otherwise, for the carrying on and finishing the said work, so necessary to the ornament of this city; and to pay the same into the Chamber, to be laid out and employed for the said purpose. -Wagstaffe.

GRASSHOPPER.

The grasshopper on the top of the Royal Exchange, was the crest of Sir Thomas Gresham.

GRESHAM COLLEGE AND LECTURES.

So denominated from Sir Thomas Gresham, who founded the same. A writer says:-To Sir Thomas Gresham, who lived in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and who was styled the Royal Merchant, in consequence of feasting ambassadors and entertaining princes, the city of London is indebted for the Royal Exchange, which he erected at his own expense, and liberally endowed a College for Lectures, which are now almost a dead letter, as few persons ever think of attending the Gresham Lectures, which are given during the law terms. When the Gresham Lectures were established, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons left in trust to see proper persons appointed, sent letters to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, stating, that for want of judgment to discern men of most sufficiency in the said faculties, they might make default, and commit. some error in the election; they therefore prayed each University to nominate two proper persons to fill the offices of professors. Strange as it may seem, the heads of Cambridge were jealous of these lectures, nor was it until Lord Burleigh gave them leave, that they consented to act. The first Gresham College was taken down in 1768, and the ground on which it stood made over to the Crown for a perpetual rent of £500 per annum. A new College was subsequently erected, and the first lecture read in it Nov. 2, 1843.

CHARTER HOUSE.

This celebrated school was instituted June 22, 1611, by Thomas Sutton of Camps Castle, in the county of Cambridge, and so called from a Monastery of Carthusian monks founded in 1371 on a Pest-house field, by Sir Walter Manny, knight. St. Bruno was the founder of the Order of Carthusian Monks, and is styled by writers of his own age, Master of the Chartreuse; and from his order comes our Charter House at London.

LLOYD'S COFFEEHOUSE.

Lloyd's Coffeehouse was originally in Lombard Street, at the corner of Abchurch-lane, subsequently in Pope's-Head Alley,

where it was called New Lloyd's Coffeehouse; but on February 14, 1774, it was removed to the north-west corner of the Royal Exchange, where it remained until the destruction of the building by fire. During the rebuilding the subscribers occupied the South Sea House; but on the reopening of the Royal Exchange they returned to their former locality.

GERARD'S HALL.

In Basing Lane formerly stood a stately stone edifice, belonging to the Gisor family, called Gisor's Hall, but subsequently Gerard's Hall. In 1852 this celebrated inn was doomed to destruction, owing to its standing in the way of the new street from London Bridge to St. Paul's; and its beautiful and much admired Norman crypt would have been destroyed, but for the commendable exertions of Mr. Deputy Lott, to whom the public are indebted for its preservation in the new Crystal Palace at Sydenham.

BAKEWELL, OR BLACKWELL HALL.

This hall, once famed as a cloth hall, was founded by the Mayor and Corporation (20th Richard II.) in the house formerly belonging to the family of the Basings, but subsequently in the possession of Thomas Bakewell, from whom the Hall derives its name. Bakewell Hall was rebuilt in 1588, destroyed in the great fire of 1666; re-erected in 1672, and ultimately taken down to make way for the present Bankruptcy Court in 1820.

HICKS HALL.

This building formerly stood in Saint John Street, facing West Smithfield; it was built by Sir Baptist Hicks, afterwards Viscount Camden, who was for some time a merchant in Cheapside, and died in 1629. It was named after the builder; and the new building erected as the County Hall of Middlesex, in Clerkenwell Green, still retains its name. William Lord Russell, the patriot, was condemned to death in Hicks' Hall; and Count Koningsmark, the real though not the actual assassin of Mr. Thynne, was acquitted in the same building. The distance on the milestones of the great north road were formerly measured from Hicks' Hall. A few so marked still remain.

SALTER'S HALL.

This hall, which is in the vicinity of St. Swithin's Lane, belongs to the Company of Drysalters. Some imagine that it derives its name from John Salter, who died in 1605. Certainly, the coincidence in name is indisputable, and what is more so, he

was one of the Company, and was a good benefactor to them. It is said, that the beadles and servants of the Worshipful Company of Salters are to attend divine service at St. Magnus' Church, London Bridge, pursuant to the will of Sir John Salter, in the first week in October, and each person is to say three times, "How do you do, Brother Salter? I hope you are well!" The Salters' Company was incorporated in 1558.

GUY'S HOSPITAL.

This celebrated hospital derives its name from Thomas Guy, a bookseller of Lombard Street, who is said to have made his fortune ostensibly by the sale of Bibles, but more it is thought by purchasing seamen's tickets, and by his great success in the sale and transfer of stock in the memorable South Sea Year of 1720. It is said of him, that when consulting with a friend relative to his will, the latter advised him to search the South Sea Books, and return, as had been done by one or two individuals possessing heroic virtues, the money to the perishing families that were undone by the purchase of his stock. This advice he rejected, although by acting upon it, he was told he would have raised a monument to his memory, as much to his glory as the hospital, and added the praise of justice to his fame. The hospital was built 1721. He died 1724.

FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.

The first Foundling Hospital was erected in Paris, in 1677. The London Foundling Hospital, which was projected and endowed by Captain Thomas Coram, was founded in 1739; began to receive children, 1756; let part of their estate in 1797, which yields £2000 a-year in addition to their income. The celebrated Handel used to preside at the organ of the chapel of this institution; and it may not be generally known, that his celebrated "Messiah " was concocted by him in this chapel; and which even now, at the present day, can boast of a musical choir equal to most of our cathedrals.

BONNER'S FIELDS.

Bonner's Fields, so called after the celebrated Bonner, Bishop of London, who had a palace there. He entered at Oxford about 1512; Bishop of Hereford, 1539; Bishop of London, 1540; deprived, May 1550; and died in the Marshalsea Prison, Sept. 5, 1569.

BANCROFT'S ALMS-HOUSES.

Bancroft's Alms-Houses, so called after one Francis Bancroft, who left the sum of £28,000 and upwards to the Company of

Drapers for their erection and endowment. He was an officer of the lord mayor's court, and died in 1729 worth £80,000, all of which he is said to have obtained by harsh acts of justice in his capacity as a city officer. Bancroft was a most eccentric character, and desired that the lid of his coffin should have a square of glass in it, that it should not be fastened down, and that it should remain above ground. This was conformed to, a conditional bequest being attached to the fulfilment of it. He lies in Saint Helen's Church, Great Saint Helen's, Bishopsgate Street.

WARDS.

Though I cannot ascertain the time, says Maitland, when this city (London) was at first divided into wards; yet I am of opinion that the first division thereof was not on account of the government, but rather that London, like other cities and towns of the kingdom, was anciently held of the Saxon kings and nobility in demean, and whose several properties therein, being so many sokes or liberties, were under the immediate dominion of their respective lords, who were the governors or wardens thereof; whence, I imagine, arose the Saxon appellation ward, which signifies a quarter or district: this opinion is not only corroborated by the wards of Baynard's Castle, Farringdon, Coleman Street, and Basinghall or Bassishaw's, still retaining the names of their ancient proprietors, but also by the other wards of the city being alienable; which, upon alienation, the purchaser or purchasers became the proprietor or proprietors thereof, with the additional epithets of alderman or aldermen.

ALDGATE WARD.

One of the twenty-six wards of London, and so called from Aldgate, a gate or postern in the city wall, towards the east.

When the Saxons first possessed themselves of this city, they found this gate sorely decayed, and more ruinous than any of the rest, therefore they imposed the epithet of eald, or ald, upon it; i.e., old.

QUEENHITHE ward.

The original name of Queenhithe was Edrid's hithe, or harbour. In Henry the Third's time it fell to the crown, and was called Ripa Regina, or the Queen's Wharf. It was probably part of her majesty's pin-money, by the attention paid to her interest.

CHEAP WARD.

Cheap Ward, derives its name from the Saxon word chepe, a market, once applied to our Cheapside, which was formerly called West Cheap, in order to distinguish it from East Cheap.

VINTRY WARD.

Vintry Ward comprises a part of the north bank of the Thames, where the merchants of Bordeaux formerly bonded and sold their wines: the word vintry, is derived from vine-tree.

BILLINGSGATE WARD.

Billingsgate, which "the ladies of the British Fishery" (as Addison has humorously designated them) have rendered of such notoriety, boasts of having had for an alderman the patriotic Beckford, a great scolder! The derivation of Billingsgate is very ancient, being from Belin, King of Britain, about 400 years before Christ, who built a gate, and named it Belin's Gate, after himself.

BISHOPSGATE WARD.

A modern author conjectures this ward, says Maitland, to have derived its appellation from Erkenwald, Bishop of London, who first erected it, about anno 675; but I suppose it to have been so called, out of compliment to that excellent bishop, William Norman, who seems to have delighted in nothing more than doing good to the citizens.

CRIPPLEGATE WARD.

Westward from Moorgate stood Cripplegate, from whence this word takes its name. It was so denominated from the number of cripples who anciently begged there.

ALDERSGATE WARD.

The name of this ward is derived from the gate which stood here. Stow, speaking of this gate, says: Ældresgate, or Aldersgate, so called, not of Aldrich or of Elders, that is to say, ancient men builders thereof; nor of Eldarne trees growing there more abundantly than in other places, as some have fabled; but from the very antiquity of the gate itself, as being one of the first four gates of the city, and serving for the northern parts, as Aldgate for the east; which two gates being both old gates, are, for difference sake, called the one Ealdegate, and the other Aldersgate."

FARRINGDON WARDS.

These aldermanries, i. e., Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without, were formerly but one; and which was conveyed by John le Fenere, for an equivalent, to William Farringdon, citizen and goldsmith, in the year 1281, in whose possession, and that of his son, it continued about eighty years; and whose enjoyment