Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/168

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. m. MAR. 4, -99.

Pictland, including Perth, Fife, Banff, Aber- deen, Kincardine, Forfar that is, the whole district extending from Aberfoyle to Aber- deen. The Irish Scots pressed into Perthshire, but it is Pictish land. Pictavia had its own race, history, and local characteristics.

Lodonia, or the Lothian province, was a well-known division in former times. It is North Anglian, and has the Anglo-Saxon mark in its local names, the hams and hames. With it would go Stirling and Berwick.

Strathclyde was in Celtic times part of Cumbria, and included the country of the Strathclyde Britons and Galloway, originally the country of the Southern Picts, afterwards overrun by the Irish Gael, from whom it derives its name. It is the province of almost all the romance, heroism, and poetry of Scotland, of the Arthurian romance, the country of Wallace and Bruce, of the Cove- nanters, of the Borders, of Scott, Burns, and Carlyle. It is still, after many changes, mainly Celtic. It may be described as the country lying between Dumbarton (Dunbriton) and

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Carlisle.

In Ireland the provinces, Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, are much the same now as they were at the beginning of the Christian era, except that County Cavan was inhabited by a Connaught tribe, and Louth belonged to Ulster. Meath for a time was recognized as a distinct province. The only trace that remains of its provincial character is the fact that its bishop is styled Most Reverend, and takes precedence of all the other bishops.

Of the races of these great divisions, Lein- ster, Northumbria, and Mercia are mixed or Anglo-Celtic. Three in Ireland, three in Scotland, and three in England are Celtic, three are Saxon, one purely Anglian, and one Jute. Nine in the United Kingdom are Celtic, three Anglo-Celtic, and six are Anglo- Saxon. C. S.

WESTMINSTER CHANGES.

AT 8 th S. viii. 61, and again at 9 th S. i. 502, I gave some particulars as to ' Westminster Demolishments ' and ' Westminster Changes.' A walk round this neighbourhood, taken recently, has revealed the fact that during the last few months many alterations have taken place, and it seems desirable that the approximate date should be placed on record in the pages of ' N. & Q.,' so that the infor- mation may be ready to hand if and when required, in order to spare future writers some trouble in their researches.

In Rochester Row the small houses and shops numbered from 55 to 63 inclusive have

been pulled down, the land being required for the enlargement of the police-station and its belongings, the accommodation being very inadequate. In Vauxhall Bridge Road the demolition of the houses between 124 and 142 has been effected. Upon the portion of the land so cleared, from 124 to the corner of Bloomburg Street, is the new building for the Gordon Fistula Hospital, now approach- ing completion, the other portion being still unutilized.

In Vincent Square, hard by, has been erected the Grosvenor Hospital for Women, replacing some private houses which had previously been used for the purpose. In Moreton Street a few houses have been re- moved to provide a new and better approach to the church of St. James the Less, erected as a memorial to Dr. Monk, a former Canon of Westminster, arid subsequently Bishop of Gloucester. Some houses will be removed in Earl Street and Winchester Terrace in order to give access to the County Council buildings on the Millbank site when the L.C.C. and Office of Works really set about it. A plot of ground at the corner of Chapter arid Frederick Streets has been cleared, but at present the purpose for this is not apparent. It has opened up two clusters of very small house property known as Ridley Place and Griffiths Buildings, not of a sanitary character, I fear, but fully occupied by some of Westminster's poor, and destined to go,, as Douglas Gardens went a short time ago, the people having to shift as best they could.

Another vast clearance has taken place close by, all the houses from 52, Regency Street, adjoining the Westminster Radical Club, to the corner of Vincent Street, the whole of one side of Vincent Street to Hide Place, and Nos. 1 to 5 in the latter thoroughfare having gone, the report being that the land so cleared has been purchased by the Army and Navy Co-operative Society with a view of erecting thereon stables and other buildings for the purposes of their business; but this needs confirmation, as rumour says that Messrs. Wightman & Co., the well-known printers and stationers, have a portion of the Regency Street front for their new premises. Nos. 47, 48, 49, and 50, Hide Place are coming down, and on their site a parish room or mission hall for St. Mary's, Tothill Fields, will be put up, which erection will probably take in the ground occupied by 105 and 107, Vincent Street, now empty, and the house at the corner. A little court of insanitary houses rejoicing in the name of Paradise Place, was cleared of its residents and the houses