made a bencher of the Inn. The .society counts amongst its eminent members, Sir Thomas More, Sir Matthew Hale, John Selden, and Lords Mansfield and Hardwicke. The extent of the Garden was much diminished by the erection of the new buildings, and "the walks under the elms," spoken of by Ben Jonson, have disappeared. Rare Ben is said to have worked as a bricklayer at some of the old buildings here, holding a trowel in his hand, and having a book in his pocket. The pile on the east of the garden is occupied as chambers, and is known as Stone Buildings. The Chapel was built in 1621-3, by Inigo Jones, the first stone having been laid by Dr. Donne, who preached the consecration sermon. There is an open cloister under the chapel, where in former times lawyers met their clients, but it is now inclosed by an iron railing, and is used as a place of interment for the benchers. The chapel bell is said to have been brought from Cadiz by the Earl of Essex, about 1596. The oaken seats date from the time of James I. On the ascent to the chapel will be seen a marble tablet to the memory of Lord Brougham's only child, with an inscription written by the Marquis Wellesley. The preachership is considered a high appointment, and has been held by Donne, Usher, Tillotson, Warburton, Hurd, and other eminent men. The equity judges sit here in vacation in courts provided for them, in place of sitting at Westininster. NEW SQUARE and LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS form no part of the Inn, which is an extra-parochial district. The houses around the former entirely, and those around the latter in great part, are used as chambers by lawyers. THE TEMPLE is a district lying between Fleet Street and the Thames, and divided by Middle Temple Lane into the Inner and Middle Temple, belonging to separate societies, each with its hall, library, and garden. The Outer Temple no longer exists. The name is derived from the Knight Templars, who removed hither from Holborn in 1184. The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, to whom the forfeited property of their rival brotherhood was granted by the Pope, demised it to certain law students who wished to live in the suburbs, out of the noise of the city. In the sixth year of James I., royal letters patent granted the Temples to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other persons, whence originated the incorporated society of the "Students and Practisers of the Laws of England;" in whom the property is now vested. The two Temples are separated by a wall from the rest of the city, and have entrance gates, which are locked at night. The district is extra-parochial, being exempt from the operations of the poor law, and maintaining their own poor. In a by-gone age the gentlemen of these societies were famous for the masques, revels, and banquets which they gave in their halls. To these entertainments their are many allusions in the old poets. Kings have attended them; the benchers joined in them, and directed the students to dance, as the exercise made them more fit for their books at other times. Nay, on one occasion at Lincoln's Inn, the under barristers were put out of commons, because they had not danced on a day when the judges were present! In the hall of the Inner Temple, in 1733, a play and farce were acted, songs were sung, and dancing took place. Of these doings the only relics are on what are called Grand Days, when the judges dine in hall with the benchers. The Inner Temple has for its device a winged horse, the Middle Temple a lamb. These devices (the latter derived from the old Templars) called forth some satirical verses : Their clients may infer from thence How just is their profession; The lamb sets forth their innocence, THE INNER TEMPLE. Passing through the archway, built in the time of James I., into Inner Temple Lane, a new pile of chambers will be seen on the right. These have been erected on the site of a set, in one of which Dr. Johnson lived for five years, and the new pile is now called after him, Dr. Johnson's Buildings. We then arrive at the western doorway of the Temple Church; and beyond are cloisters built by Wren, after the fire of 1678, for the students to walk in and discuss law points. On a broad terrace facing the garden is the library (where an autograph manuscript of Lord Bacon is preserved), and adjacent to it is the hall, both of which are of modern date. In the latter are portraits of those pillars of the law, Coke and Littleton, who were members of this Inn, as well as Selden, the poets Beaumont and Cowper, with many chancellors and judges. The Garden is a quadrangular piece of ground, about three acres in extent, prettily laid out, and looking very ornamental from the river. It is hemmed in between piles of chambers, and is noted for its autumnal show of chrysanthemums. The public are admitted on summer evenings between six and nine, and strangers may like to avail themselves of this permission to walk in a spot whence originated (according to Shakspere, 1st part of Henry VI., act ii., sc. 4) the Wars of the Roses. At 5 King's Bench Walk, Lord Mansfield ("How sweet an Ovid Murray was our boast "— Pope) had chambers when practising at the bar. THE TEMPLE CHURCH. This highly interesting edifice belongs to the two Temples. The members of the Inner Temple occupy the southern half, and those of the Middle Temple the northern half, as indicated by their devices. The porter at the top of Inner Temple Lane has the keys, and strangers may easily procure admission should the church not be open. The plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem has been copied to the extent of combining a rotunda with an edifice of rectangular form. The entrance doorway is fine. The round part remains as it was built in 1185 (saving that externally it has been refaced with stone), but the remaining portion replaced one previously built, and was dedicated to St. Mary in 1240. The Round Church, 58 feet in diameter, is said to afford one of the earliest examples in this island of pointed arches, which are still intermingled with round arches. The clerestory is pierced by six Romanesque windows over interlaced Norman arches. The vaulting is supported by six clustered pillars of Purbeck marble, having boldly sculptured capitals. On the floor are two groups of monumental effigies, cross-legged knight-templars, whose names are uncertain. A figure between two columns on the south-east is said to represent William Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, the Protector temp. Henry III. In former times the lawyers waited for clients in this part of the church, as a merchant now-a-days meets his customers on 'Change, and there is a passage in Hudibras referring to them walking" the round about the crosslegged knights." Notice the prismatic or ridge-like coffin-stone of the twelfth century. Such cope stones, en dos d'asne, are not very common. The Rectangular Church, or choir, is in the Early English style. It is 82 feet by 58 feet, with a height of 60 feet. The roof is painted with arabesques; triple lancet-headed windows admit light. The great east window is ornamented with modern stained glass; the altar, choir-stalls, and benches, are all new. The hymn of St. Ambrose is inscribed on the wall, beneath the windows. Left of the altar is Selden's white marble monument; his remains are below. On the south side of the church is the effigy of a bishop in pontificals; and in the south-west angle is a bust of the "judicious" Hooker, who was master of the Temple. In a recess under the organ-gallery is a tablet, recording that Oliver Goldsmith lies interred in the burialground outside. The organ was built by one Schmydt, after a competition with another builder, which Judge Jeffries was called on to decide. In the north-west angle of the choir is a well-staircase, leading past what has been called a penitential cell to the Triforium, where monuments, formerly scattered about the church, have been collected. The most noticeable of these are the memorials of Plowden the jurist; Anne Littleton, with a quaint epitaph; Howell, the old letter-writer; and an ancestor of Gibbon the historian. Here is a bust of Lord Chancellor Thurlow. The walls are inscribed with texts from the Latin Scriptures. In 1839-42, £70,000 were laid out in restorations. The preacher at this church is termed the Master of the Temple, formerly an office of more consideration than at present. His house is north-east of the choir, and has a small garden attached to it. THE MIDDLE TEMPLE is entered from Fleet Street through a gateway built by Wren. The Hall was built 1562-72, but since that time it has been refaced and has had external additions. It is 100 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 47 feet high. The roof is of open timber, and is without the principal arched rib. By increasing the pendants and smaller curves a handsome effect has been obtained. At the lower end is a carved Renaissance screen and Muric gallery. The side-windows are emblazoned with arms of eminent members, on the dais are marble busts of the brothers Lord Eldon and Stowell (members of the Inn), and on the wall hang some royal portraits, including a large equestrian portrait of Charles I. by Vandyke. The benchers dine at the table on the dais, the barristers and students at the tables on the floor. This hall is the only edifice now standing in which a play of Shakspere was acted in the poet's lifetime. The play was Twelfth Night. This Inn boasts of having had amongst its members Sir Walter Raleigh, John Ford the dramatist, Wycherley, Congreve, Blackstone, Dunning, Burke, Sheridan, and Lords Chancellor Clarendon, Somers, and Eldon. A fountain of elegant design has lately been erected at the top of the steps leading to the Middle Temple Garden, in place of an old single jet fountain. THE LIBRARY, a recently erected Gothic structure in the per pendicular style, is best seen from the river, and is a conspicuous object amongst dingy hall and chambers, standing at one side of the small garden. It has a high steep roof, a tower, and a number of grotesque gargoyles. The library room measures 85 feet by 42 feet, and has a height of 63 feet. It is illuminated with 14 windows filled with stained glass blazoned with heraldic devices. The roof is of open timber work, the principal ribs of which rest on massive stone corbels. The books here are nearly 30,000 in number. This library, the building of which cost about £14,000, was opened by the Prince of Wales in November 1861, on which occasion his Royal Highness was made a bencher, and a grand banquet took place in the noble old hall. Goldsmith had chambers on the second floor of No. 2 Brick Court (a pile pulled down within the last few months), over chambers occupied by Blackstone, then writing his famous commentaries. "I have been many a time in Goldsmith's chambers (says Thackeray), and passed up the staircase which Johnson and Burke and Reynolds trod to see their friend, their poet, their kind Goldsmith-the stair on which the poor women sat weeping bitterly when they heard that the greatest and most generous of all men was dead within the black oak door." "I was born,” says Charles Lamb in his delightful essay on The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple, "I was born, and passed the first seven years of my life in the Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, its fountain, its river, I had almost said-for in those young years, what was this king of rivers to me but a stream that watered our pleasant places ?—these are my oldest recollections. I repeat, to this day, no verses to myself more frequently, or with kindlier emotion, than those of Spenser where he speaks of this spot : 'There when they came whereas those bricky towers, Indeed it is the most elegant spot in the metropolis. What a transition for a countryman visiting London for the first timethe passing from the crowded Strand or Fleet Street, by unexpected avenues, into its magnificent ample squares, its classic green recesses ! What a cheerful, liberal look hath that portion of it, which from three sides overlooks the greater garden; that |