| 300 | M A R | |
additional epithet of White. We read of
this church in 1329, and the first chapel
was probably of much greater antiquity.
The church was anciently denominat-
ed St. Mary Matfellon, a name which
some have ridiculously supposed was de-
rived from the women of the parish hav-
ing killed a Frenchman, about the year
1428, for murdering and robbing his be-
nefactress, a religious widow, who had
generously brought him up almost from
his infancy: but this church was known
by this name above an hundred years be-
fore this bloody catastrophe. Mr. Strype,
therefore, in his edition of Stowe's Survey,
with greater appearance of reason derives
the name from the Hebrew or Syriac word
Matfel, which signifies a woman who has
lately brought forth a son; alluding to
Mary's being delivered of our Saviour:
however, this name has given way to the
more ancient one of Whitechapel, which
is even given to the long street by which
the edifice is situated.
The old church being in a very ruinous
condition in 1673, it was taken down
and rebuilt in the present form. It is a
coarse and very irregular building. The
body, which is built with brick, and or-
namented with stone rustic work at the
corners, is ninety-three feet in length;
|
| | sixty |
|
| M A R | 301 |
sixty-three in breadth; and the height of
the tower and turret eighty feet. The
principal door is adorned with a kind of
rustic pilasters, with cherubims heads by
way of capitals, and a pediment above.
The body has many windows, which are
of various forms and different sizes, a sort
of Venetian, oval and square. The square
windows have ill-proportioned circular
pediments, and the oval, or more properly
elliptic windows (some of which stand up-
right, and others crosswise) are surround-
ed with thick festoons. The steeple,
which is of stone, and appears to be a part
of the old structure, rises above the prin-
cipal door, and is crowned with a plain
square battlement; in the center of which
rises a small turret with its dome and fane.
English Architecture.
This church is a rectory, in the gift of
the Principal and Scholars of King's Hall
and Brazen Nose College, Oxford. The
Incumbent's profits, according to Mr.
Maitland, amount to about 350l. per
annum.
St. MARY WOOLCHURCH-HAW, stood on
the east side of Stocks market, in Wal-
brook ward, and received its additional
appellation from a beam in the church
yard for the weighing of wool; for in that
church yard was anciently kept the wool
|
| | staple: |
|
HomeVolume IVPage Group 300 - 319
