IA STREET.

The word Westminster used in the title does not mean that city which has
its boundaries stretching from Oxford Street to the river, from the
Broad Walk, Kensington Gardens, to Temple Bar. A city which embraces the
parishes of St. George's, Hanover Square; St. James's, Piccadilly; St.
Anne's, Soho; St. Paul's, Covent Garden; St. Clement Danes; St. Mary le
Strand, etc.; and which claims to be older even than London, dating its
first charter from the reign of King Edgar. But, rather, Westminster in
its colloquial sense, that part of the city which lies within the
parishes of St. Margaret and St. John. When anyone says, 'I am going to
Westminster,' or, 'I am staying in Westminster,' it is this district
that he means to indicate.

The parishes of St. Margaret and St. John include the land bounded on
one side by the river; on another by a line running through the Horse
Guards and diagonally across St. James's Park to Buckingham Gate; and on
the third by an irregular line which crosses Victoria Street to the west
of Carlisle Place, and subsequently cuts across the Vauxhall Bridge Road
near Francis Street, and, continuing at a slight angle to the course of
the Bridge Road, strikes the river at a spot beyond the gasworks between
Pulford Terrace and Bessborough Place. There is also another piece of
land belonging to St. Margaret's parish; this lies detached, and
includes part of Kensington Gardens and the Round Pond; but it is only
mentioned to show it has not been overlooked, for the present account
will not deal with it. The triangular space roughly indicated above is
sufficient for one ramble.

Within this space stand, and have stood, so many magnificent buildings
closely connected with the annals of England that Westminster may well
claim to occupy a unique place in the history of the nation. The effects
of two such buildings as the Abbey and Palace upon its population were
striking and unique.

The right of sanctuary possessed by the Abbey drew thieves, villains,
and rogues of all kinds to its precincts. The Court drew to the Palace a
crowd of hangers-on, attendants, artificers, work-people, etc. When the
Court was migratory this great horde swept over Westminster at
intervals like a wave, and made a floating population. In the days of
"touching" for "King's evil," when the Court was held at Whitehall, vast
crowds of diseased persons gathered to Westminster to be touched. In
Charles II.'s time weekly sittin