Autobiography Volume 1 circa 1842-1865
On the we removed our lodgings to Mr Robert
Merryfields, No 15 Glousester Row, Grange Road, wehere we obtained
room for all three of us.
We visited St. Paul's Cathedral and went all
through the lower court. Excepting St Peter's at Rome this is the
largest and most famed in the world.
St Paul's is 500 feet long 20085 feet wide
from North to South 404 high from East to West and
it contains 74 monuments of fine marble erected over the
toombs of certain Lords Bishops Generals and Earls and men
of other titles who have distinguished themselves in the military
service of Great Britian and otherwise. Lord Nelson's
Monument is the largest and most noted of the whole of
the men thus honoured. Their bodies are placed in the
vaults and their monuments erected on the flour above
This cathedral has three lofty spires and the
whole building is magnificient.
St. Paul's church was first built by St Augustine
in the year 610 and was destroyed by fire in 961 and
rebuilt the following year. It was not until the reign of
Athelstan that London became the Metropolis of England
and it was to this King that St Paul's was mostly indebted
for its permanent establishment and pre-eminance. In 1086
it was again destroyed by fire which also laid the greater part
of the Metropolis in ruins. Maurice Bishop of London who
had been chaplain and Chancellor to William the Conqurer conceived
the vast design of erecting the magnificient structure which
immediately preceeded the present cathedral. In 1099 it was
sufficiently built to admit of public worship but was again partly
burned in 1132 and again in 1135-6 and sustained considerable
injury. The central tower was completed in 1221 and additions
was made to the building from time to time. The lofty spire
of the cathedral was fired by lightning in 1444 and not repaired
till 1462 and in 1561 it again caught on fire and the roof
also destroyed. Queen Elizabeth commenced to repair it and
Charles the First completed it at the cost of 104330=4=8; but
under the rule of the Parliament and Cromwell the cathedral
suffered befyond any former example. Its revenues were
