are of Italian workmanship, and were given by the late Sir
Edgar Boehm. The oratory is famous for its music, and the crowds that
gather here are by no means entirely of the Roman Catholic persuasion.
Near the church-house is a statue of Cardinal Newman.

Not far westward the new buildings of the South Kensington Museum are
rapidly rising. The laying of their foundation-stone was one of the last
public acts of Queen Victoria. Until these buildings were begun there
was a picturesque old house standing within the enclosure marked out for
their site, and some people imagined this was Cromwell House, which gave
its name to so many streets in the neighbourhood; this was, however, a
mistake. Cromwell House was further westward, near where the present
Queen's Gate is, and the site is now covered by the gardens of the
Natural History Museum.

All that great space lying between Queen's Gate and Exhibition Road, and
bounded north and south by Kensington Gore and the Cromwell Road, has
seen many changes. At first it was Brompton Park, a splendid estate,
which for some time belonged to the Percevals, ancestors of the Earls of
Egmont. A large part of it was cut off in 1675 to form a nursery garden,
the first of its kind in England, which naturally attracted much
attention, and formed a good strolling-ground for the idlers who came
out from town. Evelyn mentions this garden in his diary at some length,
and evidently admired it very much. It was succeeded by the gardens of
the Horticultural Society, and the Imperial Institute now stands on the
site. The Great Exhibition of 1851 (see p. 66) was followed by another
in 1862, which was not nearly so successful, and this was held on the
ground now occupied by the Natural History Museum; it in turn was
followed by smaller exhibitions held in the Horticultural Society's
grounds.

In an old map we see Hale or Cromwell House standing, as above
indicated, about the western end of the Museum gardens. Lysons gives
little credence to the story of its having been the residence of the
great Protector. He says that during Cromwell's time, and for many years
afterwards, it was the residence of the Methwold family, and adds: "If
there were any grounds for the tradition, it may be that Henry Cromwell
occupied it before he went out to Ireland the second time." This seems a
likely solution, for it is improbable that a name should have impressed
itself so persistently upon a district without some connecti