London - Temple

The Temple is a quiet and secluded corner of London, an oasis of pleasant gardens and attractive Georgian buildings. Dickens caught its atmosphere in "Barnaby Rudge": "There are, still, worse places than the Temple, on a sultry day, for basking in the sun, or resting idly in the shade. There is yet a drowsiness in its courts, and a dreamy dullness in its trees and gardens; and those who pace its lanes and squares may yet hear the echoes of their footsteps on the sounding stones, and read upon its gates in passing from the tumult of the Strand or Fleet Street, `Who enters here leaves noise behind.' There is still the plash of falling water in fair Fountain Court ..."

In the 12th and 13th centuries the Temple was the