SQUARES 
225 
round basin of water, which was intended to have a 
fountain in it, and never did, was dug in the centre. 
Round it ran an octagon railing with stone obelisks, sur¬ 
mounted with lamps at each angle. A road of flat paving- 
stones with posts went round the Square in front of the 
houses; the rest was paved with cobble stones. As early 
as 1697 it was proposed to place a statue of William III., 
and figures emblematical of his victories, in the Square, 
but nothing was done. In 1721 the Chevalier de David 
tried to get up a subscription for a sum of £2500 for a 
statute of George I. to be done by himself and set up, 
but, as he only collected ^100 towards it, that scheme 
also fell through. Once more an effort was made 
which bore tardy fruit, for in 1724 Samuel Travers 
bequeathed a sum of money by will 44 to [purchase and 
erect an equestrian statue in brass to the glorious 
memory of my master, King William III.” Somehow 
this was not carried out at the time, but in 1806 the 
money appeared in a list of unclaimed dividends, and 
John Bacon the younger was given the commission to 
model the statue, which was cast in bronze at the 
artist’s own studio in Newman Street, and put up in 
the centre of the pond. Thus it remained until towards 
the middle of last century the stagnant pool was drained. 
In the 1780 riots the mob carried off the keys of New¬ 
gate and flung them into this basin, where years after¬ 
wards they were found. It was 150 feet in diameter, 
and 6 or 7 feet deep. When the pond was drained, the 
garden was planted in the form it now is, and the statue 
left standing in the centre. St. James’s is still one of 
the finest residential squares in London, and the old 
rhyme, picturing the attractions in store for the lady of 
quality who became a duchess and lived in- the Square, 
p 
