s (centre and west wing) of Schomberg House, built about the
middle of the seventeenth century. The first Schomberg came over in the
train of William of Orange; he was Count in his own country, bore
several French titles, and was created an English Duke. He was killed at
the Battle of the Boyne. The house was later occupied by Cumberland of
Culloden, George III.'s uncle, and subsequently by Astley the painter.
Astley divided it into three parts, reserving the centre for his own
use. Among the tenants who succeeded him we find the names of Cosway,
Paine the bookseller, and Nathaniel Hone. In the western wing
Gainsborough lived, so the building has every right to its
distinguishing panel of palette and brushes. During Gainsborough's
occupancy everyone of wealth, beauty or fashion in the society of the
day resorted here to have their features immortalized. This house is now
part of the War Office, which, in a previous stage of its career, was
the Ordnance Office.

The entrance to the War Office stands back behind a courtyard in which
is a statue of Lord Herbert of Lea. The War Office was originally at the
Horse Guards, and since its removal has gradually extended its premises
by absorbing one house after another. We now come to a long series of
clubs. The Carlton is rich in ornament, with polished granite columns
decorating a front of Caen stone. The design was by Sydney Smirke, and
is said to be founded on that of a Venetian palace. It contrasts with
its neighbour, the Reform, which presents a breadth of plain surface
broken only by little pediments over the windows. This was the work of
Sir Charles Barry, and was copied from the Farnese Palace at Venice, of
which the upper storey was the work of Michael Angelo. It is a dull,
heavy-looking piece of work. On part of its site stood the house of
Angerstein, a Russian merchant, whose collection of pictures formed the
nucleus of our National Gallery.

The Travellers', next door, also the work of Barry, is in an Italian
style. One of the rules of this club is that no person shall be eligible
for membership who shall not have travelled out of the British Isles at
least 500 miles in a direct line from London.

The Athenaeum is one of the most princely of clubs. It was established in
1823, and the present house was built about half a dozen years later.
Decimus Burton was the architect, and his work is Grecian, with a frieze
copied from the famous procession in the Parthenon. The