Within The Shadow Of The Shaft.

happily terminated is not without a memento . Over against the wall of the " Fortune of War" public-house , at the corner of Cook Lane , West Smithfielcl , stands the nude figure of a very fat boy , supposed to emblematise the grossness of the peculiar sin the Nonconformist divine in his sermon associated with the event , with an inscription giving the respective dates . Formerly this interesting youth was represented with a scroll depicted

running across his protuberant epigastrium , bearing the legend " This Boy is in Memory Put up for the late Fire of London , Occasioned b y the Sin of Gluttony , 1666 . " This inscription has , however , long since been effaced . Pie Corner is at the Giltspur Street end of the notorious Cock Lane , where the first spiritualistic or rapping- seance , a hundred years ago , imposed upon the superstitions credulity of the great Samuel Johnson . The name

Cock Lane induces me to doubt whether , notwithstanding the worth y divine ' s theory , the title Pie Corner has anything whatever to do with gastronomy . I am inclined to think that it is an euphuistic corruption of Pyx Corner . " By Cock and Pie" was a well-known euphuism in ancient times of an awful oath by the Sacred Host—the body of God , and the Hol y Vessel * in which it was carried to the bedside of the moribund . In our own day such compromising substitutes as "Hang it , " "Darn it , " " Blooming , " etc ., etc ., are

frequently used in jolace of expletives more profane or in a greater degree disgusting . f I incline therefore to think that the terms Cock Lane and Pie Corner have an ecclesiastical origin , not perhaps altogether unconnected with ' - the adjacent church of St . Sepulchre or the extensive and neighbouring foundation of St . Bartholomew . Defoe , in his History of the Plague , mentions a tavern with the sign of the Pye " over against the end of HoiindscHtch . " This

hostelry , however , did not profess by its title any allusion to a culinary preparation . A pye—a bird—was the ensign ; but I am inclined to attribute even this instance to a sacred ori gin , become in course of time corrupted and forgotten . It is well known that in Roman Catholic times in England ( as now on the continent ) religious emblems were frequently employed to denote commercial establishments . Our Pye Corner , which , it will be observed , has

nothing to do with the sign of the tavern there situate , had , at all events become known by its present title as early as Shakespeare ' s time , for the readers of our great poet will remember that Dame Quickly indicates it as a resort of that " ossy " and impecunious warrior , Colonel Sir John Falstaff . " He comes continuantl y" ( sic ) " to Pie Corner ( saving your manhoods ) to buy a saddle . " I am sure I don't know why the good lady thinks it necessary to employ an apologetic tone ; but , at all events , such is the information she furnishes to the catchpolls when she desires to have her gallant debtor " run in . "

It was long a theory that the conduct of the King during the tremendous five clays was analogous to that of Nero on a similar occasion , and Evelyn has given some little countenance to the belief . On the whole , however , this view does not seem to be well founded . Both Charles and his royal brother appear to have acted with zeal , judgment , and vigour , and so far to have justified the perpetuation of their effigies in high relief on the pedestal of the column . But

Old Rowley and James of York " wore their me with a difference . " While it seems certain that the former was appallingly impressed b y the magnitude of the disaster that had befallen his capital , the latter , we are told , in the midst of his exertions displayed a considerable amount of levity and flippancy . 'The citizens were not well satisfied with the Duke ' s behaviour ; they thought he looked too gay and too little con : crned . "J Such is the testimony of a