LITTLE DORRIT'S CHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18131, 1 July 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITTLE DORRIT'S CHURCH.

mm MEMORIES OF 800 YEARS. I - ' ■ ■ ' : : '■*•-.£s Once referred to as "Little -Dorrit"? Church," the old parirh church of St. m Goorge the Martyr, Scuthwark, London,* t W has attained the 800 th anniversary of its' . M foundation. The chief modern interest in the church. ■■%■ is its association -with Dickens, who -went mgfl there as a lad and occasionally visited . it in after yeajps. In " Little Dorrit "he 3 made his heroine rest there on the night" | after the party, when she was too late ->|||j to return to the Maxshalsea Prison. Later in the story "Little Dorrit" was- : -:'M married at the church. The church is alsoinofcable as the scene . || cf'the marriage of General Monk, who \'sJ| retrieved the throne for tho Stuarts, and Wn of Lilly, the noted astrologer. In the ' « crypt were buried Bishop Bonner, Cocker, the arithmetician—from whom comes the, ~:M phrase " According to Cocker," and who ||l kept a school close by—and Nahum Tate, mm Poet Laureate in the reign of William The crypt became full up during the cen- & tcry, and 600 hodies were removed to ||j Woking. Some time later the crypi and, -Jm vaults were let for commercial purposes. Maiefactors who died or were executed; j';| | often found their last resting-place in #| Si George's crypt. One of.them, Richard Banks, executed in 1610, was taken to j St. George's in the belief that he was .j r dead. After being three hours in tEe■• ~ i ' -\ | vestry "he did revive again," where? Mm\ upon he was taken back to the prison £§m | to suffer a second execution.