Where would a man of taste chuse his town residence, setting convenience out of the question? Palace-yard,--for its contiguity to the Abbey, the Courts of Justice, the Sittings of Parliament, Whitehall, the Parks, &c.,--I hold of all places in these two great cities of London and Westminster to be the most classical and eligible. Next in classicality, I should name the four Inns of Court: they breathe a learned and collegiate air; and of them chiefly, ----those bricky towers The which on Thames' broad aged back doth ride, Where now the studious Lawyers have their bowers; There whilom wont the Templar Knights to bide, Till they decay'd through pride-- as Spenser describes evidently with a relish. I think he had Garden Court in his eye. The noble hall which stands there must have been built about that time. Next to the Inns of Court, Covent-Garden, for its _rus in urbe_, its wholesome scents of early fruits and vegetables, its tasteful church and arcades,--above all, the neighbouring theatres, cannot but be approved of. I do not know a fourth station comparable to or worthy to be named after these. To an antiquarian, every spot in London, or even Southwark, teems with historical associations, local interest. He could not chuse amiss. But to me, who have no such qualifying knowledge, the Surrey side of the water is peculiarly distasteful. It is impossible to connect any thing interesting with it. I never knew a man of taste to live, what they term, _over the bridge_. Observe, in this place I speak solely of _chosen and voluntary_ residence. VII.--[GRAY'S _BARD_] (1813) The beard of Gray's Bard, "streaming like a meteor," had always struck me as an injudicious imitation of the Satanic ensign in the _Paradise Lost_, which ----full high advanced, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind: till the other day I met with a passage in Heywood's old play, _The Four Prentices of London_, which it is difficult to imagine not to be the origin of the similitude in both poets. The line in Italics Gray has almost verbatim adopted-- In Sion towers hangs his victorious flag. Blowing defiance this way; and its shews _Like a red meteor in the troubled air_, Or like a blazing comet that foretells The fall of princes.