The continuation of Threadneedle-Street, so called on account of Merchant Taylor's-Hall, was formerly called Pig-Street, when those animals, belonging to the Hospital of St. Anthony, being used to run about the streets, and to be fed by passengers, gave rise to the adage of "Following like a Tántony Pig.". On the site of that hospital, and now most probably in a much cleanlier condition, the French or Walloon Church was erected subsequent to another, which had been destroyed by fire.

The church of St. Bennet Fink stands at the southwest end of Threadneedle-Street, upon the site of another, built as early as 1323. The interior of the present fabric is a complete elipsis, and the roof an eliptical cupola with a glazed turret in the centre, environed with a cornice, supported by six stone columns of the Composite order. Between each of these columns is a spacious arch and six large windows, with angular mullions. The altar-piece and the font are very beautiful. The steeple and the cupola rise above one hundred feet from the ground. The high finishing of this church is said to have been owing to Mr. Holman's contribution of 1000l. though this gentleman was a Roman Catholic.

Turning down Broad-Street, on the south side, we come to The Excise-Office, a plain but large and elegant stone building, erected in 1763, four stories in height, with an entrance through the middle of it into a large yard, in which there is another brick building, nearly equal in size with the principal edifice. The front stands on the site of ten alms-houses, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1575; and the back building, with the yard, is the ground on which Gresham College stood, till it was taken down in 1768.

The church of St. Peter Le Poor is on the west side of Broad-Street, opposite the back entrance of the South Sea-House. The old church, like St. Dunstan's

in the West, and some others projecting considerably beyond the line of the houses, was, by an act passed in 1788, taken down, and rebuilt in 1791. The west end is elegantly simple; the door is in the centre, between double Ionic columns; the ends of the front are adorned with pilasters of the same order, with blank windows, &c. Above the door is a moulded pediment with a plain tympanum, and over this a square tower in two stories, the whole surmounted by an elegant shaped dome.

WALK III.

Through Cornhill and Gracechurch-Street, by LombardStreet, Eastcheap, and Upper Thames-Street, Dowgate-Hill, Walbrook, &c.

LOMBARD-STREET is so called from having been the residence of the Lombards, the great money-lenders of ancient times, and who came originally from the Italian republics of Genoa, Lucca, Florence, and Venice. Owing to the abuses committed by this body of men, Queen Elizabeth compelled them to quit the country. Lombard-Street, after having been long a kind of Exchange, became the residence of bankers of eminence, as it still continues to be. The parish church of St. Edmund the King stands near the centre of this street, well built of stone. The most remarkable monument here is that of Dr. Jeremiah Mills, who died in 1784, having been President of the Society of Antiquaries many years. The ancient grass, or hay-market, in this street, was held on the ground now occupied by this church.

The church of All Hallows, Lombard-Street, was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. This is a very neat.