Stranica 214 [214]
192 THE CHURCHES
them. Northward there would be
open ground, so that the prior was
able to see his country seat at Canon¬
bury from his town house in St.
Bartholomew's Close. All that is
now left of the church is the choir,
greatly ‘‘restored " and renewed, but
still heavy and gloomy with its mas¬
sive Norman piers and arches; and
the great fifteenth-century tomb of
Rahere, the founder. We cannot tell
whether Rahere founded the hospital
as well, but there would seem to
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have been a parish church here, now
represented by the chapel of the hos¬
pital, as early as the time of Edward
DOCTORS’ COMMONS the Confessor. The hospital covers
the whole parish. There are pretty stories of Rahere, who is said to
have been a professional jester at the court of Henry I, but, repenting
him of certain naughtinesses, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and
returning built the monas- a
tery in obedience to orders
received from St. Bartho¬
lomew ina vision. I have
often tried in vain to un¬
ravel the different accounts
of the foundation of the
priory, of the hospital, and
of the neighbouring church
of St. Sepulchre. On the