In the thirteenth century the Templars in Fleet street, were in so flourishing a situation that they frequently entertained the nobility, the Pope’s nuncio, foreign embassadors, and even the King himself; and many parliaments and great councils have been held there. However in the year 1308 all the Templars both in England, and the other parts of Christendom, were apprehended and committed to prison, and five years after Edward II. gave Aimer de la Valence, Earl of Pembroke, this house of the Templars, with all their possessions within the city of London. At his death it reverted to the crown, and in 1324, was given to the knights Hospitallers of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, who had driven the Turks out of the isle of Rhodes, and had their chief house where St. John’s square is now situated. These knights soon after let this edifice to the students of the common law, in whose possession it has remained ever since. The Temple which contained all that space of ground from the White Friars westward to Essex house, is divided into two inns of court, the Inner Temple, and the Middle Temple. These inns have separate halls, but both houses resort to the Temple church: And yet the buildings which have been erected at very different times, with very little order or regularity are perfectly united, and it is impossible for a stranger to know where the Inner Temple ends and the Middle Temple begins, except at the entrances, which are the only visible fronts to the street. Backwards there are many courts of handsome new built houses, and behind them, the buildings of the Temple have gardens and walks fronting the Thames. That side lies open and airy, and enjoys a delightful prospect into Surry. The Middle Temple gate, next Fleet street is built in the stile of Inigo Jones, It was erected in 1684, and there is here a graceful front; but it is extremely narrow, and cannot be called the front of so vast a building, or rather number of separate buildings, as the Temple. It is of brick-work, with four large stone pilasters of the Ionic order, and a handsome pediment with a round in the middle in which is inscribed in large capitals SURREXIT IMPENSIS SOCIETAT. MED. TEMPLI, MDCLXXXIV. and beneath, just over the arch, the figure of a holy lamb. In the treasury chamber of the Middle Temple is preserved a great quantity of armour, which belonged to the knights Templars, consisting of helmets, breast and back pieces, together with several pikes, a halbard, and two very beautiful shields, with iron spikes in their centers, of the length of six inches in diameter, and each of about twenty pounds weight. They are curiously engraved, and one of them richly inlaid with gold: the insides are lined with leather stuffed, and the edges adorned with silk fringe; and broad leathern belts are fixed to them, for the bearers to sling them upon their shoulders.