A further effort to reduce the number was made
in the time of the Commonwealth, when an Act was passed to reduce them
to four, but the accession of King Charles II prevented this from being
carried out.
One of the old churches stood at the top of a small elevation known as
Stepcote Hill, approached by a very narrow street, one half of which was
paved and the other formed into steps leading to the "Church of St.
Mary's Steps," the tower of which displayed a sixteenth-century clock.
On the dial appeared the seated figure of King Henry VIII guarded by two
soldiers, one on each side, who strike the hours; they are commonly
known as "Matthew the Miller and his two sons."
[Illustration: THE GUILDHALL, EXETER. "We thought the old Guildhall even
more interesting than the Cathedral."]
Matthew was a miller who lived in the neighbourhood, and was so regular
in his goings out and comings in that the neighbours set their time by
him; but there was no doubt that the figure represented "Old King Hal,"
and it seemed strange that the same king should have been associated by
one of the poets with a miller who had a mill in our county town of
Chester:
There dwelt a Miller hale and bold
Beside the river Dee,
He work'd and sang from morn till night,
No lark more blithe than he;
And this the burden of his song
For ever used to be--
"I envy nobody, no, not I,
And nobody envies me!"
"Thou'rt wrong, my friend," cried Old King Hal
"Thou'rt wrong as wrong can be;
For could my heart be light as thine
I'd gladly change with thee.
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