henish Wine Yard, Brewers' Yard, and Pensioners'
Alley--some of the slums which had sprung up outside the Abbey
precincts. Now Parliament Street in its turn is effaced, swallowed up in
an extended Whitehall. King Street has been completely swept away, as
one sweeps a row of crumbs from a cloth, but the part it played in the
ancient history of Westminster is not yet forgotten. Undoubtedly the
change could be justified: the thoroughfare is an important one, the
view as now seen from the direction of Charing Cross one of the finest
in the world; yet to gain it we have had to give, and one wonders
sometimes whether the gain counterbalances the loss.

Beyond the now vacant space on the north are the great group of
Government offices, the Home and Colonial Offices facing Parliament
Street, and behind them the India and the Foreign Offices. Above Downing
Street there are others, the Privy Council Office and the Treasury.

Downing Street is called after George Downing, an American Ambassador to
the Hague under Cromwell and in Charles II.'s reign. John Boyle, Earl of
Cork and Ossory and the last Earl of Oxford, lived here. Boswell
occupied a house in Downing Street in 1763. But the street is chiefly
associated with the official residence of the First Lord of the
Treasury. Sir Robert Walpole accepted this house from George II. on
condition it should belong to his successors in office for ever.

On the east side, nearly opposite Downing Street, Richmond Terrace
stands on the site of the Duke of Richmond's house, burnt down in 1790.
Beyond Richmond Terrace is Montagu House, the town residence of the Duke
of Buccleuch; the present building, which is of stone, in the Italian
style, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century.

Beyond, again, are Whitehall Gardens, on part of the site of the Privy
Gardens, belonging to Whitehall Palace. There is now a row of fine
houses overlooking the Embankment and the Gardens. One of these was the
residence of Sir Robert Peel. A great gallery of sculpture formerly
extended along this part of the Embankment. It was partly destroyed in
1778, and wholly burnt down some years later. Gwydyr House, a sombre
brick building with heavy stone facings over the central window and
doorway is now occupied by the Charity Commission; it was built by Adam.
Adjoining it is a new building with an angle tower and cupola; this
belongs to the Royal United Service Institute, and next door to it is
the banqueting-h