No. 14 BROMPTON Row was the abode for more than ten years (1820 to 1831) of John Vendramini, a distinguished

engraver. He was born at

Roncade, near Bassano, in Italy, and died 8th February, 1839, aged seventy. Vendramini was a pupil of Bartolozzi, under whom he worked for many years, and of the effect he produced upon British art much remains to be said. In 1805 Vendramini visited Russia, and on his return to England engraved The Vision of

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St. Catherine,' after Paul Veronese; the St. Sebastian,' after Spagnoletti; Leda,' after Leonardo da Vinci; and the Raising of Lazarus,' from the Sebastian del Piombo in the National Gallery.

No. 14 Brompton Row, in 1842, was the residence of the late Mr. George Herbert Rodwell, a favourite musical and dramatic composer, who died January 22nd, 1852.

At No, 23 Brompton Row resided Mr. Walter Hamilton, who, in 1819, published, in two volumes 4to, A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindostan and the Adjacent Country;' according to Lowndes' 'Bibliographer's Manual,' "an inestimable compilation, containing a more full, detailed, and faithful picture of the whole of India than any former work on the subject."

Mr. Hamilton subsequently lived for a short period at No. 8 Rawstorne Street, which street divides No. 27 (a confectioner's shop), and No. 28 (the Crown and Sceptre)

Brompton Row, opposite to the Red Lion (a public-house of which the peculiar and characteristic style of embellishment could scarcely have escaped notice at the time when the annexed sketch was made, 1844, but which decoration was removed in 1849.) Soon after his return to his house in Brompton Row, Mr. Hamil

ton died there in July or August, 1828.

Rawstorne Street leads to Montpellier Square (built about 1837). In this square, No. 11, resides Mr. F. W. Fairholt, the distinguished artist and antiquary, to whose pencil and for much valuable information the editor of these pages is greatly indebted; and No. 38 may be mentioned as the residence of Mr. Walter Lacy the favourite actor.

Mrs. Liston, the widow of the comedian, resided at No. 35 Brompton Row, and No. 45 was the residence of the ingenious Count Rumford, the early patron of Sir Humphry Davy. The Count occupied it between the years 1799 and 1802, when he finally left England for France, where he married the widow of the famous chemist, Lavoisier, and died in 1814. Count Rumford's name was Benjamin Thompson, or Thomson. He was a native of the small town of Rumford (now Concord, in New England), and obtained the rank of major in the Local Militia. In the war with America he rendered important services to

the officers commanding the British army, and coming to England was employed by Lord George Germaine, and rewarded with the rank of a provincial lieutenantcolonel, which entitled him to half-pay. In 1784 he was knighted, and officiated for a short time as one of the under-secretaries of state. He afterwards entered the service of the King of Bavaria, in which he introduced various useful reforms in the civil and military departments, and for which he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and created a count. At Munich, Count Rumford began those experiments for the improvements of fire-places and the plans for the better feeding and regulation of the poor, which have rendered his name familiar to every one,

"As his own household hearth."

No. 45 was distinguished some years ago by peculiar projecting windows, now removed, outside of the ordinary windows-an experimental contrivance by Count Rumford, it is said, for raising the temperature of his

rooms.

The same house, in 1810, was inhabited by the Rev.

William Beloe, the translator of Herodotus, and the author of various works between the years 1783 and 1812. In his last publication, The Anecdotes of Literature,' Mr. Beloe says, "He who has written and published not less than forty volumes, which is my case, may well congratulate himself, first, that Providence has graciously spared him for so long a period; secondly, that sufficient health and opportunity have been afforded; and, lastly, that he has passed through a career so extended and so perilous without being seriously implicated in personal or literary hostilities." It is strange that a man who could feel thus should immediately have entered upon the composition of a work which appeared as a posthumous publication in 1817, under the title of The Sexagenarian; or, the Recollections of a Literary Life;' and which contains the following note :

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Dr. Parr branded Beloe as an ingrate and a slanderer. He says, The worthy and enlightened Archdeacon Nares disdained to have any concern in this infamous work.' The Rev. Mr. Rennell, of Kensington, could know but little of Beloe; but, having read his slanderous book, Mr. R., who is a sound scholar, an orthodox clergyman, and a most animated writer, would have done well not to have written a sort of postscript. From motives of regard and respect for Beloe's amiable widow, Dr. Parr abstained from refuting B.'s wicked falsehoods; but Dr. Butler, of Shrewsbury, repelled them very ably in the 'Monthly Review.'

At No. 46 Brompton Row, Mr. John Reeve, an exceedingly popular low comedian, died, on the 24th of January, 1838, at the early age of forty. Social habits led to habits of intemperance, and poor John was the Bottle Imp of every theatre he ever played in. "The last time I saw him,"

"he was

says Mr. Bunn, in his 'Journal of the Stage,' posting at a rapid rate to a city dinner, and, on his drawing up to chat, I said, 'Well, Reeve, how do you find yourself to-day?' and he returned for answer, The lordmayor finds me to-day!""

BROMPTON GROVE commences on the south, or left-hand side of the main Fulham Road, immediately beyond the Red Lion (before mentioned as opposite to 28 Brompton Row), and continues to the Bunch of Grapes public-house, which was pulled down in August, and rebuilt in September, 1844, opposite to No. 54 Brompton Row, and in the wall of which public-house was placed a stone, with "YEOMAN'S ROW, 1767," engraved upon it-the name of a street leading to the "Grange," and, in 1794, the address of Michael Novosielski, the architect of the Italian Opera House. In that year he exhibited, in the Royal Academy, three architectural designs, viz:

"558. Elevation of the Opera House, Haymarket;

"661. Section of the New Concert Room at the Haymarket; and

"663. Ceiling of the New Concert Room at the Opera House."

But of Novosielski and the Grange more hereafter.

Brompton Grove now consists of two rows of houses, standing a little way back from the main road, between which rows there was a green space (1811), now occupied by shops, which range close to the footway, and have a street, called Grove Place, in the centre.

Upper Brompton Grove, or that division of the Grove nearest London, consists of seven houses, of which No. 4