Milton came here in 1651, when turned out of chambers in Scotland Yard which had been allowed him as Latin Secretary to the Council. He still retained the office. He had lost the sight of one eye, and two years later was totally blind. He was obliged to have an assistant-secretary, a post occupied for some time by Andrew Marvell. His daughter Deborah was born here, and his wife died soon after. In Palmer's Passage, Palmer's Almshouses were first established, and in Little Chapel Street, Mr. Nicholas Butler's. Mr. Cornelius Vandon's (Van Dun) were in Petty France. "Cornelius Vandon was born at Breda in Brabant, Yeoman of the Guard and Usher to their Majesties Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Marie and Queen Elizabeth. He did give eight almshouses in Pettie France next to the end of James Street for the use of eight poor Women of the Parish. He did also give eight other Almshouses near St. Ermin's Hill by Tuttle side for the use of eight poor widows of this Parish." These eight women were intended to act as charity nurses, and to nurse any who were sick in the parish. In 1850 the almshouses and ground were sold, and the proceeds devoted to Vandon's Charity Account. Part of the funds was used to purchase a plot of ground in Lambeth, where new almshouses were erected, and after the death of the recipients of the charity these were let to tenants, and the proceeds devoted to supplying nurses for the poor. The towering blocks of Queen Anne's Mansions, the highest flats in London, rear themselves at the east end of York Street. These are partly on the site of a house occupied for very many years by Jeremy Bentham (see p. 32). The Guards Barracks, known as the Wellington Barracks, face Birdcage Walk. They were opened in March, 1834, and enlarged in 1859. The long line of yellow-washed building differs little from the usually-accepted barrack model. At the east end of the barrack yard stands the chapel, with an extraordinarily massive portico. It was built in 1839-40 on the model of a Grecian temple. The building is well proportioned, but the interior was not at first thought worthy of the exterior. Accordingly, in 1877 the chapel was closed, and a sum of money arising from the sale of the Guards' Institute was devoted to the purpose of a complete internal reconstruction. The work was put into the hands of Sir G. E. Street, R.A., who carried it out in the Lombardian style, with an apse at the eastern end, and over the apse a semi-dome.