Inexhaustible are the anecdotal and historical riches of London, and
inexhaustible the store of books which they Inexhaustible are the anecdotal and historical riches of London, and inexhaustible the store of books which they
provoke. Mr. Broemel's Romance and Realities of Mayfair and Piccadilly (Mills and Boon, illustrated, 10s. 6d.) adds another brick to the imposing pile. It deals with the modish ,quarter of the town during the Stuart and Georgian periods, taking occasional excursions further afield into the villages of Kensington and Chelsea, and gossips pleasantly about the various streets and famous people who lived in them. Many odd scraps of interesting information can be dug out of this
volume—how that the Westbourne still flows—across Sloane Square Station in a pipe, and (it might be added) comes to life again as a brook when the Chelsea flower show is being held ; how that Clive did not commit suicide, but died at 45 Berkeley Square from an accidental overdose of opium ; and special attention is drawn to Dartmouth House at 87 Charles Street, the headquarters of the English-Speaking Union. Does not Mr. Broemel make rather large demands on our memory, though, when he invites us, on p. 147, to digest no fewer than nineteen dates ? The book reveals, too, some shakiness in the spelling of proper names like Soane Jenyns (p. 97), Melle de Kerouelle (200), Wroxall (55), and Agasis (213) ; and it might be noted that the style of Nelson's famous mistress was Lady Hamilton and not Lady Emma, and that Lady Castlemaine and the Duchess of Cleveland (p. 218) were not two persons but one.
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