MARLBOROUGH HOUSE 



little farther north, and in position was almost identical with the 

 present Pall Mall, a street that, as most people know, received its 

 name from the once fashionable game of " Pell Mell," played in 

 St. James's Park with mailes or mallets. The sport consisted in 

 striking a ball through an iron hoop or ring suspended from a bar 

 at the top of a pole, and in striking it from a considerable distance. 



The Mall in those days made a stately approach to the Royal 

 Palace of St. James ; and what is now clubland was, in the time 

 of Pepys, a long road shaded by elms, of which, he says, there were 

 one hundred and fifty. The houses, few and far between, and 

 standing on the south side only, were " fair mansions enclosed 

 with gardens." In one of these mansions dwelt Nell Gwynne, 

 and her garden had a mount, or mound, or raised terrace, over- 

 looking St. James's Park. The north side of the Mall, according 

 to Walford, was entirely open ; one or two haystacks might be 

 seen on the spot where now stands the Junior Carlton Club, and a 

 thick grove of trees occupied the site of Marlborough House. 

 " The Mall " was the resort of fashion in the seventeenth and part 

 of the eighteenth centuries, and during the reign of Queen Anne 

 was thronged daily with gaily-dressed people in chariots, on foot, 

 and in Sedan chairs. Men, as well as women, used these carrying- 

 chairs, and in 1706, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, came 

 to the levee at St. James's Palace in one of them ; hoping, by so 

 doing, to escape the attentions and acclamations of the multitude 

 after his victory at Ramillies. His successful campaign in France 

 had made Marlborough the idol of the nation, and Queen and 

 Parliament had showered honours and gifts upon the all-con- 

 quering general. But his successes abroad did not prevent his 

 influence being undermined by party intrigues at home, and even 

 before the battle of Oudenarde in 1708, the star of Marlborough,. 

 and of his handsome and imperious wife, was already rapidly 

 on the wane, while Queen Anne's love for Sarah Jennings was fast 

 turning to aversion. 



Things, however, were not quite so bad in 1709, at least not 

 openly so. The master of Blenheim required also a mansion in 

 town, and on the 18th of April, 1709, the supplement to the London 

 Gazette announced that he was to obtain it. " Her Majesty having 

 been pleased to grant to His Grace the Duke of Marlborough 

 the Friary next St. James' Palace in which lately dwelt the 



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