's, two doors west of old Chancery Lane, till 1799,
when the lawyer's lane was widened, stood an old, picturesque, gabled
house, which was once the milliner's shop kept, in 1624, by that good
old soul, Isaak Walton. He was on the Vestry Board of St. Dunstan's, and
was constable and overseer for the precinct next Temple Bar; and on
pleasant summer evenings he used to stroll out to the Tottenham fields,
rod in hand, to enjoy the gentle sport which he so much loved. He
afterwards (1632) lived seven doors up Chancery Lane, west side, and
there married the sister of that good Christian, Bishop Ken, who wrote
the "Evening Hymn," one of the most simply beautiful religious poems
ever written. It is pleasant in busy Fleet Street to think of the good
old citizen on his guileless way to the river Lea, conning his verses on
the delights of angling.

Praed's Bank (No. 189, north side) was founded early in the century by
Mr. William Praed, a banker of Truro. The house had been originally the
shop of Mrs. Salmon, till she moved to opposite Chancery Lane, and her
wax kings and frail queens were replaced by piles of strong boxes and
chests of gold. The house was rebuilt in 1802, from the designs of Sir
John Soane, whose curious museum still exists in Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Praed, that delightful poet of society, was of the banker's family, and
in him the poetry of refined wealth found a fitting exponent. Fleet
Street, indeed, is rich in associations connected with bankers and
booksellers; for at No. 19 (south side) we come to Messrs. Gosling's.
This bank was founded in 1650 by Henry Pinckney, a goldsmith, at the
sign of the "Three Squirrels"--a sign still to be seen in the iron-work
over the centre window. The original sign of solid silver, about two
feet in height, made to lock and unlock, was discovered in the house in
1858. It had probably been taken down on the general removal of out-door
signs and forgotten. In a secret service-money account of the time of
Charles II., there is an entry of a sum of L646 8s. 6d. for several
parcels of gold and silver lace bought of William Gosling and partners
by the fair Duchess of Cleveland, for the wedding clothes of the Lady
Sussex and Lichfield.

No. 32 (south side), still a bookseller's, was originally kept for forty
years by William Sandby, one of the partners of Snow's bank in the
Strand. He sold the business and goodwill in 1762 for L400, to a
lieutenant of the Royal Navy, named John M'Murr