there are several brasses and figure tombs. Passing Mark Lane, the next turn on the south, out of Fenchurch Street, brings us to the Blackwall Railway Station,

KING WILLIAM STREET.

Starting once more from the Bank, and aiming at London Bridge, we enter King William Street, a new and wide thoroughfare. At the point where this street, Cannon Street, Eastcheap, and Gracechurch Street meet, there is a statue of William IV. by S. Nixon. Mrs. Quickly's house, the Boar's Head Tavern, was in Eastcheap. The Monument is close by on Fish Street Hill. As we approach London Bridge, Upper Thames Street strikes westward, Lower Thames Street eastward, under the archway. In the latter, which leads to the Tower, are Billingsgate Market and the Custom House.

On the west side of the north end of the bridge is the Hall of the Fishmongers, one of the great City Companies; and on the east side the church of St. Magnus the Martyr, built by Wren. The tower with its spire is classed amongst his best works. The base is open and used as a thoroughfare, thus contrived by Wren, although not freed from the masonry that filled it up until 1730. The tower of Christ Church, Newgate Street, is similarly contrived.

LONDON STONE. On the north side of Cannon Street, City, and against the wall of St. Swithin's Church, which stands at the corner of St. Swithin's Lane, will be observed a worn fragment of stone, protected by iron bars. This is the famous London Stone, which is supposed to have formed part of the Lapis milliaris, the pillar set up in the forum of Agricola's station, from which distances were reckoned by the Romans. It is referred to in Saxon charters as a landmark of immemorial antiquity, and it has been again and again mentioned in later chronicles. When Jack Cade entered London, he struck his sword on this stone, and exclaimed, "Now is Mortimer lord of this city;" as will be found duly stated in Shakspere's drama, following Holinshed. Wren caused the stone, by his time much worn, to be cased with a new stone, hollowed for the purpose. The place of the stone was originally on the south side of the street, but its position causing it to be an inconvenience there, it was removed in 1742 to the north side; but it was again found to be in the way, and had been doomed to demolition as the best

method of getting rid of a nuisance, when a worthy printer prevailed on the churchwardens of St. Swithin's to fix it against the wall of the church. This was in 1798, when the church was undergoing repair.

In or near several of the streets that have been mentioned the stranger will unexpectedly come upon houses erected by wealthy merchants for their residence two hundred years ago. These are all occupied now-a-days as commercial chambers, for at the present time the City, so thronged during the day, is deserted at night. It is a vast mart whither men come to buy and sell; but the wealthy merchants and dealers who make their money in close counting-houses or shops, hasten in the evening to their airy houses at the west end or in the country. It is a curious fact that the resident population of the City is decreasing, for the census ascertained that it was less by upwards of 10,000 in 1861 than in 1851. The old houses to which we allude have been mentioned by Lord Macaulay in some graphic words which we transcribe :-.

"Those mansions of the great old burghers which still exist have been turned into counting-houses and warehouses; but it is evident that they were originally not inferior in magnificence to the dwellings which were then inhabited by the nobility. They sometimes stand in retired and gloomy courts, and are accessible only by inconvenient passages; but their dimensions are ample, and their aspect stately. The entrances are decorated with richly carved pillars and canopies. The staircases and landing-places are not wanting in grandeur. The floors are sometimes of wood, tesselated after the fashion of France. The palace of Sir Robert Clayton, in the Old Jewry, contained a superb banqueting-room, wainscotted with cedar, and adorned with battles of giants and gods in fresco. Sir Dudley North expended £4000, a sum which would have been important to a duke, in the rich furniture of his reception-rooms in Basinghall Street. In such abodes, under the last Stuarts, the heads of the great firms lived splendidly and hospitably. To their dwelling-place they were bound by the strongest ties of interest and affection. There they had passed their youth and had made their friendships, had courted their wives, had seen their children grow up, had laid the remains of their parents in the earth, and expected that their own remains would be laid. That intense patriotism

which is peculiar to the members of societies congregated within a narrow space, in such circumstances, strongly developed. London was to the Londoner what Athens was to the Athenian of the age of Pericles; what Florence was to the Florentine of the fifteenth century. The citizen was proud of the grandeur of his city, punctilious about her claims to respect, ambitious of her offices, and zealous for her franchise."

CHAPTER THE THIRTIETH.

PRINCIPAL STREETS AND SQUARES WEST OF THE CITY.

Trafalgar Square-The Strand-Lincoln's-Inn Fields-Leicester Square -Whitehall-Westminster-Pall Mall-St. James' Street-Piccadilly-Bond Street-Regent Street-Oxford Street.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE, named after Nelson's great victory, was commenced in 1831. On the north side is the National Gallery; on the west, the College of Physicians, and the Union Club-house, which stand between Pall Mall and Cockspur Street; on the east, hotels and private houses; on the south-east, Northumberland House, with the lion of the Percies on the top of the screen; and the south side is open towards Whitehall. The square is paved with granite, and contains two fountains, the design of which has been much criticised. At the north-east corner is a bronze equestrian statue of George IV. by Chantrey, the horse being represented standing with its four legs on the ground, instead of in the act of pawing the air, as is usual with equestrian statues. At the south-east corner is a recently erected statue of General Havelock, who died in the service of his country in India. At the corner next Cockspur Street is a statue of Sir Charles Napier, another Indian general. The great feature of the square is the Nelson Column. On the south of the square is Charing Cross, one of the landmarks of London, where stands Le Sour's statue of Charles I., cast in that monarch's reign, but not erected until the reign of Charles II. Horace Walpole says:-"This noble equestrian statue, in which the commanding grace of the figure, and the exquisite form of the horse, are striking to the most unpractised eye, was cast in 1633; and, not being erected before the commencement of the civil war, it was sold by the Parliament to John Rivet, a brazier, with strict orders to break it in pieces. But the man produced some fragments of old brass, and concealed the statue and horse under