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diff --git a/29541.txt b/29541.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f5cc82 --- /dev/null +++ b/29541.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7553 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Walk from London to Fulham, by Thomas +Crofton Croker, Edited by T. F. Dillon Croker, Illustrated by F. W. +Fairholt + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Walk from London to Fulham + + +Author: Thomas Crofton Croker + +Editor: T. F. Dillon Croker + +Release Date: July 29, 2009 [eBook #29541] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK FROM LONDON TO FULHAM*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + + + + + A WALK + From London to Fulham + + + BY THE LATE + THOMAS CROFTON CROKER, F.S.A., M.R.I.A. + + REVISED AND EDITED BY HIS SON, + T. F. DILLON CROKER, F.S.A., F.R.G.S. + + WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS, BY + F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A. + + [Picture: Illustration] + + LONDON: WILLIAM TEGG. + 1860. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +Note by T. F. Dillon Croker. v +Dedication to Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. vii +Memoir of the late Thomas Crofton Croker, F.S.A., M.R.I.A., ix + Etc. +Text of 'A Walk from London to Fulham.' 22 +Index of Places. 250 +Index of Names of Persons. 253 +Footnotes. + +NOTE. + + +A series of papers which originally appeared in 'Fraser' are now, for the +first time, published in a collected form with the consent of the +proprietors of that Magazine. It should, however, be stated, that this +is not a mere reprint, but that other matter has been inserted, and +several illustrations, which did not appear originally, are now added, by +which the work is very materially increased: the whole having undergone a +necessary revision. + +Since the late Mr. Crofton Croker contributed to 'Fraser' the 'Walk from +London to Fulham,' there have been many important changes on the road: +time has continued to efface interesting associations; more old houses +have been pulled down, new ones built up, and great alterations and +improvements have taken place not contemplated a few years ago. It would +be impossible, for example, that any one who has not visited the locality +during the last few years could recognize the narrow lanes of yesterday +in the fine roads now diverging beyond the South Kensington Museum, which +building has so recently been erected at the commencement of Old +Brompton; but modern improvements are seemingly endless, and have of late +become frequent. It is in the belief that the following pages will be an +interesting and acceptable record of many places no longer in existence, +that they are submitted to the public in their present shape by + + T. F. DILLON CROKER. + + TO + THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A. + +MY DEAR MR. WRIGHT, + +As a mark of sincere regard to an old and esteemed friend of my late +Father, I offer these pages to you. + + Yours most faithfully, + + T. F. DILLON CROKER. + +19 _Pelham Place_, + _Brompton_, 1860. + + + + +MEMOIR +OF THE LATE +THOMAS CROFTON CROKER, F.S.A., M.R.I.A., ETC. + + +The late eminent genealogist, Sir W. Betham of Dublin, Ulster +King-at-Arms, well known as the author of numerous works on the +Antiquities of Ireland, and Mr. Richard Sainthill, an equally zealous +antiquary still living in Cork, were two of the most intimate friends and +correspondents of the late Mr. Crofton Croker. + +The first-named gentleman drew up an elaborate table tracing the Croker +pedigree as far back as the battle of Agincourt. The Croker crest--"Deus +alit eos"--was granted to Sir John Croker, who accompanied Edward IV. on +his expedition to France in 1475, as cup and standard-bearer; but without +going back to the original generation, or tracing the Limerick or any +other branch of the family, it will be sufficient to say here that the +Crokers, if they did not "come over with William the Conqueror" came +originally from Devonshire, and settled in Ireland in the reign of +Elizabeth. Thomas Crofton Croker was the only son of Thomas Croker, who, +after twenty-five years of arduous and faithful military service in North +America, Holland, and Ireland, and after having purchased every step in +the army, was gazetted brevet-major on the 11th May, 1802, in the same +regiment which he had at first joined (the 38th, or 1st Staffordshire +Foot), and in which he had uninterruptedly served. Indeed, he was so +much attached to his regiment, that, in his case at least, the +Staffordshire knot became perfectly symbolic. The closer the knot was +drawn the firmer the tie became. He commenced, continued, and ended an +honourable life of activity in the service of his country from mere +boyhood, until ill-health and a broken constitution forced him to sell +his commission. Thomas Croker was the eldest son of Richard Croker, of +Mount Long in the county of Tipperary, who died on the 1st January, 1771; +and his mother was Anne, the daughter of James Long of Dublin, by the +Honourable Mary Butler, daughter of Theobald the seventh Earl of Cahir. +Thomas Croker was born on the 29th March, 1761. In 1796 he married +Maria, eldest daughter and co-heir of Croker Dillon of Baltidaniel in the +county of Cork, and on the 15th January, 1798, Thomas Crofton Croker was +born at the house of his maternal grandmother in Buckingham Square, Cork, +receiving his first Christian name after his father, and his second after +his godfather, the Honourable Sir E. Crofton, Bart. + +While very young, during the years 1812 and 1815, Crofton Croker made +several excursions in the south of Ireland, studying the character and +traditions of the country, on which occasions he was frequently +accompanied by Mr. Joseph Humphreys, a Quaker, afterwards master of the +Deaf and Dumb Institution at Claremont near Dublin. In 1813 he was +placed with the mercantile firm of Messrs. Lecky and Mark, and in 1817 he +appeared as an exhibitor in the second exhibition of the Cork Society, +for he had already displayed considerable talent as an artist. In 1818 +he contributed to an ephemeral production called 'The Literary and +Political Examiner:' on the 22nd March of that year his father died, and +he left Ireland, not to revisit it until he made a short excursion there +in 1821 with Alfred Nicholson and Miss Nicholson (who afterwards became +Mrs. Croker), children of the late Mr. Francis Nicholson, one of the +founders of the English water-colour school, and who died in 1844 at the +patriarchal age of ninety-one years. + +Crofton Croker's first visit to England was paid to Thomas Moore in +Wiltshire; and soon after his establishing in London he received from the +late Right Hon. John Wilson Croker an appointment at the Admiralty, of +which office his namesake (but no relation) was secretary, and from which +he (Crofton) retired in 1850 as senior clerk of the first class, having +served upwards of thirty years, thirteen of which were passed in the +highest class. This retirement, although he stood first for promotion to +the office of chief clerk, was compulsory upon a reduction of office, and +was not a matter of private convenience. In 1830 Crofton Croker married +Miss Marianne Nicholson, and the result of their union was an only child, +Thomas Francis Dillon Croker, born 26th August, 1831, the writer of the +present memoir. + +The literary labours of Crofton Croker were attended with more gratifying +results than his long and unwearied official services. The 'Researches +in the South of Ireland' (1824), an arrangement of notes made during +several excursions between the years 1812 and 1822, was his first +important work. It was published by John Murray, the father of the +present publisher of the 'Quarterly Review,' and contained illustrations +by Mr. Alfred and Miss Nicholson: with the 'Fairy Legends,' however, the +name of Crofton Croker became more especially associated, the first +edition of which appeared anonymously in 1825, and produced a +complimentary letter from Sir Walter Scott, which has been published in +all subsequent editions. The success of the first edition of the legends +was such as immediately to justify a second, which appeared the next +year, illustrated with etchings after sketches by Maclise, and which was +followed by a second series (Parts 2 and 3) in 1827. The third part, +although it appeared under the same title, namely 'Fairy Legends and +Traditions of the South of Ireland,' may be considered as forming almost +a separate work, inasmuch as it comprised the fairy superstitions of +Wales and other countries, in addition to those current in Ireland. A +translation of the legends by the Brothers Grimm appeared in Germany in +1825, and another in Paris in 1828 ('Les Contes Irlandais, precedes d'une +introduction par M. P. A. Dufau'), but it was not until 1834 that Murray +published them in a condensed form in his 'Family Library,' the copyright +of which edition, as revised by the author, was purchased of Murray by +the late Mr. Tegg, and is now published by his son. In October, 1826, +Croker was introduced to Sir Walter Scott at Lockhart's in Pall Mall. +Sir Walter recorded the interview thus:--"At breakfast Crofton Croker, +author of the Irish fairy tales--little as a dwarf, keen-eyed as a hawk, +and of easy, prepossessing manners, something like Tom Moore. Here were +also Terry, Allan Cunningham, Newton, and others." At this meeting, Sir +Walter Scott suggested the adventures of Daniel O'Rourke as the subject +for the Adelphi pantomime, and, at the request of Messrs. Terry and +Yates, Croker wrote a pantomime founded upon the legend, which was +produced at the Adelphi the same year. It succeeded, and underwent two +editions: the second was published in 1828, uniform with the legends, and +entitled 'Daniel O'Rourke; or, Rhymes of a Pantomime, founded on that +Story.' Croker wrote to his sister (Mrs. Eyre Coote, alive at the +present time) the following account of the breakfast party at Lockhart's, +which, though already published in 'The Gentleman's Magazine' (November, +1854), is sufficiently interesting to be repeated. He first mentions +"the writing and preparing for the Adelphi Theatre a Christmas pantomime +from the renowned adventures of Daniel O'Rourke, two or three meetings +with Sir Walter Scott, some anxious experiments in lithography under the +directions of Mr. Coindet, one of the partners of Englemann's house of +Paris, who has lately opened an establishment here, which will be of the +utmost importance to the advancement of the art in this country, and of +which I hope soon to send you specimens." Then he adds: "To tell half +the kindness and attention which I received from Sir Walter Scott would +be impossible. The breakfast party at Lockhart's consisted of Allan +Cunningham, Terry (the actor), Newton (the artist), a Dr. Yates of +Brighton, Captain, Mr., and Mrs. Lockhart, Miss Scott, Mr. Hogg, and your +humble servant. We had all assembled when Sir Walter entered the room. +Maclise's sketch does not give his expression, although there is +certainly a strong likeness--a likeness in it which cannot be mistaken; +but I have a very rough profile sketch in pen and ink by Newton, which is +admirable, and which some time or other I will copy and send you. When I +was introduced to the 'Great Unknown' I really had not the power of +speaking; it was a strange feeling of embarrassment, which I do not +remember having felt before in so strong a manner; and of course to his +'I am glad to see you, Mr. Croker, you and I are not unknown to each +other,' I could say nothing. He contrived to say something neat to every +one in the kindest manner--a well-turned compliment, without, however, +the slightest appearance of flattery--something at which every one felt +gratified. After speaking for a few moments to Mr. Terry and Allan +Cunningham, he returned to where I stood fixed and 'mute as the monument +on Fish Street Hill;' but I soon recovered the use of my tongue from the +easy manner in which he addressed me, and no longer seemed to feel myself +in the presence of some mighty and mysterious personage. He spoke +slowly, with a Scotch accent, and in rather a low tone of voice, so much +so, indeed, that I found it difficult to catch every word. He mentioned +my 'Fairy Legends,' and hoped he should soon have the very great +enjoyment of reading the second volume. 'You are our--I speak of the +Celtic nations' (said Sir Walter)--'great authority now on fairy +superstition, and have made Fairy Land your kingdom; most sincerely do I +hope it may prove a golden inheritance to you. To me,' (continued Sir +Walter) 'it is the land of promise of much future entertainment. I have +been reading the German translation of your tales and the Grimms' very +elaborate introduction.' Mr. Terry mentioned having received from me +Daniel O'Rourke in the shape of a Christmas pantomime. 'It is an +admirable subject,' said Sir Walter, 'and if Mr. Croker has only +dramatized it with half the skill of tricking up old wives' tales which +he has shown himself to possess, it must be, and I prophesy, although I +have not seen it, it will be as great a golden egg in your nest, Terry, +as Mother Goose was to one of the greater theatres some years ago.' He +then repeated by heart part of the conversation between Dan and the +Eagle, with great zest. I must confess it was most sweet from such a +man. But really I blush, or ought to blush, at writing all this +flattery." Here the origin of Maclise's illustrations to the legends is +thus given by the editor of the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' "The artist, who +had not then quitted his native city of Cork, was a frequent visitor to +Mr. Sainthill (the author of 'Olla Podrida'), at the time that the first +edition of the work appeared. Mr. Sainthill read the tales aloud from +time to time in the evening, and Maclise would frequently, on the next +morning, produce a drawing of what he had heard. These were not seen by +Mr. Croker until his next visit to Cork: but when he did see them he was +so much pleased with them that he prevailed upon Mr. Sainthill to allow +them to be copied for his forthcoming edition: and this was done by +Maclise, and the drawings were engraved by W. H. Brooke, and Maclise's +name was not attached to them, but merely mentioned by Mr. Croker in his +preface." + +Scott made favourable mention of the 'Fairy Legends' in the collected +edition of the 'Waverley Novels' published in 1830. In a note on Fairy +Superstitions to Chapter XI. of 'Rob Roy,' speaking of the elfin +traditions peculiar to the wild scenery where Avon Dhu or the River Forth +has its birth, he observes: "The opinions entertained about these beings +are much the same with those of the Irish, so exquisitely well narrated +by Mr. Crofton Croker." Again, in his 'Letters on Demonology and +Witchcraft,' Scott says: "We know from the lively and entertaining +legends published by Mr. Crofton Croker, which, though in most cases, +told with the wit of the editor and the humour of his country, contain +points of curious antiquarian information" as to what the opinions of the +Irish are. And again, speaking of the Banshee: "The subject has been so +lately and beautifully investigated and illustrated by Mr. Crofton Croker +and others, that I may dispense with being very particular regarding it." +This was indeed gratifying from such an authority. The late Thomas +Haynes Bayley dedicated to Crofton Croker a volume entitled 'Songs from +Fairy Land.' + +Having dwelt at considerable length upon the legends, the required limits +of this notice will not permit more than a reference to the literary +works of Mr. Croker which succeeded them; and as there is but occasion +for their enumeration, they shall be here given in the order of their +appearance, merely premising that the tales of 'Barney Mahoney' and 'My +Village _versus_ Our Village,' were not by Mr. Croker, although they bore +his name: they were, in reality, written by Mrs. Croker. The list stands +thus:-- + +1828-9. 'The Christmas-Box, an Annual Present for Children, a collection +of Tales edited by Mr. Croker, and published by Harrison Ainsworth' (Sir +Walter Scott, Lockhart, Ainsworth, Maria Edgeworth, and Miss Mitford were +among the contributors). + +1829. 'Legends of the Lakes; or, Sayings and Doings at Killarney, +collected chiefly from the Manuscripts of R. Adolphus Lynch, Esq., H. P. +King's German Legion, with illustrations by Maclise (Ebers).' A second +edition, compressed into one volume as a guide to the Lakes, appeared in +1831. (Fisher.) + +From this time Croker became contributor to the 'Gentleman's' and +'Fraser's' Magazines. In 1832 he was a steward at the famous literary +dinner given to Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd. + +1835. 'Landscape Illustrations to Moore's Irish Melodies, with Comments +for the Curious.' (Only one number appeared.) (Power.) + +1837. 'A Memoir of Joseph Holt, General of the Irish Rebels in 1798. +From Holt's Autobiographical MS. in the possession of Sir W. Betham.' +(Colburn.) + +'The Journal of a Tour through Ireland in 1644, translated from the +French of M. de la Boullaye le Gouz, assisted by J. Roche, Father Prout, +and Thomas Wright.' (Boone.) Dedicated to the elder Disraeli, "in +remembrance of much attention and kindness received from him many years +ago;" which dedication was cordially responded to by that author. + +1839. 'The Popular Songs of Ireland.' (Colburn.) + +1843. A Description of Rosamond's Bower, Fulham {18} (the residence of +Mr. Croker for eight years), with an inventory of the pictures, +furniture, curiosities, etc., etc. (Privately printed.) + +It was here that Moore, Rogers, Maria Edgeworth, Lucy Aikin, "Father +Prout" (Mahony), Barham (Ingoldsby), Sydney Smith, Jerdan, Theodore Hook, +Lover, Planche, Lords Braybrooke, Strangford, and Northampton, Sir G. +Back, John Barrow, Sir Emerson Tennent, Wyon, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, T. +Wright, and many others were the guests of Mr. Croker. One room in the +house was fitted up as a Museum, where such visitors delighted to +assemble. + +During subsequent years Mr. Croker produced several minor works on +antiquarian and popular subjects, some of them printed for private +circulation among his friends, and others as contributions to the +different societies of which he was a member. He died at his residence, +3, Gloucester Road, Old Brompton, on the 8th of August, 1854, aged 57, +and was buried in the private grave of his father-in-law, Mr. Francis +Nicholson, in the Brompton Cemetery, a sketch of which, by Mr. Fairholt, +appears in these pages. It should not be forgotten that Mr. Crofton +Croker was a contributor to the 'Amulet,' 'Literary Souvenir,' and +'Friendship's Offering,' as well as (more extensively) to the 'Literary +Gazette,' when that journal possessed considerable influence under the +editorship of W. Jerdan. Mr. Croker also edited for the Camden and Percy +Societies (in the formation of which he took an active part) many works +of antiquarian interest. He was connected, also, with the British +Archaeological Association as one of the secretaries (1844-9) under the +presidency of Lord Albert Conyngham (the late Lord Londesborough). That +recently-deceased nobleman was one of Mr. Croker's most attached friends, +and opposite his Lordship's pew in Grimston church, Yorkshire, a neat +marble tablet was erected bearing the following inscription: "In memory +of Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq., the amiable and accomplished author of +the 'Fairy Legends of Ireland,' and other works, Literary and +Antiquarian. This tablet is erected by his friend Lord Londesborough, +1855." + +To enumerate all the societies and institutions of which Crofton Croker +was a member, honorary or otherwise, would in these pages be superfluous; +but one society shall be here especially mentioned as originating with +Mr. Croker and a few members of the Society of Antiquaries. In 1828 a +club was established, composed of a select few F.S.A.'s, in consequence +of an excursion during the summer to the site, which, in the time of the +Romans, had been occupied by the city of Noviomagus. In a field at +Keston, near Bromley Common in Kent, Mr. Croker had learned that the +remains of a Roman building were apparent above the grass, and it was to +ascertain this fact that the excursion was undertaken. An excavation was +made, and a few fragments of Roman pottery and a stone coffin were +discovered. From this circumstance the club was called the Noviomagian +Society. Mr. Croker was elected its president, and although most of the +original members had died off, he continued in that office until within a +very few months of his death. There are amongst them at the present time +many highly-valued friends of their late president, who succeed in +keeping up their meetings in the true Noviomagian spirit. Long may they +be spared to assemble together, occasionally introducing fresh life to +the little society, that its pleasant gatherings may not be allowed to +die out! A portrait of Mr. Croker was painted a few years before his +death by Mr. Stephen Pearce (the artist of the 'Arctic Council'). It is +a characteristic and an admirable likeness. The next best is that in +Maclise's well-known picture of 'All Hallow Eve' (exhibited in the Royal +Academy in 1833), on which Lover, in describing the engraving, has +remarked: "And who is that standing behind them?--he seems 'far more +genteel' than the rest of the company. Why, 'tis Crofton Croker, or, as +he is familiarly called amongst his friends, 'The honourable member for +fairy-land.' There you are, Crofty, my boy! with your note-book in your +hand; and maybe you won't pick up a trifle in such good company." It may +be added, that Mr. Croker was for many years one of the registrars of the +Royal Literary Fund. And now, in drawing this slight sketch of Mr. +Croker's life to a close, the writer hopes that it may not be an +uninteresting addition to the present volume. + + T. F. D. C. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +KNIGHTSBRIDGE TO THE BELL AND HORNS, BROMPTON. + +[Picture: Anyone] Obliged by circumstances to lead the life of a +pendulum, vibrating between a certain spot distant four miles from +London, and a certain spot just out of the smoke of the +metropolis,--going into town daily in the morning and returning in the +evening,--may be supposed, after the novelty has worn off, from the +different ways by which he can shape his course, to find little interest +in his monotonous movement. Indeed, I have heard many who live a short +distance from town complain of this swinging backwards and forwards, or, +rather, going forwards and backwards over the same ground every day, as +dull and wearisome; but I cannot sympathise with them. On the contrary, +I find that the more constantly any particular line of road is adhered +to, the more intimate an acquaintance with it is formed, and the more +interesting it becomes. + +In some measure, this may be accounted for by studious habits; a +tolerable memory, apt to indulge in recollections of the past, and to +cherish rather than despise, when not impertinent, local gossip, which +re-peoples the district with its former inhabitants,-- + + "Sweet Memory! wafted by thy gentle gale + Oft up the tide of time I turn my sail, + To view the fairy haunts of long-lost hours + Blest with far greener shades--far fresher flowers." + +"We have all by heart," observes the author of the _Curiosities of +Literature_, "the true and delightful reflection of Johnson on local +associations, where the scene we tread suggests to us the men or the +deeds which have left their celebrity to the spot. 'We are in the +presence of their fame, and feel its influence.'" How often have I +fancied, if the walls by which thousands now daily pass without a glance +of recognition or regard, if those walls could speak, and name some of +their former inmates, how great would be the regret of many at having +overlooked houses which they would perhaps have made a pilgrimage of +miles to behold, as associated with the memory of persons whose names +history, literature, or art has embalmed for posterity, or as the scene +of circumstances treasured up in recollection! + +If the feelings could be recalled, and faithfully recorded, which the +dull brick walls that I cannot help regarding with interest must have +witnessed, what a romantic chapter in the history of the human mind would +be preserved for study and reflection!-- + + "Ay, beautiful the dreaming brought + By valleys and green fields; + But deeper feeling, higher thought, + Is what the City yields." + +The difficulty, however, is incredible of procuring accurate information +as to any thing which has not been chronicled at the moment. None but +those who have had occasion to search after a date, or examine into a +particular fact, can properly estimate their value, or the many inquiries +that have to be made to ascertain what at first view would appear to be +without embarrassment,--so deceptive is the memory, and so easy a thing +is it to forget, especially numbers and localities, the aspect and even +names of which change with a wonderful degree of rapidity in the progress +of London out of town. Thus many places become daily more and more +confused, and at last completely lose their identity, to the regret of +the contemplative mind, which loves to associate objects with the +recollection of those who "have left their celebrity to the spot." + +These considerations have induced the writer to arrange his notes, and +illustrate them by such sketches as will aid the recognition of the +points mentioned, the appearance of which must be familiar to all who +have journeyed between London and Fulham,--a district containing, beside +the ancient village of that name, and remarkable as adjacent to the +country seat of the Bishop of London, two smaller villages, called Walham +Green and Parson's Green. The former of which stands on the main London +road, the latter on the King's Road,--which roads form nearly parallel +lines between Fulham and the metropolis. For all information respecting +the neighbourhood of Knightsbridge the reader may be referred to a +recently published work "The Memorials of the Hamlet of Knightsbridge, +with notices of its immediate neighbourhood," by the late Henry George +Davis, edited by Charles Davis (Russell Smith). + +From Knightsbridge, formerly a suburb, and now part of London, the main +roads to Fulham and Hammersmith branch off at the north end of Sloane +Street (about a quarter of a mile west of Hyde Park Corner), thus:-- + + [Picture: Map] + +And at the south termination of Sloane Street, which is 3,299 feet in +length, the King's Road commences from Sloane Square. + +THE MAIN FULHAM ROAD passes for about a mile through a district called by +the general name of Brompton, which is a hamlet in the parish of +Kensington. The house, No. 14 Queen's Buildings, Knightsbridge, on the +left-hand or south side of the road, [Picture: Hooper's Court] at the +corner of Hooper's Court, occupied, when sketched in 1844, as two shops, +by John Hutchins, dyer, and Moses Bayliss, tailor, and now (1860) by +Hutchins alone, was, from 1792 to 1797 inclusive, the residence of Mr. J. +C. Nattes, an artist, who deserves notice as one of the sixteen by whose +association, in 1805, the first exhibition of water-colour paintings was +formed. + +From 1792 to 1797 this house was described as No. 14 Queen's Buildings, +Knightsbridge; but in the latter year the address was changed to No. 14 +Knightsbridge Green. {25a} In 1800 it was known as No. 14 Knightsbridge, +and in 1803 as No. 14 Queen's Row, Knightsbridge. {25b} In 1810 as +Gloucester Buildings, Brompton. {25c} In 1811 as Queen's Buildings. +{25d} In 1828 as Gloucester Row. {25e} In 1831 as Gloucester Buildings; +{25f} and it has now reverted to its original name of Queen's Buildings, +_Knightsbridge_, in opposition to Queen's Buildings, _Brompton_, the +division being Hooper's Court, if, indeed, the original name was not +Queen's _Row_, Knightsbridge, as this in 1772 was the address of William +Wynne Ryland (the engraver who was hanged for forgery in 1783). When +houses began to be built on the same side of the way, beyond Queen's +_Row_, the term "_Buildings_" appears to have been assumed as a +distinction from the row west of Hooper's Court; which row would +naturally have been considered as a continuation, although, in 1786, the +Royal Academy Catalogue records Mr. J. G. Huck, an exhibitor, as residing +at No. 11 Gloster Row, Knightsbridge. + +These six alterations of name within half a century, to say nothing of +the previous changes, illustrate the extreme difficulty which attends +precise local identification in London, and are merely offered at the +very starting point as evidence at least of the desire to be accurate. + +About the year 1800, the late residence of Mr. Nattes became the lodgings +of Arthur Murphy, too well known as a literary character of the last +century to require here more than the mere mention of his name, even to +those who are accustomed to associate every thing with its pecuniary +value; as Murphy's portrait, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds for Mr. +Thrale, sold at Christie's in the sale of Mr. Watson Taylor's pictures +(June, 1823), for 94 pounds 10s. Murphy had prepared his translation of +Tacitus {26} for the press, at his house on Hammersmith Terrace (the last +at the west end); but declining health and circumstances induced his +removal into lodgings near London, at "14 Knightsbridge." From these +apartments "he soon removed to others in Brompton Row, where he did not +remain long, not liking the mistress of the house, but returned to his +former residence (No. 14), where he resided till the time of his death." +In 1803, the late Lord Sidmouth (then Mr. Addington), conferred a pension +of 200 pounds a-year on Murphy, "to mark the sense" his majesty +entertained "of literary merit, particularly when accompanied with sound +principles and unquestionable character;" which gracious mark of royal +favour Murphy acknowledged on the 2nd of March, from "14 Queen's Row, +Knightsbridge." Here he wrote his life of Garrick, {27a} a work which, +notwithstanding Mr. Foot's ingenious defence of it, shews that Garrick's +life remains to be written, and that Murphy's intellectual powers were, +at the time when he composed it, in a state of decay. + +Murphy, according to his biographer, "possessed the first and second +floors of a very pleasant, neat house, where there was a long gravel walk +in the garden; {27b} and though his library had been much diminished, +yet, in the remaining part, he took care to reserve the Elzevir editions +of the classics. Mrs. Mangeon (the mistress of the house) was a neat and +intelligent woman, and Mr. Murphy secured her friendship by giving her +son a presentation to Christ's Hospital. Anne Dunn, his own +servant-maid, was an excellent servant, honest, faithful, and attentive; +so that, what with the services he had rendered to the mistress of the +house, and what with the intrinsic fidelity of his female domestic, he +could put the whole family into a state of requisition, and command an +elegant table, as well as ready attention, upon any particular occasion. +Such was the situation of a man of genius, and an author, in the decline +of a long life, and in a country at the highest pitch of grandeur and +wealth. But it must be remembered, that the comforts he possessed were +not derived from the profits of literature." + +During the last year of Arthur Murphy's life he possessed a certain +income of 500 pounds, and added to this was 150 pounds for the copyright +of his Tacitus, which, however, was less than half the sum he had been +frequently offered for it. The translation of Sallust, which Murphy left +unfinished, was completed by Thomas Moore, and published in 1807. + +Murphy appears to have perfectly reconciled his mind to the stroke of +death. He made his will thirteen days previous to it, and dictated and +signed plain and accurate orders respecting his funeral. He directed his +library of books and all his pictures to be sold by auction, and the +money arising therefrom, together with what money he might have at his +bankers or in his strong box, he bequeathed to his executor, Mr. Jesse +Foot, of Dean Street, Soho. To Mrs. Mangeon (his landlady) he gave "all +his prints in the room one pair of stairs and whatever articles of +furniture" he had in her house, "the bookcase excepted." And to his +servant, Anne Dunn, "twenty guineas, with all his linen and wearing +apparel." After the completion of this will, Murphy observed, "I have +been preparing for my journey to another region, and now do not care how +soon I take my departure." And on the day of his death (18th June, 1805) +he frequently repeated the lines of Pope:-- + + "Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay, + To welcome death and calmly pass away." + +All that we can further glean respecting the interior of Murphy's +apartment is, that in it "there was a portrait of Dunning (Lord +Ashburton), a very striking likeness, painted in crayons by Ozias +Humphrey." + +Humphrey, who was portrait-painter in crayons to George III., and in 1790 +was elected member of the Royal Academy, resided, in 1792 and 1793, at +No. 19 Queen's Buildings, _Knightsbridge_; but whether this was the fifth +house beyond Nattes', or the No. 19 Queen's Buildings, now called +_Brompton Road_ (Mitchell's, a linen-draper's shop), I am unable, after +many inquiries, to determine. It will be remembered that Dr. Walcott +(Peter Pindar) introduced Opie to the patronage of Humphrey, and there +are many allusions to "honest Ozias," as he was called in the +contemporary literature. + + "But Humphrey, by whom shall your labours be told, + How your colours enliven the young and the old?" + +is the comment of Owen Cambridge; and Hayley says, + + "Thy graces, Humphrey, and thy colours clear, + From miniatures' small circle disappear; + May their distinguished merit still prevail, + And shine with lustre on the larger scale." + +A portrait of Ozias Humphrey, painted by Romney in 1772, is preserved at +Knowle, a memorial of the visit of those artists to the Duke of Dorset. +It has been twice engraved, and the private plate from it, executed by +Caroline Watson in 1784, is a work of very high merit. In 1799 Humphrey +resided at No. 13 High Row, Knightsbridge, nearly opposite to the house +in which Murphy lodged, and there, with the exception of the last few +months, he passed the remainder of his life. + +At No. 21 Queen's Buildings (the second house beyond that occupied by +Ozias Humphrey), Mr. Thomas Trotter, an ingenious engraver and +draughtsman, resided in 1801. He engraved several portraits, of which +the most esteemed are a head of the Rev. Stephen Whiston and a head of +Lord Morpeth. Nearly the last work of his burin was a portrait of +Shakspeare, patronized by George Steevens. Trotter died on the 14th +February, 1803, having been prevented from following his profession in +consequence of a blow on one of his eyes, accidentally received by the +fall of a flower-pot from a window. He, however, obtained employment in +making drawings of churches and monuments for the late Sir Richard Hoare, +and other gentlemen interested in topographical illustration. + +Queen's Buildings, Brompton, are divided, rather than terminated, at No. +28 (Green's, an earthenware-shop) by New Street, leading into Hans +Place--"snug Hans Place," which possesses one house, at least, that all +literary pilgrims would desire to turn out of their direct road to visit. +Miss Landon, alluding to "the fascinations of Hans Place," playfully +observes, "vivid must be the imagination that could discover them-- + + 'Never hermit in his cell, + Where repose and silence dwell, + Human shape and human word + Never seen and never heard,' + +had a life of duller calm than the indwellers of our square." Hans Place +may also be approached from Sloane Street, and No. 22 Hans Place, is the +south-east corner. [Picture: No. 22 Hans Place] Among its inmates have +been Lady Caroline Lamb, {31} Miss Mitford, Lady Bulwer, Miss Landon, +Mrs. S. C. Hall, and Miss Roberts. How much of the "romance and reality" +of life is in a moment conjured up in the mind by the mention of the +names here grouped in local association! + +The editor of the memoirs of L. E. L. records two or three circumstances +which give a general interest to Hans Place. Here it was that Miss +Landon was born on the 14th August, 1802, in the house now No. 25; and +"it is remarkable that the greater portion of L. E. L.'s existence was +passed on the spot where she was born. From Hans Place and its +neighbourhood she was seldom absent, and then not for any great length of +time; until within a year or two of her death, she had there found her +home, not indeed in the house of her birth, but close by. Taken +occasionally during the earlier years of childhood into the country, it +was to Hans Place she returned. Here some of her school time was passed. +When her parents removed she yet clung to the old spot, and, as her own +mistress, chose the same scene for her residence. When one series of +inmates quitted it, she still resided there with their successors, +returning continually after every wandering, 'like a blackbird to his +nest.'" + +The partiality of Miss Landon for London was extraordinary. In a letter, +written in 1834, and addressed to a reverend gentleman, she ominously +says, "When I have the good luck or ill luck (I rather lean to the latter +opinion) of being married, I shall certainly insist on the wedding +excursion not extending much beyond Hyde Park Corner." + +When in her sixth year (1808), Miss Landon was sent to school at No. 22 +Hans Place. This school was then kept by Miss Bowden, who in 1801 had +published 'A Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany,' {32a} and in +1810 a poem entitled 'The Pleasures of Friendship.' {32b} Miss Bowden +became the Countess St. Quentin, and died some years ago in the +neighbourhood of Paris. In this house, where she had been educated, Miss +Landon afterwards resided for many years as a boarder with the Misses +Lance, who conducted a ladies' school. "It seems," observes the +biographer of L. E. L., "to have been appropriated to such purposes from +the time it was built, nor was L. E. L. the first who drank at the 'well +of English' within its walls. Miss Mitford, we believe, was educated +there, and Lady Caroline Lamb was an inmate for a time." + +It is the remark of Miss Landon herself, that "a history of the how and +where works of imagination have been produced would often be more +extraordinary than the works themselves." "Her own case," observes a +female friend, "is, in some degree, an illustration of perfect +independence of mind over all external circumstances. Perhaps to the L. +E. L., of whom so many nonsensical things have been said, as that she +should write with a crystal pen, dipped in dew, upon silver paper, and +use for pounce the dust of a butterfly's wing, a dilettante of literature +would assign for the scene of her authorship a fairy-like boudoir, with +rose-coloured and silver hangings, fitted with all the luxuries of a +fastidious taste. How did the reality agree with this fancy sketch? +[Picture: Attic, No. 22 Hans Place] Miss Landon's drawing-room, {33} +indeed, was prettily furnished, but it was her invariable habit to write +in her bed-room. I see it now, that homely-looking, almost uncomfortable +room, fronting the street, and barely furnished with a simple white bed, +at the foot of which was a small, old, oblong-shaped, sort of +dressing-table, quite covered with a common worn writing-desk, heaped +with papers, while some strewed the ground, the table being too small for +aught besides the desk; a little high-backed cane chair, which gave you +any idea rather than that of comfort. A few books scattered about +completed the author's paraphernalia." + +In this attic did the muse of L. E. L. dream of and describe music, +moonlight, and roses, and "apostrophise loves, memories, hopes, and +fears," with how much ultimate appetite for invention or sympathy may be +judged from her declaration that, "there is one conclusion at which I +have arrived, that a horse in a mill has an easier life than an author. +I am fairly fagged out of my life." + +Miss Roberts, who had resided in the same house with Miss Landon, +prefixed a brief memoir to a collection of poems by that lamented lady, +which appeared shortly after her death, her own mournful lines-- + + "_Alas_! _hope is not prophecy_--_we dream_, + _But rarely does the glad fulfilment come_; + _We leave our land_, _and we return no more_." + +And within less than twenty months from the selection of these lines they +became applicable to her who had quoted them. + +Emma Roberts accompanied her sister, Mrs. M'Naughten, to India, where she +resided for some time. On her sister's death Miss Roberts returned to +England, and employed her pen assiduously and advantageously in +illustrating the condition of our eastern dominions. She returned to +India, and died at Poonah, on the 17th September, 1840. Though +considerably the elder, she was one of the early friends of Miss Landon, +having for several years previous to her first visit to India boarded +with the Misses Lance in Hans Place. + + "These were happy days, and little boded the premature and melancholy + fate which awaited them in foreign climes. We believe," says the + editor of the 'Literary Gazette,' "that it was the example of the + literary pursuits of Miss Landon which stimulated Miss Roberts to try + her powers as an author, and we remember having the gratification to + assist her in launching her first essay--an historical production, + {35} which reflected high credit on her talents, and at once + established her in a fair position in the ranks of literature. Since + then she has been one of the most prolific of our female writers, and + given to the public a number of works of interest and value. The + expedition to India, on which she unfortunately perished, was + undertaken with comprehensive views towards the further illustration + of the East, and portions of her descriptions have appeared as she + journeyed to her destination in periodicals devoted to Asiatic + pursuits." + +The influence of Miss Landon's literary popularity upon the mind of Miss +Roberts very probably caused that lady to desire similar celebrity. +Indeed, so imitative are the impulses of the human mind, that it may +fairly be questioned if Miss Landon would ever have attuned her lyre had +she mot been in the presence of Miss Mitford's and Miss Rowden's "fame, +and felt its influence." Miss Mitford has chronicled so minutely all the +sayings and doings of her school-days in Hans Place (H. P., as she +mysteriously writes it), that she admits us at once behind the scenes. +She describes herself as sent there (we will not supply the date, but +presume it to be somewhere about 1800) "a petted child of ten years old, +born and bred in the country, and as shy as a hare." The schoolmistress, +a Mrs. S---, "seldom came near us. Her post was to sit all day, nicely +dressed, in a nicely-furnished drawing-room, busy with some piece of +delicate needlework, receiving mammas, aunts, and godmammas, answering +questions, and administering as much praise as she conscientiously +could--perhaps a little more. In the school-room she ruled, like other +rulers, by ministers and delegates, of whom the French teacher was the +principal." This French teacher, the daughter of an _emigre_ of +distinction, left, upon the short peace of Amiens, to join her parents in +an attempt to recover their property, in which they succeeded. Her +successor is admirably sketched by Miss Mitford; and the mutual antipathy +which existed between the French and English teacher, in whom we at once +recognise Miss Rowden:-- + + "Never were two better haters. Their relative situations had + probably something to do with it, and yet it was wonderful that two + such excellent persons should so thoroughly detest each other. Miss + R.'s aversion was of the cold, phlegmatic, contemptuous, provoking + sort; she kept aloof, and said nothing. Madame's was acute, fiery, + and loquacious; she not only hated Miss R., but hated for her sake + knowledge, and literature, and wit, and, above all, poetry, which she + denounced as _something fatal and contagious_, _like the plague_." + +Miss Mitford's literary and dramatic tastes seem to have been acquired +from Miss Rowden, whom she describes as "one of the most charming women +that she had ever known:"-- + + "The pretty word _graziosa_, by which Napoleon loved to describe + Josephine, seemed made for her. She was full of a delicate grace of + mind and person. Her little elegant figure and her fair mild face, + lighted up so brilliantly by her large hazel eyes, corresponded + exactly with the soft, gentle manners which were so often awakened + into a delightful playfulness, or an enthusiasm more charming still, + by the impulse of her quick and ardent spirit. To be sure she had a + slight touch of distraction about her (distraction French, not + distraction English), an interesting absence of mind. She united in + her own person all the sins of forgetfulness of all the young ladies; + mislaid her handkerchief, her shawl, her gloves, her work, her music, + her drawing, her scissors, her keys; would ask for a book when she + held it in her hand, and set a whole class hunting for her thimble, + whilst the said thimble was quietly perched upon her finger. Oh! + with what a pitying scorn our exact and recollective Frenchwoman used + to look down on such an incorrigible scatterbrain! But she was a + poetess, as Madame said, and what could you expect better!" + +Such was Miss Landon's schoolmistress; and under this lady's especial +instruction did Miss Mitford pass the years 1802, 3, and 4; together they +read "chiefly poetry;" and "besides the readings," says Miss Mitford, +"Miss R. compensated in another way for my unwilling application. She +took me often to the theatre; whether as an extra branch of education, or +because she was herself in the height of a dramatic fever, it would be +invidious to inquire. The effect may be easily foreseen; my enthusiasm +soon equalled her own; we began to read Shakspeare, and read nothing +else." + +In 1810 Miss Mitford first appeared as an authoress, by publishing a +volume of poems, which, in the course of the following year, passed into +a second edition. + +At No. 21 Hans Place, the talented artistes, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Wigan, +resided some time. + +Returning from Hans Place to the Fulham Road through NEW STREET, No. 7 +may he pointed out as the house formerly occupied by Chalon, "animal +painter to the royal family;" and No. 6 as the residence of the Right +Hon. David R. Pigot, the late Solicitor-General for Ireland, while (in +1824-25) studying in the chambers of the late Lord Chief-Justice Tindal, +for the profession of which his pupil rapidly became an eminent member. + +BROMPTON was formerly an airy outlet to which the citizen, with his +spouse, were wont to resort for an afternoon of rustic enjoyment. It had +also the reputation of being a locality favourable to intrigue. Steele, +shrewdly writing on the 27th July, 1713, says:-- + + "Dear Wife,--If you please to call at Button's, we will go together + to Brompton. + + "Yours ever, + "RICHARD STEELE." {38a} + +Now is Brompton all built or being built over, which makes the precise +locality of crescents and rows puzzling to old gentlemen. Its heath is +gone, and its grove represented by a few dead trunks and some +unhealthy-looking trees which stand by the road-side, their branches +lopped and their growth restrained by order of the district surveyor; and +Brompton National School, nearly opposite to New Street, a building in +the Tudor style, was, in 1841, wedged in there "for the education of 400 +children, after the design of Mr. George Godwin, jun.;" so at least the +newspapers of the day informed the public. + +BROMPTON ROW on the north, or right-hand side of the main Fulham Road, +now consists of fifty-five respectable-looking houses, uniform, or nearly +so, in appearance; and, according to the statements in the 'Gentleman's +Magazine' {38b} and Mr. Faulkner's 'History of Kensington' {38c} here +died Arthur Murphy. But although this was not the case, in Brompton Row +have lived and died authors, and actors, and artists, whose performances +deserve full as much consideration from posterity. + +No. 14 BROMPTON ROW was the abode for more than ten years (1820 to 1831) +of John Vendramini, a distinguished engraver. [Picture: No. 14 Brompton +Row] He was born at Roncade, near Bassano, in Italy, and died 8th +February, 1839, aged seventy. Vendramini was a pupil of Bartolozzi, +under whom he worked for many years, and of the effect he produced upon +British art much remains to be said. In 1805 Vendramini visited Russia, +and on his return to England engraved 'The Vision of St. Catherine,' +after Paul Veronese; the 'St. Sebastian,' after Spagnoletti; 'Leda,' +after Leonardo da Vinci; and the 'Raising of Lazarus,' from the Sebastian +del Piombo in the National Gallery. + +No. 14 Brompton Row, in 1842, was the residence of the late Mr. George +Herbert Rodwell, a favourite musical and dramatic composer, who died +January 22nd, 1852. + +At No. 23 Brompton Row resided Mr. Walter Hamilton, who, in 1819, +published, in two volumes 4to, 'A Geographical, Statistical, and +Historical Description of Hindostan and the Adjacent Country;' according +to Lowndes' 'Bibliographer's Manual,' "an inestimable compilation, +containing a more full, detailed, and faithful picture of the whole of +India than any former work on the subject." [Picture: Embellishment] Mr. +Hamilton subsequently lived for a short period at No. 8 Rawstorne Street, +which street divides No. 27 (a confectioner's shop), and No. 28 (the +Crown and Sceptre) Brompton Row, opposite to the Red Lion (a public-house +of which the peculiar and characteristic style of embellishment could +scarcely have escaped notice at the time when the annexed sketch was +made, 1844, but which decoration was removed in 1849.) Soon after his +return to his house in Brompton Row, Mr. Hamilton died there in July or +August, 1828. + +Rawstorne Street leads to Montpellier Square (built about 1837). In this +square, No. 11, resides Mr. F. W. Fairholt, the distinguished artist and +antiquary, to whose pencil and for much valuable information the editor +of these pages is greatly indebted; and No. 38 may be mentioned as the +residence of Mr. Walter Lacy the favourite actor. + +Mrs. Liston, the widow of the comedian, resided at No. 35 Brompton Row, +and No. 45 was the residence of the ingenious Count Rumford, the early +patron of Sir Humphry Davy. The Count occupied it between the years 1799 +and 1802, when he finally left England for France, where he married the +widow of the famous chemist, Lavoisier, and died in 1814. Count +Rumford's name was Benjamin Thompson, or Thomson. He was a native of the +small town of Rumford (now Concord, in New England), and obtained the +rank of major in the Local Militia. In the war with America he rendered +important services to the officers commanding the British army, and +coming to England was employed by Lord George Germaine, and rewarded with +the rank of a provincial lieutenant-colonel, which entitled him to +half-pay. [Picture: No. 45 Brompton Row] In 1784 he was knighted, and +officiated for a short time as one of the under-secretaries of state. He +afterwards entered the service of the King of Bavaria, in which he +introduced various useful reforms in the civil and military departments, +and for which he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and +created a count. At Munich, Count Rumford began those experiments for +the improvements of fire-places and the plans for the better feeding and +regulation of the poor, which have rendered his name familiar to every +one, + + "As his own household hearth." + +No. 45 was distinguished some years ago by peculiar projecting windows, +now removed, outside of the ordinary windows--an experimental contrivance +by Count Rumford, it is said, for raising the temperature of his rooms. + +The same house, in 1810, was inhabited by the Rev. William Beloe, the +translator of Herodotus, and the author of various works between the +years 1783 and 1812. In his last publication, 'The Anecdotes of +Literature,' Mr. Beloe says, "He who has written and published not less +than forty volumes, which is my case, may well congratulate himself, +first, that Providence has graciously spared him for so long a period; +secondly, that sufficient health and opportunity have been afforded; and, +lastly, that he has passed through a career so extended and so perilous +without being seriously implicated in personal or literary hostilities." +It is strange that a man who could feel thus should immediately have +entered upon the composition of a work which appeared as a posthumous +publication in 1817, under the title of 'The Sexagenarian; or, the +Recollections of a Literary Life;' and which contains the following +note:-- + + "Dr. Parr branded Beloe as an ingrate and a slanderer. He says, 'The + worthy and enlightened Archdeacon Nares disdained to have any concern + in this infamous work.' The Rev. Mr. Rennell, of Kensington, could + know but little of Beloe; but, having read his slanderous book, Mr. + R., who is a sound scholar, an orthodox clergyman, and a most + animated writer, would have done well not to have written a sort of + postscript. From motives of regard and respect for Beloe's amiable + widow, Dr. Parr abstained from refuting B.'s wicked falsehoods; but + Dr. Butler, of Shrewsbury, repelled them very ably in the 'Monthly + Review.'" + +At No. 46 Brompton Row, Mr. John Reeve, an exceedingly popular low +comedian, died, on the 24th of January, 1838, at the early age of forty. +Social habits led to habits of intemperance, and poor John was the +_Bottle Imp_ of every theatre he ever played in. "The last time I saw +him," says Mr. Bunn, in his 'Journal of the Stage,' "he was posting at a +rapid rate to a city dinner, and, on his drawing up to chat, I said, +'Well, Reeve, how do you find yourself to-day?' and he returned for +answer, 'The lord-mayor _finds_ me to-day!'" + +BROMPTON GROVE commences on the south, or left-hand side of the main +Fulham Road, immediately beyond the Red Lion (before mentioned as +opposite to 28 Brompton Row), and continues to the Bunch of Grapes +public-house, which was pulled down in August, and rebuilt in September, +1844, opposite to No. 54 Brompton Row, and in the wall of which +public-house was placed a stone, with "YEOMAN'S ROW, 1767," engraved upon +it--the name of a street leading to the "Grange," and, in 1794, the +address of Michael Novosielski, the architect of the Italian Opera House. +In that year he exhibited, in the Royal Academy, three architectural +designs, viz:-- + +"558. Elevation of the Opera House, Haymarket; + +"661. Section of the New Concert Room at the Haymarket; and + +"663. Ceiling of the New Concert Room at the Opera House." + +But of Novosielski and the Grange more hereafter. + +Brompton Grove now consists of two rows of houses, standing a little way +back from the main road, between which rows there was a green space +(1811), now occupied by shops, which range close to the footway, and have +a street, called Grove Place, in the centre. + +_Upper Brompton Grove_, or that division of the Grove nearest London, +consists of seven houses, of which No. 4 was the abode of Major Shadwell +Clerke, who has reflected literary lustre upon the 'United Service,' by +the able and judicious manner in which he conducted for so many years the +periodical journal distinguished by that name. Major Clerke died 19th +April, 1849. + +_Lower Brompton Grove_ consisted of three houses only in 1844, numbered +8, 9, and 10; the 11 of former days being of superior size, and once +known as "Grove House." The 12, which stood a considerable way behind +it, as the "Hermitage," and the 13, as the "House next to the Bunch of +Grapes," all of which, except No. 8, claim a passing remark. + +In No. 9, where he had long resided, died, on the 12th of August, 1842, +Mr. John Sidney Hawkins, at the age of eighty-five. He was the eldest +son of Sir John Hawkins, the well-known author of the 'History of Music,' +and one of the biographers of Dr. Johnson. Mr. Hawkins was brother of +Letitia Matilda Hawkins, the popular authoress, and a lady of whom the +elder Disraeli once remarked, that she was "the redeeming genius of her +family." Mr. Hawkins, however, was an antiquary of considerable +learning, research, and industry; but his temper was sour and jealous, +and, throughout his whole and long literary career, from 1782 to 1814, he +appears to have been embroiled in trifling disputes and immaterial +vindications of his father or himself. + +No. 10 Brompton Grove, now occupied by the "Sisters of Compassion," was +the residence of James Petit Andrews, Esq., younger brother of Sir Joseph +Andrews, Bart., and one of the magistrates of Queen Square Police Office; +a gentleman remarkable for his humane feelings as well as for his +literary taste. His exertions, following up those of Jonas Hanway, were +the occasion of procuring an Act of Parliament in favour of chimney-sweep +apprentices. Mr. Andrews was the author of a volume of ancient and +modern anecdotes in 1789, to which a supplemental volume appeared the +following year. He also published a 'History of Great Britain, connected +with the Chronology of Europe;' {45a} and a continuation of Henry's +'History of Great Britain:' {45b} soon after the appearance of which he +died, on the 6th of August, 1797. + +Grove House (called in 1809 and 1810, as already mentioned, No. 11 +Brompton Grove), was, for many years, the residence of Sir John +Macpherson, Bart.; and here he died, at an advanced age, on the 12th of +January, 1821. + +[Picture: Grove House] + +In 1781 he was appointed Member of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and +when proceeding to the East Indies, in the 'Valentine,' Indiaman, +distinguished himself in an action with the French fleet in Praya Bay. +Sir John, who was a very large man, to encourage the sailors to stand to +their guns, promised and paid them from his own pocket five guineas a +man, which, coupled with his bravery during the action, so pleased the +seamen, that one of them swore "his soul must be as big as his body," and +the jokes occasioned by this burst of feeling terminated only with Sir +John Macpherson's life. "Fine soles!--soles, a match for Macpherson's!" +was a Brompton fishmonger's greeting to Sir John, etc. In the +neighbourhood of Brompton he was known by the _sobriquet_ of "the Gentle +Giant," from his usually riding a very small pony, flourishing in the +most determined manner a huge oak stick over the little animal's head, +but, of course, never touching it with his club. + +Upon the after-dinner conversation at Grove House of Mr. Hugh Boyd rests +chiefly that gentleman's claim to be considered as one of the many +authors of 'Junius.' His host, having temporarily retired from table, +Boyd's words were, "that Sir John Macpherson little knew he was +entertaining in his mansion a political writer, whose sentiments were +once the occasion of a chivalrous appeal from Sir John to +arms,"--immediately adding, "_I am the author of 'Junius_.'" The will of +Sir John Macpherson is a remarkable document, and contains the following +tribute to the character of George IV.:-- + + "I conclude this, my last will and testament, in expressing my early + and unalterable admiration of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, + the truly glorious reigning prince of the British empire; and I + request my executors to wait upon his royal highness immediately + after my decease, and to state to him, as I do now, that I have + bequeathed to his royal highness my celebrated antique statue of + Minerva, which he often admired, with any one of my antique rings + that would please his royal highness. I likewise request you to + assure his royal highness that I will leave him certain papers, which + prove to a demonstration that the glorious system which he has + realised for his country and the world, in his difficult reign of + eight years, was the early system of his heart and his ambition." + +The large room on the east side of Grove House, shown in the annexed +sketch, was used as the drawing-room, and measured thirty-two feet by +eighteen. It was built by Sir John Macpherson for the purpose of +entertaining the Prince Regent. + +[Picture: Grove House from the East (1844)] + +Grove House was afterwards occupied by Mr. Wilberforce, who, in his diary +of the 2nd of July, 1823, notes, "Took possession of our new house at +Brompton." + +Mr. Wilberforce remained there about a year, and his successor in the +tenancy was Mr. Jerdan, the agreeable and well-known editor of the +'Literary Gazette' (1817-50). This house, pulled down in 1846, stood +upon the ground which now forms the road entrance to Ovington Square. + +A narrow lane, which ran down by the west side of Grove House, led to the +Hermitage, a retreat of the much admired Madame Catalani during her +sojourn this country, and subsequently converted into an asylum for +insane persons. This building was pulled down in 1844, and Grove Place +has been erected on its site. + +[Picture: The Hermitage (1844)] + +In the house (No. 13 Brompton Grove) which stood a little way back from +the road, between Grove House and the Grapes public-house, and which was +taken down in December, 1844, and in the previous June, when sketched, +occupied by a stone-mason, Mr. Banim lodged from May, 1822, to October, +1824. [Picture: No. 13 Brompton Grove (1844)] While residing here, he +was engaged in contributing to and editing a short-lived weekly paper, +entitled the 'Literary Register,' the first number of which appeared on +the 6th of July, 1822, and which publication terminated with the +forty-fourth, on the 3rd of May, 1823, when Banim devoted his attention +to preparing the 'Tales of the O'Hara Family' for the press. It is a +remarkable local coincidence, that Gerald Griffin, who + + "To his own mind had lived a mystery," + +the contemporary rival of Banim, as an Irish novelist and dramatist, +should have immediately succeeded him in the tenancy of "13 Brompton +Grove," as this house was sometimes called. + + "About this period (1825) he [Griffin] took quiet, retired lodgings, + at a house at Brompton, now a stonemason's, close by Hermitage Lane, + which separated it from the then residence of the editor of the + 'Literary Gazette,' and a literary intercourse rather than a personal + intimacy, though of a most agreeable nature, grew up between them." + {48} + +On the 10th of November, 1824, Griffin, writing to his brother, commences +a letter full of literary gossip with,-- + + "Since my last I have visited Mr. J--- several times. The last time, + he wished me to dine with him, which I happened not to be able to do; + and was very sorry for it, for his acquaintance is to me a matter of + great importance, not only from the engine he wields--and a + formidable one it is, being the most widely-circulated journal in + Europe--but, also, because he is acquainted with all the principal + literary characters of the day, and a very pleasant kind of man." + +To the honest support of the 'Literary Gazette' at this critical period +in Griffin's life may be ascribed the struggle which he made for fame and +fortune through the blind path of literary distinction. He came a raw +Irish lad to the metropolis, with indistinct visions of celebrity +floating through his poetical mind; or, as he candidly confesses +himself,-- + + "A young gentleman, totally unknown, even to a single family in + London, with a few pounds in one pocket and a brace of tragedies in + the other, supposing that the one will set him up before the others + are exhausted," which, he admits, "is not a very novel, but a very + laughable, delusion." + +Banim's kindness--his sympathy, indeed, for Griffin, deserves notice. + + "I cannot tell you here," writes the latter, "the many, many + instances in which Banim has shown his friendship since I wrote last; + let it suffice to say, that he is the sincerest, heartiest, most + disinterested being that breathes. His fireside is the only one + where I enjoy anything like social life or home. I go out (to + Brompton Grove) occasionally in an evening, and talk or read for some + hours, or have a bed, and leave next day." + +Again, in a letter dated 31st of March, 1824, Griffin says:-- + + "What would I have done if I had not found Banim? I should have + instantly despaired on ****'s treatment of me. I should never be + tired of talking about and thinking of Banim. Mark me! he is a man, + the only one I have met since I left Ireland, almost. We walked over + Hyde Park together on St. Patrick's Day, and renewed our home + recollections by gathering shamrocks, and placing them in our hats, + even under the eye of John Bull." + +MICHAEL'S PLACE, on the same side of the way with the Bunch of Grapes, is +railed off from the main Fulham Road, although a public footpath admits +the passenger as far as No. 14. It consists of forty-four houses, and +was a building speculation of Michael Novosielski, already mentioned, +whose Christian name it retains, having been commenced by him in 1786. +But the shells of his houses for many years remained unfinished, and in +1811, the two last houses (Nos. 43 and 44) of Michael's Place were not +built. Novosielski died at Ramsgate, in 1795; and his widow, for some +years after his death, occupied No. 13. + +[Picture: No. 8 Michael's Place] No. 8 Michael's Place, to be recognized +by its bay-windows, was, for several years, the residence of the Rev. Dr. +Croly, now rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, distinguished in the pulpit +by his eloquence, admired as a writer in almost every walk of English +literature, and respected and beloved by those who know him. Croly's +fame must live and die with our language, which he has grasped with an +unrivalled command. + +BROMPTON SQUARE is opposite to the commencement of Michael's Place, to +which it will be necessary to return, after a visit to the square. + +At No. 6 has lived Mr. John Baldwin Buckstone, the actor-author, or +author-actor, so well known and esteemed by the public. And at No. 14 +has resided Mr. Edward Fitzwilliam, the musical composer, who died on the +19th of January, 1857, at the early age of 33. + +No. 21 was, between the years 1829 and 1833, the residence of +Spagnoletti, the leader of the Opera band. He was succeeded in the +tenancy by Mrs. Chatterly, a lively and accomplished actress, who +continued to occupy the same house after her marriage with Mr. Francis +Place. + +[Picture: Nos. 22, 23, 24, Brompton Square] At No. 22 (which now belongs +to the well-known and much respected actor Mr. James Vining, and is at +present tenanted by Mr. Shirley Brooks) George Colman the younger died on +the 26th of October, 1836, at the age of 74, having removed to this house +from No. 5 Melina Place, Kent Road. "He ceased to exist on the 17th of +October, 1836," says his medical attendant, in a letter published in the +memoirs of the Colman family. But this is an error, as on the 19th of +October he appears to have written to Mr. Bunn. The last earthly +struggle of George Colman has been thus described:-- + + "It has never fallen to my lot to witness in the hour of death so + much serenity of mind, such perfect philosophy, or resignation more + complete. Up to within an hour of his decease he was perfectly + sensible of his danger, and bore excruciating pain with the utmost + fortitude. + + "At one period of his life a more popular man was not in existence," + observes Mr. Bunn; "for the festive board of the prince or the peer + was incomplete without Mr. Colman. He has left behind him a + perpetuity of fame in his dramatic works; and much is it to be + lamented that no chronicle has been preserved of his various and most + extraordinary _jeux-d'esprit_. He has, moreover, left behind quite + enough of renown, could he lay claim to none other, to be found in + the following tribute from the pen of Lord Byron:--'I have met George + Colman occasionally, and thought him extremely pleasant and + convivial. Sheridan's humour, or rather wit, was always saturnine, + and sometimes savage; he never laughed (at least that I saw and I + have watched him), but Colman did. If I had to _choose_, and could + not have both at a time, I should say, let me begin the evening with + Sheridan, and finish it with Colman. Sheridan for dinner, Colman for + supper. Sheridan for claret or port, but Colman for everything, from + the madeira and champagne at dinner, the claret with a layer of port + between the glasses, up to the punch of the night, and down to the + grog or gin-and-water of daybreak. Sheridan was a grenadier company + of life-guards, but Colman a whole regiment--of light infantry, to be + sure, but still a regiment.'" + +The sale of Colman's effects took place on the 29th of November, 1837; +among the pictures sold was the well-known portrait of George Colman the +elder, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which has been engraved; another by +Gainsborough, also engraved; a third in crayons, by Rosalba; and a fourth +by Zoffani, which formerly belonged to Garrick, a highly-finished +miniature of Shakspeare, by Ozias Humphrey, executed in 1784 (a copy of +which, made for the Duchess of Chandos, sold at her sale for 40 pounds); +some watercolour drawings, by Emery, Mrs. Terry, and others; some +engravings; more than 1,000 volumes of French and English books; and a +collection of miscellanies, including the MSS. of the elder Colman's most +admired productions, and several by George Colman the younger,--amounting +in all to twenty-six pieces. John Reeve bought largely of the books; but +before two months had elapsed Reeve himself was no more. + +No. 23 Brompton Square is occupied by Mr. William Farren, who was for a +long period the unrivalled representative of old men upon the stage, {53} +and who took his farewell at the Haymarket Theatre in 1855; and No. 24, +between the years 1840 and 1843, was the residence of Mr. Payne Collier, +who has given to the public several editions of Shakspeare, and who has +been long distinguished by his profound knowledge of dramatic literature +and history, and his extensive acquaintance with the early poetry of +England. + +Mr. Collier's house, in Brompton Square, stood between that which Mr. +William Farren occupies, and one (No. 25) of which Mr. Farren was +proprietor, and has now been sold. At No. 28 resides Mr. William Frogatt +Robson, Solicitor and Comptroller of Droits of Admiralty. Mr. William +Farren has resided at No. 30, next door to Mr. Henry Luttrell (No. 31), +"the great London wit," as Sir Walter Scott terms him, well known in the +circles of literature as the author of many epigrams, and of a volume of +graceful poetry, entitled 'Advice to Julia,' and who died on 19th +December, 1851, aged 86. + +In addition to these literary and dramatic associations of Brompton +Square, Liston resided for some time at No. 40, Mr. Yates and Mr. John +Reeve at 57 and 58; and that pair of comic theatrical gems, Mr. and Mrs. +Keeley, have been inhabitants of No. 19. + +[Picture: First grave] BROMPTON NEW CHURCH, a little beyond the Square, +is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The architect was Mr. Donaldson, and +the first stone was laid in October, 1826. On the 6th of June, 1829, the +Bishop of London consecrated this church and its burial-ground, which had +been a flower-garden. When the first grave was made in the month +following, many of the flowers still appeared among the grass; and, after +viewing it, Miss Landon wrote the following verses. The "first grave" is +in the extreme south-west of the corner churchyard, close to the narrow +pathway that skirts the wall, leaving only space for a grave between. +The inscription on the stone which originally marked the "first grave," +was,-- + + SACRED + TO THE MEMORY OF + MR. IOHN CORPE + OF THIS PARISH + OF ST. GEORGE'S HANOVER SQUARE + WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE + 18TH OF JULY 1829 + AGED 51 YEARS. + + "A single grave! the only one + In this unbroken ground, + Where yet the garden leaf and flower + Are lingering around. + A single grave!--my heart has felt + How utterly alone + In crowded halls, where breathed for me + Not one familiar tone. + + "The shade where forest-trees shut out + All but the distant sky,-- + I've felt the loneliness of night, + When the dark winds pass'd by. + My pulse has quicken'd with its awe, + My lip has gasp'd for breath; + But what were they to such as this-- + The solitude of death? + + "A single grave!--we half forget + How sunder human ties, + When round the silent place of rest + A gather'd kindred lies. + We stand beneath the haunted yew, + And watch each quiet tomb, + And in the ancient churchyard feel + Solemnity, not gloom! + + "The place is purified with hope-- + The hope, that is, of prayer; + And human love, and heavenward thought, + And pious faith, are there! + The wild flowers spring amid the grass, + And many a stone appears + Carved by affection's memory, + Wet with affection's tears. + + "The golden chord which binds us all + Is loosed, not rent in twain; + And love, and hope, and fear, unite + To bring the past again. + But _this_ grave is so desolate, + With no remembering stone, + No fellow-graves for sympathy,-- + 'Tis utterly alone! + + "I do not know who sleeps beneath, + His history or name, + Whether, if lonely in his life, + He is in death the same,-- + Whether he died unloved, unmourn'd, + The last leaf on the bough, + Or if some desolated hearth + Is weeping for him now? + + "Perhaps this is too fanciful, + Though single be his sod, + Yet not the less it has around + The presence of his God! + It may be weakness of the heart, + But yet its kindliest, best; + Better if in our selfish world + It could be less repress'd. + + "Those gentler charities which draw + Man closer with his kind, + Those sweet humilities which make + The music which they find: + How many a bitter word 't would hush, + How many a pang 't would save, + If life more precious held those ties + Which sanctify the grave." + +Now (1860) the grave-stone has received two additional inscriptions, and +the character of the upright stone has been altered. + +[Picture: Reeve's Grave] Corpe was a ladies' shoemaker, and his son +carried on that business at No. 126 Mount Street, Berkeley Square, after +the father's death. While sketching the grave, the sexton came up, and +observed, "No one has ever noticed that grave, sir, before, so much as to +draw it out for a pattern, as I suppose you are doing." + +John Reeve's grave ("alas, poor Yorick!") is in the first avenue at the +back of the church, to the left hand, and immediately at the edge of the +path that runs parallel with the north side of the building. The stone, +which is similar to others in the same vicinity, is inscribed:-- + + IN MEMORY + OF + IOHN REEVE ESQ. + LATE OF THE + THEATRE ROYAL ADELPHI. + OBIIT JANUARY. 24TH. 1838. + + ALSO OF + IOHN REEVE ESQ. + UNCLE OF THE ABOVE + OBIIT JANY. 22ND. 1831 AGED 71. + +In the central path, leading from the Church Tower, is the grave of +Harriet Elizabeth Farren, who died 16th of June, 1857, aged 68. She made +her first appearance in London in 1813, as Desdemona. + +[Picture: Bell and Horns sign] Close to Brompton New Church, at a +public-house called the Bell and Horns, {58} the road branches off again; +that branch which goes straight forward leading to Old Brompton, Earl's +Court, Kensington, and North End, Fulham. The turn to the left, or bend +to the south, being the main Fulham Road. Here, till within the last few +years, was standing the stump of an old tree, shown in the accompanying +sketch. [Picture: Stump] A cluster of trees at the commencement of the +Old Brompton Road have also been removed, and the road has been +considerably widened. On the right-hand side, adjoining Brompton New +Church, is the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a Roman Catholic Establishment +of considerable extent, which stands on the ground once occupied by Mr. +Pollard's school. It was opened on 22nd March, 1851, and was originally +located in King William Street, Strand. It is bounded on the east by the +avenue of lime trees leading up to Holy Trinity Church, on the north by +its cemetery, on the west by the South Kensington Museum, and on the +south by the road, which has been widened by the commissioners to eighty +feet. The superior in London is the Rev. F. W. Faber, and at Birmingham, +the Rev. J. H. Newman, D.D. The building, which does not show its size +to advantage from the road, is erected in the shape of the letter T. +Some idea of the scale on which the building is executed may be gathered +from the following dimensions. The oratory 72 feet long, 30 wide, 29 +high. The library 72 feet long, 30 wide, 23 high. The refectory 50 feet +long, 30 wide, 28 high. The corridors of the house 164 feet long, 9 +wide, 14 high. The architect is Mr. Scoles. Next to the oratory is the +South Kensington Museum, which was built upon the Kensington Gore estate, +[Picture: Oratory and Museum] purchased by the Royal Commissioners with +the surplus funds derived from the Exhibition of 1851. It was opened on +the 24th June, 1857, and is a result of the School of Design, founded at +Somerset House in 1838. It is the head-quarters of the Government +Department of Science and Art, previously deposited in Marlborough House, +which is under the management of Mr. Henry Cole. The collections are +temporarily placed in a range of boiler-roofed buildings, hence the term +"Brompton boilers" has been applied to them. There are specimens here of +ornamental art, an architectural, trade, and economical museum; a court +of modern sculpture, and the gallery of British Art, founded on the +munificent gift of Mr. John Sheepshanks. Mr. Sheepshanks having bestowed +on the nation a collection of 234 oil paintings, mostly by modern British +artists, and some drawings, etc., the whole formed by himself, including +some of the most popular works of Wilkie, Mulready, Sir Edwin Landseer, +Leslie, and other eminent artists of the English school. To these have +been since added, in several large rooms, the Turner Collection, and the +pictures from the Vernon Gallery; also the collection bequeathed to the +nation by the late Mr. Jacob Bell, and the pictures by British artists +removed from the National Gallery; all which are well lighted from the +roof. The objects of ornamental art consist of medieval furniture and +decoration, painted glass, plaster casts, electrotype copies, +photographs, engravings, and drawings, etc., the whole designed with the +view of aiding general education, and of diffusing among all classes +those principles of science and art which are calculated to advance the +individual interests of the country, and to elevate the character of the +people: facilities are afforded for taking copies of objects upon +application at the Art Library. The Educational collections formed by +the Government, which are in the central portion of the building, +comprise specimens of scientific instruments, objects of natural history, +models, casts, and a library; refreshment and waiting rooms are provided; +and there are lectures delivered in a building devoted to that purpose. +The admission, which is from ten till four, five or six, according to the +season, is free on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, also on Monday and +Tuesday evening, from seven till ten, when the galleries are lighted; on +Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, being students' days, the admission is +6d. + +In form the building is rectangular, the centre or nave is 42 feet wide, +and is open from the floor to the roof. Along the aisles galleries run, +access to which is obtained by two large central staircases at the ends +of the building, which is for the most part lighted from the roofs. +There is ample ventilation, and by means of hot water pipes, the building +is heated when required. The exhibition space in floor and galleries is +nearly one acre and a half, exclusive of the wall space in the galleries +and aisles. The arrangement, it may be seen from this description, is +much the same as that adopted in the Great Exhibition of 1851. There are +separate catalogues for each department to be had, which give the visitor +all necessary information. The building was constructed from designs and +drawings prepared by Messrs. Charles D. Young and Co. of Great George +Street, Westminster. Opposite the Museum is Thurloe Place. No. 1 may be +mentioned as the residence of Mr. Henry Holl, well known some years ago +as the light comedian of the Haymarket Theatre. That gentleman has now +retired from the profession, but in addition to some dramatic productions +written many years since, he is the author of two or three successful +pieces recently produced. It is not the intention of the writer to +follow the course of the Old Brompton Road, but he will at once return to +the main road after alluding to the newly-formed magnificent approaches +from this point to Kensington, by Exhibition Road and Prince Albert's +Road, on the site of Brompton Park, now broken up. {62} A winter garden +is in course of formation here, and the Horticultural Society intend to +appropriate part of the ground for their annual fetes. The total amount +expended on the purchase and laying out of the Kensington Gore Estate +from 1851 to 1856 inclusive, was 277,309 pounds. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +FROM THE BELL AND HORNS, BROMPTON, TO LITTLE CHELSEA. + +To return to the continuation of MICHAEL'S PLACE. It is divided between +Nos. 11 and 12 by MICHAEL'S GROVE, which led to Brompton Grange, for some +years the seat of the favourite veteran vocalist, Braham, who made his +appearance as a public singer at the age of ten years, and so far back as +1787. The Grange was taken down in October 1843, and, in the course of +twelve months, its spacious grounds were covered by a decided crescent +and other buildings. Brompton Grange, which was constructed by +Novosielski for his own residence, was, previous to Mr. Braham's tenancy, +occupied by a gentleman of large fortune and weak nerves, which were most +painfully affected by the tone of a bell. After considerable research, +this spot was selected for his London residence, in the belief that there +he would be secure from annoyance. But the folly of human anticipation +was speedily illustrated by the building of Brompton Church on the north +side of his abode, and of Chelsea New Church on the west; so that, +whatever way the wind blew, + + "The sound of the church-going bell" + +was certain of being wafted to the Grange, which was got rid of in +consequence. + +From Michael's Grove, BROMPTON CRESCENT is nearly a straight row of +twenty-five houses, and forms an angle to the line of the main Fulham +Road, uniting with Michael's Place at "Crescent House," where the +carriage communication was formerly interrupted by a bar, in place of +which a post supporting two lamps is now substituted. + +No. 9 was for some time in the occupation of Dr. Oswald Wood, the +translator (1835) of Von Hammer's 'History of the Assassins,' and who +died at the early age of thirty-eight, on the 5th of November, 1842, in +the West Indies, where he held the appointment of Provost-Marshal of +Antigua. + +At No. 13 Brompton Crescent resided Charles Incledon, the rival of his +neighbour Braham, whose singing he was wont to designate as "Italianised +humbug;" declaring that no one but himself, Charles Incledon, knew how to +sing a British ballad: and it must be admitted, that "The Storm" and +"Black-eyed Susan," as sung by Incledon, produced a deep impression on +the public mind. He was a native of Cornwall, and the son of a medical +gentleman. As a chorister, under the tuition of Jackson, in Exeter +Cathedral, Incledon acquired his knowledge of music; for when he was +fifteen he entered the Royal Navy, in which he served in the West Indies +from 1779 to 1783, when he abandoned the naval profession, and joined a +theatrical company at Southampton. After a popular professional career +of upwards of forty years as a public singer, Incledon died at Worcester, +on the 11th of February, 1826. + +Of Incledon many amusing anecdotes are told, chiefly caused by his +inordinate vanity, and his mental singleness of purpose. He thought of +no one but himself; he saw nothing beyond the one and immediate object at +which he grasped; and yet these faults were caused rather by natural +weakness of intellect than by an unkind or selfish disposition. In fact, +Incledon lived and died a petted servant of the public; which +administered intoxicating draughts of applause to his self-esteem. + +Mr. G. Rodwell, already mentioned as having been an inhabitant of No. 14 +Brompton Row, resided at No. 15 Brompton Crescent, in 1830. + +No. 20 Brompton Crescent was, between the years 1822 and 1844, occupied +by Mr. Planche, well known as, perhaps, the most prolific and skilful +dramatic writer of the day, and as a gentleman of high literary and +antiquarian attainments. His connexion with the last musical efforts of +the German composer Weber, in his opera of 'Oberon,' which was produced +at Covent Garden on the 12th of May, 1826, {65} cannot be forgotten; and +to Planche's knowledge of costume and taste for pictorial effects the +English stage is deeply indebted. In the drawing-room of this house have +some of our most agreeable acting dramas been composed, and nothing could +have been, in its style and appointments, more typical of Planche's +dialogue than was the apartment--smart and neat, fit for all occasions, +and suited in a moment to the present purpose, whatever that might be. +It was polished and elegant; but there was nothing superfluous, beyond a +bit of exquisite china on the mantel-piece, or a picture, excellent in +its way, on the wall; something which pleased the eye, and which the mind +received and relished like a nicely-pointed joke. A well-painted +portrait of Planche himself, by Briggs, the Royal Academician, which has +been engraved, hung opposite to the fireplace; and, as if to carry out +the similitude between Planche's writings and the place where they were +written, folding-doors revealed a back drawing-room, which, like his +memory, was richly stored with the works of heralds and antiquaries, and +of our elder dramatists and poets, so judiciously arranged, that in a +moment he was certain of producing the precise passage or the effect +which he desired. At the same time so completely was this little battery +of knowledge masked under quaint bindings and tasteful covers, that no +one suspected what a mine of learning lay beneath; nor, like his own +mental resources, was a volume displayed without cause, or unclasped +without its effect. + +Speaking earnestly to Planche respecting the pains and pleasures of +authorship, L. E. L. once said, "I would give this moment all the fame of +what I have written, or ever shall write, for one roar of applause from a +crowded house, such as you must have heard a thousand times." + +Mr. Planche afterwards removed to a new and detached house, built on the +site of Brompton Grange. He has now quitted the neighbourhood. + +Mr. C. J. Richardson, an architect, whose publications illustrative of +Tudor architecture and domestic English antiquities have materially +tended to diffuse a feeling of respect for the works of our ancestors, +and to forward the growing desire to preserve and restore edifices which +time and circumstances have spared to the country, has resided at No. 22 +Brompton Crescent. At No. 28 in this crescent, Mrs. Liston died in 1854. + +The continuation of MICHAEL'S PLACE, which we left on our right to visit +Michael's Grove and Brompton Crescent, is the corner house, now Dr. +Cahill's and Mr. Hewett's. At No. 12, Lewis Schiavonetti, a +distinguished engraver, died on the 7th of June, 1810, at the age of +fifty-five. He was a native of Bassano, in the Venetian territory, and +the eldest son of a stationer, whose large family and moderate +circumstances made him gladly accept the offer of Julius Golini, a +painter of some repute, to receive his son, at the age of thirteen, for +instruction in the arts. [Picture: No. 12 Michael's Place] In three +years after, Golini expired in the arms of his youthful pupil. Upon the +death of his master he determined to seek the patronage of Count +Remaudini, who had given employment to Bartolozzi and Volpato, and began +to study the mechanical process of engraving, under a poor man named +Lorio, who, unable to support himself by his profession, officiated as +sacristan to a church, and could offer him no better accommodation for +study than the sacristy. The circumstances of Schiavonetti not +permitting him to seek for higher instruction, he remained with this +master about twelve months, when, finding that he had learned all that +poor Lorio was able to teach, and feeling an aversion to work +occasionally among dead bodies, he determined to alter his situation. A +copy of a 'Holy Family,' from Bartolozzi, after Carlo Maratta, gained +Schiavonetti immediate employment from Count Remaudini, and attracted the +notice of Suntach, an engraver and printseller in opposition to +Remaudini. + +About this time there came to Bassano a Mr. Testolini, of Vicenza, a +wretched engraver of architecture, but a man of consummate craft and +address. He became acquainted with Schiavonetti at Suntach's, and, +finding in his genius and tractable disposition, a tool which he could +use to great advantage, he engaged him to work at his house. +Bartolozzi's engravings in the chalk manner were then in great repute at +Bassano, and Testolini made several abortive attempts to discover the +process. His young friend succeeded better, and imitated several of +Bartolozzi's prints to perfection; and Testolini took some of +Schiavonetti's productions to the son of Bartolozzi at Venice, and passed +them off as his own. They gained him an introduction to that artist, and +an invitation to London, where he was then in full occupation, and his +works highly appreciated. The change of climate seems to have +deteriorated the talents of Testolini; but such was his adroitness that +he gained a complete ascendancy over the easy temper of Bartolozzi, and +lived in his house at North End, Fulham, about three years. During that +time, finding that yet more important advantages might be derived from +the aid of his former friend, he made several propositions to +Schiavonetti to come to London. These were for a time declined: the +rising fame of the young artist caused his talents to be better +appreciated, and some Venetian noblemen offered him a pension and +constant employment if he would abandon his proposed emigration. +Testolini, to frustrate this, induced Bartolozzi to write a letter of +persuasion, partly dictated by himself; and, confident of its effect, he +set out for Italy to bring Schiavonetti over. During his absence +Bartolozzi gained an insight into his real character and interested +views, and, on his return with his _protege_, told him that his house was +no longer open to him, but that Schiavonetti was welcome to consider it +his home. Testolini, however, having found a house in Sloane Square, +soon persuaded Schiavonetti that it would be better for him to follow his +fortune than to remain with Bartolozzi, to which Schiavonetti consented. +This circumstance terminated the connexion between Bartolozzi and +Schiavonetti; and shortly after the reputation of the latter as an +engraver became established in London, where he conducted every +transaction he was engaged in with an uprightness and integrity that +cause his memory to be equally respected as a gentleman and as an artist. +The 'Madre Dolorosa,' after Vandyke; the portrait of that master in the +character of Paris; Michael Angelo's cartoon of the 'Surprise of the +Soldiers on the banks of the Arno;' a series of etchings from designs by +Blake, illustrative of Blair's 'Grave,' with a portrait of Blake after +Phillips; the 'Landing of the British troops in Egypt,' from De +Loutherbourg; and the etching of the 'Canterbury Pilgrims,' from +Stothard's admired picture, are some of the most esteemed works of Lewis +Schiavonetti. His funeral, which took place on the 14th June 1810, from +Michael's Place, was attended by West, the president, Phillips, Tresham, +and other members of the Royal Academy, by his countryman Vendramini, and +almost all the distinguished engravers of the day, with other artists and +friends to art. + +The greater portion of No. 13, Michael's Place, is shown in the sketch of +No. 12, and the former may be mentioned as the residence of the widow of +the builder, Madame Novosielski, who died here on the 30th November, +1820. This was the address of Miss Helen Faucit, immediately previous to +her successful appearance in the English drama before a French audience, +and is at present in the occupation of Mr. Weigall, an artist whose works +are highly prized. + +Mrs. Billington, the well-known singer and actress, has resided at No. +15. + +Miss Pope, an actress of considerable reputation, died at No. 17, +Michael's Place, on the 30th July, 1818, aged seventy-five. Her talents +had been cultivated by the celebrated Mrs. Clive, and she was +distinguished by the notice of Garrick. As a representative of old +women, Miss Pope is said to have been unrivalled; and, for more than half +a century, she remained constant to the boards of Drury Lane Theatre, +never having performed at any other with the exception of a season at +Dublin and another at Liverpool. + +Mr. John Heneage Jesse, in 1842, while engaged in the publication of +'Memoirs of the Court of England, from the Revolution of 1688 to the +Death of George II.,' 3 vols. 8vo, a continuation of his 'History of the +Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts,' lodged at No. 18. + +Mr. Yates, the manager of the Adelphi Theatre, and an actor of +considerable and varied powers, resided at No. 21, Michael's Place, +immediately previous to his accepting a short engagement in Ireland, +where he ruptured a blood-vessel, and returned to England in so weak a +state that he died on the 21st June, 1842, a few days after his arrival +at the Euston Hotel, Euston Square, from whence it was considered, when +he reached London, imprudent to remove him to Brompton. He was in the +forty-fifth year of his age, and made his first appearance in London at +Covent Garden on the 7th November, 1818. On the 30th November, 1823, Mr. +Yates married Miss Brunton, an exemplary woman and an accomplished +actress, who had retired from the profession for some years previous to +her death, aged 61, on 30th August, 1860. Before Mr. Yates' tenancy, No. +21 was the residence of Mr. Liston, whose comic humour will long be +remembered on the stage. + +Mrs. Davenport, a clever actress and an admirable representative of old +women, died at No. 22, on 8th May, 1843, aged eighty-four. On the 25th +of May, 1830, she retired from the stage, after an uninterrupted service +of thirty-six years at Covent Garden Theatre, where she took her "first, +last, and only benefit," performing the Nurse in 'Romeo and Juliet.' + +No. 25, Michael's Place, may be pointed out as the house in which Miss +Pope, "the other delicious old woman," dwelt previous to her removal to +No. 17; and No. 26, as the lodgings of Mrs. Mathews, when occupied in the +composition of the 'Memoirs' of her husband, {72} the eminent comedian,-- + + "A man so various, that he seemed to be, + Not one, but all mankind's epitome." + +At No. 33 died Madame Delille, in 1857, at an advanced age. This lady +was the mother of the late Mr. C. J. Delille, professor of the French +language in Christ's Hospital and in the City of London School, and +French examiner in the University of London. Mr. Delille's French +Grammar is universally adopted by schools, in addition to his 'Repertoire +Litteraire,' and his 'Lecons et Modeles de Poesie Francaise.' + +The ground upon which Michael's Place and Brompton Crescent are built was +known by the name of "Flounder Field," from its usual moist and muddy +state. This field contained fourteen acres, and is said to have been +part of the estate of Alderman Henry Smith, which in this neighbourhood +was upwards of eighty-four acres. He was a native of Wandsworth, where +he is buried. It has been asserted that, from very humble circumstances, +he rose to be an alderman of London--from circumstances so humble, +indeed, that Salmon, in his 'Antiquities of Surrey,' mentions that he had +been in early life whipped out of Mitcham parish for begging there. +Being a widower, and without children, he made over all his estates in +1620 to trustees for charitable purposes, reserving out of the produce +500 pounds a-year for himself. He died in 1627-8, and the intent of his +will appears to have been to divide his estate equally between the +poorest of his kindred, and in case of any surplus it was to be applied +to the relief and ransom of poor captives. Mr. Smith is said, but we +know little of the history of this benevolent and extraordinary man, to +have himself suffered a long captivity in Algiers. No application having +been made for many years to redeem captives, in 1772 an act of parliament +was passed "to enable the trustees of Henry Smith, Esq., deceased, to +apply certain sums of money to the relief of his poor kindred, and to +enable the said trustees to grant building leases of an estate in the +parishes of Kensington, Chelsea, and St. Margaret's, Westminster." + +No. 1, North Terrace, leading into Alexander Square, was for some time +the residence of the celebrated "O." Smith, who, though a great ruffian +upon the stage, was in private life remarkable for his quiet manners and +his varied attainments. At the end of this terrace is the Western +Grammar School. + +ALEXANDER SQUARE, on the north or right-hand side of the main Fulham +Road, between the Bell and Horns public-house and Pelham Crescent, +consists of twenty-four houses built in the years 1827 and 1830, and +divided by Alfred Place: before each portion there is a respectable +enclosure, and behind numerous new streets, squares, and houses have been +built, extending to the Old Brompton Road. + +No. 19, Alexander Square, was the residence of Captain Glascock, who +commanded H.M.S. Tyne, and whose pen has enriched the nautical novel +literature of England {73} with the same racy humour which has +distinguished his professional career. When commanding in the Douro, +some communications which Glascock had occasion to make to the Governor +of Oporto not having received that attention which the English captain +considered was due to them, and the governor having apologised for his +deafness, Glascock replied that in future he would write to his +excellency. He did so, but the proceeding did not produce the required +reply. Glascock was then told that the governor's memory was defective; +so he wrote again, and two letters remained unanswered. In this state of +things it was intimated to Captain Glascock by a distinguished +diplomatist, that, as his letters might not have been delivered, he ought +to write another. "Certainly," replied that officer; "my letters to his +excellency, as you say, might not have been delivered, for I have had no +report absolutely made to me that they had ever reached his hands: but I +will take care this time there shall be no mistake in the delivery, for +you shall see me attach my communication to a cannonball, the report of +which I can testify to my government; and, as my gunner is a sure shot, +his excellency _will_ (Glascock was an Irishman) have my epistle +delivered into his hand." This intimation produced at once the desired +effect of a satisfactory reply and apology. + +Captain Glascock was one of the inspectors under the Poor Relief Act in +Ireland. He died in 1847. + +No. 24 Alexander Square is the residence of Mr. George Godwin, the editor +of the 'Builder,' and one of the honorary secretaries of the Art +Union,--an association which has exercised an important influence upon +the progress of the fine arts in England. Mr. Godwin is likewise +favourably known to the public as the author of several essays which +evince considerable professional knowledge, antiquarian research, and a +fertile fancy. + +The bend of the Fulham Road terminates at + + THE ADMIRAL KEPPEL + +[Picture: The old Admiral Keppel] public-house, from whence the road +proceeds in a straight line to Little Chelsea; Marlborough Road and +Keppel Street, leading to Chelsea, branching off at each side of the +tavern. Since this sketch was taken, the old building has been pulled +down (1856), and a large hotel erected on the same spot, by B. Watts, +where, in addition to the usual comforts of an inn, hot and cold baths +may be had. + +In 1818 the Admiral Keppel courted the custom of passing travellers by a +poetical appeal to the feelings of both man and beast:-- + + "Stop, brave boys, and quench your thirst; + If you won't drink, your horses murst." + +There was something rural in this: the distich was painted in very rude +white letters on a small black board; and when Keppel's portrait, which +swung in air, like England's flag, braving + + "The battle and the breeze," + +was unhinged and placed against the front of the house, this board was +appended as its motto. Both, however, were displaced by the march of +public-house improvement; the weather-beaten sign of the gallant +admiral's head was transferred to a wall of the back premises, where its +"faded form" might, until recently, have been recognised; but, though the +legible record has perished, _opus vatum durat_. + +AMELIA PLACE is a row of nine houses immediately beyond the Admiral +Keppel. Within the walls of the last low house in the row, and the +second with a verandah, the Right Hon. John Philpot Curran died on the +14th of October, 1817. It had then a pleasant look-out upon green fields +and a nursery-garden, now occupied by Pelham Crescent. Here it was, with +the exception of a short excursion to Ireland, that Curran had resided +during the twelve months previous to his death. [Picture: No. 7 Amelia +Place] Curran's public life may be said to have terminated in 1806, when +he accepted the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, an appointment +of 5000 pounds a year. This situation he retained until 1815, when his +health required a cessation from its laborious attendance. Upon his +retirement from office, he "passed through the watering-places with the +season," and then fixed himself at No. 7, Amelia Place, Brompton, which +house has now Kettle's boot and shoe warehouse built out in front. To no +other contemporary pen than that of the Rev. George Croly can be ascribed +the following glowing sketch of Curran:-- + + "From the period in which Curran emerged from the first struggles of + an unfriended man, labouring up a jealous profession, his history + makes a part of the annals of his country: once upon the surface, his + light was always before the eye, it never sank and was never + outshone. With great powers to lift himself beyond the reach of that + tumultuous and stormy agitation that must involve the movers of the + public mind in a country such as Ireland then was, he loved to cling + to the heavings of the wave; he, at least, never rose to that + tranquil elevation to which his early contemporaries had one by one + climbed; and never left the struggle till the storm had gone down, it + is to be hoped for ever. This was his destiny, but it might have + been his choice, and he was not without the reward, which, to an + ambitious mind conscious of its eminent powers, might be more than + equivalent to the reluctant patronage of the throne. To his habits + legal distinction would have been only a bounty upon his silence; his + limbs would have been fettered by the ermine; but he had the + compensation of boundless popular honour, much respect from the + higher ranks of party, much admiration and much fear from the lower + partizans. In Parliament he was the assailant most dreaded; in the + law-courts he was the advocate deemed the most essential; in both he + was an object of all the more powerful passions of man but rivalry,-- + + 'He stood alone and shone alone.'" + +During Curran's residence in Amelia Place he suffered two slight +apoplectic attacks; but he, nevertheless, "occasionally indulged in +society, and was to his last sparkle the most interesting, singular, and +delightful of all table companions." The forenoon he generally passed in +a solitary ramble through the neighbouring fields and gardens (which have +now disappeared), and in the evening he enjoyed the conversation of a few +friends; but, though the brilliancy of his wit shone to the last, he +seemed like one who had outlived everything in life that was worth +enjoying. This is exemplified in Curran's melancholy repartee to his +medical attendant a few days before his decease. The doctor remarked +that his patient's cough was not improved. "That is odd," remarked +Curran, "for I have been practising all night!" + +On Thursday, the 9th of October, Curran dined abroad for the last time +with Mr. Richard ("Gentleman") Jones, {78} of No. 14 Chapel Street, +Grosvenor Place, for the purpose of being introduced to George Colman +"the Younger." The party, besides the host and hostess, consisted of Mr. +Harris and Sir William Chatterton. Colman that evening was unusually +brilliant, anticipating, by apt quotation and pointed remark, almost +everything that Curran would have said. One comment of Curran's, +however, made a deep impression on all present. Speaking of Lord Byron's +'Fare thee well, and if for ever,' he observed that "his lordship first +weeps over his wife, and then wipes his eyes with the newspapers." He +left the dinner-table early, and, on going upstairs to coffee, either +affected not to know or did not remember George Colman's celebrity as a +wit, and inquired of Mrs. Jones who that Mr. Colman was? Mr. Harris +joined them at this moment, and apologised for his friend Colman +engrossing so much of the conversation to himself, adding, that he was +the spoiled child of society, and that even the Prince Regent listened +with attention when George Colman talked. "Ay," said Curran, with a +melancholy smile, "I now know who Colman is; we must both sleep in the +same bed." + +The next morning Curran was seized with apoplexy, and continued +speechless, though in possession of his senses, till the early part of +Tuesday the 14th, when he sunk into lethargy, and towards evening died +without a struggle; so tranquil, indeed, were the last moments of Curran, +that those in the room were unable to mark the precise time when his +bright spirit passed away from this earth. His age has been variously +stated at sixty-seven, sixty-eight, and seventy. + +The first lodging which John Banim, the Irish novelist, temporarily +occupied in England (April, 1822) was in the house where his illustrious +countryman had breathed his last, and from whence Banim removed to 13, +Brompton Grove, as already noticed. Banim's first wish, when he found +himself in England, was to visit the scene of Curran's death; led to the +spot by a strong feeling of patriotic admiration, and finding, by a bill +in the window, that lodgings were to be let there, he immediately took +them, "that he might dream of his country," as he energetically told the +writer, "with the halo of Curran's memory around him." + +[Picture: Dropped Capitals for In] PELHAM CRESCENT, which consists of +twenty-seven houses, and is divided in the centre, between Nos. 14 and +15, by Pelham Place, both Crescent and Place built upon part of the +nursery-grounds over which Curran had wandered, dwell at No. 10 Mr. and +Mrs. Keeley. At No. 20 resides Mr. John Cooper the well-known veteran +actor. M. Guizot, the celebrated French statesman, after the overthrow +of the government of Louis Philippe, resided for some time at No. 21, +where Madame Guizot, his mother, died in March, 1848, at the advanced age +of eighty-three; and the same house was, by a singular coincidence, +afterwards occupied by Ledru Rollin. Pelham Place, at the back of the +Crescent, is notable for having, at No. 2, Mr. Lazarus, the celebrated +clarionet player, and at No. 8 resides Mr. A. Harris, the present lessee +of the Princess's Theatre. + +Nearly opposite to Pelham Crescent is POND PLACE, where Mr. Curtis, the +eminent botanist, of whom more hereafter, died on the 7th July, 1799; and +a little further on, on the same side of the way, appears Chelsea New +Church, dedicated to St. Luke. + + * * * * * + +[Picture: Dropped Capital T] he first stone of this church was laid on +the 12th October, 1820, and the New Church was consecrated on the 18th +October, 1824. The architect was Mr. Savage of Walbrook. {80} The +burial-ground in which it stands had been consecrated on the 21st +November, 1812; and an Act of Parliament, 59 George III., cap. 35, 1819, +authorised the appropriation of part of that ground for the site of +building a church. In the burial-ground repose the remains of Dr. John +M'Leod, the companion and friend of the gallant Sir Murray Maxwell, and +the author of 'A Narrative of a Voyage in H.M.S. Alceste to the Yellow +Sea, and of her Shipwreck in the Straits of Gaspar,' published in 1817. +On his return to England, the services of Dr. M'Leod were rewarded by his +appointment to the Royal Sovereign yacht, which he did not long enjoy, as +he died in lodgings in the King's Road, Chelsea, on the 9th November, +1820, at the age of thirty-eight. + +Signor Carlo Rovedino, a bass singer of some reputation, also lies buried +in this churchyard. He was a native of Milan, and died on the 6th of +October, 1822, aged seventy-one. The remains of Blanchard and Egerton, +two actors of established character, repose here side by side. William +Blanchard was what is termed "a useful comedian;" whatever part was +assigned to him, he made the most of it. At the age of seventeen, he +joined a provincial theatrical company at York, his native city, and in +1800, after fourteen years of laborious country practice, appeared at +Covent Garden as Bob Acres in 'The Rivals,' and Crack in 'The Turnpike +Gate.' At the time of his death, 9th May, 1835, he resided at No. 1, +Camera Square, Chelsea. Blanchard had dined with a friend at +Hammersmith, and left him to return home about six in the evening of +Tuesday. On the following morning, at three o'clock, poor Blanchard was +found lying in a ditch by the roadside, having been, as is supposed, +seized by a fit; in the course of the evening he was visited by another +attack, which was succeeded by one more violent on the Thursday, and on +the following day he expired. + +Daniel Egerton--"oh! kingly Egerton"--personified for many years on the +stage of Covent Garden all the royal personages about whom there was +great state and talk, but who had little to say for themselves. He was +respected as being, and without doubt was, an industrious and an honest +man. Having saved some hardly-earned money, Egerton entered into a +theatrical speculation with a brother actor, Mr. Abbott, and became +manager of one of the minor houses, by which he was ruined, and died in +1835, under the pressure of his misfortunes. His widow, whose +representations of the wild women of Scott's novels, Madge Wildfire and +Meg Merrilies, have distinguished her, died on the 10th August, 1847, at +Brompton, aged sixty-six, having supported herself nobly amidst the +troubles of her latter days. Mrs. Egerton was the daughter of the Rev. +Peter Fisher, rector of Torrington, in Devonshire. She appeared at the +Bath theatre soon after the death of her father in 1803, and in 1811 made +her first appearance at Covent Garden Theatre as Juliet. + +On the right-hand side, a little off the main road, is Onslow Square, +which was built upon the site of the extensive house and grounds once +occupied as a lunatic asylum. The row of large trees now in the centre +of the square was formerly the avenue from the main road to this house. +Mr. Henry Cole, C.B. lives at No. 17, Onslow Square; he is well known to +the public as a member of the Executive Committee of the Crystal Palace, +a promoter of art manufactures, and the author of numerous works +published under the _nom de plume_ of "Felix Summerly." No. 31 is the +residence of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Martin (better known as Miss Helen +Faucit). At No. 34 resides Baron Marochetti, the celebrated sculptor, +who settled in England after the French revolution of February, 1848, and +has obtained high patronage here. At the back of the house is the +studio, with an entrance from the main road, where the avenue of trees +continues. W. M. Thackeray, the popular writer, lives at No. 36, and +Rear-Admiral Fitzroy, the distinguished geographer and navigator, is at +No. 38. + +A few yards beyond Sydney Place (leading into Onslow Square), on the +opposite side of the road, is Sydney Street, leading direct to St. Luke's +Church, the late incumbent of which, the Rev. Charles Kingsley, who died +on 29th February, 1860, aged 78, was the father of the well-known popular +writer, the Rev. Charles Kingsley, of Eversley Rectory, Hants. Sydney +Street was originally called Upper Robert Street, as being the +continuation of Robert Street, Chelsea; but, under some notion of raising +its respectability, the inhabitants agreed to change the name. It +happened, however, that the corner house adjoining the Fulham Road, on +the western side, was occupied by a surgeon, who imagined that the change +in name might be injurious to his practice, and he took advantage of his +position to retain the old name on his house. Thus for some time the +street was known by both names, but that of Upper Robert Street is now +entirely abandoned. The opposite corner house, No. 2, Sydney Street, was +for some years occupied by the Rev. Dr. Biber, author of the 'Life of +Pestalozzi,' and editor and proprietor of the 'John Bull' newspaper. On +his selling the 'John Bull,' it became incorporated with the 'Britannia.' + +No. 24 was for some time the residence of Mr. Thomas Wright, the +well-known antiquary and historical writer, who now lives at No. 14. + +ROBERT STREET, which connects the main Fulham Road with the King's Road, +passes directly before the west side of the spacious burial-ground, and +immediately opposite to the tower of St. Luke's Church; at No. 17 +formerly resided Mr. Henry Warren, the President of the New Society of +Water-Colour Painters. + +Returning to the main Fulham Road, and passing the Cancer Hospital, now +in course of erection, we come to YORK PLACE, a row of twenty-two +well-built and respectable houses on the south, or, according to our +course, left-hand side of the road. + +No. 15, York Place, was, between the years 1813 and 1821, the retirement +of Francis Hargrave, a laborious literary barrister, and the editor of 'A +Collection of State Trials,' {84} and many other esteemed legal works. +Here he died on the 16th of August, 1821, at the age of eighty-one. + +In 1813, when obliged to abandon his arduous profession, in consequence +of over-mental excitement, the sum of 8,000 pounds was voted by +Parliament, upon the motion of Mr. Whitbread, for the purchase of Mr. +Hargrave's law books, which were enriched with valuable notes, and for +300 MSS., to be deposited in the library of Lincoln's Inn, for public +use. As documents of national historical importance may be +particularised, Mr. Hargrave's first publication, in 1772, entitled '_The +Case of James Somerset_, _a Negro_, _lately determined by the Court of +King's Bench_, _wherein it is attempted to demonstrate the present +unlawfulness of Domestic Slavery in England_;' his '_Three Arguments in +the two causes in Chancery on the last Will of Peter Thellusson_, _Esq._, +_with Mr. Morgan's __Calculation of the Accumulation under the Trusts of +the Will_, _1799_;' and his '_Opinion in the Case of the Duke of Athol in +respect to the Isle of Man_.' + +Opposite to York Place was a fine, open, airy piece of ground to which +Mr. Curtis, the eminent naturalist, removed his botanical garden from +Lambeth Marsh, as a more desirable locality. Upon the south-east portion +of this nursery-ground the first stone was laid by H.R.H. Prince Albert, +on the 11th July, 1844, of an hospital for consumption and diseases of +the chest, and which was speedily surrounded by houses on all sides; +probably a circumstance not contemplated at the time the ground was +secured. + +The botanical garden of Mr. Curtis, as a public resort for study, was +continued at Brompton until 1808, when the lease of the land being nearly +expired, Mr. Salisbury, who in 1792 became his pupil, and in 1798 his +partner in this horticultural speculation, removed the establishment to +the vacant space of ground now inclosed between Sloane Street and Cadogan +Place, where Mr. Salisbury's undertaking failed. A plan of the gardens +there, as arranged by him, was published in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' +for August, 1810. {85} + +Mr. Curtis, whose death has been already mentioned, was the son of a +tanner, and was born at Alton, in Hampshire, in 1746. He was bound +apprentice to his grandfather, a quaker apothecary of that town, whose +house was contiguous to the Crown Inn, where the botanical knowledge of +John Lagg, the hostler, seems to have excited rivalry in the breast of +young Curtis. In the course of events he became assistant to Mr. Thomas +Talwin, an apothecary in Gracechurch Street, of the same religious +persuasion as his grandfather, and succeeded Mr. Talwin in his business. +Mr. Curtis's love of botanical science, however, increased with his +knowledge. He connected with it the study of entomology, by printing, in +1771, 'Instructions for Collecting and Preserving Insects,' and in the +following year a translation of the 'Fundamenta Entomologiae' of +Linnaeus. At this time he rented a very small garden for the cultivation +of British plants, "near the Grange Road, at the bottom of Bermondsey +Street," and here it was that he conceived the design of publishing his +great work, 'The Flora Londinensis.' + + "The Grange Road Garden was soon found too small for his extensive + ideas. He, therefore, took a larger piece of ground in Lambeth + Marsh, where he soon assembled the largest collection of British + plants ever brought together into one place. But there was something + uncongenial in the air of this place, which made it extremely + difficult to preserve sea plants and many of the rare annuals which + are adapted to an elevated situation,--_an evil rendered worse every + year by the increased number of buildings around_. This led his + active mind, ever anxious for improvement, to inquire for a more + favourable soil and purer air. This, at length, he found at + Brompton. Here he procured a spacious territory, in which he had the + pleasure of seeing his wishes gratified to the utmost extent of + reasonable expectation. Here he continued to his death;" + +having, I may add, for many years previously, devoted himself entirely to +botanical pursuits. + +To support the slow sale of 'The Flora Londinensis,' Mr. Curtis, about +1787, started 'The Botanical Magazine,' which became one of the popular +periodicals of the day, and Dr. Smith's and Mr. Sowerby's 'English +Botany' was modelled after it. + +What Mr. Curtis, as an individual, commenced, the Horticultural Society +are endeavouring, as a body, to effect. + +Immediately past the Hospital for Consumption is Fowlis Terrace, a row of +newly-built houses, running from the road. + +At the corner of Church Street (on the opposite side of the road) is an +enclosure used as the burial-ground of the Westminster Congregation of +the Jews. There is an inscription in Hebrew characters over the +entrance, above which is an English inscription with the date of the +erection of the building according to the Jewish computation A.M. 5576, +or 1816 A.D. Beside it is the milestone denoting that it is 1.5 mile +from London. + +The QUEEN'S ELM TURNPIKE, pulled down in 1848, was situated here, and +took its name from the tradition that Queen Elizabeth, when walking out, +attended by Lord Burleigh, {87a} being overtaken by a heavy shower of +rain, found shelter here under an elm-tree. After the rain was over, the +queen said, "Let this henceforward be called The Queen's Tree." The +tradition is strongly supported by the parish records of Chelsea, as +mention is made in 1586 (the 28th of Elizabeth, and probably the year of +the occurrence), of a tree situated about this spot, "at the end of the +Duke's Walk," {87b} as "The Queen's Tree," around which an arbour was +built, or, in other words, nine young elm-trees were planted, by one +Bostocke, at the charge of the parish. The first mention of "The Queen's +_Elm_," occurs in 1687, ninety-nine years after her Majesty had sheltered +beneath the tree around which "an arbour was built," when the surveyors +of the highway were amerced in the sum of five pounds, "for not +sufficiently mending the highway from the Queen Elm to the bridge, and +from the Elm to Church Lane." In a plan of Chelsea, from a survey made +in 1664 by James Hamilton, and continued to 1717, a tree occupying the +spot assigned to "The Queen's Elm," is called "The Cross Tree," and in +the vestry minutes it is designated as "The High Elm," which latter name +is used by Sir Hans Sloane in 1727. Bostocke's arbour, however, had the +effect of giving to the cross-road the name of "The Nine Elms." Steele, +on the 22nd June, 1711, writing to his wife, says, "Pray, on the receipt +of this, go to the Nine Elms, and I will follow you within an hour." {88} +And so late as 1805, "The Nine Elms, Chelsea," appeared as a local +address in newspaper advertisements. + +Again let me crave indulgence for minute attention to the changes of +name; but much topographical difficulty often arises from this cause. + +The stump of the royal tree, with, as is asserted, its root remaining in +the ground undisturbed, a few years ago existed squared down to the +dimensions of an ordinary post, about six feet in height and whitewashed. +But the identity appears questionable, although a post, not improbably +fashioned out of one of the nine elms which grew around it, stood till +within the last few years in front of a public-house named from the +circumstance the Queen's Elm, which house has been a little altered since +the annexed sketch was made, by the introduction of a clock between the +second floor windows, and the house adjoining has been rebuilt, +overtopping it. + +[Picture: Queen's Elm Public House] + +On the opposite or north side of the Fulham Road, some small houses are +called SELWOOD PLACE, from being built on part of the ground of "Mr. +Selwood's nursery," which is mentioned in 1712 by Mr. Narcissus Luttrell, +of whom more hereafter, as one of the sources from which he derived a +variety of pear, cultivated by him in his garden at Little Chelsea. + +CHELSEA PARK, on the same side of the way with the Queen's Elm +public-house, and distant about a furlong from it, as seen from the road, +appears a noble structure with a magnificent portico. [Picture: Chelsea +Park Portico] The ground now called Chelsea Park belonged, with an +extensive tract of which it formed the northern part, to the famous Sir +Thomas More, and in his time was unenclosed, and termed "the Sand Hills." +It received the present name in 1625, when the Lord-Treasurer Cranfield +(Earl of Middlesex) surrounded with a brick wall about thirty-two acres, +which he had purchased in 1620 from Mr. Blake. In 1717 Chelsea Park, +which extended from the Fulham to the King's Road, was estimated at forty +acres, and belonged to the Marquis of Wharton, with whom, when appointed +in 1709 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Addison went over as Secretary. It +subsequently became the scene of a joint-stock company speculation under +a patent granted in 1718 to John Appletree, Esq., for producing raw silk +of the growth of England, and for raising a fund for carrying on the +same. This undertaking was divided into shares of 5 pounds each, of +which 1 pounds was paid down. Proposals were published, a +subscription-book opened, in which several hundred names were soon +entered; a deed of trust executed and enrolled in Chancery; directors +were chosen by the subscribers for managing the affairs of the Company; +and, Chelsea Park being thought a proper soil for the purpose and in a +convenient situation, a lease was taken of it for 122 years. Here +upwards of 2000 mulberry-trees were soon planted, and extensive edifices +erected for carrying on the work: this number of trees was, however, but +a small part of what the company intended to plant if they were +successful. In the following year Mr. Henry Barham, F.R.S., who was +probably a member of the company, published 'An Essay on the Silk Worm,' +in which he thinks "all objections and difficulties against this glorious +undertaking are shown to be mere phantoms and trifles." The event, +however, proved that the company met with difficulties of a real and +formidable nature; for though the expectation of this gentleman, who +questioned not that in the ensuing year they should produce a +considerable quantity of raw silk, may have been partly answered, the +undertaking soon began to decline, and, in the course of a few years, +came to nothing. It must, however, be admitted that the violent +stock-jobbing speculations of the year 1720, which involved the shares of +all projects of this nature, might have produced many changes among the +proprietors, and contributed to derange the original design. However, +from that period to the present time, no effort has been made to +cultivate the silkworm in this country as a mercantile speculation, +although individuals have continued to rear it with success as an object +of curiosity. + +Walpole, in his 'Catalogue of Engravers,' tells us that James Christopher +Le Blon, a Fleming by birth, and a mezzotint-engraver by profession, some +time subsequent to 1732, "set up a project for copying the cartoons in +tapestry, and made some very fine drawings for that purpose. Houses were +built and looms erected in the Mulberry Ground at Chelsea; but either the +expense was precipitated too fast, or contributions did not arrive fast +enough. The bubble burst, several suffered, and Le Blon was heard of no +more." Walpole adds, "It is said he died in an hospital at Paris in +1740:" and observes that Le Blon was "very far from young when he knew +him, but of surprising vivacity and volubility, and with a head admirably +mechanic, but an universal projector, and with at least one of the +qualities that attend that vocation, either a dupe or a cheat; I think," +he continues, "the former, though, as most of his projects ended in air, +the sufferers believed the latter. As he was much an enthusiast, perhaps +like most enthusiasts he was both one and t' other." + +The present mansion was built upon a portion of Chelsea Park by Mr. +William Broomfield, an eminent surgeon, who resided in it for several +years. The late possessor was Sir Henry Wright Wilson, Bart., to whose +wife, Lady Frances Wilson (daughter of the Earl of Aylesbury), was left a +valuable estate in Hampshire, {92} said to be worth about 3,000 pounds a +year, under the following very singular circumstances. Her ladyship was +informed one morning in February, 1814, while at breakfast, that an +eccentric person named Wright, who had died a few days previously at an +obscure lodging in Pimlico, had appointed her and Mr. Charles Abbott his +executors, and after some legacies had bequeathed to Lady Frances the +residue of his property by a will dated so far back as August, 1800. As +Lady Frances declared herself to be unacquainted even with the name of +the testator, she at first concluded that there was some mistake in the +matter. After further explanation, the person of Mr. Wright was +described to her, and Lady Frances at last recollected that the +description answered that of a gentleman she had remembered as a constant +frequenter of the Opera some years previously and considered to be a +foreigner, and who had annoyed her extremely there by constantly staring +at her box. To satisfy herself of the identity, she went to the lodgings +of the late Mr. Wright, and saw him in his coffin, when she recognized +the features perfectly as those of the person whose eyes had so often +persecuted her when she was Lady Frances Bruce, but who had never spoken +to her, and of whom she had no other knowledge whatever. + +Mr. Wright left legacies of 4,000 pounds to the Countess of Rosslyn, +4,000 pounds to the Speaker of the House of Commons, 1,000 pounds to the +lord-chancellor, and the same sum to Archdeacon Pott, the rector of St. +Martin-in-the-Fields, which church Mr. Wright had been in the habit of +frequenting, having as little acquaintance with any of these parties as +he had with Lady Frances Wilson. It may be supposed from these facts +that Lady Frances Wilson was exceedingly beautiful, and that an +admiration of her charms might have influenced Mr. Wright to make this +extraordinary bequest in her favour; but those who knew Lady Frances well +assert that such could not possibly have been the case, as she was far +from beautiful at any period of her life; and the oddity of the story is, +and it seemed to be the general opinion, that Mr. Wright's legacy was +intended for a lady who usually occupied a box next to that in which Lady +Frances sat, and who, at the period, was regarded as the _belle_ of the +Opera. + +THISTLE GROVE, on the opposite side of the road from Chelsea Park, leads, +by what had been a garden pathway, to the Old Brompton Road. At each +side of "the Grove," now occupying the sites of trees, are detached +villas, houses, lodges, and cottages, named, or not named, after the +taste of their respective proprietors; one of which, on the left hand, +some fourteen houses distant from the main Fulham Road, was for many +years the residence of Mr. John Burke, whose laborious heraldic and +genealogical inquiries induced him to arrange and publish various +important collections relative to the peerage and family history of the +United Kingdom, in which may be found, condensed for immediate reference, +an immense mass of important information. + +In Thistle Grove Mr. J. P. Warde, the well-known actor, died in 1840. + +Immediately beyond Chelsea Park the village of LITTLE CHELSEA commences, +about the centre of which, and on the same side of the way, at the corner +of the road leading to Battersea Bridge, stands the Goat in Boots +public-house. [Picture: Goat in Boots] In 1663, there was a "house +called the Goat at Little Chelsea," which, between that year and 1713, +enjoyed the right of commonage for two cows and one heifer upon Chelsea +Heath. + +How the Goat became equipped in boots, and the designation of the house +changed, has been the subject of various conjectures; the most probable +of which is, that it originates in a corruption of the latter part of the +Dutch legend,-- + + "MERCURIUS IS DER GODEN BOODE," + (Mercury is the messenger of the gods,) + +which being divided between each side of a sign bearing the figure of +Mercury--a sign commonly used in the early part of the last century to +denote that post-horses were to be obtained--"der goden boode" became +freely translated into English, "the goat in boots." To Le Blon is +attributed the execution of this sign and its motto; but, whoever the +original artist may have been, and the intermediate retouchers or +repainters of the god, certain it is that the pencil of Morland, in +accordance with the desire of the landlord, either transformed the +petasus of Mercury into the horned head of a goat, his talaria into spurs +upon boots of huge dimensions, and his caduceus into a cutlass, or thus +decorated the original sign, thereby liquidating a score which he had run +up here, without any other means of payment than what his pencil +afforded. The sign, however, has been painted over, with considerable +additional embellishments from gold leaf, so that not the least trace of +Morland's work remains, except, perhaps, in the outline. + +Park Walk (the road turning off at the Goat in Boots) proceeds to the +King's Road, and, although not in a direct line, to Battersea Bridge. +Opposite the Goat in Boots is Gilston Road, leading to Boltons and St. +Mary's Place. At No. 6, St. Mary's Place, resides J. O. Halliwell, +F.R.S., F.S.A., the well-known Shaksperian scholar, whose varied +contributions to literature have been crowned by the production of his +folio edition of Shakspere--a work still in progress. At No. 8, Mr. +Edward Wright, the popular actor, resided for a short time. + +A few paces further on the main Fulham Road, at the north or opposite +side, stood "Manor House," now termed Manor Hall, and occupied by St. +Philip's Orphanage, a large, old-fashioned building, with the intervening +space between it and the road screened in by boards,--which were attached +to the antique iron gate and railings about twenty years ago, when it +became appropriated to a charitable asylum. Previously, Manor House had +been a ladies' boarding-school; and here Miss Bartolozzi, afterwards +Madame Vestris, was educated. + +SEYMOUR PLACE, which leads to Seymour Terrace, is a cul-de-sac on the +same side of the main Fulham Road, between Manor Hall and the Somerset +Arms public-house, which last forms the west corner of Seymour Place. + +At No. 1, Seymour Terrace expired, on the 19th of June, 1824, in her +twenty-fifth year, Madame Riego, the widow of the unfortunate patriot +General Riego, "the restorer and martyr of Spanish freedom." Her short +and eventful history possesses more than ordinary melancholy. While yet +a child she had to endure all the hardships and privations consequent +upon a state of warfare, and under the protection of her maternal +grandfather, had to seek refuge from place to place on the mountains of +Asturias from the French army. At the close of 1821 she was married to +General Riego, to whom she had been known and attached almost from +infancy, and, in the spring of the following year, became, with her +distinguished husband, a resident in Madrid. But the political confusion +and continued alarm of the period having appeared to affect her health, +the general proceeded with her in the autumn to Granada, where he parted +from his young and beloved wife, never again to meet her in this world, +the convocation of the extraordinary Cortes for October 1822 obliging him +to return to the capital. + +Accompanied by the canon Riego, brother to her husband, and her attached +sister, Donna Lucie, she removed in March to Malaga, from whence the +advance of the French army into the south of Spain obliged them to seek +protection at Gibraltar, which, under the advice of General Riego, they +left for England on the 4th of July, but, owing to an unfavourable +passage, did not reach London until the 17th of August. Here the +visitation which impended over her was still more calamitous than all +that had preceded it. Within little more than two months after her +arrival in London, the account arrived of General Riego's execution. {97} + +Gerald Griffin, the Irish novelist, in a letter dated 22nd of November, +1823, says,-- + + "I have been lately negotiating with my host (of 76 Regent Street) + for lodgings for the widow and brother of poor General Riego. They + are splendid apartments, but the affair has been broken off by the + account of his death. It has been concealed from her. She is a + young woman, and is following him fast, being far advanced in a + consumption. His brother is in deep grief. He says he will go and + bury himself for the remainder of his days in the woods of America." + +The house, + + No. 1, SEYMOUR PLACE, + +[Picture: No. 1 Seymour Place] as it was then, Seymour Terrace, Little +Chelsea, as it is now called, became, about this period, the residence of +the unhappy fugitives. Griffin, who appears to have made their +acquaintance through a Spanish gentleman, named Valentine Llanos, writes, +in February, 1824,-- + + "I was introduced the other day to poor Madame Riego, the relict of + the unfortunate general. I was surprised to see her look much better + than I was prepared to expect, as she is in a confirmed consumption." + +Mental grief, which death only could terminate, had at that moment +"marked" Madame Riego "for his own;" yet her look, like that of all +high-minded Spaniards, to a stranger was calm--"much better than he was +prepared to expect." + +On the 18th of May, exactly one month and a day before the termination of +her sufferings, Griffin says,-- + + "The canon Riego, brother to the poor martyr, sent me, the other day, + a Spanish poem of many cantos, having for its subject the career of + the unhappy general, and expressed a wish that I might find material + for an English one in it, if I felt disposed to make anything of the + subject. _Apropos_, Madame Riego is almost dead. The fire is in her + eye, and the flush on her cheek, which are, I believe, no beacons of + hope to the consumptive. She is an interesting woman, and I pity her + from my soul. This Mr. Mathews, who was confined with her husband, + and arrived lately in London, and who, moreover, is a countryman of + mine, brought her from her dying husband a little favourite dog and a + parrot, which were his companions in his dungeon. He very + indiscreetly came before her with the remembrances without any + preparation, and she received a shock from it, from which she has not + yet, nor ever will recover. What affecting little circumstances + these are, and how interesting to one who has the least mingling of + enthusiasm in his character!" + +Madame Riego died in the arms of her attached sister, attended by the +estimable canon. In her will she directed her executor, the canon, to +assure the British people of the gratitude she felt towards them for the +sympathy and support which they extended to her in the hours of her +adversity. But what makes the will peculiarly affecting is her solemn +attestation to the purity and sincerity of the political life of General +Riego. She states that she esteems it to be the last act of justice and +duty to the memory of her beloved husband, solemnly to declare, in the +awful presence of her God, before whose judgment-seat she feels she must +soon appear, that all his private feelings and dispositions respecting +his country corresponded with his public acts and professions in defence +of its liberties. + +A few yards beyond the turn down to Seymour Place, on the opposite side +of the road, stood, until pulled down in 1856, to make room for the new +one, the additional workhouse to St. George's, Hanover Square, for which +purpose Shaftesbury House was purchased by that parish in 1787; and an +Act of Parliament passed in that year declares it to be in "St. George's +parish so long as it shall continue to be appropriated to its present +use." [Picture: Shaftesbury House] [Picture: Back of Shaftesbury House] +The parochial adjuncts to Lord Shaftesbury's mansion, which remained, +until the period of its demolition, in nearly the same state as when +disposed of, have been considerable; but the building, as his lordship +left it, could be at once recognised through the iron gate by which you +entered, and which was surmounted by a lion rampant, probably the crest +of one of the subsequent possessors. It is surprising, indeed, that so +little alteration, externally as well as internally should have taken +place. The appearance of the back of Shaftesbury House, as represented +in an old print, was unchanged, with the exception of the flight of steps +which led to the garden being transferred to the west (or shaded side) of +the wing--an addition made by Lord Shaftesbury to the original house. +This was purchased by him in 1699 from the Bovey family, as heirs to the +widow of Sir James Smith, by whom there is reason to believe it was built +in 1635, as [Picture: Stone] was engraved on a stone which formed part of +the pavement in front of one of the summer-houses in the garden. + +The Right Honourable Sir James Smith was buried at Chelsea 18th of +November, 1681. He was probably the junior sheriff of London in 1672. + +[Picture: Summer-house] + + "It does not appear," says Lysons, "that Lord Shaftesbury pulled down + Sir James Smith's house, but altered it and made considerable + additions by a building fifty feet in length, which projected into + the garden. It was secured with an iron door, the window-shutters + were of the same metal, and there were iron plates between it and the + house to prevent all communication by fire, of which this learned and + noble peer seems to have entertained great apprehensions. The whole + of the new building, though divided into a gallery and two small + rooms (one of which was his lordship's bedchamber), was fitted up as + a library. The earl was very fond of the culture of fruit-trees, and + his gardens were planted with the choicest sorts, particularly every + kind of vine which would bear the open air of this climate. It + appears by Lord Shaftesbury's letters to Sir John Cropley that he + dreaded the smoke of London as so prejudicial to his health, that + whenever the wind was easterly he quitted Little Chelsea," where he + generally resided during the sitting of Parliament. + +In 1710 the noble author of 'Characteristics,' then about to proceed to +Italy, sold his residence at Little Chelsea to Narcissus Luttrell, Esq., +who, as a book-collector, is described by Dr. Dibdin as "ever ardent in +his love of past learning, and not less voracious in his bibliomaniacal +appetites" than the Duke of Marlborough. Sir Walter Scott acknowledges +in his preface to the works of Dryden the obligations he is under to the +"valuable" and "curious collection of fugitive pieces of the reigns of +Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen Anne," "made by Narcissus +Luttrell, Esq., under whose name the editor quotes it. This industrious +collector," continues Sir Walter, "seems to have bought every poetical +tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked through the streets in his +time, marking carefully the price and the date of the purchase. His +collection contains the earliest editions of many of our most excellent +poems, bound up, according to the order of time, with the lowest trash of +Grub Street. It was dispersed on Mr. Luttrell's death," adds Sir Walter +Scott, and he then mentions Mr. James Bindley and Mr. Richard Heber as +having "obtained a great share of the Luttrell collection, and liberally +furnished him with the loan of some of them in order to the more perfect +editing of Dryden's works." + +This is not exactly correct, as Mr. Luttrell's library descended with +Shaftesbury House to Mr. Sergeant Wynne, and from him to his eldest son, +after whose death it was sold by auction in 1786. On the title-page of +the sale-catalogue the collection is described as "the valuable library +of Edward Wynne, Esq., lately deceased, brought from his house at Little +Chelsea. Great part of it was formed by an eminent and curious collector +in the last century." At the sale of Mr. Wynne's library, Bindley +purchased lot '209, Collection of Poems, various, Latin and English, 5 +vols. 1626, &c.,' for seven guineas; and '211, Collection of Political +Poems, Dialogues, Funeral Elegies, Lampoons, &c., with various Political +Prints and Portraits, 3 vols. 1641, &c.,' for sixteen pounds; and it is +probable that these are the collections to which Sir Walter Scott refers. + +Dr. Dibdin, in his enthusiastic mode of treating matters of bibliography, +endeavours to establish a pedigree for those who + + "Love a ballad in print a' life," + +from Pepys, placing Mr. Luttrell the Second in descent. + + "The opening of the eighteenth century," he observes, "was + distinguished by the death of a bibliomaniac of the very first order + and celebrity; of one who had no doubt frequently discoursed largely + and eloquently with Luttrell upon the variety and value of certain + editions of old ballad poetry, and between whom presents of curious + old black-letter volumes were in all probability passing, I allude to + the famous Samuel Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty." + +Of Narcissus Luttrell he then says:-- + + "Nothing would seem to have escaped his lynx-like vigilance. Let the + object be what it may (especially if it related to poetry), let the + volume be great or small, or contain good, bad, or indifferent + warblings of the Muse, his insatiable craving had 'stomach for all.' + We may consider his collection the fountain-head of these copious + streams, which, after fructifying in the libraries of many + bibliomaniacs in the first half of the eighteenth century, settled + for awhile more determinedly in the curious book-reservoir of a Mr. + Wynne, and hence breaking up and taking a different direction towards + the collections of Farmer, Steevens, and others, they have almost + lost their identity in the innumerable rivulets which now inundate + the book-world." + +It is to the literary taste of Mr. Edward Wynne, as asserted by Dr. +Dibdin, that modern book-collectors are indebted for the preservation of +most of the choicest relics of the Bibliotheca Luttrelliana. + + "Mr. Wynne," he continues, "lived at Little Chelsea, and built his + library in a room which had the reputation of having been Locke's + study. Here he used to sit surrounded by innumerable books, a great + part being formed by 'an eminent and curious collector in the last + century.'" + +What Dr. Dibdin says respecting Mr. Wynne's building a library and +Locke's study is inaccurate, as there can be no reasonable doubt that the +room or rooms his library occupied were those built by Lord Shaftesbury, +which had (and correctly) the reputation of having been his lordship's +library, and the study, not of Locke, although of Locke's pupil and +friend. It is not even probable that Lord Shaftesbury was ever visited +by our great philosopher at Little Chelsea, as from 1700 that illustrious +man resided altogether at Oates, in Essex, where he died on the 28th of +October, 1704. + +Whether to Lord Shaftesbury or to Mr. Luttrell the embellishments of the +garden of their residence are to be attributed can now be only matter for +conjecture, unless some curious autograph-collector's portfolio may by +chance contain an old letter or other document to establish the claim. +Their tastes, however, were very similar. They both loved their books, +and their fruits and flowers, and enjoyed the study of them. [Picture: +Summer-house] An account drawn up by Mr. Luttrell of several pears which +he cultivated at Little Chelsea, with outlines of their longitudinal +sections, was communicated to the Horticultural Society by Dr. Luttrell +Wynne, one hundred years after the notes had been made, and may be found +printed in the second volume of the Transactions of that Society. In +this account twenty-five varieties of pears are mentioned, which had been +obtained between the years 1712 and 1717 from Mr. Duncan's, Lord +Cheneys's, Mr. Palmer's, and Mr. Selwood's nursery. + +Until recently it was astounding to find, amid the rage for alteration +and improvement, the formal old-fashioned shape of a trim garden of Queen +Anne's time carefully preserved, its antique summer-houses respected, and +the little infant leaden Hercules, which spouted water to cool the air +from a serpent's throat, still asserting its aquatic supremacy, under the +shade of a fine old medlar-tree; and all this too in the garden of a +London parish workhouse! [Picture: Hercules fountain] Not less +surprising was the aspect of the interior. The grotesque workshop of the +pauper artisans, said to have been [Picture: Workshop] Lord Shaftesbury's +dairy, and over which was his fire-proof library, was then an apartment +appropriated to a girls' school. + +On the basement story of the original house the embellished mouldings of +a doorway, carried the mind back to [Picture: Doorway] the days of +Charles I., and, standing within which, imagination depicted the figure +of a jolly Cavalier retainer, with his pipe and tankard; or of a +Puritanical, formal servant, the expression of whose countenance was +sufficient to turn the best-brewed October into vinegar. The old carved +door leading into this apartment is shown in the annexed sketch. + +Nor should the apartment then occupied by the intelligent master of the +workhouse be overlooked. The panelling of the room, its chimney-piece, +and the painting and [Picture: Fireplace with painting above] framework +above it, placed us completely in a chamber of the time of William III. +And we only required a slight alteration in the furniture, and Lord +Shaftesbury to enter, to feel that we were in the presence of the author +of 'Characteristics.' + +The staircase, too, with its spiral balusters, as seen through the +doorway, retained its ancient air. + + [Picture: Staircase seen through doorway] + +Narcissus Luttrell died here on the 26th of June, 1732, and was buried at +Chelsea on the 6th of July following; where Francis Luttrell (presumed to +be his son) was also buried on the 3rd of September, 1740. Shaftesbury +House then passed into the occupation of Mr. Sergeant Wynne, who died on +the 17th of May, 1765; and from him it descended to his eldest son, Mr. +Edward Wynne, the author of 'Eunomus: a Dialogue concerning the Law and +Constitution of England, with an Essay on Dialogue,' 4 vols. 8vo; and +other works, chiefly of a legal nature. He died a bachelor, at Little +Chelsea, on the 27th of December, 1784; and his brother, the Rev. +Luttrell Wynne, of All Souls, Oxford, inherited Shaftesbury House, and +the valuable library which Mr. Luttrell, his father, and brother, had +accumulated. The house he alienated to William Virtue, from whom, as +before mentioned, it was purchased by the parish of St. George's, Hanover +Square, in 1787; and the library formed a twelve-days' sale, by Messrs. +Leigh and Sotheby, commencing on the 6th of March, 1786. The +auction-catalogue contained 2788 lots; and some idea of the value may be +formed from the circumstance, that nine of the first seventeen lots sold +for no less a sum than 32 pounds 7s., and that four lots of old +newspapers, Nos. 25, 26, 27, and 28, were knocked down at 18 pounds 5s. +No. '376, a collection of old plays, by Gascoigne, White, Windet, Decker, +&c., 21 vols,' brought 38 pounds 17s.; and No. 644, Milton's +'Eiconoclastes,' with MS. notes, supposed to be written by Milton, was +bought by Waldron for 2s., who afterwards gave it to Dr. Farmer. Dr. +Dibdin declares, that "never was a precious collection of English history +and poetry so wretchedly detailed to the public in an auction-catalogue" +as that of Mr. Wynne's library; and yet it will be seen that it must have +realised a considerable sum of money. He mentions, that "a great number +of the poetical tracts were disposed of, previous to the sale, to Dr. +Farmer, who gave not more than forty guineas for them." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +FROM LITTLE CHELSEA TO WALHAM GREEN. + +After what has been said respecting Shaftesbury House, it may be supposed +that its associations with the memory of remarkable individuals are +exhausted. This is very far from being the case; and a long period in +its history, from 1635 to 1699, remains to be filled up, which, however, +must be done by conjecture: although so many circumstances are upon +record, that it is not impossible others can be produced to complete a +chain of evidence that may establish among those who have been inmates of +the ADDITIONAL WORKHOUSE OF ST. GEORGE'S, HANOVER SQUARE--startling as +the assertion may appear--two of the most illustrious individuals in the +annals of this country; of one of whom Bishop Burnet observed, {110} that +his "loss is lamented by all learned men;" the other, a man whose "great +and distinguishing knowledge was the knowledge of human nature or the +powers and operations of the mind, in which he went further, and spoke +clearer, than all other writers who preceded him, and whose 'Essay on the +Human Understanding' is the best book of logic in the world." After +this, I need scarcely add that BOYLE and LOCKE are the illustrious +individuals referred to. + +The amiable John Evelyn, in his 'Diary,' mentions his visiting Mr. Boyle +at Chelsea, on the 9th March, 1661, in company "with that excellent +person and philosopher, Sir Robert Murray," where they "saw divers +effects of the eolipile for weighing air." And in the same year M. de +Monconys, a French traveller in England, says, "L'apres dine je fus avec +M. Oldenburg, {111} et mon fils, a deux milles de Londres en carosse pour +cinq chelins a un village nomme _le petit Chelsey_, voir M. Boyle." Now +at this period there probably was no other house at Little Chelsea of +sufficient importance to be the residence of the Hon. Robert Boyle, where +he could receive strangers in his laboratory and show them his great +telescope; and, moreover, notwithstanding what has been said to prove the +impossibility of Locke having visited Lord Shaftesbury on this spot, +local tradition continues to assert that Locke's work on the 'Human +Understanding' was commenced in the retirement of one of the +summer-houses of Lord Shaftesbury's residence. This certainly may have +been the case if we regard Locke as a visitor to his brother philosopher, +Boyle, and admit his tenancy of the mansion previous to that of Lord +Shaftesbury, to whom Locke, it is very probable, communicated the +circumstance, and which might have indirectly led to his lordship's +purchase of the premises. Be that as it may, it is an interesting +association, with something more than mere fancy for its support, to +contemplate a communion between two of the master-minds of the age, and +the influence which their conversation possibly had upon that of the +other. + +Boyle's sister, the puritanical Countess of Warwick, under date 27th +November, 1666, makes the following note: "In the morning, as soon as +dressed, I prayed, then went with my lord to my house at Chelsea, which +he had hired, where I was all that day taken up with business about my +house." {112} Whether this refers to _Little Chelsea_ or not is more +than I can affirm, although there are reasons for thinking that +Shaftesbury House, or, if not, one which will be subsequently pointed +out, is the house alluded to. + +Charles, the fourth Earl of Orrery, and grand-nephew to Boyle the +philosopher, was born at Dr. Whittaker's house at Little Chelsea on the +21st July, 1674. It was his grandfather's marriage with Lady Margaret +Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, that induced the witty Sir John +Suckling to write his well-known 'Ballad upon a Wedding,' in which he so +lusciously describes the bride:-- + + "Her cheeks so rare a white was on, + No daisie makes comparison; + Who sees them is undone; + For streaks of red were mingled there, + Such as are on the Cath'rine pear-- + The side that's next the sun. + + "Her lips were red; and one was thin, + Compared to that was next her chin-- + Some bee had stung it newly; + But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face, + I durst no more upon her gaze, + Than on the sun in July." + +The second Earl of Orrery, this lady's son, having married Lady Mary +Sackville, daughter of the Earl of Dorset, is stated to have led a +secluded life at Little Chelsea, and to have died in 1682. His eldest +son, the third earl, died in 1703, and his brother, mentioned above as +born at Little Chelsea, became the fourth earl, and distinguished himself +in the military, scientific, and literary proceedings of his times. In +compliment to this Lord Orrery's patronage, Graham, an ingenious +watchmaker, named after his lordship a piece of mechanism which exhibits +the movements of the heavenly bodies. With his brother's death, however, +in 1703, at Earl's Court, Kensington, the connection of the Boyle family +with this neighbourhood appears to terminate. + +Doctor Baldwin Hamey, an eminent medical practitioner during the time of +the Commonwealth, and a considerable benefactor to the College of +Physicians, died at Little Chelsea on the 14th of May, 1676, after an +honourable retirement from his professional duties of more than ten +years. + +Mr. Faulkner's 'History of Kensington,' published in 1820, and in which +parish the portion of Little Chelsea on the north side of the Fulham Road +stands, mentions the residence of Sir Bartholomew Shower, an eminent +lawyer, in 1693; Sir Edward Ward, lord chief baron of the Exchequer, in +1697; Edward Fowler, lord bishop of Gloucester, in 1709, who died at his +house here on the 26th August, 1714; and Sir William Dawes, lord bishop +of Chester, in 1709, who, I may add, died Archbishop of York in 1724. +But in Mr. Faulkner's 'History of Chelsea,' published in 1829, nothing +more is to be found respecting Sir Bartholomew Shower than that he was +engaged in some parochial law proceedings in 1691. Sir Edward Ward's +residence is unnoticed. The Bishop of Gloucester, who is said to have +been a devout believer in fairies and witchcraft, is enumerated among the +inhabitants of Paradise Row, Chelsea (near the hospital, and full a mile +distant from _le petit Chelsey_); and Sir William Dawes, we find from +various entries, an inhabitant of the parish between the years 1696 and +1712, but without "a local habitation" being assigned to him. All this +is very unsatisfactory to any one whose appetite craves after map-like +accuracy in parish affairs. + +Bowack, in 1705, mentions that + + "At Little Chelsea stands a regular handsome house, with a noble + courtyard and good gardens, built by Mr. Mart, now inhabited by Sir + John Cope, Bart., a gentleman of an ancient and honourable family, + who formerly was eminent in the service of his country abroad, and + for many years of late in Parliament, till he voluntarily retired + here to end his days in peace." + +And here Sir John Cope died in 1721. Can he have been the father of the + + "Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye wauking yet, + Or are ye sleeping, I would wit? + O haste ye, get up, for the drums do beat; + O fye, Cope! rise up in the morning!" + +--of the Sir John Cope who was forced to retreat from Preston Pans in +"the '45," and against whom all the shafts of Jacobite ribaldry have been +levelled? + +Faulkner says that this house, which was "subsequently occupied by the +late Mr. Duffield as a private madhouse, has been pulled down, and its +site is now called Odell's Place, a little eastward of Lord +Shaftesbury's;" that is to say, opposite to Manor Hall, and Sir John +Cope's house was not improbably the residence of two distinguished naval +officers, Sir James Wishart and Sir John Balchen. The former was made an +admiral, and knighted by Queen Anne in 1703, and appointed one of the +lords of the Admiralty, but was dismissed from the naval service by +George I. for favouring the interests of the Pretender, and died at +Little Chelsea on the 30th of May, 1723. In the 'Daily Courant,' Monday, +July 15, 1723, the following advertisement appears:-- + + "To be sold by auction, the household goods, plate, china ware, + linen, &c., of Sir James Wishart, deceased, on Thursday the 18th + instant, at his late dwelling-house at Little Chelsea. The goods to + be seen this day, to-morrow, and Wednesday, before the sale, from 9 + to 12 in the morning, and from 3 to 7 in the evening. Catalogues to + be had at the sale. + + "N.B. A coach and chariot to be sold, and the house to be let." + +Admiral Sir John Balchen resided at Little Chelsea soon after Sir James +Wishart's death. In 1744, Admiral Balchen perished in the Victory, of +120 guns, which had the reputation of being the most beautiful ship in +the world, but foundered, with eleven hundred souls on board, in the Bay +of Biscay. + +On the 31st of March, 1723, Edward Hyde, the third Earl of Clarendon, +died "at his house, Little Chelsea;" but where the earl's house stood I +am unable to state. + +Mrs. Robinson, the fascinating "Perdita," tells us, in her autobiography, +that, at the age of ten (1768), she was "placed for education in a school +at Chelsea." And she then commences a most distressing narrative, in +which the last tragic scene she was witness to occurred at Little +Chelsea. + + "The mistress of this seminary," Mrs. Robinson describes as "perhaps + one of the most extraordinary women that ever graced, or disgraced, + society. Her name was Meribah Lorrington. She was the most + extensively accomplished female that I ever remember to have met + with; her mental powers were no less capable of cultivation than + superiorly cultivated. Her father, whose name was Hull, had from her + infancy been master of an academy at Earl's Court, near Fulham; and + early after his marriage, losing his wife, he resolved on giving this + daughter a masculine education. Meribah was early instructed in all + the modern accomplishments, as well as in classical knowledge. She + was mistress of the Latin, French, and Italian languages; she was + said to be a perfect arithmetician and astronomer, and possessed the + art of painting on silk to a degree of exquisite perfection. But, + alas! with all these advantages, she was addicted to one vice, which + at times so completely absorbed her faculties as to deprive her of + every power, either mental or corporeal. Thus, daily and hourly, her + superior acquirements, her enlightened understanding, yielded to the + intemperance of her ruling infatuation, and every power of reflection + seemed absorbed in the unfeminine propensity. + + "All that I ever learned," adds Mrs. Robinson, "I acquired from this + extraordinary woman. In those hours when her senses were not + intoxicated, she would delight in the task of instructing me. She + had only five or six pupils, and it was my lot to be her particular + favourite. She always, out of school, called me her little friend, + and made no scruple of conversing with me (sometimes half the night, + for I slept in her chamber) on domestic and confidential affairs. I + felt for her very sincere affection, and I listened with peculiar + attention to all the lessons she inculcated. Once I recollect her + mentioning the particular failing which disgraced so intelligent a + being. She pleaded, in excuse of it, the unmitigable regret of a + widowed heart, and with compunction declared that she flew to + intoxication as the only refuge from the pang of prevailing sorrow." + +Mrs. Robinson remained more than twelve months under the care of Mrs. +Lorrington, + + "When pecuniary derangements obliged her to give up her school. Her + father's manners were singularly disgusting, as was his appearance, + for he wore a silvery beard, which reached to his breast, and a kind + of Persian robe, which gave him the external appearance of a + necromancer. He was of the Anabaptist persuasion, and so stern in + his conversation, that the young pupils were exposed to perpetual + terror; added to these circumstances, the failing of his daughter + became so evident, that even during school-hours she was frequently + in a state of confirmed intoxication." + +In 1772, three years afterwards, when Mrs. Robinson was fourteen, her +mother, Mrs. Darby, was obliged, as a means of support, to undertake the +task of tuition. + + "For this purpose, a convenient house was hired at Little Chelsea, + and furnished for a ladies' boarding-school. Assistants of every + kind were engaged, and I," says Mrs. Robinson, "was deemed worthy of + an occupation that flattered my self-love, and impressed my mind with + a sort of domestic consequence. The English language was my + department in the seminary, and I was permitted to select passages + both in prose and verse for the studies of my infant pupils; it was + also my occupation to superintend their wardrobes, to see them + dressed and undressed by the servants, or half-boarders, and to read + sacred and moral lessons on saints' days and Sunday evenings. + + "Shortly after my mother had established herself at Chelsea, on a + summer's evening, as I was sitting at the window, I heard a deep + sigh, or rather groan of anguish, which suddenly attracted my + attention. The night was approaching rapidly, and I looked towards + the gate before the house, where I observed a woman, evidently + labouring under excessive affliction. I instantly descended and + approached her. She, bursting into tears, asked whether I did not + know her. Her dress was torn and filthy; she was almost naked, and + an old bonnet, which nearly hid her face, so completely disfigured + her features, that I had not the smallest idea of the person who was + then almost sinking before me. I gave her a small sum of money, and + inquired the cause of her apparent agony. She took my hand, and + pressed it to her lips. 'Sweet girl,' said she, 'you are still the + angel I ever knew you!' I was astonished. She raised her bonnet; + her fine dark eyes met mine. It was Mrs. Lorrington. I led her into + the house; my mother was not at home. I took her to my chamber, and, + with the assistance of a lady, who was our French teacher, I clothed + and comforted her. She refused to say how she came to be in so + deplorable a situation, and took her leave. It was in vain that I + entreated--that I conjured her to let me know where I might send to + her. She refused to give me her address, but promised that in a few + days she would call on me again. It is impossible to describe the + wretched appearance of this accomplished woman. The failing to which + she had now yielded, as to a monster that would destroy her, was + evident, even at the moment when she was speaking to me. I saw no + more of her; but, to my infinite regret, I was informed, some years + after, that she had died, the martyr of a premature decay, brought on + by the indulgence of her propensity to intoxication--in the workhouse + of Chelsea!" + +Mrs. Robinson adds, that-- + + "The number of my mother's pupils in a few months amounted to ten or + twelve; and, just at a period when an honourable independence + promised to cheer the days of an unexampled parent, my father + unexpectedly returned from America. The pride of his soul was deeply + wounded by the step which my mother had taken; he was offended even + beyond the bounds of reason. + + * * * * * + + "At the expiration of eight months, my mother, by my father's + positive commands, broke up her establishment, and returned to + London." + +Nearly opposite to the workhouse is the West Brompton Brewery, formerly +called "Holly Wood Brewery," and immediately beyond it an irregular row +of six houses, which stand a little way back from the road, with small +gardens before them. The first house is now divided into two, occupied, +when the sketch was made in 1844, by Miss Read's academy (Tavistock +House) and Mrs. Corder's Preparatory School; the latter (Bolton House) to +be distinguished by two ornamented stone-balls on the piers of the +gateway, was a celebrated military academy, at which many distinguished +soldiers have been educated. [Picture: Bolton House gateway] The academy +was established about the year 1770, by Mr. Lewis Lochee, who died on the +5th of April, 1787, and who, in 1778, published an 'Essay on +Castrametation.' "The premises," says Mr. Faulkner, "which were laid out +as a regular fortification, and were open to view, excited much attention +at the time." When balloons were novelties, and it was supposed might be +advantageously used in the operations of warfare, they attracted +considerable notice; and, on the 16th of October, 1784, Mr. Blanchard +ascended from the grounds of the Military Academy, near Chelsea. The +anxiety to witness this exhibition is thus described in a contemporary +account:-- + + "The fields for a considerable way round Little Chelsea were crowded + with horse and foot; in consequence of which a general devastation + took place in the gardens, the produce being either trampled down or + torn up. The turnip grounds were totally despoiled by the multitude. + All the windows and houses round the academy were filled with people + of the first fashion. Every roof within view was covered, and each + tree filled with spectators." + +Mr. Blanchard, upon this occasion, ascended with some difficulty, +accompanied by a Mr. Sheldon, a surgeon, whom he landed at Sunbury, from +whence Blanchard proceeded in his balloon to Romsey, in Hampshire, where +he came down in safety, after having been between three and four hours in +the air. + +After Mr. Lochee's death, his son, Mr. Lewis Lochee, continued the +establishment which his father had formed, but, unfortunately for +himself, engaged in the revolutionary movements which agitated Flanders +in 1790; where, "being taken prisoner by the Austrians, he was condemned +to be hanged. He, however, obtained permission to come to England to +settle his affairs, upon condition of leaving his only son as a hostage; +and, upon his return to the Continent, he suffered the punishment of +death." {120} + +"His son, a schoolfellow of mine," adds Mr. Faulkner, "afterwards married +a daughter of the late Mr. King, an eminent book auctioneer of King +Street, Covent Garden, and, lamentable to relate, fell by his own hands," +8th of December, 1815. + +The residence beyond Mr. Lochee's Military Academy is named WARWICK +HOUSE--why, unless, possibly, the name has some reference to Boyle's +brother-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, I am at a loss to determine. The +next house is Amyot House. Then comes MULBERRY HOUSE, formerly the +residence of Mr. Denham, a brother of the lamented African traveller, +Colonel Denham. The fifth house is called HECKFIELD LODGE, an arbitrary +name bestowed by its late occupant, Mr. Milton, the author of two clever +novels, 'Rivalry,' and 'Lady Cecilia Farrencourt,' recently published, +and brother to the popular authoress, Mrs. Trollope. And the sixth and +last house in the row, on the west side of which is Walnut-tree Walk, +leading to Earl's Court and Kensington, is distinguished by the name of +Burleigh House, which, some one humorously observed, {121} might possibly +be a contraction of "hurley burley," the house being a ladies' school, +and the unceasing work of education, on the main Fulham Road, appearing +here for the first time to terminate. [Picture: Burleigh House (1844)] +The following entry, however, in the parish register of Kensington, +respecting the birth of the fourth Earl of Exeter, on the 21st of May, +1674, may suggest a more probable derivation:--"15 May. Honble. John +Cecill, son and heir apparent of the Rt. Honble. John Lord Burleigh and +the Lady Anne his wife born at Mr. Sheffield's." + +William Boscawen, the amiable and accomplished translator of Horace, +resided at Burleigh House; and here he died, on the 6th of May, 1811, at +the age of fifty-nine. He had been called to the bar, but gave up that +profession in 1786, on being appointed a commissioner for victualling the +navy. An excellent classical scholar, and warmly attached to literary +pursuits, Mr. Boscawen published, in 1793, the first volume of a new +translation of Horace, containing the 'Odes,' 'Epodes,' and 'Carmen +Saeculare.' This, being well received, was followed up by Mr. Boscawen, +in 1798, by his translation of the 'Satires, Epistles, and Art of +Poetry,'--completing a work considered to be in many respects superior to +Francis's translation. As an early patron and zealous friend of the +Literary Fund, Mr. Boscawen's memory will be regarded with respect. +Within five days of his death, he wrote a copy of verses for the +anniversary meeting, which he contemplated attending:-- + + "Relieved from toils, behold the aged steed + Contented crop the rich enamell'd mead, + Bask in the solar ray, or court the shade, + As vernal suns invite, or summer heats invade! + But should the horn or clarion from afar + Call to the chase, or summon to the war, + Roused to new vigour by the well-known sound, + He spurns the earth, o'erleaps the opposing mound, + Feels youthful ardour in each swelling vein, + Darts through the rapid flood, and scours the plain! + + "Thus a lorn Muse, who, worn by cares and woes, + Long sought retirement's calm, secure repose, + With glad, though feeble, voice resumes her lay, + Waked by the call of this auspicious day." + +Alas! the hand which on May morning had penned this introduction to an +appeal in the cause of literary benevolence,--that hand was cold; and the +lips by which, on the following day, the words that had flowed warmly +from the heart were to have been uttered,--those lips were mute in death +within a week. + +On the 16th of April, 1765, Mr. James House Knight, of Walham Green, +returning home from London, was robbed and murdered on the highroad in +the vicinity of Little Chelsea; the record of his burial in the parish +register of Kensington is, "Shot in Fulham Road, near Brompton." For the +discovery of the murderers a reward of fifty pounds was offered; and, on +the 7th of July following, two Chelsea pensioners were committed to +prison, charged with this murder, on the testimony of their accomplice, +another Chelsea pensioner, whom they had threatened to kill upon some +quarrel taking place between them. The accused were tried, found guilty, +hanged, and gibbeted; one nearly opposite Walnut-tree Walk, close by the +two-mile stone, the other at Bull Lane, a passage about a quarter of a +mile farther on, which connects the main Fulham Road with the King's +Road, by the side of the Kensington Canal. In these positions, for some +years, the bodies of the murderers hung in chains, to the terror of +benighted travellers and of market-gardeners, who + + "Wended their way, + In morning's grey," + +towards Covent Garden, until a drunken frolic caused the removal of a +painful and useless exhibition. A very interesting paper upon London +life in the last century occurs in the second volume of Knight's +'London;' in which it is observed that "a gibbet's tassel" was one of the +first sights which met the eye of a stranger approaching London from the +sea. + + "About the middle of the last century, similar objects met the gaze + of the traveller by whatever route he entered the metropolis. '_All_ + the gibbets in the Edgware Road,' says an extract from the newspapers + of the day in the 'Annual Register' for 1763, 'on which _many_ + malefactors were being hung in chains, were cut down by persons + unknown.' The _all_ and the _many_ of this cool matter-of-fact + announcement conjure up the image of a long avenue planted with + 'gallows-trees,' instead of elms and poplars,--an assemblage of + pendent criminals, not exactly 'thick as leaves that strew the brook + in Valombrosa,' but frequent as those whose feet tickling Sancho's + nose, when he essayed to sleep in the cork forest, drove him from + tree to tree in search of an empty bough. + + "Frequent mention is made in the books, magazines, and newspapers of + that period, of the bodies of malefactors conveyed after execution to + Blackheath, Finchley, and Kennington Commons, or Hounslow Heath, for + the purpose of being there permanently suspended. In those days the + approach to London on all sides seems to have lain through serried + files of gibbets, growing closer and more thronged as the distance + from the city diminished, till they and their occupants arranged + themselves in rows of ghastly and grinning sentinels along both sides + of the principal avenues." + +This picture is not over-coloured; and it is to the following occurrence +in the main Fulham Road that the removal of these offensive exhibitions +is to be attributed. Two or three fashionable parsons, who had +sacrificed superabundantly to the jolly god at Fulham, returning to +London, where they desired to arrive quickly, had intellect enough to +discover that the driver of their post-chaise did not make his horses +proceed at a pace equal to their wishes, and, after in vain urging him to +more speed, one of them declared that, if he did not use his whip with +better effect, he should be made an example of for the public benefit, +and hanged up at the first gibbet. The correctness of the old saying, +that "when the head is hot the hand is ready," was soon verified by the +postboy being desired to stop at the gibbet opposite Walnut-tree Walk, +which order, unluckily for himself, he obeyed, instead of proceeding at a +quicker pace. Out sprung the inmates of his chaise; they seized him, +bound him hand and foot, and throwing a rope, which they had fastened +round his body, over the gibbet, he soon found himself, in spite of his +cries and entreaties, elevated in air beside the tarred remains of the +Chelsea pensioner. + +The reverend perpetrators of the deed drove off, leaving the luckless +postboy to protest, loudly and vainly, to "the dull, cold ear of death," +against the loathsome companionship. When the first market-gardener's +cart passed by, most lustily did he call for help; but every effort to +get free only tended to prolong his suspense. What could the carters and +other early travellers imagine upon hearing shouts proceeding from the +gibbet, but that the identical murderer of Mr. Knight had by some miracle +come to life, and now called out, "Stop! stop!" with the intention of +robbing and murdering them also? And they, feeling that supernatural +odds were against them, ran forwards or backwards, not daring to look +behind, as fast as their feet could carry alarmed and bewildered heads, +leaving the fate of their carts to the sagacity of the horses. Finding +that the louder he called for help the more alarm he excited, the +suspended postboy determined philosophically to endure the misery of his +situation in dignified silence. But there he was suffered to hang +unnoticed; or, if remarked, it was only concluded that another criminal +had been added to the gibbet, as its second tassel. The circumstance, +however, of a second body having been placed there speedily came to the +knowledge of a magistrate in the neighbourhood, who had taken an active +part in the apprehension of Mr. Knight's murderers; and he proceeded, +without delay, to the spot, that he might satisfy himself as to the +correctness of the report. Judge, however, his astonishment on hearing +himself addressed by name from the gibbet, and implored, in the most +piteous manner, to deliver from bondage a poor postboy, whose only +offence was that he would not goad on two overworked horses to humour a +pair of drunken gentlemen. These "drunken gentlemen" are said to have +been men of rank and influence: their names have never transpired, but +the outrage with which they were charged led to the immediate removal +from the Fulham Road of the last pair of gibbets which disgraced it. + +Upon the ground which was occupied by the gibbet where the kind-hearted +postboy was strung up, a solitary cottage stood some years ago; and +tradition asserted, that both the murderer and his gibbet were buried +beneath it. [Picture: Solitary cottage] This cottage is now pulled down; +Lansdowne Villas and Hollywood Place have been erected on the spot, and +villas and groves continue to the 'Gunter Arms,' a public-house that +takes its name from Richard Gunter, the well-known confectioner, by the +side of which is Gunter Grove. This is now the starting-point of the +Brompton omnibuses, which formerly did not go beyond Queen's Elm. Edith +Grove, a turning between Lansdowne Villas and Gunter Grove, is in a +direct line with Cremorne Gardens. + +Proceeding on our road towards Fulham, the next point which claims +attention is the extensive inclosure of the West of London and +Westminster Cemetery Company,--a company incorporated by act of +parliament 1st of Victoria, cap. 180. The burial-ground was consecrated +on the 12th of June, 1840, and extends from the Fulham Road to what is +called, generally, "Sir John Scott Lillie's Road," and sometimes +"Brompton Lane Road," which, in fact, is a continuation, to North End, +Fulham, of the line of the Old Brompton Road,--the point, as the reader +may recollect, that we turned off from at the Bell and Horns, in order to +follow the main Fulham Road to Little Chelsea. The public way on the +east of the burial-ground is called Honey Lane, and on the west the +boundary is the pathway by the side of the Kensington Canal. The +architect of the chapel and catacombs is Mr. Benjamin Baud. The cemetery +is open for public inspection, free of charge, from seven in the morning +till sunset, except on Sundays, when it is closed till half-past one +o'clock. The first interment took place on the 18th of June, 1840, from +which time, to the 22nd of November, there were thirty-four burials, the +average number being then four per week. It is scarcely necessary to +add, that a considerable average increase has taken place; but the first +step in statistics is always curious. + +One of the most interesting instances of longevity which the annals of +the West of London and Westminster Cemetery Company present occurs on a +stone in the north-east corner of the burial-ground, where the age +recorded of Louis Pouchee is 108; but this does not agree with the burial +entry made by the Rev. Stephen Reid Cattley--"Louis Pouchee, of St. +Martin's in the Fields, viz., 40 Castle Street, Leicester Square, buried +Feb. 21, 1843, aged 107." + +This musical patriarch, however, according to a statement in the 'Medical +Times,' {128} was admitted as a patient to St. George's Hospital November +24, 1842. January 4, went out, and died, about three months afterwards, +of diarrhoea and dysentery. + +Another instance of longevity, though not so extraordinary, is one which +cannot be contemplated without feeling how much influence the +consciousness of honest industry in the human mind has upon the health +and happiness of the body. A gravestone near a public path on the +south-east side of the burial-ground marks the last resting place of +Francis Nicholson, landscape-painter, who died the 6th March, 1844, aged +91 years. + +Mr. Nicholson originally practised as a portrait-painter, but the +simplicity and uprightness of his heart did not permit him to tolerate or +pander to the vanities of man (and woman) kind. To flatter was with him +an utter impossibility; and, as he could not invariably consider the +"human face divine," he was incapable of assuming the courtly manners so +essential in that branch of the profession. He never, indeed, quite +forgave himself for an approach to duplicity committed at this time upon +an unfortunate gentleman, who sat to him for his portrait, and who +squinted so desperately, that in order to gain a likeness it was +necessary to copy moderately the defect. The poor man, it seemed, +perfectly unconscious of the same, on being invited to inspect the +performance, looked in silence upon it a few moments, and, with rather a +disappointed air, said-- + +"I don't know--it seems to me--does it squint?" + +"Squint!" replied Nicholson, "no more than you do." + +"Really! well, you know best of course; but I declare I fancied there was +a _queer look_ about it!" + +The opening of the Water-Colour Exhibition, in 1805, may be dated as the +commencement of Mr. Nicholson's fame and success in London. In +conjunction with Glover, Varley, Prout, and others, an advance in the art +of watercolour painting was made, such as to astonish and call forth the +admiration of the public. + +In a manuscript autobiography which Mr. Nicholson left behind him, and +which is full of curious anecdotes, he gives the following account of the +formation of that exhibition. + + "Messrs. Hills and Pyne asked me to join in the attempt to establish + such a society, which I readily agreed to. It was a long time before + a number of members sufficient to produce so many works as would be + required to cover the walls of the exhibition room in Brook Street + could be brought to join it. Artists were afraid they might suffer + loss by renting and fitting up the room, the expense being certain + and the success very doubtful. After a great while the society was + formed, and, in the first and second exhibition, the sale of drawings + was so considerable, and the visitors so numerous, that crowds of + those who had refused to join were eager to be admitted into the + society." + +[Picture: Nicholson's Grave] Since the annexed sketch of Mr. Nicholson's +grave was taken, the stone bears the two additional melancholy +inscriptions of Thomas Crofton Croker, son-in-law of Francis Nicholson, +who died 8th August, 1854, and Marianne, widow of Thomas Crofton Croker, +who died 6th October, 1854; and an iron railing has been erected on +either side of the grave. + +[Picture: St. Mark's Chapel] Opposite to the Cemetery gates is Veitch's +Royal Exotic Nursery. + +St. Mark's Chapel, within the grounds of the college, stands opposite to +St. Mark's Terrace, a row of modern houses immediately beyond the +cemetery. The grounds extend to the King's Road, and contain about +eleven acres, surrounded by a brick wall; and the entrance to the +National Society's training college is from that road. Stanley House, or +Stanley Grove House, which was purchased in 1840 for upwards of 9000 +pounds by the society, stood upon the site of a house which Sir Arthur +Gorges, the friend of Spenser, allegorically named by him Alcyon, {131} +built for his own residence; and upon the death of whose first wife, a +daughter of Viscount Bindon, in 1590, the poet wrote a beautiful elegy, +entitled 'Daphnaida.' In the Sydney papers mention is made, under date +15th November, 1599, that, "as the queen passed by the faire new +building, Sir Arthur Gorges presented her with a faire jewell." He died +in 1625; and by his widow, the daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, the house +and adjacent land, then called the "Brickhills," was sold, in 1637, to +their only daughter, Elizabeth, the widow of Sir Robert Stanley; which +sale was confirmed by her mother's will, dated 18th July, 1643. The +Stanley family continued to reside here until 1691, when by the death of +William Stanley, Esq., that branch of this family became extinct in the +male line. + +The present house, a square mansion, was built soon afterwards; and the +old wall, propped by several buttresses, inclosing the west side of the +grounds, existed on the bank of the Kensington Canal until it was washed +down by a very high tide. This new or square mansion remained unfinished +and unoccupied for several years. In 1724 it belonged to Henry Arundel, +Esq. and on the 24th May, 1743, Admiral Sir Charles Wager, a +distinguished naval officer, died here, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey. After passing through several hands, Stanley Grove became the +property of Miss Southwell, afterwards the wife of Sir James Eyre, Lord +Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who sold it in 1777 to the Countess of +Strathmore. + +Here her ladyship indulged her love for botany by building extensive +hot-houses and conservatories, and collecting and introducing into +England rare exotics. + + "She had purchased," says her biographer, "a fine old mansion, with + extensive grounds well walled in, and there she had brought exotics + from the Cape, and was in a way of raising continually an increase to + her collection, when, by her fatal marriage, the cruel spoiler came + and threw them, like loathsome weeds, away." + +Mr. Lochee, before mentioned, purchased Stanley Grove from the Countess +of Strathmore and her husband, Mr. Bowes. It was afterwards occupied by +Dr. Richard Warren, the eminent physician, who died in 1797, and who is +said to have acquired by the honourable practice of his profession no +less a sum than 150,000 pounds. In January 1808, Mr. Leonard Morse, of +the War Office, died at his residence, Stanley House, and about 1815 it +was purchased by the late Mr. William Richard Hamilton, who ranks as one +of the first scholars and antiquaries of his day. Between that year and +1840 Mr. Hamilton resided here at various periods, having occasionally +let it. He made a considerable addition to the house by building a +spacious room as a wing on the east side, in the walls of which casts +from the frieze and metopes of the Elgin marbles were let in. + +When Mr. Hamilton proceeded as envoy to the court of Naples in 1821, +Stanley Grove House became the residence of Mrs. Gregor, and is thus +described by Miss Burney, who was an inmate at this time, in the +following playful letter {133} to a friend, dated 24th September, 1821:-- + + "Whilst you have been traversing sea and land, scrambling up rocks + and shuddering beside precipices, I have been stationary, with no + other variety than such as turning to the right instead of the left + when walking in the garden, or sometimes driving into town through + Westminster, and, at other times, through Piccadilly. Poor Miss + Gregor continues to be a complete invalid, and, for her sake, we give + up all society at home and all engagements abroad. Luckily, the + house, rented by Mrs. Gregor from William Hamilton, Esq. (who + accompanied Lord Elgin into Greece) abounds with interesting + specimens in almost every branch of the fine arts. Here are statues, + casts from the frieze of the Parthenon, pictures, prints, books, and + minerals; _four_ pianofortes of different sizes, and an excellent + harp. All this to study does Desdemona (that's me) seriously + incline; and the more I study the more I want to know and to see. In + short, I am crazy to travel in Greece! The danger is that some + good-for-nothing bashaw should seize upon me to poke me into his + harem, there to bury my charms for life, and condemn me for ever to + blush unseen. However, I could easily strangle or stab him, set fire + to his castle, and run away by the light of it, accompanied by some + handsome pirate, with whom I might henceforward live at my ease in a + cavern on the sea-shore, dressing his dinners one moment, and my own + sweet person the next in pearls and rubies, stolen by him, during + some of his plundering expeditions, from the fair throat and arms of + a shrieking Circassian beauty, whose lord he had knocked on the head. + Till these genteel adventures of mine begin, I beg you to believe me, + dear Miss ---, + + "Yours most truly, + "S. H. BURNEY." + +Theodore Hook notes, in one of his manuscript journals, "5th July, 1826. +W. Hamilton's party. Stanley Grove." + +About 1828, Stanley Grove was occupied by the Marquess of Queensberry; +and, in 1830-31, by Colonel Grant, at the rent, it was said, of 1000 +pounds per annum. + +On the west side of the house the National Society added a quadrangle, +built in the Italian style after the design of Mr. Blore; and, in the +grounds near the chapel, an octagonal building as a Practising School, +for teaching the poor children of the neighbourhood. + + [Picture: Practising School] + +Crossing the Kensington Canal over Sandford Bridge, [Picture: Sandford +Bridge] sometimes written "Stanford" and "Stamford," we enter the parish +of Fulham. The road turning off on the west side of the canal is called +"Bull Lane;" and a little further on a footway existed not long since, +known as Bull Alley; both of which passages led into the King's Road, and +took their names from the Bull public-house, which stood between them in +that road. [Picture: Bull Alley] Bull Alley is now converted into a +good-sized street, called Stamford Road, which has a public-house (the +Rising Sun) on one side, and a bookseller's shop on the other. Here, for +a few years, was a turnpike, which has been recently removed and placed +lower down the road, adjoining the Swan Tavern and Brewery, Walham Green, +established 1765. [Picture: No. 4, No. 3 Stamford Villas] Houses are +being built in all directions opposite several "single and married +houses," with small gardens in front and the rear, known as STAMFORD +VILLAS, where, at No. 2, resided, in 1836 and 1837, Mr. H. K. Browne, +better known, perhaps, by his _sobriquet_ of "Phiz," as an illustrator of +popular periodical works. + +No. 3 and No. 4 are shown in the annexed cut, and No. 3 may be noticed as +having been the residence of Mr. Kempe, the author of 'A History of St. +Martin-le-Grand,' the editor of the 'Losely Papers,' and a constant +contributor, under the signature of A. J. K., to the antiquarian lore of +the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' Mr. Kempe died here on 21st August, 1846. +The three last houses of the Stamford Villas are not "wedded to each +other," and in the garden of the one nearest London, Mr. Hampton, who +made an ascent in a balloon from Cremorne, on the 13th June, 1839, with +every reasonable prospect of breaking his neck for the amusement of the +public, came down by a parachute descent, without injury to himself, +although he carried away a brick or two from the chimney of the house, +much to the annoyance of the person in charge, who rushed out upon the +aeronaut, and told him that he had no business to come in contact with +the chimney. His reply exhibited an extraordinary coolness, for he +assured the man it was quite unintentional upon his part. + +The milestone is opposite the entrance to No. 20 Stamford Villas, which +informs the pedestrian that it is one mile to Fulham; and passing Salem +Chapel, which is on the right hand side of the main road, we reach the +village of Walham Green. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +WALHAM GREEN TO FULHAM. + +The village of Walham Green, which is distant from Hyde Park Corner +between two and a half and three miles, appears to have been first so +called soon after the revolution of 1688. Before this, it was known as +Wansdon Green, written also Wandon and Wandham; all of which names, +according to Lysons, originated from the manor of Wendon, so was the +local name written in 1449, which in 1565 was spelled Wandowne. As the +name of a low and marshy piece of land on the opposite side of the Thames +to Wandsworth, through which _wandered_ the drainage from the higher +grounds, or through which the traveller had to _Wendon_ (pendan) his way +to Fulham; it would not be difficult to enter into speculations as to the +Anglo-Saxon origin of the word, but I refrain from placing before the +reader my antiquarian ruminations while passing Wansdown House, for few +things are more fascinating and deceptive than verbal associations. +Indeed, if indulged in to any extent, they might lead an enthusiast to +connect in thought the piers of Fulham (bridge) with the _Piers_ of +Fulham, who, in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, "compyled many praty +conceytis in love under covert terms of ffyssyng and ffowlyng;" and which +curious poem may be found printed in a collection of _Ancient Metrical +Tales_, edited by the Rev. Charles Henry Hartshorne. {138} + +Two of "some ancient houses, erected in 1595, as appeared by a date on +the truss in the front of one of them," were pulled down at Walham Green +in 1812; after which the important proceedings in the progress of this +village in suburban advancement consisted in the establishment of +numerous public-houses; the filling up of a filthy pond, upon the ground +gained by which act a chapel-of-ease to Fulham, dedicated to St. John, +has been built, after the design of Mr. Taylor, at the estimated expense +of 9683 pounds 17s. 9d. The first stone was laid on the 1st of January, +1827; and it was consecrated by the Bishop of London on the 14th of +August, 1828. This was followed by the building of a charity-school upon +an angular patch of green, or common land, where donkeys had been wont to +graze, and the village children to play at cricket. Then the parish +pound was removed from a corner of the high road, near a basket-maker's, +to a back lane, thereby destroying the travelling joke of "Did you ever +see the baskets sold by the pound?" And, finally, Walham Green has +assumed a new aspect, from the construction of the Butchers' Almshouses, +the first stone of which was laid by the late Lord Ravensworth, on the +1st of July, 1840. Since that time, fancy-fairs and bazaars, with +horticultural exhibitions, have been fashionably patronised at Walham +Green by omnibus companies, for the support and enlargement of this +institution. + + "Hail, happy isle! and happier Walham Green! + Where all that's fair and beautiful are seen! + Where wanton zephyrs court the ambient air, + And sweets ambrosial banish every care; + Where thought nor trouble social joy molest, + Nor vain solicitude can banish rest. + Peaceful and happy here I reign serene, + Perplexity defy, and smile at spleen; + Belles, beaux, and statesmen, all around me shine; + All own me their supreme, me constitute divine; + All wait my pleasure, own my awful nod, + And change the humble gardener to the god." + +Thus, in the 'London Magazine' for June 1749, did Mr. Bartholomew Rocque +prophetically apostrophise Walham Green,--the "belles, beaux, and +statesmen," by which he was surrounded being new varieties of flowers, +dignified by distinguished names. In 1755, he printed a 'Treatise on the +Cultivation of the Hyacinth, translated from the Dutch;' and in 1761 an +'Essay on Lucerne Grass,', of which an enlarged edition was published in +1764. Mr. Rocque {139} resided in the house occupied by the late Mr. +King, opposite to the Red Lion, where Mr. Oliver Pitts now carries on +business as builder and carpenter. + +Immediately after leaving Walham Green, on the south, or left-hand side, +of the main Fulham road, behind a pair of carriage gates, connected by a +brick wall, stands the mansion of Lord Ravensworth; in outward appearance +small and unostentatious, without the slightest attempt at architectural +decoration, but sufficiently spacious and attractive to have received the +highest honour that can be conferred on the residence of a subject, by +her Majesty and Prince Albert having visited the late lord here on the +26th of June, 1840. The grounds at the back of the house, though not +extensive, were planted with peculiar skill, care, and taste, by the late +Mr. Ord; and on that occasion recalled to memory the words of our old +poet, the author of 'Britannia's Pastorals,' William Browne:-- + + "There stood the elme, whose shade so mildely dym + Doth nourish all that groweth under him: + Cipresse that like piramides runne topping, + And hurt the least of any by the dropping; + The alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth + Each plant set neere to him long flourisheth; + The heavie-headed plane-tree, by whose shade + The grasse grows thickest, men are fresher made; + The oak that best endures the thunder-shocks, + The everlasting, ebene, cedar, boxe. + The olive, that in wainscot never cleaves, + The amourous vine which in the elme still weaves; + The lotus, juniper, where wormes ne'er enter; + The pyne, with whom men through the ocean venture; + The warlike yewgh, by which (more than the lance) + The strong-arm'd English spirits conquer'd France; + Amongst the rest, the tamarisks there stood, + For housewives' besomes only knowne most good; + The cold-place-loving birch, and servis-tree; + The Walnut-loving vales and mulberry; + The maple, ashe, that doe delight in fountains, + Which have their currents by the side of mountains; + The laurell, mirtle, ivy, date, which hold + Their leaves all winter, be it ne'er so cold; + The firre, that oftentimes doth rosin drop; + The beech, that scales the welkin with his top: + _All these and thousand more within this grove_, + _By all the industry of nature strove_ + _To frame an arbour that might keepe within it_ + _The best of beauties that the world hath in it_." + +Since the royal visit, Lord Ravensworth's residence has been called +_Percy Cross_, but no reason has been assigned for the alteration of name +from Purser's Cross, which is mentioned as a point "on the Fulham road +between Parson's Green and Walham Green," so far back as 1602, and at +which we shall presently arrive. [Picture: View of Percy Cross] No +connection whatever that I am aware of exists between the locality and +the Percy family, and it only affords another, very recent local example +of what has been as happily as quaintly termed "the curiosity of change." +The most favourable aspect of the house is, perhaps, the view gained of +it from a neighbouring garden across a piece of water called Eel Brook, +which ornaments an adjacent meadow. + +John Ord, Esq., the creator of Lord Ravensworth's London residence, is +better known as "Master Ord." He was the only son of Robert Ord, Chief +Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland. In 1746 Mr. Ord entered +Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1762, vacated a lay fellowship by +marriage with Eleanor, the second daughter of John Simpson, Esq., of +Bradley, in the county of Durham. After being called to the bar, Mr. Ord +practised in the Court of Chancery; and, in 1774, was returned to +parliament as member for Midhurst. In 1778 he was appointed Master of +Chancery; and the next session, when returned member for Hastings, was +chosen chairman of "Ways and Means," in which situation his conduct gave +much satisfaction. Mr. Ord retired from parliament in 1790, and in 1809 +resigned his office of Master in Chancery, and that of Attorney-General +for Lancaster the following year, when "he retired to a small place at +Purser's Cross, in the parish of Fulham, where he had early in life +amused himself in horticultural pursuits, and where there are several +foreign trees of his own raising remarkable both for their beauty and +size." + +Lysons, in 1795, says-- + + "While I am speaking upon this subject" (the trees planted by Bishop + Compton in the gardens of Fulham Palace), "it would he unpardonable + to omit the mention of a very curious garden near Walham Green in + this parish, planted, since the year 1756, by its present proprietor, + John Ord, Esq., Master in Chancery. It is not a little extraordinary + that this garden should, within the space of forty years (such have + been the effects of good management and a fertile soil), have + produced trees which are now the finest of their respective kinds in + the kingdom. As a proof of this may be mentioned the _sophora + Japonica_, planted anno 1756, then about two feet high, now eight + feet in girth, and about forty in height; a standard _Ginko_ tree, + planted about the year 1767, two feet three inches in girth; and an + Illinois walnut, two feet two inches in girth, growing where it was + sown about the year 1760. Among other trees, very remarkable also + for their growth, though not to be spoken of as the largest of their + kind, are a black walnut-tree (sown anno 1757), about forty feet + high, and five feet four inches in girth; a cedar of Libanus (planted + in 1756), eight feet eight inches in girth; a willow-leaved oak (sown + anno 1757), four feet in girth; the Rhus Vernix, or varnish sumach, + four feet in girth; and a stone pine of very singular growth. Its + girth at one foot from the ground is six feet four inches; at that + height it immediately begins to branch out, and spreads, at least, + twenty-one feet on each side, forming a large bush of about fourteen + yards in diameter." + +The second edition of Lysons' 'Environs of London' appeared in 1810, when +the measurement of these trees, in June 1808 and December 1809, was +placed in apposition. Faulkner's 'History of Fulham,' published in 1813, +carries on the history of their growth for three years more; but as, from +the marginal pencil note signed J. M., and dated January 1835 in Lysons', +I am led to conclude that some of these interesting trees exist no +longer, the following tabular view compiled from these sources may not be +unacceptable to the naturalist, who is well aware that + + "Not small the praise the skilful planter claims, + From his befriended country." + +About the time of Mr. Ord's death, 6th June, 1814, his garden contained +much that is remarkable in horticulture:-- + + "There was," we are told, "a good collection of American plants; + amongst others, a fine _Andromeda Arborea_, planted about eight + inches high in March 1804; and now (1812) eleven feet eight inches + high. + + "The _Glastonbury Thorn_ flowered here on Christmas day, 1793. + + "In the kitchen garden is (1812) a moss-rose, which has been much + admired. Many years ago Mr. Ord ordered his gardener to lay a + moss-rose, which, when done, he thought looked so well, he would not + allow the layers to be taken off, but laid them down year after year, + till it covered the ground it does at present, viz. a diameter of + forty-seven feet; want of room has confined it to its present size + for several years." + + Girth at 3 feet Girth in June Girth in Girth in 1812 Girth in Jan + from the ground 1808 December 1809 (Faulkner) 1835 J.M. + in 1793 + + f. i. f. i. f. i. f. i. f. i. + +_Sophora +japonica_, +{144a} in 1809, 8 0 9 4 9 7.5 10 1 0 0 +about 50 feet +in height; it +flowered for +the first time +in August 1807, +and has +continued to +flower the two +succeeding +years. + +_Ginko-tree_ +(_Ginko +biloba_, 2 3 3 6 3 9 3 10 0 0 +standard) about +37 feet high. + +A tree from an +Illinois-nut, +given by Mr. 2 2 2 10 2 11 3 0 0 0 +Aiton to Mr. +Ord, about 40 +feet high. +{144b} + +A black +walnut-tree, +(_juglans 5 4 6 11 {144c} 7 3 10 0 +niger_), sown +where it stands +in 1757, about +64 feet high in +1809. + +A cedar of +Lebanon, when +planted being 8 8 9 11 {144d} 9 9 10 0 +two years old, +in 1809 being +about 55 feet +high. + +A willow-leaved +oak, sown in +1757. 4 0 5 5 {144e} 5 7 5 10 + +The _rhus +vernix_, or +varnish sumach. 4 0 4 10 4 10 5 1 + +_Fraxinus +ornus_, which +is covered with 3 10 +flowers every +year. + +_Gleditsia +triacanthus_, +sown in 1759, 4 8 +produced pods 2 +feet long in +1780, but the +seeds +imperfect. + +_Acacia +common_, sown +in 1757, 7 7 +planted where +it stands in +1758. + +_Ilex_ 6 9 + +_Tulip-tree_, +sown where it +stands in 1758, 5 6 +first flowered +in 1782. + +_Cyprus 5 6 +deciduus_, sown +in 1760 + +_Corylus +colurna_ +(Constantinople 3 2 +hazel), between +30 and 40 feet +high, bears +fruit, but +imperfect. + +_Virginian +cedar_, (red) +sown in 1758 4 0 + +_Guilandina 2 1 +dioica_, or +_bonduc_ + +_Juglans alba_, +or white +hickory. 3 1 + +_Lombardy_, or +_Po poplar_, a +cutting in 1766 10 0 +near 100 feet +high. + +_Poplar_, 8 6 +planted in 1772 + + Another column headed 1845, carrying out this view, would be an + important addition to statistical observation. + +Two agaves, or American aloes, flowered in Mr. Ord's greenhouse in the +summer of 1812, one of which was a beautiful striped variety. The plants +had been there since the year 1756. Amid all these delightful +associations, there is one melancholy event connected with the place. On +the night of the 9th September, 1807, a fire broke out in the +garden-house of Mr. Ord's residence (a cottage upon the site of the +present stables): the flame raged so furiously as to burn the principal +gardener, an old and valued servant, almost to ashes before any help +could be afforded to him. Upon the following Sunday (13th), the Rev. +John Owen, the then curate of Fulham, preached so effective a sermon upon +the uncertainty of the morrow, {145} that having printed a large +impression "without any loss to himself," a second edition appeared on +the 3rd of the following month. + +In the second volume of the 'Transactions of the Horticultural Society,' +a beautifully-coloured representation of 'Ord's apple' may be found, +illustrative of Mr. Salisbury's communication respecting it, which was +read to the Society on the 17th of January, 1817. After acknowledging +his obligations to Mrs. Anne Simpson, the sister of Mrs. Ord, and who Mr. +Salisbury represents as "being as fond of gardening as her late +brother-in-law, Mr. Ord," it is stated that,-- + + "About forty years ago, the late John Ord, Esq. raised, in his garden + at _Purser's Cross_, near Fulham, an apple-tree from the seed of the + New-town pippin, imported from North America. When this tree began + to bear, its fruit, though without any external beauty, proved + remarkably good, and had a peculiar quality, namely, a melting + softness in eating, so that it might be said almost to dissolve in + the mouth. The late Mr. Lee, of Hammersmith, often had grafts of + this tree, and he sold the plant so raised first with the name of + Ord's apple, and subsequently with the name of New-town pippin. . . . + . + + "This seedling tree," continues Mr. Salisbury, "is now (1817) of + large dimensions, its trunk being four feet four inches round at a + yard above the ground; but it has of late years been very unhealthy, + and scarcely borne any fruit worth gathering, its roots having, no + doubt, penetrated into a stratum of unfavourable soil." + +Mrs. Anne Simpson sowed some pippins from this remarkable tree,-- + + "And two of the healthiest seedlings of this second generation were + planted out to remain in the kitchen-garden, which are now (1817) + about twenty years old. One of these trees began to bear fruit very + soon, which is not unlike that of its parent in shape, with a thin + skin; and, being a very good apple, grafts of it have been + distributed about the metropolis with the name of _Simpson's pippin_. + The other seedling of the second generation was several years longer + in bearing fruit; and, when it did, the apples were quite of a + different shape, being long, with a thick skin and poor flavour, and + so numerous as to be all very small. Of late years, however, they + have gradually improved so much in flavour, as to become a remarkably + spirited, juicy apple, attaining a good size, which has probably been + promoted by thinning them, though a full crop has always been left + upon the tree; and they are now greatly esteemed by all who taste + them." + +This apple is in perfection for eating from Christmas to the middle of +March. The skin is thick, and always of a green colour while on the +tree, but tinged with copper-coloured red, and several darker spots on +the sunny side; after the fruit has been gathered some time, the green +colour changes to a yellowish cast. It may be mentioned that, before the +death of the late Lord Ravensworth, the house was inhabited by those +celebrated artistes, Madame Grisi and Signor Mario. + +On the opposite side of the road to Lord Ravensworth's, and a few yards +beyond it, on the way to Fulham, is Walham Lodge, formerly Park Cottage, +a modern well-built house, which stands within extensive grounds, +surrounded by a brick wall. This was for some years the residence of Mr. +Brand, the eminent chemist, who particularly distinguished himself by the +course of lectures which he delivered on geology, at the Royal +Institution, in 1816; and which may be dated as the popular starting +point of that branch of scientific inquiry in this country. + +A house, now divided into two, and called Dungannon House and Albany +Lodge, abuts upon the western boundary wall of the grounds of Walham +Lodge. [Picture: Dungannon House--Albany Lodge] Tradition stoutly +asserts that this united cottage and villa were, previous to their +division, known by the name of _Bolingbroke Lodge_, and that here Pope +did, more than once, + + "Awake my St. John," + +by an early morning visit. + +At Albany Lodge, the farthest part of the old house in our view (then +Heckfield Villa), resided Mr. Milton, before-mentioned as having lived at +Heckfield Lodge, Little Chelsea; both of which names were introduced on +the Fulham Road, from that gentleman's attachment to the name of his +reverend father's living, near Basingstoke. + +Dungannon House formerly went by the name of Acacia Cottage, and was so +called from a tree in the garden. It was for many years the country +residence of Mr. Joseph Johnson, of St. Paul's Churchyard, a publisher +worthy of literary regard; and here he died on the 20th of December, +1809. He was born at Liverpool, in 1738; and, after serving an +apprenticeship in London, commenced business as a medical bookseller, +upon Fish Street Hill; "a situation he chose as being in the track of the +medical students resorting to the hospitals in the Borough, and which +probably was the foundation of his connexions with many eminent members +of that profession." + +Having entered into partnership, he removed to Paternoster Row, where his +house and stock were destroyed by fire, in 1770: after which, feeling the +advantage of a peculiar locality, he carried on business alone, until the +time of his death, at the house which all juvenile readers who recollect +the caterers for their amusement and instruction will remember as that of +"Harris and Co., corner of St. Paul's Churchyard." This step was +considered at the time, by "the trade," as a bold and inconsiderate +measure; but it was successfully imitated by the late Mr. Murray, in his +removal from Fleet Street to Albemarle Street; and, indeed, John Murray, +as a publisher, seems only to have been a fearless copyist, in many +matters, of Joseph Johnson. Whether, as a tradesman, he was judicious or +not in so doing, is a question upon which there may be two opinions; but +there can be no hesitation about the perfect application of Dr. Aikin's +words to both parties:-- + + "The character Mr. Johnson established by his integrity, good sense, + and honourable principles of dealing, soon raised him to eminence as + a publisher; and many of the most distinguished names in science and + literature during the last half century appear in works which he + ushered to the world." + +The imprint of Johnson is to be found upon the title-pages which first +introduced Cowper and Darwin to notice:-- + + "The former of these, with the diffidence, and perhaps the + despondency, of his character, had actually, by means of a friend, + made over to him (Johnson) his two volumes of poems, on no other + condition than that of securing him from expense; but when the + public, which neglected the first volume, had discovered the rich + mine opened in the _Task_, and assigned the author his merited place + among the first-rate English poets, Mr. Johnson would not avail + himself of his advantage, but displayed a liberality which has been + warmly acknowledged by that admirable, though unfortunate, person." + +A score of equally generous anecdotes might be told of Murray. In one +particular, however, there was, as publishers, a decided difference +between the views of Johnson and Murray. Those of Johnson are at present +in the ascendancy; but they may produce a revolution in favour of the +opinion of John Murray against cheap literature. Johnson was the +opponent of typographical luxury. Murray, on the contrary, supported the +aristocracy of the press, until obliged, "by the pressure from without," +in some degree to compromise his views by the publication of the 'Family +Library.' + +In the wing (comparatively speaking a modern addition) attached to this +house, and in the room where Mr. Johnson died, is a remarkable +chimney-piece, of a monumental character; but I can learn nothing +respecting it. + +The history of Dungannon House when Acacia Cottage, could we procure a +correct record of all the ideas which [Picture: Chimney-piece] have +passed through the human mind within its walls, respecting literature and +art, would form a chronicle of singular interest. The late Mr. +Hullmandel, well known as one of the most experienced and successful +practitioners of lithography in England, resided here in 1839 and 1840, +when he discovered a new process in his favourite art, by simple mental +reasoning, upon the application of the process of copperplate aquatint to +lithographic purposes. For this discovery--and it is one of considerable +importance--he subsequently took out a patent, under the name of +lithotint. Ever since the infancy of lithography, hundreds of persons +connected with the art, beginning with its inventor himself, Senefelder, +had endeavoured to produce impressions from stone of subjects executed +with the brush, in the same manner as drawings are made with sepia, or +Indian ink. And it was natural enough that artists should have made +every effort to supersede the tedious and elaborate process by which +alone a liquid could be rendered available for the purpose of drawing on +stone. The mode of drawing technically called "the ink style," consists +merely of a series of lines, some finer, some thicker, executed on the +white surface of the stone, with ink dissolved in water, by means of a +fine sable or a steel pen, in imitation of an etching on copper. All +attempts, however, at producing variety of tints, by using the ink +thicker or thinner, failed,--the fainter lines either disappearing +altogether, or printing as dark as thick ones. In every attempt made to +use this ink as a wash, the result was still more disastrous, producing +only one dirty mass of indistinctness, amid which the original drawing +was scarcely to be traced. For twenty years did Mr. Hullmandel labour to +attain some mode of printing drawings, made by a series of washes, with a +brush, on stone, feeling this to be the great desideratum in the art. +Lithographers in Germany, in France, and in this country, had pronounced +it to be "utterly impossible;" when the idea suddenly flashed upon him, +that, if he could effect a minute granulation of the ink, by treating it +as a copperplate engraver would the ground of an aquatint plate, the +relative strength of the different washes might be preserved. He +hastened from Acacia Cottage to his printing-office in London, to put his +theory into practice, and was rewarded by the most satisfactory results. + +Since that period, several prints, by this process of lithotint, were +produced by Mr. Hullmandel, from drawings made by Harding, Nash, Haghe, +Walton, and other clever artists, in which all the raciness, the +smartness, and the beauty of touch, are apparent, which hitherto could +only be found in the original drawing. [Picture: Arundel House--front] +[Picture: Arundel House--back] In fact, lithotint was not a translation, +but a multiplication of the original; and its discovery, or, rather, the +proper application of knowledge, became an eventful era in the history of +the fine arts. + +Arundel House, a few yards beyond Dungannon House, stands on the same +side of the road, opposite to Parson's Green Lane, which leads to the +King's Road. It is a house of considerable antiquity, judging from the +stone mullions brought to light by some repairs,--probably as old as the +time of Henry VIII.; although the brick front, as shown above, appears to +be the work of the latter part of the seventeenth century. + +The back of Arundel House is quite different in character, and retains an +old porch leading into the garden. At the farther end of the garden a +venerable yew-tree arbour exists; and not [Picture: Arundel House porch +and Yew Tree Arbour] far from it used to stand a picturesque old pump, +with the date 1758 close to the spout; which pump is now removed, and a +new one put in its place. Upon a leaden cistern at the back of Arundel +House, the following monogram occurs beneath an earl's coronet, with the +date 1703:--[Picture: Old Pump and monogram] Notwithstanding that this is +obviously compounded of the letters L. I. C., or C. I. L., and at the +first glance with the connexion of an earl's coronet and a date would +appear to present no difficulty respecting the correct appropriation, I +must confess my inability to state to whom the monogram belonged. For +the name of Arundel I am equally unable to account. No mention whatever +is made of this house by Mr. Faulkner; nor does the name of Arundel occur +in the parish records of Fulham, although in 1724, as before mentioned, +Stanley Grove House appears to have been in the possession of Henry +Arundel. In the midst of this obscurity, the residence of the late Mr. +Hallam, the historian, who occupied Arundel House in 1819, invests it +with a literary association of interest. + +On the opposite side of the road is the carriage entrance to Park House, +which stands in Parson's Green Lane. A stone tablet has been let into +one of the piers of the gateway, inscribed + + PURSER'S CROSS, + 7TH AUGUST, + 1738. + +This date has reference to an occurrence which the monthly chronologer in +the 'London Magazine' thus relates:-- + + "An highwayman having committed several robberies on Finchley Common, + was pursued to London, when he thought himself safe, but was, in a + little time, discovered at a public-house in Burlington Gardens, + refreshing himself and his horse; however, he had time to remount, + and rode through Hyde Park, in which there were several gentlemen's + servants airing their horses, who, taking the alarm, pursued him + closely as far as Fulham Fields, where, finding no probability of + escaping, he threw money among some country people who were at work + in the field, and told them they would soon see the end of an + unfortunate man. He had no sooner spoke these words but he pulled + out a pistol, clapped it to his ear, and shot himself directly, + before his pursuers could prevent him. The coroner's inquest brought + in their verdict, and he was buried in a cross road, with a stake + drove through him; but 'twas not known who he was." {155a} + +In the 'Beauties of England and Wales,' "Purser's Cross" is said to have +been corrupted from "Parson's Cross," and the vicinity of Parson's Green +is mentioned in support of the conjecture. However, that Purser, and not +Percy Cross, has been for many years the usual mode of writing the name +of this locality is established by the 'Annual Register' for 1781, where +the following remarkable coincidence is mentioned:-- + + "Died, 30th December, 1780, at Purser's Cross, Fulham, Mrs. Elizabeth + and Mrs. Frances Turberville, in the seventy-seventh year of their + ages, of ancient and respectable west country family; they were twin + sisters, and both died unmarried. What adds to the singularity of + this circumstance, they were both born the same day, never were known + to live separate, died within a few days of each other, and were + interred on the same day." + +Park House presents a fac-simile of an old mansion which stood precisely +on the same site, and was known as Quibus Hall, a name, as is +conjectured, bestowed upon it in consequence of some dispute respecting +possession between the coheirs of Sir Michael Wharton, who died about +1725. {155b} When rebuilt by Mr. Holland for the late Mr. Powell, it was +called High Elms House, and was for some time occupied as a school, +conducted by the Rev. Thomas Bowen, who published in 1798 'Thoughts on +the Necessity of Moral Discipline in Prisons.' After Mr. Bowen's death +in the following year, his widow, with the assistance of the Rev. Joshua +Ruddock, carried on the establishment until 1825, since which time Park +House became the occasional residence of Mr. Powell, of Quex, in the Isle +of Thanet, until his death in 1849. A cottage opposite (formerly +"Brunswick Cottage") was called "Rosamond's Bower," during the time the +late Mr. Crofton Croker lived in it (1837-46). + +In a privately printed description of this cottage, when the residence of +Mr. Croker, of which but a very few copies were distributed to his +friends, Mr. Croker himself writes:-- + + "In what, it may be asked, originates the romantic name of + 'Rosamond's Bower?' A question I shall endeavour to answer. The + curious reader will find from Lysons' 'Environs of London' (II. 359), + that the manor of Rosamonds is an estate near Parson's Green, in the + [Picture: Old Rosamond's Bower and Park House, from a Sketch made + about 1750] parish of Fulham. Lysons adds, 'the site of the mansion + belonging to this estate, now (1795) rented by a gardener, is said, + by tradition, to have been a palace of Fair Rosamond.' There seems + to be, however, no foundation beyond the name for this tradition, and + it is unnoticed by Faulkner in his 'History of Fulham,' published in + 1813. He merely mentions, adjoining High Elms, or Park House, an old + dwelling, which 'ancient house,' continues Faulkner, 'appears to be + of the age of Elizabeth, and is commonly called Rosamond's Bower.' + This 'ancient house' was taken down by Mr. Powell, in the year 1826, + and the present stables of Park House are built upon the site. But I + have recently learned that the name of 'Rosamond's Dairy' is still + attached to an old house probably built between two and three hundred + years, which stands a little way back from the high-road at the + north-west corner of Parson's Green. + + "I have always felt with Dr. Johnson that relics are venerable + things, and are only _not_ to be worshipped. When, therefore, I took + my cottage, in 1837, and was told that the oak staircase in it had + belonged to the veritable 'Rosamond's Bower,' and was the only relic + of it that existed; and when I found that the name had no longer a + precise 'local habitation' in Fulham, I ventured, purely from motives + of respect for the memory of the past, and not from any affectation + of romance, to revive an ancient parochial name which had been + suffered to die out, 'like the snuff of a candle.' In changing its + precise situation, in transferring it from one side of Parson's Green + Lane to the other, a distance, however, not fifty yards from the + original site, I trust when called upon to show cause for the + transfer, to be reasonably supported by the history of the old oak + staircase. Indeed I may here venture to assert that the change of + name from 'Brunswick Cottage,'--so was 'Rosamond's Bower' called when + I took it,--and the assumption of that name, if contrasted with the + name changing and name travelling fashion of the district, is a + proceeding in which I am fully borne out by numerous precedents. + + "Miss Edgeworth, in her reply, dated 31st January, 1840, to the + letter of a juvenile correspondent (then nine years of age) inquires, + 'Is Rosamond's Bower a real name?' And I well remember the gestures + and even some of the jests which the omnibus passengers made when + 'Rosamond's Bower' was first painted upon the stone caps of the gate + piers, such as Father Prout's '_Rosy_-man's Bower near the _White_ + Sheaf' (Wheatsheaf). But the novelty wore off in a week or two, and + the name has long since ceased to be an object of speculation to any + but the inquisitive. For their information I may state, that in the + time of Elizabeth all the gardeners' cottages in this neighbourhood + were called bowers. It was the Saxon term for a room, and, + therefore, applied to the dwelling occupied by the labouring class. + And Rosamond, or Rosaman, is said to have been the name of a family + of gardeners bestowed upon the district which they had long + cultivated--possibly a sobriquet derived from the fame of their roses + in times when that flower was a badge of party distinction. . . . It + only remains for me to add, that 'Rosamond's Bower' stands 22 feet + back from the high road, and has a small garden or court before it, + measuring, exclusive of the stable-yard, 63 feet. The garden behind + the house is of that form called a gore, gradually narrowing from 63 + to 22 feet, in a distance of 550 feet or 183 yards--five turns up and + down which 'long walk' may be reckoned, by exercise meters, 'a full + mile,' it being 73 yards over and above the distance, an ample + allowance for ten short turnings. Of the old 'Rosamond's Bower' + three representations have been preserved; two of these are + pen-and-ink sketches by Mr. Doherty, made about the middle of the + last century, one of which is an authority for the name of Pershouse + Cross. The third view appears in a well-executed aquatint plate of + 'Fulham Park School taken from the Play Ground.' + + "The foundation of the present 'Rosamond's Bower,' judging from the + brickwork on the south side, and the thickness of the walls, is + probably as old as the time of Elizabeth--I mean the original + building which consisted of two rooms, one above the other, 12 feet + square, and 7 feet in height. On the north side of this primitive + dwelling was a deep draw-well. Subsequently two similar rooms were + attached, one of which (the present hall) was built over the well, + and two attics were raised upon this very simple structure, thus + increasing the number of rooms from two to six. Then a kitchen was + built (the present dining-room), and another room over it (the + present drawing-room), at the back of the original building, which + thus from a labourer's hut assumed the air of an eight-roomed + cottage. It was then discovered that the rooms were of very small + dimensions, and it was considered necessary to enlarge four of them + by the additional space to be gained from bay windows in the + dining-room, drawing-room, blue bedchamber, and dressing-room. But + the spirit of improvement seldom rests content, and when it was found + that the kitchen, which looked upon the garden, was a more agreeable + sitting-room, both as to aspect and quiet, than the more ancient and + smaller room which looked upon the road, it was determined to create + another attachment on the north side, by building a kitchen of still + larger dimensions, with a scullery and storeroom behind, to replace + the old scullery and out-offices by a spacious staircase, and over + this new kitchen to place a room of corresponding size, or equal to + that of the two bedrooms upon the same line of building. Thus in + 1826 did 'Rosamond's Bower' become a cottage of ten rooms; and as it + was soon afterwards presumed from the march of luxury that no one + could live in a decade cottage without requiring a coachhouse and + stable, an excellent one was built not far from the north side, + making the third, though not the last, addition in that direction. + + "Parva domus! nemorosa quies, + Sis tu quoque nostris hospitium laribus + Subsidium diu: postes tuas Flora ornet + Pomonaque mensas." + + THE GARDEN. + + "It is much more difficult to describe the garden of Rosamond's Bower + than its shape. I may, however, mention that by means of a sunk + fence {159} and a wen-like excrescence upon the original gore, made + in the Spring of 1842, the extensive meadow of Park House, with the + piece of water which adorns it, appear to belong to my residence so + completely, that so far as the eye questions the matter, 'I am + monarch of all I survey.' [Picture: Distant View of 'Rosamond's + Bower' from the adjoining Meadow] The first lawn of the garden + rejoices in two very remarkable trees, one a standard Ayrshire rose, + rising ten feet in height from a stem ten inches in circumference, + and from which, during sunny June, 'every breeze, of red rose leaves + brings down a crimson rain.' {160} The other a weeping ash of + singularly beautiful proportions. It has been trained, or rather + restrained, to the measurement of fifty-six feet in circumference, + the stem being two feet round, and the branches shooting out at the + height of five feet with incredible luxuriance. Under its branches I + had the pleasure of seeing no less than thirty-eight friends sit down + to breakfast on the 22nd June, 1842; and Gunter, who laid covers for + forty-four, assured me, that another arrangement with circular + tables, made for the purpose, would have comfortably accommodated + sixty. A miniature shrubbery, not in height, but in breadth, + intervenes between the first lawn and the flower garden, where, in + the centre of beds, stands the 'Baylis Vase'--a memorial, I sincerely + trust, of a more enduring friendship. Miss Aikin's question--but a + very long acquaintance with that lady's fame warrants me here writing + 'Lucy Aikin's question--to me, one evening while walking down the + garden, whether that urn had been placed over the remains of any + favourite, was the occasion of the following lines being painted on + it:-- + + Think not that here was placed this urn + To mark a spot o'er which to mourn. + Should tender thoughts awake a tear + For fading flowers or waning year, + Remember that another spring, + Fresh flowers and brighter hopes will bring. + + Two elevated strawberry beds, facetiously termed 'twin strawberry + hills,' rear themselves between the vase and the back lawn, the + further corners of which are respectively protected from wheelbarrow + intrusion by an Irish Quern and a Capsular Stone, venerated in Irish + tradition--the former a remarkably perfect, the latter an exceedingly + compact specimen, having on one side a double, and on the other a + single hollow. . . . The remaining points of interest in my garden + may be noticed in a very few words. It gradually decreases in + breadth, and is fenced off on one side from the garden of a very kind + neighbour (which contains two of the finest walnut trees in the + parish) by an oak paling partially covered with broad, or Irish, and + embellished by the picturesque narrow-leaved ivy. + + "On the other side a trim hedge, kept breast high, which runs beside + 'the long walk,' separates it from the extensive meadow of Park + House, and at the termination the following inscription from one of + Herrick's poems has been placed-- + + Thine own dear grounds, + Not envying others larger bounds, + For well thou knowest 'tis not the extent + Of land makes life, but sweet content. + + "The garden produces plenty of strawberries, an abundance of + raspberries, and generally a good crop of apples and pears, but few + vegetables; the cultivation, except of asparagus (of which there are + two excellent beds), having been abandoned, as the bird monopoly of + peas, caused every shilling's worth that came to table to cost five, + and the ingenuity of the slugs and snails having completely baffled + all amateur gardening schemes of defence against their slimy + invasions. [Picture: Rustic bench] Among many experiments I may + mention one. Some vegetables were protected by a circumvallum of + salt; but, notwithstanding, the slugs and snails contrived to pass + this supposed deadly line of demarcation by fixing themselves on dry + leaves which they could easily lift, and thus they wriggled safely + over it. My greatest enjoyment in the garden has been derived from a + rustic bench at the north side of the shrubbery, through the back and + arms of which a honeysuckle has luxuriantly interlaced itself; there, + particularly when recovering from illness, I have sat, and have + found, or fancied, that pain was soothed, and depressed spirits + greatly elevated, by the monotonous tone of the bees around me." + +The pamphlet from which the above has been taken then enters into a +minute description of the curiosities, pictures, &c., collected by Mr. +Croker at 'Rosamond's Bower,' which it is unnecessary further to refer +to; indeed, although intended for private circulation only, it was not +completed, as Mr. Croker was led to believe it might appear but an +egotistical description of an unimportant house. + +The following particulars, connected with Thomas Moore's visit to +'Rosamond's Bower,' may prove interesting:-- + +On the 6th October, 1838, Moore wrote to Mr. Crofton Croker as follows:-- + + "Many thanks for your wish to have me at Rosamond's Bower, even + though I was unlucky enough not to profit by that wish--some other + time, however, you must, for _my_ sake, try again; and I shall then + be most ready for a rummage of your Irish treasures. Already, + indeed, I have been drawing a little upon your 'Researches in the + South of Ireland;' and should be very glad to have more books of + yours to pilfer. + + "Yours, my dear Mr. Croker, + "Very truly, + "THOMAS MOORE." + +On the 18th November, 1841, Major-General (then Colonel) Sir Charles +O'Donnell lunched at Rosamond's Bower; before luncheon Mr. Croker +happened to point out to him the passage in the preface of the fourth +volume of Moore's Works, p. xxxv, in which the poet says-- + + "With the melody entitled, 'Love, Valour, and Wit,' an incident is + connected, which awakened feelings in me of proud, but sad pleasure, + to think that my songs had reached the hearts of some of the + descendants of those great Irish families, who found themselves + forced, in the dark days of persecution, to seek in other lands a + refuge from the shame and ruin of their own;--those whose story I + have associated with one of their country's most characteristic + airs:-- + + 'Ye Blakes and O'Donnells, whose fathers resign'd + The green hills of their youth, among strangers to find + That repose which at home they had sigh'd for in vain.' + + "From a foreign lady, of this ancient extraction,--whose names, could + I venture to mention them, would lend to the incident an additional + Irish charm,--I received about two years since, through the hands of + a gentleman to whom it had been intrusted, a large portfolio, adorned + inside with a beautiful drawing representing Love, Wit, and Valour, + as described in the song. In the border that surrounds the drawing + are introduced the favourite emblems of Erin, the harp, the shamrock, + the mitred head of St. Patrick, together with scrolls containing + each, inscribed in letters of gold, the name of some favourite melody + of the fair artist. + + "This present was accompanied by the following letter from the lady + herself--" + +It is unnecessary to quote this letter, but the gentleman alluded to was +Sir Charles O'Donnell, who had brought the parcel from the Continent, and +being about to proceed to Canada, and personally unacquainted with Moore, +requested Mr. Croker to get it safely delivered; who took the present +opportunity of pointing out to Sir Charles this public acknowledgment +that his commission had been executed. + +They had not been at luncheon many minutes when Mr. Moore was announced, +and appeared to be no less pleased at meeting Sir Charles O'Donnell, than +the latter was at being introduced to Moore. + +A few days afterwards, Mr. Croker received the following note from Mr. +Moore:-- + + "_November_ 24, 1841. + + "DEAR CROKER, + + "I was obliged to leave London much sooner than I originally + intended, and thus lost the opportunity of paying you another visit. + . . . My next visit to London will, I hope, be sufficiently free + from other avocations to allow me to devote a good deal of time to + the examination of your various treasures. Pray give my kind + remembrances to Mrs. Croker.--I constantly think of my great good + luck in lighting by chance on so agreeable a dinner-party that day. + The only drawback was, that it spoiled me--both mentally and + physically speaking--for the dinner that followed. + + "Yours very truly, + "THOMAS MOORE." + +The name of MOORE was subsequently cut by Mr. Croker on the back of a +chair which the poet occupied during this visit. It produced the +following epigram by the Rev. Francis Mahony (Father Prout):-- + + "This is to tell o' days + When on this Cathedra, + He of the Melodies + Solemnly sat, agrah!" + +Mr. Thomas James Bell, the next tenant of 'Rosamond's Bower,' altered the +name to 'Audley Cottage,' which it now bears, and the agreeable +associations connected with the former title are in the recollection of +many who may be unaware of the change, and may regret the substitution of +a name, for which there appears to have been very little reason. + +Parson's Green Lane continues from Rosamond's Bower to Parson's Green. +It is for the most part composed of small cottages. On the left-hand +corner of the Green is the 'White Horse' public-house, the sign of which +was, some few years ago supported by the quaint piece of iron-work shown +in the annexed cut. It is now altered. + + [Picture: Iron-work sign and White Horse Public-House] + +East End House, on the east side of the Green, next the pond, was +originally built by Sir Francis Child, who was Lord Mayor of London, in +1699. It was afterwards the residence of Admiral Sir Charles Wager; and +Dr. Ekins, Dean of Carlisle, died here 20th November, 1791. The house +was subsequently modernized by the late John Powell, and became the +residence of Mrs. Fitzherbert, who erected the porch in front of the +house as a shelter for carriages. Here the Prince of Wales (afterwards +George IV.) was a frequent visitor. Piccolomini lived here for a short +time lately. + +The celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley lived at Parson's Green from 1605 to +1609. The old mansion at the west side of the Green was formerly the +Rectory House, and is traditionally reported to have been the residence +of Adoniram Byfield, the noted Presbyterian Chaplain to Colonel +Cholmondeley's regiment in the Earl of Essex's army, who took so +prominent a part in Cromwellian politics, that he became immortalized in +Hudibras. [Picture: The Rectory House] An old stone building is noticed +by Bowack in 1705, as adjoining this house, and presumed by him to be of +three or four hundred years' standing, and in all probability a chapel +for the rectors and their domestics. This building was pulled down, +according to Lysons, about the year 1742, and the house is now divided +into two, that at the corner being occupied by Dr. Lauman's Academy. At +the south-west side of the Green is the old entrance to Peterborough +House, a residence with the recollections of which the names of Locke, +Swift, Pope, Gay, Prior, and a crowd of others are associated. + +The present Peterborough House, which is a little beyond the old brick +gateway, was built by Mr. J. Meyrick, who died there in 1801. Ho was the +father of Sir Samuel Meyrick the well-known antiquary. Ho purchased the +house, in 1794, of R. Heavyside, Esq., and pulled down the old mansion +that stood close to the site of the ancient maze, which became converted +into a lawn at the rear of the modern house. The place was originally +[Picture: Old Gate of Peterborough House] termed Brightwells, or +Rightwells, and here, in 1569, died John Tarnworth, Esq., one of +Elizabeth's privy counsellors, who lies buried at Fulham. + +Brightwells afterwards belonged to Sir Thomas Knolles, who, in 1603, sold +it to Sir Thomas Smith, who had been secretary to the unfortunate Earl of +Essex, and became, under James I., Clerk of the Council, Latin Secretary, +and Master of the Requests; and here he died in 1609, and was buried in +the chancel of Fulham Church, where a handsome monument is erected to his +memory. After Sir Thomas Smith's death, his widow married the first Earl +of Exeter, and continued to reside at Brightwells until her death, in +1633. Sir Thomas Smith's only daughter having married the Honourable +Thomas Carey, the Earl of Monmouth's second son, he became possessed of +the estate in right of his wife, and after him the place was called Villa +Carey, which has led to the belief that old Peterborough House was built +by him. It stood facing the pond on Parson's Green, and at about the +same distance from the road as the present house. Francis Cleyne, who +came over to England in the reign of Charles I., was certainly employed +to decorate the rooms. Mr. Carey died about 1635; and his widow, about +five years afterwards, married Sir Edward Herbert, Attorney-General to +King Charles. Sir Edward was a firm loyalist, and resided at Parson's +Green till the death of his royal master, when he accompanied Charles II. +in his exile, who created him Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and he died +abroad in 1657. His estate was ordered to be sold with the estates of +other loyalists in 1653, but the sale does not appear to have taken +place, as Villa Carey, in 1660, was in the possession of Lord Mordaunt, +who had married the daughter and heiress of Mr. Carey. Lord Clarendon +bears honourable testimony to the daring spirit and devoted zeal in the +royal cause evinced by this "young gentleman," and to the no less +chivalric conduct of his charming bride. + + "He was," says the historian, "of great vigour of mind, and newly + married to a young and beautiful lady of a very loyal spirit and + notable vivacity of wit and humour, who concurred with him in all + honourable dedications of himself." + +When her husband was arrested and brought to trial in 1658, as a partizan +of Charles II., by her contrivance one of the principal witnesses against +him was kept out of the way, and his judges, being divided in their +opinion of his guilt, he was acquitted only by the casting vote of the +President, the notorious John Lisle, who had sat upon the trial of +Charles I., by whom he was addressed in the following remarkable +strain:-- + + "And I have now to speak to you Mr. Mordaunt: God hath appeared in + justice, and God doth appear in mercy, as the Lord is just to them, + so the Lord is exceeding merciful to you, and I may say to you that + God appears to you at this time, as he speaks to sinners in Jesus + Christ, for Sir, he doth clear sinners in Christ Jesus even when they + are guilty, and so God cleareth you. I will not say you are guilty, + but ask your own conscience whether you are or no. Sir, bless God as + long as you live, and bless my Lord Protector, by whose authority you + are cleared. Sir, I speak no more, but I beseech you to speak to + God." + +The very active part which Lord Mordaunt had taken in effecting the +restoration of Charles II., in which service, according to his epitaph, +he "encountered a thousand dangers, provoking and also defeating the rage +of Cromwell," was not rewarded by any extraordinary marks of distinction +or favour, and he seems after that event to have quietly resided on his +estate at Parson's Green, where he died in the forty-eighth year of his +age, on the 5th June, 1675, and was buried in Fulham Church. The son of +Lord Mordaunt, who afterwards received the title of Earl of Peterborough, +married first, Carey, daughter to Sir Alexander Fraser, of Dover. His +second wife was the accomplished singer Anastasia Robinson, who survived +him. The earl was visited at Peterborough House by all the wits and +literati of his time. Bowack, in 1706, describes the gardens of +Peterborough House, as containing twenty acres of ground, and mentions a +tulip-tree seventy-six feet in height, and five feet nine inches in +girth. Swift, in one of his letters, speaks of Lord Peterborough's +gardens as the finest he had ever seen about London. + +On the same side of the Green as Peterborough House, stood the residence +of Samuel Richardson, who removed to Parson's Green from North End in +1755, and in this house his second wife, who survived him, died in +November, 1773, aged seventy-seven. Formerly the same house belonged to +Sir Edward Saunders, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1682. A +sketch of the house will be found in Chambers' Cyclopaedia of English +Literature. Drury Lodge, situated on the King's Road adjoining Parson's +Green, and immediately opposite the Malt House, formerly known as Ivy +Cottage, was built by Walsh Porter in the Gothic style, and is now the +residence of Mr. E. T. Smith, who has called the house after his theatre. +The name of the lane which runs down by the side of Drury Lodge has, +however, not been altered to _Drury_ Lane, but still retains its old +title of Broom Lane. + +It is said that on the site of what is now called Drury Lodge, was +formerly a house, the residence of Oliver Cromwell, which was called the +_Old Red Ivy House_. Part of the old walls of that building form the +west side of the present cottage. + +Proceeding forward from Purser's Cross on the main Fulham Road, where St. +Peter's Villa may be noticed as the residence of Madame Garcia in 1842, +about a quarter of a mile brings us to Munster House, which is supposed +to owe its name to Melesina Schulenberg, created by George II., in 1716, +Duchess of Munster. [Picture: Munster house (1844)] According to +Faulkner, it was also called _Mustow_ House--this was not improbably the +duchess's pronunciation; and he adds that tradition makes it a +hunting-seat of Charles II., and asserts that an extensive park was +attached to it; but Faulkner also tells us that Munster House "was during +the greater part of the seventeenth century, the _residence_ and property +of Sir William Powell, Bart., who founded the almshouses." How, after +this statement, Mr. Faulkner could have admitted the tradition, requires +some explanation, as he seems to have followed, without acknowledgment, +the particulars supplied to Lysons from authentic documents by Mr. Deere, +of the Auditor's Office, who appears merely to have informed that +gentleman, that among the title-deeds of this property there is one of +Sir Edward Powell's, dated 1640, and that Sir William Powell's will bears +date 1680. According to the same unquestionable records, Munster House +came from the Powells into the possession of Sir John Williams, Bart., of +Pengethly, Monmouthshire. + +In 1795, Lysons says that Munster House was "occupied as a school." +Faulkner, in 1813, states that it was "in the occupation of M. Sampayo, a +Portuguese merchant." And his successor in the tenancy was John Wilson +Croker, Esq., M.P., then secretary of the Admiralty, and afterwards the +Right Hon. Mr. Croker, {171} a gentleman who brilliantly retired into +private life, but whose character is so well known, and has been so often +discussed in political and literary circles, that I shall only venture to +remark the local coincidence of three indefatigable secretaries of the +Admiralty, during the most critical periods of England's history--namely, +Sir Philip Stevens, Sir Evan Nepean, and Mr. Croker--having selected the +quietude of Fulham as the most convenient and attractive position in the +neighbourhood of London, where they might momentarily relax from the +arduous strain of official duties. + +[Picture: Marble bust] + +About 1820, Mr. Croker resigned Munster House as a residence, after +having externally decorated it with various Cockney embattlements of +brick, and collected there many curious works of art, possibly with a +view of reconstruction. In the garden were two marble busts, one of +which is figured on previous page. The other a female head, not unlike +that of Queen Anne. + +There was also a fragment of a group, representing a woman with a child +at her side, obviously the decoration of a fountain, and a rustic stone +seat, conjectured to have been the bed of a formidable piece of ordnance. + + [Picture: Woman and child--Rustic stone seat] + +A recent tenant of Munster House, the Rev. Stephen Reid Cattley, who is +known to the reading public as the editor of an issue of Fox's 'Book of +Martyrs,' was unacquainted with the history of the relics in the garden, +and can only remember the removal of two composition lions from the +gate-piers of Munster House,--not placed there, it must be observed, by +Mr. Croker, but which had the popular effect, for some time, of changing +the name to _Monster House_. It is now a Lunatic Asylum. Opposite +Munster House is Dancer's extensive garden for the supply of the London +market, by the side of which a road runs leading by a turning on the left +direct back to Parson's Green, or if the straight road is kept, the +King's Road is reached opposite Osborn's Nursery; adjoining which nursery +is Churchfield House, the residence of Dr. Burchell the African +traveller. + +[Picture: Fulham Lodge] Fulham Lodge stood on the opposite, or south +side, of the road from Munster House, on the ground immediately beyond +Munster Terrace, which was built a short time prior to its demolition. +This cottage, for it was no more, was a favourite retirement of the late +Duke of York. An affecting story is told by George Colman the younger, +connected with his own feelings while on a visit here. He had lost sight +of an old college friend, the Rev. Robert Lowth, son of the Bishop of +London, from the year 1781 to 1822 (one and forty years!), when Colman +was surprised and pleased by the receipt of the following letter, written +and left upon his table by a gentleman who had called when he was not at +home:-- + + "_August_ 16, 1822. + + "DEAR COLMAN,--It may be some five-and-thirty years since we met, and + I believe as near forty years as may be since I was promoted from my + garret, No. 3 Peckwater, into your _ci-devant_ rooms in the old Quad, + on which occasion I bought your things. Of all your household + furniture I possess but one article, which I removed with myself to + my first house and castle in Essex, as a very befitting parsonage + sideboard, viz., a mahogany table, with two side drawers, and which + still 'does the state some service,' though not of plate. But I have + an article of yours on a smaller scale, a certain little flat + mahogany box, furnished partially, I should say, with cakes of paint, + which probably you over-looked, or undervalued as a _vade-mecum_, and + left. And, as an exemplification of the great vanity of over-anxious + care, and the safe preservation _per contra_, in which an article may + possibly be found without any care at all, that paint-box is still + _in statu quo_, at this present writing, having run the gauntlet, not + merely of my bachelor days, but of the practical cruelties of my + thirteen children, all alive and merry, thank God! albeit as unused + and as little disposed to preserve their own playthings or chattels + from damage as children usually are, yet it survives! 'The reason + why I cannot tell,' unless I kept it 'for the dangers it had passed.' + + "Though I have been well acquainted with you publicly nearly ever + since our Christ Church days, our habits, pursuits, and callings, + having cast us into different countries and tracts, we have not, I + think met since the date I speak of. I have a house at Chiswick, + where I rather think this nine-lived box is, and, whether it is or + no, I shall be very glad if you will give me a call to dine, and take + a bed, if convenient to you; and if I cannot introduce you to your + old acquaintance and recollections, I shall have great pleasure in + substituting new ones,--Mrs. Lowth and eleven of our baker's dozen of + olive-branches, our present complement in the house department, my + eldest boy being in the West Indies, and my third having returned to + the military college last Saturday, his vacation furlough having + expired. As the summer begins to borrow now and then an autumn + evening, the sooner you will favour me with your company the surer + you will be of finding me at Grove House, the expiration of other + holidays being the usual signal for weighing anchor and shifting our + moorings to parsonage point. I remember you, or David Curson, had + among your phrases, _quondam_, one of anything being 'd---d + summerly;' I trust, however, having since tasted the delights of the + sweet shady side of Pall Mall, that you have worn out that prejudice, + and will catch the season before it flies us, or give me a line, + naming no distant day, that I may not be elsewhere when you call, and + you will much oblige, yours sincerely, + + "ROBERT LOWTH." + + "P.S.--In your address to me you must not name _Chiswick_, but Grove + House, Turnham Green, as otherwise it goes into another postman's + walk, who walks it back again to the office, and it does not reach + me, per Turnham Green, peripatetic, till the next day, which is + _toute autre chose_." + +Colman seems to have been sincerely delighted at the receipt of this +letter; he answered it immediately, expressing to his old friend how much +he had gratified him, and how readily he accepted the invitation. + + "After refreshing my friend's memory," says Colman, "by touching on + some particulars which have already been mentioned, I informed him + that I was of late years in the habit of suburban rustication, and + that I had passed a considerable part of my summers in a house where + I was intimate at Fulham, whither I desired him to direct to me, as + much nearer Chiswick than my own abode, being within a few hundred + yards of his old family residence, where we last parted. Whenever I + was at this place, I told him the avenue and bishop's walk by the + river side, the public precincts of the moated episcopal domain, had + become my favourite morning and evening lounge. I told him, indeed, + merely the fact, omitting all commentary attached to it, for often + had I then, and oftener have I since, in a solitary stroll down the + avenue, thought of him, regretting the wide chasm in our intercourse, + and musing upon human events." + +There is a regret expressed by Colman that he kept no copy of his answer, +"which," he adds, "was written in the 'flow of soul,' and at the impulse +of the moment?" Mr. Lowth wrote in reply to Colman, detailing in a most +amusing manner his having, in the pursuit of two Cockneys, who had made +an attack upon a grove of Orleans plum-trees in his grounds, taken cold, +which confined him to his room. + + "But for this _inter poculum et labra_," continued Mr. Lowth, "it was + my intention to have made you my first _post restante_, with, + perhaps, a walk down the old avenue, in my way to town, that + identical day; and, still hoping to accomplish three miles and back, + I have hoped from day to day, but I cannot get in travelling + condition, even for so short a journey. Therefore I hope you will + send me word by my new Yorkshire groom lad, that you will take + pot-luck with me on Sunday as the most likely day for you to + suburbise." + +Colman accepted the invitation, believing from the length of Mr. Lowth's +letter (three pages), and the playfulness of his old friend's +communication, that nothing more than an ordinary cold was the matter +with him. A note, however, which followed from one of Mr. Lowth's +daughters, stated that the meeting proposed by her father must be +postponed, that he "had become extremely unwell, that bleeding and +cupping had been prescribed," and the most perfect quiet enjoined. + +On the day after the receipt of this note, Colman sent over to Grove +House, Chiswick, to make inquiries as to Mr. Lowth's health, when the +reply given by an elderly female at the gate, after considerable delay, +was that "her master was no more." + +A letter from Dr. Badeley to Colman, dated 22d August, 1822, confirmed +the melancholy intelligence, which he had at first hesitated to believe. +It stated that "the decease of Mr. Lowth took place on Sunday evening," +the very evening appointed by him for their anticipated happy reunion; +and that his remains were to be interred in the family vault at Fulham on +Monday morning at ten o'clock. + + "I continued," said Colman, "at Fulham Lodge, which is nearer in a + direct line to the church than to the Bishop's Palace and the 'old + avenue.' On Monday the adjacent steeple gave early notice of the + approaching funeral; religion and sorrow mingled within me while the + slow and mournful tolling of the bell smote upon my heart. Selfish + feelings, too, though secondary, might now and then obtrude, for they + are implanted in our nature. My departed friend was about my own + age: we had entered the field nearly at the same time; we had fought, + indeed, our chief battles asunder, but in our younger days he had + been my comrade, close to me in the ranks: he had fallen, and my own + turn might speedily follow." + +These are the ideas which George Colman the younger records as having +passed through his mind while an inmate of Fulham Lodge:-- + + "My walk next morning," he says, "was to the sepulchre of the Lowths, + to indulge in the mournful satisfaction of viewing the depository of + my poor friend's remains. It stands in the churchyard, a few paces + from the eastern end of the ancient church at Fulham. The + surrounding earth, trampled by recent footsteps, and a slab of marble + which had been evidently taken out and replaced in the side of the + tomb, too plainly presented traces of those rites, which had been + performed on the previous day. For several mornings I repeated my + walk thither, and no summer has since glided away, except the last, + when my sojournment at Fulham was suspended, without my visiting the + spot and heaving a sigh to the memory of Robert Lowth." + +Theodore Hook's manuscript Diary contains the following entries with +reference to visits made by him at Fulham Lodge:-- + + "2nd January, 1826.--Called. Mrs. Carey's luncheon. + + "Thursday, 5th January.--Drove over to Fulham. Mrs. Carey's din. + Colman, Harris, Mrs. G. Good hits. Mrs. Coutts, 'Julius Caesar,' + &c. Stayed very late, and walked home." + +Fulham Park Road is now where Fulham Lodge stood, and the ground is +partly built on, the rest is to be let for building. + +This walk is exactly three miles and a half from Hyde Park Corner; and +what an Irishman would call the iron mile-stone stood exactly opposite to +Ivy Lodge, until placed against the brick wall immediately beyond the +railings. + +Ivy Lodge was for some years the residence of Rudolph Ackermann, a name, +as a printseller, known (it is not using too broad a word to say) +throughout the world, and whose representatives still carry on this +business in Regent Street. + +Ackermann was a remarkable man. He was born in 1764, at Stollberg, near +Schneeberg, in Saxony; and, having been bred a coach-builder, upon +visiting England shortly before the French Revolution, found employment +as a carriage-draughtsman, which led to his forming the acquaintance of +artists, and becoming a print-publisher in London. The French refugees, +whose necessities obliged them to exercise their acquirements and talents +as a means of support, found in Mr. Ackermann's shop a repository for the +exhibition and sale of decorative articles, which elevated this branch of +business to an importance that it had never before assumed in England. +Ackermann's name stands prominently forward in the early history of gas +and lithography in England, and he must be remembered as the introducer +of a species of illustrated periodicals, by the publication of the +'Forget-Me-Not;' to which, or to similar works, nearly every honoured +contemporary name in the whole circle of British literature have +contributed, and which have produced a certain, but advantageously a +questionable, influence upon the Fine Arts. + +After the battle of Leipzig, Mr. Ackermann publicly advocated the cause +of the starving population of many districts of Germany, in consequence +of the calamities of war, with so much zeal and success, that a +parliamentary grant of 100,000 pounds was more than doubled by a public +subscription. In the spring of 1830, when residing at Ivy Lodge, he +experienced a sudden attack of paralysis; and a change of air was +recommended by his medical attendants. This led to Mr. Ackermann's +removal to Finchley, where he died on the 30th of March, 1834. + +Having now arrived at Fulham, we will in the next chapter accompany the +reader in a walk through that ancient village. + + [Picture: The Entrance to Fulham (1844)] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +FULHAM. + +In Faulkner's 'History of Fulham' we learn that the earliest mention of +that village occurs in a grant of the manor by Tyrhtilus Bishop of +Hereford, to Erkenwald Bishop of London, and his successors, about the +year 691; in which grant it is called _Fulanham_. Camden in his +'Britannia' calls it _Fulham_, and derives its name from the Saxon word +_Fulanham_, _Volucrum Domus_, the habitation of birds or place of fowls. +Norden agrees with Camden, and adds, "It may also be taken for _Volucrum +Amnis_, or the river of fowl; for _Ham_ also in many places signifies +_Amnis_, a river, but it is most probable it should be of land fowl, +which usually haunt groves and clusters of trees, whereof in this place +it seemeth hath been plenty." In Somner's and Lye's Saxon dictionaries +it is called Fulanham, or Foulham, supposed from the dirtiness of the +place. The earliest historical event relating to Fulham, is the arrival +of the Danes there in the year 879. On the right hand side as we enter +the village stands Holcrofts' _Hall_ (formerly Holcrofts') built about +1708, which is worthy of mention as belonging to John Laurie, Esq., and +as having been the residence of Sir John Burgoyne, where he gave some +clever dramatic performances, distinguished not only for the considerable +talent displayed by the actors, but remarkable for the scenery and +machinery, considering the limited space, the whole of which was +superintended by the Honourable Mr. Wrottesley, son of Lord Wrottesley, +who afterwards married Miss Burgoyne, an admirable amateur actress: here +it was that the celebrated Madame Vestris died, on the 8th August, 1856, +in her 59th year. During the time she lived there it was called Gore +Lodge. The house has been since tenanted for a short time by Mr. Charles +Mathews and his present wife. Holcroft's Priory, which is opposite, was +built upon the site of Claybrooke House, mentioned by Faulkner. In the +back lane (Burlington Road) Fulham Almshouses are situated, opposite to +Burlington House, formerly Roy's well-known academy, on the ground +attached to which is now a Reformatory School, built about four years +ago. This lane leads to the termination of the King's Road by the Ship +Tavern. The Almshouses were originally built and endowed by Sir W. +Powell, Bart., and were rebuilt in 1793. The old workhouse (built 1774) +still stands on the left-hand side of the High Street. It has been in a +dilapidated condition for many years, and is about to be pulled down. +The Fulham and Hammersmith Union is now in Fulham Fields. Cipriani lived +in a house adjoining the workhouse. Further on in Fulham High Street is +the Golden Lion Inn. There is a tradition that Bishop Bonner resided in +the Old Golden Lion, and that it had a subterranean communication with +the palace. The late Mr. Crofton Croker read the following paper at the +meeting of the British Archaeological Association at Warwick in 1847:-- + + ON THE PROBABILITY OF THE GOLDEN LION INN, AT FULHAM, HAVING BEEN + FREQUENTED BY SHAKESPEARE ABOUT THE YEARS 1595 AND 1596. + + It is certainly extraordinary that of the personal history of a man + whose writings are of so high an order of genius that they may almost + be considered as works of inspiration, we should know so little, and + that conjecture should have to supply so much, as in the biography of + William Shakespeare. + + Pilgrims as are we at this moment to the birth-place and the tomb of + the highest name in the literature of this country, we all feel that + we now tread the classic ground of England--ground too rich in + unquestionable memories of Shakespeare, to admit of any feeling of + jealousy in an attempt to connect his fame by circumstantial evidence + with any other locality. I therefore venture to call attention to + the two following entries in the parish records of Fulham, a village + in the county of Middlesex, on the Thames, about four miles west of + London, and where the Bishop of London has a seat. + + In an assessment made on the 12th October, 1625, for the relief of + the poor of Fulham side, John Florio, Esq., was rated at six + shillings, for his house in Fulham Street. + + And in the same assessment upon the "Northend" of the parish, the + name of Robert Burbage occurs. + + Meagre as this appears to be, and wide of the date at which I aim by + thirty years, it is all that I can produce in the shape of novel + documentary evidence for an attempt to connect the name of + Shakespeare with Fulham; the other points which I have to offer in + evidence being admitted facts, although no result has been deduced + from them. + + In the High Street of Fulham stands a cleanly-looking brick house, + square in form and newly built, called the Golden Lion, where any + suburban traveller requiring refreshment may be supplied with a mug + of excellent ale and bread and cheese, in a parlour having a sanded + floor, the room, it must be confessed, smelling rather strongly of + tobacco smoke:-- + + "You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will-- + But the scent of the roses will hang round it still;"-- + + And so it is, to my mind, with the tobacco smoke of the Golden Lion, + which stands upon the site of an old hostelry, or inn, of the Tudor + age, which was pulled down in April, 1836, and was described soon + afterwards in the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' While the work of + destruction [Picture: Ancient tobacco pipe] was going on, a tobacco + pipe of ancient and foreign fashion was found behind the old + wainscot. The stem was a crooked shoot of bamboo, through which a + hole had been bored, and a brass ornamental termination (of an + Elizabethan pattern) formed the head of the pipe.--Why may not this + have been the pipe of that Bishop of London who had risen into + Elizabeth's favour by attending Mary on the scaffold at Fotheringay, + and who, having fallen into disgrace in consequence of a second + marriage at an advanced period of his life, sought, we are told, in + the retirement of his house at Fulham, "to lose his sorrow in a mist + of smoke,"--and actually died there suddenly on the 15th June, 1596, + "while sitting in his chair and smoking tobacco?" + + Could this have been the tobacco pipe produced at "Crowner's 'quest" + assembled at the Golden Lion to inquire into the cause of his + lordship's sudden death? It is not even impossible that it may have + been produced there by his son, John Fletcher, whose name is + associated with that of Francis Beaumont in our literature. + + Mr. Charles Knight has set the example of an imaginary biography of + Shakespeare, and has brought many probable and some improbable things + together on the subject.--Why, then, has he overlooked the Golden + Lion in Fulham? The name of John Fletcher naturally leads to this + question. At the time of his father's death, he was in his twentieth + year; and who will doubt that, at that period of his life, his + father's (the Bishop's) house was his home. That he may have + resorted to the Golden Lion, and there have met with Shakespeare, is, + therefore, quite as probable as that our great dramatist associated + with Fletcher at the Falcon or the Mermaid, if good cause can only be + shown for Shakespeare's having had as much reason to frequent Fulham + as the Bank-side--or Borough of London. + + I have already stated that Florio's house was assessed for the + poor-rate in Fulham Street, on the 12th October, 1625, the year of + Florio's death; and be it remembered that Florio was the translator + of Montaigne's Essays, of which a copy of the original edition, + bearing Shakespeare's very rare autograph, was not very long since + purchased by the British Museum, at what was considered to be a very + large price. When the genuineness of that autograph was keenly + discussed among antiquaries, and the probable date at which the + 'Tempest' was written, became a question, no one presumed to deny + that the coincidences between the passage in the 2nd Act of the + 'Tempest' where Gonzalo says-- + + "I' the commonwealth I would by contraries + Execute all things; for _no kind of traffic_ + Would I admit; _no name of magistrate_; + Letters should not be known: _riches_, _poverty_, + _And use of service_, none: contract, _succession_; + Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none; + No use of metal, corn or wine or oil; + No occupation; all men idle, all; + And women too; but innocent and pure: + No Sovereignty:"-- + + is but an echo of the following in Florio's translation of + Montaigne:-- + + --"It is a nation, would I answer Plato, that hath _no kind of + traffic_, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, _no + name of magistrate_, nor of politic superiority; no _use of service_, + of _riches_, or of _poverty_; no _contracts_, no _successions_; no + occupation, but idle, no respect of kindred but common; no apparel, + but natural; no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corn, or metal," + etc. + + * * * * * + + There are other coincidences also, free from the very great + difficulty of reconciling satisfactorily printed dates with an + imaginary career--which coincidences are too remarkable to have + escaped the host of ingenious commentators upon the supposed sources + of Shakespeare's information--of his observation what shall I say? + + The coincidence between passages in Daniel's "Civil Warres," + published in 1595, and passages in Shakespeare's Richard II., induce + Mr. Charles Knight to observe that "We"--thereby meaning + himself--"have looked at this poem with some care, and we cannot + avoid coming to the conclusion that, with reference to parts of the + conduct of the story, and in a few modes of expression, each of which + differs from the general narrative and the particular language of the + chroniclers, there are similarities betwixt Shakespeare and Daniel + which would lead to the conclusion either that the poem of Daniel was + known to Shakespeare, or the play of Shakespeare was known to + Daniel." + + This position is, indeed, established by Mr. Knight, who arrives + satisfactorily enough for his own conclusion, that of fixing the date + of the composition of Shakespeare's play to 1597; adding, candidly + enough, that "the exact date is really of very little importance; and + we should not have dwelt upon it had it not been pleasant to trace + resemblances between contemporary poets, who were themselves personal + friends." + + Now, with regard to dates, and the disputed dates of the composition + of the 'Tempest,' it is important to ascertain who John Florio and + Samuel Daniel were. + + We know that Florio was the Italian scholar of his day, and the Court + favourite. We know that Daniel, whose name is now scarcely popularly + remembered, was helped into the office of poet-laureat by his + connection with Florio as his brother-in-law, by Florio's + recommendations to be the successor of "that poor poet, Edmund + Spenser." Here, at once, by admitting Shakespeare's personal + intimacy with Florio and Daniel, with his knowledge of their + writings, there can be no question; and supposing that he had seen + Florio's translation of Montaigne in MS., much difficulty about dates + is got rid of, and we can account for Shakespeare's acquaintance with + Italian literature. + + And allow me to add to this the fact noticed by Mr. Collier, in his + memoirs of the principal actors in the plays of Shakespeare, printed + for the Shakespeare Society, that Shakespeare's fellow-player, Henry + Condell, did some time sojourn at Fulham; for a tract printed in + 1625, entitled 'The Runaway's Answer to a book "A Rod for Runaways,"' + in reply to a pamphlet published by Decker, is inscribed "to our much + respected and very worthy friend, Mr. H. Condell, at his country + house at Fulham." Again, couple with the name of Condell that of + Burbadge, in 1625, at Fulham; is not the association most + extraordinary, although there is no further agreement in the + Christian name than the first letter, Robert being that in the Fulham + assessment of poor-rates, Richard that of Shakespeare's fellow-actor. + The family name of Burbadge, however, belongs not to Middlesex, but + to Warwickshire. Alas! for the credit sake of 'Robert Burbadge, of + Northend, Fulham,' in the place in the poor-rate assessment of 1625, + where the sum should have been inserted, there is a blank; although + twenty-two of his neighbours at North End are contributors of sums + varying from 6s. 8d. to 1s. + + Joshua Sylvester, who was born in 1563 or 1564, and died in 1618, + thus describes the village of North End, Fulham, where his uncle + Plumbe resided, and he (Sylvester) formed the attachment which is the + subject of his poem:-- + + I was wont (for my disport) + Often in the summer season, + To a Village to resort + Famous for the rathe ripe peason, + Where beneath a _Plumb_-tree shade + Many pleasant walks I made. + + And Norden, whom we consider as the father of English topography, + dates the address "to all courteous gentlemen," prefixed to his + account of Middlesex and Hertfordshire, from his "poore home, near + Fulham, 4th November, 1596." + + Here, then, we have a mass of facts, which render it impossible for + us to doubt that the Golden Lion, Fulham, must have been, according + to the custom of the times, frequented by Florio and his + brother-in-law Daniel; by Fletcher; by Henry Condell, Shakespeare's + fellow-player; by some one of the name of Burbadge; by Joshua + Sylvester, and John Norden, about the years 1595 and 1596. Is there + not, then, every reasonable presumption that our immortal Shakespeare + was also a member of this clique? + + [Picture: Fireplaces in the old Golden Lion] + +On the pulling down of the Old Inn by Mr. Powell, the panelling was +purchased by Mr. Street, of Brewer Street, and was afterwards sold to +Lord Ellenborough, for the fitting up of his Lordship's residence, +Southam House, Cheltenham. + +Fulham High Street, which extends from the London Road to Church Row, +appears to have been denominated Bear Street, and is called in the more +ancient parish books Fulham Street. The direct approach to Fulham Church +is by Church Row, which branches off to the right of the High Street. On +the left of the churchyard entrance is the Vicarage. The present vicar +is the Rev. R. G. Baker. Opposite the vicarage is a piece of ground, +which was consecrated in 1843 by Bishop Blomfield, who is buried there. +Upon this recent addition to the burial-ground formerly stood Miss +Batsford's seminary for young gentlemen. There are several curious old +monuments in the church, which have been described and engraved by +Faulkner, to whose work the curious reader may be referred. In the +churchyard are the tombs and monuments of several of the old bishops of +London--Compton, Robinson, Hayter, Gibson, Terrick, Lowth, Sherlock, and +Randolph. + +The grave of that distinguished author and brilliant wit, Theodore Hook, +is immediately opposite the chancel window. The stone bears the plain +inscription "Theodore Edward Hook, died 24th August, 1841, in the +fifty-third year of his age." + + [Picture: Old entrance to Pryor's Bank, 1844] {188b} + +Leaving the church by the other entrance, we are in Church Lane. The +first house opposite the gate of the churchyard is Pryor's Bank, to which +a separate chapter of our little volume is devoted, so that we can pass +on immediately to the next house, Thames Bank, the present residence of +Mr. Baylis, whose well-known taste will no doubt soon change its present +aspect. Granville Sharp's {188a} House stood opposite. It was pulled +down about twenty-five years ago. John's Place (erected 1844) is on the +site. + +Next to Thames Bank, formerly stood Egmont Villa, the residence of +Theodore Hook, and the house in which he died, now pulled down, the back +of which, is shown in the annexed sketch. This house, though of the +smallest dimensions, was fitted up with much good taste. [Picture: Back +of Egmont Villa] There was a small boudoir on the side of the +drawing-room, which was very rich in articles of virtu, more especially +in some remarkably fine carvings, attributed to Cellini, Brustolini, and +others. These were left to Hook by his brother, the late Dean of +Worcester. As an improvisatore, Hook was unapproachable. In regard to +his literary merits, let the following suffice, taken from the late Mr. +Barham's life of Hook, published in 1848:-- + + "There can be no need," says the Editor, "at this day to enter upon + any lengthened criticism of Theodore Hook's merits as a novelist; + they have been discussed over and over again, with little variety of + opinion, by every reviewer of the kingdom. Indeed, both his faults + and his excellencies lie on the surface, and are obvious and patent + to the most superficial reader; his fables, for the most part ill + knit and insufficient, disappoint as they are unfolded; repetitions + and omissions are frequent: in short, a general want of care and + finish is observable throughout, which must be attributed to the + hurry in which he was compelled to write, arising from the + multiplicity and distracting nature of his engagements. His tendency + to caricature was innate; but even this would probably have been in a + great measure repressed, had he allowed himself sufficient time for + correction: while, on the contrary, in detached scenes, which sprang + up as pictures in his mind, replete with comic circumstance, in + brilliant dialogue and portraiture of character, not to mention those + flashes of sound wisdom with which ever and anon his pages are + lighted up, his wit and genius had fair play, revelling and rioting + in fun, and achieving on the spur of the moment those lasting + triumphs which cast into the shade the minor and mechanical blemishes + to which we have adverted." + +Hook was a successful dramatist, and an extensive journalist. Of his +novels, 'Gilbert Gurney' may be considered to be the most remarkable. + +Hook's furniture was sold by George Robins, in September, 1841. In 1855 +the aqueduct was erected by the Chelsea Water Works Company, for +conveying the water from Kingston-upon-Thames to the metropolis, and it +was necessary that the contractor, Mr. Brotherhood, should get possession +of Egmont Villa, to enable them to erect the tower on the Fulham side. +Here the piles and timbers of the old Bishop's Ferry, used for the +conveyance of passengers across the river from Putney to Fulham, before +the old bridge was built, were discovered. It was subsequently +considered desirable to pull the villa down; and there now remains no +trace of the house in which Hook lived and died, and which stood within a +few paces of his grave. Bowack mentions that Robert Limpany, Esq., +"whose estate was so considerable in the parish that he was commonly +called the Lord of Fulham," resided in a neat house in Church Lane. He +died at the age of ninety-four. Beyond the Pryor's Bank on the right, is +the Bishop's Walk, which runs along the side of the Thames for some +little distance, and from hence a view of the Bishop's Palace is +obtained. This palace has been from a very early period the summer +residence of the Bishops of London. The land consists of about 37 acres, +and the whole is surrounded by a moat, over which are two bridges. + +Following the course of the Bishop's Walk, we come to the road leading to +Craven Cottage, originally built by the Margravine of Anspach, when +Countess of Craven, and since altered and improved by Walsh Porter, who +occasionally resided in it till his death in 1809. Craven Cottage was +considered the prettiest specimen of cottage architecture then existing. +The three principal reception-rooms were equally remarkable for their +structure, as well as their furniture. The centre, or principal saloon, +supported by large palm-trees of considerable size, exceedingly well +executed, with their drooping foliage at the top, supporting the cornice +and architraves of the room. The other decorations were in corresponding +taste. The furniture comprised a lion's skin for a hearth-rug, for a +sofa the back of a tiger, the supports of the tables in most instances +were four twisted serpents or hydras: in fact, the whole of the +decorations of the room were of a character perfectly unique and uniform +in their style. This room led to a large Gothic dining-room of very +considerable dimensions, and on the front of the former apartment was a +very large oval rustic balcony, opposed to which was a large, +half-circular library, that became more celebrated afterwards as the room +in which the highly-gifted and talented author of 'Pelham' wrote some of +his most celebrated works. + +Craven Cottage was the residence of the Right Hon. Sir E. Bulwer-Lytton, +from whom it passed to Mr. Baylis, now of Thames Bank, who parted with it +to Sir Ralph Howard, its present occupant, who removed the door shown in +the annexed cut, through which the library is seen. + + [Picture: Door of Egyptian Hall at Craven Cottage] + +Returning to Church Lane, we come out at the bridge, built in 1729, and +close to which is Willow Bank, the late residence of Mr. Delafield and +General Conyers. The Ferry belonged to the See of London, and it was +necessary that the consent of the Bishops should be had, for the erection +of the bridge and consequent destruction of their Ferry; it was, +therefore, stipulated for the right of themselves, their families, and +all their dependents, that they should pass over the bridge toll free, +which right exists at the present time; and passengers are often very +much astonished at hearing the exclamation of "Bishop!" shouted out by +the stentorian lungs of bricklayers, carpenters, or others, who may be +going to the palace, that being the pass-word for the privilege of going +over. The architect of the bridge was the eminent surgeon, W. Cheselden, +who died in 1752, and is buried in the graveyard attached to Chelsea +Hospital. His tomb is close to the railings of the new road, leading +from Sloane Street to the Suspension Bridge at Chelsea. Cheselden was +for many years, surgeon of Chelsea Hospital. + + [Picture: The Swan Tavern] + +Standing by the Ferry is the Swan Tavern, a characteristic old house, +with a garden attached, looking on to the river, and scarcely altered in +any of its features since Chatelaine published his views of "The most +agreeable Prospects near London," about 1740. It is a good specimen of a +waterside inn, and appears to have been erected about the time of William +III. + +At the foot of the bridge is 'The Eight Bells' public-house, where the +Fulham omnibuses leave for London. + + [Picture: Approach to Putney Bridge] + +Bridge Street brings us to the point at which we turned off at the +termination of the High Street, and on the right-hand side as we look +towards London is Church Street (formerly Windsor Street, according to +Faulkner), leading up to the Ship Tavern, and thence into the King's +Road. + +The Charity School is in Church Street. This building was erected in +1811. + +Retracing our steps towards London, we come to the George at Walham +Green, which turns off to the left. The church stands on the right hand +side. Opposite Walham House, near the church, is North End Lodge, the +residence of the late Mr. Albert Smith, and where he died on the 23rd +May, 1860. As novelist, dramatist, and lecturer, he had achieved +considerable reputation; and his unexpected death, at the early age of +forty-four, brought to a sudden close the most popular monologue +entertainment of this, or of any, time. Mr. Smith was an amusing writer +and a most genial companion, and was ever ready to assist a professional +brother in the hour of need. Against the brick wall, close to the gate +of North End Lodge, is a slab with the inscription "From Hyde Park +Corner, 3 miles 17 yards." We are now in North End, where there are many +houses of interest which deserve attention; we will therefore go out of +the direct road and return to London by way of North End. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + NORTH END. + +NORTH END may be described as a series of residences on each side the +lane, more than a mile in length, which runs from the church at Walham +Green to the main road from Kensington to Hammersmith. There were but +few houses in it when Faulkner published his map in 1813. Market gardens +were on both sides the road, and the gardeners cottagers were very old. +[Picture: Panelled Door] The panelled door, here represented, was fitted +to one of them, and evidently was fashioned in the seventeenth century. +The celebrated bookseller, Jacob Tonson, lived for some time at North +End. At York Cottage, which is on the right hand side of the road, about +a quarter of a mile from the church, resided for many years Mr. J. B. +Pyne, the landscape painter. At a short distance beyond, the road from +Old Brompton crosses into Fulham Fields. Here, at one corner, is a house +(Hermitage Lodge) which was originally constructed as stables to the +residence of Foote, the dramatist and comedian, {196} which still stands +on the opposite side of the road leading to Brompton, and where he lived +for many years, expending large sums upon its improvement. It is now +called "The Hermitage," and is completely surrounded by a large garden +enclosed by high walls. + + [Picture: Hermitage Lodge (1844) and The Hermitage] + +Exactly opposite to this house, in the angle of the road, stands an old +house in a moderate-sized garden (Cambridge Lodge). Francis Bartolozzi, +the celebrated engraver, who arrived in England in 1764, came to reside +here in 1777. He was born at Florence in 1730, and died at Lisbon in +1813. His son, Gaetano Bartolozzi, father to the late Madame Vestris, +was born in 1757, and died August 25th, 1813. Passing up the road, +beside market gardens, is the old garden wall of Normand House, with some +curious brick gates (now closed in): the house is very old; the date, +1661, is in the centre arch, over the principal gateway, and it is said +to have been used as a hospital for persons recovering from the Great +Plague in 1665. [Picture: Bartolozzi's House] Sir E. Bulwer Lytton has +resided here. In 1813 "it was appropriated for the reception of insane +ladies" (Faulkner), and it is now a lunatic asylum for ladies, with the +name of "Talfourd" on a brass plate. A little further on the road, out +of which we have turned, is a cottage to the right named Wentworth +Cottage. Here Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall once resided. The willow in front +of the cottage was planted by them from a slip of that over the grave of +Napoleon at St. Helena. The land opposite this cottage is now to be let +on building lease. This district, now known as "Fulham Fields," was +formerly called "No Man's Land," and according to Faulkner, the local +historian, contained, in 1813, "about six houses." One of these was "an +ancient house, once the residence of the family of Plumbe," which was +pulled down about twenty-three years ago, and replaced by a cluster of +dwellings for the labourers in the surrounding market gardens, which +extend from Walham Green nearly to the Thames in a north-west direction; +"the North End Road," as it is called, forming the eastern boundary of +"Fulham Fields." To establish the connection of Sylvester's lines, +quoted in the late Mr. Crofton Croker's Paper on the "Golden Lion," with +this locality, the antiquary who pointed it out observed that-- + + "Our poet had an uncle named William Plumbe, who resided at North + End, Fulham, having married the widow of John Gresham, the second son + of Sir John Gresham, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1547, and which + lady was the only daughter and heir of Edward Dormer of Fulham. Here + it was, while visiting his uncle, that Sylvester formed the + attachment which is the subject of his poem (see the folio edition of + his works, 1621). Uncle Plumbe had been a widower; and from + monuments which exist, or existed, in the parish church of Fulham, + appears to have departed this life on the 9th February, 1593-4, aged + sixty. In the previous May, his widow had lost her son Edmund (or + Edward) Gresham, at the age of sixteen; and seriously touched by the + rapid proofs of mortality within her house, from which the hand of + death had within twelve months removed both a husband and a child, + made preparations for her own demise by recording her intention to + repose beside their remains: and to her husband's memory she raised, + in Fulham Church, a monument 'of alabaster, inlaid and ornamented + with various-coloured marble,' leaving a space after her name for the + insertion of the date of her death and age, which appear never to + have been supplied." + +The arms of "Dormer, impaled with Gresham," we are told remain, "those of +Plumbe are gone." Sylvester's "Triumph of Faith" is consecrated "to the +grateful memory of the first kind fosterer of our tender Muses, by my +never sufficiently honoured dear uncle, W. Plumb, Esq." It is not our +intention to linger over the recollections connected with the age of +Elizabeth in Fulham Fields or at North End, although there can be no +doubt that a little research might bring some curious local particulars +to light connected with the history of the literature, the drama, and the +fine arts of that period, + +The gardens here provide the London markets with a large supply of +vegetables. A very primitive form of draw-well was common here, +consisting of a pole, balanced horizontally on an upright, the bucket +being affixed to a rope at one end. [Picture: Draw-well] The pole is +pulled downward for the bucket to descend the well, and when filled, is +raised by the weight of wood attached to the opposite end of the pole. +This mode of raising water is still in use in the East, and Wilkinson, in +his 'Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,' Series I. vol. ii. p. +4, has engraved representations of this machine, from paintings on the +walls of Thebes, of the time of the Pharaohs. [Picture: Cottage in +Fulham Fields] In "Fulham Fields" are still standing many old cottages, +inhabited by market-gardeners. A sketch, taken in 1844, of one of the +best examples then existing, is here given as a specimen. + +A little beyond "Wentworth Cottage," the road branches off, the turning +to the right going to Hammersmith, and that to the left leading to +Fulham. Hammersmith was a part of Fulham until 1834, when it was formed +into a separate parish by Act of Parliament. + +[Picture: Elm House] Returning to the lane at North End, immediately +beyond Bartolozzi's house, is an old wall, apparently of the time of +Charles II., enclosing a tall peculiar-looking house, now called Elm +House, once the residence of Cheeseman the engraver, of whom little is +known, except that he was a pupil of Bartolozzi, and lived in Newman +Street about thirty years ago. He is said to have been very fond of +music, and having a small independence and less ambition, he was content +to engrave but little, and with his violoncello and musical friends, +passed a very happy life. + +A little further on the opposite side of the road stood Walnut-Tree +Cottage (pulled down in 1846), once the residence of Edmund Kean, and +also of Copley the artist, which took its name from the tree in the +fore-court. [Picture: Walnut-Tree Cottage] We then come to the North End +Sunday and Day Schools, erected in 1857. The road here curves round by +the wall of Kensington Hall, a large mansion on the right, built by +Slater, the well-known butcher of Kensington, and it has been called in +consequence Slater's Mansion. It is at present a school, kept by Mr. and +Mrs. Johnson, but it is to be let or sold. + +A little further to the left is Deadman's Lane. Here, in the midst of +garden grounds, stands a venerable and isolated fabric, which would +appear to have been built in the reign of James I. This lane leads to +Hammersmith, but a more agreeable way has been made opposite Edith +Villas, called Edith Road. The land is to be let on building lease; and +here once stood the house of Cipriani, the painter. [Picture: Cipriani's +House] Cipriani was born at Florence, in 1727, and died in London in +1785. He came to England in 1755; and he was one of the members of the +Royal Academy at its foundation in 1769, when he was employed to make the +design for the diploma given to Academicians and Associates on their +admission, which was engraved by Bartolozzi. The character and works of +this artist are thus described by Fuseli: "The fertility of his +invention, the graces of his composition, and the seductive elegance of +his forms, were only surpassed by the probity of his character, the +simplicity of his manners, and the benevolence of his heart." A few +plates were engraved by himself after his own designs. + +Another curve of the road brings us to the site of Dr. Crotch's house, +where a row of houses, called Grove Cottages, have been built. [Picture: +Dr. Crotch's House] Dr. Crotch was, in 1797, at the early age of +twenty-two, appointed Professor of Music in the University of Oxford, +where he received the degree of Doctor of Music. In 1822 he was +appointed Principal of the Royal Academy of Music. He performed for the +last time in public in 1834 in Westminster Abbey, during the royal +festival, and died 20th December, 1847, while sitting at dinner. Dr. +Crotch has composed numerous pieces for the organ and pianoforte, and +published, in 1812, 'Elements of Musical Composition and Thorough Bass,' +and subsequently specimens of various styles of music of all ages. W. +Wynne Ryland, the engraver, lived in this house before Dr. Crotch +inhabited it. + +Opposite where Dr. Crotch's house formerly stood, facing a turning which +is called on one side Lawn Terrace, on the other Ashton Terrace, is a +large brick mansion inhabited by Richardson the novelist before his +removal to Parson's Green. It is of the period of William III., the +appearance of which may be recognized from the annexed sketch. In the +garden was a summer-house, in which the novelist wrote before the family +were up, and he afterwards, at the breakfast table, communicated the +progress of his story. [Picture: House of Richardson] How little the +exterior has been altered in the last fifty years, a comparison of this +sketch, made in 1844, with the print prefixed to the 4th volume of +Richardson's 'Correspondence,' will show at a glance. Sir Richard +Phillips's print was published by him May 26, 1804. Then, as now, this +mansion was divided into two houses, and the half nearest to the eye was +that occupied by the novelist, the other half was the residence of a Mr. +Vanderplank, a name which frequently occurs in 'Richardson's +Correspondence.' Richardson's house has been subsequently inhabited by +the late Sir William and Lady Boothby, the latter, better known to the +public as that charming actress Mrs. Nisbett. A few extracts from +'Richardson's Correspondence' may here prove interesting. + +One of the most romantic incidents in the business-like and hospitable +life of Richardson, was his correspondence with, and introduction to Lady +Bradshaigh, the wife of a Lancashire Baronet, whom he tried to prevail +upon to visit him at North End. After the appearance of the fourth +volume of Clarissa Harlowe, a lady, who signed herself Belfour, wrote to +Richardson, stating a report that prevailed, that the history of Clarissa +was to terminate in a most tragical manner, and requesting that her +entreaties may avert so dreadful a catastrophe. + +This correspondence with Mrs. Belfour commenced in October, 1748; and she +thus concludes her letter to the novelist, her ladyship taking care to +mystify her identity by giving her address, Post-office, Exeter, although +resident at Haigh in Lancashire. "If you disappoint me," she writes, +"attend to my curse." + + "May the hatred of all the young, beautiful, and virtuous for ever be + your portion, and may your eyes never behold anything but age and + deformity! May you meet with applause only from envious old maids, + surly bachelors, and tyrannical parents; may you be doomed to the + company of such! and after death may their ugly souls haunt you! + + "Now make Lovelace and Clarissa unhappy if you dare! + + "Perhaps you may think all this proceeds from a giddy girl of + sixteen; but know I am past my romantic time of life, though young + enough to wish two lovers happy in a married state. As I myself am + in that class, it makes me still more anxious for the lovely pair. I + have a common understanding, and middling judgment, for one of my + sex, which I tell you for fear you should not find it out." + +The correspondence thus commenced goes on, until the vanity of Richardson +induces him to describe to his unknown correspondent his private +circumstances: and to a hint given in the January following by Lady +Bradshaigh, of her intention to visit London before she is a year older, +when she "shall long to see" Mr. Richardson, and "perhaps may contrive +_that_, though unknown to him," he replies,-- + + "But do not, my dear correspondent (still let me call you so) say, + that you will see me, _unknown to myself_, when you come to town. + Permit me to hope, that you will not be personally a stranger to me + then." + +This is followed by an acknowledgment from Madame Belfour, that she is +not his "Devonshire lady," having but very little knowledge of the place, +though she has a friend there; observing archly, "_Lancashire_, if you +please;" adding an invitation, if he is inclined to take a journey of two +hundred miles, with the promise of "a most friendly reception from two +persons, who have great reason to esteem" him "a very valuable +acquaintance." + +Richardson responded to this invitation by another-- + + "But I will readily come into any proposal you shall make, to answer + the purpose of your question; and if you will be so cruel as to keep + yourself still incognito, will acquiesce. I wish you would accept of + our invitation on your coming to town. _But three little miles from + Hyde Park Corner_. I keep no vehicle." + +(This was before the age of omnibuses.) + + --"but one should be at yours, and at your dear man's command, as + long as you should both honour us with your presence. You shall be + only the sister, the cousin, the niece--the what you please of my + incognito, and I will never address you as other than what you choose + to pass for. If you knew, Madam, you would not question that I am in + earnest on this occasion; the less question it, as that at my little + habitation near Hammersmith, I have common conveniences, though not + splendid ones, to make my offer good." + +Richardson, in the letter from which this passage has been extracted, is +again led away by his vanity into a description of his person, and very +plainly hints at a meeting in the Park, through which he goes "once or +twice a week to" his "little retirement." He describes himself as + + "Short, rather plump than emaciated, about five foot five inches; + fair wig; lightish cloth coat, all black besides; one hand generally + in his bosom, the other a cane in it, which he leans upon under the + skirts of his coat usually, that it may imperceptibly serve him as a + support, when attacked by sudden tremors or startings and dizziness." + . . . "Of a light-brown complexion; teeth not yet failing him; + smoothish faced and ruddy cheeked; at some times looking to be about + sixty-five, at other times much younger; a regular even pace, + stealing away ground, rather than seeming to get rid of it; a grey + eye, too often overclouded by mistiness from the head; by chance + lively--very lively it will be if he have hope of seeing a lady whom + he loves and honours; his eye always on the ladies"--and so on. + +In return to this description, Lady Bradshaigh on the 16th December, +1749, half promises a meeting in an appointed place, for she tells the +elderly gentleman with "a grey eye, too often overclouded by mistiness +from the head," but "by chance lively," "that she will attend the Park +every fine warm day, between the hours of one and two. I do not," adds +this perfect specimen of a literary coquette, + + "Say this to put you in the least out of your way, or make you stay a + moment longer than your business requires; for a walk in the Park is + an excuse she uses for her health; and as she designs staying some + months in town, if she misses you one day she may have luck another." + +And Lady Bradshaigh proceeds to present, as if in ridicule of +Richardson's portrait as drawn by himself, her own. + + "In surprise or eagerness she is apt to think aloud; and since you + have a mind to see _her_, who has seen the King, I give you the + advantage of knowing she is middle aged, middle sized, a degree above + plump, brown as an oak wainscot, a good deal of country red in her + cheeks: altogether a plain woman, but nothing remarkably forbidding." + +Any one might think that a meeting would immediately have followed these +communications, and that the novel-writer and the novel-reader would have +presented themselves to each other's gaze for admiration, at the time and +place appointed, and thus the affair which their letters have left upon +record might have been satisfactorily wound up in one volume. But this +did not accord with the sentimental typographical taste of the times, +which required the dilution of an idea into seven or eight volumes to +make it palatable. For we are told that a young Cantab, who, when asked +if he had read Clarissa, replied, "D---n it, I would not read it through +to save my life," was set down as an incurable dunce. And that a lady +reading to her maid, whilst she curled her hair, the seventh volume of +Clarissa, the poor girl let fall such a shower of tears that they wetted +her mistress's head so much, she had to send her out of the room to +compose herself. Upon the maid being asked the cause of her grief, she +said, "Oh, madam, to see such goodness and innocence in such distress," +and her lady rewarded her with a crown for the answer. + +January the 9th (1749-50) has arrived--the tantalizing Lady Bradshaigh, +the unknown Mrs. Belfour has been in London six weeks, and the novelist +begins "not to know what to think" of his fair correspondent's wish to +see him. "May be so," he writes, + + "But with such a desire to be in town three weeks; on the 16th + December to be in sight of my dwelling, and three weeks more to + elapse, yet I neither to see or hear of the lady; it cannot be that + she has so strong a desire." + +Let any one imagine the ridiculousness of the situation of "dear, good, +excellent Mr. Richardson" at this time. He had, he confesses, + + "Such a desire to see one who had seen the King, that" (he speaking + of himself, says) "though prevented by indisposition from going to my + little retirement on the Saturday, that I had the pleasure of your + letter, I went into the Park on Sunday (it being a very fine day) in + hopes of seeing such a lady as you describe, contenting myself with + dining as I walked, on a sea biscuit which I had put in my pocket, my + family at home, all the time, knowing not what was become of me.--A + Quixotte! + + "Last Saturday, being a fine warm day, in my way to North End, I + walked backwards and forwards in the Mall, till past your friend's + time of being there (she preparing, possibly, for the Court, being + Twelfth Night!) and I again was disappointed." + +On the 28th January, nineteen days after this was written, Lady +Bradshaigh, in a letter full of satirical banter, which, however, it may +be questionable if Richardson did not receive as replete with the highest +compliments to his genius, says, + + "Indeed, Sir, I resolved, if ever I came to town, to find out your + haunts, if possible, and I have not 'said anything that is not,' nor + am at all naughty in this respect, for I give you my word, endeavours + have not been wanting. You never go to public places. I knew not + where to look for you (without making myself known) except in the + Park, which place I have frequented most warm days. Once I fancied I + met you; I gave a sort of a fluttering start, and surprised my + company; but presently recollected you would not deceive me by + appearing in a grey, instead of a whitish coat; besides the cane was + wanting, otherwise I might have supposed you in mourning." + +Could anything exceed this touch about "a grey, instead of a whitish +coat," except the finishing one of the "mole upon your left cheek?" + + "To be sure on the Saturday you mention, I was dressing for court, as + you supposed, and have never been in the Park upon a Sunday; but you + cannot be sure that I have not seen you. How came I to know that you + have a mole upon your left cheek? But not to make myself appear more + knowing than I am, I'll tell you, Sir, that I have only seen you in + effigy, in company with your Clarissa at Mr. Highmore's, where I + design making you another visit shortly." + +All this and much more is followed by a most tantalizing and puzzling +P.S. to poor Richardson. His fair, or rather "brown as an oak-wainscot, +with a good deal-of-country-red in her cheeks" correspondent, requests +him "to direct only to C. L., and enclose it to Miss J., to be left at +Mrs. G.'s" etc. etc., previously observing that, "whenever there happens +to be a fine Saturday I shall look for you in the Park, that being the +day on which I suppose you are called that way." + +Roused into desperation, Richardson on the 2nd February writes to Mrs. +Belfour as follows:-- + + "What pains does my unkind correspondent take to conceal herself! + Loveless thought himself at liberty to change names without Act of + Parliament. I wish, madam, that Lovelace--'A sad dog,' said a + certain lady once, 'why was he made so wicked, yet so agreeable?' + + "Disappointed and chagrined as I was on Friday night with the return + of my letter, directed to Miss J---, rejected and refused to be taken + in at Mrs. G---'s, and with my servant's bringing me word that the + little book I sent on Thursday night, with a note in it, was also + rejected; and the porter (whom I have never since seen or heard of, + nor of the book) dismissed with an assurance that he must be wrong; + my servant being sent from one Mrs. G--- to another Mrs. G--- at + Millbank; yet I resolved to try my fortune on Saturday in the Park in + my way to North End. The day indeed, thought I, is not promising; + but where so great an earnestness is professed, and the lady possibly + by this time made acquainted with the disappointment she has given + me, who knows but she will be carried in a chair to the Park, to make + me amends, and there reveal herself? Three different chairs at + different views saw I. My hope, therefore, not so very much out of + the way; but in none of them the lady I wished to see. Up the Mall + walked I, down the Mall, and up again, in my way to North End. O + this dear Will-o'-wisp, thought I! when nearest, furthest off! Why + should I, at this time of life? No bad story, the consecrated rose, + say what she will: and all the spiteful things I could think of I + muttered to myself. And how, Madam, can I banish them from my + memory, when I see you so very careful to conceal yourself; when I + see you so very apprehensive of my curiosity, and so very little + confiding in my generosity? O Madam! you know me not! you will not + know me! + + "Yesterday, at North End, your billet, apologizing for the + disappointment was given me. Lud! lud! what a giddy appearance! + thought I. O that I had half the life, the spirit! of anything worth + remembering I could make memorandums. + + "Shall I say all I thought? I will not. But if these at last reach + your hands, take them as written, as they were, by Friday night, and + believe me to be, + + "Madam, + "Your admirer and humble Servant, + "S. RICHARDSON." + +Sir Walter Scott says, that "the power of Richardson's painting of his +deeper scenes of tragedy has never been, and probably never will be, +excelled;" and in Mrs. Inchbald's 'Life of Richardson,' we read, that "as +a writer he possessed original genius, and an unlimited command over the +tender passions." He carried on a foreign literary correspondence, and +was on terms of intimacy with many eminent and literary persons of his +time, particularly Dr. Young, Dr. Johnson, Aaron Hill, and Arthur Onslow, +Esq., Speaker of the House of Commons. + +A short distance further on, we enter the Hammersmith Road, opposite a +tavern called "The Bell and Anchor," which stands beside the turnpike, +and passing about twenty shops on the left towards Hammersmith, we notice +in the fore-court of a house called "The Cedars," two noble cedar trees +of immense girth, one of which is represented in the accompanying cut. +This was formerly the residence of Sir James Branscomb, who, according to +Faulkner, "in his early days had been a servant to the Earl of +Gainsborough, and afterwards, for upwards of forty years, carried on a +lottery office in Holborn. He was a common-councilman of the Ward of +Farringdon Without, and received the honour of knighthood during his +shrievalty." The house has been a ladies' boarding-school for many +years. From the Kensington Road we can return direct to London, having +in this chapter departed from our even course on the Fulham Road for the +purpose of visiting the North End district. + + [Picture: Tree in the fore-court of "The Cedars"] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE PRYOR'S BANK, FULHAM. + +Nestling in trees beneath the old tower of Fulham Church, which has been +judiciously restored by Mr. George Godwin, there may be seen from Putney +Bridge a remarkable group of houses, the most conspicuous of which will +be conjectured from a passing glance to belong to the Gothic tribe. This +house, which has been a pet kind of place of the Strawberry Hill class, +is called the Pryor's Bank, and its history can be told in much less than +one hundredth part of the space that a mere catalogue of the objects of +interest which it has contained would occupy. In fact, the whole +edifice, from the kitchen to the bedrooms, was a few years since a +museum, arranged with a view to pictorial effect; and if it had been +called "The Museum of British Antiquities" it would have been found +worthy of the name. + +In a print, published about forty years since, by J. Edington, 64 +Gracechurch Street, of Fulham Church, as seen from the river, the ancient +aspect of the modern Pryor's Bank is preserved. [Picture: Fulham Church] +The situation of this humble residence having attracted the fancy of Mr. +Walsh Porter, he purchased it, raised the building by an additional +story, replaced its latticed casements by windows of coloured glass, and +fitted the interior with grotesque embellishments and theatrical +decorations. The entrance hall was called the robber's cave, for it was +constructed of material made to look like large projecting rocks, with a +winding staircase, and mysterious in-and-out passages. [Picture: Vine +Cottage] One of the bed-rooms was called, not inaptly, the lion's den. +The dining-room represented, on a small scale, the ruins of Tintern +Abbey; and here Mr. Porter had frequently the honour of receiving and +entertaining George IV., when Prince of Wales. It was then called Vine +Cottage, {213} and having been disposed of by Mr. Porter, became, in +1813, the residence of Lady Hawarden; and, subsequently, of William +Holmes, Esq., M.P., who sold it to Mr. Baylis and Mr. Lechmere Whitmore +about 1834. + +By them a luxurious vine which covered the exterior was cut down, and the +cottage, named after it, replaced by a modern antique house. Mr. Baylis +being a zealous antiquary, his good taste induced him to respect +neglected things, when remarkable as works of art, and inspired him and +his friend Mr. Whitmore with the wish to collect and preserve some of the +many fine specimens of ancient manufacture that had found their way into +this country from the Continent, as well as to rescue from destruction +relics of Old England. In the monuments and carvings which had been +removed from dilapidated churches, and in the furniture which had been +turned out of the noble mansions of England--the "Halls" and "old +Places"--Mr. Baylis saw the tangible records of the history of his +country; and, desirous of upholding such memorials, he gleaned a rich +harvest from the lumber of brokers' shops, and saved from oblivion +articles illustrative of various tastes and periods, that were daily in +the course of macadamisation or of being consumed for firewood. + +The materials thus acquired were freely used by him in the construction +of a new building upon the site of Vine Cottage, and adapted with +considerable skill; but when neither the vine nor the cottage were in +existence, it appeared to Mr. Baylis ridiculous to allow a misnomer to +attach itself to the spot. After due deliberation, therefore, respecting +the situation upon a delightful bank of gravel, and the association which +an assemblage of ecclesiastic carvings and objects connected with +"monkish memories," there collected, were likely to produce upon the +mind, the new house was styled the "Pryor's Bank." + +As Horace Walpole's villa was celebrated by the Earl of Bath, so the +charms of the Pryor's Bank have been sung in "the last new ballad on the +Fulham regatta"--a _jeu d'esprit_ circulated at an entertainment given by +the hospitable owners in 1843:-- + + "Strawberry Hill has pass'd away, + Every house must have its day; + So in antiquarian rank + Up sprung here the Pryor's Bank, + Full of glorious tapestry,-- + Full as well as house can be: + And of carvings old and quaint, + Relics of some mitr'd saint, + 'Tis--I hate to be perfidious-- + 'Tis a house most sacrilegious. + + "Glorious, glowing painted glass, + What its beauty can surpass? + Shrines bedeck'd with gems we see, + Overhung by canopy + Of embroider'd curtains rare-- + Wondrous works of time and care! + Up stairs, down stairs, in the hall, + There is something great or small + To attract the curious eye + Into it to rudely pry. + + "Here some niche or cabinet + Full of rarities is set; + Here some picture--'precious bit'-- + There's no time to dwell on it; + Bronzes, china--all present + Each their own sweet blandishment. + But what makes our pleasure here, + Is our welcome and our cheer; + So I'll not say one bit more,-- + Long live Baylis and Whitmore!" + +I would endeavour to convey some idea of the Pryor's Bank and its now +dispersed treasures as they were in 1840, in which year we will suppose +the reader to accompany us through the house and grounds; but before +entering the house, I would call attention to a quiet walk along the +garden-terrace, laved to its verdant slope by the brimming Thames. +[Picture: Terrace at Pryor's Bank] Suppose, then, we leave those +beautiful climbing plants--they are Chilian creepers that so profusely +wanton on the sunny wall--and turning sharply round an angle of the river +front, cut at once, by the most direct walk, the parties who in luxurious +idleness have assembled about the garden fountain; and, lest such folk +should attempt to interrupt us in our sober purpose, let us not stop to +see or admire anything, until we reach the bay-window summer-house at the +end of the terrace. "How magnificent are those chestnut-trees!" I hear +you exclaim; "and this old bay-window!" + +Ay, this summer-house which shelters us, and those noble balusters which +protect the northern termination of the terrace, how many thoughts do +they conjure up in the mind! [Picture: Fountain at Pryor's Bank] These +balusters belonged to the main staircase of Winchester House. Do you +remember Winchester House in Broad Street, in the good city of London, +the residence of "the loyal Paulets?" Perhaps not. There is, however, a +print of its last appearance in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for April, +1839, and by which you will at once identify this summer-house as the +bay-window of the principal apartment. Indeed the editor tells you that +"the greater part of the remaining ornamental wood-work has been +purchased by Thomas Baylis, Esq., F.S.A., who is fitting up with it the +kitchen and some of the new rooms of his house, Pryor's Bank, Fulham." + +It is stated in the same magazine, that in 1828 the motto of the Paulets, +AYMES LOYAULTE, was to be seen in the windows of the principal apartment +on the first floor, in yellow letters, disposed in diagonal stripes; +which motto, it is added, "was probably put there by the loyal Marquis of +Winchester, in the time of Charles I., by whom the same sentence was +inscribed in every window of his residence at Basing House, in Hants, +which he so gallantly defended against the Parliamentarians." {218} + +Now, is it not more probable that the recollection of this motto in the +windows of his paternal mansion, conveyed through the medium of coloured +glass, indelibly stamped by sunshine (or daguerreotyped, as we might term +it) upon the youthful mind of the gallant marquis those feelings of +devoted loyalty which influenced his after conduct, and led him to +inscribe with the point of his diamond ring the same motto upon the +windows of Basing House? [Picture: Turn Buckle] Be this as it may, it is +gratifying to know that many of the panes of glass which bore that +glorious yellow letter motto in Winchester House, at the period when it +was doomed to be taken down, are preserved, having been with good taste +presented to the present Marquis of Winchester; and two or three which +were overlooked have come into the possession of Lord Adolphus +Fitzclarence. But much of the diamond-shaped glass in this bay-window, +as it stood upon the terrace of the Pryor's Bank, was ancient, and very +curious. You could not fail to remark the quaint window-latch, termed "a +Turn Buckle." + +Had we time to linger here, how amusing it might be to attempt to +decipher the monograms, and names, and verses inscribed upon the various +lozenge-shaped panes of glass, which practically exemplified the phrase +of "diamond cut diamond." + +The fragments of the old Royal Exchange, with a Burmese cross-legged idol +perched thereon--the urn to the memory of "POOR BANQUO;" the green-house, +with its billiard-table, and even an alcove, the most charming spot in +"the wide world" to talk sentiment in, must not detain us from returning +to another angle of the river front, after [Picture: Alcove: and Angle of +the River Front] glancing at which, we enter the outer hall or passage, +wainscoted with oak and lined above with arras, separated from the inner +hall by an oak screen, which was usually guarded upon gala nights by most +respectable "Beef-eaters," who required the production of invitation +[Picture: Inner Hall with oak screen] cards from all visitors. They +permit us to pass without question; and that is a very proper example for +you to follow, and a good reason why you should not question me too +closely:-- + + "Do you think that I + Came here to be the Pryor's Bank directory?" + +You must use your own eyes, and judge for yourself. I will tell you, +however, all that I know as briefly as possible, and point out whatever +occurs to me in our scamper, for a scamper it can only be termed: just +such a kind of run as a person makes through London who has come up by +railroad to see all its wonders in a week. But I cannot allow you to +examine so closely that curiously carved oak chimney-piece in the inner +hall, although I admit that it may be as early as Henry VIII.'s time, and +those interesting old portraits. Where shall we begin? You wish to +inspect everything. Suppose, then, we commence with the kitchen, and +steam it up-stairs to the dormitories, going at the rate of a +high-pressure engine. + +You are already aware that the kitchen was panelled with oak from the +drawing-room of Winchester House, and now you see the whole style of +fitting-up accords with that of "bygone days." Look, for instance, +towards the kitchen window, and you will find that the various cupboards, +presses and dressers--even the cooking utensils--correspond; but, +although modern improvements have not been lost sight of, antique forms +have been retained. Let one example suffice, that of an ancient +gridiron, of beautiful and elaborate workmanship. + + [Picture: Kitchen Window: and Ancient Gridiron] + +The history of the plates and dishes displayed in this kitchen would +afford an opportunity for a dissertation on the rise and progress of the +fine arts in this country, as they present most curious and important +specimens of early drawing, painting, and poetry. The old English plate +was a square piece of wood, which indeed is not quite obsolete at the +present hour. The improvement upon this primitive plate was a circular +platter, with a raised edge; but there were also thin, circular, flat +plates of beech-wood in use for the dessert or confection, and they were +gilt and painted upon one side, and inscribed with pious, or instructive, +or amorous mottoes, suited to the taste of the society in which they were +produced. Such circular plates are now well known to antiquaries under +the name of "roundels," and were at one time generally supposed by them +to have been used as cards for fortune-telling, or playing with at +questions and answers. More sober research into their origin and use +shows that they were painted and decorated with conventional patterns by +nuns, who left blank spaces for the mottoes, to be supplied by the more +learned monks; and a set of these roundels generally consisted of twelve. +As specimens of the style of these mottoes about the time of Henry VII. +or VIII. the following may be taken:-- + + "Wheresoever thou traveleste, + Este, Weste, Northe, or Southe, + Learne never to looke + A geven horsse in the mouthe." + + "In friends ther ys flattery, + In men lyttell trust, + Thoughe fayre they proffer + They be offten unjuste." + +There are many sets of verses for roundels extant in manuscript, and a +few have been printed; indeed, it appears likely that to the love for +this species of composition we owe Tusser's "Five Hundred Points of Good +Husbandry," and most of his other admonitory verses. + +After the Reformation, coloured prints superseded the painted and +manuscript "poesies" of the nuns and monks, and the elder De Passe, and +other artists of the period of James I. and Charles I., produced a +variety of oval and circular engravings, which were pasted upon roundels +and varnished over. The subjects generally selected were those which +naturally arranged themselves into a set of twelve, as the months. By +the Puritans the beechen roundels thus decorated were regarded with +especial dislike, and they returned to the use of the unadorned trencher +and "godly platter." When the "Merry Monarch" was restored he brought +over with him from Holland plates and dishes manufactured at Delft, where +the porcelain known as Faenza, Faience, Majolica, and Fynlina ware, made +during the fifteenth century in the North of Italy, and upon the +embellishments of which, according to Lamartiniere, the pencils of +Raffaelle, Giulio Romano, and the Caracci, were employed, had been +successfully, although coarsely imitated. And it must be confessed that +many of the old Dutch plates, dishes, and bowls, upon the kitchen-shelves +of the Pryor's Bank, deserved to be admired for boldness of design, +effective combinations of colour, and the manual dexterity displayed in +the execution of the patterns. The superior delicacy of the porcelain of +China, which about this time began to be imported freely into England +from the East caused it to be preferred to the "Dutch ware," and the +consequence of international commerce was, that the Chinese imitated +European devices and patterns upon their porcelain, probably with the +view of rendering the article more acceptable in the Dutch and English +markets. But while the Chinese were imitating us, we were copying their +style of art in the potteries of Staffordshire, with the commercial +manufacturing advantage given by the power of transferring a print to the +clay over the production of the same effect by means of the pencil, an +idea no doubt suggested by our roundels of Charles I.'s time, and which +process became of the same relative importance as printing to manuscript. +This was the origin of our common blue-and-white plate, or what is known +as "the willow pattern," where + + "Walking through their groves of trees, + Blue bridges and blue rivers, + Little think those three Chinese + They'll soon be smash'd to shivers." + +The popularity of this porcelain pattern must not be ascribed to superior +beauty or cheapness, for to the eye of taste surely a pure plain white +plate is infinitely superior to an unfeeling copy of a Chinese pagoda, +bridge, and willow-tree "in blue print." The fact is that the bugbear of +a vulgar mind--"fashion"--long rendered it imperative upon every good +housewife and substantial householder to keep up a certain dinner-set of +earthenware, consisting of two soup-tureens and a relative proportion of +dishes and vegetable-dishes, with covers, soup-plates, dinner-plates, and +dessert-plates, which were all to correspond; and should any accidental +breakage of crockery take place, it was a manufacturing trick to make it +a matter of extra-proportionate expense and difficulty readily to replace +the same unless it happened to be of "the blue willow pattern." The +practice, however, of using for the dessert-service plates of Worcester +china painted by hand, and the execution of many of which as works of art +call for our admiration as much as any enamel, created a taste for +forming what are called harlequin sets, among which, if a few plates +happen to be + + "Smash'd to shivers," + +the value of the whole set is only proportionately depreciated, and what +has been broken may perhaps be advantageously replaced. + + [Picture: Earl of Essex] + +If you like, we will return to the inner hall, where is a portrait of the +celebrated Earl of Essex, an undoubted original picture, dated 1598, +three years previous to his being beheaded (Zucchero), and from it at +once enter the library, or breakfast-room. Here there is a superbly +carved Elizabethan chimney-piece. + + [Picture: Elizabethan chimney-piece] + +What are you about? You should not have touched so thoughtlessly that +"brass inkstand," as you call it. It is actually a pix, or holy box, +{227} which once contained the host, and was considered "so sacred, that +upon the march of armies it was especially prohibited from theft." We +are told that Henry V. delayed his army for a whole day to discover the +thief who had stolen one. You may admire the pictures as much as you +please; they are odd and hard-looking portraits to my eye; but they are +historically curious, and clever, too, for their age. [Picture: Pix, or +Holy Box] Could you only patiently listen to a discussion upon the +characters of the originals of the portraits that have hung upon these +walls, or the volumes that have filled these shelves; you might gain a +deeper insight into the workings of the human heart than, perhaps, you +would care to be instructed by. There were in the next room--the +dining-room--into which we may proceed when you please, for only by a +sliding door between the library and dining-room are they separated--such +pictures! [Picture: Sliding door into dining-room] An unquestionable +'Henry VIII.,' by Holbein; a 'Queen Mary,' by Lucas de Heere, from the +collection of the late Mr. Dent; and a glorious 'Elizabeth,' that had +belonged to Nathaniel Rich of Eltham, who we know from the particulars of +sale that were in the Augmentation Office, was the purchaser of Eltham +Palace, when disposed of by the Parliament after the death of Charles I.; +and we also know from Strype's _Annals of the Reformation_, that +Elizabeth visited Eltham and passed some days there in 1559, and that she +made her favourite Sir Christopher Hatton keeper of the royal palace +there. + +You should not disturb those books; you will look in vain for the +publication of George III.'s 'Illustration of Shakspeare,' and corrected +in the autograph of the king for a second edition. How remarkable are +the opinions entertained by His Majesty respecting Doctors Johnson and +Franklin, and how curious are some of the notes! This book is the true +history of his reign, and would be worth to us fifty black-letter +Caxtons. Mr. Thorpe of Piccadilly can tell you all about it. [Picture: +Monastic chair and damask curtains] Oh, never mind that manuscript in its +old French binding, and those exquisitely-wrought silver clasps, and dear +old Horace Walpole's books. We must enter the dining-room. Here sit +down in this monastic chair, and look around you for five minutes. This +chair Mr. Baylis picked up in Lincoln; and the curtains beside it, they +came from Strawberry Hill, and are of genuine Spitalfields damask. There +is no such damask to be had now. Eighty years ago were these curtains +manufactured, and yet they are in most excellent condition. The greater +portion of the Gothic oak panelling around us originally formed the back +of the stalls in the beautiful chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford. +During the late repairs this panelling was removed and sold. Much of it +was purchased by the Marquess of Salisbury for Hatfield House, and the +remainder Mr. Baylis bought. More of the oak panelling in the room, +especially the elaborately-wrought specimens and the rich tracery work, +have been obtained from Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, St. Mary's +Coventry, and other churches. + + [Picture: Ornate chimney-piece] + +The chimney-piece is a rich composition of ancient carving; the canopy +came from St. Michael's Church, Coventry, and in the niches are some fine +figures of the kings and queens of England. [Picture: Knight's armour] +The fire-back is an interesting relic, as it is the original one placed +in the great dining-hall of Burghley House, by Elizabeth's minister, +whose arms are upon it, with the date 1575. The sideboard, with its +canopy of oak, assimilates with the fitting of the room, and had upon its +shelves a glittering display of ancient glass and early plate. Salvers +and cups of singular forms and beautiful shapes arose proudly up, one +above the other, with dishes of Raffaelle ware beneath them. But I +cannot help seeing that the steel-clad knight, who keeps guard in a +recess by the sideboard, attracts more of your attention. [Picture: +Leathern black jack and iron jug] The effigy is an excellent suit of +fluted armour of Henry VIIth's time; and in the opposite recess, those +huge drinking-vessels are only an honest old English leathern black jack +and an iron jug; the former from St. Cross, Winchester, the latter from +the castle of some German baron, and full of feudal character. + +As for the other relics in the dining-room, I will only particularise two +or three more; and they are a pair of round and solid well-carved +pendents from the chancel of the church of Stratford-on-Avon, which have +been removed from their original station immediately over the tomb of +Shakspeare; and are now, as you see, inverted and used here as +footstools. + + "Think of that, Master Brooke!" + +The other relic is that matchless piece of sculptured oak [Picture: +Effigy in oak of Emperor Rudolph II.] which represents the Emperor +Rudolph II., the size of life (five feet six inches in height), and which +was brought from Aix-la-Chapelle by the late Sir Herbert Taylor. What +may have been its former history I cannot tell you, but it resembles in +execution the exquisite Gothic figures in the chimney-piece of the +town-hall at Bruges, and is of about the same height and size. + +Are you willing to forsake the thoughtful soberness of antique +oak-panelling for the tinsel of Venetian gold and the richness of Genoa +velvet, Florentine tapestry, and Persian arras? If so, we will ascend to +the drawing-rooms and gallery. But stay a moment and permit this lady +and oddly-dressed gentleman to pass us on their exit from the gallery, +where they have been rehearsing some charming entertainment for the +evening, or getting up some piece of fanciful mummery to amuse the idle +guests who have congregated around the garden fountain. [Picture: Couple +exiting from gallery] The light is not favourable for seeing all the +pictures that deserve inspection on the staircase--you had better ascend; +and now, having reached the head of the semi-staircase, our course is +along this lobby to the opposite door-way, which is that of the +drawing-room. + +Let us enter at once, and in our tour of the Pryor's Bank regard the +ante-drawing-room as a kind of middle or passage-room, belonging either +to the gallery or the drawing-room. I admit that the arrangement of the +house, which, however, is very simple, appears puzzling at first: the +reason of this is, that the senses are often deceived, from mirrors here +and there being so judiciously arranged, that they reflect at happy +angles objects which would otherwise escape observation. It is +impossible to convey an idea of the whole effect of the Pryor's Bank, +made up as it has been of carvings of unrivalled richness, grace, and +variety, solemn and grotesque. Statues are there, some of the highest +class of art, others which belong to an early Gothic period, and yet an +harmonious effect has been produced. Where will you take up your +position for a general view? At the other end? or in the oriel window +looking on the Bishop's Walk? + + [Picture: Oriel Window. Venetian Table] + +Now if it were not for that richly gilt Venetian table, the companion to +which is in the possession of the Earl of Harrington, we might have an +excellent view of that magnificently embellished recess, upon the merits +of which Mr. Baylis is commenting to another oddly equipped gentleman. +There certainly is something going forward in the fancy-dress way. On +this Venetian table stands a French astronomical clock; upon it are +silver medallions of Louis XIII. and XIV., and among its ornaments the +monograms of these monarchs appear. + +Here is a group, in ivory, of bacchanals, with attendant boys; a genuine +piece of Fiamingo's work, cut from solid ivory, and formerly in the +collection of the Vatican. Here, [Picture: Group in Ivory: Tapestried +Recess] come this way, we may as well pick up something of the history of +this tapestried recess, the canopy and seats of which, and the three +other recesses in the drawing-room, are fashioned out of the remains of a +large throne or dais brought from Florence, and which had belonged to the +Medici family. The materials are of the richest possible kind, being +flowers of floss silk upon a ground-work of gold thread, interspersed +with silver. The effect produced by this combination is gorgeous in the +extreme. "And those figures?" That nearest the eye is a statue of the +Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburgh, admirably carved in oak, the armour is of +silver damasked with gold. The other figure, and a corresponding one on +the opposite side of the room, represent Gothic queens, whose robes have +been restored in the illuminated style of decoration. "And the tapestry +in the recess?" Listen to what Mr. Baylis is saying. "Thinking over +it," remarked Sir Bulwer Lytton to me, "I have very little doubt but that +my guess was right--that the fisherman is meant for Antony and the lady +for Cleopatra; it was a favourite story in the middle ages, how Antony, +wishing to surprise Cleopatra with his success in angling, employed a +diver to fix fishes on his hook. Cleopatra found him out, and, in turn, +employed a diver of her own to put waggishly a salt (_sea_) fish on his +hook." The story is in Plutarch, and the popularity of the anecdote may +be seen by the use Shakspeare makes of it. Charmian says,-- + + "'Twas merry when + You wagered on your angling; when your diver + Did _hang a salt fish on his hook_, which he + _With fervency_, _drew up_." {235} + +It is no doubt correctly conjectured by Sir Bulwer Lytton, that many +subjects in tapestry (not Scriptural) have their explanation in Plutarch, +the fashionable classic source of tale and legend for our fathers of the +middle ages. Shakspeare, it need scarcely be observed, depends on him +for all his classic plots; and he was no less a favourite on the +Continent than with us. If you observe the attitude and expression of +Cleopatra, for so we will consider her, you will perceive that there is +something impressive, as well as smiling, about her which would suit the +words she is supposed to have uttered, when she had laughed sufficiently +at the trick she played him, and which, to the best of my recollection, +ran thus, "Leave fishing to us smaller potentates; your angling should be +for cities and kingdoms." + +Every article of the furniture merits your attention. Here is a Venetian +chair; {236} it is one of a set of twenty-six, with a sofa, brought from +the Gradenigo Palace, and is carved and gilt all over,--the back, and +seat, and cushions for the arms, being Genoa red velvet. [Picture: +Venetian chair] Fourteen of these chairs, with the sofa, are in this +room; the other twelve were purchased by the Earl of Lonsdale. + +Vases of Dresden china, marqueterie tables, and a shrine (see page 237) +of gilt carved work at one end of the room, reflected in mirrors of +gigantic dimensions, dazzle the senses; and its ceiling studded with blue +and gold pendants, and its walls all painted over with quaint devices +like the pages of a missal. Also a magnificent Gothic chimney-piece (see +page 238) of Carrara marble, fitted with brass-work of ormolu and +chimney-glass. The chimney was removed from the grand Gothic-room at +Carlton House, and cost George IV. many hundred pounds. Indeed the +drawing-room of the Pryor's Bank seems to be more like some scene in an +enchanted palace, than in an every-day residence upon the bank of the +river Thames. + + [Picture: Shrine] + +The ante-room is not less splendidly furnished. Its ceiling is even more +elaborately embellished than that of the drawing-room, for the heads of +mitred abbots, jolly monks, and demure nuns look down upon us from each +intersection of the groining. + +A Florentine cabinet (see page 239), of mosaic work in lapis lazuli, +pietra dura, topaz, agates, etc., one of the finest specimens of the kind +ever seen,--it eventually came into the possession of Mr. Hurst, who +asked fifteen hundred [Picture: Gothic Chimney-piece] guineas for it--a +magnificent carved oak chimney-piece (see page 240); chairs which +belonged to Queen Elizabeth; and among other pictures, an undoubted one +by Janssen, of "Charles II. dancing at the Hague," must not detain us, +although it be a duplicate of the celebrated picture in the possession of +Her Majesty, with which the history of this is completely identical, both +having been purchased from the same individual at the same period. + + [Picture: A Florentine Cabinet] + +"And that portrait of Elizabeth?" It was given by Charles II. to Judge +Twysden. "And that other portrait?" Yes, it is Lord Monteagle; not of +Exchequer documentary fame, but of Gunpowder Plot notoriety. And there +are portraits of Katharine of Aragon and Prince Arthur from Strawberry +Hill. I positively cannot allow you to dwell on that chimney-piece of +Raffaelle design, carved in oak and coloured in ultra-marine and gold. + +I entirely agree with you in thinking it a pity that the [Picture: Carved +Oak chimney-piece] vast labours of our ancestors--things upon which they +bestowed so much time and thought--should be blown into oblivion by the +mere breath of fashion. How much nobler is the fashion to respect, +cherish, and admire them! + +And now we are again within the gallery, and look upon the ante-room +through the private entrance, and in another second we might be within +the bay-window of the gallery; for, place these sketches together at a +right angle, side by side, and the part of the sofa which appears in one, +is only the continuation of the same seat in the other. But this must +not make you think that the Pryor's Bank is but a miniature affair, or +give you a contemptible idea of the size. You should rather take your +general notion of the proportions of the gallery from a glance at that +lady who is studying with so much attention the part she has undertaken +to enact, and look up as to the comparative height of the window at the +top compartments made up of ancient [Picture: Bay-Window: Private +Entrance] painted glass, charged with the arms of some of the medieval +kings of England, among which you cannot fail to notice those of Richard +III. Those two elaborately-wrought lanterns which depend from the +groined ceiling, formerly hung in the Gothic conservatory of Carlton +House, and the recesses of the walls are adorned with eleven full-length +portraits of kings and queens of Spain painted upon leather. + +Look at those ebony and ivory couches, and this ebony chair, from which +justice was formerly meted out by the Dutch and English rules to the +Cingalese; and see here this great chair, so profusely carved and +cushioned with rich black velvet worked with gold. [Picture: Black +velvet chair] It is said to have been the Electoral coronation chair of +Saxony; and the date assigned to it in the 'Builder' is 1620. The +armorial bearings embroidered upon the back would probably settle the +question; but I know little of foreign heraldry beyond the fact that +sufficient attention is not paid to it in this country. + +Attached to the gallery at the opposite end of the lobby from which we +entered the drawing-room, there is a boudoir, or robing-room--a perfect +gem in its way. [Picture: Nell Gwynne's mirror] You have only to touch +this spring, and that picture starts from the wall and affords us free +egress. Just take one peep into this fairy boudoir. + +There hangs against the wall Nell Gwynne's mirror, in its curious frame +of needlework. Oh! You wish to take a peep at yourself in Nelly's +looking-glass? Odds, fish! mind you do not overset that basset table of +Japan manufacture--another Strawberry Hill relic. Now, are you +satisfied? Those beautiful enamels, and that charming Bermudian +brain-stone, the wonderful network of which infinitely exceeds the finest +lace? Well, I must admit that some philosophy is required to feel +satisfied when revelling among the ornaments of palaces, the treasures of +monasteries, and the decorations of some of the proudest mansions of +antiquity; and did we not turn our eyes and regard the infinitely +superior works of Nature, alike bountifully spread before the poor and +the rich man, the heart might feel an inward sickening at the question. +In the state carved-oak bed-room is a finely carved walnut-wood German +cabinet of the true Elizabethan period. + + [Picture: German cabinet (Eizabethan period)] + +Though within the walls of the Pryor's Bank, or any other human +habitation, all that is rich in art may be assembled, yet, without the +wish to turn these objects to a beneficial purpose, they become only a +load of care; but when used to exalt and refine the national taste, they +confer an immortality upon the possessor, and render him a benefactor to +his species; when used, also, as accessories to the cultivation of kindly +sympathies and the promotion of social enjoyment, they are objects of +public utility. The revival of old-fashioned English cordiality, +especially at Christmas, had been always a favourite idea with the owners +of the Pryor's Bank, and in 1839 they gave an entertainment which, like + + "O'Rourke's noble feast, will ne'er be forgot + By those who were there or those who were not." + +They were fortunate in securing the aid of Theodore Hook, of pleasant, +and, alas! of painful memory, who was their neighbour, with that of some +other friends and acquaintances, who thoroughly entered into the whim of +recalling olden times by the enactment of masques and other mummeries. + +Hook, in his manuscript journal of Thursday, the 26th of December, 1839, +notes that he was engaged to dine with Lady Quentin at Kew:-- + + "Weather dreadful, so resolved to write her an excuse and came home + in coach early, so up to Baylis's, where I was asked to dine. They + came here, and we walked up together; so to rehearsal, and then back + again to bed." + +Hook's letter, in a feigned hand, to Mr. Baylis upon this occasion ran +thus:-- + + "Sir,--Circumstancis hoeing too the Fox hand wether in Lunnun as + indered me of goen two Q. wherefor hif yew plese i ham reddy to cum + to re-ersal two nite, in ten minnits hif yew wil lett the kal-boy hof + yewer theeter bring me wud--if you kant reed mi riten ax Mister + Kroften Kroker wich his a Hanty queerun like yewerself honly hee as + bin longer hatit yewers two kommand, + + "TEE HEE OOK." + + "_Master Bailies hesquire_, + _Manger hof thee_, + _T.R.P.B. and halso Proper rioter thereof_." + +On Saturday, Hook records in his 'Diary' his having refused his "firmest +friend's command" that he should dine with him--"because," writes Hook, +"I cannot on account of the things to be done at Pryor's Bank." + +Of the memorable Monday, the 30th of December, Hook notes:-- + + "To-day, not to town, up and to Baylis's; saw preparations. So, + back, wrote a little, then to dinner, afterwards to dress; so to + Pryor's Bank, there much people,--Sir George and Lady Whitmore, Mrs. + Stopford, Mrs. Nugent, the Bully's, and various others, to the amount + of 150. I acted the 'Great Frost' with considerable effect. Jerdan, + Planche, Nichols, Holmes and wife, Lane, Crofton Croker, Giffard, + Barrow. The Whitmore family sang beautifully; all went off well." + +The part of the Great Frost to which Hook alludes was in a masque, +written for the occasion, and printed and sold in the rooms, for the +benefit of the Royal Literary Fund; and among the record of miscellaneous +benefactions to this most admirable charity are registered--"Christmas +masquers and mummers at the Pryor's Bank, Fulham, the seat of Thomas +Baylis, Esq., F.S.A., and William Lechmere Whitmore, F.S.A. (1840), 3 +pounds 12s. 6d." Thus carrying out in deed as well as act the benevolent +feelings of the season. + +What little plot there was in this production had reference to the +season, the house in which it was performed, and temporary events. +Egomet, an imp, most piquantly personified by Mr. John Barrow, opened the +affair in a moralising strain prophetically applicable to the moment. + +After stating who and what he was, he starts:-- + + "But I'm all over wonder. + Surely the kitchen must be somewhere under? + But where's _the_ room?--the matchless little chamber, + With its dark ceiling, and its light of amber-- + That fairy den, by Price's pencil drawn, + Enchantment's dwelling-place? 'Tis gone--'Tis gone! + The times are changed, I said, and men grown frantic, + Some cross in steamboats o'er the vast Atlantic; + Some whirl on railroads, and some fools there are + Who book their places in the pendant car + Of the great Nassau--monstrous, big balloon! + Poor lunatics! they think they'll reach the moon! + All onward rush in one perpetual ferment, + No rest for mortals till they find interment; + Old England is not what it once has been, + Dogs have their days, and we've had ours, I ween. + The country's gone! cut up by cruel railroads, + They'll prove to many nothing short of jail-roads. + The spirit vile of restless innovation + At Fulham e'en has taken up his station. + I landed here, on Father Thames's banks, + To seek repose, and rest my wearied shanks; + Here, on the grass, where once I could recline, + Like a huge mushroom springs this mansion fine. + Astounding work! but yesterday 'twas building; + And now what armour, carving, painting, gilding! + Vexed as I am, yet loth to be uncivil, + I only wish the owner at the ---!" + +Father Thames (Mr. Giffard), who had been slumbering between two painted +boards, respectively inscribed "MIDDLESEX COUNTY BANK" and "SURREY BANK," +and surrounded by flower-pots filled with bulrushes and sedge, roused by +the intended imprecation upon their host, here interrupted Egomet, and +entered into a long dialogue with him, in which he detailed all his +grievances so far as gas and steam were concerned. At length he feels +the influence of Hook as "the Great Frost," who turns + + "The old blackguard to solid ice." + +Upon which Egomet's remark was, that-- + + "The scene to Oxford shifted in a trice is, + This river-god--no longer Thames, but Isis." + +Father Christmas (Mr. Crofton Croker) then appeared with a long speech +about eating, drinking, and making merry, and the wondrous power that a +good fire and a cheerful glass have upon the heart. Beholding "poor +Thames a-cold"--"an icy, heartless river"--the question follows, what + + "Do I the matter see? + I'll thaw you soon--begone to Battersea, + There let thy icebergs float in Chelsea Reach." + +The Great Frost, too, after much buffoonery, turns himself into + + "A pleasant fall of fleecy snow," + +which he effected by the vigorous use of the kitchen dredging-box, and an +ample supply of flour, therewith bepowdering Jolly Christmas, Father +Thames, and Egomet, so plentifully as to leave no doubt upon the minds of +the audience respecting the transformation. + +Another Christmas revel followed, and then came "a Grand Tournament," in +which a contest between "the Blue Knight" (Mr. Lechmere Whitmore), and +"the Yellow Knight" (Mr. Baylis), each mounted upon hobby-horses, was +most fiercely executed. Nor was the Giant Cormoran (fourteen feet in +height), nor the Queen of Beauty, nor the Dragon Queen wanted to complete +the chivalry of this burlesque upon the memorable meeting at Eglinton. + +The fun which now became + + "fast and furious," + +and to which an impudent but most amusing jester (Mr. Jerdan) mainly +contributed, was checked only by the announcement of supper; and as the +guests descended the stairs from the gallery, or assembled on the lobby, +they beheld their cheer borne in procession from the kitchen, headed by a +military band and a herald-at-arms. A cook, with his cap and apron of +snowy whiteness, placed a boar's head + + "Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary," + +upon the table; then came two ancient halberdiers, followed by a +serving-man in olden livery, carrying the wassail-bowl; then another +herald in his tabard, and servitors with Christmas-pie, and brawn, and +soup, and turkey, and sirloin of beef, and collared brawn, whereof was an +abundant supply, and of the most magnificent dimensions. Father +Christmas, carving-knife in hand, and belted with mincepies, and his +attendant Egomet, with followers bearing holly, ivy, and mistletoe, +brought up the rear. Then was sung "beautifully," as Hook notes, by four +voices, the Oxford chant of + + "The boar's head in hand bear I." + +And here we must drop the curtain, but not without stating that several +of the guests felt the enjoyment of the evening so warmly, that it was in +long debate among them what suitable acknowledgment in recollection of it +should be made to Mr. Baylis and Mr. Whitmore; and, that the actors in +the masque presented these gentlemen with an ancient charter horn, which +had belonged to the Pickard family, and which they were fortunate enough +to secure. The height of this horn, which is supposed to be that of the +Highland buffalo--an animal said to be extinct nearly three hundred +years--is one foot two inches, its length is one foot six inches, its +width at the top five and a half inches; and it is capable of containing +one gallon. + +Upon this most gratifying memorial to the owners of the Pryor's Bank, of +the esteem created by their hospitality, suitable inscriptions were +placed by the donors, with the motto:-- + + "While Thames doth flow, or wine is drank, + par-hael to all at Pryor's Bank. + ++unc-hael." + +The remembrance of the pleasant hours passed within the walls of the +Pryor's Bank will not easily be forgotten, though the character of the +interior is changed since this was written. The first sale took place on +the 3rd May, 1841, and five following days: and there was a subsequent +sale on the 25th May, 1854, and four following days. Both these sales +took place on the premises, and the Auctioneer, on both occasions, was +Mr. Deacon. + +Pryor's Bank is now let to Mr. E. T. Smith, of Her Majesty's and Drury +Lane Theatres. + + + + +INDEX OF PLACES. + + +ACACIA Cottage, 148. +"Admiral Keppel," 75. +Albany Lodge, 147. +Alexander Square, 73-4. +Alfred Place, 73. +Amelia Place, 76. +Amyot House, 120. +Arundel House, 152-4. +Ashton Terrace, 202. +Audley Cottage, 164. + +BATTERSEA Bridge, 94. +Bear Street, Fulham, 187. +"Bell and Anchor," 210. +"Bell and Horns," 58. +Bishop's Walk, 190. +Bolingbroke Lodge, 147. +Bolton House, 118. +Boltons, 96. +Bostocke's Arbour, 88. +"Brickhills," 131. +Bridge Street, 193. +Brightwells, 166. +Brompton, 24. +-- Crescent, 64-7. +-- Grange, 63. +-- Grove, 43, 48. +-- -- Lower, 44. +-- -- Upper, 43. +-- Hall, 87. +-- National School, 38. +-- New Church (Holy Trinity), 54. +-- Park, 62. +-- Road, 29. +-- Row, 26, 38, 42. +-- Square, 51-4. +Broom Lane, 169. +Brunswick Cottage, 156. +Bull Alley, 135. +Bull Lane, 135. +-- Public House, 135. +"Bunch of Grapes," 43. +Burleigh House, 121. +Burlington House, 181. +-- Road, Fulham, 181. +Butchers' Almshouses, Walham Green, 138. + +CAMBRIDGE Lodge, 196. +Cancer Hospital, 84, +Carey Villa, 167. +"Cedars, The," 210. +Cemetery, West London and Westminster, 127. +Chelsea New Church, 80, 81. +-- Park, 89, 90, 93.Church Lane, 187. +-- Row, Fulham, 187. +-- Street, Brompton, 87. +-- -- Fulham, 193. +Churchfield House, 173. +Claybrooke House, 181. +Consumption Hospital, 85. +Corder's, Mrs., Preparatory School, 118. +Craven Cottage, 190-1. +Cremorne Gardens, 127. +Crescent House, 64. +"Crown and Sceptre," 40. + +DANCER'S Nursery, 172. +Deadman's Lane, 201. +Door, Old, Fulham Fields, 195. +Draw Well in Fulham Fields, 199. +Drury Lodge, 169. +Dungannon House, 147. + +EARL'S Court, 58. +East End House, Parson's Green, 164. +Edith Grove, 127. +-- Road, 201. +-- Villas, 201. +Eel Brook, 141. +Egmont Villa, 188. +"Eight Bells," 193. +Elm House, 200. +Exhibition Road, 62. + +"FLOUNDER Field," 72. +Foote's House (North End), 196. +-- Stables (North End), 196. +Fowlis Terrace, 87. +Fulham, 180. +-- Almshouses, 181. +-- Aqueduct, 189. +-- Bridge, 192. +-- Charity School, 193. +-- Church, 187. +-- Ferry, 192. +-- Fields, 195, 197-9. +-- High Street, 181, 187. +-- Lodge, 173-7. +-- Palace, 190. +-- Park Road, 177. +-- Street, 187. +-- Vicarage, 187. +-- Workhouse, 181. + +GARDENER'S House, Old, Fulham Fields, 199. +"George, The," 193. +Gilston Road, 96. +Gloucester Buildings, Brompton, 25. +-- Row, Brompton, 25. +-- -- Knightsbridge, 26. +"Goat in Boots," 94-5. +"Golden Lion," Fulham, 181-6. +Gore Lodge, Fulham, 181. +-- -- Old Brompton, 62. +Grove House, 44-7. +-- Place, 43, 47. +"Gunter Arms," 126. +-- Grove, 127. + +HANS Place, 30, 37. +-- -- Attic at, 83. +Heckfield Lodge, 120. +-- Villa, 147. +Hermitage, Brompton, 44, 47. +-- North End, 196. +-- Lodge, North End, 195-6. +High Elms House, 155. +Holcroft's Hall, 180. +-- Priory, 181. +Hollywood Brewery, 118. +-- Place, 126. +Honey Lane, 127. +Hooper's Court, 25. +Hospital for Consumption, 85. + +IVY Cottage, 169. +-- House, Old Red, 170. +-- Lodge, 177. + +JEWS' Burial-ground, 87. +John's Place, 188. + +KENSINGTON Canal, 127, 134. +-- Gore Estate, 59. +-- Hall, 200. +-- Road, 211. +"Keppel, Admiral," 75. +-- Street, 75. +King's Road, 24. +Knightsbridge, 24. +-- Green, 25. +-- High Row, 30. + +LANSDOWNE Villas, 126. +Lauman's Academy, 166. +Lawn Terrace, 202. +Little Chelsea, 94. + +MACHINE for Raising Water (Fulham Fields), 199. +Main Fulham Road, 24. +Manor Hall, 96. +-- House, 96. +Marlborough Road, 75. +Michael's Grove, 63. +-- Place, 50, 67, 70-2. +Military Academy, Chelsea, 119. +Montpellier Square, 40. +Mulberry House, 120. +Munster House, 170-2. +-- Terrace, 173. +Mustow House, 170. + +NATIONAL School, Brompton, 38. +-- Society, Practising School of, 134. +New Street, 30, 37. +"No Man's Land," 197. +Normal School Chapel, 130. +Normand House, 196. +North End, 195-211. +-- -- Lodge, 193. +-- -- Road, 197. +-- Terrace, 73. + +ODELL'S Place, 115. +Old Brompton Road, 58. +Onslow Square, 82. +Oratory of St. Philip Neri, 58. +Osborn's Nursery, 172. +Ovington Square, 47. + +PARADISE Row, 114. +Park Cottage, 147. +-- House, 154-5. +-- Walk, 95. +Parson's Green, 164-9. +-- -- Lane, 164. +Pelham Crescent, 76, 79. +-- Place, 79-80. +Percy Cross, 141, 155. +Peterborough House, 166-9. +Pollard's School, 58. +Pond Place, 80. +Porch, Old, of Arundel House, 153. +Prince Albert's Road, 62. +Pryor's Bank, 187, 212-249. +Pump, Old, in Arundel House, 153. +Purser's Cross, 141, 154-5. + +QUEEN'S Buildings, Brompton, 25, 30. +-- -- Knightsbridge, 25, 29, 30. +-- Elm, 88-9. +-- Turnpike, 87. +-- Row, Knightsbridge, 25. +Quibus Hall, 155. + +RAWSTORNE Street, 40. +Read's, Miss, Academy, 118. +Rectory House, Parson's Green, 165. +"Red Lion," 40. +Reformatory School, Fulham, 181. +Rightwells, 166. +"Rising Sun," 135. +Robert Street, 83-4. +-- -- Upper, 83. +Rosamond's Bower, 156-164. +Rosamond's Bower, Old, 156. +-- Dairy, 157. + +ST. LUKE'S Church, Chelsea, 80, 83. +St. Mark's Chapel, 130. +-- College, 130. +-- Terrace, 130. +St. Mary's Place, 96. +St. Peter's Villa, 170. +St. Philip's Orphanage, 96. +Salem Chapel, 136. +"Sand Hills," The, 90. +Sandford Bridge, 134. +School, Practising, at St. Mark's College, 134. +Selwood's Nursery, 89. +Selwood Place, 89. +Seymour Place, 96, 98. +-- Terrace, 96, 98. +Shaftesbury House, 100-12. +-- -- Garden of, 104-5. +Sign, Old ("White Horse" at Parson's Green), 164. +Sir John Scott Lillie's Road, 127. +"Sisters of Compassion," 44. +Sloane Square, 24. +-- Street, 24. +"Somerset Arms," 96. +South Kensington Museum, 59-61. +Stamford Road, 135. +-- Villas, 135. +Stanley Grove, 132-3. +-- -- House, 131-2. +-- House, 131. +Swan Tavern, Fulham, 192. +-- -- and Brewery, Walham Green, 135. +Sydney Place, 83. +-- Street, 83. + +TAVISTOCK House, 118. +Thames Bank, 187. +Thistle Grove, 93-4. +Thurloe Place, 61. + +VEITCH'S Royal Exotic Nursery, 130. +Vine Cottage, 213-14. + +WALHAM Green, 136-7. +-- House, 193. +-- Lodge, 147. +Walnut Tree Cottage, 200. +-- -- Walk, 121. +Wansdon Green, 137. +-- House, 137. +Warwick House, 120. +Wentworth Cottage, 197. +West Brompton Brewery, 118. +Western Grammar School, 73. +"White Horse," old sign of, 164. +Willow Bank, 192. +Windsor Street, 193. +Winter Garden, Old Brompton, 62. +Workhouse, additional, to St. George's, Hanover Square, 100. + +YEOMAN'S Row, 43. +York Cottage, 195. +-- Place, 84. + + + + +INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS. + + +ACKERMANN, Rudolph, 177-9. +Aikin, Lucy, 160. +Albert, Prince, 85. +Andrews, J. Petit, 44. +Anspach, Margravine of, 190. +Appletree, John, 90. +Arundel, Henry, 131, 154. + +BAKER, Rev. R. G., 187. +Balchen, Sir John, 115. +Banim, 48-9, 79. +Barham, H., 90, 189. +Barrow, John, 246. +Bartolozzi, F., 68-9, 196. +Batsford, Miss, 187. +Baud, Benjamin, 127. +Baylis, Thomas, 187, 191, 214. +Bayliss, Moses, 25. +Bell, T. J., 164. +Beloe, Rev. W., 42. +Biber, Rev. Dr., 83. +Billington, Mrs., 70. +Blake, Mr., 90. +Blanchard, Mr., 119. +--, William, 81. +Blomfield, Bishop, 187. +Blore, Mr., 134. +Bodley, Sir Thomas, 165. +Bonnor, Bishop, 181. +Boothby, Sir W., 203. +Boscawen, William, 121. +Bovey Family, the, 101. +Bowen, Rev. Thomas, 156. +Bowes, Mr., 132. +Boyd, Hugh, 46. +Boyle, Hon. Robert, 111. +-- Family, the, 113. +Bradshaigh, Lady, 203-210. +Braham, John, 63. +Brand, Mr., 147. +Branscomb, Sir James, 210. +Brooks, Shirley, 51. +Broomfield, W., 92. +Brotherhood, Mr., 189. +Browne, H. K. ("Phiz"), 135. +Brunton, Miss, 71. +Buckstone, J. B., 51. +Bulwer, Lady, 31. +Burbage, Robert, 182. +Burchell, Dr., 173. +Burgoyne, Sir John, 181. +--, Miss, 181. +Burke, John, 94. +Burleigh, Lord, 121. +Burney, Miss, 133. +Byfield, Adoniram, 165. + +CAHILL, Dr., 67. +Carey, Hon. Thomas, 167. +Catalani, Madame, 47. +Cattley, Rev. Stephen Reid, 128, 172. +Cecill, Hon. John, 121. +Chalon, Mr., 37. +Chatterley, Mrs., 51. +Cheeseman, 200. +Cheselden, W., 192. +Child, Sir Francis, 165. +Cipriani, 181, 201. +Clerke, Major Shadwell, 44. +Cleyne, Francis, 167. +Cole, Henry, 60, 82. +Collier, Payne, 53. +Colman, George, the Younger, 51-2, 173-7. +Conyers, General, 192. +Cooper, John, 79. +Cope, Sir John, 114. +Copley, 200. +Corpe, John, 55. +Cranfield, Lord Treasurer, 90. +Craven, Countess of, 190. +Cribb, R., 94. +Croker, Rt. Hon. John Wilson, 171. +--, Thomas Crofton, 130, 156, 162-3, 181, 198, 247. +--, Mrs. Crofton, 130. +Croly, Rev. Dr., 50, 77. +Cromwell, Oliver, 170. +Crotch, Dr., 202. +Curran, John Philpot, 76-9. +Curtis, Mr., 80, 85-7. + +DARBY, Mrs., 117. +Davenport, Mrs., 71. +Davis, the late Henry George, 24. +--, Charles, 24. +Dawes, Sir W., 113-114. +Deacon, Mr., 250. +Delafield, Mr., 192. +Delille, C. J., 72. +--, Madame, 72. +Denham, Mr., 120. +--, Colonel, 120. +Doharty, Mr. 158. +Donaldson, Mr., 54. +Dormer, Edward, 198. +Duffield, Mr., 115. +Dunn, Anne, 27-8. + +EDINGTON, J., 212. +Egerton, Daniel, 81. +--, Mrs., 82. +Ekins, Dr., 165. +Elizabeth, Queen, 87. +Ellenborough, Lord, 187. +Evelyn, John, 111. +Eyre, Sir James, 132. + +FABER, Rev. F. W., 59. +Fairholt, F. W., 40. +Farren, W., 53. +--, Harriet Elizabeth, 57. +Faucit, Helen, 70, 82. +Fitzherbert, Mrs., 165. +Fitzroy, Rear Admiral, 83. +Fitzwilliam, Edward, 51. +Florio, 182, 184-5. +Foot, Jesse, 27, 28. +Foote, Samuel, 196. +Fowler, Edward, 113. + +GARCIA, Madame, 170. +George IV., 165, 213. +Giffard, Mr., 247. +Glascock, Captain, 73-4. +Godwin, George, jun., 38, 74. +Golini, Julius, 67. +Gorges, Sir Arthur, 131. +Grant, Colonel, 134. +Green, 30. +Gregor, Mrs., 133. +Gresham, John, 198. +Griffin, Gerald, 48, 49, 97-8. +Grisi, Madame, 146. +Guizot, 79. +--, Madame, 80. +Gunter, R., 127. + +HALL, S. C., 197. +--, Mrs. S. C., 31, 197. +Hallam, H., 154. +Halliwell, J. O., 96. +Hamey, Dr. Baldwin, 113. +Hamilton, Walter, 39-40. +--, William Richard, 132. +Hampton, Mr., 136. +Hargrave, Francis, 84. +Harris, A., 80. +--, H., 78. +Hartshorne, Rev. C. H., 138. +Hawarden, Lady, 214. +Hawkins, John Sidney, 44. +Heavyside, R., 166. +Herbert, Sir E., 167. +Hewett, Mr., 67. +Holl, Henry, 61. +Holland, Mr., 155. +Holmes, W., M. P., 214. +Hook, Theodore, 133, 177, 187-90, 245-6. +Howard, Sir Ralph, 191. +Huck, J. G., 26. +Hullmandel, Mr., 150-1. +Humphrey, Ozias, 29. +Hutchins, John, 25. +Hyde, Edward, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, 115. + +INCLEDON, Charles, 64. + +JERDAN, W., 47, 248. +Jesse, J. H., 70. +Johnson, Mr. Joseph, 148-9. +Jones, Richard, 78. + +KEAN, Edmund, 200. +Keeley, Mr., 54, 79. +--, Mrs., 54, 79. +Kempe, A. J., 135. +King, Mr., 139. +Kingsley, Rev. Charles, 83. +Knight, James House, 123. +Knolles, Sir Thomas, 166. + +LACY, Walter, 40. +Lamb, Lady Caroline, 31. +Lance, the Misses, 32. +Landon, Miss ("L. E. L."), 30-7, 54. +Laurie, John, 180. +Lazarus, H., 80. +Le Blon, James Christopher, 91. +Lillie, Sir John Scott, 127. +Limpany, Robert, 190. +Liston, Mr., 54, 71. +Liston, Mrs., 40, 67. +Lochee, Lewis, 119-20, 132. +Locke, 104, 111. +London, Bishop of, 54. +Lorrington, Meribah, 116. +Lowth, Rev. Robert, 173-6. +Luttrell, Francis, 108. +--, Henry, 54. +--, Narcissus, 89, 102-3, 108. +Lytton, Sir E. Bulwer, 191, 197, 236. + +M'LEOD, Dr. John, 80. +M'Naughten, Mrs., 34. +Macpherson, Sir John, 45-6. +Mahony, Rev. F., 164. +Mangeon, Mrs., 27-8. +Mario, Signor, 146. +Marochetti, Baron, 82. +Mart, Mr., 114. +Martin, Theodore, 82. +Mathews, Charles, 62, 181. +--, Mrs., sen., 71. +Meyrick, Mr. J., 166. +Milton, Mr., 121, 147. +Mitford, Miss, 31. +Moore, Thomas, 162-3. +Mordaunt, Lord, 167-8. +More, Sir Thomas, 89. +Morland, 95. +Morse, Leonard. 132. +Murphy, Arthur, 26-8, 38. +Murray, John, 148-9. +--, Sir Robert, 111. + +NATTES, J. C., 25. +Newman, Rev. J. H., 59. +Nicholson, F., 128-30. +Nisbett, Mrs., 203. +Novosielski, Madame, 70. +--, Michael, 43, 50, 63. + +O'DONNELL, Major-General Sir Chas., 162-3. +Ord, John, 140-5. +Orrery, 2nd Earl of, 113. +--, Charles, 4th Earl of, 112. +Owen, Rev. John, 145. + +PARR, Dr., 42. +Piccolomini, 165. +Pigot, the Right Hon. D. R., 37. +Pitts, Mr. Oliver, 139. +Place, Francis, 51. +Planche, J. R., 65-6. +Plumbe, W., 198. +Pope, 147. +--, Miss, 70-1. +Porter, Walsh, 169, 190, 213. +Pouchee, Louis, 128. +Powell, Mr., 156, 186. +--, Sir W., Bart., 170, 181. +Pyne, J. B., 195. + +QUEENSBERRY, Marquis of, 134. + +RAVENSWORTH, Lord, 138, 140. +Reeve, John, 42, 53-4, 57. +Remaudini, Count, 67. +Rennell, Rev. Mr., 42. +Richardson, C. J., 66. +--, Samuel, 169, 202-210. +Riego, General, 96-9. +--, Madame, 96-9. +Roberts, Emma, 31, 34. +Robins, George, 189. +Robinson, Anastasia, ("Perdita,") 115-18, 169. +Robson, W. Frogatt, 53. +Rocque, Bartholomew, 139. +Rodwell, G. H., 39, 65. +Rollin, Ledru, 80. +Romney, 29. +Rovedino, Signor Carlo, 81. +Rowden, Miss, 32, 36. +Roy, 181. +Ruddock, Rev. Joshua, 156. +Rumford, Count, 40. +Ryland, William Wynne, 26, 202. + +ST. JOHN, 147. +St. Quentin, Countess, 32. +Salisbury, Mr., 85, 145. +Sampayo, M., 171. +Saunders, Sir Edward, 169. +Savage, Mr., 80. +Scoles, Mr., 59. +Schiavonetti, Lewis, 67-69. +Schulenberg, Melesina, 170. +Shaftesbury, Lord, 101, 104. +Shakespeare, 182-6. +Sharp, Granville, 188. +Sheepshanks, John, 60. +Shower, Sir Bartholomew, 113. +Simpson, Mrs. Anne, 145-6. +Slater, Mr., 200. +Smith, Albert, 194. +--, E. T., 169, 249. +--, Alderman H., 72. +--, Sir James, 101. +--, "O.," 73. +--, Sir Thomas, 167. +Southwell, Miss, 132. +Spagnoletti, 51. +Stanley Family, 131. +Stanley, W., 131. +Steele, R., 38, 88. +Strathmore, Countess of, 132. +Street, Mr., 186. +Suckland, Sir John, 112. +Sylvester, Joshua, 185. + +TALFOURD, 197. +Tarnworth, John, 166. +Taylor, Mr., 138. +Testolini, 68. +Thackeray, W. M., 83. +Tindal, Lord Chief Justice, 37. +Tonson, Jacob, 195. +Trotter, Thomas, 30. +Turberville, Mrs. Elizabeth, 155. +--, Mrs. Frances, 155. +Tyrhtilus, 180. + +VENDRAMINI, John, 39. +Vestris, Madame, 62, 96, 181. +Vining, James, 51. +Virtue, William, 109. + +WAGER, Admiral Sir Charles, 131, 165. +Ward, Sir Edward, 113-14. +Warde, J. P., 94. +Warren, H, 84. +--, Dr. Richard, 132. +Warwick, Countess of, 112. +Watts, B., 75. +Webster, Mr., 62. +Weigall, Mr., 70. +Wharton, Marquis of, 90. +--, Sir Michael, 155. +Whitmore, Lechmere, 214. +Whittaker, Dr., 112. +Wigan, Alfred, 37. +--, Mrs. Alfred, 37. +Wilberforce, Mr., 47. +Williams, Sir John, Bart., 171. +Wilson, Lady Frances, 92. +--, Sir Henry, 92. +Winchester, Marquis of, 218. +Wishart, Sir James, 115. +Wood, Dr. Oswald, 64. +Wright, --, 92-3. +--, Edward, 96. +--, Thomas, 83. +Wrottesley, the Hon. Mr., 181. +Wynne, Edward, 103-4. +Wynne, Rev. Luttrell, 108. +--, Serjeant, 102, 108. + +YATES, Mr., 54, 71. +--, Mrs., 71. +York, Duke of, 173. +Young, C. D. and Co., 61. + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + +{18} See pages 156-164. + +{25a} Catalogues of Royal Academy. + +{25b} Foot's Life of Arthur Murphy. + +{25c} Lockie's _Topography of London_. + +{25d} Mr. J. Salway's MS. plan, executed for the Kensington trustees. + +{25e} Cruchley's Map of London. + +{25f} Elmes' _Topography of London_. + +{26} 4 vols. 4to, published in 1793. + +{27a} 2 vols. 8vo, 1801. + +{27b} The extent of this garden may still be estimated by walking round +through Hooper's Court into Sloane Street. + +{31} Born 13th November, 1785, and married to the Honourable William +Lamb (afterwards Viscount Melbourne) in 1805. Lady Caroline published +three novels, viz., _Glenarvon_, in 1816; _Graham Hamilton_; and _Ada +Reis_, 1823. Her ladyship died in 1828. + +{32a} 8vo, 2nd ed. 1812. + +{32b} Ibid. + +{33} It was the wing attached to the house between it and "the +Pavilion." From the back a flight of steps descended into a small +garden. + +{35} Memoirs of the Rival Houses of York and Lancaster, Historical and +Biographical. 1827. 2 vols. 8vo. + +{38a} Correspondence, vol. i. p. 293. + +{38b} Vol. lxxv. Part I. p. 590. + +{38c} Ed. 1820, p. 616. + +{45a} 2 vols. 4to, 1795. + +{45b} 1 vol. 4to, and 2 vols. 8vo, 1796, + +{48} 'Literary Gazette,' November 25, 1843. + +{53} It is no slight testimony to the genius of Mr. Farren, that since +his retirement no actor in London has attempted to represent "Grandfather +Whitehead." + +{58} Rebuilt, and the sign here engraved removed. + +{62} Brompton Park was the retreat of one or two favourite actors. Mr. +Webster, the talented and versatile performer, lessee of the Ade1phi +Theatre, resided there for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mathews +(Madame Vestris) lived at Gore Lodge--now pulled down--a name they +afterwards gave to their residence at Fulham. + +{65} Weber died on the 7th of June following, at No. 91, Great Portland +Street, in his fortieth year. + +{72} 4 vols. 8vo; I. and II. 1838; III. and IV. 1839. + +{73} The 'Naval Sketch-book,' 1828; 'Sailors and Saints,' 1829; 'Tales +of a Tar,' 1830; 'Land Sharks and Sea Gulls,' 1838. + +{78} Died 30th August, 1851. + +{80} Died 7th May, 1852, aged 74. + +{84} II vols. folio, 1781. + +{85} Vol. lxxx. Part II. + +{87a} Brompton Hall, said to have been the residence of Lord Burleigh, +stands on the Old Brompton Road, which, as pointed out in the previous +chapter, branches from the main Fulham Road at the Bell and Horns. + +{87b} The Duke of Buckingham. + +{88} Correspondence, vol. i. p. 219. + +{92} Sir Henry Wilson, who was in Parliament when this estate came into +his wife's possession, ordered iron gates for it; in one of which were +wrought his initials, H. W., and to correspond, M.P, was placed in the +other. Before the gates were put up he had to contest his seat, and lost +it. + +{97} Riego was executed, on the 7th of October, 1823, at Madrid, with +every mark of ignominy. + +{110} Funeral Sermon preached at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, 7th January +1691. + +{111} See Birch's 'Life of Boyle,' p. 114. + +{112} MS. Diary. + +{120} The obituary of the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for June 1791, +records:--"At Lisle, in Flanders, Lewis Lochee, Esq., late lieutenant +colonel of the Belgic Legion, and formerly keeper of the Royal Military +Academy at Chelsea." + +{121} The gates here represented have now given place to a light iron +railing, and the posts have been surmounted by balls. + +{128} No. 276, vol. xi. p. 301. + +{131} Todd's 'Spenser,' viii. 23. + +{133} MS. + +{138} Pickering, 1829. + +{139} Mr. Rocque, the florist, was brother to the surveyor of that name, +who published a plan of London, Westminster, and Southwark, on +twenty-four sheets, in 1747; and a map of London and the country ten +miles round, in sixteen sheets, the following year. He also published a +road-book of Great Britain and Ireland in 1763. + +{144a} "This tree was first introduced into England in 1753, by Mr. +James Gordon."--_Lysons_. + +{144b} "The foliage more resembles that of the _juglans nigra_ than of +the Illinois-nut in Kew Gardens."--_Ibid_. + +{144c} "At two feet from the ground it was seven feet two inches, and +now (1810) seven feet five inches."--_Ibid_. + +{144d} "The girth of this tree was taken in 1808 at two feet and a half +from the ground."--_Ibid_. + +{144e} "At two feet and a half from the ground."--_Ibid_. + +{145} James iv. 14. + +{155a} On the same page of the 'London Magazine' which chronicles this +occurrence, may be found the announcement of the death of "Mr. Joseph +Miller, a celebrated comedian." + +{155b} Lysons, on the authority of the parish books, states that a Sir +Michael Wharton was living at Parson's Green, anno 1654. + +{159} The ground has been recently levelled. + +{160} L. E. L. + +{171} Died, 1858. + +{188a} He died there in 1813. + +{188b} Since this sketch was made, the gateway, with the coat of arms +over it, has been removed, and a battlemented and Gothic entrance, more +in accordance, perhaps, with the architecture of both church and mansion, +has been erected in its stead. + +{196} Died 20th October, 1777, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. + +{213} Copied from a picture in oil in the possession of George Bunnett, +Esq., of Fulham. + +{218} John, the fifth Marquis of Winchester, sustained a siege in his +seat at Basing from August, 1643 to 16th October, 1645, when the place +was taken by storm and burned to the ground, "money, jewels, and +household stuff" being found therein to the value of 200,000 pounds, +among which was a rich bed worth 14,000 pounds. + +{227} Now in the South Kensington Museum. + +{235} Antony and Cleopatra, act ii. sc. 5. + +{236} Now in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK FROM LONDON TO FULHAM*** + + +******* This file should be named 29541.txt or 29541.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/5/4/29541 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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