THE NEW KENSINGTONS 51 



any time you like to mention by St. Mary Abbot's, 

 which has become, in omnibus slang, " Kensington 

 Church," while the pavements are thronged by 

 fashionable crowds all day long and every day. 

 Not least remarkable is the long row of bicycles 

 drawn up against the kerb opposite the aforesaid 

 emporia, in charge of a diminutive boy in buttons, 

 the patrons of these great shops being inveterate 

 "bikists." 



Now that towerino; hotels and flats have been built 

 in Kensington High Street, the old-time distinction 

 of the " Old Court Suburb " is fast becomins; ob- 

 literated, and there are more Kensingtons than w^ere 

 ever dreamed of years ago. North Kensington, and 

 South and West Kensington — whicli, shorn of these 

 would-be aristocratic aliases, are just Notting Hill, 

 Brompton, and Hammersmith — were just so many 

 orchards and market-gardens not so many years ago ; 

 and I declare that it is not so lono- since there was an 

 orchard in Allen Street, ofl" the High Street, where red- 

 brick flats now stand, while, in that chosen realm of 

 flatland, Earl's Court, the cabbages and lettuces grew 

 amazingly. Cromwell Eoad was not built at the 

 time to which my memory harks back, and where 

 the ornate Natural History Museum now stands there 

 was a huge gravel-pit, in which were many ponds 

 and swamps, where wild grasses grew and slimy 

 newts increased and multiplied greatly. Gore House, 

 which had been Lady Blessington's, was still stand- 

 ing in the early years of my recollection, and the 

 Albert Hall, which now occupies the site of it, was, 

 consequently, nndreamt of The last use to which 



