In the house at the corner of Devonshire Street, No. 18, Bishopsgate Street Without, it is not unlikely that we possess a portion of the Earl of Devonshire's mansion, or perhaps of that of Lord John Powlet, who is known to have had a house near this spot. It is of the Elizabethan age, but very much transformed and mutilated. There are, however, two internal decorations of a somewhat later period, of very great excellence and highly deserving of extended notice. One is a rich cornice used in several of the apartments, the character of which will be easily understood by the annexed engraving.

It consists of a series of masks, fruit, and leaves, disposed alternately, and connected by ribands. The other, of which also a representation is appended,

exhibits the shield, supporters, crest, and motto of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, the friend of Shakspeare, and

is inserted in the wall over the fire-place of a room in the second floor.

We next pass Houndsditch, at one corner of which is an Elizabethan structure, No. 8, Bishopsgate Street Without. In the house at the opposite corner, No. 7, and also in an adjoining house, there are remarkably fine staircases and rooms on the first floor, the walls and ceilings of which are profusely ornamented in the graceful style known as that of Louis XIV.

Just beyond, a tablet, surmounted by the figure of a mitre, inserted in each opposite wall, informs us that adjoining to that spot Bishopsgate formerly stood. Proceeding into Bishopsgate Street Within, we arrive at No. 66, where I had a few years since the good fortune to observe, and first call attention to, a finely-groined undercroft of the fourteenth century. (Plate XII.) It is now used as a warehouse for cheese. Undercrofts exist beneath several houses in the City, but this one had previously escaped the notice of archaeologists.

On either side of the street are houses of the older periods, pleasantly mingling with later structures. The gables are in general masked by parapets, or have been entirely removed; but the overhanging floors arrest our attention, and reveal the ancient origin of the edifices, which hardly any alteration will succeed in completely annihilating.

At the end of Pea-hen Court, just beyond, is a good doorway of the time of James II. It is represented on the opposite page. (Plate XIII.)

Several ancient inns now follow. The Four Swans, the Green Dragon, and the Bull, retain a good deal of their original features, though many portions are modernised. The Bull Inn, I may remark in passing, was the London house of the famous Hobson the Carrier, and in the yard was the temporary stage of the early players, before Burbage obtained a patent for the erection of a permanent theatre. Unfortunately this part of the house has lost the whole of its primitive appearance. The gallery round the courtyard, a constant accompaniment of our old inns, is, in the Four Swans, of three stories. The fronts have been glazed, and much of its original character is necessarily sacrificed; but, notwithstanding, it is one of the best examples that we possess of an ancient hostel. (Plate XIV.)