. We spent one day in riding about the
city, and I think we got quite an idea of the great streets.

The Strand is a very fine business street, perhaps a mile long. It
widens in one part, and has two churches in the middle of it, and a
narrow street seems built inside it at one place, as nasty, dirty a lane
as I ever saw, called Hollowell Street. I was very much delighted at the
end of the Strand to see old Temple Bar, which is the entrance to the
city proper, and which divides Fleet Street from the Strand. It is a
noble archway, with small side arches for foot passengers. The head of
many a poor fellow, and the quarters of men called traitors, have been
fastened over this gateway in former times.

Dr. Johnson was once walking in Westminster Abbey with Goldsmith, and as
they were looking at the Poet's Corner, Johnson said to his friend,--

"Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis."

When they had walked on to Temple Bar, Goldsmith stopped Johnson, and
pointed to the heads of Fletcher and Townley, hanging above, and slyly
remarked,--

"Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur _istis_."

I suppose you remember that the great dictionary man was a Jacobite in
his heart.

The present bar was put up in 1670, and was designed by Sir Christopher
Wren. The statues on the sides, which are towards the city, are those of
Queen Elizabeth and James I.; and towards the Strand, those of Charles
I. and Charles II. They stand in niches.

Whenever the monarch passes into the city, there is much ceremony takes
place at the bar. The gates are closed, a herald sounds a trumpet and
knocks for entrance, the gates are opened, and the lord mayor of London
presents the sword of the city to the sovereign, who returns it to his
lordship. The upper part of the bar is used by Messrs. Childs, the
bankers, as a store room for their past account books.

Fleet Street is thronged with passengers and carriages of all sorts.
Just a few doors from the bar, on the right-hand side, is a
gayly-painted front, which claims to have been a palace of Henry VIII.
and the residence of Cardinal Wolsey. It is now used as a hair-cutting
shop, up stairs. We went up and examined the panelled ceiling, said to
be just as it used to be. It is certainly very fine, and looks as if it
were as old as the times of bluff Harry. Of course we had our hair cut
in the old palace.

We followed through Fleet Street, noticing the offices of Punch and the
London Illust