: some have been pulled down: where it has been too costly to
destroy the monastic chapels they are used as storehouses or workshops:
the marble monuments of the buried Kings and Queens have been broken up
and carried off: the ruins of refectory, dormitory, library, chapter
house stand still, being taken down little by little as stones are
wanted for building purposes: some of the ruins, indeed, lasted till
this very century, notably a gateway of the Holy Trinity Priory, at the
back of St. Catharine Cree, Leadenhall Street, and some of the buildings
of St. Helen's Nunnery, beside the church of Great St. Helen's. One
would think that the presence of all these ruins would have saddened the
City. Not so. The people were so thoroughly Protestant that they
regarded the ruins with the utmost satisfaction. They were a sign of
deliverance from what their new preachers taught them was false
doctrine. Moreover, there were other reasons why the citizens under
Queen Elizabeth could not regret the past.

[Illustration: COACHES IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

(_From 'Archcaeologia.'_)]

The parish churches were changed. The walls, once covered with paintings
of saints and angels, were now scraped or whitewashed: instead of altars
with blazing lights, there was a plain table: there were no more
watching candles: there were no more splendid robes for the priest and
the altar boys: the priest was transformed into a preacher: the service
consisted of plain prayers, the reading of the Bible, and a sermon. In
very few churches was there an organ. There was no external beauty in
religion. Therefore external beauty in the church itself ceased for
three hundred years to be desired. What was required was neatness, with
ample space for all to be seated, so arranged that all might hear the
sermon. And whereas under the Plantagenets every other man was a priest,
a friar, or some officer or servant of a monastery, one only met here
and there a clergyman with black gown and Genevan bands.

This change alone transformed London. But there were other changes. Most
of the great nobles had left the City. Long before they went away their
following had been cut down to modest numbers: their great barracks had
become useless: they were let out in tenements, and were falling into
decay: some of them had been removed to make way for warehouses and
offices: one or two remained till the Great Fire of 1666. Among them
were Baynard's Castle, close to Blackfriars,