two batteries, and a
breastwork, remained in the garden. The house was demolished in 1800,
and Russell Square was begun soon after. A double row of the lime-trees
belonging to Bedford House had extended over the site of this Square.
All this ground had previously been known as Southampton Fields, or Long
Fields, and was the resort of low classes of the people, who here fought
their pitched battles, generally on Sundays. It was known during the
period of Monmouth's Rebellion as the Field of the Forty Footsteps,
owing to the tradition that two brothers killed each other here in a
duel, while the lady who was the cause of the conflict looked on.
Subsequently no grass grew on the spots where the brothers had planted
their feet.

Southey, in his "Commonplace Book," thus narrates his own visit to the
spot:

"We sought for near half an hour in vain. We could find no steps at
all within a quarter of a mile, no, nor half a mile, of Montague
House. We were almost out of hope, when an honest man, who was at
work, directed us to the next ground, adjoining to a pond. There we
found what we sought, about three-quarters of a mile north of
Montague House, and 500 yards east of Tottenham Court Road. The
steps are of the size of a large human foot, about three inches
deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only
seventy-six; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one
or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of
grass. The labourer also showed us where (the tradition is) the
wretched woman sat to see the combat." Southey adds his full
confidence in the tradition of the indestructibility of the steps,
even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from
the circumstance (_Notes and Queries_, No. 12).

A long-forgotten novel, called "Coming Out; or, The Field of the Forty
Footsteps," was founded on this legend, as was also a melodrama.

Russell Square is very little inferior to Lincoln's Inn Fields in size,
and at the time of its building had a magnificent situation, with an
uninterrupted prospect right up to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate,
and the only house then standing was on the east side; it belonged to
the profligate Lord Baltimore, and was later occupied by the Duke of
Bolton. The new Russell Hotel, at the corner of Guilford Street, and
Pitman's School of Shorthand, in the south-eastern corner, are