was £4676 178. 11d., received from 2,244,910 per sons, so that in only six months the population of London may be said to pay for passing over. Canova is said to have declared it to be the finest work of modern times: and that "it was worth a visit from the remotest corner of the earth." M. Dupin characterised it as "a colossal monument worthy of Sesostris and the Cæsars."

The poets Denham and Pope have sung the praises of the Thames, and Wordsworth's famous sonnet, composed upon one of its bridges, the reader perchance may be curious to see. It is as follows:

"Earth has not anything to show more fair:-
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning;-silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor, valley, rock or hill,
Ne'er saw, ne'er felt, a calm so deep.
The river glideth at his own sweet will;
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty host is lying still!"

Facing Wellington-street formerly stood "Old Exeter 'Change," Burleigh-street now occupies its

site. It was in an upper room of Exeter 'Change that the mortal remains of the poet Gay lay in state. The house remained in possession of the Crown until Queen Elizabeth granted it to Sir William Cecil, Lord Treasurer, who rebuilt it, when it was called Burleigh House. Here the haughty Queen once visited Lord Burleigh.

On the opposite side of the Strand formerly stood Exeter House, the residence of the great Lord Burleigh. A portion of the building was standing till within the past twenty years. It was known as the Old Exeter 'Change, and used as a menagerie. Exeter Hall, a spacious building used for concerts and religious meetings, has been erected upon a portion of this site. The Hall is a noble apartment measuring one hundred and thirty-six feet in length by nearly eighty in width; it has the most magnificent organ in London.

CHAPTER VI.

Bow-street-Covent Garden-Anecdote of Dryden and Tonson-St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden-The Garrick Club-Will's Coffee House and others-Somerset House-King's College-St. Clement Dane's-Lincoln's Inn Square-Lincoln's Inn Fields-Execution of Lord William Russell-The Soane Museum-Franklin's Printing Office-Gray's InnTemple Bar-Ancient Custom of Closing the Gates-Booksellers of early Times-Dr. Johnson's Residences-Child's Banking House.

O THICKLY clustered are the historical memories of this part of the city, that we are puzzled which route to prefer; our course for a while must therefore be a little out of the direct line. vd

To the north of the Strand, and not far distant, is Bow-street, which, according to Strype, was so named from "its running in shape of a bent bow." Modern improvements, however, have deprived it of this characteristic feature. Bow-street is famous as having been the locale of Fielding, the novelist; Johnson lived in this street for a short time; and Waller, the poet, also resided here when he wrote his famous panegyric upon Cromwell; it was in this same street, also, that Sir

Roger de Coverley, according to the Spectator, lived. Here, likewise, in 1661, was born the celebrated statesman, the Earl of Oxford; Wycherly, the dramatist; Gibbons, the sculptor; and the Earl

of Dorset.

Covent Garden, which is in the immediate vicinity, took its name fram having been an enclosed garden attached to the Convent belonging to the Abbots of Westminster, in the days of the Protector Somerset. The estate was afterwards transferred to the Bedford family. The Bedford Coffee House, under the Piazza, was frequented by Garrick, Foote, Murphy, and others.

Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, had a house in Bow-street, in which he drove some of his hardest bargains with Dryden. The bookseller was a Whig, the poet a Tory, and it suited the pecuniary interests of the former that Dryden's forthcoming translation of Virgil should be dedicated to King William. The author would not consent, although Tonson, in furtherance of his own views, had directed the engraver employed upon the illustrations of the work, "to aggravate," as Sir Walter Scott pleasantly expresses it, "the nose of Æneas in the plates into a sufficier resemblance to the hooked promontory on the king's countenance." Dryden still held out, for though in want of

money he had a conscience. Tonson considering, like other tradesmen, that this was very presumptuous in a man who lacked ten guineas, stopped the supplies to bring him to reason. Still the poet remained conscientious; and, failing to induce Tonson to accommodate him by fair means with the money he needed, he sent him the following verses to his house in Bow-street, as a poetical portrait of a shabby bookseller :

"With leering looks, bull-faced, and freckled fair,

With two left legs and Judas-colored hair,
And frouzy pores that taint the ambient air."

"And tell the dog, when you deliver it,” said Dryden to his messenger, "that the man who wrote these lines can write more!" The money was paid immediately.

St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, was in its day pronounced a marvel of architectural skill, but its claim to this distinction has long since been denied. Here repose the ashes of several distinguished individuals, Sir Henry Herbert; Armstrong, the poet; Wycherley, the dramatist; Butler, the author of "Hudibras;" Sir Peter Lely, the painter; Macklin, the comedian; and Dr. Walcot. In Kingstreet, Covent Garden, at No. 35, the Garrick Club used to hold its meetings; and in a dark obscure alley, named Rose-street, lived Samuel Butler, and