^{page 158 note a} Printed from the original Broadside preserved in the Library at Lambeth Palace. (The Press mark is 66 A. 2, art. 9.)

The verses are of small poetic merit, but they serve to aid in the settlement of a disputed date. The continuator of Stow informs us, that on “Feb. 27, 1098–9, a fire broke out at the west end of the North isle of the Choir, in a little room prepared for the organ-builder to work in when the Choir was newly finished; but, the communication between the said work-room and organ-gallery being broke down, and all imaginable means used, the fire was happily got under, doing no other damage but to two pillars and an arch with enrichments, which are very artificially repaired and the Church has no sign left of damage by that fire, except that the lustre of the gilding was thereby a little abated.” See Strype's Ston, vol i. p. 649. “Bateman's manuscript dates this accident in 1688–9, and says the repair of it cost 710l. 12s. 8¼d.” (Dugdale's S. Paul's; note by Sir Henry Ellis, p. 172, n. ‡.) Mr. Longman, however, says, “It seems to me that Bateman's date is preferable, for it is clear that the fire took place before the opening of the Choir for Divine Service; and this agrees with Bateman's date, while the date given in Stow is after that event.” (A History of the Three Cathedrals dedicated to S. Paul in London, p. 129.) In Elmes' Life of Wren, 4to. p. 486, it is noted, that “on the first day of February, 1699, the beautiful chapel called the Morning-prayer Chapel, in S. Paul's, was opened for service with appropriate ceremony; and on the 27th of the same month a fire broke out at the west end of the North aisle,” &c., but as his references are to Dugdale and Stow he cannot be cited as adding to our store of information.

Elmes, and the Continuator of Stow, are in agreement with the date given at the head of this Broadside. I conclude that this combined testimony must be held to outweigh Bateman's statement.