to be the north of London, who had their view of the country cut off. When Queen Square was built in the reign of Queen Anne it was left open to the north, as it has remained to this day, in order to enable the inhabitants to have a view of Hampstead and Highgate. The gardens of Bedford House, which stood on the north side of Bloomsbury Square, had an uninterrupted view of the country, and the Duke of Bedford strongly opposed in the House of Lords the Bill for making the New Road. On this opposition Horace Walpole cynically remarked to Conway (March 25, 1756): “A new road through Paddington has been proposed to avoid the stones; the Duke of Bedford, who is never in town in summer, objects to the dust it will make behind Bedford House, and to some buildings proposed, though if he was in town he is too short-sighted to see the prospect.”
The gardens of Bedford House were famous for their beauty and for the trees which flourished there, “the ancient stems” of “the light and graceful acacia” being specially mentioned by Walpole.
Behind Montagu House (now the British Museum) was Capper’s Farm, which extended to Tottenham Court Road. The old farmhouse still exists behind Messrs Heal & Son’s shop, No. 195 Tottenham Court Road.
Near where University College in Gower Street now stands was a wild district known as the Field of Forty Footsteps, which had a bad repute as the scene of a sanguinary duel about the time of the Monmouth Rebellion between two brothers who were both killed.
No grass would grow over the footsteps trodden by the duellists, which were said to be recognisable until the year 1800 when the ground was built over.
A little further east, where Cromer Street now stands, was a wayside inn named “The Boot,” which is made by Dickens in his Barnaby Rudge the meeting-place of the Gordon Rioters of 1780.
The site of this inn is still occupied by a public-house with the same sign.
Even after these fields were built upon, the air continued so good that the gardens round about produced excellent fruit. When Lord Eldon lived at No. 42 Gower Street at the beginning of the nineteenth century his peaches and vegetables were famous. Nectarines were grown at 6 Upper Gower Street in 1800, and grapes were also successfully cultivated there.