Matthew Baillie, and ultimately to the University of Glasgow, with money to augment and support it. In 1773, John Hunter began to deliver lectures on surgery at his brother's house, which the pupils of St. George's Hospital were allowed to attend gratuitously. Anatomical lectures were delivered, and dissections carried on here as late as 1831, in connection with the school of that Hospital. The church of St. Peter, on the east side of the street, which accommodates 650 persons, was erected in 1861, from the designs of R. Brandon, at an outlay for the building and furniture of 5,500l. The land on which it is built cost 6,000l., a large sum, which is at the rate of more than 50,000 per The money was subscribed by the inhabitants of St. James's Parish, principally by the aristocracy, the late Lord Derby being a munificent subscriber. Opposite to Carlton Palace were several low streets, which were cleared away to make room for Waterloo Place, and Regent Street,' as a grand vista in front of the Palace; but no sooner were they got rid of, and the new street built, than the Palace itself was razed to the ground. The largest of this nest was St. Albans Street, called after the Earl of St. Albans, who occupied a house close by in St. James's Square. Dean Swift lodged here in 1710, and Strype, in 1720, describes it as a "handsome well-built street." Here lived Holland the printseller, for whom James Gillray, when young, made drawings, and at whose house he lived. At the time of the great Westminster election, when Fox was a candidate, many of his processions were formed in St. Albans Street, in front of the heir-apparent's house. In these demonstrations, the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, and other ladies of 'haut-ton,' took an active part. They were each dressed in a blue riding habit, with tan gloves, and a fox's brush in the hat or bonnet, from which costume they were called the blue and buff squadron. The building of Regent Street was commenced in 1813, 'As the larger part of Regent Street is to the north of Piccadilly, it has been thought better to place it all in this chapter and not to divide it. under the direction of John Nash. He was originally a carpenter employed at the Brighton Pavilion, where he attracted the favourable notice of the Prince of Wales, who gave him the appointment of architect to the Board of Works. With all its faults, Regent Street was an immense improvement to the West End, which had long required such a street. It was intended to have carried it straight down from Portland Place, and the great sewer is so constructed, but owing to a disagreement between Nash and Sir James Langham, the crooked street named Langham Place was built to connect them. Portland Place was not originally a thoroughfare, but was terminated at the south end by Foley House, and at the north end by an open railing looking over the fields towards the New Road. Afterwards, Park Crescent was built, and Upper Portland Place added. It required a bold man to disturb the quiet of the aristocratic inhabitants, who used to promenade the street in déshabille; and Nash would not have succeeded if he had not been backed by his master, the Prince Regent. When Lord Foley built his house he stipulated with the Duke of Portland, the ground landlord, that no other building should be erected on the estate to the north. When buildings were rising all around, the Duke found this prohibition distasteful; but Adams, the architect, helped him out of his difficulty by building Portland Place the width of Foley House. This was in the year 1778. The Quadrant grew out of a change of plan, owing to the erection of the County Fire Office, by Robert Abraham, in 1819, and was by far the most elegant portion of the whole street. It is still a very beautiful street, although shorn of its columns, which gave it so distinctive a character. The view looking down the street has been marred by the intensely ugly roof of St. James's Hall, with its numberless ventilators, which towers over the houses. When the arcade 2 The Builder, 1863, p. 703. 3 Horace Walpole calls it "the most regular square in London." MS. Notes on Pennant, quoted in MILLER'S Fly Leaves, second series, 1855, p. 111. was destroyed, the columns were put up for sale on November 7, 1848, and a few of them sold to private individuals for 77. 10s. each, but the remainder were cleared away without having found a purchaser. They were made of iron, and were cast at the Carron Foundry-each weighed 35 cwt. 18 lbs., and cost thirty-five guineas. Nash purchased the ground on which the Quadrant was built at a very high rate, and was ruined by the undertaking. He inaugurated the reign of stucco, which is now, happily, almost a thing of the past; and some wit, at the time, made the following epigram on his achievement : "Augustus, at Rome, was for building renowned, And of marble he left what of brick he had found; He finds us all brick, and leaves us all plaster.* On the west side of Regent Street are two chapels, which add to its architectural effect. The one in the upper portion of the street is now called Hanover Church, and was built by the late Royal Academician Cockerell, in imitation of the Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene, at a cost of 16,180l. It was consecrated on June 20th, 1825. Ruskin is unnecessarily severe upon the pillars of the portico, which, from the introduction of fillets between the rolls of the base, he says, "look as if they were standing on a pile of pewter collectingplates." St. Philip's Chapel, built after the designs of Sir William Chambers, by G. S. Repton, is a copy of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, also called the Lantern of Demosthenes, at Athens. Owing to the position of the chapel, the altar has been placed at the west end, instead of the east. All Souls' Church, in Langham Place, although nicknamed the "extinguisher church" from its odd steeple, looks well, and forms a finish to the upper part of the street, but its effect has been injured by the erection of the "Langham Hotel," which has completely overshadowed it. Quarterly Review, vol. xxxiv. (1826) p. 193. In the lower part of Regent Street Nash built two houses, with a courtyard in front; of these he kept the south one for himself. The gallery, which is now occupied by the Gallery of Illustration, was a very beautiful room when the house was in his possession. After Nash left the house, Rainey, the auctioneer and estate agent, took it. It was during his tenancy that the plans and models for the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square were exhibited. The Gallery of Illustration succeeded the auction-room, and the favourite moving dioramas of the Overland Route and Ocean Mail were exhibited here. The Gallery has still retained its name under the succeeding reign of light drawing-room comedy and vaudeville, which Mr. and Mrs. German Reed and Mr. John Parry have made peculiarly their own. The other house was formerly occupied by the "Parthenon Club," and has lately been the temporary home of the "New Carlton Club." Sir Robert Thomas Wilson lived at No. 18 in the years 1822-29. This celebrated general incurred the displeasure of the Prince Regent by the part he took in the escape of Lavalette, in 1815; and was dismissed from the army for his conduct at the funeral of Queen Caroline, in 1821. He was, however, soon reinstated in his position. The foundation-stone of the present "Junior United Service Club-house," at the corner of Charles Street, was laid on March 29, 1855, by the Earl of Orkney, on which occasion he used the same mallet as that employed by Charles II. to lay the foundation of St. Paul's. This mallet was presented by Sir Christopher Wren to the "Masonic Lodge of Antiquity," of which he was grand-master. The building, which is faced with Bath stone, was erected by Messrs. Nelson and Innes, architects, at a cost of about 50,000l. The former mansion, which stood on the same ground, was raised as a portion of the general design of Regent Street, when it was originally built, and was first occupied by the "Senior United Service Club." Waterloo Place, which forms the lower part of Regent Street, is one of the handsomest openings in London. The Guards' Memorial, consisting of the figures of three Guardsmen, surmounted by the statue of Honour by J. Bell, was erected in 1859-60. Nash proposed to place here a fountain, surrounded by columns, and covered with a dome, but he was perhaps fortunately overruled in his design. On returning to Piccadilly, we come to Air Street, which was in existence in the year 1659, when, according to Mr. Cunningham, it was the most westerly street in London. Piccadilly Place is a short passage of no interest, leading into Little Vine Street, where was the studio of the once famous statuary Scheemakers, in which Joseph Nollekens was placed in his thirteenth year. The Watch-house was pulled down in 1868, and is now being rebuilt on a much larger scale. Swallow Street was named from Swallow Close, a part of the Crown lands granted to Lord Chancellor Clarendon. It was formerly a long street, extending from Piccadilly to Glasshouse Street, and then up to the Oxford Road, but the greater part of it was included in the present Regent Street. Major Foubert, in Charles II.'s reign, moved his Riding Academy from the Military-yard, behind Leicester House, where it had been founded by Henry Prince of Wales, to Swallow Street, opposite where Conduit Street is situated, and his name is still retained in Foubert Passage, Regent Street. A small portion of the upper end of Swallow Street, by Oxford Street, still remains as Swallow Passage, and Swallow Place. The Presbyterian Chapel in this street is one of the oldest Scotch Meeting-houses in London. It was founded early in the eighteenth century, by the Rev. James Anderson, who purchased the chapel from a congregation of French Protestants, that had occupied it since 1692. Mr. Anderson petitioned the Lords of the Treasury for a new lease in 1729, which was granted, and the report of Phill. Gybbon, SurveyorGeneral, dated April 25th, 1729, on the petition, is printed in the Notes and Queries for January 19th, 1856. Gwynne proposed, in his London and Westminster Improved (1766), to widen Swallow Street, so as to terminate well with St. James's Church. Near Sackville Street, and in Piccadilly, was Maggot's |