ground comprehended betwixt this line and the city wall contains
about three hundred acres.

There is no wall or fence, as has been hinted already, to separate
the freedom of the City from that part of the town which lies in the
county of Middlesex, only posts and chains at certain places, and
one gate at the west end of Fleet Street which goes by the name of
Temple Bar.

This gate resembles a triumphal arch; it is built of hewn stone,
each side being adorned with four pilasters, their entablature, and
an arched pediment of the Corinthian order. The intercolumns are
niches replenished; those within the Bar towards the east, with the
figures of King James I. and his queen; and those without the Bar,
with the figures of King Charles I. and King Charles II. It is
encircled also with cornucopias, and has two large cartouches by way
of supporters to the whole; and on the inside of the gate is the
following inscription, viz., "Erected in the year 1671, Sir Samuel
Starling, Mayor: continued in the year 1670, Sir Richard Ford, Lord
Mayor: and finished in the year 1672, Sir George Waterman, Lord
Mayor."

The city is divided into twenty-six wards or governments, each
having its peculiar officers, as alderman, common council, &c. But
all are subject to the lord mayor, the supreme magistrate of this
great metropolis. Of each of these wards take the following
account.

1. Portsoken ward is situate without Aldgate, the most easterly
ward belonging to the City; and extends from Aldgate eastward to the