ST. GILES'S-IN-THE-FIELDS. A Parish Church, situated at the extreme cast end of Oxford street, built by Henry Flitcroft, and preached in for the first time, April 14th, 1734. In St. Giles's, Flitcroft has copied too closely Gibbs's church of St. Martin. The olden church taken down by Flitcroft was built in 1623, and consecrated by Laud, as he records, in the History of his Troubles, on January 23rd, 1630. It was built of rubbed brick, and defaced by the Puritans: the Churchwarden's accounts exhibiting a payment of four shillings and sixpence "to the painter, for washing the twelve apostles off the organ loft." The following eminent persons are buried here. George Chapman, the translator of Homer, (d. 1634): Inigo Jones erected an altar-tomb to his memory, at his own expense, still to be seen in the churchyard, against the south wall of the church. The celebrated Lord Herbert of Cherbury (d. 1648. James Shirley, the dramatist, and his wife (d. 1666). Richard Penderell," preserver and conductor to his sacred Majesty King Charles II., after his escape from Worcester fight," (d. 1671); there is an altartomb to his memory in the churchyard. Andrew Marvell, (d. 1678). Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh, executed at Tyburn in 1681, (his body afterwards removed to Landsprug in Germany). Major Michael Mohun, the celebrated actor, (d. 1684). The profligate Countess of Shrewsbury, of whom Walpole reports the almost incredible anecdote of her having held the horse of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, while the Duke killed her husband in a duel, (d. 1702). Sir Roger L'Estrange, the celebrated political writer, (d. 1704). The recumbent figure of the Duchess Dudley, created a Duchess in her own right by King Charles I. (d. 1669), the only monument of interest at present in the church. This monument was preserved when the church was rebuilt, as a piece of parochial gratitude to one whose benefactions to the parish had been so frequent and liberal. The Duchess is buried at Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire. Over the street-entrance to the churchyard is the Lich-Gate or Resurrection-Gate, containing a bas-relief of the day of judgment, set upon the gate of the old church in 1687. The church of St. Giles's-in-the-fields has been twice robbed of its communion-plate-in 1675 and 1804; yet the parish (famous for its Rookery, and long the abode of wretchedness, so that St. Giles's, the antagonistic rival of St. James's, has become synonymous for squalor and dirt) could show its pound, its cage, its round-house and watch-house, its stocks, its whipping-post, and at one time its gallows. St. Giles's Hospital, was an hospital for lepers, founded in the year 1101, by Matilda, Queen of Henry I., and then and long after an independent house. Edward III., to ease his exchequer of a payment, made it a cell to Burton St. Lazar, in Leicestershire, and Henry VIII. soon after the dissolution of religious houses, converted the chapel of the Hospital into a parish church of the name of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, and granted the Hospital itself to John Dudley, Lord L'Isle, Earl of Warwick, and Duke of Northumberland, beheaded in 1553. The north end garden wall of the Hospital was long a place of public execution. Here Sir John Oldcastle, lord Cobham, was burnt alive in 1417, in the reign of Henry V., and Babbington and his accomplices were executed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Stow records that "at this Hospital the prisoners conveyed from the City of London towards Tyburn, there to be executed for treason, felonies, or other trespasses, were presented with a great bowl of ale, thereof to drink at their pleasure, as to be their last refreshment in this life.” St. Giles's Pound, was an old London landmark, near the church of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, removed in 1765. It was originally what its name denotes, the pound belonging to the parish. Miles were measured from it as from the Standard in Cornhill, Hicks's Hall, and Hyde Park Corner. OXFORD STREET, one of the leading lines of thoroughfare, one mile and a half long, was formerly bounded at its ex street tremities by St. Giles's Pound and old Tyburn turnpike, and so called from its being the highway from London to Oxford. In 1708 it was known as Tyburn-road. It is, however, somewhat uncertain when it was first formed into a continuous line of street, and in what year it was first called Oxford One writer says it was called Oxford street in 1725. Another authority on the subject is Lysons. "The row of houses," says Lysons, "on the north side of Tyburn road, was completed in 1729, and it was then called Oxford street. There is, however, good reason to suppose that it received its name at a still earlier date; for a stone let into the wall at the corner of Rathbone-place, is inscribed, "RATHBONE-PLACE, OXFORD-STREET, 1718," an inscription evidently coeval with the date upon it. Pennant says, "I remember Oxford-street a deep hollow road, and full of sloughs; with here and there a ragged house, the lurking-place of cut-throats; insomuch that I never was taken that way by night, in my hackney-coach to a worthy uncle's, who gave me lodgings in his house in George-street, but I went in dread the whole way." New Oxford street, opened for carriages March 6th, 1847, occupies the site of the "Rookery" of St. Giles, through which it was driven at a cost of £290,227 4s. 10d., of which £113,963 was paid to the Duke of Bedford alone for freehold purchases. All that remained, in the autumn of 1849, of this infamous Rookery (so called as a place of resort for sharpers and quarrelsome people) was included and condensed in ninety-five wretched houses in Church-lane and Carrier-street, no less than 2850 persons were crammed on one to one-tenth acre of ground. In these noisome abodes nightly shelter, at threepence per head, might be obtained. We will now retrace our steps to THE BRITISH MUSEUM, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury. The British Museum originated in an offer to Parliament, found in the will of Sir H. Sloane, (d. 1753), of the whole of his collection for £20,000 being £30,000 less than it was said to have cost him, on condition that Parliament purchased a house sufficiently commodious for it. The proposal was accepted, and Montagu House (built by P. Paget, a French architect) was purchased of the Earl of Halifax for £10,250—a mansion at that time perfectly well adapted for all the resources of the Museum. In 1753, an Act was passed, entitled "An Act for the purchase of the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., and of the Harleian collection of MSS., and procuring one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said collection, and of the Cottonian Library and additions thereto." In pursuance of the Act the necessary funds were raised by a Lottery; £20,000 paid for the Sloane Museum; £10,000 for the Harleian collection of MSS., and the purchase-money for Montague House, including the necessary repairs and internal fittings, amounted to upwards of £23,000. The different collections having been removed into Montagu House, the new institution was opened to the public on the 15th January, 1759, under the title of "THE BRITISH MUSEUM." Subsequent additions, partly by gift and partly by purchase, have swelled the collections of books, sculptures, and valuable curiosities of all descriptions, to an extent in some sort worthy of a great and intelligent nation. As the various collections increased in bulk and importance, the old Montagu House was found to be no longer spacious enough, nor conveniently disposed for the purpose of their display, and a new Museum, upon a larger scale, was commenced in 1823, from the designs of Sir R. Smirke, the portico of which was completed in April, 1847. The building which has 370 feet frontage, is of the Grecian Ionic order, with a portico in the centre, and two adjoining wings at either end. From its commencement in 1823 to the present time it has involved an expenditure of about £800,000. The level |