The great quadrangle (200 feet x 160 feet) was designed by James Gibbs, the architect of the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the first stone laid June 9, 1730, and completed 1770. The gate towards Smithfield was built in 1702, the laboratory in 1793 by George Dance, R.A., and the New Surgery in 1842. The School of Medicine, rebuilt in 1878-1879, is a substantial structure of granite and Portland stone, designed by E. I'Anson. It presents a handsome classic façade to Giltspur Street, a museum, library, class-rooms, and offices. This Hospital gives relief to all poor persons suffering from accident or disease, either as in-patients or out-patients. Cases of all kinds are received into the Hospital, including diseases of the eyes, distortions of the limbs, and all other infirmities which can be relieved by medicine or surgery. Accidents or cases of urgent disease are admitted without any letter of recommendation or other formality at all hours of the day or night to the Surgery, where there is a person in constant attendance, and the aid of the Resident Medical Officers can be instantly obtained. Ordinary cases are admitted any week day between 9 and 10 o'clock. The Hospital contains 676 beds, and relief is afforded to 150,000 patients annually, of whom about 7000 are in-patients, 18,000 out-patients, and 130,000 casual patients, medical and surgical. There are four physicians and four assistant physicians, five surgeons and five assistant surgeons, two accoucheurs, two ophthalmic surgeons, one aural surgeon, four dentists, two chloroformists, and an electrician, with a large staff of clinical clerks and dressers under them. There are 29 sisters and about 130 nurses.

One of the greatest individual benefactors to the Hospital was the celebrated Dr. Radcliffe, who left the yearly sum of £500 for ever towards mending the diet of the Hospital, and the further sum of £100 for ever for the purchase of linen. Original portrait of Henry VIII. in the Committee Room, painted in 1544; Portrait of Dr. Radcliffe, by Kneller; good Portrait of Perceval Pott, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; fine Portrait of Abernethy, by Sir T. Lawrence; Portraits of Sir James Paget and Mr. Luther Holden, the eminent surgeons, by Sir J. E. Millais, R.A. At the foot of the staircase leading to the Great Hall is a good portrait of Edward Colston. In the Great Hall upstairs, over the mantelpiece, is a painting of St. Bartholomew. The Good Samaritan and the Pool of Bethesda, on the grand staircase, were painted gratuitously by Hogarth, for which he was made a governor ; the subjects are surrounded with scrollwork, painted at Hogarth's expense by his pupils.

A complete Convalescent Hospital, which will accommodate 75 patients, has been constructed at Swanley in Kent. It was formally opened by H.R.H. the President, on July 13, 1885, and is called after its founder, Mr. Kettlewell.

Bartholomew Lane, CITY, extends from Throgmorton Street to It was so called from the church of St. Bartholomew,

Lothbury.

behind the Exchange; taken down in 1841, when Sir William Tite's New Royal Exchange was built. The west side is entirely occupied by the Bank of England; the east side by the Sun Fire Office, the Alliance Fire and Life Office, Capel Court, Bartholomew House, and a vast block of offices which covers the site of the once well-known Auction Mart. Capel Court forms one of the entrances to the Stock Exchange. William Sharp, the great line engraver, when his apprenticeship was over, commenced business in this street as a "bright engraver," or engraver of door plates, dog-collars, and the ornamental parts of firearms. A rarity, much prized among collectors, is a plate-"Sharp, Engraver, No. 9 Bartholomew Lane, Royal Exchange, London."

Bartlett's Buildings, HOLBORN CIRCUS, named after Thomas Bartlett, whose property the ground was. Mentioned in the burial register of St. Andrew's, Holborn (the parish in which it lies), as early as November 1615, and is there called Bartlett's Court.

A very handsome spacious place, graced with good buildings of brick, with gardens behind the houses; and is a place very well inhabited by gentry and persons of good repute.-Strype, B. iii. p. 282.

May 13, 1714.-At the meeting of the Royal Society, where was Sir Isaac Newton, the President; I met there also with several of my old friends, Dr. Sloane, Dr. Halley, etc., but I left all to go with Mr. Chamberlayn to Bartlett's Buildings, to the other Society, viz. that for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which is to be preferred to all other learning.-Thoresby's Diary, vol. ii. p. 210.

In July following this society removed to No. 6 Searle's Court, Lincoln's Inn. In Bartlett's Passage, which leads from Bartlett's Buildings into Fetter Lane, Charles Lamb was at school before he went to Christ's Hospital, and there Mary Lamb received the whole of her education. The school was kept by "Mr. William Bird, an eminent writer and teacher of mathematics."

I was a scholar of that "eminent writer." . . . The school-room stands (1825) where it did, looking into a discoloured dingy garden. . . . By "mathematics,” reader, must be understood "cyphering." It was in fact a humble day-school, at which reading and writing were taught to us boys in the morning, and the same slender erudition was communicated to the girls, our sisters, etc., in the evening.Charles Lamb's Captain Starkey.

Mason Chamberlin, R.A., portrait painter, died here in 1787. Mackeril's Quaker Coffee-house, frequently mentioned at the beginning of the last century.-Notes and Queries, Ist S., vol. i. p. 115.

At No. 3 Bartlett's Passage lived John Guy, author of the most popular Spelling Book of the 18th century.

Barton Street, COWLEY STREET, WESTMINSTER, so called after Barton Booth, of Cowley, in Middlesex, the original "Cato" in Addison's play. There is a stone in the wall of the house at the corner of this street and Great College Street with this inscription : "Barton Street, 1722." Much of Booth's property lay in Westminster ; and in the adjoining Abbey is a monument to his memory, erected at the expense of his wife, the mistress of the great Duke of Marlborough,

the "Santlow, fam'd for dance," commemorated by Gay among the friends of Pope. Booth is buried at Cowley.

Basing Lane, BREAD STREET, CITY, was swept away in the formation of Cannon Street. It occupied the space between Bread Street and Cannon Street. In it stood Gerard's Hall [which see].

Basinghall or Bassishaw Ward, one of the twenty-six wards of London, described by Stow as "a small thing, consisting of one street, called Bassings Hall Street, of Bassings Hall, the most principal house, whereof the ward taketh name.' " 1 The same authority adds, "of the Bassings therefore, builders of this house and owners of the ground near adjoining, that ward taketh the name, as Coleman Street Ward, of Coleman, and Farringdon Ward, of William and Nicholas Farringdon, men that were principal owners of those places." Stow is very decided on this point, but there can be no doubt that he is wrong. In the records of the first Edwards, where Thomas de Basinge and Robert de Basinge figure among the first men in the City, the name of the ward is invariably written Bassieshawe. It is tolerably clear, therefore, that the process of corruption has been inverted, and that the confusion arose from the accident of the Basinges family fixing their hall in the ward of the Bassies or Bassets. Mr. Riley has pointed out a record of A.D. 1390, wherein John Prentys and John Markingtone are sentenced to be hanged for burglary in the parish of St. Michael, Bassieshawe, in the ward of Bassingshawe. Thus early had the distinction been created. The church, the only one in the ward, is dedicated to St. Michael, and is called St. Michael Bassishaw [which see]. Sir Dudley North was alderman of this ward.

Basinghall Street [see Basinghall Ward] leads from Gresham Street to London Wall. At the corner next Gresham Street is Gresham College. In the street were the following Halls of Companies: Masons' Hall (now let); Coopers' Hall, pulled down December 1865 and offices built on the site, 1867-1868; and Girdlers' Hall, rebuilt 1681I-1682. Weavers' Hall, No. 22, was pulled down in 1856, and a block of offices, bearing the same name, built on the site. During the past few years several of the great blocks of offices and warehouses, which have become so marked a feature of City architecture, have been erected in this street, notably Gresham Buildings, which contain a hundred distinct offices, Basing Chambers, etc. The east side and entrance of the new Guildhall Library abuts on the street. Here also is the ward church, St. Michael's Bassishaw, the churchyard of which was levelled and opened into the street, January 1866.

In Basinghall Street was the mansion of Sir Dudley North :

:

At length he (Sir Dudley North) found a good convenient house in Basinghall Street, with a coach-gate into the yard, next to that which Sir Jeremy Sambrook used; and there he settled. He had the opportunity of a good housekeeper, that

1 Stow, p. 107.

had been his mother's woman; though some thought her too fine for a single man as he was, and might give scandal, and occasion his habitation being called Bussinghall Street.-North's Lives of the Norths, ed. 1826, vol. iii. p. 101.

Lord Macaulay in his famous Third Chapter says that "Sir Dudley North expended £4000, a sum which would then have been important to a duke, on the rich furniture of his reception rooms in Basinghall Street," and quotes Roger North as his authority. But North expressly states that this money was laid out after "he parted with his house in Basinghall Street, and took that great one behind Goldsmiths' Hall, built by Sir John Bludworth."

At No. 36, then an old-fashioned good house, with a front court and garden, resided Mr. Robert Smith, an eminent solicitor, father of the authors of the Rejected Addresses, both of whom were born in this house, James Smith, February 10, 1775; Horace Smith, December 31, 1779. J. C. Lettsom, the physician and philanthropist, lived for many years in Sambrook Court, Basinghall Street-so called, no doubt, after the Sir Jeremy Sambrook mentioned by Roger North.

Basket-Makers' Company, the 52d of the City Companies, is a Company by prescription and by vote of the Court of Aldermen, September 22, 1569, but has no Charter. A livery was granted the Company in 1825. It has no Hall.

Bassishaw (Ward of.) [See Basinghall Ward.]

Bateman's Buildings, on the south side of SOHO SQUARE, between Frith Street and Greek Street, occupy the site of the mansion of James, Duke of Monmouth. After the execution of the duke in 1685, Monmouth House became the property of Lord Bateman, and was taken down in 1773.1 At No. 10 in Bateman's Buildings lived Raphael Smith, the excellent mezzotint engraver after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1777. The next morning I was punctual to appointment, and posted to Soho Square, where, at the left-hand corner of Bateman's Buildings, I knocked at the door of a fine-looking house, and was ushered into the Library. Seated in cap and gown at breakfast, I there for the first time saw [Colman the Elder] the manager of the Haymarket Theatre, who received me with all the frank good nature of his character. O'Keefe, vol. i. p. 364.

Bateman Street is the name which was given to Queen Street, Greek Street, at the back of Bateman's Buildings, in 1884.

Bath House, PICCADILLY, No. 82, corner of Bolton Street, the London residence of Alexander Baring, first Lord Ashburton (d. 1848), by whom the house was built in 1821, on the site of the old Bath House, the residence of the Pulteneys. William Pulteney, the first Earl of Bath, gave his title to the earlier mansion; but the house was in no way remarkable. It is perhaps best remembered by the epigram "Written on the Earl of Bath's Door in Piccadilly:"

1 There is a view of it by J. T. Smith.

Here dead to fame lives Patriot Will,

His grave a lordly seat;

His title proves his epitaph,

His robes his winding sheet.

Sir C. Hanbury Williams, vol. i. p. 177.

Bath House contains a noble collection of works of art, selected with good taste and at a great expense. The pictures of the Dutch and Flemish Schools comprise the main part of the collection.

THORWALDSEN'S Mercury as the Slayer of Argus. LEONARDO DA VINCI (?) -The Infant Christ asleep in the arms of the Virgin: an Angel lifting the quilt from the bed. LUINI.-Virgin and Child. CORREGGIO (?)-St. Peter, St. Margaret, St. Mary Magdalene, and Anthony of Padua. GIORGIONE. A Girl, with a very beautiful profile, lays one hand on the shoulder of her lover. TITIAN. -The Daughter of Herodias with the head of St. John. PAUL VERONESE.-Christ on the Mount of Olives (a cabinet picture). ANNIBALE CARACCI.-The Infant Christ asleep, and three Angels. DOMENICHINO.-Moses before the Burning Bush. GUERCINO. St. Sebastian mourned by two Angels (a cabinet picture). MURILLO. -St. Thomas of Villa Nueva, as a child, distributes alms among four Beggar boys. The Madonna surrounded by Angels. The Virgin and Child on clouds surrounded by three Angels. Christ looking up to Heaven. VELAZQUEZ.-A Stag Hunt. RUBENS. The Wolf Hunt, a celebrated picture painted in 1612. "The fire of a fine dappled gray horse which carries Rubens himself is expressed with incomparable animation. Next him, on a brown horse, is his first wife, Caroline Brant, with a falcon on her hand."-Waagen. Rape of the Sabines. Reconciliation of the Romans and Sabines. "Few pictures of Rubens, even of his most finished works, give a higher idea of his genius."—Sir Joshua Reynolds. VANDYCK.-The Virgin Mary, with the Child upon her lap, and Joseph seated in a landscape looking at the dance of eight Angels. Count Nassau in armour (three-quarter size). One of the Children of Charles I. with flowers (bust). Charles I. (full length). Henrietta Maria (full length). REMBRANDT.-Portrait of Himself at an advanced age. Portrait of a middle-aged Man. Lieven von Coppenol (the celebrated writing. master) with a sheet of paper in his hand (very fine). Two Portraits (Man and Wife). G. Dow.-A Hermit praying before a Crucifix. "Of all Dow's pictures of this kind, this is carried the furthest in laborious execution."-Waagen. TERBURG.-A Girl in a yellow jacket, with a lute. G. METZU.-A Girl in a scarlet jacket. NETSCHER.-Boy leaning on the sill of a window, blowing bubbles. A. VANDERWERFF.-St. Margaret treading on the vanquished Dragon. JAN STEEN. -An Alehouse, a composition of thirteen figures. Playing at Skittles. DE HOOGHE. A Street in Utrecht, a Woman and Child walking in the sunshine (very fine). TENIERS.-The Seven Works of Mercy. The picture so celebrated by the name of La Manchot. Portrait of Himself (whole length, in a black Spanish costume). Courtyard of a Village Alehouse. A Landscape, with Cows and Sheep. A. OSTADE.-(Several fine.) I. OSTADE.-Village Alehouse. PAUL POTTER.-Cows, etc., marked with his name and the date 1652. Oxen butting each other in play; the Church Steeple of Haarlem at a distance. A. VANDEVELDE. -The Hay Harvest. Three Cows, etc. BERGHEM.-An admirable work. KAREL DU JARDIN.-A Watermill. PHILIP WOUVERMANS. CUYP. WYNANTS. RUYSDAEL. HOBBEMA. W. VANDEVELDE.-"La petite Flotte." BACKHUYSEN. VAN DER HEYDEN.-Market-place of Henskirk, near Haarlem. VAN HUYSUM.Flower Pieces. HOLBEIN.-A Head. SIR JOSHUA Reynolds.-Head of Ariadne.

Bath House, HOLBORN. [See Brook House.]

Bath Inn or Place, WITHOUT TEMPLE BAR. The town-house of the Bishops of Bath and Wells stood on the site of Arundel Street It was taken from Bishop Barlow by the Lord High Admiral Seymour,