It may be well, as we are now at the end of Piccadilly proper (for, although the houses on the other side of Hamilton Place, among which is that famous “No. 1, London,” as someone once called Apsley House, where the great Wellington lived, and put up the celebrated iron shutters, now removed, are given in Directories as in Piccadilly, they should more properly be considered as at Hyde Park Corner), to end our perambulation at the house of one who was so pre-eminently a Londoner as “Old Q.” I wish we could have done so in better company, and inasmuch as Lord Byron once resided at No. 139, then called, “13, Piccadilly Terrace,” we do so, for although his lordship, apart from his remarkable genius, was not a pattern of morality, he compares well with the nobleman whose only redeeming merits were that he was no fool and loved London as he probably loved few things. When in town once in September, a friend asked Lord Queensberry if he did not find it empty. “Yes,” he replied, “but ’tis fuller than the country;” and there is little doubt but that even in those early days, no place could have been selected for anyone to better enjoy the life of London than that spot where the tide of humanity met, at the junction of Piccadilly and Park Lane, with almost as full a force as we have seen it do at the corner of Piccadilly and Old Bond Street, where Stewart’s, hoary with antiquity (but to-day one of the most artistic buildings in the neighbourhood), stands, and where those keenest judges in the world--our American cousins--love to foregather, on the spot that is perhaps better known to them than any other in London. The Piccadilly Turnpike, which is such a feature in contemporary prints of this part of the West End, was removed in 1721 from the end of Berkeley Street to Hyde Park Corner. It remained here till 1825, in October of which year it was sold and removed. [Illustration: THE TURNPIKE AT HYDE PARK CORNER, 1706.] CHAPTER II. _ST. JAMES’S STREET AND PALL MALL._ “_O bear me to the paths of fair Pall Mall, Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell._” --GAY’S “TRIVIA.” Can we do better, after the surfeit of bricks and mortar which we have just undergone, than relax our jaded senses and relieve our wearied eyes by loitering for a few moments in the Green Park? See! it is just across the way, and a convenient entrance helps to tempt our steps. It is not extensive, but it is an oasis that many a Londoner--besides Lord Beaconsfield, who loved to wander there, when he had one of his rare opportunities--will seek with eagerness and enjoy with a thankful heart. [Sidenote: THE GREEN PARK.]