Bell's Cathedrals: The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield A Short History of the Foundation and a Description of the Fabric and also of the Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less

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PREFACE

In gathering material for this handbook I have received valuable help from several friends, whose kindness calls for grateful recognition. My thanks are due, in the first place, to the Rev. W. F. G. Sandwith, Rector of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, and the lay custodians of the church, for the facilities which have allowed me to examine the building in all its parts, and for the readiness with which they have given information, not accessible elsewhere, on various points of its history and architecture. In this matter, besides more personal obligations, I feel that I owe much, in common with many others, to Mr. E. A. Webb, the active member of the Restoration Committee, for the suggestive data of his open lectures, and for the interesting expositions of the fabric by which he has always supplemented them. Others to whom I am indebted are Dom Henry Norbert Birt, O.S.B., of Downside Abbey, and Mr. Charles W. F. Goss, Librarian to the Bishopsgate Institute, for their skilful guidance in the literature of the subject; Mr. F. C. Eeles, Secretary to the Alcuin Club, for the Elizabethan Inventory and account of the Mediaeval Bells; and Messrs. Wm. Hill and Son, the famous builders, for particulars of the organ.

For the illustration of the book, Mr. A. Russell Baker has kindly contributed a selection from his rare set of old engravings, before presenting the whole to St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

The photographic views of the church and monuments, as seen at the present day, were taken by Mr. Edgar Scamell, of 120, Crouch Hill; and the seal-impressions by Mr. A. P. Ready, the British Museum artist. Finally, Sir Aston Webb, R.A., has to be thanked for the ground-plans of the church and monastic buildings; and Mr. G. H. Smith for the plan and dimensions of St. Bartholomew-the-Less.

A list of books and papers is appended for the benefit of students anxious for more detailed information than could be included here.

G. W.

June, 1908

"The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's Church in London, sometime belonging to the Priory of the same in West Smithfield." Edited from the original manuscript, with an Introduction and Notes by Norman Moore, M.D. 1885.

"The Charter of King Henry I to St. Bartholomew's Priory, addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to Gilbert the Universal, Bishop of London, in the year 1133." Edited with Notes, from the copy in the Record Office, by Norman Moore, M.D. 1891.

"Rahere's Charter of 1137." Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by Norman Moore, M.D. 1904.

"The Ordinance of Richard de Ely, Bishop of London, as to St. Bartholomew's Priory in West Smithfield, witnessed by Henry Fitzailwin, First Mayor of London, in the year 1198." Edited from the original document by Norman Moore, M.D. 1886.

Dugdale's "Monasticon Anglicanum" (edit. Bandinel, Caley, and Sir Henry Ellis) is indispensable to the student. The sixth volume (p. 291 sqq.) contains an account of the Smithfield Foundation, and (p....