The minister is the Rev. William Harness, known for his edition of Shakspeare and other contributions to current literature; and the senior curate is the Rev. Mackenzie Walcot, whose “Memorials of Westminster,” and other works on the ancient city, have rendered him its most popular and pleasing historian. Charles R. Harford and James Baber, Esqs., were the first chosen churchwardens, and filled the office continuously till the present year, when W. Aldridge, Esq., was instituted in room of Mr. Harford. ALBERT GATE occupies an arched surface over the bed of the Westbourne, which was here open and crossed by two bridges, one just within the Park, and erected about 1734; the other, the old bridge from which our Hamlet is named. On its west side was the “Fox and Bull;” on its east a low court of very old houses, named after the “White Hart,” which, with these other buildings and the Cannon Brewhouse, were entirely removed by authority of an Act of Parliament (4 Vict., c. 12) passed March 10th, 1841, which empowered the Commissioners of Works to purchase the land on which these tenements stood and the buildings thereon, for the purpose of forming a new entrance to Hyde Park. Accordingly, these improvements were carried out, and the iron gates, which are of a very chaste design, were fixed August 9th, 1845. The two stags on the side pedestals formerly performed the same watch and ward at the Ranger’s Lodge in the Green Park. They were modelled from a pair of prints by Bartolozzi. [Picture: “The Westbourne”—Looking North from Knightsbridge] Part of the ground bought by the commissioners they leased for ninety-nine years to Mr. Thomas Cubitt, who immediately built on the eastern side a large mansion, for which it is said Mr. Hudson, M.P., paid him £15,000. It is now the residence of the French Ambassador: here our Queen paid a visit in state on May 12, 1854; and the Emperor Napoleon held a Levee on his visit to her in May, 1855. This house was at first the butt of the London wits, who named it Gibraltar House, affirming it would _never be taken_. This opinion did not deter Mr. Cubitt from erecting another, now the London and County Bank Branch; and a third is now nearly finished for Captain Layland. Architecturally, there is nothing in these mansions to admire, notwithstanding the arrogance with which they force attention. Though so gigantic, they are not imposing; of an unusual altitude, they are destitute of ornament, and can only be likened to some “tall bullies,” determined even in vulgarity to lord over their fellows. BROMPTON ROAD: a row of houses built about twenty years since on the garden of Grosvenor House. The National School House attached to Brompton Church was built in 1841, in the Tudor style, from designs by Mr. George Godwin.