as a stand for his large telescope. Pope makes this the locality where the heroes of the Dunciad assemble.

"Where the tall may-pole once o'erlooked the Strand,
But now (so Anne and piety ordain)

A church collects the saints of Drury-lane!

St. Martin's-lane, erected between the years 1721 and1726, at a cost of £37,000, from designs by Gibbs, on the site of a church which was taken down in 1721. At the west end is a portico, which for utility, compact beauty, and perfect unity of combination, is unsurpassed in the metropolis: it.

consists of six Corinthian columns in front, and two on the return, supporting a pediment: the cornice and entablature, crowned by a balustrade, are continued along the sides of the church, together with pilasters to correspond with the columns. The tower is surmounted by a fine spire; the whole forming a noble work, not unworthy of Wren in his brightest days; and almost justifies the high eulogy of Savage, in the "Wanderer:"

"O Gibbs! whose art the solemn fane can raise Where God delights to dwell and man to praise." The interior of the church is a perfect picture of architectural beauty and neatness of accommodation. Columns, of the Corinthian order, support an elliptical arched roof; a form supposed to be particularly adapted to assist the propogation of sound. All the parts are nicely distributed; and nothing can be added and nothing can be taken away. It is complete in itself; and refuses the admission of all other ornament. In the vestry room is a well executed model of the church, also portraits of the incumbents since the year 1670, and a bust of Dr. Richards.

ST. JAMES',

Piccadilly, built by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1684, is a plain edifice, with rusticated stone quoins and architraves. The harmony of proportion in the interior is truly admirable. It is divided transversely by two ranges of Corinthian columns supporting the roof, which have an imposing appearance. Over the altar is some exquisite carving of fruit and foliage, by the celebrated Grimling Gibbons: the elaborate font, of white marble, is also by the same artist; it is supported by a column representing the tree of life, with the serpent twining round it: on the bason is a representation of the baptism of Christ in the river Jordan, and two other scriptural subjects.

Here were buried Dr. Akenside, the author of "Pleasures of the Imagination" and Tom D'Urfey, the wit and poet of the time of Charles II., who died 1723. A plain stone to his memory is affixed on the south side of the tower. There is also a tablet in honour of Dr. Sydenham.

Whitehall. This noble room, forty feet high, formerly the banquetting hall, was converted by George I. into a chapel royal, in which service is performed every Sunday morning and afternoon. The ceiling, representing the apotheosis of James I., which is treated in nine compartments, was painted by Rubens, and has since been

retouched by Cipriani; the former having received £5000 for his labour, and the latter £2000.

ST. MARY'S,

Lambeth-walk. This church is remarkable as having afforded a temporary shelter from the rain to Maria D'Este, Queen of James II., who after crossing the water from Whitehall, remained here on the night of December 6th, 1688, till a coach took her to Gravesend. The tower, which is eighty-seven feet high, was erected in 1735, and the body of the church about the close of the fifteenth century. In one of the windows is the figure of a pedlar, and his dog, who bequeathed to the parish a piece of land, still known as Pedlar's Acre. In the south aisle is the monument of the celebrated antiquary, Elias Ashmole; and in the chancel there are several of the archbishops of Canterbury. The churchyard contains the tomb of the Tradescants, founders of the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, erected in 1662, and restored at the expense of the parish in 1773, when the following inscription, originally intended for it, was engraved upon the stone.

Know stranger, ere thou pass, beneath this stone
Lye John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son;
The last died in his spring; the other two
Liv'd till they had travell'd Art and Nature thro',
As by their choice collections may appear,
Of what is rare, in land, in sea, in air:
Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad in a nut)
A world of wonders in one closet shut:
These famous Antiquarians, that had been
Both gardeners to the Rose and Lilly Queen,
Transplanted now themselves, sleep here, and wh n
Angels shall with their trumpets waken men,

And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise,
And change this garden for a paradise.

D

ST. HELEN'S,

Bishopsgate, is a singularly quaint and picturesque structure, and is one of the four London churches which escaped the great fire. Three years before that event, Hatton informs us (1708), "it had upwards of £1,300 laid out in the repair and beautifying thereof: it was last repaired, and the small tower built, in the year 1699.” It is but a fragment of the original structure, consisting of a nave and side aisle only. The spot has been sacred ground for ages; for here was a priory of black nuns, founded before the reign of Henry III., by William Baring, Dean of St. Paul's; and another William Baring, one of the Sheriffs in the second year of Edward II. It contains a series of antique open seats; a beautiful Elizabethan pulpit; and an exceedingly curious and beautiful series of monuments, among which may be mentioned those of Sir John Crosby and his wife, the inhabitants of the celebrated Hall adjoining, a building immortalised by Shakspeare; of Sir John Spencer; Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange; Sir William Pickering; William Bury, a friend of Gresham, and "flower of merchants," as his epitaph tells us; and his son, Martin, who was captain, in the year 1588, at the camp at Tilbury " with many other London worthies.

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ST. GEORGE'S,

Hanover-spuare. Erected in 1724, from the designs of Mr. John James. It has a noble portico of six Corinthian columns, supporting an entablature and pediment above; but behind which is a turret, ornamented with columns, and terminating with a dome. It contains an altar-piece, by West; and a neat marble font.