Two entries, from an entirely different source, must suffice for this history of the Cockpit. In the Paper-Office Chalmers discovered a record of the following payments, made in 1667: To the Keeper of the theatre at Whitehall, L30. To the same for Keeping clean that place, _p. ann._ L6.[683] [Footnote 683: Chalmers, _Apology_, p. 530. Cunningham says, in his _Handbook of London_: "I find in the records of the Audit Office a payment of L30 per annum 'to the Keeper of our Playhouse called the Cockpit in St. James Park'"; but he does not state the year in which the payment was made.] And in the Lord Chamberlain's Accounts is preserved the following warrant: 1674, March 27. Warrant to deliver to Monsieur Grabu, or to such as he shall appoint, such of the scenes remaining in the theatre at Whitehall as shall be useful for the French Opera at the theatre in Bridges Street, and the said Monsieur to return them again safely after 14 days' time to the theatre at Whitehall.[684] [Footnote 684: I quote from W.J. Lawrence, _The Elizabethan Playhouse_ (First Series), p. 144.] What became of the theatre at Whitehall I have not been able to ascertain.[685] Presumably, after the fire of January, 1698, which destroyed the greater part of the palace and drove the royal family to seek quarters elsewhere, the building along with the rest of the Cockpit section was made over into the Privy Council offices. [Footnote 685: The reasons why the Cockpit at Whitehall has remained so long in obscurity (its history is here attempted for the first time) are obvious. Some scholars have confused it with the public playhouse of the same name, a confusion which persons in the days of Charles avoided by invariably saying "The Cockpit in Drury Lane." Other scholars have confused it with the residential section of Whitehall which bore the same name. During the reign of James several large buildings which had been erected either on the site of the old cockpit of Henry VIII, or around it, were converted into lodgings for members of the royal family or favorites of the King, and were commonly referred to as "the Cockpit." Other scholars have assumed that all plays during the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles were given either in the Banqueting House or in the Great Hall. Finally, still other scholars (e.g., Sir Sidney Lee, in _Shakespeare's England_, 1916) have confused the Cockpit at Whitehall with the Royal Cockpit in St. James's Park. Exactly when the latter was built I have not been able to discover, but it was probably erected near the close of the seventeenth century. It stood at the end of Dartmouth Street, adjacent to Birdcage Walk, but not in the Park itself. John Strype, in his edition of Stow's _Survey_ (1720), bk. VI, p. 64, says of Dartmouth Street: "And here is a very fine Cockpit, called the King's Cockpit, well resorted unto." A picture of the building is given by