Ballad: The Downfal Of Charing-Cross



Charing-Cross, as it stood before the civil wars, was one of those
beautiful Gothic obelisks, erected to conjugal affection by Edward
I., who built such a one wherever the hearse of his beloved Eleanor
rested in its way from Lincolnshire to Westminster. But neither
its ornamental situation, the beauty of its structure, nor the
noble design of its erection (which did honour to humanity), could
preserve it from the merciless zeal of the times; for in 1647 it
was demolished by order of the House of Commons, as Popish and
superstitious. This occasioned the following not unhumorous
sarcasm, which has been often printed among the popular sonnets of
those times.

The plot referred to in ver. 3 was that entered into by Mr Waller
the poet, and others, with a view to reduce the city and Tower to
the service of the King; for which two of them, Nath. Tomkins and
Richard Chaloner, suffered death, July 5, 1643. Vid. Ath. Ox. 11.
24. - PERCY'S RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY.


Undone! undone! the lawyers are,
They wander about the towne,
Nor can find the way to Westminster
Now Charing-Cross is downe: