since the occasion on which she tried to
manoeuvre me into marriage with a rich woman old enough to be my mother.
In Bishopsgate Street we came to a halt before the giant pair of
spectacles placed over the fronts of the two ancient shops which stand
in the porch of St. Ethelburga. There is no more gracious surprise in
the whole city than that bit of antiquity which breaks the long line of
new buildings in Bishopsgate. So unexpectedly does it occur, and so
unobtrusive are the quaint little shops in their unique situation, that
thousands of people must pass the place daily without noticing them, or
being aware that behind them is the smallest of the eight churches that
escaped the Great Fire. From the opposite side of the road one can see
the west front of the church rising behind the jutting first floor of
the shops, and an inscription that this is "The Church of St.
Ethelburga" invites the curious to cross the road and pass through the
gateway leading to the tunnel-like entrance.
The charm of this hidden sanctuary will reward him for lingering by the
way. It has an atmosphere all its own, entirely unlike the atmosphere
of the typical City churches, with their chill air of having survived
the worship of long dead days. Tucked away so cosily and standing its
ground so sturdily amidst the pushing, elbowing crowd of new buildings
all round, St. Ethelburga's has ready for each person who enters a
glimpse of beauty to refresh the eyes, and a garment of peace in which
to enwrap the spirit.
You pass under the low west gallery, and looking down the nave, with its
pointed arches and clustered columns, see through the fretted screen at
the east end, a red lamp burning dimly against the dull blue altar
hangings. The windows of the nave are almost entirely blocked up, and
pictures hang on the old grey walls. Through the clerestory a chill
light mingles with the yellow gleam of the electric burners below, and
the little building is full of soft shadows, picturesque vistas, and
mystery.
The monuments are few and the names on them unknown. There are no ghosts
with claims for recollection on one's affection or homage. Those obscure
citizens who lie buried within the church or outside it, in what one
might call the church's little "back garden," are content to be
forgotten, but some of their names figure in the parish records, and in
the paper-covered book which one can buy in the church there are such
entries as:--
"John de Weston, called 'de St. Ives,' brewer of Colmanstrete, left 13s.
4d. for the repair of the belfry in 1374, and Matilda Balsham left 10s.
for the building of a porch over the entrance in the year before!" Ten
shillings for building a porch! Money must have gone farther then than
now! Witness the fact that in 1570 the "little shop" on the south side
of the porch was let at a rent of 5s. a year!
Rents, however, went up, even in those days, and in 1577 a certain
George Clarke paid 6s. 8d. a year for the same premises, whilst in 1616
a Mr. John Miller, the sexton, paid L1. Meanwhile the shop on the north
side had been built in 1615, and let at a rent of L4. One would like to
know the character of the business carried on by the numerous tenants
mentioned, but save for one reference to "the eye-man" (which looks as
if the present spectacle-makers are carrying on the traditions), another
to the "little shop," in 1832, as the "Gold Beater's House," and the
mention, 1592, of "Samuel Aylesworde, a glover," no light is thrown on
the subject.
In this same paper-covered book there is recorded the loss of "a curious
sculptured figure of stone," which a few years ago was removed from the
tower to "serve as a guide to the modeller in the preparation of a
silver figure which now crowns the beadle's staff". Who could have
stolen the old figure? What was the motive? Where is it now? Huddled in
a dusty corner in the shop of some dealer in antiques perhaps. Or was it
seized by some zealous Roman Catholic as lawful booty? The ghosts maybe
themselves have appropriated it? I shall never think of St. Ethelburga's
without pausing to speculate, with a pleasant little thrill, on the fate
of "the curious sculptured figure of stone". To find it would be an
adventure after my own heart. One would take up such a quest as a hobby
and continue it until it became an obsession. Think of the hunt for
antique shops where such a thing would be likely to make a temporary
halt. The more obscure the shop, the more heterogeneous its contents,
the more likely to contain the treasure. "Imidges," as Mrs. D. calls
them, would haunt one's dreams by night and lure one to strange journeys
by day. The particular "imidge" which had bewitched you would take on
the attributes of the Philosopher's Stone, and the pursuit of it become
what the winning number in a lottery is to the gambler who hopes with
every fresh stake to retrieve his fortunes. Then, one day, perhaps,
success (which in your heart you had never expected, or, let me whisper
it, _really_ wanted) comes. The solution of the riddle was quite
ordinary, the----
In the middle of my meditations the old lady, who had been making a tour
of the church examining the pictures, tapped me on the back, announcing
she had seen all there was to be seen and that, judging from my looks, I
must have gone out that morning before I got up. The interruption was
not unwelcome, arriving as it did at the moment of disillusionment, and
I followed her out of the church.
Being in the neighbourhood of St. Mary Axe, it occurred to me we might
go on to St. Andrew Undershaft to see Stow's monument. The church is
open from 12 to 2, and I asked Mrs. D. whether she would have lunch
before, or after, the visit. She said she thought "two churches running"
might be "rather dry," and, taking the hint, I came to a halt at the
nearest restaurant.
The beefsteak was tough but the ale was good, and Mrs. D. declared, as
we rose from the table, that she felt quite equal to another church, but
she hoped it was not an underground one. She seemed to connect the word
"Undershaft" with coal mines, and I hastened to tell her the story of
the Maypole, which used, on May Day, to be set up hung with flowers
opposite the south door of St. Andrew's. It must have been a very tall
one, for Stow says of it that the "shaft when it was set on end and
fixed in the ground was higher than the church steeple".
St. Andrew's is spacious, dignified, and rather chill. The windows are a
special feature, and some of them display the coats of arms of various
of the city guilds. I never, by the way, think of those guilds without
smelling in imagination that odour reminiscent of centuries of past
dinners, which hangs about their old halls, remembering, too, Hallam's
words, "The common banquet and the common purse". Here is the coat of
arms of the Merchant Tailors, the Haberdashers, Wool Staplers, and
Merchant Adventurers. (I should have liked to have been a "Merchant
Adventurer".) There you have the ideal mingling of Commerce with
Romance--Romance, with nothing behind it, is as evanescent as the
rainbow, a lopsided article which satisfies no one for long, but that
Romance which is an integral part of the business of living makes for a
solid happiness that wears well.
I am afraid John Stow did not achieve it. _His_ work could not have been
of a lucrative nature seeing that, at the age of 78, he obtained from
James I a licence to beg! There, in the far corner at the east end of
the church, he sits at his writing table, the implement of his craft, a
quill pen, in his hand. A funny little squat figure with a ruff, framing
a small, delicate face, not the face of one able to battle successfully
with a hard world. I wondered how his widow, who erected the monument,
found the necessary cash. But Mrs. D. remarked that no matter how the
poor lived, they always contrived the means to pay respect to their dead
with the "insurance money". _Her_ husband had had three coaches, with a
pair of horses in each, to follow him to the grave, although, on account
of his long illness, she owed two months' rent at the time of his death,
and had pawned the parlour clock and the fire-irons. Such talk seemed to
savour of bad taste, under the circumstances, and I sent an apprehensive
glance in Stow's direction, but he was too absorbed with his task to
look up. How often must he have sat thus in his lifetime writing those
endless pages without which we should know so little of the intimate
history of the middle ages! In his love of detail he was, like Pepys,
chosen to preserve for future generations living documents made of small
homely details. The sculptured face gives testimony to the patience and
concentration of the historian who wrote "The Survey of London". It is
the face of one who, if he made up his mind to discover the difference
between two blades of grass, would pursue that study with the world
tumbling about his ears. It is consistent with the neglect with which he
was treated in life that in 1732 his body was removed from its resting
place "to make way for another". Who that "other" was I don't know, but
this much I am sure--he was a beastly interloper who had no more right
to usurp poor old Stow's last resting place than has the cat to turn me
out of my armchair.
We left the painstaking worker at his task, the white feather of the
quill being the last thing I saw as I turned my head for a parting look.
Does the quill move sometimes in the silence and darkness of the long
nights in the old church? and could I, if I had the eyes, read what it
writes?
On our way back we went into St. Peter's, Cornhill, where the dusk of
the sombre interior makes a rich setting for the lovely peacock blue of
the windows at the east end. As we pushed back the door we were greeted
with the solemn chant of Wagner's "Pilgrims' Chorus," a strange and
beautiful substitute for the roar of the traffic in Cornhill. Who shall
say the City churches are of no use when they provide such interludes of
rest and refreshment for men and women working in the offices at their
doors?
St. Peter's lives in my memory not because it claims to be the first
Christian church founded in London, but by reason of a tablet which I
once discovered there in a dark corner. On it is described a story that
for pathos and terror stands alone in my experience of such things. At
the conclusion of the organ recital I took Mrs. Darling to that spot at
the south-east end of the church where the sinister record is to be
seen. Below the sculptured heads of seven cherubs is the following
inscription:--
"Jane, born 1773. May, 1774. Charles, 1776. Harriet, 1777. George,
1778. John and Eliza, twins, 1779.... The whole offspring of James
and Mary Woodmason, in the same awful moment on the 18th January,
1782, were translated by sudden and irresistible flames, in the
late mansion of their sorrowing parents, from the sleep of
innocence to eternal bliss.
"Their remains, collected from the ruins, are here combined. A
sympathetic friend of the bereaved parents, their companion during
the night of the 18th January, in a scene of distress beyond the
powers of language, perhaps of imagination, devotes this
spontaneous tribute of the feelings of his mind to the memory of
innocence."
We turned away in silence, and we had got the length of the church
before Mrs. D. said, "I wonder wot them parents 'ad done to be treated
_like that_ by the Almighty. 'Tisn't as if you paid yer money and took
yer choice about livin' in this ole world. They didn't ask to be born
neither, did them poor lambs that was burnt."
I wondered too. Did those parents continue to live in an empty world?
Did they even live long enough to forget that night of surpassing
horror?
There was no one to answer these questions, and catching sight of the
caretaker it occurred to me that I had another question to ask which
she would certainly be able to answer.
I had heard there was a subterranean passage entered by a flight of
steps from the belfry, and I wanted to know if it was true.
"Yes, it is quite true," she answered. The passage led "right across to
St. Helen's," but this may be only hearsay, as it has been bricked up a
number of years. Why brick up such relics of mediaevalism? They are of no
use, answers the practical person, so why keep them? and he might add,
just for the edification of a few Paul Prys like yourself. Subterranean
passages, secret drawers, sliding panels, concealed cupboards, all,
alas! have gone out of fashion. They belong to a childish age which we
have outgrown.
Mrs. D. said she had no patience with people who were always putting
their noses into holes and corners, expressing her conviction that such
passages had dark histories in connection with "them monks," and after
this I had not the courage to name my desire to explore the flight of
steps leading from the belfry to the passage.
I think some day, though, I must return, without Mrs. D., and see if I
can get round that caretaker to show me the spot.
How infinitely poorer the city would be without these old landmarks
which have stood their ground so obstinately against the pushing,
vulgar spirit of progress. What would the streets be like without the
surprises they provide? An ancient wall in which there is a door leading
to silence and the company of those for whom the fight is over. A sooty
graveyard where the sparrows quarrel in the plane trees at dusk, and the
mouldering tombstones stir the imagination to dreams and reflection. A
spire or tower rising like a challenge above the roofs of offices and
warehouses. Those old churches--one never goes a walk in the city
without playing hide and seek with them. They lurk round corners and
materialise under one's very nose out of blank walls. They are as much a
part of this city of ours as are the men and women who in the dim ages
trod its streets and made its history. Yet those same sturdy old
churches are, to-day, as criminals awaiting their death sentence in the
dock. There are those who would treat many of them, as poor old Stow's
body was treated when it was moved, "to make room for another".
May such an act of vandalism be delayed until I too have to go that
another man may take my place. Meanwhile, dear Agatha,
I am ever your devoted,
GEORGE.