t is used as
a regular church, and is filled with seats; service is held here as well
as above.

The timber beams in the roof are now (1903) undergoing thorough
restoration, and the outer walls of the chapel are being repointed.

From this quaint relic of past times, rich with the indefinable
attraction which nothing but a history of centuries can give, we pass
out into Ely Place. This is a quiet cul-de-sac composed almost wholly of
the offices of business men, solicitors, etc. At the north end, beyond
the chapel, the old houses are down, and new ones will be erected in
their place. At the end a small watchman's lodge stands on the spot
where stood the Bishops' Gateway, in which the parasite, Sir Christopher
Hatton, first fastened on his host.

Hatton Garden is a wide thoroughfare with some modern offices and many
older houses, with bracketed doorways and carved woodwork. It has long
been associated with the diamond merchant's trade, and now diamond
merchants occupy quite half of the offices. It is also the centre of the
gold and silver trade. The City Orthopaedic Hospital is on the east
side.

In Charles Street is the Bleeding Heart public-house, which derives its
name from an old religious sign, the Pierced Heart of the Virgin. This
is close to Bleeding Heart Yard, referred to in "Little Dorrit," and
easily recalled by any reader of Dickens.

In Cross Street there is an old charity school, with stuccoed figures of
a charity boy and girl on the frontage. The Caledonian School was
formerly in this street; it was removed to its present situation in
1828. Whiston, friend of Sir Isaac Newton, lived here, and here Edward
Irving first displayed his powers of preaching.

Kirkby Street recalls what has already been said about the first Bishop
of Ely, who purchased land whereon his successors should build a palace.
It is a broad street, and in times past was a place of residence for
well-to-do people.

The lower part of Saffron Hill was known at first as Field Lane, and is
described by Strype as "narrow and mean, full of Butchers and Tripe
Dressers, because the Ditch runs at the back of their Slaughter houses,
and carries away the filth." He also says that Saffron Hill is a place
of small account, "both as to buildings and inhabitants, and pestered
with small and ordinary alleys and courts taken up by the meaner sort of
people, especially to the east side into the Town. The Ditch separates
the parish from St. John, Cle