been so
frequently selected as a home by artists--and not by artists alone, but
by literary men of all classes. Its natural advantages and its many
associations have exercised, and continue to exercise, a fascination
which draws men potently, in spite of some drawbacks, not the least of
which is its inaccessibility.

MARYLEBONE

The derivation of this name is simple. Lysons says: "The name of this
place was anciently called Tiburn, from its situation near a small bourn
or rivulet formerly called Aye-brook or Eye-brook, and now Tybourn
Brook. When the site of the church was altered to another spot, near the
same brook, it became St. Mary at the Bourne, now corrupted to St. Mary
le bone or Marybone." There is a possibility that the "bourne" did not
indicate the brook, but the boundary of the parish, in which case
Marybone would still be a corruption of St. Mary at the Bourne.

The borough of Marylebone is unique in many respects. It contains many
well-known and magnificent houses, such as Montagu House, Portman
Square; Hertford House, Manchester Square, where is Sir Richard
Wallace's collection of pictures and curiosities; Portland House,
Cavendish Square; and others. More than two-thirds of Regent's Park are
within its boundaries, including nearly all the Zoological Gardens. In
some parts of the borough the street lists furnish many titled and
famous names; in others are the poorest and most squalid districts,
rivalling in misery those of the East End.

Many foreign embassies are located within the parish boundaries. But the
most striking characteristic is the great number of hospitals. There are
hospitals for special diseases everywhere, besides large institutions
which have acquired more than Metropolitan fame.

The ancient Tyburn stream ran right through this district. It rose not
far from Swiss Cottage, and ran for a few hundred yards through Regent's
Park, across the road at Sussex Place, between Gloucester Place and
Baker Street, across the Marylebone Road, then, turning westward under
Madame Tussaud's, by South Street to the foot of High Street, passing
along close to Mandeville Place, it crossed Wigmore Street and so
reached Oxford Street.

The manor of Tyburn is mentioned in Domesday Book among the possessions
of the Abbess and Convent of Barking. Early in the thirteenth century it
was held by Robert de Vere, whose daughter married William de Insula,
Earl of Warren and Surrey, from whom the manor