ON A LAZY IDLE BOY.
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I had occasion to pass a
week in the autumn in
the little old town of
Coire or Chur, in the
Grisons, where lies buried
that very ancient British
king, saint, and martyr,
Lucius,[1] who founded
the Church of St. Peter,
which stands opposite the
house No. 65, Cornhill.
Few people note the
church now-a-days, and
fewer ever heard of the
saint. In the cathedral
at Chur, his statue
appears surrounded by
other sainted persons of
his family. With tight
red breeches, a Roman
habit, a curly brown
beard, and a neat little
gilt crown and sceptre,
he stands, a very comely
and cheerful image: and,
from what I may call his
peculiar position with regard
to No. 65, Cornhill,
I beheld this figure of St.
Lucius with more interest
than I should have bestowed upon personages who, hierarchically, are, I
daresay, his superiors.
The pretty little city stands, so to speak, at the end of the world—of the world of to-day, the world of rapid motion, and rushing railways, and the commerce and intercourse of men. From the northern gate, the iron road stretches away to Zürich, to Basel, to Paris, to home. From the old southern barriers, before which a little river rushes, and around which
- ↑ Stow quotes the inscription, still extant, "from the table fast chained in St. Peter's Church, Cornhill;" and says "he was after some chronicle buried at London, and after some chronicle buried at Glowcester"—but oh! these incorrect chroniclers! when Alban Butler, in the Lives of the Saints, v. xli., and Murray's Handbook, and the Sacristan at Chur, all say Lucius was killed there, and I saw his tomb with my own eyes!
