CHAPTER XLII

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THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.

The Greshams--Important Negotiations--Building of the Old Exchange--Queen Elizabeth visits it--Its Milliners' Shops--A Resort for Idlers--Access of Nuisances--The various Walks in the Exchange--Shakespeare's Visits to it--Precautions against Fire--Lady Gresham and the Council--The "Eye of London"--Contemporary Allusions--The Royal Exchange during the Plague and the Great Fire--Wren's Design for a New Royal Exchange--The Plan which was ultimately accepted--Addison and Steele upon the Exchange--The Shops of the Second Exchange 494

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