HIGHGATE, a suburb of London, county of Middlesex, is situated on an eminence on the great north road, 5∣ miles N.W. of the London genera] post-office. From various points on the hill, which reaches a height of 426 feet, striking views are obtained of London and its suburbs. The village is composed chiefly of a good class of houses surrounded by villas and gardens; and there are a number of mansions of historical interest in the neighbourhood, among which may be mentioned Arundel House, in which Bacon died in 1626, and Lauderdale House, once the residence of Lord Lauderdale, one of the “Cabal” of Charles II., now used as the convalescent home of St Bartholomew’s hospital. The principal buildings are the church of St Michael, erected in 1832, in the Perpendicular style, containing a monument to Coleridge, who had his residence in Highgate for nineteen years; the new building erected in 1868 for the grammar school founded by Chief-Justice Cholmeley in the time of Elizabeth; the Roman Catholic monastery called St Joseph’s Retreat, a splendid and spacious structure in the Italian style, recently erected; the London diocesan penitentiary, the infirmary, the small-pox and vaccination hospital, the Alexandra orphanage, and the Whittington almshouses. Near the foot of the hill is the Whittington stone, erected in 1821 in place of the old one, which was removed in 1795. In 1809 a scheme was projected to avoid the steep ascent at Highgate by means of an arched tunnel, but after the work had proceeded about 130 yards the whole fell in on 13th April 1812. A road was, however, formed in the line of the intended tunnel, passing under an arch over which the ancient road, Hornsey Lane, is continued. The North London cemetery, in the neighbourhood, contains the graves and ...