Right across the narrow street stands St. Michael's Church with its tall,
tall tower and spire. The body of the church has been almost entirely
recased with stone since I was here before; but the tower still retains
its antiquity, and is decorated with statues that look down from their
lofty niches seemingly in good preservation. The tower and spire are
most stately and beautiful, the whole church very noble. We went in, and
found that the vulgar plaster of Cromwell's time has been scraped from
the pillars and arches, leaving them all as fresh and splendid as if just
made.
We looked also into Trinity Church, which stands close by St. Michael's,
separated only, I think, by the churchyard. We also visited St. John's
Church, which is very venerable as regards its exterior, the stone being
worn and smoothed--if not roughened, rather--by centuries of storm and
fitful weather. This wear and tear, however, has almost ceased to be a
charm to my mind, comparatively to what it was when I first began to see
old buildings. Within, the church is spoiled by wooden galleries, built
across the beautiful pointed arches.
We saw nothing else particularly worthy of remark except Ford's Hospital,
in Grey Friars' Street. It has an Elizabethan front of timber and
plaster, facing on the street, with two or three peaked gables in a row,
beneath which is a low, arched entrance, giving admission into a small
paved quadrangle, open to the sky above, but surrounded by the walls,
lozenge-paned windows, and gables of the Hospital.
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