of
the seventeenth century the Duke of Manchester, Lord Privy Seal,
resided here also. At present the row is very dreary. The building in
which the Civil Service examinations are held stands on the east side.
This was erected in 1784 for the Ordnance Board, then given to the Board
of Control, and finally to the Civil Service Commissioners.

The Victoria Embankment was begun in 1864, and completed about six years
later. The wall is of brick, faced with granite and founded in Portland
cement; it looks solid enough to withstand the tides of many a hundred
years. The parapet is of granite, decorated by cast-iron standard lamps.
St Stephen's Club is on the Embankment, close by Westminster Bridge
Station. Further on is the huge building of the Police Commissioners,
known as New Scotland Yard, built in 1890 from designs of Norman Shaw,
R.A. It is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Force, and the
architecture is singularly well in keeping with its object. The building
is of red brick, with the tower floors cased in granite. It is in the
form of a square, built round an inner courtyard, and has an immense
bastion at each exterior angle. Besides the offices of the police force,
the Lost Property Office, the Public Carriage Office, and the Criminal
Investigation Department are here. The building communicates directly by
telephone with the Horse Guards, Houses of Parliament, British Museum,
and other public places, and has telegraphic communication with the
twenty-two head-offices of the Metropolitan Police district. The
Criminal Museum is open to the public under certain conditions.

Parliament Street and King Street have now been merged in one, and
together have become a part of Whitehall, so that the very names will
soon be forgotten. Yet King Street was once the direct land route to the
Abbey and Palace from the north, and its narrow span was perforce wide
enough for all the pageantry of funerals, coronations, and other State
shows that passed through it. It must be remembered that King Street
formerly ran right up to the Abbey precincts, from which it was
separated by a gate-house, called Highgate, built by Richard II.; but
the street was subsequently shorn of a third of its length, over which
now grows green grass in smooth lawns. The street was very picturesque:
"The houses rose up three and four stories high; gabled all, with
projecting fronts, story above story, the timbers of the fronts painted
and gilt, some of