Freemasonry In England.

the top . The house where the fire began being nearly full of faggots and brushwood , the flames . raged with great fury , and spreading all ways , caught the Star Inn , which was full of hay and straw . Proceeding onwards to Thames-street , it was fed by magazines of combustibles of all sorts . The buildings on London-bridge were consumed , as well as the water-works underneath , which prevented the people from obtaining any

water by that means . The fire soon crossed Cornbill , by the train of wood that lay in the street , from houses pulled down to prevent its spreading , and then proceeded on both sides with equal fury . It appears by the certificate of Jonas Moore and Ealph Gratrix , the surveyors appointed to examine the ruins , that the fire overran 373 acres within the walls ; and burnt 13 , 200 houses , 89 parish churches , besides chapels ;

ancl that eleven parishes within the Avails only remained standing . To this account may be subjoined several public buildings , including the Eoyal Exchange , Custom House , Guildhall , Blackwell Hall , St . Paul ' s Cathedral , Bridewell , the tivo Compters , fifty-two halls of the city companies , and three city gates . The loss has been computed at 10 , 000 , 000 ^ . sterling . Notwithstanding all this destructionprovidentiallbut six

, y persons lost their lives . After taking such temporary measures as were rendered necessary by the suddenness and extensiveness of the calamnity , the King ancl Grand Master gave orders to the Deputy Grand Master to draw out a plan of anew city , wherein the rights of private property were to be considered , but in all cases to contrive broad and regular streetsand thereby not

, only add to the beauty and convenience of the dwellings , but prevent the recurrence of those dreadful calamities with which the city was so frequently visited , in consequence of the narrowness and ill-ventilation of its thoroughfares , ancl the combustible materials of which the houses were constructed ; it was therefore resolved that the neiv buildings should be of stone and bricks .

Many persons of enlightened and liberal views ivere of opinion that in rebuilding the city , not only convenience should be considered in the arrangement of wharfs and other facilities , but that a regularity ancl beauty in the arrangement of the streets ancl public buildings was desirable in the metropolis of a great aud commercial nation . Influenced b y these suggestions , Br . Wren , by royal command , took an exact survey of the whole area ,

a work of great difficulty and danger in passing over the great plain of ashes ancl ruins . His idea was to enlarge the streets and lanes , to carry them parallel to each other , and , as circumstances would admit , to avoid all acute angles , to erect the parochial churches conspicuous and insular , to form most public places into piazzas , the centres of eight ways -, to unite the halls of the twelve principal companies into one square annexed to

Guildhall , and to make a commodious quay on the whole bank of the river from Blaekfriars to the Tower . The streets were to be of three magnitudes ; the three principal leading straight through the city and one or two cross streets , to be at least ninety feet wide ; others sixty feet ; and lanes about thirty feet , excluding all narrow , dark allies , ivithout thorouo-lifares , and courts . The Exchange was to stand in the middle of a piaz ° za ,