BOOK II. Southwark, to be numbered as one of the aldermen of the said city, and to have the rule and government of the inhabitants of the said borough, admitted by that court into the freedom of the city of London. Fairfax marches wark. In 1647, the parliament was exceedingly alarmed by on South- the march of General Fairfax, with his army, towards London, and they and many of the citizens were much disposed to resist him, if they had had the means; but numerous officers and other inhabitants of Southwark, on the second of August, petitioned the common council who had been summoned, that they might not be compelled to assume arms, nor march forth under the command of any but such as should be approved of by the generality of the borough, and that they might be left to their own defence. These inhabitants, not having for some time approved of the proceedings of the citizens against the army, sent privately to the general, that they were willing to surrender the borough to him. Fairfax immediately sent a brigade, under the command of Colonel Rainsborough, to take possession thereof; he was admitted into the works about two o'clock in the morning, when finding the gates shut, and the portcullis let down at London bridge, he planted two pieces of ordnance against the gate, and in a short time the great fort was surrendered.* A vote of parliament was soon after passed for demolishing the ramparts, bastions, and other works of fortification, which encircled the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark. On the restoration, Charles II. was met, on the 29th of May, by the lord mayor and aldermen of London, in St. George's-fields, where a magnificent tent was * Whitlock, p. 265. erected, and in it the king was provided with a sump- CHAP. II. tuous collation. Since the above period, little has occurred to require notice in the history of the borough. In the year 1799, when the volunteer system was commenced, Southwark provided its quota, and made a highly patriotic shew, in the review on Wimbledon common, June 4, 1801, when the late king expressed his high satisfaction at the martial appearance of the volunteers of the county generally. CHAPTER II. SURVEY OF THE PARISHES OF ST. SAVIOUR AND ST. THOMAS. THE parish of St. Saviour is large, extending from London-bridge east to Gravel-lane west, and is divided into two liberties; that of the Borough and tha of the Clink. The original name of the church was St. Mary Overie, or over the river. On the dissolution of monasteries, about Christmas, 1539, the inhabitants of the parishes of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalen, petitioned the king for a grant of the church which had belonged to the priory here, and being seconded by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, obtained it by purchase, St. Savi our's parish. BOOK II. by which means the conventual church has been preserved to this time. In 1541, these two parishes were, by an act of parliament, made into one, by the new name of St. Saviour. The church of St. Margaret was taken down, and that of St. Mary Magdalen, which stood by the priory church, and was originally a chapel to it, was added to that building, and formed a portion of the south aisle until the late alterations. St. Saviour's church. The living may be called a rectory impropriate, the churchwardens receiving tithes since the 32nd of Henry VIII. to the year 1672, when the parish of Christchurch being taken out of this, the tithes ceased; but the churchwardens had power granted them by an act of parliament passed in the 13th of Charles II. 1661, to raise (in lieu of those tithes) and levy upon the parish a sum not exceeding 350l. per annum, to be applied to two preaching chaplains each 1007. per annum; to the master of the free-school 307. per annum; and the residue to be laid out in the reparation of the church. The salaries of the chaplains have subsequently been increased to 2007. per annum each. This magnificent church is built on the cathedral arrangement. The plan is cruciform; it consists of a nave with its aisles, north and south transepts, a choir and aisles, the Lady chapel, and, until the last repair, three other chapels. At the intersection of the nave and transepts are four strong piers for the support of a central tower. The walls are built of flint and stone, repaired with brick work. The western front retains some of the original features: the elevation is of a square form, with turret buttresses at the angles. The principal doorway in the centre consists of a pointed arch, the mouldings resting on small columns attached to the jambs, inscribed within a larger arch of a corres pondent character, the spandrils decorated with quatre- CHAP. II. foils inscribed in circles, the whole bounded by a square moulding; the door is ancient, and richly ornamented with panels and tracery in relief. Above this doorway is a large window, which has been very tastelessly modernized; in the south aisle is a neat window of three lights, with original tracery in the head of the arch; the northern aisle is concealed by a dwelling house. The south aisle is made into seven divisions by buttresses; near the west end is a porch, which, when perfect, formed a beautiful specimen of the architecture of the thirteenth century; it consists of two trefoil arches surmounted by a row of niches; in the centre the bracket for a statue still remains; it is finished with a modern parapet and coping; in Hollar's time it had a gable, ornamented with niches and circles. The other divisions contain pointed windows of two lights with quatrefoils in the heads of the arches ; except the last, which has a window of larger dimensions, and more elaborate tracery; the clerestory is faced with brick, and contains six pointed windows, the mullions destroyed, and modern architraves of stone added; the elevation is finished with a parapet and coping. In Hollar's View, the tracery of these windows is represented as perfect, and the parapet as well as that of the aisle are embattled. The date, 1703, is on a tablet above the windows, and marks the period of the alteration. The west wall of the south transept has three lofty windows, divided into three lights by mullions, and the head of the arches filled with exquisitely formed tracery; the south front of the transept once had a window of large dimensions, and equally elegant in its decorations, the arch of which, part of the jambs, and four of the uprights still remain. Over this window, on a fascia, is inscribed, "This end and the east fronts were repaired, A. D. BOOK II. 1735." The east wall of the transept corresponds with the western one. Between 1822, and 1825, the choir has been carefully restored by George Gwilt, Esq. F. S. A. in a style which does equal honour to his antiquarian knowledge and skill as an architect. A chapel, which was formerly the parish church of St. Mary Magdalen, was attached to the south aisle of the choir: it shewed the architecture of the sixteenth century; it was entirely taken down 1822, and the wall of the south aisle of the choir was made good. The divisions thus formed contain lancet windows, and a pointed doorway of a correct and bold character; the clerestory was rebuilt with flint and Bath stone, most curiously bonded together: the larger buttresses have lofty pinnacles attached to them, which are copied from one existing on the north side of the church; the glazing of the windows is in circles and lozenges, in imitation of the earliest specimens, and is one instance of the general correctness of the additions. The remainder of the south side of the church, as well as the east end, are greatly concealed by adjacent buildings. The Bishop's chapel is a small building formed by a continuation of one of the aisles of the Lady chapel; it displays specimens of the architecture of the thirteenth century; it was much injured by the fire in 1668, and is now in a dilapidated state, being doomed to destruction to make way for the approach to the new London bridge. The east front of the church is an entirely new design by Mr. Gwilt. At the angles are square buttresses; the finish of each is very tasteful, it consists of a pinnacle, formed of an open arcade ranged in an octagon and crowned with a dwarf spire; between these buttresses is a triple lancet window, and the elevation is finished with a gable in which is a handsome circular window; on the apex is a beautiful foliated cross, forming an appropriate |