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stairs; but I have the use of the parlour to receive persons of quality.-Swift, Journal to Stella.

Alban's (St.) Tavern, ST. ALBAN'S STREET, PALL MALL, in the last century celebrated for political and fashionable dinners and meetings.

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May 3, 1749.—This menace [of the Ministry] gave occasion to a meeting and union between the Prince's party and the Jacobites. . . . They met at the St. Alban's Tavern, near Pall Mall, last Monday morning, one hundred and twelve Lords and Commoners. The Duke of Beaufort opened the Assembly.-Walpole to Sir Horace Mann (Letters, vol. ii. p. 153).

September 9, 1771.-I must tell you of a set of young men of fashion who, dining lately at the St. Alban's Tavern, thought the noise of the coaches troublesome. They ordered the street to be littered with straw, as is done for women that lie in. The bill from the Haymarket amounted to fifty shillings apiece. — Walpole to Mann (Letters, vol. v. p. 334). Brookes' and St. Alban's boasts not, but instead Stares the Red Ram, and swings the Rodney's head.

Crabbe's Newspaper, 1785.

And see Peter Pindar's Ode of Condolence. Albany (The), north side of PICCADILLY, a suite of chambers or dwelling-houses for single gentlemen, established 1804, and let by the proprietors to any person who does not carry on a trade or profession in the chambers. The mansion in the centre was designed by Sir William Chambers, architect, and sold in 1770, by Stephen Fox, second Lord Holland, to the first Viscount Melbourne, who exchanged it with Frederick Duke of York and Albany for Melbourne House, Whitehall.

Lord Holland has sold Piccadilly House to Lord Melbourne, and it is to be called Melbourne House.-Rigby to Lord Ossory, December 6, 1770. The site of the house built by Chambers was previously occupied by Sunderland House [which see]. When the house was converted into chambers, the gardens behind were also built over with additional suites of rooms. Eminent Inhabitants. -M. G. (Monk) Lewis, in No. 1 K; Lewis mentions in his will that these chambers cost him £600. George Canning, in No. 5 A, 1807 and following years. Lord Althorp, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Set No. 2 A. He parted with them in 1814 to Lord

Byron, who here wrote his Lara.

Albany, March 28, 1814.-This night got into my new apartments, rented of Lord Althorp, on a lease of seven years. Spacious, and rooms for my books and sabres. In the house, too, another advantage.-Byron's Journal.

Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton) afterwards occupied the same chambers, and wrote some of his best works in them. Lord Althorp again occupied chambers here, 1820-1830. Lord (then Mr.) Macaulay, Set No. 1 E., second floor.

I have taken a very comfortable suite of chambers in the Albany; and I hope to lead, during some years, a sort of life peculiarly suited to my taste,- -a college life at the west end of London. I have an entrance hall, two sitting-rooms, a bedroom, a kitchen, cellars, and two rooms for servants,-all for 90 guineas a year; and this in a situation which no younger son of a duke need be ashamed to be put on his card.-Macaulay to Mr. Ellis, July 12, 1841.

Macaulay lived here close upon 15 years, removing to Holly Lodge, Kensington, in May 1856. Here he wrote the first volumes of his History of England. Lord Carlisle, describing a breakfast at

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Macaulay's rooms (February 12, 1849), at which he met "Van de Weyer, Hallam, Charles Austin, Panizzi, Colonel Mure and Dicky Milnes (Lord Houghton), says: "His rooms at the top of the Albany are very liveable and studious looking."-Trevelyan's Life, vol. ii. p. 194.

His chambers, every corner of which was literary, were comfortably, though not very brightly furnished. The ornaments were few but choice-half a dozen fine Italian engravings from his favourite great masters; a handsome French clock, provided with a singularly melodious set of chimes, the gift of his friend and publisher, Mr. Thomas Longman; and the well-known bronze statuettes of Voltaire and Rousseau (neither of them heroes of his own), which had been presented to him by Lady Holland as a remembrance of her husband."-Trevelyan, Life of Lord Macaulay, vol. ii. p. 97. Sir William Gell, No. 2 I in 1810. Lord Valentia, No. 5 H in Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, No. 4. A, 1838. Commodore Sir Charles Napier, 1843. Lord Glenelg (better known as Charles Grant) No. 4 H, 1845, till his death in 1866.

Albany Street, east side of the REGENT'S PARK. Here are barracks for a regiment of Life Guards. At the corner, in the Euston

Road, opposite Portland Road, is Trinity Church. A little way up on

the west side was the back entrance to the Colosseum, which is now built over with houses. Benj. Phelps Gibbon, the engraver of several of Landseer's best known works, died here, July 28, 1851. No. 37 was the residence and museum of Francis Trevelyan Buckland, the well known writer on natural history, Inspector of Fisheries, and Promoter of Fish-culture, who died here December 19, 1880.

The public-house, Queen's Head and Artichoke, was, at the end of the last century, an old tavern in a meadow, entered from the New Road by a turnstile. The sign was a weather-beaten portrait of Queen Elizabeth; and the tradition was that the house had been kept originally by one of Her Majesty's gardeners.

Albemarle Buildings, the original name of the houses first built in the streets laid out on the site of Albemarle House. The name was derived from Christopher, second Duke of Albemarle, who, as noticed under Albemarle Street, bought the Earl of Clarendon's mansion, and afterwards sold the house and gardens to building speculators. Albemarle Buildings occurs for the first time in the rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields under the year 1685. There were then seven inhabitants, the last on the list being "Will Longland, at the Ducking Pond." Stafford Street was built in 1693, and Ducking Pond Row (now Grafton Street) in 1723.

Albemarle House, CLERKENWELL. Newcastle House was for a time so called, after Elizabeth, Duchess of Albemarle (afterwards of Montague), who died here on August 28, 1734. [See Newcastle House.]

Albemarle House, PICCADILLY. [See Clarendon House.]

Lost, out of a coach, betwixt Hyde Park Corner and Albemarle House (heretofore called Clarendon House), a small Box or Cabinet, wherein were three Bonds, some acquittances, and other writings. Whoever brings the said Box and Writings to the Porter of Albemarle House, shall have five pounds certainly paid.—London Gazette, December 30 to January 3, 1675-1676.

Albemarle Street, CLERKENWELL. Named after Albemarle House. Samuel Ware, the architect, lived in this street, as did James Carr, the architect of, St. James's Church, Clerkenwell, built 1788-1792.

Albemarle Street, PICCADILLY, begun (circ. 1684) by Sir Thomas Bond, Bart., on the site of Clarendon House.

Which said House and Gardens being sold by the Duke of Albemarle [Christopher, the second Duke], was by the undertakers laid out into streets, who, not being in a condition to finish so great a work, made mortgages and so entangled the title, that it is not to this day finished, and God knows when it will. So that it lieth like the ruins of Troy, some having only the foundations begun, others carried up to the roofs, and others covered, but none of the inside work done. Yet those houses that are finished, which are towards Piccadilly, meet with tenants.-R. B., in Strype, 1720, B. vi. p. 78.

In the New View of London, 1708, it is described as "a street of excellent new building, inhabited by persons of quality, between the fields and Portugal Street (Piccadilly), right against the north-west end of St. James's Street."

Eminent Inhabitants.—Sir William Wyndham; his house was burnt in March 1712, and he and his family escaped without clothes. He had given £7000 for the house, and many valuable pictures were destroyed. Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., in (1717) the house of the Earl of Grantham, the Princess's Chamberlain. The next year the prince bought "that pouting place for our princes," as Pennant calls it, Leicester House. Dr. Berkeley, the celebrated Bishop of Cloyne, in 1724-1726.

I lodge at Mr. Fox's, an Apothecary in Albemarle Street, near St. James's.Berkeley's Literary Relics, p. 99.

Dr. Richard Mead (d. 1754) here kept (1720) his celebrated collection of drawings by Italian masters, purchased by George III., and now in the Royal Library, Windsor. The Marquis of Hartington, on his marriage, April 1, 1748, to the only daughter of the Earl of Burlington, "hired the large house in Albemarle Street that the Earl Poulet lived in." Duc de Nivernois, 1763.

January 12, 1763.-I went with Maty to visit the Duke in Albemarle Street. (19th) The Duke received me very civilly, but (perhaps through Maty's fault) treated me more as a man of letters than as a man of fashion.—Gibbon's Journal.

This last touch reminds one of Congreve, Voltaire, and Walpole. Earl Waldegrave, K.G., died here, April 8, 1763, the day of Lord Bute's resignation (Walpole, vol. iv. p. 62). Lord Bute was living here. in 1764. In the House of Commons, March 7, 1764, Mr. Calvert, an opposition member, exclaimed, "Where is Athens? What is become of Lacedæmon ?" on which Sir John Glynn entertained the house by answering that "they had gone to Albemarle Street." Whilst Bute lived here there was in the street a noted opposition Club that gave the Ministry much annoyance. It was founded in 1763, at a tavern kept by a man named Wildman, and named the Coterie.

1 Mrs. Harris to her Son.-Letters of the first Earl of Malmesbury, vol. i. p. 104.

The new Club, at the house that was the late Lord Waldegrave's in Albemarle Street, makes the Ministry very uneasy.—Walpole to Lord Hervey, January 1764. To this Croker appends the note-The opposition Club was in Albemarle Street; the Ministerial at the Cocoa Tree; and the papers of the day had several political letters addressed to and from these clubs."—Walpole, Letters, vol. iv. p. 173.

Zoffany lived here in 1780. Here Walpole came to see his picture of the Tribune of Florence, and a "delightful piece of Wilkes lookingno, squinting-at his daughter. It is a caricature of the Devil acknowledging Miss Sin in Milton."-Letters, vol. vii. p. 270. Glover, author of Leonidas, died here in 1785. Robert Adam, the architect, died here in 1792; and his brother James in 1794, at No. 13. C. J. Fox (the minister), on the left hand, a little way up as you go from St. James's Street; here he was living when Rogers first knew him. Louis XVIII., expelled from France in 1814, remained for some days at Grillion's Hotel before his return to Paris, April 1814. Here the Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and various distinguished persons waited upon him, and he invested the Prince with the Order of the Saint Esprit. The King held a formal levee here, and the Duchesse d'Angoulême a drawing-room; Grattan was a spectator, and Madame d'Arblay was introduced.

Grillion's Club was founded in 1805. The members dined together every Wednesday during the parliamentary session.

Sir James Mackintosh, on his return from India, 1811, at No. 26. Byron dated from Dorant's Hotel in this street in January 1807 and February 1808, at the time of the publication of the Hours of Idleness.

The Royal Institution and several excellent hotels (the Clarendon, the most famous of them, was closed a few years ago) are in this street. No. 50 is Mr. Murray's, the publisher, the son of the friend and publisher of Lord Byron, and the originator of the Quarterly Review. Here is Hogarth's picture from the Beggars' Opera (in the original frame); and the following portraits of authors:-Byron, Scott, Southey, Crabbe, Campbell, Hallam, and Mrs. Somerville, all by T. Phillips, R.A.; Moore, by Sir T. Lawrence; Gifford, by Hoppner; Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker, after Lawrence; Lockhart, and John Murray (1), by Pickersgill; Washington Irving, by Wilkie. The dining-room is hung with portraits, by Jackson, R.A., of Parry, Franklin, Denham, Clapperton, Richardson, Barrow; Sir A. Burnes, by Maclise, and other celebrated voyagers and travellers. From 1812 to 1824, when clubs were less numerous, and none established expressly devoted to literature, Mr. Murray's literary friends were in the habit of repairing, in the afternoon, to his drawing-room. Here Byron and Scott were first made known to each other by him, and afterwards used to meet here. Hence the allusion to "Murray's four o'clock visitors" in Byron's letters.

Mr. Murray removed here in 1812 from Fleet Street. The office, warehouse, and place of business is at No. 50A.

Albert Bridge (The) crosses the Thames from the Chelsea Embankment (Cheyne Walk) to the west end of Battersea Park. It is the longest suspension bridge on the Thames, being 790 feet long and 40 feet wide, and has a central span of 453 feet, and two side spans of 152 feet each. The towers which carry the suspension chains rise to a height of 130 feet above the high-water level. Auxiliary chains and vertical rods give rigidity to the structure. The bridge was designed by Mr. R. M. Ordish, and opened in September 1873. It was purchased in 1879 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and opened to the public toll free.

Albert Embankment, the southern embankment of the Thames, extends from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall, about 4300 feet. In general character it is similar to the northern embankment, is faced like it with granite, but has a concrete instead of a brick basis, is unbroken by recesses for landing-places, and altogether somewhat less ornamental in appearance, though an equally noble piece of work. cost £1,020,000. The long range of buildings forming St. Thomas's Hospital borders the Westminster end, parallel with the Houses of Parliament on the opposite side of the river. [See Thames Embankment.]

It

Albert Gate, HYDE PARK, situated on ground purchased by government from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster and others, was made, 1844-1846, at a cost of £20,844:10:9, and so called after H.R.H. Prince Albert. The iron gates were fixed August 9, 1845, and the stags (from the Ranger's Lodge in the Green Park) set up about the same time. The lofty house (on the east side of the gate) was bought by Mr. Hudson, the then popular Railway King, of Mr. Thomas Cubitt, for £15,000. It is now the residence of the French Ambassador.

Albert Hall, the Royal, KENSINGTON, stands between the conservatory at the north end of the Horticultural Society's Garden and the Kensington Road, on the site of the Gore House of the Countess of Blessington and Count D'Orsay. It is designed for great musical performances, exhibitions of art and science, and important assemblies, as at the opening of the International Exhibition, 1871, and the Installation of the Prince of Wales as Grand Master of the Freemasons, April 28, 1874. The design originated in a suggestion of the Prince Consort, but was carried out by a private company in commemoration of his services to the arts. The building is a vast amphitheatrean ellipse in plan, 200 feet by 160-covered with a hemispherical dome 140 feet high. The walls are of a deep red brick, with dressings and decorations of terra cotta, and a frieze of monochrome inlay representing the peaceful triumphs of Art and Science, designed by the Academicians H. W. Pickersgill, Armitage, Marks, and Poynter. Between the double walls are the staircases and corridors. The auditorium comprises the arena, for 1000 persons, with stalls ranged

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