This place was originally appointed for keeping the king's falcons so early as the reign of Richard II. and the

accomplished sir Simon Burley,

The royal stables at Lemesbury (since called Bloomsbury) being destroyed by fire in the year , Henry VIII. caused the hawks to be removed, and this place to be enlarged and fitted up for the royal stables. In the reign of George II. the old part of the building going to decay, the king, in the year , caused the north side to be rebuilt in a handsome manner.

Within the few last years, the royal stud of state horses, with the state carriages, &c. have been removed to more commodious buildings at the rear of the new palace, ; and it is intended to take down the present edifice, and rebuild it in a more splendid and elegant manner, as a gallery for the reception of our national paintings. In the centre of the great space formed by taking down side of , it is also under consideration to erect a temple of the same dimensions and form as the Parthenon, on the Acropolis at Athens; which is to be devoted to the use of the Royal Academy, the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries.

The and the Union Club-house will form the western side of the intended square at Charing-cross; the compose a lofty and extensive pile of buildings of the Grecian Ionic order. The principal front of the is situated in ; it has a portico, composed of fluted columns surmounted by an entablature and pediment. The architect was R. Smirke, esq.

In is the University Club house, a neat building of the Ionic order of the temple of Minerva Polias, at Athens, erected from the joint design of Messrs. Wilkins and Gandy, architects.

In the same street is the principal entrance to the Gallery of British Artists; the front is a palladian facade of the Roman Doric order. The architect is James Elmes, esq.

[] This office was granted by Charles II. to Charles, duke of St. Albans, his son, by Mrs. Gwynne, and the heirs male of his body. It still continues attached to the title.

[] It was from this place, during the civil wars of the houses of York and Lancaster, that the Lincolnshire rebels, under Robert Rydydsdale, took lord Rivers, and his son John, carried them away, and beheaded them at Northampton.

[] It has been fitted up (temporarily) as a gallery for the exhibition of valuable and curious specimens of British ingenuity, under the title of the National Repository. Among the board of management of this excellent and truly patriotic undertaking, appear the names of lords Clare, Ebrington, Gower, Morpeth, and Sandon; and among the committee of inspection are enrolled some of the most eminent scientific and literary characters in the kingdom.