SQUARES 
231 
down in 1800, and Russell Square was built on the 
garden. Both Bloomsbury, or Southampton Square, as it 
was sometimes called, and Russell Square have good trees, 
and in each garden there is a statue by Westmacott. 
Charles James Fox, seated in classical drapery, erected in 
1816, looks down Bedford Place, where stood South¬ 
ampton House, towards the larger statue, with elaborate 
pedestal and cupids, of Francis, Duke of Bedford, in 
Russell Square. This is one of London’s largest 
Squares, being only about 140 feet smaller than Lin¬ 
coln’s Inn Fields, and included most of the garden of 
Southampton House, with its fine limes, and a large 
locust-tree, Robinia pseudo acacia. 
The laying out is more original in design than most 
of the squares, having been done by Repton in 1810. 
In Repton’s book on Landscape Gardening he goes 
fully into his reasons for the design of Russell Square. 
“ The ground,” he said, “ had all been brought to one 
level plain at too great expense to admit of its being 
altered.” He approves of the novel plan of placing the 
statue at the edge instead of in the usual position in the 
centre of the Square. “To screen the broad gravel-walk 
from the street, a compact hedge is intended to be kept 
dipt to about six feet high; this, composed of privet 
and hornbeam, will become almost as impervious as a 
hedge of laurels, or other evergreens, which will not 
succeed in a London atmosphere.” He says he has not 
“ clothed the lawn ” with plantation, so that children 
playing there could be seen from the windows, to meet 
“the particular wishes of some mothers.” “The outline 
of this area is formed by a walk under two rows of lime- 
trees, regularly planted at equal distances, not in a perfect 
circle, but finishing towards the statue in two straight 
