90 2. General Post Office. Christ's Hospital. Newgate. Holborn. Paternoster Row. Peel's Statue. Central Criminal Court. St. Sepulchre's. Holborn Viaduct. Leaving St. Paul's Churchyard, on the N. side of the church, we enter Paternoster Row (so called from the prayer-books formerly sold in it), the chief seat of the publishers and booksellers. To the W., in Stationers' Hall Court, off Ludgate Hill, is situated Stationers' Hall, the guild-house of the booksellers and stationers. This company is one of the few London guilds the majority of whose members actually practise their nominal craft. The society lost its monopoly of publishing almanacks in 1771, but still carries on this business extensively. The company distinguished itself in 1631 by printing a Bible with the word 'not' omitted in the seventh commandment. Every work published in Great Britain must be registered at Stationers' Hall to secure the copyright. The hall contains portraits of Richardson, the novelist (Master of the Company in 1754), and his wife, Prior, Steele, Bunyan, and others; also West's painting of King Alfred sharing his loaf with the pilgrim St. Cuthbert. At the E. end of Paternoster Row, at the entrance to Cheapside (p. 101), rises the Statue of Sir Robert Peel (d. 1850), by Behnes. Immediately to the N., on the E. side of St. Martin's le Grand, is the General Post Office East (Pl. R, 39, and III; comp. p. 53), built in the Ionic style in 1825-29, from designs by Smirke. In this building, 390 ft. in length, Letters and Newspapers are dealt with and all the ordinary business of a postal-telegraph office carried on. Parcels are received here, but are at once sent on to the Parcel Post Office at Mount Pleasant, Farringdon Road (formerly Cold bath Fields Prison). To the S. of the portico is the 'Poste Restante' Office. This is the headquarters of the London Postal District, and the vast City correspondence is all dealt with here. The Returned Letter Office is in Moorgate Street Buildings, off Moorgate Street, where boards are exhibited with lists of persons whose addresses have not been discovered. POSTAL TRAFFIC. The number of letters transmitted by post in the United Kingdom in 1874 was 962,000,000, in 1876 it was 1,019,000,000, and in 1885-86 no less than 1,403,547,900, or 39 letters per head of population. Besides letters, 259,000,000 book-packets and newspapers, and 79,000,000 post-cards, were delivered in 1874; 298,000,000 newspapers and book-packets, and 93,000,000 post-cards, in 1876; and 489,928,500 newspapers and book-packets, and 171,290,000 post-cards, in 1885-86. About 23 per cent of the letters and other postal packets received from abroad come from the United States, while 20 per cent of those dispatched from the United Kingdom are addressed to that country. In the same period the Parcel Post forwarded 26,417,422 parcels. The sums of money sent by postoffice orders, notwithstanding the universal practice of transmitting money by cheque, and the limitation of the orders to ten pounds, are very considerable. Thus in 1874 there were issued 15,100,562 inland post-office orders representing a sum of 26,296,4411. The introduction of postal orders diverted part of this stream of money, and in 1885-6 the number of post office orders had sunk to 10,358,000. In that year 25,790,369 postal orders were also issued, amounting in value to 10,788,9461. The Post Office Savings Banks, establish ed in 1861, hold at present about 51,000,0001. on deposit. The profits of the English Post Office Department in 1885-86 amounted to 2,708,8821. Opposite to the General Post Office East stands the General Post Office West, containing the Administrative Offices and the Telegraph Department. This imposing building was erected in 187073 at a cost of 485,000l. The large Telegraph Instrument Galleries, extending the whole length of the building and measuring 300 by 90 ft., should be visited (admission by request from a banker or other well-known citizen). They contain 500 instruments with their attendants. On the sunk-floor are four steam-engines of 50 horsepower each, by means of which messages are forwarded through pneumatic tubes to the other offices in the City and Strand district. The number of telegrams conveyed in the year ending 31st March, 1886, was 39,235,900. The vast and ever-growing business of the General Post Office has long found itself straitened for room even in these huge buildings, and extensive additions have been begun to the N. To secure a site for these the Queen's Hotel, the Bull & Mouth Hotel, the French Protestant Church, and numerous other buildings have been pulled down. To the N. of the Post Office lies Aldersgate Street, a little to the E. of which is Monkwell Street (reached by Falcon Street and Silver Street), containing the Barber-Surgeons' Court Room. Among the curiosities preserved here are a valuable portrait of Henry VIII. by Holbein, and one of Inigo Jones by Vandyck. Milton once lived in Aldersgate Street, and afterwards in Jewin Street, a side-street on the right. To the W. of the General Post Office is NEWGATE STREET, a great omnibus thoroughfare, leading to Holborn and Oxford Street. This neighbourhood has long been the quarter of the butchers. In Panyer Alley, the first cross-lane to the left, once inhabited by basket-makers, is an old relief of a boy sitting upon a 'panier', with the inscription: 'When ye have sought the city round, August the 27th, 1688'. Farther on, opposite the site of old Newgate Market, is a passage on the right leading to Christ's Hospital (Pl. R, 39; III), a school for 1200 boys and 100 girls, founded by Edward VI., with a yearly income from land and funded property of 60,000l., not all of which, however, is devoted to educational purposes. It occupies the site of an ancient monastery of the Grey Friars, founded in the 13th cent., and once the burial-place of many illustrious persons. The general government of the school is in the hands of a large 'Court of Governors', consisting of noblemen and other gentlemen of position; but the internal and real management is conducted by the President, Treasurer, and 'Committee of Almoners', fifty in number. The original costume of the boys is still retained, consisting of long blue gowns, yellow stockings, and knee-breeches. No head-covering is worn even in winter. The pupils (Blue Coat Boys), who are admitted between the ages of eight and ten, must be the children of parents whose income is insufficient for their proper education and maintenance. They are first sent to the preparatory school at Hertford, whence they are transferred according to their progress to the city establishment. Their education, which is partly of a commercial nature, is completed at the age of sixteen. A few of the more talented pupils are, however, prepared for a university career, and form the two highest classes of the school, known as the Grecians and Deputy-Grecians. There are also 40 King's Boys, forming the mathematical school founded by Charles II. in 1672. The school possessed many ancient privileges, some of which it still retains. On New Year's Day the King's Boys used to appear at Court; and on Easter Tuesday the entire school is presented to the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House, when each boy receives the gift of a coin fresh from the Mint. A line in the swimming-bath marks the junction of three parishes. In the Hall, which was erected by Shaw in 1825-29, the head-pupils annually deliver a number of public orations. The 'suppings in public' on each Thursday in Lent, at 7 p.m., are worth attending (tickets from governors). Among the pictures on the walls are the Founding of the Hospital by Edward VI., ascribed to Holbein; Presentation of the King's Boys at the Court of James II., a very large work by Verrio; Portraits of the Queen and Prince Albert, by Grant. Among the celebrated men who were educated here we may mention William Camden, Stillingfleet, Middleton, Dyer, Samuel Richardson, S. T. Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, and Sir Henry Sumner Maine (d. 1888). Opposite Christ's Hospital is Warwick Lane, leading out of Newgate Street. On the wall of the first house from Newgate Street on the right is a curious relief of 1668, representing Warwick, the 'King-maker'. At the W. end of Newgate St., at the corner of Old Bailey, stands Newgate Prison (Pl. R, 35; II), once the principal prison of London, now used as a temporary house of detention for prisoners awaiting trial at the Old Bailey Court. The present building, which was begun in 1770 by George Dance, was partly destroyed in 1780, before its completion, by the Gordon rioters, but was restored in 1782. The principal façade, looking towards the Old Bailey, is 300 ft. in length. The interior was rebuilt in 1858 on the separate cell system. Permission to inspect the prison, which has accommodation for 192 prisoners, is granted by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Lord Mayor, and the Sheriffs. The public place of execution, which was formerly at Tyburn near Hyde Park, was afterwards for a long period in front of Newgate, but criminals are not now hanged in public. Among the famous or notorious prisoners once confined in old Newgate were George Wither, Daniel Defoe, Jack Sheppard, Titus Oates, and William Penn. Old London Wall had a gateway at the bottom of Newgate Street, by Newgate Prison. Adjoining Newgate is the Central Criminal Court, consisting of two divisions; viz. the Old Court for the trial of grave offences, and the New Court for petty offences. The trials are public, but as the courts are often crowded, a fee of 1-5s., according to the interest of the case, must generally be given to the door-keeper to secure a good seat. At great trials, however, tickets of admission are usually issued by the aldermen and sheriffs. No. 68 Old Bailey, near Ludgate Hill, was the house of the infamous thief-catcher, Jonathan Wild, himself hanged in 1725. A little to the W. of Newgate begins the *Holborn Viaduct (Pl. R, 35, 36; II), a triumph of the art of modern street-building, designed by Haywood, and completed in 1869. Its name is a reminiscence of the 'Hole-Bourne', the name given to the upper course of the Fleet (p. 134), from its running through a deep hollow. This structure, 465 yds. long and 27 yds. broad, extending from Newgate to Hatton Garden, was constructed in order to overcome the serious obstruction to the traffic between Oxford Street and the City caused by the steep descent of Holborn Hill. Externally the viaduct, which is constructed almost entirely of iron, is not visible, as rows of new buildings extend along either side. Beneath the roadway are vaults for commercial purposes, and subways for gas and water pipes, telegraph wires, and sewage, while at the sides are the cellars of the houses. At the E. extremity, to the right, stands St. Sepulchre's Church, with its square tower, where a knell is tolled on the occasion of an execution at Newgate. At one time a nosegay was presented at this church to every criminal on his way to execution at Tyburn. On the S. side of the choir lie the remains of the gallant Captain John Smith (d. 1631), 'Sometime Governour of Virginia and Admirall of New England'. The first line of the now nearly illegible epitaph runs thus: 'Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings!' Roger Ascham, author of "The Scholemaster' and teacher of Lady Jane Grey, is also buried here. Obliquely opposite, to the left, is the Holborn Viaduct Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway (p. 33), and near it is the Imperial Hotel (p. 10). The iron "Bridge over Farringdon Street (which traverses Holborn Valley, p. 134) is 39 yds. long and is supported by 12 columns of granite, each 4 ft. in diameter. On the parapet are bronze statues of Art, Science, Commerce, and Agriculture; on the corner-towers, statues of famous Lord Mayors. Flights of steps descend in the towers to Farringdon Street. To the left, beyond the bridge, are the City Temple (Congregational church; Dr. Joseph Parker; see p. 51) and St. Andrew's Church, where Lord Beaconsfield was christened, the latter erected in 1686 by Wren. Nearly opposite the church is the entrance to Ely Place, formerly the site of the celebrated palace of the bishops of Ely, where John of Gaunt, brother of the Black Prince and father of Henry IV., died in 1399. The chapel of the palace, known as *Ely Chapel (St. Etheldreda's; see p. 52), escaped the fire of 1666 and has been recently restored. It is a good specimen of 14th cent. architecture and retains its original oaken roof. The noble E. and W. windows are splendid examples of tracery, and the former is filled with fine stained glass. The crypt is also worth visiting, and the quaint cloister, planted with fig-trees, forms a strangely quiet nook amid the roar of Holborn. A little farther on is Holborn Circus, embellished with an Equestrian Statue of Prince Albert, by Bacon, with allegorical figures and reliefs on the granite pedestal. The new and wide Charterhouse Street leads hence in a N.E. direction to Smithfield (p. 95) and the Farringdon Street Station of the Metropolitan Railway (p. 36). On the W. side of the Circus begins Holborn, leading to Oxford Street and Bayswater; see p. 225. On the N. side of Holborn are the Black Bull and the Old Bell, two survivals of the old-fashioned inns, with galleried court-yards, and Furnival's Inn, formerly an inn of chancery (comp. p. 139), entirely rebuilt in 1818. Charles Dickens was living at Furnival's Inn, when he began the 'Pickwick Papers'. On the opposite side of the street are Barnard's Inn and Staple Inn, two quaint and picturesque old inns of chancery (comp. p. 139), celebrated by Dickens. 3. St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Smithfield. St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Pl. R, 40; II), in Smithfield, to the N. of Christ's Hospital, is the oldest and one of the wealthiest benevolent institutions in London. In 1123 Rahere, a favourite of Henry I., founded here a priory and hospital of St. Bartholomew, which were enlarged by Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London. The hospital was refounded by Henry VIII. on the suppression of the monasteries in 1547. The present large quadrangular edifice was erected by Gibbs in 1730-33, and has two entrances. Above the W. gate, towards Smithfield, built in 1702, is a statue of Henry VIII., with a sick man and a cripple at the sides. An inscription on the external wall commemorates the burning of three Protestant martyrs in the reign of Queen Mary (p. 95). Within the gate is the church of St. Bartholomew the Less, originally built by Rahere, but re-erected in 1823. The hospital enjoys a yearly revenue of 40,000l., and contains 676 beds, in which 6000 patients are annually attended. Relief is also given to about 140,000 out-patients. Cases of accident are taken in at any hour of the day or night, and receive immediate and gratuitous attention. The Medical School connected with the hospital is famous. It has numbered among its teachers Harvey, the discoverer of the cir |