EXT to the Tower, the antiquary and the lover of history will value the Temple; originally the Preceptory of the famous Temple Knights or Templars, and, since the extinction of their order, the abode of lawyers studying or practicing.

Charles Lamb has lightly but effectively sketched the Temple. "What a transition," he writes, "for a countryman visiting London for the first time - the passing from the crowded Strand or Fleet Street, by unexpected avenues, into its magnificent ample squares, its classic green retreats I What a cheerful, liberal look hath that portion of it which from three sides overlooks the greater garden; that goodly pile-

confronting with massy contrast the lighter, older, more fantastically-shrouded one named of Harcourt, with the cheerful Crown Office Row . . . right opposite the stately stream which washes the garden foot with her yet scarcely trade-polluted waters. . . ."

We cannot say this of the Thames of the present day, though it is not perhaps now at its worst. Still, the stately stream is a great adjunct to the beauties of the old buildings and their charming gardens, so famous in our history; though chrysanthemums rather than roses are the present boast of them.

The Temple possesses also a most remarkable and beautiful church - one of the only four circular churches to be found in England. It was supposed to be built in imitation of the Temple Church at Jerusalem, and was undoubtedly erected by the Templar Knights in the reign of Henry III.

Their Grand Master, Heraclius, came to England to consecrate it.

The architecture is between the Romanesque and early English Gothic; the western entrance, the semi-circular arches, and the capitals are richly sculptured.

"Within, Purbeck columns, with boldly-sculptured capitals, support a triforium or gallery of interlaced Norman arches; and the clerestory has six Romanesque windows, one filled with stained glass - a bright ruby ground, with a figure of Christ and the emblems of the Evangelists." - Timbs.

On the gallery well-staircase is a penetential cell, in which any Knight Templar who had disobeyed the Master was confined. It is only four and a half feet long and two and a half broad, so that the unhappy prisoner could not lie down except in a most uncomfortable position. Some were fettered here by order of the Master, and left till they died; in other cases an offender was scourged on the bare shoulders in the hall by the Master's own hands, or whipped in church on Sunday, before the congregation. But these severities must have belonged to the early days of the Order of the Temple, and not to the time when their pride and power is well represented by Brian de Bois Guilbert, in "Ivanhoe." Instituted as a religious order of knighthood, for the purpose of defending Christian pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem, they enlarged their vow by devoting themselves also to the defence of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, established by Godfrey de Bouillon. They lived at first on alms, and were so poor that one horse served for two, a fact recorded on their seal. Wealth, however, flowed in on them, and Templar establishments were to be found in nearly all European countries, but chiefly in France and England. The Templars grew remarkable for haughty insolence - disdaining other Orders, and arrogating a place with nobles. But in battle they were the bravest of the brave, and Saladin had no more dangerous enemies than the Templars.

The English knights purchased the land on the south of Fleet Street, and erected there their Preceptory and the magnificent Church, which was, as we have said, built after the model of the one at Jerusalem. The effigies of these feudal warriors, sculptured of freestone, are sketched upon the pavement of the Temple Church, all having their legs crossed - the sign of having been a crusader.

In 1841 the ancient lead coffins containing the bodies of the knights were discovered, the dates on them being not earlier than the 13th century.

The fate of the knights was disastrous.

Once models of devotion and humility, they accumulated great riches and became powerful and proud. Their wealth excited the cupidity of the King of France, Philip the Fair. They were persecuted, accused of most ridiculous crimes, such as worshipping an ape's head, etc., condemned and executed. Sixty-eight knights were burnt at Paris, 1310. Their Grand Master, De Molay, was burned at Paris in 1314.

There is an old French tradition that De Molay at the stake protested his innocence, and summoned the King of France and his accomplice Pope Clement V., to meet him at the judgment seat of God that day twelvemonth; both pope and king dying at the same time, in accordance with the prophecy or citation. Pope Clement abolished the Order, 1312. Their property in England was given to the Hospitallers or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and the head of the English Order died in the Tower.

The Temple was divided into Inner and Middle before the lease was transferred from the Hospitallers to the Crown; and the Middle Temple still bears the arms of the old Knights, "Argent, on a cross gules a paschal lamb or, carrying a banner of the first, charged with a cross of the second"; that is, in ordinary language, a silver shield with a red cross, on which is a gold lamb carrying a banner; on the banner is a red cross.

"The Round" is the nave or vestibule to the oblong portion of the church. The choir is in pure lancet style. It is divided into three aisles by clustered marble columns; the groined roof is richly coloured in arabesque, and adorned with holy emblems.

It was in the gardens of the Temple that the famous dispute took place that gave its emblem to each side in the Civil Wars of the Roses. The fine scene in Shakespeare's Henry VI. gives a vivid picture of it.

SCENE IV. - London. The Temple Garden.

Enter the Earls of Somerset, Suffolk, and Warwick. Richard Plantagenet, Vernon, and another Lawyer.

The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem were a very worthy Order, who fought for, and also nursed and attended on sick and wounded pilgrims or warriors in the Holy I and. They in 1346 demised the magnificent buildings, church, and gardens to law students then residing at Holborn, and from this time the lawyers have studied in quiet in the lovely and still abode of the ancient Templars. Once, it is true, Wat Tyler's mob plundered the students and destroyed their books, but since that time all has been peace.