breathe. The valet de chambre observed that Mr. Gibbon did not, at any time, show the least sign of alarm or apprehension of death; and it does not appear that he ever thought himself in danger, unless his desire to speak to Mr. Darell may be considered in that light."

Lord Sheffield hastened to the bedside of his dying friend, but, on his arrival in St. James's Street, he found that the great historian had ceased to exist. He caused the remains of his friend to be interred in the burial-place of his family at Sheffield Place in Sussex. The house in which Gibbon breathed his last was No. 76 St. James's Street, near the corner of Little St. James's Street, and was pulled down to make room for the present Conservative Club.

No. 62, higher up the street (now occupied by Lauriere, the jeweller), was, in the last century, well known as Betty's fruit-shop, where men of wit and fashion met to discuss the scandal or politics of the day. It would seem that the old lady herself had some reputation for saying good things; at least, Horace Walpole writes to George Selwyn on the 2d of December, 1765: "When you have a quarter of an hour awake, and to spare, I wish you would bestow it on me. There are no such things. as bons mots here to send you, and I cannot hope that you will send me your own; next to them I should like Charles Townshend's, but I don't desire Betty's." Walpole, elsewhere describing a

party of pleasure at Vauxhall, mentions that Betty accompanied them to the gardens with baskets of strawberries and cherries.

With a name scarcely less illustrious than that of Gibbon we will conclude our notices of St. James's Street. Lord Byron, at the time when the publication of his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" rendered his name for the first time conspicuous in the literary history of his country, resided at No. 8 in this street. It was from this house that the proud and misanthropic poet departed, on a melancholy and well-known occasion, to take his seat in the House of Lords as a peer of the realm, "in a state," says Moore, "more lone and unfriended, perhaps, than any youth of his high station had ever before been reduced to on such an occasion, not having a single individual of his own class either to take him by the hand as friend, or acknowledge him as acquaintance." Nothing can be more strikingly dramatic than the account which his relative, Mr. Dallas, gives of this painful passage in the life of the great poet. "I was passing down St. James's Street," he says, "with no intention of calling, when I saw his chariot at the door, and went in. His countenance, paler than usual, showed that his mind was agitated, and that he was thinking of the nobleman' to whom he had once looked for a hand and countenance in his introduction to the House. He

'His relative, the late Earl of Carlisle.

said to me, I am glad you happened to come in ; I am going to take my seat, perhaps you will go with me.' I expressed my readiness to attend him, while, at the same time, I concealed the shock I felt on thinking that this young man, who by birth, fortune, and talent stood high in life, should have lived so unconnected and neglected by persons of his own rank that there was not a single member of the senate to which he belonged to whom he would or could apply to introduce him in a manner becoming his birth; I saw that he felt the situation, and I fully partook of his indignation." The subsequent scene in the House of Lords is graphically described by Dallas, but is too long for insertion. "We returned to St. James's Street," he says, "but he did not recover his spirits."

CHAPTER V.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ST. JAMES'S STREET.

Bennet Street - Arlington Street - Park Place

St. James's

Place Cleveland Row- King Street - Almack's - Little Ryder Street - Bury Street.

THE streets diverging from St. James's Street are all of them more or less associated with some person of celebrity or some event of interest. As we descend toward St. James's Palace, the first opening to the right is Bennet Street, a small avenue leading to Arlington Street. At No. 4 Bennet Street, in the apartments which he occupied on the first floor, Lord Byron composed the "Giaour," the "Bride of Abydos," and the "Corsair." He resided here during a great part of the years of 1813 and 1814, and sometimes in his letters amuses himself with playfully styling it Benedictine Street.

Let us pass on to Arlington Street, so called from the Bennets, Earls of Arlington, which, considering how small a number of houses it contains, has been inhabited by a greater number of persons of note and genius than perhaps any other street of the same size in London. As early as the

reign of Queen Anne we find it containing the residences of several persons of rank. Here, in 1708, were residing the Duke of Richmond, Lord Brook, Lord Cholmondley, Lord Guildford, and Lord Kingston. Here, before her marriage, in the pride of youth, of beauty, and of genius, resided Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; here, in 1739, lived the celebrated William Pulteney, afterward Earl of Bath, and to this street, three years afterward, retired his great rival, Sir Robert Walpole, when his famous defeat in the House of Commons terminated his long political career. It was here that the great minister breathed his last. In a small house, adjoining that of his father, his scarcely less celebrated son, Horace Walpole, resided for many years, and from hence many of the most charming of his letters are dated. To Arlington Street, when Prince of Wales, George the Second retired to sulk with his small court after his memorable quarrel with his father; and here the celebrated Duke of Cumberland, the "Butcher" of Culloden, dined the same day on which he died. Charles James Fox resided for some time in Arlington Street; and here, at the house of the Duke of Rutland, lamented by every one but his creditors, his late Royal Highness, the Duke of York, breathed his last.

As we pass down St. James's Street, the next opening on the west side is Park Place. At No. 9 lived the well-known antiquary, Sir William