sual, in favour of the Americans.

Rumour has it, and it has been said before, that some "collector" (from
America, of course) has purchased this humble shrine, and intends to erect
it again across the seas, but no verification of this is possible at this
writing.

Whether it had any real being in Dickens' story, the enthusiast, in view
of the facts, must decide for him or herself.

_"And now at length he's brought_
_Unto fair London City_
_Where, in Fleet Street,_
_All those many see 't_
_That will not believe my ditty."_

--_Butler._

A half-century ago Temple Bar might have been described as a gateway of
stone separating the Strand from Fleet Street--the City from the shire.

This particular structure was erected from designs by Sir Christopher Wren
in 1670, and from that day until long after Dickens' death, through it
have passed countless throngs of all classes of society, and it has always
figured in such ceremony of state as the comparatively infrequent visits
of the sovereign to the City. The invariable custom was to close the gate
whenever the sovereign had entered the City, "and at no other time."

The ceremony was simple, but formal: a herald sounds a trumpet--another
herald knocks--a parley--the gates are thrown open and the lord mayor,
_pro tempo._, hands over the sword of the City to the sovereign. It was
thus in Elizabeth's time, and it had changed but little throughout
Victoria's reign.

The present structure is Temple Bar only in name, being a mere guide-post
standing in the middle of the roadway; not very imposing, but it serves
its purpose. The former structure was removed in the eighties, and now
graces the private park of an estate at Walthamstow.

For long before it was taken down, its interior space was leased to
"Childs," the bankers, as a repository or storage-place for their old
ledgers. Thus does the pomp of state make way for the sordidness of trade,
and even the wealthy corporation of the City of London was not above
turning a penny or two as additional revenue.

The following details of Furnival's Inn, which since Dickens' time has
disappeared, are pertinent at this time.

"Firnivalles Inn, now an Inn of Chancery, but some time belonging to Sir
William Furnival, Knight," is the introduction to the description given by
Stow in his "Annals." The greater part of the old inn was taken down in
the time of Charles I., and the buildings remaining in Dickens' day,