We have often, in our antiquarian notices of the Metropolis, touched upon
the olden topography of COVENT GARDEN and THE STRAND, and illustrated our
pages with some portion of its history. Thus, in vol. xii. p. 40, the
"regular subscriber" will find, an Engraving, and descriptive notes of Old
Covent Garden: in vol. xiii. p. 122, he will find a second notice of the
same spot; and in the same volume, p. 241, is a whole-page Engraving of
the original Somerset House, with ample details of its foundation, the
neighbouring district, &c. The reader should turn to these pages, and
re-read them in connexion with the few particulars we have now to add.

To aid the first Engraving, with the Strand Cross and _Covent Garden_, we
may quote that--

"Most of the ground occupied by the above parish was, in ancient times
(anno 1222), an extensive garden, belonging to the Abbot and Convent of
Westminster, and thence called the _Convent_ Garden, from which the
present appellation is an evident corruption. This estate, with other
contiguous lands of the Abbots, which were originally named the _Elms_,
and afterwards _Seven Acres_, and _Long Acre_, having reverted to the town
at the Dissolution, was given by Edward the Sixth to his ill-fated uncle,
the Duke of Somerset; after whose attainder, as appears from the original
_Minutes_ of the Privy Council, there was a patent granted in March, 1552,
to John Russell, Earl of Bedford, and Lord Privy Seal, _per Bill. Dom.
Regis_ 'of the gift of the Covent, or Convent Garden, lying in the parish
of St. Martin in the Fields, near Charing Cross, with seven acres, called
_Long Acre_, of the yearly value of 6_l_. 6_s_. 8_d_., parcel of
the possessions of the late Duke of Somerset, to have to him and his heirs,
reserving a tenure to the King's Majesty in _socage_, and not in _capite_.'