St. Clement Danes Churchyard

[St. Clements Danes Churchyard.] Now to begin again at Temple Bar, over against it, in the high Street standeth a pair of Stocks, and then one large middle Row of Houses and small Tenements builded, partly opening to the South, partly towards the North, stretching to a Stone Cross, now headless, against the Strand. Amongst the which standeth the Parish Church of St. Clement Danes, so called, because Harold, a Danish King, and other Danes, were buried there, and in that Churchyard.

This Harold, whom King Canutus had by a Concubine, reigned three Years, and was buried at Westminster, but afterward, Hardicanutus, the lawful Son of Canutus, in revenge of Displeasure done to his Mother, by expelling her out of the Realm, and the Murder of his Brother Alured, commanded the Body of Harold to be digged out of the Earth, and to be thrown into the Thames, where it was by a Fisherman taken up and buried in this Churchyard. But out of a fair ledger Book, sometime belonging to the Abbey of Chartsey, in the County of Surrey is noted, as in Francis Thinn, after this sort.