Old London.

and beautifully carved , and many of the rooms are most handsomely panelled and have fine staircases . Hard by , at 25 , Bishopsgate Street , Crosby Hall Chambers , is a very noble chimney-piece . Mr . Birch attributed this bouse again to Inigo Jones ,

owing to the peculiar rustication of the ground floor . Passing on to Lime Street , the author of the paper described con amore a house of which he took drawings in 1872 , before it Avas unhappily destroyed , and on Avhich he has published a

monograp h . The quarter was the Belgravia of Old London , when the Court Avas habitually kept at the ToAver . The gate Avas inscribed with the year 1631 , but successive modernizations had robbed the outside of all interest , save , perhaps , to the

antiquary . It was impossible fully to trace the history of this relic of London before the Great Fire . But there were names stirring enough identified Avith it . Before the 15 th century ended the site was occupied by the town house of the powerful

Scropes of Bolton . For Lime Street was then inhabited Avholly by the Avealthiest and greatest nobles—the Nevdles , Bohuns , Fitzalans , Whittingtons , De Burleys , De Veres . The identification of the house in question with the Scropes vras established

by the will of one Richart Kuyht Hustings , dated in the 20 th of Henry VII . ( 1505 ) . The names of the next lessees were lost by the destruction of the archives of the

Fishmongers' Company , to Avhich it had been bequeathed , in the Great Fire . But eventually the house was leased to Sir Thomas Abney , Lord Mayor of London in 1701 , and the patron of Dr . Isaac Watts . In his tune it underwent changes ,

which Mr . Birch described in detail , and the oAvner kept his mayoralty there . The name and estates of the Abneys passed by marriage into the Hastings family , and became extinct in the direct male line on the death of the late Raivdon Phntagenet

Abney Hastings , Marquis of Hastings . The Bordieus , very eminent merchants , were the next possessors , Avho lie buried in the neighbouring church of St . Mary Tlndershaft . Mr . Birch ' s drawings of this nue old mansion Avere shownand the

de-, tails fondly dAvelt on . It Avas mentioned that the Fishmongers' Company generously presented some of the noble fireplaces to the South Kensington Museum , and one to

Old London.

the Guildhall . Some of the oldest London Inns Avere much passed in review , the Tabard , the Swan Avith Four Necks , or "Nicks" rather , as Mr . Birch said it Avould be , and the Oxford Arms , in Warwick Lane . The vieAvs of the last taken

by the society for photographing Old London Avere exhibited , and their beauty of chiaroscuro Avas lovingly dwelt upon . The Oxford Arms was rebuilt immediately after the Great Fire , as a contemporary advertisement of Edward Bartlett , an

Oxford carrier , whose head quarters the Inn Avas , demonstrably proved . These old Inns were built on a sort of traditional plan , so that the present Oxford Arms resembled the old model . Old river-side houses , ancient tenements in Hoxton High Street , Wapping , Blackwall , Aldgate , Mile End Road , and Gray ' s Inn-lane were next spoken of , ancl then folloAved more detailed

accounts of Lambeth Palace , Middle Temple Hall , Lincoln ' s Inn , Gray ' s Inn , with a slig ht mention of the minor Inns of Court . The history and architecture of the Charterhouse Avere sketched more fully . Before concluding the lecturer spoke of " one little gem of a room" in the Ward

Schools of St . Botolph , Billingsgate , all panelled in oak , and in each of the panels an excellent fainting in chiaroscuro in a very perfect state of preservation . Attention Avas also called to a house in Mark Lane—not the Avell-known old house on

the right going from Fenchurch Street , but on the left , close to the Corn Exchange , in which there Avas a very perfect room , Avith a high chimney-piece , elaborate architrave and pediments to the door , with a very richly-decorated plaster ceiling . Unhappily , it was about to be pulled cloAvn . The paper Avas repeatedly cheered , and a discussion folloAved .

On Reading.

ON READING .

SOME short time back the annual meeting of the City ancl Sp italfields School of Artunique of its kind in the City of London , and Avell Avorthy of imitation in otherparts of the metropolis and in large provincial towns , for the good it is doing