Gracechurch Street, orginally styled Grasse Street, or Grassechurch Street, derives its name from an herb-market which was anciently held on its site. It was corrupted in the first instance into Gracious Street, and thence into Gracechurch Street. In a poem styled the "Nine Worthies of London," printed in black letter, in 1592, we find :

"In Gracious Street, there was I bound to serve,
My master's name hight Stodie in his time."

In White Hart Court, the entrance to which is all that is now left, died, in 1690, the celebrated George Fox, the father of the Quakers; and at his lodgings in Nag's Head Court, now Lombard Street, leading out of Gracechurch Street into Lombard Street, died, in 1737, Matthew Green, the poet, the well-known author of "The Spleen." To the west of Gracechurch Street is Lombard Street. This street derives its name from the opulent money-lenders, or usurers, who came out of Lombardy in 1274, and who carried on their money transactions in this street from the reign of Edward the First to that of Elizabeth. Here, in the direction of Birchin Lane, stood the mansion of that powerful race, the De la Poles, Earls of Pembroke and Dukes of Suffolk. The founder of this family was Sir William de la Pole, a merchant at Kingston-upon-Hull, who, in the tenth year of the reign of Edward the Third, contracted to supply the army in Scotland with wine, salt, and other pro

visions. Three years afterward, when Edward was in urgent need of money for the support of his army, we find the wealthy merchant advancing him the sum of a thousand pounds in gold, for which important service the king constituted him. second baron of the exchequer, advanced him to the rank of knight banneret, and conferred on him a grant out of the customs of Hull, for the better support of his new dignity. He was ancestor of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, the prime minister and declared favourite of Margaret of Anjou, now principally remembered from the discomfiture he received from Joan d'Arc beneath the walls of Orleans, and whose melancholy fate has been before referred to. His honours were inherited by his eldest son, John, the fifth earl, who was created Duke of Suffolk in 1463, and who married the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister of King Edward the Fourth. The last of this gallant race, in the male line, was Richard de la Pole, third duke, who, after performing acts of heroic valour, was killed at the battle of Pavia, in 1524.

In Lombard Street, at the sign of the Grasshopper, lived the princely merchant, Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of Gresham College and of the Royal Exchange. The site (No. 68) is now occupied by a banking establishment. In the reign of Charles the Second we find the Grasshopper, the sign of another wealthy goldsmith, Sir Charles Duncombe, the founder of the Fever

sham family, and the purchaser of Helmsley, in Yorkshire, the princely seat of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham.

"Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight,
Yields to a scrivener and a city knight."

Here also resided Sir Robert Viner, Lord Mayor of London in 1675, and apparently an especial favourite with Charles the Second. The "merry monarch" once did him the honour to dine with him during his mayoralty, when, having remained as long as was agreeable to himself, he rose to depart. The citizen, however, having indulged rather freely in his own wines, caught hold of the king, and declared with an oath that he should remain and drink another bottle. Charles looked good-humouredly at him over his shoulder, and repeating, with a smile, a line of an old song:

"He that's drunk is as great as a king,"

sat down again, and remained as long as his host wished.

It was in Lombard Street, on the 22d of May, 1688, that Pope, the poet, first saw the light. Spence was informed by Nathaniel Hooke, the historian, that it was "at the house which is now Mr. Morgan's, an apothecary," but it is impossible now to ascertain its site. Thomas Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital, was a bookseller in Lombard Street.

The church of St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, has been thought to stand on the site of a temple dedicated to the goddess of concord; and the remains of Roman antiquity, which have from time to time been discovered near the spot, have added some slight weight to the supposition. The origin of the name escaped the researches of Stow. The old edifice having been destroyed by the fire of London, the present church was rebuilt in 1716, by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. The originality and boldness of its exterior, the richness and elegance of its internal decorations, the graceful arrangement of the columns, and the fine workmanship of the pulpit and sounding-board, have been deservedly admired. There is a tablet in the church to the memory of the Rev. John Newton, Rector of Olney, in Buckinghamshire, the friend of Cowper, and his associate in the composition of the Olney hymns. The inscription on his monument, written by himself, describes him as having been "once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, but by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy." Newton had been brought up to a seafaring life, and in early youth had been engaged in the slave-trade. He died on the 21st of December, 1807, at the age of eighty-two, having been for twenty-eight years rector of the united parishes

of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch. His remains lie in a vault beneath the church.

On the north side of Lombard Street stands the church of St. Edmund the King, dedicated to the Saxon King Edmund, who was murdered by the Danes in 870. The history of its foundation, like that of St. Mary Woolnoth, is lost in antiquity. The present church, remarkable for having its altar to the north, was erected by Wren in 1690. Notwithstanding its extreme simplicity of design, the fine proportious of the interior, as well as the picturesque effect produced by its richly carved pulpit, galleries, and pews, all of dark oak, have found it many admirers. The altar-piece presents some bold carvings, and on each side of the communiontable are portraits of Moses and Aaron, executed by Etty in 1833.

Facing the east end of Lombard Street is Fenchurch Street, so called, it is said, from the fenny nature of the ground on which it was originally built; but according to others, from the fænum, or hay, which was sold here. Here stood Denmark House, the residence, in the reign of Philip and Mary, of the first Russian ambassador who was sent to this country. He arrived here in 1557, shortly after the formation of the Russian Company; and as it was to the interest of the merchants of London to impress the mind of the barbarian envoy with a favourable notion of the wealth and resources of England, they deter