A few steps southward will bring us to Green Street, in which stands Hampden House, now the residence of the Duke of Abercorn.
No. 56 Green Street was formerly known as the “bow-window house,” and here Miss Farren, who afterwards became Countess of Derby, once resided, and gave those suppers to “all the pleasantest people in London,” which Hume, Walpole, and Lord Berwick have recorded. Sydney Smith died in Green Street, at Miss Farren’s old house, in 1845, and here it was that he once told his doctor that he felt so feeble that if anyone were to put a pin into his hand he would not have strength enough to stick it into a Dissenter!
NORFOLK STREET.
Between Green Street and Park Lane intervenes the little Norfolk Street, at a house in which Lord William Russell was barbarously done to death by his valet in 1840. Here Lady Hesketh, the friend of Cowper; Sir James Mackintosh; and, later, Lord Overstone, the millionaire banker, resided.
UPPER BROOK STREET.
A little further on is Upper Brook Street, where once lived Lord George Gordon, famous for his connection with the anti-Catholic riots, which, had not George III. acted with splendid promptitude, might have resulted in a holocaust of London. Here also resided George Grenville, the statesman and creator of that marvellous library which is, to-day, one of the wonders of the British Museum; Mrs. Damer, the talented friend of Horace Walpole, for whom she executed the Eagle which once stood in the Tribune at Strawberry Hill; and Hamilton, of “single speech” fame.
UPPER GROSVENOR STREET.
As Upper Brook Street joins the north side of Grosvenor Square with Park Lane, so Upper Grosvenor Street leads directly from its southern side to that latter-day synonym for worldly riches.
Here lived such notable people as Lord Erskine, the great lawyer, Sir Robert Peel, and also Lord Crewe, who appears to have moved hither from Grosvenor Street, or, as we ought to say, Lower Grosvenor Street. But the chief feature of the street is Grosvenor House, the well-known residence of the Duke of Westminster, the fine screen and gates of which, designed by Candy, were put up in 1842, and form a curious break in the otherwise unbroken regularity of the houses. I shall have something to say about Grosvenor House, when we come to Park Lane; so that now we need not interrupt our walk, which in a moment will bring us to Mount Street, taking its name from “Oliver’s Mound,” formerly in Grosvenor Square.
MOUNT STREET.