St. Pancras.]

OVERFLOW OF THE FLEET RIVER.

329

drowned, and for several days persons were the Vestry Hall. The former building was erected obliged to be conveyed to and from their houses, in 1809, at a cost of about £30,000. It has, howand receive their provisions, &c., in at their ever, since then been very much enlarged, and is windows by means of carts." now more than double its original size. It often contains 1,200 inmates, a number equal to the population of many large rural villages. It has not, however, always been well officered. For instance, in 1874, a Parliamentary return stated that out of 407 children admitted into the workhouse during the previous twelvemonth eighty-nine had died, showing a death-rate of 215 per 1,000 per annum !

Again, in 1818, there was a very alarming flood at Battle Bridge, which lies at the southern end of Pancras Road, of which the following account appears in the newspapers of that date:-" In consequence of the quantity of rain that fell on Friday night, the river Fleet overflowed near Battle Bridge, where the water was soon several feet high, and ran into the lower apartments of every house from the Northumberland Arms' tea-gardens to the Small-pox Hospital, Somers Town, being a distance of about a mile. The torrent then forced its way into Field Street and Lyon Place, which are inhabited by poor people, and entered the kitchens, carrying with it everything that came within its reach. In the confusion, many persons in attempting to get through the water fell into the Fleet, but were most providentially saved. In the house of a person named Creek, the water forced itself into a room inhabited by a poor man and his family, | and before they could be alarmed, their bed was floating about in near seven feet of water. They were, by the prompt conduct of the neighbours and night officers, got out safe. Damage to the extent of several thousand pounds was occasioned by the catastrophe."

Much, however, as we may lament the metamorphosis of a clear running stream into a filthy sewer, the Fleet brook did the Londoner good service. It afforded the best of natural drainage for a large extent north of the metropolis, and its level was so situated as to render it capable of carrying off the contents of a vast number of side drains which ran into it. "There still remain, however," writes Mr. Palmer, "a few yards visible in the parish where the brook runs in its native state. At the back of the Grove, in the Kentish Town Road, is a rill of water, one of the little arms of the Fleet, which is yet clear and untainted. Another arm is at the bottom of the field at the back of the 'Bull and Last' Inn, over which is a little wooden bridge leading to the cemetery."

The "Elephant and Castle," above referred to, is one of the oldest taverns in the parish of St. Pancras. It is situated in King's Road, near the workhouse, and is said to have derived its name from the discovery of the remains of an elephant which was made in its vicinity more than a century ago. King's Road lies at the back of the Veterinary College, and unites with the St. Pancras Road at the southern end of Great College Street. At the junction of these roads are the Workhouse and

The St. Pancras Guardians have wisely severed their pauper children from the associations of the workhouse by establishing their schools in the country at Hanwell. In connection with the workhouse a large infirmary has been erected on Highgate Hill, whither the sick inmates have been removed from the old and ill-ventilated quarters.

1847.

The Vestry of St. Pancras formerly had no settled place of meeting, but met at various taverns in the parish. The present Vestry Hall was erected in The architect was Mr. Bond, the then surveyor of the parish, and Mr. Cooper the builder. Mr. Palmer, in his work already referred to, mentions a tradition that the architect, in making the plans for the building, omitted the stairs by which the first-floor was to be reached, and that he afterwards made up the defect by placing the present ugly steps outside.

On the north-east side of Pancras Road, near the Vestry Hall, is the old church of St. Pancras. This ancient and diminutive edifice was, with the exception of a chapel of ease at Kentish Town, now St. John the Baptist's, the only ecclesiastical building the parish could boast of till the middle of the last century. It is not known with certainty when the present structure was erected, but its date is fixed about the year 1350; there was, however, a building upon the same spot long before that date; for in the records belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, in which there is noticed a visitation made to this church in the year 1251, it states that "it had a very small tower, a little belfry, a good stone font for baptisms, and a small marble stone to carry the pax."

Norden, whose remarks on the condition of the church in the reign of Queen Elizabeth we have quoted above, states that "folks from the hamlet of Kennistonne now and then visit it, but not often, having a chapele of their own. When, however, they have a corpse to be interred, they are forced to leave the same within this forsyken church or churchyard, where it resteth as secure against the day of resurrection as if it laie in stately

St. Paule's." Norden's account implies that where the church is situated was then one of the least frequented and desolate spots in the vicinity of the metropolis.

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for July, 1749, in the lines quoted as a motto to this chapter, states that

In the table of benefactions to the parish it is stated that certain lands, fee-simple, copyhold of inheritance, held of the manors of Tottenhall Court and of Cantelows, "were given by some person or persons unknown, for and to the use and benefit of this parish, for the needful and necessary repair of Other antiquaries inform us that the original the parish church and the chapel, as the said parish

"Christ's sacred altar here first Britain saw."

establishment of a church on this site was in | in vestry should from time to time direct; and that early Saxon times; and Maximilian Misson, in writing of St. John Lateran at Rome, says, "This is the head and mother of all Christian churches, if you except that of St. Pancras under Highgate, near London."

In the last century Divine service was performed in St. Pancras Church only on the first Sunday in every month, and at all other times in the chapel of ease at Kentish Town, it being thought that the few people who lived near the church could go up to London to pray, while that at Kentish Town was more suited for the country folk, and this custom continued down to within the present century. The earliest date that we meet with in the registry of marriages and baptisms is 1660,

these lands were, by custom of the said manors, and for the form of law, to be held in the names of eight trustees who were elected by the inhabitants of the said parish in vestry assembled."

There are four parcels of land, the rents and profits of which have been immemorially applied towards the repair of the parish church and the chapel at Kentish Town. By reason of this application a church-rate in former times was considered unnecessary, and whenever the disbursements of the churchwardens exceeded their receipts, the parishioners always preferred to reimburse them out of the poor-rate rather than make a church

rate.

From the survey of church livings taken by order

St. Pancras.]

of Parliament in 1650, it appears that these lands Thomas Ive in the time of Edward IV. enjoyed were disposed of as follows, by Sir Robert Payne, the same office. In the old parish church is an Knight, Peter Benson, and others, feoffees in trust, altar-tomb of Purbeck marble with a canopy, being by licence granted them from the lord of the an elliptical arch ornamented with quatrefoils, manors of Tottenhall and Cantlows Court :-"To which in better days had small brasses at the back, wit, in consideration of fifty-four pounds to them with three figures or groups, with labels from each, in hand, paid by Mr. Richard Gwalter, they did, by and the figure of the Trinity, and three shields of lease dated the 1st June, 9th Charles I. (A.D. 1633), arms above them. This monument was to the demise unto the said Richard Gwalter four acres of memory of Robert Eve, and Lawrentia his sister, the said land for twenty-one years, at twopence a son and daughter of Francis and Thomas Eve, year rent. And in consideration of £27 in hand, Clerk of the Crown, in the reign of Edward IV. paid by the said Richard Gwalter, they did, by Weever, in his work on "Funeral Monuments," another lease, dated 2nd August in the year afore-informs us that when he saw it the "portraitures" said, demise unto the said Richard Gwalter two and the following words remained :acres of the said land for the term aforesaid for the like rent. There was also (A.D. 1650), a lease dated 20th June, 9th Charles I., unto Thomas Ive (deceased), of seventeen acres of the said land for twenty-one years at £17 a year rent; the remainder of which was assigned unto Peter Benson, and was then in his possession."

The money received by way of premium on the granting of the before-mentioned leases to Richard Gwalter in the year 1633, was expended in the rebuilding of Kentish Town Chapel, of which we have spoken in the preceding chapter. The site seems to have been originally the property of Sir William Hewitt, who was a landowner in this parish in the reign of Charles I. It appears by a statement of Randolph Yearwood, vicar of St. Pancras, dated 1673, that the parish did not buy the site, nor take a lease of it, but that they paid a noble per annum to the Hewitts to be permitted to have the use of it.

In 1656, Colonel Gower, Mr. George Pryer, and Major John Bill were feoffees of the revenue belonging to the parish church of St. Pancras. The land belonging to the rectory was subsequently leased by various persons, when, in 1794, it was vested in a Mr. Swinnerton, of the "White Hart" Inn, Colebrook, and then passed into the hands of Mr. Agar, who, as we have already stated, gave a notoriety to the spot by granting short building leases, which created Agar Town and its miserable surroundings, till the whole was cleared by the Midland Railway Company, who are now the owners of a large part of this once prebendai manor.

The family of Eve or Ive, mentioned above, is of great antiquity in the parish of St. Pancras. In 1457 Henry VI. granted permission to Thomas Ive to enclose a portion of the highway adjoining to his mansion at Kentish Town. In 1483 Richard Ive was appointed Clerk of the Crown in Chancery in as full a manner as John de Tamworth and Geoffrey Martyn in the time of Edward III., and

"Holy Trinitie, one God, have mercy on us. Hic jacent Robertus Eve et Lawrentia soror eius, filia Fran

cisci Eve filii

Thome Eve clerici corone cancellarie Anglie
Quorum

When Mr. J. T. Smith, as a boy, made an expedition to this church as one of a sketching party, in 1777, he describes it as quite a rural place, in some parts entirely covered with docks and nettles, enclosed only by a low hand-rail, and commanding extensive views of open country in every direction, not only to Hampstead, Highgate, and Islington, but also to Holborn and St. Giles's, almost the only building which met the eye in that direction being Whitefield's Chapel in Tottenham Court Road, and old Montagu House.

The first mention, apparently, that has been found to be made of the church of St. Pancras occurs in the year 1183, but it does not appear whether it then was or was not a recent erection. William de Belmeis, who had been possessed of the prebend of Pancras, within which the church stood, had conveyed the tithes thereof to the canons of St. Paul's; which conveyance was, in that year, confirmed by Gilbert, Bishop of London. The church tithes, &c., were, not long after, granted by the dean and chapter to the hospital within their cathedral, founded by Henry de Northampton, they reserving to themselves one mark per annum. In 1327 the rectory was valued at thirteen marks per annum. In 1441 the advowson, tenths, rents, and profits of the church were demised to Walter Sherington, canon residentiary, for ten marks per annum; and in like manner the rectory continued to be from time to time leased, chiefly to canons of the church. At the suppression, the dean and chapter became re-possessed of the rectory, which has from that period been demised in the manner customary with church property, subject to a reserved rent of £13 6s. 8d.