Bleeding Heart Yard is a cobbled courtyard off Greville Street in the Farringdon area of the City of London. The courtyard is probably named after a 16th century inn sign dating back to the Reformation that was displayed on a pub called the Bleeding Heart in nearby Charles Street. The sign showed the heart of the Virgin Mary pierced by five swords.
Urban legend has it that the courtyard's name commemorates the murder of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, the second wife of Sir William Hatton, whose family formerly owned the area around Hatton Garden. It is said that her body was found here on 27 January 1626, "torn limb from limb, but with her heart still pumping blood."
Read more about Bleeding Heart Yard: In Little Dorrit, The Ingoldsby Legends, The Yard Today
Famous quotes containing the words bleeding heart, bleeding, heart and/or yard:
“Love in fantastic triumph sat,
Whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed,”
—Aphra Behn (1640–1689)
“Love in fantastic triumph sat,
Whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed,”
—Aphra Behn (1640–1689)
“Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to satiety
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“I do not believe in erecting statues to those who still live in our hearts, whose bones have not yet crumbled in the earth around us, but I would rather see the statue of Captain Brown in the Massachusetts State-House yard than that of any other man whom I know. I rejoice that I live in this age, that I am his contemporary.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)