on the west, the Mercers' arms; and, on the east, the arms of Sir Thomas Gresham, with appropriate enrichments. Between the piers of the upper entablature, within square attic borderings, are twentyfive large niches, containing figures of twenty-one of our Sovereigns, (four being vacant), viz. on the south side, Edward I. Edward III. Henry V. and Henry VI.; on the west, Edward IV. Edward V. Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; on the north, Edward VI. Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James I. Charles I. Charles II. and James II.; on the east, within a conjoined, or double niche, are William and Mary; George I. George II. and George III. These figures are partly in armour, and partly in Roman habits the Queens are in the dresses of their respective times. Though most of them were originally gilt, they are now of a plain stone colour. The statue of his late Majesty, which was placed here in March 1764, was executed by Wilton, those of George the Ist and IId were sculptured by Rysbrach, and the major part of the others by Caius Gabriel Cibber. On different parts of the roof are four lofty weather-cocks, which communicate with wind-dials in the interior. Under the projections of the north and south fronts, on the right of each entrance, are spacious flights of steps leading to the galleries, which form a regular communication through the upper floors, and connect with the various offices and apartments into which they are divided: there is, likewise, a third staircase on the west side. Originally, the above offices were opened as shops of different descriptions,but chiefly of the more rich and showy articles, but they are now occupied by the Royal-Exchange Assurance Offices, the Lord-Mayor's Court Office, Lloyd's Coffee House Subscription and Committee Rooms, the Merchant's Seamen's Office, the Gresham Lecture Room, the Marine Society's Office, and divers Countinghouses for merchants, underwriters, &c.; the shops surrounding the exterior are chiefly tenanted by lottery-office keepers, newspaper offices, book and print sellers, stationers, musical and mathematical instrument makers, watch and clock makers, notaries, and stock-brokers. At the beginning of the last century, the shops connected with this fabric amounted to nearly 200 their present number does not exceed forty. Beneath the edifice are capacious vaults which are divided into six portions, and let to different bankers.† The Gresham Lectures, for the support of which a portion of the rental of this edifice was appropriated by the founder, were the first of a scientific nature that were ever gratuitously submitted to the public. This, it has been judiciously remarked, "was linking Commerce with knowledge,—at all times its ablest and most honourable ally,"—yet either from inatten * Maitland says, vide" History of London," p. 467: edit. 1739, "The upper part of the Royal Exchange (till of late) was completely filled with shops, stored with the richest and choicest sorts of Merchandize; but the same being now forsaken, it appears like a wilderness." For many years the vaults were rented by the East-India Company for the stowage of pepper. tion, or purposed negligence, they fail most lamentably in answering the beneficial purpose of their institution. The Lectures were originally delivered at Sir Thomas's house in Old Broad-street, which in consequence obtained the name of Gresham College, but after that edifice was sold to the Commissioners of Excise, under an Act of Parliament passed in 1768, an apartment in the Royal Exchange was appropriated and fitted up for a Lecture room. By the same act, the annual salary of each Lecturer was increased to 1001. an additional 501. being given in lieu of the household accommodations that were first provided in the College: Lecturers, also, were authorized to retain their respective situations even in the marriage state, which was not permitted under the original injunctions of the Founder's will. The inadequacy of the Gresham Lectures to effect any useful purpose has been for many years a subject of complaint, and the respective Professorships are now almost complete sinecures. It is true, the public are not excluded from attending them, but the arrangements, in respect to time, are so precise, and the Lectures so purposely uninteresting in themselves, that few persons care to be at the trouble of seeking admission a second time. Generally speaking, the discourses do not keep pace with the present advanced state of science and learning, and they are delivered in such a spiritless manner, that but little impression is made by them, either upon the ear or upon the mind. The Lecture room is at the eastern extremity of the south front, and opens from the gallery. It is a lofty apartment, conveniently arranged, with a rostrum, or tribune, for the Lecturer, and benches for an audience of 100 persons, or upwards. The Lectures are delivered in term-time only, agreeably to the practice of the Universities: they are then read twice daily, the first time in Latin, precisely at 12 o'clock at noon; the second time in English, precisely at 1 o'clock, the duration of each being from about twenty minutes to half an hour.-According to the present regulations, which seem adapted to render the Professorships as nearly sinecures as possible, the doors are open exactly as the clock strikes, and should there not be three persons attending for admission, they are immediately closed again, and no Lecture is delivered on that day.* The following Inscription was placed over the south entrance, within the quadrangle, on the rebuilding of this edifice after the Great Fire. Hoc Greshamii Peristylivm MDCLXIX Willo Turnero Milite Prætore. *Since the above was written the state of the Gresham Lectures has been made a subject of discourse in the Court of Common Council, and the question of making them more generally beneficial and efficient has been referred to a Committee. In Donald Lupton's " London, &c. carbonadoed and quartred into severell Characters," originally printed in 1532, and reprinted in the 1st volume of Park's Supplement to the " Harleian Miscellany," 1812, is the following character of the "Exchanges, Old and New." "The one of these came from Antwerp, the other from a stable :* the one was Dutch, yet made denizen; the other was not so at the beginning, but did exchange his name and nature. The Merchants are, generally, men of good habit, their words are generally better than their consciences; their discourse ordinarily begins in water, but ends in wine. The frequenting the walks twice a day, and a careless laughter, argues they are sound: if they visit not once a day, 'tis suspected they are cracking or broken. Their countenance is ordinarily shaped by their success at sea, either merry, sad, or desperate; they are like ships at sea, top and top-gallant this day, tomorrow sinking. The sea is a tennis-court, their states are balls, the wind is the racket, and doth strike many for lost under line, and many in the hazard. They may seem to be acquainted with Athens, for they all desire news. Some of them do keep two brittle vessels, their ships and their wives; the latter has less ballast and that makes them so light: the merchants respect the former most, for if that sink or be overthrown, they fall; but the fall of the latter is oftentimes the advancing of their heads. Conscience is sold here for nought, because it is as old sermons, a dead commodity. They will dissemble with, and cozen one another; though all the kings that ever were, since the conquest, overlooked them. Here are usually more coaches attendant than at church-doors. The New Exchange was erected in 1608, on the site of the stabling of Durham House, in the Strand, but Lupton's words particularly refer to the Royal Exchange, |