Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/202

 16-2

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. TIL MARCH 2, 1907.

house of many angles/ 1 which was originally erected for the St. Margaret's Workhouse, and subsequently named Wellington K in use bv the Government as quarters for married 'soldiers, was demolished, to give place to a new Wellington House, a pile of flats, and a residential hotel upon an im- proved plan, and at what are said to be ! enormous rents : but of this more anon. Xo. 171, Victoria Street, at the corner of Francis Street the building known as Victoria House, and intended at the forma- tion of this street to be a public-house is now being altered in many ways : but the work only began in the last quarter of the year, and will take some time to complete. In this street a few more of the ground-floor flats were converted into shops during the year, and still a few more are to be trans- formed. The last house in St. Margaret's parish on the north side approaching the station, and on the banks of King's Scholars' Pond sewer which crosses the street at this spot was the last one done.

From Francis Street, opposite the rear of Westminster Cathedral, a new street, alluded to in my last year's review, called Still in gton Street why or wherefore no one seems to know has" been formed, and was opened about November. As before stated, the construction of this street has necessitated the removal of a number of small houses known as Buckingham Cottages, most of them disappearing between March and June. In the clearance at this spot were included the houses 22 to 34 Willow Street (even numbers), which were demolished in June ; but the vacant land is as yet unutilized. The street is in two parishes, the newly formed part being in St. Margaret's parish, while the portion which carries it on into Rochester Row is in St. John's parish, and was already in existence, and known as a portion of Buckingham Cottages. The street thus added to the map of London is one that does not seem likely to be of much use, as it virtually leads to no place of consequence.

A portion of the extension of the London tramway system over Westminster Bridge and along" the Victoria Embankment is within the scope of this article, for St. - parish takes from the centre of the bridge to Horse Guards Avenue, and it must therefore be mentioned that the work was started as soon as the Parliamentary- session closed, and before the end of the year another step towards linking the lines north and south of the Thames had taken place.

It may be thought worthy of notice that j a small "portion of the site of the Queen i

Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace is in St. Margaret's parish. W-"rk is going on there, but it is not possible t yet what progress has been made. So far as I can say. this exhausts the list of changes during 1906 : but many and extensive are those likely to take place during the year just opened. W. E. HARLAXD^OXLEY. -: minster.

The last paragraph of the note on * V. minster Changes, 1906,' ante, p. 125, is not quite correct. College dormitory has been re-roofed owing to the timely discovery that- some of the old beams were utterly decayed, but no new story has been added. "*Saig: the College sanatorium, at the end which abuts on Great College Street, has been enlarged, and that must be the change to- which your correspondent refers.

OLD WESTMINSTER.

A SCOTCH GARDEN OF EDEX.

Ix an old album, such as was dear to the gentle sex in the early Victorian period, I came across ' Themus Mac-na Torshach's Idea of the Garden of Eden and the Origin of the First Dress worn by Man.' Thinking it may interest the readers of ' X. A I have copied it. It was signed by Mr. James Graeme, who was Laird of Garvock, in Perthshire.

Ere the Laird cardit or the Lady sian In frags' skins their hale race ran.

"Well," said Tortoise, "what would ye give for such bonny braes and birks and rivers as'are in the forrest of Athol. if they could be transferred to your wild count

Badenoch? Ye "re joost as bad as our minister: but fat seed the man say ony mair about the matter, fan I tell 'im 111 prove" frae his ain bible, ony day he likes, that the Lios-mor, as we ca" the great garden in Gaelic, stood in its day joost far the Muir o ? Badenoch lys noo. an" in nae ither place ? Is no there an island in Loch Lhinne that bears the name o" the Lios-Mor to this blessed day ? Fan I tell you that, and that I hae seen the island mysel". fa can doubt my word?"
 * An" are there nae bonny braes and birks in

" But. Mac, the Bible says the garden was planted eastward in Eden. 7 ' "Hoot! ay: but that disna say but the garden might be in Badenoch ! for Eden is a Gaelic word for a river, an' a'm shure there "s nae want q" them there : an ? as for its bein' east o'er, that is, when Adam planted the Liosmor, he sat in a bonny bothan on a orae in Lochaber an ? nae doot Itikit eastwar to Badenoch, an' saw a ? thing sproutin 7 and jrrowiiv atween 7 im an" the sun fan it cam rippliir o'er the braes frae Athol in the braw simmer mor:

" But, Mac, the Bible further says, they took fig- leaves and made themselves aprons. You cannot say that figs ever grew in Badenoch."

" Hout tout ! there "s naebody can tell fat grew