P.T.W.

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ANCIENT STATE OF PANCRAS.

(_For the Mirror._)


Brewer, in his "London and Middlesex," says--"When a visitation of the
church of Pancras was made, in the year 1251, there were only forty
houses in the parish." The desolate situation of the village, in the
latter part of the 16th century, is emphatically described by Norden, in
his "Speculum Britanniæ." After noticing the solitary condition of the
church, he says--"Yet about the structure have bin manie buildings, now
decaied, leaving poore Pancrast without companie or comfort." In some
manuscript additions to his work, the same writer has the following
observations:--"Although this place be, as it were, forsaken of all, and
true men seldom frequent the same, but upon deveyne occasions, yet it is
visayed by thieves, who assemble not there to pray, but to waite for
prayer; and many fall into their handes, clothed, that are glad when
they are escaped naked. Walk not there too late."

Pancras is said to have been a parish before the Conquest, and is
mentioned in Domesday Book. It derived its name from the saint to whom
the church is dedicated--a youthful Phrygian nobleman, who suffered
death under the Emperor Dioclesian, for his adherence to the Christian
faith.