ed parts, and to destroy the original sharpness of the
lines, have not materially injured their general effect."

CHAPTER XLVII.

THREADNEEDLE STREET.

The Centre of Roman London--St. Benet Fink--The Monks of St.
Anthony--The Merchant Taylors--Stow, Antiquary and Tailor--A
Magnificent Roll--The Good Deeds of the Merchant Taylors--The Old
and the Modern Merchant Taylors' Hall--"Concordia parvae res
crescunt"--Henry VII. enrolled as a Member of the Taylors'
Company--A Cavalcade of Archers--The Hall of Commerce in
Threadneedle Street--A Painful Reminiscence--The Baltic
Coffee-house--St. Anthony's School--The North and South American
Coffee-house--The South Sea House--History of the South Sea
Bubble--Bubble Companies of the Period--Singular Infatuation of the
Public--Bursting of the Bubble--Parliamentary Inquiry into the
Company's Affairs--Punishment of the Chief Delinquents--Restoration
of Public Credit--The Poets during the Excitement--Charles Lamb's
Reverie.

In Threadneedle Street we stand in the centre of Roman London. In 1805 a
tesselated pavement, now in the British Museum, was found at Lothbury.
The Exchange stands, as we have already mentioned, on a mine of Roman
remains. In 1840-41 tesselated pavements were found, about twelve or
fourteen feet deep, beneath the old French Protestant Church, with coins
of Agrippa, Claudius, Domitian, Marcus Aurelius, and the Constantines,
together with fragments of frescoes, and much charcoal and charred
barley. These pavements are also preserved in the British Museum. In
1854, in excavating the site of the church of St. Benet Fink, there was
found a large deposit of Roman _debris_, consisting of Roman tiles,
glass, and fragments of black, pale, and red Samian pottery.

The church of St. Benet Fink, of which a representation is given at page
468, was so called from one Robert Finck, or Finch, who built a previous
church on the same site (destroyed by the Fire of 1666). It was
completed by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1673, at the expense of L4,130,
but was taken down in 1844. The tower was square, surmounted by a cupola
of four sides, with a small turret on the top. There was a large
recessed doorway on the north side, of very good design.

The arrangement of the body of the church was very peculiar, we may say
unique; and although far from beautiful, afforded a striking instance of
Wren's wonderful skill. The plan