THE FASCINATION OF LONDON

WESTMINSTER

_IN THIS SERIES. _

Cloth, price 1s. 6d. Net; leather, price 2s. Net, each. 

WESTMINSTER. 

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. 

THE STRAND DISTRICT. 

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. 

HAMPSTEAD. 

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT. 

CHELSEA. 

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT. 

[Illustration: WHITEHALL IN 1775. ]

The Fascination of London

WESTMINSTER

BYSIR WALTER BESANTANDG. E. MITTON

WITH A CHAPTER ON THE ABBEY BY MRS. A. MURRAY SMITH

LONDONADAM & CHARLES BLACK1902

PREFATORY NOTE

A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that shouldpreserve her history, her historical and literary associations, hermighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all thatLondoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from thepast--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when hedied. 

As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anythingelse I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attemptedbefore. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and Ifind something fresh in it every day. "

He had seen one at least of his dreams realized in the People's Palace, but he was not destined to see this mighty work on London take form. Hedied when it was still incomplete. His scheme included several volumeson the history of London as a whole. These he finished up to the end ofthe eighteenth century, and they form a record of the great citypractically unique, and exceptionally interesting, compiled by one whohad the qualities both of novelist and historian, and who knew how tomake the dry bones live. The volume on the eighteenth century, which SirWalter called a "very big chapter indeed, and particularly interesting, "will shortly be issued by Messrs. A. And C. Black, who had undertakenthe publication of the Survey. 

Sir Walter's idea was that the next two volumes should be a regular andsystematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that thehistory of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a veryoriginal feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took thekeenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant itsissue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it isproposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts andpublish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the localinhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest andthe history of London lie in these street associations. For this purposeChelsea, Westminster, the Strand, and Hampstead have been selected forpublication first, and have been revised and brought up to date. 

The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great, for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undyingcharm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past historywith the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, herhistory is written for those who can read it, and the object of theseries is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain. The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man wholoved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him, and it was because of these associations that it did so. These linksbetween past and present in themselves largely constitute TheFascination of London. 

G. E. M. 

CONTENTS

 PAGE

PREFATORY NOTE v

PART ISOUTH OF VICTORIA STREET 1

PART IINORTH OF VICTORIA STREET 24

PART IIITHE HEART OF WESTMINSTER 40

INDEX 93

_Map at end of Volume. _

WESTMINSTER

PART I

SOUTH OF VICTORIA STREET. 

The word Westminster used in the title does not mean that city which hasits boundaries stretching from Oxford Street to the river, from theBroad Walk, Kensington Gardens, to Temple Bar. A city which embraces theparishes of St. George's, Hanover Square; St. James's, Piccadilly; St. Anne's, Soho; St. Paul's, Covent Garden; St. Clement Danes; St. Mary leStrand, etc. ; and which claims to be older even than London, dating itsfirst charter from the reign of King Edgar. But, rather, Westminster inits colloquial sense, that part of the city which lies within theparishes of St. Margaret and St. John. When anyone says, 'I am going toWestminster, ' or, 'I am staying in Westminster, ' it is this districtthat he means to indicate. 

The parishes of St. Margaret and St. John include the land bounded onone side by the river; on another by a line running through the HorseGuards and diagonally across St. James's Park to Buckingham Gate; and onthe third by an irregular line which crosses Victoria Street to the westof Carlisle Place, and subsequently cuts across the Vauxhall Bridge Roadnear Francis Street, and, continuing at a slight angle to the course ofthe Bridge Road, strikes the river at a spot beyond the gasworks betweenPulford Terrace and Bessborough Place. There is also another piece ofland belonging to St. Margaret's parish; this lies detached, andincludes part of Kensington Gardens and the Round Pond; but it is onlymentioned to show it has not been overlooked, for the present accountwill not deal with it. The triangular space roughly indicated above issufficient for one ramble. 

Within this space stand, and have stood, so many magnificent buildingsclosely connected with the annals of England that Westminster may wellclaim to occupy a unique place in the history of the nation. The effectsof two such buildings as the Abbey and Palace upon its population werestriking and unique. 

The right of sanctuary possessed by the Abbey drew thieves, villains, and rogues of all kinds to its precincts. The Court drew to the Palace acrowd of hangers-on, attendants, artificers, work-people, etc. When theCourt was migratory this great horde swept over Westminster atintervals like a wave, and made a floating population. In the days of"touching" for "King's evil, " when the Court was held at Whitehall, vastcrowds of diseased persons gathered to Westminster to be touched. InCharles II. 's time weekly sittings were appointed at which the number ofapplicants was not to exceed 200. Between 1660-64, 23, 601 persons were"touched. " Later, when the roads were still too bad to be traversedwithout danger, many of the members of Parliament lodged in Westminsterwhile the House was sitting. Therefore, from the earliest date, whenbands of travellers and merchants came down the great north road, andpassed through the marshes of Westminster to the ferry, until thebeginning of the present century, there has always been a floatingelement mingling with the stationary inhabitants of the parishes. 

The history of Westminster itself is entwined with these two greatfoundations, the Abbey and the Palace, which will be found described indetail respectively at pp. 45 and 71. 

DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT. 

The perambulation of Westminster, undertaken street by street, differsfrom that made at Chelsea or elsewhere by reason of the great buildingsaforementioned, which are centres of interest and require particularnotice. These will be dealt with as they occur, and so interesting arethey that they cause the street associations to sink into a position ofsecondary importance. 

Beginning at the least interesting end of Westminster--that is to say, the west end of Victoria Street--there are not many objects of interestapparent. Victoria Street was in 1852 cut through nests of alleys anddirty courts, including a colony of almshouses, cottages, chapel, andschool, known as Palmer's Village. The solid uniform buildings on eitherside of the street have a very sombre aspect; they are mainly used foroffices. There is still some waste ground lying to the south of VictoriaStreet, in spite of the great Roman Catholic Cathedral, begun in 1895, which covers a vast area. The material is red brick with facings ofstone, and the style Byzantine, the model set being the "early Christianbasilica in its plenitude. " The high campanile tower, which is alreadyseen all over London, is a striking feature in a building quitedissimilar from those to which we in England are accustomed. The greatentrance at the west end has an arch of forty feet span, and enclosesthree doorways, of which the central one is only to be used on solemnoccasions by the Archbishop. One feature of the interior decoration willbe the mosaic pictures in the marble panels. The building is stillincomplete, and not open to the public. It stands on the site of TothillFields Prison, which was considered to be one of the finest specimens ofbrickwork in the country, and cost the nation £200, 000, but has nowcompletely vanished. It resembled a fortress; the entrance, which stoodin Francis Street, was composed of massive granite blocks, and had aportcullis. The prison took the place of a Bridewell or House ofCorrection near, built in 1622; but in spite of the vast sum of moneyspent upon it, it lasted only twenty years (1834-54). 

The fire-station and Western District Post-Office also occupy part ofthe same site. The extension of the Army and Navy Stores stands on thesite of the Greencoat School, demolished in 1877. Certain gentlemenfounded this school; in Charles I. 's reign it was constituted "a bodypolitic and corporate, " and the seal bears date 1636. The lads wore along green skirt, bound round with a red girdle. In 1874, when theUnited Westminster Schools were formed from the amalgamation of thevarious school charities of Westminster, the work was begun here, butthree years later the boys were removed to the new buildings in PalaceStreet. The old school buildings were very picturesque. They stood rounda quadrangle, and the Master's house faced the entrance, and wasdecorated with a bust of King Charles and the royal arms. In thewainscoted board-room hung portraits of King Charles I. By Vandyck, andKing Charles II. By Lely. 

The name of Artillery Row is connected with the artillery practice atthe butts, which stood near here in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. At theend, if we turn to the left, we come into Old Rochester Row, and so toGreycoat Place, in which stands the Greycoat Hospital. This building, one of the few old ones left in the parish, has a red-tiled roof anddormer windows, projecting eaves and heavy window-frames. Two wingsenclose a courtyard, which is below the level of the road. Above thecentral porch, in niches, are the figures of a boy and girl in theold-fashioned Greycoat garb. In the centre are the Royal arms of QueenAnne, and a turret with clock and vane surmounts the roof. 

This hospital was founded in 1698 for the education of seventy poor boysand forty poor girls. In 1706, by letters patent of Queen Anne, thetrustees were constituted a body 'politic and corporate. ' In this yearalso the school was established in the present quaint building, whichhad been a workhouse, perhaps that referred to in the vestry reports of1664 as the "new workhouse in Tuttle ffields. "

The boys then wore a long gray skirt and girdle, something similar tothe Christ's Hospital uniform, and the girls a dress of gray. Thehospital originated in the charity of the parishioners. Variousadditions have since been made to the building, and class-rooms havebeen added. The older class-rooms and board-room are wainscoted. In thelatter are oil-paintings of Queen Anne, Bishops Compton and Smalridge(of Bristol), and various governors. The corporate seal represents twomale figures tending a young sapling, a reference to 1 Cor. Vii. 8. Anold organ, contemporary with the date of the establishment, and amassive Bible and Prayer-Book, are among the most interesting relics. The latter, dated 1706, contains the "Prayer for the Healing" at theKing's touch. 

The hospital is a very wealthy foundation, and is able to support thestrain of its immense expenses without difficulty. The governors haverecently erected a row of red-brick flats to the west of the garden, which will further augment the income. The garden is charming withflower-beds and grass plots, while the vine and the ampelopsis climbover the old building. 

Rochester Row owes its name to the connection of the See of Rochesterwith the Deanery of Westminster, which continued through nine successiveincumbencies. The row was considered by the Dean and Chapter as aprivate thoroughfare until the beginning of the present century, butthey had no reason to be proud of it. A filthy ditch caused muchcomplaint; even in 1837 the state of the row was described as "shamefuland dangerous. " At the north-east end stood the parish pound-house. St. Stephen's Church and Schools are handsome, in a decorated Gothic style, and were built in 1847 by Ferrey, at the cost of the BaronessBurdett-Coutts. The spire rises to a height of 200 feet. 

Immediately opposite, two neat rows of almshouses, in red brick, faceone another; on the exterior wall of each wing is the half-length effigyof a man in a niche. Beneath that on the northern wing is theinscription: "Mr. Emery Hill, late of the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, founded these almshouses Anno Domini 1708. ChristianReader, in Hopes of thy Assistance. " On each side similar inscriptionscommemorate donations. 

On the southern wing the slab beneath the figure bears the words: "Rev. James Palmer founded almshouses in Palmer's Passage for six poor old menand six poor old women Anno Domini 1856; re-erected here, 1881"; and afurther record: "Mr. Nicholas Butler founded the almshouses in LittleChapel Street, near Palmer's Passage, for two of the most ancientcouples of the best repute, Anno Domini 1675; re-erected here 1881. "These are the Westminster United Almshouses. They were consolidated byan order of the Charity Commission, dated July 11, 1879. The GrenadierGuards Hospital is further down the row on the same side. 

Vincent Square is the Westminster School playground. This space, ofabout ten acres of land, has been the subject of much dispute betweenthe Dean and Chapter and the parish. It was first marked out as aplayground in 1810, but not enclosed by railings until 1842. Dr. Vincent, Headmaster of the school and formerly Dean of Westminster, tookthe lead in the matter, and the enclosure is therefore named after him. The ground is now levelled, and forms magnificent playing-fields; fromthe south end there is a fine view of many-towered Westminster. Thehospital of the Coldstream Guards is in one corner of the Square, andnext to it the Westminster Police Court. St. Mary's Church and Schoolsare on the south side. The Grosvenor Hospital for Women and Children isin Douglas Street close by. This originated in a dispensary in 1865. 

The ground in the parish already traversed corresponds roughly with thatoccupied by the once well-known Tothill Fields. Older writers call thisindifferently Tuthill, Totehill, Tootehill, but more generally Tuttle. In Timbs' "London and Westminster" we read: "The name of Tot is the oldBritish word Tent (the German Tulsio), god of wayfarers andmerchants. .. . Sacred stones were set up on heights, hence calledTothills. " If ever there were a hill at Tothill Fields, it must havebeen a very slight one, and in this case it may have been carted away toraise the level elsewhere. We know that St. John's burial-ground wastwice covered with three feet of soil, and in the parish accounts weread of gravel being carted from Tothill. The greater part of the groundin any case can have been only low-lying, for large marshy poolsremained until comparatively recent times, one of which was known as theScholars' Pond. Dean Stanley has aptly termed these fields theSmithfield of West London. Here everything took place which required anopen space--combats, tournaments, and fairs. 

In a map of the middle of the eighteenth century we see a few scatteredhouses lying to the south of Horseferry Road just below the bend, andRochester Row stretching like an arm out into the open ground. Two ofthe great marshy pools are also marked. If all accounts are to bebelieved, this spot was noted for its fertility and the beauty of itswild-flowers. From Strype's Survey we learn that the fields suppliedLondon and Westminster with "asparagus, artichokes, cauliflowers andmusk melons. " The author of "Parochial Memorials" says that the names ofOrchard Street, Pear Street and Vine Street are reminiscent of thecultivation of fruit in Westminster, but these names more probably havereference to the Abbot's garden. Walcott says that Tothill Fields, before the Statute of Restraints, was considered to be within the limitsof the sanctuary of the Abbey. Stow gives a long and minute account of atrial by battle held here. One of the earliest recorded tournaments heldin these fields was at the coronation of Queen Eleanor in 1226. 

A great fair held in the fields in 1248 was a failure. All the shops andplaces of merchandise were shut during the fifteen days that it lasted, by the King's command, but the wind and rain ruined the project. 

In 1256 John Mansell, the King's Counsellor and a priest, entertainedthe Kings and Queens of England and Scotland and so many Dukes, Lords, and Barons, at Westminster that he had not room for them in his ownhouse, but set up tents and pavilions in Tothill. 

In 1441 "was the fighting at the Tothill between two thefes, a pelourand a defendant; the pelour hadde the field, and victory of thedefendour withinne three strokes. "

Both the armies of the Royalists and the Commonwealth were at differenttimes paraded in these fields; of the latter, 14, 000 men were here atone time. During 1851-52 Scottish prisoners were brought to Tothill, andmany died there, as the churchwardens' accounts show. In the latteryear we read the entry: "Paid to Thomas Wright for 67 load of soyle laidon the graves in Tuthill Fields wherein 1, 200 Scotch prisoners (taken atthe fight at Worcester) were buried. "

It was fifteen years later, in the time of the Great Plague, that thepesthouses came into full use, for we read in the parish records July14, 1665, "that the Churchwardens doe forthwith proceed to the making ofan additional Provision for the reception of the Poore visited of thePlague, at the Pesthouse in Tuttle ffieldes. " The first two cases ofthis terrible visitation occurred in Westminster, and during thesorrowful months that followed, in place of feasting and pageantry, thefields were the theatre for scenes of horror and death. The pesthouseswere still standing in 1832. 

There was formerly a "maze" in Tothill Fields, which is shown in a printfrom an engraving by Hollar taken about 1650. 

Vauxhall Bridge Road was cut through part of the site belonging to theold Millbank Penitentiary. The traffic to the famous Vauxhall Gardens onthe other side of the river once made this a very crowded thoroughfare;at present it is extremely dreary. The Scots Guards Hospital is on thewest side. 

Turning to the left at the end in the Grosvenor Road, we soon come tothe Tate Gallery of British Art, the magnificent gift of Sir Henry Tateto the nation. Besides the building, the founder gave sixty-fivepictures to form the nucleus of a collection. This is said to be thefirst picture-gallery erected in England complete in itself; thearchitect is Sydney Smith, F. R. I. B. A. , and the style adopted is a FreeClassic, Roman with Greek feeling in the mouldings and decorations. There is a fine portico of six Corinthian columns terminating in apediment, with the figure of Britannia at the central apex, and the lionand unicorn at each end. The basement, of rusticated stone, ten feethigh, runs round the principal elevation. A broad flight of steps leadsto the central entrance. The front elevation is about 290 feet inlength. The vestibule immediately within the principal door leads intoan octagonal sculpture hall, top-lighted by a glass dome. There arebesides five picture-galleries, also top-lighted. The pictures, whichinclude the work of the most famous British artists, are nearly alllabelled with the titles and artists' names, so a catalogue issuperfluous. The collection includes the pictures purchased by theChantrey Bequest, also a gift from G. F. Watts, R. A. , of twenty-three ofhis own works. The gallery is open from ten to six, and on Sundays insummer after two o'clock. Thursdays and Fridays are students' days. 

The gallery stands on the site of the old Millbank Penitentiary, for thescheme of which Howard the reformer was originally responsible. He wasannoyed by the rejection of the site he advocated, however, andafterwards withdrew from the project altogether. Wandsworth Fields andBattersea Rise were both discussed as possible sites, but wereeventually abandoned in favour of Millbank. Jeremy Bentham, whoadvocated new methods in the treatment of prisoners, gained a contractfrom the Government for the erection and management of the new prison. He, however, greatly exceeded the terms of his contract, and finallywithdrew, and supervisors were appointed. The prison was a six-rayedbuilding with a chapel in the centre. Each ray was pentagonal in shape, and had three towers on its exterior angles. The whole was surrounded byan octagonal wall overlooking a moat. At the closing of the prison inTothill Fields it became the sole Metropolitan prison for females, "justas, " says Major Griffiths, "it was the sole reformatory for promisingcriminals, the first receptacle for military prisoners, the great depotfor convicts _en route_ for the antipodes. "

In 1843 it was called a penitentiary instead of a prison. Gradually, asnew methods of prison architecture were evolved, Millbank was recognisedas cumbersome and inadequate. It was doomed for many years before itsdemolition, and now, like the prison of Tothill Fields, has vanished. Even the convicts' burial-ground at the back of the Tate Gallery isnearly covered with County Council industrial dwellings. 

Further northward in the Grosvenor Road, Peterborough House once stood, facing the river, and this was at one time called "the last house inWestminster. " It was built by the first Earl of Peterborough, andretained his name until 1735, when it passed to Alexander Davis ofEbury, whose only daughter and heiress had married Sir Thomas Grosvenor. It was by this marriage that the great London property came into thepossession of the Grosvenor (Westminster) family. The house was rebuilt, and renamed Grosvenor House. Strype says: "The Earl of Peterborough'shouse with a large courtyard before it, and a fine garden behind, butits situation is but bleak in winter and not over healthful, as beingtoo near the low meadows on the south and west parts. " The house wasfinally demolished in 1809. 

Beyond, in the direction of the Houses of Parliament, there are severalinteresting old houses, of which the best specimens are Nos. 8 and 9, offices of the London Road Car Company, and No. 10. In the first awell-furnished ceiling proclaims an ancient drawing-room; in the secondpanelled walls and a spiral staircase set off a fine hall. This househas a beautiful doorway of the old scallop-shell pattern, with cherubs'heads and ornamental brackets decorating it. In the third house aceiling is handsomely finished with dental mouldings, and the edges ofthe panels are all carved. A mantelpiece of white marble is very fine, and of great height and solidity, with a female face as the keystone. 

From Lambeth Bridge the Horseferry Road leads westward. This was themain track to the ferry in ancient days, and as the ferry was the onlyone on the Thames at London, it was consequently of great importance. Itwas here that James II. Crossed after escaping from Whitehall by night, and from his boat he threw the Great Seal into the river. HorseferryRoad is strictly utilitarian, and not beautiful; it passes by gasworks, a Roman Catholic church, Wesleyan chapel, Normal Institute and TrainingCollege, all of the present century. North of it Grosvenor Road becomesMillbank Street. The Abbot's watermill stood at the end of CollegeStreet (further north), and was turned by the stream which still flowsbeneath the roadway. In an old survey a mill is marked on this spot, andis supposed to have been built by the same Abbot Litlington who builtthe wall in College Street (1362-1386). It was still standing in 1644, and mention is made of it at that date in the parish books. The bank wasa long strip of raised earth, extending from here to the site ofPeterborough House. Strype mentions "the Millbank" as a "certain parcelof land valued in Edward VI. 's time at 58 shillings, and given in thethird of his reign" to one Joanna Smith for "services rendered. "

Church Street (left) leads into Smith Square. Here stands the Church ofSt. John the Evangelist. This was the second of Queen Anne's fiftychurches built by imposing a duty on coals and culm brought into thePort of London. The new district was formed in 1723, but theconsecration ceremony did not take place until June 20, 1728. Thearchitect was Archer, a pupil of Sir John Vanbrugh's, and the style, which is very peculiar, has been described as Doric. The chief featuresof the church are its four angle belfries, which were not included inthe original scheme of the architect, but were added later to insure anequal pressure on the foundations. Owing to these the church has beenunkindly compared to an elephant with its four legs up in the air!Another story has it that Queen Anne, being troubled in mind by muchwearisome detail, kicked over her wooden footstool, and said, "Go, buildme a church like that"; but this sounds apocryphal, especially in viewof the fact that the towers were a later addition. The church isundoubtedly cumbrous, but has the merit of originality. In 1742 it wasgutted by fire, and was not rebuilt for some time owing to lack offunds. In 1773 the roof was slightly damaged by lightning, andsubsequently repairs and alterations have taken place. The buildingseats 1, 400 persons, and a canonry of Westminster Abbey is attached tothe living. 

The churchwardens of St. John's possess an interesting memento in theform of a snuff-box, presented in 1801 by "Thomas Gayfere, Esq. , Fatherof the Vestry of St. John the Evangelist. " This has been handed down tothe succeeding office-bearers, who have enriched and enlarged it bysuccessive silver plates and cases. 

Smith Square shows, like so much of Westminster, an odd mixture of oldbrick houses, with heavily-tiled roofs, and new brick flats of greatheight. In the south-west corner stands the Rectory. Romney and MarshamStreets were called after Charles Marsham, Earl of Romney. Tufton Streetwas named after Sir Richard Tufton. One of the cockpits in Westminsterwas here as late as 1815, long after the more fashionable one in St. James's Park had vanished. The northern part of the street between GreatPeter and Great College Streets was formerly known as Bowling Alley. Here the notorious Colonel Blood lived. 

Near the corner of Little Smith Street stands an architectural museum;it is not a very large building, but the frontage is renderedinteresting by several statues and reliefs in stone. This, to give itits full title, is "The Royal Architectural Museum and School of Art inconnection with the Science and Art Department. " The gallery is openfree from ten to four daily, and in the rooms opening off its corridorsart classes for students of both sexes are held; the walls areabsolutely covered with ancient fragments of architecture and sculpture. The row of houses opposite to the museum is doomed to demolition, aprocess which has begun already at the north end. The house third fromthe south end, a small grocer's shop, is the one in which the greatcomposer and musician Purcell lived. He was born in Great St. Ann's Lanenear the Almonry, and his mother, as a widow, lived in Tothill Street. The boy at the very early age of six was admitted to the choir of theChapel Royal, and was appointed organist to Westminster Abbey when onlytwo-and-twenty, a place he very nearly lost by refusing to give up tothe Dean and Chapter the proceeds of letting the seats in the organ-loftto view the coronation of James II. , a windfall he considered as aperquisite. He is buried beneath the great organ, which had so oftenthrobbed out his emotions in the sounds in which he had clothed them. Onleaving Tufton Street he went to Marsham Street, where he died in 1695. The art students from the gallery now patronize the little room behindthe shop for lunch and tea, running across in paint-covered pinafore orblouse, making the scene veritably Bohemian. 

At the north end of Tufton Street is Great College Street. Heredignified houses face the old wall built by Abbot Litlington. They arenot large; some are overgrown by creepers; the street seems bathed inthe peace of a perpetual Sunday. The stream bounding Thorney Islandflowed over this site, and its waters still run beneath the roadway. Thestreet has been associated with some names of interest. Gibbon's aunthad here a boarding-house for Westminster boys, in which her famousnephew lived for some time. Mr. Thorne, antiquary, and originator of_Notes and Queries_, lived here. Some of Keats' letters to Fanny Brawneare dated from 25 Great College Street, where he came on October 16, 1820, to lodgings, in order to conquer his great passion by absence; butapparently absence had only the proverbial effect. Walcott lived here, and his History of St. Margaret's Church and Memorials of Westminsterare dated from here in 1847 and 1849 respectively. Little College Streetcontains a few small, irregular houses brightened by window-boxes. Aslab informs us that the date of Barton Street was 1722, but the row ofquiet, flat-casemented houses looks older than that. At the west end ofGreat College Street stood the King's slaughter-house for supplying meatto the palace; the foundations of this were extant in 1807. The end ofGreat College Street opens out opposite the smooth lawns of the VictoriaPublic Garden, near the House of Lords. 

In Great Smith Street there was a turnpike at the beginning of the lastcentury. Sir Richard Steele and Keats both dated letters from thisaddress, and Thomas Southerne, the dramatist, died here. The northernpart of the street was known as Dean Street until 1865; the oldworkhouse of the united parish used to stand in it. The Free Library isin this street. Westminster was the first Metropolitan parish to adoptthe Library Acts. The Commissioners purchased the lease of a house, together with furniture, books, etc. , from a Literary, Scientific, andMechanics' Institute which stood on the east side of the road, a littleto the north of the present library building, and the library was openedthere in 1857. In 1888 the present site was purchased, and the buildingwas designed by J. F. Smith, F. R. I. B. A. 

Dean Stanley presented 2, 000 volumes of standard works in 1883, to whichothers were added by his sister, Mrs. Vaughan, to whom they had beenleft for her lifetime. The library also contains 449 valuable volumespublished by the Record Office. These consist of Calendars of StatePapers, Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the MiddleAges, and Records of Great Britain from the Reign of Edward theConfessor to Henry VIII. The Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses, designed by the same architect are next door to the library. The ChurchHouse opposite is a very handsome building in a Perpendicular style; itis of red brick with stone dressings. The interior is very wellfurnished with fine stone and wood carving. The great hall holds 1, 500people, and runs the whole length of the building from Smith Street toTufton Street. The roof is an open timber structure of the hammer-beamtype, typical of fourteenth-century work. Near the north end of GreatSmith Street is Queen Anne's Bounty Office, rebuilt 1900. 

Orchard Street is so named from the Abbot's Orchard. John Wesley oncelived here. In Old Pye Street a few squalid houses with low doorwaysremain to contrast with the immense flats known as Peabody's Buildings, which have sprung up recently. In 1862 George Peabody gave £150, 000 forthe erection of dwellings for the working classes, and to this hesubsequently added £500, 000. The first block of buildings was opened inSpitalfields, 1864. These in the neighbourhood of Old Pye Street wereerected in 1882. Pye Street derives its name from Sir Robert Pye, memberfor Westminster in the time of Charles I. , who married a daughter ofJohn Hampden. St. Matthew Street was Duck Lane until 1864, and was avery malodorous quarter. Swift says it was renowned for second-handbookshops. The Westminster Bluecoat School was first founded here. 

St. Ann's Street and Lane are poor and wretched quarters. The name isderived from a chapel which formerly stood on the spot (see p. 37). Herrick lodged in the street when, ejected from his living in thecountry in 1647, he returned with anything but reluctance to his belovedLondon. He had resumed lay dress, but was restored to his living in 1662in reward for his devoted loyalty to the Stuarts. The great musician, Henry Purcell, was born in St. Ann's Lane. Seymour, writing in 1735, says: "Great St. Ann's Lane, a pretty, handsome, well-built andwell-inhabited place. " St. Matthew's Church and Schools were built bySir G. A. Scott in 1849-57. 

Great Peter Street is a dirty thoroughfare with some very old houses. Onone is a stone slab with the words, "This is Sant Peter Street, 1624. R[a heart] W. " This and its neighbour, Little Peter Street, obviouslyderive their names from the patron saint of the Abbey. Strype describesGreat Peter Street pithily as "very long and indifferent broad. " GreatPeter Street runs at its west end into Strutton Ground, a quaint placewhich recalls bygone days by other things than its name, which is acorruption of Stourton, from Stourton House. The street is thickly linedby costers' barrows, and on Saturday nights there is no room to pass inthe roadway. 

Before examining in detail the part that may be called the core andcentre of Westminster, that part lying around the Abbey and Houses ofParliament, it is advisable to begin once more at the west end ofVictoria Street, and, traversing the part of the parish on the northside, gather there what we may of history and romance. 

PART II

NORTH OF VICTORIA STREET. 

The United Westminster Schools, constituted 1873, stand on the east sideof Palace Street. These comprise Emanuel Hospital, Greencoat School (St. Margaret's), Palmer's (Blackcoat School), and Hill's Grammar School. Thebuilding in Palace Street stands back from the road behind a space ofgreen grass. Over one doorway are medallions of Palmer and Hill, andover the other the Royal arms, and the structure is devoid of anyarchitectural attractiveness. The beauty which belonged to the olderbuildings has not been revived, but replaced by a hideousutilitarianism. Watney's Brewery occupies the ground opposite to theschool. The schools of St. Andrew are in this street, and beyond is theRoman Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Edward. Stafford Place iscalled after Viscount Stafford, on the site of whose garden wall it issaid to have been built. This wall formed the parish boundary, and a boywas annually whipped upon it to impress the bounds upon his memory. 

Tart Hall, built 1638, stood at the north end of James Street. It wasthe residence of Viscount Stafford, to whom it had come from his motherAlethea, daughter and heiress of the seventh Earl of Shrewsbury. LordStafford was the fifth son of the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, and wasmade first a Baron and then a Viscount by Charles I. He was condemnedfor high treason on the manufactured evidence of Oates and Turberville, in the reign of Charles II. , and was beheaded on Tower Hill, December29, 1680. After his execution the house was turned into a museum andplace of public entertainment. The gateway under which he passed to hisdeath was never again opened after that event, but it was left standinguntil 1737. Among the notable residents in the street were Dr. WhiteKennet, Bishop of Peterborough, an indefatigable collector of MSS. , andGlover, the poet. 

The present street contains many pleasant, picturesque houses, especially at the northern end. At the corner of Castle Lane is theWestminster Chapel, the largest Independent place of worship in theMetropolis excepting Spurgeon's Tabernacle. It seats 2, 500, and has twogalleries, one above the other, running round the whole interior. It wasopened in 1865 to replace a smaller chapel which had previously stood onthe same site. 

Emanuel Hospital was a charming old building which stood south of thechapel on the same side of the street. It was founded in 1594 by LadyDacre "for the relief of aged people and the bringing up of children invirtue and good and laudable arts, whereby they might the better live intime to come by their honest labour. " The low range of buildings runninground a quadrangle had tall chimneys, and the central house wasdecorated by a cupola and clock. It was the sort of place that took thesharpness off charity by covering it with a sheath of that dignity whichis always to be found in antiquity. 

By Lady Dacre's will there were to be twenty almspeople, and each ofthem was at liberty to bring up one child. It was, however, not untilthe year 1728 that a school was first established, for before that thefunds had been insufficient. 

In 1890 thirteen of the almshouses stood empty from failure of income, and subsequently it was resolved to demolish the almshouses and offerthe present valuable site for building purposes. It is not theintention of the trustees to erect new almshouses. The charity will infuture be entirely in money pensions known as Lady Dacre's pensions. 

Caxton Street was originally called Chapel Street, but was renamed inhonour of the great printer, who lived for some years at a house in theAlmonry, now replaced by the Westminster Palace Hotel (see p. 34). 

On the south side of the street is a curious little square brickbuilding with the figure of a Bluecoat boy over the porch, and theinscription on a slab, "The Blue Coat School, built in the year 1709. "On the back is a large painting of a similar boy and the date offoundation: "This School founded 1688. " A small garden stretches outbehind. The building itself contains simply one hall or classroom, whichis decorated by an ornamental dental cornice, and has a curious innerportico with fluted columns over the doorway. It is supposed to havebeen built by the great Sir Christopher. The Master's house, coveredwith Virginia creeper, stands on one side of the main building. 

The school was first established in Duck Lane, and was instituted byThomas Jekyll, D. D. , one of the chaplains of the Broadway Chapel. It issaid to have been the first school in the Metropolis supported byvoluntary contributions. It was at first for boys only, but in 1713twenty girls were included in the scheme, but these were afterwardsdispersed and only the boys retained. Westminster was exceptionally richin these foundations of the charitable, both for the young and for theold. 

Further eastward, on the north side of Caxton Street, is the MedicalSchool in connection with Westminster Hospital. The Town Hall standsclose by. The foundation-stone was laid by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. In the muniment-room there are preserved 3, 400 records, etc. , ofexceptional interest. Here, also, are the St. Ermin's Mansions andHotel, which derive their name from St. Ermin's Hill, evidently acorruption of Hermit's Hill, under which name the place is marked insome old maps. 

Christ Church is of considerable size. It is of the last century (1843), and its stumpy tower, which is incomplete, gives it an odd appearance. The church is on the site of the Broadway Chapel, founded by Darrell, aPrebendary of the Abbey, who in 1631 left £400 for its erection. Varioussubscriptions were added to this sum, including one of £100 fromArchbishop Laud. The churchyard had been consecrated in 1626. The chapelwas opened 1642, and saw many vicissitudes of fortune. During the CivilWar it was used as a stable for the soldiers' horses, and at othertimes as a council-room and a prison. In the churchyard Sir WilliamWaller, the Parliamentary General, is buried. 

York Street was named after Frederick, Duke of York, son of George II. , who resided here temporarily. Previously it had been called PettyFrance, from the number of French refugees and merchants who inhabitedit. Milton lived in No. 19, now destroyed. The house belonged to JeremyBentham, and was afterwards occupied by Hazlitt, who caused a tabletbearing the words "Sacred to Milton, Prince of Poets, " to be placed onthe outside wall in memory of his famous predecessor. 

Milton came here in 1651, when turned out of chambers in Scotland Yardwhich had been allowed him as Latin Secretary to the Council. He stillretained the office. He had lost the sight of one eye, and two yearslater was totally blind. He was obliged to have an assistant-secretary, a post occupied for some time by Andrew Marvell. His daughter Deborahwas born here, and his wife died soon after. In Palmer's Passage, Palmer's Almshouses were first established, and in Little Chapel Street, Mr. Nicholas Butler's. Mr. Cornelius Vandon's (Van Dun) were in PettyFrance. "Cornelius Vandon was born at Breda in Brabant, Yeoman of theGuard and Usher to their Majesties Henry VIII. , King Edward VI. , QueenMarie and Queen Elizabeth. He did give eight almshouses in Pettie Francenext to the end of James Street for the use of eight poor Women of theParish. He did also give eight other Almshouses near St. Ermin's Hill byTuttle side for the use of eight poor widows of this Parish. " Theseeight women were intended to act as charity nurses, and to nurse any whowere sick in the parish. 

In 1850 the almshouses and ground were sold, and the proceeds devoted toVandon's Charity Account. Part of the funds was used to purchase a plotof ground in Lambeth, where new almshouses were erected, and after thedeath of the recipients of the charity these were let to tenants, andthe proceeds devoted to supplying nurses for the poor. 

The towering blocks of Queen Anne's Mansions, the highest flats inLondon, rear themselves at the east end of York Street. These are partlyon the site of a house occupied for very many years by Jeremy Bentham(see p. 32). 

The Guards Barracks, known as the Wellington Barracks, face BirdcageWalk. They were opened in March, 1834, and enlarged in 1859. The longline of yellow-washed building differs little from the usually-acceptedbarrack model. 

At the east end of the barrack yard stands the chapel, with anextraordinarily massive portico. It was built in 1839-40 on the model ofa Grecian temple. The building is well proportioned, but the interiorwas not at first thought worthy of the exterior. Accordingly, in 1877the chapel was closed, and a sum of money arising from the sale of theGuards' Institute was devoted to the purpose of a complete internalreconstruction. The work was put into the hands of Sir G. E. Street, R. A. , who carried it out in the Lombardian style, with an apse at theeastern end, and over the apse a semi-dome. 

Within, every spare foot of wall-space is utilized, and, besides being aperfect storehouse of memorials of departed Guardsmen, the chapel isfull of rich but unobtrusive decoration. The sweep of the high pillarsand arches of light stone relieves the richness of the muralornamentation. The side-walls of the nave are covered by an arcadeenclosing panels of marble mosaic. The heads of the arches are filled inby terra-cotta groups in high relief, representing Biblical subjects. Between and below the panels are tablets to the memory of those who haveserved in the Guards. 

Between the windows are other tablets, of which the most interesting isthat inscribed: "Soldier, Sportsman, Author, George Whyte Melville'smemory is here recorded by his old friends and comrades, the ColdstreamGuards. " The chancel screen and pulpit are of white Sicilian marble, with handsome panels and a base of Belgian black. In the spandril of thearch on the south side of the chancel is a marble medallion of the Dukeof Wellington, presented by his son, and in the corresponding positionon the north side one of the Duke of Marlborough, presented by the Earlof Cadogan. The stalls are of stained oak. The altar is of oak, withwalnut panels and ebony shafts. The reredos is lined by beautiful glassmosaics, and the semi-dome is mosaic work to match. This sounds a merecatalogue, but it is quite impossible to give any idea of thissingularly richly-decorated chapel without descending to detail. Thetattered colours used at the Crimea and Waterloo hang from their staveson the pillars. Anyone is admitted to parade service on Sunday morningsby ticket, to be procured beforehand by writing to the chaplain. 

Queen Anne's Gate was formerly Queen Square. At a corner stands a statueof Queen Anne without date. Many of the houses show quaintly carvedporches with wooden brackets and pendants, and are obviously of the datewhich the name implies. Jeremy Bentham lived in Queen Square Place, nowcovered by part of Queen Anne's Mansions, for fifty years of his life, and here he died in 1832. His skeleton, clothed as in life, is nowpossessed by University College, London. His house was called TheHermitage. His friend and disciple, James Mill, came to be his tenant in1814, in what was then 1 Queen's Square, now 40 Queen Anne's Gate. Herehe completed his great History of India, published in 1818. 

After Mill, Sir John Bowring, first editor of the _Westminster Review_, established by Bentham, occupied the house now numbered 40. PegWoffington also lived in Queen Square, which was a fashionable place ofresidence in the last century, a reputation it still retains. Both Greatand Little Queen Streets partake of the old-world look of theseventeenth century, and show quaint keystones and carving of variousdesigns over the doorways. 

The Broadway formerly included the part now occupied by Great ChapelStreet, and reached to Strutton Ground. In James I. 's reign a licensewas granted for a haymarket to be held here, which license was renewedfrom time to time. Dick Turpin, the highwayman, is said to have lived inone of the small courts off the Broadway, and to have issued from thenceon his marauding expeditions. Perhaps this was Black Horse Yard, whichname still appears. There is on every side evidence of that mingling ofpoverty and riches which has been in all ages so characteristic ofWestminster, a parish which contains at the same time splendidGovernment buildings and squalid slums, one of the most magnificentcathedrals in the world and some of the foulest courts. 

In Newcourt's map of 1658 Tothill Street is completely built, whilethere are very few streets to the south of the present Victoria Street. Walcott says of this street that it "was inhabited by noblemen and theflower of the gentry in Westminster. " In Elizabeth's time the houses hadlarge gardens attached. Edmund Burke lived in Tothill Street, alsoThomas Southerne, the dramatist, who was a constant attendant at theAbbey; and Thomas Betterton was born here about 1635. His father was anunder-cook in the service of Charles I. Betterton wrote a number ofplays, but is best remembered as an actor. 

The Aquarium, 600 feet in length, stands on the site of a labyrinth ofsmall yards. To one of these the Cock public-house gave its name. Tradition says that the Abbey workmen received their wages at the Cockin the reign of Henry III. At the eastern corner, where Tothill andVictoria Streets meet, is the Palace Hotel, a very large building, withtwo Titanic male figures supporting the portico in an attitude ofeternal strain. This is on part of the site of the Almonry. ThisAlmonry is thus described by Stow: "Now corruptly the Ambry, for thatthe alms of the Abbey were there distributed to the Poor. Therein wasprinting first practised in England. " Caxton is often spoken of, incorrectly, as the inventor of printing. That credit belongs toGutenberg, a native of Mainz, but Caxton was the first who brought theart to England and printed English books. He was born in the Weald ofKent, and his father was a citizen of London. As a boy, Caxton was sentto a house of English merchants at Bruges, and there he remained formany years, rising steadily in reputation. There he came in contact witha man named Colard Mansion, who had brought the art of printing toBruges. Caxton seems to have seen at once the vast importance of theinvention, and got Mansion to print two books in English, the first everset up in the language. These were: "A Recuyell of the Historyes ofTroie, " printed 1474; and "The Game and Playe of the Chesse. " Apparentlythe experiment met with success. Caxton soon after left the house ofbusiness, married, and became secretary to the Duchess of Burgundy, buthe was not long in her service, for he returned to England in 1476. Hebrought over with him printing-presses and workmen, and settled inWestminster. He placed his press, by permission of the Prior(afterwards Abbot) Islip, in the Almonry just outside the gatehouse. 

His house was called Reed (Red) Pale, and was situated on the north sideof the Almonry. A house traditionally called Caxton's was pointed out upto fifty years ago. It is described as being of red brick. In thelibrary of Brasenose College, Oxford, there is a placard in Caxton'slargest type inviting people to "come to Westminster in the Almonystryeat the Reed Pale. "

Caxton died in 1491, and, with his wife, is buried in St. Margaret'sChurch. He left one daughter. 

A copy of "The Royal Book, " or "Book for a King, " compiled for Philip ofFrance in 1279, and translated and printed by Caxton at Westminster in1487, was sold this year in England for £2, 225. There are only fivecopies in existence, one of which was sold in 1901 for £1, 550. The otherthree are in public libraries. Could Caxton have looked onward for 400years, his astonishment and gratification at these prodigious priceswould doubtless have been extreme. 

The Almonry, or "Eleemosynary, " as Stow calls it, was in two parts, ofwhich the larger was again subdivided in two portions, parallel to thetwo Tothill Streets. The distribution of the Royal maundy which takesplace in Westminster Abbey yearly, with much ceremony, is a reminder ofthe ancient almsgiving. The address of the present Royal Almonry is 6, Craigs Court. 

Henry VII. 's almshouses were in the Little Almonry, and St. Ann's Chapel(p. 23) was at the southern end. King Henry's mother, Margaret, erectedan almshouse near the chapel for poor women, which "was afterwardsturned into lodgings for the singing men of the College. "

A great gatehouse formerly stood at the east end of Victoria Street, close by Dean's Yard. It was built by Richard II. , and was very massive, resembling a square tower of stone, and it altogether lacked thearchitectural decoration of the other gateways near King Street to bespoken of presently. Well might it seem gloomy, for it fulfilled thefunctions of a prison. On one side was the Bishop of London's prison for"Clerks, convict, " and in the other were confined prisoners from theCity or Liberties of Westminster. Many distinguished prisoners wereconfined here. Sir Walter Raleigh passed the night before his executionwithin the solid walls, and wrote his farewell to life:

 "Even such is Time! that takes on trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have; And pays us but with age and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days. "

Perhaps the most illustrious victim of all those who have perished onEnglish scaffolds is Sir Walter Raleigh. He was brought out to die inOld Palace Yard at eight in the morning of October 29, 1618. The daychosen was Lord Mayor's Day, in the hope that the pageants of the daywould draw away the people from witnessing the death of this great man. The story of his execution is well known. His last words have not beenallowed to perish. "Now, " he said, as he mounted the scaffold, "I amgoing to God. " Then, touching the axe, he said: "This is a sharpmedicine, but it will cure all diseases. " Lady Raleigh herself waitednear the scaffold in a coach. The head was placed in a leather bag, wrapped about with Sir Walter's gown, and so she carried it away. Shepreserved it in a case during the rest of her life, and her son Carewkept it afterwards. It is believed to have been buried at last at WestHorsley, in Surrey. The body was buried in St. Margaret's, near thealtar. 

Here also was imprisoned Colonel Lovelace, who wrote within the gloomywalls the well-known lines:

 "When, linnet-like, confinéd I With shriller note shall sing The mercye, sweetness, majesty, And glories of my King; When I shall voyce aloud how good He is, how great should be, Th' enlarged winds that curl the flood Know no such liberty. 

 "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage: Minds, innocent and quiet, take That for an hermitage. If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soare above, Enjoy such liberty. "

Here were confined, also, Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester; and Sir JeffreyHudson, the little dwarf, who was first in the service of the Duchess ofBuckingham, and afterwards in that of Queen Henrietta Maria, and wastwice painted by Vandyck. Hudson died in the prison. Hampden, Sir JohnEliot, and Lilly, the astrologer, were imprisoned at various times, andTitus Oates died in the gatehouse in his sixty-third year. RichardSavage, the poet, adds another name to the list. In 1776 the Dean andChapter of Westminster ordered that the gatehouse should be pulled down, but one wall, adjoining the house once inhabited by Edmund Burke, wasstill standing in 1836. 

Close by was Thieving Lane, through which thieves were taken to theprison without passing by the sanctuary and claiming its immunity. 

Within the High Gate was the Abbey Precinct, and with this we pass intoby far the most interesting part of Westminster--that part that may becalled the nucleus, round which cluster so many historical memories thatthe mere task of recording them is very great. 

PART III

THE HEART OF WESTMINSTER. 

As we, in imagination, pass through the ancient prison gate, at the eastend of Victoria Street, we find on the left Prince's Street, formerlycalled Long Ditch. His Majesty's Stationery Office stands on the east, alarge dull brick building, stuccoed in front, built round a courtyard. Lewisham Street and Parker Street are long narrow foot-passages, runningeast and west, the latter a cul-de-sac. The tablet on the wall is muchworn, but seems to have borne the date "Parker Street, 1621. " This is inaccordance with the lines of old flat-casemented, two-story houses whichline each side of the street. 

Westminster Hospital originated in 1715 at a small house in BirdcageWalk from which outdoor relief was administered. Five years later thehospital began to receive in-patients, and in 1724 began a new lease ofusefulness in a building in Chapel Street with accommodation for sixtyin-patients. Nine years after the removal to Chapel Street the hospitalwas transferred to James Street. This change of position was objected toby part of the governing body, who seceded, and eventually establishedSt. George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner. In 1834 the present buildingwas erected. It was the first to be established by voluntarycontributions in London. It is unique in possessing an incurable ward, and in the system of nursing, which is carried out by contract. Theleads are utilized as an airing-ground for the patients. 

The Guildhall or Sessions House of Middlesex is an ancient institution. Previous to 1752 the sessions were held at the Town Court House nearWestminster Hall. In 1805 the Guildhall was erected from designs by S. P. Cockerell at the spot where the present Gothic fountain is. Thepresent building is on the site of the Sanctuary. A little building ofheavy stonework, about sixty feet high, once stood here; it had one dooronly, of solid oak, covered with iron plates, and this led into a sombrechapel. This was St. Peter's Sanctuary, dedicated to the Holy Innocents, and to it any hunted criminal had the right of entry. Apparently, hispursuers might besiege him without danger of sacrilege, but at any ratehe could defy them in tolerable security within those massive walls. There do not seem to be many records of the occasions on which it wasused; we do not hear of the quick step and panting breath of thefugitive as he neared that doorway, nor read of the sense of relief withwhich he shot the bolts into place before he crept up to the roof topeep over the low parapet and see if his enemies were hard upon hisheels. Yet these things must have happened again and again. The mosttouching occasion recorded in history is when the Queen-mother Elizabethsought refuge here with her younger son Richard and her daughters. Itwas not a new thing to her to have to seek protection thus. She had beenhere before, and her elder boy, destined for so short a reign and socruel a death, had been born within the confines of the prison-likewalls. On the second occasion, when the ferocious Richard, Duke ofGloucester, sought to obtain possession of his younger nephew, herespected the limits of sanctuary, but with his plausible tongue hepersuaded the Archbishop who accompanied him to consent to his schemes, and he silenced, if he did not assuage, the mother's fears. So thelittle Richard was taken to die in the Tower with his brother, and smalluse had sanctuary been to him. 

The work of the demolition of this massive keep was going on in 1775, but it does not seem to have proceeded regularly; people came and toreaway fragments from the walls as they listed, and the gloomy buildingvanished piecemeal. 

By Acts passed in the early part of the nineteenth century, part of LongDitch, Bridge Street, Little George Street, and King Street were clearedaway, also Broad and Little Sanctuary, Thieving Lane, and many smallcourts, and on the space thus obtained public seats were placed, flower-beds planted, and statues erected. 

The statues on the quadrangular piece of ground in the centre are ofPeel and Beaconsfield, north and south; Palmerston and Derby on theeast. The statue of George Canning is in the western enclosure. UnionStreet ran due eastward to New Palace Yard, and must have cut very nearthe place where the statue of Palmerston now stands. The drinkingfountain at the corner of Great George Street was put up by CharlesBuxton in 1865 in memory of the abolition of the slave trade. 

Westminster Abbey, Palace, and City stood formerly upon a small islandcalled Thorney, the Isle of Bramble, a low-lying islet covered withbrambles, nowhere more than three or four feet above the level ofhigh-tide formed by the fall of the little river, the Tye, into theThames. Part of this stream ran down Gardener's Lane; part of itdiverged and ran south, forming a narrow moat or ditch called Long Lane, turned eastward at College Street, and so fell into the Thames. Theisland is mentioned in a charter of 785 by Offa, King of Mercia, as"Tornica, Locus terribilis"--_i. E. _, sacred. It was about 1, 410 feetlong and 1, 100 feet broad. It was almost entirely, save for a narrowpiece of land on the north, occupied by the King's House and the Abbey. Both Palace and Abbey were surrounded by walls, one wall being commonto both. 

The Palace Precinct had three gates: one on the north, one on theeast--leading to the Bridge, _i. E. _, the jetty where the state bargesand the boats lay--and a postern leading into the Abbey. Westminster wasat first a large rural manor belonging to the Abbey before the erectionof the Palace. 

A large part of Thorney Island is still only slightly above the level ofhigh-tide. King Street was 5 feet 6 inches only above high-water mark. This was the foundation of Westminster. It was a busy place long beforeLondon Bridge was built--a place of throng and moil as far back as thecenturies before the coming of the Romans. A church was built in themost crowded part of it; monks in leathern jerkins lived beside thechurch, which lay in ruins for two hundred years, while the pagan Saxonpassed every day beside it across the double ford. During the twohundred years of war and conquest by the Saxons, Westminster, quiteforgotten and deserted, lay with its brambles growing over the Romanruins, and the weather and ivy pulling down the old walls of villa andstationary camp piecemeal. Perhaps--rather probably--there had been achurch upon the island in the third or fourth century. Soon after theconversion of the Saxons another church was erected here with a monastichouse. Then there was another destruction and another rebuilding, forthis place was deserted by the monks; perhaps they were murdered duringthe Danish troubles. It was King Edgar who restored the Abbey, to whichDunstan brought twelve monks from Glastonbury. 

WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

(MRS. A. MURRAY SMITH. )

On the sacred island the last great Prince of the Saxon race, Edward, son of Ethelred the Unready, found Dunstan's little brotherhood ofBenedictine monks, who were living in mud huts round a small stonechapel. Out of this insignificant beginning grew a mighty monastery, theWest Minster, dowered with royal gifts and ruled over by mitred Abbots, who owned no ecclesiastical authority save that of the Pope, bowed to nosecular arm save that of the Sovereign himself. The full title of theAbbey, which is seldom used nowadays, is the Collegiate Church of St. Peter's. 

King Edward had vowed, during his long exile in Normandy, that if heever sat on the throne of his fathers he would go on a pilgrimage to St. Peter's shrine at Rome. But after his accession the unsettled state ofthe kingdom made it impossible to keep this vow, and he was absolvedfrom it by the Pope on the condition that he should found or re-endow amonastic church dedicated to St. Peter. This, therefore, was the originof the great West Minster, and in afterdays the tomb of St. Edward theConfessor within its walls attracted pilgrims here, and made thebuilding a peculiarly sacred one. Here the Sovereigns of England werealways crowned, often married, and until the time of George III. Usuallyburied. 

The earliest coronation of which there is historic certainty was that ofEdward's friend and former protector, the Conqueror, William I. As thelast Saxon King of the race of Ethelred was the first Sovereign who wasburied at Westminster, so the head of the Norman line of English Kingswas the first who was hallowed to the service of God and of his peopleon this historic spot. No trace is left of Edward's Norman monastery, save the foundations of some of the pillars and a round arch in thecloisters; but we know that his church was nearly on the same place asthe present Abbey, and that the old Norman nave stood for many hundredyears joined on to the choir and transepts of the new Early Englishbuilding, and was pulled down bit by bit as the later church grew. Forthe beautiful Abbey which we see before us now, in the heart of a busythoroughfare, is the work, not of one generation, but of five hundredyears. The central part was built in the thirteenth century. TheConfessor had been canonized by the Pope in 1163, and a century laterHenry III. , who was a fervent admirer of the saint, caused a splendidshrine to be made by Italian workmen, which was to replace the old oneof Henry II. 's time. The new style of pointed architecture was justcoming in, and the Abbot of Westminster, Humez, had added a Lady Chapelto the old Norman church when Henry III. Was a boy. As the King grew tomanhood he saw the contrast between the two styles of architecture, andwhile the Italian shrine was still only half finished he caused thecentral part of the Confessor's Norman church to be demolished, and inits place an Early English choir and transepts were graduallyconstructed during the last twenty-seven years of Henry's reign, with aseries of little chapels round the principal one where the shrine was tobe placed. In 1269 the new church was ready for service, and the chapelwas prepared for the shrine. 

The shrine, and within it the Confessor's coffin, still stands in thecentre of this royal chapel of St. Edward--a battered wreck, yet bearingtraces of its former beauty--and round it is a circle of royal tombs, drawn as by a magnet to the proximity of the royal saint. Henry III. , the second founder, is here himself. At his head is his warlike sonEdward I. , the Hammer of the Scots, with his faithful wife, Eleanor ofCastile, at his feet. On the other side are the tombs of anotherPlantagenet, Edward III. , the "mighty victor, mighty lord, " and his goodQueen, the Flemish Philippa. In a line with them is their handsome, unfortunate grandson Richard II. , whose picture hangs beside the altar. Here also is the Coronation Chair, which encloses the Stone of Scone, and upon this "Seat of Majesty, " ever since the time of Edward I. , whoreft the ancient stone from the Scots, all our Sovereigns have beenseated at the moment of their coronation. On the west of the royalchapel a screen depicts the legends of the Confessor's life; on the eastis the mutilated tomb of Henry V. , the victor of Agincourt; above it theChantry Chapel, where, after centuries of neglect, rest the remains ofhis wife, the French Catherine, ancestress of the great Tudor line. 

While the different dynasties succeeded one another, the building of themonastery and church went on slowly but surely under different Abbots, the monastic funds helped by gifts of money from the Kings and Queensand from the pilgrims who visited the shrine. Edward I. , for instance, continued his father's work from the crossing of the transepts to onebay west of the present organ-screen, while after him Richard II. AndHenry V. Were the principal benefactors to the fabric. The west end wasnot reached till early in the sixteenth century, in the reign of HenryVII. , when Abbot Islip superintended the completion of the west frontand placed in the niches statues of those Kings who had beenbenefactors. The towers were not built till 1740, after the designs ofSir Christopher Wren, who died before they were finished. The greatnorthern entrance has been called "Solomon's Porch" since the reign ofRichard II. , who erected a beautiful wooden porch outside the northdoor. This was destroyed in the thirteenth century, and the end of thenorth transept was changed into the classical style under DeanAtterbury, to whom, it is fair to add, we owe the fine glass of therose-window. Within recent years the north front has again been restoredon the lines of the original thirteenth-century architecture, and thepresent sculpture on the porch is from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott;the work was carried out by Mr. John Pearson, who was the Abbeyarchitect at that time. 

At the extreme east end, in the place of the Lady Chapel built by AbbotHumez, is the famous chapel called the "Wonder of the World, " which wasfounded and endowed by the first Tudor King, and intended as a place ofsepulture for himself and his family. The foundation-stone was laid inthe presence of Henry VII. Himself and of the great builder, AbbotIslip. The style is Perpendicular, much later than the main portion ofthe Abbey, and the whole of the exterior and interior is elaboratelycarved and decorated with stone panelling, the badge of the Royalfounder, the Tudor rose, recurring all over the walls. Inside the greatfeature is the "fan tracery" of the stone roof, which resembles that ofKing's College Chapel, Cambridge. The windows were once filled withcoloured glass, only a fragment of which remains; and the niches withstatues of saints and Kings, many of which were destroyed in earlyPuritan times, in the reign of Edward VI. In 1725 this chapel wasappointed as the place for the installation of the Knights of the Bath, an Order revived by George I. , and, although the Knights are nowinstalled at Windsor, the Dean of Westminster remains the officialchaplain of the Order. 

In the centre of the chapel is the tomb of the founder, Henry VII. , andhis wife, Elizabeth of York, and on the grille and the gates are thefamily badges. The tomb of Henry's mother, Margaret, Countess ofRichmond, is in the south aisle; and the effigies of herself, her sonand his wife, are fine specimens of the skill of the famous Italiansculptor Torrigiano. Henry's grand-daughters, the Queens Elizabeth andMary Tudor, lie in the opposite aisle, sisters parted in life but unitedin death. Many other descendants of the founder lie side by side withinthe vaults, while the tombs of two of them, Margaret Stuart, Countess ofLennox, and Mary, Queen of Scots, are close to their common ancestress, Lady Margaret, in the south aisle. All the Stuart Sovereigns with theexception of James II. Are here, but their only memorials are the waxfigures of Charles II. , William and Mary, and Anne, in the Islip chantrychapel. 

In a small chapel to the east of Henry VII. 's tomb once lay the bodiesof the great Protector, Oliver Cromwell, and many of his mighty men, buttheir bones were dug up after the Restoration, and not allowed to restin the Royal church. The Hanoverian Sovereigns are represented only byGeorge II. And his Queen, Caroline the Illustrious, who rest here, theirdust mingled according to the King's desire. Close by lie members oftheir numerous family and the mother, brothers and sisters of the nextKing, their grandson, George III. Amongst his relations is that braveGeneral, the Duke of Cumberland, whose memory is maligned in thesobriquet "Billy the Butcher. "

In the ring of smaller chapels all around the shrine are the tombs ofPrinces and Princesses, courtiers and Court ladies, warriors andstatesmen. Most conspicuous of all, towering over the beautifulCrusaders' monuments, is the vast cenotaph which insults the memory ofWolfe, and not far off is the colossal statue of James Watt. 

Outside, the cloisters recall the days of the monastery, when the Abbotsat in state in the east cloister or washed the feet of beggars, andthe brethren taught the novices and little schoolboys from theneighbourhood. The architecture there begins in the eleventh century andends in the fourteenth, when Abbot Litlington finished the building ofthe monastic offices and cloisters with his predecessor Langham'sbequest. 

The incomparable chapter-house was built in Henry III. 's time, andrestored to some of its original beauty by Sir Gilbert Scott. The modernglass windows remind us of Dean Stanley and his love for theAbbey-church. The chapter-house belongs, as does the Chapel of the Pyx, to the Government, and is not under the Dean's jurisdiction. There theearly Parliaments used to meet. In the south cloister is the door of theold refectory where the monks dined, and a little further on we come tothe Abbot's house (now the Deanery), which contained in old days withinits limits the "College Hall, " where the Westminster schoolboys now havetheir meals. The Jerusalem Chamber and Jericho Parlour, which wereformerly the Abbot's withdrawing-room and guest-chambers, date from theabbacy of Litlington at the end of the fourteenth century. To all loversof Shakespeare the Jerusalem Chamber is familiar as the place whereHenry IV. Was carried when he fell stricken with a mortal illness beforethe shrine, and where Henry V. Fitted on his father's crown. In thisroom in our own days the Revisers of the Bible used to meet. 

If we pass back into the nave by the west door, we shall see the namesof statesmen, of naval and military heroes, on every side. Hugemonstrosities of monuments surround us and grow in bulk as we pass upthe musicians' aisle and reach the north transept, called theStatesmen's Corner. If we pause and glance around, striving to forgetthe outer shell, and to think only of the noble men commemorated, weshall remember much to make us proud of England's heroes and worthies. Above the west door stands young William Pitt pointing with outstretchedarm towards the north transept, where we shall find his venerablefather, Lord Chatham. Almost beneath his feet is the philanthropist LordShaftesbury, and near to him is a white slave kneeling before the statueof Charles James Fox, whose huge monument hides the humbler tablet toanother zealous opponent of the slave trade, Zachary Macaulay. We mustpause here an instant to gaze upon the bronze medallion head of GeneralGordon, the martyr of the Soudan, an enthusiast also in the suppressionof slavery; and as we walk up the nave we must look for the slab ofLivingstone, whose remains were brought to their final resting-placeover deserts and trackless wildernesses by his faithful black servants. 

On the right, in Little Poets' Corner, is to be found the chief of theLake poets, William Wordsworth. Here also is Dr. Arnold, the notedHeadmaster of Rugby, his son Matthew, poet and critic, and beside themKeble, Kingsley and Maurice. 

The makers of our Indian Empire are about us now. Outram, the "Bayard ofIndia, " lies between Lord Lawrence and Lord Clyde; while in the northtransept are earlier pioneers, the faithful naval, military, and civilservants of the great East India Company. On each side of the screen aretwo ponderous monuments which cannot escape the notice of the mostcasual sightseer; these commemorate Lord Stanhope, a General whose earlyreputation ranked next to that of Marlborough in Spain, and the immortalphilosopher, Sir Isaac Newton. Purcell, chief among English musicians, claims our notice in the choir aisle, and we pass on surrounded by othermusicians, by sailors and soldiers, until we stand in the very midst ofthe statesmen. It may be we have come to the Abbey in the spring, whenwe shall see the statue of Lord Beaconsfield literally covered withprimroses. The Cannings, Sir Robert Peel in his Roman toga, LordPalmerston, and many other statesmen, are here, and our feet tread onthe grave of Gladstone as we pass towards the other transept, hasteningto the company of the poets and men of letters. 

The south transept has only been called Poets' Corner since the burialof Spenser, who was the darling of his generation. But the grave ofChaucer, "the father of English poetry, " had consecrated the aisle topoetry long before. Chaucer was not given honourable sepulture herebecause he was a poet, but only from the accidental fact that hehappened to be Clerk of the Works at Westminster Palace, and lived nearthe old Lady Chapel. For 250 years the great poet's only memorial was aleaden plate hanging on a column close by, but in 1551 a devotedadmirer, himself a versifier, Nicholas Brigham, placed an ancient tombhere in memory of the master, with a fancy painting of Chaucer at theback. Before this monument are the graves of the two most famous poetsof our generation, the Laureate Tennyson and Robert Browning, side byside. Above them is the beautiful bust of another Poet Laureate, Dryden, and the less artistic portrait bust of the American poet Longfellow. 

The walls of the Poets' Corner are literally covered with memorials ofmen of letters. Many of these are but names to us at the present day, but some are familiar; others, such as "Rare Ben Jonson, " Butler, theauthor of "Hudibras, " Thomas Gray, Spenser, and Goldsmith, are householdwords throughout the Empire. Beneath our feet lie Sheridan and old Dr. Johnson. 

The tardy memorials to Milton and Shakespeare eclipse the fame of allthe rest. Quite recently busts of the Scotch bard Robert Burns, thepoet-novelist Walter Scott, and a medallion head of the artistic prosewriter and critic John Ruskin, have been placed here. Music is notunrepresented, for above us is the unwieldy figure of Handel, andbeneath his feet a memorial to the Swedish nightingale, Jenny LindGoldschmidt, whose perfect rendering of the master's airs will everremain in the memory of those who were privileged to hear her. Furtheron is the historical side, where the chief prose writers are to befound; the venerable Camden is close to Grote and Bishop Thirlwall, historians whose bodies rest in one grave. The busts of Lord Macaulayand of Thackeray are on each side of Addison's statue, and beneath thepavement in front of them is the tombstone of the ever-popular CharlesDickens. David Garrick stands in close proximity to the grave of thedramatist Davenant, while scattered in various parts of the Abbey andcloisters will be found the names of other actors and actresses, notablyMrs. Siddons and her brother, John Kemble. 

It is impossible in a few paragraphs to do more than allude to thehistory of the Abbey, and of the dead whose names are commemorated, orwhose bodies rest within this great "Temple of Silence andReconciliation. " Let us conclude this brief sketch with the pregnant andpathetic words of the young playwriter John Beaumont, whose bones aremouldering beside those of Chaucer:

 "Mortality, behold and fear! What a change of flesh is here! Think how many royal bones Sleep within these heaps of stones. Here they lie had realms and lands Who now want strength to stir their hands. . .. Here are sands, ignoble things Dropt from the ruined sides of kings; Here's a world of pomp and state, Buried in dust once dead by fate. "

ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH. 

St. Margaret's Church is traditionally said to have been founded byEdward the Confessor, and that there was certainly a church here before1140 is proved by its being mentioned in a grant of Abbot Herebert, whodied in that year. It was originally a chapel in the south aisle of thechurch of the Benedictine monks, and was rebuilt to a great extent inEdward I. 's reign. Further alterations were made in the time of EdwardIV. In 1735 the tower was raised and faced with stone, and in 1758 theeast end was rebuilt and the present stained glass inserted. A famouscase between Sir Thomas Grosvenor and the family of Scrope concerningthe rights of a heraldic device which either claimed was heard in St. Margaret's, and Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, gave evidence. In 1549Latimer preached in the church. The Protector Somerset, at the time hewas building his great mansion in the Strand, had used a good deal ofthe ruins of religious houses, and still wanted more material. Hetherefore cast his unholy eyes upon St. Margaret's in order that hemight use its time-worn stones for his own purposes, but he was resistedby the people of Westminster, who arose in their wrath and smote hisworkmen hip and thigh. 

On Palm Sunday in 1713 the great Dr. Sacheverell preached in the churchafter the term of his suspension, and no less than 40, 000 copies of hissermon were sold. The church was for long peculiarly associated with theHouse of Commons, as when the members began to sit in St. Stephen'sChapel they attended Divine service in St. Margaret's, while the Lordswent to the Abbey. Edmund Waller, the poet, was married in St. Margaret's to Anne Banks on July 5, 1631, and John Milton to KatherineWoodcock in November, 1656. A son of Sir Walter Raleigh's is buried inthe church, and also Colonel Blood. Children of Judge Jeffreys: BishopBurnet, Titus Oates and Jeremy Bentham were christened here. BesidesLatimer and Sacheverell the list of great preachers in St. Margaret's islong, including many Archbishops and Bishops, and the roll of Rectorscontains many distinguished names. A man who occupies the pulpit mustfeel he has high tradition to uphold. 

The interior of St. Margaret's is far superior to the exterior, areversal of what is usual in church architecture. The splendid arcadesof aisle arches, early Perpendicular, or transition from Decorated tothe Perpendicular style, are uninterrupted by any chancel arch, and withthe clerestory windows sweep from end to end of the building. The eastwindow is filled with stained glass of the richest tints, the blues andgreens being particularly striking. This glass has a history. It wasmade at Gouda in Holland, and was a present from the magistrates of Dortto Henry VIII. For the chapel of Whitehall Palace. The King, however, gave it to Waltham Abbey (doubtless in exchange for something else). Theglass suffered many removals and vicissitudes, being at one time buriedto escape Puritan zeal, but it was eventually bought by thechurchwardens of St. Margaret's for 400 guineas. The aisle windows, withone exception, to be noted presently, are the work of Sir Gilbert Scottat the last restoration, just before 1882. He designed the tracery inaccordance with what he conceived to have been the date of the church;but when his work was finished a single window, that furthest east inthe south aisle, was discovered walled up, and the style of this showedthat his surmise had not been far wrong, though the period he hadchosen was a little later. The glass in several of the windows is ofinterest. That at the east end of the south aisle is the Caxton window, put up 1820 by the Roxburghe Club, as was also the tablet below. That inthe window in the centre, west end, is in memory of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was beheaded in Old Palace Yard, near at hand. It was put in byAmericans about twenty years ago. Raleigh's tablet, with an inscriptioncopied from the old wooden one which dated from the time of his death, is near the east entrance. The Milton window, also due to the generosityof an American, is on the north side of the Raleigh one. One of especialinterest to Americans is that to Phillips Brooks, Bishop ofMassachusetts, near the vestry door. There are many others deserving ofnotice. 

The general tint of all the glass is rich and subdued, with apredominance of yellow and sepia strangely effective. Of monuments thereare many--they may be examined in detail on the spot; the oldest is thatto Cornelius Van Dun, a dark stone medallion with a man's head inbas-relief on the north wall. Van Dun was Yeoman of the Guard and Usherto Henry VIII. , Edward VI. , Mary and Elizabeth. A quaint one near it isto "Egioke, " died 1622. The most elaborate monument in the church isthat to Mary, Lady Dudley, sister to the famous Lord Howard ofEffingham. This is the life-sized figure of a woman in alabaster, highlycoloured; it stands near the vestry door. Above it is a relic that manymight pass unnoticed; it is the figure of a woman about two-thirdslife-size standing in an ancient rood door. The statue was found builtup in the wall by a workman who struck his pick into the coloured stuff, and called attention to the fact. The figure is either that of theVirgin or St. Margaret. It has been carefully put together, but the headis lacking. Puritan zeal had evidently to do with its concealment. Puritan zeal, too, was answerable for the destruction of a magnificenttomb to Dame Billing, a benefactress who rebuilt the south aisle of thechurch about 1499. 

The churchwardens of St. Margaret's hold a valuable old loving-cup, presented 1764, and a tobacco-box purchased at Horn Fair for fourpence, and presented to the overseers by a Mr. Monck in 1713. Each succeedingset of overseers has added to the decoration of the box or given it anew case, and many of these are beautifully engraved; on the inside ofthe original lid Hogarth engraved on a silver plate the bust of the Dukeof Cumberland of Culloden celebrity, and the whole set is now of greatvalue and is quite unique. The door of the church opposite the Houses ofParliament is open daily from eleven till two. 

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 

Outside the archway leading to Dean's Yard there is a granite column tothe memory of the Westminster boys who fell in the Crimean War andIndian Mutiny. It was designed by Gilbert Scott, R. A. Scott was also thearchitect of the houses over the archway close at hand. The school hasbeen long and intimately associated with the Abbey; there was probably ascholastic establishment carried on by the monks from the very earliestdays, and recent discoveries by Mr. Edward Scott in the Abbey munimentsprove that there was a grammar school--and not only a choir school--inexistence before the Reformation. On the dissolution of the Abbey inHenry VIII. 's reign, it was formed into a college of Secular Canons, andthe school was in existence then in dependence on the Canons. QueenElizabeth remodelled her father's scheme and refounded the school, calling it St. Peter's College, Westminster, which is still its correctdesignation; so that, though the present establishment owes its originto Queen Elizabeth, it may be said to have inherited the antiquity ofits predecessor, and to hold its own in that matter with Winchester andEton. 

If we pass under the archway into Dean's Yard, we find a backwaterindeed, where the roar of traffic scarcely penetrates, where sleekpigeons coo in the elm-trees round a grass plot, as if they were in theclose of one of the sleepiest of provincial towns instead of in themidst of one of the greatest cities in the world. On the east side thereis a long building of smoke-blackened, old stone. The door at the northend leads into the cloisters, from whence we can pass into the schoolcourtyard, otherwise the school entry is by a pointed doorway a littlefurther down, beneath the Headmaster's house. Entering this, we have onthe left Ashburnham House, on the right the houses of masters who takeboarders, and opposite, a fine gateway with the arms of Queen Elizabethover it; this is said to have been designed by Inigo Jones. The greaterpart of the buildings was designed by Wren, who died before the projectwas carried out, but there seems to be little doubt that the Earl ofBurlington, who followed him in the appointment, used Wren's plans. Thegreat square building, the scholars' dormitory (now cubicles), whichfaces us, standing a little way to the right of the ornamental gateway, is of this period; also much of the main building into which we enter bythe gateway above mentioned, and a flight of steps. The seventh formroom on the right has a fine ceiling of Italian plaster and bookcaseswith carved panels. This is known as Dr. Busby's Library, because builtby him. It looks out over the college garden. 

The great schoolroom beyond, known as Up-School, is a splendid room, with mighty beams in its fine timber roof, and panels with the arms ofWestminster boys now dead on the walls. The bar over which the pancakeis tossed on Shrove Tuesday is pointed out, and a very great height itis. At the upper end of the room, which, by the way, is now used onlyfor prayers, concerts, etc. , is the birching-table, black and worn withage and use. Dryden's name, carved on a bench, is shown, and a chairpresented by King Charles to Dr. Busby. The walls date originally fromthe twelfth century or earlier, but were practically rebuilt in the endof the eighteenth century. The only part of the college buildings whichformed part of the original school is the college hall, built by AbbotLitlington in 1380 as the monks' refectory. But by far the oldest partof the buildings at present incorporated in the school is the Normancrypt, approached from the dark cloister, and forming part of thegymnasium made by the Chapter in 1860, by roofing in the walls beyondit, between it and the Chapter-house. A stranger gymnasium, surely, noschool can boast. 

The name of Dr. Busby, Headmaster from 1638 to 1695, will be for everheld in honour at Westminster. He himself had been a Westminster boy, and all his great ability and strong character were bent to furtheringthe interests of the school. 

The roll of names of those educated at Westminster includes Dryden, Bishop Atterbury, Cowley, Warren Hastings, Gibbon, Thomas Cowper, Charles Wesley, Lord John Russell, and many others well known whereverthe English tongue is spoken. 

In 1706 there were nearly 400 boys, but after this the school began todecline; in 1841 it was at a very low ebb--there were less than seventyboys. The reasons for this decline were manifold. Building had beengoing on apace round the quiet precincts, and parents fancied their sonswould be better in the country; also, though the charges were high, thesystem of living was extremely rough, and no money was spent onrepairing the buildings. In 1845, when Wilberforce was appointed Dean, he set to work to inspire fresh life into the institution, but he hadhardly time to do anything before he was appointed to the See of Oxford;however, the current set flowing by him gathered strength, and in 1846, when Liddell (afterwards Dean of Christchurch) was made Headmaster, theschool was recovering its prosperity. 

Ashburnham House was taken over by the school in 1882, and it is wellworth a visit. In the hall where the day boys have their lockers thereis a very old buttery hatch, probably part of the monks' originalbuilding; at the back the little green garden is the site of therefectory, and traces of Norman windows are seen against the exteriorcloister wall. The staircase in Ashburnham House is very fine; it is ofthe "well" variety, and is surmounted by a cupola with a little gallery. The walls are all panelled; unfortunately, paint has been laid oneverything alike, and though the balusters have been recently uncovered, the process is difficult and laborious, and apt to injure the carving. The carving round the doorways is very fine, of the laurel-wreathpattern associated with the period of Wren. The house belonged to LordAshburnham, and was later used by the Prebendaries of the cathedral. Theschool is no longer in any sense dependent on the Abbey, and except thatthe boys attend the services there as "chapel, " the old ties aresevered. A great feature of the school are the King's (or Queen's)Scholars, founded by Elizabeth; of these there are now forty residentand twenty non-resident. There are three scholarships and threeexhibitions yearly at Christ Church, Oxford, for Westminster boys, andthree exhibitions at Trinity College, Oxford. There are at present(1902) about two hundred and thirty boys in the school. The Latin play, which is well known in connection with the school, is acted by theKing's Scholars annually in the middle of December, and dates back to1704. 

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 

The annals of New Palace Yard are long and interesting. It looks so newand modern, with its Houses of Parliament, and its iron railings, thatone forgets how ancient a place it is. What stood on the site ofWestminster Hall before William Rufus built it we know not, butcertainly some buildings belonging to the Old Palace of Cnut and Edwardthe Confessor. It was called, however, New Palace Yard on account of thebuildings erected by William and his successors. It was enclosed by awall which had three gates. The water-gate was on the site of thepresent bridge, while the Star Chamber occupied very nearly the site ofthe present Clock Tower. The yard was further beautified by a fountain, which on great days flowed with wine; this fountain, which was takendown in the reign of Charles II. , stood on the north side. On the sameside behind the fountain was the "Clochard, " or Clock Tower. This finebuilding was erected by Sir Ralph Hingham, Lord Chief Justice underEdward I. , in payment of a fine of 800 marks imposed upon him by theKing for having altered a court roll. It was done in mercy, in order tochange a poor man's fine of 12s. 4d. To 6s. 8d. , but a court roll mustnot be altered. The care of the clock was granted to the Dean of St. Stephen's, with an allowance of sixpence a day. The bell, very famous inits day, was large and sonorous; it could be heard all over London whenthe wind was south-west. It was first called Edward, and bore thislegend:

 "Tercius aptavit me Rex Edward que vocavit Sancti decore Edwardi signerentur ut hore. "

When the Clock Tower, the "Clochard, " was taken down in 1698, the bellcalled "Tom" was found to weigh 82 cwt. 2 qrs. 211 lb. It was bought bythe Dean of St. Paul's. As it was being carried to the City, it fellfrom the cart in crossing the very boundary of Westminster, viz. , underTemple Bar. In 1716 it was recast, and presently placed in the westerntower of St. Paul's. 

In Palace Yard Perkin Warbeck sat in the stocks before the gate ofWestminster Hall for a whole day, enduring innumerable reproaches, mockings and scornings. 

Here John Stubbs, the Puritan, an attorney of Lincoln's Inn, and RobertPage, his servant (December 3, 1580), had their hands struck off for alibel on the Queen, called "The Gaping Gulph, in which England will beswallowed by the French Marriage. " What part the unfortunate servantplayed that he, too, should deserve a punishment so terrible isdifficult to say. On March 2, 1585, William Parry was drawn from theTower and hanged and quartered here. And in January, 1587, one ThomasLovelace, sentenced by the Star Chamber for false accusations, wascarried on horseback about Westminster Hall, his face to the tail; hewas then pilloried, and had one of his ears cut off. The execution, in1612, of Lord Sanquire for the murder of a fencing-master, and of theDuke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland and Lord Capel, on March 9, 1649, for so-called treason, took place in New Palace Yard. Here in 1630Alexander Leighton was whipped, pilloried and branded for a libel on theQueen and the Bishops. In May, 1685, Titus Oates was stripped of hisecclesiastical robes and led round Westminster Hall; afterwards he wasput in the pillory. The printer of the famous "No. 45" of the _NorthBriton_ also stood in the pillory in New Palace Yard in 1765. 

In the Old Palace Yard, now covered by buildings, were fought outcertain ordeals of battle. Here was held at least one famous tournament, that in which the two Scottish prisoners, the Earl Douglas and SirWilliam Douglas, bore themselves so gallantly that the King restoredthem to liberty on their promise not to fight against the English. 

One memory of Old Palace Yard must not be forgotten. Geoffrey Chaucerlived during his last year at a house adjoining the White Rose Tavernabutting on the Lady Chapel of the Abbey. The house was swept away tomake room for Henry VII. 's chapel. Nor must we forget that Ben Jonsonlived and died in a house over the gate or passage from the churchyardto the old palace. In the south-east corner of Old Palace Yard stood thehouse hired by the Gunpowder Plot conspirators for the conveyance of thebarrels into the vault. And it was in Old Palace Yard that four of themsuffered death. 

The whole of the ground now occupied by the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Hall and New Palace Yard was formerly covered with thewalls, gates, tower, state chambers, private chambers, offices, stables, gardens, and outhouses, of the King's House, Westminster. Until sixtyyears ago, when fire finally destroyed them, still stood on this spotmany of the buildings, altered and reroofed, repaired, and with changedwindows and new decorations, of Edward the Confessor, and perhaps ofKnut. Still under these modern houses the ground is covered with the oldcellars, vaults and crypts, which it was found safer and cheaper to fillwith cement than to break up and carry away. 

It is at present impossible to present a plan of the King's House suchas it was when Edward the Confessor occupied it; we can, however, drawan incomplete plan of the place later on, say in the fourteenthcentury. 

The palace was walled, but not moated; it had two principal gates, oneopening to the north, and another on the river. The circuit of the wallonly included twelve acres and a half, and into this compass had to becrowded in Plantagenet times the King's and Queen's state and privateapartments, and accommodation for an immense army of followers, and alsofor all the craftsmen and artificers required by the Court. The totalnumber of persons thus housed in the fourteenth century is reckoned at20, 000. The part of the King's House thus occupied, the narrow streetsof gabled houses, with tourelles at the corners, and much gilded andcarved work, has vanished completely, even to the memory. When KingHenry VIII. Removed to the palace at Whitehall a new Westminster aroseabout his old Court; this in its turn almost vanished with the fire of1834. Up to this time some of the old buildings remained, but have nowcompletely gone. Among them were the Painted Chamber, the Star Chamber, the old House of Lords, and Princes' Chamber, all part of Edward theConfessor's palace. In the Painted Chamber the Confessor himself died, but it is manifestly impossible to give here any minute account of thechambers in the ancient building. 

The crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel (not shown to visitors) is one of thefew parts remaining which dates from before the fire. The chapel is saidto have been first built by the King whose name it bore, but wasrebuilt by Edward I. And greatly altered by his two immediatesuccessors. It was used for the sittings of the House of Commons afterEdward VI. 's reign. At the end of the seventeenth century it was muchaltered by Wren, but it perished in 1834. A small chapel on the southside was called Our Lady of the Pew. The oldest part of the ancientpalace remaining is Westminster Hall, built by William Rufus as a partof a projected new palace. He held his Court here in 1099, and, onhearing a remark on the vastness of his hall, he declared that it wouldbe only a bedroom to the palace when finished. However, he himself hadto occupy much narrower quarters before he could carry out his scheme. Richard II. Raised the hall and gave it the splendid hammer-beam roof, one of the finest feats in carpentry extant. George IV. Refaced theexterior of the hall with stone. 

In the eighteenth century the Courts of Justice (Chancery and King'sBench) were held here, and as the hall was also lined with shops, andthe babble and walking to and fro were incessant, it is not wonderfulthat justice was sometimes left undone. It would be difficult--nay, impossible--to tell in detail all the strange historic scenes enacted inWestminster Hall in the limited space at disposal, and as they are allconcerned rather with the nation than with Westminster, mere mention ofthe principal ones will be enough. Henry II. Caused his eldest son to becrowned in the hall in his own lifetime, at which ceremony the youngPrince disdainfully asserted he was higher in rank than his father, having a King for father and a Queen for mother, whereas his fathercould only claim blood royal on the mother's side. 

Edward III. Here received King John of France, brought captive by theBlack Prince. In 1535 Sir Thomas More was tried here; later there weremany trials, the greatest of which was that of King Charles I. , followedby that of the regicides, brought to justice and the fruit of theircrimes in a way they had not expected when they took prominent parts inthe first great drama. Cromwell's head was stuck upon the southern gableof the hall, where it remained for twenty years. The trial of the SevenBishops caused great excitement, that of Lords Kenmure and Derwentwaterhardly less. Lord Byron was tried in Westminster Hall, and every childhas heard of the arraignment of Warren Hastings. Surely, if ever abuilding had memories of historic dramas, played upon its floor as on astage, it is Rufus's great hall at Westminster. 

Parliament was first called to Westminster in Edward I. 's reign. TheCommons sat for 300 years in the Abbey Chapter-house, then for 300years more in St. Stephen's Chapel. In 1790 a report on the buildingsdeclared them to be defective and in great danger of fire, a prophecyfulfilled in 1834. On the evening of October 16 in that year the wife ofa doorkeeper saw a light under one of the doors, and gave an alarm. Theplace was made for a bonfire; a strong wind blowing from the south, andafterwards south-west, drove the flames along the dried woodwork andthrough the draughty passages. As the flames got a stronger and strongerhold, the scene from the further bank of the river was magnificent. Until three o'clock the next day the fire raged, and Westminster Halland the crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel alone survived the wreck. Thecause of the fire is said to have been the heating of the flues by someworkmen burning a quantity of tallies or ancient notched sticks. 

The present Houses of Parliament, built after the fire from Sir CharlesBarry's designs, have been the cause of much of that criticism which isapplied to the work of some people by others who certainly could not doso well themselves. The material used is magnesian limestone, which, unfortunately, has not worn well; and the erection took seventeen years(1840-57). On Saturday afternoons the door under the Victoria Tower, south end, is open, and anyone may walk through the principal rooms. This is well worth doing, though what is to be seen is mostly modern. What will chiefly astonish strangers is the smallness of the House ofCommons. 

The Clock Tower, 316 feet high, containing Big Ben, and standing at thenorth end of the present Houses of Parliament, is a notable object, anda landmark for miles around. Ben was called after Sir Benjamin Hall, whowas First Commissioner of Works at the time he was brought into being. 

 * * * * *

Bridge Street was formed at the building of the bridge, and is almost onthe site of the Long Woolstaple. 

In the reign of King Edward III. , in the year 1353, Westminster was madeone of the ten towns in England where the staple or market for woolmight be held. This had formerly been held in Flanders, and the removalof the market to England brought a great increase to the Royal revenue, for on every sack exported the King received a certain sum. Pennantsays: "The concourse of people which this removal of the Woolstaple toWestminster occasioned caused this Royal village to grow into aconsiderable town. "

Henry VI. Held six wool-houses in the Staple, which he granted to theDean and Canons of St. Stephen's. 

Walcott says: "On the north side of the Long Staple was a turning in awesterly direction leading into the Round Staple, at the south-east endof the present King Street. " This must have been on the site of thepresent Great George Street. An attempt was made to establish afish-market here in competition with Billingsgate, but thepre-established interest was too strong and the fish-market wasabandoned. 

There was a gateway at the end of the Staple. This was still inexistence in 1741, when it was pulled down in view of the new bridge. 

There has been much dispute as to the origin of the name of Cannon Row. Some hold that it was derived from the prebendal houses of the Canons ofSt. Stephen's Chapel, and others that it was a corruption of ChannelRow, from the arm of the river which entered near the spot. There weremany noble houses here at one time. The Earl of Derby in 1552 had twohouses, with gardens stretching to the river, granted to him by EdwardVI. 

Anne, Duchess of Somerset, built a house here. The Marquis of Dorset'shouse gave its name to a court subsequently built on its site. In1556-57 the Earl of Sussex lived here, and in 1618 a later Earl of Derbybuilt a house, afterwards used as the Admiralty Office. The name ispreserved in Derby Street. The Earl of Essex, Lord Halifax, and theBishop of Peterborough were all residents in this row. In the middle ofthe seventeenth century the Duke of Manchester, Lord Privy Seal, resided here also. At present the row is very dreary. The building inwhich the Civil Service examinations are held stands on the east side. This was erected in 1784 for the Ordnance Board, then given to the Boardof Control, and finally to the Civil Service Commissioners. 

The Victoria Embankment was begun in 1864, and completed about six yearslater. The wall is of brick, faced with granite and founded in Portlandcement; it looks solid enough to withstand the tides of many a hundredyears. The parapet is of granite, decorated by cast-iron standard lamps. St Stephen's Club is on the Embankment, close by Westminster BridgeStation. Further on is the huge building of the Police Commissioners, known as New Scotland Yard, built in 1890 from designs of Norman Shaw, R. A. It is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Force, and thearchitecture is singularly well in keeping with its object. The buildingis of red brick, with the tower floors cased in granite. It is in theform of a square, built round an inner courtyard, and has an immensebastion at each exterior angle. Besides the offices of the police force, the Lost Property Office, the Public Carriage Office, and the CriminalInvestigation Department are here. The building communicates directly bytelephone with the Horse Guards, Houses of Parliament, British Museum, and other public places, and has telegraphic communication with thetwenty-two head-offices of the Metropolitan Police district. TheCriminal Museum is open to the public under certain conditions. 

Parliament Street and King Street have now been merged in one, andtogether have become a part of Whitehall, so that the very names willsoon be forgotten. Yet King Street was once the direct land route to theAbbey and Palace from the north, and its narrow span was perforce wideenough for all the pageantry of funerals, coronations, and other Stateshows that passed through it. It must be remembered that King Streetformerly ran right up to the Abbey precincts, from which it wasseparated by a gate-house, called Highgate, built by Richard II. ; butthe street was subsequently shorn of a third of its length, over whichnow grows green grass in smooth lawns. The street was very picturesque:"The houses rose up three and four stories high; gabled all, withprojecting fronts, story above story, the timbers of the fronts paintedand gilt, some of them with escutcheons hung in front, the richlyblazoned arms brightening the narrow way. " But it was also dirty: "Theroadway was rough and full of holes; a filthy stream ran down themiddle, all kinds of refuse were lying about. " But what mattered that?No one went on foot who could possibly go by boat, and there lay thegreat highway of the river close at hand. We have said processions wentdown this street; among them we may number all the coronationprocessions up to the time when Parliament Street was cut throughnumerous small courts and by-streets in the reign of George II. LordHoward of Effingham set out from King Street to fight the SpanishArmada. Charles I. Came this way from Whitehall Palace to his trial atWestminster; he went back by the same route condemned to death; andlater Cromwell's funeral procession followed the same route. Cromwellhimself narrowly escaped assassination in this very street, where he hada house north of Boar's Head Yard. The story is told that he was in hisstate carriage, but owing to the crowd and narrow street he wasseparated from his guard. Suddenly Lord Broghill, who was with him, sawthe door of a cobbler's stall open and shut, while something glitteredbehind it. He therefore got out of the carriage and hammered at the doorwith his scabbard, when a tall man, armed with a sword, rushed out andmade his escape. 

Anne Oldfield was apprenticed to a seamstress in King Street. Sir HenryWootton also lived here; and Ben Jonson says that Spenser died here for"lack of bread, " and that the Earl of Essex sent him "20 pieces" onhearing of his poverty, but the poet refused them, saying they came toolate. Fletcher wrote of him: "Poorly, poor man, he lived; poorly, poorman, he died. " But it seems hardly credible he was so badly off as to bedestitute, for he was at the time a pensioner of the Crown. Thomas Carewthe poet lived in King Street. Most of the taverns in Westminster seemto have clustered about this street; we have the names of the Bell, theBoar's Head, and the Rhenish Wine House still handed down as places ofimportance. There were innumerable courts and alleys opening out of KingStreet. On the west, south of Downing Street, were Axe Yard, Sea Alley, Bell Yard, Antelope Alley. Gardener's Lane ran parallel with CharlesStreet; here Hollar the engraver died in extreme poverty in 1677. 

At the north end of King Street stood a second gate, called the King'sGate, and sometimes the Cockpit Gate. It stood at the corner of what isnow Downing Street. It had four domed towers; on the south side werepilasters and an entablature enriched with the double rose, theportcullis, and the royal arms. The gate was removed in 1723. 

In the year 1605 a solemn function took place in which the gate played apart:

"On January 4, 1605, when Prince Charles, Duke of Albany, then only fouryears old, was to be created Knight of the Bath, his esquires, theEarls of Oxford and Essex, with eleven noblemen who were to share in thehonour, tooke their lodgings in the first Gate-house going toKing's-streete, where they were all after supper, at which they sat bydegrees, a row on the one side, with the armes of every of them over theseate where he was placed; and lodged upon severall pallets in onechamber, with their armes likewise over them, having their bathesprovided for them in the chamber underneath. The next morning they wentabout through the gallory downe into the Parke in their hermits' weedes, the musitions playing, and the heralds going before them into The Court, and so into the Chapell, and there after solemn courtesies, like to theKnights of the Garter, first to the Altar, and then to the Cloath ofEstate, every one took his place in the stalles of the Quier" (Walcott, p. 58). 

Great George Street, made 1750--at the same time as the Bridge, BridgeStreet, etc. --contains the Institution of Civil Engineers, a finebuilding, and at the west end is Delahay Street, once Duke Street, avery fashionable locality in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The poet Matthew Prior lived here, and Bishop Stillingfleet died here in1699. Duke Street Chapel, recently pulled down, was a very well-knownplace; it was originally part of a house, overlooking the park built byJudge Jeffreys, and the steps into the park at Chapel Place were madefor Jeffreys' special convenience. In this wing of his house hesometimes heard cases, and it was later made into a chapel for privatesubscribers. Jeffreys' house was also used for a time as the AdmiraltyOffice. In Delahay Street may be noted the west end of the Boar's HeadCourt, marking the spot where Cromwell's house stood. The space betweenGreat George Street and Charles Street will soon be covered byGovernment offices, now in course of erection. When Parliament Streetwas made it effaced Clinker's Court, White Horse Yard, Lady's Alley, Stephen's Alley, Rhenish Wine Yard, Brewers' Yard, and Pensioners'Alley--some of the slums which had sprung up outside the Abbeyprecincts. Now Parliament Street in its turn is effaced, swallowed up inan extended Whitehall. King Street has been completely swept away, asone sweeps a row of crumbs from a cloth, but the part it played in theancient history of Westminster is not yet forgotten. Undoubtedly thechange could be justified: the thoroughfare is an important one, theview as now seen from the direction of Charing Cross one of the finestin the world; yet to gain it we have had to give, and one wonderssometimes whether the gain counterbalances the loss. 

Beyond the now vacant space on the north are the great group ofGovernment offices, the Home and Colonial Offices facing ParliamentStreet, and behind them the India and the Foreign Offices. Above DowningStreet there are others, the Privy Council Office and the Treasury. 

Downing Street is called after George Downing, an American Ambassador tothe Hague under Cromwell and in Charles II. 's reign. John Boyle, Earl ofCork and Ossory and the last Earl of Oxford, lived here. Boswelloccupied a house in Downing Street in 1763. But the street is chieflyassociated with the official residence of the First Lord of theTreasury. Sir Robert Walpole accepted this house from George II. Oncondition it should belong to his successors in office for ever. 

On the east side, nearly opposite Downing Street, Richmond Terracestands on the site of the Duke of Richmond's house, burnt down in 1790. Beyond Richmond Terrace is Montagu House, the town residence of the Dukeof Buccleuch; the present building, which is of stone, in the Italianstyle, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century. 

Beyond, again, are Whitehall Gardens, on part of the site of the PrivyGardens, belonging to Whitehall Palace. There is now a row of finehouses overlooking the Embankment and the Gardens. One of these was theresidence of Sir Robert Peel. A great gallery of sculpture formerlyextended along this part of the Embankment. It was partly destroyed in1778, and wholly burnt down some years later. Gwydyr House, a sombrebrick building with heavy stone facings over the central window anddoorway is now occupied by the Charity Commission; it was built by Adam. Adjoining it is a new building with an angle tower and cupola; thisbelongs to the Royal United Service Institute, and next door to it isthe banqueting-hall, now used as the United Service Museum. This is theonly fragment left of Whitehall Palace, and is described in detail on p. 88. 

The gatehouse known as the Holbein Gate stood across Whitehall a littlesouth of the banqueting-hall. It was the third, and the most magnificentof those which previously stood in Westminster, and was built by HenryVIII. After the design of Holbein. It is said that one of the chamberswas Holbein's studio. Later it was used as a State Paper Office, and wasremoved in 1750 to widen the street. It was intended to rebuild it inWindsor Park, but this design was never carried out; though variousfragments of it were afterwards worked into other buildings. 

It is a pity that it vanished, for it would have been a fine relic ofthe Tudor times, with its high angular towers and its elaboratedecoration. It had a large central entrance and two smaller doorwaysbeneath the towers. The brickwork was in diaper pattern, and the frontornamented with busts in niches--altogether a very elaborate piece ofwork. 

WHITEHALL PALACE. 

Hubert de Burgh bequeathed a house on this site to the Dominican Friarsin the thirteenth century, and they sold it to the Archbishop of York. For 250 years it was the town-house of the Archbishops of that see, andwhen Wolsey became Archbishop he entered into his official residencewith the intention of beautifying and enlarging it greatly; he had apassion for display, a quality which perhaps cost him more than he wasever aware of. It was a dangerous thing to build or rebuild greatmansions close to the palace of so jealous a King as Henry VIII. It wasespecially dangerous to do so at Whitehall, because, as has been alreadyshown, the King lived at Westminster in a congeries of old buildingsmore or less dilapidated and inconvenient. Wolsey's fall was doubtlesshastened by his master's covetousness, and after it, by agreement withthe Chapter of York, the King had the house conveyed to himself. Up tothis time it had been known as York Place, but was henceforth Whitehall. At Anne Boleyn's coronation in the Abbey, the Royal party came to andfrom Whitehall. 

 "You must no more call it York Place--that is past For, since the Cardinal fell, that title's lost; 'Tis now the King's and call'd Whitehall. "

 '_King Henry VIII. _, ' Act IV. 

It must be remembered that there was then no Parliament Street, and thepalace buildings occupied all the ground from Old Scotland Yard toDowning Street, from St. James's Park to the river. King Henry addedvery much to the land belonging to the palace, also to the buildings. Hewas fond of sport, and his additions show his tastes in this direction;he built a tennis-court, a tilt-yard, --on the site of the HorseGuards--a bowling-green, and a cockpit. The exact site of the cockpithas long been a matter of uncertainty, but it is now very generallybelieved that the entrance was just where the present Treasury entranceis. 

The palace does not seem to have been very homogeneous; it containedthree courts, including Old Scotland Yard, in which was the Guard House. The King and Queen occupied the first court, where was what remained ofold York House; here also was the great Hall, the Presence Chamber, andthe Banqueting House. In the second court was the way to the Audienceand Council Chambers, the Chapel, the offices of the Palace, and theWatergate. 

Henry VIII. Died in this palace, and all the noble names of his and thesucceeding reigns seem to haunt the site of the now vanished building. Here came Sir Thomas More, Erasmus and Thomas Cromwell; Holbein occupieda set of apartments, and received a salary of 200 florins for paintingand decorating the rooms. Here are the ghosts of Cranmer, Katharine ofAragon, Jane Seymour, Latimer and Ridley; later we see a courtliergathering--Cecil, Essex, Leicester, Raleigh, Drake, Walsingham, PhilipSydney. So true it is, the King doth make the Court. Some time later, inthe reign of Charles II. , we have a different class of menaltogether--Monk, Clarendon, Sedley, Rochester, Wycherley, Dryden, Butler, Suckling, Carew. Here came crowds to be touched for the King'sevil. Here the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth implored pardon at hisuncle's feet in vain. Whitehall was also the home of the short-livedmasque, a form of entertainment extremely costly. 

In 1691 a fire broke out, and all the buildings between the stonegallery and the river were burned down, and six years later another firefinished nearly all that the first had left. 

Inigo Jones prepared plans for a new palace that should eclipse the old, and his designs lacked not anything on the side of magnificence; if thepalace had been built as he designed, it would have exceeded insplendour any building now in London, but he did not finish it. LikeWilliam Rufus with Westminster Palace, like many another architect, hisplans demanded more than his allotted span of years, and before he coulddo more than put his imagination upon paper, and realize but a fragmentof it in stone, he was called away from a world dependent on the "workof men's hands. "

The fragment he has left us still stands; it was to be thebanqueting-hall, but no Royal banquets were held there; it was used as aChapel Royal for many years, and is now the home of the United ServiceMuseum. For the magnificent ceiling painted by Rubens we are indebted toCharles I. , who also designed to have the walls painted by Vandyck, astill more costly operation, which was never carried out. Theweathercock on the north end was put up by order of James II. , so thathe might see whether the wind was for or against the dreaded Dutchfleet. The building has one association never to be forgotten. On thatblack day when England shamed herself before the nations by spilling theblood of her King, the scaffold was erected before this building, thoughthe exact site is unknown. It is believed that the window second fromthe north end is that in front of which it stood, and that the Kingstepped forth from a window in a small outbuilding on the north side; hecame forth to die, the only innocent man in all that great crowd, whowatched him suffer without raising a finger to save him. At that timethe present windows were not glazed, but walled in. William III. Talkedof rebuilding the palace, but he died too soon. Queen Anne went to St. James's, and Whitehall was never rebuilt. 

 * * * * *

The Horse Guards is almost directly opposite the Banqueting House, andstands on the site of an old house for the Gentlemen Pensioners whoformed the guard when there was not a standing army in England. Thisitself superseded the tilt-yard built by King Henry VIII. , though theactual yard was the wide space at the back of the building, which stillwitnesses the trooping of the colours and other ceremonies on stateoccasions. It is interesting to notice that the words "Tilt-yard Guards"still occur in the regulations hung up inside the sentry-boxes where themagnificent sentries keep guard, to the wonder and admiration of everysmall boy who passes. 

The whole of St. James's Park is now included in the City ofWestminster, but only the south-east part is in the parish of St. Margaret's, which we are now considering. The remainder will be founddescribed in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, which is includedin the electoral district of the Strand in the same series. In "TheStrand District" there are also full accounts of St. James's Palace, andof Buckingham Palace. 

The spot now known as St. James's Park was once a dismal marshy field. In 1531 Henry VIII. Obtained some of the land from the Abbey ofWestminster, and in the following year he proceeded to erect what is nowSt. James's Palace, on the site of a former leper hospital. The park, however, seems to have remained in a desolate condition until the reignof James I. , who took a great interest in it, and established amenagerie here which he often visited. The popularity of the parkcontinued throughout the Stuart period. Charles II. After theRestoration employed a Frenchman, Le Nôtre, to lay out the grounds, andunder his advice the canal was formed from the chain of pools thatspread across the low-lying ground, and also a decoy, where ducks andwildfowl resorted. Rosamund's Pond, an oblong pool, lay at thesouth-west end of the canal. Of the origin of this name there is norecord, though Rosamund's land is mentioned as early as 1531. A new Mallwas laid out soon after the Restoration, and preserved with great care. Powdered cockleshells were sprinkled over the earth to keep it firm. Asthe game of pall-mall went out of fashion the Mall became a promenade, and was the resort of the Court. A pheasant-walk was also formed whereMarlborough House now stands. There are two ancient views of the parkextant, in one of which the heads of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw stuckupon poles at the end of Westminster Hall are visible, and in the other, a figure walking in the foreground is supposed to be Charles II. Himself. The park was not opened to the public at this time, but thosewhose houses bordered it appear to have been allowed free entrance. Milton, the poet, certainly strolled here from his house in PettyFrance. 

Charles II. Himself frequently used it, and kept his pet animals here, and the lords and ladies of his time made it their fashionablerendezvous. The park is mentioned constantly by Pepys and Evelyn. Acouple of oaks planted by Charles from acorns brought from Boscobelsurvived until 1833, when they were blown down. 

The origin of the name of Birdcage Walk has been disputed. It has beenderived from "boccage, " meaning avenue; another account says it was fromthe bird-cages of the King's aviary, which were hung in the trees. Thisseems more probable. 

For many reigns St. James's Park continued to be a fashionable place ofresort. In 1770 Rosamund's Pond was filled up, and the moat round DuckIsland was filled in. In 1779 a gentleman was killed in a duel in thepark. 

In 1827-29 the park was finally laid out and the canal converted into apiece of ornamental water under the superintendence of Nash. In 1857 thelake was cleared out to a uniform depth of four feet and the presentbridge erected, and the park became something like what we see at thepresent time. The vicinity of Marlborough House and Buckingham Palacestill give it a certain distinction, but it cannot be called in anysense fashionable, as it was in the later Stuart times. And in the midstof the park we must take leave of our present district, having rambledwithin its borders east and west, north and south, and having met in theprocess the ghosts of kings and queens, of statesmen and authors, of menof the Court and men of the Church, those who have made history in thepast and laid the foundations for the glory of the future. 

INDEX

Abbey, The, 45

Almonry, 34, 36

Almshouses: Butler's, 8, 29 Henry VII. 's, 37 Hill's, 8 Palmer's, 8, 29 Vandon's, 29

Antelope Alley, 80

Aquarium, The, 34

Artillery Row, 6

Ashburnham House, 65

Atterbury, Bishop, 65

Axe Yard, 80

Banqueting-hall, 88

Barton Street, 20

Bell Yard, 80

Bentham, Jeremy, 14, 29, 30, 32

Betterton, Thomas, 34

Big Ben, 75

Birdcage Walk, 30, 91

Black Horse Yard, 33

Blood, Colonel, 18

Boar's Head Court, 82

Boswell, 83

Bowring, Sir John, 33

Brewers' Yard, 82

Bridewell, 5

Bridge Street, 42, 75

Broad and Little Sanctuary, 42

Broadway, The, 33

Burke, Edmund, 34, 39

Busby, Dr. , 64

Cannon Row, 76

Capel, Lord, 69

Carew, Thomas, 80

Castle Lane, 26

Caxton, 35

Caxton Street, 27

Chapel Street, 27

Charles I. , 73, 79, 88

Charles II. , 90

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 69

Churches: St. Ann's Chapel, 37 Cathedral (Roman Catholic), 4 Chapel Royal, 88 Christ Church, 28 Duke Street Chapel, 81 Guards' Chapel, 31 St. John the Evangelist, 17 St. Margaret's, 57 St. Mary's, 9 St. Matthew's, 23 New Chapel, 28 St. Stephen's, 8 St. Stephen's Chapel, 70 Westminster Abbey, 45 Westminster Chapel, 26

Church House, 22

Church Street, 17

Clinker's Court, 82

"Clochard, " 67

Clock Tower, 75

Cockpit, 86

Cock public-house, 34

Commons, The, 73

Cowley, 65

Cowper, Thomas, 65

Cromwell, 79

Dacre, Lady, 26

Delahay Street, 81

Derby, Earl of, 76

Derwentwater, Lord, 73

Dorset, Marquis of, 76

Douglas, Earl, 69

Douglas, Sir William, 69

Douglas Street, 9

Downing, George, 83

Downing Street, 83

Dryden, 64, 65

Duck Lane, 23, 27

Duke Street, 81

Edward V. , 42

Eliot, Sir John, 39

Essex, Earl of, 76

Free Library, 21, 34

Gardener's Lane, 43, 80

Gatehouse, 37

Gibbon, 20, 65

Glover, 25

Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, 39

Great College Street, 20

Great George Street, 76, 81

Great Peter Street, 23

Great Queen Street, 33

Great St. Ann's Lane, 19, 23

Great Smith Street, 21

Greycoat Place, 6

Grosvenor Road, 12

Guildhall, 41

Gwydyr House, 84

Halifax, Lord, 76

Hamilton, Duke of, 69

Hampden, 39

Hastings, Warren, 65, 73

Hazlitt, 29

Herrick, 23

High Gate, 39, 78

Holbein Gate, 84

Holland, Earl of, 69

Hollar, the engraver, 80

Home and Colonial Offices, 83

Horseferry Road, 10, 16

Horse Guards, 89

Hospitals: Coldstream Guards, 9 Emanuel, 26 Grenadier Guards, 8 Grosvenor Hospital for Women & Children, 9 Scots Guards, 12 Westminster, 40

Houses of Parliament, 67

Howard, 14

Howard of Effingham, Lord, 78

Hudson, Sir Jeffrey, 39

India and Foreign Offices, 83

Institution of Civil Engineers, 81

Jeffreys, Judge, 81

John, King of France, 73

Jonson, Ben, 70

Keats, 20, 21

Kenmure, Lord, 73

Kennet, Dr. White, 25

King's Gate, 80

King's House, 70

King's slaughter-house, 20

King Street, 42, 78

Lady's Alley, 82

Leighton, Alexander, 69

Lewisham Street, 40

Liddell, 65

Lilly, the astrologer, 39

Litlington, Abbot, 16, 20, 64

Little Chapel Street, 29

Little College Street, 20

Little George Street, 42

Little Peter Street, 23

Little Queen Street, 33

Little Smith Street, 18

Long Ditch, 40, 42

Long Lane, 43

Lovelace, Colonel, 38

Lovelace, Thomas, 69

Manchester, Duke of, 77

Marlborough House, 90

Marsham Street, 18

Marvell, Andrew, 29

Millbank Penitentiary, 14

Millbank Street, 16

Mill, James, 33

Milton, 29, 91

Montagu House, 83

Monuments. _See Abbey_

More, Sir Thomas, 73

New Palace Yard, 67

New Scotland Yard, 77

Oates, Titus, 39, 69

Oldfield, Anne, 79

Old Palace Yard, 69

Old Pye Street, 22

Old Rochester Row, 6

Orchard Street, 22

Page, Robert, 68

Palace Hotel, 34

Palmer's Passage, 29

Palmer's Village, 4

Parker Street, 40

Parliament Street, 78, 82

Peabody's Buildings, 22

Peel, Sir Robert, 83

Pensioners' Alley, 82

Pest-houses, 12

Peterborough, Bishop of, 76

Peterborough House, 15

Petty France, 29

Prince's Street, 40

Prior, Matthew, 81

Privy Council Office, 83

Privy Gardens, 83

Public Baths and Wash-houses, 22

Purcell, 19, 23

Pye, Sir Robert, 22

Pye Street, 22

Queen Anne's Bounty Office, 22

Queen Anne's Gate, 32

Queen Anne's Mansions, 30, 32

Queen Square, 32

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 37

Rhenish Wine Yard, 82

Richmond Terrace, 83

Rochester Row, 7

Romney Street, 18

Royal Architectural Museum, 19

Royal Maundy, 36

Royal United Service Institute, 84

Russell, Lord John, 65

Sanctuary, The, 41

Sanquire, Lord, 69

Savage, Richard, 39

Schools: Bluecoat, 27 Greencoat, 5 Greycoat, 6 Medical, 28 St. Andrew's, 25 United Westminster, 5, 24 Westminster, 62

Sea Alley, 80

Seven Bishops, 73

Smith Square, 18

Southerne, Thomas, 21

Spenser, 79

Stafford Place, 25

Stafford, Viscount, 25

Stanley, Dean, 21

St. Ann's Street, 23

Stationary Office, 40

Steele, Sir Richard, 21

Stephen's Alley, 82

St. Ermin's Mansions, 28

St. James's Park, 89

St. John's Burial-ground, 10

St. John's snuff-box, 18

St. Margaret's loving-cup, 61

St. Matthew's Street, 23

Stourton Street, 24

Strutton Ground, 23

St. Stephen's Club, 77

Stubbs, John, 68

Sussex, Earl of, 76

Tart Hall, 25

Tate Gallery, 13

Taverns, 80

Thieving Lane, 39, 42

Thorne, Mr. , 20

Thorney, the Isle of Bramble, 43, 44

Tothill Fields, 9

Tothill Fields Prison, 5

Tothill Street, 19, 34

Town Hall, 28

Treasury, 83, 86

Tufton Street, 18

Turpin, Dick, 33

Union Street, 43

Vandon, Cornelius, 29

Vauxhall Bridge Road, 12

Victoria Embankment, 77

Victoria Public Garden, 21

Victoria Street, 4

Victoria Tower, 74

Vincent Square, 9

Walcott, 20

Waller, Sir William, 29

Walpole, Sir Robert, 83

Warbeck, Perkin, 68

Watney's Brewery, 24

Wellington Barracks, 30

Wesley, Charles, 65

Wesley, John, 22

Westminster Bridge Station, 77

Westminster Hall, 72

_Westminster Review_, 33

Westminster School, 62

Whitehall Gardens, 83

Whitehall Palace, 85

White Horse Yard, 82

Wilberforce, 65

Woffington, Peg, 33

Wolsey, 85

Woolstaple, 75

Wootton, Sir Henry, 79

York, Archbishop of, 85

York Street, 29

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BILLING AND SONS, LTD. , PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

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[Illustration: WESTMINSTER DISTRICT

Published by A. & C. Black, London. ]