PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

BANK OF ENGLAND, facing Cornhill. Open from 9 to 5, free. The apartments consist of a rotunda, public offices, private rooms, a library, printing office, an armoury, &c.

CHELSEA HOSPITAL, Chelsea. Open daily from 9 till dusk; a trifling gratuity insures admission. On one side of the building is a Chapel, and on the other the Hall, both of which are paved with black and white marble; in the former the altar-piece is ornamented by a picture of the Ascension by Sebastian Ricci; and in the latter, an equestrian portrait of Charles II. and other portraits; together with a fine allegorical painting of the Triumphs of the Duke of Wellington, by James West, R.A.

CUSTOM HOUSE, Lower Thames street. Open daily from 10 o'clock till 3; admission free. The long room, which extends nearly 200 feet, is an object of observation to all visiters. A sight of the Custom House, with the inmates in full activity, will give the beholder a just notion of the vast foreign traffic of England. Erected 1814.

DUKE OF YORK'S COLUMN, St. James's Park. Open daily, from 12 o'clock to 3; admission 6d. A majestic pale red granite column, 150 feet in height, erected to the memory of the late Duke of York, second son of George III., whose statue ornaments the summit, to which visiters are admitted by a staircase.

GREENWICH HOSPITAL, Greenwich. Open daily from 9 o'clock to dusk. A most noble national asylum for retired seamen. The Painted Hall is the chief attraction; it is shown at a charge of 3d. to each visiter, and the person who shows it will conduct strangers to the other parts of the building for a similar fee.

GUILDHALL, King street, Cheapside. Open daily, admission free. The Common Council, or City Parliament, meet here. The great hall, above 150 feet long, contains monuments to William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and his son, the distinguished premier of England, Lord Nelson, &c. &c., and two singular gigantic images, gaudily painted. The apartments adjoining the hall may be seen by giving a fee to the officer in attendance.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, Hampton Court. Admission daily (Friday excepted) from 10 till 6, from the 1st of April to the 1st of October, and the rest of the year from 10 to 4; and on Sundays, not till after 2 o'clock. The public Gardens are open daily from 7 in the morning till dusk; and, except on Sundays, a fine military band is in attendance. The private Garden, with the Orangery, the great Vine, and the Maze, may be seen by presenting a small fee to the gardener, except during the time of divine service. The state apartments contain upwards of 1000 paintings, many of which are of rare merit and inestimable value; besides which, Raphael's Cartoons, Henry the Eighth's hall, with its fine tapestries, the carvings in the chapel, &c. &c., will highly amuse the visiter. In the Park is an oak 38 feet in circumference, and some other remarkably fine trees. The great vine is 110 feet long, and usually bears from 2 to 3000 bunches of the black Hamburgh grape.

MANSION HOUSE, Poultry. Open daily from 10 o'clock to 3, free. The residence of the Lord Mayor during the year of his mayoralty. The Egyptian Hall and six other state rooms are magnificent, and are freely shown to visiters, who usually give a fee of 1s. to the female in atttendance.

The MINT, Tower hill. Open daily from 11 to 3, admission free. Persons in parties of not more than six are allowed to inspect the Mint, and to see the mode of coining money. Application, with name and address, must first be made to the deputy-master.

MONUMENT, Fish street hill. Open daily from 2 o'clock to dusk, admission 6d. A noble column, 202 feet high. Erected 1666, at a cost of £14,500., in memory of the great fire of London. A very ingenious allegorical sculpture ornaments one side, emblematical of the city's rising from its ruin under the hand of Time.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, Ludgate hill. Open daily from 10 o'clock to dusk, admission 4s. 4d. This cathedral is unrivalled in magnitude, except by St. Peter's at Rome. It has been three times destroyed by fire, and once much injured by lightning. The present edifice took 40 years to build. Let the spectator stand over Nelson's grave, exactly under the dome, and the eye will there take in the size and symmetry of the interior. The charge may be thus divided: -Monuments, 2d.; Galleries, 6d.; Vaults, 1s.; Clock, 2d.; Libraries, Models, &c. 1s.; Ball, 1s. 6d.

THAMES TUNNEL, Wapping and Rotherhithe. Open day and night, Toll, Id. As a bridge in this place would intercept the shipping, this tunnel or passage under the bed of the river, which has excited the attention of the whole world, was projected and executed with wonderful ingenuity and perseverance by Sir I. Brunel. Begun in 1822, completed in 1843. It is well aired and lighted with gas.

TOWER OF LONDON, Towerhill. Open daily from 10 o'clock to 4, admission, 1s. This national fortress, the oldest in England, contains the finest collections of arms and armour that this kingdom can boast of. The crown and all the state jewels are kept here, and shown to visiters. The Tower, being a state prison, is under the government of the Duke of Wellington, who is constable.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY, Palace yard. Westminster; entrance for visiters, Poet's corner. Open daily from 9 to dusk, admission 6d. The noblest specimen of Gothic architecture in the kingdom; both interior and exterior are of matchless beauty. The number of illustrious dead interred here, renders this spot doubly sacred to every English visiter.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Windsor. The state apartments, containing beautiful pictures, tapestry, carvings, &c. are exhibited daily to the public, and usually in the following order. The Queen's audience chamber, the walls of which are hung with tapestry and ornamented with carvings by Gibbons. The ceiling is painted by Verrio. Here Catharine, Queen of Charles II. is represented as Britannia seated in a triumphal car drawn by swans. The Queen's presence chamber; The guard-room, 78 feet long, and 31 broad, is fitted up with great appropriateness; being filled with armoury,

One of the most Chantrey, having

and the walls hung with guns, sabres, &c. remarkable objects is a bust of Nelson, by for its pedestal a portion of the mainmast of the Victory. Here also are busts and banners of the Dukes of Marlborough and Wellington; a table made from the wreck of the Royal George; Benvenuto Cellini's shield of silver, inlaid with gold, presented by Francis I. of France to Henry III.; and other objects of interest.

St. George's Hall is 200 feet in length, and 34 in breadth. It has a range of tall pointed-arch windows, looking upon the square. Its walls, panelled with dark oak, are hung with the portraits of eleven of our Sovereigns, from James I. to George IV. inclusively, by Vandyke, Lely, Kneller, Lawrence, &c., and heraldic insignia of the ancient knights of the Order of the Garter are borne on shields which surround the room. -The ball-room, 90 feet in length, 34 in breadth, and 33 in height, gorgeously gilt and fitted up, is hung with gobelin tapestries of Jason and the golden fleece, said to have adorned the apartments of Marie Antoinette.-The throne room ;The Waterloo gallery, one of the new state apartments, was designed chiefly as a museum for the trophies of the field of Waterloo. It contains the fine series of portraits painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and others, of the Princes, Warriors, and Statesmen who were instrumental in forwarding that great victory. The grand staircase; -The small vestibule; -The King's drawing-room, or Reuben's room, contains eleven paintings by that celebrated master; and the Vandyke room, (which is shown last,) upwards of 20 portraits and historical subjects by the distinguished artist whose name it bears. In the King's council chamber are about 35 paintings by Gaspar, Poussin, Rembrandt, Claude, Guido, Corraggio, &c.; and in the King's closet about 40 by other eminent artists. The Queen's closet contains twenty or thirty pictures of a similar class; and the Queen's drawing-room, six or seven landscapes by Zucarelli, and some portraits. The peculiar merits and beauties of the most admired paintings in the truly royal collection in Windsor Castle, it would be impossible here to specify: but, among them, attention may be directed to the celebrated" Misers" of Quentin Matsys, painted, it is said, by a blacksmith of Antwerp, as proof of his pretensions to the hand of another artist's daughter in hat city here are the "Titian and Aretin," one of the finest

specimens of the great Venetian school; the "Death of Cleopatra ;" and the "Venus attired by the Graces," of Guido; the Charles I. and the Duke of Hamilton ;' "the Family of Charles I." of Vandyke; the "Silence," of Annibal Carracci; and the "Beauties of the Court of Charles II." &c. &c. The remaining state apartments present an assemblage of such objects as are generally shown in our palaces and noble mansions. They are chiefly remarkable for their valuable paintings by the old masters.

WOOLWICH ARSENAL and DOCKYARD, Woolwich. Open daily from 9 to 11, and 1 to 4; free. Those who take an interest in the appliances of warfare, may form a just notion of England's military and naval power, by inspecting Woolwich and Deptford. Thousands of cannons, millions of shots and shells, specimens of powder making, a steam saw-mill, and a steam planing machine. In Woolwich Dockyard are shown the enormous forges for anchors, bolts, &c. While Woolwich is used for stores, Deptford Dockyard is more used for building ships. DEPTFORD DOCKYARD, Deptford; open daily from 10 to 3, free.

MUSEUMS.

BRITISH, Great Russell street, Bloomsbury. Open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, September 7th to May 1st, 10 o'clock to 4; May 7th to September 1st, 10 to 7; free. An unequalled collection of curiosities from all parts of the world, amongst which will be found specimens of minerals, stuffed animals, insects, marine productions, statuary, Roman and Egyptian antiquities, an immense library, a variety of portraits, paintings, prints, &c. The Museum is closed the first seven days in January, May and September. Founded in pursuance of the will of Sir Hans Sloane, 1753.

COLLEGE OF SURGEONS', Lincoln's Inn Fields. Open the first four days in the week, from 12 to 4; closed in September. Admission by personal introduction or written order of a member of the college. It contains the embalmed body of Van Butchell's wife, in a mahogany case; dwarf and