Felton, on August 23, 1628, the "superstitious pictures" that had belonged to him were sold by Cromwell's order, and went for the proverbial old song; but the finest were smuggled to Holland and are now in the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna. Cromwell gave the house to his son-in-law, General Fairfax, whose daughter married the second Duke of Buckingham of the Villiers stock; who, by the way, was the author of a book on "Liberty of Conscience," in which he advocated the abolition of penal statutes against Dissenters. Cromwell had no liking for this marriage, and, although the Duke was allowed to reside at Buckingham House, it was only on condition that he never left the place without the Protector's permission. He disobeyed the rule on one occasion and was sent to the Tower for his pains, whereupon his father-in-law Fairfax had a fearful scene with the Protector, as a result of which father and son-in-law never met again. The door and window-" cases" of this house pleased gossip Pepys "mightily." The writer is inclined to believe that in 1672, when "Steenie's flimsy palace was pulled down and the site and gardens were converted into streets, some of the woodwork was saved, and that the spacious Spanish chestnut staircase in the house (12 Buckingham Street) which he has inhabited for many years was once in "Steenie's" mansion. The streets in the neighbourhood bear the names of the last Duke, who kept "tremendous" and quite regal state in York House-George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Of Alley, and Buckingham Street. The witty Earl of Dorset, the eccentric Duchess of Newcastle who founded the Royal Institution, and Harley, Lord Oxford, all resided in the last of these streets. At the left corner, facing the river, Peter the Great spent some months in 1698. The State room is still in perfect condition, and retains its fine stucco ceiling, with a cameo by Verrio representing some mythological subject or other. The doors and windows are surrounded internally by excellent woodcarving. Here William III. came one day to see the extraordinary man, and found the rooms in such disorder, and smelling so foully, that he had perforce to beat a precipitate retreat for fear of being sick. A hundred and forty years later, another Tsar of Russia, Nicholas I., came to Windsor on a visit to 1 Waliszewski's Pierre le Grand, translated by Lady Mary Loyd. Queen Victoria. He refused to sleep on a bed, and insisted on fresh straw being spread on the floor every evening for his accommodation. It was at the door of No. 12 Buckingham Street, according to local tradition, that Voltaire and Rousseau quarrelled and parted never to meet again. Charles Dickens associated his illustrious name with the street in David Copperfield. Stansfield and Etty, the painters, lived at No. 14, and Mr. Pennell now occupies their chambers. At the door of this house the writer shook hands for the last time with his kindly old friend Whistler, the artist of our times who has most nearly approached Velasquez. Black, the delightful creator of so many charming tales, also had rooms in this street; so, too, had the agreeable author of the Prisoner of Zenda, Mr. Anthony Hope; and these are but a few of the celebrities who have dwelt in Buckingham Street since the days of Cromwell and Fairfax ! Immediately beyond York House came Hungerford House, the riverside mansion of the ancient family of Hungerford of Farleigh Castle, Somersetshire. This house was pulled down in Charles the Second's reign, and the site was covered by the once famous market, which was purchased by Sir Stephen Fox and Sir Christopher Wren, who were allowed to receive the "tolls and other profits." The market lasted till the "sixties," when it was demolished to make room for the Charing Cross Station and Hotel. Mention has already been made of a second palace of the Dukes of Suffolk, situated at the Charing Cross end of the Strand, where Brandon and his second wife, Katherine Willoughby, gave a brilliant entertainment to Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, and which, in the course of time, became known to many generations as Northumberland House. Country cousins used to be induced to stop and wait till the famous lion should be pleased to wag his tail! The lion, tail and all, now surveys the Thames from the top of Zion House, Brentford. Beyond this house, in Canon Row, Westminster, was another very fine mansion that once upon a time belonged to Henry, Marquess of Dorset, father of Lady Jane Grey. Many papers relating to Lady Jane and her affairs mention her father's house "at Westminster." It was most probably in the garden and gallery of this mansion, which overlooked the Thames, that she first met and talked theology and philosophy with the Swiss Reformers Büllinger and Ullmer. Here, too, she disputed "so pleasantly" with Roger Ascham and Coverdale, and with her tutor, young Aylmer, all of them much favoured by the Marquess.1 From the strange evidence preserved at Hatfield in connection with the trial of Thomas Seymour, we learn that it was on the terrace of this mansion that the negotiations were carried out which transferred Lady Jane to the wardship of the greatest profligate of his day, for the sum of £500. Mr. Harrington, afterwards one of Elizabeth's favourite secretaries, transacted the business, meeting the Marquess of Dorset, and talking the matter over with him" on his terrace at Westminster, which looks into the Thames." At the close of the sixteenth century, Dorset Place or Court was already divided into three large houses and let to separate owners. In 1689, one of them was inhabited by the philosopher Locke, who dedicated his famous Essay on the Human Understanding, "from Dorset Court." The site was until recently occupied by the Civil Service Commission, now removed to Burlington House, Piccadilly. A little farther down the riverside stood a stern-looking ancient building, surrounding a courtyard, popularly known as "Scotland," which for centuries was the residence of the Scottish Ambassador and occasionally also of such kings and queens of Scotland as were obliged to visit London on political affairs. The "parcel" of land on which this palace stood was given by the Saxon King, Edgar, to Kenneth III. of Scotland, for "the purpose of his making an annual journey to this place to do homage for his Kingdom of Scotland." According to Lambert (History of London, 1806), "in after times it was used by the Scottish Kings when, as Barons of the Realm, they came to do homage for the counties of Cumberland and Huntingdon and other fiefs held by them of the Crown of England." The 1 1 Lady Jane Grey remained with Thomas Seymour at Bath House until his marriage with Queen Katherine Parr, when she came with him to Chelsea to live with his royal bride. After Katherine's death she returned to her father's home at Bradgate, but in less than a month went back to the wardship of Seymour, in London, and remained with him till the day he was taken to the Tower, whence he never returned. Her father came to fetch her, and she went back to Bradgate. last Scottish sovereign to reside here was Margaret, sister of Henry VIII., who lodged in this house after the death of her husband James Iv. on Flodden Field. Stowe says the place was surrounded by a brick wall and was "a very great building.” In Elizabeth's time it was divided into tenements. Milton lived in one of these in 1650, when he was appointed Latin Secretary under the Commonwealth. Inigo Jones also resided in Scotland Yard; and here, early in James the Second's reign, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, brother of George Herbert the poet, was assaulted through motives of jealousy and nearly killed by Sir John Ayres. Beau Fielding, the "Orlando the Fair" of the Tatler, died in Scotland Yard in 1712; and here too, in 1726, Vanburgh the architect and dramatist passed away "in his own house which he had himself designed after the fire at Whitehall Palace in 1697." A part of the site of "Scotland" is now occupied by Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the police force. Not a vestige of the original buildings remain, though early in the nineteenth century a few arches and turrets were still standing. You must no more call it York-place, that's past; But 'tis so lately alter'd that the old name I know it; Henry VIII. Act Iv. Scene 1. WHITEHALL, the chief residence of our kings from Henry VIII. to William and Mary, was an agglomeration of irregular buildings extremely picturesque in effect, though built at various periods without any uniformity of design. The royal apartment and those of the great officers of State, which faced the Thames, looked on to a terraced garden, and occupied the space between the Horseguards' Avenue and the Richmond Terrace of our day. The nucleus of those miscellaneous buildings was a very ancient mansion built by Hubert de Burgh, beloved of Shakespearian students for his generosity in saving poor little Prince Arthur's eyes. He died in 1242, and, being in a penitent frame of mind, left the property to the Black Friars, who sold it in 1248 to Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York. It was the London residence of the See of York until Wolsey's time. That extraordinary man rebuilt much of the old house, added some fine halls and courts, and furnished it fully and sumptuously. It was at a masquerade given by Wolsey at 1 We have mentioned elsewhere the existence in the MSS. department o the British Museum of two large volumes containing an inventory of the |