both you and your readers in its present position. Com-
menced in 1687, and finished about ten years later, the houses of the Square have ever since been closely associated with the historic, literary and artistic life of the times. The purchase of Nottingham House by William III., owing to his dislike of Whitehall and the river, and the removal of the Court to Kensington, where it remained till George III. became King, led to great competition for the accommodation in Kensington Square, and we read of an Ambassador, a-Bishop and a Court Physician lodging in the same house. Numbered among the distinguished inhabitants have been the Duchess of Mazarin (1692), Sir Richard Steele (1708), Talleyrand (1792), and in more recent times Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Burne-Jones, John Richard Green, Nassau Senior, and Sir Hubert Parry.
Domestic architecture of an indefinable charm may still be seen in abundance all about the Square. Nos. 11 and 12 (originally one house and probably that occupied by the Duchess of Mazarin), in the S.E. corner, are particularly fine specimens of the architecture at the end of the seventeenth century. No. 45, next to Thackeray's cottage in Young Street, apart from its external and internal attraction, is specially interesting to all lovers of Esmorul, in view of what befell the incomparable Beatrix, Henry Esmond, and the old Pretender at the house of" my Lady Castlewood in Kensington Square over against the Greyhound Inn." No. 36 is another house with special attractions within and without, and more than half the houses in the Square still retain the powder closets in which ladies and gentlemen prepared themselves. for Court.
The amenities of the Square have already been seriously interfered with by recent commercial developments, and the physical entity of the Square itself is now threatened. Business ebbs as well as flows, fashions change, and trade centres move. Commercial values are not the only values, and beauty and charm still count, and I ask, Sir, for your support and for that of all lovers of London so to move public opinion as to help preserve for future generations this exceptional link with the past, a spot which is not only an attraction to those who pass it, but whose traditions and associations form a real asset to the great Metropolis.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Secretary, Kensington Square Ourden Committee.
Ildr. Fell has our full sympathy in his effort to protect the amenities of one of the most beautiful squares of London. Surely the Borough Council can be relied on to do its duty. —ED. Spectator.]
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