s, without interruption from the weather,
or impediments of any kind." The Corporation met the proposal with
a spirit of equal liberality; and in 1566 various buildings, houses,
tenements, &c. in Cornhill, were purchased for rather more than L3,530,
and the materials re-sold for L478, on condition of pulling them down
and carrying them away.--The ground plot was then levelled at the charge
of the City, and possession given to Sir Thomas, who in the deed is
styled, "Agent to the Queen's Highness," and who laid the foundation of
the new Exchange on the 7th of June following; and the whole was covered
in before November 1567.

The plan adopted by Sir Thomas, in the formation of his building, was
similar to the one at Antwerp. An open area was inclosed by a quadrangle
of lofty stone-buildings, with a colonnade as at present, supported,
by marble columns of the Doric order, over which ran a cornice, with
Ionic pilasters above, having niches between, containing statues of the
English Sovereigns. The entrances were from Cornhill and Broad-street.
Over the first, between two Ionic three-quarter columns, were the Royal
Arms, and on either side were those of the City and Sir Thomas; on the
north side, but not exactly in the centre, rose a Corinthian pillar
to about the same height as the tower in front surmounted with the
grasshopper. In every other respect it was similar to the south, of
which the previous engraving is a view.

Over the arcade were shops, to which you ascended by two staircases,
north and south. Above stairs were about[1] one hundred shops, varying
from 2-3/4 feet to 20 in breadth and forming a sort of bazaar, then
called the Pawne. These shops, for the first two or three years did not
answer the expectation of the founder, for such was the force of habit,
that the merchants, notwithstanding all the inconveniences attending
Lombard-street, could not be prevailed upon to avail themselves of the
new mart.

[1] From an old Vestry-book belonging to St. Michael's we also
learn the rents of the shops, which were at first only forty
shillings, in the course of a few years were raised to four
marks; afterwards to four pounds, and after the fire they were
let at ten shillings per foot.

The building had been opened two or three years, when the Queen
signified her intention of paying it a visit of inspection; but so
many of the shops still remained unoccupied, that Sir Thomas found