The principal cities of the kingdom are London and York, but London is the most noble, both on account of its being the royal residence, and because the river Thames runs through it, very much to the convenience and profit of the inhabitants, as it ebbs and flows every six hours like the sea, scarcely ever causing inundation or any extraordinary floods; and up to London Bridge it is navigable for ships of 400 butts burden, of which a great plenty arrive with every sort of merchandise. This bridge connects the city with the borough, and is built of stone with twenty arches, and shops on both sides. On the banks of the river there are many large palaces, making a very fine show, but the city is much disfigured by the ruins of a multitude of churches and monasteries belonging heretofore to friars and nuns. It has a dense population, said to number 180,000 souls; and is beyond measure commercial, the merchants of the entire kingdom flocking thither, as, by a privilege conceded to the citizens of London, from them alone can they purchase merchandise, so they soon became very wealthy; and the same privileges placed in their hands the government of the city of London, which is divided into 24 trades or crafts, each of which elects a certain individual, styled alderman, the election being made solely in the persons of those who are considered the most wealthy, and the office is for life; the which aldermen, after assembling these trades, create annually a person as their head for the current year entitled Mayor. THE ROYAL EXCHANGE (1566). Sir Thomas Gresham, a wealthy and munificent London merchant, offered in 1563 to build, at his own expense, a Bourse or Exchange, if the City would provide the ground. The need for some such building was becoming rather serious; the commerce of the country was growing very rapidly, and Lombard Street had long been too small for the business of London. Men were exposed there to all weathers, and had to crowd into small shops. For twenty or thirty years there had been talk of making a new place of resort for the merchants, and the example of Antwerp, London's great rival in trade, inspired Gresham to make his magnificent gift to his fellow-citizens. Gresham's building was destroyed in the Fire of 1666, and its successor was burned down in 1838. =Source.=—Stow's _Survey_, p. 193.