of the almost impassable state of many of the principal streets of the metropolis, they were ordered to be paved with stone, with a channel in the middle of each street, at the charge of the ground landlords. In addition to these improvements, the general aspect of London, in this reign, experienced a remarkable change, as a consequence of the dissolution of its religious houses, which had heretofore borne so great a proportion to its other buildings as to give the city the appearance of a monastic, rather than of a commercial, metropolis.

But it is at the era of Elizabeth, that we are presented with the most curious picture of London, in the first map of a metropolis then thought too large, and, in consequence, positively forbidden to be further extended by tnat imperious sovereign. From this map it appears, that the greater part of the metropolis was then contained within the walls, in which narrow limits there were many gardens, which have since been converted into lanes, courts, and alleys. The whole of the buildings were bounded on the east by the monastery of St. Catherine; East Smithfield was open to Tower Hill, and of the buildings now beyond there is no appearance. The Minories were built only on the east side, which fronted the city wall; cattle grazed in Goodman's Fields; and Whitechapel extended but a little beyond the bars, and had no houses to the north; for Spital Fields, now built upon, and extensive enough to compose a very large town, were then really separated from each other by hedges and rows of trees. Houndsditch consisted only of a row of houses fronting the city wall; and the little yards and gardens behind them also opened into the fields. Bishopsgate Street, Norton Falgate, and the street called Shoreditch, were then, however, built as far as the church; but there were only a few houses and gardens on each side, and no collateral streets or alleys. Moorfields lay entirely open to the village of Hoxton; and Finsbury Fields, in which there were several windmills, extended to the east side of Whitecross Street. Chiswell Street was not erected; St. John's Street extendea, by the side of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, only as far as the monastery of Clerkenwell; and Cowcross Street opened into the fields. On leaving the city walls,

the buildings were even less extensive; for, though the village of Holborn joined London, the backs of its houses, particularly on the north side, opened into gardens and fields; a part of Gray's Inn Lane included the only houses that extended out of the main street; the greater part of High Holborn had no existence; St. Giles's was another village, contiguous to no part of London; the Strand had gardens on each side, and, to the north, fields behind these gardens, with the exception of a few houses where the lower end of Drury Lane now stands; and on the south side of the same street the gardens generally extended to the Thames, though some of the nobi lity and prelates had houses at the backs of their gardens, next to the water side. Convent Garden, literally such, and so called because it belonged to the convent at Westminster, extended to St. Martin's Lane, and the fields behind it reached to St. Giles's. That lane had few edifices besides the church; for Covent Garden wall was on one side, and a wall which enclosed the King's mews on the other; and all the upper part was a lane between two hedges, which extended a little to the west of the village of St. Giles's. Hedge Lane, now Crown Street, was a lane between two hedges. The extensive street now called the Haymarket, was bounded by fields; neither Pall Mall, St. James's Street, Piccadilly, nor any of the streets or squares in that part of the town, were built; and Westminster was a small town on the south-west and south sides of St. James's Park.

The alarms of Elizabeth, to which we have alluded, were not, however, the consequence of the great extent, as it then seemed, of the city, considered in the abstract; but chiefly resulted from apprehensions of the danger likely to accrue from the manner of building then prevalent, which allowed of so little circulation of air through the streets, that, by its continuance, that great enemy to the population of the metropolis, the Plague, was likely to be perpetuated. But, in spite of the queen's prohibition to build on 'new foundations," the suburbs continued to increase throughout her reign, as they have done ever since. The great majority of the houses were still of timber.

About 1600, there was not a house standing between

St. Catherine's and Wapping. But Spital-fields about that time, began to be covered with buildings. A large pond in the vicinity of West Smithfield was also filled up, and transformed into streets, under the names of Cow, Chick, Hosier, and other lanes. The fields and gardens of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, and of a nunnery to the north of Clerkenwell-church, were then built upon. Holborn also gradually stretched westward, towards St. Giles's in the Fields. Rosemary Lane, since called Rag Fair, had a hedge row of elm-trees on each side, with bridges and easy stiles to pass over into the fields, convenient for the citizens to walk, shoot, or otherwise recreate themselves." In Petticoat Lane was the town residence of the Count Gondamar, Spanish ambassador to James I.

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With regard to the interval between the reigns of Elizabeth and Charles II., it may be sufficient to notice, that in the time of James I. (who twice ineffectually attempted to prevent the increase of buildings outside of the walls), Smithfield was paved, and the pathways of the principal streets laid down with broad flag-stones; and that under the auspices of his successor, Charles I., the celebrated Inigo Jones revived the styles of Grecian and Roman architecture, in various public edifices with which he decorated the metropolis.

The reign of Charles II. becomes an era of greater interest, in relation both to the increased extent and architectural splendour of the capital, than any previously described; and yet the grand source of these advantages was truly calamitous. We allude to the memorable Fire of London of 1666, after which, the houses being no longer suffered to be built of wood, nor the streets to be so narrow and inconvenient as previously, the city arose from its ashes, and assumed a degree of beauty, although it is still greatly to be lamented, that the judicious and useful plan of the great Sir Christopher Wren for rebuilding it was totally disregarded, and sacrificed to the selfish views of private proprietors. Many of the religious edifices of London were then re-built by this architect; and, among them, the cathedral church of St. Paul. Nearly the whole of the present Spital Fields was then built upon;

almost all the streets, &c., between Brick Lane and the east side of Bishopsgate Street were formed. An increase to the same extent took place towards Goodman's Fields, Rosemary Lane, and Well-close Square, which, with nearly all the ground beyond, to Limehouse, had previously been open fields. The western side of the Minories was built over the ditch which had bounded the ancient citywall, and which, as has been stated, had been filled up. Soho Square was also commenced, and the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth began a splendid house on its south side, where Bateman's Buildings now stand; the present Monmouth Street was called after him. In this reign also, and in that of James II., many of the large houses of the nobility, &c. in the Strand were pulled down, and that part of the metropolis began to assume an appearance somewhat more resembling its present aspect.

From the latter reign to the conclusion of that of his late Majesty, our observations are naturally comprised under the head of "Modern Times." Northward, on that once famous play-ground called Red Lion Fields, Red Lion Street, Red Lion Square, with many other streets, have been erected since the reign of James II.; and Bloomsbury (formerly Southampton) Square, is of modern date. Montague House, now the British Museum, was built in 1687, and was the only building in that quarter, some mean old houses excepted, which, about forty years since, formed what were called St. Giles's Ruins. Soho Square, Greek Street, and several others adjacent, were nearly completed in the latter end of Charles the Second's reign, and during that of his brother, James.

After the accession of William III., and more especially during the reign of Anne, the buildings and population very considerably increased. Greek Street and Crown Street, the latter originally Hog Lane, were the residence of the more genteel classes of French protestant refugees in the reign of William and Mary, and here they raised their church. The parish of St. Anne, and the streets in general between the eastern end of Oxford Street and St. James's were commenced and completed in the reigns of William and Anne.

About 1700, that vast range of handsome buildings, in

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cluding Bedford Row, Red Lion Square, Ormond Street, Queen Square, with the streets between the latter and Kingsgate Street, Holborn, first formed a communication with the fields. Hatton Garden was also built on the site of the mansion and garden of Lord Hatton. Saffron Hill, and the adjacent alleys, occupy the site of a romantic spot called the Bishop of Ely's vineyard, but those places still retain the names of Vine Street, Vine Court, and the Vineyard; the only passage to which last, had been a narrow avenue still called Field Lane. Brook and Greville Streets, to the north of Holborn, were built on the site of the house and gardens of Lord Brook.

About the year 1742, the neighbourhood between Bishopsgate Street and Moorfields, exchanged its old decayed dwellings for those handsome houses now forming Broad Street, Broad Street Buildings, and a part of Old Bethlehem. This part, as well as another at Westminster, was called Petty France, both, probably, from having been the places of residence of the French refugees, who were obliged to quit their country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

The vast increase of buildings in St. Giles's and St. Martin's in the Fields, comprising all those north of Long Acre to the Seven Dials; the streets from Leicester Fields to St. Martin's Lane; north and west, to the Haymarket and Soho; onward to the Park Wall, in Piccadilly; and thence almost to Knightsbridge; Golden Square; Grosvenor Square, &c. ; — being by calculation greater in bulk than the cities of Bristol, Exeter, and York put together, must be referred to the reigns of George I. and II.

The augmentation in the size of London from the year 1727 to the present time, may be summed up as follows, commencing at the north-east:

The whole extent of ground from Goodman's Fields to Stepney, and from Whitechapel Road to Shadwell, has been nearly covered with buildings. independent of the construction of the West India Docks. From Whitechapel Road to Hackney, Bethnal Green, and Mile End, the same has taken place.

The line of increase on the south-east side proceeds from Deptford to Camberwell, Kennington, and Stockwell,