Ionic as to the Roman species of the Doric, having dentels which are used in both of those orders, and no modillions, which are peculiarly the property of the Corinthian order, and can never be omitted without a detriment to the essential character of the order. The corona moreover is disfigured by a row of balls, which were very fashionable a few years ago among the Mary-le-bone plasterers, and resemble the biscuits, called by Mr. Lé Man, of Threadneedle Street, "Nelson's Balls." Who is the author of this constricted jumble of absurdities I know not, but am happy to learn that the well educated architect of the rest of the building has removed the blame of its compilation from off his own shoulders.

We will now proceed to that great national, and tasteful building,

THE BANK OF ENGLAND;

and first, we will begin with the principal front next Threadneedle Street. See plate of the Front View of the Bank of England. Our best position to see this richly variegated, picturesque and beautiful front, will be from Bank Buildings: from which spot the circular corner next Princes Street forms a striking foreground; the Royal Exchange on the right forms a good middle distance; the old church of St. Bartholemew a capital object, from its singular antique tower, for the distance; and the far-famed lucky lottery office of Richardson, Goodluck, and Co., from its solid form, and true Italian proportions of its Doric entrance story, (a design of Sir Robert Taylor's), and which is now in strong shadow, for a powerful relief and contrast in the foreground. Thus have we in one architectural picture, compositions by three great masters in our art, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Robert Taylor and Mr. Soane.

The establishment of this great and important corporation is principally owing to the exertions of Mr. William Patterson, a native of Scotland, and Michael Godfrey, Esq. These two gentlemen, after labouring with great assiduity for nearly three years, at last obtained the sanction of government, and in the spring of the year 1694 the Company of the Bank of England was incorporated by act of parliament. Sir John Houblon was

its first governor, and Michael Godfrey, Esq., one of its founders, its first deputy governor.

On the first establishment of this great national undertaking its business was transacted in Grocer's Hall Court in the Poultry, and the ministers of the day gave it their support, because of "the additional security for the allegiance of the people that must necessarily result from an enlarged proportion of the property of the country being thus brought within the certain controul of the ruling powers."

This great national structure, which has now become so great an ornament to the heart of the city, was erected at various periods, and without due regard to the uniformity of the exterior. The first stone of the original building on the present site, then the dwelling-house and garden of Sir John Houblon, was laid in 1732, and finished in 1736, from the designs of Mr. George Sampson, in the Palladian style of architecture. This building comprised the original centre next Threadneedle Street, that has been recently pulled down by Mr. Soane, and the present pay-hall, which is a spacious room seventy-nine feet in length and forty in breadth, with a statue of King William, in whose reign it was founded, sculptured by Cheere. The wings next Threadneedle Street, the exterior of the Rotunda, stock offices, &c., next Bartholemew Lane, and of the dividend and other offices next Princes Street, were designed and erected between the years 1765 and 1788, by Sir Robert Taylor, from a design in imitation of the celebrated garden front of the Pope's palace in Rome, which is published in Sir William Chambers's Treatise on Civil Architecture, as a design of Bramante, one of the architects of St. Peter's at Rome. These wings were as different in style and composition from the exterior of Mr. Sampson's central building, to which they were meant as appendages, as the Lothbury front erected by Mr. Soane in 1794 was from them both; and the exterior of the whole, which is completely insulated, presented a great mass of heterogeneous, unconnected and discordant parts.

On the death of Sir Robert Taylor, in 1788, Mr. Soane was appointed architect to the governor and company of this flourishing company, and he commenced his arduous duties by making himself acquainted with the actual state of the great structure which was intrusted to his care. He then prepared plans

TO THE GOVERNOR & DIRFCTORS OF THAT NATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT. THIS PLATE IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
Pabnard March 31827 by Jones & Ce

Acton Flace Kingsland Road London