Sixteen days after the Fire of London had first broken out in Pudding Lane, a committee was formed to rebuild the Royal Exchange. The business of the Exchange, even to the shops of the Pawn, was transferred to Gresham College. The shopkeepers offered to pave the quadrangle of the new building in exchange for their accommodation in Gresham College: and with the hope--a vain hope as it proved to be--of preventing destruction by another fire, the City Surveyors determined to draw a street on the west and on the east of the new building. The credit for this second building, which was erected from materials as far as possible resembling those which had been used in the original building, has been improperly given to Sir Christopher Wren, but the records of the Building Committee make it clear that Mr. Jarman, the second City Surveyor, was the architect who designed the plan. It is to be noticed that once more the front of the Royal Exchange was upon Cornhill, with a fine portico, which earned the special favour of Charles the Second, no doubt because in a nitch upon one side was a statue of Charles the First, and in a nitch upon the other, one of his royal self. It is possible that his approbation would have been less hearty if he could have foreseen that after the next fire that same statue of him would be put up to auction and sold for £9. Almost within a year of the burning there was once more a royal procession, when Charles the Second rode on horseback with several persons of quality. He placed the first stone with the usual ceremonies in the presence of a great many people, and then in a special shed upon the new Scottish Walk, roofed with a canopy and hung with tapestry, he was entertained to dinner by the City and the Mercers’ Company. Pepys saw the King pass with his kettle drums and his trumpets on the way to the Exchange, and in his busy way hurried after him, but the poor man found the gates shut when he arrived at the building, and could only get in to see it after the stone had been laid and the King had departed. A month later, the Duke of York laid the foundation stone of the pillar on the east side of the north entrance, and a fortnight afterwards Prince Rupert performed the same ceremony on the east side of the south entrance. There was some delay in the building, and for reasons which strike home to-day. Bricks were dear; the only suitable bricks were to be got from Walham Green, and the supply was below the demand. The work however, except for the statues and no doubt other ornamentations, was completed within three years, and was opened without any great ceremony by Sir William Turner, the Lord Mayor of the day, who “came and walked twice about it and congratulated the merchants of the ’Change on its account.” Charles the Second was expected, but he did not come: and we picture to ourselves the disappointment of the assemblage--disappointment mingled probably with a good deal of outspoken criticism, and not a few sarcasms as to