View report page

64
the United Kingdom and with other countries, which have
characterised the intervening years.
Something might also be said of the comforts of the
present age in minor matters, as well as the more important,
compared with two hundred years ago. To take one 01 two
examples, our lucifer matches are not only infinitely cheaper,
but safer and more comfortable in the using than the old
sulphur-dipped splints ignited by smouldering tinder, which
in its turn had been fired by the use of flint and steel; while
the convenience of gummed envelopes, compared with the
folding and sealing of letters in the old style, is exceedingly
great.
But interesting as it would be to follow up a comparison
between the mode of life at the two periods, enough has
perhaps been said to indicate the vastly different conditions
under which we are now living, and a glimpse of the early
history of the parish will not be out of place.
THE PARISH OF ST. JAMES,
Winch covers an area of 164 acres, was, as already stated,
constituted in the year 1685, the boundaries being set forth in
the Statute 1 Jas. II., cap. 22, sec. 1, as follows:—
All the Houses, Lands, and Grounds comprehended in a Place
heretofore called St. James Fields, with certain other Lands, Tenements,
and Hereditaments in the Confines thereof, beginning at a House
situate at the South Side of the East End of a Street called Catherine
Street alias Pall Mall Street, in the Tenure or Occupation of John Valentine,
Coffeeman, having an Iron Balcony, including the said House, and extending
from thence to the middle Denter of the Pavement of the Haymarket
Street, over against a House there in the Occupation of one Thomas Batten,
a Sadler, taking in the West Side of the said Street from the said middle
Denter to the West End of Coventry Street, comprehending the North Side
thereof, and from thence inclining Northward by a House in the Occupation
of one John Bolton, Carver, by the West Side of a Street called Prince's