On the garter round the exterior is this inscription:
"The church of the Living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. So was the work of the pillars finished."
The third table has the following words round the surface:
"This Post is the gift of Master Robert Kitchen, Merchant, some time Maior and Alderman of this city, who deceased Sep. 1. 1594."
On the ring below the surface:
"His Executors were fower of his servants. John Barker, Mathew Howil, and Abell Kitchin, Aldermen of this city, and John Rowborow, Sherif. 1630."
Six lines in verse, and a shield with armorial bearings, formerly appeared as the centre of this table; but they are now obliterated.
The fourth table, which is supposed to be the oldest, has no inscription.
These curious round tables, on which the merchants of this ancient city formerly made their payments, and wrote their letters, &c., are now used by the newsmen, who here sell the daily journals, &c. In times of popular excitement, they have been sometimes used as pedestals, whence mob-orators, and candidates for parliamentary honours, have harangued the populace.
J. R. W.