It was thus for many ages a place entirely distinct from London, and there was a large space between them. The Strand was the road which led from London to that town, and it was open on either side to the Thames and to the fields. In 1385 we find that this road was paved as far as the Savoy; and many years after Sir Robert Cecil building a house at Ivy bridge, his interest brought the pavement of the road to be extended thither; and many of the houses of the nobility were erected in the Strand. Westminster owed its most distinguished privileges to Henry VIII. for in the 37th year of his reign an act was passed to authorize him by either letters patent or proclamation, to make it an honour, a title of distinction which he was impowered by the same act to confer upon Kingston upon Hull, St. Osyth’s in Essex, and Donnington in Berkshire; and after the dissolution of the monastery, he converted it into a bishoprick, in the year 1541, with a dean and twelve prebendaries, and appointed the whole county of Middlesex, except Fulham, which was still to belong to the bishoprick of London, as its diocese. Upon this occasion Westminster became a city, for the making of which, according to the Lord Chief Justice Coke, nothing more is required than the appellation of a bishop’s see. It had many years before been the seat of the royal palace, the high court of parliament, and of our law tribunals; most of our Sovereigns had been crowned, and had their sepulchres in the abbey church, and the ancient palace, being almost destroyed by fire, the last mentioned Prince had here his palace of Whitehall, which he purchased of Cardinal Wolsey. He also built the palace of St. James’s, inclosed a fine spot of ground which he converted into a park, for the accommodation of both palaces, and this was no sooner finished, than he erected the stately gate lately near the banquetting house, and added to it a magnificent gallery for the accommodation of the royal family, the nobility and gentry, to sit in, in order to see the justings and other military exercises in the tilt yard; and soon after the same Prince erected, contiguous to the said gate, a tennis-court, cock-pit, and places for bowling. From that time the buildings about Westminster began to extend on every side; though it did not long enjoy the honour of being a city, and even the palace was some time after burnt; for it never had but one bishop, and he being translated to the see of Norwich, by Edward VI. in 1550, the new bishoprick was dissolved by that Prince; and its right to the epithet of city was thereby lost, though by public complaisance it has retained that name ever since: but yet Westminster had not any arms till the year 1601. For a more particular account of the antiquities of Westminster, see the articles ABBEY, WESTMINSTER HALL, WHITEHALL, _&c._