230 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



was begun in 1681, and it was pulled down, to make 

 room for smaller houses on the south side of the Square, in 

 1773. There are some fine old trees in the garden, and 

 a statue of Charles II. used, till the middle of last century, 

 like the one in St. James's Square, to stand in a basin of 

 water, with figures round it, emblematic of the rivers 

 Thames, Severn, Tyne, and Humber, spouting water. 

 Nollekens, the sculptor, who was born in 28 Dean Street, 

 Soho, in 1738, recalled how he stood as a boy " for hours 

 together to see the water run out of the jug of the old 

 river-gods in the basin in the middle of the Square, but 

 the water never would run out of their jugs but when 

 the windmill was going round at the top of Rathbone 

 Place." The centre of the Square was in 1748 "new 

 made and inclosed with iron railings on a stone kirb," 

 and "eight lamp Irons 3 ft. 6 in. high above the spikes 

 in each of the Eight corner Angles" : the " Channell all 

 round the Square" was paved with "good new Kentish 

 Ragg stones." 



Beyond Oxford Street are collected a great number of 

 squares in the district of Bloomsbury. They are all sur- 

 rounded by solid, well-built houses, which seem to hold 

 their own with dignity, even though fashion has moved 

 away from them westward. Before the squares arose, 

 this was the site of two great palaces with their gardens. 

 One of them, Southampton House, afterwards known as 

 Bedford or Russell House, was where Bloomsbury Square 

 now is. In 1665, February 9, Evelyn notes that he 

 "dined at my Lord Treasurer's the Earl of Southampton, 

 in Bloomsbury, where he was building a noble square or 

 piazza, a little town ; his own house stands too low — 

 some noble rooms, a pretty cedar chapel, a naked garden 

 to the North, but good air." This house was pulled 



