The Strand in 1353--St Mary Rounceval--Northampton House--Earl of Surrey, the Poet--Suffolk House--Suckling's _Ballade upon a Wedding_--Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland--The Restoration planned at Northumberland House--Lady Elizabeth Percy--Her Romantic Marriages--Murder of "Tom of Ten Thousand"--The "Proud" Duke of Somerset--_Edwin and Angelina_--Goldsmith at Northumberland House--Fire Here--Dr Percy's Library saved--the Famous Lion--Demolition of the House--The Duke's Lament--Northumberland Avenue--Craven Street--Benjamin Franklin--Sir Joshua Reynolds--Heinrich Heine--The Author of _Rejected Addresses_--J.S. Clarke. THE last of the great mansions of the Strand, Northumberland House, which was swept away so recently as 1874, was a landmark of great antiquity. For it terminated the palaces of the nobles which existed for centuries on the north bank of the Thames from Blackfriars to Charing Cross. It may be observed that in 1353 the Strand was an open highway, with here and there a great man's house where gardens stretched to the water's edge. It was then so impassable that Edward III. directed the levying of a tax upon wool, leather, wine, and "all goods" carried to Westminster from Temple Bar to the Abbey, for the repair of the road; and he further ordered that all owners of houses adjacent to the highway should repair as much as lay before their doors. "There was no continued street here," says Pennant, "till about 1533: before that time it entirely cut off Westminster from London, and nothing intervened except a few scattered houses, and a village which afterwards gave name to the whole. St Martin's stood literally in the fields. But about the year 1560 a street was formed, loosely built; for all the houses on the south side had great gardens to the river, were called by their owners' names, and in aftertimes gave name to the several streets that succeeded them, pointing down to the Thames; each of them had stairs for the conveniency of taking boat.... The north side was a mere line of houses from Charing Cross to Temple Bar; all beyond was country. The gardens which occupied part of the site of Covent Garden were bounded by fields, and St Giles's was a distant country village."