Bedfordbury, between St. Martin's Church and Bedford Street, COVENT GARDEN. Built circ. 1637,1 and once decently inhabited, then a nest of low alleys and streets, but now almost entirely swept away under the provisions of the Artizans' Dwellings Act, by the Metropolitan Board of Works. The mission-house, chapel, and schools, erected 1861, were designed by Mr. A. W. Blomfield, architect. Sir Francis Kynaston, the poet, was living in Covent Garden in 1636, "on the east side the street towards Berrie." He came here in 1634, and established under letters patent from the Crown his Museum Minervæ, or "Academy for teaching, chiefly navigation, riding, fortification, architecture, painting, and other useful accomplishments." It was a spacious building erected in 1594, having one front in what is now Bedfordbury, the other in Bedford Street.2 "Kynaston's Alley," in Bedfordbury, still exists.

Bedlam. [See BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL.]

Beech Street, formerly BEECH LANE, BARBICAN.

Peradventure so called of Nicholas de la Beech, lieutenant of the Tower of London, put out of that office in the 13th of Edward III. This lane stretcheth from the Red Cross Street to White Cross Street, replenished not with beech trees, but with beautiful houses of stone, brick, and timber. Amongst the which was of old time a great house pertaining to the Abbot of Ramsey: it is now called Drewry House of Sir Drewe Drewrie, a worshipful owner thereof.—Stow, p. 113.

The secret meetings at which the unhappy rising of the Earl of Essex was arranged were held in Drury House. Later Prince Rupert lived in Drury House, and J. T. Smith has engraved a view of all that remained in 1796 of the house he is said to have occupied. The Drapers' Almshouses, erected about 1540, were pulled down 1862, and new ones erected at Tottenham.

1 Beef Steak Club (The), a club established in the reign of Queen Anne, and described by Ned Ward in his Secret History of Clubs, 8vo, 1709. The president wore a gold gridiron.

The Beef-Steak and October Clubs are neither of them averse to eating and drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their respective titles.-The Spectator, No. 9, March 10, 1710-1711.

He [Estcourt, the actor, d. 1712] was made Providore of the Beef-Steak Club; and for a mark of distinction, wore their badge, which was a small gridiron of gold, hung about his neck with a green silk ribband. This Club was composed of the chief wits and great men of the nation.-Chetwood's History of the Stage, 12mo, 1749, p. 141.

He that of honour, wit and mirth partakes,
May be a fit companion o'er Beaf-steaks;
His name may be to future times enroll'd

In Estcourt's book, whose gridiron's fram'd of gold.

Dr. King's Art of Cookery.

Humbly inscribed to the Beef-Steak Club. 1709.

Your friends at the Beef-Steak inquired after you last Saturday with the greatest

1 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

The Constitution of the Museum Minerva,

1636; Dr. Rimbault in Notes and Queries, 1st S., vol. iii. p. 317.

zeal, and it gave me no small pleasure that I was the person of whom the inquiry was made.-Churchill to Wilkes.

The Beef-Steak Club, with their jolly president, John Beard [the singer], is surely one of the most respectable assemblies of jovial and agreeable companions in this metropolis.-Tom Davies, Dram. Misc., vol. iii. p. 167.

Peg Woffington was a member. There was a political club called "The Rump Steak, or Liberty Club," which met for the first time and dined January 15, 1734, at the King's Arms, Pall Mall; the Dukes of Bedford, Bolton, Queensbury, and Montrose; the Marquis of Tweeddale; Earls Chesterfield, Marchmont, and Stair; and Viscount Cobham were present. Its members were in eager opposition to Sir Robert Walpole. -Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 19.

The Beef Steak Club as now constituted is a social club, meeting at 24 King William Street, Strand, over Toole's Theatre. Members pay an entrance fee of 10 guineas, and an annual subscription of 4 guineas.

Beef Steak Society, a society of noblemen and gentlemen, twentyfour in number, founded by John Rich, the patentee of Covent Garden Theatre, and George Lambert, the scene painter, in 1735-a time when the favourite wager of the Garden was a rump and dozen."1 Many of the eminent men of the day connected with literature, fashion, and the drama were pleased to assemble in Rich's room to have a chat with him and his fellow-labourer and friend, George Lambert. Here from time to time they partook, at two o'clock, of the hot steak dressed by Rich himself, accompanied by a "bottle of port from the tavern hard by ;" and these gatherings formed the nucleus out of which grew the Beef Steak Society.

First Rich, who this feast of the gridiron planned,
And formed with a touch of his harlequin's wand,
Out of mighty rude matter, this brotherly band,
The jolly old Steakers of England.

Among the original members were John Rich, George Lambert, and William Lambert. Among the successors to the chairs of the first twenty-four members were Theophilus Cibber, Paul Whitehead, John Wilkes, Sir Harry Inglefield, the Duke of Norfolk, George Colman, Charles Morris, the life and soul of the Society, George IV. (when Prince of Wales), who, after having expressed a desire to become a member, was obliged to wait his turn until a vacancy occurred, and the Duke of York. The Duke of Sussex was not elected till between 23 and 25 years after his royal brothers. Other members were John Kemble, William Linley, the brother-in-law of Sheridan, Baron Bolland, Lord Brougham, Sir Matthew Wood, Lord Broughton, Sir Francis Burdett, Duke of Leinster, Earl of Dalhousie, Robert Liston, Sir Charles Locock, and many other distinguished men. The room the Society dined in, a little Escurial in itself, was most appropriately fitted up the doors, wainscoting, and roof of good old English

1 Cooke's Macklin, p. 225.

oak, ornamented with gridirons as thick as Henry VII.'s Chapel with the portcullis of the founder. The Society's badge was a gridiron, which was engraved upon the rings, the glass, and the forks and spoons. At the end of the dining-room was an enormous grating in the form of a gridiron, through which the fire was seen and the steaks handed from the kitchen. Over this were the appropriate lines :

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.

Saturday was from time immemorial the day of dining, and of late years the season commenced in November and ended in June.

On Saturn's day this altar burns

With festive preparation,

Where twice twelve Brothers rule by turns
To pour a fit libation.

The active officers of the Society were the President of the day, whose office, as stated in the above lines, was filled by each member in turn; the Vice-President, the oldest member of the Society present; the Bishop, who sang the grace and the anthem; the Recorder, whose duty it was to rebuke everybody for offences real or imaginary; and the Boots, who was the last elected of the members, and the fag of the brotherhood. It was his duty to arrive first, decant the wine, and also fetch it from the cellar. Both members and guests delighted in worrying poor Boots, and often summoned him to decant a fresh bottle of port at the moment when a hot plate and a fresh steak were placed before him. The Duke of Sussex filled the office for a year, and his Royal Highness was not spared by his colleagues nor allowed to shirk his duties. A newly-elected member was brought into the room blindfolded, accompanied by the Bishop, who was ready to receive the oath of allegiance, which was as follows: "You shall attend duly, vote impartially, and conform to our laws and orders obediently. You shall support our dignity, promote our welfare, and at all times behave as a worthy member in this Sublime Society. So Beef and Liberty be your reward." The Society during the term of its existence changed its place of meeting several times. For 70 years Covent Garden Theatre was its home, but on the destruction of that building in 1808, it moved to the Bedford Coffee-House, where it remained till the old Lyceum was ready for it in 1809. Here it remained till the house was burnt in 1830, when it returned to the Bedford Coffee-House, and remained there till 1838, in which year a suite of rooms was ready to receive it in the new Lyceum, which formed its last home. The Society was closed in 1867 with only eighteen members on the list. Two years subsequently its effects, which consisted of portraits, silver, furniture, and other property, were sold by Messrs. Christie for £659: 10:3.

Mr. Lambert was for many years principal scene-painter to the Theatre at Covent Garden. Being a person of great respectability in character and profession, he was often visited while at work in the Theatre by persons of the first consideration, both

in rank and talents. As it frequently happened that he was too much hurried to leave his engagements for his regular dinner, he contented himself with a beef-steak broiled upon the fire in the painting-room. In this hasty meal he was sometimes joined by his visitors, who were pleased to participate in the humble repast of the artist. The savour of the dish and the conviviality of the accidental meeting inspired the party with a resolution to establish a club, which was accordingly done under the title of The Beef-Steak Club; and the party assembled in the painting-room. The members were afterwards accommodated with a room in the playhouse, where the meetings were held for many years.-Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting, p. 20.

Our only hopes are in the Clergy, and in the Beef-Steak Club. The former still preserve, and probably will preserve, the rectitude of their appetites, and will do justice to Beef, whenever they find it. The latter, who are composed of the most ingenious artists in the Kingdom, meet every Saturday in a noble room at the top of the Covent Garden Theatre, and never suffer any dish except Beef-Steaks to appear.— The Connoisseur, No. 19, June 6, 1754.

Belgrave Mansions, PIMLICO, at the south end of Grosvenor Gardens, built in 1868 from the designs of Mr. T. Cundy. This, the most southern of the series of costly buildings erected within the last few years on the Grosvenor estate, is a large block of mansions, French Renaissance in style, of red brick, with Portland stone piers, cornices, and dressings. The mansions have a frontage of nearly 300 feet; the ground-floor shops; above are five floors (or flats) of dwellings, the roof-line being broken by massive mansard pavilions.

The name Belgrave is obtained from a village in Leicestershire, where the Duke of Westminster has considerable property.

Belgrave Place (Lower), PIMLICO, now incorporated with BUCKINGHAM PALACE ROAD.

Belgrave Place (Lower and Upper) proves the avidity of building speculations, which could thus challenge the prejudices against the opposite marshes. But I was assured by a resident of twenty years, that he and his family had enjoyed uninterrupted health in Upper Belgrave Place, and that such was the general experience.— Sir Richard Philips, 1817.

George Grote, the historian of Greece, lived for several years at 3 Eccleston Street, a house afterwards numbered 3 Belgrave Place. The large house at the corner of Eccleston Street was the residence of the sculptor, Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A. It was originally two houses, Nos. 29 and 30 Lower Belgrave Place, but Chantrey threw the two houses into one and named them anew as No. 1 Eccleston Street. Here he lived from 1814 to his death in 1841, and in the studios at the back all his best works his bust of Sir Walter Scott, his Sleeping Children, and his statue of Watt-were produced. Here is a good small gallery with a lanthorn, by Sir John Soane, who was always best when his space was limited. Chantrey died in the drawing-room of this house, sitting in his easy-chair. In No. 27 lived, from 1824 to his death in 1842, Allan Cunningham, the poet, author of the Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, and foreman to Sir Francis Chantrey. Chantrey's house is now No. 102, and named Chantrey House; Cunningham's is No. 98. At No. 96 lived Mr. Henry Weekes, R.A., who worked in Chantrey's old studio, No. 2 Eccleston Street.

Belgrave Road. Sir Denis Le Marchant died at No. 21 in 1874.

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Belgrave Square, built in 1825, on part of the old Five Fields. The whole square was designed by George Basevi; the detached villas by Philip Hardwick, R.A., and others. Eminent Inhabitants.-General Lord Hill, the hero of Almarez, in the villa in the south-west corner, which was built in 1826 for Mr. T. R. Kemp of Kemp Town by H. E. Kendall. Lieutenant-General Sir George Murray, Quarter-MasterGeneral to the British army during the Peninsular War, died (1846) in No. 5, on the north side. Catherine Stephens, Countess Dowager of Essex, died at No. 9 in 1882, the house in which she was married. Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the distinguished geologist, died at No. 16, October 22, 1871. No. 13 is the residence of Earl Beauchamp; 18 is the Austrian Embassy; 19, Earl of Feversham; 32, Earl of Clanwilliam; 33, Earl of Stradbroke; 36, Dowager Marchioness Conyngham; 37, Earl of Sefton; 39, Lord Digby; 40, Earl Fortescue; 42, Earl of Ilchester; 43, Earl of Bradford; 45, Duchess of Montrose; 46, Marquis of Headfort; 48, Viscount Combermere ; 49, Duke of Richmond and Gordon.

Belgravia, the fashionable region of somewhat indefinite limits, which has Belgrave Square for its centre, and may be understood broadly to extend westward from Buckingham Palace Gardens to Lowndes Square, and southwards from Knightsbridge to Chester Square.

The name Belgravia was at first merely a convenient term to express the fashionable squares and streets around Belgrave Square. We remember a letter so addressed by John Britton, writing to the creator of the district, Mr. Thomas Cubitt, which had been forwarded by the Post Office to Hungary, and came back to Britton after many days.-Builder, November 15, 1873, p. 897.

Bell (The), WESTMINSTER, a great tavern and stableyard on the north side of King Street, Westminster, cleared away when Great George Street was formed. It was a tavern at a very early date. In Sir John Howard's Journal of Expenses, in 1465 and 1466, are several such entries as, "My Master spent for his cotes at the Belle at Westmenstre, iijs., viijd." Pepys used to dine, and Lord Sandwich to put up, at the Bell. Sir W. Waller, in his Vindication (p. 104), describes a dinner at the Bell, of which there is also an account in Denzil Holles's Memoirs, p. 153. In Queen Anne's time the October Club used to meet here.

July 1, 1660.-Met with Purser Washington, with whom and a lady, a friend of his, I dined at the Bell Tavern in King Street; but the rogue had no more manners than to invite me, and to let me pay my club.-Pepys.

November 4, 1660.-(Lord's Day.) After dinner to Westminster. In our way we called at the Bell to see the seven Flanders mares that my Lord (Sandwich) has bought lately. Then I went to my Lord's, and having spoke with him, I went to the Abbey, where the first time that ever I heard the organs in a cathedral.—Pepys. Bell (The), in ALDERSGATE STREET. [See Aldersgate Street.]

Bell (The), in CARTER LANE. [See Carter Lane.]