Compton Street, Sоно, built in the reign of Charles I. by Sir Francis Compton. New Compton Street, when first formed, was denominated Stiddolph Street, after Sir Richard Stiddolph, the owner of the land. From a demise of the whole adjoining marsh land, made by Charles II. to Sir Francis Compton, the name was changed to Compton Street.

Conduit, Cornhill. [See Cornhill.]

+ Conduit Fields, a series of pleasant meadows which separated Belsize Park from Hampstead, in one of which stood an old well or conduit called the Shepherd's Well. These fields long gave a particularly rural effect to Belsize Terrace, but in 1875 they were threatened, and an attempt was made to obtain subscriptions for the purpose of purchasing the ground for a public park. Unfortunately these endeavours were unsuccessful, and Fitzjohn's Avenue and other streets have been built upon the fields.

Conduit, Great and Little, CHEAPSIDE. [See Cheapside.]

Conduit Street, REGENT STREET AND NEW BOND STREET, was completed in 1713, and so called from a conduit of sweet water in Conduit Mead, a field of which, when the street was built, no more definite description could be given than that it consisted of 27 acres, and lay between Piccadilly and Paddington. On March 7, 1666, a lease of the Conduit Mead was granted to the Earl of Clarendon by the City of London for ninety-nine years at a nominal rent of £8 a year.

July 18, 1691.-I went to London to hear Mr. Stringfellow preach his first sermon in the new erected church of Trinity in Conduit Street, to which I did recommend him to Dr. Tenison for the constant preacher and lecturer. This church being formerly built of timber on Hounslow Heath by King James for the masspriests, being begged by Dr. Tenison, rector of St. Martin's, was set up by that public-minded, charitable, and pious man.-Evelyn.

:

In the Works Accounts of the Crown for 1667-1668 the sum of £550 191 is entered for the "Chapel for His Majesty's Service at the Camp on Hounslow Heath." It was built of wood and slated. Pennant gives a highly-coloured history of the chapel, but it is inaccurate and not worth quoting. In 1700 the chapel stood at the top of what is now Old Bond Street.1 It was rebuilt of brick-a dull respectable-looking barn-by Archbishop Tenison, and lasted till 1877, when it was pulled down to make way for the showy shop of Messrs. Benjamin the tailors.

The late Carew Mildmay, Esq., who, after a very long life, died a few years ago, used to say that he remembered killing a woodcock on the site of Conduit Street, at that time an open country. He and General Oglethorpe were great intimates, and nearly of the same age; and often produced proofs to each other of the length of their recollection.-Pennant.2

1 Mordan and Lea's Map, I. Harris, delin. et sculp., 1700.

2 The first Marquis Camden caught a woodVOL. I

cock in the area of his house in Arlington Street, next door but one to Piccadilly.—Croker.

2 G

The architect Earl of Burlington was the first to build on Conduit Mead. The quarrel between Lord Camelford and Captain Best, on account of Lord Camelford's mistress, a woman of the name of Symons, occurred at the Prince of Wales's Coffee-house in this street. The duel was fought next day (March 7, 1804) in the grounds behind Holland House. Lord Camelford was killed. But this was not Lord Camelford's first quarrel in this street. It was here that he wantonly insulted, Captain Vancouver, the discoverer, under whom he had served in the voyage round the world. The result is represented in No. 154 of Gillray's Caricatures. Charles James Fox was born in this street, January 24, 1749. Boswell was in lodgings here in 1772, and it was here Johnson went home to tea with him, and delivered himself, among other literary and social dicta, of his famous but questionable opinion on biography, "Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him."1 Before the summer of 1786 Wilberforce was in lodgings in this street; Pitt at the same time living in Savile Street. No. 37 on the south side was for some years (1802-1803, etc., during the Addington administration) the residence of George Canning; and afterwards for many years of Dr. Elliotson, rebuilt after the latter's death. No. 36 was the residence of Sir Walter Farquhar, Bart., Pitt's. friend and physician. At No. 39 Sir Astley Cooper, the great surgeon, died February 12, 1841. It was in assisting to remove the valuable library of his friend, Frederick North, endangered by its proximity to No. 61 (now Messrs. Lewis and Allenby's), then on fire, that the statesman Windham, in July 1809, received the injury which resulted in his death in the following May. The Coach and Horses in this street (No. 16, still standing) was the favourite resort of Thurtell, the murderer of Weare, and he drove from this house in his gig to pick up his intended victim on the day of the murder. No. 25 is Limmer's Hotel, a first-class private hotel, recently rebuilt. No. 9, on the north side, is the office of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The Architectural Association and kindred societies, the Society of Biblical Archæology, and other artistic and antiquarian institutions, hold their meetings in this building. 18 Congregational Memorial Hall, FARRINGDON STREET (east side), was erected on a portion of the site of the old Fleet Prison, and opened in 1874 to commemorate "the bicentenary of the ejection of 2000 clergymen from the Church of England in 1662, for refusing to make the declaration required by the Act of Uniformity," 14 Charles II., c. 4, which came into operation on St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, of that year. To commemorate this event, which is regarded as the foundation of Nonconformity in England, a sum of a quarter of a million was subscribed, to be expended in building chapels and the erection of a Memorial Hall, which should serve as the centre of the ecclesiastical and political business of the Congregational body. The hall is a substantial stone structure, French Decorated in style, having 1 Croker's Boswell, p. 235.

L

a frontage 84 feet wide and 130 feet high to the pinnacle over the centre gable, and a lofty angle, tower and spire. The Great Hall, for public meetings and special services, is 87 feet long, 46 wide and 25 high, and will seat 1200 persons. The Library, a large and handsome room, contains the collection of books from the Congregational Library, Blomfield Street. There are besides numerous offices and reception rooms. The site cost £28,000; the building, £30,000. Messrs. J. Tarring and Son were the architects.

18 Connaught Place, CUMBERLAND PLACE, near the Edgware Road. In No. 7, facing Hyde Park, Caroline, Princess of Wales, was living in 1814, and hither the Princess Charlotte hurried in a hackneycoach when she quarrelled with her father and fled from Warwick House. As soon as the place of her retreat was ascertained, the Duke of York, the Lord Chancellor, and some other person were sent by the Prince Regent to bring her back. Lord Eldon has described what took place :

When we arrived I informed her a carriage was at the door, and we would attend her home. But home she would not go. She kicked and bounced but would not go. Well, to do my office as gently as I could, I told her I was sorry for it, but until she did go she would be obliged to entertain us, as we would not leave her. At last she accompanied us.-Life of Lord Eldon, vol. ii. p. 253.

✓ Connaught Square, EDGWARE ROAD. It is said that Tyburn gallows stood on the site of No. 49, and that in the lease granted by the Bishop of London the fact is particularly mentioned.

Built

✓18 Conservative Club House, on the west side of ST. JAMES'S STREET, was founded, 1840, as a Club of ease to the Carlton. from the designs of George Basevi and Sydney Smirke, architects, 18431845, on the site of the Thatched House Tavern and several other houses; it was opened February 19, 1845. One of the houses destroyed was formerly occupied by Elmsley the bookseller, with whom Gibbon lodged. The total cost of building and furnishing was £73,211. The encaustic paintings of the interior are by Mr. Fred. Sang, and were executed at an expense of £2697. elected by the committee, two black balls excluding. 30 guineas; annual subscription, 10 guineas.

✓18 Constabulary (The). WESTMINSTER.

Members are
Entrance fee,

A messuage in New Palace Yard, Westminster, granted by Henry VI. to John Duke of Bedford.-Walcott's Memorials of Westminster, 1851, p. 197.

Constitution Hill, ST. JAMES'S PARK, the road so called running from Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park Corner. No satisfactory explanation of the origin of the name has been given.

King Charles II., after taking two or three turns one morning in St. James's Park (as was his usual custom), attended only by the Duke of Leeds and my Lord Cromarty, walked up Constitution Hill, and from thence into Hyde Park. But just as he was crossing the road, the Duke of York's coach was nearly arrived there. The Duke had been hunting that morning on Hounslow Heath, and was returning

in his coach, escorted by a party of the Guards, who, as soon as they saw the King, suddenly halted, and consequently stopped the coach. The Duke being acquainted with the occasion of the halt, immediately got out of his coach, and after saluting the King, said he was greatly surprised to find his Majesty in that place, with such a small attendance, and that he thought his Majesty exposed himself to some danger. "No kind of danger, James; for I am sure no man in England will take away my life to make you King." This was the King's answer. The old Lord Cromarty often mentioned this anecdote to his friends.-Dr. King's Anecdotes of his Own Times, p. 61.

The anecdote is characteristic; but it is doubtful if the slope was called Constitution Hill as early as the reign of Charles II. In Strype's Map, 1720, it is marked "Road to Kensington." In John Smith's Map, published in 1724, it is called "Constitution Hill," but in all subsequent Maps it is marked as "The King's Coach-way to Kensington." Dr. Armstrong tells us that Thomson once asked how a certain gentleman-meaning Glover, the author of Leonidas,1-could possibly be a poet, as he had never once seen a hill. "Now, I apprehend," says Armstrong, "that Mr. Thomson must have been misinformed here; for I remember to have met the very gentleman in question one Sunday evening, I think it might have been towards June or July, upon the utmost summit of Constitution Hill."

August 3, 1798.-I walked down Constitution Hill, and wrote Clara's two songs of the third Act in the Park. Just as I finished, with my pencil in my hand, saw I was observed by General F[itzpatrick].-Holcroft's Diary, p. 214.

On June 10, 1840, a lunatic named Edward Oxford fired at the Queen, as Her Majesty was proceeding with Prince Albert in an open phaeton up Constitution Hill. On June 29, 1850, Sir Robert Peel was riding up Constitution Hill, from Buckingham Palace, when, just by the wicket-gate leading into the Green Park, his horse shied and threw him; he was conveyed home, but survived only to July 2.

Constitutional Club, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, established in 1883 at 14 Regent Street "to promote the interests of the Conservative party in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." The terracotta building now occupied by the club in Northumberland Avenue (Robert William Edis, architect) was completed in 1887. The subscription for town members is 5 guineas, for country members 3 guineas. The entrance fee is 10 guineas.

Consumption Hospital, FULHAM ROAD, established in 1841 for the treatment of consumption and all other diseases of the chest. The foundation stone of the hospital was laid by the late Prince Consort, June 11, 1844. The building (which is of red brick with stone dressings; F. J. Francis, architect) was opened in 1846. The chapel of the hospital, by E. B. Lamb, architect, was founded in 1849 by the Rev. Sir Henry Foulis, Bart. The western wing was added in 1852, and towards this Jenny Lind presented in July 1848 £1606 16s., the proceeds of a concert held by her for its aid.

1 Armstrong's Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 270.

Converts, House of, CHANCERY LANE, was a convent under Carthusian rule, founded, 1233, by Henry III. for the reception and maintenance of Jews and Infidels converted to the Christian faith. It occupied the site of a certain Jew's house forfeited to the King, where now stand the Chapel and Office of the Rolls.

Then next was sometime the House of the Converted Jews, founded by King Henry III. . . who builded there for them a fair church, now used and called The Chappel for the Custody of Rolls and Records of Chancery. It standeth not far from the Old Temple, but in the midway between the Old Temple and the New. In the which House all such Jews and Infidels as were converted to the Christian Faith, were ordained and appointed (under an honest rule of life) sufficient maintenance.Strype, B. iii. P. 262.

For a time the foundation was flourishing as to members and satisfactory in conduct; but the banishment of the Jews from the kingdom in 1290, and perhaps the continued poverty of the house, contributed with other circumstances to keep down the number of new converts, the house continued to decline, and in 1377 Edward III. annexed it by letters patent to the office of the Keeper or Master of the Rolls. The street in which it stood, hitherto known as New Street, was thenceforth called Chancellor's (afterwards Chancery) Lane.

Conyhope Lane, POULTRY, the former name of the lane in which the Grocers' Hall stands. In Strype's Map (1720) the name is Grocers' Alley; it is now called Grocers' Hall Court.

Cooks' Hall, "situate on the east side of Aldersgate Street, facing Little Britain, an ancient building that escaped the Fire of London ;"1 but was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1771 and not rebuilt. The business of the Company is transacted at the Guildhall. The Company of Cooks, a mystery by ancient prescription, was incorporated in 22 Edward IV., 1482, and comprises a master, two wardens, an underwarden, court of assistants, and about seventy liverymen.

Coopers' Hall, BASINGHALL STREET, west side, next the City Library. The original hall was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt. This hall gave place in 1868 to the present smaller, but commodious building designed by Mr. G. B. Williams. The Coopers were a fraternity by prescription, and received a Charter of Incorporation, the 16th of Henry VII., 1501, and power was given to them in the following reign to search and gauge all beer, ale, and soap vessels within the City of London and two miles round the suburbs, for doing which they were to be paid a farthing on each cask. In 1420 it was ordained that every cooper should mark every barrel or kilderkin with his private or trade mark before it left his cooperage. In the last years of the State lotteries the tickets were drawn by Blue-Coat boys in Coopers' Hall, and here the last lottery was drawn, October 18, 1826.2

Copenhagen House, COPENHAGEN FIELDS, on the east side of Maiden Lane, a public-house or tavern in the parish of Islington, 1 Maitland, p. 763. Coopers' Hall in the Microcosm of London,

2 There is a view of the drawing of a lottery at vol. ii.