maintenance, &c., at the angles, four very large dragons, the supporters of the city arms. On this column of perpetual remembrance the lord mayor and court of aldermen have ordered inscriptions to be cut in Latin: That on the north side, describes the desolation of the city in ashes; and is thus translated: 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 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 twenty-six wards, it entirely consumed 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 gate of the city wall to Holborn-bridge: to the estates and fortunes of the citizens it was merciless, but to their lives very favourable[18]; that it might in all things resemble the last conflagration of the world. [Footnote 18: It was a very miraculous circumstance, amidst all this destruction and public confusion, no person was known either to be burnt, or trodden to death in the streets.] The destruction was sudden, for in a small space of time, the same city, was seen most flourishing, and reduced to nothing. Three days after, when this fatal fire had baffled all human councils and endeavours, in the opinions of all, as it were by the will of heaven, it stopped, and on every side was extinguished. The south side describes the glorious restoration of the city, and has been thus translated:--