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Admiralty (The Court of) was held formerly in Southwark (on St. Margaret's Hill, in part of the old church of St. Margaret), and was removed circ. 1675 to Doctors' Commons.1 It is now included in the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Divisions of the High Court of Justice. The Admiralty Court Registry is kept at Somerset House.

Adult Orphan Institution, ST. ANDREW'S PLACE, REGENT'S PARK. Instituted 1818, for the education and maintenance of unprovided orphan daughters of clergymen of the Established Church, and of military and naval officers, whom it receives at an age when they would be discharged from other institutions, and trains for governesses. No girl is admitted under 14 or above 17, and none remain after 19. It was originally proposed to make the institution a memorial of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, but this idea was soon dropped. The asylum was opened in Mornington Place (Nos. 32 and 33), and removed in 1824 to the Regent's Park; the house there being built on a plan gratuitously furnished by John Nash, the architect, and on ground granted to the institution by the Government. In 1879 the scheme was enlarged to admit orphan daughters of civil servants of the first class, and at the same time the title was changed to the Princess Helena College for Young Ladies. The college was removed in 1882 from the Regent's Park to Ealing.

African House, LEADENHALL STREET, was the office of the Royal African Company, a trading company established by Act 23 Geo. II., c. 31 (1754). In 1821 the Charter of Incorporation was recalled by Parliament 1 and 2 Geo. IV. c. 28, and the possessions of the Company on the west coast of Africa were by the same Act annexed to and made dependencies upon the colony of Sierra Leone. An African Company was formed in London as early as 1588.

Agar Town, a poor district near St. Pancras Workhouse, almost entirely covered by the warehouses of the Midland Railway Company, to whom the fee-simple was transferred by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The locality was named after William Agar, a lawyer, popularly called Counsellor Agar, on whose property a large number of small houses were built about the year 1841. The poverty and wretchedness exhibited here caused Dickens to style it in 1851 a Suburban Connemara. Tom Sayers the pugilist lived in Agar Town for many years.

Agnes (St.), ALDERSGATE. Among the manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's is a "Grant by Herbert de Sancto Albano to Garin, son of Garner le Turner, of a piece of ground before the Church of St. Agnes, 'de Aldredes gate.' Report by H. C. Maxwell Lyte (Ninth Report, Historical MSS. Comm., Appendix, p. 2). Agnes Le Clair (St.) A celebrated well near Old Street Road. It was situated at the Old Street end of Paul Street, the northern ex1 Hatton's New View of London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1708, vol. ii. p. 639.

tension of Wilson Street, Finsbury Square. On June 15, 1381, after Sir William Walworth had slain Wat Tyler in "Smethefelde," he pursued the rebels to "the spring that is called Whitewellbeche," which Mr. Riley thinks must be the same that was called Dame Annis the clear; 1 but this is certainly a mistake. Whitewellbeche was a close or meadow, belonging to the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, at the opposite end of Old Street, where is now Wilderness Row, or Clerkenwell Road.2

Somewhat north from Holywell is one other well, curved square with stone, and is called Dame Annis the clear, and not far from it, but somewhat west, is also one other clear water called Perillous pond [Peerless Pool], because divers youths by swimming therein have been drowned.-Stow, p. 7.

...

Gent. But, sir, here is stones set upright; what is the meaning of them? Citizen. Marry where they stand, runs from a spring called Dame Annis de Cleare, called by the name of a rich London widow, called Annis Clare, who, matching herself with a riotous courtier, in the time of Edward I., who vainely consumed all her wealth, and leaving her much in povertie, there she drowned herself, being then but a shallow ditch or running water.- The Pleasant Walks of Moore Fields, a Dialogue between a Country Gentleman and a Citizen, 1607. When we got into Moorfields away he had me through Long Alley, and cross Hog Lane and Holloway [Holywell] Lane into the middle of the great fields which, since that, has been called the Farthing-Pie-House-Fields. There we would have sat down, but it was full of water; so we went on, crossed the road at Anniseed Cleer, and went into the field where now the great hospital [Haberdashers' Almshouses] stands.-De Foe's Colonel Jack, p. 45.

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As recently as the early years of the present century the district south of Old Street-the Tabernacle Walk and Paul Street—was known as St. Agnes-le-Clair Fields; but the fields have long been built over. The northern end of Tabernacle Walk is still called St. Agnes Terrace, but St. Agnes Crescent and St. Agnes Street have disappeared or received other names.

Agricultural Hall, ISLINGTON,—entrances Liverpool Road and Islington Green, was erected 1861-1862, Mr. Fred. Peck, architect, for the Christmas Cattle Shows of the Smithfield Club. The building covers an area of nearly three acres, and cost about £40,000. The hall was opened on June 24, 1862, with a Dog Show, and the first Cattle Show took place on December 6 of the same year. The Great Hall is 384 feet long and 217 wide, has galleries 34 feet wide, borne on iron columns, and is covered with an arched roof of iron and glass. There are besides subsidiary exhibition courts, refreshment rooms, etc. The principal front in the Liverpool Road is of brick, but is little more than a great entrance flanked by towers. The Christmas Cattle Show, for which it is well adapted, is still the main purpose of the building; but in summer and autumn great horse and other shows are held in it, and at other times it is let for circus and other performances and exhibitions for walking, running, and wrestling matches; and on Sundays it has been used as a place of worship. A large number of special exhibitions, such as Building, Sanitary, Furniture, and Dairy Exhibitions have been held in successive years.

1 Riley, Memorials, p. 451.

2 Cotton. MSS. Claud, E. vi. 19.

Air Street, PICCADILLY (crosses Regent Quadrant to Brewer Street), was in existence in 1659,1 and was then the most westerly street in London. In 1671 Colonel Panton applied for licence to "build and finish certain houses in the continuation of a street, named Windmill Street, from the upper end of the Haymarket to the highway leading from Soho Square to Ayre Street and Paddington."2 When Lauder in 1750 published his disgraceful "Essay" on Milton, he wrote from "the corner house, the bottom of Ayre Street, Piccadilly." Thomas Phillips, R.A. (d. 1845), was living at No. 20 in 1796.

It

Alban's (St.), between BROOK STREET, Holborn, and BALDWIN'S GARDENS, Gray's Inn Road, a church noteworthy architecturally, and from the notoriety acquired by the extreme ritualistic ceremonial, vestments, processions, decorations, and practices of its services. was erected 1860-1863 on the site of a training school for young pickpockets, known as the "Thieves Kitchen," in the midst of a wretched district, and was for many years the scene of the devoted labours of the vicar, the late Rev. Alex. Heriot Mackonochie. Mr. William Butterfield was the architect; the cost, £35,000, was defrayed by Mr. J. G. Hubbard, M.P., now Lord Addington. The building is of brick, Gothic; spacious, unusually lofty, and well lighted, the dimensions being 120 feet long, 50 wide, and 90 high. There is no east window, the whole east end being covered with quaint paintings by L'Estrange and Preedy, and elaborate symbolical decorations in alabaster and coloured marbles.

Alban's (St.), WOOD STREET. A church in Cripplegate Ward; a piece of well-proportioned quasi-Gothic, built in the years 1684-1685 by Sir Christopher Wren. There is a curious old hour-glass attached to the pulpit. The church described by Stow was taken down in 1632, and the new one built in its stead (by Inigo Jones, it is thought) was burnt in the Great Fire. It serves as well for St. Olave's, Silver Street. The living, is a rectory in the gift alternately of Eton College and the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, valued at £530. Sir John Cheke (d. 1557), who taught "Cambridge and King Edward Greek," was buried in the old church.

Alban's (St.) Street, PALL MALL, a small street removed, in 1815, to make way for Waterloo Place and Regent Street, so called after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban, from whom Jermyn Street also derives its name. Its name is preserved in St. Alban's Place, a paved passage running from Charles Street to Jermyn Street, parallel to the Haymarket. St. Evremond, after being driven from France, writes, on his second visit to England, “November 23, 1678 . . . Je suis logé dans St. Alban's Street au loin."

December 28, 1710.-I came home to my new lodging, in St. Alban Street, where I pay the same rent (eight shillings a week) for an apartment, two pair of

1 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-theFields.

2 Elmes, Life of Sir Christopher Wren, 4to ed. p. 305.

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

18 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. 6 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

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 1810. 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.