d, and
those too narrow made wider; markets and shambles removed to
separate places. They also enacted that every house should be built
with party-walls, and all in front raised of equal height, and those
walls all of square stone or brick, and that no man should delay
building beyond the space of seven years. Moreover, care was taken
by law to prevent all suits about their bounds. Also anniversary
prayers were enjoined; and to perpetuate the memory hereof to
posterity, they caused this column to be erected. The work was
carried on with diligence, and London is restored, but whether with
greater speed or beauty may be made a question. At three years' time
the world saw that finished which was supposed to be the business of
an age."

NORTH SIDE.

"In the year of Christ 1666, the second day of September, eastward
from hence, at the distance of two hundred and two feet (the height
of this column), about midnight, a most terrible fire broke out,
which, driven on by a high wind, not only wasted the adjacent parts,
but also places very remote, with incredible noise and fury. It
consumed eighty-nine churches, the City gates, Guildhall, many
public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, a vast number of
stately edifices, thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling-houses,
four hundred streets. Of the six-and-twenty wards it utterly
destroyed fifteen, and left eight others shattered and half burnt.
The ruins of the City were four hundred and thirty-six acres, from
the Tower by the Thames side to the Temple Church, and from the
north-east along the City wall to Holborn Bridge. To the estates and
fortunes of the citizens it was merciless, but to their lives very
favourable, that it might in all things resemble the last
conflagration of the world. The destruction was sudden, for in a
small space of time the City was seen most flourishing, and reduced
to nothing. Three days after, when this fatal fire had baffled all
human counsels and endeavours in the opinion of all, it stopped as
it were by a command from Heaven, and was on every side
extinguished."

EAST SIDE.

"This pillar was begun,
Sir Richard Ford, Knight, being Lord Mayor of London,
In the year 1671,
Carried on
In the Mayoralties of
Sir George Waterman, Kt. }
Sir Robert Hanson, Kt. }
Sir Wi