This handsome Gothic structure, which is situated between the east end of Leadenhall and Fenchurch Streets, under the houses fronting the pump at Aldgate, is still remaining entire, exhibiting a most beautiful specimen of ancient architecture. It is shown (_L. & M. Archæological Journal_, iv. p. 223 _et seq._) that the crypt could not have been that of St. Michael’s Church. The paper referred to proved that the Church of St. Michael was not on that site at all. It quotes from the _Liber Dunthorne_ the boundaries of the soke of the monastery of the Trinity, which are very nearly the same as those of Aldgate ward. It concludes that it was more likely the crypt of a great house, perhaps the ward house. Rowland Taylor, before being burned for heresy, was taken to the Woolpack, an inn without Aldgate, and kept there. A curious story is told concerning the Duke of Buckingham in 1663. “When the Duke came from Newmarket he stayed at an Inn by Aldgate. Here a fellow told him his fortune, saying that he would die unfortunately, as his father did, or that a similar attempt would be made upon him by the 1st of April. On the Tuesday prior to the date of the letter, the usher of the duke’s hall went to bed about 9 at night and rose again about one in the morning and came up at the back and private way to the duke’s chamber where only he, his lady, and a maid were talking. The maid opened the door at his knock and the usher rushed in with a naked sword, at which the maid squeaking gave my lord an alarm and he turning back snatched up a knife and by his boldness daunted the fellow so that he got within him, became master of his sword, and by that time company came in. The duke sent after the fortune-teller but the writer did not know whether he had heard of him.” Northward of Aldgate, Mitre Street leads to Mitre Square which is surrounded by large new buildings belonging to merchants. The ward school is reached through a rounded tunnel-like entry and proves a pleasant surprise. In itself it is only a square old brick house without an atom of style or ornament, but before it is a garden plot where lilac bushes grow, and over the blackened bricks of the house and adjoining wall climb big trees, hiding the dinginess. From here we get a view of the old red-tiled roofs of the houses in Duke Street. In the school there is free education, and 110 children are clothed at the expense of the charity. At the back of the ward school stood, until 1874, St. James’s, Duke’s Place (see p. 165). ST. BOTOLPH, ALDGATE