ely ridiculed by the poets of that time.

"'Nine years!' cries he, who high in Drury Lane,
Lull'd by soft zephyrs through the broken pane,
Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before term ends,
Obliged by hunger and request of friends."

The boundary of St. Giles's parish runs down Drury Lane between Long
Acre and Great Queen Street. Of the last of these Strype says: "It is a
street graced with a goodly row of large uniform houses on the south
side, but on the north side is indifferent." The street was begun in the
early years of the seventeenth century, but the building spread over a
long time, so that we find the "goodly row of houses" on the south side
to have been built by Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, about 1646. A number
of celebrated people lived in Great Queen Street. The first Lord Herbert
of Cherbury had a house on the south side at the corner of Great Wild
Street; here he died in 1648. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentary
General, lived here; also Sir Heneage Finch, created Earl of Nottingham;
Sir Godfrey Kneller, when he moved from Covent Garden; Thomas Worlidge,
the portrait-painter, and afterwards, in the same house, Hoole, the
translator of Dante and Ariosto; Sir Robert Strange, the engraver; John
Opie, the artist; Wolcott, better known as Peter Pindar, who was buried
at St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Sheridan is also said to have lived here,
and it would be conveniently near Drury Lane Theatre, which was under
his management from 1776.

[Illustration: KINGSWAY.]

On the south side of the street are the Freemasons' Hall, built
originally in 1775, and the Freemasons' Tavern, erected subsequently.
Both have been rebuilt, and the hall, having been recently repainted,
looks at the time of writing startlingly new. Near it are two of the
original old houses, all that are left with the pilasters and carved
capitals which are so sure a sign of Inigo Jones's influence.

On the north side of the street is the Novelty Theatre.

Great and Little Wild Streets are called respectively Old and New Weld
Streets by Strype. Weld House stood on the site of the present Wild
Court, and was during the reign of James II. occupied by the Spanish
Embassy. In Great Wild Street Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman
printer.

Kemble and Sardinia were formerly Prince's and Duke's Streets. The
latter contains some very old houses, and a chapel used by the Roman
Catholics. This is said to be the oldest foundation now