Sir Thomas Gresham, by his will, bequeathed this building, with his house in Bishopsgate-street, to the Mercers' Company and the Corporation of London, in joint trust: the house as a college, and the produce of the Exchange for the payment, in the first place, of the salaries of the lecturers and the other expenses of the college; and secondly, of certain annual sums to different hospitals, prisons, and almshouses.
Such was the origin of the Royal Exchange. After its destruction, in 1666, the funds in the hands of Sir Thomas Gresham's trustees amounted to no more than £234. 8s. 2d.; but, with a spirit beyond all praise, they contributed from their own resources the necessary sum for rebuilding the Exchange, which was completed and opened September 28, 1669, the total cost being £58,962, which the City Corporation and the Mercers' Company defrayed equally between them. Since that period it has undergone several reparations; but a most complete and substantial one was commenced in 1820, under the direction of Mr. Geo. Smith, architect to the Mercers' Company, the estimated expense of which was nearly £33,000; and staircases on the north, south, and west sides have since been built of stone, at an expense of about £6,000.
The emoluments derived by Lady Gresham from the Royal Exchange are stated to have amounted to £751. 5s. per annum; and these she continued to enjoy till her decease, in the year 1596; but the Mercers' Company, instead of profiting by the donation, had, after the late repairs, expended out of their own fund no less a sum than £200,500.
We are indebted to an active Correspondent for the original of the engraving (a pencil drawing), and the abridgment of the previous description, from a neatly compiled work—the Percy History of London, and from original and authentic sources. We are, however, compelled to omit the "dimensions of the ground on which the original Exchange stood," notwithstanding our Correspondent has been at the pains to copy the items from "an old record in the Chamber of London, never before made public." The document is of considerable value, in illustrating the topography of ancient London; but its interest is hardly popular enough for our pages.
SONNET,
ON LEAVING WINCHESTER.
Winton—ere thee I leave in hoary pride,
Thy hallow'd temples, and thine aged towers,
Lifting their heads amid the rural bowers
That grace fair Itchen's ever-rippling tide,