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ST. JAMES'S STREET.

ST. JAMES'S STREET.

CLUBS.-COLONEL BLOOD. COCOA TREE TA

VERN. THATCHED HOUSE.-DEATH OF GIBBON.-BYRON.

ST. JAMES'S STREET, styled in 1670, the "Long Street," appears to have grown into a regular street between the last days of the Protectorate and the early part of the reign of Charles the Second; and, it is almost needless to add, derived its name from the neighbouring palace of St. James's. It has continued, almost from the days of the merry monarch to the present time, to be the nucleus of fashionable society, and the lounging-place of the witty and the gay. In the days of Queen Anne, it was scarcely less celebrated for the gifted society which frequented its exclusive chocolate-houses, than it is at the present time for the fashionable clubs which are its principal characteristics;-the latter, unfortunately, preserving the worst qualities which distinguished the society of the last century, without either the dignity of its talent, or the fascination of its wit.

It is rather remarkable, that two of the most fashionable clubs of our own time, the "Cocoa Tree," and "White's,"-should have sprung from

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the "Cocoa Tree Tavern," and "White's Chocolate House" of the reign of Queen Anne. The former, -the favourite resort of George the Fourth when Prince of Wales, has only ceased to exist within the last few years, while White's has recently acquired a second youth. Even as late as 1745, we find, by the correspondence of the day, that the latter still continued to be called "White's Chocolate House."* Could we fortunately obtain proper materials, there would be no social history more curious or more amusing than that of White's Club, from the days of Addison and Swift, to those of Lord Alvanley and Brummel.

The first event of any interest connected with St. James's Street, is the seizure of the Duke of Ormond's person by the notorious Colonel Blood, on the night of the 6th of December, 1670. The Duke, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had executed some of Blood's accomplices who had been engaged in a treasonable design of surprising Dublin Castle, and, in revenge for this act, Blood expressed his determination to seize the Duke's person, and hang him at Tyburn. Accordingly, on a dark night, as the Duke was returning from an entertainment in the city, and was passing the bottom of St. James's Street, at the end of which, facing the palace, stood Berkshire, afterwards Cleveland

* A letter from Dr. Newton to George Selwyn, dated 10 December, 1745, is addressed to him at " White's Chocolate House, St. James's, London." "Selwyn and his Contemporaries."

House, where he then resided; -the door of his coach was opened, and he was dragged out by Blood and five of his associates, and mounted on horseback behind one of the party. The Duke, as usual, was attended by six footmen. It was the general custom of the time for these persons to hang behind the coach of their master, but his Grace, willing to spare his horses so great an additional weight, had caused iron spikes to be driven behind the cumbrous vehicle, in order to prevent his domestics getting up; a practice which, notwithstanding the present attempt to assassinate him, he continued to the day of his death. The Duke's footmen, therefore, were in the habit of attending him, three by three, on each side of the street; but on the present occasion they were accidentally some distance off when Blood and his associates made their appearance.

In the meantime, the latter, having carefully bound the Duke to their companion, hurried him up St. James's Street in the direction of Tyburn; Blood, it is said, riding on before, for the purpose of adjusting the rope to the gallows. They had proceeded somewhat further than the present Devonshire House, when the Duke contrived to get one of his feet under that of his companion, and though sixty years of age, succeeded in unhorsing him. They both fell in the mud, and had continued struggling on the ground for some seconds, when the Duke's servants, who had been alarmed by the outcries of the coachman, fortunately made

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