Publius, student at the common law,
Oft leaves his books, and for his recreation,
To Paris Garden doth himself withdraw,
Where he is ravisht with such delectation,

As down amongst the bears and dogs he goes,

Where, whilst he skipping cries, "To Head! To Head !"
His satin doublet and his velvet hose,

Are all with spittle from above be-spread :
Then is he like his father's country hall,
Stinking of dogges, and muted all with hawks.
And rightly too on him this filth doth fall
Which for such filthy sports his books forsakes,
Leaving old Plowden, Dyer, and Brooke alone,
To see old Harry Hunks and Sacarson.

Sir John Davies's Epigrams (In Publium).

The meat-boat of Bears'-college, Paris Garden,

Stunk not so ill.

Ben Jonson, Epigram, p. 133; and see his Execration upon Vulcan.

How wonderfully is the world altered! And no marvel, for it has lain sick almost five thousand years; so that it is no more like the old Theatre du Monde than old Paris Garden is like the King's Garden at Paris.-The Gull's Hornbook (1609), p. 8.

Here [Paris Garden] come few that either regard their credit or loss of time: the swaggering Roarer, the Cunning Cheater, the rotten Bawd, the swearing Drunkard, and the bloody Butcher have their rendezvous here, and are of chief place and respect. London and the Country Carbonadoed, by T. Lupton, 1632, 12m0. Butler makes his "brave Orsin" to have been

Bred up where discipline most rare is

In Military Garden Paris.-Hudibras, vol. i. p. 2, l. 171. "Military Garden" refers to an association instituted by James I. for training soldiers, who used to practise in Paris Garden.

The Bear Garden was closed by the Parliament at the beginning of 1642, and five years later the ground was sold. It was, however, reopened after the Restoration, and though but partially successful, the performances were continued till 1687, when the bears were sent to Hockley-in-the-Hole, and the doors of Paris Garden Theatre finally closed. The name survived for many years in "Parish Garden Stairs."

The Swan Theatre, built about 1596, was in Paris Garden [see Swan], and probably some of the references to the Paris Garden Theatre belong to it.

Parish Clerks' Hall, No. 24 SILVER STREET, FALCON SQUARE, the hall of the master, wardens, and fellows of the fellowship of parish clerks "of London, Westminster, Borough of Southwark, and fifteen out-parishes." The Company was licensed as a guild in 1233, by the name of the Fraternity of St. Nicholas. It was dissolved and reincorporated by patent 24th of Henry VIII. The actual charter was granted by James I., December 31, 1611. It directs that "each parish clerk shall bring to the Clerks' Hall weekly, a note of all christenings and burials," and that only such shall be admitted to be clerks as are "able to sing the Psalms of David, and to write." The direction as to the "note of all christenings and burials" had reference to the Bills (or

tables) of Mortality which the guild commenced keeping from the great plague year of 1593, and were issued as weekly bills from 1603, when London had a similar but heavier visitation. Charles I. in 1636 granted permission to the Parish Clerks to have a printing-press and employ a printer in their hall, for the purpose of printing their weekly bills.

The first hall of the Fraternity was at the sign of the Angel in Bishopsgate, and by it was an almshouse for seven poor widows of deceased members. The second hall was in Broad Lane, in Vintry Ward, and was consumed in the Great Fire of 1666, when a third hall was erected between Silver Street and Wood Street, Cheapside; this was damaged about 1844 in a fire which destroyed several great warehouses. It was restored or rebuilt in a more ornamental style, and

a new entrance made in Silver Street.

Park Crescent, REGENT'S PARK. Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-king of Spain, lived at No. 23 when in London in 1833. Here is a statue of the Duke of Kent (father of the Queen) by George Gahagan.

Park Lane, HYDE PARK, runs from Piccadilly to Oxford Street, by where stood Tyburn Turnpike, and was originally called Tyburn Lane. Londonderry (formerly Holdernesse) House, the residence of the Marquis of Londonderry (S. and B. Wyatt, architects), is one of the finest of the London mansions, and contains many noble pictures and other works of art. In Dorchester House (bought in 1848 by R. S. Holford, Esq., and pulled down) died the Marquis of Hertford, the favourite of George IV. The present Dorchester House, designed for Mr. Holford by Lewis Vulliamy, 1852-1853, is of superior design externally and very splendid inside. Besides many admirable pictures by Claude Lorraine, Velasquez, Hobbema, Cuyp, Ostade, Vandyck, Greuze, Wilkie (the Columbus), etc., it contains a choice collection of rare and valuable books. Dudley House, the residence of Earl Dudley, is another noble mansion rich in paintings by Raphael and the earlier Italian masters. Brook House, on the other side of Upper Brook Street (T. H. Wyatt, architect), is the residence of Lord Tweedmouth; and Gloucester House of H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge. Camelford House (at the Oxford Street end of the lane) was the town residence of Prince Leopold and the Princess Charlotte of Wales. Mrs. Fitzherbert lived in Park Lane, and it was in her drawingroom that the ceremony of her marriage with the Prince of Wales (George IV.) was performed, December 21, 1785.1

Park Place, ST. JAMES'S STREET. Built 1683.2 The north side is in the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square; the south in St. James's, Westminster. The Countess of Orrery was one of the first inhabitants. No. 9 was Sir William Musgrave's, the great print-collector. William Pitt retired to No. 12 in 1801. "Old Coke of Norfolk" at No. 14. The "Mother Needham" of the Harlot's Progress-the "Pious Needham" of the Dunciad,3 lived in Park Place.

1 Langdale, Mem. of Mrs. Fitzherbert.

VOL. III

3 See Dunciad, B. i. 1. 324 and note.

2 Rate-books of St. Martin's. "

D

The noted Mother Needham, convicted (April 29, 1731) for keeping a disorderly house in Park Place, St. James's, was fined Is., to stand twice in the Pillory, viz. once in St. James's Street over against the End of Park Place, and once in the New Palace Yard, Westminster, and to find sureties for her Good Behaviour for three years.-Fog's Weekly Journal, Saturday, May 1, 1731.

Yesterday [May 6, 1731] the noted Mother Needham stood in the Pillory in Park Place, near St. James's Street, and was roughly handled by the populace. She was so very ill that she lay along on her face, and so evaded the law which requires that her face should be exposed.—Grub Street Journal (Nichols's Hogarth, p. 190). She died before she could be exposed the second time.

Park Street, BOROUGH. [See Deadman's Lane.]

Park Street, GROSVENOR SQUARE, from South Street to Oxford Street. At No. 113 died (1827) Miss Lydia White, celebrated for her lively wit and for her blue-stocking parties, unrivalled, it is said, in the soft realm of blue May Fair.

At one of Miss Lydia White's small and most agreeable dinners in Park Street, the company (most of them, except the hostess, being Whigs) were discussing in rather a querulous strain, the desperate prospects of their party. "Yes," said Sydney Smith, "we are in a most deplorable condition; we must do something to help ourselves; I think we had better sacrifice a tory virgin." This was pointedly addressed to Lydia White, who, at once catching and applying the allusion to Iphigenia, answered, “I believe there is nothing the whigs would not do to raise the wind."-Rev. W. Harness to Rev. A. Dyce (Remains, p. 70, notes).

November 13, 1826.-Went to poor Lydia White's and found her extended on a couch, frightfully swelled, unable to stir, rouged, jesting and dying. She has a good heart, and is really a clever creature, but unhappily, or rather happily, she has set up the whole staff of her rest in keeping literary society about her. The world has not neglected her. She can always make up her circle, and generally has some people of real talent and distinction.-Sir Walter Scott, Diary.

Miss Nelly O'Brien, the original of three of Sir Joshua's most brilliant portraits, died here in 1768, when one of the three pictures, tradition says, was sold for three pounds, instead of the thousands it would now fetch. No. 123 was the residence of Richard Ford, author of the Handbook for Spain. Sir Humphry Davy lived at No. 26 from 1825 until his death. Sir William Stirling Maxwell, M.P., lived for some years at No. 7.

Park Street, WESTMINSTER, now with Queen Square renamed Queen Anne's Gate. Eminent Inhabitants.-The learned Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, died here March 27, 1699; the equally learned Dr. Bentley. Bentley was Stillingfleet's chaplain and was residing here with him (1690) when his first publication, the Epistle to Dr. Mill, saw the light. These continued to be his London quarters till the beginning of 1696, when he obtained apartments in St. James's Palace.1 William Windham, the statesman, was living at No. 5 in 1796. At No. 5 Miss Lydia White resided in 1814, and till her removal to Park Street, Grosvenor Square [which see]. At No. 6 William Smith, M.P. for Norwich, the champion of the Dissenters. His dinners were famous. On March 19, 1796, Samuel Rogers describes himself as meeting here Fox, Parr, Tierney, Mackintosh and Francis. "Sheridan

1 Monk's Bentley, 4to, p. 55.

"1

sent an excuse. "William Wordsworth, No. 6 Park Street, Westminster," appears on an autograph visiting card of about 1835. The Rev. H. F. Cary, the translator of Dante, went to live at No. 10 in 1837, when he left the British Museum on the appointment of Panizzi as keeper of the printed books. No. 7 was the house of Charles Townley, collector of the Townley marbles, now in the British Museum; he died here January 3, 1805. Every room of Mr. Townley's house was filled with statues, bust, relievi, votive altars, sepulchral urns, inscriptions, and terra cottas; his visitors comprised a large proportion of those eminent for their rank or attainments, and his Sunday dinners, "principally for professors of the Arts, when Sir Joshua Reynolds and Zoffany generally enlivened the circle," were in their way famous. A View of Mr. Townley's Gallery was one of Zoffany's most successful pictures. The house was afterwards the residence of Spring Rice (Lord Monteagle). "The late Royal Cockpit. . . remained a nextdoor nuisance to Mr. Townley for many years.' "2

Parker Street, DRURY LANE to LITTLE QUEEN STREET, formerly called Parker's Lane. Mr. Philip Parker had a house here in 1623. In 1661 Mr. William Shelton purchased for £458, 10s. certain tenements on the south side of this lane, described as having been "lately in possession of the Dutch Ambassador." Here he founded a school for fifty poor boys, which continued till 1763, when the funds were declared to be inadequate to its support and the school was closed. The funds were allowed to accumulate till 1815, when a new school house was erected in Lloyd's Court, and the charity revived after a slumber of fifty-two years. The schools are abolished, and the charity was amalgamated with others in 1886.

Parker Street, PRINCES STREET, WESTMINSTER, was formerly called Benet Street, as the adjacent property belonged to Benet or Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The old name was changed when a number of disorderly occupants were ejected about fifty years ago, and the new one was given in compliment to Archbishop Parker, who bequeathed his valuable library to Corpus Christi College.

Parliament Stairs, the landing-place for OLD PALACE YARD. In the earliest maps the name is Old Palace Bridge.

Parliament Street, WESTMINSTER, an open and important street, between Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament, made pursuant to 29 George II., c. 38 (1756), previously to which King Street was the only highway between Whitehall and Westminster Abbey. The spies employed to watch Wilkes reported on November 12, 1762, that "he went to Woodfall's the printers at Charing Cross; from thence to Mr. Churchill's in Parliament Street, but did not stay; from thence he went home to dinner." 3 The Right Hon. Henry Grattan was resident at No. 4 in 1807. [See King Street.]

1 Sharpe, p. 17; and see Dyce's Rogers, p. 81. 2 Smiths Nollekens, vol. i. pp. 256-267. 3 Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 160.

Parson's Court, BRIDE LANE, FLEET STREET. In 1657 the buildings of brick betwixt the Inner Temple Lane and Hare Court were set; and in 1662 those in Parson's Court, near the east end of the church.1

Before the Great Fire there was a parsonage house in Bride's Lane, long since leased out by the Church of Westminster, which hath the impropriation and parsonage. It is now divided into several tenements. That place is now called Parson's Court.-Strype (1720), B. iii. p. 267.

Patent Office, 25 SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE. The terms Patent Office, Patent Bill Office, Great Seal Patent Office, have been applied at various periods to different offices connected with the Court of Chancery to denote one of the many offices through which letters patent under the Great Seal had to pass before the grant was complete. In 1852 the procedure in connection with grants of letters patent for inventions was greatly simplified, a body of Patent Commissioners being appointed, who were put into possession of the building erected in accordance with an Act of Parliament for building an office for the Masters in Chancery (32 George III., c. 42, 1792), who were abolished in the year above mentioned. The Patent Law Amendment Act 1852, provided amongst other things that all the specifications of letters patent should be printed and published, and should be open to free inspection. This necessitated the formation of a library, and it occurred to the late Mr. Richard Prosser, of Birmingham, who took a prominent part in the question of patent law reform, that a collection of scientific works would be a valuable adjunct to the printed specifications. Accordingly he placed at the disposal of the Commissioners of Patents a very large portion of his private library, which, with a smaller collection belonging to Mr. Bennet Woodcroft, for many years the energetic head of the office, formed the nucleus. of what is now the finest library of scientific and technical works in the kingdom. It was first opened to the public in April 1855 in a very humble way, and for many years there were constant complaints of the want of proper accommodation for readers. Its value was at a very early period acknowledged by the Government, and an annual grant is voted by Parliament for its maintenance. At length a new storey was added to the building, a spacious reading-room being included in the design, but the library is rapidly growing. It is open. free daily from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M., and for many years it enjoyed the distinction of being the only really free library in London. In 1883 an Act was passed transferring the granting of patents to the Board of Trade, the registration of trademarks and designs being also added to the work of the Patent Office. Of late years the business of the office has increased enormously, the number of applications for patents amounting to nearly 20,000 annually. The Patent Office Museum consisted of a collection of historical relics and models connected with the history of invention, and was for many years located in one of the "Brompton Boilers," as the corrugated iron sheds which 1 Origines Juridicales.