country in 1647, he returned with anything but reluctance to his beloved
London. He had resumed lay dress, but was restored to his living in 1662
in reward for his devoted loyalty to the Stuarts. The great musician,
Henry Purcell, was born in St. Ann's Lane. Seymour, writing in 1735,
says: "Great St. Ann's Lane, a pretty, handsome, well-built and
well-inhabited place." St. Matthew's Church and Schools were built by
Sir G. A. Scott in 1849-57.

Great Peter Street is a dirty thoroughfare with some very old houses. On
one is a stone slab with the words, "This is Sant Peter Street, 1624. R
[a heart] W." This and its neighbour, Little Peter Street, obviously
derive their names from the patron saint of the Abbey. Strype describes
Great Peter Street pithily as "very long and indifferent broad." Great
Peter Street runs at its west end into Strutton Ground, a quaint place
which recalls bygone days by other things than its name, which is a
corruption of Stourton, from Stourton House. The street is thickly lined
by costers' barrows, and on Saturday nights there is no room to pass in
the roadway.

Before examining in detail the part that may be called the core and
centre of Westminster, that part lying around the Abbey and Houses of
Parliament, it is advisable to begin once more at the west end of
Victoria Street, and, traversing the part of the parish on the north
side, gather there what we may of history and romance.

PART II

NORTH OF VICTORIA STREET.

The United Westminster Schools, constituted 1873, stand on the east side
of Palace Street. These comprise Emanuel Hospital, Greencoat School (St.
Margaret's), Palmer's (Blackcoat School), and Hill's Grammar School. The
building in Palace Street stands back from the road behind a space of
green grass. Over one doorway are medallions of Palmer and Hill, and
over the other the Royal arms, and the structure is devoid of any
architectural attractiveness. The beauty which belonged to the older
buildings has not been revived, but replaced by a hideous
utilitarianism. Watney's Brewery occupies the ground opposite to the
school. The schools of St. Andrew are in this street, and beyond is the
Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Edward. Stafford Place is
called after Viscount Stafford, on the site of whose garden wall it is
said to have been built. This wall formed the parish boundary, and a boy
was annually whipped upon it to impress the bounds upon his memory.

Tart H