made in museums or galleries, the journeys can in most cases be accomplished in a morning or an afternoon.

Charing Cross, the centre of the four-mile cab radius and of the fifteen-mile police radius, may fairly be considered the "hub" of London, and will make a convenient startingpoint for our rambles. Before going further, let us devote a morning to the neighbourhood.

ROUTE I.-CHARING CROSS-TRAFALGAR SQUARE-NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE-VICTORIA EMBANKMENT-WHITEHALL-NATIONAL GALLERY.

Plan II. D. 9.

Charing Cross.

Nearest Stations. Charing Cross (District), and South-Eastern and Chatham (terminus), Trafalgar Square on Baker Street and Waterloo Railway.

Omnibuses to and from all parts of the metropolis.

Cab Fares. From Broad Street, Fenchurch Street, King's Cross, Liverpool Street,
London Bridge, Paddington, or St. Pancras stations-Is. 6d.

From Cannon Street, Euston, Holborn Viaduct, Mansion House,
Victoria, or Waterloo stations-is.

Charing Cross derives its name from the last of the nine Gothic crosses erected' by Edward I to mark the places where the coffin of Queen Eleanor was set down on its way to West'minster. At that time the little village of Charing, or Cheeringe, occupied a half-way position between London and Westminster. The cross was removed in 1647 by order of Parliament. In the forecourt of the railway station is a modern reproduction, but the original stood slightly further west, on the site now occupied by the statue of Charles I (p. 83). The student should consult The Story of Charing Cross, by J. Holden MacMichael.

Trafalgar Square (Plan II. D. 9), so named in commemoration of Nelson's great victory, is a large open space described by Sir Robert Peel as the finest site in Europe," though it can hardly be said that the best use has been made of it. In the centre are the well-known fountains, which throw up 500 gallons of not too pellucid water a minute. On the southern and open side is the Nelson Monument, a granite Corinthian column, 145 ft. high, surmounted by a statue of Nelson, 17 ft. high. On the base are bronze bas-reliefs, cast with the metal of captured French cannon, representing scenes from the battles of the Nile, St. Vincent, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. Four colossal lions, modelled by Sir Edwin Landseer, crouch on pedestals at the base. Every year, on the anniversary of Trafalgar (21st October), the monument is decked with wreaths in commemoration of the great victory.

In the Square are also statues of Sir Henry Havelock, by Behnes; Sir Charles J. Napier, by Adams; General Gordon, by Hamo Thornycroft; and George IV, by Chantrey. Below

the parapet on the north side of the Square, and quite unknown to the majority of Londoners, are set out the Standard British Measures-inch, foot, yard, chain, etc. The Trafalgar Square Station of the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway is at the south-east corner of the Square. At one time Trafalgar Square was a favourite rallying-point for "demonstrators" of all kinds, but since the riots in 1888 police supervision has been much more strict, and Hyde Park is now generally chosen. The northern side of the Square is occupied by the National Gallery (p. 93), with the National Portrait Gallery adjoining. This corner is one of the best known recruiting stations in London; and it is a pleasure to watch the burly veterans who here angle so assiduously on behalf of King and country. On the east side is Morley's Hotel, and at the corner stands the fane of St. Martinin-the-Fields, erected 1721-6 by Gibbs, on the site of an earlier structure. One looks in vain now for the "fields." The Grecian portico is greatly admired, but its effect has been somewhat spoilt by the curtailment of the steps in front. As the greater part of Buckingham Palace is included in the parish, the births of all Royal children born there are entered in the register. George I was at one time churchwarden of St. Martin's, the only case of an English monarch who has held such a position. The register of the old church, still preserved, contains an entry of the baptism of Lord Bacon (1561). Nell Gwynne was buried here. So were Robert Boyle, the philosopher; Farquhar, the comedy writer; Lord Mohun, who was killed in a duel by the Duke of Hamilton, and has achieved a dubious immortality in the pages of Thackeray's Esmond; Roubiliac, the sculptor; John Hunter, the surgeon, whose remains were afterwards removed to Westminster Abbey, and many others. Two of the stained glass windows commemorate the Right Hon. W. H. Smith, for many years representative of the Strand Division in Parliament and churchwarden of the parish. The memorial to members of the Imperial Yeomanry who fell in the Boer War was unveiled by His Majesty.

Close to the Church are the headquarters of the Royal Humane Society, founded in 1774, to assist the rescue of drowning persons. On the opposite (western) side of Trafalgar Square is the Royal College of Physicians (admission by member's order), containing portraits and busts of famous doctors and some medical curiosities. Adjoining is the Union Club (social and non-political), founded in 1822, and having about a thousand members. At the south-west corner of the Square is Spring

A

Gardens, the headquarters of the London County Council. public gallery in the well-arranged Council Chamber accommodates persons desirous of listening to the discussions on Tuesday afternoons. The departmental offices are scattered in various neighbouring streets. The Council aspires to possess a County Hall worthy of its importance, and a site on the south bank of the Thames has received approval (see p. 86).

From Nelson's Monument there is a superb vista down Whitehall and Parliament Street towards the Houses of Parliament. The fine equestrian Statue of Charles I in the foreground has a history worth repeating. It was cast in 1633, but before it had been erected the Civil War broke out. By the Parliament the objectionable figure was sold as "scrap to a brazier with the appropriate name of Rivet. An insatiable demand for "relics" of the unfortunate monarch arising, Rivet made a good thing by selling knives and forks with bronze handles, which he pretended were made from the effigy; but with a keen eye to the future he kept the statue intact. At the Restoration it was duly produced from his garden in Holborn, and in 1674 was set up on the site of the old Charing Cross.

The oblique thoroughfare connecting Charing Cross with the Embankment is Northumberland Avenue. The colossal Grand Hôtel (500 rooms) occupies part of the site of Northumberland House, the town mansion of the Duke of Northumberland, demolished in 1874 to make way for the Avenue. Above the house used to stand the figure of a lion, and it was a favourite joke with the wits of the period to inform credulous strangers that if they watched long enough the animal would be seen to wag its tail. Two other large hotels, the Hôtel Victoria (500 rooms), and the Hôtel Métropôle (550 rooms), stand in the Avenue, all three belonging to the Gordon Hotels Co., Ltd. Most of the London out-of-town coaches (see p. 14) start from this point. In the Avenue are also two of the great political clubhouses, the Constitutional Club, a German Renaissance building of terra-cotta, and the National Liberal Club, the latter on a magnificent site overlooking the Embankment and the river. Opposite is the Avenue Theatre, immediately below Charing Cross terminus. When the roof of this great station collapsed in December, 1905, the theatre was almost demolished. A tablet on No. 7, Craven Street, the thoroughfare west of Charing Cross Station, records that Benjamin Franklin, "printer, philosopher and statesman," lived there. Franklin was a "boarder," and it is interesting to note that the house is still a private hotel.

The Victoria Embankment (colloquially "the Embankment") extends from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge, a magnificent curve of nearly a mile and a half. It is one of the finest and most air-swept thoroughfares in the Metropolis, with attractive gardens, beautiful buildings, an always interesting outlook on the river, and the not inconsiderable advantage, when sunny days are few, of a south aspect; yet, curiously, during the greater part of the day, the seats are rarely occupied except by tramps and loafers, and the spacious roadway has hitherto been little used except by cabs proceeding to and from the City. Now, however, the London County Council's electric tramcars pass along it between Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges. Formerly at high tide the river flowed right up to where the old York Watergate (p. 220) still stands, and the area now covered by the Embankment and its chain of gardens was an unsightly expanse of mud. This great improvement, for which Londoners have never been sufficiently grateful to the moribund and discredited Metropolitan Board of Works, was effected in 1864-70, at a cost of a million and a half pounds, a part of which has since been recouped by sales of land. Owing to the sloppy nature of the subsoil the cost of maintenance is considerable. The granite protecting wall is 8 ft. thick. A mural monument at the foot of Northumberland Avenue worthily commemorates the engineer, Sir Joseph W. Bazalgette.

Throughout its length the Embankment is planted on both sides with plane trees, and it is lit at night by electricity. Beneath it runs the District Railway, with stations at Westminster Bridge, Charing Cross, the Temple and Blackfriars. Close to the Charing Cross Railway Bridge the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway passes beneath the Thames, its Embankment station being connected by subway with the District Railway.

Turning in the direction of Westminster Bridge, we pass through pretty gardens decked with statues of William Tyndale, the translator of the New Testament, Sir Bartle Frere, of South African fame, and General Sir Francis Outram, the Bayard of the Indian Mutiny. Next comes Montague House, the mansion of the Duke of Buccleuch, containing many valuable pictures; and a few yards further is a dignified turretted building, in the Scottish-Baronial style, known as New Scotland Yard, the headquarters, since 1891, of the Metropolitan Police. The Lost Property Office (p. 22) is entered from the Embankment. Continuing to Westminster Bridge, we have the St. Stephen's