e building near
the entrance. A rate was levied on the parish for expenses, but money
poured in so liberally that a gift of L500 toward the enrichment of the
altar was declined.

The building has been derided, but it has the merit of a bold
conception. Ralph in "Publick Buildings" says: "The portico is at once
elegant and august, and the steeple above it ought to be considered one
of the most tolerable in town. The east end is remarkably elegant, and
very justly challenges a particular applause; in short, if there is
anything wanting in this fabric, it is a little more elevation."

The only original features in the interior are the two royal pews, not
now used, which look down on the altar. St. Martin's is the royal
parish, including in its boundaries Buckingham Palace and St. James's,
but the births of the Royal Family are not registered here, as has been
frequently stated. There is no monument in the church of any intrinsic
interest, and the only other noticeable details are two beautiful mosaic
panels on either side of the chancel, put up by Lady Frederick Cavendish
to the memory of her husband.

Among the names of those buried in the old church is that of Vansomer, a
portrait-painter. Nell Gwynne, Roubiliac, and Jack Sheppard--whose first
theft took place at Rummer's Tavern, near Charing Cross--lie in the
burial-ground. There is a large crypt, with vaulted roof, below the
church, and here are several monuments from the old building, and also
the ancient whipping-post.

Before the erection of the palaces along the riverside the fishermen of
the Thames lived beside the river bank at Charing Cross. A piece of
ground in the churchyard of St. Martin's was set apart for their use and
kept separate. Meantime, as one after the other of the Bishops'
town-houses were built, the fishermen found themselves pushed farther up
the river, until finally they were fairly driven away, and established
themselves at Lambeth, where the last of them lived in the early part
of the nineteenth century. Their burial-ground, meantime, was preserved
even after they had disappeared. The churchyard of St. Martin's was
curtailed in 1826, and the parish burial-ground removed to Pratt Street,
Camden Town.

Behind the National Gallery is the National Portrait Gallery, opened in
1896, and opposite to it St. Martin's Town Hall, with the parish
emblem--St. Martin dividing his cloak with a beggar--in bas-relief on
the frontage.

Charing Cross Roa