THE OLD CHURCH.

THIS old and venerable church is said to be the first Christian place of worship erected in the county of Middlesex in the eighth or ninth century, and the last parish church in England in which the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion were performed, and the last, also, whose bell tolled for mass after the Reformation.

There is something very suggestive and solemn about an old weather-beaten ecclesiastical edifice. Our reverential feelings are excited as we gaze on the moss-covered turret, or tread the aisle of the ancient building; and such feelings cannot but pass over us as we gaze on the little old church in the Pancras Road -the grandsire of many more stately edifices,* and which had grown so old and wizened that it has resigned its ancient right of being called the parish church to the more commodious one in the Euston Road.

Few persons on entering the narrow and miniature structure could conceive that so small a building could ever have afforded accommodation to the whole Godfearing population of this now immense parish. Yet, with the exception of a chapel-of-ease, erected in Kentish Town in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was the only ecclesiastical edifice in the entire parish, until about the year 1760. It is not known when the present structure was erected, but its date is fixed about the year 1350. There was, however, a building upon the same spot before that date, for in the records of the dean and chapter of St. Paul's we find a notice of a visitation made to this church in the year 1251, stating

* It is said to be the mother church of St. Paul's, but this is denied by some.

"that it had a very small tower, a little belfry, a good stone font for baptisms, and a small marble stone, ornamented with copper, to carry the pax or symbol of atonement." Norden, the ancient historian, in his Survey, says, "Pancras Church standeth all alone, as utterly forsaken, old and weather-beaten, which for the antiquity thereof it is thought not to yield to St. Paul's in London. Folks from the hamlet of Kennistonne (Kentish Town) now and then visit it, but not often, having chapels of their owne. When, however, they have a corpse to be interred, they are forced to leve the same within this forsaken church or churchyarde, where no doubt it resteth as secure against the daye of resurrection as if it laie in stately St. Paul's." Norden's account makes it quite evident that there were no body-stealers in those days, and it also proves the solitary position in which the old church then stood.

The present structure is of the pointed Gothic architecture, and built of stone and flint. It has undergone repairs many times, the most recent of which took place within the last few years, and has given its exterior a comparatively modern appearance, exchanging it from one of extreme simplicity to one of florid elegance and beauty. Internally its ancient appearance and diminutive size strikes the visitor with surprise; he no sooner passes the doorway than he appears to be in the body of the church. It consists only of a nave and a chancel. The chancel, as usual, is situated at its eastern end. Heavy beams support the roof, and upon those over the chancel and the western gallery are written in illuminated scrolls various sentences from Scripture. There is also a very elegant stained glass window over the altar, and on the sides of the chancel are some small circular lights of coloured glass. On either side of the nave

are pointed windows of plain glass, and at the western end is a small but elegant oriel window of coloured glass. The walls are exceedingly thick, and will no doubt last for ages. A narrow strip of oaken gallery runs along the nave, affording accommodation for only two rows of seats. This is approached by a single circular staircase in the northern tower, and its diminutive size is in keeping with the other parts of the building. Its principal monuments are situated in the chancel, though there are some very interesting and ancient ones in the nave; altogether the edifice bears more the appearance of a nobleman's private sanctuary, or some sacristy attached to a baronial residence, than the parochial church of one of the largest parishes in London.

Divine service was formerly performed in this church only on the first Sunday in each month, and at all other times in the Chapel-of-ease in Kentish Town, it being thought that those few people who lived near the old church would repair to London, while those in Kentish Town would prefer the church in their own more immediate neighbourhood, and this was continued up to the present century.

The patrons and ordinaries of this vicarage are the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, who also possess the rectory, which they lease, subject to a reserved rent. It first came into their possession about the year 1100. William de Belmeis, nephew of Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, within whose diocese the church was situated, gave the tithes to the canons of St. Paul's, which grant was confirmed by Bishop Gilbert in 1113, and by Belmeis's successor in the prebend, John de St. Lawrence. Soon afterwards the dean and chapter granted the Church of St. Pancras, with all tithes, &c., to the hospital within the cathedral, founded by Henry