Sir Walter Besant lectured in the Queen's Hall on Monday
on the history and greatness of London, and after the delivery of the lecture Lord Rosebery spoke, and spoke brilliantly, on the subject, disagreeing with Sir Walter Besant's opinion that London had never been more beautiful than it now is. Lord Rosebery thought that it had been much more beautiful than it now is, when the Strand was one long line of palaces connecting the City with West- minster. Besides contesting Sir Walter Besant's grounds for admiring London as it is, Lord Rosebery said a good deal about the loss of local London traditions. For instance, who could tell where " the Cockpit of Old Whitehall " stood, in which the Parliamentary leaders used to read the speech from the throne to their supporters,—very appropriately, as Lord Rosebery thought, considering the fights to which the Royal Speech gave rise. Sir Walter Besant whispered that be knew where "the Cockpit of Old Whitehall" stood, but Lord Rosebery replied immediately that he could only hold one of five or six different views on the subject, and that it was .mpossible to decide between them,—for it was a matter for alaborate argument. He was very amusing in his protest against the sceptics as to the story of Whittington and his NI, and remarked that London, great as it is, is often a hard stepmother, and turns the English Parnassus into Grub street, where " the Muse found Scroggins stretched beneath his rug." For himself, he had just taken a walk down Rose- bery Avenue, and unless the London County Council changed its name before his death, he hoped to die in the conscious- ness that Rosebery Avenue was worthy of the noble city which it threaded. This is the kind of speech in which Lord Rosebery never fails. And it is pleasant to see with how airy and elastic a tread he passes over themes like this now that the unwelcome burden of an official_ responsibility is cast away from him.
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