London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History -- 1800-1950
was the churchyard of St. Christopher’s Church, and into which in 1852 a
fountain was placed, which throws a single jet, thirty feet high,
amongst the branches of two of the finest lime-trees in London. The
north side of the Court Room is remarkable for three exquisite
chimney-pieces of statuary marble. The original Rotunda was roofed in
with timber, but in 1794 it was found advisable to take it down, and the
present Rotunda was built, which measures fifty-seven feet in diameter,
and about the same in height; it is of incombustible material, as are
all the offices erected by Sir John Soane. There are a number of courts
within the outer walls of the buildings; they are all of great
architectural beauty; the one entered from Lothbury is truly
magnificent. It has screens of fluted Corinthian columns, supporting a
lofty entablature, surmounted by vases. This part of the edifice was
copied from the beautiful temple of the Sybils, near Tivoli. A noble
arch, an imitation of the arch of Constantine at Rome, gives access to
the Bullion Court, in which is another row of Corinthian columns,
supporting an entablature, decorated with statues representing the four
quarters of the globe. The north-west corner of the Bank is modelled on
the temple of Vesta at Rome. We have yet to mention the Old Lady’s
Drawing-Room, or the pay-office, where bank-notes are issued, or
exchanged for cash. It is a fine hall, seventy-nine feet long by forty
wide, and we have left the mention of it to the last because it suggests
to us some particular reflections. We have seen that Paterson was the
real founder of the Bank of England, and we may take this opportunity of
adding that Charles Montague and Michael Godfrey are entitled to share
in Paterson’s glory for the assistance they lent him in this
undertaking; but the Bank ignores its founder, and had not even a
portrait of him till Mr. James Hogg, the founder of _London Society_,
presented them with one. In the Pay Hall stands the statue of William
III., and in the Latin inscription underneath he is called ’founder of
the Bank.’ It is the old story: when a prize is taken at sea the
biggest share of it, the lion’s share, goes to the ’Flag’; the real
fighters must put up with the leavings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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