ected here, 1881"; and a
further record: "Mr. Nicholas Butler founded the almshouses in Little
Chapel Street, near Palmer's Passage, for two of the most ancient
couples of the best repute, Anno Domini 1675; re-erected here 1881."
These are the Westminster United Almshouses. They were consolidated by
an order of the Charity Commission, dated July 11, 1879. The Grenadier
Guards Hospital is further down the row on the same side.

Vincent Square is the Westminster School playground. This space, of
about ten acres of land, has been the subject of much dispute between
the Dean and Chapter and the parish. It was first marked out as a
playground in 1810, but not enclosed by railings until 1842. Dr.
Vincent, Headmaster of the school and formerly Dean of Westminster, took
the lead in the matter, and the enclosure is therefore named after him.
The ground is now levelled, and forms magnificent playing-fields; from
the south end there is a fine view of many-towered Westminster. The
hospital of the Coldstream Guards is in one corner of the Square, and
next to it the Westminster Police Court. St. Mary's Church and Schools
are on the south side. The Grosvenor Hospital for Women and Children is
in Douglas Street close by. This originated in a dispensary in 1865.

The ground in the parish already traversed corresponds roughly with that
occupied by the once well-known Tothill Fields. Older writers call this
indifferently Tuthill, Totehill, Tootehill, but more generally Tuttle.
In Timbs' "London and Westminster" we read: "The name of Tot is the old
British word Tent (the German Tulsio), god of wayfarers and
merchants.... Sacred stones were set up on heights, hence called
Tothills." If ever there were a hill at Tothill Fields, it must have
been a very slight one, and in this case it may have been carted away to
raise the level elsewhere. We know that St. John's burial-ground was
twice covered with three feet of soil, and in the parish accounts we
read of gravel being carted from Tothill. The greater part of the ground
in any case can have been only low-lying, for large marshy pools
remained until comparatively recent times, one of which was known as the
Scholars' Pond. Dean Stanley has aptly termed these fields the
Smithfield of West London. Here everything took place which required an
open space--combats, tournaments, and fairs.

In a map of the middle of the eighteenth century we see a few scattered
houses lying to the south of Horsefer