large city of Middlesex in England, the metropolis of Great Britain, and one of the most wealthy and populous cities in the world, is situated on the river Thames, in 51° 31' north latitude, 400 miles south of Edinburgh, and 270 south-east of Dublin; 180 miles west of Amsterdam, 210 north-west of Paris, 500 south-west of Copenhagen, 600 north-west of Vienna, 700 south-west of Stockholm, 800 north-east of Madrid, 820 north-west of Rome, 850 north-east of Lisbon, 1360 north-west of Constantinople, and 1414 south-west of Moscow.

This city was by the Romans first called Londinium or Landinum, as we find it in Tacitus, Ptolemy, Antoninus, and Ammianus. That name was afterwards changed into Augusta. How long this name prevailed, is not certainly known; but after the establishment of the Saxons we find it called Caer Lundain, Lundoun Byrig, Lunden Ceaster, Lunden-ye, Lundenne, Lunden-beth or Lundenburg; since the Conquest the records call it Londinia, Lundonia, Londine, Londres; and, for several ages past, it has been called London, a manifest corruption from Tacitus's Londinium. The most probable derivation of these names appears to be, either from the British words thong, "a ship," and din, "a town," i.e. a town or harbour for ships; or from Llin, "a lake," i.e. Llin din, "the town upon the lake," the Surry side being supposed, upon very probable grounds, to have been anciently a great expanse of water.

Londinium, however, was not the primitive name of this famous place, which existed before the invasion of the Romans; being, at the time of Caesar's arrival in the island, the capital of the Trinobantes or Trinouantes. The name of this nation, as appears from Baxter's British Glossary*, was derived from the three following British words, tri, nou, hant, which signify the "inhabitants of the new city." This name, it is supposed, supposed, might have been given them by their neighbours, on account of their having newly come from the continent into Britain, and having there founded a city called *tri-noue*, or the "new city;" the most ancient name of the renowned metropolis of Britain. The Trinobantes had come so lately from Belgium, that they seem scarcely to have been firmly established in Britain at the time of the first Roman invasion: For their new city, which soon after became so famous, was then so inconsiderable, that it is not mentioned by Caesar; though he must have been within sight of the place where it was situated. His silence about this place, indeed, is brought as a proof that he did not cross the Thames; while Norden by the *firmissima civitas* of the Trinobantes understands the city in question, the Trinobantes themselves having been among the first of the British states who submitted to that conqueror.

By Ptolemy, and some other ancient writers of good authority, indeed, Londinium is placed in Cantium, or Kent, on the south side of the Thames; and it is the opinion of some moderns, that the Romans probably had a station there, to secure their conquests on that side of the river, before they reduced the Trinobantes. The place fixed upon for this station is St George's Field, a large plot of ground situated between Lambeth and Southwark, where many Roman coins, bricks, and chequered pavements, have been found. Three Roman ways from Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex, intersected each other in this place; this therefore is supposed to be the original Londinium, which it is thought became neglected after the Romans reduced the Trinobantes, and settled on the other side of the Thames; and the name was transferred to the new city.

The Romans possessed themselves of London, on their second invasion in the reign of Claudius, about 105 years after their first under Caesar. They had begun with Camelodunum, the present Maldon in Essex; and having taken it, planted there a colony consisting of veterans of the 14th legion. London and Verulam were next taken possession of about one and the same time. Camelodunum was made a *colonia* or place governed entirely by Roman laws and customs; Verulam (on the site of which St Alban's now stands), a *municipium*, in which the natives were honoured with the privileges of Roman citizens, and enjoyed their own laws and constitutions; and Londinium only a *praefectura*, the inhabitants, a mixture of Romans and Britons, being suffered to enjoy no more than the name of citizens of Rome, being governed by praefects sent annually from thence, without having either their own laws or magistrates. "It was even then of such concourse (says Mr Pennant), and such vast trade, that the wise conquerors did not think fit to trust the inhabitants with the same privileges as other places of which they had less reason to be jealous." But others observe, that this is a mistake; and that the Romans, in order to secure their conquest, and to gain the affections of those Britons who had already submitted to their authority, made London equally a municipium or free city with Verulamium, as may be seen by referring to Aulus Gellius, lib. xvi. c. 13, and to Spanhem. orbis Roman. tom. ii. p. 37, 38.

It is difficult to say what were the particular articles of commerce exported from and imported into the port of London at this period. The imports and exports of History, the island in general we know: Strabo says, "Britain produceth corn, cattle, gold, silver, iron; besides which, skins, slaves, and dogs, naturally excellent hunters, are exported from that island." It is probable that the two first and three last articles were exported from London; and perhaps, too, the *gagates* or jet-stone mentioned by Solinus as one of the productions of Britain, together with horses, were exported from thence. The imports were at first salt, earthen ware, and works in brass, polished bits of bones emulating ivory, horse collars, toys of amber, glasses, and other articles of the same material.

In the reign of Nero, as Tacitus informs us, London was become a city highly famous for the great influx of merchants, her extensive commerce, and plenty of all things. No fewer than seven of the fourteen itinera of Antoninus begin or end at London; which tends to corroborate the many proofs which might be adduced, that this city was the capital of Britain in the Roman times.

At first London had no walls or other fortifications when first to defend it, and was therefore exposed to the attacks surrounded of every enemy; and thus it suffered severely about the year 64, being burnt by the Britons under Boadicea, and all the inhabitants massacred. But it was soon restored by the Romans; and increased so much, that in the reign of the emperor Severus it is called by Herodian a *great and wealthy city*. It continued, however, in a defencless state for more than a century after this last period; when at last a wall of hewn stone and British bricks was erected around it.

London at this time extended in length from Ludgate-hill to a spot a little beyond the Tower. The breadth was not half equal to the length, and at each end grew considerably narrower. Maitland ascribes the building of the walls to Theodosius governor of Britain in 369. Dr Woodward, with more probability, supposes them to have been founded under the auspices of Constantine the Great; and this seems to be confirmed by the numbers of coins of that emperor's mother Helena, which have been discovered under them, placed there by him in compliment to her. The same emperor made it a bishop's see; for it appears that the bishops of London and York, and another English bishop, were at the council of Arles in the year 314; he also settled a mint in it, as is plain from some of his coins. The ancient course of the wall was as follows: It began with a fort near the present site of the Tower, was continued along the Minor course, and the back of Houndsditch, across Bishopsgate-street, in a straight line by London wall to Cripplegate; then returned southward by Crowder's Well alley (where several remnants of lofty towers were lately to be seen), to Aldersgate, thence along the back of Bull-and-Mouth-street to Newgate, and again along the back of the houses in the Old Bailey to Ludgate; soon after which, it probably finished with another fort, where the house, late the king's printing house, in Black Friars, now stands: from hence another wall ran near the river side, along Thames-street, quite to the fort on the eastern extremity. The walls were three miles a hundred and sixty-five feet in circumference, guarded at proper distances on the land side with fifteen lofty towers; some of them were remaining. maining within these few years, and possibly may still.

Maitland mentions one twenty-six feet high, near Gravel-lane, on the west side of Houndsditch; another, about eighty paces south-east towards Aldgate; and the bases of another, supporting a modern house, at the lower end of the street called the Vinegar-yard, south of Aldgate. The walls, when perfect, are supposed to have been twenty-two feet high, the towers forty. These, with the remnants of the wall, proved the Roman structure, by the titles and disposition of the masonry. London-wall, near Moorfields, is now the most entire part left of that ancient precinct. The gates which received the great military roads, were four. The Praetorian way, the Saxon Watling-street, passed under one, on the site of the late Newgate; vestiges having been discovered of the road in digging above Holburn-bridge: it turned down to Dowgate, or more properly Dwr-gate or Water-gate, where there is a trajeuctus or ferry, to join it to the Watling-street, which was continued to Dover. The Hermin-street passed under Cripplegate; and a vicinal way went under Aldgate by Bethnal-green, towards Oldford, a pass over the river Lee to Duroleiton, the modern Leighton in Essex.

After the Romans deserted Britain, a new and fierce race succeeded. The Saxons, under their leaders Hengist and Horsa, landed in 448, having been invited over by the provincials as auxiliaries against the Scots and Piets; but quarrelling with their friends, they found means to establish themselves in the island, and in process of time entirely subdued them, as related under the article ENGLAND, No. 31—44. London fell into the hands of these invaders about the year 457; and became the chief city of the Saxon kingdom in Essex. It suffered much in the wars carried on between the Britons and Saxons: but it soon recovered; so that Bede calls it a princely mart town, under the government of a chief magistrate, whose title of portgrave or portreeve, (for we find him called by both names), conveys a grand idea of the mercantile state of London in those early ages, that required a governor or guardian of the port. During the civil wars of the Saxons with each other, the Londoners had always the address to keep themselves neuter; and about the year 819, when all the seven Saxon kingdoms fell under the power of Egbert, London became the metropolis of England, which it has ever since continued.

During the invasions of the Danes, London suffered greatly. In 849, these invaders entered the Thames with 250 ships, plundered and burnt the city, and massacred the inhabitants; and two years after they returned with a fleet of 350 sail, fully determined to destroy every thing that had escaped their barbarity in the former expedition. At this time, however, they were disappointed; most of their troops being cut in pieces by King Ethelwolf and his son Athelbald; yet such was the destruction made by those barbarians at London, that it suffered more from these two incursions than ever it had done before.

In the reign of King Alfred the Great, London began to recover from its former ruinous state. He rebuilt its walls, drove out the Danish inhabitants who had settled there, restored the city to its former liberties and beauty, and committed the care of it to his son-in-law, Ethelred duke of Mercia, in hopes that this might always be a place of secure retreat within its strong walls, whatever might happen from a foreign or domestic enemy. In 893, however, he had the mortification to see his capital totally reduced to ashes by an accidental fire, which could not be extinguished, as the houses at that time were all built of wood. The walls, however, being constructed of incombustible materials, continued to afford the same protection as before; the houses were quickly rebuilt, and the city divided into wards and precincts, for its better order and government. This king also instituted the office of sheriff, the nature of which office made it necessary to have it also in London; so that here we have the glimmerings of the order of magistrates afterwards settled in the city of London: in the person of the portreeve, or portgrave, or governor of the city, as supreme magistrate; in the sheriff, and in the officer or subordinate magistrate by what name soever then distinguished, which, being placed at the head of each ward or precinct, were analogous to the more modern title of aldermen and common-council men.

Alfred having settled the affairs of England in the brick and most prudent manner, directed his attention to the ornamenting, as much as possible, the city of London, houses first erected. For this purpose, he spirited up the English to an emulation in building their houses of stronger and more durable materials than formerly. At that time their houses were mostly of wood; and a house built of any other materials was looked upon as a kind of wonder. But Alfred having begun to raise his palaces of stone and brick, the opulent Londoners, and the nobility resident in and about London, followed the example, though the custom did not come into general use till some ages after.

In 1015, a foreign enemy again appeared before London. Canute king of Denmark having invaded by Canute, and plundered the counties of Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, sailed up the Thames with 200 ships, and laid siege to the city. The citizens continued faithful, notwithstanding the defection of the greatest part of the kingdom; and made such a brave resistance, that Canute thought fit to withdraw his army, leaving only his fleet to blockade the city by water, that when he found a fair opportunity he might renew the siege with better success. At last, however, being defeated in several battles by Edmund Ironside, he was obliged to call off his ships to cover his own army in case of necessity. In the compromise, however, which was afterwards made between Edmund and Canute, the city of London was given to the latter, and owned him for its lawful sovereign. We have a strong proof of the opulence of London even at this time, from the tax laid upon it by Canute in order to pay his army; this being no less than 10,500l. while the rest of the nation was at the same time taxed only at 72,000l.

In 1046, we have the first instance of the London Senders sending representatives to parliament. This happened on settling the succession to the throne after Canute's death. The English in general declared for Edward, son of King Ethelred; or, if that could not be carried, for Hardicanute, son of Canute by Queen Emma, and then absent on a tour to Denmark. The city of London espoused the claim and interest of Harold Harefoot, son also of Canute, by Queen Elviga. of Northampton. Edward's party soon declined; and the Londoners agreed, for the peace of the realm, that the two brothers should divide the kingdom between them; but as Hardicanute did not return in proper time to England, a wittena-gemote was held at Oxford, where Earl Leofric, and most of the thanes on the north of the Thames, with the pilots of London, chose Harold for their king. Here, by pilots we are to understand the directors, magistrates, or leading men of the city; and this manifestly shows, that London was then of such consequence, that no important national affair was transacted without the consent of the inhabitants; for the Saxon annals assure us, that none were admitted into this assembly of election but the nobility and the pilots of London.

On the invasion of the Normans under William I., London submitted as well as the rest of the kingdom; and received two charters from that prince, confirming all the privileges they had under the Saxon kings, and adding several new ones. But while the citizens were promising themselves all manner of security and tranquillity under the new government, it was almost entirely reduced to ashes by an accidental fire in 1077. It had scarce recovered from this calamity, when it was visited by another of the same kind in 1086, which began at Ludgate, and destroyed the best and most opulent part of the city; consuming, among other buildings, the cathedral of St. Paul's; which, however, was soon rebuilt more magnificently than before. Under the reign of William Rufus, London suffered considerably by fires, hurricanes, and inundations, and seems to have been depressed by the tyranny of that prince; but Henry I. granted large immunities to the city, which again revived its trade, and was favourable to the progress of the arts. The king, however, still retained the privilege of appointing the portreve, or chief magistrate; but the immunities granted to the Londoners secured their affections, and tended much to secure him on the throne. At the same time, there was such a plenty of all kinds of provisions, that as much corn was sold for 1s. as would suffice 100 people for a day; 4d. would purchase as much hay and corn as would maintain 20 horses for a day; and a sheep could be bought for a groat.

Henry thought proper also to check the licentious behaviour of the Normans, which, by the favour showed them under the two Williams, had carried them into the most barbarous practices. Those who followed William Rufus in his excursions, harassed and plundered the country at discretion. Many of them were so extravagant in their barbarity, that what they could not eat or drink in their quarters, they either obliged the people to carry to market and sell for their use, or else they would throw it into the fire; and, at their going off, they frequently washed their horses' heels with the drink, and staved the casks containing the remainder. King Henry resolved to put a stop to these excesses and savage customs; and therefore published a proclamation at London, commanding that thenceforward all persons who should be convicted of such barbarities should have their eyes pulled out, or their hands or feet cut off, as the ministers of justice should think fit. This effectually checked the insolence of the Normans, and the city continued to flourish throughout the reigns of Henry I. and Stephen.

The attachment of the citizens to Stephen, however, was a crime which never could be forgiven by Henry II.; and, of consequence, he made them sensible of his displeasure, by making frequent demands of money from them. About this time, indeed, the Londoners were arrived at such a pitch of licentiousness, that their prosperity seemed a curse rather than a blessing. The sons of the most eminent and wealthy citizens entered into a confederacy to commit burglaries, and to rob and murder all that came in their way in the nighttime. The king took an opportunity from these irregularities to enrich himself. He demanded several loans and free gifts; till at last the Londoners, to prevent further inquiries into their conduct, paid into the exchequer 500l. in three years. These disorders, however, were at last stopped by the execution of John Senex; who, though a very rich and reputable citizen, had engaged in these enterprises. He offered 500l. weight of silver, a prodigious sum in those days, for his pardon, but was refused. The king, however, still continued to drain the citizens of their money by free gifts; and at last fined every separate guild, fraternity, or company, that had presumed to act as bodies corporate without the royal letters-patent.

On the death of Henry II., the title of the first magistrate of London was changed from portreve to that of bailiff; and in 1189 claimed and acted in the office of the chief butler at the coronation of Richard I. In 1191 this monarch permitted the bailiff, named Henry Fitz-Alwine, to assume the title of mayor. For, in when first 1192, we find certain orders of the mayor and aldermen to prevent fires; whereby it was ordained, that "all houses thereafter to be erected in London and the liberties thereof, should be built of stone, with party-walls of the same; and covered either with slates or tiles, to prevent those dreadful calamities by fire, which were frequently and chiefly occasioned by houses built of wood, and thatched with straw or reeds." And for this purpose, it was also provided by the discreetest men of the city, "that 12 aldermen of the city should be chosen in full hustings, and there sworn to assist the mayor in appeasing contentions that might arise among neighbours in the city upon enclosure betwixt land and land, and to regulate the dimensions of party-walls, which were to be of stone, 16 feet high and three feet thick; and to give directions about girders, windows, gutters, and wells." Such confidence also did Richard put in the wisdom and faithfulness of the city of London, that when it was resolved to fix a standard for weights and measures for the whole realm, his majesty committed the execution thereof to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, whom he commanded to provide measures, gallons, iron rods, and weights, for standards, to be sent to the several counties of England. This happened in 1198, at which time corn was advanced to the enormous price of 18s. 4d. per quarter.

The city of London was much favoured by King John, who granted them three charters soon after his grant to accession. The first was a recital and confirmation of the city by those granted by Henry I. and II., with the farther privilege of being free from toll and every other duty or custom in his majesty's foreign dominions; for which they paid the sum of 3000 merks. The second was a confirmation of one granted by King Richard. By this the citizens of London had the jurisdiction and conservancy of the river Thames; with a clause to extend that jurisdiction, and the powers therewith granted, to the river Medway; and with another clause to enable the said city, as conservators of the rivers Thames and Medway, to inflict a penalty of 10l. upon any person that should presume to erect a weir in either of these rivers. The third charter contains a fee-farm-rent of the sherifswicks of London and Middlesex at the ancient rent, of which they had been deprived by Queen Maud; granting them also the additional power of choosing their own sheriffs. This charter was given by way of conveyance from the crown to the citizens for a valuable consideration, by which the sherifswick became their freehold; and this is the first covenant or conveyance we find on record with the legal terms of to have and to hold, which are at this time accounted an essential part in all conveyances of property.

During the reign of Henry III. the city of London was oppressed in many different ways. In 1218, he exacted a fine of 40 marks for selling a sort of cloth not two yards within the lists; and a 15th of the citizens personal estates for the enjoyment of their ancient rights and privileges. In 1227, he commanded by proclamation all the foreign merchants to depart the city, which drew 32 marks from the Hanseatic company of the Steelyard, to have seisin of their guild or hall in Thames-street. But it was the wrestling match at St Giles's in the fields that brought on their greatest burden. In the year 1221, on St James's day, the citizens of London having carried off the victory from the people of Westminster and other neighbouring villages, the steward of the abbot of Westminster, meditating revenge against the Londoners, proposed another wrestling match with them, and gave a ram for the prize. The citizens resorted to the place at the time appointed; but were unexpectedly assaulted by a great number of armed men, who killed and wounded many, and dispersed the rest. This raised a great commotion in the city. The populace breathed revenge; and, by the instigation of Constantine Fitz-Arnolph, a great favourite of the French party during the troubles in King John's reign, they proceeded to Westminster, and pulled down the houses both of the steward and abbot. Hearing afterwards that the abbot was come into the city with his complaint to Philip d'Aubney the king's counsel, they pursued him, beat his servants cruelly, took away 12 of his horses, and would have murdered himself, had he not escaped by a back-door. Upon this tumult, Hubert de Bury, then chief justiciary, summoned the mayor and many of the principal citizens to attend him in the tower of London; and inquiring for the authors of the riot, Constantine, the ringleader, boldly answered, that "he was one; that they had done no more than they ought; and that they were resolved to avow what they had done, let the consequence be what it would." In this he was seconded by his nephew and one Geoffrey: but the justiciary, having dismissed all the rest, detained these three, and ordered them to be hanged next morning, though Constantine offered 15,000 marks for his pardon. Hubert then coming into the city with a strong guard, caused the hands and feet of most of the principal rioters he could seize to be cut off: all which was executed without any legal proceedings or form of trial. After these arbitrary cruelties, he degraded the mayor and all the magistrates; placed a custos over the city, and obliged 30 persons of his own choosing to become securities for the good behaviour of the whole city. Several thousand marks were also exacted by the king, before he would consent to a reconciliation.

This arbitrary conduct alarmed the whole nation. The parliament of 1224 began to be uneasy for themselves, and addressed his majesty that he would be pleased to confirm the charter of liberties which he had sworn to observe; and the consequence of this application was a confirmation of the magna charta in the full parliament at Westminster in the year 1225. At this time, also, the rights and privileges of the citizens were confirmed. They were exempted from prosecution for burles, i.e., listed cloth; and were granted the right of having a common seal. The necessitous circumstances of this monarch, however, made him often exact money arbitrarily as long as he lived.

Under the succeeding reigns, as the liberty of the people in general was augmented, so the liberty, opulence, and power of the citizens of London, increased, until they became a kind of balance to the power of the crown itself, which in some measure they still continue to be. Riots indeed, for which they generally suffered, were by no means unfrequent; the city often suffered by fires and plagues. Nothing, however, happened which materially affected the welfare of the city, till the reign of Charles II. in 1665.—This year London Dreadful was ravaged by the most violent plague ever known in plague in Britain. The whole summer had been remarkably still and warm, so that the weather was sometimes suffocating even to people in perfect health; and by this unusual heat and sultry atmosphere, people were undoubtedly prepared for receiving the infection, which appeared with violence in the months of July, August, and September. A violent plague had raged in Holland in the year 1663; on which account the importation of merchandise from that country was prohibited by the British legislature in 1664. Notwithstanding this prohibition, however, it seems the plague had actually been imported; for in the close of the year 1664, two or three persons died suddenly in Westminster, with marks of the plague on their bodies. Some of their neighbours, terrified at the thoughts of their danger, removed into the city; but their removal proved too late for themselves, and fatal to those among whom they came to reside. They soon died of the plague; and communicated the infection to so many others, that it became impossible to extinguish the seeds of it, by separating those that were infected from such as were not. It was confined, however, through a hard frosty winter, till the middle of February, when it again appeared in the parish of St Giles's, to which it had been originally brought; and, after another long rest till April, showed its malignant force afresh, as soon as the warmth of the spring gave it opportunity.—At first, it took off one here and there, without any certain proof of their having infected each other, and houses began to be shut up, with a design to prevent its spreading. But it was now too late; the infection gained ground every day, and the shutting up of houses only made the disease spread wider. People, afraid... afraid of being shut up, and sequestered from all communication with society, concealed their illness, or found means to escape from their places of confinement; while numbers expired in the greatest torments, destitute of every assistance; and many died both of the plague and other diseases, who would in all probability have recovered, had they been allowed their liberty, with proper exercise and air.—A house was shut up on account of a maid-servant, who had only spots, and not the gangrenous plague-blotches, upon her, so that her distemper was probably a petechial fever. She recovered; but the people of the house obtained no liberty to stir, either for air or exercise, for 40 days. The bad air, fear, anger, and vexation, attending this injurious treatment, cast the mistress of the family into a fever. The visitors appointed to search the house, said it was the plague, though the physicians were of a different opinion: the family, however, were obliged to begin their quarantine anew though it had been almost expired before; and this second confinement afflicted them so much, that most of the family fell sick, some of one distemper and some of another. Every illness that appeared in the family produced a fresh prolongation of their confinement; till at last the plague was actually brought in by some of those who came to inquire into the health of the family, and almost every person in the house died.—Many examples of a similar kind happened, and this was one of the worst consequences of shutting up houses. All means of putting a stop to the infection were evidently ineffectual. Multitudes fled into the country; many merchants, owners of ships, &c. shut themselves up, on board their vessels, being supplied with provisions from Greenwich, Woolwich, and single farm houses on the Kentish side. Here, however, they were safe; for the infection never reached below Deptford, though the people went frequently on shore to the country towns, villages, and farm houses, to buy fresh provisions. As the violence of the plague increased, the ships which had families on board removed farther off; some went quite out to sea, and then put into such harbours and roads as they could best get at.

In the mean time, the distemper made the most rapid advances within the city. In the last week of July, the number of burials amounted to 2010; but the first week of August it rose to 3817; thence to 3883; then to 4237; the next week, to 6102; and at last to 7000 and 8000 weekly. In the last week of September, however, the fury of the disease began to abate; though vast numbers were sick, yet the number of burials decreased from 7155 to 5538; the next week there was a farther decrease to 4929, then to 4327, next to 2665, then to 1421, and the next week to 1034.

All this while, the poor people had been reduced to the greatest distresses, by reason of the stagnation of trade, and the sicknesses to which they were peculiarly liable on account of their manner of living. The rich, however, contributed to their subsistence in a most liberal manner. The sums collected on this occasion are indeed almost incredible; being said to amount to 100,000l. per week. The king is reported to have contributed 1000l. weekly; and in the parish of Cripplegate alone, 17,000l. was distributed weekly among the poor inhabitants.—By the vigilance also of the magistrates, provisions continued remarkably cheap throughout the whole time of this dreadful calamity, so that all riots and tumults on that account were prevented; and at last, on the cessation of the disease in the winter of 1665, the inhabitants who had fled returned to their habitations, and London to appearance became as populous as ever, though it was computed that 100,000 persons had been carried off by the plague.

The city was scarcely recovered from the desolation occasioned by the plague, when it was almost totally laid in ashes by a most dreadful fire. This broke out in a baker's shop in Pudding-lane, on Saturday night, September 2, 1666. In a few hours Billingsgate ward was entirely burnt down; and before morning the fire had crossed Thames-street, and destroyed the church of St Magnus. From thence it proceeded to the bridge, and consumed a great pile of buildings there; but was stopped by the want of any thing more to destroy. The flames, however, being scattered by a strong east wind, continued their devastations in other quarters. All efforts to stop it proved unsuccessful throughout the Sunday. That day it proceeded up as far as Garlick-hithe; and destroying Canon street, invaded Cornhill and the Exchange. On Monday, the flames having proceeded eastward against the wind through Thames-street, invaded Tower street, Gracechurch-street, Fenchurch-street, Dowgate, Old Fish-street, Watling-street, Threadneedle-street, and several others, from all which it broke at once into Cheapside. In a few hours Cheapside was all in flames, the fire having reached it from so many places at once. The fire then continuing its course from the river on one side, and from Cheapside on the other, surrounded the cathedral of St Paul's. This building stood by itself at some distance from any houses; yet such was the violence of the flames, and the heat of the atmosphere occasioned by them, that the cathedral took fire at top. The great beams and massy stones broke through into Faith-church underneath, which was quickly set on fire; after which, the flames invaded Pater-noster-row, Newgate-street, the Old Bailey, Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, Ironmonger-lane, Old Jewry, Laurence-lane, Milk-street, Wood-street, Gutter-lane, Foster-lane, Lothbury, Cateaton-street; and, having destroyed Christ-church, burnt furiously through St Martin's le Grand towards Aldersgate.

The fire had now attained its greatest extent, and was several miles in compass. The vast clouds of smoke obscured the sun so, that he either could not be seen at all, or appeared through it as red as blood. The flames reached an immense way up into the air, and their reflection from the smoke, which in the night-time seemed also like flame, made the appearance still more terrible. The atmosphere was illuminated to a great extent, and this illumination is said to have been visible as far as Jedburgh in Scotland. Some of the light ashes also are said to have been carried to the distance of 16 miles. Guildhall exhibited a singular appearance. The oak with which it was built was so solid, that it would not flame, but burnt like charcoal, so that the building appeared for several hours like an enchanted palace of gold or burnished brass.

At last, on Wednesday morning, when every one expected expected that the suburbs as well as the city were to have been burnt, the fire began of itself to abate by reason of the wind having ceased, and some other changes no doubt taken place in the atmosphere. It was checked by the great building in Leadenhall-street, and in other streets by the blowing up several houses with gun-powder; and on Thursday the flames were quite extinguished.—The following is a calculation of the damage done by this extraordinary conflagration.

| Item | Value | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|---------| | Thirteen thousand two hundred houses, at 12 years purchase, supposing the rent of each 23l. sterling | L. 3,960,000 | | Eighty-seven parish churches, at 800l. each | 696,000 | | Six consecrated chapels, at 2000l. each | 12,000 | | The royal exchange | 50,000 | | The customhouse | 10,000 | | Fifty-two halls of companies, at 1500l. each | | | Three city gates, at 3000l. each | 9000 | | Jail of Newgate | 15,000 | | Four stone bridges | 6000 | | Sessions house | 7000 | | Guildhall, with the courts and offices belonging to it | 40,000 | | Blackwell hall | 3000 | | Bridewell | 5000 | | Poultry compter | 5000 | | Woodstreet compter | 3000 | | St Paul's church | 2,000,000 | | Wares, household stuff, money, and moveable goods lost or spoiled | 2,000,000 | | Hire of porters, carts, waggons, barges, boats, &c. for removing goods | 200,000 | | Printed books and paper in shops and warehouses | 150,000 | | Wine, tobacco, sugar, &c. of which the town was at that time very full | 1,500,000 |

L. 10,689,000

It was never certainly known whether this fire was accidental or designed. A suspicion fell upon the Papists; and this gained such general credit, that it is asserted for a truth on the monument which is erected in memory of the conflagration. Of the truth of this assertion, however, though there was not sufficient proof, it had the effect of making the Papists most violently suspected and abhorred by the Protestants, which some time after proved very prejudicial to the city itself.

From this calamity, great as it was, London soon recovered itself, and became much more magnificent than before; the streets, which were formerly crooked and narrow, being now built wide and spacious; and the industry of its inhabitants repaired the losses they had sustained. In 1679, the city was again alarmed by the discovery of a design to destroy it by fire a second time. Elizabeth Oxly, servant to one Rind in Fetter-lane, having set her master's house on fire, was apprehended on suspicion, and confessed, that she had been hired to do it by one Stubbs a Papist, for a reward of 5l. Stubbs being taken into custody, acknowledged that he had persuaded her to it; and that he himself had been prevailed upon by one Father Gifford his confessor, who had assured him, that by burning the houses of heretics he would do a great service to the church. He also owned that he had several conferences with Gifford and two Irishmen on the affair. The maid and Stubbs also agreed in declaring, that the Papists intended to rise in London, expecting to be powerfully supported by a French army. In consequence of this discovery, the Papists were banished from the city, and five miles round, and five Jesuits were hanged for the above-mentioned plot.

The Papists thought to revenge themselves by forging what was called the meal-tub plot, in which the Presbyterians were supposed to hatch treacherous designs against the life of the king. Sir Edmondbury Which Godfrey also, who had been very active in his proceedings against the Papists, was murdered by some unknown persons; and this murder, together with their discovering the falsehood of the meal-tub plot, so exasperated the Londoners, that they resolved to show their detestation of Popery, by an extraordinary exhibition on the 17th of November, Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, on which day they had usually burnt the pope in effigy. The procession began with a person on horseback personating Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, attended by a bellman proclaiming his execrable murder. He was followed by a person carrying a large silver cross, with priests in copes, Carmelites, and Gray-friars, followed by six Jesuits: then proceeded divers waiters, and after them some bishops with lawn sleeves, and others with copes and mitres. Six cardinals preceded the pope, enthroned in a stately pageant, attended by divers boys with pots of incense, and the devil whispering in his ear. In this order they marched from Bishopsgate to Flect-street; and there, amidst a great multitude of spectators, committed his holiness to the flames.

This procession gave great offence to the court, at which the duke of York, afterwards James II. had a great influence. The breach was farther widened by the choice of sheriffs for that year. The candidates set up by the court were rejected by a majority of almost two to one; but this did not deter their party from demanding a poll in their behalf, upon which a tumult ensued. This was represented by the Popish party in such colours to the king, that he issued out a commission that same evening for trying the rioters; which, however, was so far from intimidating the rest, that they grew more and more determined, not only to oppose the Popish party, but to exclude the duke of York from his succession to the crown.

In the mean time, the king prorogued the parliament, to prevent them from proceeding in their inquiry concerning the Popish plot, and the exclusion-bill. Upon this the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council, presented a petition to his majesty, in which they requested, that he would permit the parliament to sit in order to complete their salutary measures and councils. This petition was highly represented by the king; who, instead of granting it, dissolved the parliament, and could never afterwards be reconciled to the city. From this time it was determined to seize their charter; and fresh provocations having having been given about the election of sheriffs, a quo warranto was at last produced by the attorney-general, in order to overthrow their charter, and thereby to deprive the citizens of the power to choose sheriffs.

This information set forth, "That the mayor and commonalty and citizens of the city of London, by the space of a month then last past and more, used, and yet do claim to have and use, without any lawful warrant or legal grant, within the city of London aforesaid, and the liberties and privileges of the same city, the liberties and privileges following, viz. 1. To be of themselves a body corporate and politic, by the name of mayor and commonalty and citizens of the city of London. 2. To have sheriffs civilis, et com. London, et com. Middlesex, and to name, make, and elect, and constitute them. 3. That the mayor and aldermen of the said city should be justices of the peace, and hold sessions of the peace. All which liberties, privileges, and franchises, the said mayor and commonalty, and citizens of London, upon the king did by the space aforesaid usurp, and yet do usurp."

Though nothing could be more unjust than this prosecution, the ministry were determined at all events to crush the Londoners; rightly judging, that it would be an easy matter to make all other corporations surrender their charters into the king's hands, and that they had no other body in the nation to fear.

Accordingly they displaced such judges as would not approve of their proceedings; and, on the 12th of June 1683, Justice Jones pronounced the following sentence: "That a city might forfeit its charter; that the malversations of the common-council were acts of the whole city; and that the points set forth in the pleadings were just grounds for the forfeiting of a charter."

Notwithstanding this sentence, however, the attorney-general, contrary to the usual custom in such cases, was directed to move that the judgment might not be recorded: being afraid of the consequences. Yet it was judged that the king might seize the liberties of the city. A common-council was immediately summoned to deliberate on this exigency. The country party moved to have the judgment entered; but they were overruled by the court party, who insisted upon an absolute submission to the king before judgment was entered; and though this was in effect a voluntary surrender of the city-liberties, and deprived themselves of the means of getting the judgment reversed, the act of submission was carried by a great majority: and in a petition from the lord mayor, aldermen, and common-council, they acknowledged their own misgovernment, and his majesty's lenity; begged his pardon, and promised constant loyalty and obedience; and humbly begged his majesty's commands and directions."

To this his majesty answered, that he would not reject their suit, if they would agree upon the following particulars. 1. That no lord mayor, sheriff, recorder, common serjeant, town clerk, or coroner, of the city of London, or steward of the borough of Southwark, shall be capable of, or admitted to, the exercise of their respective offices before his majesty shall have approved of them under his sign-manual. 2. That if his majesty shall disapprove the choice of any person to be lord mayor, and signify the same under his sign-manual to the lord mayor, or in default of a lord mayor, to the recorder or senior alderman, the citizens shall, within one week, proceed to a new choice: and if his majesty shall in like manner disapprove the second choice, his majesty may, if he pleases, nominate a person to be lord mayor for the year ensuing. 3. If his majesty shall, in like manner, disapprove the persons chosen to be sheriffs, or either of them, his majesty may appoint sheriffs for the year ensuing. 4. That the lord mayor and court of aldermen may, with the leave of his majesty, displace any alderman, recorder, &c. 5. Upon the election of an alderman, if the court of aldermen shall judge and declare the person presented to be unfit, the ward shall choose again; and upon a disapproval of a second choice, the court may appoint another in his room. 6. That the justices of the peace should be by the king's commission; and the settling of those matters to be left to his majesty's attorney-general and counsel learned in the law."

To these the lord-keeper added, in the king's name, "That these regulations being made, his majesty would not only pardon this prosecution, but would confirm their charter in such a manner as should be consistent with them; concluding thus: 'My lord mayor, the term draws towards an end, and Midsummer-day is at hand, when some of the officers used to be chosen; whereof his majesty will reserve the approbation. Therefore, it is his majesty's pleasure, that you return to the city, and consult the common council, that he may speedily know your resolutions thereupon, and accordingly give his directions. That you may see the king is in earnest, and the matter is not capable of delay, I am commanded to let you know he hath given orders to his attorney-general to enter upon judgment on Saturday next; unless you prevent it by your compliance in all these particulars.'"

A common-council was summoned, when the friends of liberty treated those slavish conditions as they deserved; and even declared, that they were ready to sacrifice all that was near or dear to them, rather than submit to such arbitrary impositions: but when it was put to the vote, there appeared a majority of 18 for submission.

Thus the king got the government of the city into his own hands, though he and his brothers entirely lost the affections of the Londoners. But, not content with their submission, his majesty departed from his promise; breaks in commanded the judgment upon the quo warranto to be entered; and commissioned Sir William Pritchard, the lord mayor, to hold the same office during his majesty's pleasure. In the same manner he appointed or displaced the other magistrates as he thought proper; after which the ministry, having nothing to fear, proceeded in the most arbitrary manner.

In this subjection to the will of the court, the city Privilege of London continued till the Revolution; but, in 1689, of the immediate restoration of the Londoners to their restored franchises was ordered; and in such a manner and form, as to put it out of the powers of an arbitrary ministry and a corrupt judge and jury to deprive them of their chartered liberties for the time to come. Accordingly, a bill was brought into parliament, and passed, for reversing the judgment of the quo warranto against the city of London, and for restoring the same to its ancient rights. That part of this immense capital which is distinguished by the name of The City, stands on the north shore of the river, from the Tower to the Temple, occupying only that space formerly encompassed by the wall, which in circumference measures but three miles and 165 feet. In this wall there were seven gates by land, viz. Ludgate, Aldgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Moorgate, Bishopsgate, which were all taken down in September 1670; and Newgate, the county gaol, which was also taken down in 1776, and a massive building erected a little south of it, which by the rioters in 1780 received damage to the amount of £8,000. On the side of the water there were Dowgate and Billingsgate, long since demolished, as well as the postern-gate near the Tower. In the year 1670, there was a gate erected called Temple-Bar, which terminates the bounds of the city westward. The liberties, or those parts of this great city which are subject to its jurisdiction, and lie without the walls of London, are bounded on the east, in Whitechapel, the Minories, and Bishopsgate, by bars, which were formerly posts and chains, that were frequently taken away by arbitrary power, when it was thought proper to seize the franchises of the city of London; on the north, they are bounded in the same manner in Pickaxe-street, at the end of Fan-alley, and in St John's-street; on the west, by bars in Holborn; at the east end of Middle Row, and at the west end of Fleet-street, by the gate called Temple-Bar, already mentioned; on the south, we may include the jurisdiction which the city holds on the river Thames, and over the borough of Southwark.

The city, including the borough, is at present divided into 26 wards.

1. Aldersgate ward takes its name from a city-gate which lately stood in the neighbourhood. It is bounded on the east by Cripplegate ward; on the west, by Farringdon ward within and without; and on the south, by Farringdon ward within. It is very large, and is divided into Aldersgate-within and Aldersgate-without. Each of these divisions consists of four precincts, under one alderman, eight common-council men, of whom two are the alderman's deputies, eight constables, fourteen inquest-men, eight scavengers, and a beadle; exclusive of the officers belonging to the liberty of St Martin's le Grand, which contains 168 houses.

2. Aldgate takes its name also from a gate, which was of great antiquity, being mentioned in King Edgar's charter to the knights of the Knighton Guild about the year 967; and was probably of a much more ancient foundation, for it was the gate through which the Roman vicinal way lay to the ferry at Oldford. In the time of the wars between King John and his barons, the latter entered the city through this gate, and committed great devastations among the houses of the religious. Aldgate was rebuilt by the leaders of the party after the Roman manner. They made use of stone which they brought from Caen, and into Wards, a small brick called the Flanders tile, which Mr Pennant thinks has been often mistaken for Roman. The new gate was very strong, and had a deep well within it. In 1471, this gate was assaulted by the Bastard of Falconbridge, who got possession of it for a few hours; but the portcullis being drawn up, the troops which had entered were all cut off, and the citizens, headed by the alderman of the ward and recorder, having made a sally, defeated the remainder with great slaughter. In 1606, Aldgate was taken down and rebuilt; and many Roman coins were found in digging the foundations.—The ward of Aldgate is bounded on the east by the city wall, which divides it from Portsoken ward; on the north, by Bishopsgate ward; on the west, by Lime-street and Langbourn wards; and on the south, by Tower-street ward. It is governed by an alderman, six common-council men, six constables, twenty inquest-men, seven scavengers, and a beadle; besides the officers belonging to St James's, Duke's Place.—It is divided into seven precincts.

3. Bassishaw or Basinghall ward, is bounded on the east and south by Coleman-street ward, on the north by part of Cripplegate, and on the west by part of the wards of Cheap and Cripplegate. On the south, it begins at Blackwell-hall; and runs northward to London wall, pulled down some time ago to make way for new buildings in Fore-street, and spreads 88 feet east, and 54 feet west against the place where that wall stood. This is a very small ward, and consists only of two precincts: the upper precinct contains no more than 66, and the lower only 76 houses. It is governed by an alderman, four common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, three constables, seventeen inquest-men, three scavengers, and a beadle. It has its name from Basinghall, the mansion-house of the family of Basing, which was the principal house in it, and stood in the place of Blackwell-hall.

4. Billingsgate ward is bounded on the east by Tower-street ward; on the north, by Langbourn ward; on the west, by the ward of Bridge-within; and on the south, by the river Thames. There have been many conjectures concerning the origin of the name of Billingsgate, none of which seems to be very well authenticated. It is, for instance, supposed to have derived its name from a British king named Belinus, said to have been an assistant of Brennus king of the Gauls at the taking of Rome, and is the same with the Beli-Maur mentioned in the Welsh genealogies. The name of Ludgate is said to be derived from his son Lud.—It is divided into 12 precincts; and is governed by an alderman, 10 common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, 11 constables, 14 inquest-men, six scavengers, and a beadle. The situation of Billingsgate, on the river, gives it great advantages with respect to trade and merchandise; so that it is well inhabited, and is in a continual hurry of business at the several wharfs or quays.

5. Bishopsgate ward is bounded on the east by Aldgate ward, Portsoken ward, and part of the Tower-liberty, or Norton-falgate; on the west, by Broad-street ward and Moorfields; and on the south, by Langbourn ward. Division in ward. It is very large, and divided into Bishopsgate-within and Bishopsgate-without. The first contains all that part of the ward within the city-wall and gate, and is divided into five precincts; the second lies without the wall, and is divided into four precincts. Bishopsgate-without extends to Shoreditch, taking its name from one Sir John de Sorditch, an eminent lawyer much in favour with King Edward III., both on account of his knowledge in the law, and of his personal valour. In the time of Henry VIII., one Barlo, a citizen and inhabitant of this place, was named duke of Shoreditch, on account of his skill in archery; and, for a number of years after, the title belonged to the captain of the London archers. This ward is governed by an alderman, two deputies, one within and the other without, 12 common-council men, seven constables, 13 inquest-men, nine scavengers, and two beadle. It took its name from the gate, which has been pulled down to make that part of the city more airy and commodious. This gate was built by Erkenwald bishop of London in 675; and it is said to have been repaired by William the Conqueror soon after the Norman conquest. In the time of Henry III., the Hanse merchants had certain privileges confirmed to them, in return for which they were to support this gate; and in consequence of this they rebuilt it elegantly in 1479. There were two statues of bishops, in memory of the founder and first repairer; other two were also put up, which are supposed to have been designed for Alfred and Ælfric earl of Mercia, to whose care the gate had been committed.

6. Bread-street ward is encompassed on the north and north-west, by the ward of Farringdon-within; on the east by Cordwainers ward; on the south by Queenhithe ward; and on the west, by Castle-Baynard ward. It is divided into 13 precincts; and is governed by an alderman, 12 common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, 13 constables, 13 inquest-men, 13 scavengers, and a beadle; and yet contains no more than 331 houses. It takes its name from the ancient bread-market, which was kept in the place now called Bread-street; the bakers being obliged to sell their bread only in the open market and not in shops.

7. Bridge-ward-within is bounded on the south by the river Thames and Southwark; on the north, by Langbourn and Bishopsgate ward; on the east, by Billingsgate; and on the west, by Candlewick and Dowgate wards. It is divided into 14 precincts, three of which were on London bridge; and is governed by an alderman, 15 common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, 14 constables, 15 inquest-men, 14 scavengers, and a beadle. It takes its name from its connexion with London bridge.

8. Broad-street ward is bounded, on the north and east, by Bishopsgate ward; on the south, by Cornhill and Wallbrook ward; and on the west by Coleman-street ward. It is divided into 10 precincts; and governed by an alderman, 10 common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, 10 constables, 13 inquest men, eight scavengers, and a beadle. It has its name from that part of it now distinguished by the name of Old Broad-street; and which, before the fire of 1666, was accounted one of the broadest streets in London.

9. Candlewick ward, Candlewick-street, or Candle-Division-in-wright-street ward as it is called in some ancient records, is bounded on the east by Bridge ward; on the south, by Dowgate and part of Bridge ward; on the west, by Dowgate and Wallbrook; and on the north, by Langbourn ward. It is but a small ward, consisting of about 286 houses; yet is divided into seven precincts. It is governed by an alderman, eight common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, seven constables, 13 inquest-men, seven scavengers, and a beadle. It has its name from a street, formerly inhabited chiefly by candle-wrights or candle-makers, both in tallow and wax: a very profitable business in the times of Popery, when incredible quantities of wax candles were consumed in the churches. That street, however, or at least its name, Candlewick, is lost since the great conflagration, for which the name Cannon-street is substituted, the candle wrights being at that time burnt out and dispersed through the city.

10. Castle-Baynard ward is bounded by Queenhithe and Bread-street wards on the east; on the south, by the Thames; and on the west and north by the ward of Farringdon-within. It is divided into 10 precincts, under the government of an alderman, 10 common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, nine constables, 14 inquest-men, seven scavengers, and a beadle. It takes its name from a castle built on the bank of the river by one Baynard, a soldier of fortune, who came in with William the Conqueror, and was by that monarch raised to great honours and authority.

11. Cheap ward is bounded on the east by Broad-street and Wallbrook wards; on the north, by Coleman-street, Bassishaw, and Cripplegate; and on the south, by Cordwainers ward. It is divided into nine precincts; and is governed by an alderman, 12 common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, 11 constables, 13 inquest-men, nine scavengers, and a beadle. It has its name from the Saxon word chepe, which signifies a market, kept in this division of the city, now called Cheapside; but then known by the name of Westcheap, to distinguish it from the market there also kept in Eastcheap, between Canon or Candlewick-street and Tower-street.

12. Coleman-street ward is bounded on the east by Bishopsgate, Broad-street, and Cheap wards; on the north, by Cripplegate ward, Middle Moorfields, and Bishopsgate; on the south, by Cheap ward; and on the west, by Bassishaw ward. It is divided into six precincts; and is governed by an alderman, six common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, six constables, 13 inquest-men, six scavengers, and a beadle. The origin of the name is not certainly known.

13. Cordwainers ward is bounded on the east by Wallbrook, on the south by Vintry ward, on the west by Bread-street, and on the north by Cheap ward. It is divided into eight precincts; and is governed by an alderman, eight common council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, eight constables, 14 inquest-men, eight scavengers, and a beadle. Its proper name is Cordwainers-street ward; which it has from Cordwainers-street, now Bow-lane, formerly occupied chiefly. vision in-chiefly by shoemakers and others that dealt or worked in leather.

14. Cornhill ward is but of small extent. It is bounded on the east by Bishopsgate, on the north by Broad-street, on the north by Cheap ward, and on the south by Langbourn ward. It is divided into four precincts, which are governed by one alderman, six common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, four constables, 16 inquest-men, four scavengers, and a beadle. It takes its name from the principal street in it, known from the earliest ages by the name of Cornhill, because the corn-market was kept there.

15. Cripplegate ward is bounded on the east by Moorfields, Coleman-street ward, Bassishaw ward, and Cheap ward; on the north by the parish of St Luke's, Old-street; on the west, by Aldersgate ward; and on the south, by Cheap ward. It is divided into 13 precincts, nine within and four without the wall; and is governed by an alderman, 12 common-council men, of whom two are the alderman's deputies, 13 constables, 34 inquest-men, 16 scavengers, and three beadles. It takes its name from Cripplegate, which stood on the north-west part of the city wall. It was an old plain structure, void of all ornament, with one postern; but had more the appearance of a fortification than any of the other gates. It was removed in order to widen the entrance into Wood-street, which, by the narrowness of the gateway, was too much contracted and rendered dangerous for passengers and great waggons.

16. Dowgate ward is bounded on the east by Candlewick and Bridge wards, on the north by Wallbrook ward, on the west by Vintry ward, and on the south by the Thames. It is divided into eight precincts, under the government of an alderman, eight common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, eight constables, 15 inquest-men, five scavengers, and a beadle. It has its name from the ancient water gate, called Dowgate, which was made in the original wall that ran along the north side of the Thames, for the security of the city against all attempts to invade it by water.

17. Farringdon ward within is bounded on the east by Cheap ward and Baynard-castle ward; on the north, by Aldersgate and Cripplegate wards, and the liberty of St Martin's le Grand; on the west by Farringdon-without; and on the south by Baynard-castle ward and the river Thames. It is divided into 18 precincts; and governed by one alderman, 17 common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, 19 constables, 17 inquest men, 19 scavengers, and two beadles. It takes its name from William Farringdon, citizen and goldsmith of London, who, in 1279, purchased all the aldermanry with the appurtenances, within the city of London and suburbs of the same, between Ludgate and Newgate, and also without these gates.

18. Farringdon ward without is bounded on the east by Farringdon within, the precinct of the late priory of St Bartholomew near Smithfield, and the ward of Aldersgate; on the north, by the Charter-house, the parish of St John's Clerkenwell, and part of St Andrew's parish without the freedom; on the west, by High Holborn and St Clement's parish in the Strand; and on the south by the river Thames. It is governed by one alderman, 16 common-council men, of whom two are the alderman's deputies, 23 constables, 48 in-division-inquest-men, 24 scavengers, and four beadles. It takes its name from the same goldsmith who gave name to Farringdon within.

19. Langbourn ward is bounded on the east by Aldgate ward, on the north, by part of the same, and Lime-street ward; on the south, by Tower-street, Bilingsgate, Bridge, and Candlewick wards; and on the west by Wallbrook. It is divided into 12 precincts. It had its name from a rivulet or long bourn of fresh water, which anciently flowed from a spring near Magpye alley adjoining to St Catherine Coleman's church.

20. Lime-street ward is bounded on the east and north by Aldgate ward, on the west by Bishopsgate; and on the south by Langbourn ward. It is divided into four precincts; and governed by an alderman, four common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, four constables, 13 inquest-men, four scavengers, and a beadle. It is very small, and has its name from some lime kilns that were formerly built in or near Lime-street.

21. Portsoxen ward is bounded on the east by the parishes of Spitalfields, Stepney, and St George's in the east; on the south, by Tower-hill, on the north, by Bishopsgate ward, and on the west by Aldgate ward. It is divided into five precincts; and is governed by an alderman, five common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, five constables, 19 inquest-men, five scavengers, and a beadle. Its name signifies the franchise of the liberty gate. This Portsoxen was for some time a guild; and had its beginning in King Edgar, when 13 knights, "well beloved of the king and realm, for services by them done," requested to have a certain portion of land on the east part of the city, left desolate and forsaken of the inhabitants by reason of too much servitude. They besought the king to have this land, with the liberty of a guild for ever. The king granted their request on the following conditions, viz. that each of them should victoriously accomplish three combats, one above the ground, one under ground, and the third in the water: and after this, at a certain day, in East Smithfield, they should run with spears against all comers. All this was gloriously performed; upon which the king named it Knighten Guild, and extended it from Aldgate to the places where the bars now are on the east, and to the Thames on the south, and as far into the water as a horseman could ride at low water and throw his spear.

22. Queenhithe ward is bounded on the east by Dowgate, on the north by Bread-street and Cordwainers wards, on the south by the Thames, and on the west by Castle-Baynard ward. It is divided into nine precincts; and is governed by one alderman, six common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, and nine constables. It has its name from the hithe, or harbour for large boats, barges, and lighters; for which, and even for ships, it was the anchoring place, and the quay for loading and unloading vessels almost of any burden used in ancient times. It has the name of queen, because the queens of England usually possessed the tolls and customs of vessels that unloaded goods at this hithe, which were very considerable.

23. Tower ward, or Tower-street ward, is bounded on the south by the river Thames, on the east by Tower-hill. Division in Tower-hill and Aldgate ward, on the north by Langbourn ward, and on the west by Billingsgate ward. It is governed by one alderman, 12 common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, 12 constables, 13 inquest-men, 12 scavengers, and one beadle. It takes its name from Tower-street, so called because it leads out of the city in a direct line to the principal entrance of the Tower of London.

24. Vintry ward is bounded on the east by Dowgate, on the south by the Thames, on the west by Queenhithe ward, and on the north by Cordwainers ward. It is a small ward, containing only 418 houses; but is divided into nine precincts, and governed by an alderman, nine common-council men, one of whom is the alderman's deputy, nine constables, 13 inquest-men, three scavengers, and a beadle. It takes its name from the vintners or wine-merchants of Bordeaux, who formerly dwelt in this part of the city, were obliged to land their wines on this spot, and to sell them in 40 days, till the 28th of Edward I.

25. Wallbrook ward is bounded on the east by Langbourn, on the south by Dowgate ward, on the west by Cordwainers ward, and on the north by Cheap ward. It is small, containing only 306 houses; but is divided into seven precincts, and governed by an alderman, eight common-council men, of whom one is the alderman's deputy, seven constables, 13 inquest-men, six scavengers, and a beadle. It has its name from the rivulet Wall-brook, that ran down the street of this name into the river Thames near Dowgate; but in process of time it was so lost by covering it with bridges, and buildings upon those bridges, that its channel became a common sewer.

26. The ward of Bridge-without includes the borough of Southwark, and the parishes of Rotherhithe, Newington, and Lambeth. It has its name from London bridge, with the addition of the word without, because the bridge must be passed in order to come at it. Westminster is generally reckoned a part of London, though under a distinct government; and has long been famous for the palaces of our kings, the seat of our law tribunals, and of the high court of parliament; all which shall be described in their order.

The city and liberties of London are under an ecclesiastical, a civil, and a military government.

As to its ecclesiastical government, London is a bishop's see, the diocese of which comprehends not only Middlesex, Essex, and part of Hertfordshire, but the British plantations in America. The bishop of London takes precedence next to the archbishops of Canterbury and York; but the following parishes of this city are exempt from his jurisdiction, being peculiarly under the immediate government of the archbishop of Canterbury; viz. All-hallows in Bread street, All-hallows, Lombard-street; St Dionys Back-church, St Dunstan in the East, St John Baptist, St Leonard Eastcheap, St Mary Aldermary, St Mary Bothaw, St Mary le Bow, St Michael Crooked-lane, St Michael Royal, St Pancras Soper-lane, and St Vedast Foster-lane.

The civil government of London divides it into wards and precincts, under a lord mayor, aldermen, and common-council.

The mayor, or lord mayor, is the supreme magistrate, chosen annually by the citizens, pursuant to a charter of King John. The present manner of electing a lord mayor is by the liverymen of the several companies, assembled in Guildhall annually on Michaelmas-day, according to an act of common council in A.D. 1476, where, and when, the liverymen choose, or rather nominate, two aldermen below the chair, who have served the office of sheriff, to be returned to the court of aldermen, who may choose either of the two; but generally declare the senior of the two, so returned, to be lord mayor elect. The election being over, the lord mayor elect, accompanied by the recorder and divers aldermen, is soon after presented to the lord chancellor (as his majesty's representative in the city of London) for his approbation; and on the 9th of November following is sworn into the office of mayor at Guildhall; and on the day after, before the barons of the exchequer at Westminster; the procession on which occasion is exceedingly grand and magnificent.

The lord mayor sits every morning at the mansion-house, or place where he keeps his mayoralty, to determine any difference that may happen among the citizens, and to do other business incident to the office of a chief magistrate. Once in six weeks, or eight times in the year, he sits as chief judge of oyer and terminer, or gaol-delivery of Newgate for London and the county of Middlesex. His jurisdiction extends all over the city and suburbs, except some places that are exempt. It extends also from Colneyditch, above Staines-bridge in the west, to Yeudale, or Yenflete, and the mouth of the river Medway, and up that river to Upnor castle, in the east: by which he exercises the power of punishing or correcting all persons that shall annoy the streams, banks, or fish. For which purpose his lordship holds several courts of conservancy in the counties adjacent to the said river, for its conservation, and for the punishment of offenders. See the article Mayor's Court.

The title of dignity, alderman, is of Saxon original; Aldermen of the greatest honour, answering to that of earl; though now it is nowhere to be found but in chartered societies. And from hence we may account for the reason why the aldermen and commonality of London were called barons after the Conquest. These magistrates are properly the subordinate governors of their respective wards under the lord mayor's jurisdiction; and they originally held their aldermanries either by inheritance or purchase; at which time the aldermanries or wards changed their names as often as their governors or aldermen. The oppressions, to which the citizens were subject from such a government, put them upon means to abolish the perpetuity of that office; and they brought it to an actual election. But that manner of election being attended with many inconveniences, and becoming a continual bone of contention among the citizens, the parliament, 17 Richard II. A.D. 1394, enacted, that the aldermen of London should continue in their several offices during life or good behaviour. And so it still continues: though the manner of electing has several times varied. At present it is regulated by an act of parliament, passed in the year 1724-5: and the person so elected is to be returned by the lord mayor (or other returning officer in his stead, duly qualified to hold a court of wardmote) to the court of lord mayor and aldermen, by whom the person person so returned must be admitted and sworn into the office of alderman before he can act. If the person chosen refuses to serve the office of alderman, he is punishable.

These high officers constitute a second part of the city legislature when assembled in a corporate capacity, and exercise an executive power in their respective wards. The aldermen who have passed the chair, or served the high office of lord mayor, are justices of the quorum; and all the other aldermen are not only justices of the peace, but by the statute of 43 Eliz. entitled, An act for the relief of the poor, "every alderman of the city of London, within his ward, shall and may do and execute, in every respect, so much as is appointed and allowed by the said act to be done or executed by one or two justices of peace of any county within this realm." They every one keep their wardmote, or court, for choosing ward officers and settling the affairs of the ward, to redress grievances, and to present all defaults found within their respective wards.

The next branch of the legislative power in this city is the common-council. The many inconveniences that attended popular assemblies, which were called folkmote, determined the commonalty of London to choose representatives to act in their name and for their interest, with the lord mayor and aldermen, in all affairs relating to the city. At first these representatives were chosen out of the several companies: but that not being found satisfactory, nor properly the representatives of the whole body of the inhabitants, it was agreed to choose a certain number of discreet men out of each ward: which number has from time to time increased according to the dimensions of each ward: and at present the 25 wards, into which London is divided, being subdivided into 256 precincts, each precinct sends a representative to the common-council, who are elected after the same manner as an alderman, only with this difference, that as the lord mayor presides in the wardmote, and is judge of the poll at the election of an alderman, so the alderman of each ward is judge of the poll at the election of a common-council man.

Thus the lord mayor, aldermen, and common-council, when assembled, may be deemed the city parliament, resembling the great council of the nation. For it consists of two houses; one for the lord mayor and aldermen, or the upper house; another for the commoners or representatives of the people, commonly called the common-council men. And they have power in their incorporate capacity to make and repeal by-laws; and the citizens are bound to obey or submit to those laws. When they meet in their incorporate capacity, they wear deep blue silk gowns: and their assemblies are called the court of common-council, and their ordinances acts of common-council. No act can be performed in the name of the city of London without their concurrence. But they cannot assemble without a summons from the lord mayor; who, nevertheless, is obliged to call a common-council, whenever it shall be demanded, upon extraordinary occasions, by six reputable citizens and members of that court.

This corporation is assisted by two sheriffs and a recorder. The sheriffs are chartered officers, to perform certain suits and services, in the king's name, within the city of London and county of Middlesex, chosen by the liverymen of the several companies on Midsummer day. Their office, according to Camden, in general, is to collect the public revenues within their several jurisdictions; to gather into the exchequer all fines belonging to the crown; to serve the king's writs of process; to attend the judges, and execute their orders; to impannel juries; to compel headstrong and obstinate men by the posse comitatus to submit to the decisions of the law; and to take care that all condemned criminals be duly punished and executed. In particular, in London, they are to execute the orders of the common-council, when they have resolved to address his majesty, or to petition parliament.

The sheriffs, by virtue of their office, hold a court at Guildhall every Wednesday and Friday, for actions entered at Wood-street Compter; and on Thursdays, and Saturdays, for those entered at the Poultry Compter: of which the sheriffs being judges, each has its assistant, or deputy, who are called the judges of those courts; before whom are tried actions of debt, trespass, covenant, &c. and where the testimony of any absent witness in writing is allowed to be good evidence. To each of these courts belong four attorneys, who, upon their being admitted by the court of aldermen, have an oath administered to them.

To each of these courts likewise belong a secondary, a clerk of the papers, a prothonotary, and four clerks-sitters. The secondary's office is to allow and return all writs brought to remove clerks out of the said courts; the clerk of the papers files and copies all declarations upon actions; the prothonotary draws and engrosses all declarations; the clerk-sitters enter actions and attachments, and take bail and verdicts. To each of the compters, or prisons belonging to these courts, appertain 16 sergeants at mace, with a yeoman to each, besides inferior officers, and the prison-keeper.

In the sheriffs' court may be tried actions of debt, case, trespass, account, covenant, and all personal actions, attachments, and sequestrations. When an erroneous judgment is given in either of the sheriffs' courts of the city, the writ of error to reverse this judgment must be brought in the court of hustings before the lord mayor; for that is the superior court. The sheriffs of London may make arrests and serve executions on the river Thames.

We do not read of a recorder till the 1304, who, Recorder by the nature of his office, seems to have been intended as an assistant to, or assessor with, the lord mayor, in the execution of his high office, in matters of justice and law. He is chosen by the lord mayor and aldermen only; and takes place in all courts, and in the common-council, before any one that hath not been mayor. Of whom we have the following description in one of the books of the chamber: "He shall be, as is wont to be, one of the most skilful and virtuous apprentices of the law of the whole kingdom; whose office is always to sit on the right hand of the mayor, in recording pleas, and passing judgments; and by whom records and processes, had before the lord mayor and aldermen at Great St Martin's, ought to be recorded by word of mouth before the judges assigned there to correct errors. The mayor and aldermen have therefore used commonly to set forth all other businesses, touching the city, before the king and his council. council, as also in certain of the king's courts, by Mr Recorder, as a chief man, endued with wisdom, and eminent for eloquence."—Mr Recorder is looked up on to be the mouth of the city, to deliver all addresses to the king, &c., from the corporation; and he is the first officer in order of precedence that is paid a salary, which originally was no more than £10 sterling per annum, with some few perquisites; but it has from time to time been augmented to £100 per annum, and become the road of preferment in the law. This office has sometimes been executed by a deputy.

The next chartered officer of this corporation is the chamberlain; an officer of great repute and trust, and is in the choice of the livery annually. This officer, though chosen annually on Midsummer-day, is never displaced during his life, except some very great crime can be made out against him. He has the keeping of the moneys, lands, and goods, of the city orphans, or takes good security for the payment thereof when the parties come to age. And to that end he is deemed in the law a sole corporation, to him and his successors, for orphans; and therefore a bond or a recognition made to him and his successors, is recoverable by his successors. This officer hath a court peculiarly belonging to him. His office may be termed a public treasury, collecting the customs, moneys, and yearly revenues, and all other payments belonging to the corporation of the city. It was customary for government to appoint the chamberlain receiver of the land tax; but this has been discontinued for several years past.

The other officers under the lord mayor are, 1. The common serjeant. He is to attend the lord mayor and court of aldermen on court days, and to be in council with them on all occasions, within or without the precincts or liberties of the city. He is to take care of orphans estates, either by taking account of them, or to sign their indentures, before their passing the lord mayor and court of aldermen. And likewise he is to set, let, and manage the orphans estates, according to his judgment, to the best advantage. 2. The town clerk; who keeps the original charter of the city, the books, rolls, and other records, wherein are registered the acts and proceedings of the city; so that he may not be improperly termed the city-register; he is to attend the lord mayor and aldermen at their courts, and signs all public instruments. 3. The city remembrancer; who is to attend the lord mayor on certain days, his business being to put his lordship in mind of the select days he is to go abroad with the aldermen, &c. He is to attend daily at the parliament house, during the sessions, and to report to the lord mayor their transactions. 4. The sword-bearer; who is to attend the lord mayor at his going abroad, and to carry the sword before him, being the emblem of justice. This is an ancient and honourable office, representing the state and princely office of the king's most excellent majesty, in his representative the lord mayor; and, according to the rule of armory, "He must carry the sword upright, the hilts being holden under his bulk, and the blade directly up the midst of his breast, and so forth between the sword-bearer's brows." 5. The common hunt; whose business it is to take care of the pack of hounds belonging to the lord mayor and citizens, and to attend them in hunting in those grounds to which they are authorized by charter.

6. The common crier. It belongs to him and the serjeant at arms, to summon all executors and administrators of freemen to appear, and to bring in inventories of the personal estates of freemen, within two months after their decease; and he is to have notice of the appraisements. He is also to attend the lord mayor on set days, and at the courts held weekly by the mayor and aldermen. 7. The water bailiff; whose office is to look after the preservation of the river Thames against all encroachments; and to look after the fishermen for the preservation of the young fry, to prevent the destroying them by unlawful nets. For that end, there are juries for each county, that hath any part of it lying on the sides or shores of the said river; which juries, summoned by the water bailiff at certain times, do make inquiry of all offences relating to the river and the fish, and make their presentments accordingly. He is also bound to attend the lord mayor on set days in the week.—These seven purchase their places; except the town clerk, who is chosen by the livery.

There are also three serjeant carvers; three serjeants of the chamber; a serjeant of the channel; four yeomen of the water side; an under water bailiff; two yeomen of the chamber; two meal weighters; two yeomen of the wood wharfs; a foreign taker; city marshals. There are besides these, seven gentlemen's men; as the sword-bearer's man, the common hunt's two men, the common crier's man, and the carvers three men.

Nine of the foregoing officers have liveries of the lord mayor, viz. the sword-bearer and his man, the three carvers, and the four yeomen of the water side. All the rest have liveries from the chamber of London.

The following officers are likewise belonging to the city; farmer of the markets, auditor, clerk of the chamber, clerk to the commissioners of the sewers, clerk of the court of conscience, beadle of the same court, clerk of the city works, printer to the city, justice of the Bridge yard, clerk comptroller of the Bridge house, steward of the Borough, bailiff of the Borough.

There is also a coroner, called so from corona, i.e. a crown, because he deals principally with the crown, or in matters appertaining to the imperial crown of England. See the article CORONER.

Besides these officers, there are several courts in this city for the executing of justice, viz. the court of hustings, lord mayor's court, &c. In the city there are also two subordinate kinds of government. One executed by the aldermen, deputy, and common-council men, and their inferior officers, in each ward; under which form are comprehended all the inhabitants, free or not free of the city. Every ward is therefore like a little free state, and at the same time subject to the lord mayor as chief magistrate of the city. The housekeepers of each ward elect their representatives, the common-council, who join in making bye-laws for the government of the city. The officers and servants of each ward manage the affairs belonging to it, without the assistance of the rest; and each has a court called the wardmote, as has been already described, for the management of its own affairs. The other, by the master, master, wardens, and court of assistants, of the incorporate companies; whose power reaches no farther than over the members of their respective guilds or fraternities; except that in them is vested the power to choose representatives in parliament for the city, and all those magistrates and officers elected by a common hall; which companies are invested with distinct powers, according to the tenor of their respective charters.

The military government of the city is lodged in a lieutenancy, consisting of the lord mayor, aldermen, and other principal citizens, who receive their authority by a commission from the king. Those have under their command the city trained bands, consisting of six regiments of foot, distinguished by the names of the white, orange, yellow, blue, green, and red, each containing eight companies of 150 men, amounting in all to 7200. Besides these six regiments, there is a corps called the artillery company, from its being taught the military exercise in the artillery ground. This company is independent of the rest, and consists of 700 or 800 volunteers. All these, with two regiments of foot of 800 men each, commanded by the lieutenant of the Tower of London, make the whole militia of this city; which, exclusive of Westminster and the borough of Southwark, amounts to about 10,000 men.

The trading part of the city of London is divided into 89 companies; though some of them can hardly be called so, because they have neither charters, halls, nor liveryes. Of these 89 companies, 55 have each a hall for transacting the business of the corporation; and this consists of a master or prime warden, a court of assistants and livery.—Twelve of these companies are superior to the rest both in antiquity and wealth; and of one of those 12 the lord mayors have generally made themselves free at their election. These companies are the mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers, goldsmiths, skinners, merchant-taylors, haberdashers, salters, ironmongers, vintners, and clothworkers.—The principal incorporated societies of the merchants of this city are, the Hamburgh Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Russia Company, the Turkey Company, the East India Company, the Royal African Company, the South Sea Company, and some Insurance Companies. The most of these companies have stately houses for transacting their business, particularly the East India and South Sea Companies. See COMPANY.

The streets and public buildings in London and its liberties being far too numerous for a particular description in this work, we shall only select the most remarkable, beginning with London Bridge as the most ancient, and proceeding in our survey through the wards into which the city is divided.

I. Remarkable Buildings, &c. in the City.—The original bridge, which stands in Bridge ward, was of wood, and appears to have been first built between the years 993 and 1016; but being burnt down about the year 1136, it was rebuilt of wood in 1163. The expences, however, of maintaining and repairing it became so burdensome to the inhabitants of the city, that they resolved to build a stone bridge a little westward of the wooden one. This building was begun in 1176, and finished in 1209; and was 915 feet long, 44 feet high, and 73 feet wide; but houses being built on each side, the space between was only 23 feet.

This great work was founded on enormous piles driven as closely as possible together: on their tops were laid long planks 10 inches thick, strongly bolted; and on them was placed the base of the pier, the lowermost stones of which were bedded in pitch, to prevent the water from damaging the work: round all were the piles which were called the sterlings, designed for the preservation of the foundation piles. These contracted the space between the piers so greatly, as to occasion at the retreat of every tide a fall of five feet, or a number of temporary cataracts, which since the foundation of the bridge have occasioned the loss of many thousand lives. The number of arches was 19, of unequal dimensions, and greatly deformed by the sterlings and the houses on each side, which overhung and leaned in a most terrific name. In most places they hid the arches, and nothing appeared but the rude piers. Within recollection, frequent arches of strong timber crossed the street from the tops of the houses to keep them together, and from falling into the river (A). Nothing but use could preserve the quiet of the inmates, who soon grew deaf to the noise of the falling waters, the clamours of watermen, or the frequent shrieks of drowning wretches. In one part had been a drawbridge, useful either by way of defence or for the admission of ships into the upper part of the river. This was protected by a strong tower. It served to repulse Falconbridge the Bastard in his general assault on the city in 1471, with a set of banditti, under pretence of rescuing the unfortunate Henry, then confined in the Tower. Sixty houses were burnt on the bridge on the occasion. It also served to check, and in the end annihilate, the ill-conducted insurrection of Sir Thomas Wyat, in the reign of Queen Mary. The top of this tower, in the sad and turbulent days of this kingdom, used to be the shambles of human flesh, and covered with heads or quarters.

(A) The gallant action of Edmund Osborne, ancestor to the duke of Leeds, when he was apprentice to Sir William Hewet, cloth-worker, may not improperly be mentioned in this place. About the year 1536, when his master lived in one of those tremendous houses, a servant maid was playing with his only daughter in her arms in a window over the water, and accidentally dropt the child. Young Osborne, who was witness to the misfortune, instantly sprang into the river, and beyond all expectation, brought her safe to the terrified family! Several persons of rank paid their addresses to her when she was marriageable, among others the earl of Shrewsbury; but Sir William gratefully decided in favour of Osborne: Osborne, says he, saved her, and Osborne shall enjoy her. In her right he possessed a great fortune. He became sheriff of London in 1573, and lord mayor in 1582. quarters of unfortunate partizans. Even so late as the year 1598, Hentzner, the German traveller, with German accuracy, counted on it above 30 heads. The old map of the city in 1597 represents them in a most horrible cluster.—An unparalleled calamity happened on this bridge within four years after it was finished. A fire began on it at the Southwark end; multitudes of people rushed out of London to extinguish it; while they were engaged in this charitable design, the fire seized on the opposite end, and hemmed in the crowd. Above 3000 persons perished in the flames, or were drowned by overloading the vessels which were hardly enough to attempt their relief.

The narrowness of the passage on this bridge, and the straitness of the arches, having occasioned frequent and fatal accidents, the magistrates of London, in 1756 and 1758, obtained acts of parliament for improving and widening the passage over and through the bridge. In consequence of these acts of parliament, a temporary wooden bridge was built, and the houses on the old bridge were taken down. Instead of a narrow street 23 feet wide, there is now a passage of 31 feet for carriages, with a raised pavement of stone on each side 7 feet broad for the use of foot passengers. The sides are secured by stone balustrades, enlightened in the night with lamps. The passage through the bridge is enlarged by throwing the two middle arches into one, and by other alterations and improvements; notwithstanding which, however, it is still greatly subject to its former inconveniences.

The Strand or Waterloo Bridge is one of the noblest structures of the kind in the world, whether we regard the simple and chaste grandeur of its architecture, its convenience as a bridge, or the impression of indestructibility which it forces on the mind. It was begun in the yr 1811, and opened in 1817, on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. The architect was Mr Rennie. It cost rather more than one million of money, all of which was raised by private subscription. It crosses the Thames near the Savoy to the opposite shore of Lambeth-marsh. It contains 9 equal arches, each of 127 feet span. The piers are 20 feet high; the width within the parapets 42 feet, the footpaths being 7 feet each, and the roadway 28 feet. It is perfectly flat, and is built of granite.

The Vauxhall, which was begun nearly at the same time as the Waterloo Bridge, crosses the Thames from Milbank to the Cumberland tea-gardens near Vauxhall. It consists of 9 arches of equal span, of cast-iron. The span is 78 feet, the height 29 feet, and the breadth of the roadway 36 feet: the length is 899 feet. It was built by private subscription, and cost nearly 300,000l. A road is opened from it to Pimlico, and thus it is connected with Hyde Park corner.

Southwark Bridge is not yet finished. It crosses the Thames at the bottom of Queen's Street Cheapside to Bankside. It consists of 3 arches of cast-iron. The centre arch is 240 feet span, and the side ones 210 feet each. The river here is narrow, but deep and rapid. The estimate is 287,000l. Mr Rennie is the architect. It is building by private subscription.

Near the north side of London bridge stands the Monument, a beautiful and magnificent fluted column of the Doric order, built with Portland stone, and erected in memory of the conflagration 1666. It was begun by Sir Christopher Wren in 1671, and finished by him in 1677. Its height from the pavement is 202 feet; the diameter of the shaft, or body of the column, is 15 feet; the ground-plinth, or lowest part of the pedestal, is 28 feet square; and the pedestal is 40 feet high. Over the capital is an iron balcony encompassing a cone 32 feet high, which supports a blazing urn of gilt brass. Within is a large staircase of black marble, containing 345 steps, each ten inches and a half broad, and six inches thick. The west side is adorned with a curious emblem in alt-relief, denoting the destruction and restoration of the city. The first female figure represents London sitting in ruins, in a languishing posture, with her head dejected, her hair dishevelled, and her hand carelessly lying on her sword. Behind is Time, gradually raising her up: at her side is a woman touching her with one hand, whilst a winged sceptre in the other directs her to regard the goddesses in the clouds; one with a cornucopia, denoting Plenty; the other with a palm branch, the emblem of Peace. At her feet is a bee-hive, showing, that by industry and application the greatest misfortunes are to be overcome. Behind the figure of Time are citizens exulting at his endeavours to restore her; and beneath, in the midst of the ruins, is a dragon, who, as the supporter of the city arms, with his paw endeavours to preserve the same. Opposite to the city, on an elevated pavement, stands the king, in a Roman habit, with a laurel on his head, and a truncheon in his hand; and approaching her, commands three of his attendants to descend to her relief. The first represents the Sciences with a winged head and circle of naked boys dancing thereon; and holding Nature in her hand, with her numerous breasts, ready to give assistance to all. The second is Architecture, with a plan in one hand, and a square and pair of compasses in the other; and the third is Liberty, waving a hat in the air, showing her joy at the pleasing prospect of the city's speedy recovery. Behind the king stands his brother the duke of York, with a garland in one hand to crown the rising city, and a sword in the other for her defence. The two figures behind are Justice and Fortitude; the former with a coronet, and the latter with a reined lion; and under the royal pavement lies Envy, gnawing a heart, and incessantly emitting pestiferous fumes from her mouth. On the plinth the reconstruction of the city is represented by builders and labourers at work upon houses. On the north, south, and east sides, are inscriptions relating to the destruction occasioned by the conflagration, the regulations about rebuilding the city, and erecting the monument; and round it is the following one:—“This pillar was set up in perpetual remembrance of the most dreadful burning of this Protestant city, begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the Popish faction, in the beginning of September, in the year of our Lord 1666, in order to their carrying on their horrid plot for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English liberty, and introducing Popery and slavery.” Dr Wendeborn, in his account of London, observes, that the monument, though not much above 100 years old, bears visible marks of decay already; and it will not probably be long before it must be pulled down. Some are of opinion that this is occasioned by the fault of the architect, others by the continual shaking of the ground by coaches; but the doctor inclines to the latter opinion.

Eastward of the bridge and monument stands the Tower, which gives name to another ward. It is the chief fortress of the city, and supposed to have been originally built by William the Conqueror. It appears, however, to have been raised upon the remains of a more ancient fortress, erected probably by the Romans: for in 1723, in digging on the south side of what is called Caesar's Chapel, there were discovered some old foundations of stone, three yards broad, and so strongly cemented that it was with the utmost difficulty they were forced up. The first work (according to Mr Pennant) seems to have been suddenly flung up in 1066 by the Conqueror, on his taking possession of the capital; and included in it a part of the ancient wall.

The great square tower, called the White Tower, was erected in the year 1078, when it arose under the directions of Gundulph bishop of Rochester, who was a great military architect. This building originally stood by itself. Fitz-Stephen gives it the name of Arx Palatina, "the Palatine Tower;" the commander of which had the title of Palatine bestowed on him. Within this tower is a very ancient chapel for the use of such of our kings and queens who wished to pay their devotion here. In 1092 a violent tempest did great injury to the Tower; but it was repaired by William Rufus and his successor. The first added another castellated building on the south side between it and the Thames, which was afterwards called St Thomas's Tower.

The Tower was first enclosed by William Longchamp bishop of Ely and chancellor of England, in the reign of Richard I. This haughty prelate having a quarrel with John, third brother to Richard, under pretence of guarding against his designs, surrounded the whole with walls embattled, and made on the outside a vast ditch, into which, in after times, the water from the Thames was introduced. Different princes added other works. The present contents within the walls are 12 acres and 5 rods, the circuit on the outside of the ditch 1032 feet. It was again enclosed with a mud wall, by Henry III.: this was placed at a distance from the ditch, and occasioned the taking down part of the city-wall, which was resented by the citizens; who, pulling down this precinct of mud, were punished by the king with a fine of a thousand merks.

The Lions Tower was built by Edward IV. It was originally called the Bulwark, but received the former name from its use. A menagery had very long been a piece of regal state: Henry I. had his at his manor of Woodstock, where he kept lions, leopards, lynxes, porcupines, and several other uncommon beasts. They were afterwards removed to the Tower. Edward II. commanded the sheriffs of London to pay the keepers of the king's leopards sixpence a-day for the sustenance of the leopards, and three halfpence a-day for the diet of the keeper out of the fee-farm of the city. The royal menagery is to this day exceedingly well supplied.

In 1758 the Tower ditch was railed all round. New barracks were some years ago erected on the Tower wharf, which parts it from the river; and upon the wharf is a line of 61 pieces of cannon, which are fired upon state holidays. On this side of the Tower the ditch is narrow, and over it is a drawbridge. Parallel to the wharf, within the walls, is a platform 70 yards in length called the Ladies Line, because much frequented by the ladies in the summer; it being shaded in the inside with a row of lofty trees, and without is a delightful prospect of the shipping with boats passing and repassing on the river Thames. You ascend this line by stone steps, and being once upon it you may walk almost round the walls of the Tower without interruption.

The principal entrance into the Tower is by a gate to the west, large enough to admit coaches and heavy carriages; but these are first admitted through an outward gate, situated without the ditch upon the hill, and must pass a stout stone bridge built over the ditch before they can approach the main entrance. There is, besides, an entrance near the very south-west corner of the Tower outward wall, for persons, on foot, over the drawbridge already mentioned to the wharf. There is also a water-gate commonly called Traitor's gate, through which it has been customary to convey traitors and other state prisoners to or from the Tower, and which is seldom opened on any other occasion; but the lords committed to the Tower in 1746 were publicly admitted at the main entrance. Over this gate is a regular building, terminated at each end by two round towers, on which are embrasures for pointing cannon. In this building there are the infirmary, the mill, and the water-works that supply the Tower with water.

In the Tower, the curiosities of which are more particularly described in the note (B), are a church, the offices of ordnance, those of the keepers of the records.

(B) In examining the curiosities of the Tower of London, it will be proper to begin with those on the outside of the principal gate. The first thing a stranger usually goes to visit is the wild beasts; which, from their situation, first present themselves: for having entered the outer gate, and passed what is called the spur-guard, the keeper's house presents itself before you, which is known by a painted lion on the wall, and another over the door which leads to their dens. By ringing a bell, and paying sixpence each person, you may easily gain admittance.

On passing the principal gate you see the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror. This is a large, square, irregular stone building, situated almost in the centre, no one side answering to another, nor any of its watch-towers, of which there are four at the top, built alike. One of these towers is now converted into an observatory. In the first story are two noble rooms, one of which is a small armory for the sea-service, it having various sorts of arms, very curiously laid up, for above 10,000 seamen. In the other room are many closets and records, of the jewel office, of the Spanish armory, the horse armory, and the new or small armory; with barracks for the soldiers of the garrison, and handsome houses for several officers who reside here. The principal officers of the Tower are, a constable, a lieutenant, and a deputy-lieutenant. Belonging to this fortress are 11 hamlets; the militia of which, consisting of 400 men, are obliged, at the command of the constable of the Tower, to repair hither, and reinforce the garrison.

On Little Tower-hill is the Victualling Office for the navy. It is separated from Tower-hill by a wall and gate, and contains houses for the officers, slaughterhouses, store rooms, a brew-house, a salting-house, and barrelling-house; under the direction of seven commissioners and other inferior officers.

The Mint was formerly within the Tower; but within these few years it has been removed to an elegant building, erected on purpose, on the north-east corner of Tower-hill. Its area comprises 159,700 feet, of which 71,200 are in the buildings; it cost £228,656, exclusive of the machinery. The steam engines, &c., for coining, are of the best construction.

In Tower ward is also the Customhouse, a large, handsome, and commodious building of brick and stone. It stands upon the banks of the Thames, and is accommodated

and presses, all filled with warlike engines and instruments of death. Over this are two other floors, one principally filled with arms; the other with arms and other warlike instruments, as spades, shovels, pickaxes, and chevaux de frise. In the upper story are kept match, sheep-skins, tanned hides, &c.; and in a little room called Julius Caesar's chapel, are deposited some records, containing perhaps the ancient usages and customs of the place. In this building are also preserved the models of the new-invented engines of destruction that have from time to time been presented to the government. Near the south-west angle of the White Tower is the Spanish armory, in which are deposited the spoils of what was vainly called the Invincible Armada; in order to perpetuate to latest posterity the memory of that signal victory obtained by the English over the whole naval power of Spain in the reign of Philip II.

You are now come to the grand storehouse, a noble building to the northward of the White Tower, that extends 245 feet in length and 65 in breadth. It was begun by King James II, who built it to the first floor; but it was finished by King William III, who erected that magnificent room called the New or Small Armoury, in which that prince, with Queen Mary his consort, dined in great form, having all the warrant workmen and labourers to attend them, dressed in white gloves and aprons, the usual badges of the order of masonry. To this noble room you are led by a folding door, adjoining to the east end of the Tower chapel, which leads to a grand staircase of 50 easy steps. On the left side of the uppermost landing-place is the work-shop, in which are constantly employed about 14 furbishers, in cleaning, repairing, and new-placing the arms. On entering the armory, you see what they call a wilderness of arms, so artfully disposed, that at one view you behold arms for near 80,000 men, all bright and fit for service; a sight which it is impossible to behold without astonishment; and besides those exposed to view, there were, before the late war, 16 chests shut up, each chest holding about 1000 muskets. The arms were originally disposed by Mr Harris, who contrived to place them in this beautiful order, both here and in the guard-chamber of Hampton-court. He was a common gunsmith; but after he had performed this work, which is the admiration of people of all nations, he was allowed a pension from the crown for his ingenuity.

Upon the ground floor, under the small armory, is a large room of equal dimensions with that, supported by 20 pillars, all hung round with implements of war. This room, which is 24 feet high, has a passage in the middle 16 feet wide.

The horse armory is a plain brick building, a little to the eastward of the White Tower; and is an edifice rather convenient than elegant, where the spectator is entertained with a representation of those kings and heroes of our own nation, with whose gallant actions it is to be supposed he is well acquainted; some of them equipped and sitting on horseback, in the same bright and shining armour they were used to wear when they performed those glorious actions which gave them a distinguished place in the British annals.

You now come to the line of kings, which your conductor begins by reversing the order of chronology; so that in following them we must place the last first.

In a dark strong stone room, about 20 yards to the eastward of the grand store-house, or new armory, the crown jewels are deposited. 1. The imperial crown, with which it is pretended that all the kings of England have been crowned since Edward the Confessor in 1040. It is of gold, enriched with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls: the cap within is of purple velvet, lined with white taffety, turned up with three rows of ermine. They are, however, mistaken in showing this as the ancient imperial diadem of St Edward; for that, with the other most ancient regalia of this kingdom, was kept in the arched room in the cloisters in Westminster Abbey till the civil war: when, in 1642, Harry Martin, by order of the parliament, broke open the iron chest in which it was secured, took it thence, and sold it, together with the robes, sword, and sceptre, of St Edward. However, after the Restoration, King Charles II, had one made in imitation of it, which is that now shown. 2. The golden orb, or globe, put into the king's right hand before he is crowned: and borne in his left hand, with the sceptre in his right, upon his return into Westminster-hall after he is crowned. It is about six inches in diameter, edged with pearl, and enriched with precious stones. On the top is an amethyst, of a violet colour, near an inch and a half in height, set with a rich cross of gold, adorned with diamonds, pearls, and precious stones. The whole height of the ball and cup is 11 inches. 3. The golden sceptre, with its cross set upon a large amethyst of great value, garnished round with table diamonds. The handle of the sceptre is plain, but the pommel is set round with rubies, emeralds, and small diamonds. The top rises into a fleur-de-lis of six leaves, all enriched with precious stones, from whence issues a mound or ball, made of the amethyst already mentioned. The cross is quite covered with precious stones.

4. The sceptre, with the dove, the emblem of peace, perched on the top of a small Jerusalem cross, finely ornamented with table diamonds and jewels of great value. This emblem was first used by Edward the Confessor, as appears by his seal; but the ancient sceptre and dove was sold with the rest of the regalia, and this now in the Tower was made after the Restoration.

5. St Edward's staff, four feet seven inches and a half in length, and three inches three quarters in circumference, all of beaten gold, which was carried before the king at his coronation.

6. The rich crown of state, worn by his majesty in parliament; in which is a large emerald seven inches round; a pearl esteemed the finest in the world; and a ruby of inestimable value.

7. The crown belonging to his royal highness the prince of Wales. The king wears his crown on his head when he sits upon the throne; but that of the prince of Wales is placed before him, to show that he is not yet come to it.

8. The late Queen Mary's crown, globe, and sceptre, with the diadem she wore at her coronation with her consort King William III.

9. An ivory sceptre, with a dove on the top, made for King James II's queen, whose garniture is gold, and the dove on the top gold enamelled with white.

10. The curtana, or sword of mercy, which has a blade of 32 inches long, and near two broad, is without a point, and is borne naked before the king at his coronation, between the two swords of justice, spiritual and temporal.

11. The golden spurs, and the armillas, which are bracelets for the wrists. These, though very antique, are worn at the coronation.

12. The ampulla, or eagle of gold, finely engraved, which holds the holy oil the kings and queens of England are anointed with; and the golden spoon that the bishop pours the oil into. These are two pieces of great antiquity. The golden eagle, including the pedestal, is about nine inches high, and the wings expand about seven inches. The whole weighs about ten ounces. The head of the eagle screws off about the middle of the neck, which is made hollow for holding the holy oil; and when the king is anointed by the bishop, the oil is poured into the spoon out of the bird's bill.

13. A rich saltseller of state, in form like the square White Tower, and so exquisitely wrought, that the workmanship of modern times is in no degree equal to it. It is of gold, and used only on the king's table at the coronation.

14. A noble silver font, double gilt, and elegantly wrought, in which the royal family are christened.

15. A large silver fountain presented to King Charles II. by the town of Plymouth, very curiously wrought; but much inferior in beauty to the above. Besides these, which are commonly shown, there are in the jewel office all the crown jewels worn by the princes and princesses at coronations, and a great variety of old curious plate.

The record office consists of three rooms, one above another, and a large round room, where the rolls are kept. These are all handsomely wainscotted, the wainscot being framed into presses round each room, within which are shelves and repositories for the records; and for the easier finding of them, the year of each reign is inscribed on the inside of these presses, and the records placed accordingly. Within these presses, which amount to 56 in number, are deposited all the rolls, from the first year of the reign of King John to the beginning of the reign of Richard III; but those after this last period are kept in the Rolls Chapel. The records in the Tower, among other things, contain the foundation of abbeys and other religious houses; the ancient tenures of all the lands in England, with a survey of the manors; the original of laws and statutes; proceedings of the courts of common law and equity; the rights of England to the dominion of the British seas; leagues and treaties with foreign princes; the achievements of England in foreign wars; the settlement of Ireland, as to law and dominion; the forms of submission of some Scottish kings for territories held in England; ancient grants of our kings to their subjects; privileges and immunities granted to cities and corporations during the period above mentioned; enrolments of charters and deeds made before the Conquest; the bounds of all the forests in England, with the several respective rights of the inhabitants to common pasture, and many other important records, all regularly disposed, and referred to in near a thousand folio indexes. This office is kept open, and attendance constantly given, from seven o'clock till one, except in the months of December, January, and February, when it is open only from eight to one, Sundays and holidays excepted. A search here is half a guinea, for which you may peruse any one subject a year. customhouse, is the Trinity House; a society founded in 1515, at a period in which the British navy began to assume a system. The founder was Sir Thomas Spert, comptroller of the navy, and commander of the great ship Henry Grace de Dieu. It is a corporation, consisting of a master, four wardens, eight assistants, and eighteen elder brethren; selected from commanders in the navy and the merchants service; and now and then a compliment is paid to one or two of our first nobility. They may be considered as guardians of our ships, military and commercial. Their powers are very extensive: they examine the mathematical children of Christ's hospital, and the masters of his majesty's ships; they appoint pilots for the river Thames; settle the general rates of pilotage; erect light houses and sea marks; grant licenses to poor seamen, not free of the city, to row on the Thames; prevent foreigners from serving on board our ships without license; punish seamen for mutiny and desertion; hear and determine complaints of officers and men in the merchants service, but liable to appeal to the judge of the court of admiralty; superintend the deepening and cleansing of the river Thames, &c.

Between Aldgate and the Tower is the street called the Minorites, from some poor ladies of the order of St Clare, or minoresses. They had been invited to London by Blanch, queen of Navarre, and wife to Edmund, earl of Lancaster, who founded a convent for them in 1293. On the suppression of the monasteries it was converted into a dwelling house for some of the nobility, and is now in the possession of the Dartmouth family. Till of late years, the Minorites were but a despicable street; but have now been excellently rebuilt, and are as elegant as any in the city.

On the west side of the city walls at this place, stood the house of the Crutched or Crossed Friars, an order instituted at Bologna in 1169, and of which a branch settled in England in 1244, where they were accommodated with a house in this place by two citizens named Ralph Hosier and William Sabernas, who became members of their order. Henry VIII. granted their house to Sir Thomas Wyat the elder, who built a handsome mansion on part of the ground where it stood. This mansion became afterwards the residence of John Lord Lumley, a celebrated warrior in the time of Henry VIII. In process of time, it was converted into a navy office; but this office being removed to Somerset-house, the India Company have erected in its place a most magnificent warehouse, in form of an oblong square of about 250 feet by 160, enclosing a court of 150 by 60 feet, the entrance to which is by an arched gateway.

Billingsgate ward is distinguished by its market. Billingsgate was a small port for the reception of shipping, and for a considerable time the most important place for the landing of almost every article of commerce. In the time of King William, Billingsgate began to be celebrated as a fish-market. In 1699 it was by act of parliament made a free port for fish to be sold there every day except Sunday; but Mr Pennant informs us, that the object of this has long been frustrated, and that fish are now no longer to be had there in perfection. The same author gives a list of the fish which in the time of Edward III. were brought to the London market; the monarch himself having condescended to regulate the prices, that his subjects might not be imposed upon by those who sold them. Among these were the conger-eel and porpoise, neither of which is now admitted to any table. A pike at that time cost 6s. 8d.; whence our author concludes, that it was an exotic fish, and brought over at a vast expense. Some fishes are mentioned in his list with which the naturalist owns himself unacquainted, viz. the barkey, bran, batrile, cropling, and rumb. In Archbishop Nevill's great feast is mentioned also a fish named thirle-pool, unknown at present. Scals were formerly accounted a fish; and these, together with the sturgeon and porpoise, were the only fresh fish permitted by the 33rd of Henry VIII. to be bought of any stranger at sea between England, France, Flanders, and Zealand.

Linstreet ward is remarkable for a very large build- ing of great antiquity, called Leadenhall, with flat hall battlements leaded on the top, and a spacious square in the middle. In 1329 it was the house of Sir Hugh Nevill, knight; in 1384, of Humphry Bohun, earl of Hereford; in 1408 it became the property of the celebrated Whittington, who presented it to the mayor and commonalty of London; and in 1419, a public granary was erected here by Sir Simon Eyre, a citizen and draper, who built it with stone in its present form. This granary was designed as a preservative against famine, and to be kept always full of corn, which design was for some time happily answered. The house came to be used for many other purposes besides that of a granary; as for keeping the artillery and arms of the city. Preparations for any kind of pageantry or triumph were also made here; and from its strength the place was considered as the chief fortress within the city in case of any popular insurrection, and was likewise the place from whence alms were distributed. In this edifice are warehouses for the sale of leather, Colchester baize, meal, and wool. Adjoining to Leadenhall is a market, thence called Leadenhall market, consisting of five considerable squares or courts, and reckoned one of the greatest markets in Europe for flesh, and other provisions, as well as for leather, green hides, and wool. A little to the eastward is the India House, built in 1726, on the spot occupied by Sir William Craven, mayor in 1610. According to Mr Pennant, this house "is not worthy of the lords of Indostan."

In Broad-street is the Bank of England, a stone building, which occupies one side of Threadneedle-street. The centre, and the building behind, were founded in the year 1733; the architect George Sampson. Before that time the business was transacted in Grocers-hall. The front is a sort of vestibule; the base rustic, the ornamental columns above Ionic. Within is a court leading to a second elegant building, which contains a hall and offices, where the debt of above 250 millions is punctually discharged. Of late years two wings of uncommon elegance, designed by Sir Robert Taylor, have been added, at the expense of a few houses, and of the church of St Christopher-le Stocks. "The name of the projector of this national glory (says Mr Pennant), was Mr James Paterson of Scotland. This palladium of our country was in London.

1780 saved from the fury of an infamous banditti by the virtue of its citizens, who formed suddenly a volunteer company, and overawed the miscreants; while the chief magistrate skulked trembling in his mansion-house, and left his important charge to its fate. This important building has ever since been very properly guarded by the military, who, in passing through the city, have often given offence to many busy characters who would strive to preserve the city rights, at the expense of the national destruction. A lord mayor was the last who interested himself by applying to Mr Grenville, who gave him to understand, that if the guards were not quietly permitted to discharge their duty, the bank would be removed to Somerset-house."

At the extremity of Threadneedle-street is Merchant-Taylors Hall. In this street also is the South Sea House, first established in 1711 for the purpose of an exclusive trade to the South sea, and for supplying Spanish America with negroes.

Near the junction of Throgmorton-street with Broad-street stood a magnificent house built by Cromwell earl of Essex; after whose fall, the house and gardens were bought by the Drapers company. The house was destroyed in the great fire, but rebuilt for the use of the company in a magnificent manner.

Mr Pennant informs us, that St Giles's church in the fields, and a few houses to the west of it, in the year 1600, were barely separated from Broad-street. The church is supposed to have belonged to an hospital for lepers, founded about the year 1117, by Matilda queen to Henry I. In ancient times it was customary here to present to malefactors, on their way to the gallows (which, about the year 1413, was removed from Smithfield, and placed between St Giles's high-street and Hog-lane (c), a great bowl of ale, as the last refreshment they were to receive in this life. On the door to the churchyard is a curious piece of sculpture, representing the last day, containing an amazing number of figures, set up about the year 1686. This church was rebuilt in 1625. By the amazing raising of the ground by filth and various adventitious matter, the floor in the year 1730 was eight feet below the surface acquired in the intervening time. This alone made it necessary to rebuild the church in the present century. The first stone was laid in 1730; it was finished in 1734, at the expense of £10,000.—In the churchyard is a great square pit, with many rows of coffins piled one upon the other, all exposed to sight and smell, the latter of which is highly offensive if not dangerous.

On the west side of Broad-street stood the house of the Augustines, founded by Humphry Bohun earl of Somerset in 1253, for friars and hermits of the Public Augustine order. On the dissolution of the monasteries, great part of the house was granted to William Lord St John, afterwards marquis of Winchester, and lord treasurer, who founded a magnificent house named Winchester-house. The west end of the church was granted in 1551 to John à Lasco for the use of the Germans and other fugitive Protestants, and afterwards to the Dutch as a place for preaching. A part of it was also converted into a glasshouse for Venice glass, in which the manufacture was carried on by artists from that city, and patronised by the duke of Buckingham. The place was afterwards converted into Pinners-hall, belonging to the company of pinmakers.

To the eastward of Winchester-street stood the house Gresham of that very eminent merchant Sir Thomas Gresham, afterwards known by the name of Gresham college: (See GRESHAM). It has been pulled down not many years ago; and the Excise office, a most magnificent and at the same time simple building, rose in its place. Mr Pennant informs us, that from the 5th of January 1786 to January 5th 1787, the payments into this office amounted to no less than £5,531,114l. 6s. 10½d.

The Royal Exchange, which is the meeting place of Royal Exchange, the merchants of London, stands in the ward of Cornhill, and is the finest and strongest fabric of the kind in Europe. It was founded in the year 1566. Sir Thomas Gresham, merchant in London, made an offer to the lord mayor and citizens, to build, at his own expense, a commodious edifice for merchants to meet and transact business, provided the city would find him a convenient situation for the same. Mr Pennant informs us, that one Richard Clough a Welshman, originally Sir Thomas's servant, first put him on this design by a letter from Antwerp, in which he reproached the London merchants with having no place to transact their business, but walking about in the rain, more like pedlars than merchants. The citizens, in compliance with Sir Thomas's desire, purchased, for the sum of £3,32l. 8s houses in the two alleys called New St Christopher's and Swan-alley, leading out of Cornhill into Threadneedle-street. The materials of those houses were sold for £78l. and the ground, when cleared, was conveyed to Sir Thomas Gresham, who, accompanied by several aldermen, laid the first brick of the new building on the 7th of June that year. Each alderman also laid his brick, and left a piece of gold for the workmen who set about it with such assiduity and resolution, that the whole fabric was roofed by the month of November 1567, and was soon after completed under the name of the Burse. This building was totally destroyed by the fire.

(c) This late place of execution, according to Mr Pennant, was called in the time of Edward III. when the gentle Mortimer finished his days here, the Elms; but the original as well as the present name was Tyburne; not from tye and burn, as if it were called so from the manner of capital punishments; but from bourne, the Saxon word for a "brook," and Tye the name of that brook, which joined gave name to a manor before the Conquest. Here was also a village and church denominated St John the Evangelist, which fell to decay, and was succeeded by that of Mary-bourne, corrupted into Mary la-bonne. In 1626, Queen Henrietta Maria was compelled by her priests to take a walk by way of penance to Tyburn. What her offence was we are not told; but Charles was so disgusted at this insolence, that he soon after sent them and all her majesty's French servants out of the kingdom. Public fire in 1666; and in this place the present magnificent structure was erected at the expense of £80,000, which stands upon a plat of ground 23 feet in length and 171 feet in breadth, containing an area in the middle, of 61 square perches, surrounded with a substantial and regular stone building, wrought in rustic. It has two fronts, north and south, each of which is a piazza; and in the centre are the grand entrances into the area, under a very lofty and noble arch. The south front in Cornhill is the principal; on each side of which are Corinthian demi-columns, supporting a compass pediment; and, in the intercolumniation on each side, in the front next the street, is a niche, with the statues of King Charles I. and II., in Roman habits, and well executed. Over the aperture, on the cornice between the two pediments, are the king's arms in relievo; on each side of this entrance is a range of windows placed between demi-columns and pilasters of the Composite order, above which runs a balustrade. This building is 56 feet high; and from the centre, in this front, rises a lanthorn and turret 178 feet high, on the top of which is a vane of gilt brass made in the shape of a grasshopper the crest of Sir Thomas Gresham's arms. The north front in Threadneedle-street is adorned with pilasters of the Composite order; but has neither columns nor statues on the outside; and has triangular, instead of compass, pediments. The inside of the area is also surrounded with piazzas, forming ambulatories for merchants, &c., to shelter themselves from the weather, when met there upon business. Above the arches of this piazza is an entablature with curious ornaments; and on the cornice a range of pilasters with an entablature extending round, and a compass pediment in the middle of the cornice of each of the four sides. Under the pediment on the north side are the Buildings king's arms; on the south, the city's arms; on the east, Sir Thomas Gresham's arms; and on the west, the mercers' arms, with their respective enrichments. In these intercolumns are 24 niches, 20 of which are filled with the statues of the kings and queens of England. Under these piazzas, within the area, are 28 niches, all vacant but that in which Sir Thomas Gresham's statue is placed in the north-west angle, and that in the south-west, where the statue of Sir John Barnard was placed in his lifetime by his fellow-citizens, to express their sense of his merit. The centre of this area also is ornamented with a statue of King Charles II., in a Roman habit, standing upon a marble pedestal about eight feet high, and encompassed with iron rails; which pedestal is enriched on the south side with an imperial crown, a sceptre, sword, palm-branches, and other decorations, with a very flattering inscription to the king. On the west side is a Cupid cut in relievo, resting his right hand on a shield, with the arms of France and England quartered, and holding a rose in his left hand. On the north side is another Cupid supporting a shield, with the arms of Ireland; and on the east side are the arms of Scotland, with a Cupid holding a thistle; all done in relievo: the whole executed by that able statuary Mr Gibbon.

In this area, merchants, and such as have business with them, meet every day at change hours; and for the more regular and readier despatch of business, they dispose of themselves into separate walks, according to the following plan:

**North.**

Threadneedle-Street.

| East country walk. | Irish walk. | Scotch walk. | Dutch and Jewellers. | |-------------------|------------|-------------|---------------------| | Clothiers walk. | Hamburgh walk. | Salters walk. | | | Silkmen's walk. | Grocers and Druggists walk. | Brokers of Stock, &c. walk. | Italian walk. | | Turkey walk. | | | |

**South.**

Cornhill.

| Virginia walk. | Jamaica walk. | Spanish walk. | Jews walk. | |---------------|--------------|--------------|-----------|

In In building this expensive structure there was an eye not only to magnificence, and to accommodate the merchants, but also to reimburse the expense. For this reason a gallery was built over the four sides of the Royal Exchange. This was divided into 200 shops, which were let out to haberdashers, milliners, &c., and which for several years were well occupied. But these shops have now for a long time been deserted, and the galleries are let out to the Royal Exchange Assurance Office, the Merchant-seamen's Office, the Marine Society, and to auctioneers, &c. Under the whole area there are the finest dry vaults that can be found anywhere, which are let out to the East India Company to deposit their pepper. In the turret is a good clock with four dials, which is well regulated every day, so that it becomes a standard of time to all the mercantile part of the town; and it goes with chimes at three, six, nine, and twelve o'clock, playing upon twelve bells. The outside of this grand fabric suffers very much in its elegance from the shops that surround it, and are built within its walls; and which are occupied by booksellers, toymen, cutlers, hosiers, watchmakers, &c.

South of the Royal Exchange, and near the west extremity of Lombard-street, is the General Post Office, which is a handsome and commodious building.

In Wallbrook ward is the Mansion-house, for the residence of the lord mayor. This edifice was begun in 1739, and finished in 1753. It is built of Portland stone, with a portico of six fluted columns, of the Corinthian order in the front. The basement story is very massive, and consists of rustic work; in the centre of it is the door, which leads to the kitchen, cellars, and other offices. On each side rises a flight of steps, leading up to the portico, in the middle of which is the principal entry. The stone balustrade of the stairs is continued along the front of the portico, and the columns support a large angular pediment, adorned with a group of figures in bas relief, representing the dignity and opulence of the city of London. It is an extremely heavy building, of an oblong form, and its depth is the long side, having several magnificent apartments, which are not, however, well lighted, on account of the houses that surround it.

Behind the Mansion-house is St Stephen's Church, in Wallbrook, justly reputed the masterpiece of the celebrated Sir Christopher Wren, and said to exceed every modern structure in the world in proportion and elegance.

The Mansion-house, and many adjacent buildings, stand on the place where the Stocks-market once stood. This took its name from a pair of stocks erected near the spot in 1281; and was the great market of London for provisions during many centuries.

In this ward is situated one of the most remarkable pieces of antiquity in London. It is a great stone, now standing in a case on the north side of Canon-street, close under the south wall of St Swithin's church. It is called London-stone; and was formerly pitched edgeways on the other side of the street, opposite to where it now stands, fixed deeply in the ground, and strongly fastened with iron bars; but for the convenience of wheel carriages it was removed to its present situation. This stone is mentioned so early as the time of Athelstan, king of the West Saxons, and has been carefully preserved from age to age. Of the original cause of its erection no memorial remains; but it is conjectured, that as London was a Roman city, this stone might be the centre, and might serve as an object from which the distance was computed to the other considerable cities or stations in the province.

In Dowgate ward is a noted academy, called Merchant Taylors School, from its having been founded by Taylors the merchant-taylors company, in the year 1561. It was destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, but was rebuilt, and is a very large structure, with commodious apartments for the masters and ushers, and a fine library. Sir Thomas White, lord mayor of this city, having founded St John's college in Oxford in 1557, appointed this school as a seminary for it, and established at Oxford 46 fellowships for scholars elected from this school.

The church of St Mary le Bow, in Cordwainers-street ward, is the most eminent parochial church in the Bow city. It was originally built in the reign of William the Conqueror; and being the first church the steeple of which was embellished with stone arches or bows, took hence its denomination of le Bow. It was burnt down in the fire of 1666, but soon afterwards rebuilt. The steeple of this church is reckoned the most beautiful of its kind in Europe.

In Cheap ward is Guildhall, or the townhouse of London. This was originally built in 1411, but so damaged by the great fire already mentioned, as to be rebuilt in 1609. The front has a Gothic appearance; and this character is also due to the two gigantic effigies which stand within the hall. The hall is 153 feet long, 50 broad, and 55 high, adorned with the royal arms, and those of the city and its companies, as well as with several portraits of English sovereigns and judges. In this building are many apartments for transacting the business of the city, besides one for each of the judicial courts, namely, that of the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer.

In the year 1246 Cheapside was an open field, named Crown-field, from an inn with the sign of the crown. At that time, and even for 200 years afterwards, none of the streets of London were paved excepting Thames-street, and from Ludgate-hill to Charing-Cross.

Goldsmith's Hall stands in Foster-lane, which opens into the west end of Cheapside,—In this lane also is St Martin's le Grand, which, though surrounded by the city, was yet subject, near three centuries, to Westminster Abbey. A fine college was built here in 700 by Wythred, king of Kent; and, about the year 1056, rebuilt and chiefly endowed by Ingelrie and Edward, two noble brothers. In 1668, it was confirmed and made independent of every other ecclesiastical jurisdiction, even that of the pope himself not excepted; and its privileges were confirmed by succeeding monarchs. It was governed by a dean, and a number of secular canons. In this jurisdiction a magnificent church was erected, but pulled down in 1548, when the college was surrendered; after which a tavern was erected on the spot.

A little to the westward of Mary le Bow church, stood the Cross and Conduit in memory of his queen Eleanor, whose whose body was rested on that spot in its way to be buried. Originally it had the statue of the queen at full length, resembling exactly that at Northampton. Having at length fallen to decay, it was rebuilt in 1441 by John Hutherby mayor of the city, at the expense of several citizens, being now ornamented with various images, as those of the Resurrection, the Virgin Mary, &c. As the magnificent processions took this road, it was new gilt at every public entry. After the Reformation, the images gave so much offence, that it was thought proper to substitute that of Diana in place of the Virgin Mary. This, however, was resented by Queen Elizabeth, who offered a reward for the discovery of the offenders. As she imagined that a cross, the symbol of the Christian religion, could not justly give offence to any professor of that religion, she ordered a cross to be placed on the summit and gilt; but in 1643, the parliament ordered the demolition of all crosses and other marks of Romish superstition.

Splendid tournaments were held between the Cross and Sopers-lane in the year 1331; but as Queen Philippa and a great number of other ladies, dressed in rich attire, were sitting on the upper scaffolding to behold the sports, the seat gave way, and they suddenly fell down among the knights and others who stood below; many of whom were grievously hurt. The carpenters were saved from punishment by the intercession of the queen; but the king, to prevent accidents of the like nature, ordered a building of stone to be erected near Bow church, from whence the queen and other ladies might behold such spectacles in safety. This was used for the same purpose till the year 1410, when Henry IV. granted it to certain mercers, who converted it into shops, warehouses, and other places necessary for their trade.

A small distance eastward from the Cross stood the Conduit, which served to fill the lesser ones with water brought by pipes from Paddington.—This stood on the spot where the old conduit was situated, which was founded in 1285, constructed of stone lined with lead, and rebuilt in 1479 by Thomas Ilan, one of the sheriffs. On some grand occasions, these conduits have been made to run with claret; as at the coronation of Anna Bullen.

On the north side of Cheapside stood the Hospital of St Thomas of Acon, founded by Fitz-Theobald de Helles, and his wife Agnes, sister to the famous Thomas à Becket. The hospital was built 20 years after the murder of Thomas; and such was his reputation for sanctity, that it was dedicated to him even before he was canonized, and that in conjunction with the Virgin Mary herself. The whole was granted by King Henry VIII. to the company of mercers. It was destroyed by the great fire in 1666; but rebuilt by the mercers company, who have their hall here.—Immediately to the east is a narrow street called the Old Jewry, which took its name from a great synagogue which stood here till the Jews were expelled the kingdom in 1291. After them an order of friars named Fratres de sacca, or de penitentia, took possession of the Buildings, synagogue: and in 1305, Robert Fitzwalter, the great banner-bearer of the city, requested that the friars might assign it to him; the reason of which probably was, that it stood near to his house, which was situated in the neighbourhood of the present Grocers-hall. The chapel was bought by the grocers from Fitzwalter in 1411 for 320 marks.

In Bassishaw or Basinghall ward, is Blackwell or Bukewell Bakewell hall, which adjoins to Guildhall, and is the greatest mart of woollen cloth in the world. It was purchased of King Richard II. by the city; and has ever since been used as a weekly market for broad and narrow woollen cloths, brought out of the country. Formerly proclamations were issued to compel people to bring their goods into the hall, to prevent deceit in the manufactures, which might be productive of discredit in foreign markets, and likewise be the means of defrauding the poor children of Christ's hospital of part of the revenue which arose from the hallage of this great magazine. It suffered in the general devastation in 1666; but was rebuilt in 1672, and is now a spacious edifice, with a stone front adorned with columns.

Cripplegate ward is remarkable for a college, called Sion College, founded in 1627, on the site of Elsing-lege hospital (D) or priory, by Dr Thomas White, vicar of St Dunstan's in the West, for the improvement of the London clergy; and with alms-houses under their care, for 20 poor persons, 10 men and 10 women. In the year 1631, a charter was procured for incorporating the clergy of London, by which they were constituted fellows of the college; and out of the incumbents are annually elected; on Tuesday three weeks after Easter, a president, two deans, and four assistants, who are to meet quarterly to hear a Latin sermon, and afterwards be entertained at dinner in the college hall at the expense of the foundation. John Simpson, rector of St Olave's, who superintended the building, added, at his own expense, for the use of the studious part of the London clergy, a library 120 feet long, and amply filled with books.

In this ward is a hall which belonged to the company of barber-surgeons, the professions of barber and surgeon being formerly exercised by the same person. It was built by the celebrated Inigo Jones, and the upper end is formed out of one of the towers or barbicans of London wall. The anatomical theatre is elliptical, and very finely contrived. The hall is now called Barbers hall; the surgeons, who disdained to be any longer associated with their ancient brethren, having obtained a separate charter, and built themselves a new hall in the Old Bailey.

Farringdon ward within, is distinguished by the most magnificent Protestant church in the world, the Cathedral cathedral of St Paul. The best authority we have for the origin of this church, is from its great restorer Sir Christopher Wren. His opinion, that there had been

(D) This was founded by William Elsing Mercer in 1329 (on the site of a decayed nunnery), for the support of 100 blind men. He afterwards changed it into a priory, and became himself the first prior, who with four canons-regular were to superintend the miserable objects. a church on this spot, built by the Christians in the time of the Romans, was confirmed; when he searched for the foundations for his own design, he met with those of the original presbyterium, or semicircular chancel, of the old church. They consisted only of Kentish rubble stone, artfully worked, and consolidated with exceedingly hard mortar, in the Roman manner, much excelling the superstructure. He explodes the notion of there having been here a temple of Diana, and the discovery of the horns of animals used in the sacrifices to that goddess, on which the opinion had been founded, no such having been discovered in all his searches.

The first church is supposed to have been destroyed in the Dioclesian persecution, and to have been rebuilt in the reign of Constantine. This was again demolished by the pagan Saxons; and restored, in 603, by Sebert, a petty prince, ruling in these parts, under Ethelbert, king of Kent, the first Christian monarch of the Saxon race; who, at the instance of St Augustine, appointed Melitus the first bishop of London. Erkenwald, the son of King Offa, fourth in succession from Melitus, ornamented his cathedral very highly, and improved the revenues with his own patrimony. He was most deservedly canonized: for the very litter, in which he was carried in his last illness, continued many centuries to cure fevers by the touch; and the very ship, carried to the sick, restored them to health!

When the city of London was destroyed by fire, in 1086, this church was burnt; the bishop Mauritius began to rebuild it, and laid the foundations, which remained till its second destruction, from the same cause, in the 17th century. Notwithstanding Mauritius lived twenty years after he had begun this pious work, and Bishop Beauvais enjoyed the see twenty more, yet such was the grandeur of the design, that it remained unfinished. The first had the ruins of the Palatine tower bestowed on him, as materials for the building; and Henry I. bestowed on Beauvais part of the ditch belonging to the tower, which, with purchases made by himself, enabled him to enclose the whole with a wall. The same monarch granted besides, that every ship which brought stone for the church, should be exempted from toll; he gave him also all the great fish taken in his precincts, except the tongues: and, lastly, he secured to him and his successor the delicious tythes of all his venison in the county of Essex.

The style of the ancient cathedral was a most beautiful Gothic; over the east end was an elegant circular window; alterations were made in the ends of the two transepts, so that their form is not delivered down to us in the ancient plans; and from the central tower rose a lofty and most graceful spire. The dimensions, as taken in 1329, were these: The length, six hundred and ninety feet; the breadth a hundred and twenty; the height of the roof of the west part, from the floor, one hundred and two; of the east part, a hundred and eighty-eight; of the tower, two hundred and sixty-three of the spire, which was made of wood covered with lead, two hundred and seventy-four. The whole space the church occupied was three acres, three roods, and twenty-one perches.

We may be astonished at this amazing building, and naturally inquire what fund could supply money to support so vast an expense. But monarchs resigned their revenues resulting from the customs due for the materials, which were brought to the adjacent wharfs: they furnished wood from the royal forests: prelates gave up much of their revenues; and, what was more than all, by the pious bait of indulgences, and remissions of penance, brought in from the good people of this realm most amazing sums. Pope Innocent III., in 1252, gave a release of sixty days penance; the archbishop of Cologne, gave, a few years before, a relaxation of fifty days; and Boniface archbishop of Canterbury, forty days.

The high altar dazzled with gems and gold, the gifts of its numerous votaries. John king of France, when prisoner in England, first paying his respects to St Erkenwald's shrine, offered four basins of gold: and the gifts at the obsequies of princes, foreign and British, were of immense value. On the day of the conversion of the tutelar saint, the charities were prodigious, first to the souls, when an indulgence of forty days pardon was given, vere penitentibus, contritis et confessis; and, by order of Henry III., fifteen hundred tapers were placed in the church, and fifteen thousand poor people fed in the churchyard.

The holiness of this place did not prevent thieves and profligates of all denominations from lurking within the precincts, and committing, under the favour of the night, murders, and every sort of crime. Edward I. gave the dean and canons permission to enclose the whole within a wall; and to have gates, to be shut every night, to exclude all disorderly people. Within these walls, on the north-west side, was the bishop's palace. Froissart tells us, that after the great tournament in Smithfield, King Edward III. and his queen lodged here, on occasion of their nuptials (e.)—In 1561, the noble spire was totally burnt by lightning, and never restored.

In consequence of the resolutions taken in 1620, by James I.

(e) Before this cathedral was the famous Paul's Cross, a pulpit formed of wood, mounted upon steps of stone, and covered with lead, in which the most eminent divines were appointed to preach every Sunday in the forenoon. To this place, the court, the mayor and aldermen, and principal citizens, used to resort. The greatest part of the congregation sat in the open air; the king and his train had covered galleries; and the better sort of people were also protected from the injury of the weather but the far greater part stood exposed in the open air: for which reason the preacher went in very bad weather, to a place called the Shrouds; a covered space on the side of the church, to protect the congregation in inclement seasons. Considerable contributions were raised among the nobility and citizens, to support such preachers as were (as was often the case) called to town from either of the universities. In particular, the lord mayor and aldermen ordered that every preacher, who came from a distance, should be freely accommodated, during five days, with sweet and convenient lodgings, fire, candle, James I. to repair the cathedral, the celebrated Inigo Jones was appointed to the work. But it was not attempted till the year 1633, when Laud laid the first stone, and Inigo the fourth. That great architect began with a most notorious impropriety, giving to the west end a portico of the Corinthian order, beautiful indeed, to this ancient Gothic pile; and to the ends of the two transepts Gothic fronts in a most horrible style. The great fire made way for the restoring of this magnificent pile in its present noble form by Sir Christopher Wren, an architect worthy of so great a design.

It is built of fine Portland stone, in form of a cross. On the outside are two ranges of pilasters, consisting of a hundred and twenty each; the lower range of the Corinthian order, and the upper of the Composite. The spaces between the arches of the windows and the architrave of the lower order, are filled with a great variety of curious enrichments, as are also those above. On the north side is a portico, the ascent to which is by twelve steps of black marble, and its dome supported by six very large columns. Over the dome is a pediment, the face of which is engraved with the royal arms, regalia, and other ornaments. On the south is a portico, the ascent to which is by twenty-five steps, and its dome supported by six columns, corresponding with those on the north side. The west front is graced with a most magnificent portico, supported by twelve lofty Corinthian columns: over these are eight columns of the Composite order, which support a noble pediment, crowned with its acroteria; and in this pediment is the history of St Paul's conversion, boldly carved in bas relief. The ascent to this portico is by a flight of steps of black marble, extending the whole length of the portico; and over each corner of the west front is a beautiful turret. A vast dome, or cupola, rises in the centre of the building. Twenty feet above the roof of the church is a circular range of thirty-two columns with niches, placed exactly against others within. These are terminated by their entablature, which supports a handsome gallery, adorned with a stone balustrade. Above the columns last mentioned is a range of pilasters, with windows between them: and from the entablature of these, the diameter of the dome gradually decreases. On the summit of the dome is an elegant balcony, from the centre of which runs a beautiful lanthorn, adorned with Corinthian columns. The whole is crowned with a copper ball, supporting a cross, both finely gilt. Within, the cupola stands on eight stupendous pillars curiously adorned: the roof of the choir is supported by six pillars; and that of the church by two ranges, consisting of twenty more. The roof of the church and choir is adorned with arches and spacious peripheries of enrichments, admirably carved in stone. Quite round the inside of the cupola, there is a whispering iron balcony, or gallery, the top of which is richly painted by Sir James Thornhill.

The first stone of this superb edifice was laid on June 21, 1675; and the building was completed in 1710; but the whole decorations were not finished till 1723. It was a most singular circumstance, that notwithstanding it was 35 years in building, it was begun and finished by one architect, and under one prelate, Henry Compton bishop of London. The church of St Peter's was 135 years in building, in the reigns of 19 popes, and went through the hands of twelve architects. It is not, as often mistaken, built after the model of that famous temple; it is the entire conception of our great countryman, and has been preferred in some respects by a judicious writer, to even the Roman Basilica. Its dimensions are less. The comparative view is given in the Parentalia, and copied in London and its Environs. The height of St Peter's, to the top of the cross, is 437 feet and a half; that of St Paul's 340 feet; so that, from its situation, it is lofty enough to be seen from the sea. The length of the first is 729 feet; of the latter, 500. The greatest breadth of St Peter's is 364; of St Paul's, 180.

In the reigns of James I. and Charles I. the body of this cathedral was the common resort of the politi-ans, the news mongers, and idle in general. It was called Paul's walk; and is mentioned in the old plays and other books of the times.

Notwithstanding the magnificence of this noble pile, however, it is remarked to have many defects. Its situation is such, that it cannot be viewed at a distance. The division of the porticos, and the whole structure, into two stories on the outside, certainly indicates a like division within, which is acknowledged to be a fault. The dome, it has also been observed, bears too great a proportion to the rest of the pile, and ought to have been raised exactly in the centre of the building; besides that, there ought to have been two steeples at the east end, to correspond with those at the west. On entering this church, we instantly perceive an obvious deficiency, not only of elevation but length, to assist the perspective; and the columns are heavy and clumsy, rather encumbering the prospect than curishing it.

St Paul's occupies an area of six acres, and is raised all round with iron balustrades, each about five feet and a half high, fixed on a dwarf wall of hewn stone. In the west end of this area is a marble statue of Queen Anne, holding a sceptre in one hand, and a globe

candle, and all necessaries. And notice was given by the bishop of London, to the preacher appointed by him, of the place he was to repair to.

We hear of this being in use as early as the year 1259. It was used, as Mr Pennant observes, not only for the instruction of mankind by the doctrine of the preacher, but for every purpose political or ecclesiastical; for giving force to oaths, for promulgating laws, or rather the royal pleasure, for the emission of papal bulls, for anathematizing sinners, for benedictions, for exposing of penitents under censure of the church, for recantations, for the private ends of the ambitious, and for the defaming of those who had incurred the displeasure of crowned heads.

It was demolished in 1643 by order of parliament, executed by the willing hands of Isaac Pennington the fanatical lord mayor of that year, who died in the Tower a convicted regicide. globe in the other, surrounded with four emblematical figures representing Great Britain, France, Ireland, and America.

Besides very large contributions for carrying on this edifice, the parliament granted a duty on sea-coal, which, at a medium, produced 5000l. a-year; and the whole expense of the building is said to have amounted to 736,752l. 2s. 3d.

On the east side of the cathedral is St Paul's School, founded in 1509 by Dr John Collet dean of this church, who endowed it for a principal master, an under-master, a chaplain, and 153 scholars.

In Warwick-lane, in the same ward, stands the College of Physicians, erected in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren. It is built of brick, and has a spacious stone frontispiece. Near the south extremity of the Old Bailey, on the east side, is the hall of the Company of Surgeons, with a theatre for dissection.

Adjoining to Christ-church in Newgate-street is Christ's Hospital, which, before the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII., was a house of Gray-friars. The hospital was founded by King Edward VI. for supporting and educating the fatherless children of poor freemen of this city; of whom 1000 of both sexes are generally maintained in the house or out at nurse, and are likewise clothed and educated. In 1673, a mathematical school was founded here by Charles II., endowed with 300l. a-year; and a writing school was added in 1694 by Sir John Moor, an alderman of the city. After the boys have been seven or eight years on the foundation, some are sent to the university and others to sea; while the rest, at a proper age, are put apprentices to trades at the charge of the hospital. At first their habit was a russet cotton, but was soon after changed for blue, which has ever since continued to be their colour; and on this account the foundation is frequently called the Blue-coat hospital. The affairs of this charity are managed by a president and about 300 governors, besides the lord mayor and aldermen. The fabric, which is partly Gothic and partly modern, was much damaged by the fire of 1666, but was soon repaired, and has been since increased with several additions. The principal buildings, which form the four sides of an area, have a piazza round them with Gothic arches, and the walls are supported by abutments. The front is more modern, and has Doric pilasters supported on pedestals.

In Castle-Baynard ward is a large structure called Doctors Commons. It consists of several handsome paved courts, in which the judges of the court of admiralty, those of the court of delegates, of the court of arches, and the prerogative court, with the doctors that plead causes, and the proctors of the place, all live in a collegiate way; and from commoning together, as in other colleges, the name of Doctors Commons is derived. Here courts are kept for the trial of civil and ecclesiastical causes under the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London. The college has an excellent library, every bishop at his consecration giving 25l. or 50l. towards purchasing books for it.

Near Doctors Commons, on St Bennet's Hill, is the College of Heralds, who were incorporated by King Richard III. Besides the chief officer, who is the earl-marshal of England, here are three kings at arms, viz. Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy, with six heralds, four pursuivants, and eight proctors. Garter attends the instalments of knights of that order, carries the garter to foreign princes, regulates the ceremonies at coronations, and the funerals of the royal family and nobility; Clarenceux directs the funeral ceremonies of those under the degree of peers south of Trent; and Norroy performs the like office for those north of Trent. This building was originally the house of the earl of Derby. It is a spacious quadrangle, built of brick, and has convenient apartments. Here are kept records of the coats of arms of all the families and names in England, with an account when they were granted, and on what occasions.

In Farringdon ward without, is a large building called Bridewell, from a spring formerly known by the name of St Bridget's or St Bride's Well. It was originally a royal palace, and occupied all the ground from Fleet-ditch on the east to Water-lane on the west. That part of it now called Salisbury-court was given to the bishops of Salisbury for their town residence; and the east part, which was rebuilt by King Henry VIII., is the present Bridewell. It was granted to the city by Edward VI. as an hospital; and he endowed it for the lodging of poor travellers, and for the correction of vagabonds, strumpets, and idle persons, as well as for finding them work. In one part of the building 20 artificers have houses; and about 150 boys, distinguished by white hats and blue doublets, are put apprentices to glovers, flaxdressers, weavers, &c. and when they have served their time are entitled to the freedom of the city, with 10l. towards carrying on their respective trades. The other part of Bridewell is a receptacle for disorderly persons, who are kept at beating hemp and other hard labour.

Near Bridewell is St Bride's Church, a stately fabric 111 feet long, 57 broad, and 41 high, with a beautiful spire 234 feet in altitude, and has a ring of 12 bells in its tower.

Opposite to Fleet-ditch, over this part of the river, Blackfriar stands Blackfriars Bridge; a most elegant structure, built after the design of Mr Robert Mylne. The situation of the ground on the two shores obliged the architect to employ elliptical arches; which, however, have a very fine effect. The number of arches is nine; of which the centre one is 100 feet wide. The whole length is 995 feet; the breadth of the carriage way is 28 feet, and that of the two foot-ways 7 each. Over each pier is a recess; an apology for the beautiful Ionic pillars which support them, and which have a most beautiful effect from the river. This bridge was begun in 1760; and finished in 1768, at the expense of 152,840l. to be discharged by a toll upon the passengers. It is situated almost at an equal distance between those of Westminster and London, commands a view of the Thames from the latter to Whitehall, and discovers the majesty of St Paul's in a very striking manner.

West Smithfield. In this ward is an area containing Smithfield three acres of ground, called in old records Smithfield-Pond or Horse-Pool, it having been formerly a watering place for horses. It was in ancient times the common place of execution; and at the south-west corner there was a gallows called the Elms, from a number of elm-trees. trees that grew in the neighbourhood. It was likewise the scene of public justs and tournaments, and has been a market-place for cattle above 500 years.

On the south side of this area, and contiguous to Christ's hospital, is St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was originally founded soon after the accession of Henry I., by Rahere the king's jester, as an infirmary for the priory of St Bartholomew the Great, which then stood near the spot. But upon the dissolution of religious houses, Henry VIII. refounded it, and endowed it with 500 marks a-year, on condition that the citizens should pay the same sum annually for the relief of 100 lame and infirm patients. The endowments of this charity have since been so much enlarged, that it now receives the distressed of all denominations. In 1702, a beautiful frontispiece was erected towards Smithfield, adorned with pilasters, entablature, and a pediment of the Ionic order, with a statue of King Henry VIII., standing in a niche in full proportion, and those of two cripples on the top of the pediment over it. In 1729, a plan was formed for rebuilding the rest of this hospital, in consequence of which a magnificent edifice has been erected.

Among many other privileges granted by Henry I. to the prior and canons of the monastery of St Bartholomew the Great, and to the poor of the infirmary, was that of keeping a fair in Smithfield on the eve, day, and morrow, of St Bartholomew. This fair, called Bartholomew fair, has been held annually ever since; and by the indulgence of the magistrates of London, to whom the privilege of keeping it devolved upon the dissolution of the priory, it used to continue a fortnight. A great number of booths was erected in it by the actors of the theatres, for the exhibition of dramatic performances of various kinds; and it became at length a scene of so much licentiousness and riot, that Sir John Barnard when lord mayor of London reduced the time of the fair to its original duration of three days. This laudable example has been followed ever since; and the magistrates have likewise prohibited all public exhibitions which had been formerly accompanied with so much disorder.

In a street in this ward, called the Old Bailey, is a hall named Justice hall, or the Session's house, where a court is held eight times a-year by the king's commission of oyer and terminer for the trial of criminals for offences committed within the city of London and county of Middlesex. The judges of this court are the lord mayor, those of the aldermen that have served that office, and the recorder, who are attended by the sheriffs and by one or more of the national judges.

In this street is also the great criminal prison, rebuilt in 1777 in a more convenient situation, and on a more enlarged plan, than the former prison, called Newgate: by which name it is still distinguished. It consists of two wings, the debtors and the felons side, with the keeper's house in the middle. The felons are generally between 200 and 300. Single rooms in the state-side of the prison, or in the governor's house, are let to prisoners who choose to pay for them.

In this ward is likewise a prison called the Fleet Prison, from a small river named the Fleet which formerly ran by it: the building is large. It is a prison for the confinement of debtors, and such as are committed for contempt of court. There are 150 rooms, Public Buildings, 14½ feet by 12½. The number of prisoners is generally between 200 and 300. They are allowed to exercise and amuse themselves in a large court.

In Chancery-lane is an office consisting of a house and chapel, called the office and chapel of the Rolls, from being the great repository of the modern rolls and records of the kingdom. This building was originally the house of an eminent Jew; but being forfeited to the crown, King Henry III. in the year 1223, converted it into a hospital for the reception and accommodation of Jewish and other proselytes. In 1377, Edward III. granted this hospital and its chapel to William Burstall, master of the rolls, to whose successors in that office it has ever since belonged. Round this office there is a small district consisting of about 200 houses, called the Liberty of the Rolls, over which the magistrates of London have no authority, it being under the government of the master of the rolls.

In this ward are several Inns of court and chancery, particularly the Inner and Middle Temple, Serjeants Inn, Clifford's Inn, Barnard's Inn, Staple's Inn, and Furnival's Inn.

The Temple received its name from being originally founded by the Knights Templars, who settled here in 1185. It was at first called the New Temple, to distinguish it from the former house of the Knights Templars, which stood in Holborn near Chancery lane. The original building was divided into three parts; the Inner, the Middle, and the Outer Temple. The Inner and the Outer Temple were so called, because one was within and the other was without the Bar; and the Middle derived its name from being situated between them. Upon the dissolution of the order of Knights Templars, the New Temple devolved to the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, who granted a lease of it to the students of the common law, and converted that part of it called Inner and Middle Temple into two inns of court for the study and practice of the common law. The Outer Temple became a house for the earl of Essex.

The buildings of the Temple escaped the fire in 1666, but were most of them destroyed by subsequent fires, and have since been rebuilt. The two Temples are each divided into several courts, and have pleasant gardens on the banks of the Thames. They are appropriated to distinct societies, and have separate halls, where the members dine in common during term-time. The Inner Temple hall is said to have been built in the reign of Edward III., and the Middle Temple hall, which is a magnificent edifice, was rebuilt in 1572 in form of a college hall. The Middle Temple gate, Mr Pennant informs us, was erected by Sir Amias Powlet on a singular occasion. It seems that Sir Amias, about the year 1501 thought fit to put Cardinal Wolsey, then parson of Lymington, into the stocks. In 1515, being sent for to London by the cardinal on account of that ancient grudge, he was commanded not to quit town till farther orders. In consequence, he lodged five or six years in this gateway, which he rebuilt; and to pacify his eminence, adorned the front with the cardinal's cap, badges, cognisance, and other devices of this butcher's son; so low were the great men Each temple has a good library, adorned with paintings, and well furnished with books. An assembly, called a parliament, in which the affairs of the society of the Inner Temple are managed, is held there every term. Both Temples have one church, first founded in 1185, by the Knights Templars; but the present edifice is supposed to have been built in 1420. It is supported by neat slender pillars of Sussex marble, and is one of the most beautiful Gothic structures in England. In this church are many monuments, particularly of nine Knight Templars cut in marble in full proportion, some of them seven feet and a half long; six are cross-legged, and therefore supposed to have been engaged in the crusades. The minister of this church, who is usually called the master of the Temple, is appointed by the benchers or senior members of both societies, and presented by a patent from the crown.

Shakespeare (whether from tradition or history) makes the Temple garden the place in which the badge of the white and red rose originated; the distinctive badge of the houses of York and Lancaster, under which the respective partizans of each arranged themselves in the fatal quarrel which caused such torrents of English blood to flow.

Near the Temple bar is the Devil's Tavern, so called from its sign of St Dunstan seizing the evil spirit by the nose with a pair of hot tongs. Ben Johnson has immortalized it by his Leges Conviviales, which he wrote for the regulation of a club of wits held in a room he dedicated to Apollo; over the chimney-piece of which they are preserved. The tavern was in his days kept by Simon Wadloe; whom, in a copy of verses over the door of the Apollo, he dignified with the title of King of Skinners.

Serjeants Inn is a small inn in Chancery-lane, where the judges and serjeants have chambers, but not houses, as they had in another inn of this name in Fleet-street, which they abandoned in 1730; but in each of them there is a hall and a chapel. Clifford's Inn is an inn of chancery belonging to the Inner Temple. It was originally a house granted by Edward II. to the family of the Cliffords, from which it derived its name; but was afterwards let upon lease to the students of the law, and in the reign of Edward III., sold to the members of this society. Bernard's Inn is likewise an inn of chancery belonging to Gray's Inn. It stands in Holborn, and was the house of John Mackworth, dean of Lincoln, who gave it to the professors of the law. Staple's Inn belongs also to Gray's Inn, and is situated in Holborn. It was once a hall for the merchants of the staple for wool, whence it derives its name; but it was purchased by the benchers of Gray's Inn, and has been an inn of chancery since the year 1415. Furnival's Inn, is an inn of chancery belonging to Lincoln's Inn, and was once the house of the family of the Furnivals, by whom it was let out to the professors of the law. It is a large old building, with a hall and a pleasant garden.

In Coleman-street ward, on the south side of a large square called Moorfields, stood Bethlehem Hospital, founded in 1675 by the lord mayor and citizens of London for the reception and cure of poor lunatics. It was a noble edifice, built with brick and stone, and adorned with pilasters, entablatures, and sculpture; particularly with the figures of two lunatics over the grand gate, which are well executed. This building was 540 feet long and 40 broad, exclusive of two wings of a later erection, intended for the reception of such lunatics as were deemed incurable. This hospital contained a great number of convenient cells or apartments, where the patients were maintained and received all medical assistance without any other expense to their friends than that of bedding. The structure was divided into two stories, through each of which ran a long gallery from one end of the house to the other. On the south side were the cells, and on the north the windows that gave light to the galleries, which were divided in the middle by handsome iron gates, to keep the men and women separate. This hospital being pulled down, it is intended to erect another building for the use of the same charity, at a short distance from the metropolis. A new road is to be opened from the site of the old hospital to the Royal Exchange.

Opposite to Bethlehem hospital stood that of St Luke's Luke, a long plain building, till of late appropriated to Hospital, the same purposes, but wholly independent of the former. It was founded on the humane consideration that Bethlehem was incapable of receiving all the miserable objects which were offered. Of late years the patients were removed from the old hospital to a new one erected under the same name in Old-street, on the plan of the former, extending in front 492 feet. The old hospital is now pulled down, and replaced by a handsome row of houses. Uncured patients may be taken in again, by a very liberal regulation, on the payment of five shillings a week; so that their friends may, if they choose, try a second time the force of medicine on their unhappy relations or acquaintances.

Besides the three markets already mentioned at Smithfield for cattle and hay, at Leadenhall for butchers meat, wool, hides, and Colchester baize, and at Billingsgate for fish; there are in this city the following other markets, which are all very considerable, viz. Honcy lane, Newgate, and Fleet-market, chiefly for flesh, though with separate divisions for fish, butter, eggs, poultry, herbs, and fruit; and the Three-Cranes market, for apples and other fruit. The principal corn-market is held in a neat exchange situated in Market-lane, and that for flour at Queenhithe. In Thames-street, near Billingsgate, there is an exchange for dealers in coals and masters of vessels in that trade to transact their business.

II. The borough of Southwark. It was called a Borough by the Saxons Suth, or the "South work," in respect of South to some fort or fortification bearing that aspect from London. It was also called the Borough, or Burg, probably from the same reason. It was long independent of the city of London: but, in consideration of the inconveniences arising from the escape of malefactors from the great capital into this place, it was in 1327 granted by Edward III. to the city, on payment of 10l. annually. It was then called the village of Southwark; it was afterwards styled the bailiwick of Southwark, and the mayor and commonalty of London appointed the bailiff. This power, however, not being sufficient to remedy the evil, a more intimate connexion was thought necessary; and in the reign of Edward VI. on a valuable consideration paid to the crown, it was formed into a 26th ward, by the title of Bridge Ward Without; with a reservation of certain privileges. privileges enjoyed there by the archbishop of Canterbury and some other ecclesiastics. In consequence of this, it was subjected to the lord mayor of London, with the steward and bailiff. But Southwark being divided into two parts, this is to be understood of the division called the Borough Liberty, which consists of three of the parishes belonging to the town, with the greater part of a fourth parish. For the city division, the lord mayor by his steward holds a court of record every Monday at the sessions house on St Margaret's Hill in this borough, for all debts, damages, and trespasses within the limits of his jurisdiction. The other division is called the Clink, or the Manor of Southwark, and is subdivided into the Great Liberty, the Guildhall, and the King's Manor; for each of which subdivisions a court-leet is held, where the constables, ale-conners, and flesh-tasters, are chosen, and other business of this kind transacted. A court-house, called Union Hall, has lately been built in the new street called Union-street, which leads in a direct line from the high-street in the Borough to Great Surry-street Blackfriars road. The Clink liberty is under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Winchester, who, besides a court-leet, keeps here a court of record on the Bankside near St Saviour's church, by his steward or bailiff, for pleas of debts, damages, and trespasses. Court-leets are also kept at Lambeth, Bermondsey, and Rotherhithe, three small districts adjoining to the Borough.

There is a compter for the imprisonment of offenders in the bailiwick, and another for the Clink liberty; to which may be added the Surry workhouse for vagrants. Besides these, there is the Marshalsea prison, which is the county gaol for felons, and the admiralty gaol for pirates (G); in which is a court, first erected for trials of causes between the king's domestics or menial servants, of which the knight-marshal is president, and his steward judge, to whom belong four counsellors and six attorneys; and the court is held every Friday, by him, or his deputy, for debt, damages, and trespasses, in causes for 10 miles round Whitehall, excepting London. In this quarter is also the King's Bench prison, the rules of which are above two miles in circuit, and comprise the greatest part of St George's Fields. Here was committed Henry prince of Wales, afterwards King Henry V., by the spirited and honest Judge Gaseigne, for striking or insulting him on the bench. It is a very extensive and commodious building. There are 224 rooms about 14 or 16 feet by 12 or 13: eight of these are state-rooms that are let unfurnished at 25s. 6d. a-week. Within the walls of this prison are several shops, and the whole has the appearance of a small village. It is surrounded by walls 30 feet high. The rules or societies of this prison are very extensive, comprehending a circuit of nearly three miles round it.

Southwark consists of the parishes of St Olave, St Saviour, St George, and St Thomas; the parish of Christ-church, though contiguous to the Borough, is in the county of Surry.

The principal church in Southwark is that of St Saviour, which was formerly a priory of regular canons. Being dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and situated near the bank of the Thames, it was called St Mary Over Rec, or Overy, by which appellation it is commonly known. This church is built in the manner of a cathedral, with three aisles from east to west, and a cross aisle. It is reckoned the largest parish-church in England, the three aisles first mentioned measuring 269 feet in length, and the cross aisle 109 feet. The height within is 47 feet, and it has a tower with four spires 150 feet high.

Not far from St George's church stood the magnificent palace of Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, the deserved favourite of Henry VIII. After his death, in 1545, it came into the king's hands, who established here a royal mint. It at that time was called Southwark Place, and in a great measure preserved its dignity. Edward VI. once dined in it. His sister and successor presented it to Heath, archbishop of York, as an inn or residence for him and his successors whenever they repaired to London. As to the Mint, it became a sanctuary for insolvent debtors; but at length becoming the pest of the neighbourhood, by giving shelter to villains of every species, that awakened the attention of parliament; which by the statutes 8 and 9 Will. III. 9 George I. and 11 George I. entirely took away its abusive privileges.

In the parish of Christ-church, near the water on Ancient Bankside, stood Paris-garden, one of the ancient play-places of houses of our metropolis. Ben Johnson is reproached by one Deeker, an envious critic, with his ill success on the stage, and in particular with having performed the part of Zuliman at Paris-garden. It seems to have been much frequented on Sundays. This profanation (Mr Pennant observes) was at length fully punished by the dire accident which befell the spectators in 1582, when the scaffolding suddenly fell, and multitudes of people were killed or miserably maimed. The omen seems to have been accepted; for in the next century the manor of Paris-garden was erected into a parish, and a church founded under the name of Christ's.

Beyond this place of amusement were the Bear-garden and place for baiting of bulls, the British circus; "Herein (says Stow) were kept bears, bulls, and other beasts to be bayted; as also mastives in several kennels nourished to bayt them. These bears and other beasts are there kept in plots of ground scaffolded about for the beholders to stand safe." This was then an amusement for persons of the first rank: our great, if not good, Elizabeth caused the French ambassadors to be carried to this theatre, to divert them with these bloody spectacles.

Not far from these scenes of cruel pastime was the The New Bordello

(g) In 1377 this prison was broken open by a mob of sailors, who murdered a gentleman confined in it for killing one of their comrades, and who had been pardoned by the court. It was again broken open by Wat Tyler and his followers in 1381. It escaped in the infamous riots of 1780, while the King's Bench, the Borough Prison, and the Clink Prison, were nearly at the same instant sacrificed to their fury. Bordello or Steus, permitted and openly licensed by government, under certain laws or regulations. They were farmed out. Even a lord mayor did not disdain to own them; but rented them to the Fives, that is, "the hawsds," of Flanders. Among other singular regulations, no stewardholder was to admit married women; nor were they to keep open their houses on Sundays; nor were they to admit any women who had on them the perilous infirmity of burning. These infamous houses were very properly suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII.

The bishop of Winchester had formerly a palace here with a park (the same that is now called Southwark-park), which is since converted into warehouses and tenements, held by lease from the bishops of that see.

Besides several alms-houses, there are here St Thomas's and Guy's Hospital, two of the noblest endowments in England. The former was first erected in 1215 by Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, who endowed it with land to the amount of £343. a-year; from which time it was held of the abbots of Bermondsey, one of whom in 1428 granted a right to the master of the hospital to hold all the lands it was then in possession of belonging to the said abbot and convent, the whole revenue of which did not exceed £266l. 17s. 6d. per annum. In the year 1551, after the citizens of London had purchased of Edward VI. the manor of Southwark and its appurtenances, of which this hospital was a part, they expended £1000l. in repairing and enlarging the edifice, and immediately received into it 260 patients; upon which the king in 1553 incorporated this hospital with those of Christ-church and Bridewell in the city of London. The building being much decayed, three beautiful squares adorned with colonnades were erected by voluntary subscription in 1693, to which in 1732 the governors added a magnificent building, consisting of several wards with proper offices. The annual disbursements of this hospital have for many years amounted to £8000l. The house is divided into 19 wards, and is said to contain 474 beds.

Adjoining to St Thomas's stands Guy's Hospital, perhaps the most extensive charitable foundation that ever was established by one man in private life. The founder of this hospital was Thomas Guy, a book-seller in Lombard-street, London, who lived to see the edifice roofed in; and at his death, in 1724, left £238,292l. 16s. including the expense of the building, to finish and endow it. This hospital consists of two capacious squares, containing 12 wards and 433 beds. It was incorporated by charter from parliament, and the first governors were appointed in 1725.

In St George's Fields, westward of the King's Bench prison, is the Magdalen Hospital for the reception of penitent prostitutes; a little farther is situated the Asylum for orphan girls; and not far distant is the Westminster Lying-in Hospital: Institutions, of which the following feeling and animated account is given by Mr Pennant.

"The Asylum is an institution of a most heavenly nature, calculated to save from perdition of soul and body the brighter part of the creation; such on whom Providence hath bestowed angelic faces and elegant forms, designed as blessings to mankind, but too often debased to the vilest uses. The hazard that these innocents constantly are liable to from a thousand temptations, from poverty, from death of parents, from the diabolical procuress, and often from the stupendous wickedness of parents themselves, who have been known to sell their beauteous girls for the purpose of prostitution, induced a worthy band to found in the year 1758 the Asylum, or House of Refuge. Long may it flourish, and eternal be the reward of those into whose minds so amiable a conception entered!

"To afford means of salvation to those unhappy beings who had the ill fortune to lose the benefits of this divine institution, the Magdalen Hospital was instituted for the reception of the penitent prostitutes. To save from vice, is one great merit. To reclaim and restore to the dignity of honest rank in life, is certainly not less meritorious. The joy at the return of one sinner to repentance is esteemed by the highest authority worthy of the heavenly host. That ecstasy, I trust, this institution has often occasioned. Since its foundation in the same year with the former, to December 25, 1786, not fewer than 2471 have been admitted. Of these (it is not to be wondered that long and evil habits are often incurable) 300 have been discharged, uneasy under constraint; 45 proved lunatics, and afflicted with incurable fits; 60 have died; 52 never returned from hospitals they were sent to; 338 discharged for faults and irregularities. How to be dreaded is the entrance into the bounds of vice, since the retreat from its paths is so difficult! Finally, 1608 prodigals have been returned to their rejoicing parents; or placed in reputable services, or to honest trades, hastes to idleness, and securities against a future relapse." Into this charity, every woman who has been seduced (and is not pregnant or diseased), whether recommended or not, may apply for admission to the committee, who meet for that purpose on the first Tuesday in every month.

Akin to those charities is that of the Lying-in-Hospital, which is not intended merely for the reception of the honest matron who can deposit her burden with the consciousness of lawful love, but also for the unhappy wretches whom some villain in the unguarded moment has seduced, and then left a prey to desertion of friends, to poverty, want, and guilt.—Lest such may be driven to despair by such complicated misery, and be tempted to destroy themselves and murder their infants, here was founded in 1765 this humane preventive, the Westminster New Lying-in Hospital, in which every assistance and accommodation requisite in such situations are provided in the most attentive and liberal manner. To obviate all objection to its being an encouragement to vice, no one is taken in a second time: but this most excellent charity is open to the worthy distressed matron as often as necessity requires. None are rejected who have friends to recommend. And of both descriptions upwards of 4000 have experienced its salutary effect."

St George's Fields are now almost covered with new St George's erected buildings, from the ditch at the end of Great Fields, Surry-street, or Burrow's Buildings, to the Fishmongers' alms-houses, in one direction; and from the Marshalsea prison to the Dog and Duck, in the other direction; with several irregular indentations in its circumference: And where the principal roads meet, an obelisk has been erected, pointing out the distance it stands from from different parts of London, Westminster, and Blackfriars bridges. Among the buildings which serve to embellish and improve this entrance to London, Chatham-square and Bridge-street-Blackfriars may be particularly specified.

At Lambeth, the archbishops of Canterbury have had a palace. According to Mr Pennant, it was in the earlier times a manor, possibly a royal one; for the great Hardiknut died here in 1042, in the midst of the jollity of a wedding dinner; and here, without any formality, the usurper Harold is said to have snatched the crown and placed it on his own head. At that period it was part of the estate of Goda, wife to Walter earl of Mantes, and Eustace earl of Boulogne; who presented it to the church of Rochester, but reserved to herself the patronage of the church. It became in 1197 the property of the see of Canterbury, by exchange transacted between Glanville bishop of Rochester and the archbishop Hubert Walter. The building was improved by Langton the successor of Walter; but it was afterwards neglected and became ruinous. "No pious zeal (says Mr Pennant) restored the place, but the madness of priestly pride. Boniface, a wrathful and turbulent primate, elected in 1244, took it into his head to become a visitor of the priory of St Bartholomew, to which he had no right. The monks met him with reverential respect, but assured him the office did not belong to the bishop. The meek prelate rushed on the sub-prior, knocked him down, kicked, beat, and buffeted him, tore the cope off his back, and stamped on it like one possessed, while his attendants paid the same compliments to all the poor monks. The people enraged at his unpriestly conduct would have torn him to pieces; when he retired to Lambeth, and, by way of expiation, rebuilt it with great magnificence. At a subsequent period it was very highly improved by the munificent Henry Chicheley, who enjoyed the primacy from 1414 to 1443. I lament to find so worthy a man to have been the founder of a building so reproachful to his memory as the Lollards tower, at the expense of near 280l. Neither Protestants or Catholics should omit visiting this tower, the cruel prison of the unhappy followers of Wickliffe. The vast staples and rings to which they were chained before they were brought to the stake, ought to make Protestants bless the hour which freed them from so bloody a religion." During the civil wars of the last century, this palace suffered greatly; but at the Restoration, the whole was repaired by Archbishop Juxton.

The parish church of Lambeth (H), which is at a small distance from the palace, has a plain tower; and the architecture is of the Gothic of the time of Edward IV. It has very little remarkable in it, except the figure of a pedlar and his dog, painted in one of the windows; and tradition says, that the parish was obliged to this man for the bequest of a piece of land, which bears the name of the Pedlar's Acre. In the churchyard is the tomb of old Tradescant. Both father and son were great travellers; and the former is supposed to have visited Russia and most parts of Europe, Turkey, Greece, many of the eastern countries, Egypt, and Barbary; out of which he introduced multitudes of plants and flowers, unknown before in our gardens. The monument is an altar tomb; embellished with emblematical sculptures; and bearing the following inscription, which is both singular and historical:

Know, stranger, ere thou pass, beneath this stone Lye John Tradescant, grand sire, father, son; The last dy'd in his spring; the other two Liv'd till they had travell'd Art and Nature through, As by their choice collections may appear, Of what is rare, in land, in sea, in air; Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad in a nut) A world of wonders in one closet shut: These famous Antiquarians, that had been Both gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen, Transplanted now themselves, sleep here; and when Angels shall with their trumpets waken men, And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise, And change this garden for a paradise.

From Lambeth, eastward along the river side, Lambeth was once a long tract of dreary marsh, and still Marsh in parts called Lambeth Marsh; about the year 1560, there was not a house on it from Lambeth palace as far as Southwark. In a street called Narrow-wall (from one of the ancient embankments) is Mrs Conde's noted manufactory of artificial stone (I); And at a small distance, Mess. Beaufoy's (K) great work

(H) In describing this church, Mr Pennant takes occasion to mention the sad example of fallen majesty in the person of Mary d'Este, the unhappy queen of James II.; who, flying with her infant prince from the ruin impending over their house, after crossing the Thames from the abdicated Whitehall, took shelter beneath the ancient walls of this church a whole hour, from the rain of the inclement night of December 6, 1688. Here she waited with aggravated misery, till a common coach, procured from the next inn, arrived, and conveyed her to Gravesend, from whence she sailed, and bade an eternal adieu to these kingdoms.

(I) Her repository consists of several very large rooms filled with every ornament, which can be used in architecture. The statue, the vase, the urn, the rich chimney pieces, and, in a few words, every thing which could be produced out of natural stone or marble by the most elegant chisel, is here to be obtained at an easy rate.

(K) "Where (says Mr Pennant) the foreign wines are most admirably mimicked. Such is the prodigality and luxury of the age, that the demand for many sorts exceeds in a great degree the produce of the native vineyards. We have skilful fabricators, who kindly supply our wants. It has been estimated, that half of the port, and five-sixths of the white wines consumed in our capital, have been the produce of our home wine presses. The product of duty to the state from a single house was in one year, from July 5, 1785 to July 5, 1786, not less than 7363l. gs. 8½d. The genial banks of the Thames opposite to our capital, yield almost every species of white wine; and, by a wondrous magic, Mess. Beaufoy pour forth the materials for the rich Frontiniac, This ground, so profitable to the proprietors, and so productive of revenue to the state, was within memory the scene of low dissipation. Here stood Cuper's garden, noted for its fireworks, and the great resort of the profligate of both sexes. This place was ornamented with several of the mutilated statues belonging to Thomas earl of Arundel, which had been for that purpose begged from his lordship by one Bayder Cuper, a gardener in the family. The great timber yards beneath which these antiquities were found, are very well worthy of a visit. One would fear that the forests of Norway and the Baltic would be exhausted, to supply the wants of our overgrown capital, were we not assured that the resources will successively be increased equal to the demand of succeeding ages.—In this parish are also vast distilleries, formerly the property of Sir Joseph Mawby; where are seldom less than 2000 hogs, which are fed entirely on grain.

III. City and Liberties of Westminster. The city of Westminster derives its name from a minster, or abbey, and west, on account of its situation with respect to St Paul's cathedral, which was formerly called Eastminster. In ancient times this district stood upwards of a mile from the city of London, and contained only two parishes, which were those of St Margaret and St John, with two chapels of ease; but at present it has seven other parochial churches, viz. St Clement's Danes, St Paul's Covent-garden, St Mary's le Strand, St Martin's in the Fields', St Anne's, St James's, and St George's Hanover-square.

Westminster was anciently called Thorny Island, from its having been covered with thorn bushes, and encompassed by a branch of the Thames, which is said to have run through the ground now called St James's Park, from west to east, and to have rejoined the river at Whitehall.

Till the general dissolution of religious houses, Westminster was subject to the arbitrary rule of its abbot and monks; but in 1541, upon the surrender of William Benson the last abbot, Henry VIII. not only turned it into an honour, but created it the see of a bishop, and appointed for a diocese the whole county of Middlesex, except Fulham, which belonged to the bishop of London. This bishopric, however, soon after its institution, was dissolved by Edward VI.

The city of Westminster is governed by a high steward, an office of great dignity, who is usually one of the first peers in the realm; and is chosen for life by the dean and chapter of the collegiate church of St Peter. There is also a deputy steward and a high bailiff, who also hold their offices for life; being nominated by the dean and chapter, and confirmed by the high steward.

The dean and chapter are invested with an ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction within the liberties of Westminster, St Martin's le Grand, near Cheapside, in the city of London, and some towns in Essex, which are exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop of London and the archbishop of Canterbury.

St Margaret's Church was founded by Edward the Confessor, since which time it has been frequently rebuilt. In the east end of this church is a window curiously painted, with the history of the crucifixion, and with the figures of several apostles and saints finely executed. It formerly belonged to a private chapel at Copt-hall, near Epping in Essex, and was purchased by the officers of this parish, some years ago for 400 guineas. In this church the house of commons attends divine service on state holidays.

The church of St John the Evangelist was erected in 1728, and having sunk considerably whilst it was building, occasioned an alteration of the plan. On the north and south sides are magnificent porticoes, supported by vast stone pillars, as is also the roof of the church; at each of the four corners is a beautiful stone tower and pinnacle, which were added with the view of making the whole structure sink equally. The parts of this building are held together by iron bars, which run across even the aisles.

The most remarkable structure in Westminster is the abbey-church of St Peter. On its site stood once and its temple of Apollo, which according to tradition was thrown down by an earthquake in the time of Antonius Pius; and from the ruins of which Sebert king of the West Saxons raised a Christian church, which was ruined by the Danes. It was repaired by Edward the Confessor, and given to a few monks; and this spot he chose for his burial-place. Henry III. 160 years after, took down this fabric of Edward's, and erected a new church, which was 50 years in building. It suffered much by fire in 1274, but was repaired by Edward I. Edward II. and the abbots. In 1700 this church being much decayed, the parliament granted money for repairing it, and has frequently repeated the bounty since that time. The form of the abbey is that of a long cross:

Frontiniae, to the more elegant tables; the Madeira, the Caleavella, and the Lisbon, into every part of the kingdom."

(1.) "There is a magnificence of business (our author remarks) in this ocean of sweets and sours that cannot fail exciting the greatest admiration; whether we consider the number of vessels or their size. The boasted tun at Heidelberg does not surpass them. On first entering the yard, two rise before you, covered at the top with a thatched dome; between them is a circular turret, including a winding staircase, which brings you to their summits, which are above 24 feet in diameter. One of these conservatories is full of sweet wine, and contains 58,109 gallons, or 1815 barrels of Winchester measure. Its superb associate is full of vinegar, to the amount of 56,799 gallons, or 1774 barrels of the same standard as the former. The famous German vessel yields even to the last by the quantity of 40 barrels.—Besides these, is an avenue of lesser vessels, which hold from 32,500 to 16,974 gallons each. After quitting this Brobdignagian scene, we pass to the acres covered with common barrels: we cannot diminish our ideas so suddenly, but at first we imagine we could quaff them off as easily as Gulliver did the little hogsheads of the kingdom of Lilliput." cross; its greatest length is 489 feet, and the breadth of the west front 66 feet; the length of the cross aisle is 189 feet, and the height of the roof 92 feet. At the west end are two towers; the nave and cross aisle are supported by 52 slender pillars of Sussex marble exclusive of pilasters. In the upper and lower ranges there are 94 windows, all which, with the arches, roofs, and doors, are in the Gothic taste. The inside of this church is much better executed than the outside; and the perspective is good; particularly that of the grand aisle. The choir, from which there is an ascent by several steps to a fine altar-piece, is paved with black and white marble; having 23 stalls on the north, the same number on the south, and eight at the west end. The altar is made of a beautiful piece of marble, the gift of Queen Anne, enclosed by a curious balustrade, and upon a pavement of porphyry, jasper, Lydian, and serpentine stones, laid in the mosaic style, at the expense of Abbot Ware, A.D. 1272; and is said to be one of the most beautiful of its kind in the world. On each side of this altar a door opens into St Edward's chapel; round which are 10 other chapels, ranging from the north to the south cross aisles, and are dedicated, 1. To St Andrew. 2. To St Michael. 3. To St John Evangelist. 4. Islip's chapel. 5. To St John Baptist. 6. To St Paul. 7. Henry V.'s chapel. 8. To St Nicholas. 9. To St Edmund. 10. To St Benedict.

In St Edward's chapel are still to be seen the remains of his shrine; which, though now in obscurity, and robbed of all its riches and lustre, was once esteemed the glory of England, so far as art and riches could make it. Here are the tombs of King Edward I. and several other kings and queens of England; and here also is shown the famous chair in which the kings of Scotland used to be crowned at Scone. Henry V.'s chapel is divided from St Edward's by an iron screen, on each side of which are statues as big as life.—St Andrew's chapel, which is next the north cross, and the others which surround the choir, are crowded with the monuments of noble personages, worthy the attention of the curious.—At the corner of St Benedict's chapel, an iron gate opens into the south cross aisle; which from the number of monuments erected therein to celebrated English poets, has obtained the name of the Poets' corner; though here we find a most magnificent monument erected at the south end in memory of the late John duke of Argyle and Greenwich; another to William Camden the antiquarian; and others to the celebrated divine Dr Isaac Barrow, to Thomas Parr who died at the age of 152 years, &c.—The south aisle is adorned with 19 curious monuments of the pious, the brave, and the learned; and turning northward from the west door, we view a great number more.

On the east of the abbey, and which, though separate from the other chapels in the choir, seems to be one and the same building with the abbey, stands the chapel of King Henry VII., which that king founded in the year 1502, and was at that time styled the wonder of the world, and is now one of the most expensive remains of the ancient English taste and magnificence. There is no looking upon it without admiration: it conveys an idea of the fine taste of Gothic architecture in that age; and the inside is so noble, majestic, and of such curious workmanship, that it would take a volume to describe each part with justice and propriety.

Its original intention was to be a dormitory for the royal blood; and so far the will of the founder has been observed, that none have been interred therein but such as have traced their descent from ancient kings. The tomb of King Henry VII. is most magnificent, enclosed with a screen of cast brass, most admirably designed, and as well executed. Within the rails are the figures of that king and his royal consort, in their robes of state, on a tomb of black marble; and at the head of this tomb lie the remains of Edward VI. In different parts of this chapel are the monuments of Lewis Stewart duke of Richmond, George Villars duke of Buckingham, John Sheffield duke of Buckingham, Charles Montague marquis of Halifax, Edward V. and his brother Richard; the vault of James I. and his queen Anne and daughter Mary, on which is a small tomb adorned with the figure of a child; a lofty monument of Queen Elizabeth, and another of Mary queen of Scots; the monuments for Margaret Douglas daughter of Margaret queen of Scots, Margaret countess of Richmond mother to Henry VII., the vault of King Charles II., and William III., Queen Mary his consort, Queen Anne, and Prince George. Over these royal personages are their effigies (except that of Prince George) in wainscot presses, made of wax to resemble life, and dressed in their coronation robes. And at the corner of the great east window, in another wainscot press, stands the effigy of Mary duchess of Richmond, daughter to James duke of Richmond and Lenox, dressed in the very robes she wore at the coronation of Queen Anne. On leaving the aisle, you are shown another press, containing the effigy of General Monk, who, on account of his loyalty, and the part he took in the restoration of King Charles II., had a vault appropriated to him and his family amongst the royal blood.

In a fine vault under Henry the VII.'s chapel, is the burying place of the present royal family, erected by his late majesty King George II. Adjoining to the abbey are the cloisters, built in a quadrangular form, with piazzas towards the court, where several of the prebendaries have their houses.

Near the abbey church is the King's school, usually called Westminster school. It was originally founded in the year 1570, and a second time by Queen Elizabeth in 1560, whence it is sometimes called the Queen's College; and is at present one of the greatest schools in the kingdom. The learned antiquary Mr Camden was once master of it, and Ben Johnson one of his scholars. Dr Busby, who was master upwards of 50 years, greatly contributed to keep up its reputation, formed its museum, and improved both the master's and his prebendal house.—This school, instead of one master and one usher as at first, has now an upper and under master, and five ushers, who have about 400 youths under their tuition. A plan was set on foot when the present archbishop of York was master, for building a college for the use of the students, but this did not succeed.

On the north-east side of the abbey is an old building called Westminster-hall, first built by William Rufus as an addition to a royal palace, and afterwards

Near these buildings is a bridge over the Thames, called Westminster Bridge, accounted one of the most complete and elegant structures of the kind in the known world. It is built entirely of stone, and extends over the river at a place where it is 1223 feet broad; which is above 380 feet broader than at London Bridge. On each side is a fine balustrade of stone, with places of shelter from the rain. The width of the bridge is 44 feet, having on each side a fine foot way for passengers. It consists of 14 piers, and 13 large and two small arches, all semicircular, that in the centre being 76 feet wide, and the rest decreasing four feet each from the other, so that the two least arches of the 13 great ones are each 52 feet. It is computed that the value of 40,000l. in stone and other materials is always under water. This magnificent structure was begun in 1739, and finished in 1750, at the expense of 389,000l. defrayed by the parliament. It was built after the design of M. Labelye, an ingenious architect, a native of France.

On the bank of the Thames, at the east confines of Whitehall, St Margaret's parish, was a palace called Whitehall, originally built by Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent, before the middle of the 13th century. It afterwards devolved to the archbishop of York, whence it received the name of York Place, and continued to be the city residence of the archbishops till it was purchased by Henry VIII. of Cardinal Wolsey in 1530. At this period it became the residence of the court; but in 1697 was destroyed by accidental fire, all except the Banqueting-house, which had been added to the palace of Whitehall by James I., according to a design of Inigo Jones. This is an elegant and magnificent structure of hewn stone, adorned with an upper and lower range of pillars, of the Ionic and Composite orders; the capitals are enriched with fruit and foliages, and between the columns of the windows. The roof is covered with lead, and surrounded with a balustrade. The building chiefly consists of one room of an oblong form 40 feet high, and a proportionable length and breadth. The ceiling is painted by the celebrated Sir Peter Paul Rubens. It is now used only as a chapel-royal, and the other part of the house is occupied with state offices.

Opposite the Banqueting-house stands the Horse Guards, so called from being the station where part of his majesty's troops usually do duty. It is a strong building, of hewn stone, consisting of a centre and two wings. In the former is an arched passage into St James's Park; and over it, in the middle, rises a cupola. In a part of the building is the War Office. Near the Horse-guards is the Treasury; a large building, which fronts the Parade in St James's Park; and where the board of treasury is kept.

Eastward of the Horse-guards is the Admiralty Office, a large pile, built with brick and stone. The front Office towards Whitehall has two deep wings, and a lofty portico supported by four large stone pillars. A piazza, consisting of beautiful columns, runs almost from one end to the other. The wall before the court has been lately built in an elegant manner, and each side of the gate is ornamented with naval emblems. Besides a hall, and other public apartments, here are spacious houses for seven commissioners of the admiralty.

At a little distance from the Admiralty, where three capital capital streets terminate, is a large opening called Charing-cross, from one of the crosses which King Edward I. caused to be erected in memory of his queen Eleanor, and Charing, the name of a village in which it was built. The cross remained till the civil wars in the reign of Charles I., when it was destroyed by the fanatics, as a monument of popish superstition; but after the Restoration, an equestrian statue of Charles I. was set up in its stead. This, which is of brass, and finely executed, continues to be an ornament to the place. It was made in 1633, at the expense of the Howard-Arundel family. The parliament sold it to a brazier in Holborn, with strict orders to break it to pieces; but he concealed it under ground till the Restoration, when it was set up in 1678.

At the west end of the Moll, in St James's park, which begins near Charing-cross, stands the Queen's Palace. It was originally known by the name of Arlington House; but being purchased by the late duke of Buckingham's father, who rebuilt it from the ground in 1703, it was called Buckingham House, till the year 1762, when it was purchased by his majesty for a royal residence. It is built of brick and stone, having in the front two ranges of pilasters of the Corinthian and Tuscan orders. It has a spacious court yard, enclosed with iron rails, fronting St James's park, with offices on each side, with two pavilions, separated from the mansion house by colonnades of the Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic orders. His majesty has here built a fine library, in an octagonal form, besides several other additions.

Eastward of the queen's palace stands St James's, an old building, which, till the former was purchased by the crown, had been the town residence of the royal family since the burning of Whitehall in 1697. This palace was built by Henry VIII. and obtained its name from an hospital which formerly stood on the spot. It is an irregular building, of a mean appearance without, but contains several magnificent apartments. Here the court and levees are still kept, and most of the persons belonging to the household have their residence. The chapel of the hospital was converted to the use of the royal family, as it now remains, and is a royal peculiar, exempted from all episcopal jurisdiction. When this palace was built, it abutted in the south-west upon an uncultivated swampy tract of ground, which the king enclosed and converted into a park, called from the palace St James's park. He also laid it out into walks, and collected the water into one body. It was afterwards much enlarged and improved by King Charles II., who planted it with lime trees, and formed a beautiful vista, near half a mile in length, called the Mall, from its being adapted to a play at bowls distinguished by that name. He also formed the water into a canal 100 feet broad and 2800 feet long; and furnished the park with a decoy, and other ponds for water-fowl; but these have lately been destroyed, on account of the unwholesome vapours which they excited.

In a line with St James's palace, on the east side, is Marlborough-house, which belongs to the duke of Marlborough, and is a large brick edifice, ornamented with stone.

Eastward from Charing-cross, runs that fine street the Strand, which terminates at Temple-bar. In the year 1353 the whole of it was an open high way, with public gardens to the water side. In that year it was so ruinous, that Edward III. by an ordinance directed a tax to be raised upon wool, leather, wine, and goods carried to the staple at Westminster, from Temple-bar to Westminster abbey, for the repair of the road; and that all owners of houses adjacent to the high way should repair as much as lay before their doors. Before the above period, it entirely cut off Westminster from London; nothing intervened except the scattered houses, and a village which afterwards gave name to the whole; and St Martin's stood literally in the fields. But about the year 1560 a street was formed, loosely built; for all the houses on the south side had great gardens to the river, were called by their owners names, and in after-times gave name to the several streets that succeeded them, pointing down to the Thames; each of them had stairs for the convenience of taking boat, of which many to this day bear the names of the houses. As the court was for centuries either at the palace of Westminster or Whitehall, a boat was the customary conveyance of the great to the presence of their sovereign. The north side was a mere line of houses from Charing-cross to Temple-bar; all beyond was country. The gardens which occupied part of the site of Covent-garden were bounded by fields, and St Giles's was a distant country village. Our capital found itself so secure in the vigorous government of Queen Elizabeth, that, by the year 1600, most considerable additions were made to the north of the long line of street just described. St Martin's-lane was built on both sides. St Giles's church was still insulated; but Broad-street and Holborn were completely formed into streets with houses all the way to Snow-hill. Covent-garden and Lincoln's inn-fields were built, but in an irregular manner. Drury-lane, Clare-street, and Long-acre, arose in the same period.

Almost contiguous to Charing-cross, and upon the northern south side of the Strand, is that noble palace called Northumberland House, which stands on the site of the hospital of St Mary Rownevel. Henry VIII. granted it to Sir Thomas Caverden. It was afterwards transferred to Henry Howard earl of Northampton; who, in the time of James I., built here a house, and called it after his own name. He left it to his kinsman the earl of Suffolk, lord treasurer; and by the marriage of Algernon Percy Earl of Northumberland, with Elizabeth daughter of Theophilus earl of Suffolk, it passed into the house of the present noble owner. The greater part of the house was built by Bernard Jansen, an architect in the reign of James I. The front next the street was begun by Algernon in 1748, and finished by the present duke, who married his daughter. Two additional wings to the front next the Thames, and a variety of other improvements both in building and furniture, have contributed to render this house the largest and most magnificent in London. It contains a gallery of 106 feet long by 26 wide, most superbly furnished.

A short way eastward, on the same side, stood Durham Yard, which took its name from a palace built originally by the illustrious Thomas de Hatfield, elected bishop of Durham in 1345: designed by him for the town residence of him and his successors. At this place, in 1542, was held a most magnificent feast, given by the challengers of England, who had caused to be proclaimed, in France, Flanders, Scotland, and Spain, a great and triumphant justing to be holden at Westminster, for all comers that would undertake them. But both the challengers and defendants were English.

Durham-yard is now filled with a most magnificent mass of building, called the Adelphi, in honour of two brothers, the ingenious Adams, its architects. Besides its fine lodgings, it is celebrated for its enchanting prospect, the utility of its wharfs, and its subterraneous apartments answering a variety of purposes of general benefit.

A little to the eastward stood Somerset-House, a palace built by Somerset the protector in the time of Edward VI.; and to make way for which he demolished a great number of buildings without making any recompense to the owners. Part of the church of St John of Jerusalem and the Tower were blown up for the sake of the materials; and the cloisters on the north side of St Paul's, with the charnel house and chapel, underwent the same fate; the tombs being destroyed, and the bones thrown into Finsbury-fields. This happened in 1549; but it is probable that he did not live to inhabit the palace he built, as he was executed in the year 1552. After his death the palace fell to the crown; and it became an occasional place of residence, first to Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards to Catherine queen to King Charles II. It was built in a style of architecture compounded of the Grecian and Gothic; and the back, front, and water-gate, were done from a design of Inigo Jones, about the year 1623. A chapel was begun the same year by that architect, and finished some time after. The whole of this structure was demolished in 1775, in consequence of an act of parliament; and a most magnificent edifice, from a design by Sir William Chambers, has been erected for the accommodation of all the public offices,—those of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, the Admiralty, the War, and the Excise, excepted. The Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquarians, hold their meetings here, in apartments which have been allotted to them by royal munificence; and here also are annually exhibited the works of the British painters and sculptors. The terrace on the south side is a walk bounded by the Thames, and unparalleled for grandeur and beauty of view.

The church of St Martin is distinguished by the name of St Martin's in the Fields, from its situation, which was formerly a field, with only a few scattered houses. The church being decayed, was rebuilt by Henry VIII. and again by James I. but not being large enough to accommodate the inhabitants of the parish, it was augmented in 1697, at the charge of Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. and several of the nobility. After many expensive reparations, however, it was entirely taken down in 1720, and a new church begun, which was finished in 1726. This is an elegant edifice, built of stone. On the west front is a noble portico of Corinthian columns, supporting a pediment, in which are represented the royal arms in bas relief. The ascent to the portico is by a flight of very long steps. The length of this church is about 140 feet, the breadth 60, and height 45. It has a fine arched roof sustained by stone columns of the Corinthian order. The steeple has a beautiful spire, and one of the best rings of bells in London.

St James's Church was built in the reign of Charles II. at the expense of Henry earl of St Albans's, and other neighbouring inhabitants. The building is of brick and stone, about 85 feet long, 60 broad, and 45 feet high, with a handsome steeple 150 feet in height.

St George's Church, near Hanover-square is a beautiful structure. This was one of the fifty new churches erected within the reign of Queen Anne. The ground for the edifice was given by the late Lieutenant-general Stewart, who also left 400£. to the parish, towards erecting and endowing a charity school; which, by additional benefactions and subscriptions, is become very considerable.

The greater part of the parish of St Paul's Covent-garden, was anciently a garden, belonging to the abbot and convent of Westminster, and was then called Convent garden, a name corrupted into Covent, and more generally Common-garden. In 1552, Edward VI. gave it to the earl of Bedford, with an adjoining field, formerly called the Seven Acres, but now, being turned into a long street, called Long-acre. The church of St Paul's, Covent-garden, was built by Inigo Jones, and was esteemed one of the most simple and perfect pieces of architecture in England. It was burnt by accident a few years ago; but has since been rebuilt in a very plain style. In the area before the church, of about three acres of ground, is Covent garden market, which is the best in England for herbs, fruit, and flowers. On the north, and part of the east side, is a magnificent piazza, designed by Inigo Jones.

Next to the parish of St Paul, Covent-garden, is St Mary that of St Mary le Strand. This is also one of the fifty new churches built in the reign of Queen Anne, and &c. is a handsome piece of architecture, though not very extensive. At the entrance, on the west side, is an ascent by a flight of steps, in a circular form, which leads to a similarly shaped portico of Ionic columns, covered with a dome, that is crowned with a vase. The columns are continued along the body of the church, with pilasters of the same order at the corners; and in the intercolumniations are niches handsomely ornamented. Over the dome is a pediment supported by Corinthian columns, which are also continued round the body of the structure, over those of the Ionic order. A handsome balustrade is carried round the top of the church, and adorned with vases.

A little eastward from the preceding church is that of St Clement's Danes, situated likewise in the Strand. A church is said to have stood in this place since about the year 700; but the present structure was begun in 1683, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is built of stone, with two rows of windows, the lower plain, but the upper ornamented; and the termination is by an attic, the pilasters of which are covered with vases. On the south side is a portico, covered with a dome, supported by Ionic columns; and opposite to this is another. The steeple is beautiful, and of a great height.

The church of St George, Bloomsbury, is also one of the fifty new churches erected by act of parliament. It is distinguished from all the rest by standing south. and north, and by the statue of King George I. at the top of its pyramidal steeple.

In Lamb's Conduit-fields, on the north side of the town, is a large and commodious structure called the Foundling Hospital, for the reception of exposed and deserted children. This laudable charity was projected by several eminent merchants in the reign of Queen Anne; but was not carried into execution till many years afterwards, when a charter for its establishment was obtained, through the indefatigable assiduity of Mr Thomas Coram, the commander of a merchant vessel, who spent the remainder of his life in promoting this design. From the time of its institution, the parliament has occasionally granted considerable sums for its support; and in some years upwards of 6000 infants have been received.

Not far from hence is an Hospital for the Smallpox; and in different parts of the town there are others, either for the sick of all kinds, or those in particular circumstances. Of the latter are several Lying-in hospitals, and the Lock Hospital for female patients in the venereal disease. Of the former are St George's and Middlesex Hospitals, besides several infirmaries.

Gray's Inn is one of the four principal inns of court; which, though situated within the limits of the parish of St Andrew, Holborn, is yet without the liberties of the city of London. It took its name from an ancient family of the name of Gray, which formerly resided here, and in the reign of Edward III. demise it to some students in the law; but it is said to have been afterwards conveyed to the monks of Shene, near Richmond in Surry, who leased it to the society of the Inn. It was held by this tenure till the dissolution of the monasteries, when Henry VIII. granted it to the society in fee-farm. This inn consists chiefly of two quadrangles, and has an old hall well built of timber, with a chapel in the Gothic style. Here is also a good library, and the inn is accommodated with a spacious garden.

Lincoln's Inn, another of the four principal inns of court, was originally the palace of Ralph Neville bishop of Chichester, and chancellor of England about the year 1226. It afterwards devolved to the earl of Lincoln, who converted it into a court for the students of law about the year 1310. From him it received the name of Lincoln's Inn, and consisted only of what is now called the old square, which is entered from Chancery-lane. At present this square contains, besides buildings for the lawyers, a large hall where the lord chancellor hears causes in the sittings after term. To this inn belongs likewise a fine garden, which has lately been diminished by the building of some large and commodious offices, for the use of the six clerks in the court of chancery, &c.

In the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, is an hospital called the Charter-house, which is a corruption of the word chartreux, a name formerly used for a convent or priory of the Carthusians, which this place formerly was. After the dissolution of monasteries it fell to the earl of Suffolk, who disposed of it to Thomas Sutton, Esq. a citizen of London, in the time of King James I. for 13,000l. The purchaser intending it for an hospital, applied to the king for a patent, which he obtained in 1611, and the grant was confirmed by parliament in 1623. Mr Sutton having expended 7000l. in fitting up the buildings, gave it the name of King James's Hospital, and endowed it with lands to the amount of near 4500l. a-year, for the maintenance of 80 gentlemen, merchants or soldiers, who should be reduced to indigent circumstances; and 40 boys, to be instructed in classical learning. The men are provided with handsome apartments, and all the necessaries of life except clothes; instead of which each of them is allowed a gown, and 7l. a-year. Of the boys, 29 are at a proper time sent to the university, where each has an allowance of 20l. a-year for eight years. Others, who are judged more fit for trade, are put out apprentices, and the sum of 40l. is given with each of them. As a farther encouragement to the scholars, there are nine ecclesiastical preferments in the gift of the governors. It is also by the recommendation of the latter that all pensioners and youths are received into the hospital. They consist of 16, of which number the king is always one, and the others are generally noblemen of the first rank. To this hospital belong a master, a preacher, two schoolmasters, a physician, a register, a receiver, a treasurer, a steward, an auditor, and other officers; and the annual revenues of it being now increased to upwards of 6000l., five men and four boys have been added to the original number.

In the parish of St Luke stands the Haberdashers' Alms-houses, or Aske's Hospital, so called from having been erected by the company of haberdashers, pursuant to the will of Robert Aske, Esq. one of the members, who left 30,000l. for the building and the relief of 20 poor members of the company; besides the maintenance and education of 20 boys, sons of decayed freemen of the same company. This is a large edifice of brick and stone, 400 feet long, with a piazza in front 340 feet in length, consisting of stone columns of the Tuscan order. In the middle of the building is a chapel, adorned with columns, entablatures and pediment, of the Ionic order; under the pediment is a niche with a statue of the founder. In the same parish is the Ironmongers hospital, likewise a large building.

In the parish of St Mary, Whitechapel, stands the London Hospital, for the reception of the sick. It is a large building, and was erected a few years since by voluntary contribution. Here are also some considerable alms-houses.

Within the precincts of Westminster are several state-houses or houses belonging to the nobility, some of which have the nobility already mentioned. Of the others, the most remarkable at present are, Burlington-house, Devonshire-house, Egremont-house, and Bedford-house; Carlton-house, the magnificent abode of the prince of Wales; and the superb residence erected by the duke of York between the Treasury and the Horse-guards.

To these may be added, Montagu-house (now the British Museum); which was built on a French plan by the first duke of Montagu, who had been ambassador in France. The staircase and ceilings were painted by Rousseau and La Fosse: the apotheosis of Iris, and the assembly of the gods, are by the last. It was purchased of the duke's heirs by parliament, for uniting together the Royal, Cottonian, Harleian, Sloanian, and other collections of books, MSS. coins, antiquities, subjects in natural history, &c. &c. for the public use, for which it is excellently adapted. The first of these these libraries contains the books and MSS. of our princes from Henry VII. to Charles II.; the second the MSS. collected by Sir John Cotton, his son, and grandson Sir John, which last gave it to the public by act 12 and 13 Will. III. c. 7. The Harleian collection of MSS. was formed by Edward earl of Oxford, and purchased by government in 1753, at the same time with the library, MSS. and natural curiosities, of Sir Hans Sloane. This last cost Sir Hans 50,000l.; and he left it by will, to the use of the public, on condition that the parliament would pay 20,000l. to his executors. It comprehends an amazing number of curiosities; among which are, the library, including books of drawings, MSS. and prints, amounting to about 50,000 volumes; medals and coins, ancient and modern, 20,000; cameos and intaglios, about 700; seals, 268; vessels, &c. of agate, jasper, &c. 542; antiquities, 1125; precious stones, agates, jasper, &c. 2256; metals, minerals, ores, &c. 2725; crystal, spars, &c. 1864; fossils, flints, stones, 1275; earths, sands, salts, 1035; bitumens, sulphurs, ambers, &c. 399; tales, miææ, &c. 388; corals, sponges, &c. 1421; testacea, or shells, &c. 5843; echini, echinitæ, &c. 659; asteria, trochi, entrochi, &c. 241; crustaceæ, crabs, lobsters, &c. 363; stellæ marine, star-fishes, &c. 173; fish, and their parts, &c. 1555; birds, and their parts, eggs, and nests of different species, 1172; quadrupeds, &c. 1886; vipers, serpents, &c. 521; insects, &c. 5439; vegetables, 12,506; hortus siccus or volumes of dried plants, 334; humani, as calculi, anatomical preparations, 750; miscellaneous things, natural, 2008; mathematical instruments, 55. A catalogue of all the above is written in a number of large volumes. It is a large and magnificent building; and has behind it a garden, consisting nearly of nine acres. It has of late been very much enlivened by an accession of Egyptian curiosities, chiefly taken from General Menou at Alexandria; by the splendid collection of minerals belonging to the Hon. C. Greville, which was purchased by parliament at the expense of 13,000 sterling; and by the Elgin marbles. All parts of the museum, except the library and coins, may be seen every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (except during August and September, and in Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun weeks), between the hours of ten and four, without any difficulty or other form than the visitor entering his name, &c. in a book. This regulation was adopted only in 1810, previous to which there was much trouble and delay in procuring admission.

Besides a great number of spacious streets, which are daily increasing, this part of the metropolis is ornamented with several magnificent squares, viz. Grosvenor-square, Berkeley-square, Portman-square, Cavendish-square, Hanover-square, St James's-square, Soho-square, Bloomsbury-square, Queen's-square, Lincoln's Inn-Fields, Leicester-square, Red-Lion-square, &c.

Before the conflagration in 1666, London (which like most other great cities, had arisen from small beginnings) was totally inelegant, inconvenient, and unhealthy, of which latter misfortune many melancholy proofs are authenticated in history, and which, without doubt, proceeded from the narrowness of the streets, and the unaccountable projections of the buildings, that confined the putrid air, and joined with other circumstances, such as the want of water, rendered the city seldom free from pestilential devastation. The fire which consumed the greatest part of the city, dreadful as it was to the inhabitants at that time, was productive of consequences which made ample amends for the losses sustained by individuals; a new city arose on the ruins of the old; but, though more regular, open, convenient, and healthful, than the former, yet it by no means answered to the characters of magnificence or elegance, in many particulars; and it is ever to be lamented (such was the infatuation of those times), that the magnificent, elegant, and useful plan of the great Sir Christopher Wren, was totally disregarded, and sacrificed to the mean and selfish views of private property; views which did irreparable injury to the citizens themselves, and to the nation in general: for had that great architect's plan been followed, what has often been asserted must have been the result; the metropolis of this kingdom would incontestably have been the most magnificent and elegant city in the universe; and of consequence must, from the prodigious resort of foreigners of distinction and taste who would have visited it, have become an inexhaustible fund of riches to this nation. But as the deplorable blindness of that age has deprived us of so valuable an acquisition, it is become absolutely necessary that some efforts should be made to render the present plan in a greater degree answerable to the character of the richest and most powerful people in the world.

The plan of London, in its present state, will in its plan many instances appear to very moderate judges to be still defective as injudicious a disposition as can easily be conceived for a city of trade and commerce, on the borders of so noble a river as the Thames. The wharfs and quays on its banks are extremely mean and inconvenient; and the want of regularity and uniformity in the streets of the city of London, and the mean avenues to many parts of it, are also circumstances that greatly lessen the grandeur of its appearance. Many of the churches and other public buildings are likewise thrust up in corners, in such a manner as might tempt foreigners to believe that they were designed to be concealed. The improvements of the city of London for some years past have, however, been very great; and the new streets, which are numerous, are in general more spacious, and built with greater regularity and elegance.

The streets, with the exception of a few on the south side of the river which are little frequented, are all paved; and on each side are flag stones for foot passengers. Underneath the pavements are large vaulted channels, called sewers, which communicate with each house by smaller ones, and with every street by convenient openings and gratings, to carry off all filth that can be conveyed in that manner into the river. A great part of London is now lighted with gas. In the beginning of 1817 the number of gas lights supplied was 76,500, in producing which 28 chalders of coals were consumed daily.

London, then, in its large sense, including Westminster, Southwark, and part of Middlesex, forms one great metropolis, of vast extent and of prodigious wealth. When considered with all its advantages, it is now what ancient Rome once was; the seat of liberty, the encourager of arts, and the admiration of the whole world. It is the centre of trade; General Description.

London has an intimate connexion with all the counties in the kingdom; and is the grand mart of the nation, to which all parts send their commodities, from whence they are again sent back into every town in the nation and to every part of the world. From hence innumerable carriages by land and water are constantly employed; and from hence arises that circulation in the national body which renders every part healthful, vigorous, and in a prosperous condition; a circulation that is equally beneficial to the head and the most distant members. Merchants are here as rich as noblemen; witness their incredible loans to government: and there is no place in the world where the shops of tradesmen make such a noble and elegant appearance, or are better stocked.

The Thames, on the banks of which London is situated, is a river which, though not the largest, is the richest and most commodious for commerce of any in the world. It is continually filled with fleets, sailing to or from the most distant climates; and its banks, from London-bridge to Blackwall, form almost one continued great magazine of naval stores; containing numerous wet docks, dry docks, and yards for the building of ships, for the use of the merchant; besides the places allotted for the building of boats and lighters, and the king's yards lower down the river for the building of men of war.

One of the greatest modern improvements to the port of London was the erection of docks, which are justly deemed the most wonderful works of the kind in the world. The first, the West India docks, were begun in 1802, and completed in 1802. The several basins of which they consist, and the canal connecting them with the river, cover 60 acres. They are kept always full by locks. The northern or import dock is 2600 by 510 feet, and 29 feet deep. It will hold between 200 and 300 ships. The export dock on the south side is 2600 by 400 feet, and 29 feet deep. An open shed along the whole line of the water in front of the warehouses, receives the cargoes, which are hoisted up to the warehouses by cranes. In these docks 460 vessels have been discharged in the space of 6 months. The East India docks, which are situated a little below Blackwall, were built in 1805. The discharging dock is 1410 feet long and 560 wide, containing 18½ acres. The loading dock is 780 feet long and 520 wide, containing 9½ acres: the depth of both is 30 feet. The London dock, erected in 1803, is built in the angle of the river below Wapping, between Ratcliff highway and the Thames: it covers 20 acres. Its length is 1262 feet, and width 690: its depth is 27 feet. It is capable of receiving 230 vessels of 300 tons. The warehouses for storing tobacco and wine cover 5 acres; and the whole is surrounded by a wall.

As the city is about 60 miles distant from the sea, it enjoys, by means of this beautiful river, all the benefits of navigation, without the danger of being surprised by foreign fleets, or of being annoyed by the moist vapours of the sea. It rises regularly from the water-side, and, extending itself on both sides along its banks, reaches a prodigious length from east to west in a kind of amphitheatre towards the north, and is continued for near 20 miles on all sides, in a succession of magnificent villas and populous villages, the country-seats of gentlemen and tradesmen; whither the latter retire for the benefit of fresh air, and to relax their minds from the hurry of business.

The irregular form of London makes it difficult to ascertain its extent. However, its length from east to west is generally allowed to be above seven miles from its great Hyde-park corner to Poplar; and its breadth in some extent places three, in others two, and in others again not much above half a mile. But taking in the villages included in the population returns, it is supposed to cover 30 square miles.

The population of London, though much enlarged during the last century, did not increase quite so fast as the population of the country parts of England. London, according to the population abstract, contained in 1790, 674,355 inhabitants, which was nearly one-eighth of the population of England; but in 1801 it contained 900,000, which is rather less than one-tenth of the population of England. In 1811 the population of the capital, including that of the villages actually adjoining or closely connected with it, was by the returns 1,071,662. During the period between 1801 and 1811, the population of London increased between 12 and 13 per cent, while that of England increased 14½ per cent. The population of what is called properly the city, has diminished since 1790; this arises from buildings formerly occupied as dwelling-houses, being now used as warehouses, &c., and also from a greater space being occupied by wider streets, and the houses being larger.

The mortality in London has considerably diminished since 1790. In that year it was 19,443, or 1 in 25; since 1801 it has been about 1 in 38. In 1817 there were buried 19,968, of which 10,033 were males and 9935 females; and in the same year there were christened 24,129, of which 12,624 were males, and 11,505 females.

The mean annual temperature of London is 51°. The temperature of May on an average of eight years is 56.61, of July 66.3, of September 59.63. The greatest usual cold is 20°, and occurs in January. The greatest usual heat is 81°, and occurs in July. The mean height of the barometer is 29.88 at the house of the Royal Society. There are about 209 days in the year without rain, and 156 in which it rains or snows. The average depth of rain during the four last years of the last century was 19 inches. The prevailing winds are the south-west and north-east, the former of which blows on an average 112 days in the year, and the latter 58.

Pauperism has increased greatly in London. The number of persons receiving relief in 1813 was about double of the number in 1803. The average annual expenditure for the poor for the years 1813, 1814, 1815, was 720,000l.; the annual number of persons receiving permanent relief was 36,034, and of persons receiving occasional relief 81,282.

Beside St Paul's cathedral and the collegiate church General at Westminster, there are 114 parish-churches and 62 enumerations of the established religion; 17 foreign Protestant chapels; 11 chapels belonging to the Germans, Dutch, Danes, &c.; 26 Independent meetings; 34 Presbyterian meetings; 20 Baptist meetings; 11 Polish chapels, and meeting-houses for the use of foreign ambassadors and people of various sects; and 6 Jews synagogues. So that there are above 300 places devoted

In wheat-flour, for pies and puddings, oat-meal and rice, &c. at half a farthing a-day, for a million of people for a week.

In salt, oil, vinegar, capers, olives, and other sauces, at half a farthing a-day, for a million of people for a week.

In roots and herbs of all sorts, both for food and physic, at half a farthing a-day, for a million of people for a week.

In sea-coal, charcoal, candles, and fire-wood of all sorts, at 1d. a-day for a million of people for a week.

In paper of all sorts (a great quantity being used in printing) quills, pens, ink, and wax, at a farthing a-day, for a million of people for a week.

In tobacco, pipes, and snuff, at half a farthing a-day, for a million of people for a week.

In clothing, as linen and woollen, for men, women, and children, shoes, stockings, &c. at 3s. 6d. per week, for a million of people for a week.

Expenses for horse-meat, in hay, oats, beans, 1000 load of hay, a-week, at 40s. a load, comes to 2000l. in oats, and beans the like value, 2000l. which is in all, for one week.

Cyder, rum, brandy, strong waters, coffee, chocolate, tea, &c. at 1d. a-day, for a million of people for one week.

The common firing is pit coal, commonly called sea-firing, por-coal, of which there are consumed upwards of 766,880 ter. &c. chaldrons every year. The annual consumption of oil in London and Westminster for lamps, amounts to 400,000l. In 1787, the quantity of porter brewed in London for home consumption and foreign exportation, amounted to 1,176,856 barrels. In 1805 it amounted to 1,200,000 barrels of 36 gallons each.

The above was the weekly consumption of the articles specified a few years ago. The following is the annual consumption of some of them estimated since the year 1800. Bullocks 110,000; sheep and lambs 776,000; calves 210,000; hogs 210,000; sucking pigs 60,000; milk in gallons 6,980,000; for which the inhabitants pay 481,666l. and this is the produce of 8,500 cows: vegetables and fruit 3,000,000l.: spirituous liquors and compounds 11,146,782 gallons: wine 32,500 tons; butter 16,600,000 pounds: cheese 21,100,000 pounds.

This great and populous city is happily supplied with abundance of fresh water from the Thames and water. The New River; which is not only of inconceivable service to every family, but by means of fire plugs everywhere dispersed, the keys of which are deposited with the parish officers, the city is in a great measure secured from the spreading of fire: for these plugs are no sooner opened, than there are vast quantities of water to supply the engines. This plenty of water has been attended with another advantage, it has given rise... rise to several companies, who ensure houses and goods from fire; an advantage that is not to be met with in any other nation on earth; the premium is small; and the recovery in case of loss is easy and certain. Every one of these offices keeps a set of men in pay, who are ready at all hours to give their assistance in case of fire; and who are on all occasions extremely bold, dexterous, and diligent: but though all their labours should prove unsuccessful, the person who suffers by this devouring element has the comfort that must arise from a certainty of being paid to the value (upon oath) of what he has ensured.

The places for diversion are, Vauxhall, Ranelagh-gardens, the two play-houses, the Pantheon, and the little theatre in the Hay-Market, with Sadler's-wells, Hughes's Circus, and Astley's Royal-Grove, &c. Covent-Garden Theatre was burnt down in 1808 and rebuilt in 1809; and Drury-Lane Theatre was burnt down in 1809 and rebuilt in 1811.

The Royal Institution owed its origin to a number of noblemen and gentlemen, who held meetings for the avowed purpose of ameliorating the condition of the poor. They first projected the plan of its foundation, which was matured by the exertions and talents of the indefatigable Count Rumford. The meetings began in 1809, shortly before which his majesty granted the proprietors a charter of incorporation by the name of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, for the purpose of facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements, and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments, the application of science to the common purposes of life. The government of the society consists of the president, 15 managers, and the secretary, chosen by and from among the proprietors. Of the 15 managers, one-third is elected annually, on the first of May. The house is situated in Albemarle-street, is extremely spacious, and well adapted to the purposes to which it is applied.

The London Institution was formed in the autumn of 1805, by the indefatigable exertions of a few spirited individuals. The house in the mean time is in the Old Jewry, till the managers can procure a more suitable place. The design of it is to promote the dissemination of science, literature, and the arts: its view at present being confined to three objects, viz. the acquisition of a valuable and extensive library; the diffusion of useful knowledge by the means of lectures and experiments; and the establishment of a reading room, where the foreign and domestic journals are provided for the use of the proprietors and subscribers. The government of the Institution is vested in a president, four vice-presidents, twenty managers, and the secretary. The number of proprietors is limited to 1000, each of whom paid 75 guineas for a share, and the life subscribers pay 25 guineas.