street having been previously erected in the reign of Queen Anne. Even as late as seventy years since, the north side of Great Ormond Street commanded views of Islington, Hampstead, and Highgate. In this street, at No. 49, resided the celebrated physician, Dr. Mead, and here he kept his fine collection of books, drawings, medals, and antiquities. He died here in 1754. In this street also resided the scholar and divine, Dr. George Hickes, who died in 1715; Robert Nelson, the author of the "Fasts and Festivals," who died at Kensington, the same year; Dr. Stukeley, previous to his removal to Queen Square; Dr. John Hawkesworth; and Lord Chancellor Thurlow, of whom the latter resided at No. 45.

From Great Ormond Street we pass into Queen Square, which, having been principally built in the reign of Queen Anne, was named in honour of that sovereign, and has still her statue in its centre. Here lived and died the indefatigable, but somewhat fanciful antiquary, William Stukeley, who held the neighbouring living of St. George the Martyr. The death of the amiable old man was characteristic of his blameless life. He had a favourite country house at Kentish Town, to which he was in the habit of paying frequent visits. Returning from thence," says his biographer, Collinson, "on Wednesday, the 27th of February, 1765, to his house in Queen Square, according to his usual custom, he lay down on his couch, which his housekeeper came and read to him; but some

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occasion calling her away, on her return, he, with a cheerful look, said, 'Sally, an accident has hap

pened since you have been absent.' Pray what is that sir? No less than a stroke of the palsy! She replied, 'I hope not sir,' and began to weep. 'Nay, do not trouble yourself,' said he, 'but get some help to carry me up stairs, for I never shall come down again but on men's shoulders.' Soon after his faculties failed him; but he continued quiet and composed, as in a sleep, until Sunday following, the 3rd of March 1765, and then departed, in his seventy-eighth year, which he attained by his remarkable temperance and regularity." By his own wish, expressed in his lifetime, he was buried in a particular spot in the churchyard of West Ham, Essex. He desired that the turf might be laid smoothly over him, but that no monument should point out his grave.

Another eminent person who resided in Queen Square, was the learned physician, Dr. Anthony Askew, who formed here his rare and valuable collection of books, which at his death, in 1784, sold for 5,000. In this Square, Alderman Barber, the printer, died in 1741; here Jonathan Richardson, the painter, breathed his last, in 1745, at the age of eighty, and here his son, "the younger Richardson," died in 1770. Dr. Johnson mentions his frequent visits to John Campbell, the author of "The Lives of the Admirals," at the residence of the latter, in Queen's Square. "I used to go pretty often to Campbell's, on a Sunday evening, till I be

gan to consider the shoals of Scotchmen who flocked. about him might probably say, when anything of mine was well done, 'Ay, ay, he has learned this of CAMMELL.'"* Campbell's residence was at the north-west corner of Queen Square, and here he died in December 1775. In Queen Street, Bloomsbury, George Vertue, the engraver, was residing in 1712. Campbell, Jonathan Richardson, and his wife, and Robert Nelson, lie buried in the churchyard of St. George the Martyr. Here, also, were interred the celebrated Nancy Dawson, who died at Hampstead, in May 1767; Edward Dilly, the bookseller, and friend of Dr. Johnson; and the late Zachary Macaulay. This church, which is otherwise as uninteresting as it is unsightly, was built in 1706, and was constituted a parish church in September 1723.

From Queen Square let us pass into Southampton Row, where we find Gray, the poet, lodging at one period, at a Mr. Jauncey's, in the same house which had previously been occupied by Dr. Warton. The space between Southampton Row and Montague Street, occupies the site of the fair gardens of Southampton House. This princely mansion extended along the whole of the north side of Bloomsbury Square, with a spacious court-yard in front, towards Holborn, and in the days of Charles the First and Second, was the princely residence of the Wriothesleys, Earls of Southampton, after their removal from their old mansion above Holborn * Croker's " Boswell," p. 142. Ed. 1848.

Bars. The spot recals many interesting associations. Here, "at his house near Holburne, in the suburbs of London," breathed his last, in 1667, the wise and virtuous Thomas Wriothesley, the last Earl of that ancient race, who, as the faithful friend and upright minister of Charles the First, played so prominent a part at the closing period of that unhappy reign. Here, too, passed the childhood of that tender wife and heroic woman, Lady Rachael Russell,

that sweet saint who sat by Russell's side;

and here, after her marriage to Lord Russell, she spent the happiest years of her life. Her devotion to her ill-fated lord, the personal assistance which she rendered him at his trial, their agonizing interviews in the Tower, her heroic calmness at their last parting, and her passionate bursts of grief when all was over, and when she had no longer to dread that her tears might unnerve her beloved one, are well known and are among the most touching passages in history. When Lord Russell, on the day of his death, was led from the Tower to the place of execution, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, he lifted up his eyes, as he passed, to the windows of Southampton House; his thoughts reverted to the many happy hours which he had passed within its walls, and for a moment he felt the bitterness of death. Tears, the only ones he had shed, rushed involuntarily into his eyes; but he hastily brushed them away, and in a few moments had returned calmly to

those devotions, from which only the most touching memories could have led him to wander. Lady Russell passed many years of her widowhood in Southampton House, and from hence many of her interesting letters are dated. Southampton House, after her death, became the property of the Dukes of Bedford, on which it changed its name to Bedford House. Evelyn inserts in his "Diary," 9th February 1664-"Dined at my Lord Treasurer's, the Earl of Southampton, in Bloomsbury, where he is building a noble square, or piazza, a little town. His own house stands too low. Some noble rooms, a pretty cedar chapel, a naked garden to the north, but good air." It was in the fields behind Southampton House that, in the reign of William the Third, the London gallants were in the habit of settling their disputes with the sword. The old mansion was taken down at the commencement of the present century, when the north side of Bloomsbury Square was erected on its site. In Southampton Street, running from Bloomsbury Square into Holborn, Colley Cibber informs us that he first saw the light, on the 6th of November 1671.

Bloomsbury, originally called

Southampton

Square, derives its name from the manor and village of Lomesbury, or Bloomsbury, now occupied by the square and its surrounding streets. At Lomesbury, when it was a retired village, our early monarchs had a large establishment for their horses and hawks; and we believe that, as late as the