To the N. E. of Smithfield we traverse Charterhouse Square to the Charterhouse (corrupted from Chartreuse), formerly a Carthusian monastery, or priory of the Salutation (whence the name of the Salutation Tavern in Newgate Street), founded in 1371 on the site of a burying-field for persons dying of the plague. After its dissolution by Henry VIII. in 1537, the monastery passed through various hands, including those of Lord North and Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who made it the town-house of the Howards. Queen Elizabeth made a stay of five days at the Charterhouse awaiting her coronation, and her successor James I. kept court here for several days on entering London. The property was purchased in 1611 by Thomas Sutton, a wealthy merchant, for his 'Hospital', i.e. a school for 40 'poor boys' and a home for 80 'poor men'. The school was transferred in 1872 to Godalming in Surrey, where large and handsome buildings were erected for it. The part of the property thus vacated was sold to the Merchant Taylors' Company for their ancient school, now containing 500 boys. The Charterhouse School, which is attended by 440 boys besides 60 on the foundation, boasts among its former scholars the names of Barrow, Lovelace, Steele, Addison, Blackstone, Wesley, Grote, Thirlwall, Leech, Havelock, and Thackeray. Visitors are shown over the buildings by the porter.

The ancient buildings date chiefly from the early part of the 16th cent., but have been modified and added to by Lord North, the Duke of Norfolk, and others. The Great Hall is considered one of the finest specimens of a 16th cent. room in London. The Great Staircase and the Great Chamber upstairs are, with the exception of the W. window of the latter, just as the Duke of Norfolk left them three centuries ago. Part of the original Chapel (1371) remains, but it was altered by the monks about 1500 and greatly enlarged by the Trustees of Thomas Sutton in 1612, when it received its present Jacobean appearance. It is approached by a cloister with memorials of Thackeray, Leech, Havelock, John Hullah, etc., and contains a fine alabaster monument of Sutton (1611) and the monuments of the first Lord Ellenborough by Chantrey and of Dr. Raine by Flaxman. The two quadrangles in which the Pensioners and some of the officials reside were built about 1825-30.

The Master's Lodge contains several portraits: Sutton, the founder of the institution; Charles II.; George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham (one of Kneller's best portraits); Duke of Monmouth; Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury; Lord Chancellor Somers; William, Earl of Craven; Archbishop Sheldon; Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury; and the fine portrait of Dr. Burnet, also by Kneller.

A little to the W. of the Charterhouse is St. John's Lane, in which is situated St. John's Gate (Pl. R, 36), an interesting relic of an old priory of the knights of St. John, with lateral turrets, erected in the late-Gothic style in 1504. The knights of St. John were suppressed by Henry VIII., restored by Mary, and finally dispersed by Elizabeth. The rooms above the gate were once occupied by Cave, the founder of the 'Gentleman's Magazine' (1731), to which Dr. Johnson contributed and which has a representation of St. John's Gate on the cover; they now contain some interesting historical relics, including the chair of the great lexicographer. The Norman crypt of St. John's Church is part of the old priory

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church. In the little graveyard are buried the grandfather and other relatives of Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Lincoln. The neighbouring district of Clerkenwell, now largely inhabited by watchmakers, goldsmiths, and opticians, derives its name from the 'Clerks' Well' once situated here, to which the parish clerks of London annually resorted for the celebration of miracle plays, etc.

To the E. of the Charterhouse, adjoining Bunhill Row, is the Bunhill Fields Cemetery (P1. R, 40, 44), once the chief burialplace for Nonconformists, but now disused. It contains the tombs of John Bunyan (d. 1688), Daniel Defoe (d. 1731), Dr. Isaac Watts (d. 1748). Susannah Wesley (d. 1742; the mother of John and Charles Wesley), William Blake (d. 1827), Henry, Richard, and William Cromwell, etc. Immediately to the S. of the cemetery are the headquarters and drill-ground of the Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest military body in the kingdom.

The H. A. C., as it is generally called, received its charter of incorporation, under the title of the Guild or Fraternity of St. George, from Henry VIII. in 1537, and its rights and privileges have been confirmed by upwards of 20 royal warrants. The officers of the Trained Bands and the City of London Militia were formerly always selected from members of this Company. Since 1660 the Captain-General and Colonel has always been either the King or the Prince of Wales. The Company, which has occupied its present ground since 1642, consists of light cavalry, a battery of field artillery, and a battalion of infantry. It is the only volunteer corps which includes horse-artillery. See the History of the Company, by Lt. Col. Raikes.

In Castle Street (Pl. R, 44), to the E. of Bunhill Fields, is the Allan Wesleyan Library (p. 17), containing one of the finest collections of Biblical and theological works in England. In Blomfield Street, London Wall (Pl. R, 43, 44), is the Museum of the London Missionary Society (open 10 to 3 or 4 on Tues, Thurs., & Sat.).

A little to the E. of the Hon. Artillery Company's ground, in Curtain Street, is the Church of St. James which probably stands on or near the site of the old Curtain Theatre, where, according to tradition, 'Hamlet' was first performed. It is not unlikely that Shakespeare acted here in his own plays. To commemorate this association a stained-glass window was erected in 1880 at the W. end of the church by Mr. Stanley Cooper.

Immediately to the S.E. of the Charterhouse, in Goswell Road, at the corner of Long Lane, is the Aldersgate Street Station (Pl. R, 40) of the Metropolitan Railway (p. 36). Aldersgate Street leads hence to St. Martin's le Grand and St. Paul's (p. 81).

4. Guildhall. Cheapside. Mansion House. Gresham College. Goldsmiths' Hall. St. Mary le Bow. Mercers' Hall. Armourers' Hall. St. Stephen's, Walbrook.

To the N. of Cheapside, at the end of King Street (p. 101), rises the Guildhall (Pl. R, 39; III), or Council-hall of the city. The building was originally erected in 1411-31 for the sittings of the magistrates and municipal corporation, which had formerly been held at Aldermanbury. It was seriously injured by the great fire of 1666, but immediately restored. The unpleasing front towards King Street was erected in 1789 from designs by the younger Dance, and various improvements were effected in 1865-68, including the construction of a new roof. Above the porch are the arms of the city, with the motto, Domine dirige nos. The Great Hall (open to visitors), 153 ft. long, 48 ft. broad, and 55 ft. high, is now used for various municipal meetings, the election of the Lord Mayor and members of parliament, and public meetings of the citizens of London to consider questions of great social or political interest. The open timber roof is very handsome. The stained-glass window at the E. end was presented by the Lancashire operatives in acknowledgment of the City of London's generosity during the Cotton Famine; that at the W. end is a memorial of the late Prince Consort. The two colossal and fanciful wooden figures on the W. side, carved by Saunders in 1708, are called Gog and Magog, and were formerly carried in the Lord Mayor's procession. By the N. wall are monuments to Lord Chatham, by Bacon; Wellingtons by Bell; and Nelson, by Smith. On the S. wall are monuments to William Pitt by Bubb, and Lord Mayor Beckford by Moore (bearing on the pedestal the mayor's famous address to George III., which some writers affirm was never actually delivered). - Every 9th of November the Lord Mayor, on the occasion of his accession to office, gives a great public dinner here to the members of the Cabinet, the chief civic dignitaries, and others, which is generally attended by nearly 1000 guests. The speeches made by the Queen's Ministers on this and other civic occasions are scanned attentively, as often possessing no little political significance. The expense of this banquet is shared jointly by the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs.

To the N. of the Great Hall is the new Common Council Chamber, erected from the plans of Sir Horace Jones in 1885 It contains a statue of George III. by Chantrey, and in the passage leading to it are busts of Derby, Palmerston, and Canning. The Aldermen's Room contains a ceiling painted by Thornhill, and stained-glass windows exhibiting the arms of various Lord Mayors. The interesting old Crypt of the Guildhall, borne by clustered columns of Purbeck marble, is now, with the porch, almost the sole relic of the original edifice of 1411-31.

THE FREE LIBRARY OF THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON (open daily, 10-9, to all-comers; no introduction necessary) contains in its handsome hall, built in the Tudor style in 1871-72, above 60,000 volumes, including several good specimens of early printing, and a large and valuable collection of works on or connected with London, its history, antiquities, and famous citi

The special collections include the library of the old Dutch church in Austin Friars (p. 104; with valuable MSS. and original letters of Reformers), a carefully selected Hebrew library (new catalogue), etc. It also possesses a very fine collection of maps and plans of London, and a series of English medals. In 1888 the library was visited by 396,720 persons. On the right is the Reading Room. In the room at the top of the staircase to the museum is an interesting collection of ancient chronometers, clocks, watches, and watchmovements, made by members of the Clockmakers' Company, whose library is also deposited at the Guildhall.

The Museum (open from 10 to 4 or 5), on the sunk floor, contains a collection of Roman antiquities found in London: a group of the Deæ Matres, found at Crutched Friars; hexagonal funeral column, from Ludgate Hill; Roman tesselated pavement, from Bucklersbury (1869); sarcophagus of the 4th cent., from Clapton; statue of a Roman warrior and some architectural antiquities found in a bastion of the old Roman wall in Bishopsgate; a curious collection of old London shop-signs (17th cent.), including that of the Boar's Head in Eastcheap (mentioned by Shakspeare); a large collection of smaller antiquities, terracotta figures, lamps, vases, dishes, goblets, trinkets, spoons, pins, needles, etc. There are also two sculptured slabs from Nineveh. Two glass-cases in the centre contain autographs, including a very valuable one of Shakspeare, dated 10 Mar., 1613 (purchased for 1471.); also those of Cromwell, Wellington, and Nelson. In two other cases are impressions of the great seals of England from 757 down to the present time.

The Corporation Art Gallery, on the right of the entrance to the Guildhall, opened in 1886, contains the chief historical portraits and other paintings belonging to the Corporation, collected here from the old council chamber and committee-rooms, and also a few recent donations. Among the busts are those of Cobden, Gladstone, Beaconsfield, Granville Sharp (by Chantrey), and Nelson.

The numerous pigeons which congregate in the nooks and crannies of the Guildhall, or fly about the yard, will remind the traveller of the famous pigeons of St. Mark at Venice. The London pigeons, unlike their Venetian compeers, are generally left to cater for themselves, and to judge from their numbers and plumpness do so with perfect success.

At the corner of Basinghall Street, which flanks the Guildhall on the E., stands Gresham College, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham (comp. p. 104) in 1579 for the delivery of lectures by seven professors, on law, divinity, medicine, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, and music.

The lectures were delivered in Gresham's house in Bishopsgate Street until 1843, when the present hall was erected out of the accumulated capital. The lecture theatre can hold 500 persons. According to Gresham's will, the lectures were to be delivered in the middle of the day, and in Latin, but the speakers now deliver their courses of four lectures each in English, at 6 p.m.

To the W. of the Guildhall, in Foster Lane, behind the General Post Office, rises Goldsmiths' Hall, re-erected in the Renaissance style by Hardwick in 1835 (visitors must be introduced by a member). Chief objects of interest in the interior: Grand Staircase, with portraits of George IV., by Northcote; William IV., by Hayter; George III. and his consort Charlotte, by Ramsay; in the Committee Room (first floor), the remains of a Roman altar found in digging the foundations of the present hall; portrait of Lord Mayor Myddelton, who provided London with water by the construction of the New River (1644), by Jansen; portrait of Lord Mayor Sir Martin Bowes (1545), with the goblet which he bequeathed to the Goldsmiths' Company (out of which Queen Elizabeth is said to have drunk at her coronation, and which is still preserved); portraits of Queen Victoria, by Hayter; Prince Albert, by Smith; Queen Adelaide, by Shee; busts of George III., George IV., and William IV., by Chantrey; statues of Cleopatra and the Sibyl, by Story. - The Company, incorporated in 1327, has the privilege of assaying and stamping most of the gold and silver manufactures of England, for which it receives a small percentage.

From Goldsmiths' Hall, Foster Lane leads southwards to the W. end of Cheapside (Pl. R, 39, and III; from the Anglo-Saxon cyppan, 'to buy', 'to bargain'), one of the busiest streets in the city, rich in historical reminiscences, and now lined with handsome shops (to the right is Peel's Statue, p. 90). Its jewellers and mercers have been famous from a time even earlier than that of honest John Gilpin, under whose wheels the stones rattled 'as if Cheapside were mad'. Cheapside Cross, one of the memorials erected by Edward I. to Queen Eleanor, stood here till destroyed by the Puritans in 1643; and the neighbourhood was frequently the scene of conflicts between the pleasure-loving and turbulent apprentices of the various rival guilds. To the right and left diverge several crossstreets, the names of which probably preserve the position of the stalls of the different tradespeople in the far back period when Cheapside was an open market. Between Friday Street and Bread Street, on the right, once stood the Mermaid Tavern, rendered famous by the social meetings of Shakspeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Dr. Donne, and other members of the club founded here by Ben Jonson in 1603. John Milton was born in Bread Street in 1608, and Sir Thomas More (b. 1480) first saw the light in Milk Street, on the opposite side. On the right (S.) side of Cheapside, farther on, is the church of St. Mary le Bow, or simply Bow Church (so named after an earlier church on the same site borne by stone arches), one of Wren's best works, with a tower 235 ft. high. The tower, at the top of which is a dragon is 9 ft. long, is especially admirable; 'no other modern steeple', says Fergusson, 'can compare with this, either for beauty of outline or the appropriateness with which classical details are applied to so novel a purpose'. Under the church is a fine old Norman crypt. Persons born within the sound of Bow-bells are popularly called Cockneys, i.e. true Londoners.

A curious old rhyming couplet foretold that:

'When the Exchange grasshopper and dragon from Bow
Shall meet in London shall be much woe.'

This improbable meeting actually took place in 1832, when the two

vanes were sent to the same yard for repairs.

The ecclesiastical Court of Arches takes its name from having originally met in the vestry of this church.

To the E. of St. Mary le Bow, King Street, on the left (N.), leads to Guildhall (p. 98), and Queen Street, on the right (S.), to Southwark Bridge (p. 117).