by occasion of the confluence and concourse of such as are suitors in the law."

The entrance from Fleet-street to the Inner Temple, is by a heavy sculptured archway, erected in 1611, at the expense of John Benet, Esq. the King's Serjeant. Above it and adjoining, is a large house of the same period, as appears by its façade, which is ornamented with pilasters, scroll-work, &c.t among which is a plume of feathers in compliment to Henry, Prince of Wales, who was then held in high favour by the nation. The Middle Temple Gate was constructed by Sir Christopher Wren, at the expense of the Society, between the years 1684 and 1688. It has a handsome frontispiece of brick-work, enriched with stone pilasters of the Ionic Order, supporting an entablature and pediment, within which, in a round, are the words, Surrexit impens, Soc. M. Templi,

MDCLXXXIV.

RIVER THAMES. THE FOLLY.

In the reign of Charles II. there was a floating House of Entertainment on the River Thames, between London and Westminster, called the Folly; which was interiorly divided into sundry apartments, and had chimney turrets and a balustraded platform at the top. This had originally been devised as a Musical Summer-House, and it was resorted to by persons of quality both for refreshment and pleasure. Queen Mary, with some of her courtiers, had once

"Origines Juridiciales," p. 195.

+ Mrs. Salmon's War-work was formerly exhibited in this house.

the curiosity to visit it; but it sunk into a receptacle for companies of loose and disorderly people, for the purposes of drinking and promiscuous dancing; till, at length, becoming scandalous, the building was suffered to decay, and the materials became firewood." According to the facetious Tom Brown, who notices it as a whimsical piece of architecture, its character was at all times equivocal; and in the end degenerated into "a confused scene of folly, madness, and debauchery."—"The Ladies of the town," he says, "overstocked the place with such an inundation of harlotry, that dash'd the female Quality out of countenance, and made them seek more retir'd Conveniency," by which means, "the Mercenaries entirely possessed themselves of this moveable mansion."* In the view of Somerset House, from the river, given in the present volume, the Folly is represented as at anchor opposite to the gardens of that building.

LAMBETH PALACE.

The manor of North Lambeth, which, in the Saxon times, was an ancient demesne of the crown, was -granted to the See of Rochester by the Countess Goda (sister of King Edward the Confessor) and

* Vide Brown's "Works, Serious and Comical," vol. iii. p. 327. We dare not follow him in his visit to the interior.

From a list of benefactions to the Cathedral of Rochester, printed in Thorpe's " Registrum Roffense," p. 119; we cannot doubt but that the above Lady had a mansion here, as the record particularizes some ornaments belonging to the Countess which had been found at Lambeth by Ralph, the first keeper (custos) of the manor there, and by him conveyed to Rochester.

Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, her second husband, but the patronage of the church was withheld. Whilst it belonged to that See, it was occupied as a grange or farm, and a small Chapel was built for the use of the resident monks.

After a temporary dispossession in the early years of the Norman Dynasty, this manor, which had been attached to St. Mary's, or Lambeth, Church, was given back to the See of Rochester, by William the Conqueror, together with the Church itself; and the charter of that monarch was confirmed by his successor William Rufus.*

In the year 1189, Gilbert de Glanville, Bishop of Rochester, (at the instance of Richard Cœur de Lion), exchanged his Court (curia) at Lambeth, on the Thames, together with twenty-four acres, and one perch of his demesne without the court, with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, for other lands, &c. in the Isle of Grain. Baldwin had commenced a College for secular Canons, at Hackington, near Canterbury, but the jealousy of the Monks of Canterbury, and their influence with Pope Urban III., counteracted his designs, and he was obliged to demolish the buildings which he had raised. He then negotiated the above exchange, for the purpose of establishing his intended foundation at Lambeth, and having transported by water, the materials which he had prepared, immediately began a Collegiate church on this estate;

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*Copies of both grants have been given in Thorpe's Registrum Roffense," pp. 459 and 388.