3-065-713 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ely Chapel, Holborn, 1874. 'This old place of worship, now doomed to removal [ie for demolition], is what represented in our day the ancient mansion of the Bishops of Ely. We remember that sly message of Shakspeare's wicked Richard, Duke of Gloucester: "My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there; I do beseech you, send for some of them". Another story, which more properly concerns Ely Chapel, is related by Cowper. It is said that in 1745, on a Sunday morning, when the news came to London of the defeat of the Young Pretender, by William, Duke of Cumberland, at Culloden, this ludicrous perversion of the ordinary Church service did actually take place: "So, in the chapel of old Ely House, When wandering Charles, who meant to be the Third Had fled from William, and the news was fresh, The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce, And eke did rear right merrily, a psalm Sung "to the praise and glory of King George!" There are many graver and more dignified historic memories connected with Ely Chapel, which has in its time been an influential place of religious advocacy and exhortation for the inhabitants of London'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.