Hanoverian attendants. "This is a strange country, Sir. The first morning after my arrival at St. James's, I looked out of the window, and saw a Park, with walks and canals, &c., which they told me were mine. The next day Lord Chetwynd, the Ranger of my Park, sent me a fine brace of carp out of my canal; and I was told I must give five guineas to Lord Chetwynd's servant for bringing me my own carp, out of my own canal, in my own Park.”

CHAPTER III.

....

"Lord Orford has, in one of his Letters, projected a curious work to be written in a walk through the streets of the Metropolis .. Should it be carried into execution, it would be first necessary to obtain the original names, or their meanings, of our streets, free from the disguise in which time has concealed them. We shall otherwise lose many characters of persons, and many remarkable events, of which their original denominations would remind the historian of our streets."

D'ISRAELI'S CURIOS. OF LIT.

&

O a City its histories, memories, and busy throngs are what the glades and soothing calm are to the retired country. For a brief while, beautiful indeed is the first flush of the fresh green leaves of spring in the parks and squares, as contrasted with the black walls that gird those scanty enclosures in; but soon the cloud-like smoke sullies them with an imprint, which betokens that they are but a precocious growth too bright to last beyond a few short days. Houses and streets are indeed only the work of man; but it must be a cold, superficial mind that can detect in them only a wide blank and monotonous leagues of weary masonry. "I pity the man," said Sterne, with melancholy scorn, "who can walk from Dan to Beersheba, and say all is barren." The rivalry of greedy gain, selfish luxury, envy, and evil passions are not confined to the inhabitants of towns; if there be much of evil, there must be at least far more than a counterpoise of good in such a concourse of men. The very remembrance that a myriad feet of immortal beings, for long years, have daily past along those swarming highways must thrill with interest the kindly thoughtful heart; and it can be, we hope, no meaningless purpose, which now would fix the eye, bewildered with the hurrying mass of unknown faces

that stream unending past, (dissimilar as their tempers, races, opinions, and objects-ever shifting-never the very same,) upon old nooks and former homes—that have their poetry, and lore, and biographies for those who can discern that it is so. In such a spirit would we look upon the streets of Westminster.

DOWNING-STREET

was named after Sir George Downing, Bart., an eminent statesman of the reign of King Charles II. Wood calls him "a sider with all times and changes, skilled in the common cant, and a preacher occasionally." Pepys dubs him "a niggardly fellow." Though sent Resident to Holland by Cromwell, he became a loyalist at the Restoration, and was knighted in 1661: he was subsequently appointed Secretary to the Treasury, and Commissioner of Customs; and in 1663 was created Baronet of East Hatley, Cambridgeshire.

In 1733, John Boyle, Earl of Cork and Ossory, and friend of Dean Swift, known by his contributions to the "World" and "Connoisseur," lived in this street. Lord Overquerque likewise resided here; as did James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson, in 1760. At the family mansion, on March 12, A.D. 1703, died Aubrey de Vere, last Earl of Oxford. On October 17, 1776, the Abbé Courayer, Canon of St. Genevieve, (the learned author of the "Defence of the Validity of English Ordinations," &c.,) died here: he was considered to be "the best pen in France, the most amiable and most generally beloved in his Order, Catholique en gros, Protestant en détail." Gibbon the historian was frequently the guest here of Lord Sheffield.

The official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury formerly belonged to the Crown: King George I. gave it to Baron Bothmar, the Hanoverian Minister, for life. After his death, King George II. offered the house to Sir Robert Walpole, who only accepted it upon the condition that it should be attached to the Premiership for ever. Since that time, therefore, Downing-street is inseparably connected with the name of every successive Prime Minister of England.

To Mr. Sargent's house in this street the great Lord Chatham was removed, after he had fallen in his fatal swoon in the House of Lords.

FLUDYER-STREET

derives its name from Sir Samuel Fludyer, Bart., the possessor of the land upon which it stands. The family were eminent clothiers of London. The first Baronet of the name, Sir Samuel, of Lee-place, Kent, and M. P. for Chippenham, when Lord Mayor in 1761, entertained his Majesty George III. and Queen Charlotte at a civic feast. Sir Samuel Romilly was to have entered the commercial house of the Fludyers, who were near relatives of his family, and Sir Samuel Fludyer was his godfather: the death of both the partners put an end to

the scheme.

This street is built upon the site of the ancient Axe-yard, a haunt of Sir W. Davenant. In a document dated 23 Hen. VIII. is noticed, "on the west side of Kynge-street, a great messuage or brew-house, commonly called the Axe." In 1659-60 “Lord Claypole [the husband of Mary Cromwell] made enquiry," says Pepys, "concerning my house in Axeyard, to get it of me for him, which methinks is a great change." Dangerfield, the principal in "the Meal-Tub Plot," who had already accused the Dukes of Monmouth and Buckingham, and other men of note and rank, tried to introduce forged papers into the lodgings of Colonel Mansel, who lived in Axe-yard: however, he was detected, and committed at once to Newgate. In this street lived James Macpherson, the so-called translator of the Poems of Ossian.

CROWN-STREET

was so named from Rose and Crown Court, where for many years a tavern has stood bearing that sign. The Rose was of course the Tudor Badge; and it is curious to observe that the other signs mentioned in the old Parish-books are the Lamb and the Saracen's Head, (both introduced probably by the

F

Knights Templars, or at the time of the Crusades,) and the White Hart—the cognizance borne by King Richard II.

On Oct. 8, A. D. 1795, died here Andrew Kippis, F. R. S., F. S. A., and member of Edinburgh University: he was chosen, in June 1753, the teacher of a Nonconformist congregation in Princes-street. He is well known as the author of the Biographia Britannica, and projector of the "New Annual Register." The meeting-house wherein he taught was a Presbyterian Kirk; and Calamy, Alsop, and other notorious dissenting preachers had presided over it: it was removed to Lewisham-street when the improvements were made in Princes-street.

At No. 19 King-street, at the south-west corner of this street, lived Ignatius Sancho, a negro, born on board a slaveship in 1729. He was butler to the Duke of Montague; and, when he left that nobleman's service, gave his last shilling to see Garrick act King Richard III. About 1773 he ventured to open a grocer's shop, with the assistance of the Montague family. He died in 1780. Garrick and Laurence Sterne used to visit him here, and Mortimer the painter frequently consulted him as to the effect of his pictures.

In CHARLES-STREET is the excellent Western Dispensary, established in 1789, supported by private benevolence, for the relief of the sick poor at their own habitations. Upwards of 160,000 patients have been relieved since its foundation.

GARDENER'S-LANE.

In it died, March 28, A. D. 1677, the unfortunate Wenceslaus Hollar, the exquisite engraver, at the age of seventy. His labour was immense, as may be seen from Vertue's Catalogue of his prints (2,400 in number); and yet he often worked for fourpence an hour with scrupulous integrity, keeping an hourglass always before him. He implored the sheriff's officers, who came to seize his little remainder of furniture, to leave him his wretched pallet whereon to die, and suffer him to know no other prison-house but the quiet grave.

In WHITE HORSE-LANE "lived one Wraithwood," says