In consequence of the construction of the Thames Embankment, and the necessity for making a wide approach from Charing Cross, the late Metropolitan Board of Works bought the property from the Duke of Northumberland, in 1874, for the sum of £500,000. Northumberland House, the last of the old river-side mansions, was completely demolished and now Northumberland Avenue and the great buildings near it occupy the site of the Convent and Hospital of St. Mary Roncevall.[15] Footnote 15: “Old and New London,” V. iii, by Edward Walford (Cassell, Petter and Galpin). “Charing Cross,” by J. H. MacMichael (Chatto and Windus), 1905. THE RONCEVALL PROPERTY IN LONDON; FROM INFORMATION IN AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT OF THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN THE LIBRARY AT RONCESVALLES.[16] Footnote 16: The author is indebted to Don José Urrutia, the Abbot-Prior, for a précis of this document. Most of the ancient documents dealing with the history of the Priory have been destroyed or lost as the result of war, fires and other causes. There remains in the Library at Roncesvalles an unpublished MS. dealing with the early history of the Priory and its dependencies, written about the second quarter of the seventeenth century by Don Juan Huarte. This MS. incorporates information obtained by the writer from various sources, and especially under the date April 12, 1623, from a certain Brother Miguel de Spiritu Sancto, who derived it in his turn from a certain Don Francisco Olastro—(Francis Oliver?)—who is stated to have been an ambassador from England in Madrid. This document states that there is situated in the suburbs of London a wide street named “the Street of Our Lady of Roncesvalles.” The houses in this street have sculptured over their doorways a single cross according to the use of Roncesvalles. At the end of the street is a large building, now nearly dismantled, which was a sumptuous church in the time of the Catholic Religion. Over the portico of the church were sculptured three crosses of the same form, and in addition there was a clearly engraved Latin inscription to the effect that this church was built and completely finished in honour of the Blessed Virgin by Henry IV, King of England, who, in addition, granted to the Community of St. Mary of Roncevall large possessions and revenues for the service of the Priory and Hospital. The inscription is dated in the MS. 1378, but this date, which is clearly impossible, is probably an error of transcription for 1408, arising from peculiarities in the formation of the figures, and there are other errors to be noted, showing that the information is derived through indirect channels. The inscription is given as follows:—