eth's reign the church had been allowed to get into a very
dilapidated state, and that it was in some danger of total destruction
appears from a letter written by Edmund Grindal in 1563, while he was
Bishop of London, to Sir William Cecil, proposing to take the lead from
the roof, and transfer it to St. Paul's Cathedral:

St. Bartholomew's Churche, adjoining to my L. Rich's house, is
in decaye, and so increaseth dailye. It hath an heavie coate of
lead, wch wolde doe a verie goode service for the Mother Churche
of Powles. I have obtayned my L. Rich's goode wishes, and if I
coulde obteyne my L. Chiefe Justice of the K. Benche and Sir
Walter Mildmaye's assente, I wolde not doubte to have the
assente also of the whole parishe, that ye leade might goe to
the coveringe of Powles.... Now remayneth only this scruple--How
shall the parisshe be providett of a churche? That is thus
answered: There is an house adjoininge, wch was the _Fratrie_,
as they termed it, a very fayre and a large house, and indeed
al-readye: if it were purged, it lacketh nothinge but the name
of a churche; is well buylded of free stone, garnished inwarde
aboute with marble pyllers, large windowes, etc. I assure you,
without partialitie, if it were roofed up, it were farre more
beautiful and conveniente than the other. Yt is provided with
goode sclate. If we mighte have the leade, we wolde compownde
with my L. Rich for convertinge the said _Fratrie_ to a
_Churche_, and wee wylle also supplye all imperfections of the
same, and not desire the p'isshe to remove tylle the other be
meete and conveniente to goe to.[13]

Lord Rich thought favourably of the proposal; but that fears were
entertained elsewhere would seem probable from a second letter, in which
Grindal writes as follows:

For S. Bartholomewes--I meane not to pulle it downe, but to
change it for a Churche more conveniente ... unlesse some
strange opinion shulde arise that prayer were more acceptable
under leade than under sclate.

The long period of neglect and desecration which follows is rather to
be inferred from the condition of the buildings in the early part of the
nineteenth century than from any actual records respecting them. What
that condition was in 1809 is described in two letters which appeared in
"The Gentleman's Magazine" for March and April in that year. They were
written in a spirit