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1831.]

The Improvements near Charing-Cross.

premises of the British Museum are sufficiently extensive for whatever additional buildings are likely ever to be required; but any new situation might be found too confined, when the opportunity for enlarging it with advantage no longer existed. The national pictures at present remain in PallMall, at the house of the late Mr. Angerstein; all the sculpture belonging to the nation is at the British Museum.

The building formerly the Royal Stables, although possessed of some architural merit, will not be allowed to remain. It would not stand in the middle of that side of the area, but in the western half of it; a more important reason for its removal, however, is that the direction it takes is different from that which will be required; since the new street, in order to lead directly to the noble portico which is the great centre of attraction, must pass over the site of its eastern wing. These stables, part of a more extensive design never executed, were built in 1732, six years after St. Martin's church. They are now temporarily appropriated to two public objects; the ground floor to the menagerie formerly at Exeter Change, and the upper story to the "National Repository for the exhibition of specimens of new and improved productions of the artizans and manufacturers of the United Kingdom."

In the centre of the square it was designed to erect a large building, after the model of the Parthenon, to be devoted to the Royal Academy. This intention has been relinquished; and the site remains free for some national monument, which may reflect honour on the patriotism and the taste of the country. On each side stations are marked for equestrian statues of George the Third and George the Fourth.

Behind the old Royal stable on the north-west, some extensive foot barracks have been erected on what was the upper court of the Mews. The stack of building to the east of this consists principally of the Workhouse of St. Martin's parish, the back part of

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which has been rebuilt by the Commissioners. The corner house marked with the letter A is appropriated to the West London Provident Institution; that marked with the letter B is for the Royal Society of Literature,

On the opposite side of St. Martin's Lane stands the new residence of the incumbent of the parish; in a line with which are a new Vestry-room and National School. The two former of these have been erected by the Commissioners, in the place of those which gave way to the improvements. From the old vestry room to the new one has been removed a bust of a parochial benefactor, under which is the following inscription:

"The effigies of Richard Miller, esq. who has given to ye Charity Schools of this parish 500l., to the Library and Free School 3004, and for the building of the Vestryhouse 300l.; in memory of whose uncom mon benefactions, ye Vestry in his lifetime caus'd to be made and set up this his effigies A.D. 1726-7."

There also are placed some portraits of eminent Vicars, including Archbishops Lamplugh and Tennison, Bishops Lloyd (of Worcester), Green (Ely), and Pearce, and Archdeacon Hamilton;t as well as others of Gibbs the architect of the church, and Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, a parishioner chiefly immortalised by the tragical circumstances of his death.

The National School has been erected by subscription, on ground given by his Majesty King George IV.‡

The passage in front of these buildings leads directly to the new Lowther Arcade, the direction of which is calculated to entice a numerous concourse of passengers. A Bazaar, intended to take the place of that removed at Exeter Change, was, in Mr. Nash's oriignal plan, laid down on the ground behind the spot where Exeter Change stood. But, as this would have been no thoroughfare, its failure might reasonably have been anticipated. In the present situation, the reverse may be expected.

"The stables in the Meuse are certainly a very grand and noble building; but then they are in a very singular taste, a mixture of the rustic and the gothic together; the middle gate is built after the first, and the towers over the two others in the last."--Ka/ph. + See Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, vol. 1v. p. 193.

The Library School adjoining the workhouse (founded by Archbishop Tennison in 1685, which the Charing-Cross Act enabled the Commissioners to take down,) has not been disturbed, an alteration in the plan of the new barracks having made such encroachment unnecessary.

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The accompanying Engravings originally appeared in the Athenæum ; and are here inserted by favour of the Editor of that excellent weekly Paper.

THE NEW BUILDINGS IN WEST STRAND.

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The Lowther Arcade.-Golden-Cross Inn. [March,

The Lowther Arcade, which receives its name from the late very efficient First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, Lord Viscount Lowther, will be 245 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 35 feet high. It will contain twenty-five shops, the whole of which will have eighteen feet frontage, and the greater part will be 32 feet deep. All will have light and air in the rear. In the same triangular stack of building, there will be 20 shops in the Strand, 18 in William-street, and 9 in Adelaidestreet; making in the whole, with those in the Arcade, sixty-seven dwellings. The whole building terminates at each of the angles by a circular aræostyle octastyle temple of a composite order, surmounted by a balustrade, and a cupola crowned with a dome and a tholus. The architect and builder of the whole comprised in this triangle is Mr. William Herbert, of Farm-street, Berkeley-square.

The

buildings were commenced in November last, and we understand will be finished fit for occupation by Michaelmas next.

On the eastern boundary of the improvements will be Agar-street, so named from the present first Commissioner, the Rt. Hon. G. J. W. Agar Ellis. This will, in fact, be an enlargement of Castle Court, the houses on one side of which are sufficiently good to remain. The opposite side will be occupied by the Charing-Cross Hospital; and at the other angle of the same triangle of building, between William-street and Chandos-street, will be the Opthalmic Hospital.

Returning up the continuation of Pall-Mall East, the road passes over part of the old burial-ground of St. Martin's church. By the Act of Parliament, persons were allowed the expenses (in no case to exceed 107.) of removing the bodies of their relations* and we find that by the account made up on the 5th Jan. 1830, no less than 19531. 48. 8d. had then been spent on

"Not less than 700 bodies have already been removed from this ancient burial-place to the newly consecrated ground at Camdentown, and the church-yards of St. Clement's, St. Bride's, St. James's, and St. Anne's. The remaining bodies, &c. as yet to be exhumated, are calculated at 1000. The coffins are lodged so close to each other, as the excavation proceeds, that they have the appearance of a subterranean boarded floor." Times, Oct. 3, 1827.

this item. We may here notice with approbation the handsome iron railing with which the church-yard is now enclosed. It has been cast to the massive pattern of the old wrought iron railing in the front of the church; and has been fixed on a substantial wall of granite. But, with respect to that same old iron railing, there is an important consideration to be regarded, which we would beg to enforce, on better authority than our own:

"When the new street is completed, it will be the duty of the parish to remove the iron railing which now encloses the portico; and if such a fence be necessary, (which doubtless it is), to set it back quite clear of the columns, into which it has been originally very injudiciously introduced. The columns have already received much injury from this circumstance, by the perpetual contraction and expansion of the metal, nor is it less injurious to the majestic effect of the portico of this elegant Church."

Memoir, by Joseph Gwill, Architect, in Britton's and Pugin's " Public Buildings."

In the smaller triangle of building at the westernmost end of the Strand, Mr. Nash assigned stations for the Vicar's house, the Athenæum, and the Golden Cross inn, with its extensive stables. The first of these, as we have already described, has been erected to the north of the church; the second has found another locality in Waterloo Place; the great coach inn will occupy a considerable portion of this space (as shown in our plan), although not exactly as Mr. Nash originally designed it. It has been stated in the newspapers that a society of gentlemen are in treaty for the contiguous ground, "for erecting a suite of rooms, to be let for concerts, balls, masquerades, theatrical and other exhibitions relating to the arts,”—in short, to be applied to the various uses served by the late Argyll Rooms in Regent-street, which were burnt last year, and have since been converted into shops.

The purchase of the old Golden Cross was by far the largest the Commissioners had to make. It was concluded on the 28th Dec. 1827, when those extensive premises, together with three houses in St. Martin's Lane, and two houses and workshops in Frontier Court, were bought of George Howard and others for the sum of 30,000l.†

+ Report of Commissioners, 1829.

1831.]

Earl of Bantry's Family.-Grendon Family.

The highly desirable project for a renewal of Hungerford Market, the plan of which is included in our plate, is the independent enterprise of a Joint Stock Company. The architect is Mr. Charles Fowler, and we shall take an early opportunity of publishing some details, in addition to what has already appeared in our last volume, part 1. p. 264.

We may here add that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests have a Bill now passing through Parliament, to enable them

1, to form a new Street from the Strand opposite Waterloo Bridge to Charles-street, Covent Garden;

2, to improve Bow-street, by widen. ing the north end into Long Acre;

3, to close up part of Gloucestercourt, St. James's-street, now rendered useless in consequence of the wider communication formed into King-street; and

4, to grant to the Westminster National Free School the site of its premises, at a small nominal rent, for the term of ninety-nine years.

Mr. URBAN, Cork, Jan. 20. THE inquiry in your Minor Correspondence for December, regarding the trial between James Annesley, Esq. and Richard Earl of Anglesea, refers to circumstances intimately connected with the foundation of the Earl of Bantry's family.

At the period in question, the land which formed the subject of the lawsuit, consisting of the fertile island of Whiddy near Bantry, and a vast tract of mountains round the Bay, was farmed by two persons named White and Despard, who had emigrated from the Queen's County. At Whiddy, however, they realized good fortunes, ostensibly by agriculture, but much increased, as was reported, by illicit trade, for which this remote and almost inaccessible district at that time afforded great facilities. Despard, satisfied with his acquisitions, sold his share of the farm to White, and returned to the Queen's County. The son of the latter was at this time in London, studying for the Bar, and having formed some acquaintance with the celebrated Lord Mansfield, found means to ascertain that learned Lord's opinion on the subject in dispute, whereupon his father contracted with that party which

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he knew to be the stronger of the two, for the purchase of the fee simple of the estate. I am not acquainted with the manner in which the suit terminated, but it was of course in favour of White, whose family are in possession of the estate.

The modern peerages state that the family of White have resided at Bantry since the period of the Commonwealth; but they carefully abstain from giving the early particulars of the family, and confine themselves to general statements. I would suggest a probable descent. The name of Simon prevails in his Lordship's family. Hence it seems probable that they are descended from a Simon White, who obtained a grant of land in the county of Limerick soon after the Restoration. He and a Robert Wilkinson jointly had a grant of a good estate in the barony of Ownybeg, in that county. Mr. White, the first settler at Bantry, was, I think, great-grandfather of the Earl of Bantry.

As I am on the subject of genealogies, I wish to make some inquiries of your Correspondents. I find an old paper containing pedigrees of the different families through whom the estate of Shenston in Staffordshire passed. Among them is a particular account of the eminent family of Grendon, one of whose members was summoned to Parliament in the reign of Edward III. The account terminates with the falling of the estate into the hands of the Crown, temp. Hen. VII. Notwithstanding which, the following note is at the foot of the paper:

7ber 1668. This is the coppie of what I founde amongst my old writings at Shenston, parte of which land I enjoy to this day. THO. GRENDON."

On the back is a note by another person, stating that this was a copy of his grandmother's pedigree from his uncle Grendon of London.

Now it is clear, from Thomas Grendon's note, that he had an ancient residence of Shenston, where his ancient family papers remained. Perhaps some of your Correspondents can give some account of this family of Grendon, and how the estate of Shenston fell a second time to the family, and at what period, and who is the present possessor? Indeed, that part which Thomas Grendon inherited, may have descended to him from the original Grendons, and been originally separated

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