were formed for the benefit of the public in general. Tabernacles were erected in various places for the exercise of divine worship. Gresham College was converted into an Exchange for the merchants, in the apartments of which the public business of the city was transacted, instead of Guildhall; and the Royal Society being excluded from Gresham College, were accommodated with apartments in Arundel House. The Excise Office was kept in Southampton Fields, near Bedford House. The General PostOffice was removed to Bridges-street, Covent Garden: the affairs of the Custom-house were transacted in Mark lane: the king's wardrobe was removed from Puddle Wharf to York Buildings; and the offices belonging to Doctors' Commons were held in Exeter House in the Strand.

"It appears by the London Gazette of the 10th of September, that a stop was put to the fire at "the Temple church, near Holborn Bridge, Pye Corner, Smithfield, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, at the end of Basinghall-street, by the postern at the upper end of Bishopsgate-street and Leadenhall-street, at the standard in Cornhill, at the church in Fenchurch-street, near Clothworkers Hall in Mincing lane, at the middle of Mark lane, and at the Tower Dock."

We shall have occasion to advert to this interesting but desolating event in our account of the Monument, and shall terminate the present narrative with the inscription placed by authority on the house built on the site where the fire commenced, but removed on account of the number of persons it attracted to the spot.

"Here, by permission of Heaven, Hell broke loose upon this protestant city, from the malicious hearts of the barbarous papists, by the hand of their agent Hubert, who confessed, and on the ruins of the place declared the fact for which he was hanged, viz. that he began the dreadful fire which is described and perpetuated on and by the neighbouring pillar, erected in 1681, in the mayoralty of sir Patience Ward, knt."

In Pudding lane, No. 34, is the Butcher's Hall, a neat building for the uses of that company. Its fraternity is very ancient, but was not incorporated till 1605. The government consists of a master, five wardens, twenty-one assistants, and a livery.

In Little Eastcheap was the church of St. Leonard, destroyed in

1666, by the great fire. Its site was converted into a burial ground, and the parish united with that of St. Benedict Gracechurch Street.

At the corner of Love-lane, (corrupted from Lucas-lane, from the owner of part thereof,) is the king's Weigh-house, on the ground formerly occupied by the church of St. Andrew Hubbard.

It was intended, that all goods and merchandise should be here weighed at the king's beam, to prevent fraud, but the custom has fallen into disuse.

Over the Weigh-house (now converted into warehouses,) is a large room, used for religious purposes by a dissenting congregation.

In Little East-cheap is the Vintry Porters tackle warehouse, where the porters assemble, who remove and lay down wines, and of whom a full account will be given in our description of Vintry Ward.

The "Garland," in Little East-cheap, was a celebrated house, on the site of which several small tenements are now built.

List

A list of Aldermen of Billingsgate Ward, from 1689 to the present time.

Sir William Ashurst, knt. elected in 1688; served the office of sheriff in 1692, and that of lord-mayor in 1694.

Robert Heysham, esq. elected in 1719.

Sir Edward Bellamy, knt. elected in 1721; served the office of sheriff in 1724, that of lord-mayor in 1735, and was removed to the Ward of Bridge Without.

Thomas Winterbottom, esq. elected in 1745 ; served the office of sheriff in 1747, that of lord-mayor in 1751, and died in the office.

The hon. sir Peter Warren, K. B. elected in 1753, immedidiately declined the office.

WM. BECKFORD, esq. elected in his stead, served the office of sheriff in 1756, that of lord-mayor in 1763, was again elected lordmayor in 1770, and died in the office.

Richard Oliver, esq. elected in 1770; served the office of sheriff in 1772, and resigned.

Thomas Sainsbury, esq. elected in 1778; served the office of sheriff in 1780, and that of lord-mayor in 1786.

W. Lushington, esq. elected in 1795.

W. Champion, esq. elected in 1799; served the office of sheriff

in 1798.

Sir W. Leighton, knt. elected in 1799; served the office of sheriff in 1803, that of lord-mayor in 1806, and resigned.

Anthony Brown, esq. elected in 1821; served the office of sheriff in 1824, and lord-mayor in 1827; is the present alderman of this ward.

END OF BILLINGSGATE WARD,

Bishopsgate Ward Within.

THIS Ward takes its name from the gate which stood between Wormwood Street and Camomile Street, and divided it into Bishopsgate Ward within, and Bishopsgate Ward without the walls; the former containing five, and the latter four precincts. The united Ward is bounded on the south by Langbourn Ward, on the west by Broad Street Ward and Moorfields, on the east by Aldgate Ward, Portsoken Ward, and part of the Tower liberty, and on the north by Shoreditch, extending from Spital square, including a great part of Houndsditch, to the pump near St. Mar tin Outwich at the east end of Threadneedle Street, thence to the west corner of Leadenhall down Gracechurch Street, to the southwest corner of Fenchurch Street.

Both divisions are governed by one alderman, fourteen common councilmen, (two of whom are deputies,) seven constables, thirteen inquest-men, and two ward beadles. During the course of more than a century, every alderman who has presided over this Ward, except one, has served the office of Lord Mayor.

BISHOPSGATE WITHIN terminates at Nos. 1 and 64, in that street, on which houses are mitres to designate the spot where the gate formerly stood. The five precincts of this division are, Allhallows, St. Peter, St. Martin Outwich, St. Helen, and St Ethelburga, in the two latter of which stand the respective parish churches of St. Helen and St. Ethelburga.

St. Helen's church, situated in a handsome open space on the east side of Bishopsgate Street, called from the church Great St. Helen's, is a vicarage in the patronage of the dean and chapter of St. Paul's.

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