No. 15, which belonged to Sir Philip Francis, was lent to Queen Caroline (1820), and was inhabited by her during the earlier part of her trial. No. 16 was the house of Lord Castlereagh, who lay in state there in 1822. No. 17, the Duke of Cleveland's, is an interesting old house, and contains a fine picture of Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, by Sir Peter Lely. No. 21, in the south-east corner, is Norfolk House, and has been inhabited by the Dukes of Norfolk since 1684. Hither Frederick Prince of Wales, when turned out of St. James's by George II., took refuge with his family till the purchase of Leicester House; and here George III. was born, June 4, 1738, being a seven-months' child, and was privately baptized the same day by Secker, Bishop of Oxford.)

We may notice No. 79, Pall Mall, as occupying the site of the house which was given by Charles II. to Nell Gwynne, described by Burnet as "the indiscreetest and wildest creature that ever was in a court." She lived here from 1671 to 1687. It is still the only freehold in the

street.

"It was given by a long lease by Charles II. to Nell Gwyn, and upon her discovering it to be only a lease under the Crown, she returned him the lease and conveyances, saying she had always conveyed free under the Crown, and always would; and would not accept it till it was conveyed free to her by Act of Parliament made on and for that purpose. Upon Nell's death it was sold, and has been conveyed free ever since."-Granger's Letters, p. 308.

The garden of the house had a mount, on which Nell used to stand to talk over the wall to the King as he walked in St. James's Park.

5 March, 1671.—I walk'd with him (Charles II.) thro' St. James's Parke to the gardens, where I both saw and heard a very familiar dis

course between the King and Mrs. Nellie, as they cal'd an impudent comedian, she looking out of her garden on a terrace on the top of the wall, and the king standing on ye greene walke under it. I was heartily sorry at this scene. Thence the king walk'd to the Duchess of Cleaveland, another lady of pleasure and curse of our nation."Evelyn.

This neighbourhood, so close to the palace, was naturally popular with the mistresses of the royal Stuarts. Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland, and Hortensia Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, both lived at one time in Pall Mall, and Moll Davis in St. James's Square. Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley, mistresses of James II., also lived in St. James's Square.

Nos. 81 and 82 are portions of Schomberg House, buiit for the great Duke of Schomberg, who was killed in his eighty-second year at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and over whose death William III. wept, saying, "I have lost my father."* It was afterwards inhabited by John Astley the painter, who placed the relief over the entrance. He divided the house and after his death the central compartment was occupied by Cosway the miniature painter. Gainsborough lived in one of the wings of the house from 1778 to 1788, and Sir Joshua Reynolds sat to him for his portrait there. It was there also, "in a second-floor chamber," that Sir Joshua was present (July, 1788) at the death-bed of Gainsborough, and heard his last words, "We are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the company." Much of the house has been demolished, but Gainsborough's wing remains.

On the opposite side of the street was the "Star and Garter," where the Literary Club had the meetings which

* Lettres au Roi de Danemark, par Jean Payen de la Fouleresse, 1688—92.

Swift describes in a letter to Stella; and where (Jan. 24, 1765) William, fifth Lord Byron, having a quarrel with his neighbour, Mr. Chaworth, as to which had most game on his estate, challenged him, fought him by the light of a single tallow candle, and gave him a wound which proved fatal the next day, and for which he was tried in Westminster Hall.

On the left is Marlborough House, built (1709-10) by Sir Christopher Wren for the great Duke of Marlborough, on an offset of the Park given by Queen Anne. The Duke died in the house in 1722, and here also died his famous duchess, Sarah,

"The wisest fool that ever Time has made,"

in spite of her retort when told, in her eighty-fourth year, that she must either be blistered or die "I won't be blistered, and I won't die." She kept up the utmost pomp to the last, and talked of her "neighbour George" at St. James's. The bad entrance that still exists testifies to the spite of Sir Robert Walpole, who, when he found the old. duchess desirous of making a suitable approach to her house, bought up the leases of the encroaching houses to prevent her.

The house remained in the Marlborough family till it was purchased for Princess Charlotte in 1817. It was the London residence of Queen Adelaide in her widowhood, and was settled upon Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1850. The saloon still contains a number of very interesting pictures by Laguerre of the victories of the Duke of Marlborough. George IV. made a plan for connecting Marlborough House with Carlton House by a gallery of portraits of the British Sovereigns and historical personages connected with them.

The building which projects into the grounds of Marlborough House, and which is entered from the roadway into the Park on the left of St. James's Palace, is interesting as the Roman Catholic Chapel built by Charles I. for Henrietta Maria, the erection of which gave such offence to his subjects.

The picturesque old brick gateway of St. James's Palace still looks up St. James's Street, one of the most precious relics of the past in London, and enshrining the memory of a greater succession of historical events than any other domestic building in England, Windsor Castle not excepted. The site of the palace was occupied, even before the Con

quest, by a hospital dedicated to St. James, for "fourteen maidens that were leprous." Henry VIII. obtained it by exchange, pensioned off the sisters, and converted the hospital into a fair mansion and park,"* in the same year in which he was married to Anne Boleyn, who was commemorated here with him in love-knots, now almost obliterated, upon the side doors of the gateway, and in the letters "H. A." on the chimney-piece of the presencechamber or tapestry room. Holbein is sometimes said to have been the king's architect here, as he was at Whitehall. Henry can seldom have lived here, but hither his daughter, Mary I., retired, after her husband Philip left England for Spain, and here she died, Nov. 17, 1558.

"It is said that in the beginning of her sickness, her friends, supposing King Philip's absence afflicted her, endeavoured by all means to divert her melancholy. But all proved in vain: and the Queen, abandoning herself to despair, told them she should die, though they were yet strangers to the cause of her death; but if they would know it hereafter, they must dissect her, and they would find Calais at her heart; intimating that the loss of that place was her death's wound.". Godwin.

James I., in 1610, settled St. James's on his eldest son, Prince Henry, who kept his court here for two years with great magnificence, having a salaried household of no less than two hundred and ninety-seven persons. Here he died in his nineteenth year, Nov. 6, 1612.

Upon his death, St. James's was given to his brother Charles, who frequently resided here after his accession to the throne, and here Henrietta Maria gave birth to Charles II., James II., and the Princess Elizabeth. In 1638 the palace was given as a refuge to the queen's mother, Marie de' Medici,

* Holinshed.