ous design, was erected by the Corporation in 1884, from the
designs of Sir Horace Jones, City Architect. The Court of Aldermen's
present chamber was built in the latter half of the seventeenth century,
and is a small but handsome room. The ceiling is painted with
allegorical figures of the City of London--Prudence, Justice,
Temperance, and Fortitude--executed by Sir James Thornhill, who was
presented by the Corporation with a gold cup of L225 7s. in value.
Around the walls and in the windows are shields containing the arms of
most of the Lord Mayors of the last 127 years.

[Illustration: THE GUILDHALL.

_Engraved by R. Acom, 1828._]

The artistic decoration of the Guildhall and its various apartments
includes monuments, busts, and portraits of men whom the City has
delighted to honour. In the great hall are the monuments to Admiral Lord
Nelson, by J. Smith; to the "Iron Duke," by J. Bell; to the Earl of
Chatham, by Bacon, with inscription by Burke; to the younger Pitt, by
Bubb, with Canning's inscription; and to Alderman Beckford, by Moore. On
Beckford's monument is inscribed, in letters of gold, the speech which
that famous citizen addressed, or is said to have addressed, as Lord
Mayor, to King George IV. on his throne. Around the hall were formerly
hung portraits of twenty-two judges who assisted in the special Court of
Judicature appointed to decide the disputes which arose as to sites of
property in the City after the Great Fire. These portraits, which are
now hung in the old Common Council chamber, were painted at the
Corporation's expense by Michael Wright, Sir Peter Lely having declined
the commission because the judges refused to wait upon him at his house
for the necessary sittings. In the vestibule of the council chambers are
a series of portrait-busts of statesmen, philanthropists, warriors, and
men of high eminence in the general estimation of their
fellow-countrymen. The decoration of the outer lobby was executed as a
memorial of his shrievalty in 1889-90 by the late Alderman Sir Stuart
Knill, Bart., and exhibits the Corporation and the City Livery Companies
in a very pleasing symbolical design.

At the west end of the great hall are two law courts, where the City
judges, the Recorder, and the Common Sergeant administer justice in the
Mayor's Court. The aldermen sit in rotation as magistrates in the Police
Court in the Guildhall Yard, and in Guildhall Buildings is the City of
London Court (anciently th