professors to read their lectures in." The place thus appropriated is a room on the south-east side of the Royal Exchange, and the lectures were thus arranged;

These lectures having been for some time neglected, have been lately revived, and are held during term time in the rooms over the Royal Exchange.

The only view of the college, which after the fire of London served as a common refuge for the municipality and merchants, is to be found in Ward's "Lives of the Gresham Professors."

On the 23rd February, 1768, a petition of the lecturers of Gresham college was presented to the House of Commons and read; setting forth, "That by the will of sir Thomas Gresham, knt. founder of the said college, it was directed that the seven persons elected and appointed to read the lectures in the said will mentioned, should have the occupation of his mansion house, gardens, and other appurtenances, (now called Gresham college), for them and every of them there to inhabit, study, and daily to read the said several lectures; and that in and by the said will it is further directed that none should be chosen to read any of the said lectures so long as he should be married, nor be suffered to read any of the said lectures after he should be married, neither should receive any fee, or stipend appointed for the reading of the said lectures; and that as the said college will be pulled down in pursuance of the bill now depending, and that part of the will of the said sir Thomas Gresham, by which the occupation of the said college is given to the said lecturers, made null and void; therefore praying the house, that as the collegiate life intended by sir Thomas Gresham will now necessarily be at an end, the restriction contained in the said will, with respect to the marriage of the said lecturers, may also be taken away; and that provision may be made for that purpose, in such manner as to the house shall seem

meet."

This petition was referred to the consideration of the committee of the whole house, to whom the bill for pulling down Gresham college was committed; and the committee was empowered "to

receive a clause or clauses to enable the lecturers of the college to marry, notwithstanding any restriction in the will of sir Thomas Gresham."

This was followed by an act "for carrying into execution an agreement made between the mayor and commonalty and citizens of London, and the wardens and commonalty of the mistery of Mercers of the said city, and Stamp Brooksbank, esq. secretary to the commissioners of his majesty's revenue of excise, for the purchase of Gresham college, and the ground and buildings thereunto belonging; for vesting the same unalienably in the crown, for the purpose of erecting and building an Excise Office there, and for enabling the lecturers of the said college to marry, notwithstanding any restriction contained in the will of sir Thomas Gresham, deceased."

From this Institution the Royal Society took its origin. We have no account of any literary society (if we except the academy said to have been formed by Charlemagne) before the sixteenth century, when several were established in Italy, which however were imperfect. It was destined for lord Bacon to point out the necessity and means of establishing a philosophical society, based on those principles which should give encouragement to science, patronage to talent, and benefit to mankind. This gifted scholar and philosopher wished to make the world a republic of letters, and suggested that all princes should establish literary institutions in their states, and that all nations should hold communication with each other on all subjects connected with their common interests and mutual advantage, and that the literati of each kingdom should impart to the world the result of their researches and inventions.

A

But this philanthropic suggestion, however adapted to the mind of the philosopher, did not precisely coincide with political expediency, but the measures proposed were not lost. Learned men began to associate in London, and at our universities. few erudite scholars met at Wadham College, Oxford, at the apartments of Dr. Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester; and others worthy of record, amongst whom were the philosopher Boyle, sir William Petty the celebrated political economist, Dr. Seth Ward, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Drs. Wallis, Goddard, Willis, and Bathurst; Rooke the mathematician, and the prince of architects, sir Christopher Wren.

In 1658, they assembled in Gresham College, by permission of the proprietors of that foundation, formed themselves into a society, and continued to meet once or twice a week until Cromwell's death, when the college was for a time made a military barrack; but Charles II., in 1663, by his letters patént constituted them a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of "The President, Council, and Fellows of the Royal Society of London for improving Natural Knowledge." The meeting of the Society was held at Gresham College until 1711, when they were held in Crane court, and subsequently removed to apartments in Somerset-house assigned to them by his majesty George the Third, where it has continued to prosper.

A museum was established here in 1677 by Henry Colwell, consisting of natural and artificial curiosities, which were subsequently enriched and added to by Davies Barrington, and the present collection and library of the Institution is excellent. An annual volume is published, entitled the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London."

The College by singular chances escaped the fire of 1666: but little of the original building remained; it having been mostly rebuilt in 1601, possibly after the original design, the arcades being adapted to the numbers of commercial and other followers of so universal a merchant as sir Thomas Gresham.*

The College being pulled down, the Excise Office was in 1763 erected on its site, which has its principal front in Broad-street, but there is a back entrance in Bishopsgate-street within. This building is partly in Bishopsgate and partly in Broad-street Ward, in which latter we shall give a full description of it.

"At the very west corner of the street, over against the east end of St. Martin Outwich church (from whence the street windeth towards the south), you had of old time a faire well, with two buckets so fasten'd that the drawing up of the one let down the other, but now of late that well is turned into a pumpe."

This must have been an invention of some note, as it is mentioned by Stow in two places. The pump to which he alludes, was probably destroyed in the fire of 1765, but was renewed, and a very excellent one now covers what was doubtlessly the well above mentioned.

* Pennant.

END OF BISHOPSGATE WARD WITHIN.

Bishopsgate Ward Without,

COMMENCES from the two houses at the corners of Wormwood and Camomile Streets respectively, and runs northward as far as Shoreditch, and to the bars in Spital Square.

This division is under the same government as Bishopsgate Ward Within, and contains four precincts and one parish church, dedicated to St. Botolph, a Saxon saint, who died in 680, situated on the west side of the street, a few yards without the Gate, opposite the north end of Houndsditch, and is a rectory in the gift of the bishop of London. The present rector is the bishop of Chester, whose house is in Devonshire Square.

The registers of this church do not go higher with the rectors than 1323, when John de Northampton resigned the rectorship; but it appears to have been a very ancient foundation. The old church, which according to Stow stood on the very brink of the Town Ditch, escaped the fire of 1666, but became so ruinous that it was taken down in 1726, and rebuilt at the expence of the parishioners in 1729. It is a massy and spacious edifice: the body, well built of brick, and well enlightened, and the roof concealed by a handsome balustrade. On the inside the roof is arched, except over the galleries, and two rows of Corinthian columns support both the galleries and arch, which extends over the body of the church, and is neatly adorned with fretwork, from which are suspended handsome gilt branches. The steeple, though heavy, has a magnificent appearance. In the centre of the front is a large plain arched window, decorated with pilasters of the Doric order. Over this window is a festoon, and above an angular pediment; on each side is a door crowned with_windows,

above which are others of the port-hole shape. Above the pediment rises a square tower surmounted by a cupola with a circular base, surrounded by a balustrade in the same form, by the sides of which, on the corners of the tower, are urns with flames. From this part rises a series of coupled Corinthian columns, supporting other urns with the former, and over them rises the orgive cupola, crowned with a large vase with flames.

At the time of the erection of this church much difference of opinion arose as to the judgment of the architect in not placing a door in the centre. One writer thought "the steeple more in taste than any about town, and that the parts of which it is composed are simple, beautiful, and harmonious." Another observes, "That the placing of a window in the middle of the street, where the principal door should have been, is an error of the first magnitude. The most unlearned eye must perceive a strange imperfection in this, though without knowing what it is; and there is something in the highest degree disgustful, at being shut out by a dead wall at the proper and natural entrance."

But in justification of the architect, it may be accounted for thus: it was necessary to make the church ornamental towards the street, and being the east end, the altar was necessarily placed where the grand entrance should have been, under a noble arch beneath the steeple.

To remedy some defects occasioned by the light being obscured in consequence of the closeness of houses on the north side, a dome was made in the ceiling, and a window was formed at the west end, which is now however entirely hidden by the great organ erected by subscription in 1764. The pulpit is richly ornamented and inlaid.

On the wall of the stairs leading to the north gallery, is a picture emblematically descriptive of the sufferings of Charles I. The king is represented as kneeling at an altar decorated with crimson velvet and gilt ornaments, and before him is an open volume, with the words, "In verbo tuo spes mea.” In his left hand is a crown of thorns bearing a label inscribed “ asperam at levem." The right hand is pressed against the breast, and from the fingers of one hand is the inscription, "Christum tracto." The crown is overturned at his knees, and is mottoed, " Splendidam at