The very striking and beautiful ornament of emblematical figures which decorates the front of the building is much admired, and is placed on the cornice of the fine stone front; a specimen of the most correct architecture, and considered as a master-piece of the late Sir Robert Taylor. The ideas, upon which the group was founded, were taken from the elegant pencil of Lady Diana Beauclerk, and were executed at Coade's manufactory by M. De Vááre, a most ingenious artist. The recumbent figure at the east end has been particularly admired for its graceful attitude and anatomical correctness. Lombard-Street contained the house and the shop of the truly patriotic Sir Thomas Gresham, whose original sign, as a grocer, was the Grasshopper. The site of his residence is now occupied by that of Messrs. Martin and Co. bankers. Here also stood an ancient tavern built by Sir Simon Eyre, called the Cardinal's Hat; but for what reason this appellation was given, is now unknown. Here also, as a goldsmith, lived Mr. Matthew Shore, whose wife (since called Jane Shore) became the unhappy concubine of the licentious Edward the Fourth. Returning to Cornhill, through Pope's Head Alley, the abode of stock-brokers, notaries, and mercantile persons, we may observe that this was formerly occupied by a vast stone building, a temporary residence of some of the ancient kings, as it reached to the western angle of the street, and was distinguished by the arms of England, before they were quartered, supported by two angels. Another division of this structure, was the Pope's Head Tavern, fronting Lombard-Street. Stow, in accounting for the origin of this remote mass of building, seems to have imagined that it belonged to King John. WALK IV. From Cornhill to the Poultry. Return to the Bank, Bartholomew-Lane, Lothbury, Coleman-Street, the London Institution, Moorfields, London-Wall, BroadStreet Buildings, and Austin Friars, back to Cornhill. THE Poultry, properly so called, is the street extending from the Mansion House to the end of Cheapside; formerly, when this was occupied by poulterers' stalls, there was a place called Scalding-Alley, where fowls were scalded, previous to their being offered for sale; this was on the site of St. Mildred's-Court. Happily the dreary prison, called the PoultryCompter, has been taken down, and the prisoners removed to a more healthful situation in WhitecrossStreet. The unprecedented multiplication and enlargement of prisons during the recent increase of commerce and opulence, offer a striking contrast with the paucity of those in former times. A single gaol in Alfred's golden reign St. Mildred's Church is in the street called the Poultry, and was rebuilt after the great fire in 1676. The present edifice is of stone, with a flat quadrangular roof, supported by columns and pilasters of the Ionic order: the floor is paved with Purbeck stone, and the chancel with a mixture of the same stone and black marble. The roof has a circle with a quadrangle formed by fret and crocket work; the south front, facing the Poultry, is adorned with a cornice, pediment and acroters, with enrichments of leaves, &c. cut in stone. The interior is very handsome, though the monuments are few and of little importance. The stone tower, about seventy-five feet in height, is crowned with a cupola, the vane of which is a ship half rigged. The Returning towards Cornhill, the Bank of England will now be the first object of notice. This spacious pile of buildings occupy an area of an irregular form, bounded on the south side by Threadneedle-Street, on the west by Princes-Street, on the north by Lothbury, and on the east by St. Bartholomew's-Lane. whole circuit contains nine open courts, a spacious rotunda, court and committee rooms, numerous public offices, a printing office, library, &c. besides various private apartments for the principal officers and servants. The centre, or the principal south front, extending about eighty feet, is in the Ionic order, and has a bold entablature. In the facade of the wings, the architect, Sir Robert Taylor, has introduced Corinthian columns fluted and gutherooned, arranged in pairs along the whole front, and supporting a pediment at each extremity, with a balustraded entablature. Arched recesses, in the place of windows, form the intercolumniations; and in the tympanum of each pediment is a bust, within a circular niche: the returns, at each end, are in the same style. It is, perhaps, impossible to form an adequate idea of the interior of the Bank, without the aid of a ground-plan. The principal entrance from Threadneedle-Street opens by a large arched gateway, with a smaller entrance on each side, into a quadrangular paved court, with which all the leading communications are connected. The east side of this court leads to the Rotunda, the Three per Cent. the Four per Cent. the Bank Stock office, |