evidently approached from the outside by a doorway seen in the print prefixed to Mr. Nichols' description before alluded to. Of this entrance, the details may be pretty clearly made out, and the mouldings within the arch, in the side walls, are boldly marked (see plate 20, fig. c). The staples for hanging the doors still remain; and on the exterior of the opening there are discernible the bases and shafts of small columns, which appear to have formed an enriched entrance, agreeing with several exterior views, as shewn in old engravings. Stow, as already has been mentioned, says, "the porch on the south side of the Mayor's Court was built in the fourth year of king Henry VI." To this porch, which still exists, the entrance on the north side of the crypt led; and it will be observed, that it has every appearance of having been a porch or entrance, having still, under both the outer and inner arch, staples for hanging doors or gates. This archway has been before alluded to as being a portion of the substructure of the Court of Exchequer. The present side entrance to the crypt, to the east of the northern entrance, is formed out of the opening for a window. The height of the crypt, from the ground to the crown of the arches, is about thirteen feet. In the angles of the aisles, at the east end, are doors leading, in the one case, to the external tower, and in the other to a small octagonal groined chamber, the purpose of which it is not easy to conjecture. Just to the south of the eastern entrance, at about four feet from the floor, is a small shallow recess (fig. D), of good and original workmanship. The mark of a somewhat similar arrangement is seen in fig. B, plate 20. This interesting crypt having been recently rescued from its undeserved obscurity, and undergone some slight restoration under the judicious direction of Mr. Bunning, has become an object of some attraction, and it is hoped the corporation may be induced at least to preserve it effectually from future misuse and decay. It is not possible to point out with certainty what were its original uses, but it seems highly probable, from the elegance of its construction, that it was devoted to useful purposes. It may have been appropriated as a minor hall of assembly for some corporate purposes, or even as a hall of entertainment. The western crypt is in a mutilated state, and was of a very different construction. At what time, and under what circumstances, it came to its present condition, it is impossible to say. If a conjecture may be hazarded, it is not improbable that the fall of the roof at the Great Fire may have found this part less able to resist the shock, and it may have been at that time involved in ruin. From a careful inspection of the fragments which remain at intervals in the south and west walls, we may conclude that it was vaulted (see fig. E, plate 20); but a reference to fig. B, in the same plate, will show that it was very different in style to the other crypt. Its half piers were octagonal instead of being clustered; its windows were higher, were continued at the western end, were smaller, and of two compartments, except the middle window at the western end, which seems to have been of three lights, and, as well as the two light windows on either side of it, rather deeper than that on the south wall. No trace of the central piers is visible, the whole of the floor of the hall in this division being supported on brick piers and arches, and the quantity of timber and stores which fill the compartments, rendering examination a matter of much difficulty. Such are the remaining ancient portions of this once splendid edifice; which, whether regarded as the theatre of many events of historical and national importance, or as the seat of government and scene of the hospitalities of one of the greatest and richest communities in the world, is in every way worthy the attention of the British Archæological Association in its first visit to the city of London. HISTORY OF THE BARBER-SURGEONS OF LONDON. BY T. J. PETTIGREW, F.R.S., F.S.A., VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH [Read at a meeting held in the Hall of the Company, Jan. 14th, 1852.] ASSEMBLED in the Hall of the Company of Barbers, formerly Barber-Surgeons, it cannot but be interesting to take a glance at the history connected with it. Barber-Surgeon is a name now even more extinct than the bandaged pole which formerly constituted the ensign of their shops, and which is still to be met with in some places in London, but more frequently in the country. I need hardly remind my auditors that this pole is typical of a surgical operation-bleeding-happily now not so often resorted to as formerly; for medical men, like many other classes of society, may be said to become more conservative as they increase in years, and are certainly more chary of the vital fluid than they were wont to be in former times. So common, indeed, was the practice, that Ward, in his Diary, remarks: "Physicians make bleeding as a prologue to the play." The conjunction of two such opposite functions as shaving and surgery may appear to us in the present day as a remarkable incongruity; but recourse to the records of former times will enable us, perhaps, to perceive the reasons which led to the union of " Barbery and Surgery", as they are termed in various acts of parliament. The offices of the barber and the surgeon are alike manual; the very name of the surgeon, or chirurgeon, as in former times it was always written, implies its character; its derivation from the hand, xeip, the hand, and epyov, a work, establishes it; but medicine and surgery in early times, regarded as one and indivisible, their practices were united, and assistants were called in to the performance of those manual services which were deemed essential by the medical practitioner. Thus, although the union of barbery and surgery may at first sight appear extraordinary, when we trace |