Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/14

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. JULY 2, 1904.

la that portion of the alley leading out of Oreat College Street there was probably a " right of way," as it is not unlikely some of the houses in Barton Street had an outlet at the rear into it.

There is a very fine map of London in the Westminster City Library, Great Smith Street, described as a " Plan of London and Westminster, with the Boro' of South wark, including the adjacent Suburbs, on which every Dwelling-house is described and numbered. Surveyed and first published by Richard Horwood, 1799." In the edition for 1817 Black Dog Alley is clearly shown as A thoroughfare, as fronting on it are three cottages at the rear of Nos. 5, 6, and 7, Bowling Street, now Tufton Street, and also a building hard by No. 4. The opening is shown on this plan as between Nos. 1 and 2, College Street, and the portion at right angles with this part entered Bowling Street between the houses numbered 4 and 5 ; but in the case of Great College Street it is known that the numbering of the houses has been changed since that time, as No. 1 has long been at the Millbank end, and it is not unlikely that a change may have been made in the other street indeed, it must have been so, for this map shows two lots of houses, both starting at No. 1, one con- tinuing to 7, and the other to 10. In Mr. J. K Smith's l Memorials of St. John's,' to which reference has been made, there is a very precise (albeit small) map of the parish, in which Black Dog Alley is marked, though unfortunately the name has been omitted: but it is well that so useful a book has pre- served it for future inquirers.

There was at the end facing Great College fetreet, and behind the Barton Street houses, a small building which in its time had played many parts. It was entered up two steps through a door in the wall, and had i the home of a singing class, a dancing academy (kept, years ago, by Mr. North-

inSVTJi  a s ybe \f y T? lll, U8fcr a fclon afc P- 28 ^ of Sir Walter Besant's 'Westminster.' The fact

reme m W en Wa8 Cl / ed by a S^e (which I

eraember being so for manv years) would

seem to militate against there having been a

right of way through its entire length, for, so far as my memory serves, it was a very rare occurrence to find the gate open, and, as a rule, it was not only shut, but locked.

A notice, dated 21 December, 1903, signed by "A. W. Mills, of 4, Chancery Lane, London, solicitor for the applicants " (the Governors of Westminster School), was, on or about that date, affixed to both ends of the alley, to the effect that on

" the 12th day of January next, at 11.15 of the clock in the forenoon, application will be made to His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, acting in and for the St. Margaret's Division in the County of Lon- don, at a Special Session to be holden at Caxton Hall, Caxton Street, in the City of Westminster, in the said county, for an order for discontinuing and stopping up a certain Court, Alley or Place, in the parish of St. John the Evangelist, leading from Great College Street to Tufton Street, and known as Black Dog Alley."

No opposition was offered at the meeting before the Justices, and the desired permis- sion was granted ; but it is only within the last month or two that the place was closed and its existence was terminated. The work of erecting additional buildings for West- minster School is now being pushed forward at this spot, as was stated 10 th S. i. 302. In passing, I may say that the other portion of Black Dog Alley, leading from Tufton Street, had been closed and in part demolished some years ago, as it had become a veritable slum and the scene of much that was, in every way, objectionable.

W. E. HAKLAND-OXLEY. Westminster.

DESCENDANTS OF MARY, QTJEEN OF SCOTS. It may be of interest to note that the descendants of Mary Stuart, who, living three centuries ago, left but one child, are now to be found in, I believe, every Court in Europe with the exception of Turkey and Servia: in England the King, Queen, and Prince and Princess of Wales; Hussia, the Emperor, Empress, and Empress-mother; the German Emperor and Empress; the Austrian Emperor and heir-apparent; the exiled French royal family ; the King and heir-apparent of the Belgians; the Queen and Queen-mother of Holland ; the Queen, Crown Prince, and Crown Princess of Sweden; the King, Crown Prince, and Crown Princess of Denmark ; the King, Queen, and Queen- mother of Portugal ; Queen Isabella of Spain, Queen Christina, and Alfonso XIII. ; the King and Queen-Dowager of Italy; the Queen of Naples ; the King, Queen, Crown Prince, and Crown Princess of Greece: the Queen of Koumania ; the wife of the heir-apparent of