Abbey, and the statues of Charles I., Charles II., and
Gresham, in the Old Exchange.

There is no extant historical account of Temple Bar in which the
following passage from Strype (George I.) is not to be found embedded
like a fossil; it is, in fact, nearly all we London topographers know of
the early history of the Bar:--"Anciently," says Strype, "there were
only posts, rails, and a chain, such as are now in Holborn, Smithfield,
and Whitechapel bars. Afterwards there was a house of timber erected
across the street, with a narrow gateway and an entry on the south side
of it under the house." This structure is to be seen in the bird's-eye
view of London, 1601 (Elizabeth), and in Hollar's seven-sheet map of
London (Charles II.)

The date of the erection of the "wooden house" is not to be ascertained;
but there is the house plain enough in a view of London to which
Maitland affixes the date about 1560 (the second year of Elizabeth), so
we may perhaps safely put it down as early as Edward VI. or Henry VIII.
Indeed, if a certain scrap of history is correct--_i.e._, that bluff
King Hal once threatened, if a certain Bill did not pass the Commons a
little quicker, to fix the heads of several refractory M.P.s on the top
of Temple Bar--we must suppose the old City toll-gate to be as old as
the early Tudors.

After Simon de Montfort's death, at the battle of Evesham, 1265, Prince
Edward, afterwards Edward I., punished the rebellious Londoners, who had
befriended Montfort, by taking away all their street chains and bars,
and locking them up in the Tower.

The earliest known documentary and historical notice of Temple Bar is in
1327, the first year of Edward III.; and in the thirty-fourth year of
the same reign we find, at an inquisition before the mayor, twelve
witnesses deposing that the commonalty of the City had, time out of
mind, had free ingress and egress from the City to Thames and from
Thames to the City, through the great gate of the Templars situate
within Temple Bar. This referred to some dispute about the right of way
through the Temple, built in the reign of Henry I. In 1384 Richard II.
granted a licence for paving Strand Street from Temple Bar to the Savoy,
and collecting tolls to cover such charges.

[Illustration: PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES II. AT TEMPLE BAR (_see page
26_).]

The historical pageants that have taken place at Temple Bar deserve a
notice, however short. On the 5th of November, 1422, the corpse o