feet, while in width it extends to 371 feet. It derives its name from Eaton Hall in Cheshire, the seat of the Duke of Westminister, the ground landlord; and it occupies ground once known as The Five Fields. Even so late as 1814, a map of Belgravia of that date shows the site, as well as all the ground between Knightsbridge, Grosvenor Place, and Cadogan Place to have been then open land on which the backs of the houses in these thoroughfares looked.

The Square was commenced in 1827 (though not wholly completed till 1853), by Cubitt, as part of that great scheme of development by which he transformed what was little better than a swamp into one of the most remunerative and fashionable quarters of London. This he effected by the simple means, hitherto ignored until the building Columbus solved the obvious, of removing the clay which formed the first strata and burning it into bricks, and then building on the substratum of gravel. Belgravia is therefore, although lying so low that it has been proved that the attics in Eaton and Belgrave Squares are on the same level as the ground floors of Westbourne Terrace, viz. seventy feet above the Thames high-water mark, one of the healthiest spots in London; as for much the same reason is Chelsea, which such men as Drs. Arbuthnot, Sloane, and Meade were not slow to find out.'

2

As we might expect from the size of the houses and the favour in which the Square has always been held, some notable people are to be numbered both among its past and present residents.

Two notable wits in their day occupied houses here, for Lord Alvanley, of whom Captain Gronow was wont to say that he was awarded the reputation of all the witticisms, good or bad, in the clubs, just as Sheridan had been before him, and Sydney Smith since, lived at No. 62, and here he died in 1850. Greville speaks of "his marvellous wit and drollery, which made him the delight and ornament of society," and most appropriately quotes Biron's words:

The other, noted for his witty sayings and his priceless collections, was Ralph Bernal, who died at what was No. 93,3 the house where his treasures

1 These measurements are given in the Fascination of London: "Mayfair and Belgravia." 2 See Timbs's Curiosities of London.

Davis, in his Memorials of Knightsbridge (1859), says No. 75, and he has been followed by Walford, Cunningham, &c., but Messrs. Christie's Catalogue of 1855, gives it No. 93, which would seem to be conclusive.

were displayed, in 1853. Two years later Messrs. Christie commenced, on March 5th, the disposal of Bernal's treasures at the house itself, where for thirty-two days connoisseurs and dealers from all parts of the world contended for the rare and beautiful objects which one who, to use the words of Planché, "could be tempted by nothing that was inferior," had gathered together.

Another house of interest was No. 71, which was used as the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, during the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament, and of which Cunningham states that the rent, rates, and taxes amounted to £964 for one year; later it became the residence of Mr. M. J. Higgins, the celebrated "Jacob Omnium" of the Times.

Lawyers have greatly affected the Square, and among them we find Lord Truro, once Lord Chancellor, who as Mr. Thomas Wilde was one of the Counsel for Queen Caroline, and represented both Newark and Worcester in Parliament, and who died here on November 11, 1855. Here too lived, at No. 16, Mr. Justice Willes; and at 75, Baron Martin; while at No. 74, resided the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, afterwards Lord Cardwell, who, as President of the Board of Trade (1852-55), Secretary for Ireland (1859-61), Colonial Secretary (1864-66), and Secretary for War (1868-74), made a mark on the history of the country. A letter of his to Abraham Hayward is dated from here, in November 1860.

Among the notable soldiers who have lived in the Square, particular mention must be made of General Sir William Codrington, who was present at the Alma and Inkermann; and was chief in command, having succeeded Sir James Simpson, at the Siege of Sebastopol, who resided at No. 10. He was second son of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, who commanded the Orion at Trafalgar; was with Cochrane at Chesapeake Bay and New Orleans in 1814, and held chief command of the allied fleets at Navarino. He died in the Square on April 27, 1851; and here, so recently as 1890, also died Lord Napier of Magdala, at the ripe age of eighty. His great services in the Mutiny, where he was chief engineer with Sir Colin Campbell's army; during the China War of 1860; and especially in the expedition to Abyssinia of 1868, are part of the military history, as they form part of the glory, of the country.

Among other notable men who are given as living in the Square by Davis, writing in 1859, are the first Earl of Ellenborough, son of the great Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, at No. 115; Sir Frederick Thesiger, Lord Chelmsford, the victor of Ulundi over the Zulus under Cetewayo in 1879, at No. 7; Sir John Pakington, who after holding several high appointments under Conservative Governments from 1852 to 1868, was

created Lord Hampton in 1874, at No. 41; Sir Francis Baring, first Lord Northbrook, who had filled such posts as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1839-41), and First Lord of the Admiralty (1849-52), at No. 4; Mr. Fielder, Commissioner-General in the Crimea, at No. 57; Colonel Tulloch at No. 63; Sir Augustus Clifford, the well-remembered Usher of the Black Rod, at No. 92; and Sir William Clay, at No. 93.

To these may be added the names of General Sir Thomas Bradford; Mr. Henry Redhead Yorke, at No. 81; Colonel Sibthorp, who died here in 1856; and George Peabody, the well-known American philanthropist, who had settled in England in 1837, and who died at his house in the Square, on November 4, 1869. Others include S. H. Walpole, who dates from No. 109, in writing to Hayward in 1877; Sir Charles Ellice, whose hospitable house in Eaton Square was once well known; and Sir George Gray, a devoted servant and friend of Queen Victoria.

Eaton Square well sustains its reputation to-day as the home of notable people, and its 104 houses include the residences of so many bearing old and historic names that the bare enumeration of them would fill a page.

At the east end of the Square is the Church of St. Peter, one of the most noted in London for fashionable marriages. It is a heavy building and architecturally not important, but within it is roomy and well adapted for the crowds attending large weddings. It was built on ground presented by Lord Grosvenor during the years 1824 and 1826 (the first stone being laid on September 4, 1824), from designs by Henry Hakewell, at a cost of just over £21,000, and was consecrated by Howley, Bishop of London, on June 27, 1827. About ten years after its erection— on December 30, 1836, to be precise-it was nearly burnt down, and Hilton's "Christ Crowned with Thorns," which had been purchased for 1000 guineas by the Directors of the Royal Institution in 1828, and presented to the church for use as an altar-piece, was with difficulty saved. This picture was subsequently bought from the church by the Chantry Bequest in 1877. In the John Bull for January 2, 1837, is a full description of the fire in which the organ, which had cost £700, was destroyed, as well as the whole interior fittings of the church, and stained glass to the value of many hundreds of pounds; the damage being estimated at about £10,000. The church was reopened on August 6, 1837. In 1872, it was restored and enlarged by the addition of a new chancel and transepts in the Byzantine style, the work of Blomfield who, in 1874, was again called in to remodel the interior of the nave. These improvements have done something to rescue the church from Cunningham's dictum, that it is one of the ugliest in all London. In 1895, a handsome screen,

with pulpit and a side chapel-dedicated to All Saints-was added. In the Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction for August 22, 1829, there is an elaborate description of its architectural points, together with a woodcut representing the west front; and an interesting account of the church, by the Rev. Herbert Mackean, M.A., is contained in the St. Peter's Parish Magazine for July 1905. From the latter we learn that the first incumbent was the Rev. Thomas Fuller, from 1827 to 1869; the second the Rev. G. H. Wilkinson-subsequently the Bishop of Trurofrom 1870 to 1883, who was followed by the present vicar, the Rev. Prebendary Storrs, appointed in 1883. It may also be noted that at first St. Peter's was but a chapel of ease to St. George's, not having a separate district assigned to it till 1830.

The body of Sir Edward Codrington whom I have mentioned as dying in the Square in 1851, was buried in St. Peter's.

It is interesting to note that Sir Algernon West's mother remembered going to a country house where St. Peter's now stands, and crossing a rustic bridge over a stream into the fields (The Five Fields) where the cows were being milked and syllabub was being made.1

BELGRAVE SQUARE

THE most important square in the district generally termed Belgravia is Belgrave Square, which takes its name from one of the titles borne by the Duke of Westminster. It stands, like Eaton Square, on a portion of the Five Fields, and was commenced in 1825; forming a nucleus of Cubitt's great scheme of development. For a London square it is comparatively large, measuring about 700 by 630 feet, or nearly ten acres. The four sides are covered by large houses, the centre ones being more imposing than the others; these mansions were designed by George Basevi, who was the architect of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, and, it will be remembered, was accidentally killed while inspecting the bell-tower of Ely Cathedral, on October 16, 1845.

At the corners of the Square are large detached mansions erected from designs by Hardwick and Kendall; the latter was responsible for the two on the west side, now known as No. 12 Belgrave Square, the residence of the Earl of Ancaster; and Downshire House, occupied by the Right Hon.

1 Sir A. West's Recollections, vol. i. p. 268.

2 Davis gives the exact measurements as 684 by 637 feet.

Lord Pirrie. Seaford House, Lord de Walden's residence, at the southeast corner, was the work of Hardwick; and the remaining mansion, No. 49, at the north-east corner, was for many years the town residence of the Duke of Richmond, but has recently been acquired by Otto Beit, Esq., of the firm of Wernher, Beit, & Co. Looking at these immense houses, it is difficult to imagine them being called by older topographers, as we find they are, "villas in Belgrave Square."

As we enter Belgrave Square from Grosvenor Crescent, No. our right hand, a house once occupied by Reuben Sassoon, Esq., who had a private synagogue here, on the site of which what is called No. 1A, not properly in the Square at all, stands; while at No. 2 Mr. James Goding, noted for the fine collection of pictures he brought together here, was living in 1859. No. 3 is the town residence of Lord de Ramsey; while two doors beyond at No. 5, formerly lived Lieut.-Gen. Sir George Murray, who was Quartermaster-General during the Peninsular War; and here he died in 1846. A later resident there was the wellknown philanthropist, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, whose name is synonymous with pity and charity; he died here in 1886; a great and good man. Next door (No. 6), now Lord Newton's, was formerly the seventh Duke of Bedford's, who died in 1861, but, as we shall see, the present Duke lives in another house in the Square. W. Graham Vivian, Esq., who lives next door, at No. 7, informs me that he purchased the lease in 1859, and that the house has never changed hands or been let since; very nearly a record in this respect. No. 9, now G. Harland Peck, Esq.'s, who is well known as an art connoisseur and collector, and who has surrounded himself with a fine and valuable collection of pictures and furniture, was formerly the residence of the fifth Earl of Esssex-"gallant, good-natured, lively, and handsome," as Le Marchant calls him-and his celebrated Countess, the once wellknown singer Kitty Stephens, whom he married en second noces in 1838, only a year before his death. Lord Essex was a friend of nearly all the notable people of his day; and Macaulay, writing to his sister Hannah in 1832, gives an amusing account of a dinner party at No. 9. "I dined on Saturday at Lord Essex's in Belgrave Square," he writes, "but never was there such a take in. I had been given to understand that his Lordship's cuisine was superintended by the first French artists, and that I should find there all the luxuries of the Almanach des Gourmonds. What a mistake! His lordship is luxurious, indeed, but in quite a different way. He is a true Englishman. Not a dish on his table but what Sir Roger de Coverley, or Sir Hugh Tyrold, might have set before his guests. A huge haunch of venison on the sideboard, a magnificent piece of beef at