Métropole; in Queen Anne's Buildings south side of St. James' Park; in Albert Hall Mansions at Kensington Gore; in Buckingham Palace Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens; and in less princely fashion, in Victoria Street, Westminster; Ashley Gardens; in and about Sloane Square; in Hyde Park Mansions, Hyde Park (north side); on the Chelsea Embankment (westward); in point of fact in almost every locality of London'Elegant Flats," "Choice Flats," "Large Flats" (with billiardroom, etc.).

You may pay for these unfurnished, in proportion to your requirements, "all the way" from £80 to £1000 per annum. On the other hand, you may occasionally, out of the season, hire a furnished flat of about eight rooms on the first floor in Victoria Street, Westminster, for £8 8s. weekly. In Hyde Park Mansions, rents of suites unfurnished vary from £80 to £250 per annum: in Carlisle Mansions, Westminster, unfurnished suites of about eight rooms will command from £140 to £360 per year.

"Chambers' may be considered "flats" in small. These snuggeries are generally reserved to bachelors. "The Albany"

in Piccadilly (north side near Burlington House) affords a good example of this class of residence, not modern, but still tenanted by gentlemen of position. Residential chambers in some parts of the Temple are not to be despised; especially in the new buildings overlooking the Gardens and Embankment. These are difficult to be had, as the lawyers keep an eye upon any that may fall vacant. "Chambers" in Piccadilly rent from £65

to £175 per year.

We Londoners, who shelter ourselves in houses, villas, lodges, cottages, and so on, generally trust to the recommendations, solicitations, or inducements of friends (not seldom with later regret) in the matter of fixing our abode. We generally take our respective houses, villas, etc., on lease from the landlord, for a term of three, seven, or ten years-as the prospects prove alluring,

As a general thing three years is the safer plan; but "three years" is not the safer plan until you have satisfactory guarantees as to the drainage, drain-traps, closets, water-pipes, etc., being in

good and effi

mons, we are told, expended £180,000 in renovating and setting in order his

town residence, situated on one of the finest thoroughfares in London. He went into residence, and the family were immediately stricken with illness. His young son fell seriously ill. Inquiries showed that the drains were hopelessly out of order.

As to rents, everything depends upon the locale. Choose your district, and then look about in that district for the alwayspresent house-agent. State your wants to him; and the rent to which you propose to restrict yourself; and he will be the man to inform you of the whereabouts of the "very house" you are in search of.

· Pretty suburban parts of London, with many attractive houses at rentals from £50 to £75, £80 and £120 per annum, are Streatham, Hampstead, Norwood, Wimbledon, Putney, Richmond, Surbiton, Teddington (for the boating season); and, within the omnibus routes, Kensington and Bayswater, though very much built upon and showing little enough, now, of green fields, trees, and grass as in the old times. But near the Gardens and Parks you have a goodly show of both.

"Rooms' may be classified among bachelors' dwellings : a slang survival of the college bachelor and barrack period : “Come to my rooms"; "I shall be at my rooms"; "Lunch at my rooms," etc., etc. "Rooms" may be had almost anywhere and at almost any rental-in Pall Mall, Regent Street, Piccadilly, Sackville Street, Conduit Street, Bond Street, St. James' Street, Dover Street, Albemarle Street, etc. In point of fact, "rooms is simply another word for apartments or lodgings; but for some unknown reason or other, seldom so used when the rooms happen to be tenanted by husband and wife.

Lodgings may be met with in every part of London, central and suburban, north, south, east, and west, in the most fashionable and in the least fashionable thoroughfares.

The rent of lodgings varies with the locality. A couple of rooms on the third floor in Piccadilly, fronting the Green Park, will cost not less than £4 4s. a week, and they are not often to be had at that price. The same accommodation in Jermyn Street, in a much smaller house, will, in the season, cost about £2 28. The drawing-room floor in a street such as Hanover Street, Hanover Square, or Sackville Street, in the season, will command not less than £5 5s. In Bloomsbury, near the British Museum, similar accommodation may be had for £2 2s. or £3 35., and even for less out of the season. For the bachelor who wants comfortable quarters at a moderate rental, say, from one guinea to a guinea and a half, no district offers so many advantages as St. James'. In nearly all the streets east of it are to be found private hotels and lodging-houses, in which good