Stranica 137 [137]
THE CITY GOVERNMENT IIS
style; and a great boon has been conferred on the public by the erection
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of the beautiful reading-room. To this is added a most interesting
| museum, in which the curious may see various ancient remains and
| relics of all the cities which have successively stood on this site. The
late city architect, Sir Horace Jones,
deserved great credit for the trans¬
formation of the Guildhall, and it
_ forms his best monument; for, if
he was also responsible for the
meat markets, and for the rebuilt
| Leadenhall, it will be seen that he
was not always equally successful.
At one side of the Guildhall en¬
trance we may see some of the
ancient buttressing of the fifteenth
| century, partly concealed behind
the curious building which Jarman,
the city architect of the time of
Charles II, thought to be Gothic,
and which was not greatly amended
by Dance in 1789.
The old walls of the Guildhall
have witnessed some very interest¬
ing historical events. Not to go
back too far, we may remember
that it was here, in the summer of
1483, that Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, assembled the citizens and
persuaded them to pass over the children of Edward IV, and to elect
Richard of Gloucester king. Shakespeare has made the most of the
scene. No enthusiasm was shown for the usurper.