riages of passage. Access to the court, whether held at the Tower, Whitehall, or Westminster, was most readily found by means of the Thames. Modern elegance has discovered a more refined (but not more eligible,) method of approaching St. James's. The Tower has happily ceased to be a place of resort with our nobility.

Nearly opposite Southampton Street, is CECIL STREET. Here stood Salisbury House, built by Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, who, to make it commodious for passengers, caused the high street of the Strand to be paved and levelled before the premises. This house was afterwards divided, and went by two names; that called Great Salisbury House, was the particular residence of the earl and his family; the other, called Little Salisbury House, though large in itself, was let out to persons of quality; but a part of the latter being afterwards contracted for, of the then Earl of Salisbury, was converted into Salisbury Street, which being too narrow, and the descent to the Thames being dangerous, it was very indifferently inhabited. Another part, next Great Salisbury House, and over the long gallery, was converted into an exchange, and called The Middle Exchange, consisting of a very large and long room, with shops on each side, which, from the Strand, extended as far as the river, where was a handsome flight of stairs for the purpose of hiring boats. By some unlucky chance, however, the exchange obtained the name of The Whore's Nest, consequently the shops were deserted, and the whole went to decay. The estate reverting to the late earl, he took the whole down, and on the site formed Cecil Street.* The liberty of the duchy of Lancaster

ends

Mr. Moser thinks that Salisbury House had been of very ancient origin, from the following circumstances: among the large possessions granted to Walter d'Evereux, Earl of Rosmar, in Normandy, the estates belonging to the family in Wiltshire, were, perhaps, the principal; but this favourite had grants in other places, which descended to his son, Edward, surnamed of

Salisbury,

ends at the east side of this street.*

Salisbury Street has been

rebuilt from an elegant plan of Mr. Paine; and is at present a convenient and well-inhabited place, terminated by a circular railing to the Thames.

Durham House.-Anthony de Bee, bishop of that see in the reign of Edward I. built the town residence of him and his successors, called Durham Place, in the Strand, where, in 1540, was held a most magnificent feast, given by the challengers of England, who had caused to be proclaimed in France, Flanders, Scotland, and Spain, a great and triumphant justing, to be holden at Westminster, for all comers that would undertake them. But P 3 both

Salisbury, and probably became attached to the title, of which this mansion, long distinguished by the epithet of Salisbury House, might form a part. It is here unnecessary to trace this unfortunate and royal line. Margaret, the last of this dynasty, was most barbarously massacred on the scaffold, 1541. The title then lay dormant until 1605, when James dignified with it Robert Cecil, second son of that great statesman, Sir William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who, for his prudence and sagacity, had obtained one equally honourable, being called the English Nestor.-Moser's Vestiges, in Europ Mag.

It is a curious speculation to consider how, in every age, convenience has been made subservient to property. The abutments of the splendid mansion of Lord Exeter on the one side, and the Gothic gate and flint-wall of the Savoy on the other, narrowed and encumbered the highway of the Strand as much as the Change, and other opposite buildings do at present. Yet when, by pulling down the former, so great an alteration was made, although (from the connexion betwixt the court and the city,) the inconve nience must have been long felt, no measures were taken to remedy it. Coaches were first used in London about 1580, and were gradually increasing; carts and waggons had been long in use in and about the metropolis; therefore the necessity of a wide passage in the avenue betwixt the two cities was hourly apparent. Of this so early as the reign of Edward the Sixth, the Protector, Somerset, was apprized; as, whatsoever might have been his motive for demolishing the ancient conduit and church of St. Mary, he cer tainly cleared the area before his palace. When Exeter 'Change, the new mart for millinery, clothes, trinkets, hangings, books, &c, was erected to rival, or rather to supplant, "The Burse of Britain," its attractions added greatly to the concourse of people, and consequently of carriages.-Moser's Vestiges, Europ. Mag.

both challengers and defendants were English. After the gallant exploits of each day, the challengers rode to Durham House, where they kept open household, and feasted the king and queen, (Anne of Cleves,) with her ladies, and all the court, but also all the knights and burgesses of the House of Commons; and entertained the Mayor of London, with all the aldermen, and their wives, at a dinner, &c. The king gave to each of the challengers, and his heirs for ever, in reward of his valour and activity, one hundred marks, and a house to dwell in of yearly revenue, out of the lands pertaining to the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. The palace had previously been exchanged to King Henry VIII.; and it was afterwards granted by Edward VI. to his sister, Princess Elizabeth, as her residence during her life; Mary I. however, who probably considered the gift as sacrilegious, granted it again in reversion to the Bishop of Durham.

In the reign of Edward VI. the mint was established in this house, under the management of Sir William Sharrington, and the influence of the aspiring Thomas Seymour, lord admiral, Here he proposed to have money enough coined to accomplish his designs on the throne. His practices were detected; and he suffered death. His tool was also condemned; but, sacrificing his master to his own safety, he received a pardon, and was again employed under the administration of John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland. It afterwards became the residence of that ambitious man; who, in May, 1553, in this palace, caused to be solemnized, with great magnificence, three marriages: his son, Lord Guildford Dudley, with the amiable Jane Gray; Lord Herbert, heir to the Earl of Pembroke, with Catherine, the younger sister of Lady Jane and Lord Hastings, heir to the Earl of Huntingdon, with his youngest daughter, Lady Dudley. Hence also he dragged the reluctant victim, his daughter in law, the Lady Jane Gray, to the Tower, to be invested with regal dignity. In eight short months his ambitions led the sweet innocent to the nuptial bed, the throne, and the scaffold.*

• Pennant.

Durhain

Durham House was reckoned oue of the royal palaces belonging to Queen Elizabeth, who gave the use of it to the great Sir Walter Raleigh. In the reign of Charles I. the premises came into the possession of Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, upon payment of 2001. per annum to the see of Durham. His son took down the whole, and formed it into tenements aud avenues, as it continued till totally demolished to make room for the Adelphi. Part of the stables was covered by The New Exchange, which was built under the auspices of James I. in 1608. The king, queen, and royal family, honoured the opening with their presence, and named it Britain's Burse. It was built on the model of the Royal Exchange, with cellars, a walk, and a row of shops, filled with milliners, sempstresses, and those of similar occupations; and was a place of fashionable resort. What however was intended to rival the Royal Exchange, dwindled into frivolity and ruin, and the site is at present occupied by a range of handsome houses facing the Strand.*

The Adelphi. The estate of Durham Yard having become an unprofitable heap of ruins, was purchased by Messrs. Adams, four brothers, by whose labours Great Britain had been embellished with edifices of distinguished excellence. "To their researches among the vestiges of antiquity," says Mr. Malton,

we are indebted for many improvements in ornamental architecture; and for a style of decoration unrivalled for elegance and P4 gaiety,

• In this structure, when an exchange, sat in the character of a miliner the reduced Duchess of Tyrconnel, wife to Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy of Ire. land, under James II. a bigotted Catholic, and fit instrument of the designs of the infatuated prince, who had created him Earl before his abdication, and afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel. A female, suspected to have been his Duchess, after his death, supported herself for a few days (till she was known and otherwise provided for) by the little trade of the place: had delicacy enough to wish not to be detected; she sat in a white mask, and a white dress, and was known by the name of the The White Milliner.-Penuant.

gaiety, which, in spite of the innovations of fashion, will prevail so long as good taste prevails in the nation."

The building of the Adelphi was a project of such magnitude, and attracted so much attention, that it must have been a period of peculiar importance in the lives of these architects. In this work they displayed to the public eye that practical knowledge and skill, and that ingenuity and taste, which till then had been in a great measure confined to private edifices, and known only by the voice of fame to the majority of those who feel an interest in the art of building. The extreme depth of the foundations, the massy piers of brick work, and the spacious subterraneons vaults and arcades, excited the wonders of the ignoraut, and the applause of the skilful; while the regularity of the streets in the superstructure, and the elegance and novelty of the decorations, equally delighted and astonished all descriptions of people.

"This judgment of the Messrs. Adams, in the management of their plans, and their care in conducting the executive part, deserves great praise; and it must be mentioned to their honour, that no accident happened in the progress of the work, nor has any failure been since observed; an instance of good fortune which few architects have experienced when struggling with similar difficulties. This remark will make very little impression on the careless observer who rattles along the streets in his carriage, unconscious that below him are the streets, in which carts and drays, and other vehicles of business, are constantly employed in conveying coals, and various kinds of merchandize, from the river to the consumer, or to the warehouses and avenues

:

inaccessible to the light of day but he who will take the trouble to explore these depths will feel its force; and when he perceives that all the buildings which compose the Adelphi, are in front but one building, and that the upper streets are no more than open passages, connecting the different parts of the superstructure, he will acknowledge that the architects are entitled to more than common praise."

The