492
NOTES AND QUERIES. IW s. x. DEC. is, im.
by Mr. Hamo Thorny croft, R.A., which was unveiled by the then Lord Mayor, Sir Walter Wilkin, on 20 June, 1896, and is inscribed on the front of the pedestal with the single word "Victoria," while on the back is recorded:—
Erected by the Gresham
Committee, 1896, to
Commemorate the opening
of this building by
Her Majesty Queen Victoria
on the 28th October, 1844.
This statue replaces one by Lough, which had become weatherworn by long exposure in the days before the courtyard was covered in. The Queen is represented as she was at the time she opened the Royal Exchange. Crowned, and wearing the ribbon and order of the Garter, she is holding in her right hand a sceptre, and in her left a figure of Victory in silvered bronze, just alighting on an orb. The cost was defrayed jointly by the City Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers.
In the north-east corner of the Ambulatory is a statue of Queen Elizabeth by Watson; and in the south-east corner is one of Charles II., which was in the centre of the second Exchange, and withstood the fire of 1838.
In a niche on the front of the clock tower is a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham by Behnes, which is at too great an elevation for me to see if there is any inscription. There are also in niches flanking the northern entrance, statues of Sir Hugh Myddelton, by Joseph and one of Sir Richard Whittington, by Carew.
A few feet from the statue of George Peabody in Royal Exchange Buildings is a drinking fountain in granite, with a figure under an ornamental iron canopy, thus inscribed:
Erected 1878
at the expense of
William Hartridge, Esqʳ, Deputy,
supplemented by vote in Wardmote.
This is decidedly a picturesque addition to City memorials.
To City men the old coffee-house auctionrooms, &c., are of much interest; Garraway's, the Jerusalem, Baltic, and others bring up pleasant memories. In Change Alley, Cornhill, is a tablet upon a portion of Martin's Bank that occupies the site of Garraway's. It records that the building upon which it has been placed is
The site of
Garraway's
Coffee-House.
Rebuilt 1874.
Not much, perhaps, but enough. Underneath is a representation of Sir Thomas Gresham's immortal crest, the grasshopper, as this site was previously occupied by his business premises. The tablet was designed by Mr. Norman Shaw.
I find I have overlooked a simple memorial drinking-fountain situated close by my own door. It is to be found on the wall of the Greycoat Hospital, at the corner of Greycoat Place and Horseferry Road. It is of stone, the water issuing from the back of the alcove, which, with the basin, is of Aberdeen granite. It is recorded that it was
Erected by the
Metropolitan Drinking Fountain
and Cattle Trough Association;
while higher on the wall is a tablet inscribed as follows:—
This fountain of pure water
erected by Robert Stafford
for the benefit of his friends and
fellow-parishioners in Westminster,
with an earnest desire for their
temporal and eternal welfare.
July, 1859.John iv. 14.
Mr. Stafford held the office of churchwarden of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, in 1843 and 1844, and left several benefactions to that parish. I have been informed that the spot where this fountain is placed was some years ago known among certain of the residents as "Stafford's Corner"; but the name never had any official sanction, and has now almost gone from recollection and is rarely heard.
So far as I know, there is no intention of placing any group of statuary on the summit of the Marble Arch; but it is possible I have missed seeing a notice of it. A group is, however, to be placed on the arch at the top of Constitution Hill, as mentioned by Mr. Page at 10 S. ix. 283. The work, by Capt. Adrian Jones, is well in hand, and will be ready for the King's inspection early in the coming year.
With reference to the equestrian statue of Outram by Foley (10 S. ix. 482; x. 372), placed on view in London temporarily, I am under the impression that it was, for a season, in the open space between the United Service and Athenaeum Clubs, near the Duke of York's Column; but of this I am not quite sure.
As regards the sculptor of the statue of the Duke of Cumberland (ante, pp. 291, 372), once in Cavendish Square, my authority for attributing the work to John Cheere, is Wheatley's 'London, Past and Present,' 1891, vol. i. p. 341, where it is stated that
