travel at the sides, the quick in the centre. The old London Bridge was of wood, and was first erected in 1209.

The present low-water mark at London Bridge is 18 feet 11 inches below the Trinity House datum. Previous to 1832, when the old bridge was removed, it was only 15 feet 4 inches. In severe winters the starlings of the old bridge arresting the floating ice, at times caused the river to be frozen over. This is not likely to occur again since the impediments of the old bridge have been removed.

The SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY BRIDGE carries that railway from Charing Cross and London Bridge stations to Cannon Street terminus. It is of iron; five arches, two of 135 ft., three central 167 ft. span, resting on 16 cylinder piers.

SOUTHWARK BRIDGE, 708 feet long, of three cast-iron arches, resting on stone piers, designed by John Rennie, and erected by a public company, at an expense of about 800,000l. The first stone was laid April 23rd, 1815; and the bridge publicly opened April, 1819. The span of the centre arch is 402 feet (38 feet wider than the height of the Monument, and the largest span of any arch in the world until the tubular bridges were made.) The entire weight of iron is about 5780 tons. The penny toll was abolished 1865, and the bridge purchased by the City for 200,000l. from the proprietors 1866. The cost of proper approaches would require (at the least) 150,000l. more. It is very ill placed.

BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE. The old bridge of 4 arches, built 1760-69 by Robert Mylne, having failed in its piers and also in accommodating the increasing multitudes who pass over it, is replaced by a new one of iron.

This bridge affords a stately and imposing view of St. Paul's Cathedral and Bow Church steeple, surmounted by its dragon.

Close to Blackfriars is the ALEXANDRA BRIDGE of the London Chatham and Dover Railway, carrying four lines of rails to Ludgate Hill station.

CHARING-CROSS or HUNGERFORD BRIDGE crosses the Thames from the Charing Cross Railway Station to Belvedere Road, Lambeth, and was built in 1863 by the South Eastern Railway Company in order to carry their line across the Thames to a station in the heart of Western London. It replaces Hungerford Suspension Bridge, built 1846, for foot passengers only, which has been sold for 85,000l. and removed to Clifton. The new Railway Bridge, which also

admits foot passengers at the side, is of iron lattice resting on 6 or 7 cylinder and two brick piers, forming 8 spans 70 ft. wide. Its width is sufficient for 4 lines of rails, and a footway 14 ft. broad. Mr. Hawkshaw was the Engineer. Toll for foot passengers one halfpenny.

WATERLOO BRIDGE, perhaps the noblest bridge in the world, was built by a public company pursuant to an act passed in 1809. The first stone was laid 1811, and the bridge opened on the second anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, June 18th, 1817. It is said to have cost above a million. The engineer was John Rennie, son of a farmer at Phantassie, in East Lothian-the engineer of many of our celebrated docks and of the breakwater at Plymouth.

"Canova, when he was asked during his visit to England what struck him most forcibly, is said to have replied-that the trumpery Chinese Bridge, then in St. James's Park, should be the production of the Government, whilst that of Waterloo was the work of a Private Company."Quarterly Review, No. 112, p. 309.

M. Dupin calls it "a colossal monument worthy of Sesostris and the Cæsars." It consists of nine elliptical arches of 120 feet span, and 35 feet high, supported on piers 20 feet wide at the springing of the arches. The bridge is 1380 feet long, 43 feet wide, the approach from the Strand 310 feet, and the causeway on the Surrey side, as far as supported by the landarches, 766 feet, thus raising it to a level with the Strand, and uniform throughout. This bridge affords a noble view of Somerset-house, the chef-d'œuvre of Sir William Chambers. The toll charged is a halfpenny each person each way, and the receipts from foot-passengers in a half-year were 46767.178.11d., received from 2,244,910 persons. The proprietors offer to sell the tolls for 700,000l.

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE. The New Bridge from designs of Mr. Page, was begun in 1856 and finished 1862. It is double the width of the old bridge, measuring 85 feet, and consists of seven arches of iron (that in the centre 120 feet span) resting on stone piers, whose foundations descend 30 feet below low water. It is 1160 feet long, and the centre arch rises 22 feet above high water. The rise in the centre is only 5 feet 4 in. The piers rest on bearing piles of elm, driven 20 feet into the London clay, and are cased with iron piles closely united, forming a sort of permanent coffer-dam. Upon these is laid a stratum of concrete, forming a foundation for the blocks of Cornish granite used in the stone work. The estimated cost was 216,000l. The arches are arranged in one

continuous curve from side to side of the river, an agreeable novelty. It is a very elegant structure, its roadway, wider than any other bridge in the world, commanding perhaps the best view of the Houses of Parliament. The bridge which this replaces, was the second stone bridge over the Thames. It was built by Labelye, a Swiss, 1739-1750, on caissons of timber, floated to the spot destined for the piers, and then sunk. It was surmounted by a lofty parapet, which M. Grosley, a French traveller, gravely asserted was placed there in order to prevent the English propensity to suicide; but the real intention of Labelye was to secure a sufficient weight of masonry to keep his caissons to their proper level. The scour caused in the river bed by the removal of Old London Bridge effectually undermined several of the piers, whose foundations lay only 6 feet beneath low water.

LAMBETH BRIDGE, from Lambeth Church to Horseferry Road. An iron wire suspension bridge of 3 spans each of 280 feet, supporting an iron platform, hung from rigid lattice bars resting on double cylinder piers. Peter Barlow, Engineer, 1862. Estimated cost 40,000l.

VAUXHALL BRIDGE. An iron bridge, of nine equal arches, over the Thames between Vauxhall and Millbank, built from the designs of James Walker, 1811-1816. It is the property of a private company, toll d., 4d. each horse. It is 798 feet long, and 36 feet wide, and is built on caissons. PIMLICO RAILWAY BRIDGE carries several railways to Victoria Station.

PIMLICO SUSPENSION BRIDGE leads to Battersea

Park.

THE THAMES TUNNEL is two miles below London Bridge, and is easily reached by the numerous steam-boats plying on the Thames. It extends beneath the bed of the river Thames, connecting Wapping, on the left bank, with Rotherhithe, or Redriff, on the right. This great work-a monument of the skill, energy, and enterprise of Sir Isambard K. Brunel (d. 1849), by whom it was planned, carried out through great difficulties, and finally completed-was commenced March 2nd, 1825, closed for seven years by an inundation which filled the whole tunnel with water, Aug. 12th, 1828, recommenced Jan. 1835 (thousands of sacks of clay having been thrown in the interval into the river-bed above it), and opened to the public, March 25th, 1843. The idea of the shield, upon which Brunel's plan of tunnelling was

founded, was suggested to him by the operations of the teredo, a testaceous worm, covered with a cylindrical shell, which eats its way through the hardest wood at the bottom of the sea. Brunel's shield consisted of 12 separate timber frames, each of 3 stages or 36 cells in all. In these cells the miners worked, protected by the shield above and in front, and backed by the bricklayers behind, who built up as fast as the miners advanced. Government lent 247,000l., in Exchequer Bills, to advance the works, and the total cost is 463,000. The yearly amount of tolls and receipts is under 6000., barely sufficing to cover the expenditure, including that arising from the constant influx of land springs. It was sold in 1865 for 200,000l. by the Thames Tunnel Company to the East London Railway Company, who intend to carry a line through it, connecting the Great Eastern and North London Railways with the railways on the south of the Thames. It consists of two arched passages, 1200 feet long, 14 feet wide, 16 feet high, separated by a wall of brick 4 feet thick, with 64 arched openings in it. The crown of the arch is 16 feet below the bottom of the river. The descent and ascent are by stairs winding round cylindrical shafts 38 feet wide 22 feet deep, and the toll is one penny each passenger.

VII.-GOVERNMENT OFFICES.

THE TREASURY, WHITEHALL. A large range of building, between the Horse Guards and Downing-street, so called from its being the office of the Lord High Treasurer; an office of great importance, first put into commission in 1612, on Lord Salisbury's death, and so continued with very few exceptions till the present time. The prime minister of the country is always First Lord of the Treasury, and enjoys a salary of 5000l. a year, the same as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but smaller in amount than the salaries of the Lord Chancellor and of the Lord Chief Justice. He has also an official residence in Downing-street. All the great money transactions of the nation are conducted here. The Lord High Treasurer used formerly to carry a white staff, as the mark of his office. The royal throne still remains at the head of the Treasury table. The present façade toward the street was built (1846-47), by Sir Charles Barry, to replace a heavy front, the work of Sir John Soane. The core of the building is of an earlier date, ranging from Ripley's time, in the reign of George I., to the times of Kent and Soane. The

building called "the Treasury" includes the Board of Trade, the Home, and Privy Council offices.

PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE, DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, is part of the S. end of the range of Treasury buildings. Here the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council meets to hear appeals, &c. Here are kept the minutes of the Privy Councils of the Crown, commencing in 1540. A minute of the reign of James II. contains the original depositions attesting the birth of the Prince of Wales, afterwards known as the Old. Pretender.

THE HOME OFFICE, in which the business of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (i.e. Great Britain and Ireland) is conducted, is at Whitehall, in part of the Treasury buildings. The salary of the Secretary is 50001. a year, and his duty is to see that the laws of the country are observed at home. His office is one of great importance, and is always a Cabinet appointment.

FOREIGN OFFICE, removed to Whitehall Gardens while the Public Offices are being rebuilt. The chief officer is a Cabinet Minister, and is called the "Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs." His salary is 5000l. a year. The Cabinet Councils of her Majesty's Ministers are held generally at the Foreign office, or at the residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, also in Downing Street.

Passports are here issued by the Foreign Secretary to British subjects recommended by a banker, at a charge of 2s. (See Handbook for Travellers on the Continent.)

THE COLONIAL OFFICE, 14, DOWNING STREET, is the Government office for conducting the business between Great Britain and her 44 colonies. The head of the office is called the "Secretary for the Colonies," and is always a Cabinet Minister. His salary is 5000l. In a small waitingroom on the right hand as you enter, the Duke of Wellington, then Sir Arthur Wellesley, and Lord Nelson, both waiting to see the Secretary of State, met, the only time in their lives. The duke knew Nelson from his pictures. Lord Nelson did not know the duke, but was so struck with his conversation that he stept out of the room to inquire who he was.

THE INDIA BOARD, removed from the East India House, Leadenhall-street, 1860, occupies, temporarily, a part of the Westminster Hotel, Victoria-street, for which a rent of 5000l. per annum is paid.

NEW PUBLIC OFFICES. A grand edifice of vast extent, of Italian architecture, from the designs of G. G. Scott