Over the present carriage way," was totally altered by the erection of a beautiful building instead thereof, in the very same place *. Of this building, which originally, from its founder, obtained the name of SALISBURY EXCHANGE, the first stone was laid on the 10th day of June, 1608; its exterior was finished in the November next ensuing; and its interior, which contained seventy-six shops, completed on Tuesday, the 10th of April, 1609, on which day it was opened †. Seymour, Vol. II, p. 493. The plan of this building was something like that of the Royal Exchange, London. There were spacious cellars underneath, rows of shops in the ground story, and other rows, which were deemed the principal, in that above. In this magazine of fashion, and, as Addison says, "Hive of industrious females," every article of dress, of ornament, of faruiture, was to be purchased, and many of literature; for we find that several of the plays that were unquestionably fashionable in those times were there published: of these we shall mention two instances :-- "A MATCH AT MIDNIGHT. A plesant Comedie. As it hath been acted by the Children of the Revels. "Written by WR "LONDON Printed by Aug. Matthewes for William Sheares, and are to be sold at his shop in BRITTAINES BURSSE 1633 (4to.) "THE EMPRESS OF MOROCCO. A Tragedy with Sculptures. As it is acted at the Duke's Theatre. Written by Elkanah Settle, servant to his Majesty. -Petr. Arb. Primos de versibus annos"London. Printed for William Cademan at the Popes Head in the New Exchange in the Strand. 1673." 4to. acted at the Duke's Theatre. W. R. unquestionably are the initials of William Rowley, who was not only a writer of plays in the reign of James the Ist, but also an actor belonging to the company of the Prince of Wales. The characters which he used to perform were chiefly comie. He left five plays, which are printed; and one in which it is said he was assisted by Shakspeare, also printed, and five in MS. He also was concerned in eight others, though, it is said, not principally. Part of the plot of A Match at Midnight, viz. the design of Jart is hiding Bloodhound under the widow's bed, is similar to a circumstance in an old story in the English Rogue, Partiv, Chap. 19. The bed has, in many instances, been transformed to a table. We think that in The Citizen was the last. § Elkanah Settle, the last of our civic laureats, was, through life, much more ingenious Europ. Mag, Fol. LL, March 1907. On the following day the New ExCHANGE exhibited a splendid spectacle. This play, written in high heroic verse, is the object of much attention among the connoisseurs in those articles, for two reasons: first, because it was the earliest that was ever published with engraved embellishments, (a circumstance which so enhanced the price, that it was sold at the enormous sum of two shillings ;) and, secondly, because it was a party piece, its author being then considered not only as the poetical, but political, fiddle of the town. This civic laureat happened at that time to be a Tory: his production, therefore, found its way to Court, where it was acted by the Lord's and Ladies of the Bedchamber. It consequently excited the envy of Dryden, Shadwell, and Crown, who all wrote against it; but elicited the approbation of the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Rochester, who supported it with all their wit and all their influence, So that it is not much to be wondered that they had the best of the argument. than fortunate. If his poverty, in many respects, seems to have been the subject of the unmanly triumph of Pope, who descended even to satyrize his dress: "Known by the band and suit that Settle on, Condemn'd at last to hiss in my own dragon.” Pope. When men of genius are not only extremely ill-natured, but extremely incorrect, we like of talents and a violation of truth. In Pope, to endeavour to account for a prostitution gious or political malignity. Settle had sethese were probably the emanations of reli ceded from the Tories, and enlisted under the banners of the Whigs; and as new conactive with his pen, but was employed verts are always violent, he was not only "To head the bold Train-bands, and burn the Pope;" a Whig auto de fe, which was, on the 17th of November, A.D. 1680, conducted with singular state and solemnity. This, with his writings, which were strong and sharp, was sufficient to embalm his memory in the Dunciad. But what could have induced the eccentric Divine, who had, in many respects, more need of indulgence to his foibles then the A a Most of the shops were furnished with a profusion of articles, equally new, faShionable, and costly, for the inspection of his Majesty, James the Ist, who arrived there, with his Queen, the Prince, the Duke of York, and the Princess Elizabeth, attended by many Lords and Ladies. Such a magnificent company conferred instant celebrity upon the fabric. The King, &c. walked through all the rows, examined many of the beautiful productions, probably animate as well as inanimate; and, as a mark of his royal condescension, ordered the place to be called BRITAIN'S Burse; though it does not appear long to have retained this appellation, as we find, from many notices, that it was generally known by the name of the New Exchange. Whether its transactions were the subjects of the comedy of Richard Brome, entitled the New Exchange, and also the New Academy,, we have not had an opportunity to ascertain. It is mentioned in several of the Spectators, Tatlers, and other periodical works of the early part of the eighteenth century; it has afforded scenes for many comedies written.. in the sixteenth; and it is most probable, during its vogue, abundance of subjects both for comedies, and, we fear, tragedies. The New Exchange was, like Bond-street at present, considered, in the reign of Charles the IId, as the emporium of fashion, and is said to have excited the jealousy of the Old Exchange in the city; as no girl who came to town to rub off the rust which was supposed to adhere to provincial drapery could be deemed properly equipped, until she had passed through the hands of its various female artists, (for it is a pleasing trait of those times, to consider that the artists who formed the trading company of the New Exchange were all females) till she had, had her hair cut by the ingenious Bat Pidgeon, and furnished herself with triukets from the brilliant magazine of trifles, under the direction of Charles Bub City poet, to set his dragon again to hiss. for the amusement of the Anti-Cibberian Bard, we are yet to learn. Seule was certainly a man of genits, or he would not have been worth the asperity of his opposers. He wrote, alas! for bread; but after a life of labour, trouble, and disappointment, we are happy to add, that he found a confortable sylum in that noble and trufy philanthroper institu tion, the Charter-house, where he died, February 12, 1723-4. bleboy, or his tasteful precursor. Whet a young lady had thus armed herself at all points, if she had the good fortune to escape from the snares and pursuits of the Smarts and Templars, who, foward the close of the seventeenth century, had got the knack of crying Westward Hoe, she made a blaze in the country, which generally secured to her that eminence, applause, and reward, which those who, loaded with conquest, return in safety from hazardous expeditions, deserve. We might here quote the story of the White Milliner, said to have been the wife of RICHARD TALBOT, Lord Deputy of Ireland under James the Ild, and titular Duchess of TYRCONNEL; who is also said, after the death of her husband, to have appeared at the New Exchange, in the humble character of a vender of ribauds, caps, &c., and, from her wearing a white mask, to have obtained the appellation of the White Milliner. But this rests upon very slender authority. In that age of universal masquerade, it is not improbable but some female might have taken to such a freak, perhaps to draw custom to her shop; for where was the. girl, or the gallant, to be found, that would not have crowded to be served by A DUCHESS? but who the lady be hind the white mask actually was, is as much the sport of conjecture as the man whose face was fettered with the iron mask, and is now as little likely to be explained. Through the reign of Charles the IId, and to the beginning of the eighteenth century, the New Exchange was in its most flourishing state. From that period it began to decline. In the year 1730, its lower shops were nearly abaudoned, and its upper converted into a warehouse and show-rooms for a looking glass manufactory. It soon after was taken down, and the buildings that now occupy its site erected upon the spot. ple of Ethiopia, whom he calls Rhizophages, who live on roots. He is supposed to have meant the roots of sugarcanes; but we are inclined to think, that his idea might be, without any violent perversion of sense, extended to those who grub up the roots or foundations of buildings, and whose daily bread is dilap lation. This, in its double sense, most happily applies to those Irish labourers who, under the five foot rod of some such sage enchanter as we commemorated in our first speculation, are employed to form "antres vast and deberts idle:" which word, although cavilled at by Pope, is stated by Johnson to be beautifully poetical, and to mean places laid waste, uncultivated, and rendered useless; and therefore it may most correctly be applied to the artificial desert which adorns the City of Westminster, It is, we think, with our architectural friends as with silversmiths, who are apt, for the benefit of trade, to melt all the plate, whether it be old or new fashioned, that comes into their hands: so we, stimulated by such excellent examples, like to clear all around us; and there fore, before we proceed to examine (the site of the premises, more fully mean to explain our motto, which is at present less intelligible than the dialect of the Jaheleen Arabs, or the characters upon the golden circle of the dial of Osmandyes. We, therefore, come to the Anthropophagi; the appellation that has been given to several tribes that are occasonally seen on the verge of the great desert of Westminster. Some of these have, according to the author that we have quoted, divided tongues*; so that they are not only enabled to speak the vernacular dialect, but likewise a jargon of their own, which none but adepts can understand. In the colour of their dress, these people are fond of imitating that or the undress of the Ethiopiaus. At certain periods, or terms, they assemble in bands, and with wigs that resemble the manes of Numidian lions, in an ancicat building supposed to be dedicated to politeness, because there are in it four Courts: they are believed to have among them a strong sense of religion, as many of them are almost constantly to be found in the two Temples: others are said to inhabit several Inns, where they study the noble science of defence, 48 Diodor, Sicul, lib. iii. "Are tura'd;" which we take most accurately to designate those ingenious IcnNOGRAPHISTS, who, in conjunction with some of those above mentioned, planned, or rather who reduced, a great, and really beautiful, part of the city of Westminster to a ground plot; which, we conceive, has been done as effectually as it would have been if the powder plot had unfortanately operated. That this twist of the head, this contortion of the brain, for which it would puzzle the ingenuity of the great Dr. all to account, should have turned some of the wisest pericraniumus of the nation from the EAST to the WEST, from the Peerless pools of Blackawati and Wapping to the concealed marshes of Thorng, and, in a few months, have induced them to denude parts which our ancestors have been, ever since the Conquest, endeavouring to cover, is a problem, the drift of which can only be seen by much more sharp-sighted SURVEYORS than ourselves. When, in the East, we first received advices of what was doing or undoing in the West, we-treated them exactly as we should have dene the pages of Munchausen, or ***** or a collection ofrench bulletins; that is to say, we did not believe a single word they con tained, But as every paper brought fresh intelligence, and each, thro this most excellent circulating media served to confirm the other, we b to stretch our credulity, and to to the fall of "local habitations little credit. Now paper-credit is of such a nature, that it. in a establishes itself: let its texture be ever so flimsy, one piece seems to support another ad infinitum: therefore we endeavoured, in corroboration, to collect the intelligence of travellers from the WESTERN hemisphere, who, as they do in other instances, though upon a much larger scale, frequently arrive to speculate in the EASTERN. From these, who, whether they want to fund, or dread to refund, never raise any false reports; who, simple as shepherds, travel to market with their scrip, and are, indeed, the only adventurers, since the days of Robinson Crusoe, upon whose intelligence you can implicitly rely; we every hour heard, that while things were rising at one cardinal point they were fulling at its opposite. Nodding roofs, tumbling towers, and all the vagaries of tremendous art, became familiar to our ears. Westminster, we understood, was, like Bedlam, to be improved, by dilapidating its buildings and destroying its streets; that the Park was probably to be thrown open, the canal dried up; and that without Long Ditch could fortunately be recovered, there was not, in imitation of Arabia the Stony, to be left water enough to float a tame duck or a lame duck. In the East, we do not wonder that they delight in wet, because they love to go to the Bank and dabble; but in Westminster, they have always, at least since we have known it, endeavoured to keep their lower extremities dry, though they sometimes give a little whet to their upper. Having made these observations, with a view to show the principle that induced us to undertake the arduous task of exploring the great desert, which, like an island in the Neapolitan Bay, had lately appeared in the midst of an ancient city, and, from motives of patriotism, curiosity, and erudition, fully resolved to accomplish the survey, whatsoever pains it might cost; we some, time pondered what characters to assume, in order to secure our persons among those ferocious tribes which are frequently known to infest wastes. Like one of our great precursors, we might have appeared as PRYSICIANS; but as we considered that, among a people whose heads had betrayed such alarming symptoms, we might have been put in requisition; besides that, we had but a small smattering of their language, and wrote intelligible, we declined this assumption: AS MAGISTRATES going to the Guildhall, which still remains, it would have been useless to have exhibited our persons, because we conceived, that all concerned in the alarming dilapidation that we were about to investigate, had taken the business out of our hands, and already committed themselves. We, therefore, wishing to be snug, and at the same time inquisitive, arrayed ourselves in black, stuffed our pockets with papers, and, as our coats were too good to be supposed to belong to authors, determined to pass for LAWYERS; characters whose frequent appearance in those parts secures them from observation. February 3, A.D. 1807, we placed ourselves in a stage, and prepared to take our departure from that mart of commerce, that grand emporium of all nations, the Royal Exchange. We had taken an affectionate leave of our friends, who, perhaps, trembled for the consequences of our temerity; but we had forgotten to insure our lives, though, in this city, they insure any thing, from a ship to a sixteenth. Like ARABIAN MERCHANTS, We would have preferred travelling in a CARAVAN, as more suited to the dignity of our characters and importance of our pursuits; but such is the debasement of idioms, and difference of things, that we found, in this part of the East, a caravan had dwindled to a mere errand cart; a carriage unquestionably of great utility for the keeping up a communication with the adjacent countries, but, as a vehicle for the conveyance of passengers, mean and unconsequential, fre, quently loaded with game, and subjecting those that should join it to be made game of also. The clock had struck eleven A.M., and the BASSA (for by that name our readers will permit us to dignify the Coachman, smacked his whip thrice to rouse his horses, that before had stood as still as those of marble which did once adorn the front of the Pantheon, at Reme. At length off we set, and, with a rapidity which would not have disgraced the sobriety of a team of eight, arrived, without stopping, at the MANSION HOUSE. A book of travels is, with respect to the landable mode of its construction, like a lease, full of extraneous matter. We, alas! have nothing to lengthen ours, without we infringe upou the almost exclusive privilege of that deed, and imitate its tautology; but we would, rather than be driven to that kind of piracy, fill our page with matter as little relevant as we have frequently observed under the head of This Indenture; and shall, therefore, give an account of our fellowtravellers. These were, a young Licutenant of a man of war; a girl in her teens, bound to a boarding-school at Chelsea, as it is the custom for people in the East to send their children for education to the West, (which is, by the-bye, a reversal of the pristine progress of literature;) and two women, with each an infant on her lap. This stowage, with two dogs, to fill the space under the male legs, kept us tolerably steady, and probably contributed to the success of the journey; which, however, our sea friend would have to be a voyage, for he remarked that we touched at several good harbours, cleared the port of Temple Bar, passed the straits of St. Clement's, weathered the point of Exeter 'Change, scudded under an easy sail along the Strand, lightened our poop at Charing-cross, and, after we had tacked and stood for the Treasury, congratulated us that we had reached a station for which many were bound, (who sometimes founder,) in perfect safety, In the choice of difficulties now before us, it most fortunately occurred, that instead of endeavouring to explore the long range of catacombs under the fabric where we were set down, which are said also to have apertures into both Downing-street and the Park, we proceeded forward, inclining a little to a southward direction; and by this wise measure, though we observed several water-spouts, and some collections of gravel or sand, came, with little inconvenience, except from fatigue and thirst, to the edge of the great desert that had been the object of our search, Looking upon this wide and cheerless waste, it occurred that we had unfortunately neglected to provide ybeers, or guides; therefore, as The world was all before us," we were forced to explore the way as well as we could. it is recorded in that true history, the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, that a city was once turned into a Jake, and its inhabitants into four different species of fish. This is certainly "passing strange;" but we conceive the metamorphosis of Westminster to น be surpassing strange; for although a lake was not to be discerned, nor were fish very-accurately to be distinguished, we had no doubt that both Pike and Gudgeons might be found. Commencing now our observations, or rather our lamentatious, (for, as we have hinted, there was little except a dreary waste to be observed,) we began, as we traversed their sites, in idea to rebuild the mansions that had dissolved and scarcely left a wreck behind. Herc, said we to each other, near the church, most appropriately stood the ancient MITRE; a house which, from the time of the FIRST JAMES, had been dedicated to conviviality and hospitality; a house, the rooms of which, formed upon the model, and almost equal in altitude, to the cabins of small ships, had been, at times, frequented by almost all sorts of characters; by men of the sword, by men of office, by men of the robe, by men of the gown, by women of **** by attornies and clients, by magistrates and juries!! We each heaved a sigh, a voluntary offering to our remembrance of the spot; cast our mournful looks upon the site of half UNION strect; hoped that discord would not ensue from dilapidation; and endeavoured, with the same industry that our friend Stuart displayed when he traced the mansions of the sages at Athens, to determiue what part of the idle void before us was once occupied by Tu HORN; a tavern which, from the vast variety of its accommodations, was of old termed the Horn of Plenty. Having satisfied ourselves in this important particular, and found also, as Teague says, that there were missing a long range of houses cxtending to a beautiful fabric of stone, which had obtained the appellation of the ORDNANCE OFFICE, because it contained minutes of all the reports made in and out of the kingdom; over Antres vast, we advanced, as we thought, toward it, but had dragged our steps to the wall of Henry the Vilth's Cospel, which stili stands, before we discovered that its place was no where to be found. Here we made a melancholy pause— Is it possible, one of us exclaimed. that the demon of dilapidation can have flown away with this beautiful architectural ornament, as angels once did with the Santa Casa! From this ejaculation, thought, revolving upon its own axis, the brain, introduced the reflections of what we had formerly |