edifice with a tendency to the transition style, and admirably enriched, was completed in 1185. The choir, in the Early English style, was added in 1240. During the Protectorate the ceilingpaintings were white-washed; and the old church afterwards became so dilapidated, that it was necessary in 1839-42 to subject it to a thorough restoration, a work which cost no less than 70,0001. The lawyers used formerly to receive their clients in the Round Church, each occupying his particular post like merchants 'on change'. The incumbent of the Temple Church is called the Master of the Temple, an office once filled by the 'judicious Hooker'.

A handsome Norman archway leads into the interior, which is a few steps below the level of the entrance. The choir, at the end of which are the altar and stalls (during divine service open to members of the Temple corporations and their families only), and the Round Church (to which the public is admitted) are both borne by quadrangular clustered pillars in marble. The ceiling is richly painted in arabesques resembling mosaics. The pavement consists of tiles, in which the lamb with the cross (the Agnus Dei), the heraldic emblem of the Templars, continually recurs. Most of the stained-glass windows are modern. In the Round Church are nine *Monuments of Templars of the 12th and 13th centuries, consisting of recumbent figures of dark marble in full armour. One of the four on the S. side, under whose pillow is a slab with foliage in relief, is said to be that of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (d. 1219), brother-in-law of King John, who filled the office of Regent during the minority of Henry III. The detached monument on the S. wall, resembling the other eight, is that of Robert de Ross (d. 1227), one of the Barons to whom England owes the Magna Charta (p. 186). The monuments are beautifully executed and admirably preserved. In a recess to the left of the altar is the white marble monument of John Selden (d. 1654), 'the great dictator of learning to the English nation'.

The triforium, which encircles the Round Church, contains some uninteresting old monuments, which were formerly preserved in the vaults, and belong exclusively to members of the corporations.

The Temple Church is open daily, 10-1 and 2-4 (free). Visitors knock at the door; if the verger is not in the church, the keys may be obtained at the porter's lodge, at the top of Inner Temple Lane. Oliver Goldsmith (d. 1774), author of the 'Vicar of Wakefield', is buried in the Churchyard to the N. of the choir.

The Temple Gardens, once immediately adjacent to the Thames, but now separated from it by the Victoria Embankment, are open to the public on days and hours determined from time to time by the Benchers (ascertainable by enquiry at the gates or lodges). The gardens are well kept, but are becoming more and more circumscribed by the erection of new buildings. Here, according to Shakspeare, were plucked the white and red roses which were assumed as the badges of the houses of York and Lancaster, in the long and bloody civil contest, known as the 'Wars of the Roses'.

Plantagenet. Great lords, and gentlemen, what means this silence?

Suffolk.

Dare no man answer in a case of truth?
Within the Temple hall we were too loud;
The garden here is more convenient.

Plantagenet. Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak,

Somerset.

Warwick.

In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
Let him that is a true-born gentleman,
And stands upon the honour of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.
Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

This brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

Henry VI., Part I; Act ii. Sc. 4.

The Temple Gardens are famous for their Chrysanthemums, a brilliant show of which is held in November.

The fine Gothic *HALL of the Middle Temple, built in 1572, and used as a dining-room, is notable for its handsome open-work ceiling in old oak. The walls are embellished with the armorial bearings of the Knights Templar, and five large full-length portraits of princes, including an equestrian portrait of Charles I. The large windows contain the arms of members of the Temple who have sat in the House of Peers. Shakspeare's 'Twelfth Night' was acted in this hall during the dramatist's lifetime. The Library (30,000 vols.) is preserved in a modern Gothic building on the side next the Thames, which contains a hall 85 ft. long and 62 ft. high. - The new Inner Temple Hall, opened in 1870, is a handsome structure, also possessing a fine open-work roof. Oliver Goldsmith lived and died on the second floor of 2 Brick Court, Middle Temple Lane; Blackstone, the famous commentator on the law of England, lived in the rooms below him; and Dr. Johnson occupied apartments in Inner Temple Lane, in a house now taken down.

Lincoln's Inn (Pl. R, 31, 32; II), the third of the Inns of Court in importance, is situated without the City, on a site once occupied by the mansion of the Earl of Lincoln and other houses. The Gatehouse in Chancery Lane was built in 1518 by Sir Thomas Lovell, whose coat-of-arms it bears. About a century later (1617), Ben Jonson is said to have been employed as a bricklayer in constructing the adjacent wall; but the truth of this tradition may well be doubted, since in 1617 Jonson was 44 years old and had written some of his best plays. The Chapel was erected by Inigo Jones in 1621-23, and contains good wood-carving and stained glass. Like the Round Church of the Temple, this chapel was once used as a consultation room by the barristers and their clients.

The New Hall, the handsome dining-hall of Lincoln's Inn, in the Tudor style, was completed in 1845 under the supervision of Mr. Hardwick, the architect. It contains a painting by Hogarth, representing Paul before Felix, a large fresco of the School of Legislation, by G. F. Watts (1860), and a statue of Lord Eldon, by Westmacott. The Library, founded in 1497, is the oldest in London, and contains 25,000 vols. and numerous valuable MSS.; most of the latter were bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale, a member of the Inn. Among its most prized contents is the fourth volume of Prynne's Records, for which the society gave 3351. - The revenue of this inn amounts to 35,3291. Sir Thomas More, Shaftesbury, Selden, Oliver Cromwell, William Pitt, Lord Erskine, Lord Mansfield, and Lord Brougham were once numbered among its members. Thurloe, Cromwell's secretary, had chambers at No. 24 Old Square (to the left, on the ground-floor) in 1645-59, and the Thurloe papers were afterwards discovered here in the false ceiling. Among the preachers of Lincoln's Inn were Usher, Tillotson, Heber, and Frederick Denison Maurice. The Court of Chancery, or, more correctly, under the new Judicature Act, the 'Equity Division of the High Court of Justice', formerly held some of its sittings in Lincoln's Inn.

The neighbouring establishment of Gray's Inn (Pl. R, 32; 11), a little to the N. of Holborn, which formerly paid a ground-rent to the Lords Gray of Wilton, has existed as a school of law since 1371. The Elizabethan Hall, built about 1560, contains fine woodcarving. During the 17th cent. the garden, in which a number of trees were planted by Lord Bacon, was a fashionable promenade; but it is not now open to the public. The name of Lord Bacon is the most eminent among those of former members of Gray's Inn. Comp. 'Chronicles of an Old Inn', by Andrée Hope.

Formerly subsidiary to the four Inns of Court were the nine Inns of Chancery, which now, however, have little beyond local connection with them, and are let out in chambers to solicitors, barristers, and the general public. These are Clifford's Inn, Clement's Inn, and Lyon's Inn (now the site of the Globe Theatre), attached to the Inner Temple; New Inn and Strand Inn, to the Middle Temple; Furnival's Inn and Thavies' Inn, to Lincoln's Inn; Staple Inn and Barnard's Inn (p. 94), to Gray's Inn. Serjeants Inn, Chancery Lane, was originally set apart for the use of the serjeants-at-law, whose name is derived from the 'fratres servientes' of the old Knights Templar; but the building is now used for other purposes. To the S. of Lincoln's Inn, between Temple Bar and St. Clement Danes, at the E. end of the Strand (p. 141), rise the Royal Courts of Justice, a vast and magnificent Gothic pile, forming a whole block of buildings, with a frontage towards the Strand of about 500 ft. The architect was Mr. G. E. Street, who unfortunately died shortly before the completion of his great work; a statue of him, by Armstead, has been placed on the E. side of the central hall. The Courts were formally opened on Dec. 4th, 1882, by Queen Victoria, in presence of the Lord Chancellor, the Prime Minister, and the other chief dignitaries of the realm. The building cost about

750,000l. The principal internal feature is the large central hall, 238 ft. long, 48 ft. wide, and 80 ft. high, with a fine mosaic flooring designed by Mr. Street. The building contains in all 19 courtrooms. When the courts are sitting, the general public are admitted to the galleries only, the central hall and the court-rooms being reserved for members of the Bar and persons connected with the cases. During the vacation the central hall is open to the public from 11 to 3, and tickets of admission to the courts may be obtained gratis at the superintendent's office.

For about a century and a half after the Norman Conquest, the royal court of justice followed the King from place to place; but one of the articles of Magna Charta provided that the Common Pleas, or that branch of the court in which disputes between subjects were settled, should be fixed at Westminster. The Court of King's Bench seems to have been also held here from the time of Henry III. The Court of Chancery sat regularly in Westminster Hall from about the reign of Henry VIII., but was afterwards removed to Lincoln's Inn. This separation of common law and equity proved very inconvenient to the attorneys and others, and the Westminster courts became much too small for the business carried on in them. It was accordingly resolved to build a large new palace of justice to receive all the superior courts, and the site of the present Law Courts was fixed upon in 1867. The work of building actually began in 1874. The Judicature Act of 1873 obliterated the distinction between common law and equity, and united all the superior tribunals of the country into a Supreme Court of Judicature, subdivided into a court of original jurisdiction (the High Court of Justice) and a court of appellate jurisdiction (the Court of Appeal).

Temple Bar, a gateway formerly adjoining the Temple, between Fleet Street and the Strand, was built by Wren in 1670. Its W. side was adorned with statues of Charles I. and Charles II., its E. side with statues of Elizabeth and James I. The heads of criminals used to be barbarously exhibited on iron spikes on the top of the gate. When the reigning sovereign visited the City on state occasions, he was wont, in accordance with an ancient custom, to obtain permission from the Lord Mayor to pass Temple Bar. The heavy wooden gates were removed a few years ago to relieve the Bar of their weight, as it had shown signs of weakness; and the whole erection was finally demolished early in 1878, to permit of the widening of the street and to facilitate the enormous traffic. In Dec., 1888, the gate was re-erected at one of the entrances of Theobalds Park, Waltham Cross, Herts, the seat of Sir H. B. Meux (see p. 330). A Memorial of Temple Bar, with statues of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales at the sides, and surmounted by the City Griffin and arms, was erected in 1880 on the site of the old gate.

Immediately adjoining the site of Temple Bar, on the S. side of Fleet Street, stands the large, new building of Child's Bank, which was in high repute in the time of the Stuarts, and is the oldest banking house in London but one. Dryden, Pepys, Nell Gwynne, and Prince Rupert were early customers of this bank. The Child family is still connected with the business. Next door to this house was the 'Devil's Tavern', noted as the home of the Apollo Club, of which Ben Jonson, Randolph, and Dr. Kenrick were frequenters. The tavern was in time absorbed by Child's Bank, which also used the room over the main arch of Temple Bar as a storehouse.

II. THE WEST END.

12. Strand. Somerset House. Waterloo Bridge. St. Clement Danes. The Roman Bath. King's College. St. Mary le Strand. Savoy Chapel. Savoy Palace. Society of Arts. National Life Boat Institution. Eleanor's Cross.

The Strand (Pl. R, 26, 31, and II; so named from its skirting the bank of the river, which is now concealed by the buildings), a broad street containing many handsome shops, is the great artery of traffic between the City and the West End, and one of the busiest and most important thoroughfares in London. It was unpaved down to 1532, and about this time it was described as 'full of pits and sloughs, very perilous and noisome'. At this period many of the mansions of the nobility and hierarchy stood here, with gardens stretching down to the Thames. The names of several streets and houses still recall these days of bygone magnificence, but the palaces themselves have long since disappeared or been converted to more plebeian uses. Ivy Bridge Lane and Strand Bridge Lane commemorate the site of bridges over two water-courses that flowed into the Thames here, and there was a third bridge farther to the E. The Strand contains a great many newspaper offices and theatres.

Just beyond the site of Temple Bar (p. 140), to which its name will doubtless long attach, on the (N.) right, rise the new Law Courts (p. 139). The church of St. Clement Danes, in the centre of the Strand, was erected in 1688 from designs by Wren. The tower, 115 ft. in height, was added by Gibbs in 1719. Dr. Johnson used to worship in this church, a fact recorded by a tablet affixed to one of the pillars. The church is said to bear its name from being the burial-place of Harold Harefoot and other Danes. Wych Street, in which the Olympic Theatre (p. 42) is situated, leads from this point to Drury Lane. At the entrance of this street is Clement's Inn (p. 139), now connected with the Temple, and named after St. Clement's Well, once situated here, but removed in 1874. The garden is embellished with the figure of a Moor (Italian, 17th cent.), bearing a sun-dial. In Newcastle Street, a little to the N., is the Globe Theatre (p. 41).

Essex Street, Arundel Street, Norfolk Street, and Surrey Street, diverging to the left, mark the spots where stood the mansions of the Earls of Essex (Queen Elizabeth's favourite), Arundel, and Surrey (Norfolk) respectively; and they all lead to the Thames Embankment. Peter the Great resided in Norfolk Street during his