volume ii. of Mr. Crowle’s Pennant in the Print Room of the British

Museum; and it is entitled ‘_Prospect of the Citty of London, as it appeared in the time of its flames_:’ it has frequently sold for 10_s._ 6_d._, and sometimes for 15_s._, even without the plate it belongs to. Hollar’s long view of the City immediately after the conflagration, I have already mentioned; and in that we see with much more certainty the actual damage sustained by our unhappy old edifice, in the RUINS OF THE RIVERSIDE AND BRIDGE AFTER THE FIRE.

“The alteration appears chiefly to consist in the destruction of that large square building, which terminated the Northern end of the Bridge; and, of course, the entire demolition of the wooden pales and passage, which had been erected after the fire of 1633; but beyond this the flames do not seem to have penetrated. The banks of the River, indeed, presented a more entire picture of ruin. Of the grand Church of St. Magnus nothing remained but some of the walls, and the buildings in front of it were destroyed even to the water’s edge; whilst on the Western side of the Bridge, the Water-works and Tower, numerous houses lining the River, and the ancient edifice of Fishmongers’ Hall, were reduced either to smouldering fragments, scarcely bearing even the forms of what they once had been, or else had not one stone left upon another. ‘_The Long Antwerp View of London_,’ which has been already so minutely described, furnishes us with a good representation of FISHMONGERS’ HALL BEFORE THE FIRE OF 1666;

and it appears to have been a plain narrow edifice, castellated and covered with lead on the top, having two principal stories, the lower one of which had a kind of gallery or balcony, an ornament which was very common to buildings in this part of London. The Companies of the Salt-fish and Stock-fish mongers were anciently possessed of so many as six Halls; of which two stood in New Fish-street, now called Fish-street Hill; two more were in Old Fish-street, and two others were erected in Thames-street; in each place one for each Company. These, however, were all united in the year 1536, the 28th of Henry the Eighth; after which they were to have but one Hall, namely, the house given to them by Sir John Cornwall, afterwards created Baron Fanhope, in 1427, the 6th year of Henry VI., which I take to have been the building represented in the print; since Stow, in his ‘_Survey_,’