We are on the threshold of the Temple,—­a spot than which none in all this historic metropolis is more replete with memories of the storied past.  Nor does its interest consist solely in its associations with the men and manners of a by-gone epoch.  Despite its antique architecture and its quaint observances, the Temple still maintains its reputation for scholarship and legal acumen.  Its virility is fitly symbolized in the venerable and vigorous trees whose branching boughs wave above its walls:  sound to the core, it sends forth new scions with perennial freshness.

The gray gate-way under which we have halted is one of the two chief entrances to the Temple.  It was built in the reign of James I., being consequently nearly three centuries old.  White-aproned porters, with numbered pewter badge on lapel, stand on either side, ready—­for a consideration—­to direct our transatlantic ignorance into veritable “paths of pleasantness and peace.”  Access to the Middle Temple from Fleet Street is had by way of another gate-house, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1684, soon after the Great Fire.  It is in the style of Inigo Jones, of reddish brick, with stone pointing.  There are several other entrances,—­many of them known only to the initiated,—­through intricate courts and passages debouching on Fleet Street and the surrounding thoroughfares, and one from the river at Temple Pier; but, chiefly because of their proximity to the New Courts of Law, these two gate-ways are most frequented.

The boundaries of this famous abode of British wit and intellect may be roughly sketched as follows:  on the north, Fleet Street; on the south, the Thames and the Victoria Embankment; on the east, Serjeants’ Inn and the Whitefriars region; on the west, Essex Street, Strand.  These boundaries remain substantially as they were six or seven centuries ago.  The Middle Temple lies nearest the river; the Inner Temple is nearer to Fleet Street, and “inside”—­that is, on the “city” side—­of Temple Bar.  Essex House and its purlieus, once the abode of the powerful earls of that name, were formerly a part of the Temple.  It was called the Outer Temple, because “outside” of Temple Bar.

In the reign of Henry II., about the year 1185, the ground now included in the Temple area became the head-quarters in London of the crusading Knights Templar.  Removing from humbler quarters in Holborn, the order, having become wealthy and ambitious, bought a tract of land extending from the walls of Essex House to Whitefriars, and from the river to Fleet Street.  They erected a church, a priory, and other buildings clustered around in the mediaeval fashion, and in imitation of the Temple near the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.