prevented any one being adopted. The plan already mentioned in connection with the Thames embankment seems to offer the most feasible mode of relief.

FLEET STREET.-This street, one of the most crowded thoroughfares in London, derives its name from a stream called the Fleet, which now runs under Farringdon Street. It abounds with banks, insurance offices, printing offices, and newspaper offices. Several of the early printers were established here, and many an old volume prized by collectors was emprynted in Flete Strete." The modern printers have their presses up narrow courts.

TEMPLE BAR, which divides it from the Strand, and the City of London from the liberty of Westminster. This gate was erected in 1670 by Wren, on the site of a house of timber which was consumed in the great fire of 1666. Two niches on the west side contain statues of Charles I. and Charles II., in Roman costume. It was the custom to place the heads of persons executed for high treason upon iron spikes on the top of the bar. The last heads thus exhibited were those of Townley and Fletcher, who were implicated in the rebellion of 1745, and they remained there until 1772. The original oak gates remain. They are usually closed when the sovereign pays a visit to the city, and only opened after parley on a formal demand by a herald. The Lord Mayor is in attendance, and presents the city sword to the sovereign, which is immediately returned. This ceremony can be traced back to Queen Elizabeth's time, on the occasion of that Queen paying a visit to St. Paul's to return thanks for the destruction of the Spanish Armada. The room over the gateway is hired from the city by Messrs. Child, the bankers, as a place of deposit for their account books. That this gate, destitute as it is of all beauty, and possessing but little historical interest, should remain in these days to obstruct a crowded thoroughfare, is a striking instance of the tenacity with which the English cling to what is old, however inconvenient it may be.

Just inside Temple Bar (N.) is a narrow passage called Lower Serle's Place, formerly Shire Lane, in which Sir Charles Sedley, the poet of Charles II.'s time, was born, where Elias Ashmole the antiquarian lived, and where one Christopher Katt had a house, in which the kit-kat club began. A carved doorway marks the house in which Grinling Gibbons, the sculptor and wood-carver, once resided.

In

Soon after passing through Temple Bar we arrive at Middle Temple Gateway (S.), and a little farther on is Inner Temple Gateway, opposite which is Chancery Lane (N.), leading up to Holborn. Then St. Dunstan's Church, built by John Shaw, 1831-3, on the site of an old church. The heads of Tyndall the reformer and John Donne the poet, vicar of the church, are cut over the door. The old church had a curious overhanging clock, and two wooden figures of savages that struck the quarters with their clubs. Fetter Lane (N.), is a narrow street leading to Holborn; in it may be seen part of the New Record Office. Opposite Fetter Lane is a passage to Mitre Court, where there is a tavern, at which Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and other celebrities met. Crane Court (N.), is a house, now belonging to the Scottish Hospital and Corporation, in which the Royal Society met for seventy years; the room in which Sir Isaac Newton sat as president is preserved as it was in his time. In Johnson's Court the doctor lived for eleven years, and in the neighbouring Gough Square he compiled the larger part of his dictionary. He died in Bolt Court. In the same court Cobbett wrote and printed his Political Register. In Wine Office Court Goldsmith lodged, and commenced his Vicar of Wakefield. Whitefriars' Street (S.) leads to Whitefriars, the once notorious Alsatia, a privileged sanctuary, where the scum of London collected (see Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel "). In Salisbury Street (S.), Richardson wrote Pamela, and printed others of his novels. Bride's Passage leads to St. Bride's, one of Wren's churches, famous for its steeple. Fleet Street terminates at Farringdon Street. Here New Bridge Street leads to Blackfriars' Bridge.

LUDGATE HILL and STREET take their name from an old city gate that once stood hereabouts, said to have been built by a British king named Lud. In the OLD BAILEY (N.) are the Central Criminal Court and NEWGATE PRISON. St. Martin's was one of Wren's churches. At 32 Ludgate Hill, the celebrated jewellers, Rundell and Bridge, had their shop, where Flaxman's silvergilt shield of Achilles was executed for George IV., Mrs. Rundell wrote a book which has brought a fortune to the publisher, "The Art of Cookery." Notice the west portico of St. Paul's, seen through the vista of houses. STATIONERS' HALL is up a court (N.), to which it gives a name. Ave Maria Lane, (N.) opposite Creed Lane, and leading to Paternoster Row, the head quarters of the booksellers, indicates, with Amen Corner,

the route taken by religious processions in Roman Catholic times.

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD.-The north side is reserved for foot passengers, and is connected by several narrow passages and one broad thoroughfare with Paternoster Row and Newgate Street. The entrance to the cathedral is on this side. On the south side are streets leading to Doctors Commons (where wills are proved and preserved) and to HERALDS' COLLEGE. At the south-east angle of the churchyard a new street, called Cannon Street, leads to London Bridge. This street, which was opened in 1854, cost £200,000. Hereabouts are some large new warehouses; one of them, Messrs. Cook's, contains 1,100,000 cubic feet of space, and is equal to 25 ordinary dwelling-houses. ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL is over against the east end of the cathedral.

CHANCERY LANE is a narrow street connecting the west end of Fleet Street with Holborn. Charles I.'s Lord Strafford was born in this street. On the west side, near the bottom, lived Izaac Walton, where he had a draper's shop. Serjeant's Inn, rebuilt in 1838, is on the opposite side. Here are the chambers where the judges sit to decide minor points of practice. The Law Institution, the head quarters of attorneys and solicitors, is a little higher on the west side. Here young attorneys have to pass an examination before being admitted to practice. There are also a library and a club. On the east side of the street, nearly opposide Carey Street, is the entrance to the Rolls Buildings, which consist of a court presided over by the Master of the Rolls, who ranks as the second judge of the Court of Chancery, and to whom is intrusted the custody of the imperial records or rolls, a residence for that judge, and a chapel of the early part of the seventeenth century, which contains several monuments, the most noticeable of which are Torrigiano's monument to Dr. John Young, M.R., in the time of Henry VIII., with a well modelled recumbent figure in terra cotta; and the monument of Lord Kinloss, M.R., temp. James I. The kneeling figure in armour is supposed to be his son, killed in a duel with Sir Edward Sackville. Bishops Burnett, Atterbury, and Butler, were preachers in this chapel, which occupies the site of a house founded by Henry III. for converted Jews. In the New Record Office, not yet completed, are preserved the official records of Parliament, of the Courts of Chancery, Common Law, etc., which were previously scattered about in upwards of sixty places

of deposit. The style of the building is a late Gothic or Tudoresque, with a north front and two wings containing 228 rooms. Mr. Pennethorne is the architect. "The records of this coun

try (says Sir F. Palgrave, late deputy-keeper) have no equal in the civilised world in antiquity, continuity, variety, extent, or amplitude of facts and details. From Domesday they contain the whole materials for the history of this country, civil, religious, political, social, moral, or material, from the Norman Conquest to the present day. Of the decisions of the law courts a series is extant from the beginning of the reign of Richard I. With the public records are now united the state papers and government archives, and by their aid may be written the real history of the courts of common law and equity; the statistics of the kingdom in revenue, expenditure, population, trade, commerce, and agriculture, can from the above sources be accurately investigated. The Admiralty documents are important to naval history, and others afford untouched mines of information relative to the history of private families. Perhaps the most interesting documents preserved here are William the Conqueror's Domesday book, written on vellum, and bound in two volumes; the deed of resignation of the Scottish crown by David Bruce to Edward II.; and the treaty of peace between Henry VIII. and Francis I. The gold seal attached is in high relief, and is supposed to be Benvenuto Cellini's work. Quite lately have been acquired the official orders, decrees, and reports in chancery for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including the cases heard and decided by Lord Bacon, many of them signed by his hand, and having notes in his writing upon them. Permission to examine documents must be obtained from the deputy-keeper, who will allow inquirers for literary purposes to inspect papers without payment of fees. State papers dated subsequent to 1688, cannot, however, be seen without the express license of the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. The Master of the Rolls is publishing a series of the most interesting documents, with the assistance of competent editors.

Pursuing our way up Chancery Lane, and passing the gloomy chambers and gateway of Lincoln's Inn, we arrive at a street on the east called Southampton Buildings, where stood Southampton House, obtained by Lord William Russell on his marriage with Rachel, daughter of Thomas, last Earl of Southampton. Some of Lady Rachel's letters were dated from this house. Several of the

modern houses on the site contain portions of the old mansion. Here is a large building formerly used by the Masters in Chancery, but now by the Commissioners of Patents. Near the top of Chancery Lane, in a pile of stone buildings, are the offices of the Chancery Registrars and the Accountant General; the Chancery Inrolment Office is also here.

HOLBORN, one of the main east and west arteries of London, derives its name from a stream or bourne which anciently ran in open view, but which now traverses an underground sewer. It is a long street of varying width and direction. Commencing on the west at the north end of Drury Lane (which part is called High Holborn), it soon reaches Southampton Street (N.), which leads to Bloomsbury and Russell Squares. A little further on (S.) is Little Queen Street, leading into Great Queen Street, in which is Freemason Tavern, a place for public dinners. Some narrow passages (S.), called Turnstiles, lead into Lincoln's Inn Fields, in which are the College of Surgeons and Sir John Soane's Museum. A good street into the Fields is much wanted. At No. 67 (N.) is Day and Martin's Blacking Manufactory, a handsome building that cost £12,000. Mr. Day was blind, and left £100,000 for the benefit of poor persons similarly circumstanced. The Blue Boar, 270 High Holborn (S.), is an old inn, where it is said Cromwell and Ireton, disguised as troopers, intercepted an important letter of the king, but the story is not generally credited. Red Lion Street (N.) leads to the Foundling Hospital. Further east on the south is Chancery Lane, which conducts past Lincoln's Inn Gateway to Fleet Street. The entrance to Gray's Inn (N.) is near a pile of old unsightly buildings, called Middle Row, standing in the middle of the street at the end of Gray's Inn Lane (N.), that leads up to King's Cross and the Great Northern Railway Station. Hereabouts are Holborn Bars, the limits of the city, at which toll (1d. and 2d.) is levied by the corporation on vehicles not belonging to freemen entering the city. The amount annually obtained is upwards of £5000. Furnival's Inn (N.) presents a good front to Holborn Hill, where we have now arrived. Staple Inn, where Dr. Johnson wrote his Idler; Barnard's Inn and Thavie's Inn, minor inns, dependencies of the Inns of Court, are on the south of Holborn Hill. On the north are Hatton Garden,* where the Bishops of Ely had a large

"My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there."-RICHARD III.