e central part of London, is the largest and most
powerful institution in the world. It is the only bank in London
which has the power to issue paper money; its average daily business
is over $10,000,000. It employs 900 people, and usually carries in
its vaults from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000, while there are from
100 to 125,000,000 dollars of the bank's notes in circulation. On
the right is the Stock Exchange, giving 1000 stock brokers daily
employment.]

[Illustration: TOWER OF LONDON, LONDON, ENGLAND.--This celebrated
fortress is located on the Thames in the eastern portion of London.
Some of the most interesting events in the history of the Old World
are clustered around these ancient relics. Some say the tower was
commenced by Julius Caesar, while most writers affirm that William
the Conqueror commenced it in 1078. The tower-walls enclose about
twelve acres, on the outside of which is a deep ditch or moat,
formerly filled with water. The tower was for a time a residence for
the Monarchs of England; afterwards a prison for State criminals.]

[Illustration: LONDON BRIDGE, LONDON, ENGLAND.--Centuries ago the
Saxons and Romans erected various wooden bridges over the Thames,
on the site of the present London Bridge; but they were all carried
away by floods, or destroyed by fire. This bridge was begun in
1825 and completed in 1831 at a cost of $10,000,000. The bridge,
928 feet long and 54 feet wide, is borne by five granite arches,
that in the centre having a span of 152 feet. The lamp-posts on
the bridge are cast of the metal of French cannons captured in
the Peninsular War. About 15,000 vehicles and 100,000 pedestrians
cross the bridge daily.]

[Illustration: WESTMINSTER ABBEY, LONDON, ENGLAND.--The Abbey,
built in the form of cross, four hundred feet long and two hundred
feet wide, is of Gothic design, and was founded in 610 A. D.

"That antique pile,
Where royal heads receive the sacred gold;
It give them crowns, and does their ashes keep;
There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep,
Making the circle of their reign complete.
These sons of Empire, where they rise, they set."]

[Illustration: HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON, ENGLAND.--These edifices
form a single pile of buildings of the richest Gothic style. They
cover over eight acres, contain one hundred stair-cases, eleven
hundred apartments, and cost $15,000,000. They are perhaps the
most costly national structure in the world. The Queen