SQUARES 227 



very quiet and dreary aspect when compared with the 

 cheerful crowds enjoying the gardens in its larger 

 neighbour, Leicester Square. This was known as 

 Leicester Fields, and was traversed by two rows of 

 elm trees ; and even after the houses round it were 

 begun, about 1635, ^^^ name of Fields clung to 

 it. The ground was part of the Lammas Lands be- 

 longing to the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and 

 Robert Sydney, Earl of Leicester, who built the house 

 from which the Square takes its name, paid compensa- 

 tion for the land, to the poor of the parish £i^ yearly. 

 The house occupied the north-east corner of the Square, 

 and in after years became famous as a royal residence. 

 It has been called " the pouting-place " of princes, 

 as it was to Leicester House that the Prince of Wales 

 retired when he quarrelled with his father, George I. ; 

 and there Caroline the Illustrious gathered all the 

 dissatisfied courtiers, and such wit and beauty as could 

 be found, round her. When he became George II., 

 and quarrelled in his turn with his son, Frederick, 

 Prince of Wales, the latter came to live in Leicester 

 House. The statue of George I. which stood in the 

 centre of the garden was, it was said, put up by 

 Frederick, with the express purpose of annoying his 

 father. A view of the Square in 1700, shows a neatly- 

 kept square garden with four straight walks, and trees 

 at even distances, and Leicester House standing back, 

 with a fore-court and large entrance gates, and a garden 

 of its own with lawns and statues at the back. Savile 

 House, next door to Leicester House, on the site 

 of the present Empire Theatre, was also the scene 

 of many interesting incidents, until it was practically 

 destroyed during the Gordon Riots. The list of great 



