ports, was Watling Street. It came over the river from Stoney Street, to Dowgate.

Of Westminster Abbey, it may be sufficient to observe, that a few relics of the old building by Edward the Confessor, still remain in the vicinity of the little cloister, among the apartments of the clergy, The quoir of the present church was principally built by Henry III.; the chapter-house, with its beautiful door-way, 1250; the lower part of the church at various periods, from the time of Edward I. to Henry VII.; and the outer casing of the north porch, by Richard II.

The Sanctuary adjoining, of which the relics are very indistinct, was of the age of the Confessor.

The most beautiful specimens of ancient sculpture found in the metropolis, are in the chapel of Edward the Confessor; where the sepulchral figures of Henry III. and Eleanor of Castile, are universally admired.

The chapel of Henry VII. has been mentioned.

Among the ancient churches, that at the Temple is by far the most curious; it was erected in 1185, by the Knights Templars, after the best model which the times could furnish of the church of Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The cross-legged tombs, in the circular area within, are worth attention.

Westminster Hall, one of the largest rooms in Europe, unsupported by pillars, was built in its present form soon after 1395, by Richard II. and the small tower by the door in Palace Yard, in 1411. Near the entrance, withinside, is a curious pillar; a fragment of the old palace built by William Rufus.

The Tower affords much that merits notice from the curious observer. The particular curicus which are generally shewn there have been already mentioned; but others equally interesting are behind. The names of the different towers within its walls, where some of the most interesting scenes of our ancient history have occurred, may be easily gathered from its warders. Among these, the White Tower, Beauchamp Tower, and the Bloody Tower, are the three most curious. The first was the usual residence of our monarchs, when they passed their time within the fortress; and where Richard III. held the fatal

council which ended in Lord Stanley's death. The second was the tower whence Anna Boleyn wrote her memorable letter to Henry VIII. on the wall of a room, in which, now made the mess-room for the officers of the garrison, are the undoubted autographs of many illustrious and unfortunate tenants of this dreary mansion; among the most remarkable of those which are of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, 1553; Lady Jane Grey, and the Earl of Arundel, 1572. The third tower, near the Traitor's Gate, is that where Edward V. and his brother are said to have been murdered.

Whoever has observed the ancient maps of London, must have noticed the houses of the nobility, which were once situated on the banks of the river, between London bridge and Westminster. But of these, if we except the ruined palace of the Savoy, not one is now remaining. The rebels under Wat Tyler left very little of the palace where John, King of France, was kept a prisoner; the ruins, at they now stand, are principally those of the mansion built by Henry VII.

The ruin of the Monasteries, and other religious foundations, in the reign of Henry VIII. was at once so extensive and complete, that the enumeration of their relics will take up but little room. The principal remains are those of the Holy Trinity, by Aldgate; St. Bartholomew's, in Smithfield; St. Helen's, Bishopsgate; St. John's, Clerkenwell; St. Mary Overy's; St. Katherine's, by the Tower; St. Augustine's, by Broad Street ; and Bermondsey.

A curious crypt may be seen in the cellar of a house belonging to Mr. Relph, at Aldgate.

Among the more ancient of the London Inns, may be reckoned Gerard's Hall; the Bull, by Bishopsgate; and the Bolt-in-Tun, in Fleet Street. The latter occurs as early as the days of Henry IV. The Boar's Head, in East Cheap, where Falstaff and Prince Henry used to meet, is still perpetuated by a boar's head in stone in the front of one of the houses. The inns in Southwark, perhaps, were originally more numerous even than at present, on account of the number of pilgrims travelling to and from St. Becket's shrine at Canterbury. Chaucer's Tabard is now the Talbot in the Borough, and is sufficiently known from the circumstance of Sir Jeffry Chaucer, the poet, and his pil

grim companions having been there. And many ancient and curiously ornamented dwellings are still found in this neighbourhood.

Lewd Women, or Winchester geese, as they were called, were here licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, whose palace and park were formerly near this spot, and which was once famous for Play-houses and Bear Gardens.

Tesselated Pavements, Urns, &c. have been found near the Ducking Pond, St. George's Fields; and Roman entrenchments at Lambeth; and here the famous Hardicanute expired in a drunken debauch. Pedler's Acre, in this parish, is also remarkable on account of a tradition, that this land is a grant to the parishioners, as long as they continue to keep in their church window the effigy of the pedlar and his favourite dog.

The older parts of Guildhall were built as long back as 1411: the Gothic front has been modernized of late years. About the same age are the relics of the ancient granary at Leadenhall, erected by Sir Simon Eyre.

Nor must we omit the little statue of a boy Bacchus, in Panier Alley, which marks the most elevated spot of ground in London.

The principal mansions of the nobility, parliamentary abbots, and rich citizens of London, which had survived the violence of time, were unlukily destroyed by the Fire of London, in 1666. Considerable vestiges, however, of that which belonged to the Gisor family, at a very early period, may still be seen among the cellars at Gerard's-hall inn. A few arches of the manor of the Rose, are still beneath the houses, by Laurence Pountney Hill; and a small basso relievo of an armed figure in Warwick Lane, marks the site of the old mansion of the Earls of Warwick. But the most beautiful of all, which escaped the general wreck, is the Hall of Crosby Place' near Bishopsgate; it was built. about 1460, and was inhabited by Richard III. while his nephews were kept prisoners in the Tower. It is now occupied by a clothier, and may be seen on giving a small douceur to one of his assistants.

The Bishop of Winchester's Palace, in Southwark, was another of our ancient mansions; and Canonbury House, at Islington, was the villa of the abbot of St. Bartholo

mew's, in Smithfield. The principal of those which were erected at a later period, were Winchester Place, in Broad Street, about the time of Henry VIII. by William Lord St. John; Lord Burleigh's, at Exeter Change; and Lord Shaftesbury's, in Aldersgate Street; the latter by Inigo Jones.

The statue at Charing Cross was the first of the equestrian kind erected in the kingdom.

Near Clerkenwell church is the spring at which, in ancient times, the parish clerks of London were accustomed to hold their annual meetings, for the performance of their mysteries or sacred plays.

On the north side of Lambeth Palace, at the top of one of the towers, is the prison in which the Lollards were formerly confined, and in which the iron rings remain that they were fastened to.

In the neighbouring church-yard is the tomb of the Tradescants, who may be termed the introducers of the study of natural history into this country.

Connected in some degree in its history, with the Lollards' Tower, is Smithfield; the spot opposite Bartholomew's Gate, where the Protestants suffered, was lately (if it is not still), marked by a circular disposition of the stones that pave it.

The monument of Stowe, the historian of London, is of a curious composition in imitation of stone, in the parish church of St. Andrew's, Undershaft.

Milton's tomb is in the church at Cripplegate.

Nor should we here omit a slight mention of the habitations, however mean, which have been once the residence of genius.

The house of Richardson is in the corner of Salisbury Court, in Fleet Street.

The tenement over Break-neck-Stairs was once inhabited by Goldsmith.

Bolt Court was the residence of Dr. Johnson: and in Johnson's Court, adjoining, he wrote his Dictionary.

The house of Sir Isaac Newton, late an hotel, is in St. Martin's Street, Leicester Fields, where his observatory still remains; and he also lived in Haydon Square.

The house in which Dryden lived and wrote his Ode to

St. Cecilia's Day, is now a tallow-chandler's, in Gerard Street.

In a room opposite the Admiralty, Thomson wrote his Winter.

In Jewin Street and Bunhill Row, lived Milton, and there he composed his Paradise Lost.

THE BRIDGES OVER THE THAMES.

In connection with the East and West ends of the town may be noticed the four magnificent stone bridges, and we have pleasure in stating, that the fifth at Three Cranes' Stairs is now building.

Westminster Bridge.

This bridge was built between the years 1730, and 1750, and cost 389,500l. It is 1223 feet long, and 44 feet wide; containing 14 piers, and 13 large, and two small semicircular arches; and has on its top 28 semi-octangular towers, twelve of which are covered with half domes.

The two

middle piers contain each 3000 solid feet, or 200 tons of Portland stone. The middle arch is 76 feet wide; the two next 72 feet, and the last 25 feet. The free-water way between the piers is 870 feet.

This bridge is esteemed one of the most beautiful in the world. Every part is fully and properly supported, and there is no false bearing, or false joint, throughout, the whole structure; as a remarkable proof of which, we may quote the remarkable echo of its corresponding towers, a person in one being able to hear the whispers of a person opposite, though at the distance of nearly 50 feet.

Blackfriars Bridge.

This bridge was finished in the year 1769, and is remarkable for the lightness of its structure. It has eight piers, and nine elliptical arches. The centre arch is 100 feet wide; those on each side 93, the third 80, and the fourth 70. The length is 1100 feet, and the breadth 42 feet.

London Bridge.

This bridge is of great antiquity, and was for many ages