Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/439

 10° s.1v.N<>v.4.1906.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 361 LOIVYDON, SA TURDAY, NOVEMBER L, 1905, CONT ENTS.-No. 97. NOTES :-Kingsway and Aldwych, 361-Henoch Clapham, 2462-Magdalen College School and the ‘ D.N.B.,’ 364- Shakespeare at Wilton House-Nelson Panoramas-N el- a-»n°s Patent of Peerage-‘ The Death of Nelson ’-Horatio -Vanishing London-George IV. : an Appreciation, 3f*5- °‘ Famous " Chelsea-°‘ Paunches," a Kind ot Silk-Robert Goodwin of Derry, 366. QU ERIES :-“ Photography " - " Pickerldge " : " Pucker- nlge " - “ Plece~broker.” 367 - Shakespeare's Portrait- Jamea V.’s Poems-“ This too shall pass away ”-Davies nf Cornwall - Catalogues of MSS., 368 - Mr. Gilbert, Mathematlclan-Bequests payable in the Church Porch- W. T. Streader-William Mll|er’s Engravings-Douglas of Domock-Authors of Quotations Wanted-"Nobile vir- tutis genus est patientia ”-Anthony Bec-Wakerley. 369. RRPLIBS :-Nelson's Signal-Nelson's Uniform-Glbhon’s G'-ek, 370-Brougham Castle-Crown Street. Soho, 373- ° - es Miserables’-Ripley Arms-Henry Alvarez: Henry / .way, 374-Col. Pitt, 1711-Scallions-‘° Beside"-Nu|nis- matic, 375-Glbbets-Wyrley's Derbyshire Church Notes -Tue Duke’s Baguio-Roblna Cromwell-A Nameless hook-Macdonald of Moidart, 376. N . lTES ON BOOKS =-‘ The English Dialect Dictionary _ and Grammar ’-‘ Gesta Rumanornm '-‘ Jane Austen and her Times/ Booksellers’ Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents. §utrs. KING-SYVAY AND ALDWYCH. THE inauguration by the King on 18 Octo- ber of these splendid new thoroughfares has been very pleasing to all elderly Londoners, who since the forties of the last century have watched the slow but constant advance of their cherished city from the reproach of ugliness to a claim for beauty. The claim for magnitude, wealth, and history is of long standing, and many fine buildings have from old existed between the ancient Abbey in the West and tle historic Tower in the East. The master, Wren, had left to us St. Paul’s and many architectural treasures which ‘* age cannot wither, nor custom stale their infinite variety.” But these and other fine edifices were found in narrow and dingy Streets which it has been the laborious task gf the last sixty years to reform. There has been a cry for width and open spaces, and we would look back on what has been done. Vithin the bounds of the old City have been effected the reformation of Smithfield, the formation of Queen Victoria Street and Cannon Street, the abolition of the toilsome Sngw Hill by the great Viaduct and its level continuation towards the West. Beyond thg City bounds we_have the completion of Oxford Street, which had been formerly embarrassed at Bloomsbury; and the new arteries Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road have pierced the slums that disgraced London, and in opening wide routes of communication between North and South have been the forerunner of the still greater way which has just been opened. We have seen the transformation of Leicester Square from a wretched waste to a garden oasis. Hyde Park Corner has become one of the finest spaces in European cities. Picca- dilly is in the throes of expansion, Kensing- ton is striving against its ancient narrow- ness. At Charintg Cross old Northumber- land House was ound an obstacle, and has been cleared away to make avenues to the great Embankment, the grandest of all new routes, which, limiting the Thames, has made new spaces for London and given us refreshing riverside gardens. Parliament Street is now a majestic approach to the heart of the Empire, if thus we may term “the Houses,” t e source of its laws and government. And here, although I must not, as I should like, enumerate the many important buildings of the sixty years, we may claim Westminster Bridge as a very noble passage of the great river, and also Blackfriars Bridge, of still greater width. Returning to Charing Cross, we find the wide £38 through which is to debouch the ampli- Mall, the splendid approach to the Palace, the elevation of which will some day be made worthy of it, and of which, in the mean time, the memorial to the good Queen will be an appropriate feature. The list must not be lengthened; so by the historic Strand, observing) on the way the new stately hotels and t eatres, we reach the really handsome Place where the two beautiful churches stand as foci to the grand new avenues which have prompted these remarks. When bordered by edifices of scale and merit equal to those already reared, they will largely add to the grandeur of London. The nomenclature has no doubt been well considered, and we know that choice has iluctuated, and that the names originally proposed have not stood. One of these seemed to have a political bias, and happily it has not been adopted; the other has been partially maintained. Our good King’s name was to have been carried, but “ King Edward’s Avenue,” a. three-worded name, was thought to be of inconvenient length. So a compound name was found, and probably found in the neighbourhood, though it had long been obsolete. For at the northern termination of the new route was formerly a “King’s Way.” The name