Fourth. After the Dissolution, its site, according to Tanner, was granted by Edward the Sixth, in the third year of his reign, to Thomas Carwarden.

This estate afterwards came into the possession of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Lord Privy Seal, who erected a splendid mansion thereon, designated Northampton House, in which he died in 1614. From that nobleman it descended to his kinsman, Thomas Howard, of Walden, Earl of Suffolk, when it received the name of Suffolk House, and was so called until the marriage of Elizabeth, the daughter of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, with Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, in the year 1642, when it was transferred into that family, and has since acquired the name of Northumberland House.

This edifice originally formed three sides of a spacious quadrangle, the fourth side remaining open to the gardens and river Thames. Its reputed architect was Bernard Jansen; but the frontispiece near the street has been ascribed to Gerard Christmas, who designed Aldersgate, which was rebuilt in the same reign, namely, that of James the First. At that period, the principal apartments were on the Strand side; but after the estate became the property of Earl Algernon (who disliked the noise of so public a thoroughfare), the quadrangle was completed by a fourth side, (including the state rooms) towards the river, under the direction of Inigo Jones. The entire pile was built in a mixed style of architecture, and had dome-crowned towers at the angles, in the Dutch style.

Evelyn, in his "Diary," under the date 1654,

when speaking of Audley End, in Essex, which had been erected by the Lord Treasurer Suffolk, says, "instead of railes and balusters, there is a bordure of capital letters, as was lately also on Suffolk House, neere Charing Crosse, built by the same Lord Treas"." There is also another in the passage 66 same Diary," relating to this mansion, under the date June 8, 1658.

"I went," says Evelyn, " to see the Earl of Northumberland's pictures, whereof that of yo Venetian Senators, [the Cornaro Family, which is still one of the greatest ornaments of this mansion, and of which there is a fine print by Baron], and another of Andrea del Sarto, viz, a Madona, Christ, St. John, and an Old Woman, &c.; a St. Catharine, of Da Vinci, with divers Portraits by Vandyke; a Nativity, by Georgione; the last of our blessed kings, Charles I., and y Duke of York, by Lely; a Rosarie, by y famous Jesuits of Bruxelles; and severall more. was in Suffolk House, the new front towards y° gardens is tollerable, were it not drown'd by a too massie and clomsie pair of stayres of stone, without any neate invention."†

This

• Walpole conceives that the letters spoken of expressed the name and titles of the Earl of Northampton (the founder of this house), in Latin. It is probable that they were taken down when Inigo Jones completed the quadrangle for Earl Algernon. Camden states, that at the funeral of Queen Anne, of Denmark, (James the First's consort), a young man among the spectators was killed by the fall of the letter S from the top of Northampton House. Vide "Annales Jacobi Regis," p. 45, 4to. This shews that the border of capitals was on the screen, or frontispiece, next the Strand.

+ This collection of pictures has been greatly increased since Evelyn's time, and now forms a very magnificent assemblage. There is, likewise, a very noble library in this mansion.

In the spring of 1660, after General Monk had taken up his quarters at Whitehall, he was invited to this house by Earl Algernon, and here, in secret conference with him and other nobility and gentry, some of those measures were concerted which led to the speedy restoration of the monarchy.

That

On the 7th of February 1749-50, this estate, with the title of Earl of Northumberland, devolved upon Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart., by the decease of Algernon, seventh Duke of Somerset, his father-in-law. gentleman, pursuant to an Act of Parliament, passed in the same year, assumed the name and arms of the illustrious race of Percy; and on the 18th of October 1766, he was elevated to the Dukedom of Northumberland. Considerable improvements were made here by that nobleman; two new wings were annexed to the garden front, the quadrangular court was faced with stone, and great part of the northern front was rebuilt; but the central division, which includes the entrance gateway, still exhibits the original work of Gerard Christmas, and is a curious example of his time. Many other alterations and repairs have been since made, and particularly after the fire here in March 1780, which consumed most of the upper rooms on the Strand, or northern side.

SCOTLAND YARD.

SCOTLAND YARD derives its name from an ancient Palace of the Kings of Scotland, formerly standing on the spot, which, on the authority of Strype, who quotes from a pamphlet printed in 1548, was built by Kynald, or Kenneth III, King of Scotland, in the year 959, on