quaint Elizabethan gabled houses (see Frontispiece), with overhanging
upper stories and timber framework. The contrast with the modern
terra-cotta buildings on the north side of the street is striking. The
old houses are part of Staple Inn, now belonging to the Prudential
Assurance Company, whose red terra-cotta it is that forms such a
contrast across the way. It was bought by the company in 1884, and
restored a few years later by the removal of the plaster which had
concealed the picturesque beams. Still within St. Andrew's parish, we
here arrive at the City boundaries. The numbering of Holborn proper,
included in the City, begins a door or two above the old timbered
entrance, which leads to the first courtyard of Staple Inn. The
courtyard is a real backwater out of the rushing traffic. The uneven
cobble-stones, the whispering plane-trees, the worn red brick, and the
flat sashed windows, of a bygone date all combine to make a picture of
old London seldom to be found nowadays. Dr. Johnson wrote parts of
"Rasselas" while a resident here.

The way is a thoroughfare to Southampton Buildings, and continuing
onward we pass another part of the old building with a quaint clock and
small garden. Near at hand are the new buildings of the Patent Office
and the Birkbeck Bank and Chambers, already mentioned, an enormous mass
of masonry. The Inn contains a fine hall, thus mentioned in 1631:

"Staple Inn was the Inne or Hostell of the Merchants of the Staple (as
the tradition is), wherewith until I can learne better matter,
concerning the antiquity and foundation thereof, I must rest satisfied.
But for latter matters I cannot chuse but make report, and much to the
prayse and commendation of the Gentlemen of this House, that they have
bestowed great costs in new-building a fayre Hall of brick, and two
parts of the outward Courtyards, besides other lodging in the garden and
elsewhere, and have thereby made it the fayrest Inne of Chauncery in
this Universitie."

The whole of this district abounds in these one-time Inns of Chancery,
formerly attached to the Inns of Court; but those that remain are all
now diverted to other uses, and some have vanished, leaving only a name.

Further on there is Furnival Street, lately Castle Street, and so marked
in Strype's map. The Castle Public-house still recalls the older name.
Tradesmen of every kind occupy the buildings, besides which there is a
Baptist mission-house. The buildings on the east