t for himself. He had a passion for animals,
particularly strange beasts, and gathered an odd collection round him,
somewhat to the dismay of his neighbours.

The popular Earl's Court Exhibition is partly in Kensington and partly
in Fulham; it is the largest exhibition open in London, and is
patronized as much because it is one of the few places to which the
Londoner can go to sit out of doors and hear a band after dinner, as for
its more varied entertainments.

One of the comparatively old houses of the neighbourhood of Earl's
Court, that has only recently been demolished, was Coleherne Court, at
the corner of Redcliffe Gardens and the Brompton Road. It is now
replaced by residential flats. This was possibly the same house as that
mentioned by Bowack (1705): "The Hon. Col. Grey has a fine seat at
Earl's Court; it is but lately built, after the modern manner, and
standing upon a plain, where nothing can intercept the sight, looks very
stately at a distance. The gardens are very good." The house was later
occupied by the widow of General Ponsonby, who fell in the Battle of
Waterloo. Its companion, Hereford House, further eastward, was used as
the headquarters of a cycling club before its demolition.

The rest of the district eastward to Gloucester Road has no old
association. St. Jude's Church, in Courtfield Gardens, was built in
1870. The reredos is of red-stained alabaster, coloured marble, and
mosaics by Salviati. St. Stephen's, in Gloucester Road, is a smaller
church, founded in 1866. Beyond it Gloucester Road runs into Victoria
Road, once Love Lane. General Gordon was at No. 8, Victoria Grove, in
1881. Returning again to Earl's Court Road, we see St. Stephen's,
another of the numerous modern churches in which the district abounds;
it was built partly at the expense of the Rev. D. Claxton, and was
opened in 1858. In Warwick Gardens, westward, is St. Mathias, which
rivals St. Cuthbert's, in Philbeach Gardens, in the ritualism of its
services. Both churches are very highly decorated. In St. Cuthbert's the
interior is of great height, and the walls ornamentally worked in stone;
there is a handsome oak screen, and a very fine statue of the Virgin and
Child by Sir Edgar Boehm in the Lady Chapel; in both churches the seats
are all free.

Edwardes Square, with its houses on the north side bordering Kensington
Road, is peculiarly attractive, with a large garden in the centre, and
an old-world air about its houses, which