Chapter II: Part 2

Mill Lane was formerly Shoot-up-Hill Lane, a name now absorbed by a portion of the northern road into which it runs on the west. The present name is derived from a mill which stood in the Edgware Road, and was burnt in 1861, owing to the friction caused by the high velocity of the sails in a gale of wind. A building called Kilburn Mill still marks the western end of the lane, though it is in a dilapidated condition, with the windows broken. Mill Lane was widened by the Vestry, and now runs between rows of small houses, all of modern date. At the top of Aldred Road is a big brick building, the Field Lane Boys' Industrial School. At the corner of the same road stood an unpretentious little church, built in 1871; it has been pulled down in the last few years. A little further eastward in Mill Lane is a national school looking rather like a chapel, and then we come to the Green again.

There is little in Fortune Green Lane that calls for comment. On the west side it is completely lined with small new houses. The Green at the top still remains open for the geese to hiss and cackle over at their will. The Hampstead cemetery lies on the north. This consists of about 20 acres of land, and two-thirds of it was consecrated by the Bishop of London in 1876, the remainder being left unconsecrated. A smooth drive runs down between close-shaven turf, and is lined by rows of singularly uniform monuments, of which two-thirds are in the form of marble crosses. The chapel, with its two wings for Church of England and Nonconformists, connected by a pointed spire and tower, stands across the central drive as an archway. There is a different kind of fascination in this well-kept, quiet spot from that derived from the irregularity of sloping Highgate or the monstrous tombs and overpowering vaults at Kensal Town. There are many persons buried here whose names are known to those of their own country and time, but none of any world-wide note. Maas the singer is perhaps the most important among them. We have now commented on the principal parts of the ward, except the great eastern and western roads by which it is bounded.

Finchley Road bounds the borough on the west. Beginning at Swiss Cottage, we recall the fact that Hood died in a house near the present railway-station which is now pulled down. The first building that strikes the eye is New College, for Nonconformists, a big stone edifice standing on a green lawn behind a row of small trees. On the opposite side, further northward, building operations are taking place on a large scale. On the west side again is Trinity Church, date 1872, a small church of ragstone with red-tiled roof. We travel much further on before arriving at any other feature of interest, passing Finchley Road Station and the shops gathered in the vicinity, also the Hampstead Public Library, a big building at the corner of Arkwright Road. Hampstead was comparatively slow in adopting the Public Library Act. The site for its library was acquired from Sir Maryon Wilson, and the stone was laid by Sir Henry Harben, who had given £5,000 for the erection of the building. Five branch libraries are established in connection, and the main one is chiefly for reference. This was opened in 1897. Further on, we pass on the east numerous rows of red-brick houses, and on the west the fields and meadow-lands still open.

Then we come to a huge red brick building with terra-cotta facings; this was founded in 1866, and is intended both as a college and seminary. It belongs to the Congregationalists, and their chapel attached is of the same materials, and was founded in 1894. Another well-known institution is Westfield College for ladies, which stands in Kidderpore Avenue on the rising ground to the west of Finchley Road. The front of the house, in which the entrance is, is an old building called Kidderpore Hall, and to this the large modern wing inhabited by the students was added in 1890. The work is for the London Degrees in Arts and Sciences. There are forty-five students, and each one has two rooms, a larger allowance than is made at Girton. Through the fields, beyond the cemetery, a winding footpath takes us over the railway into the Edgware Road.

The part of the road which goes by the name of Shuttup Hill or Shoot-up-Hill deserves some comment. The Knights Templars anciently held an estate here of which the origin is obscure. At the Dissolution King Henry seized it, and handed it over to the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. But their turn was to come also. In 1540 the King despoiled them, and gave Shoot-up-Hill to Sir Roger Cholmeley. At a later date we find that this and the estate at Kilburn were vested in the same holder, Sir Arthur Atye and Judith his wife.

There is very little to remark on in this hill. A few of the houses on the west are not aggressively modern, but those on the east are all startlingly new. St. Cuthbert's Church, built in 1887, stands at the end of St. Cuthbert's Road.

Howitt derives the name of Kilburn from Kule-bourne or Coal-brook. The earliest mention of this locality is when one Godwyn, a hermit, retired here in the reign of Henry I., and "built a cell near a little rivulet, called in different records Cuneburne, Keelebourne, Coldbourne, and Kilbourne, on a site surrounded with wood." This stream is the same which passed southward to the Serpentine, and empties itself into the Thames at Chelsea, called in its lower course the Westbourne.

Between 1128 and 1134 Godwyn granted his hermitage to the conventual church of St. Peter, Westminster. The Abbot, with the consent of the convent, gave it to three pious maidens, Emma, Gunhilda, and Cristina, who are said to have been maids of honour to Queen Matilda. They were to live here, and Godwyn was to be master warden, and on his death they were to choose some staid and senior person to fill his place. It is to be gathered that the maidens were bound to celibacy, though no particular monastic rule seems to have been enjoined. In the ensuing years there were jealousies between the Bishop of London and the Abbot of Westminster, who both claimed jurisdiction over the Priory. The Pope, in 1224, who arbitrated, gave the award in the Abbot's favour, but the Bishop appealed to the Bishops of Rochester and Prior of Dunstable, and, as they were on his side, he calmly assumed authority. The Priory was enriched by various grants and privileges, and its devotees increased in number. At the dissolution of the monasteries the King gave it to the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem in exchange for some lands he wanted. But in 1540 he wrested it from him, and regranted it to Robert, Earl of Sussex. As has been mentioned above, Kilburn eventually came into the same holding as Shoot-up-Hill.

A sketch of the Priory as it remained in 1772 is still extant, and shows a little barn-like building with exterior buttresses and gable-ends. Needless to say that no trace of it now remains, though its memory is perpetuated in the names of Priory, Abbots, and Abbey Roads.

When the foundations for the London and North-Western Railway were dug in 1850 various relics were found--tessellated tiles, human bones, and a bunch of old-fashioned keys, etc.--which pointed to the fact that the Priory had stood on that site. This spot is still pointed out not far from Kilburn Station, close by the place where Priory Road goes over the railway. It is a most uninteresting spot at present, with dull respectable middle-class shops leading up to it.

A legend of Kilburn given in Timbs' "Romance of London" may be alluded to here. It states that at "a place called St. John's Wood, near Kilburn," there was a stone stained dark-red with the blood of Sir Gervase de Mertoun, who was slain by his brother, who had become enamoured of his wife. Gervase, with his dying breath, exclaimed: "This stone shall be my deathbed!" The brother Stephen suffered remorse for his crime, and ordered a handsome mausoleum to be erected to his victim's memory, which was to be built of stone taken from the quarry where the murder was committed. As the eye of the murderer rested on a certain stone, blood was seen to issue from it. This completed the murderer's horror and remorse; he confessed his fault and died shortly after, leaving his property to Kilburn Priory.

Kilburn Wells became famous about the middle of the eighteenth century, and soon rivalled those of Hampstead as a place of entertainment. Even so late as 1818 they were a favourite resort for Londoners.

The High Road at Kilburn, continuing in a straight line into Maida Vale and the Edgware Road, is the old Watling Street of the Romans.

As a street it possesses little interest. Lines of modern red-brick buildings with shops on the ground-floor form the main part of it, and further south the shops are smaller, the buildings more irregular.

In the remainder of the ward pleasant rows of moderate-sized houses with small trees growing before them form the majority of the streets.

In Priory Road is St. Mary's Church, a fine stone edifice in the Gothic style, dating from 1857. Behind this are open fields, rapidly being encroached upon by the builder.

In Quex Road there is a large Wesleyan chapel with a big portico, close by a Roman Catholic church with high-pitched roof, which instantly recalls the Carmelite Church at Kensington; the architect was the same, Pugin. It was built in 1878, and inside is lofty and light, with polished gray granite pillars supporting the roof.

A slight account of the Manor of Belsize has been given above (see p. 2). The manor-house stood about the site of the present church, St. Peter's, and Rocque's map of 1745 shows it in the middle of very extensive grounds surrounded by fields. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the house was a place of public entertainment. In some newspaper cuttings from the _Daily Post_, date 1720, we read that the "ancient and noble house" had been fitted up for the entertainment of ladies and gentlemen during the whole summer season, and was to be opened with "uncommon Solemnity of Dancing and Music." Among the entertainments mentioned are the Park, Bowling Green, and Fish Ponds. The latter were stored with the "best of Carp and other Fish," and the company might amuse themselves by angling or catching them with nets, when they should be "dressed to perfection." We hear also that the Park was well stocked with deer, and in August, 1721, a notice was issued. "Besides the usual Diversions, there is to be a wild Fox Hunted To Morrow, the 1st inst., to begin at four a clock." One hundred coaches could stand in the square of the house, if we may trust the advertiser, and "Twelve men will continue to guard the Road every night till the last of the Company are gone." There was a satirical poem called "Belsize House," published in 1722, showing that the house had earned a bad reputation. Belsize Avenue, Park Gardens, and Buckland Crescent are all built over the property. There is a tradition that the house was the private residence of the Right Hon. Sir Spencer Perceval, when it ceased to be a place of amusement in 1745. In 1841 the place was demolished, and the site transformed as we now see it.

Belsize Lane is very old, being marked between hedges in Rocque's 1745 map, and shown as leading to the grounds of the manor-house. Baines says that about 1839 "Belsize Lane was long, narrow, and lonesome; midway in it was a very small farm, and near thereto the owner of Belsize House erected a turnpike gate to demonstrate his rights of possession."

The lane at present boasts a few shops and modern red-brick houses, but it is greatly bounded by high garden walls, and the gardens reaching from the backs of the houses in Belsize Avenue.

Belsize Avenue is a park-like road, from which on the south side stretch the meadows of Belsize Park. Large elm-trees of great age throw shade across the road, and seats afford rest to those climbing the ascent to Haverstock Hill. Up to 1835 a five-barred gate closed the east-end and made the road private.

In Belsize Square stands the Church of St. Peter, with a square pinnacled tower. This was consecrated in 1859, and the chancel added some seventeen years later. It is in the decorated style of Gothic, and has a row of picturesque gable-ends lining the north-east side.

Belsize and Buckland Crescents and Belsize Park Gardens are all in the same pleasant villa-like style, with trees and bushes growing beside the roadway, but their chief claim to interest lies in their association with the old manor-house.

The southern part of this ward is still more modern than the above, the greater part having been built over since 1851. Eton Avenue is lined by prettily-built, moderate-sized houses of bright red brick alternating with open spaces yet unbuilt on.

The north-eastern corner of the ward, including Eton Road, Provost Road, Oppidans Road, College Road, and Fellows Road, is made up of medium houses, many covered with rough stucco, and with a profusion of flowering trees and bushes in the small gardens. This section of the parish might well be part of some fashionable and fresh watering-place. At No. 6, Eton Road lived Robertson, author of "Caste" and other plays. St. Saviour's Church, built of ragstone, is at the corner of Eton and Provost Roads; it is in Early English style, consecrated 1856.

Fellows Road runs into Steele Road, near the end of which, on Haverstock Hill, is the Sir Richard Steele public-house. These names commemorate a real fact. Sir Richard Steele had a cottage on Haverstock Hill, of which prints are still extant. They show a funny little square, barn-like building with pent house-roof, set in the middle of fields and surrounded by trees. With a vividness of detail that does more credit to his imagination than his eye the artist has depicted St. Paul's Cathedral in the not very far distance!

England's Lane in 1839 was bounded on the south side by palings and a wall, and on the north side by low palings and a ditch full of water.

Three houses there were in it, Chalcots, North Hall, and Wychcomb. In a view of the lane in 1864 we see a leafy country road with fine timber growing over it. The lane at present is chiefly lined by shops, though there are a few private houses.

In the Upper Avenue Road stands a large brick building with stuccoed facings; it is the institution of the Society for Teaching the Blind, founded in 1838. In 1840 certain industrial occupations were added to the tuition in reading, which had been the primary object of the foundation. After moving to several localities in succession, in 1847 the present site was obtained. In 1864 the building was enlarged, and external workshops have since been added. The institution is entirely supported by voluntary contributions, though a few paying pupils are admitted. The pupils are taught any industrial trade which may support them in after-life, such as piano-tuning, knitting, chair-caning, basket-making, as well as the usual branches of a useful education. They are admitted at any age under eight, and leave at twenty-one if men, and twenty-four if women. There are day-scholars in attendance as well as those resident in the house.

In Winchester Road are a few shops and St. Paul's parochial schools. Where Eton Avenue and Adamson Road join there is the Hampstead conservatoire of music, a large brick building.

Professor Hales suggests that the word Haverstock in Haverstock Hill may come from "aver," the Low Latin _averia_ meaning cattle. He says that, as in Rocque's map Pond is Pound Street, perhaps a cattle pound stood here. The hill is at present a toilsome ascent, but most picturesque; masses of shady trees in the grounds of Woodlands and Hillfield hang over the seats placed for wayfarers, and on the east side, in spring, bushes of flowering lilac or laburnum soften the picturesque red tiles and bricks of the well-built modern houses. Here and there a small row of shops forms a straight line, but between them the villa houses are dotted about at any angle.

Of public buildings or institutions on the hill there are not many. The Borough Hall, a red-brick building in the Italian style, stands at the corner of Belsize Avenue. It was built in 1876, and first used for the Cambridge Local Examination for Women.

Further up on the other side is St. Stephen's Church, which differs very much from the ordinary church of the last half-century. It stands well, surrounded by an enclosure of green grass, on a spot formerly called Hampstead Green. The best view is obtained from Lyndhurst Road. Just below it is the entrance to the immense buildings of the North-Western Hospital. The brick wall encloses a house and front-garden at one time belonging to Sir Rowland Hill. This site was acquired by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1868, and was destined to be used for cases of infectious disease, a plan which provoked the greatest agitation in the parish. In 1870 a severe epidemic of small-pox broke out, and some wards were hastily built in addition to those which had already been used for fever patients. As this was followed by an outbreak of small-pox in the parish, the parishioners very naturally wished the hospital to be removed, but without result. In 1876 another outbreak and a further congregation of patients had the same result, and after a long and protracted fight the inhabitants of Hampstead obtained a verdict preventing the Asylums Board from using the hospital for small-pox, though fever cases were not prohibited. In 1882 a Royal Commission inquired into the facts regarding the spread of disease from hospitals, and gave as their decision that thirty or forty patients might safely be treated when a larger number would be injurious to the neighbourhood. The Asylums Board eventually came to terms, agreeing to restrict the hospital cases of small-pox to the number mentioned, to pay the plaintiffs' costs, and an additional £1,000 by way of damages; but they demanded that Sir Rowland's property should be sold to them.

The terms were accepted, and the hospital henceforth was known as the North-Western Hospital. In 1884 another epidemic of small-pox caused them to fill the limited number of beds agreed upon, but as this also was followed by an outbreak of the disease in Hampstead, a fresh appeal was made by the local authorities, and ended in victory, no more small-pox patients being received. The hospital was in full use during the scarlet fever epidemic of 1888.

Close by the entrance to the hospital is an ancient inn, The George. It has been repaired and renovated, but still shows its picturesquely ancient lines. In front of the inn there used to be tea-gardens. A convent of the Sisters of Providence is not far south. Looking up Haverstock Hill from Chalk Farm there is an almost unbroken line of greenery. Moderate-sized houses stand back on either side in their gardens.

The Load of Hay was originally a very old inn, but has been rebuilt recently, and is now a hideous yellow-brick public-house, with date 1863. Just opposite the Load of Hay lived Sir Richard Steele, in a picturesque two-storied cottage, already mentioned. The cottage was later divided into two, and in 1867 was pulled down.

Park Road is a long thoroughfare of no particular interest. At the north end a range of red-brick, wide-windowed buildings attract attention. These are studios, occupied by some of the artists for which Hampstead is famous; among the names perhaps that of W. Q. Orchardson, R.A., is the best known. Beyond are the London Street Tramway Companies stables, and to the north and east we get into a district very poor and slummy for such a fresh, pleasant suburb as Hampstead.

The Fleet Road recalls the Fleet River, which had origin among the hills of Hampstead and flowed down over this course. The hospital wall lines one side of this dreary street. At the upper end, where two or three roads meet, there is a fountain and pump, and this open space is known as the Green and Pond Street. Pond Street seems to have alternately encroached upon and receded from the Green, houses being named in one or the other according to fancy. The street is steep and irregularly built. It was about this site that some of the first houses in Hampstead were built.

On the south-east side of the lane which leads to the hospital Sir Sydney Godolphin Osborne resided. Sir Rowland Hill has been already mentioned. Prince Talleyrand stayed in a house afterwards occupied by Sir Francis Palgrave, and later by Teulon the architect. In the adjoining house was Edward Irving, founder of the sect of that name, and next to him the sculptor Bacon. Collins the artist also lived in Pond Street. In No. 21 there is at present an Industrial Home for Girls.

Adelaide Ward contains very little that is of interest. The streets are all of one pattern, formed of detached or semi-detached villas standing a little back from the road, with small trees growing before them.

The three churches in this part--namely, St. Paul's, Avenue Road; All Souls, Loudoun Road; and St. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill Road--all date from the last thirty or forty years, and are in the same style, built of brick, and requiring no special notice.

Primrose Hill rises to the height of 216 feet in a conical shape, and commands a magnificent view. The earliest name was Barrow Hill, and the name Primrose Hill was first used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it originated, it is said, from the quantity of primroses which grew here. Professor Hales, in an address to the Hampstead Antiquarian and Historical Society, quoted from the "Roxburgh Ballads," printed about 1620:

"When Philomel begins to sing,
The grass grows green and flowers spring,
Methinks it is a pleasant thing
To walk on Primrose Hill."

It was in a ditch on Primrose Hill that the body of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, who was mysteriously murdered, was found in 1678. Soon after Queen Victoria's accession the hill was obtained by the Crown as a public space for the people for ever, the provost and fellows of Eton surrendering their rights in consideration of an exchange of land.

The derivation of the odd name of Chalk Farm was not from any chalk found in the vicinity, but is a corruption of Chalcots, a country house or farm which stood on the south side of England's Lane. Contemporary prints show us a large white house with balconies and pleasure-grounds, for the house was at one time one of the minor tea-gardens in which the North of London seemed particularly rich.

Chalk Farm was a favourite spot for duels in the earlier half of the nineteenth century. The Adelaide Tavern dates from 1839, and facing the spot there was previously a toll-house with turnpike gate.

We have now traversed the length and breadth of Hampstead, finding there much that is picturesque, some few things ancient and many modern; and above all we have experienced some of the charm and freshness of this favoured spot. It is not difficult to see why Hampstead has been so frequently selected as a home by artists--and not by artists alone, but by literary men of all classes. Its natural advantages and its many associations have exercised, and continue to exercise, a fascination which draws men potently, in spite of some drawbacks, not the least of which is its inaccessibility.

MARYLEBONE

The derivation of this name is simple. Lysons says: "The name of this place was anciently called Tiburn, from its situation near a small bourn or rivulet formerly called Aye-brook or Eye-brook, and now Tybourn Brook. When the site of the church was altered to another spot, near the same brook, it became St. Mary at the Bourne, now corrupted to St. Mary le bone or Marybone." There is a possibility that the "bourne" did not indicate the brook, but the boundary of the parish, in which case Marybone would still be a corruption of St. Mary at the Bourne.

The borough of Marylebone is unique in many respects. It contains many well-known and magnificent houses, such as Montagu House, Portman Square; Hertford House, Manchester Square, where is Sir Richard Wallace's collection of pictures and curiosities; Portland House, Cavendish Square; and others. More than two-thirds of Regent's Park are within its boundaries, including nearly all the Zoological Gardens. In some parts of the borough the street lists furnish many titled and famous names; in others are the poorest and most squalid districts, rivalling in misery those of the East End.

Many foreign embassies are located within the parish boundaries. But the most striking characteristic is the great number of hospitals. There are hospitals for special diseases everywhere, besides large institutions which have acquired more than Metropolitan fame.

The ancient Tyburn stream ran right through this district. It rose not far from Swiss Cottage, and ran for a few hundred yards through Regent's Park, across the road at Sussex Place, between Gloucester Place and Baker Street, across the Marylebone Road, then, turning westward under Madame Tussaud's, by South Street to the foot of High Street, passing along close to Mandeville Place, it crossed Wigmore Street and so reached Oxford Street.

The manor of Tyburn is mentioned in Domesday Book among the possessions of the Abbess and Convent of Barking. Early in the thirteenth century it was held by Robert de Vere, whose daughter married William de Insula, Earl of Warren and Surrey, from whom the manor passed to their heirs, the Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel. The Berkeleys, Nevilles and Howards divided three-quarters of it later, and one quarter went to Henry V. as heir of the Earls of Derby.

About the end of the fifteenth century Thomas Hobson bought up the greater part of the manor, and in 1544 his son Thomas exchanged it with Henry VIII. in consideration of lands elsewhere.

The manor remained with the Crown until James I. sold it to one Edward Forset, who had previously held it at a fixed rental under Elizabeth. James reserved to the Crown the tract of land then known as Marylebone, now Regent's, Park. Sir John Austen, Forset's grandson, sold the estate to John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, for £17,500. The Duke of Newcastle's only child, Henrietta, married Edward Harley, who succeeded his father as Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. He carried on his father's collection of books and MSS., and formed what was afterwards known as the Harleian Collection, which was bought by the trustees of the British Museum for £10,000. Henrietta's only daughter, Margaret, married William Bentinck, second Earl of Portland, and thus the estates passed to the Portland family.

In the west was another manor, that of Lyllestone, a name still preserved in the corruption, "Lisson" Grove. This manor is mentioned in Domesday Book among the lands in the hundred of Ossulston. In 1338 it was in the hands of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Sir William de Clyf held it from the knights. In 1512 the then Lord Prior granted a parcel of land out of the manor to John and Johan Blennerhasset on a fifty years' lease. On their decease Chief Justice Portman acquired their interest, afterwards obtaining the land in fee simple, and thus creating the Portman estate. This estate comprised 270 acres. The remainder of Lyllestone Manor included several estates of importance. The St. John's Wood estate was granted by Charles II. to Lord Wotton in discharge of a debt. In 1732 it was bought by Samuel Eyre, after whom it was known as the Eyre Estate.

Another estate lying along the Edgware Road was bequeathed to Harrow School by John Lyon. A third was known as City Conduit Estate. The borough at present embraces the Eyre estate at St. John's Wood, the Baker estate, comprising the poor district to the west of Lisson Grove, the Portman estate, the Portland estate, and other land, including the park held by the Crown.

Beginning our ramble at St. John's Wood Station in the heart of the borough, we find ourselves near the well-known Lord's Cricket Ground. Thomas Lord first made a cricket-ground in what is now Dorset Square, and in 1814 it was succeeded by the present one, which is the headquarters of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the club that gives laws to the cricketing world. Among the most popular matches which take place here are the annual contests between Oxford and Cambridge, Eton and Harrow, when the resources of space are taxed to the utmost. Besides these, during the season, the M.C.C. matches, the Middlesex Club matches, and Gentlemen _v._ Players are played here. Lord's has been increased many times since its inauguration; most recently by a piece of ground, about two acres, which was formerly part of the site of the Clergy Orphanage. This was presented by the Great Central Railway Company in return for the privilege of being permitted to tunnel a corner of the cricket ground.

The extension of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, now known as the Great Central Railway, has completely altered the face of Marylebone. The demolition caused by it extends up the west side of the Wellington and Finchley Roads; but it is further south that the greatest changes have taken place. St. John's Wood Road is itself untouched, the line passing under it.

The part of the parish lying to the west and north contains nothing of any exceptional interest. There are wide roads and well-built terraces, and an air of prosperity that speaks well for the neighbourhood. A Home for Incurable Children, founded in 1873, is near the Maida Vale end of St. John's Wood Road, and in Hamilton Terrace is St. Mark's Church, in modern Gothic style; a Presbyterian church and several chapels are also to be found in this neighbourhood.

Returning to the point from whence we set out, we find St. John's Wood Chapel, which is in the classical style, designed by Hardwicke in 1814. The chapel stands well at the junction of four important roads; its Ionic portico is dignified and suitable to the position. The body of the chapel is covered with ivy, and the windows look down on a large burial-ground, now open as a public garden, which is peculiarly bright and well kept. In it are many fine trees, chiefly willows, which overhang the seats placed for public comfort. The gravestones, which are many, have not been removed, and with few exceptions are of the regular round-topped pattern. In the vault beneath the chapel lies the wife of Benjamin West, P.R.A. In 1833 there had been about 40,000 persons buried in this ground, and it is probable this number was greatly exceeded before the burials ceased. Joanna Southcott was buried here in 1814.

Further north in the Finchley Road All Saints' Church stands up conspicuously. This is a fine church in the Perpendicular style, built in 1846. The chancel was added in 1866, and the tower and spire in 1889. It is really the church of the Eyre estate, and was largely built by the Eyre family. There is in it a beautiful marble font of uncommon pattern, and a pulpit to match.

This part of Marylebone, to the north of Regent's Park, has a High Street of its own--a wide street with comparatively low buildings. The vista, on looking back from the top to the trees of the burial-ground and Regent's Park, is not unattractive. The shops which line either side of the road, though small, are clean and bright. St. John's Wood Terrace is a very wide thoroughfare. In it stands St. John's Wood Church, chiefly distinguished by a very heavy portico. The church is at present used by the Congregationalists, and was formerly known as Connaught Chapel. Just beyond the chapel we come to the St. Marylebone Almshouses. They are built round three sides of a square, and enclose a quadrangle of green grass. The blue slate roofs and drab stuccoed walls form a gentle contrast. The central house, occupied by the superintendent, is fronted by a clock over the Royal Arms.

By the will of Simon, Count Woronzow, dated September 19, 1827, the sum of £500 was left for the poor of the parish of Marylebone, and this sum was given by the Vestry, under certain conditions, to the committee for the proposed erection of almshouses in 1836, to be by them applied to building purposes. Various charitable subscriptions and donations have been added from time to time, until at present the almshouses afford an asylum to about fifty-two single women and eight married couples. The recipients must be of good character, and must have paid rates in the parish of Marylebone for at least ten years, and never received parochial relief. They must be over the age of sixty years. They must have a small weekly sum of their own or guaranteed by a friend. They receive shelter and free firing; the single inmates receive in addition 7s. a week, and the married couples 10s. 6d. The corner houses, in which the rooms are larger, are occupied by the married couples. The central building contains the board-room, lined by the names of generous donors. On the staircase is a bust of Count Woronzow, whose name is also commemorated in the road which runs on the east side of the houses.

The parish extends to within about fifty yards of the summit of Primrose Hill on the south side. At this spot three stones, erect, standing together, mark the point where the three boroughs of Hampstead, St. Pancras, and Marylebone meet. Not far below is a covered reservoir. This spot was formerly known as Barrow Hill, a name supposed to be derived from burials which anciently took place here. St. Stephen the Martyr's Church stands just within the parish boundaries of Marylebone. It is a pretty little Gothic church with a square battlemented tower and triple-gabled east end. It was built in 1849, and restored thirty years ago. The interior of the church is not equal to the exterior. All the roads lying to the north-west are in uniform style, with comfortable modern villa houses.

When the Manor of Tyburn was let to Edward Forset, King James reserved Marylebone Park for the Crown, and it remained in the same keeping until 1646. In that year King Charles I. granted it to two faithful adherents, Sir G. Strode and J. Wandesford, in payment for arms and ammunition which they had supplied to him. In the time of the Commonwealth the park was seized and was sold on behalf of the opposite cause, the proceeds being devoted to the payment of one of Cromwell's regiments of dragoons. At the Restoration it was restored to its former holders, who retained it until the debt due to them was discharged. The park was then let to various leaseholders, the last of whom was the Duke of Portland, whose lease ended in 1811, when the land reverted to the Crown.

The ground was laid out by Nash in 1812, and was named Regent's Park in honour of the then Regent (George IV.), for whom it was proposed to build a palace in the centre of the park, in the spot now occupied by the Botanical Gardens.

Regent Street was designed to form a continuous line between the Palace and Carlton House, near St. James's Park. Nash built all the terraces in the park except Cornwall Terrace, which was the work of Decimus Burton. By a clause in the lease the lessees of the houses in these terraces have to repaint the exteriors in August every fourth year. The broad walk and adjacent flower-beds were laid out and opened to the public in 1838.

The park is about 400 acres in extent. The ornamental water is in shape something like the three legs on a Manx halfpenny. A terrible accident happened here in 1867, when the ice gave way and forty skaters lost their lives; since then the pond has been reduced to a uniform depth of 4 feet. The water for this is supplied by the ancient Tyburn Brook.

South Villa was built about 1836, and an observatory was erected here by Mr. Bishop; this was frequently used by Dawes and Hinde, who here discovered many asteroids and variable stars.

St. Dunstan's Villa was formerly occupied by the Marquis of Hertford, and is of considerable size. It is in the Italian style, and was designed by Decimus Burton, whose name is almost as closely associated with the park as Nash's own. The name of St. Dunstan's arose from the two gigantic wooden figures of Gog and Magog, which the Marquis brought from St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, where they had been since 1671.

A panorama was formerly exhibited in Regent's Park, in a great building called the Colosseum. This was opened in 1829, and attracted crowds of people. It stood on the east side of Regent's Park near Park Square.

Regent's Park Baptist College is established in an old house known as Holford House, from its first owner Mr. Holford.

The building is of great size and stuccoed; within, the central hall, used for prayers, has an ornamental gallery. The domed skylight is of coloured glass, and a huge bronze statue of Bunyan, by Sir E. Boehm, stands on the south side.

The former ballroom, now used for lectures, debates, etc., is a magnificent room, with richly mounted ceiling and walls decorated with plaster work painted to resemble wood. The dining-room is also of great size. The students' studies are at the east and west ends of the building, and the common rooms in the centre. The extreme west wing is let privately, as the whole house is too large for the college requirements.

Regent's Canal was begun in 1812, and was opened August 1, 1820, with a procession of boats, barges, etc. It is in total length 8 miles 6 furlongs, and descends about 84 feet from the beginning to the end.

In Regent's Park there are various enclosed gardens and grounds--namely, the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, and the grounds of the Toxophilite Society. The first of these is too well known to need much description. The Zoological Society originated in 1826, and was incorporated three years later. Sir Humphrey Davy and Sir Stamford Raffles are the two names most closely connected with its foundation. The Gardens were opened in 1828, and contain the finest collection of animals in the world. They are open to the public on payment of 1s. daily and 6d. on Mondays. On Sundays admittance is obtained only by an order from a Fellow.

The Botanical Gardens belong to the Botanical Society, incorporated in 1839 by a Royal Charter. The Gardens fill nearly the whole of what is known as the inner circle in Regent's Park, a space of ground comprising nearly 20 acres in extent, held on a lease from the Crown. These gardens are tastefully laid out, and include a hot-house (covering about 20,000 feet of ground), winter garden, conservatory, special tropical houses, museum and lecture-room, tennis court, and an ornamental piece of water. Entrance is obtained by an order from a Fellow. Exhibitions of plants, flowers, and fruit take place during the spring and summer. The Duke of Teck is the President.

The Toxophilite Society was founded by Sir Assheton Lever in 1781. He had previously formed a museum of curiosities in Leicester Square on the site of the present Empire Music Hall. It was in the grounds of this house that targets were first shot by the Society. When the museum was sold in 1784 the ground was no longer available. It was in this year that an Archers division of the Honourable Artillery Company was formed. In 1791 an archery ground was rented on the east side of Gower Street, on part of which site Torrington Square now stands. In 1805 this ground was required for building purposes. From this date to 1810 there are no authentic records of the Society, and from then until 1821 the records are intermittent. It is probable the Society shot at Highbury. In 1821 Mr. Lord allowed the members to shoot on his cricket ground on payment of three guineas a day. Mr. Waring, who had been Sir Assheton's coadjutor in founding the Society, owned ground in Bayswater to the east of Westbourne Street. He had previously offered this site to the Society, and his offer was eventually accepted. In 1833 the present ground in Regent's Park was obtained. This is about 6 acres in extent and well laid out. It includes a hall with accommodation for members.

The shooting season is divided into two parts: one from the first Thursday in April to the last Thursday in July, and the other from the last Thursday in September to the first Thursday in November. Ladies' days are a feature of the club, and every Thursday between the above-mentioned dates has some fixture or competition. The only rival to the Royal Toxophilite Society is the Grand National Archery Society.

The part of the borough lying to the west of the park has been immensely altered by the new railway. In fact, the greater part of the buildings have been demolished, and the amount of compensation paid to dispossessed owners and leaseholders is said to be unprecedented.

In Blandford Square there is a convent which has survived the general wreck. It was first established near Queen's Square, Bloomsbury, in 1844, and was opened on its present site in 1851.

The House of Mercy is for servants out of work, who do laundry and other work, and so contribute to their own support. There are thirty Sisters, who, besides attending to the home, do much charitable work in teaching and the visitation of the sick.

Dorset Square was built on the site of the original Lord's Cricket Ground. It was made by one Thomas Lord at the end of the eighteenth century, and, as stated above, in 1814 the present ground was substituted, so Dorset Square can claim only a small connection with the famous game. The streets leading northward from Dorset Square are of little interest. In Hill Street is a small Baptist place of worship. In Park Street is St. Cyprian's little church, opened in 1866.

The last house on the east side of Upper Baker Street bears one of the Society of Arts memorial tablets to the memory of Mrs. Siddons, who lived here intermittently for many years. She used to give readings from Shakespeare to her friends in this house, and here in 1831 she died. The house is now called "Siddons House Private Hotel."

In the Marylebone Road, close to the underground station, stands Madame Tussaud's famous waxwork exhibition, the delight of children and visitors from the country. The waxworks were begun in Paris in 1780, and brought to London in 1802 to the place where the Lyceum Theatre now stands, and afterwards were removed to Hanover Square rooms.

On the west side of Park Road are the terraces abutting on Regent's Park. Some of these terraces show fine design, though in the solid, cumbrous style of the Georgian period. Hanover Terrace was designed by Nash, and also Sussex Place, which was named after the Duke of Sussex. The latter is laid out in a semicircle, and is crowned by cupolas and minarets. The houses are very large, and, in spite of fashion having deserted the district, can still show a goodly list of inhabitants.

The district lying to the west of Sussex Grove and Grove Road is the poorest and most miserable in the borough. In Grove Road is a Home for Female Orphans, a large gabled building. The girls are received here at six years of age, and pass on to service when about sixteen. The little village of Lisson Green stood out in the country not far from the great Roman Road, the present Edgware Road (see p. 58), and it formed the nucleus round which houses and streets sprang up. From the Marylebone Road to St. John's Wood Road the streets are poor and squalid, abounding in low courts and alleys. Several great Board Schools in the neighbourhood of Great James Street rise up prominently, and round about them neat lines of workmen's houses are gradually replacing the wretched tenements. The district is still miserable, but it has bettered its notoriously bad reputation of ten or twenty years ago.

St. Barnabas Church, near Bell Street, was built by Blomfield, and is in a kind of French Gothic. Christ Church, in Stafford Street, not far off, is surmounted by a cupola, and built in the classical style. It was the work of P. Hardwick in 1825.

Earl Street is a long, dreary, but fairly respectable thoroughfare. The Marylebone Theatre or Music Hall is in Church Street. This was opened in 1842 as a penny theatre, and enlarged in 1854. In Church Street there is also a Baptist chapel.

Salisbury and Carlisle Streets are indescribably dingy. In the latter is St. Matthew's Church, which has the (perhaps) unique distinction of having been built for a theatre. It was consecrated in 1853, and restored forty years later. Close by the church, between the two streets mentioned above, is the Portman Market. This was opened as a hay-market in 1830, and the year following was dedicated to general uses. The market is still held on Friday every week. Smith speaks of it as bidding "fair to become a formidable rival to Covent Garden," a prophecy which has not been fulfilled. There is another Board School of great size between two miserable little streets on the east, and another a little further north between Grove Road and Capland Street.

Infant, National, and Catholic Schools lie near North and Richmond Streets. One or two of the houses to the north of the latter have still retained a certain cottage-like appearance, a memory of the bygone village. Lyon's Place, a straggling mews, preserves the name of the benefactor who left the estate he had bought here to found Harrow School; and the names Aberdeen, Cunningham, Northwick, etc., are associated with the school.

The Regent's Canal runs under Aberdeen Place. Emanuel Church, a curious little square building with an Ionic portico, was formerly known as Christ's Chapel. It was largely remodelled in 1891, and seats over 1,000 persons. On the interior walls are several memorial tablets.

Edgware Road forms the western boundary of the parish. It is a very ancient road. In the 1722 edition of Camden's "Britannia" we read: "Towards the Northern boundary of Middlesex a military way of the Romans commonly called Watling Street enters this country, coming straight along from the older Verulam to London over Hampstead Heath; not the road which now lies through Highgate, for that, as is before observed, was opened only about 400 [marginal note, 300] years ago by permission of the Bishop of London, but that more ancient way (as appears by the old charters of Edward the Confessor) which ran along near Edgeworth, a place of no great antiquity."

The difficulty of accounting for the entrance of the road at this particular point has been solved in various ways. It has been suggested that a circuit had been made to avoid the great Middlesex forests, but a more likely theory is that it followed this route to avoid the Hampstead and Highgate hills. Edgware was the name of the first town it passed through after the forests of Middlesex.

We have only to deal with the east side of the road at present. This is lined with shops, varying in quality and increasing in size towards the Marble Arch. There are no buildings of importance. The road ends in Oxford Street, the ancient Tyburn Road, a name associated with the direful history of the gallows.

The Tyburn gallows were originally a huge tripod, subsequently two uprights and a cross beam. The site was frequently changed, so that both Marylebone and Paddington can claim the dreadful association. Timbs says that the gallows were erected on the morning of execution right across the Edgware Road, opposite the house at the corner of Upper Bryanston Street. This house has iron galleries from which the Sheriffs watched the execution, and in it after the ceremony the gallows were deposited. Galleries were erected for spectators as at a gladiatorial show, and special prices were charged for special exhibitions. Among the people who suffered at Tyburn, the best known are: Roger de Mortimer, for treason, 1330; Perkin Warbeck, 1449; the Holy Maid of Kent and her confederates, 1534; Robert Southwell, the Elizabethan poet, 1595; Mrs. Turner, murderess of Sir T. Overbury, 1615.

In 1660-61, on the anniversary of Charles I.'s execution, Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were dragged from their graves and hanged at Tyburn, after which their heads were cut off and exposed on Westminster Hall, and their bodies buried beneath the gallows.

Jack Sheppard was hanged here in 1724, and the last person to suffer at Tyburn was John Austin, in 1783. The turnpike gate across the road near the gallows remained until 1825. It was a double turnpike, with gates on both the Edgware and Uxbridge Roads.

The Marylebone Road was at first called the New Road, when it was cut in 1757. The Bill for its making had met with strong opposition in Parliament from the Duke of Bedford. In consequence of his opposition a clause was introduced prohibiting the erection of any building within 50 feet of the road, and the effect of this prohibition is to be seen in the gardens which front the houses.

The new road was later subdivided into the Marylebone and Euston Roads. Beginning at the Edgware Road, the first building on the south side to attract attention is St. Mark's Church, designed by Blomfield. This church is of red brick, and is prettily built and surmounted by a high steeple. The schools form a part of the same building. The consecration ceremony took place on June 29, 1872. A few doors further on are the Christian Union Almshouses, founded in John Street, 1832, and extended to Marylebone Road in 1868. These are supported by voluntary contributions, and are for the benefit of old women or married couples of the parishes of Marylebone, Paddington, or part of St. Pancras. The inmates receive sundry gratuities, coal and lodging, but the eligible must possess not less than 4s. 6d. per week.

A neatly built Roman Catholic church with high-pitched roof stands at the corner of Homer Row. This was built about 1860, and is called the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. The northern side of the Marylebone Road, for the distance traversed, consists of huge red brick flats in the most modern style.

Standing back a little from the road, again on the south side, near Harcourt Street, is Paddington Chapel, for Congregationalists.

Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital and Midwifery Training School comes soon after. This was founded in 1752, and was the third of its kind to be established in London. It was at first situated in Bayswater, and moved to the present site in 1813. In 1809 the Duke of Sussex was elected president for life, and it was he who induced Queen Charlotte to give the hospital her patronage, and to allow it to be called by her name. The Duke was the guiding spirit of the institution until his death in 1843. In 1857 the present building was erected on the site of the older one.

No. 183 is the Yorkshire Stingo public-house, which preserves the name of a celebrated tavern and place of entertainment. From here the first pair of omnibuses in the Metropolis were started on July 4, 1829. They ran to the Bank and back, and were drawn by three horses abreast. The return fare was a shilling, which included the use of a newspaper. A fair was held at the Yorkshire Stingo on May 1 for many years. Close by are the St. Marylebone Public Baths and Wash-houses, which claim the honour of having been the first of the kind in the Metropolis.

The St. Marylebone County Court adjoins. This was erected in 1874-75, when the need for further accommodation than that afforded by the old Court House was felt.