, in my time,
be reckoned a social centre, but was chiefly interesting as a museum of
Wellington relics. Norfolk House was, as it is, the headquarters of
Roman Catholic society, and there, in 1880, was seen the unique sight of
Matthew Arnold doing obeisance to Cardinal Newman at an evening
party.[25] Dorchester House, architecturally considered, is beyond doubt
the grandest thing in London; in those days occupied by the accomplished
Mr. Holford, who built it, and now let to the American Ambassador.
Chesterfield House, with its arcaded staircase of marble and bronze from
the dismantled palace of the Dukes of Chandos at Edgeware, was built by
the fourth Lord Chesterfield, as he tells us, "among the fields;" and
contains the library in which he wrote his famous letters to his son.
Holland House, so long the acknowledged sanctuary of the Whig party,
still stands amid its terraces and gardens, though its hayfields have, I
fear, fallen into the builders' hands. Macaulay's Essay, if nothing
else, will always preserve it from oblivion.

I have written so far about these "Houses," because in virtue of their
imposing characteristics they formed, as it were, an inner, if not the
innermost, circle round Marlborough House. But of course Society did not
dwell exclusively in "Houses," and any social chronicler of the period
which I am describing will have to include in his survey the long
stretch of Piccadilly, dividing the "W." from the "S.W." district. On
the upper side of it, Portman Square, Grosvenor Square, Berkeley Square,
the Grosvenor Streets and Brook Streets, Curzon Street, Charles Street,
Hill Street; and below, St. James's Square and Carlton House Terrace,
Grosvenor Place, Belgrave Square and Eaton Square, Lowndes Square and
Chesham Place. Following Piccadilly westward into Kensington, we come
to Lowther Lodge, Norman Shaw's most successful work, then beginning its
social career on the coming of age of the present Speaker,[26] April
1st, 1876. Below it, Prince's Gate and Queen's Gate and Prince's
Gardens, and all the wilds of South Kensington, then half reclaimed; and
that low-lying territory, not even half reclaimed, which, under Lord
Cadogan's skilful management, has of late years developed into a
"residential quarter" of high repute. Fill all these streets, and a
dozen others like them, with rank and wealth and fashion, youth and
beauty, pleasure-seeking and self-indulgence, and you have described the
concentric circles