Parliament House, the theatres, and the chocolate and coffee houses, where the best company frequent. If you would know our manner of living, 'tis thus :- we rise by nine, and those that frequent great men's levees find entertainment at them till eleven, or, as at Holland, go to tea-tables. About twelve, the beau-monde assembles in several coffee or chocolate houses; the best of which are the Cocoa Tree, and White's chocolate-houses; St. James's, the Smyrna, Mr. Rochford's, and the British coffee-houses; and all these so near one another, that in less than one hour you see the company of them all. We are carried to these places in Sedan chairs, which are here very cheap, a guinea a week, or a shilling per hour; and your chairmen serve you for porters to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at Venice."

Passing the equestrian statue of George III., by Matthew Cotes, 1837, we now reach the foot of the Haymarket, so called from the market for hay and straw which was held here in the reign of Elizabeth, and was not finally abolished till 1830. On the right is the Haymarket Theatre (opened Dec. 1720), on the left the Italian Opera House (built in 1790). It was between these, at the foot of the Haymarket, that Thomas Thynne of Longleat was murdered on Sunday, Feb. 12, 1681, by ruffians hired by Count Königsmarck, who hoped, when Thynne was out of the way, to ingratiate himself with his affianced bride, the rich young Lady Elizabeth Percy, already, in her sixteenth year, the widow of Lord Ogle. The assassins employed were Vratz, a German; Stern, a Swede; and Borotski, a Pole; but only the last of these fired, though no less than five of his bullets pierced his victim. The scene is represented on Thynne's monument in Westminster Abbey. The conspirators were taken, and tried at Hicks's Hall in Clerkenwell, where Königsmarck was acquitted, but the others sentenced to death, and hanged in the street which was the scene of their crime. They were attended by Bishop Burnet, who

narrates that, in return for his religious admonitions, Vratz expressed his conviction that "God would consider a gentleman, and deal with him suitably to the condition and profession he had placed him in; and that he would not take it ill if a soldier who lived by his sword avenged an affront offered him by another." Stern, on the scaffold, complained that he died for a man's fortune whom he never spoke to, for a woman whom he never saw, and for a dead man whom he never had a sight of."

[Addison lived in the Haymarket, and wrote his "Campaign" there. On the right are James Street, where James II. used to play in the tennis court, and Panton Street, so called from Colonel Panton, the successful gamester, who died in 1681. At the corner of Market Street (left) lived Hannah Lightfoot, the fair Quakeress, beloved by George III. Farther on the left is the entry of the little court called James's Market, where Richard Baxter preached.]

Proceeding down Pall Mall, and passing the United Service Club, by Nash, 1826, we reach the opening of Waterloo Place, which occupies the site of Carlton House, built for Henry Boyle, Lord Carlton, in 1709, and purchased by Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1732. His widow, Augusta of Saxe-Cobourg, lived here for many years, and died in 1772. The house was redecorated for the marriage of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Here his daughter Charlotte was born (January 7, 1796), and married to Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg (May 2, 1816). Here also, in 1811, George IV. gave his famous banquet as Prince Regent.

Horace Walpole was beyond measure ecstatic in his

admiration of Carlton House, though where the money to "all

pay for it was to come from he could not conceive ; the mines in Cornwall could not pay a quarter." The redundancy of ornament induced Bonomi to write on the Ionic screen facing Pall Mall the epigram

"Care colonne, che fate quà ?'

'Non sappiamo, in verità!""

But all its magnificence came to an end in 1827, when the house was pulled down, its fittings taken to Buckingham Palace, and its columns used in building the portico of the National Gallery. Its site is marked by the Column (124 feet high) surmounted by a Statue of Frederick, Duke of York, second son of George III., by Westmacott, which faces Regent Street. On the right is a Statue of Lord Clyde. On the left is a Statue of Sir John Franklin by Noble. The relief on its pedestal represents the funeral of Franklin, with Captain Crozier reading the burial service: it wonderfully appeals to human sympathies, and there is scarcely a moment in the day when passers-by are not lingering to examine it.

We now enter upon a perfect succession of the buildings erected for the clubs, originally defined by Dr. Johnson as "assemblies of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions." They have greatly improved since those days, and are now the great comfort of bachelor-life in London. "Comme ils savent organiser le bien-être !" Taine justly exclaims with regard to them. At the angle of Waterloo Place is the Athenæum, the chief literary club in London, built by Decimus Burton, 1829. Beyond arise, on the left, the Travellers' Club (by Barry, 1832); the Reform

Club (by Barry, 1838); and the Carlton Club (by Smirke, 1854, from St. Mark's Library at Venice), the famous political Conservative club founded by the Duke of Wellington in 1831. Beyond these, the War Office occupies a house originally built for Edward, Duke of York, brother of George III., with an admirable meditative statue in front of it, representing Lord Herbert of Lea, Secretary of State for War (by Foley, 1867). Beyond this are the Oxford and Cambridge Club (by Smirke, 1835-8); and the Guards' Club (by Harrison, 1850). On the right, opposite the War Office, is the Army and Navy Club (by Parnell and Smith, 1851).

(The two short streets on the right of Pall Mall lead into St. James's Square, which dates from the time of Charles II., when the adjoining King Street and Charles. Street were named in honour of the King, and York Street and Duke Street in honour of the Duke of York. In the centre was a Gothic conduit, which is seen in old prints and maps of London, with a steep gable and walls of coloured bricks in diamond patterns. Its site is now occupied by a statue of William III. by the younger Bacon, 1808. The great Duke of Ormond lived here in Ormond House, and his duchess died there. No. 3 was the house of the Duke of Leeds.

VOL. II.

"When the Duke of Leeds shall married be

To a fair young lady of high quality,

How happy will that gentlewoman be
In his grace of Leeds' good company!

She shall have all that's fine and fair,
And the best of silk and satin shall wear;
And ride in a coach to take the air,
And have a house in St. James's Square."

E

No. 15, which belonged to Sir Philip Francis, was lent to Queen Caroline (1820), and was inhabited by her during the earlier part of her trial. No. 16 was the house of Lord Castlereagh, who lay in state there in 1822. No. 17, the Duke of Cleveland's, is an interesting old house, and contains a fine picture of Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, by Sir Peter Lely. No. 21, in the south-east corner, is Norfolk House, and has been inhabited by the Dukes of Norfolk since 1684. Hither Frederick Prince of Wales, when turned out of St. James's by George II., took refuge with his family till the purchase of Leicester House; and here George III. was born, June 4, 1738, being a seven-months' child, and was privately baptized the same day by Secker, Bishop of Oxford.)

We may notice No. 79, Pall Mall, as occupying the site. of the house which was given by Charles II. to Nell Gwynne, described by Burnet as "the indiscreetest and wildest creature that ever was in a court." She lived here from 1671 to 1687. It is still the only freehold in the

street.

"It was given by a long lease by Charles II. to Nell Gwyn, and upon her discovering it to be only a lease under the Crown, she returned him the lease and conveyances, saying she had always conveyed free under the Crown, and always would; and would not accept it till it was conveyed free to her by Act of Parliament made on and for that purpose. Upon Nell's death it was sold, and has been conveyed free ever since."-Granger's Letters, p. 308.

The garden of the house had a mount, on which Nell used to stand to talk over the wall to the King as he walked in St. James's Park.

66

5 March, 1671.-I walk'd with him (Charles II.) thro' St. James's Parke to the gardens, where I both saw and heard a very familiar dis