JB/123/229/002

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4 Case relative to the Tothill Fields Bill.

to which the whole of Tothill Fields (excepting a small area reserved
for the recreation of the Westminster Scholars) was to have been divided
into Streets, lined with Capital Houses. — This Plan, pregnant
with magnificent Ideas, and emblazoned in brilliant colours, so far
engaged the attention of the Dean and Chapter of that Day, that
in the Year 1764, an advertisement appeared in several of the
Public Papers, inviting Builders and others to take the Ground
in Tothill Fields upon Building Leases. The advertisement had
not long been in print, before it gave birth to a counter advertisement
from the Vestries of the United Parishes, warning the Persons
invited against listening to the invitation. In the case of an ordinary
proprietor, the natural result of so adverse a proceeding would have
been an application to a Court of Justice for the purpose of substantiating
the right which it disputed. The value of the subject matter were
the quantum of rent obtainable in the rent of a successful adoption of
the plan, to have been taken for the measure of that value, could
not have been regarded as being inadequate to the expense of a
law-suit even of the most expensive kind. But, whatever was the
cause - a doubt with regard to the eventual success of the Plan, confirmed
perhaps by the Silence of that class of persons to whom the advertisement
was addressed - such has been the operation of these causes,
or some of them, upon a body, pacific by profession and in practice,
that, from that time to the present, no Leases have been granted
in pursuance of that advertisement nor have any legal steps been
taken to establish the right of making such grants.(b)

That
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(b)Since the above was written it has been discovered that the
piece of Garden Ground containing an Acre or some such matter
occupied and let out into small Gardens by M<hi rend="underline">r Storr together with
the Spot on which his House is erected are held of the Dean and
Chapter under a Lease the date whereof is subsequent to the above
period. The fact is mentioned for the sake of accuracy: but the argument
does not seem to be any way affected by it. The same uncertainty
remains unremoved.

Identifier: | JB/123/229/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 123.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	123	Main Headings	panopticon
Folio number	229	Info in main headings field	case relative to the tothill fields bill
Image	002	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	2
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f3 / f4
Penner		Watermarks	tw 1794
Marginals		Paper Producer	francis hall
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1794
Notes public	see note 3 to letter 1392, vol. 6	ID Number	41655
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