held an _Exhibition of Art_, notable for the rarity and beauty of the objects collected; it was the first thing of the kind organized among these companies, and was in all respects creditable to those who planned and managed it. _Vintners’ Hall_, Upper Thames Street, is small and unpretentious. _Clothworkers’ Hall_, Mincing Lane, is an elegant Italian Renaissance edifice, erected in 1858, from the designs of Mr. Angell. Among the minor halls are the _Apothecaries’_, Blackfriars; _Stationers’_, behind Ludgate Hill; _Armourers’_, Coleman Street; _Barber Surgeons’_, Monkwell Street, (which contains some fine paintings;) _Weavers’_, Basinghall Street; _Saddlers’_, Cheapside; and _Paper Stainers’_, Little Trinity Lane. At the last-named hall an interesting exhibition of specimens of decorative painting was held in 1864. The city companies are about eighty altogether. Some, which tell most singularly of past times, and of the difference between the past and the present, are the _Cooks’_, the _Bowyers’_, the _Fletchers’_, the _Woolmen’s_, the _Scriveners’_, the _Broderers’_, the _Horners’_, the _Loriners’_, the _Spectacle Makers’_, the _Felt Makers’_, the _Patten Makers’_, the _Parish Clerks’_, and the _Fan Makers’_ companies. All these, except the _Spectacle Makers’_ and the _Parish Clerks’_, have now no halls. Eight others, formerly existing, have become extinct. The only three which are actually trading companies at the present day are the _Goldsmiths’_, the _Apothecaries’_, and the _Stationers’_. The Goldsmiths’ company assay all the gold and silver plate manufactured in the metropolis, stamp it with the ‘Hall-mark,’ and collect the excise duty upon it for the Government; the Apothecaries’ sell medicines, and have a certain jurisdiction in relation to medical practice; the Stationers’ publish almanacs, and register all copyright books. THE RIVER; DOCKS; THAMES TUNNEL; BRIDGES; PIERS. We shall next describe certain features connected with traffic _on_, _under_, and _over_ the Thames.