The History of the Squares of London; Topographical & Historical (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III ST. JAMES'S SQUARE " We call it little London; and it outdoes ... all the Squares in dressing and breeding; nay, even the Court itself, under the rose."?Shadwell's Bury Fair, Act I., Scene I. A THOUGH St. James's Square is an extensive one, according to Hatton, in 1708 extending to almost 4 acres, and to 5 acres, by the survey taken in 1853, it contains fewer houses than any square of a similar size; which helps to show that the mansions here are some of the largest and most important in London. Besides this, its claims as a fashionable centre have long been established, and still hold good, although some of the residences within it have passed from the noble owners who once occupied them into the use of clubs, and for other non-residential purposes. The Square dates from the time of Charles II., and has been inhabited by so many illustrious people that it would have required a volume to adequately deal with it, had not such a book already been written by Mr. Arthur Dasent,1 whose researches have been so painstaking and thorough that any one treading the same ground must perforce, if he wishes to avoid the sloughs of error, walk in the footsteps that have been so clearly marked out by the first historian of this interesting spot. Here, at any rate, I can pretend to no original research, and I tremble to think of the mistakes I might have committed had I not had the advantage of Mr. Dasent's learned and interesting work to guide me in the right path.2 I have, in other parts of this book, set down what Ralph, in his Review of Publick Buildings in London, published in 1734, has had to say about the London Squares in general; as his criticism is nearly always adverse, it says something for St. James's Square that he should find it having " an appearance of ...