York Gate, on the left, leads to Regent's Park. Opposite is the parish church of St. Marylebone, built by Hardwick in 1813-17 in the classic style. In this church Robert Browning was married in 1846, and it is identified as the church in which Paul Dombey was christened and Mr. Dombey married. The interior was refitted in 1884.
In High St., Marylebone (a crooked relic of the old village), behind the church, is the former parish church, an insignificant building, now the Parish Chapel. It was rebuilt in 1741 on the site of a 15th century church, in which Francis Bacon was married (1606) and which is figured in Hogarth's engraving of the Rake's Marriage. Lord Byron (1788) and Nelson's daughter Horatia (1801) were baptized in this church; Sheridan was here married to Miss Linley (1773); and in the churchyard are buried Hoyle, the authority on whist (died 1769), Allan Ramsay, the painter (died 1784), and Charles and Samuel Wesley (died 1788 and 1837).
At the north end of High St. is Devonshire Terrace, with the house (No. 1) in which Dickens lived from 1839 to 1851, the period of 'The Old Curiosity Shop,' 'Barnaby Rudge,' 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' 'Dombey and Son,' and 'David Copper-field.' Many of the scenes and characters in 'Dombey and Son' were taken from this locality. Longfellow visited Dickens here in 1841. Opposite is the Royal Academy of Music, founded in 1822.
To the south of this point, on the site of Beaumont St. and Devonshire Place, lay Marylebone Gardens, a favourite pleasure-resort from about 1668 to 1778. At No. 4 Beaumont St. (rebuilt) J. R. Green lived in 1869-76 and wrote his 'Short History.'
